Sunday, February 03, 2013
Gush
Sir Hugh Lloyd-Jones. 21 September, 1922 – 5 October, 2009. Regius Professor of Greek and Student of Christ Church, 1960–89. Memorial Addresses, 13 February 2010, p. 4 (from address by Baron Quinton of Holywell):
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At this point I shall bring out my second academic chestnut: the memorable reply of Rector Barber of Exeter College to someone who asked whether the writings of the Roman poet Manilius on which he was laboriously engaged were really worth the effect [sic, read effort?], whether Manilius was any good as a poet. 'To be quite frank with you', Barber replied, 'I don't go in much for the gush side of criticism.'Eric Kemp, Shy But Not Retiring: Memoirs (London: Continuum, 2006), p. 29:
Nevill Coghill, later best known for his lively modern English version of Chaucer's Canterbury Tales once told me that in common room one evening after dinner, he had asked Barber's opinion of the literary merits of a recent English translation of Propertius and had received the reply, 'I have never concerned myself with the gush aspect of the subject.'E.A. Barber edited Propertius, not Manilius.
