Online Encyclopedia

Search over 40,000 articles from the original, classic Encyclopedia Britannica, 11th Edition.

RICHARD PORSON (1759-1808)

Online Encyclopedia
Originally appearing in Volume V22, Page 109 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
» Make a correction to this article.
» Add information or comments to this article.
Spread the word: del.icio.us del.icio.us it!

See also:

RICHARD See also:PORSON (1759-1808)  , See also:English classical See also:scholar, was See also:born on See also:Christmas See also:Day 1759 at See also:East Ruston, near See also:North Walsham, in See also:Norfolk, the eldest son of Huggin See also:Porson, See also:parish clerk . His See also:mother was the daughter of a shoemaker named See also:Palmer, of the neighbouring See also:village of .Bacton . He was sent first to the village school at Bacton, kept by See also:John Woodrow, and afterwards to that of Happisburgh kept by Mr Summers . Here his extraordinary See also:powers of memory and aptitude for See also:arithmetic were soon discovered; his skill in penmanship, which attended him through See also:life, was due to the care of Summers, who became See also:early impressed with his abilities, and See also:long after-wards stated that during fifty years of scholastic life he had never come across boys so See also:clever as Porson and his two See also:brothers . He was well grounded in Latin by Summers, remaining with him for three years . His See also:father also took pains with his See also:education, making him repeat at See also:night the lessons he had learned in the day . He would frequently repeat without making a See also:mistake a See also:lesson which he had learned one or two years before and had never seen in the See also:interval . For books he had only what his father's cottage supplied—a See also:book or two of arithmetic, See also:Greenwood's See also:England, Jewell's See also:Apology, and an See also:odd See also:volume of Chamber's Cyclopaedia picked up from a wrecked coaster, and eight or ten volumes of the Universal See also:Magazine . When Porson was eleven years old the Rev . T . See also:Hewitt, the See also:curate of East Ruston and two neighbouring villages, took See also:charge of his education . Mr Hewitt taught him with his own boys, taking him through the See also:ordinary Latin authors, See also:Caesar, See also:Terence, See also:Ovid and See also:Virgil; before this he had made such progress in See also:mathematics as to be able to solve questions out of the Ladies' See also:Diary .

In addition to this Hewitt brought him under the See also:

notice of Mr See also:Norris of Witton See also:Park, who sent him to See also:Cambridge and had him examined by See also:Professor See also:Lambert, the two tutors of Trinity, Postlethwaite and See also:Collier, and the well-known mathematician See also:Atwood, then assistant See also:tutor; the result was so favourable a See also:report of his knowledge and abilities that Mr Norris determined to provide for his education so as to See also:fit him for the university . This was in 1773 . It was found impossible to get him into See also:Charterhouse, and he was entered on the See also:foundation of See also:Eton in See also:August 1774 . Of his Eton life Porson had no very pleasant recollections, but he was popular among his schoolfellows; and two dramas he wrote for performance in the Long Chamber were remembered many years later . His marvellous memory was of course noticed; but at first he seems to have somewhat disappointed the expectations of his See also:friends, as his' See also:composition was weak, and his See also:ignorance of quantity kept him behind several of his inferiors . He went to Eton too See also:late to have any See also:chance of succeeding to a scholarship at See also:King's See also:College . In 1777 he suffered a See also:great loss from the See also:death of his See also:patron Mr Norris; but contributions from Etonians to aid in the funds for his See also:maintenance at the university were rapidly supplied, and he found a successor to Norris in See also:Sir See also:George See also:Baker, the physician, at that See also:time See also:president of the college of physicians . Chiefly through his means Porson was entered at Trinity College, Cambridge, as a pensioner on the 28th of See also:March 1778, matriculating in See also:April . It is said that what first biassed his mind towards See also:critical researches was the See also:gift of a copy of See also:Toup's See also:Longinus by Dr See also:Davies, the See also:head See also:master of Eton, for a See also:good exercise; but it was See also:Bentley and See also:Richard See also:Dawes to whom he looked as his immediate masters . His critical career was begun systematically while an under-See also:graduate . He became a scholar of Trinity in 1780, won the See also:Craven university scholarship in 1781, and took his degree of B.A. in 1782, as third See also:senior aptime, obtaining soon afterwards the first See also:chancellor's See also:medal for classical studies . The same See also:year he was elected See also:Fellow of Trinity, a very unusual thing for a junior See also:bachelor of arts, as the junior bachelors were rarely allowed to be candidates for fellowships, a regulation which lasted from 1667 when See also:Isaac See also:Newton was elected till 1818 when Connop See also:Thirlwall became a fellow .

