Editing Connop Thirlwall (section)

==Early life==
Thirlwall was born at [[Stepney]], London, to Thomas and Susannah Thirlwall. His father was an Anglican priest who claimed descent from a [[Northumbria]]n family, served for some years as chaplain to Bishop [[Thomas Percy (bishop of Dromore)|Thomas Percy]] before becoming rector of [[Bowers Gifford]] in Essex in 1814.{{sfn|Brinkley|1976|p=131}} The young Connop was a prodigy, learning [[Latin]] at three, [[Greek language|Greek]] at four, and writing sermons at seven.{{sfn|Chisholm|1911|p=851}}

He went to [[Charterhouse School]], where [[George Grote]] and [[Julius Hare (theologian)|Julius Hare]] were among his schoolfellows. He went up to [[Trinity College, Cambridge]], in October 1814.<ref>{{acad|id=THRL814C|name=Thirlwall, Connop}}</ref> gained the Craven university scholarship and the chancellor's classical medal and served as Secretary of the [[Cambridge Union Society]] in the Lent term, 1817. In October 1818 he was elected to a fellowship, and went for a year's travel on the Continent. In Rome he made friends with [[Christian Charles Josias Bunsen]], which had a most important influence on his life. On his return, "distrust of his own resolutions and convictions" led him to abandon for the time his intention of being a clergyman, and he settled down to study law, though he did not lose interest in other subjects. In the meantime, he took on the task of translating and prefacing [[Friedrich Daniel Ernst Schleiermacher]]'s essay on the Gospel of St Luke. He further rendered two of [[Johann Ludwig Tieck]]'s most recent ''Novellen'' into English. In 1827 he made up his mind to finish with law, and was ordained deacon the same year.{{sfn|Chisholm|1911|p=851}}

Thirlwall now joined Hare in translating [[Barthold Georg Niebuhr|Niebuhr]]'s ''History of Rome''; the first volume appeared in 1828. The translation was attacked in the ''Quarterly'' as favourable to scepticism, and the translators jointly replied. In 1831 they established the ''Philological Museum'', which lasted only six numbers.  Among Thirlwall's contributions was his masterly paper ''On the Irony of [[Sophocles]]'', which pioneered the concept of [[dramatic irony]].{{sfn|Kirkwood|1994|p=248}}

On Hare's departure from Cambridge in 1832, Thirlwall became assistant college tutor, which led him to join in the great controversy upon the admission of [[Dissenter]]s which arose in 1834. [[Thomas Turton]], the regius professor of divinity (afterwards dean of Westminster and bishop of Ely), had written a pamphlet objecting to the admission. Thirlwall replied by pointing out that no provision for theological instruction was made by the colleges except compulsory attendance at chapel. This attack on a time-hallowed piece of college discipline brought a demand for his resignation as assistant tutor. He complied at once; his friends thought that he ought to have sat it out.{{sfn|Chisholm|1911|p=851}}

The event marked him out for promotion by a Liberal Government, and in the autumn he received from [[Henry Brougham, 1st Baron Brougham and Vaux|Lord Brougham]] as chancellor the living of [[Kirby Underdale]] in Yorkshire.{{sfn|Chisholm|1911|p=851}}