This text is part of:
[357]
March brought a new pleasure, in seeing and meeting Novelli, the great Italian actor.
“ March 14. The banquet of the Circolo at Lombardy Inn.... My seat was at the head of the table with Novelli on my right and Tosti, the consul, on my left.
Had some pleasant talk with each.
Then I had a good inspiration for part of my speech, in which I mentioned the egg used by Columbus, and made to stand, to show that things held to be impossible often proved possible.
I said that out of this egg ‘was hatched the American Eagle.’
Madame Novelli shed tears at this, and Novelli kissed my hand.
The Italian servants listened eagerly to all the speaking, and participated in the applause.
President Geddes, Secretary Jocelyn, and others spoke well and rather briefly.
Dear Padre Roberto was really eloquent.”
“March 16.... In the evening to see Novelli in ‘Morte Civile’ ; his personation wonderfully fine, surpassing even Salvini in the part....”
“March 17 .... Went to South Boston to say a word at the presentation of dear Michael's portrait to the Perkins Institution by the Howe Memorial Club. . . . Also had a wonderful fit of verse — wrote two sonnets to Dante and a versification of my conceit about the hatching of the American Eagle from the egg of Columbus.”
“March 23. A ‘boot-and-saddle’ day.... I found that my Authors' Club will meet to-day in Cambridge.
Higginson telephoned, asking me to speak of Aldrich; I asked permission to leave the College Club after the speaking.
Ordered a carriage at 4.30, sprang into it, ”
Houghton Mifflin Company, Boston and New York. 1916.
Tufts University provided support for entering this text.
This work is licensed under a
Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 United States License.
An XML version of this text is available for download, with the additional restriction that you offer Perseus any modifications you make. Perseus provides credit for all accepted changes, storing new additions in a versioning system.