Benjamin Thorpe (1782 – 19 July 1870) was an English scholar ofAnglo-Saxonliterature.
In the early 1820s he worked as a banker in theHouse of Rothschild, inParis. There he metThomas Hodgkin, who treated him for tuberculosis.[1]
After studying for four years atCopenhagen University, under the DanishphilologistRasmus Christian Rask, Thorpe returned to England in 1830. In a few years he established a reputation as an Anglo-Saxon scholar.[2]
In recognition of unremunerative work, Thorpe was granted acivil list pension of £160 in 1835, and on 17 June 1841 this was increased to £200 per annum. He was aFellow of the Society of Antiquaries of London, a member of the Royal Academy of Sciences at Munich, and of the Society of Netherlandish Literature at Leyden[3] He died atChiswick in July 1870.
In 1830 Thorpe brought out at Copenhagen an English version of Rask'sAnglo-Saxon Grammar (a second edition of this appeared at London). That same year he moved to London with his new wife Mary Otte and her daughterElise Otté. Thorpe educated and oppressed his step daughter and she had a troubled relationship and unattributed partnership with him throughout his life.[4]
In 1832 he published at LondonCædmon's Metrical Paraphrase of Parts of the Holy Scriptures in Anglo-Saxon; with an English Translation, Notes, and a Verbal Index, which was well reviewed. It was followed in 1834 by theAnglo-Saxon Version of the Story of Apollonius of Tyre[5] and byAnalecta Anglo-Saxonica, a textbook which was adopted at Oxford byRobert Meadows White.[6] TheAnalecta was used, with Vernon'sAnglo-Saxon Guide, for 40 years.[3]
In 1835 Thorpe publishedLibri Psalmorum Versio antiqua Latina[7] and thenAncient Laws and Institutes of England (1840).[8] Two more volumes were published by Thorpe in 1842,The Holy Gospels in Anglo-Saxon[9] andCodex Exoniensis, a Collection of Anglo-Saxon Poetry, with English Translation and Notes, an edition of the poems in theExeter Book with English translation. Next came, for theÆlfric Society,The Homilies of the Anglo-Saxon Church,' with an English version, published in ten parts between 1843 and 1846.[3]
In 1834 Thorpe had begun a translation ofJohann Martin Lappenberg's works on old English history, but was deterred. By 1842 he had started another version, with alterations, corrections, and notes of his own; it was published in two volumes in 1845 asA History of England under the Anglo-Saxon Kings. It was followed eventually by a version of Lappenberg'sHistory of England under the Norman Kings (1857). Thorpe's two-volume edition ofFlorence of Worcester was issued in 1848–49.[3][10]
For the publisher Edward Lumley Thorpe producedNorthern Mythology (1851)[11] with notes and illustrations. It was followed in 1853 byYule Tide Stories[12] which appeared inBohn's Antiquarian Library. For the same library he translated in 1854Pauli's Life of Alfred the Great, with Alfred's Anglo-Saxon version ofOrosius. In 1855 appeared Thorpe'sAnglo-Saxon Poems ofBeowulf, with parallel prose translation, notes, glossary, and indexes. He had planned this work as early as 1830, and his text was collated with theCottonian MS beforeJohn Mitchell Kemble's; the scorched edges of the manuscript suffered further shortly afterwards.[3]
In 1861 Thorpe edited for theRolls Series ofThe Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, according to the several Authorities. In the first volume are printed synoptically the Corpus Christi, Cambridge, the Bodleian, and the various Cottonian texts, with facsimiles and notes, while in volume two appeared the translation. Four years later, through the support ofJoseph Mayer ofLiverpool, Thorpe was able to publish his supplement to Kemble'sCodex Diplomaticus ævi Saxonici.[13] His final work, done forTrübner in 1866, was a translation of theElder Edda.[3][14]
This article incorporates text from a publication now in thepublic domain: Seccombe, Thomas (1898). "Thorpe, Benjamin". InLee, Sidney (ed.).Dictionary of National Biography. Vol. 56. London: Smith, Elder & Co.
This article incorporates text from a publication now in thepublic domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Thorpe, Benjamin".Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 26 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. pp. 881–882.
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