LETTERS
Arrogance
Sir: Mr Christiansen, whoever he is, does not know the correct use of the term 'arrogance' (Books, 22 June). Most people don't. The dictionary will tell them that it applies to those who claim authority `to Which they are not entitled without just reason'. Professor Elton is a first-rate Tudor historian; I am a first-rate Eli- zabethan historian, of Shakespeare's life and time. We are entitled.
Who is Mr Christiansen? I am afraid I do not know what great work he has accom- plished, nor have I looked him up in Who's Who to see what it is so much that he has such reason to be modest about. In our filthy, sick society the third-rate cannot bear to think that some people are first- rate. (Look at the shocking treatment a first-rate woman like Mrs Thatcher gets from the press and third-rate academics.) They fling the word 'arrogant' about ignor- antly, in the attempt to reduce the first-rate to their level. This is a sociological charac- teristic of a demotic society, which releases envy at every level. Quite recently a reviewer realised at last that I know quite well what I am doing. I think it the duty of an historian to describe things as they are, and people as they are. I know as well as the next man that these People — whose squalid society this is (not mine) — cannot bear to have the differ- ence, the inequality pointed out to them. And they are not clever enough to realise that I rather enjoy the game. Whatever they say, I should never deflect myself by a millimetre from saying what I think; so they should not be so stupid as to play the game that amuses me, and fall into the trap. In fact, they might as well shut their trap, for all the effect they have on A. L. Rowse Trenarren, St Austell, Cornwall
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