Cabinet Decorated with Scenes from ‘The Prioress’s Tale’, Philip Webb and Edward Burne-Jones. This cabinet, designed by Philip Webb and decorated by Burne-Jones, is made from oak and pine, painted in oil. Burne-Jones gave it to William Morris as a wedding present on his marriage to Jane Burden in 1859. This cabinet stood in the Morris' bedroom at Red House.
"The left hand door is decorated with episodes from Chaucer's "Prioress's Tale" [in which a murdered child is briefly brought back to life], together with the opening lines of the poem. The figure of the Virgin is modelled on Jane Burden, William Morris's new wife. She appears again on the right hand door, above Chaucer himself. When the Morrises first married they lived in The Red House, Bexley Heath, where the cabinet stood in the principal bedroom. It was given to the Ashmolean Museum in 1939 by William Morris's daughter, May" ("Object of the Month"). The scenes shown here are of the boy singing the hymn to the Virgin Mary, "Alma Redemptoris" at school, and, in the left panel, coming back to life after the Virgin has appeared and laid a grain of salt on his tongue, so that he can continue singing it — allowing his "litel body" to be found and given a Christian burial "in a tombe of marbul stones clere." It does not seem a very suitable subject for a wedding gift but it allows Burne-Jones to associate Morris's bride with compassion, spirituality and life-enhancing qualities. It also expresses the Pre-Raphaelites' love of poetry and medieval culture, and the general Victorian tendency to delight in pathos, especially in connection with childhood. Chaucer himself can be seen in the lower right-hand corner.