The Virgin Mary, Auchinleck Manuscript

Dante Gabriel Rossetti

General Description

Date: 1847
Rhyme: a4b3c4b3d4e3f4e3
Meter: iambic
Genre: translation

Scholarly Commentary

Introduction

The single surviving manuscript of this work carries on its other side an early draft version of “The Lady's Lament”. Both works are closely related to the whole Courtly Love project that culminated for DGR in his signature poem “The Blessed Damozel”, and that pervades, of course, the translation project eventually published in 1861 as the The Early Italian Poets volume.

DGR's source text was taken from the Middle English devotional poem, “Joachim and Anne”, printed from the Auchinleck Manuscript in the 1840 volume Legendae Catholicae. A Lytle Boke of Seyntlie Gestes.

Textual History: Composition

The poem was probably drafted in 1847, but possibly in 1848.

Electronic Archive Edition: 1
Source File: 15-1847.raw.xml