THE HOUSE OF LIFE

A Sonnet-Sequence by Dante Gabriel Rossetti

Rossetti’s pen-and-ink design for his Sonnet on the Sonnet. S. 258. Private Collection. See p. 38 note 9.

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THE HOUSE OF LIFE

A Sonnet-Sequence by Dante Gabriel Rossetti

Variorum Edition with an

Introduction and Notes

by Roger C. Lewis

Boydell & Brewer 2007

The author and publishers are grateful to all the institutions and individuals listed for permission to reproduce the materials in which they hold copyright. Every effort has been made to trace the copyright holders; apologies are offered for any omission, and the publishers will be pleased to add any necessary acknowledgement in subsequent editions.

Disclaimer:Some images in the original version of this book are not available for inclusion in the eBook.

ANNAE UXORI

For my wife Nancy

Table of Contents List of Illustrations x Acknowledgements xi Note on Edited Text and Apparatus xiii List of Abbreviations and Sigla xvi Introduction 1 Sonnet Texts and Notes 27 [PROEM Sonnet] 35

Part I. Youth and Change. 39 Sonnet I. Love Enthroned. 39 Sonnet II. Bridal Birth. 40 Sonnet III. Love’s Testament. 42 Sonnet IV. Lovesight. 44 Sonnet V. Heart’s Hope. 46 Sonnet VI. The Kiss. 47 Sonnet VIa. Nuptial Sleep. 48 Sonnet VII. Supreme Surrender. 52 Sonnet VIII. Love’s Lovers. 55 Sonnet IX. Passion and Worship. 56 Sonnet X. The Portrait. 58 Sonnet XI. The Love-Letter. 61 Sonnet XII. The Lovers’ Walk. 63 Sonnet XIII. Youth’s Antiphony. 65 Sonnet XIV. Youth’s Spring-Tribute. 67 Sonnet XV. The Birth-Bond. 68 Sonnet XVI. A Day of Love. 70 Sonnet XVII. Beauty’s Pageant. 71 Sonnet XVIII. Genius in Beauty. 72 Sonnet XIX. Silent Noon. 73 Sonnet XX. Gracious Moonlight. 76 Sonnet XXI. Love-Sweetness. 78 Sonnet XXII. Heart’s Haven. 80 Sonnet XXIII. Love’s Baubles. 82 Sonnet XXIV. Pride of Youth. 83 Sonnet XXV. Winged Hours. 85 Sonnet XXVI. Mid-Rapture. 86 Sonnet XXVII. Heart’s Compass. 87 Sonnet XXVIII. Soul-Light. 88

viii Table of Contents

Sonnet XXIX. The Moonstar. 90 Sonnet XXX. Last Fire. 91 Sonnet XXXI. Her Gifts. 92 Sonnet XXXII. Equal Troth. 94 Sonnet XXXIII. Venus Victrix. 96 Sonnet XXXIV. The Dark Glass. 97 Sonnet XXXV. The Lamp’s Shrine. 98 Sonnet XXXVI. Life-in-Love. 100 Sonnet XXXVII. The Love-Moon. 102 Sonnet XXXVIII. The Morrow’s Message. 103 Sonnet XXXIX. Sleepless Dreams. 104 Sonnet XL. Severed Selves. 106 Sonnet XLI. Through Death to Love. 107 Sonnet XLII. Hope Overtaken. 109 Sonnet XLIII. Love and Hope. 111 Sonnet XLIV. Cloud and Wind. 112 Sonnet XLV. Secret Parting. 113 Sonnet XLVI. Parted Love. 115 Sonnet XLVII. Broken Music. 116 Sonnet XLVIII. Death-in-Love. 117 Sonnets XLIX, L, LI, LII. Willowwood. 119 Sonnet LIII. Without Her. 129 Sonnet LIV. Love’s Fatality. 130 Sonnet LV. Stillborn Love. 131 Sonnets LVI., LVII., LVIII. True Woman. 133

I. Herself. 133 II. Her Love. 137 III. Her Heaven. 139

Sonnet LIX. Love’s Last Gift. 142 End of Part I. 142

Part II. Change and Fate. 144 Sonnet LX. Transfigured Life. 144 Sonnet LXI. The Song-Throe. 146 Sonnet LXII. The Soul’s Sphere. 147 Sonnet LXIII. Inclusiveness. 149 Sonnet LXIV. Ardour and Memory. 151 Sonnet LXV. Known in Vain. 154 Sonnet LXVI. The Heart of the Night. 155 Sonnet LXVII. The Landmark. 157 Sonnet LXVIII. A Dark Day. 158 Sonnet LXIX. Autumn Idleness. 161 Sonnet LXX. The Hill Summit. 164

Table of Contents ix

Sonnets LXXI., LXXII., LXXIII. The Choice. 167 Sonnets LXXIV., LXXV., LXXVI. Old and New Art. 172

I. St. Luke the Painter. 172 II. Not as These. 174 III. The Husbandmen. 177

Sonnet LXXVII. Soul’s Beauty. 179 Sonnet LXXVIII. Body’s Beauty. 181 Sonnet LXXIX. The Monochord. 184 Sonnet LXXX. From Dawn to Noon. 186 Sonnet LXXXI. Memorial Thresholds. 187 Sonnet LXXXII. Hoarded Joy. 189 Sonnet LXXXIII. Barren Spring. 191 Sonnet LXXXIV. Farewell to the Glen. 193 Sonnet LXXXV. Vain Virtues. 195 Sonnet LXXXVI. Lost Days. 196 Sonnet LXXXVII. Death’s Songsters. 197 Sonnet LXXXVIII. Hero’s Lamp. 200 Sonnet LXXXIX. The Trees of the Garden. 202 Sonnet XC. “Retro Me, Sathana!”. 204 Sonnet XCI. Lost on Both Sides. 207 Sonnets XCII., XCIII. The Sun’s Shame. 209 Sonnet XCIV. Michelangelo’s Kiss. 212 Sonnet XCV. The Vase of Life. 214 Sonnet XCVI. Life the Beloved. 215 Sonnet XCVII. A Superscription. 216 Sonnet XCVIII. He and I. 218 Sonnets XCIX., C. Newborn Death. 219 Sonnet CI. The One Hope. 223 End of The House of Life. 223 Appendix One. Dating and Ordonnance 227 Appendix Two. Poems: Proof States 247 Appendix Three. Poems: Chronology 1868–71 250 Appendix Four. Poems: Bibliographical Summaries 254 Appendix Five. Ballads and Sonnets: Chronology 1879–82 261 Appendix Six. Ballads and Sonnets: Bibliographical Summaries 274 Appendix Seven. Locations of Sources 278 Appendix Eight. Unpublished and Excluded Sonnets 288 Bibliography of Works Cited or Consulted 298

List of Illustrations Frontispiece: Rossetti’s pen-and-ink design for his

Sonnet on the Sonnet Plate I: Annotated proofsheet of 25 Apr 81

with Prefatory Note to House of Life xxii Plate II: Self-portrait by Elizabeth Siddal opp. 131 Table: Locations of proofsheets for Ballads and Sonnets 23

Acknowledgements This book began as a proposal for a Ph.D. dissertation more than

forty years ago. I cannot now remember the names of everyone who helped me with the research necessary to complete this variorum edition. Many of them, some of those most vividly and fondly remembered, are now beyond thanking, but I must thank them anyway. I shall start by naming my predecessors in undertaking a separate edition of the House: Frederick Page, Paull Baum, Janet Troxell, Kathryn Gordon and Thomas Delsey, whose work I have built on.

No one has done more to unearth Rossetti’s manuscripts, letters and scarce printed materials than William E. Fredeman, the godfather of Pre-Raphaelite studies and Editor of The Correspondence of Dante Gabriel Rossetti (D. S. Brewer, 10 vols): my book is the first to make exten-sive use of that monumental edition. Neither has anyone done more to help me personally and professionally with this edition than Dick Fredeman. From July 1975, when my research assistant Gavin Murdock and I descended on his Allison Road home and library, to a few days before his death in July 1999, Dick shared his collection, his letters edition-in-progress, his wisdom, expertise and vast network of contacts to aid my editorial efforts. The generosity and hospitality he offered to fellow-scholars during the Allison Road days were matched by his wife Jane Cowan Fredeman, who continued to extend them both towards me after Dick was gone by acting as my editor on this book.

I was assisted in the early stages of this edition by my able and supportive mentors F. E. L. Priestley and Malcolm M. Ross. Other Rossettians who have aided and encouraged my research include Robert N. Keane, Robert S. Fraser, Joseph P. Gardner, Rosalie Glynn Grylls (Lady Mander), Roger W. Peattie, Allan and Page Life, Mark Samuels Lasner and Jerome J. McGann. The co-operation of collectors and family custodians of rare material is essential in work of this kind: it is too late now to thank two of William Rossetti’s grand-daughters, Imogen Dennis and Lucy O’Conor, and collectors Simon Nowell-Smith, Sir Paul Getty and Halsted B. Vanderpoel, but without their help this edition would have been badly compromised. Booksellers are vitally important to scholarly editing as well: I must thank Maggs Bros., Ian Hodgkins and Co., Antony Rota, Bernard Quaritch and John Fleming.

The list of Librarians and Curators who enabled my research both in person and by other means would fill pages, so I am forced to be

xii Acknowledgements

both selective and collective. The staff of every repository mentioned in Appendix Seven (Location of Sources) is here formally thanked, but my greatest demands were made on personnel at the Firestone Library at Princeton, the Fitzwilliam Museum Library at Cambridge, the Beinecke Rare Books and Manuscript Library at Yale and the Delaware Art Museum in Wilmington: I was particularly obliged to Rob Fraser at Princeton, Phyllis Giles and P. Woudhuysen at the Fitzwilliam, Marjorie Wynne at Yale and Phyllis Nixon and Rowland Elzea at Delaware Art Museum. Donald Sinclair advised me on using the Symington Collection at Rutgers. George Brandak showed me around the Rossetti family archive at the University of British Columbia. Tim Burnett helped solve my problems in the British Library Department of Manuscripts. Finally, I am grateful to the staff in the Bodleian Library Bibliographic Centre, the Folger Shakespeare Library and Dan Tierney in the New York Public Library for teaching me the mysteries of collating machines.

I acknowledge with gratitude and humility the enormous role that my editors played in the creation of this book. Jane Cowan is mentioned above. I thank the editorial staff at Boydell & Brewer, particularly Caroline Palmer. I owe a special debt of gratitude to my tireless and unflappable technical editor, my indispensable wizard of word-processing, Barbara Lange.

Chasing Rossetti manuscripts is expensive. My initial searching in England was facilitated by a Queen Elizabeth II Ontario Scholarship and two Canada Council Pre-Doctoral Fellowships. Later research was generously funded through two Research Grants awarded by the Canada Council and its successor the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRCC); many smaller SSHRCC Grants were made through Acadia University, which also gave me several Reid Summer Study Awards and a generous amount of supported leave. Indeed, Acadia, my academic home, supported my research in countless ways, not least through assigning several student research assistants to me over thirty years. Other support received came from the University of Toronto Research Travel Fund, the British Council, the Nuffield Foundation and the Royal Academy.

I had many research assistants but the best of them were Gavin Murdock, Keith Anderson, Joe Kanary and my wife Nancy: this book is dedicated to her.

Note on the Edited Text and Apparatus

This is a variorum edition in the sense that it lists all the textual variants, including revisions and trials (both cancelled and uncancelled), in Rossetti’s manuscripts, notebooks, letters, proofsheets and printed texts with authority. No periodical or other separate printing of a House of Life sonnet is considered to have authority unless the copy-text derives directly from the poet or he is known to have seen proofs of the items. It is not the sort of variorum edition that includes a history of scholarship on the poem with representative excerpts or a large and various selection of notes and comments on the text by previous editors and critics. Both my bibliographies, the following list of frequently cited sources and the terminal list (pp. 298–301) of occasionally cited sources, do not therefore aim at completeness or inclusiveness. I have not attempted an exegesis or paraphrase of the poem.

Rather, I have striven to present the essential materials needed for such a critical task and to indicate where supporting materials may be found. I have read many critical studies of the sequence and individual sonnets in it, some of which I have cited below because I found them relevant and insightful or helpful in establishing context in the way that Rossetti’s exchanges by post with Swinburne or Caine provide context for some of the sonnets. Not every brilliant article on The House of Life is mentioned in this book, but neither is it crammed with all the dull and superfluous criticism of this poem that has been pouring forth since Robert Buchanan started the tradition in 1871. The reader is left to construct an interpretation of the poem and to choose between good and bad criticism of it.

My primary purpose has been to print exactly the text that Rossetti intended the reader to have, in its final form. To that end, I chose as copy-text the first edition of Ballads and Sonnets (1881), the last form of the sequence seen through the press by the poet. Some emendations were adopted from the resetting in 1882 of this text, called the fourth edition, because the poet had identified to his publisher mistakes he wanted corrected in the next edition or because there were obvious mistakes, wrong indents or dropped-out characters, that he would have corrected had he lived to see proofs of the fourth edition. I also accepted William Rossetti’s restoration to

xiv Note on the Edited Text and Apparatus

the sequence of Nuptial Sleep as VIa, although the poet had suppressed it in 1881.

Original or early editions of all sources cited or quoted are fully identified. Where an accessible and reliable reprint of a rare original exists, I have noted the fact. The abundant quotes from the Fredeman Correspondence edition follow the Editorial Procedures outlined there on pp. xxxv–xli, Vol. I. Rossetti’s quoted letters follow the MSS exactly and respect his erratic usage. When the letter quoted is in one of the later volumes not yet published, other printed sources follow the WEF identification e.g. the Doughty-Wahl or Bryson collections of letters.

In this edition, protocols for abbreviations, dates, insertion of marginal content and documentation in annotations and footnotes are consistent where practicable with the WEF edition so that the two may be used together with a minimum of confusion. For the WEF, Doughty-Wahl, Bryson and Lang (Swinburne) editions of letters, I identify the quote by a letter number. However, in editions like Roger Peattie’s of William Rossetti’s correspondence and William’s own editions of his brother’s and sister’s letters, where there is so much commentary and annotation, I use ‘No.’ for a letter citation: otherwise my numbers refer to pages. Some page references to Doughty-Wahl occur when their notes are being cited because their note numbering is not consecutive (i.e., the same letter could have more than one n1). Conjectural dates for letters are enclosed in square brackets; a prefatory ? before a date in square brackets indicates that it is a guess.

Date and place references for composition and publication of each sonnet are followed by source abbreviations. In my Frequently Cited/Consulted Sources I have relied heavily on the records of William Rossetti, William Bell Scott, Ford Madox Brown, Jane Morris, Hall Caine, Thomas Hake, Theodore Watts-Dunton and other contemporaries, not because they were profound scholars or eminent literary authorities, but because they were close friends and eye-witnesses to the poet’s life.

Recording revisions and variants is discussed below under ‘Stylistic Conventions and Sigla’. As befits a variorum edition, I have tried to compile complete rather than selective lists of variants, but even with magnifying glasses and infrared photography it is not always possible to decipher a palimpsest, reconstruct a cancelled or erased passage or read an illegible scrawl.

While I have aimed at an exact reproduction of the texts of the sonnets, I have not followed the first edition precisely in the matter of accidentals. Line numbers were inserted to help the reader follow often-complex lists of variants. There are no broken-up or spilled-

Note on the Edited Text and Apparatus xv

over lines. Rossetti’s dashes are all en-dashes with spaces around them. I have not capitalized the first word of each sonnet.

The ‘curly’ quotation marks of Ballads and Sonnets are not present because the book is set in Palatino. While following the first edition in using Roman numerals above each sonnet title, in my notes, commentary and tables I have sought to avoid confusion with the Poems (1870) version of the sequence by identifying all 1881 sonnets by their Arabic number and all 1870 sonnets by their Roman number.

List of Abbreviations and Sigla Frequently-recurring names and frequently-cited sources are

usually abbreviated in the notes and apparatus; these protocols and others follow as closely as possible those used in W. E. Fredeman’s The Correspondence of Dante Gabriel Rossetti (WEF). Abbreviations for MS and other rare or unique sources appear in Appendix Seven. A bibliography of works cited or consulted occasionally is on pp. 298–301; throughout the text citations of these works consist of the author’s last name, the year of publication and page or chapter numbers

ACS Algernon Charles Swinburne

CGR Christina Georgiana Rossetti

DGR Dante Gabriel Rossetti

EES Elizabeth Eleanor Siddal (DGR’s wife)

FLR Frances Lavinia Rossetti (DGR’s mother)

HC Thomas Henry Hall Caine

JM Jane Morris

PR/B Pre-Raphaelite/Brotherhood

PRISM Pre-Raphaelitism

TWD Walter Theodore Watts-Dunton

WBS William Bell Scott

WMR William Michael Rossetti

Rossetti’s Printed Works

B&S Ballads and Sonnets (Ellis and White, 1881)

EIP The Early Italian Poets (Smith, Elder, 1861)

HL The House of Life (Poems pp. 187–255; B&S pp. 161–263)

List of Abbreviations and Sigla xvii

Poems Poems (Ellis, 1870–72 eds 1–6)

Poems: New Poems: A New Edition (Ellis and White, 1881)

Tauchnitz Poems (7th ed. Tauchnitz, 1873)

Works; CW WMR, ed. The Works of Dante Gabriel Rossetti. London: Ellis, 1911. Enlarged from WMR’s Collected Works (CW). 2 vols. London: Ellis and Scrutton, 1886.

Stylistic Conventions and Sigla

MS/MSS Manuscript(s)

Ed./eds Edition(s)

Vol./vols Volume(s)

Sig./sigs Signature(s)

Fol./fols Folio(s)

n/nn Note(s)

Date/month/year 15 Oct 81 or 5 Jul: but, months without year or day are spelled out or given in full, as are single and non-nineteenth-century years, e.g. 15 Oct 1781

Ampersands Used only in abbreviated bibliographical references: ‘WEF 69.258 & nn’ or ‘PML MSS 6081 & 6083’

MSS, Revisions and Variants I have as far as possible listed the MSS in chronological order and

given the variants the same order. When an early version of a sonnet differs greatly from the final text I give it in full. When two sources are compared, the earlier one comes first: the readings of the later one are in bold face, the two separated by a virgule (/). Proofsheets and printed texts revised in Rossetti’s hand are treated as MSS: <revision> angle brackets enclose a word, phrase, line or passage

deleted from a MS. The new reading substituted follows. If further deletions and substitutions occur, they too will be enclosed in

xviii List of Abbreviations and Sigla

angle brackets following in the order of substitution until the final reading in that MS.

<<revision>> double, or triple, angle brackets are used to indicate revisions within revisions; deletions and substitutions within double brackets are thus enclosed within single brackets.

[MS breaks off here] square brackets contain editorial insertions: they are also used to identify conjectural dates, speculative readings or references (sometimes preceded by a question mark if the editor is guessing) or to separate editorial comment from the text of revisions and variants.

Frequently Cited or Consulted Sources ALC The Ashley Library: A Catalogue of Printed Books,

Manuscripts, and Autograph Letters Collected by Thomas J. Wise. 11 vols. London: Printed for Private Circulation, 1922–36. Reissued with a new preface by Simon Nowell-Smith. Folkestone: Dawson’s, 1971.

AN William Minto, ed. Autobiographical Notes of the Life of William Bell Scott and Notices of His Artistic and Poetic Circle of Friends 1830–82. 2 vols. London: Osgood, 1892.

Bibliography WMR. Bibliography of the Works of Dante Gabriel Rossetti. London: Ellis, 1905; repr. New York: AMS, 1971.

Bryson John Bryson, ed., with Janet Camp Troxell. Dante Gabriel Rossetti and Jane Morris: Their Correspondence. Oxford: Clarendon, 1976.

Buchanan Robert Buchanan. The Fleshly School of Poetry and Other Phenomena of the Day. London: Strahan, 1872. Expanded from Buchanan’s pseudo-nymous attack on DGR in the Contemporary Review (Oct 71): 334–50. Repr. New York: AMS, 1975. For more bibliography and other details of this controversy that precipitated DGR’s breakdown in the summer of 1872 see Appendices 8 & 9 in WEF Vol. V.

List of Abbreviations and Sigla xix

Caine Hall Caine. Recollections of Rossetti. London: Stock, 1882; contains many excerpts from DGR’s letters to HC, some misquoted and conflated.

ClassLists WMR. Dante Gabriel Rossetti: Classified Lists of His Writings with the Dates. London: privately printed in 100 copies, 1906.

DGRDW WMR. Dante Gabriel Rossetti as Designer and Writer. London: Cassell, 1889. Repr. New York: AMS, 1970. Includes sonnet-by-sonnet prose paraphrase of HL pp. 179–262.

Doughty Oswald Doughty. A Victorian Romantic: Dante Gabriel Rossetti. London: Frederick Muller, 1949. Rev. ed. 1960.

DW Oswald Doughty and John Robert Wahl, eds. Letters of Dante Gabriel Rossetti. 4 vols. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1965–67. Vol. I 1835–60 Letters 1–353 pp. 1–385; Vol. II 1861–70 Letters 354–1094 pp. 387–921; Vol. III 1871–76 Letters 1095–1744 pp. 923–1468; Vol. IV 1877–82 Letters 1745–2615 pp. 1469–1953.

FL/FLM WMR. Dante Gabriel Rossetti: His Family Letters with a Memoir. 2 vols. London: Ellis, 1895. Vol. 1: Memoir (FLM). Vol. 2: Letters (FL); repr. New York: AMS, 1970.

FLCGR The Family Letters of Christina Georgiana Rossetti, ed. WMR. London: Brown, Langham, 1908.

FR ‘Of Life, Love, and Death: Sixteen Sonnets’, Fortnightly Review (March 1869): 266–73.

Grylls Rosalie Glynn Grylls [see also Rosalie, Lady Mander]. Portrait of Rossetti. London: Macdonald, 1964.

Harrison The Letters of Christina Rossetti, ed. Antony H. Harrison. 3 vols. Charlottesville: U Virginia P, 1997.

xx List of Abbreviations and Sigla

HRA Helen Rossetti Angeli. Dante Gabriel Rossetti: His Friends and Enemies. London: Hamilton, 1949.

Kelvin Norman Kelvin, ed. The Collected Letters of William Morris. 5 vols. Princeton NJ: Princeton UP, 1984–96.

Lang Cecil Y. Lang, ed. The Swinburne Letters. 6 vols. New Haven CT: Yale UP, 1959–62.

Lewis Roger C. Lewis. Thomas J. Wise and the Trial Book Fallacy. Aldershot: Scolar Press, 1995.

Marillier Henry Currie Marillier. Dante Gabriel Rossetti: An Illustrated Memorial of His Art and Life. London: Bell, 1899.

MS Diary MS Diary of WMR in the Angeli-Dennis Papers at UBC, an almost continuous record of literary and artistic events and family activities from early PRB days to the close of WMR’s life in 1919.

Masefield John Masefield. Thanks Before Going: Notes on Some of the Original Poems of Dante Gabriel Rossetti. London: Heinemann, 1946.

Peattie Roger W. Peattie, ed. Selected Letters of William Michael Rossetti. University Park, PA: Pennsylvania UP, 1990.

PFB 1) 2) 3) Paull Franklin Baum, ed. 1) Dante Gabriel Rossetti: An Analytical List of Manuscripts in the Duke University Library with Hitherto Unpublished Verse and Prose. Durham, NC: Duke UP, 1931; 2) The House of Life: A Sonnet Sequence. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1928; 3) ‘The Bancroft Manuscripts of Dante Gabriel Rossetti’, Modern Philology (Aug 1941): 47–68.

PRISM William E. Fredeman. Pre-Raphaelitism: A Biblio-critical Study. Cambridge MA: Harvard UP, 1965.

List of Abbreviations and Sigla xxi

RP WMR, ed. Rossetti Papers, 1862–70. London: Sands, 1903.

S/Surtees Virginia Surtees. Dante Gabriel Rossetti: A Cata-logue Raisonné. 2 vols. Oxford: Clarendon, 1971. S. followed by a number identifies an entry in the catalogue.

SR WMR. Some Reminiscences. 2 vols. London: Brown Langham, 1906.

Wahl John Robert Wahl. The Kelmscott Love Sonnets of Dante Gabriel Rossetti. Cape Town: A.H. Balkema, 1954.

WA/GBH George Birkbeck Hill, ed. Letters of Dante Gabriel Rossetti to William Allingham 1854–70. London: Unwin, 1897.

WEF William E. Fredeman, ed. The Correspondence of Dante Gabriel Rossetti. 10 vols. Completing Editors: Roger C. Lewis, Jane Cowan, Roger Peattie, Allan Life, Page Life. Cambridge: D.S. Brewer, 2002–; Vol. I 1835–54; Vol. II 1855–62; Vol. III 1863–67; Vol. IV 1868–70; Vol. V 1871–72; Vol. VI 1873–74; Vol. VII to be issued in 2007.

WMRD Odette Bornand. The Diary of William Michael Rossetti 1870–1873. Oxford: Clarendon, 1977.

Annotated proofsheet for Ballads and Sonnets of 25 Apr 81 with Prefatory Note to The House of Life. Princeton. See p. 34 note 5.

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Introduction

The Building of The House of Life

In 1909, Wilfred S. Blunt, author of the sonnet sequence Esther, asserted to Sir Sydney Cockerell that he considered Dante Gabriel Rossetti’s 103-sonnet poem The House of Life ‘the greatest of all the great Victorian poems’. This image of its loftiness has been popular among the poem’s would-be interpreters, who regard it as an unscaled, perhaps unscalable, pinnacle among Victorian peaks. Certainly, its textual complexities are formidable, and it is impossible to attempt an authoritative interpretation of the House without the benefit of a proper critical edition. The final version, which appeared in Ballads and Sonnets (1881), contained sonnets written as early as 1847, before the formation of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, and as late as 1880. The individual ‘sonnet-stanzas’ of the House were thus composed over a period of thirty-four years, twice the time it took Alfred Tennyson to compose all the individual lyrics of In Memoriam.

The sequence itself appeared in three different states: 16 sonnets in 1869, published in the Fortnightly Review with the title ‘Of Life, Love, and Death’; 50 sonnets and 11 lyrics published in Poems (1870) with the title ‘Sonnets and Songs, towards a Work to Be Called The House of Life’; 102 sonnets (including an unnumbered proem-sonnet but no songs) published in Ballads and Sonnets (1881) as The House of Life in a two-part sequence with the subtitles ‘Youth and Change’ (59 sonnets) and ‘Change and Fate’ (42 sonnets). Jerome McGann identifies a fourth state (McGann 2003: 386), the Bodleian Library MSS of 30 sonnets and songs that J. R. Wahl published as The Kelmscott Love Sonnets of D. G. Rossetti, but McGann’s claim that these documents form ‘a relatively coherent’ version of the sequence is difficult to support. They form no entity and have no unity beyond being a collection of fair copies that Rossetti included in letters to Jane Morris. Some of these poems were never part of any version of the House. Nevertheless, McGann’s emphasis on the instability of this long poem is critically sound: it is a house built upon ever-shifting sands.

Some poems added to the final House in 1881 originally appeared in the ‘Sonnets for Pictures and Other Sonnets’ section of Poems (1870). To the despair of his printer, Rossetti experimented with a half-dozen different sonnets in the initial position and shifted large

2 Introduction

groups of sonnets within the sequence in the course of his manic composing and revising from 1868 to 1870. He constantly revised individual octaves, sestets and lines as well, introducing these changes at all stages, even on press-proofs. Some of his proofsheets used as printer’s copy contain so much revision and additional material that an editor may be justified in regarding them as MSS. As John Carter remarked in 1972, no publisher today would tolerate this amount of revision at the proof stage from a best-selling novelist, never mind a poet.

What does all this textual instability signify, and how should an editor deal with it? Answers to the first question abound among Rossetti critics. Perhaps the most common is that Rossetti was a relentless per-fectionist, a ferocious competitor in the struggle to determine the poetic survival of the fittest. His goal was hyperdense, multifaceted signifi-cance, to be achieved by what he described to Hall Caine as ‘funda-mental brainwork’ (WEF 81.104) and summed up in a phrase from his sonnet on the Sonnet as ‘arduous fulness’, a phrase once parodied by the unsympathetic critic John Addington Symonds as ‘plethoric verbiage’. Rossetti contrasted his compositional methods with those of his more fluent and prolific friends Swinburne and Morris, depicting himself as agonizing upon his couch, the racked and tortured medium through whom the Muse vouchsafed only a few lines at a time. Too much emphasis on biographical explanations of The House of Life, however, obscures Rossetti’s ambition to be regarded as a fine sonneteer. As C. S. Lewis observed, the man who writes a good love sonnet needs not only to be enamoured of a woman but also to be enamoured of the sonnet.

Like that other inveterate reviser, Tennyson, Rossetti was diffident about his poetic gift, determined to publish only work adjudged to be his finest by family and friends and paranoid about criticism from all others. In this matter his painting parallels his poetry to some extent: he was as reluctant to exhibit as he was to publish, and he painted out heads as often as he cancelled stanzas. But there is a very important difference. He thought of his poetry as untainted by commercialism, affirming an integrity and evincing a dedication in his literary art that he felt he had surrendered by painting so many potboilers. He began and ended his career as an artist by writing poetry; it is striking that in the 1880s he was revising poems that he had written in the 1840s. What Johnson said of Pope is true of Rossetti: ‘to make verses was his first labour, and to mend them was his last’.

Introduction 3

I

My own belief is that I am a poet ... primarily and that it is my poetic tendencies that chiefly give value to my pictures; only painting being – what poetry is not – a livelihood – I have put my poetry chiefly in that form. On the other hand, the bread-and-cheese question has led to a good deal of my painting being pot-boiling and no more – whereas my verse, being unprofitable has remained … unprosti-tuted. … As with recreated forms in painting, so I should wish to deal in poetry chiefly with personified emotions; and in carrying out my scheme of the House of Life (if ever I do so) shall try to put in action a complete dramatis personae of the soul. D. G. Rossetti to Dr T. G. Hake (WEF 70.110)

Written to an enthusiastic admirer upon the publication of Poems (1870), the passage above conveys the sense of inspired poetic vocation that possessed Rossetti for only three short periods of his life: 1849–53, the years of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood; 1868–71, a time of nearly continuous literary production beginning at Penkill Castle, Ayrshire, and ending at Kelmscott Manor, Oxfordshire; and 1879–81, an Indian summer of literary creativity that culminated in Poems (1881) and Ballads and Sonnets. On 13 April 1880, Rossetti told Hall Caine, one of his first biographers, that he gave up poetry in favour of painting in 1853 when he was twenty-five, writing ‘extremely little I might almost say nothing except the renovated Jenny in 1858 or 1859’ until he began work on his 1870 Poems (WEF 80.125). He also revealed to Caine that he wrote on a sort of orgiastic principle, working himself into states of manic intensity followed by exhaustion and depression:

I wrote the tale [Hand and Soul] ... all in one night in December 1849. ... In such a case a landscape and sky all unsurmised open gradually in the mind – a sort of spiritual ‘Turner’ among whose hills one ranges and in whose waters one strikes out at unknown liberty. But I have found this only in nightly work which I have seldom attempted, for it leaves one entirely broken, and this state was mine when I described it at the close of the story. (WEF 80.116)

But the fact is that Rossetti’s best writing was done this way, when his painting activities dwindled to make way for bursts of imagina-tive composition sustained often for months at a time. The second period of literary creativity began tentatively in 1868 when he thought his career as a painter threatened by failing eyesight, but in

4 Introduction

1870 it had reached a multiple climax of acclaim among the literati and success with the reading public, satisfying the author’s own demanding criteria for poetic excellence. However, the euphoria waned when the writing stopped, giving way in late 1871 to obsession and in 1872 to despair and madness. For eight years Rossetti wrote almost nothing. Then the pattern asserted itself one last time. Slowly at first but eventually attaining all the old mastery, Rossetti enjoyed in 1880–81 a final poetic blossoming, even improving on his triumph of eleven years earlier by bringing out not one but two successful volumes in October-November of 1881. But scarcely more than a month after the publication of Poems (1881) on November 10, he was raving again: from that breakdown, he never recovered.

II

Much has been written on the first two creative periods: Rossetti’s ‘Pre-Raphaelite’ youth, and the fascinating circumstances under which Poems (1870) was produced dominated in the popular mind by the Gothic episode of the exhumation in Highgate Cemetery in which his friends recovered the MS poems from his wife’s grave.1 The textual story of the building of Poems (1870) in general and the House in particular is recounted in detail in Appendices One to Six.

That Rossetti intended The House of Life to be read as a unified whole is clear from the excerpt quoted above from his letter of 21 April 1870 to Dr Hake. His use of terminology from drama suggests that he was aiming at more than self-expression and prepares us for his eventual omission of the lyrics. It is true that this drama takes place within ‘the soul’, but in The Stealthy School of Criticism, the poet insisted that ‘the motive powers of art reverse the requirement of science, and demand first of all an inner standing point’ (Works 619). From that point, the ‘personified emotions’ may be seen as characters in a drama that is more Jungian than Dantesque.

Rossetti’s letters show that the idea of a sonnet sequence evolved gradually and intermittently in his mind. Many sonnets written before 1870 were not composed consciously as part of a larger

1 On Rossetti’s ‘Pre-Raphaelite’ youth see WEF Vols I & II and Gordon H.

Fleming, 1967 & 1971. On the context and publication history of Poems (1870), see WEF Vols IV & V, especially Appendices 1–5 & 8–9. See also Lewis Chapter 3 and articles by Robert S. Fraser, Robert N. Keane and Janet Camp Troxell in Fraser 1972, a publication commemorating Princeton’s acquisition of the Troxell Rossetti Collection.

Introduction 5

scheme, although some, such as 69 and 70, were revised in varying degree, both before and after the appearance of Poems (1870), to take their place within the sequence. His experimentation with grouping and positioning can be partially followed in some collections of House MSS: the Fitzwilliam Library sonnets are numbered in pencil on the upper left of each leaf, some having as many as four cancelled numbers while other numbers were never altered. This process is also evident in proofsheets.

Much has been made of Rossetti’s declaration to William Bell Scott that his sonnets were ‘occasional’ and his apparent contradiction of that statement in his cancelled preface to the 1881 sequence: ‘These poems are in no sense occasional.’ In August 1871, during the period of the ‘Kelmscott Love Sonnets’, Rossetti wrote to Scott:

I hardly ever do produce a sonnet except on some basis of special momentary emotion; but I think there is another class admissible also – and that is the only other I practise, viz. the class depending on a line or two clearly given you, you know not whence, and calling up a sequence of ideas. This also is a just raison d’être for a sonnet, and such are all mine when they do not in some sense belong to the ‘occasional’ class. (WEF 71.129)

Naive Freudians read Rossetti’s poetry as disguised and distorted autobiography. But there is much evidence that he regarded all intense human experience, including his own, as symbolic of deeper realities. While he never formulated, as Carlyle did, a distinction between extrinsic and intrinsic symbols, such a distinction is clear from both his creative and his critical writing. He believed that only trivial poetry could be made from incidents not amounting to events: one way to ensure that an occasion, or incident, amounts to an event, or symbolic experience, is continuous revision. In 1854, including his new sonnet Lost on Both Sides (91) in a letter to William Allingham, he remarked, ‘my sonnets are not generally finished till I see them again after forgetting them, and this is only two days old’ (WEF 54.55). This is an understatement. Sonnet 91 in particular and House sonnets in general underwent so much revision before their final appearance in 1881 that the poet’s use of the word ‘tattoo’ to describe this process aptly characterizes many of his MSS and proofsheets. The deperson-alizing, symbolizing tendency of much of this revision cannot be dismissed as mere self-censorship; Rossetti was following that impulse towards an impersonal art that he celebrated in the proem Sonnet and Transfigured Life (60).

6 Introduction

The 1854 letters to Allingham contain the first references dis-covered to those very important MSS, Rossetti’s vest-pocket note-books, four of which were acquired by Thomas J. Wise for the Ashley Library. These tiny documents contain poems in process, in nearly every stage of composition from single words or scribbled phrases to final drafts. After agreeing with Allingham that the last lines of Sonnet 91 are ‘certainly foggy’, Rossetti amends them from his vest-pocket notebook containing ‘various sonnets and beginnings of sonnets written at crisises (?!) of happy inspiration’. Then he copies for his friend a sonnet ‘which I remember writing in great glory on the top of a hill which I reached one after-sunset in Warwickshire last year’ (WEF 54.57). A study of the development of this poem from its appearance here to its inclusion in the final House as The Hill Summit (70) reveals to what purpose Rossetti could shape what began as the record of an intense moment. In September 1869, he sent his brother a revised version of the sestet with the following question:

The symbolism being thus more distinct than before, do you not think this sonnet should properly be transferred to the House of Life section? (WEF 69.156)

The only earlier references to the House come in a letter of 30 August to Jane Morris (WEF 69.143) and Proof State 2 of Poems (1870) dated 18 August (see Appendix Two). By the summer of 1869, some overall plan for a sonnet sequence had formed itself in the poet’s mind; he revised The Hill Summit to fit into the pattern he was working out for The House of Life.

Many sonnets of the other, non-occasional, sort developed from or drew upon single lines or couplets that he had evidently written in these little notebooks as they were ‘given’ to him. Silent Noon (19), an apparently ‘occasional’ poem and a sonnet often read as an entry in Rossetti’s erotic diary, combined four separate notebook entries made over so long a period of time that all four could not possibly refer to a single experience. Even some of the ‘Kelmscott Love Sonnets’ contain imagery not inspired by that locale: the final two lines of The Lovers’ Walk (12) came out of a notebook, although the first twelve are clearly set at Kelmscott. The point of carrying these books in the vest-pocket was to facilitate easy transcription of passing impressions which might be of use later in the ‘fundamental brainwork’ of composition and revision Rossetti described to Caine. In the following letter of 1876 he explains this matter to his fellow-poet Hake upon presenting him with a notebook:

Introduction 7

Let me beg your acceptance of a waistcoat pocket book, such as I always carry. I enclose it with the MS. The waist-coat pocket is the only one of all pockets into which the hand slips willingly whatever be the body’s position whether walking, standing, sitting, lying or squatting. Kneeling you see I exclude. A dive into the trousers pocket is often laborious and coat pockets inaccessible. Thus the best thoughts of the lazy minstrel may doze past his brain unjotted but for the waistcoat pocket book. (WEF 76.44)

The concept of a group of sonnets with related themes and images in sequential order appears in letters to several correspondents between December 1868 and August 1871. Rossetti first mentions it to Allingham 23 December 1868, in a letter which also gives eye trouble as the cause of ‘inaction’ in painting and ‘the looking up of ravelled rags of verse’:

I have been looking up a few old Sonnets, and writing a few more new ones, to make a little bunch in a coming number of the Fortnightly. (WEF 68.173)

These sonnets, the embryonic phase of The House of Life, appeared three months later with the title Of Life, Love and Death: Sixteen Sonnets. Appendix One includes a comparison of this selection with the 1870 and 1881 phases of the sequence: it is apparent from this comparison that the poet intended from the start to end the series with the richly suggestive and paradoxical image of death as a newborn child (Newborn Death, 99 and 100).

Rossetti’s letters to his brother William at this time indicate how carefully he was selecting and revising. Despite the fact that in both 1870 and 1881 he worried about the slightness of his volumes, he excluded many sonnets from the House, either discarding them from various proof states or including them in ‘other sonnets’ sections; some sexually explicit ones were suppressed or left unfinished (see Appendix Eight). Early sonnets such as 71–73 and 90 were finally included after heavy revision discussed with William (e.g., WEF 69.130, 137, 139, 144, 146, 154, 156 and 168). What strikes one most about these letters is the precision and thoroughness with which the poet prepared his printer’s copy and revised his proofs. Always he strives for more exact expression, more coherent structure to render the inner logic of an imaginary set of circumstances. Nuptial Sleep (6A) exemplifies this procedure. He thought it one of his best sonnets, having no wish to suppress it in 1870 as he did in 1881 (except en famille). The fact that in 1869 he did remove the sonnet After the French Liberation of

8 Introduction

Italy in the name of decorum indicates that he did not regard Nuptial Sleep as obscene or vulgar (Lewis 137–40). Neither did he regard it sentimentally as the record of some private sexual encounter – his correspondence about it with William and Swinburne shows that he was searching for what Coleridge had defined as the essence of poetry, the best words in the best order. In changing the title from Placatâ Venere to Nuptial Sleep and adding ‘married’ in line 6 to ‘help it stand fire’, he presumably thought that Patmorish marital imagery would be less likely than Swinburnian pagan symbolism to draw on him the abuse that was heaped upon Swinburne after he published his Poems and Ballads (WEF 69.146 and 154). His fears proved only too justified when Buchanan selected Nuptial Sleep as the prime example of Rossetti’s ‘fleshliness’, yet the poet had feared the charge of idolatry more than adultery, for he deleted paganism, not eroticism, from the sonnet. There is no evidence that Jane Morris opposed the publication of Nuptial Sleep in 1870. That she seems to have advised Rossetti against including erotic poetry in his 1881 volume shows her concern for his health – another literary war might have caused madness or death – rather than her fear of personal embarrassment.

The exchange of letters with Swinburne during this period was especially stimulating for Rossetti, more often at his best with one who was his literary equal as well as an enthusiastic admirer. Swinburne seems to have grasped at once what Rossetti was attempting in his sonnet sequence which so many, including William, thought obscure. On 26 February 1870, while Swinburne was working on his review of Poems from proofsheets, Rossetti wrote to him as follows:

I am delighted to hear that you are battling with the British dragon on the subject of my ‘obscurity’ in the Sonnets. I opine that I am likely when I read your elucidation to see how much better they might have been made by your light, just as I did with the pictures of mine you described. I trust no inconvenience will result to your labours by the fact that I am now slightly transposing that section – but only in masses – putting the love sonnets first – (beginning at Bridal Birth [2] and ending at Stillborn Love [55]) and the other sonnets following these (Inclusiveness [63] to Super-scription [97] with a new one for a close [The One Hope, 101]). Two other new ones occur in the love-sonnets. The section then winds up with the songs. This is better I think, as the love-sonnets are the preponderant portion. (WEF 70.35)

Introduction 9

Swinburne wrote back two days later:

Thanks for your new sonnet, which is lovely. It will make no difference to my critical work that you have – very rightly I think – re-arranged the cycles of sonnets. (Lang 2: 105)

The comments of both poets draw attention to the element of structure. Both ‘masses’ and ‘cycles’ suggest relatedness, as does the inclusion of The One Hope ‘for a close’. Here also appears the concept of a two-part work beginning with ‘love-sonnets’ and ending, after a second group of sonnets, with the songs, for the sake of evidently, balance. As the design worked itself out in the poet’s mind after 1870, the songs, never an integral part of the sequence, got dropped. In fact, a week after receiving Swinburne’s letter, Rossetti removed the lyrics A New Year’s Burden and Even So because ‘they seemed to jar with the other love songs and to make a false climax’ (WEF 70.45). He kept adding and deleting sonnets until he had an even fifty just before press-time; again in 1881, he finally reached an even hundred, numbering The One Hope 101 as if to balance the unnumbered proem Sonnet and thus provide a frame for his ‘century’ of sonnets.

Swinburne’s review appeared in the Fortnightly Review for May 1870 (Swinburne 1875). The fulsome praise of his friend embarrassed Rossetti but the critical insight of the essay pleased him. After refuting ‘charges of darkness and difficulty’ in the sonnets, Swinburne proceeds with characteristic exuberance to argue that The House of Life is a unified organic whole which eludes mechanical dissection:

But such work as this can be neither unwoven nor recast by any process of analysis. The infinite depth and wealth of life which breathes and plays among these songs and sonnets cannot be parcelled and portioned out for praise or comment. This House of Life has in it so many mansions, so many halls of state and bowers of music, chapels for worship and chambers for festival, that no guest can declare on a first entrance the secret of its scheme. Spirit and sense together, eyesight and hearing and thought, are absorbed in splendour of sounds and glory of colours distinguishable only by delight. But the scheme is solid and harmonious; there is no waste in this luxury of genius: the whole is lovelier than its loveliest part. Again and again one may turn the leaves in search of some one poem or some two which may be chosen for sample and thanksgiving; but there is no choice to be made. (7)

10 Introduction

Swinburne recognizes that the unity of the sequence does not depend on any narrative progression:

There seems no story in this sequence of sonnets, yet they hold in them all the action and passion of a spiritual history with tragic stages and elegiac pauses and lyric motions of the living soul. (8)

He hails as successful Rossetti’s striving for ‘inclusiveness’ (as sonnet 63 is called), his attempt ‘to put in action a complete dramatis personae of the soul’:

Resignation and fruition, forethought and afterthought, have one voice to sing with in many keys of spirit. ... And of all splendid and profound love-poetry, what is there more luminous or more deep in sense and spirit than the marvellous opening cycle of twenty-eight sonnets, which embrace and express all sorrow and all joy of passion in union, of outer love and inner, triumphant or dejected or piteous or at peace? (9)

After a detailed paraphrase of this ‘opening cycle’ which remains unsurpassed by the subsequent efforts of William Rossetti (DGRDW), Paull Baum {PFB 2)}, John Masefield and Kathryn Gordon (1968), Swinburne concludes by emphasizing what he sees as the central theme of the sequence: the metaphorical identity of the Lover and the Artist made possible through the worship of his Mistress/Muse:

In all the glorious poem built up of all these poems there is no great quality more notable than the sweet and sovereign unity of perfect spirit and sense, of fleshly form and intellectual fire. This Muse is as the woman praised in the divine words of the poet himself:

‘Whose speech Truth knows not from her thought

Nor Love her body from her soul.’ (13)2

One of Rossetti’s first critics remains one of his most perceptive. Yet Swinburne’s word ‘fleshly’ was soon to explode in both their faces.

2 Swinburne is quoting the final lines of ‘Love-Lily’, Song 1 in the 1870

House of Life.

Introduction 11

III

The story of the two 1881 volumes and the final version of The House of Life begins where the second period of creativity ends, in the summer and fall of 1871. On 12 August, speculation appeared in the literary gossip section of the Athenæum that Rossetti intended to issue a new collection of poems as early as winter 1872. Writing to his friend William Bell Scott on the following day, Rossetti joked about but did not deny the rumour (WEF 71.123). Besides thirty new sonnets for the House, Rossetti had the lyrics ‘Sunset Wings’, ‘The Cloud Confines’ and ‘Down Stream’ ready to print. In September, he finished his long ballad Rose Mary (though not yet the ‘Beryl-songs’ that he later added to it), starting at once on another long poem, The Orchard Pit, all of which, augmented ‘with smaller things, might perhaps make a fair volume again’ (WEF 71.152). However, with the return in October of William Morris from Iceland, he had to vacate Kelmscott for Chelsea. He lamented to Scott: ‘Of course I’m leaving here just as I was getting into the poetic groove, and I know were I to stay I should have a volume ready by the end of another three months. But it may not be’ (WEF 71.159). In the same letter, he remarks that he is evidently ‘the first victim’ of an attack on ‘the Fleshly School of Poetry’. This development, casually dismissed here, was to prove more destructive of Rossetti’s scheme for a new book of poems than his being deprived of the beauties of Kelmscott Manor and its graceful mistress Jane Morris.

The pamphlet war known as the Fleshly School Controversy is well documented, as is its cumulative effect on the poet from October 1871 to September 1872. Beginning with Robert Buchanan’s pseudonymous attack on Rossetti and Swinburne, ‘The Fleshly School of Poetry’, in the Contemporary Review for October, it reached a crisis when Buchanan published a signed, expanded and more vengeful assault in pamphlet form on the poet’s birthday, 12 May, precipitating his total breakdown on 2 June (WEF 72.83 & Appendix 8, Vol. V). W. E. Fredeman’s careful, detailed, analysis of Rossetti’s collapse, suicide attempt, near-incarceration in an insane asylum and partial recovery appears in his Prelude to the Last Decade: Dante Gabriel Rossetti in the Summer of 1872 (Fredeman 1971: an abridged version of these two articles from BJRL is printed at the end of WEF Vol. V as Appendix 9). Yet we cannot assign all the blame for Rossetti’s desperate condition at this time to Robert Buchanan, Jane Morris and chloral hydrate. For instance, the poetic efflorescence of 1868–71 was not simply ‘snuffed out by an article’ but undermined, partly indeed by the poet’s obsession with confounding enemies both real and imaginary, but

12 Introduction

partly also by the erosion of his many literary friendships, so nourishing to him during the preparation of Poems (1870) and the fruitful summer of 1871. The communal aspect of artistic creation had always been a source of joy to Rossetti. His astounding offer in his last years to publish jointly with his solicitor Watts (a very minor poet) a ‘Miscellany’ of their poems was made in what Rossetti called the ‘Tuscan’ spirit (WEF 78.232 [DW 1975]). This word denotes the standard literary Italian of the Middle Ages: Tuscans such as Dante and Cavalcanti commented on each other’s work and urged one another on to poetic achievement. Rossetti’s exchanges of verse with various friends were attempts to introduce that spirit into his own circle, even though some members of it, such as Scott, Philip Marston and the egregious Theo Marzials, may deserve Tom Stoppard’s epithet, ‘the belles-litter that surrounded Rossetti’.3

Rossetti was forty-four at the height of the Fleshly School Controversy, no longer surrounded by the intense young men of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood or the ardent aesthetes of the Jovial Campaign who helped him decorate the Oxford Union in the late 1850s. It was the very idea of such brotherhoods that was being attacked: the Saturday Review for 24 February 1872 ran an article, ‘Coterie Glory’, alleging that personal friends of the Fleshly poets wrote all reviews of their work, a practice sneeringly designated as Italian.4 How all this affected Rossetti is eloquently expressed in one of his letters to the painter Frederick Shields:

Things go on the same as ever in London. Everyone works, and hardly anyone sees the other’s work more than if many counties lay between them – every man having his own daily groove, and the cross roads being somehow of rare occurrence. ... Goodbye, my dear Shields. I hope our really seeing each other again before we are much older is not quite out of the question. (WEF 71.185)

Rossetti’s biographers have recognized that his muse flourished only under certain conditions, but they tend to underestimate the part played by literary friendships in the creation of those conditions. Indeed, Oswald Doughty underestimated the degree to which the

3 The British Consul so characterizes the Irish poet William Allingham in

Stoppard’s Travesties (London, 1975). 4 Robert Buchanan, The Fleshly School of Poetry and Other Phenomena of the

Day (London, 1872; rpt. New York, 1975), Notes, pp. 94–95.

Introduction 13

poet’s friendship with Jane Morris could be described as literary. When he left Kelmscott in 1871, Rossetti had already composed 88 of the 102 sonnets that would form the complete House in Ballads and Sonnets; he did not take it up again until a renewal of warm relations with Jane Morris and his brother William and new literary friendships with Watts and Hall Caine stimulated him near the close of his life. When his publisher F. S. Ellis proposed a new volume of original poetry at the beginning of 1873, Rossetti dithered, fearing that his present material would print up to a mere 150 pages, but resolved to ‘set to work writing new [poems] as soon as possible’ (WEF 73.2 & 3). He didn’t, offering Ellis instead a translation of Michelangelo’s poems that soon grew to an edition with critical introduction, thence into a comparative study of ‘other painter-poets’, coming finally to nothing (WEF 73.20–22). By then, evidently recovered from his breakdown and far behind with his commissions, Rossetti was neither a writer nor a scholar, but once again a painter.

IV

The decision to prepare a trade edition of his poetry was precipitated for Rossetti in both 1869 and 1879 by the appearance in print of articles praising his achievement as a poet in terms that pleased him. Contrary to Oswald Doughty and other sources dating back to T. J. Wise, the exhumation of his MS poetry from his wife’s grave in October 1869 was not the occasion of his dropping an earlier plan to print privately. That had already been cancelled by 30 August, when he told Jane Morris that he would ‘rush into publication’ as soon as he had written enough to make up a volume of 300–350 pages (WEF 69.143). In the same letter he makes clear that his confidence was boosted by the appearance in Tinsley’s Magazine for September of the first critique ever published on him as a poet, a laudatory piece by Harry Buxton Forman. Thinking back to his first, ‘Pre-Raphaelite’, poetic flowering, he remarked to his mother that Forman’s article ‘is so far satisfactory that, after twenty years, one stranger has discovered one’s existence’ (WEF 69.138). Ten years later, he wrote again to Jane:

I enclose ... an article ... just received from some enthusiast of whom I had already heard as lecturing in my honour. I only hope Caine may manage to spell Able as regards enforcing my poetic claims. The object of the lecture is very good – being evidently to insist on the high tone of feeling in the poems. (WEF 79.114 [Bryson 68&n1])

14 Introduction

Hall Caine, an architect’s clerk with literary ambitions, could not have taken a tack more pleasing to Rossetti than to argue as he did that Poems (1870) contained nothing immoral. Jane Morris was the first among many friends of the poet to be unimpressed by Caine, but Rossetti protested peevishly, ‘I grow more and more into the weak-ness of being thankful to anyone who will give me a little praise’ (WEF 79.122 [Bryson 71]). He struck this defensive tone about Caine in another letter to Mrs Morris, describing the Liverpudlian’s warm sympathy with his poetry as ‘a thing worth meeting with when one’s old friends care little or nothing whether one lives or dies’ (WEF 80.70 [Bryson 108]).

From the summer of 1879, Rossetti’s commitment to poetry grew, displacing and ultimately replacing painting, fed as it had been twice previously by a group of admirer-collaborators, smaller than in 1868–71 but no less fervent. The old group of Swinburne, Scott and Hake no longer received copies of Gabriel’s latest poems. They had been replaced by Jane Morris, who was now nearly always the first to see any new writing by Rossetti, and Caine, with whom he exchanged a massive literary correspondence (sending 124 letters over the next three years). There were also his brother William and his solicitor Watts. Walter Theodore Watts-Dunton first met Rossetti around 27 December 1872 (WEF 73.7), although he had earlier represented him in the Rovedino (WEF 72.70n2) affair: the two exchanged letters from 24 September 1872. In time, he became factotum and crony to the para-noiac artist, shielding him against the malevolent outside world with a professional expertise never at the command of William Rossetti, who more or less resigned as his brother’s keeper in 1874 to take up his new role as husband and father. Like William and Dr Hake, who introduced him to Rossetti, Watts was an amateur man of letters whose boundless admiration for Gabriel’s genius brought out the best in the moody poet. Others in the new circle included William Sharp, whom Rossetti introduced to Watts in September 1880, and Caine’s Liverpool friend James Ashcroft Noble, whose article in the September (1880) Contemporary Review, ‘The Sonnet in England’, described Rossetti as the leading sonneteer of the age. The delighted poet wrote to Caine:

Mr Noble’s article on the Sonnet ... like your lecture, greets me with a gratifying ray of generous recognition. ... It is all the more pleasant to me as finding a place in the very Review which years ago opened its pages to a pseudonymous attack on my poems and on myself [Buchanan’s ‘Fleshly School’ diatribe]. I am very proud to think that after my small and solitary book has been a good many years published and

Introduction 15

several years out of print, it yet meets with such ardent upholding by young and sincere men. (WEF 80.303)

After the American publisher, Roberts Bros, had imported the few remaining British copies of Poems (1870), it was in fact out of print by early 1879. Responding at last to the demand for a new issue, Rossetti began in October 1879 to overhaul Sister Helen, developing ‘a fresh incident’ of three stanzas which he sent with interpretive commentary to Jane Morris (WEF 80.81 & 94 [Bryson 82 & 83]). As before, his return to poetry proved to be halting, but many circum-stances drew him away from painting at this time, particularly hard times among patrons whose wealth depended upon industry and manufacture, and changing fashions in art. Explaining the fluctu-ations of the economy to his mother, he noted that coal, copper and textiles are ‘vitally wound up with the picture-market’ (WEF 79.194 [DW 2143]). Patrons and agents grew more impatient for delivery of prepaid pictures and less eager to provide further commissions for the somewhat dilatory artist. Some old customers, such as William Graham, could no longer afford to purchase Rossetti’s work. Tastes were changing. Impressionism, which Rossetti hated, gained ground in England: Whistler’s insolence to Ruskin was prophetic. The Daydream, completed by the summer of 1880, seems to have been the last painting that Rossetti worked on with enthusiasm, although he continued to daub away at the semi-travesty La Pia, the forever-unfinished Found, replicas of The Blessed Damozel, which he privately referred to as ‘The Blasted Damdozel’ (WEF 81.21 [DW 2401]), and commissions a decade overdue. His reputation as a painter was on the wane, as William confided to his Diary on 30 September 1880. Whereas Rossetti’s fellow Pre-Raphaelite William Holman Hunt had recently received £10,000 for his new painting The Shadow of Death, Rossetti’s prices were in three digits and falling. Watts told William that buyers objected to ‘the outré points of G’s style in painting – especially the peculiar & almost mulatto form of his mouths, & the tumid elongation of his throats, almost ... goitred in form’ (MS Diary).

On the other hand, times seemed right for Rossetti’s poetry. Ballads were enjoying a vogue, and William Rossetti spoke of ‘a veritable sonnet-mania’ breaking out with the publication of David Main’s Treasury of English Sonnets, which included two specimens from the House, ‘Broken Music’ (47) and ‘Lost Days’ (86), in early 1880 (DGRDW 169). In his notes, Main emphasized Rossetti’s greatness as a master of the sonnet. In 1882, Caine brought out his Sonnets of Three Centuries, a project on which Rossetti had been a virtual collaborator; in the same year Samuel Waddington’s English

16 Introduction

Sonnets by Poets of the Past, dedicated, by permission, to Rossetti appeared. Waddington followed in 1884 with English Sonnets by Living Writers and in 1886 with The Sonnets of Europe. During this decade, William Sharp produced American Sonnets and Sonnets of this Century, the latter containing eleven sonnets from the House. All these compilers had been in touch with Rossetti during his lifetime and owed much to his theory, practice and preferences. This was the most purely literary period of his life. Besides the whole range of sonnet literature from the early Italian to the contemporary, he was reading his beloved Romantic poets again, helping Anne Gilchrist with a new edition of her husband Herbert’s Blake biography, assisting Watts with his research into the life and work of Chatterton and writing new poems. To William Davies in Italy he described his state of mind at this time: ‘It is true that my own life is a very uncheered one. Yet I shall not sink, I trust, so long as the poetic life wells up in me at intervals (and with me it was always and by preference intermittent)’ (WEF 81.121 [DW 2435]).

At Christmas 1879 Rossetti wrote the first new House sonnet in five years, ‘Ardour and Memory’ (64). In his A Victorian Romantic, Doughty makes much of the poignant sestet, depicting Rossetti as brooding alone in gloomy old Tudor House during the festive season, stupefied with chloral-and-whisky to escape tormenting memories of Jane Morris who no longer cared for him (609–610). The composition of the sonnet at that time is used as an illustration of Doughty’s theory that Rossetti’s poetic faculties were ‘vitalized solely by physical passion’ (60). The facts of the matter make this melodramatic interpretation almost comical.

Unknown to the biographer, ‘Ardour and Memory’ had been sent to Jane by the poet soon after he composed it; seeking her opinion of its poetic merit, he noted that ‘it is in a different mood from those of old, yet I have tried to sustain some beauty by natural images’ (WEF 79.217 [Bryson 88]). A week later, receiving no reply, Rossetti inquired anxiously whether Jane had been upset by the sonnet, perhaps thinking it ‘extra dismal’ (WEF 80.5 [Bryson 89]). After further accusations that she had, as once earlier, ‘put some inconceivable construction on that Sonnet I sent you,’ and a refusal to send her any more new sonnets as ‘it might not be safe’ (WEF 80.29 [Bryson 97]), she confessed that she had indeed been depressed by the ‘extremely woeful character’ of the poem:

It seemed to me that you must have written it when very ill, so sad was its tone, that I resolved to say nothing about it, there is the truth of the matter. ... Do send me the Songs you speak of for the Rose Mary poem and anything

Introduction 17

else you are doing, you must feel sure how welcome your work always is to me – and there is little pleasure left one in this world. (Bryson 98)

Rossetti has the last word:

Pardon my reverting one last time to that blessed sonnet. I never dreamed you wd not perceive that the tone adopted was only a contrasting framework for a set of natural images such as one does not put into relishing form if one is very ill! At least I am not at such times a sonneteer. (WEF 80.31 [Bryson 99)

At the end of February, evidently satisfied that she could now avoid morbid interpretations, he sent her the Rose Mary ‘Beryl-songs’, his new sonnet on Keats and thereafter all his new poetry as he wrote it.

While Rossetti’s correspondence with Jane Morris does not often display the turbulent passions imagined by Doughty and others, it does show that she inspired the artist as much as the man. On 6 November 1880, after Jane has been touched by his latest House sonnet, ‘True Woman: Herself’ (56), for which she was ‘the model’ (WEF 80.352 [Bryson 121]), he sends her an explicit declaration of his love, or rather what that love would have been:

I felt deeply the regard so deeply expressed in your last letter. ... The deep-seated basis of feeling as expressed in that sonnet, is as fresh and unchanged in me towards you as ever, though all else is withered and gone. This you wd never believe, but if life and fate had willed to link us together you wd have found true what you cannot think to be truth when – alas! – untried. (WEF 80.361 [Bryson 122])

Immediately after this passage comes the following important news concerning Rossetti’s 1881 poems: ‘Ellis looked me up yesterday to talk of publishing. He thinks the best plan is to put the old and new together, and this is what I think.’ It is no distortion to refer to the autumn of their friendship as decidedly literary. The actual affair between them had been terminated by Jane at Christmas 1875 (WEF vol. 6, Appendix 1, ‘Rossetti’s Relations with the Morrises 1868–75’). Each correspondent, rather inclined to solitude, relies upon the other for discussion of books and pictures, the weather, gossip of mutual friends and detailed reports of the latest malady experienced or remedy discovered. Rather than Cathy and Heathcliff or Tristan and Isolde, these late letters suggest Cyrano and Roxane – he bringing his

18 Introduction

regular ‘gazette’ of happenings at court to amuse his longtime dame lointaine, now secluded in a convent, she enjoying his devotion and expressing sympathy for his suffering from battle wounds, both growing old in the soft light of a romantic past that might have been but never was – except in letters.

V

A primary source of information about the volumes of 1881 is William Rossetti’s MS Diary. In December 1879, he resumed regular calls on his brother, after a series of estrangements brought on by chloral-and-whisky abuse, the crudities of Fanny Cornforth during her recurrent sojourns as mistress of Tudor House and Gabriel’s relentless exploitation of his brother’s loyalty and generosity. From now on he stopped in every Monday night. After his visit of 15 December, William wrote in his MS Diary:

He read me some stanzas he has lately composed of a moral or axiomatic kind. His vol. of Poems being now out of print, he has some idea of reissuing it, along with all his poems subsequently composed, forming probably at least half as much again.

As of old, William became involved in his brother’s current literary projects. Gabriel even prodded him into attempting his own sequence of one hundred sonnets on political subjects, Democratic Sonnets (FL 69–79 passim; SR II: 474–75). He tells his Diary in January that Gabriel has finished ‘Soothsay’, the ‘axiomatic’ poem, and was ‘looking up old sonnets, writing new ones’. February saw the com-pletion of the ballad Rose Mary, which Rossetti wanted to print at once separately, followed closely by the new-old volume. ‘I have’, he told Watts this month, ‘besonneted the Sonnet itself at last’, a reference to the proem Sonnet for the House which he sent, incorporated in a design, to his mother as a gift for her eightieth birthday in April (WEF 80.142 [DW 2246]; see Plate 2). Echoing his letter to Dr Hake quoted above as epigraph, he ‘expressed [to William] a much higher value for his poetical than his pictorial work’ (9 February, MS Diary). The House of Life had begun to assume its final form.

As Helen Rossetti Angeli noted in 1949 (253), countering ‘the legend of the drug-sodden and degenerate wretch, bankrupt in character and reputation, who led a ghastly posthumous existence behind closed doors in Cheyne Walk, abandoned by all decent-minded people’, Rossetti frequently enjoyed good health, high spirits

Introduction 19

and convivial intercourse with friends new and old during this period. The two volumes of 1881 grew rapidly under his hand during the spring of 1880. ‘Pride of Youth’ (24), ‘The Song-Throe’ (61) and the ‘True Woman’ trio (56–58) were progressing through MS drafts. Rossetti first mentioned expanding the House to Caine in March, proposing to show him both new sonnets and some of his earliest work, offering to send him an ‘MS vol ... of (chiefly) trifles, about which I should like an opinion as to whether any should be included in the future’ (WEF 80.86). This volume, now at Yale, has written on the flyleaf, in Rossetti’s hand, ‘Sonnets and other short pieces, mostly written before 1850’.

Caine’s responsive enthusiasm encouraged the poet to revise these often juvenile efforts: ‘I have run the sonnet you like, “St. Luke the Painter”, into a sequence with 2 more not yet printed, and given the 3 a general title of Old and New Art as well as special titles to each. I shall annex them to the House of Life’ [they became 74–76] (WEF 80.334). Caine announced in late summer that he was expanding his lecture on Rossetti’s poetry into an article to be called ‘Ruskin, Keats and Rossetti’ (WEF 80.298).

Not unaware that Caine was using him to launch his own literary career but more alarmed by the prospect of inaccurate texts in this article and aghast at having his name linked publicly with Ruskin’s, Rossetti ordered a stop to this project until he had put his literary house in order. It is now that he mentions for the first time his intention that the final version of the House should be a cycle of one hundred sonnets. The poet was reluctant to send House material to Caine, not wanting ‘to ventilate any portion of the series until published’ (WEF 80.183 & 300). After offering Caine the title, ‘A Sonnet Sequence’ for his own forthcoming anthology, in November he claimed it back for the House, having decided to omit the lyrics that had been part of the 1870 House. By mid-December, Rossetti’s major poem was essentially finished with the completion of ‘Michelangelo’s Kiss’ (94): only revision remained ahead of the poet when he sent Jane the last of the ‘True Woman’ sub-sequence:

As you were so kind in valuing the Sonnet I last sent, I send two more on the same theme, forming a trio with which I intend to wind up the first part of the House of Life. This series now consists of 100 Sonnets (though I omit several of the M.S. ones) and forms 2 Parts viz:

Part I Youth and Change

Part II Change and Fate

20 Introduction

I shall have nearly 50 Sonnets besides the House of Life ones. (WEF 80.375 & 386 [Bryson 124 & 125])

He laboured over many other poems in 1880. Embarrassed by the slightness of his output, he pondered, as he had in 1869, including his prose tale Hand and Soul in order to reach the 300-page level. He was also acutely anxious about gossip, warning his correspondents to remain silent about what he was sending them. As in 1869–70, he was writing at a furious pace, ransacking all sources of poetry available to him, and so fearing the label of hack more than sensualist. Between 10 May and 21 June, he did sonnets on Chatterton, Blake, Shelley, Coleridge and his current portrait of Jane Morris, The Daydream. Christina, delighted with The White Ship, wrote in August exhorting her brother to pursue this more impersonal narrative genre. Rossetti blustered over her comment, but he could hardly deny that the ballad form afforded him bulk as well as a sort of anonymity.

Highly impressed by Tennyson’s latest book, Ballads and Poems (1880), particularly by Rizpah, he was confident that romantic ballads would appeal more broadly than his other poetry (29 November, MS Diary). By 13 December, he had begun his third new ballad, The King’s Tragedy; thirty-one stanzas were done by mid-February and the whole was completed by 3 March. Two weeks later, he declared to Davies:

I have written two historical ballads which will certainly find a much wider field of appreciation than anything I have yet done. Even if I did not paint, I should never be a redundant poet. ... The only man who has husbanded his forces rightly, and whom you can never open at the wrong page, is Tennyson. (WEF 81.121 [DW 2435])

Publication in two volumes instead of the new-old format is mentioned for the first time in William’s Diary. He noted on 10 January 1881 that Gabriel was talking of issuing his new poems as a ‘second series’, perhaps on the model of Swinburne’s Poems and Ballads, Second Series (1878). One reason for the two-volume proposal seems to have been financial. Although Rossetti had always maintained that poetry was unprofitable (as in the epigraph above), the £700 he made from the six editions of Poems (1870) was enough to put a lot of bread and cheese on the table (FLM 373). Duller business minds than Rossetti’s would have readily perceived that two volumes selling at twelve shillings each would earn twice the royalties of one, and in early 1881, with another long ballad well in hand, he had finally accumulated sufficient material. Accordingly,

Introduction 21

Watts was instructed to negotiate terms with Ellis, who eventually agreed to an arrangement similar to the generous contract covering Poems (1870). For Ballads and Sonnets Rossetti would receive a 25 per cent royalty upon publication, regardless of sales; for the reissue of Poems the same royalty was to be paid, but semi-annually, on copies sold (21 & 28 March, MS Diary).

The first scheme for the new volume was to print the three recent ballads, but by 21 March Rossetti had decided to transfer the completed House from Poems to augment the ballads, publishing this as yet untitled collection shortly after the reissue of the truncated Poems. A week later, he reversed this plan, now declaring that the new work must precede the reissue of the old and be further augmented by the addition of The Bride’s Prelude, a fragment begun in 1849 that he had printed recently and had been overhauling so that it was now as long as the new ballads (Lewis 156–60). However, he soon thought better of including so old a piece with his freshest productions, describing it to Caine as ‘repellent’ and confessing, ‘I hate long poems’ (WEF 81.268). It appeared, unfinished, in Poems.

Still striving for abundance, Rossetti projected further ballads on Abraham Lincoln, Joan of Arc and Alexander III of Scotland, but by the beginning of April he was satisfied that 300 pages was enough, twenty more than in 1870. He now wrote to Watts:

The printers have woke up and done ‘Rose Mary’ and ‘The White Ship’, making 95 pages. ‘The King’s Tragedy’, which I must now send, will bring it to about 150. The volume [Ballads and Sonnets] will clearly be 300 pages without the fragment [‘The Bride’s Prelude’]. This, therefore, I shall put in the other book. What do you think as to title? –

Ballads and Sonnets or

Poems: New Series ?(WEF 81.155 &158 [DW 2446 & 2460])

By 3 May, all MSS had been sent to the printer and both volumes moved to the proofing stage.

If sonnets, as Rossetti told his sister, meant insomnia for him (WEF 81.28 [DW 2390]), then proofsheets must have given him nightmares. Revision following ‘the ardour of composition’ involves, he maintained, ‘much of the most essential vitality of true poetic work’ (WEF 71.131). His proofs were often revised so extensively as

22 Introduction

to make them de facto MSS. Although not so chaotic as the sixteen discrete proof states which precede the 1870 edition of Poems (see Appendix Two), his 1881 sheets contain far more than the correction of printer’s errors, They occupied him (assisted by his brother, Watts and Hall Caine) for more than two months. The chart on p. 23 schematizes the proofing phase of Ballads and Sonnets according to signature, date pulled, and present location of proofs; since Rossetti demanded at least three revises for each sheet, the tally is incomplete.

Much misunderstanding surrounds two questions relating to Ballads and Sonnets. Why, when it was all printed in May, was it not published until 17 October? Secondly, why did Rossetti equivocate so much about the prefatory note to the House (see Plate 1)? Biographers, following Oswald Doughty, tend to answer both questions with the speculation that Jane Morris, fearing scandal that might touch her personally, and perhaps another ‘Fleshly School’ eruption that might destroy Rossetti, made the poet delete or alter anything that might be construed as a reference to their illicit affair. Unappeased by the changes he did make, including the many versions of the prefatory note as well as revisions to individual poems (mainly House sonnets), alteration of descriptions of the beloved to make her resemble Lizzie rather than Janey (Doughty 398–405&nn) and suppression of information regarding dates of composition, she then forced deferral of publication until she was satisfied: this theory is explicit in DW 2482 nn 2&3. However, the annotated passage in this letter of 16 May to Watts – ‘I am wanting your advice about a point connected thus late with the Poems – not the House of Life question’ (WEF 81.224) – is clearly unrelated to Ballads and Sonnets. Moreover, the prefatory note to the House did not come into being now in response to a sudden intervention by Jane Morris but made its first appearance the previous year in one of Rossetti’s vest-pocket notebooks.5 Next it may be seen expanded to three paragraphs on fol. 1 of the Fitzwilliam Museum Library House of Life MSS and then in several proofsheet versions. The anxiety behind this note is a longstanding one of Rossetti’s about whether any poem ‘is included which the author believes to be immature’ (Author’s Note to Poems {1870}, Contents xii). Some of the ‘new’ pieces in Ballads and Sonnets (e.g., House sonnets 75 and 76) were thirty years old.

5 British Library, Dept. of MSS, Ashley 1410, No. 4 (c. 1880).

Introduction 23

April May Sig. 5 7 9 12 13 14 22 23 25 28 3 4 5 6 9 10 13 18 19 27 31

[A] HaRo

B Ro Pr Ha

C Ro Ha

D HaRo

E Pr Ro

F Pr Ro

G Pr Ro

H Ro Ha

I HaRo

J Ro

K Ro Ha

L Ro Pr Ha

M Ba Ba Ro

N Ba Ba Ba Ro Ba Ba Ba

O Ba Ro Ba Ba Ba Ba

P Ba Ba Ro Ba

Q Ba Ba Ro Ba Ba

R Ba Ro Ya

Bo Ba Ba Ba Ba

S Ba Ba Ro Ba

T Ro

U Ro Ya Ro

X Ro

Y Ro Ro

Locations of Proofsheets for Ballads and Sonnets Ba Bancroft Collection, Delaware Art Museum, Wilmington (also has proofs of

Poems: New) (1881) Ha Widener Collection, Harvard Pr Troxell Collection, Princeton Ro “Rosenbach Proofs” (almost complete set formerly owned by A. S. W. Rosenbach:

now in a private collection) Ya Tinker Collection, Yale On 7 June DGR got another proof of Sig. [A] including the title page – it is among the

Ros. proofs.

