On the Site of a Mulberry-Tree, planted by William Shakespeare, felled by Rev. F. Gastrell Dante Gabriel Rossetti 1 1853 July
abbaaccadeffed iambic pentameter sonnet
<author/> <city/> <publisher/> <date/> <pages/> </bibl> <note/> </citnliterary> <citntranslationoriginal> <bibl> <title/> <author/> <city/> <publisher/> <date/> <pages/> </bibl> <note/> </citntranslationoriginal> <citnpictorial> <title/> <artist/> <location/> <bibl> <title/> <author/> <city/> <publisher/> <date/> <pages/> </bibl> <note/> </citnpictorial> <citnmythic> <name/> <culture/> <bibl> <title/> <author/> <city/> <publisher/> <date/> <pages/> </bibl> <note/> </citnmythic> <citnhistorical> <event/> <place/> <date/> <bibl> <title/> <author/> <city/> <publisher/> <date/> <pages/> </bibl> <note/> </citnhistorical> <citnautobiographical> <name/> <place/> <date/> <bibl> <title/> <author/> <city/> <publisher/> <date/> <pages/> </bibl> <note/> </citnautobiographical> <citnscenic> <place/> <date/> <bibl> <title/> <author/> <city/> <publisher/> <date/> <pages/> </bibl> <note/> </citnscenic> </listcitn> </source> <commentaries> <head>Commentary</head> <section type="intro"> <head>Introduction</head> <p>The sonnet is one of DGR's weakest, and he did well to remove it from the 1870 volume. One can see how he might have imagined it belonged in the book, but as the collection evolved through the proofs of 1869-1870 its inappropriateness was exposed (if not its aesthetic weaknesses as well).</p> </section> <section type="texthistcomp"> <head>Textual History: Composition</head> <p>DGR wrote the sonnet when he visited Stratford in July 1853 and sent <xref doc="a.dgr.ltr.0538.rad" from="[4]">a copy</xref> in a letter of 19 July to W. B. Scott (see <bibl> <author>Fredeman</author>, <xref doc="a."> <title level="bk"> <hi rend="i">Correspondence</hi> , 53. 44 and Scott I. 291-293 ). Another fair copy is preserved in the library of the Delaware Art Museum.

Textual History: Revision

On 21 February DGR resolved to remove this sonnet from his book, commenting two days later to Swinburne that it “must come out, as among several rejected of a semi-comic sort” (see Fredeman, <hi rend="i">Correspondence</hi> , 70. 32 ). It was “ out of harmony with all the others”, he thought (see Fredeman, <hi rend="i">Correspondence</hi> , 70. 31 ). The text he did publish (in the <xref doc="a.ap4.a15.2.rad" workcode="9-1853"> <hi rend="i">The Academy</hi> </xref> in February 1871) was altered slightly by WMR when he came to reprint it in the 1886 collected edition: the final line's “tailor's” was altered to “Starveling's” in order not to give offense to tailors.

Production History

Reception

Iconographic

Printing History

DGR put the sonnet in his Penkill Proofs in August 1869 and kept it in the subsequent proofs for the 1870 <xref doc="a.1-1870.1stedn.rad" workcode="9-1853">Poems</xref> until he had the proofs for the first edition pulled at the beginning of March 1870, where it does not appear. DGR published it in <xref doc="a.ap4.a15.2.rad" workcode="9-1853">The Academy</xref> in February 1871, and it was put among the collected works by WMR in 1886, but with an emendation by WMR from DGR's original text.

Pictorial

Historical

Baum's note on the occasion of the sonnet is succint: “The Rev. Francis Gastrell demolished New Place, and with it the tree, in 1759 because he was annoyed by sightseers and by high taxes. He died in 1768. Unlike Richard Sheppard and Richard Turpin, the notorious eighteenth-century highwaymen, he does not appear in the <xref doc="a.dnb.rad" link="dead">Dictionary of National Biography</xref> ” ( Baum <hi rend="i">Poems, Ballads, and Sonnets</hi> , 372n ).

