M.S. Poetry 1869.70.71 (composite manuscript collection, Princeton/Taylor collection) Dante Gabriel Rossetti 1 Used with permission of Princeton University. From the Princeton University Library, Department of Rare Books and Special Collections. All rights reserved. Redistribution or republication in any medium requires express written consent from Princeton University Library. Permissions inquiries should be addressed to Associate University Librarian, Rare Books and Special Collections, Princeton University Library. M.S. Poetry 1869.70.71 Dante Gabriel Rossetti and others 1869-1871 various, mostly fair copies There are 84 pages in the volume. DGR's manuscripts in the book date from ca. 1850 to November 1869. various; DGR's texts are all autograph Taylor Collection, Princeton University Library 23454 This manuscript volume was originally owned by Mrs. Courtney-Boyd, whence it passed to Robert Taylor and then Princeton. It is called by collection number CO199. contemporary half calf with title on pastedown slip quarto The volume has various manuscripts pasted in, all of various sizes. Commentary
Introduction

The DGR materials in this volume all relate to the production of the volume of poetry he published in 1870. This collection was probably put together by Alice Boyd at a somewhat later date, and largely from materials she had from William Bell Scott and DGR in 1869, when the two men were together at her estate in Scotland, Penkill Castle.

The volume contains a miscellaneous collection of poems, most by DGR and William Bell Scott, that date from the early 1850s to 1871, and a couple of letters. There are a few other poems by Christina Rossetti and Edmund Gosse and others. The DGR materials are manuscripts dating from ca. 1850 to November 1869.

The DGR materials cast interesting light on his earliest conception of the 1870 <xref doc="a.1-1870.raw">Poems</xref> and what he planned to include in it. The notebook contains lists that pre-date the printing of the Penkill Proofs and represent his thoughts about what to include in those proofs, the first he had pulled (in August 1869) for the volume to come in 1870. Also in the notebook are copies of poems that were made for the early proof printings of August and September 1869. Most important here are the manuscript texts of “Ave”, “Troy Town”, and “Stratton Water”.

Textual History: Composition

The DGR manuscripts in this collection are in four distinct groups. First are four leaves that date from August-September 1869. Next come eleven leaves torn from a single notebook that dates from ca. 1850-1855. Then there are three uniform leaves from another notebook dating from sometime in the mid-1850s. Finally come five leaves that date from September 1869.

Textual History: Revision

Virtually all of the DGR manuscripts in this collecton show revisions of one kind or another, as well as variances from received texts.

Production History

Reception History

Iconographic

Printing History

The DGR manuscripts were probably not printer's copy for the proofs pulled in August and September 1869 but they were almost certainly the copy from which those printer's copies were made.

Pictorial

Historical

Literary

Translation

Autobiographical

Bibliographic

Endpaper carries W. W. Scott's fair copy of his poem “The Stream” Page carries library presentation label bookplate of Robert Taylor bequest Page carries library description of the book's contents Page carries library description of the document. This is a note to the printer Strangeways dated from Cheyne Walk, “Saturday”, and was thus written just before DGR left for Penkill Castle in mid-August 1869. It calls for printing single page poems without any text on the versos. The note has two covering leaves that DGR must have sent with it carrying DGR's texts for the title of the proof book and a half-title for the “Sonnets for Pictures” section. give this note to Gardner but it is only what I have already told him Strangeways' note to his printer Mr. Gardner
16 Cheyne Walk
Saturday Mr Strangeways

I forgot to explain justnow that the longerpoems need not be printed can beprinted on both sides,—only each poemmust be separate—not with anotherbegun on the backof the last page.The poems whichoccupy only a pageeach must not haveanother on the back.

Yours D. G. Rossetti This is a leaf with the heading “Sonnets for Pictures etc”. It is uniform in stock with the next four leaves; this leaf is unlined and measures 17.8 x 11.2cm. Sonnets for Pictures:<lb/> etc.