24 Introduction

Doughty’s thesis leads him into several blunders of dating and sequence (he was responsible for volumes 2 and 4 of the DW Rossetti Letters). No. 2507 (WEF 81.253) to Watts is placed with other letters of early July and associated with No. 2511 (WEF 81.279) which dates the sending of proofs to Jane in mid-July, both documents leading up to No. 2522 (WEF 81.285), dated ‘early August’ in which Rossetti postpones his book. The sequence clearly begins with No. 2507:

I have again got possessed with the idea that it might be better to omit the second paragraph of the note in front of the House of Life – that is, the disavowal of personality in the sonnets. They were formerly attacked as being personal, and I do not wish to seem to follow the lead of the attack. Of course I put in the paragraph for quite another reason, but is not that sufficiently attained by the treatment the sonnets themselves have received? (WEF 81.253)

However one interprets this letter it could not have been written in July 1881. Rossetti wrote Caine around 23 June to say, ‘I have made up my mind to omit 2nd paragraph of note to House of Life’ (WEF 81.277). Four days earlier he had written to Watts, ‘all is now out of my hands’ with Ballads and Sonnets (WEF 81.273 [DW 2502]). Date-stamping on the proofs suggests that WEF 81.253, dated only ‘Sunday’, was written either on 12 or 19 June, and in the sequence should precede WEF 81.273, dated 19 June. The detailed chronology in Appendix Five attempts to clarify these matters.

After 19 May, Rossetti wrote on signature [A] of the ‘Rosenbach’ proofs, ‘this is my last change’, but on 25 May William Rossetti, who had been toiling over the proofs for a week with his red pencil, submitted, besides corrections, copious queries and suggestions directed at making the House less ‘fleshly,’ in line with the policy stated in the last sentence of the passage to Watts quoted above. Although he did not accept all his brother’s amendments, Rossetti now made many of the changes often attributed solely to Jane Morris’s influence.6 Then comments by Watts prompted the poet to ‘rewrite 8 or 10 stanzas’ of The King’s Tragedy, delaying press-proofs for signatures K and L until 2 June (WEF 81.240 & 249 [DW 2490 &

6 See Doughty 378–81 and MS Diary for May 1881. Typical changes

include replacing ‘love’ with ‘youth’ or ‘lips’ with ‘heart’. William’s red-pencilled copy of the proofs of Ballads and Sonnets is in the Bancroft Rossetti Collection at the Delaware Art Museum, Wilmington.

Introduction 25

2491]). Next came the final dither over the prefatory note. Apparently confident that immediate publication was pending, Rossetti advised Caine on 29 June that ‘the book still hangs fire’; the young writer had received the volume in sheets a week earlier and was ready to send in his review on a signal from Rossetti (WEF 81.277).

The sequence of letters relating to Jane Morris begins with the one broaching to publisher David White the deferral of Ballads and Sonnets on 23 June (WEF 81.276 [Princeton]). On 26 June Rossetti tells Watts that Jane has been sent the proofs (WEF 81.279 [DW 2511]). A few days later, a heated but unmailed draft obviously meant for Jane announces the poet’s decision not to publish at this time (WEF 81.285 [DW 2522]). Around the first of July, Rossetti informed Ellis officially of the deferral (WEF 81.288 [DW 2523]). On 4 July both William and Caine learned of this ‘difficulty’ (WEF 81.293; MS Diary). Neverthe-less the problem, doubtless an irritating fit of anxiety on Jane’s part, was certainly no calamity. It must be remembered that she had seen all Rossetti’s new poems in MS as they were written, that he evidently did not mail his angry draft letter to her and that the threatened deferral lasted less than two weeks, for by 6 July it was off again: the actual deferral until mid-October was imposed by Ellis and White for business reasons (WEF 81.295 [Texas] & 298 [LC]).

Further evidence to support an early July rather than early August dating of the unsent fragment can be found in an endorse-ment on the verso of WEF 81.285 [DW 2522]: ‘Acre Lane, Brixton. A house with an acre and a half of garden’. On 2 and 4 July, Rossetti, then househunting, wrote to his potential housemate Caine of an offer on ‘a house at Brixton ... with a garden of an acre and a half’, but this offer had been put aside by 13 July (WEF 81.293). Thus, the theory that Jane Morris blocked publication from August to October while revisions were made to The House of Life collapses and several letters misdated by Doughty are seen to have been written during a few days at the end of June and start of July 1881.

A Dedication to Watts was in print by 8 August, and by 16 September Rossetti had sent what William describes as ‘a first made-up copy’ of Ballads and Sonnets to his mother and sister (MS Diary). Reviewers had their copies, albeit prematurely, by the end of September, and Watts’s ‘finest review that ever came from critical or friendly man’ appeared in the Athenæum 8 October (WEF 81.433 [DW 2572]). Full publication took place on 17 October, the day the poet returned to London after an unsuccessful holiday with Caine and Fanny in the Lake District. His claim that he was too ill to receive such well-wishers as Ivan Turgenev and Ned Burne-Jones at Tudor House was rather coldly evaluated by his brother:

26 Introduction

He is in much the same state as he was 2 years ago, & from the same cause – overdosing with chloral & its accompaniment whiskey ... this foolish practice has gone on ... from soon after he went into Cumberland. He is much unstrung physically and mentally. (Oct. 24, MS Diary)

Before fleeing to Liverpool on a complaint of illness himself, Caine asked some of Rossetti’s old friends to take over from him the care of the poet. William Bell Scott visited on 27–28 October, recognizing at once the similarity between this emergency and Rossetti’s breakdown in the summer of 1872:

I found him half dressed, twisted up on the sofa and attended by Fanny ... he seemed emaciated, and worn out, a mere wreck ... He protested he was dying. ... I thought of the former time and feared his mind has gone again. ... This is evidently the result of anxiety and deranged sensibility about the exhibition of his picture at Liverpool [Dante’s Dream] and his volume coming out at the same moment. (Fredeman 1976: 75–76)

Poems (1881) appeared on 10 November. Sending his mother her copy, Rossetti wrote, ‘Twelve hundred of the Ballads and Sonnets are already sold – this is a great success. The picture at Liverpool seems equally successful’ (WEF 81.449 [DW 2580]). On 10 March 1882, Watts wrote to say that a new edition of Ballads and Sonnets (the fourth, a resetting) was about to be printed, but Rossetti never saw the proofs: less than a month later he was dead.7

7 Some of the above material appeared in a shorter and less fully-

documented form in Lewis 1982: 199–216.

TEXT AND NOTES

Half-title Leaf [recto]

THE HOUSE OF LIFE:

A Sonnet-Sequence.

Part I. Youth and Change.

Part II. Change and Fate.

Date of Publication: 1881, B&S Date of Composition: 1869–70; 1880–81

Letters:

(1) DGR to JM, 30 Aug 69 (WEF 69.143): Writing from Penkill Castle in Scotland, where he was setting up his volume of poems, DGR mentions ‘a section called “Songs & Sonnets towards a work to be called The House of Life.” Nearly all these you know.’ In Poems the half-title reads as follows:

SONNETS AND SONGS, Towards a Work to be called ‘THE HOUSE OF LIFE.’

(2) DGR to HC, 10, 21 Nov, 7, 17 Dec 80 (WEF 80.348 & 354 & 369 & 383; excerpted in Caine 244 & 245 & 255): Assisting Caine in assembling and titling his own sonnet anthology (finally called Sonnets of Three Centuries), DGR proposed the following title on 10 Nov:

28 The House of Life

A Sonnet Sequence from Elder to Modern Work: with 50 (?) hitherto unprinted

Sonnets by living writers. However, he wrote on 21 Nov to repossess it: ‘Do you think of using the title A Sonnet Sequence? I ask because otherwise I may use it in The House of Life. I’d find you another.’ On 7 Dec, he noted that since Caine proposed placing contemporary sonnets first in his anthology, ‘Sequence’ would be the wrong word, saying ‘I may use the phrase [Sonnet Sequence] if you abandon it to me. What do you think of

The English Sonnet-Muse from Elizabeth’s reign to Victoria’s.’

By 17 Dec, he had decided the matter: ‘The House of Life is now a Hundred Sonnets – all lyrics being removed. Besides this series, I have 45 sonnets extra. I think, as you are willing, I shall use the title I sent you – A Sonnet Sequence. I fancy the last I sent wd be briefer & therefore better as

Our Sonnet-Muse from Elizabeth to Victoria.’

(3) DGR to JM, 13 Dec 80 (WEF 80.375 [Bryson 124]): ‘This series [HL] now consists of 100 Sonnets (though I omit several of the MS ones) and forms 2 Parts viz:

Part I Youth and Change Part II Change and Fate

I shall have nearly 50 Sonnets besides The House of Life ones.’

Manuscripts:

(1) (2) Fitzwilliam HL fols 1a, 83b (3) Princeton HL fol. 1a (4) Poems Proof States 2, 3, 4, 12, 13 {including variations on the cancelled ‘Preface’ to ‘Poems Privately Printed’ – Princeton}

Revisions/Variants:

1. Fitz.(1) lacks the subtitle ‘A Sonnet-Sequence’, directions regarding italics and caps and much of the punctu-ation of B&S:

The House of Life ____________

Part I Youth and Change.

____________ Part II

Change and Fate. ____________

2. Prin. is identical with B&S except for all three subtitles being

underlined and a signature bottom left, ‘D. G. Rossetti’. The half-title leaf [p159–60] is missing from the Ros. Proofs; it was a cancel-leaf in B&S eds 1–3.

3. Fitz.(2) has a cancelled title above MS of Sonnet 47, Broken Music, as follows:

‘Of Life, Love and Death: Sonnets’

This sonnet was composed in 1852; on the recto is a draft of Sonnet 68, A Dark Day, which was sent as new to W. Allingham 23 Jan 55 (WE5.4);

Text and Notes 29

therefore, it may be the first appearance of the first title of HL since it evidently predates the title used for the group of sonnets DGR gathered for the March 1869 issue of FR, ‘Of Life, Love, and Death: Sixteen Sonnets’.

4. The first printed version of the title after the FR issue appears in Poems, Proof State 2 (p. 103), as follows:

OF LIFE, LOVE, AND DEATH. SONNETS

(Towards a work to be called ‘THE HOUSE OF LIFE’)

This printed title, preceding 33 sonnets but no songs, is cancelled and revised in MS, on both Prin. copies, as follows:

‘<SONGS AND SONNETS> SONNETS AND SONGS (large caps) Towards a work to be called (italics)

THE HOUSE OF LIFE (smaller caps)’ [below text:] ‘In this series headed <Songs and> “Sonnets & Songs”, all the titles of the Songs must be made the same sized type as those of the Sonnets. At present they are larger.’

5. In Proof State 3 the printed title appears thus:

‘SONNETS AND SONGS, Towards a Work to be called

THE HOUSE OF LIFE.’ [below in MS, DGR wrote]: ‘All this one size smaller’

6. In Proof State 4, DGR reverted to his original title, cancelling the one in 5. above and writing:

‘OF LIFE, LOVE, AND DEATH: SONNETS AND SONGS

(Towards a work to be called THE HOUSE OF LIFE.)’

In subsequent Proof States and eds 1–6 of Poems this title appeared as it

does in Proof State 3 (5. above); in the Tauchnitz ed. of 1873, THE HOUSE OF LIFE appears with double quotation marks.

7. In Proof State 2, a printed Preface appeared following the title page ‘Poems Privately Printed’; it is there revised in MS as follows:

‘<PREFACE> Most of these poems were written between 1847 and 1853. They are here printed, if not without revision, yet much in their original state. They are some among a good many then written, <the rest of which I cannot print, having>but of the others I have now no complete copies. <Many of the Sonnets and some of the short pieces are more recent work.> <The “Songs and Sonnets” are>The section under “Sonnets and Songs” <consists>is chiefly <of>more recent work.’ [At the bottom right the printed signature ‘D.G.R.’ is followed by the MS date ‘1869’]

In Prin. copy 2 of this state, the printed Preface is revised to read as follows:

‘<PREFACE> Most of these poems were written between 1847 and 1853; and are here printed, if not without revision, yet generally much in their original state. They are a few among a good many then written, but of the others I have now no complete copies. The “Sonnets and Songs” are chiefly more recent work.

D.G.R. 1869’

8. In Proof State 13 a new printed version of this prefatory note (lacking heading, signature and date) appears as follows, sometimes before and sometimes after the

30 The House of Life

Dedication page; in Prin. the last sentence is revised in MS to make the note identical with the version which appeared in all subsequent states and eds through 1873. It did not appear in B&S:

‘Many poems in this volume were written between 1847 and 1853. Others are of recent date, and a few belong to the intervening period. It has been thought unnecessary to specify the earlier work, as nothing is included <which the author does not believe to be matured to the measure of his powers.>which the author believes to be immature’.

9. Oswald Doughty (381), W.E. Fredeman (1965: 308–9) Florence Boos (1976: 19 & 95) and other writers on DGR have asserted that the original subtitle for Part I of HL was ‘Love and Change’ rather than ‘Youth and Change’. I have seen no

MS, proofsheet or epistolary evidence to support this claim, but it evidently derives from WMR’s frequent reference to the subtitle of Part I as ‘Love and Change’ and his comment on the relation between main title and subtitles: ‘As the sun is said to be “in the house of Leo”, so (as I construe it) Rossetti indicates “Love, Change and Fate”, as being “in the House of Life”; or, in other words, a Human Life is ruled and pervaded by the triple influences of Love, Change, and Fate’ (DGRDW 182; WMR 1904 2: 231; Works 651; Lewis 1969: 170–77). The argument that ‘Love’ must have preceded ‘Youth’ in the subtitle is supported by the circumstantial evidence that DGR, in MSS and proofs for B&S, replaced ‘Love’ with some other word in the titles of eight sonnets.

Half-title leaf [verso]

(The present full series of The House of Life consists of sonnets only. It will be evident that many among those now first added are still the work of earlier years.)

Date of Publication: 1870, Poems; 1881, B&S Date of Composition: 1869 (Proof State 13), 1881

Letters:

(1) DGR to Joseph Knight, [19 Mar] 70 (WEF 70.60): The contents of this letter show that DGR was working on the MSS of Proof State 15; he had already sent Poems (Proof State 14) to Knight, who was a designated reviewer thereof. ‘I write chiefly to send you the enclosed “Prefatory Note” for your opinion as to insertion or non-insertion. I cannot quite make my mind up. Several friends who have seen it – among them Swinburne & Morris – are dead against it, saying that the matter will right itself without my speaking. What think you? I suppose on the whole I am inclined to leave it out.’

Text and Notes 31

The ‘Prefatory Note’ enclosed with this letter is not extant. Was it a draft of the following note on xii following the Contents pages?

‘[Many poems in this volume were written between 1847 and 1853. Others are of more recent date, and a few belong to the intervening period. It has been thought unnecessary to specify the earlier work, as nothing is included which the author believes to be immature.]’

Or a draft of this note on the verso of the HL half-title? ‘[The first twenty-eight sonnets and the seven first songs treat of love. These and the others would belong to separate sections of the projected work.]’

(2) DGR to WBS, [between 2–17 Aug 71?] (unpublished fragment, no. 4a in ‘Kelmscott Letters of DGR to William Bell Scott’, Troxell Collection, Princeton):

The following appears to be the first of many drafts of a prefatory note to the post-1870 HL consisting of sonnets only. During August 1871 DGR sent WBS several new sonnets from among thirty (the so-called ‘Kelmscott Love Sonnets’) he had written for an expanded HL since Poems had appeared the previous year. Many letters were then exchanged between the two poets in which both generalities and particularities of the art of sonneteering were discussed. Although no reference to this fragment appears in their published correspondence of 1871 or in AN, this note clearly belongs there (see WEF 71.113 & 123 & 129, and AN 2: 127–67, ‘DGR’s Letters from Kelmscott’); it is one of several other indications that DGR was thinking of reissuing Poems, with an expanded HL, not least of which was the announcement in the Athenæum’s ‘Literary Gossip’ on 12 Aug 71, ‘We hear that a second volume of poems by Mr. D. G. Rossetti may be expected next winter’ (see WEF 71.125&n2).

‘In reprinting the fragmentary series of the House of Life, I have thought it a more harmonious arrangement to remove the few lyrics to another part of this volume and retain the sonnets only. Among these will be found inserted some additional sonnets, chiefly of earlier years. These emotional poems are in no sense “occasional”. The “Life” involved is neither my life nor your life, but Life representative, as tripled with Love and Death.’

(3) DGR to F.S. Ellis, 25 Apr 81 (WEF 81.188 [Texas]): ‘The series [HL] is doubled, & I have put in an introductory note in the sheets which the printers have.’

(4) DGR to TWD, 8 May 81 (WEF 81.212 [DW 2475]): ‘I am really much perplexed whether to restore that note in front of The House of Life or not. I have been murdering the beauty of yet another sonnet in the interests of this point. I should like a little talk with you about it if you were near & could come in. I want now to be winding up immediately.’ The word ‘murdering’ was mistranscribed as ‘mending’ by DW; this

important emendation by WEF, giving DGR’s statement a meaning opposite

32 The House of Life

to the one it has had since 1967, suggests that DGR disliked removing so-called fleshliness from at least some of his sonnets.

(5) DGR to TWD, 9 May 81 (WEF 81.216 [DW 2477)]: ‘I am still fidgeting about as to whether that note in front of House of Life is to be or not to be.’

(6) DGR to TWD, [5 Jun 81] (WEF 81.253 [DW 2507]): ‘I have again got possessed with the idea that it might be better to omit the second paragraph of the note in front of The House of Life – that is, the disavowal of personality in the sonnets. They were formerly attacked as being personal, and I do not wish to seem to follow the lead of the attack. Of course I put in the paragraph for quite another reason, but is not that sufficiently attained by the treatment the sonnets themselves have received? I shd really like to know your view as to this before too late. Please write me a line. … I suppose they are going to press.’

(7) DGR to HC, 23 Jun 81 (WEF 81.277): ‘I have made up my mind to omit 2nd paragraph of note to House of Life.’

(8) DGR to HC, 26 Jun 81 (WEF 81.280): Answering HC’s letter of 23 June arguing for the deletion of the entire note that could then be incorporated into TWD’s Athenæum review, DGR responded:

‘I have curtailed the note, leaving only first sentence. It would not do at all to use the wording of the part erased in a review, as it has been seen by some & wd be recognized.’

(9) DGR to TWD, 26 June 81 (WEF 81.279 [DW 2511]): Having decided to send the HL proofs to JM, DGR notifies TWD:

‘I have passed the proofs to send to Hammersmith & hope there may be no adverse view taken. But whatever it is, I must act on it. I put your view as well as my own strongly, to effect that there was nothing objectionable.’

(10) DGR to JM, 29 Jun 81 (WEF 81.285 [DW 2522 – there misdated and misattributed]): An adverse view was taken, as this fragmentary letter shows:

‘Unless you think me quite without feeling, you must know what I feel on reading the first of all your letters that had any bitterness for me.

You will let me answer your question. I apprehend nothing whatever from criticism, & Watts who knows the press has all along considered it out of the question. The poems attacked have now taken their place in the language; and the Review which attacked them had quite lately an article in emphatic praise of the Sonnets,

Text and Notes 33

which were far more open to objection and special application than those now added.

However, though I can be certain as to my own mood, it is intolerable to have any uncertainty as to yours, or to think you incensed against me. Every new piece that is not quite colourless will be withdrawn and the book postponed.’

(See Introduction pp. 22–25)

(11) WMR MS Diary, 4 Jul 81: A ‘difficulty which has arisen’ with B&S ‘will entail the omission of some sonnets, a considerable amount of reprinting with consequent expense, & the necessary postponement of publication for some little while’.

(12) DGR to F.S. Ellis, 17 Jul 81 (WEF 81.305 [Texas]): ‘Another thing needed, as I perceive by the sheets sent to me, is the separate leaf required as title to House of Life between sheets L & M.’

(13) DGR to David White, 17 Jul 81 (WEF 81.306 [Texas]): The poet’s final solution to the problem of revising this prefatory note is to make it a cancel-leaf:

‘There must now, I believe, be a loose title-leaf between sheets L and M. It might be well to print this off last, in case I shd still make any change in it.’

Manuscripts:

(1)(2) Poems, Proof States 12 {Princeton}, 16 (3) Letter fragment (2) above {Princeton} (4) Ashley Notebooks 1410 {BL}, No. 4, p. 41 (5) Fitzwilliam HL fol. 2a (6) Princeton HL fol. 2a (7) Princeton proofs of B&S (8) DAM Proofs, Box 46, file 5 (9) Harvard Proofs of B&S, HEW 9.5.3.

Revisions/Variants:

1. The earliest version of this note appears in MS on Proof State 12: ‘(The first twenty-six sonnets and the seven first songs treat of love. These and the others would belong to separate sections of the projected work.)’

Some time between Proof State 16 and the first ed., after DGR had added two more sonnets to the sequence, he changed ‘twenty-six sonnets’ to ‘twenty-eight sonnets’. Thus revised, this note ran unchanged through all eds of Poems but did not appear in B&S. In 1871, DGR sent WBS the first draft of the note {Letter (2) above} that preceded the final version of the sequence, although this version contemplates only a ‘reprint’ of a still-unfinished but expanded HL.

2. Returning to the question of the prefatory note sometime in 1880, after resolving to issue a full version of HL, DGR wrote in his vest-pocket note book {MS (4) above}:

‘“To the Reader of The House of Life”. <In reply to some gratuitous suppositions I may say that>It might seem needless to say that these poems are in no sense “occasional”. The “Life”

34 The House of Life

<recorded> involved is neither my life nor your life but Life <purely & simply>representative as tripled with Love & Death.’

3. Fitz. begins as a revision of the note of 1871: ‘<In reprinting the fragmentary series of The House of Life it seemed a more harmonious arrangement to exclude lyrics and retain sonnets only. A further number of these is now added, in great measure the work of earlier years.>‘

‘To speak in the first person is often to speak most vividly: but these emotional poems are in no sense “occasional”. The “Life” involved is life representative, as associated with <hope>love, and death, with aspiration & foreboding, or with ideal art and beauty. Whether the recorded moment exist in the region of fact or of thought is a question indifferent to the Muse, so long only as her touch can quicken it.’ [In pencil at bottom of MS:] ‘The present full series of The House of Life

consists of sonnets only <since> <Of these><Among those>. It will be evident that many among those now first added are still the work of earlier years.’

4. Prin.(6) represents a further stage of this note: ‘(The present full series of The House of Life consists of sonnets only. It will be evident that many among those now first added are still the work of earlier years.

To speak in the first person is often to speak most vividly: but these emotional poems are in no sense “occasional”. The “Life” involved is life representative, as associated with love and death, with aspiration and foreboding, or with ideal art and beauty. Whether the recorded moment exist in the region of fact or of thought is a question indifferent to the Muse, so long only as her touch can quicken it.)’

5. There are several revised proof versions of this note on the back of the single half-title leaf between Sigs L & M. The most complicated one, an undated press-proof at Princeton, is MS (7) above, reproduced as Plate 1. As printed it is identical with the text of 4. above, but the following MS revisions were made by DGR: – the parenthesis after ‘earlier years’ at the end of the first paragraph is

removed; – initially DGR deleted everything that followed the first paragraph, but

then marked the passage ‘To speak … art and beauty.’ with a ‘stet’ and a note across the bottom of the leaf referring to this passage, ‘retain down to the word “beauty”’.

– the final sentence, “Whether … it.” is deleted absolutely. – across the top of the leaf, written in ink and signed ‘D. G. Rossetti’, is

this directive to the printer: ‘Should this sheet have already gone to Press, it will be necessary to have a cancel leaf & restore as below.’

6. A version incorporating the changes noted in 5. above can be seen on the Harvard Proofs of B&S, Sig. L, dated 31 May: on copy b, a post-press-proof, the half-title and prefatory note are pp. [159–60]; on copy b p. [160] is blank.

Text and Notes 35

7. The DAM Proofs include three unsigned and undated versions of this leaf in Box 46: the first, in file 5.1, bears DGR’s MS note, ‘Note to be on back of above Title as before.’ The printed text of the note here is identical with the Harvard proofsheet of 6. above; the second, in file 5.2, bears DGR’s pencil note below the Prefatory Note, which here consists of only of the first paragraph, stating ‘The Sonnets not appearing in the old vol [Poems] I have marked with an X.’; the third version, in file 5.3, includes the last sentence of the long version, ‘Whether ... it.’, but it is here cancelled in pencil.

[PROEM SONNET]

A Sonnet is a moment’s monument, – Memorial from the Soul’s eternity To one dead deathless hour. Look that it be,

Whether for lustral rite or dire portent 4 Of its own arduous fulness reverent:

Carve it in ivory or in ebony, As Day or Night may rule; and let Time see

Its flowering crest impearled and orient. 8

A Sonnet is a coin: its face reveals The soul, its converse, to what Power ‘tis due: –

Whether for tribute to the august appeals Of Life, or dower in Love’s high retinue, 12

It serve: or, ‘mid the dark wharf’s cavernous breath, In Charon’s palm it pay the toll to Death.

Date of Publication: 1881, B&S Date of Composition: 1880, WEF 80.40

MS Sources:

1. Ashley Notebooks 1410 (BL) Notebook No. 2, p. 32 ‘A sonnet should be a moment’s

monument’ [line 1]

Notebook No. 3, p. 23 ‘fashioned with intricate infinity’

[line 5]

Notebook No. 3, p. 25 ‘A sonnet is a moment’s monument A medal struck to all eternity For one dead deathless hour’

[lines 1–3]

Notebook No. 4, p. 40 ‘Or stamped with the snake’s coil,

it be The imperial image of Eternity’

36 The House of Life

2. Sonnets and Fragments MSS (Troxell Collection, Box 5 file 6, Princeton) MS 14 ‘<The> A sonnet is a moment’s monument –

Memorial from the soul’s eternity To one dead deathless hour –’

[lines 1–3] ‘Like a coin – face and obverse – memories connected with the coin etc.’ [lines 9–10ff.]

Letters:

(1) DGR to TWD 6 Feb 80 (WEF 80.40 [DW 2187]): ‘I on my part have besonneted The Sonnet itself at last –.’

(2) DGR to HC 16 Feb 80 (WEF 80.50 [Manx]; quoted in Caine 120–1): Encloses sonnet ‘which must be new for I only wrote it the other day’. HC acknowledged it 24 Feb (Angeli-Dennis Papers, UBC): ‘The Sonnet is truly beautiful & in two of its lines magnificent. Criticism from me cannot avail much, but it may be worth while to say that (over & above all affected ways of speech) the last two lines, picturing the dark wharf & the black Styx, thrilled me through and through. I am delighted to possess it. I think it is Walter Pater who says a fine poem in manuscript carries an aroma with it & a sensation of music.’

(3) CGR to DGR 2 Apr 80 (FLCGR 84): DGR had consulted his sister about the final couplet. She meant to give their mother a copy of David Main’s Treasury of English Sonnets for her eightieth birthday, 27 Apr 80; DGR meant to insert into this volume an illustrated MS of his sonnet on The Sonnet. Worried that the sestet’s evocation of death might upset Mrs Rossetti, he had proposed a substitute, perhaps a polished version of the couplet quoted above from Ashley Notebook No. 4. Assuring him that it will give no pain at home, CGR tells him to retain his original version:

‘I still think the FIRST sonnet-conclusion quite admissible, and (with you, so far as I realize the two) poetically superior, despite an “imperial” something in the second which has a stately and splendid sound.’

(4) DGR to FLR 27 Apr 80 (WEF 80.142 [DW 2246]): The poet-painter ornamented this presentation MS with a pen-and-ink design which he thus explained:

‘I have no doubt that your discerning eyes plucked out the heart of the mystery in the little design. In it the Soul is instituting the “memorial to one dead deathless hour,” a ceremony easily effected by placing a winged hour-glass in a rose-bush, at the same time that she touches the fourteen-stringed harp of the Sonnet, hanging round her neck. On the rose-branches trailing over in the opposite corner is seen hanging the Coin, which is the second symbol used for the Sonnet. Its “face” bears the Soul, expressed in the butterfly; its “converse,” the Serpent of Eternity enclosing the Alpha and Omega.’

Text and Notes 37

(5) FLR’s reply 27 Apr 80 to (4) above (Angeli-Dennis Papers, Box 3 file 17, UBC), thanking DGR for the ‘gift of your own handiwork so complete in delicacy and subtle indication. It and the illustrative sonnet are I know an undying monument of your ever-during love for me.’

Manuscripts:

(1) (2) Rosenbach (3) BL, Ashley 3857 (4) Bodleian Eng. poet. d. 44 fol. 1 (5) Fitzwilliam HL fol. 3a (6) Troxell (illustrated MS sent to FLR) (7) Princeton HL fol. 2a.

Revisions/Variants:

1. The earliest draft, revised, seems to be Ros.(1). It reads, with revisions:

The Sonnet A sonnet is a moment’s monument, Memorial from thy soul’s eternity To one dead deathless hour. Look that it be, Whether for lustral rite or dire portent Of its own intricate fulness reverent: Carve it in ivory or ebony, As Day or Night may rule it; and decree Its every flower <silvered><pearl-wrought>impearled and orient. A sonnet is a coin whose face reveals Thyself; and its reverse to whom ‘tis due – Whether it guerdon Life’s <tumultuous> <impetuous> vociferous wheels; Or dower thy <suit>yoke in Love’s sworn retinue; Or, nigh <thy>that wharf where spirits <cast>shed their sheath, In Charon’s hand it pay the toll to Death

2. Ros.(1)/ Ros.(2) 7 may rule it; and decree/ claim rule, and let men see 8 <every flower>/ flowering crest 11 <guerdon>/ <largess> guerdon vociferous wheels/ august appeals

12 <thy yoke in Love’s sworn>/thy service in Love’s

13 <spirits shed their sheath,>/ sinks <each> all labouring breath,

14 <hand>/ palm

3. Ros.(2)/ Ash. 6 or ebony/ or in ebony 7 claim rule/ prevail 9 coin whose/ coin, whose 10 <Thyself; and its reverse to

whom ‘tis due:–>/ Thy soul;_its rear-type, to what

Power ‘tis due:– 11–13 Whether it guerdon Life’s august

appeals Or dower thy service in Love’s

retinue,– Or, nigh that wharf where sinks

all labouring breath,/ 11–13 Whether for tribute to the

august appeals Of Life, or dower in Love’s high

retinue, It serve; or, ‘mid the dark

wharf’s cavernous breath, A series of trial words for

‘labouring’(line 13 in Ros. {2}) appears in the lower left-hand corner of Ash.: travailing, shuddering, difficult

38 The House of Life

4. Ash./Bod. 10 its rear-type, to what Power ‘tis

due:–/ and its reverse to whom ‘tis due:–

5. Bod./Fitz. title <The Sonnet> replaced by pencilled note to printer, ‘This to be used as introductory & printed in italics.’ 1 <sonnet>/Sonnet 2 <thy soul’s>/the Soul’s 5 <intricate>/arduous 7 men/Time 9 <sonnet>/Sonnet <coin, whose>/coin: its 10 <Thy>/The <and its reverse to whom>/ its <rear-type>converse, to what

Power In Fitz. a series of trial words for ‘converse’ (line 10) appears below the text: rear-foil, mintage, mint-type

6. Fitz./ Trox. 5 arduous/ intricate 13 or ‘mid/ or, ‘mid

The following inscription and date appear at the bottom left of Trox.:

‘DG Rossetti pro Matre fecit Apr:27. 1880’

7. Trox./ Prin. 7 <prevail>/ may rule Prin. appears to be printer’s copy. On the top left DGR’s note reads: ‘To Printer: This is to be printed in italics of same size as type – to be printed on a leaf with blank back.’ Cancelled, verso, is ‘Part I Youth and Change.’

8. Prin./B&S No variants.

9. Printed MSS: The design DGR sent to his mother (see Frontispiece) appeared in WMR’s Illustrated Ed. of his brother’s poems (1904) opposite p. 94 and was engraved as frontispiece for Sharp 1882. It is also reproduced as Surtees pl. 386 (S.258). Texas has a print of it inscribed, ‘To Constantine Ionides with DG Rossetti’s kind regards’.

There is a pencil sketch for the allegorical figure of The Sonnet in Birmingham (Catalogue of Drawings 1939: 329’04).

Text and Notes 39

PART I. YOUTH AND CHANGE.

SONNET I. LOVE ENTHRONED.

I marked all kindred Powers the heart finds fair: – Truth, with awed lips; and Hope, with eyes upcast; And Fame, whose loud wings fan the ashen Past

To signal-fires, Oblivion’s flight to scare; 4 And Youth, with still some single golden hair

Unto his shoulder clinging, since the last Embrace wherein two sweet arms held him fast;

And Life, still wreathing flowers for Death to wear. 8

Love’s throne was not with these; but far above All passionate wind of welcome and farewell

He sat in breathless bowers they dream not of; Though Truth foreknow Love’s heart, and Hope foretell, 12 And Fame be for Love’s sake desirable,

And Youth be dear, and Life be sweet to Love.

Date of Publication: 1881, B&S Date of Composition: 1871, Works

MS Sources:

1. Ashley Notebooks 1410 (BL) Notebook No. 1, p. 3 ‘And passionate youth he dreams of love with some stray

golden hair Still to his shoulder clinging’

[lines 5–6]

Notebook No. 1, p. 15 ‘And Youth, with one bright spray

of golden hair Still to his shoulder clinging since

the last Embrace wherein his sweet love

held him fast’ [lines 5–7]

Manuscripts:

(1) (2) Princeton HL fols 2a, 9a (3) Bodleian Eng. poet. d. 43 fol. 4 (4) Fitzwilliam HL fol. 4a: (2) is a fair copy of (1) and (3) is a fair copy of (2).

40 The House of Life

Revisions/Variants:

1. All MSS/B&S 2 <proud>/ awed Prin.(1) 3 past/Past [thus on all MSS,

evidently revised in proof] 4 <fires that dull> <fires of

strength,>/ signal- fires, Prin.(1) 4 <can scare>/to scare Prin.(1)

5 <some bright spray of woman’s hair> / still some single golden

hair Fitz. 6 <Yet to>/ Unto Fitz. 7 <sweet> <kind> <fond>/

sweet Prin.(1) 11 <dreamed>/ dream Fitz

SONNET II. BRIDAL BIRTH.

As when desire, long darkling, dawns, and first The mother looks upon the newborn child, Even so my Lady stood at gaze and smiled

When her soul knew at length the Love it nurs’d. 4 Born with her life, creature of poignant thirst

And exquisite hunger, at her heart Love lay Quickening in darkness, till a voice that day

Cried on him, and the bonds of birth were burst. 8

Now, shadowed by his wings, our faces yearn Together, as his fullgrown feet now range

The grove, and his warm hands our couch prepare: Till to his song our bodiless souls in turn 12

Be born his children, when Death’s nuptial change Leaves us for light the halo of his hair.

Date of Publication: 1870, Poems Date of Composition: 1869, Works

Manuscripts:

(1) Fitzwilliam HL fol. 5a (2) Fitzwilliam ‘Poems and Sonnets’ fol. 18b (3) Poems Proof State 12 {Princeton} (4) B&S, DAM Proofs, Sig. M, p. 165 (5) Beinecke Tauchnitz

Revisions/Variants:

1. The earliest draft is Fitz.(1), revised: title <The Bridal Birthday><Bridal Birthdays>/Bridal Birth

1 As when desire, long darkling, dawns, & first

2 The mother looks upon the newborn child

Text and Notes 41

3 <One hour my lady raised her eyes & smiled>

<Even so one hour my lady gazed & smiled>/

Even so my lady stood at gaze & smiled

4 <And><So><For>/When her soul knew at length the Love it nursed

8 <to>/on 9 Now, shielded in his wings, our

faces yearn 10 Together, as his fullgrown feet

now <tread>range 11–14 <About us, & his hands our

couch prepare Till to his song at eve our souls

in turn Are born his children, when the

shadowy change Leaves for last light the halo of

his hair.>/ 11–14 The grove, & his <kind>warm

hands our couch prepare <Till to [?] our unbodied

clinging souls>/ Till to his song our bodiless

souls in turn Be born his children, when

Death’s <bridal>nuptial change Leaves us for light the halo of his

hair.

2. Fitz.(2) yields the same text as, but is a later draft than, Fitz.(1): Fitz.(2)/ B&S title <Bridal Birthdays>/ Bridal Birth 3 lady/Lady 4 nursed/ nurs’d 9 shielded in/ shadowed by 10 <Together>/ Together 11 <About us>/ The grove 11 <kind>/ warm 12 <our unbodied clinging>/

to his song our bodiless 13 <as the shadowy change><when

Death’s bridal change>/ when Death’s nuptial change

14 <Leaves for last>/ Leaves us for

At the bottom of this leaf there is a cancelled version of lines 12–13: <Until to his last song our souls in turn Be born his bodiless children when the change etc.>

3. Revisions in proof for B&S: 3 <lady>/Lady Poems Proof State

12 (Prin.) 4 <nursed>/nurs’d 1870 reading

altered in DAM Proofs of B&S, Sig. M, p. 165 (Box 46, file 5.7)

9 <shielded in>/shadowed by Poems reading altered in Tauchnitz

42 The House of Life

SONNET III. LOVE’S TESTAMENT.

O thou who at Love’s hour ecstatically Unto my heart dost evermore present, Clothed with his fire, thy heart his testament;

Whom I have neared and felt thy breath to be 4 The inmost incense of his sanctuary;

Who without speech hast owned him, and, intent Upon his will, thy life with mine hast blent,

And murmured, “I am thine, thou’rt one with me!” 8

O what from thee the grace, to me the prize, And what to Love the glory, – when the whole Of the deep stair thou tread’st to the dim shoal

And weary water of the place of sighs, 12 And there dost work deliverance, as thine eyes

Draw up my prisoned spirit to thy soul!

Date of Publication: 1870, Poems Date of Composition: 1869, Works

Letter:

DGR to ACS [8 Apr 70](WEF 70.86): ACS was writing his review of Poems while DGR was at Scalands working on the proofs: ‘I forgot to mention, (in case desirable) that 2 titles of sonnets are changed – “Flammifera” to “Love’s Redemption” and “Run and Won” to “The Vase of Life.”’

Manuscripts:

(1) (2) (3) Fitzwilliam HL fols 6a, 79b, 7a (4) Princeton HL fol. 11a (5) Poems Proof State 13 {Princeton} (6) Beinecke Tauchnitz

Revisions/Variants:

1. The earliest draft is Fitz.(1), titled Flammifera, which reads before revision: O thou who in these hours unwearyingly Unto my lips did’st evermore present

The body and blood of Love in sacrament: Whom clasping I have felt thy breath to be The inmost incense of his sanctuary

Text and Notes 43

Who at a word hast owned him, and intent Upon his will, thy life with mine hast blent, And murmured in the cup, Remember me! – O what from thee the grace, for me the prize, And what to him the glory, – when the whole Of the deep stair thou tread’st to the dim goal And weary water of the place of sighs, And there dost work Love’s pleasure, as thine eyes Draw up my prisoned spirit to thy soul!

2. Fitz. MSS (1) & (2)/ Poems title <Flamma Flaminia><Flammula> <Flame�la><Flammifera> <Flammigera>/ Love’s Redemption Fitz.(1) & (2) 1 <in these hours<<Love’s hour>>

unwearyingly> Fitz.(1) <unwearyingly>

<compassionately>/ at Love’s hour ecstatically Fitz.(2) 2 <didst>/ dost Fitz.(1) 4 <Whom clasping, I have><Whom

I have clasped & neared &>/ Whom I have neared and Fitz.(1)

6 <at a word> Fitz.(1) <without word><in each pulse>/ Without speech Fitz.(2)

8 <on the cup><in the cup>/ O’er the cup Fitz.(1)

10 <him>/ Love Fitz.(1) & (2) 11 <goal>/ shoal Fitz.(1) & (2) 13 <Love’s grace><Love’s pleasure>

<Love’s wonder> Fitz.(1) <Love’s wonder>/

deliverance Fitz.(2)

3. Prin. MS (4) is a fair copy in DGR’s hand that agrees with Poems.

4. Revisions in proof: title {Poems} <Flammifera>/ Love’s Redemption Prin. MS (5), Proof State 13 (see Letter above WEF 70.86 to ACS)

Tauchnitz: in Dec 73 DGR’s friend Franz Hueffer brought out a seventh ed. of Poems (dated 1874) for the German publisher Tauchnitz, corrected throughout by DGR (see Appendix Four); DGR wrote Ford Madox Brown 31 Jul 73 that he had been made ‘my own editor with the Tauchnitz proofs’ (WEF 73.265). In a letter of 4 Oct 78, he stated that Tauchnitz ‘has my last revisions beyond the last English edition [i.e., the sixth Ellis ed. of 1872] (WEF 78.226)’. For this seventh ed., DGR altered line 6 by inserting a comma: and, intent <and intent> In the Beinecke Tauchnitz {MS (6)} are entered revisions which agree with those made by DGR on Fitz. MS (3), a torn-out p. 190 of Tauchnitz marked as printer’s copy for B&S:

5. Fitz. MS (3)/B&S title <Love’s Redemption>/ Love’s Testament 2 <lips>/heart <present>/present, 3 The body and blood of Love in

<sacrament;>/ Clothed with his fire, thy heart his testament;

8 <murmured o’er the cup, Remember me! –>/ murmured, “I am thine, thou’rt one with me!”

Revisions in line 8, <me! –>/ me!” and in line 9, <for>/ to must have been made on one or more revises between Fitz. MS (3) and the proofs of Sig. M, Apr 81.

44 The House of Life

6. The difference between the first and last versions of the octave is remarkable. The 1881 version has indisputable authority, representing as it does DGR’s final intention and having been seen through the press by him. Yet we can guess why he revised the 1870 version, since he spoke irritably to his friends about murdering the beauty of old sonnets so they would stand the anticipated critical fire when they appeared in 1881 (WEF 81.212 [DW

2475]). He seems to have told a nervous JM that he would eliminate anything that was not quite colourless from HL (WEF 81.285 [DW 2522]). The 1870 octave, although Dantesque in DGR’s earliest PR manner, presents a striking metaphorical identification of sexual intercourse with Holy Communion that might have seemed to some readers not just fleshly but blasphemous.

SONNET IV. LOVESIGHT.

When do I see thee most, beloved one? When in the light the spirits of mine eyes Before thy face, their altar, solemnize

The worship of that Love through thee made known? 4 Or when in the dusk hours, (we two alone,)

Close-kissed and eloquent of still replies Thy twilight-hidden glimmering visage lies,

And my soul only sees thy soul its own? 8

O love, my love! if I no more should see Thyself, nor on the earth the shadow of thee,

Nor image of thine eyes in any spring, – How then should sound upon Life’s darkening slope 12 The ground-whirl of the perished leaves of Hope,

The wind of Death’s imperishable wing?

Date of Publication: 1870, Poems Date of Composition: 1869, Works

Manuscripts:

(1) Fitzwilliam HL fol. 8a (2) Poems, Proof States 2, 12 {Princeton} (3) Iowa, revised page from Poems Proof State 7

Text and Notes 45

Revisions/Variants:

1. Fitz.(1) with revisions: title <Love-Sight>/Lovesight 5 <dark>/dusk 6–7 <My happy cheek upon thy

bosom lies, And our lips mingle kisses,

words & sighs,> Along thy face, along thy neck,

along Thy breast, my pressed lips feel

the pulses throng, 9 O love, my love! [DGR’s printer

seems to have read the first ‘l’ as upper-case: it appears in Proof State 2 as ‘O Love, my love,’ uncorrected on p. 115 of the Prin. proofs where DGR made other changes in this line; it continues thus through Proof States 4, 6 and 7 but changes back to lower case in Proof State 12]

2. Revisions in proof for Poems: 6–7 <Along thy face, along thy neck,

along

Thy breast, my pressed lips feel the pulses throng,>/

Close-kissed and eloquent of still replies

Thy twilight-hidden glimmering visage lies,

12 <sound, upon Life’s darkening slope,>/sound upon Life’s darkening slope

[These 1870/1881 readings were introduced between Fitz.(1) and Poems Proof State 2.] 9,12 <when I no more shall see . . .

how then shall sound>/ if I no more should see . . . how

then would sound [This important shift to the con-ditional was made on Proof State 2, p. 115 (Prin.)] 4 <known>/known? DGR

marked this correction on p. 133 of Proof State 7 with a note: ‘I have just noticed this. It must have fallen out, as in other cases I have noticed.’ (Iowa)

46 The House of Life

SONNET V. HEART’S HOPE.

By what word’s power, the key of paths untrod, Shall I the difficult deeps of Love explore, Till parted waves of Song yield up the shore

Even as that sea which Israel crossed dryshod? 4 For lo! in some poor rhythmic period,

Lady, I fain would tell how evermore Thy soul I know not from thy body, nor

Thee from myself, neither our love from God. 8

Yea, in God’s name, and Love’s, and thine, would I Draw from one loving heart such evidence

As to all hearts all things shall signify; Tender as dawn’s first hill-fire, and intense 12 As instantaneous penetrating sense,

In Spring’s birth-hour, of other Springs gone by.

Date of Publication: 1881, B&S Date of Composition: 1871, Works

MS Source:

Duke MS Note Book IV, No. 6: ‘As instantaneous penetrating sense, In Spring’s first hour, of other Springs gone by’ [lines 13–14]

Manuscripts:

(1) DAM Box 22{see PFB 3): 52} (2) Fitzwilliam HL fol. 9a (3) Bodleian Eng. poet. d. 43 fol. 3 (4) Princeton HL fol. 12a

Revisions/Variants:

1. DAM is the earliest draft; Prin. seems to be printer’s copy, having no variants from B&S

2. All MSS/B&S [at the top of DAM is DGR’s note: ‘H. of L. To come first in the series’;

at the top right of this leaf is a pencil note, mostly erased, concerning two of the ‘Sonnets for Pictures’ from Poems, there called Lilith and Sibylla Palmifera: they are to be added to the 1881 HL and retitled Soul’s Beauty{77} and Body’s Beauty{78}]

Text and Notes 47

2 <thought pass o’er>/ Love explore DAM

3 <And>/Till DAM song/Song [thus in MS until Prin.] 8 Love/love

[thus in MS until Prin.]

12 [alternate reading at bottom of DAM:] Like fires by dawn restor’d, we know not whence, Or &c. –

<first foot-fire><new birth-fire>/ first hill-fire DAM

14 <first hour>/birth-hour DAM

SONNET VI. THE KISS.

What smouldering senses in death’s sick delay Or seizure of malign vicissitude Can rob this body of honour, or denude

This soul of wedding-raiment worn today? 4 For lo! even now my lady’s lips did play

With these my lips such consonant interlude As laurelled Orpheus longed for when he wooed

The half-drawn hungering face with that last lay. 8

I was a child beneath her touch, – a man When breast to breast we clung, even I and she, – A spirit when her spirit looked through me, –

A god when all our life-breath met to fan 12 Our life-blood, till love’s emulous ardours ran,

Fire within fire, desire in deity.

Date of Publication: 1870, Poems Date of Composition: 1869, Works

Manuscripts:

(1) (2) Fitzwilliam HL fols 10a, 58b.

Revisions/Variants:

1. In the right margin of Fitz.(1) C.F. Murray has written, ‘see reverse of Willowwood III Sonnet 51 {Fitz.(2)} for earlier draft.’ Fitz.(1) was revised as follows: 1 <withering>/smouldering 4 <My>/This

6 <jubilant>/consonant 12 <all our><now the>/all our 13 <Our><The>/Our <the immingling><the

infusive><interfluent><the confluent>/Love’s emulous

48 The House of Life

2. Fitz.(2) was revised as follows: 1 <What withering pulses in

life’s>/What<transitive> <obsolete>smouldering pulses in death’s

6 <jubilant>/consonant 7–8 <As never yet Apollo’s

mastering mood Won from the winds to grace his

roundelay> <As never Orpheus’ love-

bewildered mood Won from his love with that last

roundelay> As <mighty>laurelled Orpheus

<won not>longed for when he wooed

The half-drawn hungering face with that last lay

12 <these our life-breaths><all our life-breath><now the life-breath>/all our life-breath

13 <Our><The>/Our <the imperial> <the

immingling><interfluent> <infusive>/love’s emulous [cancelled at bottom of leaf: <death’s sick delay> <Love’s orient><affluent><ambrosial>]

3. While Fitz.(2) may have been written out earlier than Fitz.(1), DGR’s revisions bring it closer to the 1870/1881 text than the revised Fitz.(1). The two revised drafts agree except in lines 12–13, where Fitz.(2), agreeing with Poems and B&S, has ‘life-breath’ and ‘love’s’ instead of Fitz.(1)’s ‘life-breaths’ and ‘Love’s’.

SONNET VIa. NUPTIAL SLEEP.

At length their long kiss severed, with sweet smart: And as the last slow sudden drops are shed From sparkling eaves when all the storm has fled,

So singly flagged the pulses of each heart. 4 Their bosoms sundered, with the opening start

Of married flowers to either side outspread From the knit stem; yet still their mouths, burnt red,

Fawned on each other where they lay apart. 8

Sleep sank them lower than the tide of dreams, And their dreams watched them sink, and slid away.

Slowly their souls swam up again, through gleams Of watered light and dull drowned waifs of day; 12

Till from some wonder of new woods and streams He woke, and wondered more: for there she lay.

Date of Publication: 1870, Poems Date of Composition: 1869, Works

Text and Notes 49

MS Source:

Proof State 2 of Poems {Princeton}: DGR wrote the following on HL half-title page (verso), dated by printer’s stamp 21 Aug 69:

‘L.S. [for ‘Love’s Sleep’ ?]

Then their close bosoms sundered / with the start

Of opening flowers to either side / outspread etc.

[lines 5–6]

So was the long kiss severed etc. [line 1]

Their bosoms sundered with the / natural art

Of opening flowers etc.’ [lines 5–6]

Letters:

(1) DGR to WMR 21 Aug 69 (WEF 69.130&n1): ‘I think I must include the sonnet Placatâ Venere [an early title] as it is one of my best, but if you are showing the things en famille you had better remove it, (it is torn out as you will see) and replace it at the end of the first section of sonnets – not as paged.’

(2) WMR to DGR 23 Aug 69 (Peattie 218): ‘Put in Placatâ Venere by all means – at any rate, so long as the collection remains private. I must re-read the poem before expressing a distinct opinion as to publication.’

(3) WMR to DGR 24 Aug 69 (Peattie 221): ‘Placatâ Venere – should go in, even in a published form. For that, I think you might perhaps reconsider the title – which appears to me a nearer approach to indecorum than anything in the sonnet itself.’

(4) DGR to WMR 2 Sept 69 (WEF 69.146): ‘I have changed the title of Placatâ Venere to Nuptial Sleep which I think will help it to stand fire, and have improved some lines in it. However when you see it, I want you to say if you think one can say “their long kiss severed” & “their bosoms sundered” or whether “was severed” & “were sundered” are necessary. I should think either would do.’

(5) DGR to WMR 14 Sept 69 (WEF 69.154): ‘About Nuptial Sleep. I enclose the proof before the last to ask you about the M.S. alteration at the bottom, which is now in print. Above & below it I have written a further variation underlined. Do you think this or the present printed one best? I incline to the printed one. Then as to “chirped at each other” [line 8]. This is expressive of the lips kissing at each other as they lie apart. But is it clear, or if clear is it pleasant? Would it be better “kissed at each other” or more likely “moaned to each other”?’

50 The House of Life

(6) WMR to DGR 16 Sept 69 (Peattie 230): ‘Nuptial Sleep. I like best of the two the alteration now in type. “Chirped” I personally have always had a certain antipathy to – though I never felt called upon to raise so mere a point of taste: I regard it as Leigh-Huntish – or perhaps more rightly Browningish. At the same time I think the meaning perfectly clear, and the term graphic – only a shade too much so. My impression is you will not do better than “kissed at each other.” “Moaned” I think too strong, and might be misunderstood as meaning that they really began definite sentimental outpourings. “Crooned” might avoid this objection: but I suspect “Kissed” is best.’

(7) DGR to WMR 3 Oct 69 (WEF 69.168): ‘I think I have hit the mark now in that line of Nuptial Sleep: –

“Fawned on each other where they lay apart.”‘

(8) DGR to F. S. Ellis c. 25 Apr 81 (WEF 81.188 [Texas]): ‘I am omitting the sonnet – “Nuptial Sleep” – which seems to restrict the circulation of the book [B&S].’

Manuscripts:

(1) BL, Ashley 3846 (2) Fitzwilliam HL fol. 102b (3) Poems Proof States 4, 6 {Princeton}

Revisions/Variants:

1. The octave in Ash. 3846 read, before revision:

Placatâ Venere So their mouths came asunder, with fierce smart: And as the last slow sudden drops are shed From sparkling eaves when all the storm has fled, So singly flagged the pulses of each heart. Then their close bosoms sundered at one start, As when a flower bursts open on its bed From the knit stem; yet still their mouths, burnt red, Chirped at each other where they lay apart.

2. The sestet is identical with the text of Poems (except that Ash. 3846 has a

colon instead of a semicolon at the end of line 12. These revisions occur: 1 <mouths came asunder><lips

clove & sundered>/ lips drew asunder

2 <as>/ like <drops are>/ rain-drops 3 <all the storm>/ the short storm

3. Ash./ Fitz 1 <fierce>/sweet 2 <rain-drops>/drops are 3 <the short storm>/all the storm

4. Fitz./ Proof State No. 4 (see Letter (4) above) title Placatâ Venere/ Nuptial Sleep 1 So their lips drew asunder/

At length their long kiss severed 5–6 Then their close bosoms

sundered at one start,

Text and Notes 51

As when a flower bursts open on its bed/

Their bosoms sundered, with the opening start

Of married flowers to either side outspread

8 <Chirped at>/ Moaned to 12 light,/ light day:/ day;

5. Proof State 4/ Proof State 6 8 <Moaned to>/ Fawned on

6. ‘Fleshliness’ would appear to be nothing if not precise: DGR clearly strove to amend what Swinburne had called his ‘fornicative’ sonnet to avoid the label he devised for Swinburne after the 1866 Poems and Ballads row: ‘poeta nascitur non fit for publication’. Nevertheless, Robert Buchanan’s notorious attack on DGR, The Fleshly School of Poetry, singled out Nuptial Sleep as especially gross. Perhaps for this reason DGR did not include it in his 1881 volumes, but he never cancelled it from HL, where it appeared through all seven eds (including the Tauchnitz of 1873) of Poems. In 1894, the Boston publisher Copeland and Day issued a HL ‘being now for the first time given in its full text’ containing the long out-of-print sonnet. It was restored to HL by WMR in 1904 as VIb in his Illustrated Ed. of DGR’s poems (renumbered VIa in his 1911 Works), accompanied by a long note on its publishing history (2: 232–34) displaying WMR’s confidence that by then DGR’s reputation as a poet was beyond the reach of scandal.

DGR made the following defense of this poem in his 1871 response to Buchanan’s assault, ‘The Stealthy School of Criticism’ (Works 617–18):

‘A Sonnet entitled Nuptial Sleep is quoted and abused [in the Fleshly School attack] . . . and is there dwelt upon as a “whole poem”, describ-ing “merely animal sensations”. It is no more a whole poem, in reality, than is any single stanza of any poem throughout the book. The poem, written chiefly in sonnets, and of which this is one sonnet-stanza, is entitled The House of Life [in Italian, “stanza” means “room”]. . . . The sonnet [embodies], for its small constituent share, a beauty of natural universal function, only to be reprobated in art if dwelt on (as I have shown that it is not here) to the exclusion of those other highest things of which it is the harmonious concomitant.’

52 The House of Life

SONNET VII. SUPREME SURRENDER.

To all the spirits of Love that wander by Along his love-sown harvest-field of sleep My lady lies apparent; and the deep

Calls to the deep; and no man sees but I. 4 The bliss so long afar, at length so nigh,

Rests there attained. Methinks proud Love must weep When Fate’s control doth from his harvest reap

The sacred hour for which the years did sigh. 8

First touched, the hand now warm around my neck Taught memory long to mock desire: and lo! Across my breast the abandoned hair doth flow,

Where one shorn tress long stirred the longing ache: 12 And next the heart that trembled for its sake

Lies the queen-heart in sovereign overthrow.

Date of Publication: 1870, Poems Date of Composition: 1869 (first appeared in Proof State 4)

Manuscripts:

(1) (2) Princeton: Miscellaneous MSS in the Troxell Collection, Box 4, Folder 16 (3) BL, Ashley 1403 (4) Fitzwilliam HL fol. 11a (5) LC: Whittal Poetry Collection: H. B. Forman’s ‘A series of Holograph MSS ... of Rossetti ... 1849–1880’ fol. 5 (6) Poems Proof States 7, 12 {Princeton} (7) Beinecke Tauchnitz

Revisions/Variants:

1. Prin.(1), a pencil draft, is the earliest version: title

Sovereign Service 1 To all the spirits of Love that

wander by 2 Across the opened heaven of

nuptial sleep 3 My lady lay apparent; and the

deep 4 Called to the deep; and no man

saw but I.

5 The bliss so long afar at length so nigh

6 There lay disused. Methought proud Love must weep

7 That by Fate’s will he ever should make cheap

8 The sacred hour for which the years did sigh.

9 <With this<<same hand>> hand’s touch now warmed beneath my neck>

Text and Notes 53

With the first touch of this warmed hand (I said)

10 How long did memory mock desire! And lo!

11 Across my breast the abundant <tresses> hair doth flow

12 <Where one <<poor>>shorn tress long held the heart in check>

<Where but one curl the heart’s poor shrine might deck>

Where one poor curl<was treasured for her sake> so long was treasured

13 Hers I was made, and mine she too can be

14 O Love, – this service and this sovereignty!

2. Prin.(2) is another early draft, in ink: title

Sovereign Service 1 To all the spirits of <rest>love

that wander by 2 Across the <love-sown harvest-

field>bridal meadow-lands of sleep

3 My lady lay apparent; and the deep

4 Called to the deep; and no man saw but I.

5 The bliss so long afar, at length <so>brought nigh,

6 Lay there disused. Methought proud Love must weep

7 <When <<?>>his jealous harvest man doth reap>

<When fond man should his jealous harvest reap>

That by Fate’s will he ever should make cheap

8 The sacred hour for which the years did sigh.

9 <With this hand’s touch, now warm beneath my neck>

With the first touch of this warmed hand (I said)

10 How long did memory mock desire! And lo!

11 Across my breast the abundant hair doth flow

12 Where one <shorn>poor tress <long held the heart in check>so long was treasurèd

13 Of gifts all hers the great last gift is she!

14 <Whose service rears <<this>> her throne of sovereignty!>

O Love, – this service and this sovereignty!

3. Prin.(2)/ Ashley title Sovereign Service/ Love’s Surrender 2 Across the bridal meadow-

lands/ Along the love-sown pasture-fields

3 lay/ lies 4 called ... saw/ Calls ... sees 5 brought nigh/ so nigh 6 Lay/ Rests Methought/ Methinks 7 <stirred<<felt>>long> <once trembling> 7 That by Fate’s will he ever

should make cheap/ When Fate’s one day doth from

his harvest reap 9 With the first touch of this

warmed hand (I said)/ First touched, the hand now warm beneath my neck

10 How long did memory mock desire!/

Taught memory long to mock desire:

11 <entangled>abundant 12 Where one poor tress so long

was treasured/<Where ‘neath> ‘Neath whose one tress so long

my heart did ache: 13–14 Of gifts all hers the last great gift

is she!

54 The House of Life

O Love, – this service and this sovereignty!/

<twined with>And with the limbs that trembled for their sake

Lie the queen-limbs in sovereign overthrow.

4. Ashley/Fitz. title Love’s Surrender/ Supreme

Surrender/ 2 pasture-field/ fallowfield 6 disused/attained 12 ‘Neath whose one tress so long

my heart did ache:/<Where ‘neath one tress the longing long did ache:> <Where one shorn tress long chafed the longing ache:>/ Where one shorn tress long stirred the longing ache:

[at the bottom of Fitz. there are several trial readings for line 12:]

<kept<<held>>laying long awake>

<the longing long did wake> <prolonged the> 13 And with the limbs that

trembled for their sake/ And next the heart that

trembled for its sake 14 Lie the queen-limbs/ Lies the

queen-heart

5. Forman is a fair copy of Fitz., except that in line 6 of Forman

‘disused’ is cancelled in favour of ‘attained’. At the bottom of Forman, DGR wrote: ‘Print this after Nuptial Sleep

page 100.’

6. Many of the cancelled readings above reflect DGR’s struggle with the rhyme scheme in the sestet, especially lines 9 and 12; finally abandoning his attempt to end with a couplet, he moved from a scheme of cddcee to cddccd (with a half-rhyme in lines 9 and 12).

7. Revisions in proof (1869–70): 7 <Fate’s one day>/Fate’s control

Poems Proof State 7 Prin. 9 <beneath>/around Poems Proof

State 12 Prin.

8. Poems /B&S 1 love/Love [this reading appears

for the first time in the earliest DAM proof of Sig. M]

2 the love-sown fallowfield/ his love-sown harvest-field

8. Revisions in proof (1881): 2 <the love-sown fallowfield>/

his love-sown harvest-field [1870 reading altered in Beinecke

Tauchnitz]

Printed MS: There is a facsimile of Ashley 1403 in Wise, ALC IV: opp. p. 127.

Text and Notes 55

SONNET VIII. LOVE’S LOVERS.

Some ladies love the jewels in Love’s zone And gold-tipped darts he hath for painless play In idle scornful hours he flings away;

And some that listen to his lute’s soft tone 4 Do love to vaunt the silver praise their own;

Some prize his blindfold sight; and there be they Who kissed his wings which brought him yesterday

And thank his wings to-day that he is flown. 8

My lady only loves the heart of Love: Therefore Love’s heart, my lady, hath for thee His bower of unimagined flower and tree:

There kneels he now, and all-anhungered of 12 Thine eyes grey-lit in shadowing hair above,

Seals with thy mouth his immortality.

Date of Publication: 1870, Poems Date of Composition: 1869, WEF 69.86

Letter:

DGR to WBS [c. 18 Jul 69] (WEF 69.86) ‘I have not been in much of a poetizing mood lately, and I hardly know how many of my doings remain unseen by you. I copy the last. I am about to have all the poetry I can get together of mine printed roughly for my own use in slips, and keep it by me as a stock for selection ultimately with a view to a possible volume. This will induce me to write more and to get advice from the few friends one cares to show the things to. I shall only print a few copies.’

Manuscripts:

(1) Fitzwilliam HL fol. 12a (2) Enclosure in fragment of letter of DGR to WBS {see above: Princeton} (3) Poems Proof States 3, 6 {Princeton}

Revisions/Variants:

1. All MSS/B&S 1 zone,/ zone Fitz., WBS 5 deem/ vaunt Fitz., WBS

11 < <<A>>His innermost deep bower of tent and tree:>/

His bower of unimagined flower and tree: Fitz.

56 The House of Life

12–13 <never wearying of/Thy deep-lit

eyes <<‘neath>><<with>>and shadowy hair above,>/

all-anhungered of/Thine eyes grey-lit in shadowing hair above, Fitz.

2. Revisions, variants, and notes in proofs and eds:

[pencil note above sonnet in Poems Proof State 3: Prin.: ‘Before this print MS Supreme Surrender’] 1 <zone,>/zone

Poems Proof State 6: Prin. 5 <deem>/vaunt

Poems second ed. 13 ‘grey-lit’ is changed to ‘gray-lit’

in Roberts Bros. American ed. of Poems

SONNET IX. PASSION AND WORSHIP.

One flame-winged brought a white-winged harp-player Even where my lady and I lay all alone; Saying: “Behold, this minstrel is unknown;

Bid him depart, for I am minstrel here: 4 Only my strains are to Love’s dear ones dear.”

Then said I: “Through thine hautboy’s rapturous tone Unto my lady still this harp makes moan,

And still she deems the cadence deep and clear.” 8

Then said my lady: “Thou art Passion of Love, And this Love’s Worship: both he plights to me. Thy mastering music walks the sunlit sea:

But where wan water trembles in the grove 12 And the wan moon is all the light thereof,

This harp still makes my name its voluntary.”

Date of Publication: 1870, Poems Date of Composition: 1869, Poems, Proof State 6

Manuscripts:

(1) Fitzwilliam HL fol. 13a (2) Poems Proof States 6, 7 {Princeton}

Revisions/Variants:

1. Fitz. is a draft differing greatly from the 1870 text but marked as printer’s copy for addition to HL in Proof State 6: at the top right of the

leaf DGR’s note reads: ‘Print this after Love’s Lovers page 118.’ Love’s Lovers appears on p. 118 of Proof State 4. Fitz. reads:

Text and Notes 57

title Love and Worship

1 Love brought to us a white-stoled harp-player

2 Even as my lady and I lay all alone;

3 Saying: ‘Behold, this minstrel is unknown;

4 Bid him depart, for I am minstrel here:

5 Only my strains are to my servants dear.’

6 Then said I: ‘Through thy music’s passionate tone

7 Even now, Lord Love, I heard this harp make moan,

8 And still methought the note was <sweet>deep and clear.’

9 Then said my lady: ‘Even as thou art Love,

10 Lo, this is Worship this man hath for me.

11 Thy mastering music walks the sunlit sea:

12 But where wan <waters sigh> <water is still>water rests within the grove

13 And the wan moon is all the light thereof,

14 This harp still makes my name its voluntary.’

2. Troxell Proof State 6 p. 138 is more a manuscript than a proof: a revision of Fitz., it reads: title <Love and Worship>Passion and

Worship 1 One flame-winged brought a

white-winged harp-player

2 Even where my lady and I lay all alone;

[3 and 4 as in Fitz.] 5 Only my strains are to Love’s

dear ones dear.’ 6 Then said I: <‘With> ‘Mid thine

hautbois’ rapturous tone 7 Unto my lady still this harp

makes moan, 8 And still she deems the cadence

deep and clear.’ 9 Then said my lady: ‘Thou art

Passion of Love, 10 And this Love’s Worship: both

he plights to me. [11–14 as above except in line 12 where ‘rests’ is cancelled in favour of ‘throbs’]

3. Page 138 of Troxell Proof State 7 is a revise of the same page from Proof State 6 incorporating the revisions made on that page and adding two more: 6 <hautbois’>hautboy’s 12 <throbs within>trembles in

4. In Proof State 14 ‘Mid’ in line 6 was altered to ‘Through’

5. The single quotation marks of the 1870 text were in B&S replaced by doubles.

6. Musical setting: Sir Ralph Vaughan Williams, ‘Love’s Minstrels’, Sonnets from The House of Life by D. G. Rossetti {1904: recd. London: Polydor, 1974}.

58 The House of Life

SONNET X. THE PORTRAIT.

O Lord of all compassionate control, O Love! let this my lady’s picture glow Under my hand to praise her name, and show

Even of her inner self the perfect whole: 4 That he who seeks her beauty’s furthest goal,

Beyond the light that the sweet glances throw And refluent wave of the sweet smile, may know

The very sky and sea-line of her soul. 8

Lo! it is done. Above the enthroning throat The mouth’s mould testifies of voice and kiss,

The shadowed eyes remember and foresee. Her face is made her shrine. Let all men note 12

That in all years (O Love, thy gift is this!) They that would look on her must come to me.

Date of Publication: 1870, Poems Date of Composition: 1868, Works

MS Source:

Ashley Notebooks 1410 (BL) Notebook No. 2, p. 9 ‘Above the enthroning throat’ [line 9] In B&S this phrase replaced the 1870 reading, ‘Above the long lithe throat.’

Letter:

DGR to Alice Boyd 24 July 68 (WEF 68.110): ‘I have been working at Mrs. Morris’s portrait and have nearly finished it. I think it is better perhaps than the run of my doings.’ WMR notes that DGR is ‘engaged to-day on the blue silk drapery of a half-figure of Mrs. Morris commissioned by Mr. Graham for £500’ (MS Diary 15 Sep 68). This is the oil painting (S.372) described by Marillier (270): ‘Portrait of Mrs. Morris seated before a table with a glass of roses. Inscribed at top, “Jane Morris, A.D.1868. D.G. Rossetti, pinxit. Conjuge clara poetâ, et praeclarissima vultu, Denique picturâ clara sit illa meâ.”‘ Doughty notes that in 1868, ‘at last completing the portrait of Janey begun two years before, Gabriel expressed in his illustrative sonnet,

Text and Notes 59

The Portrait, a passionate and intimate admiration for Janey, its subject. ... It was doubtless with Swinburne’s help, for Rossetti was no Latinist, that he composed the couplet akin in meaning to the last line of this sonnet, and appended it to Janey’s portrait. ... To a crayon drawing he made of Janey the following year, he similarly appended two lines of his sonnet, The Portrait [lines 4, 8], thus again identifying Janey as the subject of the poem’ (377). The crayon drawing is The Portrait (S.212: see also S.213). WMR gives ‘formâ’ for ‘vultu’ and makes the suggestion, repeated by Doughty, that ACS was DGR’s Latin consultant (Works 250 & 673). Surtees translates the inscription, ‘Famous for her poet-husband, and famous for her face, may my picture add to her fame’ (176).

Manuscripts:

(1) Huntington HM6086b (2) Fitzwilliam HL fol. 14a (3) Princeton: DGR. Original MS Sonnets fol. 10a {Troxell Box 5, Folder 5} (4) Poems Proof State 4 {Princeton} (5) Beinecke Tauchnitz

Revisions/Variants:

1. Huntington 6086a is a pencil draft of Sonnet 75, The Husbandmen, there titled ‘To the young Painters of England, (In memory of those before Raffael)’ and dated 1848. The pencil draft of The Portrait verso could belong to the same period but would then obviously have no connection, at that point, with JM, whom DGR did not meet until 1857. This early draft reads before revision: 1 O Lord of all compassionate

control 2 O Love, <now>let this my lady’s

picture <glow> grow 3 Under my hand and

<praise>spread thy praise below 4 That he who seeks for beauty’s

inmost goal 5 Beyond the light wherein her

glances dart 6 Those visiting waves upon the

shore – may know 7 And gray waves breaking on the

heart 8 The very sky and sealine of her

soul.

9 Lo! It is done. Above the long lithe throat

10 The moved mouth trembles with its voice & kiss

11 The great gray eyes remember and foresee,

12 Her dark hair shades the shrine. Let all men note

13 That in all years (O Love, thy gift is this!)

14 They that would know her face must come to me.

2. There are several revisions to Huntington; in the upper right margin of the leaf appear trial rhyme words for lines 1, 4, 5 and 8: ‘dole, sole, stole, whole, console, goal, roll, scroll, toll, control, enrol’. 3 <spread <<her>>thy praise

below><and with thy glory grow>and work thy praise below

4 <for beauty’s inmost goal>her beauty’s furthest goal

5 <Beyond the light wherein her glances dart>

60 The House of Life

Beyond the gray light that her glances throw

6 <Those visiting waves upon the shore>

In visiting waves upon the heart 7 <And gray waves breaking on

the heart> When its wave breaks upon the

heart 10 <trembles>quivers 11 <great gray eyes>shadowed eyes 12 <Her dark hair shades the shrine> <And the hair grows her shrine> <[some words illegible]> Her face is made her shrine

3. Huntington/Fitz. Fitz. is a later, finished version of the incomplete Huntington MS in which DGR has overcome his difficulties with the rhyme scheme in the octave, having eliminated the ‘dart – heart’ rhyme in favour of a conventional abba abba pattern. 2 my lady’s picture grow/my

Lady’s picture glow 3–8 Under my hand and work thy

praise below That he who seeks her beauty’s

furthest goal Beyond the gray light that her

glances throw In visiting waves upon the heart

– may know The very sky and sealine of her

soul./ Under my hand to praise her

name, and show Even of her inner self the

perfect whole: That he who seeks her beauty’s

furthest goal, Beyond the <gray>light that

<her>the sweet glances throw And <visiting>refluent wave of

<her>the sweet smile, may know

The very sky and sea-line of her soul.

9 <long lithe>/lifted 10 <The moved mouth quivers with

its voice and kiss>/The mouth authenticates the voice and kiss

[There are trial words and phrases all over Fitz. for line 10: ‘certifies, signifies, prefigurates, communi- cates, authenticates, assimilates, determinates, corroborates, inaugurates, perpetuates, incorporates, recapitulate, prefigures its own, impersonates <her>the,’ and the reading that, though not adopted here, ultimately appeared in Poems:

‘The mouth’s mould <figures forth the>testifies of voice and kiss’] 14 <know her face>/look on her

4. Fitz./Prin. Prin. seems to be printer’s copy: it is almost a fair copy of Fitz. except that it restores some cancelled or alternate readings from Fitz. At the bottom right of the leaf is this note: ‘written 1868 to Alexa Wilding: crayon portrait (1869) has last 2 lines of octave/Marillier 218.’ This unidentified hand is neither DGR’s nor WMR’s; I have seen no evidence to link Alexa Wilding with this sonnet or these pictures. 9 lifted/long lithe 10 The mouth authenticates the/

The mouth’s mould testifies of

5. The sonnet was inserted into HL in Proof State 4. On the Princeton copy DGR has noted that lines 11 and 14 must be matched; in his sestets he insists that all lines with the same rhyme be matched at the

Text and Notes 61

left margin and differentiated by indentation.

6. All MSS/Poems 2 Lady’s/lady’s

7. Revisions and variants in proofs and eds: 2 all Proof States after 4 have

‘Lady’s’ but Poems has ‘lady’s’ 9 Poems has ‘long lithe’ but B&S

has ‘enthroning’; the change was made in Tauchnitz.

