Jump to content

Nevill Coghill

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
For the recipient of the Victoria Cross, see Nevill Coghill (VC).

Nevill Henry Kendal Aylmer Coghill FRSL (19 April 1899[1] – 6 November 1980) was an Anglo-Irish literary scholar, known especially for his modern-English version of Geoffrey Chaucer's Canterbury Tales.[2] He was an associate of the literary discussion group the 'Inklings', which included J. R. R. Tolkien and C. S. Lewis.

Nevill Henry Kendal Aylmer Coghill
Born
(19 April 1899– 6 November 1980)
CitizenshipAnglo-Irish
OccupationLinguistic
Known forModern-English Version
PartnerEgerton Coghill (Father)
Academic background
Alma materHaileybury & Exeter College Oxford
Academic work
InstitutionsUniversity of Oxford Royal Field Artillery

Early life and education

[edit]

His father was Sir Egerton Coghill, 5th Baronet[1] and his younger brother the actor Ambrose Coghill. Nevill was named after his uncle, Nevill Coghill, who was awarded the Victoria Cross posthumously at the Battle of Isandlwana.[3]

Coghill was educated at Haileybury, and read History and English at Exeter College, Oxford. In 1924 he became a Fellow of the college, a position he held until 1957,[1] and there is a small bust of him in the college chapel. He served with the Royal Field Artillery in the First World War from 1917 to 1919[1] and was commissioned as a second lieutenant in April 1918.[4] In 1927 he married Elspeth Nora Harley, with whom he had a daughter; the marriage was dissolved in 1933.[1] In 1948, he was made Professor of Rhetoric at Gresham College. He was Merton Professor of English Literature at the University of Oxford from 1957 to 1966. He died in November 1980.

Later career

[edit]

His Chaucer and Langland translations were first made for BBC radio broadcasts. He was well known during his time as a theatrical producer and director in Oxford; he is noted particularly as the director of the Oxford University Dramatic Society 1949 production of The Tempest. He was an associate of the literary discussion group the 'Inklings',[5] which was attended by a number of notable Oxford Dons, including J. R. R. Tolkien and C. S. Lewis, as well as Oxford alumnus Owen Barfield.

In 1968, he collaborated with Martin Starkie to co-write the West-End and Broadway musical Canterbury Tales. The musical was a great success internationally, receiving four Tony nominations.[6] In 1973, the same team collaborated on a sequel The Homeward Ride comprising more of Chaucer's Tale.[7]

In a memoir, Reynolds Price writes:

Nevill himself was born in 1899, served in the First War, married, fathered a daughter, then separated from his wife and lived a quietly homosexual life thereafter. He later spoke to me of several romances with men, but he apparently never established a residence with any of them; and until his retirement from Oxford, he always lived in his college rooms.[8]

Works

[edit]
  • The Pardon of Piers Plowman (1945)[9]
  • The Masque of Hope (1948)[10]
  • Visions from Piers Plowman (1949)[11]
  • The Poet Chaucer (1949; 2nd ed. 1967)[12]
  • The Canterbury Tales: Translated into Modern English (1952)[13]
  • Geoffrey Chaucer (1956)[14]
  • Shakespeare's Professional Skills (1964)[15]
  • Langland: Piers Plowman (1964)[16]
  • Troilus and Criseyde: Translated into Modern English (1971)[17]
  • Chaucer's Idea of What Is Noble (1971)[18]
  • Collected Papers (1988)[19]
  • Doctor Faustus (adaptation), (1967)

See also

[edit]

References

[edit]
  1. ^ a b c d e Levens, R.G.C., ed. (1964). Merton College Register 1900-1964. Oxford: Basil Blackwell. p. 486.
  2. ^ Papers of Nevill Coghill 193079 Archived 16 July 2011 at the Wayback Machine, Archives Hub Archived 20 February 2014 at the Wayback Machine, UK.
  3. ^ "Why Don't More People Know about C.S. Lewis' Friend Nevill Coghill?".
  4. ^ "No. 30684". The London Gazette (Supplement). 14 May 1918. p. 5811.
  5. ^ no byline (1985). "The Inklings". Christian History (7).
  6. ^ "Canterbury Tales – Broadway Musical – Original". www.ibdb.com. Archived from the original on 22 December 2021. Retrieved 15 May 2021.
  7. ^ "About the Trust". The Chaucer Heritage Trust. 10 April 2017. Retrieved 25 April 2023.
  8. ^ Price, Reynolds (2012). Ardent Spirits. Scribner. p. 128. ISBN 978-0743291903.
  9. ^ "16. Nevill Coghill, The Pardon of Piers Plowman (Proceedings of the British Academy, 1945)", Essays and Explorations: Studies in Ideas, Language, and Literature, Harvard University Press, pp. 283–288, 1 October 2013, doi:10.4159/harvard.9780674733046.c21/html?lang=en&srsltid=afmbooo3jhnd4r916jp-cphzfl7nzfeufytoht7qnb8m7y8bbsa57xpi, ISBN 978-0-674-73304-6, retrieved 6 March 2025
  10. ^ "The Masque of Hope by Coghill, Neville: Very Good Hardcover (1948) First Edition. | Structure, Verses, Agency Books". www.abebooks.com. Retrieved 6 March 2025.
  11. ^ Langland, William; Coghill, Nevill (1950). Visions from Piers Plowman. New York: Oxford University Press.
  12. ^ Coghill Nevill (1949). The Poet Chaucer.
  13. ^ "Geoffrey Chaucer the Canterbury Tales Translated by Nevill Coghill - AbeBooks". www.abebooks.com. Retrieved 6 March 2025.
  14. ^ "The Canterbury Tales - Complete in 2 volumes : Translated into modern English by Nevill Coghill by Chaucer, Geoffrey | Hardcover | 1956 | London : Folio Society | Biblio". www.biblio.com. Retrieved 6 March 2025.
  15. ^ Wickham, Glynne (1966). "Review of Shakespeare's Professional Skills". The Review of English Studies. 17 (67): 312–314. ISSN 0034-6551.
  16. ^ "Langland: Piers Plowman / by Nevill Coghill - Catalogue | National Library of Australia". catalogue.nla.gov.au. Retrieved 6 March 2025.
  17. ^ "Troilus and Criseyde; translated into modern English by Nevill Coghill". catalog.library.vanderbilt.edu. Retrieved 6 March 2025.
  18. ^ Coghill, Nevill (28 March 2017). "Chaucer's Idea of What is Noble: Presidential Address, 1971". W. H. Auden Collection.
  19. ^ Coghill, Nevill (1988). The collected papers of Nevill Coghill, Shakespearian & medievalist. Internet Archive. Sussex : Harvester Press ; New York : St. Martin's Press. ISBN 978-0-312-01672-2.

Further reading

[edit]
  • John Lawlor and W. H. Auden, editors (1966). To Nevill Coghill from Friends. Festschrift.
  • Glyer, Diana (2007). The Company They Keep: C. S. Lewis and J. R. R. Tolkien as Writers in Community. ISBN 978-0-87338-890-0
[edit]
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Nevill_Coghill&oldid=1279936164"