Porson graduated M.A. in 1785 . Having thus early secured his See also:

independence, he turned his thoughts to publication . The first occasion of his appearing in See also:print was in a See also:short notice of Schutz's See also:Aeschylus in Maty's See also:Review, written in 1783 . This review contains several other essays by his See also:hand; especially may be mentioned the reviews of R . F . See also:Brunck's See also:Aristophanes (containing an able See also:summary of the poet's See also:chief excellencies and defects), See also:Weston's See also:Hermesianax, and Huntingford's Apology for the Monostrophics . But it was to the tragedians, and especially to Aeschylus, that his mind was then chiefly directed . He began a correspondencewith See also:David Ruhnkea, the See also:veteran scholar of See also:Leiden, requesting to be favoured with any fragments of Aeschylus that Ruhnken had come across in his collection of inedited lexicons and grammarians, and sending him, as a See also:proof that he was not under-taking a task for which he was unequal, some specimens of his critical powers, and especially of his restoration of a very corrupt passage in the Supplices (673–677) by the help of a nearly equally corrupt passage of See also:Plutarch's Eroticus . As the syndics of the Cambridge See also:press were proposing to re-edit See also:Thomas See also:Stanley's Aeschylus, the editorship was offered to Porson; but he declined to undertake it on the conditions laid down, namely, of reprinting Stanley's corrupt See also:text and incorporating all the variorum notes, however worthless . He was especially anxious that the Medicean MS. at See also:Florence should be collated for the new edition, and offered to undertake the See also:collation at an expense not greater than it would have cost if done by a See also:person on the spot; but the syndics refused the offer, the See also:vice-chancellor (Mr Torkington, master of See also:Clare See also:Hall) observing that Porson might collect his See also:MSS. at See also:home . In 1786, a new edition of See also:Hutchinson's See also:Anabasis of See also:Xenophon being called for, Porson was requested by the publisher to See also:supply a few notes, which he did in See also:conjunction with the Rev . W .

Whiter, editor of the Etymologicon universale . These give the first specimen of that neat and terse See also:

style of Latin notes in which he was afterwards without a See also:rival . They also show his intimate acquaintance with his two favourite authors, See also:Plato and See also:Athenaeus, and a familiarity with See also:Eustathius's commentary on See also:Homer . In 1787 the Notae breves ad Toupii emendationes in Suidam were written, though they did not appear till 1790 in the new edition of Toup's book published at See also:Oxford . These first made Porson's name known as a scholar of the first See also:rank, and carried his fame beyond England . The letters he received from See also:Christian G . See also:Heyne and G . See also:Hermann preserved in the library of Trinity College, and written before his See also:Euripides was published, afford proof of this . In his notes he points out the errors of Toup and others; at the same time he speaks of Toup's book as " See also:opus illud aureum," and states that his See also:writing the notes at all is due to the admiration he had for it . They contain some brilliant emendations of various authors; but the See also:necessity of having Toup's own notes with them has prevented their ever being reprinted in a See also:separate See also:form . During this year, in the See also:Gentleman's Magazine, he wrote the three letters on See also:Hawkins's Life of See also:Johnson which have been reprinted by Mr See also:Kidd in his Tracts and Criticisms of Porson, and in a volume of Porson's See also:Correspondence . They are admirable specimens of the dry See also:humour so characteristic of the writer, and prove his intimate acquaintance with See also:Shakespeare and the other English dramatists and poets .

In the same periodical, in the course of 1788 and 1789, appeared the Letters to See also:

