ROSSETTI PAPERS
•
ROSSETTI PAPERS
1862 to 1870
A COMPILATION BY
WILLIAM MICHAEL ROSSETTI
C'est par la qu'ont passe des homines disparus
VICTOR HUGO
LONDON
SANDS & CO
12 BURLEIGH STREET, STRAND
1903
PR
THE DEDICATION OF THIS BOOK
WAS ACCEPTED BY
TWO OF MY BEST FRIENDS,
DESERVEDLY AND HIGHLY PRIZED
BY DANTE AND CHRISTINA ROSSETTI
MARIE STILLMAN AND WILLIAM JAMES STILLMAN
I NOW DEDICATE IT TO
MARIE STILLMAN
AND TO THE CHERISHED MEMORY OF HER
HUSBAND
W. M. ROSSETTI
PREFACE
A VERY few words may suffice for ushering-in this volume.
In 1899 I published two separate books — named respec-
tively, Ruskin, Rossetti, Praraphaelitism, and Prceraphaelite
Diaries and Letters. They both consist of letters, journals,
and similar papers, of old date. The main though not the
exclusive object of these books is to show forth the career
of my brother Dante Gabriel Rossetti. They carried the
record up to February 1862, when his Wife died : and in the
present volume I prolong the record up to April 1870,
when his first book of original poetry, entitled Poems, was
published.
As in the two volumes mentioned above, so also here, I
adopt a strictly chronological arrangement of my materials,
whatever may be the diversity of subject-matter. Diaries
however are allowed to run on uninterruptedly year by
year.
Where I make an omission from any document, I mark
the fact by dots. In the volume named Ruskin, Rossetti,
Prceraphaelitism, I explained that the passages omitted are
very generally such as would be of little or no interest to the
reader ; although occasionally it happens that something
which might be of interest is excluded on other grounds.
In prefacing the Prceraphaelite Diaries and Letters, I might
have repeated the same observation : I thought it superfluous
to do so, and some critics raised a query as to what could
have been the motive for the omissions. Therefore, with
respect to the present volume, I recur to my original state-
ment, which once again holds good. I would not deny that,
vii
viii PREFACE
in a certain sense, letters read better if given without the
omission of even unimportant matter; but, apart from my
reluctance to include what is really trivial, I must, in such a
compilation as the present, economize my space.
In various instances I have had to consult the writers of
letters, or the representatives of the writers. Ready per-
mission for publishing has been accorded, and for this I
tender my thanks.
WM. M. ROSSETTI.
LONDON,///^ 1900.
It may serve the reader's convenience if I here give a
slight account of some leading contents of this volume.
Year 1862.— The death of Mrs Dante Rossetti. The
removal of Dante Rossetti from Chatham Place to Lincoln's
Inn Fields, and to No. 16 Cheyne Walk, Chelsea. William
Blake, and Alexander Gilchrist's Life of him. My trip to
Italy with William Bell Scott. Froude in his editorial
connexion with Frasers Magazine. These matters are
treated of in letters from Scott, Rossetti, Mrs Gilchrist,
Frederick Tatham, John Linnell Junr., and Froude, and in
my Diary, etc. See especially Nos. i, 2, 7, 15, 16, 10, 14.
Year 1863. — Blake and Gilchrist (as above). My Brother's
trip with me in Belgium. These matters are treated of in
a letter from William Haines and in my Diary, etc. See
especially Nos. 23, 30.
Year 1864. — Dante Rossetti's hobby for collecting blue
china. His relations with Mr Dunlop as a proposing
purchaser of his pictures. His picture entitled Found.
Christina Rossetti's suggested new volume of poems, and
her poem The Prince's Progress. W. J. Stillman's position
as United States Consul in Rome. My trip to Venice,
Bergamo, etc. The Exhibition of Madox Brown's pictures
and designs. These matters are treated of in letters from
Pante Rossetti, Christina Rossetti, and Stillman, and in
PREFACE ix
my Diary, etc. See especially Nos. 40, 46, 55, 41, 57, 43,
44, 58.
Year 1865.— My translation of Dante's Inferno, and
article on English Opinion on the American War. My ex-
periences at some "spiritual" stances. Christina Rossetti's
chest-malady. Her trip in Switzerland and North Italy
with our Mother and myself. The Madox Brown Exhibi-
tion. The strained relations between Ruskin and Dante
Rossetti. The collapse of commissions given to Dante
Rossetti by Mr Dunlop and Mr Heugh. These matters
are treated of in letters from Teodorico Pietrocola-Rossetti,
Professor Norton, Carlyle, Ruskin, and Dante Rossetti,
and in my Diary and Memoranda, etc. See especially
Nos. 61, 107, 105, 70, 86, 80, 88, 95, 96, 99.
Year 1866. — Barone Kirkup's spiritual experiences, and
particularly with the "spirit of Dante." His adhesion to
the theories of Gabriele Rossetti concerning Dante etc.
My account of a trip to Naples; Swinburne's pamphlet
on his Poems and Ballads; Ruskin's return to Dante
Rossetti's house. My booklet, Swinburne's Poems and
Ballads, a Criticism. Some scraps from a notebook of
Dante Rossetti. These matters are treated of in letters
from Kirkup and Professor Norton, and in my Diary, etc.
See especially Nos. 112, 115, 132, 119, 125, 120.
Year 1867. — My account of a visit to Swinburne's
paternal home ; the removal of myself and others to No.
56 Euston Square (5 Endsleigh Gardens) ; the collision of
James Whistler with the Burlington Fine Arts Club ; my
selection from Walt Whitman's Poems; the condition of
Dante Rossetti's eyesight. A list of subjects suitable for
pictures. The Cretan Insurrection. The beginnings of
Oliver Madox Brown as a painter. Dante Rossetti's
picture Found, and his design Aspecta Medusa. Whitman's
Leaves of Grass. The Firm of Morris, Marshall, Faulkner,
& Co. These matters are treated of in my Diary, and in
letters from Stauros Dilberoglue, Dante Rossetti, James
Leathart, Whitman, and Warington Taylor, etc. See
especially Nos. 137, 146, 140, 144, 148, 153, 166, 161, 162.
x PREFACE
Year 1868. — My account of Browning's poem The Ring
and the Book; my notes on Shelley in Notes and Queries,
and my edition of Shelley's Poems, with notes and memoir ;
Dante Rossetti's picture of Dante's Dream ; the pamphlet,
by Swinburne and myself, on pictures in the Royal
Academy etc. ; my brochure on Italian Courtesy-Books ;
my trip to Venice, with robbery of cash ensuing ; my
collation of Boccaccio's Filostrato with Chaucer's Troylus ;
the condition of my Brother's eyesight during his stay at
Penkill Castle. Dante Rossetti's first connexion with
William Graham as a picture-buyer. Whitman's Leaves of
Grass etc. Oliver Brown's first exhibited painting, The
Infant Jason and the Centaur. These matters are treated
of in my Diary, in letters from William Allingham,
Graham, Oliver Brown, and Addington Symonds, and in
an article written by W. D. O'Connor. See especially Nos.
175, 206, 184, 190, 196, 194.
Year 1869. — My account of my edition of Shelley's
Poems, and of a compilation of Shelley's autobiographical
writings ; of the series Moxoris Popular Poets, edited by
me ; of the illness of John Lucas Tupper as my travelling-
companion in Italy ; of my acquaintance with Edward
John Trelawny ; of the rupture between Frederick Sandys
and Dante Rossetti ; of Mrs Gilchrist as an admirer of
Whitman's poems ; of the privately printed collection of
Dante Rossetti's Poems, and of the recovery of other
poems by him from the coffin of his Wife ; of the Byron-
Stowe scandal ; of the arrival of W. J. Stillman in
London from Crete ; of Dr Hake's acquaintance with my
Brother. Dante Rossetti's pictures, Dante's Dream, and
Found. His Nonsense Verses. These matters are treated
of in my Diary and letters, and in letters from Dr
Garnett, Dante Rossetti, Dr Hake, and William Graham,
etc. See especially Nos. 210, 212, 242, 232, 252, 267, 273.
Year 1870. — My account concerning Trelawny; Dante
Rossetti with Stillman at Scalands, Sussex, and the issue
of his volume named Poems ; Swinburne's Songs before
Sunrise. My edition of Shelley's Poems. Whitman, and
PREFACE
XI
the article of Professor Dowden regarding him. Critiques
on Dante Rossetti's Poems, and the anticipated hostility
of Robert Buchanan to them. Stillman's approaching
re-marriage. These matters are treated of in my Diary,
and in letters from Allingham, Dowden, Dante Rossetti,
etc. See especially Nos. 275, 284, 288, 297, 302.
CONTENTS.
NO.
DATE.
WRITER.
1-rjXvo^-Tt AO7A/rvJiooi^i-»j PAPP
OR HEADING.
I
1862 February 19 .
Wm. Bell Scott .
Wm. Rossetti .
i
2
22 .
Dante Rossetti .
Madox Brown
2
3
„ March 27
Lord Vernon
Dante Rossetti
3
4
„ May 4 .
Wm. Bell Scott .
Wm. Rossetti
3
5
» » 13 -
Julia Cameron
„
4
6
» „ H •
Dante Rossetti .
Madox Brown
5
7
„ „ 22 .
Anne Gilchrist .
Wm. Rossetti
5
8
„ June i .
F. T. Palgrave .
„
6
9
„ 16 .
Dr Furnivall
„
6
10
„ July 2 to
August 12
Wm. Rossetti
Diary
7
ii
» July 12 .
John Ruskin
Dante Rossetti
12
12
„ August 21
Dante Rossetti .
Madox Brown
14
13
„ August (?)
„
„
14
14
„ October 20
J. A. Froude
Wm. Rossetti
15
IS
„ November 6 .
Frederick Tatham
H
16
16
„ December 2 .
John Linnell Jun.
J>
17
17
» » 11.
Anne Gilchrist
»
18
18
» » 16 .
Frederick Tatham
»)
19
19
„ „ 21 .
John Linnell Jun.
)>
20
20
» » 21 .
Anne Gilchrist .
))
20
21
!> » 24 .
John Linnell Sen.
» . .
21
22
1863 January 7
Dante Rossetti .
Madox Brown
22
23
„ February 5 .
Wm. Haines
Wm. Rossetti
23
24
„ May 2 .
Anne Gilchrist .
»
25
25
„ June 15 .
John Ruskin
„
25
26
„ „ 16 .
W. J. Stillman .
>j
26
27
„ July 19 .
Anne Gilchrist .
)> • •
27
28
„
Madox Brown
Lucy Brown (Rossetti)
28
29
„ August 24
Professor Norton
Dante Rossetti
29
3°
„ September
3 to I i .
Wm. Rossetti
Diary
30
xiii
XIV
CONTENTS
NO.
DATK.
31
1863
October 29
32
55
November 6
33
55
18
34
„
23
35
55
25
36
1864
January 15
37
55
„ 24
38
55
March 28
39
55
April 10 .
40
„ (?)
41
55
May 7 .
42
„ (?) June .
43
55
55 10 •
44
55
„ 14 to
July 14 .
45
55
55 19 •
46
55
August ii
47
55
55 *2
48
„
55 23
49
55
,5 25
50
55
September i
51
55
5
52
55
November 2 1
53
„ (?) • •
54
55
November 24
55
55
December 5
56
55
8
57
55
55 23
58
55
31
59
1865
January 9
60
55
55 10
61
55
55 23
62
5)
55 3°
63
55
February i
64
55
6
65
55
55 10
66
55
28
67
55
March i
68
55
3
69
55
6
70
55
9
J. A. Froude
Anne Gilchrist
Philip Hamerton.
Dante Rossetti .
Philip Hamerton.
Dante Rossetti .
Christina Rossetti
Dante Rossetti .
W. J. Stillman .
Wm. Rossetti .
Dante Rossetti
OR HEADING.
Wm. Rossetti
J. A. Froude
Dante Rossetti
Christina Rossetti
Dante Rossetti .
Frederic Shields .
Christina Rossetti
Teodorico Pietro-
cola-Rossetti .
Christina Rossetti
Madox Brown
Wm. Rossetti
Madox Brown
Dante Rossetti
The Seed of David
Wm. Rossetti
Diary
Madox Brown
Win. Rossetti.
Madox Brown
Allan P. Paton
Madox Brown
Dante Rossetti
Madox Brown
Dante Rossetti
Wm. Rossetti
Dante Rossetti
Dante Rossetti . Madox Brown
Thomas Keightley Wm. Rossetti
Christina Rossetti Dante Rossetti
10
Teodorico Pietro-
cola-Rossetti .
Charles Cayley .
Wm. Rossetti
39
40
4i
43
43
44
45
46
48
49
So
50
54
59
60
61
62
62
63
63
63
64
65
66
67
67
70
70
72
73
74
75
76
77
78
79
80
83
84
86
CONTENTS
xv
NO.
DATE.
WRITER.
OR HEADING.
72
1865 March .
Christina Rossetti
Dante Rossetti
73
5, 5, 19
Wm. Allingham .
Wm. Rossetti
74
55 55 21
Dante Rossetti .
Madox Brown
75
55 21
Professor Norton
Dante Rossetti
76
55 5, 30
Madox Brown
Wm. Rossetti
77
55 55 31
Christina Rossetti
Dante Rossetti
78
„ April 8 .
Alexa Wilding .
55 *
79
55
Christina Rossetti
55
80
„ April 15 .
Thomas Carlyle .
Madox Brown
81
5, (?) „ - -
Christina Rossetti
Dante Rossetti
82
„ 18 .
Dante Rossetti .
Madox Brown
83
„ (?) 5, • •
55 '
55
84
„ May 9 .
Professor Norton
Wm. Rossetti
85
55 55 13 -
Julia Cameron .
55
86
55 55 22 tO
June 26 .
Wm. Rossetti
Diary
87
55 55 10 -
Dante Rossetti .
Madox Brown
88
55 * *
John Ruskin
Dante Rossetti
89
55 * *
55
55
90
55 •
»
55
91
55
55
55
92
55
55 •
55
93
„ June 26 .
Dante Rossetti .
Madox Brown
94
55 „ 28 .
55
55
95
„ July . .
John Ruskin
Dante Rossetti
96
„ August 7
Dante Rossetti .
Walter Dunlop
97
55 55 8
55 *
Madox Brown
98
55 55 21
55
Walter Dunlop
99
„ September i .
55
John Heugh .
100
55 5, 14 •
„
55
IOI
18 .
55
55
102
5, (?) ,5
55
Walter Dunlop
103
55 55 21 .
55
Aldam Heaton
104
,, November 9 .
55
Walter Dunlop
IDS
55 55 II.
Wm. Rossetti
A Spiritual (?)
Seance (i) .
106
55 55 25 .
55
,5 (2) •
107
„ December i .
Professor Norton
Wm. Rossetti .
1 08
„ „ 8 and 9 .
James Smetham .
Dante Rossetti
109
18 .
Ernest Gambart .
55 *
no
1 866 January 4
Wm. Rossetti
A Spiritual
Seance (3) .
in
55 55 9
Professor Norton
Wm. Rossetti
112
55 19 '
Barone Kirkup .
55
87
89
90
91
92
93
95
96
97
97
IOO
IOI
1 02
103
104
132
133
136
137
138
139
141
144
146
146
147
147
149
150
150
153
157
161
162
164
165
168
170
XVI
CONTENTS
NO.
DATE.
WRITER.
OR HEADING.
PAGE.
113
1866 February 9 .
Dante Rossetti .
Madox Brown
173
114
„ 20 .
Charlotte Polidori
Memorandum
175
115
27 .
Barone Kirkup .
Wm. Rossetti
176
116
» » 29 .
Robert Browning
11
179
117
„ April 24 .
Horace Scudder .
„
1 80
118
„ „ 24 .
Barone Kirkup .
11
182
119
„ May 24 to
December 30 .
Wm. Rossetti
Diary
184
120
11 \' ) * *
Dante Rossetti .
Scraps .
2OO
121
„ June 4 .
Christina Rossetti
Wm. Rossetti
201
122
„ „ 16 .
Dante Rossetti .
Madox Brown
203
I23
11 July 2 .
Barone Kirkup .
Wm. Rossetti
2O4
124
„ August 14
John Murray
11
205
125
„ September 12 .
Professor Norton
5> •
206
126
11 11 16 •
Wm. Bell Scott .
1) * •
207
127
11 ,, 20 .
Barone Kirkup .
11 * •
207
128
11 11 26 .
Dante Rossetti
Madox Brown
209
129
„ October 18
William Rossetti
A Spiritual
Seance (4) .
210
130
„ November i .
John Murray
Wm. Rossetti
214
I3l
11 11 12 .
J. A. Froude
11
214
132
i, ,, 13 •
Barone Kirkup .
55 • •
215
133
„ December 2 .
John Ruskin
51
216
134
11 ,, 22 .
Teodorico Pietro-
cola-Rossetti .
5J • •
217
135
11 » 30 •
Barone Kirkup .
11
218
136
„ „ 31 .
Warington Taylor
11
219
137
1867 January i to
December 29 .
Wm. Rossetti .
Diary
220
138
„ January 16
Dora Greenwell .
Wm. Rossetti
246
139
11 11 19 •
Barone Kirkup .
11
247
140
11 11 28
Stauros Dilberoglue „
252
141
„ March i
Sir Frederick
Burton
Madox Brown
253
142
11 11 6
Barone Kirkup .
Wm. Rossetti
254
*43
i» 11 23
„
11
255
144
„ May 10 .
Dante Rossetti .
Oliver Brown
256
US
,, (?) ,,
11
11
257
146
11 W
Wm. Rossetti
List of Subjects for
Pictures
257
147
„ May 27 .
John Ruskin
Wm. Rossetti
263
148
11 11 30 •
James Leathart .
Dante Rossetti
265
149
„ (?) June 5 .
Dante Rossetti .
James Leathart
265
150
11 11 24 .
11
Madox Brown
266
CONTENTS
xvii
NO.
DATE.
WRITER.
fAXVOWll JkMVMHBajL/i
OR HEADING.
PAGE.
151
1867 June 30 .
Wm. Allingham .
Wm. Rossetti
267
152
„ July . .
Dante Rossetti .
Madox Brown
267
153
„ 33 25 .
»
33
268
154
„ August 5
„
33 ' '
269
155
10
John Burroughs .
Moncure Conway .
270
I56
3) 33 * 5 *
Dante Rossetti .
Madox Brown
270
157
„ September 27 .
Barone Kirkup .
Wm. Rossetti
271
I58
„ October 24
Dante Rossetti .
Madox Brown
272
159
33 J) 25
F. T. Palgrave .
Wm. Rossetti
273
1 60
3, 29 .
Stauros Dilbero-
glue
33
274
161
„ November i .
Walt Whitman .
Moncure Conway .
274
162
„ (?) Autumn
Warington Taylor
Dante Rossetti
276
163
„(?) „ • •
33
33
277
164
„(?) „ • •
33
3)
278
165
3) \' ) )3 " *
3)
33
280
166
„ (?) Nov. 12
Dante Rossetti .
C. P. Matthews
280
167
„ 22
Walt Whitman .
Wm. Rossetti
283
1 68
„ December 3 .
A. B. Houghton .
„
284
169
3 -
Walt Whitman .
33
285
170
15 •
Barone Kirkup .
„
288
171
1868 January 3
Dante Rossetti .
C. P. Matthews
290
172
33 33 7
33
33
292
173
9 •
33
33
294
174
33 33
33
33
295
175
10
to December 3 1 .
Wm. Rossetti
Diary
295
176
,, January 16
Thomas Dixon .
Wm. Rossetti
340
177
17 •
Dr Furnivall
33
34i
178
» 20 .
W. D. O'Connor.
33
342
179
„ February 14 .
Barone Kirkup .
33
343
180
„ 17 -
Frederic Shields .
Dante Rossetti
345
181
33 (?) ' •
Warington Taylor
33
346
182
„ March 23
Barone Kirkup .
Wm. Rossetti
348
183
„ 27
Horace Scudder .
3)
349
184
3, April 9
Wm. Graham
Dante Rossetti
350
185
33 33 21
Camden Hotten .
Wm. Rossetti
351
186
„ „ 26 .
Barone Kirkup .
33
351
187
„ 28 .
Bertrand Payne .
33
352
188
„ May 18 .
Barone Kirkup .
33
353
189
„ 20 .
W. D. O'Connor .
33
355
190
33 (?) •
33
On Leaves of Grass
356
191
„ May 27 .
Stauros Dilbero-
glue
Wm. Rossetti
359
xviii
CONTENTS
PKRSON ADDRESSED.
KO.
DATE.
WRITER.
OR HEADING.
PAGE.
192
1868 July 23 .
C. P. Maenza
Dante Rossetti
• 360
193
„ „ 26 . .
„
„
• 300
194
,, „ 26 . .
Oliver Brown
Emma Brown
• 361
195
„ August 12
James Smetham .
Dante Rossetti
• 362
196
» J5
Addington
Symonds
Wm. Rossetti
• 363
197
19
»
„
• 364
198
» i> 25
»
n
• 365
199
Barone Kirkup .
n
• 366
200
„ September 1 8 .
5) *
„
• 367
201
21 .
Sir Frederick
Burton
Dante Rossetti
. 368
202
„ October 7
Dante Rossetti .
Madox Brown
. 370
203
„ November 20 .
Barone Kirkup .
Wm. Rossetti
• 37i
2O4
30 •
Wm. Bell Scott .
„
. 372
205
„ December 2 .
»
„
• 373
206
» 4 .
Wm. Allingham .
„
• 374
207
18 .
»
„
• 374
208
20 .
Win. Rossetti
Wm. Allingham
. 376
209
„ „ 22 .
W. J. Stillman .
Wm. Rossetti
• 377
210
1869 January i
.
to December 29
Wm. Rossetti
Diary
. 378
211
„ January 22 .
W. J. Stillman .
Wm. Rossetti
. 419
212
„ February 5 .
Dr Garnett
„
. 420
213
» » 9 •
Madox Brown
„
. 420
214
» „ 15 •
Dr Garnett
„
. 421
215
18 .
Madox Brown
„
. 421
216
n .11 23 .
F. T. Palgrave .
„
• 423
217
25 .
„
„
. 424
218
„ March i
Dr Garnett
„
. 425
219
2
Barone Kirkup .
„
. 426
220
11 8
James Smetham .
Dante Rossetti
. 428
221
» » 12
Wm. Rossetti
Wm. Allingham
. 429
222
„ „ 20
Robert Browning
Dante Rossetti
• 43°
223
» 21
Philip Hamerton.
Wm. Rossetti
. 431
224
ii 22
Dr Garnett
M
• 43i
225
„ April 19
Dante Rossetti .
Prof. Norton
• 433
226
» 19 •
Wm. Rossetti
Frances Rossetti
• 434
227
„ 21 .
„
„
• 435
228
.i 23 .
Dante Rossetti .
Prof. Norton
• 436
229
„ May 4 .
Smith, Elder,
&Co.
Dante Rossetti
• 437
230
„ „ 10 .
J. W. Inchbold .
Wm. Rossetti
• 438
231
„ „ 12 .
Dante Rossetti .
Prof. Norton
• 439
CONTENTS
xix
NO.
DATE.
WRITER.
OR HEADING.
232
1869 May 20 .
Madox Brown
Wm. Rossetti
233
,,(?)June i
Dante Rossetti .
Frederick Sandys
234
ii 5
»
„
235
33 33 T8
John Tupper
Wm. Rossetti
236
ii 33 24
Barone Kirkup .
„
237
„ July 13
Dr Garnett
„
238
ii ii 14 .
Barone Kirkup .
„
239
» 19 •
Lucy Brown
(Rossetti)
Madox Brown
24O
„ 20 .
Mathilde Blind .
Wm. Rossetti
241
„ August 19
Dante Rossetti .
Madox Brown
242
» » 23
Wm. Rossetti
Dante Rossetti
243
ii ii 24
11 •
„
244
ii ii 26
Dante Rossetti .
Madox Brown
245
,, 28 .
W. D. O'Connor .
Wm. Rossetti
246
„ „ 28 .
Wm. Rossetti
Dante Rossetti
247
ii (?) ii 31
Dante Rossetti .
Madox Brown
248
„ September 8 .
Madox Brown
Lucy Brown
(Rossetti) .
249
ii ii I2 -
Wm. Rossetti
Dante Rossetti
250
ii 16 •
11
M
25I
„ October i
Wm. Bell Scott .
Wm. Rossetti
252
,,
Dr Hake
Dante Rossetti
253
ii
Wm. Bell Scott .
Wm. Rossetti
254
II J5 M
Dante Rossetti .
Madox Brown
255
II II H •
Wm. Rossetti
Dante Rossetti
256
ii IS •
Dr Garnett
Wm. Rossetti
257
15 .
John Tupper
„
258
I, (?) . .
Dante Rossetti .
Madox Brown
259
„ October 17
Anne Gilchrist
Win. Rossetti
260
ii ii 26 .
James Thursfield
Dante Rossetti
26l
ii ii 29 .
Frederic Shields .
„
262
ii ii 3° -
Barone Kirkup .
Wm. Rossetti
263
i, 30 •
John Tupper
„
264
„ November 14 .
James Thursfield
Dante Rossetti
265
11 ii 1° •
Conte Giuseppe
Ricciardi
Wm. Rossetti
266
18 .
Ponsonby Lyons .
Lilith .
267
„ (?) ,,
Wm. Graham
Dante Rossetti
268
29 .
Dante Rossetti .
Wm. Graham .
269
„ December i .
Wm. Graham
Dante Rossetti
270
33 33 2 .
Wm. Davies
n
271
3) 1) 3 '
Dante Rossetti .
Wm. Davies .
272
17 •
W. J. Stillman .
Wm. Rossetti
440
441
444
445
446
446
448
449
45°
452
453
455
457
459
461
462
463
465
467
469
470
47i
472
473
474
475
475
476
477
478
480
481
482
483
483
486
488
489
489
49°
492
XX
CONTENTS
NO.
DATE.
WRITER.
fJMBVA ALJL>l\,^^^r, Uj
OR HEADING.
PAGE.
273
1869 (?) .
Dante Rossetti .
Nonsense Verses .
492
274
1 870 January I .
Anne Gilchrist .
Wm. Rossetti
497
275
„ „ i to .
April 22
Wm. Rossetti
Diary
498
276
„(?) . • •
Dante Rossetti .
Proposed Raffle—
Deverell
506
277
„ January 2
Anne Gilchrist .
Wm. Rossetti
507
278
55 3 •
„
5J
507
279
8 .
Edward Trelawny
55
508
280
,5 » 9 •
Thomas Dixon .
55
508
281
55 » -IS •
Barone Kirkup .
55
509
282
55 5, 17 •
Edward Trelawny
55
510
283
„ „ 22 .
Dante Rossetti .
Prof. Norton
511
284
» 23 .
Wm. Allingham .
Wm. Rossetti
513
285
27 .
Mrs Lynn Linton
55
515
286
27 .
Keningale Cook .
55
516
287
55 30 •
Wm. Rossetti
Wm. Allingham
516
288
„ February I .
Prof. Dowden
Wm. Rossetti
517
289
55 55 3
Dante Rossetti .
55
518
290
55 55 5
Prof. Dowden
5'
519
291
55 » 7
F. T. Palgrave .
55
519
292
10 .
Prof. Dowden
55
520
293
» » ii •
John Tupper
Dante Rossetti
521
294
ii •
Dante Rossetti .
Wm. Rossetti
521
295
15 .
John Pickford .
55
522
296
17 •
Mrs Lewes
Dante Rossetti
523
297
23 .
Dante Rossetti .
Wm. Rossetti
524
298
„ March 10
John Ruskin
55
525
299
5, 5, 19
Morris and Com-
pany
A Bill . .
525
300
55 ii 25 .
Dante Rossetti .
Wm. Rossetti
526
301
„ April
55
Madox Brown
527
302
55 55 ii. .
„
Prof. Norton
528
303
5, ,,24.
Barone Kirkup .
Wm. Rossetti
530
CONTENTS
xxi
LETTERS ETC. FROM:—
Allingham, Wm. .
Blind, Mathilde
Brown, Lucy (Rossetti)
Brown, Madox
Brown, Oliver
Browning, Robert .
Burroughs, John
Burton, Sir Frederick
Cameron, Julia
Carlyle, Thomas .
Cayley, Charles
Cook, Keningale .
Davies, Wm. .
Dilberoglue, Stauros
Dixon, Thomas
Dowden, Professor
Froude, J. A. .
Furnivall, Dr .
Gambart, Ernest .
Garnett, Dr .
Gilchrist, Anne
Graham, Wm.
Greenwell, Dora .
Haines, Wm. .
Hake, Dr
Hamerton, Philip .
Hotten, Camden .
Houghton, A. B. .
Inchbold, J. W. .
Keightley, Thomas
Kirkup, Barone
Leathart, James
Lewes, Mrs .
Linnell, John (Jun.)
NUMBER.
73, 151, 206, 207, 284
240
239
28, 76, 213, 215,232,248
194
Il6, 222
155
141, 2OI
5,85
80
71
286
270
140, 160, 191
176, 280
288, 290, 292
M, 3i, 52, 131
9, 177
109
212, 214, 218, 224, 237, 256
7, 17, 20, 24, 27, 32 to 35, 259, 274, 277,
278
184, 267, 269
138
23
252
36, 37, 39, 223
185
168
230
67
112, 115, 118, 123, 127, 132, 135, 139,
142, 143, 157, 170, 179, 182, 1 86, 1 88,
199, 200, 203, 219, 236, 238, 262, 281,
303
148
296
16, 19
xxii CONTENTS
Linnell, John (Sen.) . .21
Linton, Mrs Lynn . . . 285
Lyons, Ponsonby . . . 266
Maenza, C. P. . . . 192, 193
Morris and Company . . 299
Murray, John . . . 124, 130
Norton, Professor . . .29, 75, 84, 107, in, 125
O'Connor, W. D. . . . 178, 189, 190, 245
Palgrave, F. T. . .8, 159, 216, 217, 291
Payne, Bertrand . . .187
Pickford, John . . .295
Pietrocola-Rossetti, Teodorico 61, 70, 134
Polidori, Charlotte . .114
Ricciardi, Conte Giuseppe . 265
Rossetti, Christina . .41, 57, 60, 62 to 65, 68, 69, 72, 77, 79, 8 1,
121
Rossetti, Dante . . . 2, 6, 12, 13, 22, 38, 40, 42, 45 to 51, 53
to 56, 58, 66, 74, 82, 83, 87, 93, 94,
96 tO 104, 113, 120, 122, 128, 144, 145,
'49, 150, 152, 153, 154, 156, 158, 166,
171, 172, 173, J74, 202, 225, 228, 231,
233, 234, 241, 244, 247, 254, 258, 268,
271, 273, 276, 283, 289, 294, 297, 300,
301, 302
Rossetti, Wm. . . .10, 30, 44, 86, 105, 106, no, 119, 129, 137,
146, 175, 208, 210, 221, 226, 227, 242,
243, 246, 249, 250, 255, 275, 287
Ruskin, John . . . . n, 25, 88 to 92, 95, 133, 147, 298 -
Scott, Wm. Bell . . . i, 4, 126, 204, 205, 251, 253
Scudder, Horace . . . 117, 183
Shields, Frederic . . -59, 180, 261
Smetham, James . . .108, 195, 220
Smith, Elder, & Co. . . 229
Stillman, W. J. . . . 26,43,209,211,272
Symonds, Addington . .196, 197, 198
Tatham,. Frederick . . 15, 1 8
Taylor, Warington . . 136, 162 to 165, 181
Thursfield, James . . . 260, 264
Trelawny, Edward . . 279, 282
Tupper, John .... 235, 257, 263, 293
Vernon, Lord . . .3
Whitman, Walt . . . 1 6 1, 167, 169
Wilding, Alexa ... 78
CONTENTS
xxiii
LETTERS TO :—
Allingham, Wm. .
Brown, Emma
Brown, Lucy (Rossetti)
Brown, Madox
Brown, Oliver
Con way, Moncure
Davies, Wm. .
Dunlop, Walter
Graham, Wm.
Heaton, Aldam
Heugh, John .
Leathart, James
Matthews, C. P.
Norton, Professor
Paton, Allan P.
Rossetti, Dante
Rossetti, Frances
Rossetti, Wm.
Sandys, Frederick .
NUMBER.
208, 221, 287
194
28, 248
2, 6, 12, 13, 22, 38, 40, 45 to 51, 53, 55,
56, 58, 66, 74, 80, 82, 83, 87, 93, 94, 97,
113, 122, 128, 141, 150, 152, 153, 154,
156, 158, 202, 239, 241, 244, 247, 254,
258, 301
144, 145
155, 161
271
96, 98, 102, 104
268
I03
99, 100, 101
149
166, 171 to 174
225, 228, 231, 283, 302
54
3, 11, 29, 41, 57, 59, 60, 62 to 65, 68, 69,
72, 75, 77, 78, 79, 81, 88 to 92, 95,
108, 109, 148, 162 to 165, 180, 181, 184,
192, 193, 195, 201, 220, 222, 229, 242,
243, 246, 249, 250, 252, 255, 200, 26l,
264,267,269, 270,293, '.96
226, 227
i, 4, 5, 7, 8, 9, 14 to 21, 23 to 27, 31 to
37, 39, 43, 52, 61, 67, 70, 71, 73, 76,
84, 85, 107, in, 112, 115 to 118, 121,
123 to 127, 130, 136, 138, 139, 140, 142,
143, 147, 151, 157, 159, 160, 167 to 170,
176 to 179, 182, 183, 185 to 189, 191,
196 tO 2OO, 203 tO 207, 209, 211 tO 219,
223, 224, 230, 232, 235 to 238, 240, 245,
251, 253, 256, 257, 259, 262, 263, 265,
272, 274, 277 to 282, 284, 285, 286, 288
to 295, 297, 298, 300, 303
233, 234
ROSSETTI PAPERS.
i. — WILLIAM BELL SCOTT to WILLIAM ROSSETTI.
[There was a project pending between Mr Scott and
myself that we should go together to Italy in the course
of 1862 — which in fact we did. My Brother did not find it
convenient to accompany us.]
NEWCASTLE-ON-TYNE.
19 February 1862.
My dear W., — You will believe we heard of the death
of Mrs Gabriel with sincere sorrow and sympathy for him.
The circumstance you mention, and which we hear from
other sources, has been the cause of some notoriety, adding
to the natural pain of such a parting. Since having your
note, which I have delayed answering till now on that
account, I have tried to ascertain whether I could go to
Italy now. To have Gabriel with us would, in several
regards, be a great gain, and I quite think he ought to be
lifted out of his present surroundings. My going is how-
ever uncertain ; but, whether I go or not, you must consider
yourself free to accompany him. . . . But, irrespective of me,
why delay till middle of April? Gabriel should go now if
at all ; indeed, if he does not go now, it is more than
likely he will not go at all. My knowledge of Gabriel
leads me to fancy he will either go away immediately or
not at all. If he gets involved in the interest of his
picture - engagements, he will not leave them. But then,
indeed, our object would be gained ; he would be in-
A
2 ROSSETTI PAPERS
terested and mentally occupied, though not quite so healthily,
I dare say. . . . Give Gabriel my most friendly sympathy,
and explain to him my position. — Ever yours,
W. B. SCOTT.
2. — DANTE ROSSETTI to MADOX BROWN.
[Not long before her death, Rossetti had painted a head
lof his Wife, which he called Regina Cordium. It seems to
TTave belonged to Mr John Miller of Liverpool, who was
now selling off most of his pictures. My Brother did not
at this date wish to be under an obligation to Mr Gambart
the picture-dealer, as the latter was pressing him rather
inconveniently in relation to some pictures which he had
undertaken to paint for the late Mr Flint, and which he
had not yet completed. The reference to "Tudor House"
indicates that Rossetti was thinking of removing — as he
soon afterwards did — to that residence.]
ALBANY STREET, LONDON.
22 February 1862.
/ My dear Brown, — Would you write to Mr Miller about
the little head of Lizzie, if you have not yet done so. It
is called Regina Cordium. It seems to require to be done
at once, as Gambart, meeting William in the street,
explained his readiness to withdraw the picture at once
from the sale ; but I had rather Mr Miller were to effect
it if he likes to do so — as otherwise I should be under
V obligation to G[ambar]t, and he may become troublesome.
House-affairs get still further complicated — Tudor House,
Cheyne Walk, seeming to offer probably on such very
reduced terms that it would seem a sin to let it slip. I
shall know more to-day. Perhaps I may come down this
evening to you— indeed most probably.— Yours,
D. G. R,
LORD VERNON, 1862
3. — LORD VERNON to DANTE ROSSETTI.
[The " present " which Rossetti had sent to Lord Vernon
must have been his book The Early Italian Poets. The
poem by Ciullo d'Alcamo, translated in that volume, is
regarded as the earliest of all the compositions there in-
cluded.]
TRESCO ABBEY, ISLES OF SCILLY.
27 March 1862.
Dear Sir, — I see with shame that I have omitted to do
that which I thought I had done long ago — I mean,
thanked you for your kind and very acceptable present.
I can only hope that I may have soon the pleasure of
seeing you and thanking you in person. I am the more
gratified by this present because I not only respected the
character and admired the talent of your dear Father, but
loved him for his simplicity, gentleness, and warmth of
heart. I hope some day or another you will pay me a
visit at Sudbury. I have got some MSS. of Fazio degli
Uberti and Brunetto Latini (not autographs but old), and
I should like to consult you about them. Are you aware
that I was so enamoured of Ciullo d'Alcamo that I took
some pains to get the text rectified, as you will see in the
last edition of Nannucci's Manuale della Letteratura ? — I
am, dear Sir, yours very truly,
VERNON.
4.— WILLIAM BELL SCOTT to WILLIAM ROSSETTI.
[The Brother of Mr Scott here referred to was (but I
need hardly specify it) the painter David Scott]
NEWCASTLE.
4 May 1862.
My dear W., — . . . Have you seen the Great Exhibition
yet? I suppose one must calculate on a number of days
4 ROSSETTI PAPERS
for that alone in London. Tell Gabriel I wrote Redgrave
(much against the grain, he may be sure) about my
Brother's pictures. Long ago and often I have formed the
determination to do or say no more in the way of taking
care of my Brother's fame, but still things turn up to
induce me to break that resolve. The gods are against
him. Somehow or other the world ignores him, and
nothing any one can say seems to effect any result or
remain audible. The fact is, his art does not belong to
the day. Following his natural tendencies, he worked on
an Ancient Master's basis of education ; and the great
characteristic of his manner — that power of hand he showed
always, and proudly — is not only lost in English art ; it is
misunderstood, and disqualifies a man. How could his
pictures be well hung when Redgrave (the painter of those
pictures at South Kensington, T/te Widow, Ophelia, Gulliver)
and Creswick were the hangers ? — Ever yours,
W. B. SCOTT.
5. — JULIA CAMERON to WILLIAM ROSSETTI.
[This extract of a letter from a lady well known in
society and as a photographic enthusiast relates to
Christina Rossetti's first published volume, Goblin Market,
etc. The name of Henry Taylor will be recognized as
that of the distinguished author of Philip van Artevelde.]
BRENT LODGE, HENDON.
13 May 1862.
My dear Mr Rossetti,— If you and your Sister have
judged of me by seemings, you must both have thought
me unworthy and ungrateful of the book which is really
precious to me. It has given me a great longing to know
your Sister ; but you don't and won't understand how much
this discourse with her soul makes me feel as if I did
know her now, and always affectionately as well as admir-
ANNE GILCHRIST, 1862 5
ingly. The first thing I did with my gift was to lend it
to my great friend, Henry Taylor — he cared very much
for it; the next thing I did was to enjoy the feast myself;
and the third thing I do is to say my grace to the giver. . . .
— Yours ever truly,
JULIA MARGARET CAMERON.
6. — DANTE ROSSETTI to MADOX BROWN.
[By "Heaton" my Brother meant Mr John Aldam
Heaton, then an art-loving manufacturer in Yorkshire,
afterwards a decorative artist in London ; and by " Webb "
he meant Mr Philip Webb the architect, at that time a
member of the firm of Morris, Marshall, Faulkner, & Co.]
59 LINCOLN'S INN FIELDS.
14 May 1862.
Dear Brown, — Heaton and Webb are coming here to
tea to-morrow (Thursday) at eight or nine. Will you
come? I hope you will.
I have been to the International, and was absolutely
knocked down and trodden on by H. Leys. — Yours,
D. G. R.
7. — ANNE GILCHRIST to WILLIAM ROSSETTI.
[Readers will readily perceive that this extract refers
to the Life of William Blake by Alexander Gilchrist.
When Gilchrist's sudden death took" place at the end of
1 86 1, the Life was practically completed, but not in every
detail. My Brother and myself devoted a great deal of
attention to the task, congenial in all respects, of bringing
the MS. into a condition suited for publication : but I may
repeat here (what I have had occasion to say before, and
what appears in Mrs Gilchrist's letter of 2 May 1863, No.
6 ROSSETTI PAPERS
24) that the Life itself, and in great part the critical
remarks embodied in it, were the authentic and undivided
work of Gilchrist, and only required to be supplemented
in some of the outlying matter. I may also say that my
extracts from numerous interesting letters addressed to me
by Mrs Gilchrist would be much more copious, were it not
that those letters have already been drawn upon in the
book entitled Anne Gilchrist, her Life and Writings, edited
by Herbert H. Gilchrist, 1887.]
BROOKBANK COTTAGE, SHOTTERMILL, HASLEMERE.
22 May 1862.
My dear Sir, — I find blanks left in the MS. where should
follow some brief description of The Marriage of Heaven
and Hell, The Book of Ahania, The Song of Los, Asia, and
Africa. The kind helpfulness and thoroughness with which
you have hitherto met my requests makes me bold to ask
that you would furnish me with a brief general description
of each of these — if indeed you can command sufficient
leisure for the purpose. . . . — Yours very truly,
ANNIE GILCHRIST.
8.— F. T. PALGRAVE to WILLIAM ROSSETTI.
[WELBECK STREET.]
i June 1862.
Dear Rossetti, — . . . Tennyson when here looked at Miss
Rossetti's poems, and expressed great pleasure to me at
what he read. But one never gets him to formularize a
neat Saturday or London Revieiv judgment on these
matters. — Ever truly yours,
F. T. PALGRAVE.
9.— DR FURNIVALL to WILLIAM ROSSETTI.
[This refers to the work which I was doing for the great
English Dictionary projected by the Philological Society, and
WILLIAM ROSSETTI— DIARY, 1862 7
now in course of publication through the Clarendon Press.
I received for sub-editing quotations proper to the letter L.
(not any other letter), and attended to a large portion of
them. I dare say however that my sub-editing work makes
— and deserves to make — very little appearance in the final
redaction of the Dictionary.]
3 OLD SQUARE.
1 6 June 1862.
Dear Rossetti, — Many thanks for your note, with its offer
from you to act as one of the sub-editors, and its announce-
ment of coming extracts. . . . For a sub-editorship I shall
be very pleased to entrust the extracts to you — for two or
three letters say ; and will endeavour to fill in, or get filled
in, the roots etc. that you have space for. . . . — Yours
very truly,
F. T. FURNIVALL.
. . . Will you too bestow your carte on our Dictionary
collection of contributors' likenesses? One of our best men,
Eastwood, sent his carte up, and urged me to ask every
reader for his phiz. This I am doing as I write about other
matters, and have got a dozen in. The book will be one of
some interest.
10. — WILLIAM ROSSETTI — DIARY.
[I give here some extracts from the Diary which I kept
during my small continental trip with W. B. Scott. It will
be easily understood that during this trip, and similarly
during others later on, a great portion of my Diary consisted
of rapid remarks upon the works of art which I inspected,
and to some extent upon matters of scenery. These for the
most part I suppress, as relating to things exceedingly well-
known to travelled and cultivated readers, and as not being
of such weight or development as to warrant quotation.
Here and there some items of that kind are extracted —
8 ROSSETTI PAPERS
along with other items of a more general or more individual
character.]
Wednesday, 2 July 1862.— Started with Scott for Italy.
... On to Paris. . . .
Thursday, 3. — Campana Museum (Musee Napoleon 3), a
most rich collection of old Italian paintings and sculpture,
several of which seem unaccountable omissions from the
selection made for South Kensington. Majolica fair ; Etrus-
can vases, statues (antique), gems, ornaments, terra-cottas,
etc. . . . The paintings impress me as a larger and more
satisfactory show of the old Italian schools than any other
I know. The old Umbrian school before Perugino, with a
Botticelli tinge in greater purism, very lovely. . . .
Wednesday, 9. — Padua. Went to a photograph and
book shop, where the youth showed me a Giuseppe Giusti
of Carducci's edition. I asked whether they had Rossetti
in same series. " Yes," and produced it ; but it is now
prohibited — prohibited at first appearance, afterwards per-
mitted ; again prohibited within a fortnight or so. " What
would be the penalty for selling?" (which the youth was
ready to do). " Non lieve pena" * Shrug of shoulder to
enquiry why now forbidden. "Era mio padre? — "Me ne
console." "\ Had before this produced Teodorico's Life.\
Sacristan (?) of S. Giustina called the soldiers 'ste bestie.\
Omnibus-driver yesterday in Milan, same term to a monk
(i.e. all monks) I asked about, and would brusarli tutti. ||
Saw two Austrian (I assume) officers come into Pedrocchi's
for dinner, and no hostility — the only case in which I have
noticed any amalgamation whatever between the Austrians
and Italians. ... In the evening to Venice.
Friday, n. — Met Inchbold. Took lodging 4205 Riva
degli Schiavoni, 5 francs a night for a week. . . . Tea at
* No light penalty.
t He was my father. — Most glad to hear it.
\ I.e., a brief Life of Gabriele Rossetti, written by Teodorico Pietro-
cola-Rossetti.
§ Those beasts. II Burn them all.
WILLIAM ROSSETTl— DIARY, 1862 9
Inchbold's. Conversation with his landlady, an intelligent
woman of some thirty-four. Venice very stagnant these
three years ; wants the Austrians turned out, and things
would revive ; could turn them out, as the Italians have had
a career of conquest through the whole land. Believes
nothing — men and women die like plants. No time to say
prayers. Pope and Devil much the same. Goes to church
sometimes as it happens to come ; people go there to see
each other and keep appointments. Many women are of
her way of thinking. The lower classes who cannot read
take down what they are told by the priests. Never goes to
confession. . . .
Monday r, 14. — A curious instance of the stagnant un-
businesslike condition of Venice : — Scott, having burned a
small hole in his trousers with a lucifer, wanted to have
them repaired ; the landlady told us there is no such person
as a jobbing tailor for such a thing. It could be given to
a woman, and one must take one's chance of how it would
be done. . . . Gondola to Murano. . . . Church under restora-
tion for the last four years, but little or nothing done. The
idea is to take away all the modernizations, bringing to light
some concealed parts of the old work, and completing it
in same style. Great mosaic Madonna over altar very fine.
Custode remembered, on my referring to him, " Signor
Roveschin," * who stayed there about two months, coming
constantly with his bella moglie.\ " They would be horrified
if they saw its present condition," he said. Asked me to
remember him to Ruskin, for whom he had conceived a
great regard. Again to Scuola di San Rocco. Curious
half-grotesque wood sculpture of Tintoret holding a scroll
inscribed with a pictorial confession of faith ; easy enough
to decipher, but did not get it sufficiently up. — The great cry
in Venice is Acqua fresca — Fresca Vacqua — come ghiasso,%
and so on ; one enthusiast said, O che ghiasso ! § . . .
Wednesday, 16. — Ascended the great Campanile to the
chief (ist) gallery : no stairs inside, but an inclined plane,
* I.e., Ruskin. t Handsome wife.
J Fresh water — like ice. Oh what ice !
10 ROSSETTI PAPERS
making the ascent very easy. A splendid view. Canals
among streets wholly invisible, roofs almost invariably
tiled of the Italian brownish-red, with sufficient variation of
tint — very good colour. Only a single puff of smoke from
a factory-chimney. The bells, five or six of no noticeable
size, began playing at a great rate from noon. About three
hours here. . . .
Monday, 21. — Saw nothing of Siena beyond a look into
the Piazza, del Popolo, with the fountain and the Casino de'
Nobili, having to leave by the diligence for Rome at noon.
Breakfast at the best cafe, del Greco ; only 50 cents the
two, the cheapest we have had. Saw over shops the names
Botticelli and F. Lippi. Left Siena by diligence. A fellow-
traveller, wife of the head of the dogana at Radicofani (last
station in Kingdom of Italy), herself a Pisan, quoting the
line, Ahi Pisa vituperio delle genii, says the Pisans turn it
into Vita e imperio delle genti*
Wednesday, 23. — Magnificent masses of oleanders topping
the garden-walls in the streets as you enter Rome by the
Piazza del Popolo. . . .
Sunday, 27. — Scott reasonably well set up again. We
took a vettura to La Riccia> to see Stillman. . . . Our driver
said that at about the age of fourteen he had been groom to
one Masini (?), aide-de-camp of Garibaldi at the siege of
Rome in 1849; anc^ at his death had been turned over to
Garibaldi, who would often take him by the head and give
him a twirl round. Had a strong feeling for him. Said
that two or three years ago Garibaldi came to Rome dressed
like a sportsman, and took refreshment at a cafe ; when the
waiter offered him his change, he said he would take it when
he next came to Rome. Papal gendarmes, being on the
scent, surrounded the cafe next morning, and found Garibaldi
had gone, leaving a note to say that, if anybody wanted him,
he had better come after him. Probably a fable ; and so
* The Dantesque reader will understand what is here referred to.
Dante, in connection with the Ugolino tragedy, denounces Pisa as
"opprobrium of mankind." The Pisans turn this into "life and
sovereignty of mankind."
WILLIAM ROSSETTI— DIARY, 1862 11
thinks Stillman, who is of opinion that the papal policy has
been the most prudent and successful possible under the
circumstances ; the Sardinian dynasty unloved by the people
throughout Italy, and the Republican party much on the
increase, and likely to make some energetic move. The
annexation of Rome quite uncertain, unless through some
such move. . . .
Sunday ', August 2. — Took donkeys to Nemi, etc. . . . The
donkey-man says that the ex-king of Naples, now making
his villeggiatura at La Riccia, is charitable, distributing alms
to the poor every Saturday evening. The Pope too is ready
to give, throwing money out of his carriage when he goes
to Castel Gandolfo. Antonelli gives nothing, and is un-
popular. . . .
Thursday, 7. — . . . Passed through Leghorn and Pisa.
. . . To Campo Santo, where I do not find my impressions
of the Gozzolis enhanced. The Last Judgment of Orcagna
a great work spite of its salient imperfections, perhaps
greater than the Triumph of Death. The Giottos and so-called
Buffalmaccos very fine of their kind, the latter noticeable
for natural conception and treatment. Orcagna's Ascension\
very powerful in unity of impulse. The sculpture over portal]
of Baptistery fine. " Roma o la Morte " and " Abbasso il Papa
Re " * are the chief inscriptions on the walls ; in one place,
"Viva Iddio e Garibaldi." f . . .
Friday, 8. — Giottos (?) in the s,mall room out of the Campo
Santo — Frescoes: I. Virgin and Child, head and shoulders;
a majestic and beneficent head of the Virgin. 2. Young
male saint, head and shoulders, with head bowed as in
adoration (same character of work as the fresco in the
National Gallery). 3. Elderly female saint, in monastic
drapery (head), very earnest, set expression. 4. Head and
shoulders of Baptist, arm (cut off) raised in preaching or
baptizing ; left held a rod (probably in act of baptizing .
Christ). 5. Two heads and shoulders of angels apparently
holding the robe of Christ during baptism ; foremost head
* Down with the Pope King,
t Long live God and Garibaldi.
12 ROSSETTI PAPERS
very beautiful, with expression of rapt satisfaction. 6. Head
and shoulders of a young man playing a harp, no sign of
saintship. 7. Half-figure of an aged saint writing, the
paper laid across left knee ; very serious, absorbed expres-
sion— good quality of drawing. A very rude fresco in
three compartments, of the story of some episcopal saint,
and a tempera Coronation of Virgin, seemingly dated 1431
(same room), cannot be Giotto's. The Annunciation over
the arch of this door is on the whole the most satisfactory
of Gozzoli's pictures. . . .
Monday ', 11. — . . . Between Bourg and Macon. . . . My
neighbour in the carriage came out against Napoleon's
government. He was once going to use an opposition-
ticket at an election, and was walked off by the police ; and,
if he had not kept out of the way, would have been locked
up for a day until the election was over. Mayors and other
officials are compelled to take-in the government papers,
which otherwise would have very little circulation. French-
men learn the news of their own country from extracts, in
French papers, from foreign ones, especially the Independance
Beige, and even these expurgated. The French army has
no business in Rome. Nobody can understand Napoleon's
Roman policy. His son not likely to succeed ; but the
Orleanists, and still more the Legitimists, are small parties.
— Travelling all night.
Tuesday, 12. — . . . London by 8.30 P.M.
ii.— JOHN RUSKIN to DANTE ROSSETTI.
[Nothing came of Mr Ruskin's suggestion that he
might possibly like to become an inmate of the house
which Rossetti was now taking but had not yet entered,
in Cheyne Walk. The "Banner picture," cherished by
Professor Eliot Norton, is the watercolour Before the Battle,
mentioned in my volume entitled Ruskin, Rossetti, Prce-
raphaelitism. By "your Sister," Ruskin, I think, meant
JOHN RUSKIN, 1862
13
Maria rather than Christina,
former.]
He knew more of the
MILAN.
12 July 1862.
My dear Rossetti, — So often I've tried to write ; and
could not, having had to fight with various fears and sick-
nesses such as I never knew before, and not thinking it
well to burden you with them. I write now only to
thank you for your kind words in your letter to Jones.
I do trust that henceforward I may be more with you — as
I am able now better to feel your great powers of mind,
and am myself more in need of the kindness with which
they are joined. There are many plans in my thoughts :
assuredly I can no more go on living as I have done.
Jones will tell you what an aspen-leaf and flying speck
of dust in the wind my purposelessness makes me. They
are dear creatures, he and his wife both, and have done
much to help me ; and I believe there is nothing they would
not do if they could.
I am vexed, and much (perhaps more than about any
other of the inconveniences caused by my being ill), that
I have missed William, who must be by this time at
Venice, as far as I can hear. A letter of his, received just
as I was leaving town, got thrown into a drawer by
mistake instead of my desk, and I could not answer it.
Among the shadowy plans above spoken of, the one
that looks most like light is one of spending large part
of every year in Italy, measuring and copying old
frescoes. Perhaps some time we might have happy days
together, if there were any place in Italy where you cared
to study — or be idle. I've been thinking of asking if I
could rent a room in your Chelsea house ; but I'm so
tottery in mind that I have no business to teaze any one
by asking questions.
Jones has done me some divine sketches. How he
does love you, and reverence your work ! Did Norton—
of course he did — write to you about the Banner picture?
14 ROSSETTI PAPERS
I've kept his letter to me about it. How he appreciated
it ! I never knew a picture so enjoyed.
I don't deserve a letter, but I've had things sometimes
before now that I didn't. I'm here at all events, if you
have word to say to me. Remember me with deep and
sincere respect to your Sister, and believe me ever affec-
tionately yours,
J. RUSKIN.
12. — DANTE ROSSETTI to MADOX BROWN.
[" The Francesca " is no doubt a Paolo and Francesca —
perhaps the one which went into the collection of Mr
James Leathart, a watercolour triptych. The Joan of Arc
was an oil-picture — its purchaser, Mr James Anderson
Rose, a solicitor. " Marshall " I understand to be Mr
Peter Paul Marshall, a member of the Morris firm. Mr
Whistler first became known to my brother towards this
date : he lived in Chelsea, not far from the Cheyne Walk
house.]
59 LINCOLN'S INN FIELDS.
21 August 1862.
My dear Brown, — ... I have the Francesca to dispose
of as yet, since Rose has settled on the Joan of Arc ; but
the former would not be less than 100, — or 120 indeed,
most likely, unless found impracticable. ... I am writing
to ask Marshall, who wants to meet Whistler. — Your
D. G. R.
13. — DANTE ROSSETTI to MADOX BROWN.
[This extract from a letter, which may probably belong
to August or September 1862, shows that my Brother was
about to enter into an agreement with Mr W. J. Knewstub,
J. A. FROUDE, 1862 15
who soon afterwards joined him at Cheyne Walk. His
position might be regarded as something between that of
pupil and of artistic assistant : as quasi-pupil he paid a sum
down, and, though quasi-assistant, he did not receive any
salary. " My 5s. table " must have been a compact
painting-table which had been made to Rossetti's own
design, and which, proving highly convenient, remained in
use for many years — perhaps up to his final illness.]
59 LINCOLN'S INN FIELDS.
[1862 — ? Autumn}.
Dear Brown, — ... I want to speak to you about
making an agreement with Knewstub. I have got my 53.
table in use : it is sublime ! — Your
D. G. R.
!4. — j. A. FROUDE to WILLIAM ROSSETTI.
[Mr Froude was at this time Editor of Eraser's
Magazine, to which I contributed a few articles on subjects
of Fine Art. His note shows that I had offered to pro-
duce a paper upon Blake — forming a review of Gilchrist's
book. I did not however write any such paper ; coming
to the conclusion, as I proceeded with my work supple-
mental to the volumes in question, that I should not be a
wholly appropriate critic for that with which I had so
closely connected myself.]
6 CLIFTON PLACE, HYDE PARK.
20 October 1862.
My dear Mr Rossetti, — It will be a real pleasure to me
if you will write on Blake. He has always seemed to me
to be an instance of the prodigal carelessness of Nature,
which gives a man so often half the qualities which make
up genius, and, by leaving out the others, makes them
almost useless. Sound understanding is too usually the
16 ROSSETTI PAPERS
thing that is with-held. I do not know whether it was so in
Blake's case. — Ever faithfully yours,
J. A. FROUDE.
15. — FREDERICK TATHAM to WILLIAM ROSSETTI.
[Mr Tatham had, in early youth, been one of the latest
band of Blake's admirers and personal acquaintances. I
was put into communication with him by Mrs Gilchrist,
with a view to clearing up some disputable points in the
Life by Gilchrist, and more especially to further the
compilation, which I had undertaken, of a Catalogue
Raisonne of Blake's paintings and designs, to form a
portion of the Gilchrist volumes — as in fact it now does.
Mr Tatham was, when I knew him, a man well advanced
in middle age, of rather bulky but far from tall figure, with
an expressive face and tone of conversation. He was by
profession a sculptor, but I think with little incoming
practice. Afterwards he became a Minister in the Irvingite
Church— perhaps an " Angel." His MS., The Epic Theory in
Art> was well worth reading — the work of a vigorous and
independent, though not very nicely balanced, mind and
pen. He did not, I believe, succeed in publishing it]
FOREST GATE, ESSEX.
6 November 1862.
Dear Sir, — I shall have much pleasure in replying ; but
it will not always be possible for me to remember, as I
have sold Mr Blake's works for thirty years. I will take
them in your order. Mr Evans bought nearly all I had
latterly. . . . The List directed to Mr Ferguson of Tyne-
mouth: This I forget, but I have no doubt they alluded to
a batch of very fine ones printed in oil and painted on in
water afterwards by Blake himself. They were printed in
a loose press from an outline sketched on paste-board ; the
oil colour was blotted on, which gave the sort of impression
you will get by taking the impression of anything wet.
JOHN LINNELL, JUN., 1862
17
There was a look of accident about this mode which he
afterwards availed of, and tinted so as to bring out and
favour what was there rather blurred. I do not know that
I can tell you these seven : but Nebuchadnezzar was one ;
Pity like a New-born Babe, Newton ; The Saviour another,
Eve with the Serpent another, Elijah in the Chariot another ;
and the seventh I do not remember. . . .
The finished plates have not been in my possession for
many years. . . . The printing in oil was a favourite
system, as he coloured them up : he did a good many, of
other subjects, in this way. . . .
I am, dear Sir, now going to ask you a favour. Some
three years ago I sat down and wrote a very elaborate
brochure which is not yet printed — it is in legible MS.
entitled, The Epic Theory in Art: an Enquiry into the
present depressed State of the Art of Sculpture, with Reasons
and a Remedy. This is a most earnest and very concise
and (I think) vigorous production, proposing a school for
Sculptors, and going into the subject in a critical manner
so as to leave nothing to be desired according to its
object. Now I find it difficult to get an ear ; but I have
got a few people to attempt it, and they have been much
interested. Mr Gladstone spoke most highly, also the
Reader at Smith & Elder's, Cornhill, Mr Williams. . . . Shall
I forward it? I know you will dip into if you get it — at
least all have who have had it. — In haste, very faithfully
yours,
FREDERICK TATHAM.
16. — JOHN LINNELL, Jun., to WILLIAM ROSSETTI.
[In the course of my Blake researches I was privileged
to call at the house (Red Hill) of the admirable painter
John Linnell, then aged but still vigorous, and to inspect
all his Blake treasures, including the water-colour series
from Dante. Immediately afterwards his Son the engraver
B
18 ROSSETTi PAPERS
was so good as to send me an explanatory letter, from
which I present an extract.]
REDSTONE WOOD, RED HILL, SURREY.
2 December 1862.
My dear Sir, — ... As to the numbers of the drawings,
I have just counted them through carefully. There are,
as you state, sixty-eight drawings, and undoubtedly belong-
ing to the Hell, and mostly marked with the numbers of
the cantos. ... In the other folio there was a drawing
which belonged to the Dante designs, and which might
perhaps be placed between the Hell and Purgatory. It
was scarcely more than a pencil-sketch — and gave the
nine circles (Limbo I — Minos 2 — Cerberus 3 — etc.),
beginning at the bottom : and in the margin is written :
" This is upside down when viewed from hell's hole, which
ought to be at the top. But right when viewed from
Purgatory after they have passed the centre," etc. In
margin is also written : " It seems as if Dante's Supreme
Good was something superior to the Father of Jesus. For,
if he gives his rain to the evil and good, and his sun to
the just and unjust, he could never have builded (?)
Dante's Hell ; nor the Hell of the Bible neither, in the way
our parsons explain it. It must have been originally
formed by the Devil himself; and so I understand it to
have been. Whatever book is for vengeance for sin, and
whatever book is against the forgiveness of sins, is not of
the Father, but of Satan the accuser and Father of Hell."
It is rather difficult to read, but I think the above is
rightly copied. . . . Faithfully yours,
JOHN LINNELL, Jun.
17.— ANNE GILCIIRIST to WILLIAM ROSSETTI.
["The poetical portion of Vol. II." is the editing and
elucidation, done by my Brother, of Blake's poems.]
FREDERICK TATHAM, 1862
19
BROOKBANK.
ii December 1862.
My dear Mr Rossetti, — ... I have not (that I can
find) a copy of the two recipes you speak of for wood-
cutting on copper and on pewter ; would feel greatly
obliged by a copy of them. It is quite true that Blake
had no process by which he could print in more than one
colour. If you look closely at any of his engraved books,
you will see the entire design outlined with whatever may
happen to be the colour of the writing. Thus, in the
Daughters of Albion , all the people have green noses, a
phenomenon rather startling to my unartistic eyes. . . .
I have received since I last wrote to you proofs of the
whole of the poetical portion of Vol. II. ; and, indeed, I
hardly know how to speak adequately of the satisfaction
and delight with which I read them. Never, I think, was
the task of editorship so admirably performed, if the aim
of editorship be to quicken the reader's insight and enjoy-
ment. I need not tell you I read your explanation of The
Mental Traveller with wide-open eyes. Certainly that
"Idea" binds the most chaotic, disjointed, obscure-looking
poem that ever was written, into a harmonious, connected,
nobly pregnant whole. My dear Husband would have been
beyond measure pleased with it. — Yours very truly,
ANNE GILCHRIST.
1 8.— FREDERICK TATHAM to WILLIAM ROSSETTI.
FOREST GATE, ESSEX.
1 6 December 1862.
My dear Sir, — The Ancient of Days ^ with the compasses,^
was the subject that Blake finished for me on his death-
bed. He threw it down, and said, "There, I hope Mr
Tatham will like it;" and then said, "Kate, I will draw
your portrait ; you have been a good wife to me." And he
made a frenzied sketch of her ; which when done, he sang
20 ROSSETTI PAPERS
himself joyously and most happily — literally with songs —
into the arms of the grim enemy, and yielded up his sweet
Dpirit. This is related by Mr Smith in the book alluded to.
Mr Gilchrist's study was full of pigeon-holes and papers
without end, and gave one an idea of what authorship was.
. . . — Very faithfully yours,
FREDERICK TATIIAM.
19. — JOHN LINNELL, Jun., to WILLIAM ROSSETTI.
REDSTONE WOOD, RED HILL, SURREY.
21 December 1862.
My dear Sir, — There are twenty original drawings by
Blake illustrating the poem by Philips in Thornton's Virgil
(I forgot to show you these drawings). They are delicately
executed in Indian ink, more or less finished ; a trifle
larger than the wood-engravings, and occasionally slightly
varying from them. Sixteen of these subjects, cut by Blake
himself, appear in Thornton's work — also three of them cut
by another. One of these drawings (subject, the two shep-
herds standing together, and sheep etc. behind, same size as
others) is not engraved. We have no drawing of the larger
block engraved by Blake, given in Thornton as frontispiece.
The above-referred-to seventeen wood-blocks were the
only ones Blake ever cut. The drawings were executed a
little before the book was published.
The dates of the Visionary Heads would be either 1819
or 1820: the three which have dates written on them are
all October 1819. . . . — Faithfully yours,
JOHN LINNELL, Jun.
20.— ANNE GILCHRIST to WILLIAM ROSSETTI.
[Mr Linnell (Sen.) regarded Mr Tatham with antipathy.
Mr William Haines, who had been intimate with Alex-
JOHN LINNELL, SEN., 1862
21
ander Gilchrist, took a friendly interest in the Life of Blake,
compiling the list of Blake's engravings, and rendering
other services.]
BROOKBANK.
21 December 1862.
My dear Mr Rossetti, — . . . Tatham always uses the
word "millboard," and says he has some of them, or
had, still by him. I am afraid we must give up all hope
of getting at the rights of the oil-printing process. Linnell
would hardly speak so positively of the inaccuracy of
Tatham's account (as he does not know who wrote it)
unless he had good grounds for doing so ; but he says it
would "take too much time to set it right." I believe the
honest truth to be he does not himself thoroughly under-
stand it, but knows, as an artist, Tatham's process to be
an impossible one. Mr Haines, who has some practical
acquaintance with painting, thinks that to paint in water-
colours on the top of oils in that way is quite impracticable.
So perhaps it will be on the safe side not to attempt any
explanation. . . . — Yours very truly,
A. GILCHRIST.
21. — JOHN LINNELL, Sen., to WILLIAM ROSSETTI.
[The starting-point of this extract is a report that
Blake had done some heraldic drawing in his youth.]
REDSTONE WOOD.
24 December 1862.
Dear Sir, — . . . The criticism upon Blake's Dragons
would apply just as well to Turner for his picture of
Jason in the National Gallery, where the Dragon is quite
as heraldic in its character as any of Blake's, and even
more so. I remember another picture in the National
Gallery, by Turner, which has a terrific dragon in it, high
up on a rock. But the fact is, dragons are rather un-
common. There are none in the Zoological Gardens.
22 ROSSETT1 PAPERS
They arc traditional, and all have been drawn from one
type, or nearly so, and hence unavoidable similarity.
Blake however has given a sublimity of character to his
dragons and serpents which we look in vain for elsewhere ;
and those who could not see the grandeur of Blake's con-
ceptions were always spiteful in their criticisms, from a
desire to bring that down to their low level which they
could not reach. I believe it is in art as in the highest
knowledge — the 3?ux*K09 or sensuous man receiveth not
the things of the Spirit : they are foolishness to him, and
he is unable to know them because they are spiritually
discerned. — Yours,
J. L., Sen.
22. — DANTE ROSSETTI to MADOX BROWN.
[The suggestion that "dirt" might be "quite essential"
for a dinner of which Brown was to partake is one of
those jocularities to which one loses the clue with lapse
of years. It would rather seem that Brown had been
proposing to dine cheap at some eating-house not noted
for nicety. Marshall and Goss are Peter Paul Marshall,
and a picture buyer of those days, Captain Goss.]
1 6 CHEYNE WALK.
7 January 1863.
My dear Brown, — Do come and dine with vie here at
six to-morrow. The dinner will at any rate thus be the
cheapest possible ; and, if dirt is quite essential, I will even
turn a few dogs into the room for a day and a night,
being the dirtiest animals I can well get at. ... I write
the same request to Marshall with this. — Your affectionate
GABRIEL.
If you can come by daylight, so much the better ; as
I have two pictures by Scott which I want to show Marshall
with an eye to Goss.
WILLIAM HAINES, 1863
23
23.— WILLIAM HAINES to WILLIAM ROSSETTI.
WALBERTON, ARUNDEL.
5 February 1863.
Dear Sir, — Having seen at last the Petworth Blakes,
you may (if it is not too late) add something to the
mere titles of them in your Catalogue, suggested by what-
ever I am going to say. In the Procession of Spenser's
Characters I found a picture between 4 and 5 feet long
by a foot and a few inches high — same dimensions probably
as the Pilgrimage — painted on paper laid on canvas ; colours
much faded, or rather clouded over by an uniform tone
of brown yellow — effect of varnish. Am not quite
certain I should have discovered the subject at once, had
I not known it beforehand. There are puzzling figures
of an allegoric sort above (in the sky), one like the
Almighty. In the background, Gothic buildings, cathedral
etc. The Procession itself presents a rather meagre epitome
of so rich a theme ; the figures, and especially the horses,
very archaic and singular. I could not identify many of
the personages, nor did there seem many. A grand mediaeval
drama performed by a limited company with old costumes
and properties of the siege of Troy (there is more than
one wooden horse by the way) it might be compared to,
though not justly or accurately. To be more serious — the
Red-Cross Knight and Una go first ; beside them the
Lion and a wretched crippled little dragon. Then comes,
on foot, a hermit with a baby in his arms. Next, a female
on horseback — a figure something between Florimel and
the Wife of Bath, but grand — with a free and glorious air.
Who this was, or who the rest were, I could not read ;
though in a nude Hercules - like figure I recognized our
old friend Talus because he carried a flail, and I suspect
Sir Artegall himself was not far off*. You may safely say
the picture is not equal to the Pilgrimage ; is neither so
elaborate, correct, or exhaustive.
The Satan in the Infernal Regions ', when the butler
24 ROSSETTI PAPERS
handed it to me, was simply a black blister, till I took it
to the light. It is a "fresco," I presume (the Procession is
merely a water-colour drawing) ; highly finished and rich in
colour, or was so once before it turned so dark, ruined by
time and varnish. Satan stands on a rock — a nude figure
unlike Fuseli ; no spear and shield, or armour with navel
showing through it, etc. Flames and rocks, and a multi-
tude of figures — one on his knees hugging himself and
howling, identical with a figure in Urizen. I noticed a
curious appearance or texture about the flesh, like colour-
ing over a chalk-engraving ? There is one figure, a woman
with manacles on her wrists. Couldn't make out the sub-
ject— that is, it may not be " Satan calling up his Legions."
An elaborate and fine example, but obscured and spoiled
by time and varnish. Is this picture in the Descriptive
Catalogue ?
The Last Judgment is small (14 inches by 12 at a guess) ;
so the figures (there being such a multitude of them) are
rather minute, scarcely over two inches the biggest. It is
highly finished as to drawing, but slight in colour, the white
paper predominating everywhere save on the side of the
unlucky, where there is most colour, the greater warmth.
Some of the figures among the blessed are of extreme
loveliness. After reading the description in the Letter to
Ozias Humphrey (not to mention the Vision in your book),
the picture itself is likely to disappoint on the score of
grandeur and impressiveness. In those respects it is not
equal to the engraving in Blair. It is (after the descrip-
tion aforesaid) like the same matter expressed in delicate
and beautiful hieroglyphic. Under glass, and in good
preservation. Signed " W. Blake inv. & del. 1808." . . .
— Yours very sincerely,
WM. RAINES.
JOHN RUSKIN, 1863
25
24. — ANNE GILCHRIST to WILLIAM ROSSETTI.
BROOKBANK.
2 May 1863.
My dear Mr Rossetti, — . . . There is one point on
which I do feel sorry and tenacious — that the notion
should get abroad, as I believe it has done, that my dear
Husband left the work very incomplete, and that a great
deal (instead of a very little save and except this Catalogue)
has been done to it. Whenever you have the opportunity
to contradict this, I should be very grateful to you for
doing so. He left it completed — and all the insertions put
together would not (apart from quotations) occupy half-a-
dozen pages. Perhaps the best plan would be to speak
emphatically on this point in a preface ? . . . — Yours very
truly,
ANNE GILCHRIST.
Mr Riviere of Oxford is the gentleman who writes that
Blake had worked as a Herald-painter in his youth.
25. — JOHN RUSKIN to WILLIAM ROSSETTI.
[This note refers to a book of uncoloured Japanese
landscapes, of a direct naturalistic treatment, which I had
recently bought, and had produced for Ruskin's inspection.
He is more complimentary here to Japanese art than he
has been in some other utterances.]
[DENMARK HILL.]
1 5 June 1863.
Dear Rossetti, — The book is delightful, and thank you
much for sending it. I should like to go and live in
Japan.
I'm going to hunt up Gabriel — but am so good-for-
26 ROSSETTI PAPERS
nothing and full of disgusts that I'm better out of his way :
still, I'm going to get into it. — Always yours truly,
J. RUSKIN.
I return Japan by book-post The seas and clouds are
delicious, the mountains very good.
26. — W. J. STILLMAN to WILLIAM ROSSETTI.
OLEVANO, NR. ROME.
\6June 1863.
My dear Rossetti, — . . . The immediate need of my
writing is to have you send me a copy of Fraser with
that absurd (they say) defence of slavery, in which Ruskin
has been committing a felo de se, I think they call it.
What in the world could have possessed him to do such
a thing? Does he know anything about slavery, having
never seen a slave? or does he by abstract reasoning prove
a falsehood ? or that he believes it ? which is the same
thing with him. I'd like to put the argumentum ad hominem
to him, make him my nigger three months, to show him
what an abstraction may be worth. But do send up the
article, that I may measure for myself the present devi-
ation of the compass, and find where our friend's north
pole has got to. What a pity it is that Ruskin did not
see years ago that nobody was affected by his speculations,
and that, in general, opinions and theories go for breath,
and that substantial positive facts are the only Archimedes'
fulcrum ! All the influence he ever gained was based on
his having observed certain facts, and he is now destroying
it by the most fantastical and baseless vagaries. ... It
grieves me much that he will destroy the influence he might
have in spheres where he has knowledge, by dabbling with
things of which he can know nothing. . . .
The copy of your Sister's poems you sent me by post
after your return to London was confiscated in the Post
Office, I presume as heretical or revolutionary.
ANNE GILCHRIST, 1863 27
What is your England doing to so utterly alienate the
only nation in the world which has either kinship or organic
sympathy with her? It is a difficult game she is playing
in the world, and one that makes her few friends. I happened
to be dining the other day with a Spaniard, a Frenchman,
a Belgian, a German, and an American ; and they all agreed
in cordial detestation of England, and in a willingness to
join in a war for her destruction. The Spaniard and
German were very intelligent men, quite capable of esti-
mating the spirit of their countrymen ; and both declared
that they only expressed the prevalent sentiment among
the people of their countries. . . . — Believe me (war or
no war) ever your sincere friend,
W. J. STILLMAN.
27. — ANNE GILCHRIST to WILLIAM ROSSETTI.
EARL'S COLNE.
19 July 1863.
My dear Mr Rossetti, — Tiriel and my MS. copy of the
French Revolution are, I regret to say, at Brookbank. . . .
The moment I return home, which will not however be till
Michaelmas, I will look them out for Mr Swinburne. . . .
Doubtless, Mr Swinburne being now in the full tide of
writing and thinking on the subject, the delay will be a very
vexatious one to him — most sincerely therefore do I regret
it. ... Mr Linnell is the only possessor I know of an original
French Revolution. But he, I fear, is by no means a lending
man. I look forward with immense interest and curiosity
to reading Mr Swinburne's interpretation of the Prophetic
Books ; not without a lurking suspicion, though, he may
have been insensibly led here and there to create a meaning
out of his own great abundance. I don't see however that
the reader has any right to quarrel with this, since he is
a clear gainer by it. ... — Yours very truly,
ANNE GILCHRIST,
Sti
ROS5ETTI PAPERS
By the by, I saw my cousin Major Carwardine a few days
ago, about whom you expressed some curiosity on account of
his American adventures. He has been, I find, two years
in the army of the Potomac, under Generals Maclellan,
Burnside, etc ; has fought in ten battles, one of which lasted
and was never wounded but once, and that
only with a sword-cut in the leg. . . . The pay is capital, his
as a major being the same as that of a major-general in the
English army. He tells me the accounts of the miseries and
hardships endured by the army of the Potomac are much
exaggerated ; and that, in fact, they have not at all exceeded
what are inevitable in a military campaign ; that the com-
missariat is well managed, and they never suffered from
want of provisions except occasionally during forced marches.
He also speaks very favourably of his comrades in arms,
though it took him some time to get to like them. . . . To
give you a notion of his nerve and strength — he stopped a
runaway horse the other day, stepping into its path, and
throwing his arms round its neck.
28. — MADOX BROWN to LUCY BROWN (ROSSETTI)L
[I understand the date of this letter to be 1863, when
Oliver M. Brown, born in January 1855, was eight years
of age,]
4 BATH TERRACE, TVNEMOUTH, XORTHUMBERLAKIX
[1863].
Dearest Lucy, — Here we are, safe and comfortable, after
a very delightful and smooth passage in the Wamsbcck,
London and Newcastle steamer. . . . Tynemouth is full of
character and local colour, if not beauty, and there are
fair sands. But North and South Shields are the wonderful
places — at least to look at, for we have not been in them ;
and the Tyne all the way up to Newcastle is one of die
wonderful sights in Europe, though people don't seem to
PROFESSOR NORTON, 1863 20
know it The most wonderful pictures might be made of
it ; only it would be more for such men as Turner or
Anthony than myself. For want of habit in painting
shipping and suchlike, it would take me longer than
would pay. Nolly has been quite humpbacked since we
left, with stiff neck and a boil on his back, and does not
seem well ; otherwise he enjoyed himself, and behaved
very well, and became wonderfully intimate with the
sailors and passengers, whom he astonished not a little
by talking scientifically about Yarmouth Roads and other
prominent parts of our route. . . . — Your affectionate Papa,
FORD MADOX B.
29.— PROFESSOR NORTON to DANTE ROSSETTI.
SHADY HILL, CAMBRIDGE, MASS.
24 August 1863.
My dear Rossetti, — I want to hear of you, and to know
of your life and work. Your pictures bring you to my
thoughts so often and so delightfully that it seems as if
we held frequent communication — but I want now some-
thing more direct and personal In the midst of our great
war it is pleasant to turn to your peaceful occupations. I
give my time and my work to the cause for which we
are contending — the good old cause, the cause of justice
and liberty ; and I am happy in being able to bear my
part (though not in the field) in this contest. But the in-
tense interests of the times are wearing on one's heart. . . .
You wrote to me in one of your letters of your great
delight in the work of your friend Jones. I remember
well meeting him one evening at the Brownings', where he
had brought one of his wonderful drawings, in which I
was deeply interested. I wish I could see other drawings
of his. I have no money during the war to spend for
works of art — but I want to give my wife a Christmas
present, and I know that I could give her nothing that
would please her more than a drawing by Jones. Will
30 ROSSETTI PAPERS
you please send me word as to his prices. . . . And this
reminds me to ask you whether I can obtain one of the
drawings that you or Holman-Hunt made years ago for
the Tennyson. I remember seeing them at that little
private exhibition in 1857 where were so many of the
best things ever done in England. Now I in vain tell
admirers and non-admirers of your work that it is not to
be judged by the engravings ; that they represent very
partially and very imperfectly, sometimes even falsely, the
character of it ; and that no one can fully appreciate the
real feeling in those designs unless they have seen the
original. . . .
There is hope for Art in this country. The true ideas
— the ideas the P. R. B. have done so much to make clear
— are extending among our younger men, both painters
and architects, and we shall before long have some good
work to show. But there is as usual danger of extrava-
gance, and of admiration of the weaknesses as well as
the excellencies of those masters whose work has impressed
the imagination of our younger men. . . .
I have had one or two very sad letters from Ruskin
of late — so sad as to make me very anxious about him.
If you have seen him lately, I wish you would tell me
how he seemed to you, and what prospect there is of his
regaining health. He is almost as wrong about our war
as poor Carlyle ; but it is not this that troubles me about
him, but his general condition of despondency and gloom.
May I remind you that you once offered to get for me
a cast from Keats' face? If it may still be had, will you
get it for me? ... I am always faithfully your friend,
CHARLES ELIOT NORTON.
30.— WILLIAM ROSSETTI— DIARY.
[This Diary gives a slight account of the only conti-
nental trip in which I ever accompanied my Brother. As
WILLIAM ROSSETTI— DIARY, 1863 31
that circumstance lends a sort of joint personality to the
Diary, I extract its jottings relative to buildings, pictures,
etc., more freely than I do in most other cases. Both he
and I had been in Belgium in earlier years, but separately.]
Thursday, 3 September 1863. -- Left London with
Gabriel — Dover. Fine passage to Calais — bright day with
strong diffused white clouds. . . . Walk on the ramparts
laid out in tiers of tree-bordered walks, with flower-pots
here and there, remarkably pretty. . . . Walk on the pier
at dusk. Dessin's Hotel now in the building of Quillac's
Hotel, the old site being abandoned, and forming (as I
understand) the Musee. Very empty, only four at table
d'hote, ourselves included. No ices procurable in all Calais.
Hogarth's Gate a characteristic-enough piece of rococo
work on a smallish scale.
Friday, 4. — Visited the Musee, held in the old Hotel Dessin
- a spacious building with a white courtyard bordered
with pollard limes. A moderate number of pictures, with a
reasonably good average for such a collection : one Madonna
and Child is called a duplicate Correggio, and might be so.
Two or three old Flemish pictures : one of them, a church-
mass picture, has merit of a superior kind. A fine Poussin
(Nicholas) of the exposure of Moses, in the classic style
with the Nile God — fine in composition, handling somewhat
coarse, though I could not say it is not original. Here
they have the inscription taken off the column com-
memorative of the landing of Louis XVIII. Curiosities,
Chinese, Indian, etc., very fair ; zoological collection ditto,
including a set of the insects of France. — Left Calais at
noon ; a grey dull day, but just before sunset a beautiful
rose - flame - suffused sky, with a rainbow dimly double.
Several goats, one by one, tethered — some windmills con-
structed of thatch, cottage - roofs thatched over tiles.
Several cottages painted a bright light azure, both on
French and Belgian sides of the frontier. Many tall vines
also, especially soon before reaching Brussels, between that
and Ghent. Arrived towards 7 — Hotel de Flandre.
32 ROSSETTI PAPERS
Saturday ', 5. — Visited the Exhibition of Paintings ; which
seems to be not so much (as I had understood) an Interna-
tional Exhibition as the triennial Belgian Exhibition, whereto
foreigners also are admitted. No Leys. Several works of
interest and merit, but not what can be called a decidedly
high average. Briguiboul's (Paris) Robespierre with his jaw
shattered the best thing, and a very remarkable work.
Church of Notre Dame des Sablons, Gothic, with nothing
very noticeable in detail. The gallery (the best thing in
Brussels I believe) of the Duke d'Aremberg is all topsy-
turvy during repairs, and not to be seen. . . . After dinner
to the Theatre du Pare, where was the ordinary company —
a light comedy and comedietta both well played, especially
a lout in the latter by Jolly. Saw the Grande Place and
Hotel de Ville in going to the theatre, but too dusk to
get much beyond the general effect, which is noticeably
good.
Sunday, 6. — To the Museum of Paintings — some 700
or 800, I think, with a very sufficient quantity of things to
look at. Rubens, several large pictures, but not in extra-
ordinary force. The finest of the large ones is perhaps an
Adoration of the Magi, resembling some other of his versions
of that subject. Of the smaller, a magnificent bust-portrait
of a Duchess of the reigning family (or some such person-
age) ; and, somewhat less remarkable, her husband ; also
a small sketch of martyrdom of many ladies. A Tintoret
of some legend of a saint, with splendid background of
["storm and wreck. Veronese, Holy Family and St Katharine,
1 very fine, especially Katharine ; Adoration of Kings, with
very delightful Annunciation to Shepherds in middle
distance. A very clever allegorical sketchy picture by
Jordaens — blue-grey tone, only just not so good as similar
work by Rubens. An admirable portrait of a man by
Rembrandt. Three smallish rooms of the old Flemish
pictures ; several valuable but few first-rate. A smallish
Van Eyck (John), Adoration of the Kings, very finished,
and fine tone. Two large pictures by Stuerbout, of
martyrdom etc. of some female saint, high-class specimens.
WILLIAM ROSSETTI— DIARY, 1863 33
A triptych by Van Orley, main subject The Pietd, extremely
fine. — Zoological Gardens — a funny brown bear who lies
down etc. at command, elephant, bison, lion, camel, etc.
Gallinaceous birds, herons, etc., allowed to walk free about
the garden. The enclosures spacious ; big lake for wild-
fowl etc., far bigger than in London. Poultry named
Padoues (I think chiefly from this part of Europe) with
plumy heads, very pretty. — Went to the Cathedral : a
satisfactory Gothic building, but not anything very special —
surface outside much rechiselled, and inside all whitewashed.
The much-vaunted painted glass does not include any of
the very best class or period. Far the best is the great
west window of the Last Judgment, circa 1500 (?), a very
excellent specimen. Others, with portrait of Charles V.,
Salutation, etc., are good of their class, but not in any way
surprising, and the class far from the best. — After dinner
to the Theatre Lyrique (a saloon-theatre), and the Vaux-
hall Concert by the Park ; but both bored us, and we left. —
In the Museum is a noticeable series of largeish paintings
by Philippe de Champaigne from the life of some Saint,
comparable with the Lesueurs of St Bruno, and the best
of them better; one of the refectory, and the Saint com-
manding a raven to hand up a loaf of bread ; and another
of some miracle in the kitchen with a blaze of fire — this
especially a very able work. A Giorgione (?) head of a?
beautiful young man, with peculiar and delightful costume,!
of which Gabriel took a memorandum. Preti Calabrese (the]
first picture I remember of his), a remarkable piece of
energy and movement, a large picture of a woman stagger-
ing two men whom she advances against.
Monday, 7. — Left Brussels for Antwerp — a dull showery
day, going on to heavy rain in the early afternoon, but
clearing up fairly afterwards. To the Museum. Gabriel
and I agree in thinking that the enormously vaunted
Rubenses here are over-rated. The Crucifixion is a fine one,
of a complete but not very striking order ; The Last Com-
munion of St Jerome excellent, but not quite up to my
reminiscence of it. The Adoration of the Kings is, on the
C
34 ROSSETTI PAPERS
whole, rather a specimen of Rubens's offensive qualities. Of
the others, there is none of the first class. A Titian, of
Alexander VL presenting a Sforza to Peter, is about
the best "painter's picture" in the gallery. The old
Flemish Van Ertborn Collection, not many masterpieces.
To Church of St Jaques, where Rubens is buried. In
the chapel containing his tomb, the picture where Rubens
has represented himself as St George, his grandfather as
Time, etc., is a very fine specimen for colour and beauty of
the women. The Gardien, who used to be a schoolfellow
of Leys, says a Rubens, descended from the painter's
brother, is living to represent the family. We asked him
about Leys's Hotel de Ville paintings ; and he said that we
could call on Leys, who would accompany us if the works
are not publicly visible : we are not likely to have the
cheek for this. Some old pictures (twelve) of Acts of St
Hubert, said to be by a follower of Memling, and one of
them by Memling himself, much studied by Leys, says the
Gardien ; also a pair of brass candlesticks in the Rubens
chapel. A very leading large triptych by Bernard van
Orley, of Last Judgment, and the donors, male and female,
represented as old people, with family (under the protection
of two Saints, being themselves as at time of marriage). To
the Cathedral. The Descent from the Cross is certainly a
very magnificent picture, somewhat black ; the lower part
of the side-panel of The Salutation, with a trailing-tailed
peacock, etc., most delightful. The two outside subjects,
St Christopher and some hermit, not to be seen. The
other great triptych, The Elevation of the Cross, with side-
pieces connected therewith, contains perhaps a still greater
number of astonishing excellencies. The outside panels,
figures of Saints, are most gorgeous bits of work, and
one woman of them (Katharine?) singularly beautiful and
queenly. The high-altar piece, The Assumption of the
Virgin, is a very distinguished and beautiful Rubens, not
very interesting to me. There is a good deal of fine
painted glass in the Cathedral ; notably, in one of the
apse-chapels, figures of Kings etc. with Saints, light figures
or
WILLIAM ROSSETTI— DIARY, 1863 35
on a very deep indigoish-blue ground. — After dinner strolled
out, and found very near our hotel (Grand Laboureur,
Place de Meir) the house of Rubens ; a very large build-
ing, done up in a horrid style some ten years ago. At
night, to two dancing-places in the Rue Dyck. The bar-
barism of dogcarts still prevails in Belgium.
Tuesday r, 8. — Visited the Church of St Paul. The carved
and coloured Purgatory etc. is not without something
impressive. Rubens's Flagellation fine, with high flesh-
tints, yet quiet in general effect. This Church is surpris-
ingly full of elaborate wood - carvings. To the Hotel de
Ville. Leys's frescoes are said to be not begun yet, but
only the ground laid ; and some other pictures of his
were all entassfa, to be removed somewhither. The old
Inquisition-room, which seems to be used now as a police-
court, has some remarkably fine decorative wood - carving
on the rails ; and another room contains some specially
excellent topographical oil -pictures from the history of
Antwerp — two by Nicholas van Cleef, about 1530, and
one about 1650. To St Augustine's, which contains"!
Rubens's Marriage of St Katharine, a good fully-carried- I
out example, not amounting to very much, I think. To 1
St Andrews, with th : portrait and inscription to Mary
Queen of Scots, and a series of small sketchy Saint-
pictures by Rubens, done in some notably short time ;
slight and rather poor affairs. To a private collection of
pictures, M. de Wuits's, some hundred or so works, large
and small. A very delightful interior by de Hooghe, with
reflected lights, and a gentleman smoking a pipe. A grand
life-sized nude study by Velasquez called Prometheus, most
masterly, and beautiful brown and grey tone of flesh ;
also a good portrait by him, which I believe to be genuine
but Gabriel doubts. A so-called Raphael, La Vierge ait
Lange, has, I should say, no pretence to genuineness. The
miserable absurdity of re - painting is rife in Antwerp,
several leading Rubenses and Vandycks in the Muse"e and
the Churches being obviously mauled.— Getting among the
old and out-of-the-way shops, we bought a good number
36 ROSSETTI PAPERS
of things : brass pots, gold ornament as worn by peasants,
a large pot with blue figures of birds etc., a Dutch Bible
with old prints, some valance for a bed. — To the Jardin
de Zoologie, which is a splendid collection ; the total
number of animals (I should say) equal to London, and
some departments decidedly better filled. Reptiles few, no
vivarium, and not much of rodents that we saw. The path
as one enters is bordered by a row of splendid parrots on
separate stands ; and further on there is a most magnifi-
cent blue-and-yellow macaw, nearly double the size of
an ordinary one. A vast- number of small and moderate-
sized birds, in large spaces, and multitudes of the same
sort together. In this respect and generally, the laying-
out of the space is excellent, the animals having ample
room to move about in and be seen. A young elephant
four years old, somewhat the size of a bullock, with a
most flexible trunk ; a young blue-faced baboon, colour
as yet dim ; two lion-cubs ; a remarkably fine rhinoceros ;
several "dama" antelopes, very handsome, large spaces
of bright chestnut-brown across white ; a complete skeleton
of a whale ; several fine owls, especially a variety of the
barn-owl (I saw it also in Brussels) much deeper in
colour. The Falco Vocifer (colours somewhat as the
dama) is a very beautiful bird. — Dined at the Restaurant
Bertrand, nearly opposite our hotel, with Ostend oysters
(small and choice — sink deeper than English in the shell)
and cooked peach with rice; a very good house, the
reverse of cheap.
Wednesday, 9. — Left Antwerp for Ghent — a good deal
of rain, especially in the later part of the day. Church
of St Jaques, a fine massive unelaborate exterior. Church
of St Nicholas ; an able Coronation of the Virgin by Nicholas
Roose, who shows to advantage elsewhere in Ghent. The
Cathedral of St Bavon. Rubens's Bavon renouncing Soldier-
ship for the Cloister is a very splendid picture ; carried as
far as his most finished pictures, with the freedom of his
freest. The Van Eyck is an amazing piece of complete
work, realizing the acme of its class of art. The four
WILLIAM ROSSETTI— DIARY, 1863 37
smaller and two larger copies by Coxcie of the compart-
ments now in Berlin are very able copies, the latter more
particularly. No painted glass here, nor elsewhere (that
I saw) in Ghent. To the Museum of Paintings ; pretty
fair in number, but not at all considerable in merit — a few
better works marked in catalogue. One room is full of
modern works, all or some of which gained the prizes of
the Ghent Academy, to whom the building belongs. We
bought another large earthenware pot, and two brass
candle-holders to be hung against a wall. The old houses
in Ghent have great character and interest, and seem
generally to have more detail than those in Antwerp. —
Bruges, Hotel du Commerce, where there is a staircase
with very remarkable rails — figures, in wood, of swans
holding the uprights in the form of bulrushes, all painted.*
The hotel is a spacious fine old building altogether.
Thursday, 10. — Hospital of St John. The side com-
partments of the Chasse appear to Gabriel and me to
have undergone some not inconsiderable re-painting; the
groups on the gabled angles and roof not so. This is a
less admirable production on the whole than some larger
works by Memling — the great triptych, for instance, of
the Marriage of St Katharine, with volets of the Behead-
ing of the Baptist, and of John in Patmos, and (on the
back of these) two Nuns and two men with patron Saints ^
the Nuns especially can yield to nothing of Memling's.
There are one or two other Memlings here, and a sprinkling
of other old or oldish pictures worth notice ; one a Repose
in Egypt, called a Vandyck, and might be his. The build-
ing contains a good deal quaint and interesting. Two
good bits of Gothic carving in tympanum over door, with
numbers of figures, each of the two groups appearing to
be the Death and Glorification of the Virgin. Bought two
peacock-fans. To the Academy. The great Van Eyck
of Virgin and Child ivith Saints George and Donatian and
* I recollect having called my brother's attention to these rails ;
he was delighted with them, and took a pencil sketch, which I still
possess.
38 ROSSETTI PAPERS
t/te Donor, a very wonderful work ; portrait of Van Eyck's
ITWife most admirable ; Head of CJirist an utter failure. A
I very fine Memling, one of the outside panels being an
[^extremely pretty Madonna and Child. Two anonymous
Van Eyckish pictures,* of an unjust Judge arrested and
flayed alive, excellent. The few other works of the older
schools (the more modern not visible at present) are
almost all of some decided interest and merit. To the
Chapel said to be an imitation of the Chapel of the
Holy Sepulchre. Here is some of the best painted glass
I have seen in Belgium ; also a very good monument
(about 1450) to a Count Adourne and his wife, in black
marble, recumbent life-sized effigies. Various minor monu-
ments of interest. To the Church of Notre Dame (next
or equal in importance to the Cathedral, which we did
not visit) ; a noble massive building with much construc-
tional detail, little ornament, brick exterior. The Virgin
and Child deemed to be a Michelangelo very noble. A
considerable number of superior pictures, particularly a
Mater Dolorosa by Jean Mostaert ; being a single figure
seated in the centre, with smaller (I think three each side)
side-pictures of Passion incidents. This is one of the finest
works extant of the old Flemish school ; the Virgin remark-
ably dignified and becoming, without want of the character-
istic individuality of the school. The copper - gilt and
enamelled and black - marble monuments to Charles le
Temeraire and his Duchess are perhaps unique for
splendour, and in all respects works of singular excellence.
The Town Hall (of which we only saw the outside, part
of it used as a meat - market) has a tower (especially) of
great power ; and altogether the Gothic style in Bruges is
of great vigour and pre-eminent scale. — Left for Calais, and
were detained some three and a half hours at Lille,
where we visited the theatre, a noticeably large and hand-
some one. Opera so-so — farce very amusing, and well
acted also, but we could not wait to the end ; slept at
H6tel Dessin, Calais.
* Now identified as the work of Gerard David.
J. A. FROUDE, 1863 39
Friday, 1 1. — Returned to London ; a very fine day, and
good passage * of less than two hours.
31. — J. A. FROUDE to WILLIAM ROSSETTI.
[This letter admits us a little into an Editor's back-
office. My friend Thomas Woolner had published his
poetic volume named My Beautiful Lady, and he invited
me to write a review of it, in case Mr Froude, as Editor
of Fraser's Magazine^ would give the article admission.
Mr Froude assented, and so did I — being much attached
to Woolner, and unwilling to refuse him this small service.
My real critical opinion of the poem, however, was that it
contained, along with much of more than common merit,
a good deal that must be called defective ; and, as a critic
owes something to his Editor and his public as well as to
the person reviewed, I wrote in private to Mr Froude, to
say that, if he were to invite me to write the notice
(which he had not as yet actually done), I should limit
myself to praising those things which I conscientiously
considered praiseworthy — leaving unwritten those strictures
which I equally deemed correct, but which would have
been not at all pleasing to my friend. I left it to Mr
Froude to say whether under these conditions I should be
the right man to whom to consign the book. The follow-
ing is Froude's answer. In the event, Carlyle did certainly
not write anything about the poem in Frasers Magazine^
nor do I remember that any one did.]
6 CLIFTON PLACE.
29 October 1863.
My dear Rossetti, — I cannot complain of your unwill-
ingness, whatever the embarrassment which it may occasion
* A good sea-passage was of importance to my Brother. He was
liable to severe sea-sickness, and I have no doubt that this was one
of the reasons why, throughout his life, he showed so little alacrity
for foreign travel.
40 ROSSETTI PAPERS
me ; for the ground of it is the same which made me
hesitate to write the review myself. I saw the poem
in MS. ; and, although there could not but be much that
was good in anything that Woolner did, it seemed to me
to be less than the best ; and, when I heard that it was
to be published, I felt the regret which I always feel when
a man who is supremely excellent in any one department
persists in thrusting himself before the world in another
where he comparatively fails. I don't know what to do.
My hope had been to find some one who saw only the
merits, and could praise conscientiously and without
reserve ; and, from what he said to me, I trusted that it
might have been done by you. But you are too clear-
sighted, and so I fear every one will be whose opinion
Woolner would value. It is no discredit to a painter if he
is not a first-rate musician ; but it is a discredit to him
if he gives a concert and invites the world to come and
listen to him. He may play moderately well — well enough
to be a delight to himself — but he ought to be able to
take the measure of his own powers. The Beautiful Lady
is not poetry at all, but only very admirable manufacture.
I shall try to persuade Carlyle to write a page or two.
He could tell the truth without giving offence, and he
might do it for Woolner's sake. — Most truly yours,
J. A. FROUDE.
32.— ANNE GILCHRIST to WILLIAM ROSSETTI.
[I had attended at Christie's the view-day of a forth-
coming sale, the Blamire sale, and there I saw some Blake
items of very superior interest. Having written to Mrs
Gilchrist on the subject, I received the following reply.
In speaking of my "annotations to the Blake," Mrs
Gilchrist referred to certain pencillings I had made in my
copy of Gilchrist's Life of Blake, which was by this time
already published.]
ANNE GILCHR1ST, 1863 41
BROOKBANK.
6 November 1863.
My dear Mr Rossetti,— ... So the MS. life of Blake
by Tatham, so long fruitlessly searched for by my dear
Husband, has come to light at last ! Both Mr Palmer and
Tatham himself put my Husband on a wrong scent by
being positive it was in the hands of Sir Robert Peel — to
whom, of course, both he and I applied in vain. . . . No
doubt the Ancient of Days with Tatham's cipher on it is
the identical copy Blake worked upon on his death-bed,
and threw from him in triumph, as described in the Life —
a most peculiarly interesting thing, therefore, quite apart
from its artistic merits. I suppose the death-bed sketch of
Mrs Blake which Tatham once possessed is not among
the items of this sale? No doubt I had best write to
Christie after the sale for a list of the purchasers of the
Blakes. . . .
A thousand thanks beforehand for a sight of your
annotations to the Blake.
I know you will be pleased to hear that Mr Carlyle has
written me a very cordial letter about the book — awarding
it high commendation indeed ; a letter altogether that
made golden to me the day on which I received it. ...
—Yours very truly,
A. GlLCHRIST.
I am sure you are right in your conjecture about the
portrait being Richmond's — remember Mr Palmer specify-
ing this in describing the book.
33. — ANNE GILCHRIST to WILLIAM ROSSETTI.
[I do not distinctly recollect about my Brother's having
destroyed a " residuum " of Blake MSS. etc. It is certainly
a pity that he included in the holocaust a transcript from
a leading passage in Blake's French Revolution, a book so
42 ROSSETTI PAPERS
rare that some Blake experts of recent years have come to
the conclusion that it was never printed at all. The " long
thing " by Blake, which Mrs Gilchrist regarded as " pure rub-
bish," was a prose narrative of a domestic, and also fantastic,
sort, clearly intended by its author to count as humouristic
or funny, and somewhat in the Shandean vein. I read
this performance, and heartily confirmed Mrs Gilchrist in
the conviction of its being rubbish ; yet I was startled to
learn soon afterwards that, on receiving my letter, she had
burned the MS. The thing was stupid, but it was Blake's,
and a curiosity.]
BROOKBANK.
1 8 November 1863.
My dear Mr Rossetti, — I have read through the annota-
tions with eager interest, and with proportionate gratitude
to yourself. I shall copy them all on to a set of clean
proofs I have by me. . . .
I hear the Jerusalem sold for £$o, and the Phillips
Portrait for £16, but have not yet learned the names of
the purchasers ; will let you know them if I succeed in
doing so.
I send by this post Tiriel^ and The French Revolution^
minus, I am grieved to say, the best passage in it, which
must have been among the residuum your brother destroyed.
I thought I had (and still believe I have, though I cannot
after a long hunt find it) a copy of this piece about the
prisoners in the Bastille, in Mr Palmer's handwriting.
Perhaps I shall light upon it when I am not looking for it,
as sometimes perversely happens. I have also put up the
only remaining Blake items which I do not think you have
seen : a few scraps in autograph, a copy of the Laocoon, and
a long thing which I really believe even Mr Swinburne
will pronounce pure rubbish ; but I knew he would like to
judge of this point for himself. . . . — Yours very truly,
A. G.
ANNE GILCHRIST, 1865
34. — ANNE GILCHRIST to WILLIAM ROSSETTI.
BROOKBANK.
23 November 1863.
My dear Mr Rossetti, — I had a letter this morning from
a cousin of mine who is acquainted with Mr Maitland of
Stansted Hall, announcing that the latter had just bought a
magnificent copy of Blake's Jerusalem with a MS. Life, etc.
— in fact, the Blamire Jerusalem with Tatham's memoir. . . .
My cousin says the portrait of Mrs Blake has Richmond's
signature. . . .
I have seen both Mr Palgrave's reviews, and of course
like them much ; they are very genial. . . .
I have a friend staying with me, some of whose relatives
were intimate with John Varley, and had their nativities
cast by him, which continue down to the present year to
come astoundingly true !
With kindest remembrances to Miss Rossetti, — Yours
very truly,
ANNIE GILCHRIST.
35.— ANNE GILCHRIST to WILLIAM ROSSETTI.
BROOKBANK.
25 November 1863.
Dear Mr Rossetti, — Now that I have the work before
me in its present beautiful form, I feel with fresh emphasis
the magnitude and rare quality of your own and your
Brother's services to it — pious services truly, for which, I
believe, the dead as well as the living bless you both.
I have had a very brief note from Mr Linnell to the
effect that, if (as he thinks probable) a second edition is
called for, he will have a few suggestions to make concern-
ing it
44 ROSSETTI PAPERS
I have also had a note full of feeling and kindness
from Mr Browning. . . . — Yours very truly,
ANNE GILCHRIST.
36.— PHILIP HAMERTON to WILLIAM ROSSETTI.
[I suppose that Mr Hamerton's article is traceable in
the Revue des Deux Mondes : do not remember having
ever read it. The "exhibition" of which he speaks was a
collection of his landscapes in a house in Piccadilly : it
went on for some little while. A volume of his in prose
and verse used to be procurable there — The Isles of Loch
Awe.]
RUE DU PALAIS 4, SENS, YONNE, FRANCE.
15 January 1864.
My dear Sir, — I had the honour of a short corre-
spondence with your Brother Mr Dante Rossetti, about
the artistic opinions of the Praeraphaelites, relatively to an
article I had in contemplation for the Revue des Deux
Mondes. I had laid the article aside for some time in hopes
of an answer from Mr Holman-Hunt ; but, as I received a
letter to-day reminding me of my promise to write the
article, I am going to do so immediately, without waiting
for Hunt's reply. . . .
My exhibition is in a shabby way, but it is intended to
be permanent if I can make it pay directly or indirectly.
I am doomed never to live in London, and I require a
room where my things may be accessible.
By the by, I have to thank you for the generous and
kind way you spoke of me in Macmillan and the Fine Arts
Quarterly Review. I fully feel and admit all that was
^/favourable in your criticisms. Considering that I enjoy
colour in Nature, I have had immense difficulty with it,
but find myself gradually gaining in facility, though not
so fast as I wish. I have had long periods of discourage-
PHILIP HAMERTON, 1864
45
ment when I have done nothing (except look at Nature,
and take pencil memoranda), but am getting over these
and working more regularly. I am painting some smaller
pictures, which will probably be better than those you saw,
though my opinion of my own work is really very humble
indeed.
In my article in the Revue des Deux Mondes I should
wish to give your Brother the place which is due to him ;
and to that end should be glad to name a few of his
principal works, and say who bought them ; and, if the
prices of any have been large, it would be well to mention
them, because I wish to give continental readers a means
of judging of the position the Praeraphaelite leaders have
taken, and there is no criterion of this so good as the
prices their works fetch. . . . These enquiries are dictated
chiefly by a feeling of respect for your Brother's genius,
founded, it is true, on the study of few of his works, and
those not important ones — yet nevertheless very sincere.
—I remain, my dear Sir, very truly yours,
P. G. HAMERTON.
37. — PHILIP HAMERTON to WILLIAM ROSSETTI.
TAIN, DROME.
24 January 1864.
My dear Sir, — It is very good of you to have given me
so long and detailed a reply. . . . Without attempting to
put myself forward in any way as the advocate or counsel
of the sect or body of painters called Praeraphaelites, I find
I must speak of them, and desire to avoid saying anything
which is not true, and at the same time not to omit anything
of real importance concerning them. My article will be called
Theories Artistiques en Angleterre, and it is highly desirable
that the praeraphaelite theory should be fairly and truly
stated. To arrive at this I have tried to get at the opinions
of the Praeraphaelites concerning other artists, especially
46 ROSSETTI PAPERS
great dead ones. Millais, your Brother, Brett, and Woolner,
have given me much valuable information ; but I cannot get
at H. Hunt's views, and so must omit him, or only allude
to him, which is to be regretted. Ruskin, I imagine, is not
to be taken as a precise representative of prseraphaelite
thought. Probably your own published criticisms express
Pgeneral praeraphaelite views more accurately. I think the
Praeraphaelites were generally rather imprudent in not
publishing some authentic statement of their views, as all
sorts of wild notions are ascribed to them by their enemies
in England, and accepted on the Continent as accurately
^theirs. . . .
What you said of me (book and all) I felt to be true,
even the bit about the heavy pound of feathers. . . . Hence-
forth I mean to quit the feather-trade. — I remain, dear Sir,
very truly yours,
P. G. HAMERTON.
38.— DANTE ROSSETTI to MADOX BROWN.
[The exaggerated praise which Rossetti bestows upon
the small picture which he had bought, Barnet Market-Place^
is surprising enough. Both he and Brown had a rather
curious fondness for the "old-fashioned," whether in actual
buildings or in paintings ; and, though of course his expres-
sions in this letter are intentionally overdone, he really had
a great liking for the little picture in question. I could not
myself quite share his fervour for it, but it was a solid
and approvable piece of work by some capable painter.
In the sale of his effects in July 1882 it figured as lot 315,
An EnglisJi Country Town about 1810, and was bought by
Mr Enson for 1 1 guineas. The water-colours by Brown,
purchased by Gambart, may, I think, have been a version
of the Elijah and the Widow's Son, and the little girl's head
n lamed Old Toothless. Of the two water-colours by Rossetti
limself, the one bought by Mr Tong appears to have been
DANTE ROSSETTI, 1864 47
a replica from the Lady Lilith ; I do not identify the other./
The proposed agreement with Gambart did not take effect ;
at any rate, my Brother never worked for that gentleman on
the scale of one water-colour per fortnight for two years
continuously. The phrase "Tebbs bought the Marshalls"
means that Mr H. Virtue Tebbs had bought certain paint-
ings by Mr P. P. Marshall (of the Morris firm), who,
though not a professional painter, was an amateur of
marked ability.]
16 CHEYNE WALK, CHELSEA.
28 March 1864.
My dear Brown, — ... I have just bought for £2 a
most god-like picture of The Old Swan Inn and Market-
place at Barnet — the chef-d^oeuvre of the British school — I
should think by Morland in his best time. But really it is
a work which would ravish your inner soul ; only it has
got some holes knocked in it, so I must get it lined at
once.
I am very glad Gambart has got your drawings, as he
will push your prices up like mad. I think I told you that
I heard, by a side-way, of one I sold him for £$o being sold
again to Mr Tong of Manchester for 100 guineas. The
other day I was told that one which I sold for the same
price to Vokins was sold by him for 100 to a dealer in New-
castle, and by him sold again for 120.
I have not yet signed that agreement with Gambart ;
and am really thinking I must not do it at less than 50
guineas a drawing, as one or two of those I have done from
Nature lately I find just as troublesome as other work, and
I dare say he sells all I do at much the same rates as those
I have heard of. I proposed to do him the drawings at
40 guineas each, one a fortnight for two years, which was all
my own proposal ; but have not yet had to renew the
subject, the things I have done since being on a previous
engagement at 50 guineas each. I want your advice in the
matter. . . .
I was delighted to hear that Tebbs bought the Marshalls.
48 ROSSETTI PAPERS
He and I were so absorbed in blue china, the night he
came here, that he was just the only visitor to whom I had
forgotten to show them. — Yours affectionately,
D. G. ROSSETTI.
39. — PHILIP HAMERTON to WILLIAM ROSSETTI.
RUE DU PALAIS 4, SENS, YONNE.
10 April 1864.
My dear Sir, — ... I am just now at work on my
paper for the Revue des Deux Mondes ; so your letter is
in nice time for my purpose, after all. The information
you give me confirms my previous notions about Prae-
raphaelitism. I have made a little article for the Fine
Arts Quarterly called the Reaction from Prceraphaelitism,
which may interest you. My position with regard to Prae-
raphaelitism is one of sympathy and goodwill, but the
goodwill of an outsider. The practical reason is that
none but the best praeraphaelite work seems to me endur-
able, whereas second - rate free painting may still be
tolerable ; and also that I am irresistibly attracted to
effects, which can only be rendered conventionally, not
imitatively. But, setting myself out of the question, I
should oppose (as a matter of duty) the authoritative
establishment of praeraphaelite principles (or any other
principles) if there were any chance of their becoming
tyrannical, and repressive of forms of genius for which they
might be unsuited. Hence, I should warmly support Prae-
raphaelitism while persecuted, and warmly oppose it if it
became tyrannical. This is why I rejoice in the success of
individual Praeraphaelites, and am nevertheless happy to
see that the movement has failed to make itself more
than beneficially influential ; and this is also the reason
why you will find me apparently more friendly to Prae-
raphaelitism in the French periodical than in the English
one.
DANTE ROSSETTI, 1864 49
I have just finished two big pictures which are some-
what better than what you have seen of mine, and will be
at 196 Piccadilly by the ist of May, I hope. But I am
going to change my policy. I have aimed too high, and
attempted subjects beyond my present capacity. For the
next three years I am going to do nothing but small
pictures, rapidly executed from Nature, never retouched or
corrected. By means of this straightforward work I hope
to acquire facility, of which at present I have none. There
is some colour in these new pictures, and much local truth
of character; but the handling is so miserably unskilful
that I feel tempted to burn them. .This bit of egotism is
quite sincere. The subjects of the pictures are Sens from
the Vineyards and The River Yonne, both in full autumnal
colour with evening light. The subjects are glorious, but
very difficult. . . . — Very truly yours,
P. G. HAMERTON.
40.— DANTE ROSSETTI to MADOX BROWN.
[This psean over "pots" — i.e., blue oriental china —
marks the tone of mind which characterized my Brother as
a collector of articles of virtu for two or three years.]
1 6 CHEYNE WALK.
[? 1864.]
My dear Brown, — . . . My Pots now baffle description
altogether, while the imagination which could remotely
conceive them would deserve a tercentenary celebration.
COME AND SEE THEM. Let me know what day to expect
you, and bring Emma and Lucy to dinner. — Affectionately
yours,
D. G. ROSSETTI.
50 ROSSETTI PAPERS
4 1. —CHRISTINA ROSSETTI to DANTE ROSSETTI.
[Christina's volume Goblin Market etc. came out in
1862. It would appear that now, in 1864, Dante Rossetti
was urging his Sister to prepare a new volume. This she
soon proceeded to do, but the result, the Prince's Progress
volume, did not actually appear until 1866. By "Mac" is
meant the publisher Macmillan.]
ALBANY STREET.
7 May 1864.
My dear Gabriel, — Don't think me a perfect weathercock.
But why rush before the public with an immature volume ?
I really think of not communicating at all with Mac at
present ; but waiting the requisite number of months (or
years as the case may be) until I have a sufficiency of quality
as well as quantity. Is not this after all my best plan ? If
meanwhile my things become remains, that need be no bug-
bear to scare me into premature publicity. Not that the
brotherly trouble you have already taken need be lost, as
your work will of course avail when (and if) the day of
publication comes. . . . — Your grateful affectionate bore,
C. G. R.
42.— DANTE ROSSETTI— " THE SEED OF DAVID."
[This picture, the Llandaff Triptych, was finished towards
June 1864. The following note of its subject and treatment
was written by Rossetti, and may, I presume, have been sent
to the authorities of Llandaff Cathedral.]
r
864.]
This picture shows Christ sprung from high and low, as
united in the person of David who was both Shepherd and
W. J. STILLMAN, 1864 51
King, and worshipped by high and low (by King and
Shepherd) at his birth.
The centrepiece is not a literal reading of the event of
the Nativity, but rather a condensed symbol of it. An Angel
has just entered the stable where Christ is newly born, and
leads by the hand a King and a Shepherd, who are bowing
themselves before the manger on which the Virgin Mother
kneels, holding the infant Saviour. The Shepherd kisses the
hand, and the King the foot, of Christ, to denote the superi-
ority of lowliness to greatness in his sight ; while the one
lays a crook, the other a crown, at his feet. An Angel kneels
behind the Virgin with both arms about her, supporting her ;
and other Angels look in through the openings round the
stable, or play on musical instruments in the loft above.
The two side-figures represent David, one as Shepherd,
the other as King. In the first he is a youth, and advances
fearlessly but cautiously, sling in hand, to take aim at Goliath,
while the Israelite troops watch the issue of the combat from
behind an entrenchment. In the second, he is a man of «
mature years, still armed from battle, and composing on his/
harp a psalm in thanksgiving for victory.
43.— W. J. STILLMAN to WILLIAM ROSSETTI.
[Mr Stillman, when he wrote this letter, was United
States Consul to the Papal Government in Rome].
U.S. CONSULATE, ROME.
10 June 1864.
My dear Rossetti, — ... I have no faith in any letter
going straight that bears the family-name you hail by on its
outer walls ; so this I send out of the Roman States to be
posted. Our kind and paternal police have taken a special
care of the things that pertain to me ; for the instinct of the
creatures is so keen that I don't need to write an allocution
to tell them that I detest their slimy ways and wicked deeds.
52 HOSSETTt PAPERS
In fact intercourse is almost suspended between me and the
Government. . . . Things are in a state here which would
disgrace Timbuctoo. We are in danger every day of being
robbed or murdered by our own doors, unless we happen to
carry revolvers. My studio has been robbed, and twice
robbers have failed in attempts on my rooms. An acquaint-
ance of mine arrested a fellow who had stabbed his landlady
(acquaintance's) ; and, calling two policemen to take him into
custody, they refused, saying that it was piccola cosa* and the
ruffian walked undisturbed away. Of all the murders com-
mitted this winter, not one has been traced out ; but, if a
heavy-hearted Roman whispers in his sleep Roma o morte^
some one is pretty sure to be sharp enough to hear it, and for
him the gendarmes have noses as sharp as their fears. The
oppression, the gloom and despondency, of this place, have
become intolerable to me : I have asked to be transferred to
some other consulate, and, if not, I shall resign this winter.
Almost every one I know who is true is either suspected or
has been arrested or under- surveillance ; and the place is as
gloomy as a churchyard — which indeed it is, and the living
are buried in it. A lethargy like a catalepsy, all feeling but
no power, rests on the place ; and I love liberty too well to
dance by the sound of even Italian chains, or not to be
paralysed in part by its paralysis.
Between this and the wail of my own land, I am getting
the iron driven pretty deep into me. ... It seems at times
as if I never could forgive England for the heartless gibes she
has thrown to us who loved her so well, and honoured her
even in our arrogance. It was like the jests and sneers
careless boys might fling at the wailing of a woman in labour.
So we, in the throes almost of death — but we believe in those
of birth, the bringing to-day the hitherto unknown one, human
liberty, unsullied by bar sinister or stain of oppression — have
taken in anger (almost overpowering our sorrows) the insults
and stabs of the kindred nation for whose defence from Gallic
oppression hundreds of thousands of us, only a few years
before, were willing to take arms. Never mind, we've got the
*A trifling affair.
W. J. STILLMAN, 1864
53
force of life in us yet, and we all believe that the nation will
live through the worst of the trials that may be prepared for
us. They don't kill empires in their youth. There is an
everlasting vitality in a nation called to empire which no
outside power can eradicate : only the corruption that
dissolves from within can disintegrate the mass. If the
world believes that the success of the United States of
America depends on the success of Grant's movements
against Richmond, the world is as much mistaken as it
generally is when it judges new things by old standards.
Europe misjudges the war altogether. It is not a war to be
finished by a Solferino or a Waterloo — it is nothing more or
less than a war of extermination, to that point that either one
or the other of the combatants has no more an army to put
in the field. We so understand and accept it ; and, if in
losing our brave men by thousands we destroy as many of
the insurgents, we accept it as victory, for we have men still
to lose and they have not. They put the condition of sub-
mission as extermination — we accept it — and so the war will
be fought through. Europe was amazed at the power of that
western democracy ; the power to be seen will leave the past
in insignificance ; and Europe will see that a people can be
just and generous and honest under greater provocations to
the contrary than the world ever yet saw ; and, when it has
conquered its worst enemy, go on to conquer itself. Of
course, I am Utopian, Americans generally are ; but we
believe in our Utopia, and are willing to sacrifice something
for it. But still we are human and a nation of individuals,
not a government and its people. Let England remember
that. . . .
Goblin Market, etc., I read with true pleasure : right
woman's heart is in it, and healthy brain, and of my way of
feeling in matter of faith. . . . — Yours sincerely,
W. J. STILLMAN.
54 ROSSETTI PAPERS
44. —WILLIAM ROSSETTI— DIARY, 1864.
Tuesday, 14 June. — Left London by Newhaven and
Dieppe. . . . Reached Paris about 1 1 P.M., and went to
Hotel de Choiseul, Rue St Honore, where I had been
with Boyce for the Delacroix sale. . . .
Thursday, 1 6.— Went to the Hotel de Ville to see the
Delacroix, and saw everything else instead — the Delacroix
being in a room wherein some big thing from the Inter-
national Exhibition has been placed, blocking it up. ...
To St Sulpice, to see the Delacroix there; frescoes of
Heliodorus, and Jacob wrestling with the Angel, with Michael
and Satan in the ceiling. The last appears to me very
unsatisfactory, and the others hardly what they should be,
though the Heliodorus especially is a work of great ability.
It seems to me damaged by too great a number of different
full-tinted colours, as in the draperies. ... In the evening,
to the Theatre Dejazet (my first visit there). None of the
Dejazets acted, and the pieces were, on the whole, rather
stupid. Here for the first time I saw Pepper's ghost trick.
It strikes me as rather curious that pieces of broad fun in
Paris seem just now to depend very little on female interest
or acting. Such is the case with the Cagnotte at the Palais
Royal, which has had a great run, continuing till now
ever since I was in Paris in February. So also in the
Theatre Dejazet, though a somewhat decollete house. Three
pieces to-night were all dependent on male acting and
farce, and even three dancing-interludes all for male
dancing. . . .
Friday, 17. — To the Bibliotheque of the Corps Legislatif,
to see the Delacroix. Their general impression is hardly
up to the mark — the whole thing seeming to lack weight,
and peculiarity of decorative idea. A great deal however
is very fine, and finer the more one looks at it ; and
the colour very agreeable and well understood, though it
seems to have little of the monumental quality. Education
WILLIAM ROSSETTI— DIARY, 1864
55
of Achilles, Hesiod and the PytJioness, Herodotus and the
Magi) three of the best. ... To the Louvre, to have a
deliberate look at the two new saloons of French painting,
in which there is a good deal to examine and approve.
De Troy able ; Chardin a very clever still-life man. David
has been absurdly depreciated of late. His portrait here
of a lady (Madame Recamier) reclined on a couch is
second to few works of the kind ; not to speak of the great
merits of his classic and historic works. . . .
Saturday, 18. — Went to Dessoye's, the Japanese shop in
the Rue de Rivoli, and bought books etc. to the amount
of 40 francs. They are cheaper here than in the Rue
Lepelletier. There is to be a new consignment in October,
especially of books of birds and flowers. . . . Madame
Dessoye told me some particulars about Japanese matters.
A figure with a robe figured with leaves of a tree is the
Tycoon (pronounced with the English " i "). The type of
face constantly given to women is a mere convention. The
real type is snub-nosed ; but the Japanese, as they admire
long drooping noses, improvise them for the purpose. The
Japanese are much pleased with European work, such as
the cuts in the Illustrated London News. Boyce's teapot
is a marriage-teapot, used on those occasions only — so the
Japanese Ambassadors informed Madame Dessoye. . . .
Tuesday ', 21. — Reached Milan soon after 8 A.M. . . . To
the Teatro della Canobbiana, an operatic theatre, quite a
large and handsome one (the Scala is shut). The per-
formances were Pacini's Saffb, which seems to me character-
less enough music ; and a ballet of Shakespear, while""^
drunk, being spirited away by Queen Elizabeth, to witness
a fairyism which suggests to him the Midsummer Nighfs
Dream. These two illustrious personages are at least
excused from cutting capers. The absurdity of the thing
amusing, and all well done of its kind. There is
immense ballet-establishment at this theatre — whole relays
of new figurantes coming on. ...
Thursday, 23. — Left Milan at 6.20 for Venice. . . .
Saturday^ 25. — In my stroll along the Schiavoni I was
56 ROSSETTI PAPERS
rather surprised to notice that common medallion-brooches
of Victor Emanuel and Garibaldi are for sale al fresco with-
out the least concealment. . . .
Sunday, 26. — . . . To the Scuola di San Rocco. The
wooden carved portrait of Tintoret holds a scroll inscribed
(as spoken by Tintoret) to the effect that painting is more
difficult than sculpture, and superior, as producing its
effect by less literal means. The Custode says this is
really a statement by Tintoret, but query. In 1848 or 9
several Austrian cannon-shot, bombs, etc., came into the
Scuola, and the places where some fell are marked by circles
in the flooring. . . .
Monday, 27. — . . . The boatman says the greatest
Venetian festa now is the Redentore, 27 (?) July ; when a
bridge of boats is made from the Giudecca (wherein stands
the Redentore church) to the Riva delle Zattere, and another
across the Grand Canal, so that the poorest people can
cross over without payment. The festa of St Mark is dis-
countenanced by the Austrians, as being likely to keep up
dangerous reminiscences. . . .
Wednesday, 29. — . . . Went to the principal curiosity-
shops and collections. At Rietti's bought a pewter plate
(Pharaoh's Dream} 6 francs, and an old iron of a lock repre-
senting a dragon, 14. At Bianchi's, an old Venetian tortoise-
shell fan with central opera-glass (belonged to a Dogaressa,
said the shopman). At Arrichetti's an old moulded-leather
box, 20 ; and a pewter plate, of rich heraldic design but in
very bad condition, 18. All these prices and the others
asked appear to me high ; but the shop-keepers stuck out
against taking any less, and these are hardly reduced from
the original demand. The three last purchases are said to
be rarities ; and I have reason to think this is probably the
case with at least the fan, as Arrichetti told me so of a
similar one he had, knowing that I had already got mine. . . .
After dinner again to the Teatro Malibran, where there is a
new and apparently somewhat popular piece, La Famiglia del
Condannato, intended to set forth the grievance of maintain-
ing the marriage-bond in the case of a man condemned to
WILLIAM ROSSETTI— DIARY, 1864
57
perpetual imprisonment. . . . Children come into most of
the Italian plays I have seen, and act certainly with great ease
and intelligence, very different from the stiff-elbowed and
squeaky-voiced style of English stage-children.
Sunday, 3 July. — After dinner revisited the Malibran
Theatre, where a very stupid piece about the Monks of St
Bernard. The house was comparatively (i.e., perhaps half)
full. It seems, as the man in charge of the belfry told me,
that the Patriotic Committee discountenance theatre-going,
as being unsuited to the mournful condition of the country,
and because the Austrians go. This accounts for the empti-
ness, shutting up of the Fenice, etc. Everybody tells me
that things get worse and worse in Venice ; trade more
stagnant, emigration increasing. It seems to me to be a
little more down-in-the-mouth than when I was here two
years ago, and the belfry-man says it is very decidedly so.
Monday, 4. — Left Venice in the morning, and stopped
the better part of the day in Vicenza. . . . To the Madonna
di Monte Berico, from which and about it one gets noble
views of Vicenza, and the country with the Tyrolese Alps.
... In the Church is a fine Pieta by B. Montagna, and in
the refectory the great Veronese, La Cena di San Gregorio,
containing evidently several portraits (Veronese and his son
said to be among them). The incident is that, the Pope
entertaining a number of pilgrims, Christ came and dined
among them, and (it appears to me) Peter also, though the
custode did not admit this. This picture was wantonly
hacked to pieces by the Austrian soldiers, but has been most
successfully pieced together, and I think rather over-cleaned,
but the custode says not retouched at all. ... It is an
admirable specimen. . . . On to Verona. . . .
Wednesday, 6. — My time at Verona has been passed in
company with a very nice young fellow, a son of Smith
O'Brien (who, I now learn, is very lately dead), much inter-
ested in matters of art, and of considerable taste and dis-
crimination. Name, Lucius ; address, 40 Trinity College,
Dublin, or at Limerick. — Went to San Zenone, which is a
most splendid place for antiquity and artistic interest ; the
58 ROSSETTI PAPERS
bronze gates, of tenth to eleventh century or so, incompar-
able in their way, and a number of very interesting early
frescoes lately recovered from whitewash, besides Lombardic
capitals etc. etc. The custode,* a most intelligent young
man, who takes the most genuine interest in his Church,
remembers Ruskin well, and seems to have been imbued
with some of his love for the old, hatred of restorations,
etc. . . .
Thursday., 7. — Left Verona in the middle of the day for
Bergamo. . . .
Friday, 8. — Colleoni Chapel, many fine details; tomb of
his daughter Medea particularly sweet. ... A most singu-
larly cleverly executed series of bas-reliefs outside along the
lower line of the windows : — I. Hercules and Antaeus. 2.
Hercules killing lion. Both splendid. 3. Creation of Adam.
4. Creation of Eve. 5. Temptation — the serpent is a draped
female figure with serpent's tail and bat's wings — stands
upright on stem of tree. 6. Expulsion — God acts as expel-
ling angel wielding sword. 7. Labour of Adam and Eve —
very exquisite. 8. Sacrifice of Cain and Abel — Cain brings
a whole palm-tree. 9. Murder of Abel — most admirable.
