I was gratified to receive a note from the venerable Father Peter Milward, best known to the world for his pioneering Shakespeare studies, his correspondence with C. S. Lewis, and his musings on the poetry of Hopkins. Father Milward’s note was a response to the preview of the forthcoming issue of the St. Austin Review that I posted on Monday. I announced that the issue’s theme will be “Science and Orthodoxy: The Legacy of Fr. Stanley L Jaki”, prompting Father Milward to reminisce about his own meeting with Father Jaki and their shared passion for the Catholic Shakespeare.

Here’s the text of Father Milward’s note:

I, too, once met the great Father Jaki at Princeton University.  He came to meet me at the station and drove me round the university in the pouring rain.  He had no idea that I would have preferred to discuss his ideas on Shakespeare before a blazing fire than to see his university.  For he was, among other interests, a great Shakespearian and an ardent advocate of his Catholicism.  Not that he ever published a book of his own on Shakespeare the Papist, but he republished J.H. De Groot’s seminal work on The Shakespeares and the Old Faith (1946).  He was a unique case of a combination of scientist and humanist, a follower of both Shakespeare and Galileo.  Another good friend of mine was also an admirer of Father Jaki, Dr Peter Hodgson of Corpus Christi College, Oxford, a well known Catholic physicist and member of the Pontifical Academy of Science.  And Peter was also a great admirer of Duhem.  With my best wishes,  Peter SJ