Amy Marjorie Dale, (15 January 1901 – 4 February 1967), published as A. M. Dale, was a British classicist and academic.

Life

Dale was born in 1901. She studied

Classics Classics or classical studies is the study of classical antiquity. In the Western world, classics traditionally refers to the study of Classical Greek and Roman literature and their related original languages, Ancient Greek and Latin. Classics ...

as an undergraduate at

Somerville College, Oxford Somerville College, a constituent college of the University of Oxford in England, was founded in 1879 as Somerville Hall, one of its first two women's colleges. Among its alumnae have been Margaret Thatcher, Indira Gandhi, Dorothy Hodgkin, Ir ...

. She subsequently studied under

Ludwig Radermacher Ludwig Radermacher (31 October 1867 – 28 June 1952) was a German-Austrian classical philologist born in Siegburg. In 1891 he earned his doctorate at the University of Bonn, where he was a student of Hermann Usener (1834–1905). Following gradu ...

at the University of Vienna, and at the University of Lund under Albert Wifstrand. Her first academic post, from 1927 to 1929, was at Westfield College in the University of London, followed by a further post at

Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford Lady Margaret Hall (LMH) is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England, located on the banks of the River Cherwell at Norham Gardens in north Oxford and adjacent to the University Parks. The college is more formall ...

. During the Second World War, Dale worked in the

Foreign Office Foreign may refer to: Government * Foreign policy, how a country interacts with other countries * Ministry of Foreign Affairs, in many countries ** Foreign Office, a department of the UK government ** Foreign office and foreign minister * Unit ...

, and worked in her spare time on translating

Eduard Fraenkel Eduard David Mortier Fraenkel FBA () was a German classical scholar who served as the Corpus Christi Professor of Latin at the University of Oxford from 1935 until 1953. Born to a family of assimilated Jews in the German Empire, he studied Clas ...

's edition of Aeschylus's '' Agamemnon'' into English. In 1944 she married

T. B. L. Webster Thomas Bertram Lonsdale Webster (3 July 1905 – 31 May 1974) was a British archaeologist and Classicist, known for his studies of Greek comedy. Background He was the son of Sir Thomas Lonsdale Webster. During World War I he attended Charte ...

, who was employed in the same department of the Foreign Office. After the war, she moved with him to Manchester, where he was Professor of Greek. When he was appointed Professor of Greek at University College, London, she was offered and accepted a lectureship at

Birkbeck College, London , mottoeng = Advice comes over nightTranslation used by Birkbeck. , established = , type = Public research university , endowment = £4.3 m (2014) , budget = £10 ...

. In 1952 she was appointed Reader in Classics, and in 1957 a Fellow of the British Academy. In 1959, she received the honour of a Personal Chair in Greek. In 1962 she was made an Honorary Fellow of Somerville College, Oxford. She retired in 1963, becoming Professor Emeritus in Greek at the University of London. She died in London in 1967. The focus of Dale's research was on

Greek Tragedy Greek tragedy is a form of theatre from Ancient Greece and Greek inhabited Anatolia. It reached its most significant form in Athens in the 5th century BC, the works of which are sometimes called Attic tragedy. Greek tragedy is widely believed t ...

, especially on Euripides and the metre of Greek tragedy's choral songs and lyric parts, an area in which her work remains influential.

Selected publications

* ''The Lyric Metres of Greek Drama.'' Cambridge 1948; second edition 1968. * Euripides, ''Alcestis.'' Edited with introduction and commentary. Oxford 1954. * ''Words, Music, and Dance.'' Inaugural Lecture at Birkbeck College. London 1960. * Euripides, ''Helen.'' Edited with introduction and commentary. Oxford 1967. * ''Collected Papers.'' Edited by T. B. L. Webster and E. G. Turner. Cambridge 1969
(Available online)
– Published posthumously, including some previously unpublished work. * ''Metrical Analyses of tragic choruses I–III.'' London 1971–1983 (vol. 1, BICS Suppl. XXI,1, London 1971; vol. 2 BICS Suppl. XXI,2, London 1981; vol. 3 BICS Suppl. XXI,3, London 1983) – Published posthumously. A full list may be found in the Bibliography in Dale's ''Collected Papers'' (listed above).

References

Sources

R. P. Winnington-Ingram Reginald Pepys Winnington-Ingram, FBA (22 January 1904 – 3 January 1993) was a British classicist, an authority on Greek tragedy and ancient Greek music. Life Reginald Pepys Winnington-Ingram was born in Sherborne, Dorset on 22 January 1904, ...

: ''Amy Marjorie Dale 1902–1967'', in: Proceedings of the British Academy 53, 1967, 423–436
(online)
– A detailed assessment of her life and work. * Eric Gardner Turner: ''Miss A. M. Dale (Obituary notice from The Times, 7 February 1967)'', in: Collected Papers. Edited by T. B. L. Webster and E. G. Turner. Cambridge 1969 (siehe unten), IX-X
(online)
*

William M. Calder III William is a masculine given name of Norman French origin.Hanks, Hardcastle and Hodges, ''Oxford Dictionary of First Names'', Oxford University Press, 2nd edition, , p. 276. It became very popular in the English language after the Norman conques ...

, D. J. Kramer: ''An Introductory Bibliography of Classical Scholarship Chiefly in the XIXth and XXth Centuries.'' Hildesheim-Zürich-New York 1992, 142 Anm. 1109; 336 Anm. 2567.

External links

Entry
in Aristarchus: Catalogus Philologorum Classicorum (Project by Franco Montanari, Universität Genua)
Entry
at the website of the British Academy
Roll of Honour
Bletchley Park {{DEFAULTSORT:Dale, A. M. Scholars of ancient Greek literature Alumni of Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford Alumni of Somerville College, Oxford Academics of Westfield College Academics of Birkbeck, University of London 1901 births 1967 deaths Fellows of the British Academy