DLS American Journal of Sayers Studies is an annual publication of the American Society of Dorothy L. Sayers Studies Wheaton, Illinois Stanford, California United States of America DLS American Journal of Sayers Studies VOLUME I 2018 Founded in 2015 by Barbara L. Prescott Wheaton, Illinois Stanford, California DLS American Journal of Sayers Studies Barbara L. Prescott Executive Editor Editorial and Advisory Board Catherine Shilka Debate, Theatre, Sacred Plays Nancy Vermette Detective Mysteries of Dorothy L. Sayers Elizabeth Killings Art & Music of the Romantic Era American Society of Dorothy L. Sayers Studies Barbara L. Prescott, President Catherine Shilka, Vice-President Elizabeth Killings, Art Director Geri Schuh, Secretary Warren Prescott, Jr., Web and Data Manager DLS, American Journal of Sayers Studies, ISSN 2577-3046 print; 2577-3054 online, is an annual publication, available each August, of the American Society of Dorothy L. Sayers Studies, an organization of scholars, writers, and enthusiasts who study the works of British mystery novelist, poet, essayist, playwright, translator, and literary critic, Dorothy L. Sayers, and women mystery writers of the early and mid- twentieth century. Membership in ASDLS is free worldwide. The academic journal, DLS, is published by August Book Press, LLC, 125 S. President St., Wheaton, Illinois 60187, and P.O. Box 19334, Stanford, California 94309. For additional information, visit our website: https://americanjournalofsayersstudies.wordpress.com To join the Society or to subscribe to DLS, write to ASDLS Subscriptions Department, August Book Press LLC, 125 S. President Street, Wheaton, Illinois 60187-5733 USA, contact our publisher’s website, https://www.augustbooksinc.com, or contact us by email at [email protected], or contact the editor, Barbara L. Prescott, at [email protected]. Annual print and electronic copies of DLS are available through August Book Press and online at https://americanjournalofsayersstudies.wordpress.com. All Rights Reserved. ©2018 August Book Press. All original articles, derived works, and illustrations in DLS, American Journal of Sayers Studies, are the property of August Book Press, LLC. Reproduction in any manner is prohibited of content, images, or illustrations in DLS. For inquiries regarding fair use, contact Barbara Prescott at [email protected]. Illustrations from The Faces of Change: Twentieth-Century Women @2015 B.L. Prescott, August Book Press LLC. Sketches courtesy Barbara L. Prescott, private collection. Cover Art: Daniela, USA. DLS American Journal of Sayers Studies Volume I 2018 DOROTHY L. SAYERS IN OXFORD Literature, Legend, and Poetry Editorial: Welcome to DLS 11 I. Legend and Reality at Oxford In Aeternum Floreant: A Divergent Introduction to the Oxford World of Dorothy L. Sayers, Part I Editors 15 She’s Very Intelligent, but She’s Too Smart: Dorothy L. Sayers’ Classes at Oxford and Teacher Comments Regarding Her Work Mildred Pope, et. al., annotated by Barbara L. Prescott 29 Snippets from The Fritillary: December 1912 and March 1913 The Fritillary: Editors, Staff, and Contributors 39 God love thee, thou enchanted town: Allegorical Reference to Oxford University through Classical Myth in the Poem, “Alma Mater” by Dorothy L. Sayers Barbara L. Prescott 41 A Chapter from Morte D’Arthur: A Parody E. R., St. Hilda’s Hall, Oxford University 69 Oxford Poetry, 1914: A Prize Review K.W. Horner, Somerville College, Oxford University 71 II. Poems by Somerville Women Dorothy L. Sayers 75 The Fritillary: Matter of Brittany; Mirth Oxford Magazine: Icarus Oxford Poetry: For Phaon; Sympathy OP. I.: Going-Down Play; Last Morning in Oxford Charis Ursula Barnett 81 Oxford Poetry: Translated from Theodore de Banville Muriel St. Clare Byrne 81 The Fritillary: Sublime Mediocrity Aldebaran: Sleight of Hand Oxford Magazine: Of Certain Persons and Places Oxford Poetry: Devachan Dorothy H. Rowe 84 The Fritillary: The Brickseller – A Fable; Variations on an Old Theme Oxford Poetry: Asleep; Morpheus Agnes E. Murray 88 Oxford Poetry: Winter; October III. Artemisia & Fritillaries Mass in B Minor: Kyrie Eleison, Part No. 3, Chorus Johann Sebastian Bach 90 The Bibliophile’s Record: OP. 1. Colleen B. Gilbert, The English Catalogue, Whitaker’s 97 Book Reviews: Mysteries of the Human and Inhuman Catherine Shilka 99 Reviewing a Foreword by Dorothy L. Sayers Barbara L. Prescott 100 Considering The Mysterious English Barbara L. Prescott 101 Recommended Readings 104 Organizations, Institutions, Societies & Resources 105 Articles & Discussions: Online Links 106 Submission Guidelines 107 Acknowledgments 109 The Final Word: War-Time 111 Thou art so magical Thou makest me afraid, Lest some great bolt of desolation fall, And thou in dust be laid With