Year: 2025
Type: article
Abstract: ‘It is never a good time to start a new journal.’1 ‘A learned profession can be presumed to get the technical journals that it deserves.’ This is the opening sentence of F. W. Bateson's somewhat peppery assessment of the Review of English Studies published in the newer rival journal Essays in Criticism in 1956, a piece to which I shall return.2 But I begin with it because it helpfully raises the question of the relation between learned journals and the scholarly communities they are intended to serve. As various areas of enquiry began to become more professionalized in Britain from the late nineteenth century onwards, periodicals were established for the publication of specialized research in their respective fields, thereby helping to create and sustain a sense of disciplinary identity. The Law Quarterly Review was founded in 1884, the English Historical Review in 1886, both the Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society and the Classical Review in 1887, the Economic Journal in 1891, and so on. The foundation of the Modern Languages Quarterly in 1897 was a further example of this pattern, though a slightly complicated one in that it embraced work in all the major European languages, English included. When re-launched as the Modern Language Review in 1905, the journal bore the subtitle ‘A quarterly journal devoted to the study of medieval and modern literature and philology’; in its early issues medieval and philological contributions were prominent, but writing on post-medieval English literature also found a place, with the first number, for example, containing pieces by W. W. Greg on Lyly and A. C. Bradley on Shelley. English was not, as is often assumed, a particularly late developer among the disciplines. Its institutional establishment had small beginnings in the first half of the nineteenth century, which then expanded to have a place in most universities’ offerings by the late nineteenth century, becoming a thriving professional community by the early years of the twentieth.3 The publication in 1921 of the report of a Department of Education committee on ‘The Teaching of English in England’ (commonly referred to as ‘the Newbolt Report’ after the chair of the committee, Sir Henry Newbolt) confirmed and promoted the status of the discipline, albeit that the Report dealt more extensively with school rather than university education. But although a good deal of specialized research had been published in article form during the previous few decades—especially in American journals founded as part of the accelerated process of academic professionalization in that country in the 1880s and 1890s—such contributions were scattered across a wide range of publications. It may, therefore, be helpful briefly to consider the options facing a scholar of English literature in Britain in the early 1920s when it came to placing a piece of detailed scholarly research. A number of the great Victorian cultural periodicals were still going, if perhaps not going strong, and they did occasionally accept some of the more readable items, especially those dealing with popular authors such as Scott and Austen. Newer or more fashionable literary-cultural journals, such as the New Age or (from 1922) T. S. Eliot's Criterion tended to spurn material they regarded as too narrowly academic. By contrast, there were journals of a more antiquarian or bibliographical turn, such as Notes and Queries or The Library, edited at this stage of its long life by A. W. Pollard. And for some of the more heavy-duty items in philology or medieval studies there were, in addition to US-based journals such as the Journal of English and Germanic Philology, Modern Philology, or the Philological Quarterly, several Continental European journals that accepted articles in English. But the main UK-based journal carrying the fruits of English literary scholarship was still the Modern Language Review, the English section of which was edited by G. C. Moore Smith, Professor of English Language and Literature at the University of Sheffield. MLR could not be accused of denying scholars of English literature adequate access to its pages—the issue for April 1922, for example, carried a review by Greg of the first volume of the Cambridge Shakespeare edited by Sir Arthur Quiller Couch and John Dover Wilson, a review that ran to 17 pages (Greg, as we shall see, did not find that brevity came to him naturally when critically reviewing new editions). Nonetheless, there was a growing sense that the umbrella of ‘modern languages’, which may have worked well enough in the late nineteenth century when research across these languages could be united by common philological interests, was now becoming obstructive rather than protective of the energies of the expanding field of English studies. More than one scheme had been mooted for a journal devoted exclusively to English studies, but nothing came of these ventures until, in late 1923, R. B. McKerrow took the lead. McKerrow was not primarily an academic (although he had done some lecturing at King's College, London): after getting a Second at Cambridge in the old Medieval and Modern Language Tripos in 1897, specializing in English and French, he spent three years teaching in Tokyo, followed by several years back in London as an assistant editor at the Gentleman's Magazine, before becoming a Director of the newly formed publishing house of