8. This sonnet should not be con-fused with the lyric of the same title

first published in Poems (127–32) and unconnected with HL. A very early draft of 1847 was called ‘On Mary’s Portrait, which I painted six years ago’, written for the Rossetti family ‘Hotch-Potch’ (WEF 73.134&n5). In later drafts of this poem, DGR incorporated some lines he had written in 1849 on ‘From London to Folkestone’ (see WEF 49.16&n3). After the exhumation, he worked on the recovered MS, drastically shortening it for publication in Poems (see WEF 69.191).

SONNET XI. THE LOVE-LETTER.

Warmed by her hand and shadowed by her hair As close she leaned and poured her heart through thee, Whereof the articulate throbs accompany –

The smooth black stream that makes thy witness fair, – 4 Sweet fluttering sheet, even of her breath aware, –

Oh let thy silent song disclose to me That soul wherewith her lips and eyes agree

Like married music in Love’s answering air. 8

Fain had I watched her when, at some fond thought, Her bosom to the writing closelier press’d, And her breast’s secrets peered into her breast;

When, through eyes raised an instant, her soul sought 12 My soul, and from the sudden confluence caught

The words that made her love the loveliest.

Date of Publication: 1870, Poems Date of Composition: 1870, Poems, Proof State 15

62 The House of Life

Letter:

DGR to ACS 22 Mar 70 (WEF 70.64): ‘I ... have written just a sheet of new matter for my book, which is gone to the printer, and shall reach you as soon as I have a revise. It consists chiefly of “The Stream’s Secret.” ... Then there are a few new sonnets too’. DGR refers to Proof State 15 of Poems, a single printer’s sheet of sixteen pages containing The Stream’s Secret, paged 1–12 on this sheet, followed by four sonnets: The Love-Letter appears on p. 13. The pamphlet forgers Thomas J. Wise and H. Buxton Forman passed off bound versions of these proofs as a rare, pre-first ed. ‘Trial Book’, privately printed for circulation to a small number of friends. As a result of their misrepresentations, copies of this ‘book’ have been catalogued at BL, Huntington and Fitzwilliam. However, as this letter demonstrates, the material is nothing more than a last-minute insertion (like Proof State 16) a few weeks before publication. Wise and Forman were able to acquire several copies of these proofsheets since there were at least three revises and DGR, eager that only the latest version of his poems should be seen, sent out multiple copies of these late proofsheets to his designated reviewers for the 1870 volume (Lewis 125–28, 189–91, WEF 70.64n3).

Manuscripts:

No MSS were located, the version on fol. 16a of the Fitzwilliam HL being a fair copy by C. F. Murray. The earliest version of Proof State 15 is in the Morris Behest, Add MSS 45353 in BL, which has a variant in line 1, as follows: hair,/hair (all later revises and Poems). There are revises in the Troxell Collection at Princeton, Huntington, in Ashley at BL and at Fitzwilliam. DGR’s notes on later revises read as follows: ‘To come before the Birth Bond page 186’ (Princeton); ‘House of Life’ (Huntington); ‘Comes in the House of Life after the Portrait’ (Ashley 1404).

Text and Notes 63

SONNET XII. THE LOVERS’ WALK.

Sweet twining hedgeflowers wind-stirred in no wise On this June day; and hand that clings in hand: – Still glades; and meeting faces scarcely fann’d: –

An osier-odoured stream that draws the skies 4 Deep to its heart; and mirrored eyes in eyes: –

Fresh hourly wonder o’er the Summer land Of light and cloud; and two souls softly spann’d

With one o’erarching heaven of smiles and sighs: – 8

Even such their path, whose bodies lean unto Each other’s visible sweetness amorously, – Whose passionate hearts lean by Love’s high decree

Together on his heart for ever true, 12 As the cloud-foaming firmamental blue

Rests on the blue line of a foamless sea.

Date of Publication: 1881, B&S Date of Composition: 1871, WEF 71.123

MS Source:

Ashley Notebooks 1410 (BL) Notebook No. 1, p. 15 ‘As the white-foaming blue of summer skies <Upon the>Rests on the blue line of a foamless sea’ [lines 13–14].

Letter:

DGR to WBS 13 Aug 71 (WEF 71.123) ‘I ... may perhaps soon muster energy to copy a few sonnets. ... I have now 30 new ones in M.S. for the House of Life since printing last year; I suppose several of the last must have been unseen by you.’ With this letter DGR included MSS of four HL sonnets including this one.

Manuscripts:

(1) LC Poetry MSS 1390, fol. 9b (2) Fitzwilliam HL fol. 16a (3) Bodleian Eng. poet. d. 43 {unnumbered folio between fols 19 and 20} (4) BL, Ashley 1407 (5) Princeton HL fol. 13a (6) Printed MS in AN 2: 145 and DW 1150

64 The House of Life

Revisions/Variants:

1. The sestet of LC is very different from the 1881 text: 9–14 9 Even such their path; till round

the sunset hill 10 The wayward clouds of

starlings, at wild play, 11 Sink deep in every <copse

and>copse, to whirl away 12 Oft ere they rest; and <sun and

soul are still:>…… love’s hour hath its fill:

13 <Nor yet the>Nor shall yon gathering rooks that sail and soar

14 Seem to these hearts to cry, Farewell, No more!

Compare these lines with stanzas 2 and 5 of the lyric Sunset Wings, also written at Kelmscott in the summer of 1871, published in 1873 but not in 1881: ‘Sun-steeped in fire, the homeward

pinions sway Above the dovecote-tops; And clouds of starlings, ere they

rest with day, Sink, clamorous like mill-waters, at

wild play, By turns in every copse:’ ‘And now the mustering rooks

innumerable Together sail and soar, While for the day’s death, like a

tolling knell, Unto the heart they seem to cry,

Farewell, No more, farewell, no more!’

(Works 220)

2. LC/Fitz. 1 <stirred in no rude wise>/wind-

stirred in no wise 2 warm day/June day

2 in hand:/in hand: – 5 in eyes:/in eyes: – 9–14 9 Even such their path, whose

bodies lean unto 10 Each other’s visible sweetness

amorously,– 11 Whose passionate hearts <are

leaned by Love’s><lean by Lord Love’s>

<now lean by Love’s>lean by Love’s high decree

12 Together on his heart forever true,

13 As the <white-foaming>cloud-foaming firmamental blue

14 Rests on the blue line of a foamless sea.

3. The WBS MS is a fair copy of Fitz. except that it retains the cancelled ‘white-foaming’ in line 13.

4. WBS/Ash. title Ashley 1407 is headed: ‘Love and Loss (Three Sonnets.) I. The Lovers’ Walk’ Also included in this subset are No. II, Love’s Antiphony [Sonnet 13 in B&S] and No. III, Without Her [Sonnet 53 in B&S]. 3 fanned/fann’d 6 cloud;/cloud, 7 spanned/spann’d 13 white-foaming/cloud-foaming

5. Ash./Bod. 6 cloud,/cloud; [the comma was

doubtless a copying error] 13 cloud-foaming/white-foaming

Text and Notes 65

6. Prin. seems to be printer’s copy, agreeing in all respects with the 1881 text, including the capitalization of ‘Summer’ in line 6.

7. Variants in eds: 14 Rest (B&S fourth ed. 1882)/ Rests (all other printings)

SONNET XIII. YOUTH’S ANTIPHONY.

“I love you, sweet: how can you ever learn How much I love you?” “You I love even so, And so I learn it.” “Sweet, you cannot know

How fair you are.” “If fair enough to earn 4 Your love, so much is all my love’s concern.”

“My love grows hourly, sweet.” “Mine too doth grow, Yet love seemed full so many hours ago!”

Thus lovers speak, till kisses claim their turn. 8

Ah! happy they to whom such words as these In youth have served for speech the whole day long, Hour after hour, remote from the world’s throng,

Work, contest, fame, all life’s confederate pleas, – 12 What while Love breathed in sighs and silences

Through two blent souls one rapturous undersong.

Date of Publication: 1881, B&S Date of Composition: 1871, Works

Manuscripts:

(1) Princeton HL fol. 14a (2) Bodleian Eng. poet. d. 43 fol. 19 (3) BL Ashley 1407 (4) DAM Box 22 {see PFB 3): 52} (5) Fitzwilliam HL fol. 17a

Revisions/Variants:

1. The earliest draft is Prin.; before revisions, it reads: title

The Symphony 1 ‘I love you, sweet: how can you

ever learn 2 How much I love you?’ ‘But I

love you so,

3 And so I learn it.’ ‘Sweet, you cannot know

4 How fair you are.’ ‘If fair enough to earn

5 Your love, so much is all my love’s concern.’

6 ‘My love grows hourly, sweet.’ ‘Mine too doth grow;

66 The House of Life

7 Yet love seemed full so many hours ago.’

8 And here speech ends and kisses take their turn.

9 Shame scathe his heart to whom such words as these

10 Seem not enough of speech the whole day long,

11 Hour after hour, in scorn of the world’s throng,

12 Work, friendship, fame, all life’s pleas, –

13 There, where Love blends of sighs and silences

14 Between two souls one rapturous undersong.

2. The following revisions were made in Prin.: title <The Symphony>Love’s Antiphony 2 <But I love you so,>You I love

even so, 8 <And here speech ends and

kisses take their turn.> Thus lovers speak, <and kiss at

every turn.>till kisses claim their turn.

9 <Shame scathe>Shame on 11 <in scorn of>remote from

13–14 <There, where Love blends

<<of>>with sighs and silences Between two souls one

rapturous undersong.>

13–14 What while Love breathes in

sighs and silences Through two blent souls

<his>one rapturous undersong.

3. Prin./all other MSS title Love’s Antiphony/ Love and Loss (Three Sonnets.) II. Love’s Antiphony.

Ash. Youth’s Antiphony DAM, Fitz. 6 grow;/grow, DAM, Fitz. 7 ago./ago! DAM, Fitz. 9–10 Shame on his heart to whom

such words as these Seem not enough of speech/ Ah! happy they to whom such

words as these In youth have served for speech

Ash., DAM, Fitz. 12 friendship/contest DAM, Fitz. 13 breathes/breathed

Ash., DAM, Fitz.

The later revisions to the sestet after the Bod. MS, replacing present with past tense, introduce a sense of youth having passed and of change. Both DAM and Fitz. agree exactly with the B&S text.

Text and Notes 67

SONNET XIV. YOUTH’S SPRING-TRIBUTE.

On this sweet bank your head thrice sweet and dear I lay, and spread your hair on either side, And see the newborn woodflowers bashful-eyed

Look through the golden tresses here and there. 4 On these debateable borders of the year

Spring’s foot half falters; scarce she yet may know The leafless blackthorn blossom from the snow;

And through her bowers the wind’s way still is clear. 8

But April’s sun strikes down the glades to-day; So shut your eyes upturned, and feel my kiss

Creep, as the Spring now thrills through every spray, Up your warm throat to your warm lips: for this 12 Is even the hour of Love’s sworn suitservice,

With whom cold hearts are counted castaway.

Date of Publication: 1881, B&S Date of Composition: 1870, Works

Manuscripts:

(1) Bodleian Eng. poet. d. 43, fol. 24a (2) Fitzwilliam HL fol. 18a (3) Princeton HL fol. 15a

Revisions/Variants:

1. All MSS/B&S title Spring Tribute /

Youth’s Spring-Tribute Bod.

4 rippling Bod. <rippling>golden/ golden Fitz.

6 her glance/ she yet Bod.

2. Fitz. as revised and Prin. agree with B&S.

68 The House of Life

SONNET XV. THE BIRTH-BOND.

Have you not noted, in some family Where two were born of a first marriage-bed, How still they own their gracious bond, though fed

And nursed on the forgotten breast and knee? – 4 How to their father’s children they shall be

In act and thought of one goodwill; but each Shall for the other have, in silence speech,

And in a word complete community? 8

Even so, when first I saw you, seemed it, love, That among souls allied to mine was yet

One nearer kindred than life hinted of. O born with me somewhere that men forget, 12 And though in years of sight and sound unmet,

Known for my soul’s birth-partner well enough!

Date of Publication: 1870, Poems Date of Composition: 1854, WEF 54.57

Letter:

DGR to William Allingham [c. 1] Aug 54 (WEF 54.57): ‘Here’s a rather better sonnet, I hope, written only two or three days ago. I believe the affection in the last half was rather “looked up”, at the time of writing, to suit the parallel in the first. Do you not always like your last thing the best for a little while?’ DGR included the MS of the sonnet with the letter; it is now in PML.

Manuscripts:

(1) Duke Note Book II, fol. 28 {PFB 1): 35} (2) PML M.A. 381 fols 11–12 (3) Fitzwilliam HL fol. 19a (4) Poems Proof State 6 {Princeton} (5) Printed MS in WA/GBH: 46, DW 180, WEF 54.57

Revisions/Variants:

1. Duke is an early revised draft, dated ‘Aug. 1854’: title

Nearest <of>Kindred

1 Have you not noted in some family

2 Where two remain from the first marriage bed,

Text and Notes 69

3 How still they own their fragrant bond, though fed

4 And nurst <upon an unknown>on a forgotten breast & knee:

5 That to their father’s children they shall be

6 In act and <word>thought of one goodwill; but each

7 Shall for the other have, in silence speech,

8 And in <one>a word, complete community?

9 Even so, when first I saw you, seemed it, love,

10 That among souls allied to mine was yet

11 One neared kindred than I wotted of:

12 <Together born>O born with me somewhere that men forget;

13 And though in years of sight & sound unmet,

14 Known for my life’s own sister well enough.

2. Duke/PML PML is untitled 1 noted in/noted, in 4 on a forgotten/upon an unknown 8 in a word/in one word 11 wotted of:/wotted of.

3. PML/Fitz. title [untitled]/Nearest Kindred 2 <remain from the>/were born of a 4 nurst upon an unknown breast

and knee:/nursed upon <a>the forgotten breast and knee? –

5 <That>How 8 in one word, complete/in a

word complete 11 <I wotted of><aught told

of>/birth hinted of 12 forget;/forget, 14 enough./enough!

4. Notes, revisions and variants in proofs and eds: [note above sonnet in Poems Proof State 3, Prin: ‘Before this print MS The Portrait’] [note above sonnet in Poems Proof State 12, Prin.: ‘After this print MS A Day of Love’] [note above sonnet in Poems Proof State 14, Prin.: ‘Before this put The Love Letter’]

Poems Proof State 6, Prin. title <Nearest Kindred>/The Birth-Bond 3 <fragrant><perfect>/gracious 11 <birth hinted>/life hinted 14 <life’s own sister>/soul’s birth-

partner In his signed, annotated copy of the second ed. of Poems, now in the Troxell Collection at Princeton, DGR first restored the reading in line 11, ‘birth hinted of’, that he had cancelled in favour of ‘life hinted of’ in Proof State 6; however, he decided to retain ‘life’. He seemed in these revisions to be trying to strengthen the prenatal rather than the incestuous suggestions of the sonnet: cf. Sudden Light, a lyric that was part of the 1870 HL (Poems 244).

There are errors of transcription in WA/GBH and DW but not in WEF.

70 The House of Life

SONNET XVI. A DAY OF LOVE.

Those envied places which do know her well, And are so scornful of this lonely place, Even now for once are emptied of her grace:

Nowhere but here she is: and while Love’s spell 4 From his predominant presence doth compel

All alien hours, an outworn populace, The hours of Love fill full the echoing space

With sweet confederate music favourable. 8

Now many memories make solicitous The delicate love-lines of her mouth, till, lit With quivering fire, the words take wing from it;

As here between our kisses we sit thus 12 Speaking of things remembered, and so sit

Speechless while things forgotten call to us.

Date of Publication: 1870, Poems Date of Composition: 1870, Poems, Proof State 14

Letters:

(1) DGR to ACS 26 Feb 70 (WEF 70.35): This sonnet was added to HL in Proof State 14, along with Life-in-Love (36) and The One Hope (101); DGR describes them as ‘a new one for a close’ (101) and ‘two other new ones’.

(2) DGR to Alice Boyd 22 Mar 70 (WEF 70.63): ‘There are … 3 new Sonnets in the last set of proofs [No.14] which I think you haven’t seen and accordingly enclose.’

(3) DGR to Alice Boyd [25 Mar] 70 (WEF 70.70): Evidently WBS had remarked to his mistress Alice Boyd that these sonnets were too personal: DGR responded vigorously in a manner which fore-shadows his defence in The Stealthy School of Criticism against Buchanan’s attacks in 1871–72: ‘Now let me declare that I view the Scotian view of my sonnets as rather a random one. The “Life-in-Love” [36] refers to an actual love with a reminiscence of a former one; the “Day of Love” to a meeting between lovers who have much to remember, & the “One Hope” [101] to the longing for accomplishment of individual desire after death. Surely there is nothing in any one of these subjects so limitedly personal as to present an obstacle to any reader who cares for writing that has an abstract side at all.’

Text and Notes 71

Manuscript:

Fitzwilliam HL fol. 20a

Revisions/Variants:

1. Fitz./B&S 3 <Now for a while>/Even now

for once 4 <as>/while 8 <their>/sweet favorable/favourable

[DGR’s note below text: ‘Print this after The Birth Bond page 132.’ After revisions, Fitz. agrees with Poems.]

2. The spelling change in line 8 to ‘favourable’ was made between the seventh ed. of Poems and the DAM proofs of Sig. N, dated 25 Apr for B&S.

SONNET XVII. BEAUTY’S PAGEANT.

What dawn-pulse at the heart of heaven, or last Incarnate flower of culminating day, – What marshalled marvels on the skirts of May,

Or song full-quired, sweet June’s encomiast; 4 What glory of change by nature’s hand amass’d

Can vie with all those moods of varying grace Which o’er one loveliest woman’s form and face

Within this hour, within this room, have pass’d? 8

Love’s very vesture and elect disguise Was each fine movement, – wonder new-begot Of lily or swan or swan-stemmed galiot;

Joy to his sight who now the sadlier sighs, 12 Parted again; and sorrow yet for eyes

Unborn, that read these words and saw her not.

Date of Publication: 1881, B&S Date of Composition: 1871, Works

Manuscripts:

(1) Bodleian Eng. poet. d. 43 fol. 10 (2) Fitzwilliam HL fol. 21a (3) Princeton HL fol. 16a (4) Ros. Proofs Sig. N, 3 May, p. 179, DAM proofs Sig. N, 28 Apr, p. 179

72 The House of Life

Revisions/Variants:

1. MSS/B&S title <Love’s Pageant>/

Beauty’s Pageant Ros. 5 amassed/amass’d Bod. 8 passed/pass’d Bod.

2. WMR’s eds 5 nature WMR in CW and Works

prints ‘Nature’: no authority supports this capitalization.

SONNET XVIII. GENIUS IN BEAUTY.

Beauty like hers is genius. Not the call Of Homer’s or of Dante’s heart sublime, – Not Michael’s hand furrowing the zones of time, –

Is more with compassed mysteries musical; 4 Nay, not in Spring’s or Summer’s sweet footfall

More gathered gifts exuberant Life bequeathes Than doth this sovereign face, whose love-spell breathes

Even from its shadowed contour on the wall. 8

As many men are poets in their youth, But for one sweet-strung soul the wires prolong Even through all change the indomitable song;

So in likewise the envenomed years, whose tooth 12 Rends shallower grace with ruin void of ruth,

Upon this beauty’s power shall wreak no wrong.

Date of Publication: 1881, B&S Date of Composition: 1871, Works

Manuscripts:

(1) Fitzwilliam HL fol. 22a (2) Bodleian Eng. poet. d. 43 fol. 9 (3) Princeton HL fol. 17a (4) DAM proofs Sig. N {n.d.}, set 5a, p. 180

Revisions/Variants:

1. All MSS/B&S 2 <voice>/heart Prin. 6 <life>/Life Fitz. 13 <ruin’s worst unruth>/ruin

void of ruth Fitz.

ruin’s worst unruth/ruin void of ruth Bod.

14 <On this <<goddess’>>highest>/

Upon this beauty’s Fitz.

Text and Notes 73

2. Bancroft press-proof 5a has the following notes, evidently in the hand of WMR: 6 [The final e of ‘bequeathes’ is

underlined, with the comment] ‘This e is I think unusual.’

12 ‘“likewise” like wise (two words) wd. I think be decidedly preferable.’

The changes suggested in 2. were ignored by DGR, but WMR adopted ‘bequeaths’ in CW and Works and

‘like wise’ in Works; Baum, who used Works as copy-text for PFB 2), follows WMR’s emendation in line 6 but not in line 12. These readings have no authority, having been implicitly rejected by the poet when he considered the results of WMR’s copy-editing.

3. In the first ed. of B&S the final period at the end of line 14 dropped out; it was restored in the fourth ed. of 1882.

SONNET XIX. SILENT NOON.

Your hands lie open in the long fresh grass, – The finger-points look through like rosy blooms: Your eyes smile peace. The pasture gleams and glooms

‘Neath billowing skies that scatter and amass. 4 All round our nest, far as the eye can pass,

Are golden kingcup fields with silver edge Where the cow-parsley skirts the hawthorn-hedge.

‘Tis visible silence, still as the hour-glass. 8

Deep in the sun-searched growths the dragon-fly Hangs like a blue thread loosened from the sky: –

So this wing’d hour is dropt to us from above. Oh! clasp we to our hearts, for deathless dower, 12 This close-companioned inarticulate hour

When twofold silence was the song of love.

Date of Publication: 1881, B&S Date of Composition: 1871, Works

MS Sources:

(1) Ashley Notebooks 1410 {BL} (2) Duke Note Book II This sonnet was manufactured from the following entries made during 1870–1 in two Ashley Notebooks and on the Duke MS (see PFB 1): 36–37):

74 The House of Life

Notebook No. 1, p. 17: ‘In the air the dragonfly Hangs like a blue thread Loosened from the sky’ [lines 9–10]

Notebook No. 1, p. 22: ‘Think through the silence how when we are old; We two shall think upon this place and day: [lines 12–14]

Notebook No. 2, p. 4: ‘Her hands lay open in the long deep grass And the sweet points looked through like rosy flowers’

[lines 1–2] ‘Some close-companioned inarticulate hour

When twofold silence was the song of love’ [lines 13–14] ‘The golden kingcup fields with silver edge Where the cow-parsley skirts the hawthorn hedge’ [lines 6–7]

Notebook No. 2, p. 15: ‘Deep in the sun-searched grass the dragon-fly Hangs like a blue flake loosened from the sky’ [lines 9–10]

Duke Note Book II (‘Fragments’ leaf) ‘Some close companioned inarticulate hours When two-fold silence was the song of love’ [lines 13–14]

Letter:

DGR to WBS 25 Aug [71] (WEF 71.129): ‘I hardly ever do produce a sonnet except on some basis of special momentary emotion; but I think there is another class admissible also – and that is the only other I practice, viz. the class depending on a line or two clearly given you, you know not whence, & calling up a sequence of ideas. This also is a just raison d’etre for a sonnet, & such are all mine when they do not in some sense belong to the “occasional” class.’

Manuscripts:

(1) (2) Rosenbach (3) (4) Fitzwilliam HL fols 23a and 24a (5) Princeton HL fol. 18a (6) DAM proofs, Sig. N, p. 181, 28 Apr, 6 May

Revisions/Variants:

1. Ros.(1), the earliest draft, reads: Silence

Your hands lie open in the long deep grass And the sweet points look through like rosy blooms: <All round>The waving meadow pasture gleams and glooms Neath billowing skies that scatter and amass. <All round><About>Around us twain, far as the eye can pass,

Are golden kingcup fields with silver edge Where the cow-parsley skirts the hawthorn hedge. ‘Tis visible silence, <still>as of the <still>hourglass. Think through this silence how when we are old We two shall think upon this place and day, The beauty around us, and the beauty above,

Text and Notes 75

<And each of the other’s heart> <And harbour in our hearts> And clasp unto our hearts, when tempests lour, This close-companioned inarticulate hour When twofold silence was the song of love.

2. Ros.(1)/Ros.(2) [at the top of Ros.(2) DGR has

written ‘XIX’] 1 <deep>/low 3 meadow pasture/meadow-

pasture 4 <With>/Neath amass./amass: 5 Around/All round 6 kingcup fields/kingcup-fields 7 hawthorn hedge/hawthorn-

hedge [9–11, revised but not replaced, are

cancelled by a diagonal line:] 9 <when we are old>/when old

and grey 11 <This>/The above,/above; 12 And clasp unto our hearts, when/ Still clasping to our hearts,

though

3. Ros.(2)/Fitz.(1) title

Silence/The Silent Hour 1 low/lush 3 <The <<panting>>waving

meadow-pasture >/ Your eyes smile peace. The

pasture 5 <All round us twain>/Around

our nest 8 <as of the hour-glass>/like the

still hour-glass 9–12 Think through this silence how,

when old and grey,

We two shall think upon this place and day,

The beauty around us and the beauty above;

Still clasping to our hearts, though tempests lour,/

9–12 Deep in the sun-searched

growths the dragon-fly Hangs like a blue thread

loosened from the sky: – <Even so this hour is dropped to

us from above;>/So this winged hour is dropt to us from above,

Oh! clasp we to our hearts, for deathless dower,

4. Fitz.(1)/Fitz.(2) title <The Silent Hour>/Silent Noon 1 lush grass/fresh grass,– 2 <And the sweet points>/The

finger-points 4 <With>/’Neath 5 Around our nest/All round our

nest 8 <like the still hour-glass>/still

as the hour-glass 11 winged/wing’d

5. Prin. is a fair copy of Fitz.(2). DGR tidied up the punctuation on the DAM proofs as follows: 4 <amass:> amass. Sig. N, p. 181,

copy 1a, 28 Apr 11 <above,> above. Sig. N, p. 181,

copy 4a, 6 May

The DAM press-proof revisions in 5. were suggested by WMR (Box 46 files 5.23, 5.63).

6. Musical settings: (1) Love-Lily and Other Songs by D. G. Rossetti set to music by Mr. Edward Dannreuther {London: Novello, Ewer & Co., 1884}. (2) Sir Ralph Vaughan

76 The House of Life

Williams, Sonnets from The House of Life by D. G. Rossetti {1904: recorded London: Polydor, 1974}. (3) George

F. Boyle, Silent Noon {New York: Galaxy Music Corp., 1939}.

7. Silent Noon is one of the ‘Kelmscott love sonnets,’ written while DGR was living with JM in the idyllic setting of the upper Thames Valley near Lechlade; it has also been frequently cited as an example of DGR’s ability, when he was willing, to ‘follow Nature’ according to the PR injunction. But the above detailing of its composition shows that while it may have begun as an ‘occasional’ poem describing an outing by the river, it is more accurately described as belonging to the other class of sonnet DGR identified in the above letter to WBS. The first draft, Silence, is a sorry effort, but its transformation through many MS and proof stages into one of DGR’s most notable sonnets was a product of what he called ‘fundamental brainwork’ (WEF 81.104). In the Fitzwilliam MSS the banal lines 9–12 of Silence are cancelled in favour of the dragon-fly simile extracted from his notebooks. Hackneyed diction and fleshly words such as ‘panting’ get dropped for microcosm-macrocosm imagery in which the body of the beloved is metaphorically identified with Nature, imagery continued in the similes of the next sonnet.

SONNET XX. GRACIOUS MOONLIGHT.

Even as the moon grows queenlier in mid-space When the sky darkens, and her cloud-rapt car Thrills with intenser radiance from afar, –

So lambent, lady, beams thy sovereign grace 4 When the drear soul desires thee. Of that face

What shall be said, – which, like a governing star, Gathers and garners from all things that are

Their silent penetrative loveliness? 8

O’er the water-daisies and wild waifs of Spring, There where the iris rears its gold-crowned sheaf With flowering rush and sceptred arrow-leaf,

So have I marked Queen Dian, in bright ring 12 Of cloud above and wave below, take wing

And chase night’s gloom, as thou the spirit’s grief.

Date of Publication: 1881, B&S Date of Composition: 1871, Works

Text and Notes 77

MS Sources:

(1) Ashley Notebooks 1410 {BL} (2) Duke Note Book III {see PFB 1): 72, 76} Notebook No. 1, p. 17: ‘O thou of Love’s all-penetrative

spell Amulet, talisman and oracle’ [also suggests Sonnet 27, Heart’s

Compass] p. 37: ‘A face that like a governing star

gathers & garners from all things that are

Their silent penetrative loveliness.’ [lines 5–8]

Notebook No. 2, p. 38: ‘With water daisies & wild waifs of

Spring There, where the iris<stems> rears

its gold-crowned sheaf With flowering rush & sceptred

arrow-leaf’ [lines 9–11]

2. Duke Note Book III: ‘<With>‘Mid water-daisies and

wild waif of spring’ [line 9] ‘Their silent penetrative loveliness’

[line 8]

Manuscripts:

(1) Bodleian Eng. poet. d. 44 fol. 6 (2) Fitzwilliam HL fol. 25a (3) Princeton HL fol. 19a (4) DAM Proofs, Sig. N, p. 182, 28 Apr, press-proofs {n.d.} (5) Ros. Proofs, Sig. N, p. 182, 3 May

Revisions/Variants

1. All MSS/B&S 1 <Moon>/moon DAM Box 46 file

5.23, Ros. Proofs 2 cloud-rapt [WMR says ‘I suppose

rapt (not wrapt) is really meant

here.’ DGR made no change.] DAM Box 46 file 5.63

6 said, which/said, – which Bod. star/star, Bod. 8 <loveliness>/loveliness?

DAM Box 46 file 5.23

78 The House of Life

SONNET XXI. LOVE-SWEETNESS.

Sweet dimness of her loosened hair’s downfall About thy face; her sweet hands round thy head In gracious fostering union garlanded;

Her tremulous smiles; her glances’ sweet recall 4 Of love; her murmuring sighs memorial;

Her mouth’s culled sweetness by thy kisses shed On cheeks and neck and eyelids, and so led

Back to her mouth which answers there for all: – 8

What sweeter than these things, except the thing In lacking which all these would lose their sweet: – The confident heart’s still fervour: the swift beat

And soft subsidence of the spirit’s wing, 12 Then when it feels, in cloud-girt wayfaring,

The breath of kindred plumes against its feet?

Date of Publication: 1870, Poems Date of Composition: 1870, Poems, Proof State 16

Letters:

(1) DGR to F.S. Ellis 26 Mar 70 (WEF 70.72): ‘You will be glad to hear that I have just wound up my book with 2 more sonnets to the House of Life (making 50 now) and shall add no more. I am sending all to the printers but must have one revise of the last sheets before they work them off.’ DGR here refers to Proof State 16 of Poems, two page proofs containing this sonnet as XIII and He and I (98) as XLVII. As they did with Proof State 15, the pamphlet forgers Wise and Forman passed off sewn and bound versions of this Proof State as a rare ‘Trial Book’ called Two Sonnets, privately printed for circulation to a small number of friends (see notes to Sonnet 11, The Love-Letter). Consequently, these page proofs have been catalogued as a printed brochure, both in Huntington (where they are called a ‘bifolium’) and in the BL (Ashley). DGR sent out multiple copies corrected in his hand to reviewers so that they would have the complete book in its latest form, but some of these proofs were acquired by Wise and Forman (Lewis 129–31; 188).

Text and Notes 79

Manuscripts:

There are none as such, the MS version on fol. 26a of the Fitzwilliam HL being a fair copy by C. F. Murray, but there are notes and revisions on proofsheets and in eds: (1) Huntington HM 93736 (2) BL, Ashley 1402 (3) Proof State 16 {Princeton: 2 copies} (4) B&S Proofs Sig. N, 3, 6 May and press-proofs.

Revisions/Variants:

1. Revised proofsheets/Poems MS headnotes: ‘House of Life’ Hun. ‘Comes in H of L after “A Day of

Love”‘ Ash.

10 <sweet?–>/sweet:– Hun., Ash. 11 <full heart’s

confluent>/confident heart’s still Hun., Ash.

14 <feet.>/feet? Hun., Ash.

2. Prin.{a} is an unnumbered page proof containing DGR’s MS revisions to lines 10 and 14; Prin.{b} is a revise of {a} with the pagination (201) and layout of the first ed., containing DGR’s MS revision to line 11. This revision eliminates repetition: ‘confluence’ appears in line 13 of the 1870 Sonnet X, just added in Proof State 15, The Love Letter.

3. In the seventh (Tauchnitz) ed., DGR made a punctuation change in line 11: fervour;/fervour:

4. In the B&S proofs of 3 May, Love-Sweetness was Sonnet 22 on p. 184, between The Dark Glass on p. 183 and Love’s Baubles on p. 185; in the proof of 6 May, Heart’s Haven, which had been Sonnet 34, was inter-changed with The Dark Glass; then in the press-proof (n.d.), the order was finally changed to that of the first ed., in which Love-Sweetness

appears on p. 183 following Gracious Moonlight and preceding Heart’s Haven. On the DAM proof of Sig. N, 28 Apr, p. 184, copy 1{a}, the tentative title ‘Heart & Spirit’ is written in pencil beside the title. This rearrangement and alternative title suggest many possibilities – that DGR was trying to avoid repeating ‘heart’ or ‘love’ in adjacent titles, that he wanted two moonlight sonnets closer together, or that the relative thematic darkness of The Dark Glass required it to be placed later in the sequence.

5. A facsimile of Ash. 1402 appears facing p. 126 in ALC.

6. DGR quoted this sonnet in full in The Stealthy School of Criticism, contrasting it with Nuptial Sleep:

‘Any reader may bring any artistic charge he pleases against the above sonnet; but one charge it would be impossible to maintain against the writer of the series in which it occurs, and that is, the wish on his part to assert that the body is greater than the soul. For here all the passionate and just delights of the body are declared – somewhat figuratively, it is true, but unmistakably – to be as naught if not ennobled by the concurrence of the soul at all times’ (Works 618).

80 The House of Life

SONNET XXII. HEART’S HAVEN.

Sometimes she is a child within mine arms, Cowering beneath dark wings that love must chase, – With still tears showering and averted face,

Inexplicably filled with faint alarms: 4 And oft from mine own spirit’s hurtling harms

I crave the refuge of her deep embrace, – Against all ills the fortified strong place

And sweet reserve of sovereign counter-charms. 8

And Love, our light at night and shade at noon, Lulls us to rest with songs, and turns away All shafts of shelterless tumultuous day.

Like the moon’s growth, his face gleams through his tune; 12 And as soft waters warble to the moon,

Our answering spirits chime one roundelay.

Date of Publication: 1881, B&S Date of Composition: 1871, WEF 71.123

Letters:

(1) DGR to WBS 13 Aug 71 (WEF 71.123; AN 2: 142–45, quoted above p. 63): with this letter DGR included MSS of four HL sonnets including this one.

(2) DGR to WBS 25 Aug 71 (WEF 71.129): responding to Scott’s objection to line 11, DGR wrote: ‘What particular fault can be found in the line “All shafts of shelterless, tumultuous day” I endeavour to trace but fail entirely’.

Manuscripts:

(1) DAM Box 22 {see PFB 3): 52–53} (2) Bodleian Eng. poet. d. 43 fol. 17 (3) Fitzwilliam HL fol. 27a (4) Princeton HL fol. 20a (5) Printed MS in AN 2: 146, repr. DW 1150 (6) DAM Proofs Sigs. N & O, 3, 6 May (7) Ros. Proofs Sigs. N & O, 3, 6 May

Text and Notes 81

Revisions/Variants:

1. DAM seems to be the earliest draft, showing revisions as follows: 2 <Cowering neath some dark

wing> Cowering beneath dark wings 9–11 <And Love, who is his children’s

shade at noon, <<Holds us, and folds, & hides

us deep away>> <<Lulls us with songs, and

screens our root away>> From pitiless tumultuous lights

of day:> 9–12 And Love, our light at night and

shade at noon, Lulls us to rest with songs, and

screens away All shafts of shelterless

tumultuous day: <As the moon’s growth, so

grows his gradual tune;> Like the moon’s growth, his face

gleams through his tune; 13 <thy><swift>soft

2. All MSS/B&S 2 <chase;>/chase, – DAM and

Ros. proofs Sig. O, p. 196, 6 May 7 ill/ills changed in Prin.

8 countercharms/counter-charms [B&S version appears in AN and all proof states]

10 me/us Bod. <screens>/turns Fitz. 11 shelterless, tumultuous/

shelterless tumultuous AN 14 <kisses>/spirits Fitz.

3. MS Headnotes and repositioning: on Prin. and DAM and Ros. proofs Sig. O, p. 196, 3 May this was Sonnet 34, between Venus Victrix and The Love-Lamp (later Soul-Light). DGR’s note on Ros. reads, ‘Interchange this sonnet with sonnet XXI sheet N page 183’ [The Dark Glass]. It appears as Sonnet 21 in Sig. N, p. 183, 6 May between Gracious Moonlight and Love-Sweetness; DGR’s note on DAM reads, ‘Interchange this with the following sonnet.’ In Sig. N press-proofs (n.d.) it appeared where it stands in B&S. See note 3. on Love-Sweetness.

4. Musical setting: Sir Ralph Vaughan Williams, Sonnets From The House of Life by D. G. Rossetti, 1904; recorded Polydor, 1974.

82 The House of Life

SONNET XXIII. LOVE’S BAUBLES.

I stood where Love in brimming armfuls bore Slight wanton flowers and foolish toys of fruit: And round him ladies thronged in warm pursuit,

Fingered and lipped and proffered the strange store. 4 And from one hand the petal and the core

Savoured of sleep; and cluster and curled shoot Seemed from another hand like shame’s salute, –

Gifts that I felt my cheek was blushing for. 8

At last Love bade my Lady give the same: And as I looked, the dew was light thereon; And as I took them, at her touch they shone

With inmost heaven-hue of the heart of flame. 12 And then Love said: “Lo! when the hand is hers, Follies of love are love’s true ministers.”

Date of Publication: 1870, Poems Date of Composition: 1869, Poems, Proof State 6

Manuscripts: (1) Fitzwilliam HL fol. 28a (2) Poems Proof States 6, 7, 14 {Princeton} (3) Poems {Tauchnitz}

Revisions/Variants: 1. All MSS/B&S 3 <close>/warm Proof State 7,

p. 141, Prin. 4 store:/store. Revision evidently

made for Tauchnitz 12 <azure>/inmost Fitz. <flame,>/flame. Proof State 6,

p. 141, Prin. 14 <high>/true Proof State 6,

p. 141, Prin.

2. MS Headnotes and repositioning: this sonnet was first printed on p. 141, Proof State 6, of which the earliest version is Ashley 1393 in BL. Across

the top of Fitz. DGR wrote, ‘Print this after Nearest Kindred p. 120 [later The Birth Bond (15)]’. On p. 188 of Proof State 14, DGR revised this sonnet’s number from XII to XIV (top of text), ‘Before this print MS Love-Sweetness’ [added in Proof State 16]. On p. 189 Winged Hours was renumbered XIII, from XV. On p. 187 the number of A Day of Love, just added in this Proof State , was revised from XI to XII. With the addition of The Love Letter as X in Proof State 15, the order of the sonnets from X through XV matches the sequence in Poems.

Text and Notes 83

SONNET XXIV. PRIDE OF YOUTH.

Even as a child, of sorrow that we give The dead, but little in his heart can find, Since without need of thought to his clear mind

Their turn it is to die and his to live: – 4 Even so the winged New Love smiles to receive

Along his eddying plumes the auroral wind, Nor, forward glorying, casts one look behind

Where night-rack shrouds the Old Love fugitive. 8

There is a change in every hour’s recall, And the last cowslip in the fields we see On the same day with the first corn-poppy.

Alas for hourly change! Alas for all 12 The loves that from his hand proud Youth lets fall,

Even as the beads of a told rosary!

Date of Publication: 1881, Athenæum No. 2810, 3 Sep, p. 305; B&S Date of Composition: 1880, WEF 80.383; DGRDW 171

MS Sources:

1. Ashley Notebooks 1410 (BL) Notebook No. 2, p. 4 ‘Even as a child, of sorrow that we give The dead, but little at his heart can find Since without need of thought, in his clear mind, Their turn it is to die & his to live.’ [lines 1–4]

p. 9 ‘title – Aura and Aurora the loves that from our hands have dropped away Even as the beads of a told rosary.’ [lines 13–14]

p. 5 ‘Amen to the omen (title) One bliss but tarries for another’s birth As the last cowslip in spring-fields we see With the first corn-poppy.’ [lines 9–11]

2. Sonnets and Fragments MSS (Troxell Collection Box 5 file 6, Princeton) fol. 16a, b [the fragments from 1. above also appear on this leaf, except that there is no title for lines 13–14, and line 10 has ‘the fields’ for ‘spring-fields.’]

84 The House of Life

Letters:

(1) DGR to WBS, 2 Aug 71 (WEF 71.113) WMR dated this sonnet ‘Perhaps 1871’ in DGRDW. The above fragments may date from this period, when DGR was living with JM at Kelmscott Manor. In this long letter to WBS, he remarks, in a nostalgic mood suggesting that of the sestet, ‘Alas for flying years! One wonders if one was always so, & is reminded how far one is looking back by the difficulty of remembering.’

(2) DGR to HC, 17 Dec 80 (WEF 80.383) With this letter DGR sent HC an MS copy of Pride of Youth (24) for inclusion in his forthcoming but as yet untitled anthology published in 1882 as Sonnets of Three Centuries. DGR had suggested to HC a subtitle, A Sonnet Sequence, for his book, but here he takes it back to be the subtitle for the final version of HL. This sonnet was soon to be repossessed for inclusion in HL as well:

‘I enclose sonnet of my own. If you are out in March, you may be before my new edition, but I am getting my stock together. Not a word of this however, as it mustn’t get into gossip paragraphs at present. The House of Life is now a Hundred Sonnets – all lyrics being removed. Besides this series, I have 45 Sonnets extra. As you are willing, I shall use the title I sent you – “A Sonnet Sequence.” ... P.S. I wd. rather you did not show this Sonnet before you use it for your vol. I daresay you have observed that the fact about the last cowslip and first poppy is literally true.

I wish I had you by me to hear 3 sonnets with which I wind up Part I of The House of Life. They are called True Woman [56–58] and are my best.’

Manuscripts:

(1) BL, Ashley 3840 (2) LC: Misc. MSS 1390 (3) Fitzwilliam HL fol. 29a (4) BL, Ashley 3858 (5) DAM Proofs, Sig. N, p. 186, press-proofs c. 3 Aug

Revisions/Variants:

1. The earliest draft seems to be Ash. 3840, with revisions, and variants from B&S: title Love’s Changes/Pride of Youth 3 in/to 6 <Along his plumes the

<<whispering dawn’s soft>>wind,>

<Along his plumes the <<awakened soft-scurrying>> <<[word illeg.]>>wind,>/

Along his eddying plumes the auroral wind,

8 <night-rack shrouds>night-racks shroud/ night-rack shrouds

9 <So change must be in every hour’s recall,>/

There is a change<with>in every hour’s recall,

12 <Alas for change! and yet alas for all>/

Alas for hourly change! Alas for all

13 fall/fall,

Text and Notes 85

2. All other MSS/B&S title [‘Sonnet XXIV’ written above title] LC <Youth and Change>Pride of Youth Fitz. 6 <wings>/plumes DAM. [This is

doubtless the erratum DGR noted in writing to B&S publisher F. S. Ellis on 5 Aug 81 (WEF 81.342 & 351) {DW 2527 & 2531}]

8 night-racks shroud/night-rack shrouds Fitz.

13 fall/fall, [thus in all MSS until Ash. 3858]

14 rosary/rosary! Fitz.

3. Ash. 3858, a fair copy signed at bottom right ‘Dante G. Rossetti’, is a leaf of notepaper watermarked ‘1880’ that has been folded and badly soiled on the outside fold; thus it may be the MS DGR sent to HC with WEF 80.383.

SONNET XXV. WINGED HOURS.

Each hour until we meet is as a bird That wings from far his gradual way along The rustling covert of my soul, – his song

Still loudlier trilled through leaves more deeply stirr’d: 4 But at the hour of meeting, a clear word

Is every note he sings, in Love’s own tongue; Yet, Love, thou know’st the sweet strain suffers wrong,

Full oft through our contending joys unheard. 8

What of that hour at last, when for her sake No wing may fly to me nor song may flow; When, wandering round my life unleaved, I know

The bloodied feathers scattered in the brake, 12 And think how she, far from me, with like eyes Sees through the untuneful bough the wingless skies?

Date of Publication: 1869, FR; 1870, Poems Date of Composition: 1869, Works

Manuscript:

(1) Fitzwilliam HL fol. 8b; fol. 30a is a fair copy by C. F. Murray (2) Beinecke Tauchnitz

86 The House of Life

Revisions/Variants:

1. All MSS/B&S 2 <<That slowly wings>><<Far-

heard, that wings>><<That wings, far-heard>>

<That slowly wings his gradual way along>

Far-heard, that wings his gradual way along/

That wings from far his gradual way along Fitz.

7 <voice>/strain Fitz. 8 Through our contending kisses

oft unheard./ Full oft through our contending

joys unheard. [B&S reading appears in pencil as an alternate

to the uncancelled line 8 in Beinecke]

9 <<alas!>><O Love!>/at last Fitz. 10 <shall...shall>/may...may Fitz. 11 <Till>/When Fitz.

2. Printed variants: 4 stirr’d; FR stirr’d. Works stirr’d:

B&S 7 wrong, – FR wrong Works

wrong, B&S 14 [not indented in B&S first ed.;

correctly indented in fourth ed.: DGR’s practice was to indent or not according to rhyme]

SONNET XXVI. MID-RAPTURE.

Thou lovely and beloved, thou my love; Whose kiss seems still the first; whose summoning eyes, Even now, as for our love-world’s new sunrise,

Shed very dawn; whose voice, attuned above 4 All modulation of the deep-bowered dove,

Is like a hand laid softly on the soul; Whose hand is like a sweet voice to control

Those worn tired brows it hath the keeping of: – 8

What word can answer to thy word, – what gaze To thine, which now absorbs within its sphere My worshipping face, till I am mirrored there

Light-circled in a heaven of deep-drawn rays? 12 What clasp, what kiss mine inmost heart can prove, O lovely and beloved, O my love?

Date of Publication: 1881, B&S Date of Composition: 1871, Works

Manuscripts:

(1) BPL Acc. MSS 84 (2) Bodleian Eng. poet d. 43 fol. 11 (3) Rutgers: Symington Coll. Box XVII, Series III (4) Fitzwilliam HL fol. 31 (5) Princeton HL fol. 21a

Text and Notes 87

Revisions/Variants:

1. All MSS/B&S title Between Kisses/Mid-Rapture BPL, Bod., Rut. 1 O lovely, loving, and beloved

love;/ Thou lovely and beloved, thou

my love; BPL, Bod., Rut.

10 thus/now [all MSS except Prin.] 11 there,/there BPL, Bod., Rut. 12 Grey-circled/Light-circled BPL,

Bod., Rut. 14 O lovely, loving, and beloved

love?/ O lovely and beloved, O my

love? BPL, Bod., Rut.

SONNET XXVII. HEART’S COMPASS.

Sometimes thou seem’st not as thyself alone, But as the meaning of all things that are; A breathless wonder, shadowing forth afar

Some heavenly solstice hushed and halcyon; 4 Whose unstirred lips are music’s visible tone;

Whose eyes the sun-gate of the soul unbar, Being of its furthest fires oracular; –

The evident heart of all life sown and mown. 8

Even such Love is; and is not thy name Love? Yea, by thy hand the Love-god rends apart All gathering clouds of Night’s ambiguous art;

Flings them far down, and sets thine eyes above; 12 And simply, as some gage of flower or glove,

Stakes with a smile the world against thy heart.

Date of Publication: 1881, B&S Date of Composition: 1871, Works

Manuscripts:

(1) BL 34813 fol. 42a (2) Fitzwilliam HL fol. 32a (3) Bodleian Eng. poet. d. 43 fol. 14 (4) LC1390 (5) DAM Proofs, Sig. N, 28 Apr (6) Ros. Proofs, Sig. N, 3 May

Revisions/Variants:

1. BL 34813 is an early draft, revised to agree with the B&S reading (except for the title): title <Beauty’s Compass><Love’s Secret>Love’s Compass

1 <Sometimes you seem not as yourself alone,>

Sometimes thou seemst not as thyself alone,

5–11 Whose <still stirred>unstirred lips

are music’s visible <zone>tone;

88 The House of Life

Whose eyes the <silence><dawn-gate>sun-gate of the soul unbar,

Being <made of><with the>of its furthest fires oracular: – .

The evident heart of all <things>life sown and mown

<Is Love not there,>Even such Love is; and is not thy name Love?

Yea, by thy hand the Love-god rends apart

All gathering clouds of <night’s> Night’s ambiguous art;

2. The other MSS are fair copies; the title is not revised to Heart’s Compass on Sig. N, p. 189, until 28 Apr (DAM) and 3 May (Ros.)

SONNET XXVIII. SOUL-LIGHT.

What other woman could be loved like you, Or how of you should love possess his fill? After the fulness of all rapture, still, –

As at the end of some deep avenue 4 A tender glamour of day, – there comes to view

Far in your eyes a yet more hungering thrill, – Such fire as Love’s soul-winnowing hands distil

Even from his inmost ark of light and dew. 8

And as the traveller triumphs with the sun, Glorying in heat’s mid-height, yet star-tide brings Wonder new-born, and still fresh transport springs

From limpid lambent hours of day begun; – 12 Even so, through eyes and voice, your soul doth move My soul with changeful light of infinite love.

Date of Publication: 1881, B&S Date of Composition: 1871, Works

Manuscripts:

(1) Princeton HL fol. 22a (2) DAM Box 22 {seePFB 3): 53} (3) Bodleian Eng. poet. d. 43 fol. 15 (4) Fitzwilliam HL fol. 33a (5) DAM Proofs Sig. N, p. 190, 28 Apr (6) Ros. Proofs Sig. N, p. 190, 3 May

Revisions/Variants:

1. The earliest draft is Prin.; before revisions, it reads: title Lovelight 1–3 [same as B&S]

4 Even as beyond some noon-proof avenue

5 A tender glamour of light, – there comes to view

Text and Notes 89

6 Far in your eyes a yet more hungering thrill, –

7 Such fire as doth love’s very life distil

8 From inmost utmost bowers of light and dew.

9 And as the traveller triumphs in the sun,

10 Glorying in heat’s mid-height, till startide brings

11 New-satiate bliss, until new transport springs

12 From limpid lambent hours of day begun; –

13 So still, within your arms, your soul doth move

14 My soul with many lights of changeful love.

2. The following revisions were made in Prin.: 4 <Even as beyond some<<noon-

proof>> deep-leaved avenue>As at the

end of some deep avenue 5 <light>day 7–8 <Such fire as doth love’s very

life distil From inmost utmost bowers of

light and dew>

7–8 Such fire as <love’s accordant

hands>Love’s soul-winnowing hands distil

Even from his inmost <urn>ark of light and dew.

10 <till>yet 11 <<New-satiate bliss, until new>> <Wonder unknown, and yet

fresh> Wonder new-born, and still fresh 13 <So, still>Even so 14 <many lights>changeful light

3. All other MSS/B&S title <<Lovelight>><Heart-Light>/ Soul-Light DAM 28 Apr <Lovelight>/Soul-Light Ros. 3 May 9 <in>/with DAM MS 13 <within your arms>/through

eyes and voice DAM 28 Apr, Ros. 3 May

[in Fitz. ‘within your arms’ is cancelled in pencil, then the cancellation is erased; the B&S reading appears below the text with a guideline to line 13]

These revisions clearly aim at reducing fleshliness.

90 The House of Life

SONNET XXIX. THE MOONSTAR.

Lady, I thank thee for thy loveliness, Because my lady is more lovely still. Glorying I gaze, and yield with glad goodwill

To thee thy tribute; by whose sweet-spun dress 4 Of delicate life Love labours to assess

My lady’s absolute queendom: saying, “Lo! How high this beauty is, which yet doth show

But as that beauty’s sovereign votaress.” 8

Lady, I saw thee with her, side by side; And as, when night’s fair fires their queen surround,

An emulous star too near the moon will ride, – Even so thy rays within her luminous bound 12 Were traced no more; and by the light so drown’d,

Lady, not thou but she was glorified.

Date of Publication: 1881, B&S Date of Composition: 1871, Works

Manuscripts:

(1) DAM Box 22 {see PFB 3): 53} (2) LC Misc. MSS 1390 (3) Fitzwilliam HL fol. 34a (4) Bodleian Eng. poet. d. 43 fol. 20 (5) DAM Proofs Sigs. N & O (6) Ros. Proofs Sig. O, 6 May

Revisions/Variants:

1. DAM MS is a draft, revised to agree with the B&S reading (except for line 13): 3 <To all thou art I yield> Glorying I gaze, and yield 4 <Its uttermost tribute; in> To thee thy tribute; by 5 <express>assess 11 <doth><may>will 13 drowned/drown’d DAM MS consists of two lined note-book leaves with sonnet texts written across the lines of the rectos; on the

versos of each leaf, written on the lines, is the text of the lyric Sunset Wings, the other sonnet in this two-leaf MS being Love and Hope (43). All three poems belong to the Kelmscott period.

2. The other MSS are fair copies; at the top of LC ‘Sonnet XXXII’ is replaced by ‘Sonnet XXIX’

3. In proof this is Sonnet XXXII Sig. O, p. 194, 3, 6 and 9 May. On the

Text and Notes 91

DAM proof of 9 May, DGR has written ‘this to page 191.’ On p. 191 of the DAM press-proof of Sig. N it appears as Sonnet XXIX.

4. The lyric Plighted Promise, part of the 1870 HL, was originally called The Moonstar; DGR changed the title in proof (WEF 70.47)

SONNET XXX. LAST FIRE.

Love, through your spirit and mine what summer eve Now glows with glory of all things possess’d, Since this day’s sun of rapture filled the west

And the light sweetened as the fire took leave? 4 Awhile now softlier let your bosom heave,

As in Love’s harbour, even that loving breast, All care takes refuge while we sink to rest,

And mutual dreams the bygone bliss retrieve. 8

Many the days that Winter keeps in store, Sunless throughout, or whose brief sun-glimpses Scarce shed the heaped snow through the naked trees.

This day at least was Summer’s paramour, 12 Sun-coloured to the imperishable core

With sweet well-being of love and full heart’s ease.

Date of Publication: 1881, B&S Date of Composition: 1871, Works

Manuscripts:

(1) Fitzwilliam HL fol. 35a (2) Princeton HL fol. 23a

Revisions/Variants:

1. The unrevised octave of Fitz. reads: 1 Love, through your body and

mine what summer eve 2 Now glows the glory of all

things possess’d, 3 Since this day’s sun of passion

filled the west 4 And the light sweetened as the

fire took leave? 5 Now softlier, darling, let your

bosom heave

6 While in Love’s harbour, between breast and breast,

7 Within your cherishing arms I sink to rest,

8 And mutual dreams the bygone bliss retrieve.

In line 3 ‘rapture’ appears in pencil above ‘passion’, but neither reading is cancelled. Lines 6–7 are marked by parallel lines corresponding to those marking an alternate reading

92 The House of Life

below the text that accords with the B&S reading, ‘that’ replacing the cancelled ‘your’ in line 6; these alternate lines are written in ink over erased, and illegible, pencil trials. Otherwise, this MS is revised to give the B&S reading except for line 12, in which ‘summer’ is not capitalized

2. Prin. is a copy of the revised Fitz., including the uncapitalized

‘summer’ in line 12. By date of composition as well as by content, the early version of this sonnet should be included among J. R. Wahl’s ‘Kelmscott Love Sonnets’ although it is not. All the revisions exemplify some of DGR’s methods of removing ‘fleshliness.’ Like this one, an unpublished sonnet, First Fire, celebrates the delights of physical love-making with the beloved (see Appendix Eight).

SONNET XXXI. HER GIFTS.

High grace, the dower of queens; and therewithal Some wood-born wonder’s sweet simplicity; A glance like water brimming with the sky

Or hyacinth-light where forest-shadows fall; 4 Such thrilling pallor of cheek as doth enthral

The heart; a mouth whose passionate forms imply All music and all silence held thereby;

Deep golden locks, her sovereign coronal; 8 A round reared neck, meet column of Love’s shrine

To cling to when the heart takes sanctuary; Hands which for ever at Love’s bidding be,

And soft-stirred feet still answering to his sign: – 12 These are her gifts, as tongue may tell them o’er. Breathe low her name, my soul; for that means more.

Date of Publication: 1881, B&S Date of Composition: 1871, Works

MS Source:

Duke Notebook IV, No. 3 {see PFB 1): 43}: ‘My Lady

She is full of incidents, like all beautiful Nature. Then follow descriptive lines about her different attitudes, expressions etc. Perhaps to wind up by saying that nothing one can say is so expressive of her as her own name, which means herself only: and that cannot be said for others to hear.’

Text and Notes 93

This passage seems to be a prose ‘cartoon’ for this sonnet: it was published by WMR in Works (244). Doughty refers to ‘the never-written poem My Lady’ (534–35), but the earliest title for this sonnet was My Lady’s Gifts. Both this ‘cartoon’ and the final couplet of Her Gifts look forward to the concluding tercet of The One Hope (101):

‘Ah! let none other alien spell soe’er But only the one Hope’s one name be there

Not less nor more but even that word alone.’

Manuscripts:

(1) DAM Box 22 {see PFB 3):53} (2) LC: H. B. Forman’s ‘MSS of DGR’ vol. (3) Bodleian Eng. poet. d. 43 fol. 8 (4) Fitzwilliam HL fol. 36a (5) LC Misc. MSS 1390 (6) DAM Proofs Sig. O, p. 193, 3, 6 May (7) Ros. Proofs Sig. O, p. 193, 6 May

Revisions/Variants:

1. All MSS/B&S title and headings My Lady’s Gifts/ Her Gifts DAM, LC: HBF, Bod. [‘Sonnet XXXI’ written above title] LC1390 6 <where>/whose DAM 8 Deep locks, the brow’s

embowering coronal;/ Deep golden locks, her

sovereign coronal; all MSS 9 shrine,/shrine all MSS 11 <his>Love’s DAM 14 saith/means DAM, LC: HBF,

Bod., Fitz.

2. Changes in proof: 8 <Deep locks, the brow’s

embowering coronal;> [alternate readings written by

DGR below the printed text on DAM Sig. O, p. 193, 3 May follow:]

<Gold tresses, her embowering coronal;>

<Deep golden locks, her queenly coronal;>

Deep golden locks, her <flowering>sovereign coronal;

[on Ros. Sig. O, p. 193, 6 May DGR wrote this alternate for line 8:]

Gold tresses, her embowering coronal;

[on DAM Sig. O, p. 193, press-proof 5. 101 a revised version of line 8 has been cut out of the proof-sheet.]

8 <Gold tresses, her embowering coronal;>/

Deep golden locks, her sovereign coronal;

[written on DAM Sig. O, p. 193, 6 May. (5.81)]

9 <shrine,>shrine DAM 3 May, Ros. 6 May

14 [alternate reading pencilled in at bottom of DAM Sig. O, p. 193, 3 May but never used:]

Thou knowst her name, O Love, and that means more.

94 The House of Life

SONNET XXXII. EQUAL TROTH.

Not by one measure mayst thou mete our love; For how should I be loved as I love thee? – I, graceless, joyless, lacking absolutely

All gifts that with thy queenship best behove; – 4 Thou, throned in every heart’s elect alcove,

And crowned with garlands culled from every tree, Which for no head but thine, by Love’s decree,

All beauties and all mysteries interwove. 8

But here thine eyes and lips yield soft rebuke: – “Then only,” (say’st thou) “could I love thee less,

When thou couldst doubt my love’s equality.” Peace, sweet! If not to sum but worth we look, – 12

Thy heart’s transcendence, not my heart’s excess, – Then more a thousandfold thou lov’st than I.

Date of Publication: 1881, B&S Date of Composition: 1871, Works

Manuscripts:

(1) BL, Ashley 3852 (2) Bodleian Eng. poet. d. 43 fol. 16 (3) Princeton HL fol. 24a (4) Fitzwilliam HL fol. 37a (5) DAM Proofs Sig. N, p. 191, 28 Apr, 6 May; Sig. O, p. 194, 6 May

Revisions/Variants:

1. Ash., an early draft, reads unrevised as follows:

Love-Measure (H. of L.) Not by one measure may’st thou mete our love; For how should I be loved as I love thee? – I, hardly-favoured, lacking absolutely All grace that doth thy sweetness best behove; –

Thou, throned in every heart’s elect alcove, And crowned with every garland fair to see Which for no head but thine, by Love’s decree, All beauties & all mysteries interwove. But here thy lips and eyes yield soft rebuke: – “Then only” (sayst thou) “could I love thee less,

Text and Notes 95

If thou couldst doubt my love’s equality.” Peace, sweet! If not to sum but worth we look, – Thy love’s pure heaven, not my love’s heaped excess, – Then more a thousandfold thou lov’st than I.

Revision brought this MS close to the B&S reading. In line 4 ‘things’ replaced ‘grace’ before ‘gifts’ was adopted. Line 13, which Masefield described as having ‘a full easy splendour about it’ (32), was repeatedly revised: <love’s pure heaven, not my love’s

heaped excess> <heart’s descending, not my heart’s

excess> <love’s high treasure, not my love’s

excess> <love’s assessment>/ heart’s transcendence, not my

heart’s excess

2. Revised Ash./B&S title Love-Measure/Equal Troth 1 may’st/mayst

10 “Then only”:(sayst/ “Then only,” (say’st

3. Other revisions, variants and proof corrections title <Love-Measure>Equal Troth DAM Sig. N, p. 191, 28 Apr 1 may’st/mayst Ash., Bod. 10 <sayest>/say’st DAM Sig. N,

p. 191, 28 Apr

4. On DAM Sig. N, p. 191, 6 May DGR wrote, ‘This to page 194,’ interchanging Equal Troth with The Moonstar which now became Sonnet 29.

5. In the first ed. of B&S (the copy-text), line 11 is indented to match lines 10 and 13, departing from DGR’s practice of matching the indentations of rhymed lines, and is clearly a mistake: it was corrected in the so-called fourth ed. of B&S (really the second) and appears as above in all eds issued by WMR. All the MSS show line 11 indented to match line 14.

96 The House of Life

SONNET XXXIII. VENUS VICTRIX.

Could Juno’s self more sovereign presence wear Than thou, ‘mid other ladies throned in grace? – Or Pallas, when thou bend’st with soul-stilled face

O’er poet’s page gold-shadowed in thy hair? 4 Dost thou than Venus seem less heavenly fair

When o’er the sea of love’s tumultuous trance Hovers thy smile, and mingles with thy glance

That sweet voice like the last wave murmuring there? 8

Before such triune loveliness divine Awestruck I ask, which goddess here most claims

The prize that, howsoe’er adjudged, is thine? Then Love breathes low the sweetest of thy names; 12

And Venus Victrix to my heart doth bring Herself, the Helen of her guerdoning.

Date of Publication: 1881, B&S Date of Composition: 1871, Works

Manuscripts:

(1) Bodleian Eng. poet. d. 43 fol. 25 (2) Fitzwilliam HL fol. 38a (3) DAM Box 22 {see PFB 3): 53}

Revisions/Variants:

1. All MSS/B&S 1 heavenly Bod.<heavenly>/

sovereign Fitz. 3 bendst/bend’st DAM 3 <thy>/with DAM 4 deep-shadowed/gold-shadowed

Bod.; [on Fitz. ‘gold’ is pencilled in above uncancelled ‘deep’]

6–8 When from the sea of love’s

insatiate bliss Thy breast is reared, to yield to

the last kiss

Thy sweet lips like the last wave murmuring there?/

6–8 When o’er the sea of love’s

tumultuous trance Hovers thy smile, and mingles

with thy glance That sweet voice like the last

wave murmuring there? Bod., Fitz.

[On Fitz., lines 6–8 are marked by double parallel lines with some

Text and Notes 97

B&S readings written below the text as alternates; there, in line 7, ‘Thy smile doth play’ is cancelled for ‘Hovers thy smile’.]

12 <love>Love DAM 13 mine arms/my heart Bod.; [on

Fitz: ‘heart’ is pencilled in above uncancelled ‘arms’]

SONNET XXXIV. THE DARK GLASS.

Not I myself know all my love for thee: How should I reach so far, who cannot weigh Tomorrow’s dower by gage of yesterday?

Shall birth and death, and all dark names that be 4 As doors and windows bared to some loud sea,

Lash deaf mine ears and blind my face with spray; And shall my sense pierce love, – the last relay

And ultimate outpost of eternity? 8

Lo! what am I to Love, the lord of all? One murmuring shell he gathers from the sand, – One little heart-flame sheltered in his hand.

Yet through thine eyes he grants me clearest call 12 And veriest touch of powers primordial

That any hour-girt life may understand.

Date of Publication: 1881, B&S Date of Composition: 1871, WEF 71.123

Letters:

(1) DGR to WBS 13 Aug 71 (WEF 71.123; AN 2: 142–45, quoted above p. 63); with this letter DGR included MSS of four HL sonnets including this one.

(2) DGR to WBS 25 Aug 71 (WEF 71.129): he objects to Scott’s charge of repetitious imagery in this sonnet and in 41, Through Death To Love (which had also been included with DGR’s letter of 13 August):

‘I cannot at all perceive that I have a habit of using images a second time, and think that any impression to that effect must result from hardly making due allowance for the general theme of the series. I do not know where you would find an instance in point, certainly it does not seem to me that there is any more than a generic likeness between the 2 called “The Dark Glass” & ”Through Death to Love,” or any likeness in either to any sonnet previously written by me. Certainly there is a reference in both to Love & Death, but the

98 The House of Life

keynote of one “Not I myself”, &c., is a very special & quite individual theme, and I cannot see that the word “glass” occurring in the title of the one and the body of the other is worth thinking about.’

Manuscripts:

(1) Bodleian Eng. poet. d. 43 fol. 13 (2) Fitzwilliam HL fol. 39a (3) Princeton HL fol. 25 (4) Printed MS in AN 2: 145; repr. DW 1150 (5) DAM Proofs Sig. N, p. 183, 28 Apr (6) Ros. Proofs Sig. O, p. 196, 6 May

Revisions/Variants:

1. All MSS/B&S 4 birth, and/birth and Bod., Fitz.,

AN voids {Bod., AN} <voids>names

Fitz. 9 <Lord>lord DAM proofs Sig. N,

p. 183, 28 Apr, Ros. proofs Sig. N, p. 183, 6 May

2. Positioning: on Prin. DGR wrote ‘No. XXI’, and this sonnet occupied that position in the sequence until he wrote the following note on the Ros. proofs, Sig. O, p. 196, 6 May, across the top of the text of Heart’s Haven, then Sonnet 34: ‘Interchange this sonnet with sonnet XXI sheet N page 183.’

SONNET XXXV. THE LAMP’S SHRINE.

Sometimes I fain would find in thee some fault, That I might love thee still in spite of it: Yet how should our Lord Love curtail one whit

Thy perfect praise whom most he would exalt? 4 Alas! he can but make my heart’s low vault

Even in men’s sight unworthier, being lit By thee, who thereby show’st more exquisite

Like fiery chrysoprase in deep basalt. 8

Yet will I nowise shrink; but at Love’s shrine Myself within the beams his brow doth dart Will set the flashing jewel of thy heart

In that dull chamber where it deigns to shine: 12 For lo! in honour of thine excellencies My heart takes pride to show how poor it is.

Date of Publication: 1881, B&S Date of Composition: 1871, Works

Text and Notes 99

Manuscripts:

(1) BL: Ashley Notebooks 1410, Notebook No. 1, p. 27 (2) (3) Princeton HL fols 22v, 30v (4) Fitzwilliam HL fol. 40a (5) Bodleian Eng. poet. d. 43 fol. 26 (6) DAM Box 22 {see PFB 3): 53} (7) DAM proofs Sig. O, p. 197, 3 May (8) Ros. proofs Sig. O, p. 197, 6 May

Revisions/Variants:

1. This untitled Ashley Notebook draft seems to be the earliest version: 1 I would that I could find in you

some fault 2 That I might love you still in

spite of it 3 But our lord Love is just nor will

remit 4 Aught of your dues whom most

he would exalt. 5 And therefore hath he made my

heart’s dark vault 6 In all men’s sight unworthy,

being lit 7 <With thy sweet soul’s peculiar

perquisite> 7 Even with thy loving soul’s pure

perquisite 8 Of fiery chrysoprase & bright

basalt. 9 Yet will I nowise shrink but at

Love’s shrine 10 Myself within the light his brow

doth dart 11 Will set the flashing jewels of thy

heart 12 In that dull chamber where they

deign to shine 13 Even in the honour of thine

excellencies 14 Proud of my heart to show how

vile it is.

2. Ash. 1410/Prin.(1) [both untitled] 1 <in you><in thee><in her>in thee 2 <you><thee><her>thee

3–4 <But our lord Love is just nor

will remit Aught of <<thy>>your dues

whom most he would exalt> 3 <Yet does not love [?] never dare

remit> Yet how should our Lord Love

one <gem>ray remit 4 Of thy <soul’s>pure crown

whom most he would exalt 5 <And therefore hath he made

my heart’s dark vault><And therefore<<doth he>>makes

he now my heart’s <<poor>>low vault>

<For lo! how he hath made my heart’s low vault>

Alas! he can but make my heart’s low vault

6 <In all men’s sight unworthy,> Even in men’s sight unworthier, 7 <Even with thy loving soul’s

pure perquisite> <With thy most loving soul’s

pure perquisite> By thy gem-cinctured <love>

<heart>love, made exquisite 8 <Of>With 9 <shrink>shrink; 10 <beams>light 11 <jewels>jewel 12 <they deign>it deigns 13 <Even in the honour><Even for

more honour> For lo! in honour 14 <Proud of my heart to show how

vile it is.>

100 The House of Life

My heart takes pride to show how poor it is.

3. Prin.(1)/Prin.(2) title [untitled]/The Love-Lamp 1 <I would that I

could>Sometimes I fain would 7 <By thy gem-cinctured love,

made exquisite> By thy gem-cinctured love-

lamp, exquisite

4. Prin.(2)/Fitz. 3 <one ray remit>curtail one whit 4 <Of thy pure crown>Thy perfect

praise 5 <Alas!><For me>Alas!

7 <By thy gem-cinctured love-lamp, exquisite>

By thee, who thereby showst more exquisite,

8 <With fiery chrysoprase and bright basalt.>

Like fiery chrysoprase in deep basalt.

5. All other MSS/B&S title <The Love-Lamp>The Lamp’s Shrine DAM Sig. O, p. 197, 3 May; Ros. Sig. O, p. 197, 6 May 7 <showst more exquisite,>

show’st more exquisite Bod.

6. DAM is a fair copy of B&S except for its title, The Love-Lamp

SONNET XXXVI. LIFE-IN-LOVE.

Not in thy body is thy life at all But in this lady’s lips and hands and eyes; Through these she yields thee life that vivifies

What else were sorrow’s servant and death’s thrall. 4 Look on thyself without her, and recall

The waste remembrance and forlorn surmise That lived but in a dead-drawn breath of sighs

O’er vanished hours and hours eventual. 8

Even so much life hath the poor tress of hair Which, stored apart, is all love hath to show For heart-beats and for fire-heats long ago;

Even so much life endures unknown, even where, 12 ‘Mid change the changeless night environeth, Lies all that golden hair undimmed in death.

Date of Publication: 1870, Poems Date of Composition: 1870, Proof State 14

Text and Notes 101

Letter:

(1) DGR to Alice Boyd [22 & 25 Mar 70] (WEF 70.63 & 70): WBS, to whom this sonnet had been sent in MS, along with A Day of Love (16) and The One Hope (101), had evidently objected to them as ‘limitedly personal’. DGR’s responses are quoted above p. 70.

Manuscripts:

(1) Princeton HL fol. 26a (2) Fitzwilliam HL fol. 41a

Revisions/Variants:

1. Prin. seems the earliest draft, revised in both pen and pencil: 1 <my body...my life>thy body ...

thy life 2 <my lady’s>this lady’s 5 <Life, reft of her, would be but

vain recall> Look <but on thyself>on thyself

without her and recall 6 <Of>The 7–8 <As breathless as each buried

<<day>>hour that lies In the past time’s impervious

interval.> 7–8 As living as the <long-drawn>

dead-drawn breath that sighs O’er vanished hours and hours

eventual. 12 <unseen>unknown

2. Prin./B&S 3 the life/thee life 7 As living as the dead-drawn

breath that sighs/ That lived but in a dead-drawn

breath of sighs 11 hour-beats ... heart-beats/

heart-beats ... fire-heats 14 undimmed by death/

undimmed in death

Fitz. is a fair copy of the text of 1870 and 1881. This sonnet appeared in print for the first time in Proof State 14 of Poems. Across the top of Fitz. DGR wrote and then cancelled this note: ‘Print this after MS A Day of Love’. Below the text is the uncancelled note, ‘Print this after Winged Hours page 134.’ On p. 134 of Proof State 12 of Poems, above the printed text of Winged Hours, DGR wrote, ‘After this print MS Life-in-Love’.

102 The House of Life

SONNET XXXVII. THE LOVE-MOON.

“When that dead face, bowered in the furthest years, Which once was all the life years held for thee, Can now scarce bid the tides of memory

Cast on thy soul a little spray of tears, – 4 How canst thou gaze into these eyes of hers

Whom now thy heart delights in, and not see Within each orb Love’s philtred euphrasy

Make them of buried troth remembrancers?” 8

“Nay, pitiful Love, nay, loving Pity! Well Thou knowest that in these twain I have confess’d

Two very voices of thy summoning bell. Nay, Master, shall not Death make manifest 12

In these the culminant changes which approve The love-moon that must light my soul to Love?”

