# Elizabeth Tollet

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{{Use dmy dates|date=June 2019}}
{{Use British English|date=June 2019}}
'''Elizabeth Tollett''' (March 11, 1694 – February 1, 1754) was a [British](/source/British_people) poet. Her surviving works are varied; she produced translations of classical themes, religious and philosophical poetry and poems arguing for women's involvement in education and intellectual pursuits such as [natural philosophy](/source/natural_philosophy).<ref name="fara" /> Unusually, for a woman of her time, her poetry also includes [Newtonian](/source/Isaac_Newton) imagery and ideas.<ref name="fara" /><ref name="orlando1" /><ref name="oxdnb" /> Some of her poetry imitates the [Latin verse](/source/Latin_poetry) of [Horace](/source/Horace), [Ovid](/source/Ovid), and [Virgil](/source/Virgil).<ref name="oxdnb" /> In some of her poems, Tollett paraphrases the [Psalms](/source/Psalms).<ref name="backs" />

She was the daughter of [George Tollett](/source/George_Tollett) who, observing her intelligence, gave her a thorough education in languages, history, poetry and mathematics. Tollett was fluent in Italian, and French and she achieved a proficiency in Latin that was unconventional for women of her time.<ref name="fara" /> The Tolletts' social circle included [Isaac Newton](/source/Isaac_Newton), who also encouraged her to pursue her education.<ref name="oxdnb" /><ref name="backs" />

Tollett grew up in the [Tower of London](/source/Tower_of_London) where her father lived as a commissioner of the British Navy.<ref name="backs" /> She refers to the [Tower](/source/Tower_of_London) in several of her poems and expresses her confinement and frustration with it.<ref name="fara" /><ref name="backs" /> Tollett remained unmarried her whole life.<ref name="fara" /><ref name="oxdnb" /> Her mother likely died while she was young and Tollett, being the eldest daughter, would have been expected to stay at home and care for her siblings.<ref name="fara" />

In 1724 she published ''Poems on Several Occasions'', which included her ''Hypatia'', now seen as a feminist protest poem.<ref name="backs" />

On Newton's death in 1727 Tollett produced an elegy, ''On the Death of Sir Isaac Newton''.<ref name="fara" />

She died in 1754 in the village of [Westham](/source/West_Ham), [Essex](/source/Essex) (now known as West Ham) and is buried at All Saints church there.<ref name="oxdnb" />

== References ==
<references>

<ref name="oxdnb">
{{cite book
|last=Londry
|first=Michael
|title=Tollett, Elizabeth (1694–1754)
|publisher=[Oxford University Press](/source/Oxford_University_Press)
|date=September 2004
|volume=[Oxford Dictionary of National Biography](/source/Oxford_Dictionary_of_National_Biography)
|accessdate=2009-10-17
|url=http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/27502}} (library card access). {{DNBfirst|wstitle=Tollett, Elizabeth}}</ref>

<ref name="orlando1">
{{cite news
|url=http://orlando.cambridge.org/public/svPeople?person_id=tollel
|title=Elizabeth Tollett; Overview screen
|last1=Brown
|first1=Susan
|last2=Clements
|first2=Patricia
|last3=Grundy
|first3=Isobel 
|work=The Orlando Project
|accessdate=2009-10-18}}
</ref>

<ref name="fara">{{cite journal|last=Fara |first=Patricia |date=June 2002 |title=Elizabeth Tollett: A New Newtonian Woman |journal=History of Science |publisher=Science History Publications Ltd |volume=40, part 2 |issue=128 |pages=169–187 |doi=10.1177/007327530204000203 |bibcode=2002HisSc..40..169F |s2cid=159865038 |url=http://www.shpltd.co.uk/fara-elizabeth-tollet.pdf |accessdate=2009-10-18 |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20070801175341/http://www.shpltd.co.uk/fara-elizabeth-tollet.pdf |archivedate=1 August 2007}}
</ref>

<ref name="backs">
{{cite book
|last=Backscheider
|first=Paula R.
|title=Eighteenth-century women poets and their poetry: inventing agency, inventing genre|publisher=[Johns Hopkins University Press](/source/Johns_Hopkins_University_Press)
|year=2005
|pages=411
|isbn=0-8018-8169-2
|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=kRVSnAqeKBoC&pg=PA411}}</ref>

</references>

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Tollet, Elizabeth}}
Category:English women poets
Category:1694 births
Category:1754 deaths
Category:18th-century English women writers
Category:18th-century British poets

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Adapted from the Wikipedia article [Elizabeth Tollet](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elizabeth_Tollet) by Wikipedia contributors ([contributor history](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elizabeth_Tollet?action=history)). Available under [Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/). Changes may have been made.