This letter contains the earliest known copy of DGR's sonnet “For ‘The Wine of Circle’”, along with his brief comments on the relation of the sonnet to Burne-Jones' picture. This text has an alternative reading for line 13 and it differs in other considerable ways from the received text.
ROSSETTI COLLECTION OF JANET CAMP TROXELL Rare Books 728 volumes concerning various members of the Rossetti family; the collection has grown in small ways since the original purchase in June 1968, funding for which was provided by Robert H. Taylor '30, Levering Cartwright '26, Daniel Maggin, the Eberhard L. Faber Foundation, the John E. Annan Fund and Christian A. Zabriskie. One entire issue of the Princeton University Library Chronicle has been devoted to the Rossetti collection. See especially the article: Robert S. Fraser, "The Rossetti Collection of Janet Camp Troxell: A Survey with Some Sidelights." in the Princeton University Library Chronicle XXXIII, 3 (Spring, 1972) pp. 146-175 [full text]. The most substantial single part of the collection contains material by or relating to Dante Gabriel Rossetti, with 227 titles in 262 volumes. Also notable is The Torch: A Journal of International Socialism. London, 1891-1896. This socialist-anarchist paper was published by Helen, Olivia, and Arthur Rossetti. Princeton holdings for this publication begin with the issue believed to be for September 1891 and conclude with that for December 1895. However, the Library lacks as many as 23 numbers. A typescript catalogue of all printed books in the Troxell collection was prepared by Robert S. Fraser [(EXOV) Z5948.P9 xF7]. Full text available here. The 2 drawer index for the Fraser catalogue is on 3x5 cards; but is obsolete because the PDF of the typescript catalogue can be keyword searched. Also see the 5 boxes of material by Janet Troxell relating to her Rossetti Collection. The boxes are held by the Manuscripts Division and are found in Troxell Collection of Rossetti Manuscripts. See the Janet Camp Troxell Collection of Rossetti Manuscripts, 1832-1965 [(MSS) C0189].
Scalands Gate / Robertsbridge Sunday / Dear Ned / I got your nice good note / this morning. Yesterday I / did the Circe Sonnet & / copy it overpage. I hope / you will only put it on / the frame if you think it / really expressive of the picture. / Else I will put it only in / my book. I have tried / in the first 4 lines to give / something of the picture's / colour, & in the last / 2 of its moral (!) Which / is the best form of these last? / Unless you are in a hurry / to send the picture away, / you might defer having it / copied on, as I may perhaps / do something to it yet. / Today we have suddenly / got completely snowed up / here - 6 inches deep; / so perhaps I may be / forced on doing some work. / but i'm so far from well / that I do not feel ? / in any result. / I will attend to what / you say about the frame. / Your affec: / DGR / Any Suggestions as / to sonnet will be / welcome from the / "master". / P.S. If you write a line, / say if you have seen / Swinburne & how he is, / & give him my love. / He is to come to town / tomorrow - Monday.
Why sink those black locks in that golden wine, Shed from thy hand, O dusk-haired golden-robed dame, Where on the spread feast gleaned the fragrant flame And the dark-hearted golden sunflowers shine? Doth Helios here with Hecate combine, O Circe, thou their votaress! to proclaim For these thy guests all rapture in thy name, Till pitiless Night give Day the countersign? Lords of their hour, they come. And by thy knee Those Cowering beasts, their equals heretofore, Wait; who with them in new equality T0-night shall echo back the far-flung roar * Which past thy window sounds from the shown shore Where the dishevelled seaweed hates the sea. * or Which sounds where all spent things bestow the shore And the &c &c.
The painting is now in a modern frame.