Small Notebook 3 (British Library) Dante Gabriel Rossetti 1 By permission of the British Library [untitled] Dante Gabriel Rossetti 1871-1879? DGR British Library Ashley 1410 (3) decorated white unlined 5.9 x 2.8 cm The orientation of the texts in the notebook varies, but for the most part DGR wrote across the page and away from the gutter (on the rectos) and toward the gutter (on the versos). The pagination numbers at the upper right of the rectos were a later addition, probably done by Wise or at the British Library by a staff person. Also, at various points in the notebook someone, probably WMR, has marked the text with an “X” for reasons that are not quite clear. Commentary
Introduction

This is one of four small notebooks—all written in soft pencil— that DGR used between 1871-1880 to jot down memoranda of various kinds, including ideas for his literary and artistic work. The material from this notebook, which has been traditionally called “Notebook 3”, dates from as early as 1871. It was certainly being used in 1873 as well, and may have been used as late as 1879.

DGR clearly wrote in this book from both ends.

Textual History: Composition

Textual History: Revision

Production History

Reception History

Iconographic

Printing History

Pictorial

Historical

Literary

Translation

Autobiographical

Bibliographic

WMR has written his description of the note book across the front and back covers

Notebook of Gabriel date towards 1880 WMR 1905    Ashley 1410 (3).

 Book 3 Written vertically along right edge ASHLEY MS. 1410. (3.) Library identification number blank page blank page 2* Pagination (not by DGR) at upper right. Memorandum on a bill to be paid.

Bill to Fourth & [?] 99 - 1d - 6 payable (3days included) May 24 1880

Memoranda on several bills to be paid.

Bill to [?]& Brown £75 - 1 / - payable (3 days included) 21 Oct / 79 ------------------------------------ Bill to C. Ellis £ 115 - 8d payable (included) pm 15 Feb / 80 [?]

3 Pagination (not by DGR) at upper right. 1481 Number at upper right of unknown significance.

Miss [?] Doner[?] 144 Blk friars R C

(For ulcerated sore throat) 8 grains of caustic in a small phial of water.

 The facing leaf is torn away.

Phil's Birthday 1st 2nd or 3rd October

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Write 17 April to Grahamabout Glasgow

------------- 4 Pagination And thin, alas! the shred of sleep That wavers with the spirit's wind My soul this hour has drawn your soul A little nearer yet

The Death of Germanicus (Merivale V 195-6)

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Do VI - 149 The story of Arria & Paetus is told at length by the Elder Pliny Epist III.16 Comp. Martial E. 14

 5 Pagination

The Art Fellowship PFA Painter Fellow of Art SFA Sculptor Do Do AFA Architect Do Do

One of my mostintimate enemie enemies

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Whether they bescavengers literaryor literally

 leaf torn out leaf torn out 7 Pagination 8 Pagination

The Verminiad

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If [?] be anoun of multitude[?]let me sue in former[?] paupers[?] for aloneam I.

 Cor i da Word written vertically on left margin

There are certain passionate phases of the soul when to know a thing true, & to believe it are found 2 separate things

 9 Pagination

Little tablewith drawers

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ChippendaleWashstand

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Bookshelves

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Chest of drawers

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Gardening Picture

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Picture rods

Drawing Cast

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French blueware

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Cabinetfor photos

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Lay figure

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3 Dantedrawings foundin hall

 10 Pagination

Marble frieze of [?]

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Inkstand

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Vol 1 Lent to Labour

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Small roundtable with[?] top

2 ram's-headarm-chairs

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Topsy Tapestry

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2 cornercupboardswith a stand

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For Fanny

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I's Bd Dl drawing

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2 Mrs Smith

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Intro MrsStillman

5 May — Claret

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Subject—Judithdisplaying head ofHolofernes. Backgroundall of crowded faces.

 12 Pagination

Moffitnear AyrBaths for Exima

 The revisions of line 3 are located in the bottom left corner. Didn't WW say, “Lo, I forget”? That thought was to remember yet. As in a graveyard humbly see yon grave garth look to see count to see The monuments of memory. Be this thy soul's [?] appointed scope:— Gaze only onward without claim to hope, Nor, look gazing backward, court regret. 13 Pagination

To WattsAnd the words which that for[???]

 blank page 14 Pagination Written upside down But windstrown blossom is that good Whose apple is not gratitude Both texts are separated by a line and written upside down To God at best, to chance at worst Give thanks for good things, last as first ------------ over [?] Even if no prayer uplift thy face Let the sweet right to render grace As thy soul's cherished child be nurs'd 15 Pagination Ah dear one I was we were young so long, I thought that youth wd never go, Ah! dear one I've been old so long, How long until we meet again? Written upside down Where is the man whose soul has never waked To sudden pity of the poor torn past? 16 Pagination

Nouns & Sounds

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abt 15miles offis LinworthCove, thestation forwhich is Wool

Dorsetshire

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ChangeWarehamstationfrom Waterloo3 1/2 hoursto Wareham

9 miles leftto Swansea -------------------[?]

