Rossetti, Dante Gabriel
Writings: XXVIII. Note Book IV
page: [00]
Transcription Gap: page with engraving (to be added later)
Note: This is the marbeled recto of the stiff page that comes at the beginning
and end of the regular notebook pages in DGR's typical notebooks. The verso
of this leaf has some interesting notes by DGR on his prescription and
dosage for chloral plus some gloss notes by WMR.
page: [000v]
Manuscript Addition: WMRossetti from Gabriel's books 1882.
Editorial Description: WMR's note at bottom of the page
5 (List of Contents on p. 4)
Rx Chloral Hydrastis 3ii
Syrupi Aurantic
3i
Aquae vit 3vi
a sixth part at bedtime
every night
A mixture of
Ferris's Solution of Chloral
in 20 grain doses
De
Castro — corner of Wilton St
2 antib. p
5
at night. [?] next m
g.
page: [2]
Note: DGR's list of poetical words is in three columns, with the first and last
words in the first column added later and separated away from the main
column. This is on the verso of the stiff page that comes at the head of
DGR's typical notebooks.
Manuscript Addition: No. 1
Editorial Description: WMR's numeration of the work.
Manuscript Addition: [These are obviously notes for the
recurring rhyme words in
the 5th line of each stanza]
Editorial Description: WMR's note for DGR's list of rhymes for his projected poem
“God's Graal”.
Brood
—Widowhood
—Likelihood
Livelihood
—Lustihood
—Brotherhood
—Sisterhood
—Neighborhood
—Hardihood
—Knighthood
—Lordlihood
—Underwood
With Unwithstood
—Interlude
—Quietude
—Disquietude
Desuetude
Mansuetude
Consuetude
Habitude
—Solicitude
Longitude
—Similitude
—Solitude
Amplitude
—Plenitude
—Magnitude
—Infinitude
Finitude
—Decrepitude
Torpitude
Turpitude
—Lassitude
Necessitude
—Vicissitude
—Beatitude
Latitude
—Gratitude
—Ingratitude
—Rectitude
—Altitude
—Multitude
—Aptitude
Inaptitude
Promptitude
—Certitude
Incertitude
—Fortitude
—Altitude
—Servitude
page: [3]
Manuscript Addition: No. 2
Editorial Description: WMR's numeration of the work.
Manuscript Addition: 1
Editorial Description: DGR's numeration of the page in upper right corner.
Note: These poem notes are written on successive rectos through page [49].
The versos have occasional other material.
1 Guenevere daughter of King Leodegrance
of Cameliard.
2 Merlin warned King Arthur before his
marriage
that Guenevere
Lancelot should love her
& she him again.
3 Leodegrance gave as her dowry the table
round the which Uther Pendragon
gave
him; and when it is full complete,
there is an hundred knights
& fifty. He
gave an hundred knights with it, but
fifty
had been slain in his days.
4 They rode freshly with great royalty,
what by water & what
by land, till
they came that night to London.
5 Gawaine & Tor were knighted at
King Arthur's wedding.
6 Lancelot son of King Ban of Benwicke
& Queen Elein. His
first name was
Galahad & he was confirmed Lancelot
7 Merlin lies beneath a stone
For all the craft that he hath done.
page: [4]
Manuscript Addition: 2
Editorial Description: DGR's numeration of the page in upper left corner.
- The ark of the Lord of Hosts
- Whose name is called by the name of Him
- That dwelleth between the Cherubim.
- O Thou that in no house dost dwell,
- But walk'st in tent & tabernacle.
page: [5]
Manuscript Addition: 3
Editorial Description: DGR's numeration of the page in upper right corner.
8. Bagdemagus found “a branch of an
holy herb that was the
sign of the
Sancgreall; and no knight found
such tokens but he were
a good liver.”
9 Morgan le Fay wife of King Urience
10 Queen Guenevere held him in great
favour above all other knights,
and
certainly he loved the queene again above
all other knights
& damozels all the days
of his life, and for her he did
many
great deeds of arms, & saved her from
the fire
through his noble chivalry.
11 A hermit came & saw the siege perilous,
and asked why that
siege was void,
and was answered, “There shall never
none
sit in that siege but one, but if
he be destroyed.” And the
hermit said,
“This same year he shall be gotten
that
shall sit in that siege perilous,
and he shall win the Sancgreall.”
page: [6]
Manuscript Addition: 4
Editorial Description: DGR's numeration of the page in upper left corner.
Manuscript Addition: Date mainly towards 1871 perhaps
Editorial Description: WMR's note on these notebook contents laid out by DGR.
1 Notes for God's Graal & stanzas
2 My Lady
3 White Ship—fragments
4 Ochard Pit—narrative & fragment
5 Tale of Palimpsest
6 Chimes—fragment
7 Last Love
8 Possession
9
w Rose Mary—fragments & narrative
10 Doom of Sirens—narrative
11 The Cup of Water— d
o
& some scraps
page: [7]
12. Sir Pelles, King of the foreign country
& nigh cousin to
Joseph of Arimathy.
His castle the castle of Carbonek.
13 Anon there came in a dove at a window,
and in her bill a little censer
of gold,
& therewithal there was such a savour
as all the
spicery of the world had been
there. So there came a damozel,
passing
fair & young, & she bare a vessel of
gold
between her hands.
& the “This
is,
“said King Pelles, “the richest thing
that
my man hath living; & when this
thing goeth about,
the round table shall be broken.
14 (note.)The saint graal, or holy dish,
was the vessel in which the
paschal
lamb was placed at our saviour's
last supper, &
which Joseph of
Arimathea preserved & brought with
him
to Britain.
15 Dame Brison said to King Pelles: “I
shall make him to lie
with your daughter
Elaine & he shall not wit but that he
page: [8]
page: [9]
lieth with Queen Guenevere.” Then a
man brought him a
ring from Queen
Guenevere, like as he had come from
her,
& such as one for the most part as she
was wont to
wear. And when Sir Lancelot
saw that token, wit ye well he was
never
so fain.
16 Lancelot was on the point of slaying
Elaine when he discovered the deception—
17 Galahad was so named because
Sir Lancelot was so named at the
font
stone, & after that the Lady of the
Lake confirmed him Sir
Lancelot du Lac.
18 Sir Bors visited King Pelles when
Galahad was an infant, &
was
fed with the Sancgreall. And there
was a maiden that bore the
Sancgreall.
& she said openly— This child is
Galahad
that shall sit in the siege perilous
& shall
achieve the Sancgreall.
19 Great light as it were a summer
light. An altar of silver with four
page: [10]
-
In forests in wildernesses & in ways
page: [11]
pillows, and a table of silver.
