William Sotheby

William Sotheby FRS (9 November 175730 December 1833) was an English poet and translator. He was born into a wealthy London family, the son of Col. William and Elizabeth (née Sloan) Sotheby, and was educated at Harrow School and the Military Academy, Angers, France before joining the army at 17, where he served for six years until his marriage in 1780, when he devoted himself to literature. Sotheby then became a prominent figure in London literary society. His wealth enabled him to play the part of patron to many struggling authors, and his friends included Walter Scott, Byron, Wordsworth, Coleridge, Robert Southey, Arthur Hallam, and Thomas Moore. He published a few dramas and books of poems that had limited success; his reputation rests upon his translations of the Oberon of Christoph Martin Wieland, the Georgics of Virgil, and the Iliad and Odyssey by Homer. The last two were begun when he was over 70, but he lived to complete them. His Georgics in particular advanced his reputation and was praised in the Edinburgh Review as, if not "the most perfect translation of a classic poet now extant in our language, it is assuredly capable of being advanced to that high distinction." He was elected a fellow of the Royal Society in November 1794.