Robert Potter (translator)

Robert Potter (1721 – 9 August 1804) was an English clergyman of the Church of England and a translator, poet, critic and pamphleteer.[1] He established the convention of using blank verse for Greek hexameters and rhymed verse for choruses. His 1777 English version of the plays of Aeschylus was frequently reprinted and the only one available for the next fifty years.

Robert Potter M.A.
Born	1721 Podimore, Somerset
Died	9 August Lowestoft
Resting place	Lowestoft
Occupation	Clergyman, translator, poet
Nationality	British
Education	Sherborne School, Emmanuel College, Cambridge
Alma mater	Cambridge University
Period	1737-1742
Spouse	Elizabeth Colman (d. 1786)
Children	Nine children

Life

Potter was born in Podimore, Somerset, the third son of John Potter (fl. 1676–1723), a prebendary of Wells Cathedral. He studied at Emmanuel College, Cambridge and graduated BA in 1742, when he was also ordained. He married the daughter of Rev. Colman of Hardingham, Norfolk.[2] His children included a daughter, Sarah, referred to in a letter.[3] Potter became curate of Reymerston and vicar of Melton Parva, but the combined emoluments of these were less than £50 a year. He later became curate of Scarning, Norfolk,[4] as well as the master of the local Seckar's School from 1761 to 1789, but spent much of his time writing and translating.

Among Potter's pupils was Jacob Mountain (1749–1825), the first Anglican bishop of Quebec.[5]

Until 1788 Potter he struggled to support his family from his meagre stipends and relied on the support of aristocratic patrons. However, he was at last made financially secure when he was appointed a prebendary of Norwich Cathedral through the patronage of the Lord Chancellor, Lord Thurlow, who had attended Seckar's School.[6] According to one account, Thurlow and Potter had been schoolfellows at Seckar's, which seems unlikely, as Potter was ten years his junior. For whatever reason, when Potter approached Thurlow to ask for a £10 subscription to his Sophocles translation, he received a valuable cathedral stall instead.[7] This enabled him to resign other offices and move to Norwich. In June 1789 Lewis Bagot, Bishop of Norwich, presented Potter with the valuable vicarage of the combined parishes of Lowestoft and Kessingland, Suffolk, and in 1790 he moved again to Lowestoft, where died on 9 August 1804 and was buried in the parish churchyard.

Publications

Potter published in several different genres during his long career.

Poetry

Potter published Retirement: an epistle (1747), A farewell hymne to the country. Attempted in the manner of Spenser's Epithalamion (1749 and 1750), Holkham, a poem (1758), Kymber. A monody (1759), and his collected Poems by Mr. Potter (1774).[8]

Sermons

Potter published three sermons. On the pretended inspiration of the Methodists (1758) was answered by Cornelius Cayley in "A letter to the Rev. Mr. Potter", which in turn occasioned "An appendix to the sermon on the pretended inspiration of the Methodists. Occasioned by Mr. Cayley's letter. By the reverend Mr. Potter". "A sermon preached before the Right Worshipful the Mayor of Norwich, and the corporation, in the cathedral, on Friday, April 19, 1793" attacked Thomas Paine's Rights of Man.[8] The third was A sermon for the first day of June 1802, being the day appointed for a general thanksgiving for peace.[9]

Political pamphlets

In 1768 Potter wrote "A letter to John Buxton, of Shadwell, Esq; on the contests relative to the ensuing election for the county of Norfolk", and in 1775 Observations on the poor laws, on the present state of the poor, and on House of Industry, criticising the cruel treatment of the rural poor.[10]

Translations

Potter is best remembered for his annotated English translations of Greek tragedies in blank verse. He completed the plays of Æschylus (1777), Euripides (1781–1783) and Sophocles in (1788).[11] that remained in print throughout the 19th century. Of the three, the Æschylus was best known and went through seven editions until 1892.. Likewise his Euripdes went through six editions until 1906, Sophocles was reprinted only in 1808 and 1880. Potter's scheme of using blank verse for Greek hexameters and rhymed verse for the choruses was widely adopted by other translators.

