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Aeschylus :

'I have cast up my reading account, and brought it to the end of the year 1835. During the last thirteen months I have read Aeschylus twice; Sophocles twice; Euripides once; Pindar twice; Callimachus; Apollonius Rhodius; Quintus Calaber; Theocritus twice; Herodotus; Thucydides; almost all Xenophon?s works; almost all Plato; Aristotle s Politics, and a good deal of his Organon, besides dipping elsewhere in him; the whole of Plutarch?s Lives; about half of Lucian; two or three books of Athenaeus; Plautus twice; Terence twice; Lucretius twice; Catullus; Tibullus; Propertius; Lucan; Statius; Silius Italicus; Livy; Velleius Paterculus; Sallust; Caesar; and, lastly, Cicero. I have, indeed, still a little of Cicero left; but I shall finish him in a few days. I am now deep in Aristophanes and Lucian.'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Thomas Babington Macaulay Print: Book

Sophocles : unknown

'I have cast up my reading account, and brought it to the end of the year 1835. During the last thirteen months I have read Aeschylus twice; Sophocles twice; Euripides once; Pindar twice; Callimachus; Apollonius Rhodius; Quintus Calaber; Theocritus twice; Herodotus; Thucydides; almost all Xenophon?s works; almost all Plato; Aristotle s Politics, and a good deal of his Organon, besides dipping elsewhere in him; the whole of Plutarch s Lives; about half of Lucian; two or three books of Athenaeus; Plautus twice; Terence twice; Lucretius twice; Catullus; Tibullus; Propertius; Lucan; Statius; Silius Italicus; Livy; Velleius Paterculus; Sallust; Caesar; and, lastly, Cicero. I have, indeed, still a little of Cicero left; but I shall finish him in a few days. I am now deep in Aristophanes and Lucian.'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Thomas Babington Macaulay Print: Book

Euripides :

'I have cast up my reading account, and brought it to the end of the year 1835. During the last thirteen months I have read Aeschylus twice; Sophocles twice; Euripides once; Pindar twice; Callimachus; Apollonius Rhodius; Quintus Calaber; Theocritus twice; Herodotus; Thucydides; almost all Xenophon?s works; almost all Plato; Aristotle s Politics, and a good deal of his Organon, besides dipping elsewhere in him; the whole of Plutarch s Lives; about half of Lucian; two or three books of Athenaeus; Plautus twice; Terence twice; Lucretius twice; Catullus; Tibullus; Propertius; Lucan; Statius; Silius Italicus; Livy; Velleius Paterculus; Sallust; Caesar; and, lastly, Cicero. I have, indeed, still a little of Cicero left; but I shall finish him in a few days. I am now deep in Aristophanes and Lucian.'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Thomas Babington Macaulay Print: Book

Pindar : unknown

'I have cast up my reading account, and brought it to the end of the year 1835. [?] During the last thirteen months I have read Aeschylus twice; Sophocles twice; Euripides once; Pindar twice; Callimachus; Apollonius Rhodius; Quintus Calaber; Theocritus twice; Herodotus; Thucydides; almost all Xenophon?s works; almost all Plato; Aristotle?s Politics, and a good deal of his Organon, besides dipping elsewhere in him; the whole of Plutarch?s Lives; about half of Lucian; two or three books of Athenaeus; Plautus twice; Terence twice; Lucretius twice; Catullus; Tibullus; Propertius; Lucan; Statius; Silius Italicus; Livy; Velleius Paterculus; Sallust; Caesar; and, lastly, Cicero. I have, indeed, still a little of Cicero left; but I shall finish him in a few days. I am now deep in Aristophanes and Lucian.'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Thomas Babington Macaulay Print: Book

Callimachus : unknown

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Thomas Babington Macaulay Print: Book

Apollonius Rhodius : unknown

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Thomas Babington Macaulay Print: Book

Quintus Calaber : unknown

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Thomas Babington Macaulay Print: Book

Theocritus : unknown

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Thomas Babington Macaulay Print: Book

Herodotus : unknown

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Thomas Babington Macaulay Print: Book

Thucydides : unknown

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Thomas Babington Macaulay Print: Book

Xenophon : unknown

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Thomas Babington Macaulay Print: Book

Plato : unknown

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Thomas Babington Macaulay Print: Book

Aristotle : Politics

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Thomas Babington Macaulay Print: Book

Aristotle : Organon

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Thomas Babington Macaulay Print: Book

Plutarch : Lives

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Thomas Babington Macaulay Print: Book

Lucian : unknown

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Thomas Babington Macaulay Print: Book

Athenaeus : unknown

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Thomas Babington Macaulay Print: Book

Plautus : unknown

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Thomas Babington Macaulay Print: Book

Plautus : unknown

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Thomas Babington Macaulay Print: Book

Aeschylus : unknown

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Thomas Babington Macaulay Print: Book

Sophocles : unknown

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Thomas Babington Macaulay Print: Book

Pindar : unknown

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Thomas Babington Macaulay Print: Book

Theocritus : unknown

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Thomas Babington Macaulay Print: Book

Terence : unknown

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Thomas Babington Macaulay Print: Book

Lucretius : unknown

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Thomas Babington Macaulay Print: Book

Catullus : unknown

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Thomas Babington Macaulay Print: Book

Albius Tibullus : unknown

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Thomas Babington Macaulay Print: Book

Sextus Propertius : unknown

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Thomas Babington Macaulay Print: Book

Lucan : unknown

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Thomas Babington Macaulay Print: Book

Silius Italicus : unknown

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Thomas Babington Macaulay Print: Book

Livy : unknown

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Thomas Babington Macaulay Print: Book

Velleius Paterculus : unknown

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Thomas Babington Macaulay Print: Book

Sallust : unknown

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Thomas Babington Macaulay Print: Book

Caesar : unknown

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Thomas Babington Macaulay Print: Book

Cicero : unknown

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Thomas Babington Macaulay Print: Book

Aristophanes : unknown

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Thomas Babington Macaulay Print: Book

Monk : Biography of Richard Bentley

'Macaulay began with the frontispiece, if the book possessed one. "Said to be very like, and certainly full of the character. Energy, acuteness, tyranny, and audacity in every line of the face." Those words are writen above the portrait of Richard Bentley, in Bishop Monk's biography of that famous writer.'

Century: 1800-1849 / 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Thomas Babington Macaulay Print: Book

Theocritus : Seventh Idyll

' "This is a very good Idyll. Indeed it is more pleasing to me than almost any other pastoral poem in any language. It was my favourite at College. There is a rich profusion of rustic imagery about it which I find nowhere else. It opens a scene of rural plenty and comfort which quite fills the imagination, - flowers, fruits, leaves, fountains, soft goatskins, old wine, singing birds, joyous friendly companions. The whole has an air of reality which is more interesting than the conventional world which Virgil has placed in Arcadia". So Macaulay characterises the Seventh Idyll of Theocritus.'

Century: 1800-1849 / 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Thomas Babington Macaulay Print: Book

Ben Jonson : The Alchemist

'Of Ben Jonson's Alchemist he writes: "It is very happily managed indeed to make Subtle use so many terms of alchemy, and talk with such fanatical warmth about his 'great art,' even to his accomplice. As Hume says, roguery and enthusiasm run into each other. I admire this play very much. The plot would have been more agreeable, and more rational, if Surly had married the widow whose honor he has preserved. Lovewit is as contemptible as Subtle himself. The whole of the trick about the Queen of Fairy is improbable in the highest degree. But, after all, the play is as good as any in our language out of Shakespeare."'

Century: 1800-1849 / 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Thomas Babington Macaulay Print: Book

Ben Jonson : Catiline

'I am a reader in ordinary, and I cannot defend the introduction of the First Catilinarian oration, at full length, into a play. Catiline is a very middling play. The characters are certainly discriminated, but with no delicacy. Jonson makes Cethegus a mere vulgar ruffian. He quite fogets that all the conspirators were gentlemen, noblemen, politicians, probably scholars. He has seized only the coarsest peculiarities of character. As to the conduct of the piece, nothing can be worse than the long debates and narratives which make up half of it.'

