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Rossetti Archive Textual Transcription

Document Title: Small Notebook 4 (British Library)
Author: Dante Gabriel Rossetti
Date of Composition: 1879-1880
Scribe: DGR

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

Image of page [cover] page: [cover]
Note: WMR has written his description of the note book across the front and back covers
Manuscript Addition: ASHLEY MS. / Ashley 1410 (4)
Editorial Description: Library identification number
This is a notebook of Gabriel's belonging to

his last year or two—contains

some notable entries

WMR

1905
B M

Ashley Library
Transcribed Note (page [cover]):
Note: Transcription of a circular stamp from the British Museum.
Image of page [endpaper] page: [endpaper]
Note: blank page
Image of page [title page] page: [title page]
Manuscript Addition: ASHLEY MS. / Ashley 1410. (4.)
Editorial Description: Library identification number
Manuscript Addition: 2 #
Image of page [title page verso] page: [title page verso]
Note: Blank page with foxing from the library identification numbers on the recto.
more about Small Notebook 4
Image of page [2r] page: [2r]
Note: blank page
Manuscript Addition: 2 #
Editorial Description: Pagination (not by DGR) at upper right.
Image of page [2v] page: [2v]
more about [Crabb Robinson]
Passages in

Crabb Robinson
more about [Appointment]
11 Russell Sq

from 10 to 12
more about [Photographic Chemicals]
Cyanide &

     Potassium

(photography)
Image of page [3r] page: [3r]
Manuscript Addition: 3
Editorial Description: Pagination (not by DGR) at upper right.
more about [A. and I. Dixon]
Mem: A. Dixon (known

to I. Dixon) might know

a useful art - [??]
more about [Childermas]
Childermas—the day

of the week on which the

Holy Innocents fell The

preceding years Nativity
Image of page [3v] page: [3v]
more about [Gradual Graduation]
Gradual graduation

a Letter

to

one who has now

culminated
more about [The Oxford Prophet]
frontispiece

The Oxford Prophet

from MA's Prophetic Series
Image of page [4r] page: [4r]
Manuscript Addition: 4
Editorial Description: Pagination
more about [Photographic Chemicals]
Permanganate of Potash

A small quantity will

make gallons of Con[?]'s

fluid
To be got of those who

supply photographic

chemicals
Image of page [4v] page: [4v]
more about [Mrs. Asher]
Mrs Asher. Worboys

Hunts
more about [Luca Antonio di Giunta]
Luca Antonio di Giunta

Venice 1543
Image of page [5r] page: [5r]
Manuscript Addition: 5
Editorial Description: Pagination
more about [Rossetti on Himself]
I am was one of those whose little

is their own

was
more about Sister Helen
  • Her hood falls back & the moon
  • shines fair,
  • Sister Helen,
  • On the Lady of Ewern's golden hair.
  • Aye let it blanch
  • This moon shall Let the moon blanch it to silver
  • tare
Image of page [5v] page: [5v]
more about [Dictionary of Proper Names]
? Ellis—Dict of Proper

Names
more about [Virtuous Ring and Glass]
virtuous ring & glass
more about [Galliard Gardens]
galliard gardens
Image of page [6r] page: [6r]
Manuscript Addition: 6
Editorial Description: Pagination
more about [Life of William Blake]
But in the in what may

be called the Anglo-Hebraic

order of aphoristic truth

Shakspeare Blake & Wells

are nearly akin, nor cd

any fourth poet be named

so absolutely in the same

connexion or link the

Shakspearean element
Image of page [6v] page: [6v]
is so strong in Blake's

fragmentary play of Edward

III that the one as

[?] as in some of

his songs & epigrams that there

is no conjecturing now

how near Shakspere

he might have [?]

on the same road had he

taken it
Image of page [7r] page: [7r]
Manuscript Addition: 7
Editorial Description: Pagination
more about [Life of William Blake]
November

p. 51 (Vala Hyle Skofield)

2 seated — S in chains
26 —Hand as a spectre
Image of page [7v] page: [7v]
Note: A rough sketch perhaps related to the Blake comments on the recto of the page.
Image of page [8r] page: [8r]
Manuscript Addition: 8
Editorial Description: Pagination
more about Dante at Verona
  • Such this Republic!—not the Maid
  • He yearned for &c
(for D. at Verona in the