10. Lamech killing Cain. n. Lamech killing his boy, some
eight years old ; seems beating him to death with bow as
with a whip. 12. Sacrifice of Isaac. 13. Hercules and
hydra. 14. Hercules and bull — splendid. One of the most
remarkable series of reliefs in Italy, intensely cinquecento,
or late quattrocento.
Monday, 11. — Zurich. . . . The Swiss are probably a
meritorious, but to me not an attractive people, having a sort
of hard boisterous good-fellowship whose contact is peculiarly
unalluring to me. Screeching, shouting, singing, horn-play-
ing, back-clapping, beerglass-clinking, are the order of the
day. Sometimes one meets with positive rudeness, but more
generally with readiness to oblige, but not in an attractive
manner. The people are very inquisitive also in a free-and-
easy way. The other day, in the Spliigen journey, the
first thing a Switzer did to myself and two other fellow-
* The same custode was still there when I last visited Verona, 1899.
DANTE ROSSETTI, 1864 59
travellers, one female, was to ask us all round what country
we belonged to. To-day a man with a large leather shoulder-
bag had no sooner taken his seat in the railway-carriage (2nd
class) than his vis-d-vis asked him, " Etes-vous soldat ?" And
other instances have presented themselves to me. There is
some satisfaction, however, in the seeming freedom from
class-distinctions, and readiness to take people simply on
their own basis. Reached Bale about 5 P.M. . . .
Tuesday, 12. — . . . Left Bale at 9 A.M., and travelled
all day to Paris. . . .
Wednesday, 13. — . . . Found a new Japanese shop in
Rue Vivienne, where I bought a few things. A number of
books, but none first-rate, save such as I possessed already.
The bad effects of European intercourse are unmistakably
visible in such books now, more especially in the colouring,
which is worse than worthless. — To the Socidte d'Acclima-
tation. ... I am glad to find a wombat among the acclima-
tizing animals — a young (I think the common) one, not at
present blind. A Chinese dog a jambes courtes shows that
the beasts of that genus which one sees in Chinese art are
truer than might be supposed — something of the body of a
Skye terrier to the head of a pug. There is another very
hideous and mangy-looking subject called Men chinois nu.
Also a full-grown broad-fronted wombat seems in very good
condition. . . .
Thursday, 14. — Travelled back to London by the Dieppe
and Newhaven route. A fine day.
45.— -DANTE ROSSETTI to MADOX BROWN.
1 6 CHEYNE WALK, CHELSEA.
19 July [1864].
My dear Brown, — Vokins has never been near me
again ; rather to my surprise, as I know he did well with
that drawing of mine. But I suppose he considered his
60 ROSSETTI PAPERS
bacon had been saved by a special mercy of Providence,
not to be tempted again lest it should end in the cooking
of his goose. However, I would write to him, on my own
account, to come, and then sound him on yours ; only I
can't let Gambart have anything just now, who bears my
cutting him well enough as yet, but might be exasperated
were Vokins to step in. Could I not write to Vokins
something to the effect that you have recently been
working up some water-colours, original sketches for some
of your pictures, etc., and, having a private circle of
purchasers less adapted for such works than the general
market, would like to see him about them ? What say
you?
My big jobs have been hanging fire ever since, though
both show good signs of life, and one I suppose is sure to
turn out something better than another phial in the museum
of artistic foetuses. When this is accomplished — before long,
I still suppose — I must press you to let me be of any
momentary use I can, and may moreover, if you like, be
then easily able to write to this new quarter about the
works you have at disposal. . . . — Yours ever,
D. G. R.
46.— DANTE ROSSETTI to MADOX BROWN.
[The term " the demon Dunlop " was already, at this
early stage of affairs, my brother's name for Mr Walter
Dunlop of Bingley ; because (as appears from the next
ensuing letter, and from the letter to Mr Aldam Heaton,
No. 103) Mr Dunlop paid no sort of attention to the
business -letters addressed to him with regard to the
Gommission he had offered. " My Venus " was the rather
irge oil-picture named Venu$ Verticordial\
DANTE ROSSETTI, 1864
61
16 CHEYNE WALK, CHELSEA.
[n August 1864.]
My dear Brown, — I also have heard from Heaton, and
really feel almost guilty of the stupidity of all these
people, in having advised you to send among them. The
demon Dunlop certainly ought not to have been allowed
to have the drawings within range of his horns and tail,
and I am surprised at Heaton's allowing it. ... I fear,
after what Gambart has just hauled in there (£5000 I was
told), every one must be cleaned out and sheepish. I fear
I'm a poor sort of muff myself for having led you among
such a lot, particularly with my own experience of some
of them, but that has been chiefly since. . . .
I have lost infinite time looking for honeysuckles for
my Venus, but the picture is going to be a stunner now,
and goes on fast. . . . — Yours,
D. G. R.
P.S.— Burn.
47.—DANTE ROSSETTI to MADOX BROWN.
1 6 CHEYNE WALK, CHELSEA.
[12 Attgust 1864.]
My dear Brown, — ... As for the big commissions, I
begin to think it will prove all moonshine. It seems
impossible to get a word from Dunlop now — not to speak
of a cheque; and I am sick of the whole affair, and shall
trouble my head no more with it. ...
I have been worried almost out of my life looking for \
honeysuckles to paint from— have lost a whole week, and
pounds on pounds, about it. As soon as I set about doing
my best, I get bankrupt at once. The only thing is to
stick to the water-colours and earn whereby to live. — YoursJ
ever,
D. G. R.
62 fcOSSETTl PAPERS
48.— DANTE ROSSETTI to MADOX BROWN.
[Mr Trist was a Wine-merchant at Brighton, who bought
one or two works from Rossetti, and more from Brown.
His "picture" may, I suppose, have been King Rene's
^Honeymoon. A nimbus was not supplied to the head of
Venus Verticordia — the oil-picture.]
L
16 CHEYNE WALK, CHELSEA.
[23 August 1864.]
f My dear Brown, — Entre nous, did you ever get an
advance from Trist? Roses and honeysuckles have left
me penniless. I have got on to T[rist]'s picture, and shall
have done it in much less than a month, so would like to
draw half its price ; but wouldn't well like to propose if
he isn't used to be "drawed like a badger." — Ever yours,
D. G. R.
What do you think of putting a nimbus behind my
Venus's head ? I believe the Greeks used to do it.
V—
49.-— DANTE ROSSETTI to MADOX BROWN.
1 6 CHEYNE WALK, CHELSEA.
[25 August 1864.]
My dear Brown, — . . . I'll forbear from springing at the
unaccustomed throat of Trist, if possible ; but really a man
shouldn't buy pictures without nerving himself beforehand
against commercial garotte. — Yours ever truly,
D. G. R.
j. A. FROUDE, 1864
63
50.— DANTE ROSSETTI to MADOX BROWN.
1 6 CHEYNE WALK, CHELSEA.
i September 1864.
My dear Brown, — ... I finished Trist's pot-boiler '
to-day, and lo the pot shall boil for a season. For him, may
his mirth, when he sees it, not be even as the crackling of
thorns under a pot. He will face it on Saturday. — Your
D. GABRIEL R. J
51.— DANTE ROSSETTI to MADOX BROWN.
1 6 CHEYNE WALK, CHELSEA.
[5 September 1864.]
My dear Brown, — Mr Trist was here to-day and took'
his picture, and liked it very much, and paid for it. I have
been at work on it exactly eight days, so it pays better
than most things, though cheap. . . . — Yours ever,
D. G. R.
52. — J. A. FROUDE to WILLIAM ROSSETTI.
[The article by Swinburne which is here referred to
must apparently be a specimen of his Essay on Blake. I
do not however remember that this was actually offered
to Froude for Erasers Magazine. I certainly did not either
contribute or tender to that magazine an article on the
stupendous masterpiece Atalanta in Calydon. The reason
per contra must I think have been that I was offering to
The Pall Mall Gazette a critique on that drama : it was
considered too exuberant in praise, and was not inserted.]
64 ROSSETTI PAPERS
6 CLIFTON PLACE, HYDE PARK.
21 November [1864].
My dear Rossetti, — Nobody knows better than you
the difference between real eloquence and florid fine
writing, nor would you speak of anything as "tran-
scendently fine" without weighing your words.
I have seen some things by Swinburne, and heard others
read. There was no doubt a power of a kind in them. . . .
Your own opinion weighs so much with me that I would
very gladly see his article. Could you not get it from him
without mentioning my name? ... At all events I will
trust your judgment about Atalanta, and leave you free
to say what you like about it. — Faithfully yours,
J. A. FROUDE.
53.— DANTE ROSSETTI to MADOX BROWN.
[Rossetti, in this note, passes rather summary sentence
upon two painters of distinction. Of Albert Moore neither
my Brother nor myself saw much at any time. So far as
I observed, he did not come out much in conversation, yet
it is quite possible that among his genuine intimates he
was not "a dull dog." Inchbold I knew well, and liked
him ; though it is a fact that there was in him something
between uneasy modesty and angular self-opinion, not
promoting smoothness of intercourse. My Brother, who
had probably seen less of Inchbold than I had, did not
affect personages of that turn ; it was somewhere about
this time that he said, in talking to me and others (I think
Mr George Meredith was one), " I can't get on with men
who are not men of the world." To term Inchbold "less
a bore than a curse" was not reasonable, if reason consists
in well-weighed moderation : but Dante Rossetti did not
always want to be thus reasonable.]
54-— DANTE ROSSETTI to ALLAN P. PATON, Greenock.
DANTE ROSSETTI, 1864 65
16 CHEYNE WALK, CHELSEA.
[? 1864].
My dear Brown, — I'll come Saturday of course. As
to bores, I've met Moore once, and found him a dull dog :
accordingly the other day, meeting him, I was as though
I saw him not. Whether he noticed or not I don't know,
but dull dogs are best avoided. Inchbold is less a bore
than a curse. In the latter capacity he courts elaborate
avoidance rather than deliberate invitation. I hope this
sudden outburst of fashion means tin. — Your affectionate
D. G. R.
P.S. — I suppose it's togs and resignation, isn't it?
1
[This note was printed, not long after Rossetti's death,
in a little magazine called The North Parish Magazine
(Greenock). Four stained-glass windows were, in conse-
quence of the note, supplied by the Morris firm for the
Old West Kirk there. As that Greenock magazine can
be known to very few persons, I have thought it permis-
sible to reprint the letter.]
16 CHEYNE WALK, CHELSEA.
24 November 1864.
Dear Sir, — Many thanks for your very kind letter. My
advice to you in this matter is to put the window in the
hands of Messrs Morris, Marshall, Faulkner, & Co., 8 Red
Lion Square, London, W.C. Mr E. B. Jones has made
many designs for this firm, and I have made some also —
both of us indeed being some sort partners in it, as are
Mr Madox Brown and various other artists. I could not
undertake to say exactly by what member of the firm the
designs for your window would be made. For myself, I
E
G6 ROSSETTI PAPERS
have been so much occupied with my pictures for some
time past that 1 have found no time for other work.
From my own point of view, any work issued from this
firm would be very superior to any other work I know.
Of course they would furnish the window complete. Were
you in London at any time, you would find much to
interest you in the decorative work of various kinds at
their place, and Mr Morris would be most happy to show
you over it. Though the managing member of this
decorative firm, Mr Morris may perhaps be better known
to you by his beautiful volume The Defence of Guenevere
etc. — I am, dear Sir, yours very truly,
D. G. ROSSETTI.
P. S. — I think it better to return the sketch, lest you
should need it.
55.— DANTE ROSSETTI to MADOX BROWN.
[The " long-in-hand " picture for Mr Leathart was
presumably the Found. As it continued still much longer
in hand, Rossetti at last got Mr Leathart to relinquish it.
Mr Clabburn was a Norwich manufacturer, known more
especially to Mr Sandys the painter.]
1 6 CHEYNE WALK, CHELSEA.
5 December 1864.
My dear Brown, — ... I met Anthony the other night
at Boyce's, and asked him on Leathart's behalf whether
he still possessed the Harvest-Field at Sunset, and found
he does. Accordingly I should wish to write to L[eathart]
on the matter (though knowing he is not much in the
buying way just now); but am stayed by conscience,
/which reminds me I am always proposing other pictures
j to him without speaking of a long-in-hand one of mine
j for him. I thought I would ask you if you could con-
CHRISTINA ROSSETTI, 1864 67
veniently open the subject to him, as I think he named to
you as well as to me his wish for an Anthony, and asked
you to enquire. If you can't write him however, I will.
I wish I had had one of those small things of yours
by me yesterday. Clabburn called with his Wife, and I
feel sure would have bought. As it is, he bought a
Legros — perhaps more than one. — Yours ever,
D. G. ROSSETTI.
PS. — Legros is married.
56. — DANTE ROSSETTI to MADOX BROWN.
1 6 CHEYNE WALK, CHELSEA.
[8 December 1864.]
Dear Brown, — . . . I've just had lent me my old first*
picture — Girlhood of Virgin, I can look at it a long
way off now as the work of quite another "crittur," and
find it to be a long way better than I thought. — Ever J
yours,
D. G. R.
[The "nestling of unearthly aspect" was (I am pretty
sure) a little Japanese carving — as supremely good as
such things very generally are with that (in its own line)
incomparable artistic nation. The " nest of crocodiles "
must be a drawing of various crocodiles (or I believe more
properly alligators) by the French artist Ernest Griset,
then deservedly famous for grotesque designs of various
kinds. My Brother had given it framed to Christina : she
retained it till her death, and it is now mine. Christina
urges Dante not to " purchase the Prudent " : but he did
57.— CHRISTINA ROSSETTI to DANTE ROSSETTI.
68 ROSSETTI PAPERS
purchase the Prudent — i.e., a separate large Griset of an
alligator — and gave it to her : it was disposed of after her
death. This term "the Prudent" means "the Prudent
Crocodile," which figures in Christina's fantastic poem
My Dream : I possess a pencil-sketch of hers (contem-
porary with the poem, 1855) showing the prudent crocodile
in three several actions : finally, as he " shed appropriate
tears and wrung his hands." — The reference to " my
Alchemist " and " the Prince " applies to her other poem
The Prince's Progress. It was Dante Gabriel who got her
to turn a brief dirge-song which she had written into that
longish narrative, as piece de resistance for a new volume.
The "three pot-boilers for Macmillan's Magazine" may
perhaps have been Spring Fancies, Last Night, and
Consider : these at any rate were the three poems by
Christina which were the first, following December 1864,
to appear in that serial. "The fate of my own Bogie"
is an allusion to the poem named At Home, one of the
best things that Christina produced. — The Davenport
Brothers and their seances are possibly nearly forgotten
now. In 1864 they electrified London by performing,
professedly through spiritual agency, various surprising
feats, especially that of getting suddenly free from
elaborate rope-bindings. After a while there appeared to
be a general consensus that these American thauma-
turgists were mere impostors or jugglers- — on what
evidence I forget. — " My early head " must be the head,
painted from Christina, of the Virgin in the picture of
the Girlhood of Mary Virgin. I do not remember about
Deverell's raising an objection to the chin in this head.]
8 1 HIGH STREET, HASTINGS.
23 December 1864.
My dear Gabriel, — Thanks for a specially dear letter
received last night, and a nestling of unearthly aspect
come to hand this morning. His exceeding comicality is
of the choicest. How very kind of you and William !
But I am so happy in my nest of crocodiles that I beg
CHRISTINA ROSSETTt, 1864 69
you will on no account purchase the Prudent to lord it
over them : indeed amongst their own number, by a care-
ful study of expression, one may detect latent greatness,
and point out the predominant tail of the future.
True, O Brother, my Alchemist still shivers in the blank
of mere possibility ; but I have so far overcome my feelings
and disregarded my nerves as to unloose the Prince, so that
wrapping-paper may no longer bar his " progress." Also I
have computed pages of the altogether unexceptionable, and
find that they exceed 120. This cheers though not inebriates.
Amongst your ousted I recognize several of my own
favourites, which perhaps I may adroitly re-insert WHEN
publishing-day comes round. Especially am I inclined to
show fight for at least one terza-rima^ in honour of our
Italian element. Meanwhile I have sent three (I hope)
pot-boilers to Mac's Mag.
Think, if you all are so kind as to wish me among you
on Monday, whether I shall not be sharing your wish : if
unbeknown I could look in upon you sucking pulp of
(metaphorical) plums and peaches, I should not fear the
fate of my own Bogie. But common sense rules that here
I must remain, and nurse my peccant chest ; which, after
making great apparent progress, has this morning entered
a protest against being considered well. So a potion or
two must form part of my Christmas fare. If ever you
should look in upon us, you know you will be a boon ; but
I can't wish you or any other of my consanguines to come
shivering down in this weather to the detriment of their
bodily well-being or mental peace.
Your notes on the Davenport seance are most interest-
ing. To me the whole subject is awful and mysterious ;
though, in spite of my hopeless inability to conceive a
clue to the source of sundry manifestations, I still hope
simple imposture may be the missing key : — I hope it,
at least, so far as the hope is not uncharitable. At any
rate I hope without any qualification that you and William
escaped bumping bangs to the maiming of your outer men.
As to news, it has become to me a creature of the past :
70 ROSSETTI PAPERS
look elsewhere for news, but not to me. I lugged down
with me a six-volume Plato, and this promises me a pro-
longed mental feast. Jean Ingelow's 8th edition is also
.here, to impart to my complexion a becoming green tinge.
If you do have my early head photographed, I shall
enjoy seeing it once more, finished off by the chin to
which Mr Deverell demurred.
With much more love than news, and every best Christmas
wish temporal and spiritual, — Your affectionate Sister,
CHRISTINA G. ROSSETTI.
58.— DANTE ROSSETTI to MADOX BROWN.
[The query which opens my extract refers to the exhibi-
tion of his own works which Brown was now projecting.
He took a room or rooms in Piccadilly. In some room
in the same house there was, or had been, an exhibition
termed " The Talking Fish " — i.e., a seal that was got to
utter some noisy but indefinite sounds, which amounted
to something far other than talking. Mr Hamerton's
pictures also had been on view in the same house.]
1 6 CHEYNE WALK, CHELSEA.
Midnight, 1864-5.
Dear Brown, — . . . Are you to succeed Hamerton, or
the Talking Fish ? and when ? I also got H[amerton]'s
volume of verse by some means. As you say, it is far
from being without merit. . . . — Ever yours,
D. G. R.
59.— FREDERIC SHIELDS to DANTE ROSSETTI.
[Rossetti's water-colour of Hesterna Rosa (repeated from
a pen-and-ink design of much earlier date) is the subject
FREDERIC SHIELDS, 1865
71
bearing a quotation from the song in Sir Henry Taylor'sX
Philip van Artevelde, " Quoth tongue of neither maid nor'
wife" etc. Mr Frederick Craven was the owner of the
water-colour. — The latter part of the letter refers to thev
volume of woodcuts from Mr Shields's own designs to f
Pilgrims Progress, a remarkable and admirable series.
The letter must belong to the early days of his acquaint-
anceship with Rossetti. " Charles II." is named inad-
vertently instead of James II. ]
50 RUSSELL STREET, HULME, MANCHESTER.
9 January 1865.
My dear Sir, — On Friday last I saw the Hesterna Rosa.
What a blaze of glory I received as my first impression !
. . . And I am not alone in this. Mr Craven said : " I
wrote very little more than an acknowledgment of its
receipt to Mr Rossetti, for I was afraid that, if I attempted
to write what I felt, it would appear fulsome." . . .
I was astonished that you should have dwelt so care-
fully on my designs in the book as your remarks made
evident. I know the Moses and Faithful is a sad failure,
but I cannot lay the blame on the unfitness of the subject
for pictorial treatment. I think I could do it very differently
now — for I feel the truth Bunyan would here convey better
than I did when I made that design. I think it might be
made so much of by one who could do it rightly. I also
quite agree with you that it would have been better to
have made the " Good Shepherd " in actual shepherd's
dress ; but one can only bear to think of the oriental
shepherd in such connection, and this would have neces-
sitated Syrian sheep, about which I know nothing ; so I
thought it better to keep to my English sheep, and the
old conventional robe. You credit me with too much
thought and intention when you suppose that I meant
the lamb on the banner in the Vanity Fair to have any
deeper motive than a reference to the ensign of that
bloody mercenary of Charles II. — Colonel Kirke — who so
cruelly murdered the poor Somersetshire peasantry after
72 ROSSETTI PAPERS
Monmouth's insurrection. It is one of their heads that
I suppose to surmount the pike of the flagstaff. Colonel
Kirke seemed to me to supply a figure of that military
life which seeks only its own emolument or glory at the
price of the blood and tears of thousands. I should not
like to be thought to make Christian turn his back on
the Soldier altogether — not whilst I remember men like
Gardener and Havelock. . . . — Ever most truly yours,
FRED. J. SHIELDS.
60. — CHRISTINA ROSSETTI to DANTE ROSSETTI.
[The reference to " Prudentius " is explained by my
note to No. 57. — "Mrs Heimann" was an old friend of all
of us — wife (now widow) of Dr Adolf Heimann, the German
Professor in University College, London. — " Sheet M "
must be a sheet in a re-edition of the Goblin Market
volume : this sheet consists principally of the poems Sleep
at Sea and Front House to -Home. — Maria's Italian Exercise-
book was published in 1867. There are two companion
volumes : Exercises in Idiomatic Italian, and a key to it,
Aneddoti Italiani. The phrase "out came the Prince" etc.
must mean that Christina had now composed some portion
of The Prince's Progress relating to the Prince himself,
but not that portion in which the Alchemist figures.
— Henrietta, our cousin Henrietta Polydore, was then
already invalided with the beginning of her consumptive
malady, and was staying at Hastings along with Christina,
whose health also was extremely delicate for a while. She
seemed at that time more definitely threatened with con-
sumption, as indicated by a violent and persistent cough,
than at any other period of her life.]
8 1 HIGH STREET, HASTINGS.
1 6 January 1865.
My dear Gabriel, — A thousand thanks for Prudentius,
though indeed I am not easy at so many kind presents.
TEODORICO PIETROCOLA-ROSSETTI, 1865 73
But please on no account send him and his compeers to
keep me company. I shall much more enjoy falling into
his ambush on my return home.
Equal thanks for the welcome Times ; though Mamma
had sent me the gist extract, and Mrs Heimann, ever
friendly, the article. Of course I am crowing. . . .
I don't think your critique on sheet M can profit 'me
this edition, as surely M must already be printed off: but
thanks all the same. Foreseeing inutility, I have not
grappled with the subject by comparing passages (N.B.
Nerves).
Have you heard of Maria's astute plan for an Italian
Exercise-book ? I am doing some of the subordinate work
for her down here in my hermitage. Truth to tell, I have
a great fancy for her name endorsing a book, as we three
have all got into that stage, so I work with a certain
enthusiasm. This morning out came the Prince, but the
Alchemist makes himself scarce, and I must bide his time.
Henrietta's love. Uncle Henry left us last Monday. . . .
—Your affectionate Sister,
C. G. R.
6 1.— TEODORICO PIETROCOLA-ROSSETTI to WILLIAM
ROSSETTI.— TRANSLATION.
[My Cousin, the writer of this letter, has been mentioned
by me elsewhere. I possess the selection of my Father's
poems prefaced by G. di Stefano.]
GLIZEBROOK VILLA, 2 PARK ROAD, NEW WANDSWORTH.
23 January 1865.
My dear, much-loved William, — . . . You will please
me by accepting with goodwill two-dozen select Cavotir
cigars, which I have brought from Turin. Smoke them
with your friends, and let them remind you of that eminent
statesman, who has not only given his name to the re-arising
74 ROSSETTI PAPERS
of the Italian nation, but created and baptized the Cavour
cigar — which he was wont to smoke with desperation,
filling with its fragrance the saloons of the Ministry, and
the ante-room of the Palazzo Carignano. . . .
Have you read that biographical notice prefixed by
Stefano to your Father's poems? He has taken it from
that which I published in Turin.
I hear that you are about to bring out a translation of
the Inferno of the great Allighieri. As that is the most
difficult division of the poem for the purpose of trans-
lation, and all the English versions as yet produced seem
to me paraphrases, I eagerly wish to read yours : don't
forget . . . — Your attached Friend and affectionate Cousin,
T. PlETROCOLA-ROSSETTI.
62.— CHRISTINA ROSSETTI to DANTE ROSSETTI.
["The annotated Prince" appears to be a portion of
The Prince's Progress on which my Brother had written
some remarks. — The dread which Christina expresses of
" indefinite delay " on her part had probably been intensi-
fied by the very subject-matter of this poem. — The "new
little things" were the poems named Grown and Flown,
Dost Thou not care, and Eve.}
8 1 HIGH STREET, HASTINGS.
30 [January 1865].
My dear Gabriel, — Here at last is an Alchemist reeking
from the crucible. He dovetails properly into his niche.
Please read him if you have the energy ; then, when you
return him to me, I must give a thorough look-over to
the annotated Prince; lastly, I do hope Vol. 2 will be
possible. One motive for haste with me is a fear lest
by indefinite delay I should miss the pleasure of thus
giving pleasure to our Mother, to whom of course I shall
dedicate : suppose — but I won't suppose anything so dread-
CHRISTINA ROSSETTI, 1865 Y5
ful ; only, knowing her intense enjoyment of our perform-
ances, I am keenly desirous to give her the pleasure
when possible. He's not precisely the Alchemist I
prefigured, but thus he came and thus he must stay : you
know my system of work.
I am much better indeed, yet beyond a certain point
I don't get : however, obviously, I cannot remain here
quite indefinitely.
Of course I know that to make Vol. 2 we must have
recourse to some not skimmed by you as cream, but I
have a predilection for some of these ; and I have by me
one or two new little things which may help : at this
moment I feel sanguine. — Your affectionate bore,
C. G. R.
63.— CHRISTINA ROSSETTI to DANTE ROSSETTI.
[The term " Lizzie's work " indicates the few poems which
Lizzie Rossetti had produced in her too brief life. None of
them appeared in any of Christina's volumes : as to this
point see also her letter No. 65. — I am not aware that the
Rev. Orby Shipley produced any illustrated Christmas
volume containing a poem by Christina.]
8 1 HIGH STREET, HASTINGS.
i [February 1865].
My dear Gabriel, — ... It delights me that you approve
of my Alchemist ; you know I am always nervous in such
suspense : thanks for prospective annotations.
I can't tell you the pleasure with which I welcome your
kind loan of Lizzie's work. The packet is not yet in my
hands, but very likely it will come by the mid-day
delivery. ... I wonder if possibly you might ever see fit
to let some of dear Lizzie's verses come out in a volume
of mine ; distinguished, I need not say, as hers : such a
combination would be very dear to me.
76 ROSSETTI PAPERS
Do you remember Mr Shipley and his three Lyras?
From the three he plans compiling an illustrated Christmas
volume, and putting-in something of mine. . . . — Very truly
your affectionate Sister,
CHRISTINA G. ROSSETTI.
64.— CHRISTINA ROSSETTI to DANTE ROSSETTI.
[The numeration of the poems by Miss Siddal, given
in this letter, stands thus : No. 2 is A Year and a Day,
which appears in my Memoir of Dante Rossetti. No. 3 is
Dead Love. No. 5 is Gone. I am not sure which poem
is indicated as No. 7. That poem, as well as Nos. 3 and
5, must be in the volume named Ruskin, Rossetti, Prce-
raphaelitism ; also No. 6 mentioned in the letter which
follows this.]
8 1 HIGH STREET, HASTINGS.
6 February 1865.
My dear Gabriel, — I enclose to you with hearty thanks
your kind loan.
How full of beauty they are, but how painful — how
they bring poor Lizzie herself before one, with her voice,
face, and manner! Fine as II. is, I don't admire it more
than III. and V.: perhaps III. is my own favourite, piquant
| as it is with cool bitter sarcasm ; V. reminds me of Tom
Hood at his highest. Our Mother is with me, come to
stay with me a fortnight; she was struck by VII., which
with all its beauty seems to me not in the first rank.
She charges me with her love to you. — Your truly
affectionate Sister,
CHRISTINA G. ROSSETTI.
CHRISTINA ROSSETTI, 1865
77
65.—CHRISTINA ROSSETTI to DANTE ROSSETTI.
["The work on Goblin Market block" had to do with
the engraved title-page, to suit it for a re-edition. — The
phrase "your volume" indicates pretty clearly that by the
present date — 1865 — Dante Rossetti had already some idea
of publishing some poems at no very distant interval of
time. — No. 6 of Lizzie's poems is the one named At Last.
The " correcting small print " for the Society for Promoting
Christian Knowledge related (solely, I think) to an Italian
version of the Bible.]
8 1 HIGH STREET, HASTINGS.
10 {February 1865].
My dear Gabriel, — I am indulging in a holiday from
all attempt at Progress whilst Mamma is with me : she
gone (alas !), I hope to set-to with a will. Thanks for
annotations, to be attended to. Do you know, I don't
think it would have done to write the Alchemist without
the metric jolt, however unfortunate the original selection
of such rhythm may have been : but we will file and polish.
How shall I express my sentiments about the terrible
tournament? Not a phrase to be relied on, not a correct
knowledge on the subject, not the faintest impulse of
inspiration, incites me to the tilt : and looming before me in
horrible bugbeardom stand TWO tournaments in Tennyson's
Idylls. Moreover, the Alchemist, according to original
convention, took the place of the lists : remember this in
my favour, please. You see, were you next to propose
my writing a classic epic in quantitative hexameters or in
the hendecasyllables which might almost trip-up Tennyson,
what could I do? Only what I feel inclined to do in the
present instance — plead goodwill but inability. Also (but
this you may scorn as the blind partiality of a parent)
my actual Prince seems to me invested with a certain
artistic congruity of construction not lightly to be despised :
78 ROSSETTI PAPERS
ist, a prelude and outset ; 2nd, an alluring milkmaid ;
3rd, a trial of barren boredom ; 4th, the social element
again ; 5th, barren boredom in a more uncompromising
form ; 6th, a wind-up and conclusion. See how the subtle
elements balance each other, and fuse into a noble conglom !
Thanks for the two valued prospective cuts (qu. have you
a design of a tournament by you?) and for the work on
Goblin Market block.
Lizzie's poems were posted to you before your last
reached my hands : so I trust that days ago you received
them safe and sound, and so I shall conclude unless I
hear to the contrary. I think with you that, between your
volume and mine, their due post of honour is in yours.
But do you not think that (at any rate except in your
volume), beautiful as they are, they are almost too hope-
lessly sad for publication en masse ? Perhaps this is
merely my overstrained fancy, but their tone is to me
even painfully despondent : talk of my bogieism, is it not
by comparison jovial? However, if on careful re-reading
the tone etc. subside to my excited imagination, it will
give me sincerest pleasure if you will grace my volume
by their presence. Meanwhile how odd it seems that just
III., my admiration, is rejected by you as ineligible; about
VI., I am rather inclined to agree in your verdict, sweet
and pathetic as it is. ...
Do you remember long ago animadverting on my
correcting small print for the S.P.C.K. ? I have just given
up the work, as my eyes seem to suffer. . . . — Your
affectionate Sister,
CHRISTINA G. ROSSETTI.
66.— DANTE ROSSETTI to MADOX BROWN.
[This joke about hanging applies (need I specify it?)
to the hanging of the pictures which constituted Brown's
Exhibition in Piccadilly.]
THOMAS KEIGHTLEY, 1865 79
16 CHEYNE WALK, CHELSEA.
28 February 1865.
Dear Brown, — I hear you're hanging yourself daily.
Can one assist at the ceremony, if passing that way? I
promise not to cut you down. — Your
D. G. R.
How does one get in ?
67. — THOMAS KEIGHTLEY to WILLIAM ROSSETTI.
[Mr Keightley was decidedly right in the meaning
which he assigns to the epithet bruno. He was not
entirely right in supposing me to "reject" my Father's
theory concerning Dante. I apprehend that some features
of the theory are decidedly correct, and some others may
be so without my being convinced of them. There are,
on the other hand, certain points which I think clearly
far - fetched and erroneous. — Mr Keightley 's Expositor
(published not long after this date) relates to Shakespear.]
BELVEDERE, KENT.
i March 1865.
Dear William, — I thank you for the gift of your book.
It is certainly a marvel of literality ; and I know from
experience the labour it must have cost, and can guess
pretty well how little that labour will be appreciated, and
how ill rewarded. Nothing but what is amusing is now
remunerated. Of course I will not flatter you by saying
that you equal the vigour and harmony of the original :
the difference of language makes that impossible. I am,
by the way, one of those who think the Italian language
as capable of force as any other, but it is always force
united with polish and grace and harmony.
I was annoyed to find in the very second line what
appears to me to be an error. You render oscura by
80 ROSSETTI PAPERS
"darkling." Now, if I mistake not, this word always
means "being in the dark," and is used only of persons.
The proper term would be darksome or gloomy, or why
not obscured I may however be wrong, and you may
have some authority that I know not of.
I see (p. 46) you agree with Ruskin in rendering bruno
"brown." Now in a note in my Milton I maintain that
it is exactly our. "dark," and I speak of Ruskin's "extra-
ordinary misapprehension of it in this and other places
of Dante." But here again I may be wrong.
It really vexed me to see but one allusion, and that
rather a slighting one, to your Father's theory. I infer
from this that you reject it, like Gabriel. It is a curious
instance of the well-known fact of children differing in
opinion etc. from their parents — e.g., the Wilberforces
turning papists. I however am unchanged ; and there
is no fact in literature or in history of which I am more
firmly persuaded than of the truth of his hypothesis respect-
ing the Inferno. Of the other parts, of course, I cannot
speak, but I am certain also that he was right as to the
Vita Nuova. At the same time you know I was fully
aware of his errors and imperfections. I did, for example,
all I could to get him to suppress the First Part of the
Amor Platonico, and told him frankly it was all mere
nonsense. That work, you are aware, is twice as long as
it should be, and contains a vast deal of what I regard as
mere rubbish.
As to my Expositor, you will see something about it
in the next N. and Q. I will make no effort to get it
published. . . . — Most truly yours,
THOS. KEIGHTLEY.
68.— CHRISTINA ROSSETTI to DANTE ROSSETTI.
[The lyric To-morrow forms Part 1 1. of Twilight Night :
I do not find it in the Prince's Progress volume. As to
CHRISTINA ROSSETTI, 1865 81
" The Captive Jew," it is pretty clear that this is a semi-
jocular title (invented probably by my Brother), and that
the piece referred to is in fact the terza-rima which has
now been printed under the name of By the Waters of
Babylon. It was originally headed In Captivity, and was
not included in the Prince's Progress volume. — Christina
did not carry out her " puerile fancy " of making the last-
named volume of exactly the same length as the Goblin
Market one : the new volume proved to be a trifle the
longer of the two. — " Prospective Jean Ingelow " indicates
that this graceful and able poetess and estimable woman
was proposing to visit Christina at Hastings. — Mrs Ludlow
was a sister of Mrs Bodichon.]
8 1 HIGH STREET, HASTINGS.
3 \March 1 865].
My dear Gabriel, — This morning, as the "post" is no
longer running after me (like the coffin after a man in a
very nightmarish story I once read), I can go into details.
1. Prince's Progress. — I think the plot now is obvious
to mean capacities, without further development or addition.
" Aftermath " is left for various reasons ; the most patent
I need scarcely give ; but also I think it gives a subtle
hint (by symbol) that any more delays may swamp the
Prince's last chance. In the same way, the obnoxious
"pipe" having been immolated on the altar of sisterly
deference, " Now the moon's at full " seems to me happily
suggestive of the Prince's character. Of course I don't
expect the general public to catch these refined clues ;
but there they are for such minds as mine.
2. Material. — I have a puerile fancy for making Vol. 2
the same number of pages as Vol. I : also I independently
think that some of the squad are not unworthy of a place
amongst their fellows. Unless memory plays me false,
Mrs Browning's My Heart and I does not clash with my
To-morrow : if it does, I could easily turn my own " heart "
into "wish," and save the little piece, for which I have a
kindness. Again, I am much inclined to put-in one terza-
F
82 ROSSETTI PAPERS
rinia ; though whether my Judgment or Captive Jew I am
not resolved. The Judgment is already published in one
of Mr Shipley's books : and Martyrs' Song (in the same
volume) was so honourably mentioned in a review we saw
that that seems to constitute some claim on reprint. I
will try not to spoil my volume, or deal a death-blow to
my reputation, however.
3. Transmission to Mac. — Might I, instead of sending
direct, send them through your brotherly hands? When
I have put them in order, I should be so glad if you would
put the finishing touch to their arrangement That is one
reason for wishing to send them through you ; and another
is that then I foresee you will charitably do the business-
details ; my wish being for same terms as Goblin Market.
One single piece in Vol. 2 belongs neither to Mac nor to
myself; to wit, L.E.L. ; but I have Miss Emily Faithfull's
permission to make use of it. ...
May I hope that you will again look at my proofs as
they go through the press? If so, you had better have
them before they come to me : and then I think I shall
send them home for lynx-eyed research after errors, before
letting them go to press. But perhaps I may be snug
at home again before my first proof hatches. Which intro-
duces my health with a graceful flourish : a little hobbly,
thank you, but in an uninteresting way not alarming ; so
day by day home looms less remote.
I shall be very happy if some day I meet Mrs Legros,
though an old rule shuts me up from feasts and such-like
during Lent. . . .
Prospective Jean Ingelow inspires me with some trepi-
dation : you may think whether down here I am not
acquiring the tone along with the habits of a hermit. My
Ludlow exertions were not congenial, though Mrs Ludlow
is charming. . . .
Please, if any of my beggaries bore you, reject them
with scorn. Uncle Henry and Henrietta send love. — Your
affectionate Sister,
CHRISTINA G. ROSSETTI.
CHRISTINA ROSSETTI, 1865
69. — CHRISTINA ROSSETTI to DANTE ROSSETTI.
[" Feelings there are " : this refers to a distich which
used to amuse all of us considerably — I don't remember
in what " poet " we found it —
" Feelings there are that warm the generous breast :
They may be known, but cannot be expressed."
The "woodcuts" were those designed by Dante Gabriel
for The Princes Progress — or (rather than woodcuts) the
designs themselves, not yet engraved. In the cuts as now
seen the Prince remains beardless, but the Princess's face
is veiled. The "severe female" may be a little — but only
a little — like Christina. — Under the Rose is now named
The Iniquity of the Fathers upon the Children : as first
printed, it bore its original title. — The Martyrs' Song and
the terza-riina composition named After this the Judgment,
did obtain insertion in the volume. The Mr Cayley here
mentioned was the very able translator of Dante, Charles
Bagot Cayley].
8 1 HIGH STREET, HASTINGS.
6 [March? 1865.]
My dear Gabriel, — You confer favours as if you were
receiving them, and I am proportionately thankful : but
what says the poet? —
" Feelings there are " etc.
so I need not aim at self-expression. I hope the peccant
" word or two " may yet be tackled between us : meanwhile,
I readily grant that my Prince lacks the special felicity (!)
of my Goblins ; yet I am glad to believe you consider with
me that it is not unworthy of publication. What a most
delightful pair of woodcuts ! thank you with all my heart.
Do you think that two small points in the frontispiece
might advisably be conformed to the text? — to wit, the
84 IlOSSfiTtI PAPERS
Prince's "curly black beard" and the Bride's "veiled" face:
all else seems of minor moment. Surely the severe female
who arrests the Prince somewhat resembles my phiz. Of
course you shall have back the charming sketches ; only
vid home instead of direct from me, as I know the pleasure
the sight will give our Mother, to whom I take the liberty
of lending them, but I will ask her not to delay returning
them to you. . . .
In Vol. 2 you will find a longish thing (not only
finished but altogether written just now, and indeed
finished since last I wrote to you) which no one has yet
seen. I don't know whether you will deem it available ;
if not, please let me have it again, and I will fill deficit
from the squad ; if on the other hand it passes muster,
it will, I believe, stop the gap single-handed. Under the
Rose it is called, in default of a better name. But please
tell me whether you don't think it will after all be well
to put in Martyrs" Song and the terza-rima from L\yrd\
Mystica. They have won a word of praise from Mr
Cay ley, and a review (I forget which) has been enthusi-
astic about me in L\yrd\ M[ystica~\ : so perhaps they might
take : and, using these, I will soothe your feelings by sup-
pressing my Captive Jew without a murmur. There's a bait !
To be tooked and well shooked is what I eminently need
socially, so Jean Ingelow will be quite appropriate treat-
ment, should she transpire : she has not yet done so.
— Your gratefully affectionate Sister,
C. G. R.
70. — TEODORICO PIETROCOLA-ROSSETTI to WILLIAM
ROSSETTI. — TRANSLATION.
[These extracts come from a letter of some length.
The writer had received a medical education, and at one
time he practised medicine as a homceopathist]
TEODORICO PIETROCOLA-ROSSETTI, 1865 85
GLIZEBROOK VILLA, NEW WANDSWORTH.
9 March 1865.
My very dear William, — I have received your English
version of the first part of Dante's Comedy, and I thank
you for it affectionately. I have begun reading it, and I
think you have hit the mark. Italians will not say of you
" traduttore traditore" * for the sense of the text is marvel-
lously reproduced, and with great fidelity. Of the merits
of the work I will not speak, for it is full of them, — but
of some little blemishes, which I take it upon me to submit
to your attention. . . .
Page I, "Because the rightful pathway had been lost."
I should rather read (with Aldus, the Vulgate, the Floren-
tine Academicians, and all the moderns) "Che" (not Che} —
Che being always used by Dante as equivalent to "in che,
in cui" In this line 12 you at once have an example
of this — " Che la verace via abbandonai" or " At which
point " etc. Dante had not lost himself in Florence because
the true path had been missed, but because in Florence
there was then none such, torn as it was by political
factions. I should therefore translate, "In which the right-
ful pathway had been lost." . . .
Some while ago I took a little respite from my small
affairs, and ran up to see Gabriel again. He has rounded
out like a big baby. Bravo !
But I was afflicted at hearing that kind excellent
Christina is somewhat worse in health, and had brought-
up blood. This information pierced my heart. . . . Secre-
tions of blood show that the patient is in the second
stage ; and then, I regret to say, she did wrong in taking
change of air. This is sometimes beneficial in the first
stage, but in the second and third it does no good, but
often harm. . . . First of all, bear it well in mind that
milk, especially ass's milk, is the best medicine in the
second and third stages. ... As regards medicines,
there is, besides milk, nothing else than phosphorus,
administered in minute doses. . . . Fever, preceded or
* Translator traducer (or more literally, traitor),
8G ROSSETTI PAPERS
followed by perspirations, may be overcome by a few
drops of aconite napellum, dissolved in pure distilled
water. . . . But what is most essential is that her room
should be heated by wood-fires. Coal-fires exhale such
a quantity of carbonic gas that this would make the
patient's condition worse. These are counsels of friend-
ship and affection which I offer to your Mother with
regard to Christina. She should lay it to heart that
medicines cannot act upon the patient — except milk,
aconite, and phosphorus. — Your very affectionate Cousin,
T. PIETROCOLA-ROSSETTI.
71.— CHARLES CAYLEY to WILLIAM ROSSETTI.
[This is an interesting little point of Dantesque textual
criticism, which will at once be understood by readers
familiar with Canto 5 of the Inferno in the original. As I
have shown elsewhere, Mr Ruskin was provoked with Mr
Cayley for having translated according to the reading
"succedette."]
5 MONTPELLIER ROW, BLACKHEATH.
10 March 1865.
Dear Rossetti, — ... I have thought of a new argument
on the line you and Mr Barlow discussed, beginning " Che
succedette " or " suger dette " or the like. Does Dante prefer
diede or dette for gavel I suppose in the middles of lines
it is hard to judge, for none of the MSS. appear to be
credited with any purity in their orthography. But in the
Rimario I find four lines ending in diede, none in dette (as a
verb in the 3rd person). Now the chances are, Dante
would have somewhere used dette for a rhyme if he had
liked it, or if it had belonged to his dialect native or
adopted, as much as diede. (We must also observe the
rhymes on diedi, and the use of die.) Now " suger diede " or
CHRISTINA ROSSETTI, 1865
87
" succta diede" would not have been very likely to suggest
" siiccedette" I don't suppose dettc is positively confirmed by
stette, credette, etc., as the Latin forms and accents are
not quite analogous.
I don't fancy Barlow can have made good use of his
many MSS. He seldom arrays them in the order of their
merits ; or, if he does, judges of it by their ingenuity,
not antiquity. . . . — Yours sincerely,
C. B. CAYLEY.
72. — CHRISTINA ROSSETTI to DANTE ROSSETTI.
[I have no recollection of the periodical entitled Rose,
Shamrock, and Thistle. — The Royal Princess was retained
in the volume, and Amor Mundi did go to The Shilling
Magazine, where it was illustrated by Mr Sandys. Mr
Lucas — who seems now to have been the editor of that
serial — had previously been editor of Once a Week. I
forget why Christina had been "the Pariah of Once a
Week " : one of her poems, Maude Clare, was published
there, but presumably some other poems had been
declined. — It is evident that some one — but I know not
who — had assimilated Christina as a poetess to Miss
Bessie Rayner Parkes, better known now as Madame
Belloc : I suppose it is still remembered that such a
poetess as Eliza Cook did exist in those days, and existed
in edition after edition. — The reference to the epithet
" hairy " applies to stanza 6 in The Princes Progress. — The
quaint solecism, " Things which are impossible rarely
happen," occurred (if I remember right) as a sentence in
an Anglo-German Exercise-book by Dr Heimann : at any
rate, it often came up to our lips in those years. — " Atalanta
and the Bruno Catalogue" are Swinburne's glorious drama
Atalanta in Calydon, and the Catalogue Raisonne written
by Madox Brown for his Exhibition. — My Brother had
lately been elected a member of the Garrick Club.]
88 ROSSETTI PAPERS
8 1 HIGH STREET, HASTINGS.
[March 1865?]
My dear Gabriel, — " Mine truthfully " is a critic begging
the loan of Goblin Market for purpose of reviewing it
along with Jean Ingelow and Mrs Ed[ward] Thomas. I
mean to be propitious and lend it : fortunately I have a
copy down here. My merits are to be discussed in the
Rose, Shamrock, and Thistle: a fearful periodical, I cannot
but fear, but do not know ; do you know it ?
Thanks emphatic and copious on all points. I think —
especially if the Royal Princess is retained, which I leave
to your decision — we can well spare one of the four
pieces you name from Vol. 2, as far as bulk goes. My
preference would be for Shilling Mag to get A mor Mundi :
but " tin " is too luminously alluring to be rejected,
whichever Mr Sandys may select. It is rather triumphant,
too, Mr Lucas wanting me, the Pariah of Once a Week.
Of course I needn't say how much I should prefer you
as my illustrator to the world in general, but can well
believe that you have not time for Mr Shipley, any more
than for the May Shilling Mag. . . .
" Bessie Parkes " is comparatively flattering : call me
" Eliza Cook " at once and be happy. Please make your
emendations, and I can call them over the coals in the
proofs : only don't make vast changes, as " I am I." Hairy
I cannot feel inclined to forego, as it portrays the bud
in question. . . . Songs in a Cornfield is one of my own
favourites, so I am especially gratified by your and Mr
Swinburne's praise.
You would be a dear turning up in these parts : but
I do hope to be at home again at very latest to-day
four weeks.
Meanwhile, is not Vol. 2 at last ripe for transmission
to Mac ? I feel a pardonable impatience. Of course I am
setting to work chewing the cud you serve to me ; but we
won't keep back Vol. 2 for the unapproached result. Do
you know, I do seriously question whether I possess the
\vorking-power with which you credit me ; and whether
WILLIAM ALLINGHAM, 1865
89
all the painstaking at my command would result in work
better than — in fact half so good as — what I have actually
done on the other system. It is vain comparing my
powers (!) with yours (a remark I have never been
called upon to make to any one but yourself). However,
if the latent epic should " by huge upthrust " come to the
surface some day, or if by laborious delving I can unearth
it, or if by unflagging prodment you can cultivate the
sensitive plant in question, all the better for me : only
please remember that "things which are impossible rarely
happen" — and don't be too severe on me if in my case
the "impossible" does not come to pass. Sometimes I
could almost fear that my tendency is rather towards
softening of the brain (say) than towards further develop-
ment of mind. There's a croak !
Anticipated thanks for the Atalanta and Bruno Cata-
logue to come. I shall be glad if the Piccadilly exhibition
raises our old friend to his just position before the
public. — Always your affectionate Sister,
C. G. R.
Henrietta's love : her improvement continues. Is the
Garrick Club nice ? and do you mean to attend ? Who
proposed you?
73.— WILLIAM ALLINGHAM to WILLIAM ROSSETTI.
LYMINGTON.
19 March 1865.
My dear William, — Best thanks for your gift. I have
read the introductory writing and several books ; and, as
far as I am able to judge, consider that you have perfectly
carried-out your intention. I have more reliance on yours
than on any version ; pray finish the work. I should be
glad to have, into the bargain, from a mind so fair as
90 ROSSETTI PAPERS
yours and that has so much studied Dante, some general
estimate of his poem. One might consider ist. Its plan,
and relation to the Age (its "accidents"); 2nd. Its aesthetic
qualities ; 3rd. Its absolute truths.
To descend — my volume Fifty Modern Poems is just
coming out. Most of the pieces have been in magazines
etc. The whole is to myself already a thing of the past,
and not very interesting. I am occupied with other ideas.
One quality the book has (implied in " Modern ") — it is
in harmony with the best minds of our day as to religion,
being at once reverent and anti-dogmatic. . . .
I have been invited to give a lecture in Dublin, and
have agreed for 19 May, subject " Poetry." Never tried
lecturing before, and don't very well see my way, but
think one ought to try. . . . — Always yours,
W. ALLINGHAM.
74.— DANTE ROSSETTI to MADOX BROWN.
[CHEYNE WALK.
21 March 1865.]
My dear Brown, — To-day I took Craven of Manchester
to the late Fish's premises, and he was delighted beyond
measure, — as sure to bite, I should say, as the fish himself.
But he wants water-colours. He is in London for a few
days only, and wants if possible to look you up. I shall
try if I can come with him one evening; so write to ask
you what evenings (and daytimes), for some days to come,
you are likely to be in, or rather on which you will not, as
a guide. — Your
D. G. R.
By the by, I suppose you won't kick C[raven] out.
PROFESSOR NORTON, 1865 91
75.— PROFESSOR NORTON to DANTE ROSSETTI.
[Mention is here made of a translation by Dante Rossetti
from Dante's Inferno. This was a misapprehension on
Professor Norton's part — the translation being in fact
mine. In saying that Longfellow's translation was in
" ten-syllable verse," the Professor was only partially
correct ; the intermixture of eleven-syllable with ten-
syllable verse being very profuse, and (if I may give
expression to my personal opinion) a serious detriment
to that, in most respects, highly laudable rendering.]
CAMBRIDGE, MASSACHUSETTS.
21 March 1865.
My dear Rossetti, — ... I am glad to see by the
advertisement in The Reader that your translation of the
Inferno is published. I await it with very great interest ;
the greater because during the past year I have been
reading and revising with Longfellow a translation that
he has made in the same manner, I take it, as yours — that
is, in unrhymed ten-syllable verse. The Inferno is now
printed, or rather stereotyped, but it will not be published
till the other portions of the poem are ready. The whole
is translated, and is going through the press — the last
canto that we read over, day before yesterday, being the
eleventh of the Purgatory. Longfellow has had ten copies
of the Inferno struck off, in order to send one of them to
the Festival in May at Florence — prefixing a special
dedication — " In Commemorazione del Secentesimo Anni-
versario della Nascita di D[ante] Afllighieri]." The volume
is of great beauty ; no more beautiful book has been
printed in America ; and the translation seems to me, who
am not indeed an impartial judge, exceedingly good, by
far better than any hitherto made. It is a pleasant
coincidence that you should have been engaged on the
same work at this time.
92 ROSSETTI PAPERS
I shall send you in a few days a copy of a little essay
On the Original Portraits of Dante (illustrated with photo-
graphs from the Giotto portrait and from the Mask) which
I have got up also for the festival. . . .
War, you see, does not occupy all our thoughts— and
yet it underlies them all with a constant current of feeling.
These last four years have been full of the profoundest
and most engrossing interests to us. They have made a
great nation out of a great people. They have wrought
immense and most happy change. One might well rejoice,
in spite of all the sorrows and trials of the war, to live
in such a time. Now the war seems near its end — it has
done its work, and peace will be welcome. . . .
Tell me what you know of Ruskin, and, if you see
him, give to him my unchanging love. — Ever, dear Rossetti,
faithfully yours,
CHARLES ELIOT NORTON.
76.— MADOX BROWN to WILLIAM ROSSETTI.
14 GROVE TERRACE, HIGHGATE ROAD.
30 March 1865.
My dear William, — I recognized your pen in the Pall
Mall. ... I knew there was no other but you and Gabriel
who could know so much about me, the subject generally,
and have at the same time the faculty to [be] putting
it in so masterly a way. It is a glorious puff, and out-
does Palgrave's in the Saturday] and is altogether most
grateful and cheering to the senses that are to be tickled
by flattery. The wind-up is magnificent. I shall want
to see you shortly, to talk these sort of things over. ... —
Ever yours sincerely,
FORD MADOX BROWN,
CHRISTINA ROSSETTI, 1865 93
77. — CHRISTINA ROSSETTI to DANTE ROSSETTI.
[The first jocular reference to "paroxysms of stamp-
ing" etc. may have had its origin in a caricature of
Christina which Dante had drawn in 1862, as a skit upon
a certain phrase used in a complimentary critique of the
Goblin Market volume. — In writing " U. the R.," she must
have meant the poem Under the Rose: "that screech"
was seemingly some subsidiary part of the poem, for the
poem as a whole was not " suppressed " in the Princes Pro-
gress volume. Christina acted as proposed under her
heading No. 3 ; also under No. 4, four final stanzas being
thus omitted from The Ghosts Petition. — In Songs in a
Cornfield, the second song was originally one that begins
" We met hand to hand " : this was cut out, and another
song was substituted, beginning " There goes the swallow."
" We met hand to hand " was afterwards published as the
opening section of Twilight Night. — The Spring Quiet, in
its MS. form dated 1847, consists of four-line stanzas:
later on a fifth line had been added to each stanza. When
printed in the Princes Progress volume, the fifth line was
deleted, save for the final stanza.]
8 1 HIGH STREET, HASTINGS.
31 March [1865].
My dear Gabriel,— After six well-defined and several
paroxysms of stamping, foaming, hair-uprooting, it seems
time to assume a treacherous calm : and in this (com-
paratively) lucid interval I regain speech.
1. U. the R. — Yes, suppress that "screech."
2. Jessie Cameron. — Stanza 2 I cannot consent to sacri-
fice ; to my conception of the plot and characters it really
is essential : concede me that stanza 2 with a good
grace.
3. Bird or Beast. — The last four lines of the first stanza
are (I confess) stupid ; but the last four of the second I
94 ROSSETTI PAPERS
like. What would you say to omitting those first four
altogether, but retaining the other four by arranging the
whole piece in quatrains? If however this proposal dis-
tresses you, let the eight go.
4. Gkosfs Petition. — Please cut it short, as you suggest.
5. I admit the less simple character of the second Song-
in a Cornfield, and admit it as a blemish : a yet graver
one however it would seem to me to make one of a party
of reapers who are resting under the " burden of full noon-
day heat " suddenly burst forth with " Gone were but the
winter." This therefore we will, please, set aside. But
would you prefer to fill the gap with one of the two songs
which I enclose? If so, your kindness will, I am sure,
not shirk pasting it over the defaulter : unless you think
said defaulter worth cutting out and erecting into an
independent existence, when it might figure under the
cheerful title If so, or any other you like.
6. How is it possible that not only you recognize No.
I of Spring Fancies, but resuscitate defunct lines from
memory? The great original stands as TJie Spring Quiet
in a little book dated 1847; a little book so primitive that
for aught I know you did not drag its depths for G\pblin\
M\arket\ vol. : whence pray do not deduce that it con-
tains other treasures, for I am not aware that it does. I
will send you an exact copy of its primeval form : then
will you most kindly set it right from the printed copy?
but suppressing fifth lines and keeping extra stanzas as
you judge best. Or, on second thoughts, I will retain
certain alterations which I know are in the printed copy
and which were the result of mature reflection, and will
make the sea-stanza come last, as you put it ; but I must
still trust to your kindness to compare and alter it by
the printed copy, in case I get a word here or there wrong.
Only of course I will not trouble you to do any of this
unless you think the piece worth adding to Vol. 2.
7. After all which, I shall hope the MS. WILL go to
Mr Macmillan ; but, if that enterprizing publisher has
been prodding you, it is di proprio moto, not instigated
ALEXA WILDING, 1865
95
in word by me. Your woodcuts are so essential to my
contentment that I will wait a year for them if need is —
though (in a whisper) six months would better please me.
But perhaps it might be as well to commence printing as
soon as may be, in case that Fata Morgana of delight, my
sight of Italy with William, should by any manner of
means come to pass ; of course, IF the proofs could be
got through before our start in May, it would be charming.
I am delighted to find that The Stalling Mag. has got
Amor Mundi, and to foresee Mr Sandys as my illus-
trator. . . .
I trust by this time Atalanta and my note of admira-
tion have reached you. . . . — Your grateful affectionate
Sister,
C. G. R.
I hope I may get home next Thursday, but of course
must keep an eye on the weather. Here in the middle
of the day it is delightfully sunny and warm. Miss Ingelow
wrote at last from East Parade ; not called, because her
Brother has been having scarlatina. So precautionary
we don't visit ; but talk and shake hands if we meet, which
has happened once.
78. — ALEXA WILDING to DANTE ROSSETTI.
[I give this note as marking the date when Rossetti
began painting from one of his most valued sitters, whom
he had first met casually in a street. Miss Wilding's head
appears in Sibylla Palmifera, Veronica Veronese, La
Ghirlandata, and several other paintings and drawings.] — '
23 WARWICK LANE, NEWGATE MARKET.
8 April 1865.
Miss Wilding presents her compliments to Mr Rossetti,
and will feel obliged if he will send any letters to the
above address, as she has obtained her Mamma's per-
96 ROSSETTI PAPERS
mission to sit for any picture after the specified time of
three weeks. — I am, Sir, yours respectfully,
A. WILDING.
P.S. — If you should require me to sit, let me know,
and I will come if possible.
79. — CHRISTINA ROSSETTI to DANTE ROSSETTI.
[The reference to " my woful phiz " may probably be
taken in immediate connexion with the proffered Madeira,
as for instance Dante Rossetti may have observed that
Christina looked delicate, and would be all the better for
some well-bodied wine ; but there might be other explana-
tions of the phrase, not worth suggesting here. The letter
shows that Christina had already become a patient of Sir
William Jenner, who continued attending her henceforth
until he relinquished practice : he brought her through
more than one formidable illness. — Rose and Rosemary
appears to have been a poem published anonymously in
Macmillans Magazine. I have no precise recollection of it]
1 66 ALBANY STREET.
[April 1865].
My dear Gabriel, — . . . Thank you most warmly for
the promised half-dozen Madeira, and for your brotherly
(not critical) consideration of my woful phiz : but the half-
dozen (please) you must let me with affectionate gratitude
decline. I know, though you do not tell me, that Madeira
has become an unattainable dainty fit for the discriminating
palate of connoisseurs, altogether lost on a Goth who
knows not wine from wine, and who lumps all subtle
distinctions in the simple definition " nice." Dr Jenner
moreover has always talked of sherry for me, so to sherry
I may stick.
Rose and Rosemary is a lovely scrap : if I have to write
to Mac, I will fish for its author. My Prince, having
CHRISTINA ROSSETTI, 1865 97
avvdled so long on his own account, cannot grumble at
awaiting your pleasure ; and mine too, for your protecting
woodcuts help me to face my small public. . . . — Your
truly affectionate Sister,
CHRISTINA G. ROSSETTI.
80.— THOMAS CARLYLE to MADOX BROWN.
[A characteristic little note, referring to Brown's Exhibi-
tion. Many readers will recollect that Carlyle sat to Brown
for a leading figure in the large picture named Work.']
CHELSEA.
15 April 1865.
Dear Sir, — Might I ask you to put my Wife's name,
instead of mine, on the inclosed which you have been so
kind as to send me. I have already been twice (and she
as well) to No. 191 ; and feel very likely to return: but the
female mind seems to be still more adventurous in this
affair, and wishes to be independent of me. — Yours very
sincerely,
T. CARLYLE.
8 1.— CHRISTINA ROSSETTI to DANTE ROSSETTI.
[The names Meggan and Margaret figure (as readers
may remember) in the poem called Maiden-Song. — The
passage about "a yell" ("a yell for fire") occurs near the
end of A Royal Princess. — The "enormous improvement"
which Dante Gabriel effected in L.E.L. consisted in making
lines i and 3 of each stanza rhyme — which they do not in
the original MS. In that MS. the title of the poem is
Spring. I presume that Christina substituted the title
L.E.L. (though not specially appropriate perhaps) in order
08 IIOSSETTI PAPERS
to make the poem look less like a personal utterance. —
Margery did not after all appear in the Prince's Progress
volume ; nor (so far as I am aware) anywhere before I
printed it in Christina's New Poems, 1896. I am unable
to say which are the " three stanzas " here referred to. — The
published poem By the Sea, 3 stanzas, is extracted from a
longer and more personal poem, 6 stanzas, named A Yawn.
— The published poem A Portrait consists of two sonnets :
the second of these is the Lady Isabella here mentioned ;
the first, when it stood singly, was named St Elizabeth of
Hungary. Lady Isabella (as I have said elsewhere) was
Lady Isabella Howard, a daughter of the then Earl of
Wicklow. — Alice Macdonald, who set The Bourne to music,
is a sister of Lady Burne-Jones : she married Mr Kipling,
and became the mother of Rudyard Kipling, and is herself
of late known as a poetess. — I have not traced any poem by
"Christina under the title Come and See. I presume that she
refers here to the poem headed / will lift up mine Eyes unto
the Hills: if so, Dante Gabriel's objection seems to have
prevailed, for that poem does not appear in the Prince's
Progress volume. Neither does Easter Even appear there.
— The Dead City and Amore e Dovere are two of the
poems in Christina's privately-printed Verses of 1847. —
The phrase, " I do not send you the groans herewith,"
seems to refer to some portion of the poems which Dante
regarded as more peculiarly dismal in tone, and on which
he had bestowed the epithet "groans."]
45 UPPER ALBANY STREET.
[1865— 1 April.]
My dear Gabriel, — Thanks many. On almost all points
I succumb with serenity : now for remarks.
Meggan and Margaret are, I suppose, the same name :
but this does not disturb me. Do you think it need?
Meggan was suggested by Scotus once to me, and comes
out of a Welsh song-book. May, Meggan, Margaret, sound
pretty and pleasant.
Last Night: metre slightly doctored
CHRISTINA ROSSETTI, 1865 99
Royal Princess. — " Some to work on roads," etc., is by
so much one of the best stanzas that I am loth to sacri-
fice it. Is it so very like Keats? I doubt if I ever read
the lines in question, never having read the Isabella
through, I do not fight for the R.P's heroism ; though
it seems to me that the royal soldiers might yet have
succeeded in averting roasting. A yell is one thing, and
a fait accompli quite another.
L. E. L. : adopted, your enormous improvement. I am
glad you retain my pet name. . . .
Margery: has lost her 3 stanzas, and gained thereby.
By the Sea has superseded A Yawn; for which how-
ever I retain a sneaking kindness.
Three Nuns: stet be it.
Birds-Eye View: I have made three alterations. Was
not aware of the inconvenient resemblances. . . .
Following your advice, I have copied from Grandpapa's
volume Vanity of Vanities, Gone for Ever, and the Lady
Isabella sonnet. Don't you think this last would do very
well as sequence to the one called A Portrait? But
please re-arrange as seems well to you. For the moment
I will place it as I think.
All these make-up the bulk of Goblin Market within a
few pages. Now for meek divergence from your pro-
gramme.
I incline to reinstate The Bourne, partly because Mac
likes it and it is already in Magazine, partly because /
like it, partly because it has been set to music very prettily
by Alice Macdonald. . . .
Last of all, could you re-consider your verdict on Come
and See? It is, to own the truth, a special favourite of
mine ; and seems to me unlike any other in the volume,
or indeed in G\pblin\ M\arket\ I have moreover altered
what you call the queer rhyme. In short, I should like
particularly to put this piece in, and it has already been
printed by Mr Shipley. If however after all you cannot
bear it, would you rather see Easter Even put back ? This
is no particular liking of my own ; but Mrs Scott told me
100 &OSSETTI PAPEkS
that Scotus was struck by it quite remarkably, in Mr
Shipley's volume where it is. ...
I don't think we need this time resort to The Dead
City. As to Amore e Dovere^ it would surely require
evisceration to the extent of v[erse] 2. I think I could
hunt up one, or possibly even two, Italian trifles to go
with it : yet these would leave the Italian element in such
an infinitesimal minority as scarcely to justify its intro-
duction.
If none of all my expedients will pass muster with you,
I have but to launch forth into the rag-and-bone store ;
thence, by main force, something must emerge.
I hope after this vol. (if this vol. becomes a vol.) people
will respect my nerves, and not hint for a long long while
at any possibility of vol. 3. I am sure my poor brain
must lie fallow and take its ease, if I am to keep up to
my own mark.
I do not send you the groans herewith, because, if you
will kindly answer (what very little needs an answer), I
will page said groans before consigning them to your
brotherly hands.
Mamma sends love. — Your affectionate Sister,
C. G. R.
82.— DANTE ROSSETTI to MADOX BROWN.
1 6 CHEYNE WALK, CHELSEA.
1 8 April 1865.
My dear Brown, — I've stuck you down at the Garrick ;
and, on considering the few names of men you knew
among the members, thought it best to ask Millais to
second you, which he has done. Personal knowledge is
necessary in a seconder, or perhaps I might have asked
others. But on the whole it seemed to me you would wish
Millais to do it, as a preliminary conciliating link with him
> ANTE ROSSETTI, 1865
before meeting him at the Club, as you would be sure to
do, and he is very influential. I might have asked
Woolner, but am still less in communication with him, and
of course he would have less influence. Palgrave is not a
member.
I've begun an oil-picture all blue, for Gambart, to
called The Blue Bower. Come and see it in a week
time. . . . — Your
D. G. R.
be]
k'sj
83.— DANTE ROSSETTI to MADOX BROWN.
1 6 CHEYNE WALK, CHELSEA.
[1865— ? April.}
My dear Brown, — Howell and I are coming to see you
on Tuesday evening if you'll be in.
I wanted to say as follows. I find that there is a
party-question made of your proposed election at the
Garrick, and that on the whole, according to my own im-
pression, it will be better to withdraw your name. I am
very vexed about this, but do not know that it would
have been possible to arrive at a knowledge of the danger
by previous enquiry, even had I known enough people in
the Club to form a judgment by. Val Prinsep told me
how matters stood, he of course knowing every one. It
seems there is a strong feeling against independent exhibi-
tions, and that even Frith (who is fool enough, God knows)
would never have got in but for the absence by accident of
several members of Committee when he was elected. Val
says Hunt would certainly not be elected. . . .
Will you write me word whether, on the whole, you
don't think it best to withdraw. Some of the best artistic
names in the Club are now down to yours, but this has
nothing to do with the Committee. — Ever your
D. G, R,
102 ROSSETTI PAPERS
84.— PROFESSOR NORTON to WILLIAM ROSSETTI.
CAMBRIDGE, MASSACHUSETTS.
9 May 1865.
My dear Sir, — Had these been quiet times, I should
have sooner thanked you for the copy of your translation
of the Inferno which you were good enough to send me,
and which reached me three or four weeks ago. Even
now I cannot thank you for it as I would, for when it
first came I was too much engrossed with other cares and
interests to give to it the thorough attention it deserves, —
and then Longfellow borrowed it from me, and still keeps it.
That you have made choice of the true mode of render-
ing the poem seems to me not doubtful. All the qualities
of a great poem can never be rendered from one language
another. You remember Don Quixote's excellent com-
parison of a translation to the wrong side of a piece of
rlemish tapestry. A translator has to choose between
delity to the spirit, and to the form. Now, in the case
of The Divine Comedy, it is certain that the form, and that
part of the spirit of the original which inheres in the form,
cannot be successfully, spite of Mr Cayley and Canon
Ford (?), transferred to another tongue. The attempt ends
in a tour de force, in which the spirit of the original
vanishes. The essentially characteristic qualities of the
poem can only be preserved in a literal unrhymed line-for-
line version — its literal meaning, its simplicity, its strength,
and to some degree its beauty. In such a translation its
truthfulness is not lost, nor its depth of feeling obscured.
And yet the best translation makes one who knows the
original only feel the more strongly how untranslatable
it is.
I shall read your volume carefully this summer, and I
am sure that I shall do so with a constant sense of
pleasure in your success within the limits of what is
possible. , , .
JULIA CAMERON, 1865 103
Political interests do not absorb our whole attention.
I am glad to know that your sympathies have been and
are with us in our great struggle for human rights — for
liberty, justice, and order. Peace is coming fast, and we
rejoice with our whole hearts in the prospect before us.
Pray give my kindest remembrances to your Brother,
and believe me always — Very truly yours,
CHARLES ELIOT NORTON.
85. — JULIA CAMERON to WILLIAM ROSSETTI.
[This letter refers to Mrs Cameron's highly vigorous and
artistic efforts in the photographic process. No doubt she
produced various heads of Tennyson at one time or
another. The one face spoken of may possibly be a
profile which Tennyson himself used to term "the dirty
old monk." He liked it none the less, and so did most
people — and very deservedly. Or it may be that some
larger and more strikingly effective head is in question.]
LITTLE HOLLAND HOUSE, KENSINGTON.
13 May [1865].
Dear Mr Rossetti, — ... I have some things to show
you worth your seeing. Amongst others my last of Alfred
Tennyson — a head which is the first representation that
entirely satisfies Mrs Tennyson. She says it is " a real
Michelangelo — a head made to rule the world." It is in
the Photo Exhibition, and therefore will, I hope, be
favourably noticed when the real artist-eye falls upon it.
Those here who have seen it, one and all, say it is by
far the finest thing that exists of him — that it is as fine a\
poem as one of his best poems. ... — Yours ever truly, ^
JULIA MARGARET CAMERON.
104 ROSSETTI PAPERS
86.— WILLIAM ROSSETTI— DIARY.
[This Diary relates to the only journey in which
Christina saw either Italy or Switzerland. She gloried
beyond measure in the wonders and beauties of Nature
in Switzerland, and in these and almost everything else in
Italy. Had she henceforth lived in Italy — with the one
necessary companionship, that of our Mother — she would,
I believe, have been a much happier woman than she was.
But circumstances did not favour any such plan, and she
never repined for the lack of it. The extracts which I
give from this Diary are more numerous and detailed than
usual, on the ground that it indicates in large measure the
things which Christina, as well as myself, saw and enjoyed.
This remark does not apply to theatre-going : Christina,
through some moral scrupulosity, gave up the theatre when
she was perhaps eighteen years of age, and she never reverted
to it]
Monday, 22 May 1865. — Left London with Mamma and
Christina ; to Paris by Calais. A very heavy dark morn-
ing, with a little lightning and thunder, following a
remarkably sultry day ; but this cleared up about the time
of our starting, and the rest of the day, till towards dusk,
very fine, with a most pleasant sea-passage. Some stormi-
ness again as we neared Paris. Went to Hotel de Nor-
mandie, where we are to have ordinary board and lodging
at 8 fr. each per day. After dinner, to the Theatre Frangais,
where I saw the play which is the town-talk at present, Le
Supplice dune Femme, by De Girardin, brought into acting-
order by Dumas Fils. The emotional acting of Favart is
splendid ; and the piece on the whole is the only example
I remember of the lacrymose moral-domestic which makes
a not tiresome acting play — the dramatic-intense being
combined with it in due proportion.
23 May. — Went to the Exposition, which at first seemed
the worst French Exhibition I ever saw, but by degrees
WILLIAM ROSSETTI— DIARY, 1865 105
a considerable number of superior works are, as usual,
found. Whistler's Princesse du Palais de Porcelaine is a
triumph of power in light colour ; Sellier's Dead Leander
excellent, and not needlessly academic; Manet's Olympic
a most extreme absurdity ; Courbet's Proudhon and Family ',
very curious, and mainly fine ; Tissot, Le Printemps and
r Enlevement \ Lambron, Virgin and Child with birds
hovering about them ; etc. etc. Looked through perhaps
two-thirds of the pictures, and a little elsewhere. A great
storm of rain with lightning came on while we were at
the Exposition, making great drenches in the ground-floor
of garden and sculpture, and running in pools and streams
here and there, even along the floors of the picture-galleries.
A deal of bother and hanging-about consequent on this
rain (which continued briskly after the first real storm had
ceased), and the consequent penury of cabs. . . .
24 May. — Went to Dessoye's Japanese shop, and bought
the four pieces of broidered silk for Mrs Dalrymple, along
with two Hokusai books and two bits of leather-paper
for myself. Nothing here specially noticeable. After this
M[amma] and Cfhristina] went to see the Heimann children
in the Boulevard Hausmann, and I returned to the Ex-
position. . . .
25 May. — Went to the Louvre, where they have hung
the portrait by Afntonello] da Messina, bought at the
Pourtales Sale. The only other thing that strikes my
eye noticeably as new is a large Virgin and Child with
Child-angels by Lippo Lippi, not of his very best quality —
and possibly even this is not new. Saw among other things
the "Etruscan" vase in the Musee Campana caricatured
by Cham, a woman holding a pig over a man's head.
Afterwards to the Societe d'Acclimatation, where I noticed
the splendid Japanese peacocks — Pavo Spicifera — the
breast being not sheeny blue, but scaly gold-and-green
like the larger of the feathers on the exterior of the small
train-quills. A great number of holiday-makers about, this
being Ascension-Day, and consequently a festa : very many
shops shut, including two Bankers that I called at to get
10G ROSSETTI PAPERS
my circular notes cashed. They being closed, we go on
without the change to Bale. After dinner, as dusk was
deepening, went to look at the outside West front of
Notre Dame, which seems pretty well finished with now.
Swallows, as in 1861, careering about and about at a great
rate : they had all gone towards 8J. . . .
26 May. — Left Paris in the morning, taking tickets on
to Lucerne, but booking luggage only to Langres, there
to pass the night. A splendid day, showing forth, to more
advantage than I remember seeing it before, this compara-
tively tame yet by no means unpleasant route. Reached
Langres about 2j ; a tolerably long omnibus-drive leading
up to the town, which stands conspicuously on a hill. Hotel
de TEurope, which seems more than reasonably comfortable.
To the Cathedral, which has been originally (or perhaps
only in part) a Romanesque building (the remains of this
chiefly in the choir and apse) ; then the construction of
the nave partly Gothic ; and the whole building completed
or renewed in bare but not wholly undignified modern
classic — circa 1650 (?) Seems at first to contain hardly any
special interest, but there are still some good details.
Romanesque capitals founded on the Corinthian, bases of
pillars, friezes round arches, etc. A good Gothic statue of
the Virgin and Child — and later (circa 1520?) another
very pleasing, and a Man of Sorrows. A series of bas-
reliefs, on a considerable scale of size, of Life of Christ,
done by some good Renaissance artist about 1550. Two
large tapestries framed as pictures. Some medallions of
the old 16th-century glass, good. Walked out on the
ramparts, to about one third or a quarter perhaps of their
circuit. An extensive amphitheatrical view in gentle swells
and patched out in cultivation, presenting a decidedly fine
prospect of good yellow and green etc. flat tints, almost
entirely destitute of shade ; the trees being few, and hardly
showing their shadows. Many quaint and picturesque com-
binations in the streets, of roofs, chimneys, house-fronts,
etc. : the buildings solid, and mostly of stone, with tiled
roofs between brown and red. The town seems particu-
WILLIAM ROSSETTI— DIARY, 1865 107
larly clean, and like an old place solidly built at first, and
getting continually renewed without sinking into mere
modernism — quiet, orderly, and fairly prosperous. It is a
leading place for cutlery. Fish here is served near the
end of dinner. After dinner we walked to the opposite
(left) end of the town, where the ramparts lead into a
very fine avenue of trees, with alleys laid out with flowers
etc. Then I went back towards the centre of the rampart-
walk, to watch the sunset, a very lovely one ; quiet but
rich, giving the full colour-chord of the prism — blue, fading
into faint yellow, yellow, orange, crimson, purple, and then
the dense blue of the low hills, and the mysterious greens
of the landscape nearer.
27 May. — Revisited the Cathedral, and went to the
Musee, on the site of the old Church of St Didier
destroyed at the Revolution. The tomb-chapel of the
Saint remains, having some columns with fine Romanesque
capitals, and now containing many Gallo-Roman antiquities
found in digging for the citadel, Gothic fragments, etc.
Above are rooms for paintings, ethnologic specimens,
natural history, etc. By no means a bad museum on its
small scale ; the best thing perhaps being some panels of
wood - carvings of the Passion, from Switzerland, circa
1 500, quite remarkable for talent without overdoing ; also
a very beautiful leather lute-case (?) with inlet figures
of birds etc. Left about 2\, and went on to Bale; the
weather still unimprovably fine, with endurable heat.
Hotel du Sauvage at Bale.
Sunday ', 28 May. — Went with M[amma] and Cfhristina]
to look at the Cathedral (outside, service going on inside)
and the Rhine Bridge. . . . Had at dinner (the first time
within my recollection) kid — gigot de chevreuil ; agreeable
taste, something like Welsh mutton with the dry texture
of hare. . . .
29 May. — Got .£30 circular notes changed into 750
francs. We then went again to the Cathedral, looking into
the details of the interior, and Cfhristina] and I going up
to the lower parapet for the view. There are two rooms
108 ROSSETTI PAPERS
full of antiquities, casts, etc., old iron, tapestries, sculpture,
etc. etc., and many of them very excellent indeed. Of
the sepulchral monuments in the Church, one, a knight
coming third from the entrance, is singularly fine, and all
of them decidedly so, more or less — also, in the choir, the
sepulchral monument of the Wife of Rudolf of Hapsburg
and her youngest child. Then to the Museum, in which
the Holbeins are most supreme, and several of the other
old German or Flemish masters very fine; also a very
fine portrait of a young man by Titian. . . . Left Bale in
the afternoon, and went on to Lucerne — a grey, sunless,
and at times slightly showery, afternoon succeeding con
siderable heat. The distant Alps mapped out in snow
which one sees for half an hour or so before arriving at
Lucerne, are very fine. 1 think I had on both my
previous visits passed this part of the journey at night,
and had consequently not seen it. Schweizerhof, where
M[amma] and C[hristina] have a fine room looking out on
the lake. Strolled a little about the lake-side and streets
after tea.
30 May. — To the Cathedral, having two thin, tall, tiled
spires — not a beautiful or remarkable building, and not
older, I suppose, in any part than 1600 or so. Inside, two
elaborate carvings of the Pieta and Death of the Virgin^
which seem to be very fair works of their kind of about
that date, but re-gilt and painted very lately in such
killing colours that one can scarcely say whether there is
or not anything good in them. The churchyard, forming
a sort of cloister round the Cathedral, pretty. Towards
the centre of the city is a splendid old fountain with
armed knights in niches all round — say c. 1480 to 1500.
Crossed the delightful old wooden bridge with indifferently
painted Dance of Death, c. 1601-20. Had a two hours' row
on the lake to and from the hotel-side. . . . Many quaint
details and combinations in the streets, and a good amount
of Swiss costume. The Cathedral here is Catholic — at
Bale Protestant — the chief language in both places, German.
Crickets (I suppose they are) make a great noise at night,
I
WILLIAM frOSSETTl— DIARY, 1865 109
like a legion of birds chirping. I hear as I write one or
two cicalas in the trees about, there being a double row of
red chestnuts along the lake-side in front of the hotel. . . .
After dinner, went to see Thorwaldsen's Lion, which is
impressive, though the expression not quite up to the
mark, nor equal to that of the finished model by himself,
shown in a little house hard by. He himself did not
work on the monument, but a sculptor or sculptors from
Constance. The last survivor of Louis the Sixteenth's
Guard, a drummer, is affirmed to have died in Lucerne
about two months ago. Also to see a collection of stuffed
Alpine animals — bears, lynxes, marmots, wild cats, wolves,
chamois, owls, lammergeyer, eagles, etc. : a most splendid
living eared owl here, the local name for which is grand-due.
On again to the nearer bridge ; the green of the lake seen
through its chinks peculiarly beautiful in the early twilight.
Bought half-a-dozen stereoscopic prints. A marmot, says the
woman of the collection, can be tamed if taken young, not
otherwise — also a lynx, but not a wild cat ; lammergeyers
rare. A gentleman at the Bale Hotel told me that a
chamois-hunter will not kill more than a dozen or so now in
a season.
31 May.— Left Lucerne by the boat at 10 A.M. to Fliilen,
whence I had engaged a carriage for us three alone, from
Christen of Andermatt, 1 20 francs, which, it seems, is a little
less than the diligence-fare for three. Ascent of the glorious
lake, and more glorious mountain up to Andermatt, which
lies towards the beginning of the snow-line at this time of
year — snow being here in tolerable and afterwards in very
large quantities. The day fine, but with comparatively little
sun, especially towards the later hours. Devil's Bridge very
grand. The river which runs all the distance this side of
Mount St Gothard is the Reuss. At Andermatt, which we
reached towards seven, the landlady represented to my
satisfaction that the agreed price, 120 francs, was really too
little to pay her as contractor, 150 to 155 being the fair sum.
I volunteered to make it up to 130. Strolled out in the early
evening or late twilight back on the road we had come — very
110 ROSSETTI PAPERS
solemn and enjoyable, with a youngish moon and fair number
of stars.
i June. — Went on from Andermatt to Bellinzona : from
Airolo or so the route is one which, on both previous
occasions, I performed by night. It is scarcely or not at
all inferior to the road up the mountain on the Reuss side,
but runs more in definite and tolerably open valleys between
two walls of hills, somewhat more bluff and obtuse perhaps
than the other line, and with a less marked quality of views
down defiles crowded with pines, etc. Here the river is
the Ticino, and very fine also. At Faido, where we dined,
a beautiful cascade, utilized for several water-mills. The
personnel of the inhabitants changes markedly for the
better as soon as one passes from the German to the
Italian side of the mountains ; a very pretty, indeed
beautiful, girl at the Airolo Hotel. Arrived about 6J at
Bellinzona, which is a fortified town of tolerable size with a
largeish Renaissance Church. Some fine battlemented views
on entering. Albergo dell' Angelo. After tea strolled out
of and through the town. Came upon a large open ground-
floor very dimly lighted, and solid-built like a chapel,
where were a score or so of women and girls engaged in
some such occupation as stripping vine-branches, singing in
loud chorus, at first solemn-sounding chants, probably
religious — then a livelier strain of which I caught the words
" Viva la Fedelta? Very picturesque and telling this, in the
darkest twilight. No lights in the streets, not even oil-
lamps (save for the still-open shops) : a few bats flitting
about. Red pigs about the neighbourhood of the summit
of St Gothard, like choiropotami — one remarkably big and
high-backed, but, as usual, thin by the English standard.
Goats, small sheep, black and white. A great dearth of
birds in all the higher or moderately high parts of the
mountain. The Alpine roses yesterday were very beautiful.
They are not roses at all, but seem rather in the way of
rhododendrons : the driver says they flower during one
month only. They never grow absolutely by the wayside,
but just a little up the slope, and only appear in particular
WILLIAM ROSSETTI— DIARY, 1865 111
tracts, a good way up on the ascent (as far as my experience
here goes).
2 June. — Left Bellinzona early in the morning, and went
on to Como. Not far from B[ellinzona] one catches just a
glimpse of the Lago Maggiore, and about the same time
begins the ascent (not to any very great height) of Monte
Cenere. Further on, the Lake of Lugano. At Lugano we
lunched, and went to see the Cathedral, a Renaissance building
of no particular interest within or without, though just worth
looking at when one has the time. Reached Como towards
four, and put up at the Albergo d'ltalia, just at the head of
the lake. The Cathedral here is a very peculiar one in its
external sculptural decorations — two statues of the Plinys,
four columnar rows of saints under niches, etc. ; also a large
quantity of delicate Renaissance arabesques, of the Certosa
class. The principal pictures are by Luini and Gfaudenzio]
Ferrari — two or three in distemper by the former, and an oil-
picture with predella, of the Virgin and Saint with the Acts
of St Jerome ; all fine. There is also, set up in a sort of
banner-like form in the nave, a canvas painted front and
back with The Crucifixion and another subject by an un-
identified painter, thought by some to be B[ernardino] Luini :
to me it suggests Melozzo da Forli rather than anybody else,
but this is a mere surmise. It is a fine work, originally
somewhere up in or about the vaulting of the Church, and
placed recently in its present position. Two or three very
rich altars of painted and chiefly gilded wood figure-subjects,
in just about the right condition of fading splendour, obscured
but still rich. All the painted glass here is modern, by
Bertini of Milan, and in its way a good piece of profes-
sionalism. After dinner C[hristina] and I went out in a boat
on the lake for an hour: the boatman a good-looking
characteristic Italian, who spoke with great enthusiasm about
Garibaldi's achievements hereabouts in 1859. Almost
opposite our starting-place is a not lofty hill where 11,000
Austrians were posted ; upon whom Garibaldi fell suddenly
with 3000, and routed them very rapidly, and made them
all clear out of Como : — this succeeding other the like achieve-
112 ROSSETTI PAPERS
ments at San Fermo and Varese. The Comaschi looked on in
boats applauding (!). The boatman speaks very highly of
Maximilian, and even enthusiastically of Radetsky, under
whom he himself served in, or perhaps before, 1848. It
seems Radetsky was very partial to his Italian and Hungarian
soldiers, preferring them much for hill-service to Germans,
and very indulgent in granting furloughs etc. Heard a
nightingale on the wooded hills overlooking the lake, and
saw the house which Queen Caroline used to occupy — also
the historic tower of Baradello, " del tempo" as the boatman said,
" del Romani e di Federigo Barbarossa" * I asked the boatman
whether the people of Como would like to be under the
Austrians again : he replied no, but with less decisiveness of
phrase than similar questions generally elicit.
3 June. — With M[amma] and C[hristina] revisited the
Cathedral ; then the Broletto (which is merely an open
arcade), and the Churches of San Fedele and of Sant'
Abondio, the latter out of Como, being the ancient Cathe-
dral. The exterior of the apse, with Lombardic sculptured
hind-entrance, of San Fedele, is most ancient-looking and
interesting : in the much-altered interior the most memorable
thing is an old fresco triptych, noted by me in Murray.f
There also a note on Sant' Abondio, the external window-
carvings of which, of Lombardic birds, knot-patterns, etc.,
are comparable with anything I know of the class. Left
Como about two by the omnibus to Camerlata, and thence
rail to Milan ; where (the Hotel di Milano omnibus having
somehow driven off prematurely) we put up at the Hotel
Cavour, close to a new or altered tract named the Giardini
Pubblici ; wherein are some animals, including (according to
the omnibus-conductor) lions and tigers, but all I see in
walking about the place are antelopes and the like, suited
for an Acclimatization Society. After dinner went down
to the Cathedral ; looking at only one side of which, I see
some two or three score of (as it seems to me) entirely
* Of the period of the Romans and Frederick Barbarossa.
t The Virgin and Child^ with Saints Roch and Sebastian — at the
first altar to the left on entering.
WILLIAM ROSSETTI— DIARY, 1865 113
new statues, and new gable and pinnacle work. The
statues, though not properly architectural enough, are works
of very considerable ability in the mass, and tell well
according to their scheme of work. Very great alterations,
especially in the way of opening-out streets, are going on
in this part of the city. I fear Milan will very soon have
lost its fine character of very narrow streets of tall houses,
delightfully shadowed and black in the intense sun. . . .
Sunday ', 4 June. — This (or I believe in strictness yester-
day, postponed till to-day as an ordinary festa-day) is the
Festa dello Statuto, one feature of which is the unveiling
of a statue of Cavour right opposite our hotel. There has
also been a review etc. in the Piazza d'Armi, and the
filing of National Guards, Cavalry, Artillery, etc., down the
Corso Vittorio Emmanuele etc. (close to the South door of
the Cathedral), which last I witnessed. But just about this
hour deluges of rain, with lightning and some thunder,
came down ; the rain lasting, still soaking enough, down to
now (ij), much to the dripping and dragglement of plumes,
regimentals, and banners, with which the streets are
crowded, especially near this Corso. Hundreds of young
boys in military training, some quite children, carrying
their muskets. — Went into San Satiro, an elegant dark
Renaissance Church. The only work of art I saw, of in-
dividual interest, is a life-sized or more group of the Pieta
in gilt and coloured carved wood, now in a fine state of
dimness ; some dozen figures or more remarkably life-like
and impressive. Visited the Museo Civico, which consists
entirely of stuffed animals, preparations for anatomical
study, etc. To the Churches of San Bartolommeo (nothing
particular) — San Marco, the remains of a fine Gothic ex-
terior ; some interesting old sculptures, and the (as I think)
Tintoret noted in Murray.* The Roman heads and in-
* This work, I fancy, is not generally observed by tourists. My
note upon it in Murray's Handbook runs as follows : — " Close to door
of vestibule a very curious picture which must, I think, be a Jacopo
Tintoret. Very fine in light and tone, and to a great extent in figures.
Seems to be a miracle of Saint Mark, with a man who fell down in-
side a church ; but subject difficult to me."
H
114 ROSSETTI PAPERS
scriptions let into the arch in Corso di Porta Nuova ; and,
on its northern side, the remains of a fine Gothic Madonna
and Saints. A Church near this gate, without its facade
finished, has a painted wood Mater Dolorosa, really striking
of its class (c. 1650?); and, on the opposite altar, a similar
Crucified Christ, also worth looking at. The Madonna del
Carmelo ; a fair Luini fresco of the Madonna and Child,
with Saints Sebastian and Rock. Strolled out to the Piazza
d'Armi, whence snowy Alps are distinctly visible ; and went
into a booth where feats of acrobatism and knife-throwing
etc. were going on. The Cavour ceremony, illuminations,
etc., are postponed till to-morrow on account of the bad
weather, though there has been no heavy recurrence of
rain since 2 P.M. or so. I see there is here a Via dei
Fiori Chiari, as well as, and in the same neighbourhood
with, the V[ia dei] F[iori] Oscuri.
5 June. — To the Cathedral, where C[hristina] and I
ascended the roof, and I to the highest point attainable.
It is a surprising sight, the forest of pinnacles, statues, etc. :
Monte Rosa, M[ont] Blanc, Saint Gothard, etc. etc., visible
with snows amid clouds. To Sant' Ambrogio, the nave of
which was filled up with a framework apparently for
draperies, and a long service with sermon going on, so
that we saw next to nothing beyond the atrium. Back to
the hotel, and saw the unveiling of the Cavour statue by
Prince Humbert ; who is less ugly than his photographs,
dark, and dark or black haired, and looks as if he had a
will of his own. To the Brera, for a hurried visit before it
shut at three ; the splendid Tintoret of The Invention of the
Cross is back in its place, and, I have little doubt, re-
painted to some extent as well as cleaned, though the
custode says only the latter. The Tintoret Pieta is most
noble. There is one also by J[ohn] Bellini, three half-
figures, looking to me quite re-painted all over. Revisited
San Marco, the vaulting of which beyond the high altar
(which I could not pass) of a Paradise, with concentric
rows of nuns and other Saints, has a striking effect, fresco
— I suppose Procaccini. In the evening went about by
WILLIAM ROSSETTI— DIARY, 1865 115
myself (M[amma] and C[hristina] in a carriage) to see the
illuminations ; which were pretty, but, in consequence of the
continuance of heavy showers up to twilight, much less
than had been prepared for. One street lit up with
Chinese lanterns, pretty : these elsewhere very rare.
6 June. — Took a cab to see various places. The pictures
in the Arcivescovado, the Ospedale Maggiore, which we
went over, Sant' Ambrogio, San Vittore, San Lorenzo, the
Ambrosian Library, Santa Maria delle Grazie, San Maurizio
(a few notes in Murray). After dinner walked round the fine
boulevards with double row of trees, chiefly chestnuts ; all
the E [astern] outer line of the city from the Giardini to
Porta Romana, and thence back by the inner canal-line ; the
Duomo continually in view from the boulevards. The
illuminations are renewed under better auspices of weather
this evening, and are very pleasing in the Giardino (where
alone have I been in the way of seeing them) ; chiefly or
wholly oil burning in good-sized glasses, white, blue, and
red, disposed in plant-like clusters. One very large on a
sheet of water produces perhaps as good effect as illumination
of an obvious but tasteful sort is capable of.
7 June. — C[hristina] suffering in the feet, Mfamma] and
I took from the Duomo a cab to various churches etc. . . .
There has not as yet been a single day of more than reason-
able heat. . . .
8 June. — Went with M[amma] to the Palazzo Reale,
which contains from a dozen to a score of framed Luini
frescoes brought from some other building: Destruction of
Egyptians in Red Sea, Christ in the Desert, Vulcan's Forge,
Padre Eterno (excellent), etc. etc. One of them, of Women
Bathing, is certainly not inferior to anything I know by
Luini, and most lovely for grace and purity. . . . Bust of
Napoleon by Canova, about thirty. The Royal Chapel is
plain. Napoleon III. slept here in the King's bed after
Solferino. The King comes here for the Carnival ; Prince
Humbert lives in a Palace in the Giardini Pubblici, but
passes the winters in Naples. '. . . Left Milan, and went to
the Certosa of Pavia (a separate station for the C[ertosa],)
116 ROSSETTI PAPERS
which is certainly an astounding place for multiplicity and
finish of parts and details, and many of these exceedingly
beautiful — as the St Sirus Enthroned and other pictures by
Borgognone, the monuments to Lodovico il Moro and his
wife, the Gothic tablet altar-piece in hippopotamus-ivory, etc.
etc. The convent-garden, with quantities of lilies, and a
profusion of flowers dispersedly over the whole space (what
I have always said would be the best thing), most lovely ;
and after this a larger garden-square, grown chiefly with
corn. Each of these enclosures is surrounded with an arcade
covered with beautiful terra-cotta sculptures : the only pity
is that one can't think of looking them properly through.
The larger enclosure shows, rising above the walls of the
arcade, the houses of the monks (some thirty), each a separate
house containing four rooms and a garden-space or yard:
one, now unoccupied, which I looked at, was very charming
in its deserted and overgrown garden-ground. — On to Pavia,
to the hotel mentioned first by Murray, the Croce Bianca,
which is a very dingy and rather slovenly place, with doors
that won't shut, grimy floors and walls, etc. ; in essentials
however one gets on reasonably. The whole city, as far as
seen this evening, has an air of decadence and neglect. A
wonderful swarm of swallows round the angle of the Duomo ;
which is a ruin of unfinish outside, but inside, by this almost
darkness, singularly impressive in its scale, height, and
simplicity of space. The outside contains several remarkable
details of a much older Lombardic building, the present one
being Renaissance. There is a tame black lamb at the hotel
with white skull-cap and white tail-tip, who comes about and
eats sugar etc. from one's hand like a dog. The head waiter
came out strong in an impromptu political exposition.
Napoleon has arranged it all with Victor Emmanuel that
the Italians are to take Rome when the French army leaves.
Victor Emmanuel is merely a finger on Napoleon's hand.
When they get Rome, which is the chiave d? Italia* Venetia
will come also by occupation or composition. The Italian
army is some 500,000, the Austrian 700,000 ; but the Italians
* Key of Italy.
WILLIAM ROSSETTI- DIARY, 1865 117
could at a pinch place 800,000 men in the field — the
Austrians, with all their other difficulties, only 300,000. A
word from Garibaldi, though gia vecchio* would raise 200,000.
9 June. — To the Duomo, striking also and satisfactory by
day, though not so impressive as at twilight. The tomb of
St Augustine is one of the finest specimens of the elaborate
Italian Gothic work that I know. San Michele, extra-
ordinarily rich in Lombardic ornamental friezes and details
within and without. A goodish number of them have been
re-carved, and, to judge from the almost obliteration of some
among those which remain untouched, hardly too soon. San
Francesco and the Carmine — both very fine Gothic brick
churches. San Marino. San Teodoro, 8th or Qth century,
but its antiquity as a building almost destroyed ; two
interesting series of I4th or early I5th century frescoes,
Acts of St Theodore and St Agnes. Crossed the old covered
bridge over the Ticino, getting a very agreeable though not
striking view. Here a guitar-playing dwarf, more like those
one sees in Veronese, Bonifazio, etc., than I remember ever
encountering before ; a most extraordinary little man, and
in height not three feet, I should think. The Church of
Borgo Ticino, showing Lombardic remains, and marked to
show the point the river rose to in '57, some 5 feet or little
less against the walls of the church itself. Pavia is certainly
the most depressed-looking place I remember in Italy. Padua
alone could be named along with it, and that much less
depressed than this — which is the more noticeable as it seems
to take an ardent share in the national movement, the
Churches containing (no doubt specially for the Festa dello
Statute) more patriotic inscriptions etc. to the King, Louis
Napoleon, Cavour, the fallen in battle, etc., than I remember
elsewhere. The city is in itself interesting, like other old
places, but not with any peculiar amount or quality of
picturesque detail apart from the Lombardic churches. — On
to Brescia, which is a wonderful contrast to Pavia ; full of
open spaces, plenty of air, clean, bright, and active-looking,
a great centre of the silk-trade which pervades the district
* Now old.
118 &OSSETTI PAPERS
all round. The journey hither, from soon before Bergamo,
very beautiful rich foregrounds with mountain-backgrounds.
Put up at the Albergo d'ltalia, just opposite the chief Theatre.
Walked out in the twilight, passing through the Duomo, a
spacious fine Renaissance building, especially within, as far
as I could judge by this light.
10 June. — The Cicerone here turns out to have known
my father about 1851, being then employed by Ferretti * in
London: he had deserted from the Austrian service in 1848
or '9 — name Fighisino or something of the sort. Many
demonstrations of satisfaction at discovering, from what I
said, who we were : he also knows Theodoric. He says
Garibaldi uses this hotel when he comes to Brescia. He
was here shortly before Aspromonte, and occupied room
No. 6, which I thereupon looked at : he harangued the
people from the balcony of my room, 37. — To the Duomo
Nuovo, which by day is a handsome but not specially
interesting Renaissance building. The Duomo Vecchio,
entered herefrom, a rotunda looking outside merely like a
Baptistery. Sant' Afra : Titian's Woman taken in Adultery,
not a very interesting specimen — a re-painted Veronese
of the Saint's martyrdom — a cleverly conceived Tintoret of
The Transfiguration behind the high altar. Sant' Ales-
sandro ; a fine Angelico, Annunciation^ with predella from
life of the Virgin : some other fair pictures of the second
or third order. Santa Maria dei Miracoli, a small church
with a gracefully sculptured Renaissance (early) exterior,
and a fine Bonvicino (a few notes on these in Murray). The
Palazzo Municipale, a very fine early Renaissance building,
with busts of Roman Emperors etc. The frescoes well
preserved (but half invisible through dust etc.), forming a
considerable series on houses in the Contrada del Gambero ;
the story of Lucretia among others (painted by Romanino
and Gambara) ; about the most important set I remember
preserved on mere street-architecture. The Broletto, fine
old brick with a lofty tower. The Museo Patrio of an-
* This Ferretti was a Protestantizing Italian, Editor of the Eco di
Savonarola.
WILLIAM ROSSETTI— DIARY, 1865 119
tiquities, including the famous Greek bronze Victory writing
on a tablet. This building is on the foundation, and in-
cluding the remains, of a Roman building termed the
Temple of Vespasian (or of Hercules dedicated by Ves-
pasian) ; and the entrance, with old columns, stairs, etc., amid
wildly growing flowers and vegetation, is very charming.
The Museo Civico, of paintings ; various more than fair
(Raphael, Bonvicino, Gfirolamo] dai Libri, etc. — a few notes
in Murray).* Entered the silk-market, whither large and
small proprietors from all round bring their cocoons. The
trade, though still large, has, it seems, greatly declined
through disease in the silkworms lasting these ten or twelve
years, and probably caused by disease in the mulberry-trees
or " gelsi." Successive importations of new Japanese worms
are resorted to : sulphur might cure the trees themselves, but
cannot be used, as the worms would refuse to eat. Two
cocoons were given us containing the chrysalis, which would,
in the ordinary course, yield the moth ; which forthwith dies,
leaving its " semensa" (I suppose egg) behind, to produce
a new animal : this would be next Spring. I saw one of
the moths in the street — a pretty one, white, both body
and wings. After dinner went up a street rising in steps
towards the Castello, and obtained a very fine panorama
of Brescia and the neighbouring hills on either hand — the
tower of Solferino visible (and I believe seen by me) in the
distance. The hills hereabouts, it seems, are called the
Ronchi, and are not recognized as pertaining to the Alps.
The Church of San Pietro in Oliveto, hard by the Castello
and now used for barracks, has outside six medallion half-
figures of about half (or less) life-size — all fine, and the two
of The Virgin and Announcing Angel singularly beautiful.
In the Duomo Vecchio is a peculiarly fine piece of tapestry,
placed panel -wise on the wall whereat the parish-priest sits
when the bishop officiates : its design consists of birds amid
* One of these notes may perhaps be cited. " Much the most valuable
oil-picture (save the Raphael, for its name) I call a large Bonvicino
(Moretto) of The Supper of Evimaus^ with Christ as a pilgrim : his best
work within my knowledge."
120 ROSSETH PAPERS
floral and other decoration — date, I suppose, c. 1450-80.
I never saw anything to equal it of its kind, and hardly
perhaps to class with it. The Cicerone says there are
most magnificent tapestries in some noble houses (I forget
which) which Rothschild wanted to buy, but found they
would not answer for any of his rooms.
Sunday, 1 1 June. — . . . After dinner we went to the
Giardino Pubblico (rather pleasure-walk with trees than
gardens), and heard the band of the Guardia Nazionale,
which again, later on, played on the Piazza., a little beyond
our hotel-windows. . . . We have not yet seen even one
of the characteristic yellow and orange-copper Italian sun-
sets, nor heard more than mere dribblings of cicalas. The
people here and all below Milan strike me as less good-
looking than there, or higher all up through Italian Switzer-
land : humps and other deformities, as in Bergamo, numerous.
12 June. — Visited the Campo Santo, somewhat on the
model of the Bologna one, and it appears the earliest of
all. Some monuments by Lombardi, especially an angel by
a tomb awaiting the signal to sound his trumpet, show an
understanding of this class of art. To the small but pretty
garden left by Count Brussoni (one of the picture;- donors)
to the city : rife with lizards. Re - visited San Nazaro
and San Francesco. One of the left-hand chapels in the
latter has a remarkable series of intarsictture from the life
of Christ, some 25 to 30, c. 1500-20, with many artistic
figures, groups, and effects, and rich general colour : Marriage
of Cana, Descent into Hell, and Resurrection, among the best.
To San Clemente, containing the monument (c. 1845)
to II Moretto, and three or four of his best pictures : St
Ursula and the Virgins, and the high-altar piece of The
Virgin and Child in a festooned baldacchino, and Sts.
Clement, Dominick, etc., below, especially good; the latter
reputed his masterpiece. — On to Verona, enjoying the
Lago di Garda views. At Peschiera I was called in to the
passport-official, and asked whether 1 was an emigrate Veneto :
no further difficulty however was made as to visaing my
passport, upon my saying that I was a nativo Inglese, figlio
,
WILLIAM ROSSETTI— DIARY, 1865 121
dun Napoletano* Went to the Hotel delle Due Torri ; and
we afterwards walked out in the twilight to the Ponte Nuovo,
Piazza dell' Erbe, and Scala monuments, and into the adjoin-
ing Church of Santa Maria Antica. Plenty of air, and the
weather hitherto has never been more than reasonably warm.
13 June. — Went to a few churches — Sant' Anastasia,
San Bernardino, where we attended the service for the
festa of St Anthony of Padua ; very festive, with some fine
voices singing. San Zenon, in which no more frescoes
have been uncovered since last year : the same fine-faced
and enthusiastic custode as last year, who has himself
been concerned in the washing and uncovering of several
of the frescoes. Santa Maria della Scala, the belfry painted
with a valuable series of frescoes in compartments of the
life of some saint (I could not learn who). The portraits of
two of the Scalas, spoken of in Murray, are at the base of a
venerated draped picture of The Virgin and Child, but are
so covered up as to require a deal of trouble to uncover
them, not to be managed on any ordinary occasion. San
Fermo, in which also extensive tawdry preparations for
the Sant' Antonio festa were defacing the building. The
Scala Monuments. After dinner bought two or three
curiosities and photographs, and went to the Roman Arena,
where feats of horse-riding, learned dogs, etc., were going
on, with a " Clowns Inglese" The audience consisted four-
fifths of Austrian soldiers, and merely sprinkled the vast
space : only a small enclosed oblong within the true
arena was occupied by the performers. The Piazza dell'
Erbe seems to me about the finest thing I know in the
way of street-architecture for business, not for monumental
show — fine in itself, and much more so when populated,
and perhaps most of all towards twilight. Changed our
last circular notes for £20, and found this afternoon that
we still possess about £5 1 to carry us home, which should,
I conceive, be amply enough.
14 June. — Left Verona in the morning, bending our
steps homewards now, and reached Bergamo about 2\.
* Native of England, son of a Neapolitan.
122 ROSSETTI PAPERS
The head waiter at Verona says business is miserably
bad there at present, the past winter having been as
unfortunate as could be. After dining al fresco at Bergamo
(Hotel d'ltalia) we went up to the Boulevards, getting noble
views on a splendid afternoon, and I proceeded to the
Duomo, to inquire as to the ceremonies of Corpus Domini
to be performed to-morrow. Since I was here last year,
the exterior of a Baptistery, to be connected with the
Cathedral, has been finished or nearly so. It is affirmed
to be a copy of an ancient one somehow destroyed, with
copies of the old external statues etc. which represent fine
work. The interior is still in progress, to be finished in
1867; various interesting I3th or I4th century bas-reliefs
here, the originals, but much re-carved : also statues similarly
treated, or some of them perhaps mere copies. The Morone,
first picture to the left on entering the Duomo, is a very
fine one.
15 June. — Christina not being very well, M[amma] and
I went in a carriage from the hotel to see the ceremonies
of the Corpus Domini. . . . Went on to Lecco, Croce di
Malta Hotel. M[amma] and I took a short turn by the
Lake of Como after dinner, in a heavy air portending thunder,
of which a few claps came without lightning ; and a little
later lightning and thunder somewhat considerable, with
rain. Some loud reverberating claps, but not equal to
what one often hears in England. Before the storm some
fine effects of washy broken light amid the hills. The
waiter here says that the waiters, fruit-sellers, and some
other such classes, in Milan, are all Swiss, — the Milanese
not being steady or housekeeping enough for waiters.
In '52 he and all the Ticinese were turned out of Lombardy
by the Austrian Government in retaliation for some grudge,
but were allowed to come back after a week or two. Engaged
a fly from this hotel to Chiavenna for 55 francs.
1 6 June. — Garibaldi was at this hotel twice in or about '59
during his anti-Austrian campaigns : he was wont to dine
in the courtyard on horseback. His name in the visitors'
book got so continually begged of the landlord that he at
I
WILLIAM ROSSETTI— DIARY, 1865 123
last tore it out to keep it safe. It ran : " A richiesta d'una
si graziosa signora non posso ricusare di scrivere il mio nome
— G. Garibaldi " : * and indeed six years ago the landlady
must have been decidedly pleasing. Went on to Chiavenna
by the fly — a fine day with one moderate shower ; fine
views over the lake from the embanked road along which
one passes. Olives are very numerous for some distance
beyond Lecco. The dust extremely troublesome during
the latter two-thirds of the stage up to Colico, where we
dined. On to Chiavenna, and left there again at 1 1 P.M.
by the Diligence, the prices demanded for vetture being
much more than in proportion to what we had to pay on
the St Gothard route.
17 June. — The lumour of dawn began to be apparent very
early this morning — say about ij : everything however con-
tinued merely in the state of grey mist until the sun was just
above the mountain-peaks, about 4^ — dim and spectral close
by, and a blank beyond. The risen sun cleared away the
mists very rapidly, and the early sunlight hours were beauti-
fully clear and fine. Towards the summit of the Spliigen
I walked, and thus about sunrise crossed the highest point,
marked 2117 metres above sea-level. The Rhine begins
pretty soon; but continues shallow, though sufficiently
widespread, up to our stopping-place, Coire. . . . We
passed Reichenau, the village where Louis Philippe acted as
schoolmaster. Numberless grand views in coming down the
mountain (which part of the journey I had done by night
last year) ; but on the whole my impression continues that
the St Gothard route is the richer and nobler. Coire,
Hotel Lukmanier. . . .
Sunday, 18 June. — Visited the Catholic Cathedral, and
the pretty little churchyard annexed to it, whence the view
(same as in yesterday's walk, only from the lower level) is
delightful. I then took a walk ... to the hills above the
city in the opposite direction from yesterday ; a steep
walk, very pleasant, but the views more interrupted by
* At the request of such a nice-looking lady, I cannot refuse to write
my name.
124 ROSSETTI PAPERS
near pines, and less varied and fine, than in the previous
route. Saw here a brown bird flying and soaring which
I am almost sure must have been an eagle. A similar one
yesterday not far from the Splugen top. After dinner went
with M[amma] and C[hristina] to the Rosenhiigel and the
hill-path beyond it, one of the noted points of view for the
mountains all round, and extremely pleasant. This has
been a cool and almost chilly day, cloudy for the most part
and with a few slight showers, yet not other than fine on
the whole. The most prominent mountain opposite the
salle d manger at this hotel is named Calanda.
19 June. — A most brilliant but still fresh day. Left
Coire for Dachsen, whence (I am told) the Schaffhausen
Falls are best seen. Passed the Lake of Wallenstadt, and
one or two others up to Wallisellen, where we change
carriages — the scenery at first being full of grand mountain *
views, but for some little while before Wallisellen about
the most level and ordinary (though still pleasing) which
I remember in Switzerland. Another stoppage of about
I 1 hour at Winterthur, which we walked a little about :
it is intensely neat, but has a somniferous influence, con-
taining apparently nothing salient. On to Dachsen, the
scenery continuing comparatively tame, though fine views
of the Rhine just before Dachsen. Here got out of the
rail, and took a carriage to see the Falls of Schaffhausen,
and to go on to S[chaffhausen]. The Falls are wonderful
for beauty and surprisingness : like the mountain-regions,
the effect is not to be calculated or estimated beforehand,
but must be experienced on the spot. At the same time,
the mere arrangement of the rocks and broken bed for
the river to fall over is very like what one sees represented,
and comes so close up to one's " ideal " of such a scene
as almost to look as if artificially laid out for the purpose.
The fall is only some 80 feet altogether, and this broken
up into two or three distinct plunges ; but the rush and volume
of water are most mighty, and grow upon one's perception
the lower and closer one comes to see them. A slight
spray-rainbow ; and between the two main lines of torrent
WILLIAM ROSSETTI— DIARY, 1865
125
after the last tumble of the river is a nearly smooth space
which I saw a boat navigating, whence tourists land on
one of the rock-masses, though, to see the rush of water
on either side, one would scarcely think this possible. One
sees (ordinarily) the Falls from various points in the adjoin-
ing hotel, and from its grounds laid out along one of the
lateral rocks. At the two lowest points the spray sprinkles
one freely. Red, blue, etc., glass-panes at one point to
see the view through. Between the Falls and Schaffhausen
one sees a glorious semicircle of snowy mountains all along
one horizon — the Jungfrau among them on a clear morning,
but not in the afternoons, though this is a very clear and
bright one. The greater part of this snowy range I had
taken for clouds until I used my spectacles. Schaffhausen,
Hotel de la Couronne, a fine old roomy rambling building,
mostly wood. The city is about the finest I have seen
for Swiss-German quaintness — old roofs, chimneys, carvings,
iron-work, etc. Two or three noticeable frescoed houses,
especially those Zum Ritter (Quintus Curtius) and Zum
Goldenen Ochsen, 1579 and 1630 (?); both renovirt, but
without by any means destroying their original character.
Got here Vin du Glacier, a fine white wine not quite unlike
Madeira (3 francs), and yesterday at Coire a red wine
named Inferno, also very palatable. The porter says that
Napoleon III. bought more than 20,000 francs' worth of
old furniture out of the Ritter-house.
20 June. — To-day again is warm, though (like all the
weather we have had anywhere) considerably below the
oppressive range of Southern heat. Strolled with M[amma]
about the principal Schaffhausen streets before leaving there
at 10.20. Went on by the Bale-Freiburg-Strasburg route,
all of which is new to me. The country between Schaff-
hausen and Freiburg ceases to be mountainous, though at
intervals one sees even snowy mountains at remote distances :
it is undulating in gentle knolls and swells for the most
part, but at times entirely flat unless for the remote
mountains on the horizon. One sees the Rhine the greater
part of the way, mostly green broken with other tints,
126 ROSSETTI PAPERS
seldom apparently of any great depth, but sometimes
spreading out wide with islanded interspaces, which I
suppose must be all overflowed in the wet season. We
repassed the Schaffhausen Fall at Neuhausen : a little
farther on, one of the most picturesque points of the route
is Lauffenburg, where also, it seems, there is a Rhine-fall,
but not visible to us. All, or next to all, this route is in
the Grand Duchy of Baden, merely touching Switzerland
at Schaffhausen and Bale. Having settled to go to Frei-
burg rather than Mulhouse en route to Strasburg, we were
under the impression that this would be the Swiss Freiburg,
containing the richest-toned organ in the world ; but it
turns out to be the Freiburg in the Breisgau, Baden, in the
Black Forest district. A leading hotel at each place has
the same name Zahringer Hof, and it was only after
housing ourselves there that we found out our mistake.
However, the route is correct, and the city well worth a
visit. Went to the Cathedral, with a striking open-work
spire ; the building, of light-tinted red sandstone with a
goodish deal of yellow staining. A few parts Romanesque,
earlier than Gothic, but chiefly an elaborate German-Gothic
building, with great quantities of sculpture in the porch,
saints in niches, grotesque gargoyles, etc. — also nearly
filled with painted glass. The great majority of it is evid-
ently in fact modern, as traceable in the method of leading,
and in some wrong tints of purple, red, etc. ; but it must be
a facsimile of the old designs, and is in many respects
interesting, and vivid in general effect. Many gilt and
other sculptures here — two in recesses, of at least life-size,
The Last Supper and Christ in the Sepulchre, striking, —
the latter really impressive. One peculiarity of the interior
is that entire birch-trees are placed in pots along the nave-
pillars. The service (vespers, I suppose) was all performed
in German, as far as I could distinguish ; certainly the
responses were so, in which a full congregation joined
heartily. Opposite the south side of the Cathedral is a
16th-century Gothic building which I infer to be the Town
Hall, low and small but characteristic, with coloured statues
WILLIAM ROSSETTI— DIARY, 1865
127
of Charles V. and three other Emperors: opposite the
West entrance an Inn, Zum Geist — must mean Heiliger
Geist. Ascended the Ludwigshohe, a little behind the
Cathedral, and had a very beautiful view — vines at my feet
and my back. Several interesting details in the streets ; the
pavement in several streets is particularly good — a mosaic
of small greyish-blue stones with circles of a flame-wheel-
like pattern, in this grey and white. A fine quiet sunset,
more like (though fainter) the characteristic Italian sunset
than we saw in Italy, where not even any approach to it
occurred this tour. A most lovely piece of tapestry in the
Cathedral, of two female saints with the Virgin and Child
on a blue flowered ground, c. 1450-80; this on one side,
and I presume the other sides are equally fine, but they were
covered by some other drapery.
21 June. — Went to the Ludwigskirche, which seems to
have been at one time a fine ancient building, but is now
miserably protestantized outside, and especially inside.
Revisited the Cathedral, and find there is a tolerable quan-
tity still of the original glass, at any rate in the right-hand
aisle. The pulpit has a curious detail — near the foot of the
stairs a sculptured half-figure of a man, c. 1500, looking
out of an open lattice as it were, as if a distinguished
member of the congregation. The choir shut on both our
visits, but does not look as if it were more elaborate than
the nave and aisles. A skin of a splendid blue-and-green
lizard was found on the pavement outside the Cathedral,
handsomer than any I ever saw alive, but we could learn
nothing further about it. To the Franciscan Church, where
is a skeleton (or perhaps model of one) seated, and richly
draped in tissue, gilt, etc., as if representing King Death,
or else the fate of earthly splendour. — On to Strasburg,
through a somewhat tame though agreeable country.
Hotel de la Maison Rouge at Strasburg, which is a fine
old steep-roofed city, the roofs mostly of dark, nearly
neutral-coloured tiles, and fine details here and there of
carved-wood house-fronts etc. Statues to Kleber and
Gutenberg. The Cathedral is a marvel of elaboration out-
128 ROSSETTI PAPERS
side, and many of the sculptures very clever and wonder-
fully preserved, only a few of them appearing to have been
re-carved : inside more stately than overcharged, without
side-chapels or any paintings worth notice, but great
splendour of painted windows, many of which are old,
others new from the old designs, some (not very many)
merely new. Style mostly Gothic, but some portions
earlier. The wonderful old (renewed) clock is quite an
edifice, and full of quaint interest. A boy-angel strikes
each quarter : at the quarter a figure of Childhood repeats
the stroke, and walks on, giving place to Youth ; then at the
half-hour Youth strikes, Manhood at the three-quarters,
Old Age at the full-quarters of the hour, and Death strikes
the hour itself. Scores of other astronomical etc. peculi-
arities. The outside effect is scarcely equal to the extra-
ordinary real height of the Cathedral spire, which reaches
higher than the Great Pyramid, and a good deal higher
than St Paul's. After dinner went up it to as high as one
is allowed in lack of a special permission : view of the
city fine, the landscape nothing very special. Storks
nested here in the chimney-tops, the first time I remember
ever seeing them, white with black wing-tips etc. ; one sees
them flying occasionally, but not walking the streets as
far as I observe. Some thirty nests, says a man in the
Cathedral ; but I should have surmised from one to two
hundred, calculating from the number we have ourselves
noticed. Towards the end of August they migrate — it is
believed to Egypt. Some in the country round, which are
specially housed and fed, remain all the year round — those
in the city cater for themselves on toads, frogs, and serpents.
German is still the prevalent people's-language here, or
French Germanized to an extreme in pronunciation.
22 June. — Went out before breakfast, and passed the
church which contains the monument to Marshal Saxe ;
but it was closed, and looks rather as if it were mostly so.
It is an old and massive building with some painted
windows, and seems as if it ought to contain a goodish
deal to look at. Went round the outside of the Cathedral
WILLIAM ROSSETTI— DIARY, 1865 129
apse not accessible) : elaborate sculpture of St Lawrence
on the Gridiron etc. on the north transept door ; the south
transept is older, and less florid in architecture and sculp-
ture, the principal subject being a remarkable treatment
of The Judgment of Solomon. Went on to Chalons sur
Marne ; the journey troubled with dust, but in other
respects sufficiently agreeable. The country is thickly
wooded beyond Sarrebourg, and a little further on there
are sufficient risings and fallings to require several tunnels,
one uncommonly long, but it is generally level. Vineyards
tolerably, not as yet very, numerous. Attended vespers in
the Cathedral, with some fine singing, but a loud stertorous
organ. A very noble old Gothic building, the older parts
Romanesque ; very simple though beautiful inside, and
must have been recently renovated throughout, though I
don't perceive any spoiling of the interior. A good deal
of excellent stained glass, circa 1520, and some modern,
but generally of a superior order : the outside sculpture
miserably defaced, I suppose in the Revolution ; inside
there is but little beyond fine capitals of very various
design. Two modern iron steeples spoil the building con-
siderably, but look as if they might be true to the original
design. There is another fine old church, which we were
too late to get into, and at least one other conspicuous
church, apparently later, which we only saw in the distance.
Hotel de la Cloche d'Or et du Palais Royal Reunis, fairly
old-fashioned, close to the Cathedral.
23 June. — Went again to the Cathedral, which contains
also several very fine sepulchral slabs ; most of them how-
ever being only portions of the original full-length figures.
Similar, but less in number, in the other old Church, which
is named St Alpin, and contains a good quantity of 16th-
century glass, some of it almost colourless, being large
figure-compositions drawn in light brown, and with a little
yellow tinting. Various pictures, of which two or three
are reasonable 16th-century works: the best is dated 1551,
" Authore Perot Colet-Michel " (if I read it right)— a some-
what Michelangelesque Christ as Man of Sorrows bearing
I
130 ROSSETTI PAPERS
the reed, with the Donor and Donoress small, kneeling at
the two sides, with the motto —
O vrai Redempteur des humains
Qui pour nous souffris passion,
Je te requiers a jointes mains
De mes peches remission.
The expression and treatment are very quiet and pathetic,
and in the kneeling figures portrait-like. The third church
which we saw last night appears to form part of the build-
ings of the College, and seems not to have any details
of importance. Went on to Paris, through a country less
flat and monotonous than I had supposed Champagne to be.
The vineyards are generally or always on ranges of lowish
rounded hills, which one sees on both hands for the greater
part of the way, some growing lower than I remember them
anywhere else, and none of them high. Passed Varennes,
where Louis XVI. was stopped in his escape, and Meaux.
Returned to the H6tel de Normandie in Paris. . . .
24 June. — Went to the Japanese shop, 7 Boulevard des
Capucines, and bought a fair number of the small engrav-
ings on crape of which Whistler had a selection, but some
of his best were not now to be had. The shopkeeper, who
seems passably well-informed on the subject, says that a
European, even were he to go to Japan, could not learn
the process of colour-printing etc. etc. : all these matters
are done in the City of the Mikado, and jealously guarded
as secrets with which the Tycoon himself must not meddle.
Hokusai's series consists of 30 parts, and no one in Europe
yet possesses a perfect copy ; Tissot (I think) comes nearest,
having 25. Hokusai died some hundred years ago (Madame
Dessoye said forty *).... Entered St Eustache, and saw the
earlier portion of a wedding. To the Jardin des Plantes,
which we began exploring somewhat systematically in the
animal section ; but, after looking at a fair number of
animals, some rain came on, and a severe storm seemed
to threaten (though it came to nothing after all), and we
* The correct date, I understand, was 1849.
DANTE ROSSETTI, 1865 131
left. To the Hotel de Cluny, of which I looked deliberately
through about two-thirds. The series of tapestries, circa
1520, of David and Bathshcba, are most magnificent and
admirable, not far from unrivalled ; and, in an upper room,
still more beautiful though not quite so superb, a set of
figures (I suppose mainly emblematic) on blue flowered
etc. grounds with many birds, some twenty or thirty years
earlier. Of the pictures, about the best is a small Giottesque
one, two in one brace, dated 1408, of The Agony in the
Garden, and The Maries at the Empty Sepulchre. Entered
for the first time the two Gothic churches in the Rue St
Martin — St Merri, and St Nicolas aux Champs — both
handsome well-built churches, without having anything
very memorable, but some fair pictures of both the older
and the neo-Catholic French schools.
25 June. — To Notre Dame, where service was going on.
The brand-newness of this once glorious building is something
fearful to see and think of. Every chapel is gutted, rasped,
and set going anew in a mechanical style ; all pictures, old
altar-furniture, etc., removed ; all the glass new, and not
even so good as the best modern. I see nothing worth
speaking of that looks tolerably unchanged, save the
sculpture-series on the two sides of the choir, and a Gothic
fresco of The Virgin and Child, with Denis and another
Saint, and even these are not untouched. Outside, the
right-hand portal similar ; all the rest renewed, and I
suppose this too will follow. . . .
26 June. — Returned home by the Dieppe and Newhaven
route : day dullish, but a decidedly smooth passage, the
whole travelling not occupying more than about twelve
hours.
87. — DANTE ROSSETTI to MADOX BROWN, Grove
Terrace, Highgate Road.
[The picture in which " doggie is jealous " is the one
termed The Infant's RepastJ]
132 ROSSETTI PAPERS
1 6 CHEYNE WALK, CHELSEA.
10 June 1865.
rMy dear Brown, — The enquiring mind in question was
not Craven (much less "Clayton") but Mitchell of Brad-
i ford, for whom I am doing the Venus. He was at mine
yesterday, and expressed an intention of calling on you
to-day. There had been some talk between him and me
of his calling on you, once before when he was in town.
He dwelt yesterday with peculiar satisfaction on that
ancient production of yours in which " doggie is jealous " ;
so I suppose a commission of that kind is the pleasurable
result most likely to attend his visit. If I had known you
had on hand the one you speak of, I would have smiled
sardonically on his mentioning the other, and said that
mad indeed must be the man who could not pick out at
a glance the gem of the exhibition etc. I did try-on
the Chaucer, but he seemed to prefer doggie.
I thought of writing you yesterday of his probable
visit, but shrank before the recollection of one or two false
alarms of the kind. The fact is, my dear fellow, the mad
distance at which you choose to live is probably £1000
out of your pocket every year.
I suppose you will be this way sometimes in winding
up your Piccadilly affairs. Look in, do. — Your
D. G. R.
88.— JOHN RUSKIN to DANTE ROSSETTI.
[I have to guess at the date and some other particulars
Aof this letter. " Lizzie " must mean a portrait of Lizzie—
Lperhaps the one named Regina Cordium. Butterworth was
^the distinguished architect. " My Dante's Boat " appears
/ to be the subject (from a celebrated sonnet by Dante) of
\ the poet, with Beatrice and friends male and female,
taking a pleasure-trip in a boat. Rossetti, it seems, was
JOHN RUSKIN, 1865 133
to paint this for Ruskin, as an equivalent for certain
money advanced. One must suppose that, in this relation,
the painting would be a water-colour of ordinary dimen-
sions. I am satisfied that the subject was never painted >.
in that form. My Brother made an oil-monochrome of it '
on a large scale, and intended to carry it out in full colour,
but never did so : his name for the subject was The Boat v
of Love. The monochrome is now in the Public Gallery^
of Birmingham.]
DENMARK HILL.
[1865.]
My dear Rossetti, — What a goose you are to go about
listening to people's gossip about me ! I have never parted
with any of your drawings but the Francesco,. I leave the"^
Golden Water and Passover at a Girls' School because I go
there often, and enjoy them more than if they were
hanging up here — because here I dwell on their faults of
perspective and such-like. Am I so mean in money- j
matters that I should sell Lizzie? You ought to
painted her better, and known me better. I'll give you
her back any day that you're a good boy, but it will be a
long while before that comes to pass.
You scratched the eyes out of my Launcelot, and I
gave that to Butterworth — that was not my fault. If you
could do my Dante's Boat for me instead of money, I
should like it — but I don't believe you can. So do as
you like when you like. — Ever yours affectionately,
J. RUSKIN.
89.— JOHN RUSKIN to DANTE ROSSETTI.
[This letter (or the preceding one) marks the com-
mencement of the unfortunate estrangement between
Ruskin and Rossetti. I say estrangement, because, though
a large residuum of mutual affection and regard remained,
134 ROSSETTI PAPERS
they from this time forward almost ceased to seek oppor-
tunities for seeing one another. Ruskin had now seen,
and (as he says) " disliked," the picture which Rossetti
was painting ; properly termed Venus Verticordia, though
V Ruskin calls it " Flora." One might surmise that Rossetti
Hid not quite like this misnomer, as indicating that his
censor did not care to understand what the picture was
^really about Millais's picture, which he mentions in the
same connexion, The Romans leaving Britain, was exhibited
in 1865. I am not certain what is the proper name for
"the golden girl with black guitar."]
DENMARK HILL.
[1865.]
Dear Rossetti, — It is all right — do not come till you
are quite happy in coming — but do not think / am
changed. I like your old work as much as ever. I
framed (only the other day) the golden girl with black
guitar — and I admire all the old water-colours just as
much as when they were first done. I admire Titian and
Tintoret — and Angelico — just as I used to do, and for the
same reasons. The change in you may be right — or
towards right — but it is in you — not in me. It may not
be change, but only the coming-out of a new element.
But Millais might as well say I was changed because I
detest the mode of painting the background and ground
•in his Roman soldier, while I praised and still praise
\Mariana and the Huguenot \ as you say that / was changed
j because I praised the cart-and-bridge picture and dislike
[the Flora.
