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diff --git a/25574.txt b/25574.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..1e3f80b --- /dev/null +++ b/25574.txt @@ -0,0 +1,8464 @@ +Project Gutenberg's Recollections of Dante Gabriel Rossetti, by T. Hall Caine + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Recollections of Dante Gabriel Rossetti + 1883 + +Author: T. Hall Caine + +Release Date: May 23, 2008 [EBook #25574] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK RECOLLECTIONS OF ROSSETTI *** + + + + +Produced by David Widger + + + + + +RECOLLECTIONS OF DANTE GABRIEL ROSSETTI + +By T. Hall Caine + + +Roberts Brothers - 1883 + + + + +PREFACE. + +One day towards the close of 1881 Rossetti, who was then very ill, said +to me: + +"How well I remember the beginning of our correspondence, and how little +did I think it would lead to such relations between us as have ensued! I +was at the time very solitary and depressed from various causes, and +the letters of so young and ardent a well-wisher, though unknown to me +personally, brought solace." + +"Yours," I said, "were very valuable to me." + +"Mine to you were among the largest bodies of literary letters I ever +wrote, others being often letters of personal interest." + +"And so admirable in themselves," I added, "and so free from the +discussion of any but literary subjects that many of them would bear to +be printed exactly as you penned them." + +"That," he said, "will be for you some day to decide." + +This was the first hint of any intention upon my part of publishing the +letters he had written to me; indeed, this was the first moment at which +I had conceived the idea of doing so. Nothing further on the subject was +said down to the morning of the Thursday preceding the Sunday on which +he died, when we talked together for the last time on subjects of +general interest,--subsequent interviews being concerned wholly with +solicitous inquiries upon my part, in common with other anxious friends, +as to the nature of his sufferings, and the briefest answers from him. + +"How long have we been friends?" he said. + +I replied, between three and four years from my first corresponding with +him. + +"And how long did we correspond?" + +"Three years, nearly." + +"What numbers of my letters you must possess! They may perhaps even yet +be useful to you." + +From this moment I regarded the publication of his letters as in some +sort a trust; and though I must have withheld them for some years if I +had consulted my own wishes simply, I yielded to the necessity that they +should be published at once, rather than run any risk of their not been +published at all. + +What I have just said will account for the circumstance that I, the +youngest and latest of Rossetti's friends, should be the first to seem +to stand towards him in the relation of a biographer. I say _seem_ to +stand, for this is not a biography. It was always known to be Rossetti's +wish that if at any moment after his death it should appear that the +story of his life required to be written, the one friend who during many +of his later years knew him most intimately, and to whom he unlocked the +most sacred secrets of his heart, Mr. Theodore Watts, should write it, +unless indeed it were undertaken by his brother William. But though +I know that whenever Mr. Watts sets pen to paper in pursuance of +such purpose, and in fulfilment of such charge, he will afford us a +recognisable portrait of the man, vivified by picturesque illustration, +the like of which few other writers could compass, I also know from +what Rossetti often told me of his friend's immersion in all kinds and +varieties of life, that years (perhaps many years) may elapse before +such a biography is given to the world. My own book is, I trust, exactly +what it purports to be: a volume of Recollections, interwoven with +letters and criticism, and preceded by such a summary of the leading +facts in Rossetti's life as seems necessary for the elucidation of +subsequent records. I have drawn Rossetti precisely as I found him in +each stage of our friendship, exhibiting his many contradictions of +character, extenuating nothing, and, I need hardly add, setting down +naught in malice. Up to this moment I have never inquired of myself +whether to those who have known little or nothing of Rossetti +hitherto, mine will seem to be on the whole favourable or unfavourable +portraiture; but I have trusted my admiration of the poet and affection +for the friend to penetrate with kindly and appreciative feeling every +comment I have had to offer. I was attracted to Rossetti in the first +case by ardent love of his genius, and retained to him ultimately by +love of the man. As I have said in the course of these Recollections, +it was largely his unhappiness that held me, with others, as by a spell, +and only too sadly in this particular did he in his last year realise +his own picture of Dante at Verona: + + Yet of the twofold life he led + In chainless thought and fettered will + Some glimpses reach us,--somewhat still + Of the steep stairs and bitter bread,-- + Of the soul's quest whose stern avow + For years had made him haggard now. + +I am sensible of the difficulty and delicacy of the task I have +undertaken, involving, as it does, many interests and issues; and in +every reference to surviving relatives as well as to other persons now +living, with whom Rossetti was in any way allied, I have exercised in +all friendliness the best judgment at my command. + +Clement's Inn, October 1882. + + *** It has not been thought necessary to attach dates to the + letters printed in this volume, for not only would the + difficulty of doing so be great, owing to the fact that + Rossetti rarely dated his letters, but the utility of dates + in such a case would be doubtful, because the substance of + what is said is often quite impersonal, and, where + otherwise, is almost independent of the time of production. + It may be sufficient to say that the letters were written in + the years 1879,1880, and 1881. + + + + +CONTENTS + + +CHAPTER I. + +Gabriele Rossetti--Boyhood--The pre-Raphaelite Movement--Early +Manhood--The Blessed Damozel--Jenny--Sister Helen--The Translations--The +House of Life--The Germ--Oxford and Cambridge Magazine--Blackfriars +Bridge--Married Life + + +CHAPTER II. + +Chelsea--Chloral--Dante's Dream--Recovery of the Poems--Poems--The +Contemporary Controversy--Mr. Theodore Watts--Rose Mary--The +White Ship--The King's Tragedy--Poetic Continuations--Cloud +Confines--Journalistic Slanders + + +CHAPTER III. + +Early Intercourse--Poetic Impulses--Beginning of Correspondence--Early +Letters + + +CHAPTER IV. + +Inedited Poems--Inedited Ballads--Additions to Sister Helen--Hand +and Soul--St. Agnes of Intercession--Catholic Opinion--Rossetti's +Catholicism--Cloud Confines--The Portrait + + +CHAPTER V. + +Coleridge--Wordsworth--Lamb and Coleridge--Charles Wells--Keats--Leigh +Hunt and Keats--Keats's Sister + + +CHAPTER VI. + +Chatterton--Oliver Madox Brown--Gilchrist's Blake--George Gilfillan--Old +Periodicals--A Rustic Poet--Art and Politics--Letters in Biography + + +CHAPTER VII. + +Cheyne Walk--The House--First Meeting--Rossetti's Personality--His +Reading--The Painter's Craft--Mr. Ruskin--Rossetti's Sensitiveness--His +Garden--His Library + + +CHAPTER VIII. + +English Sonnets--Sonnet Structure--Shakspeare's Sonnets--Wells's +Sonnet--Charles Whitehead--Ebenezer Jones--Mr. W. M. Rossetti--A New +Sonnet--Mr. W. Davies--Canon Dixon--Miss Christina Rossetti--The Bride's +Prelude--The Supernatural in Poetry + + +CHAPTER IX. + +Last Days--Vale of St John--In the Lake Country--Return to +London--London--Birchington + + + + +RECOLLECTIONS OF DANTE GABRIEL ROSSETTI + + + + +CHAPTER I. + +Dante Gabriel Rossetti was the eldest son of Gabriele Rossetti and +Frances Polidori, daughter of Alfieri's secretary, and sister of the +young physician who travelled with Lord Byron. Gabriele Rossetti was a +native of Yasto, in the district of the Abruzzi, kingdom of Naples. +He was a patriotic poet of very considerable distinction; and, as a +politician, took a part in extorting from Ferdinand I. the Constitution +of 1820. After the failure of the Neapolitan insurrection, owing to +the treachery of the King (who asked leave of absence on a pretext +of ill-health, and returned with an overwhelming Austrian army), the +insurrectionists were compelled to fly. Some of them fell victims; +others lay long in concealment. Rossetti was one of the latter; and, +while he was in hiding, Sir Graham Moore, the English admiral, was lying +with an English fleet in the bay. The wife of the admiral had long been +a warm admirer of the patriotic hymns of Rossetti, and, when she learned +his danger, she prevailed with her husband to make efforts to save him. +Sir Graham thereupon set out with another English officer to the place +of concealment, habited the poet in an English uniform, placed him +between them in a carriage, and put him aboard a ship that sailed next +day to Malta, where he obtained the friendship of the governor, John +Hookham Frere, by whose agency valuable introductions were procured, and +ultimately Rossetti established himself in England. Arrived in London +about 1823, he lived a cheerful life as an exile, though deprived of the +advantages of his Italian reputation. He married in 1826, and his eldest +son was born May 12, 1828, in Charlotte Street, Portland Place, London. +He was appointed Professor of Italian at King's College, and died in +1854. His house was for years the constant resort of Italian refugees; +and the son used to say that it was from observation of these visitors +of his father that he depicted the principal personage of his _Last +Confession_. He did not live to see the returning glories of his country +or the consummation we have witnessed of that great movement founded +upon the principles for which he fought and suffered. His present +position in Italy as a poet and patriot is a high one, a medal having +been struck in his honour. An effort is even now afoot to erect a statue +to him in his native place, and one of the last occasions upon which +the son put pen to paper was when trying to make a reminiscent rough +portrait for the use of the sculptor. Gabriele Rossetti spent his last +years in the study of Dante, and his works on the subject are unique, +exhibiting a peculiar view of Dante's conception of Beatrice, which +he believed to be purely ideal, and employed solely for purposes of +speculative and political disquisition. Something of this interpretation +was fixed undoubtedly upon the personage by Dante himself in his later +writings, but whether the change were the result of a maturer and more +complicated state of thought, and whether the real and ideal characters +of Beatrice may not be compatible, are questions which the poetic mind +will not consider it possible to decide. Coleridge, no doubt, took a +fair view of Rossetti's theory when he said: "Rossetti's view of Dante's +meaning is in great part just, but he has pushed it beyond all bounds of +common sense. How could a poet--and such a poet as Dante--have written +the details of the allegory as conjectured by Rossetti? The boundaries +between his allegory and his pure picturesque are plain enough, I think, +at first reading." It was, doubtless, due to his devotion to studies of +the Florentine that Gabriele Rossetti named after him his eldest son. + +Dante Gabriel Rossetti, whose full baptismal name was Gabriel Charles +Dante, was educated principally at King's College School, London, and +there attained to a moderate proficiency in the ordinary classical +school-learning, besides a knowledge of French, which throughout life he +spoke well. He learned at home some rudimentary German; Italian he had +acquired at a very early age. There has always been some playful mention +of certain tragedies and translations upon which he exercised himself +from the ages of five to fifteen years; but it is hardly necessary +to say that he himself never attached value to these efforts of his +precocity; he even displayed, occasionally, a little irritation upon +hearing them spoken of as remarkable youthful achievements. + +One of these productions of his adolescence, Sir Hugh the Heron, has +been so frequently alluded to, that it seems necessary to tell the story +of it, as the author himself, in conversation, was accustomed to do. At +about twelve years of age, the young poet wrote a scrap of a poem under +this title, and then cast it aside. His grandfather, Polidori, had seen +the fragment, however, and had conceived a much higher opinion of +its merits than even the natural vanity of the young author himself +permitted him to entertain. It had then become one of the grandfather's +amusements to set up an amateur printing-press in his own house, and +occupy his leisure in publishing little volumes of original verse for +semi-public circulation. He urged his grandson to finish the poem +in question, promising it, in a completed state, the dignity and +distinction of type. Prompted by hope of this hitherto unexpected +reward, Rossetti--then thirteen to fourteen years of age--finished +the juvenile epic, and some bound copies of it got abroad. No more was +thought of the matter, and in due time the little bard had forgotten +that he had ever done it. But when a genuine distinction had been earned +by poetry that was in no way immature, Rossetti discovered, by +the gratuitous revelation of a friend, that a copy of the youthful +production--privately printed and never published--was actually in the +library of the British Museum. Amazed, and indeed appalled as he was by +this disclosure, he was powerless to remedy the evil, which he foresaw +would some day lead to the poem being unearthed to his injury, and +printed as a part of his work. The utmost he could do to avert +the threatened mischief he did, and this was to make an entry in a +commonplace-book which he kept for such uses, explaining the origin and +history of the poem, and expressing a conviction that it seemed to him +to be remarkable only from its entire paucity of even ordinary poetic +promise. But while this was indubitably a just estimate of these boyish +efforts, it is no doubt true, as we shall presently see, that Rossetti's +genius matured itself early in life. + +Whilst still a child, his love of literature exhibited itself, and a +story is told of a disaster occurring to him, when rather less than nine +years of age, which affords amusing proof of the ardour of his poetic +nature. Upon going with his brother and sisters to the house of his +grandfather, where as children they occupied themselves with sports +appropriate to their years, he proposed to improvise a part of a scene +from _Othello_, and cast himself for the principal _role_. The scene +selected was the closing one of the play, and began with the speech +delivered to Lodovico, Montano, and Gratiano, when they are about to +take Othello prisoner. Rossetti used to say that he delivered the lines +in a frenzy of boyish excitement, and coming to the words-- + + Set you down this: + And say, besides,--that in Aleppo once, + Where a malignant and a turban'd Turk + Beat a Venetian, and traduced the state, + I took by the throat the circumcised dog, + And smote him--thus!-- + +he snatched up an iron chisel, that lay somewhere at hand, and, to the +consternation of his companions, smote himself with all his might on the +chest, inflicting a wound from which he bled and fainted. + +He is described by those who remember him, at this period, as a boy of +a gentle and affectionate nature, albeit prone to outbursts of +masterfulness. The earliest existent portraits represent a comely youth, +having redundant auburn hair curling all round the head, and eyes and +forehead of extraordinary beauty. It is said that he was brave and +manly of temperament, courageous as to personal suffering, eminently +solicitous of the welfare of others, and kind and considerate to*such +as he had claims upon. This is no doubt true portraiture, but it must +be stated (however open to explanation, on grounds of laudable +self-depreciation), that it is not the picture which he himself used +to paint of his character as a boy. He often described himself as being +destitute of personal courage when at school, as shrinking from the +amusements of schoolfellows, and fearful of their quarrels; not wholly +without generous impulses, but, in the main, selfish of nature and +reclusive in habit of life. He was certainly free from the meaningless +affectation--for such it too frequently is--of representing his +school-days as the happiest of his life. If, after so much undervaluing +of himself, it were possible to trust his estimate of his youthful +character, he would have had you believe that school was to him a place +of semi-purgatorial probation,--which nothing but love of his mother, +and desire to meet her wishes, prevented him, as an irreclaimable +antischoliast, from obstinately renouncing at a time when he had learned +little Latin, and less Greek. + +Having from childhood shown a propensity towards painting, the strong +inclination was fostered by his parents, and art was looked upon as his +future profession. Upon leaving school about 1843, he studied first at +an art academy near Bedford Square, and afterwards at the Eoyal Academy +Antique School, never, however, going to the Eoyal Academy Life School. +He appears to have been an assiduous student. In after life when his +habit of late rising had become a stock subject of banter among his +intimate friends, he would tell with unwonted pride how in earlier years +he used to rise at six A.M. once a week in order to attend a life-class +held before breakfast. On such occasions he was accustomed, he would +say, to purchase a buttered roll and cup of coffee at some stall at a +street corner, so as not to dislocate domestic arrangements by requiring +the servants to get up in the middle of the night. He left the Academy +about 1848 or 1849, and in the latter year exhibited his picture +entitled the _Girlhood of Mary Virgin_. This painting is an admirable +example of his early art, before the Gothicism of the early Italian +painters became his quest. Better known to the public than the picture +is the sonnet written upon it, containing the beautiful lines-- + + An angel-watered lily, that near God + Grows and is quiet. + +While Rossetti was still under age he associated with J. E. Millais, +Holman Hunt, Thomas Woolner, James Collinson, F. G. Stephens, and his +brother, W. M. Rossetti, in the movement called pre-Raphaelite. At the +beginning of his career he recognised, in common with his associates, +that the contemporary classicism had run to seed, and that, beyond an +effort after perfection of _technique_, the art of the period was all +but devoid of purpose, of thought, imagination, or spirituality. At such +a moment it was matter for little surprise that ardent young intellects +should go back for inspiration to the Gothicism of Giotto and the early +painters. There, at least, lay feeling, aim, aspiration, such as did +not concern itself primarily with any question of whether a subject were +painted well or ill, if only it were first of all a subject at all--a +subject involving manipulative excellence, perhaps, but feeling and +invention certainly. This, then, stated briefly, was the meaning of +pre-Raphaelitism. The name (as shall hereafter appear) was subsequently +given to the movement more than half in jest. It has sometimes been +stated that Mr. Ruskin was an initiator, but this is not strictly the +case. The company of young painters and writers are said to have been +ignorant of Mr. Ruskin's writings when they began their revolt against +the current classicism. It is a fact however, that, after perhaps a +couple of years, Mr. Ruskin came to the rescue of the little brotherhood +(then much maligned) by writing in their defence a letter in the +_Times_. It is easy to make too much of these early endeavours of +a company of young men, exceptionally gifted though the reformers +undoubtedly were, and inspired by an ennobling enthusiasm. In later +years Rossetti was not the most prominent of those who kept these +beginnings of a movement constantly in view; indeed, it is hardly rash +to say that there were moments when he seemed almost to resent the +intrusion of them upon the maturity of aim and handling which, in common +with his brother artists, he ultimately compassed. But it would be folly +not to recognise the essential germs of a right aspiration which grew +out of that interchange of feeling and opinion which, in its concrete +shape, came to be termed pre-Raphaelitism. Rossetti is acknowledged to +have taken the most prominent part in the movement, supplying, it is +alleged, much of the poetic impulse as well as knowledge of mediaeval +art. He occupied himself in these and following years mainly in the +making of designs for pictures--the most important of them being +_Dante's Dream, Hamlet and Ophelia, Cassandra, Lucretia Borgia, Giotto +painting Dante's Portrait, The First Anniversary of the Death of +Beatrice Mary Magdalene at the Door of Simon the Pharisee, The Death +of Lady Macbeth, Desdemona's Death-song_ and a great subject entitled +_Found_, designed and begun at twenty-five, but left incomplete at +death. + +All this occurred between the years 1849-1856, but three years before +the earlier of these dates Rossetti, as a painter, had come under an +influence which he was never slow to acknowledge operated powerfully +on his art. In 1846, Mr. Ford Madox Brown exhibited designs in the +Westminster competition, and his cartoons deeply impressed Rossetti The +young painter, then nineteen years of age, wrote to the elder one, his +senior by no more than seven years, begging to be permitted to become a +pupil. An intimacy sprang up between the two, and for a while Rossetti +worked in Brown's studio; but though the friendship lasted throughout +life the professional relationship soon terminated. The ardour of the +younger man led him into the-brotherhood just referred to, but Brown +never joined the pre-Raphaelites, mainly, it is said, from dislike of +coterie tendencies. + +About 1856, Rossetti, with two or three other young painters, +gratuitously undertook to paint designs on the walls of the Union +Debating Hall at Oxford, and about the time he was engaged upon this +task he made the acquaintance of Mr. William Morris, Mr. Burne Jones, +and Mr. Swinburne, who were undergraduates at the University. Mr. +Burne Jones was intended for a clerical career, but due to Rossett's +intercession Holy Orders were abandoned, to the great gain of English +art. He has more than once generously allowed that he owed much to +Rossetti at the beginning of his career, find regarded him to the last +as leader of the movement with which his own name is now so eminently +and distinctively associated. Together, and with the co-operation of Mr. +William Morris and Canon Dixon, they started and carried on for about a +year a monthly periodical called _The Oxford and Cambridge Magazine_, +of which Canon Dixon, as one of the projectors, shall presently tell the +history. At a subsequent period Mr. Burne Jones and Rossetti, together +with Mr. Madox Brown and some three others, associated with Mr. Morris +in establishing, from the smallest of all possible beginnings, the +trading firm now so well known as Morris and Co., and they remained +partners in this enterprise down to the year 1874, when a dissolution +took place, leaving the business in the hands of the gentleman +whose name it bore, and whose energy had from the first been mainly +instrumental in securing its success. + +It may be said that almost from the outset Rossetti viewed the public +exhibition of pictures as a distracting practice. Except the _Girlhood +of Mary Virgin_, the _Annunciation_ was almost the only picture he +exhibited in London, though three or four water-colour drawings were +at an early period exhibited in Liverpool, and of these, by a curious +coincidence, one was the first study for the _Dante's Dream_, which +was purchased by the corporation of the city within a few months of +the painter's death. To sum up all that remains at this stage to say +of Rossetti as a pictorial artist down to his thirtieth year, we may +describe him (as he liked best to hear himself described) simply as +a poetic painter. If he had a special method, it might be called +a distinct poetic abstraction, together with a choice of mediaeval +subject, and an effort after no less vivid rendering of nature than was +found in other painters. With his early designs (the outcome of such a +quest as has been indicated) there came, perchance, artistic crudities +enough, but assuredly there came a great spirituality also. By and by +Rossetti perceived that he must make narrower the stream of his effort +if he would have it flow deeper; and then, throughout many years, he +perfected his technical methods by abandoning complex subject-designs, +and confining himself to simple three-quarter-length pictures. More +shall be said on this point in due course. Already, although unknown +through the medium of the public picture-gallery, he was recognised as +the leader of a school of rising young artists whose eccentricities were +frequently a theme of discussion. He never invited publicity, yet he was +rapidly attaining to a prominent position among painters. + +His personal character in early manhood is described by friends as one +of peculiar manliness, geniality, and unselfishness. It is said that, on +one occasion, he put aside important work of his own in order to +spend several days in the studio of a friend, whose gifts were quite +inconsiderable compared with his, and whose prospects were all but +hopeless,--helping forward certain pictures, which were backward, for +forthcoming exhibition. Many similar acts of self-sacrifice are still +remembered with gratitude by those who were the recipients of them. +Rossetti was king of his circle, and it must be said, that in all that +properly constituted kingship, he took care to rule. There was then +a certain determination of purpose which occasionally had the look of +arbitrariness, and sometimes, it is alleged, a disregard of opposing +opinion which partook of tyranny: but where heart and not head were in +question, he was assuredly the most urbane and amiable of monarchs. +In matters of taste in art, or criticism in poetry, he would brook no +opposition from any quarter; nor did he ever seem to be conscious of the +unreasonableness of compelling his associates to swallow his opinions +as being absolute and final. This disposition to govern his circle +co-existed, however, with the most lavish appreciation of every good +quality displayed by the members of it, and all the little uneasiness +to which his absolutism may sometimes have given rise was much more than +removed by constantly recurring acts of good-fellowship,--indeed it was +forgotten in the presence of them. + +A photograph which exists of Rossetti at twenty-seven conveys the idea +of a nature rather austere and taciturn than genial and outspoken. The +face is long and the cheeks sunken, the whole figure being attenuated +and slightly stooping; the eyes have the inward look which belonged to +them in later life, but the mouth, which is free from the concealment of +moustache or beard, is severe. The impression conveyed is of a powerful +intellect and ambitious nature at war with surroundings and not wholly +satisfied with the results. It ought to be added that, at the period in +question, health was uncertain with Rossetti: and this fact, added to +the circumstance of his being at the time in the very throes of those +difficulties with his art which he was soon to surmount, must be +understood to account for the austerity of his early portrait. Rossetti +was not in a distinct sense a humourist, but there came to him at +intervals, in earlier manhood, those outbursts of volatility, which, to +serious natures, act as safety-valves after prolonged tension of all the +powers of the mind. At such moments of levity he is described as almost +boyish in recklessness, plunging into any madcap escapade that might be +afoot with heedlessness of all consequences. Stories of misadventures, +quips and quiddities of every kind, were then his delight, and of these +he possessed a fund which no man knew better how to use. He would tell +a funny story with wonderful spirit and freshness of resource, always +leading up to the point with watchful care of the finest shades of +covert suggestion or innuendo, and, when the climax was reached, never +denying himself a hearty share in the universal laughter. One of his +choicest pleasures at a dinner or other such gathering was to improvise +rhymes on his friends, and of these the fun usually lay in the +improvisatore's audacious ascription of just those qualities which his +subject did not possess. Though far from devoid of worldly wisdom, and +indeed possessed of not a little shrewdness in his dealings with his +buyers (often exhibiting that rarest quality of the successful trader, +the art of linking one transaction with another), he was sometimes +amusingly deficient in what is known as common sense. In later life he +used to tell with infinite zest a story of a blunder of earlier years +which might easily have led to serious if not fatal results. He had +been suffering from nervous exhaustion and had been ordered to take a +preparation of nux vomica. The dose was to be taken three times daily: +in the morning, at noon, and in the evening. One afternoon he was about +to start out for the house of a friend with whom he had promised to +lunch, when he remembered that he had not taken his first daily dose +of medicine. He forthwith took it, and upon setting down the glass, +reflected that the second dose was due, and so he took that also. +Putting on his hat and preparing to sally forth he further reflected +that before he could return the third dose ought in ordinary course to +be taken, and so without more deliberation he poured himself a final +portion and drank it off. He had thereupon scarcely turned himself +about, when to his horror he discovered that his limbs were growing +rigid and his jaw stiff. In the utmost agitation he tried to walk across +the studio and found himself almost incapable of the effort. His eyes +seemed to leap out of their sockets and his sight grew dim. Appalled +and in agony, he at length sprang up from the couch upon which he had +dropped down a moment before, and fled out of the house. The violent +action speedily induced a copious perspiration, and this being by much +the best thing that could have happened to him, carried off the poison +and so saved his life. He could never afterwards be induced to return to +the drug in question, and in the last year of his life was probably more +fearfully aghast at seeing the present writer take a harmless dose of it +than he would have been at learning that 50 grains of chloral had been +taken. + +He had, in early manhood, the keenest relish of a funny prank, and one +such he used to act over again in after life with the greatest vivacity +of manner. Every one remembers the story told by Jefferson Hogg how +Shelley got rid of the old woman with the onion basket who took a place +beside him in a stage coach in Sussex, by seating himself on the floor +and fixing a tearful, woful face upon his companion, addressing her in +thrilling accents thus-- + + For heaven's sake, let us sit upon the ground, + And tell sad stories of the death of kings. + +Rossetti's frolic was akin to this, though the results were amusingly +different. It would appear that when in early years, Mr. William Morris +and Mr. Burne Jones occupied a studio together, they had a young servant +maid whose manners were perennially vivacious, whose good spirits no +disaster could damp, and whose pertness nothing could banish or +check. Rossetti conceived the idea of frightening the girl out of her +complacency, and calling one day on his friends, he affected the direst +madness, strutted ominously up to her and with the wildest glare of his +wild eyes, the firmest and fiercest setting of his lower lip, and began +in measured and resonant accents to recite the lines-- + + Shall the hide of a fierce lion + Be stretched on a couch of wood, + For a daughter's foot to lie on, + Stained with a father's blood? + +The poet's response is a soft "Ah, no!" but the girl, ignorant of course +of this, and wholly undisturbed by the bloodthirsty tone of the question +addressed to her, calmly fixed her eyes on the frenzied eyes before her, +and answered with a swift light accent and rippling laugh, "It shall +if you like, sir!" Rossetti's enjoyment of his discomfiture on this +occasion seemed never to grow less. + +His life was twofold in intellectual effort, and of the directions in +which his energy went out the artistic alone has thus far been dealt +with. It has been said that he early displayed talent for writing as +well as painting, and, in truth, the poems that he wrote in early youth +are even more remarkable than the pictures that he painted. His poetic +genius developed rapidly after sixteen, and sprang at once to a singular +and perfect maturity. It is difficult to say whether it will add to the +marvel of mature achievement or deduct from the sense of reality of +personal experience, to make public the fact that _The Blessed Damozel_ +was written when the poet was no more than nineteen. That poem is a +creation so pure and simple in the higher imagination, as to support the +contention that the author was electively related to Fra Angelico. +Described briefly, it may be said to embody the meditations of a +beautiful girl in Paradise, whose lover is in the same hour dreaming of +her on earth. How the poet lighted upon the conception shall be told by +himself in that portion of this book devoted to the writer's personal +recollections. + +_The Blessed Damozel_ is a conception dilated to such spiritual +loveliness that it seems not to exist within things substantially +beautiful, or yet by aid of images that coalesce out of the evolving +memory of them, but outside of everything actual It is not merely that +the dream itself is one of ideal purity; the wave of impulse is pure, +and flows without taint of media that seem almost to know it not. The +lady says:-- + + We two will lie i' the shadow of + That living mystic tree + Within whose secret growth the Dove + Is sometimes felt to be, + While every leaf that His plumes touch + Saith His Name audibly. + +Here the love involved is so etherealised as scarcely to be called +human, save only on the part of the mortal dreamer, in whose yearning +ecstasy the ear thinks it recognises a more earthly note. The lover +rejoins.-- + + (Alas! We two, we two, thou say'st! + Yea, one wast thou with me + That once of old. But shall God lift + To endless unity + The soul whose likeness with thy soul + Was but its love for thee?) + +It is said of the few existent examples of the art of Giorgione that, +around some central realisation of human passion gathers always a +landscape which is not merely harmonised to it, but a part of it, +sharing the joy or the anguish, lying silent to the breathless +adoration, or echoing the rapturous voice of the full pleasure of those +who are beyond all height and depth more than it. Something of this +passive sympathy of environing objects comes out in the poem: + + Around her, lovers, newly met + 'Mid deathless love's acclaims, + Spoke evermore among themselves + Their rapturous new names; + And the souls mounting up to God + Went by her like thin flames. + + And still she bowed herself and stooped + Out of the circling charm; + Until her bosom must have made + The bar she leaned on warm, + And the lilies lay as if asleep + Along her bended arm. + +The sense induced by such imagery is akin to that which comes of rapt +contemplation of the deep em-blazonings of a fine stained window when +the sun's warm gules glides off before the dim twilight. And this sense +as of a thing existent, yet passing stealthily out of all sight away, +the metre of the poem helps to foster. Other metres of Rossetti's have +a strenuous reality, and rejoice in their self-assertiveness, and seem, +almost, in their resonant strength, to tell themselves they are very +good; but this may almost be said to be a disembodied voice, that +lives only on the air, and, like the song of a bird, is gone before its +accents have been caught. Of the four-and-twenty stanzas of the poem, +none is more calmly musical than this: + + When round his head the aureole clings, + And he is clothed in white, + I 'll take his hand and go with him + To the deep wells of light; + We will step down as to a stream, + And bathe there in God's sight. + +Perhaps Rossetti never did anything more beautiful and spiritual than +this little work of his twentieth year; and more than once in later life +he painted the beautiful lady who is the subject of it, with the lilies +lying along her arm. + +A first draft of _Jenny_ was struck off when the poet was scarcely more +than a boy, and taken up again years afterwards, and almost entirely +re-written--the only notable passage of the early poem that now remains +being the passage on lust. It is best described in the simplest phrase, +as a man's meditations on the life of a courtesan whom he has met at a +dancing-garden and accompanied home. While he sits on a couch, she lies +at his feet with her head on his knee and sleeps. When the morning dawns +he rises, places cushions beneath her head, puts some gold among +her hair, and leaves her. It is wisest to hazard at the outset all +unfavourable comment by the frankest statement of the story of the +poem. But the _motif_ of it is a much higher thing. _Jenny_ embodies +an entirely distinct phase of feeling, yet the poet's root impulse +is therein the same as in the case of _The Blessed Damozel_. No two +creations could stand more widely apart as to outward features than +the dream of the sainted maiden and the reality of the frail and fallen +girl; yet the primary prompting and the ultimate outcome are the same. +The ardent longing after ideal purity in womanhood, which in the one +gave birth to a conception whereof the very sorrow is but excess of +joy found expression in the other through a vivid presentment of the +nameless misery of unwomanly dishonour:-- + + Behold the lilies of the field, + They toil not neither do they spin; + (So doth the ancient text begin,-- + Not of such rest as one of these Can share.) + Another rest and ease + Along each summer-sated path + From its new lord the garden hath, + Than that whose spring in blessings ran + Which praised the bounteous husbandman, + Ere yet, in days of hankering breath, + The lilies sickened unto death. + +It was indeed a daring thing the author proposed to himself to do, and +assuredly no man could have essayed it who had not consciously united +to an unfailing and unshrinking insight, a relativeness of mind such as +right-hearted people might approve. To take a fallen woman, a cipher of +man's sum of lust, befouled with the shameful knowledge of the streets, +yet young, delicate, "apparelled beyond parallel," unblessed, with a +beauty which, if copied by a Da Vinci's hand, might stand whole ages +long "for preachings of what God can do," and then to endow such a one +with the sensitiveness of a poet's own mind, make her read afresh as +though by lightning, and in a dream, that story of the old pure days-- + + Much older than any history + That is written in any book, + +and lastly, to gather about her an overwhelming sense of infinite solace +for the wronged and lost, and of the retributive justice with which +man's transgressions will be visited--this is, indeed, to hazard all +things in the certainty of an upright purpose and true reward. + + Shall no man hold his pride forewarn'd + Till in the end, the Day of Days, + At Judgment, one of his own race, + As frail and lost as you, shall rise,-- + His daughter with his mother's eyes! + +Yet Rossetti made no treaty with puritanism, and in this respect his +_Jenny_ has something in common with Hawthorne's _Scarlet Letter_--than +which nothing, perhaps, that is so pure, without being puritanical, +has reached us even from the land that gave _Evangeline_ to the English +tongue. The guilty love of Hester Prynne and Arthur Dimmesdale is never +for an instant condoned, but, on the other hand, the rigorous severity +of the old puritan community is not dwelt upon with favour. Relentless +remorse must spend itself upon the man before the whole measure of his +misery is full, and on the woman the brand of a public shame must be +borne meekly to the end. But though no rancour is shown towards the +austere and blind morality which puts to open discharge the guilty +mother whilst unconsciously nourishing the yet more guilty father, we +see the tenderness of a love that palliates the baseness of the amour, +and the bitter depths of a penitence that cannot be complete until it +can no longer be concealed. And so with Jenny. She may have transient +flashes of remorseful consciousness, such as reveal to her the trackless +leagues that separate what she was from what she is, but no effort is +made to hide the plain truth that she is a courtesan, skilled only +in the lures and artifices peculiar to her shameful function. No +reformatory promptings fit her for a place at the footstool of the +puritan. Nothing tells of winter yet; on the other hand, no virulent +diatribes are cast forth against the society that shuts this woman out, +as the puritan settlement turned its back on Hester Prynne. But we +see her and know her for what she is, a woman like unto other women: +desecrated but akin. + +This dramatic quality of sitting half-passively above their creations +and of leaving their ethics to find their own channels (once assured +that their impulses are pure), the poet and the romancer possess in +common. If there is a point of difference between their attitudes of +mind, it is where Rossetti seems to reserve his whole personal feeling +for the impeachment of lust;-- + + Like a toad within a stone + Seated while Time crumbles on; + Which sits there since the earth was cursed + For Man's transgression at the first; + Which, living through all centuries, + Not once has seen the sun arise; + Whose life, to its cold circle charmed, + The earth's whole summers have not warmed; + Which always--whitherso the stone + Be flung--sits there, deaf, blind, alone;-- + Ay, and shall not be driven out + Till that which shuts him round about + Break at the very Master's stroke, + And the dust thereof vanish as smoke, + And the seed of Man vanish as dust:-- + Even so within this world is Lust. + +_Sister Helen_ was written somewhat later than _The Blessed Damozel_ +and the first draft of _Jenny_, and probably belonged to the poet's +twenty-fourth or twenty-fifth year. The ballad involves a story of +witchcraft A girl has been first betrayed and then deserted by her +lover; so, to revenge herself upon him and his newly-married bride, she +burns his waxen image three days over a fire, and during that time he +dies in torment In _Sister Helen_ we touch the key-note of Rossetti's +creative gift. Even the superstition which forms the basis of the ballad +owes something of its individual character to the invention and poetic +bias of the poet. The popular superstitions of the Middle Ages were +usually of two kinds only. First, there were those that arose out of a +jealous Catholicism, always glancing towards heresy; and next there were +those that laid their account neither with orthodoxy nor unbelief, and +were purely pagan. The former were the offspring of fanaticism; the +latter of an appeal to appetite or passion, or fancy, or perhaps +intuitive reason directed blindly or unconsciously towards natural +phenomena. The superstition involved in _Sister Helen_ partakes wholly +of neither character, but partly of both, with an added element of +demonology. The groundwork is essentially catholic, the burden of the +ballad showing that the tragic event lies between Hell and Heaven:-- + + (O Mother, Mary Mother, + Three days to-day, between Hell and Heaven!) + +But the superstructural overgrowth is totally undisturbed by any +animosity against heresy, and is concerned only with a certain ultimate +demoniacal justice visiting the wrongdoer. Thus far the elemental tissue +of the superstition has something in common with that of the German +secret tribunal of the steel and cord; with this difference, however, +that whereas the latter punishes in secret, even _as the deity_, the +former makes conscious compact with the powers of evil, that whatever +justice shall be administered upon the wicked shall first be purchased +by sacrifice of the good. Sister Helen may burn, alive, the body and +soul of her betrayer, but the dying knell that tells of the false soul's +untimely flight, tolls the loss of her own soul also:-- + + "Ah! what white thing at the door has cross'd, + Sister Helen? + Ah! what is this that sighs in the frost!" + "A soul that's lost as mine is lost, + Little brother!" + (O Mother, Mary Mother, + Lost, lost, all lost, between Hell and Heaven!) + +Here lies the divergence between the lines of this and other compacts +with evil powers; this is the point of Rossetti's departure from the +scheme that forms the underplot of Goethe's _Faust_, and of Marlowe's +_Faustus_, and was intended to constitute the plan of Coleridge's +_Michael Scott_. It has been well said that the theme of the Faust is +the consequence of a misology, or hatred of knowledge, resulting upon +an original thirst for knowledge baffled. Faust never does from the +beginning love knowledge for itself, but he loves it for the means it +affords for the acquisition of power. This base purpose defeats itself; +and when Faust finds that learning fails to yield him the domination he +craves, he hates and contemns it. Away, henceforth, with all pretence to +knowledge! Then follows the compact, the articles to which are absolute +servility of the Devil on the one part, and complete possession of the +soul of Faust on the other. Faust is little better than a wizard from +the first, for if knowledge had given him what he: sought, he had never +had recourse to witchcraft! Helen, however, partakes in some sort +of the triumphant nobility of an avenging deity who has cozened hell +itself, and not in vain. In the whole majesty of her great wrong, she +loses the originally vulgar character of the witch. It is not as the +consequence of a poison-speck in her own heart that she has recourse to +sorcery. She does not love witchery for its own sake; she loves it only +as the retributive channel for the requital of a terrible offence. It +is throughout the last hour of her three-days' conflict, merely, that we +see her, but we know her then not more for the revengeful woman she is +than for the trustful maiden she has been. When she becomes conscious of +the treason wrought against her, we feel that she suffers change. In +the eyes of others we can see her, and in our vision of her she is +beautiful; but hers is the beauty of fair cheeks, from which the canker +frets the soft tenderness of colour, the loveliness of golden hair that +has lost its radiance, the sweetness of eyes once dripping with the +dews of the spirit, now pale, and cold, and lustreless. Very soon the +wrongdoer shall reap the harvest of a twofold injury: this day another +bride shall stand by his side. Is there, then, no way to wreak the just +revenge of a broken heart? _That_ suggests sorcery. Yes, the body and +soul of the false lover may melt as before a flame; but the price of +vengeance is horrible. Yet why? Has not love become devilish? Is not +life a curse? Then wherefore shrink? The resolute wronged woman must +go through with it. And when the last hour comes, nature itself is +portentous of the virulent ill. In the wind's wake, the moon flies +through a rack of night clouds. One after one the suppliants crave +pardon for the distant dying lover, and last of these comes the +three-days' bride. + +In addition to the three great poems just traversed, Rossetti had +written, before the completion of his twenty-sixth year, _The Staff +and Scrip, The Burden of Nineveh, Troy Town, Eden Bower_ and _The Last +Confession_, as well as a fragment of _The Bride's Prelude_, to which +it will be necessary to return. But, with a single exception, the +poems just named may be said to exist beside the three that have been +analysed, without being radically distinct from them, or touching +higher or other levels, and hence it is not considered needful to dwell +upon them at length. _The Last Confession_ covers another range of +feeling, it is true, whereof it may be said that the nobler part is +akin to that which finds expression in the pure and shattered love of +Othello; but it is a range of feeling less characteristical, perhaps +less indigenous and appreciable. + +In the years 1845-49 inclusive, Rossetti made the larger part of his +translations (published in 1861) from the early Italian poets, and +though he afterwards spoke of them as having been the work of the +leisure moments of many years, of their subsequent revision alone, +perhaps, could this be altogether true. The _Vita Nuova_, together with +the many among Dante's _Lyrics_ and those of his contemporaries which +elucidate their personal intercourse; were translated, as well as a +great body of the sonnets of poets later than Dante. {*} This early and +indirect apprenticeship to the sonnet, as a form of composition, led +to his becoming, in the end, perhaps the most perfect of English +sonnet-writers. In youth, it was one of his pleasures to engage in +exercises of sonnet-skill with his brother William and his sister +Christina, and, even then, he attained to such proficiency, in the mere +mechanism of sonnet structure, that he could sometimes dash off a sonnet +in ten minutes--rivalling, in this particular, the impromptu productions +of Hartley Coleridge. It is hardly necessary to say that the poems +produced, under such conditions of time and other tests, were rarely, +if ever, adjudged worthy of publication, by the side of work to which he +gave adequate deliberation. But several of the sonnets on pictures--as, +for example, the fine one on a Venetian pastoral by Giorgione--and the +political sonnet, Miltonic in spirit, _On the Refusal of Aid between +Nations_, were written contemporaneously with the experimental sonnets +in question. + + * Rossetti often remarked that he had intended to translate + the sonnets of Michael Angelo, until he saw Mr. Symonds's + translation, when he was so much impressed by its excellence + that he forthwith abandoned the purpose. + +As _The House of Life_ was composed in great part at the period with +which we are now dealing (though published in the complete sequence +nearly twenty-five years later), it may be best to traverse it at this +stage. Though called a full series of sonnets, there is no intimation +that it is not fragmentary as to design; the title is an astronomical, +not an architectural figure. The work is at once Shakspearean and +Dantesque. Whilst electively akin to the _Vita Nuova_, it is broader +in range, the life involved being life idealised in all phases. What +Rossetti's idea was of the mission of the sonnet, as associated with +life, and exhibiting a similitude of it, may best be learned from his +prefatory sonnet:-- + + A Sonnet is a moment's monument,-- + Memorial from the Soul's eternity + To one dead deathless hour. Look that it be, + Whether for lustral rite or dire portent, + Of its own arduous fulness reverent: + Carve it in ivory or in ebony, + As Day or Night may rule; and let Time see + Its flowering crest impearled and orient. + A Sonnet is a coin; its face reveals + The soul,--its converse, to what Power 'tis due:-- + Whether for tribute to the august appeals + Of Life, or dower in Love's high retinue, + It serve; or 'mid the dark wharfs cavernous breath, + In Charon's palm it pay the toll to Death. + +Rossetti's sonnets are of varied metrical structure; but their +intellectual structure is uniform, comprising in each case a flow and +ebb of thought within the limits of a single conception. In this latter +respect they have a character almost peculiar to themselves among +English sonnets. Rossetti was not the first English writer who +deliberatively separated octave and sestet, but he was the first who +obeyed throughout a series of sonnets the canon of the contemporary +structure requiring that a sonnet shall present the twofold facet of a +single thought or emotion. This form of the sonnet Rossetti was at least +the first among English writers entirely to achieve and perfectly to +render. _The House of Life_ does not contain a sonnet which is not to +some degree informed by such an intellectual and musical wave; but the +following is an example more than usually emphatic: + + Even as a child, of sorrow that we give + dead, but little in his heart can find, + Since without need of thought to his clear mind + Their turn it is to die and his to live:-- + Even so the winged New Love smiles to receive + Along his eddying plumes the auroral wind, + Nor, forward glorying, casts one look behind + Where night-rack shrouds the Old Love fugitive. + + There is a change in every hour's recall, + And the last cowslip in the fields we see + On the same day with the first corn-poppy. + Alas for hourly change! Alas for all + The loves that from his hand proud youth lets fall, + Even as the beads of a told rosary! + +The distinguishing excellence of craftsmanship in Rossetti's sonnets +was early recognised; but the fertility of thought, and range of emotion +compassed by this part of his work constitute an excellence far higher +than any that belongs to perfection of form, rhythm, or metre. Mr. +Palgrave has well said that a poet's story differs from a narrative in +being in itself a creation; that it brings its own facts; that what +we have to ask is not the true life of Laura, but how far Petrarch has +truly drawn the life of love. So with Rossetti's sonnets. They may or +may not be "occasional." Many readers who enter with sympathy into the +series of feelings they present will doubtless insist upon regarding +them as autobiographical. Others, who think they see the stamp of +reality upon them, will perhaps accept them (as Hallam accepted the +Sonnets of Shakspeare) as witnesses of excessive affection, redeemed +sometimes by touches of nobler sentiments--if affection, however +excessive, needs to be redeemed. Others again will receive them as +artistic embodiments of ideal love upon which is placed the imprint of a +passion as mythical as they believe to be attached to the autobiography +of Dante's early days. But the genesis and history of these sonnets +(whether the emotion with which they are pervaded be actual or imagined) +must be looked for within. Do they realise vividly Life representative +in its many phases of love, joy, sorrow, and death? It must be conceded +that _he House of Life_ touches many passions and depicts life in +most of its changeful aspects. It would afford an adequate test of its +comprehensiveness to note how rarely a mind in general sympathy with the +author could come to its perusal without alighting upon something that +would be in harmony with its mood. To traverse the work through its +aspiration and foreboding, joy, grief, remorse, despair, and final +resignation, would involve a task too long and difficult to be attempted +here. Two sonnets only need be quoted as at once indicative of the range +of thought and feeling covered, and of the sequent relation these poems +bear each to each. + + By thine own tears thy song must tears beget, + Singer! Magic mirror thou hast none + Except thy manifest heart; and save thine own + Anguish or ardour, else no amulet. + + Cisterned in Pride, verse is the feathery jet + Of soulless air-flung fountains; nay, more dry + Than the Dead Sea for throats that thirst and sigh, + That song o'er which no singer's lids grew wet. + + The Song-god--He the Sun-god--is no slave + Of thine: thy Hunter he, who for thy soul + Fledges his shaft: to the august control + Of thy skilled hand his quivered store he gave: + But if thy lips' loud cry leap to his smart, + The inspired record shall pierce thy brother's heart. + +This is not meant to convey the same idea as Shelley's "learn in +suffering," etc., but merely that a poem must move the writer in its +composition if it is to move the reader. + +With the following _The House of Life_ is made to close: + + When vain desire at last and vain regret + Go hand in hand to death, and all is vain, + What shall assuage the unforgotten pain + And teach the unforgetful to forget? + + Shall Peace be still a sunk stream long unmet,-- + Or may the soul at once in a green plain + Stoop through the spray of some sweet life-fountain, + And cull the dew-drenched flowering amulet? + + Ah! when the wan soul in that golden air + Between the scriptured petals softly blown + Peers breathless for the gift of grace unknown,-- + Ah! let none other alien spell soe'er + But only the one Hope's one name be there,-- + Not less nor more, but even that word alone. + +A writer must needs be loath to part from this section of Rossett's work +without naming some few sonnets that seem to be in all respects on a +level with those to which attention has been drawn. Of such, perhaps, +the most conspicuous are:--_A Day of Love; Mid-Rapture; Her Gifts; The +Dark Glass; True Woman; Without Her; Known in Vain; The Heart of +the Night; The Landmark; Stillborn Love; Lost Days_. But it would be +difficult to formulate a critical opinion in support of the superiority +of almost any of these' sonnets over the others,--so balanced is their +merit, so equal their appeal to the imagination and heart. Indeed, it +were scarcely rash to say that in the language (outside