Dorothy Everett

Born in King’s Lynn on 10 May 1894, she studied as an exhibition scholar at Girton College, Cambridge in 1913 – 16, where she graduated with a First in Medieval and Modern Languages. In 1917, she held a British Scholarship at Bryn Mawr College, Pennsylvania. In 1922, while working as Assistant Lecturer at Royal Holloway College, she earned an MA for her thesis on the English Psalter of Richard Rolle. == Editing and reviews ==

Everett served as editor of the Annual Bibliography of English Language and Literature from its inception in 1920 until 1928. She was editor of the Middle English section of the Year’s Work in English Studies for 25 years, which allowed her to produce ‘many authoritative and influential reviews’ of Chaucer scholarship. == Oxford career ==

After tutoring at St Hugh’s College, Oxford, and spending a year as lecturer in English at Somerville College, she was appointed tutor in English Language and Literature at Lady Margaret Hall, where she became a Fellow in 1928. In 1930 she received a University Lectureship in Middle English. Her university responsibilities included a place on the Board of the English Faculty at Oxford and examining at several universities in London and Wales. In 1948 she became Oxford’s first Reader in English Language. Rosemary Birts, who began editing The Scale of Perfection under her tutelage; and Priscilla Tolkien. She died on 22 June 1953 after a long illness. == Select bibliography ==

Essay collection • Essays on Middle English Literature (1955) • 'A Characterisation of the English Medieval Romances' (originally published 1929) • 'Layamon and the Earliest Middle English Alliterative Verse' • 'The Alliterative Revival' • 'Chaucer's Love Visions, with particular reference to the Parlement of Foules' • 'Chaucer's "Good Ear"' (originally published 1947) • 'Some Reflections on Chaucer's "Art Poetical"' (originally given as the Sir Israel Gollancz Memorial Lecture at the British Academy, 1950) Articles • 'The Middle English Prose Psalter of Richard Rolle of Hampole' (1922) • 'Another Collation of the Ellesmere Manuscript of the Canterbury Tales' (1932) • 'The Relationship of Chestre's Launfal and Lybeaus Desconus' (1938) • 'Legal Phraseology in a passage in Pearl' (1947) == References ==