New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1910-07-08
WILLIAM J. ROLFE DEAD.
Shakespearian Scholar Sue
cunnbs to lnfirn1ities of Age.

CurnbS to lnflTI11itleS OF age.
Vineyard Haven, Mass. July DIR VIII
lam J. Rolfe of Cambridge, Mass, Shake
spearian scholar and author, died to-day al
the home of his son, Charles ). Rolfe, ii
T1soury. Death was due TO old age
william ]. Rolfe was a man to whom
many hundreds of his pupils gave credit
for their appreciation of the English clas-
sics and in whom Shakepearian students
the country over recognized master He
was a ripe scholar, an educator of high
rank and a genuine man of letters. In his
veins flowed the blood of that Rolfe family
which early settled in Newburyport. Mass.
and gave to the state and country many
conspicuous names. It was in that town
that this scholar Of the family was born
eighty-three years ago. At Lowell he spent
his boyhood and prepared for college. Al
Amherst President Seelye. his lifelong
friend, was a classmate-
Eagerness to begin work lured him from
college. though not from study, at the close
OF his Junior year and in Maryland he be-
gan his life work. He was soon called back
to his native state however, as principal
Of Days Academy, at Wrentham. Follow
ing that he was in succession at the head
Of the high schools of Dorchester, Law
renee, Salem and Cambridge. From the
first the young educator saw before him j
distinct mission The study of English lit
erature and supplementary reading in the
schools was unheard of. He determined
that his pupils should absorb a love for the
beauties of liTera ture. and to that end he
devoted himself for the rest Of his life.
One Of his pupils in those early days was
Henry Austin Clapp, the lecturer and
Shakespearian scholar. OF Dr. Rolfe's
work a Wrentham Thomas Wentworth
Higginson in later years said:
He had to teach all the grammar and
high school branches, including the fitting
of boys for college. and his pupils ranged
from ten years old to those two or three
years older than himself. He was the only
teacher and heard from sixteen TO twenty
classes a day Besides these, which in
Guided classes in Latin. French, Greek and
German, he had pupils out of school in
Spanish and Italian. adding to all this the
enterprise, then wholly new, of 'systemati-
cally teaching English. with the study of
standard writers. This was apparently a
thing never done before that time IL the
whole United States
In the Dorchester school he found among
his pupils a wife, Miss Eliza J. Carew,
whom he married in 1856. OF their children.
Dr.. John Carew Rolfe. professor of Latin
In the University of Pennsylvania, was Co
editor with his father OF Macaulays Lays
of Ancient Rome Their other children
are George William Rolfe an instructor in
the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
and Charles Joseph Rolfe. a lawyer OF
Boston.
DR.. Rolfe went to Cambridge in the early
SOS, and lived there the rest of his life. He
was till 1863 principal of the high school
there: From 1904 till 1868 he was president
of the Emerson School of Oratory Harvard
gave him the degree of Master of Arts and
Amherst that of Doctor Of Letters.
His publications were numerous In 1866
he issued a Handbook of Latin Poetry
in conjunction with J. H. Hanson. In 1857
he brought out an edition of Craik's Eng
ish of Shakespeare. which has been often
reprinted Between 1867 and 1859, in con
nection with ]. A Gillet, he prepared the
Cambridge Course of Physics" in ten vol
urnes This series some ten years later
was entirely rewritten by the authors. In
1870 he made school edition of Shake
speare's Merchant of Venice. and fol-
lowed II UP with editions of The Tempest,
Julius Cesar and Henry VIII" Others
were eagerly called for, not only by teach
ers. bat by the general reading public, and
the edition was finally completed in forty
volumes
Dr. Rolfe also published annotated edi-
tons of selections from the poems of Gray.
Goldsmith. Milton, Wordsworth and Brown
ing 1.-TWO volumAs) SCOTS Lady Of Lake, -
''Afarrnion'' and The Lay of the Last Min
strel," with a complete edition of SCOTS
poems: Byron's ''ChiIde Harold; Tenny-
sons The Princess" TN Menloriam" and
''IdyIls of the King and two volumes of
selections from the laureate's other poems.
besides a twelve-voIuHe edition de luxe OF
Tennyson, IN the preparation of which, as
in the other TennysOn books. he had valua-
bic suggestions and assistance from the poet
and his SON He also edited six volumes
of a series of English Classics" Of a mora
elementary character. Among his other
books are an edition of Mrs. Browning =
''Sonnets from tlle Portuguese" an Eng
Iish History eor schools THE Elementary
Study of English and Shakespeare the
Bow" II is generally understood that he
is the author of the 'SatcheI Guide to Eu
rome though his name does not appear on
the title page He made eighteen voyages
to Europe since 1865,
In dealing with the minor poets DR.. Rolfe
proved an accurate editor and compiler,
discovering ard correcting strange perver-
sions of the original texts with microscopic
nicely Master OF six or seven languages,
with An almost inexhaustiDle vocabulary at
his command he used the simplest briefest
English possible IN addition to his activi-
ties as writer and teacher, he was for some
YEARS editor of Popular Science News