Respublica parenthesis)
  • To whom even as to God may be
  • Obeisance one with Liberty
Image of page [8v] page: [8v]
  • Was it a friend or foe
  • that spread these lies?
  • Nay, who but infants
  • question in such wise?
  • Twas one of my most intimate
  • 'enemies.
Image of page [9r] page: [9r]
Manuscript Addition: 9
Editorial Description: Pagination
more about Adieu
  • Wonderful Waving waving trees
  • What do you say to the breeze
  • And what says the breeze
  • to you?
more about Joan of Arc
  • This word had Merlin said from
  • of old—
  • That out of the Oak Tree Shade
  • In the day of France's direst dule,
  • God's hand should send a Maid.
Image of page [9v] page: [9v]
more about The King's Tragedy (James I of Scots - 20 February 1437)
  • I Catherine was a Douglas
  • born
  • A name to all Scots hold dear;
  • And Kate Barlass they've
  • called me now
  • For many an honored aging year.
Image of page [10r] page: [10r]
Manuscript Addition: 10
Editorial Description: Pagination
more about [Chemist's Prescriptions]
Chemical Company

corner shop W. of

Oxford Quadrant

infuse small quantity

of soda

after break fast

Tarax[?]ium

bottle 3/6
teaspoonful in wine

2 cups of water once a day
Image of page [10v] page: [10v]
more about [The tombless fossil of deep-buried days]
  • The tombless fossil
  • of deep-buried days.
more about [Reflections on the Sonnet]
sisterly sestet

hand-in-hand

True Woman
Image of page [11r] page: [11r]
Manuscript Addition: 11
Editorial Description: Pagination
more about [Friendship]
If an isolated life has

any sting, it is felt in

the absence of [?] those friends

who made for years unneeded

avowals of obligation &

gratitude. Still this will

come in time to pass &

be forgotten if not
Image of page [11v] page: [11v]
emphasized by momentary

visits once or twice a year.

Life is a coin which we

once shared together, but

which has now quite passed

from my pocket into yours,

doubtless rightly enough:

only I desire no half-fart

half-farthing of its

small change.
Image of page [12r] page: [12r]
Manuscript Addition: 12
Editorial Description: Pagination
more about [Truth Serene and Jagged]
There are moments when

Truth must come

not as serene dawn

but as jagged lightning.
Image of page [12v] page: [12v]
more about [Contemporary Art's False Enthusiasms]
There are few indeed whom

the facile enthusiasm for

contemporary models does

not deaden to the truly

balanced claims of successive

effort in art
more about [Travel Directions]
Conway—take [?]

express
Image of page [unnumbered] page: [unnumbered]
Note: blank page
Image of page [unnumbered] page: [unnumbered]
Note: blank page
Image of page [13r] page: [13r]
Manuscript Addition: 13
Editorial Description: Pagination
more about [On Chatterton]
Chatterton can only be

underrated if we

expect that he shd

have done by intuition

all that was ac

-complished by gradual

inheritance from him

half a century later.
Image of page [13v] page: [13v]
more about [Reds and Reverends]
Red Cap & Red Shirts

Furnish Revds & Garibaldis
more about [P. Richards Address]
P Richards

30 Cromwell Rd

Upper Holloway N
Image of page [14r] page: [14r]
Manuscript Addition: 14
Editorial Description: Pagination
more about [For the garlands of heaven were all laid by]
  • For the garlands of
  • heaven were all laid by
  • And the daylight sucked
  • at the breasts heart of a lie.
Image of page [14v] page: [14v]
Note: blank page
Image of page [15r] page: [15r]
Manuscript Addition: 15
Editorial Description: Pagination
more about [Absolute Invention]
Invention absolute is

a thing slow of acceptance

& must be so. This

Coleridge & others have

found. Why make a

place for what is neither

inven adaptation nor

reproduction? Let it

hew its way if it can.
Image of page [15v] page: [15v]
Note: blank page
Image of page [unnumbered] page: [unnumbered]
Note: this page torn from the notebook
more about Mnemosyne
Size of Memory