Uniform with previous paper stock, this leaf carries the half-title of DGR's early proofs for the 1870 <xref doc="a.1-1870.raw">Poems</xref> ; measurements, 17.8 x 22.4cm. Poems<lb/>(Privately Printed) Uniform with previous paper stock, this leaf carries the advertisement note for the early proofs of DGR's 1870 <xref doc="a.1-1870.raw">Poems</xref> ; measurements, 17.8 x 22.4cm.

(Most of these poems were written between 1847 and 1853. They are here printed, if not without revision, yet much in their original state. They are some among a good many then written, the rest of which I cannot print, having now no complete copies. Many of the sonnets and some of the other pieces are more recent work.) D.G.R. 1869

 This is a contents list headed by DGR “Contents“. It lists the poems he thought to include in the early proofs of the 1870 <xref doc="a.1-1870.raw">Poems</xref> . The list has various corrections in ink and pencil: measurements 17.8 x 11.5cm. (Contents) 1 The Blessed Damozel 2 Nocturn Sister Helen 3 The Burden of Nineveh Ave 4 The Staff & Scrip 5 Sister Helen 6 Stratton Water 7 Dennis Shand 8 The Song of the Bower 9 Sudden Light 10 A New Year's Burden The Song of the Bower 11 A Little While 12 The Moon-Star Penumbra 13 A Song & Music 14 Sea Limit 15 The Honeysuckle 16 The Woodspurge 17 A Young Fir-Wood 18 Penumbra 19 First Love 20 Love Lily 21 Even So 22 To Mary in Summer 23 Aspecta Medusa 24 An Old Song Ended 25 Madonna Consolata John of Tours 26 Ballad of Dead Ladies 27 To Death, of his Lady 28 John of Tours 29 My Father's Close 30 One Girl This is a contents list headed by DGR “Sonnets”. It lists the sonnets he thought to include in that grouping when he began preparing the printer's copy of the early proofs of the 1870 <xref doc="a.1-1870.raw">Poems</xref> ; measurements 17.8 x 10.7cm. Sonnets 1 Our Lady of the Rocks 2 A Venetian Pastoral 3 A Dance 4 Ruggiero and Angelica 1 5 Do 2 6 Mary's Girlhood 7 Venus Verticordia 8 Lilith 9 Sibylla Palmifera 10 Pandora 11 The Bullfinch 12 The Hill Summit 13 On the Vita Nuova 14 On a Mulberry Tree 15 On Refusal of Aid 16 After the French Liberation This is the first of a sequence of uniform pages, eleven leaves all originally from the same notebook on lined paper watermarked: J ALLEN & SONS/SUPER FINE. The leaves measure 22 x 17.9cm. They are lined and from one of DGR's typical notebooks. The Sea-Limit This text was printer's copy for the Penkill Proofs. The sea is in its listless chime: Time's self it is made audible,— The murmur of the earth's own shell. Secret continuance sublime Ends it to sight; the sense may pass No furlong further. Since Time was, This sound hath told the lapse of Time. No stagnance that death wins: it hath The mournfulness of ancient life, Enduring always at dull strife. As the world's heart of rest and wrath, Its painful pulse is in the sands. Last utterly, the whole sky stands, Grey and not known, along its path. ------ DGR's note to the printer

Please print these: Ave after the Burden of Nineveh the other one Sea Limit just before the Honeysuckle.

D G Rossetti
16 Cheyne Walk Chelsea

Can you let me havesome proofs tonight?

 This is the second of a sequence of uniform pages, eleven leaves, all originally from the same notebook on lined paper watermarked: J ALLEN & SONS/SUPER FINE. The leaves measure 22 x 17.9cm. They are lined and from one of DGR's typical notebooks. (For footnote here see overpage) DGR's note to the poem is on the verso of this leaf. Stevenson Strangeways' note assigning the printing job to the printer Stevenson Ave.* Mother of the Fair Delight, Thou handmaid perfect in God's sight, Now sitting fourth beside the Three, Thyself a woman-Trinity, Being a daughter borne to God, Mother of Christ from stall to rood, And wife unto the Holy Ghost:— Oh when our need is uttermost, Think that to such as death may strike Thou wert a hast been sister sisterlike!— [?]Thou headstone of humanity, Groundstone of the great Mystery, Fashioned like us, yet more than we! Mind'st thou not (when June's heavy breath Warmed the long days in Nazareth,) That eve thou didst go forth to give Thy flowers some drink that they might live This is DGR's note to the poem.