20 Sir Lancelot would clatter in his
sleep & speak oft of his
lady Queen Guenevere.
21 As he was lying the second time with
Elaine (by deceit for Guenevere)
Guenevere
heard him talk in his sleep from the
next room,
& woke him by coughing,
after which he leaped up knowing
her
voice, & she met him at the door &
told
him him never again to come in
her sight. So he
ran for
swooned & after leaped out
at a window,
& ran forth he wist
not whither & was wild wood as
ever
was man. And so he ran two years
& never man might
have grace to know him.
22 And Sir Bors said to Q. Guenevere;
“Fie upon your weeping,
for ye weep
never but when there is no book.”
23 Sir Bors, Sir Ector & Sir Lyonell, his kinsmen,
sought him
well nigh a quarter of a year,
endlong and overthwart in many
places,
in forests in wilderness & in ways,
&
oftentimes where evil lodged for his sake.
page: [12]
page: [13]
24 Sir Percivale & Sir Ector, not knowing
each other, fight
& are both nearly slain.
Right so there came by the holy
vessel of
the sancgreall with all manner of
sweetness &
savour, & Sir Percival had
a glimmering of that vessel and of
the
maiden that bore it, for he was a
perfect clean maid.
“So God me help.”
Said Sir P. “I saw a
damosell as methought
all in white with a vessal in both her
hands
and forthwithal I was whole.”
25 Lancelot suffered & endured many
sharp showers and lived by
fruit &
such as he might get & drank water
two year.
26 Many gowns given at a knighting.
27 Lancelot taken to King Pelles'
castle & recognized by
Elaine &
healed of his wounds by the Sancgreall.
28 Called himself Le Chevalier mal-fait,
the knight that hath trespassed,
& dwelt
in Joyous-isle. There Sir L.
made
page: [14]
page: [15]
let make him a shield all of sables, &
a queen crowned
in the midst all of
silver and a knight clean armed standing
before
her, & every day once he w
d look
towards
the realm of Logris where Q.
G. was, and then he then he w
d fall a weeping.
29 Galahad knighted at 15 by Lancelot.
30 The sieges of the round table all about
written with letters of gold,
“Here ought
to set he” & “he
ought to set here”;
and in the siege perilous letters
neatly
written of gold that said, “Four
hundred winters
& four & fifty accom-
-plished after the passion
of our Lord
I.C. ought this siege to be fulfilled.”
This
was on the feast of Pentecost.
31 A sword sticking in a stone
which hoved on the water
which
Lancelot said he could not draw
out and “wit ye
well that this same
day will the adventure of the
Sancgreall
begin.” The
hall doors &
windows shut
by themselves but the hall not greatly
darkened.”
page: [16]
page: [17]
32 Letters writ in the siege perilous.—
“This is
the siege of Sir Galahad the good knight.”
Sir Galahad draws
out the sword which
was the sword with which Sir Balen le
Savage
slew his brother Balan.
33 A damsel comes & says to Lancelot
“Your great
doings be changed sith
today in the morning.”
34 Iesserance--a jacket of light plate armour.
35 Lancelot came of the 8th degree from
our Lord I.C. & Sir
Galahd of the 9th
36 Then anon they heard a cracking & crying
of thunder,
& in the midst of the
blast entered a sunbeam more
clear
by 7 times than ever they saw day,
& all they were
alighted of the Grace
of the Holy Ghost. (Pentecost.) And
either saw
other fairer than ever
they saw afore, & they looked
every
man on other as they had been dumb.
Then there entered into
the hall the
holy grail covered with White Samite,
page: [18]
page: [19]
but there was none might see it nor
who bare it, and there was all
the
hall fulfilled with good odours & every
knight had
such meat & drink as he
best loved in this world.
37 Gawaine first proposes the quest, and
Arthur says—Ye have
bereft me of
the fairest fellowship & the truest
of
knighthood that ever were seen together
in any realm of the
world. Sir Gawain
ye have set me in great sorrow, for I
have great
doubt that my true fellowship
shall ever meet more here again.
38 150 knights took the quest of the S.G.
39 Guenevere bids Lancelot god-speed.
40 Galahad has a
white shield given him
on which Joseph of
Arimathy had
made a cross with his own blood.
41 Just before Sir Lancelot's sleep, he
& Sir Percivale are
smitten down by Galahad.
page: [20]
page: [21]
42 But Sir Lancelot rode overthwart
& endlong in a wild
forest, & had no
path but as wild adventure led him,
and
at last he came unto a stone
cross which departed 2 ways in
waste
land. And by the cross was a stone
that was of marble, but it
was so
dark that Sir L. might not well know
what it was. Then Sir L.
looked by
him & saw an old chapel & there
he
weened to have found people.
And so Sir L. tied his horse to a
tree
& there he put off his shield & hung
it
upon a tree, & then he went unto
the chapel door &
found it wasted &
broken. And within he found a
fair
altar full richly arrayed with cloth
of silk, &
there stood a fair candlestick
which bare 6 great candles &
the
candlestick was of silver. And when
Sir L. saw this light he had
a great
will for to enter into the chapel but
page: [22]
page: [23]
he could find no place where he might
enter. Then was he passing
heavy &
dismayed. The he returned & came
again
to his horse & took off his bridle
& saddle
& let him pasture, & unlaced
his helm &
ungirded his sword & laid
him down to sleep upon his
shield
before the cross. And so he fell on
sleep & half
waking & half sleeping
he saw &c. He was
overtaken
with the sin that he had no power to arise
against the
holy vessel.
43 Then anon Sir Lancelot awaked &
set himself upright
& bethought
him what he had there seen &
whether
it were dreams or not. Right so he
heard a voice that
said—Sir Lancelot,
more hardy than is the stone, &
more
bitter than is the wood, & more naked
&
bare than is the leaf of the fig-tree,
therefore go thou from hence
& withdraw
thee from this holy place.
page: [24]
page: [25]
44 There he said: When I sought worldly
adventures & worldly
desires I ever
achieved them & had the better in
every
place, & never was I discomfited
in no quarrel were
it right or wrong.
And now I take upon me the adventures
of holy
things, & now I see that mine
old sin hindreth me
& shameth me
so that I had no power to stir or speak
when
the holy blood appeared before me.
So then he sorrowed till it
was
day, & heard the owl of the air sing;
then was he
somewhat comforted.
45 Sir Lancelot confesses to a hermit
all his life and how he had
loved
a queen unmeasurably many years,
—and all the great
deeds of arms
that I have done I did the most part
for the queen's
sake, & for her sake
would I do battle were it right
or
wrong, & never did I battle all
only for God's sake.
page: [26]
page: [27]
46 Also Merlin made the round
table in token of the roundness of
the
world.