48 x 23 1/2

on light right 3/4

of an inch to go into

rebate—on left

side fillet to be added
Image of page [16r] page: [16r]
Manuscript Addition: 16
Editorial Description: Pagination
more about [A Friend's Hatred]
To find that

an unknown

man hates you is

but a tempest in

the outer air— but

to find that your

friend has turned against

you—
Image of page [16v] page: [16v]
more about [Prescription for Flatulence]
Dilute aromatic

sulphuric Acid

(for flatulence)

take 15 drops in a

little water
more about [Undeciphered Text]
[?] perhaps [?] here

accompany the work of the same

date
Image of page [17v] page: [17v]
Note: The texts on the pages here numbered in sequence 17r and 17v, were actually written by DGR as a unit in the sequence 17v and 17r. The text is reproduced here in DGR's composition order rather than in the pagination order editorially supplied to the document. Note that for page 17r, the bottom half of the page is transcribed before the top half, so as not to break the flow of the prose.
more about [Time Devoted to Poetry and Art]
Devoted as my time

has necessarily been to

another art, I have

never hoped to produce

in poetry more than

a small amount of

quintessential work.

Thus the intervals of

poetic exercise
Image of page [17r] page: [17r]
Manuscript Addition: 17
Editorial Description: Pagination
hover[?]/ reached between

poetic effort have after

lasted for years at a

time; & of these the

present is not the

longest.
more about [Scrawls from Robinson]
[?] from Robinson

25 Aug/
Image of page [18r] page: [18r]
Manuscript Addition: 18
Editorial Description: Pagination
more about [Agnes Silvester]
Mrs Silvester
Agnes Silvester

25

17 Hotten Street

Edgeware Road
10 Mos

Red[?]
Image of page [18v] page: [18v]
more about [Sorrowful Solitude]
sorrowful solitude
Image of page [unnumbered] page: [unnumbered]
Note: Page blank on recto and verso
Image of page [19r] page: [19r]
Manuscript Addition: 19
Editorial Description: Pagination
more about [And 'mid the budding branches' sway]
  • And 'mid the budding
  • branches' sway
  • Our antlers met in
  • battle-play
  • When our fetlocks
  • felt the Spring
Image of page [19v] page: [19v]
Note: Blank page
Image of page [20r] page: [20r]
Note: Doodles or rough drawing
Manuscript Addition: 20
Editorial Description: Pagination
Image of page [20v] page: [20v]
Note: The names listed here run from page 20v to the facing page, 21r. The significance of the list is not clear.
more about [List of Names]
Frank

W m

JM

Leyland

Watts

Smith

[?]

Miss Boyd

Tebbs

Mrs [?]

Stevens

Miss [?]

Mrs Stillman

F Marsden
Image of page [21r] page: [21r]
Note: See editorial note to the previous page regarding the list of names on the manuscript image.
Manuscript Addition: 21
Editorial Description: Pagination
Knight

Caine

Dixon

Swinburne

Forman
Image of page [21v] page: [21v]
more about [Two Names]
Mrs Arlinghy[?]

14 St. Georges Row

£14 7[?] [?] Bridge
Mary Hockey

24
Image of page [22r] page: [22r]
Manuscript Addition: 22
Editorial Description: Pagination
more about Del mare il susurro sonoro
Del mare il

sussurro sonoro.
more about [Nichols]
Nichols

nearly opposite

Oxford
Image of page [22v] page: [22v]
more about Wellington's Funeral
When printing in 1870

I omitted the piece on

W[ellington]'s funeral as being

referring to so old a date.

but year by year such

themes become more dateless

& rank only with im

mortal things.
Image of page [23r] page: [23r]
Note: The page has DGR's sketches of a cyclamen.
Manuscript Addition: 23
Editorial Description: Pagination
more about [Cyclamen]
Flower

in [?]

6 inch bulb

Cyclamen
Image of page [23v] page: [23v]
more about [Cleaning a Picture]
For cleaning off

painting—

sp turp. with one

fourth of [?] of

lemon
Image of page [24r] page: [24r]
Manuscript Addition: 24
Editorial Description: Pagination
more about La Pia. Dante
Pia—wife of Nello

della Pietra—in

Purg. though repenting

only at last moment
Image of page [24v] page: [24v]
more about [Frame Maker]
J. C. Guillett frame maker

79 Bedford Gardens

Camden Hill
more about [Date]
Thursday

not Wed—not Sat.
Image of page [25r] page: [25r]
Manuscript Addition: 25
Editorial Description: Pagination
more about If I could die, etc.
  • If I could die like the
  • British Queen
  • Who faced the Roman war,
  • Or hang in a cage for my
  • country's sake
  • Like Black Bess of
  • Dunbar
Image of page [25v] page: [25v]
more about [Hours of Youth]
The add[?] hours are

