the experience of reading in Britain, from 1450 to 1945...

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John Hookham Frere : Prospectus and Specimen of an Intended National

[Marginalia]

Century: 1800-1849     Reader/Listener/Group: Samuel Taylor Coleridge      Print: Book

John Hookham Frere : Quarterly Review [burlesque poetry]

'Pray tell Lady Louisa that I have been reading the last "Quarterly Review" (No. XLII) more steadily than I could do at Sheffield Place, and quite agree with her in liking the article upon our statute laws, which is very clear and convincing, and pleases me better than anything else in it, though I think it is on the whole an amusing number. Mr Humboldt and his ([italics] crodo, crodo [end italics] ) crocodiles entertained me; the account of Hayti was interesting; the first dissertation (on Aristophanes) and the last. Yet I am no convert to Messrs Whistlecraft & Co., I cannot like slipshod verse or be convinced that it is not as easily written as read; the burlesque of one country can hardly ever be well copied in the language of another. As for Plato and Xenophon, it revolts all my old prejudices to hear them discussed as if they were members of the Alfred, or the French Academy - to be told that Plato had delicacy of [italics] tact [end italics] taught him at the [italics] court [end italics] of Dionysius. It puts me in mind of Gray's simile about some book upon antiquity which he says was like an antique statue dressed in a negligee made by a Yorkshire mantua-maker'.

Century: 1800-1849     Reader/Listener/Group: Louisa, Lady Stuart      Print: Serial / periodical

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