[Grace Toll Hall, Scripps College, Claremont]
MyCharles Eliot Norton Lectures (afterwards The Use of Poetry and the Use of Criticism)'Poetry and Criticism in the Time of Elizabeth' (afterwards 'Apology for the Countess of Pembroke');b7TSE on giving the lecture;a3 second Norton lecture is over. I think that it went off much better than the first. There was a much larger audience than I expected. The corridors were not so crowded, but the seats of the New Lecture Hall were all filled. And I had the satisfaction of knowing that my family, what there are left of them, were all present; atNorton, Elizabeth ('Lily') Gaskellat second Norton lecture;a4 the end the first person to speak to me was ‘Lily’ (Elizabeth) Norton1 – it pleased me especially that she had come, as her brother Eliot died in England only a short time ago.2 EvenEliot, Margaret Dawes (TSE's sister)amazes TSE by attending Norton lecture;b4 Margaret came, andEliot, Henry Ware, Jr. (TSE's brother)attends second Norton lecture;b2 Henry andSmith, Theodora ('Dodo') Eliot (TSE's niece)attends second Norton lecture;a7 Theodora were thereSheffield, Ada Eliot (TSE's sister)attends second Norton lecture;b9, andEliot, Marion Cushing (TSE's sister)attends second Norton lecture;b5 Ada and Marion; andGrandgent, Ethel Wright Cushing;a1 Cousin Ethel Grandgent.3 (OneAmericaBoston, Massachusetts;d1TSE's relations preponderate;b4 ofEnglandTSE's want of relations in;a7 the strange and pleasant things about being here is having so many relatives about, after living so many years where there are nothing nearer than twentieth cousins who wouldn’t know me). Everybody kept quite quiet, but applauded nicely. Of course the subject matter was simpler and more straightforward – Elizabethan criticism4 – and I felt a greater confidence in offering it, and a closer sympathy with the audience. IHinkley, Susan Heywood (TSE's aunt, née Stearns)at the second Norton lecture;b1 sawHinkley, Eleanor Holmes (TSE's first cousin)at second Norton lecture;b5 Aunt Susie5 and Eleanor for a moment afterwards, who were very kind. MeanwhileSedgwick, Sarah ('Sally') Cabotspirits TSE from Norton lecture;a1 Mrs. Ellery Sedgwick Jr. was waiting to carry me to her house for supper, in Brattle Street. Party pleasant but confusing. EllerySedgwick, (William) Ellerystands too close for comfort;a2 Senior (uncle) a little boring, and the sort of person who gets too near to you when he talks, so that you gyrate to get away from him. Escaped from party (Sedgwicks are relatives of Norton and therefore feel a kind of proprietorship in the Norton Professor) about 11. Tomorrow I have to interview two young men in the morning, andSheffields, the;a7 go to tea with Ada, Sheff & HenryFurness, Laura;a1, toFurness, Rebekah ('Rebe');a1 Cousin Laura & Cousin Reby in Lime Street. (Their name is Furness).6 I'Bible as Scripture and as Literature, The'TSE turns mind to;a5 may mention that your dear uncle came again, and spoke to me. I really feel much more cheerful about this lecture than the last. I must now excogitate my talk for Kings Chapel.
I think that what made the difference was, that after waiting hungrily, I got your letter of the 23d just before supper, and it made me happy. My dear dove, I never think that you ‘neglect’ me. Either I think that you don’t want to write to me, which makes me very unhappy; or I think that you are too busy, or perhaps too ill, and then I worry about you. ButHale, Emilyas director ('producer');v9La Locandiera;a1 at no moment would I have anything like a feeling of ‘reproaching’; my feelings are much too humble for that. I am extremely happy to think of the great success of your play; and to think that you were called before the curtain in that way, gave me great delight, and also a good opinion of the local audience. You ought to be happy in knowing that you have become so importantly useful to these young girls, and can be such a tremendously good influence over them. I don’t know anything about Roxane, except that she is adorable, and I shall make her acquaintance in January.
1.Elizabeth ‘Lily’ Gaskell Norton (1866–1958), daughter of Charles Eliot Norton, lived at 19 Chestnut Street, Boston.
