Names

of people and characters
from Hawthorne's life and writings

[If you are reading a Hawthorne text in one window you may keep this other window open on your screen at the same time--resize it and position it anywhere convenient. If a link from the text window jumps here, the name will appear at the top of this window, but you may have to click in this window to see it, if this one is behind another window.]

[A] [B] [C] [D] [E] [F] [G] [H] [I] [J] [K] [L] [M] [N] [O] [P] [Q] [R] [S] [T] [U] [V] [W] [X] [Y] [Z]


A

Akers, Benjamin Paul (1825-1861)
American sculptor and writer whom Hawthorne met in Rome, 1858

B

Bacchus
Roman god of wine
Bellingham, Governor Richard (1592-1672)
Elected governor of Massachusetts Bay Colony (1641, 1654, 1665-1672); born in Boston, Lincolnshire, England; came to Boston, Mass. in 1634. Also character in The Scarlet Letter, considered a bit more worldly than John Wilson.
Bernini, Giovanni Lorenzo (1598-1680)
Italian architect of St. Peter's Cathedral and Trevi Fountain, Rome

C

Canova, Antonio (1757-1822)
Italian neo-classical sculptor
Capuchins
religious order of monks founded in 1525 as a missionary branch of the Franciscans, by Matteo di Bascio; wore brown hoods (capuchs) and beards like St. Francis
Cellini, Benevenuto (1500-1571)
Italian metalworker and sculptor from Florence, wrote Autobiography
Cenci, Beatrice (1577-1599)
subject of painting attributed in Hawthorne era to Guido and sculpture by Hosmer; Italian woman executed for having her vicious father murdered; Shelley's play The Cenci postulates her father had raped her; this provides atmosphere for Miriam's character and vague history
Channing, William Ellery ("Ellery") (sometimes Jr. or II) (1818-1901)
born Nov. 29, 1818, Boston; named after the Signer not the Unitarian; died, Dec. 23, 1901, Concord, Mass.; Transcendentalist poet, Concord friend of Hawthorne, Emerson, Thoreau; son of Dr. Walter Channing (first to use anesthetics in childbirth and a physician to Sophia Peabody); nephew (not son--no matter what Poe and Henry James wrote) of the great Unitarian minister, William Ellery Channing (1780-1842); also cousin to another William Channing who was at Brook Farm; Harvard drop-out; cousin to Dr. William H. Channing, abolitionist Unitarian minister in Cincinnati and Liverpool, England; married Margaret Fuller's sister, Ellen, in 1842; contributor to The Dial; wrote poetry condemned by Poe, edited Thoreau works but mostly took walks with friends, described as Hawthorne friend in "The Old Manse"; see picture and biography.
Chillingworth, Roger (?-1650)
Char. in The Scarlet Letter, false name of Master Prynne, husband of Hester Prynne.
Cimabue, Giovanni (1240-1302)
Italian painter; his student was Giotto
Claude Lorrain (1600-1682)
French landscape painter
Curtis, George William (1824-1892)
attended high school at Brook Farm with his brother, Burrill; mentioned in preface to The Blithedale Romance as the author of travel (hence "Howadji") pieces from Egypt and Syria, wrote reminiscences of Hawthorne, 1853; essayist, From the Easy Chair, and newspaper editor; orator at North Bridge Centennial; later led U.S. Civil Service reform; chancellor of University of New York

D

Dimmesdale, Arthur (?-1649)
a main char. in The Scarlet Letter, Puritan pastor of Hester Prynne's church, and, secretly, father of her child out of wedlock, Pearl.
Diocletian (fl. 284-305)
Roman emperor, last to persecute Christians
Domenichino (1581-1641)
Italian fresco painter
Donatello, Count of Monte Beni
char. in The Marble Faun, supposed to look like the Faun of Praxiteles

E

Elizabeth I (1533-1603)
Queen of England (1558-1603); never married, hence "man-like".