Date of Publication: 1870, Poems Date of Composition: 1869, Works

Manuscripts:

(1) Fitzwilliam HL fol. 42a (2) Poems, Proof State 2 {Princeton}

Revisions/Variants:

1. Fitz./B&S 8 <of broken troth the star-

chambers>[canc. trial] of buried troth remembrancers? 11 <Matins & vespers>Two very

voices [canc. trial] 12 <Ah! surely>Nay, Master, 13 <mystic culminant changes of>

culminant changes which approve

14 <which>shall/that must

2. In both 1870 and 1881 texts lines 1 and 9 have opening quotation

marks and lines 8 and 14 have closing quotation marks. There are no quotation marks on Fitz.

3. The Catalogue of DGR holdings in the Library of the Fitzwilliam Museum notes on p. 32 that ‘A MS of this poem belongs to Miss May Morris’; I have been unable to locate it.

4. In Prin. DGR moved line 14 to the left to match line 13, as they rhyme.

Text and Notes 103

SONNET XXXVIII. THE MORROW’S MESSAGE.

“Thou Ghost,” I said, “and is thy name To-day? – Yesterday’s son, with such an abject brow! – And can To-morrow be more pale than thou?”

While yet I spoke, the silence answered: “Yea, 4 Henceforth our issue is all grieved and grey,

And each beforehand makes such pure avow As of old leaves beneath the budding bough

Or night-drift that the sundawn shreds away.” 8

Then cried I: “Mother of many malisons, O Earth, receive me to thy dusty bed!” But therewithal the tremulous silence said:

“Lo! Love yet bids thy lady greet thee once: – 12 Yea, twice, – whereby thy life is still the sun’s;

And thrice, – whereby the shadow of death is dead.”

Date of Publication: 1870, Poems Date of Composition: 1869, Works

Manuscripts:

(1) (2) Fitzwilliam HL fols 61b, 41a

Revisions/Variants:

1. All MSS/B&S 1 <O thou sad ghost,>“Thou

Ghost,” I said, Fitz.(1) <today>Today/To-day Fitz.(2) 2 <a beaten>an abject Fitz.(1)(2) 6 <maketh vile>makes such poor

Fitz.(1)(2)

7 <dead>old Fitz.(1)(2) 8 <And...sunshine casts>Or ...

sundawn shreds Fitz.(1)(2) 11 said:–/said: Fitz.(1),(2)

2. As revised, these MSS have identical texts.

104 The House of Life

SONNET XXXIX. SLEEPLESS DREAMS.

Girt in dark growths, yet glimmering with one star, O night desirous as the nights of youth! Why should my heart within thy spell, forsooth,

Now beat, as the bride’s finger-pulses are 4 Quickened within the girdling golden bar?

What wings are these that fan my pillow smooth? And why does Sleep, waved back by Joy and Ruth,

Tread softly round and gaze at me from far? 8

Nay, night deep-leaved! And would Love feign in thee Some shadowy palpitating grove that bears Rest for man’s eyes and music for his ears?

O lonely night! art thou not known to me, 12 A thicket hung with masks of mockery

And watered with the wasteful warmth of tears?

Date of Publication: March 1869, FR, 1870, Poems Date of Composition: 1869, Works

Manuscripts:

(1) (2) Fitzwilliam HL fols 44a, 45a (3) Poems Proof State 6 {Princeton}

Revisions/Variants:

1. Fitz.(1)/Fitz.(2) 1 Set all in jet, but glimmering like

a star/ <Set all in jet, but>Girt in dark

growths, yet glimmering <like a star>with one star

3 within thy ring/<within thy ring><in thy charmed ring>within thy spell

9 Nay, night! Would false Love <make a grove of thee> <spread a grove in thee> feign a grove in thee/ Nay, night! Would false Love

<spread a grove in thee> counterfeit in thee 10 That darkens round <my>the

head with leaves, and bears/ <That darkens round the head

with leaves, and bears> The shadowy palpitating grove

that bears 11 <mine eyes...mine ears>man’s

eyes...his ears/ man’s eyes ... his ears 9–12 [cancelled alternate reading

below text of Fitz.(1)]

Text and Notes 105

Alas! how brief a grace, here doled to me

(To us, hard Love![)] now riots through my spheres

Of life, and holds awake mine eyes & ears?

O solitary night! thy shade should be etc.

2. The FR printing introduced an exclamation point at the end of line 2 and changed the title from Sleepless Love to Sleepless Dreams. FR/B&S 2 O vain night sweeter than/ O night desirous as 9 Nay, night! Would false Love

counterfeit in thee/ Nay, night deep-leaved! And

would Love feign in thee 10 The/Some

3. Changes in Proof States of Poems: 2 O vain night sweeter than the

nights of youth!/ O night desirous as the nights

of youth! [This B&S reading appears in all

proof states.] 9 Nay, night! Would vain Love

counterfeit in thee/ [This reading appears in the early

proof states up to and including 6.] 9 <Nay, night! Would vain Love

counterfeit in thee>/ Nay, night deep-leaved! And

would Love feign in thee Proof State 6, Prin.

[The various revisions of this line make substantial changes in its meaning: the personified figure of Love is at first ‘false’, then ‘vain’ and finally without any qualifying adjective.]

10 The/Some [This reading first appears in Proof State 6.]

4. Written on the verso of Fitz.(2) is a sonnet entitled ‘May 1869’ in which DGR expresses a lover’s concern over the health of his beloved; JM was at this time, when both these poems seem to have been written, very much the object of such concern on DGR’s part (Doughty 389–92). WMR published the sonnet as English May in Works (212). See Appendix Eight.

5. These lines from DGR’s lyric Insomnia resemble Sleepless Dreams:

To-night Love claims his full control, And with desire and with regret

My soul this hour has drawn your soul A little nearer yet.

Is there a home where heavy earth Melts to bright air that breathes no pain, Where water leaves no thirst again

And springing fire is Love’s new birth? If faith long bound to one true goal

May there at length its hope beget, My soul this hour has drawn your soul

For ever nearer yet.

106 The House of Life

SONNET XL. SEVERED SELVES.

Two separate divided silences, Which, brought together, would find loving voice; Two glances which together would rejoice

In love, now lost like stars beyond dark trees; 4 Two hands apart whose touch alone gives ease;

Two bosoms which, heart-shrined with mutual flame, Would, meeting in one clasp, be made the same;

Two souls, the shores wave-mocked of sundering seas: – 8

Such are we now. Ah! may our hope forecast Indeed one hour again, when on this stream Of darkened love once more the light shall gleam? –

An hour how slow to come, how quickly past, – 12 Which blooms and fades, and only leaves at last,

Faint as shed flowers, the attenuated dream.

Date of Publication: 1881, B&S Date of Composition: 1871, Works

MS Source:

Ashley Notebooks 1410 (BL), No. 1, p. 7; Sonnets and Fragments MS., Princeton ‘Faint like a flower the attenuated dream’ [line 14]

Manuscripts:

(1) Bodleian Eng. poet. d. 43 fol. 33 (2) Fitzwilliam HL fol. 46a (3) LC Misc. MSS 1390 (4) DAM and Ros. Proofs Sig. O, p. 202, 3, 6 May

Revisions/Variants:

1. Bod./Fitz. title Between Meetings/<Between Meetings> <Broken Meetings> Severed Selves

4 the trees/<the trees>dark trees 6–7 Two mouths which, as two fire-

flakes of one flame,

Would, meeting in one kiss, be made the same;/

[Bod. reading revised in Fitz.:] Two bosoms which, heart-

shrined with mutual flame, Would, meeting in one clasp, be

made the same; 9–10 Such are we now; yet may our

hope forecast

Text and Notes 107

Haply .../ [Bod. reading revised in Fitz.:]

Such are we now. Ah! may our hope forecast

Indeed . . . 11 gleam:/<gleam;>gleam?– 12 swiftly/quickly 14 dead/<dead>shed

2. LC is a fair copy of Fitz. which, as revised, agrees with B&S; however, in line 13 LC has ‘beams’ instead of ‘blooms,’ a reading which occurs in the earliest proofs of B&S.

3. Revisions in proof: in DAM on 3 May and Ros. 6 May DGR changed ‘beams’ back to ‘blooms’ in line 13 on Sig. O, p. 202.

SONNET XLI. THROUGH DEATH TO LOVE.

Like labour-laden moonclouds faint to flee From winds that sweep the winter-bitten wold, – Like multiform circumfluence manifold

Of night’s flood-tide, – like terrors that agree 4 Of hoarse-tongued fire and inarticulate sea, –

Even such, within some glass dimmed by our breath, Our hearts discern wild images of Death,

Shadows and shoals that edge eternity. 8

Howbeit athwart Death’s imminent shade doth soar One Power, than flow of stream or flight of dove Sweeter to glide around, to brood above.

Tell me, my heart, – what angel-greeted door 12 Or threshold of wing-winnowed threshing floor

Hath guest fire-fledged as thine, whose lord is Love?

Date of Publication: 1881, B&S Date of Composition: 1871, WEF 71.123

MS Sources:

Ashley Notebooks 1410 (BL) Notebook No. 1, pp. 8, 13, 15 ‘labour-laden cheer’ [line 1] ‘Shadows & shoals that edge eternity’ [line 8] ‘And winds that sweep the winter-bitten wold’ [line 2]

‘What angel-shadowed door Or threshold of wing-winnowed threshing-floor Hath known such <life>guests as are the feet of Love’ [lines 12–14]

108 The House of Life

Letter:

DGR to WBS 13 Aug 71 (WEF 71.123; Scott, AN 2: 142–45), quoted above p. 63; with this letter DGR included MSS of four HL sonnets including this one. See also notes to The Dark Glass (34).

Manuscripts: (1) DAM Box 22 {see PFB 3): 53–54} (2) Princeton HL fol. 8b (3) Fitzwilliam HL fol. 47a (4) Printed MS in AN 2: 144; repr. DW 1150 (5) Bodleian Eng. poet. d. 43 fol. 5 (6) Princeton HL fol. 27a (7) DAM and Ros. Proofs Sig. O, p. 203, 3, 6 May

Revisions/Variants:

1. DAM seems the earliest draft, the much-revised octave reading before revision: title

Through Death To Love 1 The labour-laden heights where

the clouds flee, – 2 The winds that sweep the

winter-bitten wold, – 3 The multiform maleffluence

manifold 4 Of the stark night, the terrors

that agree 5 In fire dumb-tongued &

inarticulate sea, 6 Are, as man’s mirror, dimmed

with passing breath 7 That shows him toward his face

the wings of death, 8 Shadows and shoals that edge

eternity [This draft was revised:]

1 <The><As>Like <heights where the clouds flee>

moon-clouds <swift>fain to flee, 2 <The><As>Like 3 <The><As>Like...

<maleffluence>circumfluence 4 <the><as>like 6–7 [DGR cancelled the lines above,

writing many trials over and around them:]

6 <<Seem, in <<<earth’s>>>man’s mirror>>

<Are even as present portraitures of death>

7 <On time’s dark mirror dimmed with passing breath,>

6–7 So to our <hearts>eyes some

glass dimmed <with>by our breath,

Teems evermore with images of death,

10 <One power, than flow of stream, or flight of dove,>

One Power, than flow of stream, than flight of dove,

11 <around & brood>around or brood

14 Hath guest fire-fledged as thine, whose guest is Love?

[below the text DGR wrote, uncan-celled, this alternate reading for ‘whose guest is Love?’]

‘as are the feet of Love?’

2. DAM/Prin. fol. 8b 1 moon-clouds fain to flee, –/

moonclouds <fain>faint to flee <,–> 2 Like/<Like>From 4 the stark night/the <stark>

<swoln>stark night 5 In fire/Of fire 6–7 So to our eyes some glass

dimmed by our breath, Teems evermore with images of

death,/

Text and Notes 109

6–7 <So to our eyes>Even such

within some glass dimmed by our breath,

<Teems<<s>> evermore <<the>>with>

Our hearts discern wild images of Death,

10 Power, than flow of stream, than flight of dove,/ Power than flow of stream or flight of dove

11 around or brood/around, to brood 14 Hath guest/<Hath guest> Hath

hope

3. Prin. fol. 8b/Fitz. 4 the stark night/<the stark

night>night’s flood-tide 5 fire dumb-tongued/<fire dumb-

tongued>hoarse-tongued fire

14 Hath hope... whose guest is Love?/

Hath <hope>guest...whose <guest><life>lord is Love?

4. AN/B&S 1 moon-clouds/moonclouds 5 fire dumb-tongued/ hoarse-tongued fire 10 Power than...dove,/ Power, than...dove 14 lord is love?/lord is Love?

5. Bod. and Prin. fol. 27a are fair copies of Fitz.; the sonnet number at the top of Prin. was originally L before it was altered to XLI. In proof, a comma after ‘Power’ in line 10 was restored from the DAM MS draft. This change was made on Sig. O, p. 203, 6 May (DAM) and 6 May (Ros.).

SONNET XLII. HOPE OVERTAKEN.

I deemed thy garments, O my Hope, were grey, So far I viewed thee. Now the space between Is passed at length; and garmented in green

Even as in days of yore thou stand’st to-day. 4 Ah God! and but for lingering dull dismay,

On all that road our footsteps erst had been Even thus commingled, and our shadows seen

Blent on the hedgerows and the water-way. 8

O Hope of mine whose eyes are living love, No eyes but hers, – O Love and Hope the same! –

Lean close to me, for now the sinking sun That warmed our feet scarce gilds our hair above. 12

O hers thy voice and very hers thy name! Alas, cling round me, for the day is done!

Date of Publication: 1881, B&S Date of Composition: 1871, Works

110 The House of Life

MS Source:

Ashley Notebooks 1410 (BL) Notebook No. 1, p. 3 ‘I deemed the raiment of my Hope was grey So far I viewed her’ [lines 1–2]

Manuscripts:

(1) LC Misc. MSS 1390 [fol. 9] (2) Bodleian Eng. poet. d. 43 fol. 7 (3) Fitzwilliam HL fol. 48a (4) LC Misc. MSS 1390 [fol. 8]

Revisions/Variants:

1. All MSS/B&S 3 <Our [illeg.] has cleared;>Is

passed at length;/ Is passed at length; LC fol. 9 4 standst today/stand’st to-day

LC fol. 9, Bod., Fitz. 5 <O God! and save>Ah God! and

but/Ah God! and but LC fol. 9 6 <the past road>all that road/all

that road LC fol. 9 footprints/footsteps LC fol. 9,

Bod., Fitz. <still had been><might have

been>erst had been/erst had been LC fol. 9

9 <that hast the eyes I love,>whose eyes are living love,/ whose eyes are living love, LC fol. 9

12 <gleams>gilds/gilds LC fol. 9 13 lips/voice LC fol. 9, Bod., Fitz.

[on Fitz. ‘voice’ is written in pencil above the uncancelled ‘lips’]

2. LC fol. 8 is a fair copy, identical with the B&S text.

3. Compare with this sonnet these lines from Sunset Wings, another Kelmscott poem

‘Even thus Hope’s hours, / in ever-eddying flight,

To many a refuge tend; With the first light she laughed, /

and the last light Glows round her still; who /

natheless in the night At length must make an end.

Is Hope not plumed, as’t were a / fiery dart?

And oh! thou dying day, Even as thou goest must she /

too depart, And Sorrow fold such pinions /

on the heart As will not fly away?’

[stanzas 4, 6]

Text and Notes 111

SONNET XLIII. LOVE AND HOPE.

Bless love and hope. Full many a withered year Whirled past us, eddying to its chill doomsday; And clasped together where the blown leaves lay,

We long have knelt and wept full many a tear. 4 Yet lo! one hour at last, the Spring’s compeer,

Flutes softly to us from some green byeway: Those years, those tears are dead, but only they: –

Bless love and hope, true soul; for we are here. 8

Cling heart to heart; nor of this hour demand Whether in very truth, when we are dead, Our hearts shall wake to know Love’s golden head

Sole sunshine of the imperishable land; 12 Or but discern, through night’s unfeatured scope, Scorn-fired at length the illusive eyes of Hope.

Date of Publication: 1881, B&S Date of Composition: 1871, Works

Manuscripts:

(1) DAM Box 22 {see PFB 3): 54} (2) Bodleian Eng. poet. d. 43 fol. 21 (3) Fitzwilliam HL fol. 49a (4) Princeton HL fol. 28 (5) DAM Proofs Sig. O, p. 205

Revisions/Variants:

1. DAM MS is an early draft revised: title [B&S title followed by ‘(H. of L.)’] 1 <Full many a><Even now

the>Full many a 5 <this hour a bird, the spring’s

compeer,> one hour at last, the Spring’s compeer

7 <That year,>Those years, 10 <of very truth>in very truth 12 <life-sun>sunshine 13 <Or only, though some night to

which we grope,>

Or but discern,<where deep in night we grope.>

<where mid<<some>>dark night we grope,>

through night’s unfeatured scope,

14 <hope>Hope

2. All MSS/B&S 1 <Kiss once again.><Thank>

Bless love and hope.

112 The House of Life

[trial readings in pencil above uncancelled text of Fitz.; revision made in Prin.]

3 lay/lay, DAM 6 byway/byeway Bod., Prin. 8 <Kiss once again, my love; for

we are here.> Bless Love and Hope, mine own;

Fitz. [pencil trial] Bless Love and Hope, my love;

Prin./ Bless love and hope, true soul;

for we are here.

3. Changes in proof: title <Love and Hope>Hope and

Troth DAM Sig. O, p. 205, 3 May

<Hope and Troth>Love and Hope DAM Sig. O, p. 205, 9 May

1 <Kiss once again.>Bless hope and troth. DAM Sig. O, p. 205, 3 May

<Bless hope and troth>Bless love and hope.

7 <they:>they, – DAM Sig. O, p. 205, 3 May

<they, –>they: – DAM Sig. O, p. 205, 9 May

8 <Kiss once again, my love; for we are here.>

But only they: for thou and I are here. DAM Sig. O, p. 205, 3, 6 May

<But only they: for thou and I are here.>

Bless love and hope,<for thou and I are here> true soul; for we are here. DAM Sig. O, p. 205, 9 May

SONNET XLIV. CLOUD AND WIND.

Love, should I fear death most for you or me? Yet if you die, can I not follow you, Forcing the straits of change? Alas! but who

Shall wrest a bond from night’s inveteracy, 4 Ere yet my hazardous soul put forth, to be

Her warrant against all her haste might rue? – Ah! in your eyes so reached what dumb adieu,

What unsunned gyres of waste eternity? 8

And if I die the first, shall death be then A lampless watchtower whence I see you weep? – Or (woe is me!) a bed wherein my sleep

Ne’er notes (as death’s dear cup at last you drain), 12 The hour when you too learn that all is vain

And that Hope sows what Love shall never reap?

Date of Publication: 1881, B&S Date of Composition: 1871, Works

Text and Notes 113

Manuscripts:

(1) Princeton HL fol. 36a (2) Fitzwilliam HL fol. 50a (3) Bodleian Eng. poet. d. 43 fol. 23 (4) LC Misc. MSS 1390

Revisions/Variants:

1. All MSS/B&S 5 <which ere...may be>

Ere yet..., to be Prin. 8 <trackless gyres of waste

<<eternity>>expectancy?> unsunned gyres of waste

eternity? Prin.

12 <– as longed-for death at last you gain –> (as death’s dear cup at last you drain,)/(as death’s dear cup at last you drain), Prin.[the terminal comma is within parentheses in all MSS, but outside them in all proof states]

13 <find>learn Prin.

SONNET XLV. SECRET PARTING.

Because our talk was of the cloud-control And moon-track of the journeying face of Fate, Her tremulous kisses faltered at love’s gate

And her eyes dreamed against a distant goal: 4 But soon, remembering her how brief the whole

Of joy, which its own hours annihilate, Her set gaze gathered, thirstier than of late,

And as she kissed, her mouth became her soul. 8

Thence in what ways we wandered, and how strove To build with fire-tried vows the piteous home Which memory haunts and whither sleep may roam, –

They only know for whom the roof of Love 12 Is the still-seated secret of the grove,

Nor spire may rise nor bell be heard therefrom.

Date of Publication: 1870, Poems Date of Composition: 1869, Works

Manuscripts:

(1) (2) Fitzwilliam HL fols 108b, 51a (3) Poems Proof States 2, 3, {Princeton}

114 The House of Life

Revisions/Variants:

1. The unrevised Fitz.(1) seems an early draft: title [the original title could have been any of the following, which were all cancelled for Secret Parting:] Parting Moments, Parting Love, Love Moments 1 Because our talk had been of

Love’s Control 2 And Hope’s enthralment and the

face of Fate, 3 Her pitying kisses faltered at the

gate 4 And her eyes dreamed towards

a distant goal: 5 But soon, remembering her how

brief the whole 6 Of Joy, which its own hours

annihilate, 7 Her deep gaze hankered,

thirstier than of late, 8 And as she kissed, her mouth

became her soul. 9 Thence in what ways we

wandered, & how strove 10 To build from those poor hours a

cherished home 11 Where outcast lifelong memory

yet should roam – 12 They only know for whom the

House of Love 13 Cowers in the silent secret of the

grove, 14 Nor spire may peep nor bell be

heard therefrom.

2. Alternate readings and revisions to the sestet of Fitz.(1) are as follows: 10 <To build <<from>><<of>>with

fire-tried <<hours>>vows the <<jealous>>piteous home>

11 <<Where>><Whence outcast lifelong memory <<yet>>now should roam,>

<Which memory <<dwells>> haunts and whither sleep may roam,>

13 <Cowers in the still-seated secret of the grove,>

<Cowers in their emprisoned deep-seated grove,>

<Cowers deep in their emprisoned grove,>

<Is the still-seated secret of the grove,>

14 <peep>rise

3. Fitz.(1) (fol. 108b), written on the verso of Sonnet 90, Retro Me Sathana, is cancelled in its entirety; Fitz.(2) (fol. 51a) is revised from it: Fitz.(1) /Fitz.(2) 1 had been of Love’s Control/was

of the cloud-control 2 And Hope’s enthralment and the

face of Fate,/And moon-track of the journeying face of Fate,

3 Her pitying kisses faltered at the gate/Her kisses faltered at their ivory gate<,>

7 deep gaze hankered,/set gaze gathered,

11 Where outcast lifelong memory yet should roam,/Which memory haunts and whither sleep may roam, –

12 House of Love/roof of Love

4. Changes in proof: 3 <Her kisses faltered at their

ivory gate>Her kisses faltered at their rose-bower gate Proof State 2, Prin.

Her tremulous kisses faltered at love’s gate Proof State 3, Prin.

Text and Notes 115

4 <towards>against Proof State 2, Prin.

6 Joy/joy Proof State 2, Prin.

SONNET XLVI. PARTED LOVE.

What shall be said of this embattled day And armed occupation of this night By all thy foes beleaguered, – now when sight

Nor sound denotes the loved one far away? 4 Of these thy vanquished hours what shalt thou say, –

As every sense to which she dealt delight Now labours lonely o’er the stark noon-height

To reach the sunset’s desolate disarray? 8

Stand still, fond fettered wretch! while Memory’s art Parades the Past before thy face, and lures Thy spirit to her passionate portraitures:

Till the tempestuous tide-gates flung apart 12 Flood with wild will the hollows of thy heart,

And thy heart rends thee, and thy body endures.

Date of Publication: 1870, Poems Date of Composition: 1869 (WEF 69.136)

Letters: (1) DGR to F. M. Brown 26 Aug 69 (WEF 69.136): Sending Brown a copy of this first sonnet written at Penkill Castle, Scotland, he writes, ‘I have been further revising my proofs with good results. The only sonnet I have yet written here I subjoin.’

(2) DGR to WMR [14 Sep] 69 (WEF 69.154): ‘In the new sonnet Parted Love the last line is declared by [William Bell] Scott to be too violent. Do you think so? It occurs to me to say “And thy feet stir not, and thy body endures.” Do you like this better? It conveys the sense of impotent retention which is wanted, but that is already conveyed in line 7.’

Manuscripts: (1) Princeton Poems in Manuscript 1869–1871 fol. 13a (2) Printed MS in DW 858 (3) Poems Proof State 7, {Princeton}

Revisions/Variants: 1. All MSS/B&S <Now>Nor Prin.

5 <thy deserted life> DW

116 The House of Life

<thy deserted life>the live hours of death Prin.

<the live hours of death>these thy vanquished hours Proof State 7, Prin.

7 <daily labours>labours lonely Prin.

8 <To find>To reach Prin.

9 <While>while DW <memory’s art>Memory’s art Prin. 14 <feet stir not>heart rends thee

[this pencil trial appears at the bottom of Prin.: see letter (2) above. Across the top of Prin. DGR has written, ‘to be printed after Secret Parting’]

SONNET XLVII. BROKEN MUSIC.

The mother will not turn, who thinks she hears Her nursling’s speech first grow articulate; But breathless with averted eyes elate

She sits, with open lips and open ears, 4 That it may call her twice. ‘Mid doubts and fears

Thus oft my soul has hearkened; till the song, A central moan for days, at length found tongue,

And the sweet music welled and the sweet tears. 8

But now, whatever while the soul is fain To list that wonted murmur, as it were

The speech-bound sea-shell’s low importunate strain, – No breath of song, thy voice alone is there, 12

O bitterly beloved! and all her gain Is but the pang of unpermitted prayer.

Date of Publication: March 1869, FR 1870, Poems Date of Composition: 1852 [WMR gives ‘Oct.1852’ in ClassLists and ‘1852’ in Works, although in DGRDW he gives ‘?1869.’ In Huntington there is a collection of fifteen very early MS poems by DGR annotated by WMR, one of which is a MS of this sonnet dated by DGR ‘Oct./52.’ Doubtless this was WMR’s authority for his early date.]

Manuscripts: (1) Huntington HM 6081 (2) Fitzwilliam HL fol. 83b (3) Poems Proof State 7, {Princeton}

Revisions/Variants: 1. All MSS/B&S 5 Mid/’Mid Fitz. 6 her song/the song FR

7 central moan/ [‘prisoned’ written in pencil as an alternate

Text and Notes 117

to ‘central’ but nothing cancelled] Fitz.

tongue./tongue, Poems eds 2–6 [DGR complained to Ellis about this blunder (WEF 70.160, {c.18 May} 70), noting that the punctuation had been correct in the first ed. The mistake was not rectified until the Tauchnitz ed. of 1873.]

8 welled,/welled Hunt. 11 <strain;>strain, – Prin. 12 <song, –>song, Prin. 13 <beloved! And>beloved! and

Prin.

2. On the verso of Hunt. WMR has written, ‘Sonnet by D. G. Rossetti in his handwriting.’

3. Cancelled above the title on Fitz. is this heading: ‘Of Life, Love and

Death: Sonnets.’ On the recto of this MS is the text of Sonnet 68, A Dark Day, which DGR sent to his friend the poet William Allingham on 23 Jan 55 (WEF 55.4), a fact suggesting that this title may have been DGR’s first collective name, devised in the 1850s, for what became HL after its initial appearance in FR. By late 1856 he had begun ‘getting my old things together with a view to printing perhaps someday’ (WEF 56.51.1, Vol. III), a project well-advanced when it was aborted because of his wife’s death in 1862. According to William Sharp, ‘the author originally intended to call his Sonnet Sequence Sonnets and Songs of Love, Life and Death, but abandoned this title for the more epigrammatic one it has become so widely known by.’ (Sharp 1882: 415)

SONNET XLVIII. DEATH-IN-LOVE.

There came an image in Life’s retinue That had Love’s wings and bore his gonfalon: Fair was the web, and nobly wrought thereon,

O soul-sequestered face, thy form and hue! 4 Bewildering sounds, such as Spring wakens to,

Shook in its folds; and through my heart its power Sped trackless as the immemorable hour

When birth’s dark portal groaned and all was new. 8

But a veiled woman followed, and she caught The banner round its staff, to furl and cling, – Then plucked a feather from the bearer’s wing,

And held it to his lips that stirred it not, 12 And said to me, “Behold, there is no breath: I and this Love are one, and I am Death.”

Date of Publication: 1870, Poems

118 The House of Life

Date of Composition: 1869 [Fitzwilliam HL MS fol. 109b is dated ‘Dies Atra. 1st May 1869.’ On a ‘black day’ [DGR called it dies atra] in 1861 (actually 2 May) EES had been delivered of a stillborn daughter.]

MS Source:

Ashley Notebooks 1410 (BL) Notebook No. 1, p. 13 ‘The forehead veiled and the veiled throat of Death’ [line 9]

Manuscripts:

There are three Fitzwilliam HL MSS: (1) fol. 109b (2) 82b (3) 54a

Revisions/Variants:

1. Fitz.(1), the earliest of the three MSS., has the following revisions: title <Love-in-Death>Death-in-Love 3 <Before mine eyes he spread it in

the sun> <Bright was the web, and sweet

the airs it blew> Fair was the web, and well

pourtrayed thereon, 4 <One soul-sequestered face’s

form and hue:> O soul-sequestered face, thy

form and hue. 8 <When shuddering portals

groaned and birth won through> When birth’s <dark>harsh portal

groaned and all was new. 10 <swathe>furl 14 <Look on his Lady and thine, for

I am Death.”> I and this Love are one, and I am

Death.”

2. All MSS/B&S 1 Image/image Fitz.(1), (2), (3) 3 <well pourtrayed> Fitz.(1)

<sweetly wrought>nobly wrought Fitz.(2)

4 hue./hue! Fitz.(1) 8 <harsh>dark Fitz.(2) 11 wing/wing, Fitz.(1)

3. The final stanzas of The Stream’s Secret, written at Penkill at the same time as this sonnet, employ similar imagery that also looks forward to the Willowwood quartet, e.g. these lines:

‘But there Love’s self doth stand, And with Life’s weary wings /

far-flown, And with Death’s eyes that make /

the water moan, Gathers the water in his hand: And they that drink know naught /

of sky or land But only love alone.

O soul-sequestered face . . .’

4. Musical setting: Sir Ralph Vaughan Williams, Sonnets from The House of Life by D. G. Rossetti {1904: recorded London: Polydor, 1974}.

Text and Notes 119

SONNETS XLIX, L, LI, LII. WILLOWWOOD.

I.

I sat with Love upon a woodside well, Leaning across the water, I and he; Nor ever did he speak nor looked at me,

But touched his lute wherein was audible 4 The certain secret thing he had to tell:

Only our mirrored eyes met silently In the low wave; and that sound came to be

The passionate voice I knew; and my tears fell. 8

And at their fall, his eyes beneath grew hers; And with his foot and with his wing-feathers

He swept the spring that watered my heart’s drouth. Then the dark ripples spread to waving hair, 12 And as I stooped, her own lips rising there

Bubbled with brimming kisses at my mouth.

Date of Publication: March 1869, FR, [all four sonnets] 1870, Poems [Sonnets XXIV–XXVII] Date of Composition: 1868 [WMR’s MS Diary records for Friday 18 Dec 68: ‘Gabriel has just written a series of four sonnets – Willow-wood – about the finest thing he has done. I see the poetical impulse is upon him again: he even says he ought never to have been a painter, but a poet instead.’]

Letters:

(1) DGR to William Allingham [23 Dec] 68 (WEF 68.173): ‘I have been looking up a few old Sonnets, and writing a few new ones, to make a little bunch in a coming number of the Fortnightly, – not until March however, as they are full till then. Among them are the enclosed two . . .’ [Probably the MSS of the Newborn Death sonnets, nos. XV and XVI ending the FR selection; see MS Diary 19 Dec 68, quoted in RP 339.]

(2) DGR to FLR 1 Mar 69 (WEF 69.20): ‘I send you my sonnets, which are such a lively band of bogies that they may join with the skeletons of Christina’s various closets, and entertain you by a ballet. Their shanks are rather ghastly, it is true, but they will keep their shrouds down tolerably close, and creak enough themselves to render a piano unnecessary. As their own vacated graves serve them to dance on, there is no danger of their

120 The House of Life

disturbing the lodgers beneath; and, if anyone overhead objects, you may say that it amuses them perhaps and will be soon over, and that, as their hats were probably not buried with them, these will not be sent round at the close of the performance. It is to be feared indeed that they have left a growing family who may be trained to the same line of business; but in the long run the cock crows, or the turnip-head falls off the broomstick, or the price of phosphorus becomes an obstacle, or the police turn up if necessary.’ Note 1 to letter (2) suggests that ‘perhaps the overwrought danse macabre

imagery here reveals DGR’s dread of his mother finding out about the projected exhumation.’

Referring to this letter, WMR wrote that DGR ‘was now rapidly tending towards . . . printing a volume of his original poems. On 1st March he sent to our mother various sonnets, which he described as “a lively band of bogies,” with other grotesque expressions to correspond – i.e. (as one may understand the phrase), sonnets embodying painful thoughts, or fertile of grievous reminiscences. I presume that these were most probably the sonnets which he had then just printed in the Fortnightly Review, including the series of four named Willow-wood. Mr. Browning, writing to him about the same time, referred to this contribution’ (DGRDW 146). WMR also noted that the Willowwood sonnets were largely responsible for his brother’s assessment, near the end of 1868 when he thought his eyesight was failing, that he should have been a poet rather than a painter (RP 339).

Four MSS comprising a complete draft of this quartet were given to DGR’s friend W. J. Stillman; they are in Union College (for a full description see Appendix Seven). This largest unit of HL with its own sub-title seems always to have been the nucleus of the poem. In 1869 these sonnets were the opening four in the group with the working title, ‘Of Life, Love, and Death: Sixteen Sonnets.’, that may have been the first title for HL (see Note 3. to Sonnet 47). In both Poems and B&S this four-sonnet poem is at the exact centre of the sequence.

Manuscripts: (1) Union College, WJS MS 281 (2) Fitzwilliam HL fol. 55a (3) Poems Proof States 2, 3, 4 and 12 {Princeton}.

Revisions/Variants: 1. All MSS/B&S title Willowwood /

Sonnets XLIX., L., LI., LII. I / WILLOWWOOD. <A Dream> / I.

WJS 281 1 <little>woodside Fitz. 5 <secret certain>certain secret

WJS 281

8 fell,/fell. FR 9 <as they fell,>at their fall, WJS 281 11 <lymph>spring Fitz. drouth:/drouth. WJS 281, Fitz. drouth;/drouth. FR

2. The usual space between octave and sestet, not present in the MSS or the FR printing, was introduced for all four sonnets in Proof State 2.

Text and Notes 121

3. Revisions in proof: title WILLOWWOOD (Four Sonnets.) I / [This was the reading in the early proof states. In Proof State 12 at Prin., the subtitle in italics and parentheses was deleted by DGR, who left the title and sonnet numeral but, unsure of the final numerical sequence, wrote above the title,

‘here the Nos. as coming in order: Sonnets * * * *’].

line 11 [there is no punctuation after ‘drouth’ in Proof States 2 and 3; in Proof State 4 at Prin. DGR inserted the terminal period.]

DGR defended the final two lines of this poem in The Stealthy School of Criticism (1871) against Buchanan’s Fleshly School attack by quoting the entire sonnet, then remarking:

‘The critic has quoted ... only the last two lines, and he has italicised the second as something unbearable and ridiculous. Of course the inference would be that this was really my own absurd bubble-and-squeak notion of an actual kiss. The reader will perceive at once, from the whole sonnet transcribed above, how untrue such an inference would be. The sonnet describes a dream or trance of divided love momentarily re-united by the longing fancy; and in the imagery of the dream, the face of the beloved rises through deep dark waters to kiss the beloved. Thus the phrase, “Bubbled with brimming kisses,” etc., bears purely on the special symbolism employed, and from that point of view will be found, I believe, perfectly simple and just.’ (Works 618–19)

122 The House of Life

II.

And now Love sang: but his was such a song, So meshed with half-remembrance hard to free, As souls disused in death’s sterility

May sing when the new birthday tarries long. 4 And I was made aware of a dumb throng

That stood aloof, one form by every tree, All mournful forms, for each was I or she,

The shades of those our days that had no tongue. 8

They looked on us and knew us and were known; While fast together, alive from the abyss, Clung the soul-wrung implacable close kiss;

And pity of self through all made broken moan 12 Which said, “For once, for once, for once alone!”

And still Love sang, and what he sang was this: –

Manuscripts:

(1) Union College, WJS MS 282 (2) Fitzwilliam HL fol. 56a (3) Poems, Proof State 2 {Princeton}.

Revisions/Variants:

1. WJS 282 seems the earliest draft: title Willowwood II 1 And now Love sang: and his was

such a song – 2 (A mesh of half-remembrance

hard to free) – 3 As souls forgotten in expectancy 4 May sing when the new birthday

tarries long: 5 And now I was aware of a still

throng 6 <What>That stood around, one

beneath every tree, 7 Each a known shade, for each

was I or she, – 8 <Shades>The shades of those

our days that had no tongue.

9 They looked on us, and knew us, & were known,

10 While fast together, drenched with tears of bliss,

11 Clung the soul-wrung insatiable close kiss;

12 And pity of self through all made broken moan

13 Which said, “For once, for once, for once alone!”

14 And still Love sang; and what he sang was this: –

2. This draft was revised: 1 <song–>song, 2 <(A mesh of ... free) –>So meshed

with ... free 2 [parentheses deleted]

Text and Notes 123

3 <forgotten in expectancy>disused in death’s sterility

5–6 <And now I was aware of a still

throng That stood around, one beneath

every tree,> 5–6 And I was made aware of a

dumb throng That stood aloof, one form by

every tree, 7 <shade>form 11 <insatiable>implacable

3. WJS 282/Fitz. 1 <And>But 2 free/free, 7 <Each a known form,><None a

strange form,><Each a sad form,>All mournful forms,

7 she, –/she, 8 Those shadows of our days we

lived among. [alt. reading in pencil at bottom

of WJS 282] 10 <drenched with tears of

bliss,>alive from the abyss, While locked together in tears

that Love calls his, [alt. reading in pencil at bottom

of WJS 282]

4. Revisions to B&S readings in print: 4 <long:>long. Proof State 2, Prin. 9 known,/known; FR

5. Fitz. is cancelled with diagonal lines. Verso, there is a pencil drawing somewhat resembling How They Met Themselves (S.118); lines 5–9 also suggest the doppelgänger theme embodied in that pen and brush drawing. On fol. 56b, there is also is a cancelled unpublished MS sonnet in Italian in DGR’s hand, dated ‘Maggio 1869’. It is a love poem evidently addressed to JM. For a translation and discussion of this and other sonnets cognate with but excluded from HL, see Appendix Eight.

6. Verso on WJS 282 is a preliminary sketch of JM similar to that for Mariana (S.213, 213A, pl. 303) and other pictures she posed for wearing the famous blue silk dress (see WEF 68.77&n1; RP 327); Mariana was begun in the summer of 1868 and the completed oil painting is dated 1870. This sketch also suggests another JM likeness, La Pia (S.207, pl. 301).

124 The House of Life

III.

“O ye, all ye that walk in Willowwood, That walk with hollow faces burning white;

What fathom-depth of soul-struck widowhood, What long, what longer hours, one lifelong night, 4

Ere ye again, who so in vain have wooed Your last hope lost, who so in vain invite

Your lips to that their unforgotten food, Ere ye, ere ye again shall see the light! 8

Alas! the bitter banks in Willowwood, With tear-spurge wan, with blood-wort burning red:

Alas! if ever such a pillow could Steep deep the soul in sleep till she were dead, – 12

Better all life forget her than this thing, That Willowwood should hold her wandering!”

Manuscripts:

(1) Fitzwilliam HL fol. 57a (2) Union College, WJS MS 283 (3) Fitzwilliam HL fol. 58a

Revisions/Variants:

1. Fitz.(1) seems to be the earliest of these drafts: title

Willowwood 1 O ye, that walk, that walk in

Willowwood, 2 That walk with hollow faces

burning white; 3 What depth, alas! of soul-struck

widowhood, 4 What long, what longer years,

one longest night, 5 Ere ye again, who so in vain

have wooed 6 Your hearts to joy, who so in

vain invite 7 Your lips to feast on the

forbidden food, 8 Ere ye, again, again, shall see the

light!

9 Ye know the bitter banks in Willowwood,

10 Where grief-spurge grows and shame-wort burning red;

11 O God, if ever such a pillow could 12 Give rest at all to any weary head, 13 O God alone unknown, the God

of good, 14 How could it be till brain & soul

were dead?

2. Revised, Fitz.(1) reads: 1 <O ye, that walk,>O ye, all ye 3 <depth, alas!>fathom-depth 4 <longer years, one longest

night,>longer hours, one lifelong night, 6 <hearts to joy,><hearts to

hope,><hope long lost,><long lost hope,>last hope lost,

Text and Notes 125

7 <to feast on the forbidden food,> unto their unforgotten food,

8 <Ere ye, again, again,>Ere ye, ere ye, again

9 <Ye know>Alas! 10 <Where grief-spurge grows and

shame-wort burning red;> With grief-spurge wan, with

shame-wort burning red; 11 <O God,>Alas!

3. Fitz.(1), as revised/WJS 283 title Willowwood/Willowwood III 1 ye, that/ye that 7 unto/to that 8 ye, again/ye again 10 red;/red: 14 could/should 13–14: [below the text of WJS 283

appears this alternate final couplet:]

13 <Even by the whole soul’s death>Even though the whole soul died, ye tried & true

14 Would God that I, your god, could give it you!

4. WJS 283/Fitz.(2) title Willowwood III/III 1 [In Fitz.(2) DGR encloses the

poem in double quotation

marks: they are printed as single in Poems, double in FR and B&S.]

8 <may>shall Fitz.(2) 9 <of>in Fitz.(2) 10 <grief-spurge...shame-

wort>/tear-spurge...<love-wort>blood-wort

11 <only>ever Fitz.(2) [In lines 8, 9 and 11 readings

from Fitz.(1) and WJS 283 are changed, then restored.]

12–14 <Give rest at all to any weary

head, O God alone unknown, the God

of good, How should it be till brain &

soul were dead?>/ 12 Steep deep <your life>the soul

in sleep till <it>she were dead,– 13 Better <the very soul cease>all

life forget her than this thing, 14 That Willowwood should hold

<you>her wandering!”

5. Below Fitz.(2) are lines 11–14 from WJS 283, cancelled; DGR experimented a good deal with the conclusion of this sonnet, devising at least three different versions. He finally abandoned the awkward god/God references. Even though DGR has cancelled Fitz.(2), as revised it is identical with B&S.

126 The House of Life

IV.

So sang he: and as meeting rose and rose Together cling through the wind’s wellaway Nor change at once, yet near the end of day

The leaves drop loosened where the heart-stain glows, – 4 So when the song died did the kiss unclose;

And her face fell back drowned, and was as grey As its grey eyes; and if it ever may

Meet mine again I know not if Love knows. 8

Only I know that I leaned low and drank A long draught from the water where she sank,

Her breath and all her tears and all her soul: And as I leaned, I know I felt Love’s face 12 Pressed on my neck with moan of pity and grace,

Till both our heads were in his aureole.

Manuscripts:

(1) (2) Fitzwilliam HL fols 59a, 60a (3) Union College, WJS MS 284 (4) Fitzwilliam HL fol. 61a (5) Poems, Proof State 12 {Princeton}

Revisions/Variants:

1. Fitz.(1) seems to be the earliest draft; the revised version reads: title

IV 1 So sang he: and as meeting rose

& rose 2 Together cling through the

wind’s wellaway, 3 Nor fall at once, yet near the end

of day 4 The leaves drop loosened till the

heart-stain flows, – 5 So when the song died did the

kiss unclose; 6 And <the>her face fell back

drowned, and in the grey 7 Still water nothing but my own

face lay:

8 How thence I went, I know not if Love knows.

9 I know that here in Willowwood I <share

10 With her the parted paths,> but have no spell

9–10 I know that here in Willowwood

I fare For ever to and fro, but have no

spell 11 To find again with her the

vanished well: 12 And in what <place>glade she

waits, and holds her hair 13 Aside, and listens to the sunken

air, 14 The talking willows know but

may not tell.

Text and Notes 127

2. Fitz.(2), revised from Fitz.(1) [1–5 are identical with Fitz.(1)

except that the comma at the end of line 2 has been dropped and in line 3 Fitz.(2) has ‘change’ instead of ‘fall.’]

6–7 And her face fell back drowned,

<and in the sway O’ the water nothing but my

own face lay:> 6–7 And her face fell back drowned,

and as it lay <At my touch>And fading like

the eyes the face grew grey: 8 How thence I went, I know not if

Love knows – 9 I know that here in Willowwood

I fare 10 For ever to and fro, but have no

spell 11 <To find again with Love the

vanished well:> To track <Love’s>my footprints

to the vanished well: 12 And in what <glade she

waits><trackless glades she seeks>glades she seeks, and holds her hair

13 Aside, and listens to the sunken air,

14 <<<The>>These <<talking>> whispering willows know but may not tell.>

<These willows and <<this water>>these waters may not tell.><The whispers of these willows will not tell.>

These willows & these waters may not tell

3. WJS 284, revised from Fitz.(2), follows: [1, 2 and 5 are identical with

Fitz.(2) except that the comma at the end of line 2 is here restored.]

3 Nor change at once, yet <at>near the <close>end of day

4 The leaves drop loosened <till>where the heart-stain <flows>glows, –

6–8 6 And her face fell back drowned,

and <as it lay 7 <<And faded like the eyes>> 7 The <<face>>lips grew greyer

than the eyes were grey: 8 How thence I went> I know not

if Love knows. 6–8 6 And her face fell back drowned,

and was as grey 7 As its grey eyes; and if I ever may 8 <Behold it more><Find it

again>Behold it more I know not if Love knows. 9 Only I know that <ere I turned

I>I leaned low and drank 10 A long draught of the water

where she sank, 11 Her breath and all her tears and

all her soul: 12 And as I drank I know I felt

<love’s>Love’s face 13 <Bent>Laid on my neck with

moan of pity and grace, – 14 Till both our heads were in his

aureole.

4. Fitz.(3), revised from WJS 284, follows: 2 [terminal comma dropped again,

as in Fitz.(2)] 7–8 <and if I ever may Behold it more I know not if

Love knows.> 7–8 and if it ever may Meet mine again I know not if

Love knows. 10 <draught of>draught from 11 <all her soul:>her whole soul:

128 The House of Life

12–13 Love’s face<Laid on my neck> <Pressed to my own> Pressed on my neck 13 <grace, –>grace, 9–14 [this entire section of MS is

cancelled, including the following lines below the sonnet text which seem to be revisions of the sestet of Fitz.(2):]

9 I know that here in Willowwood I fare

10 For ever to and fro, but have no spell

11 To track my footprints to the <magic>vanished well

12 And in what glades she seeks & holds her hair

13 Aside, and listens to the sunken air,

14 These whispering trees have heard but may not tell.

5. Fitz.(3)/B&S 11 her whole soul/all her soul 12 drank I/leaned, I

6. Revisions in print: 12 <drank I>leaned, I Prin.

7. The foregoing compilation reveals that DGR was struggling with two contradictory conceptions in this conclusion to the Willowwood sub-sequence – one despairing, the other consoling. He produced entirely different sestets in the first and second pairs of MSS, the con-soling one articulated in WJS 284, and Fitz.(3). As evidence of the intensity of his labours over this sonnet, see the ten different versions above of line 14.

Text and Notes 129

SONNET LIII. WITHOUT HER.

What of her glass without her? The blank grey There where the pool is blind of the moon’s face. Her dress without her? The tossed empty space

Of cloud-wrack whence the moon has passed away. 4 Her paths without her? Day’s appointed sway

Usurped by desolate night. Her pillowed place Without her? Tears, ah me! for love’s good grace,

And cold forgetfulness of night or day. 8

What of the heart without her? Nay, poor heart, Of thee what word remains ere speech be still? A wayfarer by barren ways and chill,

Steep ways and weary, without her thou art, 12 Where the long cloud, the long wood’s counterpart,

Sheds doubled darkness up the labouring hill.

Date of Publication: 1881, B&S Date of Composition: 1871, Works

MS Source: Duke MS Note Book III {PFB 1):76} ‘The glass stands empty of all things it knew’ [line 1]

Manuscripts:

(1) Bodleian Eng. poet. d. 43 fol. 18 (2) Fitzwilliam HL fol. 62a (3) BL, Ashley 1407 (4) Princeton HL fol. 29

Revisions/Variants:

1. All MSS/B&S 9 my heart...my heart/the

heart...poor heart Bod. <my heart>the heart...<my

heart>poor heart Fitz. 14 on the/up the Bod. <on the>up the Fitz.

2. Ashley 1407 (see ALC IV: 133) is headed:

Love and Loss (Three Sonnets)

The first two are The Lovers’ Walk (12) and Love’s Antiphony [Youth’s Antiphony (13)]. Below the MS text of Without Her is the signature, ‘Dante G. Rossetti’. At the bottom left of the MS he wrote in pencil a trial title, ‘Heart’s Trails’, but erased it.

3. Prin. is a fair copy identical with B&S.

130 The House of Life

SONNET LIV. LOVE’S FATALITY.

Sweet Love, – but oh! most dread Desire of Love Life-thwarted. Linked in gyves I saw them stand, Love shackled with Vain-longing, hand to hand:

And one was eyed as the blue vault above: 4 But hope tempestuous like a fire-cloud hove

I’ the other’s gaze, even as in his whose wand Vainly all night with spell-wrought power has spann’d

The unyielding caves of some deep treasure-trove. 8

Also his lips, two writhen flakes of flame, Made moan: “Alas O Love, thus leashed with me! Wing-footed thou, wing-shouldered, once born free:

And I, thy cowering self, in chains grown tame, – 12 Bound to thy body and soul, named with thy name, –

Life’s iron heart, even Love’s Fatality.”

Date of Publication: 1881, B&S Date of Composition: 1871, Works

Manuscripts:

(1) Princeton HL fol. 30 (2) Bodleian Eng. poet. d. 43 fol. 6 (3) Fitzwilliam HL fol. 63a (4) DAM Box 22 {see PFB 3):54}

Revisions/Variants:

1. All MSS/B&S title <Love and Longing><Fettered Love> Love’s Fatality Prin. 2 <Life-fettered.>Life-thwarted. Prin. 3 <The very Love and Longing,>

Love shackled with<vain-longing,>Vain-longing, Prin.

7 girths/power Prin., Bod. <girths>power Fitz. 14 <Love’s fatality>Love’s Fatality

Prin.

{The final title seems to have emerged with this revision to line 14.}

2. The DAM MS is a fair copy identical with B&S.

Text and Notes 131

SONNET LV. STILLBORN LOVE.

The hour which might have been yet might not be, Which man’s and woman’s heart conceived and bore Yet whereof life was barren, – on what shore

Bides it the breaking of Time’s weary sea? 4 Bondchild of all consummate joys set free,

It somewhere sighs and serves, and mute before The house of Love, hears through the echoing door

His hours elect in choral consonancy. 8

But lo! what wedded souls now hand in hand Together tread at last the immortal strand

With eyes where burning memory lights love home? Lo! how the little outcast hour has turned 12 And leaped to them and in their faces yearned: –

“I am your child: O parents, ye have come!”

Date of Publication: 1870, Poems Date of Composition: 1869, Proof State 4

Letter:

DGR to HC, 12 Mar 80 (WEF 80.86): ‘Pardon an egoistic sentence (in answer to what you say so generously of “Lost Days” [86] if I express an opinion that “Known in Vain” [65] and “Stillborn Love” may perhaps be said to head the series [HL] in value, though “Lost Days” might be equally a favourite with me if I did not remember in what but too appropriate juncture it was wrung out of me.’ Many readers have regarded this poem, along with Death in Love (48), as inspired by Gabriel’s and Lizzie’s daughter, stillborn on 2 May 61 (see WEF 61.17&n1 and notes to Sonnet 48 ). DGR never forgot this ‘birthday’, though he remembered it as 1 May and called it ‘dies atra’.

Manuscripts:

(1) Fitzwilliam Poems and Sonnets fol. 74a (2) Fitzwilliam HL fol. 64a (3) Fitzwilliam HL fol. 101b

132 The House of Life

Revisions/Variants:

1. The earliest draft, in pencil, is Fitz.(1). It shows the poet frustrated by a rhyme scheme he cannot execute: the MS breaks down into illegibility in lines 11–14 as DGR tries to echo in the sestet the rhymes of the octave, with words like ‘foresee’, ‘memory’, ‘company’, ‘destiny’, ‘infinity’ and ‘amity’, but the beautiful final line – ‘I am your child: O parents, ye have come!’ – seems to burst out from this chaotic MS, perhaps a graphic example of the way in which some poems were ‘wrung out of’ DGR. Evidently, after line 14 came to the poet, the rest of the sestet got restructured with a new rhyme scheme to accommodate and build up to it.

2. All MSS/B&S title <The Stillborn Hour><Stillborn

Joy> Stillborn Love Fitz.(2)

6–7 <It sighs and <<waits>>serves,

and through the echoing door Of Love’s high house must

hearken evermore>/ Fitz.(1) 6–7 It sighs and serves, and standing

mute before The house of Love, hears through

the echoing door/ Fitz.(1) 6–7 <It sighs and serves, and

standing mute before> It somewhere sighs and serves,

and <prone>mute before The house of Love, hears through

the echoing door/ Fitz.(2) 6–7 It somewhere sighs and serves,

and mute before

The house of Love, hears through the echoing door

9–10 But lo! what souls are these

<that>who hand in hand With mingled footprints tread

the appointed strand/ Fitz.(1) 9–10 But lo! what wedded souls now

hand in hand <With blending footprints tread

at last the strand> Together tread at last the

immortal strand Fitz.(2) 9 <spirits>souls Fitz.(3) 11 <Whose eyes remember and

foresee> With eyes where awestruck

memory lights love home?/ With eyes where burning memory

lights love home? Fitz.(1) 13 <rush to them>leaped on them

Fitz.(1) 14 <I am your child: O parents, ye

have come.> “I am your child: O parents, ye

have come!” Fitz.(3)

3. In Works WMR dates this sonnet 1870, but it was first printed in Poems Proof State 4, pulled in September 1869. In the upper right-hand corner of Fitz.(2) DGR wrote in pencil, ‘print this after Willowwood page 122.’ The four Willowwood sonnets appeared on pp. 119–122 in Proof State 3, but in the next version DGR had decided to end the sequence with Stillborn Love, so it followed Willowwood, now occupying pp. 130–33, on p. 134.

4. Fitz.(3) is a cancelled draft written on the back of the only MS

Text and Notes 133

version of Farewell to the Glen (84), a sonnet DGR told Miss Losh ‘I wrote the day before I left Penkill’ (WEF 69.186); he left Penkill Castle in Scotland 18 Sep 69, so we may assume that this final draft of Stillborn Love was written around that time. Fitz.(1) contains the first two lines of The Orchard Pit and several stanzas of The Stream’s Secret, both of which were begun during the poet’s stay at Penkill that September; indeed, stanza 28 of The Stream’s Secret resembles this sonnet:

‘Stands it not by the door – Love’s Hour– till she and I shall meet; With bodiless form and /

unapparent feet That cast no shadow yet before,

Though round its head the dawn / begins to pour

The breath that makes day sweet?’

5. Algernon Blackwood wrote two stories drawing on the emotional power of this sonnet and its bio-graphical context: ‘The Little Beggar’ in Tongues of Fire and Other Sketches (London: 1924), and ‘The Stranger’ in Short Stories of Today and Yesterday (London: 1930).

SONNETS LVI., LVII., LVIII. TRUE WOMAN.

I. HERSELF.

To be a sweetness more desired than Spring; A bodily beauty more acceptable Than the wild rose-tree’s arch that crowns the fell;

To be an essence more environing 4 Than wine’s drained juice; a music ravishing

More than the passionate pulse of Philomel; – To be all this ‘neath one soft bosom’s swell

That is the flower of life: – how strange a thing! 8

How strange a thing to be what Man can know But as a sacred secret! Heaven’s own screen

Hides her soul’s purest depth and loveliest glow; Closely withheld, as all things most unseen, – 12 The wave-bowered pearl, – the heart-shaped seal of green

That flecks the snowdrop underneath the snow.

Date of Publication: 1881, B&S Date of Composition: 1880: although WMR dates these three sonnets 1881 in Works, the letters excerpted below show that they were written during November and December 1880.

134 The House of Life

Letters:

(1) DGR to JM [18Nov] 80 (WEF 80.352 [Bryson121]): ‘I’ll transcribe a Sonnet or two. I need not say who is the model of the 2nd.’ These were probably Transfigured Life (60) and True Woman. Herself (56); JM responded at once to the ardour of the second sonnet and DGR answered in what is perhaps his only extant love letter to her (see above pp.16–18):

(2) DGR to JM [26 Nov] 80 (WEF 80.361 [Bryson 122]) ‘I felt deeply the regard so deeply expressed in your last letter. I may claim to deserve it on the ground only of an equal regard would I could say of any worthy result! The deep-seated basis of feeling, as expressed in that sonnet, is as fresh and unchanged in me towards you as ever, though all else is withered and gone. This you wd. never believe, but if life and fate had willed to link us together you wd. have found true what you cannot think to be truth when alas! untried.’

(3) DGR to TWD [3 Dec] 80 (WEF 80.365 [U Kansas]): ‘I have brought forth another sonnet completing True Woman as a trio.’

(4) DGR to JM [13 Dec] 80 (WEF 80.375 [Bryson 124]): ‘As you were so kind in valuing the Sonnet I last sent, I send 2 more on the same theme, forming a trio with which I intend to wind up the first part of The House of Life. This series now consists of 100 Sonnets (though I omit several of the M.S. ones) and forms 2 Parts viz: Part I Youth and Change Part II Change and Fate I shall have nearly 50 Sonnets besides the House of Life ones.’

(5) DGR to HC [17 Dec] 80 (WEF 80.383): ‘The House of Life’ is now a Hundred Sonnets – all lyrics being removed. Besides this series, I have forty-five sonnets extra. I think, as you are willing, I shall use the title I sent you – A Sonnet Sequence. I wish I had you by me to hear three sonnets with which I wind up Part I of the House of Life. They are called “True Woman” and are my best.’

(6) DGR to TWD [19 May] 81 (WEF 81.233 [LC]): ‘I have wished before to ask you if you think that the sonnet Love’s Last Gift [60] comes with an air of assumption on the bard’s part at end of Part I (House of Life) and if so, whether it would be better to put it before the three on True Woman and wind up with them. I should much like your speedy answer to this question. ... the book is now ready for press if I give the word.’

(7) DGR to FLR [15 Sep] 81 (WEF 81.403 [DW 2555]): ‘I wish you would read in my book [Ballads and Sonnets] the three Sonnets called True Woman, as I am sure you would like these. They are written quite lately.’

Text and Notes 135

FLR’s’s reply of 16 Sep is printed in DW p. 1922: ‘I admire indeed your three new sonnets, of the three beauties, perhaps I prefer the first, so does Christina, who is loud in admiration of them all. I shall read your book through from first to last, noting my favourites, as usual by repeated admiration.’

MS Sources:

Ashley Notebooks 1410 (BL); Duke Notebooks Notebook No. 2, p. 29 {also in Duke Note Book III, printed in PFB 1): 72–73} ‘My world my work my woman all my own – What face but thine has taught me all that Art Can be & still be Nature’s counterpart? What form but thine within one bosom’s zone Unto my * eyes has shown The zodiac of all beauty.’ *[underlined blank space in Ash.; Duke has ‘star-beseeching’]

Notebook No. 4, p. 44 ‘Sweet is the grape & tender is the vine Sonnets – Woman

To be a body desirable like any wine etc. – how strange! To be a soul purer than any man can reach etc. – how strange! (end of octave & opening of sestett – “How strange a thing!”) Woman’s desire only awakened by desire in the object of her soul’s affection – cold to all others. – Her mental side also influenced by her affections Title – True Woman’

Notebook No. 4, p. 32 ‘the mystic<fringe>seal of green Flecking the snowdrop underneath the snow (“all things most unseen” – to lead up to this)’

Manuscripts:

(1) Princeton DGR Collection 45194, AM 20106 (2) Bodleian Eng. poet. d. 44 fol. 10a (3) Fitzwilliam HL fol. 65a (4) Princeton HL fol. 31a (5) DAM Proofs, Sig. P, 4 May, p. 218

Revisions/Variants:

1. Prin.(1) seems to be the earliest draft, an ink MS titled but not subtitled or numbered, written with revisions on a small unlined page:

True Woman To be a sweetness more desired than Spring; A bodily beauty more acceptable Than the wild <rose-tree arched above the wall>rose-tree’s arch that crowns the fell;

To be an essence more environing Than wine’s quaffed juice; a strain more ravishing Than the impassionate pulse of Philomel; – To be all this ‘neath one soft bosom’s swell That is the flower of life: how strange a thing! How strange a thing to be what <man>Man can know

136 The House of Life

But as a sacred secret! Heaven’s own screen Hides her soul’s depth and loveliest glow; Closely withheld, as all things most unseen, – The wave-bowered pearl, the <Spring’s first>heart-shaped seal of green That flecks the snowdrop underneath the snow

2. Prin.(1) /B&S title True Woman/True Woman

I. Herself 5 quaffed juice; a strain/drained

juice; a music 6 Than the impassionate pulse/

More than the passionate pulse

3. Bod. is a fair copy sent to JM, dated top left in pencil (probably by her) ‘16.11.80’; doubtless this is the copy DGR sent her in letter (1) cited above. It is titled True Woman, with-out either number or subtitle. At the

bottom of the MS, there is an ink drawing of “the heart-shaped seal of green”. WMR notes that DGR was painting his oil The Daydream (S.259) at the same time he was writing this sonnet, observing that the original flower depicted in the painting was the snowdrop and speculating that the preciseness of the image in lines 13–14 derives from the care with which DGR studied the flowers he painted (DGRDW 222&n).

4. Fitz. is titled True Woman/ I. Prin.(2) is headed thus:

Sonnets LVI, LVII, LVIII True Woman

I

5. The subtitle ‘Herself’ was added in pencil to the DAM proofs of 4 May.

All three True Woman sonnets were published by HC in his Sonnets of Three Centuries (London:1882).

Text and Notes 137

II. HER LOVE.

She loves him; for her infinite soul is Love, And he her lodestar. Passion in her is A glass facing his fire, where the bright bliss

Is mirrored, and the heat returned. Yet move 4 That glass, a stranger’s amorous flame to prove,

And it shall turn, by instant contraries, Ice to the moon; while her pure fire to his

For whom it burns, clings close i’the heart’s alcove. 8

Lo! they are one. With wifely breast to breast And circling arms, she welcomes all command Of love, – her soul to answering ardours fann’d:

Yet as morn springs or twilight sinks to rest, 12 Ah! who shall say she deems not loveliest

The hour of sisterly sweet hand-in-hand?

Date of Publication: 1881, B&S Date of Composition: 1880

MS Source:

Ashley Notebooks 1410 (BL), Notebook No. 4, p. 11 ‘sisterly sweet hand-in-hand’ [line 14]

Letter:

DGR to JM, [17 Dec] 80, (WEF 80.386 [Bryson 125]): see below under Manuscripts

Manuscripts:

(1) Princeton HL fol. 5a (2) Bodleian Eng. poet. d. 44 fol. 11a (3) Bodleian Eng. poet. d. 44 fols 19–20 (letter with text of sestet printed in WEF 80.386) (4) Princeton HL fol. 4a (5) Fitzwilliam HL fol. 66a (6) DAM Proofs, Sig. P, 4 May, p. 219

138 The House of Life

Revisions/Variants:

1. The earliest version seems to be Prin.(1): including revisions, the sestet reads: 9–10 Lo! they are one. Perchance

<there was a day When to his mind her mind faint

response gave, –>/ 9–10 Lo! they are one. Perchance in

love’s first day Her mind unto his mind faint

response gave, 11 His heart to her rich heart. But as

sea–spray 12 Over itself aspires, till each

curved <cave>wave 13 Of shadow is lapped in light,

even so he gave, 14 And she, their dower. Shall this

not last for aye?

2. This version of the sestet appears in the Bod. MS. (dated by JM 14 Dec) but it is replaced in the Bod. letter to JM (postmarked 18 Dec) by text identical with lines 9–14 of B&S, introduced as follows by DGR:

‘I find to my bewilderment that the second half of No. II Sonnet had a repeated rhyme – gave. This made me alter the six lines, and I like them better now in every way.’

[There is more wrong with these lines than the repeated rhyme: line 10 doesn’t scan, the diction is bald and the thought redundant and trite. Perhaps DGR is struggling here with ‘her mental side’ as outlined in his Notebook draft.]

3. Prin.(2) and Fitz. are fair copies. The subtitle Her Love was added in pencil in the DAM proofs Sig. P, 4 May, p. 219.

Text and Notes 139

III. HER HEAVEN.

If to grow old in Heaven is to grow young, (As the Seer saw and said,) then blest were he With youth for evermore, whose heaven should be

True Woman, she whom these weak notes have sung. 4 Here and hereafter, – choir-strains of her tongue, –

Sky-spaces of her eyes, – sweet signs that flee About her soul’s immediate sanctuary, –

Were Paradise all uttermost worlds among. 8

The sunrise blooms and withers on the hill Like any hillflower; and the noblest troth Dies here to dust. Yet shall Heaven’s promise clothe

Even yet those lovers who have cherished still 12 This test for love: – in every kiss sealed fast To feel the first kiss and forebode the last.

Date of Publication: 1881, B&S Date of Composition: 1880

MS Sources:

Ashley Notebooks 1410 (BL); Duke Notebook III; Sonnets and Fragments (Princeton) Notebook No. 1, p. 12 ‘O happy he to whom first love and last Are but one love for ever!’ [lines 12–14] {these lines also appear in Prin. fol. 16b}

Notebook No. 2, p. 19 ‘To grow old in Heaven is to grow young. (Swedenborg) If “to grow old in Heaven is to grow young” (As the Seer saw & said)’ [lines 1–2] {there is a version of these lines in Duke, printed in PFB 1): 74}

Notebook No. 2, p. 21 ‘And heavenly things in your eyes have place

Those breaks of sky in the twilight face’ [lines 5–6] {these lines also appear in Duke, printed in PFB 1): 73}

Notebook No. 2, p. 25 ‘A test for Love. In every kiss sealed fast To feel the first kiss and forebode the last’ [lines 13–14] {these lines also appear in Duke, printed in PFB 1): 73} ‘To deem each etc. To still etc. & might be etc. To feel each etc. As ‘twere etc. & might be etc.’

Notebook No. 4, p. 31 ‘The sunrise blooms & withers on the hill Like any hillflower’ [lines 9–10]

140 The House of Life

Letter:

DGR to JM [13 Dec] 80 (WEF 80.375 [Bryson 124]) (see Letter (4) under Sonnet 56): ‘The seer in the sonnet is Swedenborg, and the saying a very fine one.’ This reference to lines 1–2 draws JM’s attention to the work of the Swedish scientist and mystic Emanuel Swedenborg (1688–1722), which DGR had consulted, especially in reference to his studies of Dante and Blake.

Manuscripts:

(1) Princeton DGR Collection No. 45194, AM20107 (2) Princeton HL fol. 6a (3) Fitzwilliam HL fol. 67a (4) Bodleian Eng. poet. d. 44 fol. 12 (5) Princeton HL fol. 7a (6) DAM Proofs Sig. P, 4 May, p. 220

Revisions/Variants:

1. The earliest draft seems to be Prin.(1) (in pencil, with revisions); verso is a pencil note ‘given to C. Mackail by G. B-J.[presumably Georgie Burne-Jones, the painter’s wife]’; the octave reads: [no title] 1 If to grow old in Heaven is to

grow young 2 (As the Seer saw and said) then

blest were he 3 <Should live with her whom> <With youth for ever who in> With youth for evermore, whose

heaven should be 4 <A woman whom>True

woman<such as>her whom these weak notes have sung

5 Here and hereafter, [words illegible] <chorusings>choir-strains of her tongue,

6 <And>The heavenly throngs that in her eyes have place

7 Those breaks of <sky light in>sky within the twilight face

8 Were Paradise all uttermost <spheres> worlds among.

[alternate rhyme words at top of MS: clung, flung, sung, wrung, strung, young, among]

2. Prin.(1)/Prin.(2) title [no title]/True Woman III

1 [no quotation marks]/ [Swedenborg saying set off in quotation marks]

4 True woman – her whom/True Woman, she whom

6–7 The heavenly throngs that in her

eyes have place – Those breaks of sky within the

twilight face –/ 6–7 <The heavenly throngs that in

her eyes have place – Those eyes, fair sky-breaks in the

auroral face –> <Star-spaces>Sky-spaces of [these cancelled lines are not

replaced in Prin.(2)] 13 love/<Love>love

3. All other MSS/B&S title The subtitle Her Heaven was added in pencil on DAM proofs Sig. P, 4 May, p. 220

1 [quotation marks only appear in Ash. 1410 and Prin.(2)]

Text and Notes 141

6–7 B&S readings appear in Fitz. 12 treasured/cherished Prin.(1),

(2), Fitz. 13–14 [indented to match lines 10–

11 in Prin.(2).] 14 ‘forebode’ is misspelled

‘forbode’ throughout DAM and Ros. though never written that way by DGR: it remained in all eds of B&S, British, American and German, until the error was corrected by WMR in CW and his subsequent major eds of HL in 1904 and 1911. This misreading is, however, still pervasive today.

4. Prin.(3) is a fair copy except for the title and subtitle, being headed simply ‘III’.

5. These three sonnets, but particu-larly the final one, have struck many readers as the heart of the sequence. WMR comments on 58 in DGRDW: ‘A certain interchangeability of idea and of imagery – the things of time symbolizing the things of eternity, or vice - versa appears to me to be one of the most ruling qualities of Rossetti’s poetry, and a leading source of that difficulty or elusive character which many readers feel in it. The present sonnet is a prominent example.’ (223)

142 The House of Life

SONNET LIX. LOVE’S LAST GIFT.

Love to his singer held a glistening leaf, And said: “The rose-tree and the apple-tree Have fruits to vaunt or flowers to lure the bee;

And golden shafts are in the feathered sheaf 4 Of the great harvest-marshal, the year’s chief,

Victorious Summer; aye, and ‘neath warm sea Strange secret grasses lurk inviolably

Between the filtering channels of sunk reef. 8

All are my blooms; and all sweet blooms of love To thee I gave while Spring and Summer sang; But Autumn stops to listen, with some pang

From those worse things the wind is moaning of. 12 Only this laurel dreads no winter days: Take my last gift; thy heart hath sung my praise.”

END OF PART I.

Date of Publication: 1881, B&S Date of Composition: 1871, Works

Letter:

DGR to TWD, 19 May 81 (WEF 81.233): see Letter (6) under Sonnet 56 above

Manuscripts:

(1) DAM Box 22 {see PFB 3): 54} (2) (3) Fitzwilliam HL fols 68a, 69a (4) Princeton HL fol. 32a (5) DAM Proofs Sig. P, p. 221, 4, 9 May

Revisions/Variants:

1. Ban./Fitz.(1) 1 Love held to me a glistening

laurel-leaf,/ <Love held to me a glistening

laurel-leaf,>

Love to his singer held a glistening leaf,

3 vaunt and/vaunt or 6 yea, and/<yea, and>aye, and

Text and Notes 143

7 [at bottom of DAM ‘shroud’ tried as alternative to ‘lurk’ but cancelled]

11 stops and listens/stops to listen 14 It is my last gift, brother; sing my

praise.”/ <It is my last gift, brother; sing

my praise.”> <Take my last gift, <<O singer

of my praise.”>> for thou hast sung my praise.”>

Take my last gift; thy heart hath sung my praise.”

2. All other MSS/B&S 12 <these>those DAM Proofs 4 May 13 <days;>days: Fitz.(2) 14 [the misprint ‘suug’ for ‘sung’

was corrected by WMR in copy 3a of the DAM Proofs, 9 May, but neither DGR nor the printer noticed this blunder or WMR’s correction of it. Appearing in all three ‘eds’ of B&S for 1881, it was only corrected in 1882 in the ‘fourth’ ed. or first resetting of the book.]

3. Prin. is a fair copy, even containing at the bottom of the text, ‘End of Part I’.

4. Musical setting: Sir Ralph Vaughan Williams, Sonnets from The House of Life by D. G. Rossetti {1904: recorded London: Polydor, 1974}.

5. The revisions to line 14 in Fitz.(1) are significant. In this transitional sonnet, it seems absurd for Love to tell his singer to sing his praise, as the poet has done this throughout Part I. Part II, dealing with the changes and chances imposed by ‘Change and Fate’ (as the subtitle indicates), contains very little ardent praising of the delights of love but does attempt, after the traumatic changes recorded in the later sections of Part I, to hold fast to the ideals of love as affirmed in Sonnets 1 and 55–59. To be Love’s singer is its own, and only, reward.

144 The House of Life

PART II. CHANGE AND FATE.

SONNET LX. TRANSFIGURED LIFE.

As growth of form or momentary glance In a child’s features will recall to mind The father’s with the mother’s face combin’d,

Sweet interchange that memories still enhance: 4 And yet, as childhood’s years and youth’s advance,

The gradual mouldings leave one stamp behind, Till in the blended likeness now we find

A separate man’s or woman’s countenance: 8

So in the Song, the singer’s Joy and Pain, Its very parents, evermore expand

To bid the passion’s fullgrown birth remain, By Art’s transfiguring essence subtly spann’d; 12 And from that song-cloud shaped as a man’s hand

There comes the sound as of abundant rain.

