Elizabeth Carter (1717–1806), a celebrated lady scholar, and translator of the work of Epictetus, was the daughter of the Rev. Dr. Carter of Deal in Kent, and was born in that town, December 16, 1717…. Miss Carter learned Greek and Latin from her father, and was specially proficient in Greek, so that Dr. Johnson said concerning a celebrated scholar, that he “understood Greek better than any one whom he had ever known except Elizabeth Carter.” She learned also Hebrew, French, German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, and lastly some Arabic. She studied astronomy, ancient geography, and ancient and modern history. In 1734 some of her verses appeared in the “Gentleman’s Magazine” under the signature “Eliza,” Carr the editor being a friend of her father. In 1738 she published a small collection of poems, and next year she translated from the French an attack on Pope’s “Essay on Man” by M. Crousaz. In 1739 appeared her translation from the Italian of Algarotti’s “Newtonianismo per le Dame,” calling it “Sir Isaac Newton’s Philosophy explained for the use of the Ladies, in Six Dialogues on Light and Colors.” Her translation of Epictetus was undertaken in 1749 to please her friends Dr. Secker (afterwards archbishop of Canterbury) and Miss Talbot, to whom the translation was sent, sheet by sheet, as it was done. This work was published by guinea subscription in 1758. In 1763 Miss Carter printed a second collection of poems…. Miss Carter never married, and lived to the age of eighty-nine. She died in Clarges street, Piccadilly, 1806; and her nephew, the Rev. Montagu Pennington, published her “Memoirs” in 1808.

Personal

  For the most part of the time we are entirely alone…. Our friend, you know, has talents which must distinguish her in the largest circles; but there it is impossible for one fully to discover either the beauties of her character or the extent and variety of her understanding, which always improves on a more accurate examination and on a nearer view…. The charm is inexpressibly heightened when it is complicated with the affections of the heart.

  Mrs. Carter has in her person a great deal of what the gentlemen mean when they say such a one is a “poetical lady;” however, independently of her great talents and learning, I like her much; she has affability, kindness, and goodness; and I honour her heart even more than her talents.

  This ardent thirst after knowledge was at length crowned with complete success, and her acquirements became, even very early in life, such as are rarely met with. What she once gained, she never afterwards lost, an effect, indeed, to be expected from the intense application by which she acquired her learning, and which is often by no means the case with those, the quickness of whose faculties renders labour almost useless.

  Though history and classical learning were, in profane literature, the favourite studies of Mrs. Carter, the sciences were not neglected; she had paid some attention to mathematics, and in astronomy and ancient geography she had made no common progress. What she studied, however, with still superior ardour and delight, and with an effect on her manners and conduct of the most indelible kind, was religion. Her piety, indeed, was the most decided feature of her character, and its intensity continued undiminished to the last moment of her life. Notwithstanding these various, laborious, and important pursuits, she found leisure for amusements, and for the display of a cheerful and even gay disposition. Of dancing she was particularly fond, and entered, indeed, with singular naiveté and vivacity into all the innocent diversions of youth and high spirits. What enabled her to partake of so much relaxation was the habit which she had acquired of rising every morning between four and five o’clock, a practice that was continued, to a certain extent, even in very advanced life, for at no time, if in health, was she known to lie later than seven.

  Miss Fanshawe says, in one of her letters to me, written soon after the death of this venerated person, that she appears to her to have been half an angel and half a sage; differing from most of her sex, in having laid down a plan in the outset of life to which she adhered steadily to the end; writing Greek in the face of the world without compunction, never losing a friend, and never making an enemy.

  We were startled at reading somewhere the other day that, in her youth, she had not only the wisdom of a Pallas, but the look of a Hebe. Healthy no doubt she was, and possessed of a fine constitution. She was probably also handsome; but Hebe and a hook nose are in our minds impossible associations.

  Her regular rule was, when in health, to read two chapters in the Bible before breakfast; a sermon, some Hebrew, Greek, and Latin, and after breakfast something in every language with which she was acquainted; thus never allowing herself to forget what she had once attained. These occupations were of course varied according to circumstances, and when she took exercise before breakfast her course of reading was necessarily deferred till later in the day. Her constitution must have been strong to have enabled her to take the very long walks to which she accustomed herself; but she suffered greatly from headaches, not improbably arising from her over-exertion of body and mind in early youth, and the not allowing herself sufficient repose to recruit her overworked strength. At one time of her life she was wont to sit up very late, and as she soon became drowsy, and would sleep soundly in her chair, many were the expedients she adopted to keep herself awake, such as pouring cold water down her dress, tying a wet bandage round her head, &c. She was a great snuff-taker, though she endeavoured to break herself of the habit to please her father. She suffered so much, however, in the attempt, that he kindly withdrew his prohibition.

