James Morwood

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James Morwood
James Morwood at the Ashmolean Museum in February 2017
Born(1943-11-25)25 November 1943
Belfast, United Kingdom
Died10 September 2017(2017-09-10) (aged 73)
Ouranoupoli, Greece
Occupation(s)Classicist, author
Years active1966–2017

James Henry Weldon Morwood (25 November 1943 – 10 September 2017) was an English classicist and author. He taught at Harrow School, where he was Head of Classics,

Dean.[3][4] He wrote almost thirty books, ranging from biography to translations and academic studies of Classical literature.[3]

His best-known work is The Oxford Latin Course (1987–92, with Maurice Balme, new ed, 2012), whose popularity in the USA led to the publication of a specifically American edition in 1996. Morwood is credited with helping to ensure the survival - even flourishing - of Classical education into the twenty-first century, both in the UK and the USA.[3][5]

Early life and education

James Henry Weldon Morwood was born in 1943 in Belfast, the second son of James and Kathleen Morwood. His father was a doctor from Belfast, his mother a Californian and graduate of UCLA. They met in New York in 1939, married there and then boarded a ship to the UK after war was declared.[5][4]

Morwood spent his first years in Ulster before his family moved to Oxshott in Surrey after the Second World War. He attended Danes Hill preparatory school, where he studied Greek from the age of 11.[5] He won a scholarship to St John's School, Leatherhead, followed by an Exhibition[4] at Peterhouse, Cambridge where he sat Part I of the Classical Tripos (taught by E.J.Kenney) and Part II of the English Tripos (taught by Anne Barton).[6][4] He then moved on to Merton College, Oxford to obtain his Diploma of Education.[5]

Teaching career

Harrow

James Morwood taught Classics and English at Harrow School from 1966 to 1996, and was Head of Classics from 1979. His additional role as school Librarian provided him with some of the material for his first book, The Life and Works of Richard Brinsley Sheridan.[7] Sheridan attended Harrow School from 1762–68, and some of his papers were archived there.[8]

Morwood produced many school and house plays at Harrow, in the process inspiring some notable thespians. He cast

Bernard Shaw's Pygmalion, in which Cumberbatch “acted everyone else off the stage.”[4] He also gave the 'green light' to Richard Curtis to direct ‘’The Erpingham Camp’’,[2] a controversial play by Joe Orton, loosely based on The Bacchae by Euripides.[9] Later, Curtis commented that Morwood’s support had helped him understand that it was all right ‘’to push boundaries and to be funny.” [2]

Oxford

In 1996 Morwood moved to

Dean of Wadham College, holding the position until 2006.[10][4] He was appointed editor of the Wadham Gazette in 2003,[11]
and became an Emeritus Fellow in 2006. He continued to teach Wadham undergraduates Greek tragedy, Homer and prose composition.

Morwood was appointed president of the London Association of Classical Teachers for 1995–1996,[12] and subsequently president of the Joint Association of Classical Teachers (JACT) for 1999–2001.[13]

Greek Summer School

Morwood had a long association with the Joint Association of Classical Teachers and with its Greek Summer School,[14] which was launched in London in 1968, continued at Dean Close School, Cheltenham, and is currently held annually at Bryanston School in Dorset. The JACT Summer School has played an important part in the preservation of ancient Greek as a significant subject in the UK.[15][needs independent confirmation] Morwood taught beginners, intermediate and advanced groups at the school regularly since 1970. He served as its Director of Studies, and on seven occasions as its Director, starting in 1986 when he took over from the founder, David Raeburn.[16][17][18]

He also taught adult courses on Classics and English Literature at the

University of Cambridge Institute of Continuing Education at Madingley Hall.[19] He was editor of Ad familiares, the on-line publication of Classics for All.[20]

Classical literature

Morwood's many translations and commentaries on classical texts demonstrate his enthusiasm for both Latin poetry, and Greek tragedy. Robin Mitchell-Boyask has this to say about Morwood's book The Plays of Euripides:[21]

It is rare to find a guide to Greek drama that stems from the author's unabashed ardor for its subject . . . such enthusiasm is certainly not out of place, and it is indeed welcome as it allows Morwood to provide brief introductions to all 19 extant dramas (including the disputed Rhesus)

In his review of Morwood's translation of Medea, Adrial Poole comments on the lines the chorus sing just before Jason's final entrance: “with a little room to breathe, Morwood's lyrics find a quietly effective rhythm of their own:”[22]

Medea, play by Euripides. translated by James Morwood, with an Introduction by Edith Hall. Oxford World's Classics Euripides series 1996, new edition 2016

O love of women with its many troubles,
how vast a history of catastrophe
have you brought upon men!

