Gilbert Murray
Encyclopedia
George Gilbert Aimé Murray, OM
(2 January 1866 – 20 May 1957) was an Australian born British
classical scholar and public intellectual, with connections in many spheres. He was an outstanding scholar of the language and culture of Ancient Greece
, perhaps the leading authority in the first half of the twentieth century. He is the basis for the character of Adolphus Cusins in his friend George Bernard Shaw
's play Major Barbara, and also appears as the chorus figure in Tony Harrison
's play Fram
.
, New South Wales
, Australia
. His father, Sir Terence Aubrey Murray, who died in 1873, had been a Member of the New South Wales Parliament; Gilbert's mother, Agnes Ann Murray (née Edwards), ran a girls' school in Sydney for a few years. Then, in 1877, Agnes emigrated with Gilbert to the UK, where she died in 1891.
Gilbert was educated at Merchant Taylors' School
and St John's College, Oxford
.
. There was a break in his academic career from 1899 to 1905, when he returned to Oxford; he interested himself in dramatic and political writing. After 1908 he was Regius Professor of Greek
at the University of Oxford
.
From 1925-1926 Murray was the Charles Elliot Norton Lecturer
at Harvard University
.
; and had little sympathy from the modernist poets of the rising generation. The staging of Athenian drama in English did have its own cultural impact. He had earlier experimented with his own prose dramas, without much success.
Over time he worked through almost the entire canon of Athenian dramas (Aeschylus
, Sophocles
, Euripides
in tragedy; Aristophanes
in comedy). From Euripides
, the Hippolytus
and The Bacchae
(together with The Frogs
of Aristophanes
; first edition, 1902); the Medea, Trojan Women, and Electra (1905–1907); Iphigenia in Tauris (1910); The Rhesus (1913) were presented at the Court Theatre
, in London. In the United States
Granville Barker
and his wife Lillah McCarthy
gave outdoor performances of The Trojan Women and Iphigenia in Tauris at various colleges (1915).
The translation of Œdipus Rex
was a commission from W. B. Yeats. Until 1912 this could not have been staged for a British audience. Murray was drawn into the public debate on censorship that came to a head in 1907 and was pushed by William Archer, whom he knew well from Glasgow, George Bernard Shaw
, and others such as John Galsworthy
, J. M. Barrie
and Edward Garnett
. A petition was taken to Herbert Gladstone
, then Home Secretary, early in 1908.
in the myth-ritual school of mythography
. They met first in 1900. He wrote an appendix on the Orphic tablets for her 1903 book Prolegomena; he later contributed to her Themis (1912).
Francis Fergusson
wrote
, lining up on the Irish Home Rule and non-imperialist sides of the splits in the party of the late nineteenth century. He supported temperance
, and married into a prominent Liberal, aristocratic and temperance family, the Carlisles. He made a number of moves that might have taken him into parliamentary politics, initially by tentative thoughts about standing in elections during the 1890s. In 1901-2 he was in close contact with the Independent Labour Party
. But the overall effect of the Second Boer War
was to drive him back into the academic career he had put on hold in 1898, resigning his Glasgow chair (effective from April 1899).
He stood five times unsuccessfully for the University constituency of Oxford between 1919 and 1929. He continued support for the Asquith faction of Liberals, after the party was split again by Lloyd George
. During the 1930s the Liberals as a party were crushed electorally, but Liberal thinkers continued to write; Murray was one of the signatory Next Five Years Group formed around Clifford Allen.
During World War I
he became a pamphleteer, putting a reasoned war case. He also defended C. K. Ogden against criticism, and took a public interest in conscientious objection. Murray never took a pacifist line himself, and in fact broke an old friendship with Bertrand Russell
early in the war.
He was also involved as an internationalist in the League of Nations
. He was a Vice President of the League of Nations Society from 1916, and in 1917 wrote influential articles in the Daily News
. At the invitation of Jan Smuts
he acted in 1921/2 as a League delegate for South Africa
.
Later he was a major influence in the setting-up of Oxfam
and of the Students' International Union (later the Institute for World Affairs).
. Initially this was in 1917 and connection with groups supporting a future League: Wells promoted a League of Free Nations Association (LFNA), an idea not in fact exclusive to him, since it had been 'up in the air' since Woodrow Wilson
had started considering post-war settlements. Wells applied through the British propaganda office with which Murray had been connected since 1914. The two men corresponded from 1917 about League matters. Wells was bullish about pushing ahead with a British LFNA, Murray was involved already in the League of Nations Society (LNS), though not active. The political position was delicate, as Murray understood and Wells may not have: the LNS overlapped with the Union of Democratic Control
, which was too far towards the pacifist end of the spectrum of opinion to be effective. Eventually in 1918 the LFNA was set up around Welsh Liberal MP David Davies
, and then shortly the LFNA and LNS merged as the League of Nations Union
.
Two years later, Wells called on Murray, and Murray's New College colleague Ernest Barker
, to lend their names as advisers on his Outline of History. Their names duly appeared on the title page. Murray had to give evidence in the plagiarism
case Deeks v. Wells that arose in 1925.
, typically with some qualification ('classical', 'scholarly', 'engaged', 'liberal'). He joined the Rationalist Press Association, and in 1952 attended a major humanist conference. He wrote and broadcast extensively on religion (Greek, Stoic and Christian); and wrote several books dealing with his version of humanism.
