WorkWilliam Shakespeare

Timon of Athens

Timon of Athens (c. 1605–08; First Folio 1623) Inferred

William Shakespeare (1564–1616) · c. 1605–08; First Folio 1623

InferredFuller names Timon explicitly and identifies herself with his behavior: giving generously ('loved to give') and then finding the gift unreturned. Like Timon, I have loved to give, perhaps not from beneficence, but from restless love." This invocation suggests Fuller identified with Timon's complex motivations for generosity, hinting at a self-reflection on the source of her own philanthropic impulses.

AnalyzedQuotedReadMentioned

Documented 1846

Additional passages preserved in the Memoirs (1852)

Books • Manuscripts

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 →

AttestedConfirmed readingEvidence ↓

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.

undatedTimon of AthensAttested
“From Hamlet I turned to Timon and Lear. The outraged heart of Timon takes refuge at once in action, in curses, and bitter deeds.”
Papers on Literature and Art
Explicit 'From Hamlet I turned to Timon and Lear' is a direct first-person statement of moving between specific reading.

When Fuller engaged with this work

I. Childhood

II. Adolescence

III. Self-Directed

IV. Transcendentalist

V. New York

VI. Europe1record

✦. Memoirs (1852)1record

1810

1820

1832

1836

1844

1846

1850

1846—

Dialogue, containing sundry Glosses on Poetic Texts

“Dialogue, containing sundry Glosses on Poetic Texts”

analyzed · quoted · read

“From Hamlet I turned to Timon and Lear; the transition was natural yet surprising, from the indifference and sadness of the heaven-craving soul to the misanthropy of the disappointed affections and wounded trust.”

Fuller, Margaret. Papers on Literature and Art. New York: Wiley and Putnam, 1846. · p172

Also printed in Art, Literature, and the Drama (1869), p172; page given is to the 1869 reprint.

Undated

Pieces with no legible date. They are part of the record but cannot be placed on the lifeline.

n.d.—

On Death

p[1]-[2]

analyzed · readManuscript page

“Timon I think acted as I have done these last eight years. My early intercourses were more equal, because more natural.”

Fuller, Margaret. "On Death." Houghton Library, Harvard University; bMS Am 1086.

Inferred Fuller names Timon explicitly and identifies herself with his behavior: giving generously ('loved to give') and then finding the gift unreturned.

Preserved in the Memoirs (1852)

1852—

Memoirs of Margaret Fuller Ossoli

p77

read

“I have done as Timon did, for these last eight years... Like Timon, I have loved to give, perhaps not from beneficence, but from restless love.”

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 Like Timon, I have loved to give, perhaps not from beneficence, but from restless love." This invocation suggests Fuller identified with Timon's complex motivations for generosity, hinting at a self-reflection on the source of her own philanthropic impulses.