William Baxter (1650–1723) was a Welsh scholar.

Life

He was born at Lanhigan in

Shropshire Shropshire (; alternatively Salop; abbreviated in print only as Shrops; demonym Salopian ) is a landlocked historic county in the West Midlands region of England. It is bordered by Wales to the west and the English counties of Cheshire to ...

, son of a brother of

Richard Baxter Richard Baxter (12 November 1615 – 8 December 1691) was an English Puritan church leader, poet, hymnodist, theologian, and controversialist. Dean Stanley called him "the chief of English Protestant Schoolmen". After some false starts, he ...

. When he went to Harrow School at the late age of eighteen, he could neither read nor understand one word of any language but Welsh. He soon, however, acquired much classical learning. He carried on an extensive correspondence with all the prominent men of his generation. His profession was that of a schoolmaster, first in a boarding school at Tottenham High Cross (Middlesex), and later as master of the Mercers' School, London, where he remained for upwards of twenty years. He died 31 May 1723.

Works

His first publication was an advanced Latin grammar, called , 1679. He made his most significant mark by his ''

Anacreon Anacreon (; grc-gre, Ἀνακρέων ὁ Τήϊος; BC) was a Greek lyric poet, notable for his drinking songs and erotic poems. Later Greeks included him in the canonical list of Nine Lyric Poets. Anacreon wrote all of his poetry in the ...

'', published in 1695, and which included two odes by Sappho. Later opinion pronounced it over-bold in its readings. It was reprinted in 1710, and

Joshua Barnes Joshua Barnes FRS (10 January 1654 – 3 August 1712), was an English scholar. His work ''Gerania; a New Discovery of a Little Sort of People, anciently discoursed of, called Pygmies'' (1675) was an Utopian romance.LeTellier (1997), p. 186. Life ...

charged Baxter with borrowing largely in the second edition from his own edition of ''Anacreon'' of 1705, but Barnes afterwards retracted the charge. In 1701 appeared Baxter's '' Horace'', which J. M. Gesner made the basis of his edition, published in 1752 and also in 1772. Baxter's edition was republished in 1725 and in 1798.

Robert Lowth Robert Lowth ( ; 27 November 1710 – 3 November 1787) was a Bishop of the Church of England, Oxford Professor of Poetry and the author of one of the most influential textbooks of English grammar. Life Lowth was born in Hampshire, England, G ...

pronounced it 'the best edition of Horace ever yet delivered to the world.' In 1788 Zeunius incorporated in an edition of Horace all Baxter's and Gesner's notes. Baxter's ''Horace'' includes abuse of Richard Bentley. In 1719 he published his dictionary of British antiquities under the title of ''Glossarium Antiquitatum Britannicarum, sive Syllabus Etymologicus Antiquitatum Veteris Britanniae atque Iberniae temporibus Romanorum.'' This work was republished by Moses Williams. The same editor brought out Baxter's fragmentary posthumous work, his glossary of Roman antiquities, under the title of ''Reliquiae Baxterianae, sive W. Baxteri Opera Posthuma.'' It went only through the letter A. There is a life of the author written by himself accompanying it. He had prepared an edition of

Juvenal Decimus Junius Juvenalis (), known in English as Juvenal ( ), was a Roman poet active in the late first and early second century CE. He is the author of the collection of satirical poems known as the '' Satires''. The details of Juvenal's life ...

with commentary and notes; but, in spite of Moses Williams's proposals, it never appeared. Baxter from the outset pursued physiological studies and other subsidiary investigations, in the ' Philosophical Transactions' and ''Archaeologia.'' He was 'one of the hands' in the translation of

Plutarch Plutarch (; grc-gre, Πλούταρχος, ''Ploútarchos''; ; – after AD 119) was a Greek Middle Platonist philosopher, historian, biographer, essayist, and priest at the Temple of Apollo in Delphi. He is known primarily for hi ...

's ''Morals'' (1718).

Notes

References

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External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Baxter, William 1650 births 1723 deaths People educated at Harrow School Welsh classical scholars Welsh antiquarians 17th-century Welsh historians 18th-century Welsh historians