Nota Bene

Vol. 12 No. 2 SPECIAL MEMORIAL ISSUE Winter 2007

In Memoriam n the recent past, Harvard’s Department of the Classics has suffered several deaths among its faculty and emeriti. To consider only the Pope Professor- ship of the Latin Language and Literature, we have had to cope—within Iless than four years (by a single day)—with the departure of no fewer than four individuals whose incumbency in the chair spanned continuously more than four decades: Mason Hammond (1950-1973, died October 13, 2002), Herbert Bloch (1973-1982, died September 6, 2006), David Roy Shackleton Bailey (1982-1988, died November 28, 2005), and Wendell Vernon Clausen (1988-1993, died Octo- ber 12, 2006). In contemplating these losses, we decided for two main reasons to innovate by publishing a memorial issue of Nota Bene, our departmental newsletter, that would gather obituaries, remarks made at memorial services, and other related materials. One of the two reasons is that Classics is the cornerstone of the humanities, as the artes humaniores have come to be known. An essential component of these “arts” is humaneness, and nothing makes a person suffer more acutely the related experience of humbling humanness than to experience the absence when a dear one dies. Our thoughts, our empathies, go out to the families and friends of those commemorated here. Another motivation in assembling these texts is that Classics, for all its stupen- dous interdisciplinarity and all the ever-changing diversity of approaches that it elicits and requires, remains (as it began) a field in which texts and traditions are foundational. So that those in the future who are interested, as well as those right now who care deeply and immediately, may remember the members of our com- munity we have lost, we offer the following pages. The issue focuses upon those who have passed away in this fall semester of 2006, namely: Herbert Bloch; Wendell Clausen and Margaret Clausen; and Rodney Dennis, retired curator of manuscripts in Houghton Library and enthusiastic participant in our community. Jan Ziolkowski, Chair

CONTENTS:

Herbert Bloch ...... 2-9 Wendell and Margaret Clausen ...... 10-17 Rodney Dennis ...... 18-23 HERBERT BLOCH

ancient history, classical philology, completed in 9 BCE) a centerpiece and archaeology at the University of a city tour. At the last moment the of Berlin (1930-1933), which he left organizers, realizing that their at- for Rome. Owing to the vicissitudes tempted translation of the exhibition of fate, his brother Egon remained in catalog into German was a botch, Germany and died in the Holocaust. cast around for a person qualified Bloch received his doctoral degree to redo it. They were told that there in Roman History in 1935 and the was someone who could, but he was Diploma di perfezionamento in 1937 Jewish. Nonetheless, they asked from the University of Rome, where Bloch, who agreed and stayed up he was a student of the eminent his- two nights to produce a new ver- torian Arnaldo Momigliano. Though sion. Hitler so liked the exhibit that Momigliano directed Bloch’s thesis he made a second, unscheduled on the religious policy of Commo- visit. Bloch gave as his reason for dus (161-192 CE: Roman emperor, translating the catalog that he had to 180-192), Momigliano professed choose between helping the country that there was nothing he could that had taken him in or refusing out teach his student. In 1938 Bloch of dislike for the country that had remained in Italy, serving as a mem- driven him out. ber of the staff of the excavations in Owing to the pressures of the erbert Bloch, Pope Profes- Ostia in 1938. During these years he anti-Semitic laws enacted in late sor of the Latin Language not only honed his skills as a scholar 1938, Bloch was soon no longer and Literature, Emeritus, but also developed a facility in Ital- able to remain in the country that Hdied on September 6, 2006, in ian that remained with him his entire had sheltered him initially. In 1939 Cambridge, Massachusetts. He was life. Because of his fluency, he used he emigrated to the United States. ninety-five years of age. A native of to go and translate at sight articles in George Hanfmann (1911-1986), Germany, he was born in Berlin on German for the great Italian histori- the art historian and archaeologist August 18, 1911. He was the eldest an Gaetano de Sanctis (1870-1957), at Harvard who had been a student of two sons of Ludwig Bloch, who after which they would discuss the with him in Berlin, played a role became a director of the Dresdner contents together. in securing him a connection with Bank in Berlin, and Alice Gut- Bloch’s command of ancient his- the University. Bloch was to have man, the bank owner’s daughter. tory, Italian, and German resulted been in the first group of fellows at Ludwig’s father was a family doctor in one particularly memorable Dumbarton Oaks, one of Harvard’s in Pilsen (now in the Czech Repub- experience in 1938. When Adolf centers in Washington, DC. At the lic), so beloved of his patients that Hitler paid a German state visit as time John Finley (1904-1995) was once, when he lay ill, they packed chancellor to Rome in March of that acting chair of the Department of the cobblestones outside his house year, Benito Mussolini made a stop the Classics. When Carl Newell with straw to muffle the sound of at the reconstructed Ara Pacis (a Jackson, Eliot Professor of Greek, horses and carriages. Bloch studied monumental altar of peace that was fell ill, Finley hired Bloch to take

AUGUST 18, 1911

2 OBITUARY

over his teaching. It was arranged At Harvard Bloch rose swiftly famous corpus of Latin inscriptions. for Bloch to defer his junior fellow- through the ranks, as an instructor Another longstanding commitment ship in Washington by a year. for one year (1941-1942), a faculty of his was to what used to be labeled In retrospect the war years were instructor for four (1942-1946), and “the final pagan revival in the West” the beginning of unbroken stability an assistant professor for one (1946- in the late fourth century. in Bloch’s life, since from 1941 to 1947), before being tenured as an Among medievalists he is known 1982 he taught at Harvard Univer- associate professor (1947-1953). best for many books and articles sity. At the same time it must be He was a professor for twenty years on Monte Cassino. His crowning acknowledged that he remained (1953-1973), after which he held achievement was the three volumes stateless through the end of the war, the Pope Professorship of the Latin of Monte Cassino in the Middle when he had to go to Montreal to Language and Literature. Ages, which appeared in 1986. This secure his citizenship papers. He His teaching and research interests opus, which is exemplary in bring- was naturalized as a U.S. citizen in involved Greek and Roman histo- ing together evidence from histori- 1946. riography, Latin epigraphy, Roman cal texts with insights gleaned from His gratitude to the United States archaeology (especially architec- works of art, was awarded the Prae- for having given him a haven ture), medieval history, and medi- mium Urbis in Rome in 1987 and was great. Equally strong was his eval Latin literature. Through his the Haskins Medal of the Medieval resistance to any whiff of intoler- courses he advanced medieval stud- Academy in 1988. Although all this ance or persecution. In 1954, he ies in particular, by inspiring a cadre work is uniquely his own, Bloch’s was approached by the Institute for of students who have now become Monte Cassino oeuvre also bears Advanced Study in Princeton about eminent in their own right. witness to the extraordinary support the possibility of a permanent posi- In all the areas already mentioned of his second wife, Ellen, who not tion there, but decided against it at he made a major impact in his only drove him to many of the out- least partly because he was horrified scholarship. Among his most endur- of-the-way places in Italy he needed that the chairman of the board of ing contributions to Classics are to visit but also took many of the trustees of the Institute testified in his works on Roman brick-stamps, photographs with which the three Washington against J. Robert Op- which enable archaeologists and volumes are illustrated. penheimer (1904-1967). In contrast, ancient historians to date buildings Ten years later, well into his Nathan Pusey (1907-2001), recently and trace economic ties related to eighties, Bloch published The Atina appointed president of Harvard their construction by matching the Dossier of Peter the Deacon of (1953-1971), had stood up to Sena- brick-stamps to their brickyards of Monte Cassino. A Hagiographical tor Joseph McCarthy. Fifteen years origin. One of his earliest interests, Romance of the Twelfth Century, in later (1969), Bloch himself took a Roman brick-stamps were an area the series Studi e Testi 346 (1998). stand by delivering a speech to the he revisited periodically during his Peter the Deacon became a central Faculty of Arts and Sciences against long and productive career: his stud- figure in Bloch’s investigations into the students who had taken over ies of 1936-1938 were assembled the rise of the Benedictine Abbey of University Hall. He regarded them as a book in 1948 (which received Monte Cassino. Around 600, when as being similar to the Nazi youths a second edition in 1968) and have there was no way of easily and he had seen early in his life. a pendant in his contributions to the quickly copying essential documents