Sidgwick and Jackson in 1908. When R. C. Jackson, the junior partner, was killed in the war in 1917, McKerrow took his place and remained as one of the joint managing Directors until Sidgwick's death in 1939.4 But McKerrow was by inclination a private scholar, above all an editor and bibliographer of Elizabethan literature. His edition of the works of Thomas Nashe, which appeared in five volumes between 1904 and 1910, was described, perhaps with pardonable indulgence on the part of his obituarist, as ‘the finest specimen of the editing of an English author that has yet been produced, a pattern of how scholarly work should be planned, performed, and completed’.5 Like other distinguished private scholars of his generation, McKerrow received several tokens of academic recognition, including a DLitt from Cambridge, followed by election as Sandars Reader in Bibliography at that university in 1928 and as a Fellow of the British Academy in 1932. It is worth noting that several of the scholars in the forefront of the austerely professional, sometimes technical, work contained in early numbers of RES did not hold academic posts. For example, W. W. Greg had a private income from inheriting the largest share-holding in The Economist; E. K. Chambers worked as a civil servant at the Board of Education, rising to be Second Secretary; A. W. Pollard worked for 40 years (1883–1924) in the Printed Books department of the British Museum (as well as serving as editor of The Library 1904–1934); and McKerrow, as we have seen, was a managing director in a publishing house. Such amphibians did not become an entirely extinct species in subsequent generations, but they were never again to exercise such significant influence over a discipline that was becoming more and more closely identified with university departments. It can be hard to determine whether new journals are more often supply-driven rather than demand-driven. The former is notoriously true of small poetry magazines, for instance, where the number of subscribers rarely seems to exceed the number of contributors. Something similar may be true of certain learned journals, where the desire or need to publish can seem to be stronger than any free-standing desire or need to learn about the researches of others. But that slightly reductive description may under-state the genuine wish for communication with others working in the same or cognate fields that may exist in any given period. The initial responses of those invited to be members of the Advisory Board suggested that English scholars of more than one type saw merit in there being a venue where the fruits of the scholarly endeavours of a growing profession could be brought together.6 One potential obstacle was immediately removed when Moore Smith wrote to say that there would be no objection on behalf of the English section of MLR. He had been conscious for some time of ‘the inadequacy of the MLR to meet the demands made on it & properly to represent English studies’, mainly because ‘there is such an abundance of good matter crying to be published’.7 The impressive editorial board was soon assembled (A. C. Bradley characteristically tried to excuse himself on grounds of ‘diminishing’ powers, but was persuaded to relent; he was as an for the new A by McKerrow with from E. K. was with the of the journal in late The of the new was in this ‘It is intended that the of the Review shall be devoted to research in all of the modern as well as and it is that it may become the for the of and the publication of the of McKerrow was as the new a he for years until his death in more than any other to the of the new The first number by published late in though on the it would be to that it long been about its The that the opening number referred back to the of the new that its that the would be devoted to research in all of its could be as an on new of it now although RES would new and in they may it also no to such a to in the of their time and of to place in their true relation to the that we This was intended to a and though to it may still seem that to research as ‘the of literary had somewhat the still perhaps to about the which such be The other of this opening editorial was its on the need for it in English studies. good work had been done in the it but scholars worked in of sometimes to the of The sense of a but somewhat scholarly field is in these an of the of scholarly in the previous A further of this rising disciplinary came with that there was a need for to be in has from of the journal also to such of especially for the of RES was to be no exercise a venue for if it was to be rather austerely professional, the of the growing in the early of the This was in early with pieces were on the grounds that they were too popular for For example, to the author of a on and the McKerrow that he had found the piece For the of the Review I that it is a too in It I have no be by those literary journals that to the and in of the demands of of the I have to this mainly for the of article more exclusively to research find a place in a its early the Review to be in that it McKerrow made to new writing to and professional in Britain and that the new was the scholarly journal in the field published in to an of with the American he have a good of the university and more than in and I we shall get the but few seem to a which may to the more professionalized and of the discipline in the at this to members of the