Robert Calverl(e)y Trevelyan (; 28 June 1872 – 21 March 1951) was an English poet and translator, of a traditionalist sort, and a follower of the

lapidary style Lapidary style is prose that is appropriate for memorials, mausoleums, stelae, and other commemorations in which words are "etched in stone"; it is concise, pithy, elegant, and sententious. The meaning extends to text in that style which is printed ...

of Logan Pearsall Smith.

Life

Trevelyan was the second son of

Sir George Trevelyan, 2nd Baronet Sir George Otto Trevelyan, 2nd Baronet, (20 July 1838 – 17 August 1928) was a British statesman and author. In a ministerial career stretching almost 30 years, he was most notably twice Secretary for Scotland under William Ewart Gladstone an ...

, and his wife Caroline ''née'' Philips, who was the daughter of Robert Needham Philips MP, a Liberal

Member of Parliament A member of parliament (MP) is the representative in parliament of the people who live in their electoral district. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, this term refers only to members of the lower house since upper house members of ...

and textile merchant from Lancashire. Trevelyan was the brother of Sir Charles Trevelyan, 3rd Baronet, and of the historian G. M. Trevelyan. He was born in

Weybridge Weybridge () is a town in the Borough of Elmbridge in Surrey, England, around southwest of central London. The settlement is recorded as ''Waigebrugge'' and ''Weibrugge'' in the 7th century and the name derives from a crossing point of the ...

and educated at

Wixenford Wixenford is an area of the civil parish of Wokingham Without in which Ludgrove School stands. It adjoins Wokingham and is in the English county of Berkshire. Name The area was developed by the former Wixenford School, which closed in 1934. That h ...

(where he was known as "the Dodo" and was a particular friend of Frederick Lawrence), then at

Harrow Harrow may refer to: Places * Harrow, Victoria, Australia * Harrow, Ontario, Canada * The Harrow, County Wexford, a village in Ireland * London Borough of Harrow, England ** Harrow, London, a town in London ** Harrow (UK Parliament constituency) ...

. From 1891 to 1895 he studied at

Trinity College, Cambridge Trinity College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. Founded in 1546 by Henry VIII, King Henry VIII, Trinity is one of the largest Cambridge colleges, with the largest financial endowment of any college at either Cambridge ...

, where he became one of the

Cambridge Apostles The Cambridge Apostles (also known as ''Conversazione Society'') is an intellectual society at the University of Cambridge founded in 1820 by George Tomlinson, a Cambridge student who became the first Bishop of Gibraltar.W. C. Lubenow, ''The Ca ...

. He studied Classics and then law; his father wanted him to follow a career as a

barrister A barrister is a type of lawyer in common law jurisdictions. Barristers mostly specialise in courtroom advocacy and litigation. Their tasks include taking cases in superior courts and tribunals, drafting legal pleadings, researching law and ...

, but his ambition was to be a poet. Described as a "rumpled, eccentric poet", and sometimes considered a rather ineffectual person, he was close to the

Bloomsbury Group The Bloomsbury Group—or Bloomsbury Set—was a group of associated English writers, intellectuals, philosophers and artists in the first half of the 20th century, including Virginia Woolf, John Maynard Keynes, E. M. Forster and Lytton Strac ...

, who called him 'Bob Trevy'. He had a wide further range of social connections: George Santayana from 1905;

Isaac Rosenberg Isaac Rosenberg (25 November 1890 – 1 April 1918) was an English poet and artist. His ''Poems from the Trenches'' are recognized as some of the most outstanding poetry written during the First World War. Early life Isaac Rosenberg was born ...

; Bernard Berenson;

Bertrand Russell Bertrand Arthur William Russell, 3rd Earl Russell, (18 May 1872 – 2 February 1970) was a British mathematician, philosopher, logician, and public intellectual. He had a considerable influence on mathematics, logic, set theory, linguistics, ...

;

G. E. Moore George Edward Moore (4 November 1873 – 24 October 1958) was an English philosopher, who with Bertrand Russell, Ludwig Wittgenstein and earlier Gottlob Frege was among the founders of analytic philosophy. He and Russell led the turn from ideal ...