Oxford World's Classics Euripides series

The Medea was part of a major project undertaken with Oxford University Press to provide new translations of all 19 of Euripides’ extant plays, including the disputed Rhesus. This collection was published in five volumes as the Oxford World's Classics Euripides series (republished in a revised edition in 2016). Morwood translated and provided notes for three volumes in the series: Medea and other plays,[23] Bacchae and other plays, and The Trojan Women and other plays. He also provided notes for the other two volumes, Orestes and Other Plays, and Heracles and Other Plays which were translated by Robin Waterfield. Introductions to all five volumes were provided by the classicist Edith Hall.

The Oxford translations are in prose rather than verse, and Otto Steinmayer observes that "Morwood was quite plainly not attempting to translate Euripides in a striking, fanciful, poetic way. . . these versions are not for the stage."[24] Nevertheless, the availability of a fresh translation of Rhesus did lead to at least one new dramatisation of that play, presented at the Memorial University of Newfoundland, under the direction of George Adam Kovacs in 2001. In her review, Elizabeth Scharffenberger has this to say about the status of this controversial play:[25]

Kovacs, I learned at the ACA conference, is convinced that Euripides was the author of Rhesus. Having seen the tragedy, I appreciate his arguments but am not entirely convinced by them, since the play has as many differences from as similarities to extant Euripidean works. But even if we do not accept the tragedy as Euripidean, we should not do so on the grounds that it is a “bad” play. Rhesus is not “bad;” rather, I think, it does not conform to our now-cherished notions concerning the development of plot and character in Greek tragedy.

In 2007 Morwood revisited Euripides with a new scholarly edition of Suppliant Women. In her review, Aurelie Wach of Université Lille contrasts this work with the rival edition from Christopher Collard (1975)[26] which Morwood himself describes as "magnificent" in his introduction:[27]

Morwood's work does not compete with Collard's: not only does he refer to recent studies which have made discussion about the play still richer over the last thirty years, but, more importantly, he has neither the same aim, nor does he have the same audience in mind. His book is a lot more accessible, and less technical, but also less comprehensive in its approach. . . .

The many qualities of this volume will enable numerous readers to enjoy the discovery of this magnificent play which, as James Morwood reminds us, has too long been considered as a minor work by Euripides, a play of political propaganda. Each part of the book, the Introduction, Translation and Commentary, aims to facilitate reading and stimulate interest, without drowning the reader in technical details concerning Euripides' language or the editing of his work.

The Oxford Latin Course

James Morwood was co-author with Maurice Balme (1925–2012) of The Oxford Latin Course,

University of Wisconsin-Madison, who characterised the "readings" by their "reuse of basic vocabulary and their length – both of which fulfill tenets of the inductive approach."[30]

The Oxford Latin Course is split into three parts, the first two of which focus on a Latin narrative detailing the life of the poet Quintus Horatius Flaccus [ Horace ]. The story is based closely on historical sources, which help to develop an understanding of the times of Cicero and Augustus.[31]

The First Part is set in the late Republic, and introduces Quintus, the son of a

Caesar
’s assassination.

The Second Part moves to Athens where Quintus completes his education at

Octavian fight for political dominance. He becomes a good friend of Octavian, who soon emerges as the first Roman Emperor Augustus
.

The Third Part is an extensive reader with passages of both poetry and prose from

Caesar, Virgil, Ovid, Livy, and Horace
.

Professor Wills comments: The only perfect textbook is an untried textbook, but after a year of using all three parts in different courses at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, I can say we were generally very satisfied. We wanted far more readings than most Latin grammars supply and in this we were not disappointed. In the course of two semesters (in which we covered most of the first two books), students read over 2000 lines of Latin. It is true that almost all of this was written by Balme and Morwood, but after the opening chapters the stories have a high level of Latinity (is this why the authors thank Prof. E.J. Kenney and Dr. Jonathan Powell?) and held student interest.[30]

Following the early adoption of the original course at

St Louis
, a specifically American Edition was published in 1996. A new College Edition adapted for an undergraduate readership and abbreviated so that it can be taught within two semesters (or a year) was published in 2012.

Last works

After publishing nearly 30 books, including The Pocket Oxford Latin Dictionary,[32] its successor, A Dictionary of Latin Words and Phrases,[33] The Oxford Grammar of Classical Greek, and Our Greek and Latin Roots,[34] Morwood had the opportunity towards the end of his life of working on two more scholarly editions of Greek and Latin texts with outstanding collaborators. The first of these, published in 2017, was a translation and commentary on Iphigenia at Aulis with Christopher Collard,[35] "required reading for anyone interested in this Greek tragedy."[36] This work completed a project to produce new editions of all the extant plays of Euripides started by Collard 40 years ago.