Babylon and Nineveh the tall; Or some enchanted lake will cover thee all, And through quadrangle, cloister, colonnade, Four-coloured fishes swim, and, faint and small, Up through the waves at midnight the bells of Magdalen call. Through midnight waters mighty Tom will call. Or when, perchance, the pall Of some nocturnal shade Unstarred, more dewy-dark than usual, Lifts upon hill and glade, I fear lest sunrise strike upon no wall, No winding street not ghost-white pinnacle-- Only on level woodlands, lonely made Of thee, as once, by arts incredible, The holy castle vanished behind Sir Percival, At morning light was not, for Percival. Lay IV. OP. 1. vii Illustration: Herbert Railton Cathedrals of Great Britain 1902 viii Inscription This first volume of DLS, American Journal of Sayers Studies, 2018, is inscribed to the women students, tutors, instructors, principals, and dons of Oxford University in the early years of the twentieth century. These brilliant women, young and older, found themselves in an academic environment replete with mixed messages regarding their right to partake in advanced intellectual studies based upon prevailing nineteenth-century social norms and standards. With determination and creativity, Oxford women overcame the stale arguments against their right to an advanced education and exposed the errors in judgment of those disapproving academics who held tenaciously to the popular belief of supposed female frailty, physical and intellectual, considered inherent to the female gender. These women academic pioneers at Oxford University were in a curious situation but through their determination and personal resourcefulness eventually opened to all women the previously closed doors of Oxford academia. Brava, Emily Penrose, principal of Somerville College, for insisting that your women students partake in the full academic program even though an official academic degree was denied them. Your foresight eased their path to qualification for the first academic degrees awarded to women in October 1920. Dorothy L. Sayers was in that historic graduating class, having earned two degrees, an undergraduate degree in Mediæval Literature and advanced degree in French Modern Language Studies. Brava, also, Mildred Pope of Somerville, instructor and tutor extraordinaire in Mediæval and Modern English and French Literature, for your expertise and academic guidance to the learning experiences and translations of a young Dorothy L. Sayers. Her literary nod to your academic roles and problem-solving skills at fictional Shrewsbury College in Gaudy Night became another door opened to us regarding women’s resourcefulness in the complex underworld of academia at Oxford University and, by extension, of academia everywhere. Brava, finally, of course, to Dorothy L. Sayers, Muriel St. Clare Byrne, Amphilis Middlemore, Marjorie Barber, Charis Barnett, Muriel Jaeger, Margaret Chubb, Vera Brittain, Winifred Holtby, Christine Blackwell, Dorothy Rowe, Catherine Godfrey, Margaret Kennedy, Katherine Mansfield, Agnes E. Murray, Doreen Wallace, and all the strong female minds and wills of Somerville College in the early twentieth century who caught the academic ball and ran with it to fulfill their own life purposes. They became authors, scholars, social activists, health field pioneers, nurses, playwrights, English teachers, and war correspondents. Through DLS, we acknowledge and celebrate their independence, creativity, vision, and life choices. ix Illustration: Herbert Railton Cathedrals of Great Britain 1902 x Welcome We are delighted that you have come to visit Dorothy L. Sayers in Oxford through DLS, American Journal of Sayers Studies. This 2018 inaugural volume of DLS comes, with celebration, in the year of Dorothy L. Sayers’ one hundred and twenty-fifth birthday, Dorothy having been born in Oxford on June 13, 1893. Within this first volume of DLS, we share an adventure with Dorothy Sayers; that of her three years, 1912-1915, at Somerville College, Oxford University, and several years after when she continued to live in the city of Oxford while working for young Basil Blackwell and his publishing company lately inherited from father Benjamin Henry (Harry) Blackwell. During her Oxford undergraduate student tenure, Dorothy Sayers experienced a world very different from that of her sheltered home life and those of her high school years at Godolphin School. In her “enchanted town” of Oxford, Sayers tried her fledgling writer’s wings, experimenting with varied structures and themes of poetry, very often of a legendary and mythic nature, and later tried her hand at playwriting and short stories. Poetry remained uppermost in her mind and heart at Oxford, culminating in Sayers’ first two books, OP. I. and Catholic Tales and