The Scholar Gipsy
Encyclopedia
"The Scholar Gipsy" is a poem by Matthew Arnold
, based on a 17th century Oxford
story found in Joseph Glanvill
's The Vanity of Dogmatizing (1661, etc.). It has often been called one of the best and most popular of Arnold's poems, and is also familiar to music-lovers through Ralph Vaughan Williams
' choral work An Oxford Elegy
, which sets lines from this poem and from its companion-piece, "Thyrsis
".
which tells the story of an impoverished Oxford student who left his studies to join a band of gipsies, and so ingratiated himself with them that they told him many of the secrets of their trade. After some time he was discovered and recognised by two of his former Oxford associates, who learned from him that the gipsies "had a traditional kind of learning among them, and could do wonders by the power of imagination, their fancy binding that of others." When he had learned everything that the gipsies could teach him, he said, he would leave them and give an account of these secrets to the world.
In 1929 Marjorie Hope Nicolson
identified the original of this mysterious figure as the Flemish alchemist Francis Mercury van Helmont
.
mode, invoking a shepherd and describing the beauties of a rural scene, with Oxford in the distance. He then repeats the gist of Glanvill's story, but extends it with an account of rumours that the scholar gipsy was again seen from time to time around Oxford. Arnold imagines him as a shadowy figure who can even now be glimpsed in the Berkshire and Oxfordshire countryside, "waiting for the spark from Heaven to fall", and claims to have once seen him himself. He entertains a doubt as to the scholar gipsy's still being alive after two centuries, but then shakes off the thought. He cannot have died:
The scholar gipsy, having renounced such a life, is
and is therefore not subject to ageing and death. Arnold describes
and implores the scholar gipsy to avoid all who suffer from it, in case he too should be infected and die. Arnold ends with an extended simile of a Tyrian merchant seaman who flees from the irruption of Greek competitors to seek a new world in Iberia.
". In an 1857 letter to his brother Tom
, referring to their friendship with Theodore Walrond and the poet Arthur Hugh Clough
, Arnold wrote that "The Scholar Gipsy" was "meant to fix the remembrance of those delightful wanderings of ours in the Cumner
hills before they were quite effaced". Arnold revisited these scenes many years later in his elegy for Arthur Hugh Clough, "Thyrsis
", a companion-piece and, some would say, a sequel to "The Scholar Gipsy".
"The Scholar Gipsy", like "Requiescat" and "Sohrab and Rustum
", first appeared in Arnold's Poems (1853), published by Longmans
. During the 20th century it was many times published as a booklet, either by itself or with "Thyrsis". It appears in The Oxford Book of English Verse
and in some editions of Palgrave
's Golden Treasury
despite its being, at 250 lines, considerably longer than most of the poems in either anthology.
Matthew Arnold
Matthew Arnold was a British poet and cultural critic who worked as an inspector of schools. He was the son of Thomas Arnold, the famed headmaster of Rugby School, and brother to both Tom Arnold, literary professor, and William Delafield Arnold, novelist and colonial administrator...
, based on a 17th century Oxford
Oxford
The city of Oxford is the county town of Oxfordshire, England. The city, made prominent by its medieval university, has a population of just under 165,000, with 153,900 living within the district boundary. It lies about 50 miles north-west of London. The rivers Cherwell and Thames run through...
story found in Joseph Glanvill
Joseph Glanvill
Joseph Glanvill was an English writer, philosopher, and clergyman. Not himself a scientist, he has been called "the most skillful apologist of the virtuosi", or in other words the leading propagandist for the approach of the English natural philosophers of the later 17th century.-Life:He was...
's The Vanity of Dogmatizing (1661, etc.). It has often been called one of the best and most popular of Arnold's poems, and is also familiar to music-lovers through Ralph Vaughan Williams
Ralph Vaughan Williams
Ralph Vaughan Williams OM was an English composer of symphonies, chamber music, opera, choral music, and film scores. He was also a collector of English folk music and song: this activity both influenced his editorial approach to the English Hymnal, beginning in 1904, in which he included many...
' choral work An Oxford Elegy
An Oxford Elegy
An Oxford Elegy is a work for narrator, small mixed chorus and small orchestra, written by Ralph Vaughan Williams between 1947 and 1949. It uses portions of two poems by Matthew Arnold, The Scholar Gipsy and Thyrsis...
, which sets lines from this poem and from its companion-piece, "Thyrsis
Thyrsis
Thyrsis is the title of a poem written by Matthew Arnold in December 1865 to commemorate his friend, the poet Arthur Hugh Clough, who had died in November 1861 aged only 42....
".
