How Not to Study Literature

The Muse in Chains. By Stephen Potter. (Cape. 7s. 6d.)

WHEN in pre-War Oxford one had done "Greats," one started to read for the " Civil." This entailed. staying " up " after the summer term was over and taking a six weeks' course in psychology and English literature. The English literature course struck me even then as odd, for it did not, I discovered, entail the reading of English literature. For that there was no time. Instead, one attended lectures at which one learned what- books to read about English literature, how to spot likely quotations, and what notes to " get up " on famous passages.

The notes ran more or less like this—all the examples that follow are taken from Mr. Potter's book :

Passage. " That was to him

Hyperion to a Satyr."

Note. (Mr. Potter is transcribing) " Satyr' refers, of course, to the cloven-footed satyri of Greek mythology . . ." Extension of Note. (Mr. Potter is, I hope, but am not quite sure, caricaturing.) " Satyr (the cloven-footed, &c.) is here mentioned by Shakespeare for the first time. Or the last time. Or for the only time. Or note how frequently he uses it. Obviously had he not been recently reading Sandys' translation of the Memorabilia (which also contains frequently the word ' Satyr I would tend to place the first edition of that translation considerably earlier than did Professor Felixstowe in his Sandre—the Canon."

The lectures were entitled " The Influence of Euphuism," " The First Seeds of the Romantic Revival," or " The Middle Period of the Novel of Passion," and they contained a number

of useful stock phrases to be inserted in one's commentary, such as " Lamb's sly rejoinder " ; " strong mystic vein," " willing suspense of disbelief," many of which now adorn the dust-cover of Mr. Potter's book. We grew learned on the subject of sources and influences and, presently, becoming at home with our writers, and desiring, accordingly, to exhibit their human side—for were they not, after all, but men and women like ourselves ?—we ventured upon a certain coy facetiousness when speaking of them. Thus Ben Jonson became Ben ; Donne, Jack Donne. Similarly we spoke of " Dorothy's pin-money " and " Sam Rogers's glass coach." Jane Austen, however, was always Miss Austen. (Why I

never discovered, nor does Mr. Potter, who mentions the fact, throw light upon the mystery.)

After six months of this sort of thing we sat for an examines: tion in English literature and answered such questions as :

" In what connexion were any four of the following phrases Used, and how characteristic were they of their authors. . .

' Force, and fraud, are in war the, two cardinal virtues ' ; Or ' If their conceits were far-fetched, they were often worth the carriage.' Consider this with reference to 3 or 4 poems, not all by the same writer."

The main purpose of Mr. Potter's admirable book is to ask the very natural question, what Mortal good this sort of thing is to anybody. Does it, like philosophy, enlarge the mind ? It does not. Does it, like science, convey information which

is intrinsically important and interesting ? It does not. Does it, like logic, or mathematics, train the reasoning powers ? It does not. Does it cultivate the taste, improve the prose style, enable the student to recognise and appreciate fine

literature, introduce him to what great men have thought and said memorably about life ? It does these things so little that a course of it at school or university puts many good men off fine literature, and sends them to " bloods " and detective stories and to the" imbibing of draughts of passion from the springs of Miss Hell and Miss Dug. Into this twilit realm of musty pedantry Mr. Potter comes, with the effect of a man entering a long-shuttered room. In a trice the curtains are drawn, the windows are up and light and air are let in to places which have long suffered from the lack of both. His book is, indeed, an admirable piece of disinfecting work. It is also extremely amusing. Ruthlessly he exposes the fatuities and absurdities which make up English literature as a taught subject. He notes the grading of geniuses in order of merit ; the dogma that poetry is more . important than prose ; the fact that no writer may be men- tioned, except with the greatest circumspection (and never praised) unless he is long dead : the treatment of the novel. as a slightly disreputable poor relation of literature proper ; the interest in the human side of the writer expressing itself in articles on Shelley's love-affairs, Carlyle's " crabbed un- sociability," Coleridge's cigarettes, and culminating in.. charabanc rides to the Hardy country, coupled with a com- plete refusal to relate the man to his work, a refusal which justifies itself by the assumption that the latter being the outcome of heaven-sent inspiration, ordinary mortals can . have nothing to say about its content, although they may scrutinise its form.

And how they do scrutinise its form ! When it comes to literature, though no student may create, all can be critics. Solemnly they will chronicle the rise of this, or the decline of that, observe the inconsistencies in the use by Mr. X of metrical form Y and represent—I am quoting Mr. Potter—" Shakes- peare, Marlowe, Ben Jonson, &e., as a link in the genealogical table of drama with ancestors, Terence, Seneca, Miracle Plays, Morris dances and May games ; offspring, Jacobean drama ; and grandchild Comedy of Manners." It is the origin of this sort of thing, its growth, its insinuation of itself into the syllabuses of the examinations of our universi- ties and its imposition upon generations of young men for no better reason than that the immediately preceding generation of young men, now middle-aged, had once to learn it and having as a result disabled themselves from following any useful occupation are now forced to teach it as their only means of getting a living, that Mr. Potter records. His exposition concludes with a number of very sensible suggestions. Nobody should be allowed to read without being required to write, and to write in the manner of what they are reading. Facts, dates, influences, sources and the rest should be compressed, reduced to diagrammatic form and

pasted on sheets to be hung above washstands so that they can be memorised every morning while cleaning the teeth, and serious study should be confined to three.or four great writers, the choice of whom should be determined by the congeniality

of their outlook to the student. . Finally, no examinations " but, only the results of the

arprer.ticeskp in writing. and the word of the teachers and tutors with whoM the student has worked." Admirable ! But what is to happen to the teaching of literature as a univer-

sity subject ? It would; I Suspect, if Mr. Potter's views were adopted, largely cease.' I dolibt if many would regret -the loss, for literature, like love, was meant to be enjoyed, not'