Cambridge accent
JOAN BENNETT
The first volume of Professor Willey's auto- biography, Spots of Time, recalled formative experiences between the year of his birth, 1897, and 1920. He says here that he had doubts about continuing, since, whereas when evoking memories of childhood and youth, `one can almost regard oneself as another person ... any, account of adult life must needs lack this sort of detachment.' In fact, however, this second volume is even more interesting than the first. The author easily achieves detachment, be- cause he is more interested in his experiences than in himself. There is a minimum of self- consciousness, though the reader becomes aware of the man through whose eyes he is looking. All of the writer's experiences occur within the orbit of the academic life, but the time, covered is of especial historical interest, not only within the educational field.
During the period of Professor Willey's apprenticeship to learning and teaching in the University of Cambridge a new academic sub- ject was conceived, born and nurtured: `English Literature, Life and Thought.' He had come to Cambridge to read history; after one year be changed to the new subject and took his final examination in it. This was in 1920, one year after it came into existence. The story of the birth and infancy of the new tripos is vividly recounted in his first two chapters. The per- sonalities of the founding fathers are evoked and the motives that inspired them indicated. Sir Arthur Quiller-Couch, Professor of Eng- lish in the Modern and Mediaeval Language School, believed that: `English as an academic discipline could do everything and more than everything, which classics were supposed to have done in the past.' Dr Stewart, the dis- tinguished Pascal scholar, saw the advantage, both, to modern language studies and to Eng- lish, of effecting a separation; Professor H. M. Chadwick, that giant among mediaevalists, be- lieved that 'Anglo-Saxon was important as a branch of archaeology and anthropology rather than as the foundation of English literature.' Their combined statesmanship liberated Eng- lish: it became an autonomous subject.
Professor Willey introduces us to the first generation of teachers, vividly recalling the per- sonality of each. Outstanding among them was I. A. Richards:.
'With all his mental and physical athleticism —for Ivor was a famous Alpinist as well as a scaler- of mental mountains—he combined an extraordinary modesty and gentleness: the un- assumingness, in fact, of a man who cares much more about his work than about himself. It is for these reasons among others that he made and makes, upon all who know him, an im- pression of true greatness.'
Among the great teachers in the first genera- - tion one, G. G. Coulton, the mediaeval his- torian, is unmentioned here. This is surprising as Professor Willey succeeded to his lectureship and gave lustre to that aspect of Cambridge English which Coulton inaugurated. I. A. Richards invented 'practical criticism' or close reading; Coulton contributed to the no less important distinguishing mark of the new school, the emphasis on study of contemporary life and thought as the indispensable back- ground to any period of literature. Save for this one omission, the exciting story of the early years is here set out.
In a later chapter the author contrasts those euphoric times with what he believes to be the present, now that the few great amateurs have been replaced by a crowd of professionals: 'We• have a large staff of salaried University Lecturers and Assistant Lecturers, all most carefully and competitively hand-picked, bound by statute to deliver a stated number of lectures a year—and nobody hears them.' There was a time when attendance at lectures declined, and when the old enthusiasm for the subject seemed to have waned. This is not so now Most lecture rooms are filled to capacity; the undergraduates ask, in addition, for seminars, classes, extra supervisions; inter- collegiate groups meet for play-readings or for 'practical criticism' exchanges. There is a renaissance. But, as Professor Willey says, when, in 1946, he succeeded to Q's Chair he lost touch with undergraduates.
In this second volume there are many centres of interest for readers less enthralled than I am by the tale of a particular discipline. Professor Willey recreates his own experience of the inter- war Years and it is in some ways every man's experience; the genuine belief that, after 1918, there would be no more wars in Europe, the gradual and appalling awakening from that dream. Then, through the author's memories, the reader encounters the experience of a non- combatant during the Second World War' in its several phases. Vividly the author recalls his first visit to Switzerland, after the war when, even to one so responsive to natural beauty, unlimited sugar and butter were as exciting as the mountains. Before and after the war there are memories of Cornwall, of Dorset, of the Lakes, never overdescribed, always evocative. In addition there are vivid accounts of two long professional visits to the United States. Many and divers readers will rejoice that Pro- fessor Wiley ventured on the second volume.
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