Ashley MS 1860

'Songs Before Sunrise'. 'Ode on the Insurrection in Candia' by Algernon Charles Swinburne; 1867. Fair copy, with a few revisions, written on one side only of fourteen half-leaves of quarto white laid paper. Watermark 'Joynson / First [Quality].' The individual leaves are mounted on guards. Bound up with the MS. is a letter (ff. ii, iii) to Swinburne from `Stavros Dilberoglu, 8 Jan. 1867, informing him of the Greek uprising in Crete, and inviting him to help. See Ashley MS B1860 which is a letter from Ford Madox Brown to Swinburne, 12 Jan. 1867, urging him to write a poem in order to arouse sympathy in England for the insurgents. On 13 Jan. 1867 W. M. Rossetti wrote in his diary 'Swinburne read me at night his poem, approaching completion, on Italy; yesterday one which he has written for the Candiote refugees, to give them the profit' (W. M. Rossetti, Rossetti Papers 1862-1870, 1903, p. 221). The ode must therefore have been composed at some time between the first and last of these dates. It was first printed in The Fortnightly Review for 1 March 1867, probably from this MS., as the verso of the last folio bears a cancelled stamp and the address of the editor. The poem was reprinted on pp. 240-250 of Songs Before Sunrise in a text differing by one word from that in the Fortnightly. The text of the MS. differs from that of the first printing only by four words. Bound up with the MS. are pp. 240-250 of the page proofs for Songs Before Sunrise, 1871 (ff. 15-20). The verso of the first leaf is blank. Pages 241 and 243 are signed R and R2 respectively, as in the first edition.

Octavo; ff. iv+20.

Poetry ENGLISH: Algernon Charles Swinburne, poet: Poem, 'Ode on the Insurrection in Candia', by Algernon Charles Swinburne: 1867: Autogr. fair copy.

includes:

• ff. ii, iii Stavros Dilberoglu: Algernon Charles Swinburne, poet: Letter to Algernon Charles Swinburne from Stavros Dilberoglu: 1867.