Caswall, Edward

CASWALL, EDWARD: Hymn writer; b. at Yateley (35 m. w.s.w. of London), Hampshire, July 44015, 1814; d. at the Oratory, Edgbaston, near Birmingham, Jan. 2, 1878. He studied at Brasenose College, Oxford (B.A., 1836; M.A., 1838); was curate of Stratford-sub-Castle, near Salisbury, 1840–47; in 1850 he joined the Oratory of St. Philip Neri under Newman, to whose influence his conversion to Roman Catholicism was due. He wrote original poems, but is best known for his translations from the Roman breviary and other Latin sources, which are marked by faithfulness to the original and purity of rhythm. They were published in Lyra Catholica, containing all the breviary and missal hymns (London, 1849); The Masque of Mary (1858); and A May Pageant (1865). Hymns and Prose (1873) is the three books combined with many of the hymns rewritten or revised.