The original story
Arnold prefaces the poem with an extract from GlanvillJoseph Glanvill
Joseph Glanvill was an English writer, philosopher, and clergyman. Not himself a scientist, he has been called "the most skillful apologist of the virtuosi", or in other words the leading propagandist for the approach of the English natural philosophers of the later 17th century.-Life:He was...
which tells the story of an impoverished Oxford student who left his studies to join a band of gipsies, and so ingratiated himself with them that they told him many of the secrets of their trade. After some time he was discovered and recognised by two of his former Oxford associates, who learned from him that the gipsies "had a traditional kind of learning among them, and could do wonders by the power of imagination, their fancy binding that of others." When he had learned everything that the gipsies could teach him, he said, he would leave them and give an account of these secrets to the world.
In 1929 Marjorie Hope Nicolson
Marjorie Hope Nicolson
Marjorie Hope Nicolson , was born February 18, 1894 in Yonkers, New York, USA, the daughter of Charles Butler Nicolson, editor-in-chief of the Detroit Free Press during World War I and later that paper's correspondent in Washington, DC, and Lissie Hope Morris.She graduated from the University of...
identified the original of this mysterious figure as the Flemish alchemist Francis Mercury van Helmont
Franciscus Mercurius van Helmont
Franciscus Mercurius van Helmont was a Flemish alchemist and writer, the son of Jan Baptist van Helmont...
.
Synopsis
Arnold begins "The Scholar Gipsy" in pastoralPastoral
The adjective pastoral refers to the lifestyle of pastoralists, such as shepherds herding livestock around open areas of land according to seasons and the changing availability of water and pasturage. It also refers to a genre in literature, art or music that depicts such shepherd life in an...
mode, invoking a shepherd and describing the beauties of a rural scene, with Oxford in the distance. He then repeats the gist of Glanvill's story, but extends it with an account of rumours that the scholar gipsy was again seen from time to time around Oxford. Arnold imagines him as a shadowy figure who can even now be glimpsed in the Berkshire and Oxfordshire countryside, "waiting for the spark from Heaven to fall", and claims to have once seen him himself. He entertains a doubt as to the scholar gipsy's still being alive after two centuries, but then shakes off the thought. He cannot have died:
For what wears out the life of mortal men?
'Tis that from change to change their being rolls:
'Tis that repeated shocks, again, again,
Exhaust the energy of strongest souls,
And numb the elastic powers.
The scholar gipsy, having renounced such a life, is
Free from the sick fatigue, the languid doubt,
Which much to have tried, in much been baffled, brings,
and is therefore not subject to ageing and death. Arnold describes
this strange disease of modern life,
With its sick hurry, its divided aims,
and implores the scholar gipsy to avoid all who suffer from it, in case he too should be infected and die. Arnold ends with an extended simile of a Tyrian merchant seaman who flees from the irruption of Greek competitors to seek a new world in Iberia.
Writing and publication
"The Scholar Gipsy" was written in 1853, probably immediately after "Sohrab and RustumSohrab and Rustum
Sohrab and Rustum: An Episode is a narrative poem with strong tragic themes first published in 1853 by Matthew Arnold. The poem retells a famous episode from Ferdowsi's Persian epic Shahnameh relating how the great warrior Rustum unwittingly slew his long-lost son Sohrab in single combat...
". In an 1857 letter to his brother Tom
Tom Arnold (academic)
Tom Arnold , also known as Thomas Arnold the Younger, was a British literary scholar.- Life :He was the second son of Thomas Arnold, headmaster of Rugby School, and younger brother of the poet Matthew Arnold...
, referring to their friendship with Theodore Walrond and the poet Arthur Hugh Clough
Arthur Hugh Clough
Arthur Hugh Clough was an English poet, an educationalist, and the devoted assistant to ground-breaking nurse Florence Nightingale...
, Arnold wrote that "The Scholar Gipsy" was "meant to fix the remembrance of those delightful wanderings of ours in the Cumner
Cumnor
Cumnor is a village and civil parish west of the centre of Oxford, England. The parish of Cumnor includes Cumnor Hill, , Chawley , the Dean Court area on the edge of Botley and the outlying settlements of Chilswell, Farmoor and Swinford...
hills before they were quite effaced". Arnold revisited these scenes many years later in his elegy for Arthur Hugh Clough, "Thyrsis
Thyrsis
Thyrsis is the title of a poem written by Matthew Arnold in December 1865 to commemorate his friend, the poet Arthur Hugh Clough, who had died in November 1861 aged only 42....
", a companion-piece and, some would say, a sequel to "The Scholar Gipsy".
