Constantia Grierson (née Crawley; c. 1705 – 2 December 1732), was an editor, poet, and

classical scholar 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 ...

from

County Kilkenny County Kilkenny ( gle, Contae Chill Chainnigh) is a county in Ireland. It is in the province of Leinster and is part of the South-East Region. It is named after the city of Kilkenny. Kilkenny County Council is the local authority for the cou ...

, Ireland. She is notable for her achievements as a classicist, which were all the more remarkable given her labouring-class background.

Life

Constantia Crawley was born to an impoverished rural family in

. Her parents recognized her intelligence at an early age and encouraged her desire to learn. She was tutored in Hebrew, Greek, Latin, English, and French by her local vicar, but was mostly self-educated. According to one editor she was "a most excellent scholar, not only in Greek and Roman literature, but in history, divinity, philosophy, and mathematics: and what makes her character the more remarkable is, that she died so early as the age of 27, and that she acquired this great learning merely by the force of her own genius, and continual application.".

Laetitia Pilkington Laetitia Pilkington (born Laetitia van Lewen; ''c.'' 1709 – 29 July 1750) was an Anglo-Irish poet. She is known for her ''Memoirs'' which document much of what is known about Jonathan Swift. Life Early years Laetitia was born of two dist ...

felt "her Learning appeared like the Gift poured out of the Apostles, of speaking all languages without the Pains of Study; or, like the intuitive Knowledge of Angels." At about eighteen Crawley moved to

Dublin Dublin (; , or ) is the capital and largest city of Republic of Ireland, Ireland. On a bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Leinster, bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, a part of th ...

and began to study

midwifery Midwifery is the health science and health profession that deals with pregnancy, childbirth, and the postpartum period (including care of the newborn), in addition to the sexual and reproductive health of women throughout their lives. In many cou ...

under Dr. Van Lewen, a Dutch physician and the father of

. She ceased her studies when she met printer and publisher

George Grierson George Allison Grierson (April 11, 1867–October 18, 1931) was a politician in Manitoba, Canada. He served in the Legislative Assembly of Manitoba from 1914 to 1922, and was a cabinet minister in the government of Tobias Norris. Grierson ...

(c.1679–1753) for whom she edited many works. The date of their marriage is unrecorded. By 1727 she had edited titles in the pocket classics edition, including

Terence Publius Terentius Afer (; – ), better known in English as Terence (), was a Roman African playwright during the Roman Republic. His comedies were performed for the first time around 166–160 BC. Terentius Lucanus, a Roman senator, brought ...

's ''Comediae'', to which she prefixed a Greek epigram from her own pen, inscribing it to Robert, son of Lord Carteret; in 1730 she edited the work of

Tacitus Publius Cornelius Tacitus, known simply as Tacitus ( , ; – ), was a Roman historian and politician. Tacitus is widely regarded as one of the greatest Roman historiography, Roman historians by modern scholars. The surviving portions of his t ...

, inscribing it to Lord Carteret himself.

Jonathan Swift Jonathan Swift (30 November 1667 – 19 October 1745) was an Anglo-Irish Satire, satirist, author, essayist, political pamphleteer (first for the Whig (British political party), Whigs, then for the Tories (British political party), Tories), poe ...

was so impressed with her editing that he wrote to

Alexander Pope Alexander Pope (21 May 1688 O.S. – 30 May 1744) was an English poet, translator, and satirist of the Enlightenment era who is considered one of the most prominent English poets of the early 18th century. An exponent of Augustan literature, ...

on 6 February 1730: "She is a very good Latin and Greek scholar, and hath lately published a fine edition of Tacitus, and she writes ''carmina Anglicana non-contemnenda''." The edition was also much praised by the classical scholar Edward Harwood and "her editions of Terence and Tacitus printed by Grierson were to be favoured by scholars for many generations." Grierson played an important role in her husband's business and household, which included apprentices and journeymen as well as domestic servants. Highly regarded by Dublin's literary élite for her gifts as an editor as well as a poet, and for her remarkable memory, women from the landed gentry of Ireland were attracted to her and became some of her husband's most valued customers. Her husband emphasised her contributions in his successful petition to the

Irish House of Commons The Irish House of Commons was the lower house of the Parliament of Ireland that existed from 1297 until 1800. The upper house was the House of Lords. The membership of the House of Commons was directly elected, but on a highly restrictive fra ...