SEPTEMBER 6, 2006

3 HERBERT BLOCH

or backing them up on hard drives, types of recognition that one and colleagues in residence at the critical manuscripts often were might expect. He was a Gug- time. lost, damaged, or destroyed. Peter genheim Fellow and a Fulbright Although this enumeration of the Deacon (the abbey’s librarian) Fellow (1950-1951); member of Bloch’s career gives a glimpse of seized the opportunity to enhance the Institute for Advanced Study, achievements and values, it fails his and the abbey’s reputation and Princeton (1953-1954); syndic of to capture his physical presence— power by forging replacement Harvard University Press (1961- what death has now wrested from documents that “embellished” the 1965); senior fellow of the Society us. A tall and lean man, Bloch abbey’s holdings. Infatuated with of Fellows (1964-1979), and had an Old World courtliness; ancient Rome, Peter the Deacon trustee of the Loeb Classical Li- a captivatingly resonant, deep frequently interwove references to brary (1964-1973). He was elected voice; a modesty; and a genuine Rome in his creations but sometimes to the American Academy of Arts interest in the activities of others got his facts wrong. Bloch’s knowl- and Sciences, American Philo- that endeared him to those who edge of Latin literature enabled him sophical Society, Pontificia Ac- knew him. During his half cen- to see through the ruses and set the cademia Romana di Archeologia tury or so of living in Belmont, record straight. He delighted in this (since 1990 Hon. Mem.), German he loved to take long walks in the detective work. Archaeological Institute, Zentral- conservation land adjacent to his In the 1970s and 1980s Bloch direktion of the Monumenta property. In those woods he knew was involved in a controversy about Germaniae Historica, and Finnish the precise number and location Monte Cassino that had nothing Academy of Science and Letters. of all the lady’s slippers and could to do with the Middle Ages. Af- In 1999 he was distinguished by compare the totals in a given year ter thorough research, he wrote a the Premio “Cultori di Roma.” with those of earlier ones. He monograph that criticized the Allied His ties with a number of these cared deeply about the earth, to bombing of the monastery in 1944 organizations went far beyond which he has now returned. as unnecessary, and in fact a det- the merely honorific. To cite two Herbert Bloch is survived by his riment to the Allied cause, since examples that speak to the chrono- twins, Anne Bloch of Arlington it created ruins that the Germans logical range he demonstrated, and Mary Alice (Nini) Bloch of used as a fort when massacring the Bloch served as president of the Bedford, Massachusetts. They troops that tried to cross the Gustav American Philological Associa- were his daughters by his first Line. Although this study made him tion (1968-1969) and as President wife, Clarissa (née Holland), who persona non grata in some quarters of Fellows of the Medieval Acad- came from the Boston area. She (perhaps especially New Zealand, emy (1990-1993). Because of his died suddenly while they were since it was a commander from earlier years in Italy, his terms as traveling together in Europe in there who took the key decisions), Professor-in-Charge of the School August 1958. His second wife, it was reprinted in generous num- of Classical Studies (1957-1959) Ellen (née Cohen), of Memphis, bers at Monte Cassino. In any case, and as Resident in Classical Tennessee, died in May 1987. his devotion to Monte Cassino led Studies (1987) at the American to his being awarded an LLD by Academy in Rome were particu- the University of Cassino in 1989 larly important. He was held in and endeared him to the monks. very high regard and affection by Born Jewish but reticent about his all at the Academy, and on one of Reprinted, with permission and beliefs, Bloch developed a sense of his final visits to it was received revisions, from the obituary by deep community with Benedictine almost as a founding father, since Jan Ziolkowski which appeared monasticism. there happened to be three or even on September 21, 2006, in the Professor Bloch attained all the four generations of his students Harvard University Gazette.

4 REMEMBRANCES

so many of his students and col- that, with more additions to his leagues. collection, he nearly became a My father grew up in an odd mineralogist—and then we would household—his mother, a Jewish have had no Pope Professor of bank owner’s daughter, came Latin. into the marriage with a com- His mineral collection sur- panion, Anna Hoelsch. Aunt vived the war, carefully guarded Annychen—or Tante Anny, as my by Tante Anny, who stayed in father called her—was a Catholic, the family’s Berlin apartment. and a life force within the family. In the early 1950s, she packed I always felt that it was she, more up every last piece of it, and it than anyone else, who encouraged arrived, complete with the two his humanitas and spawned his wooden cabinets that it lived in. lifelong interest in the Catholic For a while, it seemed like endless Church that culminated in his Christmas as my father unwrapped studies of the Benedictine Abbey each mineral. Anne and I were or me, the most haunting of Monte Cassino. Although I dazzled—and hooked. Soon we picture of my father (seen never met Tante Anny in person, were following our father up on above) shows the face of she became a fairy godmother slag heaps or around quarries in aF ten-year-old boy, wrapped in a of sorts, sending us packages of Vermont, New Hampshire, and fur hat, looking straight on. It’s delicious dark chocolates, games, Maine, looking for heavy bits of an innocent, open face with soft, and anything else a child would ore or tourmaline or quartz crys- dark, expressive—and inquisi- love. I don’t know how in her tals. tive—eyes. war-torn country she managed We also followed my father’s That picture was taken in 1921, to scrape together such magic giant strides around Belmont Hill when my father perhaps wasn’t for my sister and me. I do know on afternoon walks—at first it was such an innocent boy after all. He that from this side of the ocean hard to keep up on our little legs. had lived through the First World there were monthly shipments of My father was a firm believer in War and had learned to hate cab- CARE packages to her of coffee, daily constitutionals, and he loved bage and beets because they were sugar, and other essentials. My wildlife. He delighted in bring- all that his middle-class banker’s father always spoke of Tante Anny ing stale bread to feed the painted family could afford. He had frozen with the greatest love, and after turtles that lived in the pond at in a sweater made only of paper, the Second World War, I know Habitat. With more focus than I and he had lost a beloved uncle he tried to bring her over here. It thought possible, they’d silently to the war. I think some of what didn’t happen—she died in 1955. swim through the algae to the I see in that picture is a boy wise Despite the ravages of the First hands waiting with bread. beyond his years. My father never World War, my father had some My father was an odd combina- lost his boyish enthusiasm, but happy times in his childhood. tion of caution and abandon. He sometimes it seemed tinged with The one he told us about the most loved collecting and eating wild sadness. was when he was nine. For his mushrooms, something to this day I want to talk today about some birthday his father presented him I’m not confident about doing. of the forces that shaped my fa- with twenty-five minerals—the He had only one mishap—early ther and what it was like growing seminal pieces of a collection. My on—with a puffball that gave up in my early years with a man father was stunned—and ecstatic. him a bellyache. From then on, whose humanitas I see mirrored in So ecstatic over the ensuing years he concentrated on the Boleti and

5 HERBERT BLOCH

meadow mushrooms. in his scholarly endeavors as was piano and listen to my mother play Daring to do the right or the his second wife, Ellen Cohen (or Beethoven sonatas—we’ll hear bold thing was a theme that played “Eddie,” as we knew her). Besides an excerpt today—or we’d listen out as well at the larger junctures her wit and generous spirit, Eddie to my father read such predict- of my father’s life. I have tried brought a social energy to the able fare as Grimm’s fairy tales, hard to imagine what it must family we hadn’t known before. Aesop’s Fables, and the Iliad. have been like for him to leave When I was growing up, there My father seemed so content and Germany in 1933 as a twenty-two- was a lot of creativity bouncing peaceful at those times, and it was year-old university student for around our house—so much so only much later that I realized an uncertain future in Rome. My that you might think these talents what a sense of stability and conti- father had read Mein Kampf and would have tangled. I think both nuity those family gatherings must believed Hitler would carry out marriages worked so well in part have given a man who was forced his plan. That was his gut reaction. because husband and wife had to flee both his homeland and his His father wasn’t convinced, and their separate realms, but each adoptive country. my father’s decision to leave was also was invested in consulting I saw my father’s scholarship probably the closest he ever came the other: my father had his study; through a child’s eyes. I remember to disobeying his father. Beyond Eddie had her garden and the his drawing Roman inscriptions the emotional trauma of leaving gourmet world she created; my and being fascinated watching him family and Vaterland behind was mother had her sewing machine fill in with dashed lines the miss- the fact that, when my father set and her power tools. And those ing parts he had reconstructed. off for Rome, he had never before power tools were needed. Roman history at the time seemed spent even one night away from In 1947, when my father was to me to be a lot about missing his family. The adjustment must an assistant professor on a mea- pieces and dashed lines. And then have been wrenching—as it must ger salary, my parents bought a there was Peter the Deacon, who have been when he uprooted again rundown Victorian on Pleasant at times seemed almost a member in 1939 and came to this country. Street in Belmont that was to be of the family—albeit the black But my father always seemed to my father’s home for the next half sheep. Monte Cassino’s librarian find ways to land on his feet—not century. Initially the only source during its heyday in the twelfth gracefully, perhaps, but at least of heat for the entire house was century was a forger of documents right side up. I admired his back- a large coal stove in the kitchen. that embellished the power of his bone in following his convictions. I still remember both my parents abbey and—through his associa- By June of 1943, his entire fam- schlepping coal from the bin in tion with it—his own stature. I felt ily (except for Tante Anny) was the cellar every morning for that as if my father were on a personal gone. My father rarely spoke of stove. My father was many things crusade to expose the figure we his birth family—his grief was too but not a handyman. My mother knew in the family as Peter the deep—so they remained shadowy was, though, and she undertook Dickens. On finding out some new figures to me. I wish I knew more. such ambitious renovation proj- ruse that Peter had perpetrated, But family was important to my ects as transforming the pantry my father would exclaim, “That father, and he wanted a family into a bathroom. Together my par- scoundrel!” I don’t think anyone here. By Thanksgiving of that ents turned that broken house into else in history evoked such a year he had met and married my a home. They both had vision. So combination of moral outrage and mother—Clarissa Holland, a kind, did Eddie. intellectual delight in my father. gentle, warm, and playful soul Some of my favorite times as My father, who always tried to do who was every bit his intellectual a child were post-dinner “family the right thing, earned his reputa- equal. She was as much a partner time,” when we’d sit around the tion through hard work. It galled

