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JOHN CONINGTON (1825—1869)

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Originally appearing in Volume V06, Page 942 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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JOHN See also:CONINGTON (1825—1869)  , See also:English classical See also:scholar, was See also:born on the loth of See also:August 1825 at See also:Boston in See also:Lincolnshire . He knew his letters when fourteen months old, and could read well at three and a See also:half . He was educated at See also:Beverley See also:Grammar school, at See also:Rugby and at See also:Oxford, where, after matriculating at University See also:College, he came into See also:residence at Magdalen, where he had been nominated to a demyship . He was See also:Ireland and See also:Hertford scholar in 1844; in See also:March 1846 he was elected to a scholarship at University College, and in See also:December of the same See also:year he obtained a first class in See also:classics; in See also:February 1848 he became a See also:fellow of University . He also obtained the See also:Chancellor's See also:prize for Latin See also:verse (1847), English See also:essay (1848) and Latin essay (1849) . He successfully applied for the See also:Eldon See also:law scholar-See also:ship in 1849, and proceeded to See also:London to keep his terms at See also:Lincoln's See also:Inn . The legal profession, however, proved distasteful, and after six months he resigned the scholarship and returned to Oxford . During his brief residence in London he formed a connexion with the See also:Morning See also:Chronicle, which was maintained for some See also:time . He showed no See also:special aptitude for journalism, but a See also:series of articles on university reform (1849—1850) is noteworthy as the first public expression of his views on a subject that always interested him . In 1854 his See also:appointment, as first occupant, to the See also:chair of Latin literature, founded by Corpus Christi College, gave him a congenial position . From this time he confined himself with characteristic conscientiousness almost exclusively to Latin literature . The only important exception was the See also:translation of the last twelve books of the Iliad in the Spenserian See also:stanza in completion of the See also:work of P .

S . See also:

Worsley, and this was undertaken in fulfilment of a promise made to his dying friend . In 1852 he began, in See also:conjunction with Prof . Goldwin See also:Smith, a See also:complete edition of See also:Virgil with a commentary, of which the first See also:volume appeared in 1858, the second in 1864, and the .third soon after his See also:death . Prof . Goldwin Smith was compelled to withdraw from the work at an See also:early See also:stage, and in the last volume his See also:place was taken by H . See also:Nettleship . In 1866 See also:Conington published his most famous work, the translation of the Aeneid of Virgil into the octosyliabic See also:metre of See also:Scott . The version of See also:Dryden is the work of a stronger artist; but for fidelity of rendering, for happy use of the principle of See also:compensation so as to preserve the See also:general effect of the See also:original, and for beauty as an See also:independent poem, Conington's version is See also:superior . That the measure chosen does not reproduce the majestic sweep of the Virgilian verse is a See also:fault in the conception and not in the See also:execution of the task . Conington died at Boston on the 23rd of See also:October 1869 . His edition of See also:Persius with a commentary and a spirited See also:prose translation was published posthumously in 1872 .

In the same year appeared his See also:

Miscellaneous Writings, edited by J . A . See also:Symonds, with a memoir by See also:Professor H . J . S . Smith (see also H . A . J . See also:Munro in See also:Journal of See also:Philology, ii., 1869) . Among his other See also:editions are See also:Aeschylus, See also:Agamemnon (1848), Choephori (1857); English verse See also:translations of See also:Horace, Odes and Carmen Saeculare (1863), Satires, Epistles and Ars Poetica (1869) .

End of Article: JOHN CONINGTON (1825—1869)
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