Arthur Woollgar Verrall

Arthur Woollgar Verrall (5 February 1851, Brighton - 18 June 1912, Cambridge) was a British classics scholar associated with Trinity College, Cambridge, and the first occupant of the King Edward VII Chair of English. He was noted for his translations and for his challenging, unorthodox interpretations of the Greek dramatists, such as his commentary on Agamemnon; his detractors found his readings contorted and too ingenious, too often overlooking obvious explanations in favour of the convoluted, and his published work is nowadays not highly regarded.^[1] After his death, admirers M. A. Bayfield and J. D. Duff edited Verrall's Collected Literary Essays. Classical and Modern and Collected Essays in Greek and Latin Scholarship 1914. Among his publications, Euripides the Rationalist was highly influential.

Life

Arthur Woollgar Verrall was educated at Twyford School, Wellington College, and Trinity College, Cambridge, where he graduated BA as 2nd Classic in 1872.^[2] Elected a fellow of Trinity in 1874, he was a College Lecturer from 1877 to 1911. He married Margaret Merrifield in 1882. A Trinity Tutor from 1889 to 1899. He was tutor to Aleister Crowley.

His wife Margaret Verrall (21 December 1857 - 2 July 1916), a lecturer in classics at Newnham College, gained more fame through her psychic researches and as a medium. She was a member of a Cambridge group who were early explorers of Spiritualism and automatic writing.^[3] Their daughter married William Henry Salter, who was later President of the Society for Psychical Research (1947-48).

References

1. ^ Richard Smail, ‘Verrall, Arthur Woollgar (1851–1912)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004.doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/36646
2. ^ Verrall, Arthur Woollgar in Venn, J. & J. A., Alumni Cantabrigienses, Cambridge University Press, 10 vols, 1922–1958.
3. ^ Rita McWilliams Tullberg, ‘Verrall , Margaret de Gaudrion (1857–1916)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, Sept 2004; online edn, May 2007. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/48503

External links

• Works by or about Arthur Woollgar Verrall in libraries (WorldCat catalog)
• Vita of Mrs A.W. Verrall

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Name	Verrall, Arthur
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Date of birth	5 February 1851
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Date of death	18 June 1912
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