James Henry (13 December 1798 – 14 July 1876) was an Irish

classical scholar Classics, also classical studies or Ancient Greek and Roman studies, is the study of classical antiquity. In the Western world, ''classics'' traditionally refers to the study of Ancient Greek literature, Ancient Greek and Roman literature and ...

and

poet A poet is a person who studies and creates poetry. Poets may describe themselves as such or be described as such by others. A poet may simply be the creator (thought, thinker, songwriter, writer, or author) who creates (composes) poems (oral t ...

Life

He was born in

Dublin Dublin is the capital and largest city of Republic of Ireland, Ireland. Situated on Dublin Bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Leinster, and is bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, pa ...

the elder son of a woollen draper, Robert Henry, and his wife Kathleen Elder. He was educated by Unitarian minister Joseph Hutton, and then at

Trinity College, Dublin Trinity College Dublin (), officially titled The College of the Holy and Undivided Trinity of Queen Elizabeth near Dublin, and legally incorporated as Trinity College, the University of Dublin (TCD), is the sole constituent college of the Univ ...

. At age 11 he fell in love with the poetry of

Virgil Publius Vergilius Maro (; 15 October 70 BC21 September 19 BC), usually called Virgil or Vergil ( ) in English, was an ancient Rome, ancient Roman poet of the Augustan literature (ancient Rome), Augustan period. He composed three of the most fa ...

and got into the habit of always carrying a copy of the ''

Aeneid The ''Aeneid'' ( ; or ) is a Latin Epic poetry, epic poem that tells the legendary story of Aeneas, a Troy, Trojan who fled the Trojan War#Sack of Troy, fall of Troy and travelled to Italy, where he became the ancestor of the Ancient Rome ...

'' in his left breast-pocket. In Trinity he graduated with the gold medal for Classics. He then turned to

medicine Medicine is the science and Praxis (process), practice of caring for patients, managing the Medical diagnosis, diagnosis, prognosis, Preventive medicine, prevention, therapy, treatment, Palliative care, palliation of their injury or disease, ...

and until 1845 he practised as a physician in Dublin city. In spite of his unconventionality and unorthodox views on religion and his own profession, he was very successful. He married Anne Jane Patton, from Donegal, and had three daughters, only one of whom, Katherine, born 1830, survived infancy. His accession to a large fortune in 1845 enabled him to devote himself entirely to the absorbing occupation of his life: the study of Virgil. Accompanied by his wife and daughter, he visited all those parts of Europe where he was likely to find rare editions or manuscripts of the poet. When his wife died in

Tyrol Tyrol ( ; historically the Tyrole; ; ) is a historical region in the Alps of Northern Italy and western Austria. The area was historically the core of the County of Tyrol, part of the Holy Roman Empire, Austrian Empire and Austria-Hungary, f ...

he continued his work with his daughter, who became quite a Virgil expert in her own right, and crossed the Alps seventeen times. After the death of his daughter in 1872 he returned to Dublin and continued his research at Trinity College, Dublin. He died at

Dalkey Dalkey ( ; ) is a village in Dún Laoghaire–Rathdown county southeast of Dublin, Ireland. It was founded as a Viking settlement and became a port in the Middle Ages. According to chronicler John Clyn (c.1286–c.1349), it was one of the port ...

, County Dublin.

Literary commentary

As a commentator on Virgil's ''

'', Henry will always deserve to be remembered, notwithstanding the occasional eccentricity of his notes and remarks. The first fruits of his researches were published in 1853 under the quaint title ''Notes of a Twelve Years' Voyage of Discovery in the First Six Books of the Eneis''. These ''Notes'' were followed by Henry's four-volume ''Aeneidea, or Critical, Exegetical, and Aesthetical Remarks on the Aeneis''; Henry described his ''Aeneidea'' as "an amplification, correction, and completion" of his ''Notes''. Only the first volume of the ''Aeneidea'', containing his ''Notes'' on the first book of the ''Aeneid'', was published before he died; the work was subsequently published by the trustees of his estate, under the editorial guidance of John Fletcher Davies. After the death of Davies, editorial work was completed by Arthur Palmer and Louis Claude Purser. As a textual critic Henry was exceedingly conservative. His notes, written in a lively and interesting style, are especially valuable for their wealth of illustration and references to lesser-known classical authors.

Poetry

Henry was also the author of five collections of verse plus two long narrative poems describing his travels, and various pamphlets of a satirical nature. At its best his

poetry Poetry (from the Greek language, Greek word ''poiesis'', "making") is a form of literature, literary art that uses aesthetics, aesthetic and often rhythmic qualities of language to evoke meaning (linguistics), meanings in addition to, or in ...

has something of the flavour of

Robert Browning Robert Browning (7 May 1812 – 12 December 1889) was an English poet and playwright whose dramatic monologues put him high among the Victorian literature, Victorian poets. He was noted for irony, characterization, dark humour, social commentar ...

and

Arthur Hugh Clough Arthur Hugh Clough ( ; 1 January 181913 November 1861) was an English poet, an educationalist, and the devoted assistant to Florence Nightingale. He was the brother of suffragist Anne Clough and father of Blanche Athena Clough, who both becam ...

while at its worst it resembles the doggerel of William McGonagall. His five volumes of verse were all published at his own expense and received no critical attention either during or after his lifetime.

Rediscovery

Henry was rediscovered by

Christopher Ricks Sir Christopher Bruce Ricks (born 18 September 1933) is a British literary critic and scholar. He is the William M. and Sara B. Warren Professor of the Humanities at Boston University (US), co-director of the Editorial Institute at Boston ...

who included eight of his poems in the '' New Oxford Book of Victorian Verse'' (1987). Then there was silence for ten years until the '' Penguin Book of Victorian Verse'' included four of his poems. Valentine Cunningham included five of Henry's poems in ''The Victorians: an Anthology of Poetry and Poetics'', published by Blackwell in 2000. In the 21st century, Henry was featured (with "Old Man," a poem from 1856) as one of the 90 poets included in ''My Own Land's Sins: An Anthology of Victorian Poetry'', published by the Canadian-based publisher Universitas Press.

Posthumous publication

In 2002 Christopher Ricks edited with an introduction the ''Selected Poems of James Henry'', published by The Lilliput Press (reviewed in ''The New York Review of Books'', ''The Times Literary Supplement'' and ''The Sunday Telegraph'').

References

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Henry, James Irish male poets 19th-century Irish medical doctors 1798 births 1876 deaths Writers from Dublin (city) 19th-century Irish poets Irish Latinists Medical doctors from Dublin (city)