It is true that I am now wholly intolerant of what I
once forgivingly disliked — bad perspective and such-like —
for I look upon them as moral insolences and iniquities
in any painter of average power ; but I am only more
intensely now what I always was (since you knew me),
and am more intensely, in spite of perspective indignation.
—Yours affectionately,
J. RUSKIN.
JOHN RUSKIN, 1865
135
90.— JOHN RUSKIN to DANTE ROSSETTI.
DENMARK HILL.
[1865.]
My dear Rossetti, — It is very good and pretty of you
to answer so. I have little time this morning, but will
inswer at once so far as regards what you say you wish
me to tell you.
There are two methods of laying oil-colour which can
be proved right, each for its purposes — Van Eyck's (or
Holbein's) and Titian's (or Correggio's) : one of them
involving no display of power of hand, the other in-
volving it essentially and as an element of its beauty.
Which of these styles you adopt I do not care. I
supposed, in old times, you were going to try to paint
like that Van Eyck in the National Gallery with the man
and woman and mirror. If you say, " No — I mean rather
to paint like Correggio" — by all means, so much the
better — but you are not on the way to Correggio. And
you are, it seems, under the (for the present) fatal mis-
take of thinking that you will ever learn to paint well
by painting badly, i.e., coarsely.
At present you lay your colour ill, and you will only
learn, by doing so, to lay it worse. No great painter ever
allowed himself, in the smallest touch, to paint ill, i.e., to
daub or smear his paint. What he could not paint easily
he would not paint at all — and gained gradual power by
never in the smallest thing doing wrong.
1. You may say you like coarse painting better than
Correggio's, and that it is righter. To this I should make
no answer — knowing answer to be vain.
2. If you say you do not see the difference, again I
only answer — I am sorry. Nothing more is to be said.
3. If you say, " I see the difference and mean to do
better, and am on the way to do better," I answer I know
you are not on the way to do better, and I cannot bear
136 ROSSETTI PAPERS
the pain of seeing you at work as you are working now.
But come back to me when you have found out your
mistake — or (if you are right in your method) when you
can do better.
All this refers only to laying of paint.
r- I have two distinct other counts against you : your
(method of study of chiaroscuro; and your permission of
•jnodification of minor truths for sensational purposes.
I will see what you say to this first count before I
pass to the others.
I am very glad, at all events, to understand you better
than I did, in the grace and sweetness of your letters. —
Ever affectionately yours,
J. RUSKIN.
91. — JOHN RUSKIN to DANTE ROSSETTI.
[It would appear that, between the dates of Ruskin's
last letter and of this one, Rossetti must have reminded
/Tiim by letter that he had, at some previous date, said by
{ word of mouth that the flowers (roses and honeysuckles)
in the Venus Verticordia were "wonderfully" painted.
After replying on this point Ruskin proceeds to make
[some rather strong observations. The person whom he
calls "a mere blackguard" was the highly-reputed photo-
grapher Mr Downey, who took about this time some
photographs of Rossetti. In one of these Ruskin posed
along with Rossetti : but the photograph which he terms
"a visible libel" was (I take it) a different one, repre-
senting Ruskin (alone) seated, and leaning on a walking-
stick. It went all over the country at the time ; and (if
I may trust my own opinion) was a good though not an
advantageous likeness.]
DENMARK HILL.
[1865.]
Dear Rossetti, — You know exactly as much about
Correggio as I knew in the year 1845, and feel exactly
JOHN RUSKIN, 1865 137
as I did then. I can't give you the results of twenty
years' work upon him in a letter, so I say no more.
I purposely joined him with Titian to poke you up. «
I purposely used the word " wonderfully " painted about
those flowers. They were wonderful to me, in their
realism ; awful — I can use no other word — in their coarse-
ness: showing enormous power; showing certain conditions
of non - sentiment which underlie all you are doing — j
now. . . .
You take upon you, for your own interest, to judge
to whom I should and should not give or lend your draw-
ings. In your interest only — and judging from no other
person's sayings, but from my own sight — I tell you the
people you associate with are ruining you. But remember
I have personally some right to say this — for the entirely
blameable introduction you gave to a mere blackguard, to
me, has been the cause of such a visible libel upon me
going about England as I hold worse than all the scandals
and lies ever uttered about me. But, if there is anything
in my saying this which you feel either cruel or insolent,
again I ask your pardon.
Come and see me now, if you like. I have said all I
wish to say, and can be open — which is all I need for my
comfort. I have many things here you might like to see
and talk over. — Ever affectionately yours,
J. RUSK IN.
92.— JOHN RUSKIN to DANTE ROSSETTI.
DENMARK HILL.
[1865.]
Dear Rossetti, — I am also very thankful these letters
have been written — we shall both care more for each other.
Please come now the first fine evening — tea at seven. I
will stay in till you do come, so you will be sure of me.
Before I see you, let me at once put an end to your
138 ROSSETTI PAPERS
calling me, whatever you may think (much more, any
supposing that I think myself), a "great man." It is just
because I honestly know I am not that I speak so posi-
tively on other known things. I entirely scorn all my own
capacities, except the sense of visible beauty, which is a
useful gift — not a "greatness." But I have worked at cer-
tain things which I know that I know, as I do spelling.
I never said you were not in a position and at an
age to know more of Correggio than I did in '45. I said
simply you did know no more of him. But your practice
of painting in a different manner has been dead against
you — it is much to allow for you that you know as much
of him as I did then. You hardly do, for I then knew
something of his glorious system of fresco-colour — which
you very visibly do not; and had gathered a series of
data and notes at the risk of my life on the rotten tiles
of the Parma dome, with a view of "writing Correggio
down." It was one of the few pieces of Providence I am
thankful for in my past life that I did not then write a
separate book against Correggio. I know exactly how
you feel to him, and would no more dispute about it than
I would with Gainsborough for knowing nothing about
Albert Durer, or saying he, A.D., drew nothing but women
with big bellies.
But we won't have rows ; and, when you come, we'll
look at things that we both like. You shall bar Parma,
and I, Japan ; and we'll look at Titian, John Bellini, Albert
Durer, and Edward Jones ; and I'll say no more about
the red-eyed man and the phot[ograph]s. — Ever your
affectionate
J. RUSKIN.
93. — DANTE ROSSETTI to MADOX BROWN.
[The picture by Brown bought in at £550 was the
large painting named Work. By Rossetti there were five
DANTE ROSSETTI, 1865 139
specimens in the Flint sale. Only one, Burd-alane, was an
oil-picture, and to this he appears to refer.]
16 CHEYNE WALK, CHELSEA.
[26 June 1865.]
My dear Brown, — I have been very anxious about your
affairs since seeing you. . . .
Gambart was here just now, and it seems things were
desperate indeed at the Flint Sale. Brett's £420 Chepstow
Castle fetched £20 ; Wallis's Marston Moor came down
from £250 to ^60; and Hughes's Belle Dame from the
same to ^"30. So your being bought in at £$$o, and my
£84 picture fetching £71, were the triumphs of the sale.
It seems Gambart has bought all the above except yours
and mine. He went to 70, he says, for mine, but some
one else bid 71. He sent an agent to buy the lot, and
evidently rather chuckles, the Flint people having become
"betes noires" with him. Indeed, I dare say the unlucky
issue has been partly of his managing.
Let me hear from you. — Ever your
D. G. R.
94.— DANTE ROSSETTI to MADOX BROWN.
[Rossetti's water-colours Nos. I, 2, and 3, are (I sup-
pose) Hesterna Rosa, Aurora, and Washing Hands. I have
no clear idea as to the two water-colours by Brown here
in question ; possibly Elijah and the Widow's Son (now in
South Kensington) may have been one of them. "The
Opera-box design" was presumably a pretty little water-
colour of Mrs Madox Brown in an opera-box. It was
named At the Opera, or Les Huguenots ; and remained in
Brown's possession (intentionally retained, it may be, as
a family-portrait) up to his death. — Rossetti's P.S. was —
it will be perceived — disregarded by Brown : neither of
the men was punctilious in that respect.]
110 ROSSETTI PAPERS
1 6 CHEYNE WALK, CHELSEA.
28 June 1865.
My dear Brown, — I was much relieved by some of the
contents of your letter, which I have destroyed.
To give you some data about Craven, I will tell you
my transactions with him.
(1) An extremely careful drawing with five figures
(about 10 by 15 inches I should think) for which, by pre-
vious agreement, I charged him 125 guineas, but let him
understand thoroughly that the price would have been
higher but for the engagement.
(2) A drawing, 17 x 14^, of a woman (half-figure), less
finished, for which he paid me 100 guineas.
(3) A drawing just begun as companion to the above,
same size, but which I shall do throughout from nature
and which has two figures. For this I shall charge 150
guineas.
(4) A commission for a large drawing not yet begun
nor price fixed.
For No. I I received the price only after it was
finished !
For No. 2 the whole price, by request, a day or two
before sending it home.
For No. 3 I have received on commencement ^50 on
account.
For No. 4 nothing as yet ! ! !
Craven is a very good paymaster and not a haggler at
all — a grave, and (let us say in a whisper) rather stupid,
enthusiast, of the inarticulate business-type, with a mystic
reverence for the English Water-colour school, D. Cox,
Hunt, etc. Besides this, I think a thoroughly good fellow.
Not a very rich man, I should fancy.
I think on the whole your best plan will be to ask for
this drawing the same as for the other, viz.: 120 guineas,
or say perhaps 125. Though with fewer figures than the
one proposed, it is larger (is it not?) and moreover a new
thing instead of a duplicate. My i5O-guinea one has two
JOHN RUSKIN, 1865 141
figures. Couldn't you work up the Opera-box design ? . . .
— Ever yours,
D. G. R.
. J\S. — Please burn this after use.
95. — JOHN RUSKIN to DANTE ROSSETTI.
[This remarkable letter brought to a close the inter-
change of views which had just now been going on between
Ruskin and Rossetti : from this time forward they met
hardly at all, and corresponded but very little. The letter^
bore at first a date of the day of the month — seemingly
18: but this was cancelled by the writer and a ? substi-
tuted. Towards the middle of the letter Mr Ruskin speaks
of "this affair of the drawings." I understand him to
mean the question which Rossetti had raised as to the
mode (see No. 88) in which Ruskin disposed of some of
Rossetti's old water-colours; or perhaps the point is the
preceding suggestion that Rossetti might paint The Boat
of Love, followed, as it probably was, by some demur on the
artist's part, or else the point at the top of p. 143. — I am not
wholly sure which was the "last picture" of a different
painter of which Ruskin entertained so bad an opinion.
I give the initial G, but this is not correct].
DENMARK HILL.
? July 1865.
My dear Rossetti, — I am very grateful to you for this
letter, and for the feelings it expresses towards me. I was
not angry, and there was nothing in your note that
needed your asking my pardon. You meant them — the
first and second — just as rightly as this pretty third : and
yet they conclusively showed me that we could not at
present, nor for some time yet, be companions any more,
though true friends, I hope, as ever.
I am grateful for your love — but yet I do not want
142 ROSSETTI PAPERS
love. I have had boundless love from many people during
my life. And in more than one case that love has been
my greatest calamity — I have boundlessly suffered from it.
But the thing, in any helpful degree, I have never been
able to get, except from two women of whom I never see
the only one I care for, and from Edward Jones, is
" understanding."
I am nearly sick of being loved — as of being hated —
for my lovers understand me as little as my haters. I had
rather in fact be disliked by a man who somewhat under-
stood me than much loved by a man who understood
nothing of me.
Now I am at present out of health and irritable, and
entirely resolved to make myself as comfortable as I can,
and therefore to associate only with people who in some
degree think of me as I think of myself. I may be wrong
in saying I am this or that — but at present I can only
live or speak with people who agree with me that I am
this or that. And there are some things which I know I
know or can do, just as well as a man knows he can ride
or swim, or knows the facts of such and such a science.
Now there are many things in which I always have
acknowledged and shall acknowledge your superiority to
me. I know it — as well as I know that St Paul's is higher
than I am. There are other things in which I just as
simply know that / am superior to you.
Now in old times I did not care two straws whether
you knew or acknowledged in what I was superior to you,
or not. I don't mean in writing. You write, as you paint,
better than I. I could never have written a stanza like
you. But now (being, as I say, irritable and ill) I do care,
and I will associate with no man who does not more or
less accept my own estimate of myself. For instance,
Brett told me, a year ago, that a statement of mine
respecting a scientific matter (which I knew a fond before
he was born) was "bosh." I told him in return he was a
fool ; he left the house, and I will not see him again
"until he is wiser."
JOHN RUSKIN, 1865 143
Now you in the same manner tell me "the faults in
your drawings are not greater than those I put up with
in what is about me," and that one of my assistants is a
" mistakenly transplanted carpenter." And I answer — not
that you are a fool, because no man is that who can design
as you can — but simply that you know nothing of me, nor
of my knowledge — nor of my thoughts — nor of the sort of
grasp of things I have in directions in which you are
utterly powerless ; and that I do not choose any more to
talk to you until you can recognize my superiorities as /
can yours.
And this recognition, observe, is not a matter of will or
courtesy. You simply do not see certain characters in me,
and cannot see them : still less could you (or should I ask
you to) pretend to see them. A day may come when you
will be able. Then — without apology — without restraint —
merely as being different from what you are now — come
back to me, and we will be as we used to be. It is not
this affair of the drawings — not this sentence — but the
ways and thoughts I have seen in you ever since I knew
you, coupled with this change of health in myself, which
render this necessary — complicated also by a change in
your own methods of work with which I have no sympathy,
and which renders it impossible for me to give you the
kind of praise which would give you pleasure.
There are some things in which I know your present
work to be wrong : others in which I strongly feel it so.
I cannot conquer the feeling, though I do not allege that
as a proof of the wrongness. The points of knowledge I
could not establish to you, any more than I could teach
you mineralogy or botany, without some hard work on
your part, in directions in which it is little likely you will
ever give it. It is of course useless for me, under such
circumstances, to talk to you.
The one essential thing is that you should feel (and
you will do me a bitter injustice if you do not feel this)
that, though you cannot now refer to me as in any way
helpful to you by expression of judgment to the public,
144 ROSSETTI PAPERS
my inability is no result of any offence taken with you.
I would give much to see you doing as you have done —
and to be able to say what I once said.
With respect to G., the relation between us is far more
hopeless. His last picture is to me such an accursed and
entirely damnable piece of work that I believe I have
been from the beginning wrong in attributing any essential
painter's power to him whatever, and that the high imita-
tive results he used to obtain were merely accidental
consequences of a slavish industry and intensely ambitious
conscientiousness. I think so ill of it that I cannot write
a word to him — though otherwise I should have felt it my
duty to warn himy before I spoke to others. I cannot, of
course, allow such work to pass as representing what I
used to praise, but I speak of it, as I do at present of
yours, as little as I can. For you, there is all probability
of recovery : of him I am hopeless. — Ever affectionately
yours,
J. RUSKIN.
96.— DANTE ROSSETTI to WALTER DUNLOP, Bingley.
f [Mr John Aldam Heaton was an acquaintance of Mr
Dunlop, and had been in some way mixed up in the
starting of the commission offered by the latter to Rossetti
hn 1 864 for The Magdalene at the Door of Simon the Pharisee.
As Rossetti did not relish a letter which he had recently
received from Mr Dunlop, he appears to have submitted
li,t to Mr Heaton. I possess the letter in question from
]y[r Dunlop, and other letters from him, and also from
Mr John Heugh, who was concerned in correspondence
of a similar kind. Naturally I have no authority from
these gentlemen or their representatives to print the letters,
and so I leave them sub silentio. Rossetti resented them ;
and I will take it upon me to say that other people in his
position would have resented them as well. Mr Heaton,
DANTE ROSSETTI, 1865 145
in replying to my Brother, enclosed a letter, of his com-
position, which he advised Rossetti to adopt and forward
to Mr Dunlop. Rossetti did so, making (so far as I can
judge) no change of any importance : this forms the letter
signed by my Brother, next ensuing.]
[CHEYNE WALK.
1865—? 7 August.}
Sir, — I am at a loss to comprehend the full meaning!
of your letter. If a long time has elapsed since the subject of
your commission to me was last discussed, I would suggest
that the delay lies entirely at your door. You gave me,
after considerable correspondence and more than one lengthy
interview, a definite commission for a picture at £2100, and
how so important a matter could escape your memory even
for a single week is quite a puzzle to me.
You yourself mentioned more than once (both by word
and by letter dated 2Oth May 1864) that you would wish
to make me certain prepayments on account, in order that
I might feel fully at liberty to give my whole attention to
so serious a work ; and it is only this one item, out of all
the details of the commission, which remains undecided :
and the indecision is entirely your own. ... I beg to
suggest that this business between you and me is as impor-
tant and demands attention as much as any other. . . .
If you wish the commission to be cancelled, the onus of
such a proposition lies with you : and, as I am credibly
informed that you have been a buyer quite recently of a
large and costly picture, I cannot leave the consideration
of my picture to the chance of a call which, judging from
the experience of the past season, might be indefinitely
procrastinated. Begging your immediate attention, — I am ;
yours,
DANTE G. ROSSETTI.
K
146 ROSSETTI PAPERS
97. — DANTE ROSSETTI to MADOX BROWN.
[" The infernal drawing" may, I think, have been Washing
Hands : see No. 94.]
16 CHEYNE WALK, CHELSEA.
8 August [1865].
My dear Brown, — I'm afraid I'm surprising you by the
non-return of that ;£io. The fact is, the infernal drawing
has stuck to me till now, and I shall not get it away till
the end of this week. I shall have to ask a much higher
price. I make no doubt (I trust) of sending you the tin
by next week, and hope I am not inconveniencing you.
I must come one day and see what you are doing.
Under the auspices of Heaton, who dictates letters for the
purpose, I am stirring up the demon Dunlop, who shows
a new horn, hoof, tusk, or tail, at every new step of the
correspondence. H[eaton] advises me to go to law with
him, but I don't think I shall. — Ever yours,
D. G. ROSSETTI.
98.— DANTE ROSSETTI to WALTER DUNLOP.
[16 CHEYNE WALK.]
P_ 21 August 1865.
Sir, — I exceedingly regret that, so far, no reply has come
to my letter of a fortnight ago, which would seem to have
demanded a very prompt reply.
You must surely feel that, if you now ignore, without
motive or apology, a commission originated entirely by your-
self, and for which I was induced to detail to you important
projects of work, such conduct would be ungenerous as well as
unjust ; and would moreover place me (quite apart from the
question of interest) in a ridiculous position which I could
not possibly accept.
DANTE ROSSETTI, 1865 147
If a letter such as my last, written in a quiet and dis-
passionate tone, upon a matter of business, cannot command
attention, one seems cut off from any friendly discussion of
the subject in hand ; and, though I am as averse as it is
possible to be from any other mode of procedure, of course
the time must come, in the continued absence of your reply,
when another course becomes unavoidable.
Trusting that no such time may arrive, — I am yours
etc. J
D. G. R.
99. — DANTE ROSSETTI to JOHN HEUGH,
Tunbridge Wells.
[While the unsatisfactory correspondence with Mr Dunlop
was going on, another correspondence, with a friend of his,
Mr Heugh, began. This proved as irritating and as useless
as the other.]
16 CHEYNE WALK, CHELSEA.
i September 1865.
Dear Sir, — I am now taking up again the water-colour
drawing of Socrates taught to dance by Aspasia, being one of
the two which you commissioned from me last year. As
it will shortly be finished, will you kindly let me know
whether, on its completion, it should be sent to the same
address as this letter, or to any other. — Yours faithfully,
D. G. ROSSETTI.
100. — DANTE ROSSETTI to JOHN HEUGH.
16 CHEYNE WALK, CHELSEA.
14 September 1865.
Sir, — The elaborate incivility of your letter is as astonish-
ing as it is unprovoked, and more cannot be said. As it
H8 ROSSETTI PAPERS
seems, however, intended to indicate vaguely some attempt
of mine to over-reach you in some way, I may as well be
explicit in my answer, though I cannot manage to harangue
you so glibly in the third person.
-^ In a very civil letter of yours, dated I4th July 1864, you
I ""Say : " The two water-colour drawings I shall be happy to
have on the terms you mention in your note." These were
i the Socrates, and a sacred subject not specified. Of my note,
^alluded to by you above, I kept no copy, never having been
led till lately to think such caution necessary ; but, if
anything was said, by you or me, as to time of delivery for
either drawing, by word or by writing, I am more mistaken
than my good memory is wont to be. No doubt I said that
the Socrates could be soon finished, meaning (and probably
expressing) that, ivhen I took it in hand again, it would not
take long to complete. That when to be, of course, when
other work permitted me to do so with satisfaction to myself
and without hurry. The work would be sure to gain by this,
and consequently the purchaser also. I have done since, at
different pauses from larger works, several water-colours
requiring less study than the Socrates ; and certainly this
might have been taken up and rapidly executed at any one
of the moments alluded to, sometimes more profitably in
a money-sense than what I did do. I have always thought
of it at such times ; but have always refrained from then
resuming it, from a wish to do my best for you at a more
favourable moment. I am thus explicit in justice to myself,
in case the only probable explanation of the delay should
really have failed to occur to you.
Your note of admiration (!), on the enormity of my
neither writing to you since nor resuming the drawing till
now, is certainly provocative of a smile. I assure you my
time is fully and importantly occupied, and there could be
nothing to write about till I could announce the approaching
completion of one of the two drawings.
When you commissioned these drawings, I naturally
supposed you did so because you liked and wished to possess
my work, in which case the delay of a year could not well
DANTE ROSSETTI, 1865 149
Iter such feeling. You could .scarcely have supposed that
all other work would be at once postponed to this for you ;
nor can you surely imagine that, should I now choose to
relinquish these distinct commissions from a repugnance to
working for a capricious and uncivil person, my work will
therefore go a-begging ; though the foolish judicial tone of
your letter would seem to indicate a notion that you can
do much as you like with me.
I fear I now find that you sought, of your own accord,
an introduction to one not your inferior in any way except
so far as your money can make him so (which it cannot,
cither socially or mentally), and for whose powers you
professed esteem — with no intention to consider his interests
or feelings further than as your money (so you thought)
gave your caprice the power to do so or not to do so.
If this be thus, I am sorry, not for myself, to whom no
conduct founded on such views can matter, and to whom
its results in this instance are fortunately unimportant ; but
only for your years which have brought you neither right
judgment nor good taste.
D. G. ROSSETTI.
loi.— DANTE ROSSETTI to JOHN HEUGH.
16 CHEYNE WALK, CHELSEA.
1 8 September 1865.
Sir, — There is nothing of a kind to .surprise me in your
present letter ; for not a word of it is true.
Enough for me that, in spite of your solemn tone, you
know as well as I do that you are untruthful.
D. G. ROSSETTI.
150 ROSSETTI PAPERS
102. — DANTE ROSSETTI to WALTER DUNLOP.
[This letter, undated, is extant in Rossetti's hand-
writing. I am not quite clear whether it was sent off or not.
It may however have been sent off, so as to dispose of a note
from Mr Dunlop dated 4th August, prior to the further
action taken by my Brother, as shown in his letters of 2ist
September to Mr Heaton, and of pth November to Mr
Dunlop.]
1 6 CHEYNE WALK, CHELSEA.
[? September 1865.]
Dear Sir, — Knowing that the commission I received
from you was a definite one, I was surprised some time ago
when you so soon ceased to answer necessary letters. How-
ever, I thought you might mean to call when in town, as
a readier course ; but you have now explained yourself
to me.
I have never thought it necessary to be on my guard
towards those who have wished to possess my works, as
their spontaneous wish did not seem likely to be followed by
any but gentlemanly conduct ; and I have always met with
such till now. In your opposite case, be sure I have no
thought of continuing the relation, or of allowing you to
do so. So do not come here again, — if indeed your express-
ing the intention can show that you entertain it. — Yours,
D. G. ROSSETTI.
103.— DANTE ROSSETTI to ALDAM HEATON.
[This must have been drawn up to figure as an osten-
sible business-letter ; for it enters into some particulars of
which Mr Heaton was already perfectly well aware : see
No. 96.]
DANTE ROSSETTI, 1865 151
16 CHEYNE WALK, CHELSEA.
21 September 1865.
My dear Heaton, — It is now more than a year since
the correspondence in which you were kindly involved
between me and Mr Dunlop respecting his commission to
me for the picture of the Ship of Love came to a stand-
still, owing to his steadily ignoring my letters on the
subject of the stipulated preliminaries ; although he had
agreed to these with alacrity, and asserted his own pre-
ference for such arrangement, at the outset.
Since then, as you may have gathered, I had let the
matter rest for a considerable while, not having leisure to
give any more attention at the time to so dogged a
recusant, and still thinking that he might be intending to
call for apology and renewal of the subject, when in town
during the Exhibition-months. Finding however that he
never did so, I wrote him a short note at the beginning
of August last, asking him again what he proposed to do
in the matter. To this he gave a reply of the most
evasive kind, saying that the matter had almost escaped
his memory through press of more important things ; that
in fact he had ceased to think of it; but that he would
call when an opportunity occurred to see what I was
" doing or projecting." To this surprising note I answered
temperately, putting his duty in the case before him ; and
since then, receiving no reply, have written him two or
three further letters, all hitherto unanswered. The last
must have been about a fortnight ago ; and in it I told
him that, in the event of his continued silence, my only
possible recourse (though of an inexpressibly distasteful
kind) would be to law (I had already proposed arbitration
by friends ;) but that, before taking such a step, I should
be compelled to lay the details of the matter before you,
as in the event of such proceedings I should have unavoid-
ably to call you as a witness. Thus I am now obliged to
write to you.
I need not comment on the nature of Mr D[unlop]'s
conduct in this matter, as I feel sure you will see it as
152 ROSSETTI PAPERS
strongly as I do. Nevertheless it is most unwillingly that
I renew the subject to you with a direct request for
friendly offices and a possible prospect of its giving you
still further trouble ; but to do so seemed the only remain-
ing chance of avoiding such necessity, as a communication
from you might possibly still bring him to a sense of his
true position in the matter. I am determined not to give
his unworthy tactics the advantage of tiring me out.
p- However, this is not all. You will remember that Mr
Heugh, at the same time with Mr Dunlop, commissioned
me also for work ; viz., for two water-colour drawings, one
of a subject of Socrates taught to dance by Aspasia, which
he saw begun, and the other to be a scriptural subject not
/specified. At the beginning of the present month I wrote
to him saying that I was now resuming the Socrates,
which would soon be finished, and asking him to what
address it should then be sent. I send you his incredibly
aggressive reply after a fortnight ; to which I rejoined, not
violently, I assure you, though of course with befitting
severity on such conduct. My rejoinder produced a second
letter, which I also send you, and have answered as was
right. You will see that in this last letter he makes use
of your name in a sense for which I am sure you will not
thank him.
I send you Heugh's letters because they are at hand.
Dunlop's of last and this year I have also.
These people's conduct in getting introduced to me,
apparently now only for the purpose of insulting and
injuring me, is not merely unjustifiable but quite inexplic-
able. I can make nothing of it, so must lay the subject
before you, with due apology for troubling you about it,
and with a request for your suggestions. — Ever sincerely
yours,
D. G, ROSSETTI,
WILLIAM ROSSETTI, 1865 153
104. — DANTE ROSSETTI to WALTER DUNLOP.
16 CHEYNE WALK, CHELSEA.
9 November 1865.
Sir, — My letters to you a short time ago were written
purely as a duty to myself, and that certainly not an agree-
able one.
However, the scale of several commissions I have just
now received, as well as the prices which some of my late
pictures have brought in the market, are so much beyond
the rate at which I had agreed to paint the Ship of Love for
you that, had you not proved a recusant to your bargain, I
should now have found myself very seriously a loser by
fulfilling it.
It is therefore needless to say that it cannot now be worth
my while, in order to keep you to your word by law, to
bestow time which is more valuable even in a money-sense
than the success of such suit could make it ; not to speak of
the higher ground on which my time should be devoted to
my work only.
I know that there are those who applaud themselves when
misconduct bears them no worse fruit than the expression of
deserved contempt. To such species of success I make you
welcome.
D. G. ROSSETTI.
105.— WILLIAM ROSSETTI— A SPIRITUAL (?) SEANCE
(No. i).
[I never paid much attention to what is called Spirit-
ualism ; and have a general impression that — whatever
may be the amount of truth in it, or the amount of imposture
— any great addiction to its phenomena tends to weaken
rather than fortify the mind. Still I saw something of
spiritualism. The first instance of any importance seems to
have been the one which is here recorded ; and after this
ir.l ROSSETTI PAPERS
date I continued recording any other instances to which I
was a party. I sometimes speak of a " spirit " ; but this word
is used by me only as a convenient laconism, as I never
committed myself to any definite belief in the professed
spiritual origin of what transpired. My account goes on
to 1 4th August 1868, and includes twenty stances — mostly in
private, and without any professional or recognized medium.
After August 1868 I seem to have seen little or nothing
of these manifestations : at any rate, I kept no further record.
I shall give in the sequel three other notices, besides the
one immediately ensuing. — Captain Ruxton has been men-
tioned by me elsewhere : he was a gentleman of refinement
and intelligence, rather disposed perhaps to a belief in the
marvellous, but (I should say) far from being a perfectly
easy man to dupe. — The late John Cross, the artist who
painted the fine picture in the Houses of Parliament, The
Deathbed of Richard Cceur de Lion, has also been mentioned
elsewhere.]
Saturday, n November 1865. (Recorded 15 November). —
Ruxton, with whom I lunched, enquired whether I would
like him and me to go together to Mrs Marshall, the washer-
woman medium, late of Holborn, now at 7 Bristol Gardens,
Maida Hill. I agreed, and, within some ij hour thereafter,
we went, arriving towards 4j. No previous arrangement,
as far as I know or believe : my name not asked, nor any
other questions. I had never before seen Mrs M[arshall]
or the others of her party. When we entered (first-floor
room) there were present Mrs Marshall, Mrs Marshall junior,
a third woman, Marshall, and (either now or afterwards, but
only for a very short while altogether) a girl some ten years
of age. Mrs M[arshall] junior and the third woman were
laughing boisterously over (as they told us) the way in which
Mrs Mfarshall] junior's hand followed this third woman
about, as under magnetic attraction. Rfuxton] and I at
once sat down, ready to begin. The third woman left. The
table was a round one, of considerable size and heavyish
make. Room lighted artificially just as fully as any ordinary
WILLIAM ROSSETTI, 1865 155
sitting-room. R[uxton] took a stamped alphabet, and a
pencil to touch the letters. Mrs Mfarshall] and Mrs
Mfarshall] junior, and for the first two or three questions only
the little girl, at the table, with hands on (Mrs M[arshall]
one hand only) : M[arshall] was mostly about the room, but
away from the table.
R\uxton~\. — Is there any spirit present ? — Yes. — One who
would communicate with me? — No. — With this other gentle-
man?— Yes. — The answers were very generally given by
immediate decisive raps, which mostly sounded to me as on
underside of the table. Now and then there were tilts and
movements of the table, which at least twice rose entirely
off the ground, and returned thereto at once : on one of these
occasions I was looking under the table, but saw no physical
or mechanical motive power. I now took the alphabet and
pencil, and R[uxton] wrote down the answers.
Myself. — Who are you? — John Cross. /^This name was
not in the least in my mind, and had even spelt itself out up
to " Cros " before I guessed who it could be.) I asked various
questions, several of them mentally only (no words spoken
whatever in these), to which answers came either inapplicable
or wrong. The chief of these were as follows : — How much
did I subscribe to the fund for your family ? Afnswer]. At
first inapplicable : afterwards, by touching ciphers written by
me at the moment, 3 ; next, rapped out by that number of
raps, 28. (10 would have been correct). — What was the
peculiarity affecting one of your children which I am now
thinking of (mental query). Afnswer]. Lame (should have
been, Idiotic). — What profession were you of? Surgeon,
dentist, etc., etc., painter, physician? (this was spoken by
me). Afnswer] came at " Physician."
So far as specimens of the wrong answers. The following
were correct : —
Query (mental). What was the name of your best
picture? — Richard. (I was not expecting the word Richard,
but rather Coeur de Lion ; therefore did not dwell on the
initial R., but — if anything, which however I don't think — it
would have been C.) Will you give me a spontaneous
15G ROSSETTI PAPERS
message? — Yes. — What? — My life was one of trial. — What
was the name of a certain sculptor intimate with you and
me ? — Thomas Wo(olner : I was so satisfied at Wo that I
left off with the alphabet). *
During some of the unsuccessful experiments we had all
four moved to a smaller table, whereat we thereafter remained.
I asked for raps to come in particular spots — as at the back
of my chair and on my foot. None such came, though the
answer that he would rap my foot was obtained. . . .
After the answer "Woolner," I proposed that R[uxton]
should ask for communications. He therefore took the
alphabet, and I wrote-down the letters rapped out.
R\iixtori\. — Is any person present, ready to communicate
with me? — Yes. — Who? — M. Minto. (This was the name
of his deceased Mother-in-law, a name known to me afore-
time, but which I had been lately trying to remember and
had wholly failed). — Will you give a message ? — Yes. — What ?
— Mary (name of Mrs Ruxton) should see my son. — Where
is he ?— Brighton.— What street? — Charles.— What is his
name? — Jarvis. (All these details were unknown to me,
but R[uxton] informed me afterwards they are correct :
Jarvis had till a day or two preceding been at Southampton).
— Will you send a certain other spirit I want to communicate
with? — Yes. — Here followed receding raps, which, Mrs
M[arshall] said, showed that the M. Minto spirit was going
away to bring the other one. My time was now up, and I
went. On following day Rfuxton] informed me that the
spirit he had been expecting (name, I think, Monckton) had
purported to come next.
One message given to me by Cross was " You are a
metfdium." I remember no other mis-spelling.
Neither Mrs M[arshall] nor (more especially) Mrs
M[arshall] junior inspires confidence by appearance. How-
ever, they asked no fishing questions whatever, nor did I
detect either in any deception : and it was one of them who
suggested that my questions should be mental only, rather
than spoken. I observed on the walls some coloured draw-
* And silly it was to do so.
WILLIAM ROSSETTI, 1865 157
ings, evidently so-called spirit-drawings — one of a devil : but
I paid very little attention to them.
1 06.— WILLIAM ROSSETTI— A SPIRITUAL SEANCE (No. 2.)
[Mr Spencer Boyd (of Penkill Castle, Aryshire), a Brother
of Miss Alice Boyd, had died very suddenly in the house of
Mr Bell Scott, which was in Elgin (not Elden) Road, London.
Thomas Sibson was a friend of Scott's at a much earlier
period of life ; an artist who produced several able and
remarkable etchings. There was a series of these, very
familiar to my Brother and myself towards 1842, illustrating
Dickens's Old Curiosity Shop and Barnaby Rudge : at a much
later date my copy of this series was so much admired by
Burne-Jones that I presented it to him. — The case of
Charlotte Winsor was some criminal case which excited much
interest in 1865: she was, I think, a "Baby-farmer," con-
victed of murder, and finally hanged.]
Saturday, 25 November [1865]. — Mrs Marshall's as before
—Scott and myself; Mrs M[arshall] and Mrs Mfarshall]
junior, and scarcely ever Marshall. Also four gentlemen
whom on entering we found at a seance (two of these seemed
acquaintances) ; and late in our seance three other gentlemen,
some at any rate obvious believers, came in. (Recorded 28
to 30 November.)
We were asked to join the four at the table, with Mrs
M[arshall] junior : Mrs M[arshall] sitting away from the
table : we did so. Time towards 3, therefore daylight for
an hour or so : afterwards full gaslight. Scott asked whether
he might examine the table (the heavy round one). Allowed ;
and he and I looked at it, I feeling that there was not a
hollow at the pillar of the table up which a stick could be
passed to rap. Answers generally by loud immediate raps :
some sharp movements and starts of the table also. At first
nothing very noticeable came, and I asked for Mrs M[arshall]
to sit at the table, which she did, when the power seemed at
158 ROSSETTI PAPERS
once considerably increased. Various mistakes and mulls
however from time to time : one was that a spirit communi-
cating with me professed to be " Mother."
Scott (till now a rejector of all spiritualistic evidence)
had told me as we went up in the cab (no pre-arrangement
whatever with Mrs Marshall for our visit) that he would fix
upon Boyd and Sibson to communicate with if possible.
At a tolerably early stage of the seance he said, " I have
a certain friend of mine in my mind : is he present ? " —
(Raps) Yes. — What was your Christian name ? — Spirit. —
Try again. — Sa. — Try for the surname. — Boyd. — Christian
name ? — Spencer. — You died in my house : what is the
name of the street? — Elden Road. — How long ago? — One
year (just about ten months is, I believe, correct). — Do you
know where your sister is? — Yes. — Where? — Sudvow.
S[cott] says Penkill is correct, and he can make nothing of
Sudvow). — What county? (No correct answer). — What is
her Christian name ? — Ca. — At this S[cott] left off, consider-
ing it a blunder, as he was thinking of the Miss Alice Boyd :
since then he writes me there is a half-sister named
Catherine. The correctness, so far as it went, of the answers
staggered S[cott] hugely. I asked the Boyd spirit, " Did
you know me?" Two raps in reply, which reckons as
meaning not exactly yes nor no. — Did you ever see me ? —
No. Both answers must be considered correct, as he must
undoubtedly have often heard something about me, but
never met me.
Another experiment made by Sfcott] was this. He wrote
on a paper, kept invisible, Thomas Sibson, and asked whether
the communicating spirit (I think it was still Boyd) could
spell it out. " Sis " was obtained by raps, but nothing
nearer than that. Then Mrs Mfarshall] junior suggested
that Scott should write out several Christian and surnames,
including the right ones. He did so, and the answers came
at Thomas and Sibson. A just similar experiment with the
names David and Scott*
* Le,, David Scott, the painter, deceased Brother of William
Bell Scott.
WILLIAM ROSSETTI, 1865 159
I
To me the following happened. I said : " Is there any
spirit present who knew me?" — Yes. — Name? — Hewi. I
then said : " That is no name at all ; and, even had you
gone on to * Hewit ' or any such name, I never knew a
person so named." One of the gentlemen present said :
" There was a New Zealand Chief of the name of Hewi :
one of those who used to go about England exhibiting."
I asked the Spirit: Were you that Chief?— Yes.— Did
you ever see me? — Yes. — Was it at Newcastle-on-Tyne ? —
Yes. — How long ago ? three years ? — No. — One ? — No. —
Two ? — Yes. — Were you black-complexioned ? — No. — All
this is right, on the assumption that the spirit really was
one of the exhibiting New-Zealanders.
One of the gentlemen wrote unseen a name on a paper,
and got it spelled out by raps, Richard Willims (should
have been Williams). At another time he said : " Is there
a spirit who will communicate with me?" — Yes. — Who? —
Uncle John. — He said : " I had no uncle of that name."
I then said : " Is it my Uncle John ? " — Yes. I asked for the
surname, by the alphabet, but could not get it. Then : Is
it an English surname? — No. — Foreign? — Yes. — Spanish,
German, etc., etc., Italian ? — Yes. — I then called over five
or six Italian names, coming to Polidori. — Yes. — Will you
tell me truly how you died? — Yes. — How? — Killed. — Who
killed you? — I. — There was a celebrated poet with whom
you were connected : what was his name ? — Bro. This was
twice repeated, or something close to it the second time.
At a third attempt, " Byron." — There was a certain book
you wrote, attributed to Byron : can you give me its title ? —
Yes. — I tried to get this title [viz. : The Vainpyre\ several
times, but wholly failed. — Are you happy? — Two raps,
meaning not exactly.
One of the gentlemen present afterwards consulted the
table, in order to obtain advice and information on some
matters wherein he was interested. The answers came
apposite, and he seemed to suppose them probably valid.
These were the chief incidents of our seance (six persons
besides the Marshalls) : the last message to us being, " We
160 ROSSETTI PAPERS
shall say no more." The three persons who had come in
later then took possession of the table, with Mrs Mfarshall]
junior, we other six being about the room, also Mrs
Mfarshall] senior, but not interfering in the table-perform-
ances. One of the enquirers, evidently an American, tried to
get into communication with a certain friend of his killed
in the American War, Theodore (something), but failed.
Another asked for a certain deceased cousin of his : Name ? —
Roland Williams. — Where are you buried ? what county ? —
Anglesea. — Name of the place ? — Cerrigceinwen. — These and
some other answers in the same connexion he affirmed to be
true.
During part of these performances S[cott] asked whether
he might look under the table. He did so, kneeling on the
ground with his head under the table-surface, and listening
as well as looking for the source of the knocks. He thought
they sounded more as if on the floor (/>., made on the ceiling
of the room below) than on the table. Whilst he was thus
looking, and the people obtaining messages through the
table, came this message, " Mind your wig." They all
laughed, not seeing any applicability in the message : S[cott]
alone guessed it might be meant for him,* and so explained
it to the others. Meanwhile Mrs Mfarshall] senior was talk-
ing to some of us, myself included, about her experiences —
very vulgarly, and (as I should say so far as this alone is
concerned) stupidly and impostor-like. She is a Southcottian
(not so Mrs M[arshall] junior) ; has had visions and other
spiritual experiences all her life : sees ghosts : they are
generally like the shadows of living people, only white. Saw
the ghost, shortly after his death, of Smith, editor of The
Family Herald. He entered her room in his usual costume,
and sat close beside her on a chair. She looked hard at
him, to be sure he should not evade without her knowing it ;
but, after he had sat (some minutes, I think), he was all at
once gone. She can prophesy ; sees visions in the streets
at times. I asked her whether she could prophesy events
which become of public notoriety, such as the American War
* He wore a wig.
I
PROFESSOR NORTON, 18G5
or the death of Lord Palmerston : — Yes, when the " sperrit "
is on her. — Well, can she now prophesy whether the Judges
will decide for or against Charlotte Winsor? — She could
under the fitting conditions. — Can she prophesy whether
England and the United States will go to war? — Yes, they
will go to war " in course of time " (or some similar vague
expression). There shall soon be "a great outpouring of
the sperrit." I asked: "In what way? Will, for instance,
miraculous cures be effected, such as in the New Testament ? "
— Yes. — Towards this part of the conversation she assumed
a sort of vaticinatory/z/r0r, talked with an air of excitement,
fixing me with her eyes, but merely some of the common-
place semi-biblical phrases about the outpouring of the
spirit. I took it cool, and the fit soon passed.
I have omitted to state that one of the first things done
after we entered was that I asked : " Will the spirit who
communicated with me here some days ago do so again ? " —
Yes. — Name? Something was obtained approaching to
Charles, not to John Cross, and nothing came of this
attempt.
Soon before we departed, Mrs M[arshall] junior asked
me whether I would like to obtain some raps in the door of
the room, which opens on to the landing and staircase. She,
another man, and I, went to the door, inside, placing our
hands upon it : Scott went outside, and did the like. Many
loud raps or thumps ensued, coming apparently as if from
without to me within, and as if from within to S[cott] with-
out. They appeared more or less distinctly, sometimes very
distinctly, to be actually in or on the door. S[cott] next
came in, and so put up his hand, and another man went out-
side : result to correspond. Mrs Mfarshall] junior says two
raps mean " doubtful," and five a demand for the alphabet.
107. — PROFESSOR NORTON to WILLIAM ROSSETTI.
[As I took a very intense interest in the American War
of Secession — siding wholly with the Northern States, as
L
1G2 ROSSETTI PAPERS
the upholders of national unity, and of the restriction, and
finally the abolition, of slavery, and deploring the pro-
slavery frenzy which had seized hold of the great majority
of Englishmen of the so-called educated classes — I reproduce
with some sense of satisfaction this reference by Professor
Norton to an article which I had written, named English
Opinion on the American War. It appeared, as here indi-
cated, in The Atlantic Monthly I\
CAMBRIDGE [MASSACHUSETTS].
i December 1865.
My dear Mr Rossetti, — . . . Your paper on English Opinion
concerning American affairs during the Rebellion is exceed-
ingly interesting. It is, I think, the most candid statement
and the ablest presentation of the subject which has been
made, and I regret that its form prevents its publication in
the North American Review. All the papers in the Review
are impersonal in their form, after the manner of those in
the chief English Reviews. The editorial " we " is preserved
throughout, and the Review is regarded as a distinct, however
fictitious, entity. This being the case, I have thought best
to offer your paper for publication to the Editor of The
Atlantic Monthly. He has gladly accepted it, and it will
appear, I believe, in the next number. I have undertaken
to revise the proof of it, so that I trust it will appear with-
out any serious typographical blunders. The Atlantic has so
large a circulation that your article will be read much more
widely than if it were published in the North American. . . .—
Very sincerely yours,
CHARLES ELIOT NORTON.
108.— JAMES SMETHAM to DANTE ROSSETTI.
[Mr Smetham, a painter by profession, was a peculiarly
devout Christian — a Methodist. Rossetti had known some-
thing of him in early years, and more especially since 1863.
JAMES SMETHAM, 1865 163
Smetham's mind give way at last under the stress of religious
ideas, and he died several years ago. A volume of his letters \
was published in 1892, and secured, as it deserved, a consider-
able amount of attention. These letters were edited by ""
Mr William Davies (author of TJic Pilgrimage of the Tiber
etc.), who is mentioned in the ensuing extract as " W.D."
The extract comes, not from a letter in the ordinary sense,
but from some scrappy leaves of small memorandum-paper
stitched together.]
[STOKE-NEWINGTON].
8 and 9 December 1865.
I generally have had for some years past a set of these
" Ventilators " (as W. D. called them) going, and so managed
to find an outlet for every form of feeling and thought. A
good part of them were written on tops of omnibuses, in rail-
way-trains, at country-inns, or wherever there was a spare
twenty minutes. Sometimes, when I wanted to think out
any life-project, I have spent days in seeing to the end of
it — choosing this rather than journalizing because thought
stowed up in Diaries gets foetid and affected and dangerous.
. . . No agreement of mutuality. My friends reply some-
times— either in conversation, by letter or occasional Venti-
lator— but scarce any of them is fond enough of the labour
of writing to do the same thing, and I don't expect it.
Sometimes a cannonade of Ventilators has followed day
after day till a thing has been demolished. Then a silence
of weeks — months — a year or two, . . .
As you have kindly desired something less formal after —
as you say — ten years' acquaintance, and as I find everybody
calling you Gabriel, I must take the liberty of falling into
the same rut. . . .
There have been only two men concerned directly in
Art whom I cared much to know a priori — and I have known
them both for ten and eleven years. . . . But these two I
was drawn to love for their own sake — Ruskin by his works,
and D. G. R. by his sum-total. And that not because the
two R.'s were very clever and influential (though of course,
164 ROSSETTI PAPERS
to a despicable fallen son of the first Adam, there is a detest-
able magnetism in these things). ... As to one of the R's,
I only pretend to a partial personal acquaintance. He is too
well-off — too well-known — too encumbered with friends —
too phosphoric — to look very long in one direction ; and I
am entirely content with things as they stand — I won't bore
him. But the other has many things in the same line as
myself, which makes me thankful for some awakening inter-
course on Art — of which (for reasons) I have for twenty years
voluntarily debarred myself. . . . My dear Gabriel, if you
have got any kick in you, pray kick out soon, and don't let us
get into a mess. I'm quite sure you are all right in respect
to generosity and nobleness, but I'm not so sure that I am—
and that you wouldn't repent a closer intercourse.
I wouldn't speak of what I may call Methodist peculiari-
ties, but that I already see that in your circle there will be a
never-ceasing collision — though tacit — on daily habits. . . .
109. — ERNEST GAMBART to DANTE ROSSETTI.
[The picture here mentioned must be The Blue Bower.
Mr Gambart speaks of, and denies, a selling-price of 1600
guineas ; my Brother had been told 1500. Mr Gambart had,
at any rate, made a handsome profit on this picture : he
bought it of Rossetti for £210, and he admitted having sold
it for .£500. — The single head for which Rossetti now asked
£525 is uncertain to me : possibly Monna Vanna, called also
Belcolorel\
1 8 December 1865.
My dear Rossetti, — In a letter dated last Saturday, Mr
Ruskin, in answer to one of mine mentioning that I was a
loser by my last transaction with him, tells me that he
" considers me fair game." To-day in conversation with him
I got the key to that sentiment. He told me of the enormous
profits I am making, giving for example the picture I had
WILLIAM ROSSETTI, 1866 165
bought from you for 200 guineas and sold for 1600 guineas.
Now this mischievous story has injured me with Mr Ruskin
and with you, since you asked me yesterday 500 guineas for
a single head, a price out of all proportion with your present
engagements to other people : and no doubt it goes the
rounds of studios, and will damage me not only there, but
keep collectors from coming to me for their purchases. May
I ask you who started the mendacious story as to the 1600
guineas. But as to the other end of the story, the figure
of 200 guineas being right, and never having been mentioned
by me or my people, it must have been obtained elsewhere,
or been guessed at in a remarkable way. Perhaps you may
have given it yourself. If so, let me draw to your attention
that there is an end to the possibility of business if the
producer of any article sold by a middle-man publishes
the price he obtains ; and should I, notwithstanding the
injurious reports above mentioned, and their effect on you,
have again the good fortune to obtain some of your works,
I beg you will not mention the prices charged to me for
them. Should you have occasion for it, I would feel obliged
by your telling those who were told the story of the 1600
guineas that it is nothing but an idle tale. The true
version I have given you and Mr Ruskin, but I do not want
it to be further circulated. — I remain yours very truly,
E. GAMBART.
i io.— WILLIAM ROSSETTI— A SPIRITUAL STANCE (No. 3).
[The locality of this seance was the private residence
of our old family-friend Mr Keightley the historian. The
persons mentioned as present were all (except myself)
immediate connexions of his : Mr Lyster being his nephew,
a very intimate friend of mine, and my colleague at the
Inland Revenue Office, Somerset House.]
Thursday, 4 January 1866. — Mr Keightley 's, Belvedere:
166 ROSSETTI PAPERS
dining-room. At the table, Lyster, Louisa Parke, and I :
in the room the two Misses Keightley, the two Misses
Lyster, and Mrs Lyster : the last came to the table quite
towards the close of the seance, replacing Lyster. (Recorded
5 January).
We took a small round wooden table, not a shaky
one. All the answers were given by tilts, generally ready
and decided, which began very soon indeed after we sat
down. On this occasion one tilt was notified to mean
yes, and two no.
Lyster. — Is any spirit present? — Yes. — Will he com-
municate with me ? — No. — Louisa ? — No. — William Rossetti ?
— Yes. — I then began asking questions, first by calling-over
the alphabet ; but, after three or four questions, by means
of an alphabet which I wrote and touched at. — Did you
know me ? — Yes. — What was your surname ? — Woow. —
We could get nothing beyond this.
Next we asked whether some other spirit was present.
Yes, and replied that he had known all the persons at
the table, and (somewhat faintly) all in the room. Lyster
proceeded to ask questions. — Surname? — Keightley. —
Initial of first Christian name ? — W. — Of second ? — S.
(correct for William Samuel Keightley). — Where did you
die? France, England, etc., etc. Australia? — Yes. — What
year? — 1856. — Do you know your wife Jane in the spirit-
world ?— Yes.— What month did she die ?— October.— What
was the name of the place where you died? (In putting
this question L[yster] had to enquire whether his aunts
remembered the correct name, and Miss K[eightley] gave
the name " Corran," or something like that). The spirit next
spelled-out the beginning of the name, nearly the same :
Lfyster] did not go on to get the name finished. The
family say those answers of which I did not already know
the correctness are correct.
After this, another spirit professed to come. — Lyster:
Will you communicate with me? — No. — With Rossetti?—
Yes. — I : Spell your surname. — Eross. — I tried to get this
more satisfactory, but failed. I then asked : " Is E. the
WILLIAM ROSSETTI, 1866
167
initial of your Christian name?" — Yes. — Is R. the initial
of your surname? — Yes. — Are you Lizzie, my brother's
wife? — Yes. — Did you know Lyster? — No. — Louisa Parke?
— Yes. (This is true, Louisa having accompanied her,
Gfabriel], and me, to the theatre). — Have you seen Gabriel
this evening? — Yes. — Is he at Chelsea? — Yes. — What is he
doing? painting? — No. — Asleep? — Yes. (I noted the
moment of this reply — 8 minutes past 1 1 P.M.) — Do you
know where he dined on Christmas Day? — Yes. — Was it
at Burne-Jones's ? — No. — Madox Brown's? — No. — With his
mother and me ? — Yes. (Correct). Here Lyster asked :
" Do you remember ever coming down to this neighbour-
hood ? " — Yes. — What is the initial of the name of the
place? — B. (I did not at the moment remember the
applicability of these answers : but Lfyster] reminded me
of Bexley — strictly Upton — where Morris resided, and
Lizzie had visited). I then resumed : Do you remember
Morris? — Yes. — Can you give me the initial of the street
in London to which he has now removed? — Yes. — What?
— Q.— Lyster: Is it a street ?— No.— Square ?— Yes. (All
this is correct — Queen Square, Bloomsbury : Lyster, as
well as I, knew the correct answers ; not so Louisa, who
appeared to be the medium). Lyster then proposed that
one of the persons present should write unseen on a paper
any letter of the alphabet, and ask the spirit to read it
when kept concealed. I asked : " Will you do this ? " — Yes.
—Miss Lyster wrote an S. Three wrong answers came,
no right one. . . . Do you know my Father in the spirit-
world? — No. — Your own Father? — Yes. — From about this
point the tilts became comparatively confused and muddled,
and almost always in two (for no), though still far from
feeble in point of mere motion. For some while it could
riot be determined whether Lizzie was still there. At last
a clear No was obtained. — Are you a good spirit ? — No. —
Bad? — No. — Midway? — No. — A devil? — No. — Are you
trifling with us? — Yes.
I should have put in its proper place, somewhat early
in the colloquy with Lizzie, a question put by Lyster. Is
168 ROSSETTI PAPERS
Christianity true? — Yes. — That which is ordinarily meant
by "the Christian religion ? "—Yes.— Also I asked: Did
you see me yesterday in Highgate Cemetery? — No. (I
had gone to the Cemetery for Mrs Hannay's funeral). — Do
you know the Davenports ? — No. — Do you know that
Gabriel attended their seance a few days ago? — No. — Do
you know what will be the issue of Christina's illness? —
No.
in. — PROFESSOR NORTON to WILLIAM ROSSETTI.
[I did not write the proposed article on William Blake.
It might appear, by another letter from Professor Norton,
that I proposed to defer such an article until Mr Swin-
burne's book on the subject should be published — and
eventually the matter dropped.]
CAMBRIDGE, MASS.
9 January 1866.
Dear Mr Rossetti, — . . . Your paper on English Opinion
on America is printed, and will appear in a few days. It
seemed to me on a second reading quite as excellent as
when I first read it in manuscript, and I regretted still
more that its form had prevented its appearance in the
North American Review. . . .
If you will do what you propose, take up from time to
time, quarterly or at longer intervals as you choose, some
subject with which you are sufficiently acquainted to write
upon it with satisfaction to yourself, I shall regard it as
a great favour. The subject you mention, " Swinburne's
poetry and its relation to our contemporary poetry in
general," is an excellent one ; and I should gladly accept
your proposal to write on it, were it not that before your
letter came Mr Lowell had expressed his intention to treat
it in the next number of the Review. Since receiving
\ rf-\l 1 *•
PROFESSOR NORTON, 18GG 1G9
your letter I have seen Lowell, and find that he really
wishes to say something on Mr Swinburne. . . .
There is one subject, indeed, on which I wish you
would at some time write — William Blake's mystical
poems. The treatment of them in Mr Gilchrist's biography
of Blake is not satisfactory. I cannot but think that more
is to be found out concerning them ; that they are not
insane rhapsodies, but, however unintelligible to the mere
common-sense, they have, in part at least, a meaning
which the sympathetic imagination may discover and
disclose. At any rate, I am curious to see more of them
than Mr Gilchrist has printed. Blake's genius was so
marvellous and so thoroughly individual, so un-English and
so spiritual, that it is perhaps, in its mystical manifesta-
tions, only to be spiritually discerned.
I had the great pleasure of receiving from Mr Scudder
last Saturday the photographs which your Brother was
good enough to send me. They are deeply interesting t<3
me, and very delightful. I know no pictures so full of \
poetic feeling or so poetic in conception as his. They
hold a place quite by themselves in art, and to any one
who can sympathize at all with the spirit in which they
are conceived and executed they must be of the highest
worth. I value them more than I can well say ; a
while thanking your Brother for me most sincerely for these
photographs, I wish you would beg him to add to his gift,
and to let me have a copy of any other photographs that
may have been taken of his designs. Mrs Norton shares
fully with me in appreciation and admiration of these
works, and they give her as much pleasure as they give
to me.
With kindest regards to your Brother and yourself, — I
am very truly yours,
CHARLES ELIOT NORTON.
170 ROSSETTI PAPERS
ii2.— BARONE KIRKUP to WILLIAM ROSSETTI.
[Barone Kirkup, who had been my Father's valued and
enthusiastic correspondent, began at this time writing to
me ; several extracts from his letters will be presented in
the sequel — occupied to a great extent with the subject of
Spiritualism, in which he had become a profound believer.
I had called on the Barone in Florence in 1860, but had
only a brief interview with him. He was then very deaf,
and in the course of years became much more so — one
might say, stone-deaf. Mr Keightley also suffered from the
same infirmity ; and I think it was he who had asked me
to send Barone Kirkup a letter to which the following is
the reply. In one sentence of his letter the Barone rather
seems to imply that his own deafness had diminished
under " spiritual " treatment : if there had in fact been any
diminution, this was but temporary. — He states that my
Brother had, towards the close of Gilchrist's Life of Blake,
"derided spiritualism": the reference must be to Vol. I, p.
382, where the writer (and it was in fact my Brother)
speaks of Dr Wilkinson's poems entitled Improvisations of
the Spirit. His tone on that occasion was light, but his
real disposition was towards believing in spiritualism too
much rather than too little. — The verse-quotation which
Kirkup makes from Dante means — "A man ought always
to shut his lips to the uttermost against a truth which has
the aspect of a lie, since this, without wrongfulness, entails
shame." — The water-colour by Blake, which the Barone
calls the Three Heroes of Camlan, was by Blake himself
entitled The Ancient Britons: "in the last battle of King
Arthur only three Britons escaped ; these were the
Strongest Man, the Beautifullest Man, and the Ugliest
Man." This water-colour (or a minor record of it) exists
in the British Museum, though Kirkup supposed it to be
wholly lost.]
BARONE KIRKUP, 1866 171
2 PONTE VECCHIO, FLORENCE.
19 January 1866.
My dear Rossetti, — As I can't make out Keightley's
address in your letter, I am forced to ask you to forward
it to him. . . .
When I had the short pleasure of seeing you, I had
long been living an exceptional life of incredible pheno-
mena, and since then they have increased beyond any
expectation of mine. Do not think that any early acquaint-
ance I had with W. Blake can have led to it. I thought
him mad; and, after I left England in 1816, I heard no
more of him, till I heard that Lord Houghton was collect-
ing his works at a great expense ! I had picked up Blair's
Grave, and five little engravings by Blake himself. I have
very lately had a sight of his Life by Gilchrist. I don't
think him a madman now. I wonder what your Brother
thinks he was, for he derides spiritualism towards the end
of that book, and he is wrong. Blake was an honest man,
and I always thought so — but his sanity seemed doubtful
because he could only give his word for the truth of his
visions. There were no other proofs, and what was so
incredible required the most perfect proofs ; such as, with
the most jealous, scrupulous, suspicious investigation, have
been for eleven years by me directed to the subject. I
have been secret from necessity on account of the priests,
and never cared for making proselytes, and I remembered
the advice —
Sempre a quel ver ch'ha faccia di menzogna
De' 1'uom chiuder le labbra quant'ei puote,
Pero che senza colpa fa vergogna, etc.
There are only two points that require to be well
watched in the prodigies of modern spiritualists — Fraud
and Hallucination. Those two possibilities I have never
lost sight of, and I have rejected all theories and opinions,
and stuck to facts only ; from which my most searching
attention has never been diverted in an experience of
eleven years, of which I have kept a journal, now in its
172 ROSSETTI PAPERS
7th volume. I have met with but few attempts at decep-
tion, and much of my experience has been in the presence
of plenty of responsible and competent witnesses ; so that
the pretext of imagination goes for nothing, as we could
not all be dreaming of the same thing. I was led to it by
magnetism. I neither expected it nor believed in it. It
was for my deafness alone, as I have told K[eightley]. The
incredible cures I have witnessed are too long to be written,
— my deafness was a trifle. Four cases of cholera of
which two were foudroyants, in twenty minutes cured. An
enormous dropsy, legs as big as my body and arms like
sacks of water, cured in a night, to be thinner than I am.
I have procured visions for other persons, who have drawn
them, and I have the drawings in my possession, though I
have never succeeded in having visions myself worth
copying. But all this is of less value to me than my
knowledge of a future state, and a better than this. It
makes my approaching change more desirable than regret-
table— perhaps the most fortunate moment of our lives is
the last. As for Death, we never die — we could not if we
would : a sleep of about twenty minutes seems all that
intervenes between physical and spiritual life. "The rude
forefathers of the hamlet" do not sleep. The last of
the many bodies they have possessed is dispersed under
ground, as the preceding ones were in the air — converted
to gases, liquids, acids, earths, and chemicals of all sorts ;
and we, disencumbered like some of Blake's visions, are
free, and as happy as our tempers will allow. . . . — Ever
yours,
SEYMOUR KIRKUP.
Always glad to hear from you. — When you see A.
Swinburne, remember me to him. I have just made a
sketch of Blake's Three Heroes of Camlan from memory,
after above half a century. It was his masterpiece. ... I
never knew that you cared for Blake — I am living so out
of the world.
Tom Taylor was here. I never knew of his having
DANTE ROSSETTI, 1866
173
written the Life of my great friend Haydon. He promised
to send it me, but he forgot. I have many of Haydon's
letters, and I have many of your Father's, if ever you
write his Life.
113.— DANTE ROSSETTI to MADOX BROWN.
[A part of this letter has been published in Mr Ford
Hueffer's book, Ford Madox Brown : but, thinking the
letter worth reading as a whole, I give it insertion here. I
am not sure what my Brother had done which he confesses
to be wrong : perhaps he had spoken of Mrs Brown as being
an unsafe person to whom to confide a secret. It is a fact
that, if one told anything to Brown, he generally proceeded
to re-tell it to his wife — and in one way or other it was then
the apter to ooze out. Mrs Brown however was very far
from being a tittle-tattle ; and in especial was not a malicious
tittle-tattle — quite the contrary. — Mr Hine, here mentioned,
was the excellent water-colour painter — taking his subjects
very frequently from the Sussex Downs.]
1 6 CHEYNE WALK, CHELSEA.
9 February 1866.
My dear Brown, — I feel myself to have been without
doubt in the wrong, and can only most sincerely ask your
pardon. Nothing on reflection could pain me more (though
certainly I did so in a way to which I ought not to have
been blind) than to inflict the slightest pain on you, whom I
regard as so much the most intimate and dearest of my
friends that I might call you by comparison the only one I
have. The second instance of my offending has troubled me
ever since, though it escaped my mind in conversation while
we remained together, else I should certainly have said
something to you in apology. Since then I have been
divided between the idea of writing to you and the un-
willingness to revive an unpleasant topic in case it did not
174 ROSSETTI PAPERS
possibly dwell so much in your mind as in my own. I
was led to the great mistake I committed by the sudden
necessity of citing some one in argument, and the fact of
the name having already been once mentioned. This was
the cause, but no excuse. As to the first instance, in which
I now feel I was wrong also, I may explain that I regard
all women, with comparatively few exceptions, as being so
entirely loose-tongued and unreliable that to suggest such
qualities in one does not seem to me to interfere with any
respect to which a member of the sex is likely to have
any just pretension. This had not therefore recurred to
me in the way the other did ; though now, on reflection,
I not only think I was wrong to express the opinion, but
also that the opinion was mistaken.
To refer to another point (having said all that seems
possible in confession of how much I was to blame), I may
say that the suggestion of any possible obligation from you
to me seriously distresses me. Not because I think you
attribute my thoughtlessness in any degree to such a view
on my own part, for of that you acquit me by word as
well as, I should in any case have known, by thought ;
but because, if you can disregard (as I know you do) the
great obligations under which you laid me in early life,
and which were real ones as involving real trouble to
yourself undertaken for the sake of one who was quite a
stranger to you at the outset, — what can / think of a
matter which gives me no trouble whatever, and in which
were I inactive I should sin against affection, gratitude,
and, highest of all, conviction as an artist?
In conclusion, I have no right to say, being myself the
offender, that such offence cannot disturb our friendship ;
but, after the sincerest expression of regret, I may thank
you for having said what will, I trust, secure me absolutely
against so offending again.
I shall be very glad to see you and Hine on Tuesday
evening, when William will be here. I had asked Boyce
to come since seeing you, but he regrets being unable to
do so, saying at the same time that he has been " interested
CHARLOTTE POLIDORI, 1866 175
in Hine's work for many years : it is always so full of
point and originality, excellent choice of subject, and often
much poetry." — Ever yours affectionately,
D. G. ROSSETTI.
i ^ — CHARLOTTE POLIDORI — MEMORANDUM.
["The organ-man with the immense bush of hair" was
Gaetano Meo ; who had from the first a certain proclivity
for landscape-painting, and eventually took up that branch
of the art with some success.]
1866, February 20. — I saw again The Girlhood of the
Blessed Virgin ; in which Gabriel has changed the wings of
the angel from white to a deep pink, the sleeves of the
Blessed Virgin from yellow to brown. . . . The Arundel
Club, where would be exhibited the next day, for one day
only, The Beloved. I heard Gabriel observe to a friend, on
showing him his first picture The Girlhood etc., that it was
painted timidly. I heard him also say that models were |
disappointing ; that, what from fatigue or such-like, they
looked worst just when wanted to look best. That they
suffer from sitting, particularly if consumptive. That the
organ-man with the immense bush of hair would play his
organ and tire himself on his way to him ; and that, though
he offered to pay him more for leaving his organ behind,
he would bring it and hide it, and then go off with it on
his back. The negro in The Beloved he, G[abriel], first saw
at the door of an hotel. When he asked him if he would
sit to him, he was referred to his master. Whilst sitting
the tears would run down his cheeks : the skin, as if it
absorbed them as blotting-paper, would look darker. When
not sitting he was accustomed to be most active, running
and jumping etc. G[abriel] suggested that he might be
thinking about his Mammy. . . .
176 ROSSETTI PAPERS
115. — BARONE KIRKUP to WILLIAM ROSSETTI.
[Winwood Reade is probably — and certainly ought to
be — remembered as author of a remarkable book, The
Martyrdom of Man. The book about the " young peasant-
girl" who acted as a clairvoyante came into my hands.
Her name was Assunta Orsini, and the statements con-
cerning her were surprising enough. — The allegation that
my Father's works were excluded by Panizzi from the
British Museum Library is, I take it, entirely erroneous.
— As to Kirkup's rupture with Mr Charles Lyell, I need
not enter into details, beyond saying that it arose (as
indeed he partly implies) out of the Dantesque studies of
my Father. Lyell and Kirkup were only known to one
another by correspondence. — The portrait of my Father
done by Liverati is in my possession, and must have been
moderately like him at the age represented. — The comment
of my Father upon Dante's Purgatorio (barring some few
cantos) was found in our possession, and was given by me
to the Municipality of his native Vasto in 1883, when a
centenary celebration of his birth was held there. A
Comment on the Paradise, I have reason to believe, was
never written by him. Also I hardly suppose that my
Father wrote a " Comment " (in the ordinary sense of the
term) on Francesco Colonna's Hypnerotomachia Poliphili.
He regarded the book as a libro mistico, and probably
wrote something about it, to be introduced into one of
his volumes.]
2 PONTE VECCHIO, FLORENCE.
27 February 1866.
My dear Friend, — . . . Somnambules have great amour
propre, and are apt to guess when at a loss. My first
lesson in training them is, "Tell the truth, and say non
vedo." * They soon get over it. They see a great deal
* I don't see.
BARONE KIRKUP, 1866 177
more than we do, but not everything ; and the spirits
themselves own that they are not omniscient. Many
mediums in America are seers without magnetism — as my
friend Home, the greatest medium yet known. The
Davenports I do not know; but my opinion is that they
are honest, and have been very ill used in England and
France. Winwood Reade, whom our friend Swinburne sent
to me, went twenty times to the Davenports, and is con-
vinced there is no deception ; and R[eade] is a clever man,
and has seen much of the world. The jugglers in France
pretend to perform the tricks, but they never have. . . .
When I was at the height of my spiritual phenomena
(which are much diminished now) there were three parties
who published their different theories. I. The book of the
first party, Recherches psychologiques, ou Correspondance sur
le Magnetisnie Vital avec M. Deleuze, par le Docteur Billot,
was in favour of the existence of good spirits ; printed in
Paris 1839, in 2 vols. 8vo. It is that to which my own
experience agrees. . . .
Before the Revolution I kept it a secret even from my
medium Regina (who knew nothing when awake), for fear
of the priests who were omnipotent, worse than at Rome ;
now all religions are alike respected, and Protestantism is
increasing, which is one step ; but there are plenty of
bigots, as in France. I believe spiritualists are very scarce
in Florence. The only authentic case I ever heard of was
that of a young peasant-girl about three miles off; and it
was patronized by some priests who treated her as a saint,
and one of them wrote an account of it, giving it the
colouring of his trade. But the facts themselves are very
positive ; and I not only saw her myself but I knew
many of the parties mentioned in the book, which seems
written conscientiously ; and I will send it you, as it is
well-written and well-meaning. They killed the poor girl
among them. . . .
I believe I have pretty well exhausted my recollections
of poor Blake in what I wrote to Swinburne. It is so long
ago, and I was ignorant enough to think him mad at the
M
178 ROSSETTI PAPERS
time, and neglected sadly the opportunities the Buttses
threw in my way. I only heard of him as engraving-
master to my old schoolfellow Tommy. They (Butts) did
not seem to value him as we do now. I was of the
opposite party of colourists, and still a great admirer of
Flaxman, Fuseli, and Stothard, who had infinitely more
power in drawing than Blake. The two former were
really my friends. Still, the impression which Blake's
Ancient Britons made on me (above all others) was so
strong that I can answer for the truth of my sketch, as
will be proved if the picture is ever found. . . . Blake had
but little effect in the works that I remember. I should
have liked the heads more British and less Grecian. . . .
As to the British Museum, I was told that no one of
your Father's glorious works was admitted by that beast
Panizzi — works that contain more poetic criticism, as well
as philosophic discoveries, than all that had been done for
Dante in five centuries ! I quarrelled with Lyell for not
being staunch or consistent. . . . Remember, if you and
your good brother ever publish anything about your
Father, whose life was adventurous from 1821, when I
was in Naples (I did not know him then), I have many
of his letters which are always at your service. I have a
portrait-sketch of him by C. E. Liverati, made in his
younger days.
Your admirable translation of the Inferno, which you
so kindly gave me, I have often consulted, to see what
your interpretation is of the original. Blank verse is the
best. . . . Lord Vernon attempted a prose-translation
(not readable), and it was fortunately never finished. It
was to have been a large 8vo volume; but it grew (the
Inferno alone), by the continual addition of tedious
nonsense, to the size of 4 volumes large folio ; and there
it is after twenty-five years thrown aside, apparently for
good.
I should be sorry to deprive you of Haydon's Life,
and I know of no opportunity of sending it. Eastlake
wrote to me that it was intensely interesting ; by which I
ROBERT BROWNING, 1866 179
guessed that T. Taylor had written under the direction
of H[aydon]'s greatest enemy, as his letters to me prove,
in which he always calls E[astlake] "the Jesuit." H[aydon]
was the greatest designer in Europe, far before David.
He was founded on Phidias. There was a controversy
in The Examiner between him and the Hunts under the
title of Negro Faculties, in which the theory of ideal form
is discussed, that ought to be printed for the benefit of
art and science. It was about 1815. . . . — Affectionately
yours,
SEYMOUR KIRKUP.
. . . Would you like to know Home? I fear he has
become a paid medium. He has been ten years independent,
but I hear he is very poor. We were great friends a long
time ago.
The works that seem lost according to my letters are
the Purgatorio and Paradiso, two parts of the Beatrice,
and the comment on Poliphilo of Colonna. . . .
1 1 6. — ROBERT BROWNING to WILLIAM ROSSETTI.
[Thomas Dixon, the Cork-cutter, a highly laudable but
sometimes inconvenient man, has been mentioned by me
elsewhere. He had sent to Browning the Life of Thomas
Bewick and another book, asking that they might be
eventually transferred to me.]
19 WARWICK CRESCENT, UPPER WESTBOURNE TERRACE.
29 March 1866.
My dear Rossetti, — I get from time to time letters
from "Thomas Dixon, 57 Nile Street, Sunderland," who
chooses to write them and embarrass me : he sends books
as " presents " — thinking there is a lack of that commodity
in London, apparently. And I don't like to hurt his
feelings because, from sundry peculiar bits of spelling and
other epistolary infelicities in a mild way, I suppose him
180 ROSSETTI PAPERS
to need indulgence. He now sends two books — but I will
let him say his own say. You see, I am in no condition
to guess whether he knows you, or does not know ;
[whether you] will be pleased with his " loan," or bothered,
as I own myself to be. But, on the whole, let each bear
his own burden ; and so, as bidden, I pass on the thing to
you, really having no alternative. What you will do in
turn I shall not concern myself with : only, I entreat,
don't return them to me — who moreover will go out of
London for the next fortnight. — Very truly yours ever,
ROBERT BROWNING.
117. — HORACE SCUDDER to WILLIAM ROSSETTI.
[The name of Mr Scudder, as an author and editor,
is well known on both sides of the Atlantic. Dr Chivers
was an American verse-writer who produced in 1845 a
L curious volume entitled The Lost Pleiad^ and other Poems.
My Brother read it soon afterwards (so did I), and was much
amused at a certain combination of helter-skelter fervour and
profusion, and of oddity, which marked its pages. I still
possess the volume. — The brochure by a friend of Whitman
was that by Mr W. D. O'Connor named The Good Grey Poet.
— Whether Mr Scudder did or did not bring out his pro-
posed book about Blake I hardly recollect now.]
9 BROOKLINE STREET, BOSTON.
24 April 1866.
My dear Sir, — Since my return to America in November
last I have kept in mind a request of your Brother's that I
should find out something about the astonishing Chivers — a
poet in spite of his name ; but, though I have asked Professor
Lowell and Mr Fields, both of whom had had correspondence
with him, they could tell me nothing beyond the fact that he
was a Georgian by birth (American, not Asian Georgia),
but recently was living at Washington. Further productions
HORACE SCUDDER, 1866
may no doubt be expected, for Fields declared that one of
his letters mentioned a poem on which he was engaged " of
the size of Paradise Lost? So you see what is before you.
Fields irreverently described him moreover as a bore whose
foolscap-letters — the poet always using that style of paper —
he had unfortunately destroyed ; for he began to think that
they possessed a value aside from that intended by the
author. Mr Lowell told me that Chivers had sent him his
poetry, and he had presented half of the volumes to the
Harvard Library. He thought him rather a droll illustra-
tion of the shell of Shelley. I have tried in vain to get hold
of his books. Somebody else must be on his trail — if it is
not the doctor himself — for one of our most knowing second-
hand booksellers told me that he had been enquired after at
his store.
Have you seen Walt Whitman's Drum Taps? It is
just possible that you have not ; and I will take the oppor-
tunity afforded by a friend's going to London to send you
a copy, and also a brochure of a very enthusiastic friend of
his — known for the author of a spasmodic anti-slavery novel,
Harrington, published about the same time as Leaves of
Grass by same publishers. The pamphlet will perhaps give
you some information respecting Whitman : certainly I can
add nothing, except to say that you will see in Thoreau's
Letters an account of his visit to the poet, and the estima-
tion in which he held him. I do not think that Mr Lincoln's
death brought out any nobler expression of the personal
grief of the best natures in the country than " O Captain,
my Captain ! " The lonely grief of the poet in the strong
contrast which he presents was really that felt by all. I
have but lately got the volume ; and, although I do not believe
that any new American poetry is to be established on a
reckless disregard of natural laws of rhythm, simply because
such laws have produced conventional rules, I think that no
one else has caught so rarely the most elusive elements of
American civilization.
But my real object in troubling you with this letter is
to speak of my intentions with regard to a Life of Blake.
182 ROSSETTI PAPERS
As an announcement has been made in one of our literary
journals that I am engaged on a Life, and is likely therefore
to attract notice in some English paper (from the subject
being properly an English one), I wish to speak frankly to
you of my intention. I do not propose to attempt any-
thing that shall aim to supplant Gilchrist's Life, but simply
to present a portion of the material there gathered in a new
form, to American readers. I am led to do this from my
strong interest in Blake, and from my desire that he should
be made more familiar to my countrymen than is possible
under existing circumstances. . . . My work will, I presume,
be more properly called " A Biographic Study or Sketch " than
Life, and will be distinctly set forth as based on Gilchrist's
work. . . . — Sincerely yours,
HORACE E. SCUDDER.
iiS.— BARONE KIRKUP to WILLIAM ROSSETTI.
[The opening passage in this letter relates to my Father's
book, // Mistero deW Amor Platonico^ put into print; but
withheld from publication at the urgency of his excellent
friend the Right Honourable John Hookham Frere, who
considered the work dangerous to the cause of religion,
and very likely moreover to injure the author's professional
position in England. The remark of "the French beast"
in Florence (Vieusseux) means "By Rossetti? His old
style ! " — Kirkup here names some of his old friends, most
of whom he had outlived (but not Trelawny, though this
name occurs in the list). By " Brown " he means the Charles
Armitage Brown who was an intimate of Keats ; by Roberts,
Captain Roberts, who had been concerned in the building
of the boat in which Shelley went down. — The Italian
passage quoted from Professor Maggi, interspersed as it is
with French, will probably offer little difficulty to the reader:
the pamphlet by Aroux about Francesca da Rimini must
be a curiosity, unknown to me save by this statement]
KAKONK KIRKUP, 18CG 183
2 PONTE VECCHIO, FLORENCE.
24 April 1866.
My dear Sir, let me say Friend, — Rossetti is a name
which has long sounded so to me. What you tell me of
H. Frere is a proof of his anxious friendship for your dear
Father, but likewise of the timidity of his character, proved
by his failure in diplomacy. He was however a good man
and very learned. . . . But, when your Father had left the
K[ing's] College, what other pressure was there to prevent his
obtaining the reward of so great and interesting a labour of
utility and taste, of learning and years of study ? He sent a
copy of it through me to the Reading-room in Florence ;
and, when I gave it to the French beast its master, all he
said was " Di Rossetti ? Le sue solite ! " I cut the ill-bred
ignorant fellow, and never spoke to him afterwards. The
Jesuits were at work then : I happened to see his catalogue
some years after, and it was not in it. ... I persuaded Lord
Vernon to print the rest of the Beatrice for him ; but they
differed about some trifles about the type, which I regretted,
and so it is lost, I suppose for good. . . .
The artists in Florence have mostly disappeared. There
is not one native patron. All the young nobles are ignorant
and vicious. . . .
A few English friends . . . retained me here when I
came to change the air after the Roman fever. I have out-
lived them almost all — Hunt, Brown, Trelawny, Medwin,
Roberts, Severn, Landor: I was too late to see Byron and
Shelley. . . .
My own celebrated medium Regina began . . . with her
guardian angel, whose name was Isacco, and who appeared
as a child ; and continues so to my daughter, whose life I
believe he saved in the whooping-cough, and his orders were
contrary to the doctor's ! We continue our extra-mundane
communications. She saw Dante lately, and so did another
medium who was here, and he gave us some interesting
notices. I hope to get more. . . .
A letter from Professor P. G. Maggi (an old friend who
lives at Milan), which I have just found amongst some papers,
184 ROSSETTI PAPERS
is dated January 1863, and contains the following: . . .
" L'Aroux poi, che secondo taluno possederebbe cose inedite
di esso Rossetti, e 1'autore di un opuscolo, Dante H critique t
Revolutionaire, et Socialists ; d'un altro, JJHMsie de Dante
demontree par Francesca de Rimini ', devenue un moyen de pro-
pagande Vaudoise, etc. ; d'una traduzione in versi della
Comedia ch'egli intende o fa intendere d'avere ' commentce
selon T esprit y ; e d'altre cose. II secondo opuscolo, che tengo
sul tavolino, fu pubblicato nel 1857 in Parigi dalla libreria
di Madame Veuve Jules Renouard." . . . — Sincerely yours,
S. KlRKUP.
119.— WILLIAM ROSSETTI— DIARY.
1866. Saturday, 19 May. — This has been almost the
first fully summer-like day, and is delightfully warm and
sunny. Embarked at Newhaven at nightfall.
Sunday, 20 May — . . . Came on to Paris . . . Went in
the evening to see the Biche au Bois, which has had so
surprising a run at the Porte St Martin (I suppose ij year
or so). It is very lavishly indeed got up. . . . After some
symptoms of harpyism on the part of the female boxkeepers,
I was agreeably surprised at one of them coming back to
return me a half Napoleon which I had given by mistake
instead of a half franc. . . .
Monday ', 21 May. — . . . Went to the Salon of Paintings
etc., which (so far as I have gone through it, about half)
seems below the mark. Three interesting works are
Briguiboul's Castor and Pollux, Faruffini's MacJiiavel and
Ccesar Borgia, and Pille's Duke of Saxony after Condemnation
to Death continuing his Game at Chess. Both the latter two
artists are new, as far as my recollection goes, and must do
remarkable works, from a considerable fund of artistic verve
and spe'cialite'. . . .
Tuesday, 22 May — . . . Finished with the general annual
exhibition, finding two very fine works by Courbet, One of
WILLIAM ROSSETTI— DIARY, 18GG 185
these is expected to obtain the grande incdaille ; though
the two works in competition with it (according to the
newspapers) show that a very bad range of taste prevails
in powerful quarters ; one of them being a horrid Christ
among the Doctors by Ribot, and the other, by Bonnat, St
Vincent de Paul taking the Galley -Convict's Place, being a
commonplace though somewhat masterly sort of thing. . . .
Wednesday, 23 May. — Looked into Notre Dame, and
found the decorations of the chapels pretty well finished.
Now that this is done, though perhaps scarcely a line or a
colour of these decorations is artistically right, the Church
certainly looks more itself, and one sees a kind of reason in
the system of renovation ; which has got rid of a good
deal of rococo and other rubbishy accretion, and has brought
the building into harmony with itself, — if indeed mechanical
pretence at medievalism were harmony with the great work
of medisevalism itself. . . .
Saturday, 26 May. — Arrived in Marseilles soon after 7 A.M.
. . . Went to the Jardin Zoologique, where lizards are as
plentiful as blackberries : I also saw a big locust flying about,
and hardly knew at first whether he was bird or insect.
There is a very grand elephant, who made an unprovoked
assault upon me as I stood close up to his bar before offering
him the bread I held. He thrust his trunk into my face ;
wound it round my neck, knocking my hat off; and I
scarcely know why he didn't strangle me outright while he
was about it. He afterwards accepted my bread without
further demonstrations. There are two blue-faced baboons
here : also two lions, — one of which not long ago got out
of his cage through some careless fumbling of a visitor, and
walked about with visitors in the garden, but without offering
harm to anybody, and was without difficulty got back into
the cage by his keeper. This was told me by a female
keeper ; who, on my afterwards remarking that we had in
London a collection with many more animals, explained that
by England's being so much nearer to Africa ! A man
brought a young hyaena, eighteen days old, " doux comme
wi chien " (which he really appeared to be on my handling
ISC, UOSSETTI PAPERS
him), and recommended him warmly to me as a desirable
investment. . . .
Sunday, 27 May. — Embarked in the morning on board
the General Abbatucci for Naples. . . . The effect, in the late
afternoon and onwards, of a low line of clouds along the
sea-horizon, in front of the cliffs of the coast, was very
interesting, and I don't know that I had seen it before.
In blue and sheeny surface rolls the sea
Mediterranean, and the coast of France,
A wall of crumpled swaying cliffs askance,
Dim in sun-dimness lies prolongingly.
Overhead azure, rimmed with clouds which flee
No whit, but hardly altered meet the glance
From the hour's end to end, a cognizance
Which crests the cliffs as they the waves. And we
Smoothly and firmly from the morn till now,
When sidelong sunbeams heat the afternoon,
With freshness and with leisure cleave our way :
And on and onward through the sun and moon,
With first a sea-gull flitting, next a prow,
Our steam shall change Marseilles to Genoa.
Monday, 28 May. — Landed about 5 A.M. in Genoa, and
was discomfited by a seccatore* Belgian-Yankee, who could
not be staved off from going on shore and about with me ;
along with a Breton-Frenchman, whose company, though I
would willingly have dispensed with it, I did not otherwise
dislike. Soon after landing we were joined by two other
fellow-passengers, a Lombard of cosmopolitan habits, and
an elderly Frenchman, both of whom were good company
enough. , . . One of the first things we had seen in the
morning was a boatful of Garibaldini ; "\ who, as we learned
talking to a knot of them, were (this batch) all from Palermo,
and en route to Como — many of them the merest lads, and
some, I should think, not yet fifteen. (I am told too by an
Italian boatman that various women were among them.) Vol-
unteers are being forwarded thus every day (I saw a printed
* Bore.
t It will be remembered that the year 1866 was that in which Prussia
and Italy, as allies, fought against Austria. The Italians, taken singly,
were not successful, but the liberation of Venetia was effected.
WILLIAM ROSSETTI— DIARY, 1
proclamation limiting their daily enrolments), and some 50
or 60 thousand are spoken of as already gone North. Gari-
baldi's own whereabouts was not clear to my Palermitans :
some supposed him at Caprera, others at Florence, and the
rumour ran that he was to be at Genoa to-morrow (Tuesday).
Saw also the military initiation of a number of very raw
recruits at one end of the town. . . . Took a cab and went
to ... San Matteo, one of the oldest churches of Genoa,
with a deal of sculpture by Montorsoli ; of which a good
deal is more or less good, while one group, the Madonna
with dead Christ, is extraordinarily fine — indeed, I think,
one of the chefs-d'oeuvre of modern sculpture. . . . Palazzi
Brignole-Sale, Durazzo, and Doria. The two former have
many fine pictures ; in the second is a large life-sized Van-
dyck, called merely Una Dama e due Putti* which is quite
extraordinary, — I think on the whole the greatest of all his
works I know. . . . Later in the evening saw at another
book-seller's two copies of Carducci's Selection from my
Father's poems, and asked whether the book sold much ;
which the shop-keeper told me it did, being sought after for
its agreeable and choice Italian, among other qualities. . . .
Tuesday, 29 May. — Landed at Leghorn towards 6 A.M.,
having the day before me till 4 P.M. . . . Many volunteers
are leaving from here also, of whom a good number were
going through the streets to the railway-station in the morn-
ing. Plenty of sympathy and company for them ; but no
cheers or strong demonstrations, though they belong to
Leghorn itself. . . .
Thursday, 31 May. — After sleeping on board till about
six, landed in Naples. A rainy day as soon as I got housed
in the Hotel de Russie, in the Santa Lucia quarter. . . .
Friday, I June. — . . . Returned to the Museum. . . .
Getting to talk with one of the attendants in the sculpture-
department, I informed him who my Father was ; •)• and he
spoke to another of the attendants named Albertis (or De
* A lady and two children.
t I.e., that he was Gabriele Rossetti, who had in his early manhood
been custodian of that same department.
188 ROSSETTI PAPERS
Albertis), who entered into conversation, saying that his
Father had known mine well, and asking with interest whether
he ever became blind. He says there was some employe
who had a portrait of my Father done during his stay in
Naples ; * but, on making enquiry at my request, he found
it had been taken away by the owner's son or representative.
He says there is a book of the Poesie Inedite with a portrait
to be got in shops on the Molo. I found in another shop a
collection, new to me, by Di Stefano (without portrait), and
a Paris edition of the Roma, both which I bought. In the
evening walked out through the grounds of the Villa Reale,
and on to the entrance of the Grotto of Posilipo, returning
by the Riviera di Chiaia, and going on to the port and
lighthouse, and thence home. An out-of-doors Punch was
going on — the voice of the personage precisely the same as
in London ; and the sort of action seems much the same
(i.e., Punch knocking other people about), but the costume
is that of the Neapolitan Punch. . . .
p Saturday, 2 June. — . . . Started off towards the East
and South lines of streets ; but, getting embarrassed in
them, returned home in a cab. There is a tremendous
amount of life in Naples : — crowds flooding the principal
streets on and off the footways (where such exist), children
lying about on the pavements or roadways, and everybody
taking it easy or doing it lively. As I sit writing this at my
hotel-window, which overlooks a rude pier, I see numbers of
youths, say from twelve to eighteen years old, running about
thereon as naked as they were born, before or after bathing,
i within 10 or 20 feet of the onlookers on the foot-path. . . .
Sunday, 3 June. — . . . Took a cab, intending to see some
churches. Entered San Domenico, and find fully confirmed
what Murray says of the fine mediaeval sculptured monu-
ments of Naples. Some of the recumbent effigies and slab-
tombs here are about the finest things I know in that very
noble style. Was turned out by the necessity of closing
the church before I had seen one-third of it. This is a
* Possibly this may have been a miniature rather theatrically treated,
which at a later date was purchased by Christina and myself.
WILLIAM ROSSETTI— DIARY, 1866 189
pest which travellers — or at any rate I — don't sufficiently
reflect about, and which frequently persecutes me. . . .
Tuesday, 5 June. — . . . Saw the Church of Monte Oliveto,
and that of Santa Chiara ; both full of splendid mediaeval
tombs, about the finest things in that line in Europe, and
other sculpture. The pavements of figured tiles, and occa-
sionally mosaic as in St Mark's of Venice, also full of
excellence. In Monte Oliveto saw a curious thing, a priest
confessing a deaf and dumb woman, of course all by action ;
but for convenance, one would have liked to watch the
actions, no doubt most expressive in this gesticulating
country. Could not get to see the great Gothic monument
in Santa Chiara to King Robert, which one has to mount
a ladder behind the high altar to look at. I notice in
several monuments a peculiarity (query whether so origin-
ally) which gives one all the completer view of the effigies,
but injures the sense of repose and fitness — the figures are
represented sometimes sideways, so that they would slide
off, or, in slab-figures, set flush with the wall. There is
one most splendid work thus, set up to a man and his
wife, the latter being the slab-figure; nothing more per-
fectly felt exists. Also in Monte Oliveto a most heavenly
monument to Mary, the natural daughter of one of the
Aragonese kings. Indeed, these sort of works are so fine
and frequent that Naples is most grossly belied by people
who fancy it rather barren than otherwise in point of art,
as Scott had been prompted. . . . Here is a good epitaph,
rather Pagan-sounding, from Monte Oliveto : " Fui non sum
— estis non eritis — nemo immortalis." . . .
Sunday, 10 June. — ... I am assured that Naples is
very sensibly improved in point of cleanliness since the
advent of Victor Emmanuel, before which it must have
been Bohemian indeed ; also that the material well-being
of the people, price of ordinary and skilled labour, etc., are
greatly bettered ; and my informants are Sim* and others
* Dr Robert Sim. He had known Mr Holman-Hunt in Jerusalem
towards 1854: I was afterwards introduced to him in London, and in
Naples I re-encountered him.
190 ROSSETTI PAPERS
of the English section, who seem by no means ebullient
nationalists. . . . Was engaged to call upon Sim at 8J P.M.,
and accompany him to a Methodist or some such chapel
where they habitually sing hymns from the Arpa Evan-
gelica : * but unfortunately, having lain down on bed upon
my return to the hotel towards 6, never woke up till about
9, too late to fulfil the engagement.
Monday ', 1 1 June. — Set ofT to see some more churches.
Sant' Angelo a Nilo, with a great tomb to a Cardinal by
Donatello and Michelozzo ; a great work, especially the
Angels contemplating the dead man, and the bas-relief by
Donatello of the Assumption of the Virgin^ represented old
and with a wonderful sentiment in the face. ... I should
have noted that the other day, dining with the Bonhams,f
I asked about my cousin PietrocolaJ and find he is con-
siderably liked personally, as well as esteemed as a minia-
ture-painter ; he is staying at present at Sant' Agata, out
of Naples, his studio being in Via dell' Ascensione. He is
a man of some fifty or more.
Tuesday -, 12 June. — . . . Sim taking hospitable possession
of me for the remainder of the day, I did no more in the
way of sight-seeing, but was about with him ; calling on
the Pelham Maitlands,§ seeing Miss Neeve and her party off
for Genoa, paying my passage-money, etc. ... Saw on the
Genoa boat a man whom Sim declares to be Dumas, and
he certainly is a good deal like the portraits, only wanting
in what I had supposed certain, dark complexion ; he must
be something over six feet high, grizzled, and looks the
picture of acute bonhomie : orange-brown velvet jacket and
white trousers. . . .
Thursday ', 14 June. — . . . To the exhibition of the
Societa Promotrice delle Belle Arti in the ex-convent of
San Domenico : a small exhibition, and certainly not a good
one, but still better than I had expected. There is, I
* My Father's book of sacred poems.
t Mr Bonham was the British Consul in Naples.
| A relative of Teodorico Pietrocola-Rossetti.
§ The Rev. Mr Pelham Maitland was the British Chaplain.
WILLIAM ROSSETTI— DIARY, 1866 191
think, talent more and better than in our secondary London
exhibitions, spite of very poor style in the drawing etc.
Sacred subjects are almost or entirely absent, those of
history or historic genre frequent enough : the size of the
works small, with perhaps not three exceeding six feet
in length. Bought in the Strada di Toledo the Naples
(1848) edition of the Veggente in Solitudine*. . . Finished-
up the evening at Mr and Mrs Hirsch's f in a very Hebraic
company. Some table-turning again, of which nothing came
worth recording here ; but many very strong movements in
the table, such as I saw no reason for thinking ungenuine.
Hirsch, it seems, who was the loudest of laughers at the
table-turning of Saturday, has in the interval, with his wife,
had some messages which have considerably surprised him,
and this evening he seemed the most serious experimenter
in the company.
Friday ', 15 June. — ... It turned out that I had got
changed into paper just about the right sum to give me the
fair advantage of it upon my hotel and steamer bills ; and
somewhat to my surprise no objection (which would however
have been illegal) was raised to my paying 140 francs in
paper upon the bill of 124 francs 50 cents, and getting
the full change in silver. On the whole, though all the
English residents seem equally abusive of Neapolitans
(which means here only the inhabitants of the actual city
of Naples), I have had no reason at all to regard them
as more extortionate or cheating than other people ; and
I even doubt whether there is any more need here than
in most other places for higgling and beating down in shops
etc. . . . Going aboard the StrombolL . . .
Saturday, 16 June. — Back by a circuitous drive to the
ship, which really did start punctually at the last-announced
hour, 4 P.M. The ship is heavily laden with cannon for
Genoa, the sea is brisker than on my out-voyage, and there
is a good deal of rolling. . . .
* By Gabriele Rossetti.
t I suppose this Mr Hirsch was the financier known as Baron Hirsch
— may be mistaken.
192 ROSSETTI PAPERS
Monday, 18 June. — . . . Our landing at Genoa had been
notified for about 6 A.M., but did not take place till about
that hour P.M. . . .
Tuesday, 19 June. — Everybody having told me to go
to the Villa Pallavicini, and I not knowing exactly what
would be the nature of the entertainment there provided,
I spent (not to say, lost) the whole day in getting and
staying there. . . . The fun of the Villa Pallavicini, which
so delights the modern Italian and tourist minds, consists
in its being factitious from top to bottom. An arid rock,
earth-clad and foliage-clad, and very charmingly laid-out
too by art. Sham Gothic towers ; sham classic temples ;
sham (i.e. pieced together) stalactite cavern ; a sham
monument to a supposititious warrior who got killed in
defending one of the fortresses against the other (! !) etc. etc.
The architect, a withered old-fashioned old man whom I
happened to see in the grounds, is Canzio, father of the
husband of Garibaldi's daughter. The concoction was
begun in 1838, and finished in 1846, occupying some two-
hundred men per day. It is a curious, and in its way
pleasing and successful, example of the silly in motive and
point of view. This Marquis Pallavicini is not the one
who shot down Garibaldi at Aspromonte (and who, I am
told by the by, has now sought Garibaldi's permission to
enter himself as a volunteer under him, and been welcomed),
but, says the custode, of a separate and distinct family. . . .
Thursday, 21 June. — The environs of Nice are exceedingly
fine. . . . Spite of its Gallicization, I notice in the shops
of Nice a good deal of glorification of Garibaldi ; but a
serial print of his achievements misses out all about the
defence of Rome. His birth-house is known here, but no
photograph of it obtainable. . . .
Sunday, 24 June. — . . . All the way up the Thames to
London. . . .
Friday, 5 October. — . . . Hotten * sent me Sw[inburne]'s
pamphlet, the proof, in vindication of Poems and Ballads,
* John Camden Hotten the Publisher, who was succeeded by the firm
of Chatto and Windus.
WILLIAM ROSSETTI- DIARY, 1866 193
asking me to look at it, and consider certain passages. . . .
The pamphlet is very vigorously written, and I think
calculated to lighten the odium against the poems ; though it
goes (as I told Sfwinburne] some weeks ago) beyond what I
think effective or candid in repudiating the imputations
of " immoral and blasphemous " matter. Left the proof at
Hotten's in the afternoon. Went to Chelsea. ... A raven
and several small birds bought by Gfabriel] arrived : saw
also for the first time the Pomeranian puppy Punch, who
is a mild and confiding beast. Some section of the evening
occupied by the evasion of one of the juvenile white mice,
which jumped off a table, and ran behind a cupboard.
After a long while, the cage and mother being placed
close to the cupboard, it followed its mother back into
the cage. . . .
Saturday r, 6 October. — At Hotten's request, called on
him to talk over Swinburne's pamphlet, and offered to write
Sfwinburne] my opinion upon certain passages. H[otten]
says that the Athenceum article on S[winburne] was written
by Lush, son of a Q.C., the Saturday Review by John
Morley, and the Examiner (which however he had not
yet heard of) by Henry Morley ; that Mill, M.P., is indignant
at the clamour against S[winburne] ; that the Poems and
Ballads will again be on sale on Monday ; that he, H[otten],
would be glad to publish my Swinburne article, if it mis-
carries with The North American Review, — he says, to
publish it anonymously as a pamphlet, but I would put
my name to it. This may be worth attending to, and is
indeed what I had thought of, but I made no definite reply.
To-day's Examiner contains a highly laudatory notice of
Christina, the same series as the article on Swinburne. . . .
Thursday -, n October. — Ralston* called. . . . He was
just now at Cartledge's Temperance Hotel, Matlock, where
he found a drawing by Gabriel of the head of an old lady,
Mrs Wetherall ; this is the place where G[abriel] and
* Mr W. R. S. Ralston, who made a reputation as a Russian scholar
and translator. He was now (or had recently been) in the British
Museum.
N
194 UOSSETTt PAPERS
Lizzie stayed more than once. Cartledge declined to sell
it. Ralston told me this singular sympathy-story, related
to him by one of the parties concerned (the son in England),
and he says he has satisfied himself of its truth : (he does
not go in for such phenomena particularly). A gentleman
who had one son in Australia (say), and the other staying
with him in England, was seated at home with the latter
one day, when he suddenly saw present his son in Australia,
and started up to greet him : the appearance then vanished.
It afterwards turned out that, just about the same time,
the son in Australia had had a bad accident, falling from
some height, and had been thinking vividly of his father.
He did not die.
Friday, 12 October'. — Scott dined with me at Chelsea.
Gabriel and Sandys, I find, left on Monday, and are now
at Winchelsea. . . . Swinburne returned me his proof,
with most of the substantial alterations which had been
proposed. . . .
Saturday, 13 October. — Saw Hotten again with regard
to Swinburne's pamphlet. S[winburne] has shown his
usual good feeling and amenability to reason when sugges-
tions are made to him in a spirit and from a quarter
which he knows to be friendly. The issue of the book is
delayed till the pamphlet can be brought out to accom-
pany it. Spoke to H[otten] regarding his recent proposal,
which I am inclined to close with, to publish my review
of Swinburne, instead of its being sent to America. He
seems hardly prepared to pay anything for it. ...
Monday, 15 October. — Wrote to Hotten offering him
my review of Swinburne, if he will pay me £1$ down,
.undertake all expenses, and, after reimbursing himself both
these outlays, halve any profits.
Tuesday, 16 October. — Gabriel writes that he is going
to Stratford-on-Avon.
Wednesday, 17 October. — Hotten replies that he will
take my review on the terms named on 15.* I wrote a
* It was published under the title— SwinburnJs Poems and Ballads, a
Criticism, by William Michael Rossetti.
WILLIAM ROSSETTI— DtAftY, 1866 195
rief Prefatory Note to it, and made it ready for
delivery. . . .
Friday, 19 October. — Gabriel writes that, the weather
having broken, he shall not go to Stratford, but be back
to-morrow or Monday. Called on Inchbold by appoint-
ment, with regard to a proposed subscription for the
widow of Thomas Morten, and went on with him to A.
Houghton,* M[orten]'s executor. He seems a man of
superior quality. Has had one eye taken out in conse-
quence of an accident, and the other has of late plagued
him much with a sort of neuralgia, frequently preventing
him from working during one week or so out of three.
He says M[orten] was subject to epileptic fits. . . .
Hfoughton] is willing to undertake the general manage-
ment of the subscription, but would wish to have a Com-
mittee or so to fall back upon. ... I saw the paintings
and sketches left by M[orten]. He was engaged upon a
picture of The Council before tJie Massacre of St Bartholomew,
with the incident of the nobleman breaking his sword — a
very clever piece of work, though somewhat deficient in
backbone and solid study. . . .
Tuesday, 23 October. — Hotten paid me the £15 for
my pamphlet. Gabriel back, seeming a good deal brisker
and fresher. A barn - owl named Jessie, exceedingly
tame. . . .
TJuirsday, 25 October. — Howell, Chapman, -f- and Marks
the china-dealer, at dinner at Chelsea. A good deal of
talk about Ruskin. Howell says that R[uskin]'s income
is £22,000 a year, out of which he only keeps £1500 for
his own expenses. He sold the wine-business for the
equivalent of about £200,000, but this is paid to him as
an annuity. The expense of his books was huge — £12,000
for The Stones of Venice, and £25,000 for the whole lot (I
think). The sales have covered the total, and yielded
* Alfred Boyd Houghton, deservedly prized as a woodcut illustrator
etc.
f Mr George W. Chapman, a painter (principally of portraits) of
some grace and faculty. He died some few years afterwards, still young.
196 ROSSETTI PAPERS
him a profit of £40. He lately gave £7000 to a hard-up
clergyman : a Greek woman, of whom he knew nothing,
applied to him for £10, and he sent ;£ioo. . . . R[uskin]
(H[owell] says) speaks in high terms of my translation of
Dante, on the grounds of its extreme faithfulness. R[uskin],
when in Venice, could have got what he terms the finest
of the Venetian Palazzi for £500 down : H[owell] under-
stands he would have done so but for not anticipating
any departure of the Austrians, or consequent change in
the price of property. He has taken charge of Miss
Hilliard, the niece of Lady Trevelyan, who was abroad
with them at the time of the latter's death. He also
maintains, by an annual allowance, the Father and Mother
of his late Wife. . . .
Sunday, 28 October. — Houghton called. It seems he
was in India in his childhood, being the son of an Indian
officer, and has some knowledge of oriental matters, which
influenced his Arabian Nights designs. He says the Persian
cat ought to be prevented from eating any fish, or her fur
will spoil : the Persians are particular in this, though fish
are commonly used as manure, and are thus eaten even
by the cattle. . . .
Friday, 2 November. — Whistler back at last from South
America, whither he went about the beginning of last
February. He has painted next to nothing, and seems
to have found but little to interest him in his travels
— Valparaiso, Lima (which he likes much the better)
etc. . . .
Saturday, 3 November. — . . . Dined with Scott, Linton
(who is off to America for some three months), etc.—
L[inton] says he knows as a fact that the whole of Gari-
baldi's Sicilian expedition was directed by Mazzini. . . .
Monday, 5 November. — Dined at Jones's. . . . Howell tells
me in confidence that the melancholy which now besets
Ruskin, and which just at present makes him almost defin-
itely out of health, is partly based on the fact that R[uskin]
is in love (he did not say with whom), and under his
peculiar circumstances embarrassed in declaring himself or
WILLIAM ROSSETTI— DIARY, 1866 197
deciding upon a course of action. It seems that some
while ago an American lady, the reverse of young, came
over in full knowledge of the published facts about Ruskin,
and distinctly proposed to him : they still correspond, though
her suit was not crowned with any success. Saw the (on
the whole) very handsome article on Swinburne in Fraser :
also Jones's series of Tannhaiiser designs, and his lovely
picture of Cupid watching Psyche reposing — in some respects
about the best thing he has done. He adores Raphael now!
beyond all painters. . . .
Monday, 12 November. — My Criticism on Swinburne out,
and sent me by Hotten. . . .
Monday ', 19 November. — The Star this morning has an
abusive little paragraph against my Swinburne brochure :
The Saturday Review is markedly civil to me (far contrary
to my expectation), and makes some approaches to amends
towards the genius of Sw[inburne]. A party at Brown's,
where his picture of Cordelia's Departure with King of
France, water-colour sold to Craven, was to be seen.
Sw[inburne] there, being back for a fortnight or so : speaks
with great satisfaction of my pamphlet. . . .
Tuesday, 20 November. — Hotten says that his first lot of
Sw[inburne]'s poems, which I understand to be all he got
from Moxon, has sold, and he is going to have-in another
lot : the like with Sw[inburne]'s Notes. My pamphlet
consists of 250 copies. . . . H[otten] showed me a con-
fidential letter addressed to him by one of the Police-
magistrates, saying that he is satisfied Sw[inburne]'s book
is not seizable nor indictable : the only question being
whether H[otten] could prosecute any other publisher who
might re-publish the book unauthorized.
Wednesday, 21 November. — Sandys says he knows the
Saturday Review notice of Sw[inburne]'s poems was by
John Morley : he doubts whether the present notice of my
pamphlet is so. Traventi called at Albany Street, wishing
Christina to make some verbal alterations in the Birthday,
to make it more intelligible when set to music ; she con-
sented. T[raventi]'s first musical composition was to "Sei
198 ROSSETTI PAPERS
pur bella" * and used to be much sung about in chorus
towards 1848. . . .
Tuesday, 4 December. — Dined at Ruskin's — the first time I
have so much as seen him these three or four years. He
looks to me on the whole well, and somewhat less fragile
than of yore. His Mother tells me she will be eighty-six
next birthday : she has lost one eye altogether, and says
(though I had before been told the contrary) that her sight
now is altogether less good than when I used to see her.
She belongs to an English, not Scotch, family : her Husband
was born in Edinburgh, of a Galloway family. Rfuskin]
proposes to bring out a book of extracts from his works,
giving prominence to certain points he has at heart : the
extant Selections he had nothing to do with, but Harrison f
chiefly or wholly. He considers Titian, Velasquez, and a
third (I think Tintoret), the great masters of painting as
an art. I was introduced to Miss Agnew,j also Constance
Hilliard. R[uskin] wishes to resume seeing Gabriel ; and
I recommended him to call, and abstain from overhauling
/""his work too brusquely : he considers G[abriel], when he was
* last in the way of seeing him, had got into a bad way of
• work, though such as may be natural in a progressive course.
^Went hence to Howell's, where I saw his Tintoret, which
is a splendid decorative work. I could not affirm it to be
by Tintoret, but think it quite reasonably likely. R[uskin]
pays him ^300 a year : has given Cruikshank altogether
about £600 since the subscription-plan was started.
Wednesday, 5 December. — Called by invitation to see, for
the first time, Stephens and his Wife in their new home,
10 Hammersmith Terrace ; it seems, as far as one can judge
by night, an agreeable oldish house, the back looking out
direct on the river. The Browns there also. . . . Stephens
* Gabriele Rossetti's patriotic lyric, written in 1820. Traventi was
a Neapolitan musical-composer, who stayed from time to time in
London.
t Mr Harrison had edited something by Ruskin when the latter was
extremely young.
WILLIAM ROSSETTI— DIARY, 18GG 199
gives me distressing news of Hunt's Wife,* who, according
to Mrs Woolner, has had a relapse, and is in an alarming
state.
TJiursday, 6 December. — Dined at Street's,! who seems to
be (as I should have surmised) a strong Tory: detests Victor
Emmanuel, contemns Garibaldi, etc. Morris says he has
done something like half of his long poem.j
Friday, 7 December. — At Chelsea. I find that Ruskin
called on Gabriel on Wednesday, and all went off most
cordially — R[uskin] expressing great admiration of the
Beatrice in a Death-trance.^ . . .
Thursday, 13 December. — Resumed, after an interval of
two or 'three months, my translation of Dante — now in
Purgatorio, canto I/.U . . .
Saturday, 15 December — Dined with Brown, who has
just about finished a water-colour of The Last of England,
for which Kate did some preliminary work, showing appar-
ently very considerable aptitude : Nolly also shows some
promise as a designer, and Lucy, says B[rown], as a colourist.
... I am pleased to find my Swinburne pamphlet very much
lauded by B[rown].
Sunday, 16 December. — Wrote Macmillan asking whether
he would publish the selection I have noted down from my
articles in The Spectator etc. Began notes on the new
version of The Stations of Rome for the Early English Text
Society.
Monday, 17 December. — G[abriel] says that . . .
Waterford and Mrs Boyle are doing a set of illustrations
Christina's poems. . . .
Saturday, 22 December. — Stephens sends me the sad news
of Mrs Hunt's death on 20 December. Hotten tells me of
the purchase at Moxon's of two copies of Swinburne's Poems
* His first wife, be it understood.
t George Edmund Street, the Architect of the new Law-courts in
London, etc.
\ The Life and Death of Jason.
§ The Beata Beatrix, now in the National British Gallery.^
|| The translation went but very little beyond this point.
200 ROSSETTI PAPERS
and Ballads — Moxon's Edition — on 15 and 2\ December,
by Mr Graham, an American, for £i. is. each.* I wrote
Swinburne about this very suspicious-looking transaction.
Sunday, 23 December. — Wrote Hunt offering to come to
Florence, if it would be any satisfaction or convenience to
him.
Monday ', 24 December. — Martineau tells me that Mrs Hunt
died of fever supervening on the exhaustion of her confinement
— chiefly of a miliary fever to which Florence is especially
subject. . . .
Thursday -, 27 December. — Swinburne leaves to Hotten
any action on the sale by Payne of Poems and Ballads. . . .
Sunday, 30 December. — Revisited (at Mrs Masson's invi-
tation) the Ormes,f after an interval of some six years.
Herbert Spencer there, who seems to believe in many of
the reported phenomena of mesmerism, but not in their
being caused by effluence from one person to another. . . .
1 20. — DANTE ROSSETTI — SCRAPS.
[In a writing-book of my Brother, in which he jotted
down all sorts of casual trifles, I find the following 6 items,
which may be not totally undeserving of a niche here. — I. is
a skit upon the title, Essays written in the Intervals of Busi-
ness, of a book then much in vogue, done by Sir Arthur
Helps. 4. must be proper to the year 1866, when (as men-
* The Moxon firm having withdrawn Mr Swinburne's book on the
plea of its being immoral etc., and having sold the remainder to Mr
Hotten, they had of course no right to retain and sell some of the
copies ; for which a fancy-price was charged, obviously on account of
the scandal attached to the volume.
t Mrs Masson (wife of the Historiographer for Scotland) was a
daughter of Mrs Orme — a lady who, along with her family, had treated
me with constant kindness in my early youth, towards 1850. Mrs Orme
was a sister of the first Mrs Coventry Patmore, "the Angel in the
House,"
CHRISTINA ROSSETTI, 1866 201
tioned in my Diary) my Brother, with Mr Sandys, made a
little trip to Winchelsea and its neighbourhood. I insert
this slight jotting as being of use for fixing a date ; and I
take the same date as if it pertained to all the items, but it
would not have done so strictly. 5, a regimen for diet, may
have applied more to a generally plethoric habit of body in
those days than to anything like definite illness.]
1. Essays written in the Intervals of Lock-jaw, Elephan- ^
tiasis, and Penal Servitude.
2. Title for comic journal — Gas, or the London Luminary.
Cover, a large gas-lamp with the title on it, and dark view of
London street behind.
3. The " Cratur " of the Irish Volcano ; a whiskey-bottle,
with little Irishmen swarming up it, and taking fire at the
mouth.
4. Winchelsea, Northiam House. Tenterden, Kent, about
ten miles thence. Good Inn kept by Tabrett, within a drive
of Rye. Cranbrook, Dutch weaving-town.
5. From John Marshall. Eat meat, poultry, game, fish,
oysters, kidneys, green vegetables, stewed fruit, ripe fruit.
Small quantity of toast or rusk ; very few potatoes. Drink
thin wines or cyder; summer, claret or chablis, with equal
parts cold water. Winter, ditto, with half as much hot water
and nutmeg. Very little tea or coffee. Avoid or reduce
much bread, potatoes, sugar, beer, spirits, cocoa, chocolate,
olive-oil, eggs, bacon.
6. For plain scarlet : try laying ground with Venetian or
Indian red, and white, to the full depth of tone, and glazing
with orange-vermilion.
121. — CHRISTINA ROSSETTI to WILLIAM ROSSETTI, Naples.
[Mrs Cameron was a Sister of Mrs Prinsep, who lived at
Little Holland House, with her Son Valentine (the painter) ;
202 ROSSETTI PAPERS
also of Mrs (Lady) Dalrymple. Mr G. F. Watts, the
celebrated Painter, tenanted a studio in the same house.
Freshwater Bay was the ordinary residence of Mrs Cameron :
my Sister never visited her there, nor do I remember that
she ever set eyes on Tennyson.]
Miss BOYD, PENKILL CASTLE, GIRVAN, AYRSHIRE.
4 June 1866.
My dear William, — I hope you are amongst still finer
surroundings, but you are not badly off if you are only in a
country as fine as this. As to room, I suspect I exceed you,
inhabiting as I do an apartment like the best bedroom at
Tudor House on a large scale. Miss Boyd makes me very
welcome and comfortable, and the Scotts don't need com-
ment from me. . . . Ailsa Crag is a wonderfully poetical
object continually in sight. Of small fry, jackdaws perch
near the windows, and rabbits parade in full view of the
house. The glen is lovely. And, to crown all, we are having
pleasant mild summer.
This morning Pr\ince's~\ Pi\pgress\ actually came to
breakfast — blemished, to my sorrow, by perhaps the worst
misprint of all left uncorrected. . . .
Mrs Cameron called one day (of course in London) with a
portfolio of her magnificent photographs, of which she kindly
presented five to Mamma, Maria, and self. Maria and I
returned her visit at Little Holland House, where we saw the
gigantic Val, Mr Watts, Mrs Dalrymple, and got a glimpse
of Browning, besides of course seeing Mrs Cameron. I am
asked down to Freshwater Bay, and promised to see Tenny-
son if I go ; but the whole plan is altogether uncertain, and I
am too shy to contemplate it with anything like unmixed
pleasure. . . . — Always your loving sister,
CHRISTINA G. ROSSETTI.
DANTE ROSSETTI, 1866 203
122.— DANTE ROSSETTI to MADOX BROWN.
[The point of this letter lies in its illustrative design* •
not here reproduced. — The Portrait of Janey (Mrs William '
Morris) is, I suppose, the oil-portrait, three-quarters figure
in a blue dress, which now hangs in the National British
Gallery : I question whether it was finished much before
1869. — In the afore-named design Rossetti has depicted J
himself as he would have looked if his dress-coat had been
doffed, with a great rent in the back of his waistcoat and
trowsers : he is tearing his hair. William Morris is present
— a dumpy figure amusingly caricatured ; also Brown, his
Wife and Daughter Lucy, Holman-Hunt, and two other
personages who are probably Peter Paul Marshall and
W^arington Taylor. The design is under-written with the
words " Physical condition " etc. — The Tupper named at
the close of the letter is of course the author of Proverbial
Philosophy — not our friend John Lucas Tupper.]
16 CHEYNE WALK.
1 6 June 1866.
My dear Brown, — If you can conveniently, will you!
let me have that big Scrap-book again to-morrow (Friday).
My reason is that I believe I shall begin a portrait of
Janey on Saturday; and, if I do it in the same action as
the drawing in the book, I might square it off life-size
before she comes.
I was very sorry to bolt in that way so early from
such a really jolly party as yours. But, Brown, if you had
known ! Doubtless you, in common with your guests,
admired my elegant languor and easy grace. But O
Brown, had Truth herself been there to rend away my
sheltering coat ! Behold me !
Physical condition and mental attitude.
The burden of conscious fat and hypocrisy, the stings
of remorse, the haunting dread of exposure as every motion
wafted the outer garment to this side or to that, the senses
204 ROSSETTI PAPERS
quickened to catch the fatal sound of further rents, — all
this and more — but let us draw once more over the scene
that veil which Fate respected. Might not Tupper say
truly, " Let not Man, fattening, leave his dress-trowsers too
long unworn, lest a worse thing come unto him " ? — Your
affectionate
D. G. R.
123. — BARONE KIRKUP to WILLIAM ROSSETTI.
[As to the statement "the Italians have now been
defeated," see a note on p. 186. The remarks which follow
this apply to the war of 1859 — Sardinia and France against
Austria.]
2 PONTE VECCHIO, FLORENCE.
2 July 1866.
My dear Rossetti, — I don't wonder at your spending all
the time you could afford in Naples. ... I was there in
the year '21 (of the Carbonari), and saw the Germans, and
the King with his dispensation for perjury. The Italians
have now been defeated, but they are not discouraged. I
am most so at the defeat of the Liberals in England, and
the return of the Derby party just at this moment. That
man caused us the loss of Venice. He sent a fleet to
the Adriatic, menacing the French, and a ship of the
line to Leghorn to insult the Italians, because the G[rand]
Duke had run away from Florence ; and he encouraged
the Prussians to march to the Rhine, which was the cause
of the French deserting us at Villafranca. The Times alone
had a Special Correspondent at that time ; and the paper
was so full of lies and calumnies that I wrote to Lord
Lansdowne, who knew me formerly, and offered to send
him the truth, which he gladly accepted. And I sent him
no opinions of my own, but matters of fact: all the pro-
clamations, edicts, new laws, etc., printed by the Provisional
JOHN MURRAY, 1866
205
rovernment : to his great surprise and satisfaction. And
I continued till Lord Palmerston came in, when The Times
became veracious. A friend of mine here asked the Corre-
spondent how he could send such false reports ; and he
said he had always sent the truth, but that, when his
articles appeared in the paper, he did not know them
again, they were so changed to suit the politics of the
editor ! — a Derbyite, of course. . . .
I enclose you two photos of your dear Father from the
drawing of the Chevalier Liverati. It is a rough sketch ;
but he excelled in likeness, and had much practice. It is
washed and penned in sepia. It is 2\ inches from the top
of the head to the chin. One is for you, and one for your
Brother. . . . — Yours sincerely,
S. KiRKUP.
124. — JOHN MURRAY to WILLIAM ROSSETTI.
[I do not remember the details of this matter — beyond
the fact that Christina undertook and executed the trans-
lation, and so much as appears in No. 130.]
SOA ALBEMARLE STREET.
14 August 1866.
My dear Sir, — Do you happen to know any one capable
and willing to translate from Italian into English the
descriptive text of a work on Brick Architecture in
Italy, of which I enclose the title? It would require a
little technical knowledge of art to do it properly. It is not
a very extensive work, 50 or 60 pages of text perhaps.
I suppose you have not leisure, nor probably inclination,
to do it yourself. — I remain, dear Sir, yours very
faithfully,
JOHN MURRAY.
206 ROSSETTI PAPERS
125. — PROFESSOR NORTON to WILLIAM ROSSETTI.
[The publication of Mr Swinburne's Poems and Ballads
produced an amount of rage and noise such as the literary
arena seldom rings with. I wrote an article on the book, by
no means laudatory to the exclusion of some counter-
considerations, and I offered it to Professor Norton for his
North American Review. Before posting it to him, however,
I found that it would not be in harmony with opinions
concerning Mr Swinburne already expressed in that serial :
so I with-held it, and it was soon afterwards (as my Diary
shows) published in London as a small volume. Mr
Swinburne's book was withdrawn from circulation by its
publishers, Moxon and Co., acting through their managing
partner, Mr J. Bertrand Payne : it was then re-issued by
Mr Hotten. To this matter also some reference has already
been made in these pages.]
ASHFIELD, MASS.
12 September 1866.
Dear Mr Rossetti, — Ineed not tell you with what interest
and pleasure I should read anything you might send me
concerning Swinburne's poems; but I fear that your regard
for the author and admiration of his powers may lead you,
in the warmth of championship, to go farther in his defence
or in assertion of his merits than the severe critical
judgment of a Transatlantic Editor (the impersonation of
posterity !) will allow him to accompany you.
Lowell did write a notice of Swinburne, in the North
American for April, which you will find worth reading,
whether you agree or disagree with it.
I have not seen Swinburne's new volume — but only a
few poems taken from it. . . . — Always sincerely yours,
CHARLES E. NORTON.
BAROKE KIRKUP, 1866 207
126. — WILLIAM BELL SCOTT to WILLIAM ROSSETTI.
[By "Sir Walter" Mr Scott meant Sir Walter C.
Trevelyan, of Wallington, Northumberland.]
PENKILL.
1 6 September 1866.
My dear W. M. R. — . . . The paragraph] about Swin-
burne was sent me by Sir Walter along with The Pall Mall
G\a-zette\ and other things. . . . The paragraph] I judged from
the print to have been cut out of the London letter of the
Nortliern Daily Express ; but it is no use taking notice of
such. However, I heard that Woolner was the man to
bias the publisher and carry the point, in the consideration
of the withdrawal of Algernon's book ; and I at once wrote
Woolner, and asked him the question direct. I enclose his
letter and Payne's, which you can return to me when read.
You will prevent Gabriel or any one else repeating the
assertion — (observe, Woolner says directly that Payne had
seen or heard nothing of him for many months) — and do
justice to an old friend. The story I heard had nothing to
do with Gabriel. . . . — Yours ever,
W. B. SCOTT.
127.— BARONE KIRKUP to WILLIAM ROSSETTI.
[The "fratelli Bandieri" (or Bandiera) were two Italian
patriots in the Austrian military service, who, breaking loose
from Austria, raised an abortive insurrection in 1844: they
were both shot. The letter-opening by Sir James Graham
had to do with this affair.]
2 PONTE VECCHIO, [FLORENCE].
20 September 1866.
My dear Rossetti, — The Napoleonic plebiscite is only
a temptation to the Venetians not to join the Kingdom
208 ROSSETTI PAPERS
of Italy, which is already too great for the policy of
Bonaparte ; who deserted at Villafranca, and sent two
ambassadors to Florence to persuade and threaten the
Provisional Government to receive back the G[rand] Duke
under the presidency of the Pope, but he failed from the
firmness of Ricasoli and the Florentines. I knew one of his
agents, Joseph Poniatowski. The other Dukedoms the
same. . . . He wants Sardinia, and now sends a French
legion to defend the Pope against the Romans.
As for our good King, I hear that he is priest-ridden.
He had a mistress — no great harm, as he is a widower :
she died, and the Jesuits are now at work to provide him
^with another (une affiliee] ; we shall see what comes of it. ...
The King refused to accept Venice and make peace without
the consent of his ally of Prussia, according to an agree-
ment ; but the Prussians have made peace without the
consent of Italy, and Trent and Trieste will be lost ; and
they are both Italian, and will be left for some other
opportunity, and so they will remain for future con-
tention. . . .
I agree with you, Mazzini is a great man, — the greatest
statesman in Europe, as Garibaldi is the greatest soldier ;
but he, M[azzini], is blackballed and calumniated by the
English press, and the associates of the letter-opener
Graham are now in power. Remember, Lord Derby
was his companion when they deserted their party and
went over to the Tories. I wrote to Bright the other day
to remind him of it. In one of our rejoicings I saw a banner
at a window not long ago with an inscription, Alia memoria
del fratelli Bandieri, with a crape scarf attached to the
flag-staff. The Italians don't forget that affair.
I sent to Paris for Aroux's book. It is written in earnest
against Dante, and dedicated in a grovelling tone to the
Pope. Three-quarters of it is stolen from your Father with-
out acknowledgment ; and the original part of it is, ... I
suppose, ... in the MS. of Beatrice. ... I have only peeped
into Aroux as yet. I see he had taken much from the Mistero
dell A[mor\ P\latonico\ Whenever that comes out, it will
DANTE ROSSETTI, 1866 209
show up Mr A[roux] as a plagiarist. The copy sent to me
has this inscription : " A M. Ste Beuve, hommage affectueux
de 1'auteur E.A.," but Mr Ste B[euve] had never read it, for
the leaves were unopened. . . .
Bruno Bianchi's edition speaks highly of him [Gabriele
Rossetti] in the preface ; which surprised me, as he is a
priest. It is his first edition of the Divina Commedia, 1844.
His last, in 1863, is titled La Commedia di Dante. The
Pope has forbidden La Divina, and he is obliged to obey
orders. I have an edition expurgated by a Spanish In-
quisitor in Naples, with plenty of ink, so that not a word is
legible of four long passages. I was surprised there were
not more. . . .
My eyes are always threatening. I write most by feel, to
save them ; so excuse scrawl. — Yours sincerely,
SEYMOUR KIRKUP.
128. — DANTE ROSSETTI to MADOX BROWN.
[I am not at all sure as to the year in which this letter
was written. Possibly, rather than 1 866, the date ought- to
be 1865 : but other correspondence of Rossetti, proper to
the autumn of 1865, makes me doubtful as to this.]
16 CHEYNE WALK, CHELSEA.
26 September [1866?].
My dear Brown, — . . . I've just been to Llandaff re-
touching my picture, and have much improved the centre-
piece by lightening the Virgin and Child. I haven't been
well lately, and must try and get a change. I have been to
Marshall.
I shall look you up soon — I suppose you're mostly in of
evenings. — Yours affectionately,
GABRIEL.
o
210 ROSSETTI PAPERS
129.— WILLIAM ROSSETTI— A SPIRITUAL STANCE (No. 4).
[Lady Trevelyan, the wife of Sir Walter Trevelyan of
Wallington and of Seaton, had died not long before this date.
Dr Samuel Brown had been an intimate friend of Mr Scott's
youth. — Mr Oliphant, the husband of Mrs Oliphant the
novelist, had been known to Scott in more recent years as a
designer for stained glass in Newcastle. — Pritchard was a
doctor in Glasgow, who had come to the gallows for poison-
ing. I no longer remember details about Jeffery.]
Thursday, 18 October 1866. — Mrs Marshall's, the upstairs
front room. Daylight. Scott, Mrs Mfarshall], Mrs Mfarshall]
junior, and myself: Marshall occasionally in the room, but
mostly out. A slightish, rather clumsy round table. (Recorded
20 and 22 October.)
Scott had fixed that he would try for communications
from Lady Trevelyan, and next to her Dr Samuel Brown,
and the Surgeon Liston, and would ask advice as to the
discolouring of his nails. I fixed to try for Deverell and
Morten.
Mrs M[arshall] junior only at the table at first, and up to
a late period of the seance ; Mrs M[arshall] senior being not
far* ofif in a chair, seemingly dozing, as shown by frequent
tendency to snoring. Taps began, of increasing loudness,
almost as soon as we sat down.
Mrs M\arshair\ junior. — Is any spirit present? — Yes. —
Will you communicate with me? — No. — With this gentle-
man (myself) ? — Yes. — I then asked : Give your surname. —
Baker. — Christian name ? — John. — Profession ? — Lawyer. —
Did you know me? — Yes.— When? 1865? — No. — 1864? —
Yes. — All this being quite out of any cognizance of mine, I
asked for a message, which came very readily, " I tried to
obtain your money, but was flustered : " and then " I was
your great enemy." — As I could make nothing of all this, I
proposed that Scott should try to communicate with some
other spirit.
WILLIAM ROSSETTI, 1866 211
Scott. — Is there any spirit present who will communicate
with me? — Yes. — Surname? — First came P. Then Trery.
