As has become customary, Fr. Peter Milward, the internationally renowned Shakespeare scholar, has shared his comments on the contents of the latest issue. As one who knew Tolkien, his comments on our previous issue, which was on the theme of “The Catholic World of J. R. R. Tolkien”, were especially welcome. Since Fr. Milward also knew C. S. Lewis personally and corresponded with him, his comments on the new issue on “C. S. Lewis & Friends” are equally valuable. 

Comments on StAR XVI 5, Sept/Oct 2016

CS Lewis & Friends

 

p.1 In addition to Lewis and Tolkien, I knew many of the Inklings personally, especially Fr Gervase Mathew, Dr Havard (our house doctor), as well as my tutor Colin Hardie (of Magdalen) who is sadly unmentioned.

 

p.5 Professor Wrenn recommended Tolkien as the one man of genius in the School of English, pointedly dismissing Lewis as of less account.

 

p.6 It was when I came to read Lewis’ English Literature of the Sixteenth Centuryafter my arrival in Japan that I realized how much it was weighted on the Protestant as against the Catholic side, even to the extent of misnaming the great Catholic apologist Thomas Harding as John Harding.

 

p.7 The words in brackets, “(Shakespeare is another matter entirely)” are significant of Lewis’ tendency to steer clear of that enigmatic dramatist.

 

p.9 The words, “The secular art world has not been exactly open to reconciliation”, put it mildly.

 

p.14 To call Gervase “an extraordinary man” is also putting it mildly. I remember his sermons at the Catholic chaplaincy next-door to Campion Hall, when he would wave his arms around to emphasize a point, in contrast to the more sober sermons given by the Jesuits.

 

p.15 His claim to be “the last mediaeval Catholic” seems to echo Lewis’ claim to be the last representative of “Old Western Man”, but both claims were wildly exaggerated.

 

p.16 The “poem” written by Tolkien might well have been more precisely termed a “clerihew”, the form invented by Chesterton’s school friend, Edmund Clerihew Bentley.

 

p.19 It isn’t just “purportedly” but established fact that not a few of Lewis’ friends, not least Tolkien, (as also mentioned on p.35) were strongly opposed to the way this  American divorcee all but threw herself at Lewis.

 

p.25 Mention might have been made of the well-known admission made by Tolkien to my Jesuit friend Robert Murray that his Catholic faith is behind everything in The Lord of the Rings.

 

p.27 It is interesting that the word “paparazzi”, which came to the fore in connection with Princess Diana’s tragic death in Paris, was coined by Fellini.

 

p.30 I strongly commend Benedict Kiely’s preference of “England” over “Britain”, not to mention the “UK” (which for me isn’t OK). “Britain” came to the fore with the original “Brexit” of Henry VIII in 1534 by way of justifying his departure from Christendom (very different from the present EU), whereas “England” was the country with its roots in the good old Middle Ages. I, too, was all in favor of the recent “Brexit” and the so-called “little Englanders”, according to the principle that “Small is beautiful.” I also wonder if by “the Shire” Tolkien had in mind his county of Warwickshire, especially that part which used to be covered by the Forest of Arden. I also find it interesting to note Lewis’ preference of dogs over cats, as of the publican over the Pharisee.

 

p.36 Mustn’t filia be spelt philia (as on p.20)?

 

p.38 There was just such a school in Norfolk which my father used to visit as a school agent.