Lilith—From Goethe

Dante Gabriel Rossetti

General Description

Date: 1866
Genre: translation

Annotations

Editorial glosses and textual notes are available in a pop-up window. Line numbering reflects the structure of the Notebook manuscript text .

Scholarly Commentary

Introduction

The text is most important for the relation it bears to (a) DGR's various treatments of the figure and myth of Lilith (see e.g. the material associated with the double work Lady Lilith); and (b) DGR's early interest in Goethe's Faust, for which he made several illustrations (see Faust: Mephistopheles Outside Gretchen's Cell. The little drawing of Lilith as a snake lady is especially pertinent.

Textual History: Composition

Composed in 1866, the only known manuscript is part of Notebook I in the Duke University Library. The notebook has material dating between 1863-1868.

Printing History

First published posthumously (in part) by WMR in his 1886 Collected Works , and collected thereafter in his 1911 text. The full text of DGR's translation, however, is the Notebook manuscript text.

Translation

DGR translates a brief section of the famous Brocken Scene in Faust (Act IV scene 2).

Electronic Archive Edition: 1
Source File: 3-1866.raw.xml