17 APRIL 1964, Page 8

L. C. Knights

I congratulate Professor L. C. Knights on his appointment to the King Edward VII Chair of English Literature at Cambridge. There has been intense speculation, I gather, as to who would succeed Basil Willey when he retires this Sep- tember. But there could hardly have been a better choice than Knights, who for some years now has been at the heart of English studies in this country. He was a member of the editorial board of Scrutiny for twenty years, is an authority on Shakespeare, and before his present translation to Cambridge held the chairs of English Litera- ture at Sheffield and Bristol, where he has taught for the last ten years. He contributes an article to the Spectator this week to mark the Shake- speare quatercentenary.