,illustration3 ,william ,morris ,,william ,,morris ,,poet ,,craftsman ,,socialist ,,by ,,elisabeth ,,lvther ,,cary ,,illvstrated ,g4 ,p4 ,,pvtnam',s ,,sons ,,the ,,knickerbocker ,,press ,,new ,,york ,,london ,,copyright1 #aijb ,,by ,g4 ,p4 ,,putnam',s ,,sons ,published1 ,october1 #aijb ,reprinted1 ,june1 #aijc2 ,december1 #aije ,the ,knickerbocker ,press1 ,new ,york ,,preface4 ,the personal life of ,william ,morris is already known to us through ,mr4 ,mackail's admirable biography as fully1 probably1 as we shall ever know it4 ,my own endeavour has been to present a picture of ,morris's busy career perhaps not less vivid for the absence of much detail1 and showing only the man and his work as they appeared to the outer public4 ,i have used as a basis for my narrative1 the volumes by ,mr4 ,mackail2 ,william ,morris1 his ,art1 his ,writings1 and his ,public ,life1 by ,aymer ,vallance2 ,the ,books of ,william ,morris1 by ,h4 ,buxton ,forman2 numerous articles in periodicals1 and ,morris's own varied works4 ,i wish to express my indebtedness to ,mr4 ,bulkley of #db ,east #adth ,street1 ,new ,york ,city1 for permission to reproduce a number of ,morris patterns in his possession1 notably a fragment of the ,st4 ,james's wall-paper4 ,much material for the letter-press and for the illustrations ,i have obtained through the ,boston ,public ,library4 ,the ,froissart pages were found there and most of the ,kelmscott publications from which ,i have quoted4 ,the bibliography is that prepared by ,mr4 ,s4 ,c4 ,cockerell for the last volume of ,mr4 ,morris issued by the ,kelmscott ,press1 under the title of ,a ,note by ,william ,morris on ,his ,aims in ,founding the ,kelmscott ,press4 ,to the ,cockerell bibliography have been added a few notes of my own4 ,e4 ,l4 ,c4 ,,brooklyn1 ,sept4 #aj1 #aijb4 ,,contents4 ,,chapter ,,page ,i4--,,boyhood #a ,,ii4--,,oxford ,,life #ba ,,iii4--,,from ,,rossetti ,,to ,,the ,,red ,,house #df ,,iv4--,,morris ,,and ,,company #fi ,v4--,,from ,,the ,,red ,,house ,,to ,,kelmscott #if ,,vi4--,,poetry #aad ,,vii4--,,public ,,life ,,and ,,socialism #adf ,,viii4--,,public ,,life ,,and ,,socialism 7,continued7 #agd ,,ix4--,,literature ,,of ,,the ,,socialist ,,period #aid ,x4--,,the ,,kelmscott ,,press #bai ,,xi4--,,later ,,writings #bci ,,xii4--,,the ,,end #bee ,,bibliography #bfi ,,index #bia ,,illustrations4 ,page ,william ,morris ,frontispiece ,from ,life4 ,title-page of ,the ,oxford and ,cambridge ,magazine #cb ,portrait of ,rossetti #cf ,by ,watts4 ,illustration by ,rossetti to ,the ,lady of ,shalott in the ,moxon ,tennyson4 ,the ,head of ,launcelot is a ,portrait of ,morris #db ,portrait of ,jane ,burden 7,mrs4 ,morris7 #eh ,by ,rossetti ,wall-,paper and ,cotton-,print ,designs #fj ,acanthus ,wall-,paper ,pimpernel ,wall-,paper ,african ,marigold ,cotton-,print ,these designs must not be taken as exact as to colour afterwards used1 ,mr4 ,morris using the colours to his hand and afterwards superintending the actual colouring in the course of manufacture1 in most cases many experimental trials being made before the desired colouring was actually decided upon4 ,reproduced from examples obtained by courtesy of ,mr4 ,a4 ,e4 ,bulkley4 ,the ,morris designs in this book were reproduced by permission of ,messrs4 ,morris ,company4 ,the ,strawberry ,thief ,design for ,cotton-,print #ff ,tulip ,design for ,axminster ,carpet #gj ,peacock ,design for ,coarse ,wool ,hangings #gb ,painted ,wall ,decoration ,designed by ,morris #gf ,painted ,wall ,decoration ,designed by ,morris #hj ,design for ,st4 ,james's ,palace ,wall-,paper #hb ,reproduced from sample obtained through courtesy of ,mr4 ,bulkley4 ,early ,design for ,morris ,wall-,paper ,daisy and ,columbine #hd ,chrysanthemum ,design for ,wall-,paper #hd ,anemone ,pattern for ,silk and ,wool ,curtain ,material #hh ,portion of ,hammersmith ,carpet #ij ,secretary ,designed by the ,morris ,co4 #id ,in possession of ,mr4 ,bulkley4 ,sofa ,designed by the ,morris ,co4 #id ,in possession of ,mr4 ,bulkley4 ,illustration by ,burne-,jones for ,projected ,edition of ,the ,earthly ,paradise1 ,cut on ,wood by ,morris ,himself #ih ,kelmscott ,manor ,house4 ,two views #ajj ,design by ,rossetti for ,window ,executed by ,morris ,co4 7,the ,parable of the ,vineyard7 #aaj ,design by ,rossetti for ,stained-,glass ,window ,executed by the ,morris ,co4 7,the ,parable of the ,vineyard7 #aaj ,morris's ,bed1 with ,hangings ,designed by ,himself and ,embroidered by his ,daughter #aad ,kelmscott ,manor ,house from the ,orchard #aah ,portrait of ,edward ,burne-,jones #abj ,by ,watts4 ,william ,morris #acj ,picture by ,rossetti in which the ,children's ,faces are ,portraits of ,may ,morris #adh ,honeysuckle ,design for ,linen #afb ,washing ,cloth at the ,merton ,abbey ,works #agd ,merton ,abbey ,works #agd ,portrait of ,mrs4 ,morris #bjj ,by ,rossetti4 ,study of ,mrs4 ,morris #baf ,made by ,rossetti for picture called ,the ,day ,dream4 ,kelmscott ,types #bbj ,page from ,kelmscott ,chaucer4 ,illustration by ,burne-,jones4 ,border and ,initial ,letter by ,morris #bbb ,title-page of the ,kelmscott ,chaucer #bbd ,the ,smaller ,kelmscott ,press-,mark #bbh ,the ,larger ,kelmscott ,press-,mark #bbh ,drawing by ,morris of the ,letter h for ,kelmscott ,type1 with ,notes and ,corrections #bbh ,specimen ,page from the ,kelmscott ,froissart #bcd ,projected ,edition ,,chapter ,i4 ,,boyhood4 ,there is1 perhaps1 no single work by ,william ,morris that stands out as a masterpiece in evidence of his individual genius4 ,he was not impelled to give peculiar expression to his own personality4 ,his writing was seldom emotionally autobiographic as ,rossetti's always was1 his painting and designing were not the expression of a personal mood as was the case with ,burne-,jones4 ,but no one of his special time and group gave himself more fully or more freely for others4 ,no one contributed more generously to the public pleasure and enlightenment4 ,no one tried with more persistent effort first to create and then to satisfy a taste for the possible best in the lives and homes of the people4 ,he worked toward this end in so many directions that a lesser energy than his must have been dissipated and a weaker purpose rendered impotent4 ,his tremendous vitality saved him from the most humiliating of failures1 the failure to make good extravagant promise4 ,he never lost sight of the result in the endeavour1 and his discontent with existing mediocrity was neither formless nor empty4 ,it was the motive power of all his labour2 he was always trying to make everything something different from what it was1 and this instinct was1 alike for strength and weakness1 says his chief biographer1 of the very essence of his nature4 ,to tell the story of his life is to write down the record of dreams made real1 of nebulous theories brought swiftly to the test of experiment1 of the spirit of the distant past reincarnated in the present4 ,but1 as with most natures of similar mould1 the man was greater than any part of his work1 and even greater than the sum of it all4 ,he remains one of the not-to-be-forgotten figures of the nineteenth century1 so interesting was he1 so impressive1 so simple-hearted1 so nearly adequate to the great tasks he set himself1 so well beloved by his companions1 so useful1 despite his blunders1 to society at large4 ,the unity that held together his manifold forms of expression was maintained through the different periods of his life1 making him a whole man to a more than usual degree4 ,from the earliest recorded incidents of his childhood we gain an impression not unlike that made by his latest years1 and by all the interval between4 ,the very opposite of ,rossetti1 with whose school he has been so long and so mistakenly identified1 his nature was as single as his accomplishment was complex1 and the only means by which it is possible to get a just idea of both the former and the latter is to regard him as a man of one preoccupation amounting to an obsession1 the reconstruction of social and industrial life according to an ideal based upon the more poetic aspects of the ,middle ,ages4 ,from first to last the early ,english world1 the ,english world of the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries1 was the world to which he belonged4 ,born out of his due time1 in truth1 he began almost from his birth to accumulate associations with the time to which he should have been native and whose far off splendour lured him constantly back toward it4 ,the third of nine children1 he was born at ,walthamstow1 in ,essex1 ,england1 on the #bdth of ,march1 #ahcd4 ,on the ,morris side he came of ,welsh ancestry1 a fact accounting perhaps for the mingled gloom and romance of his temperament4 ,his father was a discount broker in opulent circumstances1 and his mother was descended from a family of prosperous merchants and landed proprietors4 ,on the maternal side a strong talent for music existed1 but in the ,morris family no more artistic quality can be traced than a devotion to general excellence1 to which ,william ,morris certainly fell heir4 ,for a time he was a sickly child1 and used the opportunity to advance his reading1 being already deep in the ,waverley novels when four years old1 and having gone through these and many others before he was seven4 ,in #ahdj the family removed to ,woodford ,hall1 a house belonging to the ,georgian period1 standing in about fifty acres of park1 on the road from ,london to ,epping1 and here ,morris led an outdoor life with the result of rapidly establishing his health1 steeping mind and sense in the sights and sounds of nature dear to him forever after1 and gaining intimate acquaintance with the romantic and mediaeval surroundings by which his whole career was to be influenced4 ,the county of ,essex was well adapted to feed his prodigious appetite for antiquities4 ,its churches1 in numbers of which ,norman masonry is to be found1 its ancient brasses 7that of the schoolboy ,thomas ,heron being among many others within easy reach of ,woodford71 and its tapestry-hung houses1 all stimulated his inborn love of the ,middle ,ages and started him fairly on that path through the thirteenth century which he followed deviously as long as he lived4 ,even in his own home1 we are told1 certain of the habits of mediaeval ,england persisted1 such as the brewing of beer1 the meal of cakes and ale at high prime1 the keeping of ,twelfth ,night1 and other such festivals4 ,the places he lived in counted for much with him always1 and the impressions of this childish period remained1 like all his later impressions1 keen and permanent4 ,toward the end of his life he printed at the ,kelmscott ,press the carol ,good ,king ,wenceslas1 which begins with a lusty freshness3 ,good ,king ,wenceslas look'd out1 ,on the feast of ,stephen1 ,when the snow lay round about1 ,deep and crisp and even4 ,brightly shone the moon that night1 ,though the frost was cruel1 ,when a poor man came in sight ,gath'ring winter fuel4 ,the legend itself1 he comments1 is a pleasing and genuine one1 and the ,christmas-like quality of it1 recalling the times of my boyhood1 appeals to me at least as a memory of past days4 ,beside angling1 shooting1 and riding1 he very early occupied much of his time with visits to the old churches1 a pursuit of which he was never to weary1 studying their monuments and accumulating an amount of genuine erudition concerning them quite out of proportion to his rather moderate accomplishment along the ordinary lines of study4 ,at an age when ,scott was scouring his native heath in search of ,border ballads and antiquities1 this almost equally precocious boy was collecting rubbings from ancient inscriptions1 and picturing to himself1 as he wandered about the region of his home on foot or on horseback1 the lovely face of ,england as it looked in the thirteenth or fourteenth century4 ,in one of the earliest of the boyish romances that appeared in the ,oxford and ,cambridge ,magazine1 he imagines himself the master-mason of a church built more than six centuries before1 and which has vanished from the face of the earth with nothing to indicate its existence save earth-covered ruins heaving the yellow corn into glorious waves4 ,his description of the carving on the bas-reliefs of the west front and on the tombs shows with what loving intensity he has studied the most minute details of the work of the ancient builders in whose footsteps he would have rejoiced much to tread4 ,how far his family sympathised with his tastes it is impossible to say1 but probably not deeply4 ,we have few hints of the personal side of his home-life2 we know that a visit to ,canterbury ,cathedral with his father was among the indelible experiences of his first decade1 and that he possessed among his toys a little suit of armour in which he rode about the park after the manner of a ,froissart knight1 and that is about all we do know until we hear of the strong disapproval of his mother and one of his sisters for the career that finally diverted his interest from the ,church for which they had designed him4 ,his formal education began when he was sent at the age of nine to a preparatory school kept by a couple of maiden ladies4 ,there he remained until the death of his father in #ahdg4 ,in ,february1 #ahdh1 he went to ,marlborough ,college1 a nomination to which his father had purchased for him4 ,the best that can be said for this school seems to be that it was situated in a part of ,england ideally suited to a boy of archaeological tastes1 and was provided with an excellent archaeological and architectural library4 ,here his eager mind browsed on the literature of ,english ,gothic1 and his restless feet carried him far afield among pre-,celtic barrows1 stone circles1 and ,roman villas4 ,savernake ,forest was close at hand and he spent many of his holidays within it4 ,it was doubtless the familiarity with all aspects of the woods1 due to his pilgrimages through ,savernake and ,epping ,forests and the long roving days idled away among their shadows1 that gave rise to the allusions in his books--early and late--to woodland life4 ,the passage through the thick wood and the coming at last to the place where the trees thin out and the light begins to shimmer through them is a constantly recurring figure of his verse and of his prose4 ,frequently the important scene of a romance or of a long poem is laid in a wildwood1 as in the story entitled ,the ,wood beyond the ,world1 or in ,goldilocks and ,goldilocks1 the concluding poem of the volume of ,poems by the ,way1 in which the great grey boles of the trees1 the bramble bush1 the woodlawn clear1 and the cherished oaks are as vivid as the human actors in the drama4 ,his heroes seldom fail of being deft woodsmen1 able to thread the tangle of underbrush by blind paths1 and observant of all the common sights and sounds of the woodland1 rabbits scuttling out of the grass1 adders sunning themselves on stones in the cleared spaces1 wild swine running grunting toward close covert1 hart and hind bounding across the way4 ,they know the musty savour of water dipped from a forest brook1 they know how to go straight to the yew sticks that quarter best for bow-staves1 they know the feeling of the boggy moss under their feet1 and the sound of the iron wind through the branches in the depth of winter2 there is no detail of wild wood life of which they are ignorant4 ,this intimacy with ,nature in her most secluded moments1 in her shyest and most mysterious aspect1 forms an element of inexpressible charm in the lovely backgrounds against which ,morris delighted to place his visionary figures4 ,he never tired of combining the impressions stored away in his mind on his boyish rambles into pictures the delicate beauty of which can hardly be overestimated4 ,while he was at school1 his already highly developed imagination found an outlet in constant fable-making1 his tales of knights and fairies and miraculous adventures having a considerable popularity among his comrades1 with whom1 however1 he himself was not especially popular1 making friends with them only in a superficial fashion4 ,judging from the autobiographic fragments occasionally found in his work1 he was a boy of many moods1 most of them tinged with the self-conscious melancholy of his early poetry4 ,sentiment was strong with him1 and a peculiar reticence or detachment of temperament kept him independent of others during his school years1 and apparently uninfluenced by the tastes or opinions of those about him1 if we except the case of his ,anglo-,catholic proclivities1 which obviously were fed by the tendencies of the school1 but which1 so far from diverting him from the general scheme of his individual interests1 fitted into them and served him as another link between the present and the much preferred past4 ,outwardly he can hardly have seemed the typical dreamer he has described himself as being4 ,beautiful of feature1 of sturdy build1 with a shouting voice1 extraordinary muscular strength1 and a gusty temper1 he impressed himself upon his comrades chiefly by his impetuosity in the energetic game of singlestick1 by the surplus vigour that led him at times to punch his own head with all his might to take it out of himself1 and by the vehemence and enthusiasm of his argumentative talk4 ,he was little of a student along the orthodox lines1 and ,marlborough ,college was not calculated to increase his respect--never undue--for pedagogic methods4 ,a letter written when he was sixteen to his eldest and favourite sister reflects quite fully his pre-occupations4 ,it has none of the genuine wit and literary tone of the juvenile letter written by ,stevenson to his father1 presenting his claims for reimbursements4 ,it shows no such zest for bookish pursuits as ,rossetti's letters1 written at the same age1 reveal4 ,but it is entirely free from the shallow flippancy that frequently characterises the correspondence of a young man's second decade--that characterised ,lowell's1 for example1 to an almost painful degree2 nor has it a shade of the self-magnification to which any amount of flippancy is preferable4 ,it is straightforward and boyish1 and remarkable only as showing the thorough and intelligent method with which its writer followed up whatever commanded his interest4 ,commencing with the description of an anthem sung at ,easter by the trained choir of ,blore's ,chapel connected with his school1 he passes on to an account of his archaeological investigations1 giving after his characteristic fashion all the small details necessary to enable his correspondent to form a definite picture of the places he had visited4 ,after he had made one pilgrimage to the ,druidical circle and ,roman entrenchment at ,avebury1 he had learned of the peculiar method of placing the stones which1 from the dislocated condition of the ruins1 had not been obvious to him4 ,therefore he had returned on the following day to study it out and fix the original arrangement firmly in his imagination1 and1 at the time of writing the letter1 was able to explain it quite clearly1 a result1 derived from the expenditure of two holidays1 that was completely satisfactory to him4 ,he winds up with a purely boyish plea for a good large cake and some biscuit in addition to a cheese that had been promised him1 and for paper and postage stamps and his silkworm eggs and a pen box to be sent him from home4 ,at school he was always thinking about home1 and when the family moved again to ,walthamstow1 within a short distance of his first home1 and to a house boasting a moat and a wooded island1 he was eagerly responsive to the poetic suggestions conveyed by these romantic accessories4 ,when at the end of #ahea he left school to prepare under a private tutor for ,oxford1 he renewed his early familiarity with ,epping ,forest and spent most of his holidays among the trees that had not apparently changed since the time of ,edward the ,confessor4 ,the great age of the wood and its peculiarly ,english character made a profound impression upon him1 and it is easy to imagine the fury with which he must have received the suggestion1 made forty years later by ,mr4 ,alfred ,wallace1 that in place of a hideous assemblage of stunted mop-like pollards rising from a thicket of scrubby bushes1 ,north ,american trees should be planted and a part of the forest made into an almost exact copy of ,north ,american woodland4 ,indeed1 a suppressed but unmistakable fury breathes from the letters written to the ,daily ,chronicle1 as late as #ahie1 regarding the tree-felling that was going on ruthlessly in the forest1 destroying its native character and individual charm4 ,these letters1 curiously recalling those written half a century before concerning boyish excursions through the same region1 are well worth quoting here1 where properly they belong1 as they are inspired by the earliest of the associations and ideals cherished by ,morris to the end of his life4 ,they are fine examples of his own native character in argument1 his humbly didactic tone early caught from ,ruskin and never relinquished1 his militant irony1 his willingness to fortify his position by painstaking investigation1 his moral attitude toward matters artistic1 his superb rightness of taste in the special problem under discussion4 ,they show also how closely his memory had held through his manifold interests the details that had appealed to him in his boyhood4 ,the first letter is dated ,april #bcrd1 and addressed to the editor of the ,daily ,chronicle4 ,,sir3 ,i venture to ask you to allow me a few words on the subject of the present treatment of ,epping ,forest4 ,i was born and bred in its neighbourhood 7,walthamstow and ,woodford71 and when ,i was a boy and young man ,i knew it yard by yard from ,wanstead to the ,theydons1 and from ,hale ,end to the ,fairlop ,oak4 ,in those days it had no worse foes than the gravel stealer and the rolling-fence maker1 and was always interesting and often very beautiful4 ,from what ,i can hear it is years since the greater part of it has been destroyed1 and ,i fear1 ,sir1 that in spite of your late optimistic note on the subject1 what is left of it now runs the danger of further ruin4 ,the special character of it was derived from the fact that by far the greater part was a wood of hornbeams1 a tree not common save in ,essex and ,herts4 ,it was certainly the biggest hornbeam wood in these islands1 and ,i suppose in the world4 ,the said hornbeams were all pollards1 being shrouded every four or six years1 and were interspersed in many places with holly thickets1 and the result was a very curious and characteristic wood1 such as can be seen nowhere else4 ,and ,i submit that no treatment of it can be tolerable which does not maintain this hornbeam wood intact4 ,but the hornbeam1 though an interesting tree to an artist and reasonable person1 is no favourite with the landscape gardener1 and ,i very much fear that the intention of the authorities is to clear the forest of native trees1 and to plant vile weeds like deodars and outlandish conifers instead4 ,we are told that a committee of 'experts' has been formed to sit in judgment on ,epping ,forest2 but1 ,sir1 ,i decline to be gagged by the word 'expert1' and ,i call on the public generally to take the same position4 ,an 'expert' may be a very dangerous person1 because he is likely to narrow his views to the particular business 7usually a commercial one7 which he represents4 ,in this case1 for instance1 we do not want to be under the thumb of either a wood bailiff whose business is to grow timber for the market1 or of a botanist whose business is to collect specimens for a botanical garden2 or of a landscape gardener whose business is to vulgarise a garden or landscape to the utmost extent that his patron's purse will allow of4 ,what we want is reasonable men of real artistic taste to take into consideration what the essential needs of the case are1 and to advise accordingly4 ,now it seems to me that the authorities who have ,epping ,forest in hand may have two intentions as to it4 ,first1 they may intend to landscape-garden it1 or turn it into golf grounds 7and ,i very much fear that even the latter nuisance may be in their minds72 or second1 they may really think it necessary 7as you suggest7 to thin the hornbeams1 so as to give them a better chance of growing4 ,the first alternative we ,londoners should protest against to the utmost1 for if it be carried out then ,epping ,forest is turned into a mere place of vulgarity1 is destroyed in fact4 ,as to the second1 to put our minds at rest1 we ought to be assured that the cleared spaces would be planted again1 and that almost wholly with hornbeam4 ,and1 further1 the greatest possible care should be taken that not a single tree should be felled unless it is necessary for the growth of its fellows4 ,because1 mind you1 with comparatively small trees1 the really beautiful effect of them can only be got by their standing as close together as the emergencies of growth will allow4 ,we want a thicket1 not a park1 from ,epping ,forest4 ,in short1 a great and practically irreparable mistake will be made if1 under the shelter of the opinion of 'experts1' from mere carelessness and thoughtlessness1 we let the matter slip out of the hands of the thoughtful part of the public2 the essential character of one of the greatest ornaments of ,london will disappear1 and no one will have even a sample left to show what the great north-eastern forest was like4 ,i am1 ,sir1 yours obediently1 ,,william ,,morris ,kelmscott ,house1 ,hammersmith4 ,the second letter is written two or three weeks later1 and shows ,morris as characteristically prompt and thorough in action as he is positive in speech4 ,yesterday1 he says1 ,i carried out my intention of visiting ,epping ,forest4 ,i went to ,loughton first1 and saw the work that had been done about ,clay ,road1 thence to ,monk ,wood1 thence to ,theydon ,woods1 and thence to the part about the ,chingford ,hotel1 passing by ,fair ,mead ,bottom and lastly to ,bury ,wood and the wood on the other side of the road thereby4 ,i can verify closely your representative's account of the doings on the ,clay ,road1 which is an ugly scar originally made by the lord of the manor when he contemplated handing over to the builder a part of what he thought was his property4 ,the fellings here seem to me all pure damage to the forest1 and in fact were quite unaccountable to me1 and would surely be so to any unprejudiced person4 ,i cannot see what could be pleaded for them either on the side of utility or taste4 ,about ,monk ,wood there had been much1 and ,i should say excessive1 felling of trees apparently quite sound4 ,this is a very beautiful spot1 and ,i was informed that the trees there had not been polled for a period long before the acquisition of the forest for the public2 and nothing could be more interesting and romantic than the effect of the long poles of the hornbeams rising from the trunks and seen against the mass of the wood behind4 ,this wood should be guarded most jealously as a treasure of beauty so near to 'the ,wen4' ,in the ,theydon ,woods1 which are mainly of beech1 a great deal of felling has gone on1 to my mind quite unnecessary1 and therefore harmful4 ,on the road between the ,wake ,arms and the ,king's ,oak ,hotel there has been again much felling1 obviously destructive4 ,in ,bury ,wood 7by ,sewardstone ,green7 we saw the trunks of a great number of oak trees 7not pollards71 all of them sound1 and a great number were yet standing in the wood marked for felling1 which1 however1 we heard had been saved by a majority of the committee of experts4 ,i can only say that it would have been a very great misfortune if they had been lost2 in almost every case where the stumps of the felled trees showed there seemed to have been no reason for their destruction4 ,the wood on the other side of the road to ,bury ,wood1 called in the map ,woodman's ,glade1 has not suffered from felling1 and stands as an object lesson to show how unnecessary such felling is4 ,it is one of the thickest parts of the forest1 and looks in all respects like such woods were forty years ago1 the growth of the heads of the hornbeams being but slow2 but there is no difficulty in getting through it in all directions1 and it has a peculiar charm of its own not to be found in any other forest2 in short1 it is thoroughly characteristic4 ,i should mention that the whole of these woods are composed of pollard hornbeams and 'spear'--i4e41 unpolled--oaks4 ,i am compelled to say from what ,i saw in a long day's inspection1 that1 though no doubt acting with the best intentions1 the management of the forest is going on the wrong tack2 it is making war on the natural aspect of the forest1 which the ,act of ,parliament that conferred it on the nation expressly stipulated was to be retained4 ,the tendency of all these fellings is on the one hand to turn over ,london forest into a park1 which would be more or less like other parks1 and on the other hand to grow sizable trees1 as if for the timber market4 ,i must beg to be allowed a short quotation here from an excellent little guidebook to the forest by ,mr4 ,edward ,north ,buxton1 verderer of the forest 7,sanford1 #ahhe74 ,he says1 p4 #ch3 ',in the drier parts of the forest beeches to a great extent take the place of oaks4 ,these spear trees will make fine timber for future generations1 provided they receive timely attention by being relieved of the competing growth of the unpicturesque hornbeam pollards4 ,throughout the wood between ,chingford and ,high ,beech1 this has been recently done1 to the great advantage of the finer trees4' ,the italics are mine1 and ,i ask1 ,sir1 if we want any further evidence than this of one of the verderers as to the tendency of the fellings4 ,mr4 ,buxton declares in so many words that he wants to change the special character of the forest2 to take away this strange1 unexampled1 and most romantic wood1 and leave us nothing but a commonplace instead4 ,i entirely deny his right to do so in the teeth of the ,act of ,parliament4 ,i assert1 as ,i did in my former letter1 that the hornbeams are the most important trees in the forest1 since they give it its special character4 ,at the same time ,i would not encourage the hornbeams at the expense of the beeches1 any more than ,i would the beeches at the expense of the hornbeams4 ,i would leave them all to nature1 which is not so niggard after all1 even on ,epping ,forest gravel1 as e4 g41 one can see in places where forest fires have denuded spaces1 and where in a short time birches spring up self-sown4 ,the committee of the ,common ,council has now had ,epping ,forest in hand for seventeen years1 and has1 ,i am told1 in that time felled #ajj1jjj trees4 ,i think the public may now fairly ask for a rest on behalf of the woods1 which1 if the present system of felling goes on1 will be ruined as a natural forest2 and it is good and useful to make the claim at once1 when1 in spite of all disfigurements1 the northern part of the forest1 from ,sewardstone ,green to beyond ,epping1 is still left to us1 not to be surpassed in interest by any other wood near a great capital4 ,i am1 ,sir1 yours obediently1 ,,william ,,morris4 ,these letters emphasise in a single instance what the close student of ,morris will find emphasised at every turn in his career1--the persistent and strong influence over him of the tastes and occupations of his boyhood4 ,unless this is kept constantly in mind1 it is easy to fall into the common error of regarding the various activities into which he threw himself as separate and dissociated instead of seeing them as they were1 component parts of a perfectly simple purpose and unalterable ideal4 ,with most men who are on the whole true to the analogy of the chambered nautilus and cast off the outworn shell of their successive phases of individuality as the seasons roll1 the effect of early environment and tendency may easily be exaggerated1 but ,morris grew in the fashion of his beloved oaks1 keeping the rings by which his advance in experience was marked2 at the end all were visible4 ,his education began and continued largely outside the domain of books and away from masters4 ,his wanderings in the depths of the quaint and beautiful forest1 his intimate acquaintance with the nature of ,gothic architecture1 his familiarity with ,scott1 his prompt adoption of ,ruskin1 all these formed the foundation on which he was to build his own theory of life1 and all were his before he went up to ,oxford4 ,they prepared him for the many-sided profession1 if profession it can be called1 which was to absorb and at last to exhaust his mighty energy4 ,it was the tangible surface of the world that most inspired him in boyhood and in maturity4 ,loving so much even as a child its aspects1 its lights and shadows1 the forms of trees and birds and beasts1 the changes of season1 the lives of men living close to the kind soil and in touch with it through hearty manual labour1 it was but a step to the occupations that finally engrossed him4 ,he never got so far away from the visions of his youth as to forget them4 ,in one form or another he was constantly trying to embody them that others might see them with his eyes and worship them with his devotion4 ,the spirit of the new days1 of our days1 says the old man in ,news from ,nowhere1 was to be delight in the life of the world1 intense and almost overweening love of the very skin and surface of the earth on which man dwells4 ,,chapter ,,ii4 ,,oxford ,,life4 ,like the majority of the students who went up to ,oxford in the fifties1 ,morris matriculated with the definite intention of taking holy orders4 ,unlike the majority1 he was impelled not only by the sensuous beauty of ritualistic worship1 to which1 however1 no one could have been more keenly alive than he1 but by a genuine enthusiasm for a life devoted to high purposes4 ,a fine buoyant desire to better existing conditions and sweep as much evil as possible off the face of the earth early inspired him4 ,his mind turned toward the conventual life as that which combined the mediaeval suggestions always alluring to him with the moral beauty of holiness4 ,he planned a ,crusade and ,holy ,warfare against the ,age1 sang plain song at daily morning service1 read masses of mediaeval chronicles and ecclesiastical ,latin poetry1 and hovered just this side of the ,roman ,communion4 ,had the ecclesiology of the ,university been supported at that time by an inward and spiritual grace sufficient to hold the heart of youth to a sustained allegiance1 there is little doubt that ,morris would have thrown himself ardently into the religious path4 ,but ,oxford had become an indolent and indifferent mother to her children4 ,the storm of feeling aroused by the ,tractarian movement had died down and the reaction from it was evident4 ,at ,balliol ,jowett's energy had made its mark1 but at ,exeter1 where ,morris was1 the educational system deserved 7and received7 the contempt of an ambitious boy with an unusually large supply of stored-up intellectual force seeking outlet and guidance4 ,nor was the social life more stimulating to moral activity4 ,the abuses recorded in #aheb by the ,university ,commission were in essence so shameful that in the light of that famous report the sweet city with her dreaming spires seems to have only the beauty of the daughter of ,helios1 under whose enchantments men were turned to swine for loving her4 ,the clean mind and honest nature of ,morris revolted from the excesses that went on about him4 ,he wrote to his mother two years after his matriculation1 defending the proposition that his ,oxford education had not been thrown away3 ,if by living here and seeing evil and sin in its foulest and coarsest forms1 as one does day by day1 ,i have learned to hate any form of sin and to wish to fight against it1 is not this well too8 ,it is proof of his purity of taste and strength of will that1 despite his ample means1 the wanton extravagance of the typical undergraduate had for him no allurement4 ,it is certain that he was never seen at those dinners which were pronounced by an official censor a curse and a disgrace to a place of ,christian education1 and as certainly he played no part in the mad carnivals at which novices were initiated into a curriculum of vice4 ,yet he could not indeed say with any truth what ,gibbon had said a hundred years before1 that the time he spent at ,oxford was the most idle and unprofitable of his whole life4 ,if he felt1 as ,gibbon did1 that his formal studies were equally devoid of profit and pleasure1 and if he found nothing ridiculous in ,ruskin's bitter complaint that ,oxford taught him all the ,latin and ,greek that he would learn1 but did not teach him that fritillaries grew in ,iffley meadow1 he did find a little band of helpful associates4 ,with these he realised the priceless advantages which ,mr4 ,bagehot says cannot be got outside a college and which he sums up as found in the books that all read because all like2 in what all talk of because all are interested2 in the argumentative walk or disputatious lounge2 in the impact of fresh thought on fresh thought1 of hot thought on hot thought2 in mirth and refutation1 in ridicule and laughter4 ,the first of the few strong personal attachments in the life of ,morris dates from his first day at ,oxford4 ,at the end of ,january1 #ahec1 he went up for his matriculation1 and beside him at the examination in the ,hall sat ,burne-,jones1 who within a week of their formal entrance to the college became his intimate4 ,the friendship thus spontaneously formed on the verge of manhood lasted until ,morris died4 ,in their studies1 in their truant reading1 in their later aims and work1 the two1 diametrically as they differed in aspect and in temperament and in quality of mind1 were sympathetic and dear companions4 ,together they joined a group of other happily gifted men--,fulford1 ,faulkner1 ,dixon1 ,cormell ,price1 and ,macdonald--who met in one another's rooms for the disputatious lounge over the exuberant ideals by which they were in common inspired4 ,tennyson1 ,keats1 and ,shelley1 ,shakespeare1 ,ruskin1 ,carlyle1 ,kingsley1 ,thackeray1 ,dickens1 and ,miss ,yonge were the gods and half gods of their young and passionate enthusiasm4 ,the last1 curiously enough1 was an influence as potent as any4 ,the hero of her novel of #ahec1 ,the ,heir of ,redclyffe1 was the pattern chosen by ,morris1 according to ,mr4 ,mackail's account1 to build himself upon4 ,singular as it seems to-day that any marked impression should have been made upon an even fairly well-trained mind by a writer of such slight literary quality1 it is true that the author of ,the ,daisy ,chain counted among her devoted readers men of brilliant and dominant intellectual power4 ,she had the lucky touch to kindle in young minds that fire of sympathy with which they greet whatever shows them their own world1 their age1 themselves as they best like to see them4 ,to ,morris in particular the young heir of ,redclyffe made the appeal of a congenial temperament in a position similar to his own4 ,like ,morris1 he was headstrong and passionate1 given to excessive bursts of rage and to repentances not less excessive2 like ,morris1 he united to his natural pride an unnatural and slightly obtrusive humility2 like ,morris1 he was rich and beautiful1 generous and lovable4 ,it was no great wonder that ,morris1 poring with his characteristic absorption over the pleasant pages on which ,guy ,morville's chivalrous life is portrayed1 said as ,dromio to ,dromio1 ,methinks you are my glass and not my brother2 ,i see by you ,i am a sweet-faced youth4 ,mr4 ,mackail notes with an accent of surprise that ,kingsley was much more widely read than ,newman1 thinking the choice a curious one in the case of passionate ,anglo-,catholics4 ,so far as ,morris was concerned1 however1 there was little enough to relish in ,newman's subtle theology and relentless logic4 ,the man to whom religion as a mere sentiment was a dream and a mockery could hardly appeal to one to whom all life was a sentiment4 ,kingsley1 on the other hand1 although he was anti-,catholic in temper1 and disposed to overthrow the illusions by which such romanticists as ,scott1 such dreamers as ,fouque1 had surrounded the ,middle ,ages1 picturing their coarse and barbarous side with harsh realism1 was happy in rendering the charms of outdoor life and bold adventure1 and the songs of the ,crusaders in his ,saint's ,tragedy must have gone farther toward winning ,morris than pages of ,newman's reasoning devotion4 ,gradually the monastic ideal faded before the brightness of art and literature and the life of the world as these became more and more impressed upon ,morris's consciousness4 ,to live in the spirit and in the region of purely intellectual interests could not have been his choice after the passing of the first fanatic impulse of youth to dedicate itself to what is difficult1 ignorant of the joy of choosing4 ,many influences united to determine the precise form into which he should shape the future that for all practical purposes was under his control4 ,his interest in pictorial art was stimulated by ,burne-,jones1 who was already making fantastic little drawings1 and studies of flowers and foliage4 ,of great art he knew nothing until he spent the ,long ,vacation of #ahed in travelling through ,belgium and ,northern ,france1 where he saw ,van ,eyck and ,memling1 who at once became to him1 as they were to ,rossetti1 masters of incontestable supremacy4 ,on this trip he saw also the beautiful churches of ,amiens1 ,beauvais1 and ,chartres1 which in his unbridled expansiveness of phrase he called the grandest1 the most beautiful1 the kindest1 and most loving of all the buildings that the earth has ever borne4 ,the following year he repeated the experience1 with ,burne-,jones and ,fulford for companions4 ,this time the journey was to have been made on foot from motives of economy1 as ,burne-,jones was poor and ,morris embraced the habits of poverty when in his company with unaffected delicacy of feeling4 ,at ,amiens1 however1 ,morris went lame1 and1 after filling the streets with imprecations on all boot-makers1 bought a pair of gay carpet slippers in which to continue the trip4 ,these proved not to serve the purpose1 and the travellers were obliged to reach ,chartres by the usual methods of conveyance1 ,morris arguing with fury and futility in favour of skirting ,paris1 even by two days' journey1 so as not to see the streets of it4 ,they had with them one book1 ,keats1 and their minds were filled with the poetic ideas of art as the expression of man's pleasure in his toil1 and of beauty as the natural and necessary accompaniment of productive labour1 which ,ruskin had been preaching in ,the ,stones of ,venice and in the ,edinburgh lectures4 ,by this time they had become acquainted with the work of the ,pre-,raphaelites1 and ,burne-,jones had announced that of all men who lived on earth the one he wanted to see was ,rossetti4 ,morris had used his spare time1 of which we may imagine he had a considerable amount1 in the study of mediaeval design as the splendid manuscripts in the ,bodleian ,library illustrate it4 ,an architectural newspaper also formed part of his regular reading outside of his studies4 ,thus primed for definite action1 on this holiday filled with stimulating interests and the delicious freedom of roaming quite at will with the best of companions through the sweet fertile country of ,northern ,france1 ,morris put quite aside all aims that had not directly to do with art4 ,he and ,burne-,jones1 walking late one night on the quays of ,havre1 discussed their plans4 ,both gave up once and for all the idea of taking orders2 both decided to leave ,oxford as quickly as they could2 both were to be artists1 ,burne-,jones a painter and ,morris an architect4 ,although ,morris was never to become a practising architect1 this choice of a profession at the beginning of his career is both characteristic and significant4 ,buildings1 as we have seen1 had interested him from his childhood4 ,his favourite excursions1 long and short1 had been to the region of churches4 ,in the art of building he saw the means of elevating all the tastes of man4 ,architecture meant to him the art of creating a building with all the appliances fit for carrying on a dignified and happy life4 ,it seemed to him even at the outset1 before the word socialism had come into his vocabulary1 incredible that people living in pleasant homes and engaged in making and using these appliances of which he speaks1 should lead lives other than dignified and happy4 ,it was much more in accordance with his ideal of a vocation1 a ministry to man1 that he should contribute to the daily material comfort and pleasure of the world1 that he should make places good for the body to live in and fair for the eye to rest upon1 and therefore soothing to the soul1 than that he should construct abstract spiritual mansions of which he could at best form but a vague conception4 ,it was1 then1 with a certain sense of dedication1 an exchange of method without a change of spirit1 that he gave up the thought of holy orders and turned to the thought of furthering the good of mankind by working toward the beauty and order of the visible world4 ,from the point of view of his later interests as a decorator of houses1 he was showing the utmost wisdom in beginning with the framework1 which must exist before any decoration can be applied4 ,i have spoken of the popular arts1 he says himself1 in one of his lectures1 but they might all be summed up in that one word ,architecture2 they are all parts of that great whole1 and the art of house-building begins it all4 ,if we did not know how to dye or to weave2 if we had neither gold nor silver nor silk1 and no pigments to paint with but half a dozen ochres and umbers1 we might yet frame a worthy art that would lead to everything1 if we had but timber1 stone and lime1 and a few cutting tools to make these common things not only shelter us from wind and weather but also express the thoughts and aspirations that stir in us4 ,architecture would lead us to all the arts1 as it did with the earlier men2 but if we despise it and take no note of how we are housed1 the other arts will have a hard time of it indeed4 ,and again3 ,a true architectural work1 he says1 is a building duly provided with all the necessary furniture1 decorated with all due ornament1 according to the use1 quality1 and dignity of the building1 from mere mouldings or abstract lines to the great epical works of sculpture and painting1 which except as decorations of the nobler form of such buildings cannot be produced at all4 ,so looked upon1 a work of architecture is a harmonious1 co-operative work of art1 inclusive of all the serious arts--those which are not engaged in the production of mere toys or ephemeral prettinesses4 ,morris communicated his momentous decision to his family as soon as it was made1 and they received it with amazement and distress4 ,while their origin was not especially aristocratic1 their tastes ran toward the symbols of aristocracy4 ,when ,morris was nine years old1 his father obtained a grant of arms from the ,heralds' ,college1 and the son had no small liking for the bearings assigned--bearings which included a horse's head erased argent between three horseshoes4 ,the horse's head he introduced on the tiles and glass of the house he built for himself in later years1 and he was in the habit of making a yearly pilgrimage to the famous ,white ,horse of the ,berkshire ,downs1 connecting it in some obscure way with his ancestry4 ,in ,england1 during the fifties1 nothing was less calculated to appeal to an aristocratic tendency than any form of art considered as a profession4 ,in ,the ,newcomes ,mr4 ,honeyman remarks with bland dignity to his aspiring young relative2 ,my dear ,clive1 there are degrees in society which we must respect4 ,you surely cannot think of being a professional artist4 ,in much this spirit1 apparently1 ,mrs4 ,morris received her son's announcement1 conveyed in a long and affectionate letter stating in detail the motives that had led him to his resolution4 ,after defending his chosen profession at some length1 calling it with characteristic avoidance of pompous phraseology1 a useful trade1 he dwells upon the moderation of his hopes and expectations4 ,he does not hope to be great at all in anything1 but thinks he may look forward to reasonable happiness in his work4 ,it will be grievous to his pride and self-will1 he says1 to have to do just as he is told for three long years1 but good for it1 too1 and he looks forward with little delight to the drudgery of learning a new trade1 but is pretty confident of success1 and is happy in being able to pay the premium and all that without laying any fresh burden of expense upon his mother4 ,finally he proposes taking as his master ,george ,edmund ,street1 who was living in ,oxford as architect of the diocese1 and whose enthusiasm for the thirteenth century could hardly have failed to claim the sympathy of ,morris4 ,certainly it seemed precisely the fitting opportunity that offered4 ,there could have been no better moment for him to follow the advice he so frequently gave to others--to turn his back upon an ugly age1 choose the epoch that suited him best1 and identify himself with that4 ,gothic to the core1 he had come to ,oxford1 not1 as ,mr4 ,day has suggested1 to catch the infection of mediaevalism abroad there1 but to assimilate and thrive upon all the influences to which his independently mediaeval spirit was acutely susceptible4 ,scott1 ,pugin1 ,shaw1 ,viollet-le-,duc1 had broken the way through popular prejudice1 and ,street was engaged at the time ,morris went to him in the work of restoring ancient churches and designing ,gothic buildings4 ,restoration had not then so evil a sound to ,morris as it later came to have4 ,some thirty years after1 he was to say3 ,no man or no body of men1 however learned they may be in ancient art1 whatever skill in design or love of beauty they may have1 can persuade1 or bribe1 or force our workmen of to-day to do their work in the same way as the workmen of ,king ,edward ,i4 did theirs4 ,wake up ,theodoric the ,goth from his sleep of centuries and place him on the throne of ,italy1 turn our modern ,house of ,commons into the ,witenagemote 7or ,meeting of the ,wise ,men7 of ,king ,alfred the ,great6--no less a feat is the restoration of an ancient building4 ,in #ahee1 however1 he had not fully arrived at this conviction4 ,it was then the period of fresh hope and partial insight which1 regarding it retrospectively1 he says1 produced many interesting buildings and other works of art1 and afforded a pleasant time indeed to the hopeful but very small minority engaged in it1 in spite of all vexations and disappointments4 ,there seemed no reason to suppose that1 helped as he was by his predilections and by his environment1 he could not become the master-builder of the house beautiful that constantly haunted his imagination4 ,he was not to begin at once1 however4 ,in deference to his mother's wish he went through his final term1 passed in the ,final ,schools without difficulty1 and1 together with his companions--,the ,brotherhood as they now called themselves1--gave distinction to his last year at the ,university1 where despite all drawbacks he had been aboundingly happy1 by founding the since famous little ,oxford and ,cambridge ,magazine4 ,illustration3 ,,title-,,page ,,of ,,the ,,oxford ,,and ,,cambridge ,,magazine ,like the ,pre-,raphaelite ,germ1 this periodical aimed at an unusually high standard4 ,it was printed at the ,chiswick ,press with some pretensions to typographical beauty4 ,each number had upon its title-page an ornamental heading designed by one of ,charles ,whittingham's daughters and engraved by ,mary ,byfield4 ,on the green wrappers the name of the magazine was printed in the old-fashioned type which the ,chiswick ,press was the first to revive1 and although1 unlike ,the ,germ1 it was not illustrated1 photographs of ,woolner's medallions of ,carlyle and ,tennyson were mounted to bind with it and sold at a shilling apiece to subscribers4 ,the price of each number was also a shilling1 and twelve monthly numbers appeared1 making it thrice as long lived as its prototype1 ,the ,germ4 ,the financial responsibility1 says ,mr4 ,mackail1 was undertaken wholly by ,morris1 and he at first attempted the general control4 ,this he was soon glad to relinquish1 paying a salary of a hundred pounds a year to his editor4 ,the title1 which in full read ,the ,oxford and ,cambridge ,magazine1 ,conducted by ,members of the ,two ,universities1 indicates rather more co-operation than existed1 the magazine being conducted entirely by ,oxford men and fully two-thirds written by them4 ,the tone of the contributions was to be impeccable4 ,it is unanimously agreed1 wrote ,price1 that there is to be no shewing off1 no quips1 no sneers1 no lampooning in our ,magazine4 ,politics were to be almost eschewed1 ,tales1 ,poetry1 friendly ,critiques1 and social articles making up the body of the text4 ,first among the contributors in quantity and regularity of supply was ,morris4 ,during his second year at the ,university he had discovered that he could write poetry1 and had communicated the fact to his companions without loss of time4 ,canon ,dixon1 recalling the very thrilling occasion of his reading his first poem to the group gathered in the old ,exeter rooms occupied by ,burne-,jones1 affirms that he reached his perfection at once1 that nothing could have been altered for the better1 and also quotes him as saying1 ,well1 if this is poetry1 it is very easy to write4 ,he was not one to let a capability fust in him unused4 ,poetry and prose1 equally easy to him1 poured after this from his pen1 giving expression with some confusion and incoherence to his boyish raptures over the things he best loved and most thought about4 ,during the twelve months of the magazine's life he contributed to it five poems1 eight prose tales1 a review of ,browning's ,men and ,women1 and two special articles1 one on a couple of engravings by ,alfred ,bethel and one on the ,cathedral at ,amiens4 ,in all this early work1 filled with superabundant imagery1 self-conscious1 sensuous1 unsubstantial1 pictorial1 we have ,morris the writer as he was at the beginning and much as he was again at the end4 ,his first strange little romances pass before the eyes as his late ones do1 like strips of beautiful fabric1 deeply dyed with colours both dim and rich1 and printed with faintly outlined figures in postures illustrating the dreamy events of dreamy lives4 ,many of the pages echo with the sound of trumpets and the clash of arms1 but the echo is from so far away that the heart of the reader declines to leap4 ,passionate emotions are portrayed in passionate language4 ,men and women love and die with wild adventure4 ,splendid sacrifices are made1 and dark revenges taken4 ,but the effect is of marionettes1 admirably costumed and ingeniously managed yet inevitably suggesting artifice and failing to suggest life4 ,nevertheless ,morris wrote in the fashion commonly supposed to impart vitality if nothing else to composition4 ,he sat up late of nights1 after the manner of young writers1 and let his words stand as they fell hot and unpremeditated on the page4 ,the labour of learning the art1 as his favourite1 ,keats1 learned it1 by indefatigable practice in finding the perfect word1 the one exquisite phrase1 was quite outside his method4 ,as long as he lived1 he preferred rewriting to revising a manuscript4 ,the austerity of mind that leads to impatience of superfluous colour or tone1 and that dreads as the plague superfluous sentiment1 was foreign to him1 nor did he ever acquire it as even the ,epicurean temperament may do by ardent self-restraint4 ,in most of the romances and poems the scene is laid somewhat vaguely but unmistakably in the ,middle ,ages4 ,we rarely surprise the young writer in a date1 but the atmosphere is that of the thirteenth century though with many thirteenth-century characteristics left out4 ,the incidents appeal to what ,bagehot calls that kind of boyish fancy which idolises mediaeval society as the 'fighting time4' ,the distinction lies in the fertility and beauty of the descriptions4 ,on nearly every page is some passage that has the quality of a picture4 ,in ,the ,hollow ,land1 in ,gertha's ,lovers1 in ,svend and his ,brethren1 and especially in the article on the ,amiens ,cathedral1 are exquisite landscapes and backgrounds against which the personages group themselves with perfect fittingness4 ,i must paint ,gertha before ,i die1 said ,burne-,jones1 after ,morris himself was dead1 recalling the charm of this story which was written in his company1 under the willows by the riverside4 ,the opening and the closing sentences always invited me in an indescribable way1 but the motive par excellence was that of ,gertha after death1 in the chapter entitled ',what ,edith the ,handmaiden ,saw from the ,war ,saddle1' where the beautiful queen lies on the battle-field with the blue speedwell about her pale face1 while a soft wind rustles the sunset-lit aspens overhead4 ,illustration3 ,portrait of ,rossetti ,by ,watts ,to his genius for evoking a scene from memory or imagination with a grace and delicacy missing in the designs he was later to make with tools more rebellious than words1 ,morris added a singular ability to convey to his readers the most significant quality of what he admired1 to impress them with the feature that had most impressed him4 ,the fancy for gold1 inspired perhaps by study of mediaeval illumination1 runs like a glittering thread through the story of ,svend and his ,brethren4 ,cissela's gold hair1 her crown of gold1 the golden ring she breaks with her lover1 the gold cloth over which she walks across the trampled battle-field1 the samite of purple wrought with gold stars1 the golden letters on the sword-blade1--all these recur like so many bright accents from which the attention cannot escape4 ,again1 in the description of ,amiens ,cathedral1 we get from simple verbal repetition the effect of massive modelling1 the sense of weight in the design as ,morris felt it in one of the sculptured figures of the niches3 ,a stately figure with a king's crown on his head1 and hair falling in three waves over his shoulders2 a very kingly face looking straight onward2 a great jewelled collar falling heavily to his elbows3 his right hand holding a heavy sceptre formed of many budding flowers1 and his left just touching in front the folds of his raiment that falls heavily1 very heavily to the ground over his feet4 ,saul1 ,king of ,israel4 ,in another passage