Deleted Text47 Sir Percival enters a ship covered
within &
without with white samite.
47 The Sancgreall which is the secret
thing of the Lord Jesu
Christ.
48 Sir Ector has a vision in which he
sees Sir Lancelot as a well,
but
when he stooped to drink of that
water, the water sank from him.
49 Lancelot has a vision of the
Sanc
Sancgreall before the chamber con–
taining it in the
castle of Corbonek.
50 Lancelot's sin had lasted for 24 years.
51 “Now shall very knights be fed, and
the holy meat be
parted.”
52 A figure with the likeness of a child
and the visage was as red and as
bright
as any fire, and smote himself
into that bread.
53 “Knights marvellous”
page: [28]
page: [29]
54 Sir Galahad “As the flower of the
lily, as the flower of
the rose, and
as the colour of fire.”
55 “When the deadly flesh began to
behold the spiritual
things.”
56 Lancelot returns to Guenevere—
“&
forgat the promise and
the profession
that he made in the
quest. There
had no knight passed him in the
quest of the
Sancgreall, but ever
his thoughts were privily upon the queen.
57 She forbids him the court, thinking
his love has slackened.
58 Sir Pinell at a feast
given by Guenevere tries to
poison
s Sir
Gawaine with an apple
because he killed Sir
Lamoracke
, which
Sir Patrice eats & dies. Sir
Mador
de la Port appeals the queen of
his
cousin's death.
Sir Launcelot rescues her.
59 On the day Arthur made Lancelot
knight, through hastiness he lost
his
sword, and the queen found it &
lapped it in her
train & gave it him.
and therefore at that day he promised
her
ever to be her knight in right or wrong.
page: [30]
page: [31]
60 Astolat is Guildford: Elaine la
Blanche the fair maid of
Astolat.
Lancelot wears her
red sleeve
on his helm
at
the tournament. And he used
another shield, leaving his with
her
as too well known. Guenevere
is incensed. Elaine waits
on
him while he lies sick of his wounds
got at the tournament. She
offers
herself to Lancelot, is rejected, &
dies for his
love. Is rowed in a
barge to Westminster where the court is.
61
Said of Q. Guenevere--“While she lived she
was a
true lover, & therefore she
had a good end.”
62 The Queen's knights bore plain white
shields.
63 Sir Meliagraunce, loving the queen,
captures her as she rides
a-Maying,
& overcame her knights, &
imprisons
her at Lambeth.
Sir Lan She
page: [32]
- For God of all strokes will have one
- In every battle that is done.
page: [33]
contrives to send word to Lancelot
who on reaching Lambeth has
his
horse shot
but not killed by Ms archers lying
in
ambush. He kills a carter & takes
his cart, the horse
following stuck
full of arrows, & another carter
driving.
At the queen's request he
pardons Sir Meliagraunce, and
is called Le
Chevalier du Chariot.
Sir L. sleeps with the queen, &
hurts
his hand in getting through her
window to do so. Sir M. sees
his
blood on her pillows & accuses
him
her of sleeping with one of her
wounded knights who are
lying
hard by. Sir L. wages battle with
him, & is
afterwards dropped down
a trap. A lady who brings him food
loves
& delivers him. He is again
in time to rescue the queen
from
burning & kill Sir M.
page: [34]
page: [35]
64 Sir Lancelot heals Sir Urre by prayer
& laying on of hands,
after King
Arthur had failed as well as many
other knights.
“And even Sir Lancelot
wept as he had been a child
that
had been beaten.”
65 Sir Lancelot rode in a chariot 12
months to brave those who
put
him to ridicule & did great deeds therein.
66 Sir Agravaine & Sir Mordred tell
King Arthur of L
& G's love, & waylay
him with twelve other knights
in her
chamber. “But whether they were
abed or at other
manner of disports,
it one list not thereof to make
mention, for love at that
time
was not as it is nowadays.”
Lancelot slays all
except Mordred.
Mordred insists on Guenevere being
burnt. She is
brought to the stake
at Caerleyll, and Sir Lancelot
& his
knights rescue her, dispoiled
page: [36]
page: [37]
unto her smock, & cast a kirtle and
gown on her, &
carry her off to his
Castle of Joyous-Gard.
67 King Arthur besieges Joyous-Gard for
16 weeks.
68 Sir Lancelot denies
that guilty
the queen
has played Arthur false, “howbeit
it hath liked her good
grace to have
me in charity & to cherish me more
than any
other knight.”
69 The Pope sends a bull commanding
Arthur to raise the siege
& take
back Guenevere to Caerleyll.
70 Lancelot is banished through Sir
Gawaine's advice (whose brother
Gareth
& Gaheris he had slain unadvisedly
in rescuing
Guenevere) and leaves
Joyous-Gard; and afterward he
called it Dolorous-Gard.
71 He ships at Cardiff and goes to
Benwicke in France, hi
father's
Kingdom; some men call it Beyon,
(Beyonne)
page: [38]
page: [39]
& some men call it Beaune, whereas
the wine of Beaune is.
72 Arthur follows & besieges Benwicke
leaving Sir Mordred
regent in England
& Q. Guenevere in his care. The
siege
lasts half a year.
73 Mordred has himself cronwed
at Canterbury, then goes to
Winchester
(Camelot) & tells Guenevere
she must wed him. She
pretends
to consent, but escapes to the
Tower of London and is there
besieged
by Mordred.
74 Arthur hears of this & lands at
Dover where Mordred meets
him
to
fight it out let his landing.
A battle ensues,
& Gawaine is
killed being wounded afresh
where Lancelot
had lately wounded
him.
75 They go down to meet in battle
at Salisbury, but afterwards
page: [40]
page: [41]
a peace is proposed, & both sides
agree to it, but each
privily resolves
to set on if a single sword is drawn.
for fear of
treason. An adder appearing,
a knight
of Arthur's draws his
sword to kill it,
and Mordred's party set on and commence
the final
battle in which Arthur
' Mordred slay each other.
76 The Queens who took King Arthur
away after death were Morgan
le
Fay his sister; the queen of
Northgalis; the Queen of the
Waste
Lands; & Nimue the chief
lady of the Lake.
77 Guenevere goes to Almesbury;
and there she let make herself a
nun,
& wore white clothes & black.
78 Lancelot returns to England &
goes to see Guenevere in
the
nunnery of which she is abbess.
She says: I require &
beseech thee
heartily, for all the love that ever
page: [42]
page: [43]
was ever between us two, that thee never
look me in the visage. . . . . .
