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George Sandys

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For the British diplomat and politician, see George Sandys (politician).

Portrait of George Sandys

George Sandys (/sændz/ "sands"; 2 March 1578[1] – March 1644) was an English traveller, colonist, poet, and translator.[2]

Life

Relation of a journey begun Anno Domini 1610, 1632

He was born in Bishopsthorpe, the seventh and youngest son of Edwin Sandys, archbishop of York. He studied at St Mary Hall, Oxford in 1589, admitted to Middle Temple, 23 October 1596, and later transferred to Corpus Christi College, Oxford,[3] but took no degree. On his travels, which began in 1610, he first visited France; from north Italy he passed by way of Venice to Constantinople, and thence to Egypt, Mount Sinai, Palestine, Cyprus, Sicily, Naples, and Rome. His narrative, dedicated, like all his other works, to Charles (either as prince or king), was published in 1615, and formed a substantial contribution to geography and ethnology.[4][5]

He also took great interest in the earliest English colonization in America. In April 1621 he became colonial treasurer of the Virginia Company and sailed to Virginia with his niece's husband, Sir Francis Wyatt, the new governor.

When Virginia became a crown colony, Sandys was created a member of council in August 1624; he was reappointed to this post in 1626 and 1628. In 1631, he vainly applied for the secretaryship to the new special commission for the better plantation of Virginia; soon after this, he returned to England for good.[6]

In 1621, he had already published an English translation, written in basic heroic couplets, of part of Ovid's Metamorphoses; this he completed in 1626; on this mainly his poetic reputation rested in the 17th and 18th centuries. Its 1632 edition, featuring extensive commentaries written by Sandys, provided an allegorical reading of Ovid's text. He also began a version of Virgil's Aeneid, but never produced more than the first book. In 1636, he issued his famous Paraphrase upon the Psalms and Hymns dispersed throughout the Old and New Testaments, he translated Christ's Passion from the Latin of Grotius, and, in 1641, he brought out his last work, a Paraphrase of the Song of Songs. He died, unmarried, at Boxley, near Maidstone, Kent, in 1644.

His verse was praised by Dryden and Pope; Milton was somewhat indebted to Sandys's Hymn to my Redeemer (inserted in his travels at the place of his visit to the Holy Sepulchre) in his Ode on the Passion.[7]

From The Relation of a Journey begun an. Dom. 1610

Sandys' travel narrative appeared as The Relation of a Journey begun an. Dom. 1610, in four books (1615). This remained a standard account of the Eastern Mediterranean, twice mentioned, for instance, by the English naval chaplain Henry Teonge in his diary of a voyage in 1675.

Theology

Sandys adopted Arminian theological views that were reflected in his writings. He included anti-calvinist commentaries in his Paraphrase upon the Psalms" (1636)[8]. He latter translated Christus Patiens (1639) a theological and political drama of Arminian theologian Hugo Grotius.[9]

Family

His brother Edwin Sandys (same name as his father) was a politician and an influential member of the London Virginia Company. George Sandys was the uncle of Richard Lovelace (1618–1657), an English poet in the seventeenth century.[1]



See also

Notes and references

Citations

  1. ^ a b Sandys, George, in: Encyclopædia Britannica online.
  2. ^ Ellison, James (2002). George Sandys: Travel, Colonialism, and Tolerance in the Seventeenth Century. ISBN 9780859917506.
  3. ^ "Sandys, George (1578–1644), writer and traveller | Oxford Dictionary of National Biography". doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/9780198614128.001.0001 (inactive 22 January 2020). {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)CS1 maint: DOI inactive as of January 2020 (link)
  4. ^ "George Sandys | English poet and traveler". Encyclopedia Britannica. Retrieved 28 February 2019.
  5. ^ Davis, Richard Beale (28 February 2019). "George Sandys and Two "Uncollected" Poems". Huntington Library Quarterly. 12 (1): 105–111. doi:10.2307/3815877. JSTOR 3815877.
  6. ^ Books, John J. Burns Library of Rare; College, Special Collections at Boston (15 October 2014). "George Sandys, the Ethnographer: A Man Before His Time". John J. Burns Library's Blog. Retrieved 28 February 2019.
  7. ^ "George Sandys - George Sandys Poems - Poem Hunter". www.poemhunter.com. Retrieved 28 February 2019.
  8. ^ Ellison 2002, p. 182. The marginal notes of the Geneva Bible had read strict predestinarianism into the Psalms, but Sansys would have none of this. Instead he included unmistakeably anti-calvinist sentiments in one of his psalms. sfn error: multiple targets (2×): CITEREFEllison2002 (help)
  9. ^ Ellison 2002, p. 182, .. Later in his career Sandys would search out the origins of true Arminianism in the Low Countries, translating a play by one of Arminius' strongest supporters, Hugo Grotiues: as we shall see, the theology remains distinctively Arminian [...] sfn error: multiple targets (2×): CITEREFEllison2002 (help)

Sources

  • Ellison, James (2002). George Sandys: Travel, Colonialism, and Tolerance in the Seventeenth Century. Cambridge, UK: D.S. Brewer. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)

Extra sources

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