describing with minute detail the figures of the ,virgin and ,child1 a similar emphasis is laid on the quality of restfulness4 ,the two figures are very full of rest2 everything about them expresses it from the broad forehead of the ,virgin1 to the resting of the feet of the ,child 7who is almost self-balanced7 in the fold of the robe that she holds gently1 to the falling of the quiet lines of her robe over her feet1 to the resting of its folds between them4 ,and if the effect to be rendered is one of colour1 a touch of finer eloquence is added to this somewhat crude method4 ,the final passage of the account of the great ,cathedral is a genuine triumph of poetic observation1 carrying the fancy of the reader lightly over the silvery loveliness of the picture as it lay before the boy enraptured by it3 ,and now1 farewell to the church that ,i love1 to the carved temple-mountain that rises so high above the water-meadows of the ,somme1 above the grey roofs of the good town4 ,farewell to the sweep of the arches1 up from the bronze bishops lying at the west end1 up to the belt of solemn windows1 where1 through the painted glass1 the light comes solemnly4 ,farewell to the cavernous porches of the west front1 so grey under the fading ,august sun1 grey with the wind-storms1 grey with the rain-storms1 grey with the beat of many days' sun1 from sunrise to sunset2 showing white sometimes1 too1 when the sun strikes it strongly2 snowy-white1 sometimes1 when the moon is on it1 and the shadows growing blacker2 but grey now1 fretted into deeper grey1 fretted into black by the mitres of the bishops1 by the solemn covered heads of the prophets1 by the company of the risen1 and the long robes of the judgment-angels by hell-mouth and its flames gaping there1 and the devils that feed it2 by the saved souls and the crowning angels2 by the presence of the ,judge1 and by the roses growing above them all forever4 ,the review of ,browning's ,men and ,women1 then recently published1 is more valuable as testifying to the impression produced by ,browning upon his young contemporary1 than for any especial illumination it throws upon the poems themselves4 ,browning was popular with the students of ,oxford long before he gained his wider audience1 and although ,morris did not follow him far in his investigation of the human soul and came heartily to dislike his constant dwelling on sin and probing of the secrets of the heart1 he placed him at the time of writing his criticism high among the poets of all time and he hardly knew whether first or second in our own1 and his defence of him1 bristling with ejaculations1 and couched in boyish phrases1 shows in part a more than boyish divination4 ,it does not help poems much to solve them1 he says1 after what1 in truth1 is a somewhat disastrous attempt to interpret the meaning of ,women and ,roses1 because there are in poems so many exquisitely small and delicate turns of thought running through their music1 and along with it1 that cannot be done into prose1 any more than the infinite variety of form1 and shadow1 and colour in a great picture can be rendered by a coloured woodcut4 ,it was a bitter thing to him to see the way in which the poet had been received by almost everybody1 and he assured his little world that what the critics called obscurity in ,browning's poems resulted from depth of thought and greatness of subject on the poet's part1 and on his readers' part1 from their shallower brains and more bounded knowledge1 if not indeed from mere wanton ignorance and idleness1 and to this kind of obscurity one had little right to object4 ,it was the first tilt in the lists1 the beginning of the long combat against the ,philistines upon which ,morris entered with high resolve and firm conviction1 which he lustily enjoyed1 and in which despite many a broken lance he bore himself as a bold and skilful knight4 ,in the little tale called ,the ,hollow ,land1 written for the magazine just before it went to smash1 to use ,burne-,jones's expressive phrase1 an amusingly significant sentence occurs3 ,then ,i tried to learn painting1 says the hero1 till ,i thought ,i should die1 but at last learned through very much pain and grief4 ,here it is not difficult to recognise an autobiographic touch4 ,painting was already beginning to beckon ,morris away from the profession he had so recently chosen4 ,at the end of #ahee1 during the ,christmas vacation1 and just before ,morris entered ,street's office1 ,burne-,jones had made a visit to ,london1 where at a monthly meeting at the ,working ,men's ,college he for the first time saw ,rossetti1 and later heard him rend in pieces the opinions of those who differed with him1 and stoutly support his infrangible theory that all men should be painters4 ,how ready ,burne-,jones was to yield himself to this potent influence1 how promptly ,rossetti's vivid and original temperament acted upon his admirer1 is clear from the latter's description1 written many years after1 of the first encounter--the young undergraduate sitting half-frightened1 embarrassed and worshipping1 among strangers1 eating thick bread and butter1 and listening to speeches about the progress of the college1 until the entrance of his idol1 whose sensitive1 gentle1 indolent face1 with its flickering of humour and the fire of genius1 entirely satisfied his poetic imagination4 ,the great qualities of ,rossetti in those days revealed themselves in his face1 and his imperious will and keen intellect were no less obvious in his talk4 ,burne-,jones returned to ,oxford with the idea of dedicating himself to art more than ever firmly fixed in his mind4 ,rossetti had approved the drawings which he had brought to him for consideration1 and had pronounced the seven months still to elapse before he could take his degree time too valuable to waste outside of art1 counselling him to fling the ,university and all its works behind him and begin painting at once4 ,with mingled delight and terror ,burne-,jones1 in spite of small means and weak health1 followed his leader1 who1 however rash to advise1 was not one to neglect his charge1 and who worked loyally to bring him through with triumph1 criticising1 teaching1 approving1 encouraging without stint1 and presently1 after his own inimitable fashion1 bringing patrons to him1 bidding them buy1 which obediently they did4 ,it was inevitable that ,morris should be stirred to emulation by this step on the part of his friend4 ,after ,burne-,jones went to ,london to begin painting under ,rossetti's direction1 ,morris spent nearly all his ,sundays with him at his lodgings in ,chelsea4 ,these holidays were full of excitement4 ,it was a glorious little world that opened out under ,rossetti's enthusiastic1 dogmatic1 and continuous talk and argument4 ,morris was deeply impressed by his notion that everyone should be a painter1 and after ,street moved his office to ,london and ,morris and ,burne-,jones took lodgings together1 the former tried the characteristic experiment of combining painting with architecture1 attempting to get six hours a day at his drawing in addition to his office work4 ,it is interesting to find him writing at this juncture that he cannot enter into politico-social subjects with any interest1 that things are in a muddle and that he has no power to set them right in the smallest degree1 that his work is the embodiment of dreams in one form or another4 ,what ,rossetti thought of his two disciples is seen in a letter written by him to ,william ,allingham in ,december1 #ahef1 when ,morris had been nearly a year with ,street4 ,he found both wonders after their kind4 ,jones is doing designs which quite put one to shame1 he wrote1 so full are they of everything--,aurora ,leighs of art4 ,he will take the lead in no time4 ,morris he deemed one of the finest little fellows alive--with a touch of the incoherent1 but a real man1 and in all illumination and work of that kind he considered him quite unrivalled by anything modern that he knew4 ,with a guide thus confident and inspiring1 it is not strange that ,morris presently yielded to the spell1 and renounced architecture to pursue painting as an end and aim in itself1 although1 like the hero of his romance1 he learned with much pain and grief4 ,illustration3 ,,illustration ,,by ,,rossetti ,,to ,,the ,,lady ,,of ,,shalott ,,in ,,the ,,moxon ,,tennyson4 ,,the ,,head ,,of ,,launcelot ,,is ,a ,,portrait ,,of ,,morris ,rossetti's service to ,morris is difficult to estimate4 ,for a brief period his influence over him was supreme4 ,perhaps in the work and temper of this ,italian1 ,morris saw more deeply into the heart of the mediaeval world than all his churches and illuminated manuscripts could help him to see4 ,at all events1 he was for the time close to genius and dominated by it4 ,his devotion to his master partook of the violence inseparable from his temperament4 ,he was soon ready to say1 when ,burne-,jones complained that he worked better in ,rossetti's manner than in his own3 ,i have got beyond that2 ,i want to imitate ,gabriel as much as ,i can4 ,but he was never to be for very long under any personal influence4 ,nor could he be persuaded by the most brilliant eloquence in the world that good could be got out of doing what he did not enjoy2 and he never enjoyed any labour that required long patience and persistent concentration of effort4 ,without being fickle1 his mind was so restless as to produce the effect of fickleness and to preclude the possibility of his doing really great work4 ,while he was trying1 under ,rossetti's stimulating but peremptory rule1 to master a painter's methods he became gloomy and despondent4 ,how long ,rossetti's daily influence might have kept him labouring at what he could not do1 writes ,mr4 ,mackail with a tinge of bitterness1 when there was work all round that he could do1 on the whole1 better than any man living1 it is needless to inquire4 ,but that ,rossetti did manage to keep him for a couple of years at the study of painting cannot be counted a misfortune4 ,probably that experience1 together with his brief term under ,street1 did as much as anything to save his design from mediocrity and imitativeness4 ,he did not make himself an architect1 and he never learned to draw anything that remotely resembled the actual structure of the human form1 but he must have gained through his study some knowledge of the inviolable laws of art that he could not have gained by passive observation however keen1 or by sympathy however ardent4 ,rossetti can hardly have been the best master for him4 ,his own nature was too undisciplined1 and he had as few of the academic virtues as any man on record of the same technical ability4 ,but his was the supreme faculty of rousing enthusiasm4 ,it may be doubted whether any other painter in ,england could have kept ,morris at the appointed and impossible task for so long a time4 ,it is easy to imagine how the impatient spirit of the latter rebelled against the slow process of learning to draw the human figure in its complicated and subtle beauty of construction and surface4 ,the fact that he stopped so far short of satisfactory accomplishment seems to account for many of the defects to be found in his later designs1 which at their best were never to be entirely beautiful1 though full of zest and freedom4 ,his tendency to drop any branch of his work as soon as it became tedious to him1 to turn to something else1 kept his creative impulse continually fresh and effective2 but kept him also from achieving the penetrating distinction of artistic self-possession4 ,whatever helped him in any degree toward this self-possession1 whatever he got in the way of discipline of mind and hand1 should be acknowledged by his admirers with gratitude1 and it is but just to recognise in ,rossetti the one man who seems to have kept the prodigious impetuosity of ,morris down without promptly losing hold upon his interest4 ,add to this the clear vision of a romantic ideal which all who worked with ,rossetti were privileged to share1 and the constant inspiration of the drama of sentiment and emotion rendered in his colour and line and in his exotic treatment of form1 and we must own that nowhere else could ,morris have found such food for an imagination already quickened by influences reaching it from a remote time and an alien world4 ,nowhere else could he have come so close to the concealed mysteries of the human soul1 despite the disillusionment he was bound to feel in daily contact with a character as contradictory as it was compelling4 ,,chapter ,,iii4 ,,from ,,rossetti ,,to ,,the ,,red ,,house4 ,although a blight of discouragement seems to have fallen upon ,morris under ,rossetti's tuition1 there were some blithe compensations4 ,not the least of these was the fitting up of the rooms at #ag ,red ,lion ,square where he and ,burne-,jones took quarters4 ,topsy and ,i live together1 wrote ,burne-,jones1 in the quaintest room in all ,london1 hung with brasses of old knights and drawings of ,albert ,duerer4 ,for the furniture1 ,morris1 who1 ,rossetti said1 was bent on doing the magnificent1 made designs to be carried out in deal by a carpenter of the neighbourhood4 ,everything was very large and heavy1 intensely mediaeval1 and doubtless rather ugly in an honest fashion1 but in the end it was furniture to be coveted1 for it offered great spaces for decoration1 and ,rossetti as well as ,morris and ,burne-,jones painted on it subjects from ,chaucer and ,dante and the ,arthurian stories4 ,the panels of a cupboard glowed with ,rossetti's beautiful pictures representing ,dante and ,beatrice meeting in ,florence and meeting in ,paradise1 and on the wide backs of the chairs he painted scenes from some of the poems ,morris had written4 ,the wardrobe was decorated by ,burne-,jones with paintings from ,the ,prioress's ,tale4 ,on the walls of the room were hung1 no doubt1 the several water-colours bought from ,rossetti1 to the lovely names of which ,morris promptly wrote ballads4 ,an owl was co-tenant with the young artists1 and they were served and also criticised by a housemaid of literary ambitions4 ,in this highly individual apartment1 where1 curiously enough1 ,rossetti and his friend ,deverell had had their studio together five or six years before1 life was not all labour and striving4 ,there were1 moreover1 holidays spent at the ,zooelogical ,gardens1 evenings at the theatre1 night-long sessions in ,rossetti's rooms1 and excursions on the ,thames4 ,one of the latter is vividly described in ,dr4 ,birkbeck ,hill's ,letters of ,gabriel ,rossetti to ,william ,allingham1 giving a joyous picture of ,morris at the mercy of his ungovernable temper4 ,the party1 consisting of ,hill1 ,morris1 and ,faulkner1 had started out to row down the ,thames from ,oxford to a ,london suburb4 ,by the time they had reached ,henley they had spent all their money except enough for ,faulkner's return ticket to ,oxford1 where he was to attend a college meeting4 ,for this he departed1 promising to bring back a supply of money in the evening4 ,the weather was unusually hot1 writes ,dr4 ,hill1 ,morris and ,i sauntered along the river-side4 ,i have not forgotten the longing glances he cast on a large basket of strawberries4 ,he had always been so plentifully supplied with money that he bore with far greater impatience than ,i did this privation4 ,at last the shadows had grown long and the heat was more bearable4 ,we went with light hearts to the railway station to meet our comrade4 ',well1 ,faulkner1' cried out ,morris1 cheerfully1 'how much money have you brought8' ,our friend gave a start4 ',good heavens1' he replied1 ',i forgot all about it4' ,morris thrust both his hands into his long dark curly hair1 tugged at it wildly1 ground his teeth1 swore like a trooper1 and stamped up and down the platform--in fact1 behaved just like ,sinbad's captain when he found that his ship was driving upon the rocks4 ,his outbursts of rage1 ,i hasten to say1 were always harmless4 ,they left no sullenness behind1 and as each rapidly passed away he was ready to join in a hearty laugh at it4 ,faulkner1 who was not the most patient of men1 noticed that passengers1 station-master1 porters1 engine-driver1 and stoker were all gazing in astonishment4 ,he1 too1 lost his temper1 and1 though in a far lower key1 stormed back4 ,morris soon quieted down1 and a council of war was held4 ,he fortunately had a gold watch-chain on which he raised enough to pay all needful expenses4 ,i remember well how the rest of our journey we rowed by many a tavern on the bank as effectually constrained as ever was ,ulysses not to listen to its siren call4 ,it was through no earthly paradise that the young poet and artist passed on the afternoon of our last day4 ,when they landed they had just a penny among them1 and were still some six or seven miles from their destination1 so they were obliged to hire a cab and trust to good fortune for not coming to a turnpike gate before arriving at ,red ,lion ,square4 ,about this time also ,rossetti and ,morris made an excursion to ,oxford for the purpose of visiting ,benjamin ,woodward1 the architect and ,rossetti's friend4 ,mr4 ,woodward had recently erected a building for the ,oxford ,union1 a society composed of past and present members of the ,university4 ,in exhibiting the building to ,rossetti it was suggested that the blank stretch of wall which ran around the top of the ,debating ,room afforded an admirable opportunity for decoration1 and ,rossetti with prompt enthusiasm evolved a plan for a cooeperative enterprise4 ,he and ,morris1 with several other willing spirits1--,burne-,jones1 of course1 ,arthur ,hughes1 ,valentine ,prinsep1 ,spencer ,stanhope1 and ,j4 ,hungerford ,pollen1--were to go up to ,oxford in a body4 ,each was to choose a subject from the ,morte d',arthur1 and execute it to the best of his ability on the walls of the ,debating ,room4 ,the whole affair was to be a matter of a few weeks4 ,the artists offered their services for nothing2 their expenses 7which turned out to be as free as their offer7 were to be paid by the ,union4 ,it is easy to imagine the ensuing bustle and ardour4 ,rossetti eagerly managing1 ,morris delighted with the charmingly mediaeval situation1--a few humble painters working together piously1 without hope of glory or thought of gain1--the others following their leader with lamb-like docility4 ,had their knowledge of methods been equal to their zeal1 the walls of the ,debating ,room must have become the loveliest of realised visions and the delight of many generations4 ,the young workmen sat for each other1 ,morris1 ,burne-,jones1 and ,rossetti all possessing fine paintable heads4 ,they clambered up and down endless ladders to gain a satisfactory view of their performance1 and attacked the most stupendous difficulties with patience and ingenuity4 ,the faces in the subject undertaken by ,burne-,jones were painted1 for example1 in three planes at right angles to one another1 owing to the projection of a string-course of bricks straight across the space to be filled by the heads of the figures4 ,some studies by ,rossetti have been preserved1 and show that his part at least of the decoration was conceived in a fresh poetic spirit1 with fulness and quaintness of expression and suggestion4 ,but the congenial band had entered upon their labours with a carelessness that can only be described as wanton4 ,not one of them knew how to paint in tempera1 and the new damp walls were smeared over with a thin coat of white lime wash laid upon the bare bricks as sole preparation for a sort of water-colour painting that blossomed like a flower under the gifted hands of the artists1 and faded almost as soon away4 ,the effect at the time was so brilliant as to make the walls1 according to ,mr4 ,coventry ,patmore's contemporaneous testimony1 look like the margin of an illuminated manuscript1 but in the course of a few months the colours had sunk into the sponge-like surface to such an extent that the designs were already dim and indistinguishable4 ,morris1 with characteristic promptness1 was the first on the field1 and his picture was finished in advance of any of the others4 ,he was1 however1 no better instructed than his companions in the special requirements of his material1 and presently all that was left of his painting was the head of his brave knight peering over the tops of multitudinous sunflowers4 ,the decoration of the ceiling was also assigned to him1 and he made his design for it in a single day4 ,later1 in #ahge1 he repainted it1 but most of the art of this merry period has receded into complete oblivion4 ,the stay in ,oxford lengthened into months as complications increased1 and finally the enterprise was abandoned with the work unfinished4 ,it had led1 however1 to an event of paramount importance to ,morris1 and of considerable importance to ,rossetti--the meeting with ,miss ,burden1 who was to figure in so many of ,rossetti's symbolic pictures1 and who became the wife of ,morris4 ,her remarkable beauty had attracted the attention of the young men one night at the little ,oxford theatre4 ,my brother was the first to observe her1 writes ,william ,rossetti2 her face was at once tragic1 mystic1 passionate1 calm1 beautiful1 and gracious--a face for a sculptor and a face for a painter--a face solitary in ,england1 and not at all like that of an ,english woman1 but rather of an ,ionian ,greek4 ,in ,rossetti's portrait of her at eighteen1 painted shortly after this meeting1 we see the grave1 unusual features almost precisely as they are drawn with words in a poem by ,morris1 entitled ,praise of ,my ,lady1 which ,mr4 ,mackail says was written during a visit to the ,manchester ,exhibition of #aheg1 but which assuredly is no earlier than the date of his acquaintance with ,jane ,burden4 ,the description1 ,pre-,raphaelite in its detail1 runs through the first half of the poem3 ,my ,lady seems of ivory ,forehead1 straight nose1 and cheeks that be ,hollow'd a little mournfully4 ,beata mea ,domina6 ,her forehead1 overshadow'd much ,by bows of hair1 has a wave such ,as ,god was good to make for me4 ,beata mea ,domina6 ,not greatly long my lady's hair1 ,nor yet with yellow color fair1 ,but thick and crisped wonderfully2 ,beata mea ,domina6 ,heavy to make the pale face sad1 ,and dark1 but dead as though it had ,been forged by ,god most wonderfully2 ,beata mea ,domina6 ,of some strange metal1 thread by thread1 ,to stand out from my lady's head1 ,not moving much to tangle me4 ,beata mea ,domina6 ,beneath her brows the lids fall slow1 ,the lashes a clear shadow throw ,where ,i would wish my lips to be4 ,beata mea ,domina6 ,her great eyes1 standing far apart1 ,draw up some memory from her heart1 ,and gaze out very mournfully2 ,beata mea ,domina6 ,so beautiful and kind they are1 ,but most times looking out afar1 ,waiting for something1 not for me4 ,beata mea ,domina6 ,i wonder if the lashes long ,are those that do her bright eyes wrong1 ,for always half tears seem to be4 ,beata mea ,domina6 ,lurking below the underlid1 ,darkening the place where they lie hid-- ,if they should rise and flow for me6 ,beata mea ,domina6 ,her full lips being made to kiss1 ,curl'd up and pensive each one is2 ,this makes me faint to stand and see4 ,beata mea ,domina6 ,it was the force of this attraction that kept ,morris long at ,oxford after ,rossetti and ,burne-,jones had returned to ,london1 leaving the walls of the ,oxford ,union to their sad fate4 ,but it was no love in idleness for him1 rather a time of many beginnings4 ,he was carving in stone1 modelling in clay1 making designs for stained glass windows1 even doing worsted work1 in ,rossetti's contemptuous phrase for his efforts at reviving the lost art of embroidery1 with a frame made from an old model and wools dyed especially for him4 ,most of all he was writing poetry1 the proper occupation of a lover so aesthetically endowed4 ,early in #aheh he had ,the ,defence of ,guenevere1 a collection of thirty poems1 ready to bring out4 ,save for a slim little pamphlet entitled ,sir ,galahad3 ,a ,christmas ,mystery1 the contents of which were included in it1 it was his first volume and1 like ,swinburne's ,rosamond published two years later1 it was dedicated to ,rossetti4 ,in this youthful1 fantastic1 emotional poetry we get the very essence of the writer's early spirit without the strange shadow of foreboding1 the constant sense of swiftly passing time1 that comes into the poetry of his maturity4 ,technically1 the poems could hardly be more picturesquely defective than they are4 ,the one giving the volume its name is nearly unintelligible in parts1 even when the reader is aware of the incidents of ,guenevere's story1 and prepared to interpret the hysterical ravings of a woman overcome by sorrow1 shame1 and love4 ,but no poems1 except ,rossetti's own1 have so suggested romantic art in strange shapes and unbridled colour4 ,they1 too1 like the wall-paintings of that early and unrivalled time1 resemble the margins of an illuminated manuscript1 reminding one of nothing in nature1 but flashing the richness of mediaeval symbolism upon the imagination in more or less awkward forms4 ,if ,morris could not imitate ,gabriel in his pictures1 he could at least imitate ,gabriel's pictures in his poems4 ,from the ,beata ,beatrix1 from the ,ghirlandata1 from the ,proserpine1 from almost any of ,rossetti's paintings of women1 these curious and affected lines1 for example1 might have been gleaned3 ,see through my long throat how the words go up ,in ripples to my mouth2 how in my hand ,the shadow lies like wine within a cup ,of marvellously colour'd gold4 ,in ,the ,eve of ,crecy we have the glitter of gold and the splendour of material things1 rendered with a childish abandon1 as in the prose romances3 ,gold on her head and gold on her feet1 ,and gold where the hems of her kirtle meet1 ,and a golden girdle round my sweet2-- ,ah6 qu'elle est belle1 ,la ,marguerite4 ,yet even now it is good to think 99 99 99 99 99 ,of ,margaret sitting glorious there1 ,in glory of gold and glory of hair1 ,and glory of glorious face most fair2 ,ah6 qu'elle est belle1 ,la ,marguerite4 ,the full hues that had for the decorators of mediaeval missals a religious significance recur again and again in lines that have much more to do with earth than with heaven1 and show less concern with the human soul than with the human heart4 ,damozels hold scarlet lilies such as ,maiden ,margaret bears on the great church walls2 ladies walk in their gardens clad in white and scarlet2 the vision of ,christ appears to ,galahad with raiment half blood-red1 half white as snow2 angels appear clad in white with scarlet wings2 scarlet is the predominating colour throughout1 if we except gold1 which serves as background and ornament to everything4 ,next to scarlet comes green1 which ,morris was later to call the workaday colour1 and we find occasional patches of blue and of grey in painted boats and in hangings4 ,the following stanza shows a favourite method of emphasising the prevailing colour of a poem3 ,the water slips1 ,the red-bill'd heron dips1 ,sweet kisses on red lips1 ,alas6 the red rust grips1 ,and the blood-red dagger rips1 ,yet1 ,o knight1 come to me6 ,for pure incoherence1 the quality that ,rossetti discerned in ,morris at their first meeting1 the song from which this stanza is taken is unsurpassed4 ,yet an emotional effect is gained in it4 ,what we chiefly miss in the little craft sailing under such vivid colours1 is that deep-grasping keel of reason which1 ,lowell says1 alone can steady and give direction to verse4 ,excitable and impatient1 in pursuit of a vague ideal1 gifted with the power to bring out the pictorial quality of detached scenes1 but without a fine metrical sense1 and averse to lucid statement1 the young poet introduced himself to the world as a symbolist in the modern acceptation of the word4 ,one of his poems1 ,rapunzel1 has been said to forecast ,maeterlinck's manner and spirit1 and the general characteristics of the poem--a fairy tale somewhat too grown-up in treatment--certainly suggest the comparison4 ,in all this work physical characteristics play an important part4 ,long hands with tenderly shadowed fingers1 long lips that cleave to the fingers they kiss1 lips damp with tears1 that shudder with a kiss1 lips like a curved sword1 warm arms1 long1 fair arms1 lithe arms1 twining arms1 broad fair eyelids1 long necks1 and unlimited hair1 form an equipment somewhat dangerous for a poet with anything short of genius to sustain him4 ,for themes ,morris had gone chiefly to the ,arthurian stories and to the chronicles of ,froissart4 ,his style1 he himself thought1 was more like ,browning's than anyone else's1 though the difference that lay between him and ,browning even at the beginning forbade any essential likeness4 ,browning's effort was always to render an idea which was perfectly clear in his own mind4 ,his volubility and obscurity and roughness frequently arose from his over-eagerness to express his idea in a variety of ways1 leading him to break off with half statements and begin afresh1 to throw out imperfect suggestions and follow them with others equally imperfect4 ,but all his stutterings and broken sentences failed to disguise the fact that an intellectual conception underlay the turbulent method1 giving substance and life to the poem however much it might lack grace and form4 ,with ,morris the intellectual conception was as weak as with ,browning it was strong1 and apparently existed chiefly to give an excuse for the pictures following one another in rapid succession through every poem1 short or long1 dramatic or lyric1 of both his youth and maturity4 ,in this early volume there was1 to be sure1 an obvious effort toward rendering psychological effects4 ,most of the longer poems are miniature dramas with a march toward some great event in the lives of the actors4 ,the author observes the dramatic requirement of sinking himself in the identity of his characters4 ,knights are slain and ladies die of love and witch-bound maidens are rescued by their princes without the sounding of a personal note on the part of their creator4 ,and in two instances1 ,sir ,peter ,harpdon's ,end and ,the ,haystack in the ,floods1 there is ruddy human blood in the tortured beings whose extremity moves the reader with a genuine emotion4 ,in these two poems the voice might indeed be the voice of ,browning1 though the hand is still unmistakably the hand of ,morris4 ,in the main1 however1 the appeal that is made is to the imagination concerned with the visible aspect of brilliantly coloured objects and with the delirious expression of overwrought feelings4 ,illustration3 ,portrait of ,jane ,burden 7,mrs4 ,morris7 ,by ,rossetti ,one defect1 calculated to interfere with a warm reception of the volume on the part of the general public1 ,morris shared with ,browning1 possessing even more than ,browning the merit attending it4 ,familiarity with the art and literature of the ,middle ,ages made it natural for him to preserve the thin new wine of his youthful poetry in the old bottles of the defunct past1 using motives and scenes and accessories alien to our modern life1 and only dimly understood by the modern reader4 ,the true spirit of that past it is hardly necessary to say he did not revive1--no writer has ever revived the true spirit of any age antecedent to his own1--and ,morris1 with his remarkable faculty for eliminating from his mental conceptions whatever did not please his taste1 was wholly unfitted by temperament1 however well fitted by his acquirements1 to carry through successfully a task so tremendous4 ,the ,defence of ,guenevere was received by the public without enthusiasm4 ,about half an edition of five hundred copies was sold and given away1 and the remainder lingered for a dozen years or more until the publication of ,the ,earthly ,paradise stimulated the interest of readers in the previous work of its author4 ,whatever disappointment ,morris may have felt must soon have given way to the excitement of the plunge he now made into a new life and the most intense personal interests4 ,on the twenty-sixth of ,april1 #ahei1 he was married to ,jane ,burden1 and after a brief interval of travel he began to build the beautiful house which he then supposed would be his home for the rest of his days4 ,his personal attractiveness at this time was keenly felt by his companions4 ,he had been making himself1 as the phrase is1 since his childhood1 and if ,stevenson's dictum--to know what you like is the beginning of wisdom and of old age--be applied to him he can never have been wholly ignorant or a child4 ,knowledge of what he liked1 and even more definitely of what he did not like1 was his earliest as well as his most notable acquirement4 ,but he was a boy1 too1 in his excessive restless vitality1 and hitherto with all his enthusiasms he had been a somewhat cold boy4 ,just now he was beginning to take a fancy for the human1 as one of his friends put it4 ,he was connecting his vague schemes and ambitions with a personal and practical enterprise4 ,his ideals dropped from a region always too rare for them to an atmosphere of activities and interests in which the vast general public could breathe as easily as he4 ,in building his new home to his fancy he was unconsciously laying the corner-stones of the many homes throughout ,england into which his influence was afterward to enter4 ,he was just twenty-five1 filled with energy1 generous impulse1 honesty1 and kindness4 ,the bourgeois touch which his biographer declares was inherent in his nature was far from obvious as yet4 ,society for its own sake he liked little1 and was not above getting out of unwelcome invitations by subterfuge1 if fair means would not avail4 ,he affected a ,bohemian carelessness in dress1 and his hair was uniformly wild4 ,his language was generally forcible1 often violent1 always expressive4 ,he lived in the company of his intimates and cared for nothing beyond the range of his fixed interests4 ,the remark made long after--,do you suppose that ,i should see anything in ,rome that ,i can't see in ,whitechapel8--was perfectly indicative of his mood toward everything that failed to arouse his intellectual curiosity4 ,but the places and things that did arouse it were never tawdry or valueless1 and his reasons for caring for them1 of which he was always remarkably prolific1 were such as appeal strongly to the mind in which homely associations hold a constant place4 ,it must be an out and out classicist who fails to detect in himself a pulsation of sympathy in response to the wail which ,morris once sent home from ,verona3 ,yes1 and even in these magnificent and wonderful towns ,i long rather for the heap of grey stones with a grey roof that we call a house north-away4 ,illustration3 ,,acanthus ,,wall-,,paper1 ,,pimpernel ,,wall-,,paper1 ,,african ,,marigold ,,cotton-,,print ,,wall-,,paper ,,and ,,cotton-,,print ,,designs 7,reproduced from examples obtained by courtesy of ,mr4 ,a4 ,e4 ,bulkley7 ,his first house1 in which he took unlimited delight1 was not1 however1 a heap of grey stones1 but a structure of brick1 its name1 the ,red ,house1 indicating its striking and then unusual colour4 ,its architect was ,philip ,webb1 who had been an associate of ,morris during the brief period passed in ,mr4 ,street's office4 ,situated not far from ,london1 on the outskirts of the village of ,upton and in the midst of a pleasant orchard1 whose trees dropped their fruit into its windows1 the ,red ,house wore an emphatically ,gothic aspect4 ,it was ,l-shaped1 with numerous irregularities of plan1 and entirely without frippery of applied ornament4 ,its great sloping roof1 the pointed arches of its doorways1 the deep simple porches1 the large hall1 with its long table in place of an entrance alley the open-timbered roof over the staircase1 the panelled screen dividing the great hall from a lesser one1--all these were characteristic of the old ,english house before the day of ,italian invasion1 while the mobile ,gothic style1 adapting itself readily to individual needs1 prevailed4 ,it stood among the old and gnarled trees1 only two stories in height1 but with an effect of rambling spaciousness and hospitality1 and the garden that lay close to it was as individual and old-fashioned as itself4 ,morris prided himself1 ,mr4 ,mackail tells us1 on his knowledge of gardening1 and his advice to the ,birmingham ,society of ,artists in one of the lectures of his later years shows how thoughtfully he considered the subject4 ,as he always acted so far as he could upon his theories1 we may be fairly sure that the ,red ,house garden was planned in conformity with the ideal place sketched in this lecture1 and may assume in it a profusion of single flowers mixed to avoid great masses of colour1 among them the old columbine1 where the clustering doves are unmistakable and distinct1 the old china aster1 the single snowdrop1 and the sunflower1 these planted in little squares1 divided from each other by grassy walks1 and hedged in by wild rose or sweet-briar trellises4 ,we may be sure the place contained no curiosities from the jungle or tropical waste1 that everything was excluded which was not native to the ,english soil1 and that ferns and brakes from the woodland were not enticed from the place of their origin to take away the characteristic domestic look of a spot that ought to seem like a part of the house4 ,it will be a key to right thinking about gardens1 says ,morris1 if you consider in what kind of places a garden is most desired4 ,in a very beautiful country1 especially if it be mountainous1 we can do without it well enough1 whereas in a flat and dull country we crave after it1 and there it is often the very making of the homestead2 while in great towns1 gardens both private and public are positive necessities if the citizens are to live reasonable and healthy lives in body and mind4 ,passing from this first necessity of reasonable and healthy living through the rose-masked doorway into the ,red ,house itself1 we find it equally suggestive of its master's personal tastes and beliefs4 ,for everything ,morris had his persuasive reason4 ,his windows had small leaded panes of glass1 because the large windows found in most decent houses or what are so called1 let in a flood of light in a haphazard and ill-considered way1 which the indwellers are forced to obscure again by shutters1 blinds1 curtains1 screens1 heavy upholsteries1 and such other nuisances4 ,by all means1 therefore1 fill the window with moderate-sized panes of glass set in solid sash bars--we shall then at all events feel as if we were indoors on a cold day--as if we had a roof over our heads4 ,the fact that small windows were used in mediaeval times and must therefore of necessity be superior is not brought forward in this argument1 and the charm of the reasoning is not marred by any reminder of the actual conditions of which small heavily leaded windows are a survival--such as the fortress style of building belonging to a warlike time1 and the great costliness of glass1 and the inability to support large panes by leads4 ,morris could always be trusted to support his fundamental liking for a thing by a host of assurances as to its sensible merits and practical advantages1 but the mere fact that he liked it was quite sufficient for his own satisfaction of mind4 ,when one of his comrades once suggested to him that personal feeling ought not to count for too much1 and that not liking a thing did not make it bad1 he replied3 ,oh1 don't it though6 ,what we don't like is bad4 ,and he had a fashion which must have produced an irritating effect upon some of his hearers1 of declaring that the people who did not hold his ideas must be unhealthy either in body or mind or both4 ,certainly the aspect of the ,red ,house suggested health within its walls4 ,with a slight stretch of imagination one could argue from its furnishings that its master was a northerner1 a middle-class man1 the admirer of a rough age1 a sturdy art1 a plain habit of life2 that he was a worker whose dreams tormented him to speedy and vigorous action1 a creature whose vitality was too great even for his strong frame and physical power4 ,he liked a massive chair1 and well he might1 for one of his amusements was to twist his legs about it in such a way that a lightly built affair must instantly succumb4 ,he liked a floor that he could stamp on with impunity2 he liked a table on which he could pound with his fists without danger to its equilibrium4 ,in the ,red ,house these requirements were fully met4 ,in the lecture called ,the ,beauty of ,life is an account of the fittings necessary to the sitting-room of a healthy person4 ,beside the table that will keep steady when you work upon it1 and the chairs that you can move about1 the good floor1 and the small carpet which can be bundled out of the room in two minutes1 there must be a bookcase with a great many books in it1 a bench that you can sit or lie upon1 a cupboard with drawers1 and1 unless either the bookcase or the cupboard be very beautiful with painting or carving1 pictures or engravings on the wall1 or else the wall itself must be ornamented with some beautiful and restful pattern1 then a vase or two1 and fireplaces as unlike as possible to the modern mean1 miserable1 and showy affairs1 plastered about with wretched sham ornament1 trumpery of cast iron1 and brass and polished steel1 and what not--offensive to look at and a nuisance to clean4 ,to these necessaries1 unless we are musical and need a piano1 in which case as far as beauty is concerned we are in a bad way1 we can add very little without troubling ourselves1 and hindering our work1 our thought1 and our rest4 ,in accordance with these opinions1 but with a fulness and richness of ornament not suggested by the simplicity of their expression1 the pleasant building at ,upton gradually took on great beauty and individuality4 ,the walls were hung with embroidered fabrics worked by ,mrs4 ,morris and her friends1 or painted by ,burne-,jones1 who1 undeterred by the ,oxford episode1 started an elaborate series of mural decorations in illustration of the wonderful adventures of ,sire ,degravant1 the hero of an ancient romance4 ,another series of scenes from the ,war of ,troy was started for the walls of the staircase1 and although both schemes were abandoned1 enough was done to give an effect of splendour to the rooms4 ,up to the large drawing-room came the ponderous and mighty settle which had cost so many expletives in the course of its adjustment to the old room in ,red ,lion ,square1 and which was now embellished by a balcony at the top to which a stairway led up4 ,all minor accessories were thoughtfully considered and for the most part designed by ,morris or by friends pressed into service at his eager demand4 ,he found little to content him in the articles of commerce on sale at the orthodox shops in the early sixties4 ,in looking at an old house1 he says in one of his books1 we please ourselves by thinking of all the generations of men that have passed through it1 remembering how it has received their joy and borne their sorrow and not even their folly has left sourness on it2 and in looking at a new house if built as it should be1 we feel a pleasure in thinking how he who built it has left a piece of his soul behind him to greet the newcomers one after another1 long after he is gone4 ,such an impress he left upon the ,red ,house1 so that no one passing it or even hearing of it can fail to think of it as belonging to ,william ,morris1 whoever may have the fortune to live in it hereafter1 and fall heir to the associations with which he invested it4 ,illustration3 ,,the ,,strawberry ,,thief ,,design ,,for ,,cotton ,,print ,during the time of building and furnishing he was exuberantly happy and wholly in his element4 ,turning constantly from one thing to another1 yet keeping along the line of his united interests1 giving his magnificent energy free scope in doing and accomplishing1 seeing grow into visible form the theories and tastes so dear to his heart1 letting out his enthusiasms and carrying others along on their current1 setting a practical example in what he believed to be of the deepest importance by requiring for himself artistic handicraft1 acting out a vigorous protest against the mechanical arts and the shams of the commercial world1--all this was meat and drink to him1 and out of it grew an enterprise representing what to the public has been probably the most valuable side of his many-sided career1 the establishment of a firm engaged in various forms of decorative art4 ,at about this time he adopted1 after the fashion of the master-workman of the ,middle ,ages1 a device or legend expressive in one way or another of his aim4 ,he chose the one used by ,van ,eyck1 ,als ich kanne1--if ,i can1--and distributed it in ,french translation and in ,english over his house1 on windows and tiles and in tapestry hangings4 ,the modesty of the words was no doubt as sincere in his case as in the case of the old ,flemish painter who excelled all his contemporaries1 but the extent to which he could and did in the new business on which he was about to enter has been the wonder of his followers4 ,,chapter ,,iv4 ,,morris ,,and ,,company4 ,the formation of the firm of ,morris1 ,marshall1 ,faulkner1 ,company1 as it was first called1 appears to have been highly incidental in character1 despite the assertion of ,morris himself in a letter to his old tutor1 that he had long meant to be a decorator1 and to that end mainly had built his fine house4 ,one evening a lot of us were together1 says ,rossetti1 in the account given by ,mr4 ,watts-,dunton1 and we got to talking about the way in which artists did all kinds of things in olden times1 designed every kind of decoration and most kinds of furniture1 and someone suggested--as a joke more than anything else--that we should each put down five pounds and form a company4 ,fivers were blossoms of a rare growth among us in those days1 and ,i won't swear that the table bristled with fivers4 ,anyhow the firm was formed1 but of course there was no deed or anything of that kind4 ,in fact it was a mere playing at business1 and ,morris was elected manager1 not because we ever dreamed he would turn out a man of business1 but because he was the only one among us who had both time and money to spare4 ,we had no idea whatever of commercial success1 but it succeeded almost in our own despite4 ,in the mind of ,morris it doubtless promised to be the sort of association about which he was constantly dreaming2 a group of intelligent craftsmen interested in making the details of daily life as full as possible of beauty1 each man fitted to his task and loving it1 each in his way a master-workman of the guild1 counting his craft honourable and spending his best thought and labour on it4 ,there was ground enough for faith in the artistic if not in the commercial outcome of the enterprise4 ,the associates1 beside ,morris1 ,rossetti1 and ,burne-,jones1 were ,madox-,brown1 then an artist of established reputation1 ,webb1 the architect of the ,red ,house1 who was also a designer of furniture and ornament2 ,peter ,paul ,marshall1 to whom ,mr4 ,william ,rossetti ascribes the first suggestion of the formation of the firm1 a capable artist although an amateur2 and ,charles ,faulkner of the ,oxford group1 who had followed his mates to ,london unable to endure the loneliness of ,oxford without them4 ,they proposed to open what ,rossetti called an actual shop1 and sell whatever their united talent produced4 ,we are not intending to compete with ----'s costly rubbish or anything of that sort1 ,rossetti wrote to his friend ,allingham1 but to give real good taste at the price as far as possible of ordinary furniture4 ,illustration3 ,,tulip ,,design ,,for ,,axminster ,,carpet ,in the ,spring of #ahfa1 premises were taken over a jeweller's shop at #h ,red ,lion ,square4 ,two floors and a part of the basement were used by the firm1 and about a dozen men and boys were presently employed4 ,there were regular weekly meetings carried on with the boisterousness of youth and high spirits1 but with thorough efficiency1 nevertheless1 where plans that were to modify and influence the household decoration of all ,england were gaily formed and put into practice4 ,the prospectus1 in which ,mr4 ,mackail discerns ,rossetti's slashing hand and imperious accent1 was not entirely calculated to mollify rival decorators1 calling attention to the fact that attempts at decorative art up to that time had been crude and fragmentary1 and emphasising the want of some one place where work of a genuine and beautiful character could be obtained4 ,the new firm pledged itself to execute in a business-like manner3 ,i4 ,mural ,decoration1 either in ,pictures or in ,pattern ,work1 or merely in the arrangement of ,colours1 as applied to dwelling-houses1 churches1 or public buildings4 ,,ii4 ,carving generally1 as applied to ,architecture4 ,,iii4 ,stained ,glass1 especially with reference to its harmony with ,mural ,decoration4 ,,iv4 ,metal ,work in all its branches1 including jewellery4 ,v4 ,furniture1 either depending for its beauty on its own design1 on the application of materials hitherto overlooked1 or on its conjunction with ,figure and ,pattern ,painting4 ,under this head is included ,embroidery of all kinds1 ,stamped ,leather1 and ornamental work in other such materials1 besides every article necessary for domestic use4 ,clearly this was not the usual thing1 nor was the business conducted in the usual way4 ,according to ,mr4 ,william ,rossetti1 the young reformers adopted a tone of something very like dictatorial irony toward their customers1 permitting no compromise1 and laying down the law without concession to individual taste or want of taste4 ,you could have things such as the firm chose them to be or you could go without them4 ,the finance of the company began1 ,mr4 ,mackail says1 with a call of one pound per share and a loan of a hundred pounds from ,mrs4 ,morris of ,leyton4 ,in #ahfb a further call of nineteen pounds a share was made on the partners1 raising the paid-up capital to one hundred and forty pounds1 which was never increased until the dissolution of the firm in #ahgd4 ,a few hundred pounds additional were loaned by ,morris and his mother4 ,each piece of work contributed by any member of the firm was paid for at the time1 and ,morris as general manager received a salary of a hundred and fifty pounds a year4 ,illustration3 ,,peacock ,,design ,,for ,,coarse ,,wool ,,hangings ,it is obvious that with this slender financial basis the business required the utmost energy1 industry1 skill1 and talent to keep it from being promptly wrecked on the very uncertain coast of public opinion4 ,during the first year all the members of the firm were active1 although even at the first ,morris led the rest4 ,a stimulus was provided by the ,international ,exhibition of #ahfb1 whither they sent examples of their work1 at the cost1 wrote ,faulkner1 of more tribulation and swearing to ,topsy than three exhibitions will be worth4 ,the exhibits attracted attention1 and were awarded medals1 in the case of the stained glass1 for artistic qualities of colour and design1 and in the case of the furniture1 hangings1 and so forth1 for the closeness with which the style of the ,middle ,ages was rendered4 ,it happened that the chief work in stained glass in the exhibit of the firm consisted of a set of windows designed by ,rossetti1 and giving1 according to a ,belgian critic1 an impression of colour1 dazzling and magnificent1 velvety and harmonious1 resembling the ,flemish stained glass windows decorating the ,gothic cathedrals4 ,thus1 fortunately1 the first appearance of the firm was distinguished by the splendour which ,rossetti alone among the group of workers could achieve1 but his interest and activity shortly flagged and were absorbed in his individual work outside the company4 ,at first1 despite the lordly prospectus1 there were occasional blunders4 ,dr4 ,birkbeck ,hill tells of a study table and an arm-chair1 neither one of which was so thorough a piece of workmanship as the firm would have turned out later on1 and ,mr4 ,hughes remembers a sofa with a long bar beneath projecting six inches at each end so that it tripped up anyone who hastily went round it4 ,these1 however1 were blunders of a kind soon remedied by experience4 ,so long as the associates kept up their enthusiasm there were among them ample skill to grapple with technicalities1 and ample artistic faculty to defy all ordinary competition4 ,whoever dropped behind from time to time in this most essential quality of enthusiasm it was never ,morris1 and all accounts agree in attributing to his energy and industry and unutterable zest the success of the novel and interesting experiment4 ,he is the only man ,i have known1 said ,rossetti once1 who beats every other man at his own game4 ,the men he had to beat at this game of decoration were for the most part unworthy foes4 ,decorative art was at a low ebb in the early ,victorian age1 the age of antimacassars1 stucco1 and veneer4 ,from this cheap vulgarity and pretentiousness ,morris turned back--as he was wont to do on every occasion that offered excuse--to the thirteenth century as the purest fount of ,english tradition1 where1 if anywhere1 could be found models showing logical principles of construction and genuine workmanship4 ,his companions either caught from him the infection of the mediaeval attitude or were already in sympathy with it1 and the work of the firm took on an emphatically ,gothic aspect from the beginning4 ,how great or how important a part each member played in the sum of the production is very difficult to estimate owing to the cooeperative plan by which several artists frequently united in executing one and the same piece of work4 ,sometimes ,burne-,jones would draw the figures1 ,webb the birds1 and ,morris the foliage for a piece of drapery or wall-paper4 ,again portions of separate designs would be used over and over in different combinations for different places4 ,this free cooeperation1 this moving about within the limits of a general plan1 suited the restless spirit of ,morris1 and chimed also with his profound admiration for the way in which the mediaeval works of art were brought about1 no one man standing high above the others or trying to preserve his name and the fame of his performance4 ,working for the pleasure of the work was of the very essence of his philosophy1 and nothing could be more unjust than the sneers from time to time launched at him because his venture proved a commercial triumph4 ,perhaps it would be going too far to say that money-getting was never in his mind1 but there is no question that it was never first in his mind1 and never in the slightest degree crowded his desire to put forth sincere1 fine work1 worth its price to the last detail1 and worthy of praise and liking without regard to its price4 ,there was not the slightest suggestion of pose or sham of any kind in his thought when he wrote1 as he often did1 against the greed of gain and in praise of the kind of labour that may be delighted in without regard to pounds and pence4 ,he could say quite faithfully that he shared the humility of the early craftsmen1 of whom he speaks with reverence4 ,in most sober earnest1 he says in one of his lectures1 when we hear it said1 as it often is said1 that extra money payment is necessary under all circumstances to produce great works of art1 and that men of special talent will not use those talents without being bribed by mere gross material advantages1 we1 ,i say1 shall know what to reply4 ,we can appeal to the witness of those lovely works still left to us1 whose unknown1 unnamed creators were content to give them to the world1 with little more extra wages than what their pleasure in their work and their sense of usefulness in it might bestow on them4 ,there is no room for doubt that he approached his work in precisely the spirit here described by him4 ,he was willing to exercise his faculties on the humblest undertakings1 with no other aim than to make a common thing pleasant to look upon and agreeable to use4 ,half a century ago craft was not the fashionable word for the kind of work with which the firm chiefly concerned itself1 and in doing the greater part of what he did ,morris was merely writing himself down1 in the language of the general public1 an artisan4 ,conforming to the truest of principles he raised his work by getting under it4 ,nothing was too laborious or too lowly for him4 ,pride of position was unknown to him in any sense that would prevent him from indulging in manual labour4 ,his real pride lay in making something which he considered beautiful take the place of something ugly in the world4 ,if it were a fabric to be made lovely with long disused or unfamiliar dyes1 his hands were in the vat4 ,if tapestry were to be woven1 he was at the loom by dawn4 ,in his workman's blouse1 steeped in indigo1 and with his hair outstanding wildly1 he was in the habit of presenting himself cheerfully at the houses of his friends1 relying upon his native dignity to save appearances1 or1 to speak more truly1 not thinking of appearances at all1 but entirely happy in his role of workman1 though frankly desirous that the business should prosper beyond all danger of the smash that would1 he owned1 be a terrible nuisance4 ,i have not time on my hands1 he said1 to be ruined and get really poor4 ,it was to the peculiar union of the ideal and the practical in his nature that his success in the fields on which he ventured is due4 ,illustration3 ,,painted ,,wall ,,decoration ,,designed ,,by ,,morris ,it must be admitted1 however1 that while his soul and vigour found vent in his designing and in the journeyman work--delightful work1 hard for the body and easy for the mind--at which he was so ready to lend a hand1 his artistic product lacked somewhat in the qualities that come from the exercise of the higher intellectual gifts4 ,it was more than an attempt to revive old ,gothic forms2 it was an adoption of old forms with an infusion of modern spirit2 but it missed the native and personal character of work growing out of contemporaneous conditions and tastes4 ,imaginative craftsman as he was1 ,morris was never quite an artist in the strict sense of the word4 ,he had a fine sense of colour and1 within certain limits1 a right feeling for pattern2 but his invention was too exuberant for repose1 and he displayed in the greater part of his work an ornamental luxuriance that destroyed dignity and simplicity of effect4 ,he did not like the restraints of art1 and he seems to have been incapable of entering the sphere of abstract thought in which the principles governing