DACIER, Anne Lefévre (1654-1720), a famous French scholar and translator from the classics, was born at Saumur, probably in 1654. She was the daughter of Tanneguy Lefevre, a self-educated scholar belonging to the Huguenots, who taught classics and edited classical authors with a liveliness and enthusiasm which brought him some degree of fame. At the age of eighteen Anne Lefevre lost her father. She then removed to Paris, carrying with her part of an edition of Callimachus, which she afterwards published, and which obtained for her an engagement as one of the editors of the series of classical authors then being prepared ad usum Delphini. In this series she edited Floras, Dictys Cretensis, Aurelius Victor, and Eutropius. In 1681 appeared her prose version of Anacreon and Sappho, which, though it was successful at the time, is wanting in the delicate taste, the gaiety, and fire essential to a true translation. Within the next few years she also published prose versions of Terence and some of the plays of Plautus and Aristophanes, for the last of whom especially she cherished the most intense admiration. In 1683 Anne Lefevre married André Dacier, once her father’s favourite pupil. In the following year she accompanied her husband to his native town of Castres, whither they retired with the professed object of devoting themselves to theological studies. In 1685 the result was announced in the conversion to Roman Catholicism of both M. and Mme. Dacier, and of many of the townsfolk of Castres besides. The sincerity of this conversion, though it brought with it court favour, it would be uncharitable to doubt; indeed the tastes of Mme. Dacier and her husband were such as would render such a step most natural. In 1711 appeared the prose translation of the Iliad (followed five years later by a similar translation of the Odyssey) which, through the spirit and enthusiasm which she brought to the work, and the direct and simple strength of her sometimes homely language, gained her the position she occupies in French literature. The appearance of this version, which made Homer known for the first time to many French men of letters, and among others to La Motte, gave rise to a famous literary controversy. La Motte published a poetical version of the Iliad, which he look the liberty of greatly abridging and altering to suit his own taste, together with a Discours sur Homére, stating the reasons why Homer failed to satisfy his critical taste (1714). Mme. Dacier replied, in her work Des Causes de la Corruption de la Go û t (1714), maintaining her opinions with a thorough enthusiasm for the ancients which allowed no merit to the moderns, and with occasional flashes of not unhappy banter. La Motte carried on the discussion with light gaiety and badinage, and had the happiness of seeing his views supported by the indisputable erudition of the Abbé Terrasson, who in 1715 produced two volumes, entitled Dissertation critique sur l'Iliade, in which he maintained that science and philosophy, and especially the science and philosophy of Descartes, had so cultured the human mind that, without doubt, the poets of the 18th century were immeasurably superior to those of ancient Greece. The reply to this treatise was undertaken by M. Dacier. In 1715 the dispute was settled. In that year, Pére Buffier published Homére en arbitrage (two letters to Mme. Lambert, with a reply from her) in which he concludes that both parties are really agreed as to the essential point that Homer was one of the greatest geniuses the world has seen, and that, as a whole, no other poem can be preferred to his; and, soon after, in the house of M. de Valincourt, Mme. Dacier and La Motte met at supper, and drank together to the health of Homer. Nothing of importance marks the rest of Mme. Dacier’s life. She assisted her husband, for whom she seems to have cherished a high admiration, in his editions and translations, and spent part of her latter years in writing notes on the Scriptures, which were never published. She died at the Louvre, where her husband was keeper of the library, on the 17th August 1720.

See Sainte-Beuve, Causeries de Lundi, vol. ix; Bodin, Recherches historiques sur la ville de Saumur; Burette, Éloge sur Mme. Dacier; Mémoires de Mme. de Staal. A mémoire containing stories to the prejudice of Mme. Dacier’s character appeared a few years after her death, and may he found in the Histoire littéraire de la France (vol. i.); some of the stories are also repeated by Bayle. The scandal is with great probability attributed by Sainte-Beuve to the rancour of some Huguenot.