In addition to being oversolicitous of her son, Susie also attempted to mould him in ways he found either irritating or repugnant. Around 1898 she tried to enrol him in a children’s dancing class; Lovecraft “abhorred the thought” and, fresh from an initial study of Latin, responded with a line from Cicero: “Nemo fere saltat sobrius, nisi forte insanit!” (“Scarcely any sober person dances, unless by chance he is insane”).
