John Pentland Mahaffy

Life
1839-1919 [Rev. J. P. Mahaffy; later Sir John Pentland Mahaffy]; b. 26 Feb., Chapponnaire, nr. Vevey, Switzerland; raised partly in Germany, and ed. at home in Donegal; entered TCD, 1856, rooming at No.38 in 1862; Fellow, 1864; Precentor of College Chapel, 1867; Prof. Ancient History, 1871 [var. 1869-1899 DUB] tutor of Oscar Wilde and later of Oliver St. John Gogarty; encouraged Wilde to proceed to Magdalen College (‘‘You’re not clever enough for us here, Oscar, better go to Oxford’), 1873; Donnellan Lecturer, 1873; ed. Hermethena from 1873; employed Wilde’s assistance on proofs of Social Life in Greece (1874); treated nationalism as provincialism; opposed Irish in education and disparaged Gaelic literature in Intermediate Education Committee, 1899, on grounds that it was impossible to find a text that is not ‘either religious, silly or indecent’); distanced himself from Wilde after his trial (‘We no longer speak, Sir, of Mr. Oscar Wilde’), 1895; elected Snr. Fellow, 1899; interviewed by Daily Express on Gaelic teaching in Intermediate Education Committee [var. Commission], being answered by Alice Milligan and others, 16 Feb. 1899; disappointed when Provostship went to Traill; a first subscriber to the Irish Literary Theatre; Provost, TCD, 1914-19; refused use of TCD for meeting to be addressed by ‘a man called Pearse’, Nov. 1914; Pres. of RIA, 1911-16; promoted and hosted Irish Convention, 1917-18, and proposed federal constitution for Ireland akin to Switzerland, 1917; knighted 1918 [though a clergyman]; works incl. History of Classical Literature (1880); edition of Flinders Petrie Papyri (1891-93); The Empire of the Ptolemies (1895); his monograph The Principles of the Art of Conversation (1887) was reviewed by Wilde; remembered for his witty and malicious conversation, viz., ‘An Irish bull, Madam, is always pregnant’; consider Joyce ‘the living embodiment of [his] conviction that the native Irish are unfitted for education’; d. 30 April, in Provost’s House; buried Mount Jerome; there is an oil portrait attributed to Sarah Celia Harrison in the National Gallery of Ireland. CAB DNB JMC DIB DIH FDA DUB OCIL DIL

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Works
Kant’s Critical Philosophy for English Readers (1871); V. Duruy, History of Greece, intro. (1883; 1892); Euripedes’ ‘Hyppolytus’, ed. (1881); trans. Kuno Fischer, Commentary on Kant’s Critick [sic] of the Pure Reason, trans. (1866); Twelve Lectures on Primitive Civilisation (1868) [var. 1869]; Prolegomena to Ancient History (1871); Rambles and Studies in Greece (1876); Illahun, Kahun, and Gurob, with a chap. by John Pentland Mahaffy (1891); J. H. Bernard, Bishop Stearne, Memorial Discourses [intro] (1902); with A. Gilman, Alexander’s Empire (1887); Greek [var. Classical] Antiquities [History Primers Ser., ed. J. R. Green] (1875); Decay of Modern Preaching, an essay (1882); Descartes (1880); History of TCD; Its Foundation and Early Fortunes 1591-1680 (London: T. Fisher Unwin 1903), 389pp.; The Art of Conversation (1887, 2nd edn. enl. 1888); Social Life of Greece from Homer to Menander (1874; 3rd edn. 1877).

Miscellaneous, intro., Ptolemy II: Revenue Laws [… &c.] (1896); ‘The Recent Fuss about the Irish Language’, in Nineteenth Century, XLVI (August 1899); ‘The Modern Babel’, Nineenth Century, XL (July 1896); Dublin. Trinity College: The Particular Book, intro. and apps. (1904); ed., The Georgian Society Records of Eighteenth Century Domestic Architecture and Decoration in Dublin, 5 vols. (Dublin UP 1909-13); ed. and sel., Landor, Imaginary Conversations (London: Red Letter Press 1910; 1925); intro., Robert H. Murray, Revolutionary Ireland and It is Settlement, (1911).

