"Pliny, writing in the early second century A.D., complained that in Rome
“there was scarcely a day in April when someone wasn’t giving a reading,”
and that the poor authors had to put up with small audiences, most of whom
slipped out before the end anyway."
which is a clip from an essay by Mary Beard, who has taken a break from her
recent fixation on death, in the latest New York Times Book Review. It's at:
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/19/books/review/Beard-t.html?_r=1&8bu&emc=bub1
David Bircumshaw
Website and A Chide's Alphabet
http://www.staplednapkin.org.uk
The Animal Subsides http://www.arrowheadpress.co.uk/books/animal.html
Leicester Poetry Society: http://www.poetryleicester.co.uk
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