Evidence: | 'You seem so much interested with the translation of "Pastor Fido" that I shall take the liberty of sending it to you, that you may judge of its merits: not being skilled in the Italian tongue I cannot possibly give an opinion of it as a [italics] translation [end italics]. As anything else, I do not like it, nor ever liked pastorals or pastoral writing, even of the first order, further than as vehicles for fine poetry; and then the poetry would have pleased me better had it spoken for itself, than from the mouth of a creature to me so inconceivable as a shepherd or shepherdess, whose chief, or rather [italics] only [end italics] characteristics are innocence and simplicity. I am sorry to say they are but too apt to be insipid and uninteresting to those who merely read about them [she continues this critique at length, concluding] It may be owing to some defect in my mind that I really never yet knew an interesting pastoral character, or cared a straw about whether they hanged themselves upon the first willow, or drowned themselves in the neighbouring brook. I can enter into the delights of Homer's gods, and follow to their darkest recesses Milton's devils, and delight in the absurdities and extravagancies of Shakespeare's men and women, but I never could sympathise in the sufferings of even Virgil's shepherd swains'. |
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Century: | 1800-1849 | ||||||||||
Date: | unknown | ||||||||||
Country: | n/a | ||||||||||
Time: | n/a | ||||||||||
Place: | n/a | ||||||||||
Type of Experience (Reader): |
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Type of Experience (Listener): |
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Reader: | Miss V[-] |
Age | Adult (18-100+) |
Gender | Female |
Date of Birth | n/a |
Socio-economic group: | Gentry |
Occupation: | n/a |
Religion: | n/a |
Country of origin: | n/a |
Country of experience: | n/a |
Listeners present if any: (e.g. family, servants,
friends, workmates) |
n/a |
Additional comments: | correspondent of Charlotte Bury |
Author: | Giovanni Battista Guarini |
Title: | Il Pastor Fido |
Genre: | Drama, Poetry |
Form of Text: | Print: Book |
Publication details: | translation into English |
Provenance: | owned presumably owned as she sends it to Charlotte Bury |
Record ID: | 18498 | |
Source - | ||
Author: | Charlotte Bury | |
Editor: | A. Francis Steuart | |
Title: | Diary of a Lady-in-Waiting, The | |
Place of Publication: | London | |
Date of Publication: | 1908 | |
Vol: | II | |
Page: | 249-50 | |
Additional comments: | n/a |
Citation: | Charlotte Bury, A. Francis Steuart (ed.), Diary of a Lady-in-Waiting, The (London, 1908), II, p. 249-50, http://can-red-lec.library.dal.ca/Arts/reading/recorddetails2.php?id=18498, accessed: 28 March 2024 |
Date unclear but probably 1820 or 1821 |
Reading Experience Database version 2.0. Page updated: 27th Apr 2016 3:15pm (GMT)