Century: 1800-1849 / 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Thomas Babington Macaulay Print: Book

Alexander Pope : The Rape of the Lock

'Of Pope's Rape of the Lock, Macaulay says: "Admirable indeed! The fight towards the beginning of the last book is very extravagant and foolish. It is the blemish of a poem which, but for this blemish, would be as near perfection in its own class as any work in the world." '

Century: 1800-1849 / 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Thomas Babington Macaulay Print: Book

Horace : Satires

'He thus remarks on the Imitations of Horace's Satires: "Horace had perhaps less wit than Pope, but far more humour, far more variety, more sentiment, more thought. But that to which Horace chiefly owes his reputation, is his perfect good sense and self-knowledge, in whcih he exceeded all men."'

Century: 1800-1849 / 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Thomas Babington Macaulay Print: Book

Paul Louis Courier : Le Simple Discours

[Marginalia] 'A most powerful piece of rhetoric as ever I read.'

Century: 1800-1849 / 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Thomas Babington Macaulay

Paul Louis Courier : Le Simple Discours

'He used to read Courier aloud to his sister at Calcutta of a June afternoon, - in the darkened upstairs chamber, with the punkah swinging overhead, with as much enjoyment as ever Charles James Fox read the romances of Voltaire to his wife in the garden at St. Anne's Hill, though with a less irreproachable accent.'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Thomas Babington Macaulay

Jonathan Swift : Essay on the Fates of Clergymen

[Marginalia by Macaulay on Swift's "Essay on the Fates of Clergymen"]: 'People speak of the world as they find it. I have been more fortunate or prudent than Swift or Eugenio.'

Century: 1800-1849 / 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Thomas Babington Macaulay Print: Book

Edward Gibbon : Vindication

Description of Marginalia by Macaulay on Edward Gibbon's 'Vindication' - the marginalia responds to the passage 'Fame is the motive, it is the reward, of our labours: nor can I easily comprehend how it is possible that we should remain cold and indifferent with regard to the attempts which are made to deprive us of the most valuable object of our possessions, or at least, of our hopes.' Macaulay writes: 'But what if you are confident that these attempts will be vain, and that your book will fix its own place?'

Century: 1800-1849 / 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Thomas Babington Macaulay Print: Book

Conyers Middleton : Free Enquiry into the Miraculous Powers of the Christian Church

[Marginalia by Macaulay on Conyers Middleton's 'Free Enquiry into the Miraculous Powers of the Christian Church']: 'I do not at all admire this letter. Indeed Middleton should have counted the cost before he took his part. He never appears to so little advantage as when he complains in this way of the calumnies and invectives of the orthodox.'

Century: 1800-1849 / 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Thomas Babington Macaulay Print: Book

William Shakespeare : Romeo and Juliet

[Marginalia by Macaulay on the first page of his copy of Shakespeare's "Romeo and Juliet"]: 'An admirable opening scene, whatever the French critics may say. It at once puts us thoroughly in possession of the state of the two families.'

Century: 1800-1849 / 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Thomas Babington Macaulay Print: Book

William Shakespeare : Romeo and Juliet

[Marginalia by Macaulay by the passage about the biting of the thumbs in Shakespeare's "Romeo and Juliet"]: 'This is not what would be commonly called fine; but I would give any six plays of Rowe for it.'

Century: 1800-1849 / 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Thomas Babington Macaulay Print: Book

William Shakespeare : Romeo and Juliet

[Marginalia by Macaulay by the scene in the street beginning with Mercutio's lines: 'Where the devil should this Romeo be? / Came he not home to- night?' in Shakespeare's "Romeo and Juliet"]: 'This is the free conversation of lively, high-spirited young gentlemen.'

Century: 1800-1849 / 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Thomas Babington Macaulay Print: Book

William Shakespeare : Romeo and Juliet

[Marginalia by Macaulay by the commencement of the third act in Shakespeare's "Romeo and Juliet"]: 'Mercutio, here, is beyond the reach of anybody but Shakespeare.'

Century: 1800-1849 / 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Thomas Babington Macaulay Print: Book

William Shakespeare : Romeo and Juliet

[Marginalia by Macaulay by the the lines 'Some consequence, yet hanging in the stars, / Shall bitterly begin his fearful date / With this night's revels'in Shakespeare's "Romeo and Juliet"]: 'This is as fine an instance of presentiment as I remember in poetry. It throws a sadness over all the gaiety that follows, and prepares us for the catastrophe.'

Century: 1800-1849 / 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Thomas Babington Macaulay Print: Book

William Shakespeare : Romeo and Juliet

[Marginalia by Macaulay at the close of the Third Act of Shakespeare's "Romeo and Juliet"]: 'Very fine is the way in which Juliet at once withdraws her whole confidence from the nurse without disclosing her feelings'.

Century: 1800-1849 / 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Thomas Babington Macaulay Print: Book

William Shakespeare : Romeo and Juliet

[Editorial commentary on Macaulay's marginalia]: 'When [...] the poor child commits her life to the hands of Friar Lawrence, Macaulay remarks on the wonderful genius with which the poet delineates a timid, delicate girl of fourteen excited and exalted to an act of desperate courage.'

Century: 1800-1849 / 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Thomas Babington Macaulay Print: Book

William Shakespeare : Romeo and Juliet

Macaulay's marginalia, by the lines 'Now, afore God, this reverend holy friar/ All our whole city is much bound to him' in Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet: "Warburton proposed to read 'hymn' for 'him'; - the most ludicrous emendation ever suggested".

Century: 1800-1849 / 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Thomas Babington Macaulay Print: Book

William Shakespeare : Romeo and Juliet

Macaulay's marginalia by the speech about Queen Mab in Romeo and Juliet: "This speech, - full of matter, of thought, of fancy, as it is, - seems to me, like much of this play, to be not in Shakspeare's [sic] very best manner. It is stuck on like one of Horace's 'purple patches'. It does not seem to spring naturally out of the conversation. This is a fault which, in his finest works, Shakspeare [sic] never commits."

Century: 1800-1849 / 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Thomas Babington Macaulay Print: Book

William Shakespeare : Romeo and Juliet

Macaulay's marginalia by the lines 'Hath Romeo slain himself' to 'Of those eyes shut, that make thee answer "I"' : "If this had been in Cibber, Cibber would never have heard the last of it."

Century: 1800-1849 / 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Thomas Babington Macaulay Print: Book

William Shakespeare : Romeo and Juliet

Macaulay's marginalia by the point where Balthazar brings the evil tidings to Mantua in Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet: "Here begins a noble series of scenes. I know nothing grander than the way in which Romeo hears the news. It moves me even more than Lear's agonies."

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Thomas Babington Macaulay Print: Book

William Shakespeare : Romeo and Juliet

Macaulay's marginalia in the scene in the vault of death in Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet: "The desperate calmness of Romeo is sublime beyond expression; and the manner in which he is softened into tenderness when he sees the body of Juliet is perhaps the most affecting touch in all poetry."

Century: 1800-1849 / 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Thomas Babington Macaulay Print: Book

William Shakespeare : Hamlet

Macaulay's marginalia in his copy of Hamlet, by the opening dialogue: "beyond praise".

Century: 1800-1849 / 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Thomas Babington Macaulay Print: Book

William Shakespeare : Hamlet

Macaulay's marginalia in his copy of Hamlet, by the lines 'that season comes/ Wherein our Saviour's birth is celebrated" : "Sweet writing".

Century: 1800-1849 / 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Thomas Babington Macaulay Print: Book

William Shakespeare : Hamlet

Macaulay's marginalia in his copy of Hamlet, "The long story about Fortinbras, and all that follows from it, seems to me to be a clumsy addition to the plot".

