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CALVERLEY, CHARLES STUART (1831–1884)

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Originally appearing in Volume V05, Page 70 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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CALVERLEY, See also:CHARLES See also:STUART (1831–1884) , See also:English poet and wit, and the See also:literary See also:father of what may be called the university school of See also:humour, was See also:born at Martley in See also:Worcester-See also:shire on the 22nd of See also:December 1831. His father, the Rev. See also:Henry Blayds, resumed in 1852 the old See also:family name of Calverley, which his grandfather had exchanged for Blayds in 1807. It was as Charles Stuart Blayds that most of the son's university distinctions were attained. He went up to Balliol from See also:Harrow in 1850, and was soon known in See also:Oxford as the most daring and most high-spirited undergraduate of his See also:time. He was a universal favourite, a delightful See also:companion, a brilliant See also:scholar and the playful enemy of all " dons." In 1851 he won the See also:Chancellor's See also:prize for Latin See also:verse, and it is said that the entire exercise was written in an afternoon, when his See also:friends had locked him into his rooms, declining to let him out till he had finished what they were confident would prove the prize poem. A See also:year later he took his name off the books, to avoid the consequences of a See also:college escapade, and migrated to See also:Christ's College, See also:Cambridge. Here he was again successful in Latin verse, and remains the unique example of an undergraduate who has won the Chancellor's prize at both See also:universities. In 1856 he took second See also:place in the first class in the Classical Tripos. He was elected See also:fellow of Christ's (1858), published Verses and See also:Translations in 1862, and was called to the See also:bar in 1865. Owing to an See also:accident while See also:skating he was prevented from following up a professional career, and during the last years of his See also:life he was an invalid. His Translations into English and Latin appeared in 1866; his See also:Theocritus translated into English Verse in 1869; See also:Fly Leaves in 1872; and Literary Remains in 1885.

He died on the 17th of See also:

February 1884. Calverley was one of the most brilliant men of his See also:day; and, had he enjoyed See also:health, might have achieved distinction in any career he See also:chose. Constitutionally indolent, he was endowed with singular gifts in every See also:department of culture; he was a scholar, a musician, an See also:athlete and a brilliant talker. What is See also:left us marks only a small portion of his See also:talent, but his sparkling, dancing verses, which have had many See also:clever imitators, are still without a See also:rival in their own See also:line. His humour was illumined by See also:good nature; his See also:satire was keen but See also:kind; his See also:laughter was of that human sort which is often on the See also:verge of tears. Imbued with the classical spirit, he introduced into the making of See also:light verse the See also:polish and elegance of the See also:great masters, and even in its most whimsical See also:mood his verse is raised to the level of See also:poetry by the saving excellence of See also:style. His See also:Complete See also:Works,• with a See also:biographical See also:notice by See also:Sir W. J. Sendall, appeared in 1901.

End of Article: CALVERLEY, CHARLES STUART (1831–1884)

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