Thomas Creech (1659–found dead 19 July 1700) was an English translator of classical works, and headmaster of Sherborne School. Creech had long decided on suicide and wrote in the margin of his translation of Lucretius, ‘NB. I must remember to hang myself when I have finished my commentary.’ He did indeed hang himself, but not for another twenty years, during which time he translated the works of Horace. (Voltaire, who believed that one was less likely to commit suicide if one had enough to do, maintained that Creech would have lived longer had he been translating Ovid.) Although he was officially deemed insane, Creech’s death had a profound effect on the way in which suicide came to be regarded by the educated as melancholic.Culled from: Death: A History of Man’s Obsessions and Fears by Robert Wilkins
 by Michael Vandergucht, line engraving, early 18th century |
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