Literary

Though DGR leaves the matter implicit, the Shakespearean significance of the mulberry tree is relevant to the sonnet. The legend of the mulberry involves the tale (out of Ovid) of Pyramus and Thisbe, which was the basis for Shakespeare's <xref doc="a."> <hi rend="i">Romeo and Juliet</hi> </xref> and which Shakespeare treated in a comic vein in the earlier <xref doc="a."> <hi rend="i">A Midsummer Night's Dream</hi> </xref> .

Translation

Autobiographical

Bibliographic

Gregory, <hi rend="i">Life and Works of Dante Gabriel Rossetti</hi> , II. 138 Lewis, <hi rend="i">The Trial Book Fallacy</hi> , 131-134 Caine, <hi rend="i">Recollections of Dante Gabriel Rossetti</hi> , 122-124

Penkill Proof Text See WMR's note (1911). Genesis 2:17 Penkill Proof Text Poems (1870): Proofs for first edition, Fitzwilliam Museum (Copy 1) Dante Gabriel Rossetti 1870 March 1 (and 22 March for additional material) 0 Poems (1870): Mixed Proofs 1869-1870, Fitzwilliam Museum Dante Gabriel Rossetti 1869 October - 1970 March 0 Poems. (Privately Printed.): A Proof, Lasner Copy Dante Gabriel Rossetti 1869 September 13 0 Poems. (Privately Printed).: the A2 Proofs, Fitzwilliam Museum Copy Dante Gabriel Rossetti 1869 September 20 0 Poems. (Privately Printed.): A Proof (partial), Princeton/Troxell (copy 1) Dante Gabriel Rossetti 1869 September 13 0 Poems. (Privately Printed).: Penkill Proofs, Princeton/Troxell (copy 1) Dante Gabriel Rossetti 1869 August 18 0 Poems. (Privately Printed.): Penkill Proofs, Princeton/Troxell (copy 2) Dante Gabriel Rossetti 1869 August 18 0 Poems. (Privately Printed).: First Trial Book, British Library copy (Ashley 1393) Dante Gabriel Rossetti 1869 October 3 0 Poems. (Privately Printed).: First Trial Book (Fitzwilliam Museum copy) Dante Gabriel Rossetti 1869 October 3 0 Poems. (Privately Printed.), First Trial Book (Huntington Library copy DGR 1869 October 3 0 Poems. (Privately Printed).: First Trial Book, Princeton/Troxell (Losh copy) Dante Gabriel Rossetti 1869 October 3 0 Poems. (Privately Printed.): First Trial Book (partial), Princeton/Troxell (copy 1) 1869 October 3 0 Poems. (Privately Printed.): Second Trial Book, British Library, (Ashley 1400) Dante Gabriel Rossetti 1869 November 30 (25 November - 6 December) 0 Poems. (Privately Printed).: Second Trial Book (Fitzwilliam Museum copy) Dante Gabriel Rossetti 1869 November 25 0 Poems, Privately Printed: Second Trial Book, Alice Boyd/Lasner copy. Dante Gabriel Rossetti 1869 November 25 0 Poems. (Privately Printed.): Proofs for the Second Trial Book (partial), Princeton/Troxell. Dante Gabriel Rossetti 1869 November 25-26 0 Poems. (Privately Printed.): Second Trial Book, Princeton/Troxell. Dante Gabriel Rossetti 1869 November 25 0 Poems. (Privately Printed.): Second Trial Book (partial), author's working copy, Princeton/Troxell. Dante Gabriel Rossetti 1869 November 25 0 The Collected Works of Dante Gabriel Rossetti, vol. 1 (1886) Dante Gabriel Rossetti William Michael Rossetti 1886 0 On the Site of a Mulberry-Tree; Planted by Wm Shakspeare; felled by the Rev. F. Gastrell Dante Gabriel Rossetti 1869 0 On the Site of a Mulberry-Tree, planted by William Shakespeare, felled by Rev. F. Gastrell (Delaware fair copy) DGR 1853 0 On the Site of a Mulberry-Tree; Planted by Wm Shakspeare; felled by the Rev. F. Gastrell (Corrected Galley Proof) Dante Gabriel Rossetti 1869 August 0 The Academy, Volume 2 1871 0 Letter to William Bell Scott, July 1853, manuscript Dante Gabriel Rossetti 1853 July 0 The Works of Dante Gabriel Rossetti (1911) Dante Gabriel Rossetti William Michael Rossetti 1911 0