Ashley MS A1402, A1415, A1418, A1419, B1428, A3851, A3862, A3863

Letters (18) from Dante Gabriel Rossetti to W. T. Watts[-Dunton], chiefly concerning the production of Rossetti's Ballads and Sonnets, 1881, and Poems, 1881, and in particular the ballad 'The White Ship'; early 1880 to Aug. 1881. It seems more likely that the ballad referred to in A1415 is 'The White Ship' than 'The Bride's Prelude'. Wise had an interest in claiming that it was the latter, as he was trying to prove that the proof of 'The Bride's Prelude' in his possession was a separate issue of the poem, which of course it was not. Also included are:―(1) Poem by A. C. Swinburne, entitled 'Written after reading the proofs of The Bride's Prelude, Part I', and dated 'May 23rd 1881.' Autograph fair copy, written on one side only of two folio leaves of blue laid paper. No watermark. The poem was first printed as 'After Many Days', in The Italian Mother and other Poems, 1918, pp. 9-11. For another autograph fair copy of this poem see A1992, art. 3. A1415, ff. 43, 44;―(2) Two notes concerning the publication of Ballads and Sonnets, the first probably not connected with the letter it follows; [1881?]. A1418, f. 56; A3862, f. 11.―(3) Letter from Rossetti to Watts[-Dunton], containing two additional stanzas for 'The Cloud Confines', begun at Kelmscott in 1871: Kelmscott, 23 Feb. 1873. A3862, ff. 16-17. The letters are printed in O. Doughty and J. R. Wahl, Letters of Dante Gabriel Rossetti, iii, 1967, pp. 1141-1142 and iv, 1967, pp. 1762-1903 passim. Ashley Library Catalogue, iv, pp. 126, 127, 132, 142-149.