Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 49.djvu/50

 the navy in 1821; in 1826 was a midshipman of the Sybille in the Mediterranean, with Sir Samuel John Brooke Pechell [q. v.], and passed his examination in 1828. He was promoted commander on 28 June 1838, in July 1839 he was appointed to the Phœnix steamer, and in March 1840 to the Hydra, in the Mediterranean, where he took part in the operations on the coast of Syria [see ], and was advanced to post rank on 5 Nov. 1840. For the next nine years he remained on half-pay. From 1850 to 1852 he commanded the Arrogant in the Channel fleet, and in June 1854 he commissioned the Colossus, which formed part of the fleet in the Baltic and off Cronstadt in 1855. In January 1856 he was moved into the Royal George, which was paid off in the following August. In 1858–9 he commanded the Exmouth at Devonport, and on 9 June 1860 was promoted to be rear-admiral. He was then appointed one of a commission to inquire into the management of the dockyards, and in the following year became controller of the navy, which office he held for ten years. During the last two—December 1868 to February 1871—he was also a lord of the admiralty under Hugh Childers. He became vice-admiral on 2 April 1866, was made a civil K.C.B. on 7 Dec. 1868, and an admiral on 14 June 1871. During his later years he was well known as a writer to the ‘Times’ on subjects connected with the navy, and as author of some pamphlets, among which may be named ‘Results of Admiralty Organisation as established by Sir James Graham and Mr. Childers’ (1871), and ‘Remarks on H.M.S. Devastation’ (1873). He died in London on 27 July 1889. He married, in 1841, Clementina, daughter of Admiral Sir John Louis, bart.

 ROBINSON, SAMUEL (1794–1884), Persian scholar, was born at Manchester on 23 March 1794, educated at Manchester New College (then situated at York), and entered business as a cotton manufacturer, first at Manchester, and, after his marriage to Miss Kennedy, at Dukinfield; he retired in 1860. His father, a well-known cotton ‘dealer,’ was a man of cultivated tastes, and from an early age the son showed a strong interest in poetry, especially German and Persian. In 1819, inspired by the writings of Sir William Jones (1746–1794) [q. v.], he read a critical sketch of the ‘Life and Writings of Ferdusi,’ or Firdausi, before the Literary and Philosophical Society of Manchester, which was included in the ‘Transactions,’ and printed separately for the author in 1823. For fifty years he published nothing more on Persian literature, but he had not abandoned the study (Preface to Persian Poetry for English Readers, 1883, p. v). When he was nearly eighty years old he printed selections ‘from five or six of the most celebrated Persian poets, with short accounts of the authors and of the subjects and character of their works.’ They appeared in five little duodecimo paper-covered books, uniform but independent, anonymous save for the initials S. R. subscribed to the prefaces, and published both in Manchester and London, in the following order: 1. ‘Analysis and Specimens of the Joseph and Zulaikha, a historical-romantic Poem, by the Persian Poet Jami,’ 1873. 2. ‘Memoir of the Life and Writings of the Persian Poet Nizami, and Analysis of the Second Part of his Alexander Book,’ 1873. 3. ‘A Century of Ghazels, or a Hundred Odes, selected and translated from the Diwan of Hafiz,’ 1875. 4. ‘Flowers culled from the Gulistan … and from the Bostan … of Sadi,’ with an ‘Appendix, being an Extract from the Mesnavi of Jelalud-din Rumi,’ 1876. 5. A reprint of the early ‘Sketch of the Life and Writings of Ferdusi,’ 1876. The greater part of the Sa‘di selection had previously appeared in a volume (by other writers) of translations from Persian authors, entitled ‘Flowers culled from Persian Gardens’ (Manchester, 12mo, 1870). The volume on Nizami was avowedly a translation from the German of W. Bacher, and the ‘Joseph and Zulaikha’ owed much to Rosenzweig's text and version. Indeed, Robinson, who was unduly modest about his knowledge of Persian, and expressly disclaimed the title of ‘scholar’ (Preface to Persian Poetry, p. vii), relied considerably on other versions to correct and improve his own, though always collating with the Persian originals before him. The result was a series of extremely conscientious prose versions, showing much poetic feeling and insight into oriental modes of thought and expression—the work of a true student in love with his subject. The five little volumes becoming scarce, they were reprinted in a single volume, for private circulation, with some slight additions and revision, at the instance and with the literary aid of Mr. W. A. Clouston, under the title of ‘Persian Poetry for English Readers,’ 1883, which may justly claim to be the best popular work on the subject.

Besides his Persian selections, Robinson published translations of Schiller's ‘Wilhelm Tell’ (1825, reissued 1834), Schiller's ‘Minor