ALDRICH, DR HENRY, an eminent English divine and philosopher, born at London in 1647, was educated at Westminster school under the famous Dr Busby, and admitted of Christ-church College, Oxford. He had a great share in the controversy with the Papists in the reign of James II.; and Bishop Burnet ranks him among those who examined all the points of Popery with a solidity of judgment, clearness of argument, depth of learning, and vivacity of writing, far beyond any who had before that time written in our language. He rendered himself so conspicuous, that at the Revolution, when Massey the Popish dean of Christ-church fled, his deanery was conferred on him. In this station he behaved in an exemplary manner, and that fabric owes much of its beauty to his ingenuity. He published, besides some other pieces, a System of Logic, still in use as a text-book in Oxford; and the revising of Clarendon's History of the Rebellion was intrusted to him and Bishop Sprat. Besides his preferences above mentioned, Dr Aldrich was also rector of Wem, in Shropshire. He was chosen prolocutor of the convocation in 1702. He died at Christ-church on the 14th of December 1710. Sir John Hawkins has favoured the public with several particulars relative to Dr Aldrich's skill in music. He composed many services for the church, which are well known; as are also his anthems, nearly twenty in number. He adapted, with great skill and judgment, English words to many of the notes of Palestrina, Carissimi, Victoria, and other Italian composers for the church, some of which are frequently sung in our cathedrals as anthems. By his happy talent of naturalizing the compositions of the old Italian masters, and accommodating them to an English ear, he increased the stores of his own church.
Dr Aldrich is of some note as a Latin poet. In the Muse Anglicana we find two elegant copies of verses by him; one on the accession of King William III., and the other on the death of the Duke of Gloucester. Sir John Hawkins has preserved a humorous translation by him of the well-known English ballad,
A soldier and a sailor,
A tinker and a tailor, &c.
The following epigram, entitled "Cause Bibendi," is likewise ascribed to Dr Aldrich:—
Sic bene quid memini, Causa sunt quibus bibendi;
Hospitis Adventus, proxima Sitis, atque futura,
Aut Vini Bonitas, aut quolibet altera Causa.
The epigram has been thus translated:—
If on my theme I rightly think,
There are five reasons why men drink;
Good wine, a friend, because I'm dry,
Or lest I should be by and by,
Or any other reason why.
The translation is not equal to the original. It is evident from the verses cited and referred to, that Dr Aldrich was
Aldrich
||
Aldrovandus.
of a very cheerful and pleasant turn of mind. Having never been married, he appropriated his income to works of hospitality and beneficence, and the encouragement of learning. His modesty and humility prevented him from prefixing his name to the learned tracts which he published during his life. He was buried in the cathedral, according to his own wish, without any memorial.