* This hymn was written as a prologueto a series of designs. Art still identifies herself with classic faiths for her own purposes: and the emotional influence here employed demands above all an inner standing-point.

 [?] 2 Compositor's name and page number written in. One faint night more among[?] amid the sands? Far off the trees were as pale wands Against the fervid sky: the sea Behind reached on eternally Like an old music soothing sleep. Then gloried thy deep eyes, and deep Within thine heart the song waxed loud: It was to thee as though the cloud Which shuts the inner shrine from view Were molten and thy God burned through: Until a folding sense, like prayer Which is, as God is, everywhere, Gathered about thee; and a voice Spake to thee without any noise, Being of the silence:—“Hail,” it said, “Thou that art highly favourèd; The Lord is with thee here and now. Blessed among all women thou.” Ah! knew'st thou of the end, when first That Babe was on thy bosom nurs'd?— Or when he tottered round thy knee blank page [?] 3 Compositor's name and page number written in Did thy great sorrow dawn on thee?— And through his boyhood, year by year Eating with him the Passover, Did'st thou discern confusedly That holier sacrament, when he, The bitter cup about to quaff, Should break the bread and eat thereof?— Or came not yet the knowledge, even When Till on some day forecast in Heaven, His feet passed through thy door to press Upon his Father's business?— Or still was God's high secret kept? Nay, but I think the whisper crept Like growth through childhood. Work & play, Things common to the course of day, Awed thee with meanings unfulfill'd; And all through girlhood, something still'd Thy senses like the birth of light, When thou hast trimmed thy lamp at night Or washed thy garments in the stream; For to thy bed had come the dream That He was thine and thou wast His Barfield 4 Compositor's name Who feeds among the field-lilies. O solemn shadow of the end In that wise spirit long contain'd! O awful end! and those unsaid Long years when It was Finishèd! Mind'st thou not (when the twilight gone Left darkness in the house of John,) Between the naked window-bars That spacious vigil of the stars?— For thou, a watcher even as they, Would'st rise from where throughout the day Thou wroughtest raiment for His poor; And, finding the fixed terms endure Of day and night which never brought Sounds of His coming chariot, Would'st lift through cloud-waste unexplor'd Those eyes which said, “How long, O Lord?” Then that disciple whom He loved, Well heeding, haply would be moved To ask thy blessing in his name; And thy thought and his thought, the same Kelly 5 Compositor's name Though silent, then would clasp ye round To weep together,—tears long bound, Sick tears of patience, dumb and slow. Yet, “Surely I come quickly,”—so He said, from life and death gone home. Amen; even so, Lord Jesus, come! But oh! what human tongue can speak That day when death at last might was sent to break From the tired spirit, like a veil, Its covenant with Gabriel Endured at length unto the end? What human thought can apprehend That mystery of motherhood When thy Beloved at length renew'd The sweet communion severèd,— His left hand underneath thine head And His right hand embracing thee?— Lo! He was thine, and this is He! Soul, is it Faith, or Love, or Hope, Now lets me see her standing up 6 Pagination Where the light of the Throne is bright? Unto the left, unto the right, The cherubim, arrayed, conjoint, Float inward to a golden point, And from between the seraphim The glory issues like a hymn. O Mary Mother, be not loth To listen,—thou whom the stars clothe,— Who seest and may'st not be seen! Help us a little, Mary Queen! Into our shadow lean thy face, Bowing thee from the secret place, O Mary Virgin, full of grace! ------ Blank page. This is the fifth of a sequence of uniform pages, eleven leaves all originally from the same notebook on lined paper watermarked: J ALLEN & SONS/SUPER FINE. The leaves measure 22 x 17.9cm. They are lined and from one of DGR's typical notebooks. Kelly 1 Compositor's name Stratton Water. “O have you seen the Stratton flood That's long great with rain to-day? It runs beneath your wall, Lord Sands, Full of the new-mown hay. “I led your hounds to Hutton bank To swim bathe at early morn: They got their bath by Borrowbrake Above the standing corn.” Lord Sands has climbed the castle stair, Out from the castle-stair Lord Sands And searched Looked up the western lea; The crow rook was grieving on her nest, The flood was round her tree. Lord Sands has climbed the castle wall, Over the castle-wall Lord Sands Looked down the eastern hill: The stakes swim swam free among the boats, The flood is was rising still. Stevenson 2 Compositor's name “And What thing is that yon that shines so white Against the hither slope?” “O it's