Introduction
DGR threw off this epigram in a letter to William Bell Scott of 7 February 1857 (see
Fredeman,
<hi rend="i">Correspondence</hi>
57. 12).
He wrote complaining of the engraver's work in translating his drawings for the Moxon
edition of Tennyson's
<hi rend="i">Poems</hi>
(1857):
“I have done a few water colours in my small way lately, and have
designed 5 blocks for the Tennyson, some of which are still cutting and maiming. It is a thankless task.
After a fortnight's work, my block goes to the engraver like Agag,
delicately, & is hewn in pieces before the Lord Harry.” The price that Dalziel paid to DGR for the drawings is
uncertain since various acounts have been given. Most likely is that he was paid £12 for each
drawing, though some estimates go as high as £30 (see
Fredeman,
<hi rend="i">Correspondence</hi>
56. 62n).
DGR began work on the drawings in late 1856 and quickly found himself displeased
with the engraving of the Dalziels (see his letter to Allingham of 18 December 1856,
Fredeman,
<hi rend="i">Correspondence</hi>
56. 59)
Of the five drawings DGR made, only four went into Moxon's edition:
<hi rend="i">St. Cecilia</hi>
;
<hi rend="i">King Arthur and the Weeping Queens</hi>
;
<hi rend="i">The Lady of Shalott</hi>
; and
<hi rend="i">Mariana in the South</hi>
. The fifith
(rejected) drawing was
<hi rend="i">Sir Galahad
at the Ruined Chapel</hi>
. He wanted to do a second drawing for
<hi rend="i">Sir Galahad</hi>
as well as a drawing for Tennyson's
“The Two Voices”
but he never did.
Bibliographic
George Somes Layard,
<hi rend="i">Tennyson and his Pre-Raphaelite Publishers</hi>
1894
Jan Marsh, “Hoping you will not think me too fastidious:
Pre-Raphaelite Artists and the Moxon Tennsyon”,
<hi rend="i">JPRAS</hi>
2:1 1989
11-18
WMR,
<hi rend="i">Memoir</hi>
I. 189-190
Sharp,
<hi rend="i">DGR: A Record and a Study</hi>
, 107-112.