Then Trerol, and nothing beyond this obtainable (Lady
T[revelyan]'s Christian name was Pauline). — Give Christian
name? — Edward. — Give a message? — I would have lived,
had I been cared for. — Another ? — Look more to your health.
Take plenty of steel in sherry, and once a week take a little
charcoal. — Scott (I also assisting throughout this affair) now
tried again to obtain the name. The answer came, " What's
in a name? The rose by any other name would smell as
sweet." A further attempt produced the name Trehone.
Scott : Where did you know me ; the place where you lately
built a cottage? — Newcam. (Should have been Seaton). —
How long ago did you die? — Seven months since. (Scott
tells me Lady Tfrevelyan] really died 5^ months since). —
Where are you buried? — At the old place (not correct, if
meant for any place in England). — I asked whether the spirit
would give me the name of the place where I used to know
her : Answer, Yes. — Will you give it by taps in reply to the
alphabet ?— No.— Will you write it?— Yes.— On the table?—
No.— Below the table?— Yes.— Mrs M[arshall] junior then
placed below the leg or pillar of the table, where I could see
them, a pencil and paper. On picking these up at the end
of the seance, I found a few slight scratches on them (I am
not sure these were not there before, and they made no
approach at all to writing).
Scott now wrote covertly on a piece of paper the name
Samuel Brown, M.D., and asked whether that spirit would
communicate. — Yes. — Spell out the name? — Thomas Scott
(the surname given with a goodish amount of bungling).
Scott says he never knew any one so named.
I now asked if the spirit I was thinking of (this was
Morten) was present. — Yes. — Give your name ? — Olephafant.
— To me this suggested nothing ; but Scott remarked it
might be Oliphant, whom he had known. Scott asked :
Are you my friend Oliphant? — Yes. — Give your Christian
name? — Frank (correct). — Give me a message? — I am not
dead. . . . Will you tell me the place where you first knew
212 ROSSETTI PAPERS
me? — Newcastle. — Where did you die? — Albine Hills.
(Understanding this to mean Alban Hills, both these two
answers are correct, as Scott tells me. A previous attempt,
enquiring the name of the great city near which he died,
had failed). — What was your profession ? — Awi. — This came
more than once. Other attempts to get it correct, including
the running over the names of various professions, failed.
At last came "a tinker."
We now again tried to get into communication with
the previous spirit, which from some indications had
appeared to be possibly (as wished for) Lady Trevelyan.
In answer to the enquiry whether that same spirit was
present (we did not give the name, nor till after this the
sex) came "Yes." — Give your Christian name? — Page. —
Surname? — Trewel. — Is that the whole? — Yes. — Give your
maiden surname ? — Jerley. (Jermyn is the correct name).
— Try again ? — Jerman. — Try for your Christian name again ?
— Ajnes (with much bungling). Further attempts on this
tack came to nothing.
I now wrote on a paper, covertly, the name Deverell,
and asked " Is the spirit whose name I have written
present ? " — Yes. — Give the name ? — Elizabeth. — This, though
entirely wrong for Deverell, suggested to me the possible
presence of Lizzie. I asked for the surname, which came
S., and I could get no more.
After this failure, I asked " Is there any other spirit
present ? " — Yes. — Who ? — Your guardian angel. — Have you
wings? — No. — Are you like a man? — No. — Give a message?
— You will be called abroad, but you must not go. — When ?
— Next year. — What will happen if I do go? — You will be
very ill. [N.B. 2 April 1868. This came something a little
like true. At the end of 1866 I offered Hunt to join him
in Florence after his wife's death. He declined it for the
present, but said he might ask me at a future time. This
he never did. I did actually go abroad to Paris only : was
not quite well there, but also not ill.] — Can you tell me
where I purpose going to next year? — Yes. — Where? — To
Austria. — Any other place? — To India. — Any other place?
WILLIAM HOSSETTI, 1866 213
— To Spain. (The fact of this matter is that I purpose
going to Paris and Venice : Austria is not therefore absolutely
wrong. I had till recently purposed going to Spain, but
consider that intention pretty conclusively abandoned.
India is of course utterly wrong.) — Can you tell me
where I went to this year? — Yes. — Where? — Jersey (totally
wrong — Naples was the place). — Is there such a place as
hell? — No. — I mean a place where people are roasted and
so on? — No. — Is there any place of punishment for souls?
— Yes. — Do any souls remain there eternally? — No. — Then
will every soul that ever did or ever will go to hell get
out of it again? — Yes. — Such a ruffian as Pritchard, for
instance? — Yes. — Did he go to hell? — Yes. — Is he there
now? — No (I think was the answer, but am not quite sure).
—Is JefTery, hanged the other day, now in hell? — Yes. —
Is there any devil? — No. — No such being as is ordinarily
understood by the name Satan? — No. . . .
On Leaving the table, Scott and I looked at the " sperrit-
drawings " of which several new specimens are framed and
hung up in the room : things which it is a humiliation so
much as to look at — The Dream of Richard III., Witch of
Endor, Death of Richard II., a Fruitpiece, etc. M[arshall],
who is the author of these works, says that the spirits say
they influence him to produce them, " to show their power."
He seems totally unaware of the feelings with which any
one . . . must regard these performances.
Scott and I considered the stance on the whole a some-
what unsatisfactory one : yet, on reading-over the details
here set down (and which are all of any importance that I
remember to have happened), it cannot be denied that some
of the messages were curiously right, and others very near
being right. — N.B. To the best of my knowledge, none of
the Marshalls yet know my name or belongings, nor yet
Scott's : I have always been cautious to avoid calling him
by name, and, as far as I remember, have in practice
avoided doing so. All the answers given were by raps,
very prompt, but pretty often bungled, and on enquiry
revoked.
2U ROSSETTI PAPERS
130.— JOHN MURRAY to WILLIAM ROSSETTI.
SOA ALBEMARLE STREET.
i November [1866].
My dear Sir, — In consequence of your letter dated some
six or eight weeks ago, stating that Miss Rossetti would not
be indisposed to undertake for me the translation from the
Italian of certain descriptions belonging to a work on The
Terra Colta Edifices of N\prtli\ Italy , I have now the pleasure
to enclose an instalment of the MSS. ... It consists of: —
1. General Introduction on Terra Cotta.
2. San Gottardo, Milan.
3. Certosa, Pavia.
4. San Pietro in Ciel d'Oro, Pavia. . . . — Yours very
faithfully,
JOHN MURRAY.
131. — J. A. FROUDE to WILLIAM ROSSETTI.
[I have little doubt that my " American friend " was
Mr Stillman : but I do not remember the details of this
contribution (about the American Civil War) offered to
Fraser's Magazine^
5 ONSLOW GARDENS.
12 November 1866.
My dear Rossetti, — . . . Give me a day or two to think
about your American friend's letter. He ought to know
that many of us have all our lives been ardently desiring to
see England draw near to America. I myself always detested
the tone of the English press and English society about it :
yet, when the war broke out, my sympathies were with the
South, because I believed that the North was trying to do
what it could not do, and that it was bringing discredit upon
Republicanism by what I supposed to be useless violence.
BAllONE KIRKUP, 1866 215
I see that I was wrong — but we had no means of knowing
what the truth was, when their own people told such different
stories.
The letter will do good, I think, and I should like to
insert it : but, for my own sake, I must attach a few words
in a note, declining for myself to accept the blame which he
thinks we all deserve. Do you think I may do this without
giving fresh offence ? — Faithfully yours,
J. A. FROUDE.
132. — BARONE KIRKUP to WILLIAM ROSSETTI.
[Kirkup's intercourse with " the spirit of Dante " figures
more than once in his correspondence. He eventually sent
me a photograph of the drawing completed by " the spirit,"
and the signature to it : I could not perceive any symptom
of genuineness in either — the signature being in that sort
of semi-Gothicized or semi-legal text-hand which one often
sees over shop-fronts in Italy and France. — Beppo Giusti
is the satirical poet Giuseppe Giusti.]
FLORENCE, PONTE VECCHIO, 2.
13 November 1866.
My dear Rossetti, — Your letter confirms my idea that
our opinions agree on all subjects. My friend Trelawny is
the only man I know who thinks as we do of Mazzini. As
to religion, he, T[relawny], has none, any more than I had
before my spirit-revelation. He says : " I neither believe
nor disbelieve : I have no evidence." He does not care
about it, and has had no experience, as I have. . . .
Did I tell you that Dante has lately drawn part of his
own portrait, and written his name under it, to oblige me ?
He spells his name with two ll's, Dante Allighieri, which
is not the common way in Italy. The writing agrees
wonderfully with Leonardo Aretino's description. There is
216
ROSSETTI PAPEftS
no specimen extant in Italy. It is in a sort of Gothic
character, but not so ancient as I should have expected. I
have MSS. even of the thirteenth century written by Floren-
tines. He is now at Venice. He was with Garibaldi. All
my spirits left me when the war began (except two females),
and only came three times, to tell me news before it was
known in Florence. . . .
I always said I would believe in a future life if anybody
would come back to tell me of it. Well, they have come —
perhaps fifty in the twelve last years ; and the American
Minister at Turin told me that in his country respectable
and competent witnesses of such facts were counted not by
thousands but by millions. . . .
Your poor Father had the whole Commedia by heart !
Beppo Giusti, whom I knew intimately, had the same
power. . . . — Ever yours sincerely,
SEYMOUR KIRKUP.
In Verona Pietro Dante suppressed one "1," and made
it " Aliger," to be in fashion and favour at the Court of the
Scaligers. Hence the arms were changed to a wing, canting
arms. I have a tracing from the real arms of Dante, drawn
in 1302, the year of his banishment. It agrees with Pelli.
133. — JOHN RUSKIN to WILLIAM ROSSETTI.
[Refers to my brochure on Swinburne's Poems and
Ballads^
DENMARK HILL.
2 December 1866.
My dear Rossetti, — I don't often read criticisms (disliking
my own as much as or more than other people's), but I
have read this ; and like it much — and entirely concur with
it as far as you have carried it. But you have left the
fearful and melancholy mystery untouched, it seems to
TEODORICO PIETROCOLA-ROSSETTI, 1866 217
me, . . . the corruption which is peculiar to the genius of
modern days.
I hope George Richmond will dine with me on Tuesday
next, the 4th, at six : if this reaches you in time, I wish you
could come too. It is so long since I have seen you. — Ever
faithfully yours,
J. RUSKIN.
Love to Gabriel always.
134. — TEODORICO PIETROCOLA-ROSSETTI to WILLIAM
ROSSETTI — ( Translation).
[Our Cousin Teodorico made, and eventually published,
a skilful translation of Christina Rossetti's Goblin Market:
it is this of which he speaks as // Mercato dei Folletti. — The
name of Pasquale de' Virgilii is known to me, not solely
through Teodorico's letter ; but I must confess myself still
ignorant of his works. — Filippo Polidori was a first Cousin
of my Mother. Under the Grand-ducal government of
Tuscany he held a legal or official post of some repute ; but,
when Tuscany was absorbed in the Kingdom of Italy, he
was regarded as a " Codino," or effete adherent of the old
regime, and he lost his post, and spent his closing years in
some straits. He left a family ; one son is still living, also
(in Alessandria and Florence) the son's wife, and some
children and grandchildren. Teodorico refers to the cause
of Polidori's death ; it was, I think, a fall downstairs.]
CASA GUICCIARDINI, FLORENCE.
22 December 1866.
My very dear William, — . . . Not having yet taken a
settled home, I have not been able to get from Turin the
trunks containing books and MSS.; so I have not yet suc-
ceeded in obtaining and publishing // Mercato dei FollettL
But I trust to be able to do so shortly. I am curious to see
what effect may be produced on the Italians by Christina's
218 ROSSETTI PAPERS
style of poetry, so daring and fresh and fine. As regards
poems, here among us all is still regulated, and conformable
to the rules of the Ars Poetica ; if one excepts one Abruzzese,
a friend of mine, Pasquale de' Virgilii, who has broken the
Horatian dykes, and goes ahead untrammelled, producing
excellent things, but little appreciated. Lately he wrote a
historic drama, Nicolb de' Rienzi, worth its weight in gold. . . .
You will have learned by now that a most sad home-
occurrence has quenched the life of good, excellent Signor
Filippo Polidori. The poor widow, and his son, are incon-
solable. . . . — Your very affectionate Cousin,
T. PlETROCOLA-ROSSETTI.
135.— BARONE KIRKUP to WILLIAM ROSSETTI.
[Kirkup, in speaking of " my unexpected honours," refers
to the fact that he had recently been created a Barone in the
Kingdom of Italy. — "Mrs Watts, ne'e Howitt," was Mrs Anna
Mary Howitt- Watts, daughter of William and Mary Howitt,
and at one time a promising oil-painter, apart from being
" an extraordinary spirit-drawing medium " : I had first met
her as far back as 1850 or 1851. — "Dugald Massey" is mis-
takenly written by Kirkup for " Gerald Massey."]
FLORENCE, 2 PONTE VECCHIO.
30 December 1 866.
My dear Rossetti, — ... I am no flincher from the truth,
which is all that I care for ; and, though I cherish my new
religion, I should resign it if any proof could be brought
against it. I acquired it easily enough, for I had no false
religion to unlearn. I was like my friend Trelawny. . . .
I have a ... Comedy performed before the Court of
the Medici, and has been printed in three editions — La
Vedova, Comedia facetissima di M. Nicolo Buonaparte, Citta-
dino Florentine, 1518; and dedicated to a "nobilissima e
WARINGTON TAYLOR, 1866 219
gentilissima Signora." You may see it at the British
Museum, for my copy is a duplicate that they sold in 1769.
King Louis Bonaparte sent his nephew and his librarian to
offer me 10 louis for it, and I told them I never parted with
my friends in paper or parchment. . . .
I think I told you that Dante had returned, and claims
to be the cause of my unexpected honours. He has written
his name, and drawn part of his own portrait. . . .
Do you know Mrs Watts, nee Howitt, an extraordinary
spirit-drawing medium ? . . . — Yours sincerely,
S. KlRKUP.
I enclose my mask of Dante, the best that is known ;
likewise one for your Brother, and one for Swinburne, with
my regards.
Have you seen a work on Shakespear's Sonnets, written]
by his spirit, edited by Dugald Massey ? What is it ? An j
American told me of it. -J
136.— WARINGTON TAYLOR to WILLIAM ROSSETTI.
[I appear to have been solicited by some person — but I
don't now in the least recollect by whom — to introduce the
words of some song to the notice of a musical critic. Not
being myself familiar with that branch of criticism, I must
have sought advice from Mr Warington Taylor, the Manager
of the Morris Firm, who had previously been connected with
one of the opera-houses. He replied as follows, in terms
which would not have been highly gratifying to musical
critics.]
c
[LONDON.]
31 December 1866.
My dear William, — Received your letter yesterday.
Cannot do anything with critics without I could see them,
220 ROSSETTI PAPERS
which is beyond me now. But critics do not signify two-
pence for single ballads. The great thing is to get it sung
half a dozen times at large concerts by a really popular
singer. Of course I am speaking of the whole matter purely
in a commercial light. The song in question is sung by
Miss Pyne — excellent — better person could not be to make a
song. But in England the thing is to conciliate that person ;
if she don't like the words, strike 'em out — put in others —
put in what she likes. Singers, and particularly singers of
acknowledged position, look upon newspaper-writers with
contempt. To take to Miss Pyne the opinion of a critic
is treating her with contempt. She would throw the song
in the fire. You do not know in what contempt newspaper-
critics are held in London by the profession. If Miss P[yne]
will sing that song a few times, if she will declare it worth
anything, if she says it is popular, Chappell will buy it at
once and publish it. ... It is a great thing for a new man to
get to a great publisher like Chappell : . . . but Chappell, for
a first song, would not give above £$. But remember what
he can do — look how he keeps your name before the public ;
every week these enormous advertisements ; no private
individual could afford it. The thing is to keep your name
continually in print. Look how Dan Godfrey was made by
that house. He got £$ for The Guards' Waltz— Chappell
made thousands, and behaved very first-rate to Dan.
Summa : work Miss Pyne properly, and then Chappell.
— Yours,
W. TAYLOR.
137. — WILLIAM ROSSETTI — DIARY.
1867. Saturday, 12 January. — . . . Went down at
Swinburne's invitation to visit his Father at Holmwood.
The old gentleman is kindly and conversible, and has seen
and observed a number of things. Lady J[ane] Swinburne
has an attaching air and manner, and seems very agreeable
in home-life — simple, dignified, and clever. There are three
rlancrh
WILLIAM ROSSETTI— DIARY, 1867 221
daughters at home, all sensible and agreeable ; the second
with a handsome sprightly face, and the youngest evi-
dently talented. The younger son was unwell, and has
not shown. Swinburne shows well at home, being affec-
tionate in his manner with all the family, and ready in
conversing. . . .
Sunday, 13 January. — Stayed in at Holmwood all day,
the snow being tolerably thick (day fine and cold) ; save
for a stroll about the grounds, which are pleasant, as also
the house. Swinburne read me at night his poem, approach-
ing completion, on Italy ; yesterday, one which he has
written for the Candiote refugees, to give them the profits.
He also showed me the dedication to me of his book on
Blake. There is at Holmwood a portrait of Lady Jane
done by Kirkup some thirty-five or so years ago.
Monday, 14 January. — Came home : intensely cold. . . .
The Swinburne family generally have Algernon's passion
for cats. Admiral Swinburne was at one time stationed
off St Helena : he saw Napoleon, but only in a casual way,
far off. He has not a bad opinion of Sir H[udson] Lowe
personally ; and says there is reason to think that the
attempts made by Napoleon and his suite to carry on
clandestine communications etc. etc. were incessant and
most perplexing. . . .
Wednesday, 16 January. — Accompanied Swinburne in
looking out, at the British Museum Print-Room, such Blake
designs as might be adapted for re-production in his book.
Obtained a formal ticket of admission to Print-Room. . . .
Jones, who came round to us at Chelsea in the evening, says
his triptych of The Adoration of the Kings sold lately for £j
at a sale of effects, since which Bodley has re-purchased it
for £50. . . .
Tuesday, 22 January. — Gfabriel] dined by appointment
with Procter,* to enquire particulars about Wainwright,f
and received a good deal of information. I went to the
* The so-called Barry Cornwall.
t Wainwright was suspected of poisoning his wife and some one
else (towards 1835 perhaps) : this charge was not brought home to him,
222 ROSSETTI PAPERS
Burlington.* . . . Leighton there, very much dissatisfied
with the various designs sent in for a new National
Gallery. . . .
Monday -, 28 January. — . . . Macmillan replies that he
will publish, on half profits, the selection of my old articles,
as compiled by me in the second instance, without curtail-
ment.
Tuesday \ 29 January. — Howell selecting some autographs
from among the letters and papers which Gfabriel] brought
away with him from Chatham Place in '62 : the bulk of the
residue burned. . . .
Tuesday -, 5 February. — Accompanied G[abriel] to Marks's,
to look at the Chinese furniture he has bought there. . . .
Met here Birket Foster, who commissioned G[abriel] for two
pictures.f Went on to dine with Whistler, for his house-
warming at his new house in Lindsey Row. There are
some fine old fixtures, as doors, fireplace, etc. ; and Wfhistler]
has got-up the rooms with many delightful Japanesisms etc.
Saw for the first time his pagoda cabinet. He has two
or three sea-pieces new to me : one on which he particularly
lays stress, larger than the others, a very grey unbroken
sea : also a clever vivacious portrait of himself begun. Light
not sufficient for judging any of these adequately. . . .
Wednesday, 6 February. — My Aunt Margaret is now given
over, and not expected to live beyond to-morrow evening
at furthest. Copied out and sent to Dilberoglue such
passages from Stillman's letters concerning Crete as could be
publicly used without identifying or compromising him.
Thursday, 7 February. — Saw my Aunt in the morning — as
it proves, for the last time. . . . G[abriel] came in later in
the evening. The poor little tame barn-owl Jessie has
but he was convicted of a forgery or fraud, and transported. He was a
painter, also an art-critic under the pseudonym of Janus Weathercock.
My Brother thought his criticisms marked by much discernment, and had,
towards this time, rather a " fad " for knowing something about him.
* The Burlington Fine Arts Club.
t I think these pictures were executed, but have forgotten what they
were.
WILLIAM ROSSETTI— DIARY, 1867 223
had a horrid end, being found with her head bitten off —
it is surmised by the raven, which lives in the same cage,
but had hitherto, by the experience of many weeks, appeared
on perfectly good terms with her. The fate of our beasts
at Chelsea has been a most calamitous one. Two grass-
green parrakeets starved to death ; a green Jersey lizard
killed by a servant because he was regarded as a poisonous
eft ; a dormouse found with a hole in his throat, conjectured
to be done by the other dormice ; Loader's dog * split up
the back by the deerhound ; a tortoise found dead and
shrivelled, perhaps through inability to get at food : — not to
speak of natural but sudden deaths of two robins, a cardinal
grosbeak, a salamander, etc. etc. There was also a rabbit
eaten up (by cats ?) all but his tail, a pigeon devoured by a
hedgehog — which was afterwards found dead, and supposed
by Gfabriel] killed by the servants intentionally — another
pigeon which got paralysed or something, and lost all control
over its movements.
Friday ', 8 February. — My Aunt died about 5j this
morning, in a state of great exhaustion, but not apparently
much pain. Her age was seventy-three. . . .
Thursday, 14 February. — . . . Gabriel came in the
evening. He suggests to Christina to name to Roberts
Brothers (her American publishers), who wanted her to
propose some artist to illustrate somewhat cheaply some
one of her poems, Hughes, Houghton, and subordinately
Wigand and Knewstub.f These publishers sent Christina
the other day £38. ios., being the 10 per cent, upon her
sale : 3000 copies have been printed, and all disposed of
save 400 (or else 600). G[abriel] says his income in 1865
was about £2050 ; in 1866 £1800 odd.
Friday, 15 February. — Delivered the materials of my
* Loader was my Brother's servant.
t Arthur Hughes the painter ; Houghton already mentioned ; Wigand
was a young man known more particularly to some of my Aunts ; W. J.
Knewstub was my Brother's pupil. In a previous book of mine he was
termed my Brother's " professional assistant " ; but this seems to imply
a salaried post, which is not correct.
224 ROSSETTI PAPERS
Selection to Macmillan. Jones called at Chelsea. He says
that Watts debated and consulted friends as to whether
or not he should accept the R.A. Associateship, and finally
determined to do so. ... J[ones] says he himself feels much
like a fish out of water in the Water-Colour Society, and
often doubts whether he did well in joining it.
Saturday ', 16 February. — G[abriel]'s little oil-picture sold to
Leyland, The Christmas Carol, a girl singing and playing on a
lute, is now finished. In consequence of my Aunt Margaret's
death, the question arises whether we shall incur expense
upon our present house (166 Albany Street) by way of
utilizing the rooms she used to occupy, or whether we shall
look out for another house. In the latter case my Aunts
Charlotte and Eliza would like to join, which would enable
us to take a house at the rent of £1 10 or thereabouts. . . .
Friday, 22 February. — Called on Hotten relative to the
proofs of Swinburne's Blake, which are in some muddle.
H[otten] showed me a paragraph in an American paper
edited by Bryant, setting forth the affair of the sale by
Moxon of the suppressed copies of Poems and Ballads ;
slips of this paragraph have been printed off; also a long
criticism on Swinburne, very favourable on the whole, in
a German newspaper. . . .
r Saturday, 23 February. — Visited the Dudley Gallery, con-
taining Brown's Betrothal of Cordelia, two subjects from
poems by Christina,* etc. . . . Went to the Zoological
Gardens, first time for some months. The great rufous owl
is called Pel's owl : the black wombat very fat ; four tigers
fed in the same cage. Each (with much less ado and
savagery than the lion) stood up to take his hunch of meat,
disposed of it in a trice, and exchanged greetings with his
neighbour, rubbing noses, etc. . . .
Tuesday, 26 February. — Saw Sandys's Medea, which is
getting on, and coming, I think, his best work. Saffi dined
* They were by Eliza Martin and Mr Jopling : the latter was slightly
known to me, but not to Christina. The lady used the quotation " Life
is not good" etc. : Mr Jopling's subject was Lady Maggie (poem Maggie
a Lady). I do not remember either work.
WILLIAM ROSSETTI— DIARY, 1867 225
with us at Chelsea, along with Scott and Howell. Saffi
does not seem to contemplate settling in Italy at present :
he considers that the country has produced no statesman
since Cavour, and in especial no financier, and that the
financial condition is ominous. He says that Ugo Bassi,
the priest who along with Gavazzi was prominent in the
Hospitals of Rome under the Triumvirs, being caught by
the Papal legate Bedini, was actually, before being exe-
cuted, flayed, fingers and crown of the head, according to
some old ceremonial for the degrading of priests : this he
asserts to be an ascertained and incontrovertible fact. He
considers the Neapolitan and Southern provinces to be
especially fertile of a clever population, and that they will
probably take the intellectual lead shortly. Armellini, his
co-Triumvir, is dead : he does not believe much in Gavazzi,
but seems to have a friendly feeling towards him. . . .
Howell says that Carlyle got Ruskin to join the Eyre
Defence Fund* by urging him to second C[arlyle] in that
body ; and that Ruskin now considers himself somewhat
left in the lurch by C[arlyle]'s absence in Italy, while
Rfuskin], who would willingly have kept out of the whole
affair, remains here to bear the brunt. Sandys told me the
other day that Rose, or the Defence Committee, has re-
ceived a letter from Gordon's father, who actually applauds
the hanging of his son. . . .
Sunday -, 3 March. — . . . Mamma yesterday saw Woolner,
who has been to Florence, Rome, Naples, Mentone, etc. :
enormously delighted, and especially with Naples ; Florence,
where he had incessant rain, much less. He says Hunt is
much overcome, and greatly wrapped up now in his infant,
which seems ominously delicate. He proposes to send it
to Mrs Waugh,f and to go on himself in course of time to
Jerusalem. . . .
Tuesday, 5 March. — Howell says that ... at Ruskin's
* The fund for defending Governor Eyre, of Jamaica, against certain
proceedings consequent upon his acts in suppressing or punishing an
insurrection.
t Mother of Holman-Hunt's late wife.
P
226 ROSSETTt PAPERS
marriage ^"40,000 was settled on Mrs R[uskin] ; and that,
as far as he can trace out in the accounts, this sum has
remained with her, spite of the nullity-of-marriage suit.
He regards this as intentional generosity on R[uskin]'s
part, but does not seem to have ascertained whether
R[uskin] had really any power of revoking the settle-
ment. . . .
Saturday, g March. — Kirkup sent me a photograph of
the face of Dante which he drew, and to which Dante's
ghost (according to himself) added the outline of the head,
a wreath, and the signature. I see no look of genuineness
in these additions. Brown called, and borrowed some Italian
photographs, to use in the background of the Balcony-
scene from Romeo and Juliet which he is painting. . . .
Tuesday, 12 March. — Swinburne, who had accompanied
Scott to the Burlington, says that he received yesterday,
to his unspeakable satisfaction, a letter from Mazzini con-
sequent upon S[winburne]'s poem on the Cretan Insurrec-
tion in the Fortnightly. M[azzini] urges him to devote his
poetic powers to the great public cause, laying aside love
etc. poems. S[winburne] thinks very well of the comedy
.^and self-vindication written by Lorenzino de' Medici,* which
[ I lent him. Gabriel has resumed work on his Lady Lilith.
Wednesday, 13 March. — Forwarded to the Telegraph two
more Cretan letters from Stillman, and (observing that the
last two do not seem to have been published) enquired
whether they contemplate continuing the correspondence.
Thursday % 14 March. — A[lecco] lonides having invited
me to be introduced to the new Greek Minister, Sir Peter
Braila, I called on the latter (i Clarges Street). He is
evidently a man of great intelligence, and well up even in
such questions as the merits of V[ictor] Hugo, Tennyson,
etc. From the turn the conversation took, I infer that his
real object in wishing to know me was to see whether I
could be got to write for the Cretan cause in some news-
paper— for which however I have no opening. He seems
tolerably confident of the early release of Crete from
* See p. 247.
WILLIAM ROSSETTI— DIARY, 1867 227
urkey, and junction to Greece ; but is anxious that the
influence of England towards that result should not lag
behind that of France and Russia. „—
Friday, 15 March. — Gabriel re-painting the head of his
Venus. Robertson the dramatist called by appointment to
read the drama Caste which he has forthcoming : it is a"*"
work of decided ability, and I should say an assured
success. G[abriel] tells me he understands Rfobertson] used
to be a travelling showman. I should not have guessed it
from his conversation and manner, though no doubt these
might be toned down a little. . . . Robertson was the last
man who saw Artemus Ward alive, but already insensible,
at Southampton. He says his disease was not consump-
tion ; but thinks that Ward had been living very fast some
little while before coming over to England, and that his
constitution was thus shattered. He had a great regard
for W[ard]. . . .
Monday, 1 8 March. — . . . Woodward writes me that Day
and Son have just given up The Fine Arts Quarterly. . . .
Wednesday, 20 March. — . . . Christina has been solicited
by Elliot and Fry to sit for her photograph — they have
already done Miss Ingelow and Mrs Riddell : but she declines.*
Thursday r, 21 March. — . . . Visited Christie's, to see
Rose's pictures there collected for sale : Gabriel's Joan of
Arc, Doubles,^ etc.; Jones's Buondelmonte, Lous Veneris,
etc. ; Legros, Chapman, etc. It looks to me as if they_
would not sell high. Met here Howell. . . . He means at
Rose's sale to buy-in all Jones's pictures on Ruskin's
account — to be replaced at Jones's disposal for re-sale, and
any profit to remain for J[ones]. . . .
Saturday, 23 March. — Looked in at the sale of Rose's
pictures. Gabriel's fetched the highest prices obtained, yet
not high — £94. i Os. for the Joan of Arc. Also went to see
the Japanese conjurors at the Floral Hall : curious and
* I no longer recollect Christina's precise reason for declining. It
must, in a general way, have been modesty, based on religious con-
siderations.
t The subject entitled How they met Themselves.
228 ROSSETTI PAPERS
good. What amused me most was the gestures of the
conjuror in the mask of a tiger-cat. The two girls, stated
to be aged fourteen and sixteen, are less grown and
developed than English girls of corresponding age. . . .
r Tuesday, 26 March. — . . . Gabriel has received the
Botticelli (female half-figure) which he bought at Christie's
^(Colnaghi's sale) the other day for £20. . . . Here is a
generous act of Swinburne's — Chapman my authority.
S[winburne] and others dined the other day with Knight,
of The Sunday Times, concerning whose wife's trust-money
there was some difficulty then just turned up. This difficulty
came to Swinburne's ears a day or two afterwards, and he
wrote to Knight (who showed C[hapman] the letter) saying
that he happened then to have £200 in bank, which he
placed at K[night]'s disposal. K[night] declined with
thanks. . . .
f* Friday, 29 March. — Gabriel painting a water-colour,
founded on an old design, of a woman having her hair
combed out upwards. He has painted on the back of the
head of his Botticelli, and improved it very sensibly — the
previous condition of this part of the picture being obviously
v^yrong, and I understand injured by previous cleaning.
Whistler looked in. He says that he never from first to
last received any invitation to contribute to the British
Section of the Paris Exhibition. This might seem invidious :
but the result is that he gets in the American Section much
more space than could have been allotted him in the British.
He will have pictures in this Exhibition, in the ordinary
French Salon, and in the R.A., this year. The Salon
people, or some of them, have shown a high estimate of
him. . . .
Sunday, 3 1 March. — Called to see Whistler's pictures for
the R.A. etc. To the R.A. he means to send Symphony in
White No. 3 (heretofore named The Two Little White Girls)
and a Thames picture ; possibly also one of his four sea-
pictures ; and I rather recommended him to select the
largest of these, which he regards with predilection, of a
grey sea and very grey sky. His picture of four Japanese
WILLIAM ROSSETTI— DIARY, 1867 229
women looking out on a water-background (Thames) is as
good as done, and in many respects very excellent. I think
the unmitigated tint of the flooring should be gradated, but
he does not seem to see it. ...
Saturday, 6 April. — At the request of Reid, Keeper of
the British Museum Print-room, called to see a MS. in the
MS. department which has been offered through Colnaghi
as the production of Blake. I am quite satisfied Blake had
nothing to do with the composition or transcription of the
verses, or the composition or execution of the designs ; and
said so, promising to bring round our MS. book for com-
parison. Dined with the lonides (first time I have been
there). It was the anniversary-day of the Greeks in
connexion with their Revolution. The members of the
family seem all very intelligent, and the women especially
well-informed and interested in intellectual subjects — as is
also the case with the Spartalis. Miss I[onides] tells me
that Homer is read entirely by accent, and the value of
longs and shorts not now understood : she has herself done
o
a hexametral, and I understand quantitative, translation of
the first four books of The Iliad.
Tuesday, g April. — Maclennan called. He . . . says
that his professional income has not of late been improving,
but the contrary ; which he attributes partly to some pre-
judice consequent upon his book on Primitive Marriage,
and partly to the fact that some of his legal employers
have had immediate connexions of their own called to
the bar lately, and have transferred their business to
these. . . .
Wednesday, 10 April. — Showed our Blake MS. to Bond
of the British Museum, who appears to be now satisfied that
the volume offered to the Museum is not Blake's.
Thursday, 1 1 April. — Murray sent Christina a cheque for
£2 1 for her translating-work on the architectural book.
Friday, 12 April. — Gabriel is now doing a Paolo and
Francesca water-colour : substantially a duplicate of the
composition in the triptych-subject, but much altered in
background and effect. . . .
230 ROSSETTI PAPERS
Tuesday -, 16 April. — . . . G[abriel] and I met Scott at
the Burlington in the evening. S[cott] says that Swinburne,
being at Karl Blind's the other evening, met Mazzini
personally for the first time. M[azzini] walked straight up
to Sfwinburne], who fell on his knee before him and
kissed his hand. . . .
Friday, 19 April. — Gabriel doing a study . . . for a
picture which he proposes to call The Loving-Cup. He has
also done a study for a Margaret with the Jewels. . . .
Tuesday, 23 April. — Gabriel has begun the small oil-
picture of The Loving- Cup. ... I having said in the course of
conversation that I had found Jones's opinion of Leighton
entirely changed of late, and now very favourable to him as
a man, Howell tells me that L[eighton], observing the
prejudice Jones had conceived against him, called on J[ones]
some while ago, and in the handsomest manner expressed
his high admiration of J[ones] as a painter, and his wish to
serve him in any possible way, and to stand well in his
estimation. J[ones]'s aversion could naturally not stand out
against this. ... I am surprised to hear (from Howell) that
Lord Houghton was (equally to Swinburne with Mazzini)
most demonstrative towards Garibaldi when the latter was
in London two or three years ago, — H[oughton] having
actually, on being introduced to him, knelt down and kissed
his knees, not much to G[aribaldi]'s satisfaction. ...
Friday, 26 April. — Gabriel spoke to me about his health,
which in one respect has for some time past not been
right : he had consulted Marshall about it before he left
town in the autumn, and ought probably to be seeing
about it again now. He says that Swinburne called on him
the other day, and said he has been seeing a great deal of
Mazzini, partly at the latter's own house ; that M[azzini]
can be amusing in conversation, in describing people he
has met, etc. . . .
Tuesday, 30 April. — Called on Conway to fetch the
edition of Whitman which he had offered me. He lent me
also the pamphlet (in proofs) which Burroughs has written
on W[hitman]. . . .
WILLIAM ROSSETTI— DIARY, 1867 231
Thursday, 2 May. — Began re-studying Walt Whitman
for the article I am to write on him in The Chronicle* . . .
Sunday, 5 May. — Mamma now expresses her readiness
to move to the house we saw in Euston Square, provided
we can get it for £120.
Monday, 6 May. — Went for a short time to the R.A. ; it!
strikes me as a very vulgar and tawdry exhibition. Millais,.
I fear, going off seriously (Jephtha, etc.). ... JL
Tuesday, j May. — . . . Swinburne called — full of his
interviews with Mazzini ; who has a great objection to the
present Italian Government, even apart from the question
of monarchy, and would prefer to leave the Roman States
quiet for five years or so, rather than see them annexed to
the present Italian Kingdom by an immediate revolutionary
movement, as contemplated (it seems) by Garibaldi. S[win-
burne] speaks of M[azzini]'s immense magnetic power,
which he feels operating upon him, S[winburne], apart from
the enthusiasm which he entertains for his character.
M[azzini] goes frequently to Rome still — something like
once a year : he spoke with great regard of my Father, on
S[winburne]'s mentioning him. He lives in Fulham Road
in a very modest way — having, Sfwinburne] says, absolutely
no definite income of any kind. . . . Mazzini urges him
much to write poems with a directly democratic or humani-
tarian aim : which S[winburne] finds it difficult to shirk, at
the same time that he feels conscious that is not exactly his
line, and would not promote his true poetic development.
He says M[azzini] takes great interest in poetry : some, he
believes, in music : little or none, as far as he sees, in paint-
ing etc. _-
Wednesday, 8 May. — Met Webbf and others at Boyce's.J
. . . Howell says that, according to Mrs Jones, Jones is
(very needlessly) so down-hearted, in consequence of the
* This was a short-lived weekly review, on a plan resembling The
Saturday Review. It was chiefly an organ of Roman Catholics of liberal
opinions.
t Philip Webb, architect, a member of the Morris Firm.
\ George P. Boyce the water-colour painter,
232 ROSSETTI PAPERS
attacks and criticisms upon his pictures this year, that he
says it is just a toss-up whether or not he shall throw
/aside the brushes for ever. . . .
Saturday ', II May. — Met Cave Thomas, who appears to
consider himself somewhat aggrieved in the matter of the
testimonial which is being got up to Colonel Richards as
originator of the Volunteer movement. Thomas appears
to admit the claim of R[ichards] as having called a meet-
ing to start the question ; but says that himself (Thomas)
was the organizer of the movement, which he considers
much more important. . . .
Monday, 13 May. — Dined at HowelPs with Jones, Boyce,
and several others. ... A Civil-List pension has been
.granted to Cruikshank, £95 — in addition to an annual £50
/from R.A. Legros dilated on the derivation from England
of the whole romantic school of France, whether in litera-
ture or art — as Delacroix, Decamps, etc. His interest in
aft of this sort seems to grow less and less : he considers
Poussin, Watteau, David, and Ingres, the four lights of the
French School. He has received a medal at the Paris Salon.
Tuesday ', 14 May. — Miller, Windus,* and others, dined
at Chelsea. Miller says he is seventy-one years old : he
seems to me to have altered very little since I first knew
him in '57. Windus lives in a village near Preston. He
says that he promised his late wife that he would never
part from their daughter, which prevents his entering into
any arrangement which would allow of his pursuing his
profession advantageously — a.s in London. He has lost all
power of setting to work, or resolving to do so : yet, when-
ever he does attempt anything, he finds he paints better
than of old : Miller confirms this. . . .
Thursday, 16 May.— Dined at Scott's with Alf[red]
Hunt and his wife. . . . Hunt expresses a bitter feeling
against the R.A. in general, and in especial Creswick, who,
it seems, is regarded among landscape-painters as going
about saying that none of the rising men in that line is
* John Miller the Liverpool picture-collector ; W. L. Windus, the
painter of Burd Helen and other works of " Praeraphaelite " affinity.
WILLIAM ROSSETTI— DIARY, 1867 233
good enough for admission into the Academy. Hunt is
much put out at finding himself practically confined to
water-colours : his oil-pictures have more than once bee
rejected at the Academy. He made a remark which is
new to me, but may have some considerable element of
truth in it : that a figure-painter may expect to be in his
prime by the end of some ten years' practice, but a land-
scape-painter, according to the modern scheme of that art,
cannot possibly do his best till between forty and fifty —
the number of entirely different objects and phenomena to
be studied and" experimentally mastered being so enor-
mously great. Cox, next to Turner, is the English landj-j
scape-painter he admires. He himself paints wholly from
memory, with notes taken on the spot — not from full
sketches on the spot, nor yet (now) from the scene itself.
He intimates that he can refigure to himself, with extreme
precision and completeness, the scene he requires to paint,
with all its mental and accidental associations. ...
Tuesday, 21 May. — Gabriel has been taking-up his old
design of Hector and Cassandra, and would fain set to work!
at painting it. His enthusiasm for blue pots has gone to the^,
extent of buying from Marks two most sumptuous hawthorn-
pots with covers (the only covered ones in the market, he
says) — price £120. For this he is to paint a picture, and
will cover a previous account by making it worth £200. . . .
Wednesday, 22 May. — Dunn, whom I met the other!
day at Howell's, is now being employed by Gabriel on
a copy of his Beatrice in a Death-trance. ... ,4
Thursday, 23 May. — Met Swinburne and others at
Brown's. S[winburne] considers Matthew Arnold more
satisfactory as a poetic writer than either Browning or
Tennyson. Morris's poem of Jason is just out, and
S[winburne] purposes reviewing it in the Fortnightly. . . .
Jones is occupied on finishing the pictures he has had \
in hand this goodish while for Birket Foster. . . .
Wednesday, 29 May. — Gabriel has begun a portrait of
Mrs Leyland. Miller, Whistler, and other friends, at
Chelsea. Much discussion about Turner — Wfhistler] being
234 ROSSETTI PAPERS
against him as not meeting either the simply natural or
the decorative requirements of landscape-art, which he
regards as the only alternative. . . .
Monday, 3 June. — Hotten tells me that he has under-
taken to bring out a photographic copy of Blake's Jerusalem,
and I think some of the other books — the edition to be
limited to 100 copies. He is looking after a cast of Blake
from life (or death) in the possession of Richmond, with
a view to engraving it in Swinburne's book.
r Tuesday, 4 June. — Nolly Brown and his Father brought
round to Chelsea the water-colour by the former of Queen
Margaret and the Robber, which is certainly a singular
achievement for a boy of thirteen or twelve.* . . .
Wednesday, 5 June. — Ordered of Marks framing for
various Japanese coloured prints which I purpose hanging
in a continuous band round the new sitting-room — also
some further prints of same class. . . .
Tuesday, n June. — My Fine Art\ reached me com-
pleted. . . . Roberts Brothers propose to publish the few
prose tales etc. written by Christina.^ . . .
Thursday, 13 June. — Met Palgrave. . . . He suggests, as
a subject for me to take up, a collection of the memorable
observations on art made by English artists : and I am
not indisposed to see to this in course of time.§ Gabriel
occupied on a water-colour of a girl leaning on her arms
out of window. || Whistler, with whom we dined, has been
written to by the Burlington Club that, if he does not
resign on account of the Haden row,1F they would have
* He was in fact, at this date, only a little turned of twelve — having
been born in January 1855.
t I.e., the book (old articles re-printed) called Fine Art, chiefly
Contemporary.
\ This was not done.
§ I did make a compilation of this kind. It has not yet been pub-
lished, but possibly may be.
|| Must be the water-colour entitled The Rose.
IT I need not enter into the details of this matter, a difference between
Mr Whistler and his Brother-in-law Sir Seymour Haden. A few
particulars, affecting myself chiefly, appear in the sequel.
WILLIAM ROSSETT1— DIARY, 1867
235
to consider of his expulsion : if he resigns, his money would
be returned. Gabriel and I agree in considering this very
improper, as it amounts to condemning one member, un-
heard, on the ipse dixit of another. . . . Gabriel prepared
a letter to Wornum* expressing this view : and I have
made up my mind to resign if W[histler] is expelled. . . .
Mrs W[histler]f is shortly about to return for a while to
America, partly out of sympathy to many of her friends,
now reduced from affluence to penury. J W[illiam]
W[histler],§ who saw much of the Southern prisons, denies
that the Northern prisoners were ill-treated there, though
straitened (as were the Southerners themselves) in some
cases : he has no knowledge however of Andersonville. . . .
Saturday, 15 June. — Meeting Wornum, I talked-over the
Whistler affair with him. It seems that Haden said it would
be impossible for him to remain in the Club if W[histler]
did so. ... The Committee . . . thought they might them-
selves not be safe with W[histler], and they therefore
suggested to him to resign. I pointed out to Wornum
that it was not fair to ask him to resign without first
asking him to explain ; also assured him that there was
no practical ground for alarm on the part of the Committee,
or even of Haden while within the Club. Wornum informed
me that, after their first letter and Whistler's reply thereto,
the Committee have now invited an explanation from
him ; and, after a good deal of talk, I got him to admit
that the right time for doing this would have been before
asking him to resign. I told Wornum that, if Whistler
is expelled, I shall resign ; but shall not do anything in
the way of agitation or caballing meanwhile. . . .
Sunday, 16 June. — Sent to The Atlantic Monthly the
first two papers of Stillman's Cretan Days. Told Thornton
Hunt that S[tillman] ceases to write for the Telegraph. . . .
* Mr Ralph N. Wornum, Secretary to the National Gallery, was then
Secretary of the Burlington Club,
t The Painter's Mother.
| I.e., impoverished through the American Civil War,
§ A Surgeon, Brother of the Painter,
236 ROSSETTI PAPERS
Friday to Tuesday, 21 to 2$ June. — Moving into 56 Euston
Square. . . .
Friday, 5 July. — . . . Gabriel has very nearly finished his
>• half-figure of Mrs Leyland, and has written three lines of
Italian verse for it,* on the Poliziano model of style. Morris
has sold some 250 copies of his Jason — the last 100 of them
somewhat rapidly.
Thursday \ n July. — Got my pictures in the drawing-
room hung, and the bulk of the Japanese prints for the
dining-room. Howell (who dined here with his cousin f) and
Gabriel much pleased with the effect. Showed Hfowell] the
photograph sent me by Kirkup from the drawing whereon
(as he believes) Dante drew the shape of his cranium, and
wrote his name. H[owell] agrees with me in thinking the
name very suspicious ; he says that the flourishy lines scored
underneath it are rarely if ever found in mediaeval or other
than quite modern autographs.
Friday, 12 July. — Dodgson (the Oxford man and photo-
grapher) writes to Christina to say that a friend of his,
/ Rivington, would much like to illustrate either of Christina's
volumes, and would do it at little cost. Dfodgson] sends a
design by R[ivington] from Passing Away ;\ which, though
not advanced in execution, is finely felt, and a good deal like
what C[hristina] herself might do if she knew enough to
draw. . . .
Sunday, 14 July. — Left London in the morning, and got
out at Rugby for a day with Tupper ; who seems fairly well
and comfortable, but perhaps not receiving a very cordial
recognition from the School and other authorities. . . .
Tupper 's class has hitherto been two hours in the week ;
but, with many natural sciences now studied, it has
* The lines are certainly these : when I was compiling the Collected
Works of Dante Rossetti (1886), I had not identified the subject
of them : —
" Con manto d'oro, collana, ed anelli,
Le piace aver con quelli
Non altro che una rosa ai suoi capelli."
t Miss Kate Howell, afterwards his wife.
\ The design remains in my possession.
WILLIAM ROSSETTI— DIARY, 1867 237
dwindled to one hour, and Tfupper] thinks it will continue
on the wane.
Monday, 1 5 July. — . . . Left at noon.
Tuesday, 16 July. — Came on to Penkill. . . . Penkill is a
delightful habitation, though dark on a day like this, and
the grounds immediately about are exquisite as far as I
can yet judge them. Scott's pictures on the staircase * have
a very good effect, decidedly superior even to what the
cartoons indicate ; they are both lightsome in effect, almost
gay, and in invention solid and thoughtful. The part
chiefly (or perhaps alone) attacked by damp is in the picture
of the King's first sight of the lady. . . .
Thursday, 18 July. — ... In coming home went about
the grounds of the house named The Warden. The family
have moved into a modern house here, and left the old
house to become a ruin, and a very good one it is. I
suppose parts must be as old as 1500 or older. Picked-up a
mole in coming along — the only one I ever saw walking
about above ground ; he was going along at a good trundling
pace. Began writing on Longfellow's Dante for The Chronicle :
also made acquaintance with the scriptural dramas of Zachary
Boyd, c. 1620, one of the Boyd family, going through the
drama of Jonah. They are most racy specimens of the
period, and have an ample share of solid merit. . . .
Saturday, 20 July. — . . . Went down with Miss B[oyd]
to where she is painting in the glen, and afterwards with
S[cott] to the further end of the glen — in the direction of
Dailly : it is full of beautiful glimpses. Miss B[oyd] proposed ^
that I should sit to S[cott] for a head in his Palace of Venus, \,
which head he had originally begun with some idea of ''
resembling it to me, but afterwards finished it up with little
or no such resemblance. I sat accordingly, and he repainted
the head; which is now, I think, quite recognizably like
me. ...
Monday, 22 July. — The rains of yesterday and to-day,
sometimes drenching, have swollen the waters of the glen
to a great extent : Scott says they make more show and
* Illustrating the poem by James I. of Scotland, The King's Quair.
238 ROSSETTI PAPERS
noise than he ever remembers, and their impetuous rush
is really a noble sight. . . .
Monday, 29 July. — We accomplish this day the drive
and walk to old Kilkerran Castle, which is a noticeable
ruin hard by a picturesque stream. Amused ourselves some
while by throwing branches of trees etc. into the stream,
and seeing whether they would be carried into and out
of the cup-like depth of flowing water called the Devil's
Punch-bowl. Continues fine weather.
Tuesday, 30 July. — My last day at Penkill. . . .
Friday, 2 August. — Started to Paris. . . .
Monday, 5 August. — ... In the evening to the Frangais
to see Hernani — a great crowd at the queue, and the house
cram-full. Much applause, especially at some Jtetrissure of
the aigle imperial. Favart is very fine in the last scene, and
Delaunay as Hernani seems to me on the whole successful
— Bressant as Charles V., reasonably so — Mauban as Ruy
Gomez, somewhat heavy. The great effectiveness of the
play does certainly not relieve one of the sense of its arti-
ficiality and want of real nature, but it is excellently
effective. . . .
Wednesday, 7 August. — Found Courbet's exhibition at
the top of the Pont de 1' Alma : the great Hallali au Cerf is
dated this year. There is a book at the entrance for sig-
natures and opinions of visitors: I left (perhaps better
not have done so) the following with my name : " Gustave
Courbet c'est un veritable maitre qui se joue parfois trop
de ses admirateurs en peignant en ecolier." Settled to buy
photographs (6 francs apiece) of the Femme au Perroquet
(I think the drapery has been darkened since last year, and
deteriorated) and the Fawns by a Stream. Visitors seem
very few. . . .
Saturday, 10 August. — Bought some Japanese books and a
ditto bear from Madame Dessoye. Returned to London. . . .
Thursday, 15 August. — . . . . Howell . . . says that there
appears a considerable prospect of Ruskin's marrying again
shortly : he could not mention the lady's surname, but her
Christian name is Rose. . . .
WILLIAM ROSSETTI— DIARY, 1867 239
Tuesday, 27 August. — . . . Brown came in, and much
discussion ensued as to modern social art (as Stevens and
Tissot), and the prospects of English encouragement to art
under a reformed Parliament : of this Brown has consider-
able hopes, but not Gabriel. I incline to say there will
be a definite, though not perhaps very great, improve-
ment. . . .
Friday, 30 August. — Visited the Portrait -Exhibition at
South Kensington, now about closing. Struck generally
by the poorness of personality in the sitters from Hogarth
onwards, contrasting with those of William III. and Anne,
and not specially impressed with the vitality even of the
art. There are several admirably pure and vital Gains-
boroughs, however — most specially Lady Ligonier, the
mistress of Alfieri, a full-length : but in most of his bust-
portraits there is next to no form — only a face and a
charming suavity of hand. Reynolds's Mrs Abington in
some hoydenish stage-part is wonderful, with some others.
Generally, however, my estimate of him is not reinforced
by this exhibition. Some of his more elaborately costumed
royal or noble personages are very well treated in this
respect. . . .
Saturday, 31 August. — Gabriel tells me that . . . Brown
has received from Leyland an order for his smaller Chaucer
picture for £$2$. . . .
Thursday, 5 September. — Dined at Scott's, meeting Dr
Littledale * for the first time : he seems as far removed
as possible from an ascetic, being far the most jocular
man at table : says that Whitley Stokes, in India, now
makes an income of some ^"2300. L[ittledale] is one of
the extremest Irishmen in point of brogue that I ever
met. . . .
Friday, 6 September. — . . . Hotten proposes to me that
I should edit a selection of Whitman's poems, to be published
by him, first naming the price I should require : this I will
very gladly attend to. My principle of selection would be
to miss out entirely any poem, though otherwise fine and
* A Clergyman of the advanced High-Church Party.
240 ROSSETTI PAPERS
unobjectionable, which contains any of his extreme crudities
of expression in the way of indecency : I would not expur-
gate any such poems, but simply exclude them. H[otten]
says that Swinburne's Song of Italy has been the reverse of a
commercial success. . . .
Monday, 9 September. — . . . Wrote to Hotten proposing
to do the Whitman Selection for £2$, and twelve copies of
the book. Conway sends me a letter from Burroughs relative
to my Whitman article in The Chronicle. . . .
Friday, 13 September. — Hotten (after first saying the
utmost he could afford is £20) agrees to my terms about
Whitman. . . .
Monday, 16 September. — Called at Cayley's invitation to
see him and the Leifchilds in Hunter Street. F. Leifchild,
. . . the last time he was in Italy, spent some time at Lerici,
close to the villa, or balconied castle, wherein Shelley had
resided : he found an old man there who recollected Shelley
and his ways. S[helley] used to go about wherever there
was sickness in a house, nursing and advising. The place is
gloriously beautiful. . . .
Saturday, 2 1 September. — Gabriel back last night from his
visit to Allingham, and called in Euston Square : he thinks
of going down again by the end of next week. . . .
Sunday, 22 September. — Began writing my introduction
to Whitman. Conway called, and showed me the large
photograph of W[hitman] lately sent over, with his auto-
graph. He denies that Emerson has ever turned against
W[hitman], but on the contrary admires him quite as much
as he ever expressed in writing : he also got Lincoln to
approve W[hitman]'s going to the camp-hospitals, with no
remuneration (W[hitman] stipulated there should be none)
but with the ordinary camp-rations. . . .
Sunday, 29 September. — Howell, now back from his
wedding-trip, dined at Chelsea with others. . . . Linton back
from America, and about to return thither ; collecting
materials for his History of Wood-Engraving, and looked
with this intention at various Japanese woodcuts, which he
highly admires. Scott, whom I told that I would dedicate to
WILLIAM ROSSETTI— DIARY, 1867 241
him my Selection from Whitman. Gabriel complains much
of his eyes, and fears the evil is organic, not merely a symptom
of dyspepsia or the like. He says that sunlight or artificial
light becomes increasingly painful to him, producing giddi-
ness etc. ; and that, from one day a few weeks back onwards
when he became distinctly conscious of something wrong
with the sight, it has gone on continuing and getting worse
in the same way. Most of us thought the thing might be
merely symptomatic, but all agreed in advising him to see
an oculist without delay. Linton says that a revolution in
Rome is all prepared, and only waiting some needful funds.
Monday -, 30 September. — Elihu Burritt * called on Christina,
and produced a very agreeable impression : I alone did not
see him. Finished my writing-work on Whitman. . . .
Thursday, 3 October. — Gabriel came to Euston Square.
His eyes are still in a state to cause anxiety, and he now
finds that even the gas-lamps in the streets affect him dis-
tressingly. Much serious talk connected with this matter. . . .
He is wanting to consult Bowman the oculist at once, but
finds him just now out of town. Gfabriel] says that he has
already made ^2000 this year. . . .
Sunday, 6 October. — Holman-Hunt called, being lately
back from Florence. He looks thin and fagged. . . . The
picture he has been doing in Florence is an Isabella with
the Pot of Basil ; the costume etc. being made later than
Boccaccio's time. It is a life-size work, and substantially
finished. . . .
Tuesday, 8 October. — Gabriel has now seen Bowman. I
don't learn that B[owman] gives a very definite opinion as
to the nature of the case, but he recommends Gfabriel] to
give-up work for a month or so.
Wednesday, 9 October. — Hunt and Woolner dined at
Euston Square. H[unt] proposes to go off to Jerusalem
towards Christmas. . . .
Saturday, 19 October. — By pursuing Bowman's directions
* I am not quite sure whether the name of Elihu Burritt is now much
remembered in England. He was an American, a man of some mark,
often called " the literary blacksmith."
Q
242 ROSSETTI PAPERS
to bathe his eyes with cold water, Gabriel has got them
fairly right again these few days past : to-day not quite so
Bright He has now finished his water-colour of Tristram and
v Yseiilt drinking the love-potion. . . .
Monday, 2\ October. — Began reading (Leslie's Autobio-
graphy) with an experimental view towards a suggestion
made to me a little while ago by Palgrave — to form a volume of
axioms concerning art, the practice of artists, etc., written by
British artists. After getting some small sample of the material
together, I think of offering the volume to Macmillan, or
possibly Hotten : I should omit all artists who appear to me
ibad or indifferent in art — such as O'Neil. The Editor of
*The Broadway writes to me a second time (I declined the
first) asking me to contribute. . . .
Saturday, 2 November — . . . . Called on Swinburne, who
has planned out the two concluding dramas for a Mary Stuart
trilogy, and begun the first, with Bothwell for central figure :
^ also a long narrative poem of Tristram and Yseult, and various
* political poems. . . .
Tuesday, 5 November. — Houghton called at Somerset
House. He says that he draws his wood-cut designs straight
off on the block, taking as a rule only some two to three
hours per design : he sees nothing incredible in the state-
ment that Dore" had done some 40,000 designs by the age of
twenty-nine. . . . Gabriel, last Sunday, in stirring up one of
the Virginian owls out of his box, had the misfortune of
pulling one of his claws out : he bled much, but did not
appear in any great rage, nor has as yet shown particular
suffering or distress. Gabriel asked Jamrach what he could
get a young African elephant (!) for — answer ^"400. This
is not exactly feasible ; but a Laughing Jackass is being
bespoken, and enquiries made after a marmot and one or
two other beasts. . . .
Friday, 8 November, to Sunday, 10 November. — Saw
Woolner's fine bas-relief of Virgilia, medallions from The
Iliad for Gladstone's bust etc. The Laughing Jackass has
come (according to a letter from Gabriel) to a sudden and
melancholy end — drowned in a tub of water, . . ,
WILLIAM ROSSETTI— DIARY, 1867 243
Tuesday, 12 November. — Sent to Routledge my blank-
verse of the Coroner's Inquest,* of which he wishes to know
the length.
Wednesday, 13 November. — Routledge accepts this poem,"1
and proposes to get it illustrated, suggesting Gabriel for
that purpose. ...
Friday, 1 5 November. — Gabriel is not prepared to under- '•
take the design for my blank-verse, which I have now decided
to call Mrs Holmes Grey : he made a sketch however of the
death-scene.f Leyland got us to dine with him and a Mrj
Harlan at the Wellington. They both told us, as coming'
from a Captain Coppin of Londonderry, and also related by
a city-man Mr Allan, three or four extraordinary super-
natural events with which Captain Cfoppin] has been con-
nected. One is that the spirit of one of his deceased children
revealed to a sister, before the M'Clintock expedition, the
exact bearings of the sea-passage which would lead to a
discovery of the Franklin remains ; that Coppin wrote this
off to Lady F[ranklin] ; that the expedition searched
accordingly, found the data correct, and discovered the
relics ; and that Coppin holds a letter from Lady F[ranklin]
fully acknowledging these facts. Harlan seems to be well
acquainted with Coppin, and has this account from himself:
he has not however seen Lady F[ranklin]'s letter.
Saturday, 16 November. — E. Routledge called at Somerset
House, and I agreed to write for The Broadway articles on ^
Ruskin and Browning. We agreed upon Houghton to '
illustrate the coffin-scene in my poem, though Rfoutledge]
would have preferred Watson. Conway sends me a letter^/
to him from Whitman concerning my Selection. He
authorizes me to make such alterations in words as I may
consider needful for decency. This would, I think, enable
Hotten to bring out at once a modified complete edition,
instead of a mere Selection. Saw the Chinese Horned Owl
at Chelsea in the morning.
Sunday, 17 November. — Wrote to Hotten, Conway, and
* I.e., the poem named Mrs Holmes Grey, written in 1849.
t I have no knowledge now of this sketch.
244 ROSSETTI PAPERS
Whitman, about the edition or selection question ; advocat-
ing the edition if H[otten] is willing to go in for it ...
Tuesday, 19 November. — Hotten decides to bring out
the Whitman Selection as at first planned, but with a clear
intimation of a projected complete edition. . . .
Wednesday, 20 November. — Gabriel says that he will
probably have made ^"3000 this year, by the close of it.
He sold the other day chalk-drawings (female heads etc.) to
the value of £300, ^150 each to Leyland and to Valpy * (for
the latter the drawings remain to be done). He has been
reducing his debts considerably, still owing about ;£iooo. . . .
Friday, 22 November. — Swinburne's appeal for mercy to
the Fenians condemned to death at Manchester appears in
to-day's Morning Star : however, it has not availed. . . .
Monday, 25 November. — Gabriel says one of the young
dormice has been devoured by the others. His eyes seem
to be as well again as if nothing had been wrong with them.
Tuesday, 26 November. — Another young dormouse has
met the same fate. Gabriel has been making some chalk-
studies of head and shoulders (from Miss Wilding) for the
Andromeda picture. f . . .
Thursday, 28 November. — Routledge showed me the
\ wood-block with Houghton's design for Mrs H\plmes\ Grey :
it is very satisfactory. Conway sent me a letter he has
"received from O'Connor, author of The Good Grey Poet. He
intimates that Whitman, though resigned, is not really
pleased at the publication of a mere selection from his
poems ; while O'C[onnor] himself views it with great distaste,
as practically a concession to the outcry against W[hitman]'s
indecencies. O'C[onnor] has written another letter (not yet
in Conway's hands) setting forth the points he would wish
insisted on in any prefatory work of mine. I replied to him
in cordial terms, but to the effect that the Preface and part
of the Selection are now in print, and cannot well be re-
modelled. . . .
* As to Mr Valpy see p. 267.
•f The picture which he called Aspecta Medusa. He designed it, but
never painted it.
I
WILLIAM ROSSETTI— DIARY, 1867 245
Thursday ', 12 December. — A dinner at Whistler's (his
Brother, Tebbs, and Jeckyll,* with myself), and grand dis-
cussion as to the campaign of to-morrow, when the motion
for his expulsion from the Burlington is to come off. . . .
Friday, 13 December. — Whistler's expulsion was voted by
19 against 8. ... W[histler] spoke some home-truths. . . .
Tebbs moved . . . my written proposal to take no action
at this late end of the year. Scott seconded, and this had a
good chance of passing if Whistler would have intimated
that he would not renew his subscription : but he declined,
and then the main vote passed against him. ... I handed
in my resignation to Wornum. . . .
Saturday, 14 December. — At Swinburne's request, met
Routledge (editor of The Broadway) at S[winburne]'s house.
Sfwinburne] offers him various things, and handed over a
short Boccacciesque tale, Monna Lisa : it will occupy about
three pages. . . . S[winburne] has received from Mazzini
a very gratifying message regarding his poem for the
Fenians : M[azzini] has of late been too unwell to write, but
he is now resuming. Is staying at Lugano.
Sunday, 15 December. — Revising proofs of the Whitman
Selection, now approaching its close — and writing for The
Broadway an article on Ruskin. . . .
Monday, 16 December. — Received a most friendly and
indeed affectionate letter from Whitman. Writing in reply
to a (now superseded) suggestion that the London book
should be made a slightly modified complete edition instead
of a Selection without alterations or omissions, he expresses
a strong objection to the plan ; but readiness to put up with
it rather than traverse any arrangements which may be
actually in course of completion. I wrote back explaining
that the plan of a Selection has been reverted to. ...
Tuesday, 17 December. — . . . Gabriel has now sent-in
his resignation to the Burlington Club. . . .
Thursday, 19 December. — Macmillan, to whom I had
written offering the Selection I am making from the criticisms
of Artists on Art, declines to undertake it, on the ground of
* Mr Jeckyll was an architect.
246 ROSSETTI PAPERS
the ill-success of my Dante and Fine Art. He sends me the
accounts for these two books to 30 June last, showing about
£60 for me to pay on the first, and about £74 balance against
himself on the second. Mamma, who had from the first set
aside £50 to meet expenses on the Dante, offers to pay also
the extra £10. Received the last proof of the Whitman
Selection, and added a brief P.S. to relieve him from all
responsibility in connexion with it. ...
Friday, 20 December. — . . . Scott, Brown, Jones, Howell,
and others, dined at Chelsea. A good deal of talk about
Whistler; about Linton's History of Wood -Engraving,
which Morris and Webb would have stop at Bewick, on
the theory that all wood-cutting since then has been wrong
in principle — etc. . . . Gabriel has got two more Laughing
Jackasses. . . .
Sunday, 29 December. — Hunt called at Euston Square,
seeming in better trim and spirits than before. His Isabella
picture is very nearly but not yet entirely finished. He
contemplates going back through Italy, and on to Damascus
perhaps, rather than Jerusalem. On my asking him which
pictures in Italy he remembered with especial pleasure,
the first he named was Titian's Jerome in the Brera. . . .
on
!38. — DORA GREENWELL to WILLIAM ROSSETTI.
[The term " your Criticism " means my small volume
Swinburne.]
W. EVANS, ESQ., ALLESTREE HALL, DERBY.
1 6 January 1867.
Dear Mr Rossetti, — Have I your leave to keep your
Criticism a little longer? It is indeed a beautiful and
wonderful piece of writing, and, to nie, unlocks the door into
a new realm. I mean as regards art generally, — all that bears
particularly upon Swinburne interests me less closely. ... I
BARONE KIRKUP, 1867 247
have not read all Swinburne's poems — only Atalanta, the
splendid Hymn to Proserpine, and the bits one comes across j
in reviews. . . .
What strikes me (among other things) as entirely new
in your essay, and to me more valuable than words can
express, is its high sense of the value of art as art. I
have been long convinced of the truth of Schiller's canon,
" that a direct aim is fatal to a work of imaginative beauty."
Still I think I have always been used to look upon music,
finish, and rhythm, as mere aids to the expression of thought
and feeling. Now, I see that they are in themselves sources
of beauty and delight, and to be prized accordingly. . . .
The truth seems to be that there are wonders and glories
wrapped up in the common aspects of nature and life,
which art detects and sets free. — How true is what you
say of your Sister's art, that it is the natural necessary
result of affinity, giving what it finds.
When I am at home and settled, I want to write to you
upon the Pagan element, which seems to me to enter inevit-
ably into all high and free literature and art. Your Sister does
not agree with me in this — nor Miss Ingelow, nor anybody;
which makes me feel sure I am right. Athanasius against
the world ! Thanking you for the great pleasure of your
essay, believe me yours very sincerely,
DORA GREENWELL.
139.— BARONE KIRKUP to WILLIAM ROSSETTI.
[These surprising statements regarding Dante etc. may
be best left without comment. Under the date of 12 July
occurs the phrase " 50 days." Kirkup wrote " 80," but that
is clearly a mistake. — The last paragraph of the extract
refers to Lorenzino de' Medici — or Lorenzaccio, as he is
called in Alfred de Musset's drama — the assassin of Duke
Alexander de' Medici in the sixteenth century.]
248 ROSSETTI PAPERS
2 PONTE VECCHIO [FLORENCE].
19 January 1867.
My dear Rossetti, — Trelawny says Mazzini is the greatest
man of his age (I suppose after Garibaldi), and both infinitely
above any Bonaparte, or any other successful traitor of
modern times, — as much as a Washington is above a Bute.
Trelawny is an &//ra-liberal, and has never studied any
religious question (having no evidence) ; but has the greatest
contempt for all the absurdities that go by that name, and
all the atrocities. . . . Trelawny is not only my best friend
but the best I ever heard of — " quegli cui io chiamo primo de*
miei amid"* His incredulity extends to my spiritualism.
... I avoided all theories and opinions, and stuck closely
to facts only. That has been my rule for twelve years ; I
have kept a journal all that time, now in its seventh volume ;
and it is but a slight one, which I regret, — mere notes,
and far from containing everything. But, as it was not
written for the world, and is only a memorandum-book for
myself, it will some day be a curiosity if it is preserved.
Now no one would believe it.
You ask about the memorable fact of Dante's drawing
and writing. It is one of the most remarkable — ecco. I
refer to my journal, —
"12 October] 1865. — This evening Bibi (my little
daughter, aged 12) slept. She said there were five (there
had been four spirits lately). There was Dante. He looked
young, she said, about twenty or twenty-two : she is no
judge of age. He is handsomer than the many portraits
of him in my room. (When he first appeared to Regina
he was like the mask, old — they all improve). I inquired
about his dress : — no capuccio, but something green. I told
her she was mistaken. It must be red, the lining of the
cap turned back, making a red stripe ; that Regina said
he was like a capo rosso, by which she meant a goldfinch
(this was on the 2Qth November 1854).
"7 January 1866. — This evening Bibi, and Olimpia her
* " The one whom I call first among my friends " : a quotation from
Dante.
KlfcKUP, 1867 249
maid (an ex-Nun and a somnambule), said that it was
Dante who had influenced the Minister, Natoli, to recom-
mend me to the King ; so the other spirits said."
After many manifestations not connected with this
subject, on the I5th April 1866, both Bibi and Olimpia saw
Dante in their sleep with the four usual spirits. He is
very handsome, and younger than formerly ; a wreath on
his head (the green which B[ibi] had seen before); his
hair black, his cap under his arm. He said, unasked, that
it was he who influenced the ministers and King for my
knighthood and Barony. He promised to help me in
getting his portrait by Giotto restored once more. He will
advise me what to do next Thursday (he did not, it was
forgot). He is for the union of Italy, and the expulsion
of the Germans. " Did you help your son Jacopo to find
the Cantos of the Paradiso missing at your death ? " — SI. —
Is anything hidden in your house in Piazza San Martino?
— No. — Can you find or direct us to any piece of your
hand-writing, however small ? — Cerchero, e ti diro Giovedi.*
—He could not. On the i6th April Dante renewed a
promise which he had made to become visible to me.
Nothing came of it. Now then —
On the 28th April 1866 I asked him if he would draw
for me the shape of his head and hair on a paper on which
I had drawn his face, younger and handsomer than his
portraits. He refused at first, but at last consented. We
fixed the time, but he did nothing and put it off. After
many other events he appeared to Bibi with the usual
four others on the ipth of May. It was in her sleep
(magnetic). I had drawn him younger than the portrait
by Giotto ; and, as that was the most difficult part, I
asked him to fix a time when he would draw the form of
the head, as I had never seen any portrait without his
cap : and he did not refuse to add the hair, and the wreath
to it, as he appeared to Bibi. She is likewise a writing
medium ; and her mother's spirit made her write on the
2 ist May, "Dante will tell us to-morrow when he will draw
* I will see to it, and tell you on Thursday.
250 ROSSETTI PAPERS
the head." On the 22nd he promised to take the drawing
to-morrow, in the usual way that other things have often
been taken and returned as amulets.
23 May. — // was taken this day.
I will give you an idea of my precautions against tricks
and cheating.
The features alone were drawn by me on a piece of
drawing-paper the size of this page.* It was laid on a
small board, and placed on a chair with a pencil by its
side, in the middle of a small room or closet, 1 3 feet by 3 ;
with a window at the end, left open on purpose. The only
door was double-locked, and the key in my pocket. The
door was then sealed, with slips of paper and the seal-ring
on my finger ; and, besides which, in the hinges were con-
cealed small twigs of fire-wood as small as a needle,
unknown to any one, which, if the door were opened, must
fall to the ground. (These are my usual precautions in
fastening the door : the window open). I found the door
all right the next day when I opened it and went in. The
board was there, but the drawing and pencil were gone.
The window is 60 feet above the river. I had asked
Dante some days before to add to this favour by writing
his name to it. I did not explain why.
7 June. — Dante had fixed on yesterday to bring back
the drawing finished, but he never did. He now promises
it to-morrow to Olimpia in her sleep. — The 8th. He has
not brought it back. . . . Our spirit-party had lately been
increased by the Spirit of Marietta, Olimpia's younger
sister, a spirit of high order. Four of our spirits now left
us, and went to the army — Isaac, Giovanni, Count Ginnasi,
and Dante : Regina and Marietta alone remained. They
came back several times to give us news of the war before
it was known in Florence. Dante was with Garibaldi, and
saved his life by turning -aside a ball that would have
killed him. So he said. Many curious details are in my
journal. On the 4th of July Dante would have brought
back the portrait ; but did not, because I was not aware
* The page measures about 8 inches by 5.
BAftONE KIRKUP, 1867 251
of it, and had not secured the door of the room in my
usual way as a security against tricks. It was again
promised on the nth, but never came: and it was again
promised for the next day. Marietta made yesterday a
sort of excuse for his not drawing so well as he could
when he was in this life, and that he found it difficult to
manage the pencil. We shall see.
1 2 July. — Sure enough it was brought back.
The door had been securely closed as usual — lock, seals,
and twigs. Noon was the hour appointed. I had looked in
at half-past eleven. There was the board on the chair empty.
I sat down to write close to the door, and there was no one
else in the house at that time. It is fifty days since it was
taken, the 23rd May.
The paper has got rumpled and creased a little, and the
drawing rubbed. The outline of the head is quite distinct,
but fainter than [the] rest, and so is the wreath — not laurel,
but more like rose-leaves. The name is written large and
strong — a sort of Gothic — I think about the fifteenth century ;
and it agrees admirably with Leonardo Aretino's description
of his hand-writing in his Life of Dante, of which I have a
MS. of the date 1455. The letters long and upright, Dante
A//ighieri, with two Ts. The pencil was returned and placed
by the side of the drawing, which I have put in a frame under
a glass, and is hanging in this room. I will try if it is
sufficiently strong to be photographed. Would you like
one? . . . This drawing is real, and has been seen by a
hundred persons ; like Home's name which he wrote on a
ceiling in the presence of many, and remains there still.
Have you heard the story of his fortune? The news-
papers have made a silly romance of it, full of lies, even the
Florence papers. I have it from him. We are old friends,
and I have seen much more extraordinary things in his
presence, though not so important as fortunes or titles, but as
physical phenomena : the frequent risings of my humble
supper-table, that is frequently off the ground untouched, and
rises to be kissed by each person present, as many times as
there are spirits, at the name of each, and which beats time
252 ROSSETTI PAPERS
when Bibi sings, changing tunes and measures and tattoos as
correctly as a Capo-banda, and answering all our questions
by raps with its feet on the floor ; 3 for yes, I for no, and 2
for uncertain. . . .
I have the great medal of Lorenzino, and two or three
others. It is taken from the bust (in the gallery) of Brutus
by Michelangelo, and is very like it. Lorenzino was short,
but stout and very strong. . . . — Yours sincerely,
SEYMOUR KIRKUP.
140.— STAUROS DILBEROGLUE to WILLIAM ROSSETTI.
[Mr Dilberoglue was a Greek merchant long settled in
London : he had been known to me for two or three years in
connexion with some other Greek families, especially the
Spartalis. My " friend's letter," to which he here refers, was
a letter from Mr Stillman regarding Cretan affairs.]
13 BARNSBURY PARK, ISLINGTON.
28 January 1867.
Dear Mr Rossetti, — . . . The extract of your friend's
letter is most valuable. Could you give me date of letter
and name ? provided you do not wish the name to be kept
unpublished.
Our committee has had so much to contend with, in order
that all adverse influences exercised against it might be
counteracted, that it has restricted the area of his operations
only within Greece ; so it cannot use any modicum even of
its means for the purpose you name. . . .
The issue of the struggle is inevitable ; and still there is
not one statesman in Europe yet who can take the initiative,
and appear the creator of all that is to follow ; as in crystal-
lization, as soon as the right shock is given to the masses of
facts in the very act of crystallization now. Do help us in all
you can. ... I shall read your letter to the committee ; and
SIR FREDERICK BURTON, 1867
253
all I learn, worth knowing, I shall take the liberty of trans-
mitting to you. . . . — Yours in esteem and appreciation,
STAUROS DILBEROGLUE.
141. — SIR FREDERICK BURTON to MADOX BROWN.
[It is apparent from this letter that Brown had some wish
to become a member of the Society (the " Old Society ") of
Painters in Water-colours; he was not, I fancy, willing to
pass through the subordinate grade of Associate. But I
believe his candidateship was never brought to any practical
issue. I do not observe that the matter is mentioned in Mr
Ford Hueffer's book concerning Brown.]
43 ARGYLL ROAD, KENSINGTON.
i March 1867.
My dear Brown, — Thanks for your kind note. ... I very
much wish indeed that you might be enrolled amongst the
members of the S[ociety of] P[ainters in] W[ater-colours], and
that we might see your works upon the walls. And you may
be sure that I shall not only be ready but anxious to further
any wish you may have in that direction yourself.
At the last meeting, being deprived by Holland's absence
of even his support, and not knowing otherwise how the wind
might lie, I thought it more prudent to be silent on the
subject, especially as I did not know with any certainty what
you desired. Besides, I knew there were certain men whom
the majority desired to get in. ...
I hope you and I shall have many opportunities of meet-
ing before another occasion of the kind occurs, when we can
talk over the matter. — Believe me always sincerely yours,
FRED. W. BURTON.
254 ROSSETTI PAPERS
142. — BARONE KIRKUP to WILLIAM ROSSETTI.
[The phrase " you remember Trelawny " relates to a very
old affair. In 1843, when I was thirteen years of age,
Trelawny called in my Father's house once or twice, and he
had occasion to speak to me.]
FLORENCE, P[ONTE] VECCHIO.
6 March 1867.
My dear Rossetti, — . . . I send you by this post the photo
of Dante's writing and drawing ; I hope you will get it. ...
The writing is, I think, a century or two more modern, but it
agrees wonderfully with Leonardo Aretino's description. . . .
I have just seen H. Hunt. I like him much : he seems
a man of great sensibility. As for his works, I know
nothing. . . .
So you remember Trelawny. He is a magnificent,
magnanimous fellow and friend ; but perhaps too much of a
republican for you — not for me; and he is the sincerest of
men, and the great enemy of priestcraft, the greatest friend
of Shelley. You know his (Trelawny's) two biographies.
They are immensely popular on the Continent. I have seen
five editions of his first life in French and English. . . .
My somnambula, Olimpia, tells me that Dante is Gari-
baldi's angelo custode. He never comes but when Garibaldi is
in Florence, which I always know by that. I met G[aribaldi]
in the street the other day. I said nothing to her ; and sure
enough Dante came, and she did not know it, though D[ante]
told us where he, G[aribaldi], was lodging. He was always
with him during the war. He, D[ante], is no longer a
Ghibelline, but a Republican ; again and above all a
Unionist and Antipapal. He always agreed with your Father,
when nobody in Florence did. Our medium was a young
girl, unlettered, and could hardly read at sixteen ; and, as I
required some better proof than her word, he gave us some
indubitable physical demonstrations beyond the reach of
fraud. .
BARONE KIRKUP, 1867 255
You ask why the window of the small room is left open.
It always is, by their desire, that they may take the object.
They cannot get it through stone walls, though they can pass
themselves. There is no window beyond it, as it is a corner-
house, and there is none over it ; and the chair is in the
middle of the room, not close to the window. My studio is
the next room to it, where I mostly sit, and where you once
sat. . . .
The photograph I by this post send you is very good and
exceedingly correct, even the creasing of the paper (it was
quite smooth when I placed it), and the drawing has been a
little rubbed.
Home's fortune is £27,500 consols in his name, and the
promise of an inheritance of £5000 a year. I don't know
Mrs Lyon's maiden name, but her late husband was a relation
of Lord Strathmore. She promises him a town-house well
mounted, and they are now coming abroad. . . .
Remember me to Swinburne. He is our champion
against tyranny, temporal and spiritual.
I like Hunt immensely : he was with me last evening.
He will go soon : that is the worst of being abroad. Adieu,
my dear friend. — Yours ever,
S. KlRKUP.
143.— BARONE KIRKUP to WILLIAM ROSSETTI.
FLORENCE, 2 PONTE VECCHIO.
23 March 1867.
My dear Rossetti, — . . . You tell me your younger Sister
is delicate. Take care of her, and in time. I was given over
forty years ago for consumption : I never saw any living
being so far gone. I was saved by Sir James Clarke. ... I
lived entirely on asses' milk and a bit of bread three times a
day ; and after a fortnight the milk began to disagree with
me, and he substituted Iceland moss for another fortnight,
256 ROSSETTI PAPERS
and kept me afterwards on low diet, attending to my liver
and stomach, which had been the original cause of (really)
purulent disease of the chest. But, on seeing me cured, he
supposed it had been confined to the membranes and lining
of the lungs, with all the usual hectic symptoms to the
greatest degree. Travelling is dangerous on account of
exposure, but staying in a warm climate is another thing.
. . . There is a spot under the hill of Fiesole that seems
to cure everybody — much more than Pisa or Nice. . . . —
Sincerely yours,
SEYMOUR KIRKUP.
144. — DANTE ROSSETTI to OLIVER BROWN.
P [My Brother always retained his liking for Oliver Brown's
first painting, Queen Margaret and the Outlaw ; which was
indeed a very remarkable effort for such a youth, incompar-
ably superior to anything done by Dante Rossetti himself at
any like age ; and for some years he kept it by him. I think
he made it over to the bereaved Father, soon after Oliver's
death in November 1874.]
16 CHEYNE WALK, CHELSEA.
10 May 1867.
My dear Nolly, — On reading your nice letter I only
deferred writing in answer because I thought I would examine
the drawing afresh when it came, and thank you for it with a
full impression of its beauty at the moment. But now,
on looking at your letter again, I find you actually ask me
beforehand whether I will accept your present ; so let me
hasten to say Yes before it comes.
I assure you I consider it very beautiful both in design
and colour, and a first effort of which you need never be
ashamed, however much you may advance as an artist.
Hard study and application are not to be dispensed with
by any one entering on art ; but it is something to make such
ROSSETTJ, 1867
a beginning as this, and so feel sure that, though without
labour no perfection can ever be attained, still there is no
doubt of your labour to become a complete artist being really
worth your while, and not a mistaken course in life, as it is
with many.
I shall value this first work of yours most highly, and
make no doubt of the verdict of all good judges who will see
it being the same as my own as to your future career. Next
year I hope your Father will agree with me that you should
aim at exhibiting something. — With sincere affection and
good wishes, believe me, my dear Nolly, most truly yours,
D. G. ROSSETTI.
145. — DANTE ROSSETTI to OLIVER BROWN.
16 CHEYNE WALK, CHELSEA.
[1867—? May}.
My dear Nolly, I am sending some painting materials for
your acceptance. The more I look at your drawing, the more
I see you are well able to use them. . . .
I showed your water-colour to Mr Whistler after you
were gone, and he admired it very much indeed. . . . — Yours
affectionately,
D. G. ROSSETTI.
146.— WILLIAM ROSSETTI.— LIST OF SUBJECTS FOR
PICTURES.
[It must have been towards May 1867 that I began I
noting down, from any miscellaneous reading, subjects which
struck me as being suitable for pictures : perhaps my list
may be thought worth perusal. I am rather sorry that I
dropped it after a brief term — only very recently resuming
R
258 ROSSETTI PAPERS
it. The reader (even if not versed in questions of fine art)
will readily perceive that, while there are thousands of most
interesting incidents recorded in history, biography, etc.,
only a moderate percentage of these are adapted for being
treated as pictures — this percentage consisting of those
subjects which can pretty well explain themselves to the
eye, apart from antecedents and consequents that cannot
be embodied in the picture.]
V*~
1. Athenceum, No. 2063, p. 622. — Marie Antoinette in
prison counted the dirty linen for the laundress, and Louis
XVI. wrote out the list.
2. Cancellieri, Originalita di Dante, p. 17. — Marsilio Ficino
and Michele Mercati promised that whichever died first
would bring to the other some news of the other world.
Ficino being dead, a knock came at Mercati's door in
San Miniato : he, looking out of window, saw a white man
on a white horse, who disappeared, saying " Vera, vera, sunt
ilia?
3. Longfellow 's Inferno ', p. 215, from Odyssey \ B. 11.—
Clytemnestra slays Cassandra, while Agamemnon, dying,
clutches at his sword.
4. Ditto, p. 217, ditto. — Minos, seated, with golden sceptre,
gives laws to the dead who plead their causes before him.
5. Ditto, p. 221, ALneid, B. 6. — ^neas meets Dido in
Hades, and tries to soothe her. She remains moveless with
eyes on the ground, and finally retires to Sichaeus in a grove.
6. Hamel, Histoire de Robespierre, vol. 3, pp. 639-40.—
About 1794 it was a practice for people of all sorts to dine
together in the streets or spaces of Paris etc. : as, ladies with
their servants, Aristocrats with Sansculottes, etc.
7. Hay don's Life, vol. 2, p. 165. — Chaucer beating a Fran-
ciscan in Fleet Street, for which he got fined (Lamb proposes
this subject).
8. Michelet, Jeanne D'Arc, p. 47.— After the battle of
Patay, June 1429, Joan, seeing an English prisoner knocked
on the head and mortally injured by his captor, held his
head, and got a priest to attend him,
WILLIAM ROSSETTI, 1867 259
•
9. Mtzerai, Histoire de France, vol. 2, p. 376. — Godefroi,
Bishop of Amiens, 1 2th century, refused to give the Eucharist
one day to men of fashion who presented themselves wearing
long and elaborate hair. They cut off their hair on the spot,
and the Eucharist was then given them.
10. Ditto ', vol. 2, p. 406. — St Louis, taken prisoner by the
Saracens in Egypt, compelled to witness the flagellation of,
and other insults to, a Crucifix.
11. Ditto, vol. 3,/. 76. — God presented a plan of religious
association (la Sainte Trinite de la Redemption des Captifs),
confirmed by the Pope, 1209, to Jean de Matha, a Provencal
gentleman and doctor of theology, and Hermit Felix, both
retired to a solitude near Meaux.
12. Ditto, ditto, p. 1 8 1. — Year 1357. A freebooter,
Arnauld de Cervoles, calling himself 1'Archipretre, held
the Pope to ransom in Avignon ; and then made him give
absolution, and treat him at dinner with the respect due
to a sovereign prince.
13. Ditto, ditto, p. 307. — Year 1408. Pope (or Antipope)
Benedict sent Sancio Lupi and an equerry to the King of
France to threaten an excommunication. The messengers
were seized, set up on a scaffold, with paper mitres and
painted dalmatics bearing Benedict's arms, and preached at
very severely by a Docteur.
14. Ditto, ditto, p. 309. — A mediaeval Noyade, 1408. The
Bishop of Liege having regained his power, great numbers
of the opponents were thrown into the Meuse, tied two and
two, besides other executions on a vast scale.
15. Ditto, ditto, p. 353. — Henry V. of England, after his
victories in France (1421), while besieging Dreux, was
warned by a Hermit of his injustice, and threatened with
divine punishment. He paid no attention.
16. Ditto, ditto, p. 412. — The Dauphin (Louis XL), aged
about 22, gave un soufflet to Agnes Sorel at Chinon.
17. Ditto, ditto, p. 459. — Louis XL (to divert attention
from other matters) caused the stags, kids, fawns, storks,
swans, cormorants, talking birds, and other pet animals, to
be seized throughout Paris.
260 ROSSETTI PAPERS
1 8. Ditto, vol. 5, /. 222. — Henri III. (towards 1577) held
a feast in which women dressed as men, in green, served at
table : all the guests in the same colour.
19. Ditto, ditto, p. 223. — Catherine de' Medici, in return,
gave a feast where the handsomest ladies of the Court served,
with their bosoms displayed and hair dishevelled.
20. Ditto, ditto, p. 262. — Cir. 1583. Henri III. would go
masking in the Carnival, and indulging in all sorts of
dissipation : and in Lent joining in processions of penitents.
(Suppose midnight on last day of Carnival, and Maskers
and Penitents in presence of one another.)
21. Ockley, History of the Saracens, pp. 115-6. — A.D. 633.
Caulah (a young virgin) and other Arabian women, having
been taken prisoners by Peter and other Damascenes, set
themselves close together (on the halt between place of
capture and Damascus), and defended themselves with tent-
poles, killing many Christians. Peter was in love with
Caulah. At last Kaled, Derar (brother of Caulah), and
other Arabs, came up, and delivered the women.
22. Ritchie, Early Letters of Jane Carlyle. — Carlyle in
London (towards 1836) smoking a long pipe on the top of a
^cistern (for want of accommodation indoors).
T* 23. Livy. — Camillus at Falerii. A traitorous Pedagogue
of Falerii, which city was at war with the Romans, had
tempted a number of boys of the highest families into
Camillus's tent. Camillus had the Pedagogue stripped and
bound, and got the boys to whip him back to Falerii.
24. Ditto, B. 8, p. 122. — Various Roman Matrons were
arrested as poisoners. Cornelia and Sergia maintained that
the poisons were merely medicines. They were told in
court to drink the liquors. They and others of the accused
drank, and all died. A.U.C. 424.
25. Josephus, p. 761. — Herod entered the sepulchre of
David, and extracted thence masses of jewels and gold
ornaments. Proceeding inwards to view the corpses of
David and Solomon, he was assailed by a miraculous
flame, which killed two of his favourites. Night-time.
26. Gardiner's Cromwell, p. 170. — Cir. 1655. Cromwell had
WILLIAM 11OSSETTI, 1867 261
not money to pay his army. Some of his Guard entered
his kitchen, walked off with provisions, and told Cromwell
to his face that they must pay themselves in kind.
27. Ditto > p. 174. — Cir. 1656. General Pride, when the
Bear-garden, Southwark, was kept up in spite of various
edicts, slew the bears with his own hands, and closed the
show.
28. Encyclopedia Britannica ; article ', Vesta. — Stilicho's
wife, Serena, went to the Atrium Vestae, Rome, and
appropriated a precious necklace from one of the statues.
The last remaining Vestal Virgin remonstrated, but in vain.
29. Home's Life of Napoleon, vol. 2, /. 16. — Night of 13
October 1806. Napoleon, on the eve of the battle of Jena,
found that Lannes's Artillery had got jammed in a ravine.
He ordered the soldiers to cut away the rocks on either
side. They did so, with the "park-tools," Napoleon holding
a lantern for a group of soldiers : and thus the Artillery
was got out.
30. * Ditto, ditto, p. 467. — Napoleon at St Helena in
1816, in riding, saw some labourers ploughing. He dis-
mounted, took hold of the plough, and traced a long
furrow.
31. Ford M. Hueffer, The Cinque Ports, p. 313. — In the
time of King Egbright, about the 7th century, a noble
lady named Domnewa was at her prayers. The Devil
put out her candle, and her Guardian Angel re-lit it.
32. Mathilde Blind, a Letter to myself, dated 22 July
1871. — In 1812, at Lymouth, Devonshire, Shelley had a
fancy for launching fire-balloons. On one such occasion
his wife Harriet and the servant-girl (afterwards Mrs
Blackmore) were present ; also the landlady Mrs Hooper,
who got alarmed at the risk of firing her thatched roof.
33. Mr Gledstanes Waugh, a Letter to myself, dated
1873. — A person whom he met at Great Marlow informed
him that in boyhood he had seen Shelley on the Bridge of
Marlow, returning home from a walk, his person much
beset with tendrils of plants.
34. Constant, Memoires sur Napotion, vol. 2, p. 54. —
262 ROSSETTI PAPERS
Napoleon, before going to bed, entered the petit salon of
Constant (his Premier Valet de Chambre) and other attend-
ants ; and, finding one of them reading a novel, he grabbed
it, and threw it into the fire.
35. Ditto, ditto. — On another day, in the morning,
Napoleon threw into the fire some book of his own. His
Mamelouk Roustan stooped to pick it out, but Napoleon
prevented him.
r 36. Ditto, ditto, p. 60. — Napoleon kept gazelles at St
Cloud. With Napoleon, and with him alone, they were
very tame, and eagerly ate snuff which he would present
to them in his snuff-box.
37. Ditto, vol. 3, /. 237. — Sometimes Napoleon got his
boy-nephew, Napoleon (son of Louis), to offer the snuff-
box to the gazelles ; and he would afterwards set the child
astride of one of them. This boy died at the age of seven,
two years before the divorce of Josephine.
38. Ditto, ditto. — Napoleon was with Josephine in the
Tuileries after a review, and had laid aside his hat and
sword. The child Napoleon accoutred himself in the hat
and sword, and went up and down humming a march-tune.
The Emperor kissed him.
39. Ditto, vol. 4, p. 38. — In July 1808, after appointing
Joseph to be King of Spain, Napoleon was at Agen. An
old man aged a hundred and fourteen, named Printemps,
who had fought under Louis XIV., was presented to
him. Napoleon made him sit down, and himself sat beside
him, chatting, and saying : " Vous avez entendu parler
de moi dernierement ? " — He got Printemps to speak of
his campaigns.
40. Ditto, vol. 5, /. 37. — On the lawn at Trianon, when
Napoleon's son was a year old, he put his sword-belt on
the infant's shoulders, and his cocked hat on his head : then,
going some steps off, he held out his hands to the child,
who still tottered.
41. Due de Sully* s Memoirs, vol. 7, /. 312 — quoting from
Sauval. — Henri IV., at the Church of St Gervais, was along
with his mistress the Marquise de Verneuil, listening to a
JOHN RUSKIN, 1867 263
sermon delivered by the Pere Gonthier, a Jesuit. The
Marquise and other court-ladies were chatting and trying to
make Henri laugh. Gonthier turned towards him, asking
when he would leave off consorting with his seraglio in the
House of God. The ladies were incensed, but Henri soon
afterwards expressed himself obliged to Gonthier for the
admonition.
147. — JOHN RUSKIN to WILLIAM ROSSETTI.
[Mr Ruskin was a vigorous adversary of the Northern
States of the American Union in their Civil War against
the slave-holding and seceding Southern States. My sym-
pathies were strong in the opposite direction. Mr Ruskin
wrote a series of letters to Mr Thomas Dixon, the Cork-
cutter of Sunderland ; they were printed at once in some
newspaper, and eventually in a volume entitled Time and
Tide by Wear and Tyne. In the course of the corre-
spondence Ruskin wrote something about the American
War ; and Dixon replied, mentioning me as being one of
those who differed from Ruskin on the subject. Then
Ruskin responded, saying something to the effect that my
notions regarding the war were of no account as compared
with Carlyle's, and that my knowledge of fine art was
simply what I had learned from Ruskin himself and from
my Brother. Seeing this statement printed in the news-
paper, I wrote to the illustrious author, deferentially query-
ing whether he had adequate evidence on which to found
this opinion concerning the fine-art matter. His reply was
as follows. It intimates that the passage would be re-
trenched from the reprint in volume-form, and so it was. —
<* Old J. D. Harding " was a landscape-painter of some skill
and repute, who had given Ruskin, then a very young
man, a certain amount of instruction in the art. — I am
unable to acquiesce in Mr Ruskin's idea, respecting
Japanese art, that " my Brother crammed his crotchets
264 ROSSETTI PAPERS
down my throat." That my Brother admired Japanese
art to a very large extent is a fact : I did the same, and
was, of the two, the more decided " Japoniseur."]
DENMARK HILL.
27 May 1867.
Dear Rossetti, — Thanks for your kind note. I never
had any intention of keeping that phrase in the reprint ;
but I strictly wrote those letters as I would have done had
they been private — though I knew they would be published.
They are to be read as a little piece of permitted exposure
of one's inner mind — for special purpose. Carlyle was
furious at what I said of htm, but I didn't care. That
also goes out in reprint.
Of course, in a saying like that, "inference" va sans
dire — one can't say " as far as I can judge " : and of course
also the lateral and confirmatory work is supposed. I
should not have minded a bit old J. D. Harding's saying
of me, " I taught him all he knows about art." If I knew
a thing or two more, it was quite natural in him not to
see it. He could only speak as he saw — and in a certain
sense. All teaching is but the beginning of things. — Ever
affectionately yours,
J. RUSKIN.
Lest you should think this an equivocal sort of backing
out of the thing, I will tell you exactly the feeling which
gave origin to the sentence. When we had our last talk
over Japan art, my soliloquy to myself was simply this :
" What a pity that fellow — ingenious as he is — lets his
Brother cram his crotchets down his throat ! I wish I
hadn't lost sight of him for so long ; I would have kept
him straighten"
Then I've . . . become much more arrogant and sulky
than ever I was — and I was bad enough before.
DANTE ROSSETTI, 1867 265
148.— JAMES LEATHART to DANTE ROSSETTI.
N EWCASTLE-ON-T YNE.
30 May 1867.
My dear Rossetti, — . . . With respect to your proposition^
to pay back the money paid on account of the Found picture,
I have to say that I should very much prefer to receive the
picture ; and, if you will permit one who has for a long time
derived much pleasure from your works and taken a deep
interest in your success to give advice, I should strongly
recommend you to finish this work without delay. If by a
little reflection you can get yourself into the proper vein, I
am sure it will be a short business for you to complete the
picture ; and in so doing you would add, not only to my
satisfaction, but in my opinion to your present eminent
position as an artist I am vain enough to believe you would
be as glad to see the picture upon my walls as upon almost
any other — at all events, none would be prouder of it than I
would. As soon as you have thought over the matter, let me
hear from you : and, if you are still indisposed to finishing the
picture in a moderate period, I shall be quite willing to accept t
your proposal. . . . — Ever yours truly,
JAMES LEATHART.
149. — DANTE ROSSETTI to JAMES LEATHART.
[This letter bears no written date. It appears to be a
reply to the last preceding letter from Mr Leathart, and i
therefore date it as under. The sum which Mr Leathart had **\
advanced for the picture Found was actually repaid by \
Rossetti in November 1869.]
[16 CHEYNE WALK, CHELSEA.
? 5 June 1867.]
My clear Leathart, — The question to which you recur in \
your letter — i.e., that of my completing the picture for you — is
266 ROSSETTI PAPERS
one which I have so long found, whenever I have turned my
mind to it, to be under the circumstances .continually im-
practicable, that I cannot believe it would be of any real use
attempting again to entertain it now. I have therefore only
to express my satisfaction at your acceptance of my proposal,
and to thank you for the kind expressions in your letter, as
well as again for the course you have pursued all along in the
matter. On my side, I will trust, by applying myself to the
payment of the debt as speedily as possible, and by doing my
best with the little picture which forms part of our fresh
arrangement, not to leave an impression on your mind of my
having behaved badly in the long run. — With kind remem-
brances to Mrs Leathart and all yours, I am, my dear
Leathart, yours very truly,
^ D. G. ROSSETTI.
150. — DANTE ROSSETTI to MADOX BROWN.
[" The Jacob picture " is commonly termed Jacob and
Joseph's Coat — the Brothers of Joseph bringing his blood-
stained coat of many colours to Jacob. Mr Leyland bought
for £84. the water-colour version of this composition.]
[16 CHEYNE WALK, CHELSEA.
24 June 1867.]
My dear Brown, — I was near coming down with Leyland
to-day. . . . He was talking to-day with great admiration of
the Jacob picture, so I told him of the water-colour of it. He
said he had caught a glimpse of the same, but you withdrew
it. So I told him we'd go together, and I would undertake
he should see it. I think he would be sure to buy that or
something. He asked the price, and I said I supposed 100
guineas. He then said that in that case he got the Elijah
cheap at 80. So I said I did not know the exact price. If
you object to my bringing him, let me know. I think he is
well disposed. — Your
D. G. R.
DANTE ROSSETTI, 1867 267
151. — WILLIAM ALLINGHAM to WILLIAM ROSSETTI.
41 KENSINGTON SQUARE.
30 June 1867.
My dear William, — Though I hope to see you in a day or
two, I will not omit in the meantime to thank you for your
book, which I received and have partly read with much
pleasure and satisfaction on various grounds. Your art-
criticisms appear to me the most trustworthy of our time —
sound in principles, wide in sympathies, often subtle, yet
always distinct and reasonable ; and your volume will do
much good, I hope. If you can only get it driven into the
head of the British public, as something beyond dispute, that
a picture ought first of all to be a picture, it will be a
" platform " for every kind of art-knowledge of which that
public is capable. . . . — Yours always,
W. ALLINGHAM.
152.— DANTE ROSSETTI to MADOX BROWN, Calais.
[Calais was Brown's native place, although in blood he
was entirely British : he had now gone thither for a brief trip.
— The " maniac named Valpy " was a solicitor, who in the
sequel had some considerable purchasing-transactions with
my Brother : I hardly remember how the latter knew him
first — perhaps through Howell as connected with Ruskin, or
it may be through Smetham. He was not at all a maniac,
but was something of a sentimentalist, of a nervous and
flurried turn : a conscientious gentleman, of high and fidgeting
standards in life. He was often called " The Vampyre " by
my Brother and by Howell. This was little or nothing
beyond a perversion of the name Valpy. The rumour also
ran — I suppose erroneously — that he was the original of the
effusive and tearful solicitor Baines Carew, in the Bab Ballads
268 ROSSETTI PAPERS
of Mr W. S. Gilbert— The statement that Rossetti's Tibullits
was " a dead 'oss " must mean that, being already sold to some
one else, it was unavailable for eliciting coin from Mr Valpy.]
[16 CHEYNE WALK, CHELSEA.
July 1867.]
Dear Brown, — I'm sorry to say I shall have to use your
cheque on Monday. I am at present still waiting for
Agnew's visit. If with good result, I can easily lend the
sum again. How you manage to have a banking-account
I don't know. I never can.
I hope you are enjoying yourself at Calais, and that
Emma benefits. Love to her. . . .
There is a maniac named Valpy whom I shall bring to
see your things when you are in London again, and who
I think would buy something. He wanted to have my
Tibulhis the other day, but couldn't — mo re's the pity, it
being a dead 'oss, or at any rate knacker.— Your
D. GABRIEL R.
153. — DANTE ROSSETTI to MADOX BROWN, Calais.
[" Frith's big daub " was King Charles the Second's last
Sunday I\
1 6 CHEYNE WALK.
i^July 1867.
My dear Brown, — I suppose you are still in Calais, as I
have heard no more of you.
I have some very good news for myself to tell you. I
have been designing the Perseus and Medusa subject ; and
yesterday Mr Matthews the Brewer came to see the design,
and commissioned the picture for 1500 guineas. It is a
very straightforward work, and will not involve delay or
great labour ; so this is a capital thing for me. Moreover,
DANTE ROSSETTI, 1867 2G9
ough he would prefer a half-life scale, he is willing if I like
to take it life-size ; so that I have it all my own way. Now
what I want is a studio. Shields has suggested having an
iron one put up in the garden, which he says he believes
could be done in a week or two, and for about £100. Do
you know anything of such things? If so, I wish you would
write me a word thereanent. I confess I rather dread iron ;
still, if the cost were so small, it might be looked on as only
a temporary convenience, and at any rate would not turn
the house topsy-turvy while doing.
When are you coming back ? Mr Matthews is a queer
character, — seems to buy all sorts. Frith's big daub in the
R.A. belongs to him, also Hunt's Afterglow (do you
remember what he gave for it?), Solomon's Amphitheatre,
Millais's Ransom, lots of Pooles, and many other things.
He thinks of building a Gallery, and may, I dare say, turn
out permanently useful. . . . — Your affectionate
D. G. ROSSETTI.
I54.—DANTE ROSSETTI to MADOX BROWN.
[16 CHEYNE WALK, CHELSEA.
5 August 1867.]
My dear Brown, — Cormorants, porpoises, and great sea-
serpents, are so rife in these latitudes that I am only able
to save £15 from their clutches at this instant, which I send,
and this with perfect comfort. The other 10 shall come very
soon.
I shall be looking you up again one evening, and getting
you to fix a day to come and consider the studio-question. —
Your affectionate
D. GABRIEL R.
270 ROSSETTI PAPERS
155. — JOHN BURROUGHS to MONCURE CON WAY.
OFFICE OF COMPTROLLER OF THE CURRENCY, WASHINGTON.
10 August 1867.
Dear Mr Conway, — . . . We were deeply impressed
with Mr Rossetti's article in The Chronicle. It is a grand
and lofty piece of criticism. It was not till the third reading
that I saw the full scope and significance of it. I am sure
Walt feels very grateful to him and to yourself. The article
has had its effect here. The Round Table copied the con-
clusion of it, and completely reversed its verdict of a year
ago. The Nation, Times, etc., copied also ; and now The
Citizen appears with the article entire. We shall circulate it
well. Our cause gains fast. The leaven is working and no
mistake. The Editor of The Galaxy, Mr Church, wrote
O'Connor the other day saying he would like a poem from
Walt for his Magazine, and suggested for theme the harvest
which the returned soldiers have sown and gathered. The
proposition was well received by Walt ; and a few mornings
afterward he fell to work, and in a couple of days had finished
the piece. Church writes back that it is splendid, and will
appear in the September number of his Magazine. It is
called A Carol of Harvest for 1867. It is one of his grandest
poems, and I think will take well. . . . — Truly yours,
JOHN BURROUGHS.
156. — DANTE ROSSETTI to MADOX BROWN.
[CHEYNE WALK, CHELSEA.
15 August 1867.]
My dear Brown, — Dreffle bad, ain't it ?
All would be well as to the £10, were it not that I had on
Monday to send that very sum to Lizzie's brother Harry,
BAttONE KIRKUP, 1867 271
who has had the small-pox ; and (what is worse) I have
reason to fear at present that it may have been lost in the
post, though registered. However, I suppose I must draw on
Leyland on my own account, and can then do the needful. I
wished to avoid doing this further till all his daubs were
daubed ; but other matters than yours will force me to it, I
fear. As for the wretch Gambart, his d — d £200 (minus 53.
which he stopped for something like cab-hire) are had and
spent now — and now he wants more done to the drawings,
and has left two of them with me. Let him write, and won't
he get it ! — this at least will be a tit-bit. I'm on the right
side of the hedge this time. . . . — Your affectionate
D. G. R.
157.— BARONE KIRKUP to WILLIAM ROSSETTI.
[Kirkup wrote in this letter that he remembered "the
death of Louis XV." That is impossible, for Louis XV.
died in 1774. I have substituted, what he must have
meant, " XVI."]
FLORENCE, PONTE VECCHIO 2.
27 September 1867.
My dear Rossetti, — Your letter is very encouraging in
regard to your Sister's health. She is mending certainly,
but still you cannot be too careful. The climate is un-
favourable and she is delicate, and we have the bad season
before us : warmth on the skin is absolutely indispens-
able. . . .
Swinburne has a noble energy. I imagine his relations
are against him. What is the Admiral? They are mostly
Tories. His uncle Lord Ashburnham was, when young.
Nelson was a horrid one. I knew him both alive and dead.
I was at his funeral, and stood next to Charles Fox in St
272 ROSSETTI PAPERS
Paul's ; and I was afterwards at Fox's funeral, and saw the
old Duke of Devonshire crying as he walked with Lord
Carlisle in the procession. How old I am ! I was at
Hastings's trial, and remember the death of Louis XVI. ;
and I remember every note, sung at the theatre, of " How
stands the glass around," by one who performed General
Wolfe. My early memory is much stronger than later.
Garibaldi has been arrested. There were mobs and
riots, and troops all night out, — two or three killed. All
quiet now. They say that Bonaparte threatened to send
back the French to Rome, the first Garibaldian that crossed
the frontier ; and that Rattazzi answered that the first
French soldier who set his foot in Italy would relieve the
Italians from the promise of non-intervention. . . . — Yours
sincerely,
S. KlRKUP.
!58. — DANTE ROSSETTI to MADOX BROWN.
[This jocular sonnet may pass for what it is worth :
little would be gained by translating it. Brown, I find,
had written an Italian letter to Rossetti, in which he spoke
of Mr Dunn ; and taking that name as if it were " Done,"
he translated it into " Fatto." Rossetti replies, joking on
his friend's name, Ford Mad-ox Brown, and Italianizing it
as "Guado Pazzobue Bruno"; and he speaks of Mr Dunn
as being a creditor. I suppose this is mostly a mere joke
upon the word " dun " ; though it is quite possible that at
this date Mr Dunn was really entitled to some salary as
yet unpaid. I don't think that in my Brother's time the
neat conundrum had been invented — "Why is a dun like
an ornithorhynchus ? " — " Because he is a beast with a bill."
If Dante Gabriel had known of that conundrum, I should
have been sure to hear it from his mouth at one time or
another.]
F. T. PALGRAVE, 1867 273
16 CHEYNE WALK.
24 October 1867.
MESSER DANTE A MESSER BRUNO.
Essendo pazzo, il hue al guado intoppa,
E volta e sfugge e d'acqua vk digiuno :
E tu, pittor, che come lui sei Bruno,
Temendo un detto, dici cosa zoppa.
Acqua di guado no, ma vino in coppa,
Domanda il labbro al timoroso core
Dovendo nominare il CREDITORE ;
E manca il dir, ch& la paura e troppa.
" Fatto " lo chiami ; e piu tremendo fatto
Che il creditore non dimostra il sole
Ad uomo sano, ovvero a hue ch'e matto.
Impazziti voltiamo le parole
leroglificamente in "gufo" o "gatto" ;
E I'uom non osa dir quel che gli duole.
Dear Brown, — Having finished my sonnet in a caviling
spirit worthy of Italian correspondence, I find I've been too
sleepy to say I'll attend to your injunction. Are you
asking any friends not artists ; and, if so, whom ? . . . — Your .
GABRIEL.
159.— F. T. PALGRAVE to WILLIAM ROSSETTI.
[Perhaps I need hardly explain that " Jason " is the poem
by William Morris, The Life and Death of Jason.}
5 YORK GATE.
25 October 1867.
Dear Rossetti, — ... I am delighted to see that Jason
reached a second edition. I heard very favourable things
about it from A. Tennyson (who came with me for three
weeks last autumn into Devonshire), but I have seen no
other judge of poetry who knew it except Woolner. I reckon
much — indeed more — on his Tales ; because Jason appears
s
274 ROSSETTI PAPERS
to me too long and weak a fable for effect, however skilfully
treated. I had a pleasant two days' visit from Allingham
also — whom, by the by, I forgot when writing . . . above. —
Ever truly yours,
F. T. PALGRAVE.
160.-— STAUROS DILBEROGLUE to WILLIAM ROSSETTI.
31 THREADNEEDLE STREET.
29 October 1867.
Dear Mr Rossetti, — In answer to your kind communica-
tion of yesterday I herein enclose names of the Committee
of the Candian Refugees' Relief-fund. . . .
Many thanks for Stillman's paragraphs. " L'ultima che si
perde e la speranza ; " let us hope. The funds of the Com-
mittee are exhausted, and we now subscribe, amongst our-
selves, all we can for monthly remittances to the women and
children out of Crete. The ladies too have unhooked-and-eyed
their pin-money, and are investing in gowns and shawls for
these good creatures. I wish I could pray to the Virgin
Mary for them as I did when I was a child, but now I
cannot : Macbeth could not say Amen ! After all, I don't
know that knowledge is power ; I think feeling is, and
science perhaps.
With kindest respects to your Mother and to all of your
house, Japanese prints included, believe me in affection and
esteem yours,
STAUROS DILBEROGLUE.
. 161. — WALT WHITMAN to MONCURE CONWAY.
[This letter was sent on to me by Mr Conway, for my
guidance in making the Selection from Whitman's Poems,
soon afterwards published by Mr Hotten. The end of the
WALT WHITMAN, 1867 275
letter was at some time cut off — perhaps to serve as an
autograph.]
WASHINGTON.
i November 1867.
Dear Friend, — My feeling and attitude about a volume
of Selections from my Leaves by Mr Rossetti, for London
publication, are simply passive ones — yet with decided satis-
faction that, if the job is to be done, it is to be by such hands :
perhaps too " good-natured," as you advise — certainly not ill-
natured. I wish Mr Rossetti to know that I appreciate his
appreciation, realize his delicacy and honour, and warmly
thank him for his literary friendliness. I have no objection
to his substituting other words, leaving it all to his own tact
etc. . . . Briefly, I hereby empower him (since that seems to
be the pivotal affair, and since he has the kindness to shape
his action so much by my wishes, — and since, indeed, the
sovereignty of the responsibility is not at all mine in the
case) to make verbal changes of that sort wherever, for
reasons sufficient to him, he decides that they are indispens-
able. I would add that it is a question with me whether the
introductory essay or prose preface to the first edition is
worth printing.
" Calamus " is a common word here. It is the very large!
and aromatic grass, or rush, growing about water-ponds in
the valleys : spears about 3 feet high, often called sweet
flag — grows all over the Northern and Middle States (see
Webster's large Dictionary — Calamus, definition 2). The
recherche or ethereal sense of the term, as used in my book,
arises probably from the actual calamus presenting the
biggest and hardiest kind of spears of grass, and their fresh, •
aquatic, pungent bouquet.
I write this to catch to-morrow's steamer from New
York. It is almost certain I shall think of other things —
moving me to write you further in a week or so. ...
276 ROSSETTI PAPERS
162.— WARINGTON TAYLOR to DANTE ROSSETTI.
[I put here a batch of letters from Mr Taylor, the
Manager of the Morris Firm. It appears to me that they
were probably written towards the late Autumn of 1867,
but I cannot say with any certainty. — The name " Ned "
will be understood to mean Burne-Jones. — I am not clear
what Mr Taylor refers to as " the decoration of the Palace"
by Mr Webb : possibly the decoration of the Refreshment-
room etc. in the Victoria and Albert Museum.]
7 BEACH COTTAGES, HASTINGS.
[? Autumn 1867.]
My dear Gabriel, — Very, very pleased to see your hand-
writing; such a pleasure during this dreary time here. I
think now I shall get through this winter. . . .
The firm's affairs are consolatory. The profits represent
I think about 28 per cent, on work done, a little over £3000
worth of work during the year. After two years' experience
I conceive the matter stands thus : —
1. We do about £2300 worth of windows in a year —
roughly stated, twenty windows, all sizes.
2. Considering this to be the quantity of work done,
nothing but the highest prices can pay.
3. This amount of work we shall always get ; therefore it
is only loss of time to do cheap work.
Morris and I never get hot with one another save on
the subject of price. He is always for a low price : seeing
the amount of work we do, it is absurd. We must have a
long price ; and it must be considered not as so much per
foot, but as so much for a painting in glass. In the manner
we now work — that is to say, very finished, and with designs
containing twice or three times as much drawing as they did
three years ago — we ought never to have less than £2. ios.
to £3 per foot, with the extra amount added on to this for
all new designs by Ned, Morris, Webb. This is the point
WARINGTON TAYLOR, 1867 277
I am always fighting, and have generally managed to get
my own way after a swear and curse. The result we see.
Another point is this : Morris and Ned will do no work
except by driving, and you must keep up the supply of
designs. Every design less than we get is so much less
window. Last year I look upon as very fortunate in this
line, for Ned did little painting, and consequently I got anj
unusual quantity of designs from him. But this should be
considered the outside amount we should ever get from him.
One more thing, and I have done with shop. I have on
excellent authority heard that ordinary firms like Lavers
and Barraud, when they do a window with designs by
Holiday, charge over £$ per foot, nearer £4. They pay
Holiday £15 per figure — a coloured cartoon.
With reference to papers, — the cutting of the block for
our last new paper (the branches of pomegranate, orange,
lemon, nectarine) cost £15 the block, trial-prints about
£i. i os. This is all. You must be careful to make the
design " English size." . . .
Very glad to hear that your market is good.
Have you been to see Webb's chef-d'ceuvre, the decora-
tion of the Palace? It must be very stunning.
I hope to be in town by middle of March. Wife unites
in best wishes. — Yours ever,
W. TAYLOR.
163.— WARINGTON TAYLOR to DANTE ROSSETTI.
[HASTINGS.
? Autumn 1867.]
My dear Gabriel, — Having commented on the firm's
affairs from the couleur-de-rose side, I must give you better
statistics than you have yet. If Webb's report to me of
the meeting is correct, all I can say is that the whole
question has never been looked at at all in a business-like
point of view.
278 ROSSETTI PAPERS
Last year we did over £2000 of stained glass. This
ought to have given £$oo profit at least, i.e., 25 per cent.
On stained glass we did not make more than half of this
amount. Therefore stained-glass business is not satisfactory
— our prices are plainly not high enough. If we cannot get
higher, then the business is not remunerative. ... I consider
the balance-sheet shown to you as showing to the utmost
farthing the firm's profits. If 7 had made it, it would have
been at least ^150 less. It was decidedly couleur-de-rvse.
The large profit you had put before you was not made
on stained glass, but on the Palace decorations. The whole
of that work was done by Webb ; if Webb had been busy
with architecture, it could not have been done. You could
never depend upon such work again. Moreover, Webb was
miserably paid for his designs. This is no fault of the firm's,
for Webb would not have more. He never will charge above
a third of what he ought to charge.
It was settled, I believe, to divide profits, but you
apparently settled no amount to be divided. . . . Then
there was no sum settled for working capital.
As to increasing salaries, it won't bear what it pays now.
I know well the tendency at Queen Square to make life
comfortable ; anything rather than face death or a fact ;
hence the prosperous appearance of everything. Morris
won't have any of the sours of life— can't get him to face
them at all. — Yours,
W. TAYLOR.
164.— WARINGTON TAYLOR to DANTE ROSSETTI.
7 BEACH COTTAGES, HASTINGS.
[? Autumn 1867.]
My dear Gabriel, — . . . The amount of work done in
'66 was the largest amount we have ever done. We worked
at high pressure all through the year.
WARINGTON TAYLOR, 1867 279
We obtained the utmost quantity of design from Ned.
The work in the shop never flagged for want of design.
We did as much work as the shop could ever do, for
we could not hope ever to have more design than last
year.
The whole year was more or less under my direct
superintendence.
Therefore the year '66 is complete as a year to draw
conclusions from. . . .
Now after all this, why is the profit on stained glass so
small? All the windows last year were executed at what
we considered high rates. Yet our profits were very
small.
Of course without the books I cannot give you exact
figures. . . .
Of course we should also want capital— a certain sum
left for the present to work with. This has been always
my great difficulty. This has been really the hard fight ;
we have never had a £100 to call our own. Last year you
see it was all spent upon the new premises. As to Morris
having his capital, keep him without it ; he will only spend
it in books. In about three years' time it will be of use
to him for publishing-purposes : at the present it would
go in wine and books !!!...
For the present 1 should advise you not to be too
sanguine. There will be plenty of time to see then as to
the value of my services. For the present, my impression
is the glass is still at too low a price ; but the point is,
will the people pay more ? Would they stand (we will say)
another £15 or £20 on to £100? That would make a
difference on £2000. We do only twenty windows per
ann. : therefore our price must be high. — Ever yours,
W. TAYLOR.
280 ROSSETTI PAPERS
!65. — WARINGTON TAYLOR to DANTE ROSSETTI.
[HASTINGS.
? Autumn 1867.]
My dear Gabriel, — . . . You have now digested the firm's
affairs — just kindly read my comments as follows : —
A business of £2000 work a year may give a sufficient
profit to one person, but is not large enough for a company ;
and, in a business doing so small an amount of work, the
proprietor should be clerk, manager, and all, himself. But
with us two large salaries are taken out of the £$oo profit
that ought to be : Morris ^150, Taylor £i2O\ and since my
unfortunate illness six months of MacShane, £37. zos.
Our annual expenditure, roughly stated, comes to quite
;£l5OO OUt Of ;£20OO.
Wages at £20 per week . . .£1040
Rent, Rates, Taxes ... 70
Glass . . . . .130
Lead, coals, petty cash, sundries . 100
Designs — Webb
Ned
Morris
£
I cannot give amount of designs without books.
I am very queer again ; perspirations at night and no
sleep are dragging me to pieces by degrees. — Ever yours,
W. TAYLOR.
1 66.— DANTE ROSSETTI to C. P. MATTHEWS.
[Mr Matthews (of the Brewing-firm of Ind, Coope, &
Co.) had commissioned Rossetti, at a large price, to execute
in oils his design named Aspecta Medusa. Not long after-
DANTE ROSSETTI, 18G7 281
wards he expressed a repugnance to one main constituent
in the design, the severed head of Medusa. Several letters
were interchanged on the subject. The final understanding
between the parties was amicable enough ; but Mr Matthews
did not carry out that particular commission, and I question
whether he purchased any specimen of my Brother's work.]
[16 CHEYNE WALK.
? 12 November 1867.]
My dear Mr Matthews, — Your letter has given me
matter for reflection, which has been the cause of my
delay in answering.
It would greatly decrease my pleasure in the picture
I am engaged on for you if I thought there was an
unavoidable feature in its treatment to which you could
never become reconciled. Your consent to have it on the
large scale, at my wish, rather than on the smaller one
to which you originally inclined, showed so much con-
sideration, and your immediate consent to my own terms
was so satisfactory, that I should feel greatly discouraged
if I saw real reason to fear that anything besides my own
inadequacy, which I would do my best to overcome,
threatened to stand in the way of your pleasure in the
work when completed. Though the picture is not yet
fairly commenced, nothing has been so much in my mind
since I received the commission from you in July last. I
have been working towards it in many preparatory ways,
in none more than in getting minor work cleared away
to leave my mind free for it, and the studies from life for
it are in progress. Before long I reckon on showing you
some advance with them.
Our discussion on the question of the Gorgon's head
when I last saw you was not perhaps entered on with
sufficient opportunity for decision at so immature a stage
of the design ; but I had hoped that your apprehension
on the point was nearly, if not quite, removed. My own
conviction remains the same — that is, that the head, treated
as a pure ideal, presenting no likeness (as it will not) to
282 ROSSETTI PAPERS
the severed head of an actual person, being moreover so
much in shadow (according to my arrangement) that no
painful ghastliness of colour will be apparent, will not
really possess when executed the least degree of that
repugnant reality which might naturally suggest itself at
first consideration. I feel the utmost confidence in this
myself, as the kind of French sensational horror which
the realistic treatment of the severed head would cause
is exactly the quality I should most desire to avoid. The
subject does not exist in any completely rendered form
that I know of; but. there are sufficient slight representa-
tions of it on vases and in wall-decoration of classic times
to determine its exact treatment as including the head
separate, not on the shield ; besides that, as you say, the
latter treatment would in reality be an anachronism. This
last point I should not so much object to, if I did not
feel that the beauty of the design would suffer greatly,
and the action of my group would be entirely destroyed,
by the substitution of a shield for the detached head.
The subject is one I have fixed on for years and much
desired to carry out, and of which the treatment is as
clear in my mind as if it were already done. No other
subject for a large work is so tempting to me at this
moment, and the time which has elapsed since I last
saw you has enabled me to mature all my ideas respect-
ing its execution, and take various important steps
towards it. Thus nothing but the most decided im-
pression against it in your mind would enable me to
bear with (?) substituting another subject for this, in the
picture I am to paint for you ; especially as I feel so
confident of removing such impression, so far as the
materials of the subject are concerned. And this at the
same time I say with the strongest wish that a commission
so liberally given should be carried out to your entire
satisfaction, quite as much as to my own.
I hope, as I say, to be writing to you shortly to show
you some of the studies, and also some other work
completed. Meanwhile, I should be very glad of a further
WALT WHITMAN, 18G7 283
word from you on a matter which so much occupies my
mind.
167.— WALT WHITMAN to WILLIAM ROSSETTI.
[Mr Whitman was quite right in assuming that I had
no idea of bringing out " an expurgated edition " of his
poems. I selected such poems only as could not, even in
the opinion of the most punctilious persons, require any
expurgation : from the prose preface alone I omitted two
or three phrases. My volume did not correspond to his
proposal in every minute detail : if I remember right, it
was chiefly in print before I received the present letter. —
" Mr Burroughs's Notes " are that able writer's Notes on
Walt Whitman as Poet and Person.]
WASHINGTON.
22 November 1867.
My dear Mr Rossetti, — I suppose Mr Conway has re-
ceived, and you have read, the letter I sent over about
three weeks since, assenting to the substitution of other
words etc., as proposed by you, in your reprint of my book,
or selections therefrom.
I suppose the reprint intends to avoid any expressed
or implied character of being an expurgated edition. I
hope it will simply assume the form and name of a selec-
tion from the various editions of my pieces printed here.
I suggest, in the interest of that view, whether the adjoin-
ing might not be a good form of title-page : —
WALT WHITMAN'S POEMS
SELECTED FROM THE AMERICAN EDITIONS
BY
WM. M. ROSSETTI
I wish particularly not only that the little figures number-
ing the stanzas, but also that the larger figures dividing
284 ROSSETTI PAPERS
the pieces into separate passages or sections, be carefully
followed and preserved, as in copy.
When I have my next edition brought out here, I shall
change the title of the piece " When lilacs last in the door-
yard bloomed " to President Lincoln* s Funeral-Hymn. You
are at liberty to take the latter name or the old one, at
your option (that is, if you include the piece).
It is quite certain that I shall add to my next edition
(carrying out my plan from the first) a brief cluster of
pieces born of thoughts on the deep themes of Death and
Immortality.
Allow me to send you an article I have written on
Democracy ; a hasty charcoal-sketch of a piece, but indica-
tive, to any one interested in Leaves of Grass, as of the
audience the book supposes, and in whose interest it is
made. I shall probably send it next mail.
Allow me also to send you (as the ocean-postage law
is now so easy) a copy of Mr Burroughs's Notes, and some
papers. They go same mail with this.
And now, my dear Sir, you must just make what use
(or no use at all) of anything I suggest or send as your
occasions call for. Very likely some of my suggestions
have been anticipated.
I remain, believe me, with friendliest feelings and
wishes,
WALT WHITMAN.
168.— A. B. HOUGHTON to WILLIAM ROSSETTI.
t[The " illustration " here spoken of is the able woodcut-
design which Mr Houghton made for my blank-verse
narrative, Mrs Holmes Grey, published in The Broadway^
2 KING HENRY'S ROAD.
3 December 1867.
Dear Rossetti, — I shuddered when I saw your note —
positively. I expected a ferocious wigging for the illustra-
WALT WHITMAN, 1867 285
tion, and got thanks ! Your notice of my picture in The
Chronicle was only too kind — the " grotesque-graceful "^
exactly expresses what I was trying for. . . . — Yours
faithfully,
A. B. HOUGHTON.
169. — WALT WHITMAN to WILLIAM ROSSETTI.
[I think it will be understood from what precedes that
my original intention had been to make a simple and un-
expurgated Selection from Whitman's poems : such was my
object, and such was the ultimate form of the volume.
But, consequent upon Whitman's letter to Mr Conway (No-
161), the project was at one moment entertained of includ-
ing in the selection, with omission of certain phrases or
passages, various poems highly characteristic of his best
powers. This project proved, from the present letter, to be
based on a misunderstanding, and it was at once dropped.
— " Mr O'Connor's pamphlet " is The Good Grey Poet.~\
WASHINGTON.
3 December 1867.
My dear Mr Rossetti, — I have just received and have
considered your letter of 17 November. In order that
there be the frankest understanding with respect to my
position, I hasten to write you that the authorization in
my letter of I November to Mr Conway, for you to
make verbal alterations, substitute words, etc., was meant
to be construed as an answer to the case presented in Mr
Con way's letter of 12 October. Mr Conway stated the
case of a volume of selections in which it had been decided
that the poems reprinted in London should appear verbatim,
and asking my authority to change certain words in the
Preface to first edition of poems etc.
I will be candid with you and say I had not the
slightest idea of applying my authorization to a reprint of
286 ROSSETTI PAPERS
the full volume of my poems. As such a volume was not
proposed, and as your courteous and honourable course
and attitude called and call for no niggardly or hesitating
response from me, I penned that authorization, and did not
feel to set limits to it. But abstractly and standing alone,
and not read in connection with Mr C[onway]'s letter of
12 October, I see now it is far too loose, and needs distinct
guarding.
I cannot and will not consent of my own volition to
countenance an expurgated edition of my pieces. I have
steadily refused to do so under seductive offers here in my
own country, and must not do so in another country.
I feel it due to myself to write you explicitly thus, my
dear Mr Rossetti, though it may seem harsh and perhaps
ungenerous. Yet I rely on you to absolve me sooner or
later. Could you see Mr Conway's letter of 12 October,
you would, I think, more fully comprehend the integrity of
my explanation.
I have to add that the points made in that letter in
relation to the proposed reprint, as originally designed,
exactly correspond with those on the same subject in your
own late letter ; and that the kind and appreciative tone
of both letters is in the highest degree gratifying, and is
most cordially and affectionately responded to by me ; and
that the fault of sending so loose an authorization has
surely been, to a large degree, my own.
