Augusta Webster (30 January 1837 – 5 September 1894) born in

Poole Poole () is a coastal town and seaport on the south coast of England in the Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole unitary authority area in Dorset, England. The town is east of Dorchester, Dorset, Dorchester and adjoins Bournemouth to the east ...

Dorset Dorset ( ; Archaism, archaically: Dorsetshire , ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South West England. It is bordered by Somerset to the north-west, Wiltshire to the north and the north-east, Hampshire to the east, t ...

as Julia Augusta Davies, was an English

poet A poet is a person who studies and creates poetry. Poets may describe themselves as such or be described as such by others. A poet may simply be the creator (thought, thinker, songwriter, writer, or author) who creates (composes) poems (oral t ...

dramatist A playwright or dramatist is a person who writes plays, which are a form of drama that primarily consists of dialogue between characters and is intended for theatrical performance rather than just reading. Ben Jonson coined the term "playwri ...

essayist An essay ( ) is, generally, a piece of writing that gives the author's own argument, but the definition is vague, overlapping with those of a Letter (message), letter, a term paper, paper, an article (publishing), article, a pamphlet, and a s ...

, and

translator Translation is the communication of the meaning of a source-language text by means of an equivalent target-language text. The English language draws a terminological distinction (which does not exist in every language) between ''trans ...

. She is known for her translations of the works of

Aeschylus Aeschylus (, ; ; /524 – /455 BC) was an ancient Greece, ancient Greek Greek tragedy, tragedian often described as the father of tragedy. Academic knowledge of the genre begins with his work, and understanding of earlier Greek tragedy is large ...

and

Euripides Euripides () was a Greek tragedy, tragedian of classical Athens. Along with Aeschylus and Sophocles, he is one of the three ancient Greek tragedians for whom any plays have survived in full. Some ancient scholars attributed ninety-five plays to ...

Biography

Augusta was the daughter of

Vice-admiral Vice admiral is a senior naval flag officer rank, usually equivalent to lieutenant general and air marshal. A vice admiral is typically senior to a rear admiral and junior to an admiral. Australia In the Royal Australian Navy, the rank of vic ...

George Davies (1800-1876) and Julia Hume (1803-1897), the fourth daughter of Joseph Hume of Somerset House. She spent her younger years on board the ship, the Griper'','' her father, as

lieutenant A lieutenant ( , ; abbreviated Lt., Lt, LT, Lieut and similar) is a Junior officer, junior commissioned officer rank in the armed forces of many nations, as well as fire services, emergency medical services, Security agency, security services ...

of the

coast guard A coast guard or coastguard is a Maritime Security Regimes, maritime security organization of a particular country. The term embraces wide range of responsibilities in different countries, from being a heavily armed military force with cust ...

at that time, held command. After her father's appointment to the rank of

commander Commander (commonly abbreviated as Cmdr.) is a common naval officer rank as well as a job title in many army, armies. Commander is also used as a rank or title in other formal organizations, including several police forces. In several countri ...

in 1842, Webster resided for six years in Banff Castle in

Aberdeenshire, Scotland Aberdeenshire (; ) is one of the 32 council areas of Scotland. It takes its name from the historic county of Aberdeenshire, which had substantially different boundaries. The Aberdeenshire Council area includes all of the areas of the historic ...

. Later, following a short time in Penzance, Cornwall, in 1851 Webster resettled in

Cambridge Cambridge ( ) is a List of cities in the United Kingdom, city and non-metropolitan district in the county of Cambridgeshire, England. It is the county town of Cambridgeshire and is located on the River Cam, north of London. As of the 2021 Unit ...

, as her father became the chief constable of

Cambridgeshire Cambridgeshire (abbreviated Cambs.) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the East of England and East Anglia. It is bordered by Lincolnshire to the north, Norfolk to the north-east, Suffolk to the east, Essex and Hertfor ...

. She self-studied

Greek Greek may refer to: Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor of all kno ...

Italian Italian(s) may refer to: * Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries ** Italians, a Romance ethnic group related to or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom ** Italian language, a Romance languag ...

and Spanish at home, taking a particular interest in Greek drama, and went on to study at the Cambridge School of Art. During a brief residence in

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

and

Geneva Geneva ( , ; ) ; ; . is the List of cities in Switzerland, second-most populous city in Switzerland and the most populous in French-speaking Romandy. Situated in the southwest of the country, where the Rhône exits Lake Geneva, it is the ca ...

