Poet, politician, and social dilettante, Richard Monckton Milnes is better known for his ability to recognize literary genius in others than for his own literary work. The stanzas that Milnes cajoled Alfred Tennyson into contributing to an 1836 Christmas annual were published in 1855 as part of "Maud"; in 1848 Milnes wrote the first biography of John Keats; in 1861 he let Algernon Swinburne loose in his library of erotica, and he arranged for the publication of Swinburne's early poems and reviews. As for his own poetry, Milnes will be remembered less for the contemporary popularity of a few verses set to music than as the author of the first English treatment of the Tannhäuser legend.

Milnes was born on Bolton Street in Mayfair, London, to Robert Pemberton Milnes, an eloquent member of Parliament for Pontefract, and Henrietta Maria Monckton Milnes. Richard was educated at Hundhill Hall and then privately...