Record Number: 17526

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Reading Experience:

Evidence:

'You may remember that I used to desire to outlive you: I have changed my cue: I should be left to speak in the words of surely the most affecting historical document in the world ? Emery Tylney?s character of George Wishart: ? ?O that the Lord had left her to me, her poor boy, that she might have finished what she had begun!? I can?t tell you how beautiful that whole paper is from which those words are imitated: I was reading it again the other day, and my heart came into my mouth when I got to that passage: one is so little prepared for such a cry of the soul amid the succinct details of life and manners that surround it. And the saying in my mind attaches itself to you: I have had to explain all round that you might understand the full meaning of the words, and how they are not simply my words, but have been sanctified by the fire of martyrdom and the name of one of the good, pure, quiet, delicate spirits of the Earth; and you needed to know that, to know why I like to apply them to you.'

Century:

1850-1899

Date:

Until: 28 Aug 1874

Country:

Scotland

Time

n/a

Place:

city: Probably Swanston
specific address: Swanston Cottage, Lothianburn, Edinburgh and 17 Heriot Row

Type of Experience
(Reader):
 

silent aloud unknown
solitary in company unknown
single serial unknown

Type of Experience
(Listener):
 

solitary in company unknown
single serial unknown

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Reader / Listener / Reading Group:

Reader:

Robert Louis Stevenson

Age:

Adult (18-100+)

Gender:

Male

Date of Birth:

13 Nov 1850

Socio-Economic Group:

Professional / academic / merchant / farmer

Occupation:

Aspiring writer and intermittent law student

Religion:

Church of Scotland (wavering)

Country of Origin:

Scotland

Country of Experience:

Scotland

Listeners present if any:
e.g family, servants, friends

n/a

Additional Comments:

n/a

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Text Being Read:

Author:

Emery Tylney

Title:

(in) Foxe's Book of Martyrs

Genre:

Other religious, Biography, In the forrm of a letter to John Foxe.

Form of Text:

Print: Book

Publication Details

Letter cited in Foxe's Book of Martyrs, published in Latin in 1559, printed in English 1563

Provenance

unknown

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Source Information:

Record ID:

17526

Source:

Print

Author:

Robert Louis Stevenson

Editor:

Bradford A. Booth

Title:

The Letters of Robert Louis Stevenson, April 1874-July1879

Place of Publication:

New Haven and London

Date of Publication:

1994

Vol:

2

Page:

42

Additional Comments:

Letter 306, To Frances Sitwell, section headed ?Friday [28 August 1874]? Night?. Co-editor Ernest Mehew. The date in square brackets has been added by the editors.

Citation:

Robert Louis Stevenson, Bradford A. Booth (ed.), The Letters of Robert Louis Stevenson, April 1874-July1879 (New Haven and London, 1994), 2, p. 42, http://can-red-lec.library.dal.ca/Arts/RED/record_details.php?id=17526, accessed: 18 April 2024

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Additional Comments:

Note 4, p.42, reads: ?George Wishart, the Scottish Reformer, was convicted of heresy and burned at St Andrews in 1546. The personal testimony of one of his students, Emery Tylney, is given in Book VII of Foxe?s [italics] Actes and Monuments [end italics] (popularly known as the [italics] Book of Martyrs [end italics]?. Contributor?s note: John Foxe's [italics] Actes and Monuments [end italics] was first published in Latin in 1559, printed in English 1563. In Foxe?s account [the wording, spelling and punctuation vary slightly in different editions] the words written to him by Tylney deploring the loss of his martyred teacher are: O that the Lord had left him to me, his poore boy, that he might have finished that he had begunne!].