English
Be these meer MARCHANT TAYLORS’ fablings of a race referend with oddman rex? Is now all seenheard then forgotten? James Joyce, Finnegan's Wake
So now they have made our English tongue
a gallimaufry or hodgpodge of all other speeches
(The School Poet, Spenser, The Shepherd's Calendar)
For nearly 500 years, MTS has been a centre of excellence in English and English Literature in particular enjoys a special place at the heart of the School's curriculum and its history. Joyce's words above are a reference to Queen Elizabeth I's Poet Laureate, Edmund Spenser, who attended the school. Lyric poet Robert Herrick is also an OMT, once best-known for his Hesperides, his lines "Gather ye rosebuds while ye may"(from To the Virgins to Make Much of time) served as the lynchpin quotation for the Hollywood movie Dead Poet's Society. The (Royalist) poet and playwright James Shirley was also a Merchant Taylor as were the world-famous dramatists Thomas Kyd (The Spanish Tragedy) and John Webster (The Duchess of Malfi, The White Devil). Lancelot Andrewes, Bishop of Winchester, bequeathed to the world the rhythmic English at the heart of his translation of the King James Bible in 1611. John Walter, the founder of The Times, attended the school in the Eighteenth Century and the traditions established then of translation and journalism were maintained in the 20th century by Lord Coggan and John Timpson. More recently, popular authors like Conn Iggulden, James Twining, Paul Sussman and graphic novelist Martin Rowson have all received their education in the literary canon at the School.
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From the sensitively written narrative or poem based on personal experience, to a closely argued interpretation of one of the world’s great literary texts; from a lively role-play based on a scene from Macbeth to a vigorous debate on a contemporary issue - English ranges far and wide.
Where did the English language come from? How do we use it most effectively? How did we use it in the past? What are the models that we might turn to for stylistic guidance? Such questions may be asked directly, or may lie implicitly within what we do in our exploration of this endlessly fascinating subject.
Reading with understanding and discernment, and reading for pleasure; speaking – and listening – with awareness of audience and purpose; attending to all media with alertness and intelligence; writing with clarity, precision, style and verve : these aims are among the most vital that we may aspire to in education. In one important sense, what we work on in English underpins all other subjects, relates to all that we might do in the world around us.
And it is all there to be enjoyed.
Exam Time?
Download English Revision Notes, including Mr. Andrews' notes on American Literature here.