.
For as well as I have loved thee, Sir
Lancelot, now my heart will not
once serve me to see thee; for through me
& thee
is the flower of kings and
knights destroyed.” Lancelot
says
he shall enter a monastery; “for
I take record of
God in you have I
had mine earthly joy. Wherefore,
madame, I pray
you kiss me
once & never more.” “Nay,
said
the queen, “that shall I never do,
but abstain you
from such things.”
And so they departed. But there
was
never so hard a hearted man
but he would have wept to see
the sorrow
that they made; for there
was a lamnetation as though
they had been
stungen with spears,
& many times they swooned, &
the
ladies bare the queen to her chamber.
page: [44]
page: [45]
And Sir Lancelot awoke &
rode all
went & his horse & rode all
that day
& all that night in a forest
weeping. He comes to a
hermitage
where he finds the bishop of Canterbury
who has become a
hermit & Sir
Bedivere who has joined him. Sir
B. tells
Sir L. of the last battle &c.
And Sir Lancelot threw
abroad
his armour & said, —Alas! who
may trust
this world? Then he
takes the habit of priesthood.
79 A vision comes
3 times in the nightto Sir L. & bids
him go to Almesbury, where he
will find Guenevere dead.
80 And when Sir Lancelot was come
to Almesbury, within the
nunnery,
Queen Guenevere died but half an
hour before; &
the ladies told Sir L.
that Q.G. had told all, or she died,
that Sir
L. had been priest near
12 months; “and hither he cometh
page: [46]
page: [47]
as fast as he may to fetch my corpse;
and beside my lord King Arthur
he
shall bury me.” Wherefore the Queen
said in hearing of
them all, “I beseech
Almighty God that I may never
have
power to see Sir Lancelot with my
worldly eyes.”
“And this,” said all
the ladies, “was
ever her prayer all
those 2 days until she was
dead.”
Then Sir Lancelot saw her visage,
but he wept
greatly, but sighed;
and so he did all the observance
of the service
himself, both the
dirge at night & the mass on the
morrow.
81 She is borne by
King Sir L. & his
fellows who
have become priests
to Glastonbury & there buried
with
Arthur. “Truly” said Sir L. “I
trust
I do not displease God, for he knoweth
well my intent, for my
sorrow
was not nor is not for any rejoicing
page: [48]
page: [49]
of sin, but my sorrow may never
have an end, when I
remember
& call to mind her beauty her
bounty
& her nobleness.”
82 Lancelot falls sick. “My
fair lords,” said Sir
L. “wit ye
well my careful body will into
the earth: I
have warning
more than I will now say.” He
dies
& is buried at Joyous-Gard.
83 Sir Ector who been seeking
his brother Sir Lancelot,
arrives
during the funeral rites. And
then Sir Ector threw his
shield,
his sword, & his helm from him.
“Ah
Sir Lancelot!” said he, “thou
wert head of all
Christian knights.
And now I dare say,” said Sir
Ector,
“ that Sir Lancelot there
thou liest, thou that wert
never
matched of none eartly knight's
hands; and thou wert the
curteist
page: [50]
page: [51]
knight that ever bore shield; & thou
wast the truest
friend to thy lover
that ever bestrode horse; & thou
wert
the truest lover of a sinful
man that ever loved a woman;
and thou
wert the kindest man
that ever strook with sword; and
thou wert the
goodliest person that
ever came among press of knights;
and thou
wert the meekest man
& the gentlest that ever ate in
hall
among ladies; & thou wert
the sternest knight to thy
mortal
foe that ever put spear in rest.”
page: [52]
page: [53]
Editorial Description: DGR's note at bottom of the page
Tra le notizie dei Professori di
disegno
racolte dal Baldinucci leggiamo
che Serafino
Serafini pittore modenese,
che fiori circa il 1390, nella
Cappella della famiglia de'
Petrati, ch'ei dipinse in
San Domenico
di Ferrara, mise la seguente iscrizione.
- “Mille trecento con septanta sei
- Erano corsi gl'auri del Signore
- E'l quarto entrava, quando al suo onore
- Questa cappella al suo bel fin [minei?]
- Ed io che tutto ensì la storiei
- Fui Serafin da Mitina pintore.
- E Frate Aldobrandino Inquisitore
- L'ordine diede, et io lo seguitei.
- E far la fece, sappia ognun per [?]
-
10La Donna di Francesco di Lamberto.
Crescimbeni
vol 1. p.206
page: [54]
God's Graal.
- Lancelot lay beside the well:
- (
God's Graal is good)
- Oh my soul is sad to tell
- The weary quest and the bitter quell;
- For he was the lord of lordlihood,
- And sleep on his eyelids fell.
- Lancelot lay before the shrine:
- (
The apple tree's in the
wood.
)
- There was set Christ's very sign,
-
10The bread unknown and the unknown wine
- That the soul's life for a livelihood
- Craves from his wheat & vine.
page: [55]
Manuscript Addition: No. 3
Editorial Description: WMR's numeration of the work.
- I'll tell you of my Lady all I know;
- And if my lady knew
- That I would tell this, she would &c
- &c &c &c &c
- And say, “Why, all is his, so let him tell.”
She is full of incidents, like all beautiful
Nature. Then follow
descriptive lines
about her different attitudes, expressions,
&c
Perhaps to wind up by saying that nothing
one can say
is so expressive of her
as her own name, which means
herself
only—and that cannot be
said for others to hear.
Every part of her has its own ways of
loving and is like a
separate
mistress. Descriptions &c—
page: [56]
Manuscript Addition: No. 4
Editorial Description: WMR's numeration of the work.
- By none but me can the tale be told,
- The butcher of Rouen, poor Berold.
- (
Lands are swayed by a King on a throne.)
- 'Twas a royal train put forth to sea;
- Yet the tale can be told by none but me.
- (
The sea hath no King but God alone.)
- Blithe is the shout on Harfleur's strand
- When morning lights the sails to land:
- And blithe is Honfleur's echoing gloam
-
10When mothers call the children home:
- Where lands were none 'neath the dark sea-sky,
- We told our names, that man & I.
- “O I am Gilbert de l'Aigle hight,
- And son I am to a belted knight.”
- “And I am Berold the butcher's son
- Who slays the beasts in Rouen town.”
- “O wherefore black,
O King, ye
well may say,
- For white is the hue of death to-day.”
- “Your son & all his fellowship
-
20Sleep in the sea's bed with the White Ship.” .
. . . . .
- There's many an hour must needs beguile
- A King's high heart that he should smile,—
- (
Lands are swayed by a King on a throne.)
