vain--must be made to those who regulate the curriculums where
Literature is made a subject of teaching. Let them rigorously exclude
all but the best books. Let them discourage the study of such Epitomes,
Manuals, and Histories as are the work of mere irresponsible book
makers, and prescribe in its place the study of literary masterpieces.
Without excluding the best modern poetry and prose, let most
attention--for obvious reasons--be paid to the writings of the older
masters. Let them lay special stress on the study of criticism,--of
works treating of its principles, of works illustrating the application
of its principles to particular writers; and let no work be recognised
which is not of classical authority. Translations should, of course, as
a rule, be avoided; but in such a subject as the principles of
criticism, there is not the smallest reason why those works which are
most excellent in other languages, such as the _Treatise on the
Sublime_, and some portions of Aristotle’s _Poetic_, such as Lessing’s
_Laocoon_, Schiller’s _Letters on Æsthetics_, the best Essays of
Sainte-Beuve should not be included.[2] Nor can it be emphasized too
strongly that the theory on which all literary teaching should proceed
is that its object is not so much to plant as to cultivate, not so much
to convey information, which, after all, is but its medium, as to
inspire, to refine, to elevate. I cannot but think, too, that the
foundations of all this might be laid much earlier than they are,
especially in our classical schools, by encouraging, as, according to
Coleridge, Dr. Boyer used to do, the study of some of our greater
writers, such as Shakespeare and Milton, side by side with that of Homer
and Sophocles.
But it is in criticism, in criticism competently, honestly, and
fearlessly applied, that the chief salvation lies. There is probably no
review or newspaper in London which does not number among its
contributors men of the first order of ability and intelligence, men who
are real scholars and real critics, men who see through all that I have
been describing and are sick of it. Let them not remain an impotent
minority, but combine, and become influential. If popular Literature
aspires to be ambitious, and trespasses on the domains of scholarship
and criticism, let them submit it to the tests which it invites, let
them try it by the standards which it exacts. There is no more reason
for the co-existence of two standards, as is now practically the case,
in the production of writings treating of our own Literature than there
is in the production of writings dealing with Classical Literature. The
work of any one who meddles with the last, even in the way of
popularizing it, is instantly called by scholars to a strict account,
and sciolism and charlatanry are exploded at once. But in the case of
our own Literature there is no such solidarity. It seems to be assumed
that a scholar is one thing and a man of letters another, that the
difference between work which appeals to connoisseurs and work which
appeals to the public is not simply a difference in degree, but a
difference in kind, and that the criteria of the multitude need be the
only criteria of what is addressed to the multitude. The manuscript of a
History of Greek or Roman Literature, or a monograph on an ancient
classic, if it were not at least solid and trustworthy, would have no
chance of ever getting beyond a publisher’s reader. But a History of
English Literature, or a monograph on an English classic, teeming with
errors in fact and with absurdities in theory and opinion, will not
improbably be regarded as an authority, and pass, unrevised, into more
than one edition.
The progressive degradation of Literature and of what is involved in its
influence is, and must be, inevitable, unless criticism is prepared
watchfully and faithfully to do its duty. Let it guard jealously the
standards and touchstones of excellence as distinguished from
mediocrity, even though it may be prudent to make great allowances in
applying them; let it institute a rigorous censorship over books
designed for the use of students at the Universities and in other
educational establishments; let it permit no writer to pose in a false
position, and deliberately trade on the ignorance and inexperience of
his readers; let it discourage in every way the production of worthless
and superfluous books, whether in poetry or in prose; and lastly, while
fully recognising how much must be conceded to professional authors
writing against time, having to court popularity or being fettered by
conditions imposed on them by their employers, let it take care that
their productions shall at least not be mischievous, either by
disseminating error or by corrupting taste.
FOOTNOTES:
[Footnote 1: One illustration of the indifference of the authorities of
our University Presses to the interest of Literature is so scandalous
that it must be specified. Fourteen years ago a series of lectures was
delivered by the then Clarke Lecturer in the Hall of Trinity College,
Cambridge. They were afterwards published under the title of _From
Shakespeare to Pope_, and reviewed in the _Quarterly Review_ for
October, 1886. The lectures, as the Review showed, absolutely swarmed
with blunders, many of them so gross as to be almost incredible. Ever
since then the volume has been circulated by the Press, absolutely
unrevised, indeed without a single correction, and is now in
circulation.]
