Editing Augusta Webster

{{Short description|English poet, dramatist, essayist and translator}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=June 2019}}
{{Use British English|date=June 2019}}
{{more citations needed|date=July 2020}}
{{infobox person
| name        = Augusta Webster
| image       = Augusta-Webster-1882.jpg
| alt         = Illustration based on photograph of Augusta Webster in black dress, with artist credits and Webster's signature underneath
| caption     = Etching of Webster based on photograph from Rome
| birth_name  = Julia Augusta Davies
| birth_date  = {{Birth date|df=yes|1837|01|30}}
| birth_place = [[Poole, Dorset]]
| death_date  = {{Death date and age|df=yes|1894|09|05|1837|01|30}}
| death_place = [[Kew]]
| resting_place = [[Highgate Cemetery]]
| nationality = British
| other_names = Cecil Homes
| alma_mater  = [[Cambridge School of Art]]
}}
'''Augusta Webster''' (30 January 1837 – 5 September 1894) born in [[Poole]], [[Dorset]] as '''Julia Augusta Davies''', was an [[England|English]] [[poet]], [[Playwright|dramatist]], [[Essay|essayist]], and [[translation|translator]]. She is known for her translations of the works of [[Aeschylus]] and [[Euripides]].<ref>{{Cite web |title=Carcanet Press - Augusta Webster (1837 - 1894) |url=https://www.carcanet.co.uk/cgi-bin/indexer?owner_id=809 |access-date=2025-02-01 |website=www.carcanet.co.uk}}</ref>

==Biography==
Augusta was the daughter of [[Vice-admiral]] 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 (navy)|lieutenant]] of the [[coast guard]] at that time, held command. After her father's appointment to the rank of [[commander]] in 1842, Webster resided for six years in [[Banff Castle]] in [[Aberdeenshire|Aberdeenshire, Scotland]]. Later, following a short time in [[Penzance|Penzance, Cornwall]], in 1851 Webster resettled in [[Cambridge]], as her father became the [[chief constable]] of [[Cambridgeshire]].<ref name="DNB">{{cite DNB|wstitle=Webster, Augusta|volume= 60 |last= Lee |first= Elizabeth |author-link= Elizabeth Lee (writer)|pages= 115-116|short=1}}</ref>

She self-studied [[Greek language|Greek]], [[Italian language|Italian]] and [[Spanish language|Spanish]] at home, taking a particular interest in [[Theatre of ancient Greece|Greek drama]], and went on to study at the [[Cambridge School of Art]]. During a brief residence in [[Paris]] and [[Geneva]], she acquired a 'full knowledge' of the [[French language|French]] language.<ref name="DNB"/> She published her first volume of poetry in 1860 under the pen name Cecil Homes.{{citation needed|date=June 2019}}
In 1863, she married Thomas Webster, a [[fellow]] and [[lecturer]] in Law at [[Trinity College, Cambridge]]. They had a daughter, Augusta Georgiana, who married [[The Reverend|Reverend]] George Theobald Bourke, a younger son of the [[Joseph Bourke, 3rd Earl of Mayo]].{{citation needed|date=June 2019}}

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]].{{citation needed|date=June 2019}} She was the first female writer to hold elective office, having been elected to the [[London School Board]] in 1879 and 1885.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://rmc.library.cornell.edu/womenLit/learned_poets/Webster_L.htm|title=Women in the Literary Marketplace|website=rmc.library.cornell.edu}}</ref><ref>Papaioannou, Nicole. [https://books.google.com/books/about/But_They_Would_Not_Teach_Her_to_Play.html?id=4PyUYgEACAAJ "'But They Would Not Teach Her to Play': Child Heroines, Fantasy, and the Victorian Debate on Female Education" (Master's thesis)]. Montclair State University: Montclair, NJ</ref> In 1885 she travelled to Italy in an attempt to improve her failing health. She died on 5 September 1894, aged 57.{{citation needed|date=June 2019}}

During her lifetime her writing was acclaimed and she was considered by some the successor to [[Elizabeth Barrett Browning]]. 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 the arts#Sexual politics|Circe]]'', and ''The Happiest Girl In The World'', as well as a posthumously-published [[Sonnet sequence|Sonnet Sequence]], ''Mother and Daughter'', of which her only child, Augusta, is its subject.{{citation needed|date=June 2019}}
[[File:Grave of Augusta Webster in Highgate Cemetery.jpg|thumb|Grave of Augusta Webster in [[Highgate Cemetery]]]]
She died on 5 September 1894 and was buried on the western side of [[Highgate Cemetery]]. 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<ref>Published after her death by [[William Michael Rossetti]] as ''Mother & Daughter. An uncompleted sonnet-sequence .. With an introductory note by W.M. Rossetti. To which are added Seven, her only other, Sonnets.'' London, Macmillan & Co. 
</ref>

'''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<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://webapp1.dlib.indiana.edu/vwwp/view?docId=VAB7045|title=Daffodil and the Croäxaxicans: a Romance of History .|website=webapp1.dlib.indiana.edu|access-date=2019-03-19}}</ref>

'''Essays'''
* ''A Housewife's Opinions'' 1878<ref>Webster advocated woman's suffrage and offered her thoughts on topics relevant to married women in this collection of essays. Crawford, p.703</ref>

== Further reading ==

* Patricia Diane Rigg, ''Julia Augusta Webster: Victorian Aestheticism and the Woman Writer,'' Fairleigh Dickinson University Press (2009)
* T. D. Olverson, ''Women Writers and the Dark Side of Late-Victorian Hellenism'', London: Palgrave Macmillan (2010)
* Isobel Hurst, ''Victorian Women Writers and the Classics: The Feminine of Homer'', Oxford: Oxford University Press (2008) 

==References==
{{Reflist}}

===Sources===
*Crawford, Elizabeth. ''The Women's Suffrage Movement in Britain and Ireland: A Regional Survey.'' Women's and gender history. London: Routledge, 2006. [https://books.google.com/books?id=eIzLissZmscC&pg=PA703&dq=Housewife%27s%2BOpinions%27%27+webster+suffrage&sig=ACfU3U2aO4OUC__kKiCUWZveietHb97o-A googlebooks] Accessed 27 September 2008
*{{cite DNB|wstitle=Webster, Augusta|volume= 60 |last= Lee |first= Elizabeth |author-link= Elizabeth Lee (writer)|pages= 115-116}}
*{{A Short Biographical Dictionary of English Literature}}

==External links==
* {{wikisource author-inline}}
* {{librivox author|id=11382}}

{{Authority control}}

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