in which that cathedral was profaned, observing that ‘it was no very comely or handsome sight to see either church ailes exchanged into shops, or churchyards into markets’ (Kennett, Register and Chronicle, pp. 321–2). This plain speaking was resented by the authorities, who afterwards refused him admission to the pulpit of St. Paul's.
Immediately after the Restoration he was made one of the king's chaplains, and reinstated in the possession of his prebend at Lincoln, but not of the archdeaconry of Stow, as he preferred holding his fellowship and vice-mastership in Trinity College. Widdrington was now dispossessed of the Greek professorship and Duport restored to it, but he resigned the chair the same year in favour of his pupil, Isaac Barrow. On 19 July 1660 he was by royal mandate, with many other learned divines, created D.D. at Cambridge (Kennett, p. 251). He was installed dean of Peterborough 27 July 1664. In 1668, on the death of Dr. John Howorth, master of Magdalene College, Duport was recalled to Cambridge and appointed by James, earl of Suffolk, possessor of Audley End, to fill the vacant headship. In the following year Duport was elected vice-chancellor of the university. He obtained the rectories of Aston Flamville and Burbage, Leicestershire, probably in 1672. Seven years later he was buried, on 17 July 1679, in Peterborough Cathedral. Against a pillar on the north side of the choir behind the pulpit is a handsome white marble tablet with his arms and a Latin inscription, commemorating his learning and virtues (Le Neve, Monumenta Anglicana, 1680–99, No. 251).
At Peterborough he gave a perpetual annuity of 10l. to increase the stipend of the master of the grammar school. He also founded the cathedral library. At Magdalene College he gave 100l. towards erecting a new building, and endowed four scholarships for undergraduates (Gunton, Hist. of Peterborough, pp. 332, 340).
In person Duport was very diminutive, a circumstance to which he himself makes frequent and good-humoured reference in his Latin poems. He was extremely fond of puns and verbal quibbles, and when he was deputed regius professor and styled ‘pater’ he could not forbear saying ‘Sum paterculus, sed non Velleius.’ Bishop Monk says that Duport ‘appears to have been the main instrument by which literature was upheld in this university [Cambridge] during the civil dissensions in the seventeenth century, and though seldom named and little known at present he enjoyed an almost transcendent reputation for a great length of time among his contemporaries, as well as in the generation which immediately succeeded.’
His works are: 1. ‘Oratio Mri Duport Prævaricatoris posterioris Cantab. 1631. Aurum potest produci per Artem Chymicam?’ Birch MS. 4455, pp. 64–74; Baker MS. xviii. No. 7, 231. 2. ‘Θρηνοθρίαμβος, sive liber Job Græco carmine redditus,’ Greek and Latin, Cambridge, 1637, 8vo. This translation obtained for its author the fame of both a scholar and a poet, and continued to be for some years a classical book at the university and other places of education. 3. ‘Σολομὼν Ἔμμετρος, sive tres libri Solomonis, scilicet, Proverbia, Ecclesiastes, Cantica, Græco carmine donati,’ with a Latin translation, Cambridge, 1646, 8vo. 4. ‘Evangelical Politie: or Gospel Conversation. A sermon preached at St. Paul's, London, May the 20th 1660,’ Cambridge, 1660, 4to. 5. ‘Homeri Gnomologia duplici Parallelismo illustrata,’ Cambridge, 1660, 4to; dedicated to his pupils, Edward Cecil, son of the Earl of Salisbury, John Knatchbull, Henry Puckering, and Francis Willoughby. This book, which was published by the advice of Dr. Busby, and is deservedly esteemed by classical scholars, consists of a collection of all the sentences in the ‘Iliad’ and ‘Odyssey’ containing any aphorism, sentiment, or remarkable opinion, illustrated by a twofold series of quotations, first from the scriptures, and next from the whole range of classical authors. 6. ‘Bίβλος τῆς δημοσίας Eὐχῆς καὶ τῶν ἄλλων θεσμῶν καὶ τελετῶν τῆς Ἐκκλησίας, κατὰ τὸ ἔθος τῆς Ἀγγλικανῆς Ἐκκλησίας,’ Cambridge, 1665, 12mo. Reprinted, Lond. 1818, 12mo, and in the Book of Common Prayer in eight languages, 1821. 7. ‘Δαβίδης Ἔμμετρος, sive Metaphrasis Libri Psalmorum, Græcis versibus contexta,’ with a Latin version, Cambridge, 1666, 4to, London, 1674. 8. ‘Three sermons preached in St. Marie's Church in Cambridg upon the three anniversaries of the martyrdom of Charles I, Jan. 30, birth and return of Charles II, May 29, Gunpowder Treason, Novemb. 5,’ London, 1676, 4to. 9. ‘Musæ Subsecivæ, seu Poetica Stromata’ Cambridge, 1676, 8vo; inscribed to James, duke of Monmouth, chancellor of the university. This volume consists of (a) three books of miscellaneous poems under the title of ‘Sylvæ,’ inscribed respectively to Sir John Cotton, bart., Sir Henry Puckering, otherwise Newton, bart., and Sir Norton Knatchbull, bart.; (b) ‘Carmina Gratulatoria ad Regem et Reginam,’ inscribed to Charles II; (c) ‘Epicedia, seu Carmina Funebria,’ addressed to Edward Rainbow, bishop of Carlisle; (d) ‘Carmina Comitialia, seu Epigrammata in Comitiis
