Porson

The greatest of England's Greek scholars, born on Christmas Day, 1759. He was educated at Eton and at Trinity College, Cambridge, of which college he was elected a Fellow in 1782. He wrote several remarkable criticisms for Maty's Review, and in 1790 published Notae Breviores ad Toupii Emendationes in Suidam, which made his name known upon the Continent. In 1792 he became Regius Professor of Greek in the University of Cambridge. He published editions of Aeschylus (1795), of the Hecuba, Orestes, Phoenissae, and Medea of Euripides (1797-1801), and collated the Harleian MS. of the Odyssey for the Grenville Homer. In 1806 he added to his duties the care of the library of the London Institution, and two years later (September 25, 1808) died of apoplexy, and was buried in the chapel of Trinity College. After his death were published his Adversaria (1812), his notes on Aristophanes (1820), Pausanias (1820), Photius (1822), and Suidas (1834), besides Tracts and Criticisms (1815).

Porson was a man of astonishing erudition, a marvellous memory, great critical acuteness, and good sense, but all these qualities were marred by ill-health, indolence, and an incurable passion for strong drink amounting almost to insanity. His life is written by Watson (1861), and his correspondence has been edited by Luard (Cambridge, 1867).