A phrase from his 1910 lectures Four Stages of Greek Religion enjoyed public prominence: the "failure of nerve" of the Hellenistic world, of which a turn to irrationalism was symptomatic. His daughter Rosalind (later Rosalind Toynbee), a Catholic convert, attacked his secularism in her book of apologetics, The Good Pagan's Failure (1939).
Murray was baptised as a Roman Catholic; his father was a Catholic, his mother a Protestant. About a month before he died, when he was bedridden, his daughter Rosalind called the local Catholic priest to see him. Rosalind subsequently claimed that Murray was then reconciled to the Catholic Church; other family members, however, contested her version of the events.
in 1941. He received honorary degrees from Glasgow, Birmingham, and Oxford.
He gave the 1941 Andrew Lang lecture
.
.
He married Lady Mary Henrietta Howard (1865–1956), daughter of George Howard, 9th Earl of Carlisle
. When her mother Rosalind Howard, Countess of Carlisle
died in 1921, Castle Howard
and a 45000 acres (182.1 km²) estate in Cumberland were bequeathed to Lady Mary, which she shared with her younger siblings, Castle Howard going to her brother Geoffrey.
Gilbert and Lady Mary had five children, three daughters and two sons, including:
The four children were evacuated during the second world war from London to the "Sands House Hotel", Brampton, Cumberland, which was converted to temperance status by Lady Rosalind, and run by Mrs and Mrs James Warwick, formerly in her service, with their daughter Charlotte Elizabeth. She became an enduring friend of the boys, and, poignantly, an unfinished letter to her was found on Gilbert's body after the accident.
Festschrift:
Order of Merit
The Order of Merit is a British dynastic order recognising distinguished service in the armed forces, science, art, literature, or for the promotion of culture...
(2 January 1866 – 20 May 1957) was an Australian born British
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
classical scholar and public intellectual, with connections in many spheres. He was an outstanding scholar of the language and culture of Ancient Greece
Ancient Greece
Ancient Greece is a civilization belonging to a period of Greek history that lasted from the Archaic period of the 8th to 6th centuries BC to the end of antiquity. Immediately following this period was the beginning of the Early Middle Ages and the Byzantine era. Included in Ancient Greece is the...
, perhaps the leading authority in the first half of the twentieth century. He is the basis for the character of Adolphus Cusins in his friend George Bernard Shaw
George Bernard Shaw
George Bernard Shaw was an Irish playwright and a co-founder of the London School of Economics. Although his first profitable writing was music and literary criticism, in which capacity he wrote many highly articulate pieces of journalism, his main talent was for drama, and he wrote more than 60...
's play Major Barbara, and also appears as the chorus figure in Tony Harrison
Tony Harrison
Tony Harrison is an English poet and playwright. He is noted for controversial works such as the poem V and Fram, as well as his versions of ancient Greek tragedies, including the Oresteia and Hecuba...
's play Fram
Fram (play)
Fram is a 2008 play by Tony Harrison. It uses the story of the Norwegian explorer Fridtjof Nansen's attempt to reach the North Pole, and his subsequent campaign to relieve famine in the Soviet Union to explore the role of art in a world beset by seemingly greater issues...
.
Early life
He was born George Gilbert Aimé Murray in SydneySydney
Sydney is the most populous city in Australia and the state capital of New South Wales. Sydney is located on Australia's south-east coast of the Tasman Sea. As of June 2010, the greater metropolitan area had an approximate population of 4.6 million people...
, New South Wales
New South Wales
New South Wales is a state of :Australia, located in the east of the country. It is bordered by Queensland, Victoria and South Australia to the north, south and west respectively. To the east, the state is bordered by the Tasman Sea, which forms part of the Pacific Ocean. New South Wales...
, Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
. His father, Sir Terence Aubrey Murray, who died in 1873, had been a Member of the New South Wales Parliament; Gilbert's mother, Agnes Ann Murray (née Edwards), ran a girls' school in Sydney for a few years. Then, in 1877, Agnes emigrated with Gilbert to the UK, where she died in 1891.
Gilbert was educated at Merchant Taylors' School
Merchant Taylors' School, Northwood
Merchant Taylors' School is a British independent day school for boys, originally located in the City of London. Since 1933 it has been located at Sandy Lodge in the Three Rivers district of Hertfordshire ....
and St John's College, Oxford
St John's College, Oxford
__FORCETOC__St John's College is a constituent college of the University of Oxford, one of the larger Oxford colleges with approximately 390 undergraduates, 200 postgraduates and over 100 academic staff. It was founded by Sir Thomas White, a merchant, in 1555, whose heart is buried in the chapel of...
.
Academic career
In 1889–1899, he was Professor of Greek at the University of GlasgowUniversity of Glasgow
The University of Glasgow is the fourth-oldest university in the English-speaking world and one of Scotland's four ancient universities. Located in Glasgow, the university was founded in 1451 and is presently one of seventeen British higher education institutions ranked amongst the top 100 of the...
. There was a break in his academic career from 1899 to 1905, when he returned to Oxford; he interested himself in dramatic and political writing. After 1908 he was Regius Professor of Greek
Regius Professor of Greek (Oxford)
The Regius Professorship of Greek is a professorship at the University of Oxford in England.Henry VIII founded the chair by 1541. He established five Regius Professorships in the University , the others being the Regius chairs of Divinity, Medicine, Civil Law and Hebrew.-List of holders:* John...
at the University of Oxford
University of Oxford
The University of Oxford is a university located in Oxford, United Kingdom. It is the second-oldest surviving university in the world and the oldest in the English-speaking world. Although its exact date of foundation is unclear, there is evidence of teaching as far back as 1096...
