The Complete Prose of T. S. Eliot: The Critical EditionVol. 2: The Perfect Critic, 1919-1926

Early Tudor Drama. To the Editor of the TLS

Times Literary Supplement, 1297 (9 Dec 1926) 913

Sir – I must apologise to Dr. Reed for having mistaken a Junius who was only a name in an obscure corner of my memory for a Junius with whom I am on more intimate terms. ¹ I presume that I was misled by the juxtaposition of the name of Junius with that of Dryden, these being, as I supposed, the names of two masters of English prose. Such an error, coming from a scholar of Dr. Reed’s accuracy, astonished me very much; but I should have realized that it was an error of which Dr. Reed was incapable.

At the same time. I must insist that the last paragraph of Dr. Reed’s letter surprises me not a little. To a plain man of letters it is certainly a reversal of values to learn that the scholar of the seventeenth century is “the great Junius” and that the author of the Letters is merely “an anonymous politician of the eighteenth century.”

Another point occurs to me. Has Dr. Reed unwittingly provided a clue to the identity of the Junius he despises? Was Sir Philip Francis also acquainted with the fame of “Francis Junius”? ²

I am, Sir, the reviewer