And now, my friend, having set myself right on that
matter, I proceed to say, on the other hand, for you and
for Mr Hotten, that, if before the arrival of this letter you
have practically invested in, and accomplished or partially
accomplished, any plan, even contrary to this letter, I do
not expect you to abandon it, at loss of outlay etc., but
shall bond fide consider you blameless if you let it go on and
be carried out as you may have arranged. It is the question
of the authorization of an expurgated edition, proceeding
from me, that deepest engages me. The facts of the
different ways, one way or another way, in which the
book may appear in England, out of influences not under
WALT WHITMAN, 1867 287
the shelter of my umbrage, are of much less importance to
me. After making the foregoing explanation, I shall, I
think, accept kindly whatever happens. For I feel, indeed
know, that I am in the hands of a friend, and that my
pieces will receive that truest, brightest of light and per-
ception coming from love. In that, all other and lesser
requisites become pale.
It would be better, in any Introduction, to make no
allusion to me as authorizing, or not prohibiting, etc.
The whole affair is somewhat mixed — and I write
off-hand to catch to-morrow's New York steamer. But I
guess you will pick out my meaning. Perhaps indeed Mr
Hot ten has preferred to go on after the original plan —
which, if so, saves all trouble.
I have to add that I only wish you could know how
deeply the beautiful personal tone and passages of your
letter of 17 November have penetrated and touched me.
It is such things that go to our hearts and reward us,
and make up for all else, for years. Permit me to offer
you my friendship.
I sent you hence, 23 November, a letter through Mr
Conway ; also a copy of Mr Burroughs's Notes, Mr
O'Connor's pamphlet, and some papers containing criticisms
on Leaves of Grass. Also, later, a prose article of mine
named Democracy, in a Magazine.
Let me know how the work goes on, what shape it
takes, etc. Finally, I charge you to construe all I have
written through my declared and fervid realization of your
goodness toward me, nobleness of intention, and (I am fain
to hope) personal, as surely literary and moral, sympathy
and attachment. — And so, for the present, farewell.
WALT WHITMAN.
288 ROSSETTI PAPERS
170. — BARONE KIRKUP to WILLIAM ROSSETTI.
[The passage of Italian quoted from my Father runs as
follows : — " If it happens to me (and perchance it will
happen) that I must relinquish all thoughts of this world,
I shall order to be sent on to you the MSS. of the two
remaining Dissertations of the Beatrice di Dante, which you
will keep as a memorial of your sincere friend." — I did not
receive from Barone Kirkup the letters of my Father which
he offered me : I must no doubt have replied that I should
be pleased to get them, but perhaps not with sufficient
emphasis. — "That horrible and noxious blackguard" is of
course Napoleon III.]
FLORENCE, PONTE VECCHIO 2.
15 December 1867.
My dear Rossetti, — You and Trelawny are my only
congenial correspondents. The rest are priest-ridden Tories,
vain and ignorant. You have a spice of your Father. I
lately found above twenty of his letters in an old drawer,
mixed with hundreds of others. I think they contain even
more condensed unanswerable logic on the subject of Dante
than even his books, — long letters for my instruction, me a
poor devil and unlettered drudge at painting potboilers.
He talks of Trelawny, Leader, L[ord] Vernon, Lyell, East-
lake, Panizzi, etc. ; of his own failing health and his journey
to Paris ; and much about his Beatrice. One letter (dated
5 August 1843, Parigi, chez le Dr Not, an old friend of
mine), and which letter I had lost for years and lately
found, says : " Se mi accade (e forse accadra) che io debba
rinunziare ai pensieri di questo mondo, ordinero che sieno
a voi trasmessi i manoscritti de' due Ragionamenti residui
della Beatrice di Dante, che conserverete come memoria
del vostro sincere amico, G. Rossetti."
Poor dear friend ! He forgot to ordinare this last wish.
... If I was younger and my eyes stronger, I would get by
heart his Misteri and his Beatrice, and collect from Aroux
BARONE KIRKUP, 1867 289
all that is not in those works, and so glean something of the
lost Ragionamenti which were to be more conclusive than
the first. Even my letters from him are so, and I hope to
show them to you some day ; and you shall have them if
you can make any use of them for your Father's fame. . . .
I don't think I differ from you an iota. I always thought
that horrible and noxious blackguard what he now is — a
traitor to his own country, and now to any weaker one,
Mexico and Italy. He pocketed all Prussia's affronts —
and he might have been foiled by Italy if her government
had shown vigour. The arrest of Garibaldi, of his stores
and ammunition and of so many of his followers, spoiled all,
and encouraged that blackguard to bully, and strike his
petty blow with two divisions only. Garibaldi would have
taken Civita Vecchia and Rome certainly ; and the first
French invader would have authorized the Galantuomo to
send his army, backed by the whole nation of enthusiastic
volunteers, and perhaps a threat from Prussia, as happened
after Solferino. Rattazzi's was a policy of fear. Garibaldi's
success was miraculous in spite of all misfortunes, until the
French reserve came up with their Chassepots. . . .
The King and his Sons have been brought up amidst
mummery, humbug, and hocuspocus, and the usual adula-
tion of Courts. What has the people gained? Equality
of religions, and civil marriages ; and they have paid dearly
for it. Taxation redoubled, and threatened bankruptcy
(to my misfortune), bad administration, bad generals and
admirals, and an exchange from German to French
tyranny. . . .
Garibaldi has been saved by a miracle ; always the
first to attack and the last to retreat. I have no doubt
that three of my spirits defended him, but that is no
proof. He is still to be saved for better times. The
Brother of Tennyson has been writing to ask for some
information about my spirits. He is more of a philosopher
than a poet. He has had some experience himself. . . . —
Yours with affection,
SEYMOUR KIRKUP.
T
290 ROSSETTI PAPERS
171.— DANTE ROSSETTI to C. P. MATTHEWS.
[16 CHEYNE WALK.]
3 January 1868.
Dear Mr Matthews, — The subject of your letter requiring
some consideration is the cause of delay in my reply. I may
now say that on the whole I think with you our best course
will be to abandon the Medusa subject for which you
originally commissioned me, and to substitute another.
When you wrote me your objections some weeks ago,
my own great interest in my design made me sanguine
as to satisfying you with my work in the end ; but since
then I have not been without misgivings that, after all,
the feeling you express might not be removed by the
completed work ; and perhaps eventually I myself might
even, on this account, have become the proposer of a
change of subject. Thus all is well, as you will agree with
me that our joint assent was needed to any change in our
concluded engagement.
As to the time and trouble already devoted by me to
the work in preparation and studies, and your proposal
to compensate me for this, I need only say that, as I shall
of course continue the Medusa picture sooner or later on
my own account, either on the life-scale or a smaller one,
the studies made will still serve me, and will also them-
selves be saleable. This matter therefore need not be
pursued further.
The great question remaining is, what subject can I
substitute for your commission in place of the Medusa?
And here I must speak like yourself with perfect frankness.
I have not any subject in my mind which I specially desire
to paint at this moment, which would precisely correspond,
in its amount of material (two figures), with the Medusa,
and so fall within the same price (1500 guineas). At the
same time, I cannot afford to forego the commission. It
remains for me therefore to propose the only alternative
DANTE ROSSETTI, 1868 291
by which I can avoid being a sufferer in the most painful
way by the change of plan — that is, in having to paint
a work which I should not otherwise be doing, instead of
one which I greatly desire to do.
Among the subjects I most wish to carry out in my
lifetime is one of which I already, some time ago, made
a small water-colour drawing which I always regarded only
as a preparation for a larger work. The subject is Dante's
Dream; an incident taken from the Vita Nuova of the
poet, the autobiographical record of his early life and love.
This, however, being a composition of five figures, could
not be painted for the same price as the Medusa. My
proposal is to paint it for you for 2000 guineas, on a
good scale, though not life-size, the extent of the com-
position precluding this.
Though this proposal involves an extension of com-
mission, it would be in fact of no pecuniary advantage to
me, but the reverse ; except in the one all-important
particular, that I should thus be both complying with your
wish for a change of design, and at the same time substitut-
ing for one subject after my own heart another in which
I should take equal delight. Otherwise, the figures being
more than twice the number of those in the first subject,
I should be taking on myself an amount of labour much
more than proportionate to the increase of price. I already
explained to you, when we were discussing the Medusa
subject, that the size of figures in a picture, whether that
of life or less, made no difference in the labour of the work,
supposing them to be still on a good scale.
The small water-colour of this subject which I once
made I have no longer ; but, in case of your entertaining
the proposal, I would show you very shortly a sketch of
the composition, and would put the work in hand (in case
of our agreeing upon it) at the outset of this New Year
without further delay.
292 ROSSETTI PAPERS
172.— DANTE ROSSETTI to C P. MATTHEWS.
16 CHEYNE WALK, CHELSEA.
7 January 1868.
Dear Mr Matthews, — I cannot disguise from you that
your last letter causes me great disappointment, which I
feel sure you will not consider unreasonable on considering
the course of events. After much careful preparation, during
some months, for a work on which I built the greatest
hopes, and the nature of which was so fixed that change
seemed out of the question, I nevertheless felt it necessary
to admit the force of an unconquerable objection coming
thus late from you, since, if the work failed to please you
at last, it could not but leave a painful regret with me.
However, the substitution which you now suggest of small
and comparatively casual works to the amount of the
commission, instead of the one serious work, would destroy
all the pleasure, and (in the higher sense) all the advantage,
which I had promised myself from executing your order
in its original form. In saying this, I speak without reserve,
as you have rightly done, regarding an agreement which
your wishes make it necessary we should modify, but in
which my own interests are also greatly at stake.
When I proposed the Dante subject in my last letter,
I thought that probably — considering what you had said as
to compensation for my trouble till now with the work
which (though I felt a difficulty in charging for it) has been
in many ways very considerable, and most of all as regards
the discouragement of the present change — you would not
object to an extension of commission. This in fact involved
no advantage to me, except that of painting a second subject
I greatly desire to paint in lieu of the first, rather than
having to seek something as a mere substitute : otherwise,
as I said, the new plan was less advantageous to me than
the old one.
As to the price fixed for the Medusa, I perfectly recollect
DANTE ROSSETTI, 1868 293
my first saying that if possible I would paint it for 1200
guineas, though 1500 was the limit which I thought might
be reached ; but in answer to this you very liberally said
that in that case you should wish the larger sum to be
fixed at once between us, that so I might have full scope in
carrying out the work. I am not sure whether our friend
Halliday was present at this part of our conversation ; but
I feel confident, without now asking him, that you would
find his impression (derived either from his being present,
or from his talk with you on the subject at Havering that
evening or shortly afterwards) to be the same as my own.
It has struck me that you may have been led to think
it possible, from the months which have elapsed since the
commission was given, that the execution of an important
work would in my hands be prolonged indefinitely. To
this I should reply that many preparations and various
studies have been made by me for the Medusa since it
was first ordered ; and that the only reason why I have
as yet shown you nothing was my great desire that what
you first saw should leave the best possible impression.
With the substituted subject, I would now fix a precise
longest date for the delivery of the work, if that seemed
desirable to you.
I have now to make a fresh offer regarding the Dante
design, which you say in itself would, you believe, thoroughly
please you. This is, to paint it on such a reduced scale as
to size (which of course should still be not unimportantly
small), and, so far as possible with justice to the work,
reducing the labour throughout, as would enable me to
execute it for 1500 guineas. The picture, you may rely,
should still be my best, though smaller than I should have
wished to make it. This offer may I trust prove satisfactory
to you, both as to subject, scale, and price ; as it seems
now to correspond both with the original commission and
with your requirements since. In making it, I accept all
the onus of the change of plan, in respect of time already
spent and of sacrifice in some respects as regards the new
work ; but this I shall be content to do if I can both satisfy
294 ROSSETTI PAPERS
myself with the nature of the work and please you with
its result.
One point of difficulty under which I labour, as regards
a change, I have not yet mentioned. That is, the degree
of discredit for an artist which attaches to the subject of a
commission being altered. During the time I have been
getting the Medusa in hand, my work and the fact of its
being commissioned have of course become known to
various frequenters of my studio, and have been reported
pretty widely ; and the unavoidable consequence that, when
I resume the work, I shall have to offer it to some one who
will probably know it was originally ordered in another
quarter, is not the least inconvenient feature of my position.
In spite of this and other difficulties, I assented to your
request that our original subject might be withdrawn, and
have also used my endeavour to meet your further views.
This being so, I feel assured, remembering the spirit in
which the commission was first given, you will think with
me that my own preferences now in their turn claim
consideration.
I regret troubling you again with so long a letter, but
could not manage to express myself more briefly. I shall
be very glad to receive a visit from you at any time, and
remain, dear Mr Matthews, yours very truly,
D. G. ROSSETTI.
173.— DANTE ROSSETTI to C. P. MATTHEWS.
[16 CHEYNE WALK.]
9 January 1868.
Dear Sir, — Pray acquit me at once of all intention to
"tie you down hand and foot" to any plans whatever.
There are points of expression in your present letter which
have given me too much pain for me to wish to comment on
them at all, I will merely say that, whether or not I could
WILLIAM ROSSETTI— DIARY, 1868 295
have courage to paint large pictures on speculation, I have
too much self-respect to have any dealings as an artist,
except on a footing of mutual confidence. This being the
case, I must now decline at once to paint you any picture
at all. — I am, dear sir, yours faithfully,
D. G. ROSSETTI.
174.— DANTE ROSSETTI to C. P. MATTHEWS.
[With this letter the Matthews correspondence came, I
think, to a close ; but Mr Matthews and Rossetti met at
least once afterwards. — Mr Michael F. Halliday, the semi-
professional painter, had been the first introducer of this
gentleman to my Brother's studio, and, in the points where
the two men had been at variance, he heartily upheld my
Brother's view.]
[16 CHEYNE WALK, CHELSEA.
January 1868.]
I have seen Halliday, and need only say, after all he tells
me, that I shall be as happy as ever to see you again at any
time, or to hear from you. As regards pictures (should you
wish to renew that subject), I would carry out either of the
proposals made by me, or else the original one. Should I see
you, you will agree with me heartily, I know, that we need
not talk of past misconceptions.
175.— WILLIAM ROSSETTI— DIARY.
1868. Friday, 10 January. — Gabriel ... is now writing
to the Secretary etc. of the Leeds Exhibition, objecting to
the request which Miss Heaton tells him has been made for
a picture by him in her possession to be contributed. He
has every reason to remonstrate against this, as, in conse-
296 ROSSETTI PAPERS
quence of some previous correspondence, he was distinctly
informed that no pictures of his would be solicited nor even
accepted. . . .
Thursday, 16 Jamiary. — . . . The Secretary of the Leeds
Exhibition states to Gabriel that his objection to the hanging
there of any of his pictures will be attended to. G[abriel]
says that Patmore told him once (as if he had reason to
know it for certain) that the mystery about Geraldine in
Coleridge's Christabel is that she is in reality a man ; and
Coleridge found this incident so embarrassing to the con-
tinuation of his poem that he abandoned it. G[abriel] has
written a sonnet for his Venus picture. . . .
Friday, 17 January. — Dined at Stephens's with Hunt.
The latter has been solicited lately by Millais to stand for
A.R.A. He consulted Brown about the matter the other
day, and seems now to have made up his mind not to stand
on this or any future occasion. . . .
Thursday, 23 January. — Gabriel has made one or two
studies for a projected picture of La Pia, for which Mrs
Morris has engaged to sit. . . .
Sunday, 26 Jamiary. — Dilberoglue called. ... He says that
he once attended a private reading by Emerson of his lecture
on Plato, and received a chilling impression — E[merson]
being altogether impersonal — as if he had none but an
intellectual relation to his subject, and scarcely so much as
that to his hearers.* . . .
Tuesday, 28 January. — My Mrs Holmes Grey out in The
Broadway. . . .
Thursday, 30 January. — Resumed some of the work on
the selection of Artists' Opinions upon Art.
Friday, 31 January. — Matthews called on Gabriel to-day,
and the breach between them is healed. M[atthews] did
not however say anything definite about a commission : from
the statement of Halliday, who called in the evening, it
appears that M[atthews] has really no convenient space for
* I myself heard Emerson lecture in or about 1848, and received
something of the same impression, yet not strongly. The lectures were,
I think, those on Shakespear and on Napoleon,
WILLIAM ROSSETTI— DIARY, 1868 297
a decidedly large picture, and would like instead various
pictures of about the size of the Lilith. H[alliday] says that
Millais's two eldest boys, very nice boys but not showing
any appreciable artistic tendency, are just about to pass
through some tutoring as a preliminary to going to Harrow :
the eldest is about eleven. Millais was showing the other
day the various medals he has received — either nine or
eleven in number. . . .
Monday r, 3 February. — Gabriel sent us round his life-sized
oil-portrait of Mamma.* Swinburne having written me a
superfluously enthusiastic letter about my Mrs H\plmes\ Grey,
urging me to continue writing poetry, I asked G[abriel] what
line of poetry he would think me best adapted for ; and his
advice is to go on on the same tack as in that performance.
Tuesday, 4 February. — Hotten tells me that the Whit-
man Selection is to be out to-morrow. Dined at Scott's
with Howell, Conway, etc. H[owell] told us a strange story
of Ruskin's having just lately given a cheque to a Mr Calvert
for ^"3600 for minerals which he had never seen, and which
finally turned out to be non-existent. The cheque was dated
forward for 8 February ; and Howell, having met Calvert at
Ellis the bookseller's, unravelled the plot, and stopped pay-
ment. Whether further complications will ensue remains
to be seen. Alfred Hunt talked to me about the immense^
difference between pure landscape, such as he aims after, and
in which everything has to be done by relations of distance
and light etc., and such landscape as that of Mason or Hook,
where the prominence given to figures fills-up space, and
thus saves some of the greatest difficulties. Jones, whqy
came in late, has been of late, and still is, much troubled by
sleeplessness, and has intermitted work altogether. Conway
says that the letter lately addressed to me by Whitman is
considerably the most interesting of his letters he has seen
anywhere. . . .
Friday, 7 February. — . . . Christina consulted Dr Jenner
to-day. He examined her with the stethoscope, and pro-
nounces that she has congestion of one lung, but certainly not
* Now in my possession,
298 ROSSETTI PAPERS
consumption ; that her life may be prolonged indefinitely,
but she must not relax in the precautions she has been
taking of late years. . . . Aunt Charlotte, up yesterday from
Muntham, has brought some photographs from designs of
children by a young man in a decline — a weaver, I think,
and wholly untrained in art* They are the most surprising
specimens from such a hand I recollect ever to have seen,
being most excellent in style and realized expression. . . .
Tuesday, \ I February. — Called on Hunt to see his picture
of Isabella and the Pot of Basil; a work somewhat deficient on
the side of delicacy of beauty, but eminently fine and able.
He is doing, for his little boy, portraits of himself and Mrs
Waugh (and I think others are to come) — very forcible (not
as yet softened down), and painted with brushes of great
length, so that he stands a good way off the canvas, and finds
he can thus give features better as a general whole. We got
Scott to come out and dine with us at St James's Restaurant.
Hunt (with Tebbs etc.) went lately to a spiritual seance at
Mrs Guppy's. The principal thing was the production
(apparently on the spot and in a very short time, but in
total darkness) of two drawings, of a griffin, bird, and angel
— and of a crane, sea, etc. H[unt] says these were certainly
good performances up to a certain point — would have done
credit to a very clever and competent amateur ; and the short
time of their production (if really thus produced) beyond
what he can account for.
Wednesday, 12 February. — Went to see at Christie's
Windus'sf pictures, to be sold in a day or two; Millais's
Isabella, Gabriel's Lucrezia Borgia, etc. . . .
Thursday, 13 February. — Some friends in the evening at
Euston Square : Browning one of them, looking exceedingly
well, and behaving most cordially and affably. He says he
gets up daily at 6 (or 5, I am not sure which), and sits
without a fire till 8 or so. His new edition, now just com-
ing out, is on a strictly chronological scheme : he says that
* Warwick Brookes — but this account of him is not correct : see the
entry for 25 February.
t Windus of Tottenham.
WILLIAM ROSSETTI— DIARY, 1868 299
he finds the heavier works, such as dramas, read much the
most agreeably thus arranged. Pauline is included in the
edition, in consequence of his having received a letter from
somebody* who professes a great enthusiasm for the un-
acknowledged works of distinguished authors, and who con-
templated publishing some considerable part of P\auline\
in some form — so B[rowning] found the best thing to do
would be to take the affair into his own hands, and re-
publish the whole poem with proper press-corrections — not
any re-writing, which he objects to. His great new poem
ought to be out towards July, through Smith and Elder :
he has left Chapman and Hall, finding them unmanageably
careless. He describes the general quality of the poem as
the same transaction seen from a number of differing points
of view, or glimpses in a mirror. I find he has seen what
I wrote about him in the Swinburne pamphlet, as he made
a most good-humoured reference to the passage about his
eyes.f He liked Stillman's Cretan wine ; and this led to
my talking about Sftillman] to Miss Browning, whom I
find to be a warm friend of his : she especially charged me
to send S[tillman] her love (and to his Wife also)j when
next I write. Browning expresses (as I had before been
told) a very high opinion of Morris's Jason. . . .
Sunday, 1 6 February. — Sent Pollen some particulars for
his Art-Catalogue § — also a note or two to Notes and
Queries ; and began for the latter an article (which will be
of some length if carried as far as I incline) on emenda-
tions etc. to Shelley. . . .
Wednesday, 19 February. — Gabriel says that the pictures
in Windus's sale sold badly for the most part. His own
Lucrezia Borgia was carried on to £70 (by pre-arrangement
* I fancy this was Mr R. Herne Shepherd.
t There was a marked peculiarity in Browning's eyes — one of them
long-sighted, the other short-sighted. To this, as illustrating the quality
of his mind, I had made some reference in my pamphlet.
1 Thejfirst Mrs Stillman, an American, whose life closed in Crete not
long afterwards.
§ Mr John Hungerford Pollen was then compiling, for the Department
of Science and Art, an Universal Catalogue of Books on Art,
300 ROSSETTI PAPERS
with Howell) ; Fuseli's Lycidas, £16. i6s., and Nightmare,
about £i ; two excellent early Inchbolds £12 and £10 or
thereabouts. Millais's Isabella fetched £400, and Wander-
ing Thoughts .£100. Howell says that Calvert is taking
legal proceedings against Ruskin for conspiracy, but H[owell]
himself is not made a party in the cause. R[uskin] pro-
poses to defend himself in person. Cruikshank is as usual
in hot water, or hotter than ever. He has (as he informs
Howell) advanced to his Havelock Rifle-Corps £700 ; . . .
and now, with all the rows in the Corps, and objections
raised to certain items of these expenses, he fears he will
Pnever be reimbursed. Then he received from Teetotallers
.£3600 to keep him going while painting The Worship of
Bacchus, in expectation of large returns from that work.
The thing was a failure. The Teetotallers got him to
pledge with Attenborough for £500 his other works ex-
hibited along with the Bacchus, and the interest has been
^duly paid up to January next. Meanwhile the Trustees of
Mrs Cruikshank's prospective income had been advancing
money to C[ruikshank] on the faith of his having these
works on his own hands. The Teetotallers now want to
send the Bacchus, and the stock of engravings from it,
over to America, to be there touted and lectured about :
but Cruikshank objects to this on account of the affair
with his Wife's Trustees ; and Howell, who has obtained
possession of the pawn - duplicates, refuses to sanction
it. ...
I" Tuesday, 25 February. — Gabriel has sold his old cartoon-
set from The Parable of the Vineyard to a Manchester
man* for ;£ioo. He has purchased through Shields a set
of the photographed sketches by Warwick Brookes. He is
not a weaver (see 7th February) but a pattern-designer,
long accustomed to solace his leisure by sketching in this
way, but never able to lay aside the routine of his business.
His age is near fifty, and he has six children : has now
been disabled by illness for a long while, and has little or
no dependence except from the sale of these photographs.
* Mr Johnson.
WILLIAM ROSSETTI— DIARY, 1868
301
A set of 31 costs £4. They are not all so good as those
which I saw in the first instance. . . .
Friday, 28 February. — In the evening of yesterday a
man was found on the roof of 16 Cheyne Walk. On being
spoken to, he made off, but was found in the cellars of the
late Don Saltero's Tavern, and given in charge. On the
pleading of his Wife however Gabriel abstained from
taking any further steps against him, and he was discharged.
It is now found that he had been plundering the lead off
the roof: a policeman estimates that he must have carried
away some £10 worth. He is a workman in the employ
of Clark, who is the builder at Don Saltero's. G[abriel]
intends to speak to the landlord's agent, Mr Ambler, about
it ; but will probably go no further. . . .
Wednesday, 4 March. — A large party at Jones's new
house, the Grange, North End, Fulham, which I see for
the first time. Swinburne says that his writing in The
Fortnightly Revieiv has come to a stand for the present.
Payment for his Halt before Rome, Baudelaire, and another
poem, being outstanding, the Fortnightly people sent him
£12 for the latter two, not as yet settling at all for the
first. He considers this £12 altogether below the mark;
wrote about the matter more than a month ago, and has
as yet received no reply. Hunt looked in at the party,
looking very worn and ill, I am sorry to say : it seems his
Doctor now pronounces the illness to be not asthma (as
at first said) but a recurrence of his agueish malady. . . .
Sunday, 8 March. — Finished my notes on Shelley for
N\ptes\ and Q\ueries\. . . .
Monday, 9 March. — Dined with the Waughs and Hunt.
H[unt] is looking decidedly less bad than the other day :
he is taking tonics seven times a day, and (under the
Doctor's advice) eating meat separate from any bread or
vegetables. He would not wish his boy (who had gone to
bed before my arrival) to be an artist — rather perhaps a
traveller with a purpose. . . .
Friday, 13 March. — Gabriel is painting an entirely new
figure of Lucrezia Borgia into his old water-colour of that
302 ROSSETTI PAPERS
subject sold recently at Christie's. Morris and his Wife
came to Chelsea, to remain there some few days — Mrs
Mforris] having consented to sit to G[abriel] for a figure
of La Pia which he means to paint. Howell says that
Calvert appears now to have dropped his action against
Ruskin for conspiracy ; and R[uskin] is prosecuting him
for attempting to obtain money under false pretences. The
object is to coerce Cfalvert] into giving up the cheque,
which, though cancelled, still remains in his hands : if
this is attained, the prosecution would be dropped. . . .
Sunday, 15 March. — Browning called. He greatly
deprecates the publication by Tennyson of the trifling
affairs which are now appearing in Good Words and Once
a Week etc. : he says that T[ennyson]'s books are declining
in sale within this year or two (perhaps the influence of
Swinburne). Browning's forthcoming poem exceeds 20,000
lines : it may probably be out in July, but he would defer
it if he finds that more conducive to the satisfactory com-
pletion of the work. He began it in October '64. Was
staying at Bayonne, and walked out to a mountain-gorge
traditionally said to have been cut or kicked out by Roland,
and there laid out the full plan of his twelve cantos,
accurately carried out in the execution. He says he
writes day by day on a regular systematic plan — some
three hours in the early part of the day : he seldom or
never, unless in quite brief poems, feels the inspiring
impulse and sets the thing down into words at the same
time — often stores-up a subject long before he writes it.
He has written his forthcoming work all consecutively —
not some of the later parts before the earlier. His Son
is entered at Balliol College, Oxford. He talked a good
deal about his owl, which is most intelligent. It will kiss
him gently all over the face with its beak, tweak his
hair, etc., and, if one says " Poor old fellow ! " or so in
a commiserating voice, it puts on a sympathetic appearance
of depression.
Tuesday, 17 March. — Leyland brought round to Chelsea
a Mr Hamilton, partner of Graham, M.P. for Glasgow :
WILLIAM ROSSETTI— DIARY, 1868
303
the latter, it seems, is an intense admirer of the stronger
or more ideal forms of Praeraphaelitism, as represented
by Hunt, Gabriel, Jones, etc. Hamilton bought for £300 ?
a water-colour copy, on a goodish scale of size, of the
Venus picture. I find that Morris takes much more interest
in politics than I had any notion of, and that his view*
are quite in harmony with the democratic sympathies of
Jones, Swinburne, myself, etc.
Wednesday, 18 March. — Lyster tells me that last night at
the Anthropological Society a discussion arose as to the
races now in America, and the view was maintained that
they had no distinctive originating powers, as e.g. in poetry.
On this Swinburne spoke to the contrary, citing Poe
(and I should presume Whitman, though Lyster doesn't
say so). . . .
Saturday, 28 March. — . . . Gabriel says that Howell
has told him the details of Ruskin's present love-affair.*
The lady is named Rosey — G[abriel] forgets the surname.
She is a very handsome girl of nineteen, of considerable
fortune ; and her affection was roused towards Ruskin by
her learning at full the peculiar circumstances of his first
marriage. She is in love with him, and he with her :
but her parents interpose objections, and she is at present
precluded from corresponding with R[uskin]. . . .
Sunday, 5 April. — Mrs Polydoref called. She does not
believe that there is real extreme misery prevailing in any
part of the Southern States. Her Brothers were offered
by the Confederate States the option of serving (in one
of the auxiliary departments of the army, as it turned
out) or of being deported. They chose the former. The
same option was offered to all non-nationalized residents
generally. She has gone through any number of singular
* This is a matter which I should regard as not publishable, were
it not that Mr Collingwood, in his Life and Work of John Ruskin, has
referred to it explicitly, though briefly.
t The Wife of my Uncle Henry Francis Polydore. She had for
some years lived apart from her Husband, and had settled in the
United States, but was now temporarily in London.
304 ROSSETTI PAPERS
adventures. At one time was near being exchanged to
an Indian for a horse, as his squaw ; and she actually some
years ago, on hearing of her Father's illness or distress,
came from Salt Lake to Liverpool, having in her pocket
at starting only three dollars, and not spending any of it
on the way.
Monday, 6 April. — Discussed with Gabriel the spiritual
seance of Wednesday last.* He agrees with me that there
was nothing in it which could reasonably be called con-
vincing— unless possibly the affair of the mysterious light
seen by Mrs Morris as well as others.
Tuesday, 7 April. — Mr Graham, M.P., who has lately
taken to picture-buying, called on Gabriel. He felt inclined
to have the Dream of Beatrice's Death done in oil : G[abriel]
proposed ^"2000 for it, which Mr G[raham] said was beyond
what he contemplated. However, he wished to pay Gabriel
at once .£500 on account for any picture which G[abriel]
might execute for him. This Gabriel declined, failing some
distinct engagement on his own part ; but in the course
of the evening he wrote to Mr G[raham] expressing himself
willing to do the Beatrice subject for ,£1500. He is
particularly taken by Mr G[raham]'s demeanour and
proposals. . . .
Monday, 13 April. . . . Showed Gabriel the photographs
sent me by Scudder after designs {Piper of Hamelin, etc.)
by La Farge : he was much pleased with them, and took
them off to show to Brown. . . .
Thursday, 16 April. — Hunt's exhibition of his Isabella
opened. Robertson f is acting as a sort of custodian,
and tells me that the picture has been very generally
and heartily admired. About 1 50 people came. Furnivall
invited me to do something about early Italian " Courtesy-
Books " and I consented. . . .
Wednesday, 22 April, — Hunt has as good as finished
* This had taken place at Mr Tebbs's house — Mrs Guppy being
the medium.
t Mr John Forbes Robertson. The distinguished actor is
his Son.
WILLIAM ROSSETTI— DIARY, 1868 305
his portraits of Mrs and Miss Edith Waugh, and is engaged
on one of his late Wife : he is also doing some retouching
on the picture of London Bridge on the Wedding-night
of the Prince of Wales. He says Woolner has lately been
picking-up cheap a number of pictures which he calls
Turners, Cromes, Gainsboroughs, etc., but as to many of
which H[unt] has the strongest doubts ; these he lately
expressed to W[oolner], and some degree of irritation on
the part of the latter has ensued. H[unt] expects to leave
for the East towards the beginning of May. He would
go first to Florence, to give instructions about a monument
to his Wife ; then probably to Venice, where it seems just
possible I might be in the way of meeting him ; then
back to Florence on the same errand, before finally starting
on the Eastern journey.
Thursday, 23 April. — Called at Swinburne's to talk over
with him a project started by Hotten, that Sfwinburne] and
I should do a pamphlet on the R[oyal] A[cademy], as the
beginning of a series somewhat like that by Ruskin. S[win-
burne] was not at home, but I left him a note on the subject,
expressing my readiness to act. . . .
Saturday, 25 April. — Swinburne called in Euston Square.
His notion of the proposed R.A. pamphlet is that I should
do whatever review I please of the whole Exhibition, and
that he should add a second section saying whatever he
chooses to say — which would most probably relate to some
of the same pictures I had already discussed. This I think
about the most satisfactory way of settling it as far as I am
concerned, though in itself rather a dislocated scheme. . . .
He is preparing a Selection from Coleridge, and consulted
me as to the pieces to be admitted. His standstill with
The Fortnightly Review continues : he can't get paid for
the Halt before Rome, nor can he get back his Notes on Old\
Masters' Drawings in Florence. J
Sunday, 26 April. — Gabriel called. . . . G[abriel]'s eyes
again cause him some uneasiness : he says they feel harder
and rounder-balled than of old.
Monday, 27 April. — Swinburne and I discussed the
U
306 ROSSETTI PAPERS
matter with Hotten. The pamphlet altogether would be
about the same thickness as Ruskin's, but would contain
more matter. . . . He showed me a letter from Whitman,
approving of the Selection (he speaks only of its sightliness),
but objecting decisively to the portrait. Swinburne tells me
that Sandys has just learned that his picture of Medea (the
best thing he has done) is rejected at the R.A., which upsets
him not a little. Perhaps some personal considerations have
intervened : as a matter of art, the rejection is shameful.
Hotten says the Whitman Selection has sold tolerably well, but
that publishing in general is at a very low ebb for the present.
Tuesday, 28 April. — Sandys called, wishing to get as
much publicity as possible given to the affair of his picture
and the R. A. Gabriel is writing to Payne * and Stephens :
I wrote to Hamerton, and promised to say something in
my pamphlet, though I would rather keep it free from
any such controversies. Sandys says that Millais is very
angry about the way his own pictures have been hung ;
and the hanging generally excites loud murmurs. Calderon
and S[idney] Cooper are charged with the active misdoing—
Maclise having objected continually, but not so as to put a
stop to what he considered amiss. — I called at Browning's
to deliver to Miss Browning a letter from Stillman, and to
' give Browning the photograph from La Farge's design of
The Pied Piper of Hamelin. B[rowning] was not in. Miss
B[rowning] showed me various items of interest in the
way of pictures etc., also the owl. She detests Woolner's
Medallion of B[rowning],f objecting especially to a degree
of projection given to the under-lip. B[rowning]'s first
intimacy with the Storys j arose through his giving him-
self up wholly to attending to their then only Son in his
last illness. The pictures include a portrait, by Wright
* The Rev. J. Burnell Payne, who was at that time an Art-critic of
some note.
t This medallion had been done many years previously, perhaps
towards 1856. I myself consider it a fair likeness, though not an excellent
one.
J Mr W. W. Story the American Sculptor, and his Wife.
WILLIAM ROSSETTI— DIARY, 1868 307
of Derby, of B[rowning]'s Grandmother, who must have
been a strikingly handsome woman ; a portrait by Hogarth
of Thornhill — a poorish picture, and I should think its
genuineness not beyond question ; a Rembrandt which I
am satisfied is not a Rembrandt. None of these, I take
it, is B[rowning]'s own acquisition. Among those of his
own purchasing is an old Italian picture — God the Father
with Angels — on panel in three compartments. He had
the luck to get these three compartments one here and
one there : they undoubtedly form one picture.
Wednesday, 29 April. — Payne (of Moxon and Co.) writes,
in consequence of my Shelley articles in N[otes] and
Q\ueries\ to invite me to undertake a re-editing of Shelley,
accompanied by a biographic notice, for which he thinks
he would be able to get placed in my hands the chief
materials hitherto unpublished.* Of all literary work,
this is the very one I would have chosen for myself:
indeed, from something Swinburne said to me two or
three years ago, I had a dim eye to its feasibility in
writing those articles on Shelley. Though I would rather
(in consequence of the Poems and Ballads affair) not
connect myself with Payne in any business or other way,
I wrote closing with his proposal — leaving over the question
of pay till the actual amount of work to be done shall be
more clearly ascertained. Called on Sandys, to see his
Medea and other works in hand. — Furnivall sent me the
old poem of Bonvicino, the chief material for the " Courtesy-
Book " work I consented to do. ...
Friday^ i May. — Sandys called at Somerset House. He
says that several critics have called to see his picture —
Tom Taylor, Payne, etc. ; among them the critic of The
Morning Post, who asked to be furnished with some
details that he could introduce into his review. Sandys,
not liking to do this himself, asked my aid ; and I wrote
off something which may perhaps appear as it stands, or
be used as material. Leyland has bought Sandys's picture
of The Valkyrie for ^200. . . .
* This did not ensue.
308 ROSSETTI PAPERS
Saturday, 9 May. — Called at Street's ; * and saw the
cassone with a picture ascribed to Dello Delli, which he
bought lately at Dazeglio's sale. It is especially interest-
ing by reason of its introducing Giotto's front to the
Cathedral of Florence. . . .
Tuesday, 12 May. — Sala, Sandys, and others, dined at
Chelsea. A large tent has been set up in the garden,
and is pleasant even now, and will be very enjoyable in
thoroughly warm weather : we spent the greater part of
the evening in it. ...
Wednesday, 13 May. — Finished, and sent for Furnivall
to read, the translation of Bonvicino's Fifty Courtesies for the
Table. . . .
~ Monday, \% May. — . . . Gabriel called. Leyland has now
commissioned the Medusa picture,f the commission for
which, previously given by Matthews, miscarried last
winter. I told G[abriel] that Swinburne had yesterday
expressed himself desirous of saying in his Notes something
about G[abriel], could he ascertain that G[abriel] would like
it. G[abriel] asked me to reply (which I did) that he would
like it, if " due prominence " can be given to the point. . . .
r» Monday, 25 May. — Hotten called with the MS. conclusion
of Swinburne's R.A. Notes, relating chiefly to Gabriel.
G[abriel], who called in the evening, feels some doubts
whether it would not after all have been better to leave
all this undone, and I incline to the same opinion ; but the
thing is done now. . . .
*^ Friday, 29 May. — Gabriel has now got very near the
completion of his Venus Verticordia: he is also engaged
in painting on two or three heads of Mrs Morris.
Saturday, 6 June. — Started for Paris en route to Verona,
and perhaps Venice. . . .
Wednesday, 10 June. — . . . Left Bale at 2.20 P.M., and
reached Constance before 8. ...
Thursday, n June. — . . . This is the Feast of Corpus
* George Edmund Street, the Architect who built the Law-courts etc.
t This commission failed somehow, and the picture was never
painted.
WILLIAM ROSSETTI— DIARY, 1868 309
Domini. About four-fifths of the population are Catholic,
and a procession took place in the morning, with an out-
door mass directly opposite my bedroom window. I
never saw any such demonstration done with more serious-
ness, simplicity, and propriety : all ages and ranks took
part in it, repeating litanies, singing hymns, etc. — the
military band also performing. The streets were strewn
with hay, and to some extent with flowers, and large
boughs of elm and other trees ranged all along the houses.
The service was conducted throughout in German, and
the Gospel intoned with unsurpassable emphasis and
clearness. Various nuns but no monks visible. Almost
all the shops shut, especially before mid-day. . . .
Saturday ', 13 June. — Reached Lecco at about 5j A.M. . . .
Took a carriage and boat, looking about, and making an
industrial day of it. First went to a silk-mill. The lady
of the house, a young and attractive woman, took me all
over, and gave me all possible explanations with the
greatest courtesy. Most of the work is done by women
and girls, but the final stages by men. Saw the selecting
of the better from the inferior cocoons, cleaning them
(the lady's brother-in-law has introduced in this house a
machine of his own invention, saving much labour in this
stage), firing the cocoons, etc. It seems the cocoons have
all to go to the oven, to kill the unfortunate chrysalis : but
for this he would come out in his moth-shape, and spoil
all : and the firing is often imperfectly done, and lets the
moth come out still in a damaged state. I saw one of
these ill-starred insects. Went next to a cotton- factory,
'and looked all about, but with much less of verbal explana-
tion. . . . Then went to a manufactory of small arms — or
rather, as far as I saw, of the ironwork only of the muskets.
A most sensible and attentive workman showed me all
about, giving all sorts of details and demonstrations, and
absolutely refused the two francs I tendered him at parting.
He fought at Custozza in '66, rescued a banner, and got
a medal for the feat ; was wounded in the thigh, and taken
prisoner, and remained in the hands of the Austrians about
310 ROSSETTI PAPERS
two months — thigh now cured. Another of the men in
the factory, seemingly a superintendent, was his Lieutenant.
My guide, like many other persons here, was wearing
sandals. From the boat landed and looked over a limekiln.
They blast the limestone rocks of which there is an endless
supply on the shores of the lake, burn them, and send them
down to Milan by barge in about twenty-four hours. The
fierce furnace, huge stacks of wood (kept over from year
to year to dry thoroughly), and interior of the kiln-buildings
rgenerally, would make a good picture. The boatman
pointed me out a convent of nuns on one mountain, and, a
considerable way off on another mountain, a convent of
monks : both now empty, the orders being suppressed. He
asserts positively that the monks were continually crossing
over in boats to consort with the nuns ; and evidently
regards both, and their kind generally, as a bad lot. . . .
Hosts of volunteers joined Garibaldi from here, both
last year for Rome and on previous occasions : the boatman
and the Custozza soldier both seem to regard Garibaldi
with affection, but as if his career were now substantially
closed. ... At supper got into conversation with the waiter
(not the one I remember here in '65). With him Victor
Emmanuel is a " traditore ipocrita" * His popularity is
entirely gone since the Roman affair of last year. He really
does not want, even for his own personal interests, to have
Rome ; but would rather keep up the Pope, as the general
ally of despots. Italy, i.e., the great bulk of the people,
is republican. The only reason they did not rise last year
is their want of material resources. If the present Pope
dies, another will succeed as usual, but in twenty years
the game will be up. Italy, France, and Germany, ought
to form one common Republic : but not with a President.
It should be Triumvirs, or such a presidential system as
there is in Switzerland, where twelve Governors of Cantons
elect from among themselves one annual President. Prince
Humbert is much the same as his Father — "Talis patm
talis fihw."
* Hypocrite-traitor.
WILLIAM ROSSETTI— DIARY, 1868 311
Sunday, 14 June. — Left Lecco for Mantua. ... It was
a great satisfaction to pass Peschiera without any of the
bother of passports, or any Austrian faces or uniforms to
enforce their production. Reached Mantua towards I J. . . .
Got a Vetturino, who was evidently not very bright as to
the localities : he took me to the Palazzo di Corte instead
of Palazzo della Ragione, and had no idea of Mantegna's
house or who Mantegna was ; and, to my surprise, the
woman at G[iulio] Romano's house (an elegant exterior)
was no better informed. However, I reached the locality
with Murray's help, and saw the house: it is of very
considerable size, hard-by a fine Lombard brick church now
used as barracks. . . . The Palazzo : . . . This vast and in
many respects splendid Palace is uninhabited, being only
used when the sovereign or his representative happens to
visit Mantua : Victor Emmanuel has not yet been. The
Duomo is a good Renaissance interior (G[iulio] Romano).
A priest was catechizing a set of little boys, and discoursing
on the Corpus Domini : he did it with a very paternal and
at the same time magisterial air. The total inattention of
the little fellows (uncombined however with any direct
misconduct) during his perambulatory lecture on the
spiritual demands and advantages of the Corpus Domini
was amusing. The youngest would probably be no more
than 6 — the eldest 12 or 13. In leaving Lecco I received
part of my change in paper-money (the first time, I think,
this ever occurred to me) — 2 francs : and going on I find
paper more plentiful than coin — even half-francs being in
paper. Went to the Aquila d'Oro in Mantua. . . . After
dinner to an open-air Theatre. . . . The piece at the theatre
was of the intensely virtuous kind characteristic of Italy —
La Bella Giulietta di Mantova, etc., with a libidinous baron
finally converted by a santo sacerdote (I think the priests
are always models of primitive zeal in the theatre, though
popular feeling is so much the other way), and two peasants
of the most heroic family-virtues. Then a farce fairly well
acted, about Le Piccole Miserie. . . .
Monday, 15 June. — . . . The man in the Church [of San
312 kOSSETTI PAPERS
Sebastiano] accompanied me round to the Museo Antiquario.
He says things are even worse here than in the time
of the Austrians, and avows that, if an improvement does
not take place, he would rather have the Austrians back. —
The dialect here seems more allied to the Lombard than
Venetian. The French u is sounded ; and a man who
emits twenty words not including mica, mico, migo, or
miga, is a phenomenon. . . . Walked off to spend the twi-
light quietly in the green before the Anfiteatro Virgiliano,
when an old lady asked me for an alms. She then said she
had seen me in Sant' Andrea ; and, on my remarking that
I had been in the Crypt, whence the Austrians about 1848
took or destroyed the relic of the blood of Christ, she said
with much apparent earnestness that the nation had never
prospered since ; she seemed to have a sincere impression
that the two things are connected. I got into a conversa-
tion of some three-quarters of an hour with this old lady,
who says she is eighty, and is still not without some good
looks. Her Father, a Frenchman of good family, fled to
Italy in consequence of a brawl, and, finally getting into
political troubles there, took poison. She married at four-
teen, and at sixteen was abandoned by her husband, whose
fate she has never since known. She allows that her life
was not entirely correct after this : she had some children
— of whom at least one, a daughter, is still living, but not
allowed by her husband to do anything for the Mother,
who (her marriage being contrary to the liking of her own
relatives) has long lost sight of them utterly. Being a
patriotic Italian, she got into prison — the same here in
Mantua wherein Orsini was confined : she now has no
dependence whatever, and looks with alarm at the prospect
from day to day. Many other details did the poor old lady
pour forth — and I quite believe substantially correct. —
Mantegna's house, I am told, is to be converted into an
agricultural school, and will be much altered (it has at
present still an appearance of considerable age) if not alto-
gether rebuilt. The inscription mentioned in Murray is
still legible on it — an upright slab at one corner reaching
WILLIAM ROSSETTI— DIARY, 1868 313
to the ground. — About the ditches or moats of Mantua there
is a very splendid dragon-fly which I don't remember ever
seeing before — a rich velvety crimson. . . . Mantua is said
to be now no longer the unhealthy place it used to be of
old with such a profusion of marsh-ground. The country
is flat and somewhat cut up with water-courses, but not (in
the present weather, as far as I see) exactly marshy : the
" pine-tree forest " of Browning's Sordello nowhere visible. I
notice a Contrada and Caffe Sordello.
Tuesday r, 16 June. — Came on to Venice and reached at
5 1, after two hours' stay at Verona, and looking at the
Arena etc. On arriving at the Hdtel Danieli, Venice, I
thought of counting-over the money kept in my hat-box,
and lo it is gone. Some one must have robbed me — prob-
ably on the railway. The money was in the collar-compart-
ment of the hat-box — 690 francs, £4. 55. 5d. English, and
a little Swiss etc. . . . This is the first day (save in the
Diligence) that I have let the hat-case out of my own
hands : the two hours' stay at Verona, with consequent
nuisance of re-consigning the hat-box there, persuaded me
to adopt this course. On discovering the loss, I at once
asked for the hotel-proprietor, and explained it to him —
and he said he would take the necessary steps with tele-
graph etc., but doesn't expect the money to be got back.
He says he had before suspected the railway-people. . . .
My present money in pocket is merely about 1 3 1 francs. . . .
Wednesday, \j June. — The Hotel Danieli being expensive
for a nearly empty pocket, I changed to a room in the
Hotel Garni Sandwith, which seems more comfortable at
ij franc per night — hardly more than one-third of the
price. . . . Telegraphed to G[abriel] for £20. . . . Wrote
also to ... Kirkup, asking for loan of 100 francs or so. ...
Thursday p, 18 June. — . . . Returned to my lodging, and
found some one had just been from the Telegraph- Office.
Walked thither, and find it is a Post-Office order from good
kind old Kirkup for 300 francs, three times the sum I had
named. Found also that there was another telegram at the
Banker Blumenthal's from Gabriel, to say that he would send
314 fcOSSETTl PAPERS
the £20 through bank this morning. Thus all goes well again.
. . . Then to a wild-beast show set up on the Riva Schia-
voni very near my lodging. I find it a somewhat important
show of its class : they call it Schmidt's Prussian Menagerie.
Schmidt performs in a cage with two spotted and a black
panther. Then Mrs Sfchmidt] (seems a Frenchwoman) —
S[chmidt] being at her side — with the lioness and three
lions, two hyaenas, and a bear, all together. Then S[chmidt]
with four lions. All this was very interesting. The noble
old lions were made to make all sorts of jumps over sticks
etc. ; and, when they had done this, they huddled their
heads together in a corner, as if they felt their humiliation.
Their general aspect was as if to say, " We will do what
we must, but certainly no more." The lioness seemed
rather more snappish than the lions : Madame S[chmidt]
most intrepid, but still a certain air of fluttered nerves.
Then the elephant did a good deal, including playing a
barrel-organ, and holding a man on her trunk : and a blue-
nosed monkey, dressed as a cook, served her dinner — irre-
sistibly laughable. Then some crocodiles and boas. All
these performances took place within a yard or so distance
from me. Returning to my lodging for the night, I find
an official from Mantua has been enquiring for me. He
returns almost immediately, and enters very attentively into
the details of my affair. He says (contrary to the previous
officials) that the key of the hat-box is by no means one
very likely to be possessed in counterpart by people here.
He has a particular person belonging to the railway in his
eye as the delinquent, either at Mantua or Venice. He
says the robbery is very unlikely to have taken place during
the 2\ hours' stop at Verona, where all the baggage is
left out exposed to view. . . .
Friday, 19 June. — . . . To San Giovanni e Paolo. They
have transported hither from Cosenza the bodies of the
two Bandieras and Moro,* and buried them in the
church, with their names inscribed ; and a design for a monu-
ment is already made or in making. The Chapel of the
* Italian patriots, put to death towards 1846.
WILLIAM ROSSETTI— DIARY, 1868 315
Rosary, in which the Peter Martyr and the Bellini were
burnt, is still in a ruinous state. . . . The head of the
assassin [from the Peter Martyr] has been saved, and will
go to the Academy ; * and fragments of the frame etc. were
found, sufficient to show that the picture was really burned
(a suggestion had reached me that the supposed burning was
all a dodge of the priests). The cause of the fire is yet
uncertain, and people seem to dwell much on the suspicion
of incendiarism. Query : Motive ? Answer : To carry away
the picture in the confusion (it was on the eve of removal
by the Government to the Academy). . . . Went again to
the beast-show, to see (after a repetition of yesterday's per-
formances) M. Schmidt with the polar bear. The polar
bear is regarded as a beast unamenable even to the reason
of a lion-tamer : the performance with him consists only
in being in the same cage, and throwing with rapidity bit
after bit of meat, for which he jumps over a table. These
are thrown to the opposite corners successively, so that
P[olar] B[ear]'s attention is occupied incessantly in different
directions, and is diverted from Schmidt. I can't make out
distinctly that the lions retain their claws : their teeth are
of the extremest obviousness.
Saturday, 20 June. — Visited the Ducal Palace. ... I
still think Tintoret's Paradise puts-in a fair claim for being
regarded as the finest picture in existence : I looked at it
a long hour. The four Tintorets in the Anticollegio are
cleaned, and in parts painfully restored, especially the figure
of Ariadne : and various other Tintorets and Veroneses
passim have suffered the same piteous fate. Saw the
Sotto-Piombi. One chamber is kept unaltered: certainly
a dark and distressful abode, but I discover nothing horrible
in it. Other rooms are thrown together, so that one loses
the sense of the confined space. All, as far as I see, have
solid wooden ceilings, belonging (so the custode says) to
the original condition of the cells : and I can testify that,
* I have been, since this was written, several times to the Venice
Academy, but without seeing this head of the assassin : what has
become of it ?
316 HOSSETTt PAPfifcS
on this day of full June heat (though less hot than previous
days), the ordinary allegation that the cells were " burning
hot under the leads" has no validity. . . . The Gondolier
whom I took after this says that affairs are wretchedly
stagnant, and the introduction of paper-money (hitherto
unknown) a great grievance. Neapolitans have been placed
in all the chief military or governmental positions, by no
means to the satisfaction of the Venetians. The Duke of
Bordeaux is gone, and could not return unless the Govern-
ment permits him. . . .
Monday, 22 June. — . . . Called at Blumenthal's, and find
that Gabriel has good-naturedly sent me £30 instead of
£20. . . .
Wednesday, 24 June. — . . . Left Venice 10.30 A.M. . . .
Reach Milan soon after 6, and put up at our old Hotel
Cavour. All the street leading to it from the railway seems
to me new. After dinner walk down to the Duomo. Dear
old Milan, the first Italian city I knew in '60, has vanished
from the face of the earth, and a demi-semi-Hausmannized
substitute for it exists, and is still called Milan. The space
before the Cathedral-front is immensely enlarged, and their
blessed Galleria Vittorio Emmanuele is a mushroom of
astonishing growth. I suppose one must admit it to be
the first thing of its kind in Europe : twenty-four or so
statues of illustrious Italians. It seems incredible, yet as
far as I can discern it is a positive fact, that neither Luini (!)
nor even Da Vinci (! !) is included. . . .
Thursday, 25 June. — . . . Pass Magenta ... on the
road to Arona, where one has to stay up to near midnight.
Put up at the Albergo d' Italia. Engaged a boat on the
lake for two hours. . . . My boatman had fought under
Garibaldi in '59, and told me a great deal about the opera-
tions of that campaign — how Garibaldi would summon his
men at midnight or soon after to descend a mountain bare-
foot, and take the Austrians somewhere by surprise. An
attempt of the Garibaldians on a fort thwarted by the
timidity of their guides, with much slaughter resulting, etc.
etc. He speaks highly of Garibaldi's sons. Garibaldi is a
WILLIAM ROSSETTI— DIARY, 1868 317
famous oarsman, as he showed on this Lago Maggiore. . . .
Arona (though Murray says nothing of it) contains one or
two good pictures. In the chief Church, S[anta] M[aria]
der^l' Innocenti, an ancona in several compartments by
Gaudfenzio] Ferrari, the chief subject The Nativity — a
superior specimen. An Adoration of the Shepherds by
Andrea Piani, light emanating from the Infant, as in Cor-
reggio : I suppose this picture may be as late as 1700. It
has a certain academic tinge, but is really remarkable for
grace and dignified propriety. In the Church of San
Graziano a fine old picture, c. 1490, by Gaudenzio (some-
thing— I think the name given was a little like Meneghini),
Virgin and Child with numerous Saints. There is also a
singularly grand composition of the Three Maries ; which
looks to me more like a tolerably well-restored Veronese
than anything else, though it seems also to have a certain
tinge of Michelangelo's school, . . .
Saturday, 27 June. — . . . Came on in the afternoon to
Martigny (Hotel du Cygne). . . .
Sunday, 28 June. — . . . Make up my mind to ... go ...
to Pierre-a-voir, a fine peak nearer here . . . 7671 feet high.
. . . One of the guides had been a soldier in the Swiss corps
under King Bomba, and had (what I never heard before) a
good word to say of that potentate — not of Bombino. . . .
Tuesday, 30 June. — . . . Took the omnibus to Ferney.
The Voltairian section of the house now shown is the
library, bedroom, and over-arched alley of trees : the last a
charming walk, and much of interest in all. This is said
to be unchanged. ... A statue to the Virgin, on the
declaration of her Immaculate Conception, was erected in
'56 in Voltaire's Ferney, by the inhabitants " exultantes" in
the definition of the doctrine : a curious satire on the labours
of common sense. The church Voltaire erected is still
standing, and bears his inscription, but it is unused and
vacant. The servant who shows one over the house always
says " Monsieur de Voltaire."
Wednesday, I July. — . . . Started for Paris, staying mid-
way at Chalons-sur-Saone. . . . Museum interesting chiefly
318 ROSSETTI PAPERS
as containing some cameras and other photographic relics
of Niepce, a native of Chalons, and here termed the inventor
of photography. His portrait shows a face something like
the minor Bonapartes. . . .
Friday ', 3 July. — . . . Home by Boulogne and the Thames,
arriving Saturday 4th, about noon.
Friday, 10 July. — About 2 P.M. Cayley came to me at
Somerset House, to say that Swinburne had just had an
accident at the British Museum. He fell forward . . . and
struck his head against an iron railing or something of
the kind. ... I went round at once, and found that he had
been taken home to his lodgings : and the attendant outside
the Reading-Room, to whom I spoke, did not seem to lay
any great stress on the occurrence. . . .
Sunday, 12 July. — Lunched with Legros, who has lately
had a second child, a daughter, born to him. He has various
pictures done or in hand. A portrait of Jones, all but
finished, excellent. Two (or I believe there are more) large
water-colour landscapes, one already hung up in Constantine
lonides' house (at which I saw it in the afternoon). Three
or more of his favourite church-subjects in progress. A
design for a large picture he means to do of The Martyrdom
of Sebastian, to go to Paris next year : I think the merit
of the design much marred by his having set the archers so
close to the Saint. The Government gave him only ^80 for
the Stephen, and £120 for the Amende Honorable, purchased
for the Luxembourg. Legros has got back from the owner
(in exchange for another picture) the Ex Voto, and wishes
to present it to our National Gallery (or, as he supposes,
S[outh] Kensington people — I wrote in the evening to set
him right on this point) : he wishes in the first instance to
feel his way as to the acceptance and creditable hanging of
the picture. He believes that Millet means henceforth to
exhibit little or nothing. . . .
Monday, 1 3 July. — Met Brett in the street. ... He says
art is in an absolutely stagnant state this year as regards
sales. Went round with Gabriel to see Swinburne. He
is in capital spirits, with health apparently to correspond:
WILLIAM ROSSETTI— DIARY, 1868 319
a little plaistering on his forehead. He says that the
closeness of the Museum Reading-Room on that excep-
tionally hot day quite overcame him. He had to bear it
a long while, awaiting a friend with whom he had an ap-
pointment : but at last, rising to go, he was taken with
instant faintness, and fell. Everybody on the spot showed
him the greatest attention : and he receives most cordially
Browning's attention in calling yesterday. He believes
the R.A. pamphlet sells very well. He has written little or
no poetry of late. A month or two ago he discovered that
his MSS. of the play of Bothwell and of Tristram and Yseult
(a goodish deal written of each) were missing (perhaps lost
in a cab), and he has never got a clue to them since. A
great plague this. . . . He has lately met Longfellow, and
likes him much ; finding him very unaffected, straight-
forward, and free from uneasy egotism. Mazzini says that,
within about five months from now the republican flag
will be waving over Rome : this he said lately, among inti-
mates, to a lady who was proposing to go to Rome, and
whom he advised to wait awhile. ...
Tuesday, 14 July. — Gabriel is painting a portrait of Mrs
Morris, seated, in a blue silk dress : one of the figures he
painted-in of her when she was staying at Chelsea. We^ -(
dined (for the first time) in the tent, very agreeably. . . .
Sunday \ 19 July. — Sala, Swinburne, and Whistler, dined
at Chelsea. Sala speaks of himself as in his thirty-fifth
year : I had fancied him four or five years older. He says
that Hannay's salary as Consul at Barcelona will be £600
a year. He has been escorting Dore through the mauvais
lieux of London : D[ore] was much pleased with the squalid
cellar-shops in the Seven Dials district. He is an agree-
able companion — the reverse of mealy-mouthed. S[ala]
understands that he has laid-by £25,000, which seems by
no means more than one might expect. S[ala] saw Lincoln
two or three times in America, and thought well of him :
but says his manners were unquestionably such as would
be called bad in society. . . . Talk about the newly-dis-
covered MS. poem (Epitaph) attributed to Milton. Sala
320 ROSSETTI PAPERS
contends against its genuineness. Says the initial called
J. is rather a P : also that Milton was wholly blind in 1650,
and (he thinks, but would have to look further into this)
not likely to have been using his eyes in writing in
October 1647 — the date of the poem. Swinburne, Gabriel,
and myself, believe that the poem is in all probability
Milton's — Swinburne the most decisively of the three. I
can't say I think it a fine poem, however. . . .
Friday, 24. July. — Scott and his Wife dined in Euston
Square. . . . S[cott] says that Ruskin gave Howell £200 to
set himself up in his new house at North End, Fulham ;
and that it was mainly by R[uskin]'s wish that H[owell]
went there — the object being that he may be close to Jones,
and keep him up in health and spirits. H[owell] buys for
R[uskin] almost everything that J[ones] paints. . . .
Tuesday, 28 July. — Called to see Whistler's pictures. He
is doing on a largeish scale for Leyland the subject of women
with flowers, and has made coloured sketches of four or
five other subjects of the like class, very promising in point
of conception of colour-arrangement. . . . Mrs Whistler*
says that things were still dreadfully bad for the Southerners
when she was lately in America : one lady of fortune of her
acquaintance reduced to teaching in a school of nigger
children. . . . Gabriel tells me that. . . . Brown is suffering
from another sharp attack of gout — feet and hands.
Wednesday, 29 July. — Hotten, whom I met in the street,
says that the R. A. Notes have sold 1300 (or 1500, I for-
get which) copies — not a large number. Swinburne, who
was to have left town on Tuesday of last week, was still
here last Monday. So strong is the prejudice against Whit-
man in America that H[otten] has not even yet succeeded
in getting an American publisher for the Selection : he
is expecting however to arrange soon with a Joint-stock
Company. — W[arington] Taylor asks me to be one out
of three trustees for his Wife, on her coming into the rever-
sion of his property : he is now at Bognor. I write consent-
ing. . . .
* The Mother of the Painter.
WILLIAM ROSSETTI— DIARY, 1868 321
Sunday, 2 August. — Woolner called. He has done an
Ophelia, and is engaged on the Palmerston for Palace Yard :
this he finds a tough job, the face in old age being much
the reverse of sculpturesque. He would like (and 1 quite
agree in that view) to represent Palmerston more in his
prime — say towards age of fifty-five — but does not think
the commissioning body would countenance this. He says
that the Emanuel Philibert Monument at Turin, nominally
by Marochetti, is well known to have been done by a
French sculptor of great talent, Donnet or Dommet : this
work he admires much. The price he gave for Millais's
early picture of Keats's Isabella was £630. Hunt has been
gone for about a month back, and is now in Florence.
Monday, 3 August. — Tupper called at Somerset House.
He is thinking of going to Rome about Christmas, and
started the query whether I could go too. I should much
wish to see Rome again ; and said I would consider about
it when the time comes, and let him know.
Tuesday, 4 August. — The improvement in Christina's
health continues. Gabriel went off yesterday with Howell
to spend a few days with the Leylands at Speke Hall.
A bat entered the studio at Chelsea in the evening,
and continued flying about for perhaps a full hour : Dunn
and I endeavoured to catch him, but without success.
There was lately here a brood of three ducklings. Two
were murdered by the cat, who brought them in misplaced
triumph to show to the servants, and the third has been
tossed to death by the peahen.
Wednesday, 5 August. — Furnivall having asked me
whether I would do for the Chaucer Society a prose-
translation of Boccaccio's Filostrato (as illustrating C[haucer]'s
Troylus], or else a collation of the two poems, I replied that
I was not much inclined to undertake the translation, but
would do the collation in course of time, if wished for.
Thursday, 6 August. — Furnivall closes with this offer, and
leaves me a Chaucer. . . .
Tuesday, 1 1 August. — Gabriel has been back from Speke
Hall since Saturday. It seems that, about two days before
X
322 ROSSETTI PAPERS
going thither, his sight began to fail in a somewhat alarming
manner, and has continued getting worse ever since. He
has consulted a German oculist, Bader, recommended by
Howell. B[ader] gave him a lotion, saying that it would for
a while damage the sight G[abriel], having applied it to
the right eye, found during the course of to-day that the
pupil of that eye had become very much enlarged (besides
its sight deteriorated). This alarmed him (though my im-
pression is that the symptom is a matter of course, and
harmless) ; and he went back to Bader's, but did not find
him in : will return to-morrow. B[ader] tells him that he
_will not lose his sight ; but G[abriel] thinks he is ominously
• silent as to any improvement of it. For the present Gfabriel]
is quite unable to paint. However, I am in hopes that
general nervousness and anxiety may account for much, and
the sight itself be not much harmed for a permanence.
G[abriel] wants for the present to get some one to read to
him in the day. He has had of late to give a good deal of
money to W[arington] Taylor ; and makes besides, I under-
stand, an annual allowance to poor old Maenza,* who stands
in need of assistance. At the R.A. (which he did not visit
till towards its close) he thought highly of Millais's Pensioners,
and Watts' s sculpture ; very badly of Moore's Azaleas. . . .
Wednesday, 12 August. — Gabriel saw Dr Bader, who tells
him the enlargement of the pupil means no harm. G[abriel]
is somewhat better to-day, and less out of spirits on the
general question of his sight. . . .
Friday, 14 August. — Gabriel called to-day to consult
Dr Gull as to his general health, but did not find him in ; his
eyes are so far useable that he can read and write without
^ inconvenience, and yesterday he painted a little. Dunn . . .
called on Dr Bader to enquire privately what the state of
the eyes really is : Dr B[ader] distinctly affirms that there
is nothing wrong with them organically — their weakness
depending upon the general health. Gfabriel] is now in
* An Italian settled with his Wife at Boulogne : an old family-friend
who had housed Gabriel in 1843 anc^ again in 1845, when rather out of
health.
WILLIAM ROSSETTI— DIARY, 1868 323
correspondence with Scott, who wishes to dispose of his
Brother's two pictures, lately in the Newcastle Reading-
room,* to some purchaser of large gallery-pictures ; it seems
he would take £250 for the two. After dinner in the tent I
read aloud some of the poems of Ebenezer Jones, which I
have not looked at these fifteen years or so. I find their
capacity, and fine style in passages, fully equal to what I
used to suppose, and better than I expected they would now
seem to me. . . .
Saturday, 15 August. — Bought a portion of Taylor's blue'
china for £,2. I2s. Gabriel went to-day to the Surgeon
Durham, to get set right in a matter which has been wrong
this long while. This was done with every appearance of
success, and no pain worth speaking of — and his head also felt
relieved immediately afterwards, as if from the same cause. . . . \
Monday ', 17 August. — A notion has for some years been
in my head of writing a book which I propose calling The
Christianity of Christ : being a quotation of every speech
the Gospels attribute to him, with free enquiry as to the
real meaning and bearing of these utterances. As far as I
know, no such book has ever yet been written : perhaps I
shall never finish it, or never get it published — and at any
rate it will of course be most deficient from several points
of view : yet I should like much to make the experiment.
At last I to-day began the work at Somerset House.f . . .
Thursday, 20 August. — Gabriel had an idea of getting
me to accompany him out of town, to which I had most will-
ingly assented, it being apparently compatible with Somerset
House business during the greater part of next week (only) ;
but it now seems even this will not be possible, Mitchell
being taken ill with his liver.f
* These were Achilles over the Body of Patroclus, and Orestes
pursued by Furies: important works, and in many respects very fine.
I forget where they are now housed.
t I carried it on for some while, but did not come at all near to com-
pleting it.
% This is a specimen of the obstacles which frequently beset me when
it would, on other grounds, have been suitable that I should give my
companionship to my Brother.
324 ROSSETTI PAPERS
Friday, 21 August. — Mitchell writes to me that he is
not likely to return any part of next week ; so I must give
up the idea of accompanying Gabriel. He saw Dr Gull
yesterday, who says there is nothing organic the matter
with him, and has ordered some camphor and citrine medi-
cines, etc. . . .
Tuesday, 2$ August. — Gabriel going on somewhat better
as regards both health and eyesight : he thinks of going
down to Miss Boyd and Scott at Penkill.
Thursday, 2J August. — Dr Heimann . . . does not now
work with much pleasure at University College, as the
authorities there have gone in altogether for educating
with a view to examinations, and this traverses the course
of instruction Dr H[eimann] would often pursue of his own
accord. The Japanese students who were at the College
showed particularly well, not only in mathematics, but also
(which was a surprise) in the constitutional and other
history of England. They seemed to be very destitute
of any notions as to the government or public relations
of their own country. Charles H[eimann] is now at Hiogo
in Japan, near the residence of the Mikado, and at the end
of an immense arm of the sea : he still continues quite en-
thusiastic about Japan. . . .
Saturday, 29 August. — . . . Called on Woolner. His
statue of Sassoon is finished ; Virgilia begun in marble ;
Palmerston nearly finished in clay ; Ophelia getting on in
marble. This is for Jenner,* a companion to the Elaine —
of which W[oolner] means to do a replica. The Ophelia
does not seem to me successful : shoulders too narrow, arms
wanting composition, chest wanting form, general proportion
not satisfying to the eye, though possibly it is not much out
by measurement. Still, the mental conception of the figure
has value. Sassoon very good : Palmerston also satisfactory
from most points of view, but looks too attitudinizing to me,
especially the right arm when seen fronting. I looked at
the numerous pictures and sketches which W[oolner] has
* Mr Jenner of Edinburgh ; a relative (Brother, I think) of Sir
William Jenner the Physician.
WILLIAM ROSSETTI— DIARY, 1868
325
lately collected, most of them absurdly cheap : and, after the
sarcastic tone adopted by Hunt, was surprised at the range
of merit they exhibit. Some old-master drawings are clearly
very fine — Vandyck, Titian, Tintoret, etc. ; also Turner's
water-colour Martigny, Lewis's celebrated Lion and Lioness
(done, as W[oolner] informs me, at seventeen, and the work
which established L[ewis]'s great reputation in that line).
Others may be more open to difference of opinion, but seem
to me decidedly fine — as a Crome Moonrise, Girtin Sea painted
in oils, small Constable, Turner study of fish, and some impor-
tant landscapes by the same. Some others remain over which
I care little about : and a moderate proportion may be of
questionable genuineness. There is so little light in the rooms
that I could not make the close examination which would
be needed for forming much of an opinion as to this. Al-
together however I could very conscientiously congratulate
W[oolner] on his collection, formed very quick and very
cheap. . . .
Sunday, 30 August. — Gabriel is still uncertain where he
shall go to, or when : still wavers towards Penkill, or perhaps
Stratford-on-Avon. He says that Warington Taylor is
now, comparatively speaking and for the time being, well.
Taylor's decorative enthusiasm led him to order of Stennett,
months ago, a coffin for himself according to a particular
specimen, picked out from others submitted to him by order ;
and he vigorously impressed upon S[tennett] the necessity
of " No nails." . . .
Friday, 4 September. — Dined with Woolner ; to whom,
finding him a great admirer of Cotman, 1 gave the series of
etchings by that artist, of Norfolk Churches etc., which I
bought some while ago. Watts,* who went to Australia
some ten years ago, was here : I find he is now writing on
The Standard. Also Baines, the African traveller, illustrator
of books by Livingstone etc. : though short, a handsome,
strong, determined-looking man, with a slow utterance.
According to him, no one likes Livingstone personally, and
* T. E. Watts, who delivered and published a Lecture on Tennyson :
nothing to do with Walts-Dunton.
326 ROSSETTI PAPERS
Livingstone's Brother was an encumbrance to the whole
expedition in which he joined It seems that, the Brother
and Baines being stationary at some point while L[ivingstone]
himself had gone on elsewhither, the Brother accused Bfaines]
of filching some stores; and Livingstone], without asking
for any explanation, wrote from his remote locality dismissing
B[aines], and has ever since refused repeated applications for
a proper investigation. All that B[aines] has as yet been
able to obtain is a written admission from the Foreign-Office
that he has demanded an enquiry, which however the Office
does not think it expedient after this lapse of time to grant.
Though expressing a strong sense of wrong, B[aines] does
not run Livingstone] down ; on the recent expedition to
verify the question of his death, he volunteered to go, but it
was thought better to decline his services. He now wants
to start ofT on an Australian exploration. Knows Du
Chaillu, and is satisfied the admitted errors in his books raise
no suspicion as to their substantial genuineness.
Saturday, 5 September. — . . . Called at Chelsea to
ascertain whether Gabriel is gone. Find he started last
Tuesday : he has been to Stratford and Warwick — the
latter being the last address he has given. I don't as yet
know whether he thinks of going on to Penkill. Dunn is
at present with him. Finished off my essay on Italian
Courtesy-Books.
Sunday, 6 September. — Wrote asking Kirkup ... to
accept the dedication of this Essay. Began reading Boccac-
cio's Filostrato and Chaucer's Troylus, for the collation I
have promised to make of the two for the Chaucer
Society. . . .
Monday ', 7 September. — Brown called in Euston Square.
He says that Swinburne was lately invited to stand for
Parliament, for some place in or near the Isle of Wight,*
but that he declined. I suppose this must have been an
invitation from the extreme Democrats : all his expenses
were to be paid. B[rown] thinks Gabriel ought to go more
* The Swinburne family, at one time or other, were settled in the
Isle of Wight.
WILLIAM ROSSETTI— DIARY, 1868 327
into society ; and especially that he should set apart a whole
afternoon and evening — say Saturday from 3 — for receiving
visitors in his studio, and entertaining such as he might find
it convenient to retain. . . . Nolly (not quite fourteen yet)
is painting a picture of Jason Delivered in Infancy to tlie
Centaur : he is doing the background in Hatfield Park. He
has also designed Danae in the Boat discovered by Fishermen,
horses exercised on the seashore, etc. B[rown] has joined
with other Marylebone voters in signing a requisition for
Hepworth Dixon to present himself as a candidate.
Tuesday, 8 September. — Sent round to Furnivall the
Essay on Italian Courtesy-Books. . . ,
Saturday, 12 September. — Gabriel called in Euston Square.
His head and general health are for the present right enough ;
his want of sleep still vexatious, but less so than it has been ;
his eyes bad. The objects flicker before him ; and, even
when his eyes are shut, that condition of things is not put
a stop to. His idea as to visiting Coblentz is merely to go
there to see the great oculist (Mohrer or some such name),*
and then return. . . .
Monday, 14 September. — . . . Wrote to ... Furnivall
... to say that probably I would go the length of
translating all such portions of the Filostrato as are para-
phrased in the Troylus.
Tuesday, 15 September. — Gabriel has now consulted
Marshall — who, like other medical men, tells him there is
nothing locally wrong with his sight, but that that is
influenced by the brain : he does not encourage him to go
to Coblentz, as being purposeless. However, G[abriel] says
that his sight goes on rapidly worsening, and that, if it
continues at the present rate, he will certainly be blind by
Christmas : he still paints a little from day to day, but
with effort — being engaged to-day on the blue-silk drapery
of a half-figure of Mrs Morris commissioned by Mr Graham
for ^5oo.f He talks of making a deed of gift of all his
* He did not ever do this.
I This developed into the picture named Mariana (Measure for
Measure}.
328 ROSSETTI PAPERS
property to me ; so that, whatever may befall himself, I
may be empowered to do the best for all parties con-
^cerned. He also strongly deprecates any posthumous
exhibiting of his collected works, on the ground that he
has never done anything to satisfy his own standard. But
ram still much in hopes that all these gloomy anticipations
will be dispelled in due course of time.
Wednesday, 16 September. — . . . Gabriel came round to
Euston Square ; and not very long after him enter Woolner.
They have not met at all, I suppose, these three or four
years ; and there has indeed been an entire estrangement
and even animosity between them. However, to my relief,
they saluted amicably enough, and interchanged talk with-
out any constraint ; and I am in hopes this meeting may
do much to smoothe down the asperities. Woolner has
nearly finished his clay model of the Palmerston, which is
to be in bronze. Hunt has been in Naples, and is now
back in Florence. Gabriel asked Woolner some particulars
as to the affection of eyesight from which W[oolner] has
more than once suffered these two or three years. It
seems that the man who set him right (with no relapse of
any serious consequence since then) was the surgeon and
oculist Critchett, who (unlike some previous doctors) pro-
nounced the disease to be rheumatism of the eye, and
very rapidly effected a cure — and in whom, on this and
other grounds, W[oolner] has the most extreme confidence.
G[abriel] then referred to his own case ; and W[oolner]
urgently advises him to go forthwith to Critchett, which
G[abriel] is quite minded to do : he himself has already
some acquaintance with Cfritchett], and likes him, though
he was not aware of the exceptional eminence as an oculist
which W[oolner] attributes to him. To-day G[abriel] has
felt some pains at the back of his head. This is to him
an unpleasant symptom ; inasmuch as one or more of his
doctors had heretofore asked him whether he felt any
such pains, and, on being told not, had replied that in
that case there was nothing locally wrong with the eyes.
— Brown (as Mrs B[rown] tells us) has to-day taken
WILLIAM ROSSETTI— DIARY, 1868 329
Nolly round to Richmond Park, to look out for a spot
whence his background can be carried on : they wish
Nolly to get this water-colour ready for next Dudley
Gallery, or, failing that, for the R.A. G[abriel] says that
B[rown] makes his Son work on the strict Praeraphaelite
system. . . .
Friday, 18 September. — Gabriel called at Mr Critchett's
yesterday, but found he is out of town. He says his eyes
are to-day worse than ever : has now written to Scott at
Penkill, proposing to join him. . . .
Tuesday, 22 September. — . . . Howell was at Chelsea, and
says he has seen Marshall, who assures him that Gabriel's
eyes are right ; that his health is for a while broken down
by overstraining, late hours, etc., and will require some little
time for recovering, but will also be right with proper atten-
tion. Bowman called to-day, and also repeats that the eyes
are unharmed : he bought for 1 50 guineas a copy * lately
finished of the Bocca Baciata. . . .
Thursday, 24 September. — Called to see Chapman's
pictures.f • • • The picture begun from Christina's " Three
sang of love together " seems to me incurably mulled, and not
likely to come to anything — though this too has his charac-
teristic merits.
Friday, 25 September. — I learn at Chelsea that Gabriel left
on Wednesday — first for Leeds, and purposing to go on
thence to Penkill. . . .
Friday, 2 October. — Maria understands that her Italian
Exercise-book has been by no means successful as yet : only
about 80 copies of the book itself having sold, and 50 of the
Key. . . .
Wednesday, 7 October. — Dunn has received another letter
from Gabriel saying that he has not settled when to return.
His eyes would not allow of his working for the present, and
he gives directions about setting up green blinds in the
studio. .
* It took a new name, La Biunda del Balcone.
t See the note to p. 195.
330 ROSSETTI PAPERS
Friday r, 9 October. — Paul * called on me at Somerset
House. . . . He says that the lady lately married by Hannay
is his Cousin, Miss H[annay] : the whole family has gone
with H[annay] to Barcelona. . . . Boyce's house (where
Gabriel used to live, 14 Chatham Place) is now in a dangerous
condition through the demolitions adjoining, and he has
received a warning of the expediency of removing his
effects. . . .
Tuesday, 13 October. — Several friends in the evening at
Euston Square. Nolly Brown is diligently painting his
background in . Richmond Park. Morris has been learning
Icelandic ; having undertaken, along with an Icelander, to
translate an Icelandic legend of ancient date, thickly inter-
spersed with verses. He has an idea of translating the
Nibelungenlied some day : The Earthly Paradise ought to be
completed within about a year. He is now doing the story
of Bellerophon. Lucy Brown says that she not long
ago witnessed this at the Zoological Gardens. There had
been two Chimpanzees, one of them named Tom. Tom
died. The keeper, one day that L[ucy] was there, spoke
of Tom to the surviving Chimpanzee, which exhibited a
conscious and emotional appearance, and the tears came into
its eyes. . . . Gabriel has written to Brown, saying that one
bad symptom of his eyes — that of seeing flashes etc. when
the eyes are closed — is waning. Brown says that the recent
invitation to Swinburne to stand for Parliament came from
the Reform-League, and was declined by S[winburne] on the
express advice of Mazzini. Also that the mot d'ordre of
the Revolutionary Junto at the present day is not to have
any single republics set up (as the question, for instance, now
stands in Spain), as these would be almost sure to fail ; but
to wait until two or three can be started together. . . .
Friday ', 16 October. — . . . Another letter from Gabriel,
giving much the same account as hitherto of his eyesight and
general health : the period of his return continues quite
uncertain, and his liking for Penkill has reached the point of
* Benjamin Horatio Paul, a Scientific Chemist, whom we had known
through Hannay : I saw a good deal of him towards 1854.
WILLIAM ROSSETTI— DIARY, 1868
331
a vague project of renting the place altogether for a half-year.
Halliday dined at Chelsea. He is forty-five years of age, and
speaks with very little contentment of his bachelor-condition.
He says Millais's present way of painting is to set the model
and canvas near together ; and continually to retire many
paces from the canvas, glance at the model, and go up again
to lay-on a new touch or two. His doctrine is that nothing
is done until the model and the painted figure are so much
alike that one might almost take the one for the other in
a momentary glance. Halliday says that M[illais] is ex-
ceedingly liberal and kindly in money-matters, eager as he
is at money-making. . . .
Tuesday, 20 October. — ... A letter from Gabriel, say-
ing that he will probably return next Tuesday, along with
Scott. He also says that he is not better than when he
left — which refers, I presume, wholly or chiefly to the eyes.
This is bad news. . . .
Saturday, 24 October. — Stillman writes wishing me to see
Dilberoglue about a military-Cretan project of Coroneos, and
a fund of £10,000 to be raised therefor. This looks rather
a formidable modicum. . . .
Thursday, 29 October. — . . . Dilberoglue came by appoint-
ment in the evening, and promised to see what could be done
among the Greeks for the new subscription suggested by
Stillman : he says the suggestion comes a little inopportunely,
as it is only six weeks ago that the Greeks had been getting
up another subscription for Cretan purposes. The name
Dilberoglue is not Greek, but Turkish : it means " hand-
some " or something to that effect. . . .
Saturday, 31 October. — Another letter from Gabriel, again
fixing Tuesday next for his return. He still says that his
eyes are not better.
Sunday, I November. — Wrote to Payne (of Moxon's)
about the suggestion he had made in April last as to my re-
editing Shelley. As nothing has been done in the matter
since his calling at Somerset House at Whitsuntide, when I
was away, I now propose to call on him on Thursday
next.
332 ROSSETTI PAPERS
Monday, 2 November. — Stephens writes me that a son was
bom to him on Saturday. — Met Morris and a few others at
Woolner's. Mforris] has got on with his Icelandic transla-
tion, and expects to have it out soon after Christmas. Pal-
grave has been lately in Gladstone's company ; and finds
that, with all his occupations, he has been making leisure to
write a kind of index of character for the personages of The
Iliad. . . .
Tuesday, 3 November. — Gabriel came back to-night from
Penkill. He says his eyes are decidedly not better, though
on the whole I think he seems a little less despondent about
their essential condition. . . . Scott has finished his pictures
on the Penkill staircase, done some landscapes of which
Gfabriel] speaks very well, and has also been occupied in
translating the diary of Albert Durer. He has now returned
to town with G[abriel].
Wednesday, 4 November. — Finished the actual collating
of Chaucer's Troylus with Boccaccio's Filostrato.
Thursday, 5 November. — Called on J. B. Payne with
regard to the Shelley project. He says that Hogg left the
Life of Shelley finished, but that the family is averse from
its appearing ; that Garnett had an idea of writing a Life,
and had collected some materials, but that this also is in
abeyance, and may probably not be done ; and that the
objection of Sir P[ercy] Shelley to full details concerning the
death of the first Mrs Sfhelley], followed by the second
marriage of Sfhelley], is understood to arise from the fact
that Sir Pfercy] was born only about a month after the
second marriage,* and some pains had to be taken to prove
his legitimacy. The first Wife, Payne says, became strictly
a prostitute — Shelley not having made any arrangements
for her support, and being, after he had left England, more
or less in the dark as to her position. Payne wishes my
editorial revisions of the text to be, if practicable, such as
will not render the stereotype-plates useless, but only entail
* In my Diary I recorded this statement of Mr Payne's, simply as it
was made. At a later date, finding the statement to be egregiously
wrong, I wrote against it "wholly incorrect."
WILLIAM ROSSETTI— DIARY, 1868 333
alterations here and there : he concurs in my proposal of
occasional notes, accompanying the actual revision of text.
For this work I proposed to charge £30, to which he at once
acceded : indeed, I suspect it was sensibly less than he had
expected to be asked. As to the Life, he does not contem-
plate (though neither is he altogether adverse to) a full Life
forming a separate book : his idea is a prefatory Life of not
less than some 50 nor more than some 100 pages : this was
indeed my own way of putting it. Enquiries will be made
of Garnett, and full consideration as to the form of Life etc.
given ; and then I will make a separate undertaking as to
that. The next issue of the Poems would not be forth-
coming till eight months or so hence. Payne seems to have
also some undefined notions as to a re-edition and Life of
Coleridge ; and I think it possible that he might eventually
make some proposal to me on this subject also. He is to
send me at once the various editions of Shelley in his
possession ; and I shall thence set to work on the text — I
find he has (valeat quantuni) an unfavourable impression as
to the character of Tennyson,* and runs him down even as
a poet : he regards him as selfish, narrow in money-matters,
not of lively affections : he is punctilious in paying his score
in company, and expecting his companions to pay theirs. . . .
For my own part I have always greatly liked Tennyson in
personal intercourse ; and seen in him evidence of deep affec-
tions and much open confidence and kindliness. — Began in
the evening translating those passages of Boccaccio's Filo-
strata which are adapted in Chaucer's Troylus. — Dilberoglue
finds the Greeks here not ready to subscribe for the fund
proposed by Stillman to carry on operations by Coroneos in
Crete.
Friday^ 6 November. — Gabriel consulted Rose yesterday
as to the proposed deed of gift — or now rather bill of sale
— in my favour (see 18 September). Rose says that any
such document would have to be registered, and would no
doubt be protested against by creditors, and probably set
* It will be understood that the Firm of Moxon & Co., represented by
Mr Payne, were as yet the Publishers of Tennyson's poems.
334 ROSSETTI PAPERS
aside. . . . G[abriel] has not yet resumed painting ; but
proposes doing so to-morrow, taking only moderate spells
of work.* . . . He wrote a letter to Ernest Chesneau to-
day, correcting some of the errors concerning Praeraphael-
itism, G[abriel], Ruskin, etc., in his book on Fine Art.
Brown spent the evening with us at Chelsea. . . . His
advice is that Gfabriel] should go abroad for four or five
months — say to Italy or Portugal : he also spoke highly of
Montreuil near Boulogne. G[abriel], who was in very good
spirits all the evening, seems less indisposed to such a plan
than he usually has been. . . .
Monday r, 9 November. — . . . Have begun reading up
for the Life of Shelley, commencing with Hogg : Payne
has not yet sent round the editions of the poems for my
revising.
Tuesday, 10 November. — . . . Ruskin's love-affair
(according to Howell as reported by Gabriel) is over. . . .
Howell went to Ireland, to try to get over the difficulties ;
and he says he disguised himself as a tramp or labourer
to obtain an interview, but without effecting the desired
change of sentiment. . . . Gabriel has not as yet set-to
at painting, but, in spirits at least, seems much fortified. . . .
Friday, 13 November. — . . . Mamma tells me that my
Aunt Eliza says that, on Wednesday morning about 3,
when I was in fact in bed at Chelsea, she heard me most
distinctly walk up the stairs at Euston Square, going to
bed ; pass her door as I always do ; and call out (as I
never do) " Good night, Aunt Eliza " — to which she responded.
She was neither asleep nor even in bed — but up and wide
awake (to take medicine or some such purpose, I presume).
This is singular : for not only is my Aunt the least fanciful
person in London, but, as such an incident as that of the
good-night has never once occurred at all, she cannot be
confounding one night with another, nor could she have
fancied the thing through any mere habit or preconception.
* Here follows a detailed account of the condition of my Brother's
eyesight. I extracted it in the Memoir published in 1895, anc^ I there-
fore omit it here,
WILLIAM ROSSETTI— DIARY, 1868 335
was not (I think) dreaming of her at the time, nor had
I in any way been particularly thinking of her. Was it
my wraith? — Swinburne and Scott dined at Chelsea, and
Brown came in the evening. Swinburne says he has
written nothing of late. . . . He came back a fortnight or
so ago from his friend Powell's at Etretat : was nearly
drowned there one day, which happened to be the equi-
noctial tide, when he had gone out swimming. Had to
swim -on some three miles and an hour or nearly, the sea
carrying him irresistibly out — till at last a fishing-boat
picked him up. Says he felt no compunctions or religious
impressions in the prospect of death. Has seen a pieuvre
—very loathsome : the fishermen say it is not (as repre-
sented by V[ictor] Hugo) formidable, because it never
attacks. — Brown attended a meeting for Mill's parliamentary
candidature — having been invited to join his Committee. —
Mr Purchase, the Brighton clergyman now making so much
noise in the way of ritualism, is, as I thought, the same
one who wrote to Swinburne eulogizing the Poems and
Ballads at the time when the phials of wrath were being
emptied thereon.
Saturday, 14 November. — Swinburne and 1 had been
talking last night about Shelley's Poems by Peg Nicholson\
(to me as yet unknown) : and, strangely enough, Swinburne
has to-day found a copy of this almost unattainable book
— a reprint of 25 copies having lately been made, and one
of them down in a bookseller's catalogue. Swinburne left
the book with me at Somerset House : he is now going
down to Holmwood. . . .
Tuesday, 17 November. — . . . Payne sent me round the
editions of Shelley to-night, for my editorial work.
Wednesday, 18 November. — The papers announce, to my
sorrow, the probably mortal illness of Mazzini. — Began
revising Shelley's poems. . . .
Sunday, 22 November. — Engaged with scarcely any pause
on the Shelley revision. By the help of the Dcemon of the
World, I have now constructed a text of Queen Mab which
is certainly, I think, a good deal preferable to any yet
336 ROSSETTI PAPERS
issued. I make incessant corrections on points of minor,
and some of major, importance ; and consider that nothing
short of a completely new edition will be satisfactory. This
would set aside the stereotype-plates of one of the now-
current editions (say the one-volume edition, which is that
which I am actually working upon) : the other two stereo-
typed editions — the large single-volume, and the three-
volumes — might, if preferred and so far as I am concerned,
remain unaltered. . . .
Tuesday > 24 November. — Went with Dilberoglue to the
Spartalis. Many photographs of Miss S[partali] by Mrs
Cameron lying about : only one, as far as I notice, goes
pretty near to doing her justice. Dilberoglue and I, as
we went along, spoke of the rumoured (but still question-
able) death of Mazzini.* D[ilberoglue] said strikingly :
" He was for all those long years the only light in the
sick chamber of Europe — never out, never flickering."
D[ilberoglue] is naturalized as Englishman : very bitter
against Layard, to oppose whom in these current elections
he, though a decided Radical, took an active part for the
Conservative candidate, Alderman Cotton. Layard how-
ever came in with no difficulty. . . .
Friday, 27 November. — Gabriel, being still, from the state
of his eyes, unable to resume painting, has been looking
up his poems of old days, with some floating idea of offer-
ing some of them to The Fortnightly Review, and at any
rate with a degree of zest which looks promising for some
result with them. Scott is going to offer to the Fortnightly
his poem of The Prodigal: the Editor (Morley) is inclined
to make poems of some substantial length a feature of the
magazine. Scott says that Lewes, in his youth, projected
a Life of Shelley, and was (he believes) in possession of
various materials for the purpose, from Leigh Hunt and
others. . . .
Sunday, 29 November. — Mamma reminds me of what I
knew years ago, but had entirely forgotten — that, when she
was with the Dickinses at Leatherhead, from about 1816
* The rumour of his death was incorrect.
WILLIAM ROSSETTI— DIARY, 1868 337
to 1820, Shelley's Brother was a pupil with the local clergy-
man, Mr Burmister. She remembers him as remarkably
handsome, and as of the age of twelve or thirteen. . . . The
name of Shelley himself was held in horror. . . .
Wednesday, 2 December. — Went to the lonides. . . .
Hullah (whom I see again for the first time after meeting him
years ago at the Rintouls') * expresses especial admiration
of Christina's poems.
Thursday, 3 December. — Keeling, the wine - merchant,
called at Somerset House. Hitherto he had neither
known nor thought anything about Spiritualism. But,
happening to be lately with a friend who paid some atten-
tion to it, he sat down to a table, and was astounded to find
raps and messages coming forthwith — tables and sideboards
moving across the floor — etc. The messages seem chiefly
to have been confessions of damnation from infidels and bad
characters — Voltaire, George IV., Baron Nicholson,f Tiberius.
It seems however that the only indication of this damnation
was that three — or still worse two — raps were given in reply
to the question whether the spirit was in a happy or unhappy
condition. No fully defined messages in words were given ;
and Keeling had indeed heard nothing about the customary
use of the alphabet. This interpretation of two or three raps
is new to me. . . .
Sunday, 6 December. — Write to Dilberoglue, sending him
a long extract from Stillman's last letter concerning the
proposed expedition of Coroneos : to Tupper, agreeing to
prospective Roman trip towards end of March ; to Allingham
on various Shelley points, etc.
Monday, J December. — Gabriel has now resumed work ;
having begun some crayon heads of Mrs Morris as Pandora
etc. He gets on with a fair amount of comfort. . . .
* Hullah, the Musical Teacher and Conductor. Mr Rintoul was
Editor of The Spectator when I became (1850) the Art-critic for that
paper.
t Baron Nicholson is perhaps forgotten now. He was (among other
ventures) a Tavern-keeper in the Strand, and got up the so-called "Judge
and Jury Society," which did not promote the cause of moral purity.
Y
338 ROSSETTI PAPERS
Wednesday, 9 December. — Scott called to look into my
Shelley notes and revisions. He very generally approved of
them ; and indeed urges that several of those revisions which
I have only ventured to suggest in notes should be at once
incorporated in the text. In one or two cases I may act
upon this advice at once : in others I think of consulting
Swinburne and Allingham before deciding anything. If they
were to agree with Scott, I should probably conform.
However, I am very much against rash or fancy emendations
of a text.
Thursday t 10 December. — Acted accordingly with regard
to the Shelley notes.
Friday, 11 December. — Gabriel came to Euston Square,
and asked to hear some of my Shelley notes. He is quite as
decided as Scott, or more so, in thinking that certain emenda-
tions should be at once introduced into the text ; indeed,
he would make conjectural and unnotified emendations to
an extent which I consider decidedly inexpedient — on this
ground if no other, that outsiders would raise numberless
objections against the edition, and it would fall into
disrepute. . . .
Tuesday, 15 December. — Dilberoglue writes, giving a
distinct negative to any chance of promoting among the
Greeks here Stillman's project of a Cretan invasion by
Coroneos.
Wednesday, 16 December. — Macfarren has made a Cantata
of Christina's Songs in a Cornfield : she received the publica-
tion from him this morning. Tebbs enquires whether Gabriel
would lend any of his six-mark china for an exhibition at
the Burlington Club, to which Huth and others contribute.
The main object is to test the statement, still maintained by
several judges, that a quantity of this sort of china is forged —
i.e., modern work pretending to be three or four centuries old.
For instance, some pieces bearing the date of last century
are found so exceedingly like others assigned to the I5th
century that a suspicion arises against any such great
difference of date.
Thursday, 17 December. — Replied to a note from Furni-
WILLIAM ROSSETTI— DIARY, 1868 339
vail, expressing my readiness to look at what Ward is doing
relative to Chaucer and the Teseide, and to talk over the
matter with him.
Friday r, iS December. — Gabriel asked Scott and Brown,
with myself, to meet Nettleship, who brought his strange
Blakeish designs of God creating Evil etc. He is deter-
mined to be a professional artist : his stock of money will
last him about a year. We all, and I very decidedly, regard
it as a bad look-out ; as, spite of his obvious force of ideas,
his executive unadaptabilities are glaring, and I should fear
hardly conquerable* — at any rate, for pecuniary success.
His age is twenty-seven. The idea was started that the best
thing for him to do at once might be to illustrate some
congenial book ; get Browning to write a preface, or other-
wise to take it under his wing ; and offer it to a publisher.
I proposed the Prometheus Unbound : a suggestion received
with favour. Showed him some Hokusais and other
Japanese work which took him aback by their power. He
himself has an excellently good feeling for studies of animals.
. . . Howell and others are projecting an " Arts Company
Limited " — Marks as business-man. f Hfowell] asked
Gabriel to take a share in it : he will do so to the extent of
,£250 in the form of works of art supplied. Morris and^
Co. will supply goods at a reduced rate. — Gabriel has just,
written a series of four sonnets — Willow-wood — about the
finest thing he has done. I see the poetical impulse is upon
him again : he even says he ought never to have been a
painter, but a poet instead.
Saturday, 19 December. — Gabriel wrote a sonnet on
Death at Euston Square. Tupper, who called on me at
Somerset House, wishes to do a medallion-head of me ;
and that, with a view to this, I should sit for a profile-
photograph.
Sunday, 20 December.— Wrote to Parsons about the
* I need scarcely say that Mr Nettleship, settling down into a
different class of pictorial subjects, coped with and fairly surmounted
his difficulties.
t I hardly know whether or how far this project was realized.
340 ROSSETTI PAPERS
photographing project ; to Stillman telling him that Dilbero-
glue can't get up the Coroneos-raid subscription ; etc. . . .
Thursday, 24 December, to Wednesday, 30 December. — At
Gloucester from 26 December with my Uncle Henry.
Thursday, 31 December. — Returned to London : fine day-
free from frost, but sufficiently like winter. In pursuance of
something I had heard from Uncle H[enry], I asked Aunt
C[harlotte] whether she had any journals of her Brother John
making mention of Shelley. She has such a journal, appli-
cable to the year 1816 ; it contains one or two Shelley items
which will be useful. . . . An Echo- Song of Christina's has
been set to music by Miss Virginia] Gabriel, and is dedicated
to me.
176.— THOMAS DIXON to WILLIAM ROSSETTI.
[The first copy of Leaves of Grass that I ppssessed or saw
came to me from W. Bell Scott : to him from Thomas Dixon,
who bought a copy or two which he observed hawked about
in his town. — The remark upon " one now no more " refers
to his deceased Wife.]
15 SUNDERLAND STREET, SUNDERLAND.
1 6 January 1868.
Dear Sir, — ... I am truly glad to find you so highly
appreciate Whitman, and like exceedingly the spirit in which
you write me of him ; and the one reason amongst many
that first made me love you and your family was that deep
sympathy of love you all had for the true, beautiful, and
natural, in either Nature, literature, or art. . . . W. B.
Scott was my first master ; to him I owe your friendship. . . .
I was glad to hear you got Leaves of Grass ; for I never have
such books but I love them, and long to know where they
are, and if in loving hands. . . .
I would like you to get the little book Time and Tide, for
in it there is some stray ideas of mine that I would fain know
DR FURNIVALL, 1868 341
how they fall in with your own on similar topics, and also to
learn how far these utterances are true in your experience
of them in life. If the book is liked, I fain would send a
copy to your Sister whom I once met at Scott's (I forget her
name now) ; for there is one passage of it was written by me
thinking over the happy and pleasant hours so spent there by
one now no more. It is not the poetess, though I love her
too through her poetry ; but it is other feelings that was made
manifest to me by that Sister of yours. And her kind
I remembrance of that afternoon, and mention of it to me
again when I met with her in London, made me feel how
kind a feeling she had to one almost a stranger until a few
quiet simple utterances made them friends. . . . — Yours
truly,
T. DIXON.
My dear Rossetti, — As you kindly took trouble about
The Lady of Shalott for me, you are entitled to a copy of
Tennyson's own account : — " I met the story first in some
Italian novelle : but the web, mirror, island, etc., were my own.
Indeed, I doubt whether I should ever have put it in that
shape if I had been then aware of the Maid of Astolat in
Mort Arthur"
Fancy too — he says the Thorolds of Lincolnshire claim to
be descendants of Godiva, and to have deeds signed by her.
. . . — Sincerely yours,
F. J. FURNIVALL.
Tell Morris this, some day.
177.— DR FURNIVALL to WILLIAM ROSSETTI.
3 OLD SQUARE, LINCOLN'S INN.
17 January 1868.
342 ROSSETTI PAPERS
178.— W. D. O'CONNOR to WILLIAM ROSSETTI.
WASHINGTON.
20 January 1868.
My dear Sir, — I beg you will pardon my delay, wholly
unavoidable, in acknowledging the receipt of your letter of
1 1 December, which I did not expect, and which gratified
me very much.
I met Mr Whitman shortly after he had received your
letter of December i6th. He had duly received the previous
ones also, making three letters from you. He is entirely satis-
fied with your action, and with Mr Hotten's, in regard to the
London selection and reprint, and seems pleased with the
condition into which that enterprise has been shaped. He
spoke with deep appreciation of you and your letters.
You apprehend perfectly, and re-state admirably, the
points I ventured to offer in my letter to Mr Conway for
your consideration. . . . And I ... accept with unaffected
good-nature, as accurately descriptive of my recorded admira-
tion of our poet, the terms you so good-naturedly employ.
Yes — in our Western phrase, I acknowledge the corn. " Un-
qualified," " superlative," — I own those two words as well-
chosen. And, if you will not be vexed at my saying so, I
am even a little proud of them. . . . Not that I am oblivious
to the faults of our poet, or of any of the supreme poets ;
for I have fully satisfied my censorious part by alluding to
them, as in the pamphlet where I say, " Making a fair allow-
ance for faults which no great poem, from Hamlet to the
world itself, is perhaps without." . . . My critical code, as
regards these great ones, narrows down to two simple canons
— To accept : To admire. . . .
All the geniuses will have a good time with me. And
profoundly I feel Mr Whitman's claim to rank as one of them.
Shakespear may excel him as master of the science of inter-
acting passion ; but Shakespear, in all his wondrous cosmo-
rama, has no such figure, nor any figure at all, of a man
BARONE KIRKUP, 1868 343
primal and abysmal, a living soul boundless and terrible,
master and summit of all, and resuming and surpassing the
Universe, such as this poet has created in literature in that
section of his work called Walt Whitman. Ages will pass
before that thing, so done, can be appreciated. . . . — Very
truly yours,
W. D. O'CONNOR.
179. — BARONE KIRKUP to WILLIAM ROSSETTI.
FLORENCE, PONTE VECCHIO 2.
14 February 1868.
My" dear Rossetti, — . . . Your idea is an excellent one
— a Biography of your Father, besides an Essay on his
Beatrice. His life was sufficiently adventurous to be very
interesting to the general public, besides his great discoveries
in the philosophy of literature, of the Middle Ages in general
and Dante in particular. . . . There are plenty of Italians
who would be glad enough — Pasquale Villari of Naples,
Alessandro d'Ancona of Pisa, P. G. Maggi of Milan, all
friends of mine.
I know but little of the Florentines, and that little is
not in their favour — duplicity and vanity. They were
always reckoned great diplomats. They were the enemies of
Dante, and are still, for they have destroyed all the monu-
ments of his memory that remained in Florence when I first
came here forty-four years ago. What might still be saved
are disgracefully neglected and falling to ruin. After their
fulsome and ignorant vulgar enthusiasm for the commemora-
tion, they have returned to their wonted indifference, and
even to persecution. Their ignorant antiquarians have
endeavoured to make out that Giotto's portrait is spurious
— but their grounds are so absurd that they are unworthy
refutation. Still, the ignorant join in the hue and cry : and
so far indeed they are right, for the present repainted portrait
has not a line left of Giotto's beautiful fresco, as you may
344 ROSSETTI PAPERS
see by the correct tracing of it published by the Arundel
Society. It is now epuise and the edition all sold, many
hundreds ; and I have lately made another tracing from
that, and sent it to the Afrundel] Society on their promise
to publish a new edition of it, which I hope soon to see.
It is not a fancy-drawing of mine. I have preserved the
original talc on which it was traced, and my drawing
(made at the same time) of the shading of the light and
shade of the face, from both of which I executed the exact
likeness published by the Society, after the original fresco
had been again lost sight of and degraded, deturpato, by
an ignorant and unprincipled dauber named Marini. The
whole history of that misfortune would make a good " opuscolo
delle sventure di un antiquario" * It might induce the govern-
ment to try and remove the coat of detestable ugliness with
which the beautiful original is covered and again concealed.
It might be all recovered. The eye of course is gone ; for
the beast made a great hole by pulling out a nail instead
of cutting it. ...
You say the book would be for Italians. It would, both
for English and Italians. As for Florentines, they are
either indifferent or wrong-headed, swallowing all the
rubbish of the priests and Jesuits, and totally ignorant of
the great discoveries of your Father. And he told me
they would go on increasing in the Beatrice, especially in
the third part, as he had saved all the best for the end.
And so I think, from hints in his letters ; in which he deter-
mines the greatest fact, that Beatrice and the Filosofia of
the Convito are the same, and what was the nature of
Dante's inconstancy for which Beatrice reproached him in
the Purgatorio — and not the foolish story, without any
authority, of a contadina in the mountains of Casentino or in
Gubbio. . . .
Swinburne has had the kindness to send me his Critical
Essay on Blake. What a wonderful young man he is ! such
a poet, critic, theologian, classic, metaphysician, connoisseur
of all arts and sciences, universal ; and, like Dante, his prose
* Pamphlet of the tribulations of an antiquary.
FREDERIC SHIELDS, 1868
345
is as beautiful as his poetry. Remember me to him, with all
my gratitude.
Adieu, my dear Rossetti ; with old affection, ever yours,
SEYMOUR KIRKUP.
i go.— FREDERIC SHIELDS to DANTE ROSSETTI.
[As to Warwick Brookes, see my Diary (No. 175) for
7 February etc.]
CORNBROOK HOUSE, MANCHESTER.
17 February 1868.
My dear Rossetti, — . . . For the past month — that is,
ever since Mr M'Connel gave me the opportunity of seeing
the Sir Tristram — I have meant to write how great pleasure
I enjoyed in hanging over it ; and, if (as you intimated) you
relied in any measure on my poor opinion, it will satisfy you
to know that I indeed think with you that it approaches nearer
to the highest standard than anything you have yet achieved
in water-colour. . . .
Let me say how much the subject of your last note
gratified me — for I have known Warwick Brookes for some
years, but not intimately, his disposition being too retiring
for that. Your information concerning him is not very
accurate ; for he must be nearer fifty than forty, and has
a family of six children, the eldest girl being about six-
teen years. With this young family he has never dared
to venture to give up a situation as pattern-designer for
ladies' dresses which he held in a firm here, and which
brought him in a settled sum per week, for the uncertain
and fluctuating remuneration attending the profession of
art. So that all you have seen, and much more, has been
done during the leisure-hours of his evenings and Saturday
afternoons. . . . For two years back he has been lying sick
of consumption ; and his main, perhaps his only, source of
346 ROSSKTTI PAPERS
income has been the sale of the set of photos with which
you are acquainted. Sir Walter James has most generously
exerted himself to spread their circulation, and other friends
have done their best also. He is too independent in temper
to accept help in any other way — but, I am certain, would
feel both grateful and pleased with such assistance as you
can secure for him in this way. The price of the set is
four pounds. I took the liberty, believing it would gladden
his sick chamber, of showing him your letter on Saturday
night ; and, though he was too weak to read it himself, he
most earnestly expressed his estimation of your approval.
. . . — Most truly yours,
FREDERIC J. SHIELDS.
1 8 1. — WARINGTON TAYLOR to DANTE ROSSETTI.
[?i868.]
My dear Gabriel, — I was in town Monday, just to give
some assistance to our new clerk, and put him in the way
of our methods.
There certainly will be a considerable sum in hand in
April, and it will be the work of the members to deal
with it. I think they ought to insist on Webb receiving a
certain sum : he has charged for his designs at the Palace
an absurdly small sum ; three times the amount would
have been under the mark.
Then as to a distribution of money amongst the members,
I think it proper to say that, as they form a Company, that
Company has a debt to Morris for capital lent to start the
firm. This must be paid off before the firm can claim
profits for itself; or, if members agree, a certain amount must
be paid, and afterwards another amount divided amongst the
members themselves ; for, although personally riches may
not be of advantage to Morris (! !) this ,£700 is an absolute
debt due to him by the Company. , , ,
WARINGTON TAYLOR, 1868 347
I think it wise to tell you of the difficulties that have
to be encountered in conducting that business. Morris is
very nervous about work ; and he consequently often sud-
denly takes men off one job and puts them on to another.
There is in this great loss of time. When I was there, I
was able in some way to counteract this ; I used to quiet
him.
(2) I was able to torment for the designs, and this is the
great point. I began long before they were wanted, and kept
on at Ned ; wrote to him every other day, made him promise
dates, and so on ; consequently we never got behind-hand
with work. But I can assure you that this is the great
difficulty of the place. If you have no designs, you must go
on to other jobs ; and nothing is so bad as having six jobs in
hand instead of two. This is the crying evil of the place,
and which I devoted my whole attention to, and succeeded
really in keeping it down. But, directly I am away, it
commences again. Morris will start half a dozen jobs :
he has only designs for perhaps half of them, and therefore
in a week or two they have to be given up. They are put
away, bits get lost, have to be done over again : hence great
loss of time and money.
I am quite certain that the only reason why you were not
making money two years ago was because there was no
system. Too many jobs were in hand at once, and there
was no regular supply of designs. N.B. — As an instance
of this : in November I got a quantity of small jobs from
Ned. I left however one cartoon still to get from him,
before he began the South Kensington series. When in
town on Monday, I found that cartoon had never been
done yet. You understand how detrimental this is to
business. If I had been there, that would not have
occurred. Such things going on for twelve months would
soon alter the state of affairs ; and this is the thing that
causes fear in me for the future, nothing else but this. And
Webb will fully bear out what I say ; he knows well this
is the rock upon which the firm will be wrecked.
(3) Morris always charges too low ; he does not like,
348 ROSSETTI PAPERS
naturally enough, to be thought greedy and avaricious, and
consequently, if he makes a contract by himself, charges
invariably too little.
You are now perfectly posted up in the state of affairs —
you know as much as I do myself. — Ever yours truly,
W. TAYLOR.
182.— BARONE KIRKUP to WILLIAM ROSSETTI.
[The reply of Dante's " spirit " concerning Beatrice means
" she was an idea in my head."]
FLORENCE, PONTE VECCHIO 2.
23 March 1868.
My dear Rossetti, — . . . I asked Dante if Beatrice was
a Florentine lady. — No. — Who was she ? — Era un1 idea delta
mi a testa. . . .
I think I have discovered that the date of Beatrice's death
was precisely that of his losing his nobility, and entering the
plebeian rank in the guild of the physicians and apothecaries.
I must enquire further about it.
Dante's ghost confirmed your Father's opinion. The
Veltro was the Emperor. The Italians think, Can Grande,
because of his name. And so did your Father at first, but he
corrected it, and Dante confirmed him to me. It is for
Dante's sake as well as your Father's that I wish for a
biography of G[abriele] R[ossetti]. My long intercourse (of
twelve years) with him (Dante) and mutual services have
made me feel a real friendship for him and other spirits.
They are now eight habitues — Dante being one. They come
about three times a week, and give us excellent advice and
instruction. I follow them even when they differ from the
doctors or theologians. ... I have had above fifty spirits in
this room, besides twenty evil ones. I have seen little, only
four or five times, but enough of their action, and have often
HORACE SCUDDER, 1868 349
heard and felt them. I still continue the most jealous pre-
cautions against trick. . . . — Ever yours,
SEYMOUR KIRKUP.
1 83.— HORACE SCUDDER to WILLIAM ROSSETTI.
[The designs of Mr La Farge are, I suppose, only very
scantily known on this side of the Atlantic: to be widely
admired, they only need to be known widely.]
Editorial Office of The Riverside Magazine for Young People.
RIVERSIDE, CAMBRIDGE, MASS.
27 March 1868.
My dear Mr Rossetti, — I have for some months past
had the charge of a magazine for the young. . . . The only
artist who gives me solid satisfaction is Mr John La Farge,
who unfortunately has been prevented by many causes,
principally ill-health, from doing all that we wish he would
do. . . . He did several drawings for Enoch Arden — an
edition published here by Ticknor and Fields, which was
hastily planned and as hastily executed ; La Farge, for
one, doing some of his work bolstered up in bed, and the
blocks put into the press at midnight, fifteen minutes after
the engraver had taken his proof. . . .
I feel confident that you would be interested to see the
photographs which I enclose. The blocks were of the same
size — that of the larger of the photographs. The Wolf-Charmer
was engraved first in our December number for last year,
The Pied Piper in the January* number. . . .
La Farge has made some admirable drawings decorating
Browning's Men and Women. I hope some day he may
publish them in some form. . . . — Faithfully yours,
HORACE E. SCUDDER.
350 KOSSETTI PAPERS
— WILLIAM GRAHAM to DANTE ROSSETTI.
[Mr Graham was at this time an M.P. for Glasgow. The
occurrence which introduced him first into my Brother's
studio was I think this: a Mr Hamilton was a partner in
the same Firm with Mr Graham, and was well known to Mr
Leyland : the latter took Hamilton round to my Brother, and
Hamilton soon afterwards took Graham round. Mr Graham
became a valuable patron and an affectionate friend. Rossetti
was much attached to him, and with good reason. It will be
perceived that the subject for which Mr Graham commissions
Rossetti in this letter, Dante's Dream, is the same which the
Painter had offered (No. 171) to Mr Matthews, but without
definite result]
44 GROSVENOR PLACE.
9 April— [?i 868].
Dear Mr Rossetti, — ... I cannot resist the temptation
to avail of your offer to paint Dante's Dream for me, although
the expenditure of so large a sum upon a picture is what I
scarcely feel entitled to indulge in. ...
Please then accept the commission at the price you name,
1 500 guineas. As regards size, I should be sorry to put any
restraint upon you that might be prejudicial to the work or
disappointing to yourself, and would prefer leaving it entirely
to you. I should think about 6 feet X 3 J about as full a size as
one could hope to find room for comfortably anywhere. Will
this be sufficient to do justice to it ? I should like to have the
offer of any drawing you may make for it, if agreeable to
you. . . .
Is it too much to ask that, should you in the meantime
take up any smaller picture of such a subject as in tone and
feeling to be in my way (of which I dare say you can by this
time more or less judge), you would kindly offer it first to
me ? . . . — Yours very sincerely,
WM. GRAHAM.
BARONE KIRKUP, 1868 351
185. — CAMDEN HOTTEN to WILLIAM ROSSETTI.
[The review of Whitman written by Mr Kent, a-propos of
my Selection, was enthusiastic in a very high degree : I think
that admirers of the poet have not sufficiently borne it in
mind.]
74 AND 75 PICCADILLY.
21 April 1868.
My dear Sir, — I have much pleasure in sending you a
copy of The Sun containing a most flattering review of
W. Whitman by Mr Charles Kent, the Editor. I have
sent the poet a copy, also one of the Lloyd's notice which
I also enclose. . . .
I have just been talking with Mr Swinburne over the
desirability of publishing some notes upon the forthcoming
Royal Academy Exhibition. He is quite disposed to act with
you — if you are willing. I should like to issue such a
critical pamphlet each year — after the manner of Mr Ruskin
in time gone by.
Whitman is now a regular correspondent. . . . — Yours
truly,
JOHN CAMDEN HOTTEN.
1 86. — BARONE KIRKUP to WILLIAM ROSSETTI.
FLORENCE, PONTE VECCHIO 2.
26 April 1868.
My dear Rossetti, — . . . Dante showed immense courage
in doing as much as he did. They attempted to burn him
and his Commedia ; but they were too late, and only burned
his Monarchic and put it in the Index ! They had not the
courage to do more. But no edition was ever to be printed
in the capital of Italy until the French were in possession of
it during the Revolution. . . .
352 ROSSETTI PAPERS
I was the cause of your Father's portrait being placed in
the theatre of the Commemoration at Santa Croce. . . .
G[abriele] R[ossetti] was a scholar, a theologian, a poet, a
patriot, and a magnificent writer of the finest language in the
world. . . .
Dante, with two other of our spirits, continues to live at
Caprera, where he is Garibaldi's guardian ; and he seldom
comes to see us, though he is very kind to my little girl and
to us all. I told you of the death of a little rabbit which he
brought her as a present from that island. He promised her
something else, and we had forgotten it. The other day as
we were at dinner she said, " There is somebody crying in
this room." I am deaf and heard nothing. The Nun said,
" C'e una voce qui" * I supposed it was some noise in the
street. " No, it is here." I gave Bibi a pen, and she was
made to write, " Open the door of the camerino " ; which she
did, and came running and screaming to us, " Oh c'c una
bestia";-\ followed by a big lamb, almost a sheep, jumping
and bleating. Dante, assisted by another, had brought it
from Santa Rosora near Pisa, where it had been lost in a
wood ; the peasants would have eaten it. And here it has
been ever since, and follows B[ibi] like a dog. I had been
in the camerino five minutes before, and was never out of
sight of the door. The window was fastened, but they had
opened it. . . . — Always yours sincerely,
SEYMOUR KIRKUP.
187. — BERTRAND PAYNE to WILLIAM ROSSETTI.
44 DOVER STREET, PICCADILLY.
28 April 1868.
Dear Sir, — I have read your emendations of the text of
Shelley in N[ptes\ and Q[ueries\^ with equal pleasure and
profit. Would it please you to edit for me another and
* There is a voice here. t Oh there is an animal.
BARONE KIRKUP, 1868 353
better form of that poet's works than has yet been attempted ?
And, if you would preface such an edition of the poet's
remains with a brief memoir, I think I could interest most
who have any of Shelley's important papers to confide them
to you. — Yours very truly,
J. BERTRAND PAYNE.
1 88.— BARONE KIRKUP to WILLIAM ROSSETTI.
[The portrait of my Father first mentioned must be a
photograph from my Brother's oil-likeness of him, 1848.
Then "the little photo of him" is the one of 1853, also by
my Brother, reproduced in the Memoir of the latter that
I published in 1895. Liverati's head may have been fairly
like my Father towards the age (as would appear) of forty.
The two Italian sentences run thus : — (i) " It must eat bran,
salad, and meadow-grass, bread and milk — Adieu." (2)
" Conte : I have brought you a thing into the small room —
something that I promised you." — Towards the end of the
letter comes a reference to a matter which formed the London
town-talk in those days — an action against the Medium Home
to recover a large sum of money given to him by a lady, Mrs
Lyon.]
FLORENCE, 2 PONTE VECCHIO.
1 8 May 1868.
My dear Rossetti, — Many thanks indeed for your dear
Father's portrait. ... I have your Brother's little photo of
him, which is a charming little sort of Albert Durer's style,
a gem for execution, and I dare say very faithful. Liverati's
is too dashing to trust for correctness ; but it comes nearest
to your own description of energy and vivacious good- humour ;
in which you agree with my friend John Leader, who is
living here, married to an Italian lady. . . .
You ask about the story of the lamb's journey from Santa
Rosora. I did not hear its voice, from deafness. Bibi and
the Nun did. Here is what is written in my journal : " \
Z
354 ROSSETTI PAPERS
told Bibi to take a pen (she is a writing medium, and her
hand was quickly convulsed), and I asked * Who is it ? ' — and
she wrote * Dante ; open the camerino.' Bibi went and
opened it, etc. He made her write : * Deve mangiare crusca,
insalata^ e erba di prato, pane e latte ; addio' I then made
her sleep, and he told her that he had brought it in three
minutes from a bosco at Rosora near Pisa, assisted by
Cesarino (another spirit) : asleep, having been magnetized by
them." ... A few minutes before the bleat was heard I
had been in the small camerino, and saw the window shut,
and had not been out of sight of the door (the only one) for
a single moment. I think I told you that the lamb, after
being with us two weeks, was taken away out of another
window — because we could not get the proper grass, and it
would have died They then promised to give Bibi some-
thing else ; and we heard no more till eighteen days after,
when, at supper, the table began to bounce and jump
violently. I enquired if Regina, Dante, etc., were there. Yes,
no less than eight of them. " Shall Bibi sleep ? " (to tell me
what they wanted).—" No."—" Shall she write ? "— " Yes "—
and she wrote : — " Conte : Ti ho portato una cosa net earner ino,
una cosa che fho promessa" (I thought it was Dante who
had promised her something.) She took a candle and peeped
in, and came back frightened at something black. I went in
and found, a pretty black puppy, and took him up and
brought him in. "What is his name?" — She wrote a
word I could not make out, nor she either. It seemed foil—
I asked what he meant ; and he wrote gioli, and then I found
out that it was jolt. The Count who signed himself at the
beginning is Count Ladislas Ginnasi, a dear friend of ours
who was very fond of Bibi. He died four years ago, and is
one of our eight habitues; but is mostly with Dante at
Caprera, and so is Giovanni, another of our friends. The
other five are always here and never fail. It is really a little
society of its kind. Last night they were all eight, and
very merry with the puppy. I asked the Count where the
dog came from : from Faenza, his native city. . . .
The spirits first came in 1854, and I have kept a journal
W. D. O'CONNOR, 1868
355
ever since, now in 7 volumes, and much omitted. Writing
and sleeping mediums are not to be depended on.
Home has behaved very ill. 1 suspect he has been
prompted by intriguing lawyers. He was an honourable
man when I knew him thirteen years ago, but weak and
ignorant. I was really glad when I heard of his good
fortune, but he appears to have abused it. I have not
seen any report of the trial, and I have asked Mrs Parks
to send me The Times. He will be reckoned an impostor
by the Judge if he is not a spiritualist, and that will tell
against him. But I am afraid it is a bad case anyhow. I
hear that he is accused of terrible lies and ingratitude. The
sentence is not yet given.
Count Ginnasi was a remarkably handsome Romagnolo,
and cousin of Byron's Count Gamba and Madame Guiccioli.
. . . My little daughter is now fourteen. . . . Our chief
spirit is Bibi's Mother, Regina. She died of consumption
at nineteen. It all began with her in her lifetime, and has
continued ever since. I believe she lives here for Bibi's
sake. . . . — Ever yours sincerely,
SEYMOUR KIRKUP.
jSp.—W. D. O'CONNOR to WILLIAM ROSSETTI.
[I am not aware whether the utterance ascribed to
Carlyle in the newspaper-paragraph was really his or not]
WASHINGTON.
20 May 1868.
My dear Mr Rossetti, — You will have got The Tribune,
containing Mr George W. Smalley's malignant paragraph on
Mr Whitman ; and I enclose an item from The Star of
this city, as a sample of the numerous injurious squibs
which it has set afloat.
Is it possible that Mr Carlyle has said the things
Smalley reports? I can hardly believe it. Do you know?
356 ROSSETTI PAPERS
If he has, there has been a change, for years ago his opinion
of Leaves of Grass was very high. ... At all events, Mr
Carlyle's name carries so much weight in this country that
the attack is likely to be mischievous. The enemy feel
re-enforced by such an authority, and are preparing for a
general onset. The article in The Saturday Review has
already been reprinted here in full. . . .
I have seen the Athenaeum notice. It is fine, and has
superb sentences.
I hope your enterprise prospers. Save for the ill wind
of The Saturday Review, the notices have been more than
one could have hoped for. . . . — Your very faithful
W. D. O'CONNOR. .
Carlyle on Whitman. — A correspondent of a New York
paper says that Carlyle likens Walt Whitman to a " buffalo,
useful in fertilizing the soil, but mistaken in supposing that
his contributions of that sort are matters which the world
desires to contemplate closely." The admirers of Whitman
in this country will hardly relish the characterization of
the productions of "the good grey poet" as buffalo-chips.
190. — W. D. O'CONNOR — On Leaves of Grass.
[I print something like a half of this writing. It reached
me — possibly through Mr Conway — as a Preface, proposed
by Mr O'Connor, for my Selection from Whitman's Poems :
or indeed (according to the author's project) for a complete
re-edition of the poems. It did not however suit my plan
to make any use of the writing. I do not know who was the
" English gentleman and traveller " mentioned towards the
close of the extract.]
Introduction to tlie London Edition.
America — that new world in so many respects besides its
geography — has afforded nothing, even in the astonishing
W. D. O'CONNOR, 1868 357
products of the fields of its politics, its mechanical inventions,
material growths, and the like, more original, more autoch-
thonic, than its late contribution in the field of literature, the
Poem, or poetic writings, named Leaves of Grass. . . .
Taken as a unity, Leaves of Grass, true to its American
origin, is a song of " the great pride of man in himself." It
assumes to bring the materials and outline the architecture
of a more complete, more advanced, idiocratic, masterful,
Western personality — the combination and model of a new
Man. ... It possesses, more than any other book we know,
the magnetism of living flesh and blood, sitting near the
reader and looking and talking. . . .
If indeed the various parts of Leaves of Grass demanded
a single word to sum up and characterize them, it would
seem to be the word Democracy. But it would mean a
Democracy not confined to politics ; that would describe a
portion only. It would need the application of the word to
be extended to all departments of civilization and human-
ity
We will add to the hasty synopsis of Leaves of Grass just
given a brief memorandum of the author, Walt Whitman.
He was born on his Father's farm, not far from the sea, in
New York State, 31 May 1819. His descent is from Dutch
and English ancestry, dating back, in both Father and Mother's
lines, to the first colonization of that part of the country ; and
is thus of the fullest and purest stock that America affords,
grown of her own soil. He grew up large and strong,
alternating his life equally between the country-farm and
New York City. He has since lived in the South, explored
the West, and sailed the Mississippi, the Gulf of Mexico,
and the great Canadian Lakes. He has been a farmer,
builder of houses, and printer and editor of newspapers.
He first issued Leaves of Grass in 1855. The book has
since been printed, with successive enlargements and re-
adjustments, three times. As given in this volume, it was
put forth by the author within the last year, and includes
the poems and songs of Drum-Taps, written during and at
the close of the late Civil War,
358 ROSSETTI PAPERS
For Walt Whitman was in the midst of the war through-
out. A volunteer caretaker of the wounded and sick, he
joined the army early in the contest, and steadily remained,
as an amateur but at active work, in camp, on the battle-
field, or in some of the huge military hospitals, ministering
to Southerners as well as Northerners ; not only till Richmond
fell and Lee capitulated, but, as we hear, continues to this
day still regularly visiting the collections of maimed and
broken-down men, the sad legacy bequeathed by the long
campaigns and sanguinary battles of those vast armies.
He is now in his forty-ninth year, and is portrayed by
one who knows him intimately as tall in stature ; with
shapely limbs ; slow of movement ; florid and clear face ;
bearded and grey ; blue eyes ; an expression of great equa-
nimity ; a decided presence and singular personal mag-
netism ; very little of a talker ; always compassionate ;
generally undemonstrative ; yet capable of the strongest
emotions, resolution, and hauteur.
An English gentleman and traveller, a believing reader of
Walt Whitman, who sought him out in America, gives the
latest direct account of the poet. He found him, in August
1867, residing at Washington, the capital of the United States,
where he was holding a small but pleasant and honourable
post in the office of the Attorney-General. He had several
interviews with him ; and, besides confirming the main parts
of the foregoing account, he adds one thing more, with which
we may conclude our record. It is a point that has the final
bearing on human character. He considers Walt Whitman
the most thoroughly religious being that, in the course of
much travel and long and varied contact with the world,
he has ever encountered. The interior and foundation
quality of the man is Hebraic, biblical, mystic. This quality
undoubtedly, — exhibited and fused through a full and
passionate physiology, a complete animal body, and joined
with the most thorough realization and cordial acceptance
of his country and belief in its mission, the fullest sense of
the sacred practical obligations of each person as citizen,
neighbour, and friend, and the most deferential absorption of
STAUROS DILBEROGLUE, 1868 359
modern science ; yet with the distinct acknowledgment that
science, grand as it is, stands at last utterly baffled before
the impenetrable miracle of the least law of the universe,
and even the least leaf or insect ; — this, we say, undoubtedly
gives the best clue both to the personal character and life
and to the poetic utterance of this new, powerful, and (we
think we must say) most typical American.
191.— STAUROS DILBEROGLUE to WILLIAM ROSSETTI.
31 THREADNEEDLE STREET.
27 May 1868.
Dear Mr Rossetti, — Stillman still hopes, and some of our
best friends here think, that it is not yet desperate : I am
longing, but doubtful. . . .