Morwood’s final collaboration was with Stephen Heyworth,[37] his colleague at Wadham College, Oxford, with whom he had worked on A Commentary on Propertius, Book 3 six years previously. Their new book, A Commentary on Vergil Aeneid 3 (also 2017) was seen as a curious choice by some reviewers, because of the perceived “dullness” of Book 3 - there aren’t enough “Odyssean heroics”.[38] Heyworth and Morwood reject this view as outdated, preferring to concentrate on Vergil’s poetics and influences, with James Taylor noting the usefulness of its "panoply of intertexts."[39]

Controversy

Morwood was no ivory tower classicist, and he enjoyed a good fight.[citation needed] When the journalist Harry Mount wrote in The Spectator (2004) about the supposed demise of Classics in UK schools, Morwood wrote a powerful riposte, which The Spectator published in full under the title ‘’The pluperfect is doing nicely’’.[40]

Morwood was particularly incensed by Mount’s dismissal of the Cambridge Latin Course, saying: “His denunciation of the Cambridge Latin Course as ‘the evil Latin-for-idiots school textbooks’ is blind to the fact that it was this very course which rescued Latin from an apparently terminal decline in the 1960s.” [5]

Mount didn’t budge. The final chapter of his book Carpe Diem, published two years later in 2006, is entitled “Dumbing up, or death to the Cambridge Latin Course”.[41]

Death

James Morwood died suddenly while swimming in the sea off northern Greece on 10 September 2017. At the inquest in Oxford, the Coroner accepted the diagnosis of the Oxford pathologist that Morwood had died of 'dry drowning'. "It is a form of drowning where the water hits his larynx and sends shockwaves to his heart.”[42] His funeral, held at Oxford on 13 October, celebrated the warmth of his personality, his love of fun, and his role as an inspirational teacher, motifs which were reiterated in several obituaries. Ed Gorman in The Times[5] quoted the comedy screenwriter Richard Curtis, who edited The Harrovian with Morwood while at Harrow, saying, 'It's no exaggeration to say that everything I do now started with James.'[5]

Christopher Tyerman in The Guardian described Morwood as “A cultural omnivore, at all levels he impressed pupils with his tastes in drama, music (especially opera), film, freedom of ideas and principled mischief, inspiring as much by example as precept.”[3]

Stephen Heyworth[4] in The Daily Telegraph wrote that working with James (on academic studies of Propertius and Vergil) was one of the best things he had done, ‘I learnt so much, not least about getting on with it and bringing work to completion . . . but above all I had enormous fun.’[4]

On Sunday 4 February 2018, Wadham College hosted a memorial service for James Morwood in the Sheldonian Theatre, Oxford, attended by 400 people.[16][42] A number of friends, colleagues and former students, including Richard Curtis, paid tribute to him.

Perhaps the last word can be left to Edmund Stewart, who attended the Greek Summer School at Bryanston twenty years ago: ‘Morwood said to me, “When I die, Classics will long since have ceased to be taught in this country”. The opposite has been the case, an outcome that has been significantly enabled by his own efforts.’ [5]

