Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Cayley, Charles Bagot

1386040Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900, Volume 09 — Cayley, Charles Bagot1887Thompson Cooper

CAYLEY, CHARLES BAGOT (1823–1883), translator, son of Henry Cayley, a Russia merchant, and younger brother of Arthur Cayley, Sadleirian professor at Cambridge, was born on 9 July 1823 in the neighbourhood of St. Petersburg. He was educated at Mr. Pollecary's school, Blackheath, King's College, London, and Trinity College, Cambridge, where he graduated B.A. in 1845, taking a second class in the classical tripos. He led the quiet and unpretentious life of a scholar, passed much of his time in the reading-room of the British Museum, and died suddenly of heart disease in the night of 5–6 Dec. 1883 at his lodgings in South Crescent, Bedford Square. He was buried at Hastings. His works are: 1. ‘Dante's Divine Comedy. Translated in the original ternary rhyme,’ 3 vols. Lond. 1851–4, 8vo, with a fourth vol. of notes, 1855. Mr. W. M. Rossetti remarks that ‘when all imperfections have been allowed for, Cayley's version must be pronounced to be very considerably the best and most thorough rendering into English of the “Commedia,” the one which, attempting most and aiming highest, reaches also furthest.’ 2. ‘Psyche's Interludes,’ a small volume of poems, Lond. 1857, 8vo. 3. ‘The Psalms in Metre,’ Lond. 1860, 8vo. 4. ‘Filippo Malincontri, or Student Life in Venetia. An autobiography,’ translated from the Italian, 2 vols. Lond. 1861, 8vo. 5. ‘Introduction to the Grammar of the Romance Languages, by Friedrich Diez,’ translated, Lond. 1863, 8vo. 6. ‘The Prometheus Bound of Æschylus. Translated in the original metres,’ Lond. 1867, 8vo. 7. ‘History of Political and Religious Persecutions,’ 2 vols. Lond. 1876, 8vo, conjointly with Fernando Garrido. 8. ‘The Iliad of Homer, Homometrically translated,’ Lond. 1877, 8vo. 9. ‘The Sonnets and Stanzas of Petrarch,’ translated, Lond. 1879, 8vo.

[Dr. J. A. H. Murray's Address to the Philological Society, 16 May 1884; Times, 10 Dec. 1883; Athenæum, 1883, ii. 776, 817; Academy, 1883, ii. 397; Cat. of Printed Books in Brit. Mus.; Graduati Cantab. (1884), 96.]

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