5887. Benjamin Jowett to RB
As published in The Brownings’ Correspondence, 32, 188–189.
[Oxford]
April 1. [1867] [1]
Dear Mr Browning
I have had great pleasure in having your Son with me during the past week– I found that he got on very well with the undergraduates.
I set him to work– Shall I tell you as nearly as I can the result? In Virgil & Horace he appeared to me to be quite up to the standard of matriculation at Balliol & nearly up to the mark in Latin writing: But in Greek he was far behind—in the parts which he has read, of Homer, as well as in the part which he has not read.
It would be a great advantage to him I think to come up to the University & I would advise you by no means to give this up. For he has very good sense & good abilities & may very likely distinguish himself hereafter at Oxford. But I think that I would suggest to you that you should get the Master [2] to put off his Examination until Christmas or at least until October. He will probably make no difficulty; but if he does will you let me know?
I have told your Son what I think that he should do in the next 9 months
Read 12 Books of the Iliad & 12 of the Odyssey & know them
Read 4 Books of Thucydides [3]
3 Books of Livy: [4]
Write an English Essay every week—to translate & retranslate & then learn by heart a few lines of Cicero daily. I would recommend him also to translate a few lines of English into Latin & of Greek & Latin into English daily without a Dictionary– Vivâ voce.
(You will smile at the minuteness of my prescriptions[.]) He tells me that he has a very good Tutor whom he appears to respect. But I think that I should advise you also to let him go to some Oxford man such as Mr Wright [5] (if he would take him) or Mr Shadwell [6] of Ch. Ch for composition once or twice a week. They have probably a good deal more facility in composition than his Tutor; & either of them would be a good energetic sort of companion for him.
He is a very nice fellow & will be found quite able to hold his own when he comes to mix more in the world of young men. When I remember whose Son he is I am very much pleased at having been able in any degree to assist him.
Believe me Dear Mr Browning
Yours very truly
B Jowett
Address: Robert Browning Esqe / 19 Warwick Crescent / Harrow Road / London.
Publication: Gertrude Reese, “Robert Browning and His Son,” PMLA, 61 (September 1946), 789.
Manuscript: Armstrong Browning Library.
1. Year provided by postmark.
2. i.e., Robert Scott.
3. Thucydides (ca. 471–ca. 400 B.C.), Greek historian, known for his incomplete History of the Peloponnesian War in eight books.
4. Livy (Titus Livius), (59 B.C.–17 A.D), whose only work, History of Rome, consists of 142 books, of which 35 survive: 1–10 and 21–45, though parts of 41 and 43–45 are missing.
5. Robert Samuel Wright (1839–1904), judge and jurist, was “one of Benjamin Jowett’s favourite pupils [at Balliol College] (and subsequently his close and lifelong friend) … He gained first classes in classical moderations (1859) and in literæ humaniores (1860). He won university prizes for his Latin verse (1859), English essay (1861), and historical essay (1862)” (ODNB).
6. John Emilius Lancelot Shadwell (1842–1919), barrister, classicist, and political economist, was a senior student at Christ Church College, Oxford, from 1866 to 1887. He and Robert Wright co-edited A Golden Treasury of Ancient Greek Prose (1870).
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