Constantia Grierson

Mrs. Constantia Grierson
Born	Constantia Crawley ?1705 Kilkenny
Died	2 December 1732 Dublin
Cause of death	possibly tuberculosis
Resting place	St. John's Parish Church, Drumcondra, Dublin, Ireland
Known for	editor, poet, classical scholar
Spouse	George Grierson

Constantia Grierson (?1705 - 2 December 1732) was an Irish poet, editor, and classical scholar.

Life

Youth and education

Grierson was born Constantia Crawley, at Graigvenamanagh, co. Kilkenny.

Her parents seem to have been in poor circumstances, but her father is said to have first encouraged her love of study.

In her 18th year she began to study obstetrics under Dr. Van Lewen, a Dublin physician of repute, the father of Laetitia Pilkington.

Career

She soon afterwards married George Grierson, an eminent Dublin printer, who obtained from Lord Carteret (then lord-lieutenant) a patent as king's printer in Ireland, chiefly, it is conjectured, owing to Carteret's admiration of Mrs. Grierson's attainments. Mrs. Pilkington, who knew Mrs. Grierson personally, writes that she was proficient in Hebrew, Greek, Latin, and French, understood mathematics well, and wrote elegantly in verse and prose.

Grierson edited Latin classics published by her husband. Of these the principal were Terence, 1727, and Tacitus, 1730. The first was inscribed to Robert, son of Lord Carteret, viceroy of Ireland, and her edition of Tacitus was dedicated in elegant Latin to Carteret himself. Dr. Harwood, the classical bibliographer, pronounced Mrs. Grierson's Tacitus to be "one of the best edited books ever delivered to the world."

Mrs. Grierson also wrote several English poems, some of which have been lost.

She was on close terms with Dean Swift, Thomas Sheridan, and Patrick Delany, D.D.

She was engaged on an edition of Sallust at the time of her death in 1733. A copy of it with her annotations came into the possession of Lord George Germain, and at the sale of his books was purchased by John Wilkes, who valued it highly.

Her son, George Abraham Grierson, described as "a gentleman of uncommon learning, great wit and vivacity," was a friend of Dr. Johnson. He died at Düsseldorf in 1755, aged 27. Several volumes of his manuscript collections, in various languages, relating to European history are in the possession of representatives of his family.

Recognition

6 of her poems were included by Mary Barber in her volume of Poems on Several Occasions (London, 1734), and 7 were included in the 1755 anthology Poems by Eminent Ladies.

In popular culture

Grierson's learning and virtue were referred to in a poem by Henry Brooke (?1703-1783), author of Gustavus Vasa.

Publications

Poetry

• Poems in Poems by Eminent Ladies. London: Richard Baldwin, 1755.
• The Poetry of Laetitia Pilkington (1712-1750) and Constantia Grierson (1706-1733) (edited by Bernard Tucker). Lewiston, NY: Edwin Mellen Press, 1996.

Edited

• Virgil, P.V.M. opera. Nunc emendatiora. Dublin: G. Grierson, 1724.

Except where noted, bibliographical information courtesy WorldCat.

Occasion d by reading the memoirs of anne of austria poem

See also

• List of Irish poets

References

•  Gilbert, John Thomas (1890) "Grierson, Constantia" in Stephen, Leslie; Lee, Sidney Dictionary of National Biography 23 London: Smith, Elder, p. 220 . Wikisource, Web, Mar. 13, 2017.

External links

• Constantia Grierson at the Eighteenth-Century Poetry Archive (6 poems)
• Constantia Grierson at Poetry Nook (9 poems)

Books

• Constantia Grierson at Amazon.com

About

• Constantia Grierson in the Compendium of Irish Biography
• Constantia Grierson at Elliptical Moments

This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain, the Dictionary of National Biography (edited by Leslie Stephen). London: Smith, Elder, 1885-1900. Original article is at: Grierson, Constantia