Matthew Arnold

The most characteristic work of the English poet and critic Matthew Arnold (1822-1888) deals with the difficulty of preserving personal values in a world drastically transformed by industrialism, science, and democracy.

Matthew Arnold was born at Laleham on the Thames on Dec. 24, 1822. His father, Dr. Thomas Arnold, one of the worthies whom Lytton Strachey was to portray somewhat critically in Eminent Victorians, became the celebrated master of Rugby School, and his ideals of Christian education were influential. As a young man, Matthew Arnold saw something of William Wordsworth, Robert Southey, and other veterans of English romanticism. Educated at Rugby and then at Balliol College, Oxford, he early began to write poetry. The closest friend of his youth was Arthur Hugh Clough, a poet and sometime disciple of Dr. Arnold, whose death Matthew Arnold would later mourn in his elegy "Thyrsis."

In 1844 Arnold took a second-class honors degree at Oxford, and the following year he was elected to a fellowship at Oriel College. After some teaching he became private secretary to Lord Lansdowne, who eventually had him appointed to an inspectorship of schools, a difficult, demanding job which required Arnold to do a good deal of traveling and which he held for most of his life.

Several of Arnold's early poems express his hopeless love for a girl he calls Marguerite. Scholars have been unable to identify an original for this girl, and whether she existed at all is a question. In 1851 Arnold married Frances Lucy Wightman, the daughter of a judge. The marriage was a happy one, and some of Arnold's most attractive poems are addressed to his children.

Career as a Poet

In 1849 Arnold, under the pseudonym "A," published a collection of short lyric poems called The Strayed Reveller; the sale was poor and the book was withdrawn. In 1852 he published another collection, Empedocles on Etna and Other Poems, but this too, after a sale of 50 copies, was withdrawn. Two poems in this collection, however, require special notice. The first, "Empedocles on Etna," is in dramatic form, though it consists mostly of a series of monologues in which the hero, a Sicilian philosopher, meditates on the transient glories and satisfactions of human life and then throws himself into the volcano. The second is Arnold's long poem on Tristram and Iseult, which again uses the monologue form. Tristram, watched over by Iseult of Brittany, is dying; he remembers his past happiness with Iseult of lreland, who arrives just before he dies for a brief, passionate reunion.

In 1853 Arnold published a collection called simply Poems; it included poems from the two earlier collections as well as others never before published, notably "Sohrab and Rustum" and "The Scholar Gypsy." The former is a short epic; in style it is frequently reminiscent of John Milton but very beautiful in its own right. The Persian hero Rustum has never seen his son Sohrab, who is raised by the Tatars and becomes one of the bravest of their warriors. The two men meet in single combat, and just as the son recognizes his father, the former falls dead. "The Scholar Gypsy" is based on an old story of an Oxford student who left his university and joined a gypsy band; his spirit is supposed still to haunt the Oxford countryside. The poem contrasts the life of the legendary gypsy with Arnold's own times, which he finds sick, divided, and distracting.

Poems: Second Series (1855) includes another small blank-verse epic, "Balder Dead." Arnold takes his subject from Norse mythology. Balder, god of the sun, has been killed by a trick of the evil Loki, god of mischief. The gods mourn his death, and Hermod goes to the land of the shades to persuade Hela to return Balder to the land of the living. Hela agrees on condition that all living things mourn for Balder; and so they do, with the fatal exception of Loki. Balder is resigned to his death, and at the conclusion of the poem there is a promise of better things when this generation of gods has passed away.

In 1857 Arnold was elected to the professorship of poetry at Oxford, and he held this post for the next decade. He was the first professor of poetry to give his lectures in English rather than in Latin.

