Rossetti Archive Textual Transcription

Document Title: Small Notebook 2 (British Library)
Author: Dante Gabriel Rossetti
Date of Composition: 1871-1879?
Scribe: DGR

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

page: cover
Manuscript Addition: Ashley 1410 (2)
Editorial Description: Library identification number
Manuscript Addition: This book contains entries 1873 and 75 by Gabriel. WMR. 1905
Editorial Description: WMR's description of the notebook's contents.
page: endpaper
Note: blank page
Image of page [1r] page: [1r]
Manuscript Addition: ASHLEY 1410 (2)
Editorial Description: Library identification number
page: [1v]
page: [2r]
Note: The page is blank except for ghosting from the previous page.
Manuscript Addition: 2*
Editorial Description: Pagination (not by DGR) at upper right.
Image of page [2v] page: [2v]
Note: The page contains various names, addresses, and other memoranda, all written from bottom to top, as in the rest of the notebook.
All Saints

Hospital
Mrs. Nicholson

39 New Market Terrace

York Road
R L

14B Cantyre Pl

Kings Road

Chelsea
Bill £54 Jan. 1873

due 12 April
Image of page [3r] page: [3r]
Manuscript Addition: 3
Editorial Description: Pagination (not by DGR) at upper right followed by an x mark.
All Saints Hospital

82 M. St
  • the prisoned sun moon in steep
  • cloud-fastnesses
  • and the S
  • some day whose sun
  • died in momentous me-
  • -morable light
  • some dying sun whose pyre
  • Blazed with ------------ fire
Image of page [3v] page: [3v]
  • Her hands lay open in the long
  • deep grass
  • And the sweet points looked through
  • like rosy flowers

  • Even as a child, of sorrow that we
  • give
  • The dead, but little at his heart can
  • find,
  • Since without need of thought in his clear mind
  • Their turn it is to die &
  • his to live
Image of page [4r] page: [4r]
Manuscript Addition: 4
Editorial Description: Pagination (not by DGR) at upper right.
  • As balmy as the breath of her
  • you love
  • When laid deep between her breasts
  • it comes to you.
  • some close-companioned inarticulate some voiceless hour
  • When twofold silence was the
  • song of love.
Image of page [4v] page: [4v]
Amen to the omen

One bliss but tarries for another birth
  • As the last cowslip in spring-fields
  • we see
  • with the first corn-poppy.
Image of page [5r] page: [5r]
Manuscript Addition: 5
Editorial Description: Pagination (not by DGR) at upper right.
  • The golden kingcup-fields with
  • silver edge
  • Where the cow-parsley skirts
  • the hawthorn hedge.

Tragical shadow in the realms of

         fear
Image of page [5v] page: [5v]
Poetry is the apparent

image of unapparent

     realities
The science of Theometry
  • Still shoot the dead drift down
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Manuscript Addition: 6
Editorial Description: Pagination (not by DGR) at upper right.
She looked & saw their love at

the bottom of his heart as

a diver sees a pearl at

the bottom of the sea
  • Added Textand we
  • Whom trees that knew our sires
  • shall cease to know
  • And still stand silent
Image of page [6v] page: [6v]
Boar Hunt—Dumas

Pauline. page 53

Beroulde (man's name)

   Bébelle

Pippo Pippistrello Fiore

Farfalla la Fanciulla
Image of page [unnumbered] page: [unnumbered]
Note: blank page
Image of page [unnumbered] page: [unnumbered]
Note: blank page
Image of page [7r] page: [7r]
Manuscript Addition: 7
Editorial Description: Pagination (not by DGR) at upper right.
Of natural foods she nothing

          needs—

a gram of rice a day

Aure Isaure

Tabret & timbrel

Who knoweth not Love's

sounds & silences.
Image of page [7v] page: [7v]
Note: This is the passage—incorrectly quoted from memory—that DGR at one point thought to add as a note to his sonnet.
When Leander was drowned, the

inhabitants of Sestos consecrated Hero's

lantern lantern to Anteros, & he

that had good success in his

love should light the candle :

but never any man was found

to light it

(Burton's Anat. Mel.

