Erecting ‘the shrine of science and literature within the precincts of the sanctuary’: the teaching of English literature at King’s, 1829-1840

Agnieszka Serdynska is a PhD student at the Department of English Language & Literature

King’s College London was the second higher education institution in England to include English literature in its curriculum, over half a century before the subject gained academic legitimacy through admission to the ancient universities of Oxford and Cambridge. This article will provide an overview of the early stages of the teaching of English literature at King’s and show in what ways it reflected the College’s founding principles through the work of F. D. Maurice, who occupied the Professorship of English Literature and History in the years 1840-1853.

King’s College London was founded in 1829 in direct response to the establishment of University College London (then known as University of London) three years prior. To understand the emergence of these two institutions in such rapid succession, it’s necessary to consider the broader context of higher education in England in the first decades of the nineteenth century. Up until 1826, when University of London was founded, there were only two higher education institutions in England: Oxford and Cambridge, and both were Anglican strongholds. At Oxford, students were required to subscribe to the Thirty-nine Articles of the Church of England at matriculation and again upon graduating, which effectively barred non-Anglicans from entering the University. The rules at Cambridge were only slightly less restrictive: though there were no faith-based entry requirements, students had to pledge their allegiance to the Church at graduation, which meant that while non-Anglicans were able to pursue their studies there, they could not be awarded a formal qualification. The University of London was conceived of as a secular alternative that would provide higher education to students of all faiths. It also excluded theological instruction from the syllabus on the grounds that it was impossible to ‘unite the principles of free admission to persons of all religious denominations with any plan of theological instruction of any form or religious discipline’.¹

The groundbreaking secular model proposed by the University of London sparked a debate on the place of religion in education that led to the founding of King’s College in 1828.² In emphatic opposition to the ‘godless College of Gower Street’, King’s was established as a Christian institution closely allied with the Established Church. King’s commitment to Christian principles was evident not just in the inclusion of ‘religion and morals’ in the prescribed course of education.³ The Christian spirit also informed the College’s educational philosophy. As Charles James, Lord Bishop of London urged in a sermon on ‘The duty of combining religious instruction with intellectual culture’ preached at the College’s opening in 1831, no subject which [education] embraces, should be considered as wholly unconnected with [religion], and independent of, the moral government of God; nor any feature of its discipline be inconsistent with the character and duties of man, as the object of a divine revelation’.⁴

The inclusion of ‘English literature and composition’ in the general course of education illustrates this point as it arose out of King’s opposition to the utilitarian spirit governing the University of London. As Alan Bacon argues, the founders of King’s saw vernacular literature as a more accessible way of realising the humanising potential that the study of the Classics would have traditionally provided.⁵ In this way, King’s can be said to have espoused a Romantic understanding of literature as capable of offering profound moral insight and granting access to ‘a deeper truth’.⁶ No teacher articulated this belief more strongly or comprehensively than the Rev. F. D. Maurice. Before considering his approach in more detail, however, it’s worth sketching a brief account of the uncertain beginnings of English literature at King’s.

Though the Council intended to appoint a Professor of English Literature from the start, this was delayed until 1835. There are two possible explanations for why the Professorship remained vacant for so long. F. J. C. Hearnshaw speculates that this decision may have been motivated by financial considerations, while Franklin E. Court suggests the College may have been putting it off in the hopes of appointing the poet laureate Robert Southey to the post. ⁷ In any case, in the years 1830–35 the teaching of English literature fell to Professor Joseph Anstice, a classical scholar.⁸ The little information we have about the shape the subject took under Anstice can be found in the King’s College Calendar for 1833–34. The course began with lectures on the development of the English language, over the course of which students were also to ‘be made acquainted with the general merits of the principal English authors’ and the historical context in which they lived. The remaining lectures were to focus ‘on select portions of the works of the best English writers, which will be read by and explained to the Class’.⁹

Following the resignation of the ailing Professor Anstice, the Council revived the English Professorship and appointed the Rev. Thomas Dale to the post.¹⁰ Prior to joining King’s, Dale taught English Language and English Literature at the University of London – in fact, he claims the distinction of being the first Professor of English literature in England.¹¹ Though the College Calendars from Dale’s time at King’s offer considerable insight into the specifics of his course, his teaching philosophy is set out most clearly in the Introductory Lecture he gave in 1828, while still at the University of London. In Dale’s view, the study of English language and literature is an essential component of both general and professional education, which share the same fundamental objective: ‘that the student may hereafter occupy a respectable, if not an eminent, position in society’.¹² By familiarizing themselves with the works of accomplished English authors, students learn how ‘to arrange, to combine, and above all, to express [their] own’ ideas according to the best stylistic standards.¹³ Put another way, studying the English language and exemplary pieces of various genres of writing is a way to refine the students’ communication skills. This utilitarian approach is very much in line with the philosophy the University of London embraced. However, because of Dale’s position as a clergyman, there is another, spiritual side to his understanding of the concept of ‘usefulness’ as applied to education.¹⁴ Thus, he insists it is his moral ‘duty’ to ‘inculcate lessons of virtue, through the medium of the masters of our language’ by making sure that the chosen reading material does not ‘[insinuate] an immoral sentiment, or [imply][…] an impure idea’.¹⁵ Based on the evidence that the King’s Calendars provide, it is impossible to tell how this principle operated in practice.¹⁶ It is nevertheless notable that Dale belonged to a ‘tradition of influential nineteenth-century professors passionately committed to using English literary study for the purpose of promoting Christianity’, which his successor, F. D. Maurice, would not just continue, but develop further.¹⁷