.
From 1925-1926 Murray was the Charles Elliot Norton Lecturer
Charles Eliot Norton Lectures
The Charles Eliot Norton Professorship of Poetry at Harvard University was established in 1925 as an annual lectureship in "poetry in the broadest sense" and named for the university's former professor of fine arts. Distinguished creative figures and scholars in the arts, including painting,...
at Harvard University
Harvard University
Harvard University is a private Ivy League university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States, established in 1636 by the Massachusetts legislature. Harvard is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States and the first corporation chartered in the country...
.
Greek drama
Murray is perhaps now best known for his verse translations of Greek drama, which were popular and prominent in their time. As a poet he was generally taken to be a follower of SwinburneAlgernon Charles Swinburne
Algernon Charles Swinburne was an English poet, playwright, novelist, and critic. He invented the roundel form, wrote several novels, and contributed to the famous Eleventh Edition of the Encyclopaedia Britannica...
; and had little sympathy from the modernist poets of the rising generation. The staging of Athenian drama in English did have its own cultural impact. He had earlier experimented with his own prose dramas, without much success.
Over time he worked through almost the entire canon of Athenian dramas (Aeschylus
Aeschylus
Aeschylus was the first of the three ancient Greek tragedians whose work has survived, the others being Sophocles and Euripides, and is often described as the father of tragedy. His name derives from the Greek word aiskhos , meaning "shame"...
, Sophocles
Sophocles
Sophocles is one of three ancient Greek tragedians whose plays have survived. His first plays were written later than those of Aeschylus, and earlier than or contemporary with those of Euripides...
, Euripides
Euripides
Euripides was one of the three great tragedians of classical Athens, the other two being Aeschylus and Sophocles. Some ancient scholars attributed ninety-five plays to him but according to the Suda it was ninety-two at most...
in tragedy; Aristophanes
Aristophanes
Aristophanes , son of Philippus, of the deme Cydathenaus, was a comic playwright of ancient Athens. Eleven of his forty plays survive virtually complete...
in comedy). From Euripides
Euripides
Euripides was one of the three great tragedians of classical Athens, the other two being Aeschylus and Sophocles. Some ancient scholars attributed ninety-five plays to him but according to the Suda it was ninety-two at most...
, the Hippolytus
Hippolytus (play)
Hippolytus is an Ancient Greek tragedy by Euripides, based on the myth of Hippolytus, son of Theseus. The play was first produced for the City Dionysia of Athens in 428 BC and won first prize as part of a trilogy....
and The Bacchae
The Bacchae
The Bacchae is an ancient Greek tragedy by the Athenian playwright Euripides, during his final years in Macedon, at the court of Archelaus I of Macedon. It premiered posthumously at the Theatre of Dionysus in 405 BC as part of a tetralogy that also included Iphigeneia at Aulis, and which...
(together with The Frogs
The Frogs
The Frogs is a comedy written by the Ancient Greek playwright Aristophanes. It was performed at the Lenaia, one of the Festivals of Dionysus, in 405 BC, and received first place.-Plot:...
of Aristophanes
Aristophanes
Aristophanes , son of Philippus, of the deme Cydathenaus, was a comic playwright of ancient Athens. Eleven of his forty plays survive virtually complete...
; first edition, 1902); the Medea, Trojan Women, and Electra (1905–1907); Iphigenia in Tauris (1910); The Rhesus (1913) were presented at the Court Theatre
Royal Court Theatre
The Royal Court Theatre is a non-commercial theatre on Sloane Square, in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea. It is noted for its contributions to modern theatre...
, in London. In the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
Granville Barker
Harley Granville-Barker
Harley Granville-Barker was an English actor-manager, director, producer, critic and playwright....
and his wife Lillah McCarthy
Lillah McCarthy
Lillah McCarthy was an English actress and theatrical manager.McCarthy was born in Cheltenham. She studied elocution under Hermann Vezin and Emil Behnke, and made her first appearance on the stage in 1895...
gave outdoor performances of The Trojan Women and Iphigenia in Tauris at various colleges (1915).
The translation of Œdipus Rex
Oedipus the King
Oedipus the King , also known by the Latin title Oedipus Rex, is an Athenian tragedy by Sophocles that was first performed c. 429 BCE. It was the second of Sophocles's three Theban plays to be produced, but it comes first in the internal chronology, followed by Oedipus at Colonus and then Antigone...
was a commission from W. B. Yeats. Until 1912 this could not have been staged for a British audience. Murray was drawn into the public debate on censorship that came to a head in 1907 and was pushed by William Archer, whom he knew well from Glasgow, George Bernard Shaw
George Bernard Shaw
George Bernard Shaw was an Irish playwright and a co-founder of the London School of Economics. Although his first profitable writing was music and literary criticism, in which capacity he wrote many highly articulate pieces of journalism, his main talent was for drama, and he wrote more than 60...
, and others such as John Galsworthy
John Galsworthy
John Galsworthy OM was an English novelist and playwright. Notable works include The Forsyte Saga and its sequels, A Modern Comedy and End of the Chapter...
