MORELL

MORELL, THOMAS, well known as a classical scholar and editor, was born at Eton, in Buckinghamshire, on the 18th of March 1703. At the age of twelve, he was admitted on the foundation at Eton School, and thence elected in 1722 to King's College, Cambridge, where he successively took his degrees in arts and theology. In 1731, he was appointed curate of Kew, and for some time officiated in the same capacity at Twickenham; in 1737, he was, on the presentation of his college, instituted rector of Buckland; and in 1775, we find him acting as chaplain to the garrison at Portsmouth. He died on the 19th of February 1784, after having devoted his long life to the discharge of his ecclesiastical duties, and the cultivation of the ancient languages, diffusing at once the love of religion, and a taste for classical literature. His principal works are, 1. A Collection of Theological Poems, original, and translated from the Latin of Vida, with notes, London, 1732-36, in 8vo; 2. An edition of Chaucer's Canterbury Tales, with modern imitations, London, 1737; 3. An edition of the works of Spencer, 1747; 4. The Hecuba, Orestes, Phœnisse, and Alcestes of Euripides, with ancient scholia and notes, London, 1748; 5. An English translation of the Hecuba, with annotations; 6. The Prometheus of Æschylus, with scholia, notes, and an English translation in blank verse, 1767; 7. Two Letters on Greek inscriptions found upon an altar at Corbridge in Northumberland; 8. Editions of the Greek Lexicon of Hederick, and of the Latin Dictionary of Ainsworth; 9. Thesaurus Græcæ Poëseos, sive Lexicon Græco-Prosodiacum, Eton, 1762, in 4to, an imitation of the Gradus ad Parnassum, since considerably augmented and enlarged by Dr Maltby, Cambridge, 1815; 10. Various other works, particularly a catalogue of Mr Child's library, in 4to, and Annotations on Locke's Essay, 1793, 8vo. (A.)