Century: 1800-1849 / 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Thomas Babington Macaulay Print: Book

William Shakespeare : Hamlet

Macaulay's marginalia in his copy of Hamlet, in the scene of the royal audience in the room of state: "The silence of Hamlet during the earlier part of this scene is very fine, but not equal to the silence of Prometheus and Cassandra in the Prometheus and Agammemnon of Aeschylus."

Century: 1800-1849 / 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Thomas Babington Macaulay Print: Book

William Shakespeare : Hamlet

Macaulay's marginalia in his copy of Hamlet, by the scene with the strolling player's declamation about Pyrrhus: "the only thing deserving of much admiration in the speech is the manner in which it is raised above the ordinary diction which surrounds it. It is poetry within poetry, - a play within a play. It was therefore proper to make its language bear the same relation to the language, in which Hamlet and Horatio talk, which the language of Hamlet and Horatio bears to the common style of conversation among gentlemen. This is a sufficient defence of the style, which is undoubtedly in itself far too turgid for dramatic, or even for lyric, composition."

Century: 1800-1849 / 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Thomas Babington Macaulay Print: Book

William Shakespeare : Hamlet

Macaulay's marginalia in his copy of Hamlet, at the opening of Act 1, Scene 4: "Nothing can be finer than this specimen of Hamlet's peculiar character. His intellect is out of all proportion to his will or his passions. Under the most exciting circumstances, while expecting every moment to see the ghost of his father rise before him, he goes on discussing questions of morals, manners, or politics, as if he were in the schools of Wittenberg."

Century: 1800-1849 / 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Thomas Babington Macaulay Print: Book

William Shakespeare : Hamlet

Macaulay's marginalia in his copy of Hamlet, by the lines 'Dost thou hear?/ Since my dear soul was mistress of her choice,/ And could of men distinguish, her election/ Hath sealed thee for herself, - ' : "An exquisitely beautiful scene. It always moved me more than any other in the play. There is something very striking in the way in which Hamlet, a man of a gentle nature, quick in speculation, morbidly sluggish in action, unfit to struggle with the real evils of life, and finding himself plunged into the midst of them, - delights to repose on the strong mind of a man who had been severely tried, and who had learned stoicism from experience. There is wonderful truth in this."

Century: 1800-1849 / 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Thomas Babington Macaulay Print: Book

William Shakespeare : Hamlet

Macaulay's marginalia in his copy of Hamlet, by the conversation between Hamlet and the courtier, in Act 5: "This is a most admirable scene. The fooling of Osric is nothing; but it is most striking to see how completely Hamlet forgets his father, his mistress, the terrible duty imposed upon him, the imminent danger which he has to run, as soon as a subject of observation comes before him; - as soon as a good butt is offered to his wit."

Century: 1800-1849 / 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Thomas Babington Macaulay Print: Book

William Shakespeare : Hamlet

Macaulay's marginalia. By an editorial note by Dr Johnson, to the lines, 'Who would fardels bear, / To groan and sweat under a weary life'. Johnson wrote, "All the old copies have to 'grunt and sweat'. It is undoubtedly the true reading, but can scarcely be borne by modern ears." Macaulay writes: "We want Shakespeare, not your fine modern English."

Century: 1800-1849 / 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Thomas Babington Macaulay Print: Book

William Shakespeare : Hamlet

Macaulay's marginalia. By the editorial notes in his copy of Hamlet: "It is a noble emendation. Had Warburton often hit off such corrections, he would be entitled to the first place among critics."

Century: 1800-1849 / 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Thomas Babington Macaulay Print: Book

William Shakespeare : Hamlet

Macaulay's marginalia by the editorial notes in his copy of Hamlet in the scene where Hamlet declines to kill his uncle in the act of praying. Johnson comments that the speech in which, "not content with taking blood for blood, he contrived damnation for his enemy, was too horrible to be read or uttered." Macaulay responds: "Johnson does not understand the character. Hamlet is irresolute; and he makes the first excuse that suggests itself for not striking. If he had met the King drunk, he would have refrained from avenging himself lest he should kill both soul and body."

Century: 1800-1849 / 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Thomas Babington Macaulay Print: Book

William Shakespeare : King Lear

Macaulay's marginalia in his copy of King Lear, in Act 1, Scene 3: "Here begins the finest of all human performances."

Century: 1800-1849 / 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Thomas Babington Macaulay Print: Book

William Shakespeare : King Lear

Macaulay's marginalia in his copy of King Lear, in Act 2, Scene 2, opposite Cornwall's description of the fellow who has been praised for bluntness: "Excellent! It is worth while to compare these moral speeches of Shakspeare [sic] with those which are so much admired in Euripides. The superiority of Shakspeare's [sic] observations is immense. But the dramatic art with which they are introduced, - always in the right place, - always from the right person, - is still more admirable."

Century: 1800-1849 / 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Thomas Babington Macaulay Print: Book

William Shakespeare : King Lear

Macaulay's marginalia in his copy of King Lear, by the lines 'Now i pr'ythee, daughter, do not make me mad!/ I will not trouble thee, my child; farewell!' : "This last struggle between rage and tenderness is, I think, unequalled in poetry."

Century: 1800-1849 / 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Thomas Babington Macaulay Print: Book

William Shakespeare : King Lear

Macaulay's marginalia in his copy of King Lear, by the apostrophe commencing, 'O, let not women's weapons, water-drops...' : "Where is there anything like this in the world"?

Century: 1800-1849 / 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Thomas Babington Macaulay Print: Book

William Shakespeare : King Lear

Macaulay's marginalia in his copy of King Lear, by opening of the play: "Idolising Shakspeare [sic] as I do, I cannot but feel that the whole scene is very unnatural. He took it, to be sure, from an old story. What miracles his genius has brought out from materials so unpromising!"

Century: 1800-1849 / 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Thomas Babington Macaulay Print: Book

William Shakespeare : King Lear

Macaulay's marginalia in his copy of King Lear, by the quarrel between Kent and Cornwall's steward: "It is rather a fault in the play, to my thinking, that Kent should behave so very insolently in this scene. A man of his rank and sense would have had more self-command and dignity even in his anger. One can hardly blame Cornwall for putting him in the stocks."

Century: 1800-1849 / 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Thomas Babington Macaulay Print: Book

William Shakespeare : King Lear

Macaulay's marginalia in his copy of King Lear, in Act 3, Scene 4: "The softening of Lear's nature and manners, under the discipline of severe sorrow, is mot happily marked in several places."

Century: 1800-1849 / 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Thomas Babington Macaulay Print: Book

William Shakespeare : King Lear

Macaulay's marginalia in response to a note by Dr Johnson at the end of King Lear. Johnson protested against the unpleasing character of a story, "in which the wicked prosper, and the virtuous miscarry." Macaulay responds: "There is nothing like this last scene in the world. Johnson talks nonsense. Torn to pieces as Lear's heart had been, was he to live happily ever after, as the story-books say? Wonderful as the whole play is, this last passage is the triumph of Shakspeare's [sic] genius. Every character is perfectly supported."

Century: 1800-1849 / 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Thomas Babington Macaulay Print: Book

William Shakespeare : Antony and Cleopatra

Macaulay's marginalia in his copy of Antony and Cleopatra. A response to an editorial note by Steevens. "Solemn nonsense! Had Shakspeare [ sic] no eyes to see the sky with?"

Century: 1800-1849 / 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Thomas Babington Macaulay Print: Book

William Shakespeare : Henry V

Macaulay's marginalia in his copy of Henry V, by the Prologue. Macaulay responds to an editorial note by Dr Johnson, who remarks that to call a circle an O was a very mean metaphor. Macaulay responds: "Surely, if O were really the usual name of a circle there would be nothing mean in it, any more than in the Delta of the Nile."