; E. M. Forster with whom he and

Goldsworthy Lowes Dickinson Goldsworthy Lowes Dickinson (6 August 1862 – 3 August 1932), known as Goldie, was a British political scientist and philosopher. He lived most of his life at Cambridge, where he wrote a dissertation on Neoplatonism before becoming a fellow. H ...

travelled to

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

in 1912. His

pacifist Pacifism is the opposition or resistance to war, militarism (including conscription and mandatory military service) or violence. Pacifists generally reject theories of Just War. The word ''pacifism'' was coined by the French peace campaign ...

principles extended to sheltering

John Rodker John Rodker (18 December 1894 – 6 October 1955) was an English writer, modernist poet, and publisher of modernist writers. Biography John Rodker was born on 18 December 1894 in Manchester, into a Jewish immigrant family. The family moved t ...

, "on the run" as a

conscientious objector A conscientious objector (often shortened to conchie) is an "individual who has claimed the right to refuse to perform military service" on the grounds of freedom of thought, conscience, or religion. The term has also been extended to object ...

during

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

; when he became liable to

conscription Conscription (also called the draft in the United States) is the state-mandated enlistment of people in a national service, mainly a military service. Conscription dates back to antiquity and it continues in some countries to the present day un ...

by the raising of the maximum age in 1918, he volunteered for the Friends' War Victims Relief Service, serving in

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...

, August 1918-March 1919.FWVRS: FWVRS workers, 1914–23, Friends' House Library, London He married the Dutch musician Elizabeth van der Hoeven; the artist Julian Trevelyan was their son.

Works

Trevelyan wrote a number of

verse play Verse drama is any drama written significantly in verse (that is: with line endings) to be performed by an actor before an audience. Although verse drama does not need to be ''primarily'' in verse to be considered verse drama, significant portion ...

s; ''The Bride of Dionysus'' (1912) was made into an opera by

Sir Donald Tovey Sir Donald Francis Tovey (17 July 187510 July 1940) was a British musical analyst, musicologist, writer on music, composer, conductor and pianist. He had been best known for his '' Essays in Musical Analysis'' and his editions of works by Bach ...

List of works

*Mallow and Asphodel (1898) poems *Polyphemus and Other Poems (1901) *Sisyphus: An Operatic Fable. (1908)
''The Bride of Dionysus a music-Drama and Other Poems''
(1912) *The New Parsifal: An Operatic Fable (1914) *The Foolishness of Solomon (1915) *The Pterodamozels: An Operatic Fable. (1916) *The Death of Man (1919) poems *Translations from Lucretius (1920) *The Oresteia of Aeschylus (1922) translator *The Antigone of Sophocles (1924) translator *The Ajax of Sophocles *The Idylls of Theocritus (The Casanova Society, 1925) translator *Poems and Fables (

Hogarth Press The Hogarth Press is a book publishing imprint of Penguin Random House that was founded as an independent company in 1917 by British authors Leonard Woolf and Virginia Woolf. It was named after their house in Richmond (then in Surrey and now ...

, 1925) *Thamyris: Is There a Future for Poetry? (1925) polemic *The Deluge & Other Poems (Hogarth Press, 1926) *Meleager (Hogarth Press, 1927) *Three Plays: Sulla - Fand - The Pearl Tree (Hogarth Press, 1931) *Rimeless Numbers (Hogarth Press, 1932) *Selected Poems (1934) *Beelzebub (Hogarth Press, 1935) *De Rerum Natura by Lucretius (1937) translator *The Collected Works of R. C. Trevelyan (1939) two volumes *Aftermath (Hogarth Press, 1941) *Translations from Leopardi (1941) *Translations from Horace, Juvenal, & Montaigne. With Two Imaginary Conversations (1941) *A Dream (Privately Published, 1941) *The Eclogues and the Georgics of Virgil (1944) translator *Windfalls: Notes & Essays (1944) *From the Chinese (1945) translator *Sophocles: Oedipus at Colonus (1946) translator *From the Shiffolds (Hogarth Press, 1947) *Translations from Latin Poetry (1949) *Translations from Greek Poetry (1950)

Notes

External links

The Robert Calverley Trevelyan fonds at the Victoria University Library at the University of Toronto
consists of twelve letters written to Mrs. Rosebery concerning writing, travel, friends, social activities and other matters. {{DEFAULTSORT:Trevelyan, R. C. 1872 births 1951 deaths Younger sons of baronets People educated at Wixenford School People educated at Harrow School Alumni of Trinity College, Cambridge English male poets Greek–English translators Latin–English translators British conscientious objectors Macaulay family of Lewis Translators of Virgil