Ashley MS 1387, 1393* A1393, B1398, A1400, 1401, A1404, B1404, A1405, A1406, A1878, A3870, 4995

Letters (26), one (A1400, ff. 24-25b) imperfect, from Dante Gabriel Rossetti to A. C. Swinburne, W. M. Rossetti, and John Aldam Heaton; 21 Aug. 1869-March 1870. The letters all concern the preparation of D. G. Rossetti's Poems, 1870, published on 24 April. In 1868 or early 1869 Rossetti seems to have decided to print such poetry as he had written, but to issue it privately. In August 1869 he received the first proofs, and after working on them, had the revisions incorporated in a further set. He continued this process, adding to, transposing and revising each set, through six sets of page proofs, including the proofs of the First Edition. By the beginning of October he had decided to publish and had abandoned the idea of a private issue (see letter to Miss Losh dated 8 Oct. 1869 in J. C. Troxell, Three Rossettis, 1937). On 5 Oct. 1869 the MS. book of poems which he had placed in his wife's coffin was recovered and four poems which had been too long to be otherwise reconstructed, i.e. 'Jenny', 'A Last Confession', 'Dante at Verona' and 'The Portrait', were included in the fifth set of proofs, and thereafter. Throughout this process Rossetti used to send copies of the proofs to a few friends, especially his brother and Swinburne, and to discuss with them in minute detail changes and additions to the poems. (See also the description of 1399). Some of the 'enclosed pages of Jenny' mentioned in A1400, f. 24b, are bound at the back of Ashley Library No. 1400 in the Department of Printed Books. For a detailed account of the proofs of Poems, 1870, see J. C. Troxell 'The "Trial Books" of Dante Gabriel Rossetti', in Colophon for Spring 1938, pp. 243-258.

Also included are:―(1) Autograph fair copy, forming part of a letter dated 23 Feb. 1870, of a sonnet 'On certain Elizabethan "Revivals"', considered by Rossetti inadequate for inclusion in Poems, and first printed, in a slightly different form, in T. Hall Caine, Recollections of D. G. Rossetti, 1882, having been sent by the author to Caine, as editor, for inclusion in Sonnets of Three Centuries, 1882. 1387, f. 4b;―(2) Poem, 'The End of It', dated '18th June 1845'. Autograph fair copy, written on a bifolium of octavo white laid paper. Watermark a crowned shield. Of this poem Rossetti says in 1387, f. 4 ' . . . I came on what I may call my first poem (after still more childish things) I believe, and enclose it you for a lark. Of course it is on nothing less than Napoleon at Waterloo!' 1387, ff. 1, 2;―(3) Postscript to a letter from D. G. Rossetti to his brother William, 15 Sept. 1869. A1393, f. 19;―(4) Postscript to a letter from D. G. Rossetti, probably of 1869. A1404, f. 34;―(5) Note by Edmund Gosse concerning D. G. Rossetti's poem, 'The Stream's Secret'; n.d. A1404, f. 36;―(6) Letter from Swinburne in reply to one from D. G. Rossetti (A3870, ff. 26-27b) informing Swinburne of the opening of Lizzie Rossetti's grave; 28 Oct. 1869. A3870, ff. 29-30b;―(7) Letter, with envelope, from D. G. Rossetti to Swinburne, speaking of Swinburne's forthcoming Atalanta in Calydon, Baudelaire, and French art; 18 Nov. 1864. 4995, ff. 1-3b;―(8) Post-postscript to a letter from D. G. Rossetti of 1871. 4995, f. 29;―(9) Letter from D. G. Rossetti to Swinburne concerning 'Eau Hess', a hair-dressing; [27?] Nov. 1868. 4995, ff. 32-33. 1387, A1400 (with omissions), A1404, and A1406 are printed in Ashley Library Catalogue, iv, pp. 110-111, 125-129, 133. A1878 is printed in Ashley Library Catalogue, vi, p. 110. 1393, A1393, B1398, and 1401 are printed, with omissions, in D. G. Rossetti His Family-Letters, ii, 1895, pp. 204, 214-221. B1404 is printed in Rossetti Papers, ed. W. M. Rossetti, 1903, p. 527. A1405, the letter from D. G. Rossetti in A3870, and 4995, with the exception of the letters on ff. 14-15b, 27-33, are printed in The Times Literary Supplement, 16 Oct. 1919, pp. 565-566. See also O. Doughty and J. R. Wahl, Letters of Dante Gabriel Rossetti, ii, 1965, pp. 529-864, passim. The letter from Swinburne in A3870 is printed in C. Y. Lang, Swinburne Letters, ii, 1959, pp. 47-48. Ashley Library Catalogue, iv, pp. 109-155 passim; vi, p. 110; viii, pp. 171-177.

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