Richard Dawes (170821 March 1766) was an

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ide ...

classical scholar.

Life

He was born in or near Market Bosworth,

Leicestershire Leicestershire ( ; postal abbreviation Leics.) is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in the East Midlands, England. The county borders Nottinghamshire to the north, Lincolnshire to the north-east, Rutland to the east, Northamptonshire t ...

, England, and was educated at the town's

grammar school A grammar school is one of several different types of school in the history of education in the United Kingdom and other English-speaking countries, originally a school teaching Latin, but more recently an academically oriented secondary school ...

under

Anthony Blackwall The Reverend Anthony Blackwall (baptized Kirk Ireton, Derbyshire, 17 July 1672, died Market Bosworth 8 April 1730), was an English classical scholar and schoolmaster. Early life Blackwall was the son of another Anthony Blackwall, of Blackwall, a ...

, and at

Emmanuel College, Cambridge Emmanuel College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. The college was founded in 1584 by Sir Walter Mildmay, Chancellor of the Exchequer to Elizabeth I. The site on which the college sits was once a priory for Dominican mon ...

, of which he was elected fellow in 1731. His eccentricities and frank speaking made him unpopular. His health broke down as a result of his sedentary life, and he took to bell-ringing at

Great St Mary's St Mary the Great is a Church of England parish and university church at the north end of King's Parade in central Cambridge, England. It is known locally as Great St Mary's or simply GSM to distinguish it from "Church of St Mary the Less, Cambri ...

as exercise. He was a bitter enemy of

Richard Bentley Richard Bentley FRS (; 27 January 1662 – 14 July 1742) was an English classical scholar, critic, and theologian. Considered the "founder of historical philology", Bentley is widely credited with establishing the English school of Hellen ...

, who he declared knew nothing of Greek except from indexes. Endnotes: * John Hodgson, ''An Account of the Life and Writings of Richard Dawes'' (1828) * * John Edwin Sandys, ''History of Classical Scholarship'', ii. 415. In 1738, Dawes was appointed to the mastership of the Royal Free Grammar School,

Newcastle upon Tyne Newcastle upon Tyne ( RP: , ), or simply Newcastle, is a city and metropolitan borough in Tyne and Wear, England. The city is located on the River Tyne's northern bank and forms the largest part of the Tyneside built-up area. Newcastle is ...

, combined with that of St Mary's Hospital. His mind seems to have become unhinged; his continual disputes with his governing body ruined the school, and in 1749, he resigned and retired to Heworth, where he spent most of his time boating.

Works

The book on which Dawes' fame rests is his ''Miscellanea critica'' (1745), which gained the commendation of L. C. Valckenaer and

Johann Jakob Reiske Johann Jakob Reiske (Neo-Latin: Johannes Jacobus Reiskius; December 25, 1716 – August 14, 1774) was a German scholar and physician. He was a pioneer in the fields of Arabic and Byzantine philology as well as Islamic numismatics. Biography Reisk ...

. ''The Miscellanea'', which was re-edited by Thomas Burgess (1781),

Gottlieb Christoph Harless Gottlieb Christoph Harless (originally Harles) (21 June 1738 – 2 November 1815) was a German classical scholar and bibliographer. Biography He was born at Culmbach in Bavaria. He studied at the universities of Halle, Erlangen and Jena. In ...

(1800) and Thomas Kidd (1817), for many years enjoyed a high reputation. Some of the "canons" proved untenable and few were accepted universally; but it remains a monument of English scholarship.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Dawes, Richard English classical scholars Schoolteachers from Leicestershire Alumni of Emmanuel College, Cambridge Fellows of Emmanuel College, Cambridge People from Market Bosworth 1708 births 1766 deaths