Date of Publication: 1881, B&S Date of Composition: 1880: WMR gives ‘after 1872’ in ClassLists and ‘1873’ in Works, but DGR sent versions of this sonnet in two letters of Fall 1880; I found no evidence to support any earlier date. The Bodleian MS, dated by JM ‘16.11.80’, seems to have arrived with the identically-dated Sonnet 56, both enclosures with DGR’s letter, also dated by JM ‘16.11.80’ though Bryson dates it the next day: this letter, WEF 80.352 (Bryson121), ended with the postscript, ‘I’ll transcribe a Sonnet or two. I need not say who is the model of the 2nd.’ See notes to Sonnet 56. This sonnet was also transcribed verso on DGR’s letter to Philip Bourke Marston, dated (by an unknown hand on the LC MS ‘Oct.24 1880’, and by WEF for his 81.37 [c.23 January 1881].

MS Sources:

Duke Notebook IV {printed in PFB 1): 48}; Princeton Sonnets & Fragments fol. 15a ‘As the features of a child recall now the father and now the mother, and yet are different from both; so in a work may be traced in a new form this or that passion or experience of the author’s life, though all be turned to a fresh purpose.’ In the Princeton version, the words ‘in a new form’ are omitted.

Text and Notes 145

Letters:

(1) DGR to JM [18 Nov] 80 (WEF 80.352 [Bryson 121]); see note on Date of Composition above. (2) DGR to Philip Bourke Marston [c.23 Jan] 81 (LC MS. 9810–11, printed as WEF 81.37); see note on Date of Composition above: ‘To show you that I still use the pen, I will put opposite a sonnet which is one of those I have done lately. [P.S.] No doubt you will recognize the point at the end as derived from the story of Elijah and Ahab.’

Manuscripts:

(1) (2) Fitzwilliam HL fol. 70a, fol. 71a (3) Rosenbach EL3 .R8291 (4) Bodleian Eng. poet. d. 44 fol. 9a (5) Fitzwilliam HL fol. 72a (6) LC: Moulton Papers, Box 50, No.9811 (7) Princeton HL fol. 33a

Revisions/Variants:

1. Fitz.(1) is a holograph half-title reading, ‘Part II/ Change and Fate’. No half-title leaf was printed; this heading appears above Sonnet 60 on Fitz.(3) and Prin.

2. All other MSS/B&S title <Evolved Unlikeness>Transfigured Life/ Fitz.(2) Sonnet LX/Transfigured Life Ros. 2 <oft recalls><will oft recall>will

recall Ros. 3 <and the>with the Ros. 4 enhance: –/enhance: Ros. 7 <And in blended>Till in the

blended Fitz.(2) 9 <Even in such wise,><So in such

wise,>So in the Song, Fitz.(2) 10 <Song’s very parents, ‘neath

<<their>>his power expand>

Its very parents evermore expand Fitz.(2), Ros.

11 <full-grown birth><symbolled growth> fullgrown birth Fitz.(2)

To bid one new-coined human face remain,/ Ros.

full-grown/ Bod. To bid the passion’s fullgrown

birth remain, 12 nobly/subtly Ros. 13 a cloud shaped like a human

hand/ that song-cloud shaped as a

man’s hand Ros.

3. At the bottom of Bod. DGR has written an explanatory note for JM: ‘You know the allusion in the last 2 lines is to the story of Elijah.’ [See I Kings ch. xviii verses 44–45]

4. Fitz.(3) is a fair copy of Fitz.(2); LC and Prin. are fair copies.

146 The House of Life

SONNET LXI. THE SONG-THROE.

By thine own tears thy song must tears beget, O Singer! Magic mirror hast thou none Except thy manifest heart; and save thine own

Anguish or ardour, else no amulet. 4 Cisterned in Pride, verse is the feathery jet

Of soulless air-flung fountains; nay, more dry Than the Dead Sea for throats that thirst and sigh,

That song o’er which no singer’s lids grew wet. 8

The Song-god – He the Sun-god – is no slave Of thine: thy Hunter he, who for thy soul Fledges his shaft: to no august control

Of thy skilled hand his quivered store he gave: 12 But if thy lips’ loud cry leap to his smart, The inspired recoil shall pierce thy brother’s heart.

Date of Publication: 1881, B&S Date of Composition: 1880 [dated ‘April 1880’ in FLM 368]

MS Source:

Ashley Notebooks 1410 (BL) Notebook No. 4, pp. 39–40 ‘By thine own tears thy verse must tears impart’ [line 1]

‘The Song-god – he the Sun-god is no slave of thine: he thy hunter for thy soul fledges his shaft & seeks no other goal <He hath no fellow-shaft for that breast>‘

<He showers no arrows for the breast> [words in margin: slave, soul, goal, breast] [lines 9–11]

‘The archer Apollo fledges his arrow for thy soul, & if that be not pierced he has <not>no fellow shaft for another; but if it reach thy soul it shall rebound & touch another.’ [lines 9–14]

Manuscripts:

(1) (2) Fitzwilliam HL fol. 73a, 74a (3) LC Misc MSS 1390

Text and Notes 147

Revisions/Variants:

1. All MSS/B&S 5 <pride>Pride Fitz.(2) 11–12 < to no transferred control Of thy hand’s <<art>>skill> to no august control Of thy skilled hand Fitz.(2)

2. Fitz.(2) is signed in ink ‘D.G. Rossetti’

3. LC is a fair copy

SONNET LXII. THE SOUL’S SPHERE.

Some prisoned moon in steep cloud-fastnesses, Throned queen and thralled; some dying sun whose pyre Blazed with momentous memorable fire;

Who hath not yearned and fed his heart with these? 4 Who, sleepless, hath not anguished to appease

Tragical shadow’s realm of sound and sight Conjectured in the lamentable night?. . . . .

Lo! the soul’s sphere of infinite images! 8

What sense shall count them? Whether it forecast The rose-winged hours that flutter in the van Of Love’s unquestioning unrevealèd span,

Visions of golden futures: or that last 12 Wild pageant of the accumulated past

That clangs and flashes for a drowning man.

Date of Publication: 1881, B&S Date of Composition: 1873, Works

MS Sources:

Ashley Notebooks 1410 (BL); Duke Notebooks; Sonnets and Fragments {Princeton} Notebook No. 1, p. 35 ‘or <some>that last Wild pageant of the accumulated past Which clangs and flashes for a drowning man’

[cancelled: ‘upon the vision of’ ‘flashed on the’] [lines 12–14]

Notebook No. 2, pp. 3, 5 ‘The prisoned sun [“moon” written above] in steep cloud-fastnesses’

148 The House of Life

‘some day whose sun died in momentous memorable light’

Duke II, III ‘Some dying sun whose pyre Blazed with [words illegible] fire’ [lines 1–3: there are versions of these trials for lines 1–3 and 12–14 in Duke Notebooks II and III, printed in PFB 1): 37, 75]

Notebook No. 2, p. 5 ‘Tragical shadow & the realms of fear’ [line 6: in Sonnets and Fragments fol. 16a the entry is] ‘Tragical shadows and the realm of fear’

Duke IV {printed in PFB 1): 45} ‘Conjectured in the lamentable night?’ [line 7]

Manuscripts:

(1) DAM Box 22 {see PFB 3): 55} (2) Fitzwilliam HL fol. 75a (3) LC Misc MSS 1390

Revisions/Variants:

1. All MSS/B&S 5 Who, dreaming sleepless, hath

not toiled to/ [DAM trial line] Who, sleepless, hath not <tried>

anguished to DAM 6 <all sound and sight>of sound

and sight DAM 7 night?/night?..... DAM

8 images./images! DAM 10 [‘moth-winged’ is alternate for

‘rose-winged’] DAM 12 <futures; or that vast>futures: or

that last DAM

2. LC is a fair copy

Text and Notes 149

SONNET LXIII. INCLUSIVENESS.

The changing guests, each in a different mood, Sit at the roadside table and arise: And every life among them in likewise

Is a soul’s board set daily with new food. 4 What man has bent o’er his son’s sleep, to brood

How that face shall watch his when cold it lies? Or thought, as his own mother kissed his eyes,

Of what her kiss was when his father wooed? 8

May not this ancient room thou sit’st in dwell In separate living souls for joy or pain? Nay, all its corners may be painted plain

Where Heaven shows pictures of some life spent well; 12 And may be stamped, a memory all in vain,

Upon the sight of lidless eyes in Hell.

Date of Publication: 1869, March FR 1870, Poems Date of Composition: [?1860: see note 4. below]

Manuscripts:

(1) DAM Box 22 {see PFB 3): 55} (2) (3) Fitzwilliam HL fols 77a, 76a (4) DAM Proofs Sig. Q, p. 225 (5) Beinecke Tauchnitz

Revisions/Variants:

1. The earliest form of this poem is evident from the DAM MS, with revisions, thus: title <Questions>For Answer The changing guests, each in a different mood, Sit at the roadside table and arise<;>: <And every life among them>Are not their lives and thy life in like wise <Is>Each a soul’s board set daily with new food?

Say, hast thou bent o’er thy son’s sleep, to brood How his face may watch thine where cold it lies? – Or pondered, when thy mother kissed thine eyes, Of what her kiss was when thy father wooed? May not this ancient room thou sitt’st in dwell Even now in separate souls for joy and pain?

150 The House of Life

Nay, all its corners may be painted plain Where Heaven shows pictures of some life spent well; [alternate version of lines 13–14 below MS:] {And may be burned on lidless eyes in Hell,} {The one thing seen where all things are in vain.} And may be stamped, a memory all in vain, Upon the sight of lidless eyes in Hell.

2. All MSS/B&S title For Answer – Sonnet [above this] or Inclusiveness Fitz.(1) <For Answer>Inclusiveness Fitz.(2) 3 <Are not their lives and thy life> And every life among them

Fitz.(2) Like wise/Likewise Fitz.(1) 4 <Each...food?>Is...food. Fitz.(2) 5–7 Say, hast thou bent o’er thy son’s

sleep, to brood How his face may watch thine

where cold it lies? – Or pondered, when thy mother

kissed thine eyes,/ 5–7 What man has bent o’er his

son’s sleep, to brood How that face shall watch his

when cold it lies? – Or thought, <when>as his own

mother kissed his eyes, Fitz.(1) 8 thy father/his father Fitz.(1) 9 sitt’ st/sit’ st Fitz.(1) [this B&S

reading appears in all subsequent MS and printed forms until CW, where WMR inserts the DAM/Fitz.(1) reading and continues it through 1904 and 1911]

10 Even now in separate souls/ In separate living souls Fitz.(1)

<for joy and pain?>for joy, for pain? Fitz.(1)

<for joy, for pain?>for joy or pain? Fitz.(2)

11 <Yea,>Nay Fitz.(1)

3. Revisions in proof: Tauchnitz has ‘For Answer’ as a pencilled alternate title on p. 217.

WMR, in an undated set of DAM press-proofs (Box 47 file 5.145), changed ‘likewise’ in line 3 to ‘like wise’ – whether to correct DGR’s usage or to restore the DAM MS reading is not clear. At any rate this suggestion was not adopted by DGR, but in Works WMR inserted ‘like wise’. He also changed the terminal punctuation of line 12 in his 1904 edition from ‘;’ to ‘,’ but in 1911 he restored ‘;’.

4. Dating this sonnet is difficult. In DGRDW WMR puts it with early work, assigning it to 1860 (293), but elsewhere in the same book (228), he identifies the ‘ancient room’ of line 9 with an actual room in Tudor House, where DGR did not take up residence until late 1862. In ClassLists and Works, he dates it ‘Before March 1869’, the FR printing. Verso on Fitz.(2) is the MS sonnet ‘On the Vita Nuova of Dante’, composed in 1852. DAM looks like an early DGR hand and has some marks of the poet’s ‘early Christian’ manner, as does Sonnet 65, Known in Vain, which preceded it in the 1869 printing. Like DAM, the Duke MS of Sonnet 65 was written on a half-leaf of black-bordered note paper but it was dated ‘January 1853’. DGR’s grandfather Gaetano Polidori died in

Text and Notes 151

December 1853. Would Sonnet 65 be more accurately dated ‘January 1854’? And does the black-bordered

MS of Sonnet 63 come from the same period?

SONNET LXIV. ARDOUR AND MEMORY.

The cuckoo-throb, the heartbeat of the Spring; The rosebud’s blush that leaves it as it grows Into the full-eyed fair unblushing rose;

The summer clouds that visit every wing 4 With fires of sunrise and of sunsetting;

The furtive flickering streams to light re-born ‘Mid airs new-fledged and valorous lusts of morn,

While all the daughters of the daybreak sing: – 8

These ardour loves, and memory: and when flown All joys, and through dark forest-boughs in flight The wind swoops onward brandishing the light,

Even yet the rose-tree’s verdure left alone 12 Will flush all ruddy though the rose be gone;

With ditties and with dirges infinite.

Date of Publication: 1881, B&S Date of Composition:1879 (Christmas), WEF 79.217 [Bryson 88]

MS Sources:

Ashley Notebooks 1410 (BL); Duke Notebooks; Sonnets and Fragments {Princeton} Notebook No. 1, pp. 18, 23, 31, 36 ‘Furtive flickering streams’ [line 6; also in Duke III, printed PFB 1): 74]

‘the lifted eyes Where all the daughters of the daybreak sing’ [line 8; also in Duke III, printed PFB 1): 74]

‘And mad revulsion of the tarnished light’ [lines 10–11] [Duke III has:] ‘inexplicable blight

And mad revulsion of the tarnished light’ [printed PFB 1): 75] [Duke II has:] ‘inexplicable blight And mad revulsions of the brandished light’ [printed PFB 1): 37]

‘With airs new-fledged and valorous lusts of morn’ [line 7; also in Duke III, printed PFB 1): 75]

152 The House of Life

Notebook No. 2, pp. 8, 14, 15, 18, 26, 29 ‘The winter garden-beds all bare Save only where the redbreast lingering there Brings back one flower-like gleam the dark mould mid’ [similar to lines 12–14; however, these images were actually used in the octave of DGR’s sonnet Winter (B&S 322)]

‘The <daisy’s>rosebud’s blush that leaves it as it grows Into the [word illeg.] full-eyed fair unblushing rose’ [lines 2–3 Sonnets and Fragments version on fol. 16a]

‘First cuckoo-throb, the heart-beat of the Spring’ [line 1 Sonnets and Fragments version on fol. 16a]

‘Even as the rose-tree’s verdure left alone Will flush all ruddy when the rose is gone’ [lines 12–13] [also in Duke III, printed PFB 1): 74]

‘Ditties and dirges of the unanswering sky’ [line 14; Duke III has:] ‘Though all the rest go by Ditties and dirges of the unanswering sky’ [printed PFB 1): 73]

‘It seemed that through the forest boughs in flight The wind swooped onward brandishing the light’ [lines 10–11] [also in Duke III, printed PFB 1): 72]

Letters:

(1) DGR: JM exchange of letters Dec–Jan 1879–80: [28 Dec] 79 (WEF 79.217 [Bryson 88]):

Having written his first new HL sonnet in five years (see Chronology of B&S, Appendix Five), he showed it to friends and family, also sending it to JM and, later, to William Davies:

‘I’ll copy opposite a sonnet just made. It is in a different mood from those of old, yet I have tried to sustain some beauty by natural images.’ JM dated both this letter and the Bodleian MS of Ardour and Memory 29

Dec 79, so we know to which sonnet DGR was referring here. In his next letter [4 Jan] 80 (WEF 80.5 [Bryson 89]) he asked her for some response to his new poem:

‘I am getting morbid about you, and wd. like just one line. Of course there was nothing to answer in my last note, but I keep thinking whether you thought that sonnet extra dismal . . .’ Their correspondence continued without JM mentioning the poem until,

at the end of the month, DGR raised the matter again [29 Jan] 80, (WEF 80.29 [Bryson 97]):

‘I never asked you at the time a question which I will just ask now, but hope not to displease you in any way. Is it conceivable that you put some inconceivable construction on that Sonnet I sent you? I ask

Text and Notes 153

because something of the sort happened with another sonnet years ago, and it is so unusual with you to make no sign whatever on receiving verse of mine. . . . I won’t put another sonnet opposite – it might not be safe.’ This drew a reply from her, as follows [1 Feb] 80 (Bryson 98): ‘I am quite grieved at my stupidity as regards the sonnet – the truth is, I was quite ill when I received it, and would not trust myself to make any remarks on what struck me most at first, its extremely woeful character, and afterwards on reflection it seemed to me that you must have written it when very ill, so very sad was its tone – that I resolved to say nothing about it, there is the truth of the matter. Forgive me if I caused you any uneasiness, I thought you would understand the reason of my silence, and question me no further.’ The following day the poet replied (WEF 80.31 [Bryson 99]): ‘Pardon my reverting one last time to that blessed sonnet. I never dreamed you wd not perceive that the tone adopted was only a contrasting framework for a set of natural images such as one does not put into relishing form if one is very ill! At least I am not at such times a sonneteer.’ This last explanation draws attention to the fact that this sonnet was, to

use DGR’s word, ‘made’. The list of MS sources above, providing material for eleven of the sonnet’s fourteen lines, shows that he made it from several diverse notebook entries dating back to the Kelmscott period, using the methods he employed in many HL sonnets (cf. 19, Silent Noon). It appears that JM, like DGR’s biographer Doughty (609–10), assumed that Ardour and Memory was an ‘occasional’ sonnet recording the poet’s ‘woeful’ state during the festive season. But DGR was seized at this time with the idea of a new volume of his poetry: the composition of this sonnet marks the beginning of the final stage of his construction of The House of Life (see Introduction pp. 16–18; B&S Chronology, Appendix Five).

(2) DGR to William Davies [31 Dec] 79 (WEF 79.224 [DW 2164]): ‘I wish I had any better equivalent [to a Christmas card] to send than a sonnet written just now, and which I fear has by no means a special Xmas flavour.’ The enclosed sonnet, titled Pleasure and Memory, signed and dated ‘Xmas

1879’, was otherwise identical to what JM received, though DW (2164) introduced several misprints in their transcription of the MS now at Brotherton.

Manuscripts:

(1) Bodleian Eng. poet. d. 44 fol. 8 (2) Brotherton {printed DW 2164, WEF 79.224} (3) Wormsley (4) Fitzwilliam HL fol. 78a (5) Beinecke, Tinker Collection {printed in facsimile in Sharp 1882: 426} (6) LC Misc. MSS 1390 (7) DAM and Ros. Proofs Sig. Q, p. 226, 4, 6 May.

154 The House of Life

Revisions/Variants:

1. All MSS/B&S title Pleasure and Memory/Ardour and

Memory Bod., Bro., Worm., 1 Cuckoo throb/cuckoo-throb DW <first heartbeat>the heartbeat

Fitz. 2 Rosebud’s/rosebud’s DW 6 re-born,/re-born DW 9 pleasure/ardour Bod., Bro., Worm. [cancelled alternatives for ‘These

ardour loves’: ‘These pleasure etc.’ ‘heart-pulse’ ‘yearning’ ‘love holds dear’ bottom of Fitz.]

12 alone,/alone DW 13 <Shall>Will Fitz. when the rose is gone;/though

the rose be gone All MSS

13 [B&S reading pencilled above line in Fitz.]

2. Revisions in proof: 13 <when the rose is gone> though

the rose be gone DAM, Ros.

3. Bro. and Bei. are signed by DGR and dated ‘Xmas 1879’; the mistranscriptions of Bro. in DW are corrected in WEF

4. Worm. was the property of Sir Sydney Cockerell, then Sir Paul Getty

5. LC is a fair copy except for line 13

SONNET LXV. KNOWN IN VAIN.

As two whose love, first foolish, widening scope, Knows suddenly, to music high and soft, The Holy of holies; who because they scoff’d

Are now amazed with shame, nor dare to cope 4 With the whole truth aloud, lest heaven should ope;

Yet, at their meetings, laugh not as they laugh’d In speech; nor speak, at length; but sitting oft

Together, within hopeless sight of hope 8 For hours are silent: – So it happeneth

When Work and Will awake too late, to gaze After their life sailed by, and hold their breath.

Ah! who shall dare to search through what sad maze 12 Thenceforth their incommunicable ways

Follow the desultory feet of Death?

Date of Publication: 1869, March FR 1870, Poems Date of Composition: January 1853 (Duke MS)

Text and Notes 155

Letter:

(1) DGR to HC 12 Mar 80 (WEF 80.86): this sonnet is here identified as one of four which ‘head the series in value’; see letter quoted under Sonnet 55

Manuscripts:

(1) Duke XVII-F, XXVI fol. 27a {collated with B&S in PFB 1): 35} (2) Fitzwilliam HL fol. 79a (3) Poems Proof State 12 {Princeton} (4) Beinecke Tauchnitz

Revisions/Variants:

1. All MSS/B&S title <Known in Vain>Work and Will/

Known in Vain Fitz. 1 <they>two/two Duke 2 with music/to music all MSS,

Poems eds 1–7 5 <aloud>in words/aloud Duke Heaven/heaven Duke

6 laught/laugh’d Duke 11 sail’d/sailed Duke 14 Death!/Death? Duke

2. Revisions in Proof 2 <with music>to music Bei.

p. 218 5 <in words>aloud Prin.

SONNET LXVI. THE HEART OF THE NIGHT.

From child to youth; from youth to arduous man; From lethargy to fever of the heart; From faithful life to dream-dowered days apart;

From trust to doubt; from doubt to brink of ban; – 4 Thus much of change in one swift cycle ran

Till now. Alas, the soul! – how soon must she Accept her primal immortality, –

The flesh resume its dust whence it began? 8

O Lord of work and peace! O Lord of life! O Lord, the awful Lord of will! though late, Even yet renew this soul with duteous breath:

That when the peace is garnered in from strife, 12 The work retrieved, the will regenerate, This soul may see thy face, O Lord of death!

Date of Publication: 1881, B&S Date of Composition: 1873, Works

156 The House of Life

Manuscripts:

(1) Beinecke, Tinker Collection 1798 ‘Sonnets by D.G. Rossetti’ (2) (3) Fitzwilliam HL fols 80a, 81a (4) LC Misc. MSS 1390 (5) DAM Proofs 6 May, Sig. Q, p. 228

Revisions/Variants:

1. Tinker seems the earliest version; with revisions, it reads:

The Heart of the Night From child to youth; from youth to weary man; From lethargy to fever of the heart; From faithful life to mouldering days apart; From doubt to dread; from dread to bale and ban: – Thus much of change in thy swift cycle ran Till now. Alas! the soul – how soon must she Accept her primal immortality, – The flesh that dust wherein its course began? O Lord of work and will! O Lord of life! O Lord, the awful Lord of love! though late, Even still renew this soul with duteous breath: That when the will is garnered in from strife, The work retrieved, the love regenerate, <She may behold>This soul may see <thy> Thy face, O Lord of death. [in this version it is a poem of yearning for lost love]

2. Tinker/Fitz.(1) 1 weary/<weary>

<wavering>arduous 2 lethargy/<lethargy>energy 3 mouldering/<mouldering>

dream-dowered 4 From doubt to dread; from

dread to bale and ban: –/

From trust to doubt; from doubt to brink of ban; –

5 thy swift/<thy swift>one swift 9 and will!/and peace! 10 of love!/of will! 11 still/<still>yet 12 will/peace 13 love/will 14 death./death!

3. All other MSS/B&S 2 energy/lethargy Fitz.(1) 6 <Alas! the soul –> Alas, the

soul! – LC 8 The flesh that dust wherein its

course began?/ The flesh resume its dust

whence it began? LC [this reading was pencilled in as an alternate in Fitz.(2)] 14 Thy/thy Fitz.(2)

4. Revision in Proof: 8 [this line ended with ‘begun?’ in

all proofs of B&S, without evident MS authority, until DGR corrected it to ‘began?’ on copy 2b of the 6 May DAM Proofs]

5. There is a water-colour of 1862 called The Heart of the Night, also known as Mariana in the Moated Grange (S. 86R.1, pl. 112, DGRDW No.168). This drawing is a replica, with accessories, of Mariana in the South, a pen and ink study of 1856–57 for the Moxon Illustrated Edition of Tennyson’s poetry (1857). These pictures should not be confused with the 1868 oil portrait of JM in

Text and Notes 157

the blue silk dress called, simply, Mariana, (see note 6. on Sonnet 50), though both depict the Mariana from Measure for Measure. There are two Tennyson poems dealing with this character: it is the earlier one (c.1833) which DGR associates with his water-colour because he cites its epigraph, ‘Mariana in the Moated Grange,’ perhaps to distinguish it from the poet’s later Mariana in the

South. The earlier lines, expressive as they are of the hopeless desperation of a deserted lover, resemble the early Tinker draft of this sonnet, before the references to love were removed. There are, then, connections among the Tennyson lyric, the Rossetti water-colour and the first draft of this sonnet which help to clarify DGR’s choice of title.

SONNET LXVII. THE LANDMARK.

Was that the landmark? What, – the foolish well Whose wave, low down, I did not stoop to drink, But sat and flung the pebbles from its brink

In sport to send its imaged skies pell-mell, 4 (And mine own image, had I noted well!) –

Was that my point of turning? – I had thought The stations of my course should rise unsought,

As altar-stone or ensigned citadel. 8

But lo! the path is missed, I must go back, And thirst to drink when next I reach the spring

Which once I stained, which since may have grown black. Yet though no light be left nor bird now sing 12 As here I turn, I’ll thank God, hastening,

That the same goal is still on the same track.

Date of Publication: 1869, March FR 1870, Poems Date of Composition: October 1854 (Huntington MS HM6081)

Manuscripts:

(1) Huntington Library HM 6081 (2) Fitzwilliam HL fol. 82a

158 The House of Life

Revisions/Variants:

1. All MSS/B&S 6 <my point>the point/my point

Hun. I did think/ Hun. <I did think>I had thought/I

had thought Fitz. 7 <<My>><The stations of my

course should stand distinct,> <proudly link with link> <That proudest piles my

stationed course should link,> Proud piles should mark my

stations link with link, Hun. <Proud piles should mark my

stations link with link,> <Proud piles the stations of my

course should link,> The stations of my course should

<stand> loom unsought,/

The stations of my course should rise unsought, Fitz.

7 loom/rise all proof states 8 <As>High Fitz. ensign’d/ensigned Hun., Fitz. 9 <turn back>go back Hun. 10 And <long to>thirst to drink

when now/ Hun. And thirst to drink when

<now>next/ Fitz. And thirst to drink when next 11 <Which last>Which once Hun. 12 <But>Yet Hun. 13 <When there>As here Hun. [Revisions to lines 6–7 seem unsuccessful attempts to preserve the ‘b’ ryhme from lines 2–3]

4. Hun. is dated by DGR ‘Oct.1854’ at the bottom left of the MS.

SONNET LXVIII. A DARK DAY.

The gloom that breathes upon me with these airs Is like the drops which strike the traveller’s brow Who knows not, darkling, if they bring him now

Fresh storm, or be old rain the covert bears. 4 Ah! bodes this hour some harvest of new tares,

Or hath but memory of the day whose plough Sowed hunger once, – the night at length when thou,

O prayer found vain, didst fall from out my prayers? 8

How prickly were the growths which yet how smooth, Along the hedgerows of this journey shed,

Lie by Time’s grace till night and sleep may soothe! Even as the thistledown from pathsides dead 12

Gleaned by a girl in autumns of her youth, Which one new year makes soft her marriage-bed.

Date of Publication: 1870, Poems Date of Composition: 1855, WEF 55.4

Text and Notes 159

Letters:

(1) DGR to William Allingham 23 Jan 55 (WEF 55.4): ‘I must try & fill this paper. So I substitute one of my “clever” moments for the present helpless one, & copy you my last sonnet – : [text follows, then this note:] ‘Does it smack though of Tupper at all? – it seems to, in copying. The last simile I heard as a fact common in some parts of the country.’

(2) DGR to William Holman Hunt 30 Jan 55 (WEF 55.6): ‘[I]t is a shame to send blank paper as far as Jerusalem, so I’ll finish with something of the class that usually goes to Jericho: my last sonnet – not the best I think of several I have done lately, my only poetic productions, save one ballad, for the last two years or so: not the best, but the only one in my pocket book. ... The last simile is from what you told me as a fact common in parts of England.’

(3) DGR to WBS 13 Feb 55 (WEF 55.8): This letter also contains an MS of the poem, described as ‘my last sonnet’, and this note: ‘The last simile was told to me as a custom common in parts of England.’

(4) DGR to WMR [14 Sep] 69 (WEF 69.154): ‘In sonnet A Dark Day–”sowed hunger once”–I believe this used to stand “since”. Which is better?’ WMR preferred ‘once’ (Peattie 230).

Manuscripts:

(1) PML M.A. 381 fol. 16, printed in WA/GBH pp. 102–3 (2) Princeton [included with Letter (3) among DGR’s letters to WBS] (3) Copy sent to Hunt with letter (2): see WEF 55.6, headnote & n13; MSS printed in DW 196 & 197 but not in 194, which is fragmentary] (4) Fitzwilliam HL fol. 83a (5) Poems Proof State 2 {Princeton} (6) Beinecke Tauchnitz

Revisions/Variants:

1. All MSS/B&S title [MSS (1)–(3) are untitled] 1 which/that PML, WBS, WHH <which>that Fitz. 2 that/which PML, WBS, WHH 3 hastening/darkling WBS <darkling>hastening/darkling

WHH menace now/bring him now

PML, WBS, WHH 4 storms/storm WA/GBH 5 its harvest/some harvest PML,

WBS, WHH

tares? –/tares, PML, WHH 6 or tells again but of/or hath but

memory of WBS, WHH or keeps remembrance of/or

hath but memory of PML 7 since, – that night at last/ PML since, – The night at last/ WHH once; the night at last/ WBS once, – the night at length 8 vain! did’st...prayers./ PML, vain! did’st...prayers?/ Fitz. vain, did’st...prayers?/ WHH vain, didst...prayers? 9 griefs which/growths which PML

160 The House of Life

growths, which/growths which WBS

10 On cobwebb’d hedgerows/ WHH, PML, WBS

<On cobwebbed hedgerows> Along the hedgerows Fitz. 11 Lie here and there till...soothe,/

PML <Lie here and there>Lie, through

God’s grace till...soothe:/ WHH Lie by God’s grace, till...soothe,/

WBS Lie by Time’s grace till...soothe! 12 thistle-down/thistledown WBS 13 centuries/ autumns WEF 55.4 youth/youth, WHH 14 Which, one new year, makes/

PML, WBS, WHH Which one new year makes

2. An MS of Broken Music, Sonnet 47, is on the reverse of Fitz.

3. Revisions in proof: 10 ‘On cobwebbed hedgerows(?)’

written uncancelled as alternate phrase to ‘Along the hedgerows’ Tauchnitz

12–14 below the text on proof state 2 DGR wrote a note on these lines: ‘A custom still in some country places’ Prin.

4. The MS sent to Hunt in letter (2), attributed by DW (197) to the collection of Mrs Michael Joseph but never examined by the present editor, seems to have been collated by WEF with B&S and the other letter versions cited above, but there is confusion and ambiguity in his notes on these texts: see 55.4n10, 55.6 headnote & n13 and 55.8n9. I have relied on the often unreliable transcription prowess of DW for the text of the Hunt version.

Text and Notes 161

SONNET LXIX. AUTUMN IDLENESS.

This sunlight shames November where he grieves In dead red leaves, and will not let him shun The day, though bough with bough be over-run.

But with a blessing every glade receives 4 High salutation; while from hillock-eaves

The deer gaze calling, dappled white and dun, As if, being foresters of old, the sun

Had marked them with the shade of forest-leaves. 8

Here dawn to-day unveiled her magic glass; Here noon now gives the thirst and takes the dew;

Till eve bring rest when other good things pass. And here the lost hours the lost hours renew 12

While I still lead my shadow o’er the grass, Nor know, for longing, that which I should do.

Date of Publication: 1870, Poems (‘Sonnets for Pictures and Other Sonnets’ 280) Date of Composition: November 1850 (Fitzwilliam MS)

MS Sources:

‘Sonnets by Dante Gabriel Rossetti’, Tinker Collection 1798, Beinecke, a compilation by WMR of ‘short pieces, most written before 1850’, contains this draft sonnet titled Idle Blessedness:

I know not how it is, I have the knack In lazy moods, of seeking no excuse; But holding that man’s ease must be the juice

Of man’s philosophy, I give the sack To thought, and lounge at shuffle on the track

Of what employment seemed of the least use: And in such ways I find a constant sluice

For drowsy humours. Be then loth to rack And hack thy brain for thought, which may lurk there

Or may not. Without pain of thought, the eyes Can see, the ears can hear, the sultry mouth Can taste the summer’s favour. Towards the South

Let earth sway round, while this my body lies In warmth, and has the sun on face & hair.

162 The House of Life

Less a source than an analogue, this unrevised sketch on DGR’s recurrent theme of ‘lost hours’, treated here with Keatsian ambiguity and Browningesque gusto, resembles other sonnets originally written in the PR period 1847–50 such as ‘Old and New Art’ and ‘The Choice’ (71–76). It was printed as one of the bouts-rimés sonnets in Works (267). See Appendix Eight.

Letter:

DGR to WMR [14 Sep] 69 (WEF 69.154): ‘You will observe that I have now included 2 old sonnets “Autumn Idleness” and “A Match with the Moon”. The first as now revised I like well.’

Manuscripts:

(1) Fitzwilliam HL fol. 84a (2) R.H.Taylor Collection, ‘Poetry MSS 1869–71’ fol. 14a, {Princeton} (3) Fitzwilliam, DAM and BL (Ashley) proofs

1. Fitz., titled A Sunny day at the close of Autumn and dated by DGR ‘Sevenoaks. Nov. 1850’ at the bottom right corner, seems to be the earliest version. The first two versions of the sestet can be reconstructed:

9 Here, on some morn clear as a magic glass,

10 Might Rosalind stand listening in the dew,

11 Or earlier Griseldis to field-work pass.

12 Yet here as sullen as that single yew,

13 Alone I bring my shadow o’er the grass,

14 Nor know, for longing, that which I should do.

9 Here, on some morn clear as a magic glass,

10 Might Chaucer stop to listen in the dew

11 Or earlier wakened Burns to fieldwork pass.

12 Ah why as sullen as that single yew,

13 Do I stand here, my shadow o’er the grass,

12–13 [written along the right margin]

And here the lost hours the lost hours renew,

While I still lead my shadow o’er the grass,

14 Nor know, for longing, that which I should do.

2. Prin. is revised from Fitz. and retitled Autumn Idleness.

3. All MSS/B&S title A Sunny Day at the close of

Autumn/ Autumn Idleness Fitz.

1 November,/November Fitz. 3 stem with stem be inter-run./

Fitz. bough with bough be over-run:/

Prin. bough with bough be over-run. 4 holt/glade Fitz. 9–14 [as revised Prin. agrees with

B&S] 10 <Here noon, that gave the thirst,

<<and dries>><<absorbs>> <<exhausts>>now takes the dew;>

Text and Notes 163

Here noon now gives the thirst and takes the dew; Prin.

11 <yield>bring Prin. 12 renew,/renew Fitz.

4. DGR’s revisions here show him dropping the word-painting, literary allusiveness and stylistic imitative-ness characteristic of his earliest verse in favour of themes and images prevalent in HL: e.g. dawn and noon, mirrors and the temptation of idle-ness as opposed to the redemptive value of work.

5. Revisions in proof: at the bottom of Prin. DGR has written, ‘To be printed after The Hill Summit’ (70). However, the poem did not appear as part of HL in Poems, being added instead in Proof State 3 to the ‘Sonnets for Pictures and Other Sonnets’ on p. 156 (p. 280 in the first ed.). In 1881 this poem was set up on p. 282 of the proofs of Poems:New but then deleted from that volume and moved to become 69 in HL.

3 The end punctuation of this line is: a period in Fitz., a colon in Prin. and all Proof States and ’regular’ copies of the first ed. of Poems; the fine paper and variant binding copies have no terminal punctuation, nor do eds two through five. This line ends with a comma in the sixth ed., and a period in the seventh and subsequent eds of the poem, including the four eds of B&S.

9 in Proof State 3 the end punctu-ation of this line is revised from a semicolon to a comma; this change was reversed before the first ed. of Poems.

10 in Proof State 4 the comma after ‘noon’ which had appeared in Proof State 3 is deleted

10–11 in Proof State 3 the terminal

punctuation of these lines is a comma, whereas in both Prin. and the first ed. of Poems line 10 ends with a semicolon and line 11 with a period.

164 The House of Life

SONNET LXX. THE HILL SUMMIT.

This feast day of the sun, his altar there In the broad west has blazed for vesper-song; And I have loitered in the vale too long

And gaze now a belated worshipper. 4 Yet may I not forget that I was ‘ware,

So journeying, of his face at intervals Transfigured where the fringed horizon falls, –

A fiery bush with coruscating hair. 8

And now that I have climbed and won this height, I must tread downward through the sloping shade

And travel the bewildered tracks till night. Yet for this hour I still may here be stayed 12 And see the gold air and the silver fade

And the last bird fly into the last light.

Date of Publication: 1870, Poems Date of Composition: ‘July 1853, Warwickshire’, ClassLists

MS Source:

Ashley Notebooks 1410 (BL): Notebook No. 2, p. 24 ‘As one who falls asleep on a hill & waking sees sunset as he thinks in the sky & forebodes a darkling night to travel further but as the light widens finds that it is the dawn of a new day.’ [DGR developed the image rather differently for this sonnet.]

Letters:

(1) DGR to William Allingham, [c. 1]Aug 54 (WEF 54.57) ‘I’ve referred to my notebook for the above alteration [to Sonnet 91], & therein are various sonnets & beginnings of sonnets written at crisises (?!) of happy inspiration. Here’s one which I remember writing in great glory on the top of a hill which I reached one [day] after sunset in Warwickshire last year. I’m afraid, though, it isn’t much good. [text of sonnet follows] It strikes me, in copying, what a good thing I did not adopt the first alternative, or I mightn’t be here to copy.’

Text and Notes 165

[DGR is referring to the earlier version of the sestet as it appears printed here and in DW 187 and WA/GBH 45–46 and in the separate MS enclosed with the letter, now in PML.]

(2) DGR to William Allingham, 15 Oct 54 (WEF 54.67): [Evidently Allingham had written DGR criticizing lines 5–8 as obscure:]

‘Thanks also for your criticism on the sonnet. The construction of those four lines is thus:

Yet may I not forget that I was ware, So journeying, of his face at intervals, Some fiery bush with coruscating hair Where the whole land to its horizon falls!

. . . Only the metre forced me to transpose. It is meant to refer to the effect one is nearly sure to see in passing along a road at sunset, when the sun glares in a radiant focus behind some low bush or some hedge on the horizon of the meadows. But it is obscure, I believe, though if I were disposed to be stiff-necked, I might lug up William, to whom I have just showed the sonnet, and who understood the line in question at once. But I’ll try to alter it – if worth working at.’

[Here is evidence to support WMR’s claim (DGRDW 179–80), that he understood the allegedly obscure HL sonnets better than most readers. What DGR’s comment and revision show here is that it was the abba rhyme scheme, not the ‘metre’, that forced him to transpose lines 7 and 8.]

(3) DGR to WMR, [15 Sep] 69 (WEF 69.156): ‘I have made a change in the Hill Summit (page 141) thus:–

“And now that I have climbed and won this height, I must tread downward through the sloping shade, And travel the bewildered tracks till night. Yet for this hour I still may here be stayed,” &c

The symbolism being thus more distinct than before, do you not think this sonnet should properly be transferred to the House of Life section?’

Manuscripts:

(1) Fitzwilliam HL fol. 85a (2) PML M.A.381 fols 11, 14, printed, including later revisions, in WA/GBH, DW and WEF in Letters above (3) Poems Proof States 2, 3, 4 {Princeton} (4) DAM Proofs Sig. Q, 4 May, p. 232

Revisions/Variants:

1. The following version of lines 9–12 appears in all MSS and proofs until Proof State 6: 9 And now that I have climbed

and tread this height,

10 I may lie down where all the slope is shade,

11 And cover up my face, and have till night

12 With silence, darkness; or may here be stayed,

166 The House of Life

2. All MSS/B&S title [untitled] PML <From the Hill-top>The Hill-

Summit/The Hill Summit Fitz. 2 vespersong;/vesper-song; PML 3 long,/long PML 4 now, a/now a PML 6 intervals, –/intervals PML, Fitz. 7 Saw where the land to its

horizon falls/ Fitz. Where the whole land to its

horizon falls,/ PML Transfigured where the fringed

horizon falls, – 8 Some fiery/A fiery PML, Fitz. corruscating/coruscating PML [a marginal note by DGR on fol.

14 asks ‘Has coruscating one or two r’s?’]

13 fade,/fade PML

3. Revisions in proof: 4 [WMR queried the second ‘p’ in ‘worshipper’ on his copy of the

DAM Proofs but DGR made no change]

6 <at intervals, –>at intervals Proof State 2

7 <Saw where the land to its horizon falls,>

<And I saw>

<That showed me where the far horizon falls,>

<And far off where the etc.> Transfigured where the

<wood>fringed horizon falls, Proof State 2

7 <falls,>falls, – Proof State 3 8 <Some fiery bush><In fiery

bush><To fiery bush><As fiery bush>A fiery bush Proof State 2, copy 2

9–12 [See Letter (3) above: these lines

inserted in Proof State 3 are identical with B&S; the commas at the ends of lines 10 and 12 in DW 871 are not in this revision or in B&S].

4. This sonnet was added to the ‘Sonnets for Pictures, and Other Sonnets’ section of Poems (280): it was on p. 141 in Proof State 2 and on p. 155 in Proof State 4. Then, DGR transferred the sonnet to HL where it appears for the first time in print in Proof State 6, on p. 100. The above revisions exemplify the poet’s remaking of occasional or descriptive sonnets in order to integrate them into the sequence.

Text and Notes 167

SONNETS LXXI., LXXII., LXXIII. THE CHOICE.

I.

Eat thou and drink; to-morrow thou shalt die. Surely the earth, that’s wise being very old, Needs not our help. Then loose me, love, and hold

Thy sultry hair up from my face; that I 4 May pour for thee this golden wine, brim-high,

Till round the glass thy fingers glow like gold. We’ll drown all hours: thy song, while hours are toll’d,

Shall leap, as fountains veil the changing sky. 8

Now kiss, and think that there are really those, My own high-bosomed beauty, who increase

Vain gold, vain lore, and yet might choose our way! Through many years they toil; then on a day 12

They die not, – for their life was death, – but cease; And round their narrow lips the mould falls close.

Date of Publication: 1870, Poems Date of Composition: 1847–48 (FLM 108)

Letters:

(1) DGR to WMR 21 Aug 69 (WEF 69.130): Enclosed with this epistle was Proof State 2 of Poems, the ‘Penkill Proofs’, for WMR’s editorial perusal; one question raised was whether or not to include The Choice: ‘I believe I am likely to cut out ... The Choice (3 Sonnets) ... but am not yet quite certain.’

(2) WMR to DGR 23 Aug 69 (Peattie No. 161): in his reply to the above WMR notes: ‘[p]147. The Choice. – I incline to the admission of these sonnets.

“Care, gold, and care–” [part of early version of line 11] Is this rightly printed? I think the drift of the sonnet might gain if you could

make the speaker jeer against thought – any serious purpose in life – as well as money-making. As long as he prefers pleasure to that, he seems to be about right – and I don’t suppose you mean he should so seem altogether.’

(3) DGR to WMR 27 Aug 69 (WEF 69.139): ‘[page]147. “Care gold and care” can be altered to “Vain gold, vain lore”, which meets your views. There is a

168 The House of Life

very vexatious point connected with this sonnet which was one reason for my thinking of omitting the three. The idea – “They die not, never having lived”, is identical with one at the close of Browning’s In A Gondola. [The lines are:

The Three, I do not scorn/ To death, because they never lived: but I/ Have lived indeed, and so – (yet one more kiss) – can die!]

I know that I had never then read that poem, and that on first reading it this annoying fact struck me at once, but then this is not known to the world. The point is just what is wanted & not possible to alter.’

DGR did, however, finally change ‘never having lived’ to ‘for their life was death’ in the proofs of B&S. Despite his repeated assertion that ‘I am one of those whose little is his own’, his earliest poetry is full of Browningisms, another of which – ‘A jest! Conceive!’ – he removed from line 9.

(4) DGR to WMR [15 Sept] 69 (WEF 69.156): ‘I still bear rather a grudge to the three sonnets called “The Choice”. Do you feel sure they ought to be in?’

Manuscripts:

(1) Fitzwilliam HL fol. 86a (2) Poems: Proof States 2, 4, 6, 14 {Princeton} (3) DAM and Ros. Proofs Sig. Q, 6 May, p. 233.

Revisions/Variants:

1. Fitz. exemplifies DGR’s earliest manner in the sonnet; as revised it reads:

<Man’s Choice>The Choice

1 Eat thou and drink; to-morrow thou shalt die.

2 Surely the earth, that’s wise being very old,

3 Needs not our help. Then loose me, love, and hold

4 Thy sultry hair up from my face; that I

5 May pour for thee this yellow wine, brim- high,

6 Till round the glass thy fingers <look>glow like gold.

7–8 <Then both hands o’er my

forehead thou shalt fold And listen to the silence going by.> 7–8 We’ll hear no hours: thy song,

while these are toll’d,

Shall leap, as fountains veil the changing sky.

9 <Wilt thou believe that>A jest! Conceive! Why, there are really those,

10 My own high-bosomed <lady>beauty, who increase

11 Care, gold, and care, <in scorn of Love’s true wealth?>in reach of this our wealth!

12 Eleven long days they toil: upon the twelfth

13 They die not, never having lived, – but cease;

14 And round their narrow lips the mould falls close.

2. Fitz./B&S 1 [italics deleted in B&S] 5 yellow/golden 7 We’ll hear no hours: thy song,

while these are toll’d,/ We’ll drown all hours: thy song,

while hours are toll’d,

Text and Notes 169

9 A jest! Conceive! Why, there are really those,/

Now kiss, and think that there are really those,

11 Care, gold, and care, in reach of this our wealth!/

Vain gold, vain lore, and yet might choose our way!

12 Eleven long days they toil: upon the twelfth/

Through many years they toil; then on a day

13 They die not, never having lived, – but cease;/

They die not, – for their life was death, – but cease;

3. Revisions in proof: title [the subtitle in Proof States 2–12 was

(Three Sonnets); in Proof State 14 the italicized subtitle was deleted and replaced by the three sonnet numbers above the main title] 1 <tomorrow>to-morrow Proof

State 2, Prin. 5 yellow wine,/golden wine,

Poems (second ed.) 7 <We’ll hear no hours:>We’ll

drown all hours: Proof State 6, Prin.

7 <these are toll’d,>hours are toll’d, Proof State 2, Prin.

9 <A jest! Conceive! Why, there are really those,>

Now kiss, and think that there are really those, Proof State 4, Prin.

11 <this our wealth!>our true wealth! Proof State 2, Prin.

11 <Care, gold, and care,> Vain gold, vain lore, Proof State

2, Prin. 11 <in reach of our true wealth!> and yet might choose our way! Proof State 6, Prin. 12 <Eleven long days they toil:

upon the twelfth> Through many days they toil; then

comes a day Proof State 6, Prin. 12 Through many years they toil;

then on a day B&S first ed. 13 <They die not, – never having

lived, – but cease;> They die not, – for their life was

death, – but cease; Ros., DAM Proofs

4. These three sonnets were included as part of HL in Proof State 2, between A Dark Day on p. 145 and Vain Virtues on p. 151. In Proof States 3 (pp. 136–38) and 4 (pp. 145–47) they appeared as ‘other sonnets’ in the section ‘Sonnets For Pictures and Other Sonnets’. In Proof State 4 DGR’s note to the printer above Sonnet 71 reads: ‘Put these 3 sonnets after the Hill Summit to follow a Dark Day page 85.’ They were back in HL in Proof State 6 on pp. 101–3. In Proof State 14 DGR instructed the printer to insert Barren Spring before this trio; it appeared there in the first ed.

170 The House of Life

II.

Watch thou and fear; to-morrow thou shalt die. Or art thou sure thou shalt have time for death? Is not the day which God’s word promiseth

To come man knows not when? In yonder sky, 4 Now while we speak, the sun speeds forth: can I

Or thou assure him of his goal? God’s breath Even at this moment haply quickeneth

The air to a flame; till spirits, always nigh 8 Though screened and hid, shall walk the daylight here.

And dost thou prate of all that man shall do? Canst thou, who hast but plagues, presume to be Glad in his gladness that comes after thee? 12

Will his strength slay thy worm in Hell? Go to: Cover thy countenance, and watch, and fear.

Manuscripts:

(1) Princeton HL fol. 34a (2) Fitzwilliam HL fol. 87a (3) Poems: Proof States 2, 6, 12, 14; DGR’s signed, annotated copy of the second ed., {Princeton}

Revisions/Variants:

1. All MSS/B&S title <Man’s Choice.2>The Choice.2/

II. Prin.

1 [italicized in Prin. and Fitz.; italics deleted in B&S]

<Weep thou>Watch thou Prin. Tomorrow/To-morrow Fitz. 2 <Or even, art sure>Or art thou

sure Prin. 3 His word/God’s word Prin. 5 Now, while we speak, the sun

sets forth:/ Now while we speak, the sun

speeds forth: Prin., Fitz. Can I/can I Fitz.

7 Perchance, even at this moment kindleth/ Prin.

Perchance even at this moment quickeneth/ Fitz.

Even at this moment haply quickeneth

10 that which/all that Prin., Fitz. 11 <weep>watch Prin.

2. Revisions in proof: 1 [italics deleted] Proof State 2 2 <tomorrow>to-morrow Proof

State 2, Prin. 5 <sun sets forth>sun speeds

forth Proof State 2, Prin. Can I/can I Proof State 2, Prin.

Text and Notes 171

7 <Perchance even at this moment quickeneth>

Even at this moment haply quickeneth Proof State 12, Prin.

<The moment>This moment Proof State 14

[This misprint, introduced into Proof State 14, ran through four

eds; DGR, having corrected it in his annotated copy of the second ed., wrote Ellis 23 Jul 70 asking that the correction be made in the fifth ed.: it was (WEF 70.196&n1).]

10 <that which>all that Proof State 12, Prin.

III.

Think thou and act; to-morrow thou shalt die. Outstretched in the sun’s warmth upon the shore, Thou say’st: “Man’s measured path is all gone o’er:

Up all his years, steeply, with strain and sigh, 4 Man clomb until he touched the truth; and I,

Even I, am he whom it was destined for.” How should this be? Art thou then so much more

Than they who sowed, that thou shouldst reap thereby? 8

Nay, come up hither. From this wave-washed mound Unto the furthest flood-brim look with me;

Then reach on with thy thought till it be drown’d. Miles and miles distant though the last line be, 12

And though thy soul sail leagues and leagues beyond, – Still, leagues beyond those leagues, there is more sea.

Manuscripts:

(1) Princeton HL fol. 35a (2) Fitzwilliam HL fol. 88a (3) Poems: Proof States 4, 12 {Princeton}

Revisions/Variants:

1. All MSS/B&S title <Man’s Choice.3>The Choice.3/III.

Prin. 1 [italicized in Prin. and Fitz.; ital.

del. B&S] Tomorrow/To-morrow Fitz. 2 Stretching thyself i’ the sun upon

the shore,/

Outstretched in the sun’s warmth upon the shore, Prin., Fitz.

4 Up all the years, steeply, with pant and sigh,/ Prin.

Up all <the>his years, steeply, with pant and sigh,/ Fitz.

Up all his years, steeply, with strain and sigh,

172 The House of Life

5 Man clomb, until/Man clomb until Prin.

10 Unto the horizon-brim look thou with me;/

Unto the furthest flood-brim look with me; Prin., Fitz.

11 drowned./drown’d. Prin. 12 horizon/last line Prin., Fitz. 13 thought/soul Prin., Fitz.

2. Revisions in proof: 1 [italics deleted] Proof State 2 <tomorrow>to-morrow Proof

State 2, Prin. 2 <Stretching thyself i’ the sun

upon the shore,> Outstretched in the sun’s

warmth upon the shore, Proof State 12, Prin.

4 <pant>strain Proof State 4, Prin. 10 <Unto the horizon-brim look

thou with me;> Unto the furthest flood-brim

look with me; Proof State 12, Prin.

12 <horizon>grey line Proof State 12, Prin. [and thus through all eds of Poems ]

grey line/last line B&S, first ed. 13 <thought>soul Proof State 12,

Prin. [These revisions, especially in

lines 2 and 10, remove Browningesque colloquialisms, contractions and metrical bumps.]

SONNETS LXXIV., LXXV., LXXVI. OLD AND NEW ART.

I. ST. LUKE THE PAINTER.

Give honour unto Luke Evangelist; For he it was (the aged legends say) Who first taught Art to fold her hands and pray.

Scarcely at once she dared to rend the mist 4 Of devious symbols: but soon having wist

How sky-breadth and field-silence and this day Are symbols also in some deeper way,

She looked through these to God and was God’s priest. 8

And if, past noon, her toil began to irk, And she sought talismans, and turned in vain

To soulless self-reflections of man’s skill, Yet now, in this the twilight, she might still 12

Kneel in the latter grass to pray again, Ere the night cometh and she may not work.

Date of Publication: 1870, Poems (Sonnet 74 only, in ‘Sonnets for Pictures’ p. 268) Date of Composition: 1849 (dated on Huntington MS)

Text and Notes 173

Manuscripts:

(1) Huntington HM 6085a, b (2) (3) Fitzwilliam HL fols 89a, 90a (4) LC Misc. MSS 1390 (5) Poems, Proof States 6, 14 {Princeton}

Revisions/Variants:

1. The earliest version, The Mission of Luke (Hun.) reads after revision:

1 High honour unto Luke Evangelist. 2 It was this Luke (the aged

church-truths say,) 3 Who first taught Art to fold her

hands and pray. 4 Scarcely at sudden dared she

rend the mist 5 Of devious symbols: but

<now>soon having wist 6 How sky-breadth and field-

silence and this day 7 Are symbols also, a much deeper

way, 8 She <looks>looked through these

to God, and <is>was God’s priest. 9 And if, past noon, her toil

<begins>began to irk, 10 And she <seeks>sought

nostrums and <even turned>had turned (most vain!)

11 To soulless <pagan marbles> self-reflections of man’s skill, –

12 Yet now, in this the twilight, she might still

13 Kneel in <the sacred[?]>the latter grass to pray again,

14 Ere the night cometh and she may not work.

2. All MSS/B&S title The Mission of Luke./ Hun.

St. Luke the Painter./ Fitz.(1) Old and New Art. I. St. Luke the Painter/ Fitz.(2)

Sonnets LXXIV., LXXV., LXXVI. OLD AND NEW ART. I. ST. LUKE THE PAINTER..

1 High honour/Give honour Hun. 2 It was this Luke (the aged

church-truths say,)/ Hun. It was this Luke (the aged

legends say,)/ Fitz.(1) For he it was (the aged legends

say) 4 Scarcely at sudden dared she

rend/ Hun. Scarcely at once she dared to

rend 7 also, a much deeper way,/ Hun. also in a deeper way,/ Fitz.(1) also in some deeper way, 10 sought nostrums and had turned

(most vain!)/ Hun. <sought nostrums, and had

turned in vain> sought talismans, and turned in

vain/ Fitz.(1) sought talismans, and turned in

vain

3. Hun. is dated ‘1849’ at the bottom left of the text; verso, in the hand of WMR, is this note: ‘MS of D G Rossetti – Early, say 1849. WMR’.

4. This sonnet was not part of HL in Poems; it was added to the ‘Sonnets For Pictures’ section in Proof State 6 on p. 173 with this MS note written above the text of Autumn Idleness: ‘Before this put Saint Luke the Painter at page 45 of the new proofs.’ These were the so-called ‘exhumation proofs,’ Proof States 8 and 9, where this sonnet first appeared in print on p. 45; the subtitle, (For a Drawing.), was added in DGR’s hand to Proof State 14, p. 256

174 The House of Life

(Princeton), appearing in print for the first time in the first ed. The subtitle was deleted when the sonnet was transferred to HL in B&S.

This picture, once owned by Ruskin and also known as Luke Preaching, has evidently disappeared. Identified as a crayon drawing by Marillier (No. 61, p. 79), it is dated by Surtees as ‘?1857’. She states that nothing is now known about it (57). WMR comments in Works: ‘OLD AND NEW ART. – This trio of sonnets forms a manifesto – perhaps the best manifesto that it ever received in writing – of the Praeraphaelite movement, begun in the autumn of 1848. Nos. 2 and 3, were written in 1848; No. 1, in 1849. This sonnet, “St. Luke the Painter,” was intended to illustrate a picture (never painted) of St. Luke preaching, having beside him pictures, his own work, of Christ and the Virgin Mary. No. 3 was at first entitled “To the Young Painters of England, in memory of those before Raphael” – a name sufficiently savouring of the P.R.B.’ (656)

II. NOT AS THESE.

“I am not as these are,” the poet saith In youth’s pride, and the painter, among men At bay, where never pencil comes nor pen,

And shut about with his own frozen breath. 4 To others, for whom only rhyme wins faith

As poets, – only paint as painters, – then He turns in the cold silence; and again

Shrinking, “I am not as these are,” he saith. 8

And say that this is so, what follows it? For were thine eyes set backwards in thine head,

Such words were well; but they see on, and far. Unto the lights of the great Past, new-lit 12

Fair for the Future’s track, look thou instead, – Say thou instead, “I am not as these are.”

Date of Publication: 1881, B&S Date of Composition: 1847–48, Works (656)

Manuscripts:

(1) Beinecke, Tinker 1798 (2) Fredeman (3) Fitzwilliam HL fol. 91a (4) LC Misc. MSS 1390 (5) Ros. and DAM Proofs Sig. Q, p. 237, 6 May

Text and Notes 175

Revisions/Variants:

1. The earliest version is in Tinker, a bound volume titled by DGR ‘Sonnets and other short pieces, most written before 1850’; as revised, it reads: title O[ld] & N[ew] A[rt] I. St. Luke the

Painter II. <Backward for onward>Not as

These

1 “I am not as these are,” the poet saith

2 When young, and the young painter, among men

3 At bay, <where pencil cometh not nor pen,>

where pencil comes not neither pen,

4 And shut about with his own frozen breath.

5–6 <To others, whom the song just

warranteth For singers, and the paint for

painters, then> 5–6 To others, for whom <rhyme

alone yields faith>only rhyme wins faith

<Of>As singers, – paint <of>as painters, – proudly then

7 He turns in the cold silence, and again

8 Shrinking, “I am not as these are,” he saith.

9 And say that this is so, what follows it?

10 For were thine eyes set backwards in thine head,

11 These words were well; but they see on, and far.

12–13 <Unto the lamps of the strong

natures lit

Along the daily world look thou instead, –>

12–13 Unto the lights of the great Past,

new-lit Fair for the Future’s track, look

thou instead, – 14 Say thou instead, “I am not as

these are.”

2. All MSS/B&S 2 When young, and the young

painter,/ In youth’s pride, and the

painter all MSS among men/ Tink. <among men>amid men/ Fitz. amid men/ Fred., LC among men 3 where pencil cometh not nor

pen,/ Fred. where pencil comes not neither

pen,/ Tink. <where pencil comes not neither

pen,> <where neither pencil comes nor

pen> where never pencil comes nor

pen,/ Fitz. where never pencil comes nor

pen, 5 To others, whom the song just

warranteth/ Fred. To others, for whom only

rhyme wins faith 6 For singers, and the paint for

painters, then/ Fred. As singers, – paint as painters, –

proudly, then/ Tink. As singers,< – paint as painters,

–proudly, then> – only paint as painters, – then/ Fitz.

As singers, – only paint as painters, – then/ LC

As poets, – only paint as painters, – then

176 The House of Life

7 silence, and/silence; and Tink. 11 These words/ Tink., LC, Fitz. This speech/ Fred. Such words 12–13 Unto the lamps of the strong

natures lit Along the daily world look thou

instead, –/ Fred. 12–13 Unto the lights of the great Past,

new-lit

Fair for the Future’s track, look thou instead, –

3. Revisions in proof: 2 <When young, and the young

painter,> In youth’s pride, and the

painter, Ros. <Amid men>Among men DAM 6 <As singers, –>As poets, – DAM 11 <These words>Such words DAM

4. MS (2) is pencilled in interlinear fashion by WMR on p. 237 of a copy of the second ed. of B&S inscribed by DGR to the Rossetti brothers’ Aunt Charlotte Polidori, a vol. formerly in the collection of William E. Fredeman. Beneath the text, which contains alterations in lines 2, 3, 6, 7, 11, 12 and 13, WMR wrote : ‘My penciling shows the first state of this sonnet, 1848 – I gave the MS to Aldrich Dec.1903’. Charles Aldrich, a newspaper editor, archivist and autograph collector of Webster City, Iowa, corresponded regularly with WMR, in the process obtaining some DGR MSS (Peattie 465–66). These documents are now part of IHA. The earlier text that WMR restored in Aunt Charlotte’s B&S is close to but not identical with MS (1) in Beinecke. While there is no MS of Sonnet 75 in the Aldrich Collection, there is among these papers an MS note by WMR that seems to comment on Not As These and/or The Husbandmen rather than on the sonnet to which it is there affixed, On Refusal of Aid Between Nations (Works 175): ‘This must I think be the first sonnet that Gabriel wrote (apart from sonnets written to bouts rimés). It shows very clearly his condition of mind & feeling towards the date of the formation of the P.R.B. It is published in The House of Life, but with many verbal differences.’ (WMR also identified as the poet’s first sonnet his An Annunciation, dated by DGR Nov.1847, on the back of the MS formerly in the collection of Sir Paul Getty – now the Wormsley Trust).

In FLM, WMR had this to say about the Old And New Art sonnets, striking a tone similar to the one evident in his MS note in the Aldrich Collection: ‘There are three sonnets by Rossetti which belong to the early days of Praeraphaelitism, and which well deserve to be considered by persons who would like to understand that movement, and the temper in which Rossetti viewed it. ... These three sonnets testify to a highly religious (not necessarily dogmatic) view of the function of the Art, to love of the old painters, and revolt against the more modern ones, and to a modest and yet resolute desire to aid in reinstating the Art in its legitimate place. The spirit which animates the sonnets is that of a man destined to dare and do, and to overcome’ (144).

Text and Notes 177

III. THE HUSBANDMEN.

Though God, as one that is an householder, Called these to labour in his vineyard first, Before the husk of darkness was well burst

Bidding them grope their way out and bestir, 4 (Who, questioned of their wages, answered, “Sir,

Unto each man a penny:”) though the worst Burthen of heat was theirs and the dry thirst:

Though God hath since found none such as these were 8 To do their work like them: – Because of this

Stand not ye idle in the market-place. Which of ye knoweth he is not that last

Who may be first by faith and will? – yea, his 12 The hand which after the appointed days

And hours shall give a Future to their Past?

Date of Publication: 1881, B&S Date of Composition: 1848 (dated on Huntington MS; dated 1849 on Beinecke MS but 1848 in Works 656)

Manuscripts:

(1) Huntington HM 6086a (2) (3) Fitzwilliam HL fols 92a, 93a (4) Beinecke, Tinker 1798 (5) LC Misc. MSS 1390 (6) Ros. and DAM Proofs Sig. Q, p. 238, 4, 6 May

Revisions/Variants:

1. Hun. prefaces the text with the following passage copied by DGR from the Bible:

‘To the young Painters of England, (In memory of those before Raffael)

A man that was an householder went out early in the morning to hire laborers into his vineyard; and he agreed with the laborers for a penny a day ... And about the eleventh hour he went out and found others standing idle in the market-place ... and saith unto them; go ye also into the vineyard; and what-soever is right, that ye shall receive; so when even was come, they that were hired about the eleventh hour received likewise every man a penny. So the last shall be first, and the first last.

S.Matt. Ch.XX.’

178 The House of Life

2. All MSS/B&S title To the young Painters of England, (In memory of those before Raffael)/ Hun. Old and New/ Fitz.(1) Old and New Art III. The Husbandmen./ Fitz.(2),

Tink., LC III. The Husbandmen. 4 bestir:/bestir, Hun. 6 penny”:/penny:” Hun., Fitz.(1) 7 theirs, and/theirs and Hun. 8 were,/were Hun. 10 market-place:/market-place. Hun. 11 knoweth, he/knoweth he Hun.,

Fitz.(1), Tink. 12 that his/ Hun. that his/ Tink.,

Fitz.(1) <that his>yea, his/ yea, his

Fitz.(2) 13–14 Is not the hand which, after the

set days, Shall give a Future to their

<stately>goodly Past?/ Hun. 13–14 Is not the hand which, after the

set <days,>days <Shall give a future to their

goodly past?> And hours, shall give a future to

their past?/ Fitz.(1)

13–14 Is not the hand which after the

set days And hours shall give a future to

their past?/ Tink. 13–14 <Is not the hand which, after the

set days> The hand which after the

appointed days And hours shall give a Future to

their Past?/ Fitz.(2) The hand which after the

appointed days And hours shall give a Future to

their Past?

3. Revisions in proof: 2 WMR capitalized ‘His’ in his eds

of 1886, 1904 and 1911, without MS authority.

6 WMR red-pencilled ‘penny:” ‘ on his copy of the 4 May DAM proofs, saying ‘I shd. write “: ‘, which form DGR had used in Hun. and Fitz.(1), but he did not restore it in B&S. WMR used his own preferred reading in 1886 and 1904 but reverted to the B&S reading in Works.

8 WMR replaced ‘hath’ with ‘has’ in his eds of 1886, 1904 and 1911, without MS authority

10 <market-place,>market-place. Ros., DAM 6 May

Text and Notes 179

SONNET LXXVII. SOUL’S BEAUTY.

Under the arch of Life, where love and death, Terror and mystery, guard her shrine, I saw Beauty enthroned; and though her gaze struck awe,

I drew it in as simply as my breath. 4 Hers are the eyes which, over and beneath,

The sky and sea bend on thee, – which can draw, By sea or sky or woman, to one law,

The allotted bondman of her palm and wreath. 8

This is that Lady Beauty, in whose praise Thy voice and hand shake still, – long known to thee

By flying hair and fluttering hem, – the beat Following her daily of thy heart and feet, 12

How passionately and irretrievably, In what fond flight, how many ways and days!

Date of Publication: 1868, Notes on the Royal Academy Exhibition, 48 1870, Poems (‘Sonnets for Pictures and

Other Sonnets’ 270) Date of Composition: 1866 (DGRDW 55–56)

Letter:

DGR to ?George Rae, [May 66] (WEF 66.90.1,Vol. VI) : The oil Sibylla Palmifera (S.193, Pl. 285) was painted between 1866–70 from Alexa Wilding for DGR’s patron Rae, to whom he explained this title as marking ‘the leading place which I intend her to hold among my beauties’ (WEF 66.6). When he sent the canvas to be enlarged in May 1866, he wrote: ‘I have somewhat extended my idea of the picture, and have written a sonnet (which I subjoin and shall have put on the frame) to embody the conception – that of Beauty the Palm-giver, i.e., the Principle of Beauty, which draws all high-toned men to itself, whether with the aim of embodying it in art, or only of attaining its enjoyment in life’ (quoted DGRDW 55–56). The sonnet was never inscribed on the frame (see WEF 70.277&n1 and 73.330).

Manuscripts:

(1) DAM Box 22: not in PFB 3) (2) Fitzwilliam HL fol. 94a (3) Poems Proof State 2 {Princeton} (4) Fitzwilliam HL fol. 9a

180 The House of Life

Revisions/Variants:

1. All MSS/B&S title Sibylla Palmifera./ DAM, Notes on R.A. Sibylla Palmifera. (For a Picture.)/ Fitz.(1), Poems all

eds Soul’s Beauty 1 life,/Life all MSS, Notes on R.A. 7 Through sea/By sea DAM 13 <unappeasably>irretrievably Fitz.

2. Revisions in proof: 1 <life>Life Proof State 2, Prin. 14 [DGR wrote his publisher Ellis 18

May 70 (WEF 70.160) to complain that ‘In’ had fallen out of this line in the second ed., though it was

in place for the first; this error was corrected in the third ed.]

3. DAM Box 43 contains pages from the seventh ed. of Poems (1873) used as printer’s copy for the two vols of 1881; on p. 270 DGR has marked this sonnet for deletion from the ‘Sonnets for Pictures’ section. It was then moved to HL.

4. On MS (4), which contains a fair copy of Sonnet 5, DGR has written, in a nearly-obliterated pencil note, ‘Palmifera and Lilith to be called Soul’s Beauty and Body’s Beauty.’

5. WMR noted that the appearance of Sonnets 77–78 in 1868 marked ‘the first move towards poetic publicity which had been made by Dante Rossetti since the death of his wife’ (Works 656). Arguing against WBS’s attempt to take credit for rekindling DGR’s interest in writing poetry when he feared he could no longer paint because of failing eyesight, WMR notes that his brother had resumed his career as a poet before he visited Penkill Castle: ‘[I]n the spring of 1868 Rossetti had already made an appearance in public print as a poet; introducing, into a pamphlet-review of pictures of that year [Notes on the Royal Academy Exhibition], three sonnets recently written for paintings of his own – Lady Lilith, Sibylla Palmifera, and Venus Verticordia. The two former have since been entitled Body’s Beauty and Soul’s Beauty. This pamphlet-review was the joint work of Mr. Swinburne and myself, and the sonnets were inserted in Mr. Swinburne’s section of the publication. I can remember that the issuing of these sonnets was done with some definite idea of following them up by other public appearances in verse, and therefore the conception of “living for his poetry” was decidedly in Rossetti’s mind before he went to Penkill in September 1868. The publication in the spring of 1868 was a sort of feeler, leading on to the printing of several sonnets in the Fortnightly Review for March 1869’ (FLM 270–1).

Text and Notes 181

SONNET LXXVIII. BODY’S BEAUTY.

Of Adam’s first wife, Lilith, it is told (The witch he loved before the gift of Eve,) That, ere the snake’s, her sweet tongue could deceive,

And her enchanted hair was the first gold. 4 And still she sits, young while the earth is old,

And, subtly of herself contemplative, Draws men to watch the bright web she can weave,

Till heart and body and life are in its hold. 8

The rose and poppy are her flowers; for where Is he not found, O Lilith, whom shed scent

And soft-shed kisses and soft sleep shall snare? Lo! as that youth’s eyes burned at thine, so went 12 Thy spell through him, and left his straight neck bent

And round his heart one strangling golden hair.

Date of Publication: 1868, Notes on the Royal Academy Exhibition 47 1870, Poems (‘Sonnets for Pictures and Other Sonnets’ 269) Date of Composition: 1864–65 (DGRDW 145 & 293)

MS Source:

Duke Notebook I [not printed in PFB 1)]: ‘LILITH

from Goëthe

Hold thou thy heart against her shining hair, If, by thy fate, she spread it once for thee; For when she nets a young man in that snare, So twines she him he never may be free.’

WMR prints these lines in Works (541) as DGR’s translation from the Brocken-scene in Faust, done while ‘my brother was projecting his picture of Lilith towards 1866’ (Works 679).

In 1869 DGR completed his ballad Eden Bower, in which Lilith speaks these lines:

182 The House of Life

‘All the threads of my hair are golden, And there in a net his [Adam’s] heart was holden.’

[stanza 6, lines 3–4]

Compare also Sonnet 1, Love Enthroned, lines 5–8.

Letter: DGR to T.G. Hake, 21 Apr 70 (WEF 70.110):

‘You ask me about Lilith – I suppose referring to the picture-sonnet. The picture [S.205, Pl. 293] is called Lady Lilith by rights (only I thought this wd present a difficulty in print without paint to explain it,) and represents a modern Lilith combing out her abundant golden hair & gazing on herself in the glass with that self-absorption by whose strange fascination such natures draw others within their own circle. The idea you indicate (viz: of the perilous principle in the world being female from the first) is about the most essential notion of the sonnet. I am glad you like Eden Bower.’

Manuscripts:

(1) Printed version (purportedly transcribed from picture-frame of S.205) in F.G. Stephens 1894: 68 (2) Fitzwilliam HL fol. 95a (3) Written on the frame of Lady Lilith (S. 205. pl. 293), oil painting in the Bancroft Collection, DAM and printed with the picture in Surtees {see WEF 66.74n1} (4) Fitzwilliam HL fol. 9a (5) Poems, Proof State 2 {Princeton} (6) DAM and Ros. Proofs Sig. Q, p. 240, 4, 6, 9 May.

Revisions/Variants:

1. All MSS/B&S title Lady Lilith./ Notes on R.A., DAM <Lady>Lilith<(For a Picture)>/ Body’s Beauty Fitz.(1) 2 Eve)/ Notes on R.A. Eve),/ Stephens Eve,) 6 by herself/of herself Stephens 7 net/web all MSS 9 Rose, foxglove, poppy, are her

<flowers. And where>flowers: for where/ Fitz.(1)

Rose, foxglove, poppy, are her flowers: for where/ Notes on R.A., DAM

9 The rose and poppy are her flowers; for where

11 soft-shed fingers/soft-shed kisses Fitz.(1), Notes on R.A., DAM

soft-shed sleep/soft sleep Stephens 13 bent,/bent Notes on R.A.

