I have sent my proofs for correction and resetting (as I mean now to have only 24 lines in a page instead of 29” (see Fredeman,
is the same, re-leaded but not re-set.” On 7 March DGR wrote to Swinburne saying his book is
now printed wider so as to make more pages” (Fredeman,
This is a copy of the proofs that DGR's publisher F. S. Ellis gave to H.
Buxton Forman on 12 March 1870 (that is Forman's date in his manuscript
notes at the front of the proofs). The proofs are a pre-publication set that
Forman was to use for the
At the end of the proofs Forman has copied out five poems: the four sonnets that DGR added to bring
This proof went through several revisions before it was ready to serve as
printer's copy for the first edition (see Fredeman, Correspondence
This is the second state of the first issue.
The Trial Book Fallacy
LONDON
Strangeways and Walden, Printers,
Castle St. Leicester Sq.
TO WILLIAM MICHAEL ROSSETTI, THESE POEMS, TO SO MANY OF WHICH, SO MANY YEARS BACK, HE GAVE THE FIRST BROTHERLY HEARING, ARE NOW AT LAST DEDICATED.
[Many poems in this volume were written between
1847 and 1853. Others are of
recent date, and a few belong
to the intervening period. It has been thought
unnecessary
to specify the earlier work, as nothing is included which the
author
believes to be immature.]
*During the excavations, the Tiyari workmen held their ser-
vices in the
shadow of the great bulls. (
*‘
the ‘
* Uguccione della Faggiuola, Dante's former protector, was
now his
fellow-guest at Verona.
* ‘Messere, voi non vedreste tant'ossa se cane io
fossi.
point of the reproach is difficult
to render, depending as it does
on the literal meaning of the name Cane.
* Such was the last sentence passed by Florence against Dante,
as a
recalcitrant exile.
†stelle.’ Inferno
stelle.’ Purgatorio
stelle.’ Paradiso
* ‘Quomodo sedet sola civitas!
the
‘Vengeance of Jenny's case! Fie on her! Never name her,
child!’—(Mrs. Quickly.)
*This little poem, written in 1847, was printed in a periodical
at the outset of 1850. The metre, which is used by several old
English writers, became celebrated a month or two later on the
publication of
*A Triptych. In the centre, the Adoration: at the two sides,
David as
shepherd and David as king.
[The first twenty-six sonnets and the seven first
songs
treat of love. These and the others would belong to sepa-
rate sections
of the projected work.]
*In the drawing Mary has left a festal procession, and is ascending
by a
sudden impulse the steps of the house where she sees Christ.
Her lover
has followed her and is trying to turn her back.
*The scene is in the house-porch, where Christ holds a bowl of
blood from which Zacharias is sprinkling the posts and lintel.
Joseph has brought the lamb and Elizabeth lights the pyre. The
shoes which John fastens and the bitter herbs which Mary is gather-
ing form part of the ritual.
*The subject shows Cassandra prophesying among her kindred,
as Hector leaves them for his last battle. They are on the platform
of a fortress, from which the Trojan troops are marching out. Helen
is arming Paris; Priam soothes Hecuba; and Andromache holds
the child to her bosom.