Traditions and Theories

Abstract

When the Countess of Blessington, who lived in Naples between 1823 and 1826, ventured on an excursion to the ruins of Paestum with her friends, the company found instructive entertainment, later chronicled in Blessington’s travelogue The Idler in Italy (1839): A collation, that would not have shamed the Sybarite inhabitants said to have once possessed Paestum, was spread in the temple of Neptune; to which, after ample justice had been rendered, succeeded a highly intellectual treat, as Mr. George Howard complied with the pressing request of the company to recite a poem, written by him when at college, on the ruins we were then contemplating. The poem was admirable, and so spirited as to convey an impression that it must have been written on the spot, and under the inspiration which the actual scene, and not merely a classical description of it, had created. (I 2:181) KeywordsEighteenth CenturyPublic SpherePrivate SpherePrivate TheatricalPublishing VentureThese keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.