Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Illustrations
- Preface and Acknowledgements
- Abbreviations
- Dramatis Personae
- Miscellaneous Frontmatter
- Introduction: Edward J. Dent – Another Kind of Genius
- 1 The Ribston Pippin 1876–1895
- 2 The Bumptious Undergraduate 1895–1899
- 3 The Accidental Scholar 1899–1901
- 4 The Travelling Fellow 1902–1906
- 5 The Wanderer 1906–1907
- 6 The New Spirit 1907–1910
- 7 The Impresario 1910–1914
- 8 The Pacifist 1914–1918
- 9 The Journalist 1919–1922
- 10 The International Musician 1922–1926
- 11 The Professor 1926–1931
- 12 The Juggler 1931–1934
- 13 The Beleaguered Diplomat 1935–1936
- 14 The Colonial Doctor 1936–1939
- 15 Titurel 1939–1945
- 16 Tityvillus 1946–1957
- Afterword
- Appendix: Dent’s Ulcer
- Select Bibliography
- Index
2 - The Bumptious Undergraduate 1895–1899
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 08 June 2023
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Illustrations
- Preface and Acknowledgements
- Abbreviations
- Dramatis Personae
- Miscellaneous Frontmatter
- Introduction: Edward J. Dent – Another Kind of Genius
- 1 The Ribston Pippin 1876–1895
- 2 The Bumptious Undergraduate 1895–1899
- 3 The Accidental Scholar 1899–1901
- 4 The Travelling Fellow 1902–1906
- 5 The Wanderer 1906–1907
- 6 The New Spirit 1907–1910
- 7 The Impresario 1910–1914
- 8 The Pacifist 1914–1918
- 9 The Journalist 1919–1922
- 10 The International Musician 1922–1926
- 11 The Professor 1926–1931
- 12 The Juggler 1931–1934
- 13 The Beleaguered Diplomat 1935–1936
- 14 The Colonial Doctor 1936–1939
- 15 Titurel 1939–1945
- 16 Tityvillus 1946–1957
- Afterword
- Appendix: Dent’s Ulcer
- Select Bibliography
- Index
Summary
I have loved Cambridge because there I have had a home of my very own and friends to see me.
King’s stood for the Muses en masse. It was reported in other colleges to have celebrated a Bump Supper by marching around the College singing the chorus of a Greek play. Even if the story was only ben trovato, no one … would have told it of any other college.
Certainly no politics are more real than those of academic life, no loves deeper, no hatreds more burning, no principles more sacred.
1895–1896
Dent’s walk through the Gatehouse at King’s College that October, 1895 was not simply a rite of passage, more the first such step in a lifetime of travels that afforded escape and the fresh, foreign ideas that stimulated his boundless curiosity. ‘Life only really begins at university’: Dent often quoted Bismarck’s view, remembering the tall, gangly younger self who had entered King’s with such purpose and sense of liberation. The purpose was not the one for which he had been awarded his Classics scholarship of 80 pounds per annum, but music; the liberation was from his loving family, who – especially his mother – continued to disapprove of his stated career choice. But Dent was separated from Ribston by more than the 150 miles (240 km); the family nickname ‘Joe’ was quickly ditched, and his Eton ‘speaking bags’ sold to Sydney Waterlow. King’s was his first real taste of adult freedom; with his King’s scholarship even more than his Eton scholarship Dent could enjoy some sense of independence, though until his majority most of the bills would still be sent to his mother. ‘Madame’, as he referred to her, found such loose ends vexing, and for years Dent would be on the receiving end of her constant disapprobation:
after lunch received a lengthy oration from mother – in which she abused the two dearest objects of my affections – music & Cambridge – however she was too much out of temper to be open to conviction by argument – so I could only sit & blink at her in silence … A letter from Mother mostly about clothes … A letter from Mother to prepare me for possibly meeting more Buxtons! … A letter from Mother urgently requiring me to have dancing lessons.
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- Information
- Edward J. DentA Life of Words and Music, pp. 19 - 58Publisher: Boydell & BrewerPrint publication year: 2023