Rossetti Archive Textual Transcription

Document Title: The Early Italian Poets, Working Papers
Author: Dante Gabriel Rossetti
Date of Composition: 1849?
Type of Manuscript: holograph draft

The full Rossetti Archive record for this transcribed document is available.

Image of page [1] page: [1]
Note: The texts on the manuscript are here reproduced in the order that they appear in the digital image files. See commentary for the probable order of their initial transcription.
  • Tender as dew her cheek's warm life,
  • She was as simple as a wife,
  • Could [?] She was as white as lilies are.
  • Her face was sweet and smooth & fair
  • Slender & very strait was she was,
  • And on her cheeks no paint might pass.
  • Her fair hair was so long that it
  • Fell when she walked about her feet
  • Eyes, nose & mouth were perfect art
  • 10Exceeding pain is at my heart
  • When I remember me of her.
  • Tendre eut la chair comme rousée,
  • Simple fut comme une épousée
  • Et blanche comme fleur de lis;
  • Visage eut bel, doux et alis,
  • Elle ètait grêle et alignée
  • N'ètait fardée ni pignée.
  • Car elle n'avait pas métier
  • De soi farder et affaictier;
  • Les cheveux eut blonds et si longs
  • 10Quil lui battaient au talons;
  • Elle eut bien faits nez, yeux et bouche
  • Moult quand douleur au coeur me touche
  • Quand de sa beauté me remembre.

Note: “Bernardo da Bologna” is written by DGR vertically along the right margin.
  • A quella amorosetta forosella
  • Passò sì il core la vostra salute,
  • Che sfigurò di sue belle parute
  • Ond'io le domandai, perchè Pinella?
  • Udistu mai di quel Guido novella?
  • Sì feci tal, che appena l'ho credute;
  • Ché s'allegaron le mortal ferute
  • D'Amore, e di suo fermamento stella
  • Con pura luce, che spande soave;
  • 10Ma dimmi, amico, se ti piace, come
  • La conoscenza di me da te l'have?
  • Sì tosto come io la il vidi, seppi il nome,
  • Ben è così qual si dice la chiave,
  • A lui ne mandi trentamila some.
Note: This note on the Sienese poet appears upside down in the digital reproduction, between lines 11 and 12 of the Italian sonnet text.
Bindo Bonichi da Siena 1337

tre canzoni pubblicate dall' Ubaldini (Federico)

in Roma 1642
Image of page [1v] page: [1v]
  • Chè sì manteni in pregio ed in grandezza.
  • Troppo alterezza è quella che sconveni;
  • Di grandi orgoglio maì ben non aveni
  • Però, Madonna, la vostra durezza
  • Convertasi in pietanza e si rinfreni;
  • Non si distenda tanto ch'io ne pera.
  • Lo Sole è alto e face lumiera
  • E tanto più quanto in altura pare:
  • Perchè vostro orgoglioan e vostre altezza
  • 10Facciammi prò e tornimi in dolcezza—
  • Ch ho più durato ch'io non ho possanza
  • Per voi, Madonna, per cui porto lianza
  • Più che non fa assessino a suo cuitato
  • Cha si gran travi poco ferro serra
  • E poco pioggia quando vento atterra—
Note: This line is written below line 5 of the previous text and translates that line.
  • Even as a gentle rain will lay the wind
Note: This prose note appears on the digital image above the previous two texts.
Meuccio Cacciatigre (God's Result!)
Electronic Archive Edition: 1
Source File: 1-1861.sangms.rad.xml
Copyright: Published with the permission of Iziko Museums of Cape Town