Reading Experience Database
1450-1945

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Record 6561

Reading Experience:

Evidence:
'The fault of the great author, whose letters to his friend you have been reading, is, that Tully is wholly concerned for the fame of Cicero; and that for fame and self-exaltation sake. In some of his orations, what is called his vehemence (but really is too often insult and ill manners) so transports him, that a modern pleader... would not be heard, if he were to take the like freedoms... Cicero's constitutional faults seem to be vanity and cowardice. Great geniuses seldom have small faults. You have seen, I presume, Dr Middleton's "Life of Cicero". It is a fine piece; but the Doctor, I humbly think, has played the panegyrist, in some places in it, rather than the historian. The present laureat's performance on the same subject, of which Dr Middleton's is the foundation, is a spirited and pretty piece... You greatly oblige me, Madam, whenever you give me your observations upon what you read'.
Century: 1700-1799
Date: unknown
Country: England
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:Samuel Richardson
Age Adult (18-100+)
Gender Male
Date of Birth 19 Aug 1689
Socio-economic group: Professional / academic / merchant / farmer
Occupation: printer and author
Religion: unknown
Country of origin: England
Country of experience: England
Listeners present if any:
(e.g. family, servants, friends, workmates)
n/a
Additional comments: n/a

 

Text Being Read:

Author: Colley Cibber
Title: The Character and Conduct of Cicero Considered
Genre: Biography
Form of Text: Print: Book
Publication details: n/a
Provenance: unknown

 

Source Information:

Record ID: 6561  
Source - Print  
  Author: Samuel Richardson
  Editor: John Carroll
  Title: Selected Letters of Samuel Richardson
  Place of Publication: Oxford
  Date of Publication: 1964
  Vol: n/a
  Page: 211-12
  Additional comments: n/a

Citation: Samuel Richardson, John Carroll (ed.), Selected Letters of Samuel Richardson (Oxford, 1964), p. 211-12, http://can-red-lec.library.dal.ca/Arts/reading/recorddetails2.php?id=6561, accessed: 28 March 2024

Additional comments:

Letter from Samuel Richardson to Lady Bradshaigh, April 1752

 

 

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