Pt. 3 Sec. 2 Numb. 6

Subs. 3)
Image of page [8r] page: [8r]
Manuscript Addition: 8
Editorial Description: Pagination (not by DGR) at upper right.
  • The winter garden beds all
  • bare
  • Save only when the redbreast
  • lingering there
  • Brings back one flower-like
  • gleam to[?] mid the dark mould
Image of page [8v] page: [8v]
  • Il faut que toute le lieux pour dit
  • Car je ne t'aime plus, ma mie.

  • Les larmes, comme le sang
  • grisant ceux qui les font couler

Title—Aura & Aurora
Image of page [9r] page: [9r]
Manuscript Addition: 9
Editorial Description: Pagination (not by DGR) at upper right.
  • The loves that from his hand
  • have dropped away,
  • Even as the beads of a told
  • rosary

  • Above the enthroning throat

  • To say, “I must forget”
  • Is to remember yet.
Image of page [9v] page: [9v]
Note: Seven lines of smudged pencil text in French, mostly indecipherable
[???] d'Ame

[?] de é[?] [???]

b[?] jamais, — de ces j[?]

qui, comme des [?]

plient le [?] blanc de

l'hiver et deplait la robe

verte du printemps.

  • Hast ever said “Lo! I forget”
  • Such thought was to remember yet.
Image of page [10r] page: [10r]
Manuscript Addition: 10
Editorial Description: Pagination (not by DGR) at upper right.
Note: Eight lines of smudged pencil text in English, mostly indecipherable
[?] the town of [?]

[?] the descent to hell

[?]

the [?] no more [?]

right up [?]

[?]

[?] charon's [?]

Lempriere
Image of page [10v] page: [10v]
  • The upheaved forest-trees
  • moss-grown today
  • Whose roots are hillocks where
  • the children play;

Note: This is DGR's verse translation of part of the French text he copies into his notebook (see below page [12r]).
  • where the poets all—
  • Echoes of singing nature—
  • list her call.
Image of page [11r] page: [11r]
Manuscript Addition: 11
Editorial Description: Pagination (not by DGR) at upper right.


Tâche de pleurer le plus que

tu pourras— on ne pleure ja-

mais assez la misanthropie

est faite des larmes qui sont

resteé au fond du coeur

Note: See DGR's partial English translation above, page [11v].


Les poetes sont les echoes de la

nature: la nature chante et

les poetes repetant ces chansons
Image of page [11v] page: [11v]
  • “I hate” says over and above
  • “This is a man soul that I might love.”
  • None lightly says “My friend”: even so
  • Be jealous of that name “My foe.”
  • An enemy for an enemy,
  • But dogs for what a dog may can be.
  • Hold those at heart, and time shall prove.
Image of page [12r] page: [12r]
Manuscript Addition: 12
Editorial Description: Pagination (not by DGR) at upper right.
Note: This is DGR's transcript of the text in Petronius that was the basis for his epigram, which he drafts on the next page of this notebook.
And the Sibyl, you know. I saw

her with my own eyes at Cumæ,

hanging in a jar; and when

the boys asked her, “What would

you, Sibyl?” she answered, “I

would die.” Petronius p. 245

Montchery Eroalde
Image of page [12v] page: [12v]
  • “I saw the Sibyl at Cumæ”
  • (one said) “with mine own eye.
  • Added Texthung in a cage
  • She hung in a jar sat on a stage to read her
  • rune life-runes
  • For all the passers-by.
  • Said the boys, —‘What wouldst
  • thou, Sibyl?’
  • She answered, ‘I would die.’”
Image of page [13r] page: [13r]
Manuscript Addition: 13
Editorial Description: Pagination (not by DGR) at upper right.
On the first day the priest

could find no heart in the breast

and two on the second day

—————(bad omen)

(Inscribed on urn)

Ave Domina Vale Domina
Image of page [13v] page: [13v]
  • The [?] rosebud's blush that leaves it
  • as it grows
  • Into the [?] full-eyed fair unblushing rose;



Je suis furieux. Il ne me

[?] plus que cela

[?] voilá journaliste!

