Record Number: 1632

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Reading Experience:

Evidence:

[Macaulay's marginalia in Plato's Gorgias]: "This is not pure morality; but there is a good deal of weight in what Callicles says. He is wrong in not perceiving that the real happiness, not only of the weak many, but of the able few, is promoted by virtue. [...] When I read this dialogue as a lad at college, I wrote a trifling piece for Knight's Magazine, in which some Athenian characters were introduced, I made this Callicles the villain of the drama. I now see that he was merely a fair specimen of the public men of Athens in that age. Although his principles were those of aspiring and voluptuous men in unquiet times, his feelings seem to have been friendly and kind."

Century:

1800-1849

Date:

Between 1 May 1837 and 31 Dec 1839

Country:

India

Time

n/a

Place:

city: Calcutta

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:

Thomas Babington Macaulay

Age:

Adult (18-100+)

Gender:

Male

Date of Birth:

25 Oct 1800

Socio-Economic Group:

Professional / academic / merchant / farmer

Occupation:

Historian and critic

Religion:

Church of England

Country of Origin:

England

Country of Experience:

India

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

n/a

Additional Comments:

n/a

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Text Being Read:

Author:

Plato

Title:

Gorgias

Genre:

Classics

Form of Text:

Print: Book

Publication Details

The edition published in Frankfort, 1602, with a parallel Latin translation by Marsilius Ficinus

Provenance

owned

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Source Information:

Record ID:

1632

Source:

Print

Author:

Thomas Babington Macaulay

Editor:

George Otto Trevelyan

Title:

The Life and Letters of Lord Macaulay

Place of Publication:

Oxford

Date of Publication:

1978

Vol:

2

Page:

437

Additional Comments:

n/a

Citation:

Thomas Babington Macaulay, George Otto Trevelyan (ed.), The Life and Letters of Lord Macaulay, (Oxford, 1978), 2, p. 437, http://www.open.ac.uk/Arts/reading/UK/record_details.php?id=1632, accessed: 21 December 2024

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Additional Comments:

This entry records Macaulay's later experience of reading the Gorgias, while a government official in Calcutta. Note the reference to his previously reading this text at College.