Criticism
R. B. McDowell and W. B. Stanford, Mahaffy, A Biography of an Anglo-Irishman (London: Routledge & Kegan Paul [1971] 1975), 281pp.

Terence de Vere White, ‘Mahaffy, the Anglo-Irish Ascendancy and the Vice-Regal Lodge’ in F. X. Martin, ed., Leaders and Men of the Easter Rising, Dublin 1916 (1967).

William Bedell Stanford, Mahaffy (London: Routledge & Kegan Paul 1971).

Oliver St. John Gogarty, I Follow St Patrick (London: Rich & Cowan 1838), p.165.

John Harvey, Dublin (London: Batsford 1949), p.79.

Dominic Daly, The Young Douglas Hyde (Shannon: IUP 1974), n., p. 222. NOTE also Oscar Wilde’s review of Mahaffy’s Greek Life and Thought, From the Age of Alexander to the Roman Conquest, in Pall Mall Gazette, 1887.

W. B. Stanford, Ireland and the Classical Tradition (IAP 1976; 1984).

Aine Hyland and Kenneth Milne, Irish Educational Documents, Vol. 1 (Dublin: CITC 1987), reprint Mahaffy’s negative submission to the Palles Comission on the Irish language (1898-99) and Douglas Hyde’s response to it [see further under Hyde, Rx.]

Roy Foster, Modern Ireland (London: Allen Lane 1988), p.167.)

Fiona Macintosh, Dying Acts: Death in Ancient Greek and Modern Irish Tragic Drama (Cork UP 1994), p. 5.

‘Mr Mahaffy’s New Book’, Pall Mall Gazette, XLVI, 7066, 9 Nov. 1887, rep. Ellmann, The Artist as Critici 1970, pp.80-84; here p.5.

Terence Brown: Ireland: A Social and Cultural History, 1922-1985 London: Fontanta 1985, p.117.

John Harrington, The Irish Beckett, Syracuse UP 1991, p.132.)

Maurice Harmon, ed., The Celtic Master: Contributions to the first James Joyce Symposium held in Dublin, 1967, Dolmen Press 1969, p.17.

Gerald Griffin, The Wild Geese: Pen Portraits of Famous Irish Exiles (London 1938), p.24.

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Notes
Brian McKenna, Irish Literature, 1800-1875: A Guide to Information Sources (Detroit: Gale Research Co. 1978), p.174, cites Also, Mahaffy’s obituary tribute to Samuel Ferguson, in Athenaeum, 88 (1886), p.205. See also Irish Booklover 5, 6.

Kate Newmann, Dictionary of Ulster Biography (Belfast: QUB/IIS 1993), Flinders Petrie asked him to decipher Egyptian papyri and he subsequently published The Empire of the Ptolemies (1895).

Oscar Wilde told Frank Harris: ‘I got my love of the Greek idea and my intimate knowledge of the language at Trinity from Mahaffy and Tyrrell; there were Trinity to me. Mahaffy was especially valuable to me at that time. Though he was not as good a scholar as Tyrrell, he had been to Greece, had lived there and saturated himself with Greek thought and Greek feeling. Besides he took deliberately the artistic standpoint towards everything, which was coming more and more to be my standpoint. He was a delightful talker, too, a really great talker in a certain way – an artist in vivid words and eloquent pauses.’ (Cited in Merlin Holland, Wilde Album, 1997, p.27.)

Oscar Wilde reviewed Mahaffy’s Principles of the Art of Conversation in these terms: ‘If Mr Mahaffy would only write as he talks his books would be much pleasanter to read’. (‘Aristotle at Afternoon Tea’, Pall Mall Gazette, 16 Dec. 1887; rep. in Aristotle and Afternoon Tea, ed., John Wyse Jackson, London: Fourth Estate 1991, pp.83-87.)

Social Life in Greece [… &c.] is not cited in either Brian Cleeve & Ann Brady, A Dictionary of Irish Writers (Dublin: Lilliput 1985) or Henry Boylan, A Dictionary of Irish Biography [rev. edn.] (Gill & Macmillan 1988). In Field Day Anthology of Irish Writing (Derry: Field Day 1991), he is cited only as friend and mentor of Gogarty (FDA2, 780), while FDA3 makes out that the ‘provost scoffing’ in Finnegans Wake [p.5] is Mahaffy (FDA3 86n.).

