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WAKEFIELD, GILBERT (1756-1801)

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Originally appearing in Volume V28, Page 249 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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WAKEFIELD, See also:GILBERT (1756-1801) , See also:English classical See also:scholar and politician, was See also:born at See also:Nottingham on the 22nd of See also:February 1756. He was educated at Jesus See also:College, See also:Cambridge (See also:fellow, 1776). In 1778 he took orders, but in the following See also:year quitted the See also:church and accepted the See also:post of classical See also:tutor at the Non-conformist See also:academy at See also:Warrington, which he held till the See also:dissolution of the See also:establishment in 1783. After leaving Warrington, he took private pupils at Nottingham and other places, and also occupied himself with See also:literary See also:work. His most important See also:production at this See also:period was the first See also:part of the See also:Silva critica, the See also:design of which was the " See also:illustration of the Scriptures by See also:light borrowed from the See also:philology of See also:Greece and See also:Rome." In 1790 he was appointed See also:professor of See also:classics at the newly-founded Unitarian college at See also:Hackney, but his proposed reforms and his objection to religious observances led to unpleasantness and to his resignation in the following year. From this See also:time he sup-ported himself by his See also:pen. His edition of See also:Lucretius, a work of high pretensions and little solid performance, appeared in 1796–1799, and gained for the editor a very exaggerated reputation (see See also:Munro's Lucretius, i. pp. 19, 20). His light-hearted See also:criticism of See also:Porson's edition of the See also:Hecuba was avenged by the latter's famous See also:toast: " Gilbert Wakefield; what's Hecuba to him or he to Hecuba ? " About this time Wakefield, who hated See also:Pitt and condemned See also:war as utterly unchristian, abandoned literature for See also:political and religious controversy. After assailing with equal bitterness writers so entirely opposed as See also:William See also:Wilberforce and See also:Thomas See also:Paine, in See also:January 1798 he "employed a few See also:hours " in See also:drawing up a reply to See also:Bishop See also:Watson's Address to the See also:People of See also:Great See also:Britain, written in See also:defence of Pitt and the war and the new " tax upon income." He was charged with having published a seditious See also:libel, convicted in spite of an eloquent defence, and imprisoned for two years in See also:Dorchester See also:gaol. A considerable sum of See also:money was subscribed by the public, sufficient to provide for his See also:family upon his See also:death, which took See also:place on the 9th of See also:September 18o1.

While in See also:

prison he corresponded on classical subjects with See also:Charles See also:James See also:Fox, the letters being subsequently published. See the second edition of his See also:Memoirs (1804). The first See also:volume is autobiographical; the second, compiled by J. T. Rutt and A. See also:Wainewright, includes several estimates of his See also:character and performances from various See also:sources, the most remarkable being one. by Dr See also:Parr; see also See also:Gentleman's See also:Magazine (September 18o1); See also:Henry Crabb See also:Robinson's See also:Diary (3rd ed., 1872); See also:John See also:Aikin in Aikin's See also:General See also:Biography (1799-1815).

End of Article: WAKEFIELD, GILBERT (1756-1801)

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