Colin Robert Chase

Colin Chase
Born Colin Robert Chase
1935
Denver, Colorado
Died October 13, 1984 (aged 48–49)
Nationality American
Occupation English professor
Years active 1971–1984
Notable work The Dating of Beowulf (1981); Two Alcuin Letter-Books (1975)

Colin Robert Chase (1935 – October 13, 1984) was an American academic. He was the Associate Professor of English at the University of Toronto, known for his contributions to the studies of Old English and Anglo-Saxon literature.[1] His most notable work, The Dating of Beowulf, was credited with upsetting the accepted orthodoxy of the dating of the Anglo-Saxon poem Beowulf, and leaving behind "a cautious and necessary incertitude."[2][3] Chase died of cancer in 1984, shortly before his promotion to full Professor.[1]

Personal life and education

Chase was born in Denver, Colorado, in 1935. He obtained his B.A. from Harvard University in 1956, and studied classics and philosophy for five years at a Jesuit seminary. In 1962 and 1964 he received M.A.s from Saint Louis University and Johns Hopkins University, and at the University of Toronto, where in 1967 he became a part-time instructor, he completed his Ph.D. in 1971.[1] His dissertation was entitled Panel Structure in Old English Poetry.[4]

Chase was married to his wife Joyce, and had children Deirdre, Robert, Tim, Mary, and Patrick. He died of cancer in 1984. He had been a Deacon in the Roman Catholic Church, and participated in the attendant training program. He had also performed in campus stage productions, a talent that had nearly led to a career in acting.[1]

Career

Chase became an assistant professor at the University of Toronto the same year he completed his Ph.D. Four years later he was promoted to associate professor. His death in 1984 happened while his promotion to full professor was underway. At the university he taught a wide variety of classes and had many doctoral students, and was a faculty member of St. Michael's College and the Centre for Medieval Studies; from 1977 until 1984, he chaired the centre's Medieval Latin Committee.[1]

Much of Chase's work was on Old English and Anglo-Latin literature, and he focused his research on the pre-conquest literature of England.[1] He was particularly known for his 1981 edited collection The Dating of Beowulf, and since 1976 served as the chief reviewer of the Beowulf section of "The Year's Work in Old English Studies" in the Old English Newsletter.[1] The Dating of Beowulf was credited with challenging the accepted orthodoxy over the date that the epic poem was created;[5][6] in its wake came what was described as "a cautious and necessary incertitude."[2][3] An anonymous reviewer of the book termed it "one of the most important inconclusions in the study of Old English", and declared that "henceforth every discussion of the poem and its period will begin with reference to this volume."[7][8]

Chase's other major publication was a scholarly edition of Two Alcuin Letter-Books.[1][9] He also wrote eight articles, and contributed to three videotapes made by the Toronto Media Centre, most popularly The Sutton Hoo ship-burial.[1] He additionally participated in the revision of Jack Ogilvy's Books Known to the English.[1][10] At his death Chase was working on a study of the lives of the saints, and had started a new series of editions of the lives of the pre-conquest saints.[1]

The Centre for Medieval Studies at the University of Toronto, matched by the Ontario Student Opportunity Trust Fund, awards the Colin Chase Memorial Bursary each year in Chase's memory.[1][11] The University awards the scholarship to "a graduate student in the Centre for Medieval Studies, on the basis of academic excellence and financial need."[11]

Publications

  • Chase, Colin (1971). Panel Structure in Old English Poetry (Ph.D.). University of Toronto.
  • Chase, Colin (December 1974). "God's Presence Through Grace as the Theme of Cynewulf's Christ II and the Relationship of this Theme to Christ I and Christ III". Anglo-Saxon England. Cambridge University Press. 3: 87–101. doi:10.1017/S0263675100000600.
  • Chase, Colin, ed. (1975). Two Alcuin Letter-Books. Toronto Medieval Latin Texts. 5. Toronto: Pontifical Institute of Mediaeval Studies. ISBN 978-0-88844-454-7.
  • Chase, Colin, ed. (1981). The Dating of Beowulf. Toronto Old English Series. 6. Toronto: University of Toronto Press. ISBN 0-8020-7879-6. JSTOR 10.3138/j.ctt1287v33.18.
  • Chase, Colin (1985). "Beowulf, Bede, and St. Oswine: The Hero's Pride in Old English Hagiography". In Woods, J. Douglas & Pelteret, David A. E. The Anglo-Saxons: Synthesis and Achievement. Waterloo: Wilfrid Laurier University Press. pp. 37–48. ISBN 978-0-88920-166-8.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 Rigg & Szarmach 1985.
  2. 1 2 Bjork & Obermeier 1997, p. 33.
  3. 1 2 Frank 2007, p. 846.
  4. ↑ Chase 1971.
  5. ↑ Jacobs 1984, p. 117.
  6. ↑ Frank 2007, pp. 843–946.
  7. ↑ Chase 1981.
  8. ↑ Frank 2007, p. 847.
  9. ↑ Chase 1975.
  10. ↑ Carnahan 1993.
  11. 1 2 Medieval Studies scholarships.

Bibliography

  • Bjork, Robert E. & Obermeier, Anita (November 1997). "Date, Provenance, Author, Audiences". In Bjork, Robert E. & Niles, John D. A Beowulf Handbook. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press. pp. 13–34. ISBN 0-8032-1237-2.
  • Carnahan, Shirley (1993). "In Memoriam: J.D.A. Ogilvy (1903-93)". Old English Newsletter. Retrieved 7 March 2018.
  • Frank, Roberta (October 2007). "A Scandal in Toronto: The Dating of 'Beowulf' a Quarter Century On". Speculum. Medieval Academy of America. 82 (4): 843–864. JSTOR 20466079.
  • Jacobs, Nicolas (1984). "The Dating of 'Beowulf', edited by Colin Chase". Medium Ævum. Society for the Study of Medieval Languages and Literature. LIII (1): 117–120. JSTOR 43628801.
  • Rigg, Arthur G.; Szarmach, Paul E. (1985). "In Memoriam: Colin Chase (1935–84)". Old English Newsletter. Retrieved 16 May 2017.
  • "Scholarships by Department → Medieval Studies". University of Toronto Faculty of Arts & Science. Retrieved 7 March 2018.
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