great art are found4 ,no schools of art1 he says with his superbly inaccurate generalisation1 have ever been contented to use abstract lines and forms and colours--that is1 lines and so forth without any meaning4 ,such ornament he deemed outlandish4 ,he wanted his patterns1 especially his wall-paper patterns1 to remind people of pleasant scenes3 of the close vine trellis that keeps out the sun by the ,nile side2 or of the wild woods and their streams with the dogs panting beside them2 or of the swallows sweeping above the garden boughs toward the house eaves where their nestlings are1 while the sun breaks the clouds on them2 or of the many-flowered summer meadows of ,picardy1--all very charming things to think about1 but as really pertinent to wall-paper designing as the pleasant memory of a hard road with a fast horse speeding over it would be to the designing of a carpet4 ,he preached the closest observation of nature and the most delicate understanding of it before attempting conventionalisation1 but he did not hesitate to break all the laws of nature in his designs when he happened to want to do so4 ,he did not hesitate1 as ,mr4 ,day has said1 to make an acorn grow from two stalks or to give a lily five petals4 ,fitness in ornament was one of his fundamental principles1 and he made his designs for the place in which they were to be seen and with direct reference to the limitations of opportunities of that place4 ,it was never his way to turn a wall-paper loose on the market for any chance purchaser4 ,he must know1 if possible1 something of the walls to which the design was to be applied and of the room in which it was to live1 and he then adapted his design to his idea of what was required4 ,this idea1 however1 was commonly much influenced by certain pre-conceived theories4 ,he believed1 for example1 that there should be a sense of mystery in every pattern designed4 ,this mystery he tried to get1 not by masking the geometrical structure upon which a recurring pattern must be based1 but by covering the ground equably and richly1 so that the observer may not be able to read the whole thing at once4 ,thus many of his designs are so over-elaborated as to give the effect of restlessness1 whereas rest was the word oftenest on his lips in connection with domestic art4 ,in common with most designers who derive their ideals from mediaeval sources1 he was less impressed by the tranquillity gained from calm clean spaces1 the measure1 order1 and stateliness brought about by the simple relation of abstract lines1 the repose of the rhythmical play of mass in perfect proportion1 undisturbed by decorative detail1 than by the charm of highly vitalised imagery4 ,but though he erred on the side of luxuriance--while preaching simplicity--he never allowed his design to sink into vulgarity or petty picturesqueness4 ,he might be intricate but he was not vague4 ,run any risk of failure rather than involve yourself in a tangle of poor weak lines that people can't make out1 he says4 ,definite form bounded by firm outline is a necessity for all ornament4 ,you ought always to go for positive patterns when they may be had4 ,they might always be had from him4 ,and it is due to his positive quality1 his uncompromising certainty of the rightness of the thing that he is doing1 that even when he is most imitative he gives an impression of originality1 and is in fact original in the sense that he has thought out for himself the methods and motives of the ancient art by which he is consciously and intentionally influenced4 ,illustration3 ,,painted ,,wall ,,decoration ,,designed ,,by ,,morris ,finish1 it need hardly be said1 was not prized by him4 ,it was one of his assumptions that the better is the enemy of the good1 and he preferred the roughness of incompleteness to the suavity of perfect workmanship4 ,he dreaded the suggestion of the machine that lurks in the polished surface and the perfect curve4 ,nor did he at any time believe in the subdivision of labour by which a workman learns to do one thing with the utmost efficiency1 holding that no workman could enjoy such specialised work1 and therefore1 of course1 could not through it give pleasure to others4 ,the following is the creed which1 according to his compact with himself1 he made it a duty to repeat when he and his fellow-men came together to discuss art3 ,we ought to get to understand the value of intelligent work1 the work of men's hands guided by their brains1 and to take that1 though it be rough1 rather than the unintelligent work of machines or slaves though it be delicate2 to refuse altogether to use machine-made work unless where the nature of the thing compels it1 or where the machine does what mere human suffering would otherwise have to do2 to have a high standard of excellence in wares and not to accept make-shifts for the real thing1 but rather to go without--to have no ornament merely for fashion's sake1 but only because we really think it beautiful1 otherwise to go without it2 not to live in an ugly and squalid place 7such as ,london7 for the sake of mere excitement or the like1 but only because our duties bind us to it--to treat the natural beauty of the earth as a holy thing not to be rashly dealt with for any consideration2 to treat with the utmost care whatever of architecture and the like is left us of the times of art4 ,illustration3 ,,design ,,for ,,st4 ,,james',s ,,palace ,,wall-,,paper 7,reproduced by courtesy of ,mr4 ,bulkley7 ,wall-papers were among the earliest staple products of the firm in ,red ,lion ,square1 although ,morris always regarded them in the light of a compromise2 an altogether unsatisfactory substitute for the hand-painting1 or tapestry or silk or printed cotton hangings1 which he considered the proper covering for the bare walls which1 of course1 no one not in an unhealthy state of mind and probably of body also could endure to leave bare4 ,the first to be designed1 the ,trellis paper1 was the combined work of ,morris and ,webb1 the former being responsible for the rose-trellis intended1 we may suppose1 to bring with it pleasant recollections of gardens in ,june and inspired by his own sweet garden at ,upton1 the latter for the birds that cling to the lattice or dart upward among the heavily thorned stems4 ,in the early papers the designs were very simple and direct1 often more quaint than beautiful1 as in the case of the well-known ,daisy paper1 and depending greatly on the colouring for the attractiveness they possessed4 ,later came such intricate patterns as the ,pimpernel1 the ,acanthus1 so elaborate as to require a double set of blocks and no less than thirty-two printings1 and the paper designed for ,st4 ,james's ,palace1 as large and magnificent as the environment in which it was to be placed demanded4 ,it is quite obvious from these designs that ,morris did not regard his wall-hangings as backgrounds but as decorations in themselves4 ,as a matter of fact he did not fancy pictures for his walls4 ,after his early burst of enthusiasm over ,rossetti's paintings he bought few pictures if any1 and they do not seem ever to have entered into his schemes of decoration4 ,the wall of a room was always important to him1 and despite his discontent with paper coverings for it1 he was anxious to have such coverings as ornamental as possible1 admitting them to be useful as things go1 and treating them in considerable detail in his lectures on the decorative arts4 ,he advised making up for the poverty of the material by great thoughtfulness in the design3 ,the more and the more mysteriously you interweave your sprays and stems1 the better for your purpose1 as the whole thing has to be pasted flat upon a wall and the cost of all this intricacy will but come out of your own brain and hand4 ,concerning colour he was equally specific4 ,in his lecture characteristically called ,making the ,best of ,it1 in which with an accent of discouragement he endeavours to show his audience how at the time of his speaking to make a middle-class home endurable1 he lays down certain rules which indicate at one and the same time his mastery of his subject and the incommunicability of right taste in this direction1 although many of his ideas may be pondered to great advantage by even the mind untrained in colour schemes4 ,he begins with his usual preliminary statement as to the health of those who disagree with him4 ,though we may each have our special preferences1 he says1 among the main colours1 which we shall do quite right to indulge1 it is a sign of disease in an artist to have a prejudice against any particular colour1 though such prejudices are common and violent enough among people imperfectly educated in art1 or with naturally dull perceptions of it4 ,still colours have their ways in decoration1 so to say1 both positively in themselves1 and relatively to each man's way of using them4 ,so ,i may be excused for setting down some things ,i seem to have noticed about these ways4 ,after thus establishing friendly relations with his audience1 he instructs them that yellow is a colour to be used sparingly and in connection with gleaming materials such as silk2 that red to be at its finest must be deep and full and between crimson and scarlet2 that purple no one in his senses would think of using bright and in masses1 and that the best shade of it tends toward russet2 green1 he continues1 must seldom be used both bright and strong4 ,on the other hand1 he adds1 do not fall into the trap of a dingy1 bilious-looking yellow-green1 a colour to which ,i have a special and personal hatred1 because 7if you will excuse my mentioning personal matters7 ,i have been supposed to have somewhat brought it into vogue4 ,dingy colours were abhorred by him in all cases1 and his patience with those customers who demanded them was extremely limited4 ,blue was his holiday colour1 and if you duly guard against getting it cold if it tend toward red1 or rank if it tends toward green1 you need not be much afraid of its brightness4 ,illustration3 ,,early ,,design ,,for ,,morris ,,wall-,,paper ,,daisy ,,and ,,columbine ,illustration3 ,,chrysanthemum ,,design ,,for ,,wall-,,paper ,from his hatred of mechanical methods grew his preferences among the lesser arts4 ,he once complained that he never could see any scene with a frame as it were around it1 and the less necessity there was for bounding and limiting his design the happier he was in making it4 ,embroidery he loved1 for here the worker had an almost absolutely free hand4 ,there was no excuse in embroidery for anything short of striking beauty4 ,it is not worth doing1 he said1 unless it is either very copious and rich1 or very delicate--or both4 ,for such an art nothing patchy or scrappy1 or half-starved should be done4 ,tapestry-weaving stood next in freedom of method1 and this was not only a favourite art with him1 but one which he carried to an extraordinary degree of perfection1 he and ,burne-,jones combining their designs to produce results coming nearer to the old ,arras effects than to the work of modern weavers4 ,in tapestry-weaving ,morris used the haute lisse or high loom1 the weaver holding apart with his left hand the threads of the warp which stands upright before him as with his right hand he works his bobbins in and out1 seeing the picture he is making in a mirror placed on the other side of the loom4 ,the interest of ,morris in the weaving craft is said to have been first awakened by the sight of a man in the street selling toy models of weaving machines1 one of which he promptly bought for experimental purposes4 ,it was many years before he could find a full-sized loom of the kind he wanted1 which had become obsolete or nearly so1 and which was the only style of loom he would consider using as it was most like the looms on which the splendid fabrics of mediaeval times had been woven4 ,by such difficulties he was rarely baffled4 ,in the case of his tapestries the method he proposed to revive had died out in ,cromwell's time and there was no working model which could be used as a guide4 ,but there was an old ,french official handbook that came in his way1 from which he was able to pick up the details of the craft and this sufficed4 ,his personal familiarity with his process is apparent in his various discussions of it4 ,he speaks with the authority of a workman whose hand has held the tool4 ,this practical and positive knowledge saved him from the sentimentalism into which his theories might otherwise have led him4 ,he designed his patterns fully aware of the way in which they were going to behave in the process of application4 ,when in #ahhb he was called upon to give evidence before the ,royal ,commission appointed to inquire into the subject of technical instruction1 he urged the necessity of this working-knowledge on the part of every designer4 ,i think it essential1 he said1 that a designer should learn the practical way of carrying out the work for which he designs2 he ought to be able to weave himself4 ,in all his talk about art he tried to tell people how to do only the things he himself had done1 in which he differed widely and wholesomely from his master ,ruskin whose teachings were so often on his lips4 ,the activity of his hand was a needed and to a great extent an effective check upon the activity of his sentiment4 ,but--like ,ruskin here--he found it hard to stay long away from the moral or emotional significance of the art he was discussing4 ,the art that speaks to the mind he did not completely understand4 ,the art that speaks to the senses he abundantly explained4 ,the amazingly ingenious point of view from which he defends his preoccupation with what he has named the lesser arts is displayed in the following passage1 beginning with the almost inevitable formula3 ,a healthy and sane person being asked with what kind of art he would clothe his walls1 might well answer1 'with the best art1' and so end the question4 ,yet out on it6 ,so complex is human life1 that even this seemingly most reasonable answer may turn out to be little better than an evasion4 ,for ,i suppose the best art to be the pictured representation of men's imaginings3 what they have thought has happened to the world before their time1 or what they deem they have seen with the eyes of the body or the soul2 and the imaginings thus represented are always beautiful indeed1 but oftenest stirring to men's passions and aspirations and not seldom sorrowful or even terrible4 ,stories that tell of men's aspirations for more than material life can give them1 their struggle for the future welfare of the race1 their unselfish love1 their unrequited service2 things like this are the subjects for the best art2 in such subjects there is hope surely1 yet the aspect of them is likely to be sorrowful enough3 defeat1 the seed of victory1 and death1 the seed of life1 will be shown on the face of most of them4 ,take note1 too1 that in the best art all these solemn and awful things are expressed clearly and without any vagueness1 with such life and power that they impress the beholder so deeply that he is brought face to face with the very scenes1 and lives among them for a time3 so raising his life above the daily tangle of small things that wearies him to the level of the heroism which they represent4 ,this is the best art1 and who can deny that it is good for us all that it should be at hand to stir the emotions2 yet its very greatness makes it a thing to be handled carefully1 for we cannot always be having our emotions deeply stirred3 that wearies us body and soul2 and man1 an animal that longs for rest like other animals1 defends himself against that weariness by hardening his heart and refusing to be moved every hour of the day by tragic emotions1--nay1 even by beauty that claims his attention overmuch4 ,such callousness is bad1 both for the arts and our own selves1 and therefore it is not so good to have the best art forever under our eyes1 though it is abundantly good that we should be able to get at it from time to time4 ,meantime1 ,i cannot allow that it is good for any hour of the day to be wholly stripped of life and beauty1 therefore we must provide ourselves with lesser 7,i will not say worse7 art with which to surround our common work-a-day or restful times2 and for those times ,i think it will be enough for us to clothe our daily and domestic walls with ornament that reminds us of the outward face of the earth1 of the innocent love of animals1 or man passing his days between work and rest as he does4 ,i say with ornament that reminds us of these things and sets our minds and memories at work easily creating them2 because scientific representation of them would again involve us in the problems of hard fact and the troubles of life1 and so once more destroy our rest for us4 ,illustration3 ,,anemone ,,pattern ,,for ,,silk ,,and ,,wool ,,curtain ,,material ,was ever a craftsman of the ancient guilds so at pains to make clear the propriety and usefulness of his wood-carving or enamelling or niello6 ,like the early workman1 however1 he moved with marvellous facility from one branch of his art to another4 ,from wall-papers it was but a step to cotton prints which in a way were the playthings of a mind at leisure4 ,they might be as gay as one chose to make them1 and could not well go wrong so long as they avoided commonplace and kept somewhat on the daylight side of nightmare4 ,from the weaving of hangings to the weaving of carpets was a step as easily taken1 and when the impulse seized him to carry on the great but dying art of ,persia in this direction1 ,morris so effectively applied himself to mastering the conditions under which the beautiful ,eastern carpets were brought to their perfection as to produce at least one example--that called ,the ,buller's ,wood ,carpet--that fairly competes with the splendour of its prototypes4 ,stained glass for a time baffled him4 ,his was not the temperament1 says one of his critics1 patiently to study the chemistry of glass colour2 or to prove by long experiment the dependence to be placed upon a flux4 ,although many windows were made by the firm1 the larger number of them designed by ,burne-,jones1 ,morris being responsible for the colour1 he never seemed to forget that he had come near to being worsted in his fight with the technical difficulties of this most difficult art1 and economised his enthusiasm for it accordingly4 ,hand-painted tiles1 however1 which he was the first to introduce into ,england1 were favourites with him1 and in them he perpetuated some of his attempts at drawing the human figure4 ,furniture1 though an important feature of the work undertaken by the firm1 did not appeal to him1 and he left it to his associates4 ,his experiments in vegetable dyes produced interesting results1 although here also his technical knowledge was not entirely adequate to his task4 ,in connection with his textile work he early felt the imperative necessity of having finer colours than the market offered4 ,to get them as he wanted them he was obliged to go back as far as ,pliny1 but this was a small matter to one whose mind was always ready to provide him with an ,aladdin's carpet4 ,back to ,pliny he went to learn old methods1 and in addition he called to his aid ancient herbals and ,french books of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries1 finally setting up his own vats and becks and very literally plunging in4 ,at first he complained of looking such a beast1 but his enthusiasm soon overcame this rather remarkable display of concern for his personal appearance1 and he wrote most joyously of working in sabots and blouse in the dye-house pretty much all day long4 ,out of his vats came the blue of his indigo1 the red of his madder1 the yellow of weld or ,persian berry1 the rich brown of walnut juice1 making beautiful combinations1 which1 when they faded1 changed into paler tints of the same colour and were not unpleasant to look upon4 ,the aniline dyes1 which in #ahfj were the latest wonder of science1 and in a very crude stage of their development1 called out his most picturesque invective4 ,each colour was hideous in itself1 crude1 livid1 cheap1 and loathed by every person of taste1 the foul blot of the capitalist dyer4 ,in brief1 the invention supposed to be for the benefit of an art the very existence of which depends upon its producing beauty was on the road2 and very far advanced on it1 towards destroying all beauty in the art4 ,the only thing to do was to turn one's back on the chemical dyes1 relegate them to a museum of scientific curiosities1 and go back if not to the days of the ,pharaohs yet at least to those of ,tintoret4 ,it was highly characteristic of him that he chose the remedy of going back in place of progressing with the new material as far as possible4 ,illustration3 ,,portion ,,of ,,hammersmith ,,carpet ,his work with silks and with wools was naturally greatly enriched by his use of his own full1 soft and brilliant colours1 and his personal attention to the art of dyeing counted for so much that one of his most accomplished pupils in embroidery is quoted by ,mr4 ,mackail as saying that she promptly felt the difference when ,morris ceased to dye with his own hands1 that the colours became more monotonous and prosy and the very lustre of the silk was less beautiful4 ,it is1 however1 difficult to impress yourself upon the public precisely as you are1 whatever vigour your personality may have4 ,morris1 with his intense love of bright full hues1 has come down as the promoter of the so-called aesthetic dulness of colour1 and his name has been especially associated with the peacock blue and the sage-green to which he had an especial aversion4 ,it was one of his doctrines that a room should be kept cheerful in tone1 and how happily he could carry out this doctrine is seen in more than one of the rooms decorated by the firm4 ,a visitor to ,stanmore ,hall1 for example1 has noted the delicate tones of the painted ceilings as looking like embroidery on old white silk1 giving a bright yet light and aerial effect1 and forming with the woodwork of untouched oak an impression of delightful gayety4 ,that ,morris made himself a master of so many crafts and grappled even so successfully as he did with the technical difficulties involved would be somewhat remarkable had he attempted none of the other undertakings in which he gained for himself a name to be remembered4 ,his eagerness to express his ideals in a practical form led him on indefinitely4 ,to the very last a new world to conquer roused his spirit and made him tingle to be off4 ,for a man with the trace of the plodder in him such a career would have been an impossible one1 but ,morris went blithely from craft to craft by a series of leaps and bounds4 ,he stayed with each just long enough to understand its working principles and to make himself efficient to teach others its peculiar virtues and demands1 and he then passed on4 ,each separate enterprise on which he entered1 says one of his biographers1 seems for a time to have moved him to extraordinary energy4 ,he thought it out1 installed it1 set it going1 designed for it1 trained men and women in the work to be done1 and then by degrees1 as the work began to run smoothly and could be trusted to go on without him1 his interest became less active3 a new idea generated in his mind1 or an old one burst into bud1 and his energies burst out afresh in some new doing4 ,as time went on he had less and less practically to do with the firm of which he was the head and of which he continued to the end to be the consulting adviser4 ,he gathered about him cooeperators who not only were sympathetic with his methods but absorbed his style4 ,his distinction as a designer was neither so great nor so personal that it could not to a considerable degree be communicated1 and this accounts for the enduring quality of his influence which has been handed down to us through others without too much subtracted from it1 with many of the characteristics most to be cherished still present4 ,greater decorators have existed1 indeed1 but it may be questioned if anyone has been quite so inspiriting2 has had the matter quite so much at heart4 ,he persuaded the multitude from the intensity of his own conviction1 and he persuaded them on the whole toward good things and toward beauty4 ,he made other men's ideas his own but he adopted them body and soul4 ,he followed his own fashion1 inveighing with vigour and frequently with logic against nearly all the fashions of his time4 ,it is not surprising that he himself became the great fashion of the nineteenth century in matters of decoration4 ,and this certainly was what he wanted1 in the sense of wanting everyone in ,england to see as he did the possibilities of household art and to share in furthering them by turning their backs upon the sham art with which the commercial world was largely occupied4 ,but he made no effort toward gaining the patronage of those unwilling to admit that what he disliked was intolerable4 ,his was never a conciliatory policy4 ,the following passage from his lecture on ,the ,lesser ,arts reveals his attitude in his own phrasing3 ,people say to me often enough3 ,if you want to make your art succeed and flourish1 you must make it the fashion3 a phrase which ,i confess annoys me3 for they mean by it that ,i should spend one day over my work to two days in trying to convince rich1 and supposed influential people1 that they care very much for what they really do not care in the least1 so that it may happen according to the proverb3 ,bell-wether took the leap and we all went over2 well1 such advisers are right if they are content with the thing lasting but a little while3 say till you can make a little money1 if you don't get pinched by the door shutting too quickly3 otherwise they are wrong3 the people they are thinking of have too many strings to their bow1 and can turn their backs too easily on a thing that fails1 for it to be safe work trusting to their whims3 it is not their fault1 they cannot help it1 but they have no chance of spending time enough over the arts to know anything practical of them1 and they must of necessity be in the hands of those who spend their time in pushing fashion this way and that for their own advantage4 ,illustration3 ,,sofa ,,designed ,,by ,,the ,,morris ,,co4 7,reproduced by courtesy of ,mr4 ,bulkley7 ,illustration3 ,,secretary ,,designed ,,by ,,the ,,morris ,,co4 7,reproduced by courtesy of ,mr4 ,bulkley7 ,sirs1 there is no help to be got out of these latter1 or those who let themselves be led by them3 the only real help for the decorative arts must come from those who work in them3 nor must they be led1 they must lead4 ,you whose hands make those things that should be works of art1 you must all be artists1 and good artists too1 before the public at large can take real interest in such things2 and when you have become so1 ,i promise you that you shall lead the fashion2 fashion shall follow your hands obediently enough4 ,,chapter ,v4 ,,from ,,the ,,red ,,house ,,to ,,kelmscott4 ,while ,morris was developing the industries of the firm with essential steadiness1 despite the rapid transitions from one pursuit to another1 he was going through a variety of personal experiences1 some of which involved his disappointment in deeply cherished plans4 ,for one thing1 and this perhaps the most grievous1 he was obliged to give up the ,red ,house upon which so much joyous labour had been spent4 ,several causes contributed to the unhappy necessity1 chief among them an attack of rheumatic fever that made him sensitive to the bleak winds which the exposed situation of the building invited4 ,the distance between ,london and ,upton became also a serious matter after his illness1 as he found it almost impossible to make the daily journeys required by his attention to the business4 ,several compromises were thought of1 the most enticing being the removal of the works from ,red ,lion ,square to ,upton1 and the addition of a wing to the ,red ,house for ,burne-,jones and his family2 but in the end the beautiful house was sold1 ,morris1 after leaving it1 never again setting eyes upon it4 ,illustration3 ,,illustration ,,by ,,burne-,,jones ,,for ,,projected ,,edition ,,of ,,the ,,earthly ,,paradise1 ,,cut ,,on ,,wood ,,by ,,morris ,,himself ,the first move was to ,queen ,square1 ,london1 where ,morris and the business became house-mates in the autumn of #ahfe1 remaining together there1 with more or less interruption1 for seven years4 ,queen ,square is in ,bloomsbury1 not far from the ,british ,museum1 and a part of the ugly ,london middle-class region for which ,morris had so little liking1 but as a place to carry on the rapidly increasing work of the firm it possessed great advantages4 ,the number of the house was #bf1 and adjacent buildings and grounds were used for the workshops4 ,at this time ,mr4 ,george ,warrington ,taylor was made business manager for the company1 and ,morris gained by his accession much valuable time1 not only for designing and experimenting1 but for the literary work that again began to claim his attention4 ,he was still1 however1 a familiar figure in the shop1 acting as salesman1 showman1 designer1 or manual labourer4 ,his aspect as he strode along the streets of the dull neighbourhood must have been refreshing4 ,those who knew him have repeatedly described him as the image of a sea-captain in general appearance4 ,he wore habitually a suit of navy-blue serge cut in nautical fashion1 and his manner was bluff and hearty as that of the proverbial seaman4 ,mr4 ,mackail gives a breezy picture of him in his workman's blouse1 hatless1 with his ruddy complexion and rocking walk1 bound for the ,faulkners' house where once upon a time a new maid took him for the butcher4 ,to have seen him in these days was to have seen one of his own ideal workmen out of ,news from ,nowhere4 ,as a master of men he seems to have been singularly successful1 despite the temper which led him at times to commit acts of positive violence4 ,his splendid zest for work must have been stimulating and to a degree contagious4 ,merely to be in the company of one who thought hearty manual labour so interesting and so pleasant and so heartily to be desired by everyone1 must have had its vivifying effect4 ,he was stating the simple truth when he said that he should die of despair and weariness if his daily work were taken from him unless he could at once make something else his daily work1 and he is constantly drawing persuasive pictures of the charm of the various handicrafts--that of weaving for example1 his description of which would invite the most discontented mind4 ,he does not call the weaver's craft a dull one3 ,if he be set to doing things which are worth doing--to watch the web growing day by day almost magically1 in anticipation of the time when it is to be taken out and one can see it on the right side in all its well-schemed beauty--to make something beautiful that will last out of a few threads of silk and wool1 seems to me not an unpleasant way of earning one's livelihood1 so long only as one lives and works in a pleasant place1 with work-day not too long1 and a book or two to be got at4 ,his own weavers were some of them boys trained in the shop from a condition of absolute ignorance of drawing and of the craft to such an efficiency as enabled them to weave the ,stanmore tapestry1 one panel of which took two years to the making1 and which was of the utmost elaboration and magnificence of design4 ,the exigencies of the business presently made it necessary to devote the whole of the premises in ,queen ,square to the work going on there1 and the ,morris family removed in #ahgb to a small house between ,hammersmith and ,turnham ,green1 near ,chiswick ,lane1 ,morris retaining a couple of rooms in the ,queen ,square house for his use when busy there4 ,even the extended quarters soon proved insufficient1 however1 and in #ahgg rooms were taken in ,oxford ,street for showing and selling the work of the firm1 the manufacturing departments being still ensconced in ,queen ,square4 ,in #ahha these also were transferred to more suitable premises4 ,the dyeing and cotton-printing demanded workshops by the side of some stream of clear water fit to dye with1 and after much search ,morris found an ideal situation on the banks of the little ,wandle ,river1 near ,wimbledon4 ,there were the ruins of ,merton ,abbey where the ,barons once gave their famous answer ,nolumus leges ,angliae mutari1 and there manufactures had been carried on for centuries4 ,in the long low-roofed worksheds on the river's bank his workmen could move about in ample space1 practising ancient methods of dyeing1 printing1 and weaving1 seven miles from ,charing ,cross4 ,it is anything but a typical manufactory that has been depicted by visitors to the ,merton ,abbey works4 ,we read of an old walled garden gay with old-fashioned flowers and shrubs1 of the swift little ,wandle ,river rushing along between the buildings1 its trout leaping under the windows1 a water-wheel revolving at ease1 hanks of yarn1 fresh from the vats1 drying in the pure air1 calico lying clearing on the meadow grass in an enclosure made by young poplar trees1 a sunlit picture of peaceful work carried on by unharried workers among surroundings of fresh and wholesome charm4 ,women and men were both employed1 some of them old and not all of them competent1 but none of them overworked or underpaid4 ,though ,morris had somewhat scant courtesy of manner toward those who worked for and with him1 he had at least the undeviating desire to promote their welfare4 ,if he expected work of his work-people1 as certainly he did1 he expected it only under the most healthful and agreeable conditions4 ,judging others by himself1 he could not conceive anyone as happy in idleness1 but neither did he expect anyone to be happy without leisure4 ,in his own business he proved what the nineteenth century found hard to believe1 that honest1 thorough1 and artistic workmanship1 accomplished under reasonable exactions by people enjoying their occupation1 could be combined with commercial prosperity4 ,that the products of such labour could not be bought by the poorer classes was due1 he argued1 to a social order wrong at the root4 ,the time when art could be made by the people and for the people1 as a happiness to the maker and the user1 was a far-off dream4 ,illustration3 ,kelmscott ,manor ,house ,shortly before ,morris abandoned ,queen ,square as a place of residence1 he discovered for himself a heaven on earth1 in which he could spend his vacations from town1 and free himself from the contamination of ,london streets4 ,this was ,kelmscott ,manor ,house1 which he rented--at first jointly with ,rossetti--in #ahga1 and in which he took infinite satisfaction for the remainder of his life4 ,the beautiful old place was in its way as characteristic of him and of his tastes as the ,red ,house had been1 and has become intimately associated with him in the minds of all who knew him during his later years1 his passion for places investing those for which he cared with a sentiment not to be ignored or slighted in making up the sum of his interests4 ,for a couple of years ,rossetti was an inmate of ,kelmscott ,manor1 and through his letters many vivid glimpses of it are obtained4 ,the village of ,kelmscott was at the time no more than a hamlet containing a hundred and seventeen people1 and situated two and a half miles from the nearest town1 ,lechlade1 to whose churchyard ,shelley lent distinction by writing a poem there4 ,the nearest station-town was ,farringdon1 so far off that the carrier who brought railway parcels to the occupants of the ,manor charged six shillings and sixpence for each trip4 ,thus1 writes ,rossetti1 who was chronically short of money1 a good deal of inconvenience tempers the attractions of the place4 ,nothing1 however1 unless the presence of ,rossetti1 who was unromantically discontented there1 tempered them for ,morris4 ,in an article for ,the ,quest for ,november1 #ahie1 he describes the house in the most minute detail1 accentuating its charms with a touch of comment for each that falls like a caress4 ,the roofs are covered with the beautiful stone slates of the district1 the most lovely covering which a roof can have4 ,the battering or leaning back of the walls is by no means a defect but a beauty1 taking from the building a rigidity which otherwise would mar it1 and the stout studded partitions of the entrance passage are very agreeable to anyone who does not want cabinet work to supplant carpentry4 ,to the building of it all must have gone1 he thinks1 some thin thread of tradition1 a half-anxious sense of the delight of meadow and acre and wood and river1 a certain amount 7not too much1 let us hope7 of common-sense1 a liking for making materials serve one's turn1 and perhaps at bottom some little grain of sentiment4 ,and from ,rossetti we hear of the primitive ,kelmscott church looking just as one fancies chapels in the ,mort d',arthur1 of clouds of starlings sinking in the copses clamourous like mill-waters at wild play1 of mustering rooks innumerable1 of a delicious garden and meadows leading to the river brink1 of apple blossoms and marigolds and arrow-heads and white lilies divinely lovely1 of an island by the boat-house rich in wild periwinkles1 and of many another exquisite aspect of a place whose unvexed quietness was nevertheless powerless to soothe the turmoil of that tormented soul4 ,illustration3 ,kelmscott ,manor ,house ,to realise fully how ,morris himself felt toward it1 one must turn to his description in ,news from ,nowhere4 ,there he is supposed to see it through the kindly mist of time1 returning to it from a regenerate and beautified world1 and his problem is to write of it with the penetrating eloquence and melancholy associated with remembered happiness4 ,it is supremely characteristic of him that he could perfectly strike this note while still living in hale activity upon the spot he is to praise with the tenderness of reminiscence4 ,the great virtue of his temperament lay in this peculiar intensity of realisation4 ,he needed neither loss nor change to spur his sensibility and awaken his recognition of the worth or special quality of what he loved4 ,vital as few men are1 he seems1 nevertheless1 always to have dwelt in sight of death and to have grasped life as though the next moment he was to be torn from it4 ,the burden of the song which ,ogier the ,dane hears on a fair ,may morning3 ,kiss me love6 for who knoweth ,what thing cometh after death8 so often quoted in evidence of his fainting and dejected spirit1 embodies indeed the sentiment of his attitude toward the pleasures and satisfactions to be drawn from the visible and perishable world1 but does not hint at the energy with which he seized those pleasures1 the sturdiness with which he filled himself with those satisfactions4 ,when ,news from ,nowhere was written1 ,morris had lived the better part of twenty years in close relation with the ,kelmscott house1 but custom had not staled for him its infinite variety4 ,this is what he writes of it and of its surroundings in his romance of ,an ,epoch of ,rest3 ,he and his companions have approached it by way of the river4 ,presently we saw before us a bank of elm trees1 which told us of a house amidst them4 ,in a few minutes we had passed through a deep eddying pool into the sharp stream that ran from the ford1 and beached our craft on a tiny strand of limestone gravel1 and stepped ashore4 ,mounting on the cart-road that ran along the river some feet above the water1 ,i looked round about me4 ,the river came down through a wide meadow on my left1 which was grey now with the ripened seeding grasses2 the gleaming water was lost presently by a turn of the bank1 but over the meadow ,i could see the gables of a building where ,i knew the lock must be4 ,a low wooded ridge bounded the river-plain to the south and south-east1 whence we had come1 and a few low houses lay about its feet and up its slope4 ,i turned a little to my right and through the hawthorn sprays and long shoots of the wild roses could see the flat country spreading out far away under the sun of the calm evening1 till something that might be called hills with a look of sheep pastures about them bounded it with a soft blue line4 ,before one1 the elm boughs still hid most of what houses there might be in this river-side dwelling of men2 but to the right of the cart-road a few grey buildings of the simplest kind showed here and there4 ,i had a mind to say that ,i did not know the way thither1 and that the river-side dwellers should lead3 but almost without my will my feet moved on along the road they knew4 ,the raised way led us into a little field bounded by a backwater of the river on one side3 on the right hand we could see a cluster of small houses and barns and a wall partly overgrown with ivy1 over which a few grey gables showed4 ,the village road ended in the shallow of the aforesaid backwater4 ,we crossed the road1 and again almost without my will my hand raised the latch of a door in the wall1 and we stood presently on a stone path which led up to the old house to which fate in the shape of ,dick had so strangely brought me in this world of men4 ,my companion gave a sigh of pleased surprise and enjoyment1 nor did ,i wonder1 for the garden between the wall and the house was redolent of the ,june flowers1 and the roses were rolling over one another with that delicious superabundance of small well-tended gardens which at first sight takes away all thought from the beholder save that of beauty4 ,the blackbirds were singing their loudest1 the doves were cooing on the roof-ridge1 the rooks in the high elm trees beyond were garrulous among the young leaves1 and the swifts wheeled1 whining1 about the gables4 ,and the house itself was a fit guardian for all the beauty of this heart of summer4 ,once again ,ellen echoed my thoughts as she said3 ',yes1 friend1 this is what ,i came out to see2 this many-gabled old house built by the simple country-folk of the long-past times1 regardless of all the turmoil that was going on in cities and courts1 is lovely still amidst all the beauty which these latter days have created2 and ,i do not wonder at our friends 'tending it so carefully and making much of it4 ,it seems to me as if it had waited for these happy days1 and held in it the gathered crumbs of happiness of the confused and turbulent past4' ,she led me up close to the house and laid her shapely sun-browned hand and arm upon the lichened wall as if to embrace it1 and cried out3 ',o me6 ,o me6 ,how ,i love the earth and the seasons and weather1 and all the things that deal with it and all that grows out of it1--as this has done6' ,we went in and found no soul in any room as we wandered from room to room--from the rose-covered porch to the strange and quaint garrets amongst the great timbers of the roof1 where of old time the tillers and herdsmen of the manor slept1 but which a-nights seemed now1 by the small size of the beds1 and the litter of useless and disregarded matters--bunches of dying flowers1 feathers of birds1 shells of starling's eggs1 caddis worms in mugs and the like1--seemed to be inhabited for the time by children4 ,everywhere there was but little furniture1 and that only the most necessary1 and of the simplest forms4 ,the extravagant love of ornament which ,i had noted in this people elsewhere1 seemed here to have given place to the feeling that the house itself and its associations was the ornament of the country life amidst which it had been left stranded from old times1 and that to reornament it would but take away its use as a piece of natural beauty4 ,we sat down at last in a room over the wall which ,ellen had caressed1 and which was still hung with old tapestry1 originally of no artistic value1 but now faded into pleasant grey tones which harmonised thoroughly well with the quiet of the place1 and which would have been ill supplanted by brighter and more striking decoration4 ,i asked a few questions of ,ellen as we sat there1 but scarcely listened to her answers1 and presently became silent1 and then scarce conscious of anything but that ,i was there in that old room1 the doves crooning from the roofs of the barn and dovecot beyond the window opposite4 99 99 99 99 99 ,in #ahgh ,morris took a ,london house on the ,upper ,mall1 ,hammersmith1 which he occupied alternately with ,kelmscott ,manor4 ,this place1 which ,mr4 ,mackail describes as ugly without being mean1 was also on the banks of the river1 and ,morris gained much satisfaction from the thought that the water flowing by it had come in its due course past the beloved ,kelmscott garden4 ,a somewhat inconvenient touch of sentiment caused him to give his ,hammersmith home the name of ,kelmscott ,house in compliment to the home actually situated at ,kelmscott1 the latter being distinguished by the title of ,manor1 a title that seems to belong to it by courtesy alone4 ,from the great fondness felt by ,morris for these places on which he lavished his art until they spoke more eloquently than his words of the aims and theories so dear to him1 the domesticity of his life would naturally be inferred4 ,nor was he an eager traveller judged by modern standards4 ,nevertheless1 he managed to find time for some extended trips just as he found time for everything that came in his way with an appeal to his liking4 ,the most important of these was a voyage to ,iceland1 made in company with ,faulkner and two other friends during the summer of #ahga1 just after the acquisition of ,kelmscott ,manor1 in which he left ,rossetti4 ,his mind was ripe for the experience4 ,he had already published translations from the ,icelandic sagas made in collaboration with ,mr4 ,magnusson1 and his interest in the bracing ,northern literature was reaching its height4 ,long years after1 ,rossetti said of him1 ,there goes the last of the ,vikings6 and his mood in visiting ,iceland was not unlike that of a modernised ,viking returning to his home4 ,thoughts of the country's great past were constantly with him4 ,the boiling geysers1 the conventional attraction for tourists who never heard the names of ,sigurd and ,brunhild1 of ,njal1 or ,gunnar1 or ,grettir1 or ,gisli1 or ,gudrun1 were a source of irritation to him4 ,his pilgrimages to the homes of the ancient traditions were the episodes of his journey worth thinking about1 and about them he thought much and vigorously1 seeing in imagination the figures of the old heroes going about summer and winter1 attending to their haymaking and fishing and live stock1 eating almost the same food and living on the same ground as the less imposing ,norsemen of the present4 ,lord6 he writes1 what littleness and helplessness has taken the place of the old passion and violence that had place here once--and all is unforgotten2 so that one has no power to pass it by unnoticed4 ,his two months spent among the scenes of the greater sagas left him with an intense impression of a land stern and terrible1 of toothed rocks and black slopes and desolate green1 a land that intensified his melancholy by its suggestion of short-lived glory and early death1 and intensified also his enjoyment of life by the sense of adventure1 the rugged riding1 and the fresh keen air4 ,one of the important events of the trip was the exploration of the great cave at ,surts-hellir1 and twenty years after1 many of its incidents were embodied in the book called ,the ,story of the ,glittering ,plain1 wherein ,hallblithe and the three ,seekers make their way through the stony tangle of the wilderness seeing nought save the wan rocks under the sun4 ,two years later he made a still more adventurous journey across the arid tableland occupying the central portion of ,iceland and across the northern mountains to the sea4 ,it was highly characteristic of him that for the time he yielded himself utterly to the influence of the strange and awful land upon his imagination1 and that for years afterward his writing was flooded by the impressions that continually swept back upon his mind as he reverted to these experiences4 ,mr4 ,mackail gives an amusing instance of the way in which the interest uppermost with him became an obsession leading to the most childlike extravagances4 ,during a holiday tour in ,belgium he came to a place where neither ,french nor ,english was spoken4 ,he therefore made a desperate effort at making himself understood by haranguing the amazed inn-keeper in ,icelandic4 ,his first visit to ,italy1 made between the first and second visits to ,iceland1 took faint hold upon him1 nor was the second ,italian journey1 made some years later1 and marked by a troublesome attack of gout1 notably successful4 ,he was a man of the ,north as surely as ,rossetti was a man of the ,south1 and it would have been a renaissance indeed that could have turned him into a ,florentine or a ,venetian4 ,illustration3 ,,design ,,by ,,rossetti ,,for ,,window ,,executed ,,by ,,morris ,,co4 7,,the ,,parable ,,of ,,the ,,vineyard7 ,illustration3 ,,design ,,by ,,rossetti ,,for ,,stained-,,glass ,,window ,,executed ,,by ,,the ,,morris ,,co4 7,,the ,,parable ,,of ,,the ,,vineyard7 ,during this middle period of his life1 at the height of his great activity1 an event occurred involving the element of tragedy1 if the breaking of friendships be accounted tragic4 ,in #ahge the firm was dissolved4 ,following ,mr4 ,mackail's account of the circumstances that led to the dissolution1 we find that the business had become one in which ,morris supplied practically all the capital1 invention1 and control4 ,it was also the chief source of his income4 ,on the other hand1 his partners might find themselves at any time seriously involved in the liabilities of a business which was rapidly extending4 ,hence the desirability of the dissolution and reconstitution of the firm4 ,but in connection with this step an embarrassing situation arose4 ,under the original instrument1 each partner had equal rights in the assets of the firm4 ,after the first year or two the profits had never been divided1 and the six partners of ,morris1 for the hundred and twenty pounds by which they were represented in the contributed capital at the beginning1 had now claims on the business for some seven or eight thousand pounds4 ,if these claims were insisted upon1 ,morris would be placed in a position of considerable financial difficulty4 ,burne-,jones1 ,webb1 and ,faulkner refused to accept any consideration4 ,the other three1 says ,mr4 ,mackail1 stood on the strict letter of their legal rights4 ,naturally the relations between ,morris and the latter became grievously strained1 and with ,rossetti the break was absolute and irremediable4 ,in passing out of ,morris's life1 as he then did1 he certainly left it more serene1 but with him went also the vivifying influence of his genius4 ,in considering the very unfortunate part played by him in the conflict among the members of the firm1 it is fair to give a certain weight to details emphasised in ,mr4 ,william ,rossetti's account as modifying--to a slight degree1 it is true1 but still modifying--the sordid aspect of ,rossetti's action4 ,madox ,brown1 who was one of the partners wishing not to forego their legal rights1 was getting on in years and was a comparatively poor man4 ,he had always counted on the firm as an important eventual accession to his professional earnings4 ,no one familiar with ,rossetti's character can doubt that a desire to stand by his old friend and teacher in such a matter would have a strong influence with him4 ,to his brother's mind1 his attitude was throughout one of conciliation1 with the wish to adjust contending claims had that but been possible4 ,he himself1 says ,mr4 ,william ,rossetti1 retired from the firm without desiring any compensation for his own benefit4 ,a sum was1 however1 assigned to him4 ,he laid it apart for the eventual advantage of a member of the ,morris family1 but1 ere his death1 circumstances had induced him to trench upon it not a little4 ,it is easy to imagine circumstances trenching upon any sum of money under ,rossetti's direct control1 and in the absence of any testimony the reader acquainted with his prodigal disposition may very well be pardoned for doubting whether any member of the ,morris family became appreciably the richer for his impulse4 ,nevertheless1 it is a reasonable conclusion that he was not actuated by a sordid motive in opposing the essentially just claim made by ,morris1 but was to his own mind acting in accordance with the demands of a friendship older and closer than that between him and ,morris4 ,it must be noted1 however1 that a reconciliation was effected in the course of time between ,morris and ,madox ,brown1 while in ,rossetti's case the wound never healed4 ,the outcome of the negotiations was that ,madox ,brown was bought out1 receiving a handsome sum1 says ,mr4 ,william ,rossetti1 and the business went on under the sole management and proprietorship of ,morris4 ,in addition to the annoyance and real trouble of mind caused ,morris by these transactions1 he had the further anxiety at about this time of a breakdown of a serious and permanent nature in the health of his eldest daughter4 ,this he took deeply to heart1 losing spirits to a marked degree1 but nothing human had power to stay his fertile brain and busy hand4 ,,chapter ,,vi4 ,,poetry4 ,intent as he was upon the artistic success of his work in decoration1 and ardent in giving time and thought to achieving this success1 ,morris was far from excluding poetry from the sum of his occupations4 ,the five years following his marriage 7#ahei-ahfd71 indeed1 were barren of any important literary work4 ,he had planned1 somewhat anticipating the large scale of his later verse1 a cycle of twelve poems on the ,trojan ,war1 but he completed only six of the twelve1 and the project was presently abandoned4 ,after the ,red ,house was sold1 however1 and he was back in ,london with the time on his hands saved from the daily journey1 he began at once to make poetry of a form entirely different from anything he had previously written4 ,the little sheaf of poems contained in his early volume had been put together by the hand of a boy4 ,the poem published in ,june1 #ahfg1 under the title ,the ,life and ,death of ,jason1 was the work of a man in full possession of his faculty4 ,it was simple1 certain1 musical1 and predestined to speedy popularity1 even ,tennyson1 with whom ,morris was not a favourite1 liking the ,jason4 ,it flowed with sustained if monotonous sweetness through seventeen books in rhymed pentameter1 occasionally broken by octosyllabic songs4 ,although published as a separate poem1 on account of the length to which it ran1 apparently almost in despite of its author's will1 it had been intended to form part of the series called ,the ,earthly ,paradise1 the first division of which followed it in #ahfh4 ,this ambitious work was suggested by ,chaucer's ,canterbury ,tales1 and consists of no fewer than twenty-four long narrative poems1 set in a framework of delicate descriptive verse containing passages that are the very flower of ,morris's poetic charm4 ,the scheme of the arrangement is interesting4 ,a little band of ,greeks1 the seed of the ,ionian race1 are found living upon a nameless island in a distant sea4 ,hither at the end of the fourteenth century--the time of ,chaucer--come certain wanderers of ,germanic1 ,norse1 and ,celtic blood who have set out on a voyage in search of a land that is free from death1 driven from their homes by the pestilence sweeping over them4 ,hospitably received1 the wanderers spend their time upon the island entertaining their hosts with the legends current in their day throughout ,western ,europe1 and in turn are entertained with the ,hellenic legends which have followed the line of living ,greek tradition and are told by the fourteenth-century islanders in the mediaeval form and manner proper to them at that time4 ,among the wanderers are a ,breton and a ,suabian1 and the sources from which the stories are drawn have a wide range4 ,they were at first1 indeed1 intended to represent the whole stock of the world's legends1 but this field was too vast for even the great facility of ,morris1 and much was set aside4 ,at the end we find ,the ,lovers of ,gudrun1 taken from the ,laxdaela ,saga of ,iceland1 and bearing witness in the grimness of its tragedy and the fierceness of its ,northern spirit to the powerful influence of the ,icelandic literature upon the mind of ,morris4 ,it is the only story in the collection which has dominated his dreamy mediaevalism and struck fire from his pen4 ,illustration3 ,morris's ,bed1 with ,hangings designed by himself and embroidered by his ,daughter ,in ,the ,earthly ,paradise we have all the qualities that make its author dear to most of his readers4 ,the mind is steeped in the beauty of imagery1 and content to have emotion and thought lulled by the long1 melancholy swing of lines that seem like the echo of great poetry without its living voice4 ,such poetry is what ,morris wished his decorations to be--the lesser art that brings repose from the quickening of soul with which a masterpiece is greeted4 ,the spirit revealed through the fluent murmur of the melodious words is very true to him and lies at the root of all his efforts toward making life fair to the eyes and soothing to the heart4 ,the unimpassioned grief1 the plaintive longing with which he regarded the fleeting and unsatisfying aspects of a world so beautiful and so sorrowful1 never found more exquisite expression than in passage after passage of this pellucid and lovely verse4 ,the flight from death and the seeking after eternal life on this material globe constitute a theme that had for him a singular fitness4 ,no one could have rendered with more sensitive appreciation the mood of men who set their life at an unmeasured price4 ,no one could have expressed the dread of dying with more poetic sympathy4 ,the preludes to the stories told on the island are poems addressed to the months of the changing year1 and not one is free from the grievous suggestion of loss or the weary burden of fear and dejection4 ,read without the intervening narratives1 they wrap the mind in an atmosphere of foreboding4 ,there is no welcome unaccompanied by the shadow of farewell4 ,there is no leaping of the heart to meet sunshine and fair weather without its corresponding faintness of shrinking from the clouds and darkness certain to follow4 ,with a brave determination to seize exultation on the wing1 he cries to ,march3 ,yea1 welcome ,march6 and though ,i die ere ,june1 ,yet for the hope of life ,i give thee praise1 ,striving to swell the burden of the tune ,that even now ,i hear thy brown birds raise1 ,unmindful of the past or coming days2 ,who sing3 ,o joy6 a new year is begun3 ,what happiness to look upon the sun6 ,but what follows8 ,the sure reminder of the silence that shall come after the singing3 ,ah1 what begetteth all this storm of bliss ,but ,death himself1 who crying solemnly1 ,e'en from the heart of sweet ,forgetfulness1 ,bids us ,rejoice1 lest pleasureless ye die4 ,within a little time must ye go by4 ,stretch forth your open hands1 and while ye live ,take all the gifts that ,death and ,life may give4 ,and in the stanzas for ,october1 written1 ,mr4 ,mackail tells us1 in memory of a happy autumn holiday1 we have the most poignant note of which he was capable3 ,come down1 ,o ,love2 may not our hands still meet1 ,since still we live to-day1 forgetting ,june1 ,forgetting ,may1 deeming ,october sweet-- --,o hearken1 hearken6 through the afternoon1 ,the grey tower sings a strange old tinkling tune6 ,sweet1 sweet1 and sad1 the toiling year's last breath1 ,too satiate of life to strive with death4 ,and we too--will it not be soft and kind1 ,that rest from life1 from patience and from pain2 ,that rest from bliss we know not when we find2 ,that rest from ,love which ne'er the end can gain8-- ,hark1 how the tune swells1 that erewhile did wane8 ,look up1 ,love6--ah1 cling close and never move6 ,how can ,i have enough of life and love8 ,june1 the high tide of the year1 he selects as the fitting month in which to tell of something sad3 ,sad1 because though a glorious end it tells1 ,yet on the end of glorious life it dwells4 ,in ,february he asks3 ,shalt thou not hope for joy new born again1 ,since no grief ever born can ever die ,through changeless change of seasons passing by8 ,illustration3 ,kelmscott ,manor ,house from the ,orchard ,thus across the charming images of ,french romance1 ,hellenic legend1 and ,norse drama1 falls the suggestion of his own personality1 and it is due to this pervading personal mood or sentiment that ,the ,earthly ,paradise has a power to stir the imagination almost wholly lacking to his later work4 ,it cannot be said that even here he is able to awaken a strong emotion4 ,but the human element is felt4 ,a warm intelligence of sympathy creeps in among dreams and shadows1 the reader is aware of a living presence near him and responds to the appeal of human weakness and depression4 ,it is because ,morris in the languid cadences of ,the ,earthly ,paradise spoke with his own voice and took his readers into the confidence of his hopeless thoughts1 that the book will remain for the multitude the chief among his works1 the only one that portrays for us in its most characteristic form the inmost quality of his temperament4 ,nor does he seem to have had for any other book of his making quite the intimate affection he so frankly bestowed upon this4 ,the final stanzas in which the well-known message is sent to my ,master1 ,geoffrey ,chaucer1 confide the autobiographic vein in which it was written4 ,says the ,book of its maker3 ,i have beheld him tremble oft enough ,at things he could not choose but trust to me1 ,although he knew the world was wise and rough3 ,and never did he fail to let me see ,his love1--his folly and faithlessness1 maybe2 ,and still in turn ,i gave him voice to pray ,such prayers as cling about an empty day4 ,thou1 keen-eyed1 reading me1 mayst read him through1 ,for surely little is there left behind2 ,no power great deeds unnameable to do2 ,no knowledge for which words he may not find2 ,no love of things as vague as autumn wind-- ,earth of the earth lies hidden by my clay1 ,the idle singer of an empty day4 ,written at great speed1 one day being marked by a product of seven hundred lines1 the last of ,the ,earthly ,paradise was in the hands of the printers by the end of #ahgj1 and ,morris was free for his ,icelandic journey and new interests4 ,illustration3 ,portrait of ,edward ,burne-,jones ,by ,watts ,he was no sooner home from ,iceland than he set to work upon a curious literary experiment--a dramatic poem of very complicated construction1 called ,love is ,enough1 or the ,freeing of ,pharamond3 ,a ,morality1 the intricate metrical design of which is interestingly explained by ,mr4 ,mackail4 ,rossetti and ,coventry ,patmore both spoke in terms of enthusiasm of its unusual beauty4 ,the story is that of a king1 ,pharamond1 who has been gallant on the field and wise on the throne1 but is haunted by visions of an ideal love sapping his energy and driving peace from his heart4 ,he deserts his people1 and with his henchman1 ,oliver1 wanders through the world until he encounters ,azalais1 a low-born maiden1 who satisfies his dream4 ,he returns to find that his people have become estranged from him and he abdicates at once1 to retire into obscurity with his love4 ,there has been an obvious struggle on the part of the poet to obtain a strong emotional effect1 and certain passages have indeed the passionate lyric quality ascribed to them by ,rossetti2 but as a drama it hardly carries conviction4 ,the songs written to be sung between the scenes have nevertheless much of the haunting beauty soon to be lost from his work1 and of these the following is a felicitous example3 ,love is enough3 it grew up without heeding ,in the days when ye knew not its name nor its measure1 ,and its leaflets untrodden by the light feet of pleasure ,had no boast of the blossom1 no sign of the seeding1 ,as the morning and evening passed over its treasure4 ,and what do ye say then8--that ,spring long departed ,has brought forth no child to the softness and showers2 ,that we slept and we dreamed through the ,summer of flowers2 ,we dreamed of the ,winter1 and waking dead-hearted ,found ,winter upon us and waste of dull hours4 ,nay1 ,spring was o'er happy and knew not the reason1 ,and ,summer dreamed sadly1 for she thought all was ended ,in her fulness of wealth that might not be amended1 ,but this is the harvest and the garnering season1 ,and the leaf and the blossom in the ripe fruit are blended4 ,it sprang without sowing1 it grew without heeding1 ,ye knew not its name and ye knew not its measure1 ,ye noted it not 'mid your hope and your pleasure2 ,there was pain in its blossom1 despair in its seeding1 ,but daylong your bosom now nurseth its treasure4 ,although ,morris planned a beautifully decorated edition of the poem which was highly valued by him1 its failure to impress itself upon the public was no great grief to him1 and he put it cheerfully out of mind to devote himself to translation and to ,icelandic literature4 ,the surprising task to which he first turned was a verse translation of ,virgil's ,a,eneid1 in which he attempted to give the closest possible rendering of the ,latin and to emphasise the romantic side of ,virgil's genius4 ,he followed with an almost word-for-word accuracy the lines and periods of the original using1 and he threw over the poem a glamour of romance1 but ,mr4 ,mackail says truly that he had taken his life in his hands in essaying a classic subject with his inadequate training and unclassic taste4 ,the same authority1 who on this subject1 certainly1 is not to be disputed by the lay reader1 considers the result a success from ,morris's own point of view1 declaring that he vindicated the claim of the romantic school to a joint ownership with the classicists in the poem which is not only the crowning achievement of classical ,latin1 but the fountain-head of romanticism in ,european literature4 ,the opposing critics are fairly represented by ,mr4 ,andrew ,lang1 who1 in this case as in many another1 is an ideal intermediary between scholar and general reader4 ,there is no more literal verse-translation of any classic poem in ,english1 he says1 but ,mr4 ,morris's manner and method appear to me to be mistaken4 ,virgil's great charm is his perfection of style and the exquisite harmony of his numbers4 ,these are not represented by the singularly rude measures and archaistic language of ,mr4 ,morris4 ,like ,mr4 ,morris1 ,virgil was a learned antiquarian1 and perhaps very accomplished scholars may detect traces of voluntary archaism in his language and style4 ,but these1 if they exist1 certainly do not thrust themselves on the notice of most readers of the ,a,eneid4 ,mr4 ,morris's phrases would almost seem uncouth in a rendering of ,ennius4 ,for example1 take 'manet alta mente repostum ,judicium ,paridis1 spretaeque injuria formae4' ,this is rendered in a prose version by a fine and versatile scholar1 'deep in her soul lies stored the judgment of ,paris1 the insult of her slighted beauty4' ,mr4 ,morris translates3 'her inmost heart still sorely did enfold ,that grief of body set at naught by ,paris' doomful deed4' ,can anything be much less ,virgilian8 ,is it even intelligible without the ,latin8 ,what modern poet would naturally speak of 'grief of body set at naught1' or call the judgment of ,paris ',paris' doomful deed'8 ,then 'manet alta mente repostum' is strangely rendered by 'her inmost heart still sorely did enfold4' ,this is an example of the translation at its worst1 but defects of the sort illustrated are so common as to leave an impression of wilful ruggedness1 and even obscurity1 than which what can be less like ,virgil8 ,where ,virgil describes the death of ,troilus1 'et versa pulvis inscribitus hasta' 7'and his reversed spear scores the dust'71 ,mr4 ,morris has 'his wrested spear a-writing in the dust1' and ,troilus has just been 'a-fleeing weaponless4' ,our doomful deed1 is that to be a-translating thus is to write with wrested pen1 and to give a rendering of ,virgil as unsatisfactory as it is technically literal4 ,in short1 ,mr4 ,morris's ,a,eneid seems on a par with ,mr4 ,browning's ,agamemnon4 ,but this1 ,mr4 ,lang is careful to add1 is a purely personal verdict3 better scholars and better critics have expressed a far higher opinion of ,mr4 ,morris's translation of ,virgil4 ,mr4 ,lang's whimsical despair over the affectations of language which abound in the translation of the ,a,eneid with less pertinence than in many other writings of ,morris where also they abound1 recalls the remonstrance that ,stevenson could not resist writing out in the form of a letter although it was never sent on its mission4 ,acknowledging his debt to ,morris for many unforgettable poems1 the younger writer and more accomplished student of language protests against the indiscriminate use of the word whereas in the translations from the sagas4 ,for surely1 ,master1 he says1 that tongue that we write1 and that you have illustrated so nobly1 is yet alive4 ,she has her rights and laws1 and is our mother1 our queen1 and our instrument4 ,now in that living tongue1 where has one sense1 whereas another4 ,the translation of the ,a,eneid was published under the title of ,the ,a,eneids1 in the autumn of #ahge4 ,morris had written a good part of it in the course of his trips back and forth on the ,underground ,railway1 using for these first drafts a stiff-covered copybook1 which was his constant companion4 ,in the summer of the same year he had brought out a volume of the translations from the ,icelandic which he was making in collaboration with ,mr4 ,magnusson1 calling it ,three ,northern ,love-,stories and ,other ,tales4 ,he had still1 he declared but few converts to ,saga-ism1 and he regarded his translating from the ,icelandic as a pure luxury1 adopting it for a ,sunday amusement4 ,during the winter of #ahge-gf1 however1 he was embarked on a cognate enterprise of the utmost importance to him1 although he thought1 and with truth1 that his public would be indifferent to it4 ,this was the epic poem which he called ,the ,story of ,sigurd the ,volsung1 based on the ,volsunga ,saga1 the story of the great ,northern heroes told and re-told from generation to generation1 polished and perfected until the final form1 in which it preserves the traditions of the people who cherish it1 is the noblest attained in the ,icelandic legends4 ,morris had published a prose translation of the saga in #ahgj1 and the following passage from his preface shows how deeply his emotions were stirred by his subject3 ,as to the literary quality of this work we might say much1 he writes1 but we think we may well trust the reader of poetic insight to break through whatever entanglement of strange manners or unused element may at first trouble him1 and to meet the nature and beauty with which it is filled3 we cannot doubt that such a reader will be intensely touched by finding amidst all its wildness and remoteness such startling realism1 such subtlety1 such close sympathy with all the passions that may move himself to-day4 ,in conclusion1 we must again say how strange it seems to us1 that this ,volsung ,tale1 which is in fact an unversified poem1 should never before have been translated into ,english4 ,for this is the ,great ,story of the ,north1 which should be to all our race what the tale of ,troy was to the ,greeks--to all our race first1 and afterwards1 when the change of the world has made our race nothing more than a name of what has been--a story too--then should it be to those that come after us no less than the ,tale of ,troy has been to us4 ,in the course of the following six years1 during which he was constantly increasing his intimacy with the literature of the ,north1 an impulse not unlike that which tempted ,tennyson toward the ,idylls of the ,king led him to try the winning of a wider audience for the tale of great deeds and elemental passions by which he himself had been so much inspired4 ,in the prose translation he had given the ,volsunga ,saga to the public as it had been created for an earlier public of more savage tastes and fiercer tendencies4 ,now he proposed to divest it of some of the childish and ugly details that formed a stumbling block to the modern reader 7though plausible and interesting enough to those for whom they were invented71 and to add to the unversified poem rhyme and metre1 emphasising the essential points and such characteristics of the actors as most appealed to him4 ,a comparison of the saga with the poem will show that in his effort to preserve the heroic character of the antique conception by accentuating everything pleasing1 leaving out much of the rudeness and cruelty1 and adorning it with copious descriptive passages1 he robs the story of a great part of the wild life stirring in its ancient forms1 and more or less confuses and involves it4 ,the modern poem really requires for its right understanding a mind more instructed in its subject than the prose translation of the old saga1 and readers to whom the latter is unfamiliar may find a plain outline of the story not superfluous4 ,in the translation1 the origin of the noble ,volsung race1 of which ,sigurd is the flower and crown1 is traced to ,sigi1 called the son of ,odin1 and sent out from his father's land for killing a thrall4 ,he is fortunate in war1 marries a noble wife1 and rules over the land of the ,huns4 ,his son is named ,rerir4 ,volsung is the son of ,rerir1 and thus the great-grandson of ,odin himself4 ,he marries the daughter of a giant1 and the ten sons and one daughter of this union are strong in sinew and huge in size1 the ,volsung race having the fame of being great men and high-minded and far above the most of men both in cunning and in prowess and all things high and mighty4 ,volsung becomes in his turn king over ,hunland1 and builds for himself a noble ,hall in the centre of which grows an oak-tree whose limbs blossom fair out over the roof of the hall1 and the trunk of which is called ,branstock4 ,the poem opens with the description of a wedding-feast held in this ,hall for ,signy1 ,king ,volsung's daughter1 who has been sought in marriage by ,siggeir1 ,king of the ,goths1 a smaller and meaner race than the ,volsungs4 ,signy is not content with her fate1 but her father has deemed the match to be a wise one1 and1 eminent in filial obedience as in all things else1 she yields4 ,from this point for some distance saga and poem march together save for certain minor changes intended to increase ,signy's charm4 ,during the feasting a one-eyed stranger enters the ,hall and thrusts his sword up to its hilt into the tree-trunk1 saying that who should draw the sword from the trunk should have it for his own and find it the best he had ever borne in his hand4 ,this1 of course1 is ,odin4 ,siggeir tries to draw the sword1 and after him his nobles1 and then the sons of ,king ,volsung1 but none succeeds until ,sigmund1 the twin of ,signy1 draws it lightly forth as an easy task4 ,siggeir is wroth and offers to buy the sword for thrice its weight in gold1 but ,sigmund will not part with it1 and ,siggeir sets sail for home in dudgeon1 though concealing his feelings from the ,volsungs and inviting them cordially to visit him in ,gothland4 ,signy reads the future1 and implores her father to undo the marriage and let ,siggeir depart without her4 7,in the poem ,morris has her offer herself as a sacrifice if her father will but remain in his kingdom and decline ,siggeir's invitation47 ,king ,volsung1 however1 insists on keeping his troth1 and ,signy and ,siggeir depart1 followed in due time by ,king ,volsung and his sons and nobles in response to ,siggeir's request4 ,what ,signy prophesied comes to pass and ,king ,volsung falls at the hands of the ,goths while his ten sons are taken captive4 ,now ,signy prays her husband that her brothers be put for a time in the stocks1 since home to her mind comes the saw that says ,sweet to eye while seen4 ,siggeir is delighted to consent though he deems her mad and witless to wish longer suffering for her brothers4 ,here the poem departs from the original in that ,morris puts the idea of the stocks into the mind of ,siggeir in answer to ,signy's suggestion that her brothers be spared for a little time4 ,sigmund and the rest of the brothers are taken to the wildwood1 and a beam is placed on their feet1 and night by night for nine nights a she-wolf comes to devour one of them4 7,in the poem ,morris hastens matters somewhat by having two wolves appear each night to despatch the brothers two at a time47 ,each morning ,signy sends a messenger to the wildwood who brings back the woeful news4 ,finally she thinks of a ruse1 and on the tenth night the messenger is sent to smear the face of ,sigmund1 now the sole remaining brother1 with honey1 putting some also into his mouth4 ,when the wolf comes she licks his face1 and then puts her tongue into his mouth to get the last delicious drop4 ,sigmund promptly closes his teeth upon her tongue and in the struggle that ensues ,sigmund's bonds are burst and the wolf escapes1 leaving her tongue between his teeth4 ,this incident was probably not sufficiently heroic to please ,morris1 and in the poem no mention is made of ,signy's clever device1 ,sigmund gaining his freedom in a more dignified fashion and the details being slurred over lightly1 with a vague and general allusion to snapping with greedy teeth4 ,sigmund dwells in the wildwood in hiding1 and ,signy sends to him in turn her two sons by ,king ,siggeir1 that he may test their fitness to help avenge the fate of her family4 ,here again ,morris mitigates the stern temper of ,signy for a more womanly type4 ,in the saga when ,signy finds that the boys are not stout enough of heart to accomplish her purpose she bids ,sigmund kill them at once3 ,why should such as they live longer8 ,in the poem1 however1 when ,signy sends her son to ,sigmund he is delivered with the diplomatic message that if his heart avail not he may wend the ways of his fate1 and when it is found that his heart does not avail1 he is returned in safety to his mother1 ,sigmund awaiting the slow coming of the competent one4 ,illustration3 ,william ,morris ,from painting by ,watts ,the story of the birth of ,sinfjotli1 in whose veins runs unmixed the blood of the ,volsungs1 is given a certain dignity not accorded it in ,wagner's familiar version of the legend as ,mr4 ,buxton ,forman1 ,morris's most devoted critic1 has pointed out1 but true to the account in the original saga4 ,the saga is followed1 also1 in the burning of ,siggeir's ,hall by ,sigmund and ,sinfjotli1 but the ,signy who kisses her brother in soft and sweet farewell certainly fails to recall to the mind the vengeful creature of the original4 ,sigmund returns to the ,hall of the ,volsungs with ,sinfjotli1 and marries ,borghild4 ,presently ,sinfjotli sails abroad with the brother of ,queen ,borghild1 ,gudrod by name1 and kills him for reason--as given in the translation--of their rivalry in loving an exceeding fair woman4 ,in the poem1 however1 ,morris records a shabby trick played upon ,sinfjotli by ,gudrod in the dividing of their spoils of battle1 making this the cause of the duel in which ,gudrod was killed4 ,sinfjotli returns to his home with the news of ,gudrod's death1 and ,borghild in revenge poisons him4 ,sigmund then sends her away and takes for his wife fair ,hiordis1 meeting his death at the hand of ,odin himself1 who appears to him in battle and shatters the sword he had drawn in his youth from the ,volsung ,branstock4 ,as he lies dying he tells ,hiordis that she must take good care of their child1 who is to carry on the ,volsung tradition1 and must guard well the shards of ,odin's sword for him4 ,then comes the carrying away of ,hiordis by a sea-king to his kingdom in ,denmark1 and here ends1 rightly speaking1 the epic of ,sigmund's career1 which1 as ,mr4 ,mackail has said1 is a separate story neither subordinate to nor coherent with the later epic of ,sigurd1 but which ,morris could not forbear uniting to it4 ,sigurd the ,volsung1 the golden-haired1 the shining one1 the symbol of the sun1 is born of ,hiordis in the home of ,king ,elf1 and fostered by ,regin1 an aged man and deft in every cunning save the dealings of the sword4 ,when ,sigurd has grown to be a boy of high mind and stout heart1 ,regin urges him to ask of ,king ,elf a horse4 ,this he does1 and is sent to choose one for himself4 ,he chooses the best horse in the world and names him1 ,greyfell in the poem1 ,grani in the prose4 ,regin now presses him to attack ,fafnir the ling-worm1 or dragon1 who guards a vast hoard of treasure in the desert4 ,according to the saga1 ,sigurd is not ashamed to own to a slight hesitation in attacking a creature of whose size and malignity he has heard much1 but in the poem he is ready for the deed1 merely hinting that the wary foot is the surest and the hasty oft turns back4 ,thereupon follows the tale of the treasure told by ,regin with great directness in the prose1 and with much circumlocution in the poem4 ,when ,sigurd learns that ,fafnir is the brother of ,regin1 and is keeping him out of his share of treasure belonging to them both1 on which1 however1 a curse is laid1 he pities ,regin1 and promises that if he will make him a sword worthy of the deed he will kill ,fafnir for him4 ,this ,regin attempts to do and fails until ,sigurd brings him the shards of ,odin's mighty sword1 his inheritance from his father ,sigmund4 ,with a sword forged from the shards and named by him the ,wrath1 ,sigurd sets out on ,greyfell1 accompanied by ,regin1 to attack the dragon4 ,the description in the poem of the ride across the desert is rich in the fruits of ,morris's own experience1 and reflects very closely his impressions of the mournful place of short-lived eagerness and glory4 ,sigurd and ,regin ride to the westward4 444 and huge were the mountains grown ,and the floor of heaven was mingled with that tossing world of stone2 ,and they rode till the moon was forgotten and the sun was waxen low1 ,and they tarried not though he perished1 and the world grew dark below4 ,then they rode a mighty desert1 a glimmering place and wide1 ,and into a narrow pass high-walled on either side ,by the blackness of the mountains1 and barred aback and in face ,by the empty night of the shadow2 a windless silent place3 ,but the white moon shone o'erhead mid the small sharp stars and pale1 ,and each as a man alone they rode on the highway of bale4 ,so ever they wended upward1 and the midnight hour was o'er1 ,and the stars grew pale and paler1 and failed from the heaven's floor1 ,and the moon was a long while dead1 but where was the promise of day8 ,no change came over the darkness1 no streak of the dawning grey2 ,no sound of the wind's uprising adown the night there ran3 ,it was blind as the ,gaping ,gulf ere the first of the worlds began4 ,the fight with the dragon1 the roasting of the dragon's heart1 the tasting of the blood by ,sigurd1 and his instant knowledge of the hearts of men and beasts and of the speech of birds1 follow with close adherence of poem to saga1 the most marked divergence being the substitution of eagles for the woodpeckers who sing to ,sigurd of his future4 ,through his new accomplishment ,sigurd is able to read ,regin's heart1 and sees therein a traitorous intent1 therefore he kills ,regin1 loads ,greyfell with the treasure1 and rides to the mountain where ,brynhild1 the warrior maiden struck with slumber by ,odin in punishment for disobedience to him1 is lying in her armour guarded by flames4 ,sigurd wins through the fire1 and awakens her1 and they hold loving converse together on the mountain1 ,brynhild teaching him wisdom in runes and in the saga1 bringing him beer in a beaker1 the drink of love1 although in the poem this hospitable ceremony is omitted4 ,after a time they part1 plighting troth1 and later1 when they meet at the home of ,brynhild in ,lymdale1 they again exchange vows of faith4 ,then ,sigurd rides to a realm south of the ,rhine1 where dwell the ,niblung brothers with their sister ,gudrun and their fierce-hearted mother1 ,grimhild1 who brews for ,sigurd a philter that makes him forget the vows he exchanged with ,brynhild and become enamoured of ,gudrun4 ,completely under the power of the charm1 he weds the latter and undertakes to woo and win ,brynhild for her brother ,gunnar4 ,this he does by assuming ,gunnar's semblance1 and riding once more through the fire that guards ,brynhild1 reminding her of her oath to marry whomever should perform this feat1 and returning to his own form after gaining her promise for ,gunnar4 ,this ruse is made known to ,brynhild 7after she has wedded ,gunnar7 by ,gudrun1 who is not averse to marring the peace of the greatest of women1 and ,brynhild makes the air ring with her wailing over the woeful fact that ,gudrun has the braver man for her husband4 ,in the saga she is a very outspoken lady and in a wild temper1 and even in the poem her grief fails in noble and dignified expression4 ,at her instigation ,sigurd is killed by ,gunnar and his brethren4 ,the vengeance brings no happiness1 however1 and ,brynhild pierces her breast with a sword that she and ,sigurd may lie on one funeral pyre6 ,lovers of ,wagner opera will remember that the story as there told ends with this climax1 but ,morris carries it on to ,gudrun's marriage with ,king ,atli1 ,brynhild's brother1 and to the struggle between him and the ,niblungs for the fatal treasure1 which results in the murder of the ,niblungs 7,gudrun's brothers7 and the irrevocable loss of the treasure4 ,although ,gudrun has approved ,atli's deed1 she finds she can no longer abide with him after it has been accomplished1 and accordingly sets fire to his house and throws herself into the sea4 ,morris omits the grewsome incident of the supper prepared for ,atli by ,gudrun from the roasted hearts of their children whom she had killed1 and also leaves out the subsequent account of the bringing ashore of ,gudrun and the wedding and slaying of ,swanhild1 her daughter by ,sigurd4 ,to the poetic and symbolic elements of this strange old saga1 ,morris has been abundantly sensitive4 ,the curse attending the desire for gold1 which is the pointed moral of the saga1 is brought out1 not dramatically1 but by allusions and suggestions1 not always apparent at a casual reading4 ,the conception of ,sigurd as the sun-god destroying the powers of darkness and illuminating a shadowy world is constantly hinted at1 as when he threatens ,regin with the light he sheds on good and ill1 and when ,regin1 looking toward him as he sits on ,greyfell1 sees that the light of his presence blazes as the glory of the sun4 ,the heroism of ,sigurd1 his role as the ideal lover and warrior and spiritual saviour of his race1 is perhaps over-emphasised4 ,as ,king ,arthur certainly lost in interest by ,tennyson's re-creation of him1 so ,sigurd is more lovely and fair and golden and glorious in the poem than in the saga1 and considerably less human and attractive withal4 ,in fact1 none of the characters in the poem--all so intensely alive to ,morris himself--lives in quite a like degree for his readers4 ,his power to probe beneath externals and rouse emotions of spiritual force was curiously limited4 ,there are indications in his biography that his business with crafts and word-spinning1 as he called it1 served him as a kind of armour1 protecting him from the wounds of feelings too poignant to handle freely1 too deadly to invite4 ,we read of his agony of apprehension1 for example1 when in ,iceland he did not hear from his home for a considerable period4 ,why does not one drop down or faint or do something of that sort when it comes to the uttermost in such matters6 he exclaims4 ,but in his writing it is mainly the surface of the earth and the surface of the mind with which he deals4 ,it is in the nature of his genius1 says one of his most accomplished critics1 to dispense with those deeper thoughts of life which for ,chaucer and for ,shakespeare were the very air breathed by the persons living in their verse4 ,nevertheless1 his service to ,english literature1 in translating the ,northern sagas as none but a poet could have translated them1 was very great1 and his ,story of ,sigurd is in many respects a splendid performance4 ,in writing it he endeavoured to infuse into his style the energy and passion of the literature from which he drew his material1 and to brace it with the sturdy fibre of the ,icelandic tongue4 ,his efforts to de-,latinise his sentences had already lent his translations a vigour lacking in his earlier work4 ,he had captured something of the ,northern freshness corresponding very truly to his external aspect if not to the workings of his brain4 ,the chief defect from which his story of ,sigurd suffers lies in the extreme garrulity of the narrative4 ,a single passage1 set by the side of the translation1 will suffice to show the manner in which a direct statement is smothered and amplified until the reader's brain is dull with repetition1 and the episode or description is extended to three or four times its original length4 ,thus in the saga we are told that after ,sigurd had eaten of the dragon's heart he leapt on his horse and rode along the trail of the worm ,fafnir1 and so right unto his abiding-place2 and he found it open1 and beheld all the doors and the gear of them that they were wrought of iron2 yea1 and all the beams of the house2 and it was dug down deep into the earth3 there found ,sigurd gold exceeding plenteous1 and the sword ,rotti2 and thence he took the ,helm of ,awe1 and the ,gold ,byrny1 and many things fair and good4 ,so much gold he found there1 that he thought verily that scarce might two horses1 or three belike1 bear it thence4 ,so he took all the gold and laid it in two great chests1 and set them on the horse ,grani1 and took the reins of him1 but nowise will he stir1 neither will he abide smiting4 ,then ,sigurd knows the mind of the horse1 and leaps on the back of him1 and smites spurs into him1 and off the horse goes even as if he were unladen4 ,from this comparatively unvarnished tale ,morris evolves the following3 ,now ,sigurd eats of the heart that once in the ,dwarf-king lay1 ,the hoard of the wisdom begrudged1 the might of the earlier day4 ,then wise of heart was he waxen1 but longing in him grew ,to sow the seed he had gotten1 and till the field he knew4 ,so he leapeth aback of ,greyfell1 and rideth the desert bare1 ,and the hollow slot of ,fafnir that led to the ,serpent's lair4 ,then long he rode adown it1 and the ernes flew overhead1 ,and tidings great and glorious of that ,treasure of old they said1 ,so far o'er the waste he wended1 and when the night was come ,he saw the earth-old dwelling1 the dread ,gold-wallowers home4 ,on the skirts of the ,heath it was builded by a tumbled stony bent2 ,high went that house to the heavens1 down 'neath the earth it went1 ,of unwrought iron fashioned for the heart of a greedy king3 ',twas a mountain1 blind without1 and within was its plenishing ,but the ,hoard of ,andvari the ancient1 and the sleeping ,curse unseen1 ,the ,gold of the ,gods that spared not and the greedy that have been4 ,through the door strode ,sigurd the ,volsung1 and the grey moon and the sword ,fell in on the tawny gold-heaps of the ancient hapless ,hoard3 ,gold gear of hosts unburied1 and the coin of cities dead1 ,great spoil of the ages of battle1 lay there on the ,serpent's bed3 ,huge blocks from mid-earth quarried1 where none but the ,dwarfs have mined1 ,wide sands of the golden rivers no foot of man may find1 ,lay 'neath the spoils of the mighty and the ruddy rings of yore3 ,but amidst was the ,helm of ,aweing that the ,fear of earth-folk bore1 ,and there gleamed a wonder beside it1 the ,hauberk all of gold1 ,whose like is not in the heavens nor has earth of its fellow told3 ,there ,sigurd seeth moreover ,andvari's ,ring of ,gain1 ,the hope of ,loki's finger1 the ,ransom's utmost grain2 ,for it shone on the midmost gold-heap like the first star set in the sky1 ,in the yellow space of even when the moon-rise draweth anigh4 ,then laughed the ,son of ,sigmund1 and stooped to the golden land1 ,and gathered that first of the harvest and set it on his hand2 ,and he did on the ,helm of ,aweing1 and the ,hauberk all of gold1-- ,whose like is not in the heavens nor has earth of its fellow told3 ,then he praised the day of the ,volsungs amid the yellow light1 ,and he set his hand to the labour and put forth his kingly might2 ,he dragged forth gold to the moon1 on the desert's face he laid ,the innermost earth's adornment1 and rings for the nameless made2 ,he toiled and loaded ,greyfell1 and the cloudy war-steed shone1 ,and the gear of ,sigurd rattled in the flood of moonlight wan2 ,there he toiled and loaded ,greyfell1 and the ,volsung's armour rang ',mid the yellow bed of the ,serpent--but without the eagles sang3 ,bind the red rings1 ,o ,sigurd6 let the gold shine free and clear6 ,for what hath the ,son of the ,volsungs the ancient ,curse to fear8 ,bind the red rings1 ,o ,sigurd6 for thy tale is well begun1 ,and the world shall be good and gladdened by the ,gold lit up by the sun4 ,bind the red rings1 ,o ,sigurd6 and gladden all thine heart6 ,for the world shall make thee merry ere thou and she depart4 ,bind the red rings1 ,o ,sigurd6 for the ways go green below1 ,go green to the dwelling of ,kings1 and the halls that the ,queen-folk know4 ,bind the red rings1 ,o ,sigurd6 for what is there bides by the way1 ,save the joy of folk to awaken1 and the dawn of the merry day8 ,bind the red rings1 ,o ,sigurd6 for the strife awaits thine hand ,and a plenteous war-field's reaping1 and the praise of many a land4 ,bind the red rings1 ,o ,sigurd6 but how shall storehouse hold ,that glory of thy winning and the tidings to be told8 ,now the moon was dead and the star-worlds were great on the heavenly plain1 ,when the steed was fully laden2 then ,sigurd taketh the rein ,and turns to the ruined rock-wall that the lair was built beneath1 ,for there he deemed was the gate and the door of the ,glittering ,heath1 ,but not a whit moved ,greyfell for aught that the ,king might do2 ,then ,sigurd pondered awhile1 till the heart of the beast he knew1 ,and clad in all his war-gear he leaped to the saddle-stead1 ,and with pride and mirth neighed ,greyfell and tossed aloft his head1 ,and sprang unspurred o'er the waste1 and light and swift he went1 ,and breasted the broken rampart1 the stony tumbled bent2 ,and over the brow he clomb1 and there beyond was the world1 ,a place of many mountains and great crags together hurled4 ,so down to the west he wendeth1 and goeth swift and light1 ,and the stars are beginning to wane1 and the day is mingled with night2 ,for full fain was the sun to arise and look on the ,gold set free1 ,and the ,dwarf-wrought rings of the ,treasure and the gifts from the floor of the sea4 ,beautiful and full of poetic spirit and suggestion as this phraseology is1 a reader may be forgiven if it recalls the reply of ,hamlet when asked by ,polonius what it is he reads4 ,compared with the swift dramatic method employed by ,wagner to make the heroes and heroines of this same saga live for our time1 it must be admitted that the latter drives home with the greater energy and conviction4 ,morris himself1 however1 was not much interested in anything ,wagner did1 looking upon it as nothing short of desecration to bring such a tremendous and world-wide subject under the gaslights of an opera1 the most rococo and degraded of all forms of art4 ,to the group of translations and adaptations already described must be added one other ambitious effort which belongs to it1 properly speaking1 although separated from it in time by more than ten years4 ,in #ahhg ,morris published a translation of the ,odyssey1 written in anapaestic couplets1 and rendered as literally as by the prose crib of which he made frank use4 ,mr4 ,watts-,dunton finds in this translation the ,homeric eagerness1 although the ,homeric dignity is lacking4 ,the majority of competent critics were against it1 however1 nor is a high degree of classical training necessary to perceive in it an incoherence and clumsiness of diction impossible to associate with the lucid images of the ,greeks4 ,compare1 for example1 ,morris's account of the recognition of ,ulysses by ,argus with ,bryant's limpid rendering of the same episode1 and the tortured style of the former is obvious at once4 ,bryant's translation reads3 ,there lay ,argus1 devoured with vermin4 ,as he saw ,ulysses drawing near1 he wagged his tail ,and dropped his ears1 but found that he could come ,no nearer to his master4 ,seeing this ,ulysses wiped away a tear unmark'd ,by the good swineherd whom he questioned thus3 ,eumaeus1 this ,i marvel at1--this dog ,that lies upon the dunghill1 beautiful ,in form1 but whether in the chase as fleet ,as he is fairly shaped ,i cannot tell4 ,worthless1 perchance1 as house-dogs often are ,whose masters keep them for the sake of show4 ,and thus1 ,eumaeus1 thou didst make reply3 ,the dog belongs to one who died afar4 ,had he the power of limb which once he had ,for feats of hunting when ,ulysses sailed ,for ,troy and left him1 thou wouldst be amazed ,both at his swiftness and his strength4 ,no beast ,in the thick forest depths which once he saw1 ,or even tracked by footprints1 could escape4 ,and now he is a sufferer1 since his lord ,has perished far from his own land4 ,no more ,the careless women heed the creature's wants2 ,for1 when the master is no longer near1 ,the servants cease from their appointed tasks1 ,and on the day that one becomes a slave ,the ,thunderer1 ,jove takes half his worth away4 ,he spake1 and1 entering that fair dwelling-place1 ,passed through to where the illustrious suitors sat1 ,while over ,argus the black night of death ,came suddenly as soon as he had seen ,ulysses1 absent now for twenty years4 ,and here is the description by ,morris of the infinitely touching scene3 ,there then did the woodhound ,argus all full of ticks abide2 ,but now so soon as he noted ,odysseus drawing anear ,he wagged his tail1 and fawning he laid down either ear1 ,but had no might to drag him nigher from where he lay ,to his master1 who beheld him and wiped a tear away ,that he lightly hid from ,eumaeus1 unto whom he spake and said3 ,eumaeus1 much ,i marvel at the dog on the dung-heap laid2 ,fair-shapen is his body1 but nought ,i know indeed ,if unto this his fairness he hath good running speed1 ,or is but like unto some--men's table-dogs ,i mean1 ,which but because of their fairness lords cherish to be seen4 ,then thou1 ,o swineherd ,eumaeus1 didst speak and answer thus3 ,yea1 this is the hound of the man that hath died aloof from us2 ,and if yet to do and to look on he were even such an one ,as ,odysseus left behind him when to ,troy he gat him gone ,then wouldest thou wonder beholding his speed and hardihood1 ,for no monster that he followed through the depths of the tangled wood ,would he blench from1 and well he wotted of their trail and where it led4 ,but now ill he hath1 since his master in an alien land is dead1 ,and no care of him have the women1 that are heedless here and light2 ,since thralls whenso they are missing their masters' rule and might4 ,no longer are they willing to do the thing that should be2 ,for ,zeus1 the loud-voiced1 taketh half a man's valiancy ,whenso the day of thralldom hath hold of him at last4 ,so saying into the homestead of the happy place he passed ,and straight to the hall he wended 'mid the ,wooers overbold4 ,but the murky doom of the death-day of ,argus now took hold ,when he had looked on ,odysseus in this the twentieth year4 ,the decade between the publication of ,the ,earthly ,paradise and ,sigurd the ,volsung had been one of sustained literary effort varied1 as we have seen1 but hardly interrupted by the work in decoration4 ,the latter ,morris called his bread-and-cheese work1 the former his pleasure work of books4 ,the time had not yet come for a complete union between the two1 although it was foreshadowed by the illuminated manuscripts made for friends during these years4 ,a selection from his own poems1 a translation of the ,eyrbyggja ,saga1 a copy of ,fitzgerald's ,rubaiyat of ,omar ,khayyam1 and the ,a,eneid of ,virgil were among the works that ,morris undertook to transcribe with his own hand on vellum1 with decorative margins with results of great beauty4 ,he had now long been happy in work calling out all this enthusiasm1 but the world was going on without1 to use his own words1 beautiful and strange and dreadful and worshipful4 ,he was approaching the time when his conscience would no longer let him rest in the thought that he was not born to set the crooked straight4 ,,chapter ,,vii4 ,,public ,,life ,,and ,,socialism4 ,in the autumn of #ahgf1 just after the publication of ,sigurd the ,volsung1 ,morris took his first dip in the ocean of public affairs1 the waves of which were presently almost to submerge him4 ,he was forty-two years of age1 and had thus far managed to keep well within the range of his individual interests and away from the political and social questions that none the less stirred in his mind from time to time1 and pricked him to random assertions that he would have nothing to do with them1 that his business was with dreams1 and that he would remain the idle singer of an empty day4 ,he was roused to action1 however1 by the barbarous massacre on the part of the ,mussulman soldiery of men1 women1 and children in ,bulgaria1 the news of which moved the heart of ,england to a frenzy of indignation4 ,when ,russia intervened1 the possibility that ,england might take up arms on the side of ,turkey in order to erect a barrier against ,russian aggression was intolerable to him1 and he wrote to the ,daily ,news in eloquent protestation4 ,i who am writing this1 he said1 with a just appreciation of his ordinary attitude toward political matters1 am one of a large class of men--quiet men1 who usually go about their own business1 heeding public matters less than they ought1 and afraid to speak in such a huge concourse as the ,english nation1 however much they may feel1 but who are now stung into bitterness by thinking how helpless they are in a public matter that touches them so closely4 ,i appeal1 he continued1 to the workingmen1 and pray them to look to it that if this shame falls upon them they will certainly remember it and be burdened by it when their day clears for them and they attain all and more than all they are now striving for4 ,again in the spring of #ahgg1 when war seemed imminent1 ,morris appealed to the workingmen of ,england1 issuing a manifesto which was practically his first ,socialist document and heralded the long series of lectures and addresses1 poems1 articles1 and treatises1 presently to take the place of romances and epics in his literary life4 ,after declaring that the people who were bringing on the war were greedy gamblers on the ,stock ,exchange1 idle officers of the army and navy 7poor fellows671 worn-out mockers of the clubs1 desperate purveyors of exciting war-news for the comfortable breakfast-tables of those who have nothing to lose by war1 and lastly1 in the place of honour1 the ,tory ,rump1 that we fools1 weary of peace1 reason1 and justice1 chose at the last election to represent us1 he added a passage that reads like the outcome of many a heated discussion with brethren of his own social class4 ,workingmen of ,england1 one word of warning yet1 he said3 ,i doubt if you know the bitterness of hatred against freedom and progress that lies at the hearts of a certain part of the richer classes in this country2 their newspapers veil it in a kind of decent language1 but do but hear them talking amongst themselves1 as ,i have often1 and ,i know not whether scorn or anger would prevail in you at their folly and insolence4 ,these men cannot speak of your order1 of its aims1 of its leaders1 without a sneer or an insult2 these men1 if they had the power 7may ,england perish rather67 would thwart your just aspirations1 would silence you1 would deliver you bound hand and foot forever to irresponsible capital4 ,fellow-citizens1 look to it1 and if you have any wrongs to be redressed1 if you cherish your most worthy hope of raising your whole order peacefully and solidly1 if you thirst for leisure and knowledge1 if you long to lessen these inequalities which have been our stumbling-block since the beginning of the world1 then cast aside sloth and cry out against an ,unjust ,war1 and urge us of the middle classes to do no less4 ,illustration3 ,picture by ,rossetti in which the ,children's ,faces are ,portraits of ,may ,morris ,by this time he was treasurer of the ,eastern ,question ,association1 and working with all his might against the principles of the war party in ,england1 contributing to the general agitation the political ballad called ,wake1 ,london ,lads6 which was sung with much enthusiasm at one of the meetings to the appropriate air1 ,the ,hardy ,norseman's ,home of ,yore1 and was afterwards freely distributed in the form of a leaflet among the mechanics of ,london4 ,it was during this period of political activity that ,j4 ,r4 ,green wrote of him to ,e4 ,a4 ,freeman3 ,i rejoiced to see the poet ,morris--whom ,oliphant setteth even above you for his un-,latinisms--brought to grief by being prayed to draw up a circular on certain ,eastern matters1 and gravelled to find ',english words4' ,i insidiously persuaded him that the literary committee had fixed on him to write one of a series of pamphlets which ,gladstone wants brought out for the public enlightenment1 and that the subject assigned him was ',the ,results of the ,incidence of ,direct ,taxation on the ,christian ,rayah1' but that he was forbidden to speak of the 'onfall of straight geld1' or other such ',english' forms4 ,i left him musing and miserable4 ,musing and miserable he may well have been at finding that his duty1 as he conceived it1 was leading him into such unlovely paths1 but the ,english of his polemical writings was unmistakable enough and unconfused by any affectations1 ,saxon or ,latin4 ,in declining to stand for the ,professorship of ,poetry at ,oxford on the occasion of ,matthew ,arnold's withdrawal from it1 he had confessed to a peculiar inaptitude for expressing himself except in the one way in which his gift lay1 and it was true that his mind was singularly inept outside its natural course4 ,he had not a reasoning mind4 ,his opinions1 dictated as they were chiefly by sentiment1 were not worked out by the careful processes dear to genuine thinkers4 ,but he was before all things a believer4 ,no man was ever more certain of the absolute rectitude of his views1 and by this sincerity of conviction they were driven home to his public4 ,he was so eager to make others feel as he felt that he spent his utmost skill upon the delivery of his message1 using the simple and downright phrases that could be understood by the least cultivated of his hearers4 ,it was impossible to listen to him1 says one of his friends1 not a convert to his views1 without for the time at least agreeing with him4 ,thus he conquered the peculiar inaptitude of which he speaks by the force of his great integrity1 and although he complained that the cursed words went to water between his fingers1 they accomplished their object4 ,when the crisis in the ,east was past1 says ,mr4 ,mackail1 it left ,morris thoroughly in touch with the ,radical leaders of the working class in ,london1 and well acquainted with the social and economic ideas which1 under the influence of widening education and of the international movement among the working classes1 were beginning to transform their political creed from an individualist ,radicalism into a more or less definite doctrine of ,state ,socialism4 ,this contact was sufficient to kindle into activity the ideas implanted in his own mind during his college days4 ,carlyle had then thundered forth his amazing anathemas against modern civilisation and had declaimed that ,gurth born thrall of ,cedric1 with a brass collar round his neck1 was happy in comparison with the poor of to-day enjoying their liberty to die by starvation1 no displeasing gospel to a young mediaevalist2 while ,ruskin had preached with vociferous eloquence the doctrine that happiness in labour is the end and aim of life4 ,from the beginning of his work in decorative art ,morris had shown the influence of these beliefs in peace4 ,he was now to let them lead him into war4 ,before he wrote himself down a ,socialist1 however1 he set on foot a movement not so important in the eyes of the public1 but much more characteristic of his personal mission in the world of life and art4 ,he had long before learned from ,ruskin that the so-called restoration of public monuments meant the most total destruction which a building can suffer3 a destruction out of which no remnants can be gathered3 a destruction accompanied with false description of the thing destroyed4 ,whatever his feeling may have been concerning the destructive restoration1 of which he must have seen manifold examples before this period of his middle age1 he seems to have awakened rather suddenly to the necessity of taking some active measure to check the ravages of the restorer4 ,goaded1 finally1 by the sight of alterations going on in one of the beautiful parish churches near ,kelmscott1 he conceived the idea of forming a society of protest4 ,early in #ahgg the impending fate of the ,abbey ,church at ,tewkesbury1 under the devastating hands of ,sir ,gilbert ,scott1 prompted him to put the idea at once before the public1 and he wrote to the ,athenaeum a letter in which he went straight to the heart of his subject with clearness and simplicity4 ,my eye just now caught the word 'restoration' in the morning paper1 he wrote1 and on looking closer1 ,i saw that this time it is nothing less than the ,minster of ,tewkesbury that is to be destroyed by ,sir ,gilbert ,scott4 ,is it altogether too late to do something to save it1--it and whatever else of beautiful and historical is still left us on the sites of the ancient buildings we were once so famous for8 ,would it not be of some use once for all1 and with the least delay possible1 to set on foot an association for the purpose of watching over and protecting these relics which1 scanty as they are now become1 are still wonderful treasures1 all the more priceless in this age of the world1 when the newly-invented study of living history is the chief joy of so many of our lives8 ,your paper has so steadily and courageously opposed itself to these acts of barbarism which the modern architect1 parson1 and squire call 'restoration1' that it would be waste of words here to enlarge on the ruin that has been wrought by their hands2 but1 for the saving of what is left1 ,i think ,i may write you a word of encouragement1 and say that you by no means stand alone in the matter1 and that there are many thoughtful people who would be glad to sacrifice time1 money1 and comfort in defence of those ancient monuments2 besides1 though ,i admit that the architects are1 with very few exceptions1 hopeless1 because interest1 habit1 and an ignorance yet grosser1 bind them2 still there must be many people whose ignorance is accidental rather than inveterate1 whose good sense could surely be touched if it were clearly put to them that they were destroying what they1 or more surely still1 their sons and sons' sons would one day fervently long for1 and which no wealth or energy could ever buy again for them4 ,what ,i wish for1 therefore1 is that an association should be set on foot to keep a watch on old monuments1 to protest against all 'restoration' that means more than keeping out wind and weather1 and1 by all means1 literary and other1 to awaken a feeling that our ancient buildings are not mere ecclesiastical toys1 but sacred monuments of the nation's growth and hope4 ,in less than a month the association was formed under the title of the ,society for ,protection of ,ancient ,buildings1 abbreviated by ,morris to the ,anti-,scrape ,society1 in cheerful reference to the pernicious scraping and pointing indulged in by the restorers4 ,morris was made secretary of the ,society1 and1 as long as he lived1 worked loyally in its behalf1 giving1 in addition to time and money1 the labour1 which to him was grievous1 of lecturing for it4 ,he wrote a prospectus that was translated into ,french1 ,german1 ,italian1 and ,dutch1 and among the more important of his protests were those against the demolition of some of the most beautiful portions of ,st4 ,mark's at ,venice1 and the bedizening of the interior of ,westminster ,abbey4 ,for the sentiment which inspired him1 the inextinguishable love in his heart toward every example however humble of the art he reverenced1 we may turn to one of the most eloquently reasonable passages of his numerous lectures4 ,closing his account of pattern designing with a reference to the creation of modern or ,gothic art1 he says3 ,never until the time of that death or cataleptic sleep of the so-called ,renaissance did it forget its origin1 or fail altogether in fulfilling its mission of turning the ancient curse of labour into something more like a blessing4 ,as to the way in which it did its work1 he continues1 as ,i have no time1 so also ,i have but little need to speak1 since there is none of us but has seen and felt some portion of the glory which it left behind1 but has shared some portion of that most kind gift it gave the world2 for even in this our turbulent island1 the home of rough and homely men1 so far away from the centres of art and thought which ,i have been speaking of1 did simple folk labour for those that shall come after them4 ,here in the land we yet love they built their homes and temples2 if not so majestically as many peoples have done1 yet in such sweet accord with the familiar nature amidst which they dwelt1 that when by some happy chance we come across the work they wrought1 untouched by any but natural change1 it fills us with a satisfying untroubled happiness that few things else could bring us4 ,must our necessities destroy1 must our restless ambition mar1 the sources of this innocent pleasure1 which rich and poor may share alike--this communion with the very hearts of the departed men8 ,must we sweep away these touching memories of our stout forefathers and their troublous days that won our present peace and liberties8 ,if our necessities compel us to it1 ,i say we are an unhappy people2 if our vanity lure us into it1 ,i say we are a foolish and light-minded people1 who have not the wits to take a little trouble to avoid spoiling our own goods4 ,our own goods8 ,yes1 the goods of the people of ,england1 now and in time to come3 we who are now alive are but life-renters of them4 ,any of us who pretend to any culture know well that in destroying or injuring one of these buildings we are destroying the pleasure1 the culture--in a word1 the humanity--of unborn generations4 ,it is speaking very mildly to say that we have no right to do this for our temporary convenience4 ,it is speaking too mildly4 ,i say any such destruction is an act of brutal dishonesty4444 ,it is in the interest of living art and living history that ,i oppose 'restoration4' ,what history can there be in a building bedaubed with ornament1 which cannot at best be anything but a hopeless and lifeless imitation of the hope and vigour of the earlier world8 ,as to the art that is concerned in it1 a strange folly it seems to me for us who live among these bricken masses of hideousness1 to waste the energies of our short lives in feebly trying to add new beauty to what is already beautiful4 ,is that all the surgery we have for the curing of ,england's spreading sore8 ,don't let us vex ourselves to cure the antepenultimate blunders of the world1 but fall to on our own blunders4 ,let us leave the dead alone1 and1 ourselves living1 build for the living and those that shall live4 ,meantime1 my plea for our ,society is this1 that since it is disputed whether restoration be good or not1 and since we are confessedly living in a time when architecture has come on the one hand to ,jerry building1 and on the other to experimental designing 7good1 very good experiments some of them71 let us take breath and wait2 let us sedulously repair our ancient buildings1 and watch every stone of them as if they were built of jewels 7as indeed they are71 but otherwise let the dispute rest till we have once more learned architecture1 till we once more have among us a reasonable1 noble1 and universally used style4 ,then let the dispute be settled4 ,i am not afraid of the issue4 ,if that day ever comes1 we shall know what beauty1 romance1 and history mean1 and the technical meaning of the word 'restoration' will be forgotten4 ,is not this a reasonable plea8 ,it means prudence4 ,if the buildings are not worth anything they are not worth restoring2 if they are worth anything they are at least worth treating with common sense and prudence4 ,come now1 ,i invite you to support the most prudent ,society in all ,england4 ,it is easy to understand from such examples as this how ,morris gained his popularity as a lecturer4 ,in the printed sentences you read the eager1 persuasive accent1 