Note By John Walter Cross, in George Eliot's Life
Title
Note By John Walter Cross, in George Eliot's Life
Title
Note By John Walter Cross, in George Eliot's Life
Sender
John Walter Cross
Recipient
U
Place
London
Letter Content
Note By John Walter Cross, in George Eliot's Life
Text: Cross, III, 359-360.
From this time forward I saw George Eliot constantly. My mother had died in the beginning of the previous December -- a week after Mr Lewes; and as my life had been very much bound up with hers, I was trying to find some fresh interest in taking up a new pursuit. Knowing very little Italian, I began Dante's "Inferno" with Carlyle's translation. The first time I saw George Eliot afterwards, she asked me what I was doing, and, when I told her, exclaimed, "Oh, I must read that with you." And so it was. In the following twelve months we read through the "Inferno" and the "Purgatorio" together -- not in a dilettante way, but with minute and careful examination of the construction of every sentence. The prodigious stimulus of such a teacher (contanto maestro) made the reading a real labour of love. Her sympathetic delight in stimulating my newly awakened enthusiasm for Dante, did something to distract her mind from sorrowful memories. The divine poet took us into a new world. It was a renovation of life. At the end of May I induced her to play on the piano at Witley for the first time; 227 and she played regularly after that whenever I was there, which was generally once or twice a-week, as I was living at Weybridge, within easy distance.
Besides Dante, we read at this time a great many of Sainte-Beuve's [Causeries,] and much of Chaucer, Shakspeare, and Wordsworth. But I am anticipating. We will return to the correspondence in its order.
Text: Cross, III, 359-360.
From this time forward I saw George Eliot constantly. My mother had died in the beginning of the previous December -- a week after Mr Lewes; and as my life had been very much bound up with hers, I was trying to find some fresh interest in taking up a new pursuit. Knowing very little Italian, I began Dante's "Inferno" with Carlyle's translation. The first time I saw George Eliot afterwards, she asked me what I was doing, and, when I told her, exclaimed, "Oh, I must read that with you." And so it was. In the following twelve months we read through the "Inferno" and the "Purgatorio" together -- not in a dilettante way, but with minute and careful examination of the construction of every sentence. The prodigious stimulus of such a teacher (contanto maestro) made the reading a real labour of love. Her sympathetic delight in stimulating my newly awakened enthusiasm for Dante, did something to distract her mind from sorrowful memories. The divine poet took us into a new world. It was a renovation of life. At the end of May I induced her to play on the piano at Witley for the first time; 227 and she played regularly after that whenever I was there, which was generally once or twice a-week, as I was living at Weybridge, within easy distance.
Besides Dante, we read at this time a great many of Sainte-Beuve's [Causeries,] and much of Chaucer, Shakspeare, and Wordsworth. But I am anticipating. We will return to the correspondence in its order.
Citation
John Walter Cross, Note By John Walter Cross, in George Eliot's Life, Complete George Eliot Letters(2026), George Eliot Archive, edited by Beverley Park Rilett. https://GeorgeEliotArchive.org, Accessed September 7, 2026. https://georgeeliotarchive.org/items/show/95580