1839—
Letter to Caroline Sturgis
p39analyzed · read
“last night I banqueted with him”
Fuller, Margaret. The Letters of Margaret Fuller. Edited by Robert N. Hudspeth. Vol. II. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1984.
WorkPlato
Symposium [Banquet]
Symposium [Banquet] (c. 385–370 BCE)
Plato (c. 428 BCE–c. 348 BCE) · c. 385–370 BCE
AnalyzedReadMentioned
Documented 1839
Additional passages preserved in the Memoirs (1852)
Letters
Selected engagements, in chronological order.
Totals count documented engagements, once at the earliest witness. How we count →
Reprints, Memoirs passages, and repeat notes within a single manuscript are shown but never counted twice. Evidence for this work is selective, not exhaustive. Methodology →
Confirmed reading
Passages where the evidence goes beyond allusion to indicate that Fuller had this work in hand — an explicit statement of reading, sustained excerpting or translation, or a specific reading episode recorded by those who knew her.
- Dated
- 1839Phaedrus and the Symposium (Banquet)Attested
“I have only read this time Phaedrus and the Banquet, but, I have had this vol several times before.”
Letters of Margaret Fuller ed. Hudspeth · Groton 4th March 1839
"I have only read this time Phaedrus and the Banquet" is an explicit reading statement.
- 1839Symposium (the Banquet)Attested
“last night I banqueted with him,-so I think I must be tuned up to concert pitch.”
Letters of Margaret Fuller ed. Hudspeth · Groton Sunday evening Jany 27th 183g
"last night I banqueted with him" continues the same explicit reading statement, referring to the Symposium.
When Fuller engaged with this work
1839—
Letter to Ralph Waldo Emerson
p54read
“I have only read this time Phaedrus and the Banquet, but, I have had this vol several times before.”
Fuller, Margaret. The Letters of Margaret Fuller. Edited by Robert N. Hudspeth. Vol. II. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1984.
Preserved in the Memoirs (1852)
1852—
Memoirs of Margaret Fuller Ossoli
p140read
“The first seeks, according to Plato's myth, another half, as being not entire in itself, but needing a kindred nature to unlock its secret chambers of emotion, and to act with quickening influence on all its powers, by full harmony of senses, affections, intellect, will”
Emerson, Ralph Waldo, William Henry Channing, and James Freeman Clarke, eds. Memoirs of Margaret Fuller Ossoli. 2 vols. Boston: Phillips, Sampson and Company, 1852.
Inferred Fuller engages with Plato's enduring myth of the divided self, as recounted in the Symposium, wherein original human beings formed from two halves seek their complementary other half. Fuller's reference to "Plato's myth" suggests familiarity with such classical dialogues, likely through contemporary translations.