Alfred Denis Godley (1856–1925) was an English
classical scholar and author of humorous poems. From 1910 to 1920 he was
Public Orator at the
University of Oxford, a post that involved composing citations in Latin for the recipients of honorary degrees. One of these was for
Thomas Hardy who received an Honorary D. Litt. in 1920, and whose treatment of rural themes Godley compared to
Virgil.