a sail o' your bonny barks The waters have thrown washed up.” “But I've no sails so white as yon And the water's not yet there.” “O it's the swans o' your bonny lake That needs the flood must scare.” The rising flood doth scare.” “The swans they would not hold so still, So high they would not win.” “O it's Joyce my wife has spread her smock And fears to fetch it in.” “Nay, knave, it's neither sails nor swans, Or much mine eyes deceive Nor aught that you can say; And For though your wife might leave her smock, Herself she'd never leave bring away.” Lord Sands has passed the turret-stair, The court & yard and all; The kine were in the byre that day, The nags were in the stall. The page is blank except for DGR's revised copy of stanza 10/13 and the inserted stanza 13/16. Also lines 51-54, transcribed on the proceeding page, are written on the lower half of this page with a line drawn to the facing page. Lord Sands has won the weltering hill And grovelld to his knee. [?] “O Jean, O Jean my love, my love, Rise up and come with me!” “O once before you bade me come, And it's here you have brought me!” “Why lie you on the weltering hill? Fair maid, it must not be.” “O who should ask me that, Lord Sands Or call me maid but ye?” “O many's the sweet word of love You've spoken oft to me; But all that I have from you to-day Is the rain on my body. “And many are the gifts of love You've promised oft to me; But the gift of yours I keep to-day Is the babe in my body.” “O it's not in any earthly bed That first my babe I'll see; For I have brought my body here That the flood may cover me.” He turned held her face between his hands, Her hands in his again: O her wet cheeks were hot with tears, Her wet hands cold with rain. “Now hold keep you well, my brother Hugh, That told me she was dead! As wan as your towers look be to-day, To-morrow they'll be red. The facing (previous verso) page contains DGR's revised copy of line 84/112 and the inserted stanza 20/27. “Look down, look down, my false mother, That bade me not to grieve: You'll look up when our marriage fires Are lit to-morrow eve. “O more than one and more than two The sorrow of this shall see: But it's to-morrow, love, for them,— To-day's for thee and me.” He's drawn her face into his hands unto his own And her sad pale mouth to his: No bird that was so still that day Chirps sweeter than his kiss. He's ta'en her by the short girdle And by the dripping sleeve, “Go fetch Sir Jock my mother's priest,— You'll ask of him no leave. “O it's yet ten minutes to the kirk And ten for the marriage-rite; And kirk and castle and broad lands Shall be our babe's to-night.” “The flood's in the kirkyard, Lord Sands, And round the high kirk stair belfry-stair.” All round the tombstones there And round the graves doth [?] “I bade ye fetch the priest,” he said, “Myself shall bring him there.” Jacker Typesetter's name inserted, presumably by the publisher 5 Pagination number “And for the merry lilt of wedding bells We'll have the rain to pour, And for the clink of bridle-reins The plashing of the oar.” Beneath them on the nether hill A boat was floating wide: Lord Sands has swam out & caught the oars And backed to the hill-side. He's wrapped her in a green mantle And set her softly in; And “Oh!” (she said) “lie still, my babe, It's out you must not win!” But woful woe was with the bonny priest, For the water splashed his chin. The first strokes that the oars struck Were over the broad leas; The next strokes that the oars struck, They pushed beneath the trees; 6 Pagination number The last stroke that the oars struck, The good boat's head was met, And there the door of the kirkyard Stood like a ferry-gate. He's set his hand upon the bar And lightly leaped within: He's lifted her to his left shoulder, Her knees beside his chin. The flood was on the graves knee-deep, Under the rain alone; As still the rain came down; And when the foot-stone made him slip, He held by the head-stone. The empty boat thrawed i' the wind, Against the postern tied. “Hold still, you've brought my love with me, You shall take back my bride.” And “Oh!” (she said) “on men's shoulders I well had thought to wend, And well to travel with a priest, But not to have cared or kenn'd. blank page 7 Pagination number “And oh!” (she said,) it's well this way That I thought to have fared,— Not to have lighted at the kirk But stopped in the kirkyard. “For it's Oh and Oh I prayed to God, Who knows my sorrow and sin, Whose rest I hoped to win, That when to-night at your board-head You'd have bid the feast begin, This water past your window-sill Might bear my body in.” Now make the white bed warm & soft And meet/bid [?] greet the merry morn. To The night the mother should have died The young son shall be born. The page has a note to the printer with instructions about the poem on the facing page. Monday [16 August 1869]