 17 Pagination

Mum as a Muffin

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F. B. Elliott Esq east 2nd Edenview[?]St Acton[?]NB

 The page contains a sketch, possibly of a book opening and page layout. Quel donna canterà se non cant' io Che son contenta d'ogni mio disio Boc[?]

Steam Cobblescoal that keeps alightall nightBoothNottingham

HiatusWilkinsonFitzballConwayBlakeShepher's GardensEben: pamphlet& letters

 This is a prose draft for what would become lines 72-74 of Soothsay.

He who knows how much too late it is forebears to look at his watch

 19 Pagination

Howell St George Drawings Corder Pictures

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Mrs Eddy works(in St. James W. Coventry)

 DGR's note on a picture he planned but never executed whose subject would have been the Dante sonnet translated by DGR Of Beatrice de' Portinari, on All Saints' Day

Mem: to offer Graham (instead of Dante Boat) “Di donne iovidi mia gentileschiera”

 20 Pagination

Mem:Today (June 10 /79)I placed in oak caselocked138 mounted Drawings(one also a torn half sheet)and a few loose sketches& one photograph

Rhatany Lozenges

---------------------- DGR's note on a study for <hi rend="i">Found</hi>

8 June /79Looked through foliosFemale head for “Found”gone

 21 Pagination

Appena si puòdire questa furosa.Pastor Fido

DGR's note on a projected picture from early drawings for his 1851 watercolor of Dante meeting Beatrice and for his later picture <hi rend="i">Salutation of Beatrice</hi> .

Mem: to carry outslight sketches Ipossess of 2 new versionsof the Dante & Beatricemeeting & make anew Salutatio Beatrice

 Two texts are scripted on this page, one a pencil text overwritten (in ink, and in the opposite direction) by the other, which seems the second. The transcription begins at the end opposite from the pagination. 22 Pagination As much as in a hundred years she's gone dead Yet is today the day on which she died

This [has?] been my heart in theworld'slitter[?]

 This leaf is detached from the next in the notebook.

21st June1/4 to 7sun justbehindmidddleof curtainbar of windowlevel withtop of curtains

 23 Pagination

Anonymity mottoAnon, anon, Sir

 ------------------ Fashioned with intricate infinity

A proud man hatesto have flatterybecause it makeshim feel that heloves it

 24 Pagination

the true artist willfirst perceive inanother's work the beauties & in hisown the defects

Autumn Winter Anemones(title for Poems)

 A sonnet is a moment's monument A medal struck to all eter- -nity For one dead deathless hour 25 Pagination

Fat is Beauty's Fate

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Gelsemena Gelsemel Gelsemene

 The texts on the pages here numbered in sequence 25v, 26r, and 26v were actually written in DGR as a unit in the sequence 26v, 26r, 25v. The text is reproduced here in DGR's composition order rather than in the pagination order editorially supplied to the document. The Love Philtre

A woman intensely ena-moured of a man who does not love her makes use of a philtre to secure his love. In this she succeeds but it also acts gradually upon 26 Pagination his life. She attempts to avert this by destroying the whole effect of the philtre, but finds this is not permitted her; and he dies in her arms, deeply loving her & deeply loved by her, while she [?] thinks[?] is conscious of she is being the cause of his death. As he yields his last breath in a kiss, she knows that his spirit now hates her.

 27 Pagination

In refined natures of humble birth, breeding seems to have preceded it in a former exis- tence, & the peasant woman looks & is born a queen.

 Salvestra <lb/>On the 2 Bridal Biers See Boccaccio, <hi rend="i">Decameron</hi> Day 4 Tale 8. How sweet a solace is the bridal-bed Dawn as prepared, evening as hallowèd. 28 Pagination DGR is referencing tales 2, 3 and 8 in Day V of the <hi rend="i">Decameron</hi> .

The vilest scribbler who ever left his works to the posteri posteriors of Posterity Guido degli Anan Anastegi Carapresa (Bocc.) Gigliuzzo Alagna (near Rome — Bocc.) Liello

 2 sonnets DGR's notation at the top of the page

One Portrait in 12 Autotypes from the Studies of DGR

One Portrait in 12 Studies & 12 Sonnets Autotypes from the drawings of DGR

 29 Pagination Apparently DGR's notes for a predella that he never executed.

Predella for Magdalene On one side M [?] annointing Christ'sfeet at table & on the otherclinging round his feet while taking down from the cross

 DGR quotes Suetonius from Charles Merivale, <hi rend="i">A History of the Romans Under the Empire</hi> .

Quae mater Hecubae : quod Acchili nomen intra virgines fuisset : quid Sirenes cantare sint solitae (Suet : Tib : 70) With these questions Tiberius used to puzzle his men of learning in his latter days. (Merivale V. 348)

 30 Pagination Maggior dolore è ben la Ricordanza, Ovvero in no O nell' amaro inferno amena stanza? ------------------- Is Memory most of miseries miserable Or the one flower of ease in bitterest hell? Who shall say what is said in me, With all that I might have been dead in me? -------------------

Malombria (real ? ) Caroacaxa

 31 Pagination The notations are cryptic. The last pair of lines may be a quotation from the Scots painter David Scott, whose work DGR admired. For the “tailor's ninth” see DGR's “Limerick: Nine Tailors” .

Rhinoceros Rhododendrons some tailor's ninth miser's ------------------ A Civil Strath     D. Scott

I know the green earth only in the form of Terra Verte

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EltoftCarver & GeldenBradford

 32 Pagination The page is numbered but torn away. The page is torn away. 33 Pagination DGR references Charles Merivale, <hi rend="i">A History of the Romans Under the Empire</hi> .

Merivale VI. 58The story of Caius & theChapel by the Lake of Nemius.

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Do. VI 62 Caius standing between the statues of Castor & Pollux to be adored by the people.(subject for      picture)

The highest deepest trait of nature in fiction will appear as if nothing but fact could have given it birth & will yet show that consummate art is its true source.

 34 Pagination

Uglimugli a Chinese Magician

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Fina Buzzacasina(a real name)

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MansellBookbinderLittle QueenStreetfor good things

Leighton'simpasto is scented soap & his surfaces violet powder

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The New Ibis a Satire by Anon or Ibid

 The epigram on the next three notebook pages was written in the order 36r, 35v, 35r; it is here represented in that order 36 Pagination The elderly Uncertain-aged Miss Thereabouts, Tough fossil of her teens, Has lifted up with saving hand The ruined Smithereens. Down the dark steps of debt, that hand Sped like an angels wing, Deep-dowered with gold &thence brought back for itself A single Brought back a golden ring. 35 Pagination Ah lovely Lucy Lovandove, That ring's a snake, & means Woe without end. Therein lies crushed Thy heart—to smithereens.

Jean Dutont[?]

The Elizabethans created a style in poetry, & by misapplyingsome of its qualities formed their prose. The Annians created a style in prose, and wrenched its charac--teristics to form their poetry.

 37 Pagination

Pliny says thatVerres was putto death byAntoninus merelyfor vaunting thesuperiority of hisCorinthian bronzes(Merivalev. 3 p. 197(note))

Picture & poem bear the same relation to each other as beauty does in man & woman: the point of meeting, where the two are most identical, is the supreme perfection.

 38 Pagination

The Temple ofFors Fortuna

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The cloak of scarletor purple whichthe imperator threwover his corsletwas named thepaludamentum

----------------- imperial imperatorial car And purple-dyed paludement of war FromMa[?]hesp. 236 DGR's note; the reference is uncertain What man so ere In whomsoe'er since sweet Poesy song began Of all men most a Poet we may scan Burns of all poets is the most a Man. ----------------- Oltretomba Qualchecosa 39 Pagination

C'est la nature elle même prise sur le fait.

----------------- La Farnesina <lb/>& La Fornarina.

While engaged in painting the Love of Cupid & Psyche in the Farnesina Raphael used to leave his work to visit La Fornarina 3 or 4 times a day.

 DGR's prose description of Burns is truncated in mid-sentence and the next page in the notebook is torn away. The whole of the prose note was published by WMR in 1911 and the completion of the text is editorially supplied here in square brackets.

Whosoever be of all men the most a Poet, Robert Burns is of all poets the most a man. His enormous identity—the lowly labour united to [?] the plumed & [crested intellect—thus shoots up as in overwhelming vigour, and makes his presence a mountain among the hills of Poesy.]

 41 Pagination

(rhyme)congener

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La Contesta delCanarino(new title for“Veronica”)

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Sacrovir M. [?man] [?] london Mervale[?] V 307

 There is an "X" and a line connecting the end of this page to the beginning of the next.

If one painted boors drinking and even were refined oneself, they would pardon & in some degree revere one; or, if were one were a drinking boor oneself & painted refinements, [?]they wd condone the latter. See note to page [41v]. 42 Pagination but the refined painted by the refined is unpardonable.

He wore a hatband & his nails were also in mourning.

A woman may have some little mercy for the man she has ceased to love; but she has none for the memory of what he has been to her.

 There is a stamp for the British Museum, Ashley Library below the text on this page. 43 Pagination

9 MS Booksin safe

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turn key first & then handleto open

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key red label

 The transcription runs clockwise, beginning at the inside margin.

[?] Jos Hopkins 57 Tower Building Liverpool

Note a grocer24th Jany

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R. Hayley 23 Chapel Street

breaking up like so much dry dung

Brahee powder's (patent)

-------------------------------- Or give ten years of life's most bitter wane To see the loved one as she was again. -------------------------------------- And of the cup of human agony Enough to fill the sea. Only a stub of this page remains bearing some fragments of text. 45 Pagination

[?] 18th June

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3 days beyond this in each case

ASHLEY. 1410. (3.). 45. FF. July. 1949. (f. 40 noted missing, 16 December 1914. DJ) LMR JM