Record Number: 28014

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Reading Experience:

Evidence:

Aaron Hill to Samuel Richardson, 13 October 1746, on a past conversation with Alexander Pope on the sublime in poetry: 'I informed him [Pope], that, at reading a new play at Lord Tyrconnel's, there was present a gentleman, distinguished for rank and genius, who [...] repeated those fine lines to the earl of Oxford, printed before Dr Parnell's poems [...] this gentleman had been so generously warmed, in his repeating them, that he was the most undeniable example I had ever seen of all Longinus's effect of the sublime, in its most amiable force of energy! [...] he told us, "He could never read those verses without rapture; for, that sentiments such as those were, appeared to carry more of the god in them than the man, and he was never weary of admiring them!" [goes on to relate how he identified this reader to Pope as the Speaker of the House of Commons]'

Century:

1700-1799

Date:

unknown

Country:

n/a

Time

n/a

Place:

n/a

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:

anon

Age:

Adult (18-100+)

Gender:

Male

Date of Birth:

n/a

Socio-Economic Group:

Professional / academic / merchant / farmer

Occupation:

Politician (Speaker of the House of Commons)

Religion:

n/a

Country of Origin:

n/a

Country of Experience:

n/a

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

n/a

Additional Comments:

n/a

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Text Being Read:

Author:

Title:

'lines to the earl of Oxford'

Genre:

Poetry

Form of Text:

Print: Book

Publication Details

In print edition of 'Dr Parnell's poems'

Provenance

unknown

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Source Information:

Record ID:

28014

Source:

Print

Author:

n/a

Editor:

Anna Laetitia Barbauld

Title:

The Correspondence of Samuel Richardson [...] Selected from the Original Manuscripts Bequeathed by him to his Family

Place of Publication:

London

Date of Publication:

1804

Vol:

1

Page:

114-116

Additional Comments:

n/a

Citation:

Anna Laetitia Barbauld (ed.), The Correspondence of Samuel Richardson [...] Selected from the Original Manuscripts Bequeathed by him to his Family (London, 1804), 1, p. 114-116, http://can-red-lec.library.dal.ca/Arts/RED/record_details.php?id=28014, accessed: 19 April 2024

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Additional Comments:

Some significance seems to attach to identity of reader where Pope concerned.