6 REMEMBRANCES

him that Peter had earned his and he was over thirty, I am in- have said, ‘argue with’—“the through deceit. clined to trust his memory more madmen.” This is an essential, My father started life nur- than my own. A few years later, though often neglected, lesson for tured by a strong, compassionate when, by the providential work- a young scholar to learn, and one Catholic woman—Tante Anny. ings of the Harvard dean’s office, that I have kept in mind not only She stood bravely beside the I was exempted from freshman in my own work (where I still family even when the Nazis con- English, I enrolled in Herbert’s have a regrettable tendency to pile fiscated her life savings and tried course on medieval Latin. Since Ossa on Pelion) but also in my to starve her out by reducing her at that time I had no predilection teaching. rations to the lowest possible for either the Middle Ages or for Meanwhile, the relationship level. My father thrived in two Latin, to which I remember pay- of master and pupil matured into happy marriages, each to a strong, ing a cheerful farewell at school, I friendship. It was still many years, compassionate, vibrant woman can only imagine that my decision and then only at the friendly in- with a sense of self and a sense of was owing to my acquaintance sistence of Herbert’s second wife, humor. Both marriages tragically with the teacher. My term papers Ellen, that “Dr. Bloch” became ended early. As my father neared for that course were my intro- “Herbert,” and even after that the end of his life, another strong, duction to medieval scholarship. great step was taken I used to slip compassionate Catholic woman Herbert later supervised both my comfortably back into Dr. Bloch entered it—Kazia Kagan—his senior thesis and my doctoral dis- when we were together, showing beloved companion of the last sertation, so that I can describe that affection has nothing to do six years. Her loving care eased myself as his student in the fullest with nomenclature. He became a his way, buoyed his spirits, and sense. friend of the family, not only of brought out his gentleness. These In the letter I wrote him at the my parents and brother, but also words would not be complete time of his retirement in 1982, of my grandmother, whom he without a salute to these four I said that I remembered some showed round Ostia in 1951. Later women. of our discussions, in which he he stayed with her in London, My father taught me well the shaped not only my way of writ- where she all but despaired of joy of learning and the passion ing history but also my way of his pronunciation of Holborn and of investigating—virtually any- thinking about history and my Marylebone. Later both he and thing. It took me a lot longer to approach to the subject. I de- Ellen became as close to my wife, appreciate the boldness of his fended my positions stubbornly, Evhy, as to me, and our children intellect, his courage in acting on as young and opinionated scholars looked on them almost as mem- his beliefs, and the effort and love are inclined to do, and buttressed bers of the family. On our last visit he put into his relationships. For them with every conceivable argu- but one to Herbert we took along those lessons, I am eternally grate- ment, against which he brought Remie’s two boys. His quick sym- ful. the siege-weapons of experience pathy, wide range of interests, and and common sense. He taught me ready enthusiasm thus attracted Nini Bloch that a good point is often judged five generations of my family, as not by the number of supporting they did one then-young member arguments but by the weakest, of the family over sixty years t was a matter of uncertainty and most extreme, of them. On ago, and as they have many other between Herbert and myself one occasion, when I was arguing people, both inside and outside the just when we first met, but a defense against some possible classroom. Isince by his account it was in objection, he exclaimed, “Giles, In preparing these remarks I 1942, when I was a boy of twelve you cannot convince”—he may looked over the letters Herbert

7 HERBERT BLOCH

sent me over almost fifty years, teachers do something else: they by applying the lessons that he beginning in 1954. It is impos- educate them in the full sense of taught us. sible here even to summarize their the Latin educare, “to bring out, to The Tacitus text that I supplied, contents, but they include moving nurture.” Herbert never imposed and which the minister read, fol- accounts, written in 1958, of the his views on those he taught: he lows: death of his first wife, Clarissa, the did not want to make miniatures Si quis piorum manibus locus, mother of Anne and Nini, and of of himself, or robot soldiers to si, ut sapientibus placet, non cum his visit in 1982 to the birthplace defend his views. He saw what corpore extinguuntur magnae of his grandfather at Ronsperg was in each person who studied animae, placide quiescas, nosque in Czechoslovakia. In 1980 he with him, and he brought it out, by domum tuam ab infirmo desid- wrote about our shared love of advice gently given, with a slight erio et [muliebribus] lamentis ad pigs, or syophilia, as he called smile rather than a frown, some- contemplationem virtutum tuarum it. Previously he had sent me a times with a certain dismay if you voces, quas neque lugeri neque photograph, still hanging on my said something that his courtesy plangi fas est. Admiratione te po- office wall, of a porcine “friend,” forbade him to dismiss as rapidly tius et immortalibus laudibus et, as he put it, sleeping amid flowers as it deserved. si natura suppeditet, similitudine and herbs in the moat of Castel And his kindness also took a colamus: is verus honos, ea coni- Monte Sant’ Angelo. In another form that has now become rare: unctissimi cuiusque pietas. letter he explained his reasons for following a tradition that I suspect “If there is any place for the staying at Harvard rather than ac- he had met in his own student souls of the good, if, as philoso- cepting a position at the Institute days in Berlin, he invited not just phers think, great souls are not for Advanced Study, which he at- his particular students but all of extinguished along with the body, tributed primarily to his feeling of those who, for instance, had taken may you rest quietly, and may you gratitude to Harvard. The feelings one of his seminars, to dinner lead us, your relatives and friends, of gratitude, on the contrary, are at 524 Pleasant Street. He loved away from weak regret and [wom- from Harvard and not least myself to tell us that the house was a anly] laments to thinking about and his many students. Herbert smaller version of Memorial Hall your excellences, which it is right will continue to live for me as a before the tower burned down, neither to mourn nor to bewail. beloved friend as well as an ad- both buildings having been built Let us rather honor you with ad- mired teacher. by the same architect. On those miration and undying praise, and occasions, as I remember them in if nature permits us, by imitation: Giles Constable, School of the 1960s, Ellen presided together that is true honor, that is the lov- Historical Studies, Institute with Herbert, bringing to them, ing duty of everyone closest to for Advanced Study, Princeton I like to think, her own southern you.” University tradition of good cheer and hos- pitality, as Herbert had brought Christopher Jones, Harvard his traditions from his native University here will be other times Germany. and places to commemo- For that educatio in the fullest rate Herbert Bloch’s great sense, education in how to be both remember my beloved Tachievements in scholarship, but gentle and generous, human and mentor and friend, Herbert the Herbert I want to talk of here humane, I and many others owe Bloch, most of all for his is the friend and the teacher. It Herbert an incalculable debt. Let Iimpressive erudition and his un- is sometimes said that teachers us indeed honor him by recalling failing kindness and humanity. “form” their students, but the best his virtues and, as far as we can, He once told me that early in

