FREDERIC BLAYDES [To the Editor of THE SPECTATOR.]
am anxious to put together as many facts as I can get concerning the life-work and activities of the late Frederic H. M. Blaydes, who died, at an advanced age, early in this century. Perhaps some of your readers could help. This great scholar has never, in this colintry, received his full due ; and I note, with regret, that his name does not appear in the third volume of Sandys' monumental History of Classical Scholarship, published nearly thirty years ago. Yet consider what he accomplished ! First, a complete edition of Sophocles ; his work on the dramas is constantly referred to by Jebb. Second, a complete edition—with Latin notes throughout—of Aristophanes : altogether some fifteen octavo volumes. Readers of Benjamin Bickley Rogers' famous work on this comedian will remember how often he alludes to Blaydes' edition. Arthur Palmer dedicated his Satires of Horace to viro doctissimo de poetis scenicis graecis optime merito; and tributes were made to him by such men as Starkie. On the Continent full justice was done to Blaydes : Professor Bilcheler, for instance, once spoke to Professor J. E. B. Mayor in the highest terms of his labours on the dramatists. From his quiet vicarage in Harring- worth were produced these many volumes ; and they were not confined to Sophocles and Aristophanes alone ; he issued several volumes of Adversaria, and a commentary on the Oresteia of Aeschylus. Perhaps there are still living, in Blaydes' old parish, people who would be able to tell me something about the man as well as the scholar.—Yours faithfully,
Previous page
