Record Number: 1632
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
Timen/a
Place:city: Calcutta
Type of Experience(Reader):
silent aloud unknown
solitary in company unknown
single serial unknown
(Listener):
solitary in company unknown
single serial unknown
Reader / Listener / Reading Group:
Reader: 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
Text Being Read:
Author: Title:Gorgias
Genre:Classics
Form of Text:Print: Book
Publication DetailsThe edition published in Frankfort, 1602, with a parallel Latin translation by Marsilius Ficinus
Provenanceowned
Source Information:
Record ID:1632
Source: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: 20 April 2024
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.
