were reissued in Bohn's ‘Classical Library.’ Stanley's translation of ‘Anacreon’ with the Greek text, was reprinted by Mr. A. H. Bullen in 1893.
But Stanley soon turned from poetry to a serious study of Greek philosophy. At the suggestion of Sir John Marsham [q. v.], the chronologer, who married his mother's sister, he produced his ‘History of Philosophy,’ of which the first volume appeared in 1655 (dedicated to Marsham), the second in 1656, a third in 1660, and a fourth, entitled ‘The History of Chaldaick Philosophy,’ in 1662. The work consisted of a long series of biographies, chiefly of the Greek philosophers from Thales to Carneades. The greater part was derived from Diogenes Laertius; but the analysis of the Platonic philosophy was from Alcinous, and the account of the Peripatetic system was derived directly from Aristotle. The doctrine of the Stoics was elaborately worked up from various authorities. Stanley on the whole brought a good deal from an almost untrodden field; but he was an historian rather than a critic of philosophy (Hallam). The compilation long ranked as a standard authority. It was republished in one volume in 1687 (3rd ed. 1700, and 4th ed. with memoir of author, 1743). Portions of the work were printed in French at Paris in 1660. Vols. i–iii. of the first edition were translated into Latin with additions, by Godfrey Olearius (Leipzig, 1711, 4to). Vol. iv. was rendered into Latin by John Le Clerc and issued at Amsterdam, with Le Clerc's notes and a dedication to Bishop Burnet (1690, 8vo); it reappeared in Le Clerc's ‘Opera Philosophica,’ vol. ii.
Stanley, after completing his ‘History of Philosophy,’ worked with no less success on an edition of Æschylus. This appeared in 1663 in folio with Latin translation and notes, and was dedicated to Sir Henry Newton [q. v.] The date 1664 appears in some copies. Stanley's edition of Æschylus was superior to any that had preceded it; it was long regarded at home and abroad as the standard edition, and remains ‘a great monument of critical learning.’ It was republished in De Pauw's edition (2 vols. 4to, 1745). The text and Latin translation reappeared at Glasgow in 1746, and the text was twice corrected by Porson, for reissue in 1795 and 1806 respectively. The Latin version was reissued separately in 1819. The whole edition was revised and enlarged (1809–16 in 4 vols.) by Samuel Butler (1774–1839) [q. v.], and elicited some adverse criticism from Charles James Blomfield [q. v.], who charged Stanley with borrowing at least three hundred of his many emendations of the text from notes which he had derived from Casaubon, Dorat, and Scaliger. A controversy followed on this and other points connected with Butler's revision of Stanley's text, and in it J. H. Monk, as well as Blomfield and Butler, took part (cf. Blomfield in Edinburgh Review, 1809, 1812, and in Museum Criticum, ii. 498; Monk's letter to the Rev. S. Butler; Quarterly Review, 1821). Stanley's reputation was not appreciably injured.
Stanley died at his lodgings in Suffolk Street, Strand, on 12 April 1678, and was buried in the church of St. Martin-in-the-Fields. His wife Dorothy was daughter and coheiress of Sir James Enyon, baronet, of Flower, Northamptonshire. By her he had a son Thomas, born in 1650, who was admitted a fellow-commoner at Pembroke College, Cambridge, on 6 April 1665, and published in the same year a translation of ‘Claudius Ælianus Various Histories,’ London, 1665, 8vo; this was dedicated, like his father's edition of Æschylus, to Sir Henry (Puckering) Newton [q. v.] Sir Edward Sherburne prefixed verses.
Stanley's genuine literary gifts and his versatile employment of them procured him a wide contemporary reputation. Winstanley calls him ‘the glory and admiration of his time.’ Pope invariably spoke of him with respect (Spence, Anecdotes, p. 198). William Wotton [q. v.] eulogised him at the end of his edition of Scævola St. Marthe's ‘Elogia Gallorum’ (1722). His classical scholarship was of a high order. His translation of ‘Anacreon’ satisfies almost every requirement. It is as agreeable reading as the version of Thomas Moore, and adheres far more closely to the original.
Stanley left in manuscript many volumes of notes on classical authors, which were acquired by Bishop Moore, and are now in the University Library at Cambridge. These include eight folio volumes of ‘Commentaries on Æschylus;’ adversaria on passages in Sophocles, Euripides, Callimachus, Hesychius, Juvenal, Persius, and others; prelections in Theophrastus's characters, and an essay on the first-fruits and tenths of the spoil said in the Epistle to the Hebrews to have been given by Abraham to Melchisedek. He obviously was especially interested in Callimachus. In the British Museum there is a copy of Callimachus's ‘Cyrenæi Hymni’ (1577), with manuscript notes by Stanley. Bentley was accused of using without acknowledgment Stanley's comments on Callimachus (see A Short Account of Dr. Bentley's Humanity and Justice to those Authors who have written before him, with an honest Vindication of Thomas Stanley, Esq., and his