- Full many a lordly hour, full fain
- But this King never smiled again.
- (
The sea hath no King but God alone.)
page: [57]
Manuscript Addition: No. 5
Editorial Description: WMR's numeration of the work.
Note: On the manuscript stanzas 3 and 4 appear in reverse order. DGR first
cancelled stanza 3, then restored it (marking it
“stet”), adding at the same time a mark indicating
that the received stanza 3 should precede stanza 4.
- Piled deep below the screening apple-branch
-
They lie with bitten
Those dead men lie with apples in their hands:
- And some are only ancient bones that blanch,
- And some had ships that last year's wind did launch,
- And some were yesterday the lords of lands.
- In the soft
dell
glen, among the apple-trees,
- High up above the hidden pit she stands
- And there for ever sings, who gave to these,
- That lie below, her magic hour of ease,
-
10 And those her apples holden in their hands.
Added Text
- Th
i
us in
night
my dreams is shown me; and her hair
- Crosses my lips & draws my burning
breath:
- Her song spreads golden wings upon the air;
- Life's eyes are gleaming from her forehead fair,
- And from her breasts the ravishing eyes of Death.
- Men say to me that sleep hath many dreams,
- Yet I knew never but this dream alone.
- There from a dried-up channel, once the stream's,
- The glen slopes up; even such in sleep it seems
-
20 As to my waking sight the place well-known.
Note: The text of these draft fragments of the poem is written in pencil
- I Berold was under the sea
- I knew what the flood of death must be
- And cried to Christ to strengthen me
- Pale Fitz-Stephen stood by the helm
-
With
'Mid all those folk that the waves must whelm
- A
great king's
own son
heir for the waves to whelm
- And the helpless pilot pale at the helm
page: [58]
Manuscript Addition: a 3
Editorial Description: Notation on upper right in unknown hand.
Men tell me that sleep has many dreams;
but all my life I have
dreamt one dream
alone.
In childhood, I saw a man in
my dream;
and in manhood, I know
that I am he; but the thing shown is
the same
.
I see a glen whose sides slope upward
from the deep bed of a
dried-up stream,
and are covered with apple-trees and
either slope is covered
with
wild apple-trees.
In the largest tree, within the fork
whence
the limbs divide, a fair goldenhaired
woman stands and sings,
with one
white arm stretched along a branch
of the tree, and with
the other holding
forth a bright red apple, as if to some
one coming
down the slope. Below her
feet the trees grow more and more
tangled
and stretch from both sides across the
deep pit below: and
the pit is full
of the bodies of men.
They lie in heaps beneath the screen of
boughs, with her apples
bitten in their
hands; and some are no more than
ancient bones now,
and some seem
dead but yesterday. She stands over them
in the glen,
and sings for ever, and
offers her apple still.
page: [59]
Note: At the top of the page DGR has cancelled both the repeated title and a
line of asterisks.
My
This dream
s shows me no strange
place. I know the
dell
glen and have known
it from childhood, and heard
many
tales of those who have died there
by the siren's spell.
I pass there often now and look at
it as one might look at a place
chosen
for one's grave. I see nothing, but I
know that it means
death for me.
The apple-trees are like others, and
have childish
memories connected
with them, though I was taught to
shun the place.
No man sees the woman but once, and
then no other is near; and no
man
sees that man again.
page: [60]
page: [61]
One day in hunting, my dogs tracked the
deer to that dell, and he
fled and
crouched under that tree, but the dogs
would not go near
him. And when
I approached, he looked in my eyes
as if to say,
“Here you shall die, and
will you here give
death?” And his
eyes seemed the eyes of my soul,
&
I called off the dogs, who were glad
to follow me, and
we left the deer
to fly.
I know that I must go there and hear
the song and take the apple. I
join
with the young knights in their games,
and have led our vassals
and fought
well. But all seems to me a dream
except what only I
among them all
shall see. Yet who knows? Is there
one among them
doomed like myself
and who is silent, like me? We shall
not meet in
the dell, for each man
page: [62]
page: [63]
goes there alone: but in the pit we shall
meet each other, and
perhaps know.
Each man who is the siren's choice
dreams the same dream, and
always
of some familiar spot wherever he
lives in the world; and it
is there
that he finds her when his time comes.
But when he sinks in
the pit, it is
the whole pomp of her dead gathered
through the world
that awaits him
there; for all attend her to grace
her triumph. Have
they any souls
out of those bodies? Or are the bodies
still the
house of the soul, the siren's
prey till the day of judgment?
We were ten brothers. One is gone
there already. One day we
looked
for his return from a border foray,
and his men came home
without
him, saying that he had told them
page: [64]
page: [65]
he went to seek his love who
awaited
would
him by the way
come to meet him by another road. But
anon his love
met
them,
to welcome
asking for him; and they sought
him vainly all that day. But
in
the night his love rose from a dream;
and she went to the edge of
the
Siren's dell, and there lay his helmet
and his sword. And her
they sought
in the morning, and there she lay
dead. None has ever
told this
thing to my love, my sweet love who
is affianced to me.
One day at table my love offered me
an apple. And as I took it
she
laughed, and said, “Do not eat,
it is the fruit of
the Siren's dell.”
And I laughed and ate: and at
the
heart of the apple was a red
stain like a woman's mouth; and
as I
bit it I could feel a kiss
upon my lips.
page: [66]
page: [67]
And I was troubled, and they that saw were
silent; but my love
laughed & said proudly & looked
around
& said
One
The same evening I walked with my love by
that place, and she
would needs
have me sit with her
by under the
apple-tree
in which the siren is said
to stand. Then she stood in the
hollow
fork of the tree, and plucked an
apple, and stretched it to
me and
would have sung: but at that
moment she cried out, and
leaped
from the tree into my arms, and
said that the leaves were
whispering
other words to her, and my name
among them. She threw the
apple
to the bottom of the dell and followed
it with her eyes to see
how far it
would fall, till it was hidden by
the tangled boughs. And
as we
still looked, a little snake crept
up through them.
She would needs go with me afterwards
to pray in the church, where my
page: [68]
Note: Originally a blank page, DGR used it to copy out a stanza of verse.
Note: WMR incoporated the lines as the final (fifth) stanza of the
fragment of the ballad DGR intended to write. But the document here
shows that the stanza was written as DGR was copying out the prose
version of the tale and that it corresponds to the prose text of
paragraph 15. It therefore would almost certainly have come into the
ballad at some later point, and not as stanza 5.
