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October 2008

Auden's cheery bishop

by Jeremy Bernstein

On Ernest William Barnes, the Anglican Bishop of Birmingham.

Rhyme-royal’s difficult enough to play.
But if no classics as in Chaucer’s day,
At least my modern pieces shall be cheery
Like English bishops on the Quantum Theory.

—W. H. Auden, “Letter to Lord Byron”

Ah, my Lord of Birmingham, come in, sit on the fire and anticipate the judgement of the Universal Church.
—The Rt. Rev. Herbert Hensley Henson, Bishop of Durham

I like the company of men of science: they are not excessively intellectual in their hours of leisure and they give good dinners.
—The Rt. Rev. E. W. Barnes, Bishop of Birmingham[1]

In the fall of 1957, I began what turned out to be a two-year membership at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton. This was a banner time ...

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Jeremy Bernstein


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This article originally appeared in The New Criterion, Volume 27 October 2008, on page 21

Copyright © 2009 The New Criterion | www.newcriterion.com

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