F

Farley, Frank
friend at Brook Farm, had been a pioneer in the West, "a man of singular experiences and of an original turn, who was subject to mental derangement at times....visited him at the Old Manse, when Hawthorne was alone there, and entered actively into his makeshift housekeeping."--A Study of Hawthorne, by George Parsons Lathrop.
Faun of Praxiteles
statue at the Capitoline Museum, Rome, by an Athenian sculptor, of a mythical woodland Roman deity similar to the Greek god Pan, half-human, and which is supposed to look like Donatello, in The Marble Faun
Fra Angelico (1387-1455)
early Italian painter; see his Adoration of the Magi at the National Gallery, Washington, D.C.
Fuller, Sarah Margaret, Marchesa d'Ossoli (1810-1850)
American transcendentalist, feminist, editor of The Dial, 1840; unsuccessfully sought to have Channing and her sister move into Old Manse with Hawthornes; Boston literary magazine, died in shipwreck in 1850, popularly thought to be the type of Zenobia in The Blithedale Romance

G

Gibson, John (1790-1866)
English sculptor in tinted marble; Hawthorne met him in Italy, 1858
Giotto di Bondone (1266-1337)
first great Italian painter
Greenough, Horatio (1805-1852)
American sculptor in Rome; in 1843 did gigantic Washington statue now in Capitol basement
Guido Reni (1575-1642)
Italian painter of Baroque period; Hawthorne refers to him as "Guido"; thought by Hawthorne (but not by modern experts) to be artist who painted Beatrice Cenci that Hawthorne admired in Palazzo Barberini, Rome, in 1858

H

Hawthorne, Rose (Lathrop), Mother Alphonsa (1851-1926)
daughter, see separate page
Hester
See Prynne, Hester
Hibbins, Mistress Ann (?-1656)
char. in The Scarlet Letter , but also a real person, widow of a merchant not a magistrate (and not really the sister of Governor Bellingham), but really executed as a witch. First mentioned as a witch.
Hoffman, E. T. A. (1776-1822)
German writer, subject of Offenbach's opera Tales of Hoffmann
Hosmer, Miss Harriet (1830-1908)
American sculptress Hawthorne met in Rome, 1858; did a bust of Beatrice Cenci, now at St. Louis Mercantile Library
Hutchinson, Anne (1591-1643)
Banished as an Antinomian from Massachusetts in 1637, moved to Rhode Island, and killed by Indians in New York. See Hawthorne's sketch of her. As imprisoned rebel, possible origin of rose at prison door in The Scarlet Letter.

I

J

Jael
See Judges 4:17-24; Jewish heroine who murdered the Canaanite captain Sisera; alluded to as a type for Miriam
John of Bologna (1524-1608)
Flemish sculptor; in Florence 1553-
Judith
See Judith 13:1-12; Jewish widow who slept with enemy general Holofernes, cut off his head, and rescued her besieged city
Julius III, Pope
reigned 1550-5; his statue as a confessor and absolver in Perugia plays a part in The Marble Faun

K

L

Lander, Maria Louise
American artist from Salem whom Hawthorne met in Rome, 1858; did a bust of him, now at Concord Free Public Library
Lathrop, George Parsons (1851- )
born Honolulu, Aug. 25, 1851; educated Dresden, New York, studied law there; married Rose Hawthorne, 1871; asst. ed. Atlantic Monthly, 1875-7; edited Hawthorne's works; owned The Wayside; fought with Julian Hawthorne
Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519)
Italian painter and Renaissance man; now owned by Bill Gates
Leutze, Emanuel Gottlieb (1816-1868)
German painter in USA, painted Hawthorne portrait in 1862, now in National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian; several famous heroic paintings in Washington
Luini, Bernardino (1480?-1532)
Italian religious painter, disciple of Leonardo da Vinci
Longfellow, Henry Wadsworth (1807-1882)
poet, Harvard professor, fellow Bowdoin graduate; favorably reviewed tales, wrote elegy commemmorating Hawthorne's funeral

M

Michelangelo (1474-1564)
Italian Renaissance painter, sculptor; Hawthorne refers to him as "Michael Angelo"
Millais, Sir John (1829-1896)
English pre-Raphaelite painter; Hawthorne refers to his 1856 painting, Autumn Leaves, which he saw in Manchester in 1858; the pre-Raphaelites, in a reaction to industrializing Britain, tried to return to the simpler art of Giotto and other painters before Raphael
Miriam
char. in The Marble Faun

