CARTER, ELIZABETH

born Dec. 16, 1717, Deal, Kent, Eng. died Feb. 19, 1806, London English poet, translator, and member of a famous group of literary bluestockings who gathered around Mrs. Elizabeth Montagu. Carter was the daughter of a learned cleric who taught her Latin, Greek, and Hebrew. She was not a precocious child, but she persevered with an industry that affected her health, studying also French, German, Italian, Portuguese, Arabic, astronomy, ancient geography, ancient and modern history, and music, as well as the housewifery that caused Dr. Samuel Johnson to say My old friend, Mrs. Carter, could make a pudding as well as translate Epictetus from the Greek, and work a handkerchief as well as compose a poem. Her Poems upon Particular Occasions were published in 1738 and Poems on Several Occasions in 1762. It was her translations, however, that ensured her reputation. In 1749 she undertook her most considerable work, a translation, All the Works of Epictetus Which Are Now Extant, published in 1758.