Elizabeth Carter
Elizabeth Carter (born December 16, 1717 in Deal , Kent ; † February 19, 1806 ) was an English poet, antiquarian , author and translator. She was a member of the Blue Stocking Society around Elizabeth Montagu .
Early life
Born in Deal in the County of Kent , was Elizabeth Carter, the eldest child of Reverend Nicolas Carter and his first wife Margaret (died 1728), the only daughter and heir of Richard Swayne from Bere Regis in the county of Dorset . The house where she was born can still be viewed at the intersection of South Street and Middle Street. Encouraged by her father, she learned several modern and ancient languages (including Latin , ancient Greek , Hebrew, and Arabic ) and natural sciences.
plant
Carter translated Jean-Pierre de Crousaz 's Examen de l'essai de Monsieur Pope sur l'homme (“Inquiry of Mr. Pope's An Essay on Man ”, 1739) and Francesco Algarotti's Newtonianismo per le dame (“ Newton for the lady”) into English and wrote poetry. Carter's most important work is her translation All the Works of Epictetus, Which are Now Extant , the first (1758) English translation of the well-known works of Epictetus . Carter received considerable prestige for this translation and was rewarded with the then spectacular sum of £ 1,000.
Carter was interested in religious questions. She was influenced by Hester Chapone and wrote defensive treatises on the Christian faith in which she defended the authority of the Bible over human matters. One of these works, Objections against the New Testament with Mrs. Carter's Answers to them, was edited by Montagu Pennington in her collection, Memoirs of the Life of Mrs. Elizabeth Carter , along with Notes on the Bible and the Answers to Objections Concerning the Christian Religion (" Notes on the Bible and the Answers to Objections Concerning the Christian Religion "). Her religiosity is also evident in her poems In Diem Natalem and Thoughts and Midnight (also known as A Night Piece ).
Circle of acquaintances
Carter was a friend of Samuel Johnson and worked on several issues of his magazine The Rambler . He wrote of her: "My old friend, Mrs. Carter could just as well make pudding as she could translate Epictetus from Greek and handle a handkerchief as well as write a poem."
Carter was friends with many prominent contemporaries and was a close confidante of Elizabeth Montagu , Hannah More , Hester Chapone, and other members of the Bluestock. Anna Hunter , a rather unknown poet and figure of social life, and Mary Delany were also among her friends. The novelist Samuel Richardson took Carter's poem Ode to Wisdom in his novel Clarissa (1747-48) without indicating the authorship. It was later printed in a corrected version in Gentleman's Magazine , and Carter received an apology from Richardson.
Carter is shown in the engraved (1777) and painted (1778) versions of Richard Samuel's The Nine Living Muses of Great Britain (1779), but the women shown are so idealized that Carter complained that they could not recognize themselves or anyone else . Samuel had not held portrait sessions in preparation for the work.
Fanny Burney is quoted in Life of Samuel Johnson as saying that to her Carter “was a truly noble-looking woman; never before had I seen such graceful age in women; her whole face seemed illuminated with kindness, faith and charity ”. Betsey Sheridan, sister of the playwright Richard Brinsley Sheridan , described her five years later in her diary as "rather fat and not very remarkable in appearance".
legacy
- Elizabeth Gaskell , a 19th century author, gives Carter an example of the epistolary novel and mentions her name in Cranford along with Hester Chapone , another member of the blue stockings.
- Virginia Woolf saw Carter as a pioneer of feminism; she demanded "Honor for the strong shadow of Eliza Carter - the brave old woman who tied a bell to the bedstead to wake up earlier and learn Greek."
literature
- Priscilla Dorr: Elizabeth Carter (1717-1806) UK , in: Tulsa Studies in Women's Literature Volume 5, 1986, pp. 138-140.
- Elizabeth Eger, Lucy Peltz: Brilliant women. 18th-century Bluestockings , New Haven 2008, pp.?.
- Carter, Elizabeth , in: Jenny Uglow , Maggy Hendry: Macmillan Dictionary of Women's Biography . Macmillan, London 1999 (3rd edition), ISBN 0333725735 , p. 110
Web links
- Home town finds feminist painting , BBC News. March 7, 2008. Retrieved March 8, 2008.
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b Elizabeth Carter. In: Encyclopædia Britannica . Retrieved May 23, 2018 .
- ↑ a b c 18th C - People & Places.Retrieved July 13, 2016.
- ↑ Susan Staves, A Literary History of Women's Writing in Britain, 1660-1780 , Cambridge 2006; Pp. 309-15.
- ^ University of Michigan: Memoirs of the life of Mrs. Elizabeth Carter; with a new edition of her poems, to which are added some miscellaneous essays in prose, together with her notes on the Bible, and answers to objections concerning the Christian religion . New York, AMS Press, 1974 ( archive.org [accessed August 22, 2018]).
- ↑ Nicholas Lezard : Review of Dr Johnson's Women, Norma Clarke , The Guardian . February 26, 2005. Retrieved March 8, 2008.
- ↑ Carter remained unmarried until her death, but this address was not uncommon for unmarried women in the 18th century.
- ^ Gallery rediscovers oil portrait , BBC News . March 6, 2008. Retrieved March 8, 2008.
- ^ Lucy Peltz: Living muses. Constructing and celebrating the professional woman in literature and the arts , in: Elizabeth Eger, Lucy Peltz: Brilliant women. 18th-century bluestockings . New Haven 2008, p. 61.
- ^ Gaskell, Elizabeth: Cranford ; Chapter 5, “Old Letters”.
- ^ Virginia Woolf: A Room of One's Own , London 1929; P. 98.
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Carter, Elizabeth |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | English poet, antiquarian, author and translator |
| DATE OF BIRTH | December 16, 1717 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Deal , Kent |
| DATE OF DEATH | February 19, 1806 |