1 / Monday night / I'm glad I have lived - I am glad of all the past - / it was worth all the miserable road I have travelled / to come to this final home - / I shall mend soon, a few days / more. and strength will come again / and the new life begin. / I am to write as I feel then? and need not be / afraid - till you came to-day I was afraid - you see / it doesn't hurt you - how could it? it is sweet / beautiful love - its the best of me, better than the / work which the world knows - you will tell me if / it tires you to read it - I dont think it will, & / it will get more peaceful by & bye. / I have no fear about your letters, I hide them on me / and have only one to guard - I left the letter I offered / to you to read one on purpose, feeling you had a right / to see it if you liked - I thought it beautiful of you to / refuse - still it was your right - & when you wouldn't / look at it I compared you in my heart to others / and said "she is perfect - there is none like her." / there is none like you. / and so here tonight I lie & think over my strange / history - the sorrows, the drifting, the chagrin, the / deep waters & I lie in a meadow to-night & my head / in your hands, safe and content - / content but an ecstasy of content / and to love, dear, is enough - one might dream that / under luckier destiny the love might all be returned / and then I suppose that is too happy & mortals are not / meant for it - I know that to love you is heaven / & I ask no better. / were "you well to-day? you looked young & beautiful - less / tired than Saturday - and some people see you / everyday, think of that, & spend all evenings with you / and have been in your delicious company years where I / have not yet had hours, in number - / but years & hours are nothing - to-day was an hour / and yet how long it was really - / do you fear we are made to perish dear? do you / want a miracle to prove what wonders are in store / for us? Isnt my love a miracle in its hugeness & / strength - poor little weak body lying on a bed / very tired, but pleased with its life & its babies, & / yet suddenly you have come & at your summons / death would have no terror for me & life no / fatigue - & that for no reward at all, for love's / sake only. / dear, how we understand each other - a little word / or look is enough - and the rest, the sweet rest / you bring - the simplicity of your soul - no bitter / word, nor hard judgment ever, nor captious worrying / criticisms, nor summary decisions, nor weary / ingenuities - a calm splendid soul like women / of old, straight from heaven - Oh I worship you, / my love is well founded / & now you see that if you suffer I shall be a poor / little wretch - for our places are changed, my dear / a month ago I was the strong one - & you could / ask help of me & count upon having it - / my days went peacefully, & since I needed nothing / I was like a king, & proud & a bit disdainful / & loving my dominions & power - & now, where is it? / discrowned & exiled from ?, a wanderer / with my heart & my soul far away from my body - / fevered - so little proud that I ask for a second / place in a strange womans heart, & for a touch / of her hand sometimes, shall line a haggard hungry / life - yes our places are changed - and now good night - out go the lights & I turn & say my prayer for / you, & God grant all I pray for, & you will / be made so happy. / Tuesday early / 6 1/2 - ah that's better - only an hour to lie & then / I'll get up - head aches with a fit of coughing - / coughing is hideous - so glad you cant see me / unless I'm well - perhaps you would hate me if you / did - & thats so different to me, who wouldnt / mind if you were spotted - didnt I say that? / & you objected - I only only meant it could be more / fair & equal if you were, and that a very pretty / & tasteful game might be made with / counting the spots - but of course its better as it is - / Oh poor me, it is so lovely as it is - / and dont be troubled about me for a moment. / I will make a finer life of it that ever / could have been without it - & work shouldn't / be hurt or hindered - it shall be bettered / & sure you think with all its tortures it / is a splendid annunciation to a man - as good / folk say a means of grace / You wont hide anything from me will you - I am / to share all your unhappiness, & enfold you & / comfort you with tender love. - if you have / resolved to do that (& I cannot advise or / dissuade, for all the facts are unknown to me) / I will keep myself well in the background for / months, but I will go to you or bring you / here as often as ever you like - & I'll / write gently & softly to you every day - / and afterwards in my heart you shall / have refuge from all bitterness & grief - / You see, May, it is these things of the soul that / are real, & the only real things in the universe - / and the little hidden chamber in my heart / where you only can come is more real than / your little bedroom - if you can believe it - / I will furnish it for you - such a couch for / your tired soul to lie upon, & music there / shall be always, soft & low - & little talks / when you are refreshed - news of the outer world / - when you are rested and can sit up & stand /
2 / I'll open a little magic window and / you shall choose what land you will see / and what time in the world - you shall / see Babylon being built if you like - or the / Greeks coming into Greece or the north sea / tossing & full of ships / or the piety of / ancient France, plaintive notes of ancient / Ireland, Kings of Samarcand - Nibelungen / terrors - ah I have raked with greedy hands / into my treasure house since I was a mean / wretched looking little object of ten till now. / - with that room with the magical window / none has entrance but you - whatever comes / of it or happens I dedicate my days to you / - but I want to ? no one ? and / the secret shall be kept - I can't help it / pity & love together have been too much / for me / and the angry lines have left your face - / the expression that troubled me on Monsieur's / birthday - when you came late and hurriedly / into the room with a face I shall never / forget - I thought it was illness - I / tried to talk to you for you always attracted / me, but you would have none of me - I used / to feel you didnt like me at times, but I / always liked you (liked, Good God what it has / grown to, I vow it reached from here far past the Sun) but that night at B? I / remember & I was so sorry - I thought it / was the illness you had had / its quite true that I used to think, well, not / that you disliked me, but that you didnt very / much like - now you shan't be teased - / you do like me now dearly, / did you notice that I called you May / just now? / how dared I? of course I must never / do it again - never - but it came out so / easily - like all is "easily" with you - / to talk, to write, to be in harmony with, / to love - all too easy - poor little me. /
