ABSTRACT
Sometime between 1645 and 1658, an extraordinary event took place in the house of Colonel John and Lucy Hutchinson. While she was overseeing the education of her children, and with the pen and paper that happened to be lying at hand, Lucy Hutchinson took on and completed the enormous task of translating the De rerum natura, the epic poem of the Latin poet considered by her contemporaries to rank among the most crabbed, obscure, and dangerous—Lucretius. This chapter builds a context for understanding why it is that Lucy exerted much effort on the very poet that she denounces in her dedication of the 1675 manuscript in which translation is found. Evidence for the date of translation comes from the following sources, in order of importance: Lucy’s dedication of the manuscript to the Earl of Anglesey; Lucy Hutchinson’s life of Colonel John Hutchinson; and Aston Cockayne’s poem “To my ingenious Friend Mr. Alexander Brome on his Essay to translate Lucretius”.
