Poems: Consisting Chiefly of Translations from the Asiatick Languages. to Which Are Added Two Essays; I. on the Poetry of the Eastern Nations. II. on the Arts, Commonly Called Imitative
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The Works Of Sir William Jones, Vol. 11 of 13: With The Life Of The Author (Classic Reprint) (French Edition)
(Excerpt from The Works Of Sir William Jones, Vol. 11 of 1...)
Excerpt from The Works Of Sir William Jones, Vol. 11 of 13: With The Life Of The Author
Livre III. Depuix le Couronnement de Cbgla Âbba: jufgu'à celui de Nader Cim: dam Ie: Plaz'ner de Megan.
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(Sir William Jones was one of the greatest polymaths in hi...)
Sir William Jones was one of the greatest polymaths in history. At the time of his early death, in 1794, he knew 13 languages thoroughly and another 28 moderately well. But languages were for him only a means of reaching a deeper understanding, in contrasting cultures, of law, history, literature, music, botany, and other disciplines. Elected at the age of 26 to Johnson's Literary Club and knighted at 37, Jones was a close friend to many leading English luminaries of his time. He was called "Oriental Jones" by some, and his study of middle-eastern cultures, his championship of American independence, and finally his appointment as high court judge in Calcutta, made him a truly universal figure. On the bicentenary of his death, several scholars met at University College, Oxford--his old college--to commemorate his outstanding career and achievements. They found representative themes in Jones's life and work, aiming to strike a balance therein, and to remember, especially, the view taken of Jones by his informed contemporaries. This collection of fascinating papers is a result of that meeting.
Sir William Jones was an Anglo-Welsh philologist, a puisne judge on the Supreme Court of Judicature at Fort William in Bengal, and a scholar of ancient India, particularly known for his proposition of the existence of a relationship among European and Indian languages, which would later be known as Indo-European languages.
Background
William Jones was born in London at Beaufort Buildings, Westminster, United Kingdom on September 28, 1746; his father William Jones (1675–1749) was a mathematician from Anglesey in Wales, noted for introducing the use of the symbol π. Jones' father died when he was aged three, and his mother Mary Nix Jones raised him.
Education
The young William Jones was a linguistic prodigy, who in addition to his native languages English and Welsh, learned Greek, Latin, Persian, Arabic, Hebrew and the basics of Chinese writing at an early age. By the end of his life he knew thirteen languages thoroughly and another twenty-eight reasonably well, making him a hyperpolyglot. He was sent to Harrow School in September 1753. In 1764 Jones entered University College, Oxford, where he continued to study Oriental literature, and perfected himself in Persian and Arabic by the aid of a Syrian Mirza, whom he had discovered and brought from London. He graduated there in 1768 and became M. A. in 1773. In his vacations he improved his acquaintance with French and Italian.
He added to his knowledge of Hebrew and made considerable progress in Italian, Spanish and Portuguese.
Career
During five years he partly supported himself by acting as tutor to Lord Althorpe, afterwards the second Earl Spencer, and in 1766 he obtained a fellowship.
Though but twenty-two years of age, he was already becoming famous as an Orientalist, and when Christian VII of Denmark visited England in 1768, bringing with him a life of Nadir Shah in Persian, Jones was requested to translate the MS. into French.
This was followed in the same year by a Traite sur la poesie orientale, and by a French metrical translation of the odes of Hafiz.
In 1771 he published a Dissertation sur la littirature orientale, defending Oxford scholars against the criticisms made by Anquetil Du Perron in the introduction to his translation of the Zend-Avesta.
In the same year appeared his Grammar of the Persian Language.
Besides writing an Essay on the Law of Bailments, which enjoyed a high reputation both in England and America, Jones translated, in 1778, the speeches of Isaeus on the Athenian right of inheritance.
Hindu legal authorities in the original, he at once began the study of Sanskrit, and undertook, in 1788, the colossal task of compiling a digest of Hindu and Mahommedan law.
This he did not live to complete, but he published the admirable beginnings of it in his Institutes of Hindu Law, or the Ordinances of Manu (1794); his Mohammedan Law of Succession to Property of Intestates; and his Mohammedan Law of Inheritance (1792).
He also translated the collection of fables entitled the Hitopadesa, the Gitagovinda, and considerable portions of the Vedas, besides editing the text of Kalidasa's poem Ritusamhara.
An extraordinary linguist, knowing thirteen languages well, and having a moderate acquaintance with twenty-eight others, his range of knowledge was enormous.
Finally, in March 1783, a new and more liberal ministry gave him the judgeship, along with a knighthood, and in April he and his wife set sail for India.
The 11 years he spent on the Supreme Court of Calcutta were highly productive ones, and he applied democratic principles to his judicial decisions.
(Excerpt from The Works Of Sir William Jones, Vol. 11 of 1...)
Views
Quotations:
In a presidential address to the Asiatick Society, he declared that Sanskrit showed to Greek and Latin "a stronger affinity, both in the roots . .. and in the forms of grammar, than could possibly have been produced by accident; so strong indeed, that no philologer could examine them all three, without believing them to have sprung from some common source, which, perhaps, no longer exists. "
Membership
In 1772 he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society and in 1773 became a member of Samuel Johnson's "Club. "
He was called to the bar at the Middle Temple in 1774.
Shortly after his arrival in India he founded, in January 1784, the Bengal Asiatic Society, of which he remained president till his death.
Connections
On April 8, he married Shipley, and he and his wife would live in India from 1783 until 1794, the year Jones died.