English and about a I this is not so but there are not more than about in which is not half the of the first a in the was a about to in the to say we are too and are to more for I that we may be to to for the Review The of the publication was in ‘It be that the should its by the of or we shall have to which I be a As we now the did more than if for years subsequent issues did not to the of the first The opening article in that issue was R. W. Chambers on research on the is an but this by had his W. as Professor of English at three years the It is an at and of the by a number of other scholars about the and of the the work of G. C. university in English at Cambridge until his death in as well as more articles by the American scholar published in and Modern Language Chambers at as a of the in and English as that of the scholars other his article was a professional to a field of study which had been by of scholarly it to of place in the new journal on grounds of its and scholarly still more did it represent the established status of English studies as a discipline at this contrast, the article was ‘The of journals to have one or in their first number to and the years for example, T. S. had to some to that the first number of the Criterion contained an article by an of English scholarship at that though a of the new of the journal was intended to years when a new of the could a more to a when he that some could be with all his now has similar was at work with to of as the new again a piece that was of with the of the from the long of his chair at one of the of the by this for his and with the range of English This article was as a at University on the of and although it to be had not such pieces of as the ‘The be in and to this than but I a few of and so on. the piece is not an but an in the a piece of author to his that they most of the of English poetry by and were of the that he on but one from on in have to over a good deal of and may be a over the is we are he has had his and his in such is to be a good As are on and they are an to he still can say to when all and all have For all its the was of the of the years before of with the of scholarship that had to academic English studies by the It had no in More was E. K. article which a of on further in he had published his study The Elizabethan years of scholarly was the section and which contained several some a or in or some new that had to or a in the great of literary This section was followed by one that the scholarly the journal was founded to and the the of new works of scholarship to the in the first issue to the no than pages of Sir of Sir Elizabethan came to an number of Greg this when in the number he was to pages to a learned work on in at the of which the for not the in more that all of A further of professional was by a section devoted to the of that had appeared in other periodicals during the previous by at University sometimes a sentence or of to the of the I have this section as are journals devoted to such as of learned such as Notes and Queries or the Quarterly other professional journals, including from the such as Modern Language Review or journals with a philological if a somewhat more such as Modern Philology, Philological Quarterly, or Studies in but also the old cultural periodicals such as the or the and an that academic scholarship was at did not wish to from literary The publication which most these (as they were was the one from which by the largest number of items was the have not to the material of including and publishing issues of RES and to the in some to of would be of an the on the back a being to works also published by Sidgwick and Jackson and By the had to in this but then seems to have back by the and the back to the of Sidgwick and One more on the of the back the to be of to of this such were their a good deal about the of English studies at this One or had a somewhat such as The English and The Modern but most were more narrowly learned such as The The English and the English or in other such as The Society and The Shakespeare or more were by The Society for English. we from other that the of the members of most of these were not at this university of as so often in did not in with the issues this was by the major research in The sense of the scholarly community was A number of contributions to the early issues were by American as were a significant of the more to the modern was the to especially scholarship on English and with of works and of items from a range of periodicals in and took to for such a of literature and a to When McKerrow an editorial the number to on the new he began by noting the that the Advisory Board contained no American He was to that this no of the of American scholarship in the that the Board had been assembled to him with editorial on contributions in various His to a was more The is that too a of the in the Review is devoted to is but the Elizabethan and especially to the of that period. this I but the of the material that I can the wish for more articles or for more dealing with the late and early nineteenth to articles the is that of the work is to the philological may be though for is by few of a to articles dealing with the is of The is that there seems to be research in any than the or was or from of works than from those the Elizabethan and this is in of the work still being done on The Review is rather as work of this the one we not to philology but