Janet Elizabeth Case (1863–1937) was a British

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 ...

, tutor of

ancient Greek Ancient Greek includes the forms of the Greek language used in ancient Greece and the ancient world from around 1500 BC to 300 BC. It is often roughly divided into the following periods: Mycenaean Greek (), Dark Ages (), the Archaic p ...

, and

women's rights Women's rights are the rights and entitlements claimed for women and girls worldwide. They formed the basis for the women's rights movement in the 19th century and the feminist movements during the 20th and 21st centuries. In some countries, ...

advocate.

Early life and education

Case was born in Hampstead, London, in 1863, to William Arthur Case and Sarah Wolridge Stansfeld; she was the youngest of their six daughters. She was educated at Heath Brow, a co-educational school in Hampstead, and later studied classics at

Girton College Girton College is one of the Colleges of the University of Cambridge, 31 constituent colleges of the University of Cambridge. The college was established in 1869 by Emily Davies and Barbara Bodichon as the first women's college in Cambridge. In 1 ...

, Cambridge from 1881 to 1885, where she obtained a first in Part II of the

tripos At the University of Cambridge, a Tripos (, plural 'Triposes') is any of the examinations that qualify an undergraduate for a bachelor's degree or the courses taken by a student to prepare for these. For example, an undergraduate studying mathe ...

at a time when women were still denied a full degree from Cambridge; in 1907 she converted this to a

Master of Arts A Master of Arts ( la, Magister Artium or ''Artium Magister''; abbreviated MA, M.A., AM, or A.M.) is the holder of a master's degree awarded by universities in many countries. The degree is usually contrasted with that of Master of Science. Th ...

when Trinity College, Dublin began to offer degrees to women who had qualified at Oxford and Cambridge. In 1884 Case co-founded Girton College's classical club; she was an active participant in Cambridge productions of

ancient Greek drama Ancient Greek theatre was a theatrical culture that flourished in ancient Greece from 700 BC. The city-state of Athens, which became a significant cultural, political, and religious place during this period, was its centre, where the theatre was ...

, taking the role of '' Electra'' in a Girton college production of 1883, and

Athena Athena or Athene, often given the epithet Pallas, is an ancient Greek religion, ancient Greek goddess associated with wisdom, warfare, and handicraft who was later syncretism, syncretized with the Roman goddess Minerva. Athena was regarded ...

Aeschylus Aeschylus (, ; grc-gre, Αἰσχύλος ; c. 525/524 – c. 456/455 BC) was an ancient Greek tragedian, and is often described as the father of tragedy. Academic knowledge of the genre begins with his work, and understanding of earlier Greek ...

' '' Eumenides'' in the Cambridge Greek Play of 1885. She was the first female actor in the annual Cambridge Greek Play, an exception to the practice of using only male actors at that time; she was the only woman to be a cast-member of the Greek Play until 1950. In her obituary in ''

The Times ''The Times'' is a British daily national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its current name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its sister paper '' The Sunday Times'' (f ...

'',

Virginia Woolf Adeline Virginia Woolf (; ; 25 January 1882 28 March 1941) was an English writer, considered one of the most important modernist 20th-century authors and a pioneer in the use of stream of consciousness as a narrative device. Woolf was born i ...

would later describe Case as "a noble Athena, breaking down the tradition that only men acted in the Greek play."Alley, Henry M. (1982). "A Rediscovered Eulogy: Virginia Woolf's 'Miss Janet Case: Classical Scholar and Teacher.'" ''Twentieth Century Literature''. 28:3.

Career

After leaving Cambridge, Case taught Classics from 1887 to 1896 at Maida Vale High School, as well as offering private tuition. While working as a tutor, she taught Greek to a young

from 1902 to 1907. After this instruction ended, Case and Woolf developed a close friendship that would last until Case's death in 1937. Woolf wrote Case's obituary, which was published in ''

'' on 22 July 1937. Case published her translation of ''

Prometheus Bound ''Prometheus Bound'' ( grc, Προμηθεὺς Δεσμώτης, ''Promētheús Desmṓtēs'') is an Ancient Greek tragedy traditionally attributed to Aeschylus and thought to have been composed sometime between 479 BC and the terminus ant ...

'' by

in 1905. From 1925 to 1937 she wrote a weekly "Country Diaries" column for the '' Manchester Guardian'', which was published as a collection in 1939. Suffering from ill-health, she had given up teaching in 1915, aged 52; she died of

cancer Cancer is a group of diseases involving abnormal cell growth with the potential to invade or spread to other parts of the body. These contrast with benign tumors, which do not spread. Possible signs and symptoms include a lump, abnormal b ...

in 1937.

Activism

Case became involved in the

women's rights movement Women's rights are the rights and entitlements claimed for women and girls worldwide. They formed the basis for the women's rights movement in the 19th century and the feminist movements during the 20th and 21st centuries. In some countries, ...

, thanks to her friend and former Girton classmate Margaret Llewelyn Davies, who served as general secretary of the Co-operative Women's Guild from 1899 to 1921. Case advised the Guild on divorce law reform, publishing a 1912 pamphlet summarising the royal commission's recommendations on

divorce Divorce (also known as dissolution of marriage) is the process of terminating a marriage or marital union. Divorce usually entails the canceling or reorganizing of the legal duties and responsibilities of marriage, thus dissolving the ...

and advocating a proposal of the Guild that female assessors should be appointed to the divorce court. Case also encouraged Virginia Woolf to become involved in the women's rights movement, writing to her in 1910 of the "wrongness of the present state of affairs." Nicolson, Nigel and Joanne Trautmann, eds. (1975). ''The Letters of Virginia Woolf: Volume I''. New York: Harcourt. p. 421.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Case Janet ELizabeth 1863 births 1937 deaths English suffragists English classical scholars Women classical scholars Alumni of Girton College, Cambridge English columnists 20th-century English women writers 20th-century English writers Co-operative Women's Guild