Details
MORRIS, William (1834-1896). Autograph manuscript drafts (fragments) of poems, including cancellations and revisions, and a list of headings [for The Earthly Paradise], n.p., n.d. [1865-1870], two stanzas written in pencil, one poem on blue paper, a few jottings of figures (probably line counts), altogether 11¼ pages, 8vo (the last page discoloured by a pressed flower preserved between the leaves, creased), blanks; tipped on guards into an album, red morocco, by De Coverly. Provenance: Charles Fairfax Murray (book label) -- purchased from James F. Drake, New York, 1 February 1939, $80.
EARLY WORKING DRAFTS FOR WILLIAM MORRIS'S IMMENSE NARRATIVE IN VERSE. The fragments include four drafts for the lyrics for the months: the first [for October ?], opening: 'Come forth of Love Today, although the Earth Is pale and sad with death of many things' (42 lines); the second ('January' inscribed by Morris on verso): 'The year is gone & now another year Begins again....' (21 lines); the third ('February'): 'Look out of doors today & see the Streets Swept by the cold unkindly north eastern wind' (21 lines); the fourth [for March ?]: 'Lo last night died although today Unwillingly we leave the fireside' (21 lines).
The remaining verses are for 'The Prologue': 'My squire in many lands I have been Many strange things I have had to see' (36 lines); and an account of King Arthur's court in Brittany, and Iseult (44 lines): the first page beginning 'St Agnes convent by the merry Sea That dashes on the shore of Brittany', and later: 'Gone gone Iseult the happy days of old are vanished, as a little tale is told The gay uprising the glad lying down Are gone for ever ...'. Two final verses in pencil may be for 'The Story of the Flower'.
William Morris worked on the composition of The Earthly Paradise from 1865 to 1870, reviving, in the Chaucerian tradition, the art of ceremonial story-telling. The Prologue links 24 seasonal tales by different narrators, alternately the Elders (recalling classical tales) and the Wanderers (looking back to Norse legends and the Icelandic Sagas). Charles Fairfax Murray to whom the manuscripts belonged was Morris's former assistant and drew him on his deathbed.
EARLY WORKING DRAFTS FOR WILLIAM MORRIS'S IMMENSE NARRATIVE IN VERSE. The fragments include four drafts for the lyrics for the months: the first [for October ?], opening: 'Come forth of Love Today, although the Earth Is pale and sad with death of many things' (42 lines); the second ('January' inscribed by Morris on verso): 'The year is gone & now another year Begins again....' (21 lines); the third ('February'): 'Look out of doors today & see the Streets Swept by the cold unkindly north eastern wind' (21 lines); the fourth [for March ?]: 'Lo last night died although today Unwillingly we leave the fireside' (21 lines).
The remaining verses are for 'The Prologue': 'My squire in many lands I have been Many strange things I have had to see' (36 lines); and an account of King Arthur's court in Brittany, and Iseult (44 lines): the first page beginning 'St Agnes convent by the merry Sea That dashes on the shore of Brittany', and later: 'Gone gone Iseult the happy days of old are vanished, as a little tale is told The gay uprising the glad lying down Are gone for ever ...'. Two final verses in pencil may be for 'The Story of the Flower'.
William Morris worked on the composition of The Earthly Paradise from 1865 to 1870, reviving, in the Chaucerian tradition, the art of ceremonial story-telling. The Prologue links 24 seasonal tales by different narrators, alternately the Elders (recalling classical tales) and the Wanderers (looking back to Norse legends and the Icelandic Sagas). Charles Fairfax Murray to whom the manuscripts belonged was Morris's former assistant and drew him on his deathbed.
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