Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Illustrations
- Preface and Acknowledgements
- Abbreviations
- Dramatis Personae
- Miscellaneous Frontmatter
- Introduction: Edward J. Dent – Another Kind of Genius
- 1 The Ribston Pippin 1876–1895
- 2 The Bumptious Undergraduate 1895–1899
- 3 The Accidental Scholar 1899–1901
- 4 The Travelling Fellow 1902–1906
- 5 The Wanderer 1906–1907
- 6 The New Spirit 1907–1910
- 7 The Impresario 1910–1914
- 8 The Pacifist 1914–1918
- 9 The Journalist 1919–1922
- 10 The International Musician 1922–1926
- 11 The Professor 1926–1931
- 12 The Juggler 1931–1934
- 13 The Beleaguered Diplomat 1935–1936
- 14 The Colonial Doctor 1936–1939
- 15 Titurel 1939–1945
- 16 Tityvillus 1946–1957
- Afterword
- Appendix: Dent’s Ulcer
- Select Bibliography
- Index
6 - The New Spirit 1907–1910
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 08 June 2023
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Illustrations
- Preface and Acknowledgements
- Abbreviations
- Dramatis Personae
- Miscellaneous Frontmatter
- Introduction: Edward J. Dent – Another Kind of Genius
- 1 The Ribston Pippin 1876–1895
- 2 The Bumptious Undergraduate 1895–1899
- 3 The Accidental Scholar 1899–1901
- 4 The Travelling Fellow 1902–1906
- 5 The Wanderer 1906–1907
- 6 The New Spirit 1907–1910
- 7 The Impresario 1910–1914
- 8 The Pacifist 1914–1918
- 9 The Journalist 1919–1922
- 10 The International Musician 1922–1926
- 11 The Professor 1926–1931
- 12 The Juggler 1931–1934
- 13 The Beleaguered Diplomat 1935–1936
- 14 The Colonial Doctor 1936–1939
- 15 Titurel 1939–1945
- 16 Tityvillus 1946–1957
- Afterword
- Appendix: Dent’s Ulcer
- Select Bibliography
- Index
Summary
When I came back to Cambridge in the autumn of 1907, after a year's absence abroad, I soon became aware that a new spirit was making itself felt. The first notable result of it was the performance of Marlowe's Faustus by a number of men who afterwards constituted the Marlowe Dramatic Society. It was a queer performance. The older generation were scandalised almost before the play began: no scenery, only dingy green hangings, no music, no footlights, frequent ‘black-outs’, no names of the actors printed … No wonder they were upset by it all. ‘Faustus isn't a play at all’ – ‘absurd for undergraduates to attempt tragedy’ – ‘why didn't they get somebody with experience to coach them?’ – ‘why do they act in the dark?’ … But in spite of these things and many others the play had a new spirit of its own. The tragic moments were genuinely moving. Crude, awkward and amateurish … it all was, there was the spirit of true poetry about it. One felt that to these actors poetry was the greatest thing in life.
1907–1908
Dent's obituary of Rupert Brooke, quoted above, is also a memorial to everything his generation had brought to Cambridge, wrecked by the Great War in which Brooke and so many of his contemporaries were killed. At the time, Dent needed the painful exercise of writing it to remind himself of the ideals which had so captivated him on his return from Germany that October 1907, and which fuelled his own ideas of turning scholarship into performance right up to the war and beyond.
It took him a while to recognise that ‘new spirit’; he returned to Cambridge far too preoccupied with his own projects to see what others around him were doing. First, he felt duty bound to help and encourage friends and proteges, expanding their horizons, while loyalty, even to the most difficult, awkward friends like O’Neil Phillips, was fundamental. Dent always worked to bring together the eclectic strands of his own complex experience, so quickly made sure that celebrities like Busoni and excellent unknowns like Certani and Phillips came to Cambridge.
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- Information
- Edward J. DentA Life of Words and Music, pp. 140 - 176Publisher: Boydell & BrewerPrint publication year: 2023