- My love I call her, and she loves me well:
- But I love her as in the
maelström's cup
- The whirled stone loves the leaf inseparable
- That clings to it round all the circling swell
- And that the same last eddy swallows up.
page: [69]
ancestors and hers are buried: and
she looked round on the
effigies and
said, “How long will it be before we
lie
here carved together?” And I thought
I heard the wind in the
apple trees that
seemed to whisper, “How long?”
And late that night, when all were
asleep, I went back to the dell
and
said in my turn, “How long?” And
for a
moment I seemed to see a
hand and apple stretched from the
middle of
the tree where my love had
stood. And then it was gone: and
[?] I plucked the apples
and bit them and cast them in
the
pit, and said, “Come.”
I speak of my love, and she loves
me well: but I love her only as
the
stone whirling down the rapids loves
the dead leaf that travels with
page: [70]
page: [71]
it and clings to it, and that the
same eddy will swallow up.
Last night, at last, I dreamed how the end
will come
& now I know it is near. I saw in sleep not only
the
lifelong pageant of the glen, but I took
my part in it at last
and
knew
learned
for certain why that dream was mine.
I seemed to be walking with my love among
the hills that lead
downward to the glen:
and still she said, “It is
late;” but the
wind was glenwards, and said,
“Hither.”
And still she said, “Home
grows far;”
but the rooks flew glenwards, and
said,
“Hither.” And still she said,
“Come back;”
but the sun had set, and the
moon
laboured towards the glen, and
said,
“Hither.” And my heart said in
me,
“Aye, thither at last.” Then we stood
on
the
summit of margin of the slope,
with the apple-trees
beneath us; and
the moon bade the clouds fall from her,
and sat in
her throne like the sun at
noonday: and none of the apple-trees
were
bare now, though autumn was
far worn, but fruit & blossom
covered
them together. And they were too thick
to see through
clearly; but looking far down
page: [72]
I saw a white hand holding forth an apple,
and heard the first
notes of the Siren's song.
Then my love clung to me and wept; but
I
began to struggle down the slope through
the thick wall of bough and
fruit and
blossom, scattering them as the storm scatters
the dead
leaves; for that one apple only
would my heart have. And my love
snatched
at me as I went; but the branches I thrust
away sprang back
on my path, & tore
her hands and face: and the last
I
knew of her was the lifting of her
arms to heaven as she cried aloud
above
me, while I still forced my way downwards.
And now the Siren's
song rose clearer as I went.
At first she sang, “Come to
Love;” and of the
sweetness of Love she said many things. And
next
she sang, “Come to Life;” & Life
was sweet in
her song. But long before I reached her, she
knew that
all her will was mine: and then
her voice rose softer than ever, and her
words
were, “Come to Death;” and Death's name
in
her mouth was the very swoon of all sweetest things
that be. And
then my path cleared; and she
stood over against me in the fork of the
tree I knew so well,
blazing now like a lamp beneath the moon. And
one
kiss I had of her mouth, as I took the apple from her
hand. But
while I bit it, my brain whirled & my
foot stumbled; and I
felt my crashing fall through
the tangled boughs beneath her feet, and
saw the
dead
Damned white faces that welcomed me in
the
pit. And so I woke cold in my bed: but it still
seemed that I
lay indeed at last among those who
shall be my mates for ever, and could
feel the apple
still in my hand.
page: [73]
Manuscript Addition: No. 6
Editorial Description: WMR's notation in the upper left corner, numerating the item in the notebook
Deleted Text
- Love hath a chamber all of imagery,
- And there in one dim nook
- A little storied web wherein my heart
- From
pag leaf to leaf is read as in a book.
(One part in the middle of the web
begun and left
unfinished—a face
with ravelled threads falling over
it
& hiding it.) Love says that the time
has come to
fin resume & finish
this part of the web,
though much
has come between since it was
begun.)
Deleted Text
- And instantaneous penetrating sense,
- In spring's first hour, of other springs gone by
Deleted Text
- and things
- Conjectured in the lamentable night.
- What thing so pitiful as the poor Past?
page: [74]
Manuscript Addition: No. 7
Editorial Description: WMR's notation in upper left corner, numerating the notebook item
Note: DGR has added the numbers 1, 3, 2, 4 at the left of the first four
couplets here, thus indicating his preferred sequence for them.
- Lost love-labour & lullaby,
- And lowly let love lie.
- Lovelorn labour and life laid by,
- And lowly let love lie.
- Late love-longing and life-sorrow
- And love's life lying low.
- Lost love-morrow and love fellow
- And love's life lying low.
- Beauty's bower in the dust o'erblown
-
10 With a bare white breast of bone.
- Barren beauty and bower of sand
- With a blast on either hand.
- Hollow heaven and the hurricane
- And hurry of the heavy rain.
page: [75]
Manuscript Addition: No. 8
Editorial Description: WMR's notation in upper left corner, numerating the notebook item
Note: WMR has added the title in square brackets above the text, which has
been cancelled on the page by DGR.
Deleted Text
- “Small hope, my girl, for a helm to hide
- In mists that cling to a wild moorside:
-
No will for them but of
Soon they melt with the wind and sun,
- And scarce
they'd
would wait till
the
a deed were done:
- God send such snare be the worst to shun!
- “Still the road
shifts
winds ever anew
-
And
As it hastens on towards Holycleugh:
-
Everywhere the path lies clear;
-
And now as/ As ever the castle draws more near;
-
Still past it goes, and there's nought to fear.
-
Now/And now it has passed and still no fear.
-
And ever the
castle
great walls loom
s more near,
- Till the castle-shadow, steep and sheer,
-
10Drifts as a cloud, and the sky is clear.”
- “Enough, my daughter,” the
mother said,
- And took to her breast the bending head;
- “Rest here, darling, as long ago,
- While
your
a heart's song lulls you, sweet & low;
- For all is learnt that we need to know.
- “Long the miles and many the hours
- From the castle-wall to the abbey-towers;
- But there he may journey without dread;
- Too thick with life is the whole road spread
-
20For murder's trembling foot to tread.”
page: [76]
Scene I to begin with a description by the
hermit of dawn at sea
after the storm overnight—
golden plough on the
sea-fields—“And a
fresh dawn again
incredible” &c.
page: [77]
Note: This is DGR's early prose synopsis of parts II and III of the ballad.
Their embrace lasted till
the mother felt unable
to embrace longer
the
creature to whom she
must still give so much
pain. Then
suddenly
her sobs ceased, and
giving one long kiss to
her
daughter, she held
her tightly still, but
away from herself,
and
said: “You spoke but now
but wedding music.