The archive, which has remained with May Gaskell’s descendants, consists of more than 200 letters dating from 1892 up to the year of Burne-Jones’s death: three albums of intimate letters from the artist to Mrs Gaskell; two albums of illustrated letters to Mrs Gaskell and her daughter, Daphne; and other ephemera such as the artist’s brushes which he used when painting his famous portrait of Amy Gaskell. The letters are one of the most endearing records of all Burne-Jones’s friendships. They recount both his innermost thoughts and feelings and feature a cast of humorous characters, fictitious and real. They have been acquired for £200,000 with major support from the National Heritage Memorial Fund (NHMF); the Art Fund; the Arts Council England/Victoria and Albert Museum Purchase Grant Fund; the Friends of the National Libraries; and numerous private donations. Two of the albums are on display in the Museum for its Great British Drawings exhibition where they can be seen until 31 August. They will now enter the Ashmolean’s permanent collection. Following conservation, they will be made available as an invaluable resource to students and scholars of the Pre-Raphaelite movement, and they will be published online. The letters will add to the collection of drawings by Burne-Jones bequeathed to the Ashmolean in 1939 by Mrs Gaskell, forming one of the richest Pre-Raphaelite archives in the country. Many of the letters were published by Josceline Dimbleby, May Gaskell’s great-granddaughter, in her acclaimed book, A Profound Secret (2004), which recounts the author’s research into her family’s history. On the occasion of this major acquisition, Josceline Dimbleby will give a Saturday Talk on 8 August at the Ashmolean, in conversation with the curator of Great British Drawings, Colin Harrison. Josceline Dimbleby says: "My discovery of so many intimate and often witty letters from Burne-Jones to my great grandmother May Gaskell, forgotten for decades in an old chest of drawers, was one of the most exciting moments in my life, together with finding, wrapped in old paper and string at the back of one drawer, the paintbrushes he used for his famous portrait of my doomed great aunt Amy Gaskell, still with paint sticking to them. The letters revealed a passion that made it hard to think of this friendship as platonic and I spent a fascinating and happy three years piecing together and writing the story of what was A Profound Secret, feeling that I was getting to know my ancestors, and a very private side of Burne- Jones." Burne- Jones met May Gaskell in 1892, and she became the last in the succession of women with whom he enjoyed especially close, but platonic, friendships. She was the wife of a dull cavalry officer, and, in an unfulfilling marriage, she corresponded with Burne- Jones up to five times a day. The letters include a series of cartoon-like tales featuring characters such as the ‘fat lady’ and the artist himself, caught in mishap and misadventure. Beneath the surface lies the black humour endemic to Burne-Jones’s frequent moods of depression and insecurity. There is, for example, a superb sequence of caricatures of the artist suffering from flu. In the course of their friendship, Burne-Jones became dependent on May, confessing to her that she ‘reached the well of loneliness that is in me’. He also sent whimsical letters to the infant Daphne Gaskell (1887–1966). She was only six when she met Burne-Jones and he took an affectionate and fatherly interest in her, his own children having grown up. His letters to Daphne, written in phonetic spelling, include birds and animals familiar from his other letters to children, and several fantastic inventions such as the ‘Phlumbudge’ and ‘Flapdabble’. The archive also includes some letters to May’s elder daughter, Amy (1874–1910), whom Burne-Jones painted in 1893 in one of the greatest Pre-Raphaelite portraits (collection of Lord Lloyd-Webber). Colin Harrison, Senior Curator of European Art, Ashmolean Museum, says: "May Gaskell was Burne- Jones’s closest friend in his last years. He gave her a selection of his finest drawings, which she in turn gave to the Ashmolean in 1939. The opportunity to acquire the albums of intimate and humorous letters that he sent to May and to her daughter, Daphne, was unmissable; and we are most grateful for the support from the NHMF, the Art Fund, and other bodies, as well as numerous private donors. Their generosity has ensured that the letters have ended up in their rightful home, and that the Ashmolean now has one of the most representative, as well as distinguished, collections of Burne-Jones’s work in the world." Sir Peter Luff, Chair of NHMF, says: “Sir Edward Burne-Jones was the most prominent of the second generation Pre-Raphaelites and his work had an enormous influence. This exceptional collection of letters, which throws light on the last years of his life, was the most important part of his collection in private hands. I'm delighted that National Heritage Memorial Fund investment will mean they can be available for everyone to explore and enjoy.” Stephen Deuchar, Director of the Art Fund, says: "The Ashmolean owns one of the finest collections of works by Burne-Jones in the world, which will be greatly enriched by this important and delightful collection of letters."