, she acquired a 'full knowledge' of the French language. She published her first volume of poetry in 1860 under the pen name Cecil Homes. In 1863, she married Thomas Webster, a

fellow A fellow is a title and form of address for distinguished, learned, or skilled individuals in academia, medicine, research, and industry. The exact meaning of the term differs in each field. In learned society, learned or professional society, p ...

and

lecturer Lecturer is an academic rank within many universities, though the meaning of the term varies somewhat from country to country. It generally denotes an academic expert who is hired to teach on a full- or part-time basis. They may also conduct re ...

in Law at

Trinity College, Cambridge Trinity College is a Colleges of the University of Cambridge, constituent college of the University of Cambridge. Founded in 1546 by King Henry VIII, Trinity is one of the largest Cambridge colleges, with the largest financial endowment of any ...

. They had a daughter, Augusta Georgiana, who married

Reverend The Reverend (abbreviated as The Revd, The Rev'd or The Rev) is an honorific style (form of address), style given to certain (primarily Western Christian, Western) Christian clergy and Christian minister, ministers. There are sometimes differen ...

George Theobald Bourke, a younger son of the

Joseph Bourke, 3rd Earl of Mayo Joseph Deane Bourke, 3rd Earl of Mayo (; ; 1736 – 20 August 1794) was an Peerage of Ireland, Irish peer and cleric who held several high offices in the Church of Ireland including Bishop of Ferns and Leighlin (1772–82) and Archbishop of Tua ...

. Much of Webster's writing explored the condition of women, and she was a strong advocate of women's right to vote, working for the London branch of the National Committee for

Women's Suffrage Women's suffrage is the women's rights, right of women to Suffrage, vote in elections. Several instances occurred in recent centuries where women were selectively given, then stripped of, the right to vote. In Sweden, conditional women's suffra ...

. She was the first female writer to hold elective office, having been elected to the London School Board in 1879 and 1885. In 1885 she travelled to Italy in an attempt to improve her failing health. She died on 5 September 1894, aged 57. During her lifetime her writing was acclaimed and she was considered by some the successor to

Elizabeth Barrett Browning Elizabeth Barrett Browning (née Moulton-Barrett; 6 March 1806 – 29 June 1861) was an English poet of the Victorian era, popular in Britain and the United States during her lifetime and frequently anthologised after her death. Her work receiv ...

. After her death, however, her reputation quickly declined. Since the mid-1990s she has gained increasing critical attention from scholars such as Isobel Armstrong, Angela Leighton, and Christine Sutphin. Her best-known poems include three long dramatic monologues spoken by women: ''A Castaway'', ''

Circe In Greek mythology, Circe (; ) is an enchantress, sometimes considered a goddess or a nymph. In most accounts, Circe is described as the daughter of the sun god Helios and the Oceanid Perse (mythology), Perse. Circe was renowned for her vast kn ...

'', and ''The Happiest Girl In The World'', as well as a posthumously-published

Sonnet Sequence A sonnet sequence or sonnet cycle is a group of sonnets thematically unified to create a long work, although generally, unlike the stanza, each sonnet so connected can also be read as a meaningful separate unit. The sonnet sequence was a very popul ...

, ''Mother and Daughter'', of which her only child, Augusta, is its subject. Grave of Augusta Webster in Highgate Cemetery

She died on 5 September 1894 and was buried on the western side of

Highgate Cemetery Highgate Cemetery is a place of burial in North London, England, designed by architect Stephen Geary. There are approximately 170,000 people buried in around 53,000 graves across the West and East sides. Highgate Cemetery is notable both for so ...

. Her grave (plot no.8187), which is situated above the cuttings catacombs, has suffered badly from tree roots.

Literary works

Poetry * ''Blanche Lisle: And Other Poems.'' 1860 * ''Lilian Gray.'' 1864 * ''Dramatic Studies.'' 1866 * ''A Woman Sold and Other Poems.'' 1867 * ''Portraits'' 1870 * ''A Book of Rhyme'' 1881 * ''Mother and Daughter'' 1895 Translations into verse * ''Prometheus Bound'' 1866 * ''Medea'' 1868 * ''Yu-Pe-Ya's Lute. A Chinese Tale in English Verse.'' 1874 Plays * ''The Auspicious Day'' 1874 * ''Disguises'' 1879 * ''In a Day'' 1882 * ''The Sentence'' 1887 Novels * ''Lesley's Guardians'' 1864 *''Daffodil and the Croaxaxicans: A Romance of History'' 1884 Essays * ''A Housewife's Opinions'' 1878Webster advocated woman's suffrage and offered her thoughts on topics relevant to married women in this collection of essays. Crawford, p.703

References

Sources

*Crawford, Elizabeth. ''The Women's Suffrage Movement in Britain and Ireland: A Regional Survey.'' Women's and gender history. London: Routledge, 2006
googlebooks
Accessed 27 September 2008 * *

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Webster, Augusta 1837 births 1894 deaths Burials at Highgate Cemetery People from Poole English women poets Members of the London School Board 19th-century English poets 19th-century English women writers

Biography

Literary works

Further reading

References

Sources

External links