Century: 1800-1849 / 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Thomas Babington Macaulay Print: Book

William Shakespeare : A Midsummer Night's Dream

Macaulay's marginalia in his copy of A Midsummer Night's Dream, by Warburton's editorial note to the lines 'Now the hungry lions roar, / And the wolf beholds the moon'. Macaulay writes: "In my opinion, this is one of Warburton's very best corrections."

Century: 1800-1849 / 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Thomas Babington Macaulay Print: Book

William Shakespeare : A Midsummer Night's Dream

Macaulay's marginalia in his copy of A Midsummer Night's Dream, by the lines 'the rattling tongue / Of saucy and audacious eloquence': This is Shakspeare's [sic] manly sense and knowledge of the world, introduced with perfect dramatic propriety. How different from Euripides's lectures on such subjects."

Century: 1800-1849 / 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Thomas Babington Macaulay Print: Book

William Shakespeare : A Midsummer Night's Dream

Macaulay's marginalia in his copy of A Midsummer Night's Dream, by the lines 'Be, as thou wast wont to be' to 'Hath such force and blessed power": "Beautiful and easy beyond expression".

Century: 1800-1849 / 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Thomas Babington Macaulay Print: Book

William Shakespeare : A Midsummer Night's Dream

Macaulay's marginalia in his copy of A Midsummer Night's Dream, on the last page: "A glorious play. The love-scenes Fletcher might perhaps have written. The fairy scenes no man but one since the world began could have written."

Century: 1800-1849 / 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Thomas Babington Macaulay Print: Book

William Shakespeare : Julius Caesar

[Macaulay's marginalia by the conversation in the street between Brutus and Cassius, in the First Act of Julius Caesar] "These two or three pages are worth the whole French drama ten times over."

Century: 1800-1849 / 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Thomas Babington Macaulay Print: Book

William Shakespeare : Julius Caesar

[Macaulay's marginalia at the end of Julius Caesar] "The last scenes are huddled up, and affect me less than Plutarch's narrative. But the working up of Brutus by Cassius, the meeting of the conspirators, the stirring of the mob by Antony, and (above all,) the dispute and reconciliation of the two generals, are things far beyond the reach of any other poet that ever lived."

Century: 1800-1849 / 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Thomas Babington Macaulay Print: Book

William Shakespeare : Julius Caesar

[Macaulay's marginalia by the lines "Let me have men about me that are fat/ Sleek headed men, and such as sleep o' nights" in Julius Caesar] "Plutarch's hint is admirably expanded here".

Century: 1800-1849 / 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Thomas Babington Macaulay Print: Book

William Shakespeare : Antony and Cleopatra

[Macaulay's marginalia in his copy of Antony and Cleopatra, by an editorial note by Steevens, which reminds the reader that Cleopatra's story of the salt fish on Antony's hook was taken from North's Plutarch]: "Yes, but how happily introduced, and with what skill and spirit worked up by Shakespeare!"

Century: 1800-1849 / 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Thomas Babington Macaulay Print: Book

William Shakespeare : Coriolanus

[Macaulay's marginalia in his copy of Coriolanus, by a note by Warburton regarding the composition of the Senate] "Absurd! Who knows anything about the usages of the Senate, and the privileges of the Tribunes, in Coriolanus's time?"

Century: 1800-1849 / 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Thomas Babington Macaulay Print: Book

William Shakespeare : Coriolanus

[Macaulay's marginalia in his copy of Coriolanus, by a note by Warburton regarding the history of the Roman Consular Government]: "Well! but there had certainly been elective magistracies in Rome before the expulsion of the kings, and there might have been canvassing. Shakspeare [sic] cared so little about historical accuracy that an editor who notices expressions, which really are not grossly inaccurate, is unpardonable."

Century: 1800-1849 / 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Thomas Babington Macaulay Print: Book

William Shakespeare : Coriolanus

[Macaulay's marginalia in his copy of Coriolanus, by a note by Warburton regarding the creation of the first Censor, which suggests that Shakespeare had misread his authorities]: "This undoubtedly was a mistake, and what DOES it matter?"

Century: 1800-1849 / 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Thomas Babington Macaulay Print: Book

William Shakespeare : Coriolanus

[Macaulay's marginalia in his copy of Coriolanus, on the last page]: "A noble play. As usual, Shakspeare [sic] had thumbed his translation of Plutarch to rags."

Century: 1800-1849 / 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Thomas Babington Macaulay Print: Book

Hesiod :

[Editorial commentary on Macaulay's reading]: "His manuscript notes extend through the long range of Greek authors from Hesiod to Athenaeus, and of Latin authors from Cato the Censor, - through Livy, and Sallust, and Tacitus, and Aulus Gellius, and Suetonius, -down to the very latest Augustan histories."

Century: 1800-1849 / 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Thomas Babington Macaulay Print: Book

Athenaeus :

Century: 1800-1849 / 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Thomas Babington Macaulay Print: Book

Cato :

Century: 1800-1849 / 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Thomas Babington Macaulay Print: Book

Livy :

Century: 1800-1849 / 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Thomas Babington Macaulay Print: Book

Sallust :

Century: 1800-1849 / 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Thomas Babington Macaulay Print: Book

Tacitus :

Century: 1800-1849 / 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Thomas Babington Macaulay Print: Book

Aulus Gellius :

Century: 1800-1849 / 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Thomas Babington Macaulay Print: Book

Suetonius :

Century: 1800-1849 / 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Thomas Babington Macaulay Print: Book

Cicero : De Finibus

[Editorial commentary on Macaulay's reading]: "Those two parallel lines in pencil, which were his highest form of compliment, are scored down page after page of the De Finibus, the Academic Questions, and the Tusculan Disputations."

Century: 1800-1849 / 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Thomas Babington Macaulay Print: Book

Cicero : Academic Questions

Century: 1800-1849 / 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Thomas Babington Macaulay Print: Book

Cicero : Tusculan Disputations

Century: 1800-1849 / 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Thomas Babington Macaulay Print: Book

Cicero : De Finibus

[Macaulay's marginalia at the end of the first book of Cicero's De Finibus]: "Exquisitely written, graceful, calm, luminous and full of interest; but the Epicurean theory of morals is hardly deserving of refutation."

Century: 1800-1849 / 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Thomas Babington Macaulay Print: Book

Cicero : De Natura Deorum

[Macaulay's marginalia in Cicero's De Natura Deorum]: "Equal to anything that Cicero ever did."

Century: 1800-1849 / 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Thomas Babington Macaulay Print: Book

Cicero : De Divinatione

[Macaulay's marginalia in the Second Book of Cicero's De Divinatione]: double-lines down the margin of the argument against the credibility of visions and prophecies.

Century: 1800-1849 / 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Thomas Babington Macaulay Print: Book

Ben Jonson : Catiline

[Macaulay's marginalia in his copy of Ben Jonson's Catiline, by the lines 'Lentulus: The augurs all are constant I am meant / Catiline: They had lost their science else.']: "The dialogue here is good and natural. but it is strange that so excellent a scholar as Ben Jonson should represent the Augurs as giving any encouragement to Lentulus's dreams. The Augurs were the first nobles of Rome. In this generation Pompey, Hortensius, Cicero, and other men of the same class, belonged to the College."

Century: 1800-1849 / 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Thomas Babington Macaulay Print: Book

Ben Cicero : Tusculan Disputations

[Macaulay's marginalia in his copy of Cicero's Tusculan Disputations, by the translations from Aeschylus and Sophocles in the Second Book]: "Cicero's best".

Century: 1800-1849 / 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Thomas Babington Macaulay Print: Book

Cicero : Letters

[Macaulay's marginalia in his copy of Cicero's Letters, opposite the sentences 'Meum factum probari abs te [...] nihil enim malo quam et me mei similem esse, et illos sui', translated as 'I triumph and rejoice that my action should have sustained your approval [...] for there is nothing which I so much covet as that I should be like myself, and they like themselves]: "Noble fellow!"

