The Atlantic. Review of Plutarch’s Lives, by Arthur Hugh Clough, John Dryden, and Plutarch. January 1860. https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/1860/01/plutarchs-lives/627616/
Some excellent quotes and evidence for the importance of Plutarch's Lives, almost more so than the importance of this particular translation.
It has been well said, that “ Plutarch’s Lives is the book for those who can nobly think and dare and do.”
It has taken its place on the clockshelf, with only the Bible, the “Pilgrim's Progress,” and the Almanac for its companions. No other classic author, with, perhaps, the single exception of Æsop, has been so widely read in modern times; and the popular knowledge of the men of Greece and Rome is derived more from Plutarch than from all other ancient authors put together.
importance of Plutarch's Lives
The learned Dr. Guy Patin says: “On dit que M. de Meziriac avoit corrigé dans son Amyot huit mille fautes, et qu’Amyot n’avoit pas de bons exemplaires, ou qu’il n’avoit pas bien entendu le Grec de Plutarque.”3
Translation: It is said that M. de Meziriac had corrected eight thousand mistakes in his Amyot, and that Amyot did not have good copies, or that he had not understood Plutarch's Greek well.
his 1683 edition of Plutarch's Lives Translated From the Greek by Several Hands in which he introduced the word 'biography' to English readers;
via https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Dryden
John Dryden apparently coined the English word 'biography' in his 1683 edition of Plutarch's Lives.
Does the OED bear this out?
https://grammaticus.co/obscure-words/<br /> - hustings<br /> - Rodomontade<br /> - lustrations<br /> - penetralia<br /> - contumelious<br /> - weldtering - importunities<br /> - indefatigable<br /> - interjacent<br /> - ambuscade - moiety
What’s the Best Translation of Plutarch’s Lives? – grammaticus by [[grammaticus]] on 2020-09-23
μοι δυσκολώτερον ἦν εἰπεῖν ἢ πρᾶξαι It is harder for me to say it than to do it.