Elizabeth Carter

Elizabeth Carter (extreme left), in the company of other "Bluestockings"

Elizabeth Carter as Minerva, goddess of wisdom, by John Fayram (painted between 1735 and 1741, NPG).

Elizabeth Carter (December 16, 1717 – February 19, 1806) was a poet, classicist, writer and translator, and a prominent and learned member of the Bluestocking Circle.

Born in Deal, Kent, she was the daughter of a clergyman whose parish was in the town - her redbrick family home can still be seen at the junction of South Street and Middle Street, close to the seafront. Encouraged by her father to study, she mastered several modern and ancient languages (including Latin, Greek, Hebrew, and Arabic) and science. She rendered into English De Crousaz's Examen de l'essai de Monsieur Pope sur l'homme (Examination of Mr Pope's "An Essay on Man", two volumes, 1739); Algarotti's Newtonianismo per le donne (Newtonianism for women); the Discourses of Epictetus 1758; and wrote a small volume of poems.

She was a friend of Samuel Johnson, editing some editions of his periodical The Rambler.^[1] He wrote that "[my] old friend, Mrs^[2] Carter could make a pudding [just] as well as translate Epictetus... and work a handkerchief [just] as well as compose a poem"^[3]). She was friends with many other eminent men, as well as being a close confidant of Elizabeth Montagu, Hannah More, Hester Chapone, and several other members of the Bluestocking circle. She also wrote to Emma Hamilton, who called Carter "[as] I imagine, the most learned female who ever lived" (though Hamilton's guardian's son Francis Lord Napier wrote to Emma that Carter was "a fine old Slut, though bearing not the least resemblance to a Woman. She had more the appearance of a fat Priest of the Church of Rome than an English Gentlewoman.")^[4]

References

1. ^ Lezard, Nicholas (26 February 2005). "Review of Dr Johnson's Women, by Norma Clarke". The Guardian. http://books.guardian.co.uk/review/story/0,,1424587,00.html. Retrieved 2008-03-08. 
2. ^ Sic - she remained single until her death.
3. ^ "Gallery rediscovers oil portrait". BBC News. 6 March 2008. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/7281771.stm. Retrieved 2008-03-08. 
4. ^ Thorpe, Vanessa (December 3, 2006). "Diaries reveal passions at the court of King George". The Observer. http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2006/dec/03/books.monarchy. Retrieved 2008-03-08. 

Resources

• This article incorporates public domain text from : Cousin, John William (1910). A Short Biographical Dictionary of English Literature. London, J. M. Dent & Sons; New York, E. P. Dutton.
• This article incorporates text from an edition of the New International Encyclopedia that is in the public domain.
• Portraits of Elizabeth Carter at the National Portrait Gallery
• "Elizabeth Carter", Tulsa Studies in Women's Literature, Vol. 5, No. 1 (Spring, 1986), pp. 138-140
• "Home town finds feminist painting". BBC News. 7 March 2008. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/kent/7282850.stm. Retrieved 2008-03-08.