Page:Memoirs of Margaret Fuller Ossoli (IA memoirsofmargare01fullrich).pdf/176

174 ized, profaned, forsaken, — though obliged to smile brightly and talk wisely all the while. But these clouds at length passed away.

‘And now let me try to tell you what has been done. To one class I taught the German language, and thought it good success, when, at the end of three months, they could read twenty pages of German at a lesson, and very well. This class, of course, was not interesting, except in the way of observation and analysis of language.

‘With more advanced pupils I read, in twenty-four weeks, Schiller’s Don Carlos, Artists, and Song of the Bell, besides giving a sort of general lecture on Schiller; Goethe’s Hermann and Dorothea, Goetz von Berlichingen, Iphigenia, first part of Faust, — three weeks of thorough study this, as valuable to me as to them, — and Clavigo, — thus comprehending samples of all his efforts in poetry, and bringing forward some of his prominent opinions; Lessing’s Nathan, Minna, Emilia Galeotti; parts of Tieck’s Phantasus, and nearly the whole first volume of Richter’s Titan.

‘With the Italian class, I read parts of Tasso, Petrarch, — whom they came to almost adore, — Ariosto, Alfieri, and the whole hundred cantos of the Divina Commedia, with the aid of the fine Athenæum copy, Flaxman’s designs, and all the best commentaries. This last piece of work was and will be truly valuable to myself.

‘I had, besides, three private pupils, Mrs. —— who became very attractive to me, ——, and little ——, who had not the use of his eyes. I taught him Latin orally, and read the History of England and Shakspeare’s historical plays in connection. This lesson was