Protestant Exiles from France/Volume 2 - Book Third - Chapter 10 - Section III
III. Rev. James Cappel.
The name of Cappel has many monuments in masterly writings on Biblical interpretation and sacred philology, and especially that imposing line of folio tomes, the Critici Sacri. A prince among the great scholars of his race was Louis Cappel, who is regarded as the father of Protestant sacred criticism. In 1609, being twenty-four years of age, and still thirsting for more knowledge, he commenced a two years’ residence in the University of Oxford. He died a Professor of Theology at Saumur. By his wife, Susanne, daughter of Benjamin Launoy, Sieur de Gravier and Pasteur at Chilleurs, he was the father of six children.
James Capel (as we called him), his third son, who was born 13th August 1639, was a refugee in England after the Revocation. His distinguished talents had obtained for him the professorship of Hebrew in the University of Saumur at the age of nineteen. We first meet him in London on 6th June 1689 in the Diary of John Evelyn, who says, “I din’d with the Bishop of Asaph [Lloyd]; Monsieur Capellus, the learned son of the most learned Ludovicus, presented to him his father’s works not publish’d till now.” From this memorandum it would appear that the learned refugee conversed with Bishop Lloyd in Latin. He was also a correspondent of Dr. Thomas Gale, Dean of York.[1] He became in 1699 the tutor of Martin Folkes, the younger (afterwards eminent as a scholar and antiquary, and man of science), then only nine years of age. This connection continued for seven years, and Mr. Cappel wrote to M. Le Clerc from Hillington Hall, February 1707 (n.s.), that his pupil was “a choice youth, of penetrating genius, and master of the beauties of the best Roman and Greek writers.”
A memoir of the life of the pre-eminent Louis Cappel may be found in Quick’s[2] MS. entitled “Icones Sacrae Gallicanae et Anglicanae,” in Dr Williams’ Library. The refugee son is there mentioned as a Professor of the Oriential Languages in London, “a gentleman far above my praises.” In 1708 he accepted a Chair in the Dissenters' College, called Hoxton Square Academy, which was vacant by the death of the Rev. John Spademan, where he was associated with the Rev. Joshua Oldfield, D.D., and the Rev. William Lorimer, M.A. There he taught “the oriental languages with the critical application of them in the study of the Sacred Scriptures.” The venerable refugee died in 1722, in his eighty-third year. Mr. Lorimer died in the same year, aged eighty. And Dr Oldfield, who was sixty-five, seems to have retired; for the Academy was extinct before his decease. The institution, according to Bogue and Bennett, was “in high repute.” “Here,” says Dr. Harris, in a funeral sermon on Dr Oldfield (1729), “many were educated of great worth, and who now make a considerable figure in the world, in the ministry, and other learned professions, both in the Establishment and out of it.”
One of the letters in Des Maizeaux’s volumes is from Monsieur Cappel, and is one of the best of the whole correspondence; there is also a note from his son. From these we learn that the old scholar’s wife was alive in 1706, and himself and his son in 1716.
I append a translation of the former letter:—
“London, 24th September 1706. — Sir, as soon as I got hold of the volume which you have had the goodness to procure for me, I selected seven chapters which I read with care; afterwards I made divers extracts from them. Thus I have seen that the basis upon which I have corrected, in more than a hundred places, the Acts and Scenes of Terence, is sure. I had already written out fairly, and in proper order, all that correction, after a double and careful revision. I have done the same for the catalogue of the persons in each comedy, distinguishing the
Personam in scenâ loquentes,
Personae post scenam,
Personae mutae.
Never had the requisite care been employed for this object, and, in the last article, the most exact scholars had committed palpable faults of omission and commission. For what remains, when a full hundred trumpets would stun me with the call to march in quick time, I would always go at my own pace. I was born perverse, and I do not move any further than at the time I feel inclined, though I always have a very sincere desire to go forward. This declaration applies to all written composition; as to giving lessons viva voce in Latin, Greek, and Hebrew, I am always ready, and such occupation never fails to give me pleasure. For a whole month this recreation was not offered to me, not until to-day. The three sources of the difficulties which you find in Terence embarrass those who have not read him with accuracy, and with the theory of criticism which long experience has elucidated and corroborated. This author, and Sallust also, not to name several others, have this excellency, that when one has once disentangled the knots which are encountered, every reason for dubiety is removed, and no ground is left for scepticism. This proceeds from the perfect consistency of their writing. Others of an inferior rank are sometimes obscure, and leave matter for hesitation, even in the passages which have been cleared up the most. The greatest obstacle to the progress of classical literature, and to the pleasure it has the power to give, is that those who teach the classics to our youth are deficient in neatly-expressed and well-grounded ideas, in diligence, in preparation, in a lively predilection for teaching. This is to be affirmed only of the majority of masters, for I would be too rash if I passed judgment upon all. I asked yesterday at Lord Sunderland’s for what has been written on the Heautontimoroumenos by the Abbé Menage and the Abbé D’Aubignac, and also for the latter author’s work, ‘Le Terence Justifié.’ I should own myself mistaken if his critique had to yield to that of the former author. Madame Dacier arranges very ill the twelve hours within which she, following other writers, truly says that the acts of the above-named play are completed. The programme of the twelve hours is there observed with the utmost precision and with complete demonstration, but a demonstrator may lose his way, and, in aiming at the goal, I have been obliged to apply the measuring-line to things great and small, and to each circumstance in detail. After all, I do not know at all what will become of this plaything of mine, and of others like it, considering that I am the kind of man whose portrait I have drawn in this letter. Keep it, I beg of you, that it may serve as my apology, should I be in need of one. My wife salutes you with respect, and my son will respond in some measure worthy of the honour which you do to him. I ask your permission to pay Mr Vaillant for the book arrived from Paris, and which that gentleman’s apprentice brought me. I will make inquiry quietly, and as occasion permits, for what I yesterday applied for at Lord Sunderland’s. If I had the use of the books for a single day, that would suffice; and if they never reach me I will do without them. What consoles me for my slowness and heaviness, or whatever people please to call it, is that assuredly whatever I leave undone is what I am unable to do. I have good projects, but a thousand circumstances rule me and absolutely master me. Happily I am not ashamed of anything in particular, and I love always, and above all things, the One Thing Needful [la seule chose necessaire]. Let us love that with a singular love, my dear sir. What the world values above it is infinitely beneath it. I cannot understand how my pen compels me to discourse with you so long, but it goes on, beyond its limits, through the ardour of the affection towards you, always to be felt by, Sir, your very humble and very obedient servant,
“Pour Monsieur Des Maizeaux.”
The son’s letter is from Hoxton, 28th February 1716, and is signed D. Cappel. He thanks Des Maizeaux for having exerted himself to get him a situation, but prefers to adhere to la petite fonction à quoi je suis presentement occupé. He adds, “My father assures you of his very humble civilities. When you see Monsieur Diserote, I beg you will assure him of mine.” The next year (26th September this young man, described as “Daniel Cappel of Saumur,” married Catherine Dorey of Jersey. (See my Historical Introduction, Section viii.)
- ↑ On 1st February 1698 the Dean stood in Le Quarré French Church as godfather to Thomas Desgalenière, son of a refugee pasteur.
- ↑ On 1st June 1687, Rev. John Quick was entered in the register of Threadneedle Street as a witness to the baptism of Marie Gershomith Vialas, grand-daughter of Antoine Pérès, late professor at Montauban.