Alfred Elwes (1819–1888) was a nineteenth-century British author of children's literature, academic,philologist, and occasional translator of French, Italian and Portuguese literature into English. He is perhaps best remembered for his translation of the medieval Arthurian romanceJaufry the Knight and the Fair Brunissende; a Tale of the Times of King Arthur.
Elwes was born in 1819 atWoolwich, Kent.[1] In his education Elwes attained the degree of Doctor of Philosophy.[2] He studied atLeiden in theNetherlands.[1]
Subsequently Elwes was Professor of English atLeghorn, Tuscany,[1] where his son,Alfred Thomas Elwes, was born about 1841.[3] His earliest known work,Il Nuovo Vergani (1845), a grammar in Italian for the study of English,[1] was probably written and published during his tenure in this position, as was, no doubt, his earliest known translation,A new and complete Italian grammar by Vergani (1846), which would have performed the same office in English for the study of Italian.
Later, after returning to England, Elwes served as President of the British Literary Society in a term beginning in 1857[4] and running through 1858.[5][6] In 1868 he served, along withSamuel Neil, as one of the two vice-presidents of the newly established British Literary Union.[7] In 1870 he held the position of Official Translator of Modern Languages in London.[1]
Elwes' interests in Continental languages and travel are reflected in most of his works. He both wrote and translatedtravel literature, and much of his children's fiction details the lives or adventures of young protagonists in European locales.
In addition to his works published in book form, Elwes contributed prose and verse to various periodicals.[1]
Elwes was the compiler of a number of English/Romancedictionaries, as well asRomance languagegrammars for the use of students learning the languages, all reissued in various editions into the twentieth century.
Ocean and her Rulers; a Narrative of the Nations which have from the Earliest Ages held Dominion over the Sea, comprising a Brief History of Navigation, from the Remotest Periods up to the Present Time (1853) (Google e-text)
How I crossed Africa, from the Atlantic to the Indian Ocean, through unknown countries; Discovery of the Great Zambesi Affluents, &c., byAlexandre de Serpa Pinto (1881)(Google e-text)
From Benguella to the Territory of Yacca; Description of a Journey into Central and West Africa, comprising narratives, adventures, and important surveys of the sources of the rivers ... and a detailed account of the territories of Quiteca N'bungo, Sosso, Futa, and Yacca : Expedition organised in the years 1877–1880, byHermenegildo Capelo andRoberto Ivens (1882)(Internet Archive)
"Introductory Remarks," May 1859, inA Sketch of the Comparative Beauties of the French and Spanish Languages, by Manuel Martinez de Morentin, London, Trübner & Co., 1859, pp. [iii]-viii.
"To the Members of the British Literary Union" (address), 19 March 1868, inThe Quarterly Journal of the British Literary Union, Preliminary Number, April 1868, pp. 11–12.
^abcdefAllibone, S. Austin.A Critical Dictionary of English Literature and British and American Authors Living and Deceased, from the Earliest Accounts to the Latter Half of the Nineteenth Century. London, Trübner & Co., 1871, vol. III, p. 2781 (a digression under the entry for Joseph Wilson).
^Kirk, John Foster (1891).A Supplement to Allibone's Critical Dictionary of English Literature and British and American Authors. Philadelphia:J. B. Lippincott Company. p. 555.
^Jackson, Christine E. (1999).Dictionary of bird artists of the world. Woodbridge: Antique Collectors' Club. p. 235.ISBN1851492038.
^The British Controversialist, and Literary Magazine, n.s., v. 5, 1858, London, Houlston and Wright, 1858, p. 279.
^The British Controversialist, and Literary Magazine, n.s., v. 6, 1858, London, Houlston and Wright, 1858, p. 192.
^The Literary and Education Year Book for 1859, London, Kent and Co., [1858], p. 274.
^The Quarterly Journal of the British Literary Union, Preliminary Number, April 1868, London, Longmans, Green, & Co., p. [34].
