47 LP VI, p. 123.
48 Warnie’s diary, 9 August 1919. LP VI, p. 161.
49 Albert’s diary, 5 September 1919. LP VI, p. 167.
50 FL, p. 447.
51 Ibid.
52 Ibid., p. 450.
53 Estate of Roger Lancelyn Green.
54 Ibid., p. 479.
55 Ibid., p. 566.
56 ‘C.S. Lewis: 1898–1963’, p. 86.
57 Ibid., p. 87.
58 AMR, pp. ix–x.
59 Dymer (1950), VI, 6–9.
60 Ibid., Preface, p. xiv.
61 FL, p. 591.
62 Ibid., pp. 591–2.
63 Ibid., p. 592.
64 AMR, pp. 39–40.
65 For further details see Narrative Poems, ed. Walter Hooper (1969), n. 1.
66 Dymer, Preface, pp. xi–xii.
67 Bodleian Library, Ms.Eng.Lett.C. 835, Fol. 4.
68 SBJ, ch. 13, p. 155.
69 AMR, p. 48.
70 Ibid., entry for 9–23 September 1922, p. 106.
71 Ibid., p. 118.
72 Ibid., p. 119.
73 Ibid., p. 121.
74 Ibid.
75 Ibid., entry for 7 November 1922, pp. 133–4.
76 LP VII, entry for 15 November 1922, p. 277.
77 AMR, entry for 19 November 1922, p. 139.
78 Ibid., entry for 18 January 1923, p. 181.
79 Ibid., entry for 26 January 1923, p. 185.
80 Ibid., entry for 2 February 1923, p. 189.
81 Ibid., entry for 11 February 1923, pp. 194–5.
82 SBJ, ch. 14, p. 165.
83 Nevill Coghill, ‘The Approach to English’, Light on C.S. Lewis, ed. Jocelyn Gibb (1965) pp. 54–5.
84 AMR, entry for 1 June 1923, pp. 240–1.
85 FL, p. 611.
86 AMR, entry for 10 July 1923, p. 256.
It might be thought that C.S. Lewis, with a Double First in Classics and a First in English, to say nothing of the Chancellor’s Prize and a published volume of verse, would have found a fellowship waiting for him in the autumn of 1923. But the post-war ‘bulge’ was at its worst, no college seemed to appreciate his outstanding merits as a tutor and lecturer – they were, of course, still represented only by his examination results – and he still had two years of struggle and anxiety before him.
F.P. Wilson suggested a postgraduate degree, B.Litt. or D.Phil., and Lewis was tempted by the idea. Just after the results of his finals came out, in mid-July 1923, he went to tea with Wilson. ‘He asked me if I had a book in my head. I said at first “No – unless you mean an epic poem”, but afterwards trotted out various schemes which have been more or less in my mind. He thought my idea of a study of the Romantic Epic from its beginnings down to Spenser, with a side glance at Ovid, a good one: but too long for a research degree …’1
It seems that anxiety over the future and the need to earn money to keep his establishment at Headington going prevented Lewis from following up Wilson’s suggestion. The book finally materialized as The Allegory of Love (1936), but no real start could be made on it until some time after he had achieved his fellowship at Magdalen. ‘Domestic drudgery is excellent as an alternative to idleness or to hateful thoughts,’ he wrote