Regnault—apropos

of a private letter having got

into the papers
Image of page [14r] page: [14r]
Manuscript Addition: 14
Editorial Description: Pagination (not by DGR) at upper right.
  • Even as the dreariest swamps in
  • sweet Springtide,
  • Are most with maryflowers beatified.

  • or reading in some sunny nook
  • Where grass-blade shadows
  • fall across your book.
Image of page [14v] page: [14v]
  • The cuckoo-throb, the heartbeat
  • of the Spring

  • At her foot step the water hen
  • Springs from her nook & skimming
  • the clear stream
  • Ripples its waters in a sinuous curve
  • And dives again in safety.
Image of page [15r] page: [15r]
Manuscript Addition: 15
Editorial Description: Pagination (not by DGR) at upper right.


Elle ne pensait á rien—elle se

laissait vivre

Waterhay—meadow by

    river

  • Deep in the sun-searched
  • grass the dragon-fly
  • Hangs like a blue thread loosened
  • from the sky:—
Image of page [15v] page: [15v]
  • I Would to God I knew there were
  • a god to thank
  • When thanks rise in me

  • Tho blithe is Honfleur's echoing
  • gloam
  • When mothers call the children
  • home
Image of page [16r] page: [16r]
Manuscript Addition: 16
Editorial Description: Pagination (not by DGR) at upper right.
  • Blithe is the shout on Hon-
  • fleur's sand
  • [?] As morning lights the
  • sails to land.

  • with furnaces
  • Of instant flame & petals
  • of pure light.
Image of page [16v] page: [16v]
Picture—Cavalier standing

before full length portrait

  of woman

   A Foul Fool
Image of page [17r] page: [17r]
Note: This page is torn out and only the tops of the original first line of scripts are visible
Manuscript Addition: 17
Editorial Description: Pagination (not by DGR) at upper right.
Image of page [17v] page: [17v]
Note: This page is torn out and only the fragment of the last line of the original scripts is visible
rose is gone
Image of page [18r] page: [18r]
Manuscript Addition: 18
Editorial Description: Pagination (not by DGR) at upper right.
  • Even as the rose tree's verdure
  • left alone
  • Will flush all ruddy when the
  • rose is gone;
The approach of death wraps

us in clouds of contention
Image of page [18v] page: [18v]
Note: DGR quotes from memory the central idea from Swedenborg, which served as the basis for his sonnet, and comprised most of the first line.
To grow old in Heaven is to

grow young—

   (Swedenborg)
  • If “to grow old in Heaven is to grow young,
  • (As the Seer saw & said)
Image of page [19r] page: [19r]
Manuscript Addition: 19
Editorial Description: Pagination (not by DGR) at upper right.
Deleted TextBarnes's Hotel

Mississippi City

Mississippi

USA

Cleve(?)

query

meaning
page: [19v]
Note: DGR's title for a poem he did not write.
The Press-Gang

A Satire

  • And love & faith, the vehement heart of all.

  • Aye, mak/For I hate hatred worse than I hate you
  • page: [20r]
    Manuscript Addition: 20
    Editorial Description: Pagination (not by DGR) at upper right.
    Deleted Text
  • Aye, make it up & we'll shake hands, we two
  • For I hate hatred worse than I hate you.
  • Aye, we'll shake hands, though scarce for love, we two:
  • But I hate hatred worse than I hate you.
Image of page [20v] page: [20v]
The silly monkey - [jaded?]

half of a half of a fool

  • And heavenly things in your
  • eyes have place,
  • Those breaks of sky in the
  • twilight face.
Image of page [21r] page: [21r]
Manuscript Addition: 21
Editorial Description: Pagination (not by DGR) at upper right.
No skunk can get rid of

his own name by giving

it to another

Deleted TextAs he who falls asleep

on a hill & waking

sees a tempest as he thinks

in the sky & forebodes
Image of page [21v] page: [21v]
Kelmscott

Dr. [?]

