"But at the time when he wrote, Englishmen, with the rarest exceptions, wrote only in French or Latin; and when they began to write in English, a man of genius, to interpret and improve on him, was not found for a long time"
About this Quote
The sentence quietly mourns what that hierarchy costs. Writing “only in French or Latin” isn’t framed as cosmopolitan fluency; it’s a cultural choke point. Talent can appear, but without a legitimated vernacular ecosystem, it can’t compound. Saintsbury’s key move is the second clause: when English finally does emerge as a literary vehicle, the problem becomes not just making texts, but making readers and successors. A “man of genius” is needed “to interpret and improve on him” - an admission that canon formation is collaborative, iterative, and delayed by social infrastructure. Great work can arrive too early for the audience capable of metabolizing it.
Saintsbury, a Victorian-era critic steeped in literary history, is also defending the slow construction of an English tradition: the nation’s literature doesn’t spring fully formed; it has to be authorized against imported standards. The subtext is faintly nationalistic, but also pragmatic: language status determines who gets remembered, who gets refined, and how long brilliance has to wait before it becomes culture rather than curiosity.
Quote Details
| Topic | Writing |
|---|---|
| Source | Help us find the source |
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Citation Formats
APA Style (7th ed.)
Saintsbury, George. (2026, January 17). But at the time when he wrote, Englishmen, with the rarest exceptions, wrote only in French or Latin; and when they began to write in English, a man of genius, to interpret and improve on him, was not found for a long time. FixQuotes. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/but-at-the-time-when-he-wrote-englishmen-with-the-54040/
Chicago Style
Saintsbury, George. "But at the time when he wrote, Englishmen, with the rarest exceptions, wrote only in French or Latin; and when they began to write in English, a man of genius, to interpret and improve on him, was not found for a long time." FixQuotes. January 17, 2026. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/but-at-the-time-when-he-wrote-englishmen-with-the-54040/.
MLA Style (9th ed.)
"But at the time when he wrote, Englishmen, with the rarest exceptions, wrote only in French or Latin; and when they began to write in English, a man of genius, to interpret and improve on him, was not found for a long time." FixQuotes, 17 Jan. 2026, https://fixquotes.com/quotes/but-at-the-time-when-he-wrote-englishmen-with-the-54040/. Accessed 19 Feb. 2026.
