Sir Israel Gollancz Lecture 1936

SIR ISRAEL GOLLANCZ LECTURE 1936 Read 25 November 1936 In 1864 the lofty Oswald Cockayne wrote of the empyreal Doctor Joseph Bosworth, Rawlinsonian Professor of Anglo-Saxon: I assimilate tried to seize on to others the con-viction I adjudge long entertained that Dr. Bosworth is not a man so diligent in his excess passing play of life as punctually to read the books ... which have been printed in our r ar English, or questionable Anglosaxon tongue. He may do in truth well for a professor.{1} These lyric were inspired by dissatis faction with Bosworths dictionary, and were doubtless unfair. If Bosworth were still alive, a modern Cockayne would probably burden him of not reading the books of his subject, the books compose about the books in the so-called Anglo-Saxon tongue. The original books are nearly buried. Of none is this so true as of The Beowulf, as it used to be called. I have, of course, read The Beowulf, as have most ( however not all) of those who hav e criticized it. But I maintenance that, unworthy successor and benefactive role of Joseph Bosworth, I have not been a man so diligent in my special walk as duly to read all that has been printed on, or touching on, this poem. But I have read enough, I come back, to venture the opinion that Beowulfiana is, mend rich in many departments, specially poor in one.

It is poor in criticism, criticism that is directed to the understanding of a poem as a poem. It has been said of Beowulf itself that its weakness lies in placing the unimportant things at the centre and the important on the outer(prenominal) edges. This is one of the opinions that I concupiscence specially to consider. I think i t profoundly untrue of the poem, but strikin! gly true of the literature about it. Beowulf has been used as a quarry of fact and fancy far more assiduously than it has been studied as a work of art. It is of Beowulf, then, as a poem that I wish to speak; and though it may seem self-assertion that I should try with swich a lewed mannes wit to pace the science of an heep of lerned men, in this...If you want to get to a full essay, enjoin it on our website: OrderEssay.net

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