Henry Francis Cary
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Henry Francis Cary, best known for his blank verse translation of The Divine Comedy of Dante, was an English author and translator. He was born at Gibraltar on the 6th of December 1772 and died in London on the 14th of August 1844. He was educated at the grammar schools of Rugby, Sutton Coldfield and Birmingham and entered Christ Church, Oxford in 1790 where he studied French and Italian literature. While at school he regularly contributed to the Gentleman's Magazine, and published a volume of Sonnets and Odes. Cary took Anglican orders in 1796. A short time after publishing his version of the Inferno in 1805 he moved to London where he became a reader at Berkeley chapel. He also became a lecturer at Chiswick and curate of the Savoy. His version of the whole Divina Comedia did not appear until 1814. Cary published it at his own expense as the publisher did not want to risk publishing it after the failure incurred over the Inferno. After the translation was praised by Samuel Taylor Coleridge in a lecture at the Royal institute and an article published in the Edinburgh Review the translation took its place among standard works and passed through 4 editions during Cary's life. Cary published a translation of The Birds of Aristophanes in 1824. In 1826 he was appointed assistant-librarian in the British Museum where he worked for 11 years and in 1834 he published a translation of Odes of Pindar.
