Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 39.djvu/430

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Musgrave
424
Musgrave

ment by him in the 'St. James's Evening Chronicle' in October 1766, that he was preparing for the press a volume of papers on the late peace, attracted little attention. But a printed 'Address to the Gentlemen, Clergy, and Freeholders of Devon,' which he issued on 12 Aug. 1769, as a preliminary to a general meeting in Exeter Castle on the subsequent 5 Oct., excited universal astonishment. He admitted that he could not himself prove the charges, but he regarded the action of Halifax as 'a wilful obstruction of national justice.' Among the pieces published by Musgrave was one entitled ' An Account of the Chevalier d'Eon's Overtures to Impeach three persons, by name, of selling the Peace to the French.' D'Éon, who had been French plenipotentiary in England in 1763, was alleged to have been restrained from taking any open steps by the machinations of the parties accused. Many pamphlets appeared for and against Musgrave, and among them was one from D'Éon himself, repudiating all knowledge of him and of the circumstances which he alleged to have occurred. After a full and patient hearing in the House of Commons, Musgrave's accusations were voted 'frivolous and unworthy of credit,' 29 Jan. 1770 (Gent. Mag. 1770, passim; European Mag. 1791, i. 336).

These proceedings ruined Musgrave's chances of professional advancement at Plymouth, and he determined on living in London. He took the degree of M.D. at Oxford on 8 Dec. 1775, and settled at Hart Street, Bloomsbury. On 30 Sept. 1776 he was admitted a candidate of the College of Physicians, London, proceeded fellow on 30 Sept. 1777, and was appointed Gulstonian lecturer and censor in 1779. He was harassed by pecuniary difficulties, and, when he found that his practice did not improve, was forced to eke out his income by his pen. As a Greek scholar he had few superiors, and his great delight was the study and annotation of the works of Euripides, but through want he was unable to carry out his design of publishing an edition of that author, and he was forced to sell his collections to the university of Oxford for 200/. He died in very reduced circumstances at Hart Street, Bloomsbury, on 4 July 1780, and was buried, with a short inscription, in the burial-ground of St. George, Bloomsbury.

Musgrave's library was sold by James Robson of New Bond Street, London, in 1780, and, mainly through the exertions of Thomas Tyrwhitt, who is said to have surrendered to the widow a bond for several hundred pounds advanced by him to Musgrave, a very liberal subscription was obtained for the publication, in 1782, of 'Two Dissertations' for the benefit of his family.

Musgrave's works were: 1. 'Euripidis Hippolytus. Variis lectionibus et Notis Editoris. Accessere Jeremiæ Markland emendationes,' 1756. For the production of this volume he visited Paris, and collated several editions in its libraries. The notes of Markland were obtained through a friend, and his name was prefixed without his knowledge, 'and very much against his inclination.' This text was adopted in the Eton editions of the play in 1792 and 1799. 2. 'Remarks on Boerhaave's Theory of the Attrition of the Blood in the Lungs,' 1759. 3. 'Exercitationum in Euripidem libri duo,' Leyden, 1762. 4. 'Dissertatio Medica inauguralis sive Apologia pro Medicina Empirica,' Leyden, 1763. 5. 'Address to the Gentlemen, Clergy, and Freeholders of Devon,' dated Plymouth, 12 Aug. 1769. 6. 'True Intention of Dr. Musgrave's Address to the Freeholders of Devon,' 1769. 7. 'Dr. Musgrave's Reply to a Letter published in the Newspapers by the Chevalier d'Eon,' 1769. The 'Gentleman's Magazine' and the 'Oxford Magazine' for that year are full of comments on this controversy. 8. 'Speculations and Conjectures on the Qualities of the Nerves,' 1776. 9. 'Essay on Nature and Cure of Worm Fever,' 1776. 10. 'Euripidis quse extant omnia,' Oxford, 1778, 4 vols. ; another edition, Glasgow, 1797. Musgrave's collections, embodied in this edition, consisted of collations of the text, fragments of the lost plays, various readings, notes, and a revision of the Latin translation. His notes were included in the Leipzig edition of 1778-88 and the Oxford edition of 1821. The British Museum possesses two copies of the 1778 edition, with manuscript notes by Charles Burney. 11. 'Gulstonian Lectures on Pleurisy and Pulmonary Consumption,' 1779. 12. 'Two Dissertations : i. On the Graecian Mythology. ii. An Examination of Sir Isaac Newton's Objections to the Chronology of the Olympiads,' 1782. They were prepared for the press by Musgrave, and were handed by him shortly before his death to Tyrwhitt.

His notes on Euripides were included in the following editions : 1. 'The Alcestis,' published at Leipzig by C. T. Kuinoel in 1789. 2. 'The Medea,' published at Eton, 1785, 1792, and 1795. 3. ' The Electra,' for Westminster School, 1806, and a Glasgow issue in 1820. 4. 'Hecuba, Orestes et Phoenissa?,' 1809. 5. ' Hecuba, Orestes, Phœnissæ et Medea,' 1823. Selections from his notes were included in editions of 'Iphigenia in Aulis' and 'Iphigenia in Tauris,' published at Oxford in 1810. A letter from him to