Professor Robinson Ellis

286 THE CLASSICAL REVIEW

OBITUARY

PROFESSOR ROBINSON ELLIS. THE death of Robinson Ellis has re- three of the best MSS. were discovered moved a great scholar from the world by the editor himself. The riddles of and a great figure from the life of mythological and historical allusion Oxford. He was seventy-nine years which constitute the greater part of the old, and had for a long time been in poem provided just the most suitable frail health. It was twenty years since material for Ellis's enormous knowledge his election as Professor; thirty since of recondite literature as well as for his his appointment as Reader in Latin; curious ingenuity. and probably all the Oxford Latinists Ellis cared, of course, for literature. of the present day are in different He wrote well in English and beauti- degrees his pupils. When the present fully in Latin. His metrical version writer was an undergraduate the two of Catullus, though hardly successful, volumes of Ellis's Catullus were the has in it a touch of real poetry. But great models of high and severe learn- as material to work upon he seems ing in the eyes of the average candidate actually to have rather avoided great for Honour Moderations; his Ibis stood literature. He liked the rare rather even higher, a thing more lifted above than the good. His object was not the criticism and stationed in a more rare- desire to elucidate a great writer, but fied atmosphere. rather the artist's delight in working The critical text of Catullus was pub- at difficult material. He liked fixing lished in 1867; the commentary eleven a reading, puzzling out a difficulty; years later; the Ibis in 1881, when Ellis whether the result was of much value was forty-seven. He produced much or not did not seem to trouble him. work of very high quality afterwards : There is something of the same indif- Avianus in 1887, Orientius in 1888, the ference to practical results in his Nodes Manilianae in 1891, Velhius method of annotation. Unlike Munro Paterculus in 1898, the Aetna in 190T— or Wilamowitz, who always try either a particularly skilful and accomplished to solve their problem or to say nothing, performance—and the Appendix Ver- Ellis enjoyed learning for its own sake. giliana and the Elegiae in Maecenatem He would often write a long note which as late as 1907. His work, as is natural led to no definite result, provided it in a man of learning, makes its im- gave scope for real erudition and in- pression partly by its sheer mass and genuity. In the same spirit he was variety; he roamed through the re- always impatient of those over-practical motest corners of Roman literature, scholars who liked to base a text on the and everywhere his knowledge was one best MS., rejecting as useless all thorough and his touch sure. But if the rest. An instinct told him they one had to select a single volume to were wrong, and he always rejoiced illustrate his finest qualities that volume when he discovered a good reading in would probably be the edition of the a MS. of late date or low reputation. Ibis. The Catullus, with all its erudi- He was not characteristically a scien- tion, its delicate scholarship and its tific scholar. He had no power of almost inspired emendations, contained going straight to the heart of a subject one great critical flaw. Ellis had under- by a bold hypothesis which he then estimated the importance of the Oxford followed consistently. His arguments MS. which he had himself discovered, were often not very clear or effective. and a very inferior scholar, Baehrens, One felt in his work no great command- did not fail to drive the error home. ing force of intellect. One felt only But the edition of the Ibis is almost that he knew Latin wonderfully, under- as good as such a book could be. The stood it, and loved it; that his instinct text was signally improved, and two or was apt to be a safer guide than another

Downloaded from https://www.cambridge.org/core. IP address: 170.106.202.8, on 25 Sep 2021 at 06:58:34, subject to the Cambridge Core terms of use, available at https://www.cambridge.org/core/terms. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0009840X00006326 THE CLASSICAL REVIEW 287 man's well-documented reasoning. As so much the food I mind; it is the Professor Phillimore has well said, Ellis company.' He lived almost entirely was essentially an artist. for a particular kind of rare intellectual Oxford is full of stories of his quaint activity, and you came away from a sayings, his oddities, and his weak- conversation with him feeling that in- nesses. That was the outer surface. tellectual work, recognised or unrecog- But people who knew him well could nised, was the thing to live for. feel beneath the surface a power of And he had his reward. Pupils will inspiration and a singleminded sim- not forget his Latin Verse class. The plicity which amounted to greatness. physical languor, the weak, poring eyes, He never questioned the high import- the slight lameness, the slow and ance of classical scholarship; he was tedious utterance with which he dic- never shaken by any touch of worldli- tated his fair copies; and then the ness or of mere practicality. I re- verses themselves, so elegant, so dash- member his speaking of an emendation ing and rakish, and so beautifully alive: made by the present Bishop of Oxford verily quales Catullus vel Calvus. And in the text of Orientius, and lamenting there must be many men who will that ' Gore had thrown himself away.' cherish throughout life the memory He was quite sincere. He cared for of Ellis's kindness to them as under- the emendation of Orientius more than graduates, a patient and absolutely for the management of any diocese. simple friendliness which made its He was remarkably abstemious, almost particular mark even in a University ascetic, a little solitary. His answer where friendliness between teacher and to an invitation to dinner is justly taught is a universal tradition. famous: 'No, my dear ; it is not G. M.

CORRESPONDENCE

To the Editors of THE CLASSICAL REVIEW. enough mosaic,' is now declared to be 'little better than euphonious rubbish' unless we con- HORATIAN EXPOSITION; A RE- nect it with Murena," etc., I rubbed my eyes, JOINDER. because I knew I had written no such thing. Its ingenious implication that I must miss the SIR,—When my Student's Edition of the beauty, and consider the ode as rubbish, is Odes of Horace, Books I-III., was published, worthy of Mr. Skimpin himself (vide The Trial you printed a lengthy review of it over the Scene, Pickwick Papers). What I do say is signature of Mr. T. E. Page. It was hostile, as that Munro came very close to condemning the of course it had its right to be : it was scornful ode as bad poetry, that, as generally construed, as regards my views, but contained a kindly with an absurd ' Horace' stuck above the odd- reference of a personal character; such matters numbered verses, it is little better than euphoni- would claim no special remark: it represented ous rubbish, as Mr. Munro has shown, but that inaccurately certain things found in my book ; the right conclusion is not that the ode is bad, this I resented, but I said nothing, thinking it but that the eye of the critic is out of focus well to wait and see how my work impressed a (p. 13). This is in the Introduction, and is an few competent readers whom I knew it would argument that Horace personally is not the interest. Three years have now passed, and I spokesman, and is quite independent of any have grounds for stating that some of the leaven possible association with Murena. Your re- which I in particular have added to the lump of viewer should have done me the justice to Horatian commentary is working—slowly no recognise this : instead he turns to a note on doubt, but I am not impatient. I have not the name Calais (p. 250) and incorporates into written either for money or kudos, but simply his condemnatory sentences other suggestions— from interest in an important and surprisingly expressly guarded by me as tentative only—and fruitful inquiry. treats entirely different points as if they were I must ask you now to let me show how your necessarily connected, and as if I had so pre- review misrepresented me. When I read its sented them in argument. paragraph beginning thus :—" The Doneegratus I fail to see what purpose criticism of this eram, which Munro sneered at as 'a neat sort can serve. It conveys an incorrect im-