In 1858 Arnold published Merope, a classical tragedy, which concerns the revenge of a young man on a tyrant who has killed the young man's father and married his mother. New Poems (1867) includes "Thyrsis: A Monody," the pastoral elegy in which Arnold again celebrates the Oxford countryside and mourns the death of his friend Clough. The poem invites comparison with other great classical elegies in English—for example, Milton's "Lycidas" and Percy Bysshe Shelley's "Adonais." In 1869 Arnold collected his poems in two volumes. An important new poem is "Rugby Chapel," in which he pays tribute to his father. Although Arnold wrote both epic and dramatic poetry, his best poems are probably his lyrics, such poems as "Dover Beach," "To Marguerite—Continued," and "The Buried Life."

Literary and Social Criticism

In 1861 Arnold published his lectures On Translating Homer and in the next year On Translating Homer: Last Words. He first isolates the main characteristics of the Homeric style and then consides a number of translations of Homer and the degree of their success in duplicating these characteristics in English. The books are lively introductions to classical poetry and urge English writers to imitate Homer's "grand style."

Arnold's two-volume Essays in Criticism (1865 and 1888) includes essays on a variety of writers—Marcus Aurelius, Heinrich Heine, Leo Tolstoy, and Wordsworth among them. His critical essays are concerned with the discipline and preservation of taste at a time when literary standards were threatened by commercialism and mass education. With schoolmasterly repetitiousness Arnold attacks English provincialism, or "Philistinism" as he calls it. He particularly values the quality of "high seriousness," an author's power to concentrate on the perpetually important issues in human life. Arnold suggests that his readers keep always in mind certain sublime moments in literature which will serve as "touchstones" in the judgment of contemporary work.

Of the several books which Arnold wrote on politics and sociology the most important is Culture and Anarchy (1869). He criticizes 19th-century English politicians for their lack of purpose and their excessive concern with the machinery of society. The English people—and the narrow-minded middle class in particular—lack "sweetness and light," a phrase which Arnold borrowed from Jonathan Swift. England can only be saved by the development of "culture," which for Arnold means the free play of critical intelligence, a willingness to question all authority and to make judgments in a leisurely and disinterested way.

Of the four books in which Arnold dealt with the threat to religion posed by science and historical scholarship, the most important is Literature and Dogma (1873). He argues that the Bible has the importance of a supremely great literary work, and as such it cannot be discredited by charges of historical inaccuracy. And the Church, like any other time-honored social institution, must be reformed with care and with a sense of its historical importance to English culture.

Arnold was one of the great Victorian controversialists, and his books are contributions to a national discussion of literature, religion, and education. His style is witty, ironic, and varied; he exhorts his readers, chides them, even teases them. His books were widely read, and in the magazines in which he regularly published he defended his views against all comers. In 1883 and 1886 he toured the United States and gave lectures, in which he tried to win Americans to the cause of culture.

On April 15, 1888, Arnold went to Liverpool to meet his beloved daughter, and he died there of a sudden heart attack.

Further Reading

Two important collections of Arnold's letters are Letters of Matthew Arnold, 1848-1888, edited by George W.E. Russell (2 vols., 1895-1896), and The Letters of Matthew Arnold to Arthur Hugh Clough, edited by Howard Foster Lowry (1932). The standard introduction to Arnold is Lionel Trilling, Matthew Arnold (1939; 2d ed. 1949). A more recent critical study, synthesizing earlier views, is William A. Madden, Matthew Arnold: A Study of the Aesthetic Temperament in Victorian England (1967). Two excellent works devoted to Arnold's poetry are Wendell Stacy Johnson, The Voices of Matthew Arnold: An Essay in Criticism (1961), and A. Dwight Culler, Imaginative Reason: The Poetry of Matthew Arnold (1966). A contrasting approach to the poems is G. Robert Stange, Matthew Arnold: The Poet as Humanist (1967).

More specialized works include William Robbins, The Ethical Idealism of Matthew Arnold (1959); Patrick McCarthy, Matthew Arnold and the Three Classes (1964); and Warren D. Anderson, Matthew Arnold and the Classical Tradition (1965). "Matthew Arnold" in T.S. Eliot, The Use of Poetry and the Use of Criticism (1932; 2d ed. 1964), is an examination of Arnold by an influential 20th-century critic. □

Matthew Arnold 1822–88, English poet and critic, son of the educator Dr. Thomas Arnold .

