Item 11b - Letter from D. Nichol Smith to W. W. Greg

1 folded sheet

86 Banbury Road, Oxford.—Declines to join the advisory panel, but expresses his support. Objects to a passage in the prospectus contrasting English and German scholarship.

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Transcript

86 Banbury Road,
Merton College, Oxford {1}
6 Jan. 1924.

Dear Greg,

I fear I mustn’t. The invitation has pleased me greatly. But in view of the number of my odd jobs here, and above all of my obligations to the Press—all of which eat up too much of my time for my own work—I dare not take on any new responsibility. I cannot promise to give the Review the active support of contributing to it, and I doubt if in any capacity I should be likely to do enough to justify the presence of my name on the panel. Of course I am all in favour of the Review, & I mean to push it here, and of course I am prepared—should you ask me—to offer my opinion now and then for what it may be worth. But I shan’t be playing fair if I appear to promise more.

May I even now as a token of my good will offer an opinion on the first sentence of the prospectus? It would be much improved if it stopped at the word ‘country’. The reference to Germany is unfortunate. I for one do not feel it ‘something of a disgrace’ that we have not had an Anglia and an Englische Studien. All the vital, productive movements in English scholarship during my time have started in this country, and have been carried on most efficiently in this country. What has Germany given us since 1900, or 1890? Why is it a disgrace not to have had the German machinery if our output is better than what Germany has given us with her vaunted equipment? I am afraid that the writer of the sentence whoever he was (I am sure it wasn’t you) was unconsciously administering to the further swelling of the German head, and indulging quite unnecessarily, and perhaps inopportunely, in the English pastime of self-abasement.

My best wishes for the New Year.

Yours sincerely
D. Nichol Smith.

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{1} This printed address presumably ought to have been struck through.

Sent to McKerrow with MCKW A3/11a.