William John Copeland › Texts

Copeland, William John, B.D., born at Chigwell, Sept. 1, 1804, and educated at St. Paul's School, and Trinity College, Oxford, graduating B.A. 1829, M.A. 1831, and B.D. 1840. He was a Scholar of his College, and afterwards Fellow and Dean. Taking Holy Orders, he became Curate of Hackney, and of Littlemore, and in 1849 Rector of Farnham, Essex, and Rural Dean of Newport. He was also Chaplain to the Bishop of St. Albans. Died at Farnham, Aug. 25, 1885. Mr. Copeland has published:—
Hymns for the Week, and Hymns for the Seasons. Translated from the Latin. Lond., W. J. Cleaver, 1848. He was also the Editor of Card. Newman's Sermons.

These translations are mostly from the Roman Breviary, and preceded those by E. Caswall, published in 1849. Although they are not extensively lifted in their original form, yet they had a marked effect on the text of some later translators, and have contributed much towards the compiling of centos as found in modern hymn-books. Each translation is annotated in this Dictionary under its first Latin line. In 1884 Mr. Copeland printed translations of Bishop Ken's Morning, Evening, and Midnight Hymns, the first lines of each, reading, (1) "Surge anima solis aemula"; (2) "Jam nocte laudo Te Deus"; (3) "Somno Deus mine excitum."

--John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology (1907)