in 1729 to be granted the patent for King's Printer: "the Editions corrected by her have been approved of, not only in this Kingdom, but in Great Britain, Holland and elsewhere, and the Art of Printing, through her care and assistance, has been brought to greater perfection than has been hitherto in this Kingdom."() In addition to her editorial work she was a poet. Little of her poetry survives, although her friend Mary Barber published six of her pieces in her ''Poems on Several Occasions'' (1734). Those six and two others, included by

in her ''Memoirs'', were published in ''Poems by the Most Eminent Ladies of Great Britain and Ireland''.

included her, along with Barber and literary critic Elizabeth Sican, in his "triumfeminate" and she was part of his Dublin literary circle. After a period of frail health, Grierson died at the age of twenty-seven, possibly of tuberculosis, and was buried in Drumcondra, County Dublin. Her reputation was enhanced by being included by George Ballard in his ''Memoirs of Several Ladies of Great Britain, who have been Celebrated for their Writings or Still in the Learned Languages, Arts and Sciences'' (1752).() More than four decades after her death, she was praised in '' The Female Advocate'' (1775), Mary Scott's poem in praise of women writers and intellectuals.

Works

Editing

*''Publius Virgilius Maro, P.V.M. opera. Nunc emendatiora'', (ed.) (Dublin: G. Grierson, 1724). *''Publius Afer Terentius, P. Terentii Afri Comoediae ad optimorum exemplarium fidem recensitae. Praefixa sunt huic editioni Loca Menandri et Apollodori quae Terentius Latine interpretatus est. Accesserunt emendationes omnes Bentleianae''. Editio novissima (ed.) (Dublin: G. Grierson, 1727). *''Publius Cornelius Tacitus, C. Cornelii Taciti Opera quae extant ex recensione et cum animadversionibus T. Ryckii. T. Ryckii de Vita et Morte Sigani Oratio'', 3 vols. (ed.) (Dublin: G. Grierson, 1730). *

Sallust Gaius Sallustius Crispus, usually anglicised as Sallust (; 86 – ), was a Roman historian and politician from an Italian plebeian family. Probably born at Amiternum in the country of the Sabines, Sallust became during the 50s BC a partisan o ...

(unfinished)Rees, D. Ben. "Grierson ée Crawley Constantia (1704/5–1732), classical scholar and editor." ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography''. 23. Oxford University Press. Accessed 25 Jul. 2022.

Poetry

*"Poems on Several Occasions", ''Poems'', ed. Mary Barber (London: Printed for the author, 1734) * . *''The Poetry of Laetitia Pilkington (1712-1750) and Constantia Grierson (1706-1733)'', ed. Bernard Tucker (Lewiston, NY: Edward Mellen Press, 1996).

Notes

Resources

*Backscheider, Paula. "Inverting the Image of Swift's 'Triumfeminate'." ''Journal for Early Modern Cultural Studies'' Vol. 4, No. 1, Women Writers of the Eighteenth Century (Spring/Summer 2004), pp. 37-71. JSTOR. Accessed 9 Sep. 2022. * . * . * .
Internet Archive

Constantia Grierson
" Orlando: Women’s Writing in the British Isles from the Beginnings to the Present. Accessed 2022-07-24. *Doody, Margaret Anne. "Swift Among the Women." The Yearbook of English Studies 18 (1998): 68—92.
Grierson, Constantia
" The Women's Print History Project, 2019, Person ID 175. Accessed 2022-07-24.
GRIERSON, Constantia Crawley
" Database of Classical Scholars, Rutgers University. Accessed 2022-07-24.
Grierson (Crawley), Constantia
" Dictionary of Irish Biography. Accessed 2022-07-24. * . * .
Internet Archive
* .

Etexts

*''P. Virgilii Maronis opera: nunc emendatiora'' d. by C. Grierson (Dublin: G. Grierson, 1724).
Google Play
*.
Constantia Grierson
at th
Eighteenth-Century Poetry Archive (ECPA)

External links

Constantia Grierson
at th
Eighteenth-Century Poetry Archive (ECPA)
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Grierson, Constantia 18th-century Irish women writers 18th-century Irish poets Irish classical scholars Women classical scholars Irish Latinists Scholars of Latin literature 1705 births 1732 deaths Writers from County Kilkenny Irish women poets