8 REMEMBRANCES

his American career he had in- politics, on which he was always and, importantly, to the example herited a graduate student who well informed. of his support of women students had been assigned an impossible My research and teaching in- and colleagues, that absolute thesis topic by the previous advi- terests, though of course they conviction of the significance sor. Herbert resolved never to do are my own, have always shown of women’s contributions to the that and instead to take care to suit the influence of Herbert’s schol- classical tradition—as authors, the thesis topic to the individual arly preferences and passions. readers, and patrons—that has student’s talents and personal- My student notebooks from been central to my research, ity. And so he did, as I and many his masterly surveys of medi- teaching, and feminist activism. others can testify. Former junior eval Latin literature show that When I looked again at my fellows in Harvard’s Society of his lectures began with early notebooks from Herbert’s courses Fellows have told me gratefully sixth-century Italy and the fas- in medieval Latin, a sheet fell over the years of how Herbert en- cinating letters of the imperial out on which I had succeeded in gaged them in conversation at the advisor Cassiodorus, Boethius’ tracing a direct and unbroken line Society’s luncheons and always Consolation of Philosophy, and of of intellectual descent from the made sure that they felt welcome course the Rule of St. Benedict, seventh-century English monastic and valued. founder of Monte Cassino. The historian Bede to the myriad au- All his students remember courses gave special attention to thors belonging to the Renaissance with gratitude the Bloch family’s authors and works originating in of the twelfth century. Erasures hospitality at the gracious house German-speaking areas during the and corrections show that it be- in Belmont. We remember the Carolingian and Ottonian periods came more and more difficult to delicious dinners prepared for and finally to the Renaissance trace a simple linear tradition from us by Ellen Bloch, and the lively of the twelfth century, which is teacher to student as influences after-dinner debates that often sent my major interest still. My own became multiple, complex, and her to an impressive collection of students in turn have pursued re- subtle. Nevertheless, the intellec- cookbooks and reference works to search and teaching interests that tual tradition was unbroken. Today settle once and for all such ques- of course are their own, but that in our turn we here honor the pro- tions as the difference between a also bear the imprint of Herbert’s found and abiding influence, into yam and a sweet potato. influence. I won’t embarrass these the future, of our beloved teacher, Despite his kindliness, though, scholars by naming them, but they Herbert Bloch. Herbert could be a terror at gradu- know who they are. ate oral exams, all unintentionally. It was from Herbert that I first Janet Martin, Princeton Trying to help a student who was learned about the writings of University floundering, he would offer hint medieval women. From my un- after hint of the correct answer, dergraduate years at Radcliffe, I while the poor student became knew as an incontrovertible fact ever more flustered. Importantly, that women had written important he perceived each of us students, and influential books in Latin. Photo credits: pages 2, we felt, to be a distinct individual I knew this because I had read 5: courtesy of the Bloch complete with idiosyncrasies, their works in Herbert’s courses. family; pages 10, 12, 13: some of which he gently rebuked, Not only that, I had taken final courtesy of the Clausen most of which he valued. He had examinations on medieval women family; page 18: courtesy in particular a noteworthy inter- writers—in academic terms, the of the Dennis family est in peculiarities of American ultimate test and proof of signifi- regional speech and in American cance. I owe to Herbert’s teaching

9 WENDELL VERNON CLAUSEN

the University of Chicago, obtain- a volume. In another OCT volume, ing his PhD in just three years. His he joined with three eminent British thesis was an edition of a ninth- Latinists to edit a group of poems century treatise on the grammar of attributed to Virgil and known col- Donatus that showed him already in lectively as the Appendix Vergiliana full command of the disciplines of (1966). palaeography and textual criticism. Alongside this editorial work, His first appointment was at Am- Wendell also produced a series of herst College, where he taught from articles that demonstrated his inter- 1948 to 1959. At Harvard he was est in the poetry of the late Repub- Professor of Greek and Latin from lic and the Augustan period—the 1959 to 1982, then Victor S. Thomas poetry of Catullus and Horace, of Professor of Greek and Latin from Propertius and Ovid, and, above 1982 to 1988 and Pope Professor of all, of Virgil. In later years literary- the Latin Language and Literature critical work came to occupy the from 1988 to 1993; he also held an center of his scholarly efforts, and appointment as Professor of Com- it is arguably as an interpreter of endell Vernon Clausen, parative Literature from 1984 to Latin poetry that he made his most Pope Professor of the 1993. He served as chairman of the distinctive contribution to classical Latin Language and Lit- Department of the Classics from studies. He was one of the first Eng- Werature, Emeritus, died on October 1966 to 1971 and as editor of Har- lish-speaking classicists to explore 12, 2006, in Belmont, Massachu- vard Studies in Classical Philology the relationship between Latin poets setts. He was eighy-three years in 1973-1974, 1982, and 1992-1993. and Hellenistic Greek poetry, with of age, and had been in declining Wendell initially made his name which he had a rare familiarity, health after suffering a stroke in as an expert editor of classical and his subtle analyses revealed a August 2005. Latin poetry. His first major publi- new dimension of artistry in poems Wendell was born in Coquille, Or- cation, in 1956, was an edition of that had been studied for centuries. egon, on April 2, 1923. He received the satirist Persius, a notoriously Wendell disclaimed theoretical his BA from the University of Wash- difficult writer. Wendell’s was the labels, but he can be counted as a ington in 1945, majoring in both first satisfactory critical edition, and pioneer in what is now known as Classics and English. In his senior its combination of deep erudition the intertextual reading of classical year he was uncertain which field to and refined taste—traits that would texts. Among the products of his pursue, and so he sought guidance mark all his scholarship—brought research in this area are his contri- from a professor of English whom him to international attention. It was butions to the Cambridge History he admired, Allen Rogers Benham. quickly followed in 1959 by an edi- of Latin Literature (1982), which Benham’s advice was unambiguous: tion of Persius and his fellow-satirist he co-edited with E. J. Kenney; his “Be a classicist! Anyone can teach Juvenal for the Oxford Classical Sather Lectures at the University of English.” Wendell duly enrolled Texts series, in which Wendell was California at Berkeley, published in for graduate study in Classics at the first American scholar to publish 1987 under the title Virgil’s Aeneid

APRIL 2, 1923

10 OBITUARY

and the Tradition of Hellenistic craft—were also to be found in his nale Virgiliana di Mantova and the Poetry and reissued in a revised own writing. He took to heart Cal- Provincia di Mantova. This last and expanded form in 2002 under limachus’ dictum “a big book is a distinction gave him particular plea- the title Virgil’s Aeneid: Decorum, big nuisance,” and strove to convey sure, since his affection for Italy was Allusion, and Ideology; and his much in a small compass. Two of almost as great as his love of Virgil. magisterial commentary on Virgil’s his most influential articles run to In 1998, to commemorate his sev- Eclogues, the distillation of decades only ten pages each. enty-fifth birthday, he was presented of thought, published in 1994, the As a teacher, Wendell had a with a volume of essays by friends year following his retirement. His profound impact on two generations and former students. Appropriately, last published work, completed in of Harvard Classics students, both this Festschrift is, by the gargantuan collaboration with a former stu- undergraduate and graduate. Many standards too often typical of the dent, James E. G. Zetzel of Co- of the graduate students he trained genre, a conspicuously lean volume, lumbia University, was an edition have gone on to distinguished ca- twenty papers making up a mere of a ninth-century commentary on reers as classicists. But his relation- three hundred pages. Persius, the so-called Commentum ship with his students went beyond He is survived by his sister Ilene Cornuti; it appeared in 2004, bring- that of a typical teacher and mentor. Hull; by three sons from his first ing to fruition a project announced He nurtured them with care and marriage, John, Raymond, and almost fifty years previously. supported them staunchly, and they Thomas; by a stepson, Edward One of Wendell’s great strengths reciprocated with a deep and stead- Woodman; a stepdaughter, Jane as an interpreter was his ability to fast devotion. In the words of one Woodman; and by five grandchil- integrate the most exacting philo- of those students, David Kubiak, dren. logical scholarship with a finely “Wendell was to me everything I In his first year at Harvard, Wen- tuned literary sensibility. The two ever admired or ever hoped to be in dell and Steele Commager taught skills did not merely coexist, but my life as a classicist.” a course in Catullus and Horace. A were mutually reinforcing, the Only a few of the many awards student taking the course was asked lungo studio informing and illumi- and honors he received can be men- by a friend what Professor Clausen nating the grande amore. To speak tioned here. In 1952-1953 he was a was teaching, and he replied: “Ele- of love in this context is no exag- fellow of the American Academy in gance.” Elegance was indeed at the geration, since for Wendell poetry Rome, and in 1963 he was elected heart of everything Wendell taught, was far more than the object of his a fellow of the American Academy and it is a lesson that his work con- professional study; it was a lifelong of Arts and Sciences (in a cohort tinues to teach, to all those who care passion and a source of delight and that also included James Acker- about the poetry of Rome. sustenance. To hear him recite from man, Morton Bloomfield, and Noam one of his favorite Latin or English Chomsky). In 1982 he held the poets, with great feeling and often Sather Lectureship at Berkeley, and Reprinted, with permission and mi- from memory, was a deeply mov- in 1994 his contribution to Virgil- nor revisions, from the obituary by ing experience. The qualities he ian studies was recognized with the Richard Tarrant which appeared on admired in the poets he interpret- award of the Premio Internazionale November 2, 2006, in the Harvard ed—learning, concision, exquisite Virgilio by the Accademia Nazio- University Gazette.