Century: 1800-1849 / 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Thomas Babington Macaulay Print: Book

Cicero : Speeches

[Editorial commentary on Macaulay's marginalia on Cicero's speeches]: "Macaulay's pencilled observations upon each successive speech of Cicero form a continuous history of the great orator's public career, and a far from unsympathetic analysis of his mobile, and singularly interesting, character."

Century: 1800-1849 / 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Thomas Babington Macaulay Print: Book

Cicero : Letters to Atticus

Macaulay's marginalia on Cicero's Epistles to Atticus]: "A kind-hearted man [Cicero], with all his faults." Later, "Poor fellow! He makes a pitiful figure. But it is impossible not to feel for him. Since I left England I have not despised Cicero and Ovid for their lamentations in exile as much as I did."

Century: 1800-1849 / 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Thomas Babington Macaulay Print: Book

Cicero : Second Philippic

[Macaulay's marginalia on Cicero's Second Philippic]: "a most wonderful display of rhetorical talent, worthy of all its fame."

Century: 1800-1849 / 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Thomas Babington Macaulay Print: Book

Cicero : Third Philippic

[Macaulay's marginalia on Cicero's Third Philippic]: "The close of this speech is very fine. His later and earlier speeches have a freedom and an air of sincerity about them which, in the interval between his Consulship and Caesar's death, I do not find. During that interval he was mixed up with the aristocratical party, and yet afraid of the Triumvirate. When all the great party-leaders were dead, he found himself at the head of the state, and spoke with a boldness and energy which he had not shown since his youthful days."

Century: 1800-1849 / 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Thomas Babington Macaulay Print: Book

Cicero : Last Philippic

[Macaulay's marginalia at the end of Cicero's last Philippic]: "As a man, I think of Cicero much as I always did, except that I am more disgusted with his conduct after Caesar's death. I really think that he met with little more than his deserts from the Triumvirs. It is quite certain, as Livy says, that he suffered nothing more than he would have inflicted."

Century: 1800-1849 / 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Thomas Babington Macaulay Print: Book

Plato : Euthydemus

[Macaulay's marginalia in his copy of Plato's Euthydemus]: "It seems incredible that these absurdities of Dionysodorus and Euthydemus should have been mistaken for wisdom, even by the weakest of mankind. I can hardly help thinking that Plato has overcharged the portrait. But the humour of the dialogue is admirable."

Century: 1800-1849 / 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Thomas Babington Macaulay Print: Book

Plato : Euthydemus

[Macaulay's marginalia in his copy of Plato's Euthydemus]: "Glorious irony!"

Century: 1800-1849 / 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Thomas Babington Macaulay Print: Book

Plato : Euthydemus

[Macaulay's marginalia in his copy of Plato's Euthydemus]: "Incomparably ludicrous!"

Century: 1800-1849 / 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Thomas Babington Macaulay Print: Book

Plato : Euthydemus

[Macaulay's marginalia in his copy of Plato's Euthydemus]: "No writer, not even Cervantes, was so great a master of this solemn ridicule as Plato."

Century: 1800-1849 / 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Thomas Babington Macaulay Print: Book

Plato : Euthydemus

[Macaulay's marginalia in his copy of Plato's Euthydemus]: "There is hardly any comedy, in any language, more diverting than this dialogue. It is not only richly humorous. The characters are most happily sustained and discriminated. The contrast between the youthful petulance of Ctesippus and the sly, sarcastic mock humility of Socrates is admirable."

Century: 1800-1849 / 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Thomas Babington Macaulay Print: Book

Plato : Euthydemus

[Macaulay's marginalia in his copy of Plato's Euthydemus]: "Dulcissima hercle, eademque nobilissima vita."

Century: 1800-1849 / 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Thomas Babington Macaulay Print: Book

Plato : Euthydemus

[Macaulay's marginalia in his copy of Plato's Euthydemus, below the last line of the dialogue]: "Calcutta, May 1835."

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Thomas Babington Macaulay Print: Book

Plato : Republic

[Macaulay's marginalia in his copy of Plato's Republic]: "Plato has been censured with great justice for his doctrine about the community of women and the exposure of children. But nobody, as far as I remember, has done justice to him on one important point. No ancient politician appears to have thought so highly of the capacity of women, and to have been inclined to make them so important."

Century: 1800-1849 / 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Thomas Babington Macaulay Print: Book

Plato : Republic

[Macaulay's marginalia in his copy of Plato's Republic]: "You may see that Plato was passionately fond of poetry, even when arguing against it."

Century: 1800-1849 / 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Thomas Babington Macaulay Print: Book

Plato : Republic

[Macaulay's marginalia in his copy of Plato's Republic, by the passage where Plato recommends a broader patriotism]: "This passage does Plato great honour. Philhellenism is a step towards philanthropy. There is an enlargement of mind in this work which I do not remember to have found in any earlier composition, and in very few ancient works, either earlier or later."

Century: 1800-1849 / 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Thomas Babington Macaulay Print: Book

Plato : Republic

[Macaulay's marginalia in his copy of Plato's Republic, in the Second Book, by the discussion of abstract justice]: "This is indeed a noble dream. Pity that it should come through the gate of ivory!"

Century: 1800-1849 / 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Thomas Babington Macaulay Print: Book

Plato : Republic

[Macaulay's marginalia in his copy of Plato's Republic, in the Eighth Book]: "I remember nothing in Greek philosophy superior to this in profundity, ingenuity, and eloquence."

Century: 1800-1849 / 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Thomas Babington Macaulay Print: Book

Plato : Protagoras

[Macaulay's marginalia in his copy of Plato's Protagoras]: "A very lively picture of Athenian manners. There is scarcely anywhere so interesting a view of the interior of a Greek house in the most interesting age of Greece."

Century: 1800-1849 / 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Thomas Babington Macaulay Print: Book

Plato : Protagoras

[Macaulay's marginalia in his copy of Plato's Protagoras]: "Callias seems to have been a munificent and courteous patron of learning. What with sophists, what with pretty women, and what with sycophants, he came to the end of a noble fortune."

Century: 1800-1849 / 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Thomas Babington Macaulay Print: Book

Plato : Protagoras

[Macaulay's marginalia in his copy of Plato's Protagoras]: "Alcibiades is very well represented here. It is plain that he wants only to get up a row among the sophists."

Century: 1800-1849 / 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Thomas Babington Macaulay Print: Book

Plato : Protagoras

[Macaulay's marginalia in his copy of Plato's Protagoras]: "Protagoras seems to deserve the character he gives himself. Nothing can be more courteous and generous than his language. Socrates shows abundance of talent and acuteness in this dialogue; but the more I read of his conversation, the less I wonder at the fierce hatred he provoked. He evidently had an ill-natured pleasure in making men, - particularly men famed for wisdom and eloquence, - look like fools." [the comments continue at some length.]

Century: 1800-1849 / 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Thomas Babington Macaulay Print: Book

Plato : Gorgias

[Macaulay's marginalia at the beginning of Plato's Gorgias]: "This was my favourite dialogue at College. I do not know whether I shall like it as well now. May 1, 1837."

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Thomas Babington Macaulay Print: Book

Plato : Gorgias

[Macaulay's marginalia in Plato's Gorgias]: "Polus is much in the right. Socrates abused scandalously the advantages which his wonderful talents, and his command of temper, gave him."

Century: 1800-1849 / 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Thomas Babington Macaulay Print: Book

Plato : Gorgias

[Maraulay's marginalia in Plato's Gorgias]: "You have made a blunder, and Socrates will have you in an instant."

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Thomas Babington Macaulay Print: Book

Plato : Gorgias

[Macaulay's marginalia in Plato's Gorgias]: "Hem! Retiarium astutum!" [Cunning netter].

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Thomas Babington Macaulay Print: Book

Plato : Gorgias

[Macaulay's marginalia in Plato's Gorgias]: "There you are in the Sophist's net. I think that, if I had been in the place of Polus, Socrates would hardly have had so easy a job of it."

