Review of John Payne's <hi rend="i">Lautrec</hi> Dante Gabriel Rossetti 1 1878 November
review <artist/> <location/> <bibl/> <note/> </citnpictorial> <citnmythic> <name/> <culture/> <bibl/> <note/> </citnmythic> <citnhistorical> <event/> <place/> <date/> <bibl/> <note/> </citnhistorical> <citnautobiographical> <name/> <place/> <date/> <bibl/> <note/> </citnautobiographical> <citnscenic> <place/> <date/> <bibl/> <note/> </citnscenic> </listcitn> </source> <commentaries> <head>Commentary</head> <section type="intro"> <head>Introduction</head> <p>DGR drafted this review shortly after he received a gratis copy of John Payne's book <xref doc="a."> <title level="wrk"> <hi rend="i">Lautrec. A Poem</hi> (London: Pickering and Co., 1878) in late November 1878. Writing to William Davies on 27 November DGR asked: “Do you know Mr. John Payne? And have you seen his tasteful Poem which is called Lautrec but might be called the Anatomy of Vampyrism? I have received a copy but couldn't read it for the horrors, and really don't know what to say to it. What will the Bardic Faculty do next?“ (see Fredeman, <hi rend="i">Correspondence</hi> , 78.270 ).

It is difficult not to think that DGR's recoil from Payne's work is in part connected with his pained recollections of his dead wife and the exhumation that took place in 1869.

The slurring reference in DGR's review to Payne's translation of Villon, which was printed to private subscription in 1878, probably tells much about why DGR did not publish this review. (He had been invited in April 1878, through H. Buxton Forman, to add his name to the subscriber list, but refused to do so.) DGR's comments here would have exposed his mind on this matter to Swinburne, whose incomparable translations of Villon's “putridities” (as DGR called them in his review) DGR at one time must have judged very differently. He and Swinburne planned to do a complete translation of Villon together in the 1860s (see commentary for DGR's <hi rend="i">Three Translations from Francois Villon, 1450</hi> ). DGR always held much more conservative views than Swinburne did (or than his brother did!) on the question of what is or is not “moral” in poetry and art. This unpublished review shows just how much more conservative DGR had become after the furor that exploded around the supposed “fleshly” character of his work in his 1870 volume.

Textual History: Composition

Composed in late November or early December 1878. The only surviving witness of this work seems to be DGR's rough draft in the Princeton/Troxell collection.

Textual History: Revision

Production History

Reception

Iconographic

Printing History

DGR did not have the review printed, and it has never before been published.

Pictorial

Historical

Literary

Translation

Autobiographical

Bibliographic

John Payne, <hi rend="i">Lautrec. A Poem</hi> (London, 1878). John Payne, <hi rend="i">The Masque of Shadows and other Poems</hi> (London, 1870)

Princeton draft manuscript The Athenaeum was younger: DGR thought the magazine maintained high standards for publication, which was why he published in its pages so often. “Varney the Vampire”: perhaps the most sensational of the pieces of sensation fiction spawned in mid-century Britain, the work appeared anonymously in a series of ȁpenny dreadfulℍ issues that culminated in its book publication in 1847. The author is still uncertain, though Thomas Prescott Prest is often cited. It may have been the work of several hands. minors: slang for the minor theatrical houses located in the poorer districts of London; Charles Knight. . .Penny Magazine: Knight (1791-1873) started The Penny Magazine of the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge in 1832. It ceased publishing in1846 and was celebrated for its remarkable woodcuts. The Rhyme of Redemption: i.e., ℌThe Rime of Redemption”, one of Payne's other ballad poems (published in his earlier collection <hi rend="i">The Masque of Shadows and Other Poems</hi> London, 1870 33-58 ) Lord Capbell: i.e., the Lord Chancellor of England, John Campbell, Baron Campbell, who died in 1861.
Princeton draft manuscript Review of John Payne's Lautrec (Princeton draft manuscript) DGR 1878 0