[Footnote 2: Cf. what Milton says in prescribing the study of
masterpieces in criticism: “This would make them (students) soon
perceive what despicable creatures our common rimers and play-writers
be, and show them what religious, what glorious and magnificent use
might be made of poetry, both in Divine and human things. From hence,
and not till now, will be the right season of forming them to be able
writers and composers in every excellent matter, when they shall be thus
fraught with an universal insight into things.”--_Tractate on
Education._]
ENGLISH LITERATURE AT THE UNIVERSITIES
I. LANGUAGE _VERSUS_ LITERATURE AT OXFORD
To say that the anarchy which has resulted from confusing the
distinction between the study and interpretation of Literature as the
expression of art and genius, and its study and interpretation as a mere
monument of language, has had a most disastrous effect on education
generally, would be to state very imperfectly the truth of the case. It
has led to inadequate and even false conceptions of what constitutes
Literature. It has led to all that is of essential importance in
literary study being ignored, and all that is of secondary or accidental
interest being preposterously magnified; to the substitution of
grammatical and verbal commentary for the relation of a literary
masterpiece to history, to philosophy, to æsthetics; to the mechanical
inculcation of all that can be imparted, as it has been acquired, by
cramming, for the intelligent application of principles to expression.
It has led to the severance of our Literature from all that constitutes
its vitality and virtue as an active power, and from all that renders
its development and peculiarities intelligible as a subject of
historical study. In a word, it has led to a total misconception of the
ends at which literary instruction should aim, as well as of its most
appropriate instruments and methods. All this is illustrated nowhere
more strikingly than in the publications of the two great University
Presses. It would be easy to point to editions of English classics, and
to works on English Literature, bearing the _imprimatur_ of Oxford and
Cambridge, in which all that is worst in the opposite extremes of
pedantry and dilettantism finds ludicrous expression.
And in thus speaking we are saying nothing more than is notorious,
nothing more than is admitted, and admitted unreservedly, in the
Universities themselves, or at least at Oxford. But different sections
of Academic society regard the matter in different lights. The majority
of the classical professors and teachers, deprecating any attempt on the
part of the University to meddle with “Literature,” treat the whole
thing as a joke, and, so far from supposing that the reputation of the
University is concerned, find infinite amusement in the constant
exposures which are being made in the reviews and newspapers of the
absurdities of the “English Literature party.” They regard the “study
of Literature” precisely as they regard the University Extension
Movement--the one as a contemptible excrescence on our Academic system,
the other as a contemptible excrescence on Academic curricula. Another
section takes a very different view. Recognising the reasonableness of
the appeals which have, during the last twelve years, been made to
Oxford to place the study of Literature on the same sound footing as she
has placed that of other subjects included in her courses, and
discerning clearly that what is required cannot be obtained as long as
the interests of Philology and those of Literature continue to collide,
this party, unhappily a small minority, has pleaded for the
establishment of a School of Literature. They have very properly laid
stress on four points: First, that, as the chief justification for the
establishment of such a School is the fact that the University is
undertaking by innumerable agencies, its Press, its oral teachers both
at home and abroad, to disseminate liberal instruction through the
medium of English Literature, the principal object of the School should
be the education of these agencies. Secondly, they have insisted that,
if the interpretation of Literature is to effect what it is of power to
effect, if, as an instrument of political instruction, it is to warn, to
admonish, to guide, if, as an instrument of moral and æsthetic
instruction, it is to exercise that influence on taste, on tone, on
sentiment, on opinion, on character--on all, in short, which is
susceptible of educational impression--it must both be properly defined
and liberally studied; and they contend that, if it is to be so defined
and so studied outside the Universities, it must first be so defined and
so studied within. Thirdly, they insist that the study of our own
Literature should be associated with that of ancient classical
literature, for two indisputable reasons: first, because the basis of
all liberal literary culture, of a high standard, must necessarily rest
on competent classical attainments, and because, historically speaking,
the development and characteristics of the greater part of what is most
valuable in our Literature would be as unintelligible, without reference
to the Greek and Roman classics, as the Literature of Rome would be
without reference to that of Greece. Fourthly, they point out that, as
our Literature is, in various intimate ways, associated with the
Literatures of Italy, France, and Germany, and that, as an acquaintance
with the classics of those countries must form an essential element in a
literary education, the comparative study of those Literatures and our
own ought, by all means, to be encouraged and provided for. And,
fifthly, they show that what is demanded is perfectly feasible. There