, J. M. Barrie
J. M. Barrie
Sir James Matthew Barrie, 1st Baronet, OM was a Scottish author and dramatist, best remembered today as the creator of Peter Pan. The child of a family of small-town weavers, he was educated in Scotland. He moved to London, where he developed a career as a novelist and playwright...
and Edward Garnett
Edward Garnett
Edward Garnett was an English writer, critic and a significant and personally generous literary editor, who was instrumental in getting D. H. Lawrence's Sons and Lovers published. His father Richard Garnett was a writer and librarian at the British Museum...
. A petition was taken to Herbert Gladstone
Herbert Gladstone, 1st Viscount Gladstone
Herbert John Gladstone, 1st Viscount Gladstone GCB, GCMG, GBE, PC, JP was a British Liberal statesman. The youngest son of William Ewart Gladstone, he was Home Secretary from 1905 to 1910 and Governor-General of the Union of South Africa from 1910 to 1914.-Background and education:Gladstone was...
, then Home Secretary, early in 1908.
The Ritualists
He was one of the scholars associated with Jane HarrisonJane Ellen Harrison
Jane Ellen Harrison was a British classical scholar, linguist and feminist. Harrison is one of the founders, with Karl Kerenyi and Walter Burkert, of modern studies in Greek mythology. She applied 19th century archaeological discoveries to the interpretation of Greek religion in ways that have...
in the myth-ritual school of mythography
Mythography
A mythographer, or a mythologist is a compiler of myths. The word derives from the Greek "μυθογραφία" , "writing of fables", from "μῦθος" , "speech, word, fact, story, narrative" + "γράφω" , "to write, to inscribe". Mythography is then the rendering of myths in the arts...
. They met first in 1900. He wrote an appendix on the Orphic tablets for her 1903 book Prolegomena; he later contributed to her Themis (1912).
Francis Fergusson
Francis Fergusson
Francis Fergusson was an American academic and critic, a theorist of drama and mythology. Fergusson taught for a time on the faculty of the department of English at Rutgers University and is regarded as an influence on poet Robert Pinsky....
wrote
Liberal Party politics
He was a lifelong supporter of the Liberal PartyLiberal Party (UK)
The Liberal Party was one of the two major political parties of the United Kingdom during the 19th and early 20th centuries. It was a third party of negligible importance throughout the latter half of the 20th Century, before merging with the Social Democratic Party in 1988 to form the present day...
, lining up on the Irish Home Rule and non-imperialist sides of the splits in the party of the late nineteenth century. He supported temperance
Temperance movement
A temperance movement is a social movement urging reduced use of alcoholic beverages. Temperance movements may criticize excessive alcohol use, promote complete abstinence , or pressure the government to enact anti-alcohol legislation or complete prohibition of alcohol.-Temperance movement by...
, and married into a prominent Liberal, aristocratic and temperance family, the Carlisles. He made a number of moves that might have taken him into parliamentary politics, initially by tentative thoughts about standing in elections during the 1890s. In 1901-2 he was in close contact with the Independent Labour Party
Independent Labour Party
The Independent Labour Party was a socialist political party in Britain established in 1893. The ILP was affiliated to the Labour Party from 1906 to 1932, when it voted to leave...
. But the overall effect of the Second Boer War
Second Boer War
The Second Boer War was fought from 11 October 1899 until 31 May 1902 between the British Empire and the Afrikaans-speaking Dutch settlers of two independent Boer republics, the South African Republic and the Orange Free State...
was to drive him back into the academic career he had put on hold in 1898, resigning his Glasgow chair (effective from April 1899).
He stood five times unsuccessfully for the University constituency of Oxford between 1919 and 1929. He continued support for the Asquith faction of Liberals, after the party was split again by Lloyd George
David Lloyd George
David Lloyd George, 1st Earl Lloyd-George of Dwyfor OM, PC was a British Liberal politician and statesman...
. During the 1930s the Liberals as a party were crushed electorally, but Liberal thinkers continued to write; Murray was one of the signatory Next Five Years Group formed around Clifford Allen.
Activist
As Regius Professor and literary figure, he had a platform to promote his views, which were many-sided but Whig-liberal. In 1912 he wrote an introduction to The Great Analysis: A Plea for a Rational World-Order, by his friend William Archer.During World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
he became a pamphleteer, putting a reasoned war case. He also defended C. K. Ogden against criticism, and took a public interest in conscientious objection. Murray never took a pacifist line himself, and in fact broke an old friendship with Bertrand Russell
Bertrand Russell
Bertrand Arthur William Russell, 3rd Earl Russell, OM, FRS was a British philosopher, logician, mathematician, historian, and social critic. At various points in his life he considered himself a liberal, a socialist, and a pacifist, but he also admitted that he had never been any of these things...
early in the war.
He was also involved as an internationalist in the League of Nations
League of Nations
The League of Nations was an intergovernmental organization founded as a result of the Paris Peace Conference that ended the First World War. It was the first permanent international organization whose principal mission was to maintain world peace...
. He was a Vice President of the League of Nations Society from 1916, and in 1917 wrote influential articles in the Daily News
News Chronicle
The News Chronicle was a British daily newspaper. It ceased publication on 17 October 1960, being absorbed into the Daily Mail. Its offices were in Bouverie Street, off Fleet Street, London, EC4Y 8DP, England.-Daily Chronicle:...