2. Revisions in proof: title Lilith. (For a Picture.) Poems – all editions [untitled in early proof states of HL section in B&S; title Body’s Beauty added by DGR on DAM 4 May, Ros. 6 May] 7 <net>web DAM 9 May 9 <Rose, foxglove, poppy, are her

flowers:> <Roses and poppies> The rose and poppy are her

flowers; Proof State 2, Prin. 11 <soft-shed fingers>soft-shed

kisses Proof State 2, Prin. 13 <bent,>bent DAM 6 May

Text and Notes 183

3. Harry Buxton Forman, one of the earliest critics to write sympatheti-cally about DGR’s sonnets, preferred the painterly and fleshly qualities of Lady Lilith before it got revised in proof to become Lilith: ‘In substitut-ing at a later time “the rose and poppy” for “rose, foxglove, poppy,” and “soft-shed kisses” for “soft-shed fingers”, the poet doubtless followed a delicate as well as an artistic bent; but it is questionable whether the changes do not rob the sonnet of some pictorial beauty on the one hand, and on the other of some of its masculine force in embodying a type of sensuous beauty as distinct from spiritual beauty’ (Forman 1871: 202–3). It is interesting to note Forman’s perception of a contrast here between sensuous and spiritual beauty ten years before DGR retitled these sonnets and added them to HL as 77 and 78 in order to emphasize such a contrast (see Note 5. below).

4. DAM Box 44 contains pages from the seventh ed. of Poems (1873) used

as printer’s copy for the two volumes of 1881; on p. 269 DGR has marked this sonnet for deletion from the ‘Sonnets for Pictures’ section. It was then moved to HL.

5. On MS (4), which contains a fair copy of Sonnet 5, DGR has written, in a nearly-obliterated pencil note, ‘Palmifera and Lilith to be called Soul’s Beauty and Body’s Beauty.’

6. In RP, WMR printed an MS sent to DGR by Ponsonby Lyons dated 18 Nov 69; containing several paragraphs of curious lore about Talmudic and other legends of Lilith, it had evidently been prepared at the poet’s request (483–86). The sonnet and painting resonate with significance for Decadence, Symbolism and Art Nouveau. Begun in 1864 with Fanny Cornforth as the model and completed for Leyland in 1868, it was repainted with Alexa Wilding’s face in 1872–73 (see Allan and Page Life’s Appendix 3 on AW as DGR’s model in WEF Vol VI).

184 The House of Life

SONNET LXXIX. THE MONOCHORD.

Is it this sky’s vast vault or ocean’s sound That is Life’s self and draws my life from me, And by instinct ineffable decree

Holds my breath quailing on the bitter bound? 4 Nay, is it Life or Death, thus thunder-crown’d,

That ‘mid the tide of all emergency Now notes my separate wave, and to what sea

Its difficult eddies labour in the ground? 8

Oh! what is this that knows the road I came, The flame turned cloud, the cloud returned to flame,

The lifted shifted steeps and all the way? – That draws round me at last this wind-warm space, 12 And in regenerate rapture turns my face

Upon the devious coverts of dismay?

Date of Publication: 1870, Poems (‘Sonnets for Pictures and Other Sonnets’ 282) Date of Composition: 1870, Poems, Proof State 15

Letter:

DGR to ACS [22 Mar] 70 (WEF 70.64): ‘I ... have written just a sheet of new matter for my book, which is gone to the printer, and shall reach you as soon as I have a revise. It consists chiefly of “The Stream’s Secret”. ... there are a few new Sonnets too – .’ DGR here refers to Proof State 15 of Poems, a single printer’s sheet of 16 pages containing The Stream’s Secret, paged 1–12 on this sheet, followed by four sonnets to be added to HL and ‘Sonnets for Pictures’ sections: The Monochord appears at the end of the latter section on p. 282 (p. 16 on this sheet). See notes to Sonnets 11, The Love-Letter and 21, Love-Sweetness above.

Manuscripts:

(1) Bodleian Eng. poet. d. 44 fol. 7 (2) Poems Proof State 15: BL {Ashley 1404, Add. MSS 45353}; {Princeton} (3) Beinecke Tauchnitz (4) B&S Proofs Sig. R, p. 241: Beinecke {Tinker}, Ros., DAM 5, 9, 10 May.

Text and Notes 185

Revisions/Variants:

1. Bod. is the only complete MS version:

DuringMusic 1 Is it the moved air or the moving

sound 2 That is Life’s self and draws my

life from me, 3 And by instinct ineffable decree 4 Holds my breath quailing on the

bitter bound? 5 Surely an imminent visage, from

some mound 6 Watching the tide of all

emergency 7 Now notes my separate wave,

and to what sea 8 Its difficult eddies labour

underground. 9 And what is this that knows the

road I came 10 The flame turned cloud, the cloud

returned to flame, 11 The lifted shifted steeps and all the

way? – 12 That enters with me now the

wind-warm space, 13 And in regenerate rapture turns

my face 14 Upon the devious coverts of

dismay?

2. Bod./B&S title During Music./The Monochord. 1 Is it the moved air or the moving

sound/ Is it this sky’s vast vault or

ocean’s sound [No MS authority was found for

this revision] 5–6 Surely an imminent visage, from

some mound Watching the tide of all

emergency,/

5–6 Nay, is it Life or Death, thus

thunder- crown’d, That ‘mid the tide of all

emergency 8 underground./in the ground? 9 And what/Oh! what 12 That enters with me now the

wind-warm space,/ That draws round me at last

this wind- warm space,

3. Revisions in proof: title The Monochord. (Written during Music.)/ Poems Proof State 15, all eds The Monochord1<(Written during Music)> [below text] 1‘That sublimated mood of the soul in which a separate essence of itself seems as it were to <permeate>oversoar and survey it.’/ [on p. 282 of Tauchnitz DGR has deleted the subtitle and written the note above the text; on p. 241 of the first proofs of B&S the note was printed as footnote 1 beneath the text, the footnote number appearing in superscript beside the title. On the Ros. (5 May) and Tinker (9 May) proofs, DGR deleted the footnote. On the Tinker (9 May) and DAM (10 May) proofs, the superscript 1 following the title was deleted, the title thus becoming, simply, The Monochord. In the fifth and sixth eds of Poems, the period following the title was omitted; it was restored in the seventh ed.] 12 <spreads round me>draws round

me Proof State 15, BL Add.MSS

4. Instructions written on proofs: ‘To come last in the book’ Prin.; ‘Comes last in the book’ Ash. 1404;

186 The House of Life

‘I have had no revise of this sheet [Sig. R] as yet. I now send on a second proof with further changes in it.’ Ros.

5. DAM Box 44 contains the Tauchnitz p. 282 on which DGR deleted this sonnet in order to move it into HL.

SONNET LXXX. FROM DAWN TO NOON.

As the child knows not if his mother’s face Be fair; nor of his elders yet can deem What each most is; but as of hill or stream

At dawn, all glimmering life surrounds his place: 4 Who yet, tow’rd noon of his half-weary race,

Pausing awhile beneath the high sun-beam And gazing steadily back, – as through a dream,

In things long past new features now can trace: – 8

Even so the thought that is at length fullgrown Turns back to note the sun-smit paths, all grey

And marvellous once, where first it walked alone; And haply doubts, amid the unblenching day, 12 Which most or least impelled its onward way, –

Those unknown things or these things overknown.

Date of Publication: 1881, B&S Date of Composition: 1871, WEF 71.153

Letter:

DGR to T.G. Hake, 22 Sep 71 (WEF 71.153): ‘I have some sonnets lying under my eye & will copy one instead of tearing off the last leaf of this note.’ DGR enclosed a fair copy of From Dawn to Noon.

Manuscripts:

(1) DAM Box 22 {PFB 3): 55} (2) Fitzwilliam HL fol. 97a (3) Bodleian Eng. poet. d. 43 fol. 70b (4) Princeton HL fol. 37a (5) WEF 71.153 (6) DAM and Ros. Proofs, Sig. R, pp. 242–43, 5, 9, 10 May

Revisions/Variants:

1. DAM/B&S 4 <the glimmering> all glimmering 9 Thought/thought

<the Thought that knows its[?]> the Thought that is at length fullgrown/

the thought that is at length fullgrown

Text and Notes 187

10 <distant paths, so grey> sun-smit paths, all grey 13 <availed>impelled

2. Revisions in proof: 14 <these things>those things [then

‘o’ cancelled, ‘these’ marked ‘stet’ DAM, Ros. May 5]

3. In DAM 5 May, DGR changed the sonnet number from 80 to 81; in the DAM proof of 9 May it appeared as

81 on p. 243, having been inter-changed with 84, Farewell to the Glen (appearing on p. 243 in DAM 5 May) but in the DAM proof of 10 May it reappears as sonnet 80 on p. 242; in the 10 May proof Farewell to the Glen appears on p. 246 as 84 with Memorial Thresholds printed on p. 243 as 81 (see note 3. under 81).

4. WEF 71.53 is identical with B&S.

SONNET LXXXI. MEMORIAL THRESHOLDS.

What place so strange, – though unrevealèd snow With unimaginable fires arise At the earth’s end, – what passion of surprise

Like frost-bound fire-girt scenes of long ago? 4 Lo! this is none but I this hour; and lo!

This is the very place which to mine eyes Those mortal hours in vain immortalize,

‘Mid hurrying crowds, with what alone I know. 8

City, of thine a single simple door, By some new Power reduplicate, must be Even yet my life-porch in eternity,

Even with one presence filled, as once of yore: 12 Or mocking winds whirl round a chaff-strown floor

Thee and thy years and these my words and me.

Date of Publication: 1881, B&S Date of Composition: 1873, Works

MS Source:

Ashley Notebooks 1410 (BL) Notebook No. 1, p. 40 ‘As when a man whose brain is all on flame Out of himself with wonder of new woe Looks round upon all things he yet doth know And on a [?dear dead face...the same]’

188 The House of Life

Letter:

DGR to Mrs. Alexander Gilchrist, 15 Jan 62 (WEF 62.9): In offering his sympathy to Ann Gilchrist on the untimely death of her husband, the first biographer of William Blake, DGR expressed something of the thought which may be found in the sestet of this sonnet:

‘[S]uch terrible partings from love and work must be – unless all things are a mere empty husk of nothing – a guide to belief in a new field of effort and a second communion with those loved & lost.’

Manuscripts:

(1) DAM Box 22 {PFB 3): 55–56} (2) Bodleian Eng. poet. d. 43 fol. 69b (3) Fitzwilliam HL fol. 98a (4) LC Misc. MSS 1390 (5) DAM and Ros. Proofs Sig. R, pp. 243, 246, 5, 9, 10 May

Revisions/Variants:

All MSS/B&S title <A Street Corner><The Gate of Memory> <Stations> <Memorial Thresholds> Memory’s Threshold/ Memorial Thresholds DAM Sonnet LXXXIV/Sonnet LXXXI LC 1 <unconjectured>unimagined

snow/ DAM unimagined snow/ Bod. <unimagined><unrecorded>

unrevealèd snow/ Fitz. unrevealèd snow 4 <?Like the strange scenes from

silent long ago?> Like frost-bound fire-girt scenes

of long ago?/ Like frost-bound fire-girt

scenes of long ago? DAM 7 <The>Those DAM 10 power/ DAM, Bod., Fitz. <power>Power/Power LC 12 <With one lost figure filled,>

Even with one figure filled,/ DAM Even with one figure filled,/ Bod. <Even with the presence filled

which once it bore.>

Even with one <figure>presence filled, as once of yore:/ Fitz.

Even with one presence filled, as once of yore:

13 <Or shall <<some wind>>the winds whirl round for evermore>

<Or let the vain winds whirl for evermore>

Or mocking winds whirl round a chaff-strown floor Fitz

2. Revisions in proof: 13 <chaff-strewn>chaff-strown

DAM 5 May

3. In the DAM and Ros. Proofs of 5 May this is 84 on p. 246 and Farewell to the Glen is 81 on p. 243. In DAM 5 May DGR wrote on p. 243, ’Inter-change this sonnet & the preceding’ i.e. From Dawn to Noon (see note 3 for Sonnet 80). In the Ros. Proofs of 5 May DGR wrote on p. 243, ‘Interchange with Sonnet 84 page 246’ and on p. 246 he wrote ‘back to 243’. In the DAM proof of 10 May these sonnets appeared in the B&S order: 80 on p. 242, 81 on p. 243 and 84 on p. 246.

Text and Notes 189

SONNET LXXXII. HOARDED JOY.

I said: “Nay, pluck not, – let the first fruit be: Even as thou sayest, it is sweet and red, But let it ripen still. The tree’s bent head

Sees in the stream its own fecundity 4 And bides the day of fulness. Shall not we

At the sun’s hour that day possess the shade, And claim our fruit before its ripeness fade,

And eat it from the branch and praise the tree?” 8

I say: “Alas! our fruit hath wooed the sun Too long, – ’tis fallen and floats adown the stream.

Lo, the last clusters! Pluck them every one, And let us sup with summer; ere the gleam 12

Of autumn set the year’s pent sorrow free, And the woods wail like echoes from the sea.”

Date of Publication: 1870, Poems Date of Composition: 1869, Poems Proof State 3

Manuscripts:

(1) LC Misc. MSS 1390 (2) Princeton HL fol. 38a (3) Fitzwilliam HL fol. 99a (4) Poems, Proof States 3, 4, 6 {Princeton}

Revisions/Variants:

1. LC is evidently the earliest version: before revision it read:

Tree and Stream I said: Not so, but let the young fruit be: Even as thou sayest, it is ripe and red But yet shall ripen richlier. The tree’s head Notes in the stream its own fecundity And bides the hour of fulness. Shall not we, In other hours of sweet consummate shade

Still eat our fruit before the summer fade And sit among the boughs and praise the tree? I say: Alas! the fruit that met the sun Has hung too long and floats adown the stream. Lo, the last clusters! Pluck them every one, Nor lose one summer’s savour. For the gleam Of autumn bids the drowsy forest dream Of the sea’s sorrow and wail in unison.

190 The House of Life

2. LC (revised)/Prin. title Tree and Stream/<Tree and Stream> <Joy Deferred>Joy Delayed 1 [LC has no quotation marks in

lines 1 and 14; Prin. has them as in B&S]

2 <ripe>sweet/sweet 3 <But yet shall ripen richlier. The

tree’s head> But it shall ripen still. The tree’s

bent head/ Yet it shall ripen still. The tree’s

bent head 4 Notes/Sees 5 <hour of>day of/day of 6 <In<<other>><<later>>

<<fuller>> <<longer>>hours of sweet consummate shade>

At heat’s high hour in close consummate shade/

At heat’s high hour that day possess the shade,

7 Still <eat><taste><pluck>claim our fruit before the summer fade/

And claim our fruit before its ripeness fade,

8 <sit among the boughs>eat it from the branch/

eat it from the branch 9–10 the fruit that <met>wooed the sun Has hung too long and floats

adown the stream./ <the>our fruit hath wooed the

sun Too long, – ’tis fallen and floats

adown the stream. 12–14 12 <Nor lose one summer’s savour.

For the gleam 13 Of autumn bids the drowsy

forest dream 14 Of the <<wind’s>>sea’s sorrow

and wail in unison.>

12 <And taste one summer’s savour.>

And let us sup with summer, ere the gleam

13 <Of autumn bid the drowsy forest dream>

13 <Of reddening branches set the swallows free>

13 Of autumn set the year’s pent sorrow free

14 And the <wood wails with>woods wail like echoes of the sea./

12 And let us sup with summer; ere the gleam

13 Of autumn set the year’s pent sorrow free,

14 And the woods wail like echoes of the sea.”

[below the text in Prin. lines 12–14 appear, uncancelled, as they did before being revised in LC]

3. Prin./Fitz. title <Tree and Stream><Joy Deferred> Joy Delayed/ <Tree and Stream><Joy Postponed> <Joy Reserved><Hoarded Joy>Joy Delayed 2 sayest;/sayest, 3 Yet it shall ripen still./But let it

ripen still. 6 At heat’s high hour/<At heat’s

high hour> At the sun’s hour 7 fade,/fade 9 <the fruit>our fruit/our fruit 14 of the sea/<of the sea>from the

sea [below the text in Fitz. lines 12–14 appear, uncancelled, as in Prin.

4. Fitz./B&S 7 fade/fade,

Text and Notes 191

5. Revisions in proof: title <Joy Delayed.>Hoarded Joy Proof State 4, Prin. [added as ‘Joy Delayed’ at p. 86] 1 <be>be: Proof State 6, Prin. 3 <Yet it shall>But let it Proof State

4, Prin. 6 <heat’s high hour>the sun’s

hour Proof State 4, Prin. 14 <of the sea>from the sea Proof

State 4, Prin.

These revisions repay close study, especially in lines 12–14, a powerful conclusion which became possible to the poet only when he dropped his usual rhyme scheme in the sestet for the classic Shakespearean form.

6. Above the text of Vain Virtues (85) in Proof State 3, DGR has written, ‘before this MS print Tree and Stream.’

SONNET LXXXIII. BARREN SPRING.

Once more the changed year’s turning wheel returns: And as a girl sails balanced in the wind, As now before and now again behind

Stoops as it swoops, with cheek that laughs and burns, – 4 So Spring comes merry towards me here, but earns

No answering smile from me, whose life is twin’d With the dead boughs that winter still must bind,

And whom to-day the Spring no more concerns. 8

Behold, this crocus is a withering flame; This snowdrop, snow; this apple-blossom’s part To breed the fruit that breeds the serpent’s art.

Nay, for these Spring-flowers, turn thy face from them, 12 Nor stay till on the year’s last lily-stem

The white cup shrivels round the golden heart.

Date of Publication: 1870, Poems Date of Composition: 1870, Works

Letters:

(1) DGR to ACS [22 Mar] 70 (WEF 70.64): ‘I . . . have just written a sheet of new matter for my book, which is gone to the printer, and shall reach you as soon as I have a revise. It consists chiefly of “The Stream’s Secret” . . . there are a few new Sonnets too’. DGR here refers to Proof State 15 of Poems, a single printer’s sheet of 16 pages

192 The House of Life

containing The Stream’s Secret, paged 1–12 on this sheet, followed by four sonnets to be added to HL and ‘Sonnets for Pictures’ sections: Barren Spring appears as Sonnet XXXIV in HL (p. 14 on this sheet). See notes above on Sonnet 11, The Love-Letter.

(2) DGR to F.S. Ellis [1 Jun] 70 (WEF 70.171): ‘I see you’ve got into the 3rd edition! . ... I ought to tell you that I find stops dropped out repeatedly in the 2nd edn – and in one instance – page 222 [Barren Spring] – a full-stop at the end of line 12, where the 1st ed. rightly has a comma! How can such a vile blunder as this take place? Before the 3rd thousand is issued, (whenever that may be,) these things will have to be set right.’ By the ‘3rd thousand’ DGR means the fifth and sixth eds, in which the blunder was corrected as part of a resetting (see the analysis of the ‘editions’ of Poems in Appendix Three).

Manuscripts:

(1) Poems: (i) Proof State 14 {Princeton} (ii) Proof State 15 (BL, Ashley 1404; Princeton; Huntington) (iii) second ed. (DGR’s signed, annotated copy at Princeton)

Revisions/Variants:

1. Revisions in proof: 1 So now/Once more Poems,

second ed. 5 <now>here [see WEF 70.196] 12 <them.>them, [see WEF 70.171

& 196] [These changes in lines 5 and 12

were marked by DGR in his annotated copy of Poems second ed., but did not appear in print until the fifth ed. which, along with the sixth ed., made up what he called the ‘third thousand.’]

13 gaze/stay Poems {1873}, seventh ed.

2. Instructions written on proofs: ‘Before this print Barren Spring’ Proof State 14, Prin., p. 208 (The Choice I) ‘To come before The Choice page 208’ Proof State 15, Prin. ‘House of Life’ Proof State 15, Hun. ‘Comes in The House of Life after The Hill Summit’ Proof State 15, Ash. 1404

Text and Notes 193

SONNET LXXXIV. FAREWELL TO THE GLEN.

Sweet stream-fed glen, why say “farewell” to thee Who far’st so well and find’st for ever smooth The brow of Time where man may read no ruth?

Nay, do thou rather say “farewell” to me, 4 Who now fare forth in bitterer fantasy

Than erst was mine where other shade might soothe By other streams, what while in fragrant youth

The bliss of being sad made melancholy. 8

And yet, farewell! For better shalt thou fare When children bathe sweet faces in thy flow

And happy lovers blend sweet shadows there In hours to come, than when an hour ago 12

Thine echoes had but one man’s sighs to bear And thy trees whispered what he feared to know.

Date of Publication: 1870, Poems (‘Sonnets for Pictures and Other Sonnets’ 281) Date of Composition: 1869 (WEF 69.186)

Letter:

DGR to Miss Losh 19 Oct 69 (WEF 69.186): The poet had enclosed the current version of his poems (probably Proof State 7):

‘There are a good many new Sonnets in these sheets, and some which I hope may please you. The “Farewell to the Glen” towards the end, I wrote the day before I left Penkill [18 Sep 69]. On reading it over at home I thought it very dismal but still it would have been a pity to exclude it.’

Manuscripts:

(1) Fitzwilliam HL fol. 101a (2) Poems Proof State 7 {Princeton} (3) B&S Proofs Sig. R: Beinecke (Tinker), Ros., DAM 5, 9, 10 May

194 The House of Life

Revisions/Variants:

1. All MSS/B&S 5 <For I>Who now Fitz. 6–7 Than when, where other trees

might shade and soothe By other streams in fragrant

days of youth,/ 6–7 Than erst was mine where other

shade might soothe By other streams, what while in

fragrant youth Fitz. 14 <breeze>trees Fitz.

[On Fitz. DGR wrote, then cancelled ‘print this after The Landmark page 84’; then he wrote ‘print this after Autumn Idleness page 156’. This pagination refers to Proof State 4. In Proof State 7 this sonnet appeared after Autumn Idleness in the ‘Sonnets for Pictures’ section on p. 174. In B&S, both poems became part of HL, Autumn Idleness as 69 and Farewell to the Glen as 84.]

2. Revisions in proof: 6–7 <Than when, where other trees

might shade and soothe By other streams in fragrant

days of youth,>

6–7 Than<once>erst was mine where

other <trees>shade might soothe By other streams, what while in

fragrant youth Proof State 7, Prin. 9 <yet farewell!>yet,farewell

Proof State 7, Prin.

3. Instructions written on B&S proofs: ‘Interchange this sonnet and the preceding’ [From Dawn to Noon] DAM 5 May ‘Interchange with Sonnet 84 – page 246’ [Memorial Thresholds] Ros. 5 May [In the 5 May proof this sonnet was 81 on p. 243; 9 May it was 80 on p. 242; 10 May it was 84 on p. 246. See notes above on Sonnets 80–1]

4. While at Penkill Castle in Ayrshire, DGR loved to retreat to a glen and cave by the ‘brown-pooled, birch-banked Penwhapple’ stream, which flowed through the Penkill grounds on its way to Girvan Water. This locale inspired his 1869 poems The Stream’s Secret and Farewell to the Glen. There is a sketch by WBS in AN depicting the poet composing verse in Bennan’s Cave, named for a seventeenth-century Covenanter (2:114–15; see also Works 659).

Text and Notes 195

SONNET LXXXV. VAIN VIRTUES.

What is the sorriest thing that enters Hell? None of the sins, – but this and that fair deed Which a soul’s sin at length could supersede.

These yet are virgins, whom death’s timely knell 4 Might once have sainted; whom the fiends compel

Together now, in snake-bound shuddering sheaves Of anguish, while the pit’s pollution leaves

Their refuse maidenhood abominable. 8

Night sucks them down, the tribute of the pit, Whose names, half entered in the book of Life,

Were God’s desire at noon. And as their hair And eyes sink last, the Torturer deigns no whit 12

To gaze, but, yearning, waits his destined wife, The Sin still blithe on earth that sent them there.

Date of Publication: Poems Date of Composition: March 1869, WMR’s MS Diary

MS Source:

WMR Diary Entry: 18 Mar 69: ‘Gabriel has done two new sonnets – Pandora (for his picture now in progress) and Vain Virtues’ (RP 386).

Manuscripts:

(1) (2) Fitzwilliam HL fols 102a, 103a (3) Princeton HL fol. 39a

Revisions/Variants:

1. All MSS/B&S number <XXXIX>LXXXV Fitz.(2) 2–3 <Not one of all the sins, but each

fair deed, Long firm, which sin at length

could supersede.> 2–3 None of the sins, but this and

that fair deed

Which a soul’s sin at length could supersede. Fitz.(1)

6 <shapely quivering sheaves><close-drawn>snake-bound shuddering sheaves Fitz.(1)

7 <scorching bridegroom>pit’s pollution Fitz.(2)

9 <garbage>tribute Fitz.(2) 11–12 <And as the fair

196 The House of Life

Fouled witches sink> 11–12 And as their hair And eyes sink Fitz.(1) 13 <worthier>destined Fitz.(2)

2. Prin. is a fair copy identical with B&S. Fitz.(2) is p. 227 from the

seventh ed. of Poems {1873}; this page was detached and marked by DGR in ink and pencil as printer’s copy for B&S. Many readers have found that the 1870–73 readings in lines 7, 9 and 13 make the sonnet more powerful.

SONNET LXXXVI. LOST DAYS.

The lost days of my life until to-day, What were they, could I see them on the street Lie as they fell? Would they be ears of wheat

Sown once for food but trodden into clay? 4 Or golden coins squandered and still to pay?

Or drops of blood dabbling the guilty feet? Or such spilt water as in dreams must cheat

The undying throats of Hell, athirst alway? 8

I do not see them here; but after death God knows I know the faces I shall see,

Each one a murdered self, with low last breath. “I am thyself, – what hast thou done to me?” 12

“And I – and I – thyself,” (lo! each one saith,) “And thou thyself to all eternity!”

Dates of Publication: 1863, A Welcome (London: Emily Faithfull):118; Jones 1866:129; 1869, FR, March (Sonnet XII); 1870, Poems Date of Composition: ?1858–62, DGRDW 293, Works

Letter:

DGR to HC 12 Mar 80 (WEF 80.86): ‘Pardon an egoistic sentence (in answer to what you say so generously of Lost Days) if I express an opinion that Known in Vain [65] and Stillborn Love [55] may perhaps be said to head the series [HL] in value, though Lost Days might be equally a favourite with me if I did not remember in what but too appropriate juncture it was wrung out of me.’ Lacking any specific evidence to date this sonnet exactly, we may

speculate that the ‘too appropriate juncture’ occurred soon after the death of

Text and Notes 197

DGR’s wife, EES, in February 1862. However, according to bibliographer W.F. Prideaux, this sonnet was written before Lizzie’s death, but was not among those unique MSS placed by DGR in her coffin, since CGR had a copy she probably sent to Emily Faithfull in 1863 (Prideaux 1904: 464).

Manuscripts:

(1) Fitzwilliam HL fol. 104a (2) DAM and Ros. Proofs of B&S Sig. R, p. 248, 5 May

Revisions/Variants:

1. All MSS/B&S 2 Where were/What were Jones 5 but still/and still Jones 8 throats of men in hell who thirst

alway?/ Jones <throats of men in Hell, who

thirst alway?>

The undying throats of Hell, athirst alway? FR, Ros., DAM

11 last low/low last Jones 12 thyself/thyself, Jones me?”–/me?” Fitz. 13 saith/saith, Jones

thyself!”/thyself,” Fitz. 14 eternity.”/eternity!” Fitz., Jones

SONNET LXXXVII. DEATH’S SONGSTERS.

When first that horse, within whose populous womb The birth was death, o’ershadowed Troy with fate, Her elders, dubious of its Grecian freight,

Brought Helen there to sing the songs of home; 4 She whispered, “Friends, I am alone; come, come!”

Then, crouched within, Ulysses waxed afraid, And on his comrades’ quivering mouths he laid

His hands, and held them till the voice was dumb. 8

The same was he who, lashed to his own mast, There where the sea-flowers screen the charnel-caves,

Beside the sirens’ singing island pass’d, Till sweetness failed along the inveterate waves . . . . 12

Say, soul, – are songs of Death no heaven to thee, Nor shames her lip the cheek of Victory?

Date of Publication: 1870, Poems Date of Composition: 1869, Poems Proof State 3

198 The House of Life

Manuscripts:

(1) Sonnets and Fragments fol. 10b, Princeton (2) (3) (4) Fitzwilliam HL fols 105a, 99a, b (5) Poems Proof States 3, 4, 12 {Princeton}

Revisions/Variants:

1. Prin. and Fitz fols 99b contain drafts of the sestet only; Fitz. 99a has a fragment of line 11: the earliest, Prin., reads after revision: 9 The same was he, who, lashed to

his own mast 10 Beside the sirens’ singing island

passed 11 Till music <died upon>fainted

on the inveterate sea. 12 Say, soul, and <is>doth no fatal

song for us 13 Prove yet than any crown more

rapturous – 14 No <d>Death’s lip shame the

cheek of victory.

2. Fitz. fol. 105: sestet 9 The same was he who, lashed to

his own mast, 10 Beside the sirens’ singing island

pass’d 11 Till sweetness failed along the

<difficult>inveterate sea…. 12 Say, soul, – and doth no fatal

song for us 13 Prove yet than <all the seas>any

crown more rapturous, 14 No death’s lip shame the cheek

of victory?

3. Fitz. fol. 99b (with fragment from a): sestet 9 The same was he who, lashed to

his own mast, 10 There where the sea-flowers

screen the burial-caves, 11 Beside the sirens’ singing island

pass’d, 12 <till music fainted on etc.>

12 Till <music>sweetness failed <against> along the inveterate waves.

13 Say, Soul, are songs of <d>Death no heaven to thee

14 Nor shames her lip the cheek of Victory?

4. Fitz. MSS/B&S title <Song of the Sirens><Death-sweetness> <Deadly Sweetness> Death’s Songsters/ Death’s Songsters Fitz. fol. 105 2 Death,/death, Fitz. fol. 105 4 home:/home; Fitz. fol. 105 5 <I am here alone;>I am alone;/

I am alone; Fitz. fol. 105 10 burial-caves,/charnel-caves,

Fitz. fol. 99 13 Soul, –/soul, – Fitz. fol. 99 13 thee/thee, Fitz. fol. 99

5. Revisions in proof: title <Deadly Sweetness>[pencilled underneath text, then erased in favour of printed Death’s Songsters] Proof State 3, Prin. 2 <Death>death Proof State 12,

Prin. 4 home:/home; B&S, first ed. 9–14 [DGR revised the printed reading

of the sestet on Proof State 4, Prin., which appears to have been set up from Fitz. fol. 105, by writing in the reading from Fitz. fol. 99]

Text and Notes 199

6. Instructions written on MSS: ‘print this after <Retro Me Sathana> [Sonnet 90] Lost Days [Sonnet 86] page <82>81’ Fitz. fol. 105

[these page numbers refer to Proof State 3, in which this sonnet first appeared]

7. These revisions aid the reader in understanding and interpreting a sonnet that many commentators have declared obscure. As WMR observed in annotating Death’s Songsters for Works (657), the syntax of the final couplet is at best ambiguous – ‘her lip’ could appertain to either of the capitalized personifications, Death or Victory, thereby making possible at least two radically conflicting interpretations of the poem. However, the earlier versions of the sestet seen in the Prin. and Fitz. MSS make clear beyond all argument that the lip belongs to Death. Once again DGR seems to have been driven into difficulty by the constraints of his rhyme scheme. Wishing to change ‘sea’ to ‘waves’ at the end of line 11, he replaced his ccdeed rhyme scheme with the Shakespearean cdcdee. As a result, he was forced to condense the last three lines into two. Perhaps there is some gain in imagery and music: the irrelevant ‘crown’ is removed from line 13, and the addition of ‘Heaven’ in that line strengthens the echo of St. Paul (I Corinthians xv, 54–55). But, even though the awkward ‘and doth’ and the ambiguous ‘us’ are removed from line 12, clarity and sense do suffer. Masefield offers a shrewd guess about this problem in the final couplet: ‘The reader is left wondering what the original readings of the sonnet were. It reads, as though the ending had been revised in some cold and infertile mood, when the glory of creation had chilled’ (43–44). See also DGRDW 247–8, PFB 2): 200 and Vogel 1963: Explicator item 64 on this sonnet.

Complicating the final couplet still further is the evident reference therein to St. Paul’s distinctly unHomeric, affirmative celebration of the Christian’s victory over death: ‘Death is swallowed up in Victory. O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?’ The interpreter of this sonnet must decide whether its tone is that of Mr. Valiant-for-Truth’s triumphant crossing of the River of Death to the sound of celestial trumpets in Pilgrim’s Progress or the despairing surrender to Death’s siren song that DGR was trying to write about during this period in his unfinished The Orchard Pit; perhaps, as Baum suggests, it conveys the sense of suicidal gloom that DGR periodically experienced during 1868–69.

200 The House of Life

SONNET LXXXVIII. HERO’S LAMP.1

That lamp thou fill’st in Eros’ name tonight, O Hero, shall the Sestian augurs take To-morrow, and for drowned Leander’s sake

To Anteros its fireless lip shall plight. 4 Aye, waft the unspoken vow: yet dawn’s first light

On ebbing storm and life twice ebb’d must break; While ‘neath no sunrise, by the Avernian Lake,

Lo where Love walks, Death’s pallid neophyte. 8

That lamp within Anteros’ shadowy shrine Shall stand unlit (for so the gods decree) Till some one man the happy issue see

Of a life’s love, and bid its flame to shine: 12 Which still may rest unfir’d; for, theirs or thine,

O brother, what brought love to them or thee?

1 After the deaths of Leander and Hero, the signal-lamp was dedicated to Anteros, with the edict that no man should light it unless his love had proved fortunate.

Date of Publication: 1881, B&S Date of Composition: 1875, Works

MS Source:

Ashley Notebooks 1410 (BL), Notebook No. 2, p. 8: ‘When Leander was drowned, the inhabitants of Sestos consecrated Hero’s lantern to Anteros, and he that had good success in his love should light the candle: but never any man was found to light it. (Burton: Anat.Mel. pt.3. Sec.2. Numb.6. Subs.3)’

[This passage from The Anatomy of Melancholy actually occurs in Mem.v, about the middle of Subsection 3. There Burton interprets the story of Hero’s unlit lamp as an illustration of ‘the inconstancy and lightness of women,’ –surely not what DGR was getting at in this poem!]

Letter:

DGR to FLR, 27 Apr 79 (WEF 79.55 [DW 2037]): the poet mentions a current oil painting he is at work on, Mnemosyne (S.261 is an oil, 261 A, B and C are sketches in either chalks or pencil), which he describes as ‘ci-devant Hero!’

Text and Notes 201

WMR tells us, ‘Rossetti intended to paint a picture of Hero with her lamp: it remained unexecuted. This sonnet [88] may probably have been written to serve as an adjunct to the picture’ (DGRDW 249). Surtees states that Mnemosyne, also called The Lamp of Memory and Ricordanza, was begun May 1876 as an offshoot of Astarte Syriaca and finished in 1881 (156). Between 1876–79 he had some idea of converting it into a Hero with lamp uplifted, but this conception went ‘unexecuted’ in favour of the one conveyed in these lines written for the picture (S.261) now hanging in DAM (see Elzea 1976: 77) and inscribed on its frame:

‘Thou fill’st from the winged chalice of the soul Thy lamp, O Memory, fire-winged to its goal.’

Manuscripts:

(1) Bodleian Eng. poet. d. 44 fol. 4a (2) DAM Box 22 {PFB 3): 56} (3) Texas DGR Works fol. I (4) Rosenbach EL3.R8291 (5) Fitzwilliam HL fol. 106a (6) B&S Proofs Sig. R, p. 250: Ros. 5 May; DAM 5 May, undated press-proof

Revisions/Variants:

1. Bod., DAM and Tex. have the title only; Ros. has title and sonnet number ‘LXXXVIII’; Fitz. has a variant form of the published footnote below the text with superscript number follow-ing the title and with revisions: ‘It is said that, after the deaths of Leander and of Hero, the signal-lamp was dedicated to Anteros, with the <decree>edict that no man should light it <who could not say that he>unless his love had proved <to be a happy one> fortunate.’ Tex. includes a variant form of the footnote without superscript or title on a separate MS: ‘When Leander was drowned, the inhabitants of Sestos consecrated Hero’s lantern to Anteros; & he that had good success in his love should light the candle: but never any man was found to light it. Burton: Anat: Melanch:’

2. All MSS/B&S 3 Tomorrow/To-morrow all MSS 5 vow.The/ Bod. Vow.Yet/ Tex.

vow: yet 7 Avernian lake,/Avernian Lake

Bod., Tex., DAM

8 Lo!/Lo Bod., Tex. 9 <gloomy>shadowy Tex. 11 <auspicious ending>happy

issue Tex. 13 <must rest>may rest Tex. 13 unfir’d: for mine or thine,/ Tex. 13 for mine or thine,/ Bod., DAM,

Ros. <for mine or thine,>for theirs or

thine,/ Fitz. unfir’d; for, theirs or thine, 14 Love to thee or me?/ Tex. 14 to thee or me?/ Bod., DAM, Ros.

<to thee or me?>to them or thee?/ Fitz.

love to them or thee?

3. Revisions in proof: 2, 7 [WMR as his brother’s copy-

editor queried the accuracy of references in these lines, as follows, but DGR made no changes:]

‘An augur is properly a Latin divine, whose divination was founded on the flight of birds. Avernus is near Naples: I am not sure whether or not it can be mixed up in a Greek legend so

202 The House of Life

old as Hero & L’ (DAM Box 47, file 5.206).

13 <for theirs or thine,>for, theirs or thine, DAM, Ros. 5 May

SONNET LXXXIX. THE TREES OF THE GARDEN.

Ye who have passed Death’s haggard hills; and ye Whom trees that knew your sires shall cease to know And still stand silent: – is it all a show, –

A wisp that laughs upon the wall? – decree 4 Of some inexorable supremacy

Which ever, as man strains his blind surmise From depth to ominous depth, looks past his eyes,

Sphinx-faced with unabashèd augury? 8

Nay, rather question the Earth’s self. Invoke The storm-felled forest-trees moss-grown to-day Whose roots are hillocks where the children play;

Or ask the silver sapling ‘neath what yoke 12 Those stars, his spray-crown’s clustering gems, shall wage Their journey still when his boughs shrink with age.

Date of Publication: 1881, B&S Date of Composition: 1875, Works

MS Sources: Ashley Notebooks 1410 (BL); Duke Notebooks {PFB 1): 37 & 72–73}; Sonnets and Fragments (Princeton) 1–2 ‘the haggard hills’ Ash. No. 1, p. 16 1–3 ‘and we When trees that knew our sires

shall cease to know And still stand silent’ 8 ‘Sphinx-faced with unabashèd

augury’ 4 ‘Or like a wisp that laughs upon

the wall’ 10–11 ‘The upheaved forest trees

mossgrown today Whose roots are hillocks where

the children play’

1–2 ‘And plaintive days that haunt

the haggard hills With bleak unspoken woe’ Duke

No. II, III 1–3 ‘And we Whom trees that knew our sires

shall cease to know And still stand silent’ Prin. fol.

16a, Ash. No. 2, p. 16 10–11 ‘The upheaved forest-trees moss-

grown today Whose roots are hillocks where

the children play’ Prin. fol. 16a, Ash. No. 2, p. 11

Text and Notes 203

8 ‘Sphinx-faced with unabashèd augury’ Ash. No. 2, p. 27

4 ‘The wisp laughed on the wall’ Ash. No. 2, p. 29

Manuscripts:

(1) Rosenbach EL3.R8291 (2) BL {Ashley 1408} (3) Fitzwilliam HL fol. 107a (4) LC Misc. MSS1390

Revisions/Variants:

1. All MSS/B&S title Ash. and Fitz. have no sonnet numbers; on Fitz. the initial ‘The’ is cancelled, then restored 1–2 we...our/ Ros. <we...our>ye...your/ ye…your Fitz. 5 <irrevocable>inexorable/

inexorable Ros., Fitz. 7 <depths>depth/depth LC 10 upheaved/ Ros. <upheaved>

storm-felled/storm-felled Fitz. mossgrown today/moss-grown

to-day all MSS 13–14 Those stars, that through his

<leaflets> spray-crown watch the oak,

When even his gnarled boughs shrink, shall hold their way./ Ros., Ash.

<Those stars, that through his <<leaflets>> spray- crown watch the oak,

When even his gnarled boughs shrink, shall hold their way.>

Those stars, his spray-crown’s clustering gems, shall wage

Their journey <when his gnarled>still when his boughs shrink with age./

Those stars, his spray-crown’s clustering gems, shall wage

Their journey still when his boughs shrink with age. Fitz.

2. Note here another Shakespearean solution to a rhyme-scheme problem. A similarity should be noted also to the last two sonnets DGR wrote, dictated to HC and sent to TWD 9 Apr 82, four days before the poet died. They were written to illustrate a design called The Sphinx (alternatively The Question, S.241). Both drawing and poems were to appear in a ‘Miscellany’ that he and TWD were collaborating upon, but which never appeared. These sonnets were published for the first time in 1967 as part of DGR’s final letter, DW 2615. Although a note in DW (Vol. IV p. 1953) asserts that the two poems were privately printed by Thomas J. Wise, I found no evidence that such a printing ever occurred; however, Fredeman states that the only copy of this alleged Wisean printing is in the Frederick Page files at Oxford University Press (WEF 82.29n1). In fact, TWD refused permission to print The Question both to Wise and to WMR on the grounds that, as the letter of 5 April (WEF 82.29) demonstrates, DGR had given these sonnets to him. The sestet of the second sonnet begins:

Oh! and what answer? From the sad sea brim The eyes o’ the Sphinx stare through the midnight spell, Unwavering, – man’s eternal quest to quell:

204 The House of Life

The drawing dates, like Sonnet 89, from 1875; the near-nihilism evident in both and also in the two death-bed sonnets may reflect the terrible impact on DGR and his circle caused by the sudden death in Nov 74 of the highly talented Oliver Madox Brown, nineteen-year-old son of painter Ford Madox Brown.

SONNET XC. “RETRO ME, SATHANA!”

Get thee behind me. Even as, heavy-curled, Stooping against the wind, a charioteer Is snatched from out his chariot by the hair,

So shall Time be; and as the void car, hurled 4 Abroad by reinless steeds, even so the world:

Yea, even as chariot-dust upon the air, It shall be sought and not found anywhere.

Get thee behind me, Satan. Oft unfurled, 8 Thy perilous wings can beat and break like lath

Much mightiness of men to win thee praise. Leave these weak feet to tread in narrow ways.

Thou still, upon the broad vine-sheltered path, 12 Mayst wait the turning of the phials of wrath

For certain years, for certain months and days.

Date of Publication: 1870, Poems Date of Composition: 1847, Works

Letters:

(1) WMR to DGR, [24 Aug] 69 (Peattie No. 162): ‘I have just finished the proofs [Proof State 2 of Poems]. P. 157. I don’t quite like

“Many years, many months, and many days.” If I remember right, there used to be a particular number given, which I think better in effect, though perhaps too mannered. I’m not sure but that I should prefer

“For certain years and certain months and days....”‘

(2) DGR to WMR, 27 Aug 69 (WEF 69.139): Replying from Penkill Castle, the poet wrote,

‘[Page]157. Many years &c. is a favourite line of mine! It used to stand A few years &c. which of course was one of the impossible intonations of that early epoch.’

Text and Notes 205

(3) DGR to WMR, [2 Sep] 69 (WEF 69.146): ‘To-day I have sent my proofs to the printers [as printer’s copy for Proof State 3] & told them to forward you a corrected set as well as one to me. . . . I benefited much by your labours as you will see. Your last line to the Satan sonnet I adopted with a slight change but am rather uncertain whether I may not change back again [see revisions of line 14, below].’

Manuscripts:

(1) Fitzwilliam HL fol. 108a (2) Poems Proof States 2, 3, 13 {Princeton}

Revisions/Variants:

1. All MSS/B&S title < “Vade, retro me, Sathana!”> “Retro me, Sathana!”/ “Retro Me, Sathana!” Fitz. [The word ‘Sonnet’ before ‘XC’ is omitted in all four eds of B&S; this mistake was first corrected in the Tauchnitz ed. of B&S (1882), then WMR made the correction in CW] 3 <caught down from>caught from

out/ snatched from out Fitz. 8–10: 8 <Gilt and pearled, 9 Thy speech is like the rich

simoom, which hath 10 Within its <<vortex pearl and

gold,>> whirl the convoy’s wealth, yet slays.>

8 <Oft unfurled, 9 Thy <<terrible>>perilous wings

<<should>> <<shall>>can beat and break like lath

10 Much <<strength of mighty men>> mightiness of men to win thee praise.>/

8 Oft unfurled, 9 Thy perilous wings can beat

and break like lath 10 Much mightiness of men to win

thee praise. Fitz.

13 May’st/Mayst Fitz. 14 Many years, many months, and

many days./ For certain years, for certain

months and days. Fitz.

2. Revisions in proof: 3 <caught>snatched Proof State

13, Prin. 13 <May’st>Mayst Proof State 3, Prin. 14 <Many years, many months, and

many days.> For certain years, for certain

months and days. Proof State 2, Prin. [see above, Letters (1)–(3)]

[at the bottom of the text on copy 2 of Proof State 2 at Princeton there are the following pencilled variants for this line:]

For many years, for many months and days.

For the set term of certain years and days.

3. Instructions on MSS: ‘Before this print MS Death’s Songsters [87]’ Proof State 3, Prin. copy 1 ‘Before this print MS Deadly Sweetness [87]’ Proof State 3, Prin. copy 2

206 The House of Life

4. According to WMR this is the first HL sonnet composed by DGR (but see notes to Sonnet 75): ‘This . . . is a very early sonnet: the earliest of all those which form The House of Life. It was written in 1847, when Rossetti was painting, under the same title, an oil-picture which did not proceed very far’ (Works 657). WMR had offered more detail about the picture and sonnet in FLM, there giving it a pre-PRB context:

‘Before Praeraphaelitism came at all into question my brother began an oil-picture of good dimensions. It was named Retro Me Sathana, and formed a group of three mediaeval-costumed figures – an aged churchman and a youthful lady, and the devil slinking behind them baffled. He was a human being with a tail. This must have been undertaken in 1847, when my brother had no practice with pigments, and was continued for some three or four months. It was not, I apprehend, altogether amiss; at what date it was destroyed I hardly know. He had begun the colouring, and showed the work privately to Sir Charles Eastlake, who did not encourage him to proceed with any such subject. Soon after this it was abandoned’ (99–100 & 108) A pen and ink drawing with this title is described as S.37, dated ‘July

1848’: ‘Whole-length figure of a bearded priest walking to the left in front of a curtain bearing a shield inscribed “EX NOCTE DIES;” he is wearing vestments and holding a crucifix in his right hand; his left is raised in blessing. A young woman stands beside him with her eyes on the crucifix; her hands are joined in prayer. Slinking behind them on the right is Mephistopheles in man’s clothing, with horns and tail’. WMR glosses lines 11–12 as follows: ‘narrow ways – Strait is the gate, and

narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life; broad vine-sheltered path – Wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction’ (DGRDW 251).

The ‘phials of wrath’ phrase in line 13 is also a Biblical echo, of Revelation xvi, 1.

Text and Notes 207

SONNET XCI. LOST ON BOTH SIDES.

As when two men have loved a woman well, Each hating each, through Love’s and Death’s deceit; Since not for either this stark marriage-sheet

And the long pauses of this wedding-bell; 4 Yet o’er her grave the night and day dispel

At last their feud forlorn, with cold and heat; Nor other than dear friends to death may fleet

The two lives left that most of her can tell: – 8

So separate hopes, which in a soul had wooed The one same Peace, strove with each other long,

And Peace before their faces perished since: So through that soul, in restless brotherhood, 12

They roam together now, and wind among Its bye-streets, knocking at the dusty inns.

Date of Publication: 1869, March FR, (Sonnet VI) 1870, Poems Date of Composition: July 1854 (WEF 54.55)

Letters:

(1) DGR to William Allingham, [23 Jul] 54 (WEF 54.55): ‘I’ll add my last sonnet, made two days ago. [text of this sonnet follows] But my sonnets are not generally finished till I see them again after forgetting them, and this is only 2 days old.’

(2) DGR to William Allingham, [c.1] Aug 54 (WEF 54.57): ‘...you didn’t like the last lines of my sonnet, which are certainly foggy. Would they be better thus? –

So in that soul – a mindful brotherhood, – (When silence may not be) they wind among

<The>Its bye-streets, knocking at the dusty inns. Or I should like better –

– they fare along Its high street, knocking &c.

but fear the rhyme long & along is hardly admissible. What say you? Or can you propose any other improvement?

I’ve referred to my note-book for the above alteration, & therein are various sonnets & beginnings of sonnets written at crisises (?!) of happy inspiration.’

208 The House of Life

Manuscripts:

(1) PML M.A. No.381 fols 10, 11 (2) Fitzwilliam HL fol. 109a (3) Poems, Proof States 3 & 6 {Princeton} (4) Printed MS in WA/GBH pp. 38 & 45; DW 177 & 180; WEF 54.55 & 57

Revisions/Variants:

1. All MSS/B&S title: no title on PML 2 each; and all in all, deceit;/ PML <each, and all in self-deceit;> each, <by>through Love’s and

Death’s deceit;/ Fitz. Each hating each, through

Love’s and Death’s deceit; 3 either,/either PML straight/ PML <straight>strait

Fitz. strait/stark FR marriage sheet/ marriage-sheet PML

4 wedding-bell:/wedding-bell; Fitz.

5 But o’er her grave,/Yet o’er her grave PML

6 heat,/heat; WEF 7 friends,/friends PML 8 which/that PML tell:/tell: – WA/GBH, DW 9 that/which PML 10 long;/long, PML 11 faces, perish’d/faces perished

PML 12–14 [see Letter (2) above] 12 So from that soul, in mindful

brotherhood,

13 (When silence may not be) sometimes they throng

14 Through high-streets and at many dusty inns./ PML

12 <So in that soul, a restless brotherhood,>

So through that soul, in restless brotherhood,

13 <When silence may not be, they wind among>

They roam together now, and wind among

14 Its bye-streets, knocking at the dusty inns./ Fitz.

12 So through that soul, in restless brotherhood,

13 They roam together now, and wind among

14 Its bye-streets, knocking at the dusty inns.

2. Revisions in proof: 3 <strait>stark Proof State 6, Prin. 13 When silence may not be, they

wind among [alternate reading below text, Proof State 6, Prin.]

3. Instructions on proofs: <‘Before this print MS Deadly Sweetness’> Proof State 3, Prin.

Text and Notes 209

SONNETS XCII., XCIII. THE SUN’S SHAME.

I.

Beholding youth and hope in mockery caught From life; and mocking pulses that remain When the soul’s death of bodily death is fain;

Honour unknown, and honour known unsought; 4 And penury’s sedulous self-torturing thought

On gold, whose master therewith buys his bane; And longed-for woman longing all in vain

For lonely man with love’s desire distraught; 8 And wealth, and strength, and power, and pleasantness,

Given unto bodies of whose souls men say, None poor and weak, slavish and foul, as they: –

Beholding these things, I behold no less 12 The blushing morn and blushing eve confess

The shame that loads the intolerable day.

Date of Publication: 1870, Poems Date of Composition: 1869, Poems (Proof State 2)

Manuscripts:

(1) (2) Fitzwilliam HL fols 88b, 110a (3) Beinecke Tauchnitz (4) DAM Proofs Sig. R, p. 255, 5 May

Revisions/Variants:

1. All MSS/B&S title The Sun’s Shame/The Sun’s Shame.

I. all MSS, eds of Poems 4 <Honour unfound, and honour

found unsought;> Honour unknown, and honour

known unsought;/ Honour unknown, and honour

known unsought; Fitz.(1) 5 <sedulous penury’s>penury’s

sedulous/ penury’s sedulous Fitz.(1)

8 <distraught; –>distraught;/ distraught; Fitz.(1)

9 <Beholding wealth, strength, power, and pleasantness,>

And wealth, and strength, and power, and pleasantness,/ And wealth, and strength, and power, and pleasantness, Fitz.(1)

12–14 12 <Beholding all, I behold the sun

confess

210 The House of Life

13 At blushing morn and blushing eve the stress

14 Of shame that loads the intolerable day.>/

12 Beholding these things, I behold no less

13 The blushing morn and blushing eve confess

14 The shame that loads the intolerable day. Fitz.(1)

2. In Tauchnitz DGR revised line 12, replacing ‘I behold’ with ‘thou

beholdst’ but he did not adopt this change in 1881.

3. On the DAM Proofs of Sig. R, p. 255, 5 May, DGR changed ‘Sonnet XCIII’ to ‘Sonnet XCII’ which it becomes in the proof of 9 May

4. There are echoes here of Shakespeare’s Sonnet LXVI.

II.

As some true chief of men, bowed down with stress Of life’s disastrous eld, on blossoming youth May gaze, and murmur with self-pity and ruth, –

“Might I thy fruitless treasure but possess, 4 Such blessing of mine all coming years should bless;” –

Then sends one sigh forth to the unknown goal, And bitterly feels breathe against his soul

The hour swift-winged of nearer nothingness: – 8

Even so the World’s grey Soul to the green World Perchance one hour must cry: “Woe’s me, for whom Inveteracy of ill portends the doom, –

Whose heart’s old fire in shadow of shame is furl’d: 12 While thou even as of yore art journeying, All soulless now, yet merry with the Spring!”

Date of Publication: 1881, B&S Date of Composition: 1873, Works

MS Sources:

Ashley Notebooks 1410 (BL), Notebook No. 1, pp. 17, 29: ‘As a great man with whom years or health are failing looks on the careless youth that pass him and thinks what he would do with their treasure – so etc.’

‘Even as some great-souled man deep-bowed with stress Of dark disastrous eld, on <reckless>passing youth May gaze and murmur with self-pity and ruth

Text and Notes 211

“Ah me! If I thy treasure might possess <That>Such blessing of mine all coming years should bless That in thy hand speeds to the common goal.” Who, with the thought, feels breathe against his soul The hour swift-paced of nearer nothingness.’ [drafts for the octave]

Manuscripts:

(1) Princeton HL fol. 2b (2) Bodleian Eng. Poet. d. 43 fol. 68b (3) Fitzwilliam HL fol. 111a (4) Princeton HL fol. 40a (5) DAM Proofs Sig. R, p. 256, 5 May

Revisions/Variants:

1. All MSS/B&S title The World’s Woe/ Prin.(1), (2) [The Sun’s Shame is pencilled in parentheses on Prin.(2)] The World’s Soul/ Bod. <The World’s Soul>The Sun’s Shame II/The Sun’s Shame II. Fitz. 1 <beneath the stress>deep-bowed

with stress/ bowed down with stress Prin.(1) 2 <passing youth>blossoming

youth/ blossoming youth Prin.(1) 6 <one glance>one sigh/one sigh

Prin.(1) 7 <And with that thought,>And

bitterly/ And bitterly Prin.(1) 8 <swift-paced>swift-

winged/swift-winged Prin.(1) 9 <in the green world>to the green

world/to the green World Prin.(1)

10–11 10 Sighs now and says: “Ah! woe is

me for whom 11 Dread change portends the

<inevitable> irrevocable doom, –/ Prin.(1)

10 Perchance one hour must cry: “Woe’s me, for whom

11 Dread change portends the irrevocable doom, –/ Bod.

10 Perchance one hour must cry: “Woe’s me, for whom

11 <Dread change portends the irrevocable doom, –>

Inveteracy of ill portends the doom, –/Fitz.

10 Perchance one hour must cry: “Woe’s me, for whom

11 Inveteracy of ill portends the doom, –

12 vapour of shame/shadow of shame Prin.(1)

13 <as of old>as of yore/as of yore Prin.(1)

14 Spring.”/Spring!” Prin.(1), Bod., Fitz.

2. On the DAM Proofs of Sig. R, p. 256, 5 May DGR changed ‘Sonnet XCIV’ to ‘Sonnet XCIII’ which it becomes in the proof of 9 May. On Fitz. after the title ‘The Sun’s Shame II’ he wrote, and then cancelled, ‘To follow the one in vol’.

212 The House of Life

SONNET XCIV. MICHELANGELO’S KISS.

Great Michelangelo, with age grown bleak And uttermost labours, having once o’ersaid All grievous memories on his long life shed,

This worst regret to one true heart could speak: – 4 That when, with sorrowing love and reverence meek,

He stooped o’er sweet Colonna’s dying bed, His Muse and dominant Lady, spirit-wed, –

Her hand he kissed, but not her brow or cheek. 8

O Buonarruoti, – good at Art’s fire-wheels To urge her chariot! – even thus the Soul, Touching at length some sorely-chastened goal,

Earns oftenest but a little: her appeals 12 Were deep and mute, – lowly her claim. Let be: What holds for her Death’s garner? And for thee?

Date of Publication: 1881, B&S Date of Composition: December 1880, WEF 80.389

Letters:

(1) DGR to WMR, [16 Feb] 73 (WEF 73.52): ‘There is a fine subject for a picture in M. Angelo’s Life. Condivi tells us that he heard M. A., when quite old, say that he regretted nothing more than that, when he visited Vittoria Colonna on her deathbed, he did not kiss her face but only her hand. This interview wd make a noble picture, and I think I ought to paint it as a companion subject to my Dante’s Dream’ [S.81R1]. Condivi was Michelangelo’s first biographer, the ‘one true heart’ of line 4. This proposed painting, like DGR’s plan (current at this date in his life) of translating and editing Michelangelo’s sonnets, was never executed: this poem and the sonnet For the Holy Family (B&S 311) were the only Michelangelo-related projects completed by DGR.

(2) DGR to Frederic Shields, [18 Dec] 80 (WEF 80.389 [Texas]): ‘I have done a sonnet on Mike at Vittoria Colonna’s death-bed.’

This letter as dated by WEF shows that Sonnet 94 has been misdated by all as ‘January 1881’ when in fact it belongs to the half-dozen or so sonnets written toward the close of 1880 for inclusion in B&S.

Text and Notes 213

(3) DGR to CGR, 13 Jan 81 (WEF 81.15 [DW 2381]): ‘As dear Mamma loves sonnets, I put a new one opposite. I think the beautiful anecdote will please her, as told by MA’s loving pupil Condivi. You may observe in the sonnet a pun on Buonarruoti – of course it ought to be ruote, but I suppose it might be perceptible.’ The sonnet MS is not extant. WMR argues in a long note that this pun does not work because DGR’s Italian etymology is mistaken: Buonarruoti does not derive from ‘Buon-a- ruote’ i.e. ‘good at wheels’ but from ‘Buon-arruto’, meaning ‘good adjutant’. He speculates that the name devolved from an ancestor who belonged to the eighty ‘arruoti’ designated to oversee elections in the Florentine Republic (DGRDW 254n, repeated in Works 658).

(4) DGR to CGR, [19 Jan] 81 (WEF 81.28 [DW 2390]): ‘As you said our dearest Mother was no less than “delighted” with my last Sonnet [included with Letter (3)], I send another just written last night [Tiber, Nile and Thames, B&S 318]. With me, Sonnets mean Insomnia.’

Manuscripts:

(1) Fitzwilliam HL fol. 112a (2) Beinecke, Tinker 1803 (3) DAM and Ros. Proofs Sig. R, pp. 254 & 256, 5, 9 May; DAM Press-proofs n.d., post-press-proofs 27 May

Revisions/Variants:

1. All MSS/B&S title Michael Angelo’s Kiss./Michelangelo’s Kiss. Fitz., Tink. Sonnet XCII/Sonnet XCIV. Tink. 1 Michael Angelo/Michelangelo

Fitz., Tink. 2 <wholly said>once

o’ersaid/once o’ersaid Fitz. 8 <Her dear pale lips he kissed

not, but her cheek.> Her hand he kissed, but not her

brow or cheek./ Her hand he kissed, but not her

brow or cheek. Fitz. 9 <the Sun’s wheels>Art’s fire-

wheels/Art’s fire-wheels Fitz. 10 <That guides his...soul,>To urge

her… Soul,/To urge her…Soul, Fitz.

12 <but a little oftenest:>oftenest but a little:/

oftenest but a little: Fitz. 12 <Her>her/her Tink.

2. Revisions in proof: 1 <Michael Angelo>Michelangelo

DAM file 5.208 [see note 4. below]

12 <Her>her Sig. R, p. 254, DAM, Ros. 5 May

3. Instructions written on proofs: ‘to come after the two following sonnets’ Sig. R, p. 254, Ros. 5 May ‘put this sonnet after the two following’ Sig. R, p. 254 DAM 5 May [This sonnet appeared as 92 on p. 254 in the 5 May proofs; in the 9 May proofs it is 94 on p. 256]

214 The House of Life

4. DAM file 5.208, an undated press-proof of Sig. R, p. 256, has notes by both Rossetti brothers. With his red pencil WMR wrote, ‘My own opinion is that the only satisfactory way of spelling the

name is Michelangelo.’ DGR cancelled this note but also changed the title and name in line 1 in favour of WMR’s spelling. These changes appear in print in a post-press-proof stamped 27 May (DAM file 5.218).

SONNET XCV. THE VASE OF LIFE.

Around the vase of Life at your slow pace He has not crept, but turned it with his hands, And all its sides already understands.

There, girt, one breathes alert for some great race; 4 Whose road runs far by sands and fruitful space;

Who laughs, yet through the jolly throng has pass’d; Who weeps, nor stays for weeping; who at last,

A youth, stands somewhere crowned, with silent face. 8

And he has filled this vase with wine for blood, With blood for tears, with spice for burning vow,

With watered flowers for buried love most fit; And would have cast it shattered to the flood, 12

Yet in Fate’s name has kept it whole; which now Stands empty till his ashes fall in it.

Date of Publication: 1869, March FR, (Sonnet VII) 1870, Poems Date of Composition: 1869, Works

Letter:

DGR to ACS [8 Apr] 70 (WEF 70.86): ‘I forgot to mention, (in case desirable) that two titles of sonnets are changed – “Flammifera” to “Love’s Redemption” and “Run and Won” to “The Vase of Life”.’ ACS was preparing his review of Poems at this time while DGR was at Scalands putting the final touches on his proofs. Sonnet 3 had its title changed in Proof State 13: while there is no MS record of the title change for this sonnet, it evidently occurred between Proof States 14 and 15.

Text and Notes 215

Manuscripts:

(1) Princeton HL fol. 41a (2) Fitzwilliam HL fol. 113a (3) Poems Proof State 13 {Princeton} (4) DAM Proofs Sig. S, p. 257, 6 May

Revisions/Variants:

1. All MSS/B&S title Run and Won./The Vase of Life. Prin., Fitz., FR 4 <one stands>one breathes/

one breathes Prin. 8 still,/ Prin., FR <still,>crowned,/

crowned, Fitz. 11 flowers, for/flowers for Prin. 13 <God’s>Fate’s/Fate’s Prin.

2. Revisions in proof: title: see Letter to ACS and note above 4 [Below the text WMR wrote, refer-

ring to ‘girt’ and ‘alert’, ‘Is this repetition of sound intentional?’ but DGR made no change.] DAM

3. Instructions written on proofs: ‘After this put A Superscription [97], page 221, and MS. He and I [98]’ Prin.

SONNET XCVI. LIFE THE BELOVED.

As thy friend’s face, with shadow of soul o’erspread, Somewhile unto thy sight perchance hath been Ghastly and strange, yet never so is seen

In thought, but to all fortunate favour wed; 4 As thy love’s death-bound features never dead

To memory’s glass return, but contravene Frail fugitive days, and alway keep, I ween,

Than all new life a livelier lovelihead: – 8

So Life herself, thy spirit’s friend and love, Even still as Spring’s authentic harbinger

Glows with fresh hours for hope to glorify; Though pale she lay when in the winter grove 12

Her funeral flowers were snow-flakes shed on her And the red wings of frost-fire rent the sky.

Date of Publication: 1881, B&S Date of Composition: 1873, Works

216 The House of Life

Manuscripts:

(1) DAM Box 22 {PFB 3): 56} (2) Bodleian Eng. poet. d. 43 fol. 71b (3) Fitzwilliam HL fol. 114a (4) LC Misc. MSS 1390 (5) B&S proofs of Sig. S, p. 258: DAM 6 May, Ros. 10 May

Revisions/Variants:

1. All MSS/B&S title: LC has ‘Sonnet XCVI’ written above title 1 in shadow of pain or

dread,/with shadow of soul o’erspread, DAM, Bod.

2 must needs have been/ DAM, Bod. <must needs have

been>perchance hath been/ perchance hath been Fitz.

7 Deciduous days,/Frail fugitive days, DAM, Bod.

13 funeral-flowers/funeral flowers DAM, Bod.

2. Below the text on DAM is the following: pall spanned crown do: [ditto?] wreath crowned

3. Revision in proof: 10 <harbinger,>harbinger DAM, Ros.

SONNET XCVII. A SUPERSCRIPTION.

Look in my face; my name is Might-have-been; I am also called No-more, Too-late, Farewell; Unto thine ear I hold the dead-sea shell

Cast up thy Life’s foam-fretted feet between; 4 Unto thine eyes the glass where that is seen

Which had Life’s form and Love’s, but by my spell Is now a shaken shadow intolerable,

Of ultimate things unuttered the frail screen. 8

Mark me, how still I am! But should there dart One moment through thy soul the soft surprise Of that winged Peace which lulls the breath of sighs, –

Then shalt thou see me smile, and turn apart 12 Thy visage to mine ambush at thy heart

Sleepless with cold commemorative eyes.

Date of Publication: 1869, March FR (Sonnet VIII) 1870, Poems Date of Composition: 1868–69 (WMR gives two dates: 1868 in Works and ‘Before 4 Jan. 1869’ in ClassLists)

Text and Notes 217

MS Source: WMR Diary Entry: 24 Jan 69 (published RP 380): ‘Gabriel has written another sonnet, A Superscription: has selected sixteen sonnets, and sent them to the Fortnightly for the March number. He thinks he must have by him altogether at least fifty sonnets which he would be willing to publish.’

Letter: DGR to Miss Losh, 19 Oct 69 (WEF 69.186):

‘. . . I am well aware that the greater proportion of my poetry is suited only to distinctly poetic readers. To this class belong what I think perhaps the most of myself – that is, the Sonnets; and none more than the one you mention, called A Superscription. This is decidedly (painful as it is) a favorite of my own. Nothing I ever wrote was ever more the result of strong feeling, as you may perhaps think retraceable in it.’

Manuscripts: (1) Fitzwilliam HL fol. 113b (2) Poems Proof States 3, 4, 12 {Princeton}

Revisions/Variants: 1. Fitz./B&S 4 <life’s embittered waves><life’s

foam- covered feet>Life’s foam-fretted feet/

Life’s foam-fretted feet 5 <life>that/that 6 <Which once had <<its>>

<<Life’s>> <<Love’s>>own form,> Which had Life’s <shape>form

and Love’s,/ Which had Life’s form and

Love’s, 9 I am:/I am! <if>should/should 10 <sweet>soft/soft 11 <Of that soft wing which

<<seeks>>bears the sleep of sighs, –>

Of that winged Peace which lulls the breath of sighs, –/

Of that winged Peace which lulls the breath of sighs, –

13 <the ambush at thine heart> mine ambush at thy heart/

mine ambush at thy heart 14 <Held <<Made>> sleepless with

commemorative eyes.>

Sleepless with cold commemorative eyes./

Sleepless with cold commemorative eyes.

2. FR/B&S 2 Farewell:/Farewell; 9 am: but/am! But 10 swift/soft 11 soft wing/winged Peace

3. Instructions written on proofs: ‘Put this before Willowwood page 119’ Proof State 3, Princeton ‘Insert Stillborn Love’ Proof State 3, Princeton ‘Put this after Newborn Death page 95’ Proof State 4, Princeton ‘After this print MS The One Hope’ Proof State 12, Princeton

4. This sonnet was shifted frequently, as is shown below: FR: follows 95, The Vase of Life; precedes 25, Winged Hours

218 The House of Life

Proof State 2: follows 48, Death-in-Love; precedes 6a, Nuptial Sleep; Proof State 3: follows 49, Willowwood, to conclude sequence; Proof State 4: follows 48, Death-in-Love; precedes 49, Willowwood, with 55, Stillborn Love, at end.

Proof States 6–12: follows 100, Newborn Death, to conclude sequence; Proof State 14: follows 100, Newborn Death; precedes 101, The One Hope; Poems: follows 95, The Vase of Life; precedes 98, He and I; B&S: follows 96, Life the Beloved; precedes 98, He and I.

SONNET XCVIII. HE AND I.

Whence came his feet into my field, and why? How is it that he sees it all so drear? How do I see his seeing, and how hear

The name his bitter silence knows it by? 4 This was the little fold of separate sky

Whose pasturing clouds in the soul’s atmosphere Drew living light from one continual year:

How should he find it lifeless? He, or I? 8

Lo! this new Self now wanders round my field, With plaints for every flower, and for each tree A moan, the sighing wind’s auxiliary:

And o’er sweet waters of my life, that yield 12 Unto his lips no draught but tears unseal’d,

Even in my place he weeps. Even I, not he.

Date of Publication: 1870, Poems Date of Composition: 1870, Poems, Proof State 16; WEF 70.72

Letter:

DGR to F.S. Ellis, [26 Mar] 70 (WEF 70.72): ‘You will be glad to hear that I have just wound up my book with 2 more sonnets to the House of Life (making 50 now) and shall add no more. I am sending all to the printers but must have one revise of the last sheets before they work them off.’ DGR here refers to Proof State 16 of Poems, two page proofs containing Love-Sweetness [21] published as XIII and He and I published as XLVII; however, there are neither page nor sonnet numbers on these proofs. As they did with Proof State 15, the pamphlet forgers Wise and Forman passed off sewn and bound versions of this Proof State as a rare

Text and Notes 219

‘Trial Book’ called Two Sonnets, privately printed for circulation to a small number of friends (see notes to Sonnet 11, The Love-Letter, and Sonnet 21, Love-Sweetness). Consequently, these page-proofs have been catalogued as a printed brochure, both in Huntington (where they are called a ‘bifolium’), and in BL (Ashley).

Manuscripts:

There are none as such, the MS version on fol. 116a of the Fitzwilliam HL being a fair copy by C.F. Murray, but there are revisions and notes on the following issues of Proof State 16: (1) Huntington 93736 (2) BL, Ashley 1402 (3) Princeton

Revisions/Variants:

1. Proof State 16/B&S 5 sky,/sky Ash., Hun., Prin. 8 <He or I?>He, or I? Ash., Hun.,

Prin.

2. Instructions written on proofs: ‘Comes in H. of L. before “Newborn Death”‘ Ash., Prin.; “House of Life” Hun.

SONNETS XCIX., C. NEWBORN DEATH.

I.

To-day Death seems to me an infant child Which her worn mother Life upon my knee Has set to grow my friend and play with me;

If haply so my heart might be beguil’d 4 To find no terrors in a face so mild, –

If haply so my weary heart might be Unto the newborn milky eyes of thee,

O Death, before resentment reconcil’d. 8

How long, O Death? And shall thy feet depart Still a young child’s with mine, or wilt thou stand

Fullgrown the helpful daughter of my heart, What time with thee indeed I reach the strand 12

Of the pale wave which knows thee what thou art, And drink it in the hollow of thy hand?

Date of Publication: 1869, March FR (Sonnet XV) 1870, Poems Date of Composition: August 1868 (WEF 68.120)

220 The House of Life

MS Source:

WMR Diary Entry: 19 Dec 68 (published RP 339): ‘Gabriel wrote a sonnet on Death at Euston Square.’

In ClassLists, WMR dated the Newborn Death pair as follows: ‘One of the Sonnets was written on 19 Dec. 1868, and the other about the

same time’ (8). The assertion that these two sonnets were composed ‘about the same

time’ is borne out by the fact that both Fitzwilliam MSS are written on the same piece of paper, fols 117a and b. However, the letter to Smetham of 10 August, containing fair copies of these two sonnets, shows WMR’s date to be incorrect: he was perhaps referring to another sonnet ‘on Death’ composed about this time, such as Death’s Songsters (87), written sometime prior to the fall of 1869.

Letters:

(1) DGR to James Smetham, 10 Aug 68 (WEF 68.120): ‘P.S. I enclose copies of 2 sonnets which I need not trouble you to return. I want your opinion as to which is the best of the three versions of the line about Art in the second sonnet. I take a good deal of trouble with these things, and have found it hard to please myself with the line in question.’ The text of Sonnets 99 and 100 follows, and then DGR transcribes two

trial versions of line 11 in Sonnet 100: ‘And Art whose eyes were worlds by God found fair;’ ‘And Art whose glance met God’s and found him fair;’

(2) DGR to William Allingham [23 Dec] 68 (WEF 68.173): ‘I have been looking up a few old Sonnets, & writing a few new ones, to make a little bunch in a coming number of the Fortnightly, – not till March however, as they are full till then.

Among them are the enclosed two, about which I want an opinion. It seems to me doubtful whether the 2nd adds anything of much value to the first, & whether it (the second) is not in itself rather far-fetched and obscure. I wish you would tell me what you think. I would excise the second if the first is best by itself.

I suppose you heard that I have been queer with my eyes. This has caused inaction and the looking up of ravelled rags of verse.’ The two sonnets mentioned here must be 99 and 100, as they had been

written late that summer and are the only pair with the same title in the FR sequence of sixteen; moreover, 100 does rather echo 99. MSS of these sonnets are not, however, among the DGR–Allingham papers at PML.

Manuscripts:

(1) Fitzwilliam HL fol. 117a (2) WEF 68.120

Text and Notes 221

Revisions/Variants:

1. All MSS/B&S 1 Today/To-day Fitz., WEF <a newborn child>an infant

child/an infant child Fitz. 4 <may be>might be/might be Fitz. 5 mild,/ Fitz. mild;/ WEF mild, – 6–8 6 <But made familiar with fatality, 7 May never any more be moved

to flee 8 From those now milky eyes

grown <<wise>>wide and wild.>/

6 If haply so my weary heart might be

7 Unto the newborn milky eyes of thee,

8 O Death, before resentment reconcil’d. Fitz.

9 Death? and/Death? And WEF 10 <mine? –>mine,/mine, Fitz. 12 <at length>indeed/indeed Fitz. 13 <that pale>the pale/the pale Fitz.

