,,recollections ,,of ,,dante ,,gabriel ,,rossetti ,by ,t4 ,hall ,caine ,roberts ,brothers - #ahhc ,,preface4 ,one day towards the close of #ahha ,rossetti1 who was then very ill1 said to me3 8,how well ,i remember the beginning of our correspondence1 and how little did ,i think it would lead to such relations between us as have ensued6 ,i was at the time very solitary and depressed from various causes1 and the letters of so young and ardent a well-wisher1 though unknown to me personally1 brought solace40 8,yours10 ,i said1 8were very valuable to me40 8,mine to you were among the largest bodies of literary letters ,i ever wrote1 others being often letters of personal interest40 8,and so admirable in themselves10 ,i added1 8and so free from the discussion of any but literary subjects that many of them would bear to be printed exactly as you penned them40 8,that10 he said1 8will be for you some day to decide40 ,this was the first hint of any intention upon my part of publishing the letters he had written to me2 indeed1 this was the first moment at which ,i had conceived the idea of doing so4 ,nothing further on the subject was said down to the morning of the ,thursday preceding the ,sunday on which he died1 when we talked together for the last time on subjects of general interest1--subsequent interviews being concerned wholly with solicitous inquiries upon my part1 in common with other anxious friends1 as to the nature of his sufferings1 and the briefest answers from him4 8,how long have we been friends80 he said4 ,i replied1 between three and four years from my first corresponding with him4 8,and how long did we correspond80 8,three years1 nearly40 8,what numbers of my letters you must possess6 ,they may perhaps even yet be useful to you40 ,from this moment ,i regarded the publication of his letters as in some sort a trust2 and though ,i must have withheld them for some years if ,i had consulted my own wishes simply1 ,i yielded to the necessity that they should be published at once1 rather than run any risk of their not been published at all4 ,what ,i have just said will account for the circumstance that ,i1 the youngest and latest of ,rossetti's friends1 should be the first to seem to stand towards him in the relation of a biographer4 ,i say seem to stand1 for this is not a biography4 ,it was always known to be ,rossetti's wish that if at any moment after his death it should appear that the story of his life required to be written1 the one friend who during many of his later years knew him most intimately1 and to whom he unlocked the most sacred secrets of his heart1 ,mr4 ,theodore ,watts1 should write it1 unless indeed it were undertaken by his brother ,william4 ,but though ,i know that whenever ,mr4 ,watts sets pen to paper in pursuance of such purpose1 and in fulfilment of such charge1 he will afford us a recognisable portrait of the man1 vivified by picturesque illustration1 the like of which few other writers could compass1 ,i also know from what ,rossetti often told me of his friend's immersion in all kinds and varieties of life1 that years 7perhaps many years7 may elapse before such a biography is given to the world4 ,my own book is1 ,i trust1 exactly what it purports to be3 a volume of ,recollections1 interwoven with letters and criticism1 and preceded by such a summary of the leading facts in ,rossetti's life as seems necessary for the elucidation of subsequent records4 ,i have drawn ,rossetti precisely as ,i found him in each stage of our friendship1 exhibiting his many contradictions of character1 extenuating nothing1 and1 ,i need hardly add1 setting down naught in malice4 ,up to this moment ,i have never inquired of myself whether to those who have known little or nothing of ,rossetti hitherto1 mine will seem to be on the whole favourable or unfavourable portraiture2 but ,i have trusted my admiration of the poet and affection for the friend to penetrate with kindly and appreciative feeling every comment ,i have had to offer4 ,i was attracted to ,rossetti in the first case by ardent love of his genius1 and retained to him ultimately by love of the man4 ,as ,i have said in the course of these ,recollections1 it was largely his unhappiness that held me1 with others1 as by a spell1 and only too sadly in this particular did he in his last year realise his own picture of ,dante at ,verona3 ,yet of the twofold life he led ,in chainless thought and fettered will ,some glimpses reach us1--somewhat still ,of the steep stairs and bitter bread1-- ,of the soul's quest whose stern avow ,for years had made him haggard now4 ,i am sensible of the difficulty and delicacy of the task ,i have undertaken1 involving1 as it does1 many interests and issues2 and in every reference to surviving relatives as well as to other persons now living1 with whom ,rossetti was in any way allied1 ,i have exercised in all friendliness the best judgment at my command4 ,clement's ,inn1 ,october #ahhb4 999999 ,it has not been thought necessary to attach dates to the letters printed in this volume1 for not only would the difficulty of doing so be great1 owing to the fact that ,rossetti rarely dated his letters1 but the utility of dates in such a case would be doubtful1 because the substance of what is said is often quite impersonal1 and1 where otherwise1 is almost independent of the time of production4 ,it may be sufficient to say that the letters were written in the years #ahgi1ahhj1 and #ahha4 ,,contents ,,chapter ,i4 ,gabriele ,rossetti--,boyhood--,the pre-,raphaelite ,movement--,early ,manhood--,the ,blessed ,damozel--,jenny--,sister ,helen--,the ,translations--,the ,house of ,life--,the ,germ--,oxford and ,cambridge ,magazine--,blackfriars ,bridge--,married ,life ,,chapter ,,ii4 ,chelsea--,chloral--,dante's ,dream--,recovery of the ,poems--,poems--,the ,contemporary ,controversy--,mr4 ,theodore ,watts--,rose ,mary--,the ,white ,ship--,the ,king's ,tragedy--,poetic ,continuations--,cloud ,confines--,journalistic ,slanders ,,chapter ,,iii4 ,early ,intercourse--,poetic ,impulses--,beginning of ,correspondence--,early ,letters ,,chapter ,,iv4 ,inedited ,poems--,inedited ,ballads--,additions to ,sister ,helen--,hand and ,soul--,st4 ,agnes of ,intercession--,catholic ,opinion--,rossetti's ,catholicism--,cloud ,confines--,the ,portrait ,,chapter ,v4 ,coleridge--,wordsworth--,lamb and ,coleridge--,charles ,wells--,keats--,leigh ,hunt and ,keats--,keats's ,sister ,,chapter ,,vi4 ,chatterton--,oliver ,madox ,brown--,gilchrist's ,blake--,george ,gilfillan--,old ,periodicals--,a ,rustic ,poet--,art and ,politics--,letters in ,biography ,,chapter ,,vii4 ,cheyne ,walk--,the ,house--,first ,meeting--,rossetti's ,personality--,his ,reading--,the ,painter's ,craft--,mr4 ,ruskin--,rossetti's ,sensitiveness--,his ,garden--,his ,library ,,chapter ,,viii4 ,english ,sonnets--,sonnet ,structure--,shakspeare's ,sonnets--,wells's ,sonnet--,charles ,whitehead--,ebenezer ,jones--,mr4 ,w4 ,m4 ,rossetti--,a ,new ,sonnet--,mr4 ,w4 ,davies--,canon ,dixon--,miss ,christina ,rossetti--,the ,bride's ,prelude--,the ,supernatural in ,poetry ,,chapter ,,ix4 ,last ,days--,vale of ,st ,john--,in the ,lake ,country--,return to ,london--,london--,birchington ,,recollections ,,of ,,dante ,,gabriel ,,rossetti ,,chapter ,i4 ,dante ,gabriel ,rossetti was the eldest son of ,gabriele ,rossetti and ,frances ,polidori1 daughter of ,alfieri's secretary1 and sister of the young physician who travelled with ,lord ,byron4 ,gabriele ,rossetti was a native of ,yasto1 in the district of the ,abruzzi1 kingdom of ,naples4 ,he was a patriotic poet of very considerable distinction2 and1 as a politician1 took a part in extorting from ,ferdinand ,i4 the ,constitution of #ahbj4 ,after the failure of the ,neapolitan insurrection1 owing to the treachery of the ,king 7who asked leave of absence on a pretext of ill-health1 and returned with an overwhelming ,austrian army71 the insurrectionists were compelled to fly4 ,some of them fell victims2 others lay long in concealment4 ,rossetti was one of the latter2 and1 while he was in hiding1 ,sir ,graham ,moore1 the ,english admiral1 was lying with an ,english fleet in the bay4 ,the wife of the admiral had long been a warm admirer of the patriotic hymns of ,rossetti1 and1 when she learned his danger1 she prevailed with her husband to make efforts to save him4 ,sir ,graham thereupon set out with another ,english officer to the place of concealment1 habited the poet in an ,english uniform1 placed him between them in a carriage1 and put him aboard a ship that sailed next day to ,malta1 where he obtained the friendship of the governor1 ,john ,hookham ,frere1 by whose agency valuable introductions were procured1 and ultimately ,rossetti established himself in ,england4 ,arrived in ,london about #ahbc1 he lived a cheerful life as an exile1 though deprived of the advantages of his ,italian reputation4 ,he married in #ahbf1 and his eldest son was born ,may #ab1 #ahbh1 in ,charlotte ,street1 ,portland ,place1 ,london4 ,he was appointed ,professor of ,italian at ,king's ,college1 and died in #ahed4 ,his house was for years the constant resort of ,italian refugees2 and the son used to say that it was from observation of these visitors of his father that he depicted the principal personage of his ,last ,confession4 ,he did not live to see the returning glories of his country or the consummation we have witnessed of that great movement founded upon the principles for which he fought and suffered4 ,his present position in ,italy as a poet and patriot is a high one1 a medal having been struck in his honour4 ,an effort is even now afoot to erect a statue to him in his native place1 and one of the last occasions upon which the son put pen to paper was when trying to make a reminiscent rough portrait for the use of the sculptor4 ,gabriele ,rossetti spent his last years in the study of ,dante1 and his works on the subject are unique1 exhibiting a peculiar view of ,dante's conception of ,beatrice1 which he believed to be purely ideal1 and employed solely for purposes of speculative and political disquisition4 ,something of this interpretation was fixed undoubtedly upon the personage by ,dante himself in his later writings1 but whether the change were the result of a maturer and more complicated state of thought1 and whether the real and ideal characters of ,beatrice may not be compatible1 are questions which the poetic mind will not consider it possible to decide4 ,coleridge1 no doubt1 took a fair view of ,rossetti's theory when he said3 8,rossetti's view of ,dante's meaning is in great part just1 but he has pushed it beyond all bounds of common sense4 ,how could a poet--and such a poet as ,dante--have written the details of the allegory as conjectured by ,rossetti8 ,the boundaries between his allegory and his pure picturesque are plain enough1 ,i think1 at first reading40 ,it was1 doubtless1 due to his devotion to studies of the ,florentine that ,gabriele ,rossetti named after him his eldest son4 ,dante ,gabriel ,rossetti1 whose full baptismal name was ,gabriel ,charles ,dante1 was educated principally at ,king's ,college ,school1 ,london1 and there attained to a moderate proficiency in the ordinary classical school-learning1 besides a knowledge of ,french1 which throughout life he spoke well4 ,he learned at home some rudimentary ,german2 ,italian he had acquired at a very early age4 ,there has always been some playful mention of certain tragedies and translations upon which he exercised himself from the ages of five to fifteen years2 but it is hardly necessary to say that he himself never attached value to these efforts of his precocity2 he even displayed1 occasionally1 a little irritation upon hearing them spoken of as remarkable youthful achievements4 ,one of these productions of his adolescence1 ,sir ,hugh the ,heron1 has been so frequently alluded to1 that it seems necessary to tell the story of it1 as the author himself1 in conversation1 was accustomed to do4 ,at about twelve years of age1 the young poet wrote a scrap of a poem under this title1 and then cast it aside4 ,his grandfather1 ,polidori1 had seen the fragment1 however1 and had conceived a much higher opinion of its merits than even the natural vanity of the young author himself permitted him to entertain4 ,it had then become one of the grandfather's amusements to set up an amateur printing-press in his own house1 and occupy his leisure in publishing little volumes of original verse for semi-public circulation4 ,he urged his grandson to finish the poem in question1 promising it1 in a completed state1 the dignity and distinction of type4 ,prompted by hope of this hitherto unexpected reward1 ,rossetti--then thirteen to fourteen years of age--finished the juvenile epic1 and some bound copies of it got abroad4 ,no more was thought of the matter1 and in due time the little bard had forgotten that he had ever done it4 ,but when a genuine distinction had been earned by poetry that was in no way immature1 ,rossetti discovered1 by the gratuitous revelation of a friend1 that a copy of the youthful production--privately printed and never published--was actually in the library of the ,british ,museum4 ,amazed1 and indeed appalled as he was by this disclosure1 he was powerless to remedy the evil1 which he foresaw would some day lead to the poem being unearthed to his injury1 and printed as a part of his work4 ,the utmost he could do to avert the threatened mischief he did1 and this was to make an entry in a commonplace-book which he kept for such uses1 explaining the origin and history of the poem1 and expressing a conviction that it seemed to him to be remarkable only from its entire paucity of even ordinary poetic promise4 ,but while this was indubitably a just estimate of these boyish efforts1 it is no doubt true1 as we shall presently see1 that ,rossetti's genius matured itself early in life4 ,whilst still a child1 his love of literature exhibited itself1 and a story is told of a disaster occurring to him1 when rather less than nine years of age1 which affords amusing proof of the ardour of his poetic nature4 ,upon going with his brother and sisters to the house of his grandfather1 where as children they occupied themselves with sports appropriate to their years1 he proposed to improvise a part of a scene from ,othello1 and cast himself for the principal rle4 ,the scene selected was the closing one of the play1 and began with the speech delivered to ,lodovico1 ,montano1 and ,gratiano1 when they are about to take ,othello prisoner4 ,rossetti used to say that he delivered the lines in a frenzy of boyish excitement1 and coming to the words-- ,set you down this3 ,and say1 besides1--that in ,aleppo once1 ,where a malignant and a turban'd ,turk ,beat a ,venetian1 and traduced the state1 ,i took by the throat the circumcised dog1 ,and smote him--thus6-- he snatched up an iron chisel1 that lay somewhere at hand1 and1 to the consternation of his companions1 smote himself with all his might on the chest1 inflicting a wound from which he bled and fainted4 ,he is described by those who remember him1 at this period1 as a boy of a gentle and affectionate nature1 albeit prone to outbursts of masterfulness4 ,the earliest existent portraits represent a comely youth1 having redundant auburn hair curling all round the head1 and eyes and forehead of extraordinary beauty4 ,it is said that he was brave and manly of temperament1 courageous as to personal suffering1 eminently solicitous of the welfare of others1 and kind and considerate to99such as he had claims upon4 ,this is no doubt true portraiture1 but it must be stated 7however open to explanation1 on grounds of laudable self-depreciation71 that it is not the picture which he himself used to paint of his character as a boy4 ,he often described himself as being destitute of personal courage when at school1 as shrinking from the amusements of schoolfellows1 and fearful of their quarrels2 not wholly without generous impulses1 but1 in the main1 selfish of nature and reclusive in habit of life4 ,he was certainly free from the meaningless affectation--for such it too frequently is--of representing his school-days as the happiest of his life4 ,if1 after so much undervaluing of himself1 it were possible to trust his estimate of his youthful character1 he would have had you believe that school was to him a place of semi-purgatorial probation1--which nothing but love of his mother1 and desire to meet her wishes1 prevented him1 as an irreclaimable antischoliast1 from obstinately renouncing at a time when he had learned little ,latin1 and less ,greek4 ,having from childhood shown a propensity towards painting1 the strong inclination was fostered by his parents1 and art was looked upon as his future profession4 ,upon leaving school about #ahdc1 he studied first at an art academy near ,bedford ,square1 and afterwards at the ,eoyal ,academy ,antique ,school1 never1 however1 going to the ,eoyal ,academy ,life ,school4 ,he appears to have been an assiduous student4 ,in after life when his habit of late rising had become a stock subject of banter among his intimate friends1 he would tell with unwonted pride how in earlier years he used to rise at six ,a4,m4 once a week in order to attend a life-class held before breakfast4 ,on such occasions he was accustomed1 he would say1 to purchase a buttered roll and cup of coffee at some stall at a street corner1 so as not to dislocate domestic arrangements by requiring the servants to get up in the middle of the night4 ,he left the ,academy about #ahdh or #ahdi1 and in the latter year exhibited his picture entitled the ,girlhood of ,mary ,virgin4 ,this painting is an admirable example of his early art1 before the ,gothicism of the early ,italian painters became his quest4 ,better known to the public than the picture is the sonnet written upon it1 containing the beautiful lines-- ,an angel-watered lily1 that near ,god ,grows and is quiet4 ,while ,rossetti was still under age he associated with ,j4 ,e4 ,millais1 ,holman ,hunt1 ,thomas ,woolner1 ,james ,collinson1 ,f4 ,g4 ,stephens1 and his brother1 ,w4 ,m4 ,rossetti1 in the movement called pre-,raphaelite4 ,at the beginning of his career he recognised1 in common with his associates1 that the contemporary classicism had run to seed1 and that1 beyond an effort after perfection of technique1 the art of the period was all but devoid of purpose1 of thought1 imagination1 or spirituality4 ,at such a moment it was matter for little surprise that ardent young intellects should go back for inspiration to the ,gothicism of ,giotto and the early painters4 ,there1 at least1 lay feeling1 aim1 aspiration1 such as did not concern itself primarily with any question of whether a subject were painted well or ill1 if only it were first of all a subject at all--a subject involving manipulative excellence1 perhaps1 but feeling and invention certainly4 ,this1 then1 stated briefly1 was the meaning of pre-,raphaelitism4 ,the name 7as shall hereafter appear7 was subsequently given to the movement more than half in jest4 ,it has sometimes been stated that ,mr4 ,ruskin was an initiator1 but this is not strictly the case4 ,the company of young painters and writers are said to have been ignorant of ,mr4 ,ruskin's writings when they began their revolt against the current classicism4 ,it is a fact however1 that1 after perhaps a couple of years1 ,mr4 ,ruskin came to the rescue of the little brotherhood 7then much maligned7 by writing in their defence a letter in the ,times4 ,it is easy to make too much of these early endeavours of a company of young men1 exceptionally gifted though the reformers undoubtedly were1 and inspired by an ennobling enthusiasm4 ,in later years ,rossetti was not the most prominent of those who kept these beginnings of a movement constantly in view2 indeed1 it is hardly rash to say that there were moments when he seemed almost to resent the intrusion of them upon the maturity of aim and handling which1 in common with his brother artists1 he ultimately compassed4 ,but it would be folly not to recognise the essential germs of a right aspiration which grew out of that interchange of feeling and opinion which1 in its concrete shape1 came to be termed pre-,raphaelitism4 ,rossetti is acknowledged to have taken the most prominent part in the movement1 supplying1 it is alleged1 much of the poetic impulse as well as knowledge of mediaeval art4 ,he occupied himself in these and following years mainly in the making of designs for pictures--the most important of them being ,dante's ,dream1 ,hamlet and ,ophelia1 ,cassandra1 ,lucretia ,borgia1 ,giotto painting ,dante's ,portrait1 ,the ,first ,anniversary of the ,death of ,beatrice ,mary ,magdalene at the ,door of ,simon the ,pharisee1 ,the ,death of ,lady ,macbeth1 ,desdemona's ,death-song and a great subject entitled ,found1 designed and begun at twenty-five1 but left incomplete at death4 ,all this occurred between the years #ahdi-ahef1 but three years before the earlier of these dates ,rossetti1 as a painter1 had come under an influence which he was never slow to acknowledge operated powerfully on his art4 ,in #ahdf1 ,mr4 ,ford ,madox ,brown exhibited designs in the ,westminster competition1 and his cartoons deeply impressed ,rossetti ,the young painter1 then nineteen years of age1 wrote to the elder one1 his senior by no more than seven years1 begging to be permitted to become a pupil4 ,an intimacy sprang up between the two1 and for a while ,rossetti worked in ,brown's studio2 but though the friendship lasted throughout life the professional relationship soon terminated4 ,the ardour of the younger man led him into the-brotherhood just referred to1 but ,brown never joined the pre-,raphaelites1 mainly1 it is said1 from dislike of coterie tendencies4 ,about #ahef1 ,rossetti1 with two or three other young painters1 gratuitously undertook to paint designs on the walls of the ,union ,debating ,hall at ,oxford1 and about the time he was engaged upon this task he made the acquaintance of ,mr4 ,william ,morris1 ,mr4 ,burne ,jones1 and ,mr4 ,swinburne1 who were undergraduates at the ,university4 ,mr4 ,burne ,jones was intended for a clerical career1 but due to ,rossett's intercession ,holy ,orders were abandoned1 to the great gain of ,english art4 ,he has more than once generously allowed that he owed much to ,rossetti at the beginning of his career1 find regarded him to the last as leader of the movement with which his own name is now so eminently and distinctively associated4 ,together1 and with the co-operation of ,mr4 ,william ,morris and ,canon ,dixon1 they started and carried on for about a year a monthly periodical called ,the ,oxford and ,cambridge ,magazine1 of which ,canon ,dixon1 as one of the projectors1 shall presently tell the history4 ,at a subsequent period ,mr4 ,burne ,jones and ,rossetti1 together with ,mr4 ,madox ,brown and some three others1 associated with ,mr4 ,morris in establishing1 from the smallest of all possible beginnings1 the trading firm now so well known as ,morris and ,co41 and they remained partners in this enterprise down to the year #ahgd1 when a dissolution took place1 leaving the business in the hands of the gentleman whose name it bore1 and whose energy had from the first been mainly instrumental in securing its success4 ,it may be said that almost from the outset ,rossetti viewed the public exhibition of pictures as a distracting practice4 ,except the ,girlhood of ,mary ,virgin1 the ,annunciation was almost the only picture he exhibited in ,london1 though three or four water-colour drawings were at an early period exhibited in ,liverpool1 and of these1 by a curious coincidence1 one was the first study for the ,dante's ,dream1 which was purchased by the corporation of the city within a few months of the painter's death4 ,to sum up all that remains at this stage to say of ,rossetti as a pictorial artist down to his thirtieth year1 we may describe him 7as he liked best to hear himself described7 simply as a poetic painter4 ,if he had a special method1 it might be called a distinct poetic abstraction1 together with a choice of mediaeval subject1 and an effort after no less vivid rendering of nature than was found in other painters4 ,with his early designs 7the outcome of such a quest as has been indicated7 there came1 perchance1 artistic crudities enough1 but assuredly there came a great spirituality also4 ,by and by ,rossetti perceived that he must make narrower the stream of his effort if he would have it flow deeper2 and then1 throughout many years1 he perfected his technical methods by abandoning complex subject-designs1 and confining himself to simple three-quarter-length pictures4 ,more shall be said on this point in due course4 ,already1 although unknown through the medium of the public picture-gallery1 he was recognised as the leader of a school of rising young artists whose eccentricities were frequently a theme of discussion4 ,he never invited publicity1 yet he was rapidly attaining to a prominent position among painters4 ,his personal character in early manhood is described by friends as one of peculiar manliness1 geniality1 and unselfishness4 ,it is said that1 on one occasion1 he put aside important work of his own in order to spend several days in the studio of a friend1 whose gifts were quite inconsiderable compared with his1 and whose prospects were all but hopeless1--helping forward certain pictures1 which were backward1 for forthcoming exhibition4 ,many similar acts of self-sacrifice are still remembered with gratitude by those who were the recipients of them4 ,rossetti was king of his circle1 and it must be said1 that in all that properly constituted kingship1 he took care to rule4 ,there was then a certain determination of purpose which occasionally had the look of arbitrariness1 and sometimes1 it is alleged1 a disregard of opposing opinion which partook of tyranny3 but where heart and not head were in question1 he was assuredly the most urbane and amiable of monarchs4 ,in matters of taste in art1 or criticism in poetry1 he would brook no opposition from any quarter2 nor did he ever seem to be conscious of the unreasonableness of compelling his associates to swallow his opinions as being absolute and final4 ,this disposition to govern his circle co-existed1 however1 with the most lavish appreciation of every good quality displayed by the members of it1 and all the little uneasiness to which his absolutism may sometimes have given rise was much more than removed by constantly recurring acts of good-fellowship1--indeed it was forgotten in the presence of them4 ,a photograph which exists of ,rossetti at twenty-seven conveys the idea of a nature rather austere and taciturn than genial and outspoken4 ,the face is long and the cheeks sunken1 the whole figure being attenuated and slightly stooping2 the eyes have the inward look which belonged to them in later life1 but the mouth1 which is free from the concealment of moustache or beard1 is severe4 ,the impression conveyed is of a powerful intellect and ambitious nature at war with surroundings and not wholly satisfied with the results4 ,it ought to be added that1 at the period in question1 health was uncertain with ,rossetti3 and this fact1 added to the circumstance of his being at the time in the very throes of those difficulties with his art which he was soon to surmount1 must be understood to account for the austerity of his early portrait4 ,rossetti was not in a distinct sense a humourist1 but there came to him at intervals1 in earlier manhood1 those outbursts of volatility1 which1 to serious natures1 act as safety-valves after prolonged tension of all the powers of the mind4 ,at such moments of levity he is described as almost boyish in recklessness1 plunging into any madcap escapade that might be afoot with heedlessness of all consequences4 ,stories of misadventures1 quips and quiddities of every kind1 were then his delight1 and of these he possessed a fund which no man knew better how to use4 ,he would tell a funny story with wonderful spirit and freshness of resource1 always leading up to the point with watchful care of the finest shades of covert suggestion or innuendo1 and1 when the climax was reached1 never denying himself a hearty share in the universal laughter4 ,one of his choicest pleasures at a dinner or other such gathering was to improvise rhymes on his friends1 and of these the fun usually lay in the improvisatore's audacious ascription of just those qualities which his subject did not possess4 ,though far from devoid of worldly wisdom1 and indeed possessed of not a little shrewdness in his dealings with his buyers 7often exhibiting that rarest quality of the successful trader1 the art of linking one transaction with another71 he was sometimes amusingly deficient in what is known as common sense4 ,in later life he used to tell with infinite zest a story of a blunder of earlier years which might easily have led to serious if not fatal results4 ,he had been suffering from nervous exhaustion and had been ordered to take a preparation of nux vomica4 ,the dose was to be taken three times daily3 in the morning1 at noon1 and in the evening4 ,one afternoon he was about to start out for the house of a friend with whom he had promised to lunch1 when he remembered that he had not taken his first daily dose of medicine4 ,he forthwith took it1 and upon setting down the glass1 reflected that the second dose was due1 and so he took that also4 ,putting on his hat and preparing to sally forth he further reflected that before he could return the third dose ought in ordinary course to be taken1 and so without more deliberation he poured himself a final portion and drank it off4 ,he had thereupon scarcely turned himself about1 when to his horror he discovered that his limbs were growing rigid and his jaw stiff4 ,in the utmost agitation he tried to walk across the studio and found himself almost incapable of the effort4 ,his eyes seemed to leap out of their sockets and his sight grew dim4 ,appalled and in agony1 he at length sprang up from the couch upon which he had dropped down a moment before1 and fled out of the house4 ,the violent action speedily induced a copious perspiration1 and this being by much the best thing that could have happened to him1 carried off the poison and so saved his life4 ,he could never afterwards be induced to return to the drug in question1 and in the last year of his life was probably more fearfully aghast at seeing the present writer take a harmless dose of it than he would have been at learning that #ej grains of chloral had been taken4 ,he had1 in early manhood1 the keenest relish of a funny prank1 and one such he used to act over again in after life with the greatest vivacity of manner4 ,every one remembers the story told by ,jefferson ,hogg how ,shelley got rid of the old woman with the onion basket who took a place beside him in a stage coach in ,sussex1 by seating himself on the floor and fixing a tearful1 woful face upon his companion1 addressing her in thrilling accents thus-- ,for heaven's sake1 let us sit upon the ground1 ,and tell sad stories of the death of kings4 ,rossetti's frolic was akin to this1 though the results were amusingly different4 ,it would appear that when in early years1 ,mr4 ,william ,morris and ,mr4 ,burne ,jones occupied a studio together1 they had a young servant maid whose manners were perennially vivacious1 whose good spirits no disaster could damp1 and whose pertness nothing could banish or check4 ,rossetti conceived the idea of frightening the girl out of her complacency1 and calling one day on his friends1 he affected the direst madness1 strutted ominously up to her and with the wildest glare of his wild eyes1 the firmest and fiercest setting of his lower lip1 and began in measured and resonant accents to recite the lines-- ,shall the hide of a fierce lion ,be stretched on a couch of wood1 ,for a daughter's foot to lie on1 ,stained with a father's blood8 ,the poet's response is a soft 8,ah1 no60 but the girl1 ignorant of course of this1 and wholly undisturbed by the bloodthirsty tone of the question addressed to her1 calmly fixed her eyes on the frenzied eyes before her1 and answered with a swift light accent and rippling laugh1 8,it shall if you like1 sir60 ,rossetti's enjoyment of his discomfiture on this occasion seemed never to grow less4 ,his life was twofold in intellectual effort1 and of the directions in which his energy went out the artistic alone has thus far been dealt with4 ,it has been said that he early displayed talent for writing as well as painting1 and1 in truth1 the poems that he wrote in early youth are even more remarkable than the pictures that he painted4 ,his poetic genius developed rapidly after sixteen1 and sprang at once to a singular and perfect maturity4 ,it is difficult to say whether it will add to the marvel of mature achievement or deduct from the sense of reality of personal experience1 to make public the fact that ,the ,blessed ,damozel was written when the poet was no more than nineteen4 ,that poem is a creation so pure and simple in the higher imagination1 as to support the contention that the author was electively related to ,fra ,angelico4 ,described briefly1 it may be said to embody the meditations of a beautiful girl in ,paradise1 whose lover is in the same hour dreaming of her on earth4 ,how the poet lighted upon the conception shall be told by himself in that portion of this book devoted to the writer's personal recollections4 ,the ,blessed ,damozel is a conception dilated to such spiritual loveliness that it seems not to exist within things substantially beautiful1 or yet by aid of images that coalesce out of the evolving memory of them1 but outside of everything actual ,it is not merely that the dream itself is one of ideal purity2 the wave of impulse is pure1 and flows without taint of media that seem almost to know it not4 ,the lady says3-- ,we two will lie i' the shadow of ,that living mystic tree ,within whose secret growth the ,dove ,is sometimes felt to be1 ,while every leaf that ,his plumes touch ,saith ,his ,name audibly4 ,here the love involved is so etherealised as scarcely to be called human1 save only on the part of the mortal dreamer1 in whose yearning ecstasy the ear thinks it recognises a more earthly note4 ,the lover rejoins4-- 7,alas6 ,we two1 we two1 thou say'st6 ,yea1 one wast thou with me ,that once of old4 ,but shall ,god lift ,to endless unity ,the soul whose likeness with thy soul ,was but its love for thee87 ,it is said of the few existent examples of the art of ,giorgione that1 around some central realisation of human passion gathers always a landscape which is not merely harmonised to it1 but a part of it1 sharing the joy or the anguish1 lying silent to the breathless adoration1 or echoing the rapturous voice of the full pleasure of those who are beyond all height and depth more than it4 ,something of this passive sympathy of environing objects comes out in the poem3 ,around her1 lovers1 newly met #8,mid deathless love's acclaims1 ,spoke evermore among themselves ,their rapturous new names2 ,and the souls mounting up to ,god ,went by her like thin flames4 ,and still she bowed herself and stooped ,out of the circling charm2 ,until her bosom must have made ,the bar she leaned on warm1 ,and the lilies lay as if asleep ,along her bended arm4 ,the sense induced by such imagery is akin to that which comes of rapt contemplation of the deep em-blazonings of a fine stained window when the sun's warm gules glides off before the dim twilight4 ,and this sense as of a thing existent1 yet passing stealthily out of all sight away1 the metre of the poem helps to foster4 ,other metres of ,rossetti's have a strenuous reality1 and rejoice in their self-assertiveness1 and seem1 almost1 in their resonant strength1 to tell themselves they are very good2 but this may almost be said to be a disembodied voice1 that lives only on the air1 and1 like the song of a bird1 is gone before its accents have been caught4 ,of the four-and-twenty stanzas of the poem1 none is more calmly musical than this3 ,when round his head the aureole clings1 ,and he is clothed in white1 ,i #8ll take his hand and go with him ,to the deep wells of light2 ,we will step down as to a stream1 ,and bathe there in ,god's sight4 ,perhaps ,rossetti never did anything more beautiful and spiritual than this little work of his twentieth year2 and more than once in later life he painted the beautiful lady who is the subject of it1 with the lilies lying along her arm4 ,a first draft of ,jenny was struck off when the poet was scarcely more than a boy1 and taken up again years afterwards1 and almost entirely re-written--the only notable passage of the early poem that now remains being the passage on lust4 ,it is best described in the simplest phrase1 as a man's meditations on the life of a courtesan whom he has met at a dancing-garden and accompanied home4 ,while he sits on a couch1 she lies at his feet with her head on his knee and sleeps4 ,when the morning dawns he rises1 places cushions beneath her head1 puts some gold among her hair1 and leaves her4 ,it is wisest to hazard at the outset all unfavourable comment by the frankest statement of the story of the poem4 ,but the motif of it is a much higher thing4 ,jenny embodies an entirely distinct phase of feeling1 yet the poet's root impulse is therein the same as in the case of ,the ,blessed ,damozel4 ,no two creations could stand more widely apart as to outward features than the dream of the sainted maiden and the reality of the frail and fallen girl2 yet the primary prompting and the ultimate outcome are the same4 ,the ardent longing after ideal purity in womanhood1 which in the one gave birth to a conception whereof the very sorrow is but excess of joy found expression in the other through a vivid presentment of the nameless misery of unwomanly dishonour3-- ,behold the lilies of the field1 ,they toil not neither do they spin2 7,so doth the ancient text begin1-- ,not of such rest as one of these ,can share47 ,another rest and ease ,along each summer-sated path ,from its new lord the garden hath1 ,than that whose spring in blessings ran ,which praised the bounteous husbandman1 ,ere yet1 in days of hankering breath1 ,the lilies sickened unto death4 ,it was indeed a daring thing the author proposed to himself to do1 and assuredly no man could have essayed it who had not consciously united to an unfailing and unshrinking insight1 a relativeness of mind such as right-hearted people might approve4 ,to take a fallen woman1 a cipher of man's sum of lust1 befouled with the shameful knowledge of the streets1 yet young1 delicate1 8apparelled beyond parallel10 unblessed1 with a beauty which1 if copied by a ,da ,vinci's hand1 might stand whole ages long 8for preachings of what ,god can do10 and then to endow such a one with the sensitiveness of a poet's own mind1 make her read afresh as though by lightning1 and in a dream1 that story of the old pure days-- ,much older than any history ,that is written in any book1 and lastly1 to gather about her an overwhelming sense of infinite solace for the wronged and lost1 and of the retributive justice with which man's transgressions will be visited--this is1 indeed1 to hazard all things in the certainty of an upright purpose and true reward4 ,shall no man hold his pride forewarn'd ,till in the end1 the ,day of ,days1 ,at ,judgment1 one of his own race1 ,as frail and lost as you1 shall rise1-- ,his daughter with his mother's eyes6 ,yet ,rossetti made no treaty with puritanism1 and in this respect his ,jenny has something in common with ,hawthorne's ,scarlet ,letter--than which nothing1 perhaps1 that is so pure1 without being puritanical1 has reached us even from the land that gave ,evangeline to the ,english tongue4 ,the guilty love of ,hester ,prynne and ,arthur ,dimmesdale is never for an instant condoned1 but1 on the other hand1 the rigorous severity of the old puritan community is not dwelt upon with favour4 ,relentless remorse must spend itself upon the man before the whole measure of his misery is full1 and on the woman the brand of a public shame must be borne meekly to the end4 ,but though no rancour is shown towards the austere and blind morality which puts to open discharge the guilty mother whilst unconsciously nourishing the yet more guilty father1 we see the tenderness of a love that palliates the baseness of the amour1 and the bitter depths of a penitence that cannot be complete until it can no longer be concealed4 ,and so with ,jenny4 ,she may have transient flashes of remorseful consciousness1 such as reveal to her the trackless leagues that separate what she was from what she is1 but no effort is made to hide the plain truth that she is a courtesan1 skilled only in the lures and artifices peculiar to her shameful function4 ,no reformatory promptings fit her for a place at the footstool of the puritan4 ,nothing tells of winter yet2 on the other hand1 no virulent diatribes are cast forth against the society that shuts this woman out1 as the puritan settlement turned its back on ,hester ,prynne4 ,but we see her and know her for what she is1 a woman like unto other women3 desecrated but akin4 ,this dramatic quality of sitting half-passively above their creations and of leaving their ethics to find their own channels 7once assured that their impulses are pure71 the poet and the romancer possess in common4 ,if there is a point of difference between their attitudes of mind1 it is where ,rossetti seems to reserve his whole personal feeling for the impeachment of lust2-- ,like a toad within a stone ,seated while ,time crumbles on2 ,which sits there since the earth was cursed ,for ,man's transgression at the first2 ,which1 living through all centuries1 ,not once has seen the sun arise2 ,whose life1 to its cold circle charmed1 ,the earth's whole summers have not warmed2 ,which always--whitherso the stone ,be flung--sits there1 deaf1 blind1 alone2-- ,ay1 and shall not be driven out ,till that which shuts him round about ,break at the very ,master's stroke1 ,and the dust thereof vanish as smoke1 ,and the seed of ,man vanish as dust3-- ,even so within this world is ,lust4 ,sister ,helen was written somewhat later than ,the ,blessed ,damozel and the first draft of ,jenny1 and probably belonged to the poet's twenty-fourth or twenty-fifth year4 ,the ballad involves a story of witchcraft ,a girl has been first betrayed and then deserted by her lover2 so1 to revenge herself upon him and his newly-married bride1 she burns his waxen image three days over a fire1 and during that time he dies in torment ,in ,sister ,helen we touch the key-note of ,rossetti's creative gift4 ,even the superstition which forms the basis of the ballad owes something of its individual character to the invention and poetic bias of the poet4 ,the popular superstitions of the ,middle ,ages were usually of two kinds only4 ,first1 there were those that arose out of a jealous ,catholicism1 always glancing towards heresy2 and next there were those that laid their account neither with orthodoxy nor unbelief1 and were purely pagan4 ,the former were the offspring of fanaticism2 the latter of an appeal to appetite or passion1 or fancy1 or perhaps intuitive reason directed blindly or unconsciously towards natural phenomena4 ,the superstition involved in ,sister ,helen partakes wholly of neither character1 but partly of both1 with an added element of demonology4 ,the groundwork is essentially catholic1 the burden of the ballad showing that the tragic event lies between ,hell and ,heaven3-- 7,o ,mother1 ,mary ,mother1 ,three days to-day1 between ,hell and ,heaven67 ,but the superstructural overgrowth is totally undisturbed by any animosity against heresy1 and is concerned only with a certain ultimate demoniacal justice visiting the wrongdoer4 ,thus far the elemental tissue of the superstition has something in common with that of the ,german secret tribunal of the steel and cord2 with this difference1 however1 that whereas the latter punishes in secret1 even as the deity1 the former makes conscious compact with the powers of evil1 that whatever justice shall be administered upon the wicked shall first be purchased by sacrifice of the good4 ,sister ,helen may burn1 alive1 the body and soul of her betrayer1 but the dying knell that tells of the false soul's untimely flight1 tolls the loss of her own soul also3-- 8,ah6 what white thing at the door has cross'd1 ,sister ,helen8 ,ah6 what is this that sighs in the frost60 8,a soul that's lost as mine is lost1 ,little brother60 7,o ,mother1 ,mary ,mother1 ,lost1 lost1 all lost1 between ,hell and ,heaven67 ,here lies the divergence between the lines of this and other compacts with evil powers2 this is the point of ,rossetti's departure from the scheme that forms the underplot of ,goethe's ,faust1 and of ,marlowe's ,faustus1 and was intended to constitute the plan of ,coleridge's ,michael ,scott4 ,it has been well said that the theme of the ,faust is the consequence of a misology1 or hatred of knowledge1 resulting upon an original thirst for knowledge baffled4 ,faust never does from the beginning love knowledge for itself1 but he loves it for the means it affords for the acquisition of power4 ,this base purpose defeats itself2 and when ,faust finds that learning fails to yield him the domination he craves1 he hates and contemns it4 ,away1 henceforth1 with all pretence to knowledge6 ,then follows the compact1 the articles to which are absolute servility of the ,devil on the one part1 and complete possession of the soul of ,faust on the other4 ,faust is little better than a wizard from the first1 for if knowledge had given him what he3 sought1 he had never had recourse to witchcraft6 ,helen1 however1 partakes in some sort of the triumphant nobility of an avenging deity who has cozened hell itself1 and not in vain4 ,in the whole majesty of her great wrong1 she loses the originally vulgar character of the witch4 ,it is not as the consequence of a poison-speck in her own heart that she has recourse to sorcery4 ,she does not love witchery for its own sake2 she loves it only as the retributive channel for the requital of a terrible offence4 ,it is throughout the last hour of her three-days' conflict1 merely1 that we see her1 but we know her then not more for the revengeful woman she is than for the trustful maiden she has been4 ,when she becomes conscious of the treason wrought against her1 we feel that she suffers change4 ,in the eyes of others we can see her1 and in our vision of her she is beautiful2 but hers is the beauty of fair cheeks1 from which the canker frets the soft tenderness of colour1 the loveliness of golden hair that has lost its radiance1 the sweetness of eyes once dripping with the dews of the spirit1 now pale1 and cold1 and lustreless4 ,very soon the wrongdoer shall reap the harvest of a twofold injury3 this day another bride shall stand by his side4 ,is there1 then1 no way to wreak the just revenge of a broken heart8 ,that suggests sorcery4 ,yes1 the body and soul of the false lover may melt as before a flame2 but the price of vengeance is horrible4 ,yet why8 ,has not love become devilish8 ,is not life a curse8 ,then wherefore shrink8 ,the resolute wronged woman must go through with it4 ,and when the last hour comes1 nature itself is portentous of the virulent ill4 ,in the wind's wake1 the moon flies through a rack of night clouds4 ,one after one the suppliants crave pardon for the distant dying lover1 and last of these comes the three-days' bride4 ,in addition to the three great poems just traversed1 ,rossetti had written1 before the completion of his twenty-sixth year1 ,the ,staff and ,scrip1 ,the ,burden of ,nineveh1 ,troy ,town1 ,eden ,bower and ,the ,last ,confession1 as well as a fragment of ,the ,bride's ,prelude1 to which it will be necessary to return4 ,but1 with a single exception1 the poems just named may be said to exist beside the three that have been analysed1 without being radically distinct from them1 or touching higher or other levels1 and hence it is not considered needful to dwell upon them at length4 ,the ,last ,confession covers another range of feeling1 it is true1 whereof it may be said that the nobler part is akin to that which finds expression in the pure and shattered love of ,othello2 but it is a range of feeling less characteristical1 perhaps less indigenous and appreciable4 ,in the years #ahde-di inclusive1 ,rossetti made the larger part of his translations 7published in #ahfa7 from the early ,italian poets1 and though he afterwards spoke of them as having been the work of the leisure moments of many years1 of their subsequent revision alone1 perhaps1 could this be altogether true4 ,the ,vita ,nuova1 together with the many among ,dante's ,lyrics and those of his contemporaries which elucidate their personal intercourse2 were translated1 as well as a great body of the sonnets of poets later than ,dante4 99 ,this early and indirect apprenticeship to the sonnet1 as a form of composition1 led to his becoming1 in the end1 perhaps the most perfect of ,english sonnet-writers4 ,in youth1 it was one of his pleasures to engage in exercises of sonnet-skill with his brother ,william and his sister ,christina1 and1 even then1 he attained to such proficiency1 in the mere mechanism of sonnet structure1 that he could sometimes dash off a sonnet in ten minutes--rivalling1 in this particular1 the impromptu productions of ,hartley ,coleridge4 ,it is hardly necessary to say that the poems produced1 under such conditions of time and other tests1 were rarely1 if ever1 adjudged worthy of publication1 by the side of work to which he gave adequate deliberation4 ,but several of the sonnets on pictures--as1 for example1 the fine one on a ,venetian pastoral by ,giorgione--and the political sonnet1 ,miltonic in spirit1 ,on the ,refusal of ,aid between ,nations1 were written contemporaneously with the experimental sonnets in question4 99 ,rossetti often remarked that he had intended to translate the sonnets of ,michael ,angelo1 until he saw ,mr4 ,symonds's translation1 when he was so much impressed by its excellence that he forthwith abandoned the purpose4 ,as ,the ,house of ,life was composed in great part at the period with which we are now dealing 7though published in the complete sequence nearly twenty-five years later71 it may be best to traverse it at this stage4 ,though called a full series of sonnets1 there is no intimation that it is not fragmentary as to design2 the title is an astronomical1 not an architectural figure4 ,the work is at once ,shakspearean and ,dantesque4 ,whilst electively akin to the ,vita ,nuova1 it is broader in range1 the life involved being life idealised in all phases4 ,what ,rossetti's idea was of the mission of the sonnet1 as associated with life1 and exhibiting a similitude of it1 may best be learned from his prefatory sonnet3-- ,a ,sonnet is a moment's monument1-- ,memorial from the ,soul's eternity ,to one dead deathless hour4 ,look that it be1 ,whether for lustral rite or dire portent1 ,of its own arduous fulness reverent3 ,carve it in ivory or in ebony1 ,as ,day or ,night may rule2 and let ,time see ,its flowering crest impearled and orient4 ,a ,sonnet is a coin2 its face reveals ,the soul1--its converse1 to what ,power #8tis due3-- ,whether for tribute to the august appeals ,of ,life1 or dower in ,love's high retinue1 ,it serve2 or #8mid the dark wharfs cavernous breath1 ,in ,charon's palm it pay the toll to ,death4 ,rossetti's sonnets are of varied metrical structure2 but their intellectual structure is uniform1 comprising in each case a flow and ebb of thought within the limits of a single conception4 ,in this latter respect they have a character almost peculiar to themselves among ,english sonnets4 ,rossetti was not the first ,english writer who deliberatively separated octave and sestet1 but he was the first who obeyed throughout a series of sonnets the canon of the contemporary structure requiring that a sonnet shall present the twofold facet of a single thought or emotion4 ,this form of the sonnet ,rossetti was at least the first among ,english writers entirely to achieve and perfectly to render4 ,the ,house of ,life does not contain a sonnet which is not to some degree informed by such an intellectual and musical wave2 but the following is an example more than usually emphatic3 ,even as a child1 of sorrow that we give dead1 but little in his heart can find1 ,since without need of thought to his clear mind ,their turn it is to die and his to live3-- ,even so the winged ,new ,love smiles to receive ,along his eddying plumes the auroral wind1 ,nor1 forward glorying1 casts one look behind ,where night-rack shrouds the ,old ,love fugitive4 ,there is a change in every hour's recall1 ,and the last cowslip in the fields we see ,on the same day with the first corn-poppy4 ,alas for hourly change6 ,alas for all ,the loves that from his hand proud youth lets fall1 ,even as the beads of a told rosary6 ,the distinguishing excellence of craftsmanship in ,rossetti's sonnets was early recognised2 but the fertility of thought1 and range of emotion compassed by this part of his work constitute an excellence far higher than any that belongs to perfection of form1 rhythm1 or metre4 ,mr4 ,palgrave has well said that a poet's story differs from a narrative in being in itself a creation2 that it brings its own facts2 that what we have to ask is not the true life of ,laura1 but how far ,petrarch has truly drawn the life of love4 ,so with ,rossetti's sonnets4 ,they may or may not be 8occasional40 ,many readers who enter with sympathy into the series of feelings they present will doubtless insist upon regarding them as autobiographical4 ,others1 who think they see the stamp of reality upon them1 will perhaps accept them 7as ,hallam accepted the ,sonnets of ,shakspeare7 as witnesses of excessive affection1 redeemed sometimes by touches of nobler sentiments--if affection1 however excessive1 needs to be redeemed4 ,others again will receive them as artistic embodiments of ideal love upon which is placed the imprint of a passion as mythical as they believe to be attached to the autobiography of ,dante's early days4 ,but the genesis and history of these sonnets 7whether the emotion with which they are pervaded be actual or imagined7 must be looked for within4 ,do they realise vividly ,life representative in its many phases of love1 joy1 sorrow1 and death8 ,it must be conceded that he ,house of ,life touches many passions and depicts life in most of its changeful aspects4 ,it would afford an adequate test of its comprehensiveness to note how rarely a mind in general sympathy with the author could come to its perusal without alighting upon something that would be in harmony with its mood4 ,to traverse the work through its aspiration and foreboding1 joy1 grief1 remorse1 despair1 and final resignation1 would involve a task too long and difficult to be attempted here4 ,two sonnets only need be quoted as at once indicative of the range of thought and feeling covered1 and of the sequent relation these poems bear each to each4 ,by thine own tears thy song must tears beget1 ,singer6 ,magic mirror thou hast none ,except thy manifest heart2 and save thine own ,anguish or ardour1 else no amulet4 ,cisterned in ,pride1 verse is the feathery jet ,of soulless air-flung fountains2 nay1 more dry ,than the ,dead ,sea for throats that thirst and sigh1 ,that song o'er which no singer's lids grew wet4 ,the ,song-god--,he the ,sun-god--is no slave ,of thine3 thy ,hunter he1 who for thy soul ,fledges his shaft3 to the august control ,of thy skilled hand his quivered store he gave3 ,but if thy lips' loud cry leap to his smart1 ,the inspired record shall pierce thy brother's heart4 ,this is not meant to convey the same idea as ,shelley's 8learn in suffering10 etc41 but merely that a poem must move the writer in its composition if it is to move the reader4 ,with the following ,the ,house of ,life is made to close3 ,when vain desire at last and vain regret ,go hand in hand to death1 and all is vain1 ,what shall assuage the unforgotten pain ,and teach the unforgetful to forget8 ,shall ,peace be still a sunk stream long unmet1-- ,or may the soul at once in a green plain ,stoop through the spray of some sweet life-fountain1 ,and cull the dew-drenched flowering amulet8 ,ah6 when the wan soul in that golden air ,between the scriptured petals softly blown ,peers breathless for the gift of grace unknown1-- ,ah6 let none other alien spell soe'er ,but only the one ,hope's one name be there1-- ,not less nor more1 but even that word alone4 ,a writer must needs be loath to part from this section of ,rossett's work without naming some few sonnets that seem to be in all respects on a level with those to which attention has been drawn4 ,of such1 perhaps1 the most conspicuous are3--,a ,day of ,love2 ,mid-,rapture2 ,her ,gifts2 ,the ,dark ,glass2 ,true ,woman2 ,without ,her2 ,known in ,vain2 ,the ,heart of the ,night2 ,the ,landmark2 ,stillborn ,love2 ,lost ,days4 ,but it would be difficult to formulate a critical opinion in support of the superiority of almost any of these' sonnets over the others1--so balanced is their merit1 so equal their appeal to the imagination and heart4 ,indeed1 it were scarcely rash to say that in the language 7outside ,shakspeare7 there exists no single body of sonnets characterised by such sustained excellence of vision and presentment4 ,it must have been strange enough if the all but unexampled ardour and constancy