Benjamin Jowett, by Max Beerbohm (1922)
First come I. My name is J–w–tt.
There's no knowledge but I know it.
I am Master of this College,
What I don't know isn't knowledge.
—contemporary Balliol rhyme* sending up Benjamin Jowett (1817–93), Master of Balliol College, Oxford
Ben had a love for Flo, and she for him.
How far they got we'll never know.
I doubt they ever had it on:
He translating Plato and Thucydides,
She tending soldiers wounded at Balaclava and Inkerman,
They lacked carnal knowledge of each other,
Seeming content as Bennifer.
Whatever we might think of this,
Probably, they did not kiss.
Happier than friends who err,
They'd think it most impertinent
For folk to wonder how far they went.
You wish to spell the moral out?
No way! Like you, I live in doubt.
Augustus Egg (d. 1863), Unknown Woman. Thought to be a portrait of Florence Nightingale. National Portrait Gallery, London.
September 6, 2024
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