I wish I was coming with you as far as Venice. ... Be
with Venetians if you can. You will understand them,
and they will understand you. People of the South, or with
southern blood, understand each other so well ; and see
precisely and hear precisely what each has to say and make
the other see, which is a rare blessing in life. Britons
generally use epithets for characterizing foreigners, but that
is bosh ; no adjective can characterize any complex-natured
soul. And the Southerners are that, because they have,
thank God, as yet, no principles. They are guided by their
nerves, their stomach, and their livers, and they are as
various as the English climate. They are tempera^'w, and
of course most charming companions ; and then they have
a kind of logic that astonishes one with its simplicity and
boldness ; they reason like great children to the extremest
limits of their thoughts, whatever they may be. . . . — I am,
in affectionate esteem, yours,
STAUROS DILBEROGLUE,
360 ROSSETTI PAPERS
192.— C. P. MAENZA to DANTE ROSSETTI.
[The writer is mentioned in my Diary (No. 175) p. 322.
The end of the present letter has been lost]
BOULOGNE-SUR-MER, 19 RUE SlMONEAU.
23 July 1868.
My dear Gabriel, — I have punctually received the other
two half-notes ; as to the rest, make it convenient to yourself.
What we feel of gratitude, we cannot sufficiently express it.
Read attentively the following lines. Seven years ago,
when you so kindly tried to make up ,£200, the sum then
necessary to enable us to go to Italy, we could only reach
,£154. Certainly it was a considerable sum of money; but
not what I considered necessary to clear myself from Boulogne,
and risk, with Mrs Maenza, when in Italy to find ourselves in
a critical position, having received positive information that
the Italian Government could not afford but scanty assistance
for past services. . . .
Age, fatigue, and anxiety for the future, have made me
unfit for that daily work which teaching requires ; my strength
is gone, and a troublesome cough torments me terribly. . . .
It has given us a very great pleasure to find that your
position as an artist is firmly established. I never doubted
of your success since you were a boy ; who could have been
blind to it? Only I was afraid you would not take it up
seriously. . . .
!93. — c. P. MAENZA to DANTE ROSSETTI.
[The P. S. here speaks of "your estimable friend," and also
of Mr Ruskin. My impression is that the "friend " was Mr
Howell ; who may have been acting in concert with Mr
Ruskin, or probably on his own account]
OLIVER BROWN, 1868 361
BOULOGNE-SUR-MER, 19 RUE SlMONEAU.
26 July 1868.
My dearest Gabriel, — I am at a loss to know what to
write ; how can we express to you what are our feelings ?
Your letter is what a most affectionate son would have sent
to his parents ; and more than that, since you wish to under-
take a charge which passes all imagination. Are we author-
ized to accept such a sacrifice on your part? We hesitate
(but we trust confidently in your affection) to consider the
acceptance of your most generous offer, for being absolutely
invalidated by a worn-out health. The sum you propose is
more than sufficient ; our wants are small, and we could make
ourselves perfectly happy. Only I should like to facilitate
you as much as it is in my power, in raising up the ;£ioo
with some of my works, or by trying in getting some old
little paintings that chances might bring in my way, and
send them to you in England. . . .
Now, my dear Gabriel, your communication about your
health will remain strictly confidential ; but it has caused us
a very great affliction ; not for interest sake, but because we
have found in you the most generous and most affectionate
friend we could ever meet in the world. . . . — Yours very
truly,
C. P. MAENZA.
P. S. — Will you express to your estimable friend our
sincere gratitude for his kind and unassuming generosity ;
we are overpowered by so much consideration and friendly
interference. Pray, if you have an opportunity to see Mr
Ruskin, give him my kindest regards, and assure him of my
grateful remembrance of his generosity.
194.— OLIVER BROWN to EMMA BROWN, Yarmouth.
[" My Jason picture " is a water-colour of The Centaur
Chiron receiving the Infant Jason from the Slave : it was
exhibited at the Dudley Gallery in 1869, and I now possess
3G2 ROSSETTI PAPERS
a smaller duplicate of it. I have no recollection of the design
of Drowned Men's Ghosts. — Cathy (Mrs Hueffer) was only
a little older than Oliver, who was born in January 1855.]
37 FITZROY SQUARE.
26 July 1868.
My dear Mamma, — ... I have begun painting my
Jason picture ; the colour has not come good at present,
but I suppose it may come better when I get more of it
in. I have been also making some slight sketches, one
of which I believe you saw; the other one is of two men
rowing across a river, and meeting the ghosts of the people
who have been drowned in it walking in a procession. . . . Has
Cathy been doing any drawings of you ? Please give her
my love, and believe me your very affectionate Son,
OLIVER MADOX BROWN.
195.— JAMES SMETHAM to DANTE ROSSETTI.
[This information regarding the Taylor family will have
been interesting to Rossetti, on the ground of the sincere
admiration which he entertained for certain biblical designs
made by Isaac Taylor Junior. These designs were published
in 1834 as One hundred Copperplate Engravings to ornament
Editions of the Bible. Rossetti, in the supplementary chapter
which he wrote to Gilchrist's Life of Blake, speaks of the
series as " seldom equalled for imaginative impression." Mr
Smetham appears to say that this Isaac Taylor Junior was
the same person as the Author of The Natural History of
Enthusiasm, etc. This may be correct, but I am not sure
of it.]
i PARK LANE, STOKE NEWINGTON.
12 August 1868.
My dear Gabriel, — . . . The two youngest boys and
myself spent a fortnight near Ongar, Heard a good deal
ADDINGTON SYMONDS, 1868 363
ut Isaac Taylor. The Father was a very fine engraver
— engraved Stothard's Henry VIII. and Anne Bolcyu, and
Opie's Death of Rizzio, for Boydell's Gallery. At South
Kensington Portrait - Gallery there were oil - portraits of
Jane Taylor and Anne Taylor by him — little Isaac as a
baby in the distance rolling on the grass. The picture
very well done. Saw the Son of Anne Taylor, who is an
artist (Crayon-heads 3 inches long — price 10 guineas, etc.),
but has a competence and no children. His name is
Gilbert. He has written a book of Travels in the Dolomite
Mountains^ said to be pleasant. He is writing about Titian.
The Dolomite Mountains are near Cadore, and he has lots
of rough water-colours of the mountain-lines, showing the
Titian crests, flame-like. I find that it was Isaac Taylor
Junior, the author, who did the designs you have. He
also invented the common BEER-TAP, and another reaped
the harvest of profit. — Affectionately yours,
JAS. SMETHAM.
•*-
[M,
196.— ADDINGTON SYMONDS to WILLIAM ROSSETTI.
[Mr Symonds (whom I had never the good fortune to
know personally) was right in inferring that the two poems
by Whitman first mentioned by him were omitted from my
selection simply on the ground that they could not well go
in without the cancelling of some phrases. As to the other
poem from Calamus, I cannot now say anything distinct]
CLIFTON HILL HOUSE, NEAR BRISTOL.
15 August 1868.
Sir, — May I be permitted, as a sincere admirer of Walt
Whitman, to express to you my thanks for your edition of
his select works — one of the most valuable of your many
valuable contributions to our literature ?
I should hardly have ventured thus to address you, had
the readers and admirers of Whitman been a large body in
364 ROSSETTI PAPERS
England. But, as it is, there are so few who are able to
understand his excellences, so many who are irritated into
a kind of madness by his want of taste in details, that I
feel justified in expressing to you my sympathy with all that
you have said in your preface, and my admiration of the
taste and judgment of your selection.
Might I ask you on what account you have omitted Sleep-
Chasings and A Leaf of Faces from your volume ? I
have always regarded these as among Whitman's most
characteristic pieces. Is it because you would not submit
them to the necessary purgation for English readers ? I
remember that one passage in the latter poem moved
Tennyson's wrath in particular when he first came across
Leaves of Grass. I should also have liked to see the poem
of Calamus (old edition), " Long I thought that knowledge
alone would suffice me," in your collection — the more so
perhaps because it has been omitted in the last edition by
Mr Whitman himself. Do you happen to know what
induced him to suppress it? . . . — Your obedient servant,
JOHN ADDINGTON SYMONDS, JUNIOR.
197. — ADDINGTON SYMONDS to WILLIAM ROSSETTI.
CLIFTON HILL HOUSE, NEAR BRISTOL.
19 August 1868.
My dear Sir, — . . . Do you think that the poems of
Whitman might be put into a juster light by any essay-
writing about them? I have long contemplated making
a literary study of his works ; and, if (as I conjecture) no
review would take a fair and dispassionate critique, have
thought of publishing a more minute one separately. The
experience of many years' writing for journals etc. makes me
feel the difficulty of such an undertaking in the case of a
writer like Walt Whitman, who, to use his own phrase, has
a singular faculty of " eluding " analysis. But I should like
ADDINGTON SYMONDS, 1868 365
to attempt the work if better judges than myself were of
opinion that a sufficient number of people are superficially
interested in Whitman to make an audience. . . .
I think the reprint of the Prose Preface to Leaves of Grass
one of the best and most useful points about your edition.
Last year I was going to have that preface reprinted for dis-
tribution among a few friends. . . . — Yours very truly,
J. A. SYMONDS.
198.— ADDINGTON SYMONDS to WILLIAM ROSSETTI.
CLIFTON HILL HOUSE, NEAR BRISTOL.
25 August 1868.
My dear Sir, — At the risk of troubling you with another
letter, I cannot refrain from writing to thank you for the
kindness of your second answer, and to explain what I
meant by a "literary study" of Walt Whitman. I was
thinking of an analytical and critical enquiry into the
nature of his poetry, and his position as a pioneer — as
well as a discussion of the different subjects of his writings,
and some account of his life. This would imply a con-
sideration of his peculiar views about Democracy, Love, Art,
Religion ; and would lead one far, I fear, beyond the limits
of a magazine-article. What you and Buchanan have
done has rendered it, I think, unnecessary to attempt the
publication of another brief general survey. But, if there
were a chance of getting a purely critical article into Fraser
or one of the Quarterlies, I should like to write a section
of the work which I have just sketched in outline upon
Whitman's claims to be considered a great poet. I should
then dismiss all polemical, biographical, ethical (and so on)
discussion, and should confine myself to pointing out the
strength and beauty of his work, the range and drift of his
art, illustrating my remarks by copious quotations.
I know Burroughs' book. . . .
366
ROSSETTI PAPERS
I am surprised to hear what you tell me about Whit-
man's unpopularity in America. It is partly, I suppose, the
prophet's old want of honour in his own country. Besides,
the Americans, when refined, are apt to be absurdly over-
refined. They are like parvenus, who are always more
afraid of being vulgar than people of acknowledged position.
I should not wonder if Whitman were in the end more
tolerantly and tranquilly received in England than he can
be in his own country. Then the appreciation of him on
this side of the Atlantic will be reflected on the other,
and the Americans will be ashamed of not being proud of
their apostle. . . . — Yours very faithfully,
JOHN ADDINGTON SYMONDS.
199. — BARONE KIRKUP to WILLIAM ROSSETTI.
[Charles Brown was the friend of Keats rather than of
Shelley ; whether he really knew Shelley I should rather
doubt. This statement as to the manner of his death
seems to me new.]
LEGHORN.
31 August 1868.
My dear Rossetti, — ... I remember a tobacconist's shop
in the country with a signboard on which were painted three
appropriate faces with this poetical motto —
We three are engaged in the same cause ;
I smokes, I snuffs, and I chaws.
Poor De Batines the Philodantist died here of cigars : he was
young. And Charles Brown, the friend of Shelley and
Trelawny, died of snuff, after several fits. . . . — Yours truly,
SEYMOUR KIRKUP.
BARONE KIRKUP, 1868 367
200.— BARONE KIRKUP to WILLIAM ROSSETTI.
[The opening of this letter refers to my proposal to
dedicate to Barone Kirkup (which I did) my little Essay
on Italian Courtesy-books. Some of the books which he
mentions as authorities go on to a date more recent than
I dealt with. — The statement that Tasso was a medium will
surprise some readers ; it is however a fact that certain
things recorded of Tasso by himself and others do bear a
close affinity to some aspects of modern spiritualism.]
FLORENCE, 2 PONTE VECCHIO.
1 8 September 1868.
My dear Friend, — I found your letter here on my arrival
from Leghorn. There is nothing of which I shall be prouder
than the honour of having my name connected with any of
your works ; and the subject of this is most interesting to
an antiquarian. I have always had a leaning that way, and
you have a great list of authorities. You will find much in
the Novellieri, from Sacchetti to Bandello, Giraldi, and
Malespini, and in the Ragionamenti of P[ietro] Aretino. I
have seen a small book containing three Galateos — those of
Monsignor Delia Casa, Gioia, and another. Very likely you
have got it. If not, shall I seek for it ? Bandello's introduc-
tions to his Novelle are especially good for costume ; and, if
you have time, you will find much in the old Comedias of
the 500. I never read the three Galateos. . . . Pietro
Aretino gives us much knowledge of the customs of Rome in
his Ragionamenti. They are dialogues between a rich
courtezan and her friend, a bawd, whom she consults about
the bringing-out of her daughter ; and has the choice of
three conditions, a nun's, a wife's, or a courtezan's, all which
she herself had experienced, and relates to her friend.
They decide on the last, and it ends with a long conversa-
tion of instructions to the daughter. . . . Another book of
his is a dialogue on Cards, in which some excellent stones
368 ROSSETTI PAPERS
of gamesters are introduced. I sent some of them lately to
R. Browning, who is writing a poem relating to Arezzo in
which gambling will make a great figure. I have written to
Bfrowning], through whom I lent to Mr John Forster all my
letters, odes, scraps, conversations, etc., of W. S. Landor,
whose life he Avas going to write. . . .
The great authority for Italian courtesy will always be
letters — Machiavelli, Aretino, Varchi, Tasso, etc. I trans-
lated some of the latter, proving that he was a medium
and not a madman, and sent them to T/ie Spiritual Magazine
about five or six years ago. ... It was not till time of
the court of the Medici that exaggerated adulation and
servility became the fashion, and titles became common in
Florence. . . . — Always yours sincerely,
SEYMOUR KIRKUP.
201. — SIR FREDERICK BURTON to DANTE ROSSETTI.
[My Brother must have written about his eyesight to
Sir Frederick Burton, knowing the latter to have had a
good deal of trouble in the same way. — " The transcribed
poem " was probably one of those written by Dr Garth
Wilkinson under supposed spiritual influence.]
COMRAGH HOUSE, KlLMACTHOMAS, IRELAND.
20 September 1868.
My dear Rossetti, — ... I felt, and now still more
strongly feel, convinced that the condition of your eye-
sight is mainly, if not entirely, owing to your general
state of health — of which both it and your want of sleep
are but symptoms. But, whatever the former may more
mediately depend upon, the latter is alone sufficient to
account for it. I know some, and know of many, persons
who, being afflicted with sleeplessness, have found either
benefit or cure by going to the seaside. There is some-
thing in the sea-air which induces sleep ; and, in a case
SIR FREDERICK BURTON, 1868 369
where great unrest and wakeful ness have become habitual,
I believe it is all-important to get into the habit of sleeping
for even a short time, — when the spell seems to become
broken, and the natural rest returns. I wish you would
try it ; and indeed, if you go down to Penkill, I should
think (from the description I have had of its position) you
would be sufficiently near the sea to benefit by it
1 do not doubt that writing to Bonders would be of
use. But I am so much convinced that rest of all kinds,
including abstention from work, is what you chiefly require,
that I should hardly think you could do better than try
to obtain it — and in doing so await Bowman's return.
Perhaps by that time you will not urgently need his advice.
But I would certainly have it under all circumstances. I
should imagine that your whole nervous system is deranged
and overwrought ; and that the ophthalmic nerve, which
indeed becomes the retina, is — very naturally in your case
— peculiarly affected ; and that this reacts upon the whole
nervous system, and so a constant current of excitement is
kept up. If you can save the retina from lesion by timely
rest, I am sure you will have done the most that is
required.
Thanks, a great many, for the transcribed poem. It
is very remarkable, and the result of a truly imaginative
mind — containing the real poetic element. But I do not
see that it is especially spiritualistic in itself, though its
singer may be a spiritualist.
I am glad you have read Vathek — only surprised it never
came across you before. Since my boyhood I know it — and
read it again a few years ago with undiminished delight.
It has a quality of imaginativeness surpassing, I think, most
of what one finds in The Arabian Nights — as indeed one
might perhaps not unnaturally expect from a highly poetic
European mind, using with consummate command oriental
imagery. . . .
I am ashamed to say I have never read Wuthering
Heights. ... I will certainly read it soon, more incited
thereto by what you say. . . .
2 A
370 ROSSETTI PAPERS
Ever yours, dear Rossetti, most heartily and with best
wishes,
FREDERICK W. BURTON.
202.— DANTE ROSSETTI to MADOX BROWN.
PENKILL.
7 October 1868.
My dear Brown, — I had better answer your enquiries
to Scott myself. I am still very queer in the eyes, in spite of
vastly improved sleep. I lately received a note of enquiry
from Bader the oculist, and wrote him my latest symptoms,
some of which I think very nasty ones. However, he
still writes expressing the most unlimited confidence in my
complete recovery. So let us hope for the best.
Miss Boyd says — won't you come down ? Now do. We
should be as jolly as is possible in my queer state, and I
dare say I should be helped to forget it. There is a splendid
studio here, so you could bring any work you pleased with
you. Miss Boyd is the most indulgent of hostesses, and
you would do precisely as you pleased. Scott's pictures are
finished, and well worth a visit if there were no other attrac-
tion. But the scenery here is simply paradise within the
grounds of the castle — all private, and every opportunity
of painting landscape if you felt inspired. The glen belong-
ing to the castle is, I think, the most lovely spot I was ever
in. All kinds of joy and mystery in all its corners — immense
variety of background-material for any conceivable outdoor
subject. There is one spot which even I should be moved
to set to work on if my eyes were in order. The extreme
quiet and beauty of the place could not but prove invaluable
to you.
Now do come at once. It ought to be at once, as the
trees are beginning — though only just beginning — to thin
very materially. The weather here has been splendid, instead
;
BARONE KIRKUP, 1868 371
of the nuisances 1 hear you have suffered from in London —
and seems likely to remain so at present. . . .
Perhaps you have seen some of my letters to others, and
now that I spent a couple of hours in the Leeds Exhibition
in coming out here. For this, of course, I had to pass the
first night at Leeds. The Old Masters are intensely inter-
esting in many cases, but the place is now a bear-garden
of Yorkshire excursionists. It will be open till 26th October.
Two of yours — Last of England and Jacob — were extremely
well hung and looked very fine. The Work is seen to
disadvantage ; and the Cordelia not as it ought to be, but
still pretty well. — With love to all, your affectionate
GABRIEL.
203.— BARONE KIRKUP to WILLIAM ROSSETTI.
FLORENCE, 2 PONTE VECCHIO.
20 November 1868.
My dear Friend, — You are quite right — Europe ought to
rejoice at the Spanish Revolution. But they are hindered
by those cursed French from making it a Republic ; and, if
they are forced to call-in another dynasty, it will return to
the whole craft, priestcraft included, for priests and kings are
always allies. . . .
Here they are building new royal stables that will cost
more than the President of America is paid in six years;
and only lately they were talking of bankruptcy, and are not
quite sure about it still ; and Codini raise the usual hue and
cry, against Garibaldi and Mazzini, of Atheists and Robe-
spierrists.
I fear the Spaniards will not be able to come well out of
their difficulties. . . .
The Life of Tasso by Manso is the best and truest, and
not written in a D'Este court (like that of Serassi) to please
the Duke of Modena. Only it is not written by Manso, but
372 ROSSETTI PAPERS
by Fiamma. I found that out, and it is confirmed by Gamba
(Testi di Lingua}. Manso was the author of the anecdotes
at the end, which caused the mistake. See, in the Life, the
letter written by Manso to the High Admiral of Naples. It
is one of Tasso's visions, the more trustworthy as Manso was
incredulous. . . . — Yours very sincerely,
SEYMOUR KIRKUP.
204.— WILLIAM BELL SCOTT to WILLIAM ROSSETTI.
[The leaf of Shelley's Revolt of Islam with which Scott
presented me is most indisputably in the poet's own hand-
writing. Scott had received it, I think, from Mr Lewes many
years before. It is now in the collection of autographs
formed by my daughter Helen.]
[33 ELGIN ROAD, LONDON.]
30 November 1868.
Dear W., — Here is the leaf of The Revolt of Islam — in
Shelley's own hand (?)...
r Don't you think Gabriel's beginning to take an interest
in his poetry a very good thing ? At Penkill we had most
serious talks about the chances of his powers of painting—
a matter on which I may write or speak to none but you.
I tried by every means to make him revive his poetry, but
apparently without effect. Now, however, he is really doing
\ so. Of course one trusts the defective sight is only tem-
porary ; still one must not forget that his eyes have not been
strong for some time. — Yours ever,
W. B. SCOTT.
WILLIAM BELL SCOTT, 1868
373
205.— WILLIAM BELL SCOTT to WILLIAM ROSSETTI.
33 ELGIN ROAD.
2 December [1868.]
Dearest W., — Most welcome to the leaf of Shelley —
keep it altogether if you like. . . .
I asked Lewes about Harriet and the life she led ; he
having in the old time had the intention, which it appears
was set aside by the Shelley family, of writing memoirs.
He says she first was taken up by a man, and, when
abandoned by him, she took to any one. One would say
it is just the same in effect as being on the street, as far
as he learned from Leigh Hunt and others ; but that she
was not in a brothel, I suppose. He exonerates Shelley,
but that can only be done by supposing him weak and
little perceptive. To suppose him so egotistical that he
did not think of her at all is not to exonerate him. Lewes
says he believes he could bring you in contact with Mrs
Hogg, widow of the biographer (formerly Mrs Williams,
who was with Shelley at the last), a vivid old woman, who
remembers much of Shelley, — if you care. If you do, write
either him or me, and say so ; to write him would be the
shortest. He says he thinks he knows you. His address
is — The Priory, North Road, Grove Road, near Regent's
Park.
About Gabriel — the short ending to his ills, in the
worst case, was of course often spoken of by him. But
we must not think of the possibility of that, even under
the dire misfortune. I could not strongly dissuade him.
but I feel that it must not be thought of. But he is*
poet as well as painter, and was a poet before he was a
painter ; and even in the interval of rest — we must acknow-
ledge to the disturbance of his sight, even to outsiders —
it would be a great thing to get him to be the poet again.
I wonder his spirits don't break down, doing nothing soj
long. — Ever yours,
W. B. SCOTT.
374 11OSSETTI PAPERS
206.— WILLIAM ALLINGHAM to WILLIAM ROSSETTI.
LYMINGTON.
4 December 1868.
Dear William, — I congratulate you on the Shelley under-
taking, and am glad it is in such excellent hands. As to
myself, I love Shelley no less ; but from the critical study of
his poetry I have drifted away, and have, I think, no avail-
able notes. . . .
I know Sir Percy Shelley. ... I have met Shelley's two
sisters at dinner (I mean the Poet's — " Bysshe " as they
always call him) — one of them curiously like him, and most
ready to talk of him. I will write you again by and by.
Of course you do not expect to find every flourish and
fantasy of Shelley's rhyme reducible to logical prose. In
any case he loved to tread on the confines of the expressible.
He wrote a vile hand * — seldom corrected proofs himself—
and left much in fragmentary and chaotic condition. . . . —
Yours, believe me,
W. A.
207. — WILLIAM ALLINGHAM to WILLIAM ROSSETTI.
LYMINGTON.
1 8 December 1868.
Dear William, — . . .lanthe (S[helley]'s daughter by his
first marriage) is now Mrs Esdaile, and is living at or near
Cheltenham — or was lately. His two sisters whom I met
are Hellen and Margaret : Elizabeth is dead.
I called again on Sir Percy and Lady Shelley after receiv-
ing your first letter, and spent last Saturday to Monday with
them at Wood Vale, Cowes, where they have taken a house
* I do not agree in this. Shelley could write a very good hand when
he liked — and often he did like.
B WILLIAM ALLINGHAM, 1868 375
year. Their own place is Boscombe, near Christchurch.
Shelley relics (MSS. etc.) are at present in a banker's
sale. Field Place is Sir Percy's, but now let to a Gas-
Engineer. It has a new colonnade, but is otherwise little
altered.
As to the question of revision and correction, I found the
Shelleys cautious in giving any opinion — and opposed to
conjectural emendations. I think they would possibly (with
luck and opportunity helping) be induced to allow an exa-
mination of the MSS., which it seems are no joke to
decipher.
As to the Life, there is no new material attainable at
present. One could only make a narrative out of the six or
eight Shelley-books we have.
Special commentary on obscure points of a delicate
nature would, in my opinion, be extremely undesirable, and
under the circumstances very useless, — would give great
pain to worthy living people, and could show no sufficient
authority. Hogg, for instance (as Lady Shelley assured
me), not only jumbled dates, but altered the wording of
letters. Whatever be the case as to facts, one may well
consent to be reticent of surmises — especially painful ones.
. . . Shelley's sexual feeling was always and inseparably
mingled up with intellectual and moral enthusiasm. I most
strongly counsel you to avoid guesses in the dark. . . . —
Very truly yours,
W. ALLINGHAM.
I have received The Cenci, which I'll return ; and my
opinion as to the Thou's and You's is distinctly that you
should let them " bide as they be " (as folk say here) : I
mean, as Shelley put 'em. They are mixed quite in the
manner of the Elizabethan Dramatists, of whom S[helley]
was so full while writing The Cenci, and whose ideas, and
phrases even, crop up not seldom in the modern dramatist's
performance.
376 ROSSETTI PAPERS
208.-— WILLIAM ROSSETTI to WILLIAM ALLINGHAM.
56 EUSTON SQUARE.
20 December [1868].
Dear Allingham, — . . . About Shelley ... I think you
must have rather misapprehended my point of view. I
never proposed to be other than " reticent of surmises,
especially painful ones," or to indulge in "guesses in the
dark." What I said (if I remember the phrase in my
former note) was that, if I acquired the certainty or convic-
tion (of course based on evidence) that so-and-so was true,
I should think the proper office of a biographer would be
to say as much. . . . Thus much to clear away any mis-
apprehension : but perhaps we still differ somewhat about
the essentials. For myself, I think that to give the world
a correct idea of the character of so great a man as Shelley
is — if the two things clash — an object of greater moment
than the feelings of worthy living persons : and Shelley,
who scarcely wrote a page which would not, or which was
not intended to, ruffle some worthy living persons, would
I apprehend be the last man to uphold a contrary view.
As for Swinburne, I shall certainly show him my text
and notes when occasion offers : opining that nobody is
better qualified to keep me in the right on these points.
If my deliberate opinion differs from his on any point, I
shall stick to my own. About the Life, it may or may not
happen that he sees it before publication, — and will make
no difference either way.
Much obliged for your advice about Cenci, Thou and You.
Gabriel said " Make everything uniform : " but I have not
the remotest idea of doing that. I think however that,
if I find (say) one Thou among eleven You's in one same
speech, I must alter that : explaining of course in my
notes. My impression is that characteristic negligence had
much more to do with Shelley's practice in that matter
than Elizabethan precedent : and indeed that the Elizabethan
W. J. STILLMAN, 1868 377
precedent is itself mere carelessness — when it is a case of
jumble, not of significant variation.
I have been re-reading Zastrozzi and St Irvyne. What
incredible performances !
With all thanks and greetings, — Yours always,
W. M. ROSSETTI.
209. — W. J. STILLMAN to WILLIAM ROSSETTI.
ATHENS.
22 December 1868.
My dear Rossetti, — I enclose the remainder of The Cretan.
Insurrection. You will find two or three pages of corrections
to be made in the part already in your hands, with new
beginning ; which are necessary to adapt the same, written
for MacmillariS) for Fraser's. I have made it as concise, I
think, as it will bear, and hope that Fraser will be able to
print it at once before the thing loses its interest or historical
value. You may assure Froude that, as far as facts go, it is
as accurate as contemporary history can hope to be. I have
not dealt much in figures because I have rarely been able to
get numerical estimates from reliable people.
I believe the insurrection to be pretty near its end, the
policy of the Greek Ministry having been one of repression ;
and the expedition of Petropoulaki, instead of Coroneos, has
finished it morally, as I think it was intended by Bulgaris
that it should. The Greek Government is now playing a
little comedy which is intended to save the King and his
friends from the Greek people, but it will not succeed except
momentarily. The preparations for war, etc. etc., are all
paper and braggadocio : and no one in the Government has
the least intention of fighting, or doing anything to lead to
fighting, though, in playing with their feu d'artifice, some
sparks may get into the powder-magazine, and blow-up King
and all. . . .
The winter here is charming, and we have many English
1
378 ROSSETTI PAPERS
here, some of whom I like much. I find Athens every way
preferable to Rome, or even Florence, as a winter-residence.
It is further from the centres of European politics and interest,
and the Athenians, with all their intelligence and love of
news, have not one good newspaper. — Yours sincerely,
W. J. STILLMAN.
210.— WILLIAM ROSSETTI— DIARY.
1869. Stmday, ^January. — Mr Ford* having told me that
he is about to send me up the MS. of his translation of the
Purgatorio, and that he regrets my not having had my trans-
lation published to consult, I sent him the MS. as far as it
goes — 19 cantos.
Monday, 4 January. — Began a tabular compendium \ of
the facts etc. of Shelley's life, compiled from the notes I have
taken from the various books bearing hereon — and still am
taking. When this compendium is done, it will, I am in
hopes, be a great step towards the actual writing of the
Memoir.
Tuesday, 5 January. — Going on with this, which will be
a long and somewhat tedious job. . . .
Thursday, J Jamtary. — Browning and others came to
Euston Square. B[rowning] speaks with great enthusiasm
of a poem by Donne named Metempsychosis. He says that
several emendations introduced into the Posthumous Poems of
Shelley are his suggestions. Supposes, but is not quite sure,
that these emendations appear in the three current forms of
S[helley] as now published by Moxon. His Son is going,
not to Balliol College, Oxford (as originally intended), but to
Christ Church : B[rowning] found that at Balliol nothing
would do but hard study of minutiae, and for this his Son
has no special turn. Dilberoglue considers Shelley's word
* The Rev. Prebendary James Ford, of Bath.
t Eventually I made a present of this compendium to my friend Mr
Buxton Forman.
WILLIAM ROSSETTI— DIARY, 1869 379
" Epipsychidion " is not correct Greek : it would mean (as
far as its meaning can be fixed) "Concerning the soul —
matters spiritual." * Miss Ingelow showed considerable,
though not an artistic, interest in the Japanese coloured
prints etc. in our dining-room etc. Old Mr Potter,f aged
seventy-six, still full of vigour and animation. It is, I
suppose, six or seven years since I have seen him, and I
dare say twenty to twenty-five since Gabriel saw him. All
Brown's three children send first pictures to the forthcoming
water-colour exhibition at the Dudley Gallery :— Lucy, a
figure of Cathy painting ; Cathy, portrait of one of the Epps
girls ; Nolly (I suppose) Jason and the Centaur. . . .
Friday, 8 January. — Passed the proof (which reached me
last night) of the article on Ruskin I wrote for The Broadway
about a year ago. . . .
Monday, n January. — Gave Tupper a sitting for the
medallion-head he is doing of me. . . .
Tuesday, 12 January. — Called at Brown's to see the water-
colours which Lucy, Cathy, and Nolly, are sending to the
Dudley Gallery. They are all remarkable : Cathy's, I think,
the least so, though that also promises good tinting and
surface. Lucy's is excellent in tone and keeping, and Nolly's
surprising. Brown's water-colour Elijah and Widow's Son,
and Romeo and Juliet, also visible ; and some works by P. P.
Marshall and Miss Miller.|— The Son of Rev. Mr Ford left
me the MS. of his Father's Purgatorio. — Swinburne came for
a Shelley discussion. . . . He is strenuous for sticking to the
texts revised, or which might have been revised, by Shelley
himself: urges the restoration of Laon and Cythna bodily —
but this I shan't do. On various points he convinced me
that alterations which I had introduced — however plausible —
had better be excluded ; and this I shall do. Got no further
than the Prometheus in reading him the principal of my
notes. He is excessively enthusiastic about Browning's new
* I believe this should rather be " A Song on the Soul."
t Mr Cipriani Potter the Musician, my Godfather.
£ A Daughter of Mr John Miller of Liverpool, and Sister to Mrs P.
P. Marshall.
380 ROSSETTI PAPERS
f poem : also about the Mahabhdrata, which he has been
looking at in a French translation under the auspices of
Bendyshe.* . . .
Monday, 18 January. — Went to FurnivalPs, to talk over
with Ward his collation of Chaucer's Knighfs Tale and
Boccaccio's Teseide — which W[ard] tells me is much indebted
to the Thebaid of Statius. Furnivall says that his Father, a
physician (or surgeon ?) at Egham, attended the second Mrs
Shelley in at least one of her confinements. S[helley] was
then living, he understands, at Marlow ; though Bishopgate
(where S[helley] had lived before Marlow) is much nearer to
Egham, and F[urnivall] thinks it likely Dr F[urnivall] may
have been first called in during the Bishopgate residence. . . .
Sunday, 24 January. — Gabriel called. He says that
Inchbold has for some while past had to give up his own
lodgings, and had been living at Brett's : B[rett] going
abroad, he had transferred himself to Jones, without (it would
seem) any definite invitation. Jones however is also now
out of town, and Inchbold houses with Howell. Gabriel has
written another sonnet, A Superscription: has selected six-
teen sonnets, and sent them to the Fortnightly for the
March number. He thinks he must have by him altogether
at least fifty sonnets which he would be willing to publish.
Scott also has of late been writing sonnets at a great
rate. . . .
Monday, 25 January. — . . . Hotten . . . says Swin-
burne's novel in the form of letters f (of which I have often
heard, but never, I think, read any of it, only of a different
and later novel) is being, or about to be, published anony-
mously in America. Swinburne had offered it to Hotten
himself; but he, thinking it would make little or no impres-
sion if anonymous, declined. . . .
Tuesday, 26 January. — . . . Houghton brought me the
* Mr Bendyshe was a singular unconventional-minded man ; he
became for a while Editor of The Reader (a journal resembling The
Athenczurn}.
t I am unable to say whether the American publication did actually
ensue or not.
WILLIAM ROSSETTI— DIARY, 1869 381
final circulars in Mrs Morten's case, for me to send to those
who subscribed at my instance. He says he is now less
colour-blind than in general, and wants to paint, and almost
relinquish woodcut-designing. . . . The tints of green perplex
him much ; and he finds a difficulty in distinguishing crimson-
lake from burnt siena. No wonder the colour of his pictures
lacks some accomplishments. . . .
Wednesday, 3 February. — Called on J. B. Payne about his
proposal received 25 January. He has an idea of bringing-
out a series of English Poets, non-copyright works, very
cheap ; a publication similar to one by Nimmo, but in better
taste. Longfellow would be the first : followed by Scott,
Byron, Shelley, Thomson, Keats, Selections, etc. etc. He
says Nimmo's edition gives substantially the whole of Byron
for three and sixpence, and his would be on much the same
scale of price. For these books he wishes to obtain brief
prefatory memoirs, with some critical estimate (say 18 to
20 pp. apiece) ; and wishes besides to have a proper selection
made of the editions to be printed from. This, without any
following of the text through the press, would constitute the
editorial work, and is what he asks me to undertake. I pro-
posed to do it for £2$ per book, excluding selections, for
which I would charge higher : he replied that his calculations
admitted of only £21 per book (allowing the same excep-
tion) : and, as the price possible to be paid must evidently be
a leading consideration, I assented to this. . . . He wants
also to have a few illustrations per volume, etchings prefer-
entially : some figure-subjects, and others (where the poems
are of a less definite character) landscape or fancy-pieces.
He wishes to get these good, but not from a man of such
position as to demand a heavy price. I named Shields and
Smetham, and have now written to Gabriel to consider further
about this point. He does not fancy Hughes (whose Enoch
Arden he disliked), nor Sandys, whom he does not regard
as safe for punctuality etc. I told him that the alterations
I am making in the text of Shelley would be incompatible
with the retention of his stereotype-plates — at any rate, for
one edition : this did not seem to disconcert him, as I had
382 ROSSETTI PAPERS
rather expected it would, and indeed he appeared to think
the fate of one of his editions must govern the other two. . . .
Payne says Mrs Hogg (Williams) has turned religious, and
is not easy to get anything out of regarding Shelley (though
this differs from what I heard in another quarter). He could
not obtain through her any clue to the conclusion of Hogg's
Life of S\helley\ though known to be written ; but there is
(or was) a Brother of Hogg alive who is communicative
enough as far as his knowledge extends. Payne says an
injunction was obtained to stop the use by Hogg of docu-
ments entrusted to him by the Shelley family : but H[ogg]
said this would not stop his writing the completion of the
Life, as he remembered letters etc. This account, if correct,
would considerably damp one's confidence as to the contents
of the concluding volumes, should they ever appear.
Thursday ', 4 February. — My Shelley revision and Memoir
were mentioned in last Athenceum. I have therefore thought
it best to write to Garnet t, who might otherwise fancy I
am poaching on his preserves ; and have explained that the
only memoir now bespoken is a prefatory memoir to accom-
pany the poems, but that I might perhaps at a future time
set-to and use up my accumulated materials in a Life forming
a separate book. . . . Hunt is still in Florence, and per-
sonally occupied, it appears, on some of the carving-work for
his Wife's tomb. . . .
Sunday, 7 February. — It seems that Mrs Hogg ... is to
be met with sometimes at Lewes's. Scott some while ago
mooted to L[ewes] my Shelley affair, and L[ewes] proposed
that I might call, and, if luck served, meet Mrs H[ogg] : and
the other day he suggested to-day for the call — without
however bringing Mrs H[ogg] into question. I called ac-
cordingly with Scott ; Mrs H[ogg] not there. Mrs Lewes
says she does come sometimes, but not often. I was in-
troduced to Mrs L[ewes], whom I had seen, but never been
made known to before. Her face, manner, and conversation,
show great intellectual sensibility. She spoke with much
enthusiasm of the Prometheus Unbound and The Cenci :
objects however to the subject of the latter, and demurs to
WILLIAM ROSSETTI— DIARY, 1869 383
my saying the Prometheus is the greatest English poem since
Milton — interruptions prevented my ascertaining what she
would prefer to it. She exalts Shelley above Byron, and his
blank verse above Tennyson's. Some talk about spiritualism,
which Lewes, and also evidently Mrs L[ewes], repudiate.
Mrs Bodichon here. Algeria does not now suit her health
well — never has done so since she had an African fever some
little while back. She feels much the alienation (though
they are still excellent friends) which has ensued between
herself and Mrs Belloc (Bessie Parkes) in consequence of the
conversion of the latter to Catholicism. It seems the chief
motive cause of this conversion was that Mrs Belloc, on
studying the subject, was greatly impressed by the immense
agencies which the Catholic Church has in all ages set going
for material and moral reforms. — Scott has sold to Ellis for
£50 his translation of Durer's Diary etc. . . . Lewes (so Mrs
L[ewes] informs me) knew Mrs Shelley, and thought her
a somewhat conventional person, by no means capable of
responding to the innermost feelings of Shelley.
Monday, 8 February. — Brown, Jones, Morris, and others,
at Chelsea. Morris is writing at the 2nd Series of The
Earthly Paradise : some 120 lines yesterday, and 140 the day
before. He has got to the story of Bellerophon — which he
finds growing under his hand to scarcely manageable dimen-
sions. Howell says that the cause between Ruskin and Calvert
will be coming into Court after all. Among the Turners left to\
the National Gallery were a large number of a great degree
of indecency : these were burned by Wornum and Ruskin,
at the time when the latter was arranging the bequest at the j
National Gallery. . . .
Wednesday ', 10 February. — Brown called, to consult as
to undertaking the illustration of the proposed series of
English Poets. He offers (assuming an endurable price)
to illustrate the entire series ; making bold drawings on a
largeish scale, to be photographed in small on to the wood,
and so engraved. He is not in favour of etchings, nor of full-
page illustrations. Would not object to having Smetham
as coadjutor for landscape or fancy-pieces. ...
384 ROSSETTI PAPERS
Friday, 12 February. — Wrote to Payne, naming, in con-
nexion with the illustrating of the proposed series of British
Poets, Brown, Smetham, and Nettleship. . . .
Tuesday, 16 February. — . . . The papers announce, to
my concern and surprise, the death of my old friend R. B.
Martineau — a sterling good fellow I always found him. I
remember he had had one or two very severe attacks of
rheumatism or rheumatic gout within these few years. Age
43- ...
Thursday, 18 February. — Payne wrote me the other day
about the proposed illustrations to Poets, and also asking
when Shelley will probably be ready for the press. I reply
to-day saying that I ... should ask £70 for not less than
50 nor more than 80 pp. of Memoir — £60 for less than 50
— £80 for more than 80. ... Went in the evening with
Mamma and Maria to St James's Hall, to hear G. A.
Macfarren's Cantata from Christina's Songs in a Cornfield
(Leslie's Concerts). The music seems to me decidedly good
— poetical in spirit, and not ordinary. It was well received
— the Swallow- Song by Miss Dolby being encored. How-
ever, my impression is that, as the poem and its music
continue progressing in cheerlessness to the close, this will
be a great obstacle to a popular success. The applause at
the end was respectful, but not impulsive. . . .
Sunday, 21 February. — Gabriel called in Euston Square:
1 he is engaged on a Pandora from Mrs Morris.
Monday, 22 February. — . . . Payne would like my Memoir
of Shelley to be longish, going on towards the maximum
of 100 pages. He agrees to my proposal, £80 for anything
beyond 80 pp. ; and offers to pay two-thirds of the whole for
Shelley (;£iio) at once on demand — which is handsome. . . .
Wednesday, 24 February. — Replied to Payne's letter,
proposing to call for £50 next Wednesday. As regards
the illustrations to Poets, I expressed reluctance to take
the initiative with a general list of artists ; named some
others who might be added to such a list (Scott, Jones, . . .
A. Moore, Shields, etc.) ; and communicated the substance
of what Brown has said, — Mrs Gilchrist called in Euston
WILLIAM ROSSETTI— DIARY, 1869 385
Square. . . . Tennyson has not yet left the Isle of Wight ;
but is having a house built in the Haslemere district, and
has taken a piece of waste land at one end, so as to serve
as a gap or buffer between his grounds and the public. . . .
Thursday, 4 March. — Called on Payne by appointment :
he handed me a cheque for Shelley on account — making
it out for the full two-thirds, £73, though I had only
proposed to take £50. He wishes to start the republished
Poets about October next, bringing out the first six
volumes all in a lump — Longfellow, Scott, Byron, Shelley,
Wordsworth, and Moore. . . . Payne renewed the subject
of my soliciting artists to do the designs. . . . The only
point quasi-settled was that he will now call on Brown,
and also on Smetham with a view to head and tail pieces
etc., and discuss terms with them. . . .
Saturday, 6 March. — Called on Sandys's invitation to see
his portrait of Mrs Bairstow finished — which is exceedingly
good. He has some other things going on, and altogether
seems in more settled working-trim than usual, were it not
that he has been suffering dreadfully for some while past from
boils and a skin-eruption. . . . According to Sandys, Payne
has disseminated all sorts of scandal about Gabriel among
others. . . .
Monday, 8 March. — Dined with Garnett, who gave me a
transcript of a few fragments by Shelley not yet published,
and a MS. book of his containing some unpublished portions
of Charles the First, which I shall read through, and may use
as I like — also a literal translation made by S[helley] from
parts of Faust as an exercise in German. There are yet
other scraps of S[helley]'s writing which G[arnett] will copy
out in time, and let me have. Sir Percy Shelley has no
children : I saw two photographs of him, in which I don't
trace any likeness to the poet. He has taste and facility in
music, and his Father's taste for the water : no tendency to
sporting. . . .
Tuesday, 9 March. — Began deciphering the Shelley MS.
book ; I see there are (inter alia) considerable pickings of
Charles the First to be got out of it. Also began looking
2 B
386 &OSSETT I PAPERS
up at the British Museum editions of poets (Longfellow
to-day) for the series projected by Payne. . . .
Thursday \ 1 1 March. — Payne writes me that Brown has
now undertaken to do the illustrations to Byron, to begin
with. . . .
Monday, 1 5 March. — . . . Payne sent me round Longfellow,
Scott, Byron, Wordsworth, and Moore, that I might note
the Indexes for the order wherein these authors are to be
printed in the forthcoming series. This I did ; going upon
the general (but not scrupulously exact) plan of dividing the
contents into long poems, short poems, and translations, and
arranging each of these sections according to date. . . .
Wednesday, 17 March. — . . . Swinburne had lately informed
me that a Miss Rumble, connected with Mrs Gisborne, is
understood to be in possession of a number of Shelley relics.
. . . Garnett (calling on me in the evening to take back a
Shelley MS.) believes she possesses the MS. of The Cenci,
but does not suppose she has much — if anything — in the way
of unpublished MSS.
Thursday, 18 March. — Norton (from America) and others
dined at Cheyne Walk. Nforton] says that Whitman is
inconveniently rough in his personal appearance etc. — will,
for instance, call in a red shirt in a family where there are
ladies ; and that this made intercourse with him by cultivated
people difficult, even including such a philosopher as Emerson
f~- — (valeat quantum). . . . Gabriel has done two new sonnets —
(Pandora (for his picture now in progress) and Vain Virtues.
. . . Brown was told by Payne (when he called to negotiate
about the Byron illustrations, which by the by are to be
done — eight — for the small sum of £40) that Harriet Shelley
drowned herself, because, having descended to the condition
of a street-walker, she had been out all night and caught no
one. This is worth bearing in mind as a rumour ; but I
place no reliance on it whatever, having found Payne's notions
on Shelley matters very inaccurate, and his talk generally not
of the kind which courts rigid verification. . . .
Saturday, 20 March. — Tebbs tells me he has the
original unpublished Queen Mab, which I must look up
WILLIAM ROSSETTI— DIAHY, 1869 387
when I return from my approaching trip to Rome with
Tupper.
Sunday, 21 March. — Prepared for starting — to Rugby on
Monday, and to the Continent probably on Thursday. . . .
Monday, 22 March. — Left London 2.45 P.M., to spend a
day or two with Tupper at Rugby, and sit for medallion-
head, before we start together for Rome. . . .
Friday, 26 March. — Started at 7.40 for Calais and
Paris. . . .
Tuesday, 30 March. — A brilliant sunny morning at
Marseilles. . . .
Wednesday, 31 March. — Embarked at 8 A.M. The boat is
Fraissinet's, much less commodious than Valery's by which
I went to Naples in '66. . . .
Saturday, 3 April. — Reached Civita Vecchia about 8 A.M.,
just too late to catch the morning train. Walked through
the draggle-tailed town, entering a Church where there
is a very complete display of bones, skulls, and skeletons,
in a side-chapel. The skeletons bear appositely inscribed
tablets, and some of them are habited like nuns ; others hold
a scythe, bear a crown, etc. Altogether it is a completer
piece of the mortuary ghastly than I have seen elsewhere.
Called the Church "della Morte." Saw a number of prisoners
in a prison-yard overlooked by the town-ramparts ; dressed in
black-striped brown. A French soldier on the spot told
me they were Garibaldians along with malefactors, and I
threw them a handful of half-franc pieces : afterwards how-
ever I was told the captured Garibaldians were all removed
at an early date from Civita Vecchia. Walked out on a moor
beyond the ramparts, and saw oxen ploughing with a very
primitive machine, also a shepherd with his flock of sheep.
He is in the Italian army-reserve, but for the present
following his pastoral calling. Was in the army at Custozza,
and expresses great admiration of the Austrian valour.
Belongs to the March of Ancona (near which city he says
there has just been a tremendous earthquake), and is leading
his flock there within the coming twenty days. — Went on to
Rome at 1.45, and reached the city about 5.30. The railway
388 ROSSETTI PAPERS
from Civita Vecchia is a sorry affair ; the second-class
carriage which we took being apparently third - class as
well, and full of a singularly miscellaneous sample of the
Italian mobocracy. . . . Put up at the Minerva, which is
fairly, but it seems not over-crowdedly, full. T[upper] very
unwell with his bronchial attack.
Sunday ', 4 April. — ... I walked into the Minerva Church
at haphazard ; and found the Pope was to come in much
state, assist at Mass, and distribute certain dowries to a
couple of dozen or so of girls — some for marriage, and others
for the conventual life. It was a noble sight, with splendid
choral service. Pope borne in his chair and wearing triple
crown ; afterwards his mitre ; and at times only the white
skull-cap. He looks perhaps older and more passive than
most of the portraits, but has a very impressive presence, and
his voice is still powerful and harmonious. Saw Antonelli
and Cardinal Bonaparte, but not very clearly. The Minerva
is a very noble interior, of Gothic structure (pointed arches),
but wholly renovated from 1848 to 1855, in a very decorous
and complete style in its way, though no doubt those who
knew it before might find the present aspect of the Church a
sad sight. . . .
Tuesday, 6 April. — Began the day by ... going through
the vile nuisance of lodging-hunting. We cut it short, and
soon pitched upon two rooms, 71 Via de'due Macelli, 5 francs
per day. . . .
Tuesday, 13 April. — . . . Took a cab, and went to a
number of Churches etc. . . . Santa Prassede : fine mosaics.
There is no tomb at all suggestive of Browning's poem of
The Bishop orders his Tomb at St Praxed's. . . .
Thursday, 15 April. — . . . Reached Florence about
9.30 [P.M.].
Friday, 16 April. — . . . Called on Kirkup, who is recover-
ing from a bad rheumatism, but is perfectly deaf, and looks
hardly likely to last long ; on Theodoric, 23 Piazza di Santo
Spirito. He thinks of settling in England, or probably
Scotland, within two months or so : the water here gave
him an attack of gravel, not to speak of his bad miliary
WILLIAM ROSSETTI— DIARY, 1869 389
fever. Tupper looked-up Hunt, whom I saw in the evening.
He speaks of starting for Venice on Monday, and being in
Jerusalem about the end of May.
Saturday, 17 April. — Went to the Uffizi and Santo Spirito.
Tupper and I dined at Theodoric's. Theodoric introduced me
to Jarves * and his Wife. Saw J[arves]'s pictures. He has
a small Leonardo (Hunt believes it to be a genuine one) of
The Virgin and Child; a Lippo Lippi of ditto; a ditto of
St Jerome, and another with the lion ; a supposed Giorgione
of a pilgrim sent by the Pope to warn a Malatesta against
retaining his mistress etc. All these are interesting pictures,
of artistic merit proportional to their attributions. There
are several others — a picture inscribed apparently as by
Cima da Conegliano (St Jerome in Desert), etc. etc. . . .
Monday, 19 April. — About 7.30 A.M. Tupper entered my
room half dead with an attack of spasms which had begun
about midnight. It will be impossible to leave to-day, or I
dare say for two or three days to come. I went at once for
a Doctor named in Murray, Dr Wilson, and found him (at a
different address). He couldn't come at once ; and mean-
while Hunt (who had turned up, greatly to my consolation)
sent for a Dr Duffy, who came, and at last, at 1 1 A.M., partially
subdued the spasms, hitherto unintermitted. More or less
suffering all day and evening, and
Tuesday, 20 April. — After I had administered a medicine
ordered by Dr Duffy, at 3 A.M., a horrible spasm seized poor
Tupper. His sufferings continued with variations till arrival
of Dr Duffy. Doctor says that the case is the severest he has
ever seen, the muscles being as hard as bone all along the
abdomen, and as contracted as a clenched fist : more like
tetanus than anything else. He tried to-day a cutaneous
injection of the Calabar bean. Suggested privately to me
that, if Tupper should in the afternoon continue bad, we
should (Hunt and I, as coming from ourselves) suggest to
Tfupper] to call-in a second physician of eminence, Dr Burci.
T[upper] being very weak in the afternoon, and still in per-
* Mr Jarves was an American picture-collector, and I believe
picture-dealer. He wrote one or two books on fine art,
390
ROSSETTI PAPERS
petual and severe pain, this was done. Dr B[urci] confirms
Dr D[uffy]'s treatment (which includes a number of minor in-
ternal and external applications not above detailed) ; and pro-
nounces the disease to be nervous contraction of the muscles
of the lower venter, consequent on a cold (reumd) — not much
different from tetanus. He tells me however, in reply to my
enquiry, that lockjaw is not to be apprehended. Both the
Doctors declare the case to be one of very serious and
even imminent danger, but not beyond hope. Theodoric,
. . . his Wife, and Hunt, are most prodigal of kind
exertions and attentions. All this is a most melancholy
state of things : so excellent a fellow as poor Tupper, and
one of such unusual knowledge and capacity of enquiry, to
die in this horrible way in a foreign country, as the result of
a mere pleasure-trip. His fortitude surprises every one, the
Doctor included ; who says he never saw the equal of it,
nor so astonishing and obstinate a case of spasms. A ray of
hope still remains. . . . Tupper . . . insists that neither of his
Brothers must come, but (if any one) his eldest Sister or
Cousin Deacon : so I again telegraphed to that effect. . . .
A nurse engaged, at my proposal, and selected by Dr D[uffy].
Wednesday, 21 April. — Tupper passed a bad night, but
not quite so bad. . . .
Thursday, 22 April. — Tupper improved from about 6.30
A.M., the spasms having subsided. Another telegram to
say his Sister Kate (not George) will come. . . .
Saturday, 24 April. — Mrs Lewis arrived. . . . Theodoric
introduced me to the Chamber of Deputies, and to Ansanti
and Ricciardi,* who is very Jewish-looking, amusingly
energetic in speech, and wants me to push in London his
circulars etc. for a Council of Freethinkers at Naples, in
rivalry of the Church-Council at Rome.
Sunday, 25 April. — Tupper continues improving, and
may now, I hope, be deemed convalescent ; though much
reduced, and with the question of affection of the lungs
as the origin of the whole illness yet unsettled, so far as I
* The Conte Giuseppe Ricciardi, a vigorous revolutionary Repub-
lican ; he had known me in boyhood.
WILLIAM ROSSETTI— DIARY, 1869 391
know. I went out for the whole day with Hunt, who is
doing a Bianca (Taming of Shrew] from an American young
lady. He has some good things that he has picked up ; —
an admirable naked Saint in Torment by Velasquez ; two
Tintorets, Miracles of S. Rock (?) ; lovely bas-relief Virgin
and Child, ascribed to Donatello ; etc. Went to Fiesole. . . .
Monday, 26 April. — ... I settled to go to-morrow, if
the Doctor in the morning should see no reason to the
contrary. . . .
Tuesday, 27 April. — Dr Duffy examined Tupper care-
fully, to find out whether or not his lungs are affected.
He cannot find that they are. .... The Doctor rather
recommends a return to England as soon as may be
manageable. . . . Reached Turin at night. . . .
Saturday, I May. — . . . Returned to London by the
Calais evening express. . . .
Wednesday, 5 May. — Wrote to Trelawny (to whom
Kirkup had already sent some intimation on the subject) ask-
ing permission to consult him on points which may require
elucidation when I am doing the Shelley Memoir. . . .
Thursday, 6 May. — . . . Scott . . . has sent to Linton *
in America the portrait of Emerson by David Scott : Linton
is getting on flourishingly there. Gabriel engaged on7
Pandora, and on a head of Beatrice j- (Mrs Morris the sitter!
for both). He says that he is informed that Hunt and\
Woolner went lately to Craven, the owner of some 6T
G[abriel]'s water-colours, and made — Hunt especially — a
virulent attack upon these works : and he thinks of writing
to Hunt to say that they must henceforth meet as strangers.
For my part I strongly suspect that H[unt] did no more
than express his sincere opinions in such terms as any
qualified man has a right to use. . . .
Sunday, g May. — Finished giving my revised Shelley
another — and I hope final — reading. The re-reading of my
own notes still remains to be done. . . .
Thursday, 13 May. — . . . Christina showed me a letter,
* W. J. Linton, the excellent wood-engraver,
t I have not a clear idea as to this Beatrice.
392 ROSSETTI PAPERS
communicated lately to her by Mrs Eckley,* from a Miss
Stisted (at Villa Stisted, Bagni di Lucca) : she is the owner
of the copy of Shelley's Indian Serenade which was in his
pocket when his corpse was recovered — and also the copy of
it written out by Browning. Miss Stisted wishes to dispose
of a collection of autographs she has, including (I understand)
this poem. I must let Garnett know of this, for the informa-
tion of the Shelley family, and also of the British Museum. —
Trelawny has replied to my letter : he is out of town now,
but says he will write again on his return. Made a beginning
with the Memoir of Shelley.
Friday, 14 May. — Wrote to Garnett about the above affair
of Miss Stisted ; also mentioned it to Frederick Locker, on
whom I called in the afternoon to see the writings of Shelley
in his possession. He has — i, a valuable letter of Shelley
from Italy to Peacock, published in Fraser by P[eacock] ;
2, a letter from S[helley] to Leigh Hunt, published in Hunfs
Correspondence, but with a long P.S. by Mrs Shelley which
(to the best of my recollection) is unpublished ; 3, a letter of
Shelley to one of his lawyers or men of business (Parker, if
memory serves) dated 1815, saying that he wants £500, and
objecting to a cutting-down of timber proposed by his
Father ; 4, a string of verses addressed by S[helley] to
Graham, date probably about 1812 or 1813. . . . I copied
out these verses, which are by no means so bad as most of
S[helley]'s juvenilia ; but they are. . . . unfilial . . . Locker also
has by him ... a letter of Leigh Hunt's, saying that Arthur
Hallam was writing something f about " Signor Rossetti's
strange theories concerning Dante." He has a few good
works of art ; red-chalk drawing by Michelangelo of the
body of Adam, in the Sixtine Chapel Creation of Adam ;
three pen-drawings by Titian, very fine, two of them remark-
able tree-studies ; a small Cranach picture of The Fall of
Man ; Watteau, sketch oil-picture for a larger one of a
Wedding-procession, excellent ; Death of Laocoon, drawing
* An American lady, who saw Christina several times,
t This was published — named Remarks on Rossetti's Spirito
Antipapale.
WILLIAM ROSSETTI— DIARY, 1869 393
ascribed by Robinson to da Vinci, though I should doubt
it ; an indecent pair of small pictures by Hogarth ; wonder-
fully finished small head-drawing by Holbein — etc. etc.
Also an autograph receipt of Michelangelo's signed " Michel-
agnolo [or angelo] Schultore ; " and the original edition of
Browning's Paracelsus ', with B[rowning]'s numerous MS.
corrections for the re-issue, given to him by B[rowning].
Thursday, 20 May. — Tupper returned from abroad last
night. I went round to G[eorge] Tupper's to see him this
evening, and find him in what might be considered his
ordinary state of health, though a little pulled down. He is
taking cod-liver oil ; has got rid of his cough and spitting,
and says he is now better than when he started from England
for Rome. To-morrow he returns to Rugby. — Sent to the
Editor of The Pall Mall Gazette the circular which Ricciardi
gave me in Florence relative to the proposed meeting of
Freethinkers in Naples. . . .
Tuesday ', 25 May. — Wilson, the Bookseller in Great
Russell Street, informs me that Medwin, the biographer of
Shelley etc., is still living, but with very decayed faculties :
he is residing at or near Horsham at present. He must
be about eighty, I compute.
Wednesday, 26 May. — Went to the R.A. Millais's
Vanessa is most splendid — perhaps his finest piece of work.
Cathy Brown's At the Opera, surprisingly good under the
circumstances. One Robinson, whose name I notice for
the first time, has a remarkable picture of Troubadours,
poetical in its affinities.
Thursday, 27 May. — Cayley tells me that the Poems of
Simcox, who wrote a Prometheus Unbound in completion
of ^Eschylus, are very good. He has been invited to join
the staff of The Daily Telegraph, as translator of foreign
telegrams : this would require his attendance at the office
from 9 P.M. to 3 A.M. He is considering whether to accept
or not. — Gabriel has written several new sonnets. HisT
practice with poetry is first to write the thing in the rough,
and then to turn over dictionaries of rhymes and synonyms
so as to bring the poem into the most perfect form. He,
394 ROSSETTI PAPERS
has done nothing further with a view to re-knitting his
friendship with Sandys ; which has now lapsed, by S[andys]'s
decision, in consequence of Gabriel's having written to him
deprecating his painting (as Howell has told him S[andys]
was doing) a Lucretia Borgia, of exactly the same general
subject as G[abriel]'s own. This G[abriel] represented to
S[andys] as one additional instance of the habit he has of
founding his subjects and treatment on G[abriel]. S[andys]
denied the particular instance of the Lucretia, and, as he
describes the subject, it c&r\not be called a plagiarism. He
also denied the general assertion ; but many discerning
people can see that he is wrong there, whether consciously
or unconsciously. . . .
Saturday, 29 May. — ... In the evening went round to
Brown's, where were Scott, Gabriel, and Swinburne ; who
had brought round Consul Cameron, the late Abyssinian
captive, whom he has just got to know through Consul
Burton, and for whom he seems to have conceived an
excessive affection. The Consul is a man of large physique,
but still suffering considerably from the effects of his fetters,
etc. ; and there is something strange and inconclusive in his
demeanour, which Brown thought must arise from his having
been drinking, but which I should rather be inclined to
attribute to his strange experiences and sufferings, long
seclusion from civilized life, etc. Swinburne says that
Theodore tortured Cameron on one occasion, tying his
whole frame up in ropes so tight that he could not only
not move, but scarcely could perform any animal or vital
function whatever : at last he fainted, or would probably
have died. Cameron, who is an aristocrat, believes there
will be a fighting revolution in England within three or
four years. Swinburne says that Mazzini has no liking
for Bright, on account of his non-interference politics, and
especially the affair of " Perish Savoy ! " He again urged
me much to restore Laon and Cythna, instead of The Revolt
of Islam, to the text of Shelley : this I decline to do, mainly
on the ground that Shelley, whether willingly or the reverse,
did himself alter the poem to its present form — and moreover
WILLIAM ROSSETTI— DIARY, 1869 395
have considerable doubts whether Payne would print the
Laon and C{ythna~\ version. Swinburne is engaged on a
review of LHomme qui Rit, and in doubts how far he shall
admit in print the absurd side of the book. I advised him to
admit it unreservedly, saying at the same time that it matters
little, the essential of the book being its genius and imagina-
tion. Gabriel says that Carlyle sums up the late American
War by saying that, " The South said to the nigger, God bless""]
you and be a slave — and the North said, God damn you and ;
be free." This is very fine, widely as one may dissent fronT)
the conception it implies. . . .
Wednesday, 2 June. — Went to the Water-Colour Society.
Hunt's Moonlight at Salerno is excellent — also Jones's Circe ', j
George and Dragon, and others. . . .
Friday, 4 June. — Poor little Mike Halliday, I learn from
Gabriel, died the other day. He had been attending the
funeral of a brother-in-law, whose affairs are left in a com-
plicated state ; came home much depressed ; was soon seized
with an inflammatory attack ; and succumbed in a day or
two. His good old nurse Anne, who has always been with
him, and taking care of him like a mother, is left unprovided
for, it seems : she had lent away her savings to the brother-in-
law, and is told that she can only come in with the other
creditors. It is singular that both Martineau and Halliday,
who set up house with Hunt about 1856, should thus have died
almost suddenly and within a few months of one another. —
Sandys sent the other day to pay Gabriel £50 that he owed
him (though in fact there is probably as much as another
£50 owing), with a letter to say that that severed the last
link between them. Gabriel responded in a long letter,
full of right sense and feeling, to say that, so far as he is
concerned, there is nothing to make a breach between them,
though at the same time he cannot recede from what he said
in the first instance about appropriation (no doubt un-
conscious) of his subjects and scheme of treatment by
Sandys. . . .
Saturday, 5 June. — Gabriel showed me a letter he has
received from Sandys in reply to his very friendly and con-
396 ROSSETTI PAPERS
ciliatory one ; it is written in an unhandsome spirit, and
gives the matter its quietus. He has paid G[abriel] £,g in
addition, treating it as the whole of what remained due.
X Gabriel also showed me a song he has written, Dark Lily*
> and two Italian sonnets. He says that Halliday's two Persian
cats lay outside his death-chamber in a desolate way, and
couldn't be got to move away until the Doctors arrived to
make a post-mortem examination.
Sunday, 6 June. — Dilberoglue, who called, says that . . .
Carlyle has now for some while past suffered from con-
tinual sleeplessness. He walks out nightly from loj P.M. to
\\. He is believed to be engaged in collecting together some
autobiographical materials ; his niece, now living with him,
is a simple-hearted Scotch girl of eighteen or nineteen, proud
of doing him the least service. He smokes birdseye mostly,
but negrohead as a finale, and goes on at smoking pretty
well all the day.
Monday, 7 June. — Met Millais in the street : he looks very
robust now, spite of his illness some few months ago. He
says that Munro -f is dying at Cannes — as indeed I had heard
before ; and he is trying to get an advantageous sale for
certain artistic properties which Halliday has left behind
— a sketch by Hunt from the Temple picture etc.
Tuesday, 8 June. — Christina went off with the Scotts, to
spend a month or more at Penkill. . . .
Wednesday, g. — Went to the private view of the Supple-
mentary Exhibition (pictures refused by the R.A.). Inch-
bold, contrary to the intention he intimated to me, exhibits
— also Brett. On the whole it is far the reverse of a good
exhibition. As regards several of the pictures, the refusal was
a credit to the R.A. ; others are fully good enough to be
hung, but without any very urgent claim ; those which ought
positively to have been hung are a very small minority.
Brown called in the evening. His three children are now
attending a drawing-school at Bolsover Street, which they
have all to themselves on the days they go, with Brown to
* So far as I recollect, this is the song published as Love-Lily.
t Alexander Munro the sculptor.
WILLIAM ROSSETTI— DIARY, 1869 397
look over their work. He says that he himself has for some
while past suffered from depression of spirits, though his
health, eyesight, etc., are strong, and no sort of illness sticks
very hard to him of late : he has been doing remarkably
little in the way of painting. . . .
Saturday, 12 June. — Going on with the Memoir of Shelley :
have now got to Prometheus and The Cenci.
Sunday, 13 June. — Continuing ditto. I find that, unless
Payne objects to the length of the Memoir (which I have no
reason to expect), I shall have succeeded in saying in it most
of what I particularly want to say — at any rate as regards the
facts of Shelley's life and his poems. How much I shall be
able to put-in of opinion and characteristic anecdote I as yet
can't determine. This state of things renders me less anxious
than before (though by no means undesirous) to write after-
wards a full Life, such as was vaguely proposed to be done
between Garnett and myself. I think, if the opportunity offers,
I would now prefer to collect (as pointed at in my Memoir)
all Shelley's own letters, and other autobiographic details
whether in poetry or prose, and print them in proper
sequence, with the slightest possible connecting thread of
matters of fact.* If I did this, and published the collection
with my Memoir reprinted as introduction, I should regard it
as a not unsatisfactory compendium of Shelley's life.
Monday, 14 June. — Theodoric and his Wife arrived from
Florence and Paris. . . . Nolly Brown brought round a photo-
graph from his water-colour of a man riding a horse into the
sea j- — which looks quite fine in the photograph, and must, at
any rate, be decidedly good. . . .
Thursday, 17 June. — Theodoric tells me that Guasti, the
Sub-Librarian at the Magliabecchian Library, has lately dis-
covered documents proving that Dante was a " bad character "
— leaving his debts unpaid etc. ; indeed, the suggestion is that
this, and not a political motive, was the veritable cause of his
* After an interval, I set to at this work, and carried it to completion.
Difficulties arose as to copyright etc., and my compilation remains un-
published.
t This water-colour was entitled Obstinacy.
398 fcOSSETTl PAPERS
banishment, but that I can't believe. The national rever-
ence for Dante induces the authorities to keep this matter
close.* . . .
Friday, 18 June. — . . . Cayley tells me that the salary
offered him by The Daily Telegraph for translating foreign
telegrams was £150 with contingent increase; but, since he
went to the office, he has heard no more about it, and the
question remains unsettled. . . .
Tuesday, 22 June. — Going on with Shelley Memoir. Tre-
lawny writes me that he is back in town, and willing to see
me ; and I think I shall offer him the dedication. . . .
Friday, 25 June. — Finished the Memoir of Shelley, which
now only needs a final revision. . . .
Monday, 28 June. — Called on Trelawny, a-propos of
Shelley.*)- He is still a very fine vigorous old man, most ener-
getic in tone and manner at moments. Stayed with him
full four hours, and had a highly interesting conversation on
Shelley, whom he regards with the same undimmed enthusiasm
as ever — branching off somewhat too frequently to other
subjects, such as America, medical systems, etc. He retains
his ancient habit \ of going stockingless. He gave me a
number of interesting details about Shelley, and confided to
me the original MSS. of the poems to Mrs Williams, with the
scraps of message which accompanied them — most valuable.
The bulk of what he said will be incorporated in my Memoir.
He did not greatly like Mrs Shelley, thinking her too eager
to stand well with society, and, as regards Shelley, too fractious
and plaguy — also she had none of the habits of a housewife,
and dinner etc. had very much to take care of themselves.
Tfrelawny] possesses and showed me a pen-and-ink sketch of
Shelley, head and shoulders, which he considers gives a
* I cannot remember having ever heard any more about this serious
matter.
t A considerable majority of what my Diary contains about Trelawny
was published in The Athenaum in 1882, under the title Talks with
Trelawny. Some few details were there omitted, and I think it as well
to re-extract here from the Diary.
% I became aware of this habit in 1843, when Trelawny, on behalf of
Mr Temple Leader, called once or twice to see my Father.
WILLIAM ROSSETTt— DIARY, 1869 399
goodish idea of him : he cannot now recollect whether or not
it is by Williams or by whom else. It looks in a general way
like a copy from Miss Curran's portrait, or some engraving
after that : but a strict comparison of the two does not by any
means satisfy me that it is such. He has also oil-portraits of
Mrs Shelley and Miss Clairmont by Miss Curran,* not bad.
He says Miss Clairmont became a somewhat bigoted Roman
Catholic, went mad at last, and has been — perhaps now is — in
an asylum.f Shelley's heart was delivered to Mrs S[helley] ;
but she used to say it was " too painful," etc. etc., and the
heart was then transferred to Leigh Hunt. T[relawny] pre-
sumes it may now be in the possession of Thornton H[unt].
T[relawny] picked out of the pyre, he says, a bit of Shelley's
kidney (?) and showed it to Vacca, who expressed an opinion
that the disease Shelley had suffered from was not nephritic.
Tfrelawny] dislikes Sir Percy Shelley, and more particularly
Lady Sfhelley], who he says is thinking of bringing out a
"modernized" (query in what sense) version of S[helley]'s
poems — certainly a most base idea, if in reality entertained.
He says the S\helley\ Memorials are not really done by Lady
S[helley], but by a Mr Touchett. Trelawny accepts the dedi-
cation of my edition of Shelley ; he is against a large size of
book for poetry, advocating such volumes only as can go
into the pocket. He dislikes Shelley's maiden Sisters, but
likes Mrs Haynes : J thinks Mrs Hogg would not be communi-
cative about S[helley]. He declined to communicate his
S[helley] materials to Lady S[helley] or to Garnett — because,
he says, the letter addressed to him inviting such communica-
tion took it for granted that he would be only too glad to
make himself useful. I may therefore esteem myself lucky
that nothing has been done on my part to set his bristles up.
* These two portraits I understood to be in strictness the property of
the Shelley family — to whom they must have been returned after Tre-
lawny's death.
f I cannot say what amount of foundation there may have been for
this statement. In 1873 I saw Miss Clairmont, who presented every
appearance of entire sanity.
} Also a Sister of Shelley.
400 &OSSETTI PAPERS
Tuesday, 29 June. — . . . Wrote Garnett, sending him
Swinburne's letter conveying what Browning says about
Harriet [Shelley]. . . .
Thursday, I July. — Looked-up a few old magazine-articles
on Shelley in the British Museum. Those in The Literary
Gazette are beyond anything for abuse.
Friday, 2 July. — Lent my Shelley Memoir to Garnett for
inspection. . . . He handed me the transcripts he has made
from hitherto unprinted portions of Marenghi and the Un-
finished Drama, and from Virgil's Callus. I in the evening
put these into their places in the text, revised the index, and
I believe there is now no more to be done to text or notes.
Saturday, 3 July. — . . . Trelawny came in, and spent the
whole evening talking with me : I introduced Garnett (then
dining with me) to him ; also Gabriel, who looked in late.
I was rather nervous as to the reception which Trel[awny],
who is hostile to Lady Shelley and all her surroundings,
might accord to Garnett ; but luckily he received him well,
and, after his departure, expressed a good impression of
him. Trel[awny] had not an unpleasant impression of
Shelley's voice, save when he was excited, and then it turned
shrieky : as on one occasion when Shelley came in much
perturbed from an interview with Byron, and screeched " By
God ! he's no better than a Christian. " Trel[awny] saw
something of Japan in his youth, and was much taken with
my series of Japanese prints round the dining-room. He
must be 75 (or I think 76) years of age,* but thinks nothing
of sitting up till midnight, and walking home, perhaps 4j
miles, from my neighbourhood. When he left me, about
n, he was going round to Digby Wyatt's in Tavistock
Place. I returned him the Shelley MS. and Sivellfoot. He
says he will write down all residual reminiscences of Shelley,
Byron, etc., to be published after his death. Garnett says
Trfelawny] is mistaken in supposing Touchett the principal
writer of the Shelley Memorials: it was not Touchett, nor
yet Lady Shelley.
* Trelawny was, in fact, born in November 1792 ; therefore in
July 1869 he was getting on towards 77 years of age.
WILLIAM ROSSETTI— DIARY, 1869 401
Sunday, 4 July. — Browning called to talk over the Harriet
Shelley affair. Swinburne had mistaken him in supposing
that he had seen the documents named in Forster's Life of
Landor. He is now not on comfortable terms with F[orster],
and has seen nothing of those documents. What he has
seen is a set of letters from Harriet, then in the hands of
Hookham the publisher, and some or all addressed to him :
these were placed in Browning's hands at the time he was
editing the forged letters. He quite confirms the drift of the
correspondence as stated by Swinburne ; authorizes me to
use the information, but would not wish his name mentioned.
I modified this section of my Memoir accordingly. Browning
talked about an article in the Temple Bar, saying that he, as
shown in the Ring and Book, is an analyst, not creator, of
character. This, B[rowning] very truly says, is not appli-
cable ; because he has had to create, out of the mass of
almost equally balanced evidence, the characters of the book
as he conceives them, and it is only after that process that
the analysing method can come into play. I see he dislikes
Trelawny quite as much as T[relawny] dislikes him (which is
not a little). He told me a story of T[relawny]'s having
eloped with a ... lady, . . . and, on being pursued by the
Father, having told him that he had no objection to marrying
her, but he had already five or six wives in various parts of
the world. B[rowning] knows all about Byron's divorce ;
partly from Mrs Jameson, who was intimate with Lady
Byron. He says the circumstances are very disgraceful to
Byron ; but (though he did not specify the particulars) it
is quite clear the principal cause of separation, as understood
by Br[owning], is not that . . . which S. mentioned to
me long ago as almost for certain known. . . . Basil
Montagu is the lawyer whom, as Br[owning] tells me,
Shelley consulted with a view to getting Harriet to live with
Mary and himself. I have named the fact in my Memoir,
but not the personage.
Monday, 5 July. — . . . Left Shelley at Moxon's. In the
evening made out a list of books in my hands whence I can
make-up the notices (for the series of British Poets) of Byron,
2 C
402 ROSSETTI PAPERS
Scott, Moore, Wordsworth, and Longfellow ; also the books
whence I could compile volumes of Ballads, Songs, and Mis-
cellaneous Poetry. . . .
Thursday^ July. — Went to a party at Brown's. . . . Brown
showed me crayon-portraits he has done of his Wife (the best
from her), Miss Spartali (not beautiful nor a characteristic
likeness, and rather dowdy-looking, yet interesting), and a
wood-design for Byron's Sardanapalus, very good. Morris
did 738 lines of poetry — a Scandinavian story — in one day :
it tired him much, and next day or afterwards he re-wrote a
large proportion of it. This is an astonishing feat. Swin-
burne introduced me to Mathilde Blind, who is a wild Shelley
enthusiast. She has seen the Sh[elley] relics in the possession
of Miss Rumble : . . . they comprise copies of the poems to
Mrs Williams, and letters from Emilia Viviani to Sh[elley],
whom she addresses as " sposo adorato" She will make an
effort to get hold of these writings, and show them me : but I
doubt her success. Mr Freckelton, who has seen them in
Miss Rumble's hands, and says they are unimportant, is a
Unitarian Minister. Reveley's * seeming indifference to
Shelley matters is more at the dictation of his Wife than any-
thing else : the latter affirms that Shelley owed Reveley £1000,
which seems most unlikely. Mason tells me he once did a
view of the Roman Cemetery, with Keats's tomb — not
Shelley's. Miss Blind says that Ledru Rollin is very hostile
to Victor Hugo, and laughs at his writings. Mazzini is
now in England. Also that Mrs Shelley opposed a wish
of her son to marry a daughter of Williams, saying she
was not a suitable match in point of station. Trelawny
had told me the other day that a daughter of Williams
(query the same?) married one of Leigh Hunt's sons. He
disliked the whole Hunt family — thought Hunt exceedingly
selfish. . . .
Sunday, 1 1 July. — . . . Began (with Nightingale Valley) t
* I.e., the Henry Reveley, then a young engineer, addressed by Shelley
in some letters. He was more or less connected with the Shelley docu-
ments held by Miss Rumble.
t The poetic selection compiled by William Allingham.
I
WILLIAM ROSSETTI— DIARY, 1869 403
reading up for a volume of Selected Poems.* I have for years
and years had a hobby in favour of doing such a volume of
"Perfect Poems" — compositions such as I believe to be not
only admirable but flawless. This will probably not fall in with
Moxon's plan : but, in collecting my materials for his Selection,
I shall keep the distinction in sight for my own satisfaction. I
would not admit among Perfect Poems anything that did not
unite these qualifications — I, lofty general calibre; 2, freedom
from anything which can be distinctly marked as a fault —
mere notions or prepossessions of my own not being allowed
to weigh in assessing faults. . . .
Tuesday, 13 July. — Mrs Gilchrist writes me another
(3rd) incredibly enthusiastic letter about Whitman, whose
complete poems she has now been reading. This is a
wonderful phenomenon to me, and so curious that I have
felt justified in sending to O'Connor (W[hitman]'s friend in
Washington) an extract from Mrs G[ilchrist]'s three letters,
but without giving any clue to her identity. ...
Sunday, 18 July. — . . . Gabriel has begun his three- I
quarter picture of Pandora ; but wants to carry out the
same subject whole-length. He has done a crayon half^j
figure of Penelope — one of an indefinite number of crayon-
figures which Agnew has commissioned him for at £$o apiece.)
Gfabriel] and I went to the Prinseps' — first time I have been
there an unconscionable while. Watts's Endymion, Daphne,
Millais, Clytie (same composition in painting as the bust,
perhaps his most vigorous piece of flesh-painting), new
picture from the Greek head at Oxford, very lovely — etc. . . .
Monday, 19 July. — As Mrs Gilchrist, at my prompting,
thinks of turning to some public account the letters she has
been writing me about Whitman, I returned them to her,
telling her at the same time that I had already sent extracts
to O'Connor for Whitman to see. . . .
Wednesday, 21 July. — Met Brown, who tells me Morris
and his Wife, who are going to Ems for the health of the
* Messrs Moxon did not eventually publish any such volume of Mis-
cellaneous Poems selected by me — only a Selection of Httmorous Poems,
and another of American Poems.
404 ROSSETTI PAPERS
latter, along with her Sister and Lucy Brown (both of whom
will return after reaching Cologne or Coblentz), started the
other day, and had arrived at Calais. They had to change
into a small steamer to cross the bar, which knocked up Mrs
Morris a good deal. . . .
Thursday, 22 July. — J. Deffett Francis calls on me, and
produces a copy of a very valuable early letter of Shelley—
which copy he made from one of several originals in the
possession of Mr J. H. Slack. I wrote to Mr S[lack], asking
whether he would permit me to call and see the letters.
Also made a copy for myself from Francis's copy (which I
returned to him in the evening) : but shall of course be
unable, unless Mr Slack allows me, to use the information,
unless merely for rectifying negatively any mis-statement
made in my Memoir. . . .
Friday ', 23 July. — Christina returned from Penkill. — Wrote
in reply to another letter from Mrs Gilchrist, saying that the
only things I think she would be quite safe in doing in con-
nexion with Whitman would be — I, to consider any proposal
that may hereafter come from W[hitman] or O'Connor for
American publication of the extracts I have sent the latter
from her letters, without her name ; and 2, to write for English
publication a notice of the Selection alone.
Saturday, 24 July. — Tinsley*s Magazine for to-day contains
a first article on The Rossettis — mainly Christina : it is evi-
dently written by some one who knows something about us,
but who J have not the least idea.* . . .
•Monday, 26 July. — Mr Slack having sanctioned my calling
this evening, I went round, and met with much open good-
nature from himself and his Wife. He possesses a series of
letters between Shelley and Miss Hitchener (the " Brown
Demon"), of great importance and curiosity for that early
part of Shelley's life, 1811-12. The letters used to be in the
hands of Miss H[itchener] — those emanating from herself
being presumably copies of what she dispatched to S[helley] :
then a Mrs Hoist had them : the present actual or presumable
owner is a Mrs Buxton. The correspondence has been left
* Mr Harry Buxton Forman.
WILLIAM ROSSETTI- DIARY, 1869
405
for many years undisturbed in Mr Slack's hands ; and he is
not inclined, by starting any question as to publication of any
part of the letters, to raise the possible question of their being
altogether transferred from his hands to Mrs Buxton's.
There were more than forty letters from Shelley himself, and
perhaps some dozen of Miss Kitchener's ; but, in some way
that Mr Slack can't account for, several of Shelley's are not
immediately forthcoming — perhaps a full third or more of the
total. S[helley]'s letters are mostly quite long, somewhat
better written than most of the early ones printed by Hogg,
but full of unmeaning effusivenesses for the Brown Demon.
Slack does not feel at liberty to sanction my saying anything
distinct about the important point which appears in several of
the letters besides the one copied by Francis — viz. : that,
according to Harriet's statement to Shelley, Hogg, during
S[helley]'s absence on business in Sussex while Harriet and
Hogg remained behind at York in i8ii,had tried to seduce
Harriet ; which Hogg confessed with some show of contrition,
and S[helley], though very much taken aback, was ready to
pardon, but eventually Hogg assumed a hectoring tone, and
talked about fighting a duel : this S[helley] declined on
principle. Mr Slack however does not object to my making
free use of many other points stated in the letters — only
without direct quotation or specification of them. I was
engaged the whole evening reading these letters aloud, and
only got through perhaps a half of them : am to resume on
Wednesday.
Tuesday, 27 July. — Inserted in the Shelley Memoir such
particulars, gleaned from the above-named letters, as I am
empowered to use.
Wednesday, 28 July. — Went again to Mr Slack's, and
finished reading the Shelley letters. . . .
Friday, 30 July. — Am promoted to-day to be Assistant
Secretary, Excise Branch. Bought a lot of Venetian and art
photographs and a sunfish.* . . .
* My Brother had preceded me in buying a stuffed sunfish, which he
eventually got gilded, and hung up in his drawing-room. I have done
much the same.
406 ROSSETTI PAPERS
Wednesday, 4 August. — Wrote to Mr Slack, asking
whether I might copy out, and insert in the Appendix of
the new Shelley, the three early poems included in the
correspondence he possesses. — Gabriel is having his various
poems — such as he values sufficiently — printed, for future use
in any way he may like. . . .
Thursday, 19 August. — The first proof of the annotated
Shelley reached me to-day. It looks as if it were to be in
two volumes, of compact and substantial aspect. . . .
Wednesday, 25 August. — A Mr Keningale Cook,* with a
letter of introduction from Dr Steele,f called, asking my
advice as to who should publish a volume of poems he has
ready. I told him I could better form an opinion if I first
saw the poems, which he is to leave with me shortly. He
is a prepossessing young man, and evidently a man of
intelligence. . . .
Tuesday, 31 August. — . . . Brown has heard it rumoured
— in reference to the great scandal now turned up regarding
Byron — that Mrs Leigh was probably not in reality any
blood-relation to Byron at all, but a daughter of the first Wife
of Byron's Father (divorced Lady Carmarthen) by some man
other than Byron's Father. This, if sustainable, would give
the case a somewhat different complexion.
Wednesday, I September.— Tebbs called, and began talking
about the volume of MS. poems by Gabriel which he sup-
pressed at the time of Lizzie's death, and buried in her
coffin. He says that the coffin could not be opened without
a " faculty " ; but that he could without any difficulty obtain
this for G[abriel], should the latter wish at any time to recover
the poems. I said that I would bear the point in mind, and
let G[abriel] know of this in case the question should ever be
in the way of arising. . . .
Tuesday, 18 September. — Gabriel having announced, by
letter received yesterday, that he had bought a tame wombat
now at Chelsea, I went round to see said beast, which is the
most lumpish and incapable of wombats, with an air of baby
* This gentleman died, to my great regret, towards 1886.
t Brother of the Wife of my Cousin Teodorico Pietrocola-Rossetti.
WILLIAM ROSSETTI— DIARY, 1869 407
objectlessness — not much more than half grown, probably.
He is much addicted to following one about the room, and
nestling up against one, and nibbling one's calves or trowsers.
His price was £8 ; the vendor (Jamrach) saying that he
could readily dispose of the wombat elsewhere if Gabriel was
not willing to pay the sum. . . . G[abriel]'s pictures of Lilith\
and Venus are now sent off to their owners (Leyland and
Mitchell) : Sibylla Palmifera has been a good deal worked
on of late, and there are some fresh crayon-drawings of Mrs
Morris, and a girl who sat as playing a lute. Dunn
that young Murray * has now started as an artist on his own
account ; and that Howell has been seeing to the furnishing
of a new house for Ruskin, who wants it the more particularly
for proper display of works of art now that he is appointed
Slade Professor of Fine Arts in Oxford. . . .
Sunday, 19 September. — Swinburne called — lately back
from Vichy, where he was staying with Consul Burton.
V[ictor] Hugo received very graciously the article which
Swinburne wrote upon UHomnu qui Rit, and has expressed
a very high opinion of the French lyrics scattered among
S[winburne]'s poems. Sfwinburne] objects much to Gabriel's!
continual revising of his old poems, and thinks indeed that
G[abriel]'s whole system of verse-writing is becoming now
somewhat over-elaborate. He expects to go to Holmwoocjl
to-morrow. His beautiful Angora cat, given him by Mazzini
— white with a tabby tail — died lately. It used to sit on
his head while he was writing. . . .
Tuesday ', 21 September. — Wallis,f whom I met in the
street, and who is now living at IDA Adelphi Terrace, tells
me that he possesses a lock of Shelley's hair. — Gabriel
returned to Chelsea yesterday, and I saw him this evening.
He looks to me well enough ; but says he has been very
weak, perspiring excessively, losing sleep, and that his health
is breaking up. He has done a good deal of poetry — ballads
* Mr Charles Fairfax Murray. It was through Ruskin, and Howell
as Ruskin's secretary, that he came into our circle.
t Mr Henry Wallis the Painter. He had been well acquainted with
T. L. Peacock.
408 ilOSSETTI PAPERS
£ of Helen and of Lilith,* both very fine (the latter not yet
finished), sonnets, etc. He seems more anxious just now to
achieve something permanent in poetry than in painting — in
which he considers that at any rate two living Englishmen,
Millais and Jones, show a higher innate executive power than
.himself. . . . Ruskin called on Gabriel yesterday, and raised
some question as to Gabriel's joining him in efforts for social
ameliorations on a systematic scale — which Gfabriel] is not
much minded to. Rfuskin] expressed himself gratified with
the article of mine on him published some months ago in The
Broadway. . . .
Monday, 27 September. — Gabriel called in Euston Square ;
-ead us his poem of Lilith, just completed, and some others.
Swinburne writes proposing to turn my Mrs Holmes Grey
into French,f which would indeed be a distinguished honour
to me. The wombat shows symptoms of some malady of the
mange-kind, and is attended by a dog-doctor. Hearing
(from a Mr Doeg of Manchester) that the series of photo-
graphs kept at the Arundel Society from the portraits
exhibited at South Kensington includes the Shelley portrait
by Miss Curran, I went round there, and ordered three copies
of this photo, and single copies of various others. Miss
Curran's portrait comes very fair indeed in the photograph,
and would indeed be worth re-engraving therefrom for the
forthcoming edition of the poems.
Tuesday, 28 September. — Saw the wombat again at
Chelsea : I much fear he shows already decided symptoms
of the loss of sight which afflicts so many wombats. Gabriel
writes and works at his poems a good deal, and has not yet
resumed painting. He seems not by any means indisposed
to publish the poems soon with Ellis, whose printer is doing
the printing-work. . . .
Wednesday, 29 September. — Mrs Gilchrist sends me the
MS. of what she has written concerning Whitman, embody-
ing and expanding the observations in her letters to me : it
* The ballads published under the titles Troy Town and Eden
Bower.
t This was never done, I think.
I
WILLIAM HOSSETTI— DIARY, 1869 409
will be valuable for the cause — its disposal remains to be
determined on. ...
Thursday, 30 September. — Engaged on proofs of Shelley
''now at Prometheus Unbound) and of Scott's book on
Durer.
Friday, I October. — Replied to Swinburne's letter, ex-
pressing my high sense of the honour he would do Mrs
Holmes Grey by translating it into French, should it suit
him to do so. ...
Sunday, 3 October. — Finished the biographical notice of
Moore, and \vrote to Payne about this and Shelley. I said
I should probably wish to say, in the first volume of the
series of Poets,- a few words as to my own part in that series.
Without this, I might be held accountable for the complete-
ness and accuracy of the editions in a degree which neither
does nor under the circumstances can properly pertain to me.
With this Moore notice I finish up the succession of pressing
work which began on 18 November last with the revision
of Shelley, and has had no definite intermission since then,
save my holiday abroad. The Shelley proofs continue to
engage my attention, and a good deal of less pressing work
remains on hand. . . .
Monday ', 4 October. — ... I am now reading up the books
concerning Shelley (Hogg's Life for the while) in order to
note down all the autobiographical materials — letters etc. —
for his life. If Payne should not be disposed to publish these
(as I suggested to him a couple of months or so ago) along
with my Memoir republished, I may perhaps be disposed to
incur the expense of having the thing printed for my own
private satisfaction ; i.e., print, in form similar to my Memoir,
all the letters and autobiographical passages written by
Shelley, as far as attainable. The Shelley Poems are now
advertised by Moxon as forthcoming, giving more than due
prominence to my Memoir. The advertisement is badly put
together all through ; and, having occasion to write to Moxon
in the evening, I proposed a different form of advertise-
ment. . . .
Wednesday, 6 October. — Discussed with Uncle Henry some
410 HOSSETTI PAPERS
of the points concerning my proposed will, outstanding since
I went abroad in the Spring. Maria declined to receive the
reversion of the lease of the house, on the ground that she
might probably, by the time that contingency occurs, have
entered a Sisterhood. This is the first time I have heard
her express such an intention : but I have long foreseen it as
probable. . . .
Thursday, 7 October. — Nettleship and others dining at
Chelsea. Gabriel read several of his poems, and expresses
a distinct intention of soon publishing. Hake (Dr), the
author of Vates, called on him lately : he also published
anonymously a year or two ago a volume of poems, The
World's Epitaph, which I rather think was sent me at the
time, and struck me as having a certain superiority. G[abriel]
thinks him a very capable man, not at all of the self-assertive
kind.
Friday, 8 October. — Christina having consulted Dr Jenner
to-day about a slight discoloration round the eye, he tells
her that her chest is now very conspicuously better than it
used to be ; that the case had been somewhat precarious ;
and that, though now so much better, she should not relax
in her precautions. . . .
Monday, 11 October. — Garnett returned me my MS.
Memoir of Shelley, notifying a few useful emendations, but
speaking of it as very correct in the main, which is gratifying.
Made the needful revisions, and prepared the MS. to be
handed in to-morrow to Moxon, for immediate transmission
to the printers, Sanson & Co., in Edinburgh. Resumed the
collection of materials for the volumes of Miscellaneous or
Selected Poems which are set down for forming a part of
Moxon's cheap series. I see by his prospectus there would
be six such volumes covering a wide range of selection. . . .
Wednesday, 13 October. — Swinburne wrote me the other
day proposing that he and I jointly should give-in our
adhesion by letter to the Congress of Freethinkers got up by
Ricciardi (projected as a counterbalance to the (Ecumenical
Council). I very gladly assent, and wrote this evening a draft-
letter, which I post to Swinburne at Holmwood. — Scott in-
WILLIAM ROSSETTI— DIARY, i860 4il
forms me that the uncoffining of Gabriel's MS. poems has now
been effected.
Friday, 1 5 October. — Dario Rossi (the Genoese publisher
to whom I confided in 1861 a selection of my Father's poems
made by myself, and who has ever since let the thing sleep,
and behaved very objectionably about it till I had been fain
to give the whole affair up) writes at last, proposing to see
now to early publication, on certain modified terms. The
decision on this point belongs strictly to Mamma. . . .
Monday, 18 October. — Called on Mrs Gilchrist. She
authorizes me to send to America what she has written on
W[hitman], to be published in such form as he or O'C[onnor]
may approve, but without any public or private avowal of
her name. — Swinburne sent round to me. for my perusal and
opinion on one or two alternative expressions, his ruthless
sonnets for the not-too-speedy death of Louis Napoleon.
They are very forcible. . . .
Tuesday, 19 October. — Locker called on me at Somerset
House to say that Waller in Fleet Street has some Shelley
autographs to dispose of — not apparently of any exceptional
interest, but I will look them up. He began talking of the
Byron-Stowe affair, and is decidedly of opinion that the
accusation has broken down — an opinion to which I strongly
tend also. I asked him how about the daughter of Byron
and Mrs Leigh stated by Mrs Stowe to have been brought
up by Lady Byron. He says that he has no doubt this is
a misapprehension as to the parentage. . . . Mr Leigh was
... a queer character — height about 6 foot 3. My Aunt
Charlotte tells me that old Deagostini, my Grandfather's
friend, was Italian master to Miss Milbanke (Lady Byron),
and thought her singularly cold. — Locker, who has lately
been in Switzerland with Tennyson, says that the latter is
very fair as a mountain-climber, which rather surprises me,
considering the shuffling gait which characterizes his ordi-
nary walking : he also showed great vigour as an oarsman,
on being overtaken by a storm on the Lake of Lucerne.
Locker says (but did not tell me his authority, and I should
hope the disgraceful story is not absolutely true) that Payne
412 ROSSETTI PAPERS
(of Moxon's), after the dissension of his firm with Tenny-
son, affixed a pair of ass's ears to the portrait of T[enny-
son] which figures in the Dover Street premises ; also
(which I had heard before) that he wrote an ... attack
on T[ennyson] in The Queen's Messenger. Locker intimated
that it is hardly decorous in me to do literary work for
Payne and his firm. For my own part, now that the
Shelley job is almost out of hand, I don't set any very
great store by continuing my connexion with the firm
(limited as it always has been to the simplest business-
relation) ; but on the other hand I think it is quite pos-
sible to care too much about the publisher in a literary
undertaking. If it is desirable that a series of cheap Poets
should be issued, and that I should work upon it, the
question of who publishes the series and acts as my pay-
master is after all a subsidiary one.
Wednesday, 20 October. — Mamma took lodgings, 59 Burton
Crescent, for Stillman and his family, who are expected to
reach London almost daily. Scott called, just back from
Penkill. He says that Gabriel, when at Penkill, used to be
composing in an upper room frequently while S[cott] and
Miss Boyd were in a lower room, and his movements etc.
used to be audible. After he was gone, the same sounds
continued distinctly audible to S[cott] and Miss B[oyd],
and also to the Catholic priest Mr Reid (on at least one
occasion). Miss B[oyd] was much startled in one instance,
and went into the upper room to satisfy herself about the
matter. This is curious.* . . .
Friday, 22 October. — Received from The Academy a book
for review — Brisbane's Early Years of Alexander Smith.^ . . .
Monday, 25 October. — Stillman came to London to-day,
expecting to stay about a fortnight en route from Athens
to America, where he thinks of taking definitely to litera-
ture. Aali Pacha, who from personal intercourse conceived
a good opinion of him, wished him to stay in Crete with a
* This matter is detailed in Scott's Autobiographical Notes.
t My first connexion (I believe) with The Academy, then recently
started.
WILLIAM ROSSETTI— DIARY, 1869 413
sort of free commission and general command of funds, for
the purpose of quieting things down, and acting as miscel-
laneous referee between the Government and the islanders.
For some reasons he would have liked to undertake this ;
but, being unable to persuade the Government to include
in their amnesty persons who are accused of private acts of
violence etc. arising out of the insurrection, he considered
the position untenable, and declined. . . .
Tuesday, 26 October. — . . . Gabriel called. He has now
finished copying what he wants out of the unearthed MS.
book of poems; and read me the old compositions—/^^,
Last Confession, Dante in Verona^ Portrait, and Bride-\
Chamber Talk. The latter, already long, would he thinks
require about as much length again before it could be com-
pleted on a congruous scale. This he thinks would be too
lengthy for his forthcoming volume : so he would omit the
poem from that volume, and finish it up for other eventual
use. . . .
Wednesday, 27 October. — Went to Waller's in Fleet
Street, to enquire about the Shelley autographs which
Locker mentioned to me a few days back. I find he has
at present only one, of 1816, addressed to Bryant, who, he
says, was a well-known money-lender. It is not of any
particular biographic interest, so I did not buy it. The
price is higher than I had expected, £i. 5s. ; and Waller
says that important letters from Shelley have readily sold
at from £12 to £14. — Received a long and interesting letter
from Swinburne, acquiescing in the combined draft of the
Ricciardi letter ; notifying the forthcoming publication, in
the Fortnightly, of his sonnets against Louis Napoleon
(which I deprecate as too hard-hearted) ; etc. . . .
Saturday, 6 November. — . . . Conway . . . has lately re-
turned from Russia. About Moscow, he says, one may see
any number of perfectly naked women bathing in public,
and nobody thinks any harm of it. ...
Sunday, 7 November. — Went to the Spartalis',* to meet
there Stillman and Dilberoglue : there were also several
* Mr Spartali was at this time Consul-General for Greece.
414 ROSSETTI PAPERS
others — Skinner, the newspaper-correspondent lately in Crete,
/ Captain Pirn, who had to do also with the Island, etc. Miss
\. S[partali] showed me the water-colour she is now engaged
on — a girl by a window looking out on a Venetian Lagoon.*
, Nolly Brown (a hitherto unknown poet) has written a sonnet
I to it, which Miss S[partali] tells me is very fair. . . .
V Monday, 8 November. — Gabriel, who called in Euston
Square, complains very much of a constant shaking of the
hand etc. with corresponding internal sensations. He sup-
poses it to be a nervous disease, and even has some appre-
hensions of impending paralysis: the symptoms have now
been going on several days, but don't seem particularly to
affect his steadiness of hand in drawing or writing. He
has consulted in writing Marshall, who orders iron and
other tonics. This certainly seems enough to make G[abriel]
anxious ; but I should hope the inconvenience will prove
temporary. The poor wombat died the other day after some
spasmodic symptoms : one more instance of the extra-
ordinary ill-luck that has attended G[abriel]'s animals.
Tuesday, 9 November. — Wrote to Rossi, the Genoese
bookseller, proposing to cede to him for ten years from that
day the right of publication of my Father's selected poems —
not for ever, as he proposes. . . .
Friday, 1 2 November. — Moxon sends me a letter addressed
to him by a Mr Catty, saying that he possesses, and would
like to include in the re-edition, certain poems by Shelley,
as yet unpublished, given by S[helley] to Catty's Mother,
then a Miss Stacey : he sends a specimen of one, which,
though not highly finished, seems beyond suspicion. This
will be a great advantage. . . .
Sunday, 14 November. — . . . Brown called on me in the
evening. . . . Some talk on questions of religion ; and I find
— more definitely than I knew it before — that B[rown] is
very little of a theist : he seems to think that the intellect
which regulates the world is simply the collective intellect
of man.
* The water-colour is now in the possession of my Daughter Helen.
It was shown in the Glasgow International Exhibition of 1901.
WILLIAM ROSSETTI— DIARY, 1869 415
Monday, 15 November. — Dined at Brown's, with Miss
Spartali, Stillman, and Gabriel. The chief raison tfetre of
the gathering was for Gfabriel] to read some of his poems
to Miss S[partali], which he did : Last Confession, Lilith,
Dante, some minor poems. . . . Saw Brown's very fine water-
colour of The Entombment, now far advanced. Also the Don
Juan, which is in some respects about his finest work ; and
monochrome of King Lear and his Daughters. Miss Spartali
sits for Haidee. . . .
Friday, 19 November. — Finished transcribing Mrs Gil-
christ's paper on Whitman ; wrote a few introductory words
to it, and the letter for O'Connor ; and sent it all on to her
for final consideration. . . .
Sunday, 21 November. — . . . Began for The Portfolio
my promised article on Hughes, Windus, and Miss Spartali :
I shall add the younger Browns, and a word about Goodwin,
as coming in, along with Miss Sfpartali], in the character of \
pupils of Brown.
Monday, 22 November. — Called at Mr Catty's, to enquire
about the Shelley poems he offered for publication. It
seems that the Mr C[atty] who made this offer is now at
Brighton ; but his Brother, Colonel C[atty], had got the
packet ready for delivery to me, and was proposing to write
to me about it forthwith. He was in a hurry, when I called,
to go out and keep an engagement ; but received me very
cordially, and I arranged to call again to-morrow to take
possession of the packet. — Dined at Chelsea with Tebbs and
Knight,* who came more particularly to hear some of
Gabriel's poems. . . . G[abriel] has made some additions to
the Dante poem etc. : has not yet resumed painting to any
extent.
Tuesday, 23 November. — Called again on Colonel Catty,
and received from him the pocket-book presented by Shelley
to the then Miss S. Stacey (Mrs Catty), and a letter from Mrs
Sh[elley] and her husband to Miss S. Stacey. The former
contains a new poem, Time long past, and two old ones ; the
* Joseph Knight, the Dramatic Critic and Editor of Notes and Queries,
. who became one of Dante Rossetti's biographers.
416 ROSSETTI PAPERS
letter contains the Lines on a Dead Violet. The other un-
published poem, of which two stanzas were sent to Moxon in
the first instance, still remains to be produced — also the copy
of The Indian Serenade. Mrs Catty is still living. Colonel
C[atty] seems a very kind-hearted man, of open, courteous
nature. He feels a pride in associating his name with
Shelley. . . .
Thursday, 2$ November. — Dined at Scott's, with Dr
Littledale etc. Dr L[ittledale] is going to the Roman
Council, as a sort of medium of information between the
High-Church party here and the Catholic dignitaries. He
does not seem to expect that the result of the Council will
be any extensive going-over of any sort of Protestants to
Rome; he says that such conversions from the English
Church are now very much fewer than some years ago — the
aspirations of the more Roman-tending Anglicans being now
fairly met in their own Church. He believes Dollinger and
Klee to be authors of the famous pamphlet by "Janus."
Miss Boyd returned to town to-day. Scott says that Swin-
burne, some little while back at Chelsea, mentioned the then
forthcoming letter which he and I were to send to Ricciardi ;
and that both Scott and Gabriel and Nettleship expressed
their willingness to see about signing it as well.* This is
wholly new to me ; I was not so much as aware that any of
these men had heard of the letter.
Friday, 26 November. — Received the remaining Shelley
verses from Mr Catty — " Thou art fair." . . .
Saturday, 27 November. — . . . Gabriel (who made the
other night a slight sketch for the binding of the Shelley)
promised to put it into such shape as would be available for
the binder's purposes. . . .
Friday, 3 December. — Gabriel brought round his design
for binding the Shelley, f It would look very nice ; but is, I
* It appears that the letter was not eventually signed by any persons
other than Swinburne and myself : see No. 265.
t I am not sure that this binding-design (the look of which I don't
now remember) was ultimately used for any purpose. It does not appear
to be the same design which was adopted for Forman's edition of Shelley :
WILLIAM ROSSETTI— DIARY, 1869
417
suspect, too elaborate for Moxon's purpose, both as regards
expense and time. He says he still feels very unwell : was
intending to see about renting Mrs Gilchrist's little house at
Shottermill, but, on writing to her, learned that she had let
it to some one else only a few hours before. . . .
Sunday ', 5 December. — . . . After an interval of thirteen
months or so I resumed this evening my work for the Chaucer
Society — translation of the passages in Boccaccio's Filostrato
which Chaucer has utilized in his Troylus. . . .
Friday, 10 December. — Gabriel showed me Hake's eccentric
poem of Madeline. He is himself bent (and I think very
wisely) on getting out his volume of poems in the Spring ;
and will with this view forego writing any additional poems
for it, beyond one. As to this one, he is in some doubt J
whether to make it The Orchard-Pit, which he schemed out
at Penkill, or an invention that has lately occurred to him of
The Doom of the Sirens : * he inclines to this latter. Hei_y
might perhaps treat it in the form of a choral drama, but
more probably as a narrative. His proposed subject of The
San Great he has laid aside, waiting to see what Tennyson
will have made of the same theme : The Harrowing of Hell ^
he means to treat from the point of view of love-passion — as
if the redemption wrought by Christ were to be viewed as an
elevation of the conception of love from pleasure into passion,
hence entailing the redemption from hell of Adam and Eve,
David and Bathsheba, etc. etc. I very much question whether j
the ideas involved in this scheme are not self-conflicting, and
expressed this view to him. . . .
Sunday, 12 December. — Gabriel has now consulted Sir
William Jenner, who says that his state of health requires
careful attention — no spirit-drinking, going to bed not later
than midnight, and a country-life without regular professional
work for the next six months. This corresponds pretty
that (I understand) had been intended by my Brother for E. S. Dallas's
book, The Gay Science.
* My Brother did not after all write either of these poems : the prose
abstracts of them appear in his Collected Works.
t Neither The San Greal nor The Harrowing of Hell was written.
2 D
"1
418 ROSSETTI PAPERS
nearly with what I have said all along — that half a year's
travelling would be the best thing. G[abriel] has also again
seen Bowman the oculist, who says that the eyes are in the
same state as previously — not organically wrong. . . .
Monday ', 13 December. — Replied to Mr J. H. Dixon, who
has sent me some (not very useful) emendations for Shelley.
If I remember right, it was a communication of his,
printed in N\ptes\ and Q[ueries], which first set me off writing
to that paper about Shelley, and thus eventually led to my
re-editing the Poems.
Tuesday, 14 December. — . . . Moxons say that Gabriel's
design for the binding would be too expensive, and could only
be used for an edition de luxe : as such, they apparently con-
template adopting it.
Wednesday, 15 December. — Dr Hake (whom I meet for
the first time) dined with two or three others at Chelsea. He
has been reading part of my Father's Amor Platonico, and is
considerably struck with the views therein expressed as to
the unreality of Beatrice, Laura, etc. At Gabriel's instance
he has now cut out Petrarch and Laura (under those names)
from his poem of Madeline. . . . Hake is sixty. — The poor
wombat has now been stuffed, and figures in the entrance-hall :
his " effect " is not satisfactory.
Thursday, 16 December. — As Gabriel prefers to get back
his design for binding the Shelley, ... I wrote . . . asking
that it may be returned to G[abriel] or myself. . . .
Wednesday, 22 December. — Received an interesting letter
from Whitman, relative to the extracts I sent over in the
summer from Mrs G[ilchrist]'s letters, which he regards as,
under all the conditions, the most " magnificent eulogium " he
has yet received. This letter must have been written before
the complete papers which I posted towards the end of
November had been seen by Whitman. Two copies of the
last photograph taken from him are to reach me. . . .
Wednesday, 29 December. — Received the last proofs of the
Shelley, which occupied me till about 1.30 A.M. . . .
W. J. STILLMAN, 1869 419
211. — w. J. STILLMAN to WILLIAM ROSSETTI.
ATHENS.
22 January 1869.
My dear Rossetti, — ... As I foresaw in case of the
failure of Coroneos to go to Crete, the insurrection is dead or
in its last gasp — not from the capture of Petropoulaki but
from his going. When the Committee told me that Petro-
poulaki was going, I replied that the insurrection would be
dead by their New Year (January I3th). This expedition was
intended to brusque affairs, and bring on a pressure which
would justify the Greek Government before the Greek people
in abandoning Crete, which they had already decided to do
by resolution of the King, personally.
I have done all I could ; and, if I could have had Coroneos
sent over, the insurrection would have gone through the
winter triumphantly. But we have failed from destiny, not
from our own want of resolution ; from treason of others, not
of ourselves.
And now my " occupation's gone " ; not only figuratively
but literally, as I have got into the bad graces of our present
Government which is philo-Turk (i.e. Seward, Johnson, etc.) ;
and the Consulate will probably be abolished this session,
throwing me out of service. . . .
I am, in fine weather, amusing myself by taking a series
of photos of the Acropolis ; not only picturesque, but to show
the technical characteristics of Greek architecture. It will
comprise about twenty small views. . . . — Yours affection-
ately,
W. J. STILLMAN.
420 ROSSETTI PAPERS
212.— DR GARNETT to WILLIAM ROSSETTI.
BRITISH MUSEUM.
5 February 1869.
My dear Rossetti, — ... I would cheerfully afford any
information respecting matters of fact you might wish for,
and [furnish you] with my opinion on any doubtful or obscure
passages of Shelley's life. A true admirer of Shelley ought
to be above all petty jealousy, and I assure you that your
undertaking his biography will give me nothing but pleasure.
I did not see your communications to Notes and Queries
until some time after they were completed. ... I should be
much obliged if you would let me see the alterations you pro-
pose introducing into the text, or suggesting in notes, before
they are printed. If I find that I have any emendations by
me I will send you them. . . . — Yours very truly,
RICHARD GARNETT.
213.— MADOX BROWN to WILLIAM ROSSETTI.
37 FITZROY SQUARE.
9 February 1869.
p My dear William, — I meant last night to have spoken to
you respecting something your Brother told me respecting
illustrations required for a general edition of the Poets, but I
forgot.
Thinking the matter over, I have come to the conclusion
that I should like to undertake the whole in a bundle if Payne
can be got to give them — for I have nothing else to do at
present, and they do say things are to be worse before they
(are better in the picture-selling line. — Ever yours sincerely,
FORD MADOX B.
MADOX BROWN, 1869 421
214.— DR GARNETT to WILLIAM ROSSETTI.
BRITISH MUSEUM.
15 February 1869.
My dear Rossetti, — ... As soon as I can possibly find time
I will copy out for you all the fragments which were considered
too imperfect for publication in the Relics, for incorporation
with the latter or publication in the Appendix, as you may
deem best. You will find some of them very interesting. . . .
I suppose you will include the rifacimento of Queen Maby
entitled The Dcemon of the World, in the Appendix. Have
you a copy of it ? It was published along with Alastor in
1816, and has not, so far as I know, been reprinted. If you
have not access to it, I will transcribe it for you from the
Museum copy. . . . — Yours very truly,
RICHARD GARNETT.
215. — MADOX BROWN to WILLIAM ROSSETTI.
37 FITZROY SQUARE.
1 8 February 1869.
My dear William, — Mr Payne's scheme of an illustrated
edition of the British Poets is a grand one, and of a kind
that ought certainly to enlist the sympathies of our more
thoughtful artists.
I do not however so readily see how it is to be made a
cheap one, or even a very moderate one. If the best artists
in the country are to be pitted against each other, none of
them in particular will feel much interest in the undertaking
except in so far as their own individual few designs are
concerned. They will each feel a nervous apprehension lest
their own works should appear less successful than the
others. They will give themselves trouble — take time, delay
the work, and necessarily require payment in accordance,
422 ROSSETTI PAPERS
It will be a repetition of the Illustrated Tennyson. Each
artist thinking only of his own drawings, the whole will be,
like that celebrated undertaking, wanting in that ensemble
and uniformity so much required by the public in any work
of the kind ; and gradually the whole, growing beyond the
publisher's first intention or powers of control, will either
remain a continual hazardous worry on his hands, or have to
stop short half-way of the goal. This however might be
avoided by restricting the number of artists to a practicable
limit; selecting them of a congenial turn of thought; and
settling beforehand very strictly the size, nature, and style,
of the illustrations. I agree myself entirely with Payne's
notion that wood-engraving publications have begun to pall
upon the tastes of the more fastidious and intelligent of the
public. The style of thing I would myself have proposed I
intended should avoid the commonplace quality, by means
of greater dignity and simplicity of style, and especially by
a sustained uniformity of imaginative and intellectual faculty,
versus the picturesque black-and-white dexterous unmeaning-
nesses that are now prevalent.
The notion however of substituting steel-plate for wood
is to my mind by no means a bad one ; only I don't quite
understand what Mr Payne means by etchings — does he not
rather mean a kind of slight engraving? Etching is a rough,
eminently artistic sort of work, which may be admirable in
the hands of some men, but which must sink into bathos at
once if divorced from the hand of the first designer. A very
rough sort of drawing may look well skilfully engraved, but
the effectiveness of the drawing is the very quality that takes
most time. Finish without strong effect is less laborious of
attainment. As to the selection of the subjects, it would be
difficult for any one but an artist of intellect to do that.
However, yourself being so much mixed up with art would
be an assurance that the work would be safer entrusted to
you than to most people. The proposed vignettes and tail-
pieces, unless entrusted to some one who is a thorough
master of ornamental art, might very much endanger the
dignity of appearance of the edition — but might add much
F. T. PALGRAVE, 1869 423
to the beauty of it if done as Holbein might be expected
to have done, for instance.
So much for my ideas on the subject, jotted down. I do
not mean to infer, however, that I should object to take part
in the undertaking in the event of these suggestions' not
prevailing. I did object to take part in the Tennyson work ;
but that was because Moxon came to me late, when I should
have had to hurry over the work at a disadvantage to my
reputation in comparison with the other men engaged.
In conclusion, you may inform Mr Payne that I shall be
very glad to help in this most laudable undertaking, and
trust that he will find me as reasonably disposed as to re-
muneration as any other of my fraternity and compeers.
I wish we might have been present to hear with you the
Cantata from your Sister's Cornfield songs ; and trust it will
turn out a success for her and Macfarren, who is so much
respected by the English musicians. — As ever, yours,
FORD MADOX BROWN.
216.— F. T. PALGRAVE to WILLIAM ROSSETTI.
[Mr Palgrave here deprecates my doing what I never
proposed to do — i.e., to make alterations in the text of Shelley
without specifying them in my notes. I replied explaining
my real intention, and he then withdrew all the substantial
part of his objection. I shall re-produce a part of his second
letter (No. 217), although this passage and others have been
published in the interesting Memorial of Mr Palgrave which
his Daughter brought out in 1899].
5 YORK GATE, REGENT'S PARK.
23 February 1869.
Dear Rossetti, — The work you have undertaken is of
such great importance to our literature (and is also so certain
to be closely scanned) that I hope you will not mind my
writing to you again about it
424 ROSSETTI PAPERS
What you aim at is a monumental or classical text of
Shelley. I agree that this may properly include whatever he
published (e.g. the Nicholson poems), with as many of the
unpublished as suit your discretion as Editor. . . .
In regard to the text of such an edition, I feel confident
that my opinion will be shared by all who care for our litera-
ture in general, and for Shelley in particular. Your duty is,
in regard (i) to all things printed by Shelley, (2) to all things
for which you recur to the MS. (as the poems first so printed
by his Wife, or any ones not yet published), to give the text
precisely as you find it ; but with the freest power of placing
your corrections and conjectures below.
I am sure that I am right in saying that this rule will not
only save you much trouble, but will also save you much
future annoyance, and earn you the gratitude of future
English readers.
You are wholly in error in regard to what I did in The
Golden Treasury ; as I noted every omission or change in the
text. If you ask, "Why did you then not place your correc-
tion in the notes?" — my reply is that books are published
under different laws, as they have different objects. . . . —
Ever truly yours,
F. T. PALGRAVE.
217.— F. T. PALGRAVE to WILLIAM ROSSETTI.
5 YORK GATE.
25 February 1869.
Dear Rossetti, — Your note gives me a new insight into
your work, and does away with nine-tenths of what I said.
I had inferred from your first letter that your changes of
text were not, necessarily and uniformly, to be accompanied
with an explanatory note.
The main point is that a reader shall be able to know
precisely what the author wrote or printed : if this be done
DR GARNETT, 1869 425
once for all, it is more a matter of simple taste than any-
thing whether obvious errors shall be corrected above or
below.
I have no doubt that you are right in reprinting all that
has been printed. . . . — Ever truly yours,
F. T. PALGRAVE.
218.— DR GARNETT to WILLIAM ROSSETTI.
[With reference to the curious surname " Daphne," I may
remark that, being at Otley in the autumn of 1890, I noticed
this name over a shop-front]
4 ST EDMUND'S TERRACE.
i March 1869.
My dear Rossetti, — . . . The reference to the Castle of
Petrella is in a book entitled De Paris a Sybaris, by Palustre
de Montifaut, Paris, 1868. He does not describe the place,
and does not seem to have examined it, but says, in a letter
dated Aquila, March I3th, 1867 : " En passant ce matin pres du
Chateau de Petrella, ou s'accomplit la sanglante tragedie, j'ai
toutefois voulu evoquer ces monstrueux souvenirs," — and then
goes off into the Cenci story. As he had seen the Castle " ce
matin," it must be near Aquila ; and, as Aquila is close to the
frontier of the Papal States, I suppose we may infer that it is
just across the border.
I have just read, in the current number of The Gentleman's
Magazine (p. 45 1), an anecdote which you should by all means
make a note of when you come to " My Aunt Nicholson " : —
" Within the memory of a literary friend, this startling
announcement was to be seen within the window of a public
house at the corner of Clare Market : * To be seen within, the
fork belonging to the knife with which Margaret Nicholson
attempted to stab his Majesty, George III.'" This is nearly
as good as that other exhibition of " the skull of Oliver Crom-
well when he was a little boy." By the way, Margaret's
426 ROSSETTI PAPERS
Grandson is or was lately Parish-clerk of Otley in Yorkshire,
under the name of Daphne. Her Son changed his name to
avoid obloquy, and, being a gardener, hit upon the classical
appellation aforesaid. — Yours very truly,
RICHARD GARNETT.
219. — BARONE KIRKUP to WILLIAM ROSSETTI.
[That is a well-known Shelleian anecdote "about the
parson who heard the name of Shelley" etc. I did, in 1869,
ask Trelawny about it ; and found, rather to my surprise, that
he did not believe that the incident had ever occurred. It
has ever since remained to me one of the unexplained
mysteries of Shelley's life, or of his inventive faculty.]
FLORENCE, 2 PONTE VECCHIO.
2 March 1869.
My dear Rossetti, — Bravo ! I am glad you are going to
revive Shelley. I have written to Trelawny, and told him
that I advised you to consult him. He was his greatest friend,
and can tell you much about him. Do you know Trelawny's
two works, The Younger Son, and Recollections of Shelley and
Byron ? The former was written before he knew Shelley ;
the latter is full of him, and he can tell you much more than
what he printed. T[relawny] knew your Father, and must
remember him well. I have seen five editions of The Younger
Son in English and French. It had a great success in France.
I remember some critic, quoting him, said : " Le joyeux et
terrible Trelawny, dont les memoires ne le cedent en rien a
ceux de son ami Byron, si injustement mutiles par un deposi-
taire infidele." I am sorry to see by T[relawny]'s letters that
he is getting melancholy — age, no doubt, though he is younger
than me ; but I make it a rule to chase the blue devils, and
my spirit-friends have made it easy. . . .
I have had the good fortune to make the acquaintance of
Mr Pietrocola-Rossetti, and I am charmed with him. Frank,
BARONE KIRKUP, 1869 427
spirited, and amiable. He knew much of your Father,
cherishes his memory, and admires his genius and learning.
I will show him the letters I have saved. There are hints in
them, especially towards the last, in which I think he alludes
to his final discoveries ; which he said he saved for the end of
his Beatrice, most likely destroyed by ... Aroux — whose
disgraceful book nobody cares for. I have got his presenta-
tion-copy with an inscription to Ste. Beuve. The leaves were
not cut open ! . . .
Ask Trelawny about the parson who heard the name of
Shelley at the Post Office, and knocked him down because he
heard that he was an atheist. S[helley] was very delicate,
and the parson very stout. Trelawny was long hunting for
him to pay him off.
Does Swinburne still intend to write on the subject of
Landor? . . .
I have been reading Taylor's Life of my old friend Haydon.
It is a most melancholy history. Eastlake told me it was
intensely interesting. So it is to us who knew him and most
of the people mentioned in it. I told Taylor when he was
here that I had many of Haydon's letters ; and, as he
published a second edition, they would have been useful, as
they were very confidential, and there are some sketches of
his head, very like him. He was the first designer in
Europe ; as I ascertained when I went to Paris, and made
the acquaintance of David and all his school, Girodet, Gerard,
Gros, Prudhon, Guerin, etc. As for Ingres and Scheffer, they
remained far behind. Horace Vernet and Delaroche were
good in their way, but that was limited. But for profound
knowledge of the figure Haydon was beyond them all. . . . —
Ever yours,
S. KIRKUP.
t P.S. — Three times I have written to Browning, to get my
letters and papers of Landor from Forster. . . . There are
scraps in Latin and English, not published except in news-
papers, that it would be difficult if not impossible to meet
with. I could tell S[winburne] much about L[andor]'s affairs,
428 ROSSETTI PAPERS
and his treatment by his family, and parsons and parsons'
wives in England etc. . . .
220. — JAMES SMETHAM to DANTE ROSSETTI.
[In this amusing letter there is a passage which seems to
imply that Smetham had, in one form or another, produced a
" portrait " of Rossetti. I can only say that I have not now
any sort of recollection of it. The original letter closes with
a humorous sketch of Brown and Rossetti, under the guise
of owls, looking at Smetham's pictures, with Smetham
cowering in the background. To the sketch is appended
the motto which is here given in a note.*]
i PARK LANE, STOKE NEWINGTON.
8 March 1869.
My dear Gabriel, — Friday will do as well as any other
evening. ... I shall be most glad to see Brown ; though,
with two such stunners staring at my pictures at once, I
don't know what's to become of my nerves. I must say
beforehand that any proposals amounting to a change of
the foreground and an entire reconstruction of the background
are too late. . . .
I am glad your friends are so satisfied with your portrait.
Whether the next is to be handsomer or uglier depends on
what you say as to my work. Every stricture writes a
wrinkle on your azure brow — every word of candid praise
cosmeticizes you.
lam much obliged to your Brother for his recommendation
to Moxon. . . . — Affectionately yours,
JAS. SMETHAM.
* "Well, Brother Gabriel," said the Brown Owl, " but this is abominable ! "-
" Hoot mon," replied Owl Gabriel, " dinna ye " etc. — (See Bad Words for March
LI869.)
WILLIAM ROSSETTI, 1869 429
221. — WILLIAM ROSSETTI to WILLIAM ALLINGHAM.
12 March [1869].
Dear Allingham, — ... I am in an advanced stage of the
Shelley process, and will indulge myself in a few details.
The Edition will present the following arrangement : —
Prefatory Matter (Mrs Shelley's and my own).
Long Poems, arranged according to dates (including
Julian and Maddalo^ Epipsychidiony and various others
hitherto mixed up with short ones).
Miscellaneous Poems, according to years.
Fragments, according to dates (includes all fragments,
even to so important a work as Triumph of Life).
Translations, according to authors.
Appendix, according to dates (Juvenile poems, variations,
etc. I omit nothing I can discover, however rubbishy.)
My own notes.
I have now done, broadly speaking, the whole of the
above, and have begun giving the volume its final reading.
A few extras, however, are coming in at the close : — Some
scraps extracted by Garnett, and as yet unpublished, and
(in my own hands, received from him) one of Shelley's MS.
books, which contains, I find, a considerable bulk of Charles
the First as yet unprinted, and which I am deciphering —
no easy job. Some notes and verifications are still needed ;
and the whole Memoir has to be written. For this, however,
I have made notes from almost all the books needing to be
consulted ; and have also recopied the notes in a tabulated
form (a heavy task), so as to see what the various authorities
say on the same particular points. ... I have now been
sticking to it — I may say incessantly — since the middle of
November; and I know the time has been fully occupied,
though possibly the results may seem meagre.
I did speak to Browning about the work one even-
ing in January that he was at our house. He responded
cordially, but did not enter into the subject in the way of
430 ROSSETTI PAPERS
suggesting or discussing any special point of treatment . . .
— Yours,
W. M. ROSSETTI.
P.S. — I should have said that Garnett assured me the
Shelley family give full permission for my making what I can
of the MS. book now in my hands.
222. — ROBERT BROWNING to DANTE ROSSETTI.
[This note refers to The Fortnightly Review^ and its then
Editor, Mr John Morley.]
19 WARWICK CRESCENT, UPPER WESTBOURNE TERRACE.
20 March 1869.
Dear Rossetti, — You know my old ways : I hope, grati-
tude to so kind a critic as Mr Morley is one of them — but
indeed it is not inconsistent with an impossibility of doing
what he proposes, and what, for his sake, I wish I could do.
Were I ever so disposed, I should be hampered much, if not
altogether hindered, by a certain number of refusals to earlier
applicants, who had my apologies along with the assurance
that I should write for nobody.
It is hardly with a grace — though the opportunity tempts
—that I speak here of what you wrote this month, or at least
printed : and, as for all the " other precious, precious jewels "
that you made me bright with in your letters, I can't speak
of them now nor at any time — nor would you wish it. — Ever
affectionately yours,
ROBERT BROWNING.
DR GARNETT, 1869 431
223.— PHILIP HAMERTON to WILLIAM ROSSETTI.
PRE CHARMOY, AUTUN, SAONE ET LOIRE.
21 March 1869.
My dear Mr Rossetti, — I was as dissatisfied as you could
be with the title Amateur Tor our periodical. . . . Since then
I have hit upon The Portfolio. . . .
I was rather surprised that you should seem to apprehend
any interference on my part with what you might write. All
that I should require of contributors would be that they
would give me notice (before writing an article) of the subject
chosen, and the length ; in order that, if another contributor
had chosen the same subject, or the length were inconvenient,
I might have the opportunity of saying so. As to opinion,
all intelligent men differ ; it is only stupid people who agree,
and they only agree because their opinions are secondhand
and come from the same source. You may occasionally
differ from my views ; but this does not in any way lessen
my respect for you, or disincline me to publish your papers.
As to correcting your papers so as to bring them into har-
mony with my views, I must say that I am wholly incapable
of anything of the kind ; that I would not stand it myself if
it were attempted with me (which it never has been) ; and
that, if I ask any one to contribute, it is that I believe him
to be worth listening to — and consequently should wish him
to speak his own mind, and not mine. . . . — Very truly
yours,
P. G. HAMERTON.
224. — DR GARNETT to WILLIAM ROSSETTI.
[" The old lady " (Miss Rumble) did not, as it turned out,
wholly deserve companionship with Beelzebub. Dr Garnett
made her acquaintance a few years later on, and she allowed
432 ROSSETTI PAPERS
him to transcribe a very interesting letter from Shelley (No.
102 in Forman's edition), and a letter from Mary Shelley
relating to the Poet's death. She possessed transcripts of
other letters from Shelley and Mary to the Gisbornes (all
or nearly all of them printed) ; also the walnut-bowl, men-
tioned in the verse-letter to Mrs Gisborne, which Miss
Rumble eventually bequeathed to the British Museum.
There were moreover copious journals by Mr Gisborne,
beginning towards 1824. The MSS. were sold by auction
after Miss Rumble's death, and were purchased by Sir
Percy Shelley.]
4 ST EDMUND'S TERRACE.
22 March 1869.
My dear Rossetti, — I have heard from Miss Blind's friend
at Plymouth, and send you a transcript of the most material
part of his letter. There seems nothing left but to com-
mend the old lady to Beelzebub, which I do for my part
with singular cordiality. It is fair to say however that the
papers destroyed probably related for the most part to Mrs
Gisborne's affairs during her first marriage, which would
account for Mr Reveley's anxiety to get them out of the
way. The Shelleys have numbers of similar documents,
which I have never had time to inspect. . . . — Yours very
truly,
RICHARD GARNETT.
" At the death of the Gisbornes she (Miss Rumble) in-
herited their household-effects and some small legacy ; and
they left in her hands large masses of letters and manu-
scripts of various kinds, which she was to keep until the
return of Mr Reveley from abroad. She kept them, and
on his return communicated the fact to him ; but he was
no Shelley enthusiast, and told her to destroy them, as he
did not want them ; and I believe they were nearly all
burned. What remained she sent to Mr Reveley some
time ago at his own request; and she retains nothing now
but a few sheets of autographs, and a few relics connected
with Shelley. She has also still a few letters which she
DANTE ROSSETTI, 1869 433
has shown to me in confidence, but positively refuses to
let them be seen by any one else, as she is under a promise
to that effect to Mr Reveley. I may say however that
they do not throw much light upon anything.