How
if the bridegroom came
home again but sought
you not and
said not
a word?” and Rose
Mary looked in
wonder
& said: I know his
heart, and I would
say that
he was troubled
and overwearied, and
that he would not see
me
till his eyes could make
mine happy.” But
the
mother said, “What if
his hands and lips
were
cold when you clasped
and kissed them?” And
Rose
Mary answered, “I
know his heart; and
I would say that
the wind
was chill, and that it
was a sweet task for
page: [78]
my hands and lips to warm
them.” Then the
mother:
“But what if you asked
him of your wedding day
&
he never answered?” And Rose
Mary
answered
said, “But mother,
his heart is mine; and
I
should know then for certain
that he meant me a
sweet
surprise, and that the music
and the garlands were at
the
door and would meet my
eyes ere I could ask again.
But
wherefore do you speak
thus?” Then her mother was
silent
as not knowing what
to say again, till she clasped
her yet more
closely and asked
once more: “How think you
poor
daughter, that I know
your secret and your sin?”
And Rose
Mary said: “Alas!
I never thought how you knew,
when your
words showed me
that so it was: and now
your love makes me
pray
again that you know. Did
you learn it by the
Beryl
stone?” But the mother
said: “The Beryl
stone speaks
not to me. But had you no
fears, daughter, knowing
your
own heart, when
you so last you
sought its counsel
which the
pure alone may claim, and
no fears since for the truth
of
its showing?” Then Rose
Mary started like a
stricken
fawn; & she said, “O mother,
but
still I saw!” And the
mother: “Ah daughter,
why
hid you your heart from my
great love? Alas! I would
page: [79]
have told you that sin in the
sëer must chase away
the
good spirits of the Beryl, and
the evil ones that took
their
place might either show
nought to you or show the
truth by
contraries.” Then
Rose Mary neither spoke nor
moved: and
her mother
kissed her many times &
said: “O
daughter, believe
that a love no less than his
is still with you:
but oh!
more cold and mute than
you are now is the
bridegroom
who has come home to-day.
O daughter, the mist
you
saw on the road to Holycleugh
was no mist but a veil
of
error and deceit: there
and not in the vally the
danger
lurked, and thence
has your dead love been born
home
today.” But while
she still spoke, Rose Mary
swooned. Her
mother wrung
her hands and called to
her in vain: then,
going
without the chamber door, she
opened a secret panel,
and
hurrying to the altar chamber,
returned with a flask
from
which she sprinkled the
pallid face and hands. Soon
there
came some first signs of
returning life: and then the
mother stood
up and hid her
eyes, saying: ”O how shall I
bear to meet
her glance when
she wakes? O for some help
to wrestle with this
terrible
horror! I will seek the priest
who prays by the dead man,
&
he shall aid me to soothe her anguish.”
page: [80]
With that, she ran down the castle
stairs to the hall where the
dead
man still lay as he had been
brought in, with the priest
praying
beside him, while the scared
retainers of the house
crowded
in but stood aloof from the body.
The priest rose on seeing
her, &
giving her a packet, told her
that it had been
found next
the slain man's heart. The lady
took it and said to him:
She
“O father, she knows the worst now.
I beseech of you, go
seek her in
my chamber, where she lies not
yet recovered from a
swoon;
and when she can hear you,
speak to her of Heaven
and
comfort before I come again. I
will be with you ere long,
but
it may well be that only such
words as yours should
first
meet her ears.” The priest
hastened away; and then
the
lady, bidding all the others with-
-draw,
sat
knelt down by the head
of the corpse, and gazed long
in
the face, saying: “Sorely
didst thou wrong my child
and
me;
Added Textalas!
and by her unwitting
word means
has
God's will brought thee
to death.
yet had thy
life
stayed with thee, I doubt not
thy loving heart would
have
redeemed her honour and
thine own.
Added TextThy shrift thou
hast never
won; but may death spoil
thy soul for
sin!
Peace be with
thee; but what with her?”
As
she was about to kiss the
brow of the corpse, her eyes fell
on the
papers that she still held
in her hand, and she
said,—
“Ah poor child, doubtless here
is some
pledge of thine.” She
opened the packet, and found
a lock
of golden hair twined
round
some a folded paper.
page: [81]
Her hand trembled, and she
said: “This is none of my
child's
dark tresses!” And opening the
paper hastily, she
read this:—
“Come home, my love, three
days
hence at Holy Cross. I
I will go thither as for a shrift,
and do
then do likewise. My
brother rides from Holycleugh
the day before,
and will not
return till we are safe with
our love alone where he
cannot
reach us.” As she finished
reading, she closed her
eyes &
seemed nigh to swoon; then
she dropped her hands
like one
murmuring, “The Warden's
sister of
Holycleugh!” But
anon with a long moan she
rose to her
feet. “O God!” she
said, ”O God! and
was it
for this? Well hast thou
paid thy treason, thou dead
body
and soul!” And as
she spoke, she smote the face
of the
corpse with the
long lock of
golden hair, and left
it
lying across the pale lips.
At the same instant, the
priest
called to her from the
gallery that ran round
the hall, bidding her
come
quickly, for her daughter
was gone from the chamber
where
he had sought her, &
they must now seek her together.
Part III
Rose Mary, on being left alone
by her mother, had ere long
re
-covered from her swoon. As she
rose to her feet, all the agony
of
the past hour rushed back con-
-fusedly on her soul, and she
page: [82]
looked round for her mother &
doubted if it might not be a
dream.
She staggered towards the
chamber door, hardly
knowing
what she did, but calling wildly
on her mother &
her lover to
come to her. Beyond the chamber
door, the secret door
in the
wall still stood open, having
been left so in haste by her
mother
when she sought the restoratives.
She made her way up the
dim
staircase, still half unconscious
and uttering broken cries
and
moans, till at the summit she
found herslef
at in the
little
altar-chamber. On the altar,
between burning lamps
and
before an open book, stood the
Beryl stone on a silver
tripod.
Then all rushed back clearly
on her mind, and she
shrank
as from the sight of a serpent.
Above the altar there
hung
against the wall the helmet
and sword which her father
had
worn in Palestine when
he fought there and won the
talisman. Then
suddenly
she took down the sword, and
spoke to the Beryl-stone
saying:
“O ye accursed spirits! Strong
was the hand that
brought
ye hither, yet shall a weak
hand suffice to send ye
hence.
Now, my true love, even as
they have slain thee, so
God
send they may take my life
also; and as they speed to Hell
I
shall see thy face in Heaven;
for by the grace of God, surely
our
sin
is
shall be thus atoned.” Then
heaving up the sword
with both
hands, she brought the blade
down on the Beryl-stone and
page: [83]
cleft it asunder. The clang
of the falling sword was answered
by a
deafening shock, as if
all
the earth and sky met together,
with wind and rain, with
the
rush of fire and water, with
the voice of laughter and
tears.
