Q’s Revisions

The New Oxford Book of English Verse edited by Sir Arthur Quiller-Couch. Oxford Press. $3.00

Q used to come late to his class in Aristotle’s Poetics which met once a week in the evening across from St. John’s. It was the only official meeting in Cambridge at which one was allowed the liberty of abandoning formal dress. The dozen students waited expectantly in the large room at one end of which burned a great fire in the old English fireplace which went up to the ceiling. At a pleasant lateness Q’s man would appear, a dutiful vanguard in butler’s togs, holding aloft a silver tray bearing port and cigars. He would place his burden on a long rectangular table which dominated the room. About ten paces behind would come Q, in a sort of toddle, mellow from dinner, dressed in evening clothes. He suffused a certain geniality. He was amiable, old, a bit crotchety, but obviously a man of telling charm. “Good evening, gentlemen,” and he would wave his pupils to the silver altar. They would help themselves, or be served, while Q was fussing about getting ready to sit down, his back to the fire, at the head of the long table. Then in the most leisurely fashion, he would begin talking about the Poetics. It is notable that he only discussed one paragraph during each weekly meeting; it is unforgettable that his digressions constituted the main part of the discourse, these beginning soon, and usually straying far from Aristotle—in fact, the course was an ambulatory one in Q’s diverting personality. That was a decade ago. I am told the course is still given.