Ballads and Sonnets (1881), proof Signature F (Delaware Museum, second revise proof, incomplete) Dante Gabriel Rossetti 1 Text courtesy of The Delaware Art Museum Ballads and Sonnets Dante Gabriel Rossetti F. S. Ellis Chiswick Press, C. Whittingham and Co. London 1881 April 14 proof 65-66, 79-80 3 DGR Library, Delaware Art Museum 10 point; 6 point leading roman 17 2 cm 3.8 cm 2 cm 2.5 cm 19 x 12.8cm (crown octavo) Commentary
Introduction

These two leaves come from a copy of the second revise for Signature F. The proofs carry the printer's date stamp 14 April 81 on the first page as well as the handwritten number 3 in the upper left corner. The proofs also carry DGRs note to the printer (on page 65) directing him to move five lines of the text of the Beryl Song from page 66 to page 65.

Textual History: Composition

Textual History: Revision

The library of the Delaware Art Museum has three complete sets of proofs for this signature: a copy of the first author's proof (dated Apr 81 and numbered 1), a complete copy of the second revise (dated 14 Apr 81 and numbered 4), and a copy of the final proof (dated 22 Apr and numbered 5). In addition to this fragmentary copy of the second revise, the museum also has an incomplete copy of what appears to be the first revise (unnumbered and undated), an incomplete copy of the third revise (undated, unnumbered), as well as a loose proof leaf for pages 79-80 that shows DGR calling for a revision on page 80 that he failed to include in the first author's proof. The British Library proofs include an undated copy of the first revise (numbered 2).

Printing History

Reception History

Historical

Literary

Translation

Autobiographical

Bibliographic

3 Printer's proof-sequence number in upper left corner. [Charles Whittingham and Chiswick Press Printer's Stamp, dated 14 Apr. 81] Stamped at upper left. Beryl-Song (overpage)5 lines of this should beon this page, beginning asmarked. DGR's note to the printer F “Though naught for the poor corpse lying here Remain to-day but the cold white bier, But burial-chaunt and bended knee, But sighs and tears that heaviest be, But rent rose-flower and rosemary.” <hi rend="c">Beryl-Song</hi>. We, cast forth from the Beryl, Gyre-circling spirits of fire, Whose pangs begin With God's grace to sin, For whose spent powers the immortal hours are sterile,— Woe! must We behold this mother Find grace in her dead child's face, and doubt of none other But that perfect pardon, alas! hath assured her guerdon? Woe! must We behold this daughter, Made clean from the soil of sin wherewith We had fraught her, An instant shriek that sprang to the shock As the ship's keel felt the sunken rock. 'Tis said that afar—a shrill strange sigh— The King's ships heard it and knew not why. Pale Fitz-Stephen stood by the helm 'Mid all those folk that the waves must whelm. A great King's heir for the waves to whelm, And the helpless pilot pale at the helm! The ship was eager and sucked athirst, By the stealthy stab of the sharp reef pierc'd: And like the moil round a sinking cup, The waters against her crowded up. A moment the pilot's senses spin,— The next he snatched the Prince 'mid the din, Cut the boat loose, and the youth leaped in. A few friends leaped with him, standing near. “Row! the sea's smooth and the night is clear!” “What! none to be saved but these and I?” “Row, row as you'd live! All here must die!” Out of the churn of the choking ship, Which the gulf grapples and the waves strip, They struck with the strained oars' flash and dip. 'Twas then o'er the splitting bulwarks' brim The Prince's sister screamed to him.