Shakspeare) +there exists no single body of sonnets characterised by such sustained +excellence of vision and presentment. It must have been strange enough +if the all but unexampled ardour and constancy with which Rossetti +pursued the art of the sonnet-writer had not resulted in absolute +mastery. + +In 1850 _The Germ_ was started under the editorship of Mr. William +Michael Rossetti, and to the four issues, which were all that were +published of this monthly magazine (designed to advocate the views of +the pre-Raphaelite brotherhood), Rossetti contributed certain of +his early poems--_The Blessed Damozel_ among the number. In 1856 he +contributed many of the same poems, together with others, to _The Oxford +and Cambridge Magazine_, of which Canon Dixon has kindly undertaken to +tell the history. He says: + +My knowledge of Dante Gabriel Rossetti was begun in connection with _The +Oxford and Cambridge Magazine_, a monthly periodical, which was started +in January 1856, and lasted a year. The projectors of this periodical +were Mr. William Morris, Mr. Ed. Burne Jones, and myself. The editor was +Mr. (now the Rev.) William Fulford. Among the original contributors were +the late Mr. Wilfred Heeley of Cambridge, Mr. Faulkner, now Fellow +of University College, Oxford, and Mr. Cormel Price. We were all +undergraduates. The publishers of the magazine were the late firm of +Bell and Daldy. We gradually associated with ourselves several other +contributors: above all, D. G. Rossetti. + +Of this undertaking the central notion was, I think, to advocate moral +earnestness and purpose in literature, art, and society. It was founded +much on Mr. Ruskin's teaching: it sprang out of youthful impatience, and +exhibited many signs of immaturity and ignorance: but perhaps it was +not without value as a protest against some things. The pre-Raphaelite +movement was then in vigour: and this Magazine came to be considered as +the organ of those who accepted the ideas which were brought into art +at that time; and, as in a manner, the successor of _The Germ_, a small +periodical which had been published previously by the first beginners +of the movement. Rossetti, in many respects the most memorable of the +pre-Raphaelites, became connected with our Magazine when it had been +in existence about six months: and he contributed to it several of the +finest of the poems that were afterwards collected in the former of +his two volumes of poems: namely, _The Burden of Nineveh, The Blessed +Damozel, and The Staff and Scrip_. I think that one of them, _The +Blessed Damozel_, had appeared previously in _The Germ_. All these +poems, as they now stand in the author's volume, have been greatly +altered from what they were in the Magazine: and, in being altered, not +always improved, at least in the verbal changes. The first of them, a +sublime meditation of peculiar metrical power, has been much altered, +and in general happily, as to the arrangement of stanzas: but not always +so happily as to the words. It is, however, pleasing to notice that in +the alterations some touches of bitterness have been effaced. The second +of these pieces has been brought with great skill into regular form by +transposition: but again one repines to find several touches gone that +once were there. The last of them, _The Staff and Scrip_, is, in my +judgment, the finest of all Rossetti's poems, and one of the most +glorious writings in the language. It exhibits in flawless perfection +the gift that he had above all other writers, absolute beauty and pure +action. Here again it is not possible to see without regret some of the +verbal alterations that have been made in the poem as it now stands, +although the chief emendation, the omission of one stanza and the +insertion of another, adds clearness, and was all that was wanted to +make the poem perfect in structure. + +I saw Rossetti for the first time in his lodgings over Blackfriars +Bridge. It was impossible not to be impressed with the freedom and +kindness of his manner, not less than by his personal appearance. His +frank greeting, bold, but gentle glance, his whole presence, produced a +feeling of confidence and pleasure. His voice had a great charm, both +in tone, and from the peculiar cadences that belonged to it I think that +the leading features of his character struck me more at first than +the characteristics of his genius; or rather, that my notion of the +character of the man was formed first, and was then applied to his +works, and identified with them. The main features of his character +were, in my apprehension, fearlessness, kindliness, a decision that +sometimes made him seem somewhat arbitrary, and condensation or +concentration. He was wonderfully self-reliant. These moral qualities, +guiding an artistic temperament as exquisite as was ever bestowed on +man, made him what he was, the greatest inventor of abstract beauty, +both in form and colour, that this age, perhaps that the world, has +seen. They would also account for some peculiarities that must be +admitted in some of his works, want of nature, for instance. I heard him +once remark that it was "astonishing how much the least bit of nature +helped if one put it in;" which seemed like an acknowledgment that he +might have gone more to nature. Hence, however, his works always seem +abstract, always seem to embody some kind of typical aim, and acquire a +sort of sacred character. + +I saw a good deal of Rossetti in London, and afterwards in Oxford, +during the painting of the Union debating-room. In later years our +personal intercourse was broken off through distance; though I saw him +occasionally almost to the time of his lamented death, and we had some +correspondence. My recollection of him is that of greatness, as might be +expected of one of the few who have been "illustrious in two arts," and +who stands by himself and has earned an independent name in both. His +work was great: the man was greater. His conversation had a wonderful +ease, precision, and felicity of expression. He produced thoughts +perfectly enunciated with a deliberate happiness that was indescribable, +though it was always simple conversation, never haranguing or +declamation. He was a natural leader because he was a natural teacher. +When he chose to be interested in anything that was brought before him, +no pains were too great for him to take. His advice was always given +warmly and freely, and when he spoke of the works of others it was +always in the most generous spirit of praise. It was in fact impossible +to have been more free from captiousness, jealousy, envy, or any other +form of pettiness than this truly noble man. The great painter who first +took me to him said, "We shall see the greatest man in Europe." I have +it on the same authority that Rossetti's aptitude for art was considered +amongst painters to be no less extraordinary than his imagination. For +example, that he could take hold of the extremity of the brush, and be +as certain of his touch as if it had been held in the usual way; that he +never painted a picture without doing something in colour that had +never been done before; and, in particular, that he had a command of the +features of the human face such as no other painter ever possessed. I +also remember some observations by the same assuredly competent judge, +to the effect that Rossetti might be set against the great painters +of the fifteenth century, as equal to them, though unlike them: the +difference being that while they represented the characters, whom +they painted, in their ordinary and unmoved mood, he represented his +characters under emotion, and yet gave them wholly. It may be added, +perhaps, that he had a lofty standard of beauty of his own invention, +and that he both elevated and subjected all to beauty. Such a man was +not likely to be ignorant of the great root of power in art, and I +once saw him very indignant on hearing that he had been accused of +irreligion, or rather of not being a Christian. He asked with great +earnestness, "Do not my works testify to my Christianity?" I wish that +these imperfect recollections may be of any avail to those who cherish +the memory of an extraordinary genius. + +Besides his contributions to _The Germ_, and to _The Oxford and +Cambridge Magazine_, Rossetti contributed _Sister Helen_, in 1853, to a +German Annual. Beyond this he made little attempt to publish his poetry. +He had written it for the love of writing, or in obedience to the +inherent impulse compelling him to do so, but of actual hope of +achieving by virtue of it a place among English poets he seems to +have had none, or next to none. In later life he used to say that Mr. +Browning's greatness and the splendour of Mr. Tennyson's merited renown +seemed to him in those early years to render all attempt on his part +to secure rank by their side as hopeless as presumptuous. This, he +asserted, was the cause that operated to restrain him from publication +between 1853 and 1862, and after that (as will presently be seen), +another and more serious obstacle than self-depreciation intervened. But +in putting aside all hope of the reward of poetic achievement, he did +not wholly banish the memory of the work he had done. He made two or +more copies of the most noticeable of the poems he had written, and sent +them to friends eminent in letters. To Leigh Hunt he sent _The Blessed +Damozel_, and received in acknowledgment a letter full of appreciative +comment, and foretelling a brilliant future. His literary friends at +this time were Mr. Ruskin, Mr. and Mrs. Browning; he used to see Mr. +Tennyson and Carlyle at intervals, and was in constant intercourse with +the younger writers, Mr. Swinburne and Mr. Morris, whose reputations had +then to be made; Mr. Arnold, Sir Henry Taylor, Mr. Aubrey de Vere, Mr. +E. Brough, Mr. J. Hannay, and Mr. Monckton Milnes (Lord Houghton), +he met occasionally; Dobell he knew only by correspondence. Though +unpublished, his poems were not unknown, for besides the semi-publicity +they obtained by circulation "among his private friends," he was nothing +loath to read or recite them at request, and by such means a few of +them secured a celebrity akin in kind and almost equal in extent to that +enjoyed by Coleridge's _Christabel_ during the many years preceding +1816 in which it lay in manuscript. Like Coleridge's poem in another +important particular, certain of Rossetti's ballads, whilst still +unknown to the public, so far influenced contemporary poetry that when +they did at length appear they had all the appearance to the uninitiated +of work imitated from contemporary models, instead of being, as in fact +they were, the primary source of inspiration for writers whose names +were earlier established. + +Towards the beginning of his artistic career Rossetti occupied a studio, +with residential chambers, at Black-friars Bridge. The rooms overlooked +the river, and the tide rose almost to the walls of the house, which, +with nearly all its old surroundings, has long disappeared. + +A story is told of Rossetti amidst these environments which aptly +illustrates almost every trait of his character: his impetuosity, +and superstition especially. It was his daily habit to ransack +old book-stalls, and carry off to his studio whatever treasures he +unearthed, but when, upon further investigation, he found he had been +deceived as to the value of a book that at first looked promising, he +usually revenged himself by throwing the volume through a window into +the river running below--a habit which he discovered (to his amusement, +and occasionally to his distress), that his friends, Mr. Swinburne +especially, imitated from him and practised at his rooms on his behalf. +On one occasion he discovered in some odd nook a volume long sought +for, and having inscribed it with his name and address, he bore it off +joyfully to his chambers; but finding a few days later that in some +respects it disappointed his expectations, he flung it through the +window, and banished all further thought of it. The tide had been at the +flood when the book disappeared, and when it ebbed, the offending volume +was found by a little mud-lark imbedded in the refuse of the river. The +boy washed it and took it back to the address it contained, expecting to +find it eagerly reclaimed; but, impatient and angry at sight of what he +thought he had destroyed, Rossetti snatched the book out of the muddy +hand that proffered it and flung it again into the Thames, with rather +less than the courtesy which might have been looked for as the reward of +an act that was meant so well. But the haunting volume was not even +yet done with. Next morning, an old man of the riverside labourer class +knocked at the door, bearing in his hands a small parcel rudely made +up in a piece of newspaper that was greasy enough to have previously +contained his morning's breakfast. He had come from where he was working +below London Bridge: he had found something that might have been lost +by Mr. Rossetti. It was the tormenting volume: the indestructible, +unrelenting phantom that would not be laid! Rossetti now perceived that +higher agencies were at work: it was _not meant_ that he should get rid +of the book: why should he contend against the inevitable? Reverently +and with both hands he took the besoiled parcel from the brown palm +of the labourer, placed half-a-crown there instead, and restored the +fearful book to its place on his shelf. + +And now we come to incidents in Rossetti's career of which it is +necessary to treat as briefly as tenderly. Among the models who sat to +him was Miss Elizabeth Eleanor Siddal, a young lady of great personal +beauty, in whom he discovered a natural genius for painting and a +noticeable love of the higher poetic literature. He felt impelled +to give her lessons, and she became as much his pupil as model. Her +water-colour drawings done under his tuition gave proof of a wonderful +eye for colour, and displayed a marked tendency to style. The subjects, +too, were admirably composed and often exhibited unusual poetic feeling. +It was very natural that such a connection between persons of kindred +aspirations should lead to friendship and finally to love. + +Rossetti and Miss Siddal were married in 1860. They visited France and +Belgium; and this journey, together with a similar one undertaken in the +company of Mr. Holman Hunt in 1849, and again another in 1863, when his +brother was his companion, and a short residence on the Continent when +a boy, may be said to constitute almost the whole sum of Rossetti's +travelling. Very soon the lady's health began to fail, and she became +the victim of neuralgia. To meet this dread enemy she resorted to +laudanum, taking it at first in small quantities, but eventually in +excess. Her spirits drooped, her art was laid aside, and much of the +cheerfulness of home was lost to her. There was a child, but it was +stillborn, and not long after this disaster, it was found that Mrs. +Rossetti had taken an overdose of her accustomed sleeping potion and +was lying dead in her bed. This was in 1862, and after two years only of +married life. The blow was a terrible one to Rossetti, who was the first +to discover what fate had reserved for him. It was some days before he +seemed fully to realise the loss that had befallen him, and then his +grief knew no bounds. The poems he had written, so far as they were +poems of love, were chiefly inspired by and addressed to her. At her +request he had copied them into a little book presented to him for the +purpose, and on the day of the funeral he walked into the room where +the body lay, and, unmindful of the presence of friends, he spoke to +his dead wife as though she heard, saying, as he held the book, that the +words it contained were written to her and for her, and she must take +them with her for they could not remain when she had gone. Then he put +the volume into the coffin between her cheek and beautiful hair, and it +was that day buried with her in Highgate Cemetery. + + + + +CHAPTER II. + +It was long before Rossetti recovered from the shock of his wife's +sudden death. The loss sustained appeared to change the whole course +of his life. Previously he had been of a cheerful temperament, and +accustomed to go abroad at frequent intervals to visit friends; but +after this event he seemed to become for a time morose, and by nature +reclusive. Not a great while afterwards he removed from Blackfriars +Bridge, and after a temporary residence in Lincoln's Inn Fields, he took +up his abode in the house he occupied during the twenty remaining years +of his life, at 16 Cheyne Walk, Chelsea. This home of Rossetti's shall +be fully described in subsequent personal recollections. It was called +Tudor House when he became its tenant, from the tradition that Elizabeth +Tudor had lived in it, and it is understood to be the same that +Thackeray describes in _Esmond_ as the home of the old Countess of +Chelsey. A large garden, which recently has been cut off for building +purposes, lay at the back, and, doubtless, it was as much due to +the attractions of this piece of pleasant ground, dotted over with +lime-trees, and enclosed by a high wall, that Rossetti went so far +afield, for at that period Chelsea was not the rallying ground of +artists and men of letters. He wished to live a life of retirement, and +thought the possession of a garden in which he could take sufficient +daily exercise would enable him to do so. In leaving Blackfriars +he destroyed many things associated with his residence there, and +calculated to remind him of his life's great loss. He burnt a great body +of letters, and among them were many valuable ones from almost all +the men and women then eminent in literature and art. His great grief +notwithstanding, upon settling at Chelsea he began almost insensibly to +interest himself in furnishing the house in a beautiful and novel style. +Old oak then became for a time his passion, and in hunting it up he +rummaged the brokers' shops round London for miles, buying for trifles +what would eventually (when the fashion he started grew to be general) +have fetched large sums. Cabinets of all conceivable superannuated +designs--so old in material or pattern that no one else would look at +them--were unearthed in obscure corners, bolstered up by a joiner, +and consigned to their places in the new residence. Following old oak, +Japanese furniture became Rossetti's quest, and following this came blue +china ware (of which he had perhaps the first fine collection made), +and then ecclesiastical and other brasses, incense-burners, sacramental +cups, crucifixes, Indian spice boxes, mediaeval lamps, antique bronzes, +and the like. In a few years he had filled his house with so much +curious and beautiful furniture that there grew up a widespread desire +to imitate his methods; and very soon artists, authors, and men of +fortune having no other occupation, were found rummaging, as he had +rummaged, for the neglected articles of the centuries gone by. What he +did was done, as he used to say, less from love of the things hunted +for, than from love of the pursuit, which, from its difficulty, gave +rise to a pleasurable excitement. Thus did he grieve down his loss, and +little did they think who afterwards followed the fashion he set them, +and carried his passion for antique furniture to an excess at which he +must have laughed, that his' primary impulse was so far from a desire to +"live up to his blue ware," that it was more like an effort to live down +to it. + +It was during the earlier years of his residence at Chelsea that +Rossetti formed a habit of life which clung to him almost to the last, +and did more than aught else to blight his happiness. What his intimate +friend has lately characterised in _The Daily News_ as that great curse +of the literary and artistic temperament, insomnia, had been hanging +about him since the death of his wife, and was becoming each year more +and more alarming. He had tried opiates, but in sparing quantities, for +had he not the most serious cause to eschew them? Towards 1868 he heard +of the then newly found drug chloral, which was accredited with all the +virtues and none of the vices of other known narcotics. Here then was +the thing he wanted; this was the blessed discovery that was to save +him from days of weariness and nights of misery and tears. Eagerly he +procured it, took it nightly in single small doses of ten grains each, +and from it he received pleasant and refreshing sleep. He made no +concealment of his habit; like Coleridge under similar conditions, he +preferred to talk of it. Not yet had he learned the sad truth, too soon +to force itself upon him, that the fumes of this dreadful drug would +one day wither up his hopes and joys in life: deluding him with a +short-lived surcease of pain only to impose a terrible legacy of +suffering from which there was to be no respite. Had Rossetti been +master of the drug and not mastered by it, perhaps he might have +turned it to account at a critical juncture, and laid it aside when the +necessity to employ it had gradually been removed. But, alas! he gave +way little by little to the encroachments of an evil power with which, +when once it had gained the ascendant, he fought down to his dying day a +single-handed and losing fight. + +It was not, however, for some years after he began the use of it that +chloral produced any sensible effects of an injurious kind, and meantime +he pursued as usual his avocation as a painter. Mention has been made +of the fact that Rossetti abandoned at an early age subject designs for +three-quarter-length figures. Of the latter, in the period of which we +are now treating, he painted great numbers: among them, produced at this +time and later, were _Sibylla Palmifera and The Beloved_ (the property +of Mr. George Rae), _La Pia and The Salutation of Beatrice_ (Mr. F. E. +Leyland), _The Dying Beatrice_ (Lord Mount Temple), _Venus Astarte_ +(Mr. Fry), _Fiammetta_ (Mr. Turner), _Proserpina_ (Mr. Graham). Of these +works, solidity may be said to be the prominent characteristic. The +drapery of Rossetti's pictures is wonderfully powerful and solid; his +colour may be said to be at times almost matchable with that of certain +of the Venetian painters, though different in kind. He hated beyond most +things the "varnishy" look of some modern work; and his own oil pictures +had so much of the manner of frescoes in their lustreless depth, that +they were sometimes mistaken for water-colours, while, on the other +hand, his water-colours had often so much depth and brilliancy as +sometimes to be mistaken for oil. It is alleged in certain quarters +that Rossetti was deficient in some qualities of drawing, and this is +no doubt a just allegation; but it is beyond question that no English +painter has ever been a greater master of the human face, which in his +works (especially those painted in later years) acquires a splendid +solemnity and spiritual beauty and significance all but peculiar to +himself. It seems proper to say in such a connexion, that his success +in this direction was always attributed by him to the fact that the most +memorable of his faces were painted from a well-known friend. + +Only one of his early designs, the _Dante's Dream_, was ever painted by +Rossetti on a scale commensurate with its importance, and the solemnity +and massive grandeur of that work leave only a feeling of regret that, +whether from personal indisposition on the part of the painter or lack +of adequate recognition on that of the public, the three or four other +finest designs made in youth were never carried out. As the picture in +question stands alone among Rossetti's pictorial works as a completed +conception, it may be well to devote a few pages to a description of it. + +It is essential to an appreciation of _Dante's Dream_, that we should +not only fully understand the nature of the particular incident depicted +in the picture, but also possess a general knowledge of the lives and +relations of the two principal personages concerned in it. What we know, +to most purpose, of the early life and love of Dante, we learn from the +autobiography which he entitled _La Vita Nuova_. Boccaccio, however, +writing fifty years after the death of the great Florentine, affords +a more detailed statement than is furnished by Dante himself of the +circumstances of the poets first meeting with the lady he called +Beatrice. He says that it was the custom of citizens in Florence, when +the time of spring came round, to form social gatherings in their own +quarters for purposes of merry-making; that in this way Folco Portinari, +a citizen of mark, had collected his neighbours at his house upon the +first of May, 1274, for pastime and rejoicing: that amongst those who +came to him was Alighiero Alighieri, father of Dante Alighieri, who +lived within fifty yards; that it was common for children to accompany +their parents at such merrymakings, and that Dante, then scarce nine +years old, was in the house on the day in question engaged in sports, +appropriate to his years, with other children, amongst whom was a little +daughter of Folco Portinari, eight years old. The child is described as +being, even at this period, in aspect extremely beautiful, and winning +and graceful in her ways. Not to dwell upon these passages of childhood, +it may be sufficient to say that the boy, young as he was, is said +to have then conceived so deep a passion for the child that maturer +attachments proved powerless to efface it. Such was the origin of a love +that grew from childlike tenderness to manly ardour, and, surviving all +the buffetings of an untoward fate, is known to us now and for all +time in a record of so much reality and purity, as seems to every +right-hearted nature to be equally the story of his personal attachment +as the history of a passion that in Florence, six centuries ago, for its +mortal put on immortality. + +The Portinari and Alighieri were immediate neighbours, yet it does not +appear that the young Dante encountered the lady in any marked way until +nine years later, and then, in the first bloom of a gracious womanhood, +she is described as affording him in the street a salutation of such +unspeakable courtesy that he left the place where for the instant he had +stood sorely abashed, as one intoxicated with a love that now at first +knew itself for what it was. The incidents of the attachment are few in +facts; numerous only in emotions, and therein too uncertain and liable +to change to be counted. In order not to disclose a passion, which other +reasons than those given by the poet may have tempted him to conceal, +Dante affects an attachment to another lady of the city, and the +rumour of this brings about an estrangement with the real object of his +desires, which reduces the poet to such an abject condition of mind, as +finally results in his laying aside all counterfeiting. Portinari, the +father, now dies, and witnessing the tenderness with which the beautiful +Beatrice mourns him, Dante becomes affected with a painful infirmity, +wherein his mind broods over his enfeebled body, and, perceiving how +frail a thing life is, even though health keep with it, his brain begins +to travail in many imaginings, and he says within himself, "Certainly +it must some time come to pass that the very gentle Beatrice will die." +Feeling bewildered, he closes his eyes, and, in a trance, he conceives +that a friend comes to him, and says, "Hast thou not heard? She that +was thine excellent lady has been taken out of life." Then as he looks +towards Heaven in imagination, he beholds a multitude of angels who are +returning upwards, having before them an exceedingly white cloud; and +these angels are singing, and the words of their song are, "Osanna in +excelsis." So strong is his imagining, that it seems to him that he goes +to look upon the body where it has its abiding-place. + + The sun ceased, and the stars began to gather, + And each wept at the other; + And birds dropp'd at midflight out of the sky; + And earth shook suddenly; + And I was 'ware of one, hoarse and tired out, + Who ask'd of me: 'Hast thou not heard it said-- + Thy lady, she that was so fair, is dead? + + + Then lifting up mine eyes, as the tears came, + I saw the angels, like a rain of manna + In a long flight flying back Heavenward, + Having a little cloud in front of them, + After the which they went, and said 'Hosanna;' + And if they had said more, you should have heard. + + + Then Love said, 'Now shall all things be made clear: + Come, and behold our lady where she lies + These 'wildering phantasies + Then carried me to see my lady dead. + Even as I there was led, + Her ladies with a veil were covering her; + And with her was such very humbleness + That she appeared to say, 'I am at peace.' + (Dante and his Circle.) + +The trance proves to be a premonition of the event, for, shortly after +writing the poem in which his imaginings find record, Dante says, "The +Lord God of Justice called my most gracious lady unto Himself." + +It is with the incidents of the dream that Rossetti has dealt. The +principal personage in the picture is, of course, Dante himself. Of the +poet's face, two old and accredited witnesses remain to us--the portrait +of Giotto and the mask supposed to be copied from a similar one +taken after death. Giotto's portrait represents Dante at the age of +twenty-seven. The face has a feminine delicacy of outline, yet is +full of manly beauty; strength and tenderness are seen blended in its +lineaments. It might be that of a poet, a scholar, a courtier, or yet a +soldier; and in Dante it is all combined. + +Such, as seen in Giotto, was the great Florentine when Beatrice beheld +him. The familiar mask represents that youthful beauty as somewhat +saddened by years of exile, by the accidents of an unequal fortune, and +by the long brooding memory of his life's one, deep, irreparable loss. +We see in it the warrior who served in the great battle of Campaldino: +the mourner who sought refuge from grief in the action and danger of the +war waged by Florence upon Pisa: the magistrate whose justice proved his +ruin: the exile who ate bitter bread when Florence banished the greatest +of her sons. The mask is as full as the portrait of intellect and +feeling, of strength and character, but it lacks something of the early +sweetness and sensibility. Rossetti's portraiture retains the salient +qualities of both portrait and mask. It represents Dante in his +twenty-seventh year; the face gives hint of both poet and soldier, for +behind clear-cut features capable of strengthening into resolve and +rigour lie whole depths of tenderest sympathy. The abstracted air, +the self-centred look, the eyes that seem to see only what the +mind conceives and casts forward from itself; the slow, uncertain, +half-reluctant gait,--these are profoundly true to the man and the +dream. + +Of Beatrice, no such description is given either in the _Vita Nuova_ or +the _Commedia_ as could afford an artist a definite suggestion. Dante's +love was an idealised passion; it concerned itself with spiritual +beauty, whereof the emotions excited absorbed every merely physical +consideration. The beauty of Beatrice in the _Vita Nuova_ is like a +ray of sunshine flooding a landscape--we see it only in the effect it +produces. All we know with certainty is that her hair was light, that +her face was pale, and that her smile was one of thoughtful sweetness. +These hints of a beautiful person Rossetti has wrought into a creation +of such purity that, lovely as she is in death, as in life, we think +less of her loveliness than of her loveableness. + +The personage of Love, who plays throughout the _Vita Nuova_ a mystical +part is not the Pagan Love, but a youth and Christian Master, as Dante +terms him, sometimes of severe and terrible aspect. He is represented in +the picture as clad in a flame-coloured garment (for it is in a mist +of the colour of fire that he appears to the lover), and he wears the +pilgrim's scallop-shell on his shoulder as emblem of that pilgrimage on +earth which Love is. + +The chamber wherein the body of Beatrice has its abiding-place is, to +Dante's imaginings, a chamber of dreams. Visionary as the mind of the +dreamer, it discloses at once all that goes forward within its own +narrow compass, together with the desolate streets of the city of +Florence, which, to his fancy, sits silent for his loss, and the long +flight of angels above that bear away the little cloud, to which is +given a vague semblance of the beatified Beatrice. As if just fallen +back in sleep, the beautiful lady lies in death, her hands folded across +her breast, and a glory of golden hair flowing over her shoulders. With +measured tread Dante approaches the couch led by the winged and scarlet +Love, but, as though fearful of so near and unaccustomed an approach, +draws slowly backward on his half-raised foot, while the mystical emblem +of his earthly passion stands droopingly between him the living, and his +lady the dead, and takes the kiss that he himself might never have. In +life they must needs be apart, but thus in death they are united, for +the hand of the pilgrim, who is the embodiment of his love, holds his +hand even as the master's lips touch her lips. Two ladies of the chamber +are covering her with a pall, and on the dreamer they fix sympathetic +eyes. The floor is strewn with poppies--emblems equally of the sleep in +which the lover walks, and of the sleep that is the sleep of death. +The may-bloom in the pall, the apple-blossom in the hand of Love, the +violets and roses in the frieze of the alcove, symbolise purity and +virginity, the life that is cut off in its spring, the love that is +consummated in death before the coming of fruit. Suspended from the roof +is a scroll, bearing the first words of the wail from the Lamentations +of Jeremiah, quoted by Dante himself:--"How doth the city sit solitary, +that was full of people! How is she become as a widow, she that was +great among the nations!" In the ascending and descending staircase on +either iand fly doves of the same glowing colour as Love, and these are +emblems of his presence in the house. Over all flickers the last beam of +a lamp which has burnt through the long night, and which the dawn of a +new day sees die away--fit symbol of the life that has now taken flight +with the heavenly host, leaving behind it only the burnt-out socket +where the live flame lived. + +Full of symbol as this picture is, it is furthermore permeated by +a significance that is not occult. It bears witness to the possible +strength of a passion that is so spiritual as to be without taint of +sense; and to a confident belief in an immortality wherein the utmost +limits of a blessedness not of this world may be compassed. Such are +in this picture the simpler, yet deeper, symbols, that all who look may +read. Sir Noel Paton has written of this work: + +I was so dumbfounded by the beauty of that great picture of Rosetti's, +called _Dante's Dream_, that I was usable to give any expression to the +emotions it excited--emotions such as I do not think any other picture, +except the _Madonna di San Sisto_ at Dresden, ever stirred within me. +The memory of such a picture is like the memory of sublime and perfect +music; it makes any one who _fully_ feels it--_silent_. Fifty years +hence it will be named among the half-dozen supreme pictures of the +world. + +Rossetti had buried the only complete copy of his poems with his wife at +Highgate, and for a time he had been able to put by the thought of them; +but as one by one his friends, Mr. Morris, Mr. Swinburne, and others, +attained to distinction as poets, he began to hanker after poetic +reputation, and to reflect with pain and regret upon the hidden +fruits of his best effort. Rossetti--in all love of his memory be +it spoken--was after all a frail mortal; of unstable character: of +variable purpose: a creature of impulse and whim, and with a plentiful +lack of the backbone of volition. With less affection he would not have +buried his book; with more strength of will he had not done so; or, +having done so, he had never wished to undo what he had done; or having +undone it, he would never have tormented himself with the memory of it +as of a deed of sacrilege. But Rossetti had both affection enough to +do it and weakness enough to have it undone. After an infinity of +self-communions he determined to have the grave opened, and the book +extracted. Endless were the preparations necessary before such a work +could be begun. Mr. Home Secretary Bruce had to be consulted. At length +preliminaries were complete, and one night, seven and a half years after +the burial, a fire was built by the side of the grave, and then the +coffin was raised and opened. The body is described as perfect upon +coming to light. + +Whilst this painful work was being done the unhappy author of it was +sitting alone and anxious, and full of self-reproaches at the house of +the friend who had charge of it. He was relieved and thankful when told +that all was over. The volume was not much the worse for the years it +had lain in the grave. Deficiencies were filled in from memory, the +manuscript was put in the press, and in 1870 the reclaimed work was +issued under the simple title of _Poems_. + +The success of the book was almost without precedent; seven editions +were called for in rapid succession. It was reviewed with enthusiasm in +many quarters. Yet that was a period in which fresh poetry and new poets +arose, even as they now arise, with all the abundance and timeliness +of poppies in autumn. It is probable enough that of the circumstances +attending the unexampled early success of this first volume only +the remarkable fact is still remembered that, from a bookseller's +standpoint, it ran a neck-and-neck race with Disraeli's _Lothair_ at +a time when political romance was found universally appetising, and +poetry, as of old, a drug. But it will not be forgotten that certain +subsidiary circumstances were thought to have contributed to the former +success. Of these the most material was the reputation Rossetti had +already achieved as a painter by methods which awakened curiosity +as much as they aroused enthusiasm. The public mind became sensibly +affected by the idea that the poems of the new poet were not to be +regarded as the emanations of a single individual, but as the result of +a movement in which Rossetti had played one of the most prominent parts. +Mr. F. Hueffer, in prefacing the Tauchnitz edition of the poems with +a pleasant memoir, has comprehensively denominated that movement +the _renaissance of mediaeval feeling_, but at the outset it +acquired popularly, for good or ill, the more rememberable name of +pre-Raphaelitism. What the shibboleth was of the originators of the +school that grew out of it concerned men but little to ascertain; and +this was a condition of indifference as to the logic of the movement +which was occasioned partly by the known fact that the most popular of +its leaders, Mr. Millais, had long been shifting ground. It was +enough that the new sect had comprised dissenters from the creed once +established, that the catholic spirit of art which lived with the +lives of Elmore, Goodall, and Stone was long dead, and that none of the +coteries for love of which the old faith, exemplified in the works of +men such as these, had been put aside, possessed such an appeal for +the imagination as this, now that twenty years of fairly consistent +endeavour had cleared away the cloud of obloquy that gathered about it +when it began. And so it came to be thought that the poems of Rossetti +were to exhibit a new phase of this movement, involving kindred issues, +and opening up afresh in the poetic domain the controversies which had +been waged and won in the pictorial. Much to this purpose was said at +the time to account for the success of a book whose popular qualities +were I manifestly inconsiderable; and much to similar purpose +will doubtless long be said by those who affect to believe that a +concatenation of circumstances did for Rossetti's earlier work a service +which could not attend his subsequent one. But the explanation was +inadequate, and had for its immediate outcome a charge of narrowed range +of poetic sympathy with which Rossetti's admirers had not laid their +account. + +A renaissance of mediaeval feeling the movement in art assuredly +involved, but the essential part of it was another thing, of which +mediaevalism was palpably independent. How it came to be considered the +fundamental element is not difficult to show. In an eminent degree +the originators of the new school in painting were colourists, having, +perhaps, in their effects, a certain affinity to the early Florentine +masters, and this accident of native gift had probably more to do in +determining the precise direction of the _intellectual_ sympathy than +any external agency. The art feeling which formed the foundation of the +movement existed apart from it, or bore no closer relation to it than +kinship of powers induced. When Rossetti's poetry came it was seen to +be animated by a choice of subject-matter akin to that which gave +individual character to his painting, but this was because coeval +efforts in two totally distinct arts must needs bear the family +resemblance, each to each, which belong to all the offspring of a +thoroughly harmonised mind. The poems and the pictures, however, had not +more in common than can be found in the early poems and early dramas of +Shakspeare. Nay, not so much; for whereas in his poems Shakspeare was +constantly evolving certain shades of feeling and begetting certain +movements of thought which were soon to find concrete and final +collocation in the dramatic creations, in his pictures Rossetti was +first of all a dissenter from all prescribed canons of taste, whilst in +his poems he was in harmony with the catholic spirit which was as old +as Shakspeare himself, and found revival, after temporary eclipse, in +Coleridge, Shelley, Keats, and Tennyson. Choice of mediaeval theme would +not in itself have been enough to secure a reversal of popular feeling +against work that contained no germs of the sensational; and hence we +must conclude that Mr. Swinburne accounted more satisfactorily for the +instant popularity of Rossetti's poetry when he claimed for it those +innate utmost qualities of beauty and strength which are always +the first and last constituents of poetry that abides. Indeed those +qualities and none other, wholly independent of auxiliary aids, must now +as then go farthest to determine Rossetti's final place among poets. + +Such as is here described was the first reception given to Rossetti's +volume of poetry; but at the close of 1871, there arose out of it a +long and acrimonious controversy. It seems necessary to allude to this +painful matter, because it involved serious issues; but an effort alike +after brevity and impartiality of comment shall be observed in what is +said of it. In October of the year mentioned, an article entitled _The +Fleshly School of Poetry_, and signed "Thomas Maitland," appeared +in _The Contemporary Review_. {*} It consisted in the main of an +impeachment of Rossetti's poetry on the ground of sensuality, though it +embraced a broad denunciation of the sensual tendencies of the age in +art, music, poetry, the drama, and social life generally. Sensuality was +regarded as the phenomenon of the age. "It lies," said the writer, "on +the drawing-room table, shamelessly naked and dangerously fair. It is +part of the pretty poem which the belle of the season reads, and it +breathes away the pureness of her soul like the poisoned breath of +the girl in Hawthorne's tale. It covers the shelves of the great +Oxford-Street librarian, lurking in the covers of three-volume novels. +It is on the French booksellers' counters, authenticated by the +signature of the author of the _Visite de Noces_. It is here, there, +and everywhere, in art, literature, life, just as surely as it is in +the _Fleurs de Mal_, the Marquis de Sade's _Justine_, or the _Monk_ of +Lewis. It appeals to all tastes, to all dispositions, to all ages. If +the querulous man of letters has his Baudelaire, the pimpled clerk has +his _Day's Doings_, and the dissipated artisan his _Day and Night._" +When the writer set himself to inquire into the source of this social +cancer, he refused to believe that English society was honeycombed and +rotten. He accounted for the portentous symptoms that appalled him by +attributing the evil to a fringe of real English society, chiefly, if +not altogether, resident in London: "a sort of demi-monde, not composed, +like that other in France, of simple courtesans, but of men and women of +indolent habits and aesthetic tastes, artists, literary persons, novel +writers, actors, men of genius and men of talent, butterflies and +gadflies of the human kind, leading a lazy existence from hand to +mouth." It was to this Bohemian fringe of society that the writer +attributed the "gross and vulgar conceptions of life which are +formulated into certain products of art, literature, and criticism." +Dealing with only one form of the social phenomenon, with sensualism so +far as it appeared to affect contemporary poetry, the writer proceeded +with a literary retrospect intended to show that the fair dawn of +our English poetry in Chaucer and the Elizabethan dramatists had been +overclouded by a portentous darkness, a darkness "vaporous," "miasmic," +coming from a "fever-cloud generated first in Italy and then blown +westward," sucking up on its way "all that was most unwholesome from the +soil of France." + + * In this summary, the pamphlet reprint has been followed in + preference to the original article as it appeared in the + Review. + +Just previously to and contemporaneously with the rise of Dante, there +had flourished a legion of poets of greater or less ability, but all +more or less characterised by affectation, foolishness, and moral +blindness: singers of the falsetto school, with ballads to their +mistress's eyebrow, sonnets to their lady's lute, and general songs of a +fiddlestick; peevish men for the most part, as is the way of all fleshly +and affected beings; men so ignorant of human subjects and materials +as to be driven in their sheer bankruptcy of mind to raise Hope, Love, +Fear, Rage (everything but Charity) into human entities, and to +treat the body and upholstery of a dollish woman as if, in itself, it +constituted a whole universe. + +After tracing the effect of the "moral poison" here seen in its +inception through English poetry from Surrey and Wyat to Cowley, the +writer recognised a "tranquil gleam of honest English light" in Cowper, +who "spread the seeds of new life" soon to re-appear in Wordsworth, +Coleridge, Southey, Lamb, and Scott. In his opinion the "Italian disease +would now have died out altogether," but for a "fresh importation of the +obnoxious matter from France." + +At this stage came a denunciation of the representation of "abnormal +types of diseased lust and lustful disease" as seen in Charles +Baudelaire's _Fleurs de Mal_, with the conclusion that out of "the +hideousness of _Femmes Damnees_" came certain English poems. "This," +said the writer, "is our double misfortune--to have a nuisance, and to +have it at second-hand. We might have been more tolerant to an unclean +thing if it had been in some sense a product of the soil" All that is +here summarised, however, was but preparatory to the real object of the +article, which was to assail Rossetti's new volume. + +The poems were traversed in detail, with but little (and that the most +grudging) admission of their power and beauty, and the very sharpest +accentuation of their less spiritual qualities. Since the publication +of the article in question, events have taken such a turn that it is no +longer either necessary or wise to quote the strictures contained in it, +however they might be fenced by juster views. The gravamen of the charge +against Rossetti, Mr. Swinburne, and Mr. Morris alike--setting aside +all particular accusations, however serious--was that they had "bound +themselves into a solemn league and covenant to extol fleshliness as +the distinct and supreme end of poetic and pictorial art; to aver that +poetic expression is greater than poetic thought, and by inference that +the body is greater than the soul, and sound superior to sense." + +Such, then, is a synopsis of the hostile article of which the nucleus +appeared in _The Contemporary Review_, and it were little less than +childish to say that events so important as the publication of the +article and subsequent pamphlet, and the controversy that arose out +of them, should, from their unpleasantness and futility, from the bad +passions provoked by them, or yet from the regret that followed after +them, be passed over in sorrow and silence. For good or ill, what was +written on both sides will remain. It has stood and will stand. Sooner +or later the story of this literary quarrel will be told in detail and +in cold blood, and perhaps with less than sufficient knowledge of either +of the parties concerned in it, or sympathy with their aims. No better +fate, one might think, could befall it than to be dealt with, however +briefly, by a writer whose affections were warmly engaged on one side, +while his convictions and bias of nature forced him to recognise the +justice of the other--stripped, of course, of the cruelties with which +literary error but too obviously enshrouded it. + +Whatever the effect produced upon the public mind by the article +in question (and there seems little reason to think it was at all +material), the effect upon two of the writers attacked was certainly +more than commensurate with the assault. Mr. Morris wisely attempted +no reply to the few words of adverse criticism in which his name was +specifically involved; but Mr. Swinburne retorted upon his adversary +with the torrents of invective of which he has a measureless command. +Rossetti's course was different. Greatly concerned at the bitterness, +as well as startled by the unexpectedness of the attack, he wrote in the +first moments of indignation a full and point-for-point rejoinder, and +this he printed in the form of a pamphlet, and had a great number struck +off; but with constitutional irresolution (wisely restraining him in +this case), he destroyed every copy, and contented himself with writing +a temperate letter on the subject to _The Athenaeum_, December 16, 1871. +He said: + +A sonnet, entitled _Nuptial Sleep_, is quoted and abused at page 338 +of the Review, and is there dwelt upon as a "whole poem," describing +"merely animal sensations." It is no more a whole poem in reality than +is any single stanza of any poem throughout the book. The poem, written +chiefly in sonnets, and of which this is one sonnet-stanza, is entitled +_The House of Life_; and even in my first published instalment of the +whole work (as contained in the volume under notice), ample evidence +is included that no such passing phase of description as the one headed +_Nuptial Sleep_ could possibly be put forward by the author of _The +House of Life_ as his own representative view of the subject of love. +In proof of this I will direct attention (among the love-sonnets of this +poem), to Nos. 2, 8, 11, 17, 28, and more especially 13. [Here _Love +Sweetness_ is printed.] Any reader may bring any artistic charge he +pleases against the above sonnet; but one charge it would be impossible +to maintain against the writer of the series in which it occurs, and +that is, the wish on his part to assert that the body is greater than +the soul. For here all the passionate and just delights of the body are +declared--somewhat figuratively, it is true, but unmistakeably--to be +as naught if not ennobled by the concurrence of the soul at all times. +Moreover, nearly one half of this series of sonnets has nothing to do +with love, but treats of quite other life-influences. I would defy any +one to couple with fair quotation of sonnets 29, 30, 31, 39, 40, 43, or +others, the slander that their author was not impressed, like all other +thinking men, with the responsibilities and higher mysteries of life; +while sonnets 35, 36, and 37, entitled _The Choice_, sum up the general +view taken in a manner only to be evaded by conscious insincerity. Thus +much for _The House of Life_, of which the sonnet _Nuptial Sleep_ is one +stanza, embodying, for its small constituent share, a beauty of natural +universal function, only to be reprobated in art if dwelt on (as I have +shown that it is not here), to the exclusion of those other highest +things of which it is the harmonious concomitant. + +It had become known that the article in the _Review_ was not the work +of the unknown Thomas Maitland, whose name it bore, and on this head +Rossetti wrote: + +Here a critical organ, professedly adopting the principle of open +signature, would seem, in reality, to assert (by silent practice, +however, not by annunciation) that if the anonymous in criticism +was--as itself originally indicated--but an early caterpillar stage, +the nominate too is found to be no better than a homely transitional +chrysalis, and that the ultimate butterfly form for a critic who +likes to sport in sunlight, and yet elude the grasp, is after all the +pseudonymous. + +It transpired, in subsequent correspondence (of which there was more +than enough), that the actual writer was Mr. Robert Buchanan, then +a young author who had risen into distinction as a poet, and who was +consequently suspected, by the writers and disciples of the Rossetti +school, of being actuated much more by feelings of rivalry than +by desire for the public good. Mr. Buchanan's reply to the serious +accusation of having assailed a brother-poet pseudonymously was that the +false signature was affixed to the article without his knowledge, +"in order that the criticism might rest upon its own merits, and gain +nothing from the name of the real writer." + +It was an unpleasant controversy, and what remains as an impartial +synopsis of it appears to be this: that there was actually manifest +in the poetry of certain writers a tendency to deviate from wholesome +reticence, and that this dangerous tendency came to us from France, +where deep-seated unhealthy passion so gave shape to the glorification +of gross forms of animalism as to excite alarm that what had begun with +the hideousness of _Femmes Damnees_ would not even end there; finally, +that the unpleasant truth demanded to be spoken--by whomsoever had +courage enough to utter it--that to deify mere lust was an offence and +an outrage. So much for the justice on Mr. Buchanan's side; with the +mistaken criticism linking the writers of Dante's time with French +writers of the time of Baudelaire it is hardly necessary to deal. On the +other hand, it must be said that the sum-total of all the English +poetry written in imitation of the worst forms of this French excess was +probably less than one hundred lines; that what was really reprehensible +in the English imitation of the poetry of the French School was, +therefore, too inconsiderable to justify a wholesale charge against it +of an endeavour to raise the banner of a black ambition whose only aim +was to ruin society; that Rossetti, who was made to bear the brunt +of attack, was a man who never by direct avowal, or yet by inference, +displayed the faintest conceivable sympathy with the French excesses in +question, and who never wrote a line inspired by unwholesome passion. +As the pith of Mr. Buchanan's accusation of 1871 lay here, and as Mr. +Buchanan has, since then, very manfully withdrawn it, {*} we need hardly +go further; but, as more recent articles in prominent places, +_The Edinburgh Review, The British Quarterly Review, and again The +Contemporary Review_, have repeated what was first said by him on the +alleged unwholesomeness of Rossetti's poetic impulses, it may be as well +to admit frankly, and at once (for the subject will arise in the future +as frequently as this poetry is under discussion) that love of bodily +beauty did underlie much of the poet's work. But has not the same +passion made the back-bone of nine-tenths of the noblest English poetry +since Chaucer? If it is objected that Rossetti's love of physical +beauty took new forms, the rejoinder is that it would have been equally +childish and futile to attempt to prescribe limits for it. All this +we grant to those unfriendly critics who refuse to see that spiritual +beauty and not sensuality was Rossetti's actual goal. + + * Writing to me on this subject since Rossetti's death, Mr. + Buchanan says:--"In perfect frankness, let me say a few + words concerning our old quarrel. While admitting freely + that my article in the C. R. was unjust to Rossetti's claims + as a poet, I have ever held, and still hold, that it + contained nothing to warrant the manner in which it was + received by the poet and his circle. At the time it was + written, the newspapers were full of panegyric; mine was a + mere drop of gall in an ocean of _eau sucree_. That it could + have had on any man the effect you describe, I can scarcely + believe; indeed, I think that no living man had so little to + complain of as Rossetti, on the score of criticism. Well, my + protest was received in a way which turned irritation into + wrath, wrath into violence; and then ensued the paper war + which lasted for years. If you compare what I have written + of Rossetti with what his admirers have written of myself, I + think you will admit that there has been some cause for me + to complain, to shun society, to feel bitter against the + world; but happily, I have a thick epidermis, and the + courage of an approving conscience. I was unjust, as I have + said; most unjust when I impugned the purity and + misconceived the passion of writings too hurriedly read and + reviewed