Introduction
The present location of this interesting comic sketch is not known. It was
reproduced by Marillier, who added that is was a
“humorous pen-and-ink sketch by Rossetti of ‘Dante and his Circle’—and all the other poets before Dante with their circles. Beneath the scribble may be deciphered the word ‘London’ and the year 1858. If these be connected with the drawing itself, the date is certainly curious, for Rossetti's translations from
<hi rend="i">The Early Italian Poets</hi>
were brought out under that title in 1861, and the title
<hi rend="i">Dante and His Circle</hi>
was not given to them until the publication of the second edition in 1873. The notion of making Dante and the other poets jumping through their circles, like clowns at a circus, is of course a pure piece of fun.” The lettering on the sketch suggests that DGR imagined it as a title page.
It is interesting that Marillier dates the publication of
<hi rend="i">Dante and His Circle</hi>
1873. The volume appears to have been issued in 1874, which is the date on its title page.