with which ,rossetti pursued the art of the sonnet-writer had not resulted in absolute mastery4 ,in #ahej ,the ,germ was started under the editorship of ,mr4 ,william ,michael ,rossetti1 and to the four issues1 which were all that were published of this monthly magazine 7designed to advocate the views of the pre-,raphaelite brotherhood71 ,rossetti contributed certain of his early poems--,the ,blessed ,damozel among the number4 ,in #ahef he contributed many of the same poems1 together with others1 to ,the ,oxford and ,cambridge ,magazine1 of which ,canon ,dixon has kindly undertaken to tell the history4 ,he says3 ,my knowledge of ,dante ,gabriel ,rossetti was begun in connection with ,the ,oxford and ,cambridge ,magazine1 a monthly periodical1 which was started in ,january #ahef1 and lasted a year4 ,the projectors of this periodical were ,mr4 ,william ,morris1 ,mr4 ,ed4 ,burne ,jones1 and myself4 ,the editor was ,mr4 7now the ,rev47 ,william ,fulford4 ,among the original contributors were the late ,mr4 ,wilfred ,heeley of ,cambridge1 ,mr4 ,faulkner1 now ,fellow of ,university ,college1 ,oxford1 and ,mr4 ,cormel ,price4 ,we were all undergraduates4 ,the publishers of the magazine were the late firm of ,bell and ,daldy4 ,we gradually associated with ourselves several other contributors3 above all1 ,d4 ,g4 ,rossetti4 ,of this undertaking the central notion was1 ,i think1 to advocate moral earnestness and purpose in literature1 art1 and society4 ,it was founded much on ,mr4 ,ruskin's teaching3 it sprang out of youthful impatience1 and exhibited many signs of immaturity and ignorance3 but perhaps it was not without value as a protest against some things4 ,the pre-,raphaelite movement was then in vigour3 and this ,magazine came to be considered as the organ of those who accepted the ideas which were brought into art at that time2 and1 as in a manner1 the successor of ,the ,germ1 a small periodical which had been published previously by the first beginners of the movement4 ,rossetti1 in many respects the most memorable of the pre-,raphaelites1 became connected with our ,magazine when it had been in existence about six months3 and he contributed to it several of the finest of the poems that were afterwards collected in the former of his two volumes of poems3 namely1 ,the ,burden of ,nineveh1 ,the ,blessed ,damozel1 and ,the ,staff and ,scrip4 ,i think that one of them1 ,the ,blessed ,damozel1 had appeared previously in ,the ,germ4 ,all these poems1 as they now stand in the author's volume1 have been greatly altered from what they were in the ,magazine3 and1 in being altered1 not always improved1 at least in the verbal changes4 ,the first of them1 a sublime meditation of peculiar metrical power1 has been much altered1 and in general happily1 as to the arrangement of stanzas3 but not always so happily as to the words4 ,it is1 however1 pleasing to notice that in the alterations some touches of bitterness have been effaced4 ,the second of these pieces has been brought with great skill into regular form by transposition3 but again one repines to find several touches gone that once were there4 ,the last of them1 ,the ,staff and ,scrip1 is1 in my judgment1 the finest of all ,rossetti's poems1 and one of the most glorious writings in the language4 ,it exhibits in flawless perfection the gift that he had above all other writers1 absolute beauty and pure action4 ,here again it is not possible to see without regret some of the verbal alterations that have been made in the poem as it now stands1 although the chief emendation1 the omission of one stanza and the insertion of another1 adds clearness1 and was all that was wanted to make the poem perfect in structure4 ,i saw ,rossetti for the first time in his lodgings over ,blackfriars ,bridge4 ,it was impossible not to be impressed with the freedom and kindness of his manner1 not less than by his personal appearance4 ,his frank greeting1 bold1 but gentle glance1 his whole presence1 produced a feeling of confidence and pleasure4 ,his voice had a great charm1 both in tone1 and from the peculiar cadences that belonged to it ,i think that the leading features of his character struck me more at first than the characteristics of his genius2 or rather1 that my notion of the character of the man was formed first1 and was then applied to his works1 and identified with them4 ,the main features of his character were1 in my apprehension1 fearlessness1 kindliness1 a decision that sometimes made him seem somewhat arbitrary1 and condensation or concentration4 ,he was wonderfully self-reliant4 ,these moral qualities1 guiding an artistic temperament as exquisite as was ever bestowed on man1 made him what he was1 the greatest inventor of abstract beauty1 both in form and colour1 that this age1 perhaps that the world1 has seen4 ,they would also account for some peculiarities that must be admitted in some of his works1 want of nature1 for instance4 ,i heard him once remark that it was 8astonishing how much the least bit of nature helped if one put it in20 which seemed like an acknowledgment that he might have gone more to nature4 ,hence1 however1 his works always seem abstract1 always seem to embody some kind of typical aim1 and acquire a sort of sacred character4 ,i saw a good deal of ,rossetti in ,london1 and afterwards in ,oxford1 during the painting of the ,union debating-room4 ,in later years our personal intercourse was broken off through distance2 though ,i saw him occasionally almost to the time of his lamented death1 and we had some correspondence4 ,my recollection of him is that of greatness1 as might be expected of one of the few who have been 8illustrious in two arts10 and who stands by himself and has earned an independent name in both4 ,his work was great3 the man was greater4 ,his conversation had a wonderful ease1 precision1 and felicity of expression4 ,he produced thoughts perfectly enunciated with a deliberate happiness that was indescribable1 though it was always simple conversation1 never haranguing or declamation4 ,he was a natural leader because he was a natural teacher4 ,when he chose to be interested in anything that was brought before him1 no pains were too great for him to take4 ,his advice was always given warmly and freely1 and when he spoke of the works of others it was always in the most generous spirit of praise4 ,it was in fact impossible to have been more free from captiousness1 jealousy1 envy1 or any other form of pettiness than this truly noble man4 ,the great painter who first took me to him said1 8,we shall see the greatest man in ,europe40 ,i have it on the same authority that ,rossetti's aptitude for art was considered amongst painters to be no less extraordinary than his imagination4 ,for example1 that he could take hold of the extremity of the brush1 and be as certain of his touch as if it had been held in the usual way2 that he never painted a picture without doing something in colour that had never been done before2 and1 in particular1 that he had a command of the features of the human face such as no other painter ever possessed4 ,i also remember some observations by the same assuredly competent judge1 to the effect that ,rossetti might be set against the great painters of the fifteenth century1 as equal to them1 though unlike them3 the difference being that while they represented the characters1 whom they painted1 in their ordinary and unmoved mood1 he represented his characters under emotion1 and yet gave them wholly4 ,it may be added1 perhaps1 that he had a lofty standard of beauty of his own invention1 and that he both elevated and subjected all to beauty4 ,such a man was not likely to be ignorant of the great root of power in art1 and ,i once saw him very indignant on hearing that he had been accused of irreligion1 or rather of not being a ,christian4 ,he asked with great earnestness1 8,do not my works testify to my ,christianity80 ,i wish that these imperfect recollections may be of any avail to those who cherish the memory of an extraordinary genius4 ,besides his contributions to ,the ,germ1 and to ,the ,oxford and ,cambridge ,magazine1 ,rossetti contributed ,sister ,helen1 in #ahec1 to a ,german ,annual4 ,beyond this he made little attempt to publish his poetry4 ,he had written it for the love of writing1 or in obedience to the inherent impulse compelling him to do so1 but of actual hope of achieving by virtue of it a place among ,english poets he seems to have had none1 or next to none4 ,in later life he used to say that ,mr4 ,browning's greatness and the splendour of ,mr4 ,tennyson's merited renown seemed to him in those early years to render all attempt on his part to secure rank by their side as hopeless as presumptuous4 ,this1 he asserted1 was the cause that operated to restrain him from publication between #ahec and #ahfb1 and after that 7as will presently be seen71 another and more serious obstacle than self-depreciation intervened4 ,but in putting aside all hope of the reward of poetic achievement1 he did not wholly banish the memory of the work he had done4 ,he made two or more copies of the most noticeable of the poems he had written1 and sent them to friends eminent in letters4 ,to ,leigh ,hunt he sent ,the ,blessed ,damozel1 and received in acknowledgment a letter full of appreciative comment1 and foretelling a brilliant future4 ,his literary friends at this time were ,mr4 ,ruskin1 ,mr4 and ,mrs4 ,browning2 he used to see ,mr4 ,tennyson and ,carlyle at intervals1 and was in constant intercourse with the younger writers1 ,mr4 ,swinburne and ,mr4 ,morris1 whose reputations had then to be made2 ,mr4 ,arnold1 ,sir ,henry ,taylor1 ,mr4 ,aubrey de ,vere1 ,mr4 ,e4 ,brough1 ,mr4 ,j4 ,hannay1 and ,mr4 ,monckton ,milnes 7,lord ,houghton71 he met occasionally2 ,dobell he knew only by correspondence4 ,though unpublished1 his poems were not unknown1 for besides the semi-publicity they obtained by circulation 8among his private friends10 he was nothing loath to read or recite them at request1 and by such means a few of them secured a celebrity akin in kind and almost equal in extent to that enjoyed by ,coleridge's ,christabel during the many years preceding #ahaf in which it lay in manuscript4 ,like ,coleridge's poem in another important particular1 certain of ,rossetti's ballads1 whilst still unknown to the public1 so far influenced contemporary poetry that when they did at length appear they had all the appearance to the uninitiated of work imitated from contemporary models1 instead of being1 as in fact they were1 the primary source of inspiration for writers whose names were earlier established4 ,towards the beginning of his artistic career ,rossetti occupied a studio1 with residential chambers1 at ,black-friars ,bridge4 ,the rooms overlooked the river1 and the tide rose almost to the walls of the house1 which1 with nearly all its old surroundings1 has long disappeared4 ,a story is told of ,rossetti amidst these environments which aptly illustrates almost every trait of his character3 his impetuosity1 and superstition especially4 ,it was his daily habit to ransack old book-stalls1 and carry off to his studio whatever treasures he unearthed1 but when1 upon further investigation1 he found he had been deceived as to the value of a book that at first looked promising1 he usually revenged himself by throwing the volume through a window into the river running below--a habit which he discovered 7to his amusement1 and occasionally to his distress71 that his friends1 ,mr4 ,swinburne especially1 imitated from him and practised at his rooms on his behalf4 ,on one occasion he discovered in some odd nook a volume long sought for1 and having inscribed it with his name and address1 he bore it off joyfully to his chambers2 but finding a few days later that in some respects it disappointed his expectations1 he flung it through the window1 and banished all further thought of it4 ,the tide had been at the flood when the book disappeared1 and when it ebbed1 the offending volume was found by a little mud-lark imbedded in the refuse of the river4 ,the boy washed it and took it back to the address it contained1 expecting to find it eagerly reclaimed2 but1 impatient and angry at sight of what he thought he had destroyed1 ,rossetti snatched the book out of the muddy hand that proffered it and flung it again into the ,thames1 with rather less than the courtesy which might have been looked for as the reward of an act that was meant so well4 ,but the haunting volume was not even yet done with4 ,next morning1 an old man of the riverside labourer class knocked at the door1 bearing in his hands a small parcel rudely made up in a piece of newspaper that was greasy enough to have previously contained his morning's breakfast4 ,he had come from where he was working below ,london ,bridge3 he had found something that might have been lost by ,mr4 ,rossetti4 ,it was the tormenting volume3 the indestructible1 unrelenting phantom that would not be laid6 ,rossetti now perceived that higher agencies were at work3 it was not meant that he should get rid of the book3 why should he contend against the inevitable8 ,reverently and with both hands he took the besoiled parcel from the brown palm of the labourer1 placed half-a-crown there instead1 and restored the fearful book to its place on his shelf4 ,and now we come to incidents in ,rossetti's career of which it is necessary to treat as briefly as tenderly4 ,among the models who sat to him was ,miss ,elizabeth ,eleanor ,siddal1 a young lady of great personal beauty1 in whom he discovered a natural genius for painting and a noticeable love of the higher poetic literature4 ,he felt impelled to give her lessons1 and she became as much his pupil as model4 ,her water-colour drawings done under his tuition gave proof of a wonderful eye for colour1 and displayed a marked tendency to style4 ,the subjects1 too1 were admirably composed and often exhibited unusual poetic feeling4 ,it was very natural that such a connection between persons of kindred aspirations should lead to friendship and finally to love4 ,rossetti and ,miss ,siddal were married in #ahfj4 ,they visited ,france and ,belgium2 and this journey1 together with a similar one undertaken in the company of ,mr4 ,holman ,hunt in #ahdi1 and again another in #ahfc1 when his brother was his companion1 and a short residence on the ,continent when a boy1 may be said to constitute almost the whole sum of ,rossetti's travelling4 ,very soon the lady's health began to fail1 and she became the victim of neuralgia4 ,to meet this dread enemy she resorted to laudanum1 taking it at first in small quantities1 but eventually in excess4 ,her spirits drooped1 her art was laid aside1 and much of the cheerfulness of home was lost to her4 ,there was a child1 but it was stillborn1 and not long after this disaster1 it was found that ,mrs4 ,rossetti had taken an overdose of her accustomed sleeping potion and was lying dead in her bed4 ,this was in #ahfb1 and after two years only of married life4 ,the blow was a terrible one to ,rossetti1 who was the first to discover what fate had reserved for him4 ,it was some days before he seemed fully to realise the loss that had befallen him1 and then his grief knew no bounds4 ,the poems he had written1 so far as they were poems of love1 were chiefly inspired by and addressed to her4 ,at her request he had copied them into a little book presented to him for the purpose1 and on the day of the funeral he walked into the room where the body lay1 and1 unmindful of the presence of friends1 he spoke to his dead wife as though she heard1 saying1 as he held the book1 that the words it contained were written to her and for her1 and she must take them with her for they could not remain when she had gone4 ,then he put the volume into the coffin between her cheek and beautiful hair1 and it was that day buried with her in ,highgate ,cemetery4 ,,chapter ,,ii4 ,it was long before ,rossetti recovered from the shock of his wife's sudden death4 ,the loss sustained appeared to change the whole course of his life4 ,previously he had been of a cheerful temperament1 and accustomed to go abroad at frequent intervals to visit friends2 but after this event he seemed to become for a time morose1 and by nature reclusive4 ,not a great while afterwards he removed from ,blackfriars ,bridge1 and after a temporary residence in ,lincoln's ,inn ,fields1 he took up his abode in the house he occupied during the twenty remaining years of his life1 at #af ,cheyne ,walk1 ,chelsea4 ,this home of ,rossetti's shall be fully described in subsequent personal recollections4 ,it was called ,tudor ,house when he became its tenant1 from the tradition that ,elizabeth ,tudor had lived in it1 and it is understood to be the same that ,thackeray describes in ,esmond as the home of the old ,countess of ,chelsey4 ,a large garden1 which recently has been cut off for building purposes1 lay at the back1 and1 doubtless1 it was as much due to the attractions of this piece of pleasant ground1 dotted over with lime-trees1 and enclosed by a high wall1 that ,rossetti went so far afield1 for at that period ,chelsea was not the rallying ground of artists and men of letters4 ,he wished to live a life of retirement1 and thought the possession of a garden in which he could take sufficient daily exercise would enable him to do so4 ,in leaving ,blackfriars he destroyed many things associated with his residence there1 and calculated to remind him of his life's great loss4 ,he burnt a great body of letters1 and among them were many valuable ones from almost all the men and women then eminent in literature and art4 ,his great grief notwithstanding1 upon settling at ,chelsea he began almost insensibly to interest himself in furnishing the house in a beautiful and novel style4 ,old oak then became for a time his passion1 and in hunting it up he rummaged the brokers' shops round ,london for miles1 buying for trifles what would eventually 7when the fashion he started grew to be general7 have fetched large sums4 ,cabinets of all conceivable superannuated designs--so old in material or pattern that no one else would look at them--were unearthed in obscure corners1 bolstered up by a joiner1 and consigned to their places in the new residence4 ,following old oak1 ,japanese furniture became ,rossetti's quest1 and following this came blue china ware 7of which he had perhaps the first fine collection made71 and then ecclesiastical and other brasses1 incense-burners1 sacramental cups1 crucifixes1 ,indian spice boxes1 mediaeval lamps1 antique bronzes1 and the like4 ,in a few years he had filled his house with so much curious and beautiful furniture that there grew up a widespread desire to imitate his methods2 and very soon artists1 authors1 and men of fortune having no other occupation1 were found rummaging1 as he had rummaged1 for the neglected articles of the centuries gone by4 ,what he did was done1 as he used to say1 less from love of the things hunted for1 than from love of the pursuit1 which1 from its difficulty1 gave rise to a pleasurable excitement4 ,thus did he grieve down his loss1 and little did they think who afterwards followed the fashion he set them1 and carried his passion for antique furniture to an excess at which he must have laughed1 that his' primary impulse was so far from a desire to 8live up to his blue ware10 that it was more like an effort to live down to it4 ,it was during the earlier years of his residence at ,chelsea that ,rossetti formed a habit of life which clung to him almost to the last1 and did more than aught else to blight his happiness4 ,what his intimate friend has lately characterised in ,the ,daily ,news as that great curse of the literary and artistic temperament1 insomnia1 had been hanging about him since the death of his wife1 and was becoming each year more and more alarming4 ,he had tried opiates1 but in sparing quantities1 for had he not the most serious cause to eschew them8 ,towards #ahfh he heard of the then newly found drug chloral1 which was accredited with all the virtues and none of the vices of other known narcotics4 ,here then was the thing he wanted2 this was the blessed discovery that was to save him from days of weariness and nights of misery and tears4 ,eagerly he procured it1 took it nightly in single small doses of ten grains each1 and from it he received pleasant and refreshing sleep4 ,he made no concealment of his habit2 like ,coleridge under similar conditions1 he preferred to talk of it4 ,not yet had he learned the sad truth1 too soon to force itself upon him1 that the fumes of this dreadful drug would one day wither up his hopes and joys in life3 deluding him with a short-lived surcease of pain only to impose a terrible legacy of suffering from which there was to be no respite4 ,had ,rossetti been master of the drug and not mastered by it1 perhaps he might have turned it to account at a critical juncture1 and laid it aside when the necessity to employ it had gradually been removed4 ,but1 alas6 he gave way little by little to the encroachments of an evil power with which1 when once it had gained the ascendant1 he fought down to his dying day a single-handed and losing fight4 ,it was not1 however1 for some years after he began the use of it that chloral produced any sensible effects of an injurious kind1 and meantime he pursued as usual his avocation as a painter4 ,mention has been made of the fact that ,rossetti abandoned at an early age subject designs for three-quarter-length figures4 ,of the latter1 in the period of which we are now treating1 he painted great numbers3 among them1 produced at this time and later1 were ,sibylla ,palmifera and ,the ,beloved 7the property of ,mr4 ,george ,rae71 ,la ,pia and ,the ,salutation of ,beatrice 7,mr4 ,f4 ,e4 ,leyland71 ,the ,dying ,beatrice 7,lord ,mount ,temple71 ,venus ,astarte 7,mr4 ,fry71 ,fiammetta 7,mr4 ,turner71 ,proserpina 7,mr4 ,graham74 ,of these works1 solidity may be said to be the prominent characteristic4 ,the drapery of ,rossetti's pictures is wonderfully powerful and solid2 his colour may be said to be at times almost matchable with that of certain of the ,venetian painters1 though different in kind4 ,he hated beyond most things the 8varnishy0 look of some modern work2 and his own oil pictures had so much of the manner of frescoes in their lustreless depth1 that they were sometimes mistaken for water-colours1 while1 on the other hand1 his water-colours had often so much depth and brilliancy as sometimes to be mistaken for oil4 ,it is alleged in certain quarters that ,rossetti was deficient in some qualities of drawing1 and this is no doubt a just allegation2 but it is beyond question that no ,english painter has ever been a greater master of the human face1 which in his works 7especially those painted in later years7 acquires a splendid solemnity and spiritual beauty and significance all but peculiar to himself4 ,it seems proper to say in such a connexion1 that his success in this direction was always attributed by him to the fact that the most memorable of his faces were painted from a well-known friend4 ,only one of his early designs1 the ,dante's ,dream1 was ever painted by ,rossetti on a scale commensurate with its importance1 and the solemnity and massive grandeur of that work leave only a feeling of regret that1 whether from personal indisposition on the part of the painter or lack of adequate recognition on that of the public1 the three or four other finest designs made in youth were never carried out4 ,as the picture in question stands alone among ,rossetti's pictorial works as a completed conception1 it may be well to devote a few pages to a description of it4 ,it is essential to an appreciation of ,dante's ,dream1 that we should not only fully understand the nature of the particular incident depicted in the picture1 but also possess a general knowledge of the lives and relations of the two principal personages concerned in it4 ,what we know1 to most purpose1 of the early life and love of ,dante1 we learn from the autobiography which he entitled ,la ,vita ,nuova4 ,boccaccio1 however1 writing fifty years after the death of the great ,florentine1 affords a more detailed statement than is furnished by ,dante himself of the circumstances of the poets first meeting with the lady he called ,beatrice4 ,he says that it was the custom of citizens in ,florence1 when the time of spring came round1 to form social gatherings in their own quarters for purposes of merry-making2 that in this way ,folco ,portinari1 a citizen of mark1 had collected his neighbours at his house upon the first of ,may1 #abgd1 for pastime and rejoicing3 that amongst those who came to him was ,alighiero ,alighieri1 father of ,dante ,alighieri1 who lived within fifty yards2 that it was common for children to accompany their parents at such merrymakings1 and that ,dante1 then scarce nine years old1 was in the house on the day in question engaged in sports1 appropriate to his years1 with other children1 amongst whom was a little daughter of ,folco ,portinari1 eight years old4 ,the child is described as being1 even at this period1 in aspect extremely beautiful1 and winning and graceful in her ways4 ,not to dwell upon these passages of childhood1 it may be sufficient to say that the boy1 young as he was1 is said to have then conceived so deep a passion for the child that maturer attachments proved powerless to efface it4 ,such was the origin of a love that grew from childlike tenderness to manly ardour1 and1 surviving all the buffetings of an untoward fate1 is known to us now and for all time in a record of so much reality and purity1 as seems to every right-hearted nature to be equally the story of his personal attachment as the history of a passion that in ,florence1 six centuries ago1 for its mortal put on immortality4 ,the ,portinari and ,alighieri were immediate neighbours1 yet it does not appear that the young ,dante encountered the lady in any marked way until nine years later1 and then1 in the first bloom of a gracious womanhood1 she is described as affording him in the street a salutation of such unspeakable courtesy that he left the place where for the instant he had stood sorely abashed1 as one intoxicated with a love that now at first knew itself for what it was4 ,the incidents of the attachment are few in facts2 numerous only in emotions1 and therein too uncertain and liable to change to be counted4 ,in order not to disclose a passion1 which other reasons than those given by the poet may have tempted him to conceal1 ,dante affects an attachment to another lady of the city1 and the rumour of this brings about an estrangement with the real object of his desires1 which reduces the poet to such an abject condition of mind1 as finally results in his laying aside all counterfeiting4 ,portinari1 the father1 now dies1 and witnessing the tenderness with which the beautiful ,beatrice mourns him1 ,dante becomes affected with a painful infirmity1 wherein his mind broods over his enfeebled body1 and1 perceiving how frail a thing life is1 even though health keep with it1 his brain begins to travail in many imaginings1 and he says within himself1 8,certainly it must some time come to pass that the very gentle ,beatrice will die40 ,feeling bewildered1 he closes his eyes1 and1 in a trance1 he conceives that a friend comes to him1 and says1 8,hast thou not heard8 ,she that was thine excellent lady has been taken out of life40 ,then as he looks towards ,heaven in imagination1 he beholds a multitude of angels who are returning upwards1 having before them an exceedingly white cloud2 and these angels are singing1 and the words of their song are1 8,osanna in excelsis40 ,so strong is his imagining1 that it seems to him that he goes to look upon the body where it has its abiding-place4 ,the sun ceased1 and the stars began to gather1 ,and each wept at the other2 ,and birds dropp'd at midflight out of the sky2 ,and earth shook suddenly2 ,and ,i was #8ware of one1 hoarse and tired out1 ,who ask'd of me3 #8,hast thou not heard it said-- ,thy lady1 she that was so fair1 is dead8 ,then lifting up mine eyes1 as the tears came1 ,i saw the angels1 like a rain of manna ,in a long flight flying back ,heavenward1 ,having a little cloud in front of them1 ,after the which they went1 and said #8,hosanna2' ,and if they had said more1 you should have heard4 ,then ,love said1 #8,now shall all things be made clear3 ,come1 and behold our lady where she lies ,these #8wildering phantasies ,then carried me to see my lady dead4 ,even as ,i there was led1 ,her ladies with a veil were covering her2 ,and with her was such very humbleness ,that she appeared to say1 #8,i am at peace4' 7,dante and his ,circle47 ,the trance proves to be a premonition of the event1 for1 shortly after writing the poem in which his imaginings find record1 ,dante says1 8,the ,lord ,god of ,justice called my most gracious lady unto ,himself40 ,it is with the incidents of the dream that ,rossetti has dealt4 ,the principal personage in the picture is1 of course1 ,dante himself4 ,of the poet's face1 two old and accredited witnesses remain to us--the portrait of ,giotto and the mask supposed to be copied from a similar one taken after death4 ,giotto's portrait represents ,dante at the age of twenty-seven4 ,the face has a feminine delicacy of outline1 yet is full of manly beauty2 strength and tenderness are seen blended in its lineaments4 ,it might be that of a poet1 a scholar1 a courtier1 or yet a soldier2 and in ,dante it is all combined4 ,such1 as seen in ,giotto1 was the great ,florentine when ,beatrice beheld him4 ,the familiar mask represents that youthful beauty as somewhat saddened by years of exile1 by the accidents of an unequal fortune1 and by the long brooding memory of his life's one1 deep1 irreparable loss4 ,we see in it the warrior who served in the great battle of ,campaldino3 the mourner who sought refuge from grief in the action and danger of the war waged by ,florence upon ,pisa3 the magistrate whose justice proved his ruin3 the exile who ate bitter bread when ,florence banished the greatest of her sons4 ,the mask is as full as the portrait of intellect and feeling1 of strength and character1 but it lacks something of the early sweetness and sensibility4 ,rossetti's portraiture retains the salient qualities of both portrait and mask4 ,it represents ,dante in his twenty-seventh year2 the face gives hint of both poet and soldier1 for behind clear-cut features capable of strengthening into resolve and rigour lie whole depths of tenderest sympathy4 ,the abstracted air1 the self-centred look1 the eyes that seem to see only what the mind conceives and casts forward from itself2 the slow1 uncertain1 half-reluctant gait1--these are profoundly true to the man and the dream4 ,of ,beatrice1 no such description is given either in the ,vita ,nuova or the ,commedia as could afford an artist a definite suggestion4 ,dante's love was an idealised passion2 it concerned itself with spiritual beauty1 whereof the emotions excited absorbed every merely physical consideration4 ,the beauty of ,beatrice in the ,vita ,nuova is like a ray of sunshine flooding a landscape--we see it only in the effect it produces4 ,all we know with certainty is that her hair was light1 that her face was pale1 and that her smile was one of thoughtful sweetness4 ,these hints of a beautiful person ,rossetti has wrought into a creation of such purity that1 lovely as she is in death1 as in life1 we think less of her loveliness than of her loveableness4 ,the personage of ,love1 who plays throughout the ,vita ,nuova a mystical part is not the ,pagan ,love1 but a youth and ,christian ,master1 as ,dante terms him1 sometimes of severe and terrible aspect4 ,he is represented in the picture as clad in a flame-coloured garment 7for it is in a mist of the colour of fire that he appears to the lover71 and he wears the pilgrim's scallop-shell on his shoulder as emblem of that pilgrimage on earth which ,love is4 ,the chamber wherein the body of ,beatrice has its abiding-place is1 to ,dante's imaginings1 a chamber of dreams4 ,visionary as the mind of the dreamer1 it discloses at once all that goes forward within its own narrow compass1 together with the desolate streets of the city of ,florence1 which1 to his fancy1 sits silent for his loss1 and the long flight of angels above that bear away the little cloud1 to which is given a vague semblance of the beatified ,beatrice4 ,as if just fallen back in sleep1 the beautiful lady lies in death1 her hands folded across her breast1 and a glory of golden hair flowing over her shoulders4 ,with measured tread ,dante approaches the couch led by the winged and scarlet ,love1 but1 as though fearful of so near and unaccustomed an approach1 draws slowly backward on his half-raised foot1 while the mystical emblem of his earthly passion stands droopingly between him the living1 and his lady the dead1 and takes the kiss that he himself might never have4 ,in life they must needs be apart1 but thus in death they are united1 for the hand of the pilgrim1 who is the embodiment of his love1 holds his hand even as the master's lips touch her lips4 ,two ladies of the chamber are covering her with a pall1 and on the dreamer they fix sympathetic eyes4 ,the floor is strewn with poppies--emblems equally of the sleep in which the lover walks1 and of the sleep that is the sleep of death4 ,the may-bloom in the pall1 the apple-blossom in the hand of ,love1 the violets and roses in the frieze of the alcove1 symbolise purity and virginity1 the life that is cut off in its spring1 the love that is consummated in death before the coming of fruit4 ,suspended from the roof is a scroll1 bearing the first words of the wail from the ,lamentations of ,jeremiah1 quoted by ,dante himself3--8,how doth the city sit solitary1 that was full of people6 ,how is she become as a widow1 she that was great among the nations60 ,in the ascending and descending staircase on either iand fly doves of the same glowing colour as ,love1 and these are emblems of his presence in the house4 ,over all flickers the last beam of a lamp which has burnt through the long night1 and which the dawn of a new day sees die away--fit symbol of the life that has now taken flight with the heavenly host1 leaving behind it only the burnt-out socket where the live flame lived4 ,full of symbol as this picture is1 it is furthermore permeated by a significance that is not occult4 ,it bears witness to the possible strength of a passion that is so spiritual as to be without taint of sense2 and to a confident belief in an immortality wherein the utmost limits of a blessedness not of this world may be compassed4 ,such are in this picture the simpler1 yet deeper1 symbols1 that all who look may read4 ,sir ,noel ,paton has written of this work3 ,i was so dumbfounded by the beauty of that great picture of ,rosetti's1 called ,dante's ,dream1 that ,i was usable to give any expression to the emotions it excited--emotions such as ,i do not think any other picture1 except the ,madonna di ,san ,sisto at ,dresden1 ever stirred within me4 ,the memory of such a picture is like the memory of sublime and perfect music2 it makes any one who fully feels it--silent4 ,fifty years hence it will be named among the half-dozen supreme pictures of the world4 ,rossetti had buried the only complete copy of his poems with his wife at ,highgate1 and for a time he had been able to put by the thought of them2 but as one by one his friends1 ,mr4 ,morris1 ,mr4 ,swinburne1 and others1 attained to distinction as poets1 he began to hanker after poetic reputation1 and to reflect with pain and regret upon the hidden fruits of his best effort4 ,rossetti--in all love of his memory be it spoken--was after all a frail mortal2 of unstable character3 of variable purpose3 a creature of impulse and whim1 and with a plentiful lack of the backbone of volition4 ,with less affection he would not have buried his book2 with more strength of will he had not done so2 or1 having done so1 he had never wished to undo what he had done2 or having undone it1 he would never have tormented himself with the memory of it as of a deed of sacrilege4 ,but ,rossetti had both affection enough to do it and weakness enough to have it undone4 ,after an infinity of self-communions he determined to have the grave opened1 and the book extracted4 ,endless were the preparations necessary before such a work could be begun4 ,mr4 ,home ,secretary ,bruce had to be consulted4 ,at length preliminaries were complete1 and one night1 seven and a half years after the burial1 a fire was built by the side of the grave1 and then the coffin was raised and opened4 ,the body is described as perfect upon coming to light4 ,whilst this painful work was being done the unhappy author of it was sitting alone and anxious1 and full of self-reproaches at the house of the friend who had charge of it4 ,he was relieved and thankful when told that all was over4 ,the volume was not much the worse for the years it had lain in the grave4 ,deficiencies were filled in from memory1 the manuscript was put in the press1 and in #ahgj the reclaimed work was issued under the simple title of ,poems4 ,the success of the book was almost without precedent2 seven editions were called for in rapid succession4 ,it was reviewed with enthusiasm in many quarters4 ,yet that was a period in which fresh poetry and new poets arose1 even as they now arise1 with all the abundance and timeliness of poppies in autumn4 ,it is probable enough that of the circumstances attending the unexampled early success of this first volume only the remarkable fact is still remembered that1 from a bookseller's standpoint1 it ran a neck-and-neck race with ,disraeli's ,lothair at a time when political romance was found universally appetising1 and poetry1 as of old1 a drug4 ,but it will not be forgotten that certain subsidiary circumstances were thought to have contributed to the former success4 ,of these the most material was the reputation ,rossetti had already achieved as a painter by methods which awakened curiosity as much as they aroused enthusiasm4 ,the public mind became sensibly affected by the idea that the poems of the new poet were not to be regarded as the emanations of a single individual1 but as the result of a movement in which ,rossetti had played one of the most prominent parts4 ,mr4 ,f4 ,hueffer1 in prefacing the ,tauchnitz edition of the poems with a pleasant memoir1 has comprehensively denominated that movement the renaissance of medival feeling1 but at the outset it acquired popularly1 for good or ill1 the more rememberable name of pre-,raphaelitism4 ,what the shibboleth was of the originators of the school that grew out of it concerned men but little to ascertain2 and this was a condition of indifference as to the logic of the movement which was occasioned partly by the known fact that the most popular of its leaders1 ,mr4 ,millais1 had long been shifting ground4 ,it was enough that the new sect had comprised dissenters from the creed once established1 that the catholic spirit of art which lived with the lives of ,elmore1 ,goodall1 and ,stone was long dead1 and that none of the coteries for love of which the old faith1 exemplified in the works of men such as these1 had been put aside1 possessed such an appeal for the imagination as this1 now that twenty years of fairly consistent endeavour had cleared away the cloud of obloquy that gathered about it when it began4 ,and so it came to be thought that the poems of ,rossetti were to exhibit a new phase of this movement1 involving kindred issues1 and opening up afresh in the poetic domain the controversies which had been waged and won in the pictorial4 ,much to this purpose was said at the time to account for the success of a book whose popular qualities were ,i manifestly inconsiderable2 and much to similar purpose will doubtless long be said by those who affect to believe that a concatenation of circumstances did for ,rossetti's earlier work a service which could not attend his subsequent one4 ,but the explanation was inadequate1 and had for its immediate outcome a charge of narrowed range of poetic sympathy with which ,rossetti's admirers had not laid their account4 ,a renaissance of medival feeling the movement in art assuredly involved1 but the essential part of it was another thing1 of which medivalism was palpably independent4 ,how it came to be considered the fundamental element is not difficult to show4 ,in an eminent degree the originators of the new school in painting were colourists1 having1 perhaps1 in their effects1 a certain affinity to the early ,florentine masters1 and this accident of native gift had probably more to do in determining the precise direction of the intellectual sympathy than any external agency4 ,the art feeling which formed the foundation of the movement existed apart from it1 or bore no closer relation to it than kinship of powers induced4 ,when ,rossetti's poetry came it was seen to be animated by a choice of subject-matter akin to that which gave individual character to his painting1 but this was because coeval efforts in two totally distinct arts must needs bear the family resemblance1 each to each1 which belong to all the offspring of a thoroughly harmonised mind4 ,the poems and the pictures1 however1 had not more in common than can be found in the early poems and early dramas of ,shakspeare4 ,nay1 not so much2 for whereas in his poems ,shakspeare was constantly evolving certain shades of feeling and begetting certain movements of thought which were soon to find concrete and final collocation in the dramatic creations1 in his pictures ,rossetti was first of all a dissenter from all prescribed canons of taste1 whilst in his poems he was in harmony with the catholic spirit which was as old as ,shakspeare himself1 and found revival1 after temporary eclipse1 in ,coleridge1 ,shelley1 ,keats1 and ,tennyson4 ,choice of mediaeval theme would not in itself have been enough to secure a reversal of popular feeling against work that contained no germs of the sensational2 and hence we must conclude that ,mr4 ,swinburne accounted more satisfactorily for the instant popularity of ,rossetti's poetry when he claimed for it those innate utmost qualities of beauty and strength which are always the first and last constituents of poetry that abides4 ,indeed those qualities and none other1 wholly independent of auxiliary aids1 must now as then go farthest to determine ,rossetti's final place among poets4 ,such as is here described was the first reception given to ,rossetti's volume of poetry2 but at the close of #ahga1 there arose out of it a long and acrimonious controversy4 ,it seems necessary to allude to this painful matter1 because it involved serious issues2 but an effort alike after brevity and impartiality of comment shall be observed in what is said of it4 ,in ,october of the year mentioned1 an article entitled ,the ,fleshly ,school of ,poetry1 and signed 8,thomas ,maitland10 appeared in ,the ,contemporary ,review4 99 ,it consisted in the main of an impeachment of ,rossetti's poetry on the ground of sensuality1 though it embraced a broad denunciation of the sensual tendencies of the age in art1 music1 poetry1 the drama1 and social life generally4 ,sensuality was regarded as the phenomenon of the age4 8,it lies10 said the writer1 8on the drawing-room table1 shamelessly naked and dangerously fair4 ,it is part of the pretty poem which the belle of the season reads1 and it breathes away the pureness of her soul like the poisoned breath of the girl in ,hawthorne's tale4 ,it covers the shelves of the great ,oxford-,street librarian1 lurking in the covers of three-volume novels4 ,it is on the ,french booksellers' counters1 authenticated by the signature of the author of the ,visite de ,noces4 ,it is here1 there1 and everywhere1 in art1 literature1 life1 just as surely as it is in the ,fleurs de ,mal1 the ,marquis de ,sade's ,justine1 or the ,monk of ,lewis4 ,it appeals to all tastes1 to all dispositions1 to all ages4 ,if the querulous man of letters has his ,baudelaire1 the pimpled clerk has his ,day's ,doings1 and the dissipated artisan his ,day and ,night40 ,when the writer set himself to inquire into the source of this social cancer1 he refused to believe that ,english society was honeycombed and rotten4 ,he accounted for the portentous symptoms that appalled him by attributing the evil to a fringe of real ,english society1 chiefly1 if not altogether1 resident in ,london3 8a sort of demi-monde1 not composed1 like that other in ,france1 of simple courtesans1 but of men and women of indolent habits and aesthetic tastes1 artists1 literary persons1 novel writers1 actors1 men of genius and men of talent1 butterflies and gadflies of the human kind1 leading a lazy existence from hand to mouth40 ,it was to this ,bohemian fringe of society that the writer attributed the 8gross and vulgar conceptions of life which are formulated into certain products of art1 literature1 and criticism40 ,dealing with only one form of the social phenomenon1 with sensualism so far as it appeared to affect contemporary poetry1 the writer proceeded with a literary retrospect intended to show that the fair dawn of our ,english poetry in ,chaucer and the ,elizabethan dramatists had been overclouded by a portentous darkness1 a darkness 8vaporous10 8miasmic10 coming from a 8fever-cloud generated first in ,italy and then blown westward10 sucking up on its way 8all that was most unwholesome from the soil of ,france40 99 ,in this summary1 the pamphlet reprint has been followed in preference to the original article as it appeared in the ,review4 ,just previously to and contemporaneously with the rise of ,dante1 there had flourished a legion of poets of greater or less ability1 but all more or less characterised by affectation1 foolishness1 and moral blindness3 singers of the falsetto school1 with ballads to their mistress's eyebrow1 sonnets to their lady's lute1 and general songs of a fiddlestick2 peevish men for the most part1 as is the way of all fleshly and affected beings2 men so ignorant of human subjects and materials as to be driven in their sheer bankruptcy of mind to raise ,hope1 ,love1 ,fear1 ,rage 7everything but ,charity7 into human entities1 and to treat the body and upholstery of a dollish woman as if1 in itself1 it constituted a whole universe4 ,after tracing the effect of the 8moral poison0 here seen in its inception through ,english poetry from ,surrey and ,wyat to ,cowley1 the writer recognised a 8tranquil gleam of honest ,english light0 in ,cowper1 who 8spread the seeds of new life0 soon to re-appear in ,wordsworth1 ,coleridge1 ,southey1 ,lamb1 and ,scott4 ,in his opinion the 8,italian disease would now have died out altogether10 but for a 8fresh importation of the obnoxious matter from ,france40 ,at this stage came a denunciation of the representation of 8abnormal types of diseased lust and lustful disease0 as seen in ,charles ,baudelaire's ,fleurs de ,mal1 with the conclusion that out of 8the hideousness of ,femmes ,damnes0 came certain ,english poems4 8,this10 said the writer1 8is our double misfortune--to have a nuisance1 and to have it at second-hand4 ,we might have been more tolerant to an unclean thing if it had been in some sense a product of the soil0 ,all that is here summarised1 however1 was but preparatory to the real object of the article1 which was to assail ,rossetti's new volume4 ,the poems were traversed in detail1 with but little 7and that the most grudging7 admission of their power and beauty1 and the very sharpest accentuation of their less spiritual qualities4 ,since the publication of the article in question1 events have taken such a turn that it is no longer either necessary or wise to quote the strictures contained in it1 however they might be fenced by juster views4 ,the gravamen of the charge against ,rossetti1 ,mr4 ,swinburne1 and ,mr4 ,morris alike--setting aside all particular accusations1 however serious--was that they had 8bound themselves into a solemn league and covenant to extol fleshliness as the distinct and supreme end of poetic and pictorial art2 to aver that poetic expression is greater than poetic thought1 and by inference that the body is greater than the soul1 and sound superior to sense40 ,such1 then1 is a synopsis of the hostile article of which the nucleus appeared in ,the ,contemporary ,review1 and it were little less than childish to say that events so important as the publication of the article and subsequent pamphlet1 and the controversy that arose out of them1 should1 from their unpleasantness and futility1 from the bad passions provoked by them1 or yet from the regret that followed after them1 be passed over in sorrow and silence4 ,for good or ill1 what was written on both sides will remain4 ,it has stood and will stand4 ,sooner or later the story of this literary quarrel will be told in detail and in cold blood1 and perhaps with less than sufficient knowledge of either of the parties concerned in it1 or sympathy with their aims4 ,no better fate1 one might think1 could befall it than to be dealt with1 however briefly1 by a writer whose affections were warmly engaged on one side1 while his convictions and bias of nature forced him to recognise the justice of the other--stripped1 of course1 of the cruelties with which literary error but too obviously enshrouded it4 ,whatever the effect produced upon the public mind by the article in question 7and there seems little reason to think it was at all material71 the effect upon two of the writers attacked was certainly more than commensurate with the assault4 ,mr4 ,morris wisely attempted no reply to the few words of adverse criticism in which his name was specifically involved2 but ,mr4 ,swinburne retorted upon his adversary with the torrents of invective of which he has a measureless command4 ,rossetti's course was different4 ,greatly concerned at the bitterness1 as well as startled by the unexpectedness of the attack1 he wrote in the first moments of indignation a full and point-for-point rejoinder1 and this he printed in the form of a pamphlet1 and had a great number struck off2 but with constitutional irresolution 7wisely restraining him in this case71 he destroyed every copy1 and contented himself with writing a temperate letter on the subject to ,the ,athenum1 ,december #af1 #ahga4 ,he said3 ,a sonnet1 entitled ,nuptial ,sleep1 is quoted and abused at page #cch of the ,review1 and is there dwelt upon as a 8whole poem10 describing 8merely animal sensations40 ,it is no more a whole poem in reality than is any single stanza of any poem throughout the book4 ,the poem1 written chiefly in sonnets1 and of which this is one sonnet-stanza1 is entitled ,the ,house of ,life2 and even in my first published instalment of the whole work 7as contained in the volume under notice71 ample evidence is included that no such passing phase of description as the one headed ,nuptial ,sleep could possibly be put forward by the author of ,the ,house of ,life as his own representative view of the subject of love4 ,in proof of this ,i will direct attention 7among the love-sonnets of this poem71 to ,nos4 #b1 #h1 #aa1 #ag1 #bh1 and more especially #ac4 ,here ,love ,sweetness is printed4 ,any reader may bring any artistic charge he pleases against the above sonnet2 but one charge it would be impossible to maintain against the writer of the series in which it occurs1 and that is1 the wish on his part to assert that the body is greater than the soul4 ,for here all the passionate and just delights of the body are declared--somewhat figuratively1 it is true1 but unmistakeably--to be as naught if not ennobled by the concurrence of the soul at all times4 ,moreover1 nearly one half of this series of sonnets has nothing to do with love1 but treats of quite other life-influences4 ,i would defy any one to couple with fair quotation of sonnets #bi1 #cj1 #ca1 #ci1 #dj1 #dc1 or others1 the slander that their author was not impressed1 like all other thinking men1 with the responsibilities and higher mysteries of life2 while sonnets #ce1 #cf1 and #cg1 entitled ,the ,choice1 sum up the general view taken in a manner only to be evaded by conscious insincerity4 ,thus much for ,the ,house of ,life1 of which the sonnet ,nuptial ,sleep is one stanza1 embodying1 for its small constituent share1 a beauty of natural universal function1 only to be reprobated in art if dwelt on 7as ,i have shown that it is not here71 to the exclusion of those other highest things of which it is the harmonious concomitant4 ,it had become known that the article in the ,review was not the work of the unknown ,thomas ,maitland1 whose name it bore1 and on this head ,rossetti wrote3 ,here a critical organ1 professedly adopting the principle of open signature1 would seem1 in reality1 to assert 7by silent practice1 however1 not by annunciation7 that if the anonymous in criticism was--as itself originally indicated--but an early caterpillar stage1 the nominate too is found to be no better than a homely transitional chrysalis1 and that the ultimate butterfly form for a critic who likes to sport in sunlight1 and yet elude the grasp1 is after all the pseudonymous4 ,it transpired1 in subsequent correspondence 7of which there was more than enough71 that the actual writer was ,mr4 ,robert ,buchanan1 then a young author who had risen into distinction as a poet1 and who was consequently suspected1 by the writers and disciples of the ,rossetti school1 of being actuated much more by feelings of rivalry than by desire for the public good4 ,mr4 ,buchanan's reply to the serious accusation of having assailed a brother-poet pseudonymously was that the false signature was affixed to the article without his knowledge1 8in order that the criticism might rest upon its own merits1 and gain nothing from the name of the real writer40 ,it was an unpleasant controversy1 and what remains as an impartial synopsis of it appears to be this3 that there was actually manifest in the poetry of certain writers a tendency to deviate from wholesome reticence1 and that this dangerous tendency came to us from ,france1 where deep-seated unhealthy passion so gave shape to the glorification of gross forms of animalism as to excite alarm that what had begun with the hideousness of ,femmes ,damnes would not even end there2 finally1 that the unpleasant truth demanded to be spoken--by whomsoever had courage enough to utter it--that to deify mere lust was an offence and an outrage4 ,so much for the justice on ,mr4 ,buchanan's side2 with the mistaken criticism linking the writers of ,dante's time with ,french writers of the time of ,baudelaire it is hardly necessary to deal4 ,on the other hand1 it must be said that the sum-total of all the ,english poetry written in imitation of the worst forms of this ,french excess was probably less than one hundred lines2 that what was really reprehensible in the ,english imitation of the poetry of the ,french ,school was1 therefore1 too inconsiderable to justify a wholesale charge against it of an endeavour to raise the banner of a black ambition whose only aim was to ruin society2 that ,rossetti1 who was made to bear the brunt of attack1 was a man who never by direct avowal1 or yet by inference1 displayed the faintest conceivable sympathy with the ,french excesses in question1 and who never wrote a line inspired by unwholesome passion4 ,as the pith of ,mr4 ,buchanan's accusation of #ahga lay here1 and as ,mr4 ,buchanan has1 since then1 very manfully withdrawn it1 99 we need hardly go further2 but1 as more recent articles in prominent places1 ,the ,edinburgh ,review1 ,the ,british ,quarterly ,review1 and again ,the ,contemporary ,review1 have repeated what was first said by him on the alleged unwholesomeness of ,rossetti's poetic impulses1 it may be as well to admit frankly1 and at once 7for the subject will arise in the future as frequently as this poetry is under discussion7 that love of bodily beauty did underlie much of the poet's work4 ,but has not the same passion made the back-bone of nine-tenths of the noblest ,english poetry since ,chaucer8 ,if it is objected that ,rossetti's love of physical beauty took new forms1 the rejoinder is that it would have been equally childish and futile to attempt to prescribe limits for it4 ,all this we grant to those unfriendly critics who refuse to see that spiritual beauty and not sensuality was ,rossetti's actual goal4 99 ,writing to me on this subject since ,rossetti's death1 ,mr4 ,buchanan says3--8,in perfect frankness1 let me say a few words concerning our old quarrel4 ,while admitting freely that my article in the ,c4 ,r4 was unjust to ,rossetti's claims as a poet1 ,i have ever held1 and still hold1 that it contained nothing to warrant the manner in which it was received by the poet and his circle4 ,at the time it was written1 the newspapers were full of panegyric2 mine was a mere drop of gall in an ocean of eau sucre4 ,that it could have had on any man the effect you describe1 ,i can scarcely believe2 indeed1 ,i think that no living man had so little to complain of as ,rossetti1 on the score of criticism4 ,well1 my protest was received in a way which turned irritation into wrath1 wrath into violence2 and then ensued the paper war which lasted for years4 ,if you compare what ,i have written of ,rossetti with what his admirers have written of myself1 ,i think you will admit that there has been some cause for me to complain1 to shun society1 to feel bitter against the world2 but happily1 ,i have a thick epidermis1 and the courage of