![Frederic William Moorman](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/3d/Frederic_William_Moorman.png)
Frederic William Moorman (1872–1919) was a poet and playwright, and
Professor
Professor (commonly abbreviated as Prof.) is an academic rank at universities and other post-secondary education and research institutions in most countries. Literally, ''professor'' derives from Latin as a "person who professes". Professors ...
of
English Language
English is a West Germanic language of the Indo-European language family, with its earliest forms spoken by the inhabitants of early medieval England. It is named after the Angles, one of the ancient Germanic peoples that migrated to the ...
at the
University of Leeds
, mottoeng = And knowledge will be increased
, established = 1831 – Leeds School of Medicine1874 – Yorkshire College of Science1884 - Yorkshire College1887 – affiliated to the federal Victoria University1904 – University of Leeds
, ...
from 1912 to 1918.
Biography
Moorman grew up in
Devon
Devon ( , historically known as Devonshire , ) is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in South West England. The most populous settlement in Devon is the city of Plymouth, followed by Devon's county town, the city of Exeter. Devo ...
. He married Frances Beatrice Humpidge (1867–1956) and was the father of
John Moorman
John Richard Humpidge Moorman, (born Leeds, Yorkshire, England, 4 June 1905; died Durham, England, 13 January 1989) was an English divine, ecumenist and writer who was Bishop of Ripon from 1959 to 1975.
Early life and education
Born in Leeds, the ...
, who would become
Bishop of Ripon
The Bishop of Ripon is an episcopal title which takes its name after the city of Ripon in North Yorkshire, England. The bishop is one of the area bishops of the Diocese of Leeds in the Province of York. The area bishop of Ripon has oversight o ...
.
Career
Academic and Writing
Following university study in
Strasbourg, Moorman joined the staff of the Yorkshire College,
Leeds
Leeds () is a city and the administrative centre of the City of Leeds district in West Yorkshire, England. It is built around the River Aire and is in the eastern foothills of the Pennines. It is also the third-largest settlement (by popula ...
in 1898;
[A. J. Taylor, 'History at Leeds 1877-1974: The Evolution of a Discipline', ''Northern History'', 10 (1975), 141-64 (at p. 154 n. 43).] the Yorkshire College subsequently became the
University of Leeds
, mottoeng = And knowledge will be increased
, established = 1831 – Leeds School of Medicine1874 – Yorkshire College of Science1884 - Yorkshire College1887 – affiliated to the federal Victoria University1904 – University of Leeds
, ...
in 1904. When a new
Chair was instituted in 1912, Moorman was appointed the university's first Professor of
English Language
English is a West Germanic language of the Indo-European language family, with its earliest forms spoken by the inhabitants of early medieval England. It is named after the Angles, one of the ancient Germanic peoples that migrated to the ...
.
Moorman edited the 1912 edition of Shakespeare's ''
The Winter's Tale
''The Winter's Tale'' is a play by William Shakespeare originally published in the First Folio of 1623. Although it was grouped among the comedies, many modern editors have relabelled the play as one of Shakespeare's late romances. Some crit ...
'' for the
Arden Shakespeare
The Arden Shakespeare is a long-running series of scholarly editions of the works of William Shakespeare. It presents fully edited modern-spelling editions of the plays and poems, with lengthy introductions and full commentaries. There have been t ...
project, published by Methuen, and in 1915 edited ''The Poetical Works of
Robert Herrick'' for Oxford University Press. Moorman was associated with the
Workers' Educational Association
The Workers' Educational Association (WEA), founded in 1903, is the UK's largest voluntary sector provider of adult education and one of Britain's biggest charities. The WEA is a democratic and voluntary adult education movement. It delivers lea ...
and compiled several books of traditional
Yorkshire
Yorkshire ( ; abbreviated Yorks), formally known as the County of York, is a historic county in northern England and by far the largest in the United Kingdom. Because of its large area in comparison with other English counties, functions have ...
stories and poems, some in the
Yorkshire dialect
The Yorkshire dialect (also known as Broad Yorkshire, Tyke, Yorkie or Yorkshire English) is a dialect of English, or continuum of dialects, spoken in the Yorkshire region of Northern England. The dialect has roots in Old English and is influen ...
, alongside scholarly works such as ''The Place-Names of the West Riding of Yorkshire'', ''The Publications of the Thoresby Society'', and ''18'' (Leeds: The Thoresby Society, 1910).