. At the invitation of Jan Smuts
Jan Smuts
Jan Christiaan Smuts, OM, CH, ED, KC, FRS, PC was a prominent South African and British Commonwealth statesman, military leader and philosopher. In addition to holding various cabinet posts, he served as Prime Minister of the Union of South Africa from 1919 until 1924 and from 1939 until 1948...
he acted in 1921/2 as a League delegate for South Africa
South Africa
The Republic of South Africa is a country in southern Africa. Located at the southern tip of Africa, it is divided into nine provinces, with of coastline on the Atlantic and Indian oceans...
.
Later he was a major influence in the setting-up of Oxfam
Oxfam
Oxfam is an international confederation of 15 organizations working in 98 countries worldwide to find lasting solutions to poverty and related injustice around the world. In all Oxfam’s actions, the ultimate goal is to enable people to exercise their rights and manage their own lives...
and of the Students' International Union (later the Institute for World Affairs).
Involvement with Wells
For a brief period Murray became closely involved with the novelist H. G. WellsH. G. Wells
Herbert George Wells was an English author, now best known for his work in the science fiction genre. He was also a prolific writer in many other genres, including contemporary novels, history, politics and social commentary, even writing text books and rules for war games...
. Initially this was in 1917 and connection with groups supporting a future League: Wells promoted a League of Free Nations Association (LFNA), an idea not in fact exclusive to him, since it had been 'up in the air' since Woodrow Wilson
Woodrow Wilson
Thomas Woodrow Wilson was the 28th President of the United States, from 1913 to 1921. A leader of the Progressive Movement, he served as President of Princeton University from 1902 to 1910, and then as the Governor of New Jersey from 1911 to 1913...
had started considering post-war settlements. Wells applied through the British propaganda office with which Murray had been connected since 1914. The two men corresponded from 1917 about League matters. Wells was bullish about pushing ahead with a British LFNA, Murray was involved already in the League of Nations Society (LNS), though not active. The political position was delicate, as Murray understood and Wells may not have: the LNS overlapped with the Union of Democratic Control
Union of Democratic Control
The Union of Democratic Control was a British pressure group formed in 1914 to press for a more responsive foreign policy. While not a pacifist organization, it was opposed to military influence in government.-World War I:...
, which was too far towards the pacifist end of the spectrum of opinion to be effective. Eventually in 1918 the LFNA was set up around Welsh Liberal MP David Davies
David Davies, 1st Baron Davies
David Davies, 1st Baron Davies , was a politician and public benefactor, the grandson of the famous industrialist, David Davies "Llandinam"....
, and then shortly the LFNA and LNS merged as the League of Nations Union
League of Nations Union
The League of Nations Union was an organization formed in the United Kingdom to promote international justice, collective security and a permanent peace between nations based upon the ideals of the League of Nations. The League of Nations was established by the Great Powers as part of the Paris...
.
Two years later, Wells called on Murray, and Murray's New College colleague Ernest Barker
Ernest Barker
Sir Ernest Barker was a liberal British political scientist who served as Principal of King's College London from 1920 to 1927....
, to lend their names as advisers on his Outline of History. Their names duly appeared on the title page. Murray had to give evidence in the plagiarism
Plagiarism
Plagiarism is defined in dictionaries as the "wrongful appropriation," "close imitation," or "purloining and publication" of another author's "language, thoughts, ideas, or expressions," and the representation of them as one's own original work, but the notion remains problematic with nebulous...
case Deeks v. Wells that arose in 1925.
Humanism
Murray is often identified as a humanistHumanism
Humanism is an approach in study, philosophy, world view or practice that focuses on human values and concerns. In philosophy and social science, humanism is a perspective which affirms some notion of human nature, and is contrasted with anti-humanism....
, typically with some qualification ('classical', 'scholarly', 'engaged', 'liberal'). He joined the Rationalist Press Association, and in 1952 attended a major humanist conference. He wrote and broadcast extensively on religion (Greek, Stoic and Christian); and wrote several books dealing with his version of humanism.
A phrase from his 1910 lectures Four Stages of Greek Religion enjoyed public prominence: the "failure of nerve" of the Hellenistic world, of which a turn to irrationalism was symptomatic. His daughter Rosalind (later Rosalind Toynbee), a Catholic convert, attacked his secularism in her book of apologetics, The Good Pagan's Failure (1939).
Murray was baptised as a Roman Catholic; his father was a Catholic, his mother a Protestant. About a month before he died, when he was bedridden, his daughter Rosalind called the local Catholic priest to see him. Rosalind subsequently claimed that Murray was then reconciled to the Catholic Church; other family members, however, contested her version of the events.
Awards and honours
He refused a knighthood in 1912, though he was appointed to the Order of MeritOrder of Merit
The Order of Merit is a British dynastic order recognising distinguished service in the armed forces, science, art, literature, or for the promotion of culture...
in 1941. He received honorary degrees from Glasgow, Birmingham, and Oxford.
He gave the 1941 Andrew Lang lecture
Andrew Lang lecture
The Andrew Lang Lecture series is held at the University of St. Andrews. The lectures are named for Andrew Lang. The most famous lecture in this series is that given by J. R. R...
.
Family
Gilbert's father was Sir Terence Aubrey Murray and his brother Sir Hubert MurrayHubert Murray
Sir John Hubert Plunkett Murray, usually known as Hubert Murray, was a judge and Lieutenant-Governor of Papua from 1908 until his death at Samarai.-Early life:...
.