OCTOBER 12, 2006

11 MARGARET WILLIAMS CLAUSEN

vard Square to hang out in the 5 and member of the Ward 8 Democratic 10. Two of them played hooky from Committee. school one day and were caught. Word went around in the late The principal was so charmed that 1960s that the chairman of the such a perfectly behaved girl was Classics Department was looking so bold that she intervened with our for an administrative assistant. irate mother and Margaret got off Margaret had been introduced to relatively easily. Wendell only once, I think, but Margaret graduated from Concord with a little prodding she was Academy and went on to Radcliffe persuaded to at least go down and College at a time when the emergen- talk with him about the opening. cies of wartime brought about the You know most of the rest. In the first small fissures in Harvard sov- last year of their lives she went ereignty, allowing Radcliffe women every day to the nursing home ’m Margaret’s sister, and I want to join Harvard men in some of the to sit with Wendell while she to tell you a little bit about Mar- classrooms. Margaret was one of a watched him slip away from her. garet before she met Wendell. handful of women who first sang in She was at his right side strok- IMargaret and I have been part the choir of Memorial Church. She ing his arm as he died. Jane and of the Harvard community since was the president of the Radcliffe Ned sat on either side of her, each birth. Our father was a professor of Choral Society in her senior year, holding a hand as she died. These Economics and the first dean of the and graduated in an accelerated have been hard months for all the Littauer School, now the Kennedy program in 1946 with a magna in Clausens and Woodmans, and I School. Our mother was involved Economics. She considered those feel as if half of me is missing. in the faculty wives association for Radcliffe years among the best of Margaret was from the begin- most of her adult life. We grew up her life. She felt the excitement of ning smart, witty, stubborn, loyal, on Coolidge Hill, less than half a powerful intellectual potential. and profoundly solitary. With mile from 8 Kenway Street, where In the first years of her marriage to time she only grew more so. As Margaret lived for forty-four years, Charlie Woodman she got a master’s a couple Wendell and Margaret thirty-six of them with Wendell. She degree at Cornell University. When spent much of their time alone went to Shady Hill School, where that marriage ended she came back together reading, he in a low, she made fast friendships, three or from Virginia to Cambridge with her narrow, comfortably worn lounge four of which still flourished at the children, Ned and Jane, six and four chair, she swamped in a large club time of her death. She was always years old. For fourteen years she chair next to him. Occasionally a good student and a good girl, but was a single working mother at a one would interrupt the other to she had her secret side, and her time when such realities were hardly read a passage or make a com- anecdotes of childhood are full of acknowledged, much less accepted. ment. You could see the backs of forbidden journeys with a chum or This was the period when she devel- their heads through the window as two across Mt. Auburn Street to oped a passion for fly-fishing, black you came up the walkway. When some haven on Huron Avenue for a fishnet stockings, detective stories, Margaret died, there was a ragged smoke, or sneaking down to Har- and local politics, serving as a copy of Frank O’Connor stories

SEPTEMBER 6, 1924 - NOVEMBER 6, 2006

12 MARGARET AND WENDELL

on the passenger seat of the car, a Wendell suddenly asked, “It isn’t gloomy and chilly Cambridge eve- Trollope tucked in the seat cushion stolen, is it, David?” I assured him ning, a place where one felt always of her chair. On the table beside that it wasn’t. The lamp delighted warmly welcome and secure. her was a volume of First World all. It now graces an exhibition case Finally, in my mind’s eye, War poetry. Upstairs on the table at in the Roman gallery of the Sackler Wendell and Margaret appear walk- Wendell’s side of the bed, Jane and Museum. ing in lively step around the streets I found a photograph of Margaret at I remember vividly Margaret and of Rome and Palermo in September the back of a stack of Henry James Wendell’s daily presence for lunch 1984; sunning in deck chairs aboard paperbacks. It was taken in 1970. at the Harvard Faculty Club. Rain the ship “Illiria” in the waters be- She’s sideways to the camera, her or shine, no matter what the season tween Italy, Sicily, and Tunisia; and blonde hair straight and long and (except for summers, when they standing with me in the theater at pulled back behind her ears, so that were at their home in Vermont), Taormina, and walking around the her patrician profile is fully exposed. they were there, radiating a kind of Punic harbor of Carthage. Wendell’s She’s looking out over a field and I serene warmth in each other’s com- vividly stimulating lectures to the assume it was taken at their summer pany and sharing warm greetings Harvard alumni on that trip, present- place in Vermont. On the back Wen- with many friends. In particular, I ing everything from the poetry and dell has written in his spidery hand: remember one day when Wendell contexts of Virgil and Catullus to the “My Beloved wife not long after our asked John Finley what he was works of Pirandello and Lampedusa, Marriage. Passionate and Generous, doing. John replied, “I’m being ir- are still unforgettable. Now these Elegant in Body and Mind.” responsible; I’m reading Polybius!” memories help to console me for There is an emptiness in the main their absences. I shall always cher- Jane Williams dining room, now that they are no ish their friendship and always miss longer there. But I still expect to see them. them coming through the door. hen I think of Margaret Then, I think of Wendell and David Mitten, Harvard University and Wendell, it is hard to Margaret seated in the comfort- accept that they are gone able chairs of the living room at Wand that all of us have only a profu- their Cambridge home on Kenway sion of rich memories to assuage our Street. Margaret fixing the drinks, grief at their absence. then warm, relaxing conversations On a bitter, icy day in January with them, ranging from “shop talk” 1969, Wendell, then chairman of to reminiscences about colleagues Classics, and I made our way gin- and former students to matters of gerly over the ice to a Department literature and human values. The lunch at the Signet Society, carrying Clausens so often invited graduate a precious burden: a large, elaborate, and undergraduate students to their and perfectly preserved terra-cotta home for introductions to visiting lamp decorated with gladiatorial classicists, such as Otto Skutsch. equipment that we had just pur- The intimate setting they provided chased for the McDaniel Collection. seemed like an oasis on many a

A MARRIAGE

13 WENDELL AND MARGARET CLAUSEN

first became acquainted with friendship and of their shared love early evenings in the sitting room on Wendell at second hand, of Virgil. Kenway Street exchanging gossip, nearly forty years ago, long Soon after I began teaching at reflections, and, above all, laughter. Ibefore I came to know him as a Harvard, Wendell and I found Wendell in his professorial persona colleague. As a graduate student at ourselves at a student-faculty lunch could be formidable, conveying a Oxford, I often heard my supervisor, discussing course assignments for depth of disapproval with a barely Roger Mynors, speak warmly of this the coming year. I had said I would visible flicker of an eyebrow. (It American Latinist who had made be willing to take over the course was only after witnessing Wendell’s such a strong impression with his on Latin elegy, a course that Wen- eyebrow in operation that I prop- editions of Persius and Juvenal. That dell had been accustomed to teach. erly appreciated Horace’s phrase indirect connection continued after He expressed pleasure and relief, about Jupiter controlling everything I moved to Toronto. Roger would then added, “I don’t really think I with his eyebrow, cuncta supercilio come over once a year to work on have an elegiac soul.” I recall the mouentis.) But in Margaret’s com- the Toronto edition of Erasmus, and episode for two reasons. One is pany he was relaxed and mellow; it would then go on to Cambridge to that it hints at Wendell’s belief that was a joy to see him laugh heartily spend a weekend with Wendell and interpreting Latin poetry was not in response to one of her drily ironic Margaret, during which he and Wen- merely a matter of intellect or schol- observations: his shoulders would dell would discuss questions relating arly technique, but that it called heave and his whole frame would to their ongoing commentaries on for one’s best capacities of heart shake in glee. It is sad that they have Virgil, Wendell on the Eclogues and and soul, and that it could in turn both left us, but there may be com- Roger on the Georgics. Many years deepen those capacities of feeling. fort in the thought that these two later I heard Wendell recall one of The sense that Wendell was putting souls, truly concordes animae, were those visits. On this particular oc- the very best of himself into under- separated for only a short time and casion Roger had expressed interest standing the poets he admired helps are now, once again, together. in seeing the Arnold Arboretum. to account for the profound impact I would like to close with a few Wendell, not wishing to admit that his classes and seminars made on lines of Latin poetry. I would not he had never visited the place, drove those fortunate to attend them. dare to suggest that they would have off and promptly landed them in the Wendell was a discriminating been unfamiliar to Wendell, but they wilds of Roxbury. Finally reach- critic, and in his remark about his do come from a writer outside his ing the Arboretum, they amused supposed lack of an elegiac soul I usual orbit, the fifteenth-century themselves by testing Roger’s thought I heard a subtext, that the poet-scholar Giovanni Gioviano knowledge of its many varieties of elegists, for all their merits, did not Pontano. In the final poem of his trees. Wendell said, “He was almost quite measure up to his exacting collection entitled Baiae, Pontano always right, but a couple of times standards. Wendell firmly believed includes a prayer to be spoken for he made a mistake; then he would that there was more than enough himself and his wife after their say, ‘Of course, certain species bear first-rate poetry and first-rate schol- death. I will read first the recently a remarkable resemblance to other arship to occupy him fully, and saw published English translation by species, especially in this season, no need to spare time for whatever Rodney Dennis, a keen admirer of in this light.’” There is something was less than excellent. He exer- Wendell whose premature death we delightful in this picture of “two cised the same selectivity in the also mourn at this time. superannuated schoolboys” (Wen- students he nurtured and supported; dell’s term) employed in this most his high opinion was not lightly Richard Tarrant, Harvard Univer- aptly Virgilian of activities. It is a bestowed, but once granted it was sity source of even greater pleasure that not lightly lost. their commentaries, published at My memories of Wendell and last, remain as a document of their Margaret are convivial ones, of

14 GIOVANNI GIOVIANO PONTANO

To His Hendecasyllables

Hail, hendecasyllables, and hail, You who entice me into love affairs. Hail, of my old age best companions, Pleasures of the country, of the baths. 5 We’ve had enough of playing and of jokes. Our pleasant cleverness desires an end And certain terminus to all this laughter. And you boys, whenever you should read My trifles, tender Thalia’s wit, 10 Pray for some quiet for my ashes: “May the earth be light, may violets and roses Ever bloom by your eternal urn, And in Elysium may your dearest wife Accompany you in an endless dance, 15 Moistly sprinkling ambrosian liquors.” Let bitterness be absent from your loving. Let everything be sweetness. Thus in loving You’ll while away the night-times and the day-times With Pleasure at your side as your companion.

