Alicia D’Anvers is best known for her Butlerian satirical or burlesque verse on the conduct of Oxford students in the last decade of the seventeenth century. Although women of the time seldom mocked university students in print, D’Anvers’ close connection with Oxford graduates and her acquaintance with university life and traditions appear to have inspired her to try her hand at Horatian satire, which she hoped would ‘
raise…Smiles’ rather than stir contempt in the reader (“To the University”,
Academia: or, the Humours of the University of Oxford).
D’Anvers was born in the parish of Holywell, Oxford, in January 1668 to Alice and Samuel Clarke. Her father distinguished himself as an Orientalist at Oxford University, where he also served as the inaugural architypographus,
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Citation: Nelson, Holly Faith. "Alicia D'Anvers". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 03 July 2008 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=5624, accessed 19 April 2024.]
