Elizabeth Carter

Elizabeth Carter (pen name Eliza; 16 December 1717 – 19 February 1806) was an English poet and translator. As one of the Bluestocking Circle that surrounded Elizabeth Montagu, she earned respect for the first English translation of the 2nd-century Discourses of Epictetus. She also published poems and translated from French and Italian, and corresponded profusely. Among her many eminent friends were Elizabeth Montagu, Hannah More, Hester Chapone and other Bluestocking members. Also close friends were Anne Hunter, a poet and socialite, and Mary Delany. She befriended Samuel Johnson, editing some editions of his periodical The Rambler.

Quotes

• Harmony, with ev'ry grace,
  Plays in the fair proportions of her face.
  • Cited in Johnson's Dictionary (ed. 1773), proportion, n.s.

• No more to fabled names confined,
  To thee, supreme, all-perfect mind,
     My thoughts direct their flight:
  Wisdom's thy gift, and all her force
  From thee derived, unchanging source
     Of intellectual light!
  O send her sure, her steady ray
  To regulate my doubtful way
     Through life's perplexing road,
  The mists of error to control,
  And through its gloom direct my soul
     To happiness and good!
  • "Ode to Wisdom", sts. 14, 15, in Dodsley's Collection, vol. 3 (2nd ed., 1763), pp. 209–13

External links

• S. Austin Allibone, Poetical Quotations from Chaucer to Tennyson (1873), pp. 63, 642–3,