—Translated by Rodney G. Dennis

Ad Hendecasyllabos

Havete, hendecasyllabi, meorum, havete, illecebrae ducesque amorum, havete, o comites meae senectae, ruris delitiae atque balnearum. 5 Sit lusum satis et satis iocatum: et finem lepidi sales requirunt, est certus quoque terminus cachinnis. Ergo qui, iuvenes, meas legetis nugas, qui tenerae iocos Thaliae, 10 optetis cineri meo quietem: “Sit tellus levis et perenni in urna non unquam violae rosaeque desint, tecumque Elisiis beata campis uxor perpetuas agat choreas 15 et sparsim ambrosii irrigent liquores.” Sic vobis in amore nil amarum, nil insit nisi dulce; sic amando et noctes pariter diesque agatis, assistat lateri et comes Voluptas.

15 WENDELL AND MARGARET CLAUSEN

y memories of Wendell is not a poet of high genius.” That his own ongoing conversation with Clausen start in New York was that, and whether or not it was the text.” City, at the American true, it was based on a learning and Conversation was what mattered PhilologicalM Association in Decem- power of observation and discrimi- to Wendell, and my strongest mem- ber 1976, when I met Wendell two nation that were considerable. Wen- ories are of long conversations when weeks short of thirty years ago. It dell also knew and loved English Joan and I would visit Wendell may be the last time he was there, and American poetry, and he shared and Margaret on Kenway Street, since he did not like New York, or that love with others. I well remem- and particularly at their beloved Paris, or London (only somewhat). ber an amoebean exchange taking Vermont summer home, to which Rome was a different matter, but turns to do by heart stretches of Wendell had affixed a favorite Hora- his tastes generally were for the Milton’s Lycidas, and at his retire- tian line: laudaturque domus, longos more simple and unpretentious. We ment speech he paraphrased a letter quae prospicit agros: “praise for therefore met for coffee not in the of Coleridge, “Literature has been a house that looks far out over the elegant café of the Waldorf Astoria, my choice. And I am amazed at my fields”—as Wendell and Margaret’s but across the street in a “Choc Full good fortune, and thankful.” house did. The days were spent in o’ Nuts,” state of the art in pre-Star- Wendell Clausen was above all reading, or walking, an occasional bucks days. We talked about Virgil, a teacher, and he was passionately drive, that is, after breakfast at I think, but mostly we just talked, in- devoted to students who came to which Margaret evoked the fa- timately from the very beginning, as hear what he had to say. Of others mous raised eyebrow as she tuned Wendell did with those, young, old, his judgments could be harsh. When in to French pop music coming in and in between, with whom he felt the Department narrowly voted to across Lake Memphramagog. The an affinity. That affinity was based confer a cum laude degree on an conversation would go late into the on an intensely connected human- idle student (as Wendell judged), night, to quote from the Eclogues he ism, on shared affection for poetry, he asked his colleagues, “Is this loved so much: saepe ego longos | poetic language, and the sensibility what we choose to honor?” But his cantando puerum memini me con- to which poetry, classical and other, judgments were generally benign dere soles. Talk would be of Virgil, is connected. and endowed with the same sense of and the Classics, of politics and the In his writing and his teaching, humanity he brought to everything world outside, of things large, but Wendell’s contact with the poets else. I was not myself a student of also things small, the day-lily count, Catullus and Virgil in particular was Wendell’s, although my teacher the water-level in the pond where precise and linguistically informed, David Ross was, which once led a Margaret swam each day, whether and those of us whom he touched senior colleague to offer, without Farmer Kilburn would get the learned why that precision mat- complete charity, I thought, “So second mowing done before the rain tered. It mattered not just for the you are Wendell’s grandchild.” I came. It was those small things that scholar whose job it was to recover will therefore let a student, Sylvia mattered to Wendell, and I consider the dynamics of Roman poetry, to Parsons, speak for him, she now a myself lucky to have been a part of demonstrate how it worked and how young scholar herself: “He was one his and Margaret’s world, for a fine it was put together; it also mattered of the true humanists. I remember world it was. I thought I would end because, once comprehended, its him in class and in office hours with a poem that captures what it aesthetic beauty became a guide sitting in a sort of sibylline half- means to have worked together now for life. Wendell had strong liter- darkness, speaking very slowly that we are apart. This, too, written ary views, and he was not afraid to and deliberately, as though every north of Boston. express them. I remember one fall thought had undergone a long, when, on his return from Vermont Virgilian distillation. He didn’t so Richard Thomas, Harvard Univer- where he had reread Statius’ The- much lecture as let the students in sity baid, Wendell informed me, “Statius the room eavesdrop on a portion of

16 TUFTS OF FLOWERS by ROBERT FROST

I went to turn the grass once after one Who mowed it in the dew before the sun. The dew was gone that made his blade so keen Before I came to view the leveled scene. I looked for him behind an isle of trees; I listened for his whetstone on the breeze. But he had gone his way, the grass all mown, And I must be, as he had been,—alone, “As all must be,” I said within my heart, 10 “Whether they work together or apart.” But as I said it, swift there passed me by On noiseless wing a ’wildered butterfly, Seeking with memories grown dim o’er night Some resting flower of yesterday’s delight. And once I marked his flight go round and round, As where some flower lay withering on the ground. And then he flew as far as eye could see, And then on tremulous wing came back to me. I thought of questions that have no reply, 20 And would have turned to toss the grass to dry; But he turned first, and led my eye to look At a tall tuft of flowers beside a brook, A leaping tongue of bloom the scythe had spared Beside a reedy brook the scythe had bared. I left my place to know them by their name, Finding them butterfly weed when I came. The mower in the dew had loved them thus, By leaving them to flourish, not for us, Nor yet to draw one thought of ours to him. 30 But from sheer morning gladness at the brim. The butterfly and I had lit upon, Nevertheless, a message from the dawn, That made me hear the wakening birds around, And hear his long scythe whispering to the ground, And feel a spirit kindred to my own; So that henceforth I worked no more alone; But glad with him, I worked as with his aid, And weary, sought at noon with him the shade; And dreaming, as it were, held brotherly speech 40 With one whose thought I had not hoped to reach. “Men work together,” I told him from the heart, “Whether they work together or apart.”

17 RODNEY GOVE DENNIS

graduated from Putney School in the acquisition of the Little Brown 1948. He attended Yale University archive, and he converted from for two years. Then, after one year deposits to gifts both the papers of in a bookstore (where he tackled Houghton Mifflin and the journals a book thief fleeing down Fifth of Ralph Waldo Emerson. Avenue) and another in the army, His marriage to Akeeyah ended he entered the Manhattan School of in 1964. His friend David Lattimore Music and there took a bachelor’s writes that at around that time, “He degree in Viola and a master’s in renewed contact with the formi- Musicology. He then moved to dable Norwood Hinkle, musical Germany with his first wife, Joan luminary of the Putney School, and (Akeeyah) Browne, and their young under his influence resumed the son to pursue a doctoral program viola, playing chamber music in in Music History at the University groups of accomplished amateurs. of Frankfurt. His special study was In 1966 he married an old Putney the music of the Provençal trouba- friend, Christie Poindexter. Together dours. While there he worked for the they did much volunteer work with Central Intelligence Agency. After the homeless and addicted.” Most returning from Germany he was recently they spent time with their employed at Harvard’s Houghton son Simon in Louisiana to help re- odney Gove Dennis, who Library as a cataloguer and rose build after Katrina. died on October 12, 2006, rapidly to become in 1965 the cura- Rodney was a student for twenty- after a short illness, wrote tor of manuscripts in the Harvard six years of Michael Zaretsky of the Rpoetry and made music while cu- College Library, a position he held Boston Symphony Orchestra. They rating manuscripts at Harvard’s until his retirement in 1991. would meet every Thursday morn- Houghton Library. In his retire- As curator he oversaw such he- ing at 8:30 to play and talk. Rodney ment he reconnected with the study roic cataloging projects as Trotsky’s also played in groups. Professor of Latin, using his poetic skills to exile correspondence (which opened Lewis Lockwood of Harvard writes: translate the works of Catullus, to the public in 1980) and the ar- “Especially memorable was our Tibullus, and the Renaissance Latin chives of the Republic of Georgia playing together in a string quartet, poet Giovanni Pontano. His life was (on deposit at Houghton in 1975), for many years, with Martha Kim like a diamond, brilliant and many- and he created records for the huge as first violinist and with the late faceted. collection of manuscripts from all Adrienne Galimir Krasner, wife of The Reverend Peter Gomes writes: periods and of all kinds in the Philip Louis Krasner and sister of Felix “He wore his considerable learn- Hofer deposit (1960s) and bequest Galimir. We played regularly in that ing lightly, and with a ready wit, (late 1980s). Among collections group and, on occasion, in other and his capacity for friendship and Rodney brought to the Harvard chamber music groups.” conversation across the ages was College Library were papers of With Elizabeth A. Falsey, Rodney enormous. He was also a man of poets Robert Lowell, John Ashbery, edited The Marks in the Fields, faith whose theological erudition William Empson, Pedro Salinas, Essays on the Uses of Manuscript. helped enliven many a discussion. I Jorge Guillen; authors John Updike, In this publication they chose thirty- will miss him in many places and in Harold Brodkey, John Cheever, five Houghton Library manuscripts many ways.” Victoria O’Campo; musicians to illustrate various scholarly Rodney (it would be unnatural to Rudolph Kolish and Louis Krasner, principles and methods, and com- refer to him as Mr. Dennis) was born as well as twentieth-century com- missioned scholars to write them in New York City in 1930, attended posers in the Hans Moldenhauer up. The result was published on the the Allen Stevenson School, and collection. He was instrumental in occasion of the opening of an ex-

