John Conington (1825-1869). Courtesy PraBook.
John Conington (10 August 1825 - 23 October 1869) was an English academic and translator.
Life[]
Overview[]
Conington was the son of a clergyman at Boston, Lincolnshire, where he was born. He was educated at Oxford, and began the study of law, but soon relinquished it, and devoting himself to scholarship, became professor of Latin at Oxford (1854-1869). His chief work is his translation of Virgil's Æneid in the octosyllabic meter of Walter Scott. He also translated the Satires and Epistles of Horace in heroic couplets, and completed Worsley's Iliad in Spenserian stanza. He also brought out valuable editions of Virgil and Perseus. Conington was one of the greatest translators whom England has produced.[1]
Youth and education[]
Conington was born on the 10th of August 1825 at Boston in Lincolnshire. He knew his letters when 14 months old, and could read well at 3-1/2. He was educated at Beverley Grammar school and Rugby.[2]
He then went to Oxford, where, after matriculating at University College, he came into residence at Magdalen, where he had been nominated to a demyship. He was Ireland and Hertford scholar in 1844; in March 1846 he was elected to a scholarship at University College, and in December of the same year he obtained a first class in classics; in February 1848 he became a fellow of University College. He also obtained the Chancellor’s prize for Latin verse (1847), English essay (1848) and Latin essay (1849).[2]
He successfully applied for the Eldon law scholarship in 1849, and proceeded to London to keep his terms at Lincoln’s Inn. The legal profession, however, proved distasteful, and after 6 months he resigned the scholarship and returned to Oxford.[2]
Career[]
During his brief residence in London he formed a connection with the Morning Chronicle, which was maintained for some time. He showed no special aptitude for journalism, but a series of articles on university reform (1849–1850) is noteworthy as the earliest public expression of his views on a subject that always interested him.[2]
In 1854 his appointment as the inaugural 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 translation of the last 12 books of The Iliad in the Spenserian stanza in completion of the work of P.S. Worsley, and this was undertaken in fulfilment of a promise made to his dying friend.[2]
In 1852, in conjunction with Goldwin Smith, Conington began a complete edition of Virgil with a commentary, of which the 1st volume appeared in 1858, the 2nd in 1864, and the 3rd soon after his death. Goldwin Smith was compelled to withdraw from the work at an early stage, and in the last volume his place was taken by H. Nettleship.[2]
Conington died at Boston on 23 October 1869.[2]
Writing[]
In 1866 Conington published his most famous work, the translation of the Aeneid of Virgil into the octosyllabic meter of Scott. The version of Dryden is the work of a stronger artist; but for fidelity of rendering, for happy use of the principle of compensation so as to preserve the general effect of the original, and for beauty as an independent poem, Conington’s version is superior. That the measure chosen does not reproduce the majestic sweep of the Virgilian verse is a fault in the conception and not in the execution of the task.[2]
Conington's edition of Persius, with commentary and a prose translation was published posthumously in 1872. In the same year appeared his Miscellaneous Writings, edited by John Addington Symonds, with a memoir by Henry John Stephen Smith (see also Hugh Andrew Johnstone Munro in Journal of Philology, ii., 1869).[2]
Publications[]
Collected editions[]
- Miscellaneous Writings (edited by John Addington Symonds). (2 volumes), London: Longmans, Green, Longman & Roberts, 1872.
Translations[]
- P. Vergilii Maronis, Opera = Works. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. Volume I, 1858; Volume II, 1863; Volume III, 1871.
- Virgil, Opera. London: Whittaker, 1872.
- A. Persius Flaccus, Satires. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1872.
The Odes and Carmen Saeculare
Except where noted, bibliographical information courtesy WorldCat.[3]
See also[]
References[]
Chisholm, Hugh, ed (1911). "Conington, John". Encyclopædia Britannica. 6 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 942.
Notes[]
External links[]
- Books
- Works by John Conington at Project Gutenberg
- John Conington at the Online Books Page
- John Conington at Amazon.com
- Audio / video
- John Conington public domain audiobooks from LibriVox
- About
- Conington at PraBook
- Conington, John in the Dictionary of National Biography
This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain, the 1911 Edition of the Encyclopædia Britannica. Original article is at Conington, John
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