JOHN

See also:

• JOHN OGILBY (1600–1676)

OGILBY (1600–1676)  , British writer, was born in or near Edinburgh in November 1600 . His father was a prisoner within the rules of King's Bench, but by speculation the son found money to apprentice himself to a dancing master and to obtain his father's release . He accompanied Thomas Wentworth, earl of Strafford, when he went to Ireland as lord deputy, and became tutor to his children . Strafford made him deputy-master of the revels, and he built a little theatre in St Werburgh Street, Dublin, which was very successful . The outbreak of the Civil War ruined his fortunes, and in 1646 he returned to England . Finding his way to Cambridge, he learned Latin from kindly scholars who had been impressed by his industry . He then ventured to translate Virgil into English verse (1649–1650), which brought him a considerable sum of money . The success of this attempt encouraged Ogilby to learn Greek from David Whitford, who was usher in the school kept by James Shirley the dramatist . Homer his Iliads translated . . . appeared in 166o, and in 1665 Homer his Odysses translated . . . Anthony a Wood asserts that in these undertakings he had the assistance of Shirley .

At the Restoration Ogilby received a

commission for the " poetical part " of the coronation . His property was destroyed in the Great Fire of 1666, but he rebuilt his house in Whitefriars, and set up a printing press, from which he issued many magnificent books, the most important of which were a series of atlases, with engravings and maps by Hollar and others . He styled himself " His Majesty's Cosmographer and Geographic Printer." He died in London on the 4th of September 1676 . Ogilby also translated the fables of Aesop, and wrote three epic poems . His bulky output was ridiculed by John Dryden in Mac-Flecknoe and by Alexander Pope in the Dunciad .