Books and reading -- Great Britain; English literature -- History and criticism
There is no real trouble with the _taboo_ set up by professionals
and puritans, if we have the courage to walk past it as Christian
walked between the lions; no real tyranny we could not overthrow,
if it were worth while, with a push; no need at all for us to
`wreathe our sword in myrtle boughs.' What tyranny exists has
grown up through the quite well-meaning labours of quite
well-meaning men: and, as I started this lecture by saying, I have
never heard any serious reason given why we should not include
portions of the English Bible in our English Tripos, if we
choose.
Nos te,
Nos facimus, Scriptura, deam.
Then why don't we choose?
To answer this, we must (I suggest) seek somewhat further back.
The Bible--that is to say the body of the old Hebrew Literature
clothed for us in English--comes to us in our childhood. But how
does it come?
Let me, amplifying a hint from Dr Moulton, ask you to imagine a
volume including the great books of our own literature all bound
together in some such order as this: "Paradise Lost," Darwin's
"Descent of Man," "The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle," Walter Map, Mill
"On Liberty," Hooker's "Ecclesiastical Polity," "The Annual
Register," Froissart, Adam Smith's "Wealth of Nations," "Domesday
Book," "Le Morte d'Arthur," Campbell's "Lives of the Lord
Chancellors," Boswell's "Johnson," Barbour's "The Bruce,"
Hakluyt's "Voyages," Clarendon, Macaulay, the plays of
Shakespeare, Shelley's "Prometheus Unbound," "The Faerie Queene,"
Palgrave's Golden Treasury, Bacon's Essays, Swinburne's "Poems
and Ballads," FitzGerald's "Omar Khayyam," Wordsworth, Browning,
"Sartor Resartus," Burton's "Anatomy of Melancholy," Burke's
"Letters on a Regicide Peace," "Ossian," "Piers Plowman," Burke's
"Thoughts on the Present Discontents," Quarles, Newman's
"Apologia", Donne's Sermons, Ruskin, Blake, "The Deserted
Village," Manfred, Blair's "Grave," "The Complaint of Deor,"
Bailey's "Festus," Thompson's "Hound of Heaven."
Will you next imagine that in this volume most of the author's
names are lost; that, of the few that survive, a number have
found their way into wrong places; that Ruskin for example is
credited with "Sartor Resartus," that "Laus Veneris" and
"Dolores" are ascribed to Queen Elizabeth, "The Anatomy of
Melancholy" to Charles II; and that, as for the titles, these
were never invented by the authors, but by a Committee?
Will you still go on to imagine that all the poetry is printed as
prose; while all the long paragraphs of prose are broken up into
short verses, so that they resemble the little passages set out
for parsing or analysis in an examination paper?
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account