Arnold was educated at Rugby; graduated from Balliol College, Oxford in 1844; and was a fellow of Oriel College, Oxford in 1845. In 1851, after a period as secretary to the 3d marquess of Lansdowne, Arnold was appointed inspector of schools, a position he held until 1886, two years before his death. During his tenure he went on a number of missions to European schools. He was impressed with some educational systems on the Continent—most particularly the concept of state-regulated secondary education—and wrote several works about them.

His first volume of poems, The Strayed Reveller, appeared in 1849; it was followed by Empedocles on Etna (1852). Dissatisfied with both works, he withdrew them from circulation. Poems (1853) contained verse from the earlier volumes as well as new poems, including "The Scholar Gypsy" and "Sohrab and Rustum."Poems: Second Series appeared in 1855 and was followed by Merope: A Tragedy (1858) and New Poems (1867); the latter volume included "Thyrsis," his famous elegy on Arthur Hugh Clough .

Arnold's verse is characterized by restraint, directness, and symmetry. Though he believed that poetry should be objective, his verse exemplifies the romantic pessimism of the 19th cent., an age torn between science and religion. His feelings of spiritual isolation are reflected in such poems as "Dover Beach" and "Isolation: To Marguerite."

Matthew Arnold was also one of the most important literary critics of his age. From 1857 to 1867 he was Professor of Poetry at Oxford; during this time he wrote his first books of criticism, including On Translating Homer (1861), Essays in Criticism (1865; Ser. 2, 1888), and On the Study of Celtic Literature (1867). In Culture and Anarchy (1869) and Friendship's Garland (1871) he widened his field to include social criticism. Arnold's interest in religion resulted in St. Paul and Protestantism (1870), Literature and Dogma (1873), and Last Essays on Church and Religion (1877). In the 1880s he gave several lectures in the United States, which were published as Discourses in America (1885).

Arnold was the apostle of a new culture, one that would pursue perfection through a knowledge and understanding of the best that has been thought and said in the world. He attacked the taste and manners of 19th-century English society, particularly as displayed by the "Philistines," the narrow and provincial middle class. Strongly believing that the welfare of a nation is contingent upon its intellectual life, he proclaimed that intellectual life is best served by an unrestricted, objective criticism that is free from personal, political, and practical considerations.

Bibliography: See various editions of his letters; his poetical works (ed. by C. B. Tinker and H. F. Lowry, 1950); his complete prose works (ed. by R. H. Super, 1960–72, 8 vol.); his notebooks (ed. by H. F. Lowry et al., 1950); biographies by E. K. Chambers (1947, repr. 1964), L. Trilling (rev. ed. 1949, repr. 1979), P. Honan (1983), M. Allot and R. H. Sugar (1987), N. Murray (1997); and I. Hamilton (1998); studies by D. G. James (1961), H. C. Duffin (1963), E. Alexander (1965), A. D. Culler (1966), G. Stange (1967), and D. Bush (1971).

Arnold, Matthew (1822–88), eldest son of Thomas Arnold, was educated at Rugby, Winchester, and at Balliol College, Oxford, where he formed a close friendship with Clough, and won the Newdigate prize with a poem on Cromwell. He became a fellow of Oriel College. In 1851 he became an inspector of schools, in which capacity he served for 35 years. His first volume of poems, The Strayed Reveller, and Other Poems (by ‘A’, 1849), contains ‘The Forsaken Merman’, ‘The Sick King in Bokhara’, and sonnets written at Balliol, including ‘Shakespeare’. In 1851 he married Fanny Lucy Wightman; part of ‘Dover Beach’ (1867) dates from his honeymoon. Empedocles on Etna, and Other Poems (1852) contained ‘Tristram and Iseult’ and some of the ‘Marguerite’ poems, including ‘Yes! in the sea of life enisled’. In 1853 appeared a volume of poems containing extracts from earlier books, and ‘Sohrab and Rustum’, ‘The Scholar-Gipsy’, ‘Memorial Verses to Wordsworth’, and ‘Stanzas in Memory of the Author of “Obermann”’, which show how profoundly Arnold had been affected by Senancour's novel. Poems, Second Series, including ‘Balder Dead’ appeared in 1855; Merope, a Tragedy in 1858; and New Poems, including ‘Thyrsis’, ‘Rugby Chapel’, and ‘Heine's Grave’, in 1867.

