MILTON
SIR,—Professor Ford and Mr. Maxwell, each in his own way (faux bonhomme and cross-patch), suggest that 1 was lying in my rejoinder to Dr. Leavis. Let us call this the give-and-take of journalism, though Mr. Maxwell appears, with how much self-disgust I do not know, to despise the craft. I was not lying, and not picking a quarrel.
The bulk of Professor Ford's letter is simply mis- chievous chatter, and the expression 'savagely ex- cluded' seems the sole occasion for these protests. As Mr. Maxwell clearly saw, it was intended as jocular hyperbole. 'Many young people were en- couraged, prematurely, to undervalue Milton and compare him unfavourably with Donne.' I might have spelt it out thus had the matter been the subject of my article, as it was not. In that case I should probably also have mentioned Dr. Leavis, whose plans for the 'demolition' and 'dislodgment' of Milton arc certainly part of the story, though by no means the whole of it. Professor Ford, having been required to read Milton in order to discover why, in Dr. Leavis's words, 'we dislike his verse,' was doing his bit for these causes in 1939.—Yours faithfully,
FRANK KERMODII
18 Syddal Road, Branahall, Cheshire
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