thumb|Stipple engraving by J. McGahey after Rev. W. Russell

John Mason Good (25 May 1764 – 2 January 1827), English writer on medical, religious and classical subjects, was born at Epping, Essex.

John Good's parents were the Nonconformist minister Revd Peter Good and Sarah Good, the daughter of another Nonconformist minister, Revd Henry Peyto of Great Coggeshall. John Mason Good was named after the Puritan clergyman and hymn writer John Mason (1645–1694), of whom his mother Sarah was a descendant. In 1820, he took the diploma of M.D. at Marischal College, University of Aberdeen.

Good was not only well versed in classical literature, but was acquainted with the principal European languages, and also with Persian, Arabic and Hebrew. His prose works display wide erudition, but their style is dull and tedious. His poetry, such as his verse paraphrase of the Song of Songs, never rises above pleasant and well-versified commonplace. His translation of Lucretius, The Nature of Things (1805–1807), contains elaborate philological and explanatory notes, together with parallel passages and quotations from European and Asiatic authors.

Family

Good married firstly, Mary Godfrey at Coggeshall, Essex on 31 May 1785. Then secondly, Susanna Fenn at Sudbury, Suffolk on 12 June 1788.

He died at Shepperton, Middlesex, on 2 January 1827 and was interred in the crypt of St Pancras New Church alongside his son John Mason (d.1803) and afterwards, his wife Susanna (c.1771 – 1834).

See also

  • John Mason Neale, namesake

References

  • Olinthus Gregory, Charles Jerram, Memoirs of the Life, Writings, and Character, Literary, Professional, and Religious of the late John Mason Good MD, Crocker and Brewster, Boston, Mass. (1829).