N

O

Octavius Caesar Augustus (63 B.C.-14 A.D.)
defeated Cleopatra and Marc Antony at Actium, 31 B.C.; see Shakespeare's play, Antony and Cleopatra

P

Perugino, Pietro (Pietro di Christoforo Vannucci) (1446-1523)
Italian painter of Perugia, taught Raphael; did some work in Sistine Chapel, the Vatican
Pierce, Franklin (1804-1869)
Friend of Nathaniel Hawthorne, 14th president of U.S., born Hillsboro, N.H., graduate Bowdoin College, 1824, N.H. lawyer, member of U.S. Congress and Senate, general in Mexican War (1847), subject of Hawthorne's campaign biography in 1852; sole remaining son tragically killed in train wreck just before Inauguration; as President (1853-1857) appointed Hawthorne U.S. Consul in Liverpool, England; was with Hawthorne when he died in Plymouth, N.H. See grave and read his Inaugural Address. A portrait is at the White House site.
Powers, Hiram (1805-1873)
American sculptor Hawthorne met in Florence, Italy, in 1858
Praxiteles
sculptor of Athens, Greece, in 4th century B.C., did the Faun, copies of which are at the Vatican and the Capitoline Museum, Rome; seen by Hawthorne in Rome, 1858
Prynne, Hester (1620?-1688?)
Main char. in The Scarlet Letter who commits adultery with the Rev. Mr. Arthur Dimmesdale, while married to the man who now calls himself Roger Chillingworth, and bears the child Pearl. Named. Emerges from prison "with natural dignity and force of character." Called Mistress Prynne or Madame Hester. Wears the scarlet letter "A" on gown. Appearance described.
Prynne, Master
See Chillingworth, Roger.
Prynne, Pearl (1642-?)
Char. in The Scarlet Letter, daughter of Hester Prynne and, secretly and illegimately, of the Rev. Mr. Arthur Dimmesdale.

Q

R

Raphael (1483-1520)
Italian painter; Hawthorne admired his Transfiguration of Christ in the Vatican on April 25, 1858
Ripley, Rev. Ezra ( - 1841)
minister who lived in the Old Manse from 1778 to 1841, pastor to Concord, married Ralph Waldo Emerson's grandmother
Rogers, Randolph (1825-1891)
American sculptor Hawthorne met in Rome, 1858

S

Sodoma (1477-1549)
Italian Renaissance painter; did a fresco at Siena, of Christ bound to a pillar, which Hawthorne admired
Story, William Wetmore (1819-1895)
American sculptor whom Hawthorne met in Rome, 1858; he did a figure of Cleopatra

T

Thompson, Cephas Giovanni (1809-1888)
American artist and friend of Hawthorne in Rome, 1858; painted Hawthorne's portrait in 1850
Thoreau, Henry David (1817-1862)
Concord writer, friend of Hawthorne; see home page and journal entry, Sept. 1, 1842.
Thorwaldsen, Bertel (1770-1844)
Danish sculptor, taught Greenough in Rome
Tieck, Ludwig (1773-1853)
German romantic novelist and short story writer, supposed to be similar to Hawthorne
Titian (Tiziano Vecellio) (1477-1576)
Italian Renaissance painter

U

V

W

Wilson, Reverend John ( 1588-1667)
Puritan clergyman, came to Boston in 1630, chief prosecutor of Anne Hutchinson. He was actually teacher not pastor of the First Church, and so was charged with interpreting the scriptures and teaching other ministers. Although described in The Scarlet Letter as "the eldest clergyman," Wilson was about 54 when he spoke to Hester on the scaffold (fictionally) in 1642. He is also described as rather kindly as opposed to other stern Puritan clergymen--he got himself in a bit of trouble as advisor to Anne Hutchinson.

X

Y

Z

Zenobia
char. in The Blithedale Romance; was the Queen of Palymra, captured and led bound through the streets by the Romans