Austin Clarke writes that Mahaffy ‘declared that the early sagas were worthless and obscene although he had no direct knowledge of them.’ (‘Gaelic Ireland Rediscovered’, in Seán Lucy, Irish Poets in English, Mercier 1972, pp.30.)

"The man called Pearse": Dr. Gwynn, An Account of the Thomas Davis Centenary Meeting, Nov. 20 1914, describes Dr. Mahaffy’s prohibition of’the man called Pearse’ (see W. B. Yeats, Tribute to Thomas Davis [&c.], 1947). See also Pearse’s reference to Mahaffy in The Letters of PH Pearse, ed., Seamus Ó Buachalla (Gerrards Cross 1980), ‘"Irish" nationalist politicians who in heart and soul are as un-Irish as Professor Mahaffy [...]’

Hilary Pyle describes Mahaffy as ‘the celebrated and supercilious intellectual, Provost Mahaffy’, whose portrait by William Orpen hangs in the Muncipal Gallery. (Pyle, Portraits of Patriots by Estella Solomons, Allen Figgis 1966, p.11.)

Here's a fiver: In subscribing to the Irish Literary Theatre, Mahaffy wrote: ‘I am ready to risk £5 for your scheme and hope they may get their drama in Irish. It will be as intelligible to the nation as Italian, which we so often hear on our stage.’ (Cited in Frank Tuohy, Yeats, 1976, p.97; no source given.)

Alfred Douglas, Oscar Wilde, A Summing-Up (London: Richards Press, first ed. 1940; reiss. 1950), incls. the following: ‘At Trinity he [Oscar Wilde] met the Rev John Pentland Mahaffy, Precentor and Junior Dean of the College, who became his tutor and teacher in Greek. Mahaffy had a great influence (probably not for the good) over Oscar. He was a great lover of Greek art and in the preface of his Social Life in Greece from Homer to Menander he acknowledges his debt to the undergraduate Wilde who, he says, had "made improvements and corrections all through the book". Mahaffy was an ultra-protestant and violently anti-Catholic. According to Mr Boris Brasol, Wilde’s latest, and not far from his most able, biographer, Mahaffy "had all the earmarks of a rabid libre penseur, and the extravagances of his atheistic cathecism used to shock even his agnostic co-religionists, so that only once was he permitted to deliver a sermon in the College Chapel." the Right Reverend Abbot Sir David Hunter Blair in his book Victorian Days attributes to Mahaffy much of the pagan influence which turned Oscar Wilde away from his tendencies towards Catholicism when the two went on a journey to Greece while Wilde was at Oxford in 1877.’ (p.52f.)

Mahaffy’s acknowledgement of Oscar Wilde’s help appeared in Social Life in Greece (1874) not Prolegomena to the Study of Greek Culture [1871], as stated by Douglas, (Wilde was fifteen when Prolegomena was prepared for press and 19 when Social History was published.)

Principle of Decay: Also that the title of Oscar Wilde’s "Decay of the Art of Lying" conjoins Mahaffy’s The Principles of the Art of Conversation (1887) with a headed section in Greek Life and Thought (1874) entitled "Decay of Oratory" (Chap. XVII; p.409.)

Broken rung: Note that a paragraph ascribed to Mahaffy [‘The Gael was a rung on the ladder … &c’] in John P. Harrington’s The Irish Beckett (1991), p.132, and therein quoted from Terence Brown, Ireland, A Social and Cultural History 1922-79 (1981), p.117, was actually written by Mahaffy’s friend P. L. Dickinson in his book The Dublin of Yesterday (1929, p.177), as Brown’s text and footnote clearly states.

A. N. Jeffares possesses copies of Horace and Virgil formerly owned by Mahaffy when residing at No.38, TCD, in 1862. (See Images of Invention, Gerrards Cross: Colin Smythe 1996, p.165.)

