Louis Claude Purser (1854-1932) Classical Scholar from Abbeyside
Louis
was born in The Hermitage, Abbeyside on 28 September 1854 to Benjamin and Anne
Purser. His sister Sarah was the distinguished artist. He was educated at
Middleton College, Co Cork, and Portora Royal School in Enniskillen. A fellow
pupil was Oscar Wilde whom he described as ‘more careful in his dress than any
other boy’.
In
1871 he attended Trinity College Dublin where he was part of a group of
classical scholars that included Robert Tyrrell and J.P. Mahaffy. Because of
family financial difficulties Claude had to take on teaching work before
finishing his degree. He graduated as senior moderator in classics in 1875,
followed by an MA in 1879, and a D.Litt in 1891.In 1882 he worked on ‘The
Correspondence of Cicero’ with Robert Tyrrell. ‘His meticulous attention to
detail and wide-ranging historical and literary knowledge were most
productively deployed in the revision and completion of scholarly texts’. He
edited critical texts of Cicero’s letters: Ad Familiares 1902, Ad
Atticum 1903, and Apuleius’ The Story of Cupid and Psyche. He taught
in TCD from1881 until 1898 when he was appointed as professor of Latin. In 1923
he was elected a fellow of the British Academy, and received honorary degrees
from Glasgow University 1914, Oxford 1923, and Durham 1931. He was elected a
member of the Royal Irish Academy in 1884 and was secretary from
1902-1914. He never married and lived at
8 Waterloo Road, Dublin. He did have a close friendship with ‘Lollie’ Yeats.
His other interests included ancient law, history of modern literature and
cricket. The writer William Murphy described him as ‘miserly, fearful and
selfishly conservative’. R B McDowell and D A Webb stated that he was an
‘urbane and courteous host, a generous lender of books and a man who was able
to fuse the roles of teacher and student’. His portrait was painted by his
sister Sarah and by Leo Whelan and both are in Trinity College. He died on 20 March
1932 and is buried in Mount Jerome next to his sister Sarah and his brother
John Mallet.
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| Louis Claude Purser (1854-1932) |
