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Arthur Hugh Clough at Oriel and at University Hall

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 December 2020

G. P. Johari
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Extract

In the few poems that Clough wrote during his student days at Oxford one can see signs of a growing perplexity and anxiety with regard to certain problems of life and religion. This perplexity came to a head during the years that he taught at Oriel, and finally led him to resign his fellowship at that College. This resignation may be said to be the most dramatic and significant action of his life, and the story, told many times by his biographers, can now be told more fully in the light of the unpublished correspondence between him and Dr. Hawkins, the then Provost of Oriel College. Nor has sufficient attention been so far given to the circumstances that led to Clough's subsequent appointment as Principal of University Hall, London, and the manner in which his connection with that institution came to an end. It is proposed in the following pages to throw some light also on this important period of the poet's life.

Type
Research Article
Information
PMLA , Volume 66 , Issue 4 , June 1951 , pp. 405 - 425
Copyright
Copyright © Modern Language Association of America, 1951

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References

Note 1 in page 405 The correspondence between Clough and Dr. Hawkins is still in MS. and is preserved at Oriel College, Oxford. It is referred to in this essay as the Oriel MSS. I wish to record my gratitude to the Librarian and Fellows of Oriel College for permission to examine these documents.

Note 2 in page 405 Oriel MS. F.d. 738, dated 25 Nov. 1845.

Note 3 in page 406 Ibid., F.d. 755. Dr. Hawkins' Notes on Clough's Resignation, dated 18 Oct. 1848: “I reminded him that not very long ago (when he was seeking a Professorship in Ireland, 2 or 3 years ago) he had told me that he should not seek orders, he quite agreed with the Church of England.” See also Poems and Prose Remains, i, 21–22.

Note 4 in page 406 Poems and Prose Remains, I, 89, 90, 92, 94–96.

Note 5 in page 407 Ibid., i, 95, 4, 95–96.

Note 6 in page 407 Ibid., i, 110–111.

Note 7 in page 407 Cf. Adam's words to Eve in Fragments of the Mystery of the Fall, Sc. iv, beginning “God does not speak to human minds In that unmeaning, arbitrary way.”

Note 8 in page 409 Poems and Prose Remains, I, 102 and 103.

Note 9 in page 409 Oriel MS., F.d. 738, dated 25 Nov. 1845.

Note 10 in page 409 Ibid., F.d. 739, dated 26 Nov. 1845, and F.d. 740, dated 29 Sept. 1846: “I do not think it likely that I shall enter orders, and my fellowship will therefore expire, I believe at Easter 1849. As I shall then have to engage of necessity in regular work, I think I ought to take advantage of my remaining three years of comparative independence to do something in the way of reading, which I think will be more valuable than the emolument sacrificed to obtain it.”

Note 11 in page 411 Oriel MS. F.d. 744, dated 11 Jan. 1848; F.d. 745, dated 13 Jan. 1848; F.d. 746, dated 18 Jan. 1848; F.d. 749, received by Dr. Hawkins on 23 Jan. 1848.

Note 12 in page 411 Poems and Prose Remains, I, 117 and 119; Oriel MS. F.d. 753.

Note 13 in page 412 Oriel MS. F.d. 752, dated 11 Oct. 1848; and F.d. 754, dated 12 Oct. 1848.

Note 14 in page 412 MSS. F.d. 755, 756, and 758, dated 18 Oct., 12 Nov., and 15 Nov. 1848, respectively.

Note 16 in page 412 MS. F.d. 755. Cf. also Clough's letter, dated 11 Nov. 1848 (F.d. 757) : “My resolution, I must inform you, remains unaltered—and after being once very slightly shaken has regained altogether its original fixedness.”

Note 16 in page 413 MSS. F.d. 758 and F.d. 759, dated 20 Nov. 1848.

Note 17 in page 413 MSS. F.d. 760, dated 21 Jan. 1849; F.d. 763, dated 28 Feb. 1849; F.d. 761, dated 8 Feb. 1849.

Note 18 in page 413 MS. F.d. 763, dated 28 Feb. 1849.

Note 19 in page 414 The reference is to J. A. Froude's novel, The Nemesis of Faith (1849), which gave expression to the doubts about Christianity troubling young men in those days. It was publicly burnt in Exeter College, whereupon Froude resigned his Tutorship in the College.

Note 20 in page 414 Oriel MS. F.d. 764.

Note 21 in page 414 MSS. F.d. 765, 766, 767.

Note 22 in page 415 Poems and Prose Remains, I, 111.

Note 23 in page 416 Clough's letter to Emerson, dated 26 Nov. 1847, in Lowry and Rusk, Emerson-Clough Letters.

Note 24 in page 416 Poems and Prose Remains, i, 164 (letter to T. Arnold).

Note 25 in page 416 Oriel MS. F.d. 764.

Note 26 in page 416 Poems and Prose Remains, I, 117.

Note 27 in page 417 This is established clearly by two letters of Matthew Arnold, written to Clough in July 1848. See H. F. Lowry, Letters of Matthew Arnold to Clough, pp. 86 and 87.

Note 28 in page 418 Sc. vi. See lines beginning “O Father, view with mercy, and forgive.”

Note 29 in page 420 This account of Clough's tenure at University Hall is based on the unpublished minutes of the University Hall Council for 1848–52, and the unpublished correspondence of H. C. Robinson, both at Dr. Williams' Library, Gordon Square, London. I am grateful to the Trustees of the Library for permission to examine these papers.

Note 30 in page 421 Arthur Hugh Clough, p. 113.

Note 31 in page 422 Henry Crabb Robinson on Books and Their Writers, ed. Edith J. Morley, ii, 692.

Note 32 in page 423 Poems and Prose Remains, I, 164.

Note 33 in page 423 Ibid., pp. 166–167.

Note 34 in page 423 One such printed handbill has been preserved among the papers of University Hall at Dr. Williams' Library.