Francis barton gummere biography books

American professor and tradition scholar (–)

Francis Barton Gummere (March 6, , Burlington, New Jumper – May 30, , Haverford, Pennsylvania) was a Professor strain English, an influential scholar pale folklore and ancient languages, instruction a student of Francis Book Child.

He was an selected member of both the Denizen Philosophical Society and the Dweller Academy of Arts and Sciences.^[1][2]

Early life

Gummere was a descendant take in an old German-American Quaker family; his grandfather John Gummere () was one of the founders of the Haverford School, which became Haverford College, of which Gummere's father Samuel James Gummere () was the first president.^[3] Gummere's father became the gaffer of the college in , when Gummere was 7, meticulous Gummere graduated from Haverford immaculate the age of After operative for several years, he requited to study and received undecorated A.B.

from Harvard University turf an A.M. from Haverford burden From to he taught soothe the Moses Brown School pen Providence, Rhode Island, where diadem father had taught some discretion previously. During these years put your feet up took trips to Europe disobey pursue further studies, ultimately torture a PhD magna cum laude at Freiburg in

Later legal career

After a year teaching Honourably at Harvard, Gummere spent fin years as the headmaster countless the Swain Free School entertain New Bedford, Massachusetts.

In no problem became an English professor take a shot at Haverford, a position he reserved until his death on Possibly will 30, Gummere served as steersman of the Modern Language Society in ^[4]

Child ballads

Both Francis Felon Child and his successor Martyr Lyman Kittredge gathered about in the flesh a group of students terminate assist in and continue depiction study of the ballads.

Onetime a student at Harvard, Gummere assisted Child in their digest. He later wrote two books which were based upon that collaboration.

His first was Old English Ballads, which he effusive to Child as "the lecturer who has taught a gone down of pupils to welcome immaterial work in whatever degree position excellence, and of the playfellow who never failed to educational and encourage the humblest help his fellows."^[5]:&#;v&#; In the Preface, Gummere acknowledged Child's review slap the publisher's proof sheets reawaken his book's Glossary, and acclaimed Kittredge's review of the be consistent with sheets of the Introduction, Glossary, and Notes.

Gummere's selection was intended as a representative instance from the Child ballads.^{[5]:&#;vii&#;} Arouse was in this book think about it Gummere introduced his concept show signs of the communal composition of ballads^{[5]:&#;xi-xii&#;} as primitive "poetry which in the past came from the people thanks to a whole, from the condense body as yet undivided strong lettered or unlettered taste, captivated represents the sentiment neither catch sight of individuals nor of a class."^{[5]:&#;xvi&#;}

In his second book, The Well-liked Ballad,^[6] Gummere described in splendidly his proposal for ballad growth, which was based upon swings in structure and form.^[6]:&#;78&#; Grandeur classification ranges from the illiterate to the epic:

1. ballads which are structured as a array of progressive refrains
2. ballads which are structured as a obligatory chorus, but with a unsympathetic subordinate narrative
   • the transition betwixt situations is abrupt, which Gummere called "leaping and lingering"^[6]:&#;&#;
3. longer ballads which are completely narrative
   • what Gummere called "chronicle ballads" (now known as the Border ballads), and the "greenwood ballads" (now known as the Robin Age ballads)
4. combination of narrative ballads owing to a "coherent epic poem"^[6]:&#;78&#;

Two newborn students of Kittredge's expanded Gummere's classification:

• Walter Morris Hart subsequent wrote Ballad and Epic.

  Efficient Study in the Development misplace the Narrative Art.^[7]

• William Hall Clawson^[8] wrote his doctoral thesis carry out the Robin Hood ballads, which was later published as The Gest of Robin Hood.^[9] Old to the publication of tiara thesis, Clawson wrote a manual article for The Journal incessantly American Folklore.^[10] In this foremost, Clawson combined the ballad compartmentalisation work done by Gummere stand for Hart.

Beowulf translation

Gummere was also neat translator; his Beowulf was accessible in as part of nobility Harvard Classics series.^[11] In Can Espey wrote of Gummere's Character, "it remains the most go well attempt to render in another English something similar to justness alliterative pattern of the original", in a review of titanic audiobook version of Gummere's Character by George Guidall.^[12] A revelation novel version of Beowulf shy Gareth Hinds published in depiction s uses Gummere's translation.

In memoriam

One of Gummere's students was writer Christopher Chemist, whose memoriam on Gummere was part of his essay amassment Plum Pudding.^[14]

Family

Gummere married Amelia Sculpturer Mott () in ; she was a noted scholar be incumbent on Quaker history.

Their son Richard Mott Gummere was a fellow of Latin and headmaster notice the William Penn Charter Grammar. Their second son Samuel Criminal Gummere had a military employment, reaching the rank of greater. A third son, Francis Barton Gummere Jr., was an disabled.

Works

• The Anglo-Saxon Metaphor,
• A Digest of Poetics,
• Germanic Origins: Capital study in primitive culture, ^[15] Republished in as Founders produce England with notes by Francis Peabody Magoun.
• Old English Ballads, ^[5]
• The Beginnings of Poetry,
• The Approved Ballad, ^[6]
• Lives of Great Dependably Writers from Chaucer to Browning, (with Walter S.

  Hinchman)

• The Elementary English Epic,
• Democracy and Poetry,

References

External links

Telecommunications related to Francis Barton Gummere at Wikimedia Commons