2. Variant in proof: in Poems there was a subtitle printed in italics beneath the title through Proof States 1–12 as follows:

(Two Sonnets.) It does not appear in Proof State 14 or thereafter.

II.

And thou, O Life, the lady of all bliss, With whom, when our first heart beat full and fast, I wandered till the haunts of men were pass’d,

And in fair places found all bowers amiss 4 Till only woods and waves might hear our kiss,

While to the winds all thought of Death we cast: – Ah Life! and must I have from thee at last

No smile to greet me and no babe but this? 8

Lo! Love, the child once ours; and Song, whose hair Blew like a flame and blossomed like a wreath;

And Art, whose eyes were worlds by God found fair; These o’er the book of Nature mixed their breath 12

With neck-twined arms, as oft we watched them there: And did these die that thou mightst bear me Death?

Manuscripts:

(1) Fitzwilliam HL fol. 117b (2) WEF 68.120 (3) Poems Proof State 6 {Princeton}

222 The House of Life

Revisions/Variants:

1. All MSS/B&S 1 <the lady of all bliss,><by whose

sweet artifice,>the lady of all bliss,/the lady of all bliss, Fitz.

2 <With whom, when <<that>>this <<one>> our heart beat...> <It fell that so etc.>

With whom, when <this one>our first heart beat.../

With whom, when our first heart beat... Fitz.

3 <We...past,>I...past,/ Fitz. I...pass’d,

4 <rich>fair/fair Fitz. 7 <O! Life,>Ah! Life,/ Fitz. Ah! Life,/ FR Ah, Life! 9 <song,>Song,/Song, Fitz. 11 [see above, Letter (1)] <Art, whose eyes made God and

found him fair;> <Art, whose glance shaped God

and found him fair;> <Art, whose eyes were as God’s

skies laid bare;> <Art, whose <<eyes>>glance

met God’s and found <<them>>Him fair;>

<Art, whose glance shaped gods and found them fair;>

<Art, whom wondering eyes made wondrous fair;>

<Art, with wondrous wondering eyes most fair;>

<Art, with wondrous eyes of wondering prayer;>

Art, whose eyes were worlds by God found fair;/

Art, whose eyes were worlds by God found fair; Fitz.

13 <With heart-linked hands> <With neck-linked arms,> <With close-linked arms,> With neck-twined arms,/ With neck-twined arms, Fitz. there: –/there: FR 14 might’st/mightst Fitz., WEF, FR

2. Revision in proof: 7 <Ah! Life,>Ah, Life! Proof State

6, Prin.

3. From the summer of 1868 to the fall of 1869 DGR evidently intended to end his sonnet sequence with the suggestive paradox of Death as a newborn child. This pair of sonnets served as the conclusion to the FR series and to all 1869 proof versions of the sequence through to Proof State 4, where DGR inserted A Superscription as the final sonnet (see notes to Sonnet 97). On Proof State 12, Sonnet 101, The One Hope, was inserted as the final sonnet following this pair; Sonnet 97 was moved back to precede He and I, Sonnet 98, in the first ed. of Poems.

Text and Notes 223

SONNET CI. THE ONE HOPE.

When vain desire at last and vain regret Go hand in hand to death, and all is vain, What shall assuage the unforgotten pain

And teach the unforgetful to forget? 4 Shall Peace be still a sunk stream long unmet, –

Or may the soul at once in a green plain Stoop through the spray of some sweet life-fountain

And cull the dew-drenched flowering amulet? 8

Ah! when the wan soul in that golden air Between the scriptured petals softly blown Peers breathless for the gift of grace unknown, –

Ah! let none other alien spell soe’er 12 But only the one Hope’s one name be there, –

Not less nor more, but even that word alone.

END OF THE HOUSE OF LIFE.

Date of Publication: 1870, Poems Date of Composition: February 1870, WEF 70.35

Letters:

(1) DGR to ACS [26 Feb] 70 (WEF 70.35): ‘I trust no inconvenience will result to your labours [ACS was working on his review of the HL section of Poems] by the fact that I am now slightly transposing that section – but only in masses – putting the love sonnets first – beginning at Bridal Birth [2] & ending at Stillborn Love [55] and the other sonnets following these (Inclusiveness [63] to Superscription [97] with a new one for a close [The One Hope]).’

(2) DGR to ACS [26 Feb] 70 (WEF 70.36): ‘Overpage I copy the closing Sonnet of the H. of L. series in case it served you to see it now.’

224 The House of Life

[MS of sonnet 101 written verso on this letter, now in LC (Misc. MSS 1390) but not printed by WEF]

(3) ACS to DGR 28 Feb 70 (Lang II: 105): ‘Thanks for your new sonnet, which is lovely. It will make no difference to my critical work that you have – very rightly I think – re-arranged the cycles of sonnets.’ [The ‘new sonnet’ could also be either 16 or 36, which were also inserted in Proof State 13, but ACS seems to be responding to the fact that DGR had highlighted 101 by copying it to him in Letter (2)]

(4) DGR to Alice Boyd [25 Mar] 70 (WEF 70.70): ‘[Sonnet 101 refers] to the longing for accomplishment of individual desire after death.’

(5) DGR to WMR [25 Mar] 70 (WEF 70.71): WMR detected a resemblance between the first line of Sonnet 101, ‘When vain desire at last and vain regret’ and the sixth line of Petrarch’s first sonnet, ‘Fra la vana speranza e il van dolore’, although by 1903 WMR had forgotten about it when he came to edit this letter in RP (526–27):

‘I’ve been rather worried by your discovery about the resemblance to Petrarch’s first sonnet, which I verily believe I never read. Would you mind copying it for me?’

(6) DGR to F.S. Ellis [30 Mar] 70 (WEF 70.77): Both MSS of this sonnet read ‘vain … vain’ in line 1 but, alarmed by WMR’s suggestion about seeming to borrow from Petrarch, DGR changed his printer’s copy to ‘all . . . all’. However, a few days later, as this letter shows, he had decided to change back, but now it was too late and the return to ‘vain … vain’ did not appear in print until the second ed. of Poems (see next letter):

‘I forgot to mention one last change – which is in fact a change back again – to make if not too late. Page 238 line one

When <all>vain desire at last and <all>vain regret Alter as above – If too late, no matter. (Ellis loq: G–d d––n!)’

(7) DGR to Sidney Colvin 22 Apr 70 (WEF 70.113): ‘I ought to have directed your attention to the changes made at the last moment in the last sonnet of the House of Life which you quote. I suppose they escaped you (since no doubt Ellis sent you a complete copy), though indeed I shd not be much surprised in your seeing no improvement in them, as this was not the reason of their being made. They consist in the first line which now stands

“When all desire at last and all regret” and in line 12 which I have altered to

“Ah! let none other written spell soe’er.”

Text and Notes 225

The first was changed because my brother drew my attention to a certain likeness between its original form & a line in Petrarch’s first sonnet –

“Fra la vana speranza e il van dolore,” though I am sure this was not in my head, nor indeed could have been; for I was never a great reader of Petrarch & had no memory of the sonnet. Line 12 I altered because of its likeness to line 11 of the Sonnet preceding it (also quoted by you). This change I think necessary; but rather regret the other, & shall probably restore it if a second edition should be the result of such favorable views of the book as you are taking.’

(8) DGR to T.G. Hake 10 May 70 (WEF 70.152): ‘I myself prefer the original line in Sonnet 50 [101], but it is too like a line towards the end of Sonnet 49 [100]. That was my reason for the change; as, especially at the close of the series, the monotony had to be avoided.’

[DGR means the original reading of line 12 in 101, ‘Let no such joys as other souls count fair’

and line 11 in 100, Newborn Death II, ‘And Art, whose eyes were worlds by God found fair;’]

‘P.S. The two “vains” in line 1 of sonnet 50 [101] instead of “all”, I have now restored. I turned them out originally because of resemblances pointed out to a line in first Sonnet of Petrarch.’

(9) DGR to HC [8 Mar] 81 (WEF 81.104): ‘The One Hope is fully equal to the very best of my sonnets or I should not have wound up the series with it. But the fact is, what is peculiar chiefly in the series is that scarcely one is worse than any other.’

(10) WMR to Olivia Rossetti Agresti 28 Jan 1906 (UBC: Angeli–Dennis Papers): In this letter to his daughter, who was expert in translating English to Italian, WMR refers to the translation of HL being attempted by Romualdo Pàntini, who had published an article on ‘La Casa di Vita’ in 1904:

‘Pantini wrote me lately about translations of his from Gabriel, which it appears you will give some attention to. Pray take care that he does not blunder, as every one else seems determined to do, over the sonnet called The One Hope. G[abriel] here speaks of “the one hope’s one name”, which of course (and I presume you see it for yourself) means the name of the one woman whom he hopes to re-unite with in eternity. And yet 2 or 3 foreign translators, and even Wm. Sharp (which would have seemed next to impossible) suppose G[abriel] to mean the mere emotion of hope – a condition of unending hopefulness! – which would be next door to nonsense.’

Seventeen years earlier, WMR had said in his paraphrase of HL that ‘“the one Hope’s one name”‘ is ‘the name of the woman supremely beloved upon earth’ (DGRDW 261). Some readers, however, have resisted this biographical imperative which would require us to name the name of Jane Morris (Elizabeth Siddal?) here, believing instead with John Masefield that, ‘this Hope has a

226 The House of Life

different name for each one of us,’ (47), an interpretation supported by Letter (4) to Alice Boyd, and by the initial reading of line 12 in the LC MSS.

Manuscripts:

(1) (2) LC Misc. MSS 1390 (3) Poems: Proof States 13, 14 {Princeton}; second ed. annotated by DGR, Princeton; Beinecke Tauchnitz (4) B&S Proofs Sig. S, p. 263: DAM 6 May, Ros. 10 May

Revisions/Variants:

1. All MSS/B&S [The earliest LC MS is printer’s copy: a single leaf 4 1/2 by 7 inches bearing DGR’s pencilled note ‘Print after A Superscription page 105,’ a reference to Sonnet 97 in Proof State 12; the second LC MS is a transcription of the first on letter (2) above to ACS (WEF 70.36)] 11 unknown,/unknown, – all MSS,

Proof States 12 written spell/alien spell Proof

States 13–14, all eds of Poems 12 Let no such joys as other souls

<find> count fair/ LC(1) Let no such joys as other souls

count fair/ LC(2) Ah! let none other alien spell

soe’er

2. Revisions in proof: 1 <When vain desire at last and

vain regret> When all desire at last and all

regret/ Proof State 13, Prin. When vain desire at last and

vain regret

Poems, second ed. [see above, Letter (5)]

12 <Let no such joys as other souls count fair>

Ah! let no other written spell soe’er/

Proof State 14, Prin. Ah! let none other written spell

soe’er/Poems, all eds <written spell>alien spell DGR

second ed., Prin.; Bei. Tauchnitz Ah! let none other alien spell

soe’er [below text] END OF THE HOUSE OF LIFE WMR queries, ‘Is this line to stand?’ (DAM) and ‘Is this to stand?’ (Ros.); DGR writes ‘Yes’.

3. Instructions written on proofs: <‘Before this put M.S. He and I’> Proof State 13, Prin. This sonnet was inserted in Proof State 13 as the last one in the sequence, following A Superscription [97], but in all subsequent arrange-ments it was preceded by Newborn Death [99–100].

Appendix One

Dating and Ordonnance

I

Rossetti’s reluctance to date his sonnets is well known but imperfectly understood. His biographers usually assume that he was anxious to conceal the personal references in The House of Life, but that is only one of his reasons for not including dates. When he began to ready his poems for publication in August 1869, he wrote simply to his brother, ‘I don’t think dating throughout would do’ (WEF 69.144). Shortly after Poems appeared in April 1870, he dealt with the subject more fully in a letter to Dr T. G. Hake:

One thing in your last letter gratified me particularly. The three poems to which you gave the preference … are the only three new ones in the first section though much has been done quite lately to several others and something to nearly all. Much the greater proportion of the sonnets in the House of Life are also written lately. … I daresay you will agree with me that it is not desirable to mention in print what I say above of the dates of composition. I have thought it better to omit dates in the book. (WEF 70.124)

Whatever his reasons were, Rossetti clearly assumes that Dr Hake would comprehend and endorse them on reading this letter. It is improbable that Hake was aware of any guilty secrets at this time, for he was as yet only a literary correspondent rather than the close friend he became later. The fact that Rossetti took such pleasure in Hake’s preference for his most recent work is significant. Since he had been composing and revising at white heat to fill out his volume, he feared that this undignified haste would be apparent to reviewers. Late in 1869, he even proposed the desperate stratagem of including his early short story Hand and Soul in Poems ‘as it is really more a sort of poem than anything else’, but he finally decided that ‘it looked awkward there’ (WEF 69.207).

There are many other examples in his letters during this period of his fear that the poetry he had at hand was too slight to make a book.

228 The House of Life

This fear, of course, was the principal motivation for exhuming his wife’s coffin to retrieve the MSS of his original poetry that he had placed in it. Moreover, he wished to retain the reputation as a precocious poet that he had cultivated, a desire that led him to conceal his massive rewriting of early poems during 1869–70. His defensive Author’s Note to Poems illustrates this point:

Many poems in this volume were written between 1847 and 1853. Others are of more recent date, and a few belong to the intervening period. It has been thought unnecessary to specify the earlier work, as nothing is included which the author believes to be immature.

Since William Rossetti published his final and most comprehensive version of his brother’s Works in 1911, editors, biographers and critics have generally accepted his dates of composition included there as part of the Table of Contents. While endorsing these dates as the most complete and accurate available in any one compilation, I have changed many of them. There are inaccuracies, omissions and contra-dictions in William’s House of Life dates, drawn as they are over a period of sixty-five years from several of his records and publications and the extensive family archive of which he was the custodian. Perhaps the most reliable of all these sources are his day diaries (WMRD and WMR MS Diary), mostly unpublished but available at the University of British Columbia; in them he recorded literary data from the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood era to the poet’s deathbed compositions. William also recorded many dates of sonnet composition in his Collected Works of 1886 (CW), his 1889 Dante Gabriel Rossetti as Designer and Writer (DGRDW), his two-volume 1895 Dante Gabriel Rossetti: His Family Letters with a Memoir (FL/FLM), his Poems with Illustrations (1904), his Bibliography (1905) and his privately printed Dante Gabriel Rossetti: Classified Lists of His Writings with the Dates (1906) {ClassLists}.

Successive editors of The House of Life before me have discovered and corrected some of William’s inaccurate dates. Frederick Page, who worked on a never-completed critical edition for Oxford University Press, and Paull F. Baum, who in 1928 published the only critical edition of the House to appear, eliminated many errors by reference to letters and dated MSS. Baum revised and augmented his Appendix on the Dating of the Sonnets in his edition of Rossetti’s Poems, Ballads and Sonnets (1937). Kathryn I. Gordon and Thomas Delsey, who edited The House of Life for their Ph.D dissertations, continued this task. Building on their work and that of the late W. E. Fredeman, editor of the Correspondence of Dante Gabriel Rossetti (WEF) who

Appendix One 229

corrected so many dating blunders in the work of Oswald Doughty and J. R. Wahl, I offer in this edition the most complete and accurate set of documented dates that I could compile after my research on primary materials (see Appendix Seven, Locations of Sources). Dates of composition and publication, with documentation where available, are given for each sonnet in the Text and Notes section. It may be argued, however, that in the light of Rossetti’s habit of massive revision, certain sonnets may be said to have more than one date of composition (e.g., Sonnet 69, Autumn Idleness).

In the table that follows forty-four sonnets are dated from external evidence. A few of them have MS dates in the hand of the poet, his brother or Jane Morris, to whom many poems were sent in letters. More appeared as enclosures or in the texts of Rossetti’s letters; the Doughty-Wahl Letters (DW), however flawed, is a primary source of dates, as is the Bryson-Troxell Dante Gabriel Rossetti and Jane Morris: Their Correspondence. J. R. Wahl’s discussion of dating in his edition of The Kelmscott Love Sonnets of Dante Gabriel Rossetti is especially pertinent to The House of Life, dealing as it does with some thirty sonnets the poet wrote while living with Jane Morris at Kelmscott Manor during the summer of 1871. Nearly all of them wound up in the House.

For forty-three sonnets where there are no documents to date their composition and no evidence contradicts them, I have accepted William’s dates in Works. For fourteen other undocumented sonnets I have preferred my own calculations to William’s dates based on a terminus ad quem derived from a sonnet’s initial appearance in one of the Proof States of Poems (see Appendix Two). For example, William dates Sonnet 82, Hoarded Joy, 1870, but it appears in Proof State 3 of Poems, pulled around 13 September 1869, so it was obviously composed before that date. For two sonnets, Inclusiveness (63) and Lost Days (86), dating is uncertain. I have changed twenty-eight of William’s dates in Works and twenty-eight of Fredeman’s dates given in the Appendix to his ‘Rossetti’s In Memoriam’ (Fredeman 1965: 335–41).

The following table gives all the sonnets arranged chronologically in groups according to their known or presumed year of composition (more precise dates are given in the Notes to individual sonnets), identified with their 1881 numbers (in Arabic; 1870 numbers in Roman) and titles followed by brief references to documentation. All citations of Works refer to William’s edition of 1911; Poems means Rossetti’s collection of 1870.

230 The House of Life

Year 1881 No. 1881 Title Documentation

1847 90 “Retro Me Sathana” Works 657 1847–48 71–73 The Choice I–III FLM 108 75 Old and New Art II.

Not As These Aldrich MS note by

WMR; Works 656; see Notes

1848 76 Old and New Art III. The Husbandmen

Huntington HM6086a

1849 74 Old and New Art I. St. Luke The Painter

Huntington HM6086a

1850 69 Autumn Idleness Fitzwilliam HL MS fol. 84a

1852 47 Broken Music Huntington HM6081a 1853 65 Known in Vain Duke MS XXVI fol. 27a 70 The Hill Summit WMR ClassLists 8 1854 15 The Birth Bond WEF 54.57 67 The Landmark Huntington HM6081a 91 Lost on Both Sides WEF 54.55 1855 68 A Dark Day WEF 55.4 & 6 ?1858–

62 86 Lost Days DGRDW 293; Works;

Prideaux 1904: 464; see Notes

?1860 63 Inclusiveness DGRDW 293; see Notes 1864–65 78 Body’s Beauty DGRDW 293, 145 1866 77 Soul’s Beauty DGRDW 55–6 1868 10 The Portrait Works 49–52 Willowwood WMR MS Diary 19 Dec 68 99–100 Newborn Death WEF 68.120 1868–69 97 A Superscription Works; RP 380 (MS Diary

24 Jan 69) 1869 2 Bridal Birth Works 3 Love’s Testament Works 4 Lovesight Works 6 The Kiss Works 6a Nuptial Sleep Works 8 Love’s Lovers WEF 69.86 25 Winged Hours Works 37 The Love-Moon Works 38 The Morrow’s Message Works 39 Sleepless Dreams Works 45 Secret Parting Works

Appendix One 231

Year 1881 No. 1881 Title Documentation

1869 46 Parted Love WEF 69.136 48 Death-in-Love Fitzwilliam HL MS fol.

109b 84 Farewell to the Glen WEF 69.186 85 Vain Virtues RP 386 (MS Diary

18 Mar 69) 95 The Vase of Life Works 92 The Sun’s Shame I Poems: Proof State 2 82 Hoarded Joy Poems: Proof State 2 87 Death’s Songsters Poems: Proof State 3 7 Supreme Surrender Poems: Proof State 4 55 Stillborn Love Poems: Proof State 4 9 Passion and Worship Poems: Proof State 6 23 Love’s Baubles Poems: Proof State 6 1870 101 The One Hope WEF 70.36 16 A Day of Love Poems: Proof State 14 36 Life-in-Love Poems: Proof State 14 11 The Love-Letter Poems: Proof State 15 79 The Monochord Poems: Proof State 15 83 Barren Spring Poems: Proof State 15 21 Love-Sweetness Poems: Proof State 16 98 He and I Poems: Proof State 16 14 Youth’s Spring Tribute Works 1871 12 The Lovers’ Walk WEF 71.123 22 Heart’s Haven WEF 71.123 34 The Dark Glass WEF 71.123 41 Through Death to Love WEF 71.123 1 Love Enthroned Works 5 Heart’s Hope Works 13 Youth’s Antiphony Works 17 Beauty’s Pageant Works 18 Genius in Beauty Works 19 Silent Noon Works 20 Gracious Moonlight Works 26 Mid-Rapture Works 27 Heart’s Compass Works 28 Soul-Light Works 29 The Moonstar Works 30 Last Fire Works 31 Her Gifts Works

232 The House of Life

Year 1881 No. 1881 Title Documentation

1871 32 Equal Troth Works 33 Venus Victrix Works 35 The Lamp’s Shrine Works 40 Severed Selves Works 42 Hope Overtaken Works 43 Love and Hope Works 44 Cloud and Wind Works 53 Without Her Works 54 Love’s Fatality Works 59 Love’s Last Gift Works 80 From Dawn to Noon WEF 71.153 1873 62 The Soul’s Sphere Works 66 The Heart of the Night Works 81 Memorial Thresholds Works 93 The Sun’s Shame II Works 96 Life the Beloved Works 1875 88 Hero’s Lamp Works 89 The Trees of the Garden Works 1879 64 Ardour and Memory WEF 79.217 1880 Proem Sonnet on The Sonnet WEF 80.40 24 Pride of Youth WEF 80.383; DGRDW 171 56 True Woman I WEF 80.352 60 Transfigured Life WEF 80.352 57–58 True Woman II, III WEF 80.375 61 The Song-Throe FLM 368 94 Michelangelo’s Kiss WEF 80.389

The preceding table shows that fifty-nine of the 103 sonnets were composed by 1870 and forty-four afterwards. Fifteen sonnets date from before 1860, four were written between 1860 and 1866 and forty were composed during 1868–70. After the publication of Poems in mid-April 1870, twenty-eight new sonnets were written in 1871, seven during 1873–75 and nine in 1879–80. Sixty-eight sonnets belong to the years 1868–71.

Many inferences may be drawn from this table. Late sonnets were used early in the sequence and vice versa. No striking unity of subject, tone or image seems to be discernible in groups of sonnets composed within one year. For example, The Birth Bond (15), The Landmark (67) and Lost on Both Sides (91) were all written in 1854, but to what extent

Appendix One 233

is this fact apparent from the texts of these poems? In 1868, Rossetti composed The Portrait (10), Willowwood (49–52), A Superscription (97) and Newborn Death (99–100); apologists for autobiography as the key to understanding this sequence must expect the reader to believe that Rossetti lived through the emotions expressed in these eight sonnets in a single year.

The 1870 group covers themes and moods from the entire sequence, from ecstasy in Youth’s Spring Tribute (14) to despair in Barren Spring (83) to prayerful faith in The One Hope (101); from playfulness in The Love-Letter (11) to profundity in The Monochord (79). The 1871 group is not single-toned, even though it consists mainly of poems composed during one summer in one place, the so-called Kelmscott love sonnets. When they are arranged according to 1881 sequential number, these twenty-eight sonnets suggest the history of erotic passion turned to death-in-life and despair, concluding with a hope of redemption through art. They are not, however, a microcosm of the sequence because they lack the two extremes of the poet’s vision: the heaven of True Woman (56–58), for those who follow the ideal of Soul’s Beauty (77), and the hell of Willowwood (49–52), for those who worship the idol of Body’s Beauty (78) – false woman.

There is some evidence from these dates that the idea of The House of Life developed chronologically. What many readers have seen as the nucleus of the sequence, the germinal sonnets, were written during 1868–69 just before the publication in March 1869 of the Fortnightly Review group of sixteen sonnets, ‘Of Life, Love and Death.’ This title appeared, cancelled, above the text of Broken Music (47) on an 1850s MS (see Note 3. on that sonnet), but Rossetti’s urge to create a sequence of sonnets ‘towards a work to be called The House of Life’ seems not to have crystallized for another fifteen years.

Willowwood (49–52) and Newborn Death (99–100), with which the group of sixteen opened and closed, are the poet’s most dramatic presentations of erotic passion as a Thanatic illusion and of individual mortality as that which imposes shape and meaning on human existence. The Vase of Life (95), entitled Run and Won in 1869, expresses the aspirations and fate of the artist in terms similar to those evident in the last sonnet Rossetti wrote for the House – Michelangelo’s Kiss (94). As he was ordering both the 1870 and 1881 versions of the sequence, the very early sonnets, laden with Biblical-apocalyptic imagery, may have struck him as still appropriate (with some revision) to the struggle of the artist against time, a major theme of the concluding section of the sequence in both versions.

The nine sonnets written and added in 1880 seem to have been conceived with the entire sequence in mind. Pride of Youth (24)

234 The House of Life

highlights the opposition, central to the sequence, between the Old Love and the New Love. The proem-sonnet, which opens the sequence, and Transfigured Love (60) and The Song-Throe (61), which open its second part, are all concerned with poetics. While True Woman (56–58) and Michelangelo’s Kiss (94) (together with Soul’s Beauty and Body’s Beauty {77–78}, added though not written in 1880), provide an overview, an encapsulation of what the poet has said in The House of Life, these three sonnets about sonnets express how the poet has conveyed his meaning.

II

The next table provides an opportunity to compare the three published arrangements of House of Life sonnets together with tentative alternative ordering considered by the poet. On the far left is the date of composition of each sonnet. The next two columns give the 1881 numbers and titles as they appeared in the first edition of Ballads and Sonnets. The fourth column provides the 1870 numbers, and the far right column indicates numbering within the 1869 collection of 16 sonnets published in the Fortnightly Review. An Arabic number or numbers in parentheses following an 1881 number means that there is MS evidence that while he was ordering the final version of the sequence, Rossetti considered placing this sonnet in the position(s) indicated. This evidence is drawn mainly from the Fitzwilliam MSS, where he numbered the sonnets in pencil on the upper left of each leaf: when he changed a number, he drew a single stroke through it without obliterating it. Some sonnets have as many as four cancelled numbers while others were never altered. Similar evidence has been taken from the Bancroft (DAM) MSS and various letters in which Rossetti discussed ordonnance in The House of Life. The Proof States of 1869–70 and 1881 also show this experimentation with sequence. The tables in sections III and IV record these changes.

Date comp.

1881 No.

1881 Title

1870 No.

1869 No.

1880 Proem-sonnet [no title] 1871 I Love Enthroned 1869 II Bridal Birth I 1869 III Love’s Testament II 1869 IV (1) Lovesight III 1871 V (1,4) Heart’s Hope

Appendix One 235

Date comp.

1881 No.

1881 Title

1870 No.

1869 No.

1869 VI The Kiss IV 1869 [VIa] restored by WMR Nuptial Sleep V 1869 VII Supreme Surrender VI 1869 VIII Love’s Lovers VII 1869 IX Passion and Worship VIII 1868 X The Portrait IX 1870 XI The Love-Letter X 1871 XII (14) The Lovers’ Walk 1871 XIII Youth’s Antiphony 1870 XIV Youth’s Spring Tribute 1854 XV (20, 22) The Birth-Bond XI 1870 XVI (23) A Day of Love XII 1871 XVII (18, 19) Beauty’s Pageant 1871 XVIII (17, 20) Genius in Beauty 1871 XIX (14, 15, 16) Silent Noon 1871 XX (19, 21) Gracious Moonlight 1870 XXI Love-Sweetness XIII 1871 XXII (34, 35) Heart’s Haven 1869 XXIII (16, 21) Love’s Baubles XIV 1880 XXIV (23, 25) Pride of Youth 1869 XXV (24) Winged Hours XV IX 1871 XXVI Mid-Rapture 1871 XXVII (25, 26, 28) Heart’s Compass 1871 XXVIII (26, 27, 29, 33) Soul-Light 1871 XXIX (32, 33) The Moonstar 1871 XXX (29, 32) Last Fire 1871 XXXI Her Gifts 1871 XXXII (27, 28, 29, 30) Equal Troth 1871 XXXIII (34) Venus Victrix 1871 XXXIV (20, 21, 22) The Dark Glass 1871 XXXV (36) The Lamp’s Shrine 1870 XXXVI Life-in-Love XVI 1869 XXXVII The Love-Moon XVII 1869 XXXVIII The Morrow’s Message XVIII 1869 XXXIX Sleepless Dreams XIX V 1871 XL (41) Severed Selves 1871 XLI (12, 36, 50) Through Death to Love 1871 XLII Hope Overtaken 1871 XLIII Love and Hope

236 The House of Life

Date comp.

1881 No.

1881 Title

1870 No.

1869 No.

1871 XLIV Cloud and Wind 1869 XLV Secret Parting XX 1869 XLVI Parted Love XXI 1852 XLVII Broken Music XXII XI 1869 XLVIII Death-in-Love XXIII 1868 XLIX Willowwood I. XXIV I 1868 L Willowwood II. XXV II 1868 LI Willowwood III. XXVI III 1868 LII Willowwood IV. XXVII IV 1871 LIII (54) Without Her 1871 LIV (53) Love’s Fatality 1869 LV Stillborn Love XXVIII 1880 LVI (55, 57) True Woman I. 1880 LVII (58) True Woman II. 1880 LVIII (59) True Woman III. 1871 LIX (56) Love’s Last Gift 1880 LX (80) Transfigured Life 1880 LXI (81) The Song-Throe 1873 LXII (60, 64) The Soul’s Sphere ?1860 LXIII (64, 69) Inclusiveness XXIX XIV 1879 LXIV (62, 63) Ardour and Memory 1853 LXV Known in Vain XXX XIII 1873 LXVI (64, 73) The Heart of the Night 1854 LXVII The Landmark XXXI X 1855 LXVIII A Dark Day XXXII 1850 LXIX Autumn Idleness 1853 LXX (30, 50) The Hill Summit XXXIII 1847–

48 LXXI (77) The Choice I. XXXV

1847–48

LXXII (78) The Choice II. XXXVI

1847–48

LXXIII (79) The Choice III. XXXVII

1849 LXXIV (75, 77) Old and New Art I. 1847–

48 LXXV (76, 78) Old and New Art II.

1848 LXXVI (77, 79) Old and New Art III. 1866 LXXVII (76) Soul’s Beauty 1864– LXXVIII Body’s Beauty

Appendix One 237

Date comp.

1881 No.

1881 Title

1870 No.

1869 No.

65

1870 LXXIX The Monochord 1871 LXXX (79, 81, 82) From Dawn to Noon 1873 LXXXI (66, 70, 72, 84) Memorial Thresholds 1869 LXXXII Hoarded Joy XXXVIII 1870 LXXXIII Barren Spring XXXIV 1869 LXXXIV Farewell to the Glen 1869 LXXXV Vain Virtues XXXIX ?1858–

62 LXXXVI Lost Days XL XII

1869 LXXXVII Death’s Songsters XLI 1875 LXXXVIII Hero’s Lamp 1875 LXXXIX The Trees of the Garden 1847 XC Retro Me Sathana XLII 1854 XCI Lost on Both Sides XLIII VI 1869 XCII The Sun’s Shame I. XLIV 1873 XCIII (94) The Sun’s Shame II. 1880 XCIV (92) Michelangelo’s Kiss 1869 XCV The Vase of Life XLV VII 1873 XCVI (95) Life The Beloved 1868–9 XCVII A Superscription XLVI VIII 1870 XCVIII He and I XLVII 1868 XCIX Newborn Death I. XLVIII XV 1868 C Newborn Death II. XLIX XVI 1870 CI The One Hope L

III

Answering a question from Harry Buxton Forman in October 1868 about his advertised intentions to publish his original poetry in the 1860s, Rossetti replied that he had a volume ‘nearly ready for the press’ when he published The Early Italian Poets in 1861, ‘but shortly afterwards I got into a state of health and spirits which caused me to destroy the MSS’ (WEF 68.145). No indication survives of what that volume might have contained, but we must assume that Rossetti was speaking of the poetry MSS that he began to gather together in 1856 and buried with his wife Lizzie in 1862 (WEF 56.51.1 Vol. III). However, his first reference to what was to become The House of Life

238 The House of Life

in 1870 and 1881 in a letter to Jane Morris on 4 August 1869 suggests that the sonnet sequence was only beginning to take shape then:

I think I shall have to get the sonnets printed only on one side of the paper, in order that as I write more, I may be able to slip them into their proper places in the series – so far as it can be called a series. I find I have just 50 sonnets which I shall print after rejecting a good many I have by me. I shall reprint those in the Fortnightly. (WEF 69.112)

It was not until 26 March 1870 that the poet had fifty sonnets ready for The House of Life; the first printed version after the Fortnightly Review group of sixteen consisted of only thirty-three, preceded by the following title:

OF LIFE, LOVE, AND DEATH. SONNETS

(Towards a work to be called ‘The House of Life’)

This version, dating from the so-called Penkill Proofs of 16 August 1869, belongs to Proof State 2 of Poems and is shown below next to the Fortnightly Review group of sixteen that had the same title but lacked the House of Life subtitle. On the following pages, subsequent versions of the sequence show how it evolved towards its first published form in April 1870.

FORTNIGHTLY REVIEW POEMS: PROOF STATE 2 (Penkill)

Willowwood I. (49) p. 105 Willowwood I. (49) Willowwood II. (50) p. 106 Willowwood II. (50) Willowwood III. (51) p. 107 Willowwood III. (51) Willowwood IV. (52) p. 108 Willowwood IV. (52) Sleepless Dreams (39) p. 109 Flammifera [Love’s Testament] (3) Lost on Both Sides (91) p. 111Broken Music (48) Run and Won [The Vase of Life]

(95) p. 113 The Morrow’s Message (38)

A Superscription (97) p. 115 Lovesight (4) Winged Hours (25) p. 117 The Kiss (6) The Landmark (67) p. 119 The Love-Moon (37) Broken Music (47) p. 121 Winged Hours (25) Lost Days (86) p. 123 Nearest Kindred [The Birth Bond]

(15)

Appendix One 239

FORTNIGHTLY REVIEW POEMS: PROOF STATE 2 (Penkill)

Known in Vain (65) p. 125 Bridal Birth (2) Inclusiveness (63) p. 127 Love’s Lovers (8) Newborn Death I. (99) p. 129 Secret Parting (45) Newborn Death II. (100) p. 131 Sleepless Dreams (39) p. 133 Death-in-Love (48) p. 135 A Superscription (97) p. 137 Placata Venere [Nuptial Sleep]

(6a) p. 139 Known in Vain (65) p. 141 Inclusiveness (63) p. 143 The Landmark (67) p. 145 A Dark Day (68) p. 147 The Choice I. (71) p. 148 The Choice II. (72) p. 149 The Choice III. (73) p. 151 Vain Virtues (85) p. 153 Lost Days (86) p. 155 The Sun’s Shame I. (92) p. 157 Retro Me Sathana (90) p. 159 Run and Won [The Vase of Life]

(95) p. 161 Lost on Both Sides (91) p. 163 Newborn Death I. (99) p. 164 Newborn Death II. (100)

The next printed version of the House, significantly rearranged, appeared on 13 September 1869 in Proof State 3, containing thirty-two sonnets and fourteen songs under the heading,

SONNETS AND SONGS, Towards a Work to be called

‘THE HOUSE OF LIFE’

Rossetti moved The Choice (71–73) to the ‘Sonnets for Pictures and Other Sonnets’ section and added the sonnet Parted Love (46). The Songs are on pp. 88–103. Pagination follows the Olivia Rossetti Agresti copy of this state, the only perfect copy extant of the so-called A Proofs.

240 The House of Life

p. 76 Inclusiveness (63) p. 100 Penumbra p. 77 Known in Vain (65) p. 102 A New Year’s Burden p. 78 The Landmark (67) p. 103 Even So p. 79 A Dark Day (68) p. 104 Bridal Birth (2) p. 80 Vain Virtues (85) p. 105 Flammifera (3) p. 81 Lost Days (86) p. 106 Lovesight (4) p. 82 Retro Me Sathana (90) p. 107 The Kiss (6) p. 83 Lost on Both Sides (91) p. 108 Nuptial Sleep (6a) p. 84 The Sun’s Shame I. (92) p. 109 Love’s Lovers (8) p. 85 Run and Won (95) p. 110 Nearest Kindred (15) p. 86 Newborn Death I. (99) p. 111 Winged Hours (25) p. 87 Newborn Death II. (100) p. 112 The Love-Moon (37) p. 88 Aspecta Medusa p. 113 The Morrow’s Message (38) p. 89 The Sea-Limit p. 114 Sleepless Dreams (39) p. 90 A Young Fir-Wood p. 115 Secret Parting (45) p. 91 The Honeysuckle p. 116 Parted Love (46) p. 92 The Woodspurge p. 117 Broken Music (47) p. 93 Love-Lily p. 118 Death-in-Love (48) p. 94 First Love Remembered p. 119 Willowwood I. (49) p. 95 The Moon-Star p. 120 Willowwood II. (50) p. 96 Sudden Light p. 121 Willowwood III. (51) p. 97 A Little While p. 122 Willowwood IV. (52) p. 98 The Song of the Bower p. 123 A Superscription (92)

One week later, Rossetti added five sonnets in Proof State 4: Joy Delayed (82) after A Dark Day (68); Death’s Songsters (87) after Lost Days (86); Supreme Surrender (7) after Nuptial Sleep (6a); The Portrait (10) after Love’s Lovers (8) and Stillborn Love (55) as a conclusion following Willowwood (49–52). A Superscription (92) was moved back from its concluding position to precede the Willowwood quartet. Then, in Proof State 7 (early October), A Superscription (92) was shifted again, now coming between the Newborn Death pair (99–100) and the Songs. He also transferred The Hill Summit (70) from the ‘Sonnets for Pictures and Other Sonnets’ to follow A Dark Day (68); following it came The Choice trio (71–73), restored to the sequence after temporary banishment to the ‘Sonnets for Pictures’ section. The new sonnets added were Passion and Worship (9) to follow Love’s Lovers (8) and Love’s Baubles (22) to follow The Birth-Bond (15). The next table shows the Contents and order of the House in Proof States 4, 7 and 12:

Appendix One 241

Proof State 4: 20 Sep 69

Proof State 7: 3 Oct 69

Proof State 12: 25 Nov 69

p. 82 Inclusiveness (63) p. 96 p. 87 p. 83 Known in Vain (65) p. 97 p. 88 p. 84 The Landmark (67) p. 98 p. 89 p. 85 A Dark Day (68) p. 99 p. 90 p. 100 The Hill Summit

(70)** p. 91

p. 101 The Choice I (71)**

p. 92

p. 102 The Choice II (72)**

p. 93

p. 103 The Choice III (73)**

p. 94

p. 86 Joy Delayed (82)* p. 104 p. 95 p. 87 Vain Virtues (85) p. 105 p. 96 p. 88 Lost Days (86) p. 106 p. 97 p. 89 Death’s Songsters (87)* p. 107 p. 98 p. 90 ‘Retro Me Sathana!’(90) p. 108 p. 99 p. 91 Lost on Both Sides (91) p. 109 p. 100 p. 92 The Sun’s Shame [I] (92) p. 110 p. 101 p. 93 Run and Won (95) p. 111 p. 102 p. 94 Newborn Death I (99) p. 112 p. 103 p. 95 Newborn Death II (100) p. 113 p. 104 p. 114 A Superscription

(97) p. 105

pp. 96–111 Songs pp. 115–30 pp. 106–22 p. 112 Bridal Birth (2) p. 131 p. 123 p. 113 Flammifera (3) p. 132 p. 124 p. 114 Lovesight (4) p. 133 p. 125 p. 115 The Kiss (6) p. 134 p. 126 p. 116 Nuptial Sleep (6a) p. 135 p. 127 p. 117 Supreme Surrender

(7)* p. 136 p. 128

p. 118 Love’s Lovers (8) p. 137 p. 129 p. 138 Passion and

Worship (9)* p. 130

p. 119 The Portrait (10)* p. 139 p. 131 p. 120 Nearest Kindred (15) p. 140 p. 132 p. 141 Love’s Baubles

(23)* p. 133

242 The House of Life

Proof State 4: 20 Sep 69

Proof State 7: 3 Oct 69

Proof State 12: 25 Nov 69

p. 121 Winged Hours (25) p. 142 p. 134 p. 122 The Love-Moon (37) p. 143 p. 135 p. 123 The Morrow’s Message

(38) p. 144 p. 136

p. 124 Sleepless Dreams (39) p. 145 p. 137 p .125 Secret Parting (40) p. 146 p. 138 p. 126 Parted Love (46) p. 147 p. 139 p. 127 Broken Music (47) p. 148 p. 140 p. 128 Death-in-Love (48) p. 149 p. 141 p. 129 A Superscription (97) [p. 114] [p. 105] p. 130 Willowwood I (49) p. 150 p. 142 p. 131 Willowwood II (50) p. 151 p. 143 p. 132 Willowwood III (51) p. 152 p. 144 p. 133 Willowwood IV (52) p. 153 p. 145 p. 134 Stillborn Love (55)* p. 154 p. 146 p. 143 Lilith (78)*** p. 163 p. 156 p. 144 Sibylla Palmifera

(77)*** p. 164 p. 157

p. 145 The Choice I (71)*** p. 146 The Choice II (72)*** p. 147 The Choice III (73)*** p. 155 The Hill Summit

(70)***

p. 156 Autumn Idleness (69)***

p. 173 p. 167

p. 174 Farewell to the Glen (84)***

p. 168

* first appearance, **moved to HL from ‘Other Sonnets’, ***not yet in HL

[St. Luke the Painter (74)***, later Old and New Art I, first appeared in print on p. 45 in Proof States 8 and 9, pulled after the exhumation; it was on p. 166 in Proof State 12, the only HL sonnet retrieved from Lizzie’s grave.]

No further substantial change occurred in The House of Life until Proof State 14. By 1 March 1870, Rossetti had decided to restore the basic order of Proof State 2 with the love sonnets (Bridal Birth to Stillborn Love) coming first (WEF 70.35) followed by the ‘change and fate’ sonnets (Inclusiveness to A Superscription) and the Songs coming last. He removed three songs to the first section of Poems: Aspecta

Appendix One 243

Medusa, A New Year’s Burden and Even So. He also changed the order of the remaining songs to conform with that of the sonnets. The love songs now came first, and two titles were changed: The Sea-Limit became The Sea-Limits and The Moon-Star became Plighted Promise. Two sonnets were retitled at this point: Flammifera appeared as Love’s Redemption (3) after Proof State 13, and Run and Won became The Vase of Life (95) between Proof States 14 and 15. The poet added three new sonnets to this state: A Day of Love (16) followed The Birth-Bond (15); Life-in-Love (36) came after Winged Hours (25) and The One Hope appeared as a conclusion, immediately preceded by A Superscription (97), which had been shifted again. The table below shows The House of Life as it was printed in Proof State 14, containing forty-six sonnets and eleven songs; ‘Sonnets for Pictures’ and other sonnets added to the House later are noted at the end:

p. 177 Bridal Birth (2) p. 178 Love’s Redemption (3) p. 179 Lovesight (4) p. 180 The Kiss (6) p. 181 Nuptial Sleep (6a) p. 182 Supreme Surrender (7) p. 183 Love’s Lovers (8) p. 184 Passion and Worship (9) p. 185 The Portrait (10) p. 186 The Birth-Bond (15) p. 187 A Day of Love (16) p. 188 Love’s Baubles (23) p. 189 Winged Hours (25) p. 190 Life-in-Love (36) p. 191 The Love-Moon (37) p. 192 The Morrow’s Message (38) p. 193 Sleepless Dreams (39) p. 194 Secret Parting (45) p. 195 Parted Love (46) p. 196 Broken Music (47) p. 197 Death-in-Love (48) p. 198 Willowwood I. (49) p. 199 Willowwood II. (50) p. 200 Willowwood III. (51) p. 201 Willowwood IV. (52) p. 202 Stillborn Love (55) p. 203 Inclusiveness (63) p. 204 Known in Vain (65)

p. 205 The Landmark (67) p. 206 A Dark Day (68) p. 207 The Hill Summit (70) p. 208 The Choice I. (71) p. 209 The Choice II. (72) p. 210 The Choice III. (73) p. 211 Hoarded Joy (82) p. 212 Vain Virtues (85) p. 213 Lost Days (86) p. 214 Death’s Songsters (87) p. 215 Retro Me Sathana (90) p. 216 Lost on Both Sides (91) p. 217 The Sun’s Shame I. (92) p. 218 The Vase of Life (95) p. 219 Newborn Death I. (99) p. 220 Newborn Death II. (100) p. 221 A Superscription (97) p. 222 The One Hope (101) p. 223 Love-Lily p. 224 First Love Remembered p. 225 Plighted Promise p. 226 Sudden Light p. 227 A Little While pp. 228–9 The Song of the Bower pp. 230–1 Penumbra p. 232 The Woodspurge p. 233 The Honeysuckle p. 234 A Young Fir-Wood

244 The House of Life

pp. 235–6 The Sea Limits p. 246 Lilith (77) p. 247 Sibylla Palmifera (78) p. 256 St. Luke the Painter (74)

p. 259 Autumn Idleness (69) p. 260 Farewell to the Glen (84) p. 261 The Monochord (79)

Finally, Rossetti added four more sonnets to bring The House of Life up to a round half-century for publication in April 1870. In Proof State 15 (about 22 March), The Love-Letter (11) was inserted after The Portrait (10) and Barren Spring (83) became Sonnet XXXIV following The Hill Summit (70). Completing the sequence in Proof State 16 (about March 26), Love-Sweetness (21) comes after A Day of Love (16) and He and I (98) precedes Newborn Death (99–100), following A Superscription (97), which had been moved back at the last minute to follow The Vase of Life (95). In 1870, the ‘Sonnets for Pictures and Other Sonnets’ section contained six sonnets that were to become part of the 1881 House of Life: Autumn Idleness (69), St. Luke the Painter [renamed Old and New Art I. to become 74], Sibylla Palmifera [renamed Soul’s Beauty to become 77], Lilith [renamed Body’s Beauty to become 78], The Monochord (79) and Farewell to the Glen (84). There were no songs in the 1881 House.

IV

In Ballads and Sonnets (1881), the division of The House of Life, now subtitled A Sonnet Sequence, into two titled parts, Youth and Change and Change and Fate, makes explicit the sectioning foreshadowed in the note on the verso of the Poems (1870) half-title:

The first twenty-eight sonnets and the seven first songs treat of love. These and the others would belong to separate sections of the projected work.

Thus the fifty-two sonnets added in 1881 expanded but did not fundamentally change the structure of the 1870 sequence: the first twenty-eight sonnets of 1870 appear in Part I, Youth and Change, the last twenty-two, in Part II, Change and Fate. All six sonnets from the 1870 ‘Sonnets for Pictures and Other Sonnets’ were transferred to Part II; fourteen other sonnets were inserted there, almost all of them written between 1873 and 1880. Thirty-two sonnets were added to Part I, twenty-seven of them ‘Kelmscott love sonnets’ written in the summer of 1871 and five others written in 1880.

Both MSS and proofs for The House of Life as it appeared in Ballads and Sonnets are less cumbersome for the editor to collate than those of Poems (1870). The poet’s friend Charles Fairfax Murray assembled the most complete collection of House MSS between two covers, now in

Appendix One 245

the Fitzwilliam Museum Library. Called simply ‘The House of Life’, this volume contains MSS of ninety-two sonnets in DGR’s hand in the final 1881 order, with the missing eleven inserted as fair copies by Murray. After 1873, DGR recorded planned changes in House sonnets in his copy of the seventh (Tauchnitz) edition of Poems. It appears that he used this 1873 edition as printers’ copy when he was preparing the two volumes of 1881, Ballads and Sonnets and Poems, for publication. The printed Tauchnitz pages in the Fitzwilliam and Delaware Art Museum collections, marked with changes and then torn from the book to be sent to the printer, should be regarded as MSS (see Appendix Seven).

Two collections of Ballads and Sonnets proofsheets, marked with the printer’s date-stamp and with extensive revisions and instructions in DGR’s hand, have survived nearly intact: the ‘Rosenbach Proofs’ (sold at Christie’s in 2004) and the ‘Bancroft Proofs’ at the Delaware Art Museum. Partial copies of these proofs exist in the Troxell Collection (Princeton), the Tinker Collection (Beinecke) and the Widener Collection (Harvard). Collation of these proofs is not simple, however, because they were not issued in complete sets (as in 1870) but separately by signature – that is, as sheets of sixteen pages each, in multiple copies. The House of Life appears in seven signatures, M though S, issues of which were staggered between 23 April and 27 May 1881; the proofs for all of Ballads and Sonnets were pulled between 5 April and 7 June. The chart on p. 23 schematizes the proofing phase of Ballads and Sonnets according to signature, date pulled and present location of proofsheets.

With the exception of the press-proofs (those imprinted on the paper to be used in the edition) and one set of post-press proofs, all these sheets are date-stamped in the upper-left-hand corners of the first page of each signature. Beside these stamped dates appear numbers 1, 2, 3, etc., chronologically according to date; in the Bancroft collection, where more than one set of proofs exists for the same date, the letters a, b, c, etc., follow the numbers. There are twenty-eight separate sheets containing House sonnets among the Bancroft Proofs. As in 1870, the poet used these proofsheets to alter words, phrases or lines, to delete, exchange or insert entire sonnets and to instruct the printer in matters of typography, spacing and format. One set, the 5a press-proofs, were copy-edited with a red pencil by William Rossetti (WEF 81.228 & 230 & 243 [DW 2486–87 & 2489]).

Signature [A] is included in the Table because some of the preliminary material, especially the Table of Contents, is relevant to the sonnet sequence. The much-revised half-title to The House of Life and the prefatory note verso are not dealt with fully because of the

246 The House of Life

confusion and uncertainty surrounding them. The topic is discussed in detail at the beginning of Text and Notes above. This half-title and note were present in the 1881 proofs from 25 April (WEF 81.188 [Texas]), appearing first as part of Signature L. The note was dropped and restored, with variants, several times. It became a separate leaf between Signatures L and M (WEF 81.305 & 306 [Texas]), appearing finally as a cancel-leaf in the first edition.

The following table records the changes in sequential order of sonnets in the Ballads and Sonnets proofs evident from an analysis of the Bancroft and Rosenbach materials. Each sonnet moved is identified by, from left, signature letter, copy number and date pulled:

N1 28 Apr The Dark Glass (34) appears as 21 Heart’s Haven (22) appears as 34 Equal Troth (32) appears as 29 The Moonstar (29) appears as 32 N2 3 May Love-Sweetness (21) appears as 22 N3 4 May Heart’s Haven (22) reappears as 21 The Dark Glass (34) reappears as 34 N4 6 May Heart’s Haven (22) reappears as 22 Equal Troth (32) reappears as 32 N5 n.d. Love-Sweetness (21) reappears as 21 O3 9 May The Moonstar (29) reappears as 29 R1 5 May Farewell to the Glen (84) appears as 81 Memorial Thresholds (81) appears as 84 Michelangelo’s Kiss (94) appears as 92 The Sun’s Shame (92–93) appears as 93–94 R2 9 May From Dawn to Noon (80) appears as 81 Farewell to the Glen (84) reappears as 80 Michelangelo’s Kiss (94) reappears as 94 The Sun’s Shame (92–93) reappears as 92–93 R3 10 May From Dawn to Noon (80) reappears as 80 Memorial Thresholds (81) reappears as 81 Farewell to the Glen (84) reappears as 84

Changes from Poems: Nuptial Sleep (6a) was withdrawn. See Letter (8) in the notes to that sonnet: DGR to F. S. Ellis c. 25 Apr 81 (WEF 81.188 [Texas]). Barren Spring (83) was moved from XXXIV (following The Hill Summit) to follow Hoarded Joy (82). Autumn Idleness (69), Old And New Art I: St. Luke The Painter (74), Soul’s Beauty (77), Body’s Beauty (78), The Monochord (79) and Autumn Idleness (69) were moved to HL from ‘Sonnets for Pictures and Other Sonnets.’

Appendix Two

Poems: Proof States1

DGR worked on the various printed stages of Poems over a period of nine months, from the galleys he first received in July 1869 to the final addition of two sonnets 26 March 1870 (the first edition appeared on 25/26 April). They are set forth below as sixteen discrete proof states, each number being assigned a date derived from DGR’s letters and the proofs themselves. Earlier attempts to sort out this textual and bibliographical tangle, as John Carter called it (Carter 1972), involved arbitrary categorizations of the material into Trial Books, private issues, unique bifolia and proof sets with names such as Penkill or Exhumation or numbered series such as A1 through A4 (for details, see Lewis 102–51). The following entries provide approximate dates for each proof state and locate copies of the proofs, giving designations assigned to them by the repository holding them. The Troxell Collection at Princeton has all sixteen states, numbered and fully annotated by Robert S. Fraser in Fraser 1972: 146–75. For each state, the following tabulation provides a Fraser (F) number, but F6 has been divided into two states, the second being a revise of the first, and F12 has been omitted since it describes a mixed set of proofs from other states in the Troxell Collection rather than a discrete proof state.

The five Fitzwilliam Trial Books of Poems have now been reclassified as four sets of proofs designated A-D, although in his catalogue description of this material the librarian refers the reader to Thomas J. Wise’s categorization of it as issues and fragments of Trial Books. Wise describes both the Fitzwilliam holdings and his own collection of proofs in ALC: IV: 124–26, 129–31; VIII: 171–76. Wise’s copies are in the Ashley Collection of the BL, catalogued according to his own names and numbers, although finally corrected in Burnett 1999. Thus, Fitzwilliam Proof A is Proof State 4 below, Proof B is 7 with two leaves belonging to 12 bound in, Proof C is 12 and Proof D

1 Versions of this material appeared in Lewis 185–8 and in WEF Vol V.

381–83.

248 Poems: Proof States

is 14. Other names and numbers by which these proofs have long been identified are given for reference.

Proof States

1. 30 Jul 69 (F1–‘Sister Helen’). Galley proofs. Berg has a copy of the sonnet ‘After the French Liberation of Italy’ from this state; it was deleted early (see WEF 69.130 and Lewis 186).

2. 18 Aug 69 (F2–‘Penkill Proofs’). 3. 13 Sep 69 (F3–‘A Proofs’). WMR Bibliography No. 14. The only

perfect set of this state, inscribed by WMR to his daughter Olivia Rossetti Agresti, was formerly in the collection of the late Simon Nowell-Smith.

4. 20 Sep 69 (F4–‘A2 Proofs’). Fitzwilliam Proof A. Ashley 1399, First Issue of Wise’s ‘Trial Book’ of 1869. The Ashley and Troxell fragments together form an almost perfect set.

5. 21 Sep–2 Oct (F5–‘Proofs for the First Trial Book’). Thirteen pages tipped into WBS’s copy of 2 above.

6. c. 3 Oct 69 (F6–‘First Trial Book’). The Troxell fragment contains leaves from 7 below. Ashley 1393. Huntington proofs of Poems belong to this state.

7. Second state of 6 above. Fitzwilliam Proof B. Revise of Ashley 1393.

8. 30 Oct 69 (F7–‘Exhumation Proofs’). 9. Second state of 8 above (F8–‘Exhumation Proofs’). 10. 30 Oct–25 Nov 69 (F9–Hand and Soul). A separately printed

pamphlet from pp. [178]–99 of 6 above paginated [1]–22, imprint Strangeways & Walden. ‘Rossetti excluded, as being in prose, the tale Hand and Soul… He then caused various copies … to be done up in a drab wrapper; and he gave some of them away, but never sold them’ (WMR Bibliography No. 14; Lewis 120–24; Lasner 1997; see also WEF 69.207&n3 & 70.23&n2). The Fitzwilliam copy is bound into the C. F. Murray copy of 14 below. Ashley 1396. 30 Oct–25 Nov 69.

11. (F10–‘Proofs for the Second Trial Book’). Ashley 1395 & 1397, described as private issues, are proof copies of poems deleted from this state. Janet Troxell identified this state as ‘revises prior to the Second Trial Book with the pagination used in that issue’ (Troxell 1938: 247).

Appendix Two 249

12. 25 Nov 69 (F11–‘Second Trial Book’) Fitzwilliam Proof C. Ashley 1400, ‘Second Issue of the Trial Book of 1869’. WMR Bibliography No. 16. Duke Rossetti MS xvii-F is a fragment of this state.

13. Uncertain (fragments of various states between 12. and press proofs for the first edition (F13–‘Mixed state of proofs for the First Edition’). A Troxell fragment (in one of WMR’s ‘Miscellanies’ of proofsheets) contains some of DGR’s printed revisions that are not present in any known copy of 14 below but that are incorporated in the first edition.

14. c. 1 Mar 70 (F14–‘Proofs for the First Edition’). Fitzwilliam Proof D (F. S. Ellis/C. F. Murray copy contains material bound in from 10 and 11 above and 15 below. Ashley 1405. The H. B. Forman copy at Princeton is prefaced by his MS note on the Wise-Forman forgery Verses by D. G. Rossetti. Copies were sent early in March to WMR, ACS and Forman among others (see WEF 70.45&49).

15. 22 Mar 70 (F15–‘Additional Proofs for the First Edition’). Ashley 1404, Huntington, trial issue of The Stream’s Secret. Another BL copy is in the Morris Bequest (Add. MSS 45353).

16. 26 Mar 70 (F16–Love-Sweetness). Ashley 1402, Huntington, trial issue/proof copy of Two Sonnets.

Appendix Three

Poems: Chronolgy 1868–71

Only HL is covered in this appendix. For a fuller chronology of the origins and development of Poems, see WEF Vol. V, Appendix 3. All letters under ‘Source’ are WEF. All entries refer to DGR.

Date Source Event

[18 May] 68.92&n1 Sonnets 77 & 78 printed as Lady Lilith and

Sibylla Palmifera in Notes on the R.A. Ex. by WMR and ACS: see FLM 270–1.

16 Sep–3 Nov 68.135 Depression, insomnia, failing eyes prevent painting; stays at Penkill with WBS who tells him: ‘Live for your poetry.’ See AN 2: 108–9; FLM 265–70.

13 Oct 68.145 Tells H. B. Forman that he never published his original verse announced on errata slip in EIP because he destroyed the MSS.

[17 Dec] 68.167 First mention (to C. A. Howell) of exhuming MSS from EES’s grave.

[23 Dec] 68.173 Resumes sending his MS poems – ‘ravelled rags of verse’ – to Allingham, will publish a group of sonnets in the March issue of FR.

7 Feb 69.15 Tells John Skelton he will write new poems ‘and see whether they seem worth anything among such poets as we have now’.

1 Mar 69.20 Publishes sixteen sonnets “Of Life, Love, and Death” in FR, sends them to his mother as ‘a lively band of bogies’.

[c. 15 Jul] 69.84 Instructs F. S. Ellis to set his poems in standing type for printing in slip-proofs ‘to keep by me as stock for a possible volume’.

Appendix Three 251

Date Source Event

4 Aug 69.112 Outlines to JM his plan for HL: ‘sonnets printed only on one side of the paper, in order that as I write more, I may be able toslip them into their proper places in the series – so far as it may be called a series. I find that I have just 50 sonnets which I shall print after rejecting a good many I have by me. I shall reprint those in the Fortnightly.’

16 Aug 69.126 Authorizes Howell to arrange exhumation.

[20 Aug] 69.128–9 Back at Penkill for a month ‘tattooing’ his proofs.

[21 Aug] 69.130 Sends WMR Proof State 2 for correction; queries about Nuptial Sleep (6a); see replies Peattie Nos 161–66.

27 Aug 69.139 Queries to WMR about The Choice (71), ‘Retro Me Sathana’ (90); see Peattie No. 164.

30 Aug 69.143 Tells JM when vol. reaches c. 350 pp. he will ‘rush into publication.’

[31 Aug] 69.144 Tells WMR, ‘I don’t think dating through-out wd do.’

[2 Sep] 69.146 Queries to WMR about Sonnets 71 and 90; see Peattie No. 165.

[14 Sep] 69.154 Proof State 3: queries to WMR about Sonnets 6a, A Dark Day (68); adds Autumn Idleness (69), Parted Love (46); sends seven new sonnets for Proof State 4; see Peattie No. 166.

[15 Sep] 69.156 Queries to WMR about Sonnets 70–3.

[3 Oct] 69.168 Proof State 6 in hand; more on Sonnet 6a.

8 Oct 69.176 Will publish vol. of c. 400 pp. in Spring; no more printing for private circulation.

9 Oct 69.177 Exhumation (on 5 Oct) successful: gets his MS poems, ‘a sad wreck’, a week later; see

252 Chronologies and Bibliographical Summaries

Date Source Event

also WEF 69.180&n1, 181–83, FLM 274–75.

[15 Oct] 69.183 Will dedicate Poems to WMR; for his response to exhumation, see Peattie No. 169.

19 Oct 69.186 Tells Miss Losh his sonnets are his best poems; A Superscription (97) is ‘the result of strong feeling’.

[c. 31 Dec] 69.225 Asks J. F. McLennan to scout around for sympathetic reviewers for Poems, first of many such enquiries in the campaign dubbed by WBS ‘working the oracle’: see also 70.12 & 13, AN 2: 128–29.

21 Feb 70.31 Confers with ACS about Proof States 13, 14, adds three new HL sonnets including The One Hope (101) for Proof State 14; for reply, see Lang 2: 344.

[26 Feb] 70.35–6 Grateful to ACS for denying in his review that HL is obscure; begs him not to slight other poets in order to praise his work. Has transposed HL sections, putting love sonnets first; see Lang 2: 345 & 347.

9 Mar 70.47 Goes with Stillman to Scalands in Sussex for final proofing and writing new poems.

[22 Mar] 70.63 Proof State 15 adds three new sonnets.

[25 Mar] 70.70 Responds to WBS’s critique of Sonnets 16, 36, 101.

[26 Mar] 70.72 Proof State 16: ‘I have just wound up my book with 2 more sonnets to the House of Life [Nos. 21 & 98] (making 50 now) and shall add no more’.

[30 Mar] 70.75 Asks Ellis to send proof vol. to six designated reviewers.

[24 Apr] 70.119 Travels to London to inscribe copies on 26th; Poems published 27th.

28 Apr 70.124 Tells T. G. Hake, ‘much the greater

Appendix Three 253

Date Source Event

proportion of the Sonnets in the House of Life are written lately’, but he ‘thought it better to omit dates in the book’; intends to continue writing poetry if painting allows.

30 Apr 70.129 Sends revisions in text, binding and advertisements to Ellis for second ed.; see also WEF 132, 138, 141, 145, 147, 152, 160.

23 Jul 70.196 Sending Ellis revisions for fifth ed.; see also WEF 199, 203, 215.

3 Oct 70.226 Closes accounts with Ellis for fifth, sixth eds.

13 Aug 71.123 Writing ‘Kelmscott Love Sonnets’ in Summer of 1871; tells WBS he has ‘30 new ones in M.S.’ for HL.

2 Oct 71.159 The Fleshly School of Poetry attack by Buchanan appears in the Contemporary Review (see WEF Vol. V, Appendix 8); tells WBS he could have a new vol. of poems ready soon but must return to London. Does not turn to writing poetry again in any concentrated way until 1879.

Appendix Four

Poems: Bibliographical Summaries

First Edition:

POEMS / by / DANTE GABRIEL ROSSETTI. / London: / F. S. Ellis, 33 King Street, Covent Garden. / 1870. Crown 8vo. [A]6 B–I8 K–S8 T4 U2

pp. [i–vii] viii–xi [xii] [1] 2–282; 1 leaf noting Strangeways imprint. Two additional leaves at the end advertise ‘F. S. Ellis Publications’. This material is followed by a blank gathering to fill out the binding which had been cut wrong.

1000 copies were issued 26 April, the edition selling out rapidly; on 30 April, DGR wrote Ellis:

It is wonderful to hear of an approaching second edition –or will it be third on your 500 principle? I’ll send you the revisions [to be included in the next edition] either this evening or tomorrow. (WEF 70.129)

On 3 May, DGR reported to F. M. Brown:

Ellis tells me that he has sold out my first 1000 all but 200, and is going to press again at once. … The first 1000 ought to have been called two editions … – but 250 having been sent to America the remaining 750 had to be put into one edition. (WEF 70.133)

By 22 May, the first edition was sold out, and the second issue of 1000 (second, third and fourth editions) was in print. DGR was finally satisfied with the binding on the new issue (WEF 70.163–64 & 166–67).

Variants: WMR noted that ‘a few copies, preceding the completed binding,

were issued in a quite plain cloth binding’ (Bibliography 19). This first bound state of the book is a pre-publication issue of 14 April in plain blue cloth necessitated by delays in the decorated binding designed by DGR, who wanted bound copies in the hands of the reviewers well before official publication. A copy of this state in the Sterling

Appendix Four 255

Library at Yale has plain grayish-white endpapers, but some copies of it exist stamped with the woodcut decorations used on the endpapers through editions 1–6. The text and pagination of this state is identical with the first edition, but there are no advertising leaves tipped in.

On 13 April, after examining proofs of the decorated endpapers just before the plain-bound copies were issued, DGR wrote Ellis:

The woodcut looks raw on the white paper. If a second edition is ever wanted, this should be on a light – very light – greenish paper, of the tint I do my chalk drawings on. I think the woodcut had better have been left out of the plain-bound copies, as it looks quaint and provoking without the binding. (WEF 70.97)

These instructions concerning endpapers were followed for the second through sixth editions. DGR explained to Joseph Knight, a designated reviewer, on the 14th:

Copies are being sent this day to all the principal reviews. … The copies sent now will have to be bound provisionally as the real binding cannot be ready till 23rd

but Ellis will exchange them after that date if wished and inserts a notice to that effect. (WEF 70.98) [This insert does not seem to be extant.]

The next day, he discovered a ‘cursed blunder of the block-cutter’s (WEF 70.102). He warned Ellis that he doubted the binding could be redone in time for the 23rd. On 21 April, he detected more block-cutting blunders: the back of the binding was ‘all wrongly arranged’ and some of the lettering on the spine was too large. The correct arrangement is illustrated in a sketch in WEF 70.111. On 23 April, he wrote to his mother:

The book is unluckily delayed at the last moment by a hitch with the binding, but will I fancy get really issued next Wednesday [26th]. (WEF 70.117)

Fixing the mistakes identified in WEF 70.111 altered the width of the spine and distorted the lettering, necessitating the addition of eight blank leaves to fill out the binding (WEF 70.120). Detailed instructions for redoing the binding for the second edition are included in WEF 70.120–21. DGR, embarrassed by wisecracks made in the Daily News about these blank pages (WEF 70.166 & 167&nn), demanded on 24 May that Ellis send a note to the paper that ended:

256 Poems: Bibliographical Summaries

The block for the pattern at the back of the binding was cut too wide, and the error having been only perceived at the last moment, the padding had to be introduced to fill the book out. The block has been recut for the second edition, and the blank leaves are gone. (WEF 70.167)

Regular copies of the first edition have light blue-on-white decorated endpapers and gold-stamped dark green cloth signed on the back cover by the engraver inside a small gilt circle at the bottom left corner of the large rectangular ornament, ‘De Lacy’ (see WEF 72.94&n1). WMR notes that ‘there were also 18 copies printed on large paper, and 12 copies on fine paper’ (Bibliography No. 18). Fine paper copies of the first edition were printed on Whatman’s hand-made paper, bound in white cloth with gold lettering and decoration (WEF 70.82); these had orange-on-white decorated endpapers. However, the Certificate of Issue in the large paper copy, appearing centered on the verso of the half-title, reads ‘Twenty-five Copies printed on large paper for Private Circulation only.’ Printed on Whatman’s hand-made paper, demy octavo, it is bound in blue-gray paper-covered boards backed with white, with a white paper back-label, lettered Poems/by/D. G. Rossetti; the Tinker copy at Beinecke has the gold-stamped De Lacy binding but plain white endpapers. The large paper copies have neither advertising leaves nor a blank gathering at the end. Collation is otherwise identical with regular copies of the first edition. Some collectors report seeing copies bound in Roxburghe style. Some presentation copies of the regular edition lack the extra blank gathering (e.g., the Polidori copy in Berg).

In most regular copies, p. 275 is numbered 27 – not a misprint but a dropped number. In the large and fine paper copies, this page is numbered correctly; these copies also have text corrected for the second edition.

Second, Third, Fourth Editions:

Referred to by the Rossetti brothers and Ellis as ‘the second thousand’, these issues are not in any exact sense editions but rather corrected impressions (see WEF 70.125&n2); their collations are the same as those for the first edition. While all four editions have two additional leaves at the end advertising ‘F. S. Ellis Publications’, the second, third and fourth have an additional leaf at the front announc-ing Ellis’s new edition of EIP, and they also lack the first edition’s blank gathering at the end.

In these editions, p. 275 is numbered correctly, but p. 151 is incorrectly numbered 115. The number for p. 16 is omitted, although

Appendix Four 257

at least one copy of the third edition has it. Of course, the title pages, which are cancels, have ‘Second’ ‘Third’ and ‘Fourth’ Edition, all dated 1870. Corrections or variants appear, for example, in line 5 of Love’s Lovers (195); line 7 of Broken Music (210); lines 1 and 12 of Barren Spring (222); line 5 of The Choice I (223); line 1 of The One Hope (238); line 3 of Autumn Idleness (280).

The lettering on the spine is:

First Edition Second – Sixth Editions

POEMS POEMS BY D. G. D. G. ROSSETTI ROSSETTI

Fifth, Sixth Editions:

The fifth and sixth editions are the ‘the third thousand’ printed. They have the same collation, which differs from the first four editions, as several corrections were made by the poet. On 1 June he complained to Ellis about ‘vile blunders’ in the text: ‘Before the third thousand is issued, (whenever that may be,) these things will have to be set right’ (WEF 70.171&n1). His letter to Ellis of 23 July ends with a list of corrections that were made in the third thousand, including, for example, changes in lines 5 and 12 of Barren Spring (222) and line 7 of The Choice II (224). The period after the title The Monochord (282) disappears in these two editions, but this is doubtless another vile blunder as it is restored in the seventh (Tauchnitz) edition (WEF 70.196&n1). On 3 October, DGR wrote Ellis:

Thanks for cheque £150, closing our accounts for the fifth and sixth editions of my Poems (being jointly the third thousand) now in print. (WEF 70.226&n1; see also WEF 70.215&n1)

These issues were not offered for sale until 1871 and 1872 respectively since the fourth edition had just been advertised in The Times of 16 September 1870 (WEF 70.219&n1). On 30 December 1871, Ellis wrote to say that he would advertise a sixth edition, inviting DGR to submit corrections but warning that they would have to be cancels, which could cause problems with binding. The poet, who had been entering revisions in his copy of the fifth edition, responded 31 December 1871:

I find a goodish lot of changes marked in my copy. There are a few I’ll transcribe, but use them or not as you like,

258 Poems: Bibliographical Summaries

only if you do I had better see a proof. I dare say you don’t want to be bored with them till we print again if that should come about. (WEF 71.220&n1)

No new cancels other than the title page appeared in the sixth edition. Ellis did not print again because the sixth edition did not sell out until 1879, at which point DGR began to work on his new volumes of 1881. These revisions, together with others he made in pencil in his copy of the seventh (Tauchnitz) edition, finally appeared in B&S and Poems: New.

The fifth edition is dated 1871, the sixth, 1872; the collation for both is as follows: a6 B–I8 K–S8 T6

pp. [i–vii] viii–xi [xii] [1] 2–282 [283–284] There is no Sig. U – the Strangeways printer’s imprint is part of

Sig. T in the fifth edition; in the sixth it appears on the verso of the title page (blank in the five earlier editions) in the following slightly altered form: ‘London / Printed by John Strangeways, / Castle St., Leicester Sq.’ There are four additional leaves at the end of the fifth edition paged [1] – 8, advertising ‘F. S. Ellis’s Publications’, but both editions lack the initial leaf announcing EIP. In the sixth edition the advertising material at the end differs from that in the fifth: it is headed ‘Ellis & Green’s Publications’ and abbreviates the quotations on pp. 1–3 from Fortnightly Review, The Athenæum and Pall Mall Gazette to make room for notices of books by Whistler, O’Shaugnessy and P. B. Marston, among others; pp. 4–8 are identical with those in the fifth edition. In both editions, the number is restored on p. 16, and p. 151 is numbered correctly. The imprint on the title page of the sixth edition is changed from ‘London: / F. S. Ellis, 33 King Street, Covent Garden.’, as it had appeared on the five earlier title pages, to ‘London: / Ellis and Green, / 33 King Street, Covent Garden, W.C.’

No doubt this tabulation of variant copies of the Ellis Poems is incomplete; DGR’s correspondence with his publisher shows that on more than one occasion the obliging Ellis printed off a single copy for the poet on demand.

American Editions:

Roberts Bros. of Boston were sent 250 copies of the first edition in sheets which they bound in red cloth and sold (WEF 70.133). Then, from one of these copies, they printed their own Author’s Edition:

Appendix Four 259

POEMS / by / DANTE GABRIEL ROSSETTI. / Boston: / Roberts Brothers. / 1870. Crown 8vo. [A]7 1–178 185 pp. [2] [1]–4 [i–v] vi–viii [1] 2–280 [2]. Two leaves at the front paged [1]–4 quote from English reviews of Poems and advertise other Roberts Brothers publications. Bound in plain green cloth with publisher’s device stamped in gold on front cover and gold lettering on spine, DANTE / ROSSETTI’S / POEMS / Boston / Roberts Bros.

This is a separate printing set up from the first edition, even though the second edition with the poet’s corrections had appeared. When DGR received a copy of it he complained to Ellis about this point; obviously, he had not been sent any proofs (WEF 70.190).