currente calamo; but I was at least honest and + fearless, and wrote with no personal malignity. Save for the + action of the literary defence, if I may so term it, my + article would have been as ephemeral as the mood which + induced its composition. I make full admission of Rossetti's + claims to the purest kind of literary renown, and if I were + to criticise his poems now, I should write very differently. + But nothing will shake my conviction that the cruelty, the + unfairness, the pusillanimity has been on the other side, + not on mine. The amende of my Dedication in God and the Man + was a sacred thing; between his spirit and mine; not between + my character and the cowards who have attacked it. I thought + he would understand,--which would have been, and indeed is, + sufficient. I cried, and cry, no truce with the horde of + slanderers who hid themselves within his shadow. That is + all. But when all is said, there still remains the pity that + our quarrel should ever have been. Our little lives are too + short for such animosities. Your friend is at peace with + God,--that God who will justify and cherish him, who has + dried his tears, and who will turn the shadow of his sad + life-dream into full sunshine. My only regret now is that we + did not meet,--that I did not take him by the hand; but I am + old-fashioned enough to believe that this world is only a + prelude, and that our meeting may take place--even yet." + +To Rossetti, the poet, the accusation of extolling fleshliness as +the distinct and supreme end of art was, after all, only an error of +critical judgment; but to Rossetti, the man, the charge was something +far more serious. It was a cruel and irremediable wound inflicted upon a +fine spirit, sensitive to attack beyond all sensitiveness hitherto known +among poets. He who had withheld his pictures from exhibition from dread +of the distracting influences of popular opinion, he who for fifteen +years had withheld his poems from print in obedience first to an +extreme modesty of personal estimate and afterwards to the commands of +a mastering affection was likely enough at forty-two years of age (after +being loaded by the disciples that idolised him with only too much of +the "frankincense of praise and myrrh of flattery") to feel deeply the +slander that he had unpacked his bosom of unhealthy passions. But to say +that Rossetti felt the slander does not express his sense of it. He had +replied to his reviewer and had acted unwisely in so doing; but when +one after one--in the _Quarterly Review, the North American Review_, +and elsewhere, in articles more or less ignorant, uncritical, and +stupid--the accusations he had rebutted were repeated with increased +bitterness, he lost all hope of stemming the torrent of hostile +criticism. He had, as we have seen, for years lived in partial +retirement, enjoying at intervals a garden party behind the house, or +going about occasionally to visit relatives and acquaintances, but now +he became entirely reclusive, refusing to see any friends except the +three or four intimate ones who were constantly with him. Nor did the +mischief end there. We have spoken of his habitual use of chloral, +which was taken at first in small doses as a remedy for insomnia and +afterwards indulged in to excess at moments of physical prostration or +nervous excitement. To that false friend he came at this time with only +too great assiduity, and the chloral, added to the seclusive habit of +life, induced a series of terrible though intermittent illnesses and a +morbid condition of mind in which for a little while he was the victim +of many painful delusions. It was at this time that the soothing +friendship of Dr. Gordon Hake, and his son Mr. George Hake, was of such +inestimable service to Rossetti. Having appeared myself on the scene +much later I never had the privilege of knowing either of these two +gentlemen, for Mr. George Hake was already gone away to Cyprus and Dr. +Hake had retired very much into the bosom of his own family where, as is +rumoured, he has been engaged upon a literary work which will establish +his fame. But I have often heard Mr. Theodore Watts speak with deep +emotion and eloquent enthusiasm of the tender kindness and loyal zeal +shown to Rossetti during this crisis by Mr. Bell Scott, and by Dr. Hake +and his son. As to Mr. Theodore Watts, whose brotherly devotion to him, +and beneficial influence over him from that time forward are so well +known, this must be considered by those who witnessed it to be almost +without precedent or parallel even in the beautiful story of literary +friendships, and it does as much honour to the one as to the other. No +light matter it must have been to lay aside one's own long-cherished +life-work and literary ambitions to be Rossetti's closest friend and +brother, at a moment like the present, when he imagined the world to be +conspiring against him; but through these evil days, and long after them +down to his death, the friend that clung closer than a brother was with +him, as he himself said, to protect, to soothe, to comfort, to divert, +to interest, and inspire him--asking, meantime, no better reward than +the knowledge that a noble mind and nature was by such sacrifice lifted +out of sorrow. Among the world's great men the greatest are sometimes +those whose names are least on our lips, and this is because selfish +aims have been so subordinate in their lives to the welfare of others +as to leave no time for the personal achievements that win personal +distinction; but when the world comes to the knowledge of the price +that has been paid for the devotion that enables others to enjoy their +renown, shall it not reward with a double meed of gratitude the fine +spirits to whom ambition has been as nothing against fidelity of +friendship? Among the latest words I heard from Rossetti was this: +"Watts is a hero of friendship;" and indeed he has displayed his +capacity for participation in the noblest part of comradeship, that +part, namely, which is far above the mere traffic that too often goes by +the name, and wherein self-love always counts upon being the gainer. If +in the end it should appear that he has in his own person done less than +might have been hoped for from one possessed of his splendid gifts, +let it not be overlooked that he has influenced in a quite incalculable +degree, and influenced for good, several of the foremost among those who +in their turn have influenced the age. As Rossetti's faithful friend, +and gifted medical adviser, Mr. John Marshall has often declared, there +were periods when Rossetti's very life may be said to have hung upon Mr. +Watts's power to cheer and soothe. + +Efforts were afoot about the year 1872 to induce Rossetti to visit +Italy--a journey which, strangely enough, he had never made--but this +he could not be prevailed upon to do. In the hope of diverting his mind +from the unwholesome matters that too largely engaged it, his brother +and friends, prominent among whom at this time were Mr. Bell Scott, Mr. +Ford Madox Brown, Mr. W. Graham, and Dr. Gordon Hake, as well as his +assistant and friend, Mr. H. T. Dunn, and Mr. George Hake, induced him +to seek a change in Scotland, and there he speedily recovered tone. + +Immediately upon the publication of his first volume, and incited +thereto by the early success of it, he had written the poem _Rose Mary_, +as well as two lyrics published at the time in _The Fortnightly Review_; +but he suffered so seriously from the subsequent assaults of criticism, +that he seemed definitely to lay aside all hope of producing further +poetry, and, indeed, to become possessed of the delusion that he had for +ever lost all power of doing so. It is an interesting fact, well known +in his own literary circle, that his taking up poetry afresh was +the result of a fortuitous occurrence. After one of his most serious +illnesses, and in the hope of drawing off his attention from himself, +and from the gloomy forebodings which in an invalid's mind usually +gather about his own too absorbing personality, a friend prevailed upon +him, with infinite solicitation, to try his hand afresh at a sonnet. The +outcome was an effort so feeble as to be all but unrecognisable as the +work of the author of the sonnets of _The House of Life_, but with +more shrewdness and friendliness (on this occasion) than frankness, +the critic lavished measureless praise upon it, and urged the poet to +renewed exertion. One by one, at longer or shorter intervals, sonnets +were written, and this exercise did more towards his recovery than +any other medicine, with the result besides that Rossetti eventually +regained all his old dexterity and mastery of hand. The artifice had +succeeded beyond every expectation formed of it, serving, indeed, the +twofold end of improving the invalid's health by preventing his brooding +over unhealthy matters, and increasing the number of his accomplished +works. Encouraged by such results, the friend went on to induce Rossetti +to write a ballad, and this purpose he finally achieved by challenging +the poet's ability to compose in the simple, direct, and emphatic style, +which is the style of the ballad proper, as distinguished from the +elaborate, ornate, and condensed diction which he had hitherto worked +in. Put upon his mettle, the outcome of this second artifice practised +upon him, was that he wrote _The White Ship_, and afterwards _The King's +Tragedy_. + +Thus was Rossetti already immersed in this revived occupation of poetic +composition, and had recovered a healthy* tone of body, before he became +conscious of what was being done with him. It is a further amusing fact +that one day he requested to be shown the first sonnet which, in view of +the praise lavished upon it by the friend on whose judgment he reposed, +had encouraged him to renewed effort. The sonnet was bad: the critic +knew it was bad, and had from the first hour of its production kept it +carefully out of sight, and was now more than ever unwilling to show it. +Eventually, however, by reason of ceaseless importunity, he returned it +to its author, who, upon reading it, cried: "You fraud! you said this +sonnet was good, and it's the worst I _ever_ wrote." "The worst ever +written would perhaps be a truer criticism," was the reply, as the +studio resounded with a hearty laugh, and the poem was committed to the +flames. It would appear that to this occurrence we probably owe a large +portion of the contents of the volume of 1881. + +As we say, _Rose Mary_ was the first to be written of the leading poems +that found places in his final volume. This ballad (or ballad romance, +for ballad it can hardly be called) is akin to _Sister Helen_ in +_motif_. The superstition involved owes something in this case as in +the other to the invention and poetic bias of the poet. It has, however, +less of what has been called the Catholic element, and is more purely +Pagan. It is, therefore, as entirely undisturbed by animosity against +heresy, and is concerned only with an ultimate demoniacal justice +visiting the wrongdoer. The main point of divergency lies in the +circumstance that Rose Mary, unlike Helen, is the undesigning instrument +of evil powers, and that her blind deed is the means by which her +own and her lover's sin and his treachery become revealed. A further +material point of divergency lies in the fact that unlike Helen, who +loses her soul (as the price of revenge, directed against her betrayer), +Rose Mary loses her life (as the price of vengeance directed against +the evil race), whilst her soul gains rest. The superstition is that +associated with the beryl stone, wherein the pure only may read the +future, and from which sinful eyes must chase the spirits of grace and +leave their realm to be usurped by the spirits of fire, who seal up the +truth or reveal it by contraries. Rose Mary, who has sinned with her +lover, is bidden to look in the beryl and learn where lurks the ambush +that waits to take his life as he rides at break of day. Hiding, but +remembering her transgression, she at first shrinks, but at length +submits, and the blessed spirits by whom the stone has been tenanted +give place to the fiery train. The stone is not sealed to her; and the +long spell being ministered, she is satisfied. But she has read the +stone by contraries, and her lover falls into the hand of his enemy. +By his death is their secret sin made known. And then a newer shame is +revealed, not to her eyes, but to her mother's: even the treachery of +the murdered man. Ignorant of this to the end, Eose Mary seeks to work a +twofold ransoming by banishing from the beryl the evil powers. With the +sword of her father (by whom the accursed gift had been brought from +Palestine), she cleaves the heart of the stone, and with the broken +spell her own life breaks. + +It will readily be seen that the scheme of the ballad does not afford +opportunity for a memorable incursion in the domain of character. Rose +Mary herself as a creation is not comparable with Helen. But the ballad +throughout is nevertheless a triumph of the higher imagination. Nowhere +else (to take the lowest ground) has Rossetti displayed so great a gift +of flashing images upon the mind at once by a single expression. + + Closely locked, they clung without speech, + And the mirrored souls shook each to each, + As the cloud-moon and the water-moon + Shake face to face when the dim stars swoon + In stormy bowers of the night's mid-noon. + + Deep the flood and heavy the shock + When sea meets sea in the riven rock: + But calm is the pulse that shakes the sea + To the prisoned tide of doom set free + In the breaking heart of Rose Mary. + + She knew she had waded bosom-deep + Along death's bank in the sedge of sleep. + And now in Eose Mary's lifted eye + 'Twas shadow alone that made reply + To the set face of the soul's dark shy. + +Nor has Rossetti anywhere displayed a more sustained picturesqueness. +One episode stands forth vividly even among so many that are +conspicuous. The mother has left her daughter in a swoon to seek help of +the priest who has knelt unweariedly by the dead body of her daughter's +lover, now lying on the ingle-bench in the hall. When the priest has +gone and the castle folk have left her alone, the lady sinks to her +knees beside the corpse. Great wrong the dead man has done to her and +hers, and perhaps God has wrought this doom of his for a sign; but well +she knows, or thinks she knows, that if life had remained with him his +love would have been security for their honour. She stoops with a sob to +kiss the dead, but before her lips touch the cold brow she sees a packet +half-hidden in the dead man's breast. It is a folded paper about which +the blood from a spear-thrust has grown clotted, and inside is a tress +of golden hair. Some pledge of her child's she thinks it, and proceeds +to undo the paper's folds, and then learns the treachery of the fallen +knight and suffers a bitterer pang than came of the knowledge of her +daughter's dishonour. It is a love-missive from the sister of his foe +and murderer. + + She rose upright with a long low moan, + And stared in the dead man's face new-known. + Had it lived indeed? she scarce could tell: + 'Twas a cloud where fiends had come to dwell,-- + A mask that hung on the gate of Hell. + + She lifted the lock of gleaming hair, + And smote the lips and left it there. + "Here's gold that Hell shall take for thy toll! + Full well hath thy treason found its goal, + O thou dead body and damned soul!" + +Anything finer than this it would be hard to discover in English +narrative poetry. Every word goes to build up the story: every line is +quintessential: every flash of thought helps to heighten the emotion. +Indeed the closing lines rise entirely above the limits of ballad poetry +into the realm of dramatic diction. But perhaps the crowning glory and +epic grandeur of the poem comes at the close. Awakened from her swoon, +Rose Mary makes her way to the altar-cell and there she sees the +beryl-stone lying between the wings of some sculptured beast. Within the +fated glass she beholds Death, Sorrow, Sin and Shame marshalled past in +the glare of a writhing flame, and thereupon follows a scene scarcely +less terrible than Juliet's vision of the tomb of the Capulets. But she +has been told within this hour that her weak hand shall send hence the +evil race by whom the stone is possessed, and with a stern purpose she +reaches her father's dinted sword. Then when the beryl is cleft to the +core, and Rose Mary lies in her last gracious sleep-- + + With a cold brow like the snows ere May, + With a cold breast like the earth till spring, + With such a smile as the June days bring-- + A clear voice pronounces her beatitude: + + Already thy heart remembereth + No more his name thou sought'st in death: + For under all deeps, all heights above,-- + So wide the gulf in the midst thereof,-- + Are Hell of Treason and Heaven of Love. + + Thee, true soul, shall thy truth prefer + To blessed Mary's rose-bower: + Warmed and lit is thy place afar + With guerdon-fires of the sweet love-star, + Where hearts of steadfast lovers are. + +The White Ship was written in 1880; _The King's Tragedy_ in the spring +of 1881. These historical ballads we must briefly consider together. The +memorable events of which Rossetti has made poetic record are, in _The +White Ship_, those associated with the wreck of the ship in which the +son and daughter of Henry I. of England set sail from France, and in +_The King's Tragedy_, with the death of James the First of Scots. The +story of the one is told by the sole survivor, Herold, the butcher of +Rouen; and of the other by Catherine Douglas, the maid of honour who +received popularly the name of Kate Barlass, in recognition of her +heroic act when she barred the door with her arm against the murderers +of the King. It is scarcely possible to conceive in either case a +diction more perfectly adapted to the person by whom it is employed. +If we compare the language of these ballads with that of the sonnets or +other poems spoken in the author's own person, we find it is not first +of all gorgeous, condensed, emphatic. It is direct, simple, pure and +musical; heightened, it is true, by imagery acquired in its passage +through the medium of the poet's mind, but in other respects essentially +the language of the historical personages who are made to speak. The +diction belongs in each case to the period of the ballad in which it +is employed, and yet there is no wanton use of archaisms, or any +disposition manifested to resort to meretricious artifices by which to +impart an appearance of probability to the story other than that which +comes legitimately of sheer narrative excellence. The characterisation +is that of history with the features softened that constituted the prose +of real life, and with the salient, moral, and intellectual lineaments +brought into relief. Herein the ballad may do that final justice which +history itself withholds. Thus the King Henry of _The White Ship_ is +governed by lust of dominion more than by parental affection; and the +Prince, his son, is a lawless, shameless youth; intolerant, tyrannical, +luxurious, voluptuous, yet capable of self-sacrifice even amidst peril +of death. + + When he should be King, he oft would vow, + He 'd yoke the peasant to his own plough. + O'er him the ships score their furrows now. + God only knows where his soul did wake, + But I saw him die for his sister's sake. + +The King James of _The King's Tragedy_ is of a righteous and fearless +nature, strong yet sensitive, unbending before the pride and hate of +powerful men, resolute, and ready even where fate itself declares that +death lurks where his road must lie; his beautiful Queen Jane is sweet, +tender, loving, devoted--meet spouse for a poet and king. The incidents +too are those of history: the choice and final collocation of them, and +the closing scene in which the queen mourns her husband, being the sum +of the author's contribution. And those incidents are in the highest +degree varied and picturesque. The author has not achieved a more vivid +pictorial presentment than is displayed in these latest ballads from his +pen. It would be hard to find in his earlier work anything bearing more +clearly the stamp of reality than the descriptions of the wreck in _The +White Ship_, of the two drowning men together on the mainyard, of the +morning dawning over the dim sea-sky-- + + At last the morning rose on the sea + Like an angel's wing that beat towards me-- + +and of the little golden-haired boy in black whose foot patters down +the court of the king. Certainly Rossetti has never attained a higher +pictorial level than he reaches in the descriptions of the summoned +Parliament in _The King's Tragedy_, of the journey to the Charterhouse +of Perth, of the woman on the rock of the black beach of the Scottish +sea, of the king singing to the queen the song he made while immured by +Bolingbroke at Windsor, of the knock of the woman at the outer gate, +of her voice at night beneath the window, of the death in _The Pit +of Fortune's Wheel_. But all lesser excellencies must make way in our +regard before a distinguishing spiritualising element which exists +in these ballads only, or mainly amongst the author's works. Natural +portents are here first employed as factors of poetic creation. +Presentiment, foreboding, omen become the essential tissue of works +that are lifted by them into the higher realm of imagination. These +supernatural constituents penetrate and pervade _The White Ship_; and +_The King's Tragedy_ is saturated in the spirit of them. We do not speak +of the incidents associated with the wraith that haunts the isles, but +of the less palpable touches which convey the scarce explicable +sense of a change of voice when the king sings of the pit that is under +fortune's wheel: + + And under the wheel, beheld I there + An ugly Pit as deep as hell, + That to behold I quaked for fear: + And this I heard, that who therein fell + Came no more up, tidings to tell: + Whereat, astound of the fearful sight, + I wot not what to do for fright. + (The King's Quair.) + +It is the shadow of the supernatural that hangs over the king, and very +soon it must enshroud him. One of the most subtle and impressive of the +natural portents is that which presents itself to the eyes of Catherine +when the leaguers have first left the chamber, and the moon goes out and +leaves black the royal armorial shield on the painted window-pane: + + And the rain had ceased, and the moonbeams lit + The window high in the wall,-- + Bright beams that on the plank that I knew + Through the painted pane did fall + And gleamed with the splendour of Scotland's crown + And shield armorial. + + But then a great wind swept up the skies, + And the climbing moon fell back; + And the royal blazon fled from the floor, + And nought remained on its track; + And high in the darkened window-pane + The shield and the crown were black. + +It has been said that _Sister Helen_ strikes the keynote of Rossetti's +creative gift; it ought to be added that _The King's Tragedy_ touches +his highest reach of imagination. + +Having in the early part of 1881 brought together a sufficient quantity +of fresh poetry to fill a volume, Rossetti began negotiations for +publishing it. Anticipatory announcements were at that time constantly +appearing in many quarters, not rarely accompanied by an outspoken +disbelief in the poet's ability to achieve a second success equal to his +first. In this way it often happens to an author, that, having achieved +a single conspicuous triumph, the public mind, which has spontaneously +offered him the tribute of a generous recognition, forthwith gravitates +towards a disposition to become silently but unmistakeably sceptical +of his power to repeat it. Subsequent effort in such a case is rarely +regarded with that confidence which might be looked for as the reward +of achievement, and which goes far to prepare the mind for the ready +acceptance of any genuine triumph. Indeed, a jealous attitude is often +unconsciously adopted, involving a demand for special qualities, for +which, perchance, the peculiar character of the past success has created +an appetite, or obedience to certain arbitrary tests, which, though +passively present in the recognised work, have grown mainly out of +critical analysis of it, and are neither radical nor essential. Where, +moreover, such conspicuous success has been followed by an interval +of years distinguished by no signal effort, the sceptical bias of the +public mind sometimes complacently settles into a conviction (grateful +alike to its pride and envy, whilst consciously hurtful to its more +generous impulses), that the man who made it lived once indeed upon the +mountains, but has at length come down to dwell finally upon the plain. +Literary biography furnishes abundant examples of this imperfection +of character, a foible, indeed, which in its multiform manifestations, +probably goes as far as anything else to interfere with the formation of +a just and final judgment of an author's merit within his own lifetime. +When it goes the length of affirming that even a great writer's creative +activity usually finds not merely central realisation, but absolute +exhaustion within the limits of some single work, to reason against it +is futile, and length of time affords it the only satisfying refutation. +One would think that it could scarcely require to be urged that creative +impulse, once existent within a mind, can never wholly depart from it, +but must remain to the end, dependent, perhaps, for its expression in +some measure on external promptings, variable with the variations of +physical environments, but always gathering innate strength for the +hour (silent perchance, or audible only within other spheres), when the +inventive faculty shall be harmonised, animated, and lubricated to +its utmost height. Nevertheless, Coleridge encountered the implied +doubtfulness of his contemporaries, that the gift remained with him +to carry to its completion the execution of that most subtle mid-day +witchery, which, as begun in _Christabel_, is probably the most +difficult and elusive thing ever attempted in the field of romance. +Goethe, too, found himself face to face with outspoken distrust of his +continuation of _Faust_; and even Cervantes had perforce to challenge +the popular judgment which long refused to allow that the second part +of _Don Quixote_, with all its added significance, was adequate to +his original simple conception. Indeed that author must be considered +fortunate who effects a reversal of the public judgment against +the completion of a fragment, and the repetition of a complete and +conspicuous success. + +When Rossetti published his first volume of poems in 1870, he left only +his _House of Life_ incomplete; but amongst the readers who then offered +spontaneous tribute to that series of sonnets, and still treasured it +as a work of all but faultless symmetry, built up by aid of a blended +inspiration caught equally from Shakspeare and from Dante, with a +superadded psychical quality peculiar to its author, there were many, +even amongst the friendliest in sympathy, who heard of the completed +sequence with a sense of doubt. Such is the silent and unreasoning and +all but irrevocable edict of all popular criticism against continuations +of works which have in fragmentary form once made conquest of the +popular imagination. Moreover, Rossetti's first volume achieved a +success so signal and unexpected as to subject this second and maturer +book to the preliminary ordeal of such a questioning attitude of mind +as we speak of, as the unfailing and ungracious reward of a conspicuous +triumph. In the interval of eleven years, Rossetti had essayed no +notable achievement, and his name had been found attached only to such +fugitive efforts as may have lived from time to time a brief life in the +pages of the _Athenaeum_ and _Fortnightly_. Of the works in question +two only come now within our province to mention. The first and most +memorable was the poem _Cloud Confines_. Inadequate as the critical +attention necessarily was which this remarkable lyric obtained, +indications were not wanting that it had laid unconquerable siege to the +sympathies of that section of the public in whose enthusiasm the life of +every creative work is seen chiefly to abide. There was in it a lyrical +sweetness scarcely ever previously compassed by its author, a cadent +undertoned symphony that first gave testimony that the poet held the +power of conveying by words a sensible eflfect of great music, even +as former works of his had given testimony to his power of conveying a +sensible eflfect by great painting. But to these metrical excellencies +was added an element new to Rossetti's poetry, or seen here for the +first time conspicuously. Insight and imagination of a high order, +together with a poetic instinct whose promptings were sure, had already +found expression in more than one creation moulded into an innate +chasteness of perfected parts and wedded to nature with an unerring +fidelity. But the range of nature was circumscribed, save only in the +one exception of a work throbbing with the sufferings and sorrows of +a shadowed side of modern life. To this lyric, however, there came +as basis a fundamental conception that made aim to grapple with the +pro-foundest problems compassed by the mysteries of life and death, and +a temper to yield only where human perception fails. Abstract indeed +in theme the lyric is, but few are the products of thought out of which +imagination has delved a more concrete and varied picturesqueness: + + What of the heart of hate + That beats in thy breast, O Time?-- + Bed strife from the furthest prime, + And anguish of fierce debate; that shatters her slain, + And peace that grinds them as grain, + And eyes fixed ever in vain + On the pitiless eyes of Fate. + +The second of the fugitive efforts alluded to was a prose work entitled +_Hand and Soul_. More poem than story, this beautiful idyl may be +briefly described as mainly illustrative of the struggles of the +transition period through which, as through a slough, all true artists +must pass who have been led to reflect deeply upon the aims and ends of +their calling before they attain that goal of settled purpose in which +they see it to be best to work from their own heart simply, without +regard for the spectres that would draw them apart into quagmires of +moral aspiration. These two works and an occasional sonnet, such as that +on the greatly gifted and untimely lost Oliver Madox Brown, made the sum +of all {*} that was done, in the interval of eleven years between the +dates of the first volume and of that which was now to be published, to +keep before the public a name which rose at once into distinction, and +had since, without feverish periodical bolstering, grown not less +but more in the ardent upholding of sincere men who, in number and +influence, comprised a following as considerable perhaps as owned +allegiance to any contemporary. + + * A ballad appeared in The Dark Blue. + +Having brought these biographical and critical notes to the point at +which they overlap the personal recollections that form the body of this +volume, it only remains to say that during the years in which the poems +just reviewed were being written Rossetti was living at his house in +Chelsea a life of unbroken retirement. At this time, however (1877-81), +his seclusion was not so complete as it had been when he used to see +scarcely any one but Mr. Watts and his own family, with an occasional +visit from Lord and Lady Mount Temple, Mrs. Sumner, etc. Once weekly he +was now visited by his brother William, twice weekly by his attached +and gifted friend Frederick J. Shields, occasionally by his old friends +William Bell Scott and Ford Madox Brown. For the rest, he rarely if +ever left the precincts of his home. It was a placid and undisturbed +existence such as he loved. Health too (except for one serious attack +in 1877), was good with him, and his energies were, as we have seen, at +their best. + +His personal amiability was, perhaps, never more conspicuous than +in these tranquil years; yet this was the very time when paragraphs +injurious to his character found their way into certain journals. Among +the numerous stories illustrative of his alleged barbarity of manners +was the one which has often been repeated both in conversation and in +print to the effect that H.E.H. the Princess Louise was rudely repulsed +from his door. Rossetti was certainly not easy to approach, but the +geniality of his personal bearing towards those who had commands upon +his esteem was always unfailing, and knowledge of this fact must +have been enough to give the lie to the injurious calumny just named. +Nevertheless, Rossetti, who was deeply moved by the imputation, thought +it necessary to contradict it emphatically, and as the letter in which +he did this is a thoroughly outspoken and manly one, and touches an +important point in his character, I reprint it in this place: + + 16 Cheyne Walk, Chelsea, S.W., December 28, 1878. + + My attention has been directed to the following paragraph + which has appeared in the newspapers:--"A very disagreeable + story is told about a neighbour of Mr. Whistler's, whose + works are not exhibited to the vulgar herd; the Princess + Louise in her zeal, therefore, graciously sought them at the + artist's studio, but was rebuffed by a 'Not at home' and an + intimation that he was not at the beck and call of + princesses. I trust it is not true," continues the writer of + the paragraph, "that so medievally minded a gentleman is + really a stranger to that generous loyalty to rank and sex, + that dignified obedience," etc. + + The story is certainly "disagreeable" enough; but if I am + pointed at as the "near neighbour of Mr. Whistler's" who + rebuffed, in this rude fashion, the Princess Louise, I can + only say that it is a _canard_ devoid of the smallest + nucleus of truth. Her Royal Highness has never called upon + me; and I know of only two occasions when she has expressed + a wish to do so. Some years ago Mr. Theodore Martin spoke to + me upon the subject; but I was at that time engaged upon an + important work, and the delays thence arising caused the + matter to slip through. And I heard no more upon the subject + till last summer, when Mr. Theodore Watts told me that the + Princess, in conversation, had mentioned my name to him, and + that he had then assured her that I should "feel honoured + and charmed to see her," and suggested her making an + appointment. Her Royal Highness knew that Mr. Watts, as one + of my most intimate friends, would not have thus expressed + himself without feeling fully warranted in so doing; and had + she called she would not, I trust, have found me wanting in + that "generous loyalty" which is due not more to her exalted + position than to her well-known charm of character and + artistic gifts. It is true enough that I do not run after + great people on account of their mere social position, but I + am, I hope, never rude to them; and the man who could rebuff + the Princess Louise must be a curmudgeon indeed. + + D. G. Rossetti. + +At the very juncture in question Lord Lome was suddenly and unexpectedly +appointed Governor-General of Canada, and, leaving England, Her Royal +Highness did not return until Rossetti's health had somewhat suddenly +broken down, and it was impossible for him to see any but his most +intimate friends. + + + + +CHAPTER III. + +My intercourse with Rossetti, epistolary and personal, extended over a +period of between three and four years. During the first two of these +years I was, as this volume must show, his constant correspondent, +during the third year his attached friend, and during the portion of +the fourth year of our acquaintance terminating with his life, his daily +companion and housemate. It is a part of my purpose to help towards the +elucidation of Rossetti's personal character by a simple, and I +trust, unaffected statement of my relations to him, and so I begin by +explaining that my knowledge of the man was the sequel to my admiration +of the poet. Not accident (the agency that usually operates in such +cases), but his genius and my love of it, began the friendship between +us. Of Rossetti's pictorial art I knew little, until very recent years, +beyond what could be gathered from a few illustrations to books. My +acquaintance with his poetry must have been made at the time of the +publication of the first volume in 1870, but as I did not then possess a +copy of the book, and do not remember to have seen one, my knowledge of +the work must have been merely such as could be gleaned from the reading +of reviews. The unlucky controversy, that subsequently arose out of it, +directed afresh my attention, in common with that of others, to Rossetti +and his school of poetry, with the result of impressing my mind with +qualities of the work that were certainly quite outside the issues +involved in the discussion. Some two or three years after that +acrimonious controversy had subsided, an accident, sufficiently curious +to warrant my describing it, produced the effect of converting me from a +temperate believer in the charm of music and colour in Rossetti's lyric +verse, to an ardent admirer of his imaginative genius as displayed in +the higher walks of his art. + +I had set out with a knapsack to make one of my many periodical walking +tours of the beautiful lake country of Westmoreland and Cumberland. +Beginning the journey at Bowness--as tourists, if they will accept the +advice of one who knows perhaps the whole of the country, ought always +to do--I walked through Dungeon Ghyll, climbed the Stake Pass, descended +into Borrowdale, and traced the course of the winding Derwent to that +point at which it meets the estuary of the lake, and where stands the +Derwentwater Hotel. A rain and thunder storm was gathering over the +Black Sail and Great Gable as I reached the summit of the Pass, and +travelling slowly northwards it had overtaken me. Before I reached the +hotel, my resting-place for the night, I was certainly as thoroughly +saturated as any one in reasonable moments could wish to be. I remember +that as I passed into the shelter of the porch an elderly gentleman, who +was standing there, remarked upon the severity of the storm, inquired +what distance I had travelled, and expressed amazement that on such a +day, when mists were floating, any one could have ventured to cover so +much dangerous mountain-country,--which he estimated as nearly thirty +miles in extent. Beyond observing that my interlocutor was friendly +in manner and knew the country intimately, I do not remember to have +reflected either then or afterwards upon his personality except +perhaps that he might have answered to Wordsworth's scarcely definite +description of his illustrious friend as "a noticeable man," with +the further parallel, I think, of possessing "large grey eyes." After +attending to the obvious necessity of dry garments in exchange for wet +ones, and otherwise comforting myself after a fatiguing day's march, I +descended to the drawing-room of the hotel, where a company of persons +were trying, with that too formal cordiality peculiar to English people, +who are accidentally thrown together in the course of a holiday, to get +rid of the depression which results upon dishearteningly unpropitious +weather. Music, as usual, was the gracious angel employed to banish the +fiend of ennui, but among those who took no part either in the singing +or playing, other than that of an enforced auditor, was the elderly +gentleman, my quondam acquaintance of the porch, who stood apart in an +alcove looking through a window. I stepped up to him and renewed our +talk. The storm had rather increased than abated since my arrival; the +thunder which before had rumbled over the distant Langdale Pikes was +breaking in sharp peals over our heads, and flashes of sheeted lightning +lit up the gathering darkness that lay between us and Castle Crag. +A playful allusion to "poor Tom" and to King Lear's undisputed sole +enjoyment of such a scene (except as viewed from the ambush of a +comfortable hotel) led to the discovery, very welcome to both at a +moment when we were at bay for an evening's occupation, that besides +knowledge and love of the country round about us, we had in common +some knowledge and much love of the far wider realm of books. Thereupon +ensued a talk chiefly on authors and their works which lasted until long +after the music had ceased, until the elemental as well as instrumental +storm had passed, and the guests had slipped away one after one, and the +last remaining servant of the house had, by the introduction of a +couple of candles, given us a palpable hint that in the opinion of that +guardian of a country inn the hour was come and gone when well-regulated +persons should betake themselves to bed. To my delight my friend +knew nearly every prominent living author, could give me personal +descriptions of them, as well as scholarly and well-digested criticisms +of their works. He was certainly no ordinary man, but who he was I have +never learned with certainty, though I cherish the agreeable impression +that I could give a shrewd guess. At one moment the talk turned on +_Festus_, and then I heard the most lucid and philosophical account of +that work I have ever listened to or read. I was told that the author +of _Festus_ had never (in all the years that had elapsed since its +publication, when he was in his earliest manhood, though now he is +grown elderly) ceased to emend it, notwithstanding the protestations +of critics; and that an improved and enlarged edition of the poem might +probably appear after his death. Struck with the especial knowledge +displayed of the author in question, I asked if he happened to be +a friend. Then, with a scarcely perceptible smile playing about the +corners of the mouth (a circumstance without significance for me at the +time and only remembered afterwards), my new acquaintance answered: +"He is my oldest and dearest friend." Next morning I saw my night-long +conversationalist in company with a clergyman get on to the Buttermere +coach and wave his hand to me as they vanished under the trees that +overhung the Buttermere road, but in answer to many inquiries the utmost +I could learn of my interesting acquaintance was that he was somehow +understood to be a great author, and a friend of Charles Kingsley, who, +I think they said, was or had been with him there or elsewhere that +year. Whether besides being the "oldest and dearest friend" of the +author of _Festus_, my delightful companion was Philip James Bailey +himself I have never learned to this day, and can only cherish a +pleasant trust; but what remains as really important in this connexion +is that whosoever he was he originated my first real love of Rossetti's +poetry, and gave me my first realisable idea of the man. Taking up from +the table some popular _Garland, Casket, Treasury_, or other anthology +of English poetry, he pointed out a sonnet entitled _Lost Days_ (to +which, indeed, a friend at home had directed my attention), and dwelt +upon its marvellous strength of spiritual insight, and power of symbolic +phrase. Of course the sonnet was Rossetti's. It is impossible for me +to describe the effect produced upon me by sonnet and exposition. I +resolved not to live many days longer without acquiring a knowledge +of the body of Rossetti's work. Perceiving that the gentleman knew +something of the poet, I put questions to him which elicited the +fact that he had met him many years earlier at, I think he said, Mrs. +Gaskell's, when Rossetti was a rather young man, known only as a painter +and the leader of an eccentric school in art. He described him as a +little dark man, with fine eyes under a broad brow, with a deep voice, +and Bohemian habits--"a little Italian, in short." [Little, by the way, +Rossetti could not properly be said to be, but opinions as to physical +proportions being so liable to vary, I may at once mention that he was +exactly five feet eight inches in height, and except in early manhood, +when he was somewhat attenuated, well built in proportion.] He further +described Rossetti's manners as those of a man in deliberate revolt +against society; delighting in an opportunity to startle well-ordered +persons out of their propriety, and to silence by sheer vehemence of +denunciation the seemly protests of very good and very gentle folk. The +portraiture seems to me now to bear the impress of truth, unlike as it +is in some particulars to the man as I knew him. When once, however, +years after the event recorded, I bantered Rossetti on the amiable +picture of him I had received from a stranger, he admitted that it +was in the main true to his character early in life, and recounted an +instance in which, from sheer perversity, or at best for amusement, he +had made the late Dean Stanley aghast with horror at the spectacle of a +young man, born in a Christian country, and in the nineteenth century, +defending (in sport) the vices of Neronian Home. + +The outcome of this first serious and sufficient introduction to +Rossetti's poetry was that I forthwith devoted time to reading and +meditating upon it. Ultimately I lectured twice or thrice on the subject +in Liverpool, first at the Royal Institution, and afterwards at the +Free Library. The text of that lecture I still preserve, and as in all +probability it did more than anything else to originate the friendship I +afterwards enjoyed with the poet, I shall try to convey very briefly an +idea of its purpose. + +Against both friendly and unfriendly critics of Rossetti I held that to +place him among the "aesthetic" poets was an error of classification. +It seemed to me that, unlike the poets properly so described, he had +nothing in common with the Caliban of Mr. Browning, who worked "for +work's sole sake;" and, unlike them yet further, the topmost thing +in him was indeed love of beauty, but the deepest thing was love of +uncomely right. The fusion of these elements in Rossetti softened the +mythological Italian Catholicism that I recognised as a leading thing in +him, and subjugated his sensuous passion. I thought it wrong to say that +Rossetti had part or lot with those false artists, or no artists, who +assert, without fear or shame, that the manner of doing a thing should +be abrogated or superseded by the moral purpose of its being done. On +the other hand, Rossetti appeared to make no conscious compromise with +the Puritan principle of doing good; and to demand first of his work the +lesson or message it had for us were wilfully to miss of pleasure while +we vainly strove for profit. He was too true an artist to follow art +into its byeways of moral significance, and thereby cripple its broader +arms; but at the same time all this absorption of the artist in his art +seemed to me to live and work together with the personal instincts of +the man. An artist's nature cannot escape the colouring it gets from the +human side of his nature, because it is of the essence of art to appeal +to its own highest faculties largely through the channel of moral +instincts: that music is exquisite and colour splendid, first, because +they have an indescribable significance, and next because they respond +to mere sense. But it appeared to me to be one thing to work for "work's +sole sake," with an overruling moral instinct that gravitates, as Mr. +Arnold would say, towards conduct, and quite another thing to absorb art +in moral purposes. I thought that Rossetti's poetry showed how possible +it is, without making conscious compromise with that puritan principle +of doing good of which Keats at one period became enamoured, to +be unconsciously making for moral ends. There was for me a passive +puritanism in _Jenny_ which lived and worked together with the poet's +purely artistic passion for doing his work supremely well. Every thought +in _Dante at Verona_ and _The Last Confession_ seemed mixed with and +coloured by a personal moral instinct that was safe and right. + +This was perhaps the only noticeable feature of my lecture, and knowing +Rossetti's nature, as since the lecture I have learned to know it, +I feel no great surprise that such pleading for the moral impulses +animating his work should have been of all things the most likely to +engage his affections. Just as Coleridge always resented the imputation +that he had ever been concerned with Wordsworth and Southey in the +establishment of a school of poetry, and contended that, in common with +his colleagues, he had been inspired by no desire save that of imitating +the best examples of Greece and Home, so Rossetti (at least throughout +the period of my acquaintance with him) invariably shrank from +classification with the poetry of aestheticism, and aspired to the fame +of a poet who had been prompted primarily by the highest of spiritual +emotions, and to whom the sensations of the body were as naught, unless +they were sanctified by the concurrence of the soul. My lecture was +printed, but quite a year elapsed after its preparation before +it occurred to me that Rossetti himself might derive a moment's +gratification from knowledge of the fact that he had one ardent upholder +and sincere well-wisher hitherto unknown to him. At length I sent him a +copy of the magazine containing my lecture on his poetry. A post or two +later brought me the following reply: + + Dear Mr. Caine,-- + + I am much struck by the generous enthusiasm displayed in + your Lecture, and by the ability with which it is written. + Your estimate of the impulses influencing my poetry is such + as I should wish it to suggest, and this suggestion, I + believe, it will have always for a true-hearted nature. You + say that you are grateful to me: my response is, that I am + grateful to you: for you have spoken up heartily and + unfalteringly for the work you love. + + I daresay you sometimes come to London. I should be very + glad to know you, and would ask you, if you thought of + calling, to give me a day's notice when to expect you, as I + am not always able to see visitors without appointment. The + afternoon, about 5, might suit me, or else the evening about + 9.30. With all best wishes, yours sincerely, + + D. G. Rossetti. + +This was the first of nearly two hundred letters in all received from +Rossetti in the course of our acquaintance. A day or two later the +following supplementary note reached me: + + I return your article. In reading it, I feel it a + distinction that my minute plot in the poetic field should + have attracted the gaze of one who is able to traverse its + widest ranges with so much command. I shall be much pleased + if the plan of calling on me is carried out soon--at any + rate I trust it will be so eventually.... Have you got, or + do you know, my book of translations called _Dante and his + Circle?