'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
'When we speak of calculi - I brought home [some f]ew mathematical books, which I must tell you of - Bossuts "history [of] mathematics", Woods "optics", Cunn's "Euclid" and Newton's "principia" constitute my [stock] of this sort - I got Lucans "Pharsalia" also, and some little extracts of Fenelons "dialogues des morts". If there are any of these (except Newton for which you would be [obliged] to wait awhile) that you wish to see - they are ready for you. I had read Bossut before - and have not done much at him of late. Neither have I read any quantity of Wood yet, having been nibbling at the "Principia" (which with all my struggling, I come but ill at understanding - indeed in some places I don't understand it at all) ever since I came home. Of Lucan I have not read above seven lines.'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Thomas Carlyle Print: Book
'Shelley is not well - he reads Lucan'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Percy Bysshe Shelley Print: Book
'Since I left Rome I have read several books of Livy - Antenor - Clarissa Harlowe - The Spectator - a few novels - & am now reading the Bible & Lucan's Pharsalia - & Dante'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Shelley Print: Book
'Write - read Lucan & the Bible S. writes the Cenci & reads Plutarch's lives - the Gisbornes call in the evening - S. reads Paradise Lost to me - Read 2 Cantos of the Purgatorio'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Shelley Print: Book
'Write - Finish the 5th book of Lucan - Read the bible & with S. two Canto's of the Purgatorio'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Shelley Print: Book
'Fininsh [sic] Lucan's Pharsalia'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Shelley Print: Book
'We talked of a lady's verses on Ireland. MISS REYNOLDS. "Have you seen them, Sir?" JOHNSON. "No, Madam. I have seen a translation from Horace, by one of her daughters. She shewed it me". MISS REYNOLDS. "And how was it, Sir?" JOHNSON. "Why, very well for a young Miss's verses;--that is to say, compared with excellence, nothing; but, very well, for the person who wrote them. I am vexed at being shewn verses in that manner." MISS REYNOLDS. "But if they should be good, why not give them hearty praise?" JOHNSON. "Why, Madam, because I have not then got the better of my bad humour from having been shewn them".'
Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Samuel Johnson Manuscript: Unknown
Transcribed in Elizabeth Lyttelton's hand, Sir Thomas Browne's translation of Lucan, Pharsalia, IV.519-20.
Century: 1600-1699 / 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Lyttelton Print: Book
Robert Southey to Horace Walpole Bedford, 12-15 December 1793: 'Lucan & Beccaria dei delitti & delle pene are my pocket companions. the republican Bard & the philosopher of humanity. Lucan pleases me more than any author in despite of his numerous faults. his ninth book is wonderful & when I say that he has not fallen short of Cato in his character of that illustrious stoic panegyric can go no farther. the character of Erictho is wonderfully imagined. how would Lucan have excelled himself in the death of Cato & of Caesar! I will venture to assert that had he finishd his Pharsalia — it would have been the noblest monument of human genius. Mays supplement disappointed me. I expected more from his abilities — forgetting that the sycophant of a Stuart was ill qualified to handle the pen of Lucan.
Beccaria pleases me much. I had long been self-convinced that the punishment of death was as improper as inhuman. Godwin carries this idea farther. so far I agree with him that society makes the crime & then punishes it.'
Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Robert Southey Print: Book
Robert Southey to Horace Walpole Bedford, 30-31 December 1793: 'Akenside & Lucan are my pocket companions. you would be astonishd at the number of volumes I have read in this manner. it is very seldom that I am without a book in my pocket. & the half & quarters of hours wasted so often in waiting amount to a great deal in the year. ten to one but I read all the way to Bath & should the sun shine it makes glad the heart of man spout vociferously to the edification of all the stage coachmen. this however only happens in abstraction.'
Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Robert Southey Print: Book
