A Cyclopaedia of Female Biography/Dacier, Anne
DACIER, ANNE,
Was daughter of Tanneguy le Fevre and Marie Oliver his wife. Anne was born at Saumur, in 1661. Her father, it is related, had an acquaintance who practised judicial astrology, and who, on the birth of the infant, desired he might be allowed to cast her nativity. After finishing his figures, he told M. le Fevre there must have been some mistake respecting the exact instant of the birth of the child, since her horoscope promised a future and fame quite foreign to a female. This story must be left to the faith of the reader; but, whatever might be its truth, it is certain that an incident occurred, when Mademoiselle le Fevre was about ten years of age, which determined her father, who was professor of Belles-Lettres at Saumur, to give her the advantage of a learned education.
M. le Fevre had a son whom he instructed in the classics; and to whom he usually gave lessons in the room in which his daughter worked in tapestry. The youth, whether from incapacity or inattention, was sometimes at a loss when questioned by his father: on these occasions his sister, who appeared to be wholly occupied with her needles and her silks, never failed to suggest to him the proper reply, however intricate or embarrassing the subject. M. le Fevre was, by this discovery, induced to cultivate the talents of his daughter. Mademoiselle le Fevre afterwards confessed that she felt, at the time, a secret vexation for having thus betrayed her capacity, and exchanged the occupations and amusements of her sex, under the eye of an indulgent mother, for the discipline of her father, and the vigilance and application necessary to study.
After having learned the elements of the Latin language, she applied herself to the Greek, in which she made a rapid progress, and at the end of eight years no longer stood in need of the assistance of a master. As her mind strengthened and acquired a wider range, she emancipated herself from the trammels of authority, and laid down plans of study which she pursued with perseverance. She now read and thought for herself: and frequently, though with the utmost modesty and deference, presumed to differ, on subjects of literature and criticism, from her respectable father, who died in 1673, and the following year Mademoiselle le Fevre went to Paris, and took up her residence in that city. She was then engaged on an edition of "Callimachus," which she published in 1674. Some sheets of that work having been shown to M Huet, preceptor to the dauphin, and other learned men, a proposal was made to her to prepare some Latin authors for the dauphin's use; which proposal she accepted, and published an edition of "Florus" in 1674.
Her reputation being now spread all over Europe, Christina of Sweden ordered a present to be sent to her, in her name; upon which Mademoiselle le Fevre sent the queen a Latin letter, with her edition of "Florus." Her majesty not long after wrote to her, to persuade her to abandon the Protestant faith, and made her considerable offers to settle at court. But this she declined, and continued to publish works for the use of the dauphin. "Sextus Aurelius Victor" came out under her care, at Paris, in 1681; and in the same year she published a French translation of the poems of Anacreon and Sappho, with notes, which were so much admired as to make Boilean declare that it ought to deter any from attempting to translate those poems in verse. She also published, for the use of the dauphin, "Eutropins," in 1683; and "Dictys Cretensis," and "Dares Phrygius" in 1684. She wrote French translations of the "Amphitryo," "Epidicus," and "Prudens," comedies of Plautus, in 1683; and of the "Plutus" and "Clouds" of Aristophanes, with notes.
She was so charmed with this last comedy, that she had read it two hundred times. She married M. Dacier, with whom she had been brought up in her father's house, in 1683, and soon after declared to the Duke of Montausier and the Bishop of Meaux a design of reconciling herself with the church of Rome; but as M. Dacier was not satisfied as to the propriety of the change, she retired with him to Castres in 1684, to examine the controversy between the Protestants and Papists. They determined in favour of the latter, and after their conversion, the Duke de Montausier and the Bishop of Meaux recommended them at court, and the king settled a pension of fifteen hundred livres on M. Dacier, and of five hundred upon his wife. They then returned to Paris and resumed their studies.
In 1688, she published a French translation of "Terence's Comedies," with notes, in three volumes. She rose at five in the morning, during a very cold winter, and finished four of them, but reading them over a few months afterwards, she was so dissatisfied with them that she burnt them, and began the translation again. She brought the work to the highest perfection, and even equalled the grace and noble simplicity of the original. She assisted in the translation of "Marcus Antoninus," published by her husband in 1691, and in the specimen of the translation of "Plutarch's Lives," which he published three years afterwards.
In 1711, she published a French translation, with notes, of "Homer's Iliad," which was thought faithful and elegant. In 1714, she published the "Causes of the Corruption of Taste." This was written against M. de la Motte, who, in the preface to his "Iliad," had expressed but little admiration for that poem. This was the beginning of a literary war, in the course of which a number of books were produced. In 1716, she published a defence of Homer against the apology of Father Hardouin, in which she attempts to show that Father Hardouin, in endeavouring to apologize for Homer, has done him a greater injustice than his declared enemies. Her last work, the "Odyssey of Homer," with notes, translated from the Greek, was published the same year.
She died, after a painful sickness, August 17th., 1720, at sixty-nine years of age. She had two daughters and a son, whom she educated with the greatest care; but the son died young, one daughter became a nun, and the other, who is said to have united all the virtues and accomplishments of her sex, died at eighteen.
Madame Dacier was remarkable for firmness, generosity, good-nature, and piety. Her modesty was so great, that it was with difficulty she could be induced to speak on literary subjects. A learned German once visited her, and requested her to write her name and a sentence in his book of collections. She, seeing in it the names of the greatest scholars in Europe, told him that she could not presume to put her name among so many illustrious persons. But as he insisted, she wrote her name with a sentence of Sophocles signifying that "Silence is the ornament of women." She was often solicited to publish a translation of some books of Scripture, with remarks upon them; but she always answered that "A woman ought to read and meditate on the Scriptures, and regulate her conduct by them, and to keep silence, agreeably to the command of St. Paul."
We must not forget to mention, that the academy of Ricovrati at Padua chose her one of their body in 1684, and learned men of all countries vied with each other in proving their sense of her merit.