so convincing because so convinced4 ,on the platform he stood1 say his friends1 like a conqueror1 stalwart and sturdy1 his good grey eyes flashing or twinkling1 his voice deepening with feeling1 his gesture and speech sudden and spontaneous1 his aspect that of an insurgent1 a fighter against custom and orthodoxy4 ,it was not long after the formation of the ,society for the ,protection of ,ancient ,buildings that he began to show himself a rebel in more than words against existing social laws4 ,the steps by which he reached his membership in the ,democratic ,federation in the year #ahhc are not very easily traced4 ,comments on the distressing gulf between rich and poor and on the conditions under which the modern workingman did his task became more frequent in his letters and addresses4 ,his mind seemed to be gradually adjusting itself to the thought that the only hope for obtaining ideal conditions in which--this was always the ultimate goal--art might be constantly associated with handicraft1 was perhaps to let art go for the time being1 and upset society and all its conventions in preparation for a new earth4 ,art must go under1 he wrote in one of his private letters where or however it may come up again4 ,but it was always the fate of art that concerned him4 ,he never really understood what ,socialism technically and economically speaking meant4 ,he read its books with labour and sorrow1 and struggled with its theories in support of his antagonism to the commercial methods of modern business1 but he gained no firm grasp of any underlying political principle4 ,in most of his later addresses he talked pure sentiment concerning social questions1 characteristically declaring it to be the purest reason4 ,his avowed belief was that workmen should be artists and artists workmen1 and this1 he felt1 could only be attained under the freest conditions4 ,a workman should not be clothed in shabby garments1 should not be wretchedly housed1 overworked1 or underfed4 ,but neither will it profit him much if he wear good clothes1 and keep short hours1 and eat wholesome food1 and contribute to the ugliness of the wares turned out by commerce4 ,the idea that a man works only to earn leisure in which he does no work was shocking to him as it had been to ,ruskin4 ,pleasant work to do1 leisure for other work of a different pleasantness1 this was what the workingman really wanted if only he knew it4 ,it was clear to ,morris that he himself worked not the least in the world for the sake of earning leisure by it1 but partly driven by the fear of starvation and disgrace1 and partly because he loved the work itself2 and while he was ready to confess that he spent a part of his leisure as a dog does in contemplation1 and liked it well enough1 he also spent part of it in work which gave him as much pleasure as his bread-earning work1 neither more nor less4 ,obviously if there are men with whom such is not the case it is because they have not the right kind of work to do1 and are not doing it in the right way1 and it is equally obvious that the wrong work and the wrong way of doing it are forced upon them4 ,left to themselves they are bound to do what pleases them and what will please others of right minds4 ,the ideal handicraftsman developing under an ideal social order shall put his own individual intelligence and enthusiasm into the goods he fashions4 ,so far from his labour being 'divided1' which is the technical phrase for his always doing one minute piece of work and never being allowed to think of any other1 so far from that1 he must know all about the ware he is making and its relation to similar wares2 he must have a natural aptitude for his work so strong that no education can force him away from his special bent4 ,he must be allowed to think of what he is doing and to vary his work as the circumstances of it vary1 and his own moods4 ,he must be forever stirring to make the piece he is at work at better than the last4 ,he must refuse at anybody's bidding to turn out1 ,i won't say a bad1 but even an indifferent piece of work1 whatever the public want or think they want4 ,he must have a voice1 and a voice worth listening to in the whole affair4 ,this attitude is almost identical with that of ,ruskin4 ,to see how the theories of master and pupil coincide one has only to read ,the ,stones of ,venice and compare with the passage quoted above the famous chapter on ,the ,nature of the ,gothic4 ,it is verily this degradation of the operative into a machine1 says ,ruskin1 which1 more than any other evil of the times1 is leading the mass of the nations everywhere into vain1 incoherent1 destructive struggling for a freedom of which they cannot explain the nature to themselves4 ,their universal outcry against wealth and against nobility is not forced from them either by the pressure of famine or the sting of mortified pride4 ,these do much1 and have done much in all ages2 but the foundations of society were never yet shaken as they are at this day4 ,it is not that men are ill-fed1 but that they have no pleasure in the work by which they make their bread1 and therefore look to wealth as the only means of pleasure4 ,it is not that men are pained by the scorn of the upper classes1 but they cannot endure their own2 for they feel that the kind of labour to which they are condemned is verily a degrading one1 and makes them less than men4444 ,we have much studied and much perfected1 of late1 the great civilised invention of the division of labour2 only we give it a false name4 ,it is not1 truly speaking1 the labour that is divided2 but the men--divided into mere segments of men--broken into small fragments and crumbs of life1 so that all the little piece of intelligence that is left in a man is not enough to make a pin or a nail1 but exhausts itself in making the point of a pin1 or the head of a nail4444 ,and the great cry that rises from all our manufacturing cities1 louder than their furnace blast1 is all in very deed for this1--that we manufacture everything there except men4444 ,and all the evil to which that cry is urging our myriads can be met only 444 by a right understanding on the part of all classes1 of what kinds of labour are good for men1 raising them and making them happy2 by a determined sacrifice of such convenience1 or beauty1 or cheapness as is to be got only by the degradation of the workman4 ,but ,ruskin was altogether too much of an aristocrat1 too much of an egoist1 to root out classes4 ,we can hardly imagine him preaching as ,morris finally came to preach a revolution which should make it impossible for him to condescend4 ,he could devote seven thousand pounds of his own money to establishing a ,st4 ,george ,society1 but it would probably never have occurred to him to head a riot in ,trafalgar ,square4 ,when ,morris1 under the influence of old theories and new associations1 came to consider not only the desirability but the possibility of establishing a social order in which men could work quite happily and art could get loose from handcuffs welded and locked by commercialism1 it was a necessity of his temperament that he should turn his back on halfway methods and urge drastic reforms4 ,his way was not the way of compromise1 and he seriously believed that if civilisation could be swept out of the path by a revolution which should destroy all class distinctions and all machinery and machine-made goods1 which should do away with commercialism and strip the world to its bare bones1 so that men could start afresh1 all equal and all freed from the superfluities of life1 there would grow up a charming communism in which kind hearts would take the place of coronets1 and cheerful labour the place of hopeless toil4 ,we find him writing in a private letter--madly1 yet with the downright force that kindled where it struck--that he has faith more than a grain of mustard seed in the future history of civilisation1 that he now knows it to be doomed to destruction1 and that it is a consolation and joy to him to think of barbarism once more flooding the world1 and real feelings and passions1 however rudimentary1 taking the place of our wretched hypocrisies4 ,it was thus he thought1 or felt1 about the new field of labour upon which he was entering1 and it is from this point of view that he must be defended against the slurs that have been cast at him as a ,capitalist-,socialist4 ,he did not ignore the ideal of renunciation which had tempted him in his youth1 and which he again thought of in his middle age--though less tempted1 perhaps4 ,but he reasoned1 logically enough1 that for one man or a few men to divide his or their wealth with the poor would not advance the world by a furlong or a foot toward the state of things which he had at heart to bring about4 ,it might raise the beneficiaries a little higher in the ranks--in other words1 bring them a little closer to the dangerous middle-class1 from which came the worst of their troubles1 and it might also have the effect of making them a trifle more content with existing conditions4 ,neither effect was desirable in his eyes4 ,a divine discontent to be spread throughout all classes was the end and aim of such ,socialism as he accepted4 ,nothing could be done except through the antagonism of classes1 which seemed in itself to provide a remedy4 ,in ,news from ,nowhere1 his best known ,socialistic romance1 the name of which was perhaps suggested by ,kingsley's ,utopian and anagrammatic ,erewhon1 he puts into the mouth of an old man who is himself a survival from the days of class slavery1 a description of the imaginary change to an ideal ,communism4 ,toward the end of the nineteenth century1 it is assumed1 a federation of labour made it possible for the workmen or slaves to establish from time to time important strikes that would sometimes stop an industry altogether for a while1 and to impose upon their masters other restrictions that seriously interfered with the systematic conduct of commerce4 ,the resulting bad times reached a crisis in the year #aieb1 when the ,combined ,workers determined upon the bold step of demanding a practical reversal of classes1 by which they should have the management of the whole natural resources of the country1 together with the machinery for using them4 ,the upper classes resisting1 riots ensued1 then the ,great ,strike4 ,the railways did not run1 the old man recalls2 the telegraph wires were unserved2 flesh1 fish1 and green stuff brought to market was allowed to lie there still packed and perishing2 the thousands of middle-class families1 who were utterly dependent for the next meal on the workers1 made frantic efforts through their more energetic members to cater for the needs of the day1 and amongst those of them who could not throw off the fear of what was to follow1 there was1 ,i am told1 a certain enjoyment of this unexpected picnic--a forecast of the days to come in which all labour grew pleasant4 ,out of all this came civil war1 with destruction of wares and machinery and also the destruction of the spirit of commercialism4 ,with the removal of the spur of competition it is admitted that there was a temporary danger of making men dull by giving them too much time for thought or idle musing4 ,how was this danger overcome8 ,by a growing interest in art1 to be sure4 ,the people1 all workmen now1 and providing very simply for their simple needs1 no longer driven desperately to painful and terrible overwork1 began to wish to make the work they had in hand as attractive as possible1 and rudely and awkwardly to ornament the wares they produced4 ,thus at last and by slow degrees1 the old man concludes1 we got pleasure into our work2 then we became conscious of that pleasure1 and cultivated it1 and took care that we had our fill of it1 and then all was gained and we were happy4 ,illustration3 ,,honeysuckle ,,design ,,for ,,linen ,there is little here to charm the logically constructive mind1 acquainted with human nature1 and in the lectures setting forth in more detail and with more attempt at practical teaching the methods by which society could be enlightened and raised to his standard of excellence1 ,morris boldly invites the scorn of the political economist by the wholly visionary character of his pathetically reasonable views4 ,nevertheless1 he was not without an instinct for distinguishing social evils and suggesting right remedies4 ,strip his doctrines of their exaggerated conclusions from false premises1 and it is possible to find in them the seeds of many reforms that have come about to the inestimable benefit of the modern world4 ,in his lecture on ,useful ,work versus ,useless ,toil1 the very title of which is a flash of genius1 he advocates the kind of education that is directed toward finding out what different people are fit for1 and helping them along the road which they are inclined to take4 ,he would have young people taught such handicrafts as they had a turn for as a part of their education1 the discipline of their minds and bodies2 and adults would also have opportunities of learning in the same schools4 ,he preaches the necessity of agreeable surroundings1 claiming that science duly applied would get rid of the smoke1 stench1 and noise of factories1 and that factories and buildings in which work is carried on should be made decent1 convenient1 and beautiful1 while workers should be given opportunities of living in quiet country homes1 in small towns1 or in industrial colleges1 instead of being obliged to pig together in close city quarters4 ,not one of these considerations is ignored by the organisations now endeavouring in the name of civilisation to raise the standard of the community4 ,manual training schools1 free kindergartens1 health protective associations1 model tenement societies1 have all arisen to meet in their own ways the needs to which ,morris was so keenly alive4 ,it was not the word reform1 however1 but the word revolution1 that he constantly reiterated1 and declined to relinquish in favour of any milder term4 ,his friend ,william ,clarke has summed up in a single paragraph the substance of many conversations held with him on the subject of social progress4 ,existing society is1 he thinks1 gradually1 but with increasing momentum1 disintegrating through its own rottenness4 ,the capitalist system of production is breaking down fast and is compelled to exploit new regions in ,africa and other parts1 where1 he thinks1 its term will be short4 ,economically1 socially1 morally1 politically1 religiously1 civilisation is becoming bankrupt4 ,meanwhile it is for the ,socialist to take advantage of this disintegration by spreading discontent1 by preaching economic truths1 and by any kind of demonstration which may harass the authorities and develop among the people an esprit de corps4 ,by these means the people will1 in some way or other1 be ready to take up the industry of the world when the capitalist class is no longer able to direct or control it4 ,the expression in some way or other very well indicates the essential vagueness underlying ,morris's definite speech4 ,he had no idea of the means by which the people could be educated to the assumption of unfamiliar control4 ,the utmost that he could suggest was that they should be awakened to the beauty of life as he saw it in his dreams4 ,this beauty he continually set before them in phrases as simple and as eloquent as he could make them4 ,nor did he shirk the responsibilities raised by his extreme point of view4 ,nothing testifies more truly to his fidelity of nature and devotion to his ideal than his readiness to put aside the pursuits he loved with his whole heart and take up activities detested by him for many years of that gifted1 interesting life of his1 in the hope of bringing about1 for people whom he really cared for only in the mass1 who did not understand him and whom he did not very well understand1 an order of things which should in time1 but not in his time1 make them--so he thought--quite happy4 ,the extent to which he renounced was not slight4 ,now indeed was the time when his friends might justly lament that he was being kept labouring at what he could not do1 with work all round that he could do so well4 ,first he joined the ,democratic ,federation and was promptly put on its executive committee4 ,we find him writing that it is naturally harder to understand the subject of ,socialism in detail as he gets alongside of it1 and that he often gets beaten in argument even when he knows he is right1 which only drives him to more desperate attempts to justify his theories by the study of other people's arguments4 ,while he was a member of the ,federation 7a definitely ,socialist body at the time7 he delivered a lecture at ,oxford with the effect of rousing consternation in the ,university despite the fact that he had taken pains to inform the authorities of his position as an active ,socialist4 ,they did not understand the extent of his activity1 and when he wound up an agreeable talk by frankly appealing to the undergraduates of the ,russell ,club1 at whose invitation he was speaking1 to join the ,democratic ,federation1 the ,master of ,university was brought to his feet to explain that nothing of the kind had been foreseen when ,mr4 ,morris was asked to express there his opinion on art under a democracy4 ,besides his lecturing1 which went on in ,london1 or at ,manchester1 ,leeds1 ,blackburn1 ,leicester1 ,glasgow1 and anywhere else where a hopeful opportunity afforded1 he was writing for the weekly paper of the ,federation1 the little sheet called ,justice1 and also writing pamphlets for distribution among the people4 ,the measures urged in ,justice for immediate adoption as remedies for the evils of existing society were3 ,free ,compulsory ,education for all classes1 together with the provision of at least one wholesome meal a day in each school4 ,eight ,hours or less to be the normal ,working day in all trades4 ,cumulative ,taxation upon all incomes above a fixed minimum not exceeding ,l#cjj a year4 ,state ,appropriation of ,railways1 with or without compensation4 ,the ,establishment of ,national ,banks1 which shall absorb all private institutions that derive a profit from operations in money or credit4 ,rapid ,extinction of the ,national ,debt4 ,nationalisation of the ,land and organisation of agricultural and industrial armies under ,state control on ,cooeperative principles4 ,the objects of the ,federation were3 ,to unite the various ,associations of ,democrats and ,workers throughout ,great ,britain and ,ireland for the purpose of securing equal rights for all1 and forming a permanent centre of organisation2 to agitate for the ultimate adoption of the programme of the ,federation2 to aid all ,social and political movements in the direction of these reforms4 ,morris believed himself to be in full sympathy with the fundamental principles of the ,federation1 and faithfully resented the assumption of a kindly intentioned critic who stated that his imperfect sympathy with them must in charity be supposed4 ,to the implication that he cared only for art and not for the other side of the social questions he had been writing about1 he responded3 ,much as ,i love art and ornament1 ,i value it chiefly as a token of the happiness of the people1 and ,i would rather it were all swept away from the world than that the mass of the people should suffer oppression2 but he continued with the familiar challenge1 opportunity to utter which was seldom lost1 ,at the same time1 ,sir1 ,i will beg you earnestly to consider if my contention is not true1 that genuine ,art is always an expression of pleasure in ,labour8 ,in explaining his point of view to the public before whom he placed his little collection of ,socialist lectures1 he expressed his conviction that all the ugliness and vulgarity of civilisation1 which his own work had forced him to look upon with grief and pain are but the outward expression of the innate moral baseness into which we are forced by our present form of society4 ,the ethical and practical sides of the problem he was trying to face honestly1 grew up in his mind as he dwelt upon its artistic side1 and he made noble efforts to evolve schemes of practical expediency4 ,in his reasonableness he went so far as to admit the possible usefulness of machinery in the new order toward which he was directing the attention of his followers2 but he is swift to add1 for the consolation of the artists1 that this usefulness will probably be but temporary2 that a state of social order would lead1 at first1 perhaps1 to a great development of machinery for really useful purposes1 because people will still be anxious about getting through the work necessary to holding society together2 but after a while they will find that there is not so much work to do as they expected and will have leisure to reconsider the whole subject1 and then if it seems to them that a certain industry would be carried on more pleasantly as regards the worker1 and more effectually as regards the goods1 by using hand-work rather than machinery they will certainly get rid of their machinery1 because it will be possible for them to do so4 ,it isn't possible now1 he adds2 we are not at liberty to do so2 we are slaves to the monsters we have created4 ,and ,i have a kind of hope that the very elaboration of machinery in a society whose purpose is not the multiplication of labour1 as it now is1 but the carrying on of a pleasant life1 as it would be under social order1--that the elaboration of machinery1 ,i say1 will lead to the simplification of life1 and so once more to the limitation of machinery4 ,although the discussion of methods and external forms was entirely foreign to ,morris's habit of mind1 he was not averse to discussing the history of society4 ,he was not much more an historian than he was an economist in the strict sense4 ,he ignored1 idealised1 and blackened at will1 always perfectly certain that he was setting forth the contrast between the past and the present in its true light2 but his delight in the mediaeval past1 which was the only past to which he gave much attention1 lends to his pictures of it a charm most appealing to those who have not too prodding a prejudice in favour of historical accuracy4 ,he is at his best when he breaks from his grapple with the subject of the commercial classes and their development to evoke the visions which neither history nor economics could obscure in his mind4 ,not seldom ,i please myself with trying to realise the face of mediaeval ,england1 he says to the motley audience gathering at a street corner or in some dingy little hall or shed to listen to him1 the many chases and great woods1 the stretches of common tillage and common pasture quite unenclosed2 the rough husbandry of the tilled parts1 the unimproved breeds of cattle1 sheep1 and swine2 especially the latter1 so lank and long and lathy1 looking so strange to us2 the strings of packhorses along the bridle-roads2 of the scantiness of the wheel-roads1 scarce any except those left by the ,romans1 and those made from monastery to monastery2 the scarcity of bridges1 and people using ferries instead1 or fords where they could2 the little towns1 well bechurched1 often walled2 the villages just where they are now 7except for those that have nothing but the church left to tell of them71 but better and more populous2 their churches1 some big and handsome1 some small and curious1 but all crowded with altars and furniture1 and gay with pictures and ornament2 the many religious houses1 with their glorious architecture2 the beautiful manor-houses1 some of them castles once1 and survivals from an earlier period2 some new and elegant2 some out of all proportion small for the importance of their lords4 ,how strange it would be to us if we could be landed in fourteenth-century ,england2 unless we saw the crest of some familiar hill like that which yet bears upon it a symbol of an ,english tribe1 and from which1 looking down on the plain where ,alfred was born1 ,i once had many such ponderings1 we should not know into what country of the world we were come3 the name is left1 scarce a thing else4 ,,chapter ,,viii4 ,,public ,,life ,,and ,,socialism 7,continued74 ,by the latter part of #ahhd the political agitations and internal differences in the ,federation1 now called ,the ,social ,democratic ,federation1 became so violent as to force ,morris to leave the association in which he had had no desire to be a leader1 but had been unable to keep the position of acquiescent follower4 ,in his connection with this and other public organisations1 the underlying gentleness and real humility of his nature was clearly to be seen4 ,he learned patience through his conflict with unsympathetic minds4 ,from the weary experience of working in constant intercourse with men whose temper and practice and many of whose theories were directly antagonistic to his own1 although identified with them in the public mind by a common responsibility1 he learned to subdue those elements of his temperament that worked against the success of what he had most loyally at heart4 ,from self-confidence1 a critical habit1 an overbearing positiveness of assertion1 he passed to comparative reticence1 tolerance1 even docility4 ,to his equals it was painful to see ignorant men assign to him his task1 but he never failed to comply instantly with their orders4 ,illustration3 ,,merton ,,abbey ,,works ,illustration3 ,,washing ,,cloth ,,at ,,the ,,merton ,,abbey ,,works ,it could not1 however1 have been an education in which he could take conscious pleasure1 and at this juncture he doubtless would have been happy indeed could he have gone quietly back to the weaving and dyeing and writing of poetry with which his new preoccupation had seriously interfered4 ,his conscience1 however1 was too deeply involved to permit a desertion1 which would1 he said1 be dastardly4 ,the question now constantly in his mind was how he would have felt against the system under which he lived had he himself been poor4 ,he was convinced that he would have found it unendurable4 ,therefore1 with a longing glance at his chintz bleaching in the sunlight and pure air of ,merton ,abbey1 he put his shoulder to the wheel again1 and1 gathering together a few of his sympathisers1 inaugurated a new party1 the ,socialist ,league1 with the famous little ,commonweal for its organ1 a monthly paper now the joy of collectors on account of the beautiful headings of ,walter ,crane and the remarkable quality of the contributions by ,morris himself4 ,in this new society1 for which he was primarily responsible1 ,morris found his work redoubled4 ,he was editor of the ,commonweal as well as contributor to it4 ,he continued his lecturing1 often under the most depressing conditions1 speaking to small and indifferent audiences in small and miserable quarters4 ,at ,hammersmith he instituted a branch of the ,league in the room previously given up to his carpet-weaving1 and there he gave ,sunday evening addresses4 ,on ,saturday afternoons and ,sunday mornings he spoke at the outdoor meetings which were to be the insidious foes of his health1 and which more than once brought him into personal notoriety of a disagreeable kind4 ,the first of these occasions was on the #bast of ,september1 #ahhe1 when a number of people were arrested for gathering together that ,sunday morning at the corner of ,dod ,street and ,burdett ,road against orders from the authorities to the effect that meetings at that place--a favourite spot with open-air speakers--must be stopped4 ,morris1 with other members of the ,league1 was present in court when the prisoners were brought up1 and joined in the hisses and cries of ,shame6 when one prisoner was sentenced to two months' hard labour and the others were fined4 ,morris was arrested1 subjected to a little questioning from the magistrate1 and dismissed4 ,the following ,sunday another meeting1 comprising many thousands of people1 was held on the forbidden corner2 nothing occurred1 and they dispersed victoriously4 ,the next year a ,sunday-morning meeting in a street off ,edgeware ,road was interfered with by the police1 and ,morris was summoned to the police court and fined a shilling and costs for the offence of obstructing the highway4 ,out of these experiences resulted1 we may very well imagine1 the farce entitled3 ,the ,tables ,turned2 or1 ,nupkins ,awakened1 given at an entertainment in the ,hall of the ,socialist ,league1 at ,farringdon ,road1 on ,october #ae1 #ahhg4 ,copies of it are still in existence--sorry little pamphlets in blue wrappers1 bearing no kinship to the aristocratic products of the ,kelmscott ,press so soon to follow1 but extremely entertaining as showing ,morris in his least conventional and most aggressive public mood4 ,as the pamphlet is quite rare1 a brief description of its contents is not1 perhaps1 superfluous1 although its literary merit amounts to as little as possible considering its authorship4 ,it opens with a scene in a court of justice1 ,justice ,nupkins presiding1 in which a ,mr4 ,la-di-da is found guilty of swindling and of robbing the widow and the orphan4 ,he is sentenced to imprisonment for the space of one calendar month4 ,next ,mary ,pinch1 a poor woman 7the part was taken by ,morris's daughter ,may71 is accused of stealing three loaves of bread1 and1 after absurd and contradictory testimony by witnesses for the prosecution 7constables and sergeants71 is sentenced to eighteen months of hard labour4 ,next1 ,john ,freeman1 a ,socialist1 is accused of conspiracy1 sedition1 and obstruction of the highway4 ,the ,archbishop of ,canterbury 7this role enacted by ,morris71 ,lord ,tennyson1 and ,professor ,tyndall are called as witnesses and give testimony1 the manner and speech of the renowned originals being somewhat rudely parodied4 ,after contradictory evidence by these witnesses and the former ones1 the prisoner is sentenced to six years' penal servitude with a fine of one hundred pounds1 his offence having been an open-air speech advocating the principles of ,socialism4 ,as his sentence is pronounced the ,marseillaise is heard1 and a ,socialist ensign enters with news that the ,revolution has begun4 ,it is in the second part that the tables are turned upon ,nupkins4 ,the scene this time is laid in the fields near a country village1 with a copse close by4 ,the time is after the ,revolution4 ,justice ,nupkins is found skulking in the copse1 half mad with fear at the reversal of social conditions1 his past cruelty giving him small reason to hope for gentle treatment at the hands of the former lower classes1 who are now running affairs to suit themselves4 ,he meets ,mary ,pinch1 who pities his deplorable aspect and invites him to her house1 now a pleasant and prosperous home4 ,he cannot believe in the sincerity of her apparent kindness1 and flees from her in a panic1 only to meet other of his former victims who further alarm him by pretending to arrest him and give him a mock trial1 during which he thinks he is to be sentenced to death4 ,he learns at last that under the beautiful new order he is free to do what he pleases1 and may dig potatoes and earn his own living by such tilling of the soil4 ,the citizens dance about him singing the following words to the tune of the ,carmagnole3 ,what's this that the days and the days have done8 ,man's lordship over man hath gone4 ,how fares it1 then1 with high and low8 ,equal on earth they thrive and grow4 ,bright is the sun for everyone2 ,dance we1 dance we the ,carmagnole4 ,how deal ye1 then1 with pleasure and pain8 ,alike we share and bear the twain4 ,and what's the craft whereby ye live8 ,earth and man's work to all men give4 ,how crown ye excellence of worth8 ,with leave to serve all men on earth4 ,what gain that lordship's past and done8 ,world's wealth for all and everyone4 ,this somewhat childlike but not too bland revenge on the powers of the law met with an enthusiastic reception at the ,hall of the ,socialist ,league2 ,mr4 ,bernard ,shaw1 who was present1 declaring that there had been no such successful first night within living memory4 ,the year #ahhg was marked1 however1 by events much more serious than the acting of a little farce4 ,on the #acth of ,november1--,bloody ,sunday it was called1--the efforts of the ,government to check open-air speaking culminated in an organised riot on the part of the ,socialists in alliance with the extreme ,radicals4 ,sir ,charles ,warren had prohibited by proclamation the holding of any meeting in ,trafalgar ,square1--a meeting having been announced to take place there to protest against the ,irish policy of the ,government4 ,thereupon it was agreed by the ,socialist ,league1 the ,social ,democratic ,federation1 the ,irish ,national ,league1 and certain ,radical clubs that their members should assemble at various centres and march toward ,trafalgar ,square4 ,morris put himself at the head of the ,clerkenwell contingent1 first delivering a short speech mounted on a cart in company with ,mrs4 ,besant and others4 ,he declared that wherever it was attempted to put down free speech it was a bounden duty to resist the attempt by every possible means1 and told his audience that he thought their business was to get to the ,square by some means or other2 that he intended to do his best to get there1 whatever the consequences might be1 and that they must press on like orderly people and good citizens4 ,thus pressing on1 with flags flying and bands playing1 they were met at the ,bloomsbury end of ,st4 ,martin's ,lane by the police1 mounted and on foot1 who charged in among them1 striking right and left1 and causing complete disorder in the ranks4 ,the triumph of law and order over the various columns of the demonstrators was soon complete1 and the outcome consisted of the arrest of three hundred men or more 7many of whom were sent to prison and a few condemned to penal servitude7 and the killing of three4 ,the first to die was ,alfred ,linnell1 for whom a public funeral was given--great masses of men marching in perfect and solemn order to ,bow ,cemetery1 where he was buried1 the service at the grave being read by the light of a lantern4 ,such an event would inevitably stir ,morris to sympathetic rage1 and the dirge written by him to be sung as poor ,linnell was buried has an inflammatory sound despite the obvious effort at restraint3 ,we asked them for a life of toilsome earning1 ,they bade us bide their leisure for our bread2 ,we craved to speak to tell our woful learning1 ,we came back speechless1 bearing back our dead6 ,thus time was spent4 ,sometimes ,morris was heading processions with the face of a ,crusader1 says ,joseph ,pennell1 describing one occasion on which he led a crowd1 among the red flags1 singing with all his might the ,marseillaise--into ,westminster ,abbey to attend the ,sunday services4 ,sometimes he was bailing out his friends who had been run in by the police4 ,sometimes he was tramping1 whatever the weather1 at the head of the workless workers of ,hammersmith to interview the ,guardians of the ,poor4 ,sometimes he was delivering his lectures among woful hovels in tumbledown sheds to a score or so of people of whose comprehension he felt most doubtful4 ,always he was preaching ,education toward ,revolution1 but with an ever-increasing consciousness that a vast amount of education was needed before revolution could be effectively reforming4 ,his imagination had formed great ideals and had pictured those ideals in triumphant practice1 but his practical sense was sufficient to show him the futility of unintelligent action4 ,he had spent much money1 not in profit-sharing among his workmen 7although this obtained to a certain extent in his business71 but in bearing the various and heavy expenses imposed by the publication of the organs of ,socialism1 which he supported almost as largely by his purse as by his pen1 and by a thousand other needs of the cause to which in #ahhb he had also sacrificed the greater part of his valuable library4 ,he had spent much time1 which1 to one so deeply interested in pursuits for which any one life is far too short1 meant infinitely more than the expenditure of money or the relinquishing of property that1 after all1 may be got back again4 ,and he had worked against the grain with all sorts and conditions of companions1 from whom he was as widely separated as the east is from the west--never more widely than when he was marching by their side toward a goal that neither could see clearly4 ,he was now longing more and more to get back to his own life and away from a life so foreign4 ,as he had said in the first flush of his enthusiasm1 ,art must go under1 he was now prepared to see all organised ,socialism run into the sand for a while4 ,it is not surprising that he somehow did not seem to care much when the ,socialist ,league became disintegrated and insolvent4 ,he had done his best for it1 but its strongest members had drifted away from it1 the executive control had been gained by a group of ,anarchists1 and ,morris had been by these deposed from the editorship of the ,commonweal4 ,before the society reached its lowest depths he resigned1 giving expression in the ,commonweal for the #aeth of ,november1 #ahij1 to his feeling in the form it then took toward the movement which so long had carried him out of his course and kept him in turbulent waters4 ,this movement had then been going on for about seven years4 ,those concerned in it had made1 he thought1 about as many mistakes as any other party in a similar space of time4 ,when he first joined it he hoped that some leaders would turn up among the workingmen who would push aside all middle-class help and become great historical figures4 ,this hope he had pretty well relinquished4 ,in the beginning there had been little said about anything save the great ideals of ,socialism1 but as the ,socialist idea had become more and more impressed upon the epoch a somewhat vulgarised and partial realisation of these ideals had pressed upon the friends of the cause4 ,they began to think of methods1 and mostly of methods of impatience1 as ,morris from his ripened and moderated point of view now designated them4 ,there are two tendencies in this matter of methods1 he said2 on the one hand is our old acquaintance1 palliation1 elevated now into vastly greater importance than it used to have1 because of the growing discontent1 and the obvious advance of ,socialism2 on the other is the method of partial1 necessarily futile1 inconsequent revolt1 or riot rather1 against the authorities1 who are our absolute masters1 and can easily put it down4 ,with both these methods ,i disagree2 and that the more because the palliatives have to be clamoured for1 and the riots carried out by men who do not know what ,socialism is1 and have no idea what their next step is to be1 if1 contrary to all calculation1 they should happen to be successful4 ,therefore1 at the best1 our masters would be our masters still1 because there would be nothing to take their place4 ,we are not ready for such a change as that6 ,the time was favourable1 he thought1 for preaching the simple principles of ,socialism regardless of the policy of the passing hour1 nor was any more active work desirable4 ,i say1 for us to make ,socialists1 he concluded1 is the business at present1 and at present ,i do not think we can have any other useful business4 ,those who are not really ,socialists--who are ,trades ,unionists1 disturbance-breeders1 or what not--will do what they are impelled to do1 and we cannot help it4 ,at the worst there will be some good in what they do2 but we need not and cannot heartily work with them1 when we know that their methods are beside the right way4 ,our business1 ,i repeat1 is the making of ,socialists1 i4e41 convincing people that ,socialism is good for them and is possible4 ,when we have enough people of that way of thinking1 they will find out what action is necessary for putting their principles in practice4 ,therefore1 ,i say1 make ,socialists4 ,we ,socialists can do nothing else that is useful4 ,this was practically the end of militant ,socialism for ,morris4 ,together with a handful of his true followers and sympathisers he did organise or reorganise under very simple rules a little society named the ,hammersmith ,socialist ,society1 which took the place of the ,hammersmith ,branch of the ,socialist ,league4 ,the manifesto explained that the separation had been made because the members of the new society did not hold the ,anarchistic views of the majority of the old society's members1 and would be likely to waste in bickering time which should be spent in attacking capitalism4 ,the business of the ,hammersmith ,society was to spread the principles of ,socialism1 the method so warmly recommended by ,morris in his ,commonweal article4 ,but it was obvious that his interest was no longer keen in even this passive mode of advancing the cause for which he had laboured so long and1 on the whole1 so thanklessly4 ,he set himself dutifully to work at writing the manifesto1 but complained1 ,i would so much rather go on with my ,saga work4 ,it cannot be said1 however1 that he was inconsistent4 ,he had gone into militant ,socialism as he went into everything1 with a superabundant energy that must work itself off in activity4 ,but there was more vehemence than narrowness in his partisanship4 ,when his party forsook the principles for the sake of which he had joined it1 he forsook the party4 ,he learned of human nature much that was discouraging during his efforts to make many of his fellows work together in harmony1 but he brought out of the fiery experience an unharmed ideal4 ,and among the clashing of creeds and the warring of minds he played the part of peacemaker to an extent remarkable in so impulsive a nature4 ,it seemed as though he wanted to have all his own way1 says one of his acquaintances1 yet put him in the chair at a meeting and he was as patient as the mildest of us4 ,his inmost belief was much the same at the end as at the beginning1--matured by study and tempered by practical failures1 but holding to the fundamental idea that art is the great source of pleasure in human life as well as pleasure's best result1 and must be made possible for everyone to practise with a free mind and a body unwearied by hopeless toil4 ,the letter to the ,daily ,chronicle of the #ajth of ,november1 #ahic1 on ,help for the ,miners1 the ,deeper ,meaning of the ,struggle1 sounds the familiar note as positively as ever1 and contains all that is required to represent the creed of his later years4 ,i hold firmly to the opinion1 he says in this letter1 that all worthy schools of art must be in the future1 as they have been in the past1 the outcome of the aspirations of the people towards the beauty and true pleasure of life4 ,and1 further1 now that democracy is building up a new order1 which is slowly emerging from the confusion of the commercial period1 these aspirations of the people towards beauty can only be born from a condition of practical equality1 of economical condition amongst the whole population4 ,lastly1 ,i am so confident that this equality will be gained that ,i am prepared to accept1 as a consequence of the process of that gain1 the apparent disappearance of what art is now left us1 because ,i am sure that that will be but a temporary loss1 to be followed by a genuine new birth of art which will be the spontaneous expression of the pleasure of life innate in the whole people4 ,this1 ,i say1 is the art which ,i look forward to1 not as a vague dream1 but as a practical certainty1 founded on the general well-being of the people4 ,it is true that the blossom of it ,i shall not see2 therefore ,i may be excused if1 in common with other artists1 ,i try to express myself through the art of to-day1 which seems to us to be only a survival of the organic art of the past1 in which the people shared1 whatever the other drawbacks of their condition might have been4444 ,yet if we shall not 7those of us who are as old as ,i am7 see the ,new ,art1 the expression of the general pleasure of life1 we are even now seeing the seed of it beginning to germinate4 ,for if genuine art be impossible without the help of the useful classes1 how can these turn their attention to it if they are living amidst sordid cares which press upon them day in1 day out8 ,the first step1 therefore1 towards the new birth of art must be a definite rise in the condition of the workers2 their livelihood must 7to say the least of it7 be less niggardly and less precarious1 and their hours of labour shorter2 and this improvement must be a general one and confirmed against the chances of the market by legislation4 ,but1 again1 this change for the better can only be realised by the efforts of the workers themselves4 ',by us1 and not for us1' must be their motto4444 ,what these staunch miners have been doing in the face of such tremendous odds other workmen can and will do2 and when life is easier and fuller of pleasure people will have time to look around them and find out what they desire in the matter of art1 and will also have time to compass their desires4 ,just why ,morris with his extreme independence stopped short of ,anarchism is difficult to see unless it be attributed to an instinct for order inherited from the sturdy stock to which he belonged4 ,the necessity of a public rule of action was always1 however1 quite clear to him4 ,he contended that you have a right to do as you like so long as you do not interfere with your neighbour's right to do as he likes1 a contention which not even a fairly conservative mind finds very difficult to uphold3 he was not willing to admit the right of an individual to act unsocially4 ,indeed all the charm of his pictures of the ideal life derives from the atmosphere of loving-kindness and mutual helpfulness with which he surrounds them4 ,the ,golden ,rule was always in his mind as he built up in his imagination his ,paradise on earth4 ,he possessed the optimism of the kind-hearted1 the faith in his fellow men that made him sure of their right acting could they only start afresh with a field clear of injury and abuse4 ,he never dreamed in all his dreaming that these would again grow up and destroy the beautiful fabric of his new ,society1 so bright and unspotted in his mind4 ,of course there would be a social conscience which1 being social1 is common to every man4 ,without that there could be no society2 and ,man without society is not only impossible but inconceivable4 ,thus he argued and thus he believed4 ,his militant ,socialism had1 while it lasted1 a very dangerous side4 ,his ,socialist principles are easily torn to ribbons by the political economist in possession of facts showing the increasing prosperity of the working classes and their increasing interest under existing conditions in the arts and in education2 but regarding his views merely as representing one aspect of his impressive personality1 it is easy to find them attractive4 ,to quote what the ,pall ,mall ,gazette said of the ,sunday evenings at the ,hammersmith ,hall1 ,they are patches of bright colour in the great drab1 dreary1 dull1 and dirty world4 ,they bring with them such thoughts as ,arnold had of the repose that has fled for ever the course of the river of ,time4 ,the spirit breathed through them in strong contrast to the spirit of many of his co-workers1 ennobles all efforts toward true reform1 diffuses the love of humanity among a cold people1 and makes for the innocent and exquisite happiness which our human nature is so apt paradoxically to deny us4 ,in ,morris's world we should all be very happy if we were like ,morris4 ,he was not very happy in our world1 yet perhaps he managed to get out of it as much of the joy of doing as it can be made to yield to any one man4 ,his ,socialism1 from one point of view1 was certainly a tremendous failure1 but no other side of his life visible to the public at large showed so plainly his moral virtues1 his generosity1 his sincerity1 his power of self-sacrifice1 his effort toward self-control4 ,it was significant that when1 with a last rally of his forces to active work for the cause1 he joined in a concerted effort to unite all ,socialists into a single party1 he was chosen as the best man for the purpose1 all the societies having a deep regard and respect for him4 ,it is even more significant that his own employees in his large business also esteemed him highly1 feeling the sincerity with which he tried to make his practices accord with his theories4 ,if his business was a successful one it was not because he tried to get from his workmen the utmost he could claim in time and labour4 ,the eight-hour working-day was in practice in the ,merton factory1 and the wages paid were the highest known in the trade4 ,he was free from the self-complacency that gives to justice the name of charity1 and he was not distinguished for civility toward the people under his direction1 but he was1 they said in their emphatic and expressive vernacular1 the sort of bloke you always could depend upon4 ,toward the end of his activity for the cause of ,socialism he became connected with a society which perhaps would not have existed without his influence1 although he was not directly responsible for its formation4 ,this was the ,arts and ,crafts ,exhibition ,society founded in #ahhh1 the aims of which were described by one of its members in the following words3 ,to assert the possibilities of ,art in design1 applied even to the least pretentious purpose and in every kind of handicraft2 to protest against the absolute subjection of ,art in its applied form to the interests of that extravagant waste of human energy which is called economic production2 to claim for the artist or handicraftsman1 whose identity it has been the rule to hide and whose artistic impulse it has been the custom to curb 7until he was really in danger of becoming1 in fact as in name1 a mere hand71 some recognition and some measure of appreciation2 to try and discover whether the public cared at all1 or could be brought to care1 for the ,art which1 good or bad1 is continually under their eyes2 and whether there might not be1 in association with manufacture1 or apart from it1 if that were out of the question1 some scope for handicraft1 some hope for ,art4 ,morris's point of view is apparent in these aims1 and the society was composed chiefly of young men who1 says ,mr4 ,mackail1 without following his principles to their logical issues or joining any ,socialist organisation1 were profoundly permeated with his ideas on their most fruitful side1--that of the regeneration1 by continued and combined individual effort1 of the decaying arts of life4 ,the ,art ,workers' ,guild1 dating from #ahhd1 was the source from which the new society sprang1 the immediate purpose of the latter being to get the work of men who combined art with handicraft before the public by means of exhibitions1 the committees of the ,royal ,academy and kindred associations refusing to accept examples of applied art for the exhibitions which they devoted to what they called fine art proper4 ,mr4 ,mackail calls attention to the fact that ,morris at this stage of his life was so thoroughly imbued with the idea that the general public were ignorant of and indifferent to decorative art1 as to feel more sceptical of the success of the exhibitions than was justified by their outcome4 ,he lent his aid1 however1 with his customary energy1 guaranteeing a considerable sum of money1 and contributing some valuable papers and lectures1 the exhibitions being combined with instruction by acknowledged masters of handicraft4 ,in #ahia he was elected ,president of the ,society1 holding that office until the time of his death1 when he was succeeded by ,walter ,crane4 ,he was a member of the ,art ,workers' ,guild as well1 and was elected ,master of the ,guild in #ahib4 ,he also belonged to the ,bibliographical ,society formed in that year1 and in #ahid was elected a ,fellow of the ,society of ,antiquaries of ,london4 ,the societies were all directly concerned with questions in which ,morris had all his life been interested1 and his connection with them was not only natural but almost inevitable4 ,he was not a man to whom public business made a strong appeal4 ,he undertook it with reluctance and relinquished it with delight4 ,nor did he care for the labels of distinction for which most men1 even among the greatly distinguished1 have a measure of regard4 ,he was1 however1 gratified when1 in #ahhb1 he was unanimously elected ,honorary ,fellow of ,exeter ,college at ,oxford1 an honour which is rarely conferred1 and is generally reserved1 says ,mr4 ,mackail1 for old members who have attained the highest official rank in their profession4 ,,chapter ,,ix4 ,,literature ,,of ,,the ,,socialist ,,period4 ,despite the large amount of time and comparatively unproductive thought given by ,morris to his ,socialism1 the period of his greatest activity in this direction was not without result in the field of pure literature4 ,the years from #ahhd to #ahij were crowded with pamphlets1 leaflets1 newspaper articles1 manifestoes1 and treatises1 all with the one object--the making of ,socialists4 ,many of these were more or less works of art--but of art in fetters2 in the main they bore sad witness to the havoc made in the aesthetic life of their author by his propagandising policy1 and in their deadly dulness betrayed the unwillingness of his mind to labour in a field so foreign to it4 ,not even the overwhelming tasks imposed upon him sufficed1 however1 to subdue entirely his restless imagination4 ,from time to time in the arid desert of his writings for the cause a poem of romance appeared of a quality to show that the sap still ran in the products of his mind4 ,between the first issue of ,the ,commonweal and the inauguration of the ,kelmscott ,press he wrote in the following order3 ,the ,pilgrims of ,hope1 ,a ,dream of ,john ,ball1 ,the ,house of the ,wolfings1 ,the ,roots of the ,mountains1 and ,news from ,nowhere4 ,each is interesting as throwing a varied yet steady light upon his mental processes1 and the first is especially interesting despite its conspicuous defects1 as one of the very few examples of its author's style when treating a subject belonging to the actual present1 not to the past or future4 ,in it the reader leaves dreamland and is confronted by modern problems and situations set forth in plain modern ,english4 ,a garden is no longer a garth1 a dwelling-place is no longer a stead1 the writer no longer wots and meseems4 ,so violent a change in vocabulary could hardly be accomplished with entire success2 at all events it was not1 and much of the phraseology is an affliction to the ear1 showing a peculiarly deficient taste in the use of a style uninspired by mediaeval tradition4 ,yet1 withal1 ,the ,pilgrims of ,hope is touched with life1 as many of ,morris's more artful compositions are not4 ,the old bottles will not always serve for the new wine1 ,lowell warns us1 and there is a noticeably quickening element in this wine poured from the bottle of the day4 ,it is mentioned in ,mr4 ,mackail's biography that ,morris once began to write a modern novel1 but left it unfinished4 ,the fabric of ,the ,pilgrims of ,hope is that of a modern novel1 and the characters and incidents are such as ,morris might easily have found in his daily path4 ,a country couple leading a life of peaceful simplicity go down to ,london1 and among the sordid influences of the town become converts to ,socialism4 ,much that follows may be considered a record of ,morris's personal experience4 ,the husband in the poem tries1 as ,morris tried1 to learn the grounds of the ,socialist faith1 and takes up1 as he did1 the burden of spreading it among an indifferent people4 ,the following description might very well have been culled from the diary kept by ,morris during a part of his period of militant ,socialism1 but it must be confessed that the balance of poetic charm is all in favour of the account in the diary4 ,i read day after day ,whatever books ,i could handle1 and heard about and about ,what talk was going amongst them2 and ,i burned up doubt after doubt1 ,until it befell at last that to others ,i needs must speak 7,indeed1 they pressed me to that while yet ,i was weaker than weak74 ,so ,i began the business1 and in street-corners ,i spake ,to knots of men4 ,indeed1 that made my very heart ache1 ,so hopeless it seemed1 for some stood by like men of wood4 ,and some1 though fain to listen1 but a few words understood2 ,and some but hooted and jeered3 but whiles across some ,i came ,who were keen and eager to hear2 as in dry flax the flame ,so the quick thought flickered amongst them3 and that indeed was a feast4 ,so about the streets ,i went1 and the work on my hands increased2 ,and to say the very truth1 betwixt the smooth and the rough ,it was work1 and hope went with it1 and ,i liked it well enough4 ,a similar passage1 also showing the style at its worst1 renders the actual scene encountered by ,morris at many a lecture1 and contains a careful portrait of himself as he appeared in his own eyes on such occasions4 ,for the sake of its accuracy its touch of self-consciousness may well be forgiven4 ,not a conceited man1 and curiously averse to mirrors1 ,morris was not in the habit of using their psychological counterparts1 and it is impossible to surprise him in the act of posing to himself in becoming attitudes4 ,there is1 therefore1 no irritation to the mind in his occasional frank assumption of interest in himself as a feature of the landscape1 so to speak4 ,here he is on the ,socialist platform as the ,pilgrim of ,hope beholds him1 the ,pilgrim explaining how it happened that he got upon his track4 ,this is how it befell3 a workman of mine had heard ,some bitter speech in my mouth1 and he took me up at the word1 ,and said3 ,come over to-morrow to our ,radical spouting-place2 ,for there1 if we hear nothing new1 at least we shall see a new face2 ,he is one of those ,communist chaps1 and 'tis like that you two may agree4 ,so we went1 and the street was as dull and as common as aught you could see4 ,dull and dirty the room4 ,just over the chairman's chair ,was a bust1 a ,quaker's face with nose cocked up in the air4 ,there were common prints on the walls of the heads of the party fray1 ,and ,mazzini dark and lean amidst them gone astray4 ,some thirty men we were of the kind that ,i knew full well1 ,listless1 rubbed down to the type of our easy-going hell4 ,my heart sank down as ,i entered1 and wearily there ,i sat ,while the chairman strove to end his maunder of this and that4 ,and partly shy he seemed1 and partly indeed ashamed ,of the grizzled man beside him as his name to us he named2 ,he rose1 thickset and short1 and dressed in shabby blue1 ,and even as