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SATURDAY, AUGUST 6, 1910. 



AN ACTIVE LIFE. 



Sketch of Dr. W. J. Rolfe Printed in a 

 New York Publication, 



Below will be found so much of an 

 article entitled "Turnivall and Rolfe,'' 

 by Ernest Hunter Wright in the New 

 York Times Saturday Review, as re- 

 lates to Dr. Rolfe. The whole article 

 is intensely interesting 1 . 



Sketch of Dr. Rolfe. 



i Born in Newburyport, December 10, 

 1827, William^ James Rolfe spent most 

 of his boyhood at Lowell, where he pre- 

 pared for college. Having entered Am- 

 herst at the age of 17, he was already 

 showing the talent for languages which 

 distinguished him through life, when 

 lack of means compelled him to cut 

 short his college course and look for 

 work. 



An institution known as Day's Acad- 

 emy, at Wrentham, had gone bank- 

 rupt; and Rolfe was offered the use 

 of the premises rent free if he could 

 resuscitate it. As the only master he 

 was forced to hold some 16 classes 

 dally, and to teach pupils of all ages 

 (between ten and 25 in subjects ranging 

 from elementary grammar to the col- 

 lege entrance requirements in Greek 

 and Latin; and at the end of a day 

 of this he would teach Spanish and 

 Italian to private pupils. 



One may marvel that a pedagogue 

 so situated should have been inspired 

 to introduce another subject, un re- 

 quested! and hitherto untried, into his 

 overloaded curriculum. TSut Rolfe 

 found time to dlo so, and in the act he 

 unwittingly laid the foundation for the 

 work in which he spent most of the 

 remaining 60 years of his life. The 

 subject was the systematic study of 

 the English language and literature 

 through direct contact with English 

 ' classics; and this enterprise attained 

 such importance in the schools through- 

 out the country that its originator was 

 called on to devote hfmself exclusively 

 to the preparation of texts to facili- 

 tate it. 



Today, when such instruction is ad- 

 mittedly essential in any good school 

 curriculum, one is likely to be surprised 

 at finding that it was an innovation as 

 late as 1850. When hie went to Dor- 

 chester to take charge of the Public 

 High School, there was even some op- 

 position to his new-fangled scheme. 

 Harvard gave no entrance examina- 

 tion in the mother tongue, and some I 

 of the school-boys, though acknowledg- 

 ing that they preferred the reading of 

 "The Lady of the Lake" to study of 

 the aorist, were still afraid that the : 

 time spent on their own language 

 would impair their chance of showing 

 a familiarity with that of Xenopbon. 

 So Rolfe wrote to Professor Felton, of 

 Harvard, asking whether some knowl- 

 edge of English might not redeem the 

 possibly resultant deficiencies in 

 Greek. Tb*>. answer illustrates a move- 

 ment in American education which, for 

 good or bad, has not yet spent itself: 

 "Go ahead with the English and let the 

 Greek take care of itself." 



One of these Dorchester students was 

 the late Henry Austin Clapp, after- 

 ward noted as a lecturer and Shake- 

 spearean scholar. Another, Eliza J. 

 Caraw, was married to the master in 

 1856. In the years following Rolfe 

 served as principal in the high schools 

 at Lawrence, Salem and Cambridge, 

 until, in 186S, his editorial work began 

 to demand so much effort that he def- 

 initely gave up the ferule for the pen. 

 Caimlbridige was his home for the re- 

 mainder of his life, and, though he left 

 it as many as 18 times for trips to 

 Europe, he was almost ceaselessly at 

 work on the editions of classics which 

 his innovation had made necessary. 



The demand that followed his edition 

 of "The Merchant of Venice" in 1870 

 amply justified the complete Shake- 

 speare, which he edited, in 40 volumes 

 before 1883 and thoroughly revised 20 

 years later. His edition of Craik's 

 "English of Shakespeare" had preced- 

 ed this; his "SLakespeare the Boy" 

 and his compendious "Life of William 

 Shakespeare" followed it. 



It may be doulbted whether any 

 school edition of Shakespeare has sur- 

 passed that of Rolfe in usefulness, and 

 it is fairly certain that any that may 

 ever dlo so will owe much of its suc- 

 cess, directly or indirectly, to his ex- 

 ample. If his work is not so original 

 as that of Furniivall, neither is it so 

 erratic. If it is frankly compilation in 

 the main, it is among the sanest com- 

 pilations. And if as compilation it is 

 again overshadowed by the work of 

 Dr. Furness, it is easily defended by 

 its purpose; it is a work for students, 

 not for advanced scholars. Its especial 

 purpose it probably serves as well as 

 any edition of Shakespeare has ever 

 served a particular aim. 



