Page 223 - Beholding Liberty!

HALL OF THE TROPHIES
ΙΙ.3.11
Nicholas Maniakes, student of Trinity College, Cambridge.
Canares, A Poem in Modern Greek, To which is added A Paean, or Greek War Song, translated from the English by the same Author.
Cambridge: Printed by J. Smith, Printer to the University; sold by J. Deighton and Sons, Cambridge; and by Black, Young and Young, Tavistock Street, Covent Garden, London. 1823
Library of the Hellenic Parliament
THE AUTHOR NIKOLAOS MANIAKES
(1789-1854) was a multifarious personality. Hailing from Parga, early on he studied with Athanasios Psalidas in Ioannina; he became associated with Lord Guilford’s circle in Corfu, where his family had moved in 1817, and, with the latter’s support, studied law at Trinity College Cambridge (1819-23). Upon his return to Corfu, in 1826, he became a professor at the Ionian University and the first to teach in the Greek language. Later, he led a successful career in the modern Greek state (Nafplio, Athens, Patras).
He promoted the Greek cause in England, where he became involved in philhellenic circles. He offered his services as a translator to the Philhellenic Committee of London; his English translations include Alexandros Ypsilantis’ pamphlet Fight for Faith and Homeland [cat. no II.1.2]. He was also a founding member of a
philhellenic society in Cambridge. We learn from his correspondence that he composed various poems of patriotic content, which are latent, however.
This poem about the heroic fireship captain Kon- stantinos Kanaris was published in the year of his graduation; it is dedicated to his patron, the Earl of Guilford; the dedication and the explanatory title are given in Greek and English. The frontispiece of the English title is decorated with an engraving of Kanaris (by Ducarme).
This is a long poem about Kanaris’ heroic deeds, whose fame had spread beyond the Greek territory to become a symbol of the Greek cause and naval successes. The book includes a Paean (a Greek war anthem), translated by Maniakes, written in English by an anonymous philhellene.
SCENES AND FIGURES OF FREEDOM The consolidation of the Struggle 223