Dodo Collections brings you another classic from Arthur Quiller-Couch, 'Brother Copas.'To those who are acquainted with the literary standing of "Q" the lightness and slightness of his novels always come as a surprise. They have, however, a distinctive touch of learning here and there and a fair and elegant style. The setting in the present case is easily identified as the Hospital of St. Cross at Winchester, although Sir Quiller-Couch confusingly calls his town Merchester suggesting Melchester, the name given by Mr. Hardy to the cathedral town of Salisbury. The dissensions and difficulties in this community of noble poverty, the great unsettled question of high church or low church, and the final solution by means of that charity which covers a multitude of sins is the theme of rother Copas. There is a delightful Swinburnian translation of a late Latin poem-the sort of thing that Sir Quiller-Couch does con amore. There is a town pageant which brings peace after dissension and there is a perfectly unreal and perfectly impossible but equally charming American child. But, on the whole, there is enough background and enough setting, enough learning, and enough ease of writing to make the whole book very readable and pleasant for an idle half-hour. If this is the only way in which Sir Quiller-Couch can earn the liberty to do his literary studies we pardon his novels.Quiller-Couch was a noted literary critic, publishing editions of some of Shakespeare's plays (in the New Shakespeare, published by Cambridge University Press, with Dover Wilson) and several critical works, including Studies in Literature (1918) and On the Art of Reading (1920). He edited a successor to his verse anthology: Oxford Book of English Prose, which was published in 1923. He left his autobiography, Memories and Opinions, unfinished; it was nevertheless published in 1945.
Chapter 1 No.1
This etext prepared from a reprint of a version published in 1911.
TO THE GENTLE READER.
In a former book of mine, Sir John Constantine, I expressed (perhaps extravagantly) my faith in my fellows and in their capacity to treat life as a noble sport. In Brother Copas I try to express something of that corellative scorn which must come sooner or later to every man who puts his faith into practice.. I have that faith still; but that:
He who would love his fellow men
Must not expect too much of them"
This is good counsel if bad rhyme. I can only hope that both the faith and the scorn are sound at the core.
For the rest, I wish to state that St. Hospital is a society which never existed. I have borrowed for it certain features from the Hospital of St. Cross, near Winchester. I have invented a few external and all the internal ones. My "College of Noble Poverty" harbours abuses from which, I dare to say, that nobler institution is entirely free. St Hospital has no existence at all outside of my imagining.
ARTHUR QUILLER-COUCH.
The Haven, Fowey.
February 16th, 1911.
"And a little Child shall lead them."-ISAIAH xi. 6.
Chapter 1 No.1
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Chapter 2 THE MASTER OF ST. HOSPITAL.
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Chapter 3 THE COLLEGE OF NOBLE POVERTY.
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Chapter 4 BROTHER COPAS HOOKS A FISH.
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Chapter 5 CORONA COMES.
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Chapter 6 BROTHER COPAS ON RELIGIOUS DIFFERENCE.
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Chapter 7 GAUDY DAY.
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Chapter 8 LOW AND HIGH TABLES.
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Chapter 9 A PEACE-OFFERING.
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Chapter 10 BY MERE RIVER.
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Chapter 11 THE ANONYMOUS LETTER.
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Chapter 12 BROTHER COPAS ON THE ANGLO-SAXON.
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Chapter 13 MR. ISIDORE TAKES CHARGE.
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Chapter 14 GARDEN AND LAUNDRY.
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Chapter 15 BROTHER COPAS ON THE HOUSE OF LORDS.
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Chapter 16 CANARIES AND GREYCOATS.
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Chapter 17 THE SECOND LETTER.
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Chapter 18 PUPPETS.
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Chapter 19 THE PERVIGILIUM.
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Chapter 20 MERCHESTER PREPARES.
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Chapter 21 NAUGHTINESS, AND A SEQUEL.
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Chapter 22 RECONCILIATION.
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Chapter 23 MR. SIMEON MAKES A CLEAN BREAST.
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Chapter 24 CORONA'S BIRTHDAY.
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Chapter 25 FINIS CORONAT OPUS.
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