_ If not, I 'll send you one.... + + I have been reading again your article on _The Supernatural + in Poetry_. It is truly admirable--such work must soon make + you a place. The dramatic paper I thought suffered from some + immaturity. + +It is hardly necessary to say that I was equally delighted with the +warmth of the reception accorded to my essay, and with the revelation +the letters appeared to contain of a sincere and unselfish nature. My +purpose, however, which was a modest one, had been served, and I made +no further attempt to continue the correspondence, least of all did I +expect or desire to originate anything of the nature of a friendship. In +my reply to his note, however, I had asked him to accept the dedication +of a little work of mine, and when, with abundant courtesy, he had +declined to do so on very sufficient grounds, I felt satisfied that +matters between us should rest where they were. It is a pleasing +recollection, nevertheless, that Rossetti himself had taken a different +view of the relation that had grown up between us, and by many generous +appeals induced me to put by all further thoughts of abandoning the +correspondence out of regard for him. There had ensued an interval in +which I did not write to him, whereupon he addressed to me a hurried +note, saying: + + Let me have a line from you. I am haunted by the idea, that + in declining the dedication, I may have hurt you. I assure + you I should be proud to be associated in any way with your + work, but gave you my very reasons. + + I shall be pleased if you do not think them sufficient, and + still carry out your original intention.... At least write + to me. + +I replied to this letter (containing, as it did, the expression of so +much more than the necessary solicitude), by saying that I too had been +haunted, but it had been by the fear that I had been asking too much +of his attention. As to the dedication, so far from feeling hurt, by +Rossetti's declining it, I had grown to see that such was the only +course that remained to him to take. The terms in which he had replied +to my offer of it (so far from being of a kind to annoy or hurt me), +had, to my thinking, been only generous, sympathetic, and beautiful. +Again he wrote: + + My dear Caine,-- + + Let me assure you at once that correspondence with yourself + is one of my best pleasures, and that you cannot write too + much or too often for _me_; though after what you have told + me as to the apportioning of your time, I should be + unwilling to encroach unduly upon it. Neither should I on my + side prove very tardy in reply, as you are one to whom I + find there _is_ something to say when I sit down with a pen + and paper. I have a good deal of enforced evening leisure, + as it is seldom I can paint or draw by gaslight. It would + not be right in me to refrain from saying that to meet with + one so "leal and true" to myself as you are has been a + consolation amid much discouragement.... I perceive you have + had a complete poetic career which you have left behind to + strike out into wider waters.... The passage on Night, which + you say was written under the planet Shelley, seems to me + (and to my brother, to whom I read it) to savour more of the + "mortal moon"--that is, of a weird and sombre + Elizabethanism, of which Beddoes may be considered the + modern representative. But we both think it has an + unmistakeable force and value; and if you can write better + poetry than this, let your angel say unto you, _Write_. + +I take it that it would be wholly unwise of me in selecting excerpts +from Rossetti's letters entirely to withhold the passages that concern +exclusively (so far as their substance goes) my own early doings or +try-ings-to-do; for it ought to be a part of my purpose to lay bare the +beginnings of that friendship by virtue of which such letters exist. +I can only ask the readers of these pages to accept my assurance, that +whatever the number and extent of the passages which I publish that are +necessarily in themselves of more interest to myself personally than to +the public generally, they are altogether disproportionate to the number +and extent of those I withhold. I cannot, however, resist the conclusion +that such picture as they afford of a man beyond the period of middle +life capable of bending to a new and young friend, and of thinking with +and for him, is not without an exceptional literary interest as being so +contrary to every-day experience. Hence, I am not without hope that the +occasional references to myself which in the course of these extracts I +shall feel it necessary to introduce, may be understood to be employed +by me as much for their illustrative value (being indicative of +Rossetti's character), as for any purpose less purely impersonal. + +The passage of verse referred to was copied out for Rossetti in reply to +an inquiry as to whether I had written poetry. Prompted no doubt by the +encouragement derived in this instance, I submitted from time to time +other verses to Rossetti, as subsequent letters show, but it says +something for the value of his praise that whatever the measure of +it when his sympathies were fairly aroused, and whatever his natural +tendency to look for the characteristic merits rather than defects of +compositions referred to his judgment, his candour was always prominent +among his good qualities when censure alone required to be forthcoming. +Among many frank utterances of an opinion early formed, that whatever +my potentialities as a writer of prose, I had but small vocation as a +writer of poetry, I preserve one such utterance, which will, I trust, be +found not less interesting to other readers from affording a glimpse of +the writer's attitude towards the old controversy touching the several +and distinguishing elements that contribute to make good prose on the +one hand and good verse on the other. + +On one occasion he had sent me his fine sonnet on Keats, then just +written, and, in acknowledging the receipt of it with many expressions +of admiration, I remarked that for some days I had been struggling +desperately, in all senses, to incubate a sonnet on the same somewhat +hackneyed subject. I had not written a line or put pen to paper for the +purpose, but I could tell him, in general terms, what my unaccomplished +marvel of sonnet-craft was to be about. + +Rossetti replied saying that the scheme for a sonnet was "extremely +beautiful," and urging me to "do it at once." Alas for my intrepidity, +"do it" I did, with the result of awakening my correspondent to the +certainty that, whatever embowerings I had in my mind, that shy bird the +sonnet would seek in vain for a nest to hide in there. It asked so much +special courage to send a first attempt at sonneteering to the greatest +living master of the sonnet that moral daring alone ought to have got me +off lightly, but here is Rossetti's reply, valuable now, as well for the +view it affords of the poet's attitude towards the sonnet as a medium of +expression, as for other reasons already assigned. The opening passage +alludes to a lyric of humble life. + +You may be sure I do not mean essential discouragement when I say that, +full as _Nell_ is of reality and pathos, your swing of arm seems to me +firmer and freer in prose than in verse. I do think I see your field to +lie chiefly in the achievements of fervid and impassioned prose.... I am +sure that, when sending me your first sonnet, you wished me to say quite +frankly what I think of it. Well, I do not think it shows a special +vocation for this condensed and emphatic form. The prose version you +sent me seems to say much more distinctly what this says with some +want of force. The octave does not seem to me very clearly put, and the +sestet does not emphasize in a sufficiently striking way the idea which +the prose sketch conveyed to me,--that of Keats's special privilege in +early death: viz., the lovely monumentalized image he bequeathed to us +of the young poet. Also I must say that more special originality and +even _newness_ (though this might be called a vulgarizing word), of +thought and picture in individual lines--more of this than I find +here--seems to me the very first qualification of a sonnet--otherwise it +puts forward no right to be so short, but might seem a severed passage +from a longer poem depending on development. I would almost counsel you +to try the same theme again--or else some other theme in sonnet-form. +I thought the passage on Night you sent showed an aptitude for choice +imagery. I should much like to see something which you view as your best +poetic effort hitherto. After all, there is no need that every gifted +writer should take the path of poetry--still less of sonneteering. I am +confident in your preference for frankness on my part. + +I tried the theme again before I abandoned it, and was so fortunate as +to get him to admit a degree of improvement such as led to his +desiring to recall his conjectural judgment on my possibilities as a +sonnet-writer, but as the letters in which he characterises the +advance are neither so terse in criticism, nor so interesting from the +exposition of principles, as the one quoted, I pass them by. With +more confidence in my ultimate comparative success than I had ever +entertained, Rossetti was only anxious that I should engage in that work +to which I. could address myself with a sense of command; and I think it +will be agreed that, where temperate confidence in what the future may +legitimately hold for one is united to earnest and rightly directed +endeavour in the present, it is often a good thing for the man who +stands on the threshold of life (to whom, nevertheless, the path passed +seems ever to stretch out of sight backwards) to be told the extent +to which, little enough at the most, his clasp (to use a phrase of Mr. +Browning) may be equal to his grasp. + +My residing, as I did, at a distance from London, was at once the +difficulty which for a time prevented our coming together and the +necessity for correspondence by virtue of which these letters exist. +As I failed, however, from hampering circumstance, to meet at once with +himself, Rossetti invariably displayed a good deal of friendly anxiety +to bring me into contact with his friends as frequently as occasion +rendered it feasible to do so. In this way I met with Mr. Madox +Brown, who was at the moment engaged on his admirable frescoes in the +Manchester Town Hall, and in this way also I met with other friends +of his resident in my neighbourhood. When I came to know him more +intimately I perceived that besides the kindliness of intention which +had prompted him to bring me into what he believed to be agreeable +associations, he had adopted this course from the other motive of +desiring to be reassured as to the comparative harmlessness of my +personality, for he usually followed the introduction to a friend by a +private letter of thanks for the reception accorded me, and a number of +dexterously manipulated allusions, which always, I found, produced the +desired result of eliciting the required information (to be gleaned +only from personal intercourse) as to my manner and habits. Later in our +acquaintance, I found that he, like all meditative men, had the greatest +conceivable dread of being taken unawares, and that there was no safer +way for any fresh acquaintance to insure his taking violently against +him, than to take the step of coming down upon him suddenly, and +without appointment, or before a sufficient time had elapsed between the +beginning of the friendship and the actual personal encounter, to admit +of his forming preconceived ideas of the manner of man to expect. The +agony he suffered upon the unexpected visit of even the most ardent of +well-wishers could scarcely be realised at the moment, from the apparent +ease, and assumed indifference of his outward bearing, and could only +be known to those who were with him after the trying ordeal had +been passed, or immediately before the threatened intrusion had been +consummated. + +Early in our correspondence a friend of his, an art critic of +distinction, visited Liverpool with the purpose of lecturing on the +valuable examples of Byzantine art in the Eoyal Institution of that +city. The lecture was, I fear, almost too good and quite too technical +for some of the hearers, many of whom claim (and with reason) to be +lovers of art, and cover the walls of their houses with beautiful +representations of lovely landscape, but at the same time erect huge +furnaces which emit vast volumes of black smoke such as prevent the sky +of any Liverpool landscape being for an instant lovely. I doubt if the +lecture could have been treated more popularly, but there was manifestly +a lack of merited appreciation. The archaisms of some of the pictures +chosen for illustration (early Byzantine examples exclusively) appeared +to cause certain of the audience to smile at much of the lecturer's +enthusiasm. Fortunately the man chiefly concerned seemed unconscious of +all this. And indeed, however he fared in public, in private he was only +too "dreadfully attended." After the lecture a good many folks gave him +the benefit of their invaluable opinions on various art questions, and +some, as was natural, made pitiful slips. I observed with secret and +scarcely concealed satisfaction his courageous loyalty in defence of his +friends, and his hitting out in their defence when he believed them to +be assailed. One superlative intelligence, eager to do honour to the +guest, yet ignorant of his claim to such honour, gave him a wonderfully +facile and racy comment on the pre-Raphaelite painters, and, in +particular, made the ridiculous blunder of a deliberate attack upon +Rossetti, and then paused for breath and for the lecturer's appreciative +response; of course, Rossetti's friend was not to be drawn into such +disloyalty for an instant, even to avoid the risk of ruffling the +plumage of the mightiest of the corporate cacklers. Rossetti had +permitted me in his name to meet his friend, and in writing subsequently +I alluded to the affection with which he had been mentioned, also to +something that had been said of his immediate surroundings, and to that +frank championing of his claims which I have just described. Rossetti's +reply to this is interesting as affording a pathetic view of his +isolation of life and of the natural affectionateness of his nature: + + I am very glad you were welcomed by dear staunch S------, as + I felt sure you would be. He holds the honourable position + of being almost the only living art-critic who has really + himself worked through the art-schools practically, and + learnt to draw and paint. He is one of my oldest and best + friends, of whom few can be numbered at my age, from causes + only too varying. + + Go from me, summer friends, and tarry not,-- + I am no summer friend, but wintry cold, etc. + + So be it, as needs must be,--not for all, let us hope, and + not with all, as good S------ shews. I have not seen him + since his return. I wrote him a line to thank him for his + friendly reception of you, and he wrote in return to thank + me for your acquaintance, and spoke very pleasantly of you. + Your youth seems to have surprised him. I sent a letter of + his to your address. I hope you may see more of him. . . . + You mention something he said to you of me and my + surroundings. They are certainly _quiet_ enough as fax as + retirement goes, and I have often thought I should enjoy the + presence of a congenial and intellectual housefellow and + boardfellow in this big barn of mine, which is actually + going to rack and ruin for want of use. But where to find + the welcome, the willing, and the able combined in one? . . . + I was truly concerned to hear of the attack of ill-health + you have suffered from, though you do not tell me its exact + nature. I hope it was not accompanied by any such symptoms + as you mentioned before. . . . I myself have had similar + symptoms (though not so fully as you describe), and have + spat blood at intervals for years, but now think nothing of + it--nor indeed ever did,--waiting for further alarm signals + which never came. + + . . . By-the-bye, I have since remembered that Burne Jones, + many years ago, had such an experience as you spoke of + before--quite as bad certainly. He was weak for some time + after, and has frequently been reminded in minor ways of it, + but seems now (at about forty-six or forty-seven) to be more + settled in health and stronger, perhaps, than ever + before.... Your letter holds out the welcome probability of + meeting you here ere long. + +This friendly solicitude regarding my health was excited by the +revelation of what seemed to me at the time a startling occurrence, but +has doubtless frequently happened to others, and has certainly +since happened to myself without provoking quite so much outcry. The +blood-spitting to which Rossetti here alleges he was liable was of +a comparatively innocent nature. In later years he was assuredly not +altogether a hero as to personal suffering, and I afterwards found that, +upon the periodical recurrence of the symptom, he never failed to become +convinced that he spat arterial blood, and that on each occasion he had +received his death-warrant. Proof enough was adduced that the blood came +from the minor vessels of the throat, and this was undoubtedly the case +in the majority of instances, but whether the same explanation applied +to one alarming occurrence which I shall now recount, seems to me +uncertain. + +During the two or three weeks preceding our departure for Cumberland, +in the autumn of 1881, during the time of our residence there and during +the first few weeks after our return to London, Rossetti was afflicted +by a violent cough. I noticed that it troubled him almost exclusively in +the night-time, and after the taking of chloral; that it was sometimes +attended by vomiting; and that it invariably shook his whole system +so terribly as to leave him for a while entirely prostrate from sheer +physical exhaustion. The spectacle was a painful one, and I watched +closely its phenomena, with the result of convincing myself that +whatever radical mischief lay at the root of it, the damage done was +seriously augmented by a conscious giving way to it, induced, I thought, +by hope of the relief it sometimes afforded the stomach to get rid of +the nauseous drug at a moment of reduced digestive vitality. Then it +became my fear that in these violent and prolonged retchings internal +injury might be sustained, and so I begged him to try to restrain the +tendency to cough so much and often. He took the remonstrance with great +goodnature (observing that he perceived I thought he was putting it on), +but I was not conscious that at any moment he acted upon my suggestion. +At the time in question I was under the necessity of leaving him for +a day or two every week in order to fulfil, a course of lecturing +engagements at a distance; and upon my return in each instance I was +told much of all that had happened to him in the interval. On one +occasion, however, I was conscious that something had occurred of which +he desired to make a disclosure, for amongst the gifts that Rossetti +had not got was that of concealing from his intimate friends any event, +however trifling, or however important, which weighed upon his mind. +At length I begged him to say what had happened, whereupon, with great +reluctance and many protestations of his intention to observe silence, +and constant injunctions as to secrecy, he told me that during the night +of my absence, in the midst of one of his bouts of coughing, he had +discharged an enormous quantity of blood. "I know this is the final +signal," he said, "and I shall die." I did my utmost to compose him +by recounting afresh the personal incident hinted at, with many added +features of (I trust) justifiable exaggeration, but it is hardly +necessary to say that I did not hold the promise I gave him as to +secrecy sufficiently sacred, or so exclusive, as to forbid my revealing +the whole circumstance to his medical attendant. I may add that from +that moment the cough entirely disappeared. + +To return from this reminiscence of a later period to the beginnings, +three years earlier, of our correspondence, I will bring the present +chapter to a close by quoting short passages from three letters written +on the eve of my first visit to Rossetti, in 1880: + + I will be truly glad to meet you when you come to town. You + will recognise the hole-and-cornerest of all existences; but + I'll read you a ballad or two, and have Brown's report to + back my certainty of liking you.... I would propose that you + should dine with me at 8.30 on the Monday of your visit, and + spend the evening.... Better come at 5.30 to 6 (if feasible + to you), that I may try to show you a picture by daylight... + Of course, when I speak of your dining with me, I mean tete- + a-tete, and without ceremony of any kind. I usually dine in + my studio, and in my painting coat. I judge this will reach + you in time for a note to reach _me_. Telegrams I hate. In + hope of the pleasure of a meeting, yours ever. + +How that "hole-and-cornerest of all existences" struck an ardent admirer +of the poet-painter's genius, and a devoted lover of his personal +character, as then revealed to me, I hope to describe in a later section +of this book. Meantime I must proceed to cull from the epistolary +treasures I possess a number of interesting passages on literary +subjects, called forth in the course of an intercourse which, at that +stage, had few topics of a private nature to divert it from a channel +of impersonal discussion. It is a fact that the letters written to me by +Rossetti in the year 1880 deal so largely with literary affairs (chiefly +of the past) as to be almost capable of _verbatim_ reproduction, even +at the present short interval after his death. If they were to be +reproduced, they would be found to cover two hundred pages of the +present volume, and to be so easy, fluent, varied, and wholly felicitous +as to style, and full of research and reflection as to substance, as +probably to earn for the writer a foremost place for epistolary power. +Indeed, I am not without hope that this accession of a fresh reputation +may result even upon the excerpts I have decided to introduce. + + + + +CHAPTER IV. + +It was very natural that our earliest correspondence should deal chiefly +with Rossetti's own works, for those works gave rise to it. He sent me +a copy of his translations from early Italian poets (_Dante and his +Circle_), and a copy of his story, entitled _Hand and Soul_. In posting +the latter, he said: + + I don't know if you ever saw a sort of story of mine called + _Hand and Soul_. I send you one with this, as printed to go + in my poems (though afterwards omitted, being, nevertheless, + more poem than story). I printed it since in the + _Fortnightly_--and, I believe, abolished one or two extra + sentimentalities. You may have seen it there. In case it's + stale, I enclose with this a sonnet which _must_ be new, for + I only wrote it the other day. + + I have already, in the proper place in this volume, said how + the story first struck me. Perhaps I had never before + reading it seen quite so clearly the complete mission as + well as enforced limitations of true art. All the many + subtle gradations in the development of purpose were there + beautifully pictured in a little creation that was charming + in the full sense of a word that has wellnigh lost its + charm. For all such as cried out against pursuits + originating in what Keats had christened "the infant chamber + of sensation," and for all such as demanded that everything + we do should be done to "strengthen God among men," the + story provided this answer: "When at any time hath He cried + unto thee, saying, 'My son, lend me thy shoulder, for I + fall'?" + + The sonnet sent, and spoken of as having just been written + (the letter bears post-mark February 1880), was the sonnet + on the sonnet. It is throughout beautiful and in two of its + lines (those depicting the dark wharf and the black Styx) + truly magnificent. It appears most to be valued, however, as + affording a clue to the attitude of mind adopted towards + this form of verse by the greatest master of it in modern + poetry. I think it is Mr. Pater who says that a fine poem in + manuscript carries an aroma with it, and a sensation of + music. I must have enjoyed the pleasure of such a presence + somewhat frequently about this period, for many of the poems + that afterwards found places in the second volume of ballads + and sonnets were sent to me from time to time. + + I should like to know what were the three or four vols. on + Italian poetry which you mentioned in a former letter, and + which my book somewhat recalled to your mind. I was not + aware of any such extensive _English_ work on the subject. + Or do you perhaps mean Trucchi's Italian _Dugento Poesie + inedite?_ I am sincerely delighted at your rare interest in + what I have sent you--both the translations, story, etc.--I + enclose three printed pieces meant for my volume but + omitted:--the ballad, because it deals trivially with a base + amour (it was written _very_ early) and is therefore really + reprehensible to some extent; the Shakspeare sonnet, because + of its incongruity with the rest of the poems, and also + because of the insult (however jocose) to the worshipful + body of tailors; and the political sonnet for reasons which + are plain enough, though the date at which I wrote it (not + without feeling) involves now a prophetic value. In a MS. + vol. I have a sonnet (1871) _After the German Subjugation of + France_, which enforces the prophecy by its fulfilment. In + this MS. vol. are a few pieces which were the only ones I + copied in doubt as to their admission when I printed the + poems, but none of which did I admit. One day I 'll send it + for you to look at. It contains a few sonnets bearing on + public matters, but only a few. Tell me what you think on + reading my things. All you said in your letter of this + morning was very grateful to me. I have a fair amount by me + in the way of later MS. which I may shew you some day when + we meet. Meanwhile I feel that your energies are already in + full swing--work coming on the heels of work--and that your + time cannot long be deferred as regards your place as a + writer. + +The ballad of which Rossetti here speaks as dealing trivially with a +base amour is entitled _Dennis Shand_. Though an early work, it affords +perhaps the best evidence extant of the poet's grasp of the old ballad +style: it runs easiest of all his ballads, and is in some respects his +best. Mr. J. A. Symonds has, in my judgment, made the error of speaking +of Rossetti as incapable of reproducing the real note of such ballads +as _Chevy Chase_ and _Sir Patrick Spens_. Mr. Symonds was right in his +eloquent comments (_Macmillan's Magazine_, February 1882), so far as +they concern the absence from _Rose Mary, The King's Tragedy, and The +White Ship_ of the sinewy simplicity of the old singers. But in those +poems Rossetti attempted quite another thing. There is a development of +the English ballad that is entirely of modern product, being far more +complex than the primitive form, and getting rid to some extent of the +out-worn notion of the ballad being actually sung to set music, but +retaining enough of the sweep of a free rhythm to carry a sensible +effect as of being chanted when read. This is a sort of ballad-romance, +such as _Christabel_ and _The Lay of the Last Minstrel_; and this, and +this only, was what Rossetti aimed after, and entirely compassed in his +fine works just mentioned. But (as Rossetti himself remarked to me in +conversation when I repeated Mr. Symonds's criticism, and urged my own +grounds of objection to it), that the poet was capable of the directness +and simplicity which characterise the early ballad-writers, he had +given proof in _The Staff and Scrip and Stratton Water. Dennis Shand_ +is valuable as evidence going in the same direction, but the author's +objection to it, on ethical grounds, must here prevail to withhold it +from publication. + +The Shakspeare sonnet, spoken of in the letter as being withheld on +account of its incongruity with the rest of the poems, was published +in an early _Academy_, notwithstanding its jocose allusion to the +worshipful body of tailors. As it is little known, and really very +powerful in itself, and interesting as showing the author's power over +words in a new direction, I print it in this place. + + ON THE SITE OF A MULBERRY TREE. + + Planted by Wm. Shakspeare; felled by the Rev. F. Gastrell. + This tree, here fall'n, no common birth or death + Shared with its kind. The world's enfranchised son, + Who found the trees of Life and Knowledge one, + Here set it, frailer than his laurel-wreath. + + Shall not the wretch whose hand it fell beneath + Rank also singly--the supreme unhung? + Lo! Sheppard, Turpin, pleading with black tongue + This viler thief's unsuffocated breath! + + We 'U search thy glossary, Shakspeare! whence almost, + And whence alone, some name shall be reveal'd + For this deaf drudge, to whom no length of ears + Sufficed to catch the music of the spheres; + Whose soul is carrion now,--too mean to yield + Some tailor's ninth allotment of a ghost. + + Stratford-on-Avon. + +The other sonnets referred to, those, namely, on the _French Liberation +of Italy_, and the _German Subjugation of France_, display all +Rossetti's mastery of craftsmanship. In strength of vision, in fertility +of rhythmic resource, in pliant handling, these sonnets are, in my +judgment, among the best written by the author; and if I do not quote +them here, or altogether regret that they do not appear in the author's +works, it is not because I have any sense of their possibly offending +against the delicate sensibilities of an age in which it seems necessary +to hide out of sight whatever appears to impinge upon the domain of what +is called our lower nature. + +The circumstance has hardly obtained even so much as a passing mention +that Rossetti made certain very important additions to the ballad of +_Sister Helen_, just before passing the old volume through the press +afresh for publication, contemporaneously with the new book. The +letters I am now to quote show the origin of those additions, and are +interesting, as affording a view of the author's estimate of the gain in +respect of completeness of conception, and sterner tragic spirit which +resulted upon their adoption. + +I was very glad to have the three articles together, including the one +in which you have written on myself. Looking at this again, it seems to +me you must possess the _best_ edition (the Tauchnitz, which has my last +emendations). Otherwise I have been meaning all along to offer you a +copy of this edition, as I have some. Who was your informant as to dates +of the poems, etc.? They are not correct, yet show some inkling. _Jenny_ +(in a first form) was written almost as early as _The Blessed Damozel_, +which I wrote (and have altered little since), when I was eighteen. It +was first printed when I was twenty-one. Of the first _Jenny_, perhaps +fifty lines survive here and there, but I felt it was quite beyond me +then (a world I was then happy enough to be a stranger to), and later +I re-wrote it completely. I will give you correct particulars at some +time. _Sister Helen_, I may mention, was written either in 1851 or +beginning of 1852, and was printed in something called _The Duesseldorf +Annual_ {*} (published in Germany) in 1853; though since much revised +in detail--not in the main. You will be horror-struck to hear that +the first main addition to this poem was made by me only a few days +ago!--eight stanzas (six together, and two scattered ones) involving +a new incident!! Your hair is on end, I know, but if you heard the +stanzas, they would smooth if not curl it. The gain is immense. + + * In The Duesseldorf Annual the poem was signed H. H. H., and + in explanation of this signature Rossetti wrote on his own + copy the following characteristic note:--"The initials as + above were taken from the lead-pencil." + +In reply to this I told Rossetti that, as a "jealous honourer" of his, +I confessed to some uneasiness when I read that he had been making +important additions to _Sister Helen_. That I could not think of a stage +of the story that would bear so to be severed from what goes before or +comes after it as to admit of interpolation might not of itself go for +much; but the entire ballad was so rounded into unity, one incident so +naturally begetting the next, and the combined incidents so properly +building up a fabric of interest of which the meaning was all inwoven, +that I could not but fear that whatever the gain in certain directions, +the additions of any stanzas involving a new incident might, in +some measure, cripple the rest. Even though the new stanzas were as +beautiful, or yet more beautiful than the old ones, and the incident as +impressive as any that goes before it, or comes after it, the gain to +the poem as an individual creation was not, I thought, assured because +people used to say my style was hard. + +Rossetti was mistaken in supposing that I possessed the latest and +best edition of his _Poems_, but I had seen the latest of all English +editions, and had noted in it several valuable emendations which, in +subsequent quotation, I had been careful to employ. One of these seemed +to me to involve an immeasurable gain. A stanza of _Sister Helen_, in +its first form, ran: + + Oh, the wind is sad in the iron chill, + Sister Helen, + And weary sad they look by the hill; + But Keith of Ewern 's sadder still, + Little brother.--etc. etc. + +In the later edition the fourth line of this stanza ran: + + But he and I are sadder still. + +The change adds enormously to one's estimate of the characterisation. +All through the ballad one wants to feel that, despite the bitterness +of her speech, the heart of the relentless witch is breaking. Like _The +Broken Heart_ of Ford, the ballad with the amended line was a masterly +picture of suppressed emotion. I hoped the new incident touched the same +chord. Rossetti replied: + + Thanks for your present letter, which I will answer with + pleasurable care. At present I send you the Tauchnitz + edition of my things. The bound copy is hideous, but more + convenient--the other pretty. You will find a good many + things bettered (I believe) even on the _latest_ English + edition. I did not remember that the line you quote from + _Sister Helen_ appeared in the new form at all in an English + issue. I am greatly pleased at your thinking it, as I do, + quite a transfiguring change... The next point I have marked + in your letter is that about the additions to _Sister + Helen_. Of course I knew that your hair must arise from your + scalp in protest. But what should you say if Keith of Ewern + were a three days' bridegroom--if the spell had begun on the + wedding-morning--and if the bride herself became the last + pleader for mercy? I fancy you will see your way now. The + culminating, irresistible provocation helps, I think, to + humanize Helen, besides lifting the tragedy to a yet sterner + height. + +If I had felt (as Rossetti predicted I should) an uneasy sensation +about the roots of the hair upon hearing that he was making important +additions to the ballad which seemed to me to be the finest of his +works, the sensation in that quarter was not less, but more, upon +learning the nature of those additions. But I mistook the character of +the new incidents. That Sister Helen should be herself the abandoned +_bride_ of Ewern (for so I understood the poet's explanation), and, as +such, the last pleader for mercy, pointed, I thought, in the direction +of the humanizing emendation ("But he and I are sadder still ") +which had given me so much pleasure. That Keith of Ewern should be a +three-days' bridegroom, and that the spell should begin on the wedding +morning, were incidents that seemed to intensify every line of the +poem. In this view of Rossetti's account of the additions, there were +certainly difficulties out of which I could see no way, but I seemed +to realise that Helen's hate, like Macbeth's ambition, had overleaped +itself, and fallen on the other side, and that she would undo her work, +if to return were not harder than to go on; her initiate sensibility had +gained hard use, but even as hate recoils on love, so out of the ashes +of hate love had arisen. In this view of the characterisation of Helen, +the parallel with Macbeth struck me more and more as I thought of it. +When Macbeth kills Duncan, and hears the grooms of the chamber cry in +their sleep--"God bless us," he cannot say "Amen," + + I had most need of blessing, and Amen + Stuck in my throat. + +Helen pleading too late for mercy against the potency of the spell she +herself had raised, seemed to me an incident that raised her to the +utmost height of tragic creation. But Rossetti's purpose was at once +less ambitious and more satisfying. + + Your passage as to the changes in _Sister Helen_ could not + well (with all its fine suggestiveness) be likely to meet + exactly a reality which had not been submitted to your eye + in the verses themselves. It is the _bride of Keith_ who is + the last pleader--as vainly as the others, and with a yet + more exulting development of vengeance in the forsaken + witch. The only acknowledgment by her of a mutual misery is + still found in the line you spotted as so great a gain + before, and in the last line she speaks. I ought to have + sent the stanzas to explain them properly, but have some + reluctance to ventilate them at present, much as I should + like the opportunity of reading them to you. They will meet + your eye in due course, and I am sure of your approval also + as regards their value to the ballad.... Don't let the + changes in _Helen_ get wind overmuch. I want them to be new + when published. Answer this when you can. I like getting + your epistles. + +The fresh stanzas in question, which had already obtained the suffrages +of his brother, of Mr. Bell Scott, and other qualified critics, were +subsequently sent to me. They are as follows. After Keith of Keith, +the father of Sister Helen's sometime lover, has pleaded for his son in +vain, the last suppliant to arrive is his son's bride: + + A lady here, by a dark steed brought, + Sister Helen, + So darkly clad I saw her not. + "See her now or never see aught, + Little brother!" + (_O Mother, Mary Mother_, + _Whit more to see, between Hell and Heaven?_) + + "Her hood falls back, and the moon shines fair, + Sister Helen, + On the Lady of Ewern's golden hair." + "Blest hour of my power and her despair, + Little brother!" + (O Mother, Mary Mother, + Hour blest and bann'd, between Hell and Heaven!) + + "Pale, pale her cheeks, that in pride did glow, + Sister Helen, + 'Neath the bridal-wreath three days ago." + "One morn for pride and three days for woe, + Little brother!" + (O Mother, Mary Mother, + Three days, three nights, between Hell and Heaven!) + + "Her clasp'd hands stretch from her bending head, + Sister Helen; + With the loud wind's wail her sobs are wed." + "What wedding-strains hath her bridal bed, + Little brother?" + (O Mother, Mary Mother, + What strain but death's, between Hell and Heaven?) + + "She may not speak, she sinks in a swoon, + Sister Helen,-- + She lifts her lips and gasps on the moon." + "Oh! might I but hear her soul's blithe tune, + Little brother!" + (O Mother, Mary Mother, + Her woe's dumb cry, between Hell and Heaven!) + + "They've caught her to Westholm's saddle-bow, + Sister Helen, + And her moonlit hair gleams white in its flow." + "Let it turn whiter than winter snow, + Little brother!" + (O Mother, Mary Mother, + Woe-withered gold, between Hell and Heaven!) + +Besides these there are two new stanzas, one going before, and the other +following after, the six stanzas quoted, but as the scattered passages +involve no farther incident, and are rather of interest as explaining +and perfecting the idea here expressed, than valuable in themselves, I +do not reprint them. + +I think it must be allowed, by fit judges, that nothing more subtly +conceived than this incident can be met with in English poetry, though +something akin to it was projected by Coleridge in an episode of his +contemplated _Michael Scott_. It is--in the full sense of an abused +epithet--too weird to be called picturesque. But the crowning merit of +the poem still lies, as I have said, in the domain of character. Through +all the outbursts of her ignescent hate Sister Helen can never lose the +ineradicable relics of her human love: + + But he and I are sadder still. + +As Rossetti from time to time made changes in his poems, he transcribed +the amended verses in a copy of the Tauchnitz edition which he kept +constantly by him. Upon reference to this little volume some days after +his death, I discovered that he had prefaced _Sister Helen_ with a +note written in pencil, of which he had given me the substance in +conversation about the time of the publication of the altered version, +but which he abandoned while passing the book through the press. The +note (evidently designed to precede the ballad) runs: + + It is not unlikely that some may be offended at seeing the + additions made thus late to the ballad of _S. H._ My best + excuse is that I believe some will wonder with myself that + such a climax did not enter into the first conception. + +At the foot of the poem this further note is written: + + I wrote this ballad either in 1851 or early in 1852. It was + printed in a thing called _The Duesseldorf Annual_ in (I + think) 1853--published in Germany. {*} + + * In the same private copy of the Poems the following + explanatory passage was written over the much-discussed + sonnet, entitled, The Monochord:--"That sublimated mood of + the soul in which a separate essence of itself seems as it + were to oversoar and survey it." Neither the style nor the + substance is characteristic of Rossetti, and though I do not + at the moment remember to have met with the passage + elsewhere, I doubt not it is a quotation. That quotation + marks are employed is not in itself evidence of much moment, + for Rossetti had Coleridge's enjoyment of a literary + practical joke, and on one occasion prefixed to a story in + manuscript a long passage on noses purporting to be from + Tristram Shandy, but which is certainly not discoverable in + Sterne's story. + +The next letter I shall quote appears to explain itself: + + There is a last point in your long letter which I have not + noticed, though it interested me much: viz., what you say of + your lecture on my poetry; your idea of possibly returning + to and enlarging it would, if carried out, be welcome to me. + I suppose ere long I must get together such additional work + as I have to show--probably a good deal added to the old + vol. (which has been for some time out of print) and one + longer poem by itself. _The House of Life_, when next + issued, will I trust be doubled in number of sonnets; it is + nearly so already. Your writing that essay in one day, and + the information as to subsequent additions, I noted, and + should like to see the passage on _Jenny_ which you have not + yet used, if extant. The time taken in composition reminds + me of the fact (so long ago!) that I wrote the tale of _Hand + and Soul_ (with the exception of an opening page or two) all + in one night in December 1849, beginning I suppose about 2 + A.M. and ending about 7. In such a case a landscape and sky + all unsurmised open gradually in the mind--a sort of + spiritual _Turner_, among whose hills one ranges and in + whose waters one strikes out at unknown liberty; but I have + found this only in nightlong work, which I have seldom + attempted, for it leaves one entirely broken, and this state + was mine when I described the like of it at the close of the + story, ah! once again, how long ago! I have thought of + including this story in next issue of poems, but am + uncertain. What think you? + +It seemed certain that _Hand and Soul_ ought not to continue to lie in +the back numbers, of a magazine. The story, being more poem than aught +else, might properly lay claim to a place in any fresh collection of +the author's works. I could see no natural objection on the score of +its being written in prose. As Coleridge and Wordsworth both aptly said, +prose is not the antithesis of poetry; science and poetry may stand +over-against each other, as Keats implied by his famous toast: +"Confusion to the man who took the poetry out of the moon," but prose +and poetry surely are or may be practically one. We know that in +rhythmic flow they sometimes come very close together, and nowhere +closer than in the heightened prose and the poetry of Rossetti. Poetic +prose may not be the best prose, just as (to use a false antithesis) +dull poetry is called prosaic; but there is no natural antagonism +between prose and verse as literary mediums, provided always that the +spirit that animates them be akin. Rossetti himself constantly urged +that in prose the first necessity was that it should be direct, and he +knew no reproach of poetry more damning than to say it was written in +proseman's diction. This was the key to his depreciation of Wordsworth, +and doubtless it was this that ultimately operated with him to exclude +the story from his published works. I took another view, and did not +see that an accidental difference of outward form ought to prevent his +uniting within single book-covers productions that had so much of their +essential spirit in common. Unlike the Chinese, we do not read by sight +only, and there is in the story such richness, freshness, and variety +of cadence, as appeal to the ear also. Prose may be the lowest order +of rhythmic composition, but we know it is capable of such purity, +sweetness, strength, and elasticity, as entitle it to a place as a +sister art with poetry. Milton, however, although he wrote the noblest +of English prose, seemed more than half ashamed of it, as of a kind of +left-handed performance. Goethe and Wordsworth, on the other hand, not +to speak of Coleridge and Shelley (or yet of Keats, whose letters are +among the very best examples extant of the English epistolary style), +wrote prose of wonderful beauty and were not ashamed of it. In Milton's +case the subjects, I imagine, were to blame for his indifference to his +achievements in prose, for not even the Westminster Convention, or +the divorce topics of _Tetrachordon_, or yet the liberty of the press, +albeit raised to a level of philosophic first principles, were quite up +to those fixed stars of sublimity about which it was Milton's pleasure +to revolve. _Hand and Soul_ is in faultless harmony with Rossetti's work +in verse, because distinguished by the same strength of imagination. +That it was written in a single night seems extraordinary when viewed +in relation to its sustained beauty; but it is done in a breath, and has +all the excellencies of fervour and force that result upon that method +of composition only. + +A year or two later than the date of the correspondence with which I am +now dealing, Rossetti read aloud a fragment of a story written about +the period of _Hand and Soul_. It was to be entitled _St. Agnes of +Intercession_, and it dealt in a mystic way with the doctrine of the +transmigration of souls. He constantly expressed his intention of +finishing the story, and said that, although in its existing condition +it was fully as long as the companion story, it would require twice as +much more to complete it. During the time of our stay at Birchington, at +the beginning of 1882, he seemed anxious to get to work upon it, and had +the manuscript sent down from London for that purpose; but the packet +lay unopened until after his death, when I glanced at it again +to refresh my memory as to its contents. The fragment is much too +inconclusive as to design to admit of any satisfying account of its +plot, of which there is more, than in _Hand and Soul_. As far as it +goes, it is the story of a young English painter who becomes the victim +of a conviction that his soul has had a prior existence in this world. +The hallucination takes entire possession of him, and so unsettles +his life that he leaves England in search of relic or evidence of his +spiritual "double." Finally, in a picture-gallery abroad, he comes face +to face with a portrait which' he instantly recognises as the portrait +of himself, both as he is now and as he was in the time of his +antecedent existence. Upon inquiry, the portrait proves to be that of a +distinguished painter centuries dead, whose work had long been the young +Englishman's guiding beacon in methods of art. Startled beyond measure +at the singular discovery of a coincidence which, superstition apart, +might well astonish the most unsentimental, he sickens to a fever. Here +the fragment ends. Late one evening, in August 1881, Rossetti gave me +a full account of the remaining incidents, but I find myself without +memoranda of what was said (it was never my habit to keep record of his +or of any man's conversation), and my recollection of what passed is +too indefinite in some salient particulars to make it safe to attempt +to complete the outlines of the story. I consider the fragment in all +respects finer than _Hand and Soul_, and the passage descriptive of the +artist's identification of his own personality in the portrait on +the walls of the gallery among the very finest pieces of picturesque, +impassioned, and dramatic writing that Rossetti ever achieved. On one +occasion I remarked incidentally upon something he had said of his +enjoyment of rivers of morning air {*} in the spring of the year, that +it would be an inquiry fraught with a curious interest to find out how +many of those who have the greatest love of the Spring were born in it. + + * Within the period of my personal knowledge of Rossetti's + habits, he certainly never enjoyed any "rivers of morning + air" at all, unless they were such as visited him in a + darkened bedchamber. + +One felt that one could name a goodly number among the English poets +living and dead. It would be an inquiry, as Hamlet might say, such as +would become a woman. To this Rossetti answered that he was born on old +May-day (May 12), 1828; and thereupon he asked the date of my own birth. + + The comparative dates of our births are curious.... I myself + was born on old May-Day (12th), in the year (1828) after + that in which Blake died.... You were born, in fact, just as + I was giving up poetry at about 25, on finding that it + impeded attention to what constituted another aim and a + livelihood into the bargain, _i.e._ painting. From that date + up to the year when I published my poems, I wrote extremely + little,--I might almost say nothing, except the renovated + _Jenny_ in 1858 or '59. To this again I added a passage or + two when publishing in 1870. + +Often since Rossetti's death I have reflected upon the fact that in that +lengthy correspondence between us which preceded personal intimacy, +he never made more than a single passing allusion to those adverse +criticisms which did so much at one period to sadden and alter his life. +Barely, indeed, in conversation did he touch upon that sore subject, but +it was obvious enough to the closer observer, as well from his silence +as from his speech, that though the wounds no longer rankled, they +did not wholly heal. I take it as evidence of his desire to put by +unpleasant reflections (at least whilst health was whole with him, for +he too often nourished melancholy retrospects when health was broken +or uncertain), that in his correspondence with me, as a young friend +who knew nothing at first hand of his gloomier side, he constantly dwelt +with radiant satisfaction and hopefulness on the friendly words that had +been said of him. And as frequently as he called my attention to such +favourable comment, he did so without a particle of vanity, and with +only such joy as he may feel who knows in his secret heart he has +depreciators, to find that he has ardent upholders too. In one letter he +says: + +I should say that between the appearance of the poems and your lecture, +there was one article on the subject, of a very masterly kind indeed, +by some very scholarly hand (unknown to me), in the _New York Catholic +World_ (I think in 1874). I retain this article, and will some day send +it you to read. + +He sent me the article, and I found it, as he had found it, among the +best things written on the subject. Naturally, the criticism was best +where the subject dealt with impinged most upon the spirit of mediaeval +Catholicism. Perhaps Catholicism is itself essentially mediaeval, and +perhaps a man cannot possibly be, what the _Catholic World_ article +called Rossetti, a "mediaeval artist heart and soul," without partaking +of a strong religious feeling that is primarily Catholic--so much were +the religion and art of the middle ages knit each to each. Yet, upon +reading the article, I doubted one of the writer's inferences, namely, +that Rossetti had inherited a Catholic devotion to the Madonna. Not his +_Ave_ only seemed to me to live in an atmosphere of tender and sensitive +devotion, but I missed altogether in it, as in other poems of Rossetti, +that old, continual, and indispensable Catholic note of mystic Divine +love lost in love of humanity which, I suppose, Mr. Arnold would call +anthropomorphism. Years later, when I came to know Rossetti personally, +I perceived that the writer of the article in question had not made +a bad shot for the truth. True it was, that he had inherited a strong +religious spirit--such as could only be called Catholic--inherited +I say, for, though from his immediate parents, he assuredly did not +inherit any devotion to the Madonna, his own submission to religious +influences was too unreasoning and unquestioning to be anything but +intuitive. Despite some worldly-mindedness, and a certain shrewdness in +the management of the more important affairs of daily life, Rossetti's +attitude towards spiritual things was exactly the reverse of what we +call Protestant. During the last months of his life, when the prospect +of leaving the world soon, and perhaps suddenly, impressed upon his +mind a deep sense of his religious position, he yielded himself up +unhesitatingly to the intuitive influences I speak of; and so far from +being touched by the interminable controversies which have for ages been +upsetting and uprearing creeds, he seemed both naturally incapable of +comprehending differences of belief, and unwilling to dwell upon them +for an instant. Indeed, he constantly impressed me during the last days +of his life with the conviction, that he was by religious bias of nature +a monk of the middle ages. + +As to the article in _The Catholic Magazine_ I thought I perceived from +a curious habit of biblical quotation that it must have been written by +an Ecclesiastic. A remark in it to the effect that old age is usually +more indulgent than middle life to the work of first manhood, and that, +consequently, Rossetti would be a less censorious judge of his early +efforts at a later period of life, seemed to show that the writer +himself was no longer a young man. Further, I seemed to see that the +reviewer was not a professional critic, for his work displayed few of +the well-recognised trade-marks with which the articles of the literary +market are invariably branded. As a small matter one noticed the +somewhat slovenly use of the editorial _we_, which at the fag-end of +passages sometimes dropped into _I_. [Upon my remarking upon this to +Rossetti he remembered incidentally that a similar confounding of +the singular and plural number of the pronoun produces marvellously +suggestive effects in a very different work, _Macbeth_, where the kingly +_we_ is tripped up by the guilty _I_ in many places.] Rossetti wrote: + +I am glad you liked the _Catholic World_ article, which I certainly view +as one of rare literary quality. I have not the least idea who is the +writer, but am sorry now I never wrote to him under cover of the editor +when I received it. I did send the _Dante and Circle_, but don't know +if it was ever received or reviewed. As you have the vols, of +_Fortnightly_, look up a little poem of mine called the _Cloud +Confines_, a few months later, I suppose, than the tale. It is one of my +favourites, among my own doings. + +I noticed at this early period, as well as later, that in Rossetti's +eyes a favourable review was always enhanced in value if the writer +happened to be a stranger to him; and I constantly protested that a +friend's knowledge of one's work and sympathy with it ought not to be +less delightful, as such, than a stranger's, however less surprising, +though at the same time the tribute that is true to one's art without +auxiliary aids being brought to bear in its formation must be at once +the most satisfying assurance of the purity, strength, and completeness +of the art itself, and of the safe and enduring quality of the +appreciation. It is true that friends who are accustomed to our habit of +thought and manner of expression sometimes catch our meaning before we +have expressed it Not rarely, before our thought has reached that stage +at which it becomes intelligible to a stranger, a word, a look, or a +gesture will convey it perfectly and fully to a friend. And what goes on +between minds that exist in more or less intimate communion, goes on +to a greater degree within the individual mind where the metaphysical +equivalents to a word or a look answer to, and are answered by, the +half-realised conception. Hence it often happens that even where our +touch seems to ourselves delicate and precise, a mind not initiated +in our self-chosen method of abbreviation finds only impenetrable +obscurity. It is then in the tentative condition of mind just indicated +that the spirit of art comes in, and enables a man so to clothe his +thought in lucid words and fitting imagery that strangers may know, when +they see it, all that it is, and how he came by it. Although, therefore, +the praise of friends should not be less delightful, as praise, than +that tendered by strangers, there is an added element of surprise and +satisfaction in the latter which the former cannot bring. Rossetti +certainly never over-valued the applause of his own immediate circle, +but still no man was more sensible of the value of the good opinion of +one or two of his immediate friends. Returning to the correspondence, he +says: + + In what I wrote as to critiques on my poems, I meant to + express _special_ gratification from those written by + strangers to myself and yet showing full knowledge of the + subject and full sympathy with it. Such were Formans at the + time, the American one since (and far from alone in America, + but this the best) and more lately your own. Other known and + unknown critics of course wrote on the book when it + appeared, some very favourably and others _quite_ + sufficiently abusive. + +As to _Cloud Confines_, I told Rossetti that I considered it in +philosophic grasp the most powerful of his productions, and interesting +as being (unlike the body of his works) more nearly akin to the spirit +of music than that of painting. + + By the bye, you are right about _Cloud Confines_, which _is_ + my very best thing--only, having been foolishly sent to a + magazine, no notice whatever resulted. + +Rossetti was not always open to suggestions as to the need of clarifying +obscure phrases in his verses, but on one or two occasions, when I was +so bold as to hint at changes, I found him in highly tractable moods. +I called his attention to what I imagined might prove to be merely a +printer's slip in his poem (a great favourite of mine) entitled _The +Portrait_. The second stanza ran: + + Yet this, of all love's perfect prize, + Remains; save what in mournful guise + Takes counsel with my soul alone,-- + Save what is secret and unknown, + Below the earth, above the sky. + +The words "yet" and "save" seemed to me (and to another friend) somewhat +puzzling, and I asked if "but" in the sense of _only_ had been meant. He +wrote: + + That is a very just remark of yours about the passage in + _Portrait_ beginning _yet_. I meant to infer _yet only_, but + it certainly is truncated. I shall change the line to + + Yet only this, of love's whole prize, + Remains, etc. + + But would again be dubious though explicable. Thanks for the + hint.... I shall be much obliged to you for any such hints + of a verbal nature. + + + + +CHAPTER V. + +The letters printed in the foregoing chapter are valuable as settling +at first-hand all question of the chronology of the poems of Rossetti's +volume of 1870. The poems of the volume of 1881 (Rose Mary and certain +of the sonnets excepted) grew under his hand during the period of my +acquaintance with him, and their origin I shall in due course record. +The two preceding chapters have been for the most part devoted to such +letters (and such explanatory matter as must needs accompany them) as +concern principally, perhaps, the poet and his correspondent; but I +have thrown into two further chapters a great body of highly interesting +letters on subjects of general literary interest (embracing the fullest +statement yet published of Rossetti's critical opinions), and have +reserved for a more advanced section of the work a body of further +letters on sonnet literature which arose out of the discussion of an +anthology that I was at the time engaged in compiling. + +It was very natural that Coleridge should prove to be one of the first +subjects discussed by Rossetti, who admired him greatly, and when it +transpired that Coleridge was, perhaps, my own chief idol, and that +whilst even yet a child I had perused and reperused not only his poetry +but even his mystical philosophy (impalpable or obscure even to his +maturer and more enlightened, if no more zealous, admirers), the +disposition to write upon him became great upon both sides. "You can +never say too much about Coleridge for me," Rossetti would write, "for +I worship him on the right side of idolatry, and I perceive you know +him well." Upon this one of my first remarks was that there was much in +Coleridge's higher descriptive verse equivalent to the landscape art +of Turner. The critical parallel Rossetti warmly approved of, adding, +however, that Coleridge, at his best as a pictorial artist, was a +spiritualised Turner. He instanced his, + + We listened and looked sideways up, + The moving moon went up the sky + And no where did abide, + Softly she was going up, + And a star or two beside-- + The charmed water burnt alway + A still and awful red. + +I remarked that Shelley possessed the same power of impregnating +landscape with spiritual feeling, and this Rossetti readily allowed; +but when I proceeded to say that Wordsworth sometimes, though rarely, +displayed a power akin to it, I found him less warmly responsive. "I +grudge Wordsworth every vote he gets," {*} Rossetti frequently said to +me, both in writing, and afterwards in conversation. "The three +greatest English imaginations," he would sometimes add, "are Shakspeare, +Coleridge, and Shelley." I have heard him give a fourth name, Blake. + + * There is a story frequently told of how, seeing two camels + walking together in the Zoological Gardens, keeping step in + a shambling way, and conversing with one another, Rossetti + exclaimed: "There's Wordsworth and Ruskin virtuously taking + a walk!" + +He thought Wordsworth was too much the High Priest of Nature to be +her lover: too much concerned to transfigure into poetry his +pantheo-Christian philosophy regarding Nature, to drop to his knees in +simple love of her to thank God that she was beautiful. It was hard to +side with Rossetti in his view of Wordsworth, partly because one feared +he did not practise the patience necessary to a full appreciation of +that poet, and was consequently apt to judge of him by fugitive lines +read at random. In the connection in question, I instanced the lines +(much admired by Coleridge) beginning + + Suck, little babe, O suck again! + It cools my blood, it cools my brain, + +and ending-- + + The breeze I see is in the tree, + It comes to cool my babe and me. + +But Rossetti would not see that this last couplet denoted the point of +artistic vision at which the poet of nature identified himself with her, +in setting aside or superseding all proprieties of mere speech. To him +Wordsworth's Idealism (which certainly had the German trick of keeping +close to the ground) only meant us to understand that the forsaken +woman through whose mouth the words are spoken (in _The Affliction of +Margaret_ ------ of ------) saw _the breeze shake the tree_ afar off. +And this attitude towards Wordsworth Rossetti maintained down to the +end. I remember that sometime in March of the year in which he died, Mr. +Theodore Watts, who was paying one of his many visits to see him in his +last illness at the sea-side, touched, in conversation, upon the power +of Wordsworth's style in its higher vein, and instanced a noble passage +in the _Ode to Duty_, which runs: + + Stern Lawgiver! yet thou dost wear + The Godhead's most benignant grace; + Nor know we anything so fair + As is the smile upon thy face; + Flowers laugh before thee on their beds; + And fragrance in thy footing treads; + Thou dost preserve the stars from wrong; + And the most ancient heavens, through Thee, are + fresh and strong. + +Mr. Watts spoke with enthusiasm of the strength and simplicity, the +sonorousness and stately march of these lines; and numbered them, I +think, among the noblest verses yet written, for every highest quality +of style. + +But Rossetti was unyielding, and though he admitted the beauty of the +passage, and was ungrudging in his tribute to another passage which I +had instanced-- + + O joy that in our embers-- + +he would not allow that Wordsworth ever possessed a grasp of the +great style, or that (despite the Ode on Immortality and the sonnet on +_Toussaint L'Ouverture_, which he placed at the head of the poet's work) +vital lyric impulse was ever fully developed in his muse. He said: + + As to Wordsworth, no one regards the great Ode with more + special and unique homage than I do, as a thing absolutely + alone of its kind among all greatest things. I cannot say + that anything else of his with which I have ever been + familiar (and I suffer from long disuse of all familiarity + with him) seems at all on a level with this. + +In all humility I regard his depreciatory opinion, not at all as a +valuable example of literary judgment, but as indicative of a clear +radical difference of poetic bias between the two poets, such as must +in the same way have made Wordsworth resist Rossetti if he had appeared +before him. I am the more confirmed in this view from the circumstance +that Rossetti, throughout the period of my acquaintance with him, seemed +to me always peculiarly and, if I may be permitted to say so without +offence, strangely liable to Mr. Watts's influence in his critical +estimates, and that the case instanced was perhaps the only one in +which I knew him to resist Mr. Watts's opinion upon a matter of poetical +criticism, which he considered to be almost final, as his letters to +me, printed in Chapter VIII. of this volume, will show. I had a striking +instance of this, and of the real modesty of the man whom I had heard +and still hear spoken of as the most arrogant man of genius of his +day, on one of the first occasions of my seeing him. He read out to me +an additional stanza to the beautiful poem _Cloud Confines_: As he +read it, I thought it very fine, and he evidently was very fond of it +himself. But he surprised me by saying that he should not print it. On +my asking him why, he said: + +"Watts, though he admits its beauty, thinks the poem would be better +without it." + +"Well, but you like it yourself," said I. + +"Yes," he replied; "but in a question of gain or loss to a poem, I feel +that Watts must be right." + +And the poem appeared in _Ballads and Sonnets_ without the stanza in +question. The same thing occurred with regard to the omission of the +sonnet _Nuptial Sleep_ from the new edition of the Poems in 1881. Mr. +Watts took the view (to Rossetti's great vexation at first) that this +sonnet, howsoever perfect in structure and beautiful from the artistic +point of view, was "out of place and altogether incongruous in a group +of sonnets so entirely spiritual as _The House of Life_," and Rossetti +gave way: but upon the subject of Wordsworth in his relations to +Coleridge, Keats, and Shelley, he was quite inflexible to the last. + +In a letter treating of other matters, Rossetti asked me if I thought +"Christabel" really existed as a mediaeval name, or existed at all +earlier than Coleridge. I replied that I had not met with it earlier +than the date of the poem. I thought Coleridge's granddaughter must +have been the first person to bear the name. The other names in the poem +appear to belong to another family of names,--names with a different +origin and range of expression,--Leoline, Geraldine, Roland, and most +of all Bracy. It seemed to me very possible that Coleridge invented +the name, but it was highly probable that he brought it to England from +Germany, where, with Wordsworth, he visited Klopstock in 1798, about +the period of the first part of the poem. The Germans have names of a +kindred etymology and, even if my guess proved wide of the truth, +it might still be a fact that the name had German relations. Another +conjecture that seemed to me a reasonable one was that Coleridge evolved +the name out of the incidents of the opening passages of the poem. +The beautiful thing, not more from its beauty than its suggestiveness, +suited his purpose exactly. Rossetti replied: + + Resuming the thread of my letter, I come to the question of + the name Christabel, viz.:--as to whether it is to be found + earlier than Coleridge. I have now realized afresh what I + knew long ago, viz.:--that in the grossly garbled ballad of + _Syr Cauline_, in Percy's _Reliques_, there is a Ladye + Chrystabelle, but as every stanza in which her name appears + would seem certainly to be Percy's own work, I suspect him + to be the inventor of the name, which is assuredly a much + better invention than any of the stanzas; and from this + wretched source Coleridge probably enriched the sphere of + symbolic nomenclature. However, a genuine source may turn + up, but the name does not sound to me like a real one. As to + a German origin, I do not know that language, but would not + the second syllable be there the one accented? This seems to + render the name shapeless and improbable. + +I mentioned an idea that once possessed me despotically. It was that +where Coleridge says + + Her silken robe and inner vest + Dropt to her feet, and full in view + Behold! her bosom and half her side-- + A sight to dream of and not to tell,. . . + Shield the Lady Christabel! + +he meant ultimately to show _eyes_ in the _bosom_ of the witch. I +fancied that if the poet had worked out this idea in the second part, +or in his never-compassed continuation, he must have electrified his +readers. The first part of the poem is of course immeasurably superior +in witchery to the second, despite two grand things in the latter--the +passage on the severance of early friendships, and the conclusion; +although the dexterity of hand (not to speak of the essential spirit of +enchantment) which is everywhere present in the first part, and nowhere +dominant in the second, exhibits itself not a little in the marvellous +passage in which Geraldine bewitches Christabel. Touching some jocose +allusion by Rossetti to the necessity which lay upon me to startle +the world with a continuation of the poem based upon the lines of my +conjectural scheme, I asked him if he knew that a continuation was +actually published in Coleridge's own paper, _The Morning Post_. It +appeared about 1820, and was satirical of course--hitting off many +peculiarities of versification, if no more. With Coleridge's playful +love of satirising himself anonymously, the continuation might even be +his own. Rossetti said: + + I do not understand your early idea of _eyes_ in the bosom + of Geraldine. It is described as "that bosom old," "that + bosom cold," which seems to show that its withered character + as combined with Geraldine's youth, was what shocked and + warned Christabel. The first edition says-- + + A sight to dream of, not to tell:-- + And she is to sleep with Christabel! + + I dare say Coleridge altered this, because an idea arose, + which I actually heard to have been reported as Coleridge's + real intention by a member of contemporary circles (P. G. + Patmore, father of Coventry P. who conveyed the report to + me)--viz., that Geraldine was to turn out to be a man!! I + believe myself that the conclusion as given by Gillman from + Coleridge's account to him is correct enough, only not + picturesquely worded. It does not seem a bad conclusion by + any means, though it would require fine treatment to make it + seem a really good one. Of course the first part is so + immeasurably beyond the second, that one feels Chas. Lamb's + view was right, and it should have been abandoned at that + point. The passage on sundered friendship is one of the + masterpieces of the language, but no doubt was written quite + separately and then fitted into _Christabel_. The two lines + about Roland and Sir Leoline are simply an intrusion and an + outrage. I cannot say that I like the conclusion nearly so + well as this. It hints at infinite beauty, but somehow + remains a sort of cobweb. The conception, and partly the + execution, of the passage in which Christabel repeats by + fascination the serpent-glance of Geraldine, is magnificent; + but that is the only good narrative passage in part two. The + rest seems to have reached a fatal facility of jingling, at + the heels whereof followed Scott. + +There are, I believe, many continuations of _Christabel_. Tupper did +one! I myself saw a continuation in childhood, long before I saw the +original, and was all agog to see it for years. Our household was all of +Italian, not English environment, and it was only when I went to school +later that I began to ransack bookstalls. The continuation in question +was by one Eliza Stewart, and appeared in a shortlived monthly thing +called _Smallwood's Magazine_, to which my father contributed +some Italian poetry, and so it came into the house. I thought the +continuation spirited then, and perhaps it may have been so. This must +have been before 1840 I think. + +The other day I saw in a bookseller's catalogue--_Christabess_, by S. T. +Colebritche, translated from the Doggrel by Sir Vinegar Sponge (1816). +This seems a parody, not a continuation, in the very year of the poem's +first appearance! I did not think it worth two shillings,--which was the +price.... Have you seen the continuation of _Christabel_ in _European +Magazine?_ of course it _might_ have been Coleridge's, so far as the +date of the composition of the original was concerned; but of course it +was not his. + +I imagine the "Sir Vinegar Sponge" who translated "_Christabess_ from +the _Doggerel_" must belong to the family of Sponges described by +Coleridge himself, who give out the liquid they take in much dirtier +than they imbibe it. I thought it very possible that Coleridge's epigram +to this effect might have been provoked by the lampoon referred to, and +Rossetti also thought this probable. Immediately after meeting with the +continuation of _Christabel_ already referred to, I came across great +numbers of such continuations, as well as satires, parodies, reviews, +etc., in old issues of _Blackwood, The Quarterly, and The Examiner_. +They seemed to me, for the most part, poor in quality--the highest reach +of comicality to which they attained being concerned with side slaps at +_Kubla Khan_: + + Better poetry I make + When asleep than when awake. + Am I sure, or am I guessing? + Are my eyes like those of Lessing? + +This latter elegant couplet was expected to serve as a scorching satire +on a letter in the _Biographia Literaria_ in which Coleridge says he +saw a portrait of Lessing at Klopstock's, in which the eyes seemed +singularly like his own. The time has gone by when that flight of +egotism on Coleridge's part seemed an unpardonable offence, and to our +more modern judgment it scarcely seems necessary that the author of +_Christabel_ should be charged with a desire to look radiant in the +glory reflected by an accidental personal resemblance to the author of +_Laokoon_. Curiously enough I found evidence of the Patmore version +of Coleridge's intentions as to the ultimate disclosure of the sex of +Geraldine in a review in the _Examiner_. The author was perhaps Hazlitt, +but more probably the editor himself, but whether Hazlitt or Hunt, +he must have been within the circle that found its rallying point at +Highgate, and consequently acquainted with the earliest forms of the +poem. The review is an unfavourable one, and Coleridge is told in it +that he is the dog-in-the-manger of literature, and that his poem is +proof of the fact that he can write better nonsense poetry than any man +in England. The writer is particularly wroth with what he considers +the wilful indefiniteness of the author, and in proof of a charge of +a desire not to let the public into the secret of the poem, and of +a conscious endeavour to mystify the reader, he deliberately accuses +Coleridge of omitting one line of the poem as it was written, which, +if printed, would have proved conclusively that Geraldine had seduced +Christabel after getting drunk with her,--for such sequel is implied if +not openly stated. I told Rossetti of this brutality of criticism, and +he replied: + + As for the passage in _Christabel_, I am not sure we quite + understand each other. What I heard through the Patmores (a + complete mistake I am sure), was that Coleridge meant + Geraldine to prove to be a man bent on the seduction of + Christabel, and presumably effecting it. What I inferred (if + so) was that Coleridge had intended the line as in first + ed.: "And she is to sleep with Christabel!" as leading up + too nearly to what he meant to keep back for the present. + But the whole thing was a figment. + +What is assuredly not a figment is, that an idea, such as the elder +Patmore referred to, really did exist in the minds of Coleridge's +so-called friends, who after praising the poem beyond measure whilst +it was in manuscript, abused it beyond reason or decency when it was +printed. My settled conviction is that the _Examiner_ criticism, and +_not_ the sudden advent of the idea after the first part was written, +was the cause of Coleridge's adopting the correction which Rossetti +mentions. + +Rossetti called my attention to a letter by Lamb, about which he +gathered a good deal of interesting conjecture: + + There is (given in _Cottle_) an inconceivably sarcastic, + galling, and admirable letter from Lamb to Coleridge, + regarding which I never could learn how the deuce their + friendship recovered from it. Cottle says the only reason he + could ever trace for its being written lay in the three + parodied sonnets (one being _The House that Jack Built_) + which Coleridge published as a skit on the joint volume + brought out by himself, Lamb, and Lloyd. The whole thing was + always a mystery to me. But I have thought that the passage + on division between friends was not improbably written by + Coleridge on this occasion. Curiously enough (if so) Lamb, + who is said to have objected greatly to the idea of a second + part of _Christabel_, thought (on seeing it) that the + mistake was redeemed by this very passage. He _may_ have + traced its meaning, though, of course, its beauty alone was + enough to make him say so. + +The three satirical sonnets which Rossetti refers to appear not only in +_Cottle_ but in a note to the _Biographia Literaria_ They were published +first under a fictitious name in _he Monthly Magazine_ They must be +understood as almost wholly satirical of three distinct facets of +Coleridge's own manner, for even the sonnet in which occur the words + + Eve saddens into night, {*} + +has its counterpart in _The Songs of the Pixies_-- + + Hence! thou lingerer, light! + Eve saddens into night, + +and nearly all the phrases satirised are borrowed from Coleridge's +own poetry, not from that of Lamb or Lloyd. Nevertheless, Cottle was +doubtless right as to the fact that Lamb took offence at Coleridge's +conduct on this account, and Rossetti almost certainly made a good shot +at the truth when he attributed to the rupture thereupon ensuing the +passage on severed friendship. The sonnet on _The House that Jack Built_ +is the finest of the three as a satire. + + * So in the Biographia Literaria; in Cottle, "Eve darkens + into night." + +Indeed, the figure used therein as an equipoise to "the hindward charms" +satirises perfectly the style of writing characterised by inflated +thought and imagery. It may be doubted if there exists anything more +comical; but each of the companion sonnets is good in its way. The +egotism, which was a constant reproach urged by _The Edinburgh_ critics +and by the "Cockney Poets" against the poets of the Lake School, is +splendidly hit off in the first sonnet; the low and creeping meanness, +or say, simpleness, as contrasted with simplicity, of thought and +expression, which was stealing into Wordsworth's work at that period, +is equally cleverly ridiculed in the second sonnet. In reproducing the +sonnets, Coleridge claims only to have satirised types. As to Lamb's +letter, it is, indeed, hard to realise the fact that the "gentle-hearted +Charles," as Coleridge himself named him, could write a galling letter +to the "inspired charity-boy," for whom at an early period, and again at +the end, he had so profound a reverence. Every word is an outrage, and +every syllable must have hit Coleridge terribly. I called Rossetti's +attention to the surprising circumstance that in a letter written +immediately after the date of the one in question, Loyd tells Cottle +that he has never known Lamb (who is at the moment staying with him) so +happy before as _just then!_ There can hardly be a doubt, however, +that Rossetti's conjecture is a just one as to the origin of the great +passage in the second part of _Christabel_. Touching that passage I +called his attention to an imperfection that I must have perceived, or +thought I perceived long before,--an imperfection of craftsmanship that +had taken away something of my absolute enjoyment of its many beauties. +The passage ends-- + + They parted, ne'er to meet again! + But never either found another + To free the hollow heart from paining-- + They stood aloof, the scars remaining, + Like cliffs which had been rent asunder; + A dreary sea now flows between, + But neither heat, nor frost, nor thunder, + Shall wholly do away, I ween, + The marks of that which once hath been. + +This is, it is needless to say, in almost every respect, finely felt, +but the words italicised appeared to display some insufficiency of +poetic vision. First, nothing but an earthquake would (speaking within +limits of human experience) unite the two sides of a ravine; and though +_frost_ might bring them together temporarily, _heat and thunder_ must +be powerless to make or to unmake the _marks_ that showed the cliffs to +have once been one, and to have been violently torn apart. Next, _heat_ +(supposing _frost_ to be the root-conception) was obviously used merely +as a balancing phrase, and _thunder_ simply as the inevitable rhyme to +_asunder_. I have not seen this matter alluded to, though it may have +been mentioned, and it is certainly not important enough to make any +serious deduction from the pleasure afforded by a passage that is in +other respects so rich in beauty as to be able to endure such modest +discounting. Rossetti replied: + + Your geological strictures on Coleridge's "friendship" + passage are but too just, and I believe quite new. But I + would fain think that this is "to consider too nicely." I am + certainly willing to bear the obloquy of never having been + struck by what is nevertheless obvious enough. {*}... Lamb's + letter _is_ a teazer. The three sonnets in _The Monthly + Magazine_ were signed "Nehemiah Higginbotham," and were + meant to banter good-humouredly the joint vol. issued by + Coleridge, Lamb, and Lloyd,--C. himself being, of course, + the most obviously ridiculed. I fancy you have really hit + the mark as regards Coleridge's epigram and Sir Vinegar + Sponge. He might have been worth two shillings after all.... + _I_ also remember noting Lloyd's assertion of Lamb's + exceptional happiness just after that letter. It is a + puzzling affair. However C. and Lamb got over it (for I + certainly believe they were friends later in life) no one + seems to have recorded. The second vol. of Cottle, after the + raciness of the first, is very disappointing. + + * In a note on this passage, Canon Dixon writes: What is + meant is that in cliffs, actual cliffs, the action of these + agents, heat, cold, thunder even, might have an obliterating + power; but in the severance of friendship, there is nothing + (heat of nature, frost of time, thunder of accident or + surprise) that can wholly have the like effect. + +On one occasion Rossetti wrote, saying he had written a sonnet on +Coleridge, and I was curious to learn what note he struck in dealing +with so complex a subject. The keynote of a man's genius or character +should be struck in a poetic address to him, just as the expressional +individuality of a man's features (freed of the modifying or emphasising +effects of passing fashions of dress), should be reproduced in his +portrait; but Coleridge's mind had so many sides to it, and his +character had such varied aspects--from keen and beautiful sensibility +to every form of suffering, to almost utter disregard of the calls of +domestic duty--that it seemed difficult to think what kind of idea, +consistent with the unity of the sonnet and its simplicity of scheme, +would call up a picture of the entire man. It goes against the grain to +hint, adoring the man as we must, that Coleridge's personal character +was anything less than one of untarnished purity, and certainly the +persons chiefly concerned in the alleged neglect, Southey and his own +family, have never joined in the strictures commonly levelled against +him: but whatever Coleridge's personal ego may have been, his creative +ego was assuredly not single in kind or aim. He did some noble things +late in life (instance the passage on "Youth and Age," and that on "Work +without Hope"), but his poetic genius seemed to desert him when Kant +took possession of him as a gigantic windmill to do battle with, and +it is now hard to say which was the deeper thing in him: the poetry to +which he devoted the sunniest years of his young life, or the philosophy +which he firmly believed it to be the main business of his later life +to expound. In any discussion of the relative claims of these two to +the gratitude of the ages that follow, I found Rossetti frankly took one +side, and constantly said that the few unequal poems Coleridge had left +us, were a legacy more stimulating, solacing, and enduring, than his +philosophy could have been, even if he had perfected that attempt of his +to reconcile all learning and revelation, and if, when perfected, the +whole effort had not proved to be a work of supererogation. I doubt if +Rossetti quite knew what was meant by Coleridge's "system," as it was +so frequently called, and I know that he could not be induced by any +eulogiums to do so much as look at the _Biographia Literaria_, though +once he listened whilst I read a chapter from it. He had certainly +little love of the German elements in Coleridge's later intellectual +life, and hence it is small matter for surprise that in his sonnet +he chose for treatment the more poetic side of Coleridge's genius. +Nevertheless, I think it remains an open question whether the philosophy +of the author of _The Ancient Mariner_ was more influenced by his +poetry, or his poetry by his philosophy; for the philosophy is always +tinged by the mysticism of his poetry, and his poetry is always +adumbrated by the disposition, which afterwards become paramount, to +dig beneath the surface for problems of life and character, and for +"suggestions of the final mystery of existence." I have heard Rossetti +say that what came most of all uppermost in Coleridge, was his wonderful +intuitive knowledge and love of the sea, whose billowy roll, and break, +and sibilation, seemed echoed in the very mechanism of his verse. Sleep, +too, Rossetti thought, had given up to Coleridge her utmost secrets; and +perhaps it was partly due to his own sad experience of the dread curse +of insomnia, as well as to keen susceptibility to poetic beauty, that +tears so frequently filled his eyes, and sobs rose to his throat when he +recited the lines beginning + + O sleep! it is a gentle thing-- + +affirming, meantime, that nothing so simple and touching had ever been +written on the subject. As to the sonnet, he wrote: + + About Coleridge (whom I only view as a poet, his other + aspects being to my apprehension mere bogies) I conceive the + leading point about his work is its human love, and the + leading point about his career, the sad fact of how little + of it was devoted to that work. These are the points made in + my sonnet, and the last is such as I (alas!) can sympathise + with, though what has excluded more poetry with me + (_mountains_ of it I don't want to heap) has chiefly been + livelihood necessity. I 'll copy the sonnet on opposite + page, only I 'd rather you kept it to yourself. _Five_ years + of _good_ poetry is too long a tether to give his Muse, I + know. + + His Soul fared forth (as from the deep home-grove + The father Songster plies the hour-long quest) + To feed his soul-brood hungering in the nest; + But his warm Heart, the mother-bird above + Their callow fledgling progeny still hove + With tented roof of wings and fostering breast + Till the Soul fed the soul-brood. Richly blest + From Heaven their growth, whose food was Human Love. + + Tet ah! Like desert pools that shew the stars + Once in long leagues--even such the scarce-snatched hours + Which deepening pain left to his lordliest powers:-- + Heaven lost through spider-trammelled prison-bars! + Five years, from seventy saved! yet kindling skies + Own them, a beacon to our centuries. + +As a minor point I called Rossetti's attention to the fact that +Coleridge lived to be scarcely more than sixty, and that his poetic +career really extended over six good years; and hence the thirteenth +line was amended to + + Six years from sixty saved. + +I doubted if "deepening pain" could be charged with the whole burden +of Coleridge's constitutional procrastination, and to this objection +Rossetti replied: + + Line eleven in my first reading was "deepening _sloth_;" but + it seemed harsh--and--damn it all! much too like the spirit + of Banquo! + +Before Coleridge, however, as to warmth of admiration, and before him +also as to date of influence, Keats was Rossetti's favourite among +modern English poets. Our friend never tired of writing or talking about +Keats, and never wearied of the society of any one who could generate +a fresh thought concerning him. But his was a robust and +masculine admiration, having nothing in common with the effeminate +extra-affectionateness that has of late been so much ridiculed. His +letters now to be quoted shall speak for themselves as to the qualities +in Keats whereon Rossetti's appreciation of him was founded: but I may +say in general terms that it was not so much the wealth of expression +in the author of _Endymion_ which attracted the author of _Rose Mary_ +as the perfect hold of the supernatural which is seen in _La Belle Dame +Sans Merci_ and in the fragment of the _Eve of St. Mark_. At the time of +our correspondence, I was engaged upon an essay on Keats, and _a propos_ +of this Rossetti wrote: + + I shall take pleasure in reading your Keats article when + ready. He was, among all his contemporaries who established + their names, the one true heir of Shakspeare. Another + (unestablished then, but partly revived since) was Charles + Wells. Did you ever read his splendid dramatic poem _Joseph + and his Brethren?_ + +In this connexion, as a better opportunity may not arise, I take +occasion to tell briefly the story of the revival of Wells. The facts +to be related were communicated to me by Rossetti in conversation years +after the date of the letter in which this first allusion to the +subject was made. As a boy, Rossetti's chief pleasure was to ransack +old book-stalls, and the catalogues of the British Museum, for forgotten +works in the bye-ways of English poetry. In this pursuit he became +acquainted with nearly every curiosity of modern poetic literature, and +many were the amusing stories he used to tell at that time, and in after +life, of the titles and contents of the literary oddities he +unearthed. If you chanced at any moment to alight upon any obscure book +particularly curious from its pretentiousness and pomposity, from the +audacity of its claim, or the obscurity and absurdity of its writing, +you might be sure that Rossetti would prove familiar with it, and be +able to recapitulate with infinite zest its salient features; but if you +happened to drop upon ever so interesting an edition of a book (not of +verse) which you supposed to be known to many a reader, the chances were +at least equal that Rossetti would prove to know nothing of it but its +name. In poring over the forgotten pages of the poetry of the beginning +of the century, Rossetti, whilst still a boy, met with the scriptural +drama of _Joseph and his Brethren_. He told me the title did not much +attract him, but he resolved to glance at the contents, and with +that swiftness of insight which throughout life distinguished him, he +instantly perceived its great qualities. I think he said he then wrote a +letter on the subject to one of the current literary journals, probably +_The Literary Gazette_, and by this means came into correspondence with +Charles Wells himself. Rather later a relative of Wells's sought out the +young enthusiast in London, intending to solicit his aid in an attempt +to induce a publisher to undertake a reprint, but in any endeavours to +this end he must have failed. For many years a copy of the poem, left +by the author's request at Rossetti's lodgings, lay there untouched, +and meantime the growing reputation of the young painter brought +about certain removals from Blackfriars Bridge to other chambers, and +afterwards to the house in Cheyne Walk. In the course of these changes +the copy got hidden away, and it was not until numerous applications for +it had been made that it was at length ferreted forth from the chaos of +some similar volumes huddled together in a corner of the studio. Full of +remorse for having so long abandoned a laudable project, Rossetti +then took up afresh the cause of the neglected poem, and enlisted +Mr. Swinburne's interest so warmly as to prevail with him to use his +influence to secure its publication. This failed however; but in _The +Athenaeum_ of April 8, 1876, appeared Mr. Watts's elaborate account of +Wells and the poem and its vicissitudes, whereupon Messrs. Chatto and +Windus offered to take the risk of publishing it, and the poem +went forth with the noble commendatory essay of the young author of +_Atalanta_, whose reputation was already almost at its height, though +it lacked (doubtless from a touch of his constitutional procrastination) +the appreciative comment of the discerning critic who first discovered +it. To return to the Keats correspondence: + + I am truly delighted to hear how young you are. In original + work, a man does some of his best things by your time of + life, though he only finds it out in a rage much later, at + some date when he expected to know no longer that he had + ever done them. Keats hardly died so much too early--not at + all if there had been any danger of his taking to the modern + habit eventually--treating material as product, and shooting + it all out as it comes. Of course, however, he wouldn't; he + was getting always choicer and simpler, and my favourite + piece in his works is _La Belle Dame Sans Merci_--I suppose + about his last. As to Shelley, it is really a mercy that he + has not been hatching yearly universes till now. He might, I + suppose; for his friend Trelawny still walks the earth + without great-coat, stockings, or underclothing, this + Christmas (1879). In criticism, matters are different, as to + seasons of production.... I am writing hurriedly and + horribly in every sense. Write on the subject again and I'll + try to answer better. All greetings to you. + + P.S.--I think your reference to Keats new, and on a high + level It calls back to my mind an adaptation of his self- + chosen epitaph which I made in my very earliest days of + boyish rhyming, when I was rather proud to be as cockney as + Keats _could_ be. Here it is,-- + + Through one, years since damned and forgot + Who stabbed backs by the Quarter, + Here lieth one who, while Time's stream + Still runs, as God hath taught her, + Bearing man's fame to men, hath writ + His name upon that water. + + Well, the rhyme is not so bad as Keats's + + Ear + Of Goddess of Theraea!-- + + nor (tell it not in Gath!) as--- + + I wove a crown before her + For her I love so dearly, + A garland for Lenora! + + Is it possible the laurel crown should now hide a venerated + and impeccable ear which was once the ear of a cockney? + +This letter was written in 1879, and the opening clauses of it were no +doubt penned under the impression, then strong on Rossetti's mind, that +his first volume of poems would prove to be his only one; but when, +within two years afterwards he completed _Rose Mary_, and wrote _The +King's Tragedy_ and _The White Ship_, this accession of material +dissipated the notion that a man does much his best work before +twenty-five. It can hardly escape the reader that though Rossetti's +earlier volume displayed a surprising maturity, the subsequent one +exhibited as a whole infinitely more power and feeling, range of +sympathy, and knowledge of life. The poet's dramatic instinct developed +enormously in the interval between the periods of the two books, and, +being conscious of this, Rossetti used to say in his later years that he +would never again write poems as from his own person. + + You say an excellent thing [he writes] when you ask, "Where + can we look for more poetry per page than Keats furnishes?" + It is strange that there is not yet one complete edition of + him. {*} No doubt the desideratum (so far as care and + exhaustiveness go), will be supplied when + + Forman's edition appears. He is a good appreciator too, as I + have reason to say. You will think it strange that I have + not seen the Keats love-letters, but I mean to do so. + However, I am told they add nothing to one's idea of his + epistolary powers.... I hear sometimes from Buxton Forman, + and was sending him the other day an extract (from a book + called _The Unseen World_) which doubtless bears on the + superstition which Keats intended to develope in his lovely + _Eve of St. Mark_--a fragment which seems to me to rank with + _La Belle Dame Sans Merci_, as a clear advance in direct + simplicity.... You ought to have my recent Keats sonnet, so + I send it. Your own plan, for one on the same subject, seems + to me most beautiful. Do it at once. You will see that mine + is again concerned with the epitaph, and perhaps my reviving + the latter in writing you was the cause of the sonnet. + + * Rossetti afterwards admitted in conversation that the + Aldine Edition seemed complete, though I think he did not + approve of the chronological arrangement therein adopted; at + least he thought that arrangement had many serious + disadvantages. + +Rossetti formed a very different opinion of Keats's love-letters, when, +a year later, he came to read them. At first he shared the general view +that letters so _intimes_ should never have been made public. Afterwards +the book had irresistible charms for him, from the first page whereon +his old friend, Mr. Bell Scott, has vigorously etched Severn's drawing +of the once redundant locks of rich hair, dank and matted over +the forehead cold with the death-dew, down to the last line of the +letterpress. He thought Mr. Forman's work admirably done, and as for the +letters themselves, he believed they placed Keats indisputably among +the highest masters of English epistolary style. He considered that all +Keats's letters proved him to be no weakling, and that whatever walk +he had chosen he must have been a master. He seemed particularly struck +with the apparently intuitive perception of Shakspeare's subtlest +meanings, which certain of the letters display. In a note he said: + + Forman gave me a copy of Keats's letters to Fanny Brawne. + The silhouette given of the lady is sadly disenchanting, and + may be the strongest proof existing of how much a man may + know about abstract Beauty without having an artist's eye + for the outside of it. + +The Keats sonnet, as first shown to me, ran as follows: + + The weltering London ways where children weep,-- + Where girls whom none call maidens laugh, where gain, + Hurrying men's steps, is yet by loss o'erta'en:-- + The bright Castalian brink and Latinos' steep:-- + Such were his paths, till deeper and more deep, + He trod the sands of Lethe; and long pain, + Weary with labour spurned and love found vain, + In dead Rome's sheltering shadow wrapped his sleep. + + O pang-dowered Poet, whose reverberant lips + And heart-strung lyre awoke the moon's eclipse,-- + Thou whom the daisies glory in growing o'er,-- + Their fragrance clings around thy name, not writ, + But rumour'd in water, while the fame of it + Along Time's flood goes echoing evermore. + +I need hardly say that this sonnet seemed to me extremely noble in +sentiment, and in music a glorious volume of sound. I felt, however, +that it would be urged against it that it did not strike the keynote of +the genius of Keats; that it would be said that in all the particulars +in which Rossetti had truthfully and pathetically described London, +Keats was in rather than of it; and that it would be affirmed that Keats +lived in a fairy world of his own inventing, caring little for the storm +and stress of London life. On the other hand, I knew it could be replied +that Keats was not indifferent to the misery of city life; that it bore +heavily upon him; that it came out powerfully and very sadly in his _Ode +to the Nightingale_, and that it may have been from sheer torture in +the contemplation of it that he fled away to a poetic world of his own +creating. Moreover, Rossetti's sonnet touched the life, rather than +the genius, of Keats, and of this it struck the keynote in the opening +lines. I ventured to think that the second and third lines wanted a +little clarifying in the relation in which they stood. They seemed to +be a sudden focussing of the laughter and weeping previously mentioned, +rather than, what they were meant to be, a natural and necessary +equipoise showing the inner life of Keats as contrasted with his outer +life. To such an objection as this, Rossetti said: + + I am rather aghast for my own lucidity when I read what you + say as to the first quatrain of my Keats sonnet. However, I + always take these misconceptions as warnings to the Muse, + and may probably alter the opening as below: + + The weltering London ways where children weep + And girls whom none call maidens laugh,--strange road, + Miring his outward steps who inly trode + The bright Castalian brink and Latinos' steep:-- + Even such his life's cross-paths: till deathly deep + He toiled through sands of Lethe, etc. + I 'll say more anent Keats anon. + +About the period of this portion of the correspondence (1880) I was +engaged reading up old periodicals dating from 1816 to 1822. My purpose +was to get at first-hand all available data relative to the life of +Keats. I thought I met with a good deal of fresh material, and as the +result of my reading I believed myself able to correct a few errors +as to facts into which previous writers on the subject had fallen. Two +things at least I realised--first, that Keats's poetic gift developed +very rapidly, more rapidly perhaps than that of Shelley; and, next, that +Keats received vastly more attention and appreciation in his day than is +commonly supposed. I found it was quite a blunder to say that the first +volume of miscellaneous poems fell flat. Lord Houghton says in error +that the book did not so much as seem to signal the advent of a new +Cockney poet! It is a fact, however, that this very book, in conjunction +with one of Shelley's and one of Hunt's, all published 1816-17, gave +rise to the name "The Cockney School of Poets," which was invented by +the writer signing "Z." in _Blackwood_ in the early part of 1818. Nor +had Keats to wait for the publication of the volume before attaining +to some poetic distinction. At the close of 1816, an article, under +the head of "Young Poets," appeared in _The Examiner_, and in this +both Shelley and Keats were dealt with. Then _The Quarterly_ contained +allusions to him, though not by name, in reviews of Leigh Hunt's work, +and _Blackwood_ mentioned him very frequently in all sorts of places as +"Johnny Keats"--all this (or much of it) before he published anything +except occasional sonnets and other fugitive poems in _The Examiner_ and +elsewhere. And then when _Endymion_ appeared it was abundantly reviewed. +_The Edinburgh_ reviewers had nothing on it (the book cannot have been +sent to them, for in 1820 they say they have only just met with it), +and I could not find anything in the way of _original_ criticism in +_The Examiner_; but many provincial papers (in Manchester, Exeter, and +elsewhere) and some metropolitan papers retorted on _The Quarterly_. All +this, however, does not disturb the impression which (Lord Houghton and +Mr. W. M. Rossetti notwithstanding) I have been from the first compelled +to entertain, namely, that "labour spurned" did more than all else to +kill Keats _in 1821_. + +Most men who rightly know the workings of their own minds will agree +that an adverse criticism rankles longer than a flattering notice +soothes; and though it be shown that Keats in 1820 was comparatively +indifferent to the praise of _The Edinburgh_, it cannot follow that in +1818 he must have been superior to the blame of _The Quarterly_. It is +difficult to see why a man may not be keenly sensitive to what the world +says about him, and yet retain all proper manliness as a part of his +literary character. Surely it was from the mistaken impression that +this could not be, and that an admission of extreme sensitiveness to +criticism exposed Keats to a charge of effeminacy that Lord Houghton +attempted to prove, against the evidence of all immediate friends, +against the publisher's note to _Hyperion_, against the | poet's +self-chosen epitaph, and against all but one or two of the most +self-contained of his letters, that the soul of Keats was so far from +being "snuffed out by an article," that it was more than ordinarily +impervious to hostile comment, even when it came in the shape of +rancorous abuse. In all discussion of the effects produced upon Keats +by the reviews in _Blackwood and The Quarterly_, let it be remembered, +first, that having wellnigh exhausted his small patrimony, Keats was +to be dependent upon literature for his future subsistence; next, that +Leigh Hunt attempted no defence of Keats when the bread was being taken +out of his mouth, and that Keats felt this neglect and remarked upon +it in a letter in which he further cast some doubt upon the purity of +Hunt's friendship. Hunt, after Keats's death, said in reference to this: +"Had he but given me the hint!" The _hint_, forsooth! Moreover, I can +find no sort of allusion in _The Examiner_ for 1821, to the death of +Keats. I told Rossetti that by the reading of the periodicals of the +time, I formed a poor opinion of Hunt. Previously I was willing to +believe in his unswerving loyalty to the much greater men who were his +friends, but even that poor confidence in him must perforce be shaken +when one finds him silent at a moment when Keats most needs his voice, +and abusive when Coleridge is a common subject of ridicule. It was +all very well for Hunt to glorify himself in the borrowed splendour of +Keats's established fame when the poet was twenty years dead, and +to make much of his intimacy with Coleridge after the homage of two +generations had been offered him, but I know of no instance (unless in +the case of Shelley) in which Hunt stood by his friends in the winter +of their lives, and gave them that journalistic support which was, poor +man, the only thing he ever had to give, whatever he might take. I have, +however, heard Mr. H. A. Bright (one of Hawthorne's intimate friends in +England) say that no man here impressed the American romancer so much as +Hunt for good qualities, both of heart and head. But what I have stated +above, I believe to be facts; and I have gathered them at first-hand, +and by the light of them I do not hesitate to say that there is no +reason to believe that it was Keats's illness alone that caused him to +regard Hunt's friendship with suspicion. It is true, however, that when +one reads Hunt's letter to Severn at Borne, one feels that he must be +forgiven. On this pregnant subject Rossetti wrote: + + Thanks for yours received to-day, and for all you say with + so much more kind solicitousness than the matter deserved, + about the opening of the Keats sonnet. I have now realized + that the new form is a gain in every way; and am therefore + glad that, though arising in accident, I was led to make the + change.... All you say of Keats shows that you have been + reading up the subject with good results. I fancy it would + hardly be desirable to add the sonnets you speak of (as + being worthless) at this date, though they might be valuable + for quotation as to the course of his mental and physical + state. I do not myself think that any poems now included + should be removed, but the reckless and tasteless plan of + the gatherings hitherto (in which the _Nightingale_ and other + such masterpieces are jostled indiscriminately, with such + wretched juvenile trash as _Lines to some Ladies on + receiving a Shelly etc_), should of course be amended, and + the rubbish (of which there is a fair quantity), removed to + a "Juvenile" or other such section. It is a curious fact + that among a poet's early writings, some will really be + juvenile in this sense, while others, written at the same + time, will perhaps take rank at last with his best efforts. + This, however, was not substantially the case with Keats. + + As to Leigh Hunt's friendship for Keats, I think the points + you mention look equivocal; but Hunt was a many-laboured and + much belaboured man, and as much allowance as may be made on + this score is perhaps due to him--no more than that much. + His own powers stand high in various ways--poetically higher + perhaps than is I at present admitted, despite his + detestable flutter and airiness for the most part. But + assuredly by no means could he have stood so high in the + long-run, as by a loud and earnest defence of Keats. Perhaps + the best excuse for him is the remaining possibility of an + idea on his part, that any defence coming from one who had + himself so many powerful enemies might seem to Keats + rather to! damage than improve his position. + + I have this minute (at last) read the first instalment of + your Keats paper, and return it.... One of the most marked + points in the early recognition of Keats's claims, as + compared with the recognition given to other poets, is the + fact that he was the only one who secured almost at once a + _great_ poet as a close and obvious imitator--viz., Hood, + whose first volume is more identical with Keats's work than + could be said of any other similar parallel. You quote some + of Keats's sayings. One of the most characteristic I think + is in a letter to Haydon:-- + + "I value more the privilege of seeing great things in + loneliness, than the fame of a prophet." I had not in mind + the quotations you give from Keats as bearing on the poetic + (or prophetic) mission of "doing good." I must say that I + should not have thought a longer career thrown away upon him + (as you intimate) if he had continued to the age of anything + only to give joy. Nor would he ever have done any "good" at + all. Shelley did good, and perhaps some harm with it. + Keats's joy was after all a flawless gift. + + Keats wrote to Shelley:--"You, I am sure, will forgive me + for sincerely remarking that you might curb your magnanimity + and be more of an artist, and load every rift of your + subject with ore." Cheeky!--but not so much amiss. Poetry, + and no prophecy however, must come of that mood,--and no + pulpit would have held Keats's wings,--the body and mind + together were not heavy enough for a counterweight.... Did + you ever meet with + +<center>ENDIMION + +AN EXCELLENT FANCY FIRST COMPOSED IN FRENCH + +By Monsieur GOMBAULD + +AND NOW ELEGANTLY INTERPRETED + +By RICHARD HURST, Gentleman + +1639. + +?</center> + + It has very finely engraved plates of the late Flemish type. + There is a poem of Vaughan's on Gombauld's _Endimion_, which + might make one think it more fascinating than it really is. + Though rather prolix, however, it has attractions as a + somewhat devious romantic treatment of the subject. The + little book is one of the first I remember in this world, + and I used to dip into it again and again as a child, but + never yet read it through. I still possess it. I dare say it + is not easily met with, and should suppose Keats had + probably never seen it. If he had, he might really have + taken a hint or two for his scheme, which is hardly so clear + even as Gombauld's, though its endless digressions teem with + beauty.... I do not think you would benefit at all by seeing + Gombauld's _Endimion_. Vaughan's poem on it might be worth + quoting as showing what attention the subject had received + before Keats. I have the poem in Gilfillan's _Less-Known + Poets_. + +Rossetti took a great interest in the fund started for the relief of +Mme. de Llanos, Keats's sister, whose circumstances were seriously +reduced. He wrote: + + By the bye, I don't know whether the subscription for + Keats's old and only surviving sister (Madme de Llanos) has + been at all ventilated in Liverpool. It flags sorely. Do you + think there would be any chance in your neighbourhood? If + so, prospectuses, etc., could be sent. + +I did not view the prospect of subscriptions as very hopeful, and so +conceived the idea of a lecture in the interests of the fund. On this +project, Rossetti wrote: + + I enclose prospectuses as to the Keats subscription. I may + say that I did not know the list would accompany them--still + less that contributions would be so low generally as to + leave me near the head of the list--an unenviable sort of + parade.... My own opinion about the lecture question is + this. You know best whether such a lecture could be turned + to the purposes of your Keats article (now in progress), or + rather be so much deduction from the freshness of its + resources: and this should be the _absolute_ test of its + being done or not done.... I think, if it can be done + without impoverishing your materials, the method of getting + Lord Houghton to preside and so raising as much from it as + possible is doubtless the right one. Of course I view it as + far more hopeful than mere distribution of any number of + prospectuses.... Even L25 would be a great contribution to + the fund. + +The lecture project was not found feasible, and hence it was abandoned. +Meantime the kindness of friends enabled me to add to the list a good +number of subscriptions, but feeling scarcely satisfied with any such +success as I might be likely to have in that direction, I opened, by +the help of a friend, a correspondence with Lord Houghton with a view +to inducing him to apply for a pension for the lady. It then transpired +that Lord Houghton had already applied to Lord Beaconsfield for a +pension for Mme. Llanos, and would doubtless have got it, had not Mr. +Buxton Forman applied for a grant from the Royal Bounty, which was +easier to give. I told Rossetti of this fact and he said: + + I am not surprised about Lord H., and feel sure it is a pity + he was not left to try Beaconsfield, but I judge the + projectors on the other side knew nothing of his intentions. + However, _I_ was in no way a projector. + +In the end Lord Houghton repeated to Mr. Gladstone the application he +had made to Lord Beaconsfield, and succeeded. + +Rossetti must have been among the earliest admirers of Keats. I remarked +on one occasion that it was very natural that Lord Houghton should +consider himself in a sense the first among men now living to champion +the poet and establish his name, and Rossetti admitted that this was so, +and was ungrudging in his tribute to Lord Houghton's services towards +the better appreciation of Keats; but he contended, nevertheless, +that he had himself been one of the first writers of the generation +succeeding the poet's own to admire and uphold him, and that this was +at a time when it made demand of some courage to class him among the +immortals, when an original edition of any of his books could be bought +for sixpence on a bookstall, and when only Leigh Hunt, Cowden Clarke, +Hood, Benjamin Haydon, and perhaps a few others, were still living of +those who recognised his great gifts. + + + + +CHAPTER VI. + +Rossetti's primary interest in Chatterton dates back to an early period, +as I find by the date, 1848, in the copy he possessed of the poet's +works. But throughout a long interval he neglected Chatterton, and +it was not until his friend Theodore Watts, who had made Chatterton +a special study, had undertaken to select from and write upon him in +Ward's _English Poets_, that he revived his old acquaintance. Whatever +Rossetti did he did thoroughly, and hence he became as intimate perhaps +with the Rowley antiques as any other man had ever been. His letters +written during the course of his Chatterton researches must, I think, +prove extremely interesting. He says: + + Glancing at your Keats MS., I notice (in a series of + parallels) the names of Marlowe and Savage; but not the less + "marvellous" than absolutely miraculous Chatterton. Are you + up in his work? He is in the very first rank! Theod. Watts + is "doing him" for the new selection of poets by Arnold and + Ward, and I have contributed a sonnet to Watts's article.... + I assure you Chatterton's name _must_ come in somewhere in + the parallel passage. He was as great as any English poet + whatever, and might absolutely, had he lived, have proved + the only man in England's theatre of imagination who could + have bandied parts with Shakspeare. The best way of getting + at him is in Skeat's Aldine edition (G. Bell and Co., 1875). + Read him carefully, and you will find his acknowledged work + essentially as powerful as his antiques, though less evenly + successful--the Rowley work having been produced in Bristol + leisure, however indigent, and the modern poetry in the very + fangs of London struggle. Strong derivative points are to be + found in Keats and Coleridge from the study of Chatterton. I + feel much inclined to send the sonnet (on Chatterton) as you + wish, but really think it is better not to ventilate these + things till in print. I have since written one on Blake. Not + to know Chatterton is to be ignorant of the _true_ day- + spring of modern romantic poetry.... I believe the 3d vol. + of Ward's _Selections of English Poetry_, for which Watts is + selecting from Chatterton, will soon be out,--but these + excerpts are very brief, as are the notices. The rendering + from the Rowley antique will be much better than anything + formerly done. Skeat is a thorough philologist, but no hand + at all when substitution becomes unavoidable in the text.... + Read the _Ballad of Charity, the Eclogues, the songs in + AElla_, as a first taste. Among the modern poems _Narva and + Mared_, and the other _African Eclogues_. These are alone in + that section _poetry absolute_, and though they are very + unequal, it has been most truly said by Malone that to throw + the _African Eclogues_ into the Rowley dialect would be at + once a satisfactory key to the question whether Chatterton + showed in his own person the same powers as in the person of + Rowley. Among the satirical and light modern pieces there + are many of a first-. rate order, though generally unequal. + Perfect specimens, however, are _The Revenge, a Burletta, + Skeat, vol i; Verses to a Lady, p. 84; Journal Sixth, p. 33; + The Prophecy, p. 193; and opening of Fragment, p. 132._ I + would advise you to consult the original text. + +Mr. Watts, it seems, with all his admiration of Chatterton, finding that +he could not go to Rossetti's length in comparing him with Shakspeare, +did not in the result consider the sonnet on Chatterton referred to in +the foregoing letter, and given below, suitable to be embodied in his +essay: + + With Shakspeare's manhood at a boy's wild heart,-- + Through Hamlet's doubt to Shakspeare near allied, + And kin to Milton through his Satan's pride,-- + At Death's sole door he stooped, and craved a dart; + And to the dear new bower of England's art,-- + Even to that shrine Time else had deified, + The unuttered heart that soared against his side,-- + Drove the fell point, and smote life's seals apart. + + Thy nested home-loves, noble Chatterton, + The angel-trodden stair thy soul could trace + Up Redcliffe's spire; and in the world's armed space + Thy gallant sword-play:--these to many an one + Are sweet for ever; as thy grave unknown, + And love-dream of thine unrecorded face. + +Some mention was made in this connection of Rossetti's young connection, +Oliver Madox Brown, who wrote _Gabriel Denver_ (otherwise _The Black +Swan_) at seventeen years of age. I mentioned the indiscreet remark of +a friend who said that Oliver had enough genius to stock a good few +Chattertons, and thereupon Rossetti sent me the following outburst: + + You must take care to be on the right tack about Chatterton. + I am very glad