he began it seemed as though ,i knew ,the thing he was going to say1 though ,i never heard it before4 ,he spoke1 were it well1 were it ill1 as though a message he bore4 ,a word that he could not refrain from many a million of men4 ,nor aught seemed the sordid room and the few that were listening then ,save the hall of the labouring earth and the world which was to be1 ,bitter to many the message1 but sweet indeed unto me1 ,and every soul rejoicing in the sweet and bitter of life3 ,of peace and good-will he told1 and ,i knew that in faith he spake1 ,but his words were my very thoughts1 and ,i saw the battle awake1 ,and ,i followed from end to end6 and triumph grew in my heart ,as he called on each that heard him to arise and play his part ,in the tale of the new-told gospel1 lest as slaves they should live and die4 ,he ceased1 and ,i thought the hearers would rise up with one cry1 ,and bid him straight enroll them2 but they1 they applauded indeed1 ,for the man was grown full eager1 and had made them hearken and heed4 ,but they sat and made no sign1 and two of the glibber kind ,stood up to jeer and to carp his fiery words to blind4 ,i did not listen to them1 but failed not his voice to hear ,when he rose to answer the carpers1 striving to make more clear ,that which was clear already2 not overwell1 ,i knew ,he answered the sneers and the silence1 so hot and eager he grew2 ,but my hope full well he answered1 and when he called again ,on men to band together lest they live and die in vain1 ,in fear lest he should escape me1 ,i rose ere the meeting was done1 ,and gave him my name and my faith--and ,i was the only one4 ,he smiled as he heard the jeers1 and there was a shake of the hand1 ,he spoke like a friend long known2 and lo6 ,i was one of the band4 ,there is nothing impressive in such rhyming save its message1 the form costing little trouble and awakening little interest4 ,here1 obviously1 ,morris1 like ,dante1 would rather his readers should find his doctrine sweet than his verses4 ,parts of the poem are1 however1 upon a much higher plane of accomplishment4 ,the first section1 called ,the ,message of the ,march ,wind1 contains exquisite images and moves to a fresh elastic measure2 a world both real and lovely being evoked by the opening stanzas3 ,fair now is the springtide1 now earth lies beholding ,with the eyes of a lover the face of the sun2 ,long lasteth the daylight1 and hope is enfolding ,the green-growing acres with increase begun4 ,now sweet1 sweet it is through the land to be straying ',mid the birds and the blossoms and the beasts of the fields2 ,love mingles with love and no evil is weighing ,on thy heart or mine1 where all sorrow is healed4 ,from township to township1 o'er down and by tillage ,fair1 far have we wandered and long was the day1 ,but now cometh eve at the end of the village1 ,where o'er the grey wall the church riseth grey4 ,there is wind in the twilight2 in the white road before us ,the straw from the ox-yard is blowing about2 ,the moon's rim is rising1 a star glitters o'er us1 ,and the vane on the spire-top is swinging in doubt4 ,down there dips the highway1 toward the bridge crossing over ,the brook that runs on to the ,thames and the sea4 ,draw closer1 my sweet1 we are lover and lover2 ,this eve art thou given to gladness and me4 ,in the course of the poem the ,pilgrims are called to ,paris by the voice of the ,revolution1 and there the wife is killed4 ,interwoven with the main incidents is the domestic tragedy most familiar to fiction1 the alienation of the wife's affections by one of the husband's friends4 ,morris in his treatment of this situation shows a peculiarly fine and tender quality1 sufficiently rare in life itself and seldom to be found in pictures of life4 ,he preserves the dignity of his unhappy characters by a delicate sincerity in their attitude toward one another and by an immeasurable gentleness and self-forgetfulness on the part of the one most wronged4 ,a similar situation in ,news from ,nowhere is made trivial and consequently revolting by the impression it gives that it was created to illustrate a theory4 ,in no place does ,the ,pilgrims of ,hope give such an impression4 ,it is a drawing from life1 clumsy and summary enough in outline1 yet firm and expressive of the thing seen1 and with power to convey a genuine emotion4 ,illustration3 ,portrait of ,mrs4 ,morris ,by ,rossetti ,the ,pilgrims of ,hope appeared serially in ,the ,commonweal during #ahhe-ahhf4 ,it was soon followed by a romance called ,the ,dream of ,john ,ball4 ,this subject with its mediaeval setting suited ,morris well1 and was treated by him in his ripest and strongest vein4 ,although the story opens in a lightly facetious manner1 never a particularly happy one with him1 its tone as it proceeds is that of subdued and stately pathos4 ,the writer dreams himself in a village of ,kent1 where men are hanging upon the words of that poor tutor of ,oxford1 the ,mad ,priest1 preaching the equality of gentle and villein on the text ,when ,adam dalf1 and ,eve span ,who was thanne a gentilman8 ,apparently the dream is the result of a mournfully retrospective mood4 ,the dreamer hears the plain and stirring speech of ,john ,ball1 listens to his eager appeal to the men of ,kent that they help their brethren of ,essex cast off the yoke placed upon them by bailiff and lord1 and to his prophecies that in the days to come1 when they are free from masters1 man shall help man1 and the saints in heaven shall be glad1 because men no more fear each other 444 and fellowship shall be established in heaven and on the earth4 ,but knowledge of the later time penetrates the dream1 and the dreamer ponders how men fight and lose the battle1 and the thing that they fought for comes about in spite of their defeat1 and when it comes it turns out not to be what they meant1 and other men have to fight for what they meant under another name4 ,at this time ,morris was realising in some bitterness of heart that the thing for which he had fought was turning out to be not what he had meant1 and the talk between ,john ,ball and the dreamer concerning the future1 of which the latter can reveal the secret1 is eloquent of sober and noble resignation4 ,the reformer of the earlier age receives with serenity the assurance that his sacrifice will count only as failure in the eyes of the coming generations1 since with it goes the further assurance that men will continue to seek a remedy for their wrongs4 ,but we read in the conception the author's foreboding that his own efforts toward the reconstitution of society are also doomed4 ,the dreamer meditates1 with an insight born of personal experience and disappointment1 upon the darkness of our vision and the difficulty of directing our steps toward our actual goal4 ,morris obviously traced in ,john ,ball's action a parallel to his own4 ,what happened to the one was what might happen to the other4 ,the hope that inspired the one was the same as inspired the other4 ,the mistakes of the one were akin to the mistakes of the other4 ,thus1 this prose romance1 of all that ,morris wrote1 is warmest and most personal4 ,the historical setting is an aid1 not an obstacle1 to the imagination4 ,the pathos of the real life touched upon1 the knowledge that the hopeful spirit of the preacher was once alive in the land1 and that the response of the men of ,kent was given in truth and with the might of angry1 living hearts1 lends a certain solidity and vitality to the figures and inspires ,morris to a sturdier treatment of his material than legends could force from him4 ,had some of the marvellous activity that later went toward the making of purely imaginary situations and characters been spent upon realising for us the individual lives of more of the mediaeval workers and thinkers1 so vivid to ,morris and so dim to most of us1 the result might not have been history1 but it would have been literature of a rare and felicitous type4 ,in ,april1 #ahhh1 ,the ,dream of ,john ,ball was reprinted from ,the ,commonweal in one volume1 together with a short story based on the life of ,matthias ,corvinus1 ,king of ,hungary1 and called ,a ,king's ,lesson4 ,this also had appeared in ,the ,commonweal under the title of ,an ,old ,story ,retold4 ,hard upon this little volume followed ,the ,house of the ,wolfings1 a war-story of the early ,middle ,ages1 and significant as forming1 with its immediate successor1 a link between old interests and new1 marking its author's return to the writing of pure romance1 and also his first awakening to an active interest in the typography of his books4 ,the subject is derived from the ancient literature1 half myth1 half history1 in which he had long been steeped1 but in its treatment lurks a suggestion of the great moral excitement of the ,socialist campaign4 ,thiodulf1 the hero1 beloved by a goddess1 is the war-duke of a ,gothic host and1 on the verge of battle with ,roman legionaries1 is deceived into wearing a hauberk wrought by the dwarfs1 the peculiar quality of which lies in its power to preserve the wearer's life at the cost of defeat for his army4 ,learning of this1 ,thiodulf removes the magic armour in time to gain his victory1 but in the moment of triumph he is killed4 ,his exaltation of mood in thus renouncing life suggests a spiritual ambition different from that commonly associated with the gods and heroes of the early world1 and conveys the message by which ,morris was at once burdened and inspired3 that individual life may cheerfully be sacrificed if the life of the many is saved or elevated thereby4 ,how far a war-duke of the ,goths would have felt the compensatory sense that he was gaining immortality through the effect of his deeds on the destiny of his people was probably not in his mind4 ,he himself1 despite his constitutional horror of death1 would perhaps not have been sorry at this time to lay off his hauberk if he could have been certain of the victory4 ,throughout the history of ,thiodulf runs an elevated ethical intention absent from ,morris's later romances4 ,the dignity and seriousness of the women1 the nobility of the men1 the social unity of the ,marksmen1 and the high standard of thought and action maintained by them as a community place the interest on a high plane4 ,the shadow of an idealised ,socialism intensifies the relations of the characters to one another1 and the reader familiar with the course of the author's life interprets the narrative as an expression of personal feeling and moral conviction not without pathos in its contrast to the actual world in which ,morris was moving and in which he found what he conceived to be his duty so repugnant to his tastes4 ,indirectly the book was to open the way for his escape by filling his mind with an enthusiasm along the natural line of his gifts1 a zest for further accomplishment in the field he loved that was not to be withstood4 ,it was printed at the ,chiswick ,press1 and owing to a new interest in fine printing due to his intercourse with ,mr4 ,emery ,walker1 ,morris chose for it a quaint and little-known fount of type cut by ,howard half a century before1 and gave much attention to the details of its appearance4 ,with all his familiarity with mediaeval books1 and his delight in illustration and illumination1 he was still ignorant of the art of spacing and type designing4 ,he had characteristically concentrated his attention on the special feature in which he was interested1--in the case of the old books1 the woodcuts and ornaments1--and had passed over even the most marked characteristics which later were to absorb his whole attention4 ,an anecdote told by ,mr4 ,buxton ,forman shows the extent to which he subordinated all other questions to the now supreme problem of a handsome page1 and also the adaptability of his mind1 never at a loss to meet an emergency4 ,mr4 ,forman had run across him at the ,chiswick ,press1 whither he had repaired to settle some final points concerning his title-page4 ,presently down came the proof of the page4 ,it did not read quite as now1 says ,mr4 ,forman2 the difference1 ,i think1 was in the fourth and fifth lines where the words stood 'written in prose and verse by ,william ,morris4' ,now unhappily the words and the type did not so accord as to come up to ,morris's standard of decorativeness4 ,the line wanted tightening up2 there was a three-cornered consultation between the ,author1 the ,manager1 and myself4 ,the word in was to be inserted--'written in prose and in verse'--to gain the necessary fulness of line4 ,i mildly protested that the former reading was the better sense and that it should not be sacrificed to avoid a slight excess of white that no one would notice4 ',ha6' said ,morris1 'now what would you say if ,i told you that the verses on the title-page were written just to fill up the great white lower half8 ,well1 that was what happened6' ,the verses thus produced to fill a purely decorative need were the following1 as delicate and filled with tender sentiment as any written by ,morris under the most genuine inspiration--if one may assume that any inspiration was more genuine with him than the spur of a problem in decoration3 ,whiles in the early winter eve ,we pass amid the gathering night ,some homestead that we had to leave ,years past2 and see its candles bright ,shine in the room beside the door ,where we were merry years agone ,but now must never enter more1 ,as still the dark road drives us on4 ,e'en so the world of men may turn ,at even of some hurried day ,and see the ancient glimmer burn ,across the waste that hath no way2 ,then with that faint light in its eyes ,awhile ,i bid it linger near ,and nurse in wavering memories ,the bitter-sweet of days that were4 ,in glee over the fine appearance of ,the ,house of the ,wolfings as it came from the press1 ,morris passed on to his next book1 ,the ,roots of the ,mountains1 also a romance suggesting the saga literature1 but without the mythological element4 ,the setting hints at history without belonging to any especial time or place4 ,the plan is quite complicated in incident1 and the love-story involved has a modern tinge4 ,gold-mane1 a chieftain of ,burgdale1 is betrothed to a damsel somewhat prematurely named the ,bride4 ,by a magic spell he is drawn through the woods to the ,shadowy ,vale where he meets a daughter of the ,kindred of the ,wolf1 called ,sunbeam1 with whom he falls in love4 ,it is a touch characteristic of ,morris that makes ,gold-mane in describing his old love to the new loyally give the former all the credit of her charm4 ,each day she groweth fairer1 he says to the maiden who is already her rival in his affections2 there is no man's son and no daughter of woman that does not love her2 yea1 the very beasts of field and fold love her4 ,presently an alliance is formed between the men of ,burgdale and the ,kindred of the ,wolf for the purpose of attacking their common enemy1 the ,dusky ,men1 who belong to a race of ,huns4 ,attached to the allied forces is a band of ,amazons1 and the two brave ladies1 the ,sunbeam and the ,bride1 show themselves valorous in battle4 ,the attack on the ,dusky ,men is victorious1 and peace returns to the valleys4 ,in the meantime ,gold-mane has firmly1 though with gentle words1 told the ,bride of his intention of breaking his pledge to her1 and the ,sunbeam's brother1 ,folkmight1 has been moved by compassion and finally by love for the deserted maiden1 who consents to be his wife4 ,it is quite in accord with the ideal established by ,morris in his works of fiction1 as indeed in his life1 that sincerity takes the leading place among the virtues of his characters4 ,it requires a certain defiance of the conventional modern mood to tolerate ,gold-mane1 the deserter1 as he deals out cold comfort to the ,bride1 yet the downright frankness of all these people is a quality so native to their author as to pierce their unreality and give them the touch of nature without which they would be made wholly of dreams4 ,the ,roots of the ,mountains was written rapidly and issued with unrelaxed attention to typographical problems4 ,its title-page was made even more satisfactory than that of its predecessor1 and the device of introducing a little poem to fill up the ugly white space in the centre was again employed4 ,the lines in this case have nothing to do with the contents of the book1 though forced into a relation with the author's purpose of providing rest for the reader4 ,they were1 in fact1 founded upon an incident of a railway trip when the train passed through meadows in which hay-making was going on4 ,mr4 ,emery ,walker was with ,morris1 and as they saw the hay-cocks defrauded by the summer breeze he exclaimed1 ,a subject for your title-page6 ,aye1 said ,morris1 and jotted it down in his manuscript book4 ,the ,roots of the ,mountains was a favourite with ,morris1 and he planned for it an edition on ,whatman paper and bound in two patterns of ,morris and ,company's chintz4 ,some of the paper ordered for this edition was left over1 and eventually was used by ,morris for the first little post-quarto catalogues and prospectuses printed at ,hammersmith4 ,thus the book formed a material link between the ,chiswick ,press and the ,kelmscott ,press4 ,before the establishment of the latter1 however1 ,morris gave one more book to ,socialism4 ,his ,news from ,nowhere was the last of his works to appear in ,the ,commonweal and was almost immediately reprinted from its pages by an ,american publisher4 ,it is an account of the civilised world as it might be made1 according to ,morris's belief1 by the application of his principles of ,socialism to life in general and in particular4 ,in #ahhi he had reviewed for ,the ,commonweal ,mr4 ,bellamy's ,looking ,backward1 with how much approbation may readily be imagined4 ,as an expression of the temperament of its author he considered it interesting1 but as a reconstructive theory unsafe and misleading4 ,i believe1 he said1 that the ideal of the future does not point to the lessening of man's energy by the reduction of labour to a minimum1 but rather to the reduction of pain in labour to a minimum so small that it will cease to be pain2 a gain to humanity which can only be dreamed of till men are more completely equal than ,mr4 ,bellamy's ,utopia would allow them to be1 but which will most assuredly come about when men are really equal in condition2 although it is probable that much of our so-called 'refinement1' our luxury1--in short1 our civilisation1--will have to be sacrificed to it4 ,early in #ahij appeared the first instalment of ,news from ,nowhere1 in which ,morris set himself the task of correcting the impression produced by ,mr4 ,bellamy's views of the future by substituting his own picture of a reconstructed society1 from which all the machinery that in ,looking ,backward was brought to so high a degree of efficiency is banished1 and the natural energies of man are employed to his complete satisfaction4 ,homer's ,odyssey1 which ,morris at this time was translating by way of refreshment and amusement1 may well have served as a partial inspiration for the brilliant1 delicate descriptions of handicrafts practised by the art-loving people of ,nowhere4 ,we read in both of lovely embroideries2 of fine woven stuffs1 soft and pliant in texture1 and deeply dyed in rich forgotten colours of antiquity2 of the quaint elaboration and charm of metals wrought into intricate designs2 of all beautiful ornament to be gained from the zeal of skilled and sensitive fingers4 ,the image is before us in ,news from ,nowhere of a life as busy and as bright as that of the ancient ,greeks1 whose cunning hands could do everything save divide use from beauty4 ,as a natural consequence of happy labour1 the inhabitants of ,nowhere have also the superb health and personal beauty of the ,greeks4 ,their women of forty and fifty have smooth skins and fresh colour1 bright eyes and a free walk4 ,their men have no knowledge of wrinkles and grey hairs4 ,everywhere is the freshness and sparkle of the morning4 ,the pleasant homes nestle in peaceful security among the lavish fruits of the earth4 ,the water of the ,thames flows clean and clear between its banks2 the fragrance of flowers pervades the pages and suggests a perpetual summer2 athletic sports are mingled with athletic occupations4 ,there is little studying4 ,history is sad and often shameful--why then study it8 ,knowledge of geography is not important2 it comes to those who care to travel4 ,languages one naturally picks up from intercourse with the people of other countries4 ,political economy8 ,when one practises good fellowship what need of theories8 ,mathematics8 ,they would wrinkle the brow2 moreover1 one learns all that is necessary of them by building houses and bridges and putting things together in the right way4 ,it is not surprising that in this buoyant life filled with active interests1 the religion of which is good-will and mutual helpfulness1 the thought of death is not a welcome one4 ,a dweller in ,nowhere admits that in the autumn he almost believes in death2 but no one entertains such a belief longer than he must4 ,thus we get in this fair idyll the purely visible side of the society depicted4 ,the depths of the human heart and of the human soul are left unsounded4 ,to have what they desire1 what is claimed by their hands1 by their eyes1 by their senses1 is the aim of the people4 ,renunciation1 like mathematics1 would wrinkle the brow4 ,arbitrary restraint is not to be considered4 ,nothing is binding1 neither marriage vow nor labour contract1 or1 to speak more precisely1 neither marriage vow nor contract for labour exists4 ,the people live1 as we are told1 as some of the so-called savages in the ,south ,seas really do live1--in a state of interdependence so perfect that if an individual lays down an obligation the community takes it up4 ,for the fading of life1 for the death that may not delay till autumn to thrust itself upon the attention1 for the development of spiritual strength to meet an enemy against whom art and beauty will not avail1 for the battle with those temptations of the flesh that are not averted by health and comeliness1 no provision is made4 ,the author's philosophy is that work1 under pleasant conditions will do away with all the evils of both soul and body4 ,as a document for active ,socialists ,news from ,nowhere is not effective4 ,absolutely without any basis of economic generalisation1 it is merely the fabric of a vision4 ,at the time of writing it ,morris was cutting the last threads that bound him to conventional ,socialist bodies4 ,he was making ready to live again1 so far as modernity would let him1 the life he loved4 ,no work that cannot be done with pleasure in the doing is worth doing1 was a maxim counted by him of the first importance1 and assuredly he had not found pleasure in the management of ,socialist organisations4 ,his last ,socialist book rings with the joy of his release4 ,on its title-page it appears as ,some ,chapters from a ,utopian ,romance1 and it is interesting to see how he regarded the original ,utopia1 to ,ralph ,robinson's translation of which he wrote a preface1 issuing it from his own press in #ahic4 ,his interpretation of ,sir ,thomas ,more's attitude is not the conventional one1 and is inspired chiefly by his own attitude toward the great social question which he continued to ponder1 insisting still upon his hope for a new earth4 ,ralph ,robinson's translation of ,more's ,utopia1 he says1 would not need any foreword if it were to be looked upon merely as a beautiful book embodying the curious fancies of a great writer and thinker of the period of the ,renaissance4 ,no doubt till within the last few years it has been considered by the moderns as nothing more serious than a charming literary exercise1 spiced with the interest given to it by the allusions to the history of the time1 and by our knowledge of the career of its author4 ,but the change of ideas concerning 'the best state of a publique weale1' which ,i will venture to say is the great event of the end of this century1 has thrown a fresh light upon the book2 so that now to some it seems not so much a regret for days which might have been1 as 7in its essence7 a prediction of a state of society which will be4 ,in short this work of the scholar and ,catholic1 of the man who resisted what has seemed to most the progressive movement of his own time1 has in our days become a ,socialist tract familiar to the meetings and debating rooms of the political party which was but lately like 'the cloud as big as a man's hand4' ,doubtless the ,utopia is a necessary part of a ,socialist's library2 yet it seems to me that its value as a book for the study of sociology is rather historic than prophetic1 and that we ,socialists should look upon it as a link between the surviving ,communism of the ,middle ,ages 7become hopeless in ,more's time1 and doomed to be soon wholly effaced by the advancing wave of ,commercial ,bureaucracy71 and the hopeful and practical progressive movement of to-day4 ,in fact ,i think ,more must be looked upon rather as the last of the old than the first of the new4 ,apart from what was yet alive in him of mediaeval ,communist tradition1 the spirit of association1 which amongst other things produced the ,gilds1 and which was strong in the mediaeval ,catholic ,church itself1 other influences were at work to make him take up his parable against the new spirit of his age4 ,the action of the period of transition from mediaeval to commercial society1 with all its brutalities1 was before his eyes2 and though he was not alone in his time in condemning the injustice and cruelty of the revolution which destroyed the peasant life of ,england and turned it into a grazing farm for the moneyed gentry2 creating withal at one stroke the propertyless wage-earner and the masterless vagrant 7hodie 'pauper'71 yet he saw deeper into its root-causes than many other men of his own day1 and left us little to add to his views on this point except a reasonable hope that those 'causes' will yield to a better form of society before long4 ,moreover the spirit of the ,renaissance1 itself the intellectual side of the very movement which he strove against1 was strong in him1 and doubtless helped to create his ,utopia by means of the contrast which it put before his eyes of the ideal free nations of the ancients1 and the sordid welter of the struggle for power in the days of dying feudalism1 of which he himself was a witness4 ,this ,renaissance enthusiasm has supplanted in him the chivalry feeling of the age just passing away4 ,to him war is no longer a delight of the well-born1 but rather an ugly necessity to be carried on1 if so it must be1 by ugly means4 ,hunting and hawking are no longer the choice pleasures of knight and lady1 but are jeered at by him as foolish and unreasonable pieces of butchery2 his pleasures are in the main the reasonable ones of learning and music4 ,with all this1 his imaginations of the past he must needs read into his ideal vision1 together with his own experiences of his time and people4 ,not only are there bond slaves and a king1 and priests almost adored1 and cruel punishments for the breach of marriage contract1 in that happy island1 but there is throughout an atmosphere of asceticism which has a curiously blended savour of ,cato the ,censor and a mediaeval monk4 ,on the subject of war1 on capital punishment1 the responsibility to the public of kings and other official personages1 and such-like matters1 ,more speaks words that would not be out of place in the mouth of an eighteenth-century ,jacobin1 and at first sight this seems rather to show sympathy with what is now mere ,whigism than with ,communism2 but it must be remembered that opinions which have become 7in words7 the mere commonplace of ordinary bourgeoise politicians were then looked on as a piece of startlingly new and advanced thought1 and do not put him on the same plane with the mere radical life of the last generation4 ,illustration3 ,study of ,mrs4 ,morris ,made by ,rossetti for pictures called ,the ,day ,dream ,in ,more1 then1 are met together the man naturally sympathetic with the ,communistic side of mediaeval society1 the protestor against the ugly brutality of the earliest period of commercialism1 the enthusiast of the ,renaissance1 ever looking toward his idealised ancient society as the type and example of all really intelligent human life2 the man tinged with the asceticism at once of the classical philosopher and of the monk1 an asceticism1 indeed1 which he puts forward not so much as a duty but rather as a kind of stern adornment of life4 ,these are1 we may say1 the moods of the man who created ,utopia for us2 and all are tempered and harmonised by a sensitive clearness and delicate beauty of style1 which make the book a living work of art4 ,but lastly1 we ,socialists cannot forget that these qualities and excellences meet to produce a steady expression of the longing for a society of equality of condition2 a society in which the individual man can scarcely conceive of his existence apart from the commonwealth of which he forms a portion4 ,this1 which is the essence of his book1 is the essence also of the struggle in which we are engaged4 ,though1 doubtless1 it was the pressure of circumstances in his own days that made ,more what he was1 yet that pressure forced him to give us1 not a vision of the triumph of the new-born capitalistic society1 the element in which lived the new learning and the freedom of thought of his epoch1 but a picture 7his own indeed1 not ours7 of the real ,new ,birth which many men before him had desired2 and which now indeed we may well hope is drawing near to realisation1 though after such a long series of events which at the time of their happening seemed to nullify his hopes completely4#a ,morris's own hope was never completely nullified2 nor was he ever indifferent to the questions which for nearly a decade had absorbed his energy4 ,but there was to be little more writing for the sake of ,socialism1 save as some public incident called out a public letter4 ,what he had done covered a wide field4 ,beside the works already mentioned he had collaborated with ,mr4 ,e4 ,belfort ,bax in a history of the growth and outcome of ,socialism1 first published in the ,commonweal under the title of ,socialism from the ,root ,up1 had written a series of poems called ,chants for ,socialists1 and a series of lectures for the cause later published as ,signs of ,change1 and had produced numerous short addresses to be scattered abroad in the form of penny leaflets that must have been typographical eyesores to him even before the rise of his enthusiasm for typography of the finer sort4 ,in addition his bibliographer has to take into account any number of ephemeral contributions to the press and forewords as he liked to call them1 to the works of others1 a feature rarely present in his own books4 ,in the spring of #ahij he wrote the romance entitled1 ,the ,story of the ,glittering ,plain for the ,english ,illustrated ,magazine4 ,when it was brought out in book form the following year1 it was printed at his own press4 ,,chapter ,x4 ,,the ,,kelmscott ,,press4 ,although ,morris turned with what seemed a sudden inspiration to the study of typography1 it was1 as we have already seen1 no less than his other occupations a direct outcome of his early tastes4 ,as long before as #ahff he had planned a folio edition of ,the ,earthly ,paradise with woodcut illustrations to be designed by ,burne-,jones1 and printed in a more or less mediaeval fashion4 ,burne-,jones made a large number of drawings for the projected edition1 and some thirty-five of those intended for the story of ,cupid and ,psyche were cut on wood by ,morris himself4 ,specimen pages were set up1 but the result was not technically satisfying and the idea was allowed to drop4 ,later1 as we have seen1 he had in mind an illustrated and sumptuous edition of ,love is ,enough1 which also came to nothing1 although a number of marginal decorations were drawn and engraved for it4 ,after that1 however1 he apparently had been content to have his books printed in the usual way on machine-made paper with the modern effeminate type1 without further remonstrance than emphatic denunciation of modern methods in printing as in other handicrafts4 ,about #ahhh or #ahhi1 his ,hammersmith neighbour1 ,mr4 ,emery ,walker1 whose love of fine printing was combined with practical knowledge of methods and processes1 awakened in him a desire for conquest in this field also4 ,he began again collecting mediaeval books1 this time with the purpose of studying their type and form4 ,among his acquisitions were a copy of ,leonard of ,arezzo's ,history of ,florence1 printed by ,jacobus ,rubens in #adgf1 in a ,roman type1 and a copy of ,jensen's ,pliny of the same year4 ,parts of these books ,morris had enlarged by the hated process of photography1 which in this case aided and abetted him to some purpose4 ,he could thus study the individual letters and master the underlying principles of their design4 ,he then proceeded to design a fount of type for himself with the aim of producing letters fine and generous in form1 solid in line1 without preposterous thicks and thins1 and not compressed laterally1 as all later type has grown to be owing to commercial exigencies4 ,after he had drawn his letters on a large scale he had them reduced by photography to the working size and revised them carefully before submitting them to the typecutter4 ,how minute was his attention to detail is shown in the little reproduction of one of his corrected letters with the accompanying notes4 ,this first type of his1 having been founded on the old ,roman letters1 is of course ,roman in character and is very clear and beautiful in form4 ,the strong broad letters designed on something like a square make easy reading1 and there is nothing about the appearance of the attractive page to suggest archaism4 ,the fount1 consisting of eighty-one designs including stops1 figures1 and tied letters1 was completed about the beginning of #ahia1 and on the #abth of ,january in that year1 a cottage was taken at number #af ,upper ,mall1 near the ,kelmscott ,house1 a compositor and a pressman were engaged1 and the ,kelmscott ,press began its career4 ,the new type1 which ,morris called the regenerate or ,jenson-,morris type1 received its formal name1 ,golden type1 from ,caxton's ,golden ,legend1 which ,morris had intended to reprint as the first work of the ,press1 and which was undertaken as soon as ,the ,glittering ,plain was out of the way4 ,caxton's first edition of #adhc was borrowed from the ,cambridge ,university ,library for the purpose and transcribed for the ,press by the daughter of ,morris's old friend and publisher1 ,f4 ,s4 ,ellis4 ,no paper in the market was good enough for the great venture1 and ,morris took down to ,mr4 ,batchelor at ,little ,chart a model dating back to the fifteenth century and had especially designed from it an unbleached linen paper1 thin and tough1 and somewhat transparent1 made on wire moulds woven by hand for the sake of the slight irregularities thus caused in the texture1 and pleasing not only to the eye1 but to the hand also2 having something of the clean crisp quality of a new bank-note4 ,for the three different sizes ,morris designed three watermarks1 an apple1 a daisy1 and a perch with a spray in its mouth4 ,to print his strong type upon this handmade paper it was necessary to dampen the latter and use a hand-press1 the ink being applied by pelt balls1 insuring an equable covering of the surface of the type and a rich black impression4 ,the quality of the ink was naturally of great importance and ,morris yearned to manufacture his own1 but for the time contented himself with some that he procured from ,hanover and with which he produced excellent results4 ,one of his happiest convictions in regard to his materials was that heavy paper was entirely unfit for small books4 ,illustration3 ,,kelmscott ,,types ,concerning spacing and the placing of the matter on the page he had pronounced theories derived from his study of ancient books1 but directed by his own sound taste4 ,he held that there should be no more white space between the words than just clearly cuts them off from one another1 and that leads 7strips of metal used to increase the space between the lines of type7 should be sparingly employed4 ,the two pages of a book1 facing each other as it is opened1 should be considered a unit1 the edge of the margin that is bound in should be the smallest of the four edges1 the top should be somewhat wider1 and the front edge wider still1 and the tail widest of all4 ,the respective measurements of the most important of the ,kelmscott books are1 one inch for the inner margin1 one and three-eighths inches for the head margin1 two and three-quarter inches for the fore edge1 and four inches for the tail4 ,i go so far as to say1 wrote ,morris1 that any book in which the page is properly put on the paper is tolerable to look at1 however poor the type may be 7always so long as there is no 'ornament' which may spoil the whole thing71 whereas any book in which the page is wrongly set on the paper is intolerable to look at1 however good the type and ornaments may be4 ,illustration3 ,,page ,,from ,,kelmscott ,,chaucer4 ,,illustration ,,by ,,burne-,,jones4 ,,border ,,and ,,initial ,,letter ,,by ,,morris ,the ,golden ,legend1 with its ornamented borders1 its handsome initials1 its woodcuts1 and its twelve hundred and eighty-six pages1 kept the one press busy until the middle of ,september1 #ahib4 ,before it was completed ,morris had designed another fount of type greatly more pleasing to him than the first4 ,this was called the ,troy type from ,caxton's ,historyes of ,troye1 the first book to be issued in its larger size1 and was the outcome of careful study of the beautiful types of ,peter ,schoeffer of ,mainz1 ,gunther ,zainer of ,augsburg1 and ,anthony ,koburger of ,nuremberg4 ,it was ,gothic in character1 but ,morris strove to redeem it from the charge of unreadableness by using the short form of the small s1 by diminishing the number of tied letters1 and abolishing the abbreviations to be found in mediaeval books4 ,how far he succeeded is a disputed question1 certainly not so far as to make it as easy reading for modern eyes as the ,golden type4 ,as time went on1 however1 the use of the ,golden type at the ,kelmscott ,press became less and less frequent1 giving place in the case of most of the more important books to either the ,troy type or the ,chaucer type1 the latter being similar to the former1 save that it is ,great ,pica instead of ,primer size4 ,morris's success in the mechanical application of his theories was surprising1 or would have been surprising had he not constantly proven his genius for success4 ,mr4 ,de ,vinne quotes a prominent ,american typefounder as declaring after a close scrutiny of his cuts of type that he had triumphantly passed the pitfalls that beset all tyros and had made types that in lining1 fitting1 and adjustment show the skill of the expert4 ,a printer of the old school may dislike many of his mannerisms of composition and make-up1 adds ,mr4 ,de ,vinne1 but he will cheerfully admit that his types and decorations and initials are in admirable accord3 that the evenness of colour he maintains on his rough paper is remarkable1 and that his registry of black with red is unexceptionable4 ,no one can examine a book made by ,morris without the conviction that it shows the hand of a master4 ,illustration3 ,,title-,,page ,,of ,,the ,,kelmscott ,,chaucer ,upon the artistic side it was natural that he should excel4 ,his long practice in and love of design1 his close study of the best models1 and his exacting taste were promising of extraordinary results4 ,none the less there is perhaps more room for criticism of his book decoration than of his plain bookmaking4 ,he was convinced1 as one would expect him to be1 that modern methods of illustrating and decorating a book were entirely wrong1 and he argued with indisputable logic for the unity of impression to be gained from ornaments and pictures forming part of the page1 in other words1 being made in line as readily printed as the type itself and corresponding to it in size and degree of blackness4 ,he argued that the ornament to be ornament must submit to certain limitations and become architectural1 and also that it should be used with exuberance or restraint according to the matter of the book decorated4 ,thus a work on differential calculus1 he says1 a medical work1 a dictionary1 a collection of a statesman's speeches1 or a treatise on manures1 such books1 though they might be handsomely and well printed1 would scarcely receive ornament with the same exuberance as a volume of lyrical poems1 or a standard classic1 or such like4 ,a work on ,art1 ,i think1 bears less of ornament than any other kind of book 7non bis in idem is a good motto72 again1 a book that must have illustrations1 more or less utilitarian1 should1 ,i think1 have no actual ornament at all1 because the ornament and the illustration must almost certainly fight4 ,he designed all his ornaments with his own hand1 from the minute leaves and flowers which took the place of periods on his page1 to the full-page borders1 titles1 and elaborate initials4 ,he drew with a brush1 on a sheet of paper from the ,press marked with ruled lines1 showing the exact position to be occupied by the design4 ,it was most usual during the last few years of his life1 says ,mr4 ,vallance1 to find him thus engaged1 with his ,indian ink and ,chinese white in little saucers before him upon the table1 its boards bare of any cloth covering1 but littered with books and papers and sheets of ,,ms4 ,he did not place any value on the original drawings1 regarding them as just temporary instruments1 only fit1 as soon as engraved1 to be thrown away4 ,time and trouble counted for nothing with him in gaining the desired result4 ,but though his ornament was always handsome1 and occasionally exquisite1 he not infrequently overloaded his page with it1 and--preaching vigorously the necessity of restraint--allowed his fancy to lead him into garrulous profusion4 ,despite his mediaeval proclivities1 his designs for the borders of his pages are intensely modern4 ,compare them with the early books by which they were inspired1 and their flowing elaboration1 so free from unexpectedness1 so impersonal1 so inexpressive1 suggests the fatal defect of all imitative work and fails in distinction4 ,but he was individual enough in temper if not in execution1 and he brooked no conventional restriction that interfered with his doing what pleased him4 ,for example1 the notion of making the border ornaments agree in spirit with the subject matter of the page was not to be entertained for a moment when he had in mind a fine design of grapes hanging ripe from their vines and a page of ,chaucer's description of ,april to adorn4 ,during the life of the ,kelmscott ,press1 a period of some half dozen years1 ,morris made six hundred and forty-four designs4 ,the illustrations proper1 all of them woodcuts harmonising in their strong black line with the ornaments and type1 were made1 with few exceptions1 by ,burne-,jones4 ,his designs were nearly always drawn in pencil1 a medium in which his most characteristic effects were obtained4 ,they were then redrawn in ink by another hand1 revised by ,burne-,jones1 and finally transferred to the block again by that useful ,cinderella of the ,kelmscott ,press1 photography4 ,it is obvious that the ,kelmscott books1 whatever fault may be found with them1 could not be other than remarkable creations with ,morris and ,burne-,jones uniting their gifts to make each of them such a picture-book as ,morris declared at the height of his ardour was one of the very worthiest things toward the production of which reasonable men should strive4 ,the list of works selected to be issued from the ,press is interesting1 indicating as it does a line of taste somewhat narrow and tangential to the popular taste of the time4 ,before the three volumes of ,the ,golden ,legend 7the ,interminable it was called7 were out of his hands1 ,morris had bought a second large press and had engaged more workmen with an idea in mind of printing all his own works beginning with ,sigurd the ,volsung4 ,he had already1 during #ahia1 printed in addition to ,the ,glittering ,plain1 a volume of his collected verse entitled ,poems by the ,way1 the final long poem of which1 ,goldilocks and ,goldilocks1 he wrote on the spur of the moment1 after the book was set up in type1 to plump it out a bit as it seemed rather scant4 ,during the following year1 before the appearance of ,the ,golden ,legend1 were issued a volume of poems by ,wilfrid ,blunt1 who was one of his personal friends2 the chapter from ,ruskin's ,stones of ,venice on ,the ,nature of the ,gothic1 with which he had such early and such close associations1 and two more of his own works1 ,the ,defence of ,guenevere and ,the ,dream of ,john ,ball4 ,in the case of the four books written by himself he issued in addition to the paper copies a few on vellum4 ,all these early books were small quartos and bound in vellum covers4 ,immediately following ,the ,golden ,legend came the ,historyes of ,troye1 two volumes in the new type1 ,mackail's ,biblia ,innocentium1 and ,caxton's ,reynarde the ,foxe in large quarto size and printed in the ,troy type4 ,the year #ahic began with a comparatively modern book1 ,shakespeare's ,poems1 followed in rapid succession by ,caxton's translation of ,the ,order of ,chivalry1 in one volume with ,the ,ordination of ,knighthood1 translated by ,morris himself from a twelfth-century ,french poem2 ,cavendish's ,life of ,cardinal ,wolsey2 ,caxton's history of ,godefrey of ,boloyne2 ,ralph ,robinson's translation of ,sir ,thomas ,more's ,utopia2 ,tennyson's ,maud2 a lecture by ,morris on ,gothic ,architecture1 forty-five copies of which he printed on vellum2 and ,lady ,wilde's translation of ,sidonia the ,sorceress from the ,german of ,william ,meinhold1 a book for which both ,morris and ,rossetti had a positive passion1 ,morris considering it without a rival of its kind1 and an almost faultless reproduction of the life of the past4 ,the year ended with two volumes of ,rossetti's ,ballads and ,narrative ,poems1 and ,the ,tale of ,king ,florus and ,fair ,jehane1 translated by ,morris from the ,french of a little volume that forty years before had served to introduce him to mediaeval ,french romance and had been treasured by him ever since4 ,illustration3 ,,the ,,smaller ,,kelmscott ,,press-,,mark ,illustration3 ,,the ,,larger ,,kelmscott ,,press-,,mark ,illustration3 ,,drawing ,,by ,,morris ,,of ,,the ,,letter h ,,for ,,kelmscott ,,type1 ,,with ,,notes ,,and ,,corrections ,after this continuous torrent of production1 says ,mr4 ,mackail1 the ,press for a time slackened off a little1 but the output in #ahid consisted of ten books as against the eleven of the previous year4 ,the first was a large quarto edition of ,the ,glittering ,plain1 printed this time in the ,troy type and illustrated with twenty-three pictures by ,walter ,crane4 ,next came another little volume of mediaeval romance1 the story of ,amis and ,amile1 translated in a day and a quarter2 and after this1 ,keats's ,poems4 ,in ,july of the same year the bust of ,keats1 executed by the ,american sculptor1 ,miss ,anne ,whitney1 was unveiled in the ,parish ,church of ,hampstead1 the first memorial to ,keats on ,english ground4 ,the scheme for such a memorial had been promoted in ,america1 ,lowell being one of the earliest to encourage it1 and a little notice of the ceremony was printed at the ,kelmscott ,press with the card of invitation4 ,swinburne's ,atalanta in ,calydon followed ,keats in a large quarto edition4 ,next came the third volume of the ,french romances containing ,the ,tale of the ,emperor ,constans and ,the ,history of ,oversea4 ,at this point ,morris returned again to the printing of his own works1 and the next book to be issued from the ,press was ,the ,wood beyond the ,world1 with a lovely frontispiece by ,burne-,jones representing the ,maid1 the heroine of the romance1 and one of the most charming of the visionary women created by ,morris4 ,the ,book of ,wisdom and ,lies1 a ,georgian story-book of the eighteenth century1 written by ,sulkhan-,saba ,orbeliani1 and translated by ,oliver ,wardrop1 was the next stranger to come from the ,press1 and after it was issued the first of a set of ,shelley's ,poems4 ,a rhymed version of ,the ,penitential ,psalms found in a manuscript of ,the ,hours of ,our ,lady1 written in the fifteenth century1 followed it1 and ,the ,epistola de ,contemptu ,mundi1 a letter in ,italian by ,savonarola1 the autograph original of which belonged to ,mr4 ,fairfax ,murray1 completed the list of this prolific year4 ,the year #ahie produced only five volumes1 the first of them the ,tale of ,beowulf1 which ,morris with characteristic daring had translated into verse by the aid of a prose translation made for him by ,mr4 ,a4 ,j4 ,wyatt4 ,not himself an ,anglo-,saxon scholar1 ,morris was unable to give such a rendering of this chief epic of the ,germanic races as would appeal to the scholarly mind1 and his zeal for literal translation led him to employ a phraseology nothing short of outlandish4 ,at the end of the book he printed a list of words not commonly used now1 but his constructions were even more obstructive than his uncommon words4 ,in the following passage1 for example1 which opens the section describing the coming of ,beowulf to the land of the ,danes1 only the word nithing is defined in the index1 yet certainly the average reader may be expected to pause for the meaning3 ,so care that was time-long the kinsman of ,healfdene ,still seethed without ceasing1 nor might the wise warrior ,wend otherwhere woe1 for o'er strong was the strife ,all loathly so longsome late laid on the people1 ,need-wrack and grim nithing1 of night-bales the greatest4 ,morris himself found his interest wane before the work was completed1 but he made a handsome quarto volume of it1 with fine marginal decorations1 and an exceptionally well-designed title-page4 ,a reprint of ,syr ,percyvelle of ,gales after the edition printed by ,j4 ,o4 ,halliwell from the ,,ms4 in the library of ,lincoln ,cathedral1 a large quarto edition of ,the ,life and ,death of ,jason2 two #afmo volumes of a new romance entitled1 ,child ,christopher and ,goldilands the ,fair2 and ,rossetti's ,hand and ,soul1 reprinted from the ,germ1 brought the ,press to its great year #ahif4 ,this year was to see the completion of the folio ,chaucer1 which since early in #ahib had been in preparation1 and had filled the heart of ,morris with anxiety1 anticipation1 and joy4 ,before it came from the press three other books were issued4 ,herrick's ,poems came first4 ,then a selection of thirteen poems from ,coleridge1 a muddle-brained metaphysician1 who by some strange freak of fortune turned out a few real poems amongst the dreary flood of inanity which was his wont6 ,the poems chosen were1 ,christabel1 ,kubla ,khan1 ,the ,rime of the ,ancient ,mariner1 ,love1 ,a ,fragment of a ,sexton's ,tale1 ,the ,ballad of the ,dark ,ladie1 ,names1 ,youth and ,age1 ,the ,improvisatore1 ,work without ,hope1 ,the ,garden of ,boccaccio1 ,the ,knight's ,tomb1 and ,alice du ,clos4 ,the first four were the only ones1 however1 concerning which ,morris would own to feeling any interest4 ,the ,coleridge volume was followed by the large quarto edition of ,morris's latest romance1 ,the ,well at the ,world's ,end in two volumes1 and then appeared the ,chaucer1 the mere printing of which had occupied a year and nine months4 ,the first two copies were brought home from the binders on the second of ,june1 in a season of lots of sun and plentiful apple-blossoms1 during which ,morris was beginning to realise that the end of his delight in seasons and in books was fast approaching4 ,mr4 ,ellis has declared the ,kelmscott ,chaucer to be1 for typography1 ornament1 and illustration combined1 the grandest book that has been issued from the press since the invention of typography4 ,morris lavished upon it the utmost wealth of his invention4 ,the drawing of the title-page alone occupied a fortnight1 and the splendid initial letters were each an elaborate work of art4 ,the ornament indeed was too profuse to be wholly satisfactory1 especially as much of it was repeated2 nevertheless1 the book was one of great magnificence and the glee with which ,morris beheld it is not to be wondered at4 ,the ,chaucer type had been specially designed for it1 and ,burne-,jones had made for it eighty-seven drawings1 while ,morris himself designed for it the white pigskin binding with silver clasps1 executed at the ,doves ,bindery for those purchasers who desired their elaborate and costly volume in a more suitable garb than the ordinary half holland covers which gave it the appearance of a silken garment under a calico apron4 ,during the remainder of the year #ahif the ,press issued the first volumes of the ,kelmscott edition of ,the ,earthly ,paradise1 a volume of ,latin poems 7,laudes ,beatae ,mariae ,virginis71 the first ,kelmscott book to be printed in three colours1 the quotation heading each stanza being in red1 the initial letter in pale blue1 and the remaining text in black3 ,the ,floure and the ,leafe and ,the ,shepherde's ,calender4 ,before ,the ,shepherde's ,calender reached its completion1 however1 ,morris was dead1 and the subsequent work of the ,press was merely the clearing up of a few books already advertised4 ,the first of these to appear was the prose romance by ,morris entitled ,the ,water of the ,wondrous ,isles3 this was issued on the first day of ,april1 #ahig1 with borders and ornaments designed entirely by ,morris save for a couple of initial words completed from his unfinished designs by ,r4 ,catterson-,smith4 ,to this year belong also the two trial pages made for the intended folio edition of ,froissart1 the heraldic borders of which far surpass any of the ,chaucer ornaments1 and the two old ,english romances1 ,sire ,degravaunt and ,syr ,ysambrace4 ,in #ahih came a large quarto volume of ,german woodcuts1 and three more works by ,morris1 a small folio edition of ,sigurd the ,volsung1 which was to have been a large folio with twenty-five woodcuts by ,burne-,jones2 ,the ,sundering ,flood1 the last romance written by ,morris1 and a large quarto edition of ,love is ,enough4 ,these were followed by a ,note written by ,morris himself on his aims in starting the ,kelmscott ,press1 accompanied with facts concerning the ,press1 and an annotated list of all the books there printed1 compiled by ,mr4 ,s4 ,c4 ,cockerell1 who1 since ,july1 #ahid1 had been secretary to the ,press4 ,this was the end4#b ,illustration3 ,specimen ,page from the ,kelmscott ,froissart 7,projected ,edition7 ,although ,morris not only neglected commercial considerations in printing his books1 lavishing their price many times over in valuable time and labour and the actual expenditure of money to secure some inconspicuous detail2 but defied commercial methods openly in the character of his type1 the quality of his materials1 and the slowness of his processes1 the ,kelmscott ,press testified1 as most of his enterprises did testify1 to the practical worth of his ideals4 ,quite content to make just enough by his books to continue printing them in the most conscientious and desirable way he knew1 he gradually obtained from them a considerable profit4 ,the ,press had early been moved to quarters larger than the first occupied by it1 and three presses were kept busy4 ,by the end of #ahib ,morris had become his own publisher1 and after that time all the ,kelmscott books were published by him except in cases of special arrangement4 ,a few copies1 usually less than a dozen1 of nearly all the books were printed on vellum and sold at a proportionately higher price than the paper copies4 ,the volumes were bound either in vellum or half holland1 these temporary and unsatisfactory covers probably having been chosen on account of the strength and slow-drying qualities of the ink used1 a note to the prospectus of the ,chaucer stating that the book would not be fit for ordinary full binding with the usual pressure for at least a year after its issue4 ,the issue prices charged for the books were not low1 but certainly not exorbitant when time1 labour1 and expense of producing them are taken into consideration4 ,they were prizes for the collector from the beginning1 the impossibility of duplicating them and the small editions sent out giving them a charm and a value not easily to be resisted1 and ,morris himself and his trustees adopted measures tending to protect the collector's interests4 ,after the death of ,morris all the woodblocks for initials1 ornaments1 and illustrations were sent to the ,british ,museum and were accepted1 with the condition that they should not be reproduced or printed from for the space of one hundred years4 ,the electrotypes were destroyed4 ,the matter was talked over with ,morris during his lifetime and he sanctioned this course on the part of the trustees1 its aim being to keep the series of the ,kelmscott ,press a thing apart and to prevent the designs becoming stale by repetition4 ,while there is a fair ground for the criticism frequently made that a man urging the necessity of art for the people showed inconsistency by withdrawing from their reach art which he could control and deemed valuable1 it must be remembered that in his mind the great result to be obtained was the stirring up the people to making art for themselves4 ,morris rightly counted the joy to be gained from making a beautiful thing as far higher than the joy to be gained from seeing one4 ,he was never in favour of making a work of art common by reproducing or servilely imitating it4 ,he had shown the printers of books his idea of the way they should manage their craft1 now let them develop it themselves along the lines pointed out for them4 ,and whether he was or was not consistent in allowing the works of the ,kelmscott ,press to be cut off from any possibility of a large circulation1 his was the temperament to feel all the delight to be won from exclusive ownership4 ,he had the true collector's passion for possession4 ,if he was bargaining for a book1 says his biographer1 he would carry on the negotiation with the book tucked tightly under his arm1 as if it might run away4 ,his collection of old painted books gave him the keenest emotions before and after his acquisition of them4 ,of one1 which finally proved unattainable1 he wrote1 ,such a book6 my eyes6 and ,i am beating my brains to see if ,i can find