Troy Town (draft manuscript, U. of British Columbia)
Dante Gabriel Rossetti
Production Description
Document Title: Troy Town
Author: Dante Gabriel Rossetti
Date of composition: 1869 September
Type of Manuscript: early draft manuscript
Note: 5 leaves written on rectos, with some text on the verso of leaf 3
Scribe: DGR
Corrector: DGR
Provenance
Current Location: U. of British Columbia Library, The Penkill Papers
Catalog Number: 5-1
Note: The manuscript was originally owned by William Bell Scott.
Physical Description
Paper: 19.5 x 11.6cm
Other Physical Features: The text is written in pencil.
Electronic Archive Edition: 1
Scholarly Commentary
Introduction
This is the first (pencil) draft of the poem, written while DGR was staying at Penkill with William Bell Scott in the summer of 1869. DGR wrote this text in August and early September, about the same time as he was writing Eden Bower . Not all of the received text is in this first rendering, but the poem is still substantially the same work we have. The poem was first set in type in the First Trial Book, which DGR received early in October 1869.
An interesting feature of this manuscript appears at the foot of the first page, where DGR writes a possible three-line refrain for Lilith in Eden Bower . DGR did not decide to include this refrain, though it is quite an effective piece of work.