Archdeacon Travis, on the See also:spurious See also:verse i John v . 7 (collected in 1790 into a volume), which must be considered to have settled the question . See also:Gibbon's See also:verdict on the book, that it was " the most acute and accurate piece of See also:criticism since the days of Bentley," may be considered as somewhat partial, as it was in See also:defence of him that Porson had entered the See also:field against Travis . But in the masterly See also:sketch of Gibbon's See also:work and style in the See also:preface Porson does not write in a merely flattering See also:tone . It is to be wished that on such a subject the tone of levity had been modified . But Porson says in his preface that he could treat the subject in no other manner, if he treated it at all: " To peruse such a See also:mass of falsehood and sophistry and to write remarks upon it, without sometimes giving way to See also:laughter and sometimes to indignation, was, to me at least, impossible." Travis has no See also:mercy shown him, but he certainly deserved none . One is equally struck with the thorough grasp Porson displays of his subject, the amount of his See also:miscellaneous learning, and the humour that pervades the whole . But it was then the unpopular See also:side: the publisher is said to have lost See also:money by the book; and one of his early friends, Mrs See also:Turner of See also:Norwich, cut down a See also:legacy she had See also:left Porson to X30 on being told that he had written what was described to her as a book against See also:Christianity . During the years that followed he continued to contribute to the leading reviews, writing in the Monthly Review the articles on See also:Robertson's Parian See also:Chronicle, See also:Edwards's Plutarch, and R . See also:Payne See also:Knight's See also:Essay on the See also:Greek See also:Alphabet . He gave assistance to See also:William Beloe in one or two articles in the See also:British Critick, and probably wrote also in the See also:Analytical Review and the Critical Review . In 1792 his fellowship was no longer tenable by a layman; and, rather than undertake duties for which he See also:felt himself unfit, and which involved subscription to the Articles (though he had no difficulty as to See also:signing a statement as to his conformity with the See also:liturgy of the See also:Church of England when elected Greek professor), he determined not to take See also:holy orders, which would have enabled him to remain a fellow, and thus deprived himself of his only means of subsistence .

He might have been retained in the society by being appointed to a See also:

lay fellowship, one of the two permanent lay fellowships which the statutes then permitted falling vacant just in time . It is said that this had been promised him, and it was certainly the See also:custom in the college always to appoint the senior among the existing laymen, who otherwise would vacate his fellowship . But the master (Dr Postlethwaite), who had the nomination, used his See also:privilege to nominate a younger See also:man (John Heys), a See also:nephew of his own, and thus Porson was turned adrift without any means of support . A subscription was, however, got up among his friends to provide an See also:annuity to keep him from actual want; Cracherode, Cleaver See also:Banks, See also:Burney and See also:Parr took the See also:lead, and enough was collected to produce about boo a year . He accepted it only on the See also:condition that he should receive the See also:interest during his lifetime, and that the See also:principal, placed in the hands of trustees, should be returned to the donors at his death . When this occurred they or their survivors refused to receive the money, and it was with See also:part of this sum that, in 1816, the Porson See also:prize was founded to perpetuate his name at Cambridge . The See also:remainder was devoted to the foundation of the Porson scholarship in the same university . This scholarship was first awarded in 1855 . After the loss of his fellowship he continued chiefly to reside in See also:London, having See also:chambers in See also:Essex See also:Court, See also:Temple—occasionally visiting his friends, such as Dr Goodall at Eton and Dr See also:Samuel Parr at See also:Hatton . It was at Dr Goodall's See also:house that the Letters to Travis were written, and at one See also:period of his life he spent a great See also:deal of time at Hatton . While there he would generally spend his mornings in the library, and for the most part in silence; but in the evenings, especially if Parr were away, he would collect the See also:young men of the house about him, and pour forth from memory torrents of every See also:kind of literature . The charms of his society are described as being then irresistible .

In 1792 the Greek professorship at Cambridge became vacant by the resignation of Mr See also:

Cooke . To this Porson was elected without opposition, and he continued to hold it till his death . The duties then consisted in taking. a part in the See also:examinations for the university scholarships and classical medals . It was said he wished to give lectures; but lecturing was not in See also:fashion in those days, and he did far more to advance the knowledge and study of the Greek See also:language by his publications than he could have done by any amount of lecturing . It must be re-membered that the emoluments of the professorship were only £4o a year . The authors on which his time was chiefly spent were the tragedians, Aristophanes, Athenaeus, and the lexicons of Suidas, See also:Hesychius and See also:Photius . This last he twice transcribed (the first transcript having been destroyed by a See also:fire at See also:Perry's house, which deprived the See also:world of much valuable See also:matter that he had written on the margins of his books) from the See also:original among the See also:Gale MSS. in the library of Trinity College . Of the brilliancy and accuracy of his emendations on Aristophanes, the fragments of the other comic poets, and the lexicographers he had a pleasing proof on one occasion when he found how often in Aristophanes he had been anticipated by Bentley, and on another when Schow's collation of the unique MS. of Hesychius appeared and proved him right in " an incredible number " of instances . In '795 there appeared from See also:Foulis's press at See also:Glasgow anedition of Aeschylus in See also:folio, printed with the same types as the Glasgow Homer, without a word of preface or anything to give a See also:clue to the editor . Many new readings were inserted in the text with an See also:asterisk affixed, while an obelus was used to See also:mark many others as corrupt . It was at once recognized as Porson's work; he had superintended the See also:printing of a small edition in two vols . 8vo, but this was kept back by the printer and not issued till 1806, still without the editor's name .