In his 1914 essay for the
English Association
The English Association is a subject association for English dedicated to furthering the study and enjoyment of English language and literature in schools, higher education institutes and amongst the public in general.
It was founded in 1906 by ...
, ‘English Place Names and the Teutonic Sagas’, Moorman suggested his research indicated that Yorkshire was not settled by
Angles
The Angles ( ang, Ængle, ; la, Angli) were one of the main Germanic peoples who settled in Great Britain in the post-Roman period. They founded several kingdoms of the Heptarchy in Anglo-Saxon England. Their name is the root of the name ...
or
Saxons
The Saxons ( la, Saxones, german: Sachsen, ang, Seaxan, osx, Sahson, nds, Sassen, nl, Saksen) were a group of Germanic
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peoples whose name was given in the early Middle Ages to a large country (Old Saxony, la, Saxonia) near the Nor ...
after the end of rule Roman in AD 383, but by a different Germanic tribe, the
Geats. As a consequence, he claimed, it is possible the first work of English literature, ''
Beowulf'', believed to have been composed by Geats, was written in Yorkshire. This interest in Yorkshire's cultural and linguistic history was to be of particular interest to one of Moorman's students at Leeds University, the poet, novelist and art critic
Herbert Read. Read described Moorman as 'the most inspiring teacher in the university.' As a result of his enthusiasm for Moorman, Read also wrote two Yorkshire dialect plays which he gave as a gift to Moorman some time shortly before the
First World War
World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...
.
BBC and Folk Music
Moorman's own plays were performed several times on
BBC Radio
BBC Radio is an operational business division and service of the British Broadcasting Corporation (which has operated in the United Kingdom under the terms of a royal charter since 1927). The service provides national radio stations covering ...
, including ''The Ewe Lamb,'' broadcast on the BBC Home Service (Midlands and North) on 31 December 1931, and ''Throp's Wife,'' on the BBC Home Service (North) on 3 October 1938. In this listing for this in the BBC's listings magazine, ''
Radio Times'', it was stated:
Moorman's poem 'The Dalesman's Litany' also became a standard in folk music circles, appearing on Tim Hart and Maddy Prior's album, ''Folk Songs of Old England Vol. 1'' in 1968, again on Cliff Hasla's 1976 album ''Here's A Health to the Man and the Maid,'' and again in 2011 in Moore Moss Rutter's eponymous album, ''Moore Moss Rutter.
First stanza from Moorman's 'The Dalesman's Litany':
:''From Hull, Halifax, and Hell, good Lord deliver us (a Yorkshire Proverb.)''
:It's hard when fowks can't find their wark
: Wheer they've bin bred an' born;
:When I were young I awlus thowt
: I'd bide 'mong t' roots an' corn.
:But I've bin forced to work i' towns,
: So here's my litany
:Frae Hull, an' Halifax, an' Hell,
: Gooid Lord, deliver me!
Death
Moorman drowned in the
River Skirfare
River Skirfare is a small river in North Yorkshire, England, that flows through Littondale and ends where it joins the larger River Wharfe. The source is the confluence of Foxup Beck and Cosh Beck at the hamlet of Foxup.
The name is of Old N ...
, 'while bathing with his children at Hawkswick, Upper Wharfedale' on September 8, 1919, The Leeds student newspaper ''The Gryphon'' published poems in his memory by
Dorothy Una Ratcliffe
Dorothy Una Ratcliffe (20 April 1887 – 20 November 1967), often known as D.U.R., was a socialite, heiress and author. She wrote in the Yorkshire dialect, despite being born in Sussex and brought up in Surrey. She published 49 books, edited a ma ...
and one 'W.G.' He was succeeded at Leeds in 1920 by
J. R. R. Tolkien
John Ronald Reuel Tolkien (, ; 3 January 1892 – 2 September 1973) was an English writer and philologist. He was the author of the high fantasy works ''The Hobbit'' and ''The Lord of the Rings''.
From 1925 to 1945, Tolkien was the Rawlins ...
.
[''The Letters of J. R. R. Tolkien: A Selection'', ed. by Humphrey Carpenter (London: Allen and Unwin, 1981), no. 46.]
References
External links
F.W. Moorman in Folk Music*
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Moorman, F. W.
English book editors
1872 births
1919 deaths
Academics of the University of Leeds
Writers from Yorkshire
Deaths by drowning