CHARLES

See also:

• CHARLES BADHAM (1813-1884)

BADHAM (1813-1884)  , English scholar, was born at Ludlow, in Shropshire, on the 18th of July 1813 . His father, Charles Badham, translator of Juvenal.and an excellent classical scholar, was regius professor of physic at Glasgow; his mother was a cousin of Thomas Campbell, the poet . When about seven years old, Badham was sent to Switzerland, where he became a pupil of Pestalozzi . He was afterwards transferred to Eton, and in 183o was elected to a scholarship at Wadham College, Oxford, but only obtained a third class in classics (1836), a failure which may have been due to his dislike of the methods of study then in fashion at Oxford, at a time when classical scholar-ship was in a very unsatisfactory condition . Shortly after taking his degree in 1837 Badham went to Italy, where he occupied himself in the study of ancient MSS., in particular those of the Vatican library . It was here that he began a life-long friendship with G . C . Cobet . He afterwards spent some time in Germany, and on his return to England was incorporated M.A. at Peter-house, Cambridge, in 1847 . Having taken holy orders, he was appointed headmaster of Louth grammar school, Lincolnshire (1851-1854), and subsequently headmaster of Edgbaston proprietary school, near Birmingham . In the interval he had taken the degree of D.D. at Cambridge (1852) . In r86o he received the honorary degree of doctor of letters at the university of Leiden .

In 1866 he

left England to take up the professorship of classics and logic in Sydney University, which he held until hit death on the 26th of February 1884 . He was twice married . Dr Badham's classical attainments were recognized by the most famous European critics, such as G . C . Cobet, Ludwig Preller, W . Dindorf, F . W . Schneidewin, J . A . F . Meineke, A . Ritschl and Tischendorf .

Like many schoolmasters who are

good scholars and even good teachers, he was not a professional success; and his hasty temper and dislike of anything approaching disingenuousness may have stood in the way of his advancement . But it is strange that a scholar and textual critic of his eminence and of European reputation should have made comparatively little mark in his native country . He published editions of Euripides, Helena and Iphigenia in Tauris (1851), Ion (1851) Plato's Philebus (1855, 1878) Laches and Euthydemus (1865), Phaedrus (1851), Symposium (1866) and De Platonis Epistolis (1866) . He also contributed to Mnemosyne (Cobet's journal) and other classical periodicals . His Adhortatio ad Discipulos Academiae Sydniensis (1869) contains a number of emendations of Thucydides and other classical authors . He also published an article on " The Text of Shakespere " in Cambridge Essays (1856); Criticism applied to Shakespere (1846); Thoughts on Classical and Commercial Education (1864) . A collected edition of his Speeches and Lectures delivered in Australia (Sydney, 1890) contains a memoir by Thomas Butler .