And when it ceased, Rose Mary
lay upon the ground pale
and
dead, but with no mark of
death upon her, & with the
sword
still in her hand: Then a voice
said in the room:
“Come with
me, sweet soul, and I will
bring thee to thy
rest. Me thy
sin chased from the talisman,
and to me thou comest
in
pardon, who hast chased my
foes from it again. Already
has
thy heart forgotten its
hope in death, for the heaven
of pity is far
from the hell
of treason. Thy place, true
soul, is in Mary's
rose-bower,
with all smiles and kisses of
love; though for thee,
poor
corpse, nought is left but
loving sighs and tears, but
rent
rose-flowers and rosemary.”
page: [84]
Manuscript Addition: No. 9
Editorial Description: WMR's notation in upper left corner, numerating the notebook item
Note: The page is headed by WMR's bracketed description "“[Three
Notes]”. The texts are scripted upside down (in relation to the
scrpting norm in the rest of the notebook pages).
Note: Though a prose text, this seems clearly to have been drafted for
“Commandments”, pieces of which he was drafting in
his notebooks from 1871 onwards.
Idealize all things but thyself. ? an
Seek thine ideal
in anywhere except in
thyself. Once
find
fix it there, and the ways
of thy real
?
self will matter nothing
to thee, whose eyes
are fixed/
set only
can rest on the ideal
already perfected.
Could I have seen the thing I am to-day,
The same (how strange!) the same
as I was then!
Yet the time may come when to my soul
it may be
difficult in such old things
to tell which came first of all
the
days which now seem so wide apart.
Note: This is DGR's prose synopsis of the sonnet “Transfigured Life”.
As the features of a child
are recall now
the father
& now the mother, and yet are
different from both; so in a
work may
be traced in a new form this or that
passion or experience
of its author's life,
though all be turned to a fresh purpose.
page: [85a]
1. How
King ArthurSir
Lancelot
was made a knight at the hand
of King Arthur, &
how Queen Guenevere
crowned him.
2. How Sir Lancelot
being in quest of the
S[ancgreal]
fell in
a deep sleep before the shrine,
of the Sancgrael for he might
not enter in, because
of
the love he bore to Queen
Guenevere, King Arthur's wife.
3. How Sir Galahad,
Sir Laucelot's
son with Sir Bors & Sir
Percival, they 3 being
clean
maids, were fed with the
Sancgreal, but Sir
Percival's
sister died on the way.
4. How
Sir Agravaine, Sir Mordred, and
Sir
Sir Lancelot was
found in Queen Guenevere's chamber,
and
how Sir Agravain & Sir Mordred
with more came with 12 knights
to slay him.
5. How Sir Lancelot parted
from Queen
Guenevere at
King Arthur's tomb, and
would have kissed her
at
parting, but she would not.
page: [85aVerso]
San Graal
Agravain
page: [85]
Note: This is DGR's prose synopsis of the projected work.
A woman, intensely enamoured of a man who
does not love her, makes use
of a philtre to
secure his love. In this she succeeds; but
it also
acts gradually upon his life. She
attempts to avert this by destroying
the
whole
whole effect of the philtre, but finds this is
not permitted her;
and he dies in her
arms, deeply loving her and deeply loved
by
her, while she is conscious of being the
cause of his death. As he
yields his
last breath in a kiss, she knows that
his spirit now
hates her.
Note: This is DGR's prose synopsis of his projected work on Michael Scott.
Michael Scott & a friend, both young and
dissolute, are
returning from a carouse
by moonlight, along a wild sea-coast
during
a groundswell. As they come
within view of a small house on
the
rocky shore, his companion taunts
Michael Scott
with
as to his known passion
for the maiden Janet who
dwells
there with her father, and as to the
failure of the snares he
has laid
for her. Scott is goaded to great
irritation, and as they
near the point
of the sands overlooked by the cottage,
he turns
round on his friend and
declares that the maiden shall come
page: [86]
out to him then & there at his summons.
The friend still
taunts & banters him
saying that wine has heated
his
brain; but Scott stands quite still,
muttering &
regarding the cottage with
a gesture of command. After he has
done
so for some time, the door opens softly,
& Janet
comes running down the rock.
As she approaches, she nearly
rushes
into Michael Scott's arms, but instead,
swerves aside, runs
swiftly by him,
& plunges into the surging waves.
With a
shriek Michael plunges after
her, & strikes out this side
& that,
and lashes his way among the billows,
between the
rising & sinking breakers;
but all in vain, —no
sign appears
of her. After some time spent in this
way he returns
almost exhausted
to the sands, and passing without
answer by his
appalled & questioning
friend, he climbs the rock to the
door
of the cottage, which is now closed.
Janet's father answers his
loud
knocking, and to him he says,—
“Slay me,
for your daughter has
drowned herself this hour in yonder
sea,
& by my means.” The father
at first suspects some
stratagem, but
finally deems him mad, & says,—
page: [87]
“You rave,—my daughter is at rest in
her
bed.” “Go seek her there,” answers
Michael
Scott. The father goes up to his daughter's
chamber,
& returning very pale, signs
to Michael to follow him.
Together
they climb the stair, & find Janet half
lying
and half kneeling,
as if in the
act of turned violently round, as if
in the act of rising
from her bed, she
had again thrown herself backward
and clasped the
feet of a crucifix
at her bedhead; so she lies dead.
Michael Scott
rushes from the house,
and returning maddened to the
seashore, is
with difficulty restrained
from suicide by his friend. At last
he
stands like stone for a while, and
then, as if repeating an inner
whisper,
he describes the maiden's last struggle
with her heart. He
says how she
loved him but would not sin; how
hearing in her sleep
his appeal from
the shore she almost yielded, and the
embodied image
of her longing came
rushing out to him; but how
at
in the
last instant she turned back for
refuge to Christ,
& her soul was wrung
from her by the struggle of her
heart.
“And as I speak,” he says, “the
fiend
who whispers this concerning her says
also in my ear how
surely I am lost.”
page: [88]
White canvas
model with turps & burnt sienna
&
black—
When dry paint with oil, but
thin
especially in the shadows.
When dry, glaze.—
page: [89]
Note: The notes are written in pencil on the endpaper of the notebook.
Mr Harmer (shoemaker)
Assistant overseer
Hollington
(2 miles from Hastings)
Mr Dewdney
Bell Hotel
Boxhill
(4 miles from H.)
Sidley—a mile from Boxhill
Mr. Churchman
George Inn
Battle