Reading Experience Database
1450-1945

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Record 19865

Reading Experience:

Evidence:
[Pilkington having annoyed Swift by remembering one of his poems and reciting it to others, he decided to test her memory. She told him] 'I could repeat not only all his Works, but all [italics] Shakespear[end italics]'s, which I put to this Trial; I desir'd him to open any Part of it and read a Line, and I would engage to go on with the whole Speech; as we were in his Library, he directly made the Experiment: The Line he first gave me, he had purposely picked out for its singular Oddness: [italics] Put rancours in the Vessel of my Peace [end italics] MacBeth I readily went on with the whole Speech, and did so several times, that he try'd me with different Plays. The Dean then took down [italics] Hudibras [end italics], and order'd me to examine him in it, as he had done me in [italics] Shakespear [end itaics]; and, to my great Surprize, I found he remember'd every Line, from Beginning to End of it. I say, it surpriz'd me, because I had been misled by Mr [italics] Pope [end italics]'s Remark, That [italics] Where beams of warm Imagination play The Memory's soft Figures melt away [end italics] Essay on Criticism'.
Century: 1700-1799
Date: Until: 30 Apr 1733
Country: Ireland
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:Laetitia Pilkington
Age Adult (18-100+)
Gender Female
Date of Birth 1708
Socio-economic group: Clergy (includes all denominations)
Occupation: clergyman's wife
Religion: Anglican
Country of origin: Ireland
Country of experience: Ireland
Listeners present if any:
(e.g. family, servants, friends, workmates)
n/a
Additional comments: n/a

 

Text Being Read:

Author: William Shakespeare
Title: [Plays]
Genre: Drama
Form of Text: Print: Book
Publication details: n/a
Provenance: unknown

 

Source Information:

Record ID: 19865  
Source - Print  
  Author: Laetitia Pilkington
  Editor: A.C. Elias
  Title: Memoirs of Laetitia Pilkington
  Place of Publication: Athens GA
  Date of Publication: 1997
  Vol: I
  Page: 55
  Additional comments: n/a

Citation: Laetitia Pilkington, A.C. Elias (ed.), Memoirs of Laetitia Pilkington (Athens GA, 1997), I, p. 55, http://can-red-lec.library.dal.ca/Arts/reading/recorddetails2.php?id=19865, accessed: 29 March 2024

Additional comments:

Date of birth 1708 or 1709.

 

 

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