Helen Waddell

Lyrics from the Chinese (Dodo Press) Helen Waddell

Helen Jane Waddell (1889-1965) was an Irish poet, translator and playwright. She spent the first eleven years of her life in Japan before her family returned to Belfast, where she was educated at Victoria College for Girls and Queen's University Belfast, where she graduated in 1911. She followed her BA with first class honours in English with a master's degree, and in 1919 enrolled in Somerville College, Oxford, to study for her doctorate. A travelling scholarship from Lady Margaret Hall in 1923 allowed her to conduct research in Paris. She is best known for bringing to light the history of the medieval goliards in her 1927 book The Wandering Scholars, and translating their Latin poetry in the companion volume Medieval Latin Lyrics. A second anthology, More Latin Lyrics was compiled in the 1940s but not published until after her death. Her other works range widely in subject matter. For example, she also wrote plays. Her first play was The Spoilt Buddha, which was performed at the Opera House, Belfast, by the Ulster Literary Society. Her The Abbe Prevost was staged in 1935, and her historical novel Peter Abelard was published in 1933.