Editing John Addington Symonds (section)

==Early life and education==
Symonds was born in [[Bristol]], England, in 1840. His father, the [[physician]] [[John Addington Symonds (physician)|John Addington Symonds]] (1807–1871), was the author of ''Criminal Responsibility'' (1869), ''The Principles of Beauty'' (1857) and ''Sleep and Dreams''. The younger Symonds, considered delicate, did not take part in games at [[Harrow School]] after the age of 14, and he showed no particular promise as a scholar.{{sfn|Waugh|1911}}

Symonds moved to [[Clifton Hill House]] at the age of ten, an event which he believed had a large and beneficial impact towards his health and spiritual development. Symonds's delicate condition continued, and as a child he suffered from nightmares in which corpses in and under his bed prompted sleepwalking; on one such occasion he was almost drowned when, sleepwalking in the attic of Clifton Hill House, he reached a cistern of rainwater. According to Symonds, an angel with "blue eyes and wavy, blonde hair" woke him and brought him to safety; this figure frequented Symonds's dreams and was potentially his first homosexual awakening.{{cn|date=January 2023}}

In January 1858, Symonds received a letter from his friend Alfred Pretor (1840–1908), telling of Pretor's affair with their headmaster at Harrow, [[Charles John Vaughan]]. Symonds was shocked and disgusted, feelings complicated by his growing awareness of his own homosexuality. He did not mention the incident for more than a year until in 1859, when a student at [[Oxford University]], he told the story to [[John Conington]], the Latin professor. Conington approved of romantic relationships between men and boys. Earlier, he had given Symonds a copy of ''Ionica'', a collection of homoerotic verse by [[William Johnson Cory]], the influential [[Eton College]] master and advocate of pederastic pedagogy. Conington encouraged Symonds to tell his father about his friend's affair, and the senior Symonds forced Vaughan to resign from Harrow. Pretor was angered by the younger man's part, and never spoke to Symonds again.<ref>Kaplan, Morris B. (2012) ''Sodom on the Thames: Sex, Love, and Scandal in Wilde Times''. [[Cornell University Press]]; {{ISBN|0801477921}}. p. 112</ref>

In the autumn of 1858, Symonds went to [[Balliol College, Oxford|Balliol College]], Oxford, as a [[commoner (academia)|commoner]] but was elected to an [[Exhibition (scholarship)|exhibition]] in the following year. In spring of that same year, he fell in love with William Fear Dyer (1843–1905), a Bristol choirboy three years younger. They engaged in a chaste love affair that lasted a year, until broken up by Symonds. The friendship continued for several years afterwards, until at least 1864. Dyer became organist and choirmaster of St Nicholas' Church, Bristol.{{cn|date=January 2023}}

At Oxford University, Symonds became engaged in his studies and began to demonstrate his academic ability. In 1860, he took a first in [[Honour Moderations|Mods]] and won the [[Newdigate prize]] with a poem on "The [[Escorial]]"; in 1862 he obtained a first in ''[[Literae Humaniores]]'', and in 1863 won the Chancellor's English Essay.{{sfn|Waugh|1911}}

In 1862, Symonds was elected to an open fellowship at the conservative [[Magdalen College, Oxford]]. He made friends with a C. G. H. Shorting, whom he took as a private pupil. When Symonds refused to help Shorting gain admission to Magdalen, the younger man wrote to school officials alleging "that I [Symonds] had supported him in his pursuit of the chorister Walter Thomas Goolden (1848–1901), that I shared his habits and was bent on the same path."<ref>Phyllis Grosskurth (ed.). (1986) ''The Memoirs of John Addington Symonds'', Chicago: University of Chicago Press. {{ISBN|0226787834}}. p. 131</ref> Although Symonds was officially cleared of any wrongdoing, he suffered a breakdown from the stress and shortly thereafter left the university for [[Switzerland]].{{sfn|Waugh|1911}}