GREENOUGH

greenough, james bradstreet (1833-1901), american classical scholar, was born in portland, maine, on the 4th of may 1833. he graduated at harvard in 1856, studied one year at the harvard law school, was admitted to the michigan bar, and practised in marshall, michigan, until 1865, when he was appointed tutor in latin at harvard. in 1873 he became assistant professor, and in 1883 professor of latin, a post which he resigned hardly six weeks before his death at cambridge, massachusetts, on the 11th of october 1901. following the lead of goodwin's _moods and tenses_ (1860), he set himself to study latin historical syntax, and in 1870 published _analysis of the latin subjunctive_, a brief treatise, privately printed, of much originality and value, and in many ways coinciding with berthold delbruck's _gebrauch des conjunctivs und optativs in sanskrit und griechischen_ (1871), which, however, quite overshadowed the analysis. in 1872 appeared _a latin grammar for schools and colleges, founded on comparative grammar_, by joseph a. allen and james b. greenough, a work of great critical carefulness. his theory of _cum_-constructions is that adopted and developed by william gardner hale. in 1872-1880 greenough offered the first courses in sanskrit and comparative philology given at harvard. his fine abilities for advanced scholarship were used outside the classroom in editing the allen and greenough latin series of text-books, although he occasionally contributed to _harvard studies in classical philology_ (founded in 1889 and endowed at his instance by his own class) papers on latin syntax, prosody and etymology--a subject on which he planned a long work--on roman archaeology and on greek religion at the time of the new comedy. he assisted largely in the founding of radcliffe college. an able english scholar and an excellent etymologist, he collaborated with professor george l. kittredge on _words and their ways in english speech_ (1901), one of the best books on the subject in the language. he wrote clever light verse, including _the blackbirds_, a comedietta, first published in _the atlantic monthly_ (vol. xxxix. 1877); _the rose and the ring_ (1880), a pantomime adapted from thackeray; _the queen of hearts_ (1885), a dramatic fantasia; and _old king cole_ (1889), an operetta. see the sketch by george l. kittredge in _harvard studies in classical philology_, vol. xiv. (1903). pp. 1-17 (also printed in _harvard graduates' magazine_, vol. x., dec. 1901, pp. 196-201).