18 NOVEMBER 13, 1931 - OCTOBER 12, 2006 hibition of them and a symposium Harvard. Beginning in 1985 and St. Scholastica Priory in Petersham, and dinner in his honor. Ms. Falsey through 1992 he offered, with Roger met Rodney in 1988 in search of writes: “Pleasure and pride in the E. Stoddard, Medieval Studies 105, some medieval manuscripts. She catalogue work, fascination with the the production of manuscripts and writes: “His generosity at that first expressiveness of the objects, and printed books before 1600. Mr. meeting, his boundless well of appreciation of the team of people Stoddard writes: “He was a natural knowledge and lively joy in shar- immediately around him—the en- on account of his early and exten- ing it, in learning and teaching, ergy and creativity of his partnership sive readings of English poetry, his continued through the years of our with Roger Stoddard is especially research under German masters, his friendship. His early academic work legendary—gave him work he loved wide-ranging Kulturgeschichte: he had been in medieval music, and every day until he retired at the end seemed to know just everything!” he wanted to learn to sing the Latin of 1991.” After retirement he was a student psalms with their Gregorian tones. Rodney also edited Poemata in the Harvard Classics Department For a while the manuscript depart- Humanistica Decem, translations and was one of the founders and ment resounded with his strong of Neo-Latin poets with the Latin the poetry editor of the journal singing voice: ‘Gloria Patri et Filio facing. “The translators,” he wrote Persephone. This publication, now NO DAMMIT!’ He later attended in his introduction, “classicists, in its twelfth year, offers the general Vespers at our monastery with his poets, librarians, and amateurs, were reader prose, poetry, translation, and wife Christie, and was bowled over chosen with a strict rigor not un- artwork relevant to the Classics. by the liturgy: our processing in, mixed with the power of affection.” David Ferry, poet, transla- small though our chapel was, and Among them were John Updike, tor, and frequent contributor to especially particular small phrases David Ferry, Mason Hammond, and Persephone, writes: “When he was of chant which had been the basis himself. alive Rodney Dennis was about of his doctoral studies in early po- Rodney’s translation of the poems twice as alive as everybody else. lyphony so many years ago. It was entitled Baiae by the foremost (in It’s said that when he was cura- experiencing the liturgy that he his opinion) Renaissance Latin tor of manuscripts at Harvard his had studied and actually lived that poet, Giovanni Gioviano Pontano, ‘special fields’ were Medieval made such a deep impression on was published in 2006 in the I Tatti Paleography and Codicology. Well, him, and was one of the factors in Renaissance Library by the Harvard yes, but his special fields were his subsequent conversion to the University Press. His translation of also his poems, as in his wonder- Catholic Church a few years later. Catullus was published in a collec- ful book of poems Carolyn, and his After he retired from Houghton, tor’s edition by the Thornwillow translations (Catullus and Tibullus Rodney came out to give our mon- Press; the trade edition is due to be and Pontano), his love of language, astery a talk on one of the Latin published by David R. Godine in English, German, Latin, and of the poets, Catullus. He fretted, ‘Do you December of 2007. He also trans- way human life keeps getting kept think the material is too racy for the lated from the medieval Latin “The alive by poems, whether his own or community?’ ‘If anyone can pull it Epistle of Secrets” (circa 1487), the those of the others he translated. His off, you can.’ And he did. It was so earliest text of the Christian kab- love of music was like this, too. And successful that a reading course was balah. Rodney’s translation of the his most special field was his amaz- set up for some community mem- poems of Tibullus has yet to be pub- ing charm, which came from his bers. He generously gave of his time lished. His books of poetry include love of pleasure, and his pleasure and knowledge; every couple of Domestic Poems (1991), Five Old was to love and admire, and some- weeks we worked through the works Poems, 1960-1963 (1991), Carolyn: times tenderly make fun of, the life of several Latin writers. Recent Poems (1996), and City Limits in other people.” scheduling conflicts postponed our (2001). In the early nineties Rodney con- finishing Horace’s last Ode. To our Rodney held a teaching appoint- verted to Catholicism. Sister Mary great sadness, it will remain unfin- ment in the English Department at Frances, a Benedictine nun of the ished.”

19 RODNEY GOVE DENNIS

There was something Roman odney and I were Classics am writing this from the Bay about Rodney’s relationship with students at Harvard in the nine- of Naples, about five miles Harvard Square. Returning to ties. We read Cicero’s orations away from Baiae, the setting Cambridge from the AA meeting, he Rwith Christopher Mackay, Catullus Ifor Pontano’s poetical collection of would attend Mass at St. Paul’s, and and Virgil’s Aeneid with Richard the same name. walk from there to the Greenhouse Thomas, Neronian literature with Yesterday morning I lit a candle Coffee House for breakfast, then to Richard Tarrant, the letters of Cicero in Rodney’s memory in the tem- Widener for work, to Bartley’s or and Pliny with Carolyn Higbie, and pietto on via del Proconsolo built Grafton Street for lunch on his own the Odes of Horace with Alessandro by Pontano to commemorate his Barchiesi. Rodney was particularly or with an old friend, then back to wife Ariane, and which eventually good at connecting with our fellow Widener, and then on to Starbucks contained his own remains. Pontano students, one or two generations on Mass. Avenue to chat with a himself wrote an inscription there in younger, and his comradeship made all waitress he had befriended. In all the difference to me. As a single old the classical manner to visitors who these places he had friends who geezer in a class of twenty-year-olds, might visit the place in the future. could count on his returning. I would have felt a bit of a freak. Two The inscription reminds the visi- He was president of the Club old geezers were more like a circus. tor that the tomb contains only the of Odd Volumes, and the Signet For both of us this was a return to our body but that the true self, the soul, Associates, and a member of youthful studies (and an opportunity is with God. It also bids the visitor the Grolier Club, the Century to lift our grade-point average from to keep Pontano’s memory green. Association, and of the Tavern Club rather low levels). We rediscovered a I thought of the literary fates that and Harvard Shop Club. world both old and new. linked Giovanni Gioviano Pontano He is survived by one half- When Gregory Nagy called on us to with another Catholic poet who also brother, Charles Dennis; by his wife take on a project for the Department, enjoyed life, friendship, and classi- Christie; by Rodney Strong (“Sam”) we suggested a journal of the Classics cal poetry, our dear Rodney Dennis Dennis of West Roxbury and Sarah for the general reader. So Persephone of Cambridge, Massachusetts. Rod- Dennis of Cambridge, children by was born. The idea was mine, but ney’s translation of Pontano is the his first marriage; by Simon Dennis, Rodney’s was the spark without volume of the I Tatti Renaissance a son by his second marriage; by which it would not have started or Library I take down most often from two stepsons, Dr. John Lafleur and kept going. He wanted to name the the shelf to read for pure pleasure. Nicholas Lafleur; and by one grand- magazine Camilla, after the Volscian It seems to me that Rodney had “bellatrix” in the Aeneid, who “came daughter, Alexandra Dennis, already forged the perfect voice to represent above the rest leading her troop of an accomplished violinist. the charm and ease of Pontano’s cavalry and squadrons flowering hendecasyllabics, by turns grave bronze” and, with a “woman’s love” of Reprinted, with permission and the beautiful armor and clothing of her and merry, and that this voice was minor revisions, from the obituary foe, pursued him recklessly (incauta) also somehow his own. I had looked by John Cobb which appeared on to her death. Unfortunately, less imagi- forward to many years of friend- October 26, 2006, in the Harvard native heads prevailed. ship and collaboration with Rodney University Gazette. After our late-life college experi- on Pontano and other Renaissance ence, I went on to teach Greek, and Latin poets, but the fates willed Rodney to translate Latin poetry. With otherwise. Goodbye, dear Rodney, our wives we spent four months in dis manibus sis sacer. Rome wandering the streets and learn- ing some Italian, Rodney much more James Hankins, Harvard University than the rest of us. This was a high and editor of the I Tatti Renaissance point in our lives. Library, in which Rodney published his translation of Giovanni Gio- John Cobb, Harvard University viano Pontano’s Baiae