Phoenix-squares

There are corrections of many more passages in this edition than in the folio; and, though the text cannot be considered as what would have gone forth if with his name and See also:

sanction, yet more is done for the text of Aeschylus than had been accomplished by any preceding editor . It has formed the substratum for all subsequent See also:editions . It was printed from a copy of Pauw's edition corrected, which is preserved in the library of Trinity College . Soon after this, in 1797, appeared the first See also:instalment of what was intended to be a See also:complete edition of Euripides—an edition of the See also:Hecuba . In the preface he pointed out the correct method of writing several words previously incorrectly written, and gave some specimens of his powers on the subject of Greek metres . The notes are very short, almost entirely critical; but so great a range of learning, combined with such felicity of emendation whenever a corrupt passage was encountered, is displayed that there was never any doubt as to the See also:quarter whence the new edition had proceeded . He avoided the See also:office of interpreter in his notes, which may well be wondered at on recollecting how admirably he did translate when he condescended to that See also:branch of an editor's duties . His work, however, did not See also:escape attack; See also:Gilbert See also:Wakefield had already published a Tragoediarum delectus; and, conceiving himself to be slighted, as there was no mention of his labours in the new Hecuba, he wrote a " diatribe extemporalis " against it, a See also:tract which for See also:bad See also:taste, bad Latin and bad criticism it would not be easy to match . Gottfried Hermann of See also:Leipzig, then a very young man, who had also written a work on Greek metres, which Dr See also:Elmsley has styled " a book of which too much See also:ill cannot easily be said," issued an edition of the Hecuba, in which Porson's theories were openly attacked . Porson at first took no notice of either, but went on quietly with his Euripides, See also:publishing the See also:Orestes in 1798, the Phoenissae in 1799 and the See also:Medea in 18o1, the last printed at the Cambridge press, and with the editor's name on the See also:title-See also:page . But there are many allusions to his antagonists in the notes on such points as the final v, the use of accents, &c.; and on v . 675 of the Medea he holds up Hermann by name to scorn in See also:caustic and taunting language .

And it is more than probable that to Hermann's attack we owe the most perfect of his See also:

works, the supplement to the preface to the Hecuba, prefixed to the second edition published at Cambridge in 18o2 . The metrical See also:laws promulgated are laid down clearly, illustrated with an ample number of examples, and those that militate against them brought together and corrected, so that what had been beyond the reach of the ablest scholars of preceding times is made clear to the tyro . The laws of the See also:iambic See also:metre are fully explained, and the theory of the pause stated and proved, which had been only alluded to in the first edition . A third edition of the Hecuba appeared in 18o8, and he left corrected copies of the other plays, of which new editions appeared soon after his death; but these four plays were all that was accomplished of the projected edition of the poet . Porson lived six years after the second edition of the Hecuba was published, but his natural indolence and procrastination led him to put off the work . He found time, however, to execute his collation of the Harleian MS. of the Odyssey, published in the See also:Grenville Homer in 18o1, and to See also:present to the Society of Antiquaries his wonderful conjectural restoration of the See also:Rosetta See also:stone . In 18o6, when the London Institution was founded (then in the Old Jewry, since removed to See also:Finsbury See also:Circus), he was appointed principal librarian with a See also:salary of boo a year and a See also:suite of rooms; and thus his latter years were made easy as far as money was concerned . Among his most intimate friends was Perry, the editor of the See also:Morning Chronicle; and this friendship was cemented by his See also:marriage with Perry's See also:sister, Mrs Lunan, in See also:November 1796 . The marriage was a happy one for the short time it lasted, as Porson became more attentive to times and seasons, and would have been weaned from his habits of drinking; but she sank in a decline a few months after her marriage (April 12, 1797), and he returned to his chambers in the Temple and his old habits . Perry's friendship was of great value to him in many ways; but it induced him to spend too much of his time in writing for the Morning Chronicle; indeed he was even accused of " giving up to Perry what was meant for mankind," and the existence of some of the papers he wrote there can be only deplored . For some months before his death he had appeared to be failing: his memory was not what it had been, and he had some symptoms of intermittent See also:fever; but on the 19th of See also:September 18o8 he was seized in the See also:street with a fit of See also:apoplexy, and after partially recovering sank in the 25th of that See also:month at the See also:age of See also:forty-nine . He was buried in Trinity College, See also: