University of Calgary PRISM: University of Calgary's Digital Repository Graduate Studies Legacy Theses 1999 Louis Macneice: apprentice and critic of horace Devlin, Sean Thomas Devlin, S. T. (1999). Louis Macneice: apprentice and critic of horace (Unpublished master's thesis). University of Calgary, Calgary, AB. doi:10.11575/PRISM/16051 http://hdl.handle.net/1880/25455 master thesis University of Calgary graduate students retain copyright ownership and moral rights for their thesis. You may use this material in any way that is permitted by the Copyright Act or through licensing that has been assigned to the document. For uses that are not allowable under copyright legislation or licensing, you are required to seek permission. Downloaded from PRISM: https://prism.ucalgary.ca THE UNIVERSITY OF CALGARY Louis MacNeice : Apprentice and Critic of Horace Sean Devlin A THESIS SUBMITTED TO THE FACULTY OF GRADUATE STUDIES M PARTIAL FULFILMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR TKE DEGREE OF MASTER OF ARTS DEPARTMENT OF GREEK, LATIN AND ANCIENT HISTORY CALGARY, ALBERTA AUGUST, 1999 @ Sean Devlin 1999 National Library Bibliotheque nationale )*Iof Canada du Canada Acquisitions and Acquisitions et Bibliographic Services selvices bibliogaphiques 395 Wellington Street 395, rue Wellington Ottawa ON K1 A ON4 Ottawa ON K1 A ON4 Canada Canada Your lYe Votre reference Our rYo Norre rehrence The author has granted a non- L'auteur a accorde une licence non exclusive licence allowing the exclusive pennettant i la National Library of Canada to Bibliotheque nationale du Canada de reproduce, loan, distribute or sell reproduire, prgter, distribuer ou copies of hsthesis in microform, vendre des copies de cette these sous paper or electronic formats. la fome de microficheffilm, de reproduction sur papier ou sur format electronique. The author retains ownership of the L'auteur conserve la propriete du copyright in this thesis. Neither the droit d'auteur qui protege cette these. thesis nor substantial extracts &om it Ni la these ni des extraits substantiels may be printed or otherwise de celle-ci ne doivent &re imprimes reproduced without the author' s ou autrement reproduits sans son permission. autorisation. ABSTRACT This study examines Horace's influence on Louis MacNeice, which has been neglected so far in the scholarship on one of the most important English-language poets of the twentieth century. MacNeice wrote much literary criticism involving Horace throughout his career, made some verse translations of the Roman poet's Odes, and wrote several original poems inspired by Horace. Horace's influence is important for a full understanding of MacNeice's poetry, particularly in terms of technique, approach, and subjects. Moreover, MacNeice's literary criticism and translations of Horace prefigure recent scholarly perceptions in these areas, and his 'Horatian' poems often shed new light on the poems by which they were influenced. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to thank all the members of the Department of Greek, Latin and Ancient History at the University of Calgary who have overseen my education in Classics, particularly Dr. John Humphrey, whose help and encouragement has enabled me to get this far; Mr. James Hume, who first introduced me to Latin poetry when I was an undergraduate, and let me teach a couple of Latin classes on Horace this past year; Dr. Robert Schmiel, who first introduced me to classical comparative poetry and nurtured my interest in comparing classical and Englsh poetry; and, most of all, Dr. Martin Cropp, who willingly took on this unconventional thesis and lent me his guidance, criticism, and honing skills at all phases of it. I would fbrther like to express my gratitude to Dr. Cropp for the model he provided : his vast knowledge of and appreciation for many different literatures has been inspiring. I am also grateful to my family and friends, especially my mother, who has helped me as a person for so many years and in so many ways that I am unable to thank her enough; and my colleagues Colin Munro and Rebekah Whiteley, who have aided me in consuming alcohol and conversation. NOTE ON THE TEXT All quotations fiom Horace's poems follow F. Klingner, ed., Q. Horatius Flaccus : Opera, 3d edn. (Leipzig, 1959), and all quotations %om MacNeice's poems follow E.R. Dodds, ed., The Collected Poems of Louis MacNeice &ondon, 1966; pdedn. 1979, with correction of misprints). It is expected that the reader will have a copy of the latter at hand while reading this thesis. The English translations of Horace in my text have been chosen for their literal accuracy. In some cases, fairly literal verse translations have been supplied, but most translations are literal prose translations based on those in The Loeb Classical Library, viz., C.E.Bennett for the Odes md Epodes' and H. Rushton Fairclough for the Satires, EpistIes, and A rs poetica. CHAPTER 1 : INTRODUCTION A. Horace ard MacNeict! The Roman poet Quintus Horatius Flaccus or Horace (65-8 B.C.),and the Irish poet Louis MacNeice (1907-63) were separated in time by some two thousand years and lived in differing lands and climates as well as within differing social, political, and economic structures. The two nevertheless have much in common due to Horace's influence upon MacNeice's poetry and criticism. The recipient of a classical education in England at Sherborne and Marlborough College, MacNeice earned a classical scholarship to Merton College, Oxford, taking First Class Honours in both 'Moderations' and 'Greats'. He then became a lecturer in classics at Birmingham University and, later, at Bedford College, London. In 1940 he quit teaching to become a feature writer and producer for the British Broadcasting Corporation. but never lost his affection for the classics, particularly Horace. Indeed. this study will attempt to prove that Horace's poetic craft and content had a profound impact upon how MacNeice developed as a poet and critic throughout his life. In addition, MacNeice's 'Horatian' poetry and criticism can often shed new light on its mentor and inspirer, Horace himself. MacNeice began reading Horace at an early age. A letter iiome dated July 26, 192 1 (during his last session of junior school at Sherbome), relates that at a school prize- giving he 'got a Horace.' In a letter home of the next year (at Marlborough) he writes : we have just got 100 Best Latin Poems in the Class Vth. They consist mostly of Horace. Today we are doing three about political matters.' And in 1938, remembering the writers who shaped his poetic development in his student days, MacNeice wrote that as a boy I liked the glitter of Horace - 0 fons Bandusiae splendidior vitro - and admired his tidiness, realizing that English with its articles and lack of inflexions could hardly ever equal Horace either in concentration or in subtlety of word- order.' This study will devote a chapter to each of three different areas where the relationship between Horace and MacNeice is most perceptible, i.e., Chapter 2 : MacNeice's literary criticism involving Horace; Chapter 3 : MacNeice's translations of Horace; and Chapter 4 : MacNeice 's own 'Horatian' poetry. Chapter 2. on literary criticism, will explore critical perceptions on Horace fiom ancient times until MacNeice's coming of age in the 1930s. dealing primarily with MacNeice's 'dialectic of opposites' (a remedy for earlier scholars' confirsion over the seemingly irreconcilable two-sidedness of Horace's persona and the apparent formlessness of his poems), and with Horace's originality (which MacNeice affirms but most earlier scholars had denied). I Quotcd in W.T. McKinnon, .-lpoilo '.s Rlmnde J Dreant :.4 Stuck ffthe Poet? ($Louis ,Ilrrc,Veice ( 197 1 ). 77. ' Jfodern Poeq :.4 Personal Essa-v ( 1938.2"' ed, 1968). 19. It is interesting that MacNeice has here chosen the first Line of Horace Odes 3.13 from which to quote. since this is the very poem which AY. Campbell's firace :.-I Sew Interpretahon (published in 1924. while MacNeice was still at Marlborough) singled out as unsuccessful. fatally-flawed. even disgusting and brutal. and one of the chief instances of why moderns cannot easily admire Horace. As I shall show later. MacNeice was often at odds with his forebears and contemporaries regarding the appreciation of Horace. As for 'glitter'. the classid scholar E.R Dodds. who had hired MacNeice at Birmingham notes in his autobiography. -tlissrng Persons ( 1977). 1 18, that MacNeice 'was a mrur who took a sensuous &light in the appearances of the world the glittering swfaces of things'. Moreover. for his volume of petr~.The Earth Compels ( 193 8). MacNeice had chosen as an epigraph lines 193-94 fiom Euripides' Flippo!vtus : which Jon Stallworthy translates as : 'We are all manSestly all obsessively in love with this thing that glitters on the earh ' MacNeice's criticism involving Horace is not to be found in any single article, review, or book devoted to Horace, however. It must instead be gleaned fiom various incidental remarks made by MacNeice in articles and book reviews on other subjects but this is made easier by the fact that a substantial portion of MacNeice7sarticles and book reviews are included in two volumes edited by Alan Heuser : Selaed Li~eraryCriticism of Loiris Mdeicr ( 1987) and Selected Prose of Lotis MucNeicr (1 990). MacNeice also wrote three full length critical studies which are often useful, viz., Mdern Poetry :A Prrso~~aiEssay ( 193 8), Tht. Poetry of K B. Yents ( 194 1), and C'arierirs of Porable ( 1965, published posthumously). Chapter 3, on MacNeice's translations of Horace, will first examine MacNeice's general theories on translation and then examine the three of his translations of Horatian odes which were included by his literary executor E.R. Dodds in The C'ollrcted Poems of Lorris MacNeice ( 1966) : Odes 1.4,2.3, and I.