2.Eliot Norton (1863–1932), Lily’s brother, had died in London on 18 Oct.
3.Ethel Wright Cushing Grandgent (1863–1934).
4.‘Apology for the Countess of Pembroke’.
5.Susan Heywood Stearns Hinkley (1860–1948).
6.RebekahFurness, Rebekah ('Rebe') (‘Rebe’) Furness (1854–1937) andFurness, Laura Laura Furness (1857–1949) – born in Philadelphia, daughters of James Thwing Furness and Elizabeth Margaret Eliot (a descendant of Sheriff William Greenleaf, who had declaimed the Declaration of Independence from the balcony of the State House in Boston in 1776) – had lived since 1920, with their brother Dawes Eliot Furness, in Boston’s Back Bay neighbourhood and in Petersham, New Hampshire. Rebekah, a graduate of the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, was an artist.
3.HenryEliot, Henry Ware, Jr. (TSE's brother) Ware Eliot (1879–1947), TSE’s older brother: see Biographical Register.
6.MargaretEliot, Margaret Dawes (TSE's sister) Dawes Eliot (1871–1956), TSE's second-oldest sister sister, resident in Cambridge, Mass. In an undated letter (1952) to his Harvard friend Leon M. Little, TSE wrote: ‘Margaret is 83, deaf, eccentric, recluse (I don’t think she has bought any new clothes since 1900).’
1.Marian/MarionEliot, Marion Cushing (TSE's sister) Cushing Eliot (1877–1964), fourth child of Henry Ware Eliot and Charlotte Eliot: see Biographical Register.
6.RebekahFurness, Rebekah ('Rebe') (‘Rebe’) Furness (1854–1937) andFurness, Laura Laura Furness (1857–1949) – born in Philadelphia, daughters of James Thwing Furness and Elizabeth Margaret Eliot (a descendant of Sheriff William Greenleaf, who had declaimed the Declaration of Independence from the balcony of the State House in Boston in 1776) – had lived since 1920, with their brother Dawes Eliot Furness, in Boston’s Back Bay neighbourhood and in Petersham, New Hampshire. Rebekah, a graduate of the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, was an artist.
6.RebekahFurness, Rebekah ('Rebe') (‘Rebe’) Furness (1854–1937) andFurness, Laura Laura Furness (1857–1949) – born in Philadelphia, daughters of James Thwing Furness and Elizabeth Margaret Eliot (a descendant of Sheriff William Greenleaf, who had declaimed the Declaration of Independence from the balcony of the State House in Boston in 1776) – had lived since 1920, with their brother Dawes Eliot Furness, in Boston’s Back Bay neighbourhood and in Petersham, New Hampshire. Rebekah, a graduate of the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, was an artist.
5.EleanorHinkley, Eleanor Holmes (TSE's first cousin) Holmes Hinkley (1891–1971), playwright; TSE’s first cousin; daughter of Susan Heywood Stearns – TSE’s maternal aunt – and Holmes Hinkley: see Biographical Register.
5.ElizabethNorton, Elizabeth ('Lily') Gaskell Gaskell Norton (1866–1958), second child of Prof. Charles Eliot Norton (1827–1908); correspondent of Henry James, James Russell Lowell and Edith Wharton. Resident at 19 Chestnut Street, Boston, Mass.
9.WilliamSedgwick, (William) Ellery Ellery Sedgwick (1872–1960), editor of the Atlantic Monthly, 1908–38.
2.AdaSheffield, Ada Eliot (TSE's sister) Eliot Sheffield (1869–1943), eldest of the seven Eliot children; author of The Social Case History: Its Construction and Content (1920) and Social Insight in Case Situations (1937): see Biographical Register.
2.TheodoraSmith, Theodora ('Dodo') Eliot (TSE's niece) Eliot Smith (1904–92) – ‘Dodo’ – daughter of George Lawrence and Charlotte E. Smith: see Biographical Register. Theodora’sSmith, Charlotte ('Chardy') Stearns (TSE's niece) sister was Charlotte Stearns Smith (b. 1911), known as ‘Chardy’.