He married Lady Mary Henrietta Howard (1865–1956), daughter of George Howard, 9th Earl of Carlisle
George Howard, 9th Earl of Carlisle
George James Howard, 9th Earl of Carlisle , known as George Howard until 1889, was an English aristocrat, politician and painter.-Background and education:...
. When her mother Rosalind Howard, Countess of Carlisle
Rosalind Howard, Countess of Carlisle
Rosalind Frances Howard, Countess of Carlisle , sometimes known as The Radical Countess, was a British aristocrat and campaigner....
died in 1921, Castle Howard
Castle Howard
Castle Howard is a stately home in North Yorkshire, England, north of York. One of the grandest private residences in Britain, most of it was built between 1699 and 1712 for the 3rd Earl of Carlisle, to a design by Sir John Vanbrugh...
and a 45000 acres (182.1 km²) estate in Cumberland were bequeathed to Lady Mary, which she shared with her younger siblings, Castle Howard going to her brother Geoffrey.
Gilbert and Lady Mary had five children, three daughters and two sons, including:
- Basil MurrayBasil MurrayBasil Murray was the second son of the scholar Gilbert Murray and his wife Lady Mary Howard, daughter of the 9th Earl of Carlisle....
, 1903–1937, who was a well-known and rather louche figure, and friend of Evelyn WaughEvelyn WaughArthur Evelyn St. John Waugh , known as Evelyn Waugh, was an English writer of novels, travel books and biographies. He was also a prolific journalist and reviewer...
. His wife was a daughter of the artist Algernon Newton RARARA may refer to:- Science :* Right ascension, an astronomical term* Relation algebra, a type of mathematical structure- Medicine :* Relative analgesia machine, a type of sedative* Right atrium, one of the four chambers of the heart...
, and a sister of Robert NewtonRobert NewtonRobert Newton was an English stage and film actor. Along with Errol Flynn, Newton was one of the most popular actors among the male juvenile audience of the 1940s and early 1950s, especially with British boys...
.- The writer Venetia Murray (3 January 1932–26 September 2004) was Basil's daughter, as is
- Ann PaludanAnn PaludanAnn Paludan is a British author of several books on Chinese history, sculpture, and architecture.-Biography:Ann Paludan is the daughter of Basil Murray...
(1928-), the writer on Chinese history.- Mark JonesMark Jones (museum director)Sir Mark Ellis Powell Jones is a British art historian, numismatist and museum director; he is director of the Victoria and Albert Museum...
, former director of the Victoria and Albert MuseumVictoria and Albert MuseumThe Victoria and Albert Museum , set in the Brompton district of The Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, London, England, is the world's largest museum of decorative arts and design, housing a permanent collection of over 4.5 million objects...
, is Ann's son.
- Mark Jones
- Rosalind (1890–1967), a writer, married Arnold J. ToynbeeArnold J. ToynbeeArnold Joseph Toynbee CH was a British historian whose twelve-volume analysis of the rise and fall of civilizations, A Study of History, 1934–1961, was a synthesis of world history, a metahistory based on universal rhythms of rise, flowering and decline, which examined history from a global...
, and was the mother of- Philip ToynbeePhilip ToynbeeTheodore Philip Toynbee was a British writer and communist. He wrote experimental novels, and distinctive verse novels, one of which was an epic called Pantaloon, a work in several volumes, only some of which are published...
, the critic, father of- Polly ToynbeePolly ToynbeePolly Toynbee is a British journalist and writer, and has been a columnist for The Guardian newspaper since 1998. She is a social democrat and broadly supports the Labour Party, while urging it in many areas to be more left-wing...
, the journalist.
- Polly Toynbee
- Philip Toynbee
- Stephen (February 1908-July 1994) a radical lawyer, married the architect Margaret Gillet and lived at "Greenside" farm, Hallbankgate, Cumbria. He was chairman of Border Rural DistrictBorder Rural DistrictBorder was a rural district of Cumberland, England from 1934 to 1974.It was formed by a County Review Order in 1934, by a merger of Longtown Rural District, most of Brampton Rural District and nearly all of Carlisle Rural District, as well as a part of Penrith Rural District...
Council (1962–66), of Cumberland County CouncilCumberland County CouncilCumberland County Council was the county council of Cumberland in the North West of England, an elected local government body responsible for most local services in the county. It was established in 1889 as a result of the Local Government Act 1888. Carlisle was initially within its area but became...
, of the Lake District Special Planning Board (1977–81) and of Cumbria County CouncilCumbria County CouncilCumbria County Council is the county council of Cumbria, a county in the North West of England. Established in 1974, following its first elections held a year before that, it is an elected local government body responsible for the most significant local services in the county, including county...
(1985–87). They were parents of- Gilbert, killed in climbing accident in Fox's Glacier New Zealand in the 1950s
- Alexander (Sandy), academic medievalist historian at Oxford University
- Robin, academic, economist, Chair of Twin TradingTwin TradingTwin Trading is a leading alternative trading company in the United Kingdom. It was founded in 1985 and is based in London.Twin Trading is wholly owned by Twin, a registered charity and membership organisation. Twin's membership comprises 24 farmer co-operatives in eight countries, drawing together...
.http://www.forachange.co.uk/index.php?subjid=147&stoid=314 - Hubert, academic
The four children were evacuated during the second world war from London to the "Sands House Hotel", Brampton, Cumberland, which was converted to temperance status by Lady Rosalind, and run by Mrs and Mrs James Warwick, formerly in her service, with their daughter Charlotte Elizabeth. She became an enduring friend of the boys, and, poignantly, an unfinished letter to her was found on Gilbert's body after the accident.