  Genial, happy, old lady! We believe her when she declared that she had never regretted not having looked for interest in married life. We love her sapient sayings, and gentle, holy memory. We reverence her as the very pattern of a high-minded, active, and more than contented Old Maid.

  After the third edition of her poems, Mistress Carter wrote no more for the press; but she appears to have taken much delight in the productions of contemporary genius, and it is interesting to find that she lived to welcome and applaud “The Lay of the Last Minstrel.” How amazed would she and many others of her time have been to behold the slight esteem in which it is the present fashion to hold that glorious “Lay!” And perchance, modest as she was, it would also have surprised not a little the translator of “Epictetus,” and the greatest female scholar of her period, could she know that her very name, as well as the records of her triumphs, is almost unknown to a generation which has scarce patience for its own pedants, and cares less than nothing for the pedants of former days.

  She was more remarkable for her linguistic acquirements than for original work, and is said to have known not only Greek and Latin, but Hebrew, French, Italian, Spanish and German as well. With all these accomplishments she retained to the last a fund of delightful modesty and good sense, and bore with dignified equanimity the unpleasant notoriety that her learning sometimes brought her.

General

  The judgments of this most excellent woman appears to have been at once original, candid and sound. They are expressed in language perspicuous, strong, and elegant; and are the result of a mind acting on the most mature deliberation, and enlightened by the nicest powers of distinction…. A mind more clear, more extensive, and better regulated than Mrs. Carter’s does not occur in the annals of genius and learning.

  The poetry of Mrs. Carter is such as might have been expected from the elegance of her classical learning, and the purity of her moral principles. Her language is clear and correct, her versification sweet and harmonious, while the sentiment is always dignified, or devotional, and even sometimes sublime. Of splendid imagination, of the creative powers which form the character of a first-rate poet, she has exhibited few proofs; yet are her productions far beyond mediocrity, and, though not breathing the fire and energy of exalted genius, will be ever highly valued by those to whom the union of taste, piety, and erudition, is dear.

  I have the headache myself, caught perhaps by reading Mrs. Carter’s letters, which tell of nothing else.

  This lady’s poetical writings display but little imagination, and have none of those strong thoughts and sublime ideas which betoken lofty genius: but her verses exhibit great classical purity, and are remarkable for an unusual sweetness of versification. They embody, too, a cheerful serenity very highly calculated to improve the reader’s mind; for although Miss Carter translated Epictetus, she by no means followed his philosophy.

  Her literary fame was chiefly founded upon her translation of Epictetus, and this one work sufficed, as it well may do, for a lifetime. For of all her other literary efforts,—her translations from the French, and the Italian,—her contributions as “Eliza” to The Gentleman’s Magazine,—her odes and elegies, the fame thereof has long since been entombed with her bones.

  The character of her poetry is such as might have been expected from the elegance of her classical learning, the purity of her moral principles, and her consistent piety. While, to high imagination, or to great creative power, she can lay no claim, her language is clear and correct, her versification sweet and harmonious, and her sentiments all that the moralist or the Christian could wish—pure, dignified, devotional, and sometimes rising to the sublime.

  Her sound and comprehensive mind, highly cultured as it was, could produce nothing contemptible: but it wanted that essential qualification of the true poet, active originality, the power of conceiving, and of shaping new conceptions.

  Although superseded by later workers in the same field, Elizabeth Carter still holds an honourable place beside the Daciers, the Sarah Fieldings, and other women scholars, and will ever remain in our memories as the English translator of Epictetus.

  Mrs. Carter was more celebrated for the solidity of her learning than for any brilliant intellectual qualities; and it is as a Greek scholar and translator of Epictetus that she is now best remembered. She used to relate with pleasure that Dr. Johnson had said, speaking of some celebrated scholar, that “he understood Greek better than any one he had ever known, except Elizabeth Carter.” Her poems have ceased to be read and are not of very high order, the “Dialogue between the Body and the Mind” being perhaps the most successful. Her letters display considerable vigour of thought, and now and then a transient flash of humour. Though by no means a woman of the world, she possessed a large amount of good sense, and, though more learned than her fellows, was a thoroughly sociable and amiable woman.

  One of the most accomplished women of the century.

  She belongs in spirit as well as in time to the last century. Among women she is perhaps its greatest scholar. Her distinction in her own age was due full as much to her learning as to her purely literary achievements.