George Stanhope - Literary Works

Literary Works

Stanhope's literary works were chiefly translations or adaptations. He translated Epictetus (1694 ; 2nd ed. 1700, 8vo), Charron's 'Books on Wisdom' (1697, 3 vols.), and Marcus Aurelius (1697 ; 2nd ed. 1699, 4to). He modernised The Christian Directory of Robert Parsons the Jesuit (1703, 8vo ; 4th ed. 1716) ; dedicated to Princess Anne a volume of Pious Meditations (1701; 2nd ed. 1720), drawn from St. Augustine, St. Anselm, and St. Bernard; and he translated the Greek Devotions of Bishop Lancelot Andrewes. Hutton, who edited the posthumous edition (1730) of his translation of Andrewes, likened Stanhope's character to that of Andrewes. But the style of the translation is absolutely unlike the original. In place of the barbed point and abruptness of the Greek, the English is all smoothed out. Subsequent editions of the work appeared in 1808, 1811, 1815, 1818, 1826, and 1832. Stanhope followed the same paraphrastic system in a translation of Thomas à Kempis's Imitatio Christi, which appeared in 1698 under the title The Christian's Pattern, or a Treatise of the Imitation of Christ, 2 pts. London, 8vo. A fifth edition appeared in 1706, a twelfth in 1733, and new editions in 1746, 1751, 1793, 1814, and 1865. In 1886 Henry Morley edited it for the collection of a hundred books chosen by John Lubbock. 'The pithy style of the original is lost in flowing sentences that pleased the reader in Queen Anne's reign.'

Stanhope's principal contribution to divinity is The Paraphrase and Comment on the Epistles and Gospels (vols. i. and ii. 1705, vol. iii. 1706, vol. iv. 1708), dedicated originally to Queen Anne, and in a new edition to George I on his accession (1714). It was a favourite book in the 18th century. Its defect is the neglect of the organic relation of collect, epistle, and gospel ; but it contains much that is solid, sensible, and practical in clear and easy language, quite free from controversial bitterness. In the preface Stanhope says that the work was planned for the use of the little Prince George, who died in 1700.

Besides the works mentioned above Stanhope published:

1. Fifteen Sermons 1700.
2. The Boyle Lecture 1702.
3. Twelve Sermons 1726.