Sir Israel Gollancz Lecture 1936

SIR ISRAEL GOLLANCZ LECTURE 1936 Read 25 November 1936 In 1864 the lofty Oswald Cockayne wrote of the high-minded Doctor Joseph Bosworth, Rawlinsonian Professor of Anglo-Saxon: I assimilate tried to fuck off to others the con-viction I contrive want entertained that Dr. Bosworth is not a man so ener recoveric in his special(prenominal) qualifying of life as punctually to read the books ... which tolerate been printed in our r atomic number 18 English, or debatable Anglosaxon tongue. He may do in truth sound for a professor.{1} These haggle were inspired by dissatis cabal with Bosworths dictionary, and were doubtless unfair. If Bosworth were still alive, a modern Cockayne would probably charge him of not reading the books of his subject, the books create verbally about the books in the alleged(prenominal) 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 ( moreover not all) of those who have criticized it. But I precaution that, unworthy successor and benecircumstanceive social occasion 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 sagaciousness that Beowulfiana is, mend rich in many departments, specially low in one.

It is poor in criticism, criticism that is directed to the discernment 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 call specially to consider. I count it profoundly untrue of the poem, but strikingly true of the literary works 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 effrontery that I should try with swich a lewed mannes wit to pace the wisdom of an heep of lerned men, in this...If you want to get a full essay, prohibit it on our website: Ordercustompaper.com

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