Theodore Martin
Sir Theodore Martin KCB KCVO (16 September 1816 – 18 August 1909) was a Scottish poet, biographer, and translator.
Biography
Martin was born in Edinburgh, the only son of Mary, the daughter of James Reid, a shipowner from Fraserburgh and James Martin, a solicitor. He was educated at the Royal High School and attended the University of Edinburgh from 1830-1833.[1] He practised as a solicitor in Edinburgh 1840–45, after which he went to London and became head of the firm of Martin and Leslie, parliamentary agents.
His first contribution to literature was the humorous Bon Gaultier Ballads, written along with W.E. Aytoun, which remained popular for a long time; originally contributed to a magazine, they appeared in book form in 1845.
Martin's translations include Dante's Vita Nuova, Oehlenschläger's Correggio and Aladdin, Heinrich Heine's Poems and Ballads, Friedrich Schiller's Wilhelm Tell, and Hertz's King René's Daughter.[2] He also published a complete translation of Horace with a Life, and one of Catullus.
He is probably best known for his Life of the Prince Consort (1874–80), the writing of which was entrusted to him by Queen Victoria, a work which won him her lifelong friendship. He also wrote Lives of Professor Aytoun and Lord Lyndhurst.
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/b/b5/Thomas_Duncan_%281807-1845%29_-_Sir_Theodore_Martin_%281816%E2%80%931909%29%2C_Lawyer_and_Writer_-_PG_694_-_National_Galleries_of_Scotland.jpg/220px-Thomas_Duncan_%281807-1845%29_-_Sir_Theodore_Martin_%281816%E2%80%931909%29%2C_Lawyer_and_Writer_-_PG_694_-_National_Galleries_of_Scotland.jpg)
In 1851 he married Helena Faucit, a well-known actress, and author of studies on Shakespeare's Female Characters, whose Life he published in 1901. The couple lived for some time at Bryntysilio (The Hill of St. Tyssilio) which he bought in 1861, near Llangollen, where in 1889 they were visited by the queen during her progress in Wales.
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/5/58/TheodoreMartinBrompton01.jpg/220px-TheodoreMartinBrompton01.jpg)
Martin kept up his intellectual activity into old age, published in 1905 a translation of Leopardi's poems, and Monographs (1906). He was Lord Rector of the University of St Andrews in 1881, received an LLD from the University of Edinburgh in 1875, and Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath in 1880.
He died in 1909 and is buried in Brompton Cemetery, London.
References
Sources
This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Cousin, John William (1910). "Martin, Sir Theodore". A Short Biographical Dictionary of English Literature. London: J. M. Dent & Sons – via Wikisource.
- Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Martin, Sir Theodore" . Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 17 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press.
- Lee, Sidney, ed. (1912). "Martin, Theodore" . Dictionary of National Biography (2nd supplement). Vol. 2. London: Smith, Elder & Co.
- Ward, A. W.; Basu, Sayoni. "Martin, Sir Theodore (1816–1909)". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/34906. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
External links
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/4/4a/Commons-logo.svg/30px-Commons-logo.svg.png)
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/4/4c/Wikisource-logo.svg/38px-Wikisource-logo.svg.png)
Theodore Martin
- Works by Theodore Martin at Project Gutenberg
- Works by or about Theodore Martin at the Internet Archive
- Works by Theodore Martin at LibriVox (public domain audiobooks)
Academic offices | ||
---|---|---|
Preceded by | Rector of the University of St Andrews 1880 - 1883 | Succeeded by |
- v
- t
- e
- Sir Ralph Abercromby Anstruther, 4th Baronet
- Sir William Stirling-Maxwell, 9th Baronet
- John Stuart Mill
- James Anthony Froude
- Charles Neaves, Lord Neaves
- Arthur Penrhyn Stanley
- Roundell Palmer, 1st Earl of Selborne
- Sir Theodore Martin
- Donald Mackay, 11th Lord Reay
- Arthur Balfour
- Frederick Hamilton-Temple-Blackwood, 1st Marquess of Dufferin and Ava
- John Crichton-Stuart, 3rd Marquess of Bute
- James Stuart
- Andrew Carnegie
- John Lubbock, 1st Baron Avebury
- Archibald Primrose, 5th Earl of Rosebery
- John Hamilton-Gordon, 1st Marquess of Aberdeen and Temair
- Douglas Haig, 1st Earl Haig
- Sir J. M. Barrie
- Rudyard Kipling
- Fridtjof Nansen
- Wilfred Grenfell
- Jan Smuts
- Guglielmo Marconi
- Robert MacGregor Mitchell, Lord MacGregor Mitchell
- Sir David Munro
- Sir George Cunningham
- David Cecil, 6th Marquess of Exeter
- David Lindsay, 28th Earl of Crawford
- David Maxwell Fyfe, 1st Earl of Kilmuir
- Robert Boothby, Baron Boothby
- C. P. Snow
- Sir John Rothenstein
- Learie Constantine
- John Cleese
- Alan Coren
- Frank Muir
- Tim Brooke-Taylor
- Katharine Whitehorn
- Stanley Adams
- Nicholas Parsons
- Nicky Campbell
- Donald Findlay
- Andrew Neil
- Sir Clement Freud
- Simon Pepper
- Kevin Dunion
- Alistair Moffat
- Catherine Stihler
- Srđa Popović
- Leyla Hussein
- Stella Maris