Translation
- AndromacheAndromache (play)Andromache is an Athenian tragedy by Euripides. It dramatises Andromache's life as a slave, years after the events of the Trojan War, and her conflict with her master's new wife, Hermione. The date of its first performance is unknown, although scholars place it sometime between 428 and 425 BC...
(1900) - A text edition of Euripides, Fabulae, in three volumes (OCT. 1901, 1904, 1910)
- Euripides: HippolytusHippolytus (play)Hippolytus is an Ancient Greek tragedy by Euripides, based on the myth of Hippolytus, son of Theseus. The play was first produced for the City Dionysia of Athens in 428 BC and won first prize as part of a trilogy....
; The BacchaeThe BacchaeThe Bacchae is an ancient Greek tragedy by the Athenian playwright Euripides, during his final years in Macedon, at the court of Archelaus I of Macedon. It premiered posthumously at the Theatre of Dionysus in 405 BC as part of a tetralogy that also included Iphigeneia at Aulis, and which...
(1902) - Aristophanes: The FrogsThe FrogsThe Frogs is a comedy written by the Ancient Greek playwright Aristophanes. It was performed at the Lenaia, one of the Festivals of Dionysus, in 405 BC, and received first place.-Plot:...
(1902) - Euripides, The Trojan WomenThe Trojan WomenThe Trojan Women is a tragedy by the Greek playwright Euripides. Produced during the Peloponnesian War, it is often considered a commentary on the capture of the Aegean island of Melos and the subsequent slaughter and subjugation of its populace by the Athenians earlier in 415 BC , the same year...
(1905) - ElectraElectra (Euripides)Euripides' Electra was a play probably written in the mid 410s BC, likely after 413 BC. It is unclear whether it was first produced before or after Sophocles' version of the Electra story.-Background:...
of Euripides (1905) - Euripides MedeaMedea (play)Medea is an ancient Greek tragedy written by Euripides, based upon the myth of Jason and Medea and first produced in 431 BC. The plot centers on the barbarian protagonist as she finds her position in the Greek world threatened, and the revenge she takes against her husband Jason who has betrayed...
(1910) - Iphigenia in TaurisIphigeneia in TaurisIphigenia in Tauris is a drama by the playwright Euripides, written between 414 BC and 412 BC. It has much in common with another of Euripides's plays, Helen, and is often described as a romance, a melodrama or an escape play.-Background:...
(1911) - Oedipus King of ThebesOedipus the KingOedipus the King , also known by the Latin title Oedipus Rex, is an Athenian tragedy by Sophocles that was first performed c. 429 BCE. It was the second of Sophocles's three Theban plays to be produced, but it comes first in the internal chronology, followed by Oedipus at Colonus and then Antigone...
(1911) - The Story of Nefrekepta. From a Demotic Papyrus. (1911)
- RhesusRhesus (play)Rhesus is an Athenian tragedy that belongs to the transmitted plays of Euripides. There has been debate about its authorship. It was understood to be by Euripides in the Hellenistic, Imperial, and Byzantine periods. In the 17th century, however, the play's authenticity was challenged, first by...
of Euripides (1913) - AndromacheAndromache (play)Andromache is an Athenian tragedy by Euripides. It dramatises Andromache's life as a slave, years after the events of the Trojan War, and her conflict with her master's new wife, Hermione. The date of its first performance is unknown, although scholars place it sometime between 428 and 425 BC...
(1913) - AlcestisAlcestis (play)Alcestis is an Athenian tragedy by the ancient Greek playwright Euripides. It was first produced at the City Dionysia festival in 438 BCE. Euripides presented it as the final part of a tetralogy of unconnected plays in the competition of tragedies, for which he won second prize; this arrangement...
(1915) - Agamemnon (1920)
- Choephoroe (1923)
- Eumenides of Aeschylus (1926)
- The Oresteia (1928)
- The Suppliant Women (1930)
- Seven Against Thebes (1935)
- A text edition of Aeschylus, Septem quae supersunt Tragoediae (OCT. 1937. 1955)
- The Persians (1939)
- Antigone (1941)
- The Rape of the Locks: The Perikeiromene of Menander (1942)
- Fifteen Greek Plays (1943) with others
- The Arbitration: the Epitrepontes of Menander (1945)
- Oedipus at Colonus (1948)
- The Birds (1950)
- Euripides, Ion (1954)
- Collected Plays of Euripides (1954)
- The Knights (1956)
Classical studies
- The Place of Greek in Education (1889) Inaugural Lecture
- A History of Ancient Greek Literature (1897)
- The Rise of the Greek Epic (1907; second edition, 1911) Harvard University lectures
- Greek Historical Writing, and Apollo: Two Lectures (1908) with Ulrich von Wilamowitz-MoellendorffUlrich von Wilamowitz-MoellendorffEnno Friedrich Wichard Ulrich von Wilamowitz-Moellendorff was a German Classical Philologist. Wilamowitz, as he is known in scholarly circles, was a renowned authority on Ancient Greece and its literature.- Youth :...
- The Interpretation of Ancient Greek Literature (1909) Inaugural Lecture
- Ancient Greek Literature (1911)
- English Literature and the Classics (1912) section on Tragedy, editor George Stuart GordonGeorge Stuart GordonGeorge Stuart Gordon was a British literary scholar.Gordon was educated at Glasgow University, Oriel College, Oxford ....
