Samuel Bancroft, Jr.,
Rockford
Wilmington, Delaware.
There is a blue inked Bancroft stamp at center of verso.
The Girlhood of Mary Virgin.
These are the symbols. On that cloth of red
I' the centre is the Tripoint; perfect each
Except the second of its points, to teach
That Christ is not yet born. The books, - whose head
Is golden Charity, as Paul hath said, --
Those virtues are wherein the soul is rich:
Therefore on them the lily standeth, which
Is Innocence, being interpreted.
The seven-thorn'd briar and the palm seven-leaved
Are her great sorrow and her great reward.
Until the end be full the Holy One
Abides without. She soon shall have achieved
Her perfect purity: yea, God the Lord
Shall soon vouchsafe His Son to be her Son.
(D. G. Rossetti)
The second sonnet of
Mary's Girlhood
appears in blue type on a piece of tissue paper affixed beneath the print, containing.
#9, Marillier, 1848 – 9, p. 22
..ess
Cursive pencil across top left of board.
The reference is to
Marillier's book,
DGR: An Illustrated Memorial
, p. 22
.
Dante Gabriele Rossetti
P.R.B. 1849
Bottom left of print.
51 Girlhood Mary Virgin
56 71
Cursive pencil at top left of verso, with “56” circled and @ldquo;71” in a box.
8
Pencil at top right corner of verso.
S40
Pencil at bottom left corner.
The reference is to the work's catalogue number in Surtees,
A Catalogue Raisonné
.