an approving conscience4 ,i was unjust1 as ,i have said2 most unjust when ,i impugned the purity and misconceived the passion of writings too hurriedly read and reviewed currente calamo2 but ,i was at least honest and fearless1 and wrote with no personal malignity4 ,save for the action of the literary defence1 if ,i may so term it1 my article would have been as ephemeral as the mood which induced its composition4 ,i make full admission of ,rossetti's claims to the purest kind of literary renown1 and if ,i were to criticise his poems now1 ,i should write very differently4 ,but nothing will shake my conviction that the cruelty1 the unfairness1 the pusillanimity has been on the other side1 not on mine4 ,the amende of my ,dedication in ,god and the ,man was a sacred thing2 between his spirit and mine2 not between my character and the cowards who have attacked it4 ,i thought he would understand1--which would have been1 and indeed is1 sufficient4 ,i cried1 and cry1 no truce with the horde of slanderers who hid themselves within his shadow4 ,that is all4 ,but when all is said1 there still remains the pity that our quarrel should ever have been4 ,our little lives are too short for such animosities4 ,your friend is at peace with ,god1--that ,god who will justify and cherish him1 who has dried his tears1 and who will turn the shadow of his sad life-dream into full sunshine4 ,my only regret now is that we did not meet1--that ,i did not take him by the hand2 but ,i am old-fashioned enough to believe that this world is only a prelude1 and that our meeting may take place--even yet40 ,to ,rossetti1 the poet1 the accusation of extolling fleshliness as the distinct and supreme end of art was1 after all1 only an error of critical judgment2 but to ,rossetti1 the man1 the charge was something far more serious4 ,it was a cruel and irremediable wound inflicted upon a fine spirit1 sensitive to attack beyond all sensitiveness hitherto known among poets4 ,he who had withheld his pictures from exhibition from dread of the distracting influences of popular opinion1 he who for fifteen years had withheld his poems from print in obedience first to an extreme modesty of personal estimate and afterwards to the commands of a mastering affection was likely enough at forty-two years of age 7after being loaded by the disciples that idolised him with only too much of the 8frankincense of praise and myrrh of flattery07 to feel deeply the slander that he had unpacked his bosom of unhealthy passions4 ,but to say that ,rossetti felt the slander does not express his sense of it4 ,he had replied to his reviewer and had acted unwisely in so doing2 but when one after one--in the ,quarterly ,review1 the ,north ,american ,review1 and elsewhere1 in articles more or less ignorant1 uncritical1 and stupid--the accusations he had rebutted were repeated with increased bitterness1 he lost all hope of stemming the torrent of hostile criticism4 ,he had1 as we have seen1 for years lived in partial retirement1 enjoying at intervals a garden party behind the house1 or going about occasionally to visit relatives and acquaintances1 but now he became entirely reclusive1 refusing to see any friends except the three or four intimate ones who were constantly with him4 ,nor did the mischief end there4 ,we have spoken of his habitual use of chloral1 which was taken at first in small doses as a remedy for insomnia and afterwards indulged in to excess at moments of physical prostration or nervous excitement4 ,to that false friend he came at this time with only too great assiduity1 and the chloral1 added to the seclusive habit of life1 induced a series of terrible though intermittent illnesses and a morbid condition of mind in which for a little while he was the victim of many painful delusions4 ,it was at this time that the soothing friendship of ,dr4 ,gordon ,hake1 and his son ,mr4 ,george ,hake1 was of such inestimable service to ,rossetti4 ,having appeared myself on the scene much later ,i never had the privilege of knowing either of these two gentlemen1 for ,mr4 ,george ,hake was already gone away to ,cyprus and ,dr4 ,hake had retired very much into the bosom of his own family where1 as is rumoured1 he has been engaged upon a literary work which will establish his fame4 ,but ,i have often heard ,mr4 ,theodore ,watts speak with deep emotion and eloquent enthusiasm of the tender kindness and loyal zeal shown to ,rossetti during this crisis by ,mr4 ,bell ,scott1 and by ,dr4 ,hake and his son4 ,as to ,mr4 ,theodore ,watts1 whose brotherly devotion to him1 and beneficial influence over him from that time forward are so well known1 this must be considered by those who witnessed it to be almost without precedent or parallel even in the beautiful story of literary friendships1 and it does as much honour to the one as to the other4 ,no light matter it must have been to lay aside one's own long-cherished life-work and literary ambitions to be ,rossetti's closest friend and brother1 at a moment like the present1 when he imagined the world to be conspiring against him2 but through these evil days1 and long after them down to his death1 the friend that clung closer than a brother was with him1 as he himself said1 to protect1 to soothe1 to comfort1 to divert1 to interest1 and inspire him--asking1 meantime1 no better reward than the knowledge that a noble mind and nature was by such sacrifice lifted out of sorrow4 ,among the world's great men the greatest are sometimes those whose names are least on our lips1 and this is because selfish aims have been so subordinate in their lives to the welfare of others as to leave no time for the personal achievements that win personal distinction2 but when the world comes to the knowledge of the price that has been paid for the devotion that enables others to enjoy their renown1 shall it not reward with a double meed of gratitude the fine spirits to whom ambition has been as nothing against fidelity of friendship8 ,among the latest words ,i heard from ,rossetti was this3 8,watts is a hero of friendship20 and indeed he has displayed his capacity for participation in the noblest part of comradeship1 that part1 namely1 which is far above the mere traffic that too often goes by the name1 and wherein self-love always counts upon being the gainer4 ,if in the end it should appear that he has in his own person done less than might have been hoped for from one possessed of his splendid gifts1 let it not be overlooked that he has influenced in a quite incalculable degree1 and influenced for good1 several of the foremost among those who in their turn have influenced the age4 ,as ,rossetti's faithful friend1 and gifted medical adviser1 ,mr4 ,john ,marshall has often declared1 there were periods when ,rossetti's very life may be said to have hung upon ,mr4 ,watts's power to cheer and soothe4 ,efforts were afoot about the year #ahgb to induce ,rossetti to visit ,italy--a journey which1 strangely enough1 he had never made--but this he could not be prevailed upon to do4 ,in the hope of diverting his mind from the unwholesome matters that too largely engaged it1 his brother and friends1 prominent among whom at this time were ,mr4 ,bell ,scott1 ,mr4 ,ford ,madox ,brown1 ,mr4 ,w4 ,graham1 and ,dr4 ,gordon ,hake1 as well as his assistant and friend1 ,mr4 ,h4 ,t4 ,dunn1 and ,mr4 ,george ,hake1 induced him to seek a change in ,scotland1 and there he speedily recovered tone4 ,immediately upon the publication of his first volume1 and incited thereto by the early success of it1 he had written the poem ,rose ,mary1 as well as two lyrics published at the time in ,the ,fortnightly ,review2 but he suffered so seriously from the subsequent assaults of criticism1 that he seemed definitely to lay aside all hope of producing further poetry1 and1 indeed1 to become possessed of the delusion that he had for ever lost all power of doing so4 ,it is an interesting fact1 well known in his own literary circle1 that his taking up poetry afresh was the result of a fortuitous occurrence4 ,after one of his most serious illnesses1 and in the hope of drawing off his attention from himself1 and from the gloomy forebodings which in an invalid's mind usually gather about his own too absorbing personality1 a friend prevailed upon him1 with infinite solicitation1 to try his hand afresh at a sonnet4 ,the outcome was an effort so feeble as to be all but unrecognisable as the work of the author of the sonnets of ,the ,house of ,life1 but with more shrewdness and friendliness 7on this occasion7 than frankness1 the critic lavished measureless praise upon it1 and urged the poet to renewed exertion4 ,one by one1 at longer or shorter intervals1 sonnets were written1 and this exercise did more towards his recovery than any other medicine1 with the result besides that ,rossetti eventually regained all his old dexterity and mastery of hand4 ,the artifice had succeeded beyond every expectation formed of it1 serving1 indeed1 the twofold end of improving the invalid's health by preventing his brooding over unhealthy matters1 and increasing the number of his accomplished works4 ,encouraged by such results1 the friend went on to induce ,rossetti to write a ballad1 and this purpose he finally achieved by challenging the poet's ability to compose in the simple1 direct1 and emphatic style1 which is the style of the ballad proper1 as distinguished from the elaborate1 ornate1 and condensed diction which he had hitherto worked in4 ,put upon his mettle1 the outcome of this second artifice practised upon him1 was that he wrote ,the ,white ,ship1 and afterwards ,the ,king's ,tragedy4 ,thus was ,rossetti already immersed in this revived occupation of poetic composition1 and had recovered a healthy99 tone of body1 before he became conscious of what was being done with him4 ,it is a further amusing fact that one day he requested to be shown the first sonnet which1 in view of the praise lavished upon it by the friend on whose judgment he reposed1 had encouraged him to renewed effort4 ,the sonnet was bad3 the critic knew it was bad1 and had from the first hour of its production kept it carefully out of sight1 and was now more than ever unwilling to show it4 ,eventually1 however1 by reason of ceaseless importunity1 he returned it to its author1 who1 upon reading it1 cried3 8,you fraud6 you said this sonnet was good1 and it's the worst ,i ever wrote40 8,the worst ever written would perhaps be a truer criticism10 was the reply1 as the studio resounded with a hearty laugh1 and the poem was committed to the flames4 ,it would appear that to this occurrence we probably owe a large portion of the contents of the volume of #ahha4 ,as we say1 ,rose ,mary was the first to be written of the leading poems that found places in his final volume4 ,this ballad 7or ballad romance1 for ballad it can hardly be called7 is akin to ,sister ,helen in motif4 ,the superstition involved owes something in this case as in the other to the invention and poetic bias of the poet4 ,it has1 however1 less of what has been called the ,catholic element1 and is more purely ,pagan4 ,it is1 therefore1 as entirely undisturbed by animosity against heresy1 and is concerned only with an ultimate demoniacal justice visiting the wrongdoer4 ,the main point of divergency lies in the circumstance that ,rose ,mary1 unlike ,helen1 is the undesigning instrument of evil powers1 and that her blind deed is the means by which her own and her lover's sin and his treachery become revealed4 ,a further material point of divergency lies in the fact that unlike ,helen1 who loses her soul 7as the price of revenge1 directed against her betrayer71 ,rose ,mary loses her life 7as the price of vengeance directed against the evil race71 whilst her soul gains rest4 ,the superstition is that associated with the beryl stone1 wherein the pure only may read the future1 and from which sinful eyes must chase the spirits of grace and leave their realm to be usurped by the spirits of fire1 who seal up the truth or reveal it by contraries4 ,rose ,mary1 who has sinned with her lover1 is bidden to look in the beryl and learn where lurks the ambush that waits to take his life as he rides at break of day4 ,hiding1 but remembering her transgression1 she at first shrinks1 but at length submits1 and the blessed spirits by whom the stone has been tenanted give place to the fiery train4 ,the stone is not sealed to her2 and the long spell being ministered1 she is satisfied4 ,but she has read the stone by contraries1 and her lover falls into the hand of his enemy4 ,by his death is their secret sin made known4 ,and then a newer shame is revealed1 not to her eyes1 but to her mother's3 even the treachery of the murdered man4 ,ignorant of this to the end1 ,eose ,mary seeks to work a twofold ransoming by banishing from the beryl the evil powers4 ,with the sword of her father 7by whom the accursed gift had been brought from ,palestine71 she cleaves the heart of the stone1 and with the broken spell her own life breaks4 ,it will readily be seen that the scheme of the ballad does not afford opportunity for a memorable incursion in the domain of character4 ,rose ,mary herself as a creation is not comparable with ,helen4 ,but the ballad throughout is nevertheless a triumph of the higher imagination4 ,nowhere else 7to take the lowest ground7 has ,rossetti displayed so great a gift of flashing images upon the mind at once by a single expression4 ,closely locked1 they clung without speech1 ,and the mirrored souls shook each to each1 ,as the cloud-moon and the water-moon ,shake face to face when the dim stars swoon ,in stormy bowers of the night's mid-noon4 ,deep the flood and heavy the shock ,when sea meets sea in the riven rock3 ,but calm is the pulse that shakes the sea ,to the prisoned tide of doom set free ,in the breaking heart of ,rose ,mary4 ,she knew she had waded bosom-deep ,along death's bank in the sedge of sleep4 ,and now in ,eose ,mary's lifted eye #8,twas shadow alone that made reply ,to the set face of the soul's dark shy4 ,nor has ,rossetti anywhere displayed a more sustained picturesqueness4 ,one episode stands forth vividly even among so many that are conspicuous4 ,the mother has left her daughter in a swoon to seek help of the priest who has knelt unweariedly by the dead body of her daughter's lover1 now lying on the ingle-bench in the hall4 ,when the priest has gone and the castle folk have left her alone1 the lady sinks to her knees beside the corpse4 ,great wrong the dead man has done to her and hers1 and perhaps ,god has wrought this doom of his for a sign2 but well she knows1 or thinks she knows1 that if life had remained with him his love would have been security for their honour4 ,she stoops with a sob to kiss the dead1 but before her lips touch the cold brow she sees a packet half-hidden in the dead man's breast4 ,it is a folded paper about which the blood from a spear-thrust has grown clotted1 and inside is a tress of golden hair4 ,some pledge of her child's she thinks it1 and proceeds to undo the paper's folds1 and then learns the treachery of the fallen knight and suffers a bitterer pang than came of the knowledge of her daughter's dishonour4 ,it is a love-missive from the sister of his foe and murderer4 ,she rose upright with a long low moan1 ,and stared in the dead man's face new-known4 ,had it lived indeed8 she scarce could tell3 #8,twas a cloud where fiends had come to dwell1-- ,a mask that hung on the gate of ,hell4 ,she lifted the lock of gleaming hair1 ,and smote the lips and left it there4 8,here's gold that ,hell shall take for thy toll6 ,full well hath thy treason found its goal1 ,o thou dead body and damned soul60 ,anything finer than this it would be hard to discover in ,english narrative poetry4 ,every word goes to build up the story3 every line is quintessential3 every flash of thought helps to heighten the emotion4 ,indeed the closing lines rise entirely above the limits of ballad poetry into the realm of dramatic diction4 ,but perhaps the crowning glory and epic grandeur of the poem comes at the close4 ,awakened from her swoon1 ,rose ,mary makes her way to the altar-cell and there she sees the beryl-stone lying between the wings of some sculptured beast4 ,within the fated glass she beholds ,death1 ,sorrow1 ,sin and ,shame marshalled past in the glare of a writhing flame1 and thereupon follows a scene scarcely less terrible than ,juliet's vision of the tomb of the ,capulets4 ,but she has been told within this hour that her weak hand shall send hence the evil race by whom the stone is possessed1 and with a stern purpose she reaches her father's dinted sword4 ,then when the beryl is cleft to the core1 and ,rose ,mary lies in her last gracious sleep-- ,with a cold brow like the snows ere ,may1 ,with a cold breast like the earth till spring1 ,with such a smile as the ,june days bring-- ,a clear voice pronounces her beatitude3 ,already thy heart remembereth ,no more his name thou sought'st in death3 ,for under all deeps1 all heights above1-- ,so wide the gulf in the midst thereof1-- ,are ,hell of ,treason and ,heaven of ,love4 ,thee1 true soul1 shall thy truth prefer ,to blessed ,mary's rose-bower3 ,warmed and lit is thy place afar ,with guerdon-fires of the sweet love-star1 ,where hearts of steadfast lovers are4 ,the ,white ,ship was written in #ahhj2 ,the ,king's ,tragedy in the spring of #ahha4 ,these historical ballads we must briefly consider together4 ,the memorable events of which ,rossetti has made poetic record are1 in ,the ,white ,ship1 those associated with the wreck of the ship in which the son and daughter of ,henry ,i4 of ,england set sail from ,france1 and in ,the ,king's ,tragedy1 with the death of ,james the ,first of ,scots4 ,the story of the one is told by the sole survivor1 ,herold1 the butcher of ,rouen2 and of the other by ,catherine ,douglas1 the maid of honour who received popularly the name of ,kate ,barlass1 in recognition of her heroic act when she barred the door with her arm against the murderers of the ,king4 ,it is scarcely possible to conceive in either case a diction more perfectly adapted to the person by whom it is employed4 ,if we compare the language of these ballads with that of the sonnets or other poems spoken in the author's own person1 we find it is not first of all gorgeous1 condensed1 emphatic4 ,it is direct1 simple1 pure and musical2 heightened1 it is true1 by imagery acquired in its passage through the medium of the poet's mind1 but in other respects essentially the language of the historical personages who are made to speak4 ,the diction belongs in each case to the period of the ballad in which it is employed1 and yet there is no wanton use of archaisms1 or any disposition manifested to resort to meretricious artifices by which to impart an appearance of probability to the story other than that which comes legitimately of sheer narrative excellence4 ,the characterisation is that of history with the features softened that constituted the prose of real life1 and with the salient1 moral1 and intellectual lineaments brought into relief4 ,herein the ballad may do that final justice which history itself withholds4 ,thus the ,king ,henry of ,the ,white ,ship is governed by lust of dominion more than by parental affection2 and the ,prince1 his son1 is a lawless1 shameless youth2 intolerant1 tyrannical1 luxurious1 voluptuous1 yet capable of self-sacrifice even amidst peril of death4 ,when he should be ,king1 he oft would vow1 ,he #8d yoke the peasant to his own plough4 ,o'er him the ships score their furrows now4 ,god only knows where his soul did wake1 ,but ,i saw him die for his sister's sake4 ,the ,king ,james of ,the ,king's ,tragedy is of a righteous and fearless nature1 strong yet sensitive1 unbending before the pride and hate of powerful men1 resolute1 and ready even where fate itself declares that death lurks where his road must lie2 his beautiful ,queen ,jane is sweet1 tender1 loving1 devoted--meet spouse for a poet and king4 ,the incidents too are those of history3 the choice and final collocation of them1 and the closing scene in which the queen mourns her husband1 being the sum of the author's contribution4 ,and those incidents are in the highest degree varied and picturesque4 ,the author has not achieved a more vivid pictorial presentment than is displayed in these latest ballads from his pen4 ,it would be hard to find in his earlier work anything bearing more clearly the stamp of reality than the descriptions of the wreck in ,the ,white ,ship1 of the two drowning men together on the mainyard1 of the morning dawning over the dim sea-sky-- ,at last the morning rose on the sea ,like an angel's wing that beat towards me-- and of the little golden-haired boy in black whose foot patters down the court of the king4 ,certainly ,rossetti has never attained a higher pictorial level than he reaches in the descriptions of the summoned ,parliament in ,the ,king's ,tragedy1 of the journey to the ,charterhouse of ,perth1 of the woman on the rock of the black beach of the ,scottish sea1 of the king singing to the queen the song he made while immured by ,bolingbroke at ,windsor1 of the knock of the woman at the outer gate1 of her voice at night beneath the window1 of the death in ,the ,pit of ,fortune's ,wheel4 ,but all lesser excellencies must make way in our regard before a distinguishing spiritualising element which exists in these ballads only1 or mainly amongst the author's works4 ,natural portents are here first employed as factors of poetic creation4 ,presentiment1 foreboding1 omen become the essential tissue of works that are lifted by them into the higher realm of imagination4 ,these supernatural constituents penetrate and pervade ,the ,white ,ship2 and ,the ,king's ,tragedy is saturated in the spirit of them4 ,we do not speak of the incidents associated with the wraith that haunts the isles1 but of the less palpable touches which convey the scarce explicable sense of a change of voice when the king sings of the pit that is under fortune's wheel3 ,and under the wheel1 beheld ,i there ,an ugly ,pit as deep as hell1 ,that to behold ,i quaked for fear3 ,and this ,i heard1 that who therein fell ,came no more up1 tidings to tell3 ,whereat1 astound of the fearful sight1 ,i wot not what to do for fright4 7,the ,king's ,quair47 ,it is the shadow of the supernatural that hangs over the king1 and very soon it must enshroud him4 ,one of the most subtle and impressive of the natural portents is that which presents itself to the eyes of ,catherine when the leaguers have first left the chamber1 and the moon goes out and leaves black the royal armorial shield on the painted window-pane3 ,and the rain had ceased1 and the moonbeams lit ,the window high in the wall1-- ,bright beams that on the plank that ,i knew ,through the painted pane did fall ,and gleamed with the splendour of ,scotland's crown ,and shield armorial4 ,but then a great wind swept up the skies1 ,and the climbing moon fell back2 ,and the royal blazon fled from the floor1 ,and nought remained on its track2 ,and high in the darkened window-pane ,the shield and the crown were black4 ,it has been said that ,sister ,helen strikes the keynote of ,rossetti's creative gift2 it ought to be added that ,the ,king's ,tragedy touches his highest reach of imagination4 ,having in the early part of #ahha brought together a sufficient quantity of fresh poetry to fill a volume1 ,rossetti began negotiations for publishing it4 ,anticipatory announcements were at that time constantly appearing in many quarters1 not rarely accompanied by an outspoken disbelief in the poet's ability to achieve a second success equal to his first4 ,in this way it often happens to an author1 that1 having achieved a single conspicuous triumph1 the public mind1 which has spontaneously offered him the tribute of a generous recognition1 forthwith gravitates towards a disposition to become silently but unmistakeably sceptical of his power to repeat it4 ,subsequent effort in such a case is rarely regarded with that confidence which might be looked for as the reward of achievement1 and which goes far to prepare the mind for the ready acceptance of any genuine triumph4 ,indeed1 a jealous attitude is often unconsciously adopted1 involving a demand for special qualities1 for which1 perchance1 the peculiar character of the past success has created an appetite1 or obedience to certain arbitrary tests1 which1 though passively present in the recognised work1 have grown mainly out of critical analysis of it1 and are neither radical nor essential4 ,where1 moreover1 such conspicuous success has been followed by an interval of years distinguished by no signal effort1 the sceptical bias of the public mind sometimes complacently settles into a conviction 7grateful alike to its pride and envy1 whilst consciously hurtful to its more generous impulses71 that the man who made it lived once indeed upon the mountains1 but has at length come down to dwell finally upon the plain4 ,literary biography furnishes abundant examples of this imperfection of character1 a foible1 indeed1 which in its multiform manifestations1 probably goes as far as anything else to interfere with the formation of a just and final judgment of an author's merit within his own lifetime4 ,when it goes the length of affirming that even a great writer's creative activity usually finds not merely central realisation1 but absolute exhaustion within the limits of some single work1 to reason against it is futile1 and length of time affords it the only satisfying refutation4 ,one would think that it could scarcely require to be urged that creative impulse1 once existent within a mind1 can never wholly depart from it1 but must remain to the end1 dependent1 perhaps1 for its expression in some measure on external promptings1 variable with the variations of physical environments1 but always gathering innate strength for the hour 7silent perchance1 or audible only within other spheres71 when the inventive faculty shall be harmonised1 animated1 and lubricated to its utmost height4 ,nevertheless1 ,coleridge encountered the implied doubtfulness of his contemporaries1 that the gift remained with him to carry to its completion the execution of that most subtle mid-day witchery1 which1 as begun in ,christabel1 is probably the most difficult and elusive thing ever attempted in the field of romance4 ,goethe1 too1 found himself face to face with outspoken distrust of his continuation of ,faust2 and even ,cervantes had perforce to challenge the popular judgment which long refused to allow that the second part of ,don ,quixote1 with all its added significance1 was adequate to his original simple conception4 ,indeed that author must be considered fortunate who effects a reversal of the public judgment against the completion of a fragment1 and the repetition of a complete and conspicuous success4 ,when ,rossetti published his first volume of poems in #ahgj1 he left only his ,house of ,life incomplete2 but amongst the readers who then offered spontaneous tribute to that series of sonnets1 and still treasured it as a work of all but faultless symmetry1 built up by aid of a blended inspiration caught equally from ,shakspeare and from ,dante1 with a superadded psychical quality peculiar to its author1 there were many1 even amongst the friendliest in sympathy1 who heard of the completed sequence with a sense of doubt4 ,such is the silent and unreasoning and all but irrevocable edict of all popular criticism against continuations of works which have in fragmentary form once made conquest of the popular imagination4 ,moreover1 ,rossetti's first volume achieved a success so signal and unexpected as to subject this second and maturer book to the preliminary ordeal of such a questioning attitude of mind as we speak of1 as the unfailing and ungracious reward of a conspicuous triumph4 ,in the interval of eleven years1 ,rossetti had essayed no notable achievement1 and his name had been found attached only to such fugitive efforts as may have lived from time to time a brief life in the pages of the ,athenum and ,fortnightly4 ,of the works in question two only come now within our province to mention4 ,the first and most memorable was the poem ,cloud ,confines4 ,inadequate as the critical attention necessarily was which this remarkable lyric obtained1 indications were not wanting that it had laid unconquerable siege to the sympathies of that section of the public in whose enthusiasm the life of every creative work is seen chiefly to abide4 ,there was in it a lyrical sweetness scarcely ever previously compassed by its author1 a cadent undertoned symphony that first gave testimony that the poet held the power of conveying by words a sensible eflfect of great music1 even as former works of his had given testimony to his power of conveying a sensible eflfect by great painting4 ,but to these metrical excellencies was added an element new to ,rossetti's poetry1 or seen here for the first time conspicuously4 ,insight and imagination of a high order1 together with a poetic instinct whose promptings were sure1 had already found expression in more than one creation moulded into an innate chasteness of perfected parts and wedded to nature with an unerring fidelity4 ,but the range of nature was circumscribed1 save only in the one exception of a work throbbing with the sufferings and sorrows of a shadowed side of modern life4 ,to this lyric1 however1 there came as basis a fundamental conception that made aim to grapple with the pro-foundest problems compassed by the mysteries of life and death1 and a temper to yield only where human perception fails4 ,abstract indeed in theme the lyric is1 but few are the products of thought out of which imagination has delved a more concrete and varied picturesqueness3 ,what of the heart of hate ,that beats in thy breast1 ,o ,time8-- ,bed strife from the furthest prime1 ,and anguish of fierce debate2 that shatters her slain1 ,and peace that grinds them as grain1 ,and eyes fixed ever in vain ,on the pitiless eyes of ,fate4 ,the second of the fugitive efforts alluded to was a prose work entitled ,hand and ,soul4 ,more poem than story1 this beautiful idyl may be briefly described as mainly illustrative of the struggles of the transition period through which1 as through a slough1 all true artists must pass who have been led to reflect deeply upon the aims and ends of their calling before they attain that goal of settled purpose in which they see it to be best to work from their own heart simply1 without regard for the spectres that would draw them apart into quagmires of moral aspiration4 ,these two works and an occasional sonnet1 such as that on the greatly gifted and untimely lost ,oliver ,madox ,brown1 made the sum of all 99 that was done1 in the interval of eleven years between the dates of the first volume and of that which was now to be published1 to keep before the public a name which rose at once into distinction1 and had since1 without feverish periodical bolstering1 grown not less but more in the ardent upholding of sincere men who1 in number and influence1 comprised a following as considerable perhaps as owned allegiance to any contemporary4 99 ,a ballad appeared in ,the ,dark ,blue4 ,having brought these biographical and critical notes to the point at which they overlap the personal recollections that form the body of this volume1 it only remains to say that during the years in which the poems just reviewed were being written ,rossetti was living at his house in ,chelsea a life of unbroken retirement4 ,at this time1 however 7#ahgg-ha71 his seclusion was not so complete as it had been when he used to see scarcely any one but ,mr4 ,watts and his own family1 with an occasional visit from ,lord and ,lady ,mount ,temple1 ,mrs4 ,sumner1 etc4 ,once weekly he was now visited by his brother ,william1 twice weekly by his attached and gifted friend ,frederick ,j4 ,shields1 occasionally by his old friends ,william ,bell ,scott and ,ford ,madox ,brown4 ,for the rest1 he rarely if ever left the precincts of his home4 ,it was a placid and undisturbed existence such as he loved4 ,health too 7except for one serious attack in #ahgg71 was good with him1 and his energies were1 as we have seen1 at their best4 ,his personal amiability was1 perhaps1 never more conspicuous than in these tranquil years2 yet this was the very time when paragraphs injurious to his character found their way into certain journals4 ,among the numerous stories illustrative of his alleged barbarity of manners was the one which has often been repeated both in conversation and in print to the effect that ,h4,e4,h4 the ,princess ,louise was rudely repulsed from his door4 ,rossetti was certainly not easy to approach1 but the geniality of his personal bearing towards those who had commands upon his esteem was always unfailing1 and knowledge of this fact must have been enough to give the lie to the injurious calumny just named4 ,nevertheless1 ,rossetti1 who was deeply moved by the imputation1 thought it necessary to contradict it emphatically1 and as the letter in which he did this is a thoroughly outspoken and manly one1 and touches an important point in his character1 ,i reprint it in this place3 #af ,cheyne ,walk1 ,chelsea1 ,s4,w41 ,december #bh1 #ahgh4 ,my attention has been directed to the following paragraph which has appeared in the newspapers3--8,a very disagreeable story is told about a neighbour of ,mr4 ,whistler's1 whose works are not exhibited to the vulgar herd2 the ,princess ,louise in her zeal1 therefore1 graciously sought them at the artist's studio1 but was rebuffed by a #8,not at home' and an intimation that he was not at the beck and call of princesses4 ,i trust it is not true10 continues the writer of the paragraph1 8that so medievally minded a gentleman is really a stranger to that generous loyalty to rank and sex1 that dignified obedience10 etc4 ,the story is certainly 8disagreeable0 enough2 but if ,i am pointed at as the 8near neighbour of ,mr4 ,whistler's0 who rebuffed1 in this rude fashion1 the ,princess ,louise1 ,i can only say that it is a canard devoid of the smallest nucleus of truth4 ,her ,royal ,highness has never called upon me2 and ,i know of only two occasions when she has expressed a wish to do so4 ,some years ago ,mr4 ,theodore ,martin spoke to me upon the subject2 but ,i was at that time engaged upon an important work1 and the delays thence arising caused the matter to slip through4 ,and ,i heard no more upon the subject till last summer1 when ,mr4 ,theodore ,watts told me that the ,princess1 in conversation1 had mentioned my name to him1 and that he had then assured her that ,i should 8feel honoured and charmed to see her10 and suggested her making an appointment4 ,her ,royal ,highness knew that ,mr4 ,watts1 as one of my most intimate friends1 would not have thus expressed himself without feeling fully warranted in so doing2 and had she called she would not1 ,i trust1 have found me wanting in that 8generous loyalty0 which is due not more to her exalted position than to her well-known charm of character and artistic gifts4 ,it is true enough that ,i do not run after great people on account of their mere social position1 but ,i am1 ,i hope1 never rude to them2 and the man who could rebuff the ,princess ,louise must be a curmudgeon indeed4 ,d4 ,g4 ,rossetti4 ,at the very juncture in question ,lord ,lome was suddenly and unexpectedly appointed ,governor-,general of ,canada1 and1 leaving ,england1 ,her ,royal ,highness did not return until ,rossetti's health had somewhat suddenly broken down1 and it was impossible for him to see any but his most intimate friends4 ,,chapter ,,iii4 ,my intercourse with ,rossetti1 epistolary and personal1 extended over a period of between three and four years4 ,during the first two of these years ,i was1 as this volume must show1 his constant correspondent1 during the third year his attached friend1 and during the portion of the fourth year of our acquaintance terminating with his life1 his daily companion and housemate4 ,it is a part of my purpose to help towards the elucidation of ,rossetti's personal character by a simple1 and ,i trust1 unaffected statement of my relations to him1 and so ,i begin by explaining that my knowledge of the man was the sequel to my admiration of the poet4 ,not accident 7the agency that usually operates in such cases71 but his genius and my love of it1 began the friendship between us4 ,of ,rossetti's pictorial art ,i knew little1 until very recent years1 beyond what could be gathered from a few illustrations to books4 ,my acquaintance with his poetry must have been made at the time of the publication of the first volume in #ahgj1 but as ,i did not then possess a copy of the book1 and do not remember to have seen one1 my knowledge of the work must have been merely such as could be gleaned from the reading of reviews4 ,the unlucky controversy1 that subsequently arose out of it1 directed afresh my attention1 in common with that of others1 to ,rossetti and his school of poetry1 with the result of impressing my mind with qualities of the work that were certainly quite outside the issues involved in the discussion4 ,some two or three years after that acrimonious controversy had subsided1 an accident1 sufficiently curious to warrant my describing it1 produced the effect of converting me from a temperate believer in the charm of music and colour in ,rossetti's lyric verse1 to an ardent admirer of his imaginative genius as displayed in the higher walks of his art4 ,i had set out with a knapsack to make one of my many periodical walking tours of the beautiful lake country of ,westmoreland and ,cumberland4 ,beginning the journey at ,bowness--as tourists1 if they will accept the advice of one who knows perhaps the whole of the country1 ought always to do--,i walked through ,dungeon ,ghyll1 climbed the ,stake ,pass1 descended into ,borrowdale1 and traced the course of the winding ,derwent to that point at which it meets the estuary of the lake1 and where stands the ,derwentwater ,hotel4 ,a rain and thunder storm was gathering over the ,black ,sail and ,great ,gable as ,i reached the summit of the ,pass1 and travelling slowly northwards it had overtaken me4 ,before ,i reached the hotel1 my resting-place for the night1 ,i was certainly as thoroughly saturated as any one in reasonable moments could wish to be4 ,i remember that as ,i passed into the shelter of the porch an elderly gentleman1 who was standing there1 remarked upon the severity of the storm1 inquired what distance ,i had travelled1 and expressed amazement that on such a day1 when mists were floating1 any one could have ventured to cover so much dangerous mountain-country1--which he estimated as nearly thirty miles in extent4 ,beyond observing that my interlocutor was friendly in manner and knew the country intimately1 ,i do not remember to have reflected either then or afterwards upon his personality except perhaps that he might have answered to ,wordsworth's scarcely definite description of his illustrious friend as 8a noticeable man10 with the further parallel1 ,i think1 of possessing 8large grey eyes40 ,after attending to the obvious necessity of dry garments in exchange for wet ones1 and otherwise comforting myself after a fatiguing day's march1 ,i descended to the drawing-room of the hotel1 where a company of persons were trying1 with that too formal cordiality peculiar to ,english people1 who are accidentally thrown together in the course of a holiday1 to get rid of the depression which results upon dishearteningly unpropitious weather4 ,music1 as usual1 was the gracious angel employed to banish the fiend of ennui1 but among those who took no part either in the singing or playing1 other than that of an enforced auditor1 was the elderly gentleman1 my quondam acquaintance of the porch1 who stood apart in an alcove looking through a window4 ,i stepped up to him and renewed our talk4 ,the storm had rather increased than abated since my arrival2 the thunder which before had rumbled over the distant ,langdale ,pikes was breaking in sharp peals over our heads1 and flashes of sheeted lightning lit up the gathering darkness that lay between us and ,castle ,crag4 ,a playful allusion to 8poor ,tom0 and to ,king ,lear's undisputed sole enjoyment of such a scene 7except as viewed from the ambush of a comfortable hotel7 led to the discovery1 very welcome to both at a moment when we were at bay for an evening's occupation1 that besides knowledge and love of the country round about us1 we had in common some knowledge and much love of the far wider realm of books4 ,thereupon ensued a talk chiefly on authors and their works which lasted until long after the music had ceased1 until the elemental as well as instrumental storm had passed1 and the guests had slipped away one after one1 and the last remaining servant of the house had1 by the introduction of a couple of candles1 given us a palpable hint that in the opinion of that guardian of a country inn the hour was come and gone when well-regulated persons should betake themselves to bed4 ,to my delight my friend knew nearly every prominent living author1 could give me personal descriptions of them1 as well as scholarly and well-digested criticisms of their works4 ,he was certainly no ordinary man1 but who he was ,i have never learned with certainty1 though ,i cherish the agreeable impression that ,i could give a shrewd guess4 ,at one moment the talk turned on ,festus1 and then ,i heard the most lucid and philosophical account of that work ,i have ever listened to or read4 ,i was told that the author of ,festus had never 7in all the years that had elapsed since its publication1 when he was in his earliest manhood1 though now he is grown elderly7 ceased to emend it1 notwithstanding the protestations of critics2 and that an improved and enlarged edition of the poem might probably appear after his death4 ,struck with the especial knowledge displayed of the author in question1 ,i asked if he happened to be a friend4 ,then1 with a scarcely perceptible smile playing about the corners of the mouth 7a circumstance without significance for me at the time and only remembered afterwards71 my new acquaintance answered3 8,he is my oldest and dearest friend40 ,next morning ,i saw my night-long conversationalist in company with a clergyman get on to the ,buttermere coach and wave his hand to me as they vanished under the trees that overhung the ,buttermere road1 but in answer to many inquiries the utmost ,i could learn of my interesting acquaintance was that he was somehow understood to be a great author1 and a friend of ,charles ,kingsley1 who1 ,i think they said1 was or had been with him there or elsewhere that year4 ,whether besides being the 8oldest and dearest friend0 of the author of ,festus1 my delightful companion was ,philip ,james ,bailey himself ,i have never learned to this day1 and can only cherish a pleasant trust2 but what remains as really important in this connexion is that whosoever he was he originated my first real love of ,rossetti's poetry1 and gave me my first realisable idea of the man4 ,taking up from the table some popular ,garland1 ,casket1 ,treasury1 or other anthology of ,english poetry1 he pointed out a sonnet entitled ,lost ,days 7to which1 indeed1 a friend at home had directed my attention71 and dwelt upon its marvellous strength of spiritual insight1 and power of symbolic phrase4 ,of course the sonnet was ,rossetti's4 ,it is impossible for me to describe the effect produced upon me by sonnet and exposition4 ,i resolved not to live many days longer without acquiring a knowledge of the body of ,rossetti's work4 ,perceiving that the gentleman knew something of the poet1 ,i put questions to him which elicited the fact that he had met him many years earlier at1 ,i think he said1 ,mrs4 ,gaskell's1 when ,rossetti was a rather young man1 known only as a painter and the leader of an eccentric school in art4 ,he described him as a little dark man1 with fine eyes under a broad brow1 with a deep voice1 and ,bohemian habits--8a little ,italian1 in short40 ,little1 by the way1 ,rossetti could not properly be said to be1 but opinions as to physical proportions being so liable to vary1 ,i may at once mention that he was exactly five feet eight inches in height1 and except in early manhood1 when he was somewhat attenuated1 well built in proportion4 ,he further described ,rossetti's manners as those of a man in deliberate revolt against society2 delighting in an opportunity to startle well-ordered persons out of their propriety1 and to silence by sheer vehemence of denunciation the seemly protests of very good and very gentle folk4 ,the portraiture seems to me now to bear the impress of truth1 unlike as it is in some particulars to the man as ,i knew him4 ,when once1 however1 years after the event recorded1 ,i bantered ,rossetti on the amiable picture of him ,i had received from a stranger1 he admitted that it was in the main true to his character early in life1 and recounted an instance in which1 from sheer perversity1 or at best for amusement1 he had made the late ,dean ,stanley aghast with horror at the spectacle of a young man1 born in a ,christian country1 and in the nineteenth century1 defending 7in sport7 the vices of ,neronian ,home4 ,the outcome of this first serious and sufficient introduction to ,rossetti's poetry was that ,i forthwith devoted time to reading and meditating upon it4 ,ultimately ,i lectured twice or thrice on the subject in ,liverpool1 first at the ,royal ,institution1 and afterwards at the ,free ,library4 ,the text of that lecture ,i still preserve1 and as in all probability it did more than anything else to originate the friendship ,i afterwards enjoyed with the poet1 ,i shall try to convey very briefly an idea of its purpose4 ,against both friendly and unfriendly critics of ,rossetti ,i held that to place him among the 8aesthetic0 poets was an error of classification4 ,it seemed to me that1 unlike the poets properly so described1 he had nothing in common with the ,caliban of ,mr4 ,browning1 who worked 8for work's sole sake20 and1 unlike them yet further1 the topmost thing in him was indeed love of beauty1 but the deepest thing was love of uncomely right4 ,the fusion of these elements in ,rossetti softened the mythological ,italian ,catholicism that ,i recognised as a leading thing in him1 and subjugated his sensuous passion4 ,i thought it wrong to say that ,rossetti had part or lot with those false artists1 or no artists1 who assert1 without fear or shame1 that the manner of doing a thing should be abrogated or superseded by the moral purpose of its being done4 ,on the other hand1 ,rossetti appeared to make no conscious compromise with the ,puritan principle of doing good2 and to demand first of his work the lesson or message it had for us were wilfully to miss of pleasure while we vainly strove for profit4 ,he was too true an artist to follow art into its byeways of moral significance1 and thereby cripple its broader arms2 but at the same time all this absorption of the artist in his art seemed to me to live and work together with the personal instincts of the man4 ,an artist's nature cannot escape the colouring it gets from the human side of his nature1 because it is of the essence of art to appeal to its own highest faculties largely through the channel of moral instincts3 that music is exquisite and colour splendid1 first1 because they have an indescribable significance1 and next because they respond to mere sense4 ,but it appeared to me to be one thing to work for 8work's sole sake10 with an overruling moral instinct that gravitates1 as ,mr4 ,arnold would say1 towards conduct1 and quite another thing to absorb art in moral purposes4 ,i thought that ,rossetti's poetry showed how possible it is1 without making conscious compromise with that puritan principle of doing good of which ,keats at one period became enamoured1 to be unconsciously making for moral ends4 ,there was for me a passive puritanism in ,jenny which lived and worked together with the poet's purely artistic passion for doing his work supremely well4 ,every thought in ,dante at ,verona and ,the ,last ,confession seemed mixed with and coloured by a personal moral instinct that was safe and right4 ,this was perhaps the only noticeable feature of my lecture1 and knowing ,rossetti's nature1 as since the lecture ,i have learned to know it1 ,i feel no great surprise that such pleading for the moral impulses animating his work should have been of all things the most likely to engage his affections4 ,just as ,coleridge always resented the imputation that he had ever been concerned with ,wordsworth and ,southey in the establishment of a school of poetry1 and contended that1 in common with his colleagues1 he had been inspired by no desire save that of imitating the best examples of ,greece and ,home1 so ,rossetti 7at least throughout the period of my acquaintance with him7 invariably shrank from classification with the poetry of stheticism1 and aspired to the fame of a poet who had been prompted primarily by the highest of spiritual emotions1 and to whom the sensations of the body were as naught1 unless they were sanctified by the concurrence of the soul4 ,my lecture was printed1 but quite a year elapsed after its preparation before it occurred to me that ,rossetti himself might derive a moment's gratification from knowledge of the fact that he had one ardent upholder and sincere well-wisher hitherto unknown to him4 ,at length ,i sent him a copy of the magazine containing my lecture on his poetry4 ,a post or two later brought me the following reply3 ,dear ,mr4 ,caine1-- ,i am much struck by the generous enthusiasm displayed in your ,lecture1 and by the ability with which it is written4 ,your estimate of the impulses influencing my poetry is such as ,i should wish it to suggest1 and this suggestion1 ,i believe1 it will have always for a true-hearted nature4 ,you say that you are grateful to me3 my response is1 that ,i am grateful to you3 for you have spoken up heartily and unfalteringly for the work you love4 ,i daresay you sometimes come to ,london4 ,i should be very glad to know you1 and would ask you1 if you thought of calling1 to give me a day's notice when to expect you1 as ,i am not always able to see visitors without appointment4 ,the afternoon1 about #e1 might suit me1 or else the evening about #i4cj4 ,with all best wishes1 yours sincerely1 ,d4 ,g4 ,rossetti4 ,this was the first of nearly two hundred letters in all received from ,rossetti in the course of our acquaintance4 ,a day or two later the following supplementary note reached me3 ,i return your article4 ,in reading it1 ,i feel it a distinction that my minute plot in the poetic field should have attracted the gaze of one who is able to traverse its widest ranges with so much command4 ,i shall be much pleased if the plan of calling on me is carried out soon--at any rate ,i trust it will be so eventually4444 ,have you got1 or do you know1 my book of translations called ,dante and his ,circle8 ,if not1 ,i #8ll send you one4444 ,i have been reading again your article on ,the ,supernatural in ,poetry4 ,it is truly admirable--such work must soon make you a place4 ,the dramatic paper ,i thought suffered from some immaturity4 ,it is hardly necessary to say that ,i was equally delighted with the warmth of the reception accorded to my essay1 and with the revelation the letters appeared to contain of a sincere and unselfish nature4 ,my purpose1 however1 which was a modest one1 had been served1 and ,i made no further attempt to continue the correspondence1 least of all did ,i expect or desire to originate anything of the nature of a friendship4 ,in my reply to his note1 however1 ,i had asked him to accept the dedication of a little work of mine1 and when1 with abundant courtesy1 he had declined to do so on very sufficient grounds1 ,i felt satisfied that matters between us should rest where they were4 ,it is a pleasing recollection1 nevertheless1 that ,rossetti himself had taken a different view of the relation that had grown up between us1 and by many generous appeals induced me to put by all further thoughts of abandoning the correspondence out of regard for him4 ,there had ensued an interval in which ,i did not write to him1 whereupon he addressed to me a hurried note1 saying3 ,let me have a line from you4 ,i am haunted by the idea1 that in declining the dedication1 ,i may have hurt you4 ,i assure you ,i should be proud to be associated in any way with your work1 but gave you my very reasons4 ,i shall be pleased if you do not think them sufficient1 and still carry out your original intention4444 ,at least write to me4 ,i replied to this letter 7containing1 as it did1 the expression of so much more than the necessary solicitude71 by saying that ,i too had been haunted1 but it had been by the fear that ,i had been asking too much of his attention4 ,as to the dedication1 so far from feeling hurt1 by ,rossetti's declining it1 ,i had grown to see that such was the only course that remained to him to take4 ,the terms in which he had replied to my offer of it 7so far from being of a kind to annoy or hurt me71 had1 to my thinking1 been only generous1 sympathetic1 and beautiful4 ,again he wrote3 ,my dear ,caine1-- ,let me assure you at once that correspondence with yourself is one of my best pleasures1 and that you cannot write too much or too often for me2 though after what you have told me as to the apportioning of your time1 ,i should be unwilling to encroach unduly upon it4 ,neither should ,i on my side prove very tardy in reply1 as you are one to whom ,i find there is something to say when ,i sit down with a pen and paper4 ,i have a good deal of enforced evening leisure1 as it is seldom ,i can paint or draw by gaslight4 ,it would not be right in me to refrain from saying that to meet with one so 8leal and true0 to myself as you are has been a consolation amid much discouragement4444 ,i perceive you have had a complete poetic career which you have left behind to strike out into wider waters4444 ,the passage on ,night1 which you say was written under the planet ,shelley1 seems to me 7and to my brother1 to whom ,i read it7 to savour more of the 8mortal moon0--that is1 of a weird and sombre ,elizabethanism1 of which ,beddoes may be considered the modern representative4 ,but we both think it has an unmistakeable force and value2 and if you can write better poetry than this1 let your angel say unto you1 ,write4 ,i take it that it would be wholly unwise of me in selecting excerpts from ,rossetti's letters entirely to withhold the passages that concern exclusively 7so far as their substance goes7 my own early doings or try-ings-to-do2 for it ought to be a part of my purpose to lay bare the beginnings of that friendship by virtue of which such letters exist4 ,i can only ask the readers of these pages to accept my assurance1 that whatever the number and extent of the passages which ,i publish that are necessarily in themselves of more interest to myself personally than to the public generally1 they are altogether disproportionate to the number and extent of those ,i withhold4 ,i cannot1 however1 resist the conclusion that such picture as they afford of a man beyond the period of middle life capable of bending to a new and young friend1 and of thinking with and for him1 is not without an exceptional literary interest as being so contrary to every-day experience4 ,hence1 ,i am not without hope that the occasional references to myself which in the course of these extracts ,i shall feel it necessary to introduce1 may be understood to be employed by me as much for their illustrative value 7being indicative of ,rossetti's character71 as for any purpose less purely impersonal4 ,the passage of verse referred to was copied out for ,rossetti in reply to an inquiry as to whether ,i had written poetry4 ,prompted no doubt by the encouragement derived in this instance1 ,i submitted from time to time other verses to ,rossetti1 as subsequent letters show1 but it says something for the value of his praise that whatever the measure of it when his sympathies were fairly aroused1 and whatever his natural tendency to look for the characteristic merits rather than defects of compositions referred to his judgment1 his candour was always prominent among his good qualities when censure alone required to be forthcoming4 ,among many frank utterances of an opinion early formed1 that whatever my potentialities as a writer of prose1 ,i had but small vocation as a writer of poetry1 ,i preserve one such utterance1 which will1 ,i trust1 be found not less interesting to other readers from affording a glimpse of the writer's attitude towards the old controversy touching the several and distinguishing elements that contribute to make good prose on the one hand and good verse on the other4 ,on one occasion he had sent me his fine sonnet on ,keats1 then just written1 and1 in acknowledging the receipt of it with many expressions of admiration1 ,i remarked that for some days ,i had been struggling desperately1 in all senses1 to incubate a sonnet on the same somewhat hackneyed subject4 ,i had not written a line or put pen to paper for the purpose1 but ,i could tell him1 in general terms1 what my unaccomplished marvel of sonnet-craft was to be about4 ,rossetti replied saying that the scheme for a sonnet was 8extremely beautiful10 and urging me to 8do it at once40 ,alas for my intrepidity1 8do it0 ,i did1 with the result of awakening my correspondent to the certainty that1 