"The Scholar Gipsy", like "Requiescat" and "Sohrab and Rustum
Sohrab and Rustum
Sohrab and Rustum: An Episode is a narrative poem with strong tragic themes first published in 1853 by Matthew Arnold. The poem retells a famous episode from Ferdowsi's Persian epic Shahnameh relating how the great warrior Rustum unwittingly slew his long-lost son Sohrab in single combat...
", first appeared in Arnold's Poems (1853), published by Longmans
Longman
Longman was a publishing company founded in London, England in 1724. It is now an imprint of Pearson Education.-Beginnings:The Longman company was founded by Thomas Longman , the son of Ezekiel Longman , a gentleman of Bristol. Thomas was apprenticed in 1716 to John Osborn, a London bookseller, and...
. During the 20th century it was many times published as a booklet, either by itself or with "Thyrsis". It appears in The Oxford Book of English Verse
Oxford Book of English Verse
The Oxford Book of English Verse most commonly means the Oxford Book of English Verse 1250–1900 edited by Arthur Quiller-Couch, an anthology of English poetry that had a very substantial influence on popular taste and perception of poetry for at least a generation...
and in some editions of Palgrave
Francis Turner Palgrave
Francis Turner Palgrave was a British critic and poet.He was born at Great Yarmouth, the eldest son of Sir Francis Palgrave, the historian and his wife Elizabeth Turner, daughter of the banker Dawson Turner. His brothers were William Gifford Palgrave, Inglis Palgrave and Reginald Palgrave...
's Golden Treasury
Palgrave's Golden Treasury
The Golden Treasury of English Songs and Lyrics is a popular anthology of English poetry, originally selected for publication by Francis Turner Palgrave in 1861. It was considerably revised, with input from Tennyson, about three decades later...
despite its being, at 250 lines, considerably longer than most of the poems in either anthology.
Critical opinions
Homer animates – Shakespeare animates, in its poor way I think Sohrab and RustumSohrab and RustumSohrab and Rustum: An Episode is a narrative poem with strong tragic themes first published in 1853 by Matthew Arnold. The poem retells a famous episode from Ferdowsi's Persian epic Shahnameh relating how the great warrior Rustum unwittingly slew his long-lost son Sohrab in single combat...
animates – the "Gipsy Scholar" at best awakens a pleasing melancholy. But this is not what we want.
The complaining millions of men
Darken in labour and pain –
what they want is something to animate and ennoble them – not merely to add zest to their melancholy or grace to their dreams.
Matthew Arnold
We would ask Mr. Arnold to consider whether the acceptance this poem is sure to win, does not prove to him that it is better to forget all his poetic theories, ay, and HomerHomerIn the Western classical tradition Homer , is the author of the Iliad and the Odyssey, and is revered as the greatest ancient Greek epic poet. These epics lie at the beginning of the Western canon of literature, and have had an enormous influence on the history of literature.When he lived is...
and SophoclesSophoclesSophocles 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...
, MiltonJohn MiltonJohn Milton was an English poet, polemicist, a scholarly man of letters, and a civil servant for the Commonwealth of England under Oliver Cromwell...
and GoetheJohann Wolfgang von GoetheJohann Wolfgang von Goethe was a German writer, pictorial artist, biologist, theoretical physicist, and polymath. He is considered the supreme genius of modern German literature. His works span the fields of poetry, drama, prose, philosophy, and science. His Faust has been called the greatest long...
too, and speak straight out of things which he has felt and tested on his own pulses.
The North British Review
"The Scholar Gipsy" has sunk into the common consciousness; it is inseparable from Oxford; it is the poetry of Oxford made, in some sense, complete.
John William MackailJohn William MackailJohn William Mackail O.M. was a Scottish man of letters and socialist, now best remembered as a Virgil scholar. He was also a poet, literary historian and biographer....
"The Scholar Gipsy" represents very closely the ghost of each one of us, the living ghost, made up of many recollections and some wishes and promises; the excellence of the study is in part due to the poet's refusal to tie his wanderer to any actual gipsy camp or any invention resembling a plot.
Edmund BlundenEdmund BlundenEdmund Charles Blunden, MC was an English poet, author and critic. Like his friend Siegfried Sassoon, he wrote of his experiences in World War I in both verse and prose. For most of his career, Blunden was also a reviewer for English publications and an academic in Tokyo and later Hong Kong...
What the poem actually offers is a charm of relaxation, a holiday from serious aims and exacting business. And what the Scholar-Gipsy really symbolizes is Victorian poetry, vehicle (so often) of explicit intellectual and moral intentions, but unable to be in essence anything but relaxed, relaxing and anodyne.
F. R. LeavisF. R. LeavisFrank Raymond "F. R." Leavis CH was an influential British literary critic of the early-to-mid-twentieth century. He taught for nearly his entire career at Downing College, Cambridge.-Early life:...