After the German Subjugation of France (British Library fair copy)Dante Gabriel Rossetti1By permission of the British LibraryAfter the German Subjugation of France, 1871Dante Gabriel Rossetti1871fair copy1 page, verso blankThe manuscript is laid in a stiff folder, blue boards.British Museum Library, Ashley CollectionAshley 3853ruled white mlaid paper22.2 x 17.6 cma leaf from one of DGR's typical notebooks
Commentary
Introduction
T. J. Wise had this folder made for DGR's fair copy of the sonnet.
Textual History: Composition
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Bookplate with standing female angel blowing trumpet and seated female
angel. Between the two figures is a flowing banner on which is inscribed
the owner's name. Below the figures and the ower's name is an inscribed poem.
THOMAS JAMES WISE HIS BOOK
BOOKS BRING ME FRIENDSWHERE'ER ON EARTH I BE.SOLACE OF SOLITUDE—BONDS OF SOCIETY!The cancelled variants for lines 11-12 are written at the lower left
corner of the pageAfter the German Subjugation of France, <lb/>1871------Lo! the twelfth year,—the wedding-feast come round With years for months,—and lo! the babe new-born; Out of the womb's rank furnace, cast forlorn And with contagious effluence seamed and crown'd. To hail this birth, what fiery tongues surround Hell's Pentecost,—what clamour of all cries That swell, from Absalom's scoff to Shimei's, One scornful gamut of tumultuous sound!For now the harlot's heart on a new sleeve Is prankt; and her heart's lord of yesterday (Spurned from her bed, whose purple gaudsworm-spun silks o'erlay Such fretwork as the busythat other worm can weave,) Takes in his ears the vanished world's last yell, And in his flesh the closing teeth of Hell.-----------whose eyes that yet shall grieveThis hour exult to watch his babe at play