Pen-portraits of literary women : $b by themselves and others, Volume 2 (of 2)
General
Pen-portraits of literary women : $b by themselves and others, Volume 2 (of 2)
Authors, English -- Biography; Women authors, English -- Biography
On the 1st of August, 1846, Margaret Fuller sailed for Europe, in the
company of her friends Mr. and Mrs. Marcus Spring, of Eagleswood, New
Jersey. She went first to England, visited the Lake country, meeting
Wordsworth and renewing her acquaintance with Harriet Martineau,
travelled in Scotland, making the ascent of Ben Lomond with but one
companion, and without a guide, an imprudence which cost her a night of
dangerous exposure; returned to London, where she met Joanna Baillie,
the Carlyles, and Mazzini; and went thence to Paris. There she saw
George Sand, Chopin, and Rachel. She proceeded to Lyons, to Avignon,
“where she waded through the snow to visit the tomb of Laura,” and to
Marseilles, whence she sailed for Genoa, going next to Naples and to
Rome. It was during this first stay in Rome, in the spring of 1847,
that she became acquainted with the Marquis Ossoli, an officer of the
Civic Guard. She continued her travels, visiting Florence, Ravenna,
Venice, Milan, the Italian Lakes, and Switzerland. She returned to
Rome in October, 1847. In December she was married to Ossoli; but for
reasons involving the security of his paternal inheritance, it was
agreed that the marriage should be a secret. In the following May,
Margaret left Rome for the summer, passing a month at Aquila, and the
rest of the time, until November, at Rieti, where it was possible for
her husband to visit her occasionally. In September, 1848, their son,
“Angiolino,” was born. In November, Margaret found it necessary to go
to Rome, “to be near her husband, and also in order to be able to carry
on the literary work upon which depended not only her own support,
but also that of her child.” The little Angelo was left in the care
of his Italian nurse. His mother at first anticipated an absence of
a month only. She indeed returned to Rieti for a week in December,
but “circumstances were too strong for her, and she was forced to
remain three months in Rome without seeing him,” lying awake at night,
studying to end this cruel separation. She was again in Rieti in March,
and in April returned to Rome. And now began the siege of Rome by the
French, and the mother, shut up in the city, saw her child no more
until the summer.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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