J. M. Synge, in writing of Jane Barlow’s a review of ‘Irish Literature’ of 1892, states that she deals ‘with Professor Mahaffy, some other Irish writers, and the periodicals of Dublin’, before summing up: ‘This bird’s eye view has revealed no brilliant prospect, and the causes of dimness considered, it is difficult to point out any quarter of the horizon as a probable source of rising light.’ (Synge, Collected Works, II: Prose, ed. Alan Price, 1966, p.383.)

Professor Rudmose-Brown was asked by Mahaffy to translate a letter he had received in French with the contemptuous remark, ‘why keep a dog and bark yourself?’ (See in Anthony Cronin, Samuel Beckett: The Last Modernist, 1996, p.59.)

W. B. Yeats: on his applying to read at TCD library, Mahaffy he was sent him the oath in Latin to prepare, with the [phonetic] quantities marked, ‘for I have a sensitive ear.’ (See Oliver St. John Gogarty’s W. B. Yeats: A Memoir, 1951, p.14.)

British Library holds [1] The Particular Book of Trinity College, Dublin. A facsimile from the original, with introduction and appendices by J. P. Mahaffy. pp.xii. 258. T. Fisher Unwin: London, 1904. fol. [2] History of Greece [...] With an introduction by J. P. Mahaffy. With [...] engravings, maps, &c. 4 vol. Kegan Paul & Co.: London, 1892. 8o. [3] Euripidou ‘Ippolutos. The Hippolytus [...] Edited, with introduction, notes and appendix, by J. P. Mahaffy [...] and J. B. Bury. pp.xxiv. 114. Macmillan & Co.: London; Dublin printed, 1881. 8o. [4] A Commentary on Kant’s Critick of the Pure Reason: translated from the History of Modern Philosophy, by [...] K. F., with an introduction, explanatory notes, and appendices, by J. P. Mahaffy. London, Dublin [printed], 1866. 8o. [5] ‘The Attic Orators from Antiphon to Isaeos’. A Rejoinder to Prof. Mahaffy’s ‘Reply’. London, Cambridge [printed], 1877. 8o. [6] "The Attic Orators from Antiphon to Isaeos." Some remarks [by R. C. J.] on an article by the Rev. Prof. J. P. Mahaffy in the Academy of April 1, 1876. London, Cambridge [printed], 1876. 8o. [7] Chronicles of three Free Cities-Hamburg, Bremen, Lübeck [...] With an introduction by Rev. J. P. Mahaffy & numerous illustrations, &c. pp.xx. 464. J. M. Dent & Sons: London; E. P. Dutton & Co.: New York, 1914. 8o. [8] Imaginary conversations [...] Selected with an introduction by [...] J. P. Mahaffy. London: Blackie & Son, 1909. pp.xix, 438: plate; port. 16 cm. [9] Imaginary conversations. Selected with an introduction by Sir J. P. Mahaffy. London, &c.: Blackie & Son [1925]. pp.xix, 438: plate; port. 15 cm. [10] A History of Classical Greek Literature [...] Fourth edition. Macmillan & Co.: London, 1903- . 8o. [11] A History of Classical Greek Literature [...] With an appendix on Homer, by Prof. Sayce. Title Second edition, revised throughout. Title (Third edition.). 2 vol. Longmans, Green & Co.: London, 1880. 8o. 2 vol. Longmans and Co.: London, 1883. 8o. 2 vol. in 4 pt. Macmillan & Co.: London, 1895, 90. 8o. [12] A Survey of Greek Civilization. pp.337. Macmillan & Co.: London, 1897. 8o. [13] A Survey of Greek Civilization. pp.337. Flood & Vincent: Meadville Penna., 1896. 8o. [14] Alexander’s Empire. By J. P. M. [...] with the collaboration of A. Gilman. pp.xxii. 326. T. Fisher Unwin: London, 1887. 8o. [15] An epoch in Irish history, &c. (Reissued.). Port Washington, N.Y., London: Kennikat Press, 1970. SBN 8046 0794 X pp.xv, 389. 23 cm. [16] An Epoch in Irish History. Trinity College, Dublin. Its foundation and early fortunes, 1591-1660. pp.xv. 389. T. Fisher Unwin: London, 1903. 