Century: 1800-1849 / 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Thomas Babington Macaulay Print: Book

Plato : Gorgias

[Macaulay's marginalia in Plato's Gorgias]: "What a command of his temper the old fellow [Callicles] had, and what terrible, though delicate, ridicule! A bitter fellow, too, with all his suavity."

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Thomas Babington Macaulay Print: Book

Plato : Gorgias

[Macaulay's marginalia in Plato's Gorgias]: "This is not pure morality; but there is a good deal of weight in what Callicles says. He is wrong in not perceiving that the real happiness, not only of the weak many, but of the able few, is promoted by virtue. [...] When I read this dialogue as a lad at college, I wrote a trifling piece for Knight's Magazine, in which some Athenian characters were introduced, I made this Callicles the villain of the drama. I now see that he was merely a fair specimen of the public men of Athens in that age. Although his principles were those of aspiring and voluptuous men in unquiet times, his feelings seem to have been friendly and kind."

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Thomas Babington Macaulay Print: Book

Plato : Gorgias

[Macaulay's marginalia at the end of the dialogue in Plato's Gorgias]: "This is one of the finest passages in Greek literature. Plato is a real poet."

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Thomas Babington Macaulay Print: Book

Plato : Gorgias

[Macaulay's marginalia at the end of the dialogue in Plato's Gorgias. He marks the the doctrine "that we ought to be more afraid of wronging than of being wronged, and that the prime business of every man is, not to seem good, but to be good, in all his private and public dealings" with three pencil lines, and writes]: "This just and noble conclusion atones for much fallacy in the reasoning by which Socrates arrived at it [...] it is impossible not to consider it [the Gorgias] as one of the greatest performances which have descended to us from that wonderful generation."

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Thomas Babington Macaulay Print: Book

Plato : Gorgias

[Macaulay's marginalia in Plato's Gorgias, by the trial of Socrates, when Socrates expressed a serene conviction that to die is gain, even if death were nothing more than an untroubled and dreamless sleep]: "Milton thought otherwise" [Macaulay quotes the lines "Sad cure! For who would lose,/Though full of pain, this intellectual being;/ Those thoughts that wander through eternity?"] "I once thought with Milton; but every day brings me nearer and nearer the doctrine here laid down by Socrates."

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Thomas Babington Macaulay Print: Book

Plato : Gorgias

[Macaulay's marginalia in Plato's Gorgias, at the end of the trial of Socrates]: "A most solemn and noble close! Nothing was ever written, or spoken, approaching in sober sublimity to the latter part of the Apology. It is impossible to read it without feeling one's mind elevated and strengthened."

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Thomas Babington Macaulay Print: Book

Plato : Crito

[Macaulay's marginalia on the last page of the Crito]: There is much that may be questioned in the reasoning of Socrates; but it is impossible not to admire the wisdom and virtue which it indicates. When we consider the moral state of Greece in his time, and the revolution which he produced in men's notions of good and evil, we must pronounce him one of the greatest men that ever lived."

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Thomas Babington Macaulay Print: Book

Maria Edgeworth : 'The Purple Jar' in Every Child's Stories

'Rose Macaulay's inner life was fostered from the start by parents who made her earliest years rich with stories and make-believe. "read much aloud to the children", Grace Macaulay records in her diary of 19 November 1887... "(all 5 listening in rapt atention), 'Rosamond and the Purple Jar', Leila or the Island and 'The Wave and the Battlefield' - also 'Holiday House'."'

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Grace Macaulay Print: Book

Ann Fraser Tytler : Leila: or, The Island

'Rose Macaulay's inner life was fostered from the start by parents who made her earliest years rich with stories and make-believe. "read much aloud to the children", Grace Macaulay records in her diary of 19 November 1887... "(all 5 listening in rapt atention), 'Rosamond and the Purple Jar', 'Leila or the Island' and 'The Wave and the Battlefield' - also 'Holiday House'."'

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Grace Macaulay Print: Book

Catherine Sinclair : Holiday House

'Rose Macaulay's inner life was fostered from the start by parents who made her earliest years rich with stories and make-believe. "read much aloud to the children", Grace Macaulay records in her diary of 19 November 1887... "(all 5 listening in rapt atention), 'Rosamond and the Purple Jar', 'Leila or the Island' and 'The Wave and the Battlefield' - also 'Holiday House'."'

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Grace Macaulay Print: Book

: The Wave and the Battlefield

'Rose Macaulay's inner life was fostered from the start by parents who made her earliest years rich with stories and make-believe. "read much aloud to the children", Grace Macaulay records in her diary of 19 November 1887... "(all 5 listening in rapt atention), 'Rosamond and the Purple Jar', 'Leila or the Island' and 'The Wave and the Battlefield' - also 'Holiday House'."'

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Grace Macaulay Print: Book

William Shakespeare : Henry V

'Later in the month (30 November), Grace writes that she is "reading Henry V to M. and R. [Margaret and Rose] in the evenings".'

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Grace Macaulay Print: Book

Mary Louisa Molesworth : The Cuckoo Clock

'In September and October [Grace Macaulay] is reading aloud to Margaret (ill with scarlet fever) Mrs Molesworth's The Cuckoo Clock and Charlotte M. Yonge's Chaplet of Pearls and The Heir of Redclyffe'

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Grace Macaulay Print: Book

Charlotte M. Yonge : The Chaplet of Pearls

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Grace Macaulay Print: Book

Charlotte M. Yonge : The Heir of Redclyffe

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Grace Macaulay Print: Book

Frederick Marryat : The Settlers in Canada

'[Grace Macaulay's diary] entry for 2 March 1890 records that she "read the boys parts of Settlers at Home and Otto Spectere (sic), all of which Will as well as Aulay much enjoyed".'

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Grace Macaulay Print: Book

Wilhelm Hey : Funfzig Fabeln or Noch Funfzig Fabeln

'[Grace Macaulay's diary] entry for 2 March 1890 records that she "read the boys parts of Settlers at Home and Otto Spectere (sic), all of which Will as well as Aulay much enjoyed".'

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Grace Macaulay Print: Book

George Eliot : The Mill on the Floss

'On 12 May [1890 Grace Macaulay] recalls that she "read part of Mill on Floss to children in aft, to their delight".'

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Grace Macaulay Print: Book

Charles Dickens :

'Rose... remembers her father reading to them - Dickens, Scott, Robinson Crusoe, Shakespeare, Jane Austen, Meredith, Tom Jones, The Three Musketeers, Don Quixote, and, curiously, The Origin of Species'

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: George Macaulay Print: Book

Walter Scott :

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: George Macaulay Print: Book

Daniel Defoe : Robinson Crusoe

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: George Macaulay Print: Book

William Shakespeare :

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: George Macaulay Print: Book

Jane Austen :

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: George Macaulay Print: Book

George Meredith :

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: George Macaulay Print: Book

Henry Fielding : Tom Jones

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: George Macaulay Print: Book

Miguel de Cervantes : Don Quixote

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: George Macaulay Print: Book

Alexandre Dumas (pere) : The Three Musketeers

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: George Macaulay Print: Book

Charles Darwin : The Origin of Species

Century: Reader/Listener/Group: George Macaulay Print: Book

Frederick Marryat : Masterman Ready

'When old enough to read for herself, Rose Macaulay entered into other realms of fictitious brave adventure. She devoured Masterman Ready, Ivanhoe, The Talisman, Coral Island, Treasure Island, A Tale of Two Cities, The Murders in the Rue Morgue, The Prince and the Page

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Rose Macaulay Print: Book

Walter Scott : Ivanhoe

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Rose Macaulay Print: Book

Walter Scott : The Talisman

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Rose Macaulay Print: Book

Robert Michael Ballantyne : Coral Island

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Rose Macaulay Print: Book

Robert Louis Stevenson : Treasure Island

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Rose Macaulay Print: Book

Charles Dickens : A Tale of Two Cities

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Rose Macaulay Print: Book

Edgar Allan Poe : The Murders in the Rue Morgue

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Rose Macaulay Print: Book

Charlotte Mary Yonge : The Prince and the Page

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Rose Macaulay Print: Book

Johann David Wyss : Swiss Family Robinson

'[Rose Macaulay] relished such island shipwreck stories as Swiss Family Robinson'

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Rose Macaulay Print: Book

Alfred Lord Tennyson :

'Daughter of the editor father, [Rose Macaulay] was given a copy of the complete works of Tennyson when she was eight and remembers knowing it "practically by heart"... Shelley, too, she found "an intoxicant". A coplete works of Shelley joined her Tennyson a year later, starting a fascination with the poet which she remembers in a letter to Gilbert Murray in January 1945: "I, like you, read Shelley's Prometheus very young... I was entirely carried away by it; as I was, indeed, by all Shelley... Of course, I didn't understand all Prometheus; but enough to be fascinated".'

