Rossetti Archive Textual Transcription
Document Title: Cecco d'Angiolieri, da Siena. “Prolonged Sonnet. When his
Clothes were gone.”
Author: Dante Gabriel Rossetti
Date of Composition: 1870 February 20
Type of Manuscript: fair copy with alternate reading
The full Rossetti Archive record for this transcribed document is available.
- Never so bare and naked was church-stone
- As is my clean-stripped doublet in my grasp;
- Also I wear a shirt without a clasp,
- Which is a dismal thing to look upon.
- Ah! had I still but the sweet coins I won
- That time I sold my nag and staked the pay,
- I'd not lie hid beneath the roof today
- And eke out sonnets with this moping moan.
- Daily a thousand times stark mad am I
- 10 At my dad's meanness who won't clothe me now,
- For “How about the horse?” is still his cry.
- Till one thing strikes me as clear anyhow,—
- No clothes he'll stand/ No rag I'll get (which is best?) The wretch has sworn, I see,
- Not to invest another doit in me.
- And all because of the fine doublet's price
- He gave me, when I vowed to throw no dice,
- And for his damned nag's sake! Well, this is nice!
Electronic Archive Edition: 1
Source File:
55d-1861.blms.rad.xml
Copyright: By permission of the British Library