Please print this and insertit after Sister Helen. I am not leaving towntill Tuesday morning, so if you can sendme proofs of the thingsin order by tonight, you can send them here.But I suppose this cannotwell be done.

D. G. Rossetti
16 Cheyne Walk
 This is the first of three uniform pages, watermarked: J ALLEN & SONS/SUPER FINE. They are lined and from one of DGR's typical notebooks. The leaves measure 22.2 x 17.3cm. The text is written crosswise on this leaf. To be printed after Secret Parting note written below the text Parted Love What shall be said of this embattled day And armed occupation of this night By all thy foes beleaguered,—now when sight Nor w sound denotes the loved one far away? Of thy deserted life the live hours of death what shalt thou say,— As every sense to which she dealt delight Now labours daily lonely o'er the stark noon-height To find reach the sunset's desolate disarray? Stand still, fond fettered wretch! while Memory's art Parades the Past before thy face, and lures Thy spirit to her passionate portraitures: Till the tempestuous tide-gates flung apart Flood with wild will the hollows of thy heart, And thy feet stir not heart rends thee, and thy body endures. ------- blank page This is the second of three uniform pages, watermarked: J ALLEN & SONS/SUPER FINE. They are lined and from one of DGR's typical notebooks. The leaves measure 22.2 x 17.3cm. The text is written crosswise on this leaf. To be printed after The Hill Summit note written below the text Autumn Idleness This sunlight shames November where he grieves In dead red leaves, and will not let him shun The day, though bough with bough be over-run: But with a blessing every glade receives High salutation; while from hillock-eaves The deer gaze calling, dappled white and dun, As if, being foresters of old, the sun Had marked them with the shade of forest-leaves. Here dawn to-day unveiled her magic glass, Here noon that gave now gives the thirst and dries takes the dew Till eve yield bring rest when other good things pass. And here the lost hours the lost hours renew While I still lead my shadow o'er the grass, Nor know, for longing, that which I should do. blank page This is the third of three uniform pages, watermarked: J ALLEN & SONS/SUPER FINE. They are lined and from one of DGR's typical notebooks. The leaves measure 22.2 x 17.3cm. The text is written crosswise on this leaf. To be printed after Autumn Idleness note written below the text A Match with the Moon Weary already, weary miles to-night I walked for bed: and so, to get some ease, I dogged the flying moon with similes. And like a wisp she doubled on my sight In ponds; and caught in tree-tops like a kite; And in a globe of film all vapourish Swam full-faced like a silly silver fish;— Last like a bubble shot the welkin's height Where my road turned, and got behind me, and sent My wizened shadow craning round at me, And jeered, “So, step the measure,—one two three!” And if I faced on her, looked innocent. But just at parting, halfway down a dell, She kissed me for goodnight. So you'll not tell. This is the first of five uniform pages, unlined stock, measuring 18 x 11.5cm. Unwatermarked. Troy Town Helen knelt at Venus' shrine, (O Troy Town!) Saying, “A little gift is mine, A little gift for a heart's desire. Hear me speak and make me a sign! (O Troy's down, Tall Troy's