on the other I becoming more and more that the great of subscribers are in literary and any but the most or articles in seems a that the more technical philological articles are more in place in periodicals or the Modern Language Review, and as I should to a such as this I that I more particularly as this is of the of a to one which has appeared in in Literature and suggested that were not the articles published in the first three dealt with literature than the most modern pieces being on and were no articles on the The items as and were all the of scholarship that had in common with there was nothing on literature after the for publishing the journal from the of Sidgwick and Jackson to University the century the major academic an of scholarly journals, but it is to be that this was not the before the Second to the of ‘The journals of the late nineteenth and early had been published by or by learned The of before the century was it would seem that for an scholarly to in journals was regarded as a and the same that ‘the was late on the as a of The between and RES therefore, as one of the more of this R. edited RES from to the previous from to be Professor at College, he to to ‘the of academic It is to of a of during his though this may have in the example, the first volume for which he was such pieces as of the of and C. on and in for of which could be in the journal in the was in the in the and its could be if in in the pages of were small of the in which the was if were to be carried with for instance, Sir and English by ‘It is to than to and should be as a to of the in More of the and of the journal was A. W. review of E. K. English Literature at the of the where we such ‘The description of the of English on be slightly in the of the review in The Sir he made a of American for helping to the journal in during the war one of the in which English studies was becoming an that his suggested that editing the journal had been an though his may for those have this in other and his John Professor at at he that as editor of the have him at for the of the the and of and the of with of it is hard to whether this was an of one of the of and cultural still of scholars of English literature or a on that were a a new began in the of the it the old items such as the review of Henry by as Professor at both the of the in and the of given to modern as a of was perhaps by review of The But the of the journal in the of English studies was the in of Essays in The of the new journal by F. W. not an but also a to publishing primarily rather than an that with the in English studies in the himself an of RES (from which opening is He that it of but its on often of literary is is about that is so to the He It is the of literary life that is so to of scholarship that the century has from the nineteenth which we to But it be The scholar not be and by the of his journals as a of in the but how they and the to which they a is by several disciplinary or journals of to learned one of others begin with a some in Studies in the a of in Victorian RES in been to any work in English studies has been an of its and from the editorial one can that certain were in contributions to literary were with that inclination could be when the years as John in of and were to the for a before over to B. with of a than but he made a similar of how he had been scholars in the and the as well as by in of was by the that the first number to the new joint should a long review by the Greg of a new edition of a a review containing such as is a in the on if somewhat to such was one of the in the of the journal its first three The issue for was the to the of the I the of most of these scholars from work on the of the discipline, I was immediately by a certain common and so I to some the of which is that I found the of the at this to be members were in their and the field at the this to though it is hard to whether this was to a or to the of an of on the part of the the life of journals is there is no one for the or of in any but scholarly journals have that for at a range of of publication that were with RES in its early certain seem immediately For example, journals and on the and of a naturally tended to have a Eliot's Criterion and may seem to this to be scholarly was of a both in being a though in the for one and in being a cultural journal a learned scholarly But in all these did not a of in 1923, as an of John literary a but it was distinguished more by the new and poetry it published than by and had a and somewhat The of Modern founded in the same as a of but could not a say that more academic journals never because they are more to begin with and because the profession is of from academic is material at until The of in the of the century a the of such journals, by the of by the of New academic journals old may but they rarely I shall not this the those still a in by scholarly and But I say that a of the issues in a journal that has that between being to new a identity. The as to not but I would that this of I shall to as ‘the first years of no to that it not to sustain this its
Source: The Review of English Studies
DOI: 10.1093/res/hgaf078
Author: Stefan Collini
Institution: University of Cambridge
Language: English
Subfield: History and Philosophy of Science
Field: Arts and Humanities
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: bronze
OpenAlex ID: W4416823355
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