Wakefield: what's Hecuba to him, or he to Hecuba;’ by threatening to examine ‘Silva Critica;’ and by reviewing Wakefield's ‘Lucretius’ in the ‘British Critic’ (May 1801). Wakefield held a strong opinion of the inutility of Greek accents, in which view he was supported, as against Porson, by Brunck and Elmsley. Porson declared, after Wakefield's death, that ‘he was as violent against Greek accents as he was against the Trinity.’
Wakefield's best known works are the ‘Silva Critica’ and the edition of ‘Lucretius,’ both of which show him alike at his best and his worst. The former is a medley of critical and illustrative comment on classical passages, acute, ingenious, and widely informed, but here and there disfigured by serious blunders that a little thought would have corrected. It was his chief fault as a scholar that he carried his love of emendation to an absurd degree, and fairly justified Porson's remark that ‘no author escaped his rage for correction.’ ‘Lucretius,’ although Wakefield's greatest work, was published at a loss. The first edition is somewhat rare in consequence of the destruction of many copies by a fire at the printer's warehouse. It is in three sumptuous quarto volumes. Wakefield was a graceful writer of Latin verses, and published a small volume of them in his Cambridge days. His youthful translation of Gray's ‘Elegy’ was discussed in ‘Macmillan's Magazine,’ February 1875.
Among Wakefield's other works, many of which were short tracts and pamphlets, were:
- ‘An Essay on Inspiration,’ Warrington, 1781.
- ‘The Poems of Mr. Gray, with Notes,’ London, 1781.
- ‘The Internal Evidence of the Christian Religion,’ London, 1789.
- ‘An Examination of Thomas Paine's “Age of Reason,”’ London, 1794.
- ‘The Spirit of Christianity compared with the Spirit of the Times,’ London, 1794.
- Pope's ‘Iliad and Odyssey, with Notes,’ London, 1796.
block[Memoirs of the Life of Gilbert Wakefield; Aikin's Biographical Dictionary; Fox's Memoirs; Sketch of Gilbert Wakefield by M. E. Martin; Crabb Robinson's Diary; State Trials; Gilbert Wakefield's Pamphlet and Address to the Judges; Gent. Mag.; Watson's Life of Porson; Baker's St. John's College, Cambridge; Munro's Lucretius.]
WAKEFIELD, PETER of (d. 1213), hermit, known also as Peter of Pontefract, was a simple unlettered man, living a lonely ascetic life at Wakefield. In the latter part of 1212—perhaps on his northern journey of that year—King John [q. v.] was told that a hermit of Wakefield had prophesied that evil would befall him. Summoning him to his presence, John inquired concerning the prophecy, and was told that by next Ascension day, 23 May 1213, his crown would have been transferred to another (Matt. Paris, Chron. Majora, ii. 535, Rolls Ser.). John committed the prophet to William of Harcourt to be kept in custody at Corfe until the truth of his words should be proved. The prophecy, which is said to have spread even to France, was very generally believed, or at least feared, and John himself, as the day approached, was evidently nervous. Matthew Paris goes so far as to assert that this fear hastened his submission to Pandulf [q. v.] (ib. p. 541), which was completed by the act of homage on the eve of Ascension day 1213. When the dreaded day was safely over, John, in spite of Peter's protest that his prophecy had been fulfilled, and that John's crown had indeed passed to another, took cruel vengeance. He ordered Peter to be dragged by horses to Wareham and there hanged with his son (ib. p. 547).
The story is significant as an illustration of the feeling of the English people in regard to the meaning of John's act of submission to the pope. The chroniclers are fairly unanimous in declaring that Peter's famous prophecy had indeed been fulfilled, though in a sense other than had been expected.
[Matt. Paris's Chron. Majora, ii. 535, 541–6–7, Walter of Coventry, ii. 208, 212, Ralph of Coggeshall's Chron. Angl. p. 167, Annales Monastici, i. 60, ii. 278, iii. 34, iv. 56 seq., 401 (all in the Rolls Ser.); Hume's Hist. of England, ii. 72–3.]
WAKEFIELD, Mrs. PRISCILLA (1751–1832), author and philanthropist, born at Tottenham on 31 Jan. 1751, was the eldest daughter of Daniel Bell of Stamford Hill, Middlesex, by his wife Catharine, daughter of David Barclay of London, and granddaughter of Robert Barclay (1648–1690) [q. v.], the author of the ‘Apology’ for the quakers. On 3 Jan. 1771 she was married to Edward Wakefield (1750–1826), a merchant of Lad Lane (now Gresham Street), London. Mrs. Wakefield was eminent for her philanthropic undertakings. She was one of the earliest promoters of savings banks, establishing several under the name of ‘frugality banks.’ She resided at Tottenham, and almost the first savings bank in existence was that founded by her there, in what is now the Ship Inn Yard. It was commenced under the auspices of a friendly society established by her at Tottenham on 22 Oct. 1798 (Reports of the Soc.
