Add MS 39217

Vol. II (ff. 135). Poems, chiefly of the peroid 1878- 1904, a number of school compositions and the Essay on Mary, Queen of Scots. Mainly autograph.

1. School compositions. Swinburne was at Eton from 1849-1853. (a) Latin elegiacs on "Arminius." The tutor has noted at the end "Writing improved" (f. 2b). f. 1 ; (b) "The triumph of Gloriana, or the Temple of Loyalty. On the Queen's visit to Eton." A long poem, in heroic couplets, beg "What Muse shall boldly raise a humble lay." Printed (privately) in the Trumph of Gloriana, ed. E. Gosse, 1916. f. 3; (c) English Essay on the theme: Nullum numen habes si sit prudentia ; nos te Nos facimus, Fortuna, deam [Juvenal, X. 365]. f. 11 ; (d) French exercises. f. 15.

2. "On the Death of Sir. John Franklin." This appears to be the MS. from which the poem was privately printed by E. Gosse, The Death of Sir. John Franklin, 1916. It was afterwards included by the same editor in the Posthumous Poems, 1917, p. 75. The poem (which is not in Swinburne's hand) was enclosed in an envelope (f. 20) endorsed (in a contemporary hand) "Admiral Swinburne" and (in a later hand) "Algernon C. Swinburne's poem on the death of Sir John Franklin for the Newdigate 1859-60?" On the basis of this last inscription Mr. Gosse printed the poem as Swinburne's composition for the Newdigate Prize, for which he entered in 1858, the set subject being "The Discovery of the North-West Passage." This poem, however, appears to have been lost and a correspondence in the Literary Supplement of The Times, 1917, 19 July-6 Sept., pp. 345, 357, 369, 393, 429, between Mr. Gosse, F. L. Latham (the successful competitor for the Newdigate, 1858) and Mrs. M. J. C. Leith makes it certain that the present poem is the one referred to in two letters from Swinburne to his mother (dated "Navestock, Ash Wednesday, [22 Feb.], 11 Mar. 1860") printed in Disney Leith, The Boyhood of A. C. Swinburne, 1917, pp. 52, 53: "You may have seen in the Guardian that there is a prize at Oxford of £50 (I think) for a poem on the subject of Sir John Franklin and the late discoveries. I have written for it . . . it didn't take two mornings' work." It appears from these letters that there were three copies of the poem: the orginial in Swinburne's hand (now in the possession of Mrs. Disney Leith, op. cit., p. 52 note), the copy prepared for the examiners and one sent to his mother. The present copy (which has corrections here and there) may be the one last named. It appears, at least, to have been continuously in the hands of the family. f. 21.

3. Early poems: (a) "Echo": a lyric (six 8-line stanzas) beg. "In the dusk of starlit hours." A cancelled beginning is on f. 28b (reversed) Watermark 1851. Printed in Posthumous Poems, p. 87, as belonging to the Oxford period, f. 27; (b) "Ode to Mazzini" : irregular ode (17 stanzas), printed in Posth. Poems, p. 167. A fragmentary earlier. copy, found among Swinburne's effects after his death, has been printed by E. Gosse, Boston Bibliophile Society Publications, No. 27, 1913, p. 13. On internal evidence Mr. Gosse assigns the composition to 1857, and suggests that the present copy may have been made later (? 1860). f. 29.

4. "Les Enfants Pauvres," with the orginials by V. Hugo. Dated "Feb. 13/70." Printed in Poems and Ballads, Sec. Series, 1878, p. 225 ("From Victor Hugo"). f. 39.

5. Poems printed in Tristram of Lyonesse, 1882: (a) "Seven Years Old," p. 253. Signed: "A. C. S., Jan. 20th, 1881. For the seventh birthday of H. W. M. (a chick !) Feb. 4th." f. 40; (b) [A Child's Pity], p. 262. Signed: "A. C. S. to H. W. M." f. 42 ; (c) "A Child's Thanks," p. 266. Signed: "A. C. Swinburne. Dec. 7th, 1881." f. 44.

6. "A Baby's Death, i-vii." Printed in A Century of Roundels, 1883. A second copy of nos. ii-iv, originally numbered i-iii follows (f. 48). f. 45.

7. Poems printed in A Midsummer Holiday, 1884: (a) "A Ballad of Sark," p. 86. f. 49; (b) "After a Reading" p.51. 53; (c) "Maytime in Midwinter," p. 100. Two alternative titles " Thanksgiving" and "Springtide in Winter" are cancelled. f. 53; (d) "A double ballad of August (1884)," p. 105. f. 54; (e) "Heartsease Country. To Isabel Swinburne," p. 109. Two copies, one (f.56) the original draft, with corrections, as sent to the printer, the other (f. 58) a fair copy (f) "A Ballad of Appeal. To Christina G. Rossetti," p. 112. f. 60; (g) "Cradle Songs (to a tunc of Blake's)," i-vii, p. 115. f. 62.

8. Poems printed in Poems and Ballads, Third Series, 1889: (a) "Baby-Bird," p. 88. Dated "Sept. 13th, 1888." f. 65 ; (b) "A Baby's Epitaph," p. 118. Two copies, the first signed and dated: "April 1885." f. 67.

9. Poem, without title, printed in Astrophel, 1894. p. 184, as "Epicede." With cancelled draft of stanza 5. First printed in The Nineteenth Century, March, 1894, p. 523. f. 69.

10. Poems printed in A Channel Passage, 1904: (a) "The High Oaks. Barking Hall, July 19th, 1896," p. 73. Two copies, the first the author's autograph draft, with corrections, the second the copy for the printer in another hand, only stanzas 6 (ll. 4-9), 11, 12, and an occasional correction being autograph. First printed in The Nineteenth Century, Sept. 1896, p. 341. ff. 71, 76 ; (b) "Barking Hall: A Year After. A sequel to 'The High Oaks,' " p. 80. Signed. f. 81.

11. Two translations, in verse (beg. "Day of wrath, the years are keeping") and prose, of the Dies Irae. Printed in Posth. Poems, p, 89. f. 29.

12. Article on Mary, Queen of Scots, written for the 9th edition of the Encyclopaedia Britannica, and printed in that and subsequent editions. See a note in the llth edition, xiv. p. 817, where an extract is given from a letter dated 4 Apr. 1882, in which Swinburne speaks of the gratification afforded to him by such a commision to one of his "idle trade." f. 87. Paper (many of the poems are written on blue paper, as is also the case with the original MSS. of Laus Veneris, Dolores and A Word for the Navy, cf. T. J. Wise, A Bibliographical List, pp. 30, 42, 67) ; ff. 135.

Algernon Charles Swinburne, poet: Poems and Essay on Mary, Queen of Scots.: Autogr.

Poetry: A. C. Swinburne, A Century of Rounder, and other poems: [1849-1904]: Autogr.

includes:

• f. 8 Vicomte Victor Marie Hugo,; author: Transcript and translation by A. C. Swinburne of his poem Les Enfants Pauvres: 1870.
• f. 49 Mary of Scotland: Essay on, by A. C. Swinburne: 1883.