Reading Experience Database
1450-1945

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Record 18426

Reading Experience:

Evidence:
'Adam Smith, Sir [-] informed me, was no admirer of the Rambler or the Idler, but was pleased with the pamphlet respecting the Falkland Islands, as it displayed in such forcible language, the madness of modern wars. Of Swift, he made frequent and honourable mention, and regarded him, both in style and sentiment, as a pattern of correctness. He often quoted some of the short poetical addresses to Stella, and was particularly pleased with the couplet, Say Stella, - feel you no content, Reflecting on a life well-spent? Smith had an invincible dislike to blank verse, Milton's only excepted. "they do well", said he, "to call it blank, for blank it is". Beattie's Minstrel he would not allow to be called a poem; for he said it had no plan, beginning or end. He did not much admire Allan Ramsay's "Gentle Shepherd", but preferred the "Pastor Fido", of which he spoke with rapture'.
Century: 1800-1849
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

Reader/Listener/Reading Group:

Reader:Adam Smith
Age Adult (18-100+)
Gender Male
Date of Birth Jun 1723
Socio-economic group: Professional / academic / merchant / farmer
Occupation: Philosopher
Religion: n/a
Country of origin: Scotland
Country of experience: n/a
Listeners present if any:
(e.g. family, servants, friends, workmates)
n/a
Additional comments: n/a

 

Text Being Read:

Author: Allan Ramsay
Title: Gentle Shepherd, The
Genre: Drama, Poetry
Form of Text: Print: Book
Publication details: n/a
Provenance: unknown

 

Source Information:

Record ID: 18426  
Source - Print  
  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: 84
  Additional comments: n/a

Citation: Charlotte Bury, A. Francis Steuart (ed.), Diary of a Lady-in-Waiting, The (London, 1908), II, p. 84, http://can-red-lec.library.dal.ca/Arts/reading/recorddetails2.php?id=18426, accessed: 28 March 2024

Additional comments:

Sir [-] whom Bury met in Rome, was a friend of Adam Smith

 

 

Reading Experience Database version 2.0.  Page updated: 27th Apr 2016  3:15pm (GMT)