Variants: The text is virtually identical with the first edition. The American

edition’s reduction of pages from 282 to 280 is achieved by rearrang-ing some of the short poems. Aspecta Medusa, which has its own page in the Ellis edition, is included on the same page with the last two stanzas of My Sister’s Sleep. Similarly, the translations from Villon are printed on 4 pp. by Roberts Bros., 5 pp. by Ellis. Sometimes words at the ends of long lines in HL are squeezed in above or below the line at the right margin, a practice that DGR must have denounced as Yankee barbarism when he spotted it (see pp. 192, 201). American orthography also prevails with words such as ‘grey’ and ‘honour’ becoming ‘gray’ and ‘honor’. There are variants in lines 11 and 12 of Death’s Songsters (227). Ellis puts the printer’s imprint opposite the final page of text; Roberts places it at the foot of the page.

Seventh (Tauchnitz) Edition:

POEMS / by DANTE GABRIEL ROSSETTI. / Copyright Edition. / With a memoir of the author / by Franz Hüffer. / Leipzig / Bernhard Tauchnitz / 1873. Tauchnitz Collection of British Authors Vol. 1380. [A]8 B6 1–178 186

pp. [i–vii] viii–xxii [xxiii] xxiv–xxvi [xxvii–xxviii] [1] 2–282 [283–284] Added to the contents of the Ellis Poems to serve as an introduction

is a ‘Memoir of Dante Gabriel Rossetti’ [pp. vii–xxii] by Hüffer, a close family friend who had married F. M. Brown’s daughter Cathy. DGR corrected the proofs for this edition and corresponded extensively with the editor about both text and introduction (see WEF 73.173, 233, 259, 329, 334, 338 & 351). Though dated 1873, the book did not appear until 1874. DGR used a copy of this edition (the Tinker copy, now at Beinecke) to record the revisions he wanted to make in B&S and Poems: New.

260 Poems: Bibliographical Summaries

Variants:

The text is set up from the sixth edition. On p. 186 the title of One Girl has been changed to Beauty. There are revisions and variants, for example, in line 6 of Love’s Redemption (190); line 4 of Love’s Baubles (202); line 7 of Broken Music (210); line 3 of Autumn Idleness (280); the title of The Monochord (282). In the Songs section of HL, 4 lines of The Song of the Bower spill over onto p. 249, altering the pagination until the end of that section, page 256: blank in the Ellis edition, it has the last two stanzas of The Sea-Limits, so that subsequent pagination is identical with the sixth edition.

Appendix Five

Ballads and Sonnets (1881): Chronology 1879–82

Date Source Event

1879 FLM 373 ‘Towards the beginning of 1879’ Poems out of print except for seventh (Tauchnitz) ed.

11 Jan DGRDW 169 Gregory 1931: 238

‘A veritable sonnet-mania’ begins as David Main asks DGR to contribute 2 HL sonnets to his anthology, A Treasury of English Sonnets.

[c.28 Jul] WEF 79.114 [Bryson 68]

HC lectures in Liverpool on DGR’s poetry, sends him copy of lectures.

17 Dec WEF 79.205 Orders 24 copies of Tauchnitz ed. of Poems (1873).

[31 Dec] WEF 79.224 [DW 2164]

Writes Ardour and Memory (64), his first new HL sonnet in five years; sends it to JM, WTD, Wm. Davies.

1880 12 Jan

MS Diary After a long estrangement, WMR promises to call on his brother every Monday evening, which he did faithfully from Dec 79 to DGR’s last illness; on this date, he records, DGR ‘continues occupied with literary projects – looking up old sonnets, writing new ones’.

19 Jan MS Diary Plans to edit and annotate Shakespeare’s Sonnets because ‘their purport & connexion [is] comparatively obscure to ordinary readers’.

262 Ballads and Sonnets (1881): Chronology 1879–82

Date Source Event

late Jan WEF 80.25, 27–29 [DW 2176, 2178, 2180, Bryson 97] Doughty 611ff.

Revising ballad Rose Mary, opening poem in B&S: sends sections to JM, WTD; biographer Oswald Doughty called this period in 1880–81 an Indian summer.

2 Feb MS Diary Plans to print Rose Mary separately, then to include it with other new verse in a reissue of Poems.

3 Feb WEF 80.32 Tells Ellis of his plans for a new book of poems.

[6 Feb] WEF 80.40 [DW 2187]

Writes sonnet on Sonnet, later proem to HL.

9 Feb MS Diary Declares his poetry to be finer than his pictorial work.

11 Feb WEF 80.45 [DW 2190]

Thanks H. B. Forman for his ‘generous critique’ of Poems in Tinsley’s Magazine (Sep 69).

late Feb? Bryson 98 JM asks for all his poetry as he writes it.

[mid Mar]

WEF 80.94 [Bryson 83]

Sends JM six new stanzas for Sister Helen.

12 Mar WEF 80.86 Working on revised, expanded HL.

1 Apr WEF 80.111 Tells HC the best articles written on his poetry are by Forman in Tinsley’s and J. C. Earle in Catholic World (Earle 1874).

[8 Apr] WEF 80.116 HL almost doubled in number of sonnets.

12 Apr MS Diary Writes HL sonnet The Song-Throe (61).

13 Apr WEF 80.125 Tells HC he gave up writing poetry in 1853, at age 25, composing almost nothing until Poems.

26 Apr MS Diary Finishes ballad The White Ship.

Appendix Five 263

Date Source Event

27 Apr FLCGR 84; WEF 80.142 [DW 2246]

For her 80th birthday sends his mother a sketched design of the HL proem, sonnet on Sonnet.

9 Aug FLCGR 89 CGR exhorts him to write more ballads (like The White Ship) as ‘they leave no sting behind’.

[23 Aug] WEF 80.284 Wishes to print The White Ship in the Nineteenth Century.

[c. 7 Oct] WEF 80.324 [DW 2323]

J. A. Noble’s article, ‘The Sonnet in England,’ lavishing praise on DGR, appears in The Contemporary Review, the journal which, nine years earlier, had printed the ‘Fleshly School’ attack on him.

[20 Oct] WEF 80.334 Finishes revising very early sonnet Saint Luke The Painter (74) for inclusion in a trio called Old and New Art (74–76), which he will ‘annex’ to HL.

[10 Nov] WEF 80.348 Offers HC the subtitle ‘Sonnet Sequence’ for his anthology but won’t let him include sonnet on Sonnet as ‘I mean it to open the enlarged House of Life’.

[18 Nov] WEF 80.352 [Bryson 121]

Sends JM two new HL sonnets, probably Transfigured Life (60) and True Woman. Herself (56).

[21 Nov] WEF 80.354 Asks HC not to use ‘A Sonnet Sequence’ as ‘I may use it in The House of Life’.

[26 Nov] WEF 80.361 [Bryson 122]

JM writes that she was deeply moved by True Woman (56); DGR responds warmly, tells her that Ellis has agreed to publish his poems in a one vol. ‘old and new’ format.

[3 Dec] WEF 80.365 Completes True Woman trio (57–58).

6 Dec MS Diary Admires Tennyson’s new vol. Ballads and Other Poems. HL is now exclusively sonnets – 100 – of which 40 are unpublished.

264 Ballads and Sonnets (1881): Chronology 1879–82

Date Source Event

13 Dec MS Diary Working on The King’s Tragedy and The Bride’s Prelude – again concerned (as in 1869–70) about having sufficient material for a new book.

[13 Dec] WEF 80.375 [Bryson 124]

Sends JM second and third True Woman sonnets (57–58), saying that the trio will conclude Part I of HL, to be subtitled Youth and Change; Part II will have the subtitle Change and Fate. Omitted from the sequence of 100 sonnets will be ‘several of the M.S. ones’.

[17 Dec] WEF 80.386 [Bryson 125]

Tells JM new vol. will be called ‘Poems Old and New’.

[17 Dec] WEF 80.383 Claims back ‘A Sonnet Sequence’ from HC as subtitle for HL after removing all the lyrics (Songs in 1870); sends him the newly-written Pride of Youth (24) for his anthology.

[18 Dec] WEF 80.389 Writes Michelangelo’s Kiss (94), the last-composed HL sonnet.

1881 10 Jan

MS Diary Latest publication plan calls for 2 vols: a reprint of Poems and a new vol. called Poems 2nd Series. HL to appear in both vols.

[19 Jan] WEF 81.28 [DW 2390]

Writes to CGR, ‘With me, Sonnets mean Insomnia’.

[c.23 Jan] WEF 81.37 Sends P. B. Marston Transfigured Life (60) as ‘done lately’ but see WEF 80.352 [Bryson 121] for earlier MS.

[3 Mar] WEF 81.99 [DW 2424]

Finishes The King’s Tragedy; wants his three new ballads, with which he plans to open B&S, set up in print now.

[8 Mar] WEF 81.104 Tells HC, ‘The One Hope (101) is fully equal to the best of my sonnets or I should not have wound up the series [i.e. sonnet sequence] with it’.

Appendix Five 265

Date Source Event

20 Mar WEF 81.126 Presses Ellis on terms; wants same page format as ACS’s current (1880) vols, which should make for 300 pp. in new vol., where the recast HL would make its sole appear-ance, being now omitted from the proposed reissue of Poems, where it would be replac-ed by the fragmentary The Bride’s Prelude.

24 Mar WEF 81.136 First two ballads for B&S to be sent to printers 25 Mar; the remaining printer’s copy, now complete in MS, will follow immediately.

25 Mar UBC: Angeli-Dennis papers

Ellis writes promising he will copy all MSS for B&S when they arrive; suggests that book design for B&S follow a ‘via media’ between ACS’s last vol. and Poems.

[?] Mar UBC: Angeli-Dennis papers

TWD writes to say that the terms agreed to by Ellis are the same as those for Poems; he has suggested that slip-proofs [i.e. galleys] be sent initially instead of page proofs because revision will be less expensive and DGR can fold his galleys into pages.

[26–27 Mar]

WEF 81.139, 140

Rejects galley suggestion, insists on page proofs, specifies ‘the printer should know that my punctuation must be absolutely adhered to’.

[28 Mar] WEF 81.143 [DW 2441]

Now wants to omit The Bride’s Prelude from reissue of Poems, proposing to add it to B&S with other new work e.g., projected ballads on Joan of Arc and Lincoln.

5 Apr Ros. Proofs First B&S proofs arrive: Sig. B.

[6 Apr] WEF 81.154; UBC: Angeli-Dennis papers

Repossesses Pride of Youth (24) from HC’s projected sonnet anthology to print it in HL. In an undated letter from this period, HC informed him that his publisher Stock was delaying HC’s book until the fall for mar-keting reasons. HC suggests that DGR print the ballads and the House in separate vols.

266 Ballads and Sonnets (1881): Chronology 1879–82

Date Source Event

[7–8 Apr] WEF 81.155, 158 [DW 2446, 2460]

Proofs – Sigs E, F, G. Instructs Ellis to move The Bride’s Prelude to Poems since B&S will now have 300 pp. Asks TWD whether the new vol. should be called Ballads and Sonnets or Poems: New Series. Asks Ellis if advance sheets for B&S requested by Boston publisher Roberts Bros. should be sent.

9 Apr Ros. Proofs Proofs – Sig. C.

11 Apr MS Diary WMR agrees to proof-read B&S.

12 Apr WEF 81.164 [DW 2454]

Asks Ellis for same binding as in Poems – design, plates, colours, ep blocks.

13–14 Apr Ros. Proofs Proofs – Sigs D, H, I, K, L.

23–25 Apr

DAM Proofs – Sigs M, N (start of HL).

[25 Apr] WEF 81.188 Omits Nuptial Sleep (6a), ‘which seems to restrict the circulation of the book’. Tells Ellis he is adding an introductory note to HL.

25 Apr Princeton On a revise of p. 160 in B&S proofs makes the first of many additions, deletions and stets to the note introducing HL (see Plate 1).

[29 Apr] WEF 81.197 Tells Ellis all B&S MSS now at printers – vol. will make 300–350 pp. Asks cost for new binding design.

30 Apr WEF 81.199 Complains to Ellis that proofs are coming too slowly. Asks that reprinting of Poems be started.

2 May FLCGR 93 CGR hopes that ‘the apparent lag of your proofs is merely because the publishing moment (October?) must now be awaited’.

3–6 May DAM Proofs – Sigs O, P, Q, R, S (rest of HL).

Appendix Five 267

Date Source Event

[3 May] WEF 81.203 Tells Ellis that some printer’s copy will be Tauchnitz ed. of Poems (1873), specifically his copy containing his ‘last amendments’ in MS.

[4–5 May] WEF 81.207 Instructs Ellis about title and contents pages for B&S.

[6 May] WEF 81.210 [DW 2474]

Proofs – Sigs S, T, U, X.

[8 May] WEF 81.212 [DW 2475]; UBC: Angeli-Dennis papers

Final proof-sheet – Y. More dithering to TWD over omitted poems. Has deleted HL note: ‘I am really perplexed whether to restore that note in front of The House of Life or not. I have been murdering the beauty of yet another sonnet in the interests of this point.’ In an undated letter HC tried to stop DGR from removing ‘fleshly’ qualities from some early unpublished MS sonnets that he wished to include in the augmented House: ‘I shall be sorry if I find that you have tampered with the early love-sonnets in MS as you half-threatened to do’. DGR hoped to allay the fears of JM, CGR and WMR that the personal attacks of 1871–72 would be renewed if he published ‘fleshly’ poems.

[8 May] WEF 81.213 To Ellis: ‘I have received last proofs and am now writing for last revises’ for B&S.

[9 May] WEF 81.215–16 [DW 2477–78]

To TWD: ‘I am still fidgeting about as to whether that note in front of House of Life is “to be or not to be.”’ Encloses copy for advt. for Poems: New to appear at end of B&S along with advt. for Dante and His Circle (reissue of EIP).

268 Ballads and Sonnets (1881): Chronology 1879–82

Date Source Event

11 May WEF 81.213; UBC: Angeli-Dennis papers

HC writes offering to proof-read Poems. Expects Academy will send him review copy of B&S; promises to arrange for a review-article in the Edinburgh.

[12 May] WEF 81.219 Accepts HC’s offer to help proof Poems: New and arrange reviews of B&S, which is now ‘all printed’, although he has just altered the final line of Lost Days (86).

[17–20 May]

WEF 81.227–28, 230; MS Diary

TWD advises that B&S press-proofs be held up until WMR corrects them, ‘as he is an expert’. Using a red pencil, WMR marked several changes and queries, returning his copy (now in DAM) by 25 May. DGR acted on some of these suggestions but mostly ignored them. In his own eds of 1886, 1904 and 1911, WMR adopted some of these readings rejected by his brother.

18 May UBC: Angeli-Dennis papers

Printer David White replaces his absent partner Ellis as publisher of B&S until early July; asks for copy for title and prelims for B&S.

[19 May] Ros. Proofs; WEF 81.233

Proofs – Sig. [A]. Asks TWD’s opinion on moving Love’s Last Gift (59) back so that Part I of HL can end with the True Woman trio (56–58).

22 May UBC: Angeli-Dennis papers

HC asks for advance copy of B&S so he can begin his review.

[24 May] WEF 81.240 Writes White that he is ‘making an important change in The King’s Tragedy’ i.e., rewriting eight to ten stanzas. Tells him both binding cloth and end-papers are the wrong colours. Will send in WMR’s corrections which will be ‘absolutely the last’.

[? 2 Jun] WEF 81.249 [DW 2497]

Tells White ‘all is now ready for Press’.

Appendix Five 269

Date Source Event

[? 5 Jun] WEF 81.253 [DW 2507]

Query to TWD: should the second para-graph of HL note be omitted? ‘I suppose they are going to press.’

6 Jun UBC: Angeli-Dennis papers

White claims B&S is in press, ‘will be pushed on with all possible speed’.

7 Jun Ros. Proofs Proof of title page for B&S.

[7 Jun] WEF 81.258, 264

Tells White that he has sent the final revise of the Table of Contents to the printer. Still not satisfied with B&S binding cloth – after much fussing at last despairs and, c. 13 June, sends White a final specimen for cover, telling him to ‘go on and get finished’.

[13 Jun] WEF 81.262 Tells HC, ‘My book hangs fire now owing to the [Whitsuntide] holidays but must soon be out … you shall have one of the first copies.’

[19 Jun] WEF 81.273 [DW 2502]

Asks TWD to find out from Ellis and White when B&S will actually appear, as ‘all is now out of my hands with that volume’.

19 Jun UBC: Angeli-Dennis papers

HC wants his review copy of B&S sent to Cumberland, where he has fled after quitting his job in Liverpool.

[23 Jun] WEF 81.277; UBC: Angeli-Dennis papers

Has sent HC B&S in sheets, asking him about HL note in accompanying letter [not extant], but now tells him, ‘I have made up my mind to omit second paragraph of note to House of Life.’ HC responded at length before WEF 81.277 reached him, arguing, over 16 pages, that the note should be entirely omitted, even proposing that the poet delete the footnote to HL (on Contents p. vi) identifying the sonnets reprinted from Poems; HC’s main point was that subjective poetry cannot be made dramatic or impersonal merely by

270 Ballads and Sonnets (1881): Chronology 1879–82

Date Source Event

the addition of a prefatory note: he suggested that the note could be saved if TWD incorporated it in his Athenæum review of B&S as a statement of DGR’s poetic intentions in HL.

23 June WEF 81.276 Writes to White: ‘The Ballads and Sonnets having been delayed much beyond what I expected, it may be a question now whether to bring it out a little later instead of just at present. Thus I will keep this question undecided for a week or so.’ Asks for a copy, bound or unbound, ‘as I no longer have one’. Perhaps the bound copy he requested 13 June [WEF 81.264] was to be sent for vetting to JM [WEF 81.279].

[25 Jun] UBC: Angeli-Dennis papers

HC writes that he is working on a 50-page article on DGR’s poetry as well as on his review of B&S.

[26 Jun] WEF 81.280 Replies to HC’s of 23 June: ‘I have curtailed the note, leaving only first sentence. It would not do at all to use the wording of the part erased in a review, as it has been seen by some and wd. be recognized.’

WEF 81.279 [DW 2511]

Tells TWD he is sending B&S to JM: ‘I hope there may be no adverse view taken. But whatever it is, I must act on it.’ Has put the view to JM that the book contains ‘nothing objectionable,’ presumably in the terms used in his draft letter to her c. 29 June [WEF 81.285].

[29 Jun] WEF 81.284 To HC: ‘The book still hangs fire.’

[1 Jul] WEF 81.288 [DW 2523]

Refers Ellis to his letter to White of 23 June, [WEF 81.276] confirming that he will defer B&S ‘for the present’ in order to rewrite parts of it.

Appendix Five 271

Date Source Event

[between 29 Jun–4 Jul]

WEF 81.285 [DW 2522]

Draft fragment to JM, evidently unsent [misidentified and misdated ‘early August’ by DW as their 2522, ‘To an Unknown Correspondent’]. JM’s response to B&S at this time was negative; she was especially apprehensive about sonnets, provoking DGR to write: ‘I apprehend nothing whatever from criticism. … The poems attacked have now taken their place in the language; and the [Contemporary] Review which attacked them had quite lately an article in emphatic praise of the Sonnets, which were far more open to objection and special application than those now added. However, … every new piece that is not quite colourless will be withdrawn and the book postponed.’ [See Introduction pp. 22–25.]

4 Jul MS Diary A ‘difficulty which has arisen’ with B&S ‘will entail the omission of some sonnets, a considerable amount of reprinting with consequent expense, & the necessary postponement of publication for some little while’.

[4 Jul] WEF 81.293 To HC: ‘I must tell you I am deferring for a month or so the issue of Ballads and Sonnets.’ May perhaps join him in the Lake District, where the scenery may help him in ‘writing another ballad-poem to add at the end’.

[6 Jul] WEF 81.295 Perhaps the meeting between DGR and JM proposed for [29 Jun] (WEF 81.285) had taken place, as postponement is now off. Writes to White, ‘Notwithstanding what I wrote the other day to Mr. Ellis, I now wish the Ballads and Sonnets to come out just as it is … Watts … will say in what week it had better appear.’

272 Ballads and Sonnets (1881): Chronology 1879–82

Date Source Event

[7 Jul] WEF 81.297 To HC: ‘I have made up my mind to let the book get out as soon as it can.’ The projected new ballad will have to appear in a future vol.

11 Jul WEF 81.298; MS Diary

TWD and Ellis met [7 Jul], agreed to defer publication of vols until late Fall for marketing reasons.

[12 Jul] WEF 81.300 Tells HC, ‘Ellis and White have deferred my books till the autumn, saying that the present book season is now quite dead.’

15 Jul UBC: Angeli-Dennis papers

Receives two copies of B&S in folded sheets.

[17 Jul] WEF 81. 305–6

Asks Ellis to finalize prelims of B&S, returns one sheet copy in return for two bound copies. Asks White to insert a loose title-leaf for The House of Life between Sigs L and M: ‘It might be well to print this off last, in case I should still make any change in it.’ Still equivocating about the prefa-tory note printed verso on this title-leaf, which is a cancel in the first three eds of B&S, being finally reset as part of Sig. M in the fourth ed.

[26 Jul] WEF 81.322 Scanning proofs, finding dropped-out periods.

[3 Aug] WEF 81.342 [DW 2527]

Discovers error in Pride of Youth (24), necessitating another cancel leaf (pp. 185–86), reset in fourth ed. of 1882.

[6 Aug] WEF 81.349 [DW 2529]

Press-proof of Dedication to TWD: tells CGR, ‘I have finally resolved on dedicating my book to [Watts]’.

16 Sep MS Diary WMR ‘saw at Mamma’s a first made-up copy of Gabriel’s forthcoming new volume. Same binding as the old one.’

Appendix Five 273

Date Source Event

26 Sep WEF 81.420; UBC: Angeli-Dennis papers

B&S issued, sent prematurely to reviewers. 12 copies sent to him in Cumberland, where he had gone on the 20th for a holiday with HC and Fanny Cornforth: these went to JM, Ford Madox Brown et al.

[28 Sep] WEF 81.419 [DW 2561]

Asks WMR to screen out provoking reviews, forwarding only ‘what seems gratifying’.

8 Oct Athenæum #2815 pp. 457–60

TWD’s review of B&S out, hailed by DGR as ‘the finest review that ever came from critical or friendly man’ (WEF 81.433).

17 Oct MS Diary B&S published in London and Boston (Roberts Bros.); DGR returns from Cumberland to London, very ill.

25 Oct FLM 374 First ed. of B&S (1000 copies) sold out; second 1000 issued before the end of November.

1882 [10 Mar]

DGRDW 175; UBC: Angeli-Dennis papers

TWD writes DGR in Birchington, Kent: ‘[Ellis & White] are about printing off some more of your new volume and want to [be] informed of any possible revisions. So, please consider this & let me know.’ There is no evidence to indicate that the poet ever sent revisions for or saw proofs of the fourth ed. of B&S – he died 9 Apr 82.

Appendix Six

Ballads and Sonnets: Bibliographical Summaries

First Edition:

BALLADS AND SONNETS/ by / DANTE GABRIEL ROSSETTI. / London: /Ellis and White, / 29, New Bond Street, W. / 1881. Crown 8vo. [A6+1] B–I8 K–L8 M8+1 N–U8 X Y8 pp. [i–iv] [2] [v]–xii [1–3] 4–159 [160] [2] [161–63] 164–335 [336] 1 leaf at the end advertises, recto, DGR’s Poems: New and Dante and His Circle [EIP reissued] The dedication to TWD, tipped in after the title-page, and the divisional title for HL, tipped in before Sig. M, are both unnumbered cancel leaves. Pp. 185–86 are also a cancel-leaf but do not disrupt numbering sequence.

The Ballads and Sonnets … were fully in print by 16 September, and various copies were distributed. The full publication ensued on 17 October. The book was a thorough success, for by the 25th of the latter month the first edition of 1000 copies was exhausted; and before the end of November 2000 copies altogether had been issued and paid for. (FLM 374)

Binding was the same as that for Poems, again signed ‘De Lacy’. Lettering on the spine reads:

BALLADS and

SONNETS D. G. ROSSETTI

Variants:

WMR states that thirty copies were printed on large paper (Bibliography No. 24) but the Certificate of Issue in these copies, which appears centered on the verso of the half-title (blank in regular copies), reads: ‘Twenty-five Copies printed on large paper for Subscribers only.’ This issue is printed on Whatman’s hand-made paper, demy octavo, bound in blue-grey paper-covered boards

Appendix Six 275

backed with white, with white paper back-label, lettered ‘Ballads / and / Sonnets / By / D. G. Rossetti’. Some copies have the gold-stamped De Lacy binding but plain white endpapers. The Ellis advertisement appears at the end. Page 238 is misprinted 38; in regular copies this page is correctly numbered. On p. 180, line 14 of Sonnet 18, Genius in Beauty, has the fourth edition reading. Collation details otherwise agree with the first edition.

In both regular and large paper copies, p. ix of Contents lists 334 instead of 234 as the page number for Sonnet 62, The Choice II. On p. 180, line 14 of Sonnet 18, Genius in Beauty, is missing its final period. On p. 187, line 14 of Sonnet 25, Winged Hours, is not indented as it should be to agree with line 13. On p. 194, line 11 of Sonnet 32, Equal Troth, is not indented as it should be to agree with line 14. On p. 221, line 14 of Sonnet 59, Love’s Last Gift, ‘sung’ is rendered as ‘suug’: in some, presumably later, copies of the first edition, this blunder has been corrected. These five errors were all corrected in the reset fourth edition.

Second, Third Editions:

The second thousand copies printed by the end of November 1881 were identical with the first thousand except for the title pages and were issued as follows: second edition of 500 copies in November; third edition of 500 copies issued in 1881 but dated on the title page 1882. Two hundred and fifty copies of the second edition were sent in sheets to the American publisher, Roberts Bros. of Boston (DGRDW 173). Verso on these reset title pages, inserted as cancel leaves, the printer’s imprint has been slightly altered: the first edition has ‘Chiswick Press: – Charles Whittingham’ whereas the second and third editions have ‘Chiswick Press: C. Whittingham’.

Fourth Edition:

This was a corrected resetting issued after 10 March 1882 (DGRDW 175), without cancels; it had a new advertisement leaf at the end, binding variants and the following collation: A–I8 K–U8 X–Y8 Z2 pp. [4] [i–v] vi–xii [1–3] 4–337 [338] [2] 1 leaf at the end advertises ‘Ellis and White’s Publications’, including the eighth edition of DGR’s Poems and nine books by William Morris.

Some copies of this edition have plain white endpapers and spine decoration only, unsigned by the binder, with plain front and back covers. The cloth on these copies is so much darker than the green of

276 Ballads and Sonnets: Bibliographical Summaries

editions 1 to 3 that it seems almost black. Other copies are fully decorated and signed, ‘De Lacy’.

Variants:

As noted above, the errors of the first edition were corrected here, although DGR saw no proofs for the fourth edition. The paging was altered because the cancels were eliminated. Verso on the title page, the first edition’s ‘Charles Whittingham’ is abbreviated to ‘C. Whittingham’. On p. 174 there is an error in line 14 of Sonnet 12, The Lover’s Walk.

The Berg Collection of NYPL has a hybrid copy of Ballads and Sonnets, evidently TWD’s signed and inscribed presentation copy, with the bookplate of Roderick Terry, there catalogued as ‘the second issue of the first edition.’ It is actually Sigs B–Z of the fourth edition with Sig. [A] of the first edition (containing the poet’s inscription to TWD) sewn in: the dedication page follows p. xii instead of the title page. This resewn and rebound copy is described fully in the Catalogue of the Roderick Terry Sale, 17 November 1934.

American Editions:

Roberts Bros. of Boston bound their 250 copies of the second edition in dark green cloth stamped with non-DGR gold decorations; the endpapers had a dark green floral pattern, also non-DGR. Their title page imprint reads, ‘Boston: Roberts Brothers. 1881.’ It contains no advertising.

This issue is lettered, on the front cover,

BALLADS AND SONNETS D. G. ROSSETTI

and on the spine,

BALLADS and

SONNETS _________ _________ _________

*

Dante G. Rossetti

Appendix Six 277

From one of these copies Roberts Bros. set up their own edition of 1000 in January 1882 (DGRDW 174): BALLADS AND SONNETS. / by / DANTE GABRIEL ROSSETTI. / [Publisher’s device of an angel reading with motto Qui Legit Regit.] / BOSTON: / Roberts Brothers. / 1882. [a]8 [1]8 2–98 [10]8 11–188 pp. [i–ix] x–xvi [1–2] 3–283 [284] [2] Using smaller type, the American publisher reduced the text by fifty-two pages. The volume is bound in gold cloth with floral decoration; the endpapers also feature a floral design in dark green. Evidently DGR saw no proofs.

Appendix Seven

Locations of Sources: Concise Survey of Manuscripts, Proofs and Other Documents

What follows is not a census or enumeration or in any way complete. Materials relevant to this edition are widely scattered, and I have not examined them all. Some have doubtless escaped my attention entirely. However, all the repositories or collectors I have visited or contacted (private owners identified by permission only) are in the list below, where their holdings are briefly sketched. The Text and Notes section of this volume identifies all MSS where possible by a source abbreviation from this list and special collection name with box and folder, folio or page numbers. It also cites printed books, catalogues or articles describing these collections. I have provided these details not to be pedantic but rather to help the reader find sources, e.g., there are Rossetti MSS in eight discrete collections in different rooms on different floors in the Library of Congress.

The sources are divided into major and minor. An abbreviation for each source, used throughout the text, precedes its full name.

Major Sources

Beinecke Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Yale University. Housed here is the Tinker Library, which includes a major collection of Pre-Raphaelite MSS and books (see Metzdorf 1959 & PRISM 7.16).

A Notebook titled ‘Sonnets by D. G. Rossetti Written before 1850’ contains some of the earliest HL poems, but BRBML has other sonnet MSS as well as revised proofsheets. One of the most important annotated books anywhere is the copy of Tauchnitz here, marked by DGR with changes to be made in HL for its appearance in B&S. C. B. Tinker also had William Sharp’s copy of the same book, purporting to have DGR’s changes for B&S, but they are marked in Sharp’s hand not DGR’s: the two annotated copies

Appendix Seven 279

do not always tally. There is some correspondence between the Rossetti family and Wise.

Berg Berg Collection, New York Public Library. There are several HL sonnet MSS here, but perhaps the rarest item in this collection is a sample of Proof State 1 of Poems, preceding the so-called Penkill Proofs: it contains the sonnet ‘After the French Liberation of Italy’ (see Appendix Two). Berg also has MS fragments of sonnets and letters from WMR and the Rossetti family, Wise, Forman, Caine, Watts, Dunn and Shields. There are MS notes and pictures regarding Brown’s design for DGR’s gravestone at Birchington and Shields’ memorial window in the church there. The Library is rich in annotated books and variant editions, some of which will be found in the main NYPL catalogue.

BL The British Library. More than a thousand rare or unique DGR items are scattered among six of the eleven volumes of T. J. Wise’s Catalogue of the Ashley Library (ALC); most of them are here in the Ashley Collection, including a dozen HL holographs. The poet’s four vest-pocket Notebooks, in which he jotted phrases, lines, prose sketches and sometimes entire sonnets that eventually became part of HL, must be examined by anyone seeking to understand how DGR worked as a poet. These four Notebooks, Ashley 1410, can be dated as follows: 1. 1871–73; 2. 1871–80; 3. and 4. 1879–81. The Ashley MSS, proofsheets and elaborately bound rarities are fully described by Wise, both in ALC and in the intro-ductions and notes to his privately printed pamphlets, so the researcher must beware of forgeries and other sorts of fakes, such as proofsheets dressed up as ‘trial books’ and other unique pre-first edition issues (see Lewis Chapter 3). T. A. J. Burnett has addressed this problem by preparing a new catalogue of the Ashley Library, available in the Department of MSS Reading Room (Burnett 1999).

The William Morris MSS include important HL materials, as do the Hake Papers and the Cockerell Archive (more documentation gathered by Frederick

280 Location of Sources

Page). Letters relating to HL by WMR and other Rossetti family members, Murray, Watts, Swinburne and Caine will be found in the Department of MSS. The Department of Printed Books and various locations storing periodicals and newspapers remain, as noted in PRISM 2.2, ‘for Pre-Raphaelite printed sources the foremost repository’.

Bodleian Bodleian Library, Oxford University. The DGR poetry MSS here, marked Eng. Poet. d. 43 and 44, contain thirty-two sonnets and lyrics, of which twenty-eight sonnets became part of HL. These poems were all mailed or given to Jane Morris and were published and annotated in The Kelmscott Love Sonnets of Dante Gabriel Rossetti (Wahl). Two sonnets in this collection intended at one time for the sequence and two more love sonnets written in Italian seem to have been suppressed, first by DGR, later by WMR (see Appendix Eight). This Library also has letters by WMR and F. G. Stephens that bear on HL.

DAM Delaware Art Museum, Bancroft Collection. This is the most remarkable and, in a sense, the only col-lection devoted exclusively to Pre-Raphaelitism (both literary and artistic). Like that of the Fitzwilliam, this collection is greatly indebted to Charles Fairfax Murray (see Elzea 1980). Among the many MSS are nineteen HL sonnets, described in PRISM 7.1&2. Just as Princeton has all the proof states for Poems, DAM has all the proof states and most revises for B&S, excepting only the Rosenbach proofs. They contain abundant marginal notes, insertions, deletions, reordering, revisions and variants in the poet’s hand. Kept with these materials is a lengthy TS analysis of all B&S proof states by Kathryn I. Gordon, who produced an edition of HL as her Ph.D. dissertation at Boston University (Gordon 1968). There are also some revised Tauchnitz pages here. Besides the correspondence between Murray and Samuel Bancroft published by Elzea, there are letters from Wise, Caine, Page and WMR. The large library contains books, pamphlets and ephemera, many of which are rare or unique.

Appendix Seven 281

DGR Archive Jerome J. McGann. The Complete Writings and Pictures of Dante Gabriel Rossetti: A Hypermedia Research Archive. <http://jefferson.village.virginia.edu:2020/>.

Duke Duke University Library. HL MSS material here is described in PFB 1). Numerous sonnets and fragments are contained in four MS Notebooks and on single leaves. There are also bouts-rimés sonnets by DGR and WMR and some proofsheets. Letters from Wise relate to the collection’s MSS.

Fitzwilliam Fitzwilliam Museum Library, Cambridge. Most of the HL material here was given by Charles Fairfax Murray, art assistant to Ruskin, Morris, Burne-Jones and DGR on the way to becoming a successful dealer and collector. Murray acquired copies, sometimes two or three different versions, of all the HL sonnets except seven: these he copied in his own hand from B&S into his MS volume of the complete 1881 sequence. In all, this book contains 116 DGR holographs, and two Tauchnitz pages with his MS revisions (printer’s copy for B&S). Other volumes include the ‘Poems and Sonnets’ MS Notebook. Most of the proof states of Poems are represented here as well, often heavily revised. ‘Poems 1869–70’ is a bound collection of notes, charts, tabulations and compilations by Frederick Page of Oxford University Press towards his never-completed edition of HL. There is also a ‘Catalogue of the MSS of D. G. Rossetti’ compiled in 1933 by former Fitzwilliam Assistant Director J. W. Goodison. The extensive correspondence between T. J. Wise and Sir Sydney Cockerell, a former Director of Fitzwilliam, sheds light on the proof states of Poems deposited here and in BL (Ashley) . There are other important letters by WMR, Murray and Caine.

Fredeman The Estate of William E. Fredeman possesses the finest, and the defining, collection of Pre-Raphaelite printed books, pamphlets and ephemera, both primary and secondary sources. Virtually every state of every issue of every edition containing a version of HL other than a straight reprint is in this library,

282 Location of Sources

including a copy of the second edition of Poems with pencilled variants in the hand of WMR.

Huntington Henry E. Huntington Library, San Marino, California. There are some HL sonnets in a bound volume called ‘Fifteen Original Autograph MS Poems by D. G. Rossetti with Annotations by W. M. Rossetti’, among them two of the earliest written. Heavily revised proof-sheets from various states of Poems complement the ones at Princeton, Fitzwilliam, DAM and Beinecke. Letters are from Wise, Holman Hunt and other PRBs, M. D. Conway and the Brownings. This library includes rare books and ephemera, some with annotations.

LC Library of Congress. For this vast repository the researcher needs a copy of Fennell 1973. Scattered among many locations are forty poetry MSS including twenty-five HL sonnets, twenty-three of them marked as printer’s copy. There are letters of interest to students of HL by Ellis, John Westland Marston and his son Philip. There are also rare books and pamphlets, some annotated.

PML Pierpont Morgan Library, New York City. There are seven HL MSS here, sent by the poet with letters to William Allingham. Unpublished portions of Ford Madox Brown’s Diary, letters from WMR, Wise and Murray and numerous rare books and pamphlets are also housed in this collection.

Princeton Firestone Library, Princeton University. The Troxell Collection of HL MSS is rivalled only by the Fitzwilliam Museum volume of them put together by Charles Fairfax Murray. Janet Camp Troxell, who specialized in materials relating to Poems, also collected proofs, rare books and MS letters. All sixteen proof states of 1869–70 are here, many with revisions in DGR’s hand and/or annotations by WMR, Swinburne, William Bell Scott, Harry Buxton Forman and Mrs Troxell herself. There are some Tauchnitz and B&S proofsheets with revisions and the poet’s copy of the second edition of Poems

Appendix Seven 283

marked by him with corrections for the next edition. A volume of bound proof pages from various states of Poems assembled by WMR under his title Poems Privately Printed has DGR’s revisions on every page and some annotations by his brother. Besides the HL volume, there is a MS Notebook called ‘Sonnets and Fragments’ and the so-called Green Book titled ‘Original MS Sonnets’. At one time, Mrs Troxell planned to publish criticism and analysis based on her collection; her papers include lengthy correspondence with Professor Paull F. Baum of Duke, who edited HL (1928), and frequent references to Frederick Page of Oxford University Press, who was working on an edition of HL.

Besides her copious MS notes on her materials, two of her unpublished typescripts merit attention: one is a twenty-page study of DGR’s poetic craftsmanship as revealed by his MS revisions; the other, called ‘A Defense of Guinevere’, defends Jane Morris against various attacks and slurs. Janet Camp Troxell acquired and annotated Hall Caine’s much-modified MS of his Recollections of Rossetti and in letters to various correspondents made a shrewd critical appraisal of A Victorian Romantic (Doughty).

Also at Princeton is the Robert H. Taylor Collection containing much that is of interest to HL students, especially sonnets in the bound volume ‘Poems in Manuscript 1869–71’.

There are MS letters in the Firestone relevant to HL by WMR other members of the Rossetti family, W. B. Scott, Jane Morris, publishers F. S. Ellis and David White, Sir Sydney Cockerell, Theodore Watts-Dunton, Dr T. G. Hake and Hall Caine.

Princeton’s holdings are sketched in PRISM 4.5 and described more fully in a special issue devoted to the Troxell Collection of The Princeton University Library Chronicle (Fraser 1972).

Texas Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center (HRHRC), University of Texas at Austin. There are here a bound volume of DGR’s MS poetry called ‘Works’ and a Notebook of his MS Poems once the property of Murray. They contain a small quantity of

284 Location of Sources

HL material. The huge collection of letters includes some from WMR, CGR and the Rossetti family, Murray, Scott, Jane Morris, Ellis and White, Swinburne, Dr Hake, Joseph Knight, Allingham, Forman, Ruskin, Patmore and the critic Ernest Chesneau. Printed books include some with annotations.

UBC University of British Columbia Library. The Angeli-Dennis Papers, Penkill Papers and Colbeck Collection were acquired through the agency of William E. Fredeman, author of PRISM and editor of The Correspondence of Dante Gabriel Rossetti. Together they comprise one of the most important Pre-Raphaelite collections anywhere, but they are not especially rich in HL materials – there are no MSS or proofs. However, the WMR Papers include more than a thousand letters to and from the Rossetti family and his invaluable MS Day Diaries, the complete set from 1847 to 1916 containing a multitude of HL references: only those from 1870–73 have been published (WMRD). This WMR archive contains the documentary materials providing the basis for the many editions of DGR’s poetry and volumes of commentary, bibliography, biography and reminiscence that he published together with much more that he and his descendants never put in print (see PRISM 3.10 & 4.1). There are also very important HL references in the UBC letters: several from his publishers Ellis and White concerning B&S, Caine’s side of the extensive correspondence with the poet in 1879–81 and letters from WMR, Scott and his Penkill circle, Watts, Murray and Shields. These collections are rich in printed materials, both primary and secondary, as well as ephemera collected by WMR in his ‘Miscellanies’.

Appendix Seven 285

Minor Sources

Birmingham Birmingham City Museum has a pencil sketch of the pen-and-ink design for the symbolical figure of ‘The Sonnet’, item 329’04 in Birmingham 1939.

BPL Boston Public Library has an MS of HL 26 and an MS descriptive list of DGR’s residences and dwelling-places between 1828 and 1882.

Brotherton Brotherton Library, University of Leeds, has an MS of HL 64 and letters by WMR, Scott, Watts, Brown, Ellis and Sharp.

Columbia Butler Library at Columbia University has letters from WMR, M. D. Conway and John McLennan.

Durham Durham University Library has correspondence between WMR and Scott.

Folger Folger Shakespeare Library has a small group of DGR poetry MSS and letters by WMR and Brown.

Harvard Houghton Library, Harvard University, has some revised proofsheets of B&S and letters by WMR, Wise, Caine, Charles E. Norton and Dr Hake.

IHA Iowa Historical Archive, Des Moines, has in the Charles Aldrich Collection an MS of HL 75 and other poetry with notes by WMR. There are letters from Watts, Caine, Scott and Forman.

Iowa University of Iowa, Iowa City (Special Collections) has a revised proof page of Poems (HL) and letters from Scott and Forman.

Maggs Maggs Bros. Booksellers of London have quotes from DGR MSS they have sold in some of their Catalogues; they also have an archive of correspondence between Benjamin and Ernest Maggs and Wise concerning these MSS.

Manx Manx Museum, Douglas, Isle of Man, has DGR’s letters to Hall Caine (Caine’s side is at UBC); Caine

286 Location of Sources

often conflated and misquoted these documents in his various autobiographies and reminiscences.

Nowell-Smith The Estate of Simon Nowell-Smith possessed the only perfect copy of the so-called ‘A Proofs’, Proof State 3 of Poems, inscribed to Olivia Rossetti Agresti by her father WMR, who made many annotations on these sheets. See Appendix Two.

Rosenbach The Rosenbach Museum and Library, Philadelphia, has several HL MSS, bound notebook pages including MS fragments of HL sonnets and letters from WMR. The HL MSS have been printed and analysed (with some facsimiles) in Gates 1983.

Ros. Proofs The Rosenbach Proofs, an almost complete set of proofsheets heavily revised by DGR for B&S, are later than any state in DAM or elsewhere. Once part of the collection of Dr A. S. W. Rosenbach and fully described by him in Rosenbach 1931, they then became part of the collection of Halsted Billings Vanderpoel. In 2004 they were sold in London at a Christie’s auction. The editor has photocopies of them.

Rutgers The J. Alexander Symington Collection in Rutgers University Library has no HL MSS or proofsheets but its ten thousand items include many letters: a large quantity from Swinburne to WMR, numerous Rossetti family letters, and others to and from Brown, Caine, Watts, Wise, Forman, Cockerell, Oswald Doughty, Maggs Bros., Ford Madox Ford, William Sharp and Edmund Gosse. For a description see PRISM 3.7 and Marchand 1948.

Troxell The Estate of Mrs Janet Camp Troxell. One of the few items Mrs Troxell kept at her New Haven home when her Rossetti collection went to Princeton was the original illustrated MS of the proem-sonnet DGR sent his mother for her eightieth birthday.

UCLA University of California at Los Angeles Library has an F. S. Ellis Archive including the publishing firm’s daybooks and correspondence between Ellis and his

Appendix Seven 287

partner David White and the Rossetti brothers concerning B&S.

Union College Schaffer Library, Union College, Schenectady NY, has in its William J. Stillman Collection early MS drafts of the four Willowwood sonnets (HL 49–52) with numerous revisions and variants. These MSS were described as Nos. 281–84 in Miller 1974 and then published and analysed in Ullman 1985.

V&A Victoria and Albert Museum, London, has letters from Jane Morris and the album of photos of her posed by DGR as well as a TS by Clara Watts-Dunton of a selection of DGR’s letters to close friends which she was intending to publish.

Wormsley The Wormsley Trust, Wormsley Library, UK, set up by the late Sir Paul Getty and his widow Lady Victoria, holds his collection of Rossetti MSS. There are two bound volumes, one called ‘The White Ship’ and another, larger one with thirty-five leaves known as the ‘Rossetti Scrapbook’, which contains letters from Jane Morris and Christina Rossetti and many MS poems, including HL 64.

Appendix Eight

Unpublished and Excluded Sonnets

Rossetti worked on a few sonnets that may have been intended for eventual inclusion in HL but that for some reason of his own remained unfinished or suppressed. Two untitled love sonnets written in Italian and sent to JM during the period of the ‘Kelmscott love sonnets’ are too personal and too ‘fleshly’ for the sequence, even if they had been translated. In addition, they are neither polished nor idiomatic examples of Italian poetic diction of any era. They are offered below (in translation) because of their obvious affinity with other HL sonnets of the 1868–71 period that Oswald Doughty labelled ‘regenerate rapture’. The same may be said of English May (1869), written out of DGR’s concern for JM’s health as a sort of private verse epistle, not published until 1886 in CW and there misleadingly dated 1854 by WMR.

Some have argued that the bouts-rimés sonnets written between 1847–49 anticipate at times the style, diction, imagery and themes of HL. Such anticipation as may be found is too general to repay study, except in the case of Idle Blessedness (Works 267), which anticipates Autumn Idleness (HL 69). These poems are games, at most exercises in technique and convention, often mere verbal display in the manner of the Italian improvisatore. I have not included them: they may be found in PFB): 1) 14–16, 56–65 and Works 263–67. Another problem with reading anything into them is that it is not always possible to determine whether they were written by DGR, WMR or CGR: see WMR’s accounts in SR 79–80 and Works 673–74, Baum’s in PFB): 1) 14–15 and Frances Winwar’s, cited in PRISM 27.86.

Appendix Eight 289

ENGLISH MAY.

Would God your health were as this month of May Should be, were this not England, – and your face Abroad, to give the gracious sunshine grace

And laugh beneath the budding hawthorn-spray. 4 But here the hedgerows pine from green to grey

While yet May’s lyre is tuning, and her song Is weak in shade that should in sun be strong

And your pulse springs not to so faint a lay. 8

If in my life be breath of Italy, Would God that I might yield it all to you! So, when such grafted warmth had burgeoned through

The languor of your Maytime’s hawthorn-tree, 12 My spirit at rest should walk unseen and see

The garland of your beauty bloom anew.

Date of Publication: 1886, CW I: 286 Date of Composition: May 1869, Fitzwilliam MS

Manuscripts:

(1) Fitzwilliam HL fol. 45b (2) Wormsley, ‘Rossetti Scrapbook’ fol. 18

WMR annotated his CW printing as follows: ‘This sonnet had not hitherto been published. I regard it as addressed to Miss Siddal, whom my brother married in 1860. Its date may probably have been 1854’ (I: 521). He repeated this note in 1904 but reprinted the sonnet without comment in Works. Fitz. is titled ‘May 1869’ and is written, cancelled, on the back of HL 39, Sleepless Dreams, also dated 1869 (see note 4. to that sonnet and Doughty 389–92). Wormsley, titled ‘English May’, is a fair copy.

290 Unpublished and Excluded Sonnets

DISÌO e COMPENSO. (Due Sonetti).

I.

DESIRE.

O mouth, that in the moment of desire So many times I saw and held [my] peace – That in spirit my undaunted eye

Would always kiss, but never my lip! – 4 Alas, from you, mouth, what pleasure I desire,

O what hope that is not in vain? Give me, if you please, one of your smiles

And some words, for the love of God? 8

Oh, poor hope! And how do you think [You shall] obtain pleasure, with folded wings, At the twin smiling gates?

Every word that would come after 12 Would be more lovely, [but] oh, for us

More a source of the silence of death!

II. REWARD.

O mouth, that in the hour of reward So many times I have kissed, and so many times I have heard from you, greeted with a thousand vows,

Those words of immortal assent: – 4 Oh, could the sacred incense of your kisses

Wrap always in thicker clouds So many of the already buried antique shadows,

Filling the heavens with our immense love! 8

Come, beautiful mouth, O come again! Thinking of you at length, Love desires Sweet dew in your rosy path.

Are you not her in whom now and always 12 I live only – whom within my soul

Life – and Death, and Love – worships?

Date of Publication: 1931, PFB): 1) 53–54 Date of Composition: 1868–69, Fitzwilliam MSS, RP 396

Appendix Eight 291

Manuscripts:

(1) Bodleian Eng. Poet. d. 44 fols 27–28 (2) Duke MS VIII: PFB): 1) 7 & 53–54 (3) Fitzwilliam: HL fol. 56b {Compenso}; C. F. Murray MSS {Dìsio} (4) Beinecke: Tinker MS 1798

The copy-texts for these sonnets are the fair copies sent to JM as Due Sonetti, now at Bodleian, published in Wahl 28–29. The Fitz. MSS are dated in DGR’s hand: for Dìsio he wrote ‘Marzo 1868’ and for Compenso ‘Maggio 1869’. WMR recorded in his MS Diary that his brother showed him two Italian sonnets on 5 June 1869 (RP 396). Fitz., Duke and Tink. have revisions and variants; line 14 of Compenso is based on Duke and Fitz. since the Bod. reading – ‘Mercede invita Amore, e Amore adora?’ – seems incoherent in comparison with DGR’s familiar trinity of personifications: Life, Love and Death. Wahl was right to include these poems in his group of ‘Kelmscott Love Sonnets’ because they are rough sketches using themes and imagery treated, with far more poetic success, in The Kiss and Supreme Surrender (7 and 8). Doughty translates the octave of Compenso and interprets the two poems as direct outbursts of DGR’s fulfilled passion for JM, usually expressed with more indirection in HL (391–92&n.). Although included in WMR’s collection of ‘Sonnets by D. G. Rossetti written before 1850’ (Tink.), the Italian verse was obviously tacked on at the end of this miscellany. Dan Dematteis, Ornella De Stavola and Mario Frezzini translated DGR’s Italian originals into English.

AT LAST.

Fate claimed hard toil from Love, and did not spare: Are the dues paid, and is all Love’s at last? Cling round me, sacred sweetness, hold me fast;

Oh! as I kneel, enfold mine eyes even there 4 Within thy breast; and to Love’s deepest lair

Of memory bid thy soul with mine retreat, And let our past years and our future meet

In the warm darkness underneath thine hair. 8

Say once for all: “Me Love accepts, and thee: Nor takes he other count of bygone years

Not his, than do the affranchised earth and sea Of hours wherein the unyoked inordinate spheres 12 Hurtled tumultuous round Time’s ringing ears

Ere yet one Word gave light the victory.”

Date of Publication: 1927, ALC, Vol. IX: 115 Date of Composition: 1871, Wahl

292 Unpublished and Excluded Sonnets

Manuscripts:

(1) Fitzwilliam ‘Poems and Sonnets of DGR’ Notebook fol. 57a (2) Bodleian Eng. Poet. d. 43 fol. 22 (3) BL: Ashley 3847

Wise dated this sonnet ‘c.1869’ when he printed it from his MS in ALC, but there is no evidence to support this date: it appears to have been written at Kelmscott during the summer of 1871 (Wahl 23 & 36–37). On Ash. ‘H. of L.’ follows the title in parentheses. Since there is a draft of stanzas 1 & 79–81 of ‘The Wreck of the White Ship’ [published as The White Ship in B&S] verso on this MS, perhaps Ashley 3847 dates from the period when this ballad was being composed, 1879–80, and At Last was being revised for inclusion in the final version of HL. It belongs to the group of sonnets that celebrate the advent of the New Love while bidding farewell, without remorse, to the Old Love, e.g., Pride of Youth (24), Life-in-Love (36) and The Love-Moon (37): it is printed in full and interpreted in these terms by Doughty (398–99). Yet, despite his attempts to banish the memory of EES, ‘that dead face’ continues to haunt him, as we see in another unpublished sonnet below, Alone. The sestet includes one of the semi-blasphemous conceits that the poet tried to remove from HL in 1881 (cf. Sonnet 4, Love’s Testament): the fulfilled passion of the lovers obliterates other loves of ‘bygone years’ just as God’s creative Word replaced primordial chaos with light.

THREEFOLD HOMAGE.

Was I most born to paint your sovereign face, Or most to sing it, or most to love it, dear? Full sweet the hope that unborn eye and ear

Through me may guess the secret of your grace. 4 Yet ah! neath every picture might I trace,

And note beside each song, – “Let none think here To breathe indeed this beauty’s atmosphere,

To apprehend this body and soul’s embrace.” 8

Faint shadow of you at best I weave, except That innermost image all unseen, which still

Proves me at heart your beauty’s crowned adept. Yet was this nought, our hope’s high day to fill, – 12 That o’er us, while we kissed, with answering thrill,

Two Muses held Love’s hand, and smiled, and wept?

Date of Publication: 1927, ALC Vol. IX: 116 Date of Composition: 1871, Wahl

Appendix Eight 293

Manuscripts:

(1) Duke XXIII: printed PFB 1): 66, facs. opp. page (2) Bodleian Eng. poet. d. 43 fol. 12 (3) BL, Ashley 3849: printed ALC Vol. IX: 116, facs. opp. page

Revisions/Variants:

1. Duke is the earliest version, with many revisions: 4 <might><should> may 5 <Yet still ’neath song and

picture must> <Yet fain ’neath song or

picture would> <Alas!> Yet ah! ’neath <song &>

every picture <truth> might 6 < <<This speech>> Give these

words: Ah! gazer<<s>>, listener<<s>> think not here>/

And note beside each song: “Let none think here

7 <To breathe this beauty’s rapturous>/

To breathe indeed this beauty’s 12 <And>Yet < ? ? ? ?>our hope’s <high-dowered> high day to fill, – 13 <near>o’er

2. Bod. and Ash. are fair copies. Wise dates Ash. ‘c.1869,’ but as with At Last above the evidence given by Wahl points to 1871. The watermarks, size and appearance of Ash. 3449 and 3448 (First Fire) are similar to those of Ash. 3857, 3859,

3860 and 3861, which we know date from 1879–80 when B&S was being prepared. Like At Last, this sonnet MS and that for First Fire below may have been copied out by the poet for possible inclusion in HL. Therefore I have used it as copy-text. In line 8, Wise prints ‘at last.’ but all MSS read ‘at best’, clearly a better reading. Also in line 8, ‘weave’ is followed by a semicolon in the Wise and Baum printings and in the Duke MS, but Ash. and Bod. have the more correct comma.

3. Doughty prints the sonnet, evidently from Wise since he repeats the two errors in line 8, adding some of his own (402). There he notes similarities to other HL sonnets such as The Portrait and an exact echo of the phrase ‘sovereign face’ from Genius in Beauty (18). A new trinity appears in line 14, where Love joins hands with the Muse of poetry and (DGR’s newly created?) Muse of painting.

294 Unpublished and Excluded Sonnets

FIRST FIRE.

This hour be her sweet body all my song, Now the same heart-beat blends her gaze with mine, One parted fire, Love’s silent countersign.

Her arms lie open, throbbing with their throng 4 Of confluent pulses, bare and fair and strong:

And her deep-freighted lips expect me now, Amid the clustering hair that shrines her brow

Five kisses broad, her neck ten kisses long. 8

Lo, Love! thy heaven of Beauty; where a sun Thou shin’st; and art a white-winged moon to press By hidden paths to every hushed recess;

Yea, and with sinuous lightnings here anon 12 Of passionate change, an instant seen and gone,

Shalt light the tumult of this loveliness.

Date of Publication: 1927, ALC IX: 115–16 Date of Composition: 1871, Princeton MS

Manuscripts:

(1) Princeton HL fol. 8a (2) BL, Ashley 3848: printed ALC Vol. IX: 115–16

DGR marked Prin. ‘H. of L.’ beside the title. Wise dates his fair copy of this sonnet ‘c.1869’ like the two above but without supporting evidence. Like At Last and Threefold Homage it seems to belong with other HL sonnets of 1871. Verso on Prin. is a draft of Sonnet 41, Through Death to Love, also composed in 1871. Sonnet 30, Last Fire, obviously a relative of this one, is also dated 1871.

Line 3 in Prin. originally read: ‘One quivering fire of Love’s uncurtained shrine:’

In line 10 of the same MS, the moon was ‘white-foot’ and ‘white-wreathed’ before it was ‘white-winged’.

Doughty prints this poem (400-1), there linking it with other HL sonnets of sexual ecstasy. It is not difficult to imagine why this one was excluded from B&S: DGR rarely uncurtains Love’s shrine so unabashedly.

Appendix Eight 295

ALONE.

O thou whose name, being alone, aloud I utter oft, and though thou art not there, Perceive thy pictured presence fill the air, –

O art thou from thy Heaven-house towards me bow’d? 4 Aye, vainly now poor wretch desire the shroud

And yearn to yield thy life’s most bitter wane Only to listen to thy voice again.

So Love should unto Death sink plumed and proud. 8

With many thoughts of many hours removed Stand in this chamber, one where erst were two: The glass stands empty of all things it knew.

Yet hath sweet Memory here her power approved 12 As balmy as the breath of her you loved

When deep between her breasts it came to you.

Date of Publication: unpublished Date of Composition: ?1880

MS Sources:

Ashley Notebooks 1410 (BL); Duke Note Book III. Notebook No. 1, p. 37 ‘The glass stands empty of all things

it knew’ [line 11]

p. 38 ‘O thou whose name, being alone, aloud I utter oft, and though thou art not there Toward <thy painted image>thine imaged presence kiss the air’

[lines 1–3]

p. 40 ‘As when a man whose brain is all on flame Out of himself with wonder of new woe

Looks round upon all things he yet doth know And on a dead dear face the same…’

Notebook No. 2, p. 15 ‘As balmy as the breath of her you love When <loud>deep between her breasts it comes to you’

[lines 13–14]

p. 32 ‘The memory of past pleasure in pain brings a sting at first but afterwards a salve.’

296 Unpublished and Excluded Sonnets

Notebook No. 3, p. 22 ‘As much as in a hundred years she’s <gone>dead Yet is today the day on which she died’ [dated verso ‘June 21 1879’]

p. 25 ‘Is Memory most of miseries miserable Or the one flower of ease in bitterest hell?’ ‘Or give ten years of life’s most bitter wane To see the loved one as she was again.’ [lines 6–7]

Notebook No. 4, p. 32 ‘Ah! if you had been lost for many years And from the dead today were risen again.’

Duke III {printed PFB 1): 76}: ‘The glass stands empty of all things it knew’

‘O thou whose name, being alone, aloud I utter oft, and though thou art not there, Toward thine imaged presence kiss the air.’

‘I saw the love which was <is> my life flow past ’Twixt shadowed reaches like a murmuring stream I was awake – and lo! it was a dream.’

‘Or give ten years of life’s most bitter wane To see the loved one as she was again.’

Manuscripts:

(1) (2) DAM Box 22, folder ‘O thou whose name’

This unpublished, untitled and incomplete draft exists in two MSS versions in the Bancroft Collection: the version given here is based on the fuller of the two. As the MS Sources cited above show, the sonnet was built up from various notebook entries over a period of perhaps nine years. The develop-ment of the poem from notebooks through two MS drafts, even though aborted, reveals DGR’s usual methods of expanding departicularization and fabricating an apparently ‘occasional’ sonnet from many sources.

Revisions/Variants:

1. The first draft, DAM(1), reads: 1 O thou whose name being alone

aloud 2 I utter oft, & though thou art not

there 3 <Towers thy>Around this

pictured presence see the air 4 Lit as with starbreath, art thou

tow’rds me bow’d, 5 Who wd not for one bride-pulse

seek the shroud

6 Or give <ten of>the years of life’s most bitter wane

7 To see the loved one as she was again?

8 And Death with one more life go plumed & proud?

9–10 The glass stands empty of all

things it knew/ Here in our chamber.

Appendix Eight 297

2. Revisions in DAM(2): 3 <Towers>Perceive 5 <Who in thy glance would not

accept>/ Aye, vainly now poor wretch

desire 6 <gladly yield thy whole of life’s

poor>/ yearn to yield thy life’s most

bitter 9 <Afar from>With many 10 <Stand here alone, aye, one that

erst was two:>/ Stand in this chamber, one

where erst were two: 12 < <<Memory hath>> hath not

Memory here a> hath sweet Memory here her

3. These MSS were described and partly transcribed in PFB 3): 59–60 and in Wallerstein 1929: 283–84).

4. I have dated this sonnet 1880 because the latest notebook sources are from that year and both pen-manship and paper used confirm an 1880 date, when DGR was revising sonnets with a view to

including them in HL. The watermarked paper used in both drafts is identical with that for the DAM MS of Found, which can be dated 1881. The poem was obviously left unfinished. It seems both too unpolished and too personal for HL; the dual second person imperatives make it difficult to know when the poet addresses himself and when he speaks rhetorically to his dead beloved. Yet important themes and images from the sequence appear here, especially the motif of the Old Love (24 & 36). Line 11 echoes the first line of Sonnet 53, Without Her: ‘What of her glass without her?’ as well as notebook fragments. If published, Alone might have troubled the biographical critics. Despite the late date, references here are far more suggestive of EES than of JM. The dead beloved seems to be one with the Old Love. Yet its tone would place it in Part II of the sequence, definitely post-Willowwood, perhaps close to Ardour and Memory (64).

Bibliography of Works Cited or Consulted

Prefatory Note

There is neither a full bibliography of DGR nor any variorum ed. of HL that compiles an exhaustive list of books, articles and notes referring to it. The most helpful works are PRISM Sections 1 and 22–33, the bibliographies in WEF (especially Vols II, V and IX), ALC, Gregory 1931, Ghose 1929, Fennell 1982 and the annual bibliographies review-ing the year’s work on Victorian poetry issued by various periodicals such as VP, VS, YWES, JPRS and PMLA. McGann’s Rossetti Archive, Tobin’s Pre-Raphaelite Critic website and Chaudburi’s LITIR data-base also provide extensive bibliographical information. Throughout my text works from the list below are briefly cited using the author’s last name, year of publication and page or letter numbers. References to WEF, DW, Lang and Bryson are by letter number except where page numbers are given for notes and non-DGR letters; Peattie letter numbers are prefaced by ‘No.’

Baum, Paull F., ed. Dante Gabriel Rossetti: Poems, Ballads and Sonnets. Selections from His Posthumous Poems and from His Translations. New York: Doubleday Doran, 1937.

Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery. Catalogue of the Permanent Collection of Drawings. Derby: Bembrose & Sons, 1939.

Blackwood, Algernon. Tongues of Fire and Other Sketches. London: Jenkins, 1924.

_____. Short Stories of Today and Yesterday. London: Harrap, 1930. Blunt, Wilfred S. My Diaries: 1888–1914. New York: Knopf, 1921. Boos, Florence Saunders. The Poetry of Dante G. Rossetti: A Critical Reading

and Source Study. The Hague: Mouton, 1976. Burnett, T. A. J. The British Library Catalogue of the Ashley Manuscripts.

London: The British Library, 1999. Caine, T. Hall, ed. Sonnets of Three Centuries. London: Stock, 1882. _____. My Story. London: Heinemann, 1908. Carter, John. Review of Fraser 1972 in TLS (17 Nov 1972): 1404. Chaudburi, Brahma. Bibliography on Demand: The Rossettis 1970–1985. LITIR

Database. Edmonton: University of Alberta, 1987. Condivi, Ascanio. Vita di Michelangelo Buonarroti. A cura di Giovani Nencioni.

Firenze: Lungarno Guicciardino, 1998.

Bibliography 299

Dannreuther, Edward George. Love-Lily and Other Songs by D. G. Rossetti. London: Novello, 1884.

Delsey, Thomas J. ‘A Variorum Edition of D. G. Rossetti’s The House of Life.’ Unpublished dissertation (WorldCat), Harvard University, 1976.

Earle, J. C. Review of Poems in Catholic World (1874): 263–72. Elzea, Rowland, ed. The Correspondence between Samuel Bancroft, Jr. and

Charles Fairfax Murray 1892–1916. Delaware Art Museum Occasional Paper No. 2. Wilmington, DE: DAM, 1980.

Elzea, Rowland and Betty. The Pre-Raphaelite Era 1848–1914. Exhibition Catalogue. Wilmington DE: Wilmington Society for the Fine Arts, 1976.

Faithfull, Emily. A Welcome. London: Emily Faithfull, 1863. Fennell, Francis L. Dante Gabriel Rossetti: an Annotated Bibliography. New

York: Garland, 1982. _____. ‘The Rossetti Collection at the Library of Congress.’ Bulletin of

Bibliography (Sep 1973): 132–36. Fleming, Gordon H. Rossetti and the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood. London: Hart-

Davies, 1967. _____. That Ne’er Shall Meet Again: Rossetti, Millais, Hunt. London: Joseph, 1971. Forman, Harry Buxton. Our Living Poets: An Essay in Criticism. London: Tinsley,

1871. Repr. New York: Garland, 1986. Pp. 185–228 repeats in substance Forman’s piece on DGR published in Tinsley’s Magazine (Sep 69): 142–51.

Fraser, Robert S., ed. Essays on the Rossettis. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Library, 1972. Special issue of the Princeton University Library Chronicle commemorating Princeton’s acquisition of the Troxell Rossetti Collection.

Fredeman, William E. ‘“Fundamental Brainwork”: The Correspondence between Dante Gabriel Rossetti and Thomas Hall Caine.’ AUMLA (Nov 1979): 209–31.

_____. The Letters of Pictor Ignotus: William Bell Scott’s Correspondence with Alice Boyd, 1859–1884. Manchester: John Rylands Library, 1976.

_____. Prelude to the Last Decade: Dante Gabriel Rossetti in the Summer of 1872. Manchester: John Rylands Library, 1971. Abridged as Appendix 9 in WEF, Vol. V.

_____. ‘Rossetti’s In Memoriam: An Elegiac Reading of The House of Life.’ BJRL (Mar 1965): 298–341.

Gates, Barbara. ‘Revising The House of Life: A Look At Seven Unpublished Sonnets’ in VP (Spring 1983): 65–78.

Ghose, S. N. Dante Gabriel Rossetti & Contemporary Criticism (1849–1882). Dijon: Imprimerie Darantiere, 1929 (diss. Strasbourg, 1929). [Identification of contemporary reviews and articles on DGR with excerpts from them: for Poems, see pp. 106–83; for B&S, see pp. 206–36.]

Gordon, Kathryn I. ‘Dante Gabriel Rossetti’s House of Life: A Critical Edition.’ Unpublished dissertation (DA 29), Boston University, 1968.

Gregory, John B. ‘A Bibliography and Reference Guide to the Life and Works of Dante Gabriel Rossetti with a Study of the Pre-Raphaelite Movement.‘ 2 vols. Unpublished dissertation, University of London, 1931.

300 Bibliography

Harrison, Anthony, ed. The Letters of Christina Rossetti. 4 vols. Charlottesville, VA: UP of Virginia, 1997–2000.

Jones, Robert C. Poems of the Inner Life. London: Sampson Low, Low and Marston, 1866.

Keane, Robert N. Dante Gabriel Rossetti: The Poet as Craftsman. Studies in Nineteenth Century British Literature. New York: Peter Lang, 2002.

Lasner, Mark Samuels. A Bibliographical Essay on ‘Hand and Soul’. Rossetti Hypermedia Research Archive, 1997.

Lewis, Roger C. The Poetic Integrity of D. G. Rossetti’s Sonnet Sequence ‘The House of Life,’ Unpublished dissertation, University of Toronto, 1969.

_____, and Mark Samuels Lasner, eds. Poems and Drawings of Elizabeth Siddal. Wolfville, NS: Wombat Press, 1978

_____. The Making of Rossetti’s Ballads and Sonnets and Poems (1881),’ in Centennial Essays on Dante Gabriel Rossetti, ed. William E. Fredeman. West Virginia University: Double issue of VP (Autumn-Winter 1982): 199–216.

McGann, Jerome. The Complete Writings and Pictures of Dante Gabriel Rossetti: A Hypermedia Research Archive.

http://www.jefferson.village.virginia.edu:2020/ _____, ed. Collected Poetry and Prose by Dante Gabriel Rossetti. New Haven,

CT: Yale UP, 2003. Mackail, J. W. The Life of William Morris. 2 vols. London: Longmans, Green, 1899. Main, David. A Treasury of English Sonnets. Manchester: Alexander Ireland

and Co., 1880. Marchand, Leslie A. ‘The Symington Collection.’ Journal of Rutgers University

Library. (Dec 1948): 1–15. Metzdorf, Robert F., comp. The Tinker Library: A Bibliographical Catalogue of

the Books and Manuscripts Collected by Chauncey Brewster Tinker. New Haven, CT: Yale UP, 1959.

Miller, Frances. Catalogue of the William James Stillman Collection. Schenectady, NY: Friends of the Union College Library, 1974.

Noble, James Ashcroft. ‘The Sonnet in England.’ Contemporary Review (Jul–Dec 1880): 446–471. Repr. in Noble’s The Sonnet in England and Other Essays. London: Elkin Mathews and John Lane, 1893: [3]–63.

Notes on the Royal Academy Exhibition, 1868. Part I by WMR. Part II by ACS. London: John Camden Hotten, 1868. Repr. New York: AMS Press, 1976.

Pàntini, Romualdo. ‘La “Casa di Vita” di Dante Gabriele Rossetti.’ L’Italia Moderna (August 1904): 527–38.

Prideaux, W. F. ‘Additions to the Bibliography of the Works of Dante Gabriel Rossetti.’ Bibliographer, II (Apr 1903): 243–47.

_____. ‘Rossetti Bibliography.’ N&Q II (10 Dec 1904): 464–65 [on dating Sonnet 86, Lost Days.]

Robillard, Douglas J. ‘Rossetti’s Willowwood Sonnets and the Structure of The House of Life.’ VN (Fall 1962): 5–9.

Rosenbach, A. S. W. A Book Hunter’s Treasury. Philadelphia: Rosenbach Foundation, 1931.

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Rossetti, Dante Gabriel. The House of Life by Dante Gabriel Rossetti Being Now for The First Time Given in Its Full Text. Boston: Copeland and Day, 1894. [This ed. included all eleven lyrics and Sonnet V (Nuptial Sleep) present in the seventh ed. of Poems but omitted from B&S.]

Rossetti, William Michael, ed. The Germ … Being a Facsimile Reprint of the Literary Organ of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, Published in 1850: With an Introduction. London: Stock, 1901. Repr. in Robert Stahr Hosmon, ed. The Germ: A Pre-Raphaelite Little Magazine. Coral Gables, FL: U Miami P, 1970.

_____. The Poems of D.G. Rossetti with Illustrations from His Own Pictures and Designs. 2 vols. London: Ellis, 1904.

_____. Praeraphaelite Diaries and Letters. London: Hurst and Blackett, 1900. Sharp, William. Dante Gabriel Rossetti: A Record and a Study. London: Macmillan,

1882. Repr. New York: AMS Press, 1970. _____, ed. Sonnets of This Century. London: Walter Scott, 1886. Smetham, Sarah, and William Davies, eds. Letters of James Smetham, with an

Introductory Memoir. London: Macmillan, 1891. Stephens, Frederic G. Dante Gabriel Rossetti. London: Seeley, 1894. Stillman, William J. Autobiography of a Journalist. 2 vols. Boston: Houghton,

Mifflin, 1901. Stoppard, Tom. Travesties. London: Grove Press, 1975 Surtees, Virginia, ed. The Diary of Ford Madox Brown. New Haven, CT: Mellon

Center for Studies in British Art, Yale UP, 1981. Swinburne, Algernon Charles. ‘The Poems of Dante Gabriel Rossetti.’ Essays

and Studies. London: Chatto and Windus, 1875. [Reprint of ACS’ review. of Poems. For other reviews of Poems see WEF Appendix 5, Vol. V.]

Symonds, John Addington. ‘Notes on Mr D. G. Rossetti’s New Poems.’ Macmillan’s Magazine (Feb 82): 318–28. [Quoted in Ghose 1929: 216–20.]

Tobin, Thomas J. Pre-Raphaelite Critic: Periodical Criticism of the Pre-Raphaelite Movement: 1846–1900. http://www.engl.duq.edu/servus/PR_Critic.

Troxell, Janet Camp. Three Rossettis. Cambridge, MA: Harvard UP, 1937. _____. ‘The “Trial Books” of D. G. Rossetti.’ Colophon (Spring 1938): 243–58;

[Repr. Fraser 1972: 177–92.] Ullman, S. O. A. Rossetti, Stillman, and the Union College ‘Willowwood’

Manuscripts. Schenectady, NY: Union College Library, 1985. Vogel, Joseph F. ‘The House of Life, LXXXVII.’ Explicator (Apr 1963): item 64. Waddington, Samuel, ed. English Sonnets by Poets of the Past. London: George

Bell, 1882. _____. English Sonnets by Living Writers. London: 1884. _____. The Sonnets of Europe. London: Walter Scott, 1886. Wallerstein, Ruth. ‘The Bancroft Manuscripts of Rossetti’s Sonnets, with the

Text of Two Hitherto Unpublished Sonnets.’ MLN (May 1929): 279–84. Watts-Dunton, Theodore. ‘Dante Gabriel Rossetti’s New Poems.’ The Athenæum

(8 Oct 81): 457–60.