In his maturity Arnold turned increasingly to prose, writing essays on literary, educational, and social topics that established him as the leading critic of the day and which greatly influenced writers as diverse as Max Weber, T. S. Eliot, Leavis, and R. Williams. His lectures on translating Homer, with his definition of ‘the grand style’ (delivered in 1860, while he was professor of poetry at Oxford) were published in 1861; Essays in Criticism (First Series) in 1865 (Second Series, 1888); On the Study of Celtic Literature in 1867; Culture and Anarchy in 1869; Friendship's Garland in 1871; Literature and Dogma, a study of the interpretation of the Bible, in 1873. In these and other works, Arnold sharply criticized the provincialism, Philistinism, sectarianism, and utilitarian materialism of English life and culture, and argued that England needed more intellectual curiosity, more ideas, and a more comparative, European outlook.

Special reference is due to Arnold's attempts to secure the improvement of education, particularly secondary education, in England. In 1859 and 1865 he visited the Continent to study educational systems, and produced reports arguing that England badly needed more educational organization and could learn much from European models.

Arnold, Matthew (1822–88). Poet and critic. Son of Thomas Arnold, headmaster of Rugby school, Matthew was educated also at Winchester and Oxford, before election to an Oriel fellowship (1845). From 1851 to 1883 he was an inspector of schools, sent to study systems in Europe, and became a leading propagandist for improved secondary education in England. Emerging as a mature poet by 1853, with a recognizably Celtic temperament (from his mother), he was professor of poetry at Oxford 1857–67, but subsequently turned to literary then social criticism. He broadened the accepted form of the critical essay, and in Culture and Anarchy (1869) famously classified English society into ‘Barbarians, Philistines and Populace’ as it lagged behind continental ideas; refusal to comply with Victorian complacency about England's perceived world-wide supremacy was unforgivable to many. Arnold's religious liberalism found voice in subsequent works which sought to free Christianity from doctrinal lumber, despite his own admiration for Newman.

A. S. Hargreaves

Arnold, Matthew (1822–88) English poet and critic. Arnold held the Oxford chair in poetry (1857–67). A school inspector (1851–86), his writings include literary criticism, such as Essays in Criticism (series 1, 1865; series 2, 1888), and social studies, such as Culture and Anarchy (1869), as well as classic Victorian poems, such as “Dover Beach” and “The Scholar Gypsy”. His theories about the social and moral benefits of culture were largely responsible for the establishment of English literature as a “core” subject in schools and universities.

Arnold, Matthew (1822–88). Poet and critic. Son of Thomas Arnold, headmaster of Rugby School, Matthew was educated also at Winchester and Oxford, before election to an Oriel fellowship (1845). From 1851 to 1883 he was an inspector of schools. Emerging as a mature poet by 1853, he was professor of poetry at Oxford 1857–67. He broadened the accepted form of the critical essay, and in Culture and Anarchy (1869) famously classified English society into ‘Barbarians, Philistines and Populace’.

Arnold, Matthew (1822–88), poet and literary critic. The eldest son of T. Arnold, from 1851 to 1883 he was a Government Inspector of Schools; from 1857 to 1867 he was also Professor of Poetry at Oxford. He held that religion should be concerned with conduct and not speculation. Christianity stressed personal rather than national conduct and suffused morality with emotion and so with happiness.

Arnold, Matthew (1822–88), English poet, critic, and educator, visited the U.S. in 1883 and again in 1886, at which times he delivered the lectures collected in Discourses in America (1885) and gathered the impressions on which he based his essays in Civilization in the United States (1888).