The Shakespeare Conference: SHK 13.1079  Saturday, 20 April 2002

From:           John Velz <
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Date:           Thursday, 18 Apr 2002 14:13:40 -0500
Subject:        Tennyson as Shakespeare

A *New York Times* story (Th, Apr. 18, A1 cont. on A18) on the scandal
of pedophilia in the Boston Roman Catholic Archdiocese contains this
paragraph that made me laugh aloud:  "In one letter, Father [John B.]
McCormack [then a staffer in the Boston Archdiocese, now Bishop of
Manchester, N.H.], who was a seminary classmate of Father [Paul R.]
Shanley's [a notable pedophile then in the Boston Archdiocese], wrote:
"Sensing the loneliness that comes with leaving a parish where you and
the parishioners have meant much to each other, the only thing I can
think of are the words of Shakespeare -- 'Better to have loved and lost
than never to have loved at all.'"

Rev. McCormack was remembering Tennyson's *In Memoriam*:

    And this I know, whate'er befall,
    I feel it when I sorrow most,
    'Tis better to have loved and lost,
    Than never to have loved at all.

Interestingly, T. is grieving in *In Memoriam* for the death of a male
friend.

Attributively yours,
John

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