Michael Wodhull

Michael Wodhull (1740-1816), Poems (1804). Kessinger, 2019. Courtesy Amazon.com.

Michael Wodhull (15 August 1740 - 10 November 1816) was an English poet, translator, and book collector.

Life

Youth and education

Wodhull was born at Thenford, Northamptonshire, the son of John Wodhull (1678-1754) of Thenford by his 2nd wife, Rebeccah (1702-1794), daughter of Charles Watkins of Aynhoe, Northamptonshire.

He began his education at a private school at Twyford, and then atttended Winchester College, where he was known as the "long-legged Republican" (Wrangham, English Library, 520), studying under Joseph Warton (who was 2nd master there).

On 13 January 1758 he matriculated from Brasenose College, Oxford, but did not take a degree.

Marriage and career

On 30 November 1761 Wodhull married (at Newbottle, near Banbury) Catherine Milcah, 4th daughter of Rev. John Ingram of Wolford, Warwickshire. She died, without children, at Wolford on 28 May 1808, aged 64, and was buried at Thenford.

Wodhull had a large fortune. His town house was in Berkeley Square, and about 1765 he built the existing manor-house (replacing an Elizabethan mansion) near the church at Thenford, a good view of which is in Baker's Northamptonshire. He served as high sheriff of Northamptonshire in 1783.

His figure, tall and handsome, with a military appearance, was familiar from 1764 at the chief book-sales of London. J.T. Smith describes him as "very thin, with a long nose and thick lips," and clad in a coat which was tightly buttoned from under his chin. He sat the whole day long with great patience and was very rigid in his bids, not advancing a sixpence beyond his reserve (Book for a Rainy Day, 1861, p. 100).

Wodhull not only bought but read his books. He was an admirable Greek scholar, and without an equal in his knowledge of French editions and printers in the 16th century.

2 of his poetical pieces are in the Poetical Register for 1806-1807 (241-244 and 481-483). He suppressed his "Ode to Criticism," which he wrote when very young, in satire of some peculiarities in Thomas Warton's poems; but Warton inserted it in The Oxford Sausage (1814, 131-138).

Wodhull helped in the 4th edition of Harwood's View of the Classics (1790) and Dibdin's Introduction to the Classics (3rd edit.), and was a frequent correspondent to the Gentleman's Magazine, chiefly as "L.L.," the terminating letters of his name.

Wodhull was a keen whig, ardent for the spread of civil and religious liberty, and his poems show sympathy with the views of Rousseau. He filled no public office save that of high sheriff for Northamptonshire in 1783. He deprecated the long war with France, and after the treaty of Amiens visited Paris to make acquaintance with its libraries. For a time he was among the détenus of Napoleon, and he suffered so much from the dampness of the prison and the confinement within its walls that he came back to England an invalid.

His sight gradually failed and his voice became inaudible. Dibdin and Heber visited him in the winter of 1815 and found him in bad health.

Wodhull died at Thenford on 10 November 1816, and was buried in an altar-tomb under a fine yew-tree on the south side of the chancel.

Writing

Wodhull was the earliest translator into English verse of all the extant writings, the 19 tragedies and fragments, of Euripides. He advertised in February 1774 his intention of publishing this translation, and thought that one year would have sufficed for his task; but the work was not completed (in 4 volumes) until 1782; a new edition, ‘corrected throughout by the translator,’ was published in 1809 (3 volumes). His translation of the Medea forms part of vol. lxix. of Sir John Lubbock's ‘Hundred Books;’ 5 more of the plays in his translation are in Henry Morley's Universal Library (vol. lviii.), and Hecuba, with 7 others of his rendering, is in vol. lxi. His version is accurate, but not imbued with much poetic feeling.

His other writings included 2. ‘Ode to the Muses,’ 1760. 3. ‘A Poetical Epistle to xxxx xxxxxxx [John Cleaver] M.A., Student of Christ Church,’ 1761; 2nd edit. corrected, 1762. 4. ‘Two Odes,’ 1763. 5. ‘Equality of Mankind, a Poem,’ 1765; this, with the previous pieces, was included in his poems (1772 and 1804), and in Pearch's ‘Collection of Poetry’ (vol. iv.); it was also issued, ‘revised and corrected with additions,’ in 1798 and 1799. 6. ‘Poems,’ 1772; a collection of the pieces published separately (150 copies only printed for presents). 7. ‘Poems,’ revised edit. 1804; prefixed is a portrait of Wodhull, painted by Gardiner in 1801 and engraved by E. Harding; it is reproduced in Quaritch's ‘Collectors.’

Recognition

Wodhull's poem on "The Equality of Mankind" was included in Pearch's Collection of Poems in Four Volumes; by several hands.

His portrait is reproduced in Dibdin's Bibliographical Decameron (iii. 363-366), and he figures in the Bibliomania as Orlando (cf. also Bibliomania, 1876, 575-577).

Publications

Poetry

• Ode to the Muses. Oxford, UK: J. Fletcher, 1760.
• Poetical Epistle to **** *******, A.M., Student of Christ Church. London: Tho. Payne / T. Becket / P.A. de Hondt, 1762.
• Ode to Criticism. London: J. Goniston, 1761.
• Two Odes. Oxford, UK: W. Jackson, 1763.
• The Equality of Mankind: A poem. Oxford, UK: W. Jackson, for T. Beckett / P.A. de Hondt / et al, 1765; London: 1799.
• Poems. London: W. Bowyer & J. Nicholls, 1772; 1800, London: Nichols & Son, 1804.

Translated

• The Nineteen Tragedies and Fragments of Euripides. London: John Nichols, for Thomas Payne & Son, 1782.

Except where noted, bibliographical information courtesy WorldCat.

See also

• List of British poets

References

•  Courtney, William Prideaux (1900) "Wodhull, Michael" in Lee, Sidney Dictionary of National Biography 62 London: Smith, Elder, pp. 278-280 . Wikisource, Web, Jan. 15, 2017.

External links

Poems

• "Ode to Discretion"
• "To the Dryades"
• Michael Wodhull at the Eighteenth-Century Poetry Archive ("On the Equality of Mankind")

Books

• Michael Wodhull at Amazon.com

About

• Michael Wodhull (1740-1816) at the University of Leeds
• Michael Wodhull (1740-1816) at English Poetry, 1579-1830
• This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain, the Dictionary of National Biography (edited by Leslie Stephen). London: Smith, Elder, 1885-1900. Original article is at: Wodhull, Michael