any thread of an intrigue to begin upon1 so as to creep and crawl toward the possession of it4 ,it is no matter for wonder if in imagination he beheld the love of bibliophiles for his own works upon which he had so ardently spent his energies1 and was gratified by the prevision4 ,whether the ,kelmscott books will increase or decrease in money value as time goes on is a question that stirs interest in book-buying circles4 ,they have already had their rise and ebb to a certain extent1 and the prices brought by the copies owned by ,mr4 ,ellis at the sale of his library after his death indicate that a steady level of interest has been reached among collectors for the time being at least2 only five of the copies printed on paper exceeding prices previously paid for them4 ,the presentation copy on vellum of the great ,chaucer brought five hundred and ten pounds1 certainly a remarkable sum for a modern book1 under any conditions1 and nearly a hundred pounds more than the highest price which ,morris himself up to the summer of #ahid had ever paid for even a fourteenth-century book4 ,the paper copy of the ,chaucer sold at the ,ellis sale for one hundred and twelve pounds and a paper copy in ordinary binding sold in ,america in #aijb for #fej1 while a paper copy in the special pigskin binding brought #iej the same year4 ,the issue price for the four hundred and twenty-five paper copies was twenty pounds apiece1 and for the eight copies on vellum offered for sale out of the thirteen printed1 a hundred and twenty guineas apiece4 ,the posthumous edition of ,sigurd the ,volsung1 the paper copies of which were issued at six guineas apiece1 brought at the ,ellis sale twenty-six pounds4 ,news from ,nowhere1 issued at two guineas1 has never yet brought a higher price than the five pounds1 fifteen shillings paid for it in #ahii1 while ,keats's ,poems issued at one pound1 ten shillings1 rose as high as twenty-seven pounds1 ten shillings1 also in #ahii4 ,as a general measure of the advance in the ,kelmscott books since the death of ,morris1 it may be noted that the series owned by ,mr4 ,ellis1 excluding duplicates1 and including a presentation copy of ,jason and two fine bindings for the paper and the vellum ,chaucer1 represented a gross issue price of six hundred and twelve pounds1 ten shillings1 and realised two thousand1 three hundred and sixty-seven pounds1 two shillings4 ,for one decade of the life of a modern series that is a great record1 and it would be a rash prophet who should venture to predict future values4 ,,chapter ,,xi4 ,,later ,,writings4 ,the writings of ,morris's later years consist1 as we have seen1 chiefly of prose romances4 ,the little group beginning with ,the ,house of the ,wolfings and ending with ,the ,sundering ,flood were written with no polemical or proselytising intention1 with merely his old delight in storytelling and in depicting the beauty of the external world and the kindness of men and maids4 ,curiosity had never played any great part in his mental equipment2 he cared little to know or speculate further than the visible and tangible surface of life4 ,the skin of the world was sufficient for him1 and in these later romances all that is beautiful and winning has chiefly to do with the skin of the world presented in its spring-time freshness4 ,the background of nature is always exquisite4 ,with the landscape of the ,north1 which had made its indelible impression upon him1 he mingled the scenes--the dear scenes he would have called them--of his childhood and the fairer portions of the ,thames shore as he had long and intimately known them2 and in his books1 as in his familiar letters1 he constantly speaks of the weather and the seasons as matters of keen importance in the sum of daily happiness4 ,thus1 whatever we miss from his romances1 we gain1 what is missing from the majority of modern books1 familiarity with the true aspect of the outdoor world4 ,we have the constant sense of ample sky and pleasant air1 and green woods and cool waters4 ,the mountains are near us1 and often the ocean1 and the freedom of a genuine wildwood that is no enchanted forest or ideal vision4 ,inexpressibly charming are such pictures as those of ,elfhild 7in ,the ,sundering ,flood7 piping to her sheep and dancing on the bank of the river1 on the bright mid-,april day1 whose sun dazzles her eyes with its brilliant shining2 and of ,birdalone 7in ,the ,water of the ,wondrous ,isles7 embroidering her gown and smock in the wood of ,evilshaw4 ,what could be more expressive of lovely open-air peace than this description8 ,who was glad now but ,birdalone2 she grew red with new pleasure1 and knelt down and kissed the witch's hand1 and then went her way to the wood with her precious lading1 and wrought there under her oak-tree day after day1 and all days1 either there1 or in the house when the weather was foul4 ,that was in the middle of ,march1 when all birds were singing1 and the young leaves showing on the hawthorns1 so that there were pale green clouds1 as it were1 betwixt the great grey boles of oak and sweet-chestnut2 and by the lake the meadow-saffron new-thrust-up was opening its blossom2 and ,march wore and ,april1 and still she was at work happily when now it was later ,may1 and the harebells were in full bloom down the bent before her 444 and still she wrought on at her gown and her smock1 and it was well-nigh done4 ,she had broidered the said gown with roses and lilies1 and a tall tree springing up from amidmost the hem of the skirt1 and a hart on either side thereof1 face to face of each other4 ,and the smock she had sewn daintily at the hems and the bosom with fair knots and buds4 ,it was now past the middle of ,june hot and bright weather4 ,and only less delightful than these glimpses of the natural world are the recurring portraits of half-grown boys and girls1 all different and all lovable4 ,the sweetness of adolescent beauty had for ,morris an irresistible appeal1 and while his characters have little of the psychological charm inseparable in real life from dawning qualities and undeveloped potentialities1 they are as lovely as the morning in the brightness of hair1 the slimness of form1 the freedom of gesture with which he endows them4 ,the shapely brown hands and feet of ,ursula1 her ruddy colour1 her slender sturdiness1 and brave young laugh are attractions as potent as the more delicate charm of ,birdalone's serious eyes and thin face1 or ,elfhild's flower-like head and tender playfulness2 and all these heroines are alike in a fine capability for useful toil and pride in it4 ,when the old carle says to ,birdalone1 ,it will be no such hard life for thee1 for ,i have still some work in me1 and thou mayst do something in spite of thy slender and delicate fashion1 she replies with merry laughter1 ,forsooth1 good sire1 ,i might do somewhat more than something2 for ,i am deft in all such work as here ye need2 so fear not but ,i should earn my livelihood1 and that with joy4 ,ursula also knows all the craft of needlework1 and all the manners of the fields1 and finds nothing in work to weary her2 and even in the ,maid of ,the ,wood beyond the ,world1 with her magic power to revive flowers by the touch of her fingers1 is felt the preferable human power to make comfort and pleasantness by the right performance of plain tasks4 ,nearly if not quite equal to ,morris's expression of love for the beauty of nature and of fair humanity is his expression of the love for beautiful handicraft1 to which his whole life and all his writings alike testify4 ,whatever is omitted from his stories of love and adventure1 he never omits to familiarise his readers with the ornament lavished upon buildings and garments and countless accessories2 hardly a dozen pages of any one of the romances may be turned before the description of some piece of artistic workmanship is met4 ,osberne's knife in ,the ,sundering ,flood is early introduced to the reader as a goodly weapon1 carven with quaintnesses about the heft1 the blade inlaid with runes done in gold and the sheath of silver1 and the gifts he sends to ,elfhild across the flood are an ouch or chain or arm-ring fashioned quaintly and finely1 or fair windowed shoon1 and broidered hosen and dainty smocks1 and silken kerchiefs2 much is made of his holiday raiment of scarlet and gold1 of his flowered green coat1 and of the fine gear of gold and green for which ,elfhild changes her grey cloak4 ,in ,the ,story of the ,glittering ,plain1 filled as it is with the sterner spirit of the sagas1 there is still room for much detail concerning the carven panelling of the shut-bed1 in which was pictured fair groves and gardens1 with flowery grass and fruited trees all about1 and fair women abiding therein1 and lovely young men and warriors1 and strange beasts and many marvels1 and the ending of wrath and beginning of pleasure1 and the crowning of love1 and for the account of the painted book1 covered outside with gold and gems and painted within with woods and castles1 and burning mountains1 and the wall of the world1 and kings upon their thrones1 and fair women and warriors1 all most lovely to behold4 ,as for the fair ,birdalone1 her pleasure in fine stuffs and rich embroideries is unsurpassed in the annals of womankind4 ,the wood-wife with canny knowledge of her tastes brings her the fairy web1 declaring that if she dare wear it she shall presently be clad as goodly as she can wish4 ,birdalone can be trusted to don any attire that meets her fancy 7and to doff it as willingly1 for she has a startling habit not uncommon with ,morris's heroines of stripping off her garments to let the winds of heaven play upon her unimpeded74 ,the wood-wife places the raiment she has brought on ,birdalone's outstretched arms1 and it was as if the sunbeam had thrust through the close leafage of the oak1 and made its shadow nought a space about ,birdalone1 so gleamed and glowed in shifty brightness the broidery of the gown2 and ,birdalone let it fall to earth1 and passed over her hands and arms the fine smock sewed in yellow and white silk1 so that the web thereof seemed of mingled cream and curd2 and she looked on the shoon that lay beside the gown1 that were done so nicely and finely that the work was as the feather-robe of a beauteous bird1 whereof one scarce can say whether it be bright or grey1 thousand-hued or all simple of colour4 ,birdalone quivered for joy of all the fair things1 and crowed in her speech as she knelt before ,habundia to thank her4 ,thus ,morris carried into his pleasure-work of books the bread-and-butter work of which he was hardly less fond4 ,but in the deeper realities of life with which even romantic fiction may deal1 and must deal if it is to lay hold of the modern imagination1 these romances are poor4 ,not one of his characters is developed by circumstance into a fully equipped human being thoroughly alive to the intellectual and moral as to the physical and emotional world4 ,his men and women are eternally young and1 with the physical freshness of youth1 have also the crude1 unrounded1 unfinished1 unmoulded character of youth4 ,they have all drunk of the ,well at the ,world's ,end1 and the scars of experience have disappeared1 leaving a blank surface4 ,the range of their emotions and passions is as simple and narrow as with children1 and life as the great story-tellers understand it is not shown by the chronicle of their days4 ,in many of the romances1 it is true1 the introduction of legendary and unreal persons and incidents relieves the writer from all obligation to make his account more lifelike than a fairy-tale2 but ,morris is never content to make a fairy-tale pure and simple4 ,marvellous adventures told directly as to a child are not within his method4 ,one of his critics has described ,the ,water of the ,wondrous ,isles as a three-volume novel in the environment of a fairy-tale1 and the phrase perfectly characterises it4 ,a sentimental atmosphere surrounds his figures1 and suggests languor and soft moods not to be tolerated by the writer of true fairy-tales1 for while love is certainly not alien to even the purest type of the latter1 with its witch and its princess and its cruel step-mother and rescuing prince1 it is not love as ,morris depicts it any more than it is love as ,dante or ,shakespeare depicts it4 ,in ,morris's stories the lovers are neither frankly symbolic creatures of the imagination whose loves are secondary to their heroic or miraculous achievements1 and who apparently exist only to give a reason for the machinery of witchcraft1 nor are they1 like the lovers of the great novels1 endowed with thoughtful minds and spiritual qualities4 ,they are too sophisticated not to be more complex4 ,the modern taste is unsympathetic to their endless kissing and fawning and clipping1 nor would ancient taste have welcomed their refinements of kindness toward each other or the lack of zest in their adventures4 ,morris seems to have tried somewhat1 as in the case of his handicrafts1 to start with the traditions of the ,middle ,ages and to infuse into them a modern spirit that should make them legitimate successors and not mere imitations of the well-beloved mediaeval types4 ,that he did not entirely succeed was the fault not so much of his method as of his deficient insight into human nature4 ,he could not create what he had never closely investigated4 ,when we read his prose romances1 their framework gives many a clue to their ancestry1 but it is an ancestry so remote from the interest of the general reader as to puzzle more than charm in its influence upon the modern product4 ,in ,the ,house of the ,wolfings1 ,the ,roots of the ,mountains1 and especially ,the ,glittering ,plain1 we have more or less modernised sagas1 obviously derived from the ,icelandic literature of which he had been drinking deep4 ,the hero of ,the ,glittering ,plain is as valorous a youth and as given to brave adventures as the great ,sigurd1 the environment is ,norse1 and so are the names of the characters--,sea-eagle1 ,long-hoary1 ,grey ,goose of the ,ravagers1 and ,puny ,fox4 ,other words and phrases also drawn from the word-hoard of the ,icelandic tongue are sprinkled over the pages4 ,we find nithing-stake and byrny1 and bight1 spoke-shave and ness and watchet1 sley and ashlar and ghyll1 used as expressions of familiar parlance4 ,the characters give each other the sele of the day1 retire to shut-beds at night1 and look sorry and sad and fell when fortune goes against them4 ,they wander in garths and call each other faring-fellow and they yea-say and nay-say and wot and wend4 ,it is not altogether surprising to find some of ,morris's most loyal followers admitting that they can make nothing of books written in this archaic prose4 ,in the subsequent romances the comparative sturdiness imparted by the writings of the ,north gives place to a mildness and grace suggestive of those early ,french romances the charm of which ,morris had always keenly felt4 ,we still have much the same vocabulary and more or less use of the same magic arts1 skin-changing holding its own as a favourite method of overcoming otherwise insuperable difficulties2 but we have more of the love motive and a clearer endeavour to portray the relations of the characters to each other4 ,in all1 however1 the ,french and ,scandinavian influences are so mingled with each other and with the element provided by ,morris alone1 and so fused by his fluent prolix style1 as to produce a result somewhat different from anything else in literature1 with a character and interest personal to itself1 and difficult to imitate in essence1 although wofully lending itself to parody4 ,the subject never seems important4 ,there is no sense that the writer was spurred to expression by the pressure of an irresistible message or sentiment4 ,we feel that anything may have started this copious flow of words1 and that there is no logical end to them4 ,the title of ,the ,well at the ,world's ,end was taken from an old ,scottish ballad called by that name which ,morris had never read1 but the title of which struck his fancy1 and the book reads as though it had grown without plan from the fanciful1 meaningless title4 ,of these later romances1 ,the ,glittering ,plain is the most saga-like1 and ,the ,water of the ,wondrous ,isles is most permeated by the romantic spirit of the ,arthurian legends and their kin4 ,despite all defects1 the latter has a bright bejewelled aspect that pleases the fancy although it does not deeply enlist the imagination4 ,the story is leisurely and wandering4 ,the heroine1 ,birdalone1 some of whose characteristics have already been mentioned1 is stolen in her infancy from her home near a town called ,utterhay1 by a witch-wife who brings her up on the edge of a wood called ,evilshaw and teaches her to milk and plough and sow and reap and bake and shoot deer in the forest4 ,when she is seventeen years of age she meets in the forest ,habundia1 a fairy woman1 who gives her a magic ring by which she may make herself invisible and a lock of hair by burning a bit of which she may summon her in time of need4 ,birdalone soon after escapes from the witch-wife in a magic boat1 and passes through fabulous scenes to enchanted islands1 where she finds friends and enemies4 ,three maidens1 ,atra1 ,viridis1 and ,aurea1 save her from the latter1 and send her forth to find for them their lovers4 ,while on her quest she travels to various isles1--the ,isle of the ,young and the ,old1 the ,isle of the ,queens1 the ,isle of the ,kings1 and the ,isle of ,nothing1--which afford opportunity for strange pictures and quaint conceits but have nothing to do with the narrative4 ,when ,birdalone finds the lovers of her friends1 the ,golden ,knight1 the ,green ,knight1 and ,arthur the ,black ,squire1 called the ,three ,champions1 they are charmed by her beauty and friendliness1 and she immediately falls in love with the ,black ,squire1 betrothed of ,atra4#c ,the ,black ,squire returns her prompt affection1 but has grace to show himself moody and downcast at the thought of breaking faith with his lady4 ,presently the ,three ,champions go their ways to find the three maidens who were kind to ,birdalone and who are kept on the ,isle of ,increase ,unsought by a witch1 sister to ,birdalone's early guardian1 and ,birdalone1 weary of waiting for their return1 fares forth to meet adventures and lovers in plenty4 ,to all the brave knights and youths who take their turn at wooing her she is pitiful and gentle after her fashion1 and thanks them kindly1 and praises them and suffers them to kiss her for their comfort1 and deems them fair and lovely and sweet1 but keeps her preference for the ,black ,squire4 ,now1 when the ,three ,champions come back with their ladies and find ,birdalone fled there is much distress among them1 and the knights set forth to find her4 ,meeting with her1 they are set upon by the bad ,red ,knight1 into whose custody she has recently been thrown1 and ,baudoin1 the ,golden ,knight1 is killed4 ,returning with this bad news to the three ladies1 the two remaining knights1 who have rescued ,birdalone and killed the ,red ,knight1 decide to ride back into the latter's domain and make war upon his followers4 ,in the meantime ,atra has learned that the ,black ,squire has transferred his affections from her to ,birdalone1 and does not attempt to dissemble her grief thereat1 none of ,morris's characters being gifted in the art of dissimulation1 particularly where love is concerned4 ,birdalone1 departing from the course which ,morris elsewhere is most inclined to sanction1 decides to renounce in ,atra's favour1 and betakes herself to the town of ,greenford1 where she is received into the broiderers' guild and works with a woman who turns out to be her own mother1 from whom she was stolen by the witch4 ,with her she lives for five years1 when sickness slays ,audrey1 the mother1 and ,birdalone can no longer resist the temptation to seek her love1 the ,black ,squire1 again4 ,so she makes her way once more through marvellous adventures into the old forest of ,evilshaw1 where she comes again upon her fairy friend ,habundia1 by whose aid she finds the ,black ,squire4 ,the latter has met with misfortunes and is lost in the forest1 where he falls ill4 ,birdalone nurses him back to health1 and they decide that whether ,atra be dead or alive they will have no more parting from one another4 ,they are soon to be put to the test1 as in the wood they come upon ,atra and their other friends1 who have set out to seek them1 being anxious for their welfare1 and who have been overcome by caitiffs and bound and held prisoners4 ,arthur and ,birdalone rescue them1 and all these friends make up their minds to go together and dwell in ,utterhay for the rest of their lives4 ,aurea finds another lover in place of the ,golden ,knight she has lost1 but ,atra is faithful in heart to the ,black ,squire1 though able to bear with philosophy his union with ,birdalone4 ,thus they live happily ever after4 ,upon this skeleton of mingled reality and dream ,morris built his general idea of happy love4 ,the tale might easily be twisted into an allegory1 since all the creatures of his imagination stand for either the satisfactions or dissatisfactions of the visible world1 but nothing is more certain than that he meant no such interpretations to be put upon it4 ,when one of his critics assumed an allegorical intention in the story called ,the ,wood ,beyond the ,world1 he was moved to public refutation1 writing to the ,spectator3 ,it is meant to be a tale pure and simple1 with nothing didactic about it4 ,if ,i have to write or speak on social problems1 ,i always try to be as direct as ,i possibly can4 ,the truth of this is best known by those who most faithfully have followed his writings1 and it is entirely vain to try to squeeze from his tales any ethical virtue beyond their frank expression of his singularly simple temperament4 ,nevertheless1 like the rest of his work1 they reveal in some degree his way of regarding the moral world4 ,as we have seen1 ,birdalone has her impulse toward renunciation1 and for a brief interval one feels that the story possibly may be allowed to run along the conventional lines laid down by the civilised human race for the greatest good of the greatest number4 ,this1 however1 would have been wholly alien to the writer's temper1 and there is no shock to those familiar with this temper in finding that in the end the hero and heroine eat their cake and have it4 ,renunciation on the side of the unbeloved is effected with grace and nobility1 but it is made clear that it is a question of accepting the inevitable in as lofty a spirit as possible4 ,it is perhaps the most obvious moral characteristic of ,morris's types in general1 that they are no more prone than children to do what they dislike unless circumstance forces them to it4 ,if we were to argue from his romances alone we could almost imagine him contending that what one dislikes in conduct is wrong1 just as he did contend that what one dislikes in art is bad4 ,but if his men and women do not willingly renounce1 at least they do not exult4 ,the sight of unhappiness pains them4 ,for stern self-denial he substitutes the softer virtues of amiability and sweetness of temper4 ,a high level of kindliness and tenderness takes the place of more compelling and formidable emotions4 ,kind1 indeed1 is one of the adjectives of which one soonest wearies when confined to his vocabulary1 and dear1 is another4 ,we read of dear feet and legs1 of dear and kind kisses1 of kind wheedling looks1 of kind and dear maidens1 and dear and kind lads1 and everyone is kind and dear who is not evil and cruel4 ,what ,morris's romances preach1 if they preach anything1 is3 that we should get from life all the enjoyment possible1 hurting others as little as may be consistent with our own happiness1 but claiming the satisfaction of all honest desires2 that1 in thus satisfying ourselves1 we should keep toward those about us a kind and pleasant countenance and a consideration for their pain even when our duty toward ourselves forces us to inflict it4 ,it is a narrow and exclusive teaching1 and ill adapted to foster freedom of mind and spirit4 ,it is a teaching that provides no breastplate for the buffets of fortune1 and sets before one no ideal of intellectual or spiritual life the attainment of which would bring pleasure austere and exquisite4 ,there is no stimulus and no sting in the love depicted4 ,even its ardour is checked and wasted by its dallying with the external charms that seem to veil rather than to reveal the spirit within the flesh4 ,it is the essence of immaturity4 ,but while we gain from the observation of ,morris's childlike characters1 playing in a world that knows no conventions and consequently no shame1 a foreboding of the weariness that would attend such a life as he plans for them1 we are conscious also that he is trying characteristically1 to go back to the beginning1 and to start humanity aright and afresh2 to show us fine and healthy sons of ,adam and daughters of ,eve1 living1 to use his own words1 in the enjoyment of animal life at least1 happy therefore1 and beautiful according to the beauty of their race4 ,he sets them among the surroundings he loves1 gives them the education he values1 and leaves them with us--the blithe children of a new world1 whose maturity he is content not to forecast4 ,with such health of body1 he seems to say1 and such innocence of heart1 what noble commonwealth may not arise1 what glory may not enter into civilisation8 ,,chapter ,,xii4 ,,the ,,end4 ,the end with ,morris seemed to come suddenly1 although for months and even for years there had been warnings of its approach4 ,he had enjoyed--and greatly enjoyed--unusual strength and vitality up to almost his sixtieth year4 ,the seeds of gout were in his constitution1 and from attacks of this disease he occasionally suffered1 but not until the one occurring in the spring of #ahia1 just as the ,kelmscott ,press was getting under way1 did they give reason for alarm4 ,at that time other complications were discovered and he was told that he must consider himself an invalid4 ,after this1 as we have seen1 he plunged with rapture into new undertakings involving the use of all his faculties1 and carried them on with no apparent lessening of intellectual vigour4 ,but he had too long overtaxed his physical frame by his extraordinary labours1 and especially by his activity in the cause of ,socialism1 which had led him out in all weathers and under the most adverse conditions4 ,by the beginning of #ahie he began to show plainly the weakness that had been gaining on him1 and to admit it1 though still keeping busy at his various occupations4 ,his increasing illness brought home to him the thought of that final check upon his activities which he had always found so difficult to conceive4 ,if1 he said1 it merely means that ,i am to be laid up for a little while1 it doesn't so much matter1 you know2 but if ,i am to be caged up here for months1 and then it is to be the end of all things1 ,i shouldn't like it at all4 ,this has been a jolly world to me and ,i find plenty to do in it4 ,as the folio ,chaucer advanced through the ,press1 he grew impatient1 no doubt fearing that he would not see its completion1 and it is pleasant to read of his gratification when a completed copy reached him1 bound in the cover designed by himself4 ,late in ,july1 #ahif1 by the recommendation of his physician he took a sea voyage1 going to ,norway for the bracing influences of its air and associations4 ,no benefit was gained1 however1 and on his return a congestion of one lung set in that proved unyielding1 while his general weakness was such that he was unable to cross the threshold of his room4 ,we find him responding to an old friend who had urged him to try the effect of the pure air of ,swainslow1 that this was the case and he could not come1 but was absolutely delighted to find another beautiful place which is still in its untouched loveliness4 ,up to the last he did a little work1 dictating the final passage of ,the ,sundering ,flood less than a month before his death1 which occurred in his home at ,hammersmith on the morning of the #crd of ,october1 #ahif4 ,he died without apparent suffering1 and surrounded by his friends4 ,he had lived almost sixty-three years in the jolly world wherein he had found so much to do1 but he left the impression of having been cut down in the flower of his life4 ,his burial was in keeping with those tastes and preferences that had meant so much to him4 ,the strong oak coffin in which he was laid was of an ancient1 simple shape1 with handles of wrought iron1 and the pall that covered it was a strip of rich ,anatolian velvet from his own collection of textiles4 ,he was carried from ,lechlade station to the little ,kelmscott church in an open hay-cart1 cheerful in colour1 with bright red wheels1 and festooned with vines1 alder1 and bulrushes4 ,the bearers and the drivers of the country waggons in which his friends followed him to his grave were farmers of the neighbourhood clad in their moleskins1 people who had lost1 said one of them1 a dear good friend in ,master ,morris4 ,the hearse1 with its bright decorations and the little group of mourners wound their way along pleasant country roads1 beaten upon by a storm of unusual fury4 ,the north-west wind bent trees and bushes1 writes one of those who were present1 turning the leaves of the bird maples back upon their footstalks1 making them look like poplars1 and the rain beat on the straggling hedges1 the lurid fruit1 such as only grows in rural ,england1--the fruit of privet with ripe hips and haws2 the foliage of the ,guelder roses hung on the bushes2 along the road a line of slabs of stone extended1 reminding one of ,portugal2 ragweed and loosestrife1 with rank hemp agrimony1 were standing dry and dead1 like reeds beside a lake1 and in the rain and wind the yokels stood at the cross-roads1 or at the openings of the bridle-paths4 ,in ,news from ,nowhere ,morris describes ,kelmscott ,church1 with its little aisle divided from the nave by three round arches1 its windows1 mostly of the graceful ,oxfordshire fourteenth-century type1 and the interior trimmed with flowers for a village merrymaking4 ,on the day of his burial1 by a curious coincidence it was trimmed with fruits of the harvest in preparation for the autumn festival4 ,the service was read by an old schoolfellow and friend1 and ,morris was left to his rest from patience and from pain in the place he had best loved and to which in his final weakness he had longed to return4 ,in regarding ,morris through the medium of his work it is difficult to gain a coherent impression4 ,he turned one side and another to the world with such rapidity of succession as to give a sense of kaleidoscopic change4 ,what new combination of colour and form his activities would take was always impossible to forecast4 ,and the thing that he was doing seemed to him at the time the one thing in the world that was worth doing1 the one thing that a reasonable and healthy man would make it his pleasure to do4 ,yet1 as we have seen1 all these pursuits taken up by him with so much zest and laid down by him with such suddenness1 fitted harmoniously and accurately into the plan of his life1 which1 with the decade of militant ,socialism deducted1 presented a smooth and even surface1 unbroken by any violent change of circumstance or method or motive4 ,he has been described by nearly all who have written of him as a rebel1 and a rebel he was in the true ,quixotic sense1 his lance in rest to charge at any moment against any windmill of convention that might offend him4 ,a friend who was once talking with him about a forthcoming election to the ,london ,school ,board1 expressing a hope that the progressive party would win1--,well1 said ,morris1 striding up and down1 ,i am not sure that a clerical victory would not be a good thing4 ,i was educated at ,marlborough under clerical masters1 and ,i naturally rebelled against them4 ,had they been advanced men1 my spirit of rebellion would probably have led me to conservatism merely as a protest4 ,one naturally defies authority1 and it may be well that the ,london ,school ,board should be controlled by ,anglican parsons1 in order that the young rebels in the schools may grow up to defy and hate church authority4 ,his own natural defiance of authority entailed what seems to the ordinary toiler in harness a waste of his extraordinary gifts4 ,his work was most of it in the experimental stage when he left it4 ,he was too content to point the road without following to the end his own direction4 ,he did not learn a trade in the natural way1 from those who knew1 and seek then to better the teaching of his masters1 says one of his fellow-workers in arts and crafts1 but1 acknowledging no master1 except perhaps the ancients1 he would worry it out always for himself4 ,he had a wonderful knack of learning that way4#d ,he had a wonderful knack also of persuading himself that there was no other to learn1 and ,goldsmith's criticism of ,burke--that he spent much of his time cutting blocks with a razor--has been happily applied to him4 ,but it is doubtful whether he would have made as strong an impression on his generation as he did if he had devoted his time to one branch of art and worked along conventional lines4 ,his greatest gift was not so much the ability to produce art1 artistic though he was in faculty and feeling1 as it was the ability to make people see the difference between the kind of beauty to which his eyes were open and the ugliness commonly preferred to it4 ,nothing is so convincing as to see a man accomplish with his own hands what he has declared possible for anyone to accomplish4 ,morris's continual illustration of his theories was perhaps more useful in awakening interest in just the matters which he had at heart than any more patient pursuit of an ideal less readily achieved4 ,he had the habit when listening to questions and criticisms after his lectures of tracing charming rapid designs on paper4 ,on a large scale that is what he did throughout his life3 lecture people about the way to make things1 and by way of proving his point1 turn off delightful examples of the things he describes4 ,it is very easy he seems to say2 watch me for a moment1 and we will then pass on4 ,considered superficially1 he appeared the very prince of paradox4 ,art was a word continually on his lips1 the future and fortunes of art were constantly in his mind1 yet for the greatest art of the world he had few words1 and the most passing interest4 ,the names of ,raphael and ,leonardo1 ,giotto1 ,duerer1 ,rembrandt1 ,velasquez1 were seldom if ever on his lips4 ,art had for him an almost single meaning1 namely1 the beauty produced by humble workers as an every-day occurrence and for every day's enjoyment1 art by the people and for the people4 ,so individual that he will never be forgotten by those who have once seen him and heard his voice raised in its inevitable protest1 he nevertheless preached a kind of communism in which any high degree of individuality must have been submerged4 ,his preferences among books1 as might be assumed1 were clearly marked1 and a list of his favourite authors contains many contrasts4 ,once asked to contribute to the ,pall ,mall ,gazette his opinions on the best hundred books1 he complied by naming those which1 he said1 had most profoundly impressed him1 excluding all which he considered merely as tools and not as works of art4 ,true to himself1 he starts the list with books of the kind ,mazzini calls ,bibles1 books which are in no sense the work of individuals1 but have grown up from the very hearts of the people4 ,among these are the ,hebrew ,bible 7excluding some twice-done parts and some pieces of mere ,jewish ecclesiasticism71 ,homer1 ,hesiod1 ,the ,edda 7including some of the other early old ,norse romantic genealogical poems71 ,beowulf1 ,kalevale1 ,shahnameh1 ,mahabharata1 collections of folk tales headed by ,grimm and the ,norse ones1 ,irish and ,welsh traditional poems4 ,after these ,bibles follow the real ancient imaginative works3 ,herodotus1 ,plato1 ,a,eschylus1 ,sophocles1 ,aristophanes1 ,theocritus1 ,lucretius1 ,catullus4 ,the greater part of the ,latins were esteemed sham classics4 ,i suppose1 says ,morris in his character of reasonable man1 that they have some good literary qualities2 but ,i cannot help thinking that it is difficult to find out how much4 ,i suspect superstition and authority have influenced our estimate of them till it has become a mere matter of convention4 ,of course ,i admit the archaeological value of some of them1 especially ,virgil and ,ovid4 ,next in importance to the ,latin masterpieces he puts mediaeval poetry1 ,anglo-,saxon lyrical pieces 7like the ,ruin and the ,exile71 ,dante1 ,chaucer1 ,piers ,plowman1 ,nibelungenlied1 the ,danish and ,scotch-,english ,border ,ballads1 ,omar ,khayyam1 though ,i don't know how much of the charm of this lovely poem1 he says1 is due to ,fitzgerald1 the translator2 other ,arab and ,persian poetry1 ,reynard the ,fox1 and a few of the best rhymed romances4 ,mediaeval story books follow1 the ,morte d',arthur1 ,the ,thousand and ,one ,nights1 ,boccaccio's ,decameron1 and the ,mabinogion4 ,after these1 modern poets up to his own generation1 ,shakespeare1 ,blake 7the part of him which a mortal can understand71 ,coleridge1 ,shelley1 ,keats1 ,byron4 ,german he could not read1 so he left out ,german masterpieces4 ,milton he left out on account of his union of cold classicalism with ,puritanism 7the two things which ,i hate most in the world1 he said74 ,pilgrim's ,progress heads the department of modern fiction1 in which is also included ,robinson ,crusoe1 ,moell ,flanders1 ,colonel ,jack1 ,captain ,singleton1 ,voyage ,round the ,world1 ,scott's novels1 except the one or two which he wrote when he was hardly alive1 the novels of the elder ,dumas 7the good ones71 ,victor ,hugo1 ,dickens1 and ,george ,borrow4 ,the list concludes with certain unclassified works1 ,ruskin1 ,carlyle1 the ,utopia1 and ,grimm's ,teutonic ,mythology4 ,it may safely be assumed that no other list sent in by the best judges who responded to ,mr4 ,stead's request in the least resembled this one1 which was compiled with high sincerity and represented ,morris quite fairly on the bookish side of his mind4 ,mr4 ,mackail mentions also among the volumes oftenest in his hands and imposed upon his friends unflinchingly ,surtees's famous ,mr4 ,jorrocks1 and records that he considered ,huckleberry ,finn ,america's masterpiece4 ,for the ,uncle ,remus stories he had also a peculiar fondness1 and for one of his cotton prints he designed what he called a ,brer ,rabbit pattern4 ,the perversity that one marks in ,morris beneath--or1 perhaps1 on the surface of--his essential seriousness1 the tendency to whim and paradox so freely noted by his critics1 may be attributed to his extraordinarily childlike spirit4 ,his lack of restraint1 his dislike of subtlety1 his love of spontaneity1 his inability to conform to conventions1 his hatred of gloom1 austerity1 and introspection1 his readiness to throw himself into enjoyment of the smallest subject that happened to come within the range of his interest1 his unflagging vigour1 his unjaded humour1 all qualities copiously commented upon by his friends1 testify to the youthfulness of his temperament1 which was like that of a child1 also in a certain apparently unpremeditated reticence1 an inability to reveal itself fully or satisfactorily to even his closest intimates4 ,what is most attractive and appealing in him is doubtless due to his freedom from artificialities and from the sophistries that ordinarily come with age1 but what is noblest in him1 and most impressive in the effect produced by his accomplishment1 is due to a quality of which a child is and should be ignorant1 a sense of personal responsibility4 ,without this he would have been a pitiful figure1 disoriented1 and inharmonious with the world into which he was born4 ,it was his persistent unwearying effort to set the crooked straight by example as well as by precept1 and in defiance of a certain paradoxical mental languor that flowed by the side of his energy and impulse1 which made him an influence to be counted with among the many conflicting influences of his generation4 ,while he counselled he produced1 while he preached he laboured4 ,declaring that work could and should be lovely1 he demonstrated in his own life how intensely one man loved it4 ,he fought for the principle of art with the ardour other men have shown in fighting for the principle of political liberty4 ,he held himself bound to justify his theories in his own action1 and while it would be absurd to claim for him complete consistency and freedom from error in even this1 it certainly guided him safely past the quicksands of empty and inflated rhetoric by which the expressed philosophy of his own great masters is marred4 ,it will be remembered by those who share his admiration for ,dickens that when the proprietor of ,dotheboys ,hall wished to teach his pupils to spell window he had them clean one4 ,the effectiveness of such a method is deeper than the satire1 and ,morris was its most convincing exponent4 ,what he learned out of books he tried at once to put into practice4 ,he had the highest ideal of service3 ,how crown ye excellence of worth8 ,with leave to serve all men on earth1 and nothing deflected him from his efforts thus to serve in his own person the most crying needs of humanity as he conceived them4 ,pretentiousness was his least defect4 ,no priggish sense of virtue interfered with his consecration to what he believed were the highest interests of his fellow-men4 ,the cant of the moralist was absolutely unused by him1 and he was innocent of any intention to improve the morals of his companions4 ,get them happy1 he thought1 with a faith little less than magnificent1 get them happy and they will be good4 ,nor was he guilty of aesthetic priggishness4 ,art was the concern of his mind and the desire of his heart1 but it was by no means his meat and drink4 ,he liked good food1 and was proud of his connoisseurship in matters of cookery1 and wines4 ,few things pleased him better than himself to take the cook's place and prove his practical skill4 ,when asked for his opinions on the subject of temperance1 he replied that so far as his own experience went he found his victuals dull without something to drink1 and that tea and coffee were not fit liquors to be taken with food4 ,he smoked his briarwood pipe with much satisfaction4 ,in his daily habits he was thoroughly1 aggressively human1 and in nothing more so than in his candid admiration of the work of his own hands1 a feeling in which there was no fatuity4 ,his biographer comments on the singular element of impersonality in his nature1 speaking of him as moving among men and women isolated1 self-centred1 almost empty of love or hatred1 and quotes his most intimate friend's extreme statement that he lived absolutely without the need of man or woman4 ,in this idea of him those who knew him best seemed to agree1 but from his own letters as represented in the biography1 a stranger to him gains a different impression4 ,his letters to his invalid daughter are in themselves sufficient to evoke in the mind of the reader an image of unlimited and poignant tenderness impossible to associate with the aloofness and lack of keen personal sympathy said to be characteristic of him4 ,he did not give himself readily or rashly to intense feelings2 but he seemed to feel within himself capacity for emotions of force so violent as to be destructive4 ,when his friend ,faulkner was stricken with paralysis and other trouble came upon the family1 we find him writing3 ,it is such a grievous business altogether that1 rightly or wrongly1 ,i try not to think of it too much lest ,i should give way altogether1 and make an end of what small use there may be in my life4 ,leaving out the case of ,rossetti1 there is no record of his having relinquished any friendship of importance1 nor did he weary of constant intercourse with his friends4 ,his habit of breakfasting with ,burne-,jones on ,sunday mornings and dining with him on ,wednesdays was unbroken for many years4 ,the last three ,sundays of his life1 says this oldest and closest friend1 ,i went to him4 ,loyalty1 sincerity1 simplicity1 and earnestness1 these are the qualities conspicuous in the fabric of his life4 ,his influence upon his generation1 so far as it may now be observed1 has been definite but diffused4 ,it may be doubted whether he would not have been best pleased to have it so1 to know that his name will live chiefly as that of one who stimulated others toward art production of and interest in beautiful handiwork4 ,but the last word to be said about him is that he was greater than his work4 ,,bibliography#e #a4 ,the ,story of the ,glittering ,plain4 ,which has been also called ,the ,land of ,living ,men or ,the ,acre of the ,undying4 ,written by ,,william ,,morris4 ,small #dto4 ,golden type4 ,border #a4 #bjj paper copies at two guineas1 and #f on vellum4 ,dated ,april #d1 issued ,may #h1 #ahia4 ,sold by ,reeves ,turner4 ,bound in stiff vellum with wash leather ties4#f ,this book was set up from ,nos4 #ha-hd of ,the ,english ,illustrated ,magazine1 in which it first appeared2 some of the chapter headings were rearranged1 and a few small corrections were made in the text4 ,a trial page1 the first printed at the ,kelmscott ,press1 was struck off on ,january #ca1 #ahia1 but the first sheet was not printed until about a month later4#g ,the border was designed in ,january of the same year1 and engraved by ,w4 ,h4 ,hooper4 ,mr4 ,morris had four of the vellum copies bound in green vellum1 three of which he gave to friends4 ,only two copies on vellum were sold1 at twelve and fifteen guineas4 ,this was the only book with wash leather ties4 ,all the other vellum bound books have silk ties1 except ,shelley's ,poems and ,hand and ,soul1 which have no ties4 #b4 ,poems by the ,way4 ,written by ,,william ,,morris4 ,small #dto4 ,golden type4 ,in black and red4 ,border #a4 #cjj paper copies at two guineas1 thirteen on vellum at about twelve guineas4 ,dated ,september #bd1 issued ,october #bj1 #ahia4 ,sold by ,reeves ,turner4 ,bound in stiff vellum4 ,this was the first book printed at the ,kelmscott ,press in two colours1 and the first book in which the smaller printer's mark appeared4 ,after ,the ,glittering ,plain was finished1 at the beginning of ,april1 no printing was done until ,may #aath4 ,in the meanwhile the compositors were busy setting up the early sheets of ,the ,golden ,legend4 ,the printing of ,poems by the ,way1 which its author first thought of calling ,flores ,atramenti1 was not begun until ,july4 ,the poems in it were written at various times4 ,in the manuscript1 ,hafburg and ,signy is dated ,february #d1 #ahgj2 ,hildebrand and ,hillilel1 ,march #a1 #ahga2 and ,love's ,reward1 ,kelmscott1 ,april #ba1 #ahga4 ,meeting in ,winter is a song from ,the ,story of ,orpheus an unpublished poem intended for the ,earthly ,paradise4 ,the last poem in the book1 ,goldilocks and ,goldilooks1 was written on ,may #bj1 #ahia1 for the purpose of adding to the bulk of the volume1 which was then being prepared4 ,a few of the vellum covers were stained at ,merton red1 yellow1 indigo1 and dark green1 but the experiment was not successful4#h #c4 ,the ,love-,lyrics and ,songs of ,proteus1 by ,wilfrid ,scawen ,blunt1 with the ,love ,sonnets of ,proteus1 by the same author1 now reprinted in their full text with many sonnets omitted from the earlier editions4 ,london1 ,,mdcccxcii4 ,small #dto4 ,golden type4 ,in black and red4 ,border #a4 #cjj paper copies at two guineas1 none on vellum4 ,dated ,january #bf1 issued ,february #bg1 #ahib4 ,sold by ,reeves ,turner4 ,bound in stiff vellum4 ,this is the only book in which the initials are printed in red4 ,this was done by the author's wish4 #d4 ,the ,nature of ,gothic1 a ,chapter of the ,stones of ,venice4 ,by ,,john ,,ruskin4 ,with a preface by ,william ,morris4 ,small #dto4 ,golden type4 ,border #a4 ,diagrams in text4 #ejj paper copies at thirty shillings1 none on vellum4 ,dated in preface1 ,february #ae1 issued ,march #bb1 #ahib4 ,published by ,george ,allen4 ,bound in stiff vellum4 ,this chapter of the ,stones of ,venice1 which ,ruskin always considered the most important in the book1 was first printed separately1 in #ahed1 as a sixpenny pamphlet4 ,mr4 ,morris paid more than one tribute to it in ,hopes and ,fears for ,art4 ,of him ,ruskin said1 in #ahhg1 ,morris is beaten gold4 #e4 ,the ,defence of ,guenevere1 and ,other ,poems4 ,by ,,william ,,morris4 ,small #dto4 ,golden type4 ,in black and red4 ,borders #b and #a4 #cjj paper copies at two guineas1 #aj on vellum at about twelve guineas4 ,dated ,april #b1 issued ,may #ai1 #ahib4 ,sold by ,reeves ,turner4 ,bound in limp vellum4 ,this book was set up from a copy of the edition published by ,reeves ,turner in #ahhj1 the only alteration1 except a few corrections1 being in the eleventh line of ,summer ,dawn4#i ,it is divided into three parts1 the poems suggested by ,malory's ,morte d',arthur1 the poems inspired by ,froissart's ,chronicles1 and poems on various subjects4 ,the two first sections have borders1 and the last has a half border4 ,the first sheet was printed on ,february #ag1 #ahib4 ,it was the first book bound in limp vellum1 and the only one of which the title was inscribed by hand on the back4 #f4 ,a ,dream of ,john ,ball and a ,king's ,lesson4 ,by ,,william ,,morris4 ,small #dto4 ,golden type4 ,in black and red4 ,borders #c;a1 #d1 and #b4 ,with a woodcut designed by ,sir ,e4 ,burne-,jones4 #cjj paper copies at thirty shillings1 #aa on vellum at ten guineas4 ,dated ,may #ac1 issued ,september #bd1 #ahib4 ,sold by ,reeves ,turner4 ,bound in limp vellum4 ,this was set up with a few alterations from a copy of ,reeves ,turner's third edition1 and the printing was begun on ,april #d1 #ahib4 ,the frontispiece was redrawn from that to the first edition1 and engraved on wood by ,w4 ,h4 ,hooper1 who engraved all ,sir ,e4 ,burne-,jones's designs for the ,kelmscott ,press1 except those for ,the ,wood ,beyond the ,world and ,the ,life and ,death of ,jason4 ,the inscription below the figures1#aj and the narrow border1 were designed by ,mr4 ,morris and engraved with the picture on one block1 which was afterwards used on a leaflet printed for the ,ancoats ,brotherhood in ,february1 #ahid4 #g4 ,the ,golden ,legend4 ,by ,,jacobus ,,de ,,voragine4 ,translated by ,william ,caxton4 ,edited by ,f4 ,s4 ,ellis4 #c vols4 ,large #dto4 ,golden type4 ,borders #e;a1 #e1 #f;a and #g4 ,woodcut title and two woodcuts designed by ,sir ,e4 ,burne-,jones4 #ejj copies at five guineas1 none on vellum4 ,dated ,september #ab1 issued ,november #c1 #ahib4 ,published by ,bernard ,quaritch4 ,bound in half ,holland1 with paper labels printed in the ,troy type4 ,in ,july1 #ahij1 when only a few letters of the ,golden type had been cut1 ,mr4 ,morris bought a copy of this book1 printed by ,wynkyn de ,worde in #aebg4 ,he soon afterwards determined to print it1 and on ,september #aath entered into a formal agreement with ,mr4 ,quaritch for its publication4 ,it was only an unforeseen difficulty about the size of the first stock of paper that led to ,the ,golden ,legend not being the first book put in hand4 ,it was set up from a transcript of ,caxton's first edition1 lent by the ,syndics of the ,cambridge ,university ,library for the purpose4 ,a trial page was got out in ,march1 #ahia1 and fifty pages were in type by ,may #aath1 the day on which the first sheet was printed4 ,the first volume was finished1 with the exception of the illustrations and the preliminary matter1 in ,october1 #ahia4 ,the two illustrations and the title 7which was the first woodcut title designed by ,mr4 ,morris7 were not engraved until ,june and ,august1 #ahib1 when the third volume was approaching completion4 ,about half a dozen impressions of the illustrations were pulled on vellum4 ,a slip asking owners of the book not to have it bound with pressure1 nor to have the edges cut instead of merely trimmed1 was inserted in each copy4 #h4 ,the ,recuyell of the ,historyes of ,troye4 ,by ,,raoul ,,lefevre4 ,translated by ,william ,caxton4 ,edited by ,h4 ,halliday ,sparling4 #b vols4 ,large #dto4 ,troy type1 with table of chapters and glossary in ,chaucer type4 ,in black and red4 ,borders #e;a1 #e1 and #h4 ,woodcut title4 #cjj paper copies at nine guineas1 #e on vellum at eighty pounds4 ,dated ,october #ad1 issued ,november #bd1 #ahib4 ,published by ,bernard ,quaritch4 ,bound in limp vellum4 ,this book1 begun in ,february1 #ahib1 is the first book printed in ,troy type1 and the first in which ,chaucer type appears4 ,it is a reprint of the first book printed in ,english4 ,it had long been a favourite with ,william ,morris1 who designed a great quantity of initials and ornaments for it1 and wrote the following note for ,mr4 ,quaritch's catalogue3 ,as to the matter of the book1 it makes a thoroughly amusing story1 instinct with mediaeval thought and manners4 ,for though written at the end of the ,middle ,ages and dealing with classical mythology1 it has in it no token of the coming ,renaissance1 but is purely mediaeval4 ,it is the last issue of that story of ,troy which through the whole of the ,middle ,ages had such a hold on men's imaginations2 the story built up from a rumour of the ,cyclic ,poets1 of the heroic ,city of ,troy1 defended by ,priam and his gallant sons1 led by ,hector the ,preux ,chevalier1 and beset by the violent and brutal ,greeks1 who were looked on as the necessary machinery for bringing about the undeniable tragedy of the fall of the ,city4 ,surely this is well worth reading1 if only as a piece of undiluted mediaevalism4 #bjjj copies of a #dto announcement1 with specimen pages1 were printed at the ,kelmscott ,press in ,december1 #ahib1 for distribution by the publisher4#aa #i4 ,biblia ,innocentium3 ,being the ,story of ,god's ,chosen ,people before the ,coming of ,our ,lord ,jesus ,christ upon ,earth4 ,written anew for children1 by ,j4 ,w4 ,,mackail1 ,sometime ,fellow of ,balliol ,college1 ,oxford4 #hvo4 ,border #b4 #bjj on paper at a guinea1 none on vellum4 ,dated ,october #bb1 issued ,december #i1 #ahib4 ,sold by ,reeves ,turner4 ,bound in stiff vellum4 ,this was the last book issued in stiff vellum except ,hand and ,soul1 and the last with untrimmed edges4 ,it was the first book printed in #hvo4 #aj4 ,the ,history of ,reynard the ,foxe4 ,by ,,william ,,caxton4 ,reprinted from his edition of #adha4 ,edited by ,h4 ,halliday ,sparling4 ,large #dto4 ,troy type1 with ,glossary in ,chaucer type4 ,in black and red4 ,borders #e;a and #g4 ,woodcut title4 #cjj on paper at three guineas1 #aj on vellum at fifteen guineas4 ,dated ,december #ae1 #ahib1 issued ,january #be1 #ahic4 ,published by ,bernard ,quaritch4 ,bound in limp vellum4 ,about this book1 which was first announced as in the press in the list dated ,july1 #ahib1 ,william ,morris wrote the following note for ,mr4 ,quaritch's catalogue3 ,this translation of ,caxton's is one of the very best of his works as to style2 and being translated from a kindred tongue is delightful as mere language4 ,in its rude joviality1 and simple and direct delineation of character1 it is a thoroughly good representative of the famous ancient ,beast ,epic4 ,the edges of this book1 and of all subsequent books1 were trimmed in accordance with the invariable practice of the early printers4 ,mr4 ,morris much preferred the trimmed edges4 #aa4 ,the ,poems of ,william ,shakespeare1 printed after the original copies of ,venus and ,adonis1 #aeic4 ,the ,rape of ,lucrece1 #aeid4 ,sonnets1 #afji4 ,the ,lover's ,complaint4 ,edited by ,f4 ,s4 ,ellis4 #hvo4 ,golden type4 ,in black and red4 ,borders #a and #b4 #ejj paper copies at twenty-five shillings1 #aj on vellum at ten guineas4 ,dated ,january #ag1 issued ,february #ac1 #ahic4 ,sold by ,reeves ,turner4 ,bound in limp vellum4 ,a trial page of this book was set up on ,november #a1 #ahib4 ,though the number was large1 this has become one of the rarest books issued from the ,press4#ab #ab4 ,news from ,nowhere3 or1 ,an ,epoch of ,rest1 ,being ,some ,chapters from a ,utopian ,romance4 ,by ,,william ,,morris4 #hvo4 ,golden type4 ,in black and red4 ,borders #i;a and #d1 and a woodcut engraved by ,w4 ,h4 ,hooper from a design by ,c4 ,m4 ,gere4 #cjj on paper at two guineas1 #aj on vellum at ten guineas4 ,dated ,november #bb1 #ahib1 issued ,march #bd1 #ahic4 ,sold by ,reeves ,turner4 ,bound in limp vellum4 ,the text of this book was printed before ,shakespeare's ,poems and ,sonnets1 but it was kept back for the frontispiece1 which is a picture of the old manor-house in the village of ,kelmscott by the upper ,thames1 from which the ,press took its name4 ,it was set up from a copy of one of ,reeves ,turner's editions1 and in reading it for the press the author made a few slight corrections4 ,it was the last book except the ,savonarola 7,no4 #ca7 in which he used the old paragraph mark ,illustration1 which was discarded in favour of the leaves1 which had already been used in the two large #dto books printed in the ,troy type4 #ac4 ,the ,order of ,chivalry4 ,translated from the ,french by ,william ,caxton and reprinted from his edition of #adhd4 ,edited by ,f4 ,s4 ,ellis4 ,and ,l',ordene de ,chevalerie1 with translation by ,william ,morris4 ,small #dto4 ,chaucer type1 in black and red4 ,borders #i;a and #d1 and a woodcut designed by ,sir ,edward ,burne-,jones4 #bbe on paper at thirty shillings1 #aj on vellum at ten guineas4 ,the ,order of ,chivalry dated ,november #aj1 #ahib1 ,l',ordene de ,chevalerie dated ,february #bd1 #ahic1 issued ,april #ab1 #ahic4 ,sold by ,reeves ,turner4 ,bound in limp vellum4 ,this was the last book printed in small #dto4 ,the last section is in #hvo4 ,it was the first book printed in the ,chaucer type4 ,the reprint from ,caxton was finished while ,news from ,nowhere was in the press1 and before ,shakespeare's ,poems and ,sonnets was begun4 ,the ,french poem and its translation were added as an afterthought1 and have a separate colophon4 ,some of the three-line initials which were designed for ,the ,well at the ,world's ,end are used in the ,french poem1 and this is their first appearance4 ,the translation was begun on ,december #c1 #ahib1 and the border round the frontispiece was designed on ,february #ac1 #ahic4 #ad4 ,the ,life of ,thomas ,woolsey1 ,cardinal ,archbishop of ,york4 ,written by ,,george ,,cavendish4 ,edited by ,f4 ,s4 ,ellis from the author's autograph ,,ms4 #hvo4 ,golden type4 ,border #a4 #bej on paper at two guineas1 #f on vellum at ten guineas4 ,dated ,march #cj1 issued ,may #c1 #ahic4 ,sold by ,reeves ,turner4 ,bound in limp vellum4 #ae4 ,the ,history of ,godefrey of ,boloyne and of the ,conquest of ,iherusalem4 ,reprinted from ,caxton's edition of #ahda4 ,edited by ,h4 ,halliday ,sparling4 ,large #dto4 ,troy type1 with list of chapter headings and glossary in ,chaucer type4 ,in black and red4 ,borders #e;a and #e1 and woodcut title4 #cjj on paper at six guineas1 #f on vellum at twenty guineas4 ,dated ,april #bg1 issued ,may #bd1 #ahic4 ,published by ,william ,morris at the ,kelmscott ,press4 ,bound in limp vellum4 ,this was the fifth and last of the ,caxton reprints1 with many new ornaments and initials1 and a new printer's mark4 ,it was first announced as in the press in the list dated ,december1 #ahib4 ,it was the first book published and sold at the ,kelmscott ,press4 ,an announcement and order form1 with two different specimen pages1 was printed at the ,press1 besides a special invoice4 ,a few copies were bound in half holland1 not for sale4 #af4 ,utopia4 ,written by ,,sir ,,thomas ,,more4 ,a reprint of the second edition of ,ralph ,robinson's translation1 with a foreword by ,william ,morris4#ac ,edited by ,f4 ,s4 ,ellis4 #hvo4 ,chaucer type1 with the reprinted title in ,troy type4 ,in black and red4 ,borders #d and #b4 #cjj on paper at thirty shillings1 #h on vellum at ten guineas4 ,dated ,august #d1 issued ,september #h1 #ahic4 ,sold by ,reeves ,turner4 ,bound in limp vellum4 ,this book was first announced as in the press in the list dated ,may #bj1 #ahic4 #ag4 ,maud1 ,a ,monodrama4 ,by ,,alfred1 ,,lord ,,tennyson4 #hvo4 ,golden type4 ,in black and red4 ,borders #aj;a and #aj1 and woodcut title4 #ejj on paper at two guineas1 #e on vellum1 not for sale4 ,dated ,august #aa1 issued ,september #cj1 #ahic4 ,published by ,macmillan ,co4 ,bound in limp vellum4 ,the borders were specially designed for this book4 ,they were both used again in the ,keats1 and one of them appears in ,the ,saundering ,flood4 ,it is the first of the #hvo books with a woodcut title4 #ah4 ,gothic ,architecture3 ,a ,lecture for the ,arts and ,crafts ,exhibition ,society4 ,by ,,william ,,morris4 #afmo4 ,golden type4 ,in black and red4 #aejj on paper at two shillings and sixpence1 #de on vellum at ten and fifteen shillings4 ,bound in half holland4 ,this lecture was set up at ,hammersmith and printed at the ,new ,gallery during the ,arts and ,crafts ,exhibition in ,october and ,november1 #ahic4 ,the first copies were ready on ,october #bast and the book was twice reprinted before the ,exhibition closed4 ,it was the first book printed in #afmo4 ,the four-line initials used in it appear here for the first time4 ,the vellum copies were sold during the ,exhibition at ten shillings1 and the price was subsequently raised to fifteen shillings4#ad #ai4 ,sidonia the ,sorceress4 ,by ,,william ,,meinhold4 ,translated by ,francesca ,speranza1 ,lady ,wilde4 ,large #dto4 ,golden type4 ,in black and red4 ,border #h4 #cjj paper copies at four guineas1 #aj on vellum at twenty guineas4 ,dated ,september #ae1 issued ,november #a1 #ahic4 ,published by ,william ,morris4 ,bound in limp vellum4 ,before the publication of this book a large #dto announcement and order form was issued1 with a specimen page and an interesting description of the book and its author1 written and signed by ,william ,morris4 ,some copies were bound in half holland not for sale4 #bj4 ,ballads and ,narrative ,poems by ,dante ,gabriel ,rossetti4 #hvo4 ,golden type4 ,in black and red4 ,borders #d;a and #d1 and woodcut title4 #caj on paper at two guineas1 #f on vellum at ten guineas4 ,dated ,october #ad1 issued in ,november1 #ahic4 ,published by ,ellis ,elvey4 ,bound in limp vellum4 ,this book was announced as in preparation in the list of ,august #a1 #ahic4 #ba4 ,the ,tale of ,king ,florus and the ,fair ,jehane4 ,translated by ,william ,morris from the ,french of the #acth century4 #afmo4 ,chaucer type4 ,in black and red4 ,borders #aa;a and #aa1 and woodcut title4 #cej on paper at seven shillings and sixpence1 #ae on vellum at thirty shillings4 ,dated ,december #af1 issued ,december #bh1 #ahic4 ,published by ,william ,morris4 ,bound in half holland4 ,this story1 like the three other translations with which it is uniform1 was taken from a little volume called ,nouvelles ,francoises en prose du ,x,i,i,ie siecle1 ,paris1 ,jannet1 #ahef4 ,they were first announced as in preparation under the heading ,french ,tales in the list dated ,may #bj1 #ahic4 ,eighty-five copies of ,king ,florus were bought by ,j4 ,m4 ,l4 ,tregaskis1 who had them bound in all parts of the world4 ,these are now in the ,rylands ,library at ,manchester4 #bb4 ,the ,story of the ,glittering ,plain4 ,which has been also called ,the ,land of ,living ,men or ,the ,acre of the ,undying4 ,written by ,,william ,,morris4 ,large #dto4 ,troy type1 with list of chapters in ,chaucer type4 ,in black and red4 ,borders #ab;a and #ab1 #bc designs by ,walter ,crane1 engraved by ,a4 ,leverett1 and a woodcut title4 #bej on paper at five guineas1 #g on vellum at twenty pounds4 ,dated ,january #ac1 issued ,february #ag1 #ahid4 ,published by ,william ,morris4 ,bound in limp vellum4 ,neither the borders in this book nor six out of the seven frames round the illustrations appear in any other book4 ,the seventh is used round the second picture in ,love is ,enough4 ,a few copies were bound in half holland4 #bc4 ,of the ,friendship of ,amis and ,amile4 ,done out of the ancient ,french by ,,william ,,morris4 #afmo4 ,chaucer type4 ,in black and red4 ,borders #aa;a and #aa1 and woodcut title4 #ejj on paper at seven shillings and sixpence1 #ae on vellum at thirty shillings4 ,dated ,march #acth1 issued ,april #d1 #ahid4 ,published by ,william ,morris4 ,bound in half holland4#ae ,a poem entitled ,amys and ,amillion1 founded on this story1 was originally to have appeared in the second volume of the ,earthly ,paradise1 but1 like some other poems announced at the same time1 it was not included in the book4 #bj;a4 ,sonnets and ,lyrical ,poems by ,dante ,gabriel ,rossetti4 #hvo4 ,golden type4 ,in black and red4 ,borders #a;a and #a1 and woodcut title4 #caj on paper at two guineas1 #f on vellum at ten guineas4 ,dated ,february #bj1 issued ,april #ba1 #ahid4 ,published by ,ellis ,elvey4 ,bound in limp vellum4 ,this book is uniform with ,no4 #bj1 to which it forms a sequel4 ,both volumes were read for the press by ,mr4 ,w4 ,m4 ,rossetti4 #bd4 ,the ,poems of ,john ,keats4 ,edited by ,f4 ,s4 ,ellis4 #hvo4 ,golden type4 ,in black and red4 ,borders #aj;a and #aj1 and woodcut title4 #cjj on paper at thirty shillings1 #g on vellum at nine guineas4 ,dated ,march #g1 issued ,may #h1 #ahid4 ,published by ,william ,morris4 ,bound in limp vellum4 ,this is now 7,january1 #ahih7 the most sought after of all the smaller ,kelmscott ,press books4 ,it was announced as in preparation in the lists of ,may #bg and ,august #a1 #ahic1 and as in the press in that of ,march #ca1 #ahid1 when the woodcut title still remained to be printed4#af #be4 ,atalanta in ,calydon3 ,a ,tragedy4 ,by ,,algernon ,,charles ,,swinburne4 ,large #dto4 ,troy type1 with argument and dramatis personae in ,chaucer type2 the dedication and quotation from ,euripides in ,greek type designed by ,selwyn ,image4 ,in black and red4 ,borders #e;a and #e1 and woodcut title4 #bej on paper at two guineas1 #h on vellum at twelve guineas4 ,dated ,may #d1 issued ,july #bd1 #ahid4 ,published by ,william ,morris4 ,bound in limp vellum4 ,in the vellum copies of this book the colophon is not on the eighty-second page as in the paper copies1 but on the following page4 #bf4 ,the ,tale of the ,emperor ,coustans and of ,over ,sea4 ,done out of ancient ,french by ,,william ,,morris4 #afmo4 ,chaucer type4 ,in black and red4 ,borders #aa;a and #aa1 both twice1 and two woodcut titles4 #ebe on paper at seven shillings and sixpence1 #bj on vellum at two guineas4 ,dated ,august #cj1 issued ,september #bf1 #ahid4 ,published by ,william ,morris4 ,bound in half holland4 ,the first of these stories1 which was the source of ,the ,man ,born to be ,king in ,the ,earthly ,paradise1 was announced as in preparation in the list of ,march #ca1 #ahid4 #bg4 ,the ,wood ,beyond the ,world4 ,by ,,william ,,morris4 #hvo4 ,chaucer type4 ,in black and red4 ,borders #ac;a and #ac1 and a frontispiece designed by ,sir ,e4 ,burne-,jones1 and engraved on wood by ,w4 ,spielmeyer4 #cej on paper at two guineas1 #h on vellum at ten guineas4 ,dated ,may #cj1 issued ,october #af1 #ahid4 ,published by ,william ,morris4 ,bound in limp vellum4 ,the borders in this book1 as well as the ten half borders1 are here used for the first time4 ,it was first announced as in the press in the list of ,march #ca1 #ahid4 ,another edition was published by ,lawrence ,bullen in #ahie4 #bh4 ,the ,book of ,wisdom and ,lies4 ,a ,book of ,traditional ,stories from ,georgia and ,asia4 ,translated by ,oliver ,wardrop from the original of ,sulkhan-,saba ,orbeliani4 #hvo4 ,golden type4 ,in black and red4 ,borders #d;a and #d1 and woodcut title4 #bej on paper at two guineas1 none on vellum4 ,finished ,september #bj1 issued ,october #bi1 #ahid4 ,published by ,bernard ,quaritch4 ,bound in limp vellum4 ,the arms of ,georgia1 consisting of the ,holy ,coat1 appear in the woodcut title of this book4#ag #bi4 ,the ,poetical ,works of ,percy ,bysshe ,shelley4 ,volume #a4 ,edited by ,f4 ,s4 ,ellis4 #hvo4 ,golden type4 ,borders #a;a and #a1 and woodcut title4 #bej on paper at twenty-five shillings1 #f on vellum at eight guineas4 ,not dated1 issued ,november #bi1 #ahid4 ,published by ,william ,morris4 ,bound in limp vellum without ties4 ,red ink is not used in this volume1 though it is used in the second volume1 and more sparingly in the third4 ,some of the half borders designed for ,the ,wood ,beyond the ,world reappear before the longer poems4 ,the ,shelley was first announced as in the press in the list of ,march #ca1 #ahid4ah #cj4 ,psalmi ,penitentiales4 ,an ,english rhymed version of the ,seven ,penitential ,psalms4 ,edited by ,f4 ,s4 ,ellis4 #hvo4 ,chaucer type4 ,in black and red4 #cjj on paper at seven shillings and sixpence1 #ab on vellum at three guineas4 ,dated ,november #ae1 issued ,december #aj1 #ahid4 ,published by ,william ,morris4 ,bound in half holland4 ,these verses were taken from a manuscript ,book of ,hours1 written at ,gloucester in the first half of the fifteenth century1 but the ,rev4 ,professor ,skeat has pointed out that the scribe must have copied them from an older manuscript1 as they are in the ,kentish dialect of about a century earlier4 ,the half border on p4 #cd appears for the first time in this book4 #ca4 ,epistolade ,contemptumundi di ,frate ,hieronymo da ,ferrara ,dellordinede ,frati ,predicatori la ,quale ,manda ad ,elena ,buonaccorsi ,sua ,madre4 ,per ,,consolarla ,,della ,,morte ,,del ,,fratello1 ,suo ,zio4 ,edited by ,charles ,fairfax ,murray from the original autograph letter4 #hvo4 ,chaucer type4 ,in black and red4 ,border #a4 ,woodcut on title designed by ,c4 ,f4 ,murray and engraved by ,w4 ,h4 ,hooper4 #aej on paper and #f on vellum4 ,dated ,november #cj1 ready ,december #ab1 #ahid4 ,bound in half holland4 ,this little book was printed for ,mr4 ,c4 ,fairfax ,murray1 the owner of the manuscript1 and was not for sale in the ordinary way4 ,the colophon is in ,italian1 and the printer's mark is in red4 #cb4 ,the ,tale of ,beowulf4 ,done out of the old ,english tongue by ,,william ,,morris and ,a4 ,j4 ,,wyatt4 ,large #dto4 ,troy type1 with argument1 side-notes1 list of persons and places1 and glossary in ,chaucer type4 ,in black and red4 ,borders #ad;a and #ad1 and woodcut title4 #cjj on paper at two guineas1 #h on vellum at ten pounds4 ,dated ,january #aj1 issued ,february #b1 #ahie4 ,published by ,william ,morris4 ,bound in limp vellum4 ,the borders in this book were only used once again1 in the ,jason4 ,a note to the reader printed on a slip in the ,golden type was inserted in each copy4 ,beowulf was first announced as in preparation in the list of ,may #bj1 #ahic4 ,the verse translation was begun by ,mr4 ,morris1 with the aid of ,mr4 ,wyatt's careful paraphrase of the text1 on ,february #ba1 #ahic1 and finished on ,april #aj1 #ahid1 but the argument was not written by ,mr4 ,morris until ,december #aj1 #ahid4 #cc4 ,syr ,perecyvelle of ,gales4 ,overseen by ,f4 ,s4 ,ellis1 after the edition edited by ,j4 ,o4 ,halliwell from the ,thornton ,,ms4 in the ,library of ,lincoln ,cathedral4 #hvo4 ,chaucer type4 ,in black and red4 ,borders #ac;a and #ac1 and a woodcut designed by ,sir ,e4 ,burne-,jones4 #cej on paper at fifteen shillings1 #h on vellum four guineas4 ,dated ,february #af1 issued ,may #b1 #ahie4 ,published by ,william ,morris4 ,bound in limp vellum4 ,this is the first of the series to which ,sire ,degrevaunt and ,syr ,isumbrace belong4 ,they were all reprinted from the ,camden ,society's volume of #ahdd1 which was a favourite with ,mr4 ,morris from his ,oxford days4 ,syr ,perecyvelle was first announced in the list of ,december #a1 #ahid4 ,the shoulder-notes were added by ,mr4 ,morris4 #cd4 ,the ,life and ,death of ,jason1 ,a ,poem by ,,william ,,morris4 ,large #dto4 ,troy type1 with a few words in ,chaucer type4 ,in black and red4 ,borders #ad;a and #ad1 and two woodcuts designed by ,sir ,e4 ,burne-,jones and engraved on wood by ,w4 ,spielmeyer4 #bjj on paper at five guineas1 #f on vellum at twenty guineas4 ,dated ,may #be1 issued ,july #e1 #ahie4 ,published by ,william ,morris4 ,bound in limp vellum4 ,this book1 announced as in the press in the list of ,april #ba1 #ahid1 proceeded slowly1 as several other books1 notably the ,chaucer1 were being printed at the same time4 ,the text1 which had been corrected for the second edition of #ahfh1 and for the edition of #ahhb1 was again revised by the author4 ,the line fillings on the last page were cut on metal for the book1 and cast like type4 #bi;a4 ,the ,poetical ,works of ,percy ,bysshe ,shelley4 ,volume #aa4 ,edited by ,f4 ,s4 ,ellis4 #hvo4 ,golden type4 ,in black and red4 #bej on paper at twenty-five shillings1 #f on vellum at eight guineas4 ,not dated1 issued ,march #be1 #ahie4 ,published by ,william ,morris1 ,bound in limp vellum without ties4 #ce4 ,child ,christopher and ,goldilind the ,fair4 ,by ,,william ,,morris4 #b vols4 #afmo4 ,chaucer type4 ,in black and red4 ,borders #ae;a and #ae1 and woodcut title4 #fjj on paper at fifteen shillings1 #ab on vellum at four guineas4 ,dated ,july #be1 issued ,september #be1 #ahie4 ,published by ,william ,morris4 ,bound in half holland1 with labels printed in the ,golden type4 ,the borders designed for this book were only used once again1 in ,hand and ,soul4 ,the plot of the story was suggested by that of ,havelok the ,dane1 printed by the ,early ,english ,text ,society4 #bi;b4 ,the ,poetical ,works of ,percy ,bysshe ,shelley4 ,volume ,,iii4 ,edited by ,f4 ,s4 ,ellis4 #hvo4 ,golden type4 ,in black and red4 #bej on paper at twenty-five shillings1 #f on vellum at eight guineas4 ,dated ,august #ba1 issued ,october #bh1 #ahie4 ,published by ,william ,morris4 ,bound in limp vellum without ties4 #cf4 ,hand and ,soul4 ,by ,,dante ,,gabriel ,,rossetti4 ,reprinted from ,the ,germ1 for ,messrs4 ,way ,williams1 of ,chicago4 #afmo4 ,golden type4 ,in black and red4 ,borders #ae;a and #ae1 and woodcut title4 #cjj paper copies and #aa vellum copies for ,america4 #bbe paper copies for sale in ,england at ten shillings1 and #aj on vellum at thirty shillings4 ,dated ,october #bd1 issued ,december #ab1 #ahie4 ,bound in stiff vellum1 without ties4 ,this was the only #afmo book bound in vellum4 ,the ,english and ,american copies have a slightly different colophon4 ,the shoulder-notes were added by ,mr4 ,morris4 #cg4 ,poems ,chosen out of the ,works of ,robert ,herrick4 ,edited by ,f4 ,s4 ,ellis4 #hvo4 ,golden type4 ,in black and red4 ,borders #d;a and #d1 and woodcut title4 #bej on paper at thirty shillings1 #h on vellum at eight guineas4 ,dated ,november #ba1 #ahie1 issued ,february #f1 #ahif4 ,published by ,william ,morris4 ,bound in limp vellum4 ,this book was first announced as in preparation in the list of ,december #a1 #ahid1 and as in the press in that of ,july #a1 #ahie4 #ch4 ,poems ,chosen out of the ,works of ,samuel ,taylor ,coleridge4 ,edited by ,f4 ,s4 ,ellis4 #hvo4 ,golden type4 ,in black and red4 ,borders #ac;a and #ac4 #cjj on paper at a guinea1 #h on vellum at five guineas4 ,dated ,february #e1 issued ,april #ab1 #ahif4 ,published by ,william ,morris4 ,bound in limp vellum4#ai ,this book contains thirteen poems4 ,it was first announced as in preparation in the list of ,december #a1 #ahid1 and as in the press in that of ,november #bf1 #ahie4 ,it is the last of the series to which ,tennyson's ,maud1 and the poems of ,rossetti1 ,keats1 ,shelley1 and ,herrick belong4 #ci4 ,the ,well at the ,world's ,end4 ,by ,,william ,,morris4 ,large #dto4 ,double columns4 ,chaucer type4 ,in black and red4 ,borders #af;a1 #af1 #ag;a1 #ag1 #ah;a1 #ah1 #ai;a1 #ai1 and four woodcuts designed by ,sir ,e4 ,burne-,jones4 #cej on paper at five guineas1 #h on vellum at twenty guineas4 ,dated ,march #b1 issued ,june #d1 #ahif4 ,sold by ,william ,morris4 ,bound in limp vellum4 ,this book1 delayed for various reasons1 was longer on hand than any other4 ,it appears in no less than twelve lists1 from that of ,december1 #ahib1 to that of ,november #bf1 #ahie1 as in the press4 ,trial pages1 including one in a single column1 were ready as early as ,september1 #ahib1 and the printing began on ,december #afth1 of that year4 ,the edition of ,the ,well at the ,world's ,end1 published by ,longmans1 was then being printed from the author's manuscript at the ,chiswick ,press1 and the ,kelmscott ,press edition was set up from the sheets of that edition1 which1 though not issued until ,october1 #ahif1 was finished in #ahid4 ,the eight borders and the six different ornaments between the columns appear here for the first time1 but are used again in ,the ,water of the ,wondrous ,isles1 with the exception of two borders4 #dj4 ,the ,works of ,geoffrey ,chaucer4 ,edited by ,f4 ,s4 ,ellis4 ,folio4 ,chaucer type1 with headings to the longer poems in ,troy type4 ,in black and red4 ,borders #bj;a to #bf1 woodcut title1 and eighty-seven woodcut illustrations designed by ,sir ,e4 ,burne-,jones4 #dbe on paper at twenty pounds1 #ac on vellum at #abj guineas4 ,dated ,may #h1 issued ,june #bf1 #ahif4 ,published by ,william ,morris4 ,bound in half holland4 ,the history of this book1 which is by far the most important achievement of the ,kelmscott ,press1 is as follows3 ,as far back as ,june #aa1 #ahia1 ,mr4 ,morris spoke of printing a ,chaucer with a black-letter fount1 which he hoped to design4 ,four months later1 when most of the ,troy type was designed and cut1 he expressed his intention to use it first on ,john ,ball1 and then on a ,chaucer1 and perhaps a ,gesta ,romanorum4 ,by ,january #a1 #ahib1 the ,troy type was delivered1 and early in that month two trial pages1 one from ,the ,cook's ,tale and one from ,sir ,thopas1 the latter in double columns1 were got out4 ,it then became evident that the type was too large for a ,chaucer1 and ,mr4 ,morris decided to have it re-cut in the size known as pica4 ,by the end of ,june he was thus in possession of the type which1 in the list issued in ,december1 #ahib1 he named the ,chaucer type4 ,in ,july1 #ahib1 another trial page1 a passage from ,the ,knight's ,tale1 in double columns of fifty-eight lines1 was got out1 and found to be satisfactory4 ,the idea of the ,chaucer as it now exists1 with illustrations by ,sir ,edward ,burne-,jones1 then took definite shape4 ,in a proof of the first list1 dated ,april1 #ahib1 there is an announcement of the book as in preparation1 in black-letter1 large quarto1 but this was struck out1 and does not appear in the list as printed in ,may1 nor yet in the ,july list4 ,in that for ,december1 #ahib1 it is announced for the first time as to be in ,chaucer type with about sixty designs by ,e4 ,burne-,jones4 ,the next list1 dated ,march #i1 #ahic1 states that it will be a folio1 and that it is in the press1 by which was meant that a few pages were in type4 ,in the list dated ,august #a1 #ahic1 the probable price is given as twenty pounds4 ,the next four lists contain no fresh information1 but on ,august #ag1 #ahid1 nine days after the first sheet was printed1 a notice was sent to the trade that there would be #cbe copies at twenty pounds1 and about sixty woodcut designs by ,sir ,edward ,burne-,jones4 ,three months later it was decided to increase the number of illustrations to upwards of seventy1 and to print another #ajj copies of the book4 ,a circular letter was sent to the subscribers on ,november #adth1 stating this1 and giving them an opportunity of cancelling their orders4 ,orders were not withdrawn1 the extra copies were immediately taken up1 and the list for ,december #a1 #ahid1 which is the first containing full particulars1 announces that all paper copies are sold4#bj ,mr4 ,morris began designing his first folio border on ,february #a1 #ahic1 but was dissatisfied with the design and did not finish it4 ,three days later he began the vine border for the first page1 and finished it in about a week1 together with the initial word ,whan1 the two lines of heading1 and the frame for the first picture1 and ,mr4 ,hooper engraved the whole of these on one block4 ,the first picture was engraved at about the same time4 ,a specimen of the first page 7differing slightly from the same page as it appears in the book7 was shown at the ,arts and ,crafts ,exhibition in ,october and ,november1 #ahic1 and was issued to a few leading booksellers1 but it was not until ,august #h1 #ahid1 that the first sheet was printed at #ad1 ,upper ,mall4 ,on ,january #h1 #ahie1 another press was started at #ba1 ,upper ,mall1 and from that time two presses were almost exclusively at work on the ,chaucer4 ,by ,september #ajth1 the last page of ,the ,romaunt of the ,rose was printed4 ,in the middle of ,february1 #ahif1 ,mr4 ,morris began designing the title4 ,it was finished on the #bgth of the same month and engraved by ,mr4 ,hooper in ,march4 ,on ,may #hth1 a year and nine months after the printing of the first sheet1 the book was completed4 ,on ,june #bnd1 the first two copies were delivered to ,sir ,edward ,burne-,jones and ,mr4 ,morris4 ,mr4 ,morris's copy is now at ,exeter ,college1 ,oxford1 with other books printed at the ,kelmscott ,press4 ,besides the eighty-seven illustrations designed by ,sir ,edward ,burne-,jones1 and engraved by ,w4 ,h4 ,hooper1 the ,chaucer contains a woodcut title1 fourteen large borders1 eighteen different frames around the illustrations1 and twenty-six large initial words designed for the book by ,william ,morris4 ,many of these were engraved by ,c4 ,e4 ,keats1 and others by ,w4 ,h4 ,hooper and ,w4 ,spielmeyer4 ,in ,february1 #ahif1 a notice was issued respecting special bindings1 of which ,mr4 ,morris intended to design four4 ,two of these were to have been executed under ,mr4 ,cobden-,sanderson's direction at the ,doves ,bindery1 and two by ,messrs4 ,j4 ,j4 ,leighton4 ,but the only design that he was able to complete was for a full white pigskin binding1 which has now been carried out at the ,doves ,bindery on forty-eight copies1 including two on vellum4#ba #da4 ,the ,earthly ,paradise4 ,by ,,william ,,morris4 ,volume ,i4 ,prologue3 ,the ,wanderers4 ,march3 ,atalanta's ,race4 ,the ,man ,born to be ,king4 ,medium #dto4 ,golden type4 ,in black and red4 ,borders #bg;a1 #bg1 #bh;a1 and #bh1 and woodcut title4 #bbe on paper at thirty shillings1 #f on vellum at seven guineas4 ,dated ,may #g1 issued ,july #bd1 #ahif4 ,published by ,william ,morris4 ,bound in limp vellum4 ,this was the first book printed on the paper with the apple water-mark4 ,the seven other volumes followed it at intervals of a few months4 ,none of the ten borders used in the ,earthly ,paradise appear in any other book4 ,the four different half-borders round the poems to the months are also not used elsewhere4 ,the first border was designed in ,june1 #ahie4 #db4 ,laudes ,beatae ,mariae ,virginis4 ,latin poems taken from a ,psalter written in ,england about ,a4,d4 #abbj4 ,edited by ,s4 ,c4 ,cockerell4 ,large #dto4 ,troy type4 ,in black1 red1 and blue4 #bej on paper at ten shillings1 #aj on vellum at two guineas4 ,dated ,july #g1 issued ,august #g1 #ahif4 ,published by ,william ,morris4 ,bound in half holland4 ,this was the first book printed at the ,kelmscott ,press in three colours4#bb ,the manuscript from which the poems were taken was one of the most beautiful of the ,english books in ,mr4 ,morris's possession1 both as regards writing and ornament4 ,no author's name is given to the poems1 but after this book was issued the ,rev4 ,e4 ,s4 ,dewick pointed out that they had already been printed at ,tegernsee in #aegi1 in a #afmo volume in which they are ascribed to ,stephen ,langton4 ,a note to this effect was printed in the ,chaucer type in ,december #bh1 #ahif1 and distributed to the subscribers4 #da;a4 ,the ,earthly ,paradise4 ,by ,,william ,,morris4 ,volume ,,ii4 ,april3 ,the ,doom of ,king ,acrisius4 ,the ,proud ,king4 ,medium #dto4 ,golden type4 ,in black and red4 ,borders #bi;a1 #bi1 #bh;a1 and #bh4 #bbe on paper at thirty shillings1 #f on vellum at seven guineas4 ,dated ,june #bd1 issued ,september #ag1 #ahif4 ,published by ,william ,morris4 ,bound in limp vellum4 #dc4 ,the ,floure and the ,leafe1 and ,the ,boke of ,cupide1 ,god of ,love1 or ,the ,cuckow and the ,nightingale4 ,edited by ,f4 ,s4 ,ellis4 ,medium #dto4 ,troy type1 with note and colophon in ,chaucer type4 ,in black and red4 #cjj on paper at ten shillings1 #aj on vellum at two guineas4 ,dated ,august #ba1 issued ,november #b1 #ahif4 ,published at the ,kelmscott ,press4 ,bound in half holland4 ,two of the initial words from the ,chaucer are used in this book1 one at the beginning of each poem4 ,these poems were formerly attributed to ,chaucer1 but recent scholarship has proved that ,the ,floure and the ,leafe is much later than ,chaucer1 and that ,the ,cuckow and the ,nightingale was written by ,sir ,thomas ,clanvowe about ,a4,d4 #adje-aj4 #dd4 ,the ,shepheardes ,calender3 ,conteyning ,twelve ,aeglogues1 ,proportionable to the ,twelve ,monethes4 ,by ,,edmund ,,spencer4 ,edited by ,f4 ,s4 ,ellis4 ,medium #dto4 ,golden type4 ,in black and red4 ,with twelve full page illustrations by ,a4 ,j4 ,gaskin4 #bbe on paper at a guinea1 #f on vellum at three guineas4 ,dated ,october #ad1 issued ,november #bf1 #ahif4 ,published at the ,kelmscott ,press4 ,bound in half holland4 ,the illustrations in this book were printed from process blocks by ,walker ,boutall4 ,by an oversight1 the names of author1 editor1 and artist were omitted from the colophon4 #da;b4 ,the ,earthly ,paradise4 ,by ,,william ,,morris4 ,volume ,,iii4 ,may3 ,the ,story of ,cupid and ,psyche4 ,the ,writing on the ,image4 ,june3 ,the ,love of ,alcestis4 ,the ,lady of the ,land4 ,medium #dto4 ,golden type4 ,in black and red4 ,borders #cj;a1 #cj1 #bg;a1 #bg1 #bh;a1 #bh1 #bi;a1 and #bi4 #bbe on paper at thirty shillings1 #f on vellum at seven guineas4 ,dated ,august #bd1 issued ,december #e1 #ahif4 ,published at the ,kelmscott ,press4 ,bound in limp vellum4 #da;c4 ,the ,earthly ,paradise4 ,by ,,william ,,morris4 ,volume ,,iv4 ,july3 ,the ,son of ,croesus4 ,the ,watching of the ,falcon4 ,august3 ,pygmalion and the ,image4 ,ogier the ,dane4 ,medium #dto4 ,golden type4 ,in black and red4 ,borders #ca;a1 #ca1 #bi;a1 #bi1 #bh;a1 #bh1 #cj;a1 and #cj4 ,dated ,november #be1 #ahif1 issued ,january #bb1 #ahig4 ,published at the ,kelmscott ,press4 ,bound in limp vellum4 #da;d4 ,the ,earthly ,paradise4 ,by ,,william ,,morris4 ,volume ,v4 ,september4 ,the ,death of ,paris4 ,the ,land ,east of the ,sun and ,west of the ,moon4 ,october3 ,the ,story of ,acontius and ,cydippe4 ,the ,man ,who ,never ,laughed ,again4 ,medium #dto4 ,golden type4 ,in black and red4 ,borders #bi;a1 #bi1 #bg;a1 #bg1 #bh;a1 #bh1 #ca;a1 and #ca4 ,finished ,december #bd1 #ahif1 issued ,march #i1 #ahig4 ,published at the ,kelmscott ,press4 ,bound in limp vellum4 #da;e4 ,the ,earthly ,paradise4 ,by ,,william ,,morris4 ,volume ,,vi4 ,november3 ,the ,story of ,rhodope4 ,the ,lovers of ,gudrun4 ,medium #dto4 ,golden type4 ,in black and red4 ,borders #bg;a1 #bg1 #cj;a1 and #cj4 ,finished ,february #ah1 issued ,may #aa1 #ahig4 ,published at the ,kelmscott ,press4 ,bound in limp vellum4 #da;f4 ,the ,earthly ,paradise4 ,by ,,william ,,morris4 ,volume ,,vii4 ,december3 ,the ,golden ,apples4 ,the ,fostering of ,aslaug4 ,january3 ,bellerophon at ,argos4 ,the ,ring ,given to ,venus4 ,medium #dto4 ,golden type4 ,in black and red4 ,borders #bi;a1 #bi1 #ca;a1 #ca1 #cj;a1 #cj1 #bg;a1 and #bg4 ,finished ,march #ag1 issued ,july #bi1 #ahig4 ,published at the ,kelmscott ,press4 ,bound in limp vellum4 #de4 ,the ,water of the ,wondrous ,isles4 ,by ,,william ,,morris4 ,large #dto4 ,chaucer type1 in double columns1 with a few lines in ,troy type at the end of each of the seven parts4 ,in black and red4 ,borders #af;a1 #ag;a1 #ah;a1 #ai1 and #ai;a4 #bej on paper at three guineas1 #f on vellum at twelve guineas4 ,dated ,april #a1 issued ,july #bi1 #ahig4 ,published at the ,kelmscott ,press4 ,bound in limp vellum4 ,unlike ,the ,well at the ,world's ,end1 with which it is mainly uniform1 this book has red shoulder-notes and no illustrations4 ,mr4 ,morris began the story in verse on ,february #d1 #ahie4 ,a few days later he began it afresh in alternate prose and verse2 but he was again dissatisfied1 and finally began it a third time in prose alone1 as it now stands4 ,it was first announced as in the press in the list of ,june #a1 #ahif1 at which date the early chapters were in type1 although they were not printed until about a month later4 ,the designs for the initial words ,whilom and ,empty were begun by ,william ,morris shortly before his death1 and were finished by ,r4 ,catterson-,smith4 ,another edition was published by ,longmans on ,october #a1 #ahig4 #da;g4 ,the ,earthly ,paradise4 ,by ,,william ,,morris4 ,volume ,,viii4 ,february3 ,bellerophon in ,lycia4 ,the ,hill of ,venus4 ,epilogue4 ,l',envoi4 ,medium #dto4 ,golden type4 ,in black and red4 ,borders #bh;a1 #bh1 #bi;a1 and #bi4 ,finished ,june #aj1 issued ,september #bg1 #ahig4 ,published at the ,kelmscott ,press4 ,bound in limp vellum4 ,the colophon of this final volume of ,the ,earthly ,paradise contains the following note3 ,the borders in this edition of ,the ,earthly ,paradise were designed by ,william ,morris1 except those on page #d of ,volumes ii41 iii41 and iv41 afterwards repeated1 which were designed to match the opposite borders1 under ,william ,morris's direction1 by ,r4 ,catterson-,smith1 who also finished the initial words ',whilom' and ',empty' for ,the ,water of the ,wondrous ,isles4 ,all the other letters1 borders1 title-pages1 and ornaments used at the ,kelmscott ,press1 except the ,greek type in ,atalanta in ,calydon1 were designed by ,william ,morris4 #df4 ,two trial pages of the projected edition of ,lord ,berners's ,translation of ,froissart's ,chronicles4 ,folio4 ,chaucer type1 with heading in ,troy type4 ,in black and red4 ,border #cb1 containing the shields of ,france1 the ,empire1 and ,england1 and a half-border containing those of ,reginald1 ,lord ,cobham1 ,sir ,john ,chandos1 and ,sir ,walter ,manny4 #afj on vellum at a guinea1 none on paper4 ,dated ,september1 issued ,october #g1 #ahig4 ,published at the ,kelmscott ,press4 ,not bound4 ,it was the intention of ,mr4 ,morris to make this edition of what was since his college days almost his favourite book a worthy companion to the ,chaucer4 ,it was to have been in two volumes folio1 with new cusped initials and heraldic ornament throughout4 ,each volume was to have had a large frontispiece designed by ,sir ,edward ,burne-,jones2 the subject of the first was to have been ,st4 ,george1 that of the second ,fame4 ,a trial page was set up in the ,troy type soon after it came from the foundry1 in ,january1 #ahib4 ,early in #ahic trial pages were set up in the ,chaucer type1 and in the list for ,march #ith of that year the book is erroneously stated to be in the press4 ,in the three following lists it is announced as in preparation4 ,in the list dated ,december #a1 #ahic1 and in the three next lists1 it is again announced as in the press1 and the number to be printed is given as #aej4 ,meanwhile the printing of the ,chaucer had been begun1 and as it was not feasible to carry on two folios at the same time1 the ,froissart again comes under the heading in preparation in the lists from ,december #a1 #ahid1 to ,june #a1 #ahif4 ,in the prospectus of ,the ,shepheardes ,calender1 dated ,november #ab1 #ahif1 it is announced as abandoned4 ,at that time about thirty-four pages were in type1 but no sheet had been printed4 ,before the type was broken up1 on ,december #bd1 #ahif1 thirty-two copies of sixteen of these pages were printed and given as a memento to personal friends of the poet and printer whose death now made the completion of the book impossible4 ,this suggested the idea of printing two pages for wider distribution4 ,the half-border had been engraved in ,april1 #ahid1 by ,w4 ,spielmeyer1 but the large border only existed as a drawing4 ,it was engraved with great skill and spirit by ,c4 ,e4 ,keates1 and the two pages were printed by ,stephen ,mowlem1 with the help of an apprentice1 in a manner worthy of the designs4 #dg4 ,sire ,degrevaunt4 ,edited by ,f4 ,s4 ,ellis after the edition printed by ,j4 ,o4 ,halliwell4 #hvo4 ,chaucer type4 ,in black and red4 ,borders #a;a and #a1 and a woodcut designed by ,sir ,edward ,burne-,jones4 #cej on paper at fifteen shillings1 #h on vellum at four guineas4 ,dated ,march #ad1 #ahif1 issued ,november #ab1 #ahig4 ,published at the ,kelmscott ,press4 ,bound in half holland4 ,this book1 subjects from which were painted by ,sir ,edward ,burne-,jones on the walls of the ,red ,house1 ,upton1 ,bexley ,heath1 many years ago1 was always a favourite with ,mr4 ,morris4 ,the frontispiece was not printed until ,october1 #ahig1 eighteen months after the text was finished4 #dh4 ,syr ,ysambrace4 ,edited by ,f4 ,s4 ,ellis after the edition printed by ,j4 ,o4 ,halliwell from the ,,ms1 in the ,library of ,lincoln ,cathedral1 with some corrections4 #hvo4 ,chaucer type4 ,in black and red4 ,borders #d;a and #d1 and a woodcut designed by ,sir ,edward ,burne-,jones4 #cej on paper at twelve shillings1 #h on vellum at four guineas4 ,dated ,july #ad1 issued ,november #aa1 #ahig4 ,published at the ,kelmscott ,press4 ,bound in half holland4 ,this is the third and last of the reprints from the ,camden ,society's volume of ,thornton ,romances4 ,the text was all set up and partly printed by ,june1 #ahif1 at which time it was intended to include ,sir ,eglamour in the same volume4 #di4 ,some ,german ,woodcuts of the ,fifteenth ,century4 ,being thirty-five reproductions from books that were in the library of the late ,william ,morris4 ,edited1 with a list of the principal woodcut books in that library1 by ,s4 ,c4 ,cockerell4 ,large #dto4 ,golden type4 ,in red and black4 #bbe on paper at thirty shillings1 #h on vellum at five guineas4 ,dated ,december #ae1 #ahig1 issued ,january #f1 #ahih4 ,published at the ,kelmscott ,press4 ,bound in half holland4 ,of these thirty-five reproductions twenty-nine were all that were done of a series chosen by ,mr4 ,morris to illustrate a catalogue of his library1 and the other six were prepared by him for an article in the fourth number of ,bibliographical part of which is reprinted as an introduction to the book4 ,the process blocks 7with one exception7 were made by ,walker ,boutall1 and are of the same size as the original cuts4 #ej4 ,the ,story of ,sigurd the ,volsung and the ,fall of the ,niblungs4 ,by ,,william ,,morris4 ,small folio4 ,chaucer type1 with title and headings to the four books in ,troy type4 ,in black and red4 ,borders #cc;a and #cc1 and two illustrations designed by ,sir ,edward ,burne-,jones and engraved by ,w4 ,h4 ,hooper4 #afj on paper at six guineas1 #f on vellum at twenty guineas4 ,dated ,january #ai1 issued ,february #be1 #ahih4 ,published at the ,kelmscott ,press4 ,bound in limp vellum1 with blue silk ties4 ,the two borders used in this book were almost the last that ,mr4 ,morris designed4 ,they were intended for an edition of ,the ,hill of ,venus1 which was to have been written in prose by him and illustrated by ,sir ,edward ,burne-,jones4 ,the foliage was suggested by the ornament in two ,psalters of the last half of the thirteenth century in the library at ,kelmscott ,house4 ,the initial ,a at the beginning of the third book was designed in ,march1 #ahic1 for the ,froissart1 and does not appear elsewhere4 ,an edition of ,sigurd the ,volsung1 which ,mr4 ,morris justly considered his masterpiece1 was contemplated early in the history of the ,kelmscott ,press4 ,an announcement appears in a proof of the first list1 dated ,april1 #ahib1 but it was excluded from the list as issued in ,may4 ,it did not reappear until the list of ,november #bf1 #ahie1 in which1 the ,chaucer being near its completion1 ,sigurd comes under the heading in preparation1 as a folio in ,troy type1 with about twenty-five illustrations by ,sir ,edward ,burne-,jones4 ,in the list of ,june #a1 #ahif1 it is finally announced as ,in the press1 the number of illustrations is increased to forty1 and other particulars are given4 ,four borders had then been designed for it1 two of which were used on pages #dgj and #dga of the ,chaucer4 ,the other two have not been used1 though one of them has been engraved4 ,two pages only were in type1 thirty-two copies of which were struck off on ,january #aa1 #ahig1 and given to friends1 with the sixteen pages of ,froissart mentioned above4 #ea4 ,the ,sundering ,flood4 ,written by ,,william ,,morris4 ,overseen for the press by ,may ,morris4 #hvo4 ,chaucer type4 ,in black and red4 ,border #aj1 and a map4 #cjj on paper at two guineas4 ,dated ,november #ae1 #ahig1 issued ,february #be1 #ahih4 ,published at the ,kelmscott ,press4 ,bound in half holland4 ,this was the last romance by ,william ,morris4 ,he began to write it on ,december #ba1 #ahie1 and dictated the final words on ,september #h1 #ahif4 ,the map pasted into the cover was drawn by ,h4 ,cribb for ,walker ,boutall1 who prepared the block4 ,in the edition that ,longmans are about to issue the bands of robbers called in the ,kelmscott edition ,red and ,black ,skinners appear correctly as ,red and ,black ,skimmers4 ,the name was probably suggested by that of the pirates called escumours of the sea on page #aed of ,godfrey of ,boloyne4 #eb4 ,love is ,enough1 or the ,freeing of ,pharamond2 ,a ,morality4 ,written by ,william ,morris4 ,large #dto4 ,troy type1 with stage directions in ,chaucer type4 ,in black1 red1 and blue4 ,borders #f;a and #g1 and two illustrations designed by ,sir ,edward ,burne-,jones4 #cjj on paper at two guineas1 #h on vellum at ten guineas4 ,dated ,december #aa1 #ahig1 issued ,march #bd1 #ahih4 ,published at the ,kelmscott ,press4 ,bound in limp vellum4 ,this was the second book printed in three colours at the ,kelmscott ,press4 ,as explained in the colophon1 the final picture was not designed for this particular edition4 #ec4 ,a ,note by ,william ,morris on his ,aims in ,founding the ,kelmscott ,press4 ,together with a ,short ,description of the ,press1 by ,s4 ,c4 ,,cockerell4 ,and an ,annotated ,list of the ,books ,printed ,thereat4 ,octavo4 ,golden type1 with five pages in the ,troy and ,chaucer types4 ,in black and red4 ,borders #d;a and #d1 and a woodcut designed by ,sir ,e4 ,burne-,jones4 #ebe on paper at ten shillings1 #ab on vellum at two guineas4 ,dated ,march #d1 issued ,march #bd1 #ahih4 ,published at the ,kelmscott ,press4 ,bound in half holland4 ,various ,lists1 ,leaflets1 and ,announcements ,printed at the ,kelmscott ,press3 ,eighteen lists of the books printed or in preparation at the ,kelmscott ,press were issued to booksellers and subscribers4 ,the dates of these are ,may1 ,july1 and ,december1 #ahib2 ,march #i1 ,may #bj1 ,may #bg1 ,august #a1 and ,december #a1 #ahic2 ,march #ca1 ,april #ba1 ,july #b1 ,october #a 7a leaflet71 and ,december #a1 #ahid2 ,july #a and ,november #bf1 #ahie2 ,june #a1 #ahif2 ,february #af and ,july #bh1 #ahig4 ,the three lists for #ahib1 and some copies of that for ,march #i1 #ahic1 were printed on ,whatman paper1 the last of the stock bought for the first edition of ,the ,roots of the ,mountains4 ,besides these1 twenty-nine announcements1 relating mainly to individual books1 were issued2 and eight leaflets1 containing extracts from the lists1 were printed for distribution by ,messrs4 ,morris ,co4 ,the following items1 as having a more permanent interest than most of these announcements1 merit a full description3 #a4 ,two forms of invitation to the annual gatherings of the ,hammersmith ,socialist ,society on ,january #cj1 #ahib1 and ,february #aa1 #ahic4 ,golden type4 #b4 ,a four-page leaflet for the ,ancoats ,brotherhood1 with the frontispiece from the ,kelmscott ,press edition of ,a ,dream of ,john ,ball on the first page4 ,march1 #ahi ,golden type4 #bejj copies4 #c4 ,an address to ,sir ,lowthian ,bell1 ,bart41 from his employees1 dated #cjth ,june1 #ahid4 ,eight pages4 ,golden type4 #bej on paper and #b on vellum4 #d4 ,a leaflet1 with fly-leaf1 headed ,an ,american ,memorial to ,keats1 together with a form of invitation to the unveiling of his bust in ,hampstead ,parish ,church on ,july #af1 #ahid4 ,golden type4 #gej copies4 #e4 ,a slip giving the text of a memorial tablet to ,dr4 ,thomas ,sadler1 for distribution at the unveiling of it in ,rosslyn ,hill ,chapel1 ,hampstead4 ,november1 #ahid4 ,golden type4 #dej copies4 #f4 ,scholarship certificates for the technical ,education ,board of the ,london ,county ,council1 printed in the oblong borders designed for the pictures in ,chaucer's ,works4 ,one of these borders was not used in the book1 and this is its only appearance4 ,the first certificate was printed in ,november1 #ahid1 and was followed in ,january1 #ahif1 by eleven certificates2 in ,january1 #ahig1 by six certificates2 and in ,february1 #ahih1 by eleven certificates1 all differently worded4 ,golden type4 ,the numbers varied from #ab to #bejj copies4 #g4 ,programmes of the ,kelmscott ,press annual ,wayzgoose for the years #ahib-ie4 ,these were printed without supervision from ,mr4 ,morris4 #h4 ,specimen showing the three types used at the ,press for insertion in the first edition of ,strange's ,alphabets ,march1 #ahie4 #bjjj ordinary copies and #fj on large paper4 #i4 ,cards for ,associates of the ,deaconess ,institution for the ,diocese of ,rochester4 ,one side of this card is printed in ,chaucer type2 on the other there is a prayer in the ,troy type enclosed in a small border which was not used elsewhere4 ,it was designed for the illustrations of a projected edition of ,the ,house of the ,wolfings1 ,april1 #ahig4 #bej copies4 ,,index4 ,a ,a,eneid1 ,the1 #abb-abd1 #add ,a,eschylus1 #bfb ,agamemnon1 ,browning's1 #abd ,allingham1 ,william1 #db1 #dh1 #gj ,amiens ,cathedral1 article on1 by ,morris1 #cd1 #cf-ci ,amis and ,amile1 translation by ,morris1 #bbi ,archbishop of ,canterbury1 #agg ,aristophanes1 #bfb ,arnold1 ,matthew1 #adi ,arts and ,crafts ,exhibition ,society1 ,the1 #aia ,art ,worker's ,guild1 ,the1 #aib ,atalanta in ,calydon1 ,swinburne's1 #bbi ,athenaeum1 ,the1 #aeb ,b ,bagehot1 ,walter1 quoted1 #cf ,ballads and ,narrative ,poems1 ,rossetti's1 #bbi ,batchelor1 ,mr41 #bba ,bax1 ,e4 ,belfort1 #bah ,beata ,beatrix1 picture by ,rossetti1 #ee ,beauty of ,life1 ,the1 ,morris's lecture on1 #fe ,belgium1 #aaj ,beowulf1 ,the ,tale of1 #bcj1 #bca1 #bfb ,besant1 ,mrs41 #ahj ,bethel1 ,alfred1 article on1 by ,morris1 #cd ,bible1 the1 #bfb ,biblia ,innocentium1 ,mackail's1 #bbh ,bibliographical ,society1 ,the1 #aib ,birkbeck ,hill1 ,dr41 #dg1 #gc ,birmingham ,society of ,artists1 lecture to1 #fb ,blackburn1 #afh ,blake1 ,william1 #bfc ,bloody ,sunday1 #agi ,boccaccio1 #bfc ,book of ,wisdom and ,lies1 ,the1 #bcj ,borrow1 ,george1 #bfc ,british ,museum1 the woodblocks of ,kelmscott ,press in possession of1 #bce ,brown1 ,madox1 #aac ,browning1 ,robert1 his poems1 #cg1 #ci1 #dj1 #eg-ei ,bryant1 ,william ,cullen1 his translation of ,the ,odyssey compared with ,morris's translation1 #adb ,bulgaria1 #adf ,burne-,jones1 ,edward1 #a2 his first meeting with ,morris1 #bc1 #bd2 the beginning of his art1 #bf2 his trip with ,morris and ,fulford through ,northern ,france1 #bf1 #bg2 his decision to leave college and study art1 #bg2 his admiration for ,rossetti1 #bf1 #bg et seq4 ,bury ,wood1 #ae1 #af ,byron1 #bcf ,c ,cambridge ,university ,library1 #bba ,canterbury ,cathedral1 ,morris's early visit to1 #f ,canterbury ,tales1 ,the1 #aae ,captain ,singleton1 #bfc ,carlyle1 ,thomas1 #bd1 #aej1 #bfc ,carmagnole1 ,the1 song1 #agh ,carpets1 #hi ,catterson-,smith1 ,r41 #bcc ,catullus1 #bfb ,chants for ,socialists1 #bah ,chartres1 #bg ,chaucer1 #aae1 #aaf1 #aai1 #acg1 #bca-bcd1 #bcg1 #bch1 #bef1 #bfb ,chaucer type1 the1 #bbd ,child ,christopher and ,goldilands the ,fair1 #bca ,chingford ,hotel1 #ae ,chiswick ,press1 the1 #cc1 #bje1 #bjf ,clarke1 ,william1 #aff ,clay ,road1 #ae ,cockerell1 ,s4 ,c41 #bcd ,coleridge's ,poems1 selection from1 by ,morris1 #bcb1 #bfc ,colonel ,jack1 #bfc ,colour1 ,morris's opinions on1 #hc1 #hd1 #ib ,commonweal1 ,the1 organ of the ,socialist ,league1 #age1 #ahc1 #ahe1 #aie1 #bja1 #bjc1 #bji1 #baj1 #bah ,crane1 ,walter1 #age1 #aib1 #bbi ,d ,daily ,chronicle1 ,the1 ,morris's letters to1 concerning ,epping ,forest1 #ab-ah2 letter by ,morris on ,socialism1 #ahf-ahi ,daily ,news1 ,the1 quotation from1 #adf-adh ,daisy ,chain1 ,the1 its influence on ,morris1 #bd ,dante1 #bfb ,day1 ,lewis1 #ca1 #gh ,defence of ,guenevere1 ,the1 #ed1 #ei1 #bbh ,democratic ,federation1 the1 #aeg1 #afh1 #agj1 #agd1 #ahj ,de ,vinne1 ,th41 on the ,kelmscott ,press1 #bbd ,dickens1 ,charles1 #bfc ,dixon1 ,canon1 #cd ,dream of ,john ,ball1 ,a1 #aie1 #bja-bjc1 #bbh ,dumas1 ,alexandre1 #bfc ,duerer1 #bfa ,dyes1 ,morris's preferences in1 #ia ,e ,earthly ,paradise1 ,the1 #ei1 #aae1 #aaf-abj1 #add1 #bai1 #bcc ,eastern ,question ,association1 ,the1 #adh ,edda1 ,the1 #bfb ,ellis1 ,f4 ,s41 #bba-bcb1 #bcg ,english ,illustrated ,magazine1 ,the1 #bah ,epistola de ,contemptu ,mundi1 #bcj ,epping ,forest1 ,morris's early familiarity with1 #g1 #aa2 his letters concerning its destruction1 #aa-ah ,erewhon1 ,kingsley's1 #afc ,eve of ,crecy1 poem by ,morris1 #ee ,exeter ,college1 #aic ,exile1 ,the1 #bfb ,eyrbyggja ,saga1 ,the1 #add ,f ,fair ,mead ,bottom1 #ae ,farringdon ,road1 #aja1 #agg ,faulkner1 ,charles1 #dg1 #gj1 #gc1 #ajh1 #aaa1 #bfc ,floure and the ,leafe1 ,the1 #bcc ,forman1 ,buxton1 #bje1 #bjf ,freeman1 ,e4 ,a41 #adi ,froissart1 #eg1 #bcc ,g ,germ1 ,the1 #cc ,gertha's ,lovers1 #cf ,ghirlandata1 ,the1 picture by ,rossetti1 #ee ,giotto1 #bfa ,gisli1 #aji ,glasgow1 #afh ,glittering ,plain1 ,the1 #bba1 #bbi1 #bdf1 #bdh ,godefrey of ,boloyne1 ,caxton's history of1 #bbh ,golden ,legend1 ,caxton's1 #bba1 #bbc1 #bbg1 #bbh ,golden type1 the1 #bba ,goldilocks and ,goldilocks1 #g1 #bbh ,good ,king ,wenceslas1 ballad printed at the ,kelmscott ,press1 #d1 #e ,gothic ,architecture1 lecture by ,morris1 #bbh ,green1 ,j4 ,r41 #adi ,grettir1 #aji ,grimm1 #bfc ,gudrun1 #aji ,h ,hammersmith1 #ig1 #ajg1 #ajh1 #agf1 #aha1 #beg ,hammersmith ,socialist ,society1 ,the1 #ahe1 #ahi ,hand and ,soul1 ,rossetti's1 #bca ,hardy ,norseman's ,home of ,yore1 #adi ,havre1 #bg ,heir of ,redclyffe1 ,the1 #bd ,herodotus1 #bfb ,herrick's ,poems1 #bca ,hesiod1 #bfb ,high ,beach1 #ag ,history of ,florence1 ,arezzo's1 #bbj ,history of ,oversea1 translated by ,morris1 #bcj ,historyes of ,troye1 ,caxton's1 #bbc1 #bbh ,hollow ,land1 ,the1 #cf1 #dj ,homer1 #bfb ,hornbeams1 ,morris's liking for1 #ac ,house of the ,wolfings1 ,the1 #aie1 #bjc-bje1 #bjg1 #bci1 #bdf ,huckleberry ,finn1 #bfc ,hughes1 ,arthur1 #di ,hugo1 ,victor1 #bfc ,i ,iceland1 ,morris's first voyage to1 #ajh-aaj2 second voyage1 #aaj ,idylls of the ,king1 ,tennyson's1 #abf1 #acf ,irish ,national ,league1 ,the1 #ahj ,j ,jorrocks1 ,mr41 #bfc ,justice1 organ of the ,democratic ,federation1 #afh1 #afi ,k ,kalevala1 #bfb ,keats1 ,john1 #bd1 #bg1 #cd1 #bbi1 #bch1 #bfc ,kelmscott ,church1 #beh ,kelmscott ,house1 #ajh1 #bba ,kelmscott ,books1 prices of1 #bch ,kelmscott ,manor ,house1 #aja-ajh ,kelmscott ,press1 ,the1 #agg1 #bai-bci1 #bee ,king's ,lesson1 ,a1 #bjc ,kingsley1 ,charles1 #bd1 #be ,koburger1 ,anthony1 #bbc ,l ,lang1 ,andrew1 #abb-abd ,laudes ,beatae ,mariae ,virginis1 #bcc ,laxdaela ,saga1 ,the1 #aaf ,lechlade1 #aja ,leeds1 #afh ,leicester1 #afh ,leonardo1 #bfa ,lesser ,arts1 ,the1 lecture by ,morris on1 #id ,life and ,death of ,jason1 ,the1 #aad1 #bca1 #bch ,life of ,cardinal ,wolsey1 ,cavendish's1 #bbh ,linnell1 ,alfred1 #ahj1 #aha ,looking ,backward1 ,bellamy's1 #bji ,loughton1 #ae ,love is ,enough1 #abj-abb1 #bai1 #bcd ,lovers of ,gudrun1 ,the1 #aaf ,lowell1 ,j4 ,r41 quoted1 #eg1 #bbi ,lucretius1 #bfb ,m ,mabinogion1 #bfc ,mackail1 ,mr41 #bd1 #cc1 #fb1 #ga1 #ig1 #aaj1 #aaa1 #abj1 #abb1 #aej1 #aia1 #aic1 #bbi1 #bfc ,maeterlinck1 ,morris compared to1 #eg ,madox-,brown1 ,ford1 #gj ,magnusson1 ,mr41 #ajh1 #abe ,mahabbarata1 #bfb ,making the ,best of ,it1 lecture by ,morris on house-decoration1 #hc ,manchester1 #afh ,marlborough ,college1 ,morris a student in1 #f1 #i ,marshall1 ,peter ,paul1 #gj ,maud1 ,tennyson's1 #bbh ,meinhold1 ,william1 #bbi ,men and ,women1 ,browning's1 reviewed by ,morris1 #cd1 #ci ,merton ,abbey1 #age1 #aij ,milton1 #bfc ,moll ,flanders1 #bfc ,monk ,wood1 #ae ,morris1 ,may 7,mrs4 ,sparling71 daughter of ,wm4 ,morris1 #agg ,morris1 ,mrs41 wife of ,william ,morris1 #ea1 #ec1 #ei1 #ff ,morris and ,co41 #fi2 formation of the firm1 #fi2 prospectus of1 #ga1 #gb2 dissolution of1 #aaa-aac ,morte d',arthur1 painting from1 at ,oxford ,union1 #di1 #bfc ,murray1 ,fairfax1 #bcj ,n ,nature of the ,gothic1 ,the1 #afj1 #bbh ,newcomes1 ,the1 quotation from1 #cj ,newman1 ,jno41 #be ,news from ,nowhere1 #ih1 #ajb2 quotation from1 #ajc-ajg1 #afc-afe1 #aie1 #bjj1 #bji-bab1 #bac1 #bch1 #beh ,nibelungen ,lied1 #bfb ,njal1 #aji ,o ,odyssey1 ,the1 #adb-add1 #baj ,old ,story ,retold1 ,an1 see ,a ,king's ,lesson ,omar ,khayyam1 #bfb ,orbeliani1 ,sulkhan-,saba1 #bcj ,order of ,chivalry1 ,the1 ,caxton's translation of1 #bbh ,ordination of ,knighthood1 ,morris's translation of1 #bbh ,ovid1 #bfb ,oxford1 #aia2 ,morris's life at1 #a-bi2 abuses at1 #bb-bc1 #ca1 #da1 #afh1 #aic ,oxford and ,cambridge ,magazine1 ,the1 #cc ,oxford ,union1 paintings for1 #di-eb1 #ed ,p ,pall-,mall ,gazette1 ,the1 #ahi1 #bfa ,paper used at ,kelmscott ,press1 #bbb ,patmore1 ,coventry1 on ,oxford ,union paintings1 #eb1 #abj ,penitential ,psalms1 ,the1 #bcj ,pennell1 ,joseph1 #aha ,percyvelle of ,gales1 ,syr1 #bca ,piers ,plowman1 #bfb ,pilgrims of ,hope1 ,the1 poem by ,morris1 #aie-bja ,pilgrim's ,progress1 #bfc ,plato1 #bfb ,pliny1 ,jensen's #bbj ,poems1 ,keats's1 #bbi ,poems1 ,shakespeare's1 #bbh ,poems by the ,way1 #g1 #bbg ,pollen1 ,j4 ,hungerford1 #di ,praise of ,my ,lady1 poem by ,morris1 #eb1 #ec ,prinsep1 ,valentine1 #di ,prioress's ,tale1 ,the1 ,burne-,jones's paintings from1 #dg ,professorship of ,poetry at ,oxford1 ,morris declines1 #adi ,proserpine1 picture by ,rossetti1 #ed ,pugin1 #ca ,q ,queen ,square1 ,morris's residence in1 #ig1 #aja ,quest1 ,the1 article by ,morris in1 #ajb ,r ,raphael1 #bfa ,rapunzel1 poem by ,morris1 #eg ,red ,lion ,square1 #df1 #ga1 #ha ,red ,house1 ,the1 #fa-fh1 #if1 #ig1 #aja1 #aad ,rembrandt1 #bfa ,restoration of ancient buildings1 #cb ,reynard the ,fox1 #bfc ,robinson ,crusoe1 #bfc ,robinson1 ,ralph1 #bac1 #bbh ,rome1 #fa ,roots of the ,mountains1 ,the1 #aie1 #bjg-bji1 #bdf ,rosamond1 ,swinburne's1 #ed ,rossetti1 ,dante ,gabriel1 #a1 #i1 #bg2 ,morris's first meeting with1 #dj-db2 his service to ,morris1 #dc-df2 at ,oxford1 #di-ea2 and ,jane ,burden1 #ea2 ,the ,defence of ,guenevere dedicated to1 #ed1 #ee2 his part in the formation of the firm ,morris1 ,marshall1 ,faulkner1 ,co41 #fi-gd2 at ,kelmscott1 #aja-ajc1 #ajh2 his attitude respecting the dissolution of the firm1 #aaa-aac2 his ,hand and ,soul1 #bca ,rossetti1 ,william1 #gj1 #aab1 #aac ,rubaiyat of ,omar ,khayyam1 ,the1 #add ,rubens1 ,jacobus1 #bbj ,ruin1 ,the1 #bfb ,ruskin1 #ai1 #bc1 #bd1 #bg1 #aea1 #afj1 #bfc ,s ,st4 ,mark's ,cathedral1 #aed ,savernake ,forest1 ,morris's early familiarity with1 #g ,savonarola1 #bcj ,schoeffer1 ,peter1 #bbc ,scott1 ,gilbert1 #ca1 #aeb ,scott1 ,walter1 #e1 #ai1 #bfc ,shahnameh1 #bfb ,shakespeare1 #bd1 #acg ,shaw1 ,bernard1 on ,nupkins ,awakened1 #ca1 #agi ,shelley1 ,percy ,bysshe1 #bd1 #aja1 #bcj1 #bfc ,shepherde's ,calender1 ,the1 #bcc ,sidonia the ,sorceress1 ,lady ,wilde's1 #bbh ,signs of ,change1 lectures by ,morris1 #bah ,sigurd1 #aji ,sir ,galahad1 #ed ,sire ,degravaunt1 #ff1 #bcd ,socialism1 #afb-bah ,socialism from the ,root ,up1 book by ,morris and ,bax1 #bah ,socialist ,league1 ,the1 #age-agg1 #ahj1 #ahb1 #ahe ,society for ,protection of ,ancient ,buildings1 ,the1 #aec1 #aeg ,society of ,antiquaries1 #aib ,sophocles1 #bfb ,spectator1 ,the1 letter from ,morris in1 #beb ,stanhope1 ,spencer1 #di ,stanmore ,tapestry1 ,the1 #ii ,stead1 ,william1 #bfc ,stevenson1 ,robert ,louis1 his letter to his father1 #i1 #abd ,stones of ,venice1 ,the1 #bg1 #afj1 #bbh ,story of the ,glittering ,plain1 ,the1 #aji1 #bah1 #bbg1 #bdc ,story of ,sigur the ,volsung1 ,the1 #abe-adb1 #add1 #adf1 #bbg1 #bcd1 #bch ,street1 ,george ,edmund1 #ca1 #db1 #fc ,sundering ,flood1 ,the1 #bcd1 #bci1 #bdj1 #bdb1 #beg ,surts-hellir1 cave at1 #aji ,svend and his ,brethren1 #cf1 #cg ,swainslow1 #bef ,swinburne1 ,a4 ,c41 #bbi ,syr ,ysambrace1 #bcd ,t ,tables ,turned1 ,the2 or1 ,nupkins ,awakened1 farce by ,morris1 #agg ,tale of the ,emperor ,constans1 ,the1 translated by ,morris1 #bcj ,tale of ,king ,florus and ,fair ,tehane1 translated by ,morris1 #bbg ,taylor1 ,george ,warrington1 ,morris's business manager1 #ig ,tennyson1 ,alfred1 #bd1 #agg ,teutonic ,mythology1 #bfc ,tewkesbury1 restoration of the ,abbey ,church at1 #aeb ,thackeray1 ,william ,m41 #bd ,theocritus1 #bfb ,thousand and ,one ,nights1 ,the1 #bfc ,three ,northern ,love-,stories and ,other ,tales1 translations by ,morris1 #abe ,trafalgar ,square1 #afa1 #agi-aha ,troy ,type1 ,the1 #bbc1 #bbe ,tyndall1 ,prof41 #agg ,u ,uncle ,remus1 #bfc ,upton1 ,morris's residence at1 #fb1 #if ,useful ,work versus ,useless ,toil1 lecture by ,morris1 #afe ,utopia1 ,more's1 #bac-bag1 #bbh1 #bfc ,v ,van ,eyck1 his motto chosen by ,morris1 #fh ,velasquez1 #bfa ,verona1 #fa ,viollet-le-,duc1 #ca ,virgil1 #abb-abd1 #bfb ,volsunga ,saga1 ,the1 #abe ,voyage ,round the ,world1 #bfc ,w ,wagner1 ,richard1 #ace1 #ada ,wake1 ,london ,lads6 ballad by ,morris1 #adh ,walker1 ,emery1 #bb1 #bje1 #bji ,wall-papers1 #ha-hc ,wallace1 ,alfred1 his suggestion that ,epping ,forest be planted with ,north ,american trees1 #aa ,walthamstow1 #c1 #aj ,wardrop1 ,oliver1 #bcj ,warren1 ,sir ,charles1 #agi ,water of the ,wondrous ,isles1 ,the1 #bcc1 #bdj1 #bde1 #bdh-bea ,watts-,dunton1 ,theodore1 #fi ,waverley ,novels1 the1 ,morris's early fondness for1 #c ,weaving1 #he1 #hf ,webb1 ,philip1 architect of the ,red ,house1 #fa1 #gj1 #ge1 #hb1 #aaa ,well at the ,world's ,end1 ,the1 #bcb1 #bde1 #bdh ,westminster ,abbey1 #aed1 #aha ,white ,horse1 ,the1 #cj ,whitney1 ,miss ,anne1 #bbi ,whittingham1 ,charles1 #cc ,wilde1 ,lady1 #bbh ,women and ,roses1 ,browning's1 #ci ,wood beyond the ,world1 ,the1 ,morris's1 #g1 #bcj1 #bdb1 #beb ,woodford ,hall1 home of the ,morrises1 #c ,working ,men's ,college1 ,burne-,jones's visit to1 #dj ,wyatt1 ,a4 ,j41 #bcj ,y ,yonge1 ,miss1 #bd ,z ,zainer1 ,gunther1 #bbc ,messrs4 ,,morris ,,company have appointed as their general agent ,mr4 ,a4 ,e4 ,bulkley of #db ,east #adth ,st41 ,new ,york ,city1 and he will be pleased to give all information respecting the various fabrics1 etc41 designed by the late ,mr4 ,morris and sold by ,,morris ,,company4 ,these may also be obtained of ,mr4 ,a4 ,h4 ,davenport1 #if-ih ,washington ,st41 ,boston4 ,,footnotes3 #a ,when the ,utopia appeared with this introduction an ,eton master who had ordered forty copies in advance1 intending the books to be used as prizes for the boys in his school1 withdrew his order1 ,young ,england not being allowed at that time to keep such ,socialistic company4 #b ,the trustees are now publishing the remainder of ,morris's own works in the type of the ,kelmscott ,press1 though without the ornaments1 that a uniform edition may be had4 #c ,the reader here is expected to note the correspondence between the names of the ladies and the titles of their lovers1 and the same correspondence is carried out in the colour of the ladies' garments and the armour of the knights4 #d ,lewis ,f4 ,day4 #e ,this bibliography is reprinted1 with certain slight additions1 from the bibliography prepared by ,s4 ,c4 ,cockerell for the monograph entitled1 ,a ,note by ,william ,morris on his ,aims in ,founding the ,kelmscott ,press4 #f ,at the ,ellis ,sale 7#aija7 a presentation vellum copy brought ,l#aad4 #g ,the first sheet was printed on the #b;d of ,march1 the last on the #dth of ,april4 #h ,at the ,ellis ,sale a presentation vellum copy brought ,l#fj4 #i ,in this line as it originally stood1 dawn was the rhyme provided for corn4 ,in the new line the rhyme for corn is daylight new-born2 but ,mr4 ,buxton ,forman writes that ,morris was wont to declare that ,no ,south ,englishman makes any difference in ordinary talk between dawn and morn for instance4 #aj ,when ,adam dalf and ,eve span1 who was thanne the gentleman4 #aa ,this book realised at the ,ellis ,sale ,l#h4es4 for the paper copy1 and ,l#fa in vellum4 ,since its publication it has sold as low as ,l#b4aes4 for paper copies1 and ,l#bi for vellum4 #ab ,mr4 ,ellis's presentation copy sold for ,l#ia4 #ac ,this foreword is a socialist document occupying pp4 ,,iii to ,,viii4 #ad ,at the ,ellis ,sale a copy on vellum 7not presentation7 brought ,l#i4ajs4 #ae ,this story ,morris said he translated in a day and a quarter4 #af ,at the ,ellis ,sale a paper copy brought ,l#be4ajs41 while in #aijj one brought ,l#bg4es4 #ag ,mr4 ,vallance says1 ,this is noteworthy as being the sole instance of a heraldic device among the published designs of ,william ,morris4 #ah ,in the list of ,dec4 #ast1 #ahid1 the #b;d and #c;d volumes are announced to follow early in the ,new ,year4 ,the third volume did not1 however1 appear until the autumn of #ahie4 #ai ,dull red silk ties4 ,gold lettering on back4 #bj ,also that #g of the #h vellum copies have been subscribed for4 #ba ,in the prospectus the price for full white tooled pigskin binding executed under ,mr4 ,cobden-,sanderson's direction is given at ,l#ac4 #bb ,the quotations heading each stanza are in red1 the initial letters pale blue1 the remaining text in black4