Epictetus in Eighteenth-Century Wales: Timothy Thomas' Manuscript Translation of the Enchiridion

Abstract

The widespread admiration enjoyed by the Greek philosopher Epictetus in late seventeenth-century and eighteenth-century Britain is well attested. Between 1660 and 1760, Epictetus (c. ad 60-140) is cited by writers as diverse as Dryden, Pope, Chudleigh, Centlivre, Congreve, Fielding, Richardson, and Sterne, and he was not only widely read but taken seriously as a moralist with much to say to contemporary society. Seventeenth-century churchmen such as Jeremy Taylor and Simon Patrick quoted him extensively; to the latter in particular Epictetus exemplified the moral superiority over the moderns that might be attained by a virtuous ancient, even if lacking the benefits of Christian revelation.1 Epictetus was also admired and endorsed by moralists such as Addison and Steele in the Spectator, and Shaftesbury, both in the Characteristics and in his unpublished manuscripts.2 Although the longer version of Epictetus' teachings, the Discourses (compiled by his pupil, Arrian), seems to have been known, it was the much shorter summary, the Enchiridion or Manual (also compiled by Arrian) , which was most frequently cited and reproduced.3 Prior to Elizabeth Carter's rendering of his complete extant works (1758), all printed English translations of Epictetus had been of the Enchiridion, Of these, by far the most successful were Ellis Walker's verse text (1692; eight subsequent editions published in London and three in Dublin) and George Stanhope's prose version with Simplicius' commentary (five editions between 1694 and 1741). A manuscript translation of