CHRISTABEL FORSYTH FISKE
1869 - 1956
Every one of us who speaks of Christabel Forsyth
Fiske, begins his narrative with, "I shQJ.never
forget." She was one of Vassar's great women. Her
gallant figure crossed the campus as if under full
sail, its course held true by her intense love of
learning and her direct sense of life. She wrote a
nuber of studies on Old English and German Medieval
literatures, English modifications of Teutonic
racial concepts, 16th century and romantic literature.
She was cited by scholars for her knowledge of Milton.
She was learned in languages and belonged to organiza-
tions devoted to their study: the American Dialect
Society, the American Folk Lore Society, the Scan-
dinavian Society, the Modern Language Association.
Two of her works give the key to her quality. In her
essay, Homely Realism in Medieval German Literature in Vassar Medieval Studies of 1923 she says of her findings,
This thread of homespun is but a slender one...
Or to change the metaphor - the plain, quaint
little figure which in true medieval fashion
has gradually become for me the personification
of this intimate, homely phase of the German
mind, has been very inconspicuous, lost con-
tinually among the mystical and romantic per~
sonages thronging fantastically or brilliantly
the pages I have read. Such as it is, however,
it is more in evidence, I think, than in most
other medieval European literatures, and
therefore not nly intrinsically interesting,
but also from the comparative point of view,
at least suggestively significant.
In her last book, Epic Suggestions in the Imagery of the Waverly Novels, published in 1940, she searched
out the heroic element in Sir Walter Scott because,
she says,
... it had been neglected in criticism in favor
of the romantic... In the case of a man of
Scott's caliber, the impact of him on the average
intelligent mind should result in a moderately
well-rounded.. conception of him as a great
English writer.
CHRISTABEL FORSYTH FISKE (Continued)
To have this "moderately well—rounded conception"
required merely that one be aware of the relation-
ships of one person and all society, nature, the
traditions of lanuage and literature, the range
from the folk to the aristocrats, from the romantic
to the heroic.
This search for fullness and balance made her a superb
editor. To her Vassar owes the publication of Vassar
Medieval Studies and the Vassar Journal of Under-
graduate Studies, the most characteristic and original
witness of our achievement in the liberal arts that
has ever been published. Beyond writing; her own
piece for the Vassar Medieval Studies, she edited the
whole volume. Within the quiet, exact words of her
preface one can see her in action. She speaks of
many an illuminating talk with various colleagues
whose work while primarily in classical or in
modern fields, is in certain aspects of it closely
connected with the period here dealt with... They
have cooperated with us; and we have thus a book
somewhat widely representative of outlook upon
the Middle Ages.
The departments represented in the book were English,
French, German, Folk Lore, History, Greek, Latin,
Mathematics, Art, Music.
For fourteen years, 1926-l94O, as she read the papers
of Vassar's students submitted for the Vassar Journal
of Undergraduate Studies, her sure judgment never
flagged. Every meeting of the Committee of the
Journal brought out the flashing sharpness of her
critical faculties, and she could always put into a few
words the gist of the virtues or weaknesses of an essay.
She was always a teacher too while she was editing.
She took infinite pains with the students who wrote
these essays, especially when she felt the student had
capacity to do distinguished work. She was more
interested in helping them to develop their gifts than
in passing judgment on their work. She insisted on
the highest possible standards of writing and research,
involving not only scholarship but also sensitive
imagination.
From 1903-l940 generations of students came to life in
her courses on the history of English literature, her
seminar on Milton, her seminar on Language. Her classes
CHRISTABEL FORSYTH FISKE (Continued)
were rich in scholarship, profound and illumined.
Even students whose background was barren and whose
idea of a college was dim, caught the light on
the past and discovered that Old and Middle English
told them about life.
"She taught me to write a critical paper," says one
of her students thirty years later. ‘So gently too.
But I've never forgotten. She so quietly showed me
that I needn't say ever thin but I must select. She
showed me how to select tfie essentials."Patiently,
without invading the personal dignity of her students
she taught them to write by singling out each one's
exact difficulty or possibility. "I know exactly who
you are," she said to a freshman who in her paper a
few days before had tried to tell the elevated feeling
about coming to college that had suddenly dawned on
her the sumer before. "Your face belongs to this
paper." But when the faces were not alight because
the students had not read the books, much less thought
about them, she was known to slam her book don: on
the desk, announce "I don't think I want to see you
today," and walk out of the room. The effect on their
work was electric.
She was a friend and a presence on the campus. She knew
who was devoted and who lived on the surface. When she
trusted people, her greeting always invited them to
enter a world of justice and truth in which she herself
dwelt.
"When did you get the meaning of academic integrity?"
she would ask a colleague for she was troubled about
her students’ slow recognition of plagiarism. "My
brain is seething," she would say. "Do you know the
difference between Plato and Neo-Platonism?" Or if
she had a great tyranny of today on her mind or the
sufferings of the war or the injustices of the Great
Depression or the bitter fruit of prejudice, she would
seize one who, she knew, cared too and with her eyes
severe and flashing, would say, "Will you explain
clearly to me in a paragraph what is the meaning of
this and what is to be done about it?" Only by chance
did one know that behind the darting questions and the
seething mind was also the long, generous private list
of contributions to many pioneering agencies struggling
to right wrongs.
It worked the other way too. As you saw her coming out
of the library daily, you would ask her about what in
CHRISTABEL FORSYTH FISKE (Continued)
Scott's imagery she had found today, and there
would come clear, sparkling discourse about the
workings of his poetical imagination and perhaps
his whole plan for the aforestation of Scotland.
She was always ready to share the freshness of
experience. But like all original and poetic spirits
amidst the worldly ones, she was a wayfarer....
Nevertheless the fact that she was going somewhere
wonderful inspired the whole college. Her memory
today renews our faith in the course.
Helen Drusilla Lockwood
Charles Griffin
Barbara Swain
XIV - 127-129