to find the gifted Oliver M. B. already an + embryo classic, as I always said he would be; but those who + compare net results in such cases as his and Chatterton's + cannot know what criticism means. The nett results of + advancing epochs, however permanent on accumulated + foundation-work, are the poorest of all tests as to relative + values. Oliver was the product of the most teeming hot-beds + of art and literature, and even of compulsory addiction to + the art of painting, in which nevertheless he was rapidly + becoming as much a proficient as in literature. What he + would have been if, like the ardent and heroic Chatterton, + he had had to fight a single-handed battle for art and bread + together against merciless mediocrity in high places,--what + he would _then_ have become, I cannot in the least + calculate; but we know what Chatterton became. Moreover, C. + at his death, was two years younger than Oliver--a whole + lifetime of advancement at that age frequently--indeed + always I believe in leading cases. There are few indeed whom + the facile enthusiasm for contemporary models does not + deaden to the truly balanced claims of successful efforts in + art. However, look at Watts's remodelled extracts when the + vol comes out, and also at what he says in detail as to + Chatterton, Coleridge, and Keats. + +Of course Rossetti was right in what he said of comparative criticism +when brought to bear in such cases as those of Chatterton and Oliver +Madox Brown. Net results are certainly the poorest tests of relative +values where the work done belongs to periods of development. We cannot, +however, see or know any man except through and in his work, and net +results must usually be accepted as the only concrete foundation for +judging of the quality of his genius. Such judgment will always be +influenced, nevertheless, by considerations such as Rossetti mentions. +Touching Chatterton's development, it were hardly rash to say that it +appears incredible that the _African Eclogues_ should have been written +by a boy of seventeen, and, in judging of their place in poetry, one is +apt to be influenced by one's first feeling of amazement. Is it possible +that the Rowley poems may owe much of their present distinction to the +early astonishment that a boy should have written them, albeit they have +great intrinsic excellencies such as may insure them a high place when +the romance, intertwined with their history, has been long forgotten? +But Chatterton is more talked of than read, and this has been so from +the first. The antiques are all but unknown; certain of the acknowledged +poems are remembered, and regarded as fervid and vigorous, and many of +the lesser pieces are thought slight, weak, and valueless. People do not +measure the poorer things in Chatterton with his time and opportunities, +or they would see only amazing strength and knowledge of the world in +all he did. Those lesser pieces were many of them dashed off to answer +the calls of necessity, to flatter the egotism of a troublesome friend, +or to wile away a moment of vacancy. Certainly they must not be set +against his best efforts. As for Chatterton's life, the tragedy of it +is perhaps the most moving example of what Coleridge might have +termed the material pathetic. Pathetic, however, as his life was, and +marvellous as was his genius, I miss in him the note of personal purity +and majesty of character. I told Rossetti that, in my view, Chatterton +lacked sincerity, and on this point he wrote: + + I must protest finally about Chatterton, that he lacks + nothing because lacking the gradual growth of the emotional + in literature which becomes evident in Keats--still less its + excess, which would of course have been pruned, in Oliver. + The finest of the Rowley poems--_Eclogues, Ballad of + Charity, etc_., rank absolutely with the finest poetry in + the language, and gain (not lose) by moderation. As to what + you say of C.'s want of political sincerity (for I cannot + see to what other want you can allude), surely a boy up to + eighteen may be pardoned for exercising his faculty if he + happens to be the one among millions who can use grown men + as his toys. He was an absolute and untarnished hero, but + for that reckless defying vaunt. Certainly that most + vigorous passage commencing-- + + "Interest, thou universal God of men," etc. + + reads startlingly, and comes in a questionable shape. What + is the answer to its enigmatical aspect? Why, that he + _meant_ it, and that all would mean it at his age, who had + his power, his daring, and his hunger. Still it does, + perhaps, make one doubt whether his early death were well or + ill for him. In the matter of Oliver (whom no one + appreciates more than I do), remember that it was impossible + to have more opportunities than _he_ had, or on the other + side _fewer_ than Chatterton had. Chatterton at seventeen or + less said-- + + "Flattery's a cloak, and I will put it on." + +Blake (probably late in life) said-- + + "Innocence is a winter gown." + + ... I _have_ read the Chatterton article in the review + mentioned. If Watts had done it, it would have been + immeasurably better. There seems to me, who am very well up + in Chatterton, no point whatever made in the article. Why + does no one ever even allude to the two attributed portraits + of Chatterton--one belonging to Sir H. Taylor, and the other + in the Salford Museum? Both seem to be the same person + clearly, and a good find for Chatterton, but not conceivably + done from him. Nevertheless, I _suspect_ there may be a + sidelong genuineness in them. Chatterton was acquainted with + one Alcock, a miniature painter at Bristol, to whom he + addressed a poem. Had A. painted C. it would be among the + many recorded facts; but it would be singular even if, in + C.'s rapid posthumous fame, A. had never been asked to make + a reminiscent likeness of him. Prom such likeness by the + miniature painter these _portraits might_ derive--both being + life-sized oil heads. There is a savour of Keats in them, + though a friend, taking up the younger-looking of the two, + said it reminded him of Jack Sheppard! And not such a bad + Chatterton-compound either! But I begin to think I have said + all this before.... Oliver, or "Nolly," as he was always + called, was a sort of spread-eagle likeness of his handsome + father, with a conical head like Walter Scott. I must + confess to you, that, in this world of books, the only one + of his I have read, is _Gabriel Denver_, afterwards + reprinted in its original and superior form as _The Black + Swan_, but published with the former title in his lifetime. + +Rossetti formed no such philosophic estimate of Chatterton's +contribution to the romantic movement in English poetry as has been +formulated in the essay in Ward's _Poets_. A critic, in the sense of one +possessed of a natural gift of analysis, Rossetti assuredly! was not. No +man's instinct for what is good in poetry was ever swifter or surer than +that of Rossetti. You might always distrust your judgment if you +found it at variance with his where abstract power and beauty were in +question. Sooner or later you would inevitably find yourself gravitating +to his view. But here Rossetti's function as a critic ended. His was +at best only the criticism of the creator. Of the gift of ultimate +classification he had none, and never claimed to have any, although now +and again (as where he says that Chatterton was the day-spring of +modern romantic poetry), he seems to give sign of a power of critical +synthesis. + +Rossetti's interest in Blake, both as poet and painter, dates back to +an early period of his life. I have heard him say that at sixteen or +seventeen years of age he was already one of Blake's warmest admirers, +and at the time in question, 1845, the author of the _Songs of +Innocence_ had not many readers to uphold him. About four years later, +Rossetti made an exceptionally lucky discovery, for he then found in +the possession of Mr. Palmer, an attendant at the British Museum, an +original manuscript scrap-book of Blake's, containing a great body of +unpublished poetry and many interesting designs, as well as three or +four remarkably effective profile sketches of the author himself. The +Mr. Palmer who held the little book was a relative of the landscape +painter of the same name, who was Blake's friend, and hence the +authenticity of the manuscript was ascertainable on other grounds than +the indisputable ones of its internal evidences. The book was offered to +Rossetti for ten shillings, but the young enthusiast was at the time a +student of art, and not much in the way of getting or spending even +so inconsiderable a sum. He told me, however, that at this period his +brother William, who was, unlike himself, engaged in some reasonably +profitable occupation, was at all times nothing loath to advance small +sums for the purchase of such literary or other treasures as he used +to hunt up out of obscure corners: by his help the Blake manuscript was +bought, and proved for years a source of infinite pleasure and profit, +resulting, as it did, in many very important additions to Blake +literature when Gilchrist's _Life and Works_ of that author came to be +published. It is an interesting fact, mention of which ought not to +be omitted, that at the sale of Rossetti's library, which took place +a little while after his decease, the scrap-book acquired in the way I +describe was sold for one hundred and five guineas. + +The sum was a large one, but the little book was undoubtedly the most +valuable literary relic of Blake then extant. About the time when a new +edition of Gilchrist's _Life_ was in the press, Rossetti wrote: + + My evenings have been rather trenched upon lately by helping + Mrs. Gilchrist with a new edition of the _Life of Blake_.... + I don't know if you go in much for him. The new edition of + the _Life_ will include a good number of additional letters + (from Blake to Hayley), and some addition (though not great) + to my own share in the work; as well as much important + carrying-on of my brother's catalogue of Blake's works. The + illustrations will, I trust, receive valuable additions + also, but publishers are apt to be cautious in such + expenses. I am writing late at night, to fill up a fag-end + of bedtime, and shall write again on this head. + +Rossetti's "own share" in this work consisted of the writing of the +supplementary chapter (left by Gilchrist, with one or two unimportant +passages merely, at the beginning), and the editing of the poems. When +there arose, subsequently, some idea of my reviewing the book, Rossetti +wrote me the following letter, full of disinterested solicitude: + + You will be quite delighted with an essay on Blake by Jas. + Smetham, which occurs in vol ii.; it is a noble thing; and + at the stupendous design called _Plague_ (vol. i.). I have + extracted a passage properly belonging to the same essay, + which is as fine as English _can_ be, and which I am sorry + to perceive (I think) that Mrs. G. has omitted from the body + of the essay because quoted in another place. This essay is + no less than a masterpiece. I wrote the supplementary + chapter (vol. i.), except a few opening paragraphs by + Gilchrist,--and in it have now made some mention of Smetham, + an old and dear friend of mine. + + You will admire Shields's paper on the wonderful series of + Young's _Night Thoughts_. My brother and I both helped in + this new edition, but I added little to what I had done + before. I brought forward a portentous series of passages + about one "Scofield" in Blake's _Jerusalem_, but did not + otherwise write that chapter, except as regards the + illustrations. However, don't mention what I have done (in + case you write on the subject) except so far as the indices + show it, and of course I don't wish to be put forward at + all. What I do wish is, that you should say everything that + can be gratifying to Mrs. G. as to her husband's work. There + is a plate of Blake's Cottage by young Gilchrist which is + truly excellent. + +As I have already said, Rossetti traversed the bypaths of English +literature (particularly of English poetry) as few can ever have +traversed them. A favourite work with him was Gilfillan's _Less-Read +British Poets_, a copy of which had been presented by Miss Boyd. He +says: + + Did you ever read Christopher Smart's _Song to David_, the + only great _accomplished_ poem of the last century? The + accomplished ones are Chatterton's,--of course I mean + earlier than Blake or Coleridge, and without reckoning so + exceptional a genius as Burns.... You will find Smart's poem + a masterpiece of rich imagery, exhaustive resources, and + reverberant sound. It is to be met with in Gilfillan's + _Specimens of the Less-Read British Poets_ (3 vols. Nichol, + Edin., 1860).... + + I remember your mentioning Gilfillan as having encouraged + your first efforts. He was powerful, though sometimes rather + "tall" as a writer, generally most just as a critic, and + lastly, a much better man, intellectually and morally, than + Aytoun, who tried to "do for" him. His notice of Swift, in + the volume in question, has very great force and eloquence. + His whole edition of the _British Poets_ is the best of any + to read, being such fine type and convenient bulk and weight + (a great thing for an arm-chair reader). Unfortunately, he + now and then (in the _Less-Read Poets_) cuts down the + extracts almost to nothing, and in some cases excises + objectionabilities, which is unpardonable. Much better leave + the whole out. Also, the edition includes the usual array of + nobodies--Addison, Akenside, and the whole alphabet down to + Zany and Zero; whereas a great many of the _less-read_ would + have been much-read by every worthy reader if they had only + been printed in full. So well printed an edition of Donne + (for instance) would have been a great boon; but from him + Gilfillan only gives (among the _less-read_) the admirable + _Progress of the Soul_ and some of the pregnant _Holy + Sonnets_. Do you know Donne? There is hardly an English poet + better worth a thorough knowledge, in spite of his provoking + conceits and occasional jagged jargon. + + The following paragraph on Whitehead is valuable: + + Charles Whitehead's principal poem is _The Solitary_, which + in its day had admirers. It perhaps most recalls Goldsmith. + He also wrote a supernatural poem called _Ippolito_. There + was a volume of his poems published about 1848, or perhaps a + little later, by Bentley. It is disappointing, on the whole, + from the decided superiority of its best points to the + rest.... But the novel of _Richard Savage_ is very + remarkable,--a real character really worked out. + +To aid me in certain researches I was at the time engaged in making in +the back-numbers of almost forgotten periodicals, Rossetti wrote: + + The old _Monthly Mag._ was the precursor of the _New + Monthly_, which started about 1830, or thereabouts I think, + after which the old one ailed, but went on till fatal old + Heraud finished it off by editing it, and fairly massacred + that elderly innocent. You speak, in a former letter + (touching the continuation of _Christabel_), of "a certain + European magazine." Are you aware that it was as old a thing + as _The Gentleman's_, and went on _ad infinitum?_ Other such + were the _Universal Magazine, the Scots' Magazine_--all + endless in extent and beginning time out of mind,--to say + nothing of the _Ladies' Magazine and Wits' Magazine_. Then + there was the _Annual Register_. All these are quarters in + which you might prosecute researches, and might happen to + find something about Keats. _The Monthly Magazine_ must have + commenced almost as early, I believe. I cannot help thinking + there was a similar _Imperial Magazine_. + +The following letter possesses an interest independent of its subject, +which to me, however, is interest enough. Mr. William Watson had sent +Rossetti a copy of a volume of poems he had just published, and +had received a letter in acknowledgment, wherein our friend, with +characteristic appreciativeness, said many cordial words of it: + + Your young friend Watson [he said in a subsequent letter] + wrote me in a very modest mood for one who can do as he can + at his age. I think I must have hurriedly mis-expressed + myself in writing to him, as he seems to think I wished to + dissuade him from following narrative poetry. Not in the + least--I only wished him to try his hand at clearer dramatic + life. The dreamy romantic really hardly needs more than one + vast Morris in a literature--at any rate in a century. Not + that I think him derivable from Morris--he goes straight + back to Keats with a little modification. The narrative, + whether condensed or developed, is at any rate a far better + impersonal form to work in than declamatory harangue, + whether calling on the stars or the Styx. I don't know in + the least how Watson is faring with the critics. He must not + be discouraged, in any case, with his real and high gifts. + +The young poet, in whom Rossetti saw so much to applaud, can scarcely be +said to have fared at all at the hands of the critics. + +Here is a pleasant piece of literary portraiture, as valuable from the +peep it affords into Rossetti's own character as from the description it +gives of the rustic poet: + + The other evening I had the pleasant experience of meeting + one to whom I have for about two years looked with interest + as a poet of the native rustic kind, but often of quite a + superior order. I don't know if you noticed, somewhere about + the date referred to, in _The Athenaeum_, a review of poems + by Joseph Skipsey. Skip-sey has exquisite--though, as in all + such cases (except of course Burns's) not equal--powers in + several directions, but his pictures of humble life are the + best. He is a working miner, and describes rustic loves and + sports, and the perils and pathos of pit-life with great + charm, having a quiet humour too when needed. His more + ambitious pieces have solid merit of feeling, but are much + less artistic. The other night, as I say, he came here, and + I found him a stalwart son of toil, and every inch a + gentleman. In cast of face he recalls Tennyson somewhat, + though more bronzed and brawned. He is as sweet and gentle + as a woman in manner, and recited some beautiful things of + his own with a special freshness to which one is quite + unaccustomed. + +Mr. Skipsey was a miner of North Shields, and in the review referred to +much was made, in a delicate way, of his stern environments. His volume +of lyrics is marked by the quiet humour. Rossetti speaks of, as well as +by a rather exasperating inequality. Perhaps the best piece in it is a +poem entitled _Thistle and Nettle_, treating with peculiar freshness of +a country courtship. The coming together of two such entirely opposite +natures was certainly curious, and only to be accounted for on the +ground of Rossetti's breadth of poetic sympathy. It would be interesting +to hear what the impressions were of such a rude son of toil upon +meeting with one whose life must have seemed the incarnation of artistic +luxury and indulgence. Later on I received the following: + + Poor Skipsey! He has lost the friend who brought him to + London only the other day (T. Dixon), and who was his only + hold on intellectual life in his district. Dixon died + immediately on his return to the North, of a violent attack + of asthma to which he was subject. He was a rarely pure and + simple soul, and is doubtless gone to higher uses, though + few could have reached, with his small opportunities, to + such usefulness as he compassed here. He was Ruskin's + correspondent in a little book called (I think) _Work by + Tyne and Wear_. I got a very touching note from Skipsey on + the subject. + +From Mr. Skipsey he received a letter only a little while before his +death, and to him he addressed one of the last epistles he penned. + +The following letter explains itself, and is introduced as much for +the sake of the real humour which it displays, as because it affords an +excellent idea of Rossetti's view of the true function of prose: + + I don't like your Shakspeare article quite as well as the + first _Supernatural_ one, or rather I should say it does not + greatly add to it in my (first) view, though both might gain + by embodiment in one. I think there is _some_ truth in the + charge of metaphysical involution--the German element as I + should call it--and surely you are strong enough to be + English pure and simple. I am sure I could write 100 essays, + on all possible subjects (I once did project a series under + the title, _Essays written in the intervals of + Elephantiasis, Hydro-phobia, and Penal Servitude_), without + once experiencing the "aching void" which is filled by such + words as "mythopoeic," and "anthropomorphism." I do not find + life long enough to know in the least what they mean. They + are both very long and very ugly indeed--the latter only + suggesting to me a Vampire or Somnambulant Cannibal. (To + speak rationally, would not "man-evolved Godhead" be an + _English_ equivalent?) "Euhemeristic" also found me somewhat + on my beam-ends, though explanation is here given; yet I + felt I could do without Euhemerus; and _you_ perhaps without + the _humerous_. You can pardon me now; for _so_ bad a pun + places me at your mercy indeed. But seriously, simple + English in prose writing and in all narrative poetry + (however monumental language may become in abstract verse) + seems to me a treasure not to be foregone in favour of + German innovations. I know Coleridge went in latterly for as + much Germanism as his time could master; but his best genius + had then left him. + +It seems necessary to mention that I lectured in 1880, on the relation +of politics to art, and in printing the lecture I asked Rossetti to +accept the dedication of it, but this he declined to do in the generous +terms I have already referred to. The letter that accompanied his +graceful refusal is, however, so full of interesting personal matter +that I offer it in this place, with no further explanation than that my +essay was designed to show that just as great artists in past ages +had participated in political struggles, so now they should not hold +themselves aloof from controversies which immediately concern them: + + I must admit, at all hazards, that my friends here consider + me exceptionally averse to politics; and I suppose I must + be, for I never read a parliamentary debate in my life! At + the same time I will add that, among those whose opinions I + most value, some think me not altogether wrong when I + venture to speak of the momentary momentousness and eternal + futility of many noisiest questions. However, you must + simply view me as a nonentity in any practical relation to + such matters. You have spoken but too generously of a sonnet + of mine in your lecture just received. I have written a few + others of the sort (which by-the-bye would not prove me a + Tory), but felt no vocation--perhaps no right---to print + them. I have always reproached myself as sorely amenable to + the condemnations of a very fine poem by Barberino, _On + Sloth against Sin_, which I translated in the Dante volume. + Sloth, alas! has but too much to answer for with me; and is + one of the reasons (though I will not say the only one), why + I have always fallen back on quality instead of quantity in + the little I have ever done. I think often with Coleridge: + + Sloth jaundiced all: and from my graspless hand + Drop friendship's precious pearls like hour-glass sand. + I weep, yet stoop not: the faint anguish flows, + A dreamy pang in morning's feverish doze. + + However, for all I might desire in the direction spoken of, + volition is vain without vocation; and I had better really + stick to knowing how to mix vermilion and ultramarine for a + flesh-grey, and how to manage their equivalents in verse. To + speak without sparing myself,--my mind is a childish one, if + to be isolated in Art is child's-play; at any rate I feel + that I do not attain to the more active and practical of the + mental functions of manhood. I can say this to you, because + I know you will make the best and not the worst of me; and + better than such feasible best I do not wish to appear. Thus + you see I don't think my name ought to head your + introductory paragraph--and there an end. And now of your + new lecture, and of the long letter I lately had from you. + At some moment I should like to know which pieces among the + translations are specially your favourites. Of the three + names you leash together as somewhat those of sensualists, + Cecco Angiolieri is really the only one--as for the + respectable Cino, he would be shocked indeed, though + certainly there are a few oddities bearing that way in the + sonnets between him and Dante (who is again similarly + reproached by his friend Cavalcanti), but I really _do_ + suspect that in some cases similar to the one in question + about Cino (though not Guido and Dante) politics were really + meant where love was used as a metaphor.... I assure you, + you cannot say too much to me of this or any other work of + yours; in fact, I wish that we should communicate about + them. I have been thinking yet more on the relations of + politics and art. I do think seriously on consideration that + not only my own sluggishness, but vital fact itself, must + set to a great extent a _veto_ against the absolute + participation of artists in politics. When has it ever been + effected? True, Cellini was a bravo and David a good deal + like a murderer, and in these capacities they were not + without their political use in very turbulent times. But + when the attempt was made to turn Michael Angelo into a + "utility man" of that kind, he did (it is true) some + patriotic duty in the fortification of Florence; but it is + no less a fact that, when he had done all that he thought + became him, he retired to a certain trackless and forgotten + tower, and there stayed in some sort of peace (though much + in request) till he could lead his own life again; nor + should we forget the occasion on which he did not hesitate + even to betake himself to Venice as a refuge. Yet M. Angelo + was in every way a patriot, a philosopher, and a hero. I do + not say this to undervalue the scope of your theory. I think + possibilities are generally so much behind desirabilities + that there is no harm in any degree of incitement in the + right _direction_; and that is assuredly mental activity of + _all_ kinds. I judge you cannot suspect _me_ of thinking the + apotheosis of the early Italian poets (though surely + spiritual beauty, and not sensuality, was their general aim) + of more importance than the "unity of a great nation." But + it is in my minute power to deal successfully (I feel) with + the one, while no such entity, as I am, can advance or + retard the other; and thus mine must needs be the poorer + part. Nor (with alas, and again alas!) will Italy or another + twice have her day in its fulness. + +I happened to have said in speaking of self-indulgence among artists, +that there probably existed those to whom it seemed more important to +preserve such a pitiful possession as the poetical remains of Cecco +Angiolieri than to secure the unity of a great nation. Rossetti half +suspected I meant this for a playful backhanded blow at himself (for +Cecco was a great favourite with him), and protested that no such +individual could exist. I defended my charge by quoting Keats's-- + + ... the silver flow + Of Hero's tears, the swoon of Imogen, + Fair Pastorella in the bandit's den, + Are things to brood on with more ardency + Than the death-day of empires. + +But Rossetti grew weary of the jest: + + I must protest that what you quote from Keats about "Hero's + tears," etc., fails to meet the text. Neither Shakspeare nor + Spenser assuredly was a Cecco; Marlowe may be most meant as + to "Hero," and he perhaps affords the shadow of a parallel + in career though not in work. + +The extract from Rosetti's letters with which I shall close this chapter +is perhaps the most interesting yet made: + + One point I must still raise, viz., that I, for one, cannot + conceive, even as the Ghost of a Flea, the ideal individual + who considers the Poetical Remains of Cecco Angiolieri of + more importance than the unity of a great nation! I think + this would have been better if much modified. Say for + instance--"A thing of some moment even while the contest is + waging for the political unity of a great nation." This is + the utmost reach surely of human comparative valuation. I + think you have brought in Benvenuto and Michael much to the + purpose. Shall I give you a parallel in your own style? + + During the months for which poet Coleridge became private + Cumberback (a name in which he said his horse would have + concurred), it seems strange that, in such stirring times, + his regiment should not have been ordered off on foreign + service. In such case that pre-eminent member of the awkward + squad would assuredly have been the very first man killed. + Should we have been more the gainers by his patriotism or + the losers by his poetry? The very last man killed in the + last _sortie_ from Paris during the Prussian siege (he + _would_ go behind a buttress to "pot" a Prussian after + orders were given to retire, and so got "potted" himself) + was Henri Regnault, a painter, whose brilliant work was a + guiding beacon on the road of improvement in French methods + of art, if not in intellectual force. Who shall fail to + honour the noble ardour which drew him from the security of + his studies in Tunis to partake his country's danger? Yet + who shall forbear to sigh in thinking that, but for this, + his progressing work might still yearly be an element in + art-progress for Europe? Gerome and others betook themselves + to England instead, and are still benefiting the cause for + which they were before all things born. It was David who + said, "Si on tirait a mitraille sur les artistes, on n'y + tuerait pas un seul patriote!" _He_ was a patriot homicide, + and spoke probably what was true in the sense in which he + meant it. As I said, I am glad you turned Ben and Mike to + account, but the above is in some respects an open question. + +I have, as I say, a further batch of letters to introduce, but as these +were, for the most part, written after an event which forms a land-mark +in our acquaintance (I mean the occasion of our first meeting), I judge +it is best to reserve them for a later section of this book. There are +two forms, and, so far as I know, two only, in which a body of letters +can be published with justice to the writer. Of these the first and most +obvious form is to offer them chronologically _in extenso_ or with only +such eliminations as seem inevitable, and the second is to tabulate them +according to subject-matter, and print them in the order not of date but +substance. There are advantages attending each method, and corresponding +disadvantages also. The temptation to adopt the first of these was, in +this case of Rossetti's letters, almost insurmountable, for nothing can +be more charming in epistolary style than the easy grace with which the +writer passes from point to point, evolving one idea out of another, +interlinking subject with subject, and building up a fabric of which the +meaning is everywhere inwoven. In this respect Rossetti's letters are +almost as perfect as anything that ever left his hand; and, in freedom +of phrase, in power of throwing off parenthetical reflections always +faultlessly enunciated, in play of humour, often in eloquence (never +becoming declamatory, and calling on "Styx or Stars"), sometimes +in pathos, Rossetti's letters are, in a word, admirable. They +are comparable in these respects with the best things yet done in +English,--as pleasing and graceful as Cowper's letters, broader in range +of subject than the letters of Keats, easier and more colloquial than +those of Coleridge, and with less appearance of being intended for the +public eye than is the case with the letters of Byron and of Shelley. +Rossetti's letters have, moreover, a value quite apart from the merits +of their epistolary style, in so far as they contain almost the only +expression extant of his opinions on literary questions. And this is +the circumstance that has chiefly weighed with me to offer them +in fragmentary form interspersed with elucidatory comment bearing +principally upon the occasions that called them forth. + +Such then as I have described was the nature of my intercourse with +Rossetti during the first year and a half of our correspondence, and now +the time had come when I was to meet my friend for the first time face +to face. The elasticity of sympathy by which a man of genius, surrounded +by constant friends, could yet bend to a new-comer who was a stranger +and twenty-five years his junior, and think and feel with him; the +generous appreciativeness by which he could bring himself to consider +the first efforts of one quite unknown; and then the unselfishness that +seemed always to prefer the claims of others to his own great claims, +could command only the return of unqualified allegiance. Such were the +feelings with which I went forth to my first meeting with Rossetti, and +if at any later date, the ardour of my regard for him in any measure +suffered modification, be sure when the time comes to touch upon it I +shall make no more concealment of the causes that led to such a change +than I have made of those circumstances, however personal in primary +interest, that generated a friendship so unusual and to me so serious +and important. + + + + +CHAPTER VII. + +It was in the autumn of 1880 that I saw Rossetti for the first time. +Being then rather reduced in health I contemplated a visit to the +sea-side and wrote saying that in passing through London I should avail +myself of his oft-repeated invitation to visit him. I gave him this +warning of my intention, remembering his declared dread of being taken +unawares, but I came to know at a subsequent period that for one who was +within the inner circle of his friends the necessity to advise him of +a visit was by no means binding. His reception of my intimation of an +intention to call upon him was received with an amount of epistolary +ceremony which I recognise now by the light of further acquaintance as +eminently characteristic of the man, although curiously contradictory of +his unceremonious habits of daily life. The fact is that Rossetti was +of an excessively nervous temperament, and rarely if ever underwent an +ordeal more trying than a first meeting with any one to whom for some +time previously he had looked forward with interest. Hence by return of +the post that bore him my missive came two letters, the one obviously +written and posted within an hour or two of the other. In the first of +these he expressed courteously his pleasure at the prospect of seeing +me, and appointed 8.30 p.m. the following evening as his dinner hour at +his house in Cheyne Walk. The second letter begged me to come at 5.30 or +6 p.m., so that we might have a long evening. "You will, I repeat," he +says, "recognise the hole-and-cornerest of all existences in this big +barn of mine; but come early and I shall read you some ballads, and +we can talk of many things." An hour later than the arrival of these +letters came a third epistle, which ran: "Of course when I speak of your +dining with me, I mean tete-a-tete and without ceremony of any kind. I +usually dine in my studio and in my painting coat!" I had before me a +five hours' journey to London, so that in order to reach Chelsea at 6 +P.M., I must needs set out at mid-day, but oblivious of this necessity, +Rossetti had actually posted a fourth letter on the morning of the day +on which we were to meet begging me not on any account to talk, in the +course of our interview, of a certain personal matter upon which we had +corresponded. This fourth and final message came to hand the morning +after the meeting, when I had the satisfaction to reflect that (owing +more perhaps to the plethora of other subjects of interest than to any +suspicion of its being tabooed) I had luckily eschewed the proscribed +topic. + +Cheyne Walk was unknown to me at the time in question, except as the +locality in and near which many men and women eminent in literature +resided. It seems hard to realise that this was the case as recently as +two years ago, now that so short an interval has associated it in one's +mind with memories which seem to cover a large part of one's life. The +Walk is not now exactly as picturesque as it appears in certain familiar +old engravings; the new embankment and the gardens that separate it from +the main thoroughfare have taken something from its beauty, but it still +possesses many attractions, and among them a look of age which contrasts +agreeably with the spic-and-span newness of neighbouring places. I found +Rossetti's house, No. 16, answering in external appearances to the frank +description he gave of it. It stands about mid-way between the Chelsea +pier and the new redbrick mansions erected on the Chelsea embankment. +It seems to be the oldest house in the Walk, and the exceptional +proportions of its gate-piers, and the weight and mass of its gate and +railings, suggests that probably at some period it stood alone, and +commanded as grounds a large part of the space now occupied by the +adjoining residences. Behind the house, during eighteen years of +Rossetti's occupancy, there was a garden of almost an acre in extent, +covering by much the larger part of the space enclosed by a block of +four streets forming a square. At No. 4 Maclise had lived and died; at +the same house George Eliot, after her marriage with Mr. Cross, had come +to live; at No. 5, in the second street to the westward, Thomas Carlyle +was still living, and a little beyond Cheyne Row stood the modest +cottage wherein Turner died. Rossetti's house had to me the appearance +of a plain Queen Anne erection, much mutilated by the introduction of +unsightly bay-windows; the brickwork seemed to be falling into decay; +the paint to be in serious need of renewal; the windows to be dull with +the accumulation of the dust of years; the sills to bear the suspicion +of cobwebs; the angles of the steps and the untrodden flags of the +courtyard to be here and there overgrown with moss and weeds; and round +the walls and up the reveals of doors and windows were creeping the +tangled branches of the wildest ivy that ever grew untouched by shears. +Such was the exterior of the home of the poet-painter when I walked up +to it on the autumn evening of my first visit, and the interior of the +house was at once like and unlike the exterior. The hall had a puzzling +look of equal nobility and shabbiness. The floor was paved with +beautiful white marble, which however, was partly covered with a strip +of worn cocoa-nut matting; the ceiling was in one of its sections +gracefully groined, and in each of the walls, which were lofty, there +was an arched recess containing a piece of sculpture; an old inlaid +rosewood clock filled a bulkhead on one side facing the door, and on the +corresponding side stood a massive gas branch. A mezzotint lithograph by +Legros was the only pictorial decoration of the walls, which were plain, +and seemed not to have been distempered for many years. Three doors led +out of the hall, one at each side, and one in front, and two corridors +opened into it, but there was no sign of staircase, nor had it any light +except such as was borrowed from the fanlight that looked into the +porch. These facts I noted in the few minutes I stood waiting in the +hall, but during the many months in which subsequently that house was my +own home as well as Rossetti's, I came to see that the changes which the +building must have undergone since the period of its erection, had so +filled it with crooks and corners as to bewilder the most ingenious +observer to account for its peculiarities. + +Very soon Rossetti came to me through the doorway in front, which proved +to be the entrance to his studio. Holding forth both hands and crying +'Hulloa,' he gave me that cheery, hearty greeting which I came to +recognise as his alone, perhaps, in warmth and unfailing geniality among +all the men of our circle. It was Italian in its spontaneity, and yet it +was English in its manly reserve, and I remember with much tenderness of +feeling that never to the last (not even when sickness saddened him, +or after an absence of a few days or even hours) did it fail him when +meeting with those friends to whom to the last he was really attached. +Leading the way into the studio, he introduced me to his brother, who +was there upon one of the evening visits, which at intervals of a week +he was at that time making, with unfailing regularity. I should have +described Rossetti, at this time, as a man who looked quite ten years +older than his actual age, which was fifty-two, of full middle height +and inclining to corpulence, with a round face that ought, one thought, +to be ruddy but was pale, large grey eyes with a steady introspecting +look, surmounted by broad protrusive brows and a clearly-pencilled ridge +over the nose, which was well cut and had large breathing nostrils. The +mouth and chin were hidden beneath a heavy moustache and abundant beard, +which grew up to the ears, and had been of a mixed black-brown and +auburn, and were now streaked with grey. The forehead was large, round, +without protuberances, and very gently receding to where thin black +curls, that had once been redundant, began to tumble down to the ears. +The entire configuration of the head and face seemed to me singularly +noble, and from the eyes upwards, full of beauty. He wore a pair of +spectacles, and, in reading, a second pair over the first: but these +took little from the sense of power conveyed by those steady eyes, +and that "bar of Michael Angelo." His dress was not conspicuous, being +however rather negligent than otherwise, and noticeable, if at all, only +for a straight sack-coat buttoned at the throat, descending at least to +the knees, and having large pockets cut into it perpendicularly at the +sides. This garment was, I afterwards found, one of the articles of +various kinds made to the author's own design. When he spoke, even in +exchanging the preliminary courtesies of an opening conversation, I +thought his voice the richest I had ever known any one to possess. +It was a full deep barytone, capable of easy modulation, and with +undertones of infinite softness and sweetness, yet, as I afterwards +found, with almost illimitable compass, and with every gradation of tone +at command, for the recitation or reading of poetry. The studio was a +large room probably measuring thirty feet by twenty, and structurally as +puzzling as the other parts of the house. A series of columns and arches +on one side suggested that the room had almost certainly been at some +period the site of an important staircase with a wide well, and on the +other side a broad mullioned window reaching to the ceiling, seemed +certainly to bear record of the occupant's own contribution to the +peculiarities of the edifice. The fireplace was at an end of the room, +and over and at each side of it were hung a number of fine drawings +in chalk, chiefly studies of heads, with here and there a water-colour +figure piece, all from Rossetti's hand. At the opposite end of the room +hung some symbolic designs in chalk, _Pandora_ and _Proserpina_ being +among the number, and easels of various sizes, some very large, bearing +pictures in differing stages of completion, occupied positions on +all sides of the floor, leaving room only for a sofa, with a bookcase +behind, two old cabinets, two large low easy chairs, and a writing desk +and chair at a window at the side, which was heavily darkened by the +thick foliage of the trees that grew in the garden beyond. + +Dropping down on the sofa with his head laid low and his feet thrown up +in a favourite attitude on the back, which must, I imagine, have been at +least as easy as it was elegant, he began the conversation by bantering +me upon what he called my "robustious" appearance compared with what he +had been led to expect from gloomy reports of uncertain health. After a +series of playful touches (all done in the easiest conceivable way, +and conveying any impression on earth save the right one, that a first +meeting with any man, however young and harmless, was little less than a +tragic event to Rossetti) he glanced one by one at certain of the topics +that had arisen in the course of our correspondence. I perceived that he +was a ready, fluent, and graceful talker, with a remarkable incisiveness +of speech, and a trick of dignifying ordinary topics in words which, +without rising above conversation, were so exactly, though freely +enunciated, as would have admitted of their being reported exactly as +they fell from his lips. In some of these respects I found his brother +William resemble him, though, if I may describe the talk of a dead +friend by contrasting it with that of a living one bearing a natural +affinity to it, I will say that Gabriel's conversation was perhaps more +spontaneous, and had more variety of tone with less range of subject, +together with the same precision and perspicuity. Very soon the talk +became general, and then Rossetti spoke without appearance of reserve +of his two or three intimate friends, telling me, among other things, +of Theodore Watts, that he "had a head exactly like that of Napoleon I., +whom Watts," he said with a chuckle, "detests more than any character +in history; depend upon it," he added, "such a head was not given to him +for nothing;" that Frederick Shields was as emotional as Shelley, and +Ford Madox Brown, whom I had met, as sententious as Dr. Johnson. I kept +no sort of record of what passed upon the occasion in question, but I +remember that Rossetti seemed to be playfully battering his friends in +their absence in the assured consciousness that he was doing so in the +presence of a well-wisher; and it was amusing to observe that, after any +particularly lively sally, he would pause to say something in a sobered +tone that was meant to convey the idea that he was really very jealous +of his friends' reputation, and was merely for the sake of amusement +giving rein to a sportive fancy. During dinner (and contrary to his +declared habit, we did not dine in the studio) he talked a good deal +about Oliver Madox Brown, for whom I had conceived a warm admiration, +and to whom I had about that time addressed a sonnet. + +"You had a sincere admiration of the boy's gifts?" I asked. + +"Assuredly. I have always said that twenty years after his death his +name will be a familiar one. _The Black Swan_ is a powerful story, +although I must honestly say that it displays in its central incident a +certain torpidity that to me is painful. Undoubtedly Oliver had genius, +and must have done great things had he lived. His death was a grievous +blow to his father. I'm glad you've written that sonnet; I wanted you to +toss up your cap for Nolly." He spoke of Oliver's father as indisputably +one of the greatest of living colourists, inquired earnestly into the +progress of his frescoes at Manchester, for one of the figures in which +I had sat, and showed me a little water-colour drawing made by Oliver +himself when very young. Dinner being now over, I asked Rossetti to +redeem his promise to read one of his new ballads; and as his brother, +who had often heard it before, expressed his readiness to hear it again, +he responded readily, and, taking a small manuscript volume out of a +section of the bookcase that had been locked, read us _The White Ship_. +I have spoken of the ballad as a poem at an earlier stage, but it +remains to me, in this place, to describe the effect produced upon me by +the author's reading. It seemed to me that I never heard anything at all +matchable with Rossetti's elocution; his rich deep voice lent an added +music to the music of the verse: it rose and fell in the passages +descriptive of the wreck with something of the surge and sibilation of +the sea itself; in the tenderer passages it was soft as a woman's, and +in the pathetic stanzas with which the ballad closes it was profoundly +moving. Effective as the reading sounded in that studio, I remember at +the moment to have doubted if it would prove quite so effective from a +public platform. Perhaps there seemed to be so much insistence on the +rhythm, and so prolonged a tension of the rhyme sounds, as would run +the risk of a charge of monotony if falling on ears less concerned with +points of metrical beauty than with fundamental substance. Personally, +however, I found the reading in the very highest degree enjoyable and +inspiring. + +The evening was gone by the time the ballad was ended; and it was +arranged that upon my return to London from the house of a friend at +the sea-side I should again dine with Rossetti, and sleep the night +at Cheyne Walk. I was invited to come early in order to see certain +pictures by day-light, and it was then I saw the painter's most +important work,--the _Dantes Dream_, which finally (and before Rossetti +was made aware of any steps being taken to that end) I had prevailed +with Alderman Samuelson to purchase for the public gallery at Liverpool. +At my request, though only after some importunity, Rossetti read again +his _White Ship_, and afterwards _Rose Mary_, the latter of which he +told me had been written in the country shortly after the appearance of +the first volume of poems. He remarked that it had occupied three weeks +in the writing, and that the physical prostration ensuing had been more +than he would care to go through again. I observed on this head, that +though highly finished in every stanza, the ballad had an impetuous +rush of emotion, and swift current of diction, suggesting speed in its +composition, as contrasted with the laboured deliberation which the +sonnets, for example, appeared to denote. I asked if his work usually +took much out of him in physical energy. + +"Not my painting, certainly," he replied, "though in early years it +tormented me more than enough. Now I paint by a set of unwritten but +clearly-defined rules, which I could teach to any man as systematically +as you could teach arithmetic; indeed, quite recently I sat all day for +that very purpose with Shields, who is not so great a colourist as he is +a draughtsman: he is a great draughtsman--none better now living, unless +it is Leighton or Sir Noel Paton." + +"Still," I said, "there's usually a good deal in a picture of yours +beside what you can do by rule." + +"Fundamental conception, no doubt, but beyond that not much. In +painting, after all, there is in the less important details something of +the craft of a superior carpenter, and the part of a picture that is not +mechanical is often trivial enough. I don't wonder, now," he added, with +a suspicion of a twinkle in the eye, "if you imagine that one comes down +here in a fine frenzy every morning to daub canvas?" + +"I certainly imagine," I replied, "that a superior carpenter would find +it hard to paint another _Dante's Dream_, which some people consider the +best example yet seen of the English school." + +"That is friendly nonsense," rejoined my frank host, "there is now no +English school whatever." + +"Well," I said, "if you deny the name to others who lay more claim to +it, will you not at least allow it to the three or four painters who +started with you in life?" + +"Not at all, unless it is to Brown, and he's more French than English; +Hunt and Jones have no more claim to the name than I have. As for all +the prattle about pre-Raphaelitism, I confess to you I am weary of it, +and long have been. Why should we go on talking about the visionary +vanities of half-a-dozen boys? We've all grown out of them, I hope, by +now." + +I remarked that the pre-Raphaelite movement was no doubt a serious one +at the beginning. + +"What you call the movement was serious enough, but the banding together +under that title was all a joke. We had at that time a phenomenal +antipathy to the Academy, and in sheer love of being outlawed signed our +pictures with the well-known initials." I have preserved the substance +of what Rossetti said on this point, and, as far as possible, the actual +words have been given. On many subsequent occasions he expressed himself +in the same way: assuredly with as much seeming depreciation of the +painter's "craft," although certain examples of modern art called forth +his warmest eulogies. In serious moods he would speak of pictures by +Millais, Watts, Leighton, Burne Jones, and others, as works of the +highest genius. + +Reverting to my inquiry as to whether his work took much out of him, he +remarked that his poetry usually did. "In that respect," he said, "I am +the reverse of Swinburne. For his method of production inspiration is +indeed the word. With me the case is different. I lie on the couch, the +racked and tortured medium, never permitted an instant's surcease of +agony until the thing on hand is finished." + +It was obvious that what Rossetti meant by being racked and tortured, +was that his subject possessed him; that he was enslaved by his own +"shaping imagination." Assuredly he was the reverse of a costive poet: +impulse was, to use his own phrase, fully developed in his muse. + +I made some playful allusion, assuredly not meant to involve Mr. +Swinburne, to Sheridan's epigram on easy writing and hard reading; and +to the Abbe de Marolles, who exultingly told some poet that his verses +cost no trouble: "They cost you what they are worth," replied the bard. + +"One benefit I do derive," Rossetti added, "as a result of my method of +composition; my work becomes condensed. Probably the man does not live +who could write what I have written more briefly than I have done." + +Emphasis and condensation, I remarked, were indubitably the +characteristics of his muse. He then read me a great body of the new +sonnets of _The House of Life_. Sitting in that studio listening to his +reading and looking up meantime at the chalk-drawings that hung on the +walls, I realised how truly he had said, in correspondence, that the +feeling pervading his pictures was such as his poetry ought to suggest. +The affinity between the two seemed to me at that moment to be complete: +the same half-sad, half-resigned view of life, the same glimpses of +hope, the same foreshadowings of gloom. + +"You doubtless think it odd," he said at one moment, "to hear an old +fellow read such love-poetry as much of this is, but I may tell you that +the larger part of it, though still unpublished, was written when I was +as young as you are. When I print these sonnets, I shall probably affix +a note saying, that though many of them are of recent production, not a +few are obviously the work of earlier years." + +I expressed admiration of the pathetic sonnet entitled _Without Her_. + +"I cannot tell you," he said, "at what terrible moment it was wrung from +me." + +He had read it with tears of voice, subsiding at length into suppressed +sobs and intervals of silence. As though to explain away this emotion he +said: + +"All poetry, that is really poetry, affects me deeply and often to +tears. It does not need to be pathetic or yet tender to produce such a +result. I have known in my life two men, and two only, who are similarly +sensitive--Tennyson, and my old friend and neighbour William Bell Scott. +I once heard Tennyson read _Maud_, and whilst the fiery passages were +delivered with a voice and vehemence which he alone of living men can +compass, the softer passages and the songs made the tears course down +his cheeks. Morris is a fine reader, and so, of his kind, though a +little prone to sing-song, is Swinburne. Browning both reads and talks +well--at least he did so when I knew him intimately as a young man." + +Rossetti went on to say that he had been among Browning's earliest +admirers. As a boy he had seen something signed by the then unknown +name of the author of _Paracelsus_, and wrote to him. The result was +an intimacy. He spoke with warmest admiration of _Child Roland_; and +referred to Elizabeth Barrett Browning in terms of regard, and, I think +I may say, of reverence. + +I asked if he had ever heard Ruskin read. He replied: + +"I must have done so, but remember nothing clearly. On one occasion, +however, I heard him deliver a speech, and that was something never +to forget. When we were young, we helped Frederick Denison Maurice by +taking classes at the Working Men's College, and there Charles Kingsley +and others made speeches and delivered lectures. Ruskin was asked to +do something of the kind and at length consented. He made no sort of +preparation for the occasion: I know he did not; we were together at his +father's house the whole of the day in question. At night we drove +down to the College, and then he made the finest speech I ever heard. I +doubted at the time if any written words of his were equal to it! such +flaming diction! such emphasis! such appeal!