whatever embowerings ,i had in my mind1 that shy bird the sonnet would seek in vain for a nest to hide in there4 ,it asked so much special courage to send a first attempt at sonneteering to the greatest living master of the sonnet that moral daring alone ought to have got me off lightly1 but here is ,rossetti's reply1 valuable now1 as well for the view it affords of the poet's attitude towards the sonnet as a medium of expression1 as for other reasons already assigned4 ,the opening passage alludes to a lyric of humble life4 ,you may be sure ,i do not mean essential discouragement when ,i say that1 full as ,nell is of reality and pathos1 your swing of arm seems to me firmer and freer in prose than in verse4 ,i do think ,i see your field to lie chiefly in the achievements of fervid and impassioned prose4444 ,i am sure that1 when sending me your first sonnet1 you wished me to say quite frankly what ,i think of it4 ,well1 ,i do not think it shows a special vocation for this condensed and emphatic form4 ,the prose version you sent me seems to say much more distinctly what this says with some want of force4 ,the octave does not seem to me very clearly put1 and the sestet does not emphasize in a sufficiently striking way the idea which the prose sketch conveyed to me1--that of ,keats's special privilege in early death3 viz41 the lovely monumentalized image he bequeathed to us of the young poet4 ,also ,i must say that more special originality and even newness 7though this might be called a vulgarizing word71 of thought and picture in individual lines--more of this than ,i find here--seems to me the very first qualification of a sonnet--otherwise it puts forward no right to be so short1 but might seem a severed passage from a longer poem depending on development4 ,i would almost counsel you to try the same theme again--or else some other theme in sonnet-form4 ,i thought the passage on ,night you sent showed an aptitude for choice imagery4 ,i should much like to see something which you view as your best poetic effort hitherto4 ,after all1 there is no need that every gifted writer should take the path of poetry--still less of sonneteering4 ,i am confident in your preference for frankness on my part4 ,i tried the theme again before ,i abandoned it1 and was so fortunate as to get him to admit a degree of improvement such as led to his desiring to recall his conjectural judgment on my possibilities as a sonnet-writer1 but as the letters in which he characterises the advance are neither so terse in criticism1 nor so interesting from the exposition of principles1 as the one quoted1 ,i pass them by4 ,with more confidence in my ultimate comparative success than ,i had ever entertained1 ,rossetti was only anxious that ,i should engage in that work to which ,i4 could address myself with a sense of command2 and ,i think it will be agreed that1 where temperate confidence in what the future may legitimately hold for one is united to earnest and rightly directed endeavour in the present1 it is often a good thing for the man who stands on the threshold of life 7to whom1 nevertheless1 the path passed seems ever to stretch out of sight backwards7 to be told the extent to which1 little enough at the most1 his clasp 7to use a phrase of ,mr4 ,browning7 may be equal to his grasp4 ,my residing1 as ,i did1 at a distance from ,london1 was at once the difficulty which for a time prevented our coming together and the necessity for correspondence by virtue of which these letters exist4 ,as ,i failed1 however1 from hampering circumstance1 to meet at once with himself1 ,rossetti invariably displayed a good deal of friendly anxiety to bring me into contact with his friends as frequently as occasion rendered it feasible to do so4 ,in this way ,i met with ,mr4 ,madox ,brown1 who was at the moment engaged on his admirable frescoes in the ,manchester ,town ,hall1 and in this way also ,i met with other friends of his resident in my neighbourhood4 ,when ,i came to know him more intimately ,i perceived that besides the kindliness of intention which had prompted him to bring me into what he believed to be agreeable associations1 he had adopted this course from the other motive of desiring to be reassured as to the comparative harmlessness of my personality1 for he usually followed the introduction to a friend by a private letter of thanks for the reception accorded me1 and a number of dexterously manipulated allusions1 which always1 ,i found1 produced the desired result of eliciting the required information 7to be gleaned only from personal intercourse7 as to my manner and habits4 ,later in our acquaintance1 ,i found that he1 like all meditative men1 had the greatest conceivable dread of being taken unawares1 and that there was no safer way for any fresh acquaintance to insure his taking violently against him1 than to take the step of coming down upon him suddenly1 and without appointment1 or before a sufficient time had elapsed between the beginning of the friendship and the actual personal encounter1 to admit of his forming preconceived ideas of the manner of man to expect4 ,the agony he suffered upon the unexpected visit of even the most ardent of well-wishers could scarcely be realised at the moment1 from the apparent ease1 and assumed indifference of his outward bearing1 and could only be known to those who were with him after the trying ordeal had been passed1 or immediately before the threatened intrusion had been consummated4 ,early in our correspondence a friend of his1 an art critic of distinction1 visited ,liverpool with the purpose of lecturing on the valuable examples of ,byzantine art in the ,eoyal ,institution of that city4 ,the lecture was1 ,i fear1 almost too good and quite too technical for some of the hearers1 many of whom claim 7and with reason7 to be lovers of art1 and cover the walls of their houses with beautiful representations of lovely landscape1 but at the same time erect huge furnaces which emit vast volumes of black smoke such as prevent the sky of any ,liverpool landscape being for an instant lovely4 ,i doubt if the lecture could have been treated more popularly1 but there was manifestly a lack of merited appreciation4 ,the archaisms of some of the pictures chosen for illustration 7early ,byzantine examples exclusively7 appeared to cause certain of the audience to smile at much of the lecturer's enthusiasm4 ,fortunately the man chiefly concerned seemed unconscious of all this4 ,and indeed1 however he fared in public1 in private he was only too 8dreadfully attended40 ,after the lecture a good many folks gave him the benefit of their invaluable opinions on various art questions1 and some1 as was natural1 made pitiful slips4 ,i observed with secret and scarcely concealed satisfaction his courageous loyalty in defence of his friends1 and his hitting out in their defence when he believed them to be assailed4 ,one superlative intelligence1 eager to do honour to the guest1 yet ignorant of his claim to such honour1 gave him a wonderfully facile and racy comment on the pre-,raphaelite painters1 and1 in particular1 made the ridiculous blunder of a deliberate attack upon ,rossetti1 and then paused for breath and for the lecturer's appreciative response2 of course1 ,rossetti's friend was not to be drawn into such disloyalty for an instant1 even to avoid the risk of ruffling the plumage of the mightiest of the corporate cacklers4 ,rossetti had permitted me in his name to meet his friend1 and in writing subsequently ,i alluded to the affection with which he had been mentioned1 also to something that had been said of his immediate surroundings1 and to that frank championing of his claims which ,i have just described4 ,rossetti's reply to this is interesting as affording a pathetic view of his isolation of life and of the natural affectionateness of his nature3 ,i am very glad you were welcomed by dear staunch ,s------1 as ,i felt sure you would be4 ,he holds the honourable position of being almost the only living art-critic who has really himself worked through the art-schools practically1 and learnt to draw and paint4 ,he is one of my oldest and best friends1 of whom few can be numbered at my age1 from causes only too varying4 ,go from me1 summer friends1 and tarry not1-- ,i am no summer friend1 but wintry cold1 etc4 ,so be it1 as needs must be1--not for all1 let us hope1 and not with all1 as good ,s------ shews4 ,i have not seen him since his return4 ,i wrote him a line to thank him for his friendly reception of you1 and he wrote in return to thank me for your acquaintance1 and spoke very pleasantly of you4 ,your youth seems to have surprised him4 ,i sent a letter of his to your address4 ,i hope you may see more of him4 4 4 4 ,you mention something he said to you of me and my surroundings4 ,they are certainly quiet enough as fax as retirement goes1 and ,i have often thought ,i should enjoy the presence of a congenial and intellectual housefellow and boardfellow in this big barn of mine1 which is actually going to rack and ruin for want of use4 ,but where to find the welcome1 the willing1 and the able combined in one8 4 4 4 ,i was truly concerned to hear of the attack of ill-health you have suffered from1 though you do not tell me its exact nature4 ,i hope it was not accompanied by any such symptoms as you mentioned before4 4 4 4 ,i myself have had similar symptoms 7though not so fully as you describe71 and have spat blood at intervals for years1 but now think nothing of it--nor indeed ever did1--waiting for further alarm signals which never came4 4 4 4 ,by-the-bye1 ,i have since remembered that ,burne ,jones1 many years ago1 had such an experience as you spoke of before--quite as bad certainly4 ,he was weak for some time after1 and has frequently been reminded in minor ways of it1 but seems now 7at about forty-six or forty-seven7 to be more settled in health and stronger1 perhaps1 than ever before4444 ,your letter holds out the welcome probability of meeting you here ere long4 ,this friendly solicitude regarding my health was excited by the revelation of what seemed to me at the time a startling occurrence1 but has doubtless frequently happened to others1 and has certainly since happened to myself without provoking quite so much outcry4 ,the blood-spitting to which ,rossetti here alleges he was liable was of a comparatively innocent nature4 ,in later years he was assuredly not altogether a hero as to personal suffering1 and ,i afterwards found that1 upon the periodical recurrence of the symptom1 he never failed to become convinced that he spat arterial blood1 and that on each occasion he had received his death-warrant4 ,proof enough was adduced that the blood came from the minor vessels of the throat1 and this was undoubtedly the case in the majority of instances1 but whether the same explanation applied to one alarming occurrence which ,i shall now recount1 seems to me uncertain4 ,during the two or three weeks preceding our departure for ,cumberland1 in the autumn of #ahha1 during the time of our residence there and during the first few weeks after our return to ,london1 ,rossetti was afflicted by a violent cough4 ,i noticed that it troubled him almost exclusively in the night-time1 and after the taking of chloral2 that it was sometimes attended by vomiting2 and that it invariably shook his whole system so terribly as to leave him for a while entirely prostrate from sheer physical exhaustion4 ,the spectacle was a painful one1 and ,i watched closely its phenomena1 with the result of convincing myself that whatever radical mischief lay at the root of it1 the damage done was seriously augmented by a conscious giving way to it1 induced1 ,i thought1 by hope of the relief it sometimes afforded the stomach to get rid of the nauseous drug at a moment of reduced digestive vitality4 ,then it became my fear that in these violent and prolonged retchings internal injury might be sustained1 and so ,i begged him to try to restrain the tendency to cough so much and often4 ,he took the remonstrance with great goodnature 7observing that he perceived ,i thought he was putting it on71 but ,i was not conscious that at any moment he acted upon my suggestion4 ,at the time in question ,i was under the necessity of leaving him for a day or two every week in order to fulfil1 a course of lecturing engagements at a distance2 and upon my return in each instance ,i was told much of all that had happened to him in the interval4 ,on one occasion1 however1 ,i was conscious that something had occurred of which he desired to make a disclosure1 for amongst the gifts that ,rossetti had not got was that of concealing from his intimate friends any event1 however trifling1 or however important1 which weighed upon his mind4 ,at length ,i begged him to say what had happened1 whereupon1 with great reluctance and many protestations of his intention to observe silence1 and constant injunctions as to secrecy1 he told me that during the night of my absence1 in the midst of one of his bouts of coughing1 he had discharged an enormous quantity of blood4 8,i know this is the final signal10 he said1 8and ,i shall die40 ,i did my utmost to compose him by recounting afresh the personal incident hinted at1 with many added features of 7,i trust7 justifiable exaggeration1 but it is hardly necessary to say that ,i did not hold the promise ,i gave him as to secrecy sufficiently sacred1 or so exclusive1 as to forbid my revealing the whole circumstance to his medical attendant4 ,i may add that from that moment the cough entirely disappeared4 ,to return from this reminiscence of a later period to the beginnings1 three years earlier1 of our correspondence1 ,i will bring the present chapter to a close by quoting short passages from three letters written on the eve of my first visit to ,rossetti1 in #ahhj3 ,i will be truly glad to meet you when you come to town4 ,you will recognise the hole-and-cornerest of all existences2 but ,i'll read you a ballad or two1 and have ,brown's report to back my certainty of liking you4444 ,i would propose that you should dine with me at #h4cj on the ,monday of your visit1 and spend the evening4444 ,better come at #e4cj to #f 7if feasible to you71 that ,i may try to show you a picture by daylight444 ,of course1 when ,i speak of your dining with me1 ,i mean tte- -tte1 and without ceremony of any kind4 ,i usually dine in my studio1 and in my painting coat4 ,i judge this will reach you in time for a note to reach me4 ,telegrams ,i hate4 ,in hope of the pleasure of a meeting1 yours ever4 ,how that 8hole-and-cornerest of all existences0 struck an ardent admirer of the poet-painter's genius1 and a devoted lover of his personal character1 as then revealed to me1 ,i hope to describe in a later section of this book4 ,meantime ,i must proceed to cull from the epistolary treasures ,i possess a number of interesting passages on literary subjects1 called forth in the course of an intercourse which1 at that stage1 had few topics of a private nature to divert it from a channel of impersonal discussion4 ,it is a fact that the letters written to me by ,rossetti in the year #ahhj deal so largely with literary affairs 7chiefly of the past7 as to be almost capable of verbatim reproduction1 even at the present short interval after his death4 ,if they were to be reproduced1 they would be found to cover two hundred pages of the present volume1 and to be so easy1 fluent1 varied1 and wholly felicitous as to style1 and full of research and reflection as to substance1 as probably to earn for the writer a foremost place for epistolary power4 ,indeed1 ,i am not without hope that this accession of a fresh reputation may result even upon the excerpts ,i have decided to introduce4 ,,chapter ,,iv4 ,it was very natural that our earliest correspondence should deal chiefly with ,rossetti's own works1 for those works gave rise to it4 ,he sent me a copy of his translations from early ,italian poets 7,dante and his ,circle71 and a copy of his story1 entitled ,hand and ,soul4 ,in posting the latter1 he said3 ,i don't know if you ever saw a sort of story of mine called ,hand and ,soul4 ,i send you one with this1 as printed to go in my poems 7though afterwards omitted1 being1 nevertheless1 more poem than story74 ,i printed it since in the ,fortnightly--and1 ,i believe1 abolished one or two extra sentimentalities4 ,you may have seen it there4 ,in case it's stale1 ,i enclose with this a sonnet which must be new1 for ,i only wrote it the other day4 ,i have already1 in the proper place in this volume1 said how the story first struck me4 ,perhaps ,i had never before reading it seen quite so clearly the complete mission as well as enforced limitations of true art4 ,all the many subtle gradations in the development of purpose were there beautifully pictured in a little creation that was charming in the full sense of a word that has wellnigh lost its charm4 ,for all such as cried out against pursuits originating in what ,keats had christened 8the infant chamber of sensation10 and for all such as demanded that everything we do should be done to 8strengthen ,god among men10 the story provided this answer3 8,when at any time hath ,he cried unto thee1 saying1 #8,my son1 lend me thy shoulder1 for ,i fall'80 ,the sonnet sent1 and spoken of as having just been written 7the letter bears post-mark ,february #ahhj71 was the sonnet on the sonnet4 ,it is throughout beautiful and in two of its lines 7those depicting the dark wharf and the black ,styx7 truly magnificent4 ,it appears most to be valued1 however1 as affording a clue to the attitude of mind adopted towards this form of verse by the greatest master of it in modern poetry4 ,i think it is ,mr4 ,pater who says that a fine poem in manuscript carries an aroma with it1 and a sensation of music4 ,i must have enjoyed the pleasure of such a presence somewhat frequently about this period1 for many of the poems that afterwards found places in the second volume of ballads and sonnets were sent to me from time to time4 ,i should like to know what were the three or four vols4 on ,italian poetry which you mentioned in a former letter1 and which my book somewhat recalled to your mind4 ,i was not aware of any such extensive ,english work on the subject4 ,or do you perhaps mean ,trucchi's ,italian ,dugento ,posie indite8 ,i am sincerely delighted at your rare interest in what ,i have sent you--both the translations1 story1 etc4--,i enclose three printed pieces meant for my volume but omitted3--the ballad1 because it deals trivially with a base amour 7it was written very early7 and is therefore really reprehensible to some extent2 the ,shakspeare sonnet1 because of its incongruity with the rest of the poems1 and also because of the insult 7however jocose7 to the worshipful body of tailors2 and the political sonnet for reasons which are plain enough1 though the date at which ,i wrote it 7not without feeling7 involves now a prophetic value4 ,in a ,,ms4 vol4 ,i have a sonnet 7#ahga7 ,after the ,german ,subjugation of ,france1 which enforces the prophecy by its fulfilment4 ,in this ,,ms4 vol4 are a few pieces which were the only ones ,i copied in doubt as to their admission when ,i printed the poems1 but none of which did ,i admit4 ,one day ,i #8ll send it for you to look at4 ,it contains a few sonnets bearing on public matters1 but only a few4 ,tell me what you think on reading my things4 ,all you said in your letter of this morning was very grateful to me4 ,i have a fair amount by me in the way of later ,,ms4 which ,i may shew you some day when we meet4 ,meanwhile ,i feel that your energies are already in full swing--work coming on the heels of work--and that your time cannot long be deferred as regards your place as a writer4 ,the ballad of which ,rossetti here speaks as dealing trivially with a base amour is entitled ,dennis ,shand4 ,though an early work1 it affords perhaps the best evidence extant of the poet's grasp of the old ballad style3 it runs easiest of all his ballads1 and is in some respects his best4 ,mr4 ,j4 ,a4 ,symonds has1 in my judgment1 made the error of speaking of ,rossetti as incapable of reproducing the real note of such ballads as ,chevy ,chase and ,sir ,patrick ,spens4 ,mr4 ,symonds was right in his eloquent comments 7,macmillan's ,magazine1 ,february #ahhb71 so far as they concern the absence from ,rose ,mary1 ,the ,king's ,tragedy1 and ,the ,white ,ship of the sinewy simplicity of the old singers4 ,but in those poems ,rossetti attempted quite another thing4 ,there is a development of the ,english ballad that is entirely of modern product1 being far more complex than the primitive form1 and getting rid to some extent of the out-worn notion of the ballad being actually sung to set music1 but retaining enough of the sweep of a free rhythm to carry a sensible effect as of being chanted when read4 ,this is a sort of ballad-romance1 such as ,christabel and ,the ,lay of the ,last ,minstrel2 and this1 and this only1 was what ,rossetti aimed after1 and entirely compassed in his fine works just mentioned4 ,but 7as ,rossetti himself remarked to me in conversation when ,i repeated ,mr4 ,symonds's criticism1 and urged my own grounds of objection to it71 that the poet was capable of the directness and simplicity which characterise the early ballad-writers1 he had given proof in ,the ,staff and ,scrip and ,stratton ,water4 ,dennis ,shand is valuable as evidence going in the same direction1 but the author's objection to it1 on ethical grounds1 must here prevail to withhold it from publication4 ,the ,shakspeare sonnet1 spoken of in the letter as being withheld on account of its incongruity with the rest of the poems1 was published in an early ,academy1 notwithstanding its jocose allusion to the worshipful body of tailors4 ,as it is little known1 and really very powerful in itself1 and interesting as showing the author's power over words in a new direction1 ,i print it in this place4 ,,on ,,the ,,site ,,of ,a ,,mulberry ,,tree4 ,planted by ,wm4 ,shakspeare2 felled by the ,rev4 ,f4 ,gastrell4 ,this tree1 here fall'n1 no common birth or death ,shared with its kind4 ,the world's enfranchised son1 ,who found the trees of ,life and ,knowledge one1 ,here set it1 frailer than his laurel-wreath4 ,shall not the wretch whose hand it fell beneath ,rank also singly--the supreme unhung8 ,lo6 ,sheppard1 ,turpin1 pleading with black tongue ,this viler thief's unsuffocated breath6 ,we #8,u search thy glossary1 ,shakspeare6 whence almost1 ,and whence alone1 some name shall be reveal'd ,for this deaf drudge1 to whom no length of ears ,sufficed to catch the music of the spheres2 ,whose soul is carrion now1--too mean to yield ,some tailor's ninth allotment of a ghost4 ,stratford-on-,avon4 ,the other sonnets referred to1 those1 namely1 on the ,french ,liberation of ,italy1 and the ,german ,subjugation of ,france1 display all ,rossetti's mastery of craftsmanship4 ,in strength of vision1 in fertility of rhythmic resource1 in pliant handling1 these sonnets are1 in my judgment1 among the best written by the author2 and if ,i do not quote them here1 or altogether regret that they do not appear in the author's works1 it is not because ,i have any sense of their possibly offending against the delicate sensibilities of an age in which it seems necessary to hide out of sight whatever appears to impinge upon the domain of what is called our lower nature4 ,the circumstance has hardly obtained even so much as a passing mention that ,rossetti made certain very important additions to the ballad of ,sister ,helen1 just before passing the old volume through the press afresh for publication1 contemporaneously with the new book4 ,the letters ,i am now to quote show the origin of those additions1 and are interesting1 as affording a view of the author's estimate of the gain in respect of completeness of conception1 and sterner tragic spirit which resulted upon their adoption4 ,i was very glad to have the three articles together1 including the one in which you have written on myself4 ,looking at this again1 it seems to me you must possess the best edition 7the ,tauchnitz1 which has my last emendations74 ,otherwise ,i have been meaning all along to offer you a copy of this edition1 as ,i have some4 ,who was your informant as to dates of the poems1 etc48 ,they are not correct1 yet show some inkling4 ,jenny 7in a first form7 was written almost as early as ,the ,blessed ,damozel1 which ,i wrote 7and have altered little since71 when ,i was eighteen4 ,it was first printed when ,i was twenty-one4 ,of the first ,jenny1 perhaps fifty lines survive here and there1 but ,i felt it was quite beyond me then 7a world ,i was then happy enough to be a stranger to71 and later ,i re-wrote it completely4 ,i will give you correct particulars at some time4 ,sister ,helen1 ,i may mention1 was written either in #ahea or beginning of #aheb1 and was printed in something called ,the ,dsseldorf ,annual 99 7published in ,germany7 in #ahec2 though since much revised in detail--not in the main4 ,you will be horror-struck to hear that the first main addition to this poem was made by me only a few days ago6--eight stanzas 7six together1 and two scattered ones7 involving a new incident66 ,your hair is on end1 ,i know1 but if you heard the stanzas1 they would smooth if not curl it4 ,the gain is immense4 99 ,in ,the ,dsseldorf ,annual the poem was signed ,h4 ,h4 ,h41 and in explanation of this signature ,rossetti wrote on his own copy the following characteristic note3--8,the initials as above were taken from the lead-pencil40 ,in reply to this ,i told ,rossetti that1 as a 8jealous honourer0 of his1 ,i confessed to some uneasiness when ,i read that he had been making important additions to ,sister ,helen4 ,that ,i could not think of a stage of the story that would bear so to be severed from what goes before or comes after it as to admit of interpolation might not of itself go for much2 but the entire ballad was so rounded into unity1 one incident so naturally begetting the next1 and the combined incidents so properly building up a fabric of interest of which the meaning was all inwoven1 that ,i could not but fear that whatever the gain in certain directions1 the additions of any stanzas involving a new incident might1 in some measure1 cripple the rest4 ,even though the new stanzas were as beautiful1 or yet more beautiful than the old ones1 and the incident as impressive as any that goes before it1 or comes after it1 the gain to the poem as an individual creation was not1 ,i thought1 assured because people used to say my style was hard4 ,rossetti was mistaken in supposing that ,i possessed the latest and best edition of his ,poems1 but ,i had seen the latest of all ,english editions1 and had noted in it several valuable emendations which1 in subsequent quotation1 ,i had been careful to employ4 ,one of these seemed to me to involve an immeasurable gain4 ,a stanza of ,sister ,helen1 in its first form1 ran3 ,oh1 the wind is sad in the iron chill1 ,sister ,helen1 ,and weary sad they look by the hill2 ,but ,keith of ,ewern #8s sadder still1 ,little brother4--etc4 etc4 ,in the later edition the fourth line of this stanza ran3 ,but he and ,i are sadder still4 ,the change adds enormously to one's estimate of the characterisation4 ,all through the ballad one wants to feel that1 despite the bitterness of her speech1 the heart of the relentless witch is breaking4 ,like ,the ,broken ,heart of ,ford1 the ballad with the amended line was a masterly picture of suppressed emotion4 ,i hoped the new incident touched the same chord4 ,rossetti replied3 ,thanks for your present letter1 which ,i will answer with pleasurable care4 ,at present ,i send you the ,tauchnitz edition of my things4 ,the bound copy is hideous1 but more convenient--the other pretty4 ,you will find a good many things bettered 7,i believe7 even on the latest ,english edition4 ,i did not remember that the line you quote from ,sister ,helen appeared in the new form at all in an ,english issue4 ,i am greatly pleased at your thinking it1 as ,i do1 quite a transfiguring change444 ,the next point ,i have marked in your letter is that about the additions to ,sister ,helen4 ,of course ,i knew that your hair must arise from your scalp in protest4 ,but what should you say if ,keith of ,ewern were a three days' bridegroom--if the spell had begun on the wedding-morning--and if the bride herself became the last pleader for mercy8 ,i fancy you will see your way now4 ,the culminating1 irresistible provocation helps1 ,i think1 to humanize ,helen1 besides lifting the tragedy to a yet sterner height4 ,if ,i had felt 7as ,rossetti predicted ,i should7 an uneasy sensation about the roots of the hair upon hearing that he was making important additions to the ballad which seemed to me to be the finest of his works1 the sensation in that quarter was not less1 but more1 upon learning the nature of those additions4 ,but ,i mistook the character of the new incidents4 ,that ,sister ,helen should be herself the abandoned bride of ,ewern 7for so ,i understood the poet's explanation71 and1 as such1 the last pleader for mercy1 pointed1 ,i thought1 in the direction of the humanizing emendation 78,but he and ,i are sadder still 87 which had given me so much pleasure4 ,that ,keith of ,ewern should be a three-days' bridegroom1 and that the spell should begin on the wedding morning1 were incidents that seemed to intensify every line of the poem4 ,in this view of ,rossetti's account of the additions1 there were certainly difficulties out of which ,i could see no way1 but ,i seemed to realise that ,helen's hate1 like ,macbeth's ambition1 had overleaped itself1 and fallen on the other side1 and that she would undo her work1 if to return were not harder than to go on2 her initiate sensibility had gained hard use1 but even as hate recoils on love1 so out of the ashes of hate love had arisen4 ,in this view of the characterisation of ,helen1 the parallel with ,macbeth struck me more and more as ,i thought of it4 ,when ,macbeth kills ,duncan1 and hears the grooms of the chamber cry in their sleep--8,god bless us10 he cannot say 8,amen10 ,i had most need of blessing1 and ,amen ,stuck in my throat4 ,helen pleading too late for mercy against the potency of the spell she herself had raised1 seemed to me an incident that raised her to the utmost height of tragic creation4 ,but ,rossetti's purpose was at once less ambitious and more satisfying4 ,your passage as to the changes in ,sister ,helen could not well 7with all its fine suggestiveness7 be likely to meet exactly a reality which had not been submitted to your eye in the verses themselves4 ,it is the bride of ,keith who is the last pleader--as vainly as the others1 and with a yet more exulting development of vengeance in the forsaken witch4 ,the only acknowledgment by her of a mutual misery is still found in the line you spotted as so great a gain before1 and in the last line she speaks4 ,i ought to have sent the stanzas to explain them properly1 but have some reluctance to ventilate them at present1 much as ,i should like the opportunity of reading them to you4 ,they will meet your eye in due course1 and ,i am sure of your approval also as regards their value to the ballad4444 ,don't let the changes in ,helen get wind overmuch4 ,i want them to be new when published4 ,answer this when you can4 ,i like getting your epistles4 ,the fresh stanzas in question1 which had already obtained the suffrages of his brother1 of ,mr4 ,bell ,scott1 and other qualified critics1 were subsequently sent to me4 ,they are as follows4 ,after ,keith of ,keith1 the father of ,sister ,helen's sometime lover1 has pleaded for his son in vain1 the last suppliant to arrive is his son's bride3 ,a lady here1 by a dark steed brought1 ,sister ,helen1 ,so darkly clad ,i saw her not4 8,see her now or never see aught1 ,little brother60 7,o ,mother1 ,mary ,mother1 ,whit more to see1 between ,hell and ,heaven87 8,her hood falls back1 and the moon shines fair1 ,sister ,helen1 ,on the ,lady of ,ewern's golden hair40 8,blest hour of my power and her despair1 ,little brother60 7,o ,mother1 ,mary ,mother1 ,hour blest and bann'd1 between ,hell and ,heaven67 8,pale1 pale her cheeks1 that in pride did glow1 ,sister ,helen1 #8,neath the bridal-wreath three days ago40 8,one morn for pride and three days for woe1 ,little brother60 7,o ,mother1 ,mary ,mother1 ,three days1 three nights1 between ,hell and ,heaven67 8,her clasp'd hands stretch from her bending head1 ,sister ,helen2 ,with the loud wind's wail her sobs are wed40 8,what wedding-strains hath her bridal bed1 ,little brother80 7,o ,mother1 ,mary ,mother1 ,what strain but death's1 between ,hell and ,heaven87 8,she may not speak1 she sinks in a swoon1 ,sister ,helen1-- ,she lifts her lips and gasps on the moon40 8,oh6 might ,i but hear her soul's blithe tune1 ,little brother60 7,o ,mother1 ,mary ,mother1 ,her woe's dumb cry1 between ,hell and ,heaven67 8,they've caught her to ,westholm's saddle-bow1 ,sister ,helen1 ,and her moonlit hair gleams white in its flow40 8,let it turn whiter than winter snow1 ,little brother60 7,o ,mother1 ,mary ,mother1 ,woe-withered gold1 between ,hell and ,heaven67 ,besides these there are two new stanzas1 one going before1 and the other following after1 the six stanzas quoted1 but as the scattered passages involve no farther incident1 and are rather of interest as explaining and perfecting the idea here expressed1 than valuable in themselves1 ,i do not reprint them4 ,i think it must be allowed1 by fit judges1 that nothing more subtly conceived than this incident can be met with in ,english poetry1 though something akin to it was projected by ,coleridge in an episode of his contemplated ,michael ,scott4 ,it is--in the full sense of an abused epithet--too weird to be called picturesque4 ,but the crowning merit of the poem still lies1 as ,i have said1 in the domain of character4 ,through all the outbursts of her ignescent hate ,sister ,helen can never lose the ineradicable relics of her human love3 ,but he and ,i are sadder still4 ,as ,rossetti from time to time made changes in his poems1 he transcribed the amended verses in a copy of the ,tauchnitz edition which he kept constantly by him4 ,upon reference to this little volume some days after his death1 ,i discovered that he had prefaced ,sister ,helen with a note written in pencil1 of which he had given me the substance in conversation about the time of the publication of the altered version1 but which he abandoned while passing the book through the press4 ,the note 7evidently designed to precede the ballad7 runs3 ,it is not unlikely that some may be offended at seeing the additions made thus late to the ballad of ,s4 ,h4 ,my best excuse is that ,i believe some will wonder with myself that such a climax did not enter into the first conception4 ,at the foot of the poem this further note is written3 ,i wrote this ballad either in #ahea or early in #aheb4 ,it was printed in a thing called ,the ,dsseldorf ,annual in 7,i think7 #ahec--published in ,germany4 99 99 ,in the same private copy of the ,poems the following explanatory passage was written over the much-discussed sonnet1 entitled1 ,the ,monochord3--8,that sublimated mood of the soul in which a separate essence of itself seems as it were to oversoar and survey it40 ,neither the style nor the substance is characteristic of ,rossetti1 and though ,i do not at the moment remember to have met with the passage elsewhere1 ,i doubt not it is a quotation4 ,that quotation marks are employed is not in itself evidence of much moment1 for ,rossetti had ,coleridge's enjoyment of a literary practical joke1 and on one occasion prefixed to a story in manuscript a long passage on noses purporting to be from ,tristram ,shandy1 but which is certainly not discoverable in ,sterne's story4 ,the next letter ,i shall quote appears to explain itself3 ,there is a last point in your long letter which ,i have not noticed1 though it interested me much3 viz41 what you say of your lecture on my poetry2 your idea of possibly returning to and enlarging it would1 if carried out1 be welcome to me4 ,i suppose ere long ,i must get together such additional work as ,i have to show--probably a good deal added to the old vol4 7which has been for some time out of print7 and one longer poem by itself4 ,the ,house of ,life1 when next issued1 will ,i trust be doubled in number of sonnets2 it is nearly so already4 ,your writing that essay in one day1 and the information as to subsequent additions1 ,i noted1 and should like to see the passage on ,jenny which you have not yet used1 if extant4 ,the time taken in composition reminds me of the fact 7so long ago67 that ,i wrote the tale of ,hand and ,soul 7with the exception of an opening page or two7 all in one night in ,december #ahdi1 beginning ,i suppose about #b ,a4,m4 and ending about #g4 ,in such a case a landscape and sky all unsurmised open gradually in the mind--a sort of spiritual ,turner1 among whose hills one ranges and in whose waters one strikes out at unknown liberty2 but ,i have found this only in nightlong work1 which ,i have seldom attempted1 for it leaves one entirely broken1 and this state was mine when ,i described the like of it at the close of the story1 ah6 once again1 how long ago6 ,i have thought of including this story in next issue of poems1 but am uncertain4 ,what think you8 ,it seemed certain that ,hand and ,soul ought not to continue to lie in the back numbers1 of a magazine4 ,the story1 being more poem than aught else1 might properly lay claim to a place in any fresh collection of the author's works4 ,i could see no natural objection on the score of its being written in prose4 ,as ,coleridge and ,wordsworth both aptly said1 prose is not the antithesis of poetry2 science and poetry may stand over-against each other1 as ,keats implied by his famous toast3 8,confusion to the man who took the poetry out of the moon10 but prose and poetry surely are or may be practically one4 ,we know that in rhythmic flow they sometimes come very close together1 and nowhere closer than in the heightened prose and the poetry of ,rossetti4 ,poetic prose may not be the best prose1 just as 7to use a false antithesis7 dull poetry is called prosaic2 but there is no natural antagonism between prose and verse as literary mediums1 provided always that the spirit that animates them be akin4 ,rossetti himself constantly urged that in prose the first necessity was that it should be direct1 and he knew no reproach of poetry more damning than to say it was written in proseman's diction4 ,this was the key to his depreciation of ,wordsworth1 and doubtless it was this that ultimately operated with him to exclude the story from his published works4 ,i took another view1 and did not see that an accidental difference of outward form ought to prevent his uniting within single book-covers productions that had so much of their essential spirit in common4 ,unlike the ,chinese1 we do not read by sight only1 and there is in the story such richness1 freshness1 and variety of cadence1 as appeal to the ear also4 ,prose may be the lowest order of rhythmic composition1 but we know it is capable of such purity1 sweetness1 strength1 and elasticity1 as entitle it to a place as a sister art with poetry4 ,milton1 however1 although he wrote the noblest of ,english prose1 seemed more than half ashamed of it1 as of a kind of left-handed performance4 ,goethe and ,wordsworth1 on the other hand1 not to speak of ,coleridge and ,shelley 7or yet of ,keats1 whose letters are among the very best examples extant of the ,english epistolary style71 wrote prose of wonderful beauty and were not ashamed of it4 ,in ,milton's case the subjects1 ,i imagine1 were to blame for his indifference to his achievements in prose1 for not even the ,westminster ,convention1 or the divorce topics of ,tetrachordon1 or yet the liberty of the press1 albeit raised to a level of philosophic first principles1 were quite up to those fixed stars of sublimity about which it was ,milton's pleasure to revolve4 ,hand and ,soul is in faultless harmony with ,rossetti's work in verse1 because distinguished by the same strength of imagination4 ,that it was written in a single night seems extraordinary when viewed in relation to its sustained beauty2 but it is done in a breath1 and has all the excellencies of fervour and force that result upon that method of composition only4 ,a year or two later than the date of the correspondence with which ,i am now dealing1 ,rossetti read aloud a fragment of a story written about the period of ,hand and ,soul4 ,it was to be entitled ,st4 ,agnes of ,intercession1 and it dealt in a mystic way with the doctrine of the transmigration of souls4 ,he constantly expressed his intention of finishing the story1 and said that1 although in its existing condition it was fully as long as the companion story1 it would require twice as much more to complete it4 ,during the time of our stay at ,birchington1 at the beginning of #ahhb1 he seemed anxious to get to work upon it1 and had the manuscript sent down from ,london for that purpose2 but the packet lay unopened until after his death1 when ,i glanced at it again to refresh my memory as to its contents4 ,the fragment is much too inconclusive as to design to admit of any satisfying account of its plot1 of which there is more1 than in ,hand and ,soul4 ,as far as it goes1 it is the story of a young ,english painter who becomes the victim of a conviction that his soul has had a prior existence in this world4 ,the hallucination takes entire possession of him1 and so unsettles his life that he leaves ,england in search of relic or evidence of his spiritual 8double40 ,finally1 in a picture-gallery abroad1 he comes face to face with a portrait which' he instantly recognises as the portrait of himself1 both as he is now and as he was in the time of his antecedent existence4 ,upon inquiry1 the portrait proves to be that of a distinguished painter centuries dead1 whose work had long been the young ,englishman's guiding beacon in methods of art4 ,startled beyond measure at the singular discovery of a coincidence which1 superstition apart1 might well astonish the most unsentimental1 he sickens to a fever4 ,here the fragment ends4 ,late one evening1 in ,august #ahha1 ,rossetti gave me a full account of the remaining incidents1 but ,i find myself without memoranda of what was said 7it was never my habit to keep record of his or of any man's conversation71 and my recollection of what passed is too indefinite in some salient particulars to make it safe to attempt to complete the outlines of the story4 ,i consider the fragment in all respects finer than ,hand and ,soul1 and the passage descriptive of the artist's identification of his own personality in the portrait on the walls of the gallery among the very finest pieces of picturesque1 impassioned1 and dramatic writing that ,rossetti ever achieved4 ,on one occasion ,i remarked incidentally upon something he had said of his enjoyment of rivers of morning air 99 in the spring of the year1 that it would be an inquiry fraught with a curious interest to find out how many of those who have the greatest love of the ,spring were born in it4 99 ,within the period of my personal knowledge of ,rossetti's habits1 he certainly never enjoyed any 8rivers of morning air0 at all1 unless they were such as visited him in a darkened bedchamber4 ,one felt that one could name a goodly number among the ,english poets living and dead4 ,it would be an inquiry1 as ,hamlet might say1 such as would become a woman4 ,to this ,rossetti answered that he was born on old ,may-day 7,may #ab71 #ahbh2 and thereupon he asked the date of my own birth4 ,the comparative dates of our births are curious4444 ,i myself was born on old ,may-,day 7#abth71 in the year 7#ahbh7 after that in which ,blake died4444 ,you were born1 in fact1 just as ,i was giving up poetry at about #be1 on finding that it impeded attention to what constituted another aim and a livelihood into the bargain1 i4e4 painting4 ,from that date up to the year when ,i published my poems1 ,i wrote extremely little1--,i might almost say nothing1 except the renovated ,jenny in #aheh or #8#ei4 ,to this again ,i added a passage or two when publishing in #ahgj4 ,often since ,rossetti's death ,i have reflected upon the fact that in that lengthy correspondence between us which preceded personal intimacy1 he never made more than a single passing allusion to those adverse criticisms which did so much at one period to sadden and alter his life4 ,barely1 indeed1 in conversation did he touch upon that sore subject1 but it was obvious enough to the closer observer1 as well from his silence as from his speech1 that though the wounds no longer rankled1 they did not wholly heal4 ,i take it as evidence of his desire to put by unpleasant reflections 7at least whilst health was whole with him1 for he too often nourished melancholy retrospects when health was broken or uncertain71 that in his correspondence with me1 as a young friend who knew nothing at first hand of his gloomier side1 he constantly dwelt with radiant satisfaction and hopefulness on the friendly words that had been said of him4 ,and as frequently as he called my attention to such favourable comment1 he did so without a particle of vanity1 and with only such joy as he may feel who knows in his secret heart he has depreciators1 to find that he has ardent upholders too4 ,in one letter he says3 ,i should say that between the appearance of the poems and your lecture1 there was one article on the subject1 of a very masterly kind indeed1 by some very scholarly hand 7unknown to me71 in the ,new ,york ,catholic ,world 7,i think in #ahgd74 ,i retain this article1 and will some day send it you to read4 ,he sent me the article1 and ,i found it1 as he had found it1 among the best things written on the subject4 ,naturally1 the criticism was best where the subject dealt with impinged most upon the spirit of medival ,catholicism4 ,perhaps ,catholicism is itself essentially medival1 and perhaps a man cannot possibly be1 what the ,catholic ,world article called ,rossetti1 a 8medival artist heart and soul10 without partaking of a strong religious feeling that is primarily ,catholic--so much were the religion and art of the middle ages knit each to each4 ,yet1 upon reading the article1 ,i doubted one of the writer's inferences1 namely1 that ,rossetti had inherited a ,catholic devotion to the ,madonna4 ,not his ,ave only seemed to me to live in an atmosphere of tender and sensitive devotion1 but ,i missed altogether in it1 as in other poems of ,rossetti1 that old1 continual1 and indispensable ,catholic note of mystic ,divine love lost in love of humanity which1 ,i suppose1 ,mr4 ,arnold would call anthropomorphism4 ,years later1 when ,i came to know ,rossetti personally1 ,i perceived that the writer of the article in question had not made a bad shot for the truth4 ,true it was1 that he had inherited a strong religious spirit--such as could only be called ,catholic--inherited ,i say1 for1 though from his immediate parents1 he assuredly did not inherit any devotion to the ,madonna1 his own submission to religious influences was too unreasoning and unquestioning to be anything but intuitive4 ,despite some worldly-mindedness1 and a certain shrewdness in the management of the more important affairs of daily life1 ,rossetti's attitude towards spiritual things was exactly the reverse of what we call ,protestant4 ,during the last months of his life1 when the prospect of leaving the world soon1 and perhaps suddenly1 impressed upon his mind a deep sense of his religious position1 he yielded himself up unhesitatingly to the intuitive influences ,i speak of2 and so far from being touched by the interminable controversies which have for ages been upsetting and uprearing creeds1 he seemed both naturally incapable of comprehending differences of belief1 and unwilling to dwell upon them for an instant4 ,indeed1 he constantly impressed me during the last days of his life with the conviction1 that he was by religious bias of nature a monk of the middle ages4 ,as to the article in ,the ,catholic ,magazine ,i thought ,i perceived from a curious habit of biblical quotation that it must have been written by an ,ecclesiastic4 ,a remark in it to the effect that old age is usually more indulgent than middle life to the work of first manhood1 and that1 consequently1 ,rossetti would be a less censorious judge of his early efforts at a later period of life1 seemed to show that the writer himself was no longer a young man4 ,further1 ,i seemed to see that the reviewer was not a professional critic1 for his work displayed few of the well-recognised trade-marks with which the articles of the literary market are invariably branded4 ,as a small matter one noticed the somewhat slovenly use of the editorial we1 which at the fag-end of passages sometimes dropped into ,i4 ,upon my remarking upon this to ,rossetti he remembered incidentally that a similar confounding of the singular and plural number of the pronoun produces marvellously suggestive effects in a very different work1 ,macbeth1 where the kingly we is tripped up by the guilty ,i in many places4 ,rossetti wrote3 ,i am glad you liked the ,catholic ,world article1 which ,i certainly view as one of rare literary quality4 ,i have not the least idea who is the writer1 but am sorry now ,i never wrote to him under cover of the editor when ,i received it4 ,i did send the ,dante and ,circle1 but don't know if it was ever received or reviewed4 ,as you have the vols1 of ,fortnightly1 look up a little poem of mine called the ,cloud ,confines1 a few months later1 ,i suppose1 than the tale4 ,it is one of my favourites1 among my own doings4 ,i noticed at this early period1 as well as later1 that in ,rossetti's eyes a favourable review was always enhanced in value if the writer happened to be a stranger to him2 and ,i constantly protested that a friend's knowledge of one's work and sympathy with it ought not to be less delightful1 as such1 than a stranger's1 however less surprising1 though at the same time the tribute that is true to one's art without auxiliary aids being brought to bear in its formation must be at once the most satisfying assurance of the purity1 strength1 and completeness of the art itself1 and of the safe and enduring quality of the appreciation4 ,it is true that friends who are accustomed to our habit of thought and manner of expression sometimes catch our meaning before we have expressed it ,not rarely1 before our thought has reached that stage at which it becomes intelligible to a stranger1 a word1 a look1 or a gesture will convey it perfectly and fully to a friend4 ,and what goes on between minds that exist in more or less intimate communion1 goes on to a greater degree within the individual mind where the metaphysical equivalents to a word or a look answer to1 and are answered by1 the half-realised conception4 ,hence it often happens that even where our touch seems to ourselves delicate and precise1 a mind not initiated in our self-chosen method of abbreviation finds only impenetrable obscurity4 ,it is then in the tentative condition of mind just indicated that the spirit of art comes in1 and enables a man so to clothe his thought in lucid words and fitting imagery that strangers may know1 when they see it1 all that it is1 and how he came by it4 ,although1 therefore1 the praise of friends should not be less delightful1 as praise1 than that tendered by strangers1 there is an added element of surprise and satisfaction in the latter which the former cannot bring4 ,rossetti certainly never over-valued the applause of his own immediate circle1 but still no man was more sensible of the value of the good opinion of one or two of his immediate friends4 ,returning to the correspondence1 he says3 ,in what ,i wrote as to critiques on my poems1 ,i meant to express special gratification from those written by strangers to myself and yet showing full knowledge of the subject and full sympathy with it4 ,such were ,formans at the time1 the ,american one since 7and far from alone in ,america1 but this the best7 and more lately your own4 ,other known and unknown critics of course wrote on the book when it appeared1 some very favourably and others quite sufficiently abusive4 ,as to ,cloud ,confines1 ,i told ,rossetti that ,i considered it in philosophic grasp the most powerful of his productions1 and interesting as being 7unlike the body of his works7 more nearly akin to the spirit of music than that of painting4 ,by the bye1 you are right about ,cloud ,confines1 which is my very best thing--only1 having been foolishly sent to a magazine1 no notice whatever resulted4 ,rossetti was not always open to suggestions as to the need of clarifying obscure phrases in his verses1 but on one or two occasions1 when ,i was so bold as to hint at changes1 ,i found him in highly tractable moods4 ,i called his attention to what ,i imagined might prove to be merely a printer's slip in his poem 7a great favourite of mine7 entitled ,the ,portrait4 ,the second stanza ran3 ,yet this1 of all love's perfect prize1 ,remains2 save what in mournful guise ,takes counsel with my soul alone1-- ,save what is secret and unknown1 ,below the earth1 above the sky4 ,the words 8yet0 and 8save0 seemed to me 7and to another friend7 somewhat puzzling1 and ,i asked if 8but0 in the sense of only had been meant4 ,he wrote3 ,that is a very just remark of yours about the passage in ,portrait beginning yet4 ,i meant to infer yet only1 but it certainly is truncated4 ,i shall change the line to ,yet only this1 of love's whole prize1 ,remains1 etc4 ,but would again be dubious though explicable4 ,thanks for the hint4444 ,i shall be much obliged to you for any such hints of a verbal nature4 ,,chapter ,v4 ,the letters printed in the foregoing chapter are valuable as settling at first-hand all question of the chronology of the poems of ,rossetti's volume of #ahgj4 ,the poems of the volume of #ahha 7,rose ,mary and certain of the sonnets excepted7 grew under his hand during the period of my acquaintance with him1 and their origin ,i shall in due course record4 ,the two preceding chapters have been for the most part devoted to such letters 7and such explanatory matter as must needs accompany them7 as concern principally1 perhaps1 the poet and his correspondent2 but ,i have thrown into two further chapters a great body of highly interesting letters on subjects of general literary interest 7embracing the fullest statement yet published of ,rossetti's critical opinions71 and have reserved for a more advanced section of the work a body of further letters on sonnet literature which arose out of the discussion of an anthology that ,i was at the time engaged in compiling4 ,it was very natural that ,coleridge should prove to be one of the first subjects discussed by ,rossetti1 who admired him greatly1 and when it transpired that ,coleridge was1 perhaps1 my own chief idol1 and that whilst even yet a child ,i had perused and reperused not only his poetry but even his mystical philosophy 7impalpable or obscure even to his maturer and more enlightened1 if no more zealous1 admirers71 the disposition to write upon him became great upon both sides4 8,you can never say too much about ,coleridge for me10 ,rossetti would write1 8for ,i worship him on the right side of idolatry1 and ,i perceive you know him well40 ,upon this one of my first remarks was that there was much in ,coleridge's higher descriptive verse equivalent to the landscape art of ,turner4 ,the critical parallel ,rossetti warmly approved of1 adding1 however1 that ,coleridge1 at his best as a pictorial artist1 was a spiritualised ,turner4 ,he instanced his1 ,we listened and looked sideways up1 ,the moving moon went up the sky ,and no where did abide1 ,softly she was going up1 ,and a star or two beside-- ,the charmed water burnt alway ,a still and awful red4 ,i remarked that ,shelley possessed the same power of impregnating landscape with spiritual feeling1 and this ,rossetti readily allowed2 but when ,i proceeded to say that ,wordsworth sometimes1 though rarely1 displayed a power akin to it1 ,i found him less warmly responsive4 8,i grudge ,wordsworth every vote he gets10 99 ,rossetti frequently said to me1 both in writing1 and afterwards in conversation4 8,the three greatest ,english imaginations10 he would sometimes add1 8are ,shakspeare1 ,coleridge1 and ,shelley40 ,i have heard him give a fourth name1 ,blake4 99 ,there is a story frequently told of how1 seeing two camels walking together in the ,zoological ,gardens1 keeping step in a shambling way1 and conversing with one another1 ,rossetti exclaimed3 8,there's ,wordsworth and ,ruskin virtuously taking a walk60 ,he thought ,wordsworth was too much the ,high ,priest of ,nature to be her lover3 too much concerned to transfigure into poetry his pantheo-,christian philosophy regarding ,nature1 to drop to his knees in simple love of her to thank ,god that she was beautiful4 ,it was hard to side with ,rossetti in his view of ,wordsworth1 partly because one feared he did not practise the patience necessary to a full appreciation of that poet1 and was consequently apt to judge of him by fugitive lines read at random4 ,in the connection in question1 ,i instanced the lines 7much admired by ,coleridge7 beginning ,suck1 little babe1 ,o suck again6 ,it cools my blood1 it cools my brain1 and ending-- ,the breeze ,i see is in the tree1 ,it comes to cool my babe and me4 ,but ,rossetti would not see that this last couplet denoted