William Henry Schofield (1870–1920) was an American academic, founder of the ''Harvard Studies in Comparative Literature''. He was professor of

comparative literature Comparative literature is an academic field dealing with the study of literature and cultural expression across linguistic, national, geographic, and disciplinary boundaries. Comparative literature "performs a role similar to that of the study ...

Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher le ...

, and president of the American-Scandinavian Foundation (1916–1919). He taught

Old Norse Old Norse, Old Nordic, or Old Scandinavian, is a stage of development of North Germanic languages, North Germanic dialects before their final divergence into separate Nordic languages. Old Norse was spoken by inhabitants of Scandinavia and t ...

at Harvard from 1900 and from 1906 was director of the new Comparative Literature department. Victoria College, B.A. 1889; Harvard University PhD 1895; Professor of Comparative Literature Harvard University, 1906–20; Harvard Exchange Professor at University of Berlin, 1907; Lecturer at the Sorbonne and University of Copenhagen, 1910. Harvard Exchange Professor at Western Colleges, 1918. Information taken from a bookplate from Victoria University Library (Toronto, Ontario, Canada); book purchased from The Schofield Fund in memory of William Henry Schofield. Accession date: Jan. 27, 1937. itle : The Blickling homilies

Works

Some of the best known are volume II in ''Harvard Studies in Comparative Literature'', ''Chivalry in English Literature'', published 1912 and on

Chaucer Geoffrey Chaucer (; – 25 October 1400) was an English poet, author, and civil servant best known for '' The Canterbury Tales''. He has been called the "father of English literature", or, alternatively, the "father of English poetry". He w ...

Malory Sir Thomas Malory was an English writer, the author of ''Le Morte d'Arthur'', the classic English-language chronicle of the Arthurian legend, compiled and in most cases translated from French sources. The most popular version of ''Le Morte d'Ar ...

, Spenser and

Shakespeare William Shakespeare ( 26 April 1564 – 23 April 1616) was an English playwright, poet and actor. He is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's nation ...

, and volume V in the same series, ''Mythical Bards and The Life of William Wallace'' published 1920, about

Blind Harry Blind Harry ( 1440 – 1492), also known as Harry, Hary or Henry the Minstrel, is renowned as the author of ''The Actes and Deidis of the Illustre and Vallyeant Campioun Schir William Wallace'', more commonly known as '' The Wallace''. This wa ...

, Major's evidence, Master Blair and

William Wallace Sir William Wallace ( gd, Uilleam Uallas, ; Norman French: ; 23 August 1305) was a Scottish knight who became one of the main leaders during the First War of Scottish Independence. Along with Andrew Moray, Wallace defeated an English army a ...

. Both were published by the Harvard University Press. The ''Studies on the Libeaus Desconus'' (1895) was later used to track Malory's sources. In this work on the ''

Libeaus Desconus ''Libeaus Desconus'' is a 14th-century Middle English version of the popular " Fair Unknown" story. Its author is thought to be Thomas Chestre. The story matter displays strong parallels to that of Renaut de Beaujeu's ''Le Bel Inconnu''; both ver ...

'', Schofield argued that the original of the ''

Fair Unknown Sir Gingalain (Guinglain, Gingalin, Gliglois, Wigalois, etc.), also known as Le Bel Inconnu, or The Fair Unknown, is a character from Arthurian legend whose exploits are recorded in numerous versions of a popular medieval romance. His nickname di ...

'' theme was

Perceval Percival (, also spelled Perceval, Parzival), alternatively called Peredur (), was one of King Arthur's legendary Knights of the Round Table. First mentioned by the French author Chrétien de Troyes in the tale ''Perceval, the Story of the ...

.http://www.lib.rochester.edu/camelot/Fair%20Unknown.htm *''The source and history of the seventh novel of the seventh day in the Decameron'' (1893) *''Studies on the Libeaus Desconus'' (1895) *''The lay of

Guingamor ''Guingamor'' is an anonymous medieval lai about a knight who leaves the court of his uncle, a king, because the queen has sent him off to hunt for a white boar. By offering a reward for the boar's head, she hopes to get rid of the protagonist Gui ...

'' (1897) *''The Home of the Eddic Poems with Especial Reference to the Helgi-Lays'' by

Sophus Bugge Elseus Sophus Bugge (5 January 1833 – 8 July 1907) was a Norwegian philologist and linguist. His scholarly work was directed to the study of runic inscriptions and Norse philology. Bugge is best known for his theories and his work on the runic ...

(1899) translator *''The lays of Graelent and Lanval and the story of Wayland'' (1900) *''Ibsen's Masterbuilder'' (1900) *''Chaucer's Franklin's tales'' (1901) *''Signy's lament'' (1902) *''The story of Horn and Rimenhild'' (1903) *''The nature and fabric of the Pearl'' (1904) *''English literature : from the Norman conquest to Chaucer'' (1906) *''Symbolism, allegory, and autobiography in the Pearl'' (1909) *''Romance, vision & satire : English alliterative poems of the 14th century'' (1912) with Jessie Weston *''Chivalry in English literature : Chaucer, Malory, Spenser, and Shakespeare'' (1912) *''The sea-battle in Chaucer's Legend of Cleopatra'' (1913) *''The chief historical error in Barbour's Bruce'' (1916) *''An American international institute for education'' (1918) *''Mythical bards and The life of William Wallace'' (1920)

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Schofield, William Henry 1870 births 1920 deaths Harvard University alumni Harvard University faculty