Editing Felicia Hemans (section)

==Early life and education==
[[File:118 Duke Street, Liverpool 2018.jpg|right|thumb|118 Duke Street, Liverpool, birthplace of Felicia Hemans]]
Felicia Dorothea Browne was the daughter of George Browne, who worked for his father-in-law's wine importing business and succeeded him as [[List of diplomats of the United Kingdom to the Grand Duchy of Tuscany|Tuscan and imperial consul]] in Liverpool, and Felicity, daughter of Benedict Paul Wagner (1718–1806), wine importer at 9 Wolstenholme Square, [[Liverpool]] and [[Republic of Venice|Venetian]] [[Consulate general|consul]] for that city.<ref name=oxforddnb>{{cite ODNB|url=https://www.oxforddnb.com/view/10.1093/ref:odnb/9780198614128.001.0001/odnb-9780198614128-e-12888|title=Felicia Hemans|year=2004|doi=10.1093/ref:odnb/12888|isbn=978-0-19-861412-8|access-date=3 September 2017}}</ref> Hemans was the fourth of six children (three boys and three girls) to survive infancy. Her sister [[Harriet Browne (composer)|Harriet]] collaborated musically with Hemans and later edited her complete works (7 vols. with memoir, 1839).<ref name=oxforddnb /> George Browne's business soon brought the family to [[Denbighshire (historic)|Denbighshire]] in [[North Wales]], where she spent her youth. They lived in a cottage within the grounds of [[Gwrych Castle]] near [[Abergele]]<ref>''Liverpool Evening Express'', Friday 15 September 1944, p. 2.</ref> when Felicia was seven years old until she was sixteen<ref>''Black's picturesque guide to North Wales'', 1874, p. 36.</ref> and in 1809 moved to Bronwylfa, [[St. Asaph]] ([[Flintshire (historic)|Flintshire]]).<ref name="odnb"/> She later called Wales "Land of my childhood, my home and my dead".<ref>{{Cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=juFPAAAAMAAJ&dq=hemans+journal++Wales+%22Land+of+my+childhood,+my+home+and+my+dead%22.&pg=PA394 |title=The Edinburgh Literary Journal: Or, Weekly Register of Criticism and Belles Lettres |date=1829 |publisher=Ballantyne |language=en}}</ref> [[Lydia Sigourney]] says of her education: 
<blockquote>
The nature of the education of Mrs. Hemans, was favourable to the development of her genius. A wide range of classical and poetical studies, with the acquisition of several languages, supplied both pleasant aliment and needful discipline. She required not the excitement of a more public system of culture,—for the never-resting love of knowledge was her school master.<ref>Sigourney, Lydia. (1845) ''Essay on the Genius and Writings of Mrs. Hemans''. New York.</ref>
</blockquote>
Hemans was proficient in Welsh, French, German, Italian, Spanish and Portuguese.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Courtney |first=W. S. |date=1920 |title=Lesser Literary Lights |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/25120531 |journal=The North American Review |volume=211 |issue=775 |pages=793–804 |jstor=25120531 |issn=0029-2397}}</ref> Her sister Harriet remarked that "One of her earliest tastes was a passion for Shakspeare, which she read, as her choicest recreation, at six years old."<ref>Browne, Harriet. (1845) ''Memoir of the Life and Writings of Felicia Hemans''. New York.</ref>