Ashley MS 4404

'Astrophel and Other Poems'. 'Astrophel'; [1892-1893]. Draft, written on one side only of five quarto leaves of blue wove paper, and on both sides of a further two (ff. 1 and 6). No watermark.

As follows: Part I, stanzas 1, 4 and 5, f. 1a; part III, stanza 7, l. 1, written parallel with the length of the paper, f. 1b; part I, stanzas 2 and 3, f. 2a; part I, stanzas 6 and 7, f. 3a; part I, stanza 7, ll. 1-4 (inverted, cancelled), part II, stanzas 1-3, f. 4a; part II, stanzas 4-7, f. 5a; part III, stanzas 1, 2 and 3, ll. 1-4, f. 6a; part III, stanzas 3, ll. 5-8, 4, 5, and 6, f. 6b; part III, stanza 7, f. 7a.

With the possible exceptions of 2 and 4, the stanzas of part I were numbered by Swinburne after being written. Stanza 4 was written after and below stanza 5, and stanza 6 after and below stanza 7. '7' has been altered from '6'.

Part II, stanza 1, was originally numbered by Swinburne '2', and is lowest on the page, while stanza 2 was originally numbered '1' and is at the head of the page. Stanza 3 comes between them, and its numeration has not been altered. Part III, stanza 4, was originally numbered '3', and stanza 5 '4'.

The final text found in the draft differs by seven words from that printed on pp. [1]-10 of the first edition. At the end of part III, stanza 4, Swinburne has added a fourth line in pencil: 'We shall swing and the streets shall ring with plaudits ― Hang him, the damned old knave'.

In a letter to W. T. Watts[-Dunton] dated 2 Sept. 1892 Swinburne says 'I have now read every line of Sir Philip Sidney's works in prose and verse . . . the names, adventures, and characters of Pyrocles and Musidorus, Pamela and Philoclea, will I think be always associated in my mind with the terraces, flower-beds, bowling green and artificial waters of this little old garden and pleasure ground' (C. Y. Lang, Swinburne Letters, vi, 1962, p. 33). The poem was first published in the Pall Mall Magazine for May 1893.

Bound up with the MS. are pp. [1]-10 from a copy of Astrophel and Other Poems, 1894 (ff. 8-12), and a letter (f. ii) from Sydney Cockerell to Swinburne, 17 Jan. 1905, describing the binding of the MS. and the photograph of Hilliard's portrait of Sidney which is bound up with it (f. iii). Swinburne gave the MS. to Cockerell in Oct. 1904 (see Lang, op. cit., vi, 1962, pp. 186-187).

Quarto; ff. iv+12.

includes:

• f. ii Sir Sydney Carlyle Cockerell, Director, Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge: Algernon Charles Swinburne, poet: Letter to Algernon Charles Swinburne from Sir Sydney Carlyle Cockerell: 1905.
• f. iii Nicholas Hilliard, miniature-painter: Sir Philip Sidney, soldier, statesman and poet: Portrait by Nicholas Hilliard of Sir Philip Sidney: n.d.: Photograph.
• ff. 1-7 Poetry ENGLISH: Algernon Charles Swinburne, poet: Poem, 'Astrophel', by Algernon Charles Swinburne: [1892-1893]: Autogr. draft.