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Home > Catholic Encyclopedia > O > John Oxenford


JOHN OXENFORD

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Dramatist, critic, translator, and song-writer, b. in London, 12 Aug., 1812; d.
there 21 Feb., 1877. Mostly self-educated, for a time he was under the tuition
of a brilliant and erratic scholar, S.T. Friend. His master recognizing his
faculty for philosophy and his versatility wished to divert him from the
dramatic career towards which he seemed inclined. In 1837 he was articled to a
solicitor and is said to have spent some time in the London office of a relative
and to have written on commerce and finance. He early read the literature of
Germany, Italy, France, and Spain, and was always "a devourer of books". From
the German he translated, amongst other things, Fischer's "Francis Bacon"
(London, 1857); Goethe's "Autobiography" (London, 1888); Eckermann's
"Conversations with Goethe" (London, 1904), the two last translations having
almost become English classics and finding a place in Bohn's well-known series.
From the French he translated Molière's "Tartuffe"; from the Italian Boyardo's
"Orlando Innamorato" (in part), and from the Spanish a play of Calderon. But
Oxenford's chief interest lay in the drama. Between 1835, when his first play
was written, and his death he was producing dramatic work. Sixty-eight plays, at
least, are attributed to him. Several have been translated into German, French,
and Dutch. He also wrote librettos for operas etc. For the last twenty years of
his life he was, in addition, dramatic critic to the "Times". He frequently
contributed to newspapers and magazines, among others the "Athenæum". In April
1853, he wrote for the "Westminster Review" an essay on Schopenhauer's
philosophy which is said to have founded the fame of that philosopher both in
England and abroad. In late life Oxenford's health weakened. He died of heart
failure in 1877. Eighteen months earlier he had been received into the Church.



An appreciative sketch of his life appeared in the "Times" of 23 Feb., 1877. The
writer extols his originality and scholarship: "As an appreciator of others, and
as a quick discovered of anything new likely to exercise a future influence on
thought he had few equals". The value of Oxenford's criticism, however, is
somewhat lowered by a too great leniency, proceeding from his natural
kindliness. In private life he was much beloved. His conversational powers were
remarkable; and he possessed an "unsurpassed sweetness of character and
self-forgetting nobleness and childlikeness".


SOURCES

Athanæum, II (London, 1877), 258; Annual Register, II (London, 1877); Catholic
Standard and Weekly Register (7 April, 1877).


ABOUT THIS PAGE

APA citation. Warren, K.M. (1911). John Oxenford. In The Catholic Encyclopedia.
New York: Robert Appleton Company. http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/11364b.htm

MLA citation. Warren, Kate Mary. "John Oxenford." The Catholic Encyclopedia.
Vol. 11. New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1911.
<http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/11364b.htm>.

Transcription. This article was transcribed for New Advent by Choi M. Starr.

Ecclesiastical approbation. Nihil Obstat. February 1, 1911. Remy Lafort, S.T.D.,
Censor. Imprimatur. +John Cardinal Farley, Archbishop of New York.

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