Monday, September 28, 2015
I Want to See How It Ends
Bernard Knox (1914-2010), Essays Ancient and Modern (1989; rpt. Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1990), p. 154:
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[A] story (apocryphal, no doubt) about [Oscar] Wilde's viva examination at Oxford ... gives a startling impression of the gulf between Christianity and the Hellenic aestheticism of the late seventies. Wilde was given a Greek Testament and told to translate chapter 26 of Luke—the Last Supper; the agony in the garden; the betrayal, arrest, and trial of Christ. He did so with speed and elegance. "Thank you, Mr. Wilde, that will do." "Oh," he said. "Pray let me go on. I want to see how it ends."
