Over at the New Republic, Christopher Benfry has a nice piece on T. S. Eliot, containing the following passage:
Religion provided a refuge from domestic disorder. “Born & bred in the very heart of Boston Unitarianism,” as he put it, Eliot had recently experienced a spiritual awakening—friends witnessed him falling to his knees before Michelangelo’s Pietà on a visit to Rome in 1926. He prepared for baptism and confirmation in the Church of England, making arrangements at the same time for naturalization as a British citizen. Religion and nationality were paired in Eliot’s mind. “In the end I thought: here I am, making a living, enjoying my friends here,” he wrote. “I don’t like being a squatter. I might as well take the full responsibility.”
Back in 1963, I sat in Mrs. Delaney’s English class listening to Judy Strup give a presentation on Eliot. When she got to the part about Eliot assuming British nationality, she, like Benfry, said that Eliot became a citizen. “Subject,” snapped Barbara Blair, our British exchange student. Whether UK folks like to think of themselves as subjects today I don’t know, but they did in ’63, and I’m sure that Eliot, with all his “royalist” preenings, was happy to think of himself as a humble subject rather than a vulgar citizen back in 1926.
