'I have cast up my reading account, and brought it to the end of the year 1835. [?] During the last thirteen months I have read Aeschylus twice; Sophocles twice; Euripides once; Pindar twice; Callimachus; Apollonius Rhodius; Quintus Calaber; Theocritus twice; Herodotus; Thucydides; almost all Xenophon?s works; almost all Plato; Aristotle?s Politics, and a good deal of his Organon, besides dipping elsewhere in him; the whole of Plutarch?s Lives; about half of Lucian; two or three books of Athenaeus; Plautus twice; Terence twice; Lucretius twice; Catullus; Tibullus; Propertius; Lucan; Statius; Silius Italicus; Livy; Velleius Paterculus; Sallust; Caesar; and, lastly, Cicero. I have, indeed, still a little of Cicero left; but I shall finish him in a few days. I am now deep in Aristophanes and Lucian.'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Thomas Babington Macaulay Print: Book
[Editorial commentary on Macaulay's reading]: "Those two parallel lines in pencil, which were his highest form of compliment, are scored down page after page of the De Finibus, the Academic Questions, and the Tusculan Disputations."
Century: 1800-1849 / 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Thomas Babington Macaulay Print: Book
[Editorial commentary on Macaulay's reading]: "Those two parallel lines in pencil, which were his highest form of compliment, are scored down page after page of the De Finibus, the Academic Questions, and the Tusculan Disputations."
Century: 1800-1849 / 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Thomas Babington Macaulay Print: Book
[Editorial commentary on Macaulay's reading]: "Those two parallel lines in pencil, which were his highest form of compliment, are scored down page after page of the De Finibus, the Academic Questions, and the Tusculan Disputations."
Century: 1800-1849 / 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Thomas Babington Macaulay Print: Book
[Macaulay's marginalia at the end of the first book of Cicero's De Finibus]: "Exquisitely written, graceful, calm, luminous and full of interest; but the Epicurean theory of morals is hardly deserving of refutation."
Century: 1800-1849 / 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Thomas Babington Macaulay Print: Book
[Macaulay's marginalia in Cicero's De Natura Deorum]: "Equal to anything that Cicero ever did."
Century: 1800-1849 / 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Thomas Babington Macaulay Print: Book
[Macaulay's marginalia in the Second Book of Cicero's De Divinatione]: double-lines down the margin of the argument against the credibility of visions and prophecies.
Century: 1800-1849 / 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Thomas Babington Macaulay Print: Book
[Macaulay's marginalia in his copy of Cicero's Tusculan Disputations, by the translations from Aeschylus and Sophocles in the Second Book]: "Cicero's best".
Century: 1800-1849 / 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Thomas Babington Macaulay Print: Book
[Macaulay's marginalia in his copy of Cicero's Letters, opposite the sentences 'Meum factum probari abs te [...] nihil enim malo quam et me mei similem esse, et illos sui', translated as 'I triumph and rejoice that my action should have sustained your approval [...] for there is nothing which I so much covet as that I should be like myself, and they like themselves]: "Noble fellow!"
Century: 1800-1849 / 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Thomas Babington Macaulay Print: Book
[Editorial commentary on Macaulay's marginalia on Cicero's speeches]: "Macaulay's pencilled observations upon each successive speech of Cicero form a continuous history of the great orator's public career, and a far from unsympathetic analysis of his mobile, and singularly interesting, character."
Century: 1800-1849 / 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Thomas Babington Macaulay Print: Book
Macaulay's marginalia on Cicero's Epistles to Atticus]: "A kind-hearted man [Cicero], with all his faults." Later, "Poor fellow! He makes a pitiful figure. But it is impossible not to feel for him. Since I left England I have not despised Cicero and Ovid for their lamentations in exile as much as I did."
Century: 1800-1849 / 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Thomas Babington Macaulay Print: Book
[Macaulay's marginalia on Cicero's Second Philippic]: "a most wonderful display of rhetorical talent, worthy of all its fame."
Century: 1800-1849 / 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Thomas Babington Macaulay Print: Book
[Macaulay's marginalia on Cicero's Third Philippic]: "The close of this speech is very fine. His later and earlier speeches have a freedom and an air of sincerity about them which, in the interval between his Consulship and Caesar's death, I do not find. During that interval he was mixed up with the aristocratical party, and yet afraid of the Triumvirate. When all the great party-leaders were dead, he found himself at the head of the state, and spoke with a boldness and energy which he had not shown since his youthful days."