the point of artistic vision at which the poet of nature identified himself with her1 in setting aside or superseding all proprieties of mere speech4 ,to him ,wordsworth's ,idealism 7which certainly had the ,german trick of keeping close to the ground7 only meant us to understand that the forsaken woman through whose mouth the words are spoken 7in ,the ,affliction of ,margaret ------ of ------7 saw the breeze shake the tree afar off4 ,and this attitude towards ,wordsworth ,rossetti maintained down to the end4 ,i remember that sometime in ,march of the year in which he died1 ,mr4 ,theodore ,watts1 who was paying one of his many visits to see him in his last illness at the sea-side1 touched1 in conversation1 upon the power of ,wordsworth's style in its higher vein1 and instanced a noble passage in the ,ode to ,duty1 which runs3 ,stern ,lawgiver6 yet thou dost wear ,the ,godhead's most benignant grace2 ,nor know we anything so fair ,as is the smile upon thy face2 ,flowers laugh before thee on their beds2 ,and fragrance in thy footing treads2 ,thou dost preserve the stars from wrong2 ,and the most ancient heavens1 through ,thee1 are fresh and strong4 ,mr4 ,watts spoke with enthusiasm of the strength and simplicity1 the sonorousness and stately march of these lines2 and numbered them1 ,i think1 among the noblest verses yet written1 for every highest quality of style4 ,but ,rossetti was unyielding1 and though he admitted the beauty of the passage1 and was ungrudging in his tribute to another passage which ,i had instanced-- ,o joy that in our embers-- he would not allow that ,wordsworth ever possessed a grasp of the great style1 or that 7despite the ,ode on ,immortality and the sonnet on ,toussaint ,l',ouverture1 which he placed at the head of the poet's work7 vital lyric impulse was ever fully developed in his muse4 ,he said3 ,as to ,wordsworth1 no one regards the great ,ode with more special and unique homage than ,i do1 as a thing absolutely alone of its kind among all greatest things4 ,i cannot say that anything else of his with which ,i have ever been familiar 7and ,i suffer from long disuse of all familiarity with him7 seems at all on a level with this4 ,in all humility ,i regard his depreciatory opinion1 not at all as a valuable example of literary judgment1 but as indicative of a clear radical difference of poetic bias between the two poets1 such as must in the same way have made ,wordsworth resist ,rossetti if he had appeared before him4 ,i am the more confirmed in this view from the circumstance that ,rossetti1 throughout the period of my acquaintance with him1 seemed to me always peculiarly and1 if ,i may be permitted to say so without offence1 strangely liable to ,mr4 ,watts's influence in his critical estimates1 and that the case instanced was perhaps the only one in which ,i knew him to resist ,mr4 ,watts's opinion upon a matter of poetical criticism1 which he considered to be almost final1 as his letters to me1 printed in ,chapter ,,viii4 of this volume1 will show4 ,i had a striking instance of this1 and of the real modesty of the man whom ,i had heard and still hear spoken of as the most arrogant man of genius of his day1 on one of the first occasions of my seeing him4 ,he read out to me an additional stanza to the beautiful poem ,cloud ,confines3 ,as he read it1 ,i thought it very fine1 and he evidently was very fond of it himself4 ,but he surprised me by saying that he should not print it4 ,on my asking him why1 he said3 8,watts1 though he admits its beauty1 thinks the poem would be better without it40 8,well1 but you like it yourself10 said ,i4 8,yes10 he replied2 8but in a question of gain or loss to a poem1 ,i feel that ,watts must be right40 ,and the poem appeared in ,ballads and ,sonnets without the stanza in question4 ,the same thing occurred with regard to the omission of the sonnet ,nuptial ,sleep from the new edition of the ,poems in #ahha4 ,mr4 ,watts took the view 7to ,rossetti's great vexation at first7 that this sonnet1 howsoever perfect in structure and beautiful from the artistic point of view1 was 8out of place and altogether incongruous in a group of sonnets so entirely spiritual as ,the ,house of ,life10 and ,rossetti gave way3 but upon the subject of ,wordsworth in his relations to ,coleridge1 ,keats1 and ,shelley1 he was quite inflexible to the last4 ,in a letter treating of other matters1 ,rossetti asked me if ,i thought 8,christabel0 really existed as a medival name1 or existed at all earlier than ,coleridge4 ,i replied that ,i had not met with it earlier than the date of the poem4 ,i thought ,coleridge's granddaughter must have been the first person to bear the name4 ,the other names in the poem appear to belong to another family of names1--names with a different origin and range of expression1--,leoline1 ,graldine1 ,roland1 and most of all ,bracy4 ,it seemed to me very possible that ,coleridge invented the name1 but it was highly probable that he brought it to ,england from ,germany1 where1 with ,wordsworth1 he visited ,klopstock in #agih1 about the period of the first part of the poem4 ,the ,germans have names of a kindred etymology and1 even if my guess proved wide of the truth1 it might still be a fact that the name had ,german relations4 ,another conjecture that seemed to me a reasonable one was that ,coleridge evolved the name out of the incidents of the opening passages of the poem4 ,the beautiful thing1 not more from its beauty than its suggestiveness1 suited his purpose exactly4 ,rossetti replied3 ,resuming the thread of my letter1 ,i come to the question of the name ,christabel1 viz43--as to whether it is to be found earlier than ,coleridge4 ,i have now realized afresh what ,i knew long ago1 viz43--that in the grossly garbled ballad of ,syr ,cauline1 in ,percy's ,reliques1 there is a ,ladye ,chrystabelle1 but as every stanza in which her name appears would seem certainly to be ,percy's own work1 ,i suspect him to be the inventor of the name1 which is assuredly a much better invention than any of the stanzas2 and from this wretched source ,coleridge probably enriched the sphere of symbolic nomenclature4 ,however1 a genuine source may turn up1 but the name does not sound to me like a real one4 ,as to a ,german origin1 ,i do not know that language1 but would not the second syllable be there the one accented8 ,this seems to render the name shapeless and improbable4 ,i mentioned an idea that once possessed me despotically4 ,it was that where ,coleridge says ,her silken robe and inner vest ,dropt to her feet1 and full in view ,behold6 her bosom and half her side-- ,a sight to dream of and not to tell14 4 4 ,shield the ,lady ,christabel6 he meant ultimately to show eyes in the bosom of the witch4 ,i fancied that if the poet had worked out this idea in the second part1 or in his never-compassed continuation1 he must have electrified his readers4 ,the first part of the poem is of course immeasurably superior in witchery to the second1 despite two grand things in the latter--the passage on the severance of early friendships1 and the conclusion2 although the dexterity of hand 7not to speak of the essential spirit of enchantment7 which is everywhere present in the first part1 and nowhere dominant in the second1 exhibits itself not a little in the marvellous passage in which ,graldine bewitches ,christabel4 ,touching some jocose allusion by ,rossetti to the necessity which lay upon me to startle the world with a continuation of the poem based upon the lines of my conjectural scheme1 ,i asked him if he knew that a continuation was actually published in ,coleridge's own paper1 ,the ,morning ,post4 ,it appeared about #ahbj1 and was satirical of course--hitting off many peculiarities of versification1 if no more4 ,with ,coleridge's playful love of satirising himself anonymously1 the continuation might even be his own4 ,rossetti said3 ,i do not understand your early idea of eyes in the bosom of ,graldine4 ,it is described as 8that bosom old10 8that bosom cold10 which seems to show that its withered character as combined with ,geraldine's youth1 was what shocked and warned ,christabel4 ,the first edition says-- ,a sight to dream of1 not to tell3-- ,and she is to sleep with ,christabel6 ,i dare say ,coleridge altered this1 because an idea arose1 which ,i actually heard to have been reported as ,coleridge's real intention by a member of contemporary circles 7,p4 ,g4 ,patmore1 father of ,coventry ,p4 who conveyed the report to me7--viz41 that ,graldine was to turn out to be a man66 ,i believe myself that the conclusion as given by ,gillman from ,coleridge's account to him is correct enough1 only not picturesquely worded4 ,it does not seem a bad conclusion by any means1 though it would require fine treatment to make it seem a really good one4 ,of course the first part is so immeasurably beyond the second1 that one feels ,chas4 ,lamb's view was right1 and it should have been abandoned at that point4 ,the passage on sundered friendship is one of the masterpieces of the language1 but no doubt was written quite separately and then fitted into ,christabel4 ,the two lines about ,roland and ,sir ,leoline are simply an intrusion and an outrage4 ,i cannot say that ,i like the conclusion nearly so well as this4 ,it hints at infinite beauty1 but somehow remains a sort of cobweb4 ,the conception1 and partly the execution1 of the passage in which ,christabel repeats by fascination the serpent-glance of ,graldine1 is magnificent2 but that is the only good narrative passage in part two4 ,the rest seems to have reached a fatal facility of jingling1 at the heels whereof followed ,scott4 ,there are1 ,i believe1 many continuations of ,christabel4 ,tupper did one6 ,i myself saw a continuation in childhood1 long before ,i saw the original1 and was all agog to see it for years4 ,our household was all of ,italian1 not ,english environment1 and it was only when ,i went to school later that ,i began to ransack bookstalls4 ,the continuation in question was by one ,eliza ,stewart1 and appeared in a shortlived monthly thing called ,smallwood's ,magazine1 to which my father contributed some ,italian poetry1 and so it came into the house4 ,i thought the continuation spirited then1 and perhaps it may have been so4 ,this must have been before #ahdj ,i think4 ,the other day ,i saw in a bookseller's catalogue--,christabess1 by ,s4 ,t4 ,colebritche1 translated from the ,doggrel by ,sir ,vinegar ,sponge 7#ahaf74 ,this seems a parody1 not a continuation1 in the very year of the poem's first appearance6 ,i did not think it worth two shillings1--which was the price4444 ,have you seen the continuation of ,christabel in ,european ,magazine8 of course it might have been ,coleridge's1 so far as the date of the composition of the original was concerned2 but of course it was not his4 ,i imagine the 8,sir ,vinegar ,sponge0 who translated 8,christabess from the ,doggerel0 must belong to the family of ,sponges described by ,coleridge himself1 who give out the liquid they take in much dirtier than they imbibe it4 ,i thought it very possible that ,coleridge's epigram to this effect might have been provoked by the lampoon referred to1 and ,rossetti also thought this probable4 ,immediately after meeting with the continuation of ,christabel already referred to1 ,i came across great numbers of such continuations1 as well as satires1 parodies1 reviews1 etc41 in old issues of ,blackwood1 ,the ,quarterly1 and ,the ,examiner4 ,they seemed to me1 for the most part1 poor in quality--the highest reach of comicality to which they attained being concerned with side slaps at ,kubla ,khan3 ,better poetry ,i make ,when asleep than when awake4 ,am ,i sure1 or am ,i guessing8 ,are my eyes like those of ,lessing8 ,this latter elegant couplet was expected to serve as a scorching satire on a letter in the ,biographia ,literaria in which ,coleridge says he saw a portrait of ,lessing at ,klopstock's1 in which the eyes seemed singularly like his own4 ,the time has gone by when that flight of egotism on ,coleridge's part seemed an unpardonable offence1 and to our more modern judgment it scarcely seems necessary that the author of ,christabel should be charged with a desire to look radiant in the glory reflected by an accidental personal resemblance to the author of ,laokoon4 ,curiously enough ,i found evidence of the ,patmore version of ,coleridge's intentions as to the ultimate disclosure of the sex of ,graldine in a review in the ,examiner4 ,the author was perhaps ,hazlitt1 but more probably the editor himself1 but whether ,hazlitt or ,hunt1 he must have been within the circle that found its rallying point at ,highgate1 and consequently acquainted with the earliest forms of the poem4 ,the review is an unfavourable one1 and ,coleridge is told in it that he is the dog-in-the-manger of literature1 and that his poem is proof of the fact that he can write better nonsense poetry than any man in ,england4 ,the writer is particularly wroth with what he considers the wilful indefiniteness of the author1 and in proof of a charge of a desire not to let the public into the secret of the poem1 and of a conscious endeavour to mystify the reader1 he deliberately accuses ,coleridge of omitting one line of the poem as it was written1 which1 if printed1 would have proved conclusively that ,graldine had seduced ,christabel after getting drunk with her1--for such sequel is implied if not openly stated4 ,i told ,rossetti of this brutality of criticism1 and he replied3 ,as for the passage in ,christabel1 ,i am not sure we quite understand each other4 ,what ,i heard through the ,patmores 7a complete mistake ,i am sure71 was that ,coleridge meant ,graldine to prove to be a man bent on the seduction of ,christabel1 and presumably effecting it4 ,what ,i inferred 7if so7 was that ,coleridge had intended the line as in first ed43 8,and she is to sleep with ,christabel60 as leading up too nearly to what he meant to keep back for the present4 ,but the whole thing was a figment4 ,what is assuredly not a figment is1 that an idea1 such as the elder ,patmore referred to1 really did exist in the minds of ,coleridge's so-called friends1 who after praising the poem beyond measure whilst it was in manuscript1 abused it beyond reason or decency when it was printed4 ,my settled conviction is that the ,examiner criticism1 and not the sudden advent of the idea after the first part was written1 was the cause of ,coleridge's adopting the correction which ,rossetti mentions4 ,rossetti called my attention to a letter by ,lamb1 about which he gathered a good deal of interesting conjecture3 ,there is 7given in ,cottle7 an inconceivably sarcastic1 galling1 and admirable letter from ,lamb to ,coleridge1 regarding which ,i never could learn how the deuce their friendship recovered from it4 ,cottle says the only reason he could ever trace for its being written lay in the three parodied sonnets 7one being ,the ,house that ,jack ,built7 which ,coleridge published as a skit on the joint volume brought out by himself1 ,lamb1 and ,lloyd4 ,the whole thing was always a mystery to me4 ,but ,i have thought that the passage on division between friends was not improbably written by ,coleridge on this occasion4 ,curiously enough 7if so7 ,lamb1 who is said to have objected greatly to the idea of a second part of ,christabel1 thought 7on seeing it7 that the mistake was redeemed by this very passage4 ,he may have traced its meaning1 though1 of course1 its beauty alone was enough to make him say so4 ,the three satirical sonnets which ,rossetti refers to appear not only in ,cottle but in a note to the ,biographia ,literaria ,they were published first under a fictitious name in he ,monthly ,magazine ,they must be understood as almost wholly satirical of three distinct facets of ,coleridge's own manner1 for even the sonnet in which occur the words ,eve saddens into night1 99 has its counterpart in ,the ,songs of the ,pixies-- ,hence6 thou lingerer1 light6 ,eve saddens into night1 and nearly all the phrases satirised are borrowed from ,coleridge's own poetry1 not from that of ,lamb or ,lloyd4 ,nevertheless1 ,cottle was doubtless right as to the fact that ,lamb took offence at ,coleridge's conduct on this account1 and ,rossetti almost certainly made a good shot at the truth when he attributed to the rupture thereupon ensuing the passage on severed friendship4 ,the sonnet on ,the ,house that ,jack ,built is the finest of the three as a satire4 99 ,so in the ,biographia ,literaria2 in ,cottle1 8,eve darkens into night40 ,indeed1 the figure used therein as an equipoise to 8the hindward charms0 satirises perfectly the style of writing characterised by inflated thought and imagery4 ,it may be doubted if there exists anything more comical2 but each of the companion sonnets is good in its way4 ,the egotism1 which was a constant reproach urged by ,the ,edinburgh critics and by the 8,cockney ,poets0 against the poets of the ,lake ,school1 is splendidly hit off in the first sonnet2 the low and creeping meanness1 or say1 simpleness1 as contrasted with simplicity1 of thought and expression1 which was stealing into ,wordsworth's work at that period1 is equally cleverly ridiculed in the second sonnet4 ,in reproducing the sonnets1 ,coleridge claims only to have satirised types4 ,as to ,lamb's letter1 it is1 indeed1 hard to realise the fact that the 8gentle-hearted ,charles10 as ,coleridge himself named him1 could write a galling letter to the 8inspired charity-boy10 for whom at an early period1 and again at the end1 he had so profound a reverence4 ,every word is an outrage1 and every syllable must have hit ,coleridge terribly4 ,i called ,rossetti's attention to the surprising circumstance that in a letter written immediately after the date of the one in question1 ,loyd tells ,cottle that he has never known ,lamb 7who is at the moment staying with him7 so happy before as just then6 ,there can hardly be a doubt1 however1 that ,rossetti's conjecture is a just one as to the origin of the great passage in the second part of ,christabel4 ,touching that passage ,i called his attention to an imperfection that ,i must have perceived1 or thought ,i perceived long before1--an imperfection of craftsmanship that had taken away something of my absolute enjoyment of its many beauties4 ,the passage ends-- ,they parted1 ne'er to meet again6 ,but never either found another ,to free the hollow heart from paining-- ,they stood aloof1 the scars remaining1 ,like cliffs which had been rent asunder2 ,a dreary sea now flows between1 ,but neither heat1 nor frost1 nor thunder1 ,shall wholly do away1 ,i ween1 ,the marks of that which once hath been4 ,this is1 it is needless to say1 in almost every respect1 finely felt1 but the words italicised appeared to display some insufficiency of poetic vision4 ,first1 nothing but an earthquake would 7speaking within limits of human experience7 unite the two sides of a ravine2 and though frost might bring them together temporarily1 heat and thunder must be powerless to make or to unmake the marks that showed the cliffs to have once been one1 and to have been violently torn apart4 ,next1 heat 7supposing frost to be the root-conception7 was obviously used merely as a balancing phrase1 and thunder simply as the inevitable rhyme to asunder4 ,i have not seen this matter alluded to1 though it may have been mentioned1 and it is certainly not important enough to make any serious deduction from the pleasure afforded by a passage that is in other respects so rich in beauty as to be able to endure such modest discounting4 ,rossetti replied3 ,your geological strictures on ,coleridge's 8friendship0 passage are but too just1 and ,i believe quite new4 ,but ,i would fain think that this is 8to consider too nicely40 ,i am certainly willing to bear the obloquy of never having been struck by what is nevertheless obvious enough4 99444 ,lamb's letter is a teazer4 ,the three sonnets in ,the ,monthly ,magazine were signed 8,nehemiah ,higginbotham10 and were meant to banter good-humouredly the joint vol4 issued by ,coleridge1 ,lamb1 and ,lloyd1--,c4 himself being1 of course1 the most obviously ridiculed4 ,i fancy you have really hit the mark as regards ,coleridge's epigram and ,sir ,vinegar ,sponge4 ,he might have been worth two shillings after all4444 ,i also remember noting ,lloyd's assertion of ,lamb's exceptional happiness just after that letter4 ,it is a puzzling affair4 ,however ,c4 and ,lamb got over it 7for ,i certainly believe they were friends later in life7 no one seems to have recorded4 ,the second vol4 of ,cottle1 after the raciness of the first1 is very disappointing4 99 ,in a note on this passage1 ,canon ,dixon writes3 ,what is meant is that in cliffs1 actual cliffs1 the action of these agents1 heat1 cold1 thunder even1 might have an obliterating power2 but in the severance of friendship1 there is nothing 7heat of nature1 frost of time1 thunder of accident or surprise7 that can wholly have the like effect4 ,on one occasion ,rossetti wrote1 saying he had written a sonnet on ,coleridge1 and ,i was curious to learn what note he struck in dealing with so complex a subject4 ,the keynote of a man's genius or character should be struck in a poetic address to him1 just as the expressional individuality of a man's features 7freed of the modifying or emphasising effects of passing fashions of dress71 should be reproduced in his portrait2 but ,coleridge's mind had so many sides to it1 and his character had such varied aspects--from keen and beautiful sensibility to every form of suffering1 to almost utter disregard of the calls of domestic duty--that it seemed difficult to think what kind of idea1 consistent with the unity of the sonnet and its simplicity of scheme1 would call up a picture of the entire man4 ,it goes against the grain to hint1 adoring the man as we must1 that ,coleridge's personal character was anything less than one of untarnished purity1 and certainly the persons chiefly concerned in the alleged neglect1 ,southey and his own family1 have never joined in the strictures commonly levelled against him3 but whatever ,coleridge's personal ego may have been1 his creative ego was assuredly not single in kind or aim4 ,he did some noble things late in life 7instance the passage on 8,youth and ,age10 and that on 8,work without ,hope071 but his poetic genius seemed to desert him when ,kant took possession of him as a gigantic windmill to do battle with1 and it is now hard to say which was the deeper thing in him3 the poetry to which he devoted the sunniest years of his young life1 or the philosophy which he firmly believed it to be the main business of his later life to expound4 ,in any discussion of the relative claims of these two to the gratitude of the ages that follow1 ,i found ,rossetti frankly took one side1 and constantly said that the few unequal poems ,coleridge had left us1 were a legacy more stimulating1 solacing1 and enduring1 than his philosophy could have been1 even if he had perfected that attempt of his to reconcile all learning and revelation1 and if1 when perfected1 the whole effort had not proved to be a work of supererogation4 ,i doubt if ,rossetti quite knew what was meant by ,coleridge's 8system10 as it was so frequently called1 and ,i know that he could not be induced by any eulogiums to do so much as look at the ,biographia ,literaria1 though once he listened whilst ,i read a chapter from it4 ,he had certainly little love of the ,german elements in ,coleridge's later intellectual life1 and hence it is small matter for surprise that in his sonnet he chose for treatment the more poetic side of ,coleridge's genius4 ,nevertheless1 ,i think it remains an open question whether the philosophy of the author of ,the ,ancient ,mariner was more influenced by his poetry1 or his poetry by his philosophy2 for the philosophy is always tinged by the mysticism of his poetry1 and his poetry is always adumbrated by the disposition1 which afterwards become paramount1 to dig beneath the surface for problems of life and character1 and for 8suggestions of the final mystery of existence40 ,i have heard ,rossetti say that what came most of all uppermost in ,coleridge1 was his wonderful intuitive knowledge and love of the sea1 whose billowy roll1 and break1 and sibilation1 seemed echoed in the very mechanism of his verse4 ,sleep1 too1 ,rossetti thought1 had given up to ,coleridge her utmost secrets2 and perhaps it was partly due to his own sad experience of the dread curse of insomnia1 as well as to keen susceptibility to poetic beauty1 that tears so frequently filled his eyes1 and sobs rose to his throat when he recited the lines beginning ,o sleep6 it is a gentle thing-- affirming1 meantime1 that nothing so simple and touching had ever been written on the subject4 ,as to the sonnet1 he wrote3 ,about ,coleridge 7whom ,i only view as a poet1 his other aspects being to my apprehension mere bogies7 ,i conceive the leading point about his work is its human love1 and the leading point about his career1 the sad fact of how little of it was devoted to that work4 ,these are the points made in my sonnet1 and the last is such as ,i 7alas67 can sympathise with1 though what has excluded more poetry with me 7mountains of it ,i don't want to heap7 has chiefly been livelihood necessity4 ,i #8ll copy the sonnet on opposite page1 only ,i #8d rather you kept it to yourself4 ,five years of good poetry is too long a tether to give his ,muse1 ,i know4 ,his ,soul fared forth 7as from the deep home-grove ,the father ,songster plies the hour-long quest7 ,to feed his soul-brood hungering in the nest2 ,but his warm ,heart1 the mother-bird above ,their callow fledgling progeny still hove ,with tented roof of wings and fostering breast ,till the ,soul fed the soul-brood4 ,richly blest ,from ,heaven their growth1 whose food was ,human ,love4 ,tet ah6 ,like desert pools that shew the stars ,once in long leagues--even such the scarce-snatched hours ,which deepening pain left to his lordliest powers3-- ,heaven lost through spider-trammelled prison-bars6 ,five years1 from seventy saved6 yet kindling skies ,own them1 a beacon to our centuries4 ,as a minor point ,i called ,rossetti's attention to the fact that ,coleridge lived to be scarcely more than sixty1 and that his poetic career really extended over six good years2 and hence the thirteenth line was amended to ,six years from sixty saved4 ,i doubted if 8deepening pain0 could be charged with the whole burden of ,coleridge's constitutional procrastination1 and to this objection ,rossetti replied3 ,line eleven in my first reading was 8deepening sloth20 but it seemed harsh--and--damn it all6 much too like the spirit of ,banquo6 ,before ,coleridge1 however1 as to warmth of admiration1 and before him also as to date of influence1 ,keats was ,rossetti's favourite among modern ,english poets4 ,our friend never tired of writing or talking about ,keats1 and never wearied of the society of any one who could generate a fresh thought concerning him4 ,but his was a robust and masculine admiration1 having nothing in common with the effeminate extra-affectionateness that has of late been so much ridiculed4 ,his letters now to be quoted shall speak for themselves as to the qualities in ,keats whereon ,rossetti's appreciation of him was founded3 but ,i may say in general terms that it was not so much the wealth of expression in the author of ,endymion which attracted the author of ,rose ,mary as the perfect hold of the supernatural which is seen in ,la ,belle ,dame ,sans ,merci and in the fragment of the ,eve of ,st4 ,mark4 ,at the time of our correspondence1 ,i was engaged upon an essay on ,keats1 and propos of this ,rossetti wrote3 ,i shall take pleasure in reading your ,keats article when ready4 ,he was1 among all his contemporaries who established their names1 the one true heir of ,shakspeare4 ,another 7unestablished then1 but partly revived since7 was ,charles ,wells4 ,did you ever read his splendid dramatic poem ,joseph and his ,brethren8 ,in this connexion1 as a better opportunity may not arise1 ,i take occasion to tell briefly the story of the revival of ,wells4 ,the facts to be related were communicated to me by ,rossetti in conversation years after the date of the letter in which this first allusion to the subject was made4 ,as a boy1 ,rossetti's chief pleasure was to ransack old book-stalls1 and the catalogues of the ,british ,museum1 for forgotten works in the bye-ways of ,english poetry4 ,in this pursuit he became acquainted with nearly every curiosity of modern poetic literature1 and many were the amusing stories he used to tell at that time1 and in after life1 of the titles and contents of the literary oddities he unearthed4 ,if you chanced at any moment to alight upon any obscure book particularly curious from its pretentiousness and pomposity1 from the audacity of its claim1 or the obscurity and absurdity of its writing1 you might be sure that ,rossetti would prove familiar with it1 and be able to recapitulate with infinite zest its salient features2 but if you happened to drop upon ever so interesting an edition of a book 7not of verse7 which you supposed to be known to many a reader1 the chances were at least equal that ,rossetti would prove to know nothing of it but its name4 ,in poring over the forgotten pages of the poetry of the beginning of the century1 ,rossetti1 whilst still a boy1 met with the scriptural drama of ,joseph and his ,brethren4 ,he told me the title did not much attract him1 but he resolved to glance at the contents1 and with that swiftness of insight which throughout life distinguished him1 he instantly perceived its great qualities4 ,i think he said he then wrote a letter on the subject to one of the current literary journals1 probably ,the ,literary ,gazette1 and by this means came into correspondence with ,charles ,wells himself4 ,rather later a relative of ,wells's sought out the young enthusiast in ,london1 intending to solicit his aid in an attempt to induce a publisher to undertake a reprint1 but in any endeavours to this end he must have failed4 ,for many years a copy of the poem1 left by the author's request at ,rossetti's lodgings1 lay there untouched1 and meantime the growing reputation of the young painter brought about certain removals from ,blackfriars ,bridge to other chambers1 and afterwards to the house in ,cheyne ,walk4 ,in the course of these changes the copy got hidden away1 and it was not until numerous applications for it had been made that it was at length ferreted forth from the chaos of some similar volumes huddled together in a corner of the studio4 ,full of remorse for having so long abandoned a laudable project1 ,rossetti then took up afresh the cause of the neglected poem1 and enlisted ,mr4 ,swinburne's interest so warmly as to prevail with him to use his influence to secure its publication4 ,this failed however2 but in ,the ,athenum of ,april #h1 #ahgf1 appeared ,mr4 ,watts's elaborate account of ,wells and the poem and its vicissitudes1 whereupon ,messrs4 ,chatto and ,windus offered to take the risk of publishing it1 and the poem went forth with the noble commendatory essay of the young author of ,atalanta1 whose reputation was already almost at its height1 though it lacked 7doubtless from a touch of his constitutional procrastination7 the appreciative comment of the discerning critic who first discovered it4 ,to return to the ,keats correspondence3 ,i am truly delighted to hear how young you are4 ,in original work1 a man does some of his best things by your time of life1 though he only finds it out in a rage much later1 at some date when he expected to know no longer that he had ever done them4 ,keats hardly died so much too early--not at all if there had been any danger of his taking to the modern habit eventually--treating material as product1 and shooting it all out as it comes4 ,of course1 however1 he wouldn't2 he was getting always choicer and simpler1 and my favourite piece in his works is ,la ,belle ,dame ,sans ,merci--,i suppose about his last4 ,as to ,shelley1 it is really a mercy that he has not been hatching yearly universes till now4 ,he might1 ,i suppose2 for his friend ,trelawny still walks the earth without great-coat1 stockings1 or underclothing1 this ,christmas 7#ahgi74 ,in criticism1 matters are different1 as to seasons of production4444 ,i am writing hurriedly and horribly in every sense4 ,write on the subject again and ,i'll try to answer better4 ,all greetings to you4 ,p4,s4--,i think your reference to ,keats new1 and on a high level ,it calls back to my mind an adaptation of his self- chosen epitaph which ,i made in my very earliest days of boyish rhyming1 when ,i was rather proud to be as cockney as ,keats could be4 ,here it is1-- ,through one1 years since damned and forgot ,who stabbed backs by the ,quarter1 ,here lieth one who1 while ,time's stream ,still runs1 as ,god hath taught her1 ,bearing man's fame to men1 hath writ ,his name upon that water4 ,well1 the rhyme is not so bad as ,keats's ,ear ,of ,goddess of ,thera6-- nor 7tell it not in ,gath67 as--- ,i wove a crown before her ,for her ,i love so dearly1 ,a garland for ,lenora6 ,is it possible the laurel crown should now hide a venerated and impeccable ear which was once the ear of a cockney8 ,this letter was written in #ahgi1 and the opening clauses of it were no doubt penned under the impression1 then strong on ,rossetti's mind1 that his first volume of poems would prove to be his only one2 but when1 within two years afterwards he completed ,rose ,mary1 and wrote ,the ,king's ,tragedy and ,the ,white ,ship1 this accession of material dissipated the notion that a man does much his best work before twenty-five4 ,it can hardly escape the reader that though ,rossetti's earlier volume displayed a surprising maturity1 the subsequent one exhibited as a whole infinitely more power and feeling1 range of sympathy1 and knowledge of life4 ,the poet's dramatic instinct developed enormously in the interval between the periods of the two books1 and1 being conscious of this1 ,rossetti used to say in his later years that he would never again write poems as from his own person4 ,you say an excellent thing he writes when you ask1 8,where can we look for more poetry per page than ,keats furnishes80 ,it is strange that there is not yet one complete edition of him4 99 ,no doubt the desideratum 7so far as care and exhaustiveness go71 will be supplied when ,forman's edition appears4 ,he is a good appreciator too1 as ,i have reason to say4 ,you will think it strange that ,i have not seen the ,keats love-letters1 but ,i mean to do so4 ,however1 ,i am told they add nothing to one's idea of his epistolary powers4444 ,i hear sometimes from ,buxton ,forman1 and was sending him the other day an extract 7from a book called ,the ,unseen ,world7 which doubtless bears on the superstition which ,keats intended to develope in his lovely ,eve of ,st4 ,mark--a fragment which seems to me to rank with ,la ,belle ,dame ,sans ,merci1 as a clear advance in direct simplicity4444 ,you ought to have my recent ,keats sonnet1 so ,i send it4 ,your own plan1 for one on the same subject1 seems to me most beautiful4 ,do it at once4 ,you will see that mine is again concerned with the epitaph1 and perhaps my reviving the latter in writing you was the cause of the sonnet4 99 ,rossetti afterwards admitted in conversation that the ,aldine ,edition seemed complete1 though ,i think he did not approve of the chronological arrangement therein adopted2 at least he thought that arrangement had many serious disadvantages4 ,rossetti formed a very different opinion of ,keats's love-letters1 when1 a year later1 he came to read them4 ,at first he shared the general view that letters so intimes should never have been made public4 ,afterwards the book had irresistible charms for him1 from the first page whereon his old friend1 ,mr4 ,bell ,scott1 has vigorously etched ,severn's drawing of the once redundant locks of rich hair1 dank and matted over the forehead cold with the death-dew1 down to the last line of the letterpress4 ,he thought ,mr4 ,forman's work admirably done1 and as for the letters themselves1 he believed they placed ,keats indisputably among the highest masters of ,english epistolary style4 ,he considered that all ,keats's letters proved him to be no weakling1 and that whatever walk he had chosen he must have been a master4 ,he seemed particularly struck with the apparently intuitive perception of ,shakspeare's subtlest meanings1 which certain of the letters display4 ,in a note he said3 ,forman gave me a copy of ,keats's letters to ,fanny ,brawne4 ,the silhouette given of the lady is sadly disenchanting1 and may be the strongest proof existing of how much a man may know about abstract ,beauty without having an artist's eye for the outside of it4 ,the ,keats sonnet1 as first shown to me1 ran as follows3 ,the weltering ,london ways where children weep1-- ,where girls whom none call maidens laugh1 where gain1 ,hurrying men's steps1 is yet by loss o'erta'en3-- ,the bright ,castalian brink and ,latinos' steep3-- ,such were his paths1 till deeper and more deep1 ,he trod the sands of ,lethe2 and long pain1 ,weary with labour spurned and love found vain1 ,in dead ,rome's sheltering shadow wrapped his sleep4 ,o pang-dowered ,poet1 whose reverberant lips ,and heart-strung lyre awoke the moon's eclipse1-- ,thou whom the daisies glory in growing o'er1-- ,their fragrance clings around thy name1 not writ1 ,but rumour'd in water1 while the fame of it ,along ,time's flood goes echoing evermore4 ,i need hardly say that this sonnet seemed to me extremely noble in sentiment1 and in music a glorious volume of sound4 ,i felt1 however1 that it would be urged against it that it did not strike the keynote of the genius of ,keats2 that it would be said that in all the particulars in which ,rossetti had truthfully and pathetically described ,london1 ,keats was in rather than of it2 and that it would be affirmed that ,keats lived in a fairy world of his own inventing1 caring little for the storm and stress of ,london life4 ,on the other hand1 ,i knew it could be replied that ,keats was not indifferent to the misery of city life2 that it bore heavily upon him2 that it came out powerfully and very sadly in his ,ode to the ,nightingale1 and that it may have been from sheer torture in the contemplation of it that he fled away to a poetic world of his own creating4 ,moreover1 ,rossetti's sonnet touched the life1 rather than the genius1 of ,keats1 and of this it struck the keynote in the opening lines4 ,i ventured to think that the second and third lines wanted a little clarifying in the relation in which they stood4 ,they seemed to be a sudden focussing of the laughter and weeping previously mentioned1 rather than1 what they were meant to be1 a natural and necessary equipoise showing the inner life of ,keats as contrasted with his outer life4 ,to such an objection as this1 ,rossetti said3 ,i am rather aghast for my own lucidity when ,i read what you say as to the first quatrain of my ,keats sonnet4 ,however1 ,i always take these misconceptions as warnings to the ,muse1 and may probably alter the opening as below3 ,the weltering ,london ways where children weep ,and girls whom none call maidens laugh1--strange road1 ,miring his outward steps who inly trode ,the bright ,castalian brink and ,latinos' steep3-- ,even such his life's cross-paths3 till deathly deep ,he toiled through sands of ,lethe1 etc4 ,i #8ll say more anent ,keats anon4 ,about the period of this portion of the correspondence 7#ahhj7 ,i was engaged reading up old periodicals dating from #ahaf to #ahbb4 ,my purpose was to get at first-hand all available data relative to the life of ,keats4 ,i thought ,i met with a good deal of fresh material1 and as the result of my reading ,i believed myself able to correct a few errors as to facts into which previous writers on the subject had fallen4 ,two things at least ,i realised--first1 that ,keats's poetic gift developed very rapidly1 more rapidly perhaps than that of ,shelley2 and1 next1 that ,keats received vastly more attention and appreciation in his day than is commonly supposed4 ,i found it was quite a blunder to say that the first volume of miscellaneous poems fell flat4 ,lord ,houghton says in error that the book did not so much as seem to signal the advent of a new ,cockney poet6 ,it is a fact1 however1 that this very book1 in conjunction with one of ,shelley's and one of ,hunt's1 all published #ahaf-ag1 gave rise to the name 8,the ,cockney ,school of ,poets10 which was invented by the writer signing 8,z40 in ,blackwood in the early part of #ahah4 ,nor had ,keats to wait for the publication of the volume before attaining to some poetic distinction4 ,at the close of #ahaf1 an article1 under the head of 8,young ,poets10 appeared in ,the ,examiner1 and in this both ,shelley and ,keats were dealt with4 ,then ,the ,quarterly contained allusions to him1 though not by name1 in reviews of ,leigh ,hunt's work1 and ,blackwood mentioned him very frequently in all sorts of places as 8,johnny ,keats0--all this 7or much of it7 before he published anything except occasional sonnets and other fugitive poems in ,the ,examiner and elsewhere4 ,and then when ,endymion appeared it was abundantly reviewed4 ,the ,edinburgh reviewers had nothing on it 7the book cannot have been sent to them1 for in #ahbj they say they have only just met with it71 and ,i could not find anything in the way of original criticism in ,the ,examiner2 but many provincial papers 7in ,manchester1 ,exeter1 and elsewhere7 and some metropolitan papers retorted on ,the ,quarterly4 ,all this1 however1 does not disturb the impression which 7,lord ,houghton and ,mr4 ,w4 ,m4 ,rossetti notwithstanding7 ,i have been from the first compelled to entertain1 namely1 that 8labour spurned0 did more than all else to kill ,keats in #ahba4 ,most men who rightly know the workings of their own minds will agree that an adverse criticism rankles longer than a flattering notice soothes2 and though it be shown that ,keats in #ahbj was comparatively indifferent to the praise of ,the ,edinburgh1 it cannot follow that in #ahah he must have been superior to the blame of ,the ,quarterly4 ,it is difficult to see why a man may not be keenly sensitive to what the world says about him1 and yet retain all proper manliness as a part of his literary character4 ,surely it was from the mistaken impression that this could not be1 and that an admission of extreme sensitiveness to criticism exposed ,keats to a charge of effeminacy that ,lord ,houghton attempted to prove1 against the evidence of all immediate friends1 against the publisher's note to ,hyperion1 against the poet's self-chosen epitaph1 and against all but one or two of the most self-contained of his letters1 that the soul of ,keats was so far from being 8snuffed out by an article10 that it was more than ordinarily impervious to hostile comment1 even when it came in the shape of rancorous abuse4 ,in all discussion of the effects produced upon ,keats by the reviews in ,blackwood and ,the ,quarterly1 let it be remembered1 first1 that having wellnigh exhausted his small patrimony1 ,keats was to be dependent upon literature for his future subsistence2 next1 that ,leigh ,hunt attempted no defence of ,keats when the bread was being taken out of his mouth1 and that ,keats felt this neglect and remarked upon it in a letter in which he further cast some doubt upon the purity of ,hunt's friendship4 ,hunt1 after ,keats's death1 said in reference to this3 8,had he but given me the hint60 ,the hint1 forsooth6 ,moreover1 ,i can find no sort of allusion in ,the ,examiner for #ahba1 to the death of ,keats4 ,i told ,rossetti that by the reading of the periodicals of the time1 ,i formed a poor opinion of ,hunt4 ,previously ,i was willing to believe in his unswerving loyalty to the much greater men who were his friends1 but even that poor confidence in him must perforce be shaken when one finds him silent at a moment when ,keats most needs his voice1 and abusive when ,coleridge is a common subject of ridicule4 ,it was all very well for ,hunt to glorify himself in the borrowed splendour of ,keats's established fame when the poet was twenty years dead1 and to make much of his intimacy with ,coleridge after the homage of two generations had been offered him1 but ,i know of no instance 7unless in the case of ,shelley7 in which ,hunt stood by his friends in the winter of their lives1 and gave them that journalistic support which was1 poor man1 the only thing he ever had to give1 whatever he might take4 ,i have1 however1 heard ,mr4 ,h4 ,a4 ,bright 7one of ,hawthorne's intimate friends in ,england7 say that no man here impressed the ,american romancer so much as ,hunt for good qualities1 both of heart and head4 ,but what ,i have stated above1 ,i believe to be facts2 and ,i have gathered them at first-hand1 and by the light of them ,i do not hesitate to say that there is no reason to believe that it was ,keats's illness alone that caused him to regard ,hunt's friendship with suspicion4 ,it is true1 however1 that when one reads ,hunt's letter to ,severn at ,borne1 one feels that he must be forgiven4 ,on this pregnant subject ,rossetti wrote3 ,thanks for yours received to-day1 and for all you say with so much more kind solicitousness than the matter deserved1 about the opening of the ,keats sonnet4 ,i have now realized that the new form is a gain in every way2 and am therefore glad that1 though arising in accident1 ,i was led to make the change4444 ,all you say of ,keats shows that you have been reading up the subject with good results4 ,i fancy it would hardly be desirable to add the sonnets you speak of 7as being worthless7 at this date1 though they might be valuable for quotation as to the course of his mental and physical state4 ,i do not myself think that any poems now included should be removed1 but the reckless and tasteless plan of the gatherings hitherto 7in which the ,nightingale and other such masterpieces are jostled indiscriminately1 with such wretched juvenile trash as ,lines to some ,ladies on receiving a ,shelly etc71 should of course be amended1 and the rubbish 7of which there is a fair quantity71 removed to a 8,juvenile0 or other such section4 ,it is a curious fact that among a poet's early writings1 some will really be juvenile in this sense1 while others1 written at the same time1 will perhaps take rank at last with his best efforts4 ,this1 however1 was not substantially the case with ,keats4 ,as to ,leigh ,hunt's friendship for ,keats1 ,i think the points you mention look equivocal2 but ,hunt was a many-laboured and much belaboured man1 and as much allowance as may be made on this score is perhaps due to him--no more than that much4 ,his own powers stand high in various ways--poetically higher perhaps than is ,i at present admitted1 despite his detestable flutter and airiness for the most part4 ,but assuredly by no means could he have stood so high in the long-run1 as by a loud and earnest defence of ,keats4 ,perhaps the best excuse for him is the remaining possibility of an idea on his part1 that any defence coming from one who had himself so many powerful enemies might seem to ,keats rather to6 damage than improve his position4 ,i have this minute 7at last7 read the first instalment of your ,keats paper1 and return it4444 ,one of the most marked points in the early recognition of ,keats's claims1 as compared with the recognition given to other poets1 is the fact that he was the only one who secured almost at once a great poet as a close and obvious imitator--viz41 ,hood1 whose first volume is more identical with ,keats's work than could be said of any other similar parallel4 ,you quote some of ,keats's sayings4 ,one of the most characteristic ,i think is in a letter to ,haydon3-- 8,i value more the privilege of seeing great things in loneliness1 than the fame of a prophet40 ,i had not in mind the quotations you give from ,keats as bearing on the poetic 7or prophetic7 mission of 8doing good40 ,i must say that ,i should not have thought a longer career thrown away upon him 7as you intimate7 if he had continued to the age of anything only to give joy4 ,nor would he ever have done any 8good0 at all4 ,shelley did good1 and perhaps some harm with it4 ,keats's joy was after all a flawless gift4 ,keats wrote to ,shelley3--8,you1 ,i am sure1 will forgive me for sincerely remarking that you might curb your magnanimity and be more of an artist1 and load every rift of your subject with ore40 ,cheeky6--but not so much amiss4 ,poetry1 and no prophecy however1 must come of that mood1--and no pulpit would have held ,keats's wings1--the body and mind together were not heavy enough for a counterweight4444 ,did you ever meet with center,,endimion ,,an ,,excellent ,,fancy ,,first ,,composed ,,in ,,french ,by ,monsieur ,,gombauld ,,and ,,now ,,elegantly ,,interpreted ,by ,,richard ,,hurst1 ,gentleman #afci4 8_/center ,it has very finely engraved plates of the late ,flemish type4 ,there is a poem of ,vaughan's on ,gombauld's ,endimion1 which might make one think it more fascinating than it really is4 ,though rather prolix1 however1 it has attractions as a somewhat devious romantic treatment of the subject4 ,the little book is one of the first ,i remember in this world1 and ,i used to dip into it again and again as a child1 but never yet read it through4 ,i still possess it4 ,i dare say it is not easily met with1 and should suppose ,keats had probably never seen it4 ,if he had1 he might really have taken a hint or two for his scheme1 which is hardly so clear even as ,gombauld's1 though its endless digressions teem with beauty4444 ,i do not think you would benefit at all by seeing ,gombauld's ,endimion4 ,vaughan's poem on it might be worth quoting as showing what attention the subject had received before ,keats4 ,i have the poem in ,gilfillan's ,less-,known ,poets4 ,rossetti took a great interest in the fund started for the relief of ,mme4 de ,llanos1 ,keats's sister1 whose circumstances were seriously reduced4 ,he wrote3 ,by the bye1 ,i don't know whether the subscription for ,keats's old and only surviving sister 7,madme de ,llanos7 has been at all ventilated in ,liverpool4 ,it flags sorely4 ,do you think there would be any chance in your neighbourhood8 ,if so1 prospectuses1 etc41 could be sent4 ,i did not view the prospect of subscriptions as very hopeful1 and so conceived the idea of a lecture in the interests of the fund4 ,on this project1 ,rossetti wrote3 ,i enclose prospectuses as to the ,keats subscription4 ,i may say that ,i did not know the list would accompany them--still less that contributions would be so low generally as to leave me near the head of the list--an unenviable sort of parade4444 ,my own opinion about the lecture question is this4 ,you know best whether such a lecture could be turned to the purposes of your ,keats article 7now in progress71 or rather be so much deduction from the freshness of its resources3 and this should be the absolute test of its being done or not done4444 ,i think1 if it can be done without impoverishing your materials1 the method of getting ,lord ,houghton to preside and so raising as much from it as possible is doubtless the right one4 ,of course ,i view it as far more hopeful than mere distribution of any number of prospectuses4444 ,even #be would be a great contribution to the fund4 ,the lecture project was not found feasible1 and hence it was abandoned4 ,meantime the kindness of friends enabled me to add to the list a good number of subscriptions1 but feeling scarcely satisfied with any such success as ,i might be likely to have in that direction1 ,i opened1 by the help of a friend1 a correspondence with ,lord ,houghton with a view to inducing him to apply for a pension for the lady4 ,it then transpired that ,lord ,houghton had already applied to ,lord ,beaconsfield for a pension for ,mme4 ,llanos1 and would doubtless have got it1 had not ,mr4 ,buxton ,forman applied for a grant from the ,royal ,bounty1 which was easier to give4 ,i told ,rossetti of this fact and he said3 ,i am not surprised about ,lord ,h41 and feel sure it is a pity he was not left to try ,beaconsfield1 but ,i judge the projectors on the other side knew nothing of his intentions4 ,however1 ,i was in no way a projector4 ,in the end ,lord ,houghton repeated to ,mr4 ,gladstone the application he had made to ,lord ,beaconsfield1 and succeeded4 ,rossetti must have been among the earliest admirers of ,keats4 ,i remarked on one occasion that it was very natural that ,lord ,houghton should consider himself in a sense the first among men now living to champion the poet and establish his name1 and ,rossetti admitted that this was so1 and was ungrudging in his tribute to ,lord ,houghton's services towards the better appreciation of ,keats2 but he contended1 nevertheless1 that he had himself been one of the first writers of the generation succeeding the poet's own to admire and uphold him1 and that this was at a time when it made demand of some courage to class him among the immortals1 when an original edition of any of his books could be bought for sixpence on a bookstall1 and when only ,leigh ,hunt1 ,cowden ,clarke1 ,hood1 ,benjamin ,haydon1 and perhaps a few others1 were still living of those who recognised his great gifts4 ,,chapter ,,vi4 ,rossetti's primary interest in ,chatterton dates back to an early period1 as ,i find by the date1 #ahdh1 in the copy he possessed of the poet's works4 ,but throughout a long interval he neglected ,chatterton1 and it was not until his friend ,theodore ,watts1 who had made ,chatterton a special study1 had undertaken to select from and write upon him in ,ward's ,english ,poets1 that he revived his old acquaintance4 ,whatever ,rossetti did he did thoroughly1 and hence he became as intimate perhaps with the ,rowley antiques as any other man had ever been4 ,his letters written during the course of his ,chatterton researches must1 ,i think1 prove extremely interesting4 ,he says3 ,glancing at your ,keats ,,ms41 ,i notice 7in a series of parallels7 the names of ,marlowe and ,savage2 but not the less 8marvellous0 than absolutely miraculous ,chatterton4 ,are you up in his work8 ,he is in the very first rank6 ,theod4 ,watts is 8doing him0 for the new selection of poets by ,arnold and ,ward1 and ,i have contributed a sonnet to ,watts's article4444 ,i assure you ,chatterton's name must come in somewhere in the parallel passage4 ,he was as great as any ,english poet whatever1 and might absolutely1 had he lived1 have proved the only man in ,england's theatre of imagination who could have bandied parts with ,shakspeare4 ,the best way of getting at him is in ,skeat's ,aldine edition 7,g4 ,bell and ,co41 #ahge74 ,read him carefully1 and you will find his acknowledged work essentially as powerful as his antiques1 though less evenly successful--the ,rowley work having been produced in ,bristol leisure1 however indigent1 and the modern poetry in the very fangs of ,london struggle4 ,strong derivative points are to be found in ,keats and ,coleridge from the study of ,chatterton4 ,i feel much inclined to send the sonnet 7on ,chatterton7 as you wish1 but really think it is better not to ventilate these things till in print4 ,i have since written one on ,blake4 ,not to know ,chatterton is to be ignorant of the true day- spring of modern romantic poetry4444 ,i believe the #c;d vol4 of ,ward's ,selections of ,english ,poetry1 for which ,watts is selecting from ,chatterton1 will soon be out1--but these excerpts are very brief1 as are the notices4 ,the rendering from the ,rowley antique will be much better than anything formerly done4 ,skeat is a thorough philologist1 but no hand at all when substitution becomes unavoidable in the text4444 ,read the ,ballad of ,charity1 the ,eclogues1 the songs in lla1 as a first taste4 ,among the modern poems ,narva and ,mared1 and the other ,african ,eclogues4 ,these are alone in that section poetry absolute1 and though they are very unequal1 it has been most truly said by ,malone that to throw the ,african ,eclogues into the ,rowley dialect would be at once a satisfactory key to the question whether ,chatterton showed in his own person the same powers as in the person of ,rowley4 ,among the satirical and light modern pieces there are many of a first-4 rate order1 though generally unequal4 ,perfect specimens1 however1 are ,the ,revenge1 a ,burletta1 ,skeat1 vol i2 ,verses to a ,lady1 p4 #hd2 ,journal ,sixth1 p4 #cc2 ,the ,prophecy1 p4 #aic2 and opening of ,fragment1 p4 #acb4 ,i would advise you to consult the original text4 ,mr4 ,watts1 it seems1 with all his admiration of ,chatterton1 finding that he could not go to ,rossetti's length in comparing him with ,shakspeare1 did not in the result consider the sonnet on ,chatterton referred to in the foregoing letter1 and given below1 suitable to be embodied in his essay3 ,with ,shakspeare's manhood at a boy's wild heart1-- ,through ,hamlet's doubt to ,shakspeare near allied1 ,and kin to ,milton through his ,satan's pride1-- ,at ,death's sole door he stooped1 and craved a dart2 ,and to the dear new bower of ,england's art1-- ,even to that shrine ,time else had deified1 ,the unuttered heart that soared against his side1-- ,drove the fell point1 and smote life's seals apart4 ,thy nested home-loves1 noble ,chatterton1 ,the angel-trodden stair thy soul could trace ,up ,redcliffe's spire2 and in the world's armed space ,thy gallant sword-play3--these to many an one ,are sweet for ever2 as thy grave unknown1 ,and love-dream of thine unrecorded face4 ,some mention was made in this connection of ,rossetti's young connection1 ,oliver ,madox ,brown1 who wrote ,gabriel ,denver 7otherwise ,the ,black ,swan7 at seventeen years of age4 ,i mentioned the indiscreet remark of a friend who said that ,oliver had enough genius to stock a good few ,chattertons1 and thereupon ,rossetti sent me the following outburst3 ,you must take care to be on the right tack about ,chatterton4 ,i am very glad to find the gifted ,oliver ,m4 ,b4 already an embryo classic1 as ,i always said he would be2 but those who compare net results in such cases as his and ,chatterton's cannot know what criticism means4 ,the nett results of advancing epochs1 however permanent on accumulated foundation-work1 are the poorest of all tests as to relative values4 ,oliver was the product of the most teeming hot-beds of art and literature1 and even of compulsory addiction to the art of painting1 in which nevertheless he was rapidly becoming as much a proficient as in literature4 ,what he would have been if1 like the ardent and heroic ,chatterton1 he had had to fight a single-handed battle for art and bread together against merciless mediocrity in high places1--what he would then have become1 ,i cannot in the least calculate2 but we know what ,chatterton became4 ,moreover1 ,c4 at his death1 was two years younger than ,oliver--a whole lifetime of advancement at that age frequently--indeed always ,i believe in leading cases4 ,there are few indeed whom the facile enthusiasm for contemporary models does not deaden to the truly balanced claims of successful efforts in art4 ,however1 look at ,watts's remodelled extracts when the vol comes out1 and also at what he says in detail as to ,chatterton1 ,coleridge1 and ,keats4 ,of course ,rossetti was right in what he said of comparative criticism when brought to bear in such cases as those of ,chatterton and ,oliver ,madox ,brown4 ,net results are certainly the poorest tests of relative values where the work done belongs to periods of development4 ,we cannot1 however1 see or know any man except through and in his work1 and net results must usually be accepted as the only concrete foundation for judging of the quality of his genius4 ,such judgment will always be influenced1 nevertheless1 by considerations such as ,rossetti mentions4 ,touching ,chatterton's development1 it were hardly rash to say that it appears incredible that the ,african ,eclogues should have been written by a boy of seventeen1 and1 in judging of their place in poetry1 one is apt to be influenced by one's first feeling of amazement4 ,is it possible that the ,rowley poems may owe much of their present distinction to the early astonishment that a boy should have written them1 albeit they have great intrinsic excellencies such as may insure them a high place when the romance1 intertwined with their history1 has been long forgotten8 ,but ,chatterton is more talked of than read1 and this has been so from the first4 ,the antiques are all but unknown2 certain of the acknowledged poems are remembered1 and regarded as fervid and vigorous1 and many of the lesser pieces are thought slight1 weak1 and valueless4 ,people do not measure the poorer things in ,chatterton with his time and opportunities1 or they would see only amazing strength and knowledge of the world in all he did4 ,those lesser pieces were many of them dashed off to answer the calls of necessity1 to flatter the egotism of a troublesome friend1 or to wile away a moment of vacancy4 ,certainly they must not be set against his best efforts4 ,as for ,chatterton's life1 the tragedy of it is perhaps the most moving example of what ,coleridge might have termed the material pathetic4 ,pathetic1 however1 as his life was1 and marvellous as was his genius1 ,i miss in him the note of personal purity and majesty of character4 ,i told ,rossetti that1 in my view1 ,chatterton lacked sincerity1 and on this point he wrote3 ,i must protest finally about ,chatterton1 that he lacks nothing because lacking the gradual growth of the emotional in literature which becomes evident in ,keats--still less its excess1 which would of course have been pruned1 in ,oliver4 ,the finest of the ,rowley poems--,eclogues1 ,ballad of ,charity1 etc41 rank absolutely with the finest poetry in the language1 and gain 7not lose7 by moderation4 ,as to what you say of ,c4's want of political sincerity 7for ,i cannot see to what other want you can allude71 surely a boy up to eighteen may be pardoned for exercising his faculty if he happens to be the one among millions who can use grown men as his toys4 ,he was an absolute and untarnished hero1 but for that reckless defying vaunt4 ,certainly that most vigorous passage commencing-- 8,interest1 thou universal ,god of men10 etc4 reads startlingly1 and comes in a questionable shape4 ,what is the answer to its enigmatical aspect8 ,why1 that he meant it1 and that all would mean it at his age1 who had his power1 his daring1 and his hunger4 ,still it does1 perhaps1 make one doubt whether his early death were well or ill for him4 ,in the matter of ,oliver 7whom no one appreciates more than ,i do71 remember that it was impossible to have more opportunities than he had1 or on the other side fewer than ,chatterton had4 ,chatterton at seventeen or less said-- 8,flattery's a cloak1 and ,i will put it on40 ,blake 7probably late in life7 said-- 8,innocence is a winter gown40 444 ,i have read the ,chatterton article in the review mentioned4 ,if ,watts had done it1 it would have been immeasurably better4 ,there seems to me1 who am very well up in ,chatterton1 no point whatever made in the article4 ,why does no one ever even allude to the two attributed portraits of ,chatterton--one belonging to ,sir ,h4 ,taylor1 and the other in the ,salford ,museum8 ,both seem to be the same person clearly1 and a good find for ,chatterton1 but not conceivably done from him4 ,nevertheless1 ,i suspect there may be a sidelong genuineness in them4 ,chatterton was acquainted with one ,alcock1 a miniature painter at ,bristol1 to whom he addressed a poem4 ,had ,a4 painted ,c4 it would be among the many recorded facts2 but it would be singular even if1 in ,c4's rapid posthumous fame1 ,a4 had never been asked to make a reminiscent likeness of him4 ,prom such likeness by the miniature painter these portraits might derive--both being life-sized oil heads4 ,there is a savour of ,keats in them1 though a friend1 taking up the younger-looking of the two1 said it reminded him of ,jack ,sheppard6 ,and not such a bad ,chatterton-compound either6 ,but ,i begin to think ,i have said all this before4444 ,oliver1 or 8,nolly10 as he was always called1 was a sort of spread-eagle likeness of his handsome father1 with a conical head like ,walter ,scott4 ,i must confess to you1 that1 in this world of books1 the only one of his ,i have read1 is ,gabriel ,denver1 afterwards reprinted in its original and superior form as ,the ,black ,swan1 but published with the former title in his lifetime4 ,rossetti formed no such philosophic estimate of ,chatterton's contribution to the romantic movement in ,english poetry as has been formulated in the essay in ,ward's ,poets4 ,a critic1 in the sense of one possessed of a natural gift of analysis1 ,rossetti assuredly6 was not4 ,no man's instinct for what is good in poetry was ever swifter or surer than that of ,rossetti4 ,you might always distrust your judgment if you found it at variance with his where abstract power and beauty were in question4 ,sooner or later you would inevitably find yourself gravitating to his view4 ,but here ,rossetti's function as a critic ended4 ,his was at best only the criticism of the creator4 ,of the gift of ultimate classification he had none1 and never claimed to have any1 although now and again 7as where he says that ,chatterton was the day-spring of modern romantic poetry71 he seems to give sign of a power of critical synthesis4 ,rossetti's interest in ,blake1 both as poet and painter1 dates back to an early period of his life4 ,i have heard him say that at sixteen or seventeen years of age he was already one of ,blake's warmest admirers1 and at the time in question1 #ahde1 the author of the ,songs of ,innocence had not many readers to uphold him4 ,about four years later1 ,rossetti made an exceptionally lucky discovery1 for he then found in the possession of ,mr4 ,palmer1 an attendant at the ,british ,museum1 an original manuscript scrap-book of ,blake's1 containing a great body of unpublished poetry and many interesting designs1 as well as three or four remarkably effective profile sketches of the author himself4 ,the ,mr4 ,palmer who held the little book was a relative of the landscape painter of the same name1 who was ,blake's friend1 and hence the authenticity of the manuscript was ascertainable on other grounds than the indisputable ones of its internal evidences4 ,the book was offered to ,rossetti for ten shillings1 but the young enthusiast was at the time a student of art1 and not much in the way of getting or spending even so inconsiderable a sum4 ,he told me1 however1 that at this period his brother ,william1 who was1 unlike himself1 engaged in some reasonably profitable occupation1 was at all times nothing loath to advance small sums for the purchase of such literary or other treasures as he used to hunt up out of obscure corners3 by his help the ,blake manuscript was bought1 and proved for years a source of infinite pleasure and profit1 resulting1 as it did1 in many very important additions to ,blake literature when ,gilchrist's ,life and ,works of that author came to be published4 ,it is an interesting fact1 mention of which ought not to be omitted1 that at the sale of ,rossetti's library1 which took place a little while after his decease1 the scrap-book acquired in the way ,i describe was sold for one hundred and five guineas4 ,the sum was a large one1 but the little book was undoubtedly the most valuable literary relic of ,blake then extant4 ,about the time when a new edition of ,gilchrist's ,life was in the press1 ,rossetti wrote3 ,my evenings have been rather trenched upon lately by helping ,mrs4 ,gilchrist with a new edition of the ,life of ,blake4444 ,i don't know if you go in much for him4 ,the new edition of the ,life will include a good number of additional letters 7from ,blake to ,hayley71 and some addition 7though not great7 to my own share in the work2 as well as much important carrying-on of my brother's catalogue of ,blake's works4 ,the illustrations will1 ,i trust1 receive valuable additions also1 but publishers are apt to be cautious in such expenses4 ,i am writing late at night1 to fill up a fag-end of bedtime1 and shall write again on this head4 ,rossetti's 8own share0 in this work consisted of the writing of the supplementary chapter 7left by ,gilchrist1 with one or two unimportant passages merely1 at the beginning71 and the editing of the poems4 ,when there arose1 subsequently1 some idea of my reviewing the book1 ,rossetti wrote me the following letter1 full of disinterested solicitude3 ,you will be quite delighted with an essay on ,blake by ,jas4 ,smetham1 which occurs in vol ii42 it is a noble thing2 and at the stupendous design called ,plague 7vol4 i474 ,i have extracted a passage properly belonging to the same essay1 which is as fine as ,english can be1 and which ,i am sorry to perceive 7,i think7 that ,mrs4 ,g4 has omitted from the body of the essay because quoted in another place4 ,this essay is no less than a masterpiece4 ,i wrote the supplementary chapter 7vol4 i471 except a few opening paragraphs by ,gilchrist1--and in it have now made some mention of ,smetham1 an old and dear friend of mine4 ,you will admire ,shields's paper on the wonderful series of ,young's ,night ,thoughts4 ,my brother and ,i both helped in this new edition1 but ,i added little to what ,i had done before4 ,i brought forward a portentous series of passages about one 8,scofield0 in ,blake's ,jerusalem1 but did not otherwise write that chapter1 except as regards the illustrations4 ,however1 don't mention what ,i have done 7in case you write on the subject7 except so far as the indices show it1 and of course ,i don't wish to be put forward at all4 ,what ,i do wish is1 that you should say everything that can be gratifying to ,mrs4 ,g4 as to her husband's work4 ,there is a plate of ,blake's ,cottage by young ,gilchrist which is truly excellent4 ,as ,i have already said1 ,rossetti traversed the bypaths of ,english literature 7particularly of ,english poetry7 as few can ever have traversed them4 ,a favourite work with him was ,gilfillan's ,less-,read ,british ,poets1 a copy of which had been presented by ,miss ,boyd4 ,he says3 ,did you ever read ,christopher ,smart's ,song to ,david1 the only great accomplished poem of the last century8 ,the accomplished ones are ,chatterton's1--of course ,i mean earlier than ,blake or ,coleridge1 and without reckoning so exceptional a genius as ,burns4444 ,you will find ,smart's poem a masterpiece of rich imagery1 exhaustive resources1 and reverberant sound4 ,it is to be met with in ,gilfillan's ,specimens of the ,less-,read ,british ,poets 7#c vols4 ,nichol1 ,edin41 #ahfj74444 ,i remember your mentioning ,gilfillan as having encouraged your first efforts4 ,he was powerful1 though sometimes rather 8tall0 as a writer1 generally most just as a critic1 and lastly1 a much better man1 intellectually and morally1 than ,aytoun1 who tried to 8do for0 him4 ,his notice of ,swift1 in the volume in question1 has very great force and eloquence4 ,his whole edition of the ,british ,poets is the best of any to read1 being such fine type and convenient bulk and weight 7a great thing for an arm-chair reader74 ,unfortunately1 he now and then 7in the ,less-,read ,poets7 cuts down the extracts almost to nothing1 and in some cases excises objectionabilities1 which is unpardonable4 ,much better leave the whole out4 ,also1 the edition includes the usual array of nobodies--,addison1 ,akenside1 and the whole alphabet down to ,zany and ,zero2 whereas a great many of the less-read would have been much-read by every worthy reader if they had only been printed in full4 ,so well printed an edition of ,donne 7for instance7 would have been a great boon2 but from him ,gilfillan only gives 7among the less-read7 the admirable ,progress of the ,soul and some of the pregnant ,holy ,sonnets4 ,do you know ,donne8 ,there is hardly an ,english poet better worth a thorough knowledge1 in spite of his provoking conceits and occasional jagged jargon4 ,the following paragraph on ,whitehead is valuable3 ,charles ,whitehead's principal poem is ,the ,solitary1 which in its day had admirers4 ,it perhaps most recalls ,goldsmith4 ,he also wrote a supernatural poem called ,ippolito4 ,there was a volume of his poems published about #ahdh1 or perhaps a little later1 by ,bentley4 ,it is disappointing1 on the whole1 from the decided superiority of its best points to the rest4444 ,but the novel of ,richard ,savage is very remarkable1--a real character really worked out4 ,to aid me in certain researches ,i was at the time engaged in making in the back-numbers of almost forgotten periodicals1 ,rossetti wrote3 ,the old ,monthly ,mag4 was the precursor of the ,new ,monthly1 which started about #ahcj1 or thereabouts ,i think1 after which the old one ailed1 but went on till fatal old ,heraud finished it off by editing it1 and fairly massacred that elderly innocent4 ,you speak1 in a former letter 7touching the continuation of ,christabel71 of 8a certain ,european magazine40 ,are you aware that it was as old a thing as ,the ,gentleman's1 and went on ad infinitum8 ,other such were the ,universal ,magazine1 the ,scots' ,magazine--all endless in extent and beginning time out of mind1--to say nothing of the ,ladies' ,magazine and ,wits' ,magazine4 ,then there was the ,annual ,register4 ,all these are quarters in which you might prosecute researches1 and might happen to find something about ,keats4 ,the ,monthly ,magazine must have commenced almost as early1 ,i believe4 ,i cannot help thinking there was a similar ,imperial ,magazine4 ,the following letter possesses an interest independent of its subject1 which to me1 however1 is interest enough4 ,mr4 ,william ,watson had sent ,rossetti a copy of a volume of poems he had just published1 and had received a letter in acknowledgment1 wherein our friend1 with characteristic appreciativeness1 said many cordial words of it3 ,your young friend ,watson he said in a subsequent letter wrote me in a very modest mood for one who can do as he can at his age4 ,i think ,i must have hurriedly mis-expressed myself in writing to him1 as he seems to think ,i wished to dissuade him from following narrative poetry4 ,not in the least--,i only wished him to try his hand at clearer dramatic life4 ,the dreamy romantic really hardly needs more than one vast ,morris in a literature--at any rate in a century4 ,not that ,i think him derivable from ,morris--he goes straight back to ,keats with a little modification4 ,the narrative1 whether condensed or developed1 is at any rate a far better impersonal form to work in than declamatory harangue1 whether calling on the stars or the ,styx4 ,i don't know in the least how ,watson is faring with the critics4 ,he must not be discouraged1 in any case1 with his real and high gifts4 ,the young poet1 in whom ,rossetti saw so much to applaud1 can scarcely be said to have fared at all at the hands of the critics4 ,here is a pleasant piece of literary portraiture1 as valuable from the peep it affords into ,rossetti's own character as from the description it gives of the rustic poet3 ,the other evening ,i had the pleasant experience of meeting one to whom ,i have for about two years looked with interest as a poet of the native rustic kind1 but often of quite a superior order4 ,i don't know if you noticed1 somewhere about the date referred to1 in ,the ,athenum1 a review of poems by ,joseph ,skipsey4 ,skip-sey has exquisite--though1 as in all such cases 7except of course ,burns's7 not equal--powers in several directions1 but his pictures of humble life are the best4 ,he is a working miner1 and describes rustic loves and sports1 and the perils and pathos of pit-life with great charm1 having a quiet humour too when needed4 ,his more ambitious pieces have solid merit of feeling1 but are much less artistic4 ,the other night1 as ,i say1 he came here1 and ,i found him a stalwart son of toil1 and every inch a gentleman4 ,in cast of face he recalls ,tennyson somewhat1 though more bronzed and brawned4 ,he is as sweet and gentle as a woman in manner1 and recited some beautiful things of his own with a special freshness to which one is quite unaccustomed4 ,mr4 ,skipsey was a miner of ,north ,shields1 and in the review referred to much was made1 in a delicate way1 of his stern environments4 ,his volume of lyrics is marked by the quiet humour4 ,rossetti speaks of1 as well as by a rather exasperating inequality4 ,perhaps the best piece in it is a poem entitled ,thistle and ,nettle1 treating with peculiar freshness of a country courtship4 ,the coming together of two such entirely opposite natures was certainly curious1 and only to be accounted for on the ground of ,rossetti's breadth of poetic sympathy4 ,it would be interesting to hear what the impressions were of such a rude son of toil upon meeting with one whose life must have seemed the incarnation of artistic luxury and indulgence4 ,later on ,i received the following3 ,poor ,skipsey6 ,he has lost the friend who brought him to ,london only the other day 7,t4 ,dixon71 and who was his only hold on intellectual life in his district4 ,dixon died immediately on his return to the ,north1 of a violent attack of asthma to which he was subject4 ,he was a rarely pure and simple soul1 and is doubtless gone to higher uses1 though few could have reached1 with his small opportunities1 to such usefulness as he compassed here4 ,he was ,ruskin's correspondent in a little book called 7,i think7 ,work by ,tyne and ,wear4 ,i got a very touching note from ,skipsey on the subject4 ,from ,mr4 ,skipsey he received a letter only a little while before his death1 and to him he addressed one of the last epistles he penned4 ,the following letter explains itself1 and is introduced as much for the sake of the real humour which it displays1 as because it affords an excellent idea of ,rossetti's view of the true function of prose3 ,i don't like your ,shakspeare article quite as well as the first ,supernatural one1 or rather ,i should say it does not greatly add to it in my 7first7 view1 though both might gain by embodiment in one4 ,i think there is some truth in the charge of metaphysical involution--the ,german element as ,i should call it--and surely you are strong enough to be ,english pure and simple4 ,i am sure ,i could write #ajj essays1 on all possible subjects 7,i once did project a series under the title1 ,essays written in the intervals of ,elephantiasis1 ,hydro-phobia1 and ,penal ,servitude71 without once experiencing the 8aching void0 which is filled by such words as 8mythopoeic10 and 8anthropomorphism40 ,i do not find life long enough to know in the least what they mean4 ,they are both very long and very ugly indeed--the latter only suggesting to me a ,vampire or ,somnambulant ,cannibal4 7,to speak rationally1 would not 8man-evolved ,godhead0 be an ,english equivalent87 8,euhemeristic0 also found me somewhat on my beam-ends1 though explanation is here given2 yet ,i felt ,i could do without ,euhemerus2 and you perhaps without the humerous4 ,you can pardon me now2 for so bad a pun places me at your mercy indeed4 ,but seriously1 simple ,english in prose writing and in all narrative poetry 7however monumental language may become in abstract verse7 seems to me a treasure not to be foregone in favour of ,german innovations4 ,i know ,coleridge went in latterly for as much ,germanism as his time could master2 but his best genius had then left him4 ,it seems necessary to mention that ,i lectured in #ahhj1 on the relation of politics to art1 and in printing the lecture ,i asked ,rossetti to accept the dedication of it1 but this he declined to do in the generous terms ,i have already referred to4 ,the letter that accompanied his graceful refusal is1 however1 so full of interesting personal matter that ,i offer it in this place1 with no further explanation than that my essay was designed to show that just as great artists in past ages had participated in political struggles1 so now they should not hold themselves aloof from controversies which immediately concern them3 ,i must admit1 at all hazards1 that my friends here consider me exceptionally averse to politics2 and ,i suppose ,i must be1 for ,i never read a parliamentary debate in my life6 ,at the same time ,i will add that1 among those whose opinions ,i most value1 some think me not altogether wrong when ,i venture to speak of the momentary momentousness and eternal futility of many noisiest questions4 ,however1 you must simply view me as a nonentity in any practical relation to such matters4 ,you have spoken but too generously of a sonnet of mine in your lecture just received4 ,i have written a few others of the sort 7which by-the-bye would not prove me a ,tory71 but felt no vocation--perhaps no right---to print them4 ,i have always reproached myself as sorely amenable to the condemnations of a very fine poem by ,barberino1 ,on ,sloth against ,sin1 which ,i translated in the ,dante volume4 ,sloth1 alas6 has but too much to answer for with me2 and is one of the reasons 7though ,i will not say the only one71 why ,i have always fallen back on quality instead of quantity in the little ,i have ever done4 ,i think often with ,coleridge3 ,sloth jaundiced all3 and from my graspless hand ,drop friendship's precious pearls like hour-glass sand4 ,i weep1 yet stoop not3 the faint anguish flows1 ,a dreamy pang in morning's feverish doze4 ,however1 for all ,i might desire in the direction spoken of1 volition is vain without vocation2 and ,i had better really stick to knowing how to mix vermilion and ultramarine for a flesh-grey1 and how to manage their equivalents in verse4 ,to speak without sparing myself1--my mind is a childish one1 if to be isolated in ,art is child's-play2 at any rate ,i feel that ,i do not attain to the more active and practical of the mental functions of manhood4 ,i can say this to you1 because ,i know you will make the best and not the worst of me2 and better than such feasible best ,i do not wish to appear4 ,thus you see ,i don't think my name ought to head your introductory paragraph--and there an end4 ,and now of your new lecture1 and of the long letter ,i lately had from you4 ,at some moment ,i should like to know which pieces among the translations are specially your favourites4 ,of the three names you leash together as somewhat those of sensualists1 ,cecco ,angiolieri is really the only one--as for the respectable ,cino1 he would be shocked indeed1 though certainly there are a few oddities bearing that way in the sonnets between him and ,dante 7who is again similarly reproached by his friend ,cavalcanti71 but ,i really do suspect that in some cases similar to the one in question about ,cino 7though not ,guido and ,dante7 politics were really meant where love was used as a metaphor4444 ,i assure you1 you cannot say too much to me of this or any other work of yours2 in fact1 ,i wish that we should communicate about them4 ,i have been thinking yet more on the relations of politics and art4 ,i do think seriously on consideration that not only my own sluggishness1 but vital fact itself1 must set to a great extent a veto against the absolute participation of artists in politics4 ,when has it ever been effected8 ,true1 ,cellini was a bravo and ,david a good deal like a murderer1 and in these capacities they were not without their political use in very turbulent times4 ,but when the attempt was made to turn ,michael ,angelo into a 8utility man0 of that kind1 he did 7it is true7 some patriotic duty in the fortification of ,florence2 but it is no less a fact that1 when he had done all that he thought became him1 he retired to a certain trackless and forgotten tower1 and there stayed in some sort of peace 7though much in request7 till he could lead his own life again2 nor should we forget the occasion on which he did not hesitate even to betake himself to ,venice as a refuge4 ,yet ,m4 ,angelo was in every way a patriot1 a philosopher1 and a hero4 ,i do not say this to undervalue the scope of your theory4 ,i think possibilities are generally so much behind desirabilities that there is no harm in any degree of incitement in the right direction2 and that is assuredly mental activity of all kinds4 ,i judge you cannot suspect me of thinking the apotheosis of the early ,italian poets 7though surely spiritual beauty1 and not sensuality1 was their general aim7 of more importance than the 8unity of a great nation40 ,but it is in my minute power to deal successfully 7,i feel7 with the one1 while no such entity1 as ,i am1 can advance or retard the other2 and thus mine must needs be the poorer part4 ,nor 7with alas1 and again alas67 will ,italy or another twice have her day in its fulness4 ,i happened to have said in speaking of self-indulgence among artists1 that there probably existed those to whom it seemed more important to preserve such a pitiful possession as the poetical remains of ,cecco ,angiolieri than to secure the unity of a great nation4 ,rossetti half suspected ,i meant this for a playful backhanded blow at himself 7for ,cecco was a great favourite with him71 and protested that no such individual could exist4 ,i defended my charge by quoting ,keats's-- 444 the silver flow ,of ,hero's tears1 the swoon of ,imogen1 ,fair ,pastorella in the bandit's den1 ,are things to brood on with more ardency ,than the death-day of empires4 ,but ,rossetti grew weary of the jest3 ,i must protest that what you quote from ,keats about 8,hero's tears10 etc41 fails to meet the text4 ,neither ,shakspeare nor ,spenser assuredly was a ,cecco2 ,marlowe may be most meant as to 8,hero10 and he perhaps affords the shadow of a parallel in career though not in work4 ,the extract from ,rosetti's letters with which ,i shall close this chapter is perhaps the most interesting yet made3 ,one point ,i must still raise1 viz41 that ,i1 for one1 cannot conceive1 even as the ,ghost of a ,flea1 the ideal individual who considers the ,poetical ,remains of ,cecco ,angiolieri of more importance than the unity of a great nation6 ,i think this would have been better if much modified4 ,say for instance--8,a thing of some moment even while the contest is waging for the political unity of a great nation40 ,this is the utmost reach surely of human comparative valuation4 ,i think you have brought in ,benvenuto and ,michael much to the purpose4 ,shall ,i give you a parallel in your own style8 ,during the months for which poet ,coleridge became private ,cumberback 7a name in which he said his horse would have concurred71 it seems strange that1 in such stirring times1 his regiment should not have been ordered off on foreign service4 ,in such case that pre-eminent member of the awkward squad would assuredly have been the very first man killed4 ,should we have been more the gainers by his patriotism or the losers by his poetry8 ,the very last man killed in the last sortie from ,paris during the ,prussian siege 7he would go behind a buttress to 8pot0 a ,prussian after orders were given to retire1 and so got 8potted0 himself7 was ,henri ,regnault1 a painter1 whose brilliant work was a guiding beacon on the road of improvement in ,french methods of art1 if not in intellectual force4 ,who shall fail to honour the noble ardour which drew him from the security of his studies in ,tunis to partake his country's danger8 ,yet who shall forbear to sigh in thinking that1 but for this1 his progressing work might still yearly be an element in art-progress for ,europe8 ,grome and others betook themselves to ,england instead1 and are still benefiting the cause for which they were before all things born4 ,it was ,david who said1 8,si on tirait mitraille sur les artistes1 on n'y tuerait pas un seul patriote60 ,he was a patriot homicide1 and spoke probably what was true in the sense in which he meant it4 ,as ,i said1 ,i am glad you turned ,ben and ,mike to account1 but the above is in some respects an open question4 ,i have1 as ,i say1 a further batch of letters to introduce1 but as these were1 for the most part1 written after an event which forms a land-mark in our acquaintance 7,i mean the occasion of our first meeting71 ,i judge it is best to reserve them for a later section of this book4 ,there are two forms1 and1 so far as ,i know1 two only1 in which a body of letters can be published with justice to the writer4 ,of these the first and most obvious form is to offer them chronologically in extenso or with only such eliminations as seem inevitable1 and the second is to tabulate them according to subject-matter1 and print them in the order not of date but substance4 ,there are advantages attending each method1 and corresponding disadvantages also4 ,the temptation to adopt the first of these was1 in this case of ,rossetti's letters1 almost insurmountable1 for nothing can be more charming in epistolary style than the easy grace with which the writer passes from point to point1 evolving one idea out of another1 interlinking subject with subject1 and building up a fabric of which the meaning is everywhere inwoven4 ,in this respect ,rossetti's letters are almost as perfect as anything that ever left his hand2 and1 in freedom of phrase1 in power of throwing off parenthetical reflections always faultlessly enunciated1 in play of humour1 often in eloquence 7never becoming declamatory1 and calling on 8,styx or ,stars071 sometimes in pathos1 ,rossetti's letters are1 in a word1 admirable4 ,they are comparable in these respects with the best things yet done in ,english1--as pleasing and graceful as ,cowper's letters1 broader in range of subject than the letters of ,keats1 easier and more colloquial than those of ,coleridge1 and with less appearance of being intended for the public eye than is the case with the letters of ,byron and of ,shelley4 ,rossetti's letters have1 moreover1 a value quite apart from the merits of their epistolary style1 in so far as they contain almost the only expression extant of his opinions on literary questions4 ,and this is the circumstance that has chiefly weighed with me to offer them in fragmentary form interspersed with elucidatory comment bearing principally upon the occasions that called them forth4 ,such then as ,i have described was the nature of my intercourse with ,rossetti during the first year and a half of our correspondence1 and now the time had come when ,i was to meet my friend for the first time face to face4 ,the elasticity of sympathy by which a man of genius1 surrounded by constant friends1 could yet bend to a new-comer who was a stranger and twenty-five years his junior1 and think and feel with him2 the generous appreciativeness by which he could bring himself to consider the first efforts of one quite unknown2 and then the unselfishness that seemed always to prefer the claims of others to his own great claims1 could command only the return of unqualified allegiance4 ,such were the feelings with which ,i went forth to my first meeting with ,rossetti1 and if at any later date1 the ardour of my regard for him in any measure suffered modification1 be sure when the time comes to touch upon it ,i shall make no more concealment of the causes that led to such a change than ,i have made of those circumstances1 however personal in primary interest1 that generated a friendship so unusual and to me so serious and important4 ,,chapter ,,vii4 ,it was in the autumn of #ahhj that ,i saw ,rossetti for the first time4 ,being then rather reduced in health ,i contemplated a visit to the sea-side and wrote saying that in passing through ,london ,i should avail myself of his oft-repeated invitation to visit him4 ,i gave him this warning of my intention1 remembering his declared dread of being taken unawares1 but ,i came to know at a subsequent period that for one who was within the inner circle of his friends the necessity to advise him of a visit was by no means binding4 ,his reception of my intimation of an intention to call upon him was received with an amount of epistolary ceremony which ,i recognise now by the light of further acquaintance as eminently characteristic of the man1 although curiously contradictory of his unceremonious habits of daily life4 ,the fact is that ,rossetti was of an excessively nervous temperament1 and rarely if ever underwent an ordeal more trying than a first meeting with any one to whom for some time previously he had looked forward with interest4 ,hence by return of the post that bore him my missive came two letters1 the one obviously written and posted within an hour or two of the other4 ,in the first of these he expressed courteously his pleasure at the prospect of seeing me1 and appointed #h4cj p4m4 the following evening as his dinner hour at his house in ,cheyne ,walk4 ,the second letter begged me to come at #e4cj or #f p4m41 so that we might have a long evening4 8,you will1 ,i repeat10 he says1 8recognise the hole-and-cornerest of all existences in this big barn of mine2 but come early and ,i shall read you some ballads1 and we can talk of many things40 ,an hour later than the arrival of these letters came a third epistle1 which ran3 8,of course when ,i speak of your dining with me1 ,i mean tte--tte and without ceremony of any kind4 ,i usually dine in my studio and in my painting coat60 ,i had before me a five hours' journey to ,london1 so that in order to reach ,chelsea at #f ,p4,m41 ,i must needs set out at mid-day1 but oblivious of this necessity1 ,rossetti had actually posted a fourth letter on the morning of the day on which we were to meet begging me not on any account to talk1 in the course of our interview1 of a certain personal matter upon which we had corresponded4 ,this fourth and final message came to hand the morning after the meeting1 when ,i had the satisfaction to reflect that 7owing more perhaps to the plethora of other subjects of interest than to any suspicion of its being tabooed7 ,i had luckily eschewed the proscribed topic4 ,cheyne ,walk was unknown to me at the time in question1 except as the locality in and near which many men and women eminent in literature resided4 ,it seems hard to realise that this was the case as recently as two years ago1 now that so short an interval has associated it in one's mind with memories which seem to cover a large part of one's life4 ,the ,walk is not now exactly as picturesque as it appears in certain familiar old engravings2 the new embankment and the gardens that separate it from the main thoroughfare have taken something from its beauty1 but it still possesses many attractions1 and among them a look of age which contrasts agreeably with the spic-and-span newness of neighbouring places4 ,i found ,rossetti's house1 ,no4 #af1 answering in external appearances to the frank description he gave of it4 ,it stands about mid-way between the ,chelsea pier and the new redbrick mansions erected on the ,chelsea embankment4 ,it seems to be the oldest house in the ,walk1 and the exceptional proportions of its gate-piers1 and the weight and mass of its gate and railings1 suggests that probably at some period it stood alone1 and commanded as grounds a large part of the space now occupied by the adjoining residences4 ,behind the house1 during eighteen years of ,rossetti's occupancy1 there was a garden of almost an acre in extent1 covering by much the larger part of the space enclosed by a block of four streets forming a square4 ,at ,no4 #d ,maclise had lived and died2 at the same house ,george ,eliot1 after her marriage with ,mr4 ,cross1 had come to live2 at ,no4 #e1 in the second street to the westward1 ,thomas ,carlyle was still living1 and a little beyond ,cheyne ,row stood the modest cottage wherein ,turner died4 ,rossetti's house had to me the appearance of a plain ,queen ,anne erection1 much mutilated by the introduction of unsightly bay-windows2 the brickwork seemed to be falling into decay2 the paint to be in serious need of renewal2 the windows to be dull with the accumulation of the dust of years2 the sills to bear the suspicion of cobwebs2 the angles of the steps and the untrodden flags of the courtyard to be here and there overgrown with moss and weeds2 and round the walls and up the reveals of doors and windows were creeping the tangled branches of the wildest ivy that ever grew untouched by shears4 ,such was the exterior of the home of the poet-painter when ,i walked up to it on the autumn evening of my first visit1 and the interior of the house was at once like and unlike the exterior4 ,the hall had a puzzling look of equal nobility and shabbiness4 ,the floor was paved with beautiful white marble1 which however1 was partly covered with a strip of worn cocoa-nut matting2 the ceiling was in one of its sections gracefully groined1 and in each of the walls1 which were lofty1 there was an arched recess containing a piece of sculpture2 an old inlaid rosewood clock filled a bulkhead on one side facing the door1 and on the corresponding side stood a massive gas branch4 ,a mezzotint lithograph by ,legros was the only pictorial decoration of the walls1 which were plain1 and seemed not to have been distempered for many years4 ,three doors led out of the hall1 one at each side1 and one in front1 and two corridors opened into it1 but there was no sign of staircase1 nor had it any light except such as was borrowed from the fanlight that looked into the porch4 ,these facts ,i noted in the few minutes ,i stood waiting in the hall1 but during the many months in which subsequently that house was my own home as well as ,rossetti's1 ,i came to see that the changes which the building must have undergone since the period of its erection1 had so filled it with crooks and corners as to bewilder the most ingenious observer to account for its peculiarities4 ,very soon ,rossetti came to me through the doorway in front1 which proved to be the entrance to his studio4 ,holding forth both hands and crying #8,hulloa1' he gave me that cheery1 hearty greeting which ,i came to recognise as his alone1 perhaps1 in warmth and unfailing geniality among all the men of our circle4 ,it was ,italian in its spontaneity1 and yet it was ,english in its manly reserve1 and ,i remember with much tenderness of feeling that never to the last 7not even when sickness saddened him1 or after an absence of a few days or even hours7 did it fail him when meeting with those friends to whom to the last he was really attached4 ,leading the way into the studio1 he introduced me to his brother1 who was there upon one of the evening visits1 which at intervals of a week he was at that time making1 with unfailing regularity4 ,i should have described ,rossetti1 at this time1 as a man who looked quite ten years older than his actual age1 which was fifty-two1 of full middle height and inclining to corpulence1 with a round face that ought1 one thought1 to be ruddy but was pale1 large grey eyes with a steady introspecting look1 surmounted by broad protrusive brows and a clearly-pencilled ridge over the nose1 which was well cut and had large breathing nostrils4 ,the mouth and chin were hidden beneath a heavy moustache and abundant beard1 which grew up to the ears1 and had been of a mixed black-brown and auburn1 and were now streaked with grey4 ,the forehead was large1 round1 without protuberances1 and very gently receding to where thin black curls1 that had once been redundant1 began to tumble down to the ears4 ,the entire configuration of the head and face seemed to me singularly noble1 and from the eyes upwards1 full of beauty4 ,he wore a pair of spectacles1 and1 in reading1 a second pair over the first3 but these took little from the sense of power conveyed by those steady eyes1 and that 8bar of ,michael ,angelo40 ,his dress was not conspicuous1 being however rather negligent than otherwise1 and noticeable1 if at all1 only for a straight sack-coat buttoned at the throat1 descending at least to the knees1 and having large pockets cut into it perpendicularly at the sides4 ,this garment was1 ,i afterwards found1 one of the articles of various kinds made to the author's own design4 ,when he spoke1 even in exchanging the preliminary courtesies of an opening conversation1 ,i thought his voice the richest ,i had ever known any one to possess4 ,it was a full deep barytone1 capable of easy modulation1 and with undertones of infinite softness and sweetness1 yet1 as ,i afterwards found1 with almost illimitable compass1 and with every gradation of tone at command1 for the recitation or reading of poetry4 ,the studio was a large room probably measuring thirty feet by twenty1 and structurally as puzzling as the other parts of the house4 ,a series of columns and arches on one side suggested that the room had almost certainly been at some period the site of an important staircase with a wide well1 and on the other side a broad mullioned window reaching to the ceiling1 seemed certainly to bear record of the occupant's own contribution to the peculiarities of the edifice4 ,the fireplace was at an end of the room1 and over and at each side of it were hung a number of fine drawings in chalk1 chiefly studies of heads1 with here and there a water-colour figure piece1 all from ,rossetti's hand4 ,at the opposite end of the room hung some symbolic designs in chalk1 ,pandora and ,proserpina being among the number1 and easels of various sizes1 some very large1 bearing pictures in differing stages of completion1 occupied positions on all sides of the floor1 leaving room only for a sofa1 with a bookcase behind1 two old cabinets1 two large low easy chairs1 and a writing desk and chair at a window at the side1 which was heavily darkened by the thick foliage of the trees that grew in the garden beyond4 ,dropping down on the sofa with his head laid low and his feet thrown up in a favourite attitude on the back1 which must1 ,i imagine1 have been at least as easy as it was elegant1 he began the conversation by bantering me upon what he called my 8robustious0 appearance compared with what he had been led to expect from gloomy reports of uncertain health4 ,after a series of playful touches 7all done in the easiest conceivable way1 and conveying any impression on earth save the right one1 that a first meeting with any man1 however young and harmless1 was little less than a tragic event to ,rossetti7 he glanced one by one at certain of the topics that had arisen in the course of our correspondence4 ,i perceived that he was a ready1 fluent1 and graceful talker1 with a remarkable incisiveness of speech1 and a trick of dignifying ordinary topics in words which1 without rising above conversation1 were so exactly1 though freely enunciated1 as would have admitted of their being reported exactly as they fell from his lips4 ,in some of these respects ,i found his brother ,william resemble him1 though1 if ,i may describe the talk of a dead friend by contrasting it with that of a living one bearing a natural affinity to it1 ,i will say that ,gabriel's conversation was perhaps more spontaneous1 and had more variety of tone with less range of subject1 together with the same precision and perspicuity4 ,very soon the talk became general1 and then ,rossetti spoke without appearance of reserve of his two or three intimate friends1 telling me1 among other things1 of ,theodore ,watts1 that he 8had a head exactly like that of ,napoleon ,i41 whom ,watts10 he said with a chuckle1 8detests more than any character in history2 depend upon it10 he added1 8such a head was not given to him for nothing20 that ,frederick ,shields was as emotional as ,shelley1 and ,ford ,madox ,brown1 whom ,i had met1 as sententious as ,dr4 ,johnson4 ,i kept no sort of record of what passed upon the occasion in question1 but ,i remember that ,rossetti seemed to be playfully battering his friends in their absence in the assured consciousness that he was doing so in the presence of a well-wisher2 and it was amusing to observe that1 after any particularly lively sally1 he would pause to say something in a sobered tone that was meant to convey the idea that he was really very jealous of his friends' reputation1 and was merely for the sake of amusement giving rein to a sportive fancy4 ,during dinner 7and contrary to his declared habit1 we did not dine in the studio7 he talked a good deal about ,oliver ,madox ,brown1 for whom ,i had conceived a warm admiration1 and to whom ,i had about that time addressed a sonnet4 8,you had a sincere admiration of the boy's gifts80 ,i asked4 8,assuredly4 ,i have always said that twenty years after his death his name will be a familiar one4 ,the ,black ,swan is a powerful story1 although ,i must honestly say that it displays in its central incident a certain torpidity that to me is painful4 ,undoubtedly ,oliver had genius1 and must have done great things had he lived4 ,his death was a grievous blow to his father4 ,i'm glad you've written that sonnet2 ,i wanted you to toss up your cap for ,nolly40 ,he spoke of ,oliver's father as indisputably one of the greatest of living colourists1 inquired earnestly into the progress of his frescoes at ,manchester1 for one of the figures in which ,i had sat1 and showed me a little water-colour drawing made by ,oliver himself when very young4 ,dinner being now over1 ,i asked ,rossetti to redeem his promise to read one of his new ballads2 and as his brother1 who had often heard it before1 expressed his readiness to hear it again1 he responded readily1 and1 taking a small manuscript volume out of a section of the bookcase that had been locked1 read us ,the ,white ,ship4 ,i have spoken of the ballad as a poem at an earlier stage1 but it remains to me1 in this place1 to describe the effect produced upon me by the author's reading4 ,it seemed to me that ,i never heard anything at all matchable with ,rossetti's elocution2 his rich deep voice lent an added music to the music of the verse3 it rose and fell in the passages descriptive of the wreck with something of the surge and sibilation of the sea itself2 in the tenderer passages it was soft as a woman's1 and in the pathetic stanzas with which the ballad closes it was profoundly moving4 ,effective as the reading sounded in that studio1 ,i remember at the moment to have doubted if it would prove quite so effective from a public platform4 ,perhaps there seemed to be so much insistence on the rhythm1 and so prolonged a tension of the rhyme sounds1 as would run the risk of a charge of monotony if falling on ears less concerned with points of metrical beauty than with fundamental substance4 ,personally1 however1 ,i found the reading in the very highest degree enjoyable and inspiring4 ,the evening was gone by the time the ballad was ended2 and it was arranged that upon my return to ,london from the house of a friend at the sea-side ,i should again dine with ,rossetti1 and sleep the night at ,cheyne ,walk4 ,i was invited to come early in order to see certain pictures by day-light1 and it was then ,i saw the painter's most important work1--the ,dants ,dream1 which finally 7and before ,rossetti was made aware of any steps being taken to that end7 ,i had prevailed with ,alderman ,samuelson to purchase for the public gallery at ,liverpool4 ,at my request1 though only after some importunity1 ,rossetti read again his ,white ,ship1 and afterwards ,rose ,mary1 the latter of which he told me had been written in the country shortly after the appearance of the first volume of poems4 ,he remarked that it had occupied three weeks in the writing1 and that the physical prostration ensuing had been more than he would care to go through again4 ,i observed on this head1 that though highly finished in every stanza1 the ballad had an impetuous rush of emotion1 and swift current of diction1 suggesting speed in its composition1 as contrasted with the laboured deliberation which the sonnets1 for example1 appeared to denote4 ,i asked if his work usually took much out of him in physical energy4 8,not my painting1 certainly10 he replied1 8though in early years it tormented me more than enough4 ,now ,i paint by a set of unwritten but clearly-defined rules1 which ,i could teach to any man as systematically as you could teach arithmetic2 indeed1 quite recently ,i sat all day for that very purpose with ,shields1 who is not so great a colourist as he is a draughtsman3 he is a great draughtsman--none better now living1 unless it is ,leighton or ,sir ,noel ,paton40 8,still10 ,i said1 8there's usually a good deal in a picture of yours beside what you can do by rule40 8,fundamental conception1 no doubt1 but beyond that not much4 ,in painting1 after all1 there is in the less important details something of the craft of a superior carpenter1 and the part of a picture that is not mechanical is often trivial enough4 ,i don't wonder1 now10 he added1 with a suspicion of a twinkle in the eye1 8if you imagine that one comes down here in a fine frenzy every morning to daub canvas80 8,i certainly imagine10 ,i replied1 8that a superior carpenter would find it hard to paint another ,dante's ,dream1 which some people consider the best example yet seen of the ,english school40 8,that is friendly nonsense10 rejoined my frank host1 8there is now no ,english school whatever40 8,well10 ,i said1 8if you deny the name to others who lay more claim to it1 will you not at least allow it to the three or four painters who started with you in life80 8,not at all1 unless it is to ,brown1 and he's more ,french than ,english2 ,hunt and ,jones have no more claim to the name than ,i have4 ,as for all the prattle about pre-,raphaelitism1 ,i confess to you ,i am weary of it1 and long have been4 ,why should we go on talking about the visionary vanities of half-a-dozen boys8 ,we've all grown out of them1 ,i hope1 by now40 ,i remarked that the pre-,raphaelite movement was no doubt a serious one at the beginning4 8,what you call the movement was serious enough1 but the banding together under that title was all a joke4 ,we had at that time a phenomenal antipathy to the ,academy1 and in sheer love of being outlawed signed our pictures with the well-known initials40 ,i have preserved the substance of what ,rossetti said on this point1 and1 as far as possible1 the actual words have been given4 ,on many subsequent occasions he expressed himself in the same way3 assuredly with as much seeming depreciation of the painter's 8craft10 although certain examples of modern art called forth his warmest eulogies4 ,in serious moods he would speak of pictures by ,millais1 ,watts1 ,leighton1 ,burne ,jones1 and others1 as works of the highest genius4 ,reverting to my inquiry as to whether his work took much out of him1 he remarked that his poetry usually did4 8,in that respect10 he said1 8,i am the reverse of ,swinburne4 ,for his method of production inspiration is indeed the word4 ,with me the case is different4 ,i lie on the couch1 the racked and tortured medium1 never permitted an instant's surcease of agony until the thing on hand is finished40 ,it was obvious that what ,rossetti meant by being racked and tortured1 was that his subject possessed him2 that he was enslaved by his own 8shaping imagination40 ,assuredly he was the reverse of a costive poet3 impulse was1 to use his own phrase1 fully developed in his muse4 ,i made some playful allusion1 assuredly not meant to involve ,mr4 ,swinburne1 to ,sheridan's epigram on easy writing and hard reading2 and to the ,abb de ,marolles1 who exultingly told some poet that his verses cost no trouble3 8,they cost you what they are worth10 replied the bard4 8,one benefit ,i do derive10 ,rossetti added1 8as a result of my method of composition2 my work becomes condensed4 ,probably the man does not live who could write what ,i have written more briefly than ,i have done40 ,emphasis and condensation1 ,i remarked1 were indubitably the characteristics of his muse4 ,he then read me a great body of the new sonnets of ,the ,house of ,life4 ,sitting in that studio listening to his reading and looking up meantime at the chalk-drawings that hung on the walls1 ,i realised how truly he had said1 in correspondence1 that the feeling pervading his pictures was such as his poetry ought to suggest4 ,the affinity between the two seemed to me at that moment to be complete3 the same half-sad1 half-resigned view of life1 the same glimpses of hope1 the same foreshadowings of gloom4 8,you doubtless think it odd10 he said at one moment1 8to hear an old fellow read such love-poetry as much of this is1 but ,i may tell you that the larger part of it1 though still unpublished1 was written when ,i was as young as you are4 ,when ,i print these sonnets1 ,i shall probably affix a note saying1 that though many of them are of recent production1 not a few are obviously the work of earlier years40 ,i expressed admiration of the pathetic sonnet entitled ,without ,her4 8,i cannot tell you10 he said1 8at what terrible moment it was wrung from me40 ,he had read it with tears of voice1 subsiding at length into suppressed sobs and intervals of silence4 ,as though to explain away this emotion he said3 8,all poetry1 that is really poetry1 affects me deeply and often to tears4 ,it does not need to be pathetic or yet tender to produce such a result4 ,i have known in my life two men1 and two only1 who are similarly sensitive--,tennyson1 and my old friend and neighbour ,william ,bell ,scott4 ,i once heard ,tennyson read ,maud1 and whilst the fiery passages were delivered with a voice and vehemence which he alone of living men can compass1 the softer passages and the songs made the tears course down his cheeks4 ,morris is a fine reader1 and so1 of his kind1 though a little prone to sing-song1 is ,swinburne4 ,browning both reads and talks well--at least he did so when ,i knew him intimately as a young man40 ,rossetti went on to say that he had been among ,browning's earliest admirers4 ,as a boy he had seen something signed by the then unknown name of the author of ,paracelsus1 and wrote to him4 ,the result was an intimacy4 ,he spoke with warmest admiration of ,child ,roland2 and referred to ,elizabeth ,barrett ,browning in terms of regard1 and1 ,i think ,i may say1 of reverence4 ,i asked if he had ever heard ,ruskin read4 ,he replied3 8,i must have done so1 but remember nothing clearly4 ,on one occasion1 however1 ,i heard him deliver a speech1 and that was something never to forget4 ,when we were young1 we helped ,frederick ,denison ,maurice by taking classes at the ,working ,men's ,college1 and there ,charles ,kingsley and others made speeches and delivered lectures4 ,ruskin was asked to do something of the kind and at length consented4 ,he made no sort of preparation for the occasion3 ,i know he did not2 we were together at his father's house the whole of the day in question4 ,at night we drove down to the ,college1 and then he made the finest speech ,i ever heard4 ,i doubted at the time if any written words of his were equal to it6 such flaming diction6 such emphasis6 such appeal6--yet he had written his first and second volumes of ,modern ,painters by that time40 ,i have reproduced the substance of what ,rossetti said on the occasion of my return visit1 and1 by help of letters written at the