--yet he had written his +first and second volumes of _Modern Painters_ by that time." I have +reproduced the substance of what Rossetti said on the occasion of my +return visit, and, by help of letters written at the time to a friend, +I have in many cases recalled his exact words. A certain incisiveness of +speech which distinguished his conversation, I confess myself scarcely +able to convey more than a suggestion of; as Mr. Watts has said in _The +Athenaeum_, his talk showed an incisiveness so perfect that it had often +the pleasurable surprise of wit. Rossetti had both wit and humour, but +these, during the time that I knew him, were only occasionally present +in his conversation, while the incisiveness was always conspicuous. +A certain quiet play of sportive fancy, developing at intervals into +banter, was sometimes observable in his talk with the younger and more +familiar of his acquaintances, but for the most part his conversation +was serious, and, during the time I knew him, often sad. I speedily +observed that he was not of the number of those who lead or sustain +conversation. He required to be constantly interrogated, but as a +negative talker, if I may so describe him, he was by much the best I had +heard. Catching one's drift before one had revealed it, and anticipating +one's objections, he would go on from point to point, almost removing +the necessity for more than occasional words. Nevertheless, as I say, he +was not, in the conversations I have heard, a leading conversationalist; +his talk was never more than talk, and in saying that it was uniformly +sustained yet never declamatory, I think I convey an idea both of its +merits and limitations. + +I understood that Rossetti had never at any period of his life been an +early riser, and at the time of the interview in question he was more +than ever before prone to reverse the natural order of waking and +sleeping hours. I am convinced that during the time I was with him only +the necessity of securing a certain short interval of daylight, by +which it was possible to paint, prevailed with him to rise before noon. +Alluding to this idiosyncrasy, he said: "I lie as long, or say as late, +as Dr. Johnson used to do. You shall never know, until you discover it +for yourself, at what hour I rise." He sat up until four A.M. on this +night of my second visit,--no unaccustomed thing, as I afterwards +learned. I must not omit the mention of one feature of the conversation, +revealing to me a new side of his character, or, more properly, a new +phase of his mind, which gave me subsequently an infinity of anxiety and +distress. Branching off at a late hour from some entirely foreign topic, +he begged me to tell him the facts of some unlucky debate in which I +had long before been engaged on a public platform with some one who had +attacked him. He had heard a report of what passed at a time when +my name was unknown to him, as also was that of his assailant. Being +forewarned by William Rossetti of his brother's peculiar sensitiveness +to critical attack, and having, moreover, observed something of the kind +myself, I tried to avoid a circumstantial statement of what passed. But +Rossetti was, as has been said by one who knew him well, "of imagination +all compact," and my obvious desire to shelve the subject suggested to +his mind a thousand inferences infinitely more damaging than the fact. +To avoid such a result I told him all, and there was little in the +way of attack to repeat beyond a few unwelcome strictures on his poem +_Jenny_. He listened but too eagerly to what I was saying, and then in a +voice slower, softer, and more charged, perhaps, with emotion than I had +heard before, said it was the old story, which began ten years before, +and would go on until he had been hunted and hounded to his grave. +Startled, and indeed, appalled by so grave a view of what to me had +seemed no more than an error of critical judgment, coupled perhaps, with +some intemperance of condemnation, I prayed of him to think no more of +the matter, reproached myself with having yielded to his importunity, +and begged him to remember that if one man held the opinions I had +repeated, many men held contrary ones. + +"It was right of you to tell me when I asked you," he said, "though my +friends usually keep such facts from my knowledge. As to _Jenny_, it is +a sermon, nothing less. As I say, it is a sermon, and on a great world, +to most men unknown, though few consider themselves ignorant of it. But +of this conspiracy to persecute me--what remains to say but that it is +widespread and remorseless--one cannot but feel it." + +I assured him there existed no conspiracy to persecute him: that he had +ardent upholders everywhere, though it was true that few men had found +crueller critics. He shook his head, and said I knew that what he had +alleged was true, namely that an organised conspiracy existed, having +for its object to annoy and injure him. Growing a little impatient of +this delusion, so tenaciously held, against all show of reason, I told +him that it was no more than the fever of an oppressed brain brought +about by his reclusive habits of life, by shunning intercourse with all +save some half dozen or more friends. "You tell me," I said, "that you +have rarely been outside these walls for some years, and your brain has +meanwhile been breeding a host of hallucinations, like cobwebs in a dark +corner. You have only to go abroad, and the fresh air will blow these +things away." But continuing for some moments longer in the same strain, +he came to closer quarters and distressed me by naming as enemies three +or four men who had throughout life been his friends, who have spoken of +him since his death in words of admiration and even affection, and who +had for a time fallen away from him or called on him but rarely, from +contingencies due to any cause but alienated friendship. + +At length the time had arrived when it was considered prudent to retire. +"You are to sleep in Watts's room to-night," he said: and then in reply +to a look of inquiry he added, "He comes here at least twice a week, +talking until four o'clock in the morning upon everything from poetry +to the Pleiades, and driving away the bogies, and as he lives at Putney +Hill, it is necessary to have a bed for him." Before going into my room +he suggested that I should go and look, at his. It was entered from +another and smaller room which he said that he used as a breakfast +room. The outer room was made fairly bright and cheerful by a glittering +chandelier (the property once, he told me, of David Garrick), and +from the rustle of trees against the window-pane one perceived that it +overlooked the garden; but the inner room was dark with heavy hangings +around the walls as well as the bed, and thick velvet curtains before +the windows, so that the candles in our hands seemed unable to light +it, and our voices sounded thick and muffled. An enormous black oak +chimney-piece of curious design, having an ivory crucifix on the largest +of its ledges, covered a part of one side and reached to the ceiling. +Cabinets, and the usual furniture of a bedroom, occupied places about +the floor: and in the middle of it, and before a little couch, stood +a small table on which was a wire lantern containing a candle which +Rossetti lit from the open one in his hand--another candle meantime +lying by its side. I remarked that he probably burned a light all night. +He said that was so. "My curse," he added, "is insomnia. Two or three +hours hence I shall get up and lie on the couch, and, to pass away a +weary hour, read this book"--a volume of Boswell's _Johnson_ which I +noticed he took out of the bookcase as we left the studio. It did not +escape me that on the table stood two small bottles sealed and labelled, +together with a little measuring-glass. Without looking further at it, +but with a terrible suspicion growing over me, I asked if that were his +medicine. + +"They say there is a skeleton in every cupboard," he said in a low +voice, "and that's mine; it is chloral." + +When I reached the room that I was to occupy during the night, I found +it, like Rossetti's bedroom, heavy with hangings, and black with antique +picture panels, with a ceiling (unlike that of the other rooms in the +house), out of all reach or sight, and so dark from various causes, that +the candle seemed only to glimmer in it--indeed to add to the darkness +by making it felt. Mr. Watts, as Rossetti told me, was entirely +indifferent to these eerie surroundings, even if his fine subjective +intellect, more prone to meditate than to observe, was ever for an +instant conscious of them; but on myself I fear they weighed heavily, +and augmented the feeling of closeness and gloom which had been creeping +upon me since I entered the house. Scattered about the room in most +admired disorder were some outlandish and unheard-of books, and all +kinds of antiquarian and Oriental oddities, which books and oddities I +afterwards learnt had been picked up at various times by the occupant in +his ramblings about Chelsea and elsewhere, and never yet taken away by +him, but left there apparently to scare the chambermaid: such as old +carved heads and gargoyles of the most grinning and ghastly expression, +Burmese and Chinese Buddhas in soapstone of every degree of placid +ugliness, together, I am bound by force of truth to admit, with one +piece of carved Italian marble in bas-relief, of great interest and +beauty. Such was my bed-chamber for the night, and little wonder if it +threatened to murder the innocent sleep. But it was later than 4 A.M., +and wearied nature must needs assert herself, and so I lay down amidst +the odour of bygone ages. + +Presently Rossetti came in, for no purpose that I can remember, except +to say that he had enjoyed my visit I replied that I should never forget +it. "If you decide to settle in London," he said, "I trust you 'll come +and live with me, and then many such evenings must remove the memory +of this one." I laughed, for I thought what he hinted at to be of the +remotest likelihood. "I have just taken sixty grains of chloral," he +said, as he was going out; "in four hours I take sixty more, and in four +hours after that yet another sixty." + +"Does not the dose increase with you?" + +"It has not done so perceptibly in recent years. I judge I've taken +more chloral than any man whatever: Marshall says if I were put into a +Turkish bath I should sweat it at every pore." + +There was something in his tone suggesting that he was even proud of the +accomplishment. To me it was a frightful revelation, accounting entirely +for what had puzzled and distressed me in his delusions already referred +to. And now let me say that whilst it would have been on my part the +most pitiful weakness (because the most foolish tearfulness of injuring +a great man who was strong enough to suffer a good deal to be discounted +from his strength), to attempt to conceal this painful side of +Rossetti's mind, I shall not again allude to those delusions, unless +it be to show that, coming to him with the drug which blighted half his +life, they disappeared when it had been removed. + +None may rightly say to what the use of that drug was due, or what was +due to it; the sadder side of his life was ever under its shadow; his +occasional distrust of friends: his fear of enemies: his broken health +and shattered spirits, all came of his indulgence in the pernicious +thing. When I remember this I am more than willing to put by all thought +of the little annoyances, which to me, as to other immediate friends, +were constantly occurring through that cause, which seemed at the moment +so vexatious and often so insupportable, but which are now forgotten. + +Next morning--(a clear autumn morning)--I strolled through the large +garden at the back of the house, and of course I found it of a piece +with what I had previously seen. A beautiful avenue of lime-trees opened +into a grass plot of nearly an acre in extent. The trees were just as +nature made them, and so was the grass, which in places was lying long, +dry and withered under the sun, weeds creeping up in damp places, and +the gravel of the pathway scattered upon the verges. This neglected +condition of the garden was, I afterwards found, humorously charged upon +Mr. Watts's "reluctance to interfere with nature in her clever scheme of +the survival of the fittest," but I suspect it was due at least equally +to the owner's personal indifference to everything of the kind. + +Before leaving I glanced over the bookcase. Rossetti's library was by +no means a large one. It consisted, perhaps, of 1000 volumes, scarcely +more; and though this was not large as comprising the library of one +whose reading must have been in two arts pursued as special studies, +and each involving research and minute original inquiry, it cannot be +considered noticeably small, and it must have been sufficient. Rossetti +differed strangely as a reader from the man to whom in bias of genius +he was most nearly related. Coleridge was an omnivorous general reader: +Rossetti was eclectic rather than desultory. His library contained a +number of valuable old works of more interest to him from their plates +than letterpress. Of this kind were _Gerard's Herbal_ (1626), supposed +to be the source of many a hint utilised by the Morris firm, of which +Rossetti was a member; _Poliphili Hypnerotomachia_ (1467); Heywood's +_History of Women_ (1624); _Songe de Poliphile_ (1561); Bonnard's +_Costumes of 12th, 13th, and l4th Centuries; Habiti Antichi_ (of +which the designs are said to be by Titian)--printed Venice, (1664); +_Cosmographia_, a history of the peoples of the world (1572); _Ciceronis +Officia_ (1534), a blackletter folio, with woodcuts by Burgkmaier; +_Jost Amman's Costumes_, with woodcuts coloured by hand; _Cento Novelle_ +(Venice, 1598); Francesco Barberino's _Documenti (d'Amore_ (Rome, 1640); +_Decoda de Titolivio_, a Spanish blackletter, without date, but probably +belonging to the 16th century. Besides these were various vellum-bound +works relating to Greek and Roman allegorical and mythological subjects, +and a number of scrap-books and portfolios containing photographs from +nearly all the picture-galleries of Europe, but chiefly of the pictures +of the early Florentine and Venetian schools, with an admixture of +Spanish art. Of Michael Angelo's designs for the Sistine Chapel there +was a fine set of photographs. + +These did not make up a very complete ancient artistic library, but +Rossetti's collection of the poets was more full and valuable. There was +a pretty little early edition of Petrarch, which appeared to have +been presented first by John Philip Kemble to Polidori (Rossetti's +grandfather) in 1812; then in 1853 by Polidori to his daughter, +Rossetti's mother, Frances Rossetti; and by her in 1870 to her son. A +splendid edition (1552) of Boccaccio's _Decamerone_ contained a number +of valuable marginal notes, chiefly by Rossetti, the first being as +follows: + +This volume contains 40 woodcuts besides many initial letters. The +greater number, if not the whole, must certainly be by Holbein. I am +in doubt as to the pictures heading the chapters, but think these most +probably his, only following the usual style of such illustrations +to Boccaccio, and consequently more Italianised than the others. The +initial letters present for the most part games of strength or skill. + +There were various editions of Dante, including a very large folio +edition of the _Commedia_, dated Florence, 1481, and the works of a +number of Dante's contemporaries. Besides two or three editions of +Shakspeare (the best being Dyce's, in 9 vols.), there were some of the +Elizabethan dramatists. Coming to later poetry, I found a complete +set of Gilfillan's _Poets_, in 45 vols. There was the curious little +manuscript quarto (much like a shilling school-exercise book) labelled +_Blake_, and this was, perhaps, by far the most valuable volume in the +library. The contents and history of this book have already been given. + +There were two editions of Gilchrist's _Blake_; complete (or almost +complete) sets of the works of William Morris and A. C. Swinburne, +inscribed in the authors' autographs--the copy of _Atalanta in Calydon_ +being marked by the poet, "First copy; printed off before the dedication +was in type." It may be remembered that Robert Brough translated +Beranger's songs, and dedicated his volume in affectionate terms +to Rossetti. The presentation copy of this book bore the following +inscription:--"To D. G. Rossetti, meaning in my _heart_ what I have +tried to say in print. Et. B. Brough. 1856." There were also several +presentation copies from Robert Browning, Coventry Patmore, W. B. Scott, +Sir Henry Taylor, Aubrey de Vere, Tom Taylor, Westland Marston, F. +Locker, A. O'Shaughnessy, Sir Theodore Martin; besides volumes bearing +the names of nearly every well-known younger writer of prose or verse. + +Five volumes of _Modern Painters_, together with _The Seven Lamps of +Architecture_ and the tract on _Pre-Raphaelitism_, bore the author's +name and Rossetti's in Mr. Ruskin's autograph. There was a fine copy in +ten volumes of Violet-le-Duc's _Dictionnaire de l'Architecture_, and +also of the _Biographie Generale_ in forty-six volumes, besides several +dictionaries, concordances, and the like. There was also a copy of +Fitzgerald's _Calderon_. Rossetti seemed to be a reader of Swedenborg, +as White's book on the great mystic testified; also to have been at one +time interested in the investigation of the phenomena of Spiritualism. +Of one writer of fiction he must have been an ardent reader, for there +were at least 100 volumes by Alexandre Dumas. German writers were +conspicuously absent, Goethe's _Faust_ and Carlyle's translation of +_Wilhelm, Meister_, being about the only notable German works in the +library. Rossetti did not appear to be a collector of first editions, +nor did it seem that he attached much importance to the mere outsides of +his books, but of the insides he was master indeed. The impression left +upon the mind after a rapid survey of the poet-painter's library was +that he was a careful, but slow and thorough reader (as was seen by the +marginal annotations which nearly every volume contained), and that, +though very far from affected by bibliomania, he was not without pride +in the possession of rare and valuable books. + +When I left the house at a late hour that morning Rossetti was not yet +stirring, and so some months passed before I saw him again. If I had +tried to formulate the idea--or say sensation--that possessed me at the +moment, I think I should have said, in a word or two, that outside the +air breathed freely. Within, the gloom, the mediaeval furniture, the +brass censers, sacramental cups, lamps; and crucifixes conspired, I +thought, to make the atmosphere heavy and unwholesome. As for the +man himself who was the central spirit amidst these anachronistic +environments, he had, if possible, attached me yet closer to himself by +contact. Before this I had been attracted to him in admiration of his +gifts: but now I was drawn to him, in something very like pity, for +his isolation and suffering. Not that at this time he consciously +made demand of much compassion, and least of all from me. Health was +apparently whole with him, his spirits were good, and his energies were +at their best. He had not yet known the full bitterness of the shadowed +valley: not yet learned what it was to hunger for any cheerful society +that would relieve him of the burden of the flesh. All that came later. +Rossetti was one of the most magnetic of men, but it was not more his +genius than his unhappiness that held certain of his friends by a spell. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII. + +It was characteristic of Rossetti that he addressed me in the following +terms probably before I had left his house: for the letter was, no +doubt, written in that interval of sleeplessness which he had spoken of +as his nightly visitant: + +I forgot to say--Don't, please, spread details as to story of _Rose +Mary_. I don't want it to be stale or to get forestalled in the +travelling of report from mouth to mouth. I hope it won't be too long +before you visit town again,--I will not for an instant question that +you would then visit me also. + +Six months or more intervened, however, before I was able to visit +Rossetti again. In the meantime we corresponded as fully as before: the +subject upon which we most frequently exchanged opinions being now the +sonnet. + + By-the-bye [he says], I cannot understand what you say of + Milton's, Keats's, and Coleridge's sonnets. The last, it is + true, was _always_ poor as a sonnetteer (I don't see much in + the _Autumnal Moon_). My own only exception to this verdict + (much as I adore Coleridge's genius) would be the ludicrous + sonnet on _The House that Jack built_, which is a + masterpiece in its way. I should not myself number the one + you mention of Keats's among his best half-dozen (many of + his are mere drafts, strange to say); and cannot at all + enter into your verdict on those of Milton, which seem to me + to be every one of exceptional excellence, though a few are + even finer than the rest, notably, of course, the one you + name. Pardon an egotistic sentence (in answer to what you + say so generously of _Lost Days_), if I express an opinion + that _Known in Vain_ and _Still-born Love_ may perhaps be + said to head the series in value, though _Lost Days_ might + be equally a favourite with me if I did not remember in what + but too opportune juncture it was wrung out of me. I have a + good number of sonnets for _The House of Life_ still in MS., + which I have worked on with my best effort, and, I think, + will fully sustain their place. These and other things I + should like to show you whenever we meet again. The MS. vol. + I proposed to send is merely an old set of (chiefly) + trifles, about which I should like an opinion as to whether + any should be included in the future. + +I had spoken of Keats's sonnet beginning + + To one who has been long in city pent, + +with its exquisite last lines-- + + E'en like the passage of an angel's tear + That falls through the clear ether silently, + +reminding one of a less spiritual figure-- + + Kings like a golden jewel + Down a golden stair. + +After his bantering me, as of old he had done, on the use of long and +crabbed words, I hinted that he was in honour bound to agree at least +with my disparaging judgment upon _Tetrachordon_, if only because of the +use of words that would "have made Quintillian stare." + +I further instanced-- + + "Harry whose tuneful and well-measured song;" and + "Lawrence, of virtuous father virtuous son," + +as examples of Milton at his weakest as a sonnet-writer. He replied: + + I am sorry I must still differ somewhat from you about + Milton's sonnets. I think the one on _Tetrachordon_ a very + vigorous affair indeed. The one to Mr. H. Lawes I am half + disposed to give you, but not altogether--its close is + sweet. As to _Lawrence_, it is curious that my sister was + only the other day expressing to me a special relish for + this sonnet, and I do think it very fresh and wholesomely + relishing myself. It is an awful fact that sun, moon, or + candlelight once looked down on the human portent of Dr. + Johnson and Mrs. Hannah More convened in solemn conclave + above the outspread sonnets of Milton, with a meritorious + and considerate resolve of finding out for him "why they + were so bad." This is so stupendous a warning, that perhaps + it may even incline one to find some of them better than + they are. + + Coming to Coleridge, I must confess at once that I never + meet in any collection with the sonnet on Schiller's + _Robbers_ without heading it at once with the words + "unconscionably bad." The habit has been a life-long one. + That you mention beginning--"Sweet mercy," etc., I have + looked for in the only Coleridge I have by me (my brother's + cheap edition, for all the faults of which _he_ is not at + all answerable), and do not find it there, nor have I it in + mind. + + To pass to Keats. The ed. of 1868 contains no sonnet on the + Elgin Marbles. Is it in a later edition? Of course that on + Chapman's _Homer_ is supreme. It ought to be preceded {*} in + all editions by the one _To Homer_, + + "Standing aloof in giant ignorance," etc. + which contains perhaps the greatest single line in Keats: + + "There is a budding morrow in midnight." + + * I pointed out that it was written later than the one on + Chapman's Homer (notwithstanding its first line) and + therefore should follow after it, not go before. + + Other special favourites with me are--"Why did I laugh to- + night?"--" As Hermes once,"--"Time's sea hath been," and + the one _On the Flower and, Leaf_. + + It is odd that several of these best ones seem to have been + early work, and rejected by Keats in his lifetime, while + some of those he printed are absolutely sorry drafts. + + I had admired Coleridge's sonnet on Schiller's _Robbers_ for + the perhaps minor excellence of bringing vividly before the + mind the scenes it describes. If the sonnet is + unconscionably bad so perhaps is the play, the beautiful + scene of the setting sun notwithstanding. Eventually, + however, I abandoned my belligerent position as to Milton's + sonnets: the army of authorities I found ranged against the + modest earth-works within which I had entrenched myself must + of itself have made me quail. My utmost contention had been + that Milton wrote the most impassioned sonnet (_Avenge, O + Lord_), the two most nobly pathetic sonnets (_When I + consider_ and _Methought I saw_), and one of the poorest + sonnets (_Harry, whose tuneful_, etc.) in English poetry. + + At this time (September 1880) Mr. J. Ashcroft Noble + published an essay on _The Sonnet in England_ in _The + Contemporary Review_, and relating thereto Rossetti wrote: + + I have just been reading Mr. Noble's article on the sonnet. + As regards my own share in it, I can only say that it greets + me with a gratifying ray of generous recognition. It is all + the more pleasant to me as finding a place in the very + Review which years ago opened its pages to a pseudonymous + attack on my poems and on myself. I see a passage in the + article which seems meant to indicate the want of such a + work on the sonnet as you are wishing to supply. I only + trust that you may do so, and that Mr. Noble may find a + field for continued poetic criticism. I am very proud to + think that, after my small and solitary book has been a good + many years published and several years out of print, it yet + meets with such ardent upholding by young and sincere men. + + With the verdicts given throughout the article, I generally + sympathise, but not with the unqualified homage to + Wordsworth. A reticence almost invariably present is fatal + in my eyes to the highest pretensions on behalf of his + sonnets. Reticence is but a poor sort of muse, nor is + tentativeness (so often to be traced in his work) a good + accompaniment in music. Take the sonnet on _Toussaint + L'Ouverture_ (in my opinion his noblest, and very noble + indeed) and study (from Main's note) the lame and fumbling + changes made in various editions of the early lines, which + remain lame in the end. Far worse than this, study the + relation of the closing lines of his famous sonnet _The + World is too much with us_, etc., to a passage in Spenser, + and say whether plagiarism was ever more impudent or + manifest (again I derive from Main's excellent exposition of + the point), and then consider whether a bard was likely to + do this once and yet not to do it often. Primary vital + impulse was surely not fully developed in his muse. + + I will venture to say that I wish my sister's sonnet work + had met with what I consider the justice due to it. Besides + the unsurpassed quality (in my opinion) of her best sonnets, + my sister has proved her poetic importance by solid and + noble inventive work of many kinds, which I should be proud + indeed to reckon among my life's claims. + + I have a great weakness myself for many of Tennyson-Turner's + sonnets, though of course what Mr. Noble says of them is in + the main true, and he has certainly quoted the very finest + one, which has a more fervent appeal for me than I could + easily derive from Wordsworth in almost any case. + + Will you give my thanks to Mr. Noble for his frank and + outspoken praise? + + Let me hear of your doings and intentions. + + Ever sincerely yours. + + +Three names notably omitted in the article are those of Dobell, W. B. +Scott, and Swinburne. + +The allusion in the foregoing letter to the work on the Sonnet which +I was aiming to supply, bears reference to the anthology subsequently +published under the title of _Sonnets of Three Centuries_. My first +idea was simply to write a survey of the art and history of the +sonnet, printing only such examples as might be embraced by my critical +comments. Rossetti's generous sympathy was warmly engaged in this +enterprise. + + It would really warm me up much [he writes] to know of + _your_ editing a sonnet book You would have my best + cooperation as to suggesting examples, but I certainly think + that English sonnets (original and exceptionally translated + ones, the latter only _perhaps_) should be the sole scheme. + Curiously enough, some one wrote me the other day as to a + projected series of living sonneteers (other collections + being only of those preceding our time). I have half + committed myself to contributing, but not altogether as yet. + The name of the projector, S. Waddington, is new to me, and + I don't know who is to publish.... Really you ought to do + the sonnet-book you aspire to do. I know but of one London + critic (Theodore Watts) whom I should consider the leading + man for such a purpose, and I have tried to incite him to it + so often that I know now he won't do it; but I have always + meant _a complete_ series in which the dead poets must, of + course, predominate. As to a series of the living only, I + told you of a Mr. Waddington who seems engaged on such a + supplementary scheme. What his gifts for it may be I know + not, but I suppose he knows it is in requisition. However, + there need not be but one such if you felt your hand in for + it. His view happens to be also (as you suggest) about 160 + sonnets. In reply to your query, I certainly think there + must be 20 living writers (male and female--my sister a + leader, I consider) who have written good sonnets such as + would afford an interesting and representative selection, + though assuredly not such as would all take the rank of + classics by any means. The number of sonnets now extant, + written by poets who did not exist as such a dozen years + ago, I believe to be almost infinite, and in sufficiently + numerous instances good, however derivative. One younger + poet among them, Philip Marston, has written many sonnets + which yield to few or none by any poet whatever; but he has + printed such a large number in the aggregate, and so unequal + one with the other, that the great ones are not to be found + by opening at random. "How are they (the poets) to be + approached?--" you innocently ask. Ye heavens! how does the + cat's-meat-man approach Grimalkin?--and what is that + relation in life when compared to the _rapport_ established + between the living bard and the fellow-creature who is + disposed to cater to his caterwauling appetite for + publicity? However, to be serious, I must at least exonerate + the bard, I am sure, from any desire to appropriate an + "interest in the proceeds." There are some, I feel certain, + to whom the collector might say with a wink, "What are you + going to stand?" + +I do not myself think that a collection of sonnets inserted at intervals +in an essay is a good form for the purpose. Such a book is from one +chief point a book of instantaneous reference,--it would only, perhaps, +be read _through_ once in a lifetime. For this purpose a well-indexed +current series is best, with any desirable essay prefixed and notes +affixed.... I once conceived of a series, to be entitled, + +<center> + +THE ENGLISH CASTALY: A QUINTESSENCE: + +BEING A COLLECTION OF ALL THAT IS BEST IN ALL ENGLISH POETS, + +EXCEPTING WORKS OF GREAT LENGTH. + +</center> + +I still think this a good idea, but, of course, it would be an extensive +undertaking. + +Later on, he wrote: + + I have thought of a title for your book. What think you of + this? + +<center> + +A SONNET SEQUENCE + +FROM ELDER TO MODERN WORK, + +WITH FIFTY HITHERTO UNPRINTED SONNETS BY + +LIVING WRITERS. + +</center> + + That would not be amiss. Tell me if you think of using the + title _A Sonnet Sequence_, as otherwise I might use it in + the _House of Life_.... What do you think of this + alternative title: + +<center> + +THE ENGLISH SONNET MUSE + +FROM ELIZABETH'S REIGN TO VICTORIA'S. + +</center> + + I think _Castalia_ much too euphuistic, and though I + shouldn't like the book to be called simply still I have a + great prejudice against very florid titles for such + gatherings. _Treasury_ has been sadly run upon. + +I did not like _Sonnet Sequence_ for such a collection, and relinquished +the title; moreover, I had had from the first a clearly defined scheme +in mind, carrying its own inevitable title, which was in due course +adopted. I may here remark that I never resisted any idea of Rossetti's +at the moment of its inception, since resistance only led to a temporary +outburst of self-assertion on his part. He was a man of so much +impulse,--impulse often as violent as lawless--that to oppose him merely +provoked anger to no good purpose, for as often as not the position +at first adopted with so much pertinacity was afterwards silently +abandoned, and your own aims quietly acquiesced in. On this subject of a +title he wrote a further letter, which is interesting from more than one +point of view: + + I don't like _Garland_ at all C. Patmore collected a + _Children's Garland._ I think + +<center> + +ENGLISH SONNET'S + +PRESENT AND PAST, WITH--ETC., + +</center> + + would be a good title. I think I prefer _Present and Past_, + or _of the P. and P.,_ to _New and Old_ for your purpose; + but I own I am partly influenced by the fact that I have + settled to call my own vol. _Poems New and Old_, and don't + want it to get staled; but I really do think the other at + least as good for your purpose--perhaps more dignified. + +Again, in reply to a proposal of my own, he wrote: + + I think _Sonnets of the Century_ an excellent idea and + title. I must say a mass of Wordsworth over again, like + Main's, is a little disheartening,--still the _best_ + selection from him is what one wants. There is some book + called _A Century of Sonnets_, but this, I suppose, would + not matter.... + + I think sometimes of your sonnet-book, and have formed + certain views. I really would not in your place include old + work at all: it would be but a scanty gathering, and I feel + certain that what is really in requisition is a supplement + to Main, containing living writers (printed and un-printed) + put together under their authors' names (not separately) and + rare gleanings from those more recently dead. + +I fear I did not attach importance to this decision, for I now knew my +correspondent too well to rely upon his being entirely in the same mind +for long. Hence I was not surprised to receive the following a day or +two later: + + I lately had a conversation with Watts about your sonnet- + book, and find his views to be somewhat different from what + I had expressed, and I may add I think now he is right. He + says there should be a very careful selection of the elder + sonnets and of everything up to present century. I think he + is right. + +The fact is, that almost from the first I had taken a view similar to +Mr. Watts's as to the design of my book, and had determined to call the +anthology by the title it now bears. On one occasion, however, I acted +rather without judgment in sending Rossetti a synopsis of certain +critical tests formulated by Mr. Watts in a letter of great power and +value. + +In the letter in question Mr. Watts seemed to be setting himself to +confute some extremely ill-considered remarks made in a certain quarter +upon the structure of the sonnet, where (following Macaulay) the critic +says that there exists no good reason for requiring that even the +conventional limit as to length should be observed, and that the only +use in art of the legitimate model is to "supply a poet with something +to do when his invention fails." I confess to having felt no little +amazement that one so devoid of a perception of the true function of the +sonnet should have been considered a proper person to introduce a great +sonnet-writer; and Mr. Watts (who, however, made no mention of the +writer) clearly demonstrated that the true sonnet has the foundation +of its structure in a fixed metrical law, and hence, that as it is +impossible (as Keats found out for himself) to improve upon the accepted +form, that model--known as the Petrarchian--should, with little or no +variation, be worked upon. Rossetti took fire, however, from a mistaken +notion that Mr. Watts's canons, as given in the letter in question, +and merely reported by me, were much more inflexible than they really +proved. + + Sonnets of mine _could not appear_ in any book which + contained such rigid rules as to rhyme, as are contained in + Watts's letter. I neither follow them, nor agree with them + as regards the English language. Every sonnet-writer should + show full capability of conforming to them in many + instances, but never to deviate from them in English must + pinion both thought and diction, and, (mastery once proved) + a series gains rather than loses by such varieties as do not + lessen the only absolute aim--that of beauty. The English + sonnet too much tampered with becomes a sort of bastard + madrigal. Too much, invariably restricted, it degenerates + into a Shibboleth. + + Dante's sonnets (in reply to your question--not as part of + the above point) vary in arrangement. I never for a moment + thought of following in my book the rhymes of each + individual sonnet. + + If sonnets of mine remain admissible, I should prefer + printing the two _On Cassandra to The Monochord_ and _Wine + of Circe_. + + I would not be too anxious, were I you, about anything in + choice of sonnets except the brains and the music. + +Again he wrote: + + I talked to Watts about his letter. He seems to agree with + me as to advisable variation of form in preference to + transmuting valuable thought. It would not be afc all found + that my best sonnets are always in the mere form which I + think the best. The question with me is regulated by what I + have to say. But in truth, if I have a distinction as a + sonnet-writer, it is that I never admit a sonnet which is + not fully on the level of every other.... Again, as to this + blessed question, though no one ever took more pleasure in + continually using the form I prefer when not interfering + with thought, to insist on it would after a certain point be + ruin to common sense. + + As to what you say of _The One Hope_--it is fully equal to + the very best of my sonnets, or I should not have wound up + the series with it. But the fact is, what is peculiar + chiefly in the series is, that scarcely one is worse than + any other. You have much too great a habit of speaking of a + special octave, sestette, or line. Conception, my boy, + _fundamental brainwork_, that is what makes the difference + in all art. Work your metal as much as you like, but first + take care that it is gold and worth working. A Shakspearean + sonnet is better than the most perfect in form, because + Shakspeare wrote it. + + As for Drayton, of course his one incomparable sonnet is the + _Love-Parting_. That is almost the best in the language, if + not quite. I think I have now answered queries, and it is + late. Good-night! + +Rossetti had somewhat mistaken the scope of the letter referred to, +and when he came to know exactly what was intended, I found him in warm +agreement with the views therein taken. I have said at an earlier stage +that Rossetti's instinct for what was good in poetry was unfailing, +whatever the value of his opinions on critical principles, and hence I +felt naturally anxious to have the benefit of his views on certain of +the elder writers. He said: + + I am sorry I am no adept in elder sonnet literature. Many of + Donne's are remarkable--no doubt you glean some. None of + Shakspeare's is more indispensable than the wondrous one on + _Last_ (129). Hartley Coleridge's finest is + + "If I have sinned in act, I may repent." + + There is a fine one by Isaac Williams, evidently on the + death of a worldly man, and he wrote other good ones. To + return to the old, I think Stillingfleet's _To Williamson_ + very fine.... + + I would like to send you a list of my special favourites + among Shakspeare's sonnets--viz.:-- + + 15, 27, 29, 30, 36, 44, 45, 49, 50, 52, 55, 56, 59, 61, 62, + 64, 65, 66, 68, 71, 73, 76, 77, 90, 93, 94, 97, 98, 99, 102, + 107, 110, 116, 117, 119, 120, 123, 129, 135, 136, 138, 144, + 145. + + I made the selection long ago, and of course love them in + varying degrees. + + There should be an essential reform in the printing of + Shakspeare's sonnets. After sonnet 125 should occur the + words _End of Part I_. The couplet-piece, numbered 126, + should be called _Epilogue to Part I._. Then, before 127, + should be printed Part II. After 152, should be put End of + Part II.--and the two last sonnets should be called Epilogue + to Part II. About these two last I have a theory of my own. + + Did you ever see the excellent remarks on these sonnets in + my brother's _Lives of Famous Poets?_ I think a simple point + he mentions (for first time) fixes Pembroke clearly as the + male friend. I am glad you like his own two fine sonnets. I + wish he would write more such. By the bye, you speak with + great scorn of the closing couplet in sonnets. I do not + certainly think that form the finest, but I do think this + and every variety desirable in a series, and have often used + it myself. I like your letters on sonnets; write on all + points in question. The two last of Shakspeare's sonnets + seem to me to have a very probable (and rather elaborate) + meaning never yet attributed to them. Some day, when I see + you, we will talk it over. Did you ever see a curious book + by one Brown (I don't mean Armitage Brown) on Shakspeare's + sonnets? By the bye, he is not the source of my notion as + above, but a matter of fact he names helps in it. I never + saw Massey's book on the subject, but fancy his views and + Brown's are somewhat allied. You should look at what my + brother says, which is very concise and valuable. I hope I + am not omitting to answer you in any essential point, but my + writing-table is a chaos into which your last letters have, + for the moment, sunk beyond recovery. + + I consider the foregoing, perhaps, the most valuable of + Rossetti's letters to me. I cannot remember that we ever + afterwards talked over the two last sonnets of Shakspeare; + if we did so, the meaning attached to them by him did not + fix itself very definitely upon my memory. + + In explanation of my alleged dislike of the closing couplet, + I may say that a rhymed couplet at the close of a sonnet has + an effect upon my ear similar to that produced by the + couplets at the ends of some of the acts of Shakspeare's + plays, which were in many instances interpolated by the + actors to enable them to make emphatic exits. + + I must now group together a number of short notes on + sonnets: + + I think Blanco White's sonnet difficult to overrate in + _thought_--probably in this respect unsurpassable, but easy + to overrate as regards its workmanship. Of course there is + the one fatally disenchanting line: + + While fly and leaf and insect stood revealed. + + The poverty of vision which could not see at a glance that + fly and insect were one and the same, is, as you say, enough + to account for its being the writer's only sonnet (there is + one more however which I don't know). + + I'll copy you overpage a sonnet which I consider a very fine + one, but which may be said to be quite unknown. It is by + Charles Whitehead, who wrote the very admirable and + exceptional novel of _Richard Savage_, published somewhere + about 1840. + + Even as yon lamp within my vacant room + With arduous flame disputes the doubtful night, + And can with its involuntary light + But lifeless things that near it stand illume; + Yet all the while it doth itself consume, + And ere the sun hath reached his morning height + With courier beams that greet the shepherd's sight, + There where its life arose must be its tomb:-- + So wastes my life away, perforce confined + To common things, a limit to its sphere, + It gleams on worthless trifles undesign'd, + With fainter ray each hour imprison'd here. + Alas to know that the consuming mind + Must leave its lamp cold ere the sun appear! + + I am sure you will agree with me in admiring _that_. I quote + from memory, and am not sure that I have given line 6 quite + correctly.... + + I have just had Blanco White's only other sonnet (_On being + called an Old Man at 50_) copied out for you. I do certainly + think it ought to go in, though no better than so-so, as you + say. But it is just about as good as the former one, but for + the leading and splendid thought in the latter. Both are but + proseman's diction. + + There is a sonnet of Chas. Wells's _On Chaucer_ which is not + worthy of its writer, but still you should have it. It + occurs among some prefatory tributes in _Chaucer + Modernised_, edited by E. H. Home. I don't know how you are + to get a copy, but the book is in the British Museum Reading + Room. The sonnet is signed C. W. only. + + The sonnet by Wells seemed to me in every respect poor, and + as it was no part of my purpose (as an admirer of Wells) to + advertise what the poet could not do, I determined--against + Rossetti's judgment--not to print the sonnet. + + You certainly, in my opinion, ought to print Wells's sonnet. + Certainly nothing so disjointed ever gave itself the name + before, but it ought to be available for reference, and I do + not agree with you in considering it weak in any sense + except that of structure. + + There is a sonnet by Ebenezer Jones, beginning "I never + wholly feel that summer is high," which, though very jagged, + has decided merit to warrant its insertion. + + As for Tennyson, he seems to have given leave for a sonnet + to appear in Main's book. Why not in yours? But I have long + ceased to know him, nor is any friend of mine in + communication with him.... My brother has written in his + time a few sonnets. Two of them I think very fine-- + especially the one called _Shelley's Heart_, which he has + lately worked upon again with immense advantage.... You do + not tell me from whom you have received sonnets. The reason + which prevents my coming forward, in such a difficulty, with + a new sonnet of my own, is this:--which indeed you have + probably surmised: I know nothing would gratify malevolence, + after the controversy which ensued on your lecture, more + than to be able to assert, however falsely, that we had been + working in concert all along, that you were known to me from + the first, and that your advocacy had no real + spontaneity.... When you first entered on the subject, and + wrote your lecture, you were a perfect stranger to me, and + that fact greatly enhanced my pleasure in its enthusiastic + tone. I hope sincerely that we may have further and close + opportunities of intercourse, but should like whatever you + may write of me to come from the old source of intellectual + affinity only. That you should think the subject worthy of + further labour is a pleasure to me, but I only trust it may + not be a disadvantage to your book in unfriendly eyes, + particularly if that view happened to be the proposed + publisher's, in which case I should much prefer that this + section of your work were withdrawn for a more propitious + occasion.... I am very glad Brown is furthering your sonnet- + book--he knows so many bards. Of course if I were you, I + should keep an eye on the mouths even of gift-horses; but + were a creditable stud to be trotted out, of course I should + be willing; as were I one among many, the objection I noted + would not exist. I do not mean for a moment to say that many + very fine sonnets might not be obtained from poets not yet + known or not widely known; but known names would be the + things to parry the difficulty. + +Later he wrote: + + As you know, I want to contribute to your volume if I can do + so without fear of the consequences hinted at in a former + letter as likely to ensue, so I now enclose a sonnet of my + own. If you are out in March 1881, you may be before my new + edition, but I am getting my stock together. Not a word of + this however, as it mustn't get into gossip paragraphs at + present. _The House of Life_ is now a hundred sonnets--all + lyrics being removed. Besides this series, I have forty-five + sonnets extra. I think, as you are willing, I shall use the + title I sent you--_A Sonnet Sequence_. I fancy the + alternative title would be briefer and therefore better as + +<center> + +OUR SONNET-MUSE + +PROM ELIZABETH TO VICTORIA + +</center> + +I could not be much concerned about the unwillingness to give me a new +sonnet which Rossetti at first exhibited, for I knew full well that +sooner or later the sonnet would come. Not that I recognised in him the +faintest scintillation of the affectation so common among authors as +to the publication of work. But the fear of any appearance of collusion +between himself and his critics was, as he said, a bugbear that +constantly haunted him. Owing to this, a stranger often stood a better +chance of securing his ready and open co-operation than the most +intimate of friends. I frequently yielded to his desire that in anything +that I might write his name should not be mentioned--too frequently +by far, to my infinite vexation at the time, and now to my deep and +ineradicable regret. The sonnet-book out of which arose much of the +correspondence printed in this chapter, contains in its preface and +notes hardly an allusion to him, and yet he was, in my judgment, out of +all reach and sight, the greatest sonnet-writer of his time. The sonnet +first sent was _Pride of Youth_, but as this formed part of _The House +of Life_ series, it was withdrawn, and _Raleigh's Cell in the Tower_ +was substituted The following hitherto unpublished sonnet was also +contributed but withdrawn at the last moment, because of its being out +of harmony with the sonnets selected to accompany it: + + ON CERTAIN ELIZABETHAN REVIVALS. + + O ruff-embastioned vast Elizabeth, + Bush to these bushel-bellied casks of wine, + Home-growth, 'tis true, but rank as turpentine,-- + What would we with such skittle-plays at death % + Say, must we watch these brawlers' brandished lathe, + Or to their reeking wit our ears incline, + Because all Castaly flowed crystalline + In gentle Shakspeare's modulated breath! + What! must our drama with the rat-pit vie, + Nor the scene close while one is left to kill! + Shall this be poetry % And thou--thou--man + Of blood, thou cannibalic Caliban, + What shall be said to thee?--a poet?