Composed in 1854, the poem sophisticates the old balladic form, though not nearly so much as DGR's other ballad imitations. The occasion of its original composition is not known, and while its pastiche character invites comparison with the ballad work of Morris and especially Swinburne, neither had any influence on this work—indeed, they did not come into contact with DGR until two years after this poem was written.
Lines 153-156, a late addition, have been well taken to show that Rossetti
was capable of considerable ironic detachment
toward his romance materials
(see Riede, DGR Revisited
DGR wrote the poem in 1854, completing it around 15 October, as he wrote to
Allingham: “[I] have finished a ballad—professedly modern-antique,
of which I remember telling you the story as we were walking about Mrs.Orme's
garden
”. Enclosing a copy in his letter, he asked for comments and added:
“Don't think it is finished yet. . . . I have purposely taken an unimportant
phrase here and there from the old things. I was doubting whether it would not be
better to make the improper lord and lady slip into a new-made open grave, while
wading through the churchyard, and be drowned. This might make a good description
and conclusion, and I fear the thing is at present almost too unpoetical
in style
” (Correspondence
Correspondence
The earliest surviving manuscript is the copy in the
When DGR determined to set a corpus of his poetical works in type in the summer
of 1869, this was the last poem to be added to the initial set of materials that
was printed around 18 August 1869 (the so-called
The text of the ballad underwent heavy revision in the proof process,
particularly in the Correspondence
See Commentary (Reception History) for the 1870
First printed in the
The poem is a sophisticated ballad imitation. Much of the work is conceived in
the spirit of pastiche, but the text regularly displays its literary
and second-order character. (The happy ending of the story is not at all in the
style of the old ballads.) Nonetheless, the pastiche manner is important, and
connects the poem to DGR's translations as well as to his religious pastiche
work (such as
The traditional ballads most readily brought to mind in DGR's poem are perhaps
Poems 1870”