time to a friend1 ,i have in many cases recalled his exact words4 ,a certain incisiveness of speech which distinguished his conversation1 ,i confess myself scarcely able to convey more than a suggestion of2 as ,mr4 ,watts has said in ,the ,athenum1 his talk showed an incisiveness so perfect that it had often the pleasurable surprise of wit4 ,rossetti had both wit and humour1 but these1 during the time that ,i knew him1 were only occasionally present in his conversation1 while the incisiveness was always conspicuous4 ,a certain quiet play of sportive fancy1 developing at intervals into banter1 was sometimes observable in his talk with the younger and more familiar of his acquaintances1 but for the most part his conversation was serious1 and1 during the time ,i knew him1 often sad4 ,i speedily observed that he was not of the number of those who lead or sustain conversation4 ,he required to be constantly interrogated1 but as a negative talker1 if ,i may so describe him1 he was by much the best ,i had heard4 ,catching one's drift before one had revealed it1 and anticipating one's objections1 he would go on from point to point1 almost removing the necessity for more than occasional words4 ,nevertheless1 as ,i say1 he was not1 in the conversations ,i have heard1 a leading conversationalist2 his talk was never more than talk1 and in saying that it was uniformly sustained yet never declamatory1 ,i think ,i convey an idea both of its merits and limitations4 ,i understood that ,rossetti had never at any period of his life been an early riser1 and at the time of the interview in question he was more than ever before prone to reverse the natural order of waking and sleeping hours4 ,i am convinced that during the time ,i was with him only the necessity of securing a certain short interval of daylight1 by which it was possible to paint1 prevailed with him to rise before noon4 ,alluding to this idiosyncrasy1 he said3 8,i lie as long1 or say as late1 as ,dr4 ,johnson used to do4 ,you shall never know1 until you discover it for yourself1 at what hour ,i rise40 ,he sat up until four ,a4,m4 on this night of my second visit1--no unaccustomed thing1 as ,i afterwards learned4 ,i must not omit the mention of one feature of the conversation1 revealing to me a new side of his character1 or1 more properly1 a new phase of his mind1 which gave me subsequently an infinity of anxiety and distress4 ,branching off at a late hour from some entirely foreign topic1 he begged me to tell him the facts of some unlucky debate in which ,i had long before been engaged on a public platform with some one who had attacked him4 ,he had heard a report of what passed at a time when my name was unknown to him1 as also was that of his assailant4 ,being forewarned by ,william ,rossetti of his brother's peculiar sensitiveness to critical attack1 and having1 moreover1 observed something of the kind myself1 ,i tried to avoid a circumstantial statement of what passed4 ,but ,rossetti was1 as has been said by one who knew him well1 8of imagination all compact10 and my obvious desire to shelve the subject suggested to his mind a thousand inferences infinitely more damaging than the fact4 ,to avoid such a result ,i told him all1 and there was little in the way of attack to repeat beyond a few unwelcome strictures on his poem ,jenny4 ,he listened but too eagerly to what ,i was saying1 and then in a voice slower1 softer1 and more charged1 perhaps1 with emotion than ,i had heard before1 said it was the old story1 which began ten years before1 and would go on until he had been hunted and hounded to his grave4 ,startled1 and indeed1 appalled by so grave a view of what to me had seemed no more than an error of critical judgment1 coupled perhaps1 with some intemperance of condemnation1 ,i prayed of him to think no more of the matter1 reproached myself with having yielded to his importunity1 and begged him to remember that if one man held the opinions ,i had repeated1 many men held contrary ones4 8,it was right of you to tell me when ,i asked you10 he said1 8though my friends usually keep such facts from my knowledge4 ,as to ,jenny1 it is a sermon1 nothing less4 ,as ,i say1 it is a sermon1 and on a great world1 to most men unknown1 though few consider themselves ignorant of it4 ,but of this conspiracy to persecute me--what remains to say but that it is widespread and remorseless--one cannot but feel it40 ,i assured him there existed no conspiracy to persecute him3 that he had ardent upholders everywhere1 though it was true that few men had found crueller critics4 ,he shook his head1 and said ,i knew that what he had alleged was true1 namely that an organised conspiracy existed1 having for its object to annoy and injure him4 ,growing a little impatient of this delusion1 so tenaciously held1 against all show of reason1 ,i told him that it was no more than the fever of an oppressed brain brought about by his reclusive habits of life1 by shunning intercourse with all save some half dozen or more friends4 8,you tell me10 ,i said1 8that you have rarely been outside these walls for some years1 and your brain has meanwhile been breeding a host of hallucinations1 like cobwebs in a dark corner4 ,you have only to go abroad1 and the fresh air will blow these things away40 ,but continuing for some moments longer in the same strain1 he came to closer quarters and distressed me by naming as enemies three or four men who had throughout life been his friends1 who have spoken of him since his death in words of admiration and even affection1 and who had for a time fallen away from him or called on him but rarely1 from contingencies due to any cause but alienated friendship4 ,at length the time had arrived when it was considered prudent to retire4 8,you are to sleep in ,watts's room to-night10 he said3 and then in reply to a look of inquiry he added1 8,he comes here at least twice a week1 talking until four o'clock in the morning upon everything from poetry to the ,pleiades1 and driving away the bogies1 and as he lives at ,putney ,hill1 it is necessary to have a bed for him40 ,before going into my room he suggested that ,i should go and look1 at his4 ,it was entered from another and smaller room which he said that he used as a breakfast room4 ,the outer room was made fairly bright and cheerful by a glittering chandelier 7the property once1 he told me1 of ,david ,garrick71 and from the rustle of trees against the window-pane one perceived that it overlooked the garden2 but the inner room was dark with heavy hangings around the walls as well as the bed1 and thick velvet curtains before the windows1 so that the candles in our hands seemed unable to light it1 and our voices sounded thick and muffled4 ,an enormous black oak chimney-piece of curious design1 having an ivory crucifix on the largest of its ledges1 covered a part of one side and reached to the ceiling4 ,cabinets1 and the usual furniture of a bedroom1 occupied places about the floor3 and in the middle of it1 and before a little couch1 stood a small table on which was a wire lantern containing a candle which ,rossetti lit from the open one in his hand--another candle meantime lying by its side4 ,i remarked that he probably burned a light all night4 ,he said that was so4 8,my curse10 he added1 8is insomnia4 ,two or three hours hence ,i shall get up and lie on the couch1 and1 to pass away a weary hour1 read this book0--a volume of ,boswell's ,johnson which ,i noticed he took out of the bookcase as we left the studio4 ,it did not escape me that on the table stood two small bottles sealed and labelled1 together with a little measuring-glass4 ,without looking further at it1 but with a terrible suspicion growing over me1 ,i asked if that were his medicine4 8,they say there is a skeleton in every cupboard10 he said in a low voice1 8and that's mine2 it is chloral40 ,when ,i reached the room that ,i was to occupy during the night1 ,i found it1 like ,rossetti's bedroom1 heavy with hangings1 and black with antique picture panels1 with a ceiling 7unlike that of the other rooms in the house71 out of all reach or sight1 and so dark from various causes1 that the candle seemed only to glimmer in it--indeed to add to the darkness by making it felt4 ,mr4 ,watts1 as ,rossetti told me1 was entirely indifferent to these eerie surroundings1 even if his fine subjective intellect1 more prone to meditate than to observe1 was ever for an instant conscious of them2 but on myself ,i fear they weighed heavily1 and augmented the feeling of closeness and gloom which had been creeping upon me since ,i entered the house4 ,scattered about the room in most admired disorder were some outlandish and unheard-of books1 and all kinds of antiquarian and ,oriental oddities1 which books and oddities ,i afterwards learnt had been picked up at various times by the occupant in his ramblings about ,chelsea and elsewhere1 and never yet taken away by him1 but left there apparently to scare the chambermaid3 such as old carved heads and gargoyles of the most grinning and ghastly expression1 ,burmese and ,chinese ,buddhas in soapstone of every degree of placid ugliness1 together1 ,i am bound by force of truth to admit1 with one piece of carved ,italian marble in bas-relief1 of great interest and beauty4 ,such was my bed-chamber for the night1 and little wonder if it threatened to murder the innocent sleep4 ,but it was later than #d ,a4,m41 and wearied nature must needs assert herself1 and so ,i lay down amidst the odour of bygone ages4 ,presently ,rossetti came in1 for no purpose that ,i can remember1 except to say that he had enjoyed my visit ,i replied that ,i should never forget it4 8,if you decide to settle in ,london10 he said1 8,i trust you #8ll come and live with me1 and then many such evenings must remove the memory of this one40 ,i laughed1 for ,i thought what he hinted at to be of the remotest likelihood4 8,i have just taken sixty grains of chloral10 he said1 as he was going out2 8in four hours ,i take sixty more1 and in four hours after that yet another sixty40 8,does not the dose increase with you80 8,it has not done so perceptibly in recent years4 ,i judge ,i've taken more chloral than any man whatever3 ,marshall says if ,i were put into a ,turkish bath ,i should sweat it at every pore40 ,there was something in his tone suggesting that he was even proud of the accomplishment4 ,to me it was a frightful revelation1 accounting entirely for what had puzzled and distressed me in his delusions already referred to4 ,and now let me say that whilst it would have been on my part the most pitiful weakness 7because the most foolish tearfulness of injuring a great man who was strong enough to suffer a good deal to be discounted from his strength71 to attempt to conceal this painful side of ,rossetti's mind1 ,i shall not again allude to those delusions1 unless it be to show that1 coming to him with the drug which blighted half his life1 they disappeared when it had been removed4 ,none may rightly say to what the use of that drug was due1 or what was due to it2 the sadder side of his life was ever under its shadow2 his occasional distrust of friends3 his fear of enemies3 his broken health and shattered spirits1 all came of his indulgence in the pernicious thing4 ,when ,i remember this ,i am more than willing to put by all thought of the little annoyances1 which to me1 as to other immediate friends1 were constantly occurring through that cause1 which seemed at the moment so vexatious and often so insupportable1 but which are now forgotten4 ,next morning--7a clear autumn morning7--,i strolled through the large garden at the back of the house1 and of course ,i found it of a piece with what ,i had previously seen4 ,a beautiful avenue of lime-trees opened into a grass plot of nearly an acre in extent4 ,the trees were just as nature made them1 and so was the grass1 which in places was lying long1 dry and withered under the sun1 weeds creeping up in damp places1 and the gravel of the pathway scattered upon the verges4 ,this neglected condition of the garden was1 ,i afterwards found1 humorously charged upon ,mr4 ,watts's 8reluctance to interfere with nature in her clever scheme of the survival of the fittest10 but ,i suspect it was due at least equally to the owner's personal indifference to everything of the kind4 ,before leaving ,i glanced over the bookcase4 ,rossetti's library was by no means a large one4 ,it consisted1 perhaps1 of #ajjj volumes1 scarcely more2 and though this was not large as comprising the library of one whose reading must have been in two arts pursued as special studies1 and each involving research and minute original inquiry1 it cannot be considered noticeably small1 and it must have been sufficient4 ,rossetti differed strangely as a reader from the man to whom in bias of genius he was most nearly related4 ,coleridge was an omnivorous general reader3 ,rossetti was eclectic rather than desultory4 ,his library contained a number of valuable old works of more interest to him from their plates than letterpress4 ,of this kind were ,gerard's ,herbal 7#afbf71 supposed to be the source of many a hint utilised by the ,morris firm1 of which ,rossetti was a member2 ,poliphili ,hypnerotomachia 7#adfg72 ,heywood's ,history of ,women 7#afbd72 ,songe de ,poliphile 7#aefa72 ,bonnard's ,costumes of #abth1 #acth1 and l#dth ,centuries2 ,habiti ,antichi 7of which the designs are said to be by ,titian7--printed ,venice1 7#affd72 ,cosmographia1 a history of the peoples of the world 7#aegb72 ,ciceronis ,officia 7#aecd71 a blackletter folio1 with woodcuts by ,burgkmaier2 ,jost ,amman's ,costumes1 with woodcuts coloured by hand2 ,cento ,novelle 7,venice1 #aeih72 ,francesco ,barberino's ,documenti 7d',amore 7,rome1 #afdj72 ,dcoda de ,titolivio1 a ,spanish blackletter1 without date1 but probably belonging to the #afth century4 ,besides these were various vellum-bound works relating to ,greek and ,roman allegorical and mythological subjects1 and a number of scrap-books and portfolios containing photographs from nearly all the picture-galleries of ,europe1 but chiefly of the pictures of the early ,florentine and ,venetian schools1 with an admixture of ,spanish art4 ,of ,michael ,angelo's designs for the ,sistine ,chapel there was a fine set of photographs4 ,these did not make up a very complete ancient artistic library1 but ,rossetti's collection of the poets was more full and valuable4 ,there was a pretty little early edition of ,petrarch1 which appeared to have been presented first by ,john ,philip ,kemble to ,polidori 7,rossetti's grandfather7 in #ahab2 then in #ahec by ,polidori to his daughter1 ,rossetti's mother1 ,frances ,rossetti2 and by her in #ahgj to her son4 ,a splendid edition 7#aeeb7 of ,boccaccio's ,decamerone contained a number of valuable marginal notes1 chiefly by ,rossetti1 the first being as follows3 ,this volume contains #dj woodcuts besides many initial letters4 ,the greater number1 if not the whole1 must certainly be by ,holbein4 ,i am in doubt as to the pictures heading the chapters1 but think these most probably his1 only following the usual style of such illustrations to ,boccaccio1 and consequently more ,italianised than the others4 ,the initial letters present for the most part games of strength or skill4 ,there were various editions of ,dante1 including a very large folio edition of the ,commedia1 dated ,florence1 #adha1 and the works of a number of ,dante's contemporaries4 ,besides two or three editions of ,shakspeare 7the best being ,dyce's1 in #i vols471 there were some of the ,elizabethan dramatists4 ,coming to later poetry1 ,i found a complete set of ,gilfillan's ,poets1 in #de vols4 ,there was the curious little manuscript quarto 7much like a shilling school-exercise book7 labelled ,blake1 and this was1 perhaps1 by far the most valuable volume in the library4 ,the contents and history of this book have already been given4 ,there were two editions of ,gilchrist's ,blake2 complete 7or almost complete7 sets of the works of ,william ,morris and ,a4 ,c4 ,swinburne1 inscribed in the authors' autographs--the copy of ,atalanta in ,calydon being marked by the poet1 8,first copy2 printed off before the dedication was in type40 ,it may be remembered that ,robert ,brough translated ,branger's songs1 and dedicated his volume in affectionate terms to ,rossetti4 ,the presentation copy of this book bore the following inscription3--8,to ,d4 ,g4 ,rossetti1 meaning in my heart what ,i have tried to say in print4 ,et4 ,b4 ,brough4 #ahef40 ,there were also several presentation copies from ,robert ,browning1 ,coventry ,patmore1 ,w4 ,b4 ,scott1 ,sir ,henry ,taylor1 ,aubrey de ,vere1 ,tom ,taylor1 ,westland ,marston1 ,f4 ,locker1 ,a4 ,o',shaughnessy1 ,sir ,theodore ,martin2 besides volumes bearing the names of nearly every well-known younger writer of prose or verse4 ,five volumes of ,modern ,painters1 together with ,the ,seven ,lamps of ,architecture and the tract on ,pre-,raphaelitism1 bore the author's name and ,rossetti's in ,mr4 ,ruskin's autograph4 ,there was a fine copy in ten volumes of ,violet-le-,duc's ,dictionnaire de l',architecture1 and also of the ,biographie ,gnrale in forty-six volumes1 besides several dictionaries1 concordances1 and the like4 ,there was also a copy of ,fitzgerald's ,calderon4 ,rossetti seemed to be a reader of ,swedenborg1 as ,white's book on the great mystic testified2 also to have been at one time interested in the investigation of the phenomena of ,spiritualism4 ,of one writer of fiction he must have been an ardent reader1 for there were at least #ajj volumes by ,alexandre ,dumas4 ,german writers were conspicuously absent1 ,goethe's ,faust and ,carlyle's translation of ,wilhelm1 ,meister1 being about the only notable ,german works in the library4 ,rossetti did not appear to be a collector of first editions1 nor did it seem that he attached much importance to the mere outsides of his books1 but of the insides he was master indeed4 ,the impression left upon the mind after a rapid survey of the poet-painter's library was that he was a careful1 but slow and thorough reader 7as was seen by the marginal annotations which nearly every volume contained71 and that1 though very far from affected by bibliomania1 he was not without pride in the possession of rare and valuable books4 ,when ,i left the house at a late hour that morning ,rossetti was not yet stirring1 and so some months passed before ,i saw him again4 ,if ,i had tried to formulate the idea--or say sensation--that possessed me at the moment1 ,i think ,i should have said1 in a word or two1 that outside the air breathed freely4 ,within1 the gloom1 the mediaeval furniture1 the brass censers1 sacramental cups1 lamps2 and crucifixes conspired1 ,i thought1 to make the atmosphere heavy and unwholesome4 ,as for the man himself who was the central spirit amidst these anachronistic environments1 he had1 if possible1 attached me yet closer to himself by contact4 ,before this ,i had been attracted to him in admiration of his gifts3 but now ,i was drawn to him1 in something very like pity1 for his isolation and suffering4 ,not that at this time he consciously made demand of much compassion1 and least of all from me4 ,health was apparently whole with him1 his spirits were good1 and his energies were at their best4 ,he had not yet known the full bitterness of the shadowed valley3 not yet learned what it was to hunger for any cheerful society that would relieve him of the burden of the flesh4 ,all that came later4 ,rossetti was one of the most magnetic of men1 but it was not more his genius than his unhappiness that held certain of his friends by a spell4 ,,chapter ,,viii4 ,it was characteristic of ,rossetti that he addressed me in the following terms probably before ,i had left his house3 for the letter was1 no doubt1 written in that interval of sleeplessness which he had spoken of as his nightly visitant3 ,i forgot to say--,don't1 please1 spread details as to story of ,rose ,mary4 ,i don't want it to be stale or to get forestalled in the travelling of report from mouth to mouth4 ,i hope it won't be too long before you visit town again1--,i will not for an instant question that you would then visit me also4 ,six months or more intervened1 however1 before ,i was able to visit ,rossetti again4 ,in the meantime we corresponded as fully as before3 the subject upon which we most frequently exchanged opinions being now the sonnet4 ,by-the-bye he says1 ,i cannot understand what you say of ,milton's1 ,keats's1 and ,coleridge's sonnets4 ,the last1 it is true1 was always poor as a sonnetteer 7,i don't see much in the ,autumnal ,moon74 ,my own only exception to this verdict 7much as ,i adore ,coleridge's genius7 would be the ludicrous sonnet on ,the ,house that ,jack built1 which is a masterpiece in its way4 ,i should not myself number the one you mention of ,keats's among his best half-dozen 7many of his are mere drafts1 strange to say72 and cannot at all enter into your verdict on those of ,milton1 which seem to me to be every one of exceptional excellence1 though a few are even finer than the rest1 notably1 of course1 the one you name4 ,pardon an egotistic sentence 7in answer to what you say so generously of ,lost ,days71 if ,i express an opinion that ,known in ,vain and ,still-born ,love may perhaps be said to head the series in value1 though ,lost ,days might be equally a favourite with me if ,i did not remember in what but too opportune juncture it was wrung out of me4 ,i have a good number of sonnets for ,the ,house of ,life still in ,,ms41 which ,i have worked on with my best effort1 and1 ,i think1 will fully sustain their place4 ,these and other things ,i should like to show you whenever we meet again4 ,the ,,ms4 vol4 ,i proposed to send is merely an old set of 7chiefly7 trifles1 about which ,i should like an opinion as to whether any should be included in the future4 ,i had spoken of ,keats's sonnet beginning ,to one who has been long in city pent1 with its exquisite last lines-- ,e'en like the passage of an angel's tear ,that falls through the clear ether silently1 reminding one of a less spiritual figure-- ,kings like a golden jewel ,down a golden stair4 ,after his bantering me1 as of old he had done1 on the use of long and crabbed words1 ,i hinted that he was in honour bound to agree at least with my disparaging judgment upon ,tetrachordon1 if only because of the use of words that would 8have made ,quintillian stare40 ,i further instanced-- 8,harry whose tuneful and well-measured song20 and 8,lawrence1 of virtuous father virtuous son10 as examples of ,milton at his weakest as a sonnet-writer4 ,he replied3 ,i am sorry ,i must still differ somewhat from you about ,milton's sonnets4 ,i think the one on ,tetrachordon a very vigorous affair indeed4 ,the one to ,mr4 ,h4 ,lawes ,i am half disposed to give you1 but not altogether--its close is sweet4 ,as to ,lawrence1 it is curious that my sister was only the other day expressing to me a special relish for this sonnet1 and ,i do think it very fresh and wholesomely relishing myself4 ,it is an awful fact that sun1 moon1 or candlelight once looked down on the human portent of ,dr4 ,johnson and ,mrs4 ,hannah ,more convened in solemn conclave above the outspread sonnets of ,milton1 with a meritorious and considerate resolve of finding out for him 8why they were so bad40 ,this is so stupendous a warning1 that perhaps it may even incline one to find some of them better than they are4 ,coming to ,coleridge1 ,i must confess at once that ,i never meet in any collection with the sonnet on ,schiller's ,robbers without heading it at once with the words 8unconscionably bad40 ,the habit has been a life-long one4 ,that you mention beginning--8,sweet mercy10 etc41 ,i have looked for in the only ,coleridge ,i have by me 7my brother's cheap edition1 for all the faults of which he is not at all answerable71 and do not find it there1 nor have ,i it in mind4 ,to pass to ,keats4 ,the ed4 of #ahfh contains no sonnet on the ,elgin ,marbles4 ,is it in a later edition8 ,of course that on ,chapman's ,homer is supreme4 ,it ought to be preceded 99 in all editions by the one ,to ,homer1 8,standing aloof in giant ignorance10 etc4 which contains perhaps the greatest single line in ,keats3 8,there is a budding morrow in midnight40 99 ,i pointed out that it was written later than the one on ,chapman's ,homer 7notwithstanding its first line7 and therefore should follow after it1 not go before4 ,other special favourites with me are--8,why did ,i laugh to- night80--0 ,as ,hermes once10--8,time's sea hath been10 and the one ,on the ,flower and1 ,leaf4 ,it is odd that several of these best ones seem to have been early work1 and rejected by ,keats in his lifetime1 while some of those he printed are absolutely sorry drafts4 ,i had admired ,coleridge's sonnet on ,schiller's ,robbers for the perhaps minor excellence of bringing vividly before the mind the scenes it describes4 ,if the sonnet is unconscionably bad so perhaps is the play1 the beautiful scene of the setting sun notwithstanding4 ,eventually1 however1 ,i abandoned my belligerent position as to ,milton's sonnets3 the army of authorities ,i found ranged against the modest earth-works within which ,i had entrenched myself must of itself have made me quail4 ,my utmost contention had been that ,milton wrote the most impassioned sonnet 7,avenge1 ,o ,lord71 the two most nobly pathetic sonnets 7,when ,i consider and ,methought ,i saw71 and one of the poorest sonnets 7,harry1 whose tuneful1 etc47 in ,english poetry4 ,at this time 7,september #ahhj7 ,mr4 ,j4 ,ashcroft ,noble published an essay on ,the ,sonnet in ,england in ,the ,contemporary ,review1 and relating thereto ,rossetti wrote3 ,i have just been reading ,mr4 ,noble's article on the sonnet4 ,as regards my own share in it1 ,i can only say that it greets me with a gratifying ray of generous recognition4 ,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 myself4 ,i see a passage in the article which seems meant to indicate the want of such a work on the sonnet as you are wishing to supply4 ,i only trust that you may do so1 and that ,mr4 ,noble may find a field for continued poetic criticism4 ,i am very proud to think that1 after my small and solitary book has been a good many years published and several years out of print1 it yet meets with such ardent upholding by young and sincere men4 ,with the verdicts given throughout the article1 ,i generally sympathise1 but not with the unqualified homage to ,wordsworth4 ,a reticence almost invariably present is fatal in my eyes to the highest pretensions on behalf of his sonnets4 ,reticence is but a poor sort of muse1 nor is tentativeness 7so often to be traced in his work7 a good accompaniment in music4 ,take the sonnet on ,toussaint ,l',ouverture 7in my opinion his noblest1 and very noble indeed7 and study 7from ,main's note7 the lame and fumbling changes made in various editions of the early lines1 which remain lame in the end4 ,far worse than this1 study the relation of the closing lines of his famous sonnet ,the ,world is too much with us1 etc41 to a passage in ,spenser1 and say whether plagiarism was ever more impudent or manifest 7again ,i derive from ,main's excellent exposition of the point71 and then consider whether a bard was likely to do this once and yet not to do it often4 ,primary vital impulse was surely not fully developed in his muse4 ,i will venture to say that ,i wish my sister's sonnet work had met with what ,i consider the justice due to it4 ,besides the unsurpassed quality 7in my opinion7 of her best sonnets1 my sister has proved her poetic importance by solid and noble inventive work of many kinds1 which ,i should be proud indeed to reckon among my life's claims4 ,i have a great weakness myself for many of ,tennyson-,turner's sonnets1 though of course what ,mr4 ,noble says of them is in the main true1 and he has certainly quoted the very finest one1 which has a more fervent appeal for me than ,i could easily derive from ,wordsworth in almost any case4 ,will you give my thanks to ,mr4 ,noble for his frank and outspoken praise8 ,let me hear of your doings and intentions4 ,ever sincerely yours4 ,three names notably omitted in the article are those of ,dobell1 ,w4 ,b4 ,scott1 and ,swinburne4 ,the allusion in the foregoing letter to the work on the ,sonnet which ,i was aiming to supply1 bears reference to the anthology subsequently published under the title of ,sonnets of ,three ,centuries4 ,my first idea was simply to write a survey of the art and history of the sonnet1 printing only such examples as might be embraced by my critical comments4 ,rossetti's generous sympathy was warmly engaged in this enterprise4 ,it would really warm me up much he writes to know of your editing a sonnet book ,you would have my best cooperation as to suggesting examples1 but ,i certainly think that ,english sonnets 7original and exceptionally translated ones1 the latter only perhaps7 should be the sole scheme4 ,curiously enough1 some one wrote me the other day as to a projected series of living sonneteers 7other collections being only of those preceding our time74 ,i have half committed myself to contributing1 but not altogether as yet4 ,the name of the projector1 ,s4 ,waddington1 is new to me1 and ,i don't know who is to publish4444 ,really you ought to do the sonnet-book you aspire to do4 ,i know but of one ,london critic 7,theodore ,watts7 whom ,i should consider the leading man for such a purpose1 and ,i have tried to incite him to it so often that ,i know now he won't do it2 but ,i have always meant a complete series in which the dead poets must1 of course1 predominate4 ,as to a series of the living only1 ,i told you of a ,mr4 ,waddington who seems engaged on such a supplementary scheme4 ,what his gifts for it may be ,i know not1 but ,i suppose he knows it is in requisition4 ,however1 there need not be but one such if you felt your hand in for it4 ,his view happens to be also 7as you suggest7 about #afj sonnets4 ,in reply to your query1 ,i certainly think there must be #bj living writers 7male and female--my sister a leader1 ,i consider7 who have written good sonnets such as would afford an interesting and representative selection1 though assuredly not such as would all take the rank of classics by any means4 ,the number of sonnets now extant1 written by poets who did not exist as such a dozen years ago1 ,i believe to be almost infinite1 and in sufficiently numerous instances good1 however derivative4 ,one younger poet among them1 ,philip ,marston1 has written many sonnets which yield to few or none by any poet whatever2 but he has printed such a large number in the aggregate1 and so unequal one with the other1 that the great ones are not to be found by opening at random4 8,how are they 7the poets7 to be approached8--0 you innocently ask4 ,ye heavens6 how does the cat's-meat-man approach ,grimalkin8--and what is that relation in life when compared to the rapport established between the living bard and the fellow-creature who is disposed to cater to his caterwauling appetite for publicity8 ,however1 to be serious1 ,i must at least exonerate the bard1 ,i am sure1 from any desire to appropriate an 8interest in the proceeds40 ,there are some1 ,i feel certain1 to whom the collector might say with a wink1 8,what are you going to stand80 ,i do not myself think that a collection of sonnets inserted at intervals in an essay is a good form for the purpose4 ,such a book is from one chief point a book of instantaneous reference1--it would only1 perhaps1 be read through once in a lifetime4 ,for this purpose a well-indexed current series is best1 with any desirable essay prefixed and notes affixed4444 ,i once conceived of a series1 to be entitled1 center ,,the ,,english ,,castaly3 ,a ,,quintessence3 ,,being ,a ,,collection ,,of ,,all ,,that ,,is ,,best ,,in ,,all ,,english ,,poets1 ,,excepting ,,works ,,of ,,great ,,length4 _/center ,i still think this a good idea1 but1 of course1 it would be an extensive undertaking4 ,later on1 he wrote3 ,i have thought of a title for your book4 ,what think you of this8 center ,a ,,sonnet ,,sequence ,,from ,,elder ,,to ,,modern ,,work1 ,,with ,,fifty ,,hitherto ,,unprinted ,,sonnets ,,by ,,living ,,writers4 _/center ,that would not be amiss4 ,tell me if you think of using the title ,a ,sonnet ,sequence1 as otherwise ,i might use it in the ,house of ,life4444 ,what do you think of this alternative title3 center ,,the ,,english ,,sonnet ,,muse ,,from ,,elizabeth',s ,,reign ,,to ,,victoria',s4 _/center ,i think ,castalia much too euphuistic1 and though ,i shouldn't like the book to be called simply still ,i have a great prejudice against very florid titles for such gatherings4 ,treasury has been sadly run upon4 ,i did not like ,sonnet ,sequence for such a collection1 and relinquished the title2 moreover1 ,i had had from the first a clearly defined scheme in mind1 carrying its own inevitable title1 which was in due course adopted4 ,i may here remark that ,i never resisted any idea of ,rossetti's at the moment of its inception1 since resistance only led to a temporary outburst of self-assertion on his part4 ,he was a man of so much impulse1--impulse often as violent as lawless--that to oppose him merely provoked anger to no good purpose1 for as often as not the position at first adopted with so much pertinacity was afterwards silently abandoned1 and your own aims quietly acquiesced in4 ,on this subject of a title he wrote a further letter1 which is interesting from more than one point of view3 ,i don't like ,garland at all ,c4 ,patmore collected a ,children's ,garland4 ,i think center ,,english ,,sonnet',s ,,present ,,and ,,past1 ,,with--,,etc41 _/center would be a good title4 ,i think ,i prefer ,present and ,past1 or of the ,p4 and ,p41 to ,new and ,old for your purpose2 but ,i own ,i am partly influenced by the fact that ,i have settled to call my own vol4 ,poems ,new and ,old1 and don't want it to get staled2 but ,i really do think the other at least as good for your purpose--perhaps more dignified4 ,again1 in reply to a proposal of my own1 he wrote3 ,i think ,sonnets of the ,century an excellent idea and title4 ,i must say a mass of ,wordsworth over again1 like ,main's1 is a little disheartening1--still the best selection from him is what one wants4 ,there is some book called ,a ,century of ,sonnets1 but this1 ,i suppose1 would not matter4444 ,i think sometimes of your sonnet-book1 and have formed certain views4 ,i really would not in your place include old work at all3 it would be but a scanty gathering1 and ,i feel certain that what is really in requisition is a supplement to ,main1 containing living writers 7printed and un-printed7 put together under their authors' names 7not separately7 and rare gleanings from those more recently dead4 ,i fear ,i did not attach importance to this decision1 for ,i now knew my correspondent too well to rely upon his being entirely in the same mind for long4 ,hence ,i was not surprised to receive the following a day or two later3 ,i lately had a conversation with ,watts about your sonnet- book1 and find his views to be somewhat different from what ,i had expressed1 and ,i may add ,i think now he is right4 ,he says there should be a very careful selection of the elder sonnets and of everything up to present century4 ,i think he is right4 ,the fact is1 that almost from the first ,i had taken a view similar to ,mr4 ,watts's as to the design of my book1 and had determined to call the anthology by the title it now bears4 ,on one occasion1 however1 ,i acted rather without judgment in sending ,rossetti a synopsis of certain critical tests formulated by ,mr4 ,watts in a letter of great power and value4 ,in the letter in question ,mr4 ,watts seemed to be setting himself to confute some extremely ill-considered remarks made in a certain quarter upon the structure of the sonnet1 where 7following ,macaulay7 the critic says that there exists no good reason for requiring that even the conventional limit as to length should be observed1 and that the only use in art of the legitimate model is to 8supply a poet with something to do when his invention fails40 ,i confess to having felt no little amazement that one so devoid of a perception of the true function of the sonnet should have been considered a proper person to introduce a great sonnet-writer2 and ,mr4 ,watts 7who1 however1 made no mention of the writer7 clearly demonstrated that the true sonnet has the foundation of its structure in a fixed metrical law1 and hence1 that as it is impossible 7as ,keats found out for himself7 to improve upon the accepted form1 that model--known as the ,petrarchian--should1 with little or no variation1 be worked upon4 ,rossetti took fire1 however1 from a mistaken notion that ,mr4 ,watts's canons1 as given in the letter in question1 and merely reported by me1 were much more inflexible than they really proved4 ,sonnets of mine could not appear in any book which contained such rigid rules as to rhyme1 as are contained in ,watts's letter4 ,i neither follow them1 nor agree with them as regards the ,english language4 ,every sonnet-writer should show full capability of conforming to them in many instances1 but never to deviate from them in ,english must pinion both thought and diction1 and1 7mastery once proved7 a series gains rather than loses by such varieties as do not lessen the only absolute aim--that of beauty4 ,the ,english sonnet too much tampered with becomes a sort of bastard madrigal4 ,too much1 invariably restricted1 it degenerates into a ,shibboleth4 ,dante's sonnets 7in reply to your question--not as part of the above point7 vary in arrangement4 ,i never for a moment thought of following in my book the rhymes of each individual sonnet4 ,if sonnets of mine remain admissible1 ,i should prefer printing the two ,on ,cassandra to ,the ,monochord and ,wine of ,circe4 ,i would not be too anxious1 were ,i you1 about anything in choice of sonnets except the brains and the music4 ,again he wrote3 ,i talked to ,watts about his letter4 ,he seems to agree with me as to advisable variation of form in preference to transmuting valuable thought4 ,it would not be afc all found that my best sonnets are always in the mere form which ,i think the best4 ,the question with me is regulated by what ,i have to say4 ,but in truth1 if ,i have a distinction as a sonnet-writer1 it is that ,i never admit a sonnet which is not fully on the level of every other4444 ,again1 as to this blessed question1 though no one ever took more pleasure in continually using the form ,i prefer when not interfering with thought1 to insist on it would after a certain point be ruin to common sense4 ,as to what you say of ,the ,one ,hope--it is fully equal to the very best of my sonnets1 or ,i should not have wound up the series with it4 ,but the fact is1 what is peculiar chiefly in the series is1 that scarcely one is worse than any other4 ,you have much too great a habit of speaking of a special octave1 sestette1 or line4 ,conception1 my boy1 fundamental brainwork1 that is what makes the difference in all art4 ,work your metal as much as you like1 but first take care that it is gold and worth working4 ,a ,shakspearean sonnet is better than the most perfect in form1 because ,shakspeare wrote it4 ,as for ,drayton1 of course his one incomparable sonnet is the ,love-,parting4 ,that is almost the best in the language1 if not quite4 ,i think ,i have now answered queries1 and it is late4 ,good-night6 ,rossetti had somewhat mistaken the scope of the letter referred to1 and when he came to know exactly what was intended1 ,i found him in warm agreement with the views therein taken4 ,i have said at an earlier stage that ,rossetti's instinct for what was good in poetry was unfailing1 whatever the value of his opinions on critical principles1 and hence ,i felt naturally anxious to have the benefit of his views on certain of the elder writers4 ,he said3 ,i am sorry ,i am no adept in elder sonnet literature4 ,many of ,donne's are remarkable--no doubt you glean some4 ,none of ,shakspeare's is more indispensable than the wondrous one on ,last 7#abi74 ,hartley ,coleridge's finest is 8,if ,i have sinned in act1 ,i may repent40 ,there is a fine one by ,isaac ,williams1 evidently on the death of a worldly man1 and he wrote other good ones4 ,to return to the old1 ,i think ,stillingfleet's ,to ,williamson very fine4444 ,i would like to send you a list of my special favourites among ,shakspeare's sonnets--viz43-- #ae1 #bg1 #bi1 #cj1 #cf1 #dd1 #de1 #di1 #ej1 #eb1 #ee1 #ef1 #ei1 #fa1 #fb1 #fd1 #fe1 #ff1 #fh1 #ga1 #gc1 #gf1 #gg1 #ij1 #ic1 #id1 #ig1 #ih1 #ii1 #ajb1 #ajg1 #aaj1 #aaf1 #aag1 #aai1 #abj1 #abc1 #abi1 #ace1 #acf1 #ach1 #add1 #ade4 ,i made the selection long ago1 and of course love them in varying degrees4 ,there should be an essential reform in the printing of ,shakspeare's sonnets4 ,after sonnet #abe should occur the words ,end of ,part ,i4 ,the couplet-piece1 numbered #abf1 should be called ,epilogue to ,part ,i44 ,then1 before #abg1 should be printed ,part ,,ii4 ,after #aeb1 should be put ,end of ,part ,,ii4--and the two last sonnets should be called ,epilogue to ,part ,,ii4 ,about these two last ,i have a theory of my own4 ,did you ever see the excellent remarks on these sonnets in my brother's ,lives of ,famous ,poets8 ,i think a simple point he mentions 7for first time7 fixes ,pembroke clearly as the male friend4 ,i am glad you like his own two fine sonnets4 ,i wish he would write more such4 ,by the bye1 you speak with great scorn of the closing couplet in sonnets4 ,i do not certainly think that form the finest1 but ,i do think this and every variety desirable in a series1 and have often used it myself4 ,i like your letters on sonnets2 write on all points in question4 ,the two last of ,shakspeare's sonnets seem to me to have a very probable 7and rather elaborate7 meaning never yet attributed to them4 ,some day1 when ,i see you1 we will talk it over4 ,did you ever see a curious book by one ,brown 7,i don't mean ,armitage ,brown7 on ,shakspeare's sonnets8 ,by the bye1 he is not the source of my notion as above1 but a matter of fact he names helps in it4 ,i never saw ,massey's book on the subject1 but fancy his views and ,brown's are somewhat allied4 ,you should look at what my brother says1 which is very concise and valuable4 ,i hope ,i am not omitting to answer you in any essential point1 but my writing-table is a chaos into which your last letters have1 for the moment1 sunk beyond recovery4 ,i consider the foregoing1 perhaps1 the most valuable of ,rossetti's letters to me4 ,i cannot remember that we ever afterwards talked over the two last sonnets of ,shakspeare2 if we did so1 the meaning attached to them by him did not fix itself very definitely upon my memory4 ,in explanation of my alleged dislike of the closing couplet1 ,i may say that a rhymed couplet at the close of a sonnet has an effect upon my ear similar to that produced by the couplets at the ends of some of the acts of ,shakspeare's plays1 which were in many instances interpolated by the actors to enable them to make emphatic exits4 ,i must now group together a number of short notes on sonnets3 ,i think ,blanco ,white's sonnet difficult to overrate in thought--probably in this respect unsurpassable1 but easy to overrate as regards its workmanship4 ,of course there is the one fatally disenchanting line3 ,while fly and leaf and insect stood revealed4 ,the poverty of vision which could not see at a glance that fly and insect were one and the same1 is1 as you say1 enough to account for its being the writer's only sonnet 7there is one more however which ,i don't know74 ,i'll copy you overpage a sonnet which ,i consider a very fine one1 but which may be said to be quite unknown4 ,it is by ,charles ,whitehead1 who wrote the very admirable and exceptional novel of ,richard ,savage1 published somewhere about #ahdj4 ,even as yon lamp within my vacant room ,with arduous flame disputes the doubtful night1 ,and can with its involuntary light ,but lifeless things that near it stand illume2 ,yet all the while it doth itself consume1 ,and ere the sun hath reached his morning height ,with courier beams that greet the shepherd's sight1 ,there where its life arose must be its tomb3-- ,so wastes my life away1 perforce confined ,to common things1 a limit to its sphere1 ,it gleams on worthless trifles undesign'd1 ,with fainter ray each hour imprison'd here4 ,alas to know that the consuming mind ,must leave its lamp cold ere the sun appear6 ,i am sure you will agree with me in admiring that4 ,i quote from memory1 and am not sure that ,i have given line #f quite correctly4444 ,i have just had ,blanco ,white's only other sonnet 7,on being called an ,old ,man at #ej7 copied out for you4 ,i do certainly think it ought to go in1 though no better than so-so1 as you say4 ,but it is just about as good as the former one1 but for the leading and splendid thought in the latter4 ,both are but proseman's diction4 ,there is a sonnet of ,chas4 ,wells's ,on ,chaucer which is not worthy of its writer1 but still you should have it4 ,it occurs among some prefatory tributes in ,chaucer ,modernised1 edited by ,e4 ,h4 ,home4 ,i don't know how you are to get a copy1 but the book is in the ,british ,museum ,reading ,room4 ,the sonnet is signed ,c4 ,w4 only4 ,the sonnet by ,wells seemed to me in every respect poor1 and as it was no part of my purpose 7as an admirer of ,wells7 to advertise what the poet could not do1 ,i determined--against ,rossetti's judgment--not to print the sonnet4 ,you certainly1 in my opinion1 ought to print ,wells's sonnet4 ,certainly nothing so disjointed ever gave itself the name before1 but it ought to be available for reference1 and ,i do not agree with you in considering it weak in any sense except that of structure4 ,there is a sonnet by ,ebenezer ,jones1 beginning 8,i never wholly feel that summer is high10 which1 though very jagged1 has decided merit to warrant its insertion4 ,as for ,tennyson1 he seems to have given leave for a sonnet to appear in ,main's book4 ,why not in yours8 ,but ,i have long ceased to know him1 nor is any friend of mine in communication with him4444 ,my brother has written in his time a few sonnets4 ,two of them ,i think very fine-- especially the one called ,shelley's ,heart1 which he has lately worked upon again with immense advantage4444 ,you do not tell me from whom you have received sonnets4 ,the reason which prevents my coming forward1 in such a difficulty1 with a new sonnet of my own1 is this3--which indeed you have probably surmised3 ,i know nothing would gratify malevolence1 after the controversy which ensued on your lecture1 more than to be able to assert1 however falsely1 that we had been working in concert all along1 that you were known to me from the first1 and that your advocacy had no real spontaneity4444 ,when you first entered on the subject1 and wrote your lecture1 you were a perfect stranger to me1 and that fact greatly enhanced my pleasure in its enthusiastic tone4 ,i hope sincerely that we may have further and close opportunities of intercourse1 but should like whatever you may write of me to come from the old source of intellectual affinity only4 ,that you should think the subject worthy of further labour is a pleasure to me1 but ,i only trust it may not be a disadvantage to your book in unfriendly eyes1 particularly if that view happened to be the proposed publisher's1 in which case ,i should much prefer that this section of your work were withdrawn for a more propitious occasion4444 ,i am very glad ,brown is furthering your sonnet- book--he knows so many bards4 ,of course if ,i were you1 ,i should keep an eye on the mouths even of gift-horses2 but were a creditable stud to be trotted out1 of course ,i should be willing2 as were ,i one among many1 the objection ,i noted would not exist4 ,i do not mean for a moment to say that many very fine sonnets might not be obtained from poets not yet known or not widely known2 but known names would be the things to parry the difficulty4 ,later he wrote3 ,as you know1 ,i want to contribute to your volume if ,i can do so without fear of the consequences hinted at in a former letter as likely to ensue1 so ,i now enclose a sonnet of my own4 ,if you are out in ,march #ahha1 you may be before my new edition1 but ,i am getting my stock together4 ,not a word of this however1 as it mustn't get into gossip paragraphs at present4 ,the ,house of ,life is now a hundred sonnets--all lyrics being removed4 ,besides this series1 ,i have forty-five sonnets extra4 ,i think1 as you are willing1 ,i shall use the title ,i sent you--,a ,sonnet ,sequence4 ,i fancy the alternative title would be briefer and therefore better as center ,,our ,,sonnet-,,muse ,,prom ,,elizabeth ,,to ,,victoria _/center ,i could not be much concerned about the unwillingness to give me a new sonnet which ,rossetti at first exhibited1 for ,i knew full well that sooner or later the sonnet would come4 ,not that ,i recognised in him the faintest scintillation of the affectation so common among authors as to the publication of work4 ,but the fear of any appearance of collusion between himself and his critics was1 as he said1 a bugbear that constantly haunted him4 ,owing to this1 a stranger often stood a better chance of securing his ready and open co-operation than the most intimate of friends4 ,i frequently yielded to his desire that in anything that ,i might write his name should not be mentioned--too frequently by far1 to my infinite vexation at the time1 and now to my deep and ineradicable regret4 ,the sonnet-book out of which arose much of the correspondence printed in this chapter1 contains in its preface and notes hardly an allusion to him1 and yet he was1 in my judgment1 out of all reach and sight1 the greatest sonnet-writer of his time4 ,the sonnet first sent was ,pride of ,youth1 but as this formed part of ,the ,house of ,life series1 it was withdrawn1 and ,raleigh's ,cell in the ,tower was substituted ,the following hitherto unpublished sonnet was also contributed but withdrawn at the last moment1 because of its being out of harmony with the sonnets selected to accompany it3 ,,on ,,certain ,,elizabethan ,,revivals4 ,o ruff-embastioned vast ,elizabeth1 ,bush to these bushel-bellied casks of wine1 ,home-growth1 #8tis true1 but rank as turpentine1-- ,what would we with such skittle-plays at death ,say1 must we watch these brawlers' brandished lathe1 ,or to their reeking wit our ears incline1 ,because all ,castaly flowed crystalline ,in gentle ,shakspeare's modulated breath6 ,what6 must our drama with the rat-pit vie1 ,nor the scene close while one is left to kill6 ,shall this be poetry ,and thou--thou--man ,of blood1 thou cannibalic ,caliban1 ,what shall be said to thee8--a poet8--,fie6 8,an honourable murderer1 if you will0 ,i mentioned to you he says ,william ,davies1 author of ,songs of a ,wayfarer 7by the bye1 another man has since adopted his title74 ,he has many excellent sonnets1 and is a valued friend of mine4 ,i shall send you1 on his behalf1 a copy of the book for selection of what you may please4444 ,it is very unequal1 but the best truly excellent4 ,the sonnets are numerous1 and some good1 though the best work in the book is not among them4 ,there are two poems--,the ,garden1 and another called1 ,i think1 ,on a dried-up ,spring1 which are worthy of the most fastidious collections4 ,many of the poems are unnamed1 and the whole has too much of a ,herrick air4 4 4 4 ,it is quite refreshing to find you so pleased with my good friend ,davies's book1 and ,i wish he were in ,london1 as ,i would have shown him what you say1 which ,i know would have given him pleasure4 ,he is a man who suffers much from moods of depression1 in spite of his philosophic nature4 ,i have marked fifty pieces of different kinds throughout his book1 and of these twenty-nine are sonnets4 ,had those fifty been alone printed1 ,davies would now be remembered and not forgotten3 but all poets now-a-days are redundant except ,tennyson4 444 ,i am this evening writing to ,davies1 who is in ,rome1 and could not resist enclosing what you say1 with so much experimental appreciativeness of his book1 and of his intention to fill it with moral sunshine4 ,i am sure he #8ll send a new sonnet if he has one1 but ,i fancy his bardic day is over4 ,i should think he was probably not subject to melancholy when he wrote the ,wayfarer4 ,however1 he tells me that his spirits have improved in ,italy4 ,one other little book of ,herrickian verse he has written1 called ,the ,shepherd6s ,garden1 but there are no sonnets in it4 ,besides this1 he published a volume containing a record of travel of a very interesting kind1 and called ,the ,pilgrimage of the ,tiber4 ,this is well known4 ,it is illustrated1 many of the drawings being by himself1 for he is quite as much painter as poet4 ,he also wrote in ,the ,quarterly ,review an article on the sonnet 7,i should think about #ahgj or so71 and1 a little later1 one which raised great wrath1 on the ,english ,school of ,painting4 ,these ,i have not seen4 ,he 8lacks advancement10 however2 having fertile powers and little opportunity1 and being none the luckier 7,i think7 for a small independence which keeps off compulsion to work1 though of willingness he has abundance in many directions4 ,there is an admirable but totally unknown living poet named ,dixon4 ,i will send you two small vols1 of his which he gave me long ago1 but please take good care of them1 and return them as soon as done with4 ,i value them highly4 ,i forgot till to-day that he had written any sonnets1 but ,i see there are three in one vol4 and one in another4 ,i have marked my two favourites4 ,he should certainly be represented in your book4 ,if ,i live1 ,i mean to write something about him in some quarter when ,i can4 ,his finest passages are as fine as any living man can do4 ,he was a canon of ,carlisle ,cathedral1 and at present has a living somewhere4 ,if you wanted to ask him for an original sonnet1 you might mention my name1 and address him at ,carlisle with ,please forward4 ,of course he is a ,rev4 ,you will be sorry to hear that ,davies has abandoned the hope of producing a new sonnet to his own satisfaction4 ,i have again1 however1 urged him to the onslaught1 and told him how deserving you are of his efforts4 ,swinburne1 who is a vast admirer of my sister's1 thinks the ,advent perhaps the noblest of all her poems1 and also specially loves the ,passing ,away4 ,i do not know that ,i quite agree with your decided preference for the two sonnets of hers you signalise1--the ,world is very fine1 but the other1 ,dead before ,death1 a little sensational for her4 ,i think ,after ,death one of her noblest1 and the one ,after ,communion4 ,in my own view1 the greatest of all her poems is that on ,france after the siege--,to-,day for ,me4 ,a very splendid piece of feminine ascetic passion is ,the ,convent ,threshold4 ,i have run the sonnet you like1 ,st4 ,luke the ,painter1 into a sequence with two more not yet printed1 and given the three a general title of ,old and ,new ,art1 as well as special titles to each4 ,i shall annex them to ,the ,house of ,life4 ,have you ever read ,vaughan8 ,he resembles ,donne a good deal as to quaintness1 but with a more emotional personality4 ,i have altered the last line of octave in ,lost ,days4 ,it now runs-- 8,the undying throats of ,hell1 athirst alway40 ,i always had it in my mind to make a change here1 as the in standing in the line in its former reading clashed with in occurring in the previous line4 ,i have done what ,i think is a prime sonnet on the murdered ,czar1 which ,i enclose1 but don't show it to a soul4 ,theodore ,watts is going to print a very fine sonnet of his own in ,the ,athenum4 ,it is the first verse he ever put in print1 though he wrote much 7when a very young man74 ,tell me how you like it4 ,i think he is destined to shine in that class of poetry4 ,i knew you must like ,watts's sonnets4 ,they are splendid affairs4 ,i am not sure that ,i agree with you in liking the first the better of the two3 the second 7,natura ,maligna7 is perhaps the deeper and finer4 ,i have asked ,watts to give you a new sonnet1 and ,i think perhaps he will do so1 or at all events give you permission to use those he has printed4 ,he has just come into the room1 and says he would like to hear from you on the subject4 ,from one rather jocular sentence in your note ,i judge you may include some sonnets of your own4 ,i see no possible reason why you should not4 ,you are really now1 at your highest1 among our best sonnet-writers1 and have written two or three sonnets that yield to few or none whatever4 ,i am forced1 however1 to request that you will not put in the one referring to myself1 from my constant bugbear of any appearance of collusion4 ,that sonnet is a very fine one--my brother was showing it me again the other day4 ,it is not my personal gratification alone1 though that is deep1 because ,i know you are sincere1 which leads me to the conclusion that it is your best1 and very fine indeed4 ,i think your ,cumberland sonnet admirable4 ,the sonnet on ,byron is extremely musical in flow and the symbolic scenery of exceptional excellence4 ,the view taken is the question with me4 ,byron's vehement directness1 at its best1 is a lasting lesson3 and1 dubious monument as ,don ,juan may be1 it towers over the century4 ,of course there is truth in what you say2 but ought it to be the case8 and is it the case in any absolute sense8 ,you deal frankly with your sonnets1 and do not shrink from radical change4 ,i think that on ,oliver much better than when ,i saw it before4 ,the opening phrases of both octave and sestette are very fine2 but the second quatrain and the second terzina1 though with a quality of beauty1 both seem somewhat to lack distinctness4 ,the word rivers cannot be used with elision--the v is a hard pebble in the flow1 and so are the closing consonants4 ,you must put up with streams if you keep the line4 ,you should have ,bailey's dedicatory sonnet in ,festus4 ,i am enclosing a fine sonnet by ,william ,bell ,scott1 which ,i wished him to let me send you for your book4 ,it has not yet been printed4 ,i think ,i heard of some little chaffy matter between him and you1 but1 doubtless1 you have virtually forgotten all about it4 ,i must say frankly that ,i think the day when you made the speech he told me of must have been rather a wool-gathering one with you4444 ,i suppose you know that ,scott has written a number of fine sonnets contained in his vol of ,poems published about #ahge1 ,i think4 ,i directed the attention of ,mr4 ,waddington 7whom1 however1 ,i don't know personally7 to a most noble sonnet by ,fanny ,kemble1 beginning1 8,art thou already weary of the way80 ,he has put it in1 and several others of hers1 but she is very unequal1 and ,i don't know if the others should be there1 but you should take the one in question4 ,it sadly wants new punctuation1 being vilely printed just as ,i first saw it when a boy in some twopenny edition4 ,in a memoir of ,gilchrist1 appended now by his widow to the ,life of ,blake1 there is a sonnet by ,g41 perhaps interesting enough1 as being exceptional1 for you to ask for it2 but ,i don't advise you1 if you don't think it worth4 ,i have received from ,mrs4 ,meynell1 a sister of ,eliz4 ,thompson1 the painter1 a most genuine little book of poems containing some sonnets of true spiritual beauty4 ,i must send it you4 ,this book had just then been introduced to ,rossetti with much warmth of praise by ,mr4 ,watts1 and he took to it vastly4 ,this closes ,rossetti's interesting letters on sonnet literature4 ,in reprinting his first volume of ,poems he had determined to remove the sonnets of ,the ,house of ,life to the new volume of ,ballads and ,sonnets1 and fill the space with the fragment of a poem written in youth1 and now called ,the ,bride's ,prelude4 ,he sent me a proof4 ,the reader will remember that as a narrative fragment it is less remarkable for striking incident 7though never failing of interest and picturesqueness7 than for a slow and psychical development which ultimately gained a great hold of the sympathies4 ,the poem leaves behind it a sense as of a sultry day4 ,judging first of its merits as a song 7using the word in its broad and simple sense71 the poem flows on the tongue with unbroken sweetness and with a variety of cadence and light and shade of melody which might admit of its pursuing its meanderings through five times its less than #ej pages1 and still keeping one's senses awake to the constantly recurring advent of new and pleasing literary forms4 ,the story is a striking one1 with a great wealth of highly effective incident1--notably the episode of the card-playing1 and of the father striking down the sword which ,raoul turns against the breast of the bride4 ,almost equally memorable are the scenes in which the lover appears1 and the occasional interludes of incident in which1 between the pauses of the narrative1 the bridegroom's retinue are heard sporting in the courtyard without4 ,the whole atmosphere of the poem is saturated in a medievalism of spirit to which no lapse of modernism does violence1 and the spell of romance which comes with that atmosphere of the middle ages is never broken1 but preserved in the minutest most matter-of-fact details1 such as the bowl of water that stood amidst flowers1 and in which the sister ,amelotte 8slid a cup0 and offered it to ,aloyse to drink4 ,but the one great charm of the poem lies in its subtle and most powerful psychical analysis1 seen foreshadowed in the first mention of the bride sitting in the shade1 but first felt strongly when she begs her sister to pray1 and again when she tells how1 at ,god's hint1 she had whispered something of the whole tale to her sister who slept ,the dread introspection pictured after the sin is in the highest degree tragic1 and affects one like remorse in its relentlessness1 although less remorse than fear of discovery4 ,the sickness of the following condition1 with its yearnings1 longings1 dizziness1 is very nobly done1 and delicate as is the theme1 and demanding a touch of unerring strength1 yet lightness1 the part of the poem concerned with it contains certain of the most beautiful and stirring things4 ,the madness 7for it is not less than such7 in which at the sea-side1 believing ,urscelyn to be lost1 the bride tells the whole tale1 whilst her curse laughed within her to see the amazement and anger of her brothers and of her father1 is doubtless true enough to the frenzied state of her mind2 but my sympathies go out less to that part of the poem than to the subsequent part1 in which the bride-mother is described as leaning along in thought after her child1 till tears1 not like a wedded girl's1 fall among her curls4 ,highly dramatic1 too1 is the passage in which she fears to curse the evil men whose evil hands have taken her child1 lest from evil lips the curse should be a blessing4 ,the characterisation seemed to be highly powerful1 and1 so far as it went1 finely contrasted4 ,i could almost have wished that the love for which the bride suffers so much had been more dwelt upon1 and ,urscelyn had been made somehow more worthy of such love and sacrifice4 ,the only point in which the poem struck me1 after mature reflection1 as less admirable than certain others of the author's1 lay in the circumstance that the narrative moves slowly1 but1 of course1 it should be remembered that the poem is one of emotion1 not incident4 ,there are most magical flashes of imagery in the poem1 notably in the passage beginning ,her thought1 long stagnant1 stirred by speech1 ,gave her a sick recoil2 ,as1 dip thy fingers through the green ,that masks a pool1 where they have been1 ,the naked depth is black between4 ,rossetti wrote a valuable letter on his scheme for the completion of ,the ,bride's ,prelude3 ,i was much pleased with your verdict on ,the ,bride's ,prelude4 ,i think the poem is saved by its picturesqueness1 but that otherwise the story up to the point reached is too purely repellent4 ,i have the sequel quite clear in my mind1 and in it the mere passionate frailty of ,aloyse's first love would be followed by a true and noble love1 rendered calamitous by ,urscelyn1 who then 7having become a powerful soldier of fortune7 solicits the hand of ,aloyse4 ,thus the horror which she expresses against him to her sister on the bridal morning would be fully justified4 ,of course1 ,aloyse would confess her fault to her second lover whose love would1 nevertheless1 endure4 ,the poem would gain so greatly by this sequel that ,i suppose ,i must set to and finish it one day1 old as it is4 ,i suppose it would be doubled1 but hardly more4 ,i hate long poems4 ,i quite think the card-playing passage the best thing--as a unit--in the poem3 but your opinion encourages my own1 that it fails nowhere of good material4 ,it certainly moves slowly as you say1 and this is quite against the rule ,i follow4 ,but here was no life condensed in an episode2 but a story which had necessarily to be told step by step1 and a situation which had unavoidably to be anatomised4 ,if it is not unworthy to appear with my best things1 that is all ,i hope for it4 ,you have pitched curiously upon some of my favourite touches1 and very coincidently with ,watts's views4 ,early in #ahha1 he wrote3 ,i am writing a ballad on the death of ,james ,i4 of ,scots4 ,it is already twice the length of ,the ,white ,ship1 and has a good slice still to come4 ,it is called ,the ,king's ,tragedy1 and is a ripper ,i can tell you6 ,the other day ,i got from ,italy a paper containing a really excellent and exceptional notice of my poems1 written by the author of a volume also sent me containing1 among other translations from the ,english1 ,jenny1 ,last ,confession1 etc4 ,i have been re-reading1 after many years1 ,keats's ,otho the ,great1 and find it a much better thing than ,i remembered1 though only a draft4 ,i am much exercised as to what you mention as to a ,michael ,scott scheme of ,coleridge's4 ,where does he speak of it1 and what is it8 ,it is quite new to me2 but curiously enough1 ,i have a complete scheme drawn up for a ballad1 to be called ,michael ,scott's ,wooing1 not the one ,i proposed beginning now--and also have long designed a picture under the same title1 but of quite different motif6 ,allan ,cunningham wrote a romance called ,sir ,michael ,scott1 but ,i never saw it4 ,i have heard from ,walter ,severn about a subscription proposed to erect a gravestone to his father beside that of ,keats4 ,i should like you to copy for me your sonnet on ,severn4 ,i hear it is in ,the ,athenum1 but have not seen it4 ,i was asked to prepare an inscription1 which ,i send you4 ,nothing would be so good as ,severn's own words4 ,i strongly urge you to go on with your book on the ,supernatural4 ,the closing chapter should1 ,i think1 be on the weird element in its perfection1 as shown by recent poets in the mess--i4e4 those who take any lead4 ,tennyson has it certainly here and there in imagery1 but there is no great success in the part it plays through his ,idylls4 ,the ,old ,romaunt beats him there4 ,the strongest instance of this feeling in ,tennyson that ,i remember is in a few lines of ,the ,palace of ,art3 ,and hollow breasts enclosing hearts of flame2 ,and with dim-fretted foreheads all ,on corpses three months old at morn she came ,that stood against the wall4 ,i won't answer for the precise age of the corpses--perhaps ,i have staled them somewhat4 ,,chapter ,,ix4 ,it is in the nature of these ,recollections that they should be personal1 and it can hardly occur to any reader to complain of them for being that which above all else they purport to be4 ,i have hitherto1 however1 been conscious of a desire 7made manifest to my own mind by the character of my selections from the letters written to me7 to impart to this volume an interest as broad and general as may be4 ,but my primary purpose is now1 and has been from the first1 to afford the best view at my command of ,rossetti as a man2 and more helpful to such purpose than any number of critical opinions1 however interesting1 have often been those passages in his letters where the writer has got closest to his correspondent in revealing most of himself4 ,in the chapter ,i am now about to write ,i must perforce set aside all limitations of reserve if ,i am to convey such an idea of ,rossetti's last days as fills my mind2 ,i must be content to speak almost exclusively of my personal relations to him1 to the enforced neglect of the more intimate relations of others4 ,about six months after my first visit1 ,rossetti invited me to spend a week with him at his house1 and this ,i was glad to be able to do4 ,i found him in many important particulars a changed man4 ,his complexion was brighter than before1 and this circumstance taken alone might have been understood to indicate improved bodily health1 but in actual fact it rather denoted in his case a retrograde physical tendency1 as being indicative chiefly of some recent excess in the use of his pernicious drug4 ,he was distinctly less inclined to corpulence1 his eyes were less bright1 and had more frequently than formerly the appearance of gazing upon vacancy1 and when he walked to and fro in the studio1 as it was his habit to do at intervals of about an hour1 he did so with a more laboured sidelong motion than ,i had previously noticed1 as though the body unconsciously lost and then regained some necessary control and command at almost every step4 ,half sensible1 no doubt1 of a reduced condition1 or guessing perhaps the nature of my reflections from a certain uneasiness which it baffled my efforts to conceal1 he paused for an instant one evening in the midst of these melancholy perambulations and asked me how he struck me as to health4 ,more frankly than judiciously ,i answered promptly1 ,less well than formerly4 ,it was a luckless remark1 for ,rossetti's prevailing wish at that moment was to conceal even from himself his lowered state1 and the time was still to come when he should crave the questionable sympathy of those who said he looked even more ill than he felt4 ,just before this1 my second visit1 he had completed his ,king's ,tragedy1 and ,i had heard from his own lips how prostrate the emotional strain involved in the production of the poem had first left him4 ,casting himself now on the couch in an attitude indicative of unusual exhaustion1 he said the ballad had taken much out of him4 8,it was as though my life ebbed out with it10 he said1 and in saying so much of the nervous tension occasioned by the work in question he did not overstate the truth as it presented itself to other eyes4 ,time after time while the ballad was in course of production1 he had made effort to read it aloud to the friend to whose judgment his poetry was always submitted1 but had as frequently failed to do so from the physical impossibility of restraining the tears that at every stage welled up out of an overwrought nature1 for the poet never existed perhaps who1 while at work1 lived so vividly in the imagined situation4 ,and the weight of that work was still upon him when we met again4 ,his voice seemed to have lost much in quality1 and in compass too to have diminished3 or if the volume of sound remained the same1 it appeared to have retired 7so to express it7 inwards1 and to convey1 when he spoke1 the idea of a man speaking as much to himself as to others4 ,more than ever now the scene of his life lacked for me some necessary vitality3 it breathed an atmosphere of sorrow3 it was like the dream of a distempered imagination out of which there came no welcome awakening1 to say it was not true4 ,on the side of his intellectual life ,rossetti was obviously under less constraint with me than ever before4 ,previously he had seemed to make a conscious effort to speak generously of all contemporaries1 and cordially of every friend with whom he was brought into active relations2 and if1 by force of some stray impulse1 he was ever led to say a disparaging word of any one1 he forthwith made a palpable1 and sometimes amusing1 effort so to obliterate the injurious impression as to convey the idea that he wished it to appear that he had not said anything at all4 ,but now this restraint was thrown aside4 ,i perceived that the drug by which he was enslaved caused what ,i may best characterise as intermittent waves of morbid suspiciousness as to the good faith of every individual1 including his best1 oldest1 and truest friends1 as to whom the most inexplicable delusions would suddenly come1 and as suddenly go4 ,he would talk in the gravest and most earnest way of the wrongs he had suffered at the hands of a dear friend1 and then the moment his eloquence had drawn from me an exclamation of sympathy for him1 he would turn round and heap upon the same individual an extravagance of praise for his fidelity and good faith4 ,and now1 he so classed his contemporaries as to leave no doubt that he was duly sensible of his own place amongst them1 preserving1 meantime1 a dignified reticence as to the extent of his personal claims4 ,his life was an anachronism4 ,such a man should have had no dealings with the nineteenth century3 he belonged to the sixteenth1 or perhaps the thirteenth1 and in ,italy not in ,england4 ,it would1 nevertheless1 be wrong to say that he was wholly indifferent to important political issues1 of which he took often a very judicial view4 ,in dismissing further mention of this second and prolonged meeting with ,rossetti1 it only remains to me to say 7as a necessary1 if strictly personal1 explanation of much that will follow71 that on the evening preceding my departure1 he asked me1 in the event of my deciding to come to live in ,london1 to take up my quarters at his house4 ,to this proposal ,i made no reply3 and neither his speech nor my silence needs any comment1 and ,i shall offer none4 ,a month or two later my own health gave way1 and then1 a change of residence being inevitable1 ,rossetti repeated his invitation2 but a ,london campaign1 under such conditions as were necessarily entailed by pitching one's tent with him1 got further and further away1 until ,i seemed to see it through the inverse end of a telescope whereof the slides were being drawn out1 out1 every day further and further4 ,i determined to spend half a year among' the mountains of ,cumberland1 and went up to the ,vale of ,st4 ,john4 ,scarcely had ,i settled there when ,rossetti wrote that he must himself soon leave ,london3 that he was wearied out absolutely1 and unable to sleep at night1 that if he could only reach that secluded vale he would breathe a purer air mentally as well as physically4 ,the mood induced by contemplation of the tranquillity of my retreat over-against the turmoil and distractions of the city in which1 though not of which1 he was1 added to the deepening exhaustion which had already begun when ,i left him1 had prevailed with him1 he said1 to ask me to come down to ,london1 and travel back with him4 8,supposing10 he wrote1 8,i were to ask you to come to town in a fortnight's time from now--,i returning with you for a while into the country--would that be feasible to you80 ,once unsettled in the environments within which for years he had moved contentedly1 a thousand reasons were found for the contemplated step1 and simultaneously a thousand obstacles arose to impede the execution of it4 8,they have at length taken my garden10 he said1 8as they have long threatened to do1 and now they are really setting about building upon it4 ,i do not in the least know what my plans may be40 ,and again3 8,it seems certain that ,i must leave this house and seek another4 ,is there any house in the neighbourhood of the ,vale of ,st4 ,john with a largish room one could paint in 7to ,n4 or ,,ne4780 ,the idea of his taking up his permanent abode so far out of the market circle was1 ,i well knew1 just one of those impracticable notions which1 with ,rossetti1 were abandoned as soon as conceived1 so ,i was not surprised to hear from him as follows1 by the succeeding post3 8,in what ,i wrote yesterday ,i said something as to a possibility of leaving town1 but ,i now perceive this is not practicable at present2 therefore need not trouble you to take note of neighbouring houses40 ,presently he wrote again3 8,bedevilments thicken3 the garden is ploughed up1 and ,i #8ve not stirred out of the house for a week3 ,i must leave this place at once if ,i am to leave it alive40 99 99 ,it is but just to say that1 although ,rossetti wrote thus peevishly of what was quite inevitable1--the yielding up of his fine garden1--he would at other times speak of the great courtesy and good-nature of ,messrs4 ,pemberton1 in allowing him the use of the garden after it had been severed from the property he hired4 8,my present purpose is to take another house in ,london4 ,could you not come down and beat up agents for me8 ,i know you will not deny me your help4 ,i hear of a house at ,brixton1 with a garden of two acres1 and only #acj a year40 ,in a day or two even this last hope had proved delusive3 8,i find the house at ,brixton will not do1 and ,i hear of nothing else4444 ,i am anxious as to having become perfectly deaf on the right side of my head4 ,partial approaches to this have sometimes occurred to me and passed away1 so ,i will not be too much troubled at it40 ,a little later he wrote3 8,now my housekeeper is leaving me1 her mother being very ill4 ,can you not come to my assistance8 ,come at once and we will set sail in one boat40 ,i appear to have replied to this last appeal in a tone of some little scepticism as to his remaining long in the same mind relative to our mutual housemating1 for subsequently he says3 8,at this writing ,i can see no likelihood of my not remaining in the mind that1 in case of your coming to ,london1 your quarters should be taken up here4 ,the house is big enough for two1 even if they meant to be strangers to each other4 ,you would have your own rooms and we should meet just when we pleased4 ,you have got a sufficient inkling of my exceptional habits not to be scared by them4 ,it is true1 at times my health and spirits are variable1 but ,i am sure we should not be squabbling4 ,however1 it seems you have no intention of a quite immediate move1 and we can speak farther of it40 ,i readily consented to do whatever seemed feasible to help him out of his difficulties1 which existed1 however1 as ,i perceived1 much more in his own mind than in actual fact4 ,i thought a brief holiday in the solitude within which ,i was then located would probably be helpful in restoring a tranquil condition of mind1 and as his brother1 ,mr4 ,scott1 ,mr4 ,watts1 ,mr4 ,shields1 and other friends in ,london1 were of a similar opinion1 efforts were made to induce him to undertake the journey which he had been the first to think of4 ,his oldest friend1 ,mr4 ,madox ,brown 7whose presence would have been as valuable now as it had proved to be on former occasions71 was away at ,manchester1 and remained there throughout the time of his last illness4 ,his moods at this time were too variable to be relied upon three days together1 and so ,i find him writing3 ,many thanks for the information as to your ,shady ,vale1 which seems a vision--a distant one1 alas6--of ,paradise4 ,perhaps ,i may reach it yet4444 ,i am now thinking of writing another ballad-poem to add at the end of my volume4 ,it is romantic1 not historical ,i have a clear scheme for it and believe your scenery might help me much if ,i could get there4 ,when you hear that scheme1 you will1 ,i believe1 pronounce it precisely fitted to the scenery you describe as now surrounding you4 ,that scenery ,i hope to reach a little later1 but meantime should much like to see you in ,london and return with you4 ,the proposed ballad was to be called ,the ,orchard ,pits and was to be illustrative of the serpent fascination of beauty1 but it was never written4 ,contented now to await the issue of events1 he proceeded to write on subjects of general interest3 ,keats 7page #aed1 vol4 i41 of ,houghton's ,life1 etc47 mentions among other landscape features the ,vale of ,st4 ,john4 ,so you may think of him in the neighbourhood as well as 7or1 if you like1 rather than7 ,wordsworth4 ,i have been reading again ,hogg's ,shelley4 ,s4 appears to have been as mad at ,keswick as everywhere else1 but not madder2-- that he could not compass4 ,at this juncture some unlooked-for hitch in the arrangements then pending for the sale of the ,dante's ,dream to the ,corporation of ,liverpool rendered my presence in ,london inevitable1 and upon my arrival ,i found that ,rossetti had fitted out rooms for my reception1 although ,i had never down to that moment finally decided to avail myself of an offer which upon its first being broached1 appeared to be too one-sided a bargain 7in which of course the sacrifice seemed to be ,rossetti's7 to admit of my entertaining it4 ,in this way ,i drifted into my position as ,rossetti's housemate4 ,the letters and scraps of notes ,i have embodied in the foregoing will probably convey a better idea of ,rossetti's native irresolution1 as it was made manifest to me in the early part of #ahha1 than any abstract definition1 however faithful and exact1 could be expected to do4 ,irresolution was indubitably his most noticeable quality at the time when ,i came into active relation with him2 and if ,i be allowed to have any perception of character and any acquaintance with the fundamental traits that distinguish man from man1 ,i shall say unhesitatingly 7though ,i well know how different is the opinion of others7 that irresolution with melancholy lay at the basis of his nature4 ,i have heard ,mr4 ,swinburne speak of a cheerfulness of deportment in early life1 which imparted an idea as of one who could not easily be depressed4 ,i have heard ,mr4 ,watts speak of the days at ,kelmscott ,manor ,house1 where he first knew him1 and where ,rossetti was the most delightful of companions4 ,i have heard ,canon ,dixon speak of a determination of purpose which yielded to no sort of obstacle1 but carried its point by the sheer vehemence with which it asserted it4 ,i can only say that ,i was witness to neither characteristic4 ,of traits the reverse of these1 ,i was constantly receiving evidence2 but let it be remembered that before ,i joined ,rossetti 7which was only in the last year of his life7 in that intimate relation which revealed to my unwilling judgment every foible and infirmity of character1 the whole nature of the man had been vitiated by an enervating drug4 ,at my meeting with him the brighter side of his temperament had been worn away in the night-troubles of his unrestful couch2 and of that needful volition1 which establishes for a man the right to rule not others but himself1 only the mockery and inexplicable vagaries of temper remained4 ,when ,i knew him1 ,rossetti was devoid of resolution4 ,at that moment at which he had finally summoned up every available and imaginable reason for pursuing any particular course1 his purpose wavered and his heart gave way4 ,when ,i knew him1 ,rossetti was destitute of cheerfulness or content4 ,at that instant1 at which the worst of his shadowy fears had been banished by some fortuitous occurrence that lit up with an unceasing radiation of hope every prospect of life1 he conjured out of its very brightness fresh cause for fear and sadness4 ,true1 indeed1 these may have been no more than symptoms of those later phenomena which came of disease1 and foreshadowed death4 ,other minds may reduce to a statement of cause and effect what ,i am content to offer as fact4 ,upon settling with ,rossetti in ,july #ahha1 ,i perceived that his health was weaker4 ,his tendency to corpulence had entirely disappeared1 his feebleness of step had become at certain moments painfully apparent1 and his temper occasionally betrayed signs of bitterness4 ,to myself1 personally1 he was at this stage as genial as of old1 or if for an instant he gave vent to an unprovoked outburst of wrath1 he would far more than atone for it by a look of inexpressible remorse and some feeling words of regret1 whereof the import sometimes was-- ,i wish you were indeed my son1 for though then ,i should still have no right to address you so1 ,i should at least have some right to expect your forgiveness4 ,in such moods of more than needful solicitude for one's acutest sensibilities1 ,rossetti was absolutely irresistible4 ,as ,i have said1 the occupant of this great gloomy house1 in which ,i had now become a resident1 had rarely been outside its doors for two years2 certainly never afoot1 and only in carriages with his friends4 ,upon the second night of my stay1 ,i announced my intention of taking a walk on the ,chelsea embankment1 and begged him to accompany me4 ,to my amazement he yielded1 and every night for a week following1 ,i succeeded in inducing him to repeat the now unfamiliar experience4 ,it was obvious enough to himself that he walked totteringly1 with infinite expenditure of physical energy1 and returned in a condition of exhaustion that left him prostrate for an hour afterwards4 ,the root of all this evil was soon apparent4 ,he was exceeding with the chloral1 and little as ,i expected or desired to exercise a moral guardianship over the habits of this great man1 ,i found myself insensibly dropping into that office4 ,negotiations for the sale of the ,liverpool picture were now complete2 the new volume of poems and the altered edition of the old volume had been satisfactorily passed through the press2 and it might have been expected that with the anxiety occasioned by these enterprises1 would pass away the melancholy which in a nature like ,rossetti's they naturally induced4 ,the reverse was the fact1 ,he became more and more depressed as each palpable cause of depression was removed1 and more and more liable to give way to excess with the drug4 ,by his brother1 ,mr4 ,watts1 ,mr4 ,shields1 and others who had only too frequently in times past had experience of similar outbreaks1 this failure in spirits1 with all its attendant physical weakness1 was said to be due primarily to hypochondriasis4 ,hence the returning necessity to get him away 7as ,mr4 ,madox ,brown had done at a previous crisis7 for a change of air and scene4 ,once out of this atmosphere of gloom1 we hoped that amid cheerful surroundings his health would speedily revive4 ,infinite were the efforts that had to be made1 and countless the precautions that had to be taken before he could be induced to set out1 but at length we found ourselves upon our way to ,keswick1 at nine p4m41 one evening in ,september1 in a special carriage packed with as many artist's trappings and as many books as would have lasted for a year4 ,we reached ,penrith as the grey of dawn had overspread the sky4 ,it was six o'clock as we got into the carriage that was to drive us through the vale of ,st4 ,john to our destination at the ,legberthwaite end of it4 ,the morning was now calm1 the mountains looked loftier1 grander1 and yet more than ever precipitous from the road that circled about their base4 ,nothing could be heard but the calls of the awakening cattle1 the rumble of cataracts far away1 and the rush and surge of those that were near4 ,rossetti was all but indifferent to our surroundings1 or displayed only such fitful interest in them as must have been affected out of a kindly desire to please me4 ,he said the chloral he had taken daring the journey was upon him1 and he could not see4 ,at length we reached the house that was for some months to be our home4 ,it stood at the foot of a ghyll1 which1 when swollen by rain1 was majestic in volume and sound4 ,the little house we had rented was free from all noise other than the occasional voice of a child or bark of a dog4 ,here at least he might bury the memory of the distractions of the city that vexed him4 ,save for the ripple of the river that flowed at his feet1 the bleating of sheep on ,golden ,howe1 the echo of the axe of the woodman who was thinning the neighbouring wood1 and the morning and evening mail-coach horn1 he might delude himself into forgetfulness that he belonged any longer to this noisy earth4 ,next day ,rossetti was exceptionally well1 and astounded me by the proposal that we should ascend ,golden ,howe together--a little mountain of some #ajjj feet that stands at the head of ,thirlmere4 ,with never a hope on my part of our reaching the summit1 we set out for that purpose1 but through no doubt the exhilarating effect of the mountain air1 he actually compassed the task he had proposed to himself1 and sat for an hour on that highest point from whence could be seen the ,skiddaw range to the north1 ,haven's ,crag to the west1 ,styx ,pass and ,helvellyn to the east1 and the ,dunmail ,raise to the south1 with the lake below4 ,rossetti was struck by the variety of configuration in the hills1 and even more by the variety of colour4 ,but he was no great lover of landscape beauty1 and the majestic scene before us produced less effect upon his mind than might perhaps have been expected4 ,he seemed to be almost unconscious of the unceasing atmospheric changes that perpetually arrest and startle4 the observer in whom love of external nature in her grander moods has not been weakened by disease4 ,the complete extent of the ,vale of ,st4 ,john could be traversed by the eye from the eminence upon which we sat4 ,the valley throughout its three-mile length is absolutely secluded3 one has only the hills for company1 and to say the truth they are sometimes fearful company too4 ,usually the landscape wears a cheerful aspect1 but at times long fleecy clouds drive midway across the mountains1 leaving the tops visible4 ,the scenery is highly awakening to the imagination4 ,even the country people are imaginative1 and the country is full of ghostly legend4 ,i was never at any moment sensible that these environments affected ,rossetti3 assuredly they never agitated him1 and no effort did he make to turn them to account for the purposes of the romantic ballad he had spoken of as likely to grow amidst such surroundings4 ,being much more than ordinarily cheerful during the first evenings of our stay in the ,north1 he talked sometimes of his past life and of the men and women he had known in earlier years4 ,carlyle's ,reminiscences had not long before been published4 ,mrs4 ,carlyle1 therein so extravagantly though naturally belauded1 he described as a bitter little woman1 with1 however1 the one redeeming quality of unostentatious charity3 8,the poor of ,chelsea10 he said1 8always spoke well of her40 8,george ,eliot10 whose genius he much admired1 he had ceased to know long before her death1 but he spoke of the lady as modest and retiring1 and amiable to a fault when the outer crust of reticence had been broken through4 ,longfellow had called upon him whilst he was painting the ,dante's ,dream4 ,the old poet was ,courteous and complimentary in the last degree2 he seemed1 however1 to know little or nothing about painting as an art1 and also to have fallen into the error of thinking that ,rossetti the painter and ,sossetti the poet were different men2 in short1 that the ,dante of that name was the painter1 and the ,william the poet4 ,upon leaving the house1 ,longfellow had said3 8,i have been glad to meet you1 and should like to have met your brother2 pray1 tell him how much ,i admire his beautiful poem1 ,the ,blessed ,damozel0 ,giving no hint of the error1 ,rossetti said he had answered1 8,i will tell him40 ,he painted a little during our stay in the ,north1 for it was whilst there that he began the beautiful replica of his ,proserpina1 now the property of ,mr4 ,valpy4 ,i found it one of my best pleasures to watch a picture growing under his hand1 and thought it easy to see through the medium of his idealised heads1 cold even in their loveliness1 unsubstantial in their passion1 that to the painter life had been a dream into which nothing entered that was not as impalpable as itself4 ,tainted by the touch of melancholy that is the blight that clings to the purest beauty1 his pictured faces were1 in my view1 akin to his poetry1 every line of which1 as he sometimes recited it1 seemed as though it echoed the burden of a bygone sorrow--the sorrow of a dream rather than that of a life1 or of a life that had been itself a dream4 ,i also then realised what ,mr4 ,theodore ,watts has said in a letter just now written to me from ,sark1 that1 8apart from any question of technical shortcomings1 one of ,rossetti's strongest claims to the attention of posterity was that of having invented1 in the three-quarter-length pictures painted from one face1 a type of female beauty which was akin to none other1--which was entirely new1 in short1--and which1 for wealth of sublime and mysterious suggestion1 unaided by complex dramatic design1 was unique in the art of the world40 ,on one occasion the talk turned on the eccentricities and affectations of men of genius1 and ,i did my best to-ridicule them unsparingly1 saying they were a purely modern extravagance1 the highest intellects of other times being ever the sanest1 ,shakspeare1 ,cervantes1 ,goethe1 ,coleridge1 ,wordsworth2 the root of the evil had been ,shelley1 who was mad1 and in imitation of whose madness1 modern men of genius must many of them be mad also1 until it had come to such a pass-that if a gifted man conducted himself throughout life with probity and propriety we instantly began to doubt the value of his gifts4 ,rossetti evidently thought that in all this ,i was covertly hitting out at himself1 and cut short the conversation with an unequivocal hint that he had no affectations1 and could not account himself an authority with respect to them4 ,with such talk a few of our evenings were spent1 but too soon the insatiable craving for the drug came with renewed force1 and then all pleasant intercourse was banished4 ,night after night we sat up until eleven1 twelve1 and one o'clock1 watching the long hours go by with heavy steps2 waiting1 waiting1 waiting for the time at which he could take his first draught1 and drop into his pillowed place and snatch a dreamless sleep of three or four hours' duration4 ,in order to break the monotony of nights such as ,i describe ,i sometimes read from ,fielding1 ,richardson1 and ,sterne1 but more frequently induced ,rossetti to recite4 ,thus1 with failing voice1 he would again and again attempt1 at my request1 his ,cloud ,confines1 or passages from ,the ,king's ,tragedy1 and repeatedly1 also1 ,poe's ,ulalume and ,raven4 ,i remember that1 touching the last-mentioned of these poems1 he remarked that out of his love of it while still a boy his own ,blessed ,damozel originated4 8,i saw10 he said1 8that ,poe had done the utmost it was possible to do with the grief of the lover on earth1 and so ,i determined to reverse the conditions1 and give utterance to the yearning of the loved one in heaven40 ,at that time of the year the night closed in as early as seven or eight o'clock1 and then in that little house among the solitary hills his disconsolate spirit would sometimes sink beyond solace into irreclaimable depths of depression4 ,it was impossible that such a condition of things should last1 and it was with unspeakable relief that ,i heard ,rossetti express a desire to return home4 ,mr4 ,watts1 who at that time was at ,stratford-upon-,avon1 had promised to join us1 but now wrote to say that this was impossible4 ,had it been otherwise1 ,rossetti would willingly have remained1 but now he longed to get back to ,london4 ,his life had lost its joys4 ,the success of his ,liverpool picture was almost as nothing to him1 and the enthusiastic reception given to his book gave him not more than a passing pleasure1 though he was deeply touched by the sympathetic and exhaustive criticism published by ,professor ,dowden in ,the ,academy1 as well as by ,professor ,colvin's friendly monograph in ,the ,world4 ,at length one night1 a month after our arrival1 we set out on our return1 and well do ,i remember the pathos of his words as ,i helped him 7now feebler than ever7 into his house4 8,thank ,god6 home at last1 and never shall ,i leave it again60 ,very natural was the deep concern of his friends1 especially of his brother and ,mr4 ,shields1 at finding him return even less well than he had set out4 ,with deeper reliance on past knowledge of the man1 ,mr4 ,watts still took a hopeful view1 attributing the physical prostration to hypochondriasis1 which might1 in common with all similar nervous ailments1 impose as much pain upon the victim as if the sufferings complained of had a real foundation in positive disease1 but might also give way at any moment when the victim could be induced to take a hopeful view of life4 ,the cheerfulness of ,mr4 ,watts's society1 after what ,i well know must have been the lugubrious nature of my own1 had at first its usual salutary effect upon ,rossetti's spirits1 and ,i will not forbear to say that ,i1 too1 welcomed it as a draught of healing morning air after a month-long imprisonment in an atmosphere of gloom4 ,but ,i was not yet freed of my charge4 ,the sense of responsibility which in the solitude of the mountains had weighed me down1 was now indeed divided with his affectionate family and the friends who were ,rossetti's friends before they were mine1 and who came at this juncture with willing help1 prompted chiefly1 of course1 by devotion to the great man in sore trouble1 but also--,i must allow myself to think--in one or two cases by desire to relieve me of some of the burden of the task that had fallen so unexpectedly upon me4 ,foremost among such disinterested friends was of course the friend ,i have spoken of so frequently in these pages1 and for whom ,i now felt a growing regard arising as much out of my perception of the loyalty of his comradeship as the splendour of his gifts4 ,but after him in solicitous service to ,rossetti1 at this moment of great need1 came ,frederick ,shields 7the fine tissue of whose highly-strung nature must have been sorely tried by the strain to which it was subjected71 ,mr4 ,w4 ,b4 ,scott1 whose visits were never more warmly welcomed by ,rossetti than at this season1 the good and gifted ,miss ,boyd1 and of course ,rossetti's brother1 sister1 and mother1 to each of whom he was affectionately attached4 ,strange enough it seemed that this man who1 for years had shunned the world and chosen solitude when he might have had society1 seemed at last to grow weary of his loneliness4 ,but so it was4 ,rossetti became daily more and more dependent upon his friends for company that should not fail him1 for never for an hour now could he endure to be alone4 ,remembering this1 ,i almost doubt if by nature he was at any time a solitary4 ,there are men who feel more deeply the sense of isolation amidst the busiest crowds than within the narrowest circle of intimates1 and ,i have heard from ,rossetti reminiscences of his earlier life that led me to believe that he was one of the number4 ,perhaps1 after all1 he wandered from the world rather from the dread than with the hope of solitude4 ,in such pleasant intercourse as the visits of the friends ,i have named afforded1 was the sadness of the day in a measure dissipated1 but when night came ,i never failed to realise that no progress whatever had been made4 ,i tried to check the craving for chloral1 but ,i could as easily have checked the rising tide3 and where the lifelong assiduity of older friends had failed to eradicate a morbid1 ruinous1 and fatal thirst1 it was presumptous if not ridiculous to imagine that the task could be compassed by a frail creature with heart and nerves of wax4 ,but the whole scene was now beginning to have an interest for me more personal and more serious than ,i have yet given hint of4 ,the constant fret and fume of this life of baffled effort1 of struggle with a deadly drug that had grown to have an objective existence in my mind as the existence of a fiend1 was not without a sensible effect upon myself4 ,i became ill for a few days with a low fever1 but far worse than this was the fact that there was creeping over me the wild influence of ,rossetti's own distempered imaginings4 ,once conscious of such influence ,i determined to resist it1 but how to do so ,i knew not without flying utterly away from an atmosphere in which my best senses seemed to stagnate1 and burying the memory of it for ever4 ,the crisis was pending1 and sooner than we expected it came4 ,a nurse was engaged4 ,one evening ,dr4 ,westland ,marston and his son ,philip ,bourke ,marston came to spend a few hours with ,rossetti1 ,for a while he seemed much cheered by their bright society1 but later on he gave those manifestations of uneasiness which ,i had learned to know too well4 ,removing restlessly from seat to seat1 he ultimately threw himself upon the sofa in that rather awkward attitude which ,i have previously described as characteristic of him in moments of nervous agitation4 ,presently he called out that his arm had become paralysed1 and1 upon attempting to rise1 that his leg also had lost its power4 ,we were naturally startled1 but knowing the force of his imagination in its influence on his bodily capacity1 we tried playfully to banish the idea4 ,raising him to his feet1 however1 we realised that from whatever cause1 he had lost the use of the limbs in question1 and in the utmost alarm we carried him to his bedroom1 and hurried away for ,mr4 ,marshall ,it was found that he had really undergone a species of paralysis1 called1 ,i think1 loss of co-ordinative power4 ,the juncture was a critical one1 and it was at length decided by the able medical adviser just named1 that the time had come when the chloral1 which was at the root of all this mischief1 should be decisively1 entirely1 and instantly cut off4 ,to compass this end a young medical man1 ,mr4 ,henry ,maudsley1 was brought into the house as a resident to watch and manage the case in the intervals of ,mr4 ,marshall's visits4 ,it is not for me to offer a statement of what was done1 and done so ably at this period4 ,i only know that morphia was at first injected as a substitute for the narcotic the system had grown to demand2 that ,rossetti was for many hours delirious whilst his body was passing through the terrible ordeal of having to conquer the craving for the former drug1 and that three or four mornings after the experiment had been begun he awoke calm in body1 and clear in mind1 and grateful in heart4 ,his delusions and those intermittent suspicions of his friends which ,i have before alluded to1 were now gone1 as things in the past of which he hardly knew whether in actual fact they had or had not been4 ,christmas ,day was now nigh at hand1 and1 still confined to his room1 he begged me to promise to spend that day with him2 8otherwise10 he said1 8how sad a day it must be for me1 for ,i cannot fairly ask any other40 ,with a tenderness of sympathy ,i shall not forget1 ,mr4 ,scott had asked me to dine that day at his more cheerful house2 but ,i reflected that this was to be my first ,christmas in ,london and it might be ,rossetti's last1 so ,i put by pleasanter considerations4 ,we dined alone1 but1 somewhat later1 ,william ,rossetti1 with true brotherly affection1 left the guests at his own house1 and ran down to spend an hour with the invalid4 ,we could hear from time to time the ringing of the bells of the neighbouring churches1 and ,i noticed that ,rossetti was not disturbed by them as he had been formerly4 ,indeed1 the drug once removed1 he was in every sense a changed man4 ,he talked that night brightly1 and with more force and incisiveness1 ,i thought1 than he had displayed for months4 ,there was the ring of affection in his tone as he said he had always had loyal friends2 and then he spoke with feeling of ,mr4 ,watts's friendship1 of ,mr4 ,shields's1 and afterwards he spoke of ,mr4 ,burne ,jones who had just previously visited him1 as well as of ,mr4 ,madox ,brown1 and his friendship of a lifetime2 of ,mr4 ,swinburne1 ,mr4 ,morris1 ,mr4 ,stephens1 ,mr4 ,boyce1 and other early friends4 ,he said a word or two of myself which ,i shall not repeat1 and then spoke with emotion of his mother and sister1 and of his sister who was dead1 and how they were supported through their sore trials by religious resignation4 ,he asked if ,i1 like ,shields1 was a believer1 and seemed altogether in a softer and more spiritual mood than ,i remember to have noticed before4 ,with such talk we passed the ,christmas night of #ahha4 ,rossetti recovered power in some measure1 was able to get down to the studio1 and see the friends who called--,mr4 ,f4 ,e4 ,leyland frequently1 ,lord and ,lady ,mount ,temple1 ,mrs4 ,sumner1 ,mr4 ,boyce1 ,mr4 ,f4 ,g4 ,stephens1 ,mr4 ,gilchrist1 ,mr4 and ,mrs4 ,virtue ,tebbs1 ,mrs4 ,stillman1 ,mrs4 ,coronio1 and ,mr4 ,c4 and ,mr4 ,a4 ,ionides occasionally1 as well as those previously named4 ,a visit from ,dr4 ,hueffer of the ,times 7of whose gifts he had a high opinion71 enlivened him perceptibly4 ,but he did not recover1 and at the end of ,january #ahhb it was definitely determined that he should go to the sea-side4 ,i was asked to accompany him1 and did so4 ,at the right juncture ,mr4 ,j4 ,p4 ,seddon very hospitably tendered the use of his handsome bungalow at ,birchington-on-,sea1 a little watering-place four miles west of ,margate4 ,there we spent nine weeks4 ,at first going out he was able to take short walks on the cliffs1 or round the road that winds about the churchyard1 but his strength grew less and less every day and hour4 ,we were constantly visited by ,mr4 ,watts1 whose devotion never failed1 and ,rossetti would brighten up at the prospect of one of his visits1 and become sensibly depressed when he had gone4 ,mr4 ,william ,sharp1 too 7a young friend of whose gifts as a poet ,rossetti had a genuine appreciation1 and by whom he had been visited at intervals for some time71 came out occasionally and cheered up the sufferer in a noticeable degree4 ,then his mother and sister came and stayed in the house during many weeks at the last4 ,how shall ,i speak of the tenderness of their solicitude1 of their unwearying attentions1 in a word of their ardent and reciprocated love of the illustrious son and brother for whom they did the thousand gentle offices which they alone could have done6 ,the end was drawing on1 and we all knew the fact4 ,rossetti had actually taken to poetical composition afresh1 and had written a facetious ballad 7conceived years before7 of the length of ,the ,white ,ship1 called ,jan ,van ,hunks1 embodying an eccentric story of a ,dutchman's wager to smoke against the devil4 ,this was to appear in a miscellany of stories and poems by himself and ,mr4 ,watts1 a project which had been a favourite one of his for some years1 and in which he now1 in his last moments1 took a revived interest strange and strong4 ,about this time he derived great gratification from reading an article on him and his works in ,le ,livre by ,mr4 ,joseph ,knight1 an old friend to whom he was deeply attached1 and for whose gifts he had a genuine admiration4 ,perhaps the very last letter ,rossetti penned was written to ,mr4 ,knight upon the subject of this article4 ,his intellect was as powerful as in his best days1 and freer than ever of hallucinations4 ,but his bodily strength grew less and less4 ,his sight became feebler1 and then he abandoned the many novels that had recently solaced his idler hours1 and ,miss ,rossetti read aloud to him4 ,among other books she read ,dickens's ,tale of ,two ,cities1 and he seemed deeply touched by ,sidney ,carton's sacrifice1 and remarked that he would like to paint the last scene of the story4 ,on ,wednesday morning1 ,april #eth1 ,i went into the bedroom to which he had for some days been confined1 and wrote out to his dictation two sonnets which he had composed on a design of his called ,the ,sphinx1 and which he wished to give1 together with the drawing and the ballad before described1 to ,mr4 ,watts for publication in the volume just mentioned4 ,on the ,thursday morning ,i found his utterance thick1 and his speech from that cause hardly intelligible4 ,it chanced that ,i had just been reading ,mr4 ,buchanan's new volume of poems1 and in the course of conversation ,i told him the story of the ballad called ,the ,lights of ,leith1 and he was affected by the pathos of it4 ,he had heard of that author's retractation99 of the charges involved in the article published ten years earlier1 and was manifestly touched by the dedication of the romance ,god and the ,man4 ,he talked long and earnestly that morning1 and it was our last real interview4 ,he spoke of his love of early ,english ballad literature1 and of how when he first met with it he had said to himself3 8,there lies your line40 99 ,the retractation1 which now has a peculiar literary interest1 was made in the following verses1 and should1 ,i think1 be recorded here3 ,to an old ,enemy4 ,i would have snatch'd a bay-leaf from thy brow1 ,wronging the chaplet on an honoured head2 ,in peace and charity ,i bring thee now ,a lily-flower instead4 ,pure as thy purpose1 blameless as thy song1 ,sweet as thy spirit1 may this offering be2 ,forget the bitter blame that did thee wrong1 ,and take the gift from me6 ,in a later edition of the romance the following verses are added to the dedication3 ,to ,dante ,gabriel ,rossetti3 ,calmly1 thy royal robe of death around thee1 ,thou ,bleekest1 and weeping brethren round thee stand-- ,gently they placed1 ere yet ,god's angel crown'd thee1 ,my lily in thy hand6 ,i never knew thee living1 ,o my brother6 ,but on thy breast my lily of love now lies2 ,and by that token1 we shall know each other1 ,when ,god's voice saith 8,arise60 8,can you understand me80 he asked abruptly1 alluding to the thickness of his utterance4 8,perfectly40 8,nurse ,abrey cannot3 what a good creature she is60 ,that night we telegraphed to ,mr4 ,marshall1 to ,mr4 ,w4 ,m4 ,rossetti1 and ,mr4 ,watts1 and wrote next morning to ,mr4 ,shields1 ,mr4 ,scott1 and ,mr4 ,madox ,brown4 ,it had been found by the resident medical man1 ,dr4 ,harris1 that in ,rossetti's case kidney disease had supervened4 ,his dear mother and ,i sat up until early morning with him1 and when we left him his sister took our place and remained with him the whole of that and subsequent nights4 ,he sat up in bed most of the time and said a sort of stupefaction had removed all pain4 ,he crooned over odd lines of poetry4 8,my own verses torment me10 he said4 ,then he half-sang1 half-recited1 snatches from one of ,iago's songs in ,othello4 8,strange things10 he murmured1 8to come into one's head at such a moment40 ,i told him his brother and ,mr4 ,watts would be with him to-morrow4 8,then you really think that ,i am dying8 ,at last you think so2 but ,i was right from the first40 ,next day1 ,good ,friday1 the friends named did come1 and weak as he was1 he was much cheered by their presence4 ,the following day ,mr4 ,marshall arrived4 ,that gentleman recognised the alarming position of affairs1 but he was not without hope4 ,he administered a sort of hot bath1 and on ,sunday morning ,rossetti was perceptibly brighter4 ,mr4 ,shields had now arrived1 and one after one of his friends1 including ,mr4 ,leyland1 who was at the time staying at ,ramsgate1 and made frequent calls1 visited him in his room and found him able to listen and sometimes to talk4 ,in the evening the nurse gave a cheering report of his condition1 and encouraged by such prospects1 ,mr4 ,watts1 ,mr4 ,shields1 and myself1 gave way to good spirits1 and retired to an adjoining room4 ,about nine o'clock ,mr4 ,watts left us1 and returning in a short time1 said he had been in the sickroom1 and had had some talk with ,rossetti1 and found him cheerful4 ,an instant afterwards we heard a scream1 followed by a loud rapping at our door4 ,we hurried into ,rossetti's room and found him in convulsions4 ,mr4 ,watts raised him on one side1 whilst ,i raised him on the other2 his mother1 sister1 and brother1 were immediately present 7,mr4 ,shields had fled away for the doctor72 there were a few moments of suspense1 and then we saw him die in our arms4 ,mrs4 ,william ,rossetti arrived from ,manchester at this moment4 ,thus on ,easter ,day ,rossetti died4 ,it was hard to realise that he was actually dead2 but so it was1 and the dreadful fact had at last come upon us with a horrible suddenness4 ,of the business of the next few days ,i need say nothing4 ,i went up to ,london in the interval between the death and burial1 and the old house at ,chelsea1 which1 to my mind1 in my time had always been desolate1 was now more than ever so1 that the man who had been its vitalising spirit lay dead eighty miles away by the side of the sea4 ,it was decided to bury the poet in the churchyard of ,birchington4 ,the funeral1 which was a private one1 was attended by relatives and personal friends only1 with one or two well-wishers from ,london4 ,next day we saw most of the friends away by train1 and1 some days later1 ,mr4 ,watts was with myself the last to leave4 ,i thought we two were drawn the closer each to each from the loss of him by whom we were brought together4 ,we walked one morning to the churchyard and found the grave1 which nestles under the south-west porch1 strewn with flowers4 ,the church is an ancient and quaint early ,gothic edifice1 somewhat rejuvenated however1 but with ivy creeping over its walls4 ,the prospect to the north is of sea only3 a broad sweep of landscape so flat and so featureless that the great sea dominates it4 ,as we stood there1 with the rumble of the rolling waters borne to us from the shore1 we felt that though we had little dreamed that we should lay ,rossetti in his last sleep here1 no other place could be quite so fit4 ,it was1 indeed1 the resting-place for a poet4 ,in this bed1 of all others1 he must at length1 after weary years of sleeplessness1 sleep the only sleep that is deep and will endure4 ,thinking of the incidents which ,i have in this chapter tried to record1 my mind reverted to a touching sonnet which the friend by my side had just printed2 and then1 for the first time1 ,i was struck by its extraordinary applicability to him whom we had laid below4 ,in its printed form it was addressed to ,heine1 and ran3 ,thou knew'st that island far away and lone ,whose shores are as a harp1 where billows break ,in spray of music and the breezes shake ,o'er spicy seas a woof of colour and tone1 ,while that sweet music echoes like a moan ,in the island's heart1 and sighs around the lake ,where1 watching fearfully a watchful snake1 ,a damsel weeps upon her emerald throne4 ,life's ocean1 breaking round thy senses' shore1 ,struck golden song as from the strand of day3 ,for us the joy1 for thee the fell foe lay-- ,pain's blinking snake around the fair isle's core1 ,turning to sighs the enchanted sounds that play ,around thy lovely island evermore4 8,how strangely appropriate it is10 ,i said1 8to ,rossetti1 and now ,i remember how deeply he was moved on reading it40 8,he guessed its secret2 ,i addressed it1 for disguise1 to ,heine1 to whom it was sadly inapplicable4 ,i meant it for him40 ,,the ,,end4