Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 61.djvu/193

 ’ (1848, 8vo) by Juan Perez, with a notice of the author in English (this notice is reprinted with the English translation, 1871, 8vo, by John T. Betts) and Spanish; and vol. xv., the ‘Alfabeto Cristiano’ (1861, 8vo) by Juan de Valdés, in Italian, with modern versions in Spanish and English. The remaining volumes were edited by Usóz y Rio. Wiffen wrote also the ‘Life and Writings of Juan de Valdés’ (1865, 8vo) which accompanies the English translations of works of Valdés by John T. Betts; and a ‘Biographical Sketch’ (1869, 8vo) of Constantino Ponce de la Fuente, to accompany the English version of his ‘Confession of a Sinner,’ by the same translator. Eduard Boehmer has printed two volumes (1874 and 1883, 8vo) of the ‘Bibliotheca Wiffeniana,’ containing lives and writings of Spanish reformers from 1520, ‘according to … Wiffen's plan, and with the use of his materials.’ Ticknor in his standard ‘History of Spanish Literature’ spoke of Wiffen in 1863 as ‘an English quaker, full of knowledge of Spanish literature.’

In early life, and again later, Wiffen had written verses of some merit, but published nothing separately. His ‘Warder of the Pyrenees’ appeared in Finden's ‘Tableaux of National Character’ (1845, fol.), edited by his sister, Mrs. Alaric A. Watts. This is reprinted in the selection of his poems (unpublished previously, for the most part) given in ‘The Brothers Wiffen’ (1880), edited by Samuel Rowles Pattison.

He died, unmarried, at Mount Pleasant on 18 March 1867, and was buried in the Friends' graveyard at Woburn Sands on 24 March. His portrait is given in ‘The Brothers Wiffen.’ He was ‘a small, pale, keen-eyed man,’ delicately organised, always wearing quaker garb, and strict in all observances of the Friends.



WIFFEN, JEREMIAH HOLMES (1792–1836), translator of Tasso, eldest son of John Wiffen, ironmonger, by his wife Elizabeth (Pattison), was born at Woburn, Bedfordshire, on 30 Dec. 1792. Both his parents were members of old quaker families. His father died early, leaving six children to the mother's care. His younger brother, [q. v.], is separately noticed; his youngest sister, Priscilla, married [q. v.] At the age of ten Jeremiah entered the Friends' school at Ackworth, Yorkshire, where he improved a taste for poetry and acquired some skill in wood engraving. His linguistic attainments were due to his own later study. At fourteen he became apprenticed to Isaac Payne, schoolmaster, at Epping, Essex. His first appearance in print was in the ‘European Magazine’ (October 1807, p. 308) with an ‘Address to the Evening Star,’ versified from Ossian. His first contribution on an archæological subject was an account of Broxbourne church, Hertfordshire, with an etching by himself (Gent. Mag. 1808, i. 408). In 1811 he returned to Woburn and opened a school in Leighton Road. A hard student, he made himself at home in classics and Hebrew, French, and Italian, and later, Spanish and Welsh. In conjunction with the elder [q. v.] and [q. v.] he published ‘Poems by Three Friends’ (1813, 8vo); the joint authorship was acknowledged in the second edition (1815, 12mo). With his brother he published ‘Elegiac Lines’ (1818, 8vo) commemorating William Thompson, quaker schoolmaster of Penketh, Lancashire. His earliest independent volume was ‘Aonian Hours’ (1819, 8vo, dedicated to his brother; 2nd ed. 1820, 8vo). On a visit to the lakes with his brother in the summer of 1819 he made the acquaintance of Southey and of Wordsworth, whose ‘white pantaloons’ and ‘hawk's nose’ are described in his diary. His next book was ‘Julia Alpinula … and other Poems’ (1820, 12mo, dedicated to Alaric A. Watts; 2nd ed. 1820, 12mo). In the summer of 1821 he was appointed librarian at Woburn Abbey to John Russell, sixth duke of Bedford.

In 1821 he issued his ‘Proposals’ for publishing by subscription a new translation of Tasso in Spenserian verse. As a specimen, the fourth book of the ‘Jerusalem Delivered’ was published in 1821, 8vo, with a dissertation on existing translations. His next essay in verse was a translation of ‘The Works of Garcilasso de la Vega,’ 1823, 8vo, dedicated to the Duke of Bedford, with a life of Garcia Lasso de la Vega, and an essay on Spanish poetry. The publication of the completed version of ‘Jerusalem Delivered’ was delayed by a fire in the printing office (which destroyed the sheets of a quarto edition, nearly printed off); it appeared in 1824,