Still a part only

[?] worth & in

part recovered relived

of youth
more about If I could die, etc.
If I could die like the
Image of page [26r] page: [26r]
Manuscript Addition: 26
Editorial Description: Pagination
more about [Arthur's Seat and Salisbury Crag]
Arthur's Seat &

Salisburg crag seen

from Firth
more about [Art Critic]
The critic of the new

school sits down before a

picture, & saturates it

with silence.
Image of page [26v] page: [26v]
more about [Bass Rock]
Bass Rock

Berwick Law—a low

peak on near which stands

stands T[?] Castle

of the Douglas family
more about [Indecipherable Words]
[????]

small rocks
Image of page [27r] page: [27r]
Manuscript Addition: 27
Editorial Description: Pagination
more about [Mr Atkinson]
Mr Atkinson

[?]

87 Cleveland St
Image of page [27v] page: [27v]
more about [Mrs Ward]
Mrs Ward

23 Rutland

Street

Pimlico
Image of page [unnumbered] page: [unnumbered]
Note: blank page
Image of page [28r] page: [28r]
Note: Previous page torn out
Manuscript Addition: 28
Editorial Description: Pagination
more about [Three Names]
Mrs Mac[?]

99 Kennington Rd
28 Jessie Kyles
Major Douglas

2 1/2 years

£15
Image of page [28v] page: [28v]
more about [Mrs Salem, Mary Cox]
Mrs Salem

42 Formosa St

Maida Hill

6 weeks
Mary Cox   22

32 Elcho St

Battersea

£16
Image of page [29r] page: [29r]
Manuscript Addition: 29
Editorial Description: Pagination
more about [Mrs Sylvester]
Mrs Sylvester

492 Edward Rd
more about The Bride's Prelude
Note: DGR's note is left unfinished
It has been

written so

many years

that at last

& is so much

less tempting

to take up

than a new

thing that if

I venture to

follow the

perilous precedent

of a Coleridge

& to print it

as it has long stood
Image of page [29v] page: [29v]
more about [Prescription for Boils]
new yeast from the

brewery. A dessert

spoonful in water

first thing in morning

(for boils)
Image of page [30r] page: [30r]
Manuscript Addition: 30
Editorial Description: Pagination
more about The King's Tragedy (James I of Scots - 20 February 1437)
  • Like iron I felt my arm
  • as through
  • The groove I made it pass
  • Alack! it was brittle bone—
  • no more.
  • 'Twas Catherine Douglas sprang
  • to the door—
  • And I fell back Kate
  • Barlass.
Image of page [30v] page: [30v]
more about True Woman. III. Her Heaven.
  • The sunrise blooms &
  • withers on the hill
  • 10 Like any hillflower
more about La Pia. Dante
  • Remember me who am La Pia. Me
  • From Siena sprung and by it dead.
  • This in his inward heart well knoweth he
  • With whose ring-jewel I was plight
  • & wed.
Image of page [31r] page: [31r]
Manuscript Addition: 31
Editorial Description: Pagination
more about `Alas, So Long!'
  • Ah! was it all
  • spring weather,
  • Nay but we were all
  • young together
Image of page [31v] page: [31v]
more about Within those eyes the sedulous yearning throe
  • Within those eyes the
  • sedulous yearning throe
  • [??],
  • & all the evil of my heart
  • A thousand times forgotten.
more about Ah if you had been lost for many years
  • Ah! if you had been lost for
  • many years,
  • And from the dead this today
  • were risen again
Image of page [32r] page: [32r]
Manuscript Addition: 32
Editorial Description: Pagination
more about True Woman. I. Herself.
Note: DGR scripts the fragment of line 1(line 12 of True Woman. I.Herself) at the end of the draft in parentheses and appends his note to it: “to lead up to this”)
  • all things most unseen,—
  • the mystic seal fringe of green
  • Shifting[?] the snowdrop underneath the snow.
Image of page [32v] page: [32v]
more about The King's Tragedy (James I of Scots - 20 February 1437)
  • The clouds stooped low
  • and the surf rose high
  • And where there was
  • a line of the sky
  • The gulls flocked loomed
  • dark between
Image of page [33r] page: [33r]
Manuscript Addition: 33