Maurice’s notorious reputation as ‘one of the most controversial figures in the history of King’s’, dismissed from his post for expressing unorthodox theological views, tends to overshadow the 13 years he spent teaching at the College.¹⁸ His contribution to the advancement of English literature as an academic discipline in particular merits more attention than it has received, both because of the unique methodology he proposed, and the fact that he articulated a sustained argument for the value of the study of vernacular literature in a university setting, a feat which according to the dominant account of the development of the discipline didn’t take place until the final decade of the nineteenth century.¹⁹ The introductory lecture Maurice gave upon assuming the role of Professor of English Literature and Modern History at King’s in 1840 delineates his approach, which Olive J. Brose calls ‘not so much a philosophy as a theology of education’.²⁰ In telling contrast to Dale’s pragmatic outlook, in which university education serves as a stepping-stone to the students’ social advancement, Maurice believes that its primary objective is to direct their attention towards that which is ‘real and permanent in the world’ and make them aware of the principles that govern it.²¹ Accordingly, ‘neither literature or anything else is valuable’ in his view, ‘except as it connects us with what is fixed and enduring’.²² . According to Maurice, university education should bring students closer to a timeless spiritual reality. In engaging with literary texts, this is to be achieved by paying close attention to language. However, Maurice is not interested in the philological issues of etymology and language formation which both of his predecessors would have addressed at length. His method is rather to notice the appearance of familiar words in the works of ‘great authors’, such as Shakespeare or Bacon, whose use in the text carries a different meaning than that which Maurice and his contemporaries would associate with it. Through careful examination, the word can reveal the zeitgeist of the historical period in which the text was written, leading to ‘very interesting and important discoveries respecting the state and progress of our nation, and of our own minds’.²³ In this way, words become for Maurice an intangible link between literature and history, which he sees as an expression of ‘the purposes of God to our land’.²⁴ History is revealed in language; the divine plan is revealed in history; it is therefore possible to infer from works of vernacular literature the existence of the spiritual order which university education is meant to shed light upon. This, ultimately, is the goal Maurice seeks to achieve with his lectures: to show that ‘a higher power has been at work, directing the destinies of our nation throughout its history, educating it and forming it to fulfil a definite purpose’.²⁵

Maurice’s approach to English literature is a telling illustration of the College’s early educational philosophy, which saw all subjects as connected with religion. Though Dale’s teaching was also informed by his Christian faith, he was concerned chiefly with shielding his students from inappropriate reading matter and instilling moral values. For Maurice, literature becomes a window not just into bygone ages, but also – crucially – into the transcendental divine order.

Sources

Bacon, Alan, ‘English Literature Becomes a University Subject: King’s College, London as Pioneer’, Victorian Studies 29,4 (1978), 591-612.

Brose, Olive J., Frederick Denison Maurice: Rebellious Conformist (Athens: Ohio University Press, 1971)

Court, Franklin E., Institutionalizing English Literature: The Culture and Politics of Literary Study, 1750-1900 (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1992)

Dale, Thomas, An Introductory Lecture delivered in the University of London, on Friday, October 24, 1828 (London: John Taylor, 1828)

Goldie, David, ‘Literary studies and the academy’, in The Cambridge History of Literary Criticism, Volume 6: The Nineteenth Century, c.1830-1914, ed. by M. A. R. Habib (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2013), 46-71

Hearnshaw, F. J. C., The Centenary History of King’s College London, 1828-1928 (London: George G. Harrap & Company, 1929)

James, Charles, The duty of combining religious instruction with intellectual culture. A Sermon preached in the Chapel of King’s College London at the opening of the institution on the 8th October, 1831 (London: B. Fellowes, 1831)

Kenyon Jones, Christine, King’s College London: In the Service of Society (London: King’s College London, 2004)

King’s College Calendar 1833-1834

King’s College London Calendar 1835-36

Maurice, Frederick Denison, ‘Introductory Lecture by the Professor of English Literature and Modern History at King’s College London, delivered Tuesday, October 13’, Educational Magazine (1840), 273-288.

Palmer, D. J., The Rise of English Studies: An Account of the Study of English Language and Literature from its Origins to the Making of the Oxford English School (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1965)

Statement of proceedings towards the establishment of King’s College London, with plans, copy of the charter &c. (London: Gilbert and Rivington, 1830)