Letter to William Bell Scott, July 1869, manuscript Dante Gabriel Rossetti 1 © Princeton University Library. A color slide or transparency of this image can be ordered from the Princeton University Library by contacting the Photoservices Coordinator, Department of Rare Books and Special Collections. Letter to William Bell Scott, July 1869 Dante Gabriel Rossetti 1869 (circa July) Scott, William Bell Only the last two pages of the letter are extant, and the date (ca. July 1869) is determined from the context. The letter cannot be later than July and is unlikely to be earlier than June. DGR Princeton University Library 23352 The letter is in Box 9 folder 7 of the Troxell Collections. 4 pages, 22 x 18cm. The leaf is folded to make four sides; the poem is copied on the last folded page. Commentary
Introduction

The letter contains a fair copy of DGR's sonnet “ <xref doc="a.6-1869.raw">Love's Lovers</xref> .” Of it DGR writes in the letter: “I have not been in much of a poeticizing mood lately, & hardly know how many of my doings remain unseen by you. I copy the last. I am about to have all the poetry I can get together of mine printed roughly for my own use in slips, & keep it by me as stock for selection ultimately with a view to a possible vol. This will induce me to write more & to get advice from the few friends one cares to show the things to. I shall only print a few copies.”

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me to send it you? I am curious to see what use you have managed to make of the lumps of wood? Is it a mantelpiece?

I have heard the news of Christina all along, & hope she will turn up improved. Tell her Howell found a nest of young hedgehogs in his garden, but having been disturbed they seem to have migrated & have to be discovered again.

The Leatharts have been here once or twice & I rather expect them again today, but am threatened with so many other visitors that I suppose it will all be a "mêlée." They have been to Hughes's but I know not with what result; & Leathart has asked both me & Brown about getting a water picture from Whistler, but is evidently afraid of seeming too eager.

My tent is delightful at times but I have not enjoyed it much having been greatly put about.

Your sonnet is excellent. I have not been in much of a poetizing mood lately, & I hardly know how many of my doings remain unseen by you. I copy the last. I am about to have all the poetry I can get together of mine printed roughly for my own use in slips, & keep it by me as stock for In Privately printed vol. WMR's note to the right of the text. He refers to the sonnet Love's Lovers, which was printed in the first trial book for Poems 1870 The verso of DGR's seal is visible below the signature on this page. selection ultimately with a view to a possible vol. This will induce me to write more & to get advice from the few friends one cares to show the things to. I shall only print a few copies.

Love to all at Penkill. It will be delightful to see the beautiful glen again & feel that the world is shut out. Why can one not have a glen out of oneself too? — or at least out of the way of one's ghosts & skeletons?

Ever yours affectionately, D Gabriel R DGR's seal is stamped at the right of poem, containing his address (“16 CHEYNE WALK / CHELSEA”), his initials, and an image of a tree with the words of his motto, “FRANGAS NON FLECTAS.” The poem is written crosswise on a page opposite the first (surviving) page of the letter; the poem would then have been on the final page of the letter, since the MS is a single sheet folded into four pages. <hi rend="center">Love's Lovers</hi> ------------ Some ladies love the jewels in Love's zone, And gold-tipped darts he hath for painless play In idle scornful hours he flings away; And some that listen to his lute's soft tone Do love to deem the silver praise their own; Some prize his blindfold sight; and there be they Who kissed his wings which brought him yesterday And thank his wings today that he is flown. My lady only loves the heart of Love: Therefore Love's heart, my lady, hath for thee His bower of unimagined flower and tree: There kneels he now, and all-anhungered of Thine eyes grey-lit in shadowing hair above, Seals with thy mouth his immortality. -------