- T. W. FRECKELTON.
225.— DANTE ROSSETTI to PROFESSOR NORTON.
[In consequence of this request Rossetti re-obtained
possession of the water-colour of Clerk Saunders. After his
death it came into my hands : and from them it passed into
those of Mr C. Fairfax Murray.]
16 CHEYNE WALK.
19 April 1869.
My dear Norton, — You expressed a kind intention of
visiting my studio by daylight. . . .
I have long wished to make a proposal to you. It would
be a great satisfaction to me to possess the drawing you have
by my late Wife, of Clerk Saunders^ to add to those of hers
which are now mine, and which every year teaches me to
value more and more as works of genius, even apart from
other personal interest to me. None would ever have been
parted with, of course, had we not then hoped that these little
things were but preludes to much greater ones — a hope which
was never to be realized. I would not offer you a profit on
the drawing, as you would probably not accept that ; but
would esteem it a great favour if you would let me have it at
its original price — 35 guineas, if I recollect ; — or would, if you
preferred it, make a chalk drawing of Mrs Norton, life-size, of
the kind for which I am in the habit of charging 60 to 80
guineas. This I should do with the greatest pleasure, and
consider myself still greatly your debtor. — Ever yours,
D. G. ROSSETTI.
2 E
434 ROSSETTI PAPERS
226.— -WILLIAM ROSSETTI to FRANCES ROSSETTI.
HOTEL DE L'EUROPE, PIAZZA SANTA TRINITA, FLORENCE.
19 April [1869].
Dear Mamma, — ... In Rome we saw a good deal,
especially in the way of antiquities and the leading monu-
ments of art. Tupper is a persistent traveller, and very ready
— most agreeably so — to admire whatever really deserves it :
he is also most friendly and good-humoured. Unfortunately for
him, and in a minor degree for me, his health has been very
seriously out of order, interfering with our seeing some things
at all, or others comfortably. At times his weakness was
extreme, and great energy must have been demanded to
enable him to do as much as he did ; his cough and chest
plagued him. ... His cough and health were so bad that he
got to think Rome an unfavourable air : we therefore left
slightly earlier than we had intended, and came on hither to
Florence, passing through and looking at Foligno, Spello, and
Assisi (glorious country, and some wonderful things in
mediaeval art). Since Saturday week he had been stronger,
and somewhat less bad in the chest and throat : but this
morning he seemed half dead with spasms. They seized him
at midnight, and went on incessantly till about noon, half
choking him at every breath ; to lie down any part of the
night was impossible. Of all this I knew nothing till about
7.30 A.M., when he came into my bedroom looking like a
spectre. I had to run off for a Doctor ; and at length one
was procured who has assuaged the spasms, and perhaps (I
have no great confidence in it) Tupper may be capable of
moving about again the day after to-morrow. I am writing
this in his bedroom, where he is half dozing and half gasping
— 4 o'clock P.M. . . .
Hunt is here — a good deal better than when he left
London — and has been doing everything friendly, especially
at this Tupperian crisis. He ought to have gone to-day to
Venice, but proposes postponing it till to-morrow, I have
WILLIAM ROSSETTI, 1869 435
also seen a good deal of Theodoric and his Wife, who are
most cordial and affectionate. . . . Theodoric (who has just
called, and even asks Tupper to go to him and be nursed by
his Wife) joins in affectionate messages. — Your affectionate
WILLIAM.
Poor old Kirkup has been very unwell, and looks almost
moribund : but I am told his power of recovering is great. . . .
227.— WILLIAM ROSSETTI to FRANCES ROSSETTI.
HOTEL DE L'EUROPE, FLORENCE.
21 An7
Dear Mamma, — Poor Tupper's illness goes on fearfully
amiss : I very much fear it will end fatally, and at no distant
date. Two Doctors have seen him, and call the disease
nervous contraction of the muscles of the lower belly, conse-
quent on a cold : in fact, much the same thing as tetanus, but
not of the kind that ends in lockjaw. His sufferings are
appalling, and the Doctor who has attended the case through-
out says he never saw such fortitude, nor so extraordinary an
instance of the disease. Yesterday I wrote to the Brother
George Tupper (4 Barge Yard, Bucklersbury) : next tele-
graphed that he had better come : finally, at Tupper's express
urgency, telegraphed that he is not to come, but a Sister or
Cousin may do so. When any one comes — if indeed poor
Tupper does not die before, which I fear is the more probable
issue — I shall be free to return to London : till then, of
course not. . . . The kind attentions and co-operation of
Hunt, and of Theodoric and his Wife, exceed my powers of
description, and are of course a great relief to me. . . .
I know you will all feel for poor Tupper and his family,
and also for me. But believe me that, as far as I am concerned,
apart from the distress of Tupper's imminent danger and
miserable sufferings, I am as well and strong as ever I was
in my life ; and have no reason to doubt that I shall so con-
436 ROSSETTI PAPERS
tinue up to the time when I see you again after a journey
that seemed to promise great gratification, but which now
threatens to end in a calamity such as one remembers for
life.
Theodoric has a bad opinion of the case : and especially
fears that, even if the tetanic attack is conquered, some second
illness, such as miliary fever, will supervene, and offer no
chance of recovery. The two Doctors also, Duffy and Burci
(who was called in for a consultation, and quite confirms
Duffy's treatment), are very grave, though they distinctly
assert the case is not beyond hope. We have now engaged
a nurse, who will be here continuously from yesterday even-
ing. . . . — Your most affectionate
WILLIAM.
228.— DANTE ROSSETTI to PROFESSOR NORTON.
[I have cut out from this letter a passage regarding my
Brother's design of Hamlet and Ophelia, as that passage has
been used by my Daughter Helen in her Art- Journal Easter
Annual, 1902, on Dante Rossettil\
1 6 CHEYNE WALK.
23 April 1869.
My dear Norton, — I send you herewith some photos —
chiefly from uncoloured drawings. The Cassandra subject I
hope one day to paint. I mean her to be prophesying the
death of Hector before his last battle. He will not be deterred
from going, and rushes at last down the steps, giving an order
across her noise to the Captain in charge of the soldiers who
are going round the ramparts on their way to battle. Cas-
sandra tears her garments in rage and despair. Helen is arm-
ing Paris in a leisurely way, and he is amused at the gradual
rage she is getting into at what Cassandra says of her. Other
figures are Andromache with Hector's child, the Nurse,
Priam and Hecuba, and one of the Brothers who is expostula-
ting with Cassandra. Hector's companions have got down
| the steps before him, and are beckoning him to follow, . . .
SMITH, ELDER, & CO., 1869 437
I have photos of two sketches by my Wife; Pippa,
and another ; which I send you, as you will, I am sure,
enjoy their poetic character. Also two or three of my
sketches of her. I have had all her scraps and scrawls in
ink photographed. After your kind letter about the Clerk
Saunders, I hardly feel justified in accepting the generous
way in which you meet my wish. It seems shameful to
be depriving Mrs Norton and yourself of what is yours, and
so much enjoyed by you. In any case, I should wish to be
quite sure that what I gave you in exchange would satisfy
you equally. Shall I do the proposed drawing of Mrs
Norton ? or would you like one of those of Mrs Morris ? I
would take care to give you your choice among some good
ones. Or is there anything else you would prefer my doing
for you? Small work I have given up for the present. I
shall be with you part of next Thursday, and meanwhile
and ever am — Sincerely yours,
D. G. ROSSETTI.
P.S. — I could give you perhaps, to make up the measure,
some of many sketches in pencil I have, if worth giving.
229.— SMITH, ELDER, & Co., to DANTE ROSSETTI.
15 WATERLOO PLACE, LONDON.
4 May 1869.
Dear Sir, — In reply to the enquiry contained in your
letter of the 2nd instant, addressed to Mr Williams — we beg
to say that we have sold 593 copies of your Early Italian
Poets, and we have 64 copies remaining on hand. . . .
We are happy to be able to inform you that the result
of the sales of the work up to 31 December is £108. iis. 8d.,
of which £100 has been placed to the credit of Mr Ruskin,
leaving a balance of £S. I is. 8d. due to yourself. — We remain,
dear Sir, yours faithfully,
SMITH, ELDER, & Co.
438 HOSSETTI PAPERS
230.—]. W. INCHBOLD to WILLIAM ROSSETTI.
WELL HOUSE, NITON, ISLE OF WIGHT.
10 May 1869.
Dear Wm. Rossetti, — There is a picture of Venice which
all our friends seem to like at 27 Cavendish Square, Dr
Radcliffe's. ... It is called Porto del Mare ; was painted
mainly in Venice, from my gondola at the Lido in the
morning when the fisher-boats again enter the Porto to their
home. Venice herself is seen foreshortened — Murano and
Torcello to the extreme right — hills about Verona hinted to
the extreme left. The brilliant sails, almost the only echo of
the art of Titian and Tintoretto now left, are not, as you
know, exaggerated in colour nor character of emblems. I
have meant it for that lazy sort of a morning, not unknown
also to you, when the hot mist at horizon hides mostly the
distant hills of sweet Verona — excepting only those over the
island of St Helena, the garden of the Duke de Chambord,
the antique heir of France. Such the material — which many
have deemed an art-success. I have tried to get the lazy
swell of the water and reflections, and that peculiar brilliancy
of Venice-nature, without thinking of Mr Turner or Canaletto.
But your praise will depend upon the power within the
picture itself to touch happily your ideal of right art.
It is a companion-picture to the one hanging in the Uni-
versity College Hospital, and painted by me for the benefit of
the poor patients there (the idea originating with my friend
Dr Reynolds) ; and was executed mainly from my gondola
in the lagoon before those gardens we enjoyed together one
sweet summer evening — gardens too the gift, and only gift
worth notice, of the larger Napoleon to your own Venice.
The picture of Stonehenge from the East is also there (at
27 Cavendish Square) ; and may be interesting to some
gentleman who wishes to see it, and may rely on the courtesy
of the Doctor. It is (as you also, I believe, know) literal as
to state of this strange weird ruin at present. I have tried
DANTE ROSSETTI, 1869 439
to secure architectural grandeur and natural sublimity,
especially that religiousness by the introduction of the sun
setting in the very centre of the altar-like portal ; whilst
the clouds are meant to suggest what is at once fiery and
spiritual, the forms being (as often in nature) scarcely draped
in cloudy matter. At the base is a barrow of the big past
about which the everlasting flowers are opening seed-petals
to the wind.
It is not, as you know, very easy to gain success perfect
and complete in a picture like this, painted almost entirely
from nature, with another and entirely distinct vision before
the imagination, and perhaps with a heart somewhat maimed
and broken by that deadly and relentless opposition I seem
to inspire most innocently in some quarters. . . .
I think also, if your Brother will be kind enough to send
the picture of Venice which was at Chelsea, that also will be
visible ; including as it does all Venice from St Helena to
the Church of the Redeemer in the Giudecca. . . . — Ever
affectionately yours,
J. W. INCHBOLD.
231.— DANTE ROSSETTI to PROFESSOR NORTON.
[Mason, here mentioned, was the distinguished Painter of
landscapes with figures.]
[16 CHEYNE WALK.]
12 May 1869.
My dear Norton, — I am very sorry to have been baulked
of my visit to you last night ; but just after dinner Mason
dropped in, who comes from a distance and is very delicate ;
so I could not send him adrift, and had to spend the evening
with him, and take my walk in his company.
I wanted to speak to you on a matter which W. B. Scott
was mentioning to me. There is a very fine portrait of Emer-
son, by his late Brother David Scott (one of the few great
painters this country has ever produced), which has been
440 ROSSETTI PAPERS
placed in the hands of W. J. Linton the engraver, now in
America, with a view to sale. I believe Scott would take 60
or 70 guineas for it, and he asked me whether I thought you
might possibly give a hint of any probable purchaser. It is
a life-size half-length. If I meet you once again, as I still
hope, before your leaving London, you might tell me if any-
thing occurs to you on the point.
To-day is my forty-first birthday ; and, with most good
things gone, and others that will never come now, it is some-
thing to know of old friends still friendly, even though one
may seldom see them ; and to say with how much true
sympathy I am — Always yours,
D. G. ROSSETTI.
232. — MADOX BROWN to WILLIAM ROSSETTI.
[This letter about a proposed Art-Exhibition speaks for
itself. I did not write a series of letters such as Brown
suggested. There may have been various reasons (now for-
gotten by me) for not doing it, and especially this — that I
was not then connected with any journal which would have
been a fitting medium for such correspondence.]
37 FITZROY SQUARE.
20 May 1869.
My dear William, — In reply to your appeal for advice,
I hasten to give it as my decided opinion that no good to
Art can ever come of Exhibitions got up by Committees
so utterly untrustworthy as those of the present undertaking
and the Dudley Gallery. Their views are precisely those
of the Academicians — only lower. Some cases of individual
injustice or cruelty may no doubt be set right in the present
case ; but what good to Art can result from the springing-
up of one more of these numerous mediocre bungling Ex-
hibitions? The Oil-exhibition of the Dudley is already a
disgrace.
DANTE ROSSETTI, 1869
441
The only thing that could at all benefit art would be
an Exhibition of our own, which is impossible, — such as did
not come off at the Hogarth eight years ago.
/ think the only good now that could be done would be
the commencement by yourself, should such be possible, of
a series of vigorous letters to some prominent paper, telling
the Academicians in strong but respectful language precisely
what is now required of them. You are quite equal to doing
this in perfection, but I should be delighted to aid with any
ideas on the subject that I may possess.
Were I to write at greater length, I could not put my
views more distinctly than I have done. Come in the first
evening you are at liberty ; they were saying here only on
Sunday that we never see you now. — Sincerely yours,
FORD MADOX B.
233. — DANTE ROSSETTI to FREDERICK SANDYS.
[This letter relates to the untoward difference (already
referred to in my Diary, No. 210) which arose between Mr
Sandys the Painter and my Brother, after some years of close
companionship, during which Mr Sandys was for several
months a guest resident in Rossetti's house. Rossetti came
after a while to think that his friend adopted, though not
with conscious intention, subjects for pictures, and to some
extent methods of treatment, which had been already schemed
out by Rossetti himself, and had been notified among his
acquaintances as being his. Rossetti wrote a friendly letter
on the subject to Sandys, who replied with two somewhat
indignant letters in my possession. Next comes this present
letter — which I leave to speak for itself, without commenting
on all the details. Some years afterwards — in 1880 or earlier
—Mr Sandys evinced a wish to re-knit his old intimacy with
Rossetti, who responded with much cordiality ; but I believe
that, owing in part to his then recluse habits of life, they did
not actually meet]
442 ROSSETTI PAPERS
[16 CHEYNE WALK.
1869—? i June.]
My dear Sandys, — Thanks for the £50. I remember your
showing me your memoranda to this amount after our return
from the country in the autumn of '66. I myself have kept
no accounts at any time. You view this payment as the
severance of a last tie between us ; and any tie of this kind is
so unimportant compared to those which you spontaneously
broke through in your former letter that I had better proceed
at once to reply to that ; as I should have done before but for
the very painful nature of such reply.
First of all, I must say that I did not even dream of such
a result being called for by my first letter to you ; but of this
you are the best judge, according to the scale of importance
at which you rate that letter and the nature of our previous
unreserved friendship. I myself should have thought it
insincere and unworthy not to speak plainly to so intimate a
friend when I felt a difficulty arising between us.
As to the Lucretia design, my claim was based mainly on
the mirror and reflection of figures in the background, as
combined with the subject. This point, according to the
description given me (and since on inquiry confirmed), was
identical in my design and yours. Without that, the design,
as you describe it, is of course absolutely yours, and not mine
in the least ; and I trust you will paint it. The Helen is
surely a strong case of resemblance (the position of the figure
being the only difference) ; and, as to the Magdalene, the
moment taken by me was taken then for the first time in art,
and constituted entirely the value of my design.
I must now say what perhaps I did not sufficiently dwell
upon in my last note, though I know I indicated it, i.e., that I
do not for a moment suppose you to have adopted these
points of resemblance with clear intention from my work ;
but I cannot doubt (I must repeat, to be sincere) that they
dwelt in your mind from having seen mine, and there germin-
ated in a new form. The admirable skill with which you
carry out all your work is such that, once adopted by you in
the shape of complete pictures, the ideas become yours to all
DANTE ROSSETTI, 1869 443
the world, and I could never venture to claim them again
under pain of ridicule. That your memory is not infallible
(and therefore that such unconscious adoption is not impos-
sible) is proved to me by what you say of not having seen
my Lucretia except in the photograph. I remember clearly
showing you the water-colour, and your looking at it for some
time, just about a year ago, when I repainted the figure in it.
Again — do you remember once drawing my attention
yourself to the strong resemblance between your first
woodcut-design in the Cornhill and Tintoret's St George and
the Dragon ? I forget whether you told me that this was
intentional, or only noticed by yourself afterwards, but I
suppose the latter.
You tell me of my having once claimed two subjects
which you proposed to paint — Perdita and Merlin and
Nimite. I am quite certain I never thought at all of paint-
ing either subject. If, as I suppose from what you tell me,
I raised any claim on these subjects, it must have been on
points in your description of your projected designs — not
as to the subjects themselves, which I never thought of
certainly. I very dimly recollect anything about it, but can
just remember receiving the letters which you say you
wrote me, and then perceiving the misconception ; though,
the matter being uncomfortable, I explained no further.
Thus much for rejoinder on the artistic question. You
tell me that four or five friends, being consulted, agree with
you. I assure you there are many who not only agree with
me, but have often suggested these questions of resemblance
to me of their own accord.
Any other question than the artistic one it is hardly for
me to entertain, as you have told me spontaneously that
you " resign my friendship." I myself hold that friendship
should only be resigned when one friend can prove malice
or deception against another. Of the first of these I know
I am innocent ; of the second I should have been to a
certain extent guilty if I had held my tongue as soon as I
felt strongly impelled to speak. I believe myself firmly in
the sincerity and single-mindedness of your friendship for
444
ROSSETTI PAPERS
me till this time, and even in all you say of your pain at
the termination to which you have chosen to bring it. You
say that you believe this matters little to me ; but why you
say so I cannot conceive. It is however some relief to
know that the separation which you make between us
comes at a moment when, to my joy, great success and
many friends await you, and that I can on my side remain
still — Affectionately yours,
D. G. ROSSETTI.
234.— DANTE ROSSETTI to FREDERICK SANDYS.
16 CHEYNE WALK.
5 June 1869.
My dear Sandys, — I have made no "attempt at self-
justification," for none was needed. I said to you originally
what, as an artist, I had a right to say, however its un-
pleasantness had delayed my saying it ; and I did this after
proving amply at all times that, as a friend, I was beyond
suspicion.
As for giving people's names, the idea is absurd. I asked
you for none when you told me that some friends took your
view of the matter. The question is purely one of artistic
criticism, whoever raises it ; and it would be as ridiculous in
me as in you to make it personal to others.
The money-matter I hold to be of no importance, as I
showed by keeping no accounts. As you send this again, I
merely do not send it back. . . .
I have been unwell ; and poor Mike Halliday's sudden
death has combined with other things to make me very sad
for a while, though now I am getting round. . . . — Yours,
D. G. ROSSETTI.
JOHN TUPPER, 1869 445
235.— .JOHN TUPPER to WILLIAM ROSSETTI.
[It appears that Tupper had been recommended to offer
himself as a candidate for the Slade Professorship of Fine
Art at one of the Universities: the observations which he
makes in reply were based upon his experience as Master of
Geometrical Drawing in Rugby School. In speaking of
" Outis," he refers to the fancy-name which he had used in
publishing a book (Hiatus, or The Void in Modern Education)
wherein some of the same considerations are raised.]
RUGBY.
1 8 June 1869.
Dear William, — . . . And so you have sighted land, and
the Shelleian labour is nearly done. After breathing so long
in that poetic element, you will come out of it like a swimmer
all atremble, and with nerves too high-strung to readily
adapt themselves to a thinner, poorer, and less heroic
medium. (It's a fact that, after living in the water for a long
time, the air has not stuff enough in it to counter-check the
enlarged pulse and nerve-play that the graver element has
excited.) . . .
About the Professorship, it seems better on the whole
that things be left to the run of luck. The 'Varsities will no
doubt get a literatus, tinctured of course with Art, to do the
work. Nothing can come of nothing ; and the Fine-Art
Professorship will not be a very prosperous and fruitful
innovation. You'll see, it will be talkee-talkee, all about
principles that no one ever disputes. All the Drawing-
Masters, even, would agree with Outis in principles of art.
No — a man must give the whole treasure of his time and
strength to the wrestling with God's angels (these forms of
strength and beauty), to do us any good now in art. But it
will be comment upon comment, gloss upon gloss, for a while
longer. Art-preaching is well ; but, without practical culture,
discipline, it is ill. Here is the result of my experience
(I have this to myself — it is my little bit of discovery). The
446 ROSSETTI PAPERS
r substance (sub-stans) of all poetry, art, etc., is feeling, emotion.
That is the first and only healthy state of art ; and comes when
all the co-ordinated faculties utter their speech spontaneously,
unconsciously, automatically (emotionally). Next, we grow
conscious of this utterance ; the emotion is " cognized " ; and
an emotion thought upon is an intellection. So Art becomes
. a thing of the mind, and not a felt fact. . . . — Good-bye.
J. L. TUPPER.
236.-— BARONE KIRKUP to WILLIAM ROSSETTI.
PONTE VECCHIO 2.
24 June 1869.
My dear Rossetti, — ... I hear that Mr Forster has
finished his Life of Landor. . . . He promised to return me
the papers which I lent him long ago. . . . They were about
fifty letters, odes, scraps, conversations, and slips out of news-
papers. ... I found the other day half-a-dozen more scraps
in a box ; and I sent them to Swinburne, if they are worth
his looking over. . . . — Ever yours,
SEYMOUR KIRKUP.
237.— DR GARNETT to WILLIAM ROSSETTI.
[" The story of Shelley's consultation with Basil Montagu "
was to the effect that Shelley, after separating from his Wife
Harriet, and forming a connection with Mary Godwin, had
consulted Montagu as to whether it would be fitting or not to
invite Harriet to house with Mary and himself.]
BRITISH MUSEUM.
13 July 1869.
My dear Rossetti, — ... I never before heard the story
of Shelley's consultation with Basil Montagu ; but it is quite
DR GARNETT, 1869 447
of a piece with all I know of his conduct at the time, and con-
firms what I have always said, that, although he would no
longer cohabit with Harriet, he had no idea of abandoning
her. I thought from the first that Hookham was probably
Browning's informant. This makes it nearly a moral certainty
that the letter from Harriet referred to by Swinburne was
written about the beginning of July. I do not believe that
Shelley was insane at the period, but I dare say he was quite
sufficiently excited for Hookham to think so. You may
remember a remarkable passage in Hogg, near the end, where
he speaks of certain visions or hallucinations which Shelley
had on a walk from Bracknell to Horsham about the begin-
ning of June, and therefore before the date of these trans-
actions.
I leave town for a fortnight on Monday ; and, having much
to do before my departure, I am afraid that I should not be
able to annotate your MS. just now. If it has not gone to
press by the beginning of August, I shall be very glad to
peruse it again. ... I will now mention one important
correction. You say that Godwin and his Wife readily
aquiesced in Shelley's connection with Mary. On the con-
trary, they were extremely angry, and, upon Shelley and
Mary's return from the Continent, ignored them altogether.
I cannot find that any communication took place until
November 1815. There is a story of Godwin's seeing Shelley
from a distance in the Park while they were estranged, and
remarking that " he was so beautiful, it was a pity he should
be so wicked ! " . . .
I am glad you have met Miss Blind. She is a very
interesting person, and has the keenest sympathy with
imaginative power, wherever manifested, particularly in
Shelley, Swinburne, and your Brother. I hope she will be
able to do some good with Miss Rumble, and that the lady's
relics may prove to be valuable. I have seen plenty of letters
from Emilia, usually beginning "Caro fratello." They are
very interesting, of course ; but, when you have read one, you
seem to have read them all. — Yours very sincerely,
R. GARNETT,
448 ROSSETTI PAPERS
238.— BARONE KIRKUP to WILLIAM ROSSETTI.
PONTE VECCHIO 2.
14 July 1869.
My dear Friend, — Yours of the 6th has just arrived, and
I hasten to thank you for it, and the kind compliment
enclosed from your Essay ; which I esteem a high honour,
and for which I am grateful. . . .
Pietrocola made me acquainted (photographically) with
all your family. He and his Wife are excellent persons
and warm-hearted souls. He has the greatest affection for
the memory of your dear Father, whom I consider one of
the martyrs of science. He was before his age, as most
discoverers have been in former times. Now it is different.
Neither Watt nor Morse, both of whom I knew, has been
collate by the Inquisition, like Galileo and Machiavelli. . . .
Lord Vernon wanted me to illustrate his Dante. I would
not attempt it, after my old friend and master, Flaxman ; and
I proposed monuments, views, portraits, pictures, etc., one
before every canto, and a vignette at the end of each, and
about twenty for the introduction. As there were some
cantos where no monuments are mentioned, I proposed a
sort of panorama, uniting many subjects, as the old painters
did—
1. The three beasts, Virgil, the Sciagurati, and Charon.
2. Limbo and the Poets.
3. The bufera degli amanti* Cerberus, Plutus, and the
Avari and Prodighi.
4. The telegraph and Dite, with the boat of Phlegyas.
5. The city of Dite, the Minotaur, the burato, the Centaurs,
the wood of Suicides, the burning sand and shower of fire,
Dante on the margin of the canal ; —
and so on, uniting many subjects in one view as the oldest
masters sometimes did. Some of my drawings were after-
wards spoiled by retouching them by ignorant artists ; and
* Whirlwind of the Lovers.
LUCY BROWN ROSSETTI, 1869 449
the Zodiac is a failure, owing to the ignorance of the Editor,
to whom Lord Vernon had not explained it before his death.
I will tell you how to correct it. It is a thing of my own
invention. The plates are marked S.K., V., P.L., for me,
Lord Vernon, and Paolo Lasinio the engraver. I withdrew
from the affair, for I found I was being sacrificed as well as
tormented by the caprices of my Lord, who was in such a hurry
to publish that he would not allow the engraver to finish
properly, and yet the book has been thirty years coming out !
A copy has been sent to the National Library in a shabby
paper cover, uncut when I saw it. I don't know the present
Lord Vernon. . . .
I am glad you have secured the friendship of Trelawny.
He is a noble fellow. He is not only my greatest and best
friend, but the best friend I ever heard of, and he has great
natural talents. The more you know him, the more you will
like him. . . .
I saved Rossini's life fifteen years ago — strychnine !
Salute your cousins and all your family and A. C.
S[winburne]. — With sincere affection, yours ever,
SEYMOUR KIRKUP.
Browning told me that Landor had cut Forster (if I
understood right), but that L[andor]'s family had given him
help and encouragement to write his Life. I never saw
F[orster] ; but it was to please Browning and commemorate
Lfandor] that 1 sent the letters etc. to Bfrowning], who sent
them to Fforster], who wrote me a note thanking me for the
loan of them. .
239. — LUCY BROWN (ROSSETTI) to MADOX BROWN.
[I give this scrap as affording a slight glimpse of William
Morris. He had started for the Continent with his Wife, and
his Sister-in-law Miss Burdon, and had invited Lucy Brown
to join in the trip. Miss Burdon and Miss Brown, having
2 F
450 ROSSETTI PAPERS
reached Cologne through Ghent and other cities, returned to
London after a few days — Mr and Mrs Morris proceeding
further on their way. — The Rue de la Cloche, Calais, contains
the house in which Madox Brown was born.]
HOTEL MEURICE, RUE DE GUISE, CALAIS.
[19 July 1869.]
My dearest Papa, — We arrived here, where we are likely
to remain till to-morrow, as Mrs Morris is feeling by no means
well after the journey. . . . The heat is so intense it is almost
unendurable. I am writing in the courtyard, which is a great
improvement on the house. Mr Morris is also writing, or
attempting to write, poetry ; but the jabbering of about a
dozen Frenchmen is, I fancy, disturbing to him (as I find
myself inclined to write some of their remarks). ... I was
too tired to go to the Rue de la Cloche on our return. I
mean to go there this evening, however. . . . — Your very
loving child,
LUCY.
P.S. — Mr Morris has written fifty lines, and has gone for
a turn in the town.
240. — MATHILDE BLIND to WILLIAM ROSSETTI.
2 WINCHESTER ROAD, ADELAIDE ROAD.
20 July 1869.
Dear Mr Rossetti, — I was highly pleased on receiving
your version of the Shelley anecdote, although it differs in
some of the details from the story as told me by Miss Rumble.
As I wrote it down on the evening of hearing it, as soon as I
reached home, I believe it is, at any rate, a correct statement
of what I heard myself. I have copied it out for you exactly
as I find it in my note-book. You will see that it is there
expressly stated that the story belongs to the time when the
Gisbornes were in England, and the Shelleys occupying their
MATHILDE BLIND, 1869 451
house. The knife was a pistol, still more dangerous a weapon
in Shelley's hand ; and the fact of the woman being the wife
of the man who was bullying her makes Shelley's rage even
more natural. The story, it seems, was told to Miss Rumble
by the servants themselves, and also mentioned by Mrs
Shelley in some letter, I forget to whom. Miss Rumble also
spoke to me of Shelley's and Mrs Gisborne's belief in appari-
tions, and told me some little thing connected with it, which
however I cannot clearly recollect. I think that Trelawny
mentions something of the same kind in his Recollections
referring to Shelley and Byron. . . .
Shelley appears to me as a unique apparition among the
great poets of the world. He is our " bright and morning
star" among the stellar splendours. . . . — Very faithfully
yours,
MATHILDE BLIND.
When Shelley was staying in the villa of the Gisbornes
during their absence in England, a most droll incident
occurred, which Miss Rumble told me. It appears that the
servants Giuseppe and Annunziata, who were man and wife,
had been left behind with the Shelleys. One evening there
had sprung up a thorough conjugal tempest; and Shelley,
hearing Giuseppe abusing his Wife very savagely and also ill-
using her, rushed upon him with a pistol, shouting " I'll shoot
you, I'll shoot you!" The startled fellow ran for his very
life, Shelley after him ; till the former, coming to a shrubbery
of laurels, managed to slip under them. Shelley in his eager-
ness darting past him, he in a few minutes found it possible to
dodge back into the house unperceived. Shelley, seeing him
no more, at last went back to the house ; where, to his
unutterable surprise, he found Giuseppe and Annunziata sit-
ting together in the most amicable manner, addressing each
other as " Caro " and " Carissima." " But were you not
quarrelling even now ? " exclaimed the perplexed poet.
" Quarrelling ? " said Giuseppe with mock innocence. " No,
Signor, we never quarrelled." " But I have been running
after you in order to shoot you." " No, Signor, you never
452 ROSSETTI PAPERS
ran after me, for I have been sitting here for the last hour or
more. You must have fancied all this." And, Giuseppe and
Annunziata (who had both been considerably frightened) con-
tinuing to assure him that they had had no quarrel, and Mary
Shelley, whom they had let into the secret, saying the same,
Shelley was at last utterly mystified, and half inclined him-
self to believe that he must have fancied it.
Miss Rumble also told me that Shelley, who was in the
habit of using a little warming-pot (or whatever else it is
with which it is customary in Italy to warm the hands in
winter), one day went running about the house screaming
" Fire, fire ! " till everybody was running about fairly frightened
to see where it could be. At last it was discovered that
Shelley's own jacket had caught fire from the thing he held
in his hands.
Unfortunately I could recollect but one sentence from the
letters of Emilia Viviani, which ran as follows to the best of
my knowledge. She compares herself to the flowers of the
dawn, who have all the freshness of the dew upon them, and
whose honey has been robbed as yet by no bee ; " you alone
have been my bee, O adorato Sposo."
241.— DANTE ROSSETTI to MADOX BROWN.
[By " the old lady " is meant Miss Losh, a Cousin of Miss
Boyd of Penkill Castle. Mr Brown did not avail himself of
the invitation here conveyed. — The "stables" spoken of in
the P.S. were those proper to Rossetti's house in Cheyne
Walk.]
PENKILL CASTLE, NEAR GIRVAN, AYRSHIRE.
19 August 1869.
Dear Brown, — Here I am since yesterday, having spent
one day on the road with the old lady. Everything is as
jolly as possible, and everybody wants you. So you see you
must come instantly on receipt of this. You will enjoy
yourself greatly, and even profit in subject-matter for some-
WILLIAM ROSSETTI, 1869 453
thing to a certainty. . . . Change carriages at Kilmarnock,
and go on at once to Ayr. Here you would arrive at 10.50,
and would have to stay there till 3.32, which time you could
occupy in grog at the Tarn O* Shanter, where you would see
T[am] o' S[hanter]'s and Souter Johnny's chairs and
drinking-horns. . . . — Ever yours,
D. G. ROSSETTI.
P. S. — On Monday I actually got possession of the stables,
and broke down the door separating them from the garden.
On soberly considering them, I think them most promising.
242. — WILLIAM ROSSETTI to DANTE ROSSETTI,
Penkill Castle.
[In my Memoir of Dante Rossetti I have given extracts
from letters which he wrote to me in 1869; when, having
caused a large proportion of his poems to be privately
printed (with a tolerably clear view towards early publica-
tion), he sent the proofs to me, inviting comment and
revision. Here I give a few out of the many remarks I
made in response. The pagination quoted is of course that
of fat private printing, and does not apply to the published
volume. Pages 16 and 18 belong to The Burden of Nineveh.
Mary in Summer was a very early poem (dating perhaps in
1846) which has not been published. Placatd Venere is a
sonnet, the same as the much-debated Nuptial Sleep.]
56 EUSTON SQUARE.
23 August [1869].
Dear Gabriel, — I have been reading your poems all the
evening with intense pleasure : they are (as I know from of
old) most splendid, and ought to be published without any
not seriously motived delay. Some of the old ones, like
Staff and Scrip, to which my memory was entirely faithful
but rather blurred, are even better than I would have
454 ROSSETTI PAPERS
affirmed. ... I have made various, but not many, press-
corrections, not needing any notification. . . .
Page 1 6. Egyptian mummies —
Even to some
Of these thou wert antiquity.
This statement, literally accepted, is no doubt true : but
you know Egyptian civilization and art are far older than
Ninevite, and I think the impression from your passage runs
counter to this fact.
1 8.—
Eldest grown of earthly queens.
The same consideration arises, and more unevadeably.
21. Ave. — I would retain this, and consider your note a
most ample saving-clause. . . .
65. I doubt whether the effect of the long lines in this
poem is quite satisfactory to the ear — as
So my maiden, so my modest may.
They have the great value of specializing the lyrical rhythm
— and, if you advisedly like them, you are probably right. . . .
85. Mary in Summer. — I could not recommend its omis-
sion, but can't exactly dissuade. It is very pretty.
r 91. I am sorry to perceive, on reading this Italian poem
with a strict technical view, that several lines are decidedly
un-Italian in metre. Your knowledge of the fact will confirm
mine — that one can't in Italian go on the merely accentual
plan of Christabel etc. etc. : every foot (barring elision of
vowels) must be two syllables and no more. All these lines
are peccant ones —
E piangendo disse
Dello stanco sole [etc.] . . .
147. The Choice. — I incline to the admission of these
sonnets.
Care, gold, and care —
Is this rightly printed ? I think the drift of the sonnet
might gain if you could make the speaker jeer against
WILLIAM ROSSETTI, 1869
455
thought — any serious purpose in life — as well as money-
making. As long as he prefers pleasure to that, he seems to
be about right — and I don't suppose you mean he should
so seem altogether.
Put-in Placatd Venere by all means — at any rate, so long
as the collection remains private. I must re-read the poem
before expressing a distinct opinion as to publication. . . . —
Your
W. M. R.
P.S. — P. 1 6. I also rather doubt the phrase " a pilgrim "
as applied to these Egyptians. I understand it to mean what
we should call " an art-pilgrim " — a tourist with an archaeo-
logical object. I suspect these mummies were innocent of
such purposes — or at the extreme utmost would have " done "
Egypt. Nineveh is very distant, and alien too. If it is a
religious pilgrim — as a consulter of the Oracle at Delphi, for
instance — I believe it is equally or more untenable.
243. — WILLIAM ROSSETTI to DANTE ROSSETTI,
Penkill Castle.
[P. 157 relates to the Sonnet Retro me Sathana ; 169 to
that upon Giorgione's picture in the Louvre; 175 to that for
Rossetti's picture The Girlhood of Mary Virgin; 199 etc. to
the prose tale Hand and Soul. The Sonnet The Bullfinch
was published under a different name, Beauty and the Bird. —
As to " Miss Losh's architectural works " etc. a letter from
Dante Rossetti has been published dated 21 August 1869.]
56 EUSTON SQUARE.
24 August [1869.]
Dear Gabriel, — I have just finished the proofs.
P. 157. I don't quite like
Many years, many months, and many days.
If I remember right, there used to be a particular number
456 ROSSETTI PAPERS
given, which I think better in effect, though perhaps too
mannered. I'm not sure but that I should prefer
For certain years and certain months and days. . . .
r i69-—
Life touching lips with Immortality.
A very fine line : but I almost think I like the old original
one best, as related to the picture. This new one seems to
trench a little too much on the ideal — which is not to me at
all the effect of the picture, but only poetry by way of
intensity, or one might say saturation — and the old line
\__realized that. . . .
r 175—
Unto God's will she brought devout respect.
There is something prosaic in this line, I think. I am
certain it has tribulated you much, and probably you are
I not yourself satisfied with it.
177. Venus Verticordia. — I think this title has been dis-
cussed with you before. Lempriere makes a very startling
statement : " Venus was also surnamed .... Verticordia,
because she could turn the hearts of women to cultivate
chastity." If this is at all correct, it is clear that the Verti-
cordian Venus is, technically, just the contrary sort of Venus
from the one you contemplate — she must be a phase of Venus
^Urania.
185. The Bullfinch. — I would put it in: it is good, and
relieves the tension of the collection. I don't however quite
like the phrases " Brave head and kind," and " I felt made
strong."
Placatd Venere should go in, even in a published form.
For that I think you might perhaps reconsider the title, which
appears to me a nearer approach to indecorum than anything
in the sonnet itself.
199. Their crucifixes and addolorate.
I will not answer for it, but this sounds to me rather
anachronistic. I am not sure that you would find any
addolorata at these early dates, and am pretty confident such
a treatment is not characteristic of the time, The Virgin with
DANTE ROSSETTI, 1869
457
seven swords stuck through her heart, and all that sort of
thing, I think is late; it smacks to me of Jesuitism, St
Theresa, etc. . . .
202, 207. Church of San Rocco must be changed : this
Saint was not yet born — died in 1322. . . .
Mamma sent Christina your letter about Miss Losh's
architectural works etc. ; they must be very interesting, and
ought to be properly recorded in print by some expert. Love
at Penkill from your
W. M. ROSSETTI.
244.— -DANTE ROSSETTI to MADOX BROWN.
[The " dreadful grief" of Mr Frederick Craven (who in
these years was a steady purchaser of paintings by Brown
and by Rossetti) was connected with a carriage-accident : I
rather think a Daughter of his had been killed.]
PENKILL.
26 August 1869.
Dear Brown, — Three pleasant people are desiring you,
and you really must make up your mind to come. All the
pleasures of this place, which are old to us, will be new to
you, and that will renew them to us also. So here is one
of the sympathetic moments of life awaiting you, and you
do not hurry to it.
Tin be blowed ! The question is not so grave as to be
a real delay. If necessary, of course I can send what is
wanted till your work gets done, some of which you could
very well do here. There is a capital studio. Moreover,
you were thinking of a Nativity ; and a spot there is here
is the very background you want, both in material and
lovely simple colour, and even suggests of itself the com-
position.
I suppose I shall certainly be staying-on a fortnight
458 ROSSETTI PAPERS
from to-day ; but whether longer, or how much longer, I
cannot tell. . . .
My news from Ems leads me to suppose that the
second Thursday from this may probably bring the travellers
back. . . . Janey writes that she is not worse than at her
last writing, when the news was very hopeful ; but I can
see by the tone of her letter, and indeed by much she says
plainly, that she is discouraged at the slow progress
made. . . .
I am extremely shocked to hear of poor Craven's dreadful
grief, and must write him. . . .
Perhaps William may have shown you the article on me
in Tinsley's Magazine for September. It is ... encouraging.
After twenty years, one stranger has learned that one exists.
He is so enthusiastic about our old friend My Sister's Sleep
that I shall have, I suppose, to include it in my present reprint ;
. . . because such commencement of publicity would be likely
to lead to its getting reprinted somehow some day, and
there are things which should be altered in it. ... I gather
that next month William will be proluded upon.
Scott is working in his steady though leisurely way.
The sketches for his windows at Kensington (I don't know
if you've seen them up there) are extremely clever ; and he
has lately done three or four Burns illustrations which are
really most beautiful in invention and high feeling, and
altogether I think much the best he has done. His work
on Albert Durer is affording us evening readings, and must
I think prove a success. People do not know how much
in the way of autobiography and letters exists by A[lbert]
D[urer.] . . .
He and Miss Boyd send united love, and injunctions to
come at once. The weather here is splendid — only very
hot for walking. . . . — Your affectionate
D. GABRIEL R.
W. D. O'CONNOR, 1869 459
245.— W. D. O'CONNOR to WILLIAM ROSSETTI.
WASHINGTON.
28 August 1869.
My dear Mr Rossetti, — I have recently hit upon a new
method of making cast steel in a very short time and at a
very low price— an invention, as you may imagine, of ex-
treme value ; and my complete submersion in the experi-
ments at the foundry, and the effort to put the enterprise
on a commercial footing, as well as my other engrossing
occupation in official (Light-house) business, must be my
excuse for the delay in answering your kind and welcome
letter of July I3th, which, with its precious enclosure, duly
reached me, as also did your note of the 8th instant.
I will not ask the dear lady's name, since you prefer not
to be questioned about it ; but, if I knew it, I would treasure
it in my heart of hearts. ... I would not seem high-flown or
extravagant in my avowals, but it is only the simplest
truth to say that I read these extracts with the deepest
emotion. . . . Doubtless, they affected me as they could not
you. For I am a daily and intimate witness of the multiform
varieties of insult and outrage showered upon our poet — all
that can show the littleness and baseness, the indescribable
stupidity and malignity, of human beings, from the petty
affronts of titmen and mannikins on the pavement to the
sweltered venom of Lowell in the dull Review. Living in the
midst of all this, judge of my indignation and dejection ; and
judge then of the re-assurance, the comfort, and the exaltation,
such words as your friend's must afford me. ... I felt, after
reading them, as one who, surrounded by a vast and crowded
amphitheatre, tiers upon tiers of faces wrinkled with derision or
puckered with hostility, sees, lonely amidst the multitude, a
countenance radiant with the soul.
It would be idle to attempt to say what comes to me, in
the brief space of a letter ; but, among the many precious
things in your friend's MS., I must treasure her perception of
the organic character of Leaves of Grass — its mutuality of
460 ROSSETTI PAPERS
relations, sense and form corresponsive, like body and spirit,
and her apprehension of its electrical and ample grandeur. . . .
There are, besides, many sentences which have a divine
eloquence. " Our instincts are beautiful facts of Nature, as
well as our bodies." . . . " Who so well able to judge wisely
of the book as one who, having been a happy wife and
mother, has learned to accept with tenderness, to feel a
sacredness in, all the facts of nature ?"..." It is only lovers
and poets who may say what they will : — the lover to his own ;
the poet to all, because all are in a sense his own" These lines
are themselves poems. ... I confess to brooding upon them
with as much amazement as thankfulness.
I could not see Mr Whitman immediately, so sent the
packet to him, and did not meet him till the succeeding
day. He said little, but his tone and manner were of deep
import. He read the extracts several times, and wished to
keep them. I think he was profoundly moved, and for days
afterwards it seemed to me that his Olympian front was
surcharged with a tender pensiveness. One day he said,
referring to the packet, that he " often felt that his book was
mainly written for great wives and mothers, and its purport
would be best apprehended by them." This is the most
memorable or reportable thing I heard from him.
I gave him your messages, and he bade me return you
his kindest remembrances.
Receive my cordial thanks for your letter and the ever-
prized enclosure. You could not have given me a gift more
beautiful. I am as one endowed with a branch of stars. . . .
Our latest sensation is Mrs Stowe's account of Byron. A
scandalous and shameful apocalypse ; without even the merit
of novelty, for I heard it, and despised it, a dozen years ago.
One would fancy Mrs Stowe demented to issue this old foul
romance, without one scrap of evidence, and pregnable on
every side. Poor Byron ! . . . I do hope the English reviews
will bring Mrs Stowe to her senses. Here, the condemnation
is universal, , . , — Faithfully yours,
W. D, O'CONNOR,
WILLIAM ROSSETTI, 1869 461
246. — WILLIAM ROSSETTI to DANTE ROSSETTI,
Penkill Castle.
[My statement as to some degree of obscurity in Sister
Helen applied to the poem as it originally stood — i.e., without
its present opening stanza. Violet or the Danseuse is a novel
first published towards 1840, and much admired by Dante
Rossetti : he wrote to Notes and Queries enquiring as to its
authorship, but no solution was forthcoming. The novel is
understood to be the work of a lady ; some names have been
suggested, but not, I think, with any final certainty.]
56 EUSTON SQUARE.
28 August \\%fxj\.
Dear Gabriel, — A few words in reply to yours of
Thursday.
I had a suspicion, but not distinct idea, that your Italian
versification might be based on some analogy of very old
poems. Have now looked (very slightly as yet, but will con-
tinue, and write further about it) into some old Italian poems.
As yet I find no confirmation of your view in any save very old
poems : in some of these apparent — but I think only apparent
— confirmation. For instance, Odo delle Colonne, 1245 :
Distretto core e amoroso
Gioioso mi fa cantare,
E certo s'io son pensoso
Non e da maravigliare.
•
My own belief is however that these irregularities are not
of the accentual-equivalent class of yours, but reducible to
two heads — non-elision of vowels, and rapid transition from
iambic to trochaic structure. I scan thus:
Distret/to cor e d/moro/so
Gioio/so mi/ fa" can/tcire,
E cer/to s'i/o son/ penso/so
Non &/ da" ma/ra'vi/glia're.
No doubt the trochees of 2 and 4 (particularly 2) are arbi-
462 ROSSETTI PAPERS
trary trochees, not conformable to at any rate modern
accentuation : still, I understand them to be theoretic
trochees. One might say the same of your line,
E dis/se ri/dendo :
but I don't think it could be justified at the present day. . . .
Song and Music I would retain. . . .
I agree with Scotus about Sister Helen : have always
considered it an exercise to one's ingenuity of comprehen-
sion, but not an unfair exercise. I really can't say there
is anything else in particular I think in need of making-
out — though I think it true various of the poems demand a
poetical apprehension to seize them in their fullness. I
fancy most readers will be abroad at the opening of Nocturn^
but will gradually, as they proceed, guess what the inform-
ing idea is. I wouldn't be disposed to elucidate. . . .
My Sisters Sleep is, to my thinking, fully good enough
to go in, after revision — and your present reason for put-
ting it in conclusive. Christina is sending you a transcript,
and will no doubt read the proofs of the poems as you
suggest. . . . — Your
W. M. ROSSETTI.
Your question about Violet or the Danseuse is at last in
N\ptes\ and Q\iieries\ They can give no explanation : only
that there is no evidence in favour of Miss Brougham, nor
(I should think not) of Lytton, who it seems had also
been started. .
247. — DANTE ROSSETTI to MADOX BROWN.
[" Poor Payne " was the Rev. J. Burnell Payne, who had,
more or less definitely, relinquished clerical duty, and taken
up with fine-art criticism etc.]
MADOX BROWN, 1869
463
PENKILL CASTLE.
[? 31 August 1869.]
Dear Brown, — Your letter is too calmly brutal. How-
ever, I trust, before you get this, you will have received
our despatches sent yesterday, and been brought to reason.
There is no excuse for you if you don't come.
I am very much grieved to hear of poor Payne's death.
He was a good fellow, a good friend, and a man of true
inclination to good things in art and poetry. It is singular
how these rare birds — whether patrons or critics — get picked
off one by one ; while no man ever heard of the putrid
Academic sty being prematurely a pig the worse for all the
epidemics and cattle-plagues that turn up.
Leys's death is almost as unexpected. However, his
work is done, and well done. When I saw him some year
and a half ago, I should never have thought him a likely
man for Death to tackle.
Do explain yourself by return of post about Byron. I
know of nothing bearing on the subject, and am most excited
to hear. If anything in print that can be sent easily, please
send it. ...
Weather has improved here as to coolness, and walking is
much less arduous. Do come.
My last news from Ems shows very gradual progress, but
still some, I suppose. Miracles are evidently not to be
expected. I am very glad to hear what you tell me of
Emma's improvement. Love to her and all yours. — Your
affectionate
D. G. R.
MADOX BROWN to LUCY BROWN (ROSSETTI),
Shanklin.
[The portraits which Cathy (Mrs Hueffer) proposed to
paint were in fact painted, and very good works they both
are — the likeness of Madox Brown a valuable one. — "The
464 ROSSETTI PAPERS
Jacob " means Jacob and Joseph's Coat (the Sons of Jacob
showing him the coat of many colours after the falsely in-
vented death of Joseph) ; this version of the composition
seems to be the smaller oil-picture which was bought by Mr
Brockbank. — I do not think that Oliver Brown ever painted
a picture of Danae. — " Marie " is Mrs Stillman (then Miss
Spartali) : Lucy Brown was on a visit to her and her parents.
I do not well recollect Mrs Stillman's " drawing of the girls
with the peacock," and still less any verses which Madox
Brown may have written to illustrate that work. — The initials
which I give — H., and G. H. — are not correct.]
37 FITZROY SQUARE.
8 September 1869.
Dearest Lucy, — . . . Cathy . . . has fixed, for her winter-
work, to paint a portrait of me, and a picture of her Ma in the
black and flame-powdered grenadine, sitting near the window
in the drawing-room at needlework, but mtising ; it looks
most lovely in nature, so I hope may turn out well, only poor
Mamma will have a dose of it. Nolly is just finishing the
Jacob for me ; when he will begin his winter-works, Exercising
(water-colour) and Danae (oil). I am still at The Entomb-
ment, but have worked a little at Jacob. I have also tried my
hand at a song, to suit Marie's drawing of the girls with the
peacock, which Morris ought to have written. I should have
sent it you, but cannot satisfy myself with it. I have tried
it in English, and in French, in the form of three triolets ;
and I think I shall now try it as a sonnet, and perhaps send
you all three. . . .
Rossetti is still at Penkill, and at last seems to have left
off writing me elaborately worked-out itineraries to Penkill
Castle, followed up by exhortations not to be a sneak but to
start at once. The Morrises have started on their way
back. . . .
We called on the H's — drearier than dreariness' self, but
they are good people. G. H. is there ; who to his Brother . . .
is in brilliancy what he is in brilliancy to the rest of mankind.
Occasion led me to remark that the late lamented Leys had
WILLIAM ROSSETTI, 1869 465
a large nose, which imparted a stupid look to the rest of his
countenance. Emma declares the two Brothers looked at
each other in dismay. . . .
Tell our friend Marie that she must think of her designs
for next season ; and, if it is my fate and destiny to become
a persistent bore, then I must become one, that's all.
One of Nolly's efts has disappeared. The chameleon (a
much more important affair) also disappeared twice — the
second time for a day and a half; but was found early one
morning ascending the banisters, and Nolly declares his joy
at meeting him was touching — I mean the chameleon's. . . .
— Your ever affectionate Pa,
FORD MADOX B.
249.— WILLIAM ROSSETTI to DANTE ROSSETTI,
Penkill Castle.
[The proofs of Mr Scott belonged to his book, Albert Durer,
his Life and Works. — My " Notice of Byron " was the Pre-
fatory Notice in the edition of Byron's poems in the series
Moxoris Popular Poets. Whoever told me that Byron was
very like his half-sister Mrs Leigh must have been mistaken.
The resemblance, if indeed there was any, was slight indeed.]
56 EUSTON SQUARE.
12 September [1869].
Dear Gabriel, — Your revised proofs reached me the other
day, and I have now looked them through so far (only) as to
answer the points hitherto left aside in your letters.
P. 24.-
The sea
Sighed further off, etc.
The present lines very good, and I assume better than the
old ones, though I don't remember these last-named with
entire clearness. But unfortunately there is a very serious
objection which I had not reflected about before. Nazareth
2 G
466 ROSSETTI PAPERS
is quite inland, about equidistant from the Mediterranean and
the Lake of Tiberias : the sea could no more be heard there
than in London or Birmingham. I know one may care too
much for objections of this sort, yet I think the local mend-
acity is too glaring. . . .
5-—
Was she not stepping to my side
Down all the trembling stair?
I prefer trembling to tremulous — and think the objection, as
connected with " stepping," infinitesimal. It would be another
matter if the two words occupied like positions in the verse.
6.—
With angels in strong \evQ\flight.
I suppose this should on the whole be preferred to lapse. Yet
I like the visual impression created by the latter word a good
deal the better : it looks like sailing through the air without
any motion of the wings (as one often sees birds), and gives
more the idea of serial succession. . . .
8. You say last line of stanza 3 sounds shortish. I don't
perceive it at all as regards that line,
Wherein Love descries his goal :
rather as regards
And the funeral goes by —
but would not on any account alter this last. . . .
7. I think Nocturn is perceptibly clearer with the restored
stanza 2, which contains besides some very fine lines. . . .
39. Sister Helen is far clearer with the new opening
stanza : and the one further on is a fine one.
Tell Scotus I now have his proofs U and X, and retain
them unexamined till 1 hear further from him.
What do you and he think of the Byron affair — if indeed
you have had an opportunity of following its phases ? The
question is a practical one to me, as I must make some modi-
fication in the notice of Byron I wrote lately. At first I
assumed that the story would scarcely bear being called in
question : but the controversy inclines me to regard it as yet
WILLIAM ROSSETTI, 1869 467
open to a good deal of doubt. The great point to determine
would be about the child born of the incest, and kept by Lady
Byron for some while, as affirmed by Mrs Stowe : but nobody
elucidates that. The first thing I did was to look up B[yron]'s
poems addressed to his half-sister, and I certainly consider
that they tell very strongly against the story. One might
explain them away as calculated deception, but I should
hesitate to adopt that view. . . . — Your
W. M. ROSSETTI.
By the way, I don't at all agree in the obloquy lavished
on Mrs Stowe.
Do you remember whether it is said that Byron was very
like his half-sister ? If so (some one of no authority told me
the other day that so it was), the suggestion that there was
really no blood-relationship between the two vanishes. Other-
wise this suggestion, which some one made in The Times,
deserves some consideration. The first Mrs Byron was a
divorced Lady Carmarthen, . . . mother of Augusta ; and,
if she played her husband Byron false, and bore Augusta to
another man, there could be no " incest " — as the mothers of
the poet and Augusta were two different women.
250.— WILLIAM ROSSETTI to DANTE ROSSETTI,
Penkill Castle.
[My reference to a " prose synopsis " made by my Brother
applies to his having made such a synopsis of an intended
poem, The Orchard-pit : of the poem itself hardly anything
was ever written. — " Emma " (here named) was not Mrs
Madox Brown, but a servant of my Brother.]
EUSTON SQUARE.
1 6 September [1869].
Dear Gabriel, — ... P. 7. Love's Nocturn. — Stanzas I and
2, as now altered by you, are decidedly perspicuous, and I
468 ROSSETTI PAPERS
don't think more needs doing. I exactly agree with you as
to the pros and cons of " Dreamland " — pros prevailing. I
think it considerably better that the poem should be made to
express an actual love, rather than an ideal amatory pro-
clivity ; and I think also, with you, that there is next to
nothing in the poem to force the latter conception on the
reader's notice.
9. Stanza, " As since man " etc. — The whole image, and
especially (as verses) lines 2 and 3, are so good that I think
you should make an effort to adapt rather than reject this
stanza. . . .
Mary's Girlhood. — "This is that blessed Mary." I do
think the repetition of phrase in the Sibylla sonnet a sound —
not a very grave — objection. " 'Tis of that " seems to me too
peculiar — too much of the P.R.B. twang. . . .
Autumn Idleness, and A Match with the Moon. — Both very
good. The latter has a playful quaintness, but nothing
exceptionable.
Card-Dealer very good indeed now.
I am glad to hear you are writing so much, and to so good
a result — and interested to hear of your " prose synopsis " plan.
I remember Alfieri gives some curious details about the
structural system of composition he adopted, and, if I can
find the passage and think it would amuse you, will send
some particulars one day.
The wombat, whom I saw yesterday, is the greatest lark
you can imagine : possibly the best of wombats I have seen.
She (for I believe it is a she) is but little past babyhood, and
of a less wiry surface than the adult wombat : very familiar,
following one's footsteps about the room, and trotting after
one if one quickens pace — and fond of nestling up into any
hollow of arms or legs, and nibbling one's trowsers, etc.
Wombat can by exertion and rigour be made to sit up like
a man, but resists to the utmost of her force, which is indeed
considerable. I am glad to perceive that Emma is very fond
of her. Wombat scares the cat, but fraternizes with the
rabbits. Sighs from time to time, but emits no other sound
that I heard. ,
WILLIAM BELL SCOTT, 1869 469
Now for the Italian poem. . . . Theodoric . . . spoke to
me (as he puts it in his letter) of your senarii. It did not
happen to us to pursue the subject very systematically ; but
I understood him to imply that an Italian would regard the
exceptional feet in your verses, not as simple laxities of
disyllabic metre, but as unauthorized interpolations of
trisyllabic metre. ... I understood Teodorico to regard such
lines as these —
E disse ridendo —
La state talora —
as consisting simply of two trisyllables apiece — just like the
confessedly and unalteringly trisyllabic metre of Papa's
Salterio — senarii, as his own preface terms them —
Qual' alba tranquilla,
Che lieto orizzonte,
Gia dietro a quel monte, etc. . . .
— Your
W. M. ROSSETTI.
251. — WILLIAM BELL SCOTT to WILLIAM ROSSETTI.
[The poem which Mr Scott terms The Sea-Margin must
be The Sea-Limit (or, as now printed, Sea-limits). The last
two lines of it, in the privately printed sheets, stand
thus:
Last utterly, the whole sky stands,
Grey and not known, along its path.
I think it would have been a pity if my Brother had cut-out
these lines. He did not do so ; but he added to the poem
two stanzas which are not in the privately printed copy.]
PENKILL.
i October \\Wxj\.
Dear W. M. — Spottiswoode has sent me a revise (one
also sent to you). I have made the various corrections you
pointed out as necessary in your last. . . .
470 ROSSETtl PAPERS
Gabriel writes me he has done the best he has yet
accomplished in the Eden Bower, and that it drove Maria and
Christina out of the room. . . .
I still want him to try a reconsideration of the two last
lines of The Sea-Margin. He tells me you thought them
the soul of the verses. This may be true, at least they give
the necessary completion to the idea ; and 1 feel that their
expression is also in harmony with the sentiment. Still,
they have the boy's love of quaintness, and are in a certain
way vapid. He would not write so now. . . . — Ever yours,
W. B. S.
252. — DR HAKE to DANTE ROSSETTI.
[This must be the first, or very nearly the first, letter
written to Rossetti by Dr Hake, who from this time forward
became one of his intimates. It was as far back as 1 840 that
Dr Hake had published a strange romance named Vates, or
the Philosophy of Madness: my Brother read it (perhaps
towards 1844), and was struck by its singular qualities. After
some few years he wrote endeavouring to trace the author of
Vatesy but the two did not actually meet until 1869.]
ROEHAMPTON.
8 October 1869.
My dear Sir, — Your kind letter gives me so much pleasure
and encouragement, I find it impossible to express myself in
any other way than by explaining to you what just cause I
have of gratitude. You will understand me when I tell you
that I have from time to time addressed myself to publishers,
and to some few literary friends, without avail ; and that your
reception of me, crowned by your letter, constitutes the first
act of sympathy that my endeavours have ever called forth.
That you should have not only appreciated my writing but
have avowed it so generously is unique in the history of my
life, and is an exception to the estimate I had formed of the
WILLIAM BELL SCOTT, 1869 471
literary character. When you spoke to me so feelingly, as to
one who deserved something of the world, I felt ashamed ; as
one might feel who accepted honour that he had not earned.
Let me end this explanation by saying that you have been
the means of restoring me to my confidence in human nature.
That you could not so have acted, or have written to me
as you have done, except through real conviction, I know
fully ; and yet I would ask you to let the whole weight of
obligation rest with me alone, so sincere is the pleasure it
yields me.
I have always been unwilling to believe that I had been
working outside the limits of human sympathy, having been
constantly affected by whatever was great in another. And,
should you finally be confirmed in your thought that a unity
pervades our views, my hope is that I may enjoy your con-
fidence, and one day your friendship ; and that we may look
together into some of the great problems of nature and art.
Your translations will be my study for a long time to come ;
they open to me a new world of beauty, and I perceive how
greatly they will strengthen me in some things, and correct
me in others. — I am, my dear Sir, always yours sincerely,
T. G. HAKE.
253. — WILLIAM BELL SCOTT to WILLIAM ROSSETTI.
PENKILL.
ii October [1869].
Dear W. — On reading over the proof again after the post
has gone, I find I must trouble you with another note
preparatory to your looking at the revise.
P. iv. . . .
I really think if I were to die next day by the hangman,
as penalty for leaving uncorrected blunders, I should infallibly
go to the scaffold. — Yours,
W. B. SCOTT.
472 ROSSETTI PAPERS
Dear W. — I open this again to say something about
Gabriel's MS. book, as your note received this morning does
not mention it. Sitting here by ourselves, a subject of that
kind was sure to be canvassed between us ; but, as he told
me how nervous he was about what his own family might
feel about the measure necessary to be taken to recover it, he
may not have yet broken the subject to you. It" so, I ought
not to have done so, and I must ask you to ke^p silence.
There was evidently a great deal of painful feeling to over-
come in his mind.
254. — DANTE ROSSETTI to MADOX BROWN.
[16 CHEYNE WALK.
14 October 1869.]
Private.
Dear Brown, — I have seen Graham to-day, and I hope I
have made it all right about Shields. He had called on
S[hields] the other day in Manchester, but he was from home.
He talked to me about the matter, and the end was that he
said he would write at once and fix the commission.
I went to-day to see those MSS. at the Doctor's, and I
shall be able to have them in a few days. They are in a dis-
appointing state. The things I have already seem mostly
perfect, and there is a great hole right through all the leaves
of Jenny, which was the thing I most wanted. A good deal
is lost ; but I have no doubt the things as they are will enable
me, with a little re-writing and a good memory and the
rough copies I have, to re-establish the whole in a perfect
state. — Your affectionate
GABRIEL.
WILLIAM ROSSETTI, 1869
473
255. — WILLIAM ROSSETTI to DANTE ROSSETTI.
SOMERSET HOUSE.
14 October [1869].
Dear Gabriel, — What you write me is not entirely new to
me. Scott, writing on 1 1 October, and supposing no doubt
that I was aufait, mentioned the fact: then, finding reason
to doubt my privity, he wrote again, to say so and impose
silence. But I shall and should be silent anyhow.
My frank opinion is that you have acted right on both
occasions. Under the pressure of a great sorrow, you per-
formed an act of self-sacrifice : it did you honour, but was
clearly a work of supererogation. You have not retracted
the self-sacrifice, for it has taken actual effect in your being
bereaved of due poetic fame these seven and a half years
past : but you now think — and I quite agree with you — that
there is no reason why the self-sacrifice should have no
term.
There was no reason at all why you should mention the
matter to me beforehand : you and I know each other of old,
and shall continue so to do till (or perhaps after) one of us is
a bogy.
Did Tebbs, when you consulted him on the legal compli-
cation, tell you that he had already of late been starting the
subject to me ? He did so one day that he called here while
you were at Penkill : urging that the book ought to be
recovered, and that he could obtain you a " faculty " without
your personal intervention from first to last : and I promised
him that, if a proper opening offered, I would represent it
to you. . . . — Your
W. M. R.
How Tebbs had heard of the matter I can't say : but
indeed everybody had heard of it. For myself, I had never
broached the subject to living soul. . . .
474 ROSSETTI PAPERS
256. — DR GARNETT to WILLIAM ROSSETTI.
BRITISH MUSEUM.
15 October 1869.
My dear Rossetti, — Many thanks for your kind letter. I
am much obliged for the offer of a photograph of Miss
Curran's portrait, which I do not possess. ... By the way, I
find by a memorandum that the portrait was begun on J May,
the day after the affair at the post-office. This shows
that Shelley could not have pursued the person who assaulted
him. . . .
You ought to see Kirkpatrick Sharpe's volume of etchings,
if you have not seen it already.
The reference to the Relics about Leigh Hunt was not
intended to qualify anything you had said, but merely to
point out another instance of Shelley's generosity to him, the
more remarkable as I believe that Shelley was at that time
thinking very seriously about regulating his affairs. . . .
I have just been collating what Middleton calls the Essay
on Prophecy with Spinoza's Tractatus Theologico-politictis^ and
I find it really is a translation from the second chapter of the
latter. I do not know who first made the discovery.
The Mr Grove referred to in my notes is the Rev. Charles
Grove, Shelley's Cousin, whom I once met at Boscombe. He
was a very nice old gentleman, and seemed to entertain very
kindly feelings towards Shelley's memory ; but was no authority
for anything that had occurred after the elopement with
Harriet Westbrook. He insisted much on the strength of
Shelley's attachment to his own Sister, Harriet Grove. . . .—
Yours very truly,
RICHARD GARNETT.
DANTE ROSSETTI, 1869 475
257. — JOHN TUPPER to WILLIAM ROSSETTI.
[" The Baron " was a family nickname bestowed from of
old upon Alexander Tupper, the writer's younger Brother.
Two works which John Tupper published anonymously are
here mentioned : The True Story of Mrs Stowe, and Hiatus,
or the Void in Modern Education. — I preserve here the
reference to some translation commenced by my Sister, but
have forgotten all details, unless the matter is the same as
that referred to in Nos. 124 and 130.]
RUGBY.
15 October 1869.
My dear William, — I have just got the enclosed note from
the old Baron. It contains advice of his touching a squib I
have written on the Byron controversy. . . . Anyhow, I must
do the thing at once or not at all. . . .
I have not heard from Mrs Sotheby about the translation
your Sister commenced. I hope she will not be bored with
it ...
I have not yet seen your review of Hiatus (if it is out ?).
Indeed, I have only seen one notice, and I hear there have
been several. . . . — Thine,
J. L. TUPPER.
258.— DANTE ROSSETTI to MADOX BROWN.
[16 CHEYNE WALK.
1869—? October]
Dear Brown, — ... I got those papers to-day from the
Doctor. They are a sad wreck. . . . — Ever yours,
D. G. ROSSETTI.
476 ROSSETTI PAPERS
259.— ANNE GILCHRIST to WILLIAM ROSSETTI.
20 THE TERRACE, GUNTER GROVE.
17 October 1869.
My dear Mr Rossetti, — ... I would above all things
avoid entangling myself in comparisons of this poetry with
the universally accepted masterpieces ; for it is really so new,
so entirely different in kind and result, that I do not think
there is any common ground to base a comparison upon.
Here the Personality is all ; there it is nothing, it entirely
escapes you. This is often adduced as a proof of Shakespear's
many-sidedness and breadth of sympathy ; this fact of his own
individuality being always merged in that of his creations.
And, with Homer, I suppose people have not yet done disput-
ing whether Homer is one man at all, or whether the works
that have so long borne his name were not collected from
many sources. But Walt Whitman speaks the bare truth
when he says of his book, " Who touches this touches a man."
And I cannot but think that this one single fact gives
vitality to his book in a sense that Homer and Shakespear
cannot be said to have given it to theirs, and that the com-
parison I have used between grand architecture and living
product of nature expresses this as closely and faithfully as a
simile can. Salisbury Cathedral, to ordinary eyes, rouses
more admiration and wonder than a tree or a wayside daisy
— <but .then that mysterious fact of life, and of being the con-
taining source of an infinite succession of lives ! Thus it is, I
think, that Whitman's poems, which look externally so far
less imposing and grandly beautiful than Shakespear's, will
become a living power in men and women in a sense that
Shakespear's cannot for a moment pretend to have ever been.
They will make men not only write poetry, but live poetry.
. . . — Yours very truly,
ANNE GILCHRIST.
JAMES THURSFIELD, 1869 477
260. — JAMES THURSFIELD to DANTE ROSSETTI.
[Mr Stanhope here mentioned must be Mr J. R. Spencer
Stanhope, the Painter, who had himself borne a part in the
pictorial decoration of the Union Debating-hall. Mr Tebbs
(who has been previously mentioned) was Mr H. Virtue
Tebbs, who, to the regret of a wide circle of artistic and
other friends, died in 1899. — The passage about "Helen's
Cup" has reference to Rossetti's ballad Troy Town: he had
wished to trace the classical source of a legend concerning
a cup dedicated by Helen to Aphrodite.]
NORTH GROVE, OXFORD.
26 October 1869.
My dear Sir, — I have been asked by a Committee of
the Oxford Union Society to write to you on the subject
of the Frescoes in the Debating-room executed some years
ago by yourself and your friends. You will doubtless recol-
lect that your own contribution to the series was left un-
finished ; and the Committee are anxious to know whether
you would be disposed either to finish it, or to suggest some
method of covering the blank space in the middle of the
picture. It has been suggested to us by Mr Stanhope that
this unsightly blank might be filled (in the event of your
not being disposed to complete the picture) with a simple
diaper; but we are unwilling to entertain this or any other
suggestion until we have ascertained from you what are
your own wishes on the subject. Should you sanction this
plan, you will confer a great favour on us if you will kindly
communicate to us any suggestions you may feel inclined
to make as to the design or colours of the diaper to be
used : but I need hardly say how much we should prefer
that the fresco should be finished by the hand of him who
commenced it.
You will be sorry to hear that several of the other
frescoes are already beginning to show signs of decay : we
478 ROSSETTI PAPERS
shall be greatly obliged if you can make any suggestion
for their more efficient preservation, for I need hardly say
how anxious we are to preserve them. . . .
I sent a few days ago to our common friend Tebbs a
note on the subject of Helen's Cup, about which you were
seeking information when I had the pleasure of dining at
your house a short time ago. I am sorry the note is not
more complete ; but I cannot trace the story beyond Pliny,
nor can I find any mention of the subject in Greek authors.
The commentators on Pliny seem one and all to have
overlooked the passage. — I am faithfully yours,
JAMES R. THURSFIELD.
261.— FREDERIC SHIELDS to DANTE ROSSETTI.
CORNBROOK PARK [MANCHESTER].
29 October 1869.
My dear Rossetti, — Last week I had a note from dear
Brown in which he told me that you were not painting,
but still writing or correcting poetry. This makes me fear
that your stay in Ayrshire has done you no good, and that
in some way, either in your eyesight or otherwise, you are
still suffering so much that you cannot pursue the work
you love. I am greatly your debtor for the long, full, kind
letter you wrote to me while there — as well as for your
good offices with Graham. . . .
How sad your thoughtful talks with W. B. Scott upon
all that poor Craven's affliction suggested must have been !
The philosopher is as blind here as the Christian, and, if
he be not both, without the consolations which support the
latter. I have seen but little of Mr Scott, and that at
your table ; but I know and greatly esteem much that he
has done — especially as one of the most original designers
living, whenever he likes to put his full force into his
work ; and I beg through you to return, if I may, my love
with my admiration, in answer to his own kind message.
FREDERIC SHIELDS, 1869 479
I wish that M[adox] Brown had been able to join you
as you expected. He is too much closed up in-doors, and
a blow of glen air would have done him great good — as
his company would have done you also. He was like
friend and father to me in London during my last visit.
I am so glad that you have been doing business with
Agnew profitably ; for these frequent illnesses of yours will
inevitably bring down your purse, and make the where-
withal an anxious subject in spite of all determination to
hold up bravely. I know this too well in recent experience ;
and for this reason as well as for others I cannot consent
to accept anything from you, even though pressed upon
me with your generous importunity. . . .
The writer in Tinsley certainly appreciates your work
in both arts — and I was on the whole thankful for the
article. . . . The notice of your Sister, Miss Christina Ros-
setti, was very disappointing ; . , . stretched out to its re-
quired length by pecking at slight faults in her poems.
But he cannot spoil my happiness in them, which is as
great, from some of her devotional pieces, as any that
poetry has ever afforded me. After this the Judgment and
the Martyrs' Song are not easily matchable in religious
poetry. As I sit now looking over her last volume again,
and recalling the impressions left on me by frequent read-
ings of it, it appears almost invidious to select from these
devotional pieces. The Despised and Rejected and the Dost
Thou not Care must come from her deepest heart's thoughts
or experiences — and they find full-sounding echo in my
own heart. The critic is deaf to all this, and (so) deaf to
what is best in your Sister, and forces the sweetest notes
from her. . . .
It is so good of you to send me such plain and elaborate
instructions about the three-chalk method on grey paper.
The opportunity you allowed me of watching you at work
was still more valuable to me, and I think as a conse-
quence that the drawings I have done for Graham will
turn out successfully. . . . — Ever affectionately yours,
FREDC. J. SHIELDS.
480 ROSSETTI PAPERS
262. — BARONE KIRKUP to WILLIAM ROSSETTI.
FLORENCE, PONTE VECCHIO 2.
30 October 1869.
My dear Rossetti, — Trelawny might write a good book
about Byron, but perhaps it would not be so favourable as
what he knows of Shelley, to whom he was much more
attached. Byron's temper did not quite suit him, he was
too vain and capricious ; but he knew the value of Trelawny,
and his sincerity as a staunch friend, and as strong in mind
as he was in body. The more you know of him, the more
you will esteem him. . . .
I don't know much of Mrs Stowe or Lady Byron ; but
I believe they were both of them priest-ridden bigots and
tories, the latter certainly. . . .
I was 8 1 last May. ... I have seen Lord Vernon's
Dante at the Magliabecchian. . . . The prints are all mixed
higgledy-piggledy, and some omitted, perhaps lost. I had
designed one for the head of each Canto, and a vignette
for the end of each, with thirty for the preface. One thing
Lord Vernon was delighted with — the Zodiac. It should
turn round the globe, which is fixed ; instead of which, it
is the globe which is made to turn round, contrary to
Dante's opinion. You can correct it in your copy. . . .
Is Holman-Hunt in England? and his brother-in-law
the sculptor, who seemed to me a hearty, good, sincere
fellow — Woolner ?
I hope Trelawny will take the advice of his publisher
and give us a volume of anecdotes of Byron and many
others. He has seen so much of the world at home and
abroad, and he is a descriptive philosopher of great energy ;
and all agree that he is a just man, even those that one
would not expect.
Write soon if I can be of any use. — Ever yours sincerely,
SEYMOUR KIRKUP.
JOHN TUPPER, 1869 481
263.— JOHN TUPPER to WILLIAM ROSSETTI.
[The North British Review, here mentioned, contained a
moderate-sized notice by me of Mr Tupper's book, Hiatus
or the Void in Modern Education. — I forget about Ruskin's
dictum that Leonardo da Vinci was " a tenth-rate painter " :
one ought to look-up the passage in its context. I presume
that Ruskin was referring simply or principally to Da Vinci's
qualifications in the technique of painting — his attainment
as a colourist and brushman : if so, of course no record of
his cartoon, the Fight for the Standard, would be of any
relevance, nor yet any evidence deducible from " engravingsj
and reliefs."]
RUGBY.
30 October 1869.
My dear William, — There is a remembrance with me
that you purposed sending your copy of The North British
for my benefit. Do not, if you please, for I have one here
on the table.
I like your article very much indeed ; and am con-
trasting, with the production of another critic, the inherent
evidence which your short criticism bears of your having
fairly read the book you treat of.
Yes, I was too conscious that " the eminently emotional
Mr Ruskin " started or championed that precious theory of
Greek insensibility to landscape-beauty ; and I was con-
scious while I wrote that, if it had not been beside my
task to make psychological vivisections, there would have
been found no better subject to exhibit the want of co-
ordination of reason and emotion than Mr R[uskin] ; more
especially if a healthy, calm, deliberative rational faculty
should have to be co-ordinated with emotion more sympa-
thetic with the higher and deeper beauty of form than with
the (comparatively) surface-beauty of colour (which, remem-
ber, scares and excites cattle not human).
Ruskin has no form-faculty. How long ago is it that
2 H
482 ROSSETTI PAPERS
he told you he did not " understand or affect sculpture " ?
I remember this well, because it seemed a little surprising
that such a state of humanity could well agree with art-
criticism. This was when you took me to the Working
Men's Col[lege], and in answer to some proposition that
Mr Rfuskin] should examine some sculptural work of your
friend's. Co-ordination seems alien from Ru skin's nature
both emotional and sciential. . . . He is pre-eminently in-
surgent, lawless, autocratic, in art. Whilst the many engrav-
ings and reliefs of The Last Supper and The Fight for the
Standard exist, will not the ages laugh at the critic who
thought Da Vinci a tenth-rate painter? . . . Beauty means
law and obedience to law. . . .
Lastly, do we not call those we love most " Angels " and
" Goddesses " ? Does this show that our wives are " not
intensely sympathetic objects to" us? . . . — Yours ever,
J. L. TUPPER.
264.— JAMES THURSFIELD to DANTE ROSSETTI.
NORTH GROVE, OXFORD.
14 November 1869.
My dear Sir, — The Union on Thursday passed a resolu-
tion empowering the Fresco-Committee "to expend a sum
not exceeding £100 on the completion of Mr Rossetti's
fresco." We are now therefore in a position to ask you to
make the arrangements you proposed. . . . Perhaps I may
explain that our request that you would name the sum
necessary to be expended did not spring from any desire
on the part of the Committee to engage you in any
responsibility, or to draw you into a contract with the
Society : we are too sensible of the kindness and generosity
with which you have placed your time and trouble at their
disposal to think of anything of the kind. Our only wish
was to obtain on competent authority an estimate which
we were wholly unable to form for ourselves. The selec-
PONSONBY LYONS, 1869 483
tion of the artist to be employed will, of course, rest with
you : it will be for us, I presume, to arrange with him the
remuneration he is to receive, and to contract with him for
the execution of the work. — I am faithfully yours,
JAMES R. THURSFIELD.
265. — CONTE GIUSEPPE RICCIARDI to WILLIAM ROSSETTI
— ( Translation}.
NAPLES.
1 6 November 1869.
My dear William, — Welcome beyond what I can say
did I find your valued letter of the loth ; and especially
so for the adhesion to the Anti-Council signed by you and
Mr Sfwinburne]. I hope to be able to have it printed in
the English paper here, The Observer. . . . Would you believe
it? The solitary adhesion which has come to me from
your country is yours and Mr S[winburne]'s ! — while I have
had hundreds from all other lands. . . . — Always your most
affectionate
G. RICCIARDI.
266.— By PONSONBY LYONS— LILITH.
[I found this curious writing among MSS. left by myl
Brother. It stands headed— " Thurs. 18 Nov. 1869— To the
Editor of The Atkenaum" \ and is signed and addressed
as here shown. I have looked into The Athenceum for
some weeks about that date, but have not found there any
trace of such a paper. I do not recognize the name of
the writer. So far as I can guess, my Brother, having
painted a picture named Lady Lilith, and having written
the ballad of Eden Bower which also concerns this legendary
personage, may have consulted an acquaintance of his as
484 ROSSETTI PAPERS
to the particulars of the Lilith tradition ; and this person
must have composed the present writing, and been minded
to get it printed in The Athen&um. It seems to me of
^sufficient interest to be preserved.]
5 ROYAL AVENUE TERRACE, CHELSEA.
1 8 November 1869.
Lilith, about whom you ask for information, was evidently
the first strong-minded woman and the original advocate of
women's rights. At present she is a queen of the demons.
When King Nebuchadnezzar, as we are told in the Sepher ben
Sira, enquired why so many children died before the eighth
day, and why it is proper to write and hang up on their rooms
the words " Sanno'i Sansennoi' Samangeloph," Ben Sira in
reply told him the history of Lilith. When Adam was
created, God made a woman also out of the earth, for it is
said, " Male and female created He them ; " and, when He
said " It is not good for man to dwell alone," he brought her
to Adam. They at once began to dispute. Lilith refused to
obey Adam, saying they were both quite equal, for they were
made from the same earth ; and she ended this jangling by
pronouncing the secret name of God, and by virtue of it flew
away through the air. Adam prayed to God, saying, " Lord
of the world, the wife whom Thou hast given me has flown
away, and I know not where she is." God sent after her three
angels, Sannoi', Sansennoi', and Samangeloph, the three lords
of healing. They overtook her in the sea, in the place where
the Egyptians were afterwards drowned. It was very stormy,
and they threatened to drown her. She said : " Let me go,
for I have been created only that I may injure infants ; for I
have power over boys for eight days, and over girls for twenty
days." The angels made her swear by the name of the living
God that, wherever she found them or their names or like-
nesses written or painted, she would do no harm to the infants ;
and they told her that her punishment should be that one-
hundred of her sons should die every day. This is the reason
that one-hundred of the devils die daily. For in three things,
as Moses Nachmani tells us, they resemble angels ; they have
I
PONSONBY LYONS, 1869
485
wings, they fly about, and they foretell the future ; and in
three things they resemble men ; they eat and drink, they
propagate their race, and they die. Their bodies, being
formed of two elements, fire and air (though not from all four,
like men, animals, plants, and minerals), are capable of dis-
solution. Hence also it is that the Jews, especially those of
Germany, write on the four walls of the room in which a
woman is confined, " Adam Chava chutz Lilith " — that is,
" Adam, Eve, — Lilith keep away " : — " Stulte putantes" says
Wierus, " tale dcemonis terriculamentum et injuria ed ratione
arceri posse ; " and, on the inside of the door, the names of the
three angels, SannoT, SansennoT, and Samangeloph. The
Husband should say certain prayers for three days ; and after
three days cold water should be poured round the bed, with
other ceremonies. And amulets are hung round the necks of
the infants to keep away Lilith.
According to another account, Lilith remained with Adam
until Eve was brought to him. She then fled to the sea, and
was preparing to destroy the world when she was called away
by God.
After the expulsion from Paradise, during the 130 years
in which Adam was excommunicated and lived apart from
Eve, Lilith lived with him against his will, and brought forth
many devils. His stature had then been reduced to 100 ells ;
and we may suppose that Lilith treated him as arbitrarily as
some dwarfs have been treated by their tall wives. These
devils, according to the book Emek Hamelek, are always
troubled and sigh, and there is no joy among them. During
this 130 years, Adam, according to the Talmud (Eruvin)
became the father of the spirits (Rukin), devils (Shedim), and
Lilin (or female devils). Bartholoccius objects that Adam
and Lilith were both made of the earth : " Quo modo igitur ex
amborum conjunctione lemures et spirittis gigni potuerint?"
But the book Zohar Kadash supplies a very simple answer :
Lilith was made of the uncleanness and dregs of the earth,
and not from flesh like Eve.
Lilith is one of the four wives of Samael (Satan) who are
the mothers of the devils. According to Talkut Kadash,
486 ROSSETTI PAPERS
Machalath, another of his wives, has 487 troops of evil angels
under her, and always skips and dances. Lilith has 480, and
always howls. These two are constantly at war, except on
the annual day of atonement. According to the Talmud
(Sabboth, Eruvin, Nidda) Lilith has long hair, and wings, and
leads a great army of devils, and has power to seize whoever
sleeps alone in a house. Therefore Rabbi Chaninah said, " It
is forbidden to sleep alone in a house." According to Emek
Hamelek, Leviathan the bad serpent is Samael, and
Leviathan the crooked serpent is Lilith ; and, when infants
laugh without any apparent cause, Lilith is playing with
them, that she may please them and take them away. In
this case you should strike the child on its nose, and say to
Lilith, " Away, thou accursed, thou hast no abode here."
In conclusion : although the wise are agreed that devils
can appear in the human form, and therefore you should not
first salute any one you may meet suddenly in a dark passage
lest he may be a devil, yet for sake of poetical and picturesque
feeling I grieve to be obliged to record in your valuable
columns, on the high authority of the book Zohar, that, when
devils do appear to men in the human form, they have no
\Jiair on their heads. — I remain yours faithfully,
PONSONBY A. LYONS.
267.— WILLIAM GRAHAM to DANTE ROSSETTI.
[Mr Graham, who was then M.P. for Glasgow, appears to
have commissioned ere now "the great picture" — i.e.t the
( Dante's Dream which is at present in the Walker Art-Gallery,
I Liverpool : probably the work had not as yet been begun on
the canvas. He now commissions two water-colours : a
Pandora, and a " Blue Lady" which I understand to be the
same thing as The Portrait of Mrs Morris — viz., a water-
colour duplicate of that oil-picture which is now deposited in
LJthe National British Gallery. A third water-colour, a duplicate
/from the Sibylla Palmifera belonging to Mr George Rae,
WILLIAM GRAHAM, 1869
487
seems to have been previously agreed upon : also " the
Nightingale picture," comprising a portrait of William
Graham Junior. This is, I think, the picture now nameo!/
Mariana, from Measure for Measure.]
URRARD, PITLOCHRIE.
[1869 — ? November].
My dear Rossetti, — I have your note of yesterday, and I
need scarcely say I do wish the picture Found to be mine. I
did not know what price you thought of charging for it ; but
I will ask you to put £800 on it instead of 800 guineas, as I
have a Scotchman's dislike to the latter piece de monnaie, and
I think my patience is a legitimate claim for the discount ! I
shall send you a remittance from Glasgow, where I am going
to-morrow for one day only.
Do however, like a kind friend, have a little compassion
on me, and try and let me have something soon. Remember,
except the crayon-drawings I have never had a single bit of
Rossetti to put upon my walls ; and, besides the great picture
for which one may thankfully wait ever so longt\\\ the inspira-
tion comes, I have been hoping for the Palmifera. in water-
colour, and my little son Willie in oil ere now (once called the
" Nightingale" picture).
Thanks for the offer of the Pandora and the Portrait of
Mrs Morris. I shall be very pleased if you will let me have
both, if within my reach in price. 350 guineas is what you
were to charge me for the Palmifera, and also I think for the
Blue Lady when you first proposed to do it in water-colour
for me. Of course I shall with pleasure make you what
advance you care to have on these also ; only do, like a good
fellow, let me have my reward soon.' — Ever, with kind regards,/
yours sincerely,
W. GRAHAM.
488 ROSSETTi PAPERS
268.— DANTE ROSSETTI to WILLIAM GRAHAM.
[My Brother kept a copy of this letter — as he did with
many of his business-letters. The copy is imperfect, closing
in the middle of a sentence.]
[16 CHEYNE WALK.]
29 November 1869.
My dear Graham, — I waited to answer your kind letter
till I could acknowledge the remittance which you proposed
to send next day from Glasgow. As I have not yet received
this, I write lest by possibility it should have miscarried.
When you first expressed a wish to have the Found picture,
I named 800 guineas as its price, and you agreed thereto. I
do not mention this because I hesitate to meet the wish you
express in the matter, after all your friendly conduct, but
merely because I remember mentioning the price in my last
as " agreed on." This, you will perceive, is the picture of all
others of which I should not, under ordinary circumstances,
abate the price, as it is of quite an exceptionally popular kind
among my works ; nor should I indeed have asked less than
1000 guineas at this moment of any one but yourself — not
even of Agnew. It is now somewhat larger than before, as
I have had the canvas increased to give more space. In now
engaging it to you for ^800, copyright, which I retain, will
doubtless prove of value one day, and I make no doubt of
selling a replica to great advantage. So be it as you wish. I
know how well you deserve the best I can give you at the
earliest date, and shall have quite as great pleasure as yourself
in seeing that I am fairly represented among your pictures
that you love and live with. I hope this may be the case ere
long. . . .
WILLIAM DAVIES, 1869
489
269. — WILLIAM GRAHAM to DANTE ROSSETTI.
EDINBURGH.
i December \\%faj\.
My dear Rossetti, — I have been away travelling, and
on my arrival here this evening find your kind note
of 29th. . . .
As regards the Found, I can only say thanks very much
for your acquiescence in my proposal as to price. Evidently
however I was very stupidly mistaken in not having remem-
bered that we had spoken of price before ; and I could not of
course for a moment think of availing of your good nature to
alter what had been once settled. It must therefore, as a
matter of course, remain as originally intended ; and I need
not say I have no doubt of its being well worth the value puty
upon it. . . . — Ever yours sincerely,
W. GRAHAM.
270.— WILLIAM DAVIES to DANTE ROSSETTI.
[Of my Brother's numerous friends and acquaintances,
few entered more sensitively into his feelings, or showed a
more constant wish to soothe them when perturbed, than
Mr Davies — who must, I suppose, have been introduced
into Rossetti's studio by Mr Smetham. Mr Davies was a
writer and poet of various graceful gifts, and an adept at
pen-and-ink drawing and etching on a small scale : his
principal published work was The Book of the Tiber. Some
little while after my Brother's death, Mr Davies very liber-
ally presented me with the various letters which the former
had written to him, bound up into a volume. Mr Davies
himself, having for years been something of an invalid,
died towards 1897.]
490 ROSSETTI PAPERS
106 ALBION ROAD, STOKE NEWINGTON.
2 December 1869.
My dear Rossetti, — I have copied you out two Italian
sonnets of Matteo Frescobaldi on the other side, which I
think you will not have seen. About the first there is a
beautiful delicacy and simplicity, which gives freshness to
a sentiment not new. The second seems to me to repre-
sent a class of composition — a large one — of which I do
not recollect to have seen any sample in your book of
translations. Stupidly enough, I have not taken any note
of the date of this writer ; but I fancy he lies within your
circle or impinging upon it. . . . — Always yours faithfully
and truly,
W. DAVIES.
I think, if you publish a second edition of your Italian
Poets, you ought to give at least one of the parodies on
the Months of Folgore da San Gemignano, by Cene della
Chitarra. There is one, I recollect (given I think in Nan-
nucci), wishing the guests old women instead of young,
overdone meats, etc., which struck me as being excessively
funny — if you do not think your book too serious for such
" flouting."
You of course know the little "diamond" volume of
Cino da Pistoia and his circle published by Barbera in
Florence. It contains some exquisite things, some of which
were new to me.
Sonetti di Matteo Frescobaldi : dalle sue Rime raccolte
da Giosue Carducci : Pistoia, 1866. . . .
Io veggo il tempo della primavera. . . .
Per riposarsi in su le calde piume. . . .
271.— DANTE ROSSETTI to WILLIAM DAVIES.
[The " little tale " which Rossetti sent to Mr Davies was
Hand and Soul, first printed in The Germ, and afterwards
DANTE ROSSETTI, 1869 491
privately reprinted. — The " lovely sofa " had been a part
of Mr Smetham's household property, and was about the
only article of a noticeably artistic character which he used.
Finding that my Brother, then ardent in collecting furniture
etc., particularly admired the sofa, he munificently presented
it to him. It remained with Rossetti up to his death, and
was sold among his other effects in July 1882. In the
Sale-catalogue it was entered as — " A sofa or lounge with
cane seat, the back artistically painted in figures and land-
scapes, the frame of the painted-furniture period ; squab
and two pillows, upholstered in stamped green velvet: a
very rare and valuable specimen." Mr Locker-Lampson
bought this sofa for £34. 133.: he made the bidding on be-
half of some other person.]
1 6 CHEYNE WALK, CHELSEA.
3 December 1869.
My dear Davies, — Many thanks for the two Frescobaldi
sonnets — the first very pretty indeed. I know not Matteo —
query, a Brother of Dino ? They seem likely to belong to
that time certainly.
I am not acquainted with the little Cino book you speak
of, and should like to see it some day.
I considered the question as to translating Cene della
Chitarra's chaff, and have a note about it : but it seemed
almost impracticable, as his sonnets are written to the same
rhymes as Folgore's, and this could hardly have been
preserved.
By the by, if you look again at my book you will find
that the large section of " moral injunction " poetry is pretty
abundantly represented from Guinicelli and others.
I was interested in the two reviews you sent, and return
The Scotsman. Certainly with such recognition your book
ought to have been at least a tolerable commercial success.
These two are amusingly contradictory on some points, as
usual.
I send you with this a little tale written long ago. I had
included it among the poems I am printing, as it is really
492 ROSSETTI PAPERS
more a sort of poem than anything else : but, coming to the
conclusion after all that it looked awkward there, I had a few
copies struck off to give away. I send one for Smetham too
when you see him.
Will you tell him that the lovely sofa he gave me has just
come home from the restorer's, with every pattern made
perfect again, and the tone of the whole most exquisite. It
is a gem. — Ever yours sincerely,
D. G. ROSSETTI.
272. — W. J. STILLMAN to WILLIAM ROSSETTI.
WASHINGTON.
17 December 1869.
My dear Rossetti, — I have just seen Whitman — had a
ride with him in the horse-car up Pennsylvania Avenue (if
you are any wiser for that), and a long talk principally about
you, whose history (as far as I know it) and that of your
family I gave him. He is employed in the Attorney-General's
Office, and seems more well-to-do than when I saw him before.
He is certainly a man of remarkable personal qualities — full
and harmonious life. . . . He is grey as a badger — white, I
should say. . . . — Yours affectionately,
W. J. STILLMAN.
273. — DANTE ROSSETTI — NONSENSE VERSES.
[I here give twenty specimens of the " Nonsense Verses "
at which Dante Rossetti was a " dab hand " : so far as my
knowledge goes, he surpassed all his competitors, of whom
there were several. A passage from W. B. Scott's Autobio-
graphical Notes may as well be extracted. — " The habit of
making satirical rhymes like these [*>., like some of Franz
Hueffer's writing, just quoted by Scott] was an outcome of
I
DANTE ROSSETTI, 1869 493
the appearance of Lear's Book of Nonsense. D. G. R. began
the habit with us — the difficulty of finding a rhyme for the
name being often the sole inducement. Swinburne assisted
him, and all of us ; and every day for a year or two they used
to fly about. The dearest friends and most intimate acquaint-
ances came in for the severest treatment ; but, as truth was
the last thing intended (though sometimes slyly implied),
nobody minded." The present specimens are all that I
remember, written by my Brother (allowing for one other, on
Oliver Brown, which appears in Mr Ford Hueffer's book) ; they
are certainly a mere fraction of his full quota. They appear"!
to me to date between some such years as 1860 and 1870: J
on this assumption I group them all here together as if proper
to the close of 1869. Nos. i to 6 and 8 to 12 were written
out from memory by my Wife at a comparatively recent time,
say 1890, and are I think very nearly correct. No. 7 comes
from Mr Harry Quilter's book Preferences in Art etc. (1892).
Nos. 13 and 14 are supplied by my own recollection, and No.
19 from the memory of one of my daughters. Nos. 15
to 1 8, and No. 20, are given in Scott's book, and I have
thought it, on the whole, as well to repeat them here. Mr
Scott's memory for such things was anything but accurate : I
have introduced a few corrections. It is certain, for instance,
that Rossetti never composed such a miserably metreless line
as that which Scott gives as the last line of No. 17 —
" This stubborn donkey called Scotus,"
and I even doubt whether the diction here is at all correct.
I have some suspicion to the same effect with regard to No.
20: in fact I have altered one word. In No. 18 Scott's book
gives the meaningless word " checkboard " instead of " chess-
board."— I do not enter into further particulars in relation to
any of these Nonsense Verses. Several people will under-
stand who are the persons meant, and what reason (or un-
reason perchance) there was for referring to them in these
burlesque terms : as regards Nos. 5, 6, and 7, there was no
reason. Other people, who have no insight into the matter,
can afford to remain unenlightened. Let me add that I don't
494
ROSSETTI PAPERS
know of any Nonsense Verses regarding myself: that there
were some such I have little doubt]
There is a big Artist named Val,
The roughs' and the prize-fighters' pal :
The mind of a groom
And the head of a broom
Were Nature's endowments to Val.
2.
There is a dull Painter named Wells
Who is duller than any one else :
With a face like a horse
He sits by you and snorts —
Which is very offensive in Wells.
There's an infantine Artist named Hughes-
Him and his the R.A.'s did refuse :
At length, though, among
The lot, one was hung —
But it was himself in a noose.
There's a babyish party named Burges
Who from infancy hardly emerges :
If you had not been told
He's disgracefully old,
You would offer a bull's-eye to Burges.
There is a young person named Georgie
Who indulges each night in an orgy :
Soda-water and brandy
Are always kept handy
To efface the effects of that orgy.
There is a young Artist named Jones
Whose conduct no genius atones :
His behaviour in life
Is a pang to the wife
And a plague to the neighbours of Jones,
I
DANTE ROSSETTI, 1869
7-
There is a young Painter called Jones
(A cheer here, and hisses, and groans)
The state of his mind
Is a shame to mankind,
But a matter of triumph to Jones.
495
There's a Painter of Portraits named Chapman
Who in vain would catch woman or trap man
To be painted life-size
More preposterous guys
Than they care to be painted by Chapman.
There's a combative Artist named Whistler
Who is, like his own hog-hairs, a bristler :
A tube of white lead
And a punch on the head
Offer varied attractions to Whistler.
10.
There's a publishing party named Ellis
Who's addicted to poets with bellies :
He has at least two —
One in fact, one in view —
And God knows what will happen to Ellis.
ii.
There's a Portuguese person named Howell
Who lays-on his lies with a trowel :
Should he give-over lying,
'Twill be when he's done dying,
For living is lying with Howell.
12.
There is a mad Artist named Inchbold
With whom you must be at a pinch bold :
Or else you may score
The brass plate on your door
With the name of J. W. Inchbold,
496 ROSSETTI PAPERS
A Historical Painter named Brown
Was in language and manners a clown
At epochs of victual
Both pudden and kittle
Were expressions familiar to Brown.
14.
There are dealers in pictures named Agnew
Whose soft soap would make an old rag new
The Father of Lies
With his tail to his eyes
Cries—" Go it, Tom Agnew, Bill Agnew ! "
There's a solid fat German called Huffer,
A hypochondriacal buffer :
To declaim Schopenhauer
From the top of a tower
Is the highest ambition of Huffer.
16.
There's a Scotch correspondent named Scott
Thinks a penny for postage a lot :
Books, verses, and letters,
Too good for his betters,
Cannot screw out an answer from Scott.
17-
There's a foolish old Scotchman called Scotus,
Most justly a Pictor Ignotus :
For what he best knew
He never would do,
This stubborn [old] donkey called Scotus.
18.
There's the Irishman Arthur O'Shaughnessy —
On the chessboard of poets a pawn is he :
Though bishop or king
Would be rather the thing
To the fancy of Arthur O'Shaughnessy.
I
ANNE GILCHRIST, 1870
497
19.
There is a young Artist named Knewstub,
Who for personal cleaning will use tub :
But in matters of paint
Not the holiest Saint
Was ever so dirty as Knewstub.
20.
There is a poor sneak called Rossetti,
As a painter with many kicks met he —
With more as a man —
But sometimes he ran,
And that saved the rear of Rossetti.
274.— ANNE GILCHRIST to WILLIAM ROSSETTI.
i January 1870.
Will you please tell Mr Whitman that he could not have
devised for me a more welcome pleasure than this letter of his
to you (now mine, thanks to you and him), and the picture ;
and that I feel grateful to you for having sent the extracts,
since they have been a comfort to him.
I should like also to take this opportunity of saying (if
you think I may) how much I wish, if Mr Whitman see no
reason against it, that the new edition should be issued in two
volumes ; not lettered Vols. I and II, but 'ist Series and 2nd
Series, so that they could be priced and sold separately when
so desired. This simple expedient would, I think, overcome
a serious difficulty. Those who are not able to receive aright
all he has written might to their own infinite gain have what
they can receive, and grow by means of that food to be capable
of the whole perhaps : while Mr Whitman would stand as
unflinchingly as hitherto by what he has written. I know I
am glad that your Selections were put into my hands first, so
that I was lifted up by them to stand firm on higher ground
than I had ever stood on before, and furnished with a golden
key before approaching the rest of the poems.
2 I
498 ROSSETTI PAPERS
275.— WILLIAM ROSSETTI— DIARY.
1870. Saturday, I January. — Saw Gabriel's racoon — a
nice and healthy-looking beast. One of his two kangaroos is
just dead. . . .
Sunday, 20 Fe&ruary.^Wrote a number of letters to
Shelley correspondents etc. One to Moxon, who now pro-
poses to omit from the cheap Poets (at least for the present)
Pope, Thomson, and four volumes of Selections. . . .
Monday, 2 1 February. — Christina has lately been discussing
with Macmillan about the publication of a volume of Nursery-
rhymes which she has written, and the republication of her
two old volumes. M[acmillan]'s terms are obviously meagre :
Gabriel has consulted Ellis about it, and writes this morning
that E[llis] offers £100 for the old poems, and some propor-
tional sum for the new — a great advance on M[acmillan].
This has determined C[hristina] to transfer the publication of
her books from M[acmillan], and no doubt to E[llis].
Tuesday, 22 February. — Gabriel called in Euston Square.
His racoon, which had been lost for a fortnight or more, was
lately discovered living in a drawer of the large wardrobe
which stands outside the studio-door : he was in excellent
condition, having probably made a practice of prowling about
the house at night, and eating up any broken victuals. The
surviving kangaroo, a female, gives promise of a family. Two
wood-owls were lately bought, apparently so tame that any-
thing could be done with them : but one of them has now
killed the other. G[abriel] showed me a letter he lately
received from Swinburne, saying that V[ictor] Hugo has
written to thank him for the vindication by S[winburne]
(lately published in the Telegraph) of H[ugo]'s accuracy
regarding the. peine forte et dure, in L Homnie qui Rit : S[win-
burnej's article has been translated into French. H[ugo] also
lauds S[winburne]'s savage sonnets against L[ouis] Napoleon
in the Fortnightly. Gabriel has now been re-reading Shelley
a good deal — Prometheus and other poems ; and has come to
WILLIAM ROSSETTI— DIARY, 1870
499
much the same conclusion which I have expressed time out
of mind — that Shelley is the greatest of modern English poets.
He however inclines to set Byron above him. Hitherto he
has also preferred Coleridge, Keats, and others. It is no
longer ago than last Christmas day that he and I had a long
battle over Shelley and Keats.
Wednesday, 23 February. — Visited the very fine Exhibition
of Old Masters at the R.A. : met there Brown, who is very
unfavourably impressed with the Leslie display — my own
feeling being the other way. — Stillman, seeing in to-day's
Daily News a notice (extremely handsome on the whole) of
my Shelley, proposes to write (as he has some footing on that
paper) setting in a clearer and more favourable light one or
two points stated to my disadvantage. I told him that I
should of course regard this as a friendly act, but don't
personally much care either way. The chief point is about
Shelley's separation from Harriet : on which point I might
myself be minded to uphold the authenticity and newness of
what I have said, were it not that to do this would be to run
down Shelley pro tanto.
Thursday, 24 February. — The Brother of Warington Taylor
(lately deceased) called on me at Somerset House, — my
functions as executor to Taylor's will, and trustee for his Wife,
having now commenced. . . .
Monday, 28 February. — Called on Macmillan to talk over
Christina's position with regard to him. ... It is pretty clear
that he would be ready to raise his offers heretofore made to
C[hristina]. . . .
Wednesday, 2 March. — Presented Macmillan with a com-
parative statement of the offers made to Christina by himself
and Ellis. . . . Mrs Bodichon offers through Stillman to place
her house at Robert's Bridge, Sussex, with studio, at Gabriel's
disposal for a while — or at Stillman's own disposal. This
seems a very eligible offer ; as G[abriel] wants to get out of
town a little, with a view to health, and to quiet in writing
poetry. I began reading through, for press-corrections, the
new proofs of his volume. S[tillman] says that Mrs B[odichon]
has no definite belief in or opinion about the existence of the
500 ROSSETTI PAPERS
disembodied soul. Her husband, who remains in Algeria, is
wholly given up now to spiritualism — which she flouts.
Thursday, 3 March. — Morris, Jones, Ellis, and others, at
Chelsea. Saw for the first time some of Goya's etchings —
Gabriel having purchased a volume. Pollen says there is an
astonishingly fine Japanese painting of a tiger, about life-size,
at South Kensington : must look it up. Gabriel is doing a
crayon-head of Mrs Zambaco, very good. Jones has been, to
his great comfort, incited by my re-edition to the re-reading
of Shelley. . . .
Saturday, 5 March. . . . — Christina has about finished a
longish prose-story named Commonplace (I have not as yet
any very clear notion of its bearing) : this, and other slighter
stories of past time, she proposes to put together, and get
published by Ellis — who seems quite ready to accept
them. . . .
Wednesday, g March. — ... I read the MS. of what Maria
is writing as an incitement and introduction to the study of
Dante by English people. . . .
Friday, 1 1 March. — Called on Trelawny : I think he looks
a little older than he did last summer. He has been writing
down some further reminiscences of Shelley, which I pressed
him to publish. This he seems tolerably well inclined to do,
but objects to the trouble of recopying. I offered to do it for
him. Miss Clairmont has lately been writing to him at great
length, also in the way of Shelley reminiscences ; and it
seems that Elise, the Swiss maid who attended to Allegra, is
also still alive, and inclined to be reminiscent. T[relawny]
says he feels hurt at the imputation upon Harriet's moral
character contained (repeated from other writers) in my
Memoir : it seems to be new to him, but I can't doubt its
truth. He insists that Shelley would have separated from
Mary, but for the unhappy result to Harriet : says M[ary]
was excessively jealous of S[helley], both sexually and as
regards the influence of other women over his mind. But he
seems to think (as far as I can make out) that the sexual
jealousy was baseless. S[helley] attempted suicide at Naples :
had also done so in London, but the effects of the poison were
WILLIAM ROSSETTI— DIARY, 1870 501
worked off by walking him about for some hours. Tfrelawny]
is now reading with extreme delight Hogg's Life of S\helley\
(hitherto unread by him), and considers H[ogg]'s view of
S[helley] thoroughly consistent with T[relawny]'s own experi-
ence. "Shelley was more self-willed than myself:" with ex-
quisite gentleness of manner, he would always do, and do on the
instant, what he resolved on. I am to dine with T[relawny]
next Tuesday, and may perhaps meet Mrs Hogg : she never
professed to be in love with Hogg, but to have been passion-
ately in love with Williams, and incapable of loving any one
else. " I have kissed the shirt off his back." Williams was
decidedly good-looking. . . .
Sunday ', 13 March. — Wrote to Theodoric on various
matters ; partly to say that, if any effects belonging to
Kirkup should in course of time be disposed of, I would like
him to secure for me a sofa-bedstead which, as Trelawny tells
me, was bought by Shelley at Leghorn for Leigh Hunt. I
am not clear whether this is the sofa that K[irkup] ordinarily
sits on, or some other sofa in his house.*
Monday, 14 March. — . . . Mamma, whose inconveniences
from deafness appear to have been increasing of late, and to
some extent affecting the right ear, hitherto free, made up
her mind at last to consult a doctor (Hare) — as I have advised
time out of mind. He prescribes injections of glycerine ; and
I am in hopes some degree of good, at any rate, will result. —
Gabriel is now at Mrs Bodichon's house — Scaland's Gate,
Robert's Bridge.
Tuesday, 1 5 March. — Dined with Trelawny : his house
seems at present to be kept by a niece,f to whom I was
introduced. I am not clear whether he has a Wife or
Daughter living, but have heard him speak of a Daughter.
He is and always has been an avowed atheist and materi-
* It was (I now find) the sofa which Kirkup ordinarily sat on.
Eventually it came to Trelawny, and from him to me, and it remains one
of my most valued possessions.
f Miss Emma Taylor. She was not really Trelawny's niece, nor in
any way connected with him ; but he spoke of her as his niece for con-
venience sake.
502 ROSSETTI PAPERS
alist, and contemplates annihilation without any repugnance.
Once, when living in Italy, he saw a little man come up to
his house, and called through the wicket : " No admittance
except for atheists and republicans." It was Roebuck. He
is certain there was no intrigue between Shelley and Mrs
Williams — " he might as well have wanted the Virgin Mary " ;
and seems to be also confident that there was no intrigue
between S[helley] and Emilia Viviani, but in this case he
seems rather to put it on the grounds of prudential considera-
tions taken into account by S[helley]. He says S[helley] was
quite incapable of gross amours with prostitutes etc. : with
him love as a passion was never dissociated from sentiment,
nor would even the sight of a beautiful woman have been
likely to produce much impression upon him, without the
interest excited by conversation. He read me an amusing
anecdote of S[helley]'s entering the saloon at Casa Magni .
perfectly naked from the sea-beach, when Mary and Mrs
Williams, with a lady-visitor from Genoa, were at dinner
there. The horror which his apparition excited was calmly
met by the matter-of-fact question : " What else do you
expect me to do, when my clothes are left in the bedroom,
and there is no way to the bedroom except through here ? "
Trelawny describes him as "stag-eyed" — as indicating the
fixed, full, unblinking gaze which characterized him. His
body, especially legs and thighs, was finely formed ; and his
powers of active exertion, as in climbing hills, distanced all
the company. Tfrelawny] showed me a letter which he has
just lately received from Miss Clairmont, now in Florence.
There is not the least look of age in either its handwriting *
or subject-matter : it speaks with considerable animus against
Byron as contrasted with Shelley. . . .
Sunday, 20 March. — Called to see Nettleship's picture of
a Lion and Lioness going out to prey by dawnlight. It is
exceedingly fine in essentials, and has considerable value of
execution too in some ways, though I fear it will not tell out
solidly among the pictures at the R. A. Saw also some of his
* The handwriting (I have since understood) was that of Miss Paola
Clairmont, a niece of Miss (Clare) Clairmont, living with her.
I
WILLIAM ROSSETTI— DIARY, 1870 503
ideal and other designs : a very fine one embodies the idea j
of prostituted Genius returning to her first love for the j
Truth. . . .
Thursday -, 24 March. — Called on Wallis, who had written to
me that he possesses a head which, as Peacock had told him,
gave the best obtainable idea of Shelley's face. It is an out-
line engraving from the head of Leismann in the Uffizi
(mentioned in print by Peacock), and probably conveys a
somewhat different impression from the picture itself, which
I looked at purposely last year. W[allis] says positively that
the Shelley portrait, nominally by Miss Curran, exhibited by
Sir P[ercy] Shelley at Kensington in '68, is not Miss C[urran]'s
own work ; but is a copy from the portrait painted by Clint,
which latter was done partly from Miss C[urran]'s. The
genuine one by Miss C[urran] belongs, he says, to Mrs
Hogg.* He has not yet seen it, but expects to do so, and
might perhaps arrange for my accompanying him. He pos-
sesses a Tacitus which had been given by Shelley to Hogg.
He was under the impression that one of S[helley]'s bio-
graphers, probably Hogg (he does not refer to Thornton
Hunt's assertion), had stated in print that S[helley] was dissi-
pated with women at some time of his life. On my telling
him that Hogg decidedly does not say so, nor any other
printed record written by a personal acquaintance of Shelley,
he comes to the conclusion that he must have heard it from
Peacock in conversation. I entertain some doubt as to the
fact alleged. Wallis believes that Severn knew something
about Shelley (as to this I have no distinct notion either
way). The last time Wfallis] was in Rome, he met at
Severn's office Mrs Llanos, Keats's Sister : a large and
(he says) apparently very ordinary old lady. She has
children. . . .
* Was Mr Wallis right as to this matter ? I question it ; being still
rather under the impression that one of the two portraits which used to
belong to Sir Percy Shelley was the original by Miss Curran, while
that which belonged to Mrs Hogg (and afterwards to her daughter Mrs
Lonsdale) was the copy made by Clint. Both these works are now in the
National Portrait Gallery.
504 ROSSETTI PAPERS
Sunday, 27 March. — Called at Chelsea to learn about
Gabriel's health, as a letter raising some anxiety reached me
thence yesterday. He speaks (by letter to Dunn) of the bad
state of his eyes, and possibility that he may have to leave-off
work, and turn china etc. into money ; but I doubt whether
there is anything going on much different from what has been
the state of things these many months.
Monday, 28 March. — Called to see the pictures which Lucy
Brown etc. are sending in to the R. A. Cathy's portrait of her
Mother, and Miss Spartali's St Barbara, remarkably good.
Tuesday, 5 April. — Gabriel, who has again of late been
increasingly anxious about his eyes, consulted Dr Critchett
to-day. Dr C[ritchett] (like all the others) insists that there is
nothing substantial the matter with the eyes, but recommends
rest, general reinvigoration, etc. He says the eyes are more
than duly flat ; that this defect used to be corrected by an
unconscious exertion of muscular power ; but that of late that
power is not so readily brought into play, and hence the
failure of sight. G[abriel] was with Swinburne (recently back
from Holmwood) the better part of the day ; and speaks in
the very highest terms of what S[winburne] has been writing
lately — Hertha, The Litany of the Nations, and the Proem to
Tristram and Vseult. S[winburne] has finished, or all but,
his notice of G[abriel]'s poems for The Fortnightly Review ;
and, spite of reiterated and strenuous protests from Gfabriel],
persists in retaining in it some passage exalting G[abriel]
expressly above other contemporary poets. G[abriel]'s book
is now finally made up, and preparing for publication ; Swin-
burne's Songs before Sunrise are also expected to be out in
May. Marston (through Knight) saw lately something of
G[abriel]'s poems, and admired them much, and proposes to
review them in The Athenceum. Purnell, it seems, does most
of the poetic reviewing there, but cedes this to M[arston] : he
believes that it was Buchanan who criticized my Shelley. . . .
I began the notice of Coleridge, and began reading up for that
of Cowper — the last that remains to be done. After this, the
three outstanding volumes of Selections have to be compiled,
WILLIAM ROSSETTI— DIARY, 1870 505
Wednesday ', 6 April. — Wrote to Moxon, naming the
editions of Burns, Milton, Coleridge, and Keats, that should
be sent to me for re-printing. In each of the last three it will
be possible to introduce a new feature, rendering the forth-
coming editions the completest in the market.
Thursday, 7 April. — Handed over £20, which Gabriel
requested for current expenses at Chelsea — he having returned
yesterday to Scalands. One item is £12. 153. for fire-insur-
ance: I find he is insured for ^"5100. . . .
Monday, 1 1 April. — . . . Payne tells me the Shelley has
sold very fairly : the edition is 1000 copies. ... I see it is
actually true (as I had been told) that Payne has had the
infernal impudence to affix a pair of ass's ears to the portrait
of Tennyson hanging in his room at Moxon's. . . .
Monday, 18 April. — . . . Swinburne called, and read me
The Litany of the Nations and Hertha, which are both very
fine — though I rather question whether the best things of a
like kind in Atalanta do not surpass even what is to be found
in Hertha. He . . . has somewhat modified, at Gabriel's
urgency, what he had said, in the review of G[abriel]'s poems,
as to G[abriel]'s superiority to Tennyson etc. The poems for
the volume of Songs before Sunrise are not yet entirely com-
pleted. . . .
Tuesday, 19 April. — Went to see at South Kensington the
astonishing Japanese silk-painting of a tiger — done by a
distinguished artist, Ganko, about 1700: it is a most admir-
able piece of work. So also is the Refreshment-room painted
by Morris : I think it must be the best piece of room-decora-
tion, or something very like it, of this century, whether in
England or elsewhere. It is darker than I like — i.e., the room
admits less light : but I fancy this depends upon its position,
not decoration. Saw the painted windows done by Scott in
outline-grisaille : some of them are pleasing talented work,
and sufficiently agreeable to the eye — as the subjects of
Chinese Art-workmen, and of Orpheus : the last window,
representing Raphael etc., appears to me not satisfactory, and
the least approvable of all. — Read Swinburne's Eve of Revolu-
tion and other poems in MS. : most splendid work indeed, . , ,
506 ROSSETTI PAPERS
Friday, 22 April. — Stillman called, and says that Gabriel's
poems have already been reviewed in The Pall Mall Gazette
and The Globe ; also that G[abriel] (who wrote us lately to
say the Nortons had invited him to Florence, and to ask
whether I would accompany him) is now almost minded to
settle down for a while in Florence. I quite think it would
be desirable for him to make the experiment. ... I had in
the morning written to G[abriel], to say that I will see about
arranging for accompanying him to Florence if he wishes
(though for more reasons than one it is the last place I should
myself want to be going to this year). . . .
276. — DANTE ROSSETTI— PROPOSED RAFFLE, DEVERELL.
[I have found the following programme, roughly written
out by my Brother, for a raffle on account of two pictures by
his old friend Walter Howell Deverell : am not now able to
say whether the programme was issued in these same terms,
or whether the raffle was held. The date of writing should
be 1870, as that was the sixteenth year following 1854, in
which Deverell had died.]
[1870.]
It is projected to set on foot a raffle for the two following
pictures by the late Walter H. Deverell, viz. — I. The Banish-
ment of Hamlet — 2. Irish Beggars by the Roadside. The
death of this artist occurred sixteen years ago at the age of
about twenty-five, and the promise he displayed remained
unaccomplished. His works are the expression of original
gifts, struggling with difficulties and not yet brought to
maturity : but they have a true interest for those who can
discover mental qualities in art ; contributing as they do to
illustrate the growth of English poetic painting in the circle
of men among whom he worked, many of whom, more fortu-
nate in longer life, have now arrived at eminence.
These two pictures display Deverell's qualities, especially
ANNE GILCHRIST, 1870 507
the Hamlet, a work which, when exhibited, met with appre-
ciation for its colour and dramatic expression. The present
raffle has for its important object the assistance of the late
artist's sister, to whom the pictures belong. . . .
The shares in the raffle to be a guinea each ; the holder
of the first and second prizes will obtain respectively the
pictures of Hamlet and the Irish Beggars. The drawing will
take place three months from the present date, when the
subscribers will receive notice of the precise day and place.
277.— -ANNE GlLCHRIST to WILLIAM ROSSETTI.
20 THE TERRACE, GUNTER GROVE.
2 January 1870.
My dear Mr Rossetti, — ... I happen to feel somewhat
downcast and anxious. ... I have been reading The Satur-
day Review, which always makes me supremely miserable,
whatever it treats of. I take it a Saturday Reviewer must be
the unhappiest man on the face of the earth, for he believes
in nothing and admires nothing, not even himself. . . . —
Always yours gratefully,
ANNE GILCHRIST.
278.— ANNE GILCHRIST to WILLIAM ROSSETTI.
[The passage here quoted, written by Whitman, must
have occurred in a letter addressed to myself — the same
letter which is spoken of in Mrs Gilchrist's of I January 1870,
No 274.]
20 THE TERRACE, GUNTER GROVE.
3 January 1870.
My dear Mr Rossetti, — In regard to his new edition Mr
Whitman says : " My new editions, considerably expanded,
with what suggestions etc. I have to offer (presented, I hope,
508 ROSSETTI PAPERS
in more definite graphic form), will probably get printed the
coming Spring. I shall forward you early copies. I send
my love to Moncure Conway, if you see him ; I wish he would
write to me soon and fully." I was going to copy the whole
letter, and then could not make-up my mind to write out my
own praises in such a cool way. — . . . Yours very truly,
ANNE GILCHRIST.
279. — EDWARD TRELAWNY to WILLIAM ROSSETTI.
7 PELHAM CRESCENT, BROMPTON.
8 January 1870.
Dear Rossetti, — Thank you for the Book of Courtesies. A
code of courtesy might be drawn from it, very useful in this
present rude age. Has Moxon published his Shelley? —
Yours truly,
E. J. TRELAWNY.
280.— THOMAS DIXON to WILLIAM ROSSETTI.
15 SUNDERLAND STREET, SUNDERLAND.
9 January 1870.
Dear Sir, — ... I enclose you a portrait of W. Whit-
man that has been copied by Tom Westness from a large
portrait sent me by Whitman on Christmas week ; and to
get it done I ventured a journey to Morpeth in the snow-
storm on the Christmas-day, for Tom was in a state of
great anxiety to have it done, so soon as I sent him word
I had got it. ... Whitman sent with it Emerson's letter
and some other trifles printed in a newspaper, also a very
nice letter of sympathy for Mother's death, and of friendship
to me, and a salutation for all his readers here. I intend
to collect a few books amongst us here to send him in
return for his kindness. Readers of his poems still keep
BARONE KtRKUP, 1870 509
on the increase in our neighbourhood, and many now love
him, and value his poems much and deeply too. The Co-
operative Store bought your edition of his writings for the
Library, and I learn there has been other buyers in the
town. I find Burroughs' book very useful as a help to a
proper understanding of the man and his poems to new
readers. . . . — Yours respectfully,
THOMAS DIXON.
281.— BARONE KIRKUP to WILLIAM ROSSETTI.
2 PONTE VECCHIO.
1 5 January 1870.
My dear Rossetti, — . . . Your kind dedication to me
of your Courtesy-book came safe, and I am grateful. . . .
I had written thus far, and behold ! your beautiful volume
of the Text Society is brought me this moment. . . .
Wonders will never cease ! The King has now given
me the Order of the Corona d' Italia. It is the second
order of the kingdom, civil and military, as the Bath is of
England. The first is that of the Annunziata, for the
Royal Family, foreign sovereigns, etc. I was recommended
by the Prime Minister, Menabrea, whom I never saw ; and
to him by the Minister] of Public Instruction, Bargoni,
whom I likewise never saw. But the Secretary-General,
Villari, is a very dear friend of mine of long standing,
though he is a young man. He was one evening admiring
the Arundel portrait of Dante at my house ; and I gave it
him, to induce him to get the fresco (Giotto's) restored
by removing the horrid daub that covers it. I asked him
to persuade the Minister of P[ublic] Instruction], whose
department it is, and I gave him another print for himself
to give him, as an inducement ; and I suppose he gave it
to him in my name. But, instead of reviving Dante, he
obtained the cross for me, and sent it me with the diploma
510 ROSSETTI PAPERS
and a very handsome letter, written entirely by his own
hand ; and a beautiful hand it is, much better than the
Secretary's. It is a perfect surprise, and Dante seems to
care more for me than for the portrait. He was with me
a few days before, and we asked him to inspire the
Minister] to get the portrait restored. Bargoni is now out
— and there is no further prospect at present (and so is
Menabrea), unless Dante can stimulate the new Minister.
Holman-Hunt has not been here for a long time. I
suppose he has some great qualities, perhaps expression,
which is the greatest of all. . . . He is a good fellow any-
how— and so is Woolner. . . .
There are still some of the Polidoris in Florence. The
Cancelliere is dead, but there is a Son of his whom I have
seen in English society. — My dear friend, ever yours,
SEYMOUR KIRKUP.
... I will try and get you a photograph of the beauti-
ful monument of Dante's General at Campaldino, which I
drew for Lord V[ernon], and which is, I suppose, lost. The
most important of all the illustrations.
282.— EDWARD TRELAWNY to WILLIAM ROSSETTI.
7 PELHAM CRESCENT, BROMPTON.
17 January 1870.
Dear Rossetti, — You have verified your text that your
editing our poet was a work of love. You are the first writer
on Shelley that has done justice to him or his writings — all
the previous writers are incompetent. Peacock had fancy and
learning, Hogg the same ; Leigh Hunt did not understand
Shelley's poetry ; Medwin, superficial ; Mrs Shelley, fear of
running counter to the cant of society restrained her. You
alone have the qualities essential to the task, and have done
it admirably.
The publishers have marred all. Under its present
DANTE fcOSSETTI, 1870
511
hideous form the book can't float — the pale ink, the small
type, and crowded text. Those that have opened it shut
it with disgust. When you come this way, let's have a talk.
Thanking you for your notices, and hoping I deserve them, —
I am always your obliged
E. J. TRELAWNY.
The Prometheus, Shelley said, caused him the most labour ;
and, if that was a failure, he could never hope to succeed in
being a poet ; and, if not a poet, he was nothing.
283. — DANTE ROSSETTI to PROFESSOR NORTON, Florence.
16 CHEYNE WALK, CHELSEA.
22 January 1870.
My dear Norton, — I am truly ashamed of the above date,
and of all my sins of omission ; including perhaps some
omitted sins, — for these too strike one as mistakes occasion-
ally as life wears on. However, at present such is not my
remorse ; for most certainly it would have been no sin, but a
duty, to have written ere now to one who must think he
remembers me much better than I do him — and to whom at
any rate I am grateful for past friendship, and even for future
instalments of the same, so sure I am of them, whatever my
poor deserts may be.
I duly got long ago the drawing of Clerk Saunders, and
was truly pleased to see its face again. It even surprised me
by its great merit of feeling and execution, and now takes its
place among its fellows on my drawing-room walls. I have
had the silver flat gilded ; which makes a wonderful improve-
ment in the tone, which the former leaden tint damaged
terribly. Silver flats are one of the wilder experiments of
our frame-making in those days.
I hope when I see you again you will be pleased with the \
drawing of Janey Morris destined for you, which is now
being finished. If you like however (you know), I will send
512 ROSSETTI PAPERS
it to you in Florence. But, before parting with it, I shall
have to make a replica for my own keeping, as I like it on
the whole the best of the drawings I have made of her, and
never mean to let any more go out of my own possession.
The chance of such a model is too precious for the ordinary
| market. You will be grieved to have heard (as you have
doubtless done) how very ill she has been since you were in
London ; nor can I give a good account of her now, though
she has been somewhat better just lately.
I have been thinking what there may be to tell you of my
work, and am obliged to confess that it does not amount to
much. I have been a good deal out of sorts, nor did I
benefit much in the autumn by a trip to Scotland. However,
poor health has not been the only cause of the little I have
got done in painting, as I lost some time preparing a volume
of poems for the press, which I hope to get out in the Spring.
I have communicated with Mr Fields of Boston (whom you
doubtless know) as to his undertaking an American reprint ;
since, when he called on me with Longfellow last summer, he
expressed a wish to reprint some early poetry of mine he had
seen somewhere. I have not as yet received his reply. My
proposed publisher, Ellis, had received a request for sheets of
the poems from Messrs Roberts the American publishers,
but I thought after what Fields said it was best to write to
him.
Of course you know how great a success Morris's new
Earthly Paradise is ; and no doubt you agree with all the
most reliable opinions, that there is some real advance as to
strength and human character in this volume even over the
former one. The Gudrun is surely on the whole one of the
finest poems in the English language. I believe you have
been hearing from Ned Jones, so need not convey news of
him and his.
What a delightful picture — indeed, a most precious one —
your Giorgione turns out after passing through the hands of
a skilful picture-cleaner ! Why in the world the change in it
had ever been made it is difficult to conceive ; except indeed
that it appears to have been part of a larger picture, the rest
WILLIAM ALLINGHAM, 1870
513
of which may presumably have been lost, and an attempt then
made to give the fragment the look of a whole at the expense
of its beauty and real character. It seems, as now cleaned, to
be in a quite perfect state, and needed I believe no retouching
whatever. The colour is so golden that it gives an idea of
being actually painted on a gold ground, though this does not
seem on examination to be the case. |
We have a very fine specimen of an American over here
now in the person of Stillman, whom you know. I have
known him in a fragmentary way for many years, but am
seeing more of him now, and like him extremely.
I hope you are all enjoying yourselves in Florence, and
above all that you have no ill-health to interfere with the
fitness of things around you. Will you give my very best
and truest remembrances to all yours, and accept them for
yourself, believing me your sincere friend,
D. G. ROSSETTI.
284.— WILLIAM ALLINGHAM to WILLIAM ROSSETTI.
[The profile of Shelley in boyhood, done by the Due de
Montpensier, is known to many persons interested in the
great poet. I can only say that I never perceived it to bear
much resemblance to his face, such as we very imperfectly
know it from other records ; nor did I ever hear any details
tending clearly to authenticate it. — In Allingham's P.S. the
term "the engraving" means (as may readily be perceived)
the engraved portrait of Shelley in my edition of his
poems. — I will add here a few details about the Due de
Montpensier. He was born in 1775, a younger son of the
Due d'Orleans, Philippe Egalite, and was Brother to the Due
de Chartres, afterwards King Louis Philippe. Getting into
serious trouble and danger in the course of the French
Revolution, he embarked for America in 1796, and came to
England in 1800, residing at Twickenham. Here the Due de
Montpensier died in 1807. The portrait said to be that of
2 K
514 ROSSETTI PAPERS
Shelley (born in 1792) represents a boy seemingly aged about
eleven (or, as Allingham says, ten). This will bring us to
1803, which is a date quite consistent with those which relate
to the English sojourn of the Due de Montpensier. Shelley,
it would appear, was a pupil at Sion House Academy,
Isleworth, from the autumn of 1802 to the summer of 1804.]