Century: 1800-1849 / 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Thomas Babington Macaulay Print: Book
[Macaulay's marginalia at the end of Cicero's last Philippic]: "As a man, I think of Cicero much as I always did, except that I am more disgusted with his conduct after Caesar's death. I really think that he met with little more than his deserts from the Triumvirs. It is quite certain, as Livy says, that he suffered nothing more than he would have inflicted."
Century: 1800-1849 / 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Thomas Babington Macaulay Print: Book
My companions at the breakfast-table through this summer were many of our popular English Classics. Among these may be enumerated "The Death of Abel" which I read emphatically aloud. Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress, Pope's Homer, Cicero's Letters, Elizabeth, or the Exile of Siberia, Dr Johnson's Rasselas, with many other works of established reputation.
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: John Cole Print: Book
down the newbank to Halifax. Called at a shop or 2, and at Miss Kitson's. Went for 1/2 hour tothe library till the Saltmarshes had done dinner. Read a few pp. of a translation of Cicero's treatise on old age. Went to the Saltmarshes at 3.
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Anne Lister Print: Book
'Burney haunted the Thrales' library at Streatham, hiding her book when a man appeared: "she instantly put away [her] book", in this instance a translation of Cicero, when Mr Steward entered the library, or hid under her gloves his "Life of Waller" when Johnson approached.'
Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Frances Burney Print: Book
'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 Reader/Listener/Group: Lady Bradshaigh
'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 Reader/Listener/Group: Samuel Richardson Print: Book
'Read Cicero "de Officiis" and began Petrarch's letters'
Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: George Eliot [pseud] Print: Book
'Nothing to put down these last two days unless I go back to my old practice of recording what I read, and which I rather think I left off because I read nothing and had nothing to put down: but last two days, read a little of Cicero's Second Philippic, Voltaire's Siecle de Louis XVI, Coleridge's Journey to the West Indies; bought some books...'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Charles Greville Print: Book
'Begin Julius Florus and finish the little vol of Cicero.'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Percy Bysshe Shelley Print: Book
'in the evening read Cicero de Senectute & the Paradoxa - Night comes. Jane walks in her sleep & groans horribly. listen for two hours - at length bring her to Mary. Begin Julius Florus and finish the little Vol of Cicero'.
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Percy Bysshe Shelley Print: Book
'in the evening read Cicero de Senectute & the Paradoxa - Night comes. Jane walks in her sleep & groans horribly. listen for two hours - at length bring her to Mary. Begin Julius Florus and finish the little Vol of Cicero'.
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Percy Bysshe Shelley Print: Book
In a 1573 letter, Gabriel Harvey 'alludes to his study of Cicero's [italics]Topica[end italics], of the German philologist Hegendorff's writings on law logic, and of the first book of the [italics]Institutes[end italics].'
Century: 1500-1599 Reader/Listener/Group: Gabriel Harvey Print: Book
Virginia F. Stern notes that 1550 copy of Cicero contains 'Many of [Gabriel], Harvey's annotations, some in [February] 1570 and some in 1579.'
Century: 1500-1599 Reader/Listener/Group: Gabriel Harvey Print: Book
Virginia F. Stern notes that 1550 copy of Cicero contains 'Many of [Gabriel], Harvey's annotations, some in [February] 1570 and some in 1579.'
Century: 1500-1599 Reader/Listener/Group: Gabriel Harvey Print: Book
Virginia F. Stern notes that in Gabriel Harvey's 1563 copy of Cicero, "Epistolae ad Atticum" 'The glossary is divided [by Harvey, using characteristic shorthand symbols as well as Latin] into eight portions for daily reading [...] A number of Harvey's signatures and copious annotations throughout the volume.'
Century: 1500-1599 / 1600-1699 Reader/Listener/Group: Gabriel Harvey Print: Book
To Miss Hunt Shirley, July 28, 1795
'I must tell you that I cannot help being quite reconciled to Cicero... If you have not yet met with it, only read, as a sample, the first book of his "Tuscular disputations", "de contemrenda morte", and I think you will agree with me, that with the addition of Christianity to confirm his supposition, and rectify a few mistakes in them, and the knowledge of the true state of the universe, no doctrine can be more perfect than his; and that half the modern books on the subject might have been spared, had the writers of them, before they began, read this dialogue.'
Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Smith Print: Book
'Up earely; and after reading a little in Cicero, I made me ready and to my office - where all the morning busy.'
Century: 1600-1699 Reader/Listener/Group: Samuel Pepys Print: Book
'At noon my physic having done working, I went down to dinner. And then he [Mr Creede] and I up again and spent the most of the afternoon reading in Cicero and other books and in good discourse, and then he went away'
Century: 1600-1699 Reader/Listener/Group: Samuel Pepys Print: Book
'As an extraordinary instance of perseverance, I must mention my having read "Cicero de officiis". You must read it too Bob - You will get thro' it in a week - and cannot think your time mis[s]pent. It consists of letters addressed to his son - and if we compare the steady, affectionate, unbending precepts of the venerable Roman - with the only work of a similar kind in our own times - Chesterfield's advice - we shall blush for the eighteenth century!'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Thomas Carlyle Print: Book
'But the book I am most pleased with is "Cicero de Finibus" - not that there is much new discussion in it, but his manner is so easy and elegant; and, besides, there is such a charm connected with attending to the feelings and principles of a man over whom "the tide of years has rolled". We are entertained even with a common sentiment; and when we meet with a truth which we ourselves had previously discovered, we are delighted with the idea that our minds are similar to that of the venerable Roman'.
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Thomas Carlyle Print: Book
'Read Cicero "De Senectute": a most exquisite and finished disquisition...'
Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Thomas Green Print: Book
'Looked into Cicero's "Buruts"...'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Thomas Green Print: Book
But the book I am most pleased with is 'cicero de Finibus' - not that there is much new discussion in it, but his manner is so easy and elegant; and, besides, there is such a charm connected with attending to the feelings and principles of a man over whom the 'tide of years has rolled.' We are entertained even with a common sentiment; and when we meet with a truth which we ourselves had previously discovered, we are delighted with the idea that our minds are similar to that of the venerable Roman.
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Thomas Carlyle Print: Book
Letter to MIss Ewing September 21, 1778 'Were I not afraid of the imputation of pedantic affectation, I could make this clear by a learned quotation from M.T. Cicero?s fortieth oration.'
Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Anne Grant [nee MacVicar] Print: Book
'Read Rights of woman - Opuscula of Cicero'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Godwin Print: Book
'Read Locke and Chesterfield - De Senectute and the wanderer'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Godwin Print: Book
'read the Wanderer - read de Senectute & Chesterfield'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Godwin Print: Book
'read Somnium Scipionis & Roderick Random'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Shelley Print: Book
'read Junius - Somnium Scipionis & work - read Amadis of Gaul'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Shelley Print: Book
'Read & finish Junius - finish Somnium Scipionis - work read amadis'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Shelley Print: Book
'First Oration of Cicero'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Shelley Print: Book
'Finish 1st Oration of Cicero - & the 3 book of Lucretius'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Shelley Print: Book
'Ciceros 2nd oration - Hist. of Engd'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Shelley Print: Book
'Finish the oration for Roscius amerinus'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Shelley Print: Book
'The Oration for Roscius the Comedian - Hist of Engd'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Shelley Print: Book
'First oration of Verres. Hist of Engd.'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Shelley Print: Book
MS notes in all vol. other than I, XI and XVI. Some are copied from Macaulay's own copy of Cicero which he read between 1835-7: "transferred by me from his Bipontine edition [to] the outside margin of the Delpin"; "Macaulay's notes are marked with M". Sir George's dates of reading incude: 1899; 1903; "June 18 1904 Chamonix"; "Nov 17 1909 Rome A heavy day of rain & the break up of our long spell of fine weather"; "Wallington Oct 12 1916"; "Christmas Day 1918 Welcombe"; 1919; "June 21 1921 Wallington"; 1923. Sir George responds to Macaulay's comments: "I understand my uncle's feelings about it in India, and his reservations twenty years afterwards." V.3: "On the whole I agree with Macaulay about the comparative value of the Third Book [...]". Vol. 12 draws historical parallels: "It is strange to read these letters. Cicer's cruel anxiety about the course to be taken [...] were like out anxieties about America, the Balkans, and the Scandinavian States. Then, as now, the whole civilised world was in question" [written in 1915].
Century: 1850-1899 / 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: George Otto Trevelyan Print: Book