already exists in the University, they contend, every facility for
organizing such a course of Literature as is required. All that is
needed is co-ordination. In the Classical Moderations and in the
_Literæ Humaniores_ Honour Schools a liberal literary education on the
classical side is already provided; two-thirds in fact of the
discipline, culture, and attainments desiderated in a literary teacher
it is the aim of those Schools to impart. The Taylorian Institute
provides instruction in the languages and literatures of the Continent;
and, if its professors could be roused into a little more activity, a
youth might, in two years, if he pleased,--and that side by side with
his severer studies--acquire something more than a superficial
acquaintance with the language and writings of Dante and Machiavelli, of
Montaigne and Molière, of Lessing and Goethe. What he could not obtain
would be instruction and guidance in the study of our own Literature. In
a word, all that is required to secure what this party plead for is
simply the establishment of a School of English Literature, in the
proper acceptation of the term, and the co-ordination of studies which
are at present pursued independently. It was proposed that it should
take the form of a Post-graduate Honour School, standing in the same
relation to the other schools in the University as the old Law and
History School used to stand to the old _Literæ Humaniores_ School, and
as the examination for the Bachelorship in Civil Law now stands to the
ordinary Law School. Thus a youth who had graduated in honours in
Moderations and in the Final Classical School, who had studied modern
literatures at the Taylorian and our own Literature under its
professor, or even by himself, would have an opportunity of displaying
his qualifications for an honour diploma in Literature. But the appeals
and arguments of this party have been of no avail.
Next come the philologists. They are in possession of the field. All the
revenues supporting the Chairs of Language and Literature are their
monopoly. They have steadily resisted all attempts on the part of what
may be denominated the Liberal party to encroach on their dominions. In
their eyes the Universities are simply nurseries for esoteric
specialists, and to talk of bringing them into touch with national life
is, in their estimation, mere cant. Their attitude towards Literature,
generally, is precisely that of the classical party towards our own
Literature; they regard it simply as the concern of men of letters,
journalists, dilettants, and Extension lecturers. They defeated sixteen
years ago an attempt to establish a Chair of English Literature by
transforming it into a Chair of Language and securing it for themselves.
They attempted, subsequently, to supplement what they had done by the
establishment of a School of Language on the model of the Mediæval and
Modern Languages Tripos at Cambridge. They were defeated by a coalition
of the classical party, the Liberals, of whom we have just spoken, and a
third party which insisted on a compromise between Philology and
Literature. Reviving the scheme, they have, by accepting the
modifications of the compromisers, just succeeded in getting it
accepted. The new School of English Language and Literature is the
result of that compromise.
Now it will not be disputed that if the Universities ought, in the
interests of liberal culture, to provide adequately for instruction in
Literature, they ought also, in the interests of science, to provide
adequately for instruction in Philology. It is a branch of learning of
immense importance. It is, and ought to be, the peculiar care of
Universities, and nothing could be more derogatory to a University than
deficiency in such a study. But it is a study in itself. As a science it
has no connection with Literature. Indeed the instincts and faculties
which separate the temperament of the mathematician from the temperament
of the poet are not more radical and essential than the instincts and
faculties which separate the sympathetic student of Philology from the
sympathetic student of Literature. But no science resolves itself more
easily into a pseudo-science, and it is in this degenerate form that it
has become linked with Literature and been, in all ages, the butt of
wits and men of letters. Nothing but anarchy can result till this
mutually degrading alliance be dissolved. It has been forced on the
philologists by the compromise to which reference has been made. Let
them be free to rescind it. Let the “pia vota” of Professor Max Müller
be fulfilled and Oxford have her School of Philology. That such a School
should be established is desirable for three reasons. In the first
place, it would define what is at present vague and indeterminate, the
scope and functions of Philology. Secondly, it would place that study on
its proper footing, and, by placing it on its proper footing, it would
not only demonstrate its relation to other studies, but it would enable
it to effect fully what it is competent to effect. Thirdly, it might,
and probably would, do something to relieve Oxford of the opprobrium of
being behind the rest of the learned world in this branch of science.
The School would probably not attract many students, for Philology,
unlike Literature, can never appeal to more than a small minority. If,
therefore, the choice lay between the institution of a School of
Philology and that of a School of Literature, there can be no doubt
which should have precedence. But no such choice is offered. If the
philologists were not strong enough to refuse to compromise, they are
strong enough to crush any attempt to forestall them.
