his execution, ‘and lay ower the east blok-house with the said cardinall, till the martyr of God was consumed by fyre’ (ib.) Dunbar died on the last day of April 1547, and was buried in the choir of his cathedral. His remains were discovered in 1855 during the repairs on the choir (for description of them see Gordon, Eccles. Hist. Scotl. ii. 525–6). He built the gatehouse of his episcopal palace, on which he inscribed his arms. Knox says that Dunbar was ‘known a glorious fool,’ a description which indicates possibly Knox's contempt both of Dunbar's regard for ecclesiastical ceremony and of his weak personal character, which made him merely Beaton's unwilling tool. But beside Knox's judgment must be set that of Buchanan, which, if not entirely inconsistent with it, supplements and in some respects qualifies it. In the exaggerated language excusable in an epigram, and especially in a Latin epigram, Buchanan affirms that when he sat down as the guest of Dunbar he envied not the gods their nectar and ambrosia; but it must be remembered that Buchanan also states in plain prose that some thought Dunbar ‘defective in politics.’ The seal of Dunbar is engraved in the ‘Reg. Episcop. Glasg.,’ published by the Maitland Club.
[Keith's Scottish Bishops; Crawfurd's Officers of State, pp. 74–6; Haig and Brunton's Senators of the College of Justice, 1–5; Gordon's Eccles. Hist. Scotl. vol. ii.; Reg. Episcop. Glasg. (Maitland Club); Cal. State Papers, Hen. VIII, vol. iv; Knox's Works; Histories of Calderwood and Buchanan.]
DUNBAR, GEORGE (1774–1851), classical scholar, the child of humble parents, was born at Coldingham in Berwickshire in 1774. He was employed in youth as a gardener, but was incapacitated from manual labour by a fall from a tree. Dunbar then had the good fortune to attract the notice of a neighbouring proprietor, who aided him to acquire a classical education. About the beginning of the nineteenth century he went to Edinburgh, and was employed as tutor in the family of Lord-provost Fettes. Within a few months he was selected as assistant to Andrew Dalzel, the professor of Greek at the university, and on the death of the latter in 1806 was appointed his successor, when he received the degree of M.A. from the university (February 1807). Dunbar filled the Greek chair until his death, though in his later years his duties were performed by a substitute, Mr. Kirkpatrick. He was twice married, and died at Rose Park, Edinburgh, on 6 Dec. 1851.
As a classical scholar Dunbar did not leave behind him a very enduring reputation, and the bulk of his work has but little permanent value. His industry, however, was very great. He completed a Greek grammar left unfinished by Dalzel (‘Elementa Linguæ Græcæ,’ pt. i. by Professor Moor of Glasgow, published 1806, pt. ii. by Dalzel and Dunbar, published 1814, Edin. and London), and added a third volume to Dalzel's ‘Collectanea Græca Majora’ (London, 1820). On his own account he published an edition of Herodotus, with Latin notes, ‘Herodotus cum annotationibus’ (7 vols. Edin. 1806–7); ‘Prosodia Græca’ (Edin. 1815); ‘Analecta Græca Minora’ (London, 1821); a very foolish ‘Inquiry into the Structure and Affinity of the Greek and Latin Languages … with an appendix in which the derivation of the Sanskrit from the Greek is endeavoured to be established’ (London, 1827); ‘Exercises on the Greek Language’ (Edin. 1832); ‘Elements of the Greek Language’ (Edin. 1834, 2nd ed. 1846); ‘Greek Prosody’ (Edin. 1843); ‘Extracts from Greek Authors’ (Edin. 1844). Dunbar's best work was the compilation of lexicons. In conjunction with E. H. Barker [q. v.] he wrote a ‘Greek and English and English and Greek Lexicon’ (Edin. 1831), which was well received. His own ‘Greek and English and English and Greek Lexicon’ (Edin., 1st ed. 1840, 2nd ed. 1844, 3rd ed. 1850) was the result of eight years' labour, with very considerable assistance from Dr. Francis Adams [q. v.] It is a carefully arranged and thorough piece of research, but is now practically superseded.
[Caledonian Mercury, 8 Dec. 1851; Brit. Mus. Cat.]
DUNBAR, JAMES, LL.D. (d. 1798), philosophical writer, was educated at King's College, Aberdeen, of which he was elected a ‘regent’ in 1766, and in that capacity he taught moral philosophy there for thirty years. He published: 1. ‘De Primordiis Civitatum Oratio in qua agitur de Bello Civili inter Magnam Britanniam et Colonias nunc flagrante,’ London, 1779, 4to. 2. ‘Essays on the History of Mankind in rude and uncultivated ages,’ London, 1780, 8vo; 2nd edition 1781. The latter work deals with such topics as the ‘Primeval Form of society,’ ‘Language as an Universal Accomplishment,’ ‘The Criterion of a Polished Tongue,’ ‘The Hereditary Genius of Nations.’ Dunbar was in favour of the amalgamation of King's College with Marischal College. He died in his rooms at King's College on 28 May 1798.
[Fasti Aberdon. (Spalding Club), vol. lxxxviii.; Thom's Aberdeen, vol. ii. app. i. 13, 14, 52; Nichols's Lit. Illustr. iv. 822; Gent. Mag. (1798), pp. 539, 622.]