In 1779 Potter collaborated with the politician Hans Stanley to correct and annotate Stanley’s translation of Pindar's Odes. The task was completed but never published due to Stanley's suicide in January 1780.[12]

Literary criticism

After the completion of Euripides, Potter set about an essay on lyric poetry using some of the notes prepared for the translation of Pindar, but incorporating a defence of the work of Thomas Gray after recent criticisms of his poetry by Samuel Johnson in his Lives of the Most Eminent English Poets. Elizabeth Montagu persuaded him to convert this project into An inquiry into some passages in Dr. Johnson's Lives of the poets: particularly his observations on lyric poetry, and the odes of Gray.[13] In 1789, following Johnson's death, Potter published The art of criticism; As exemplified in Dr. Johnson's lives of the most eminent English poets.

Assessment

According to the antiquary Craven Ord, Potter was "narrow in his circumstances with a disagreeable wife... rather an entertaining and well-behaved gentleman, with some singularities of thinking."[14] A letter from Sarah Burney to her sister Frances Burney on 1 August 1779 indicates that Samuel Johnson, Hester Thrale and their circle thought little of Potter's poetic abilities.[15] Johnson may have described Potter's poetry as "verbiage", but Horace Walpole was welcoming: "There is a Mr. Potter too, I don't know who, that has published a translation of Aeschylus, and as far as I have looked is a good poet."[16]

Portraits

There is a 1789 portrait of Potter by George Romney (painter)[17] and an etching in the National Portrait Gallery in London.[18]

References

1. David Stoker: "Potter, Robert (1721–1804)". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, online ed. (Oxford: Oxford University Press, September 2004). Retrieved 5 September 2010.
2. A General History of the County of Norfolk, Vol I, John Chambers (Norwich/London, 1829), p. 107n.
3. Norfolk Record Office, Le Neve Correspondence, MC 1/9 386 × 5 1783.
4. Stoker, David (1993). "'Greek tragedy with a happy ending: the publication of Robert Potter's editions of Æschylus, Euripides and Sophocles". Studies in Bibliography. Charlottesville, VA: Bibliographical Society of the University of Virginia. XLVI: 282–302. ISSN 0081-7600.
5. Dictionary of Canadian Biography. . Retrieved 17 November 2013.
6. Lee, Sidney, ed. (1898). "Thurlow, Edward (1731–1806)" . Dictionary of National Biography. 56. London: Smith, Elder & Co.
7. A General History..., op. cit., Vol. II, p. 834.
8. English Short-title catalogue (www.estc.bl.uk).
9. Library Hub Discover –
11. Stoker (1993).
12. Stoker, David (1993). "'Robert Potter's attack on Dr Johnson". British Journal for Eighteenth-Century Studies. Southampton: Wiley-Blackwell Publishing. XVI: 179–183. ISSN 0141-867X.
13. Wright, Herbert G. (1936). "'Robert Potter as a critic of Dr Johnson". Review of English Studies. Oxford: Oxford Academic. XII (47): 305–321. doi:10.1093/res/os-XII.47.305.
14. (B.L. Addl. Ms. 14823 fo.137).
15. The Early Diary of Frances Burney 1768–1778. Edited by Annie Raine Ellis (London: G. Bell and Sons Ltd., 1913 [1889]), pp. 255–257.
16. . Retrieved 16 May 2010.
18. "NPG D4981; Robert Potter – Portrait – National Portrait Gallery". npg.org.uk. Retrieved 8 July 2016.

External sources

• Potter's draft autobiography is National Library of Wales Ms 125021, Wigfair 21.
• Robert Potter at the Eighteenth-Century Poetry Archive (ECPA)
• An imitation of Spenser written by Potter is available here: . Retrieved 16 May 2010.
• Potter's is one of the translations considered in Reuben A. Brower's "Seven Agamemnons". In: Mirror on Mirror: Translation, Imitation, Parody (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1974) ISBN 0-674-57645-4.