pression. His brother-in-law, Thomas Hill Green [q. v.], who had married his sister Charlotte, died on 15 March 1882; his sister, Mary Isabella, wife of Sir Edward Strachey, bart., on 5 Oct. 1883; and his eldest daughter, Janet, in April 1887. During a visit to Rome in April 1893 a chill developed into pneumonia, and he expired on 19 April. He was interred in the protestant cemetery, close by Shelley; the Latin epitaph on his gravestone was written by Jowett. The posthumous works the publication of which he desired, ‘Blank Verse’ and ‘Giovanni Boccaccio, Man and Author’ (London, 1894, 4to), did not add to his reputation. He bequeathed his papers to the care of Mr. Horatio F. Brown, the historian of Venice, who, by a skilful use of the autobiography (which Symonds had commenced in 1889), of diaries, and of letters contributed by friends, has produced a model biography, executed on a large scale, but deeply interesting from beginning to end.
There are two men in Symonds whom it is hard to reconcile. His friends and intimates unanimously describe him as one endowed with an ardour and energy amounting to impetuosity, and their testimony is fully borne out by what is known of his taste for mountain-climbing and bodily exercise, his quick decision in trying circumstances, his ability in managing the affairs of the community to which he devoted himself, and the amount and facility of his literary productions. The evidence of his own memoirs and letters, on the other hand, would stamp him as one given up to morbid introspection, and disabled by physical and spiritual maladies from accomplishing anything. The former is the juster view. Despite his tendency to abstract speculation, he had no capacity for it, although one of his essays, ‘The Philosophy of Evolution,’ is a masterly presentation of the thoughts of others. When, however, he has to deal with something tangible, such as an historical incident or a work of art, whether literary or formative, he is invariably stimulating and suggestive, if not profound. Himself an Alexandrian, as one of his best critics has remarked, he is most successful in treating of authors whose beauties savour slightly of decadence, such as Theocritus, Ausonius, and Politian. His descriptive talent is especially remarkable, and his permanent reputation must mainly rest, apart from his translations, upon his ‘History of the Italian Renaissance.’ Symonds's book, a labour of love, is not vivified by genius. It is a series of picturesque sketches rather than a continuous work, and the diverse aspects of the Renaissance, presented separately, are never sufficiently harmonised in the writer's mind. Detached portions are admirable, and if Symonds appears to have sometimes consulted his authors at second hand, it should be remembered that his access to libraries was greatly impeded by his captivity at Davos. As an original poet Symonds belongs to the class described by Johnson as extorting more praise than they are capable of affording pleasure. It is impossible not to admire the skill and science of his versification and the richness of his phraseology; but everything seems studied, nothing spontaneous; there is no sufficient glow of inspiration to fuse science and study into passion, and the perpetual glitter of fine words and ambitious thoughts becomes wearisome. He is much more successful as a translator, for here, the thoughts being furnished by others, there is no room for his characteristic defects, and his instinct for form and his copious vocabulary have full play. His versions of Michael Angelo's sonnets overcome difficulties which had baffled Wordsworth. Campanella, a still more crabbed original, is treated with even greater success, and difficulties of an opposite kind are no less triumphantly encountered in his renderings of the bird-like carols of Tuscany. His version of Benvenuto Cellini is likely to be permanently domesticated as an English book.
Portraits of Symonds while at Harrow and Balliol, about 1870, in 1886, and 1891, are reproduced in the ‘Life’ (1895). Another portrait is prefixed to ‘Our Life in the Swiss Highlands,’ 1890.
[The chief and virtually the sole authority for Symonds's life is Mr. Horatio Brown's admirable biography (1895), embodying his own memoirs and diaries as far as possible. An excellent criticism of Symonds as man and author, by Mr. Herbert Warren, president of Magdalen College, Oxford, appears in Miles's Poets and Poetry of the Century.]
SYMONDS, RICHARD (1609–1660?), Welsh puritan, born in 1609, was the son of Thomas Symonds of Abergavenny, Monmouthshire. He matriculated from Exeter College, Oxford, on 18 Feb. 1626–7, and graduated B.A. on 5 Feb. 1628–9 (Foster, Alumni Oxon.) Being soon afterwards ordained, he appears to have settled in North Wales or on the borders, and in 1635 was keeping school at Shrewsbury, Richard Baxter being among his pupils. Here he gave shelter to Walter Cradock [q. v.], who had fled from Wrexham to avoid the bishop's officers (Baxter, Catholic Communion Defended, ii. 28). He is mentioned under the date of 12 Feb. 1637–8 (Cal. State Papers, Dom.