on fire!) “Look, I bring thee a carven cup; (O Troy Town!) See it here as I hold it up,— Shaped it is to the heart's desire, Fit to fill when the gods would sup. (O Troy's down, Tall Troy's on fire!) “It was moulded like my breast; (O Troy Town!) He that sees it may not rest, Rest at all for his heart's desire, O give ear to my heart's request! (O Troy's down, Tall Troy's on fire!) blank page “See my breast, how like it is; (O Troy Town!) See it bare for the air to kiss! Is the cup to thy heart's desire? O for the breast, O make it his! (O Troy's down, Tall Troy's on fire!) “Yea, for my bosom here I sue; (O Troy Town!) Thou must give it where 'tis due, Give it there to the heart's desire. Whom do I give my bosom to? (O Troy's down, Tall Troy's on fire!) “Each twin breast is an apple sweet! (O Troy Town!) Once an apple stirred the beat Of thy heart with the heart's desire. Say, who brought it then to thy feet? (O Troy's down, Tall Troy's on fire!) “They that claimed it then were three: (O Troy Town!) For thy sake two hearts did he Make forlorn of the heart's desire. Do for him as he did for thee! (O Troy's down, Tall Troy's on fire!) blank page “Mine are apples grown to the south, (O Troy Town!) Grown to taste in the days of drouth, Taste and waste to the heart's desire: Mine are apples meet for his mouth!” (O Troy's down, Tall Troy's on fire!) Venus looked on Helen's gift, (O Troy Town!) Looked and smiled with subtle drift, Saw the work of her heart's desire:— “There thou kneel'st for Love to lift!” (O Troy's down, Tall Troy's on fire!) Venus looked in Helen's face, (O Troy Town!) Knew far off an hour and place, And fire lit from the heart's desire; Laughed and said, “Thy gift hath grace!” (O Troy's down, Tall Troy's on fire!) Cupid looked on Helen's breast, (O Troy Town!) Saw the aching heart its guest, Saw the flame of the heart's desire: There his arrow stood confess'd. (O Troy's down, Tall Troy's on fire!) Text of Allingham's poem “My Mother's Death (at Portobello by the Sea)”. Cupid took another dart, (O Troy Town!) Fledged it for another heart, Winged the shaft with the heart's desire, Drew the string and said, “Depart!” (O Troy's down, Tall Troy's on fire!) Paris turned upon his bed, (O Troy Town!) Turned upon his bed and said, Dead at heart with the heart's desire,— “O to clasp her golden head!” (O Troy's down, Tall Troy's on fire!) D. G. R.—
Penkill
17 September 1869 Text of Allingham's poem “Coming and Going”. This is the fifth of five uniform pages, unlined stock, measuring 18 x 11.5cm. Unwatermarked. DGR 10 Septr 1869 written below the text Parted Love! Oh! how the family affections combat Within this heart; and each hour flings a bomb at My burning soul; neither from owl nor from bat Can peace be gained, until I clasp my Wombat. D.G.R.
Penkill.
10th Septr 1869 This is the fifth of five uniform pages, unlined stock, measuring 18 x 11.5cm. Unwatermarked. <note>The lines are left here untitled</note> </divheader> <lg type="quintain"> <l n="1"> There's a Scotch correspondent named Scott</l> <l n="2"> Thinks a penny for postage a lot.</l> <l n="3" indent="1"> Books, verses, & letters</l> <l n="4" indent="1"> Too good for his betters</l> <l n="5"> Cannot screw out an answer from Scott.</l> </lg> </div0> <epage/> <omit extent="pages 49-65" reason="texts here are not by DGR"/> </body> </text> </ram>