Introduction
This collection consists of four notebooks now held at the British Library: Notebook I, Notebook 2, Notebook 3, and Notebook 4. Like many of DGR's notebooks, these contain various kinds of
material. Unlike DGR's typical notebooks, which are quarto-sized with ruled paper, these four small notebooks with unruled paper were probably used by DGR
to slip into the pocket
of his painting smock, or some other jacket pocket. DGR was especially fond of the waistcoat pocket, which he regarded as particularly accessible. In his notes on the
Ashley Library materials T. A. J. Burnett describes their contents as
containing “many notes for, and drafts of,
lines, couplets and stanzas of poems printed in
<xref doc="a.2-1881.raw">
<hi rend="i">Ballads
and Sonnets</hi>
</xref>
, 1881, and
<xref doc="a.1-1881.raw">
<hi rend="i">Poems</hi>
</xref>
, 1881, but no
complete poems, with the exception of a draft of
<xref doc="a.20-1871.raw">“The Lamp's
Shrine”</xref>
. . . . In addition they contain many fragments of
prose and poetry not used by Rossetti but often, for that reason, very
revealing of his state of mind, notes of place and personal names for
poems, ideas for pictures, addresses, accounts and notes of debts,
recipes and prescriptions, and a few pencil sketches”.
The first notebook has material dating largely from 1871-1873 (but some material is much later), the second
from 1871-1879, and the last two from 1879-1881.
See also the general commentary for all of DGR's notebook materials.