20 REMEMBRANCES

don’t remember when I first Clausen is a bitter pill for those of dents with a taste for unedited texts to met Rodney Dennis. It must us to whom literature and literary try their hand at the unedited materi- have been soon after I came to community matter. But through their als in this manuscript. Our collective IHarvard in 1977, when I got to know example, our community keeps on efforts will be published this very Rodney, in the way we get to know going: at genus immortale manet. spring, with a dedication to Rodney and not know those we come into that will have to stand in lieu of spo- contact with at Harvard. Richard Thomas, Harvard University ken words of appreciation. But maybe Rodney was soon revealed to me that is exactly how he would have as one of those people who made liked it—a project that brought people Harvard’s libraries, and therefore he sudden passing of Rodney together around parchment, that led to Harvard itself, the only place a young Dennis cheated me of the print, and that had him as godfather: humanist wanted to be. chance to thank him properly Don Rodney of Houghton. Our passing acquaintance began Tfor all that he contributed to my life. Let me not neglect to stress that the the first of many upward transitions, My engagement with him resulted poems are in Latin. Rodney’s life was again I’m not sure when, but it must from his generosity in reaching out to long and rich, and the part of it with have been some time after I returned involve me in activities in Houghton. which most of us are most familiar, as a senior member in 1987. Rodney First he arranged for me to participate his work, revolved around materials appeared at my office, looked me in in a symposium on Neo-Latin poetry. that he loved so much, he could al- the eye as only he would look you A few years later he involved me in a most not conceive of his job as work. in the eye, and with that character- similar event on the twelfth century. If one thing was lacking, it was the istic enthusiasm that he brought to Just by themselves these two invita- chance to engage contemplatively everything, announced, “I want to tions would have been generous, but with the Classics. And so he retired learn Latin properly.” “Well,” I think the much greater kindness was in how to Latin and Greek, which meant that I replied, “that can be done; why he exposed me to specific objects—in we in the Department of the Classics don’t you take my Extension School one case an early printed book, in could continue to cross paths with course.” And so he did, a few of them, another a twelfth-century manu- him at least occasionally. We were as I recall, and then courses in the script—that formed the starting points much the richer for that intermittent College: Catullus and Horace, Virgil, for the talks that I gave. “Exposed” acquaintance. Thank you, Rodney. Cicero, and others, too. Only later did is a poor choice of word, since such it emerge that Rodney’s initial mo- was Rodney’s fond intimacy with his Jan Ziolkowski, Harvard University tives had to do with singing Gregorian books and manuscripts that when he chants at a priory in Western showed you one of them, he made an Massachusetts. introduction of the sort that is usually he generosity of his spirit was He was a delight to teach: his reserved for human beings. He was a evident in discussions of the enthusiasm was infectious (as the matchmaker. content of Persephone, where undergraduates who shared class with The twelfth-century manuscript This vigorous defense of a poem or a him will attest), he would cheerfully fascinated me enough that I pub- translation often made its attackers but seriously take himself to task if lished an article on it in Harvard see it in a new light. A discerning ear, he made a slip, and he was a friend Library Bulletin—once again owing an intractable sense of humor, and a and guide to his younger classmates. to Rodney—but my study barely mind sensitive to the mysterious ef- Things progressed, and I well remem- scratched the surface. (Rodney, for- fects of language made him an ideal ber his next major speech act, again give me for applying to an object in reader. “I never liked a poem I fully with the same firmness, “I’m translat- a rare books library a metaphor of understood,” he often said, as though ing Catullus.” We know the rest. scratching: I can never resist teas- what exceeded him was also dear and Rodney was a poet, a man who ing.) Rodney would be happy to know familiar. cared about poetry, knew why poetry that I passed on his fondness for this mattered, and who lived in our midst particular object across another gen- Henry Walters, Harvard University as a student, teacher, and friend. That eration, since in the intervening fifteen (’07) and former editor of Persephone he died on the same day as Wendell years I have encouraged graduate stu- (2003-06)

21 RODNEY GOVE DENNIS

allant Fox was a talented It was not only that he gave up accustomed chair. As soon as he and charming racehorse smoking and then drinking—both of saw me, whatever the inner or outer in the thirties whose quirk which he loved—but that he strug- weather, Rodney would always open Gwas to be unpredictably diverted by gled against the consuming demands his arms wide, ready to give a hug. something that caught his interest, of a personal, inward dream. That was Rodney. He was a man of and was known to stop mid-race to Rodney and I recently finished the many parts, and that part embraced follow the trajectory of a bird flying new translation of Don Quixote— them all. overhead. As some of you know, Rodney reading aloud to me—and I taught Rodney to drive—some- he was extraordinarily moved by Christie Dennis thing I perhaps should not admit the ending. In the end, Don Quixote to—which brought us one day to comes home to die, having been the intersection of Brattle Street defeated by the Knight of the White hen Rodney converted and Route 16, with the light turning Moon. To the surprise of all, he says, to Catholicism, he was green and Rodney at the wheel. The “Señores, let me go slowly, for there given the task of aiding jockeying and turning of the cars are no birds in yesterday’s nests. I Wsomeone less fortunate. Carolyn, and the fact that they didn’t collide was mad and now am sane. I was an African-American woman with so amazed Rodney that he forgot Don Quixote of La Mancha and now AIDS, was to become a dear friend he was driving and came more or am Alonso the Good . . .” I don’t for many years to come. Before she less to a halt, to much resonant an- know exactly why this meant so died, Rodney used her name as the noyance. I called him Gallant Fox. much to Rodney. He was often heard title of a booklet of poems, and his He liked that. There is probably no to say that reading Don Quixote was subsequent booklet, City Limits, was one in this sanctuary who has not one of the high points of his life. about his experiences during his been brought to a halt mid-passage I can only guess that the enthusi- time with Carolyn and her friends by Rodney’s arresting interest in a asms, the self-delusions, the gravely and family. When she finally suc- phrase of a poem—something from mistaken quests, the heroic mytholo- cumbed to AIDS, he stayed in touch the vast library of Latin, English, gizing love, the dramatic dressings with her family, helping out when and German literature he carried Don Quixote gave the world touched needed. This part of Rodney’s life inside him—that he wanted to com- Rodney—he understood that—and was not charity; it was a time when municate. the poignancy and strength, the ac- he developed important friendships. It sometimes seemed that what ceptance, in Don’s final words—he He considered himself to have Rodney wanted most was to com- understood that, too. narrowly escaped being “self municate his interest in these At 7:10 every morning I would taught,” but his extraordinary ap- things—to be interesting. But my see from my bed the light go on in preciation for the written word, for life with him showed me daily that the next room and I would get up. music, and for European culture what he wanted most was to be a Rodney, returned from his AA meet- gave him the tools he needed to find good man. And what that meant to ing—being retired, he never felt the his niche as curator of manuscripts him was taking on the demons of his need to protect his anonymity, in at Harvard. own nature. He often told me that fact was proud of his membership in It is hard not to admire how fully when setting the table for dinner it the fellowship—reading the Globe he lived his life in his unique way. was a nightly struggle to give me (the Times would come later with the better fork. breakfast), would be sitting in his Rodney (Sam) Dennis

Nota Bene comes out twice a year, in the fall and spring. Send typed submissions to Lenore Parker, Nota Bene Editor, Department of the Classics, 204 Boylston Hall, Cambridge, MA 02138, or [email protected].

22 CATULLUS V

Viuamus, mea Lesbia, atque amemus, rumoresque senum seueriorum omnes unius aestimemus assis! soles occidere et redire possunt; nobis cum semel occidit breuis lux, nox est perpetua una dormienda. da mi basia mille, deinde centum, dein mille altera, dein secunda centum, deinde usque altera mille, deinde centum. dein, cum milia multa fecerimus, conturbabimus illa, ne sciamus, aut ne quis malus inuidere possit, cum tantum sciat esse basiorum.

Let us live, my Lesbia, and let us love, and let us value the mutterings of the earnest elderly at around one nickel. Suns can set then they rise again; our short day sets once and for all, and night consists of one long sleep. Give me a thousand kisses, then a hundred, another thousand, then a second hundred, and another thousand, one more hundred. And, having accumulated so many thousands, let’s jumble them up till we lose count. Then no one else will have any reason to envy us for having kissed so much.

—Translated by Rodney G. Dennis

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