William Johnson Cory

William Johnson Cory (1823 - 1892, born William Johnson) was a poet, born at Torrington, and educated at Eton, where he was afterwards a renowned master, nicknamed Tute (short for "tutor") by his pupils. He was a brilliant writer of Latin verse. His chief poetical work is Ionica, a collection including homoerotic and pederastic poems in which he showed a true lyrical gift.

Considered an exemplary school teacher, he strove to educate boys who might become future leaders, and numbered among his former students members of Parliament, cabinet ministers and several prime ministers, among whom Lord Rosebery.

Teaching and writings

As a pedagogue he insisted on the centrality of personal ties between teacher and student. The historian G. W. Prothero described him as "the most brilliant Eton tutor of his day." Arthur Coleridge described him as "the wisest master who has ever been at Eton." In 1872 he resigned from his position at Eton under a cloud of suspicion for improper relations with boys. Afterwards he adopted the name "Cory," married, became a father and eventually set up house in London. He maintained contact with many of his close students.

Previously, in 1858, he had published a book of Uranian poems, Ionica, written in 1850 in the space of two weeks and dedicated to one of his pupils, the "pretty-faced" Charles Wood, later Lord Halifax. The second part, titled Ionica II was privately printed in 1877. John Addington Symonds was deeply moved by the book and wrote Johnson seeking advice about his analogous feelings, receiving in response

A long epistle on paiderastia in modern times, defending it and laying down the principle that affection between people of the same sex is no less natural and rational than the ordinary passionate relations.

Cory is well noted for a letter in which he poignantly and succinctly articulates the purpose of education. His words are taken by many as a justification for studying Latin. The full quotation goes thus:

At school you are engaged not so much in acquiring knowledge as in making mental efforts under criticism. A certain amount of knowledge you can indeed with average faculties acquire so as to retain; nor need you regret the hours you spent on much that is forgotten, for the shadow of lost knowledge at least protects you from many illusions. But you go to a great school not so much for knowledge as for arts and habits; for the habit of attention, for the art of expression, for the art of assuming at a moment's notice a new intellectual position, for the art of entering quickly into another person's thoughts, for the habit of submitting to censure and refutation, for the art of indicating assent or dissent in graduated terms, for the habit of regarding minute points of accuracy, for the art of working out what is possible in a given time, for taste, for discrimination, for mental courage, and for mental soberness. Above all, you go to a great school for self-knowledge.

In 1924, an entire book devoted to Cory was printed, entitled Ionicus. The author was Reginald Baliol Brett, 2nd Viscount Esher, one of the most eminent and powerful men of his time. The boy Reginald had begun a correspondence with Cory at the age of 16, and continued it until the time of Cory's death, a sign of very high esteem, indeed. The dedication mentions three Prime Ministers (Rosebery, Balfour, and Asquith) "who at Eton learnt the elements of high politics from IONICUS."

External links

• Michael Matthew Kaylor, Secreted Desires: The Major Uranians: Hopkins, Pater and Wilde (2006), a 500-page scholarly volume that considers the prominent Victorian writers of Uranian poetry and prose, such as Johnson (the author has made this volume available in a free, open-access, PDF version).

 This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Cousin, John William (1910). A Short Biographical Dictionary of English Literature. London: J. M. Dent & Sons – via Wikisource.