Books published

References

  1. ^ Harrow School Register 2002 8th edition edited by S W Bellringer & published by The Harrow Association
  2. ^ a b c Curtis, Richard (27 March 2015). "James Morwood by Richard Curtis". The Times Educational Supplement. Retrieved 16 June 2022.
  3. ^
    ISSN 0261-3077
    . Retrieved 18 November 2017.
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h i Heyworth, Stephen (20 November 2017). "James Morwood, classicist – obituary". The Daily Telegraph. Retrieved 3 December 2017. (Subscription required.)
  5. ^ a b c d e f g h Gorman, Ed (7 November 2017). "James Morwood – obituary". The Times. Retrieved 4 December 2017. (Subscription required.)
  6. ^ "Anne Barton Obituary". Newspaper obituary. The Guardian, London. 25 November 2013. Retrieved 4 January 2017.
  7. ISBN 0-70-730428-8
    . Retrieved 13 June 2022.
  8. ^ Cecil John Layton Price. "Biography: Richard Brinsley Sheridan". Retrieved 13 June 2022.
  9. ^ "Joe Orton Life and Work". www.joeorton.org.
  10. ^ "James Morwood, Emeritus Fellow, Wadham College and Editor of Wadham Gazette". Wadham College. Retrieved 18 April 2015.
  11. Wadham College: 8. Retrieved 7 August 2022. {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help
    )
  12. ^ "London Association of Classical Teachers". King's College London. Archived from the original on 10 January 2017. Retrieved 27 December 2016.
  13. ^ "Joint Association of Classical Teachers". JACT. Archived from the original on 4 March 2010. Retrieved 27 December 2016.
  14. ^ Morwood, James (2013). "The JACT Greek Summer School". Fifty Years of the Joint Association of Classical Teachers, JACT, Senate House, Malet Street, London: 16–18.
  15. ^ "Greek Summer School at Bryanston". JACT. Retrieved 27 December 2016.
  16. ^ a b Peter Jones (2018). "James Morwood (1943-2017) - Greek Summer School, Sheldonian Theatre". Classics for All. Retrieved 21 June 2022.
  17. ^ James Morwood (2013). "The JACT Greek Summer School" (PDF). Retrieved 14 July 2022.
  18. ^ Chris Tryhorn (18 March 2021). "David Raeburn obituary". The Guardian, London. Retrieved 16 July 2022.
  19. ^ "Institute of Continuing Education". Cambridge University. Retrieved 27 December 2016.
  20. ^ "James Morwood (1943-2017)". classicsforall.org.uk. Retrieved 15 July 2022.
  21. ^ Mitchell-Boyask, Robin (January 2003). "James Morwood, The Plays of Euripides". Bryn Mawr Classical Review. Retrieved 9 January 2017.
  22. JSTOR 40339809. {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help
    )
  23. ^ C.W.Marshall (August 1998). "Euripides; Morwood, Slavitt and Bovie". Bryn Mawr Classical Review. Retrieved 8 June 2022.
  24. ^ Steinmayer, Otto (June 2000). "James Morwood (trans.), Euripides: Iphigenia among the Taurians, Bacchae, Iphigenia at Aulis, Rhesus (with introduction by Edith Hall)". Bryn Mawr Classical Review. Retrieved 28 December 2016.
  25. ^ Scharffenberger, Elizabeth (October 2001). "Rhesus: A Greek Tragedy". didaskalia. Retrieved 9 January 2017.
  26. ^ Collard, Christopher (1975). "Euripides, Supplices, edited with an introduction and commentary". Groningen.
  27. ^ Wach, Aurelie (October 2007). "James Morwood, Euripides: Suppliant Women, with Introduction, Translation and Commentary". Bryn Mawr Classical Review. Retrieved 9 January 2017.
  28. Daily Telegraph
    , London. 10 February 2013. Retrieved 3 January 2017.
  29. ^ Gollin, Jacqueline (January 1998). "Deductive vs Inductive Language Learning". ELT Journal Volume 52/1. Archived from the original on 7 February 2011. Retrieved 28 December 2016.
  30. ^
    JSTOR 3297792
    .
  31. ^ "The Oxford Latin Course". The Oxford University Press. Retrieved 27 December 2016.
  32. ^ Wills, Jeffrey (29 March 1995). "Morwood, Pocket Oxford Latin Dictionary". Bryn Mawr Classical Review.
  33. ^ Mayer, Roland (October 1999). "James Morwood (ed.): A Dictionary of Latin Words and Phrases". The Classical Review. New Series. 49 (2): 597–598.
  34. ^ Roggen, Vibeke (29 October 2009). "James Morwood, Mark Warman, Our Greek and Latin Roots (Review)". Bryn Mawr Classical Review.
  35. ^ "Professor Christopher Collard". Retrieved 22 June 2022.
  36. ^ George Kovacs (June 2018). "Review: Christopher Collard, James Morwood, Iphigenia at Aulis". Bryn Mawr Classical Review. Retrieved 21 June 2022.
  37. ^ "Professor Stephen Heyworth". Retrieved 16 June 2022.
  38. ^ Christine Perkell (2019). "Review: S. J. Heyworth and J. H. W. Morwood, A Commentary on Vergil, Aeneid 3". Journal of Roman Studies. Retrieved 21 June 2022.
  39. ^ James Taylor (August 2018). "Review: S. J. Heyworth, James Morwood, A Commentary on Vergil, Aeneid 3". Bryn Mawr Classical Review. Retrieved 21 June 2022.
  40. ^ James Morwood (17 April 2004). "'The pluperfect is doing nicely". The Spectator. Retrieved 18 June 2022.(Subscription required.)
  41. ^ Harry Mount (2 January 2006). "Carpe Diem: Put a Little Latin in Your Life". Retrieved 18 June 2022.
  42. ^ a b Isabel Morris (15 March 2018). "Oxford academic drowned in Greece - Inquest, Sheldonian". Cherwell. Retrieved 21 June 2022.

External links

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