Works
- Editions of Virgil, Terence (Dublin, 1727), and Tacitus (3 vols., Dublin, 1730).
Virgil, Terence and Tacitus were three of the greatest writers/poets of their time. They wrote a multitude of books in their day. Virgil is well known for his tale The Aenid. In Constantia's time, not many knew how to speak Latin. Constantia studied Latin and was able to edit the works of these three great men. Many people were impressed by her editing skills. Constantia started editing when she was eighteen; by the time she completed these three edits she was only 24. Her great intelligence and ability garnered her much due adoration among her peers. When Constantia was assisting her husband in his appeal to the House of Commons her edits were described as follows, "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, however her friend Mary Barber published six of her pieces in her Poems on Several Occasions (1734).
- Grierson, Constantia (1773), "Poems by Mrs. Constantia Grierson", in Colman, G.; Thornton, B., Poems by the most eminent ladies of Great-Britain and Ireland, VOL. I (A new edition ed.), London: printed for T. Becket and Co. and T. Evans, near York building, Strand., p. 240, http://www.nku.edu/~issues/eminent_ladies/vol1/master_file_vol_1.html#grierson.
Constantia's poems are few and far between, yet the ones still in circulation are seen as proof of her intelligence. Many poems, epigrams, and occasional pieces flowed from her facile pen—written in Latin, Greek, or English; but as they did not come up to her standard of excellence, she burnt them all before her death. None of her poems have been preserved, save a few which she addressed to various friends, notably to Mrs. Barber, and which are too personal to be quoted as they could not possess any interest for the general reader; and, on the other hand, it would be unfair to give them as specimens of Mrs. Grierson's poetical abilities.
Read more about this topic: Constantia Grierson
Famous quotes containing the word works:
“The works of the great poets have never yet been read by mankind, for only great poets can read them. They have only been read as the multitude read the stars, at most astrologically, not astronomically.”
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“Every man is in a state of conflict, owing to his attempt to reconcile himself and his relationship with life to his conception of harmony. This conflict makes his soul a battlefield, where the forces that wish this reconciliation fight those that do not and reject the alternative solutions they offer. Works of art are attempts to fight out this conflict in the imaginative world.”
—Rebecca West (1892–1983)