Richard Porson

Richard Porson (25 December 1759 – 25 September 1808) was an English classical scholar. He was the discoverer of Porson's Law. The Greek typeface Porson was based on his handwriting.

Early life

Richard Porson was born at

When Porson was eleven, the rector of East Ruston took charge of his education. Thomas Hewitt taught him with his own boys, taking him through Julius Caesar, Terence, Ovid and Virgil; he had already made great progress in mathematics. In addition, Hewitt brought him to the notice of John Norris of Witton Park, who sent him to Cambridge to be examined by James Lambert, the two tutors of Trinity College, Cambridge (Thomas Postlethwaite and Collier), and the mathematician George Atwood, then assistant tutor; the result was so favourable that Norris decided in 1773 to provide for his education. It was impossible to get him into Charterhouse School and he was entered at Eton College in August 1774.

Porson did not care for Eton, but he was popular there; two dramas he wrote for performance in Long Chamber (the scholars' dormitory) were remembered. His memory was noticed; but he seems not to have lived up to expectations, as his composition was weak, and he fell behind through gaps in his knowledge. He went to Eton too late to have any chance of a scholarship at

The Cambridge University Press was proposing a new edition of Thomas Stanley's Aeschylus, and the editorship was offered to Porson; but he declined to reprint Stanley's corrupt text and incorporate the variorum notes. He was especially anxious that the Medicean manuscript at Florence should be collated for the new edition, and offered to undertake the collation; but the syndics refused the offer, the vice-chancellor John Torkington, master of Clare Hall (the then name of Clare College), observing that Porson might collect his manuscripts at home.

In 1786, a new edition of Thomas Hutchinson's Anabasis of Xenophon was called for, and Porson was asked by the publisher to supply notes, which he did in conjunction with Walter Whiter. These are a good example of the terse style of Latin notes he practised. They also show his acquaintance with his two favourite authors, Plato and Athenaeus, and a familiarity with Eustathius of Thessalonica's commentary on Homer.

The following year Porson wrote his Notae breves ad Toupii emendationes in Suidam, though this treatise did not appear until 1790 in the new edition of

In 1792 his fellowship ceased to be tenable by a layman; and Porson decided not to take holy orders. The Master, Thomas Postlethwaite, who had the nomination to one of the two permanent lay fellowships, used his privilege to nominate John Heys, his nephew.^[5] Porson was without means of support, but a subscription was got up among his friends to provide an annuity; Cracherode, Cleaver Banks, Burney and Samuel Parr took the lead, and enough was collected to produce about £100 a year. He accepted it on the condition that he should receive the interest during his lifetime and that the principal should be returned to the donors on his death. When this occurred, part of the sum was used to found the Porson Prize in 1816 at Cambridge, and remainder for the foundation of the Porson Scholarship, first awarded in 1855.

He continued chiefly to reside in London, in chambers in Essex Court, Temple, London — occasionally visiting his friends, such as Joseph Goodall at Eton College and Samuel Parr at Hatton, Warwickshire. It was at Goodall's house that the Letters to Travis were written. At Hatton, in the evenings, he would collect the young men of the house about him and pour forth from memory torrents of literature. In 1792 the Regius Greek Professorship at Cambridge became vacant with the resignation of William Cooke. Porson was elected without opposition and held the chair until his death. The duties consisted of taking a part in the examinations for the university scholarships and classical medals. It was said he wished to give lectures; but lecturing was not in fashion in those days.

Later work

Porson worked mainly on the tragedians,

In 1795 there appeared from Foulis's press at Glasgow an edition of Aeschylus in folio, printed with the same type as the Glasgow Homer, without a word of preface or any clue to the editor. Many new readings were inserted in the text with an asterisk affixed, while an obelus was used to mark many others as corrupt. It was at once recognised as Porson's work; he had superintended the printing of a small edition in two octavo volumes, but this was kept back by the printer and not issued till 1806, still without the editor's name. It was printed from a copy of Jan Cornelis de Pauw's edition corrected, which is preserved in the library of Trinity College.

Soon after, in 1797, appeared the first instalment of what was intended to be a complete edition of Euripides–an edition of the Hecuba.

Reception

Porson's work did not escape attack.

Porson lived six years after the second edition of the Hecuba was published, but he put off the work. He found time, however, to execute his collation of the Harleian manuscript of the Odyssey, published in the Grenville Homer in 1801, and to present to the Society of Antiquaries his conjectural restoration of the Rosetta Stone.

Later life and death

In 1806, when the London Institution was founded in Old Jewry, Porson was appointed principal librarian, with a salary of £200 a year and a suite of rooms. This assured him financial ease in his latter years.

Among his intimate friends was James Perry, editor of The Morning Chronicle. He married Perry's sister, Mrs Lunan, in November 1796. Porson then drank less; but she died a few months after her marriage (12 April 1797), and he returned to his chambers in the Temple and his old habits. Perry's friendship induced him to spend his time in writing for The Morning Chronicle.

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 fever, but on 19 September 1808 he was seized in the street with a fit of apoplexy, and after partially recovering, died on the 25th. He was buried in Trinity College Chapel, close to the statue of Newton, at the opposite end of the chapel to the remains of Richard Bentley.

Legacy

Porson did not discriminate between the manuscripts he used or point out the relative value of early copies. Thus he collates minutely Lascaris's edition of the Medea, mentioning even misprints in the text. His most brilliant emendations are convincing.

His library was divided into two parts, one of which was sold by auction, while the other, containing the transcript of the Gale Photius, his books with his notes, and some letters from foreign scholars, was bought by Trinity College for 1000 guineas. His notebooks were careful; they have been rearranged, and illustrate his penmanship. Much remains unpublished.

For the first thirty years of the 19th century, he was often regarded as the author of a very popular poem, The Devil's Thoughts (later entitled The Devil's Walk). It was actually written by Robert Southey and Samuel Taylor Coleridge.^[6][7]

Works

The dates of Porson's published works are these:

• Notae in Xenophontis anabasin (1786)
• Appendix to Toup (1790)
• Letters to Travis (1790)
• Aeschylus (1795, 1806)
• Euripides (1797–1802)
• collation of the Harleian manuscript of the Odyssey (1801)
• Adversaria (Monk and Blomfield, 1812)
• Tracts and Criticisms (Kidd, 1815)
• Aristophanica (Dobree, 1820)
• Notae in Pausaniam (Gaisford, 1820)
• Photii lexicon (Dobree, 1822)
• Notae in Suidam (Gaisford, 1834)
• Correspondence (
  H. R. Luard
  , edited for the Cambridge Antiquarian Society, 1867)

Dr. Turton's vindication appeared in 1827.

See also

• Porson (typeface)

Notes