LYMINGTON.
23 January 1870.
Dear William, — Pray accept my best thanks, first for the
curious Italian Courtesy-books ; and secondly for the two
valuable Shelley volumes. Both Life and Notes seem to me
admirably done.
Last month (December 5 and 6) I was at Boscombe,
and saw for the first time the Shelley relics which are there.
The letters, scribbling-books, pocket-books, rough and fair
copies of poems, I was allowed to turn over for an hour or so,
with promise of leave to examine them carefully at another
time. They are in a cabinet which stands in a large recess,
sometimes hid by a curtain, in Lady Shelley's boudoir. At
the end of the recess is a full-size cast of Christchurch
monument (drowned figure etc.) ; on one side of this a bust
of Mrs Shelley — on the other a bust of Mrs Godwin (a
beautiful woman) ; and on the wall an idealized copy of
Miss Curran's picture of P. B. S. (the original is in Sir
Percy's room), and two glazed frames with locks of hair :
P. B. S. . . . 1816), f,
Do Ig22 j- both very dark brown.
MaryW. S. . . 1851 light and faded.
P. Florence S. . . 1821 very light.
Lord Byron . . 1822 turning grey.
C[ountess] Guiccioli . Blonde.
L[eigh] Hunt . . 1817)
Tom Moore . . j nearly black.
Ed. Trelawny . . 1822
Ed. Williams . . 1821
Item — portrait of William S[helley], child of about two ;
blue eyes, sea-shell pink cheeks, yellow hair ; and pencil-
MRS LYNN LINTON, 1870 515
drawing (i.e., copy or photograph of one) " drawn by the Due
de Montpensier, and presented by him to the Ladies of
Langollen," representing in profile the head of a very beautiful
boy of about ten, with curls to his shoulders, P. B. S. to wit.
The poet's travelling knife and fork in a case are here, one
of his gloves (found in a book), the plate he used to eat his
raisins off at Marlow in 1817 (a rather pretty plate, white
with pattern of strawberries), the volume of ^Eschylus (not
" Sophocles ") found in his pocket. The edition is a 1 2mo one
in 2 volumes, and the companion-volume is also here.
I read the pamphlet —
" A Refutation of Deism, in a dialogue— ZYNETOI2IN "—
London, printed by Schultze and Dean, 13 Poland Street,
1814, 101 pages. 'Tis in ironical Voltairian manner:
pretends to support Christianity — "no alternative between
Atheism and Christianity " — while attacking both Christianity
and Deism. The author's opinion is evidently given in these
words : " It is easier to suppose that the Universe has existed
from all eternity than to conceive an eternal being capable of
creating it. ... The system of the Universe is upheld solely
by the physical powers." . . . — Yours always,
W. ALLINGHAM.
The engraving is a very unlucky version of Miss Curran's
portrait, and likely to prepossess people against the book,
I fear. I wish that drawing of the boy of ten were in stead
of it.
285.— MRS LYNN LINTON to WILLIAM ROSSETTI.
28 GOWER STREET.
27 January 1870.
Dear Mr Rossetti, — Very many thanks for your Memoir.
. . . All my life I have been ridiculed for my love of Shelley,
and told how his poetry has been my ruin ; and now you
516 ROSSETTI PAPERS
come forward not only to defend but even to eulogize his
lovers. . . . — Yours most faithfully,
E. LYNN LINTON.
286.— KENINGALE COOK to WILLIAM ROSSETTI.
69 MANSFIELD ROAD, HIGHGATE ROAD.
27 January 1870.
Dear Mr Rossetti, — ... It may or may not interest you
to learn — if you are not already aware of it — that your
edition of Whitman has called forth long notices in two
periodicals of rather distinctive class : — The Intellectual Reposi-
tory (organ of Swedenborgian spiritualism) of a few months
ago ; and The Spiritual Magazine (Christian branch of modern,
or, if I may so speak, more material spiritualism) of this
month. This latter article, though narrow in one or two
points, is fine in its way : the author " W. H." — William
Howitt, I should imagine. The other paper wants a little
straightening in its literary facts, which are set rather
crookedly. . . . — Most truly yours,
KENINGALE R. COOK.
287. — WILLIAM ROSSETTI to WILLIAM ALLINGHAM.
[In speaking of some portrait of Shelley " now lost," I
meant (but the sentence is rather ambiguous) that the
water-colour by Lieutenant Williams is now lost — not the
oil-painting by Clint. The jocular allusion to The Athenceum
refers to the censorious review in that periodical of my
edition of Shelley.]
56 EUSTON SQUARE.
30 January 1870.
Dear Allingham, — . . . The engraving to my Shelley is
indeed worse than indifferent : it is the same that had
PROFESSOR DOWDEN, 1870 517
appeared in recent issues of Mrs Shelley's editions. It is
not strictly from Miss Curran's portrait, but from the one
used by Trelawny — z>., a water-colour by Lieut. Williams,
from which (now lost) a portrait by Clint was painted. But
no doubt Clint must have coached himself up from Miss
Curran : but for this, one would have to say that the
almost entire coincidence between the Curran and Williams
portraits argues strongly in favour of the truthfulness of
the now currently accepted Shelley face. — Yours as long as
The Athenceum leaves me crawling,
W. M. ROSSETTI.
288. — PROFR. DOWDEN to WILLIAM ROSSETTI.
6 1 WELLINGTON ROAD, DUBLIN.
i February 1870.
Dear Sir, — I write to know whether you are sufficiently
disengaged to be able, or to care, to read an Essay of
mine called The Poetry of Democracy ; Walt Whitman. It
came to be written at the request of the Editor of Macmil-
lan that I should contribute something to his magazine ;
but, on finding my paper was concerned with Whitman, he
could have nothing to do with it. The MS. went the
round of several Reviews ; or rather I consulted the Editor
beforehand as to whether an article on such a subject would
be acceptable ; but the Fortnightly had had its article on
Whitman already, and from other quarters I got such
answers as " God save us from Whitmanism " — " Whitman's
monstrous system," etc. etc. At last, in the least likely
quarter, it was accepted — for The Contemporary Review. . . .
But, after being put into print, Dean Alford and Mr Strahan
found its tone " too alarming " to permit of its being pub-
lished.
I have the proof-sheet by me, and I should like you (if
it does not trouble you) to read my essay; partly because
I can acknowledge thereby, beside other debts, especially
518 ROSSETTI PAPERS
the debt you have laid me under in making me acquainted
with Whitman's writings ; partly because, as I suppose no
English review will accept my article (which I believe you
will find very innocent and un-" alarming "), I should be
glad to learn from you if you think there is a chance of
its being accepted by any American Review of merit, and
if so — which.
In any case I wish Whitman himself to see it, and shall
thank you if you can let me know his address. . . .
I am connected with the University of Dublin as Pro-
fessor of English Literature. . . . — Very faithfully yours,
EDWARD DOWDEN.
289.— DANTE ROSSETTI to WILLIAM ROSSETTI.
[I think it as well to give this extract ; as it has often
been said, spitefully or ignorantly or with much exaggera-
tion, that Dante Rossetti prompted some of his friends to
write reviews of his Poems. The extract strongly suggests
that both Mr William Morris (Top) and Mr Swinburne
acted spontaneously. Mr Morris's review appeared in The
Academy. The sequel to the present letter comes in letter
294, II February 1870.]
[16 CHEYNE WALK.
3 February 1870.]
Dear William, — I am always forgetting to ask you as
follows. Top wants to do a notice of my book. He proposed
Fortnightly ; but there I believe Swinburne proposes to do so,
and had long ago started the idea. Do you think The
Academy would be available ? And, if so, could you propose
the thing to the Editor? Top's name would be useful
perhaps to him, as well as to my book. . . . — Your
D. G. R.
F. T. PALGRAVE, 1870 519
290. — PROFR. DOWDEN to WILLIAM ROSSETTI.
6 1 WELLINGTON ROAD, DUBLIN.
5 February 1870.
Dear Sir, — I post to you to-day my article. ... I ought
to have made it clearer that I view Whitman's work by no
means as supply to answer such demand as the American
people makes, or is likely for some time to make ; but as
the utterances of a man of genius standing in the presence of
a great democracy, and delivering himself with no concern
for his hearers' tastes or wishes. Whitman's want of popularity
therefore in his own country affords no argument against the
statement that he is the poet of democracy. The Hebrew
prophets, in the same way, were unpopular, yet were no less
on that account the truest interpreters of the Hebrew spirit.
. . . — Very truly yours,
EDWARD DOWDEN.
291.— F. T. PALGRAVE to WILLIAM ROSSETTI.
5 YORK GATE, REGENT'S PARK.
7 February 1870.
Dear Rossetti, — ... I am in the thick of your Shelleyan
labours, and admire the reverential reserve with which you
have altered the text. I have long since surrendered all my
attempts at correction : except the dome for doom in the West
Wind, in which I dare say I have been anticipated by others.
. . . — Ever truly yours,
F. T. PALGRAVE.
520 ROSSETTI PAPERS
292.— PROFR. DOWDEN to WILLIAM ROSSETTI.
61 WELLINGTON ROAD, DUBLIN.
10 February 1870.
My dear Sir, — . . . What you say of Whitman's being a
" daemonic man " (Goethe's phrase — is it not ?) and therefore
only to be expected to utter his own vision of truth, not that
of the side remote from him, is most true. I do not think of
blaming, any more than I could think of blaming J. H. New-
man, say, for being at the extreme other pole of truth. But
in such a criticism as mine it seemed in keeping with the rest
to note the limitations or even the error of his thinking, as
well as the chief objects within its range. That error, as it
presents itself to me, is an exclusion of self-consciousness
from Nature, and all that proceeds from self-consciousness ;
whereas Nature really includes self-consciousness. Whitman,
in his feeling that men would become more a part of Nature,
and so live a freer larger life, by utterly losing sight of them-
selves, is really tending towards asceticism of a peculiar kind,
— self-mutilation, putting-out of the inward eye of self-
observation for the sake of getting into his Kingdom of
Heaven. His doctrine seems to me, by an immeasurable
amount, more fruitful than its opposite — that which devotes
itself to inculcating self-superintendence without caring to
develop that which is to be superintended. But the whole
truth on this matter is what I would grow passionate for,
which I find nowhere better put than in the words of Schelling,
whose philosophy too was a Natur-p kilos op kie : — " It has long
been perceived that in art [and life and all things] everything
is not performed with a full consciousness ; that with the
conscious activity an unconscious energy must unite itself;
that the perfect union and reciprocal interpenetration of the
two is that which accomplishes the highest in art " [and in
life]. . . . — Very truly yours,
EDWARD DOWDEN.
DANTE ROSSETTI, 1870
521
293. — JOHN TUPPER to DANTE ROSSETTI.
[The book sent along with this note is evidently the one
entitled Hiatus, or the Void in Modern Education. As Mr
Tupper was an excellent Art-teacher, and the main thesis of
his book is to some extent well summarized in this note —
the book itself being far less widely known than it deserves
to be — I think it desirable to insert the letter.]
RUGBY.
ii February 1870.
My dear Rossetti, — I have ordered a copy of my Book to
be sent you. You will (if you read) differ gravely on some
points, but I hope I shall have your sanction on some. I am
not, you mind, writing about art as poetry ; though I contend
that, if art is only taught grammatically, and learned so, there
will be some emotional, some poetic outcome. I only say
that we cannot teach poetry nor the poetic constituent of
Art ; and that is just what we are for ever pretending to do,
in schools, to the exclusion of the possible teaching.
I am entrancedly gloating over these wonderful things in
Turner's Liber Studiorum ; but I do not show them to my
boys till they are well advanced, for we can't get so far.
Boys could not see them as anything but a sanction for
scribble. If we root-out the sham, and get-in a little truth
in the way of drawing, we do much — eh ? — Yours always,
J. L. TUPPER.
294.— DANTE ROSSETTI to WILLIAM ROSSETTI.
[16 CHEYNE WALK,
ii February 1870.]
Dear W., — Top thinks the best plan would be as you
suggest — i.e., for you to tell the Editor of Academy that he is
522 ROSSETTI PAPERS
willing to write on his own subjects, and notify any book he
wishes for review. I suppose that plan is likely to suit
Editor. — Your
D. G. R.
295.— JOHN PICKFORD to WILLIAM ROSSETTI.
[The statement that Shelley entered Eton School " at the
age of thirteen " is not quite accurate. He was there before
he was fully twelve.]
BOLTON PERCY, near TADCASTER.
15 February [1870].
My dear Sir, — ... On the enclosed paper I have jotted
down a few bits concerning Shelley which have fallen under
my notice in my reading, though perhaps they may not be
new to you, and may have been anticipated in your Memoir.
— Believe me yours faithfully,
JOHN PICKFORD.
It is owing to your remarks on Shelley in the last No. of
Notes and Queries that I have sent the paper to you.
Percy Bysshe Shelley was born in 1792, and at the age
of thirteen, after being at School at Sion House, Brentford,
was sent to Eton. Joseph Goodall, D.D., was then Head
Master (1801 to 1809, when he was elected Provost of the
College). Dr Keate was most probably at the time of
Shelley's entrance Master of the Lower School, in which he
was placed. A reference to Etoniana or the Registrum
Regale could at once show whether I am correct in my
assertion concerning Dr Keate having once been Lower
Master. The power of flogging would belong to him, as well
as to the Head Master.
In 1809 Keate became Head Master, and held that post
for a great number of years.
In 1811 Shelley was expelled from University College,
MRS LEWES, 1870 523
Oxford, at the age of eighteen. — Query, in what year did he
enter Oxford ? — University College at that time had chiefly
as its undergraduate members young men of family and
fortune from Northumberland, Durham, and Yorkshire, — in
fact, was peopled by a set of hard-living north-countrymen ;
and why selected as a college for Shelley it is difficult to say.
The Master was James Griffith, D.D. (1808 to 1821). To Mr
Faber belongs the merit in the first instance of raising
University to its present high rank in Oxford, and also to
Arthur Stanley, the Dean of Westminster, both of whom
were Tutors.
In The New Monthly Magazine for 1833 may be found an
account of Shelley's expulsion, written by a contemporary,
which is well worth reading. . . .
Mention is made, in the N\ew\ M\pnthly\ M\agazine\
article above alluded to, of Shelley's quickness in making Latin
verses ; and of his once having shown up a Latin prose
theme to Keate in which he wrote some verses, and which
Keate as he read the theme scanned. This was most likely
when Keate was Lower Master ; unless, as is scarcely prob-
able, Shelley, during the latter part of his stay at Eton, was
in the Sixth Form.
296. — MRS LEWES to DANTE ROSSETTI.
[My Brother's acquaintance with the self-styled " George
Eliot " was not at any time very close : it was (as we see) at
this date sufficient to warrant him in sending her, or to war-
rant her in asking for and accepting, some photographs from
his works of art. The "head marked June 1861" must
have been a pencil-head of his Wife — one of very few which
he drew from her, as actual portrait-studies, after the date of
their marriage. The chief subject in the letter here extracted \
from is the photograph from the pen-and-ink drawing of
Hamlet and Ophelia. That passage was reproduced in Miss |
Mathilde Blind's volume George Eliot : so I omit it here.] J
524 ROSSETTI PAPERS
21 NORTH BANK.
17 February 1870.
Dear Mr Rossetti, — I have had time now to dwell on the
photographs. I am especially grateful to you for giving me
the head marked June 1861 : it is exquisite. But I am glad
/ to possess every one of them. The subject of The Magdalene
rises in interest for me the more I look at it. I hope you will
keep, in the picture, an equally passionate type for her.
Perhaps you will indulge me with a little talk about the
irnodifications you intend to introduce. . . .
1 thank you sincerely, and I feel it a privilege to have
learned something of your mind's work. — Yours always truly,
M. E. LEWES.
297. — DANTE ROSSETTI to WILLIAM ROSSETTI.
[The chief interest of this note is the evidence it affords
that my Brother, even before his volume Poems was actually
published, had confidently forecast that it would be attacked
by Mr Robert Buchanan. I omit, for a sufficient reason, the
close of his sentence about Mr Buchanan : the reader will
understand that what he means is that this author, when
about to write a hostile review, would find himself more or
less hampered through laudatory reviews already written and
published by authors as distinguished as himself — or shall I
say more distinguished ?]
[16 CHEYNE WALK.
23 February 1870.]
Dear W., — I have sent my proofs for correction and reset-
ting (as I mean now to have only 24 lines in a page, instead of
29), and have told them to send a set (when done) to you at
once. I suppose this will not be done for some days, but
write now lest I forget ; as I want to ask whether you could
greatly oblige me by reading them carefully through again
with a view to punctuation when you receive them, as I am
_
MORRIS & COMPANY, 1870 525
sure stops etc. will be sure to drop out in the resetting, and
you must have a good habit of spotting these things, besides
better eyes than I have.
Swinburne's article will be in the May Fortnightly, one
by Skelton in May Fraser, and Top (I trust) in May Academy.
So Buchanan may, let us hope, be caught just in the
act. . . . — Your
D. G. R.
298.— JOHN RUSKIN to WILLIAM ROSSETTI.
[I have forgotten what was " that help " which I had just
been affording to Mr Ruskin : it must apparently have been
in the nature of translating some passage from the writings of
Leonardo da Vinci on pictorial art]
OXFORD.
10 March 1870.
Dear Rossetti, — I am so very much obliged to you for
that help. There is a great deal in Leonardo which I used to
think commonplace, but now find — examining the expres-
sions closely — of highest value. That Imperatore bit is very
puzzling however at best.
Thank you for the book on mediaeval etiquette — it is
greatly amusing. — Ever believe me, dear Rossetti, yours
affectionately,
J. RUSKIN.
299.— MORRIS & COMPANY— A BILL.
[As everything connected with the firm of Morris &
Company has become of interest to many, I give here a copy
of a bill of theirs. I don't know who did the " device " : it
is not exactly a masterpiece. The bill relates to the stained-
526
ROSSETTI PAPERS
glass window commissioned by Charlotte Polidori in memory
of her deceased sister Margaret, and set up in Christ Church,
Albany Street: it was designed by Dante Rossetti, and
/executed by the Morris Firm. The subject is here called
" Sermon on the Mount " : but this is not correct, as the
designer intended the Sermon on the Plain — as set forth in
\Luke, chap. 6.]
26 QUEEN SQUARE, BLOOMSBURY, W.C.
March iQth 1870.
To Miss POLIDORI.
Dr. to MORRIS & COMPANY,
Fine Art Workmen, in Painting, Carving, Stained Glass,
Furniture, and the Metals.
The terms are strictly for cash : five per cent, charged after three
months.
1870.
Janry. 15. To Brass Plate for Window-sill
with inscription . . . . £i 19 8
Mar. 1 8. To Stained Glass, Sermon on the
Mount 35 o o
„ Fixing . . . . . o 16 4
£37 16 o
March 21. Received with thanks, Morris & Company.
300. — DANTE ROSSETTI to WILLIAM ROSSETTI.
[I don't now remember — and I suppose that I never
knew — anything about this matter of The North British
Review. It appears that Mr W. B. Scott co-operated (at
least in intention) in the plan, which he afterwards vigorously
denounced, of the reviewing, by personal friends and acquaint-
ances, of the Poems of Dante Rossetti. Also I do not
recollect what poem or passage written by my Brother
I
DANTE ROSSETTI, 1870 527
appeared to me to resemble the first sonnet of Petrarch — one
of the most perfect pieces of verse-writing in any language.]
[SCALANDS.
25 March 1870.]
Dear W., — Do you know if Simcox is on the North
British ? It seems some one secured my book there before
Scott asked for it, but I don't know who it was. Or is there
any one else likely ? Do you know the names ?
I've been rather worried by your discovery about the
resemblance to Petrarch's first sonnet, which I verily believe
I never read. Would you mind copying it for me ?
I have written just a sheet of new matter which is in
print now, and shall do no more but a sonnet or two
perhaps. I'm not in trim, and time wears too short. — Your
GABRIEL.
I finished The Stream's Secret (begun at Penkill) which
makes 12 pages. The rest are sonnets.
301.— DANTE ROSSETTI to MADOX BROWN.
SCALANDS.
[April 1870.]
Dear Brown, — I write to Dunn with this about the
studies. I should be much obliged to you to look in again.
I do not think you or any one understands the extent to
which my eyesight now interferes with work. Every moment
is an effort. The chalks are a little less painful, so I am
apt to do them. I have fortunately several commissions
for chalk-portraits which I may get done on reaching
London unless my eyes become worse.
No matter about the trifle of tin. There will be moments
more convenient for you, and more desperate for me, yet.
. . .—Your
D. G. R.
528 ROSSETTI PAPERS
302.— DANTE ROSSETTI to PROFR. NORTON, Florence.
SCALANDS, ROBERTSBRIDGE, SUSSEX.
II April 1870.
My dear Norton, — What very, very kind letters from
yourself and Mrs Norton ! May I mass the answers I owe
into one? It seems natural, when the unity of kindness is
so complete in both.
I have been here for a month or rather more now,
having left London in very poor health, and not having
much to boast of at this writing. There is everything to
tempt me in your invitation, I need hardly say; but the
weakness I have long been experiencing in my eyes forbids
sight-seeing, and to enter Florence under such a prohibi-
tion for the first time would be, I fear, too tantalizing.
Better dulness and commonplace at home than such a
change so circumscribed. Besides, if work may be, work I
must for many reasons, and the day has arrived to try
again. So I fear there is little likelihood (though not per-
haps quite none) of my seeing you in Florence. Mean-
while, I may say truly that no distant place or persons
seem to me so pleasantly inviting, but for dismal drawbacks.
I hope you will soon get my volume of poems. It shall
reach you as soon as it is out, which will I believe be for
certain before the end of this month. Some friendly hands
are already at work on reviews of it: Morris for The
Academy — Swinburne for the Fortnightly — Stillman for an
American paper — and others.
Stillman is my companion in these solitudes, and a very
good, helpful, friendly companion he is, as you will judge
from your knowledge of him. The house (which has a
good studio in it) has been lent us by an old friend, Mrs
Bodichon, an excellent landscape-painter herself, as you
perhaps know. I think you have heard from Stillman that
he has . . . got himself engaged. ... He has gone up to
town to-day, . . . and I am left to lonely letter-writing.
I
DANTE ROSSETTI, 1870 529
She is a noble girl — in beauty, in sweetness, and in artistic
gifts; and the sky should seem very warm and calm above,
and the road in front bright and clear, and all ill things
left behind for ever, to him who starts anew on his life-
journey, foot to foot and hand in hand with her. ... I
warmly hope that happiness is in store for them both. She
is a pearl among women, and there are points in Stillman's
character of the manliest and truest I know. His prospects
are at present however very uncertain. . . .
I hope that when you get my book you will agree with me
as to the justness of my including all it contains. I say this
because there are a few things — and notably a poem called
Jenny — which will raise objections in some quarters. I only
know that they have been written neither recklessly nor
aggressively (moods which I think are sure to result in the
ruin of Art), but from a true impulse to deal with subjects
which seem to me capable of being brought rightly within
Art's province. Of my own position I feel sure, and so wait
the final result without apprehension.
Our friends are all well, with the exception, I most deeply
grieve to say, of Mrs Morris, who is still in a very delicate
state. She and Morris have been in this neighbourhood
lately, and are coming again ; and I trust the change may
prove eventually of some decided benefit to her, as signs of
this have already become apparent.
Good-bye, my dear Norton. I am going for my walk now
in a pleasing but not very sympathetic entourage of leafless
woods and English associations which I have grown old in,
but am never perhaps quite at home with. I envy you your
Italian ones, and shall be very glad to hear more of the study
you propose to undertake of Michelangelo's unpublished
letters. I hope the fit of queer health which baulked you at
the outset is over now, and that you and yours are all well.
To all of you my best love, and the assurance that I am ever
yours and theirs,
D. G. ROSSETTI.
2 L
536 ROSSETTI PAPERS
203. — BARONE KIRKUP to WILLIAM ROSSETTI.
[Pietrocola here mentioned was (as in previous instances)
my Cousin Teodorico Pietrocola-Rossetti. As to " Shelley's
bed," or sofa, which is now my property, I may give its
history in brief, supplementing the few remarks made in my
Diary for 13 March 1870. Shelley bought this sofa in Pisa,
when he was furnishing there. I believe the statement made
by Trelawny, that it was bought in Leghorn and for Leigh
Hunt, was not strictly accurate. I always used to hear its
material called " Italian walnut-wood " ; but was of late
credibly informed that it is beech-wood. It is very roomy
and fully sufficient to serve as a bed, and Trelawny told
me that Shelley often used it thus. If Shelley left it in Pisa
in 1822, instead of sending it off to Casa Magni near Lerici (a
point as to which I am not certain), he must apparently have
slept upon it the last night of his life : for that night was spent
in Pisa, and on the following morning he went to Leghorn, and
embarked on the fatal boat. After the poet's death the sofa
remained of course the property of Mrs Shelley. She, on
leaving Italy, gave it to Leigh Hunt, who was still sojourning
there. He, on leaving, gave it to Charles Armitage Brown,
the friend of Keats. From him (without, I think, any inter-
mediate owner) it came to Kirkup. He, as he was nearing
his death, at an age exceeding ninety, was solicited by
Trelawny to send the sofa over to him, who would value it,
instead of leaving it to take, on Kirkup's decease, its chance
as so much ramshackle furniture. The Barone assented, and
dispatched the precious relic to Trelawny. He, with his
wonted and abnormal generosity, abstained from housing it
in his own residence, and forthwith consigned it to me ; he
remaining the legal but only the nominal owner up to his
death in 1881, when I, by his gift, entered upon full rights of
possession. — Towards the close of his letter, Kirkup speaks of
the pomegranates represented in Giotto's portrait of Dante,
and he seems to be about to offer an explanation of them :
BARONE KIRKUP, 1870 531
but the explanation does not come — owing, I take it, to lapse
of memory on his part.]
2 PONTE VECCHIO.
24 April 1870.
My dear Rossetti, — ... I have just been to Pietrocola.
He is looking thinner, but is perfectly recovered except a little
weakness in his legs, which will soon get their strength again.
I think his house is too close and confined. . . . Dark, low
rooms on a ground-floor. The proverb says,
Erba cruda,
Donna gnuda,
O stanza terrena,
A corta vita mena. . . .
You mention Shelley's bed. It was that sofa on which
you sat with me in this room. I have slept for months on it
in hopes of seeing Shelley's ghost. I have had so many here
in my presence, and have seen them four times only in their
person, but innumerable exploits performed by them abso-
lutely impossible by human agency. . . .
Did I tell you I have found out the meaning of the three '
pomegranates in the hand of Giotto's portrait ? Your Father
with his intuitive sagacity, guessed that they related to the
three poems (cantiche)^ and he was right ; but why that fruit in i
particular? . . .
Remember me to Trelawny, my best and oldest friend.
He is a younger man than me ; but we must of course soon
meet, for I have great faith in another world — not that of the
impostor Alain Kardec. — Believe me, with true affection,
yours ever,
SEYMOUR KIRKUP.
INDEX OF NAMES
AALI PACHA, 412
Academy, The (journal), 412, 518, 521,
525, 528
Acropolis, Athens, 419
Adelphi Terrace, London, 407
Adourne, Count, 38
Adriatic Sea, the, 204
/Eschylus, 515
Agen, 262
Agnew, Messrs, 268, 403, 479, 488, 496
Agnew, Miss (see Severn, Mrs Arthur)
Ailsa Crag, 2O2
Airolo, no
Alban Hills, the, 212
Albany Street, 166, London, 197, 224
Albergo dell' Angelo, Bellinzona, no
Albergo d'ltalia, Arona, 316
Albergo d'ltalia, Brescia, 118
Albergo d'ltalia, Como, in
Albertis, De, 187, 188
Alessandria, 217
Alfieri, Count, 239, 468
Alford, Dean, 517
Algeria, 500
Alighieri. Jacopo, 249
Alighieri, Pietro, 216
Allan, Mr, 243
Allingham, Wm., x., xi., 240, 274, 337,
338
Fifty Modern Poems by, 90
Nightingale Valley, collected by, 402
Alps, the, 108, 114
Ambler, 301
Ambrosian Library, Milan, 115
America, 177, 196, 235, 240, 300, 303,
320, 380, 411, 412, 440, 513
Ancona. 387
Ancona, Alessandro d', 343
Andermatt, 109, no
Andersonville, 235
Anfiteatro Virgiliano, Mantua, 312
Angelico, Fra, 118, 134
Annunciation by, 118
933
Anne (servant), 395
Annunziata, 451, 452
Ansanti, 390
Anthony, W. Mark, 29, 66
Harvest-Field at Sunset, by, 66
Anthropological Society, The, 303
Antonelli, Cardinal, n
Antonello da Messina, 105
Portrait by, 105
Antwerp, 33, 35, 36, 37
Antwerp Cathedral, 34
Antwerp Museum, 33, 35
Aquila, 425
Aquila d'Oro Hotel, Mantua, 311
Arabian Nights, The, 369
Arcivescovado, Milan, 115
Arena, the, Verona, 121, 313
Arenberg, Due d', 32
Armellini, 225
Arnold, Matthew, 233
Arona, 316, 317
Aroux, E., 182, 209, 288, 427
Dante Herdtique etc. by, 184
Dante translated by, 1 84
Francesca da Rimini etc. by, 182,
184
Arrichetti (Venice), 56
Art-Journal, The, 436
Arundel Club, the, London, 175
Arundel Society, the, 344, 408
Ashburnham, Lord, 271
Aspromonte, 1 1 8, 192
Assisi, 434
Athenaeum, The, 193, 258, 356, 382,
398, 483, 484, 504, 516
Athens, 378, 412
Atlantic Monthly, The, 162, 235
Atrium Vestae, Rome, 261
Attenborough, 300
Australia, 166, 194, 325
Austria, 1 86, 204, 207, 213
Avignon, 259
Ayr, 453
Ayrshire, 478
534
INDEX OF NAMES
B
BADEN, Grand Duchy of, 126
Bader, Dr, 322, 370
Baines, 325, 326
Bale, 59, 106, 107, 108, 308
Bale Cathedral, 107, 108
Bale Museum, 108
Balliol College, Oxford, 302, 378
Bandello, 367
Novelle by, 367
Bandiera, Fratelli, 207, 208, 314
Barbera, 490
Barcelona, 319, 330
Barge Yard, London, 435
Bargoni, 509, 510
Barlow, Dr, 86, 87
Barnet Market -Place (picture), 46,
Bartholoccius, 483
Bassi, Ugo, 225
Batines, De, 366
Bayonne, 302
Bear-Garden, Southwark, 261
Beckford, Wm., 369
Vathek by, 369
Bedini, 225
Belgium, viii., 31, 35» 38
Bella Giulietta, La, di Mantova (play),
311
Bellini, Giovanni, 114, 138
Pietaby, 114
Madonna and Child (S. Giovanni e
Paolo) by, 315
Bellinzona, no, in
Belloc, Madame, 87, 88, 383
Belvedere, Kent, 165
Bendyshe, 380
Benedict, Pope, 259
Bergamo, viii., 58, 118, 1 20, 1 21
Bergamo Baptistery, 122
Berlin, 37
Bertini, in
Bewick, Thomas, 179, 246
Life of, 179
Bexley, 167
Bianchi, Bruno, 209
Bianchi (Venice), 56
Bible, The, 18, 36, 77
Biche au Bois, La (play), 184
Billot, Dr, 177
Recherches Psychologiques by, 177
Bingley, 60
Birmingham Art Gallery, 133
Bishopgate, Berks, 380
Black Forest, the, 126
Blackmore, Mrs, 261
Blake, Mrs, 19, 41
Blake, Wm., viii., 6, 15, 16, 17, 19 to 22,
25, 40, 41, 42, 171, 172, 177, 178,
180, 181, 182, 221, 229
Blake, Wm. Works by—
Africa, 6
Ahania, 6
Ancient Britons, 170, 172, 178
Ancient of Days, 19, 41
Asia, 6
Blair's Grave, Designs, 24, 171
Canterbury Pilgrimage, 23
Dante Designs, 17, 18
Daughters of Albion, 19
Descriptive Catalogue, 24
Elijah's Chariot, 17
Eve and Serpent, 17
French Revolution, 27, 41, 42
Jerusalem, 42, 43, 234
Last Judgment, 24
Marriage of Heaven and Hell, 6
Mental Traveller, The, 19
Nebuchadnezzar, 17
Newton, 17
Philips's Pastoral Designs, 20
Pity like a Newborn Babe, 17
Prophetic Books, 27, 169
Satan in Hell, 23, 24
Saviour, The, 17
Song of Los, 6
Spenser Characters, 23, 24
Tiriel, 27, 42
Urizen, 24
Visionary Heads, 20
Blamire, 40
Blind, Karl, 230
Blind, Mathilde, 261,402,447
George Eliot, by, 523
Blumenthal, 313, 316
Boccaccio, 321
Filostrato by, 321, 326, 332
Teseide by, 339, 380
Bodichon, Dr, 500
Bodichon, Mrs, 81, 383, 499, 500, 501,
528
Bodley, G. F., 221
Bognor, 320
Bologna, 120
Bolsover Street, London, 396
Bonaparte, Cardinal, 388
Bonaparte, King Joseph, 262
Bonaparte, King Louis, 219
Bonaparte, Niccolo, 21 8
La Vedova by, 218
Bond, 229
Bonham, 190
Bonifazio Veneziano, 117
Bonnat, 185
St Vincent de Paul by, 185
I
INDEX OF NAMES
535
Bonvicino da Riva, Fra, 307
Cortesie della Tavola by, 307
Borgo Ticino Church, Pa via, 117
Borgognone, 116
St Syrus Enthroned by, 116
Boscombe, 375, 474, 5H
Botticelli, Sandro, 8, 10, 228
Female Portrait by, 228
Boulevard des Capucines, Paris, 130
Boulevard Hausmann, Paris, 105
Boulogne-sur-Mer, 318, 322, 360
Bowman, Sir Wm., 241, 329, 369, 418
Boyce, G. P., 54, 55, 66, 174, 231, 232,
330
Boyd, Alice, 157, 158, 202, 237, 324,
370,412,415, 452,457
Boyd, Spencer, 157, 158
Boyd, Zachary, 237
Dramas by, 237
Boydell's Shakespear Gallery, 363
Boyle, Hon. Mrs, 199
Bracknell, 447
Braila, Sir Peter, 226
Brera Gallery, Milan, 114, 246
Brescia, 117, 119
Brescia Campo Santo, 120
Brescia Cathedral, 118, 119
Bressant, 238
Brett, John, 46, 142, 318, 380, 396
Chepstow Castle by, 139
Bright, John, 208, 394
Brighton, 62, 156, 415
Briguiboul, 32
Castor and Pollux by, 184
Robespierre Wounded by, 32
Brisbane, 412
Early Years of Alex. Smith by, 412
Bristol Gardens, 7, London, 154
British Museum, 170, 176, 178, 193,
219, 221, 229, 318, 319, 386, 392,
400, 421, 432
Broadway, The (magazine), 242, 243,
245, 284, 296, 379
Brockbank, 464
Broletto, Brescia, 118
Broletto, Como, 112
Bronte, Emily, 369
Wuthering Heights by, 369
Brookbank, Shottermill, 37, 417
Brookes, Warwick, 298, 300, 301, 345
Brougham, Miss, 462
Brown, Charles Armitage, 182, 183,
366, 530
Brown, Dr Samuel, 210, 211
Brown, Emma, 49, 139, 173, 203, 268,
328, 463, 465
Brown, Ford Madox, viii., ix., 22, 46, 65,
70, 78, 89, 139, 173, 197, 198, 199,
203, 226, 233, 234, 239, 246, 253,
256, 257, 272, 296, 304, 320, 326,
327, 328, 330, 334, 335, 339, 379,
383 to 386, 394, 396, 397, 402, 403,
406, 414, 415, 428,440, 450, 452,
457, 464, 478, 479, 496, 499
Brown, Ford Madox. Works by —
At the Opera, 139, 141
Byron Designs, 386
Catalogue of his Exhibited Works,
87
Chaucer at Court of Edward III.,
132, 239
Cordelia's Portion, 197, 224, 371,415
Don Juan and Haidee, 415
Elijah and the Widow, 46, 139, 266,
379
Entombment, The, 415, 464
Head of Miss Spartali, 402
Head of Mrs Brown, 402
Infant's Repast, The, 131, 132
Jacob and Joseph's Coat, 266, 371,
464
Last (The) of England, 199, 371
Old Toothless, 46
Romeo and Juliet, 226, 379
Sardanapalus, 402
Work (picture), 97, 138, 139, 371
Brown, Lucy (see Rossetti, Lucy)
Brown, Oliver Madox, ix., x., 28, 29,
199, 234, 256, 327, 329, 330, 362,
396, 414, 464, 465, 493
Exercise by, 464
Infant Jason and the Centaur by,
x., 327, 361, 362, 379
Obstinacy by, 397
Queen Margaret and the Robber by,
234, 256, 257
Browning, Elizabeth B., 81
My Heart and I, by, 81
Browning, Miss, 299, 306
Browning, Robert, 29, 44, 179, 202,
233, 243, 298, 299, 302, 306, 307,
319, 339, 368, 378, 392, 400, 401,
427, 429, 447, 449
Bishop's Tomb at St Praxed's by,
388
Men and Women by, 349
Paracelsus by, 393
Pauline by, 299
Ring (The) and the Book by, x., 299,
302, 380, 401
Sordello by, 313
Browning, Robert Barrett, 302, 378
Bruges, 38
Bruges Academy, 37
Bruges Townhall, 38
Brussels, 31, 32, 33, 36
536
INDEX OF NAMES
Brussels Cathedral, 33
Brussels Museum of Paintings, 32, 33
Brussoni, Count, 120
Bryant, 413
Bryant, W. Cullen, 224
Buchanan, Robert, xi., 365, 504, 524, 525
Buffalmacco, II
Bulgaris, 377
Bunyan, JI
Burci, Dr, 389, 390, 436
Burdon, Miss, 404, 449
Burges, Wm., 494
Burlington Club, London, ix., 222, 226,
230, 234, 235, 245, 338
Burmister, Rev. Mr, 337
Burne-Jones, Lady, 13, 98, 231, 493,
Burne-Jones, Sir Edward, 13, 29, 65,
138, 142, 157, 196, 221, 224, 230 to
233, 246, 276, 277, 279, 280, 297,
301, 303, 320, 347, 38o, 383, 384,
408,493,494,495, 5oo, 512
Adoration of the Kings by, 221
Buondelmonte by, 227
Circe by, 395
Cupid and Psyche by, 197
Laus Veneris by, 227
St George and the Dragon by, 395
Tannhaiiser Designs by, 197
Burns, Robert, 505
Burnside, General, 28
Burritt, Elihu, 241
Burroughs, John, 230, 240, 283
Notes on Walt Whitman by, 230,
283, 284, 365, 509
Burton Crescent, London, 412
Burton, Sir Frederick, 368
Burton, Sir Richard, 394, 407
Butterworth, 132, 133
Butts, Thomas, 178
Buxton, Mrs, 404, 405
Byron, Lady, 401, 411, 467, 480
Byron, Lord, x., 159, 183, 381, 383, 385,
386, 400, 401, 406, 411, 426, 460,
463, 465, 466, 467, 480, 499, 502,
5H
Byron, Mr, 406, 467
CADORE, 363
Gaffe del Greco, Siena, 10
Caffe Sordello, Mantua, 313
Cagnotte, La (play), 54
Calais, 31, 38, 104, 267, 268
Calais Museum, 31
Calanda Mountain, 124
Calderon, P. H., 306
Call, Mrs, 501
Calvert, 297, 302
Camerlata, 1 12
Cameron, Consul, 394
Cameron, Julia M., 4, 201, 2O2, 336
Camillus, 260
Campaldino, 510
Can Grande della Scala, 348
Canaletto, 438
Cancellieri, 258
Originalitk di Dante by, 258
Canova, 115
Bust of Napoleon by, 115
Canzio, 192
Canzio, Signora, 192
Caprera, 187, 352, 354
Carlisle, Earl of, 272
Carlyle, Mrs, 97
Carlyle, Thomas, ix., 30, 39, 40, 41, 97,
225, 260, 263, 264, 355, 356
Carmarthen, Lady, 406, 467
Carmine Church, Pavia, 117
Caroline, Queen, 112
Cartledge, 194
Cartledge's Temperance Hotel, Mat-
lock, 193
Carwardine, Major, 28
Casa Magni, Lerici, 502, 530
Casa, Monsignor della, 367
Galateo by, 367
Casentino, 344
Castel Gandolfo, 1 1
Catty, Colonel, 415, 416
Catty, Mr, 414, 415
Catty, Mrs, 414, 415,416
Caulah, 260
Cavendish Square, 27, London, 438
Cavour, 73, 74, 113, 114, 117, 225
Cayley, C. B., 83, 84, 86, 102, 240, 318
Cene della Chitarra, 490, 491
Cerrigceinwen, 160
Certosa, Pavia, 115, 116
Cervoles, Arnauld de, 259
Chaillu, P. J. du, 326
Chalons-sur-Marne, 129
Cathedral, 129
Chalons-sur-Saone, 317
Museum, 31 7,
Chambord, Comte de, 316, 438
Champagne, 130
Champaigne, Philippe de, 33
Chaninah, Rabbi, 486
Chapman, George W., 195, 227, 228,
329, 495
Chapman and Hall, 299
Chappell, 220
Chardin, 55
INDEX OF NAMES
537
Charles le Temeraire, Monument to, 38
Chatham Place, 14, London, viii., 222,
330
Chaucer, 258, 339
Knight's Tale by, 380
Troylus by, 321, 326, 332
Chaucer Society, 321
Chelsea, 14
Cheltenham, 374
Chesneau, Ernest, 334
Cheyne Walk, 16, Chelsea, viii., 2,12,
13, 15, 202, 221, 224, 232, 233, 234,
240, 243, 246, 301, 302, 308, 319,
321, 326, 329, 331, 334, 335, 383,
386, 406, 407, 410, 415, 418, 439,
441, 452, 500, 504, 505
Chiavenna, 122, 123
Chiesa della Morte, Civita Vecchia, 387
Chinon, 259
Chivers, Dr, 180, 181
Lost Pleiad etc. by, 180
Christ Church, Albany Street, London,
526
Christ Church College, Oxford, 378
Christchurch (Hants), 514
Christen, 109
Christie and Co., 40, 41, 227, 228, 298,
302
Chronicle, The, 231, 237, 240, 270,
285
Church, Mr, 270
Cima da Conegliano, 389
St Jerome in Desert by, 389
Cino da Pistoia, 490, 491
Citizen, The (newspaper), 270
Ciullo d'Alcamo, 3
Civita Vecchia, 289, 387, 388
Clabburn, Mr, 66, 67
Clabburn, Mrs, 67
Clairmont, Allegra, 500
Clairmont, Clare, 399, 500, 502
Clairmont, Paola, 502
Clare Market, London, 425
Clarendon Press, Oxford, 7
Clarges Street, London, 226
Clark (builder), 301
Clarke, Sir James, 255, 256
Cleef, Nicholas van, 35
Pictures of Antwerp by, 35
Clint, George, 503, 516, 517
Coblentz, 327
Coire, 123, 125
Coire Cathedral, 123
Cole, Mrs Lionel, 390, 397, 406, 435,
448
Coleridge, S. T., 296, 305, 333, 499,
504, 505
Christabel by, 296, 454
Colet-Michel, Perot, 129
Christ as Man of Sorrows by, 129
Colico, 123
Colleoni Chapel, Bergamo, 58
Collingwood, W. G., 303
Life of Ruskin by, 303
Colnaghi, 228, 229
Cologne, 404, 450
Colonna, Francesco, 176
Hypnerotomachia by, 176, 179
Como, in, 112, 186
Como Cathedral, in, 112
Como, Lake of, 1 12, 122
Constable, John, 325
Constance, 109, 308
Constant, 261, 262
Mdmoires sur Napoleon by, 261, 262
Contemporary Review, The, 517
Contrada del Gambero, Brescia, 118
Contrada Sordello, Mantua, 313
Conway, Moncure, 230, 240, 243, 244,
274, 283, 285, 286, 287, 297, 342,
356, 413, 508
Cook, Eliza, 87, 88
Cook, Keningale, 406
Purpose and Passion by, 406
Cooper, T. Sidney, 306
Coppin, Captain, 243
Cornelia, 260
Cornhill Magazine, The, 443
Coroneos, 331, 333, 337, 338, 340, 377,
419
Correggio, 31, 135, 136, 138, 317
Madonna and Child by, 31
Corso di Porta Nuova, Milan, 114
Corso Vittorio Emanuele, Milan, 113
Cosenza, 314
Cotman, J. S., 325
Cotton, Alderman, 336
Courbet, Gustave, 105, 184, 238
Femme au Perroquet by, 238
Fawns by a Stream by, 238
Hallali au Cerfby, 238
Proudhon and Family by, 105
Courtenay, Catherine, 158
Cowper, Wm., 504
Cox, David, 140, 233
Coxcie, Michael, 37
Adoration of the Spotless Lamb, by,
37
Cranach, 392
Fall of Man by, 392
Cranbrook, 201
Craven, Frederick, 71, 90, 140, 197,
391, 457, 458, 478
Creswick, Thomas, 4, 232
Crete, x., 222, 226, 274, 299, 333, 412,
414,419
538
INDEX OF NAMES
Critchett, Dr, 328, 329, 504
Croce Bianca Hotel, Pavia, 116
Croce di Malta Hotel, Lecco, 122
Crome, John, 305
Moonrise, by, 325
Cromwell, Oliver, 260, 261, 425
Cross, John, 154, 155, 156
Coeur de Lion by, 154, 155
Cruikshank, George, 198, 232, 300
Worship of Bacchus by, 300
Cruikshank, Mrs, 300
Curran, Miss, 399
Portrait of Miss Clairmont by, 399
Portrait of Mrs Shelley by, 399,
408
Portrait of Shelley by, 399, 474, 503,
5 '4, 515, 517
Custozza, 309, 387
D
DACHSEN, 124
Dailly, 237
Daily News, The, 499
Daily Telegraph, The, 226, 235, 393,
398, 498
Dallas, E. S., 417
The Gay Science by, 417
Dalrymple, Lady, 105, 202
Damascus, 246, 259
Dance of Death, Lucerne, 108
Dannreuther, Mrs, 229
Dante, ix., 10, 18, 80, 132, 170, 183, 209,
215, 219, 226, 236, 247 to 250, 254,
343, 348, 351, 352, 397, 398
Convito by, 344
De Monarchia by, 351
Divine Comedy by, 74, 80, 85, 86,
90, 216, 344, 351
Lord Vernon's Edition of, 448, 480
Vita Nuova by, 80, 291
Daphne, Mr, 425, 426
Davenport Brothers, the, 68, 69, 168,
177
David, Gerard, 38
Cambyses and Unjust Judge by, 38
David, J. L., 55, 179, 232, 427
Madame Recamier by, 55
David, King, 260
Davies, Wm., 163
Pilgrimage of the Tiber by, 163
Day and Son, 227
Dazeglio, 308
De Hooghe, 35
Deacon, 390, 435
Deagostini, 411
Decamps, 232
Delacroix, Eugene, 54, 232
Education of Achilles by, 55
Heliodorus by, 54
Herodotus and Magi by, 55
Hesiod and Pythoness by, 55
Jacob wrestling with the Angel by,
54
Michael and Satan by, 54
Delaroche, Paul, 427
Delaunay, 238
Delli, Dello, 308
Derar, 260
Derby, Earl of, 204
Dessoye, Madame, 55, 105, 130, 238
Deverell, Miss, 507
Deverell, Walter H., 68, 70, 210, 212,
506
Banishment of Hamlet by, 506, 507
Irish Beggars by, 506, 507
Devil's Bridge, St Gothard, 109
Devil's Punch-bowl, Girvan, 238
Devonshire, 273
Devonshire, Duke of, 272
Dickins, Mrs, 336
Dieppe, 54, 59, 131
Dilberoglue, Stauros, ix., 222, 252, 296,
331, 333, 336, 337, 338, 34°, 378,
396, 413
Dixon, J. H., 418
Dixon, Mrs, 340, 341
Dixon, Thomas, 179, 180, 263, 340
Dixon, W. Hepworth, 327
Dodgson, Rev. C. L., 236
Doeg, 408
Doellinger and Klee, 416
Janus by, 416
Dolby, Miss, 384
Domnewa, 261
Don Saltero's Tavern, Chelsea, 301
Donatello, 190
Virgin and Child by, 391
Donders, 369
Donne, John, 378
Metempsychosis by, 378
Donnet, 321
Dore, Gustave, 242, 319
Dover, 31
Dover Street, London, 412
Dowden, Prof., xi., 517
Essay on Whitman by, xi., 517, 519
Downey, 136, 137, 138
Dreux, 259
Dublin, 90
Dublin University, 518
Ducal Palace, Venice, 315
Dudley Gallery, London, 224, 329, 361,
379, 440
Due Macelli, Via de', Rome, 388
I
INDEX OF NAMES
539
Duffy, Dr, 389, 390, 391, 435, 436
Dumas, Alexandre, 190
Dumas Fils, 104
Dunlop, Walter, viii., ix., 60, 61, 144 to
147, 150, 151
Dunn, H. Treffry, 233, 272, 321, 322,
326, 329, 407, 504, 527
Duomo Nuovo, Brescia, 118
Durer, Albert, 138, 353
Durham, Arthur, 323
Durham (County), 523
EARLY English Text Society, 199
Eastlake, Sir C. L., 178, 179, 288,
427
Eastwood, 7
Eckley, Mrs, 392
Eco di Savonarola (magazine), 118
Edinburgh, 198
Egbright, King, 261
Egham, 380
Egypt, 128, 259
Elgin Road, London, 157, 158
Elise, 500
Elliot and Fry, 227
Ellis, F. S., 297, 383, 408, 495, 498,
499, 500, 5i2
Emek Hamelek, 485, 486
Emerson, R. W., 240, 296, 386, 508
Lecture on Plato by, 296
Emma (servant), 467, 468
Ems, 403, 458, 463
Encyclopaedia Britannica, 261
Endsleigh Gardens, 5, London, ix., 231,
236, 240, 241, 246, 298, 305, 320,
326, 327, 328, 330, 334, 338, 339,
378, 384, 408, 414, 498
England, 27, 46, 52, 177, 227, 232,
483, 513
English Dictionary (Oxford), 6
Enson, 46
Ertborn (Van) Collection, Antwerp,
34
Esdaile, Mrs, 374
Eton School, 522, 523
Etoniana, 522
Etretat, 335
Euston Square, 56 (see Endsleigh
Gardens, 5)
Evans, 1 6
Examiner, The, 179, 193
Exposition, Paris, 104, 105, 184, 228,
232
Eyre, Edw. J., 22$
FABER, 523
Faenza, 354
Faido, no
Faithfull, Emily, 82
Falerii, 260
Famiglia (La) del Condannato (play),
f*
Family Herald, The, 160
Farufhni, 184
Machiavel and Csesar Borgia by, 184
Favart Madame, 104, 238
Felix (Hermit), 259
Fenice Theatre, Venice. 57
Ferdinand I. (Naples), 204
Ferdinand II. (Do.), 317
Ferguson, 16
Ferney, 317
Ferrari, Gau<ienzio, in
Ancona by, 317
Ferretti, Salvatore, Il8
Fiamma, 372
Life of Tasso, by, 372
Ficino, Marsilio, 258
Field Place, Sussex, 375
Fields, 180, 181, 512
Fiesole, 256
Fighisino, 1 1 8, I2O
Fine Arts Quarterly Review, 44, 48,
227
Flaxman, John, 178, 448
Fleet Street, London, 258
Floral Hall, London, 227
Florence, 85, 91, 170, 177, 182, 183,
187, 200, 208, 212, 216, 217, 225,
241, 250, 254, 305, 321, 327, 343,
368, 378, 382, 388, 393, 397, 434,
502, 506, $10, 512, 513, 528
Florence Cathedral, 308
Fluelen, 109
Folgore da San Gemignano, 491
Sonnets on the Months by, 491
Foligno, 434
Ford, Mr, 379
Ford, Prebendary, 102, 378
Dante's Comedia translated by, 378,
379
Foreign Office (England), 326
Forll, Melozzo da, III
Forman, H. Buxton, 378
Shelley, edited by, 416, 432
The Rossettis by, 404, 458
Forster, John, 368, 401, 427, 449
Life of Land or by, 401, 446
Fortnightly Review, The, 226, 233, 301,
305, 336, 380, 413, 430, 504, 517,
518, 525, 528
Foster, Birket, 222, 233
540
INDEX OF NAMES
Fox, Charles J., 271, 272
Fraissinet, 387
France, 177, 204, 215, 227, 232, 310,
426
Francis, J. Deffett, 404, 405
Francis II. (Naples), II, 317
Franciscan Church, Freiburg, 127
Franklin, Admiral Sir John, 243
Franklin, Lady, 243
Fraser's Magazine, viii., 15, 26, 39, 63,
197, 214, 365, 377, 392, 525
Freckelton, 402
Freiburg (Baden), 125, 126
Freiburg Cathedral, 126, 127
Freiburg Townhall, 126
Frere, J. Hookham, 182, 183
Frescobaldi, Dino, 491
Frescobaldi, Matteo, 490, 491
Freshwater Bay, 202
Frith, W. P., 101, 268
Charles II.'s Last Sunday by, 268,
269
Froude, J. A., viii., 15, 39, 63, 377
Fulham Road, London, 231
Furnivall, Dr, 304, 307, 308, 321, 327,
339, 38o
Furnivall, Mr, 380
Fuseli, Henry, 24, 178
Lycidas by, 300
Nightmare (The) by, 300
G., 141, 144
Gabriel, Virginia, 340
Gainsborough, Thomas, 138, 239, 305
Portrait of Lady Ligonier by, 239
Galaxy, The (magazine), 270
Galileo, 448
Galleria Vittorio Emanuele, Milan, 316
Gamba, 372
Testi di Lingua by, 372
Gamba, Count Pietro, 355
Gambart, Ernest, 2, 46, 47, 60, 61, 101,
139, 164, 271
Ganko, 500, 505
Gardener, Colonel, 72
Gardiner, S. R., 260
Oliver Cromwell by, 260, 261
Garibaldi, Giuseppe, 10, n, 56, in,
117, 118, 122, 123, 187, 192, 196,
208, 216, 230, 231, 248, 250, 254,
272, 289, 310, 316, 317, 352, 371
Garibaldi, Menotti, 316
Garibaldi, Ricciotti, 316
Garnett, Dr Richard, x., 332, 333, 382,
385, 386, 392, 397, 399, 400, 410,
429, 430, 431
Garrick Club, London, 87, 89, IOO, IOI
Gavazzi, 225
General Abbatucci (ship), 186
Genoa, 187, 190, 191, 192
Gentleman's Magazine, The, 425
George III., 425
George IV., 337
George, King of Greece, 377, 419
Georgia, U.S.A., 180
Gerard, 427
Germ, The (magazine), 490
Germany, 310, 485
Ghent, 31, 36, 37, 450
Ghent Academy, 37
Ghent Museum, 37
Giardino Pubblico, Brescia, I2O
Giardino Pubblico, Milan, 112, 115
Giardino Pubblico, Venice, 438
Gilbert, W. S., 267
Bab Ballads by, 267
Gilchrist, Alexander, 5, 19, 20, 21, 41
Life of Blake by, viii., 5, 6, 16, 21, 25,
40,41,43,169,170, 171,182,362
Gilchrist. Herbert, 6
Anne Gilchrist, Life etc. by, 6
Gilchrist, Mrs, viii., x., 5, 6, 16, 40, 42,
384,403,404,411,417,418,459,460
Letters on Walt Whitman by, 408
4", 415
Ginnasi, Count Ladislas, 354, 355
Gioia, 367
Galateo by, 367
Giorgione, 33, 512, 513
Malatesta and Pilgrim by, 389
Giotto, ii
Pisa Frescoes by, n, 12
Portrait of Dante by, 92, 249, 343,
509, 531
Giraldi, 367
Girardin, Emile de, 104
Supplice d'une Femme by, 104
Girodet, 427
Girolamo dai Libri, 119
Girtin, Thomas, 325
Gisborne, Maria, 386, 432, 450, 451
Gisborne, Mr, 432
Giudecca, La, 56
Giulio Romano, 311
Giuseppe, 451, 452
Giusti, Giuseppe, 8, 215, 216
Gladstone, W. E., 17, 332
Glasgow, 210, 414, 487, 488
Globe, The (newspaper), 506
Gloucester, 340
Godefroi, Bishop of Amiens, 259
Godfrey, Dan, 220
Godiva, 341
Gonthier, Pere, 263
I
INDEX OF NAMES
541
Godwin, Mrs (Clairmont), 447
Godwin, Mrs (Wollstonecraft), 514
Godwin, Wm., 447
Goethe, 520
Good Words (magazine), 302
Goodall, Dr Joseph, 522
Goodwin, Albert, 415
Gordon (Jamaica), 225
Gordon (senior), 225
Goss, Captain, 22
Goya, 500
Etchings by, 500
Gozzoli, II
Annunciation (Pisa) by, 12
Graham, Edward, 392
Graham, Lorimer, 200
Graham, Sir James, 207, 208
Graham, Wm., x., 304, 327, 350, 472,
478, 479, 486
Grand Canal, Venice, 56
Grande Place, Brussels, 32
Grange (The), North End, Fulham,
301
Grant, General, 53
Greece, 227, 252
Grey, Mr, 196
Grey, Mrs, 196
Griffith, Dr, 523
Griset, Ernest, 67, 68, 69, 72
Gros, Baron, 427
Grove, Harriet, 474
Grove, Rev. Charles, 474
Guasti, 397
Gubbio, 344
Guerin, 427
Guiccioli, Countess, 355, 514
Guinicelli, Guido, 491
Gull, Sir Wm., 322, 324
Guppy, Mrs, 298, 304
Gutenberg Statue, Strasburg, 127
H
H., 464, 465
H. (G.), 464, 465
Haden, Sir Seymour, 234, 235
Haines, Wm., viii., 20, 21
Hake, Dr, x., 410, 418, 470
Madeline by, 417, 418
Vates by, 410, 470
World's Epitaph by, 410
Hallam, Arthur, 392
Remarks on Gabriele Rossetti by,
392
Halliday, Michael, 293, 295, 296, 297,
331, 395, 396, 444
Hamel, Ernest, 258
Histoire de Robespierre by, 258
Hamerton, P. G., 44, 70, 306
Isles of Loch Awe by, 44, 70
Reaction from Praeraphaelitism by,
48
River Yonne by, 49
Sens from the Vineyards by, 49
Theories Artistiques en Angleterre
by, 45, 48
Hamilton, Mr, 302, 303, 350
Hammersmith Terrace, 10, 198
Hannay, James, 319, 330
Hannay, Mrs, 330
Hannay, Mrs Margaret, 168
Hapsburg, Countess of, 108
Harding, J. D., 263, 264
Hare, Dr, 501
Harlan, 243
Harrison, 198
Harrow School, 297
Harvard, 181
Haslemere, 385
Hastings, 72, 81
Hastings, Warren, 272
Hatfield Park, 327
Havelock, General, 72
Havering, 293
Haydon, B. R., 173, 179
Haynes, Mrs, 399
Heaton, J. Aldam, 5, 60, 6l, 144, 146,
150
Heaton, Miss, 295
Heimann, Charles, 324
Heimann, Dr, 72, 87, 324
Heimann, Misses, 105
Heimann, Mrs, 72, 73
Helps, Sir Arthur, 200
Essays in Intervals of Business by,
200
Henri 1 1 1. ,260
Henri IV., 262, 263
Henry V., 259
Herod, King, 260
Heugh, John, ix., 144, 147, 152
Hewi, 159
Highgate Cemetery, 168
Hilliard, Miss, 196, 198
Hine, Henry, 173, 174, 175
Hiogo, 324
Hirsch, 191
Hirsch, Madame, 191
Kitchener, Miss, 404, 405
Hogarth, Wm., 239, 393
Portrait of Thornhill by, 307
Hogarth Club, 441
Hogarth's Gate, Calais, 31
Hogg, Mr, 382
Hogg, Mrs, 373, 382, 398, 399, 4C2,
501, 502, 503
542
INDEX OF NAMES
Hogg, T. Jefferson, 332, 405, 501, 503,
5io
Life of Shelley, by, 332, 334, 375,
382, 405, 409, 447, $01
Hokusai, 105, 130, 339
Holbein, 108, 135, 393, 423
Works at Bale by, 108
Holiday, Henry, 277
Holland, James, 253
Holman-Hunt, Cyril, 225, 298, 301
Holman-Hunt, Mrs, 199, 200, 212, 225,
382
Holman-Hunt, Wm., 30, 44, 46, 101,
189, 200, 203, 212, 225, 241, 246,
254, 255, 296, 298, 301, 303, 321,
325, 328, 382, 389, 390, 391, 434,
435, 48o, 510
Afterglow in Egypt by, 269
Bianca (Taming of the Shrew) by,
391
Christ in the Temple by, 396
Designs for Tennyson by, 30
Isabella and the Pot of Basil by,
241, 246, 298, 304
London Bridge by, 305
Moonlight at Salerno by, 395
Portrait of Edith Waugh by, 305
Portrait of Himself by, 298
Portrait of Mrs Holman-Hunt by,
305
Portrait of Mrs Waugh by, 298, 305
Holmwood, Shiplake, 220, 221, 335,
407, 410, 504
Hoist, Mrs, 404
Holy Sepulchre Church, Bruges, 38
Home, Mr, 177, 179, 251, 255, 353,
355
Homer, 229, 476
Iliad by, 229, 332
Odyssey by, 258
Hood, Thomas, 76
Hooghe, De, 35
Hook, W. C., 297
Hookham, 401, 447
Hooper, Mrs, 261
Horace, 218
Ars Poetica by, 218
Home, R. H., 261
Life of Napoleon by, 261
Horsham, 393, 447
Hospital of St John, Bruges, 37
Hotel Cavour, Milan, 112, 316
Hotel d'ltalia, Bergamo, 122
Hotel Danieli, Venice, 313
H6tel de Choiseul, Paris, 54
Hotel de Cluny, Paris, 131
Hotel de Flandres, Brussels, 31
Hotel de 1'Europe, Langres, 106
Hotel de la Cloche d'Or, Chalons,
129
Hotel de la Couronne, Schaffhausen,
125
Hotel de la Maison Rouge, Strasburg,
127
Hotel de Normandie, Paris, 104, 130
Hotel de Russie, Naples, 187
Hotel de Ville, Antwerp, 34, 35
Hotel de Ville, Brussels, 32
Hotel de Ville, Paris, 54
Hotel Dessin, Calais, 31, 38
Hotel du Commerce, Bruges, 37
Hotel du Cygne, Martigny, 317
Hotel du Grand Laboureur, Antwerp,
35
Hotel du Sauvage, Bale, 107, 109
Hotel Due Torri, Verona, 121
Hotel Garni Sandwith, Venice, 313
Hotel Lukmanier, Coire, 123
Hotten, J. Camden, 192 to 195, 197,
199, 200, 206, 224, 234, 239, 240,
242, 243, 244, 274, 286, 287, 297,
305, 3o6, 308, 320, 342, 380
Houghton, A. Boyd, 195, 196, 223, 242,
243, 244, 284, 380, 381
Arabian Nights Designs by, 196
Houghton, Lord, 171, 230
Howard, Lady Isabella, 98
Howell, Charles A., 101, 195, 196, 198,
222, 225, 227, 230 to 233, 236, 238,
240, 246, 267, 297, 300, 302, 303,
320, 321, 322, 328, 334, 339, 360,
361, 380, 383, 394, 4°7> 495
Howell, Mrs, 236
Howitt, Wm., 516
Howitt- Watts, Anna Mary, 218, 219
Hueffer, Catherine, 199, 362
At the Opera by, 393
Portrait of Madox Brown by, 463,
464
Portrait of Miss Epps by, 379
Portrait of Mrs Madox Brown by,
464, 504
Hueffer, Ford M., 173
Cinque Ports (The) by, 261
F. M. Brown by, 173, 253, 493
Hueffer, Franz, 492, 496
Hughes, Arthur, 139, 223, 494
Belle Dame sans Merci by, 139
Enoch Arden Designs by, 381
Hugo, Victor, 226, 335, 402, 407, 498
Hernani by, 238
L'Homme qui Rit by, 395
Hullah, John, 337
Humbert, King, 114, 115, 310
Humphrey, Ozias, 24
Hunt, Alfred W., 232
I
INDEX OF NAMES
543
Hunt, Leigh, 179, 183, 336, 373, 399,
402, 474, 501, 510, 514, 530
Correspondence of, 392
Hunt, Mrs Alfred W., 232, 233
Hunt, Mrs Leigh, 402
Hunt, Thornton, 235, 399, 503
Hunt, Wm. Henry, 140
Hunter Street, London, 240
Huth, 338
ILLUSTRATED LONDON NEWS, THE,
Inchbold, J. W., 8, 9, 64, 65, 380, 396,
495
Porto del Mare, Venice, by, 438
Stonehenge by, 438, 439
Venice by, 439
Ind, Coope, & Co., 280
Independance Beige, La, 12
Index Librorum Prohibitorum, 351
India, 196, 239
Ingelow, Jean, 70, 81, 82, 84, 88, 95,
227, 247, 379
Ingelow, Mr, 95
Ingres, 232, 427
Inland Revenue Office, London, 165
Intellectual Repository, The, 516
International Exhibition, 1862, 3, 5,
.54
lonides, Alecco, 226
lonides, Constantine, 318
lonides, Miss (see Dannreuther, Mrs)
lonides (Senior), 229
Ireland, 334
Isle of Wight, 326, 385
Italy, viii., ix., x., II, 13, 95, 127, 208,
215, 216, 218, 225, 231, 246, 289,
310, 360
J
JAMAICA, 225
James I. of Scotland, 237
The King's Quair by, 237
James II., 7 1
James, Sir Walter, 346
Jameson, Mrs, 401
Jamrach, 242, 407
Japan, 130, 138, 400
Jardin de Zoologie, Antwerp, 36
Jardin des Plantes, Paris', 130
Jardin Zoologique, Marseilles, 185
Jarves, J. J., 389
Jarves, Mrs, 389
Jeckyll, 245
Jeffery, 210, 213
Jena, 261
Jenner (Edinburgh), 324
Jenner, Sir Wm., 96, 297, 324, 410,
417
Jerusalem, 189, 225, 241, 389
Johnson (Manchester), 300
Johnson, President, 419
Jolly (Actor), 32
Jones, Ebenezer, 323
Studies of Sensation and Event by,
323
Jopling, Joseph, 224
Lady Maggie by, 224
Jordaens, 32
Josephine, Empress, 262
Josephus, 260
Antiquities of the Jews by, 260
Jungfrau, The, 125
K
KALED, 260
Kardec, Alain, 531
Keate, Dr, 522, 523
Keats, John, 30, 182, 366, 381, 402,
499- 505
Isabella by, 99
Keeling, 337
Keightley, Misses, 166
Keightley, Mrs Wm. S., 166
Keightley, Thomas, 79, 165, 170, 171,
172
Milton, edited by, 80
Shakespear Expositor by, 79, 80
Keightley, Wm. S., 166
Kent, Charles, 351
Review of Whitman by, 351
Kilkerran Castle, 238
Kilmarnock, 453
King's College, London, 183
Kipling, Mrs, 98, 99
Kipling, Rudyard, 98
Kirke, Colonel, 71, 72
Kirkup, Barone, ix., 170, 176, 215, 218,
226, 236, 313, 326, 367, 388, 391,
435, 501. 530
Portrait of Lady Jane Swinburne by,
221
Kirkup, Miss, 183, 248, 249, 252, 352
to 353
Kleber Statue, Strasburg, 127
Knewstub, W. J., 14, 15, 223, 497
Knight, Joseph, 228,415, 504
Knight, Mrs, 228
544
INDEX OP NAMES
LA FAROE, JOHN, 304
Browning's Men and Women,
Designs by, 349
Enoch Arden, Designs by, 349
Pied Piper of Hamelin by, 304, 306,
349
Wolf-charmer (The), by, 349
Lago di Garda, 120
Lago Maggiore, ill, 317
Lamb, Charles, 258
Lambron, 105
Virgin and Child by, 105
Landor, Walter S., 183, 368, 449
Langres, 1 06
Langres Cathedral, 106, 107
Langres Museum, 107
Lannes, Marshal, 261
Lansdowne, Marquis of, 204
Lasinio, Paolo, 449
Latini, Brunette, 3
Lauffenburg, 126
Lavers and Barraud, 277
Layard, A. H., 336
Leader, J. Temple, 288, 353, 398
Lear, Edward, 493
Book of Nonsense by, 493
Leathart, James, ix., 14, 66, 265
Leatherhead, 336
Lecco, 122, 123, 309, 311
Ledru-Rollin, 402
Lee, General, 358
Leeds, 329
Leeds Exhibition, 295, 296, 371
Leghorn, n, 187, 204, 501, 530
Legros, Alphonse, 67, 227, 232, 318
Amende Honorable by, 318
Ex Voto by, 318
Martyrdom of St Sebastian by, 318
Portrait of Burne-Jones by, 318
St Stephen by, 318
Legros, Mrs, 82
Leifchild, Franklin, 240
Leigh, Hon. Mr, 411
Leigh, Hon. Mrs. 406, 411, 465,
467
Leigh, Medora, 411
Leigh ton, Lord, 222, 230
Leismann, 503
Portrait of Himself by, 503
Lempriere's Classical Dictionary, 456
Leonardo Aretino, 215, 254
Life of Dante by, 251
Leopold, Grand Duke, 204, 208
Lerici, 240
Leslie, C. R., 242, 499
Autobiography of, 242
Lesueur, 33
St Bruno by, 33
Lewes, G. H., 336, 372, 373, 382, 383
Lewes, Mrs, 382, 383, 523
Lewis, J. F., 325
Lion and Lioness by, 325
Lewis, Mrs, 390, 435
Leyland, F. R., 224, 239, 243, 244,
266, 271, 302, 307, 308, 320, 321,
350, 407
Leys, Baron, 5, 32, 34, 463, 464
Lido, The (Venice), 438
Liege, Bishop of, 259
Lille, 38
Lima, 196
Limerick, 57
Lincoln, President, 181, 240, 319
Lincoln's Inn Fields, viii.
Lindsey Row, Chelsea, 222
Linnell, John (Junior), viii., 17
Linnell, John (Senior), 17, 20, 21, 27,
43
Linton, W. J., 196, 240, 241, 391, 440
History of Wood-engraving by, 240,
246
Lippi, Lippo, 10, 105
Virgin and Child by, 105
Listen, 2IO
Literary Gazette, The, 400
Little Holland House, London, 201, 202
Littledale, Dr, 239, 416
Liverati, C. E., 176, 205
Portrait of Gabriele Rossetti by, 176,
178, 205, 353
Liverpool, 2, 304
Livingstone, Dr, 325, 326
Livingstone, Mr, 326
Livy, 260
Llandaff Cathedral, 50, 209
Llangollen, 515
Llanos, Mrs, 503
Lloyd's Newspaper, 351
Loader, 223
Locker-Lampson, Frederick, 392, 411,
412, 413, 491
Lodovico il Moro, 116
Lombardi, I2O
Lombardy, 122
London, 5, 39, 59, 68, 189, 192, 238,
319, 340, 39i, 412, 450, 479, BOO
Longfellow, H. W., 91, 102, 319, 381,
385, 386, 402, 512
Dante translated by, 91, 237, 258
Lonsdale, Mrs, 503
Losh, Miss, 452, 455, 457
Louis, St, 259
Louis XI., 259
Louis XIV., 262
INDEX OF NAMES
545
Louis XVI., 109, 130, 258, 271, 272
Louis Xyill., 31
Louis Philippe, King, 123, 513
Louvre, The, 55, 105
Lowe, Sir Hudson, 221
Lowell, J. Russell, 168, 169, 180, 181,
459
Lucas, Samuel, 87, 88
Lucerne, 106, 108, 109
Lucerne Cathedral, 108
Lucerne, Lake of, 411
Ludlow, Mrs, 81, 82
Ludwigshohe, Freiburg, 127
Ludwigskirche, Freiburg, 127
Lugano, III
Lugano Cathedral, in
Lugano, Lake of, ill
Luini, Bernardino, ill, 316
Christ in the Desert by, 115
Egyptians in Red Sea by, 115
Padre Eterno by, 115
Virgin and Child and St Jerome by,
in
Virgin, Child, and Saints, by, 114
Vulcan's Forge by, 115
Women Bathing by, 115
Lupi, Sancio, 259
Lush, Mr, 193
Luxembourg Gallery, 318
Lyell, Charles, 176, 178
Lymouth, 261
Lyon, Mrs, 255, 353
Lyra Mystica, 76, 84
Lyster, A. C., 165, 166, 167, 303
Lyster, Misses, 166, 167
Lyster, Mrs, 1 66
Lytton, Lord, 462
M
MACCLINTOCK, Admiral, 243
MacConnel, 345
Macfarren, G. A., 338
Songs in a Cornfield, Sonata by,
338, 384, 423
Machiavelli, 368, 448
Maclellan, General, 28
Maclennan, J. F., 229
Primitive Marriage by, 229
Maclise, Daniel, 306
Macmillan, Alexander, 50, 82, 88, 94,
99, 199, 222, 224, 242, 245, 498,
499
Macmillan's Magazine, 44, 68, 69, 96,
99, 377, 517
Macon, 12
MacShane, 280
Madonna del Carmelo (Church), Milan,
114
Madonna di Monte Berico (Church),
Vicenza, 57
Maenza, C. P., 322
Maenza, Ma 'ame, 322, 360
Magenta, 316
Maggi, Prof., 182, 183, 343
Magliabecchian Library, Florence, 397,
449, 480
Mahabharata, The, 380
Maitland, J. Fuller, 43
Malespini, 367
Malory, Sir Thomas, 341
Mort Arthur by, 341
Manchester, 244, 472
Manet, Edouard, 105
Olympic by, 105
Manso, 371, 372
Mantegna, Andrea, 311, 312
Mantua, 311, 313, 314
Mantua Cathedral, 311
Marie Antoinette, 258
Marietta, 250, 251
Marini, 344
Marks, Murray, 195, 222, 233, 234,
339
Marlow, Great, 261, 380, 515
Marochetti, Baron, 321
Emanuel Philibert Monument by,
321
Marseilles, 185, 387
Marshall, John, 2OI, 230, 327, 329, 414
Marshall, Mr, 154, 155, 157, 210, 213
Marshall, Mrs, 154 to 158, 160, 161,
2IO, 213
Marshall, Mrs (Junior), 154 to 158,
160, 161, 210, 211
Marshall, Mrs Peter P., 379
Mirshall, Peter P., 14, 22, 47, 203,
379
Marston, Dr Westland, 504
Martigny, 317
Martin, Eliza, 224
Life is not good, by. 224
Martineau, R. B., 200, 384, 395
Mary (of Naples), 189
Mary, Queen of Scots, 35
Masini, 10
Mason, George, 297, 402, 439
View of Keats's Tomb by, 402
Massey, Gerald, 218, 219
On Shakespear's Sonnets by, 219
Masson, Mrs, 200
Matha, Jean de, 259
Matthews, C. P., 268, 269, 280, 295,
296, 308, 350
Mauban, 238
2 M
546
INDEX OF NAMES
Maximilian, Emperor of Mexico, 112
Mayer, 303, 304
Mazzini, 196, 208, 215, 226, 230, 231,
245, 248, 319, 330, 335, 336, 371,
394, 402, 407
Meaux, 130, 250
Medici, Alessandro de', 247
Medici, Catherine de', 260
Medici, Lorenzino de', 226, 247, 252
Mediterranean Sea, 466
Medwin, Captain, 183, 393, 510
Memling, Hans, 34
Chasse de Ste. Ursule by, 37
Madonna and Child by, 38
Marriage of St Catharine by, 37
St Hubert by, 34
Menabrea, General, 509, 510
Mentone, 225
Meo, Gaetano, 175
Mercati, Michele, 258
Meredith, George, 64
Meuse, The, 259
Mexico, 289
Mexico, Gulf of, 337
Me'zerai, 259
Histoire de France by, 259
Michelangelo, 38, 252, 392, 393, 529
Brutus, Head of, by, 252
Virgin and Child (Bruges) by, 38
Michelet, 258
Jeanne d'Arc by, 258
Michelozzo, 190
Middleton, C. S., 474
Milan, 8, 55, 112, 113, 122, 183, 310,
316
Milan Cathedral, 112, 114, 316
Mill, J. Stuart, 193, 335
Millais, Lady, 9, 226
Millais, Sir Everett, 297
Millais, Sir John E., 46, 100, 296, 297,
306, 331, 396, 408
Huguenot (The) by, 144
Jephtha's Daughter by, 231
Lorenzo and Isabella by, 298, 300,
321
Mariana by, 144
Pilgrims to St Paul's by, 322
Ransom (The) by, 269
Romans leaving Britain by, 134
Vanessa by, 393
Wandering Thoughts by, 300
Miller, John, 2, 232, 233
Miller, Miss, 379
Millet, J. F., 318
Milton, John, 80, 319, 320, 505
Minerva, Church of the, Rome, 388
Minerva Hotel, Rome, 388
Minto, Jarvis, 1 56
Minto, Mrs, 156
Mississippi, The, 357
Mitchell (Bradford), 132, 407
Mitchell, W. C., 323, 324
Modena, Duke of, 371
Moehrer, 327
Molo, The, Naples, 188
Monmouth, Duke of, 72
Mont Blanc, 114
Montagna, B., 57
Pieta by, 57
Montagu, Basil, 401, 446
Monte Cenere, in
Monte Oli veto Church, Naples, 189
Monte Rosa, 114
Montorsoli, 187
Madonna with'dead Christ by, 187
Montpensier, Due de, 513
Head of Shelley by, 513, 514, 515
Montreuil (Boulogne), 334
Moore, Albert, 64, 65, 384
Azaleas by, 322
Moore, Thomas, 385, 386, 402, 409,
5H
Moretto, II, 118, 119
St Ursula by, 120
Supper at Emmaus by, 119
Virgin and Child with Saints by, I2O
Morland, George, 47
Morley, Henry, 193
Morley, John, 193, 197, 336, 430
Morning Post, The, 307
Morning Star, The, 244
Moro, 314
Morone, 122
Morpeth, 508
Morris, Marshall, Faulkner, & Co., ix.,
5, 14, 65, 219, 276, 280, 339, 525, 526
Morris, Mrs, 296, 302, 304, 384, 391,
403, 404, 437, 449, 450, 458, 463,
512, 529
Morris, Wm., 66, 167, 203, 246, 276
to 280, 302, 303, 330, 332, 346, 347,
383, 402, 403, 449, 450, 464, 500,
505, 518, 521, 525, 528, 529
Defence of Guenevere etc., by, 66
Earthly Paradise by, 330, 383, 512
Grettir the Strong, translated by,
330
Life and Death of Jason by, 199, 233,
236, 273, 299
Morse, 448
Morten, Mrs, 195, 381
Morten, Thomas, 195, 210
Council before Eve of St Bartholo-
mew by, 195
Moscow, 413
Moses Nachmani, 484
INDEX OF NAMES
547
Mostaert, Jean, 38
Mater Dolorosa by, 38
Mount St Gothard, no, 114, 123
Moxon, Edward, 423
Moxon & Co., 197, 199, 200, 206, 224,
307, 333, 378, 401, 403, 409. 4io,
414, 416, 417, 418, 428, 498, 505,
508
Moxon's Popular Poets, x., 381, 383 to
386,401, 410, 412, 420, 421,465,
498
Munro, Alexander, 396
Muntham Court, 298
Murano, 9, 438
Murray, C. Fairfax, 407, 433
Murray, John, 229
Murray's Handbook,' Italy, 112, 113,
116, 118, 119, 188, 312, 389
Musee Campana, Paris, 105
Museo Antiquario, Mantua, 312
Museo Civico, Brescia, 119
Museo Civico, Milan, 113
Museo Patrio, Brescia, 118
Musset, Alfred de, 247
Lorenzaccio by, 247
N
NANNUCCI, 3, 490
Manuale della Letteratura by, 3
Naples, ix., 115, 178, 186 to 189, 191,
204, 209, 213, 225, 328, 387, 390,
393- 500
Naples Museum, 187
Napoleon I., 221, 261, 262, 438
Napoleon III., 12, 115, 116, 117, 125,
208, 248, 272, 288, 289
Nation, The (Review), 270
National British Gallery, 199, 203,
486
National Gallery, II, 21, 222, 235,
318, 383
National Portrait Gallery, 503
Natoli, 249
Nazareth, 465
Nebuchadnezzar, 484
Neeve, Miss, 190
Nelson, Lord, 271
Nemi, n
Nettleship, J. T., 339, 384, 410, 416
God creating Evil by, 339
Lion and Lioness by, 502
Neuhausen, 126
New Monthly Magazine, 523
New Testament, 161
New York, 357
New York Times, 270
New York Tribune, 355
Newcastle-on-Tyne, 28, 159, 210, 212,
323
Newhaven, 54, 59, 131, 184
Newman, Cardinal, 520
Nibelungenlied, 330
Nice, 192, 256
Nicholson, Baron, 337
Nicholson, Margaret, 425
Niepce de St Victor, 318
Nimmo, 381
Nineveh, 455
Noe, Vicomte de, 105
North American Review, 162, 168, 193,
206
North British Review, 481, 526
North End, Fulham, 320
North Parish Magazine, Greenock, 65
Northern Daily Express, 207
Northiam House, 201
Northumberland, 523
Norton, Mrs, 29, 169, 433, 437, 528
Norton, Prof., ix., 12, 13, 91, 162, 206,
386, 506
On Portraits of Dante by, 92
Not, Dr, 288
Notes and Queries, x., 80, 299, 301,
307, 415, 4i8, 461, 462, 522
Notre Dame, Bruges, 38
Notre Dame des Sablons, Brussels, 32
Notre Dame, Paris, 106, 131, 185
O'Brien, Lucius, 57
O'Brien, W. Smith, 57
Observer, The, 483
Ockley, Simon, 260
History of the Saracens by, 260
O'Connor, W. D., x., 1 80, 244, 270,
403, 404, 4", 415
Good Grey Poet (The) by, 180, 181,
285, 287
Harrington by, 181
Odo delle Colonne, 461
Old West Kirk, Greenock, 65
Olimpia, 248, 249, 250, 254, 352, 353
Oliphant, Francis, 210, 21 1
Once a Week (magazine), 87, 88, 302
O'Neil, Henry, 242
Ongar, 362
Opie, John, 363
Death of Rizzio by, 363
Orcagna, II
Ascension by, II
Last Judgment by, II
Triumph of Death by, 1 1
548
INDEX OF NAMES
Orley, Bernard van, 33
Last Judgment by, 34
Pieta, by 33
Orme, Mrs, 200
Orsini, Assunta, 176, 177
Orsini, Felice, 312
O'Shaughnessy, Arthur, 496
Ospedale Maggiore, Milan, 115
Otley, 425, 426
Outis (see Tupper, J. L.)
Oxford, 25, 403, 407
P. R. B., 30, 468
Pacini, 55
Saffo, Opera by, 55
Padua, 117
Palace Yard, Westminster, 321
Palais Royal Theatre, Paris, 54
Palazzo Brignole-Sale, Genoa, 187
Palazzo Carignano, 74
Palazzo del T., Mantua, 311
Palazzo Doria, Genoa, 187
Palazzo Durazzo, Genoa, 187
Palazzo Municipale, Brescia, 118
Palazzo Reale, Milan, 115
Palermo, 1 86
Palgrave, F. T., 43, 92, 101, 234, 242,
332, 423
Golden Treasury, edited by, 424
Palgrave, Gwenllian, 423
Memorial of F. T. Palgrave by, 423
Pali Mall Gazette, 63, 92, 393, 506
Pallavicini, Marquis, 192
Palmer, Samuel, 41, 42
Palmerston, Lord, 161, 205
Palustre de Montifaut, 425
De Paris a Syharis by, 425
Panizzi, Sir Anthonv , 176, 178
Paolo Veronese, 32, 117, 315
Adoration of Magi by, 32
Cena di San Gregorio by, 57
Holy Family and St Catharine by,
32
Martyrdom of St Afra by, 118
Pans, 8, 54, 59, 104, 130, 177, 184, 212,
213, 238, 258, 259, 288, 308, 317,
318, 387, 427
Paris International Exhibition, 1867,
228
Parke, Louisa, 166, 167
Parker, 392
Parks, Mrs, 355
Parma Cathedral, 138
Parsons, J. R., 339
Patay, 258
Patmore, Coventry, 296
Patmore, Mrs Coventry, 200
Paul, Benjamin H., 330
Pavia, 1 1 6, 117
Pavia Cathedral, 116, 117
Payne, J. Bertrand, 200, 206, 207, 307,
331 to 335, 38i, 382, 384, 385, 386,
395, 397, 409, 4". 4*2, 420 to 423,
505
Payne, J. Burnell, 306, 307, 462,
463
Peacock, T. L., 392, 407, 503, 510
Pedrocchi, 8
Peel, Sir Robert, 41
Pelham-Maitland, 190
Pelli, 216
Penkill Castle, x., 158, 237, 238, 324,
325, 326, 329, 330, 332, 369, 372,
396, 404, 412, 417, 464, 473
Pennsylvania Avenue, Washington, 492
Pepper, Prof., 54
Peschiera, 120, 311
Peter (of Damascus), 260
Petrarca, 527
First Sonnet of, 527
Petrella, Castle of, 425
Petropoulaki, 419
Petworth, 23
Phidias, 179
Philippe Egalite, 513
Phillips, Thomas, 42
Portrait of Blake by, 42
Philological Society, 6
Photographic Exhibition, London, 103
Piani, Andrea, 317
Adoration of Shepherds by, 317
Piazza d'Armi, Milan, 113, 114
Piazza del Popolo, Rome, 10
Piazza, del Popolo, Siena, 10
Piazza dell' Erbe, Verona, 121
Piazza San Martino, Florence, 249
Piazza Santo Spirito, Florence, 388
Piccadilly, 44, 49, 70, 78, 89, 132
Piccole (Le) Miserie (play), 311
Pierre a Voire, Martigny, 317
Pietro Aretino, 367, 368
Dialogue on Cards by, 367
Ragionamenti by, 367
Pietrocola, 190
Pietrocola-Rossetti, Mrs (see Cole,
Mrs Lionel)
Pietrocola-Rossetti, Teodorico,ix., 8,84,
118, 190, 217, 388, 389, 390, 397,
426, 435, 436, 448, 469, 5oi, 530,
53i
Memoir of Gabriele Rossetti by, 8
Mercato de' Folletti, translation by,
217
INDEX OF NAMES
549
Pille, 184
Duke of Saxony at Chess by, 184
Pirn, Captain, 414
Pisa, 10, II, 256, 530
Pisa Baptistery, 1 1
Pisa Campo Santo, II
Pius IX., II, 208, 209, 388
Plato, 70
Plint, E. T., 2, 139
Pliny, 478
Plymouth, 432
Poe, Edgar A., 303
Polidori, Argia, 217
Polidori, Charlotte, 223, 224, 298, 340,
411, 526
Polidori, Dr John, 159, 340
The Vampyre by, 159
Polidori, Eliza, 224, 334
Polidori, Filippo, 217, 21 8, 510
Polidori, Luigi, 217, 510
Polidori, Margaret, 222, 223, 224, 526
Poliziano, Angelo, 236
Pollen, J. Hungerford, 299, 500
Catalogue of Books on Art by, 299
Polydore, Henrietta (Junr.), 72, 89
Polydore, Henrietta (Senr.), 303, 304
Polydore, Henry, 73, 303, 340, 409
Poniatowski, Joseph, 208
Pont de 1'Alma, Paris, 238
Ponte Nuovo, Verona, 121
Poole, P. F., 269
Pope, Alexander, 498
Porta Nuova, Arch of, Milan, 114
Porta Romana, Milan, 115
Porifolio, The (magazine), 415, 431
Posilipo, Grotto of, 188
Potter, Cipriani, 379
Poussin, Ni. holas, 13, 232
Infant Moses by, 13
Powell, 335
Praeraphaelite Exhibition, 1857, 30
Preston, 232
Preti Calabrese, 33
Pride, General, 261
Prince Imperial (France), 262
Prinsep, Mrs, 201, 403
Prinsep, Valentine C., 101, 201, 202,
494
Printemps, 262
Priory, The, North Bank, London, 373
Pritchard, Dr, 210, 213
Procaccini, 114
Procter, Bryan W., 221
Prudhon, 427
Prussia, 186, 208, 289
Purchase, Rev. Mr, 335
Purnell, Thomas, 504
Pyne, Miss, 220
Q
QUEEN SQUARE, BLOOMSBURY, 167,
278
Queen's Messenger, The (magazine),
412
euillac's Hotel, Calais, 31
uilter, Harry, 493
Preferences in Art by, 493
RADCLIFFE, DR, 438
Radetsky, Count, 112
Radicofani, 10
Rae, George, 486
Ralston, Wm., 193, 194
Raphael, 35, 119, 197
La Vierge au Lange by, 35
Rattazzi, Urbano, 272, 289
Reade, Winwood, 176, 177
Martyrdom of Man by, 176
Reader, The (review), 91, 380
Red Hill, 17
Red Lion Square, 8, London, 65
Redentore Church, Venice, 56
Redgrave, Richard, 4
Gulliver by, 4
Ophelia by, 4
The Widow by, 4
Regina, 177, 183, 248, 249, 250,
355
Registrum Regale, 522
Reichenau, 123
Reid, 229
Reid, Rev. Mr, 412
Rembrandt, 32, 307
Portrait by (Brussels), 32
Renouard, Veuve, 184
Restaurant Bertrand, Antwerp, 36
Reuss, The, 109
Reveley, Henry, 402, 432, 433
Reveley, Mrs, 402
Revue des Deux Mondes, 44, 45, 48
Reynolds, Dr, 438
Reynolds, Sir Joshua, 239
Portrait of Mrs Abington by, 239
Rhine, The, 123, 124, 125, 204
Rhine Bridge, Bale, 107
Ribot, 185
Christ among the Doctors by, 185
Ricasoli, Baron, 208
Riccia, La, 10, II
Ricciardi, Conte Giuseppe, 390, 393,
410, 413, 416
Richards, Colonel, 232
Richmond, Virginia, 53, 358
550
INDEX OF NAMES
Richmond, George, 41, 217, 234
Portraits of William and Catherine
Blake by, 41, 43
Richmond Park, 329, 330
Riddell, Mrs, 227
Rietti (Venice), 56
Rintoul, R. S., 337
Ritchie, 260
Letters of Jane Carlyle, edited by,
260
Riva degli Schiavoni, Venice, 8, 55, 314
Riva delle Zattere, Venice, 56
Riviera di Chiaja, Naples, 188
Riviere, 25
Rivington, 236
Robert, King of Naples, Monument to,
189
Robert's Bridge, Sussex, 499
Roberts Brothers, 223, 234, 512
Roberts, Captain, 182, 183
Robertson, John Forces, 304
Robertson, Johnston, 304
Robertson, T. W., 227
Caste by, 227
Robinson, Mr, 393
The Troubadours by, 393
Robinson, Sir Charles, 393
Roebuck, A. J., 502
Roland, 302
Romanino and Gambara, 118
Story of Lucretia by, 118
Rome, viii., 10, n, 12, 51, 52, 116, 177,
192, 225, 231, 241, 272, 289, 310,
319, 321, 351, 367, 378, 387, 390,
434, 503
Rome, King of, 262
Ronchi (Hills), 119
Roose, Nicholas, 36
Coronation of the Virgin by, 36
Rose, J. Anderson, 14, 225, 227, 333
Rose and Rosemary (poem), 96
Rose, Shamrock, and Thistle (maga-
zine), 87, 88
Rosenhiigel, Coire, 124
Rossetti, Christina G., viii., ix., 4, 13, 50,
67, 72, 85, 86, 96, 104, 105, 107,
108, in, 112, 115, 122, 124, 168,
188, 197, 199, 202, 205, 214, 223,
227, 229, 234, 236, 241, 247, 255,
271, 297, 298, 321, 337, 338, 341,
392, 396, 404, 4io, 462, 470, 475,
479, 498, 499
Rossetti, Christina G. Works by —
After this the Judgment, 82, 83, 84,
479
Amor Mundi, 87, 88, 95
Amore e Dovere, 98, 100
At Home, 68, 69
Rossetti, Christina G. — Continued
Bird or Beast, 93
Bird's-eye View, 99
Birthday, A, 197
Bourne, The, 98, 99
By the Sea, 98, 99
By the Waters of Babylon, 81, 82,
84
Come and See, 99
Commonplace, 500
Consider, 68
Dead City, The, 98, 100
Despised and Rejected, 479
Dost Thou not care ?, 74, 479
Easter Even, 98, 99
Echo Song, 340
Eve, 74
From House to Home, 72
Ghost's Petition, The, 93, 94
Goblin Market, 83, 217
Goblin Market, and other Poems, 4,
5, 6, 26, 50, 53, 72, 73, 81, 82,
88, 93
Gone for Ever, 99
Grown and Flown, 74
I will lift up mine Eyes etc., 98
Iniquity of the Fathers, 83, 84, 93
Jessie Cameron, 93
L. E. L., 82, 97, 99
Last Night, 68, 98
Maiden-Song, 97
Margery, 98, 99
Martyrs' Song, 82, 83, 84, 479
Maude Clare, 87
My Dream, 68
New Poems (1896), 98
Old and New Year's Ditties, 236
Poems in Macmillan's Magazine, 68,
69
Portrait, A., 98, 99
Prince's (The) Progress, viii., 68, 69,
72 to 75, 77, 78, 83, 87, 96
Prince's (The) Progress, and Other
Poems, viii., 50, 81, 193, 202
Royal Princess, A., 87, 88, 97, 99
Singsong, 498
Sleep at Sea, 72
Songs in a Cornfield, 88, 93, 94
Spring Fancies, 68, 93, 94
Three Nuns, 99
To-morrow, 80, 8 1
Triad (A), 329
Twilight Night, 80, 93
Vanity of Vanities, 99
Verses, 1847, 98, 99
Rossetti, Dante Gabriel, vii. to xi. ,1,3, 5,
12,14,15,30, 31, 33, 35, 37, 39,41
to 47, 49, 50, 62, 64, 67, 68, 77, 80,
INDEX OF NAMES
551
85, 87, 93, 97, 98, 133, 136, 141, H5,
162, 167,169,170,173,180,193, 194,
195, 198, 199, 201, 203, 207, 209,
219, 222, 227, 228, 230, 235, 236,
239 to 246, 256, 263, 264, 265, 267,
272, 295, 296, 297, 301, 303 to 306,
308, 316, 318, 320 to 334, 336 to 339,
350, 362, 368, 372, 373, 376, 379,
380, 381, 384, 385, 393 to 396, 400,
403, 405 to 408, 410 to 418, 420,
428, 433, 439, 441, 447, 457, 461,
464, 470, 472, 483, 488, 489, 491,
493, 497 to 501, 504, 505, 506, 518
Rossetti, Dante Gabriel. Works by —
Aspecta Medusa, ix., 244, 268, 280,
281, 282, 290 to 294, 308
Aurora, 139, 140
Autumn Idleness, 468
Ave, 454, 465
Beata Beatrix, 199, 233, 304
Beauty and the Bird, 455, 456
Before the Battle, 12, 13, 14
Belcolore, 164
Beloved, The, 175
Bionda (La) del Balcone, 329
Blake (William), Writings on, 18, 19,
170, 171
Blessed Damozel, 466
Blue Bower, The, 101, 164, 165
Boat of Love, 132, 133, 141, 151, 153
Bride's Prelude, The, 413
Burd Alane, 139
Burden of Nineveh, 453, 454
Card-dealer, The, 468
Cassandra, 233, 436
Choice, The, 454, 455
Christmas Carol, 224
Collected Works, 236, 417
Dante in Verona, 413, 415
Dante's Dream, x., 290, 292, 293, 350,
486, 487
Death (sonnet), 339
Doom of the Sirens, 417
Early Italian Poets translated, 3, 437,
471, 490, 491
Eden Bower, 408, 415, 470, 483
Found, viii., ix., x., 66, 265, 487, 488,
489
Gabriele Rossetti, Portraits of, 353
Ghirlandata, La, 95
Girlhood of Mary Virgin (picture),
67, 68, 175
Do. (Sonnet), 455, 456, 468
Giorgione's Pastoral (sonnet), 455,
456
Goblin Market Designs, 77, 78
Golden Water, 133
Gretchen with the Jewels, 230
Rossetti, Dante Gabriel — Continued
Hamlet and Ophelia, 436, 523
Hand and Soul, 455, 456, 457, 490,
491
Helen of Troy, 442
Hesterna Rosa, 70, 71, 139, 140
How they met themselves, 227
Jenny, 413, 472, 529
Joan of Arc, 14, 227
King Rene's Honeymoon, 62, 63
Lady Lilith, 47, 226, 297, 407, 483
Last Confession, 413, 415, 454, 469
Launcelot and Guenevere, 133
Love-Lily, 396
Love's Nocturn, 462, 466, 467, 468
Loving-cup, The, 230
Lucrezia Borgia, 298, 299, 301, 442,
443
Magdalene at the House of Simon,
144, 442, 524
Mariana, 327, 486, 487
Mary in Summer, To, 453, 454
Match with the Moon, 468
Monna Vanna, 164
Mrs Dante Rossetti, Head of, 523,
524
Mrs Leyland, Portrait of, 233, 236
Mrs Morris (Oil-picture), 203, 319,
486
Mrs Rossetti (Oil-picture), 297
Mrs Wetherall, Head of, 193
Mrs Zambaco, Head of, 500
My Sister's Sleep, 458, 462
Nuptial Sleep, 453, 455, 45^
Orchard-pit, The, 417, 467
Pandora (picture), 337, 384, 391, 4°3,
486, 487
Do. (Sonnet), 386
Paolo and Francesca, 14, 133, 229
Parable of the Vineyard, 300
Passover in the Holy Family, 133
Penelope, 403
Pia, La, 296, 302
Plighted Piomise, 454
Poems, 1870, vii., x., xi., 453,499, 5°4,
506, 512, 518, 524, 526, 528, 529
Portrait, The (poem), 413
Prince's Progress Designs, 83, 84, 95
Regina Cordium, 2, 132, 133
Retro me Sathana, 455
Rose, The, 234
Sea-Limits, The, 469, 470
Seed (The) of David, 50, 51, 209
Sermon (The) on the Plain, 526
Sibylla Palmifera, 95, 407, 486, 487
Sister Helen, 461, 462, 466
Socrates and Aspasia, 147, 148, I $2
Song and Music, 462
552
INDEX OF NAMES
Rossetti, Dante Gabriel — Continued
Sonnets in Fortnightly Review, 430
Staff and Scrip, 453
Stream's (The) Secret, 527
Superscription, A, 380
Tennyson Designs, 30
Tibullus and Delia, 268
Tristram and Yseult, 242, 345
Troy Town, 408, 477
Union Hall, Oxford, Paintings in,
477, 482
Vain Virtues, 386
Venus Vc-rticordia (picture), 60, 61,
62, 132, 134, 136, 137, 227, 303,
308, 406
Do. (Sonnet), 296, 456
Veronica Veronese, 95
Washing Hands, 139, 140, 146
Willow-wood, 339
Rossetti, Elizabeth E., vii., viii., x., I,
75, 76, 167, 194, 212, 406
Clerk Saunders, painting by, 433,
437, 5ii
Pippa Passes, design by, 437
Poems by, 75 to 78
Rossetti, Frances, ix., 74 to 77, 84, 104,
105, 107, 108, 112, 115, 122, 124,
125, 202, 217, 225, 231, 246, 334,
336, 384, 411,412,457, 501
Rossetti, Gabriele, ix., 3, 79, 80, 170,
173, 176, 178, 183, 187, 208, 209,
216, 231, 254, 288, 343, 344, 348,
352, 398, 426, 427, 448, 531
Amor Platonicoby, 80, 182, 183, 208,
288, 418
Arpa Evangelica by, 190
Beatrice di Dante by, 179, 183, 208,
288, 289, 343, 344, 427
Dante's Purgatory, Comment on, by,
176, 179
Poems by, prefaced by G. di Stefano,
73, 74, 188
Poems by, selected by Carducci, 8,
187
Poems by, selected by Wm. Rossetti,
411, 414
Poesie Inedite by, 188
Roma, Secolo 19, by, 188
Salterio (II) by, 469
Sei pur Bella, Ode by, 198
Veggente in Solitudine by, 191
Rossetti, Helen, 372, 414, 493
Dante Gabriel Rossetti by, 436
Rossetti, Lucy, 49, 199, 203, 33O, 404,
449, 464,^493, 504
Painting, picture by, 379
Rossetti, Maria F., 12, 13, 14, 72, 202,
329, 3^1, 384, 410, 470
Rossetti, Maria F. — Continued
Italian Exercises etc. by, 72, 73, 329
Shadow of Dante, by, 500
Rossetti, Wm. M., 2, 5, 6, 7, 13, 15, 17,
43, 44, 69, 79, 180, 263, 275, 458
Rossetti, Wm. M. Works by —
American Poems (edited), 403
Arthur Hughes and other Painters,
Article on, 415
Artists' Dicta, compilation, 234, 245,
296
Blake, Catalogue of Works by, 16
Boccaccio's Filostrato translated, x.,
326, 327, 333, 417
Christianity of Christ, 323
Chronicle, Articles in The, 270
Dante's Hell translated, ix., 74, 79, 85,
89, 91, 102, 176, 196, 199, 246,
378
English Opinion on the American
War, ix., 162, 168
Fine Art, chiefly Contemporary, 222,
224, 234, 246, 267
Humorous Poems (edited), 403
Italian Courtesy-books, x., 304, 308,
326, 327, 367,448, 508, 509, 514,
525
Memoir of D. G. Rossetti, 76, 334,
355,453
Mrs Holmes Grey, 243, 284, 296,
297, 408, 409
Praeraphaelite Diaries and Letters
(edited), vii.
Ruskin, Article on, 245, 379, 408
Ruskin, Rossetti, etc. (edited), vii.,
12, 76
Shelley, Emendations to, x., 299, 301,
307, 352, 420
Shelley's Poems (edited), x., 338, 381,
384, 385, 39i, 392, 397, 398, 400,
401, 405, 406, 409, 410, 418, 423,
424, 429, 445, 499, 500, 504, 505,
510, 513 to 516, 519
Stations of Rome (edited), 199
Swinburne's Poems and Ballads, a
Criticism, ix., 193, 194, 195, 197,
199, 206, 216, 246, 299
Talks with Trelawny, 398
Tapper's Hiatus, Review of, 481
Rossi, Dario, 411, 414
Rossini, Gioacchino, 449
Rothschild, 120
Round Table (magazine), 270
Roustan, 262
Routledge, Edmund, 242, 243, 244
Royal Academy, 228, 231, 232, 233,
269, 296, 306, 322, 329, 393, 396,
494, 499, 502, 504
INDEX OF NAMES
553
Rubens, 32, 34, 35
Adoration of Magi (Antwerp) by, 33
Adoration of Magi (Brussels) by, 32
Assumption of the Virgin by, 34
Crucifixion (Antwerp) by, 33
Descent from Cross by, 34
Elevation of Cross by, 34
Family Group by, 34
Female Martyrdom by, 32
Flagellation, The, by, 35
Jerome's Last Communion by, 33
Marriage of St Catharine by, 35
Portraits (Brussels) by, 32
St Bavon renouncing the World by,
36
Visitation, The, by, 34
Rue de la Cloche, Calais, 450
Rue de Rivoli, Paris, 55
Rue Dyck, Antwerp, 35
Rue Lepelletier, Paris, 55
Rue Vivienne, Paris, 59
Rugby, 236, 387, 393
Rugby School, 445
Rumble, Miss, 402, 431, 432, 447, 450,
451, 452
Ruskin, John, ix., 9, 12, 25, 26, 30, 46,
58, 80, 86, 92, 133, 134, 136, 141,
163, 164, 165, 195 to 199, 225, 226,
238, 263, 297, 300, 302, 303, 305,
320, 334, 351, 36o, 361, 383, 407,
408, 437, 481, 482
Selection from Works of, 198
Stones of Venice by, 195
Time and Tide by, 263, 340
Ruskin, John J., 198
' Ruskin, Mrs John (see Millais, Lady)
Ruskin, Mrs (Senr.), 198
Russia, 227, 413
Ruxton, Captain, 154, 155, 156
Ruxton, Mrs, 156
Rye, 201
SACCHETTI, FRANCO, 367
Saffi, Aurelio, 224, 225
Saint Alpin Church, Chalons, 129
Saint Andre Church, Antwerp, 35
Saint Augustine Church, Antwerp, 35
Saint Augustine's Tomb, Pavia, 117
Saini Bavon Cathedral, Ghent, 36
Saint Cloud, Palace of, 262
Saint Eustache Church, Paris, 130
Saint Gervais Church, Paris, 262
Saint Helena, Isle of, 261
Saint Helena, Venice, Island, 438
Saint James's Hall, London, 298, 384
Saint Jaques Church, Antwerp, 34
Saint Jaques Church, Ghent, 36
Saint Mark's, Venice, 189
Saint Merri Church, Paris, 131
Saint Nicholas Church, Ghent, 36
Saint Nicolas aux Champs Church,
Paris, 131
Saint Paul Church, Antwerp, 35
Saint Paul's, London, 128, 272
Saint Sulpice Church, Paris, 54
Saint Theresa, 457
Sainte Beuve, 209, 427
Sala, George A., 308, 319, 320
Salt Lake City, 304
San Bartolomeo Church, Milan, 113
San Bernardino Church, Verona, 12 1
San Clemen te Church, Brescia, 120
San Domenico Church, Naples, 188
San Domenico Convent, Naples, 190
San Fedele Church, Como, 112
San Fermo, 112
San Fermo Church, Verona, 12 1
San Francesco Church, Pavia, 117, 120
San Giovanni e Paolo Church, Venice,
3H .
San Graziano Church, Arona, 317
San Lorenzo Church, Milan, 115
San Marco Church, Milan, 113, 114
San Marino Church, Pavia, 117
San Matteo Church, Genoa, 187
San Maurizio, Milan, 115
San Mi hele Church, Pavia, 117
San Miniato, 258
San Nazarn Church, Brescia, 120
San Pietro in Oliveto, Brescia, 119
San Satiro Church, Milan, 113
San Teodoro Church, Pavia, 117
San Vittore Church, Milan, 115
San Zen one Church, Verona, 57, 120
Sandys, Frederick A., x., 66, 87, 88, 95,
194, 197, 201, 225, 306, 307, 308,
38i, 385, 394, 395, 396, 441
Helen by. 442
Lucretia Borgia by, 394, 442
Medea by, 224, 306, 307
Mrs Bairstow, portrait, by, 385
The Valkyrie by, 307
Sanson & Co., 410
Sant' Abondio Church, Como, 112
Sant' Afra Church, Brescia, 118
Sant' Agata, near Naples, 190
Sant' Alessandro Church, Brescia, Il8
Sant' Ambrogio Church, Milan, 114,
H5
Sant' Anastasia Church, Verona, 120
Sant Andrea Ct urch, Mantua, 312
Sant' Angelo a Ni o, Naples, 190
Santa Chiara Church, Naples, 189
. Santa Croce Church, Florence, 352
554
INDEX OF NAMES
Santa Giustina Church, Padua, 8
Santa Maria Antica Church, Verona,
120
Santa Maria dei Miracoli, Brescia, 118
Santa Maria degl' Innocenti, Arena,
317
Santa Maria della Scala, Verona, I2O
Santa Maria delle Grazie, Milan, 115
Santa Prassede Church, Rome, 388
Santa Rosora, 352, 353, 354
Santo Spirito Church, Florence, 389
Sardinia, Kingdom of, 204, 208
Sarrebourg, 129
Saturday Review, The, 92, 193, 197,
231, 356, 507
Sauval, 262
Scala Monuments, Verona, 121
Scaland's Gate, x., 501, 505
Schaffhausen, 125
Schaffhausen, Falls of, 124, 125, 126
Scheffer, Ary, 427
Schelling, 520
Schiller, 247
Schmidt, 314, 315
Schmidt, Madame, 314
Schmidt's Prussian Menagerie, 314
Schopenhauer, 496
Schweizerhof, Lucerne, 108
Science and Art Department, 299
Scotland, 512
Scotsman, The (newspaper), 491
Scott, David, 3, 4, 158
Achilles and Patroclus by, 323
Emerson, Portrait of, by, 391, 439,
440
Orestes and the Furies by, 323
Scott, Mrs, 99, 320
Scott, Sir Walter, 381, 385, 386, 402
Scott, Wm. Bell, viii., I, 7 to 10, 22, 98,
100, 157, 158, 160, 161, 189, 194,
196, 210, 211, 213, 225, 226, 230,
232, 237, 239, 240, 245, 246, 297,
298, 320, 323, 324, 329, 331, 332,
335, 336, 338 to 341, 372, 38o, 382,
384, 391, 394, 396, 410, 412, 416,
439, 440, 458, 462, 473, 478, 493,
496, 526, 527
Autobiographical Notes by, 412, 492,
493
Burns Designs by, 458
Durer's Diary translated by, 332,
383, 409, 458, 465, 466, 471
Glass designs at South Kensington
by, 505
King's Quair, Paintings by, 237, 332,
370
Prodigal, The, by, 336
Scudder, Horace, 169, 180, 304
Scuola di San Rocco, Venice, 9, 56
Seaton, 21 1
Sellier, 105
Leander in Death by, 105
Sepher ben Sira, 484
Serassi, 371
Life of Tasso by, 371
Serena, 261
Sergia, 260
Seven Dials, London, 319
Severn, Joseph, 183, 503
Severn, Mrs Arthur, 198
Seward, W. T., 419
Shakespear, 55, 342, 476
Hamlet by, 342
Midsummer Night's Dream by, 55
Sharpe, J. Kirkpatrick, 474
Shelley, Harriet, 261, 332, 373, 386,
400, 401, 405, 446, 447, 474, 499,
500
Shelley, Hellen, 374, 399
Shelley, John, 337
Shelley, Lady, 374, 375, 399, 400,
5H
Shelley Memorials by, 399, 400
Shelley, Margaret, 374, 399
Shelley, Mary W., 332, 380, 398, 399,
402, 415, 424, 429, 432, 446, 447,
451, 452, 500, 502, 510, 514, 517,
530
Shelley, Percy B., 181, 182, 183, 240,
254, 261, 331, 332, 337, 340, 353,
366, 373, 374, 376, 378, 379, 380,
382, 383, 386, 392, 397 to 402, 404,
405, 407, 411, 413, 414, 415, 418,
420, 426, 427, 430, 432, 446, 447,
450, 45i, 452, 474, 48o, 499, 500 to
503, 5H, 515, 522, 523, 530, 531
Shelley, Percy B. Works by—
Alastor, 421
Cenci (The), 375, 376, 382, 386
Charles I., 385, 429
Dead Violet, Lines on, 416
Daemon of the World, 335, 421
Epipsychidion, 379, 429
Essay on Prophecy, 474
Faust translated, 385
Indian Serenade, 392, 416
Julian and Maddalo, 429
Letter to Maria Gisborne, 432
Marenghi, 400
Margaret Nicholson, 335, 424
Miss Stacey, Poems to, 415, 416
Mrs Williams, Poems to, 398
Ode to the West Wind, 519
Poetical Works, 333, 335, 336, 381,
385,412
Posthumous Poems, 378
1
INDEX OF NAMES
555
Shelley, Percy B. — Continued
Prometheus Unbound, 339, 382, 383,
499, 5H
Queen Mab, 335, 386
Refutation of Deism, 515
Relics of, 421, 474
Revolt of Islam, 372, 373, 379, 394,
395
Saint Irvyne, 377
Swellfoot the Tyrant, 400
Triumph of Life, 429
Unfinished Drama, 400
Virgil's Gallus translated, 400
Zastrozzi, 377
Shelley, Sir Percy F., 332, 374, 375,
382, 385, 392, 399, 402, 430, 432,
503, 5H
Shelley, Sir Timothy, 392
Shelley, William, 514
Shepherd, R. Herne, 299
Shields, F. J., 71, 269, 300, 381, 384,
472
Pilgrim's Progress Designs by, 71
Shields, North and South, 28
Shilling Magazine, The, 87, 88, 95
Shipley, Rev. Orby, 75, 76, 88, 99, 100
Sibson, Thomas, 157, 158
Etchings to Dickens by, 157
Siddal, Henry, 270
Siena, 10
Sim, Dr, 189, 190
Simcox, 393, 527
Poems by, 393
Prometheus Unbound by, 393
Sion House, Brentford, 514, 522
Skelton, Sir John, 525
Skinner, Hilary, 413
Slack, J. H., 404, 405, 406
Slack, Mrs, 404
Smalley, G. W., 355
Smetham, James, 162, 163, 267, 362,
383, 384, 385, 428, 489, 491, 492
Letters of, 163
Smith (Family Herald), 1 60
Smith, John T., 20
Smith and Elder, 17, 299
Societa Belle Arti, Naples, 190
Societe d'Acclimatation, Paris, 59
Society for Promoting Christian Know-
ledge, 77, 78
Solferino, 115, 119, 289
Solomon, King, 260
Solomon, Simeon, 269
Habet by, 269
Somerset House, 242, 243, 307, 318,
321, 323, 330, 331, 337, 339, 4".
499
Sophocles, 515
Sorel, Agnes, 259
Sotheby, Mrs, 475
Sotto-piombi, Venice, 315
South America, 196
Southampton, 156, 227
Spain, 213, 330
Spartali, Michael, 252, 413
Spartali, Marie (see Stillman, Mrs)
Spartali, Misses, 229
Spectator, The (newspaper), 199, 337
Speke Hall, 321
Spello, 434
Spencer, Herbert, 200
Spinoza, 474
Tractatus Theologico-Politicus by,
474
Spiritual Magazine, The, 368, 516
Spliigen, The, 123, 124
Spottiswoode, 469
Standard, The (newspaper), 325
Stanhope, J. R. Spencer, 477
Stanley, Dean, 523
Stansted Hall, Essex, 43
Star, The (newspaper), 197
Statius, 380
The Thebaid by, 380
Steele, Dr, 406
Stennett, J. H., 325
Stephens, Frederic G., 198, 296, 306,
332
Stephens, Holman, 332
Stephens, Mrs, 198
Stevens, Alfred, 239
Stillman, Mrs (Laura), 299
Stillman, Mrs (Marie), 336, 413, 415,
464, 465, 529
St Barbara by, 504
The Lagoon by, 413
Stillman,WJ.,viii.,x.,xi.,IO,ll,5l,2i4,
222, 226, 235, 252, 274, 299, 306,
331, 333, 337, 338, 340, 359, 4^2,
413,415,499,506,513, 528, 529
Cretan Days by, 235, 277
Stisted, Miss, 392
Stokes, Whitley, 239
Story Junior, 306
Story, W. W., 306
Stothard, Thomas, 178
Henry VIII. and Anne Boleyn by,
363
Stowe, Mrs Beecher, 411, 460, 467, 480
Stradadi Toledo, Naples, 191
Strahan, 517
Strasburg, 127
Strasburg Cathedral, 127, 128
Stratford-on-Avon, 194, 195, 325, 326
Strathmore, Lord, 255
Street, G. E., 199, 308
556
OF NAMES
Stromboli (ship), 191
Stuerbout, 32
Sudbury, Derbyshire, 3
Sully, Due de, 262
Memoires de, 262
Sun, The (newspaper), 351
Sunderland Cooperative Store, 509
Supplementary Exhibition, London,
396
Sussex, 173, 405
Swinburne, Admiral, 220, 221, 271
Swinburne, Algernon C., ix., 27, 42, 64,
88, 168, 169, 172, 177, 193, 194, 197,
200, 219, 220, 221, 226, 228, 230,
231, 233, 242, 244, 245, 255, 271,
297, 301, 302, 303, 305 to 308, 318,
319, 320, 330, 335, 338, 344, 35*,
376, 379, 386, 394, 395, 400, 401,
402, 407, 409, 410, 413, 416, 427,
446, 447, 483, 493, 498, 504, 505,
5i8
Swinburne, Algernon C. Works by—
Atalanta in Calydon, 63, 64, 87, 89,
95, 247, 505
Baudelaire, 301
Blake, Study on, 63, 168, 221, 224,
234, 344
Coleridge Selection, 305
Crete, 226
Dirae, 411, 413, 498
Eve of Revolution, 505
Florence, Drawings in, Paper on,
305
Halt before Rome, 301, 305
Hertha, 504, 505
Hymn to Proserpine, 247
L'Homme qui Rit (review), 395, 407,
498
Litany of the Nations, 504, 505
Mary Stuart Trilogy, 242, 319
Monna Lisa, 245
Novel in form of Letters, 380
Pamphlet on Poems and Ballads, ix.,
192, 193, 194, 197
Poems and Ballads, 193, 197, 199,
200, 206, 207, 224, 307, 335
Rossetti's Poems, Review, 504, 505,
525, 528
Royal Academy Pamphlet, x., 305,
306, 308, 319, 320, 351
Song of I'aly, 221, 240
Songs before Sunrise, x., 504, 505
Tristram and Yseult, 242, 319,
504
Swinburne, Lndy Jane, 220
Swinburne, Mi-ses, 220
Switzerland, ix., 104, 107, 120, 310, 411
Symonds, J. Addington, x., 363
TABRETT, 201
Tacitus, 503
Talkut Kadash, 485
Talmud, The, 485, 486
Tam O' Shanter Inn, Ayr, 453
Tasso, 367, 368
Tatham, Frederick, viii., 16, 20, 21, 41
Epic Theory in Art by, 16, 17
Memoir of William Blake by, 43
Taylor, Captain, 499
Taylor, Emma, 501
Taylor, Gilbert, 363
Dolomite Mountains by, 363
Taylor, Isaac, 362
Engravings for the Bible by, 362
Natural History of Enthusiasm by,
362
Taylor, Isaac (Senr.), 363
Portraits of Jane and Anne Taylor
by, 363
Taylor, Mrs Warington, 320, 499
Taylor, Sir Henry, 4, 5
Philip van Artevelde by, 4, 71
Taylor, Tom, 178, 307, 427
Memoir of Haydon by, 178, 179, 258,
427
Taylor, Warington, ix., 203, 219, 276,
320, 322, 323, 325, 499
Teatro della Canobbiana, Milan, 55
Teatro Malibran, Venice. 56, 57
Tebbs, H. Virtue, 47, 48, 245, 298,
304, 338, 386, 406, 473, 477, 47«
Temple Bar (magazine), 401
Tennyson, Frederick, 289
Tennyson, La-ly, 103
Tennyson, Lord (Alfred), 6, 103, 202,
226, 233, 273, 302, 333, 341, 364,
385,411,412,417, 505
Idylls of the King by, 77
Illustrated Edition of, 422, 423
Lady of Shalott by, 341
Tenterden, 201
Terra-cotta Edifices, Italy (book), 205,
214, 229
Thames, The, 192, 318
Theatre de la Porte St Martin, Paris,
184
Theatre Dejazet, Paris, 54
Theatre du Pare, Brussels, 32
Theatre Frangais, Paris, 104, 238
Theatre Lyrique, Brussels, 33
Theodore, King, 394
Thomas, Mrs Edward, 88
Thomas, W. Cave, 232
Thomson, James, 381, 498
Thoreuu, 181
Thornton, 20
INDEX OF NAMES
557
Thorold (family), 341
Thorwaldsen, 109
Lion at Lucerne by, 109
Tiberias, Lake of, 466
Tiberius, 337
Ticino, The, no, 117
Ticknor and Fields, 349
Times, The, 73, 204, 205, 355. 467
Tinsley's Magazine, 404, 458, 479
Tintoret, 9, 32, 56, 113, 134, 198, 325,
438
Anticollegio Paintings by, 315
Invention of the Cross by, 114
Miracles of St Roch by, 391
Paradise by, 315
Pieta (Brera) by, 114
St George and the Dragon by, 443
Transfiguration by, 118
Tissot, James, 105, 130, 239
L'Enlevement by, 105
Le Printemps by, 105
Titian, 34, 134, 135, 137, 138, 198,
325, 363, 392, 438
Alexander VI. and Sforza by, 34
Peter Martyr by, 315
Portrait of Young Man (Bale) by, 1 08
St Jerome (Brera) by, 246
Woman taken in Adultery by, 118
Tong, 46, 47
Torcello, 438
Touchett, 399, 400
Traventi, 197, 198
Trelawny, Edward J., x., 182, 183, 215,
218, 248, 254, 288, 366, 391, 392,
398 to 402, 426, 427, 449, 480, 500,
501, 502, 514, 517, 530, 531
Records of Shelley etc. by, 254, 426,
451
Younger Son by, 254, 426
Trelawny, Miss (see Call, Mrs)
Trent, 208
Trevelyan, Lady, 210, 211, 212
Trevelvan, Sir Walter, 207
Trianon, 262
Trieste, 208
Trinity College, Dublin, 57
Trist, 62, 63
Troy, De, 55
Tudor House, Chelsea, 2 (see also
Cheyne Walk)
Tuileries Palace, 262
Tupper, Alexander, 475
Tupper, George, 393, 435
Tupper, John, x., 236, 237, 321, 337,
339, 379, 387 to 391, 393, 434, 435,
445, 521
Hiatus by, 445, 475, 521
True Story of Mrs Stowe by, 475
Tupper, Martin F., 203, 204
Proverbial Philosophy by, 203
Turin, 73, 74, 216, 217, 321, 39*
Turkey, 227
Turner, J. M. W., 21, 29, 233, 234, 305,
325, 383, 438
Hesperides by, 21
Jason by, 21
Liber Studiorum by, 521
Martigny by, 325
Tuscany, 217
Twickenham, 513
Tyne, The, 28
Tynemouth, 16, 28
U
UBERTI, FAZIO DEGLI, 3
Uffizi Gallery, Florence, 389, 503
Union Debating-hall, Oxford, 477
Union Society, Oxford, 477, 482
United States, 53, 161, 263, 303
University College, London, 72, 324
University College, Oxford, 522, 523
University College Hospital, London,
438
Upton, 167
VACCA, Dr, 399
Vale'ry, 387
Valparaiso, 196
Valpy, R. L., 267, 268
Van Eyck, John, 36, 135
Adoration ot the Spotless Lamb by,
36
Arnolfini Portraits by, 135
Head of Christ by, 38
Portrait of his Wife by, 38
Virgin and Child, with Sts. George
and Donatian by, 37
Vandyck, 35, 325
Damae due Puui by, 187
Repose in Egypt by, 37
Varchi, 368
Varennes, 130
Varese, 112
Varley, John, 43
Vasto, 176
Vauxhall Concert, Brussels, 33
Velasquez, 35, 198
A Saint in Torment by, 391
Prometheus by, 35
Venetia, 116, 186
Venice, viii., x., 8, 9, 13, 55, 57, 196,
204, 208, 213, 216, 305, 308, 313,
3H, 359, 389, 434
INDEX OF NAMES
Venice Accademia, 315
Vernet, Horace, 427
Verneuil, Marquise de, 262, 263
Vernon, Lord, 3, 178, 183, 288, 448,
449, 480, 510
Verona, 57, 58, 120, 122, 216, 308, 313,
Waterford, Lady, 199
Watson, J. D., 243
Vespasian, 199
Via dell' Ascensione, Naples, 190
Vicenza, 57
Vichy, 407
Victor Emanuel II., 56, 115, 116, 117,
189, 199, 208, 249, 289, 310, 311,
509
Victoria and Albert Museum, 4, 8, 139,
239, 27$, 277, *78, 318, 34^, 347,
363, 408, 458, 500, 503, 505
Victory (Grecian Bronze), 119
Vie dei Fiori Chiari ed Oscuri, Milan,
114
Vieusseux, 182, 183
Villa Franca., 204, 208
Villa Pallavicini, Genoa, 192
Villa Reale, Naples, 188
Villan, Pasqnale, 343, 509
Vinci, Leonardo da, 316, 392, 481, 525
Fight for the Standard by, 481, 482
Last Supper by, 482
Virgin and Child by, 389
Violet (Romance), 461, 462
Virgil, 258
The >€neid by, 258
Virgil (Thornton's), 20
Virgilii, Pasquale de', 217, 218
Nicolb de' Rienzi by, 218
Viviani, Emilia, 402, 447, 452, 502
Vokins, 47, 59, 60
Voltaire, 317, 337
WAIN WRIGHT, 221
Walker Artillery, Liverpool, 486
Wallen»tadt, Lake of, 124
Waller (Fleet St.), 4", 413
Wallington, Northumberland, 207
Wallis. Henry, 407, 503
Return from Marston Moor by, 1 39
WallUellen, 124
Warubeck (steamer), 28
Ward, Artemu*. 227
Ward. Harry, 339, 380
Warden, The (house), 237
Warwick, 326
Washington (D. CJ, I So, 358, 403
Washington Star, The, 355
Water-colour Society, 224, 253, 39$
-, 232, 392
Wedding Procession by, 392
Watts, George F., 202, 224
Clyde by, 322, 403
Daphne by, 403
Endymion by, 403
Millais, portrait, by, 403
Watts, T. E., 325
Waugh, Gledstanes, 261
Waugh, Mr, 301
Waugh, Mrs, 225
Webb, Philip, 5, 231, 246, 276, 277,
278, 280, 346, 347
Webster's English Dictionary, 275
Weekes, 514
Shelley Monument by, 514
Wellington, The (Club), 243
Wells, H. T., 494
Westness, Thomas, 508
Whistler, J. M., ix., 14, 130, 196, 222,
228, 229, 233, 234, 235, 245, 246,
2 5 7. 303, 3o6, 319, 320, 49$
Portrait of himself by, 222
Princesse du Palais de Porcelaine by,
105
Symphony in White, No. 3, by, 228
Whistler, Mrs, 320
Whistler, Wm., 235, 245
Whitman, Walt, ix., x., 181, 231, 240,
243, 244, 245, 270, 283, 297, 320,
342, 35i, 355, 357, 358, 359, 366,
386, 403, 404, 4i8, 459, 460, 492,
4Q7 5°7i 508, 519, 520
Carol of Harvest by, 270
Democracy by, 284, 287
Drum- taps by, 181, 357
Leaves of Grass by, ix., x., 181, 230,
275, 283, 284, 286, 287, 340, 343,
356, 357, 363, 364, 365, 403,
459, 476, 497, 507, 509
Lincoln's Funeral-hymn by, 284
O Captain, my Captain, by, 181
Selection from, by W. M'. Rossetti,
ix., 239, 240, 241, 243 to 246,
274, 283, 285, 297, 306, 320, 351,
356,363,497,509, 516,518
Walt Whitman by, 343
Wick low, Earl of, 98
Wierus, 485
Wigand, 223
Wilberforce, 80
Wilding, Alcxa, 95, 244
Wilding, Mrs, 95
Wilkinson, Dr, 170, 368, 369
l:;.j'j'>vK, luons of tli^ Spirit by, 170
1NDKX 01 \ VMKS
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Williams, Lieutenant, 399, $01, $14, WordiWOTth, Wm,, lit |W, 4$l
516, 517 Working Men'* Galteft, L§n4
Williams, Miss, 402
Williams, Richard,
Williams, Roland, l66 \Yi.K
Williams, W. Smith, 17, 437
Williamson, Dr, 472, 475
Wilson, John, 3^3
Wilson, Dr, 389
Winchelsea, 194, 2O1
Windus, B. W., 298, 299
Windus, Miss, 232
Windus, Mrs, 232
Windus, W. L., 232
Burd Helen by, 232
Winsor, Charlotte, 157, l6l
:.-thur, 124
Wood Vale, Cowei, 374
Woodward, B. B., 227
Woolner, Mri, 199
Woolner, Thomas, 39, 46, lot, 156,
207,
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