- Four Stages of Greek Religion (1913)
- Euripides and his Age (1913) in Home University Library
- HamletHamletThe Tragical History of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark, or more simply Hamlet, is a tragedy by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written between 1599 and 1601...
and OrestesOrestes (mythology)In Greek mythology, Orestes was the son of Clytemnestra and Agamemnon. He is the subject of several Ancient Greek plays and of various myths connected with his madness and purification, which retain obscure threads of much older ones....
: A Study in Traditional Types (1914) Annual Shakespeare Lecture 1914 - The Stoic Philosophy (1915) Conway Lecture
- Aristophanes and the War Party, A Study in the Contemporary Criticism of the Peloponnesian War (1919) Creighton Lecture 1918, as Our Great War and The Great War of the Ancient Greeks (US, 1920)
- Greek Historical Thought: from Homer to the Age of Heraclius (1924) with Arnold J. Toynbee
- Five Stages of Greek Religion (1925)
- The Classical Tradition in Poetry (1927) Charles Eliot Norton Lectures
- Aristophanes: A Study (1933)
- Aeschylus: The Creator of Tragedy (1940)
- The Wife of Heracles (1947)
- Greek Studies (1947)
- Hellenism and the Modern World (1953) radio talks
Festschrift:
- Greek Poetry and Life, Essays presented to Gilbert Murray on his Seventieth Birthday, 2 January 1936 (1936)
Other
- Gobi or Shamo (1889) novel
- Carlyon Sahib (1899), play
- Liberalism and the Empire: Three Essays (1900) with Francis W. Hirst and John L. Hammond
- Thoughts on the War (1914) pamphlet
- The Foreign Policy of Sir Edward Grey, 1906–1915 (1915), online text
- The International Crisis in Its Ethical and Psychological Aspects (1915) with others
- How Can War Ever Be Right? Oxford Pamphlets No 18/Ist Krieg je berechtigt?/La guerre. Peut-elle jamais se justifier? (1915)
- Impressions of Scandinavia in War Time (1916) pamphlet, reprint from the Westminster GazetteWestminster GazetteThe Westminster Gazette was an influential Liberal newspaper based in London. It was known for publishing sketches and short stories, including early works by Raymond Chandler, Anthony Hope and Saki, and travel writing by Rupert Brooke. One of its editors was caricaturist and political cartoonist...
- The United States and the War (1916) pamphlet
- The Way Forward: Three Articles on Liberal Policy (1917) pamphlet
- Great Britain's Sea Policy - A Reply to an American Critic (1917) pamphlet, reprinted from The Atlantic MonthlyThe Atlantic MonthlyThe Atlantic is an American magazine founded in Boston, Massachusetts, in 1857. It was created as a literary and cultural commentary magazine. It quickly achieved a national reputation, which it held for more than a century. It was important for recognizing and publishing new writers and poets,...
- Faith, War and Policy (1917)
- Religio Grammatici: The Religion Of A Man Of Letters (1918) Presidential Address to the Classical Association 8 January 1918.
- Foreword to My mission to London 1912–1914 by Prince Lichnowsky, the German ambassador in London who had warned Berlin that Britain would fight in August 1914. Cassel & Co. London. (1918)
- Satanism and the World Order (1920) Adamson Lecture
- The League and Its Guarantees (1920) League of Nations Union pamphlet
- Essays and Addresses (1921)
- The Problem of Foreign Policy: A Consideration of Present Dangers and the Best Methods for Meeting Them (1921)
- Tradition and Progress (1922)
- The Ordeal of This Generation: The War, the League and the Future (1930) Halley Stewart Lectures 1928
- Augustan Book of Poetry (1931) vol. 41
- The Intelligent Man's Way To Prevent War (1933) with others
- Problems of Peace (Eighth Series) (1933) with others
- Then and Now (1935)
- Liberality and Civilisation (1938) 1937 Hibbert Lectures
- Stoic, Christian and Humanist (1940)
- The Deeper Causes of the War and its Issues (1940) with others
- World Order Papers, No. 2 (1940) pamphlet, The Royal Institute of International Affairs
- Anchor of Civilisation (1942) Philip Maurice Deneke Lecture 1942
- A Conversation with Bryce (1943) James Bryce Memorial Lecture, 12 November 1943
- Myths And Ethics, or Humanism And The World's Need (1944) Conway Hall lecture
- Humanism: Three B.B.C. talks (1944) with Julian HuxleyJulian HuxleySir Julian Sorell Huxley FRS was an English evolutionary biologist, humanist and internationalist. He was a proponent of natural selection, and a leading figure in the mid-twentieth century evolutionary synthesis...
and Joseph Houldsworth Oldham - Victory and After (1945)
- From the League to the U.N. (1948)
- Spires of Liberty (1948) with others
- Andrew Lang: The Poet (1948) Andrew LangAndrew LangAndrew Lang was a Scots poet, novelist, literary critic, and contributor to the field of anthropology. He is best known as a collector of folk and fairy tales. The Andrew Lang lectures at the University of St Andrews are named after him.- Biography :Lang was born in Selkirk...
Lecture 1947 - The Meaning of Freedom (1956) essays, with others
- Humanist Essays (1964) taken from Essays and Addresses, Stoic, Christian and Humanist
External links
- Works by Gilbert Murray