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Rose Macaulay Print: Book

Percy Bysshe Shelley : Prometheus Unbound

'Daughter of the editor father, [Rose Macaulay] was given a copy of the complete works of Tennyson when she was eight and remembers knowing it "practically by heart"... Shelley, too, she found "an intoxicant". A complete works of Shelley joined her Tennyson a year later, starting a fascination with the poet which she remembers in a letter to Gilbert Murray in January 1945: "I, like you, read Shelley's Prometheus very young... I was entirely carried away by it; as I was, indeed, by all Shelley... Of course, I didn't understand all Prometheus; but enough to be fascinated".'

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Rose Macaulay Print: Book

Thomas a Kempis : On The Imitation of Christ

Rose Macaulay had a 'craze' 'for the ascetic Thomas a Kempis's meditations and rule of conduct, On The Imitation of Christ, which her godmother gave her when she was 13'.

Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Rose Macaulay Print: Book

John Stuart Mill : probably 'On Liberty'

'She read Renan's Life of Jesus, which had proved so critical to George Eliot's subsitution of Duty for God. As a corollary text, Rose discovered the rousing, hopeful words of Mill, who argued for the sacredness of her larger duty to herself'.

Century: 1850-1899 / 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Rose Macaulay Print: Book

Ernest Renan : Life of Jesus

Century: 1850-1899 / 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Rose Macaulay Print: Book

Richard Hakluyt : Voiages, and Discoveries of the English Nation

'[Rose Macaulay's] library comprised chiefly old tomes from the sixteenth, seventeenth and eighteenth centuries which she read and re-read with absorbed delight, from Hakluyt to Addison... Her most cherished books were the twelve volumes of the Oxford English Dictionary inherited from her father. As the daughter of a don and a lover of words, she added her own marginal annotations to those pencilled in by George Macaulay'.

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Rose Macaulay Print: Book

Joseph Addison : [probably The Spectator]

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Rose Macaulay Print: Book, Serial / periodical, numbers bound as volume?

n/a : Oxford English Dictionary

Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Rose Macaulay Print: Book

Plutarch : Lives

'The books which I am at present employed in reading to myself are in English, Plutarch's Lives and Milner's Ecclesiastical History'.

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Thomas Babington Macaulay Print: Book

Milner : Ecclesiastical History

'The books which I am at present employed in reading to myself are in English, Plutarch's Lives and Milner's Ecclesiastical History'.

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Thomas Babington Macaulay Print: Book

: Xenophon

'In my learning I do Xenophon every day'.

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Thomas Babington Macaulay Print: Book

Homer : The Odyssey

In my learning I do Xenophon every day and twice a week the Odyssey, in which I am classed with Wilberforce.

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Thomas Babington Macaulay Print: Book

Virgil :

'We get by heart Greek grammar or Virgil every evening'.

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Thomas Babington Macaulay Print: Book

Fenelon : Dialogues of the Dead

The books which I am reading to myself are [...] in French, Fenelon's Dialogues of the Dead.'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Thomas Babington Macaulay Print: Book

Stephanie-Felicite de Genlis :

'I shall send you back the volumes of Madame de Genlis's [underline] petits romans [end underline] as soon as possible, and I should be very much obliged for one or two more of them.'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Thomas Babington Macaulay Print: Book

: Bible

[Every Sunday] 'After breakfast we learn a chapter in the Greek Testament, that is with the aid of our Bibles, and without doing it with a dictionary like other lessons'.

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Thomas Babington Macaulay Print: Book

:

'We dine almost as soon as we come back, and we are left to ourselves till afternoon church. During this time I employ myself in reading, and Mr Preston lends me any books for which I ask him, so that I am nearly as well off in this respect as at home'.

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Thomas Babington Macaulay Print: Book

Boccacio : Decameron

'Hear what I have read since I came here. Hear and wonder! I have in the first place read Boccacio's Decameron, a tale of a hundred cantos...'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Thomas Babington Macaulay Print: Book

:

'Everything here is going on in the common routine. The only things of peculiar interest are those which we get from the London papers.'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Thomas Babington Macaulay Print: Newspaper

Jane Austen : novels

" ... Macaulay ... did not annotate his copies of Jane Austen except to record the dates of reading and to correct a very small number of typographical errors."

Century: 1800-1849 / 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Thomas Babington Macaulay Print: Book

Joseph Milner : History of the Church of Christ

H. J. Jackson notes annotations by Macaulay made in 1836 in his copy of Joseph Milner, History of the Church of Christ; these include: "'You bolt every lie that the Fathers tell as glibly as your Creed'," and "'Here I give in. I have done my best -- But the monotonous absurdity dishonesty & malevolence of this man are beyond me. Nov 13'.'"

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Thomas Babington Macaulay Print: Book

Germaine de Stael : De l'Allemagne

'I am glad you have read Madame de Stael?s "Allemagne". The book is a foolish one in some respects; but it abounds with information, and shows great mental power. She was certainly the first woman of her age; Miss Edgeworth, I think, the second; and Miss Austen the third.'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Hannah Macaulay Print: Book

Le Sage : Gil Blas

'I have likewise read "Gil Blas", with unbounded admiration of the abilities of Le Sage.'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Thomas Babington Macaulay Print: Book

Robert Southey : Thalaba

?Malden and I have read Thalaba together, and are proceeding to the Curse of Kehama.?

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Thomas Babington Macaulay Print: Book

Elizabeth Montague : [essay on Shakespeare]

'I have read the greater part of the History of James I and Mrs. Montagues?s essay on Shakespeare, and a great deal of Gibbon'.

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Thomas Babington Macaulay Print: Book

unknown : History of James I

'I have read the greater part of the History of James I and Mrs. Montagues?s essay on Shakespeare, and a great deal of Gibbon'.

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Thomas Babington Macaulay Print: Book

Edward Gibbon : Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire

'I have read the greater part of the History of James I and Mrs. Montagues?s essay on Shakespeare, and a great deal of Gibbon'.

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Thomas Babington Macaulay Print: Book

George Gordon, Lord Byron : Hebrew Melodies

'John Smith, Bob Hankinson, and I, went over the "Hebrew Melodies" together'.

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Thomas Babington Macaulay Print: Book

Samuel Richardson : Sir Charles Grandison

'In the year 1816 we were at Brighton for the summer holidays, and he read to us "Sir Charles Grandison". It was always habit in our family to read aloud every evening.'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Thomas Babbington Macaulay Print: Book

Walter Scott : Lay of the Last Minstrel

'He [Macaulay] was so fired up with reading Scott?s "Lay" and "Marmion", the former of which he got entirely, and the latter almost entirely, by heart, merely from his delight in reading them, that he determined on writing himself a poem in six cantos which he called the "Battle of Cheviot"'.

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Thomas Babington Macaulay Print: Book

Walter Scott : Marmion

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Thomas Babington Macaulay Print: Book

Thucydides : unknown

'This day I finished Thucydides, after reading him with inexpressible interest and admiration. He is the greatest historian that ever lived. Feb 27, 1835'.