8o. [17] Bishop Stearne. [18] Classical Antiquities [...] Old Greek Life. [19] [Classical Antiquities. Old Greek Life.] Antigüedades griegas. [Translated by J. Martí.]. 1945. [20] Das Verhältniss von Novum Ilium zu dem Ilion des Homer. [21] Descartes. pp.vi. 211. 1880. [22] Euripides. [An account of his life and works.] [23] Greek Antiquities, &c. pp.101. Macmillan & Co.: London, 1889. 8o. [24] Greek Life and Thought [...] Second edition, corrected and considerably enlarged. pp.xlii. 669. Macmillan & Co.: London, 1896. 8o. [25] Greek Life and Thought, from the age of Alexander to the Roman Conquest. pp.xxxviii. 600. Macmillan & Co.: London; Edinburgh printed, 1887. 8o. [26] Greek Pictures, drawn with pen and pencil. pp.223. Religious Tract Society: London, 1890. 8o. [27] Kant’s Critical Philosophy for English Readers. 2 vol. Longmans & Co.: London, 1872-74. 8o. [28] Old Greek Education. pp.161. 1881. [29] On the Introduction of the Ass as a Beast of Burden into Ireland. 1917. [30] On the Origins of Learned Academies in Modern Europe. 1913. [31] On the relation of Novum Ilium to the Ilios of Homer. [32] Problems in Greek History. pp.xxiv. 240. Macmillan and Co.: London, 1892. 8o. [33] Prolegomena to Ancient History, containing: Part I., The Interpretation of Legends and Inscriptions. Part II., A Survey of Old Egyptian Literature. 2 pt. London, Dublin [printed], 1871. 8o. [34] Rambles and Studies in Greece [...] Fifth edition. pp.xii. 439. Macmillan & Co.: London, 1907. 8o. [35] Rambles and Studies in Greece. [With illustrations.] Title Second edition [...] enlarged. London, Dublin [printed], 1876. 8o. London, Dublin [printed], 1878. 8o. [36] Rambles and Studies in Greece. Third edition [...] enlarged. pp.xviii. 465. Macmillan & Co.: London; Edinburgh printed, 1887. 8o. [37] Social Life in Greece from Homer to Menander. Title Third edition, revised and enlarged. With a new chapter on Greek Arts. pp.xii. 990. Macmillan & Co.: London, Oxford [printed], 1874. 8o. London, Oxford [printed], 1877. 8o. [38] "The Attic Orators from Antiphon to Isaeus." Reply to the "Remarks" of R. C. Jebb, Esq. [...] on a review [by J. P. Mahaffy] in the "Academy." By J. P. Mahaffy. London, Dublin [printed], 1876. 8o. [39] The Decay of Modern Preaching. An essay. pp.160. Macmillan & Co.: London; Edinburgh printed, 1882. 8o. [40] The Empire of the Ptolemies. pp.xxv. 533. Macmillan & Co.: London, 1895. 8o. [41] The Flinders Petrie Papyri. With transcriptions, commentaries, and index. By Rev. J. P. Mahaffy (and Prof. J. G. Smyly). [With plates.]. 4 pt. Dublin, 1891-94, 1905. 4o. [42] The Greek World under Roman Sway, from Polybius to Plutarch. pp.xiii. 412. Macmillan & Co.: London, 1890. 8o. [43] The Plate in Trinity College, Dublin: a history [by J. P. Mahaffy] and a catalogue [by M. S. D. Westropp, rearranged and edited by J. P. Mahaffy, with notes and appendices. With plates]. pp.vii. 94. Macmillan & Co.: London, 1918. 4o. [44] The Post-assaying found on dated pieces of Plate in the collection of Trinity College, Dublin. 1917. [45] The Principles of the Art of Conversation. Title Second edition [...] enlarged. pp.xii. 174. Macmillan & Co.: London; Edinburgh printed, 1887. 8o. pp.xxiii. 180. Macmillan & Co.: London; Edinburgh printed, 1888. 8o. [46] The Progress of Hellenism in Alexander’s Empire. pp.vi. 154. University of Chicago Press: Chicago; T. Fisher Unwin: London, 1905. 8o. [47] The Silver Age of the Greek World. pp.vii. 482. University Press: Chicago; T. Fisher Unwin: London, 1906. 