Dr. Johnson said, ‘‘Bolder words and more timorous meaning, I think never
were brought together.’’
Boswell: Life of Johnson, ed. R. W. Chapman; 3. ed. corr.
J. D. Fleeman (Oxford, 1970), 1074 (anno 1780)‘‘Mr. Martin, I suppose, is not a man of information beyond the line of his
own business? He does not read?’’
‘‘Oh yes! that is, no I do not know but I believe he has read a good
deal but not what you would think any thing of. He reads the Agricultural
Reports, and some other books that lay in one of the window seats but he
reads all them to himself. But sometimes of an evening, before we went to
cards, he would read something aloud out of theElegant Extracts, very
entertaining. And I know he has read theVicar of Wakefield.’’
Jane Austen,Emma(1815), ch. 4‘‘For I aint, you must know,’’ said Betty, ‘‘much of a hand at reading writing
hand, though I can read my Bible and most print. And I do love a news
paper. You mightn’t think it, but Sloppy is a beautiful reader of a news
paper. He do the Police in different voices.’’
Charles Dickens,Our Mutual Friend(1865), bk. I, ch. 16In Boswell, we have arecitatio;in Austen, reading aloud as a form of
entertainment; in Dickens, alector.
The problem is that, speaking broadly, scholars have tended to ignore the
fact that reading aloud to others both publicly and privately has long been
(andstillis)acommonactivity.
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Itisincorrecttoclaimthatthebad‘‘printed
ode’’ was‘‘something like ascorefor public or privateperformance,’’ though
itwasindeedperformedbothpubliclyandprivately;thattheElegantExtracts
were ‘‘felt as no more than the basis for a performance,’’ though Mr. Martin
gave a very entertaining performance; that reading a Victorian newspaper
was ‘‘almost like the interpretation of a musical score,’’ no matter how many
voiceshedothepolicein.Themistakecomesinassumingthatoneoftheways
inwhichatextcouldbeused(recitation)wastheonlyorprimarywayitcould
be used, and furthermore assuming that recitation represented the author’s
intention or expectation of the only way in which it could be used.
II. READING WITHOUT AN AUDIENCE
Alia vero audientis, alia legentis magis adiuvant.
(You get more out of some things by listening, others by reading.)—Quintilian 10.1.16
- For a satiric scene from early twentieth century domestic life, see Virginia Woolf,
Night and Day(1919), ch. 7. We today continue to enjoy books in a number of different
ways, many of which correspond closely to Roman practices. It is curious that this mono
lithic view of what ‘‘we’’ mean by ‘‘reading’’ remains so popular in an age of public readings,
book groups, radio broadcasts, audio CDs, and iPods.
Books and Reading Latin Poetry 195