Let us now turn to the constitution of the School which has been the
result of this arrangement, and which will authorize the University to
confer, not, be it remembered, an ordinary, but an honour, degree in
English Language and Literature. The following are the Regulations. The
subjects for examination are four. 1. Portions of English authors. 2.
The History of the English Language. 3. The History of English
Literature. 4. In the case of those candidates who aim at a place in the
first or second class, a Special Subject of language or literature. The
portions of the authors specified are these. _Beowulf_, the texts
printed in Sweet’s _Anglo-Saxon Reader_, _King Horn_, _Havelok_;
Laurence Minot, _Sir Gawain and the Green Knight_. Of Chaucer’s
_Canterbury Tales_, the _Prologue_, _The Knight’s Tale_, _The Man of
Law’s_, _The Prioress’s_, _Sir Thopas_, _The Monk’s_, _The Nun
Priest’s_, _The Pardoner’s_, _The Clerk’s_, _The Squire’s_, _The Second
Nun’s_, _The Canon Yeoman’s_. Next come the _Prologue_ and the first
seven _passus_ (text B) of _Piers Ploughman_. Then come select plays of
Shakespeare, chosen apparently at haphazard, _Love’s Labour’s Lost_,
_Romeo and Juliet_, _Richard the Second_, _Twelfth Night_, _Julius
Cæsar_, _Winter’s Tale_, _King Lear_. Then we have the following
extraordinary farrago:--
Bacon’s _Essays_.
Milton, with a special study of _Paradise Lost_ and the _Areopagitica_.
Dryden’s _Essay on Epic_ (sic).
Pope’s _Satires and Epistles_.
Johnson’s _Lives of the Poets_--the Lives of Eighteenth-Century Poets.
Goldsmith’s _Citizen of the World_.
Burke’s _Thoughts on the Present Discontents_.
Lyrical Ballads (Wordsworth and Coleridge), Shelley’s _Adonais_.[3]
The second part of the examination will be on the History of the English
Language. “Candidates will be examined in Gothic (the Gospel of St.
Mark), and in translation from Old English and Middle English authors
not specially offered.”
This is to be followed by the History of English Literature, to which
portion of the Regulations the following odd clause is appended: “the
examination will include the History of Criticism and of style in prose
and verse.” Last come the special subjects designed for “those who aim
at a place in the First or Second Class.” Six of these consist of
certain prescribed periods of English Literature. The other subjects are
as follows:--
(1) Old English Language and Literature down to 1150 A.D.
(2) Middle English Language and Literature, 1150-1400 A.D.
(3) Old French Philology with special reference to Anglo-Norman French,
together with a special study of the following texts:--_Computus of
Phillippe de Thaun_, _Voyage of St. Brandan_, _The Song of Dermot and
the Earl_, _Les Contes moralisés de Nicole Bozon_.
(4) Scandinavian Philology, with special reference to Icelandic,
together with a special study of the following texts:--_Gylfaginning_,
_Laxdæla Saga_, _Gunnlaugssaga Ormstungu_.
(5) French Literature down to 1400 A.D. in its bearing on English
Literature.
(6) Italian Literature as influencing English down to the death of
Milton.
(7) German Literature from 1500 A.D. to the death of Goethe in its
bearing on English Literature.
(8) History of Scottish Poetry.
Such is the scheme which will, in conjunction with the similar scheme at
Cambridge, supply England and the colonies with their literary
professors. Let us examine it in detail. The first thing which strikes
us is the contrast between the competence and judgment displayed in the
organization of the philological part of the course and the confusion,
inadequacy, and flimsiness so conspicuous in the literary part. Nothing
could be more satisfactory than the provisions made for the study of
Language. They are obviously the work of legislators who knew what they
were about, and who, but for the thwarting requirements of the
provisions for Literature, would have proceeded to a superstructure
worthy of the foundation. A student who, in addition to having mastered
the prescribed works in Gothic, Anglo-Saxon, and Middle English, is
competent to translate and comment on unprepared passages from those
dialects, has certainly laid the foundation of sound scholarship in an
important department of Philology. In the fact that what properly
belongs to his study has been relegated to the subjects out of which he
has only the option of choosing one, we have a lamentable illustration
of the effects of the compromise forced on the philologists. If, for the
literary portion of the curriculum, a candidate could substitute the
first four of the special subjects, he would have completed a thoroughly
satisfactory course of Philology, so far at least as relates to the
Teutonic and Romance languages.