Record Number: 18500

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Reading Experience:

Evidence:

'You seem so much interested with the translation of "Pastor Fido" that I shall take the liberty of sending it to you, that you may judge of its merits: not being skilled in the Italian tongue I cannot possibly give an opinion of it as a [italics] translation [end italics]. As anything else, I do not like it, nor ever liked pastorals or pastoral writing, even of the first order, further than as vehicles for fine poetry; and then the poetry would have pleased me better had it spoken for itself, than from the mouth of a creature to me so inconceivable as a shepherd or shepherdess, whose chief, or rather [italics] only [end italics] characteristics are innocence and simplicity. I am sorry to say they are but too apt to be insipid and uninteresting to those who merely read about them [she continues this critique at length, concluding] It may be owing to some defect in my mind that I really never yet knew an interesting pastoral character, or cared a straw about whether they hanged themselves upon the first willow, or drowned themselves in the neighbouring brook. I can enter into the delights of Homer's gods, and follow to their darkest recesses Milton's devils, and delight in the absurdities and extravagancies of Shakespeare's men and women, but I never could sympathise in the sufferings of even Virgil's shepherd swains'.

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

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Reader / Listener / Reading Group:

Reader:

Miss V[-]

Age:

Adult (18-100+)

Gender:

Female

Date of Birth:

n/a

Socio-Economic Group:

Gentry

Occupation:

n/a

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:

correspondent of Charlotte Bury

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Text Being Read:

Author:

John Milton

Title:

Paradise Lost

Genre:

Poetry

Form of Text:

Print: Book

Publication Details

n/a

Provenance

unknown

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Source Information:

Record ID:

18500

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:

249-50

Additional Comments:

n/a

Citation:

Charlotte Bury, A. Francis Steuart (ed.), Diary of a Lady-in-Waiting, The, (London, 1908), II, p. 249-50, http://www.open.ac.uk/Arts/reading/UK/record_details.php?id=18500, accessed: 21 December 2024

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Additional Comments:

Date of letter unclear but probably 1820 or 1821