 | This articlerelies largely or entirely on asingle source. Relevant discussion may be found on thetalk page. Please helpimprove this article byintroducing citations to additional sources. Find sources: "James Riddell" scholar – news ·newspapers ·books ·scholar ·JSTOR(December 2011) |
James Riddell (1823–1866) was an English classical scholar.
Born on 8 June 1823, he was the eldest son of James Riddell (1796–1878), rector ofEaston, Hampshire, by Dorothy, daughter of John Foster, of Leicester Grange,Warwickshire. After spending seven years at Mr. Browne's school atCheam,Surrey, Riddell enteredShrewsbury School in 1838 as a pupil ofBenjamin Hall Kennedy. He gained a scholarship atBalliol College, Oxford, his father's old college, in November 1840, and, leaving Shrewsbury as head boy in 1841, he began residence in Oxford in the Michaelmas term of that year. He was placed in the first class inliteræ humaniores withThomas Arnold andGoldwin Smith. He was elected Fellow of Balliol, serving his college as lecturer or tutor till his death.
He was classical examiner in 1858–9, classical moderator in 1865–6, and senior proctor and select preacher in 1862. He died atTunbridge Wells on 14 September 1866.
Riddell was invited by the delegates of theOxford University Press to edit theOdyssey for their series; andBenjamin Jowett, for an edition ofPlato, assigned to him theApology,Crito,Phædo, andSymposium. These works were left incomplete. His commentary onOdyssey, i.–xii., was completed by his pupilWilliam Walter Merry (Clarendon Press, 1st edit. 1876). Of his work on Plato he lived to finish only theApology. It was printed after his death at the Clarendon Press in 1867. In the same volume appeared aDigest of Platonic Idioms.
He made various translations, in theAnthologia Oxoniensis and inSabrinæ Corolla. These were collected, with additions, inReliquiæ Metricæ (Oxford and London, 1867).
This article incorporates text from a publication now in thepublic domain: "Riddell, James (1823-1866)".Dictionary of National Biography. London: Smith, Elder & Co. 1885–1900.
