(Enoch). Mr. G. R. Emerson, in a letter to the Athenæum (August 18th, 1866), points out the resemblance of this tale by Tennyson to one entitled Homeward Bound, by Adelaide Anne Procter, in a volume of Legends and Lyrics, 1858. Mr. Emerson concludes his letter thus: “At this point (i.e. when the hero sees his wife ‘seated by the fire, whispering baby words and smiling on the father of her child’) Tennyson departs from the story. Enoch goes away broken-hearted to die, without revealing his secret; but Miss Procter makes the three recognise each other, and the hero having blessed his wife, leaves her, to roam ‘over the restless ocean.’”
Mrs. Gaskell's Manchester Marriage is a similar tale. In this tale “Frank” is made to drown himself; and his wife (then Mrs. Openshaw) never knows of his return.
Source: Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, E. Cobham Brewer, 1894
More on Arden from Fact Monster: