Jan Van Hunks (New York Public Library)
Dante Gabriel Rossetti
Production Description
Document Title: [Jan Van Hunks]
Author: DGR
Date of composition: 1881-1882
Type of Manuscript: corrected copy
Collation: 15 leaves
Note: The manuscript is in pencil and falls into two distinct sections: 7
initial leaves containing received stanzas 19-44, and 8 subsequent
leaves containing stanzas 1-18. The poem is copied into a small notebook
with a note by WMR on a cover leaf preceding the main text. Text is on
rectos only, except on versos of leaves 1 and 6. The remaining leaves of
the 38 page notebook are blank except for holograph drafts of two
letters, one to Ernest Chesneau (10 March 1882) and the other to an
unknown correspondent.
Scribe: DGR
Corrector: DGR
Provenance
Current Location: New York Public Library, Arents Collection
Catalog Number: Arents S1371
Physical Description
Cover: Blue pebbled cloth covers with blind-stamped double-rule
decoration near the edges of the covers
Note on binding: The notebook is enclosed in a red morocco case by Reviere and Son
along with a copy of the 1912 edition.
Paper: laid white ruled, 16 x 10.2 cm
Watermark: none
Other Physical Features: The notebook is a standard stationer's size account book.
Bibliography
- Wahl,
DGR: Jan Van Hunks.
Electronic Archive Edition: 1
Copyright: By permission of the New York Public Library
page images | transcript
Scholarly Commentary
Introduction
This manuscript of the ballad was copied by DGR from a manuscript that he had written in 1846. The Duke manuscript has one leaf of that early document as well as two leaves from a relatively early fair copy manuscript and four leaves that are late copying, dating from 1881-1882. It seems the case that this Arents copy represents DGR's efforts to draft a complete copy of the ballad from the pieces that descended to him in 1881, and hence that this pencil copy is mostly a transcription but partly original composition, and of course with running revisions. WMR's notes on the poem assert that it was “nearly completed” in 1846, but not finished then. The other manuscript, the fair copy in the British Library, was made from this Arents manuscript.
Printing History
The manuscript was printed in 1952 with transcript, facsimile, and introduction by John Robert Wahl.