Add MS 45299

WILLIAM MORRIS LITERARY MANUSCRIPTS. Vol. III (ff. i + 105). Contents:-

(1) Fragment of a draft of The Death of Paris, differing considerably from the printed text. The fragment (beg. 'And still I wandered through the night and still'), consists of part of the interview between Paris and Oenone, and corresponds roughly to C.W., v, pp. 13-18. ff. 1-4.

(2) The Land East of the Sun and West of the Moon. A series of fragments of drafts, all corresponding to the printed text ",ith minor differences, some overlapping. There is only one unbroken section of any length (ff. 11-22b). According to May Morris, C.W., v, p. xxxiii, the lines drawn across the page in drafts of this type represent the end of a day's writing. For an early version of the poem, see 45309, art. 1 (f. 3). Viz.:-(a) From 'A while in gentle wise they went' to 'Are pity and love all dead on earth' (C.W., v, pp. 33-38). ff. 5-6b;-(b) From 'His eager hand her hand did press' to 'And kissed her feet' (C.W., v, pp. 42-44). ff. 6b-7;-(c) From 'He rose with cleared eyes and did stand' to 'And wrap his soul in utter bliss' (C.W., v, pp. 48-49). f. 7;-(d) From 'Now in this bliss and part thereof' to 'Were sweet indeed but nowise life' (C.W., v, pp. 50-53). ff. 7b-8;-(e) From '...and in her breast' to 'Life's vision doth thine heart beguile' (C.W., v, pp. 43-44) overlaps with (b) above. f. 8;-(f) From 'So rising with a smile and sigh' to 'And in such wise the story told' (C. W., v, p. 50); immediately precedes (d) in the printed text. f.8b;-(g) From 'She smiled amid her tears and there' to 'A woman's certes strange affright' (C.W., v, pp. 68-74). ff. 9-10b;-

(h) From 'For in the midst of them there stood' to the end of the story proper, 'For lo, an idle dream is this!' (C. W., v, pp. 79-118). A fragment of which this is a direct continuation is now in 45298 A, f. 96b. The concluding section on Gregory, the storyteller, is not included in this draft, but is found in the following. ff. 11-22;-(i) The conclusion, from 'O'er Gregory's eyes the pain of morn' to 'Woe's me an idle dream it is' (C.W., v, pp. 119-120). The last two lines, slightly altered, have been transferred from the original conclusion of (h). ff. 23-23b.

(3) Verses between the above and Acontius and Cydippe (C.W., v, pp. 121-123), viz.:-(a) 'The autumn day the strange and dreamy tale'. f.23b;-(b) 'October drew our elders to a house'. ff. 23b-24;-(c) The October Song, beg. '0 love turn from the unchanging sea and gaze'. f. 24. (b) and (c) are transposed from the order of the printed text.

(4) A fragment of Acontius and Cydippe, beg. 'And to the wise it seemed withal', ends 'Not we for this will make amends' (C. W., v, pp. 152-153). f. 25.

(5) Verses between the above and The Man who never Laughed Again (C.W., v, pp. 156-158), viz.:-(a) 'Silence a little when the tale was told'. f. 26;-(b) 'In late October when the failing year'. ff. 26- 26b;-(c) The verses immediately following The Man who never Laughed Again (beg. 'Ah, these with life so done with now might deem') (C.W., v, p. 205). ff. 26b-27.

(7) The Man who never Laughed Again. Part of a little-altered draft of the long section, later almost completely rejected, concerning Bahram's life in the land beyond the door before the arrival of the Queen's Ship, from 'Then with one look upon the woodland track' to 'Wondering what folly made his closed eyes weep'. This is the text of which part is printed by May Morris in C.W., v, pp. xxv-xxxi, together with a discussion of it. The draft of this section in 45303, ff. 18-26 (see below), is earlier but more complete. ff. 28-42.

(8) The verses immediately preceding The Story of Rhodope, beg. 'On a clear eve when the November sky' (C.W., v, p. 207). f. 43.

(9) The Story of Rhodope. A draft of the dénouement of the tale, from 'The time came round again e'en to the day' to the end (the last stanza breaking off at 'She turned...'). The draft corresponds fairly closely to the printed text of this part of the tale in C.W., v, pp. 236-248, and was probably written as a substitute for the conclusion of the full draft in 45304 (see below), which differs radically from the printed text from this point onwards. The two MSS. are compared and discussed in Morris, i, pp. 413-423. ff. 44-47b.

(10) Other linking verses, viz.:-(a) The verses immediately preceding The Lovers of Gudrun in C.W., v, pp. 249-250, beg. 'Scarce aught was left of autumn tide to die'. ff. 48-48b;-(b) The first stanza of the November Song, beg. 'Are thine eyes weary is thine heart too sick' (C. W., v, p. 206). f. 48b.

(11) The Hill of Venus (C.W., vi, pp. 281-326). Three separate versions, differing from each other and from the printed text. They are described, together with other MSS. of the tale, by May Morris in C.W., vi, pp. xvi-xxvi, where some portions are quoted. The three versions are ascribed (loc. cit.) by her to late 1869 or even later, and are numbered A, B, C according to the order in which they were then bound, and are as follows:-(A) Beg. 'He looked behind him a vague memory', approximating to C.W., vi, p. 287, and ends at the return to the Hill. This draft approximates more closely to the printed text than (B) and (C), but is shorter than it. The song 'Before our lady came on earth' is missing, but its place is indicated (f. 49b). The hero is called Amyot here and in (C), but is unnamed in (B). The stanzas are numbered 1-68 and 102-220. ff. 49-65b;-(B) A fair copy with corrections. According to notes by May Morris (ff. 66, 76) sections of it were removed wholesale to the printer's copy. What remains is totally different from the printed text, and deals at length with the hero's sojourn in the land of Venus. The song, 'Still in the world old tales of her they tell', is included (ff. 72-73). ff. 66-83;-(C) Another fair copy with corrections, but extremely jumbled, being a collection of ideas rather than a coherent narrative. Parts of (A) and (B) were used, but the greater part was rejected for the final text. ff. 84-105. This MS. belonged to Laurence W. Hodson, Compton Hall, near Wolverhampton (bookplate f. i) and later to Charles Fairfax Murray (see 45347, ff. 9-10b).