ABSTRACT
Literary research is not the peculiar prerogative of young men or women reading for a higher degree. Many of the great names in English scholarship – from Edmond Malone to E. K. Chambers – were self-taught amateurs, whose intensive studies were a spare-time avocation. The point is not likely to be disputed. A hurried reporter is not expected or encouraged to quote his authorities, or indeed any of his evidence, with minute accuracy. It is sufficient in Fleet Street – if the ‘story’, reported or concocted, is a good enough one – to be approximately correct; originality in investigation and profundity of analysis are qualities the journalist learns to avoid because they waste time. Eliot refused to commit himself on any parallel evolution in the growing girl, who presumably does often share the boys’ enthusiasm for 'martial and sanguinary poetry’.
