CO'NINGTON, doll ( 1825-69 ) . An Eng lish classical scholar, born at Boston, Lincoln shire. He studied at Rugby, under Dr. Arnold. in 1838-43. and at Magdalen College. Oxford, in 1843-46, and in 1846 became a fellow of Univer sity College. In 1849 he read law with much unwillingness for six months, at the London Inns of Court. and thereupon returned to the university. He contributed articles to the Morn ing Chronicle of London during 1849-50. In 1854 he was elected to the chair of the Latin language and literature at Oxford, that professorship hav ing just been founded by Corpus Christi. His tenure of the post, continued until his death, was markedly successful. and his 'imposing personal ity' extended his influence far beyond his large circle of immediate pupils. His interests in con nection with Latin studies were comparatively restricted. He cared little for ancient history. antiquities, or for ninny authors, even such great writers as Lucretius, Caesar, Livy, and Cieero. But as a minute and careful interpreter of the more strictly literary aspects of Vergil, Horace, and Persius, and as an accurate. fluent, and generally very readable translator of all three.
he gained a justly high repute. His transla tion (1866) of the Xneid in the ballad metre of Scott, though questioned by scholars as a repre sentation of the manner of Vergil, is a vital piece of work, and has been much read. The ren derings (1863) of the Carmina of Horace, and in particular of the Holum Epistukr and Ars Pud ica of the same author (1869), won the critical esteem of the learned. His most important work is his edition of Vergil, he,gun in conjunction with Goldwin Smith, and finished by Prof. Hen ry Nettleship (1', lergili Maronis Opera. The Works of Virgil, with a Commentary, 3 vols., 1858-70; 4th ed.. 1881-4). his edition of l'ersius, with a remarkably idiomatic prose translation, appeared in 1872. He was also a Greek scholar of fine attainments, and knew by heart the dramas of ..Eschylus, whose ..igameninon and Chephort he edited (the former, with a verse translation and notes, 1848; the latter. 1857). Consult The Miscellaneous Writings of John Co vington, edited by J. A. Symonds (London, 1872), which contains a memoir by Prof. H. J. S. Smith.