8o. [48] Three Epochs in the Social Development of the Ancient Greeks. [49] Twelve Lectures on Primitive Civilizations, and their physical conditions, &c. London, Dublin [printed], 1869. 16o. [50] What have the Greeks done for Modern Civilisation? The Lowell Lectures of 1908-09. pp.xi. 263. G. P. Putnam’s Sons: New York & London, 1909. 8o. [51] Kant’s Critical Philosophy for English Readers [...] A new and completed edition [of the work by J. P. Mahaffy]. Title [Other editions.]. 2 vol. Macmillan & Co.: London, 1889- . 8o. [52] Greeks: Hellenic Era. Compiled and abstracted [...] by J. P. Mahaffy [...] and W. A. Goligher. pp.ii. 75. Williams & Norgate: London, 1910. fol. [53] Hellenistic Greeks. Compiled and abstracted [...] by [...] Sir J. P. Mahaffy [...] and W. A. Goligher [...] Completed by Professor W. A. Goligher. pp.94. Williams & Norgate: London, 1928. fol. [54] Sketches from a tour through Holland and Germany. pp.xv. 271. Macmillan & Co.: London, 1889 [1888]. 8o. [55] Nuovi papiri classici. I. Classical Texts [...] edited by F. G. Kenyon [...] II. ‘Erondou Mimiamboi [...] Recension by W. G. Rutherford [...] III. The Flinders Petrie Papyri, with transcriptions [...] by Rev. J. P. Mahaffy, &c. [Reviews from the "Rivista di Filologia."]. pp.337-347. [Turin, 1891.] 8o. [56] Revolutionary Ireland and its settlement [...] With an introduction by the Rev. J. P. Mahaffy. pp.xxiii. 446. Macmillan & Co.: London, 1911. 8o. [57] Remarks on Prof. Mahaffy’s account of the rise and progress of Epic Poetry, in his History of Classical Greek Literature. pp.44. Bell & Sons: London, 1881. 8o. [58] Hermathena. A series of papers on literature, science and philosophy, by members of Trinity College, Dublin. [Edited by J. K. Ingram, B. Williamson, J. P. Mahaffy and R. Y. Tyrrell.]. Dublin, 1873, &c. 8o. [59] A History of Egypt. Title [Earlier editions.]. 6 vol. Methuen & Co.: London, 1894-1927. 8o. [60] Illahun, Kahun and Gurob. 1889-90 [...] With chapters by Prof. Sayce, Canon Hicks, Prof. Mahaffy, F. Ll. Griffith, and F. C. J. Spurrell. [With plates.]. pp.viii. 59. D. Nutt: London, 1891. 4o. [61] Revenue Laws of Ptolemy Philadelphus. Edited from a Greek Papyrus in the Bodleian Library, with a translation, commentary, and appendices by B. P. Grenfell [...] and an introduction by [...] J. P. Mahaffy [...] With thirteen plates. pp.lv. 253. Clarendon Press: Oxford, 1896. 4o & fol. [62] Mahaffy: a biography of an Anglo-Irishman. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1971. SBN 7100 6880 8 xiv, 281 p.: plates; ports. 23 cm. bibl. p. 255-272. ALSO, listed in Reference Collections since 1975) [1] Prolegomena to ancient history containing, Part I. The interpretation of legends and inscriptions. Part II. A survey of old Egyptian literature by John P. Mahaffy. 1871 [2] The progress of Hellenism in Alexander’s empire by John Pentland Mahaffy. 1905. [3] Title Mahaffy a biography of an Anglo-Irishman W. B. Stanford and R. B. McDowell. 1975

Belfast Central Public Library holds An Epoch of Irish History (1903, 1906); Euripides (1879); The Plates of Trinity College (1918); Greek Antiquities (1883); Principles of the Art of Conversation (1888);

University of Ulster Library (Morris Collection) holds Greek Pictures, Drawn with Pen and Pencil (1890).

Hyland (1996) lists Twelve Lectures on Primitive Civilisation (1st edn. 1869),

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Princess Grace Irish Library (Monaco)