Commentary
Introduction
This poem is an independent creation made in 1869 from DGR's reworking of his
1847 dramatic monologue
On Mary's Portrait Which I Painted Six Years Ago
. The latter was to have been a part of the unfinished story
St. Agnes of Intercession
. As this poem's conscious evocation of the myth of Beatrice and the
“new life” shows, all of these works illustrate DGR's
programmatic treatment of art as a kind of sacramental action. But for DGR,
art's sacramentalism in the “latter
days
” of the 19th century operates outside the
formal structures of institutional religion (in contrast to its condition in
pre-reformation England and Europe). This is why, for all its religious
trappings, DGR's work is not finally
“Christian
” in any doctrinal sense. His
method is strictly historical. He emphasizes the centrality of Christian art
because the Christian religion is Europe's most fully realized set of
spiritual forms.
The poem hangs just on the edge of being a double work. Stanza 3 (which
formed part of the first state of the exhumed text) strongly suggests that
DGR associated the poem with two of his own pictures: the earliest painted
version of
Beata Beatrix
, which DGR had been working on well before his wife's death in
1862; and
How They Met Themselves
, DGR's “bogie”
picture which
so preoccupied him around 1861 (see Surtees,
A Catalogue Raisonneé
I.74
). The variant text in the Fitwilliam draft manuscript
(received stanza 3) makes the connection to the “bogie” picture
very clear.
Textual History: Composition
The earliest texts of this poem are the draft and the fair copy
manuscripts in the Fitzwilliam Museum, both made in October 1869. These
texts led directly into the first printed text in the Exhumation Proofs, which were printed
around 30 October 1869. In this state the poem has already been completely
recast from its 1847 form. We know that the poem was part of the manuscript
book that had been buried with DGR's wife in 1862 and exhumed in early
October 1869, and that DGR received the exhumed volume on 20 October. Since
DGR was reading the recovered poems to his family and friends by 26 October,
and since they were printed out by 30 October, it seems likely that
“The Portrait” was already in
some recast form when DGR received it on 20 October. The surviving
manuscripts support this view, but not conclusively. It is possible that the
poem he had on 20 October was the 1847 precursor text— i.e., the
poem we now know as “On Mary's Portrait
Which I Painted Six Years Ago”, and that DGR rewrote
it completely in late October for the Exhumation Proofs.
Textual History: Revision
DGR revised the poem in local ways on the Exhumation Proofs in early November, and
when the text was set in type for the Second Trial Book (26 November) he made major
revisions, including the addition of five new stanzas (received stanzas 2,
6-9). The Ashmolean MS, a
corrected copy of stanzas 6-9, represents DGR's further revisions, which he
completed when he was correcting proof for the Second Trial Book.
Reception
See Commentary (Reception History) for the 1870
Poems
.
Printing History
First printed in the Exhumation Proofs
(30 October 1869); reprinted and revised in the Second Trial Book (26 November 1869), and
first published in the 1870
Poems
, and collected thereafter.
Literary
Besides Browning's
“My Last Duchess”
invoked at the outset, the poem is much in debt to Poe's many
representations of beautiful dead women. This influence becomes apparent
when the poem is read in relation to DGR's illustrations for “The Raven” (see e.g.,
Angel Footfalls
). The network of subtle relationships is also usefully explicated
when we remember that this poem traces its origins back to the
Poe-influenced story
St. Agnes of Intercession
. The image in lines 100-101—particularly in the Fitzwilliam draft manuscript
version—directly recalls DGR's illustrations for Poe's
“The Raven”
(see the Victoria and Albert drawing
in particular).
Like the sonnet of the same title, this
poem recollects Fazio Degli Uberti's great
Canzone. His Portrait of His Lady, Angiola of Verona
, which DGR translated. Uberti's poem, once regularly attributed to
Dante, was a seminal work for DGR. And of course Dante's vision of Beatrice
is a foundational presence in this poem.
Several other of DGR's translations from the early Italian poets are also
related to this poem—for example Jacopo da Lentino's
“Canzonetta. Of his Lady, and of her portrait”
and his
“Sonnet. Of his Lady's Face”
; and Giacomino Pugliesi's
“ Canzone. Of his Dead Lady”
.
Autobiographical
Since DGR always regarded
Beata Beatrix
as a kind of memorial to his dead wife (she was the model for the
painting), and since—contrary to what was believed by many
earlier scholars and students—DGR had in fact done considerable
work on that painting before his wife's death, the autobiographical features
of this poem get underscored because of its strong relationship with the
painting. The very fact that this crucial painting had not been completed
before Elizabeth's death invested it for DGR with a grave import.
We should also remember that this was one of the poems buried with his wife.
That fact emphasizes the poem's (as it were) subsurface biographical
aspects. Of course the poem carefully disguises these matters, and forces
only an oblique awareness of them; but the same obliquity is pursued
throughout
The House of Life
, where the autobiographical aspects of the work are never in doubt.
Bibliographic
Baum,
Manuscripts in the Duke University Library
26-33.
Boos,
The Poetry of DGR
: 215-226
Gregory,
The Life and Works of DGR
II. 135-137
Howard,
The Dark Glass
, 12-19
Keane,
“D. G. Rossetti's Poems 1870”
, 204
Masefield,
Thanks Before Going
, 50-51
Rees,
Poetry of DGR
, 25-33
Riede,
DGR and the Limits of Victorian Vision
, 247-249
Riede,
DGR Revisited
, 111-113
Surtees,
A Catalogue Raisonné
I. 93-97