High chair

thick coats

socks

P[?]

wings

Blue jar

R's poems

stand of [?]

key &c

toilet cover
Image of page [22r] page: [22r]
Manuscript Addition: 22
Editorial Description: Pagination (not by DGR) at upper right.
In receiving an unjust

insult, remember that

you can afford to despise

it, while he who has

been guilty of it can

only despise himself

for his act — thus the

advantage is yours.
Image of page [22v] page: [22v]
A friend is a very welcome

character in the drama

of life : An enemy is

a second character not

unexpected, & to whom

no reasonable objection

can be raised, but
Image of page [unnumbered] page: [unnumbered]
Note: blank page
Image of page [unnumbered] page: [unnumbered]
Note: blank page
Image of page [23r] page: [23r]
Manuscript Addition: 23
Editorial Description: Pagination (not by DGR) at upper right.
when these two parts

turn into each other

it is time to drop

the curtain.
Fuseli was the vulture

to M. Angelo's eagle
Image of page [23v] page: [23v]
Note: See above, page [21r]
As one who falls asleep

on a hill & waking

sees sunset as he

thinks in the sky &

forebodes a darkling
Image of page [24r] page: [24r]
Manuscript Addition: 24
Editorial Description: Pagination (not by DGR) at upper right.


night to travel further

but as the light widens

finds that it is the

dawn of a new day
Image of page [24v] page: [24v]
Note: The memoranda on this page are scattered and run in various directions. The sequence transcribed here runs clockwise from the top.
Manuscript Addition: x
Editorial Description: An x mark has been added beside the word “Lamp.”
Psyche

K

rugs

Dulcimer

Grande

Lamp

J's cushion curtains in chest

Painting coat

J's photos bought

country boots

[?]

Italian frame

curtains

marble frieze &c

rose for hair
Image of page [25r] page: [25r]
Manuscript Addition: 25
Editorial Description: Pagination (not by DGR) at upper right.
  • A test for Love. In every kiss sealed
  • fast
  • To feel the first kiss & forebode the last.

To deem each &c

To still &c & might be &c

To feel each &c

As twere &c & might be &c
Image of page [25v] page: [25v]
  • Though all the rest go by
  • Ditties & dirges of the unan-
  • swering [unswerving[?]] sky

  • For this can love, & does
  • love, & loves me.
  • For this can love, & does,
  • & loves but me.
Image of page [26r] page: [26r]
Manuscript Addition: 26
Editorial Description: Pagination (not by DGR) at upper right.
K Rimano[?]

Drawing room

Blue column

Peacock screen

M. Angelo &c

Contents of

J's chest

Brown Indian muslin &c

Miss W Chalk [?]

St. Cecilia

Standing saint

Quilting

Blue necklace

Braces
Image of page [26v] page: [26v]
Bill & Coo (Lovers' panels)

Dickens was an inspired

bagman—an articulate

counter-jumper
Image of page [27r] page: [27r]
Manuscript Addition: 27
Editorial Description: Pagination (not by DGR) at upper right.
  • Sphinx-faced with unabashèd
  • augury
To the anonymous pseudonymous

& caconominous [?]

to the Ancient Order of Vermin

in highest & lowest places.

another volume is now assigned.
Image of page [27v] page: [27v]
  • I shut myself in with my soul,
  • And the shapes come eddying
  • forth.
  • To God at best, to chance
  • at worst,
  • Give thanks for good things
  • from thy soul.
Image of page [28r] page: [28r]
Manuscript Addition: 28
Editorial Description: Pagination (not by DGR) at upper right.
  • Down on his silence the moon
  • gazed
  • Docile from the unmeasured dome;
  • And as each gulf-scooped wave rang home
  • With hoary crest upraised