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Lord Macaulay Print: Book

Xenophon : Anabasis

[Marginalia in Macaulay's copy of Xenophon's "Anabasis"]: 'Decidedly his best work. Dec 17 1835'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Thomas Babington Macaulay Print: Book

Xenophon : Anabasis

[Marginalia] 'Most certainly. February 24, 1837'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Thomas Babington Macaulay Print: Book

Xenophon : Anabasis

[Marginalia] 'One of the very first works that antiquity has left us. Perfect in its kind. October 9, 1837'.

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Thomas Babington Macaulay Print: Book

Plautus : unknown

'I read Plautus four times at Calcutta. The first in November and December 1834.'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Lord Macaulay Print: Book

Plautus : unknown

'I read Plautus four times at Calcutta. The first in November and December 1834. The second in January and the beginning of February 1835'.

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Thomas Babington Macaulay Print: Book

Plautus : unknown

'I read Plautus four times at Calcutta. The first in November and December 1834 The second in January and the beginning of February 1835 The third on the Sundays from the 24th of May to the 23rd of August 1835'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Thomas Babington Macaulay Print: Book

Plautus : unknown

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Thomas Babington Macaulay Print: Book

T. J. Mathias : Pursuits of Literature

H. J. Jackson notes annotations by T. B. Macaulay in T. J. Mathias, Pursuits of Literature, including "'Bah!'" "'A contemptible heap of rant & twaddle'" and "'Noisome pedantry'."

Century: 1800-1849 / 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Thomas Babington Macaulay Print: Book

William Shakespeare : [plays]

'Catharine MacAulay's daughter shared her mother's republican views, and read Shakespeare for her own purposes, confessing that far from being delighted by King John, she "never read the Kings".'

Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Print: Book, Unknown

Livy (Titus Livius) : History of Rome Book XIII

'My journey lay over the field of Thrasymenus, and as soon as the sun rose, I read Livy's description of the scene [...] I was exactly in the situation of the consul, Flaminus - completely hid in the morning fog...So that I can truly say that I have seen precisely what the Roman army saw on that day.'

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Thomas Babington Macaulay Print: Book

William Gifford : Memoir of Ben Jonson

Passages transcribed into E. M. Forster, Commonplace Book (1938) include criticisms of practices of editors of Renaissance-period texts, by William Gifford in his Memoir of Ben Jonson; Forster also notes that 'Lord Macaulay has written "Very Good" in the margin of the copy at Wallington'.

Century: 1800-1849 / 1850-1899 / 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Thomas Babington Macaulay Print: Book

Alfred Tennyson : Guinevere

The Duke of Argyll to Alfred Tennyson, 14 July 1859: 'I think my prediction is coming true, that your "Idylls of the King" will be understood and admired by many who are incapable of understanding and appreciating many of your other works. 'Macaulay is certainly not a man incapable of [italics]understanding[end italics] anything but I knew that his tastes in poetry were so formed in another line that I gave him a good test, and three days ago I gave him "Guinevere." 'The result has been as I expected, that he has been [italics]delighted with it[end italics]. He told me that he has been greatly moved by it, and admired it exceedingly. Altho' by practice and disposition he is eminently a critic, he did not find one single fault. Yesterday I gave him the "Maid of Astolat" with which he was delighted also.'

the experience of reading in Britain, from 1450 to 1945...

Listings for Reader:

Macaulay

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Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Thomas Babington Macaulay Print: Book

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Thomas Babington Macaulay Print: Book

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Thomas Babington Macaulay Print: Book

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Thomas Babington Macaulay Print: Book

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Thomas Babington Macaulay Print: Book

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Thomas Babington Macaulay Print: Book

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Thomas Babington Macaulay Print: Book

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Thomas Babington Macaulay Print: Book

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Thomas Babington Macaulay Print: Book

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Thomas Babington Macaulay Print: Book

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Thomas Babington Macaulay Print: Book

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Thomas Babington Macaulay Print: Book

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Thomas Babington Macaulay Print: Book

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Thomas Babington Macaulay Print: Book

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Thomas Babington Macaulay Print: Book

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Thomas Babington Macaulay Print: Book

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Thomas Babington Macaulay Print: Book

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Thomas Babington Macaulay Print: Book

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Thomas Babington Macaulay Print: Book

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Thomas Babington Macaulay Print: Book

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Thomas Babington Macaulay Print: Book

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Thomas Babington Macaulay Print: Book

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Thomas Babington Macaulay Print: Book

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Thomas Babington Macaulay Print: Book

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Thomas Babington Macaulay Print: Book

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Thomas Babington Macaulay Print: Book

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Thomas Babington Macaulay Print: Book

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Thomas Babington Macaulay Print: Book

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Thomas Babington Macaulay Print: Book

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Thomas Babington Macaulay Print: Book

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Thomas Babington Macaulay Print: Book

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Thomas Babington Macaulay Print: Book

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Thomas Babington Macaulay Print: Book

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Thomas Babington Macaulay Print: Book

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Thomas Babington Macaulay Print: Book

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Thomas Babington Macaulay Print: Book

Century: 1800-1849 / 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Thomas Babington Macaulay Print: Book

Century: 1800-1849 / 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Thomas Babington Macaulay Print: Book

Century: 1800-1849 / 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Thomas Babington Macaulay Print: Book

Century: 1800-1849 / 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Thomas Babington Macaulay Print: Book

Century: 1800-1849 / 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Thomas Babington Macaulay Print: Book

Century: 1800-1849 / 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Thomas Babington Macaulay Print: Book

Century: 1800-1849 / 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Thomas Babington Macaulay

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Thomas Babington Macaulay

Century: 1800-1849 / 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Thomas Babington Macaulay Print: Book

Century: 1800-1849 / 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Thomas Babington Macaulay Print: Book

Century: 1800-1849 / 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Thomas Babington Macaulay Print: Book

Century: 1800-1849 / 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Thomas Babington Macaulay Print: Book

Century: 1800-1849 / 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Thomas Babington Macaulay Print: Book

Century: 1800-1849 / 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Thomas Babington Macaulay Print: Book

Century: 1800-1849 / 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Thomas Babington Macaulay Print: Book

Century: 1800-1849 / 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Thomas Babington Macaulay Print: Book

Century: 1800-1849 / 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Thomas Babington Macaulay Print: Book

Century: 1800-1849 / 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Thomas Babington Macaulay Print: Book

Century: 1800-1849 / 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Thomas Babington Macaulay Print: Book

Century: 1800-1849 / 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Thomas Babington Macaulay Print: Book

Century: 1800-1849 / 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Thomas Babington Macaulay Print: Book

Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Thomas Babington Macaulay Print: Book

Century: 1800-1849 / 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Thomas Babington Macaulay Print: Book

Century: 1800-1849 / 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Thomas Babington Macaulay Print: Book

Century: 1800-1849 / 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Thomas Babington Macaulay Print: Book

Century: 1800-1849 / 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Thomas Babington Macaulay Print: Book

Century: 1800-1849 / 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Thomas Babington Macaulay Print: Book

Century: 1800-1849 / 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Thomas Babington Macaulay Print: Book

Century: 1800-1849 / 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Thomas Babington Macaulay Print: Book

Century: 1800-1849 / 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Thomas Babington Macaulay Print: Book

Century: 1800-1849 / 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Thomas Babington Macaulay Print: Book

Century: 1800-1849 / 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Thomas Babington Macaulay Print: Book

Century: 1800-1849 / 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Thomas Babington Macaulay Print: Book

Century: 1800-1849 / 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Thomas Babington Macaulay Print: Book

Century: 1800-1849 / 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Thomas Babington Macaulay Print: Book

Century: 1800-1849 / 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Thomas Babington Macaulay Print: Book

Century: 1800-1849 / 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Thomas Babington Macaulay Print: Book