--Fie! + "An honourable murderer, if you will" + + I mentioned to you [he says] William Davies, author of + _Songs of a Wayfarer_ (by the bye, another man has since + adopted his title). He has many excellent sonnets, and is a + valued friend of mine. I shall send you, on his behalf, a + copy of the book for selection of what you may please.... It + is very unequal, but the best truly excellent. The sonnets + are numerous, and some good, though the best work in the + book is not among them. There are two poems--_The Garden_, + and another called, I think, _On a dried-up Spring_, which + are worthy of the most fastidious collections. Many of the + poems are unnamed, and the whole has too much of a Herrick + air. . . . + + It is quite refreshing to find you so pleased with my good + friend Davies's book, and I wish he were in London, as I + would have shown him what you say, which I know would have + given him pleasure. He is a man who suffers much from moods + of depression, in spite of his philosophic nature. I have + marked fifty pieces of different kinds throughout his book, + and of these twenty-nine are sonnets. Had those fifty been + alone printed, Davies would now be remembered and not + forgotten: but all poets now-a-days are redundant except + Tennyson. ... + + I am this evening writing to Davies, who is in Rome, and + could not resist enclosing what you say, with so much + experimental appreciativeness of his book, and of his + intention to fill it with moral sunshine. I am sure he 'll + send a new sonnet if he has one, but I fancy his bardic day + is over. I should think he was probably not subject to + melancholy when he wrote the _Wayfarer_. However, he tells + me that his spirits have improved in Italy. One other little + book of Herrickian verse he has written, called _The + Shepherd!s Garden_, but there are no sonnets in it. Besides + this, he published a volume containing a record of travel of + a very interesting kind, and called _The Pilgrimage of the + Tiber_. This is well known. It is illustrated, many of the + drawings being by himself, for he is quite as much painter + as poet. He also wrote in _The Quarterly Review_ an article + on the sonnet (I should think about 1870 or so), and, a + little later, one which raised great wrath, on the English + School of Painting. These I have not seen. He "lacks + advancement," however; having fertile powers and little + opportunity, and being none the luckier (I think) for a + small independence which keeps off _compulsion_ to work, + though of willingness he has abundance in many directions. + + There is an admirable but totally unknown living poet named + Dixon. I will send you two small vols, of his which he gave + me long ago, but please take good care of them, and return + them as soon as done with. I value them highly. I forgot + till to-day that he had written any sonnets, but I see there + are three in one vol. and one in another. I have marked my + two favourites. He should certainly be represented in your + book. If I live, I mean to write something about him in some + quarter when I can. His finest passages are as fine as any + living man can do. He was a canon of Carlisle Cathedral, and + at present has a living somewhere. If you wanted to ask him + for an original sonnet, you might mention my name, and + address him at Carlisle with _Please forward_. Of course he + is a Rev. + + You will be sorry to hear that Davies has abandoned the hope + of producing a new sonnet to his own satisfaction. I have + again, however, urged him to the onslaught, and told him how + deserving you are of his efforts. + + Swinburne, who is a vast admirer of my sister's, thinks the + _Advent_ perhaps the noblest of all her poems, and also + specially loves the _Passing Away_. I do not know that I + quite agree with your decided preference for the two sonnets + of hers you signalise,--the _World_ is very fine, but the + other, _Dead before Death_, a little sensational for her. I + think _After Death_ one of her noblest, and the one _After + Communion_. In my own view, the greatest of all her poems is + that on France after the siege--_To-Day for Me_. A very + splendid piece of feminine ascetic passion is _The Convent + Threshold_. + + I have run the sonnet you like, _St. Luke the Painter_, into + a sequence with two more not yet printed, and given the + three a general title of _Old and New Art_, as well as + special titles to each. I shall annex them to _The House of + Life_. + + Have you ever read Vaughan? He resembles Donne a good deal + as to quaintness, but with a more emotional personality. + + I have altered the last line of octave in _Lost Days_. It + now runs-- + + "The undying throats of Hell, athirst alway." + + I always had it in my mind to make a change here, as the + _in_ standing in the line in its former reading clashed with + _in_ occurring in the previous line. I have done what I + think is a prime sonnet on the murdered Czar, which I + enclose, but don't show it to a soul. + + Theodore Watts is going to print a very fine sonnet of his + own in _The Athenaeum_. It is the first verse he ever put in + print, though he wrote much (when a very young man). Tell me + how you like it. I think he is destined to shine in that + class of poetry. + + I knew you must like Watts's sonnets. They are splendid + affairs. I am not sure that I agree with you in liking the + first the better of the two: the second (_Natura Maligna_) + is perhaps the deeper and finer. I have asked Watts to give + you a new sonnet, and I think perhaps he will do so, or at + all events give you permission to use those he has printed. + He has just come into the room, and says he would like to + hear from you on the subject. + + From one rather jocular sentence in your note I judge you + may include some sonnets of your own. I see no possible + reason why you should not. You are really now, at your + highest, among our best sonnet-writers, and have written two + or three sonnets that yield to few or none whatever. I am + forced, however, to request that you will not put in the one + referring to myself, from my constant bugbear of any + appearance of collusion. That sonnet is a very fine one--my + brother was showing it me again the other day. It is not my + personal gratification alone, though that is deep, because I + know you are sincere, which leads me to the conclusion that + it is your best, and very fine indeed. I think your + Cumberland sonnet admirable. The sonnet on Byron is + extremely musical in flow and the symbolic scenery of + exceptional excellence. The view taken is the question with + me. Byron's vehement directness, at its best, is a lasting + lesson: and, dubious monument as _Don Juan_ may be, it + towers over the century. Of course there is truth in what + you say; but _ought_ it to be the case? and is it the case + in any absolute sense? You deal frankly with your sonnets, + and do not shrink from radical change. I think that on + Oliver much better than when I saw it before. The opening + phrases of both octave and sestette are very fine; but the + second quatrain and the second terzina, though with a + quality of beauty, both seem somewhat to lack distinctness. + The word _rivers_ cannot be used with elision--the v is a + hard pebble in the flow, and so are the closing consonants. + You must put up with _streams_ if you keep the line. + + You should have Bailey's dedicatory sonnet in _Festus_. + + I am enclosing a fine sonnet by William Bell Scott, which I + wished him to let me send you for your book. It has not yet + been printed. I think I heard of some little chaffy matter + between him and you, but, doubtless, you have virtually + forgotten all about it. I must say frankly that I think the + day when you made the speech he told me of must have been + rather a wool-gathering one with you.... I suppose you know + that Scott has written a number of fine sonnets contained in + his vol of _Poems_ published about 1875, I think. + + I directed the attention of Mr. Waddington (whom, however, I + don't know personally) to a most noble sonnet by Fanny + Kemble, beginning, "Art thou already weary of the way?" He + has put it in, and several others of hers, but she is very + unequal, and I don't know if the others should be there, but + you should take the one in question. It sadly wants new + punctuation, being vilely printed just as I first saw it + when a boy in some twopenny edition. + + In a memoir of Gilchrist, appended now by his widow to the + _Life of Blake_, there is a sonnet by G., perhaps + interesting enough, as being exceptional, for you to ask for + it; but I don't advise you, if you don't think it worth. + + I have received from Mrs. Meynell, a sister of Eliz. + Thompson, the painter, a most genuine little book of poems + containing some sonnets of true spiritual beauty. I must + send it you. + + This book had just then been introduced to Rossetti with + much warmth of praise by Mr. Watts, and he took to it + vastly. + +This closes Rossetti's interesting letters on sonnet literature. In +reprinting his first volume of _Poems_ he had determined to remove +the sonnets of _The House of Life_ to the new volume of _Ballads and +Sonnets_, and fill the space with the fragment of a poem written in +youth, and now called _The Bride's Prelude_. He sent me a proof. The +reader will remember that as a narrative fragment it is less +remarkable for striking incident (though never failing of interest +and picturesqueness) than for a slow and psychical development which +ultimately gained a great hold of the sympathies. The poem leaves behind +it a sense as of a sultry day. Judging first of its merits as a song +(using the word in its broad and simple sense), the poem flows on the +tongue with unbroken sweetness and with a variety of cadence and light +and shade of melody which might admit of its pursuing its meanderings +through five times its less than 50 pages, and still keeping one's +senses awake to the constantly recurring advent of new and pleasing +literary forms. The story is a striking one, with a great wealth of +highly effective incident,--notably the episode of the card-playing, +and of the father striking down the sword which Raoul turns against the +breast of the bride. Almost equally memorable are the scenes in which +the lover appears, and the occasional interludes of incident in which, +between the pauses of the narrative, the bridegroom's retinue are heard +sporting in the courtyard without. + +The whole atmosphere of the poem is saturated in a medievalism of spirit +to which no lapse of modernism does violence, and the spell of romance +which comes with that atmosphere of the middle ages is never broken, but +preserved in the minutest most matter-of-fact details, such as the bowl +of water that stood amidst flowers, and in which the sister Amelotte +"slid a cup" and offered it to Aloyse to drink. But the one great charm +of the poem lies in its subtle and most powerful psychical analysis, +seen foreshadowed in the first mention of the bride sitting in the +shade, but first felt strongly when she begs her sister to pray, and +again when she tells how, at God's hint, she had whispered something of +the whole tale to her sister who slept + +The dread introspection pictured after the sin is in the highest degree +tragic, and affects one like remorse in its relentlessness, although +less remorse than fear of discovery. The sickness of the following +condition, with its yearnings, longings, dizziness, is very nobly +done, and delicate as is the theme, and demanding a touch of unerring +strength, yet lightness, the part of the poem concerned with it contains +certain of the most beautiful and stirring things. The madness (for it +is not less than such) in which at the sea-side, believing Urscelyn to +be lost, the bride tells the whole tale, whilst her curse laughed within +her to see the amazement and anger of her brothers and of her father, +is doubtless true enough to the frenzied state of her mind; but my +sympathies go out less to that part of the poem than to the subsequent +part, in which the bride-mother is described as leaning along in thought +after her child, till tears, not like a wedded girl's, fall among her +curls. Highly dramatic, too, is the passage in which she fears to curse +the evil men whose evil hands have taken her child, lest from evil lips +the curse should be a blessing. + +The characterisation seemed to be highly powerful, and, so far as it +went, finely contrasted. I could almost have wished that the love for +which the bride suffers so much had been more dwelt upon, and Urscelyn +had been made somehow more worthy of such love and sacrifice. The only +point in which the poem struck me, after mature reflection, as less +admirable than certain others of the author's, lay in the circumstance +that the narrative moves slowly, but, of course, it should be remembered +that the poem is one of emotion, not incident. There are most magical +flashes of imagery in the poem, notably in the passage beginning + + Her thought, long stagnant, stirred by speech, + Gave her a sick recoil; + As, dip thy fingers through the green + That masks a pool, where they have been, + The naked depth is black between. + +Rossetti wrote a valuable letter on his scheme for the completion of +_The Bride's Prelude_: + + I was much pleased with your verdict on _The Bride's + Prelude_. I think the poem is saved by its picturesqueness, + but that otherwise the story up to the point reached is too + purely repellent. I have the sequel quite clear in my mind, + and in it the mere passionate frailty of Aloyse's first love + would be followed by a true and noble love, rendered + calamitous by Urscelyn, who then (having become a powerful + soldier of fortune) solicits the hand of Aloyse. Thus the + horror which she expresses against him to her sister on the + bridal morning would be fully justified. Of course, Aloyse + would confess her fault to her second lover whose love + would, nevertheless, endure. The poem would gain so greatly + by this sequel that I suppose I must set to and finish it + one day, old as it is. I suppose it would be doubled, but + hardly more. I hate long poems. + + I quite think the card-playing passage the best thing--as a + unit--in the poem: but your opinion encourages my own, that + it fails nowhere of good material. It certainly moves slowly + as you say, and this is quite against the rule I follow. But + here was no life condensed in an episode; but a story which + had necessarily to be told step by step, and a situation + which had unavoidably to be anatomised. If it is not + unworthy to appear with my best things, that is all I hope + for it. You have pitched curiously upon some of my favourite + touches, and very coincidently with Watts's views. + +Early in 1881, he wrote: + + I am writing a ballad on the death of James I. of Scots. It + is already twice the length of _The White Ship_, and has a + good slice still to come. It is called _The King's Tragedy_, + and is a ripper I can tell you! + + The other day I got from Italy a paper containing a really + excellent and exceptional notice of my poems, written by the + author of a volume also sent me containing, among other + translations from the English, _Jenny, Last Confession_, + etc. + + I have been re-reading, after many years, Keats's _Otho the + Great_, and find it a much better thing than I remembered, + though only a draft. + + I am much exercised as to what you mention as to a _Michael + Scott_ scheme of Coleridge's. Where does he speak of it, and + what is it? It is quite new to me; but curiously enough, I + have a complete scheme drawn up for a ballad, to be called + _Michael Scott's Wooing_, not the one I proposed beginning + now--and also have long designed a picture under the same + title, but of quite different motif! Allan Cunningham wrote + a romance called _Sir Michael Scott_, but I never saw it. + + I have heard from Walter Severn about a subscription + proposed to erect a gravestone to his father beside that of + Keats. I should like you to copy for me your sonnet on + Severn. I hear it is in _The Athenaeum_, but have not seen + it. I was asked to prepare an inscription, which I send you. + Nothing would be so good as Severn's own words. + + I strongly urge you to go on with your book on the + _Supernatural_. The closing chapter should, I think, be on + the _weird_ element in its perfection, as shown by recent + poets in the mess--i.e. those who take any lead. Tennyson + has it certainly here and there in imagery, but there is no + great success in the part it plays through his _Idylls_. The + Old Romaunt beats him there. The strongest instance of this + feeling in Tennyson that I remember is in a few lines of + _The Palace of Art_: + + And hollow breasts enclosing hearts of flame; + And with dim-fretted foreheads all + On corpses three months old at morn she came + That stood against the wall. + + I won't answer for the precise age of the corpses--perhaps I + have staled them somewhat. + + + + +CHAPTER IX. + +It is in the nature of these Recollections that they should be personal, +and it can hardly occur to any reader to complain of them for being that +which above all else they purport to be. I have hitherto, however, been +conscious of a desire (made manifest to my own mind by the character of +my selections from the letters written to me) to impart to this volume +an interest as broad and general as may be. But my primary purpose is +now, and has been from the first, to afford the best view at my command +of Rossetti as a man; and more helpful to such purpose than any number +of critical opinions, however interesting, have often been those +passages in his letters where the writer has got closest to his +correspondent in revealing most of himself. In the chapter I am now +about to write I must perforce set aside all limitations of reserve if +I am to convey such an idea of Rossetti's last days as fills my mind; I +must be content to speak almost exclusively of my personal relations to +him, to the enforced neglect of the more intimate relations of others. + +About six months after my first visit, Rossetti invited me to spend +a week with him at his house, and this I was glad to be able to do. I +found him in many important particulars a changed man. His complexion +was brighter than before, and this circumstance taken alone might have +been understood to indicate improved bodily health, but in actual fact +it rather denoted in his case a retrograde physical tendency, as being +indicative chiefly of some recent excess in the use of his pernicious +drug. He was distinctly less inclined to corpulence, his eyes were less +bright, and had more frequently than formerly the appearance of gazing +upon vacancy, and when he walked to and fro in the studio, as it was +his habit to do at intervals of about an hour, he did so with a more +laboured sidelong motion than I had previously noticed, as though the +body unconsciously lost and then regained some necessary control and +command at almost every step. Half sensible, no doubt, of a reduced +condition, or guessing perhaps the nature of my reflections from a +certain uneasiness which it baffled my efforts to conceal, he paused for +an instant one evening in the midst of these melancholy perambulations +and asked me how he struck me as to health. More frankly than +judiciously I answered promptly, Less well than formerly. It was a +luckless remark, for Rossetti's prevailing wish at that moment was to +conceal even from himself his lowered state, and the time was still to +come when he should crave the questionable sympathy of those who said he +looked even more ill than he felt. Just before this, my second visit, +he had completed his _King's Tragedy_, and I had heard from his own lips +how prostrate the emotional strain involved in the production of the +poem had first left him. Casting himself now on the couch in an attitude +indicative of unusual exhaustion, he said the ballad had taken much out +of him. "It was as though my life ebbed out with it," he said, and in +saying so much of the nervous tension occasioned by the work in question +he did not overstate the truth as it presented itself to other eyes. +Time after time while the ballad was in course of production, he had +made effort to read it aloud to the friend to whose judgment his poetry +was always submitted, but had as frequently failed to do so from the +physical impossibility of restraining the tears that at every stage +welled up out of an overwrought nature, for the poet never existed +perhaps who, while at work, lived so vividly in the imagined situation. +And the weight of that work was still upon him when we met again. His +voice seemed to have lost much in quality, and in compass too to have +diminished: or if the volume of sound remained the same, it appeared to +have retired (so to express it) inwards, and to convey, when he spoke, +the idea of a man speaking as much to himself as to others. More than +ever now the scene of his life lacked for me some necessary vitality: it +breathed an atmosphere of sorrow: it was like the dream of a distempered +imagination out of which there came no welcome awakening, to say it was +not true. On the side of his intellectual life Rossetti was obviously +under less constraint with me than ever before. Previously he had seemed +to make a conscious effort to speak generously of all contemporaries, +and cordially of every friend with whom he was brought into active +relations; and if, by force of some stray impulse, he was ever led to +say a disparaging word of any one, he forthwith made a palpable, and +sometimes amusing, effort so to obliterate the injurious impression +as to convey the idea that he wished it to appear that he had not said +anything at all. But now this restraint was thrown aside. + +I perceived that the drug by which he was enslaved caused what I may +best characterise as intermittent waves of morbid suspiciousness as +to the good faith of every individual, including his best, oldest, +and truest friends, as to whom the most inexplicable delusions would +suddenly come, and as suddenly go. He would talk in the gravest and most +earnest way of the wrongs he had suffered at the hands of a dear friend, +and then the moment his eloquence had drawn from me an exclamation of +sympathy for him, he would turn round and heap upon the same individual +an extravagance of praise for his fidelity and good faith. And now, +he so classed his contemporaries as to leave no doubt that he was +duly sensible of his own place amongst them, preserving, meantime, a +dignified reticence as to the extent of his personal claims. + +His life was an anachronism. Such a man should have had no dealings with +the nineteenth century: he belonged to the sixteenth, or perhaps the +thirteenth, and in Italy not in England. It would, nevertheless, be +wrong to say that he was wholly indifferent to important political +issues, of which he took often a very judicial view. In dismissing +further mention of this second and prolonged meeting with Rossetti, +it only remains to me to say (as a necessary, if strictly personal, +explanation of much that will follow), that on the evening preceding my +departure, he asked me, in the event of my deciding to come to live in +London, to take up my quarters at his house. To this proposal I made no +reply: and neither his speech nor my silence needs any comment, and I +shall offer none. + +A month or two later my own health gave way, and then, a change of +residence being inevitable, Rossetti repeated his invitation; but a +London campaign, under such conditions as were necessarily entailed +by pitching one's tent with him, got further and further away, until +I seemed to see it through the inverse end of a telescope whereof the +slides were being drawn out, out, every day further and further. I +determined to spend half a year among' the mountains of Cumberland, +and went up to the Vale of St. John. Scarcely had I settled there when +Rossetti wrote that he must himself soon leave London: that he was +wearied out absolutely, and unable to sleep at night, that if he could +only reach that secluded vale he would breathe a purer air mentally +as well as physically. The mood induced by contemplation of the +tranquillity of my retreat over-against the turmoil and distractions +of the city _in_ which, though not _of_ which, he was, added to the +deepening exhaustion which had already begun when I left him, had +prevailed with him, he said, to ask me to come down to London, and +travel back with him. "Supposing," he wrote, "I were to ask you to come +to town in a fortnight's time from now--I returning with you for a while +into the country--would that be feasible to you?" + +Once unsettled in the environments within which for years he had moved +contentedly, a thousand reasons were found for the contemplated step, +and simultaneously a thousand obstacles arose to impede the execution of +it. "They have at length taken my garden," he said, "as they have long +threatened to do, and now they are really setting about building upon +it. I do not in the least know what my plans may be." And again: "It +seems certain that I must leave this house and seek another. Is there +any house in the neighbourhood of the Vale of St. John with a largish +room one could paint in (to N. or NE.)?" The idea of his taking up his +permanent abode so far out of the market circle was, I well knew, just +one of those impracticable notions which, with Rossetti, were abandoned +as soon as conceived, so I was not surprised to hear from him as +follows, by the succeeding post: "In what I wrote yesterday I said +something as to a possibility of leaving town, but I now perceive this +is not practicable at present; therefore need not trouble you to take +note of neighbouring houses." Presently he wrote again: "Bedevilments +thicken: the garden is ploughed up, and I 've not stirred out of the +house for a week: I must leave this place at once if I am to leave it +alive." {*} + + * It is but just to say that, although Rossetti wrote thus + peevishly of what was quite inevitable,--the yielding up of + his fine garden,--he would at other times speak of the great + courtesy and good-nature of Messrs. Pemberton, in allowing + him the use of the garden after it had been severed from the + property he hired. + +"My present purpose is to take another house in London. Could you not +come down and beat up agents for me? I know you will not deny me your +help. I hear of a house at Brixton, with a garden of two acres, and only +L130 a year." In a day or two even this last hope had proved delusive: +"I find the house at Brixton will not do, and I hear of nothing else.... +I am anxious as to having become perfectly deaf on the right side of +my head. Partial approaches to this have sometimes occurred to me and +passed away, so I will not be too much troubled at it." A little later +he wrote: "Now my housekeeper is leaving me, her mother being very ill. +Can you not come to my assistance? Come at once and we will set sail +in one boat." I appear to have replied to this last appeal in a tone +of some little scepticism as to his remaining long in the same mind +relative to our mutual housemating, for subsequently he says: "At this +writing I can see no likelihood of my not remaining in the mind that, +in case of your coming to London, your quarters should be taken up here. +The house is big enough for two, even if they meant to be strangers to +each other. You would have your own rooms and we should meet just when +we pleased. You have got a sufficient inkling of my exceptional habits +not to be scared by them. It is true, at times my health and spirits are +variable, but I am sure we should not be squabbling. However, it seems +you have no intention of a quite immediate move, and we can speak +farther of it." I readily consented to do whatever seemed feasible +to help him out of his difficulties, which existed, however, as I +perceived, much more in his own mind than in actual fact. I thought +a brief holiday in the solitude within which I was then located would +probably be helpful in restoring a tranquil condition of mind, and as +his brother, Mr. Scott, Mr. Watts, Mr. Shields, and other friends in +London, were of a similar opinion, efforts were made to induce him +to undertake the journey which he had been the first to think of. +His oldest friend, Mr. Madox Brown (whose presence would have been as +valuable now as it had proved to be on former occasions), was away at +Manchester, and remained there throughout the time of his last illness. +His moods at this time were too variable to be relied upon three days +together, and so I find him writing: + + Many thanks for the information as to your Shady Vale, which + seems a vision--a distant one, alas!--of Paradise. Perhaps I + may reach it yet.... I am now thinking of writing another + ballad-poem to add at the end of my volume. It is romantic, + not historical I have a clear scheme for it and believe your + scenery might help me much if I could get there. When you + hear that scheme, you will, I believe, pronounce it + precisely fitted to the scenery you describe as now + surrounding you. That scenery I hope to reach a little + later, but meantime should much like to see you in London + and return with you. + +The proposed ballad was to be called _The Orchard Pits_ and was to be +illustrative of the serpent fascination of beauty, but it was never +written. Contented now to await the issue of events, he proceeded to +write on subjects of general interest: + + Keats (page 154, vol. i., of Houghton's Life, etc.) mentions + among other landscape features the Vale of St. John. So you + may think of him in the neighbourhood as well as (or, if you + like, rather than) Wordsworth. + + I have been reading again Hogg's Shelley. S. appears to have + been as mad at Keswick as everywhere else, but not madder;-- + that he could not compass. + +At this juncture some unlooked-for hitch in the arrangements then +pending for the sale of the _Dante's Dream_ to the Corporation of +Liverpool rendered my presence in London inevitable, and upon my arrival +I found that Rossetti had fitted out rooms for my reception, although +I had never down to that moment finally decided to avail myself of an +offer which upon its first being broached, appeared to be too one-sided +a bargain (in which of course the sacrifice seemed to be Rossetti's) to +admit of my entertaining it. In this way I drifted into my position as +Rossetti's housemate. + +The letters and scraps of notes I have embodied in the foregoing will +probably convey a better idea of Rossetti's native irresolution, as it +was made manifest to me in the early part of 1881, than any abstract +definition, however faithful and exact, could be expected to do. +Irresolution was indubitably his most noticeable quality at the time +when I came into active relation with him; and if I be allowed to have +any perception of character and any acquaintance with the fundamental +traits that distinguish man from man, I shall say unhesitatingly (though +I well know how different is the opinion of others) that irresolution +with melancholy lay at the basis of his nature. I have heard Mr. +Swinburne speak of a cheerfulness of deportment in early life, which +imparted an idea as of one who could not easily be depressed. I have +heard Mr. Watts speak of the days at Kelmscott Manor House, where +he first knew him, and where Rossetti was the most delightful of +companions. I have heard Canon Dixon speak of a determination of purpose +which yielded to no sort of obstacle, but carried its point by the sheer +vehemence with which it asserted it. I can only say that I was witness +to neither characteristic. Of traits the reverse of these, I was +constantly receiving evidence; but let it be remembered that before I +joined Rossetti (which was only in the last year of his life) in that +intimate relation which revealed to my unwilling judgment every foible +and infirmity of character, the whole nature of the man had been +vitiated by an enervating drug. At my meeting with him the brighter +side of his temperament had been worn away in the night-troubles of his +unrestful couch; and of that needful volition, which establishes for +a man the right to rule not others but himself, only the mockery and +inexplicable vagaries of temper remained. When I knew him, Rossetti was +devoid of resolution. At that moment at which he had finally summoned +up every available and imaginable reason for pursuing any particular +course, his purpose wavered and his heart gave way. When I knew him, +Rossetti was destitute of cheerfulness or content. At that instant, +at which the worst of his shadowy fears had been banished by some +fortuitous occurrence that lit up with an unceasing radiation of hope +every prospect of life, he conjured out of its very brightness fresh +cause for fear and sadness. True, indeed, these may have been no more +than symptoms of those later phenomena which came of disease, and +foreshadowed death. Other minds may reduce to a statement of cause and +effect what I am content to offer as fact. + +Upon settling with Rossetti in July 1881, I perceived that his health +was weaker. His tendency to corpulence had entirely disappeared, his +feebleness of step had become at certain moments painfully apparent, +and his temper occasionally betrayed signs of bitterness. To myself, +personally, he was at this stage as genial as of old, or if for an +instant he gave vent to an unprovoked outburst of wrath, he would far +more than atone for it by a look of inexpressible remorse and some +feeling words of regret, whereof the import sometimes was-- + +I wish you were indeed my son, for though then I should still have no +right to address you so, I should at least have some right to expect +your forgiveness. + +In such moods of more than needful solicitude for one's acutest +sensibilities, Rossetti was absolutely irresistible. + +As I have said, the occupant of this great gloomy house, in which I had +now become a resident, had rarely been outside its doors for two years; +certainly never afoot, and only in carriages with his friends. Upon the +second night of my stay, I announced my intention of taking a walk on +the Chelsea embankment, and begged him to accompany me. To my amazement +he yielded, and every night for a week following, I succeeded in +inducing him to repeat the now unfamiliar experience. It was obvious +enough to himself that he walked totteringly, with infinite expenditure +of physical energy, and returned in a condition of exhaustion that left +him prostrate for an hour afterwards. The root of all this evil was soon +apparent. He was exceeding with the chloral, and little as I expected or +desired to exercise a moral guardianship over the habits of this great +man, I found myself insensibly dropping into that office. + +Negotiations for the sale of the Liverpool picture were now complete; +the new volume of poems and the altered edition of the old volume had +been satisfactorily passed through the press; and it might have been +expected that with the anxiety occasioned by these enterprises, +would pass away the melancholy which in a nature like Rossetti's they +naturally induced. The reverse was the fact, He became more and more +depressed as each palpable cause of depression was removed, and more +and more liable to give way to excess with the drug. By his brother, Mr. +Watts, Mr. Shields, and others who had only too frequently in times past +had experience of similar outbreaks, this failure in spirits, with +all its attendant physical weakness, was said to be due primarily to +hypochondriasis. Hence the returning necessity to get him away (as +Mr. Madox Brown had done at a previous crisis) for a change of air and +scene. Once out of this atmosphere of gloom, we hoped that amid cheerful +surroundings his health would speedily revive. Infinite were the efforts +that had to be made, and countless the precautions that had to be taken +before he could be induced to set out, but at length we found ourselves +upon our way to Keswick, at nine p.m., one evening in September, in +a special carriage packed with as many artist's trappings and as many +books as would have lasted for a year. + +We reached Penrith as the grey of dawn had overspread the sky. It was +six o'clock as we got into the carriage that was to drive us through the +vale of St. John to our destination at the Legberthwaite end of it. The +morning was now calm, the mountains looked loftier, grander, and yet +more than ever precipitous from the road that circled about their base. +Nothing could be heard but the calls of the awakening cattle, the rumble +of cataracts far away, and the rush and surge of those that were near. +Rossetti was all but indifferent to our surroundings, or displayed only +such fitful interest in them as must have been affected out of a kindly +desire to please me. He said the chloral he had taken daring the journey +was upon him, and he could not see. At length we reached the house that +was for some months to be our home. It stood at the foot of a ghyll, +which, when swollen by rain, was majestic in volume and sound. The +little house we had rented was free from all noise other than the +occasional voice of a child or bark of a dog. Here at least he might +bury the memory of the distractions of the city that vexed him. Save +for the ripple of the river that flowed at his feet, the bleating +of sheep on Golden Howe, the echo of the axe of the woodman who was +thinning the neighbouring wood, and the morning and evening mail-coach +horn, he might delude himself into forgetfulness that he belonged any +longer to this noisy earth. + +Next day Rossetti was exceptionally well, and astounded me by the +proposal that we should ascend Golden Howe together--a little mountain +of some 1000 feet that stands at the head of Thirlmere. With never a +hope on my part of our reaching the summit, we set out for that purpose, +but through no doubt the exhilarating effect of the mountain air, he +actually compassed the task he had proposed to himself, and sat for an +hour on that highest point from whence could be seen the Skiddaw range +to the north, Haven's Crag to the west, Styx Pass and Helvellyn to the +east, and the Dunmail Raise to the south, with the lake below. Rossetti +was struck by the variety of configuration in the hills, and even more +by the variety of colour. But he was no great lover of landscape beauty, +and the majestic scene before us produced less effect upon his mind than +might perhaps have been expected. He seemed to be almost unconscious of +the unceasing atmospheric changes that perpetually arrest and startle. +the observer in whom love of external nature in her grander moods has +not been weakened by disease. The complete extent of the Vale of St. +John could be traversed by the eye from the eminence upon which we sat. +The valley throughout its three-mile length is absolutely secluded: one +has only the hills for company, and to say the truth they are sometimes +fearful company too. Usually the landscape wears a cheerful aspect, but +at times long fleecy clouds drive midway across the mountains, leaving +the tops visible. The scenery is highly awakening to the imagination. +Even the country people are imaginative, and the country is full +of ghostly legend. I was never at any moment sensible that these +environments affected Rossetti: assuredly they never agitated him, and +no effort did he make to turn them to account for the purposes of +the romantic ballad he had spoken of as likely to grow amidst such +surroundings. + +Being much more than ordinarily cheerful during the first evenings of +our stay in the North, he talked sometimes of his past life and of the +men and women he had known in earlier years. Carlyle's _Reminiscences_ +had not long before been published. Mrs. Carlyle, therein so +extravagantly though naturally belauded, he described as a bitter +little woman, with, however, the one redeeming quality of unostentatious +charity: "The poor of Chelsea," he said, "always spoke well of her." +"George Eliot," whose genius he much admired, he had ceased to know long +before her death, but he spoke of the lady as modest and retiring, and +amiable to a fault when the outer crust of reticence had been broken +through. Longfellow had called upon him whilst he was painting the +_Dante's Dream_. The old poet was Courteous and complimentary in +the last degree; he seemed, however, to know little or nothing about +painting as an art, and also to have fallen into the error of thinking +that Rossetti the painter and Sossetti the poet were different men; in +short, that the Dante of that name was the painter, and the William the +poet. Upon leaving the house, Longfellow had said: "I have been glad to +meet you, and should like to have met your brother; pray, tell him how +much I admire his beautiful poem, _The Blessed Damozel_" Giving no +hint of the error, Rossetti said he had answered, "I will tell him." He +painted a little during our stay in the North, for it was whilst +there that he began the beautiful replica of his _Proserpina_, now the +property of Mr. Valpy. I found it one of my best pleasures to watch a +picture growing under his hand, and thought it easy to see through +the medium of his idealised heads, cold even in their loveliness, +unsubstantial in their passion, that to the painter life had been a +dream into which nothing entered that was not as impalpable as itself. +Tainted by the touch of melancholy that is the blight that clings to the +purest beauty, his pictured faces were, in my view, akin to his poetry, +every line of which, as he sometimes recited it, seemed as though it +echoed the burden of a bygone sorrow--the sorrow of a dream rather than +that of a life, or of a life that had been itself a dream. I also then +realised what Mr. Theodore Watts has said in a letter just now +written to me from Sark, that, "apart from any question of technical +shortcomings, one of Rossetti's strongest claims to the attention of +posterity was that of having invented, in the three-quarter-length +pictures painted from one face, a type of female beauty which was akin +to none other,--which was entirely new, in short,--and which, for +wealth of sublime and mysterious suggestion, unaided by complex dramatic +design, was unique in the art of the world." + +On one occasion the talk turned on the eccentricities and affectations +of men of genius, and I did my best to-ridicule them unsparingly, saying +they were a purely modern extravagance, the highest intellects of other +times being ever the sanest, Shakspeare, Cervantes, Goethe, Coleridge, +Wordsworth; the root of the evil had been Shelley, who was mad, and in +imitation of whose madness, modern men of genius must many of them +be mad also, until it had come to such a pass-that if a gifted man +conducted himself throughout life with probity and propriety we +instantly began to doubt the value of his gifts. Rossetti evidently +thought that in all this I was covertly hitting out at himself, and +cut short the conversation with an unequivocal hint that he had no +affectations, and could not account himself an authority with respect to +them. + +With such talk a few of our evenings were spent, but too soon the +insatiable craving for the drug came with renewed force, and then all +pleasant intercourse was banished. Night after night we sat up until +eleven, twelve, and one o'clock, watching the long hours go by with +heavy steps; waiting, waiting, waiting for the time at which he could +take his first draught, and drop into his pillowed place and snatch a +dreamless sleep of three or four hours' duration. + +In order to break the monotony of nights such as I describe I sometimes +read from Fielding, Richardson, and Sterne, but more frequently induced +Rossetti to recite. Thus, with failing voice, he would again and again +attempt, at my request, his _Cloud Confines_, or passages from _The +King's Tragedy_, and repeatedly, also, Poe's _Ulalume_ and _Raven_. I +remember that, touching the last-mentioned of these poems, he remarked +that out of his love of it while still a boy his own _Blessed Damozel_ +originated. "I saw," he said, "that Poe had done the utmost it was +possible to do with the grief of the lover on earth, and so I determined +to reverse the conditions, and give utterance to the yearning of the +loved one in heaven." At that time of the year the night closed in as +early as seven or eight o'clock, and then in that little house among +the solitary hills his disconsolate spirit would sometimes sink beyond +solace into irreclaimable depths of depression. + +It was impossible that such a condition of things should last, and it +was with unspeakable relief that I heard Rossetti express a desire to +return home. Mr. Watts, who at that time was at Stratford-upon-Avon, had +promised to join us, but now wrote to say that this was impossible. Had +it been otherwise, Rossetti would willingly have remained, but now he +longed to get back to London. His life had lost its joys. The success of +his Liverpool picture was almost as nothing to him, and the enthusiastic +reception given to his book gave him not more than a passing pleasure, +though he was deeply touched by the sympathetic and exhaustive criticism +published by Professor Dowden in _The Academy_, as well as by Professor +Colvin's friendly monograph in _The World_. At length one night, a month +after our arrival, we set out on our return, and well do I remember the +pathos of his words as I helped him (now feebler than ever) into his +house. "Thank God! home at last, and never shall I leave it again!" + +Very natural was the deep concern of his friends, especially of his +brother and Mr. Shields, at finding him return even less well than he +had set out. With deeper reliance on past knowledge of the man, Mr. +Watts still took a hopeful view, attributing the physical prostration +to hypochondriasis, which might, in common with all similar nervous +ailments, impose as much pain upon the victim as if the sufferings +complained of had a real foundation in positive disease, but might +also give way at any moment when the victim could be induced to take +a hopeful view of life. The cheerfulness of Mr. Watts's society, after +what I well know must have been the lugubrious nature of my own, had at +first its usual salutary effect upon Rossetti's spirits, and I will not +forbear to say that I, too, welcomed it as a draught of healing morning +air after a month-long imprisonment in an atmosphere of gloom. But I +was not yet freed of my charge. The sense of responsibility which in the +solitude of the mountains had weighed me down, was now indeed divided +with his affectionate family and the friends who were Rossetti's friends +before they were mine, and who came at this juncture with willing +help, prompted chiefly, of course, by devotion to the great man in sore +trouble, but also--I must allow myself to think--in one or two cases by +desire to relieve me of some of the burden of the task that had fallen +so unexpectedly upon me. Foremost among such disinterested friends was +of course the friend I have spoken of so frequently in these pages, +and for whom I now felt a growing regard arising as much out of my +perception of the loyalty of his comradeship as the splendour of his +gifts. But after him in solicitous service to Rossetti, at this +moment of great need, came Frederick Shields (the fine tissue of whose +highly-strung nature must have been sorely tried by the strain to which +it was subjected), Mr. W. B. Scott, whose visits were never more warmly +welcomed by Rossetti than at this season, the good and gifted Miss Boyd, +and of course Rossetti's brother, sister, and mother, to each of whom he +was affectionately attached. Strange enough it seemed that this man who, +for years had shunned the world and chosen solitude when he might have +had society, seemed at last to grow weary of his loneliness. But so it +was. Rossetti became daily more and more dependent upon his friends +for company that should not fail him, for never for an hour now could he +endure to be alone. Remembering this, I almost doubt if by nature he was +at any time a solitary. There are men who feel more deeply the sense of +isolation amidst the busiest crowds than within the narrowest circle of +intimates, and I have heard from Rossetti reminiscences of his earlier +life that led me to believe that he was one of the number. Perhaps, +after all, he wandered from the world rather from the dread than with +the hope of solitude. In such pleasant intercourse as the visits of the +friends I have named afforded, was the sadness of the day in a measure +dissipated, but when night came I never failed to realise that no +progress whatever had been made. I tried to check the craving for +chloral, but I could as easily have checked the rising tide: and where +the lifelong assiduity of older friends had failed to eradicate a +morbid, ruinous, and fatal thirst, it was presumptous if not ridiculous +to imagine that the task could be compassed by a frail creature with +heart and nerves of wax. But the whole scene was now beginning to have +an interest for me more personal and more serious than I have yet given +hint of. The constant fret and fume of this life of baffled effort, +of struggle with a deadly drug that had grown to have an objective +existence in my mind as the existence of a fiend, was not without a +sensible effect upon myself. I became ill for a few days with a low +fever, but far worse than this was the fact that there was creeping over +me the wild influence of Rossetti's own distempered imaginings. + +Once conscious of such influence I determined to resist it, but how to +do so I knew not without flying utterly away from an atmosphere in which +my best senses seemed to stagnate, and burying the memory of it for +ever. + +The crisis was pending, and sooner than we expected it came. A nurse +was engaged. One evening Dr. Westland Marston and his son Philip Bourke +Marston came to spend a few hours with Rossetti, For a while he seemed +much cheered by their bright society, but later on he gave those +manifestations of uneasiness which I had learned to know too well. +Removing restlessly from seat to seat, he ultimately threw himself +upon the sofa in that rather awkward attitude which I have previously +described as characteristic of him in moments of nervous agitation. +Presently he called out that his arm had become paralysed, and, upon +attempting to rise, that his leg also had lost its power. We were +naturally startled, but knowing the force of his imagination in its +influence on his bodily capacity, we tried playfully to banish the idea. +Raising him to his feet, however, we realised that from whatever cause, +he had lost the use of the limbs in question, and in the utmost alarm +we carried him to his bedroom, and hurried away for Mr. Marshall It was +found that he had really undergone a species of paralysis, called, I +think, loss of co-ordinative power. The juncture was a critical one, and +it was at length decided by the able medical adviser just named, that +the time had come when the chloral, which was at the root of all this +mischief, should be decisively, entirely, and instantly cut off. To +compass this end a young medical man, Mr. Henry Maudsley, was brought +into the house as a resident to watch and manage the case in the +intervals of Mr. Marshall's visits. It is not for me to offer a +statement of what was done, and done so ably at this period. I only know +that morphia was at first injected as a substitute for the narcotic the +system had grown to demand; that Rossetti was for many hours delirious +whilst his body was passing through the terrible ordeal of having to +conquer the craving for the former drug, and that three or four mornings +after the experiment had been begun he awoke calm in body, and clear +in mind, and grateful in heart. His delusions and those intermittent +suspicions of his friends which I have before alluded to, were now gone, +as things in the past of which he hardly knew whether in actual fact +they had or had not been. Christmas Day was now nigh at hand, and, still +confined to his room, he begged me to promise to spend that day with +him; "otherwise," he said, "how sad a day it must be for me, for I +cannot fairly ask any other." With a tenderness of sympathy I shall not +forget, Mr. Scott had asked me to dine that day at his more cheerful +house; but I reflected that this was to be my first Christmas in London +and it might be Rossetti's last, so I put by pleasanter considerations. +We dined alone, but, somewhat later, William Rossetti, with true +brotherly affection, left the guests at his own house, and ran down +to spend an hour with the invalid. We could hear from time to time the +ringing of the bells of the neighbouring churches, and I noticed that +Rossetti was not disturbed by them as he had been formerly. Indeed, the +drug once removed, he was in every sense a changed man. He talked that +night brightly, and with more force and incisiveness, I thought, than he +had displayed for months. There was the ring of affection in his tone as +he said he had always had loyal friends; and then he spoke with feeling +of Mr. Watts's friendship, of Mr. Shields's, and afterwards he spoke of +Mr. Burne Jones who had just previously visited him, as well as of Mr. +Madox Brown, and his friendship of a lifetime; of Mr. Swinburne, Mr. +Morris, Mr. Stephens, Mr. Boyce, and other early friends. He said a word +or two of myself which I shall not repeat, and then spoke with emotion +of his mother and sister, and of his sister who was dead, and how they +were supported through their sore trials by religious resignation. He +asked if I, like Shields, was a believer, and seemed altogether in a +softer and more spiritual mood than I remember to have noticed before. + +With such talk we passed the Christmas night of 1881. Rossetti recovered +power in some measure, was able to get down to the studio, and see the +friends who called--Mr. F. E. Leyland frequently, Lord and Lady Mount +Temple, Mrs. Sumner, Mr. Boyce, Mr. F. G. Stephens, Mr. Gilchrist, Mr. +and Mrs. Virtue Tebbs, Mrs. Stillman, Mrs. Coronio, and Mr. C. and Mr. +A. Ionides occasionally, as well as those previously named. A visit +from Dr. Hueffer of the _Times_ (of whose gifts he had a high opinion), +enlivened him perceptibly. But he did not recover, and at the end of +January 1882 it was definitely determined that he should go to the +sea-side. I was asked to accompany him, and did so. At the right +juncture Mr. J. P. Seddon very hospitably tendered the use of his +handsome bungalow at Birchington-on-Sea, a little watering-place four +miles west of Margate. There we spent nine weeks. At first going out he +was able to take short walks on the cliffs, or round the road that winds +about the churchyard, but his strength grew less and less every day +and hour. We were constantly visited by Mr. Watts, whose devotion never +failed, and Rossetti would brighten up at the prospect of one of his +visits, and become sensibly depressed when he had gone. Mr. William +Sharp, too (a young friend of whose gifts as a poet Rossetti had a +genuine appreciation, and by whom he had been visited at intervals +for some time), came out occasionally and cheered up the sufferer in +a noticeable degree. Then his mother and sister came and stayed in the +house during many weeks at the last. How shall I speak of the tenderness +of their solicitude, of their unwearying attentions, in a word of their +ardent and reciprocated love of the illustrious son and brother for whom +they did the thousand gentle offices which they alone could have done! +The end was drawing on, and we all knew the fact. Rossetti had actually +taken to poetical composition afresh, and had written a facetious ballad +(conceived years before) of the length of _The White Ship_, called _Jan +Van Hunks_, embodying an eccentric story of a Dutchman's wager to smoke +against the devil. This was to appear in a miscellany of stories and +poems by himself and Mr. Watts, a project which had been a favourite one +of his for some years, and in which he now, in his last moments, took a +revived interest strange and strong. + +About this time he derived great gratification from reading an article +on him and his works in _Le Livre_ by Mr. Joseph Knight, an old friend +to whom he was deeply attached, and for whose gifts he had a genuine +admiration. Perhaps the very last letter Rossetti penned was written to +Mr. Knight upon the subject of this article. + +His intellect was as powerful as in his best days, and freer than ever +of hallucinations. But his bodily strength grew less and less. His sight +became feebler, and then he abandoned the many novels that had recently +solaced his idler hours, and Miss Rossetti read aloud to him. Among +other books she read Dickens's _Tale of Two Cities_, and he seemed +deeply touched by Sidney Carton's sacrifice, and remarked that he would +like to paint the last scene of the story. + +On Wednesday morning, April 5th, I went into the bedroom to which he had +for some days been confined, and wrote out to his dictation two sonnets +which he had composed on a design of his called _The Sphinx_, and which +he wished to give, together with the drawing and the ballad before +described, to Mr. Watts for publication in the volume just mentioned. +On the Thursday morning I found his utterance thick, and his speech from +that cause hardly intelligible. It chanced that I had just been reading +Mr. Buchanan's new volume of poems, and in the course of conversation +I told him the story of the ballad called _The Lights of Leith_, and +he was affected by the pathos of it. He had heard of that author's +retractation{*} of the charges involved in the article published ten +years earlier, and was manifestly touched by the dedication of the +romance _God and the Man_. He talked long and earnestly that morning, +and it was our last real interview. He spoke of his love of early +English ballad literature, and of how when he first met with it he had +said to himself: "There lies your line." + + + * The retractation, which now has a peculiar literary + interest, was made in the following verses, and should, I + think, be recorded here: + + To an old Enemy. + + I would have snatch'd a bay-leaf from thy brow, + Wronging the chaplet on an honoured head; + In peace and charity I bring thee now + A lily-flower instead. + Pure as thy purpose, blameless as thy song, + Sweet as thy spirit, may this offering be; + Forget the bitter blame that did thee wrong, + And take the gift from me! + + In a later edition of the romance the following verses are + added to the dedication: + + To Dante Gabriel Rossetti: + + Calmly, thy royal robe of death around thee, + Thou Bleekest, and weeping brethren round thee stand-- + Gently they placed, ere yet God's angel crown'd thee, + My lily in thy hand! + I never knew thee living, O my brother! + But on thy breast my lily of love now lies; + And by that token, we shall know each other, + When God's voice saith "Arise!" + +"Can you understand me?" he asked abruptly, alluding to the thickness of +his utterance. + +"Perfectly." + +"Nurse Abrey cannot: what a good creature she is!" + +That night we telegraphed to Mr. Marshall, to Mr. W. M. Rossetti, and +Mr. Watts, and wrote next morning to Mr. Shields, Mr. Scott, and Mr. +Madox Brown. It had been found by the resident medical man, Dr. Harris, +that in Rossetti's case kidney disease had supervened. His dear mother +and I sat up until early morning with him, and when we left him his +sister took our place and remained with him the whole of that and +subsequent nights. He sat up in bed most of the time and said a sort of +stupefaction had removed all pain. He crooned over odd lines of poetry. +"My own verses torment me," he said. Then he half-sang, half-recited, +snatches from one of Iago's songs in _Othello_. "Strange things," he +murmured, "to come into one's head at such a moment." I told him his +brother and Mr. Watts would be with him to-morrow. "Then you really +think that I am dying? At _last_ you think so; but _I_ was right from +the first." + +Next day, Good Friday, the friends named did come, and weak as he was, +he was much cheered by their presence. The following day Mr. Marshall +arrived. + +That gentleman recognised the alarming position of affairs, but he was +not without hope. He administered a sort of hot bath, and on Sunday +morning Rossetti was perceptibly brighter. Mr. Shields had now arrived, +and one after one of his friends, including Mr. Leyland, who was at the +time staying at Ramsgate, and made frequent calls, visited him in his +room and found him able to listen and sometimes to talk. In the evening +the nurse gave a cheering report of his condition, and encouraged by +such prospects, Mr. Watts, Mr. Shields, and myself, gave way to good +spirits, and retired to an adjoining room. About nine o'clock Mr. +Watts left us, and returning in a short time, said he had been in the +sickroom, and had had some talk with Rossetti, and found him cheerful. +An instant afterwards we heard a scream, followed by a loud rapping at +our door. We hurried into Rossetti's room and found him in convulsions. +Mr. Watts raised him on one side, whilst I raised him on the other; his +mother, sister, and brother, were immediately present (Mr. Shields had +fled away for the doctor); there were a few moments of suspense, and +then we saw him die in our arms. Mrs. William Rossetti arrived from +Manchester at this moment. + +Thus on Easter Day Rossetti died. It was hard to realise that he was +actually dead; but so it was, and the dreadful fact had at last come +upon us with a horrible suddenness. Of the business of the next few +days I need say nothing. I went up to London in the interval between the +death and burial, and the old house at Chelsea, which, to my mind, in my +time had always been desolate, was now more than ever so, that the man +who had been its vitalising spirit lay dead eighty miles away by the +side of the sea. It was decided to bury the poet in the churchyard +of Birchington. The funeral, which was a private one, was attended by +relatives and personal friends only, with one or two well-wishers from +London. + +Next day we saw most of the friends away by train, and, some days later, +Mr. Watts was with myself the last to leave. I thought we two were drawn +the closer each to each from the loss of him by whom we were brought +together. We walked one morning to the churchyard and found the grave, +which nestles under the south-west porch, strewn with flowers. +The church is an ancient and quaint early Gothic edifice, somewhat +rejuvenated however, but with ivy creeping over its walls. The prospect +to the north is of sea only: a broad sweep of landscape so flat and so +featureless that the great sea dominates it. As we stood there, with the +rumble of the rolling waters borne to us from the shore, we felt that +though we had little dreamed that we should lay Rossetti in his last +sleep here, no other place could be quite so fit. It was, indeed, the +resting-place for a poet. In this bed, of all others, he must at length, +after weary years of sleeplessness, sleep the only sleep that is deep +and will endure. Thinking of the incidents which I have in this chapter +tried to record, my mind reverted to a touching sonnet which the friend +by my side had just printed; and then, for the first time, I was struck +by its extraordinary applicability to him whom we had laid below. In its +printed form it was addressed to Heine, and ran: + + Thou knew'st that island far away and lone + Whose shores are as a harp, where billows break + In spray of music and the breezes shake + O'er spicy seas a woof of colour and tone, + While that sweet music echoes like a moan + In the island's heart, and sighs around the lake + Where, watching fearfully a watchful snake, + A damsel weeps upon her emerald throne. + + Life's ocean, breaking round thy senses' shore, + Struck golden song as from the strand of day: + For us the joy, for thee the fell foe lay-- + Pain's blinking snake around the fair isle's core, + Turning to sighs the enchanted sounds that play + Around thy lovely island evermore. + +"How strangely appropriate it is," I said, "to Rossetti, and now I +remember how deeply he was moved on reading it." + +"He guessed its secret; I addressed it, for disguise, to Heine, to whom +it was sadly inapplicable. I meant it for _him_." + + +THE END. + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Recollections of Dante Gabriel Rossetti, by +T. Hall Caine + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK RECOLLECTIONS OF ROSSETTI *** + +***** This file should be named 25574.txt or 25574.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/2/5/5/7/25574/ + +Produced by David Widger + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, +set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to +copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to +protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark. 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