CHAPTER III
1879-1884
In the year 1878 an event of the greatest importance to Hall Caine’s future life happened; he became acquainted with the poems of Dante Gabriel Rossetti. Little did the eager young student of literature imagine, when he first heard the name of one of the most subtle and alluring poets of the last century, that his life would one day be joined with his. Rossetti was to exercise an influence on his future the full extent of which cannot even now be estimated. In his fascinating Recollections of Rossetti Mr Caine tells, with a certain amount of detail, the story of his friendship with the poet. The story is a deeply interesting one, and in some respects without precedent in Literature. Their friendship was an honourable affair to both of them—more especially to the younger man, who not only gave up many months of his early youth when, maybe, he would have preferred to have been battling with a still unconquered world, but also sacrificed much of his peace of mind in his endeavour to make happy the last hours of Rossetti’s troubled life. On the other hand, what he lost in health of body and mind, he gained in intellectual stimulus; for Rossetti had a mind richly stored with poetic and artistic lore, and the strangely beautiful dreams and phantasmagoria that flitted through his brain undoubtedly did a great deal towards stirring up the imagination of the future novelist, and inciting him to further achievement. As I think of the poet and his enthusiast talking for many hours together in Chelsea; as I think of them afterwards in their loneliness in the Vale of St John; and as I ponder over those last tragic days together at Birchington, I see many examples of sacrifice on the part of Hall Caine, and many, many bitter hours when the poet, forced by what seemed almost a power outside himself, gave way to the accursed drug which killed him. A weak, febrile mind would have given way under the strain of constant companionship with Rossetti during the last months of his life; but Hall Caine had more than this to weigh down his vigorous young intellect. For several weeks he had the sole responsibility of the poet’s life on his shoulders, and it even became necessary for him to regulate the doses of chloral which was Life and Death to the diseased man with whom he lived; and many were the extremities to which he was put in order to hide the fatal drug from his friend. The story of their friendship, quite apart from its own intrinsic interest, is essential to any honest attempt to understand the development of the novelist’s mind.
It was in the early spring of 1879 that Rossetti wrote his first letter to Hall Caine. It reads as follows:—
“16 Cheyne Walk, Chelsea,
“29th July 1879.
“Dear Mr Caine,—I am much struck by the generous enthusiasm displayed in your lecture, and by the ability with which it is written. Your estimate of the impulses influencing my poetry is such as I should wish it to suggest, and this suggestion, I believe, it will have always for a true-hearted nature. You say that you are grateful to me: my response is, that I am grateful to you: for you have spoken out heartily and unfalteringly for the work you love.
“I daresay you sometimes come to London. I should be very glad to know you, and would ask you, if you thought of calling, to give me a day’s notice when to expect you, as I am not always able to see visitors without appointment. The afternoon about 5 might suit me, or else the evening about 9.30 p.m.—With all best wishes, Yours sincerely,
“D. G. Rossetti.
“T. H. Caine, Esq.”
This was sent in reply to a note of Hall Caine’s covering a copy of a lecture he had twice or thrice delivered in Liverpool, on Rossetti’s poetry. The lecture was subsequently printed in a magazine, and some little time after its publication he conceived the idea of sending a copy to the poet. This letter was the first of nearly two hundred which followed in quick succession. Rossetti’s generous nature immediately recognised the enthusiasm of his admirer, and Hall Caine writes in his Recollections of Rossetti: “It is hardly necessary to say that I was … delighted with the warmth of the reception accorded to my essay, and with the revelation the letters appeared to contain of a sincere and unselfish nature.” Mr Caine was naturally somewhat chary of seeming to seek favour from the distinguished poet, and his purpose of bringing to Rossetti’s knowledge the contents of his essay being served, he withdrew from the correspondence and “there ensued an interval in which I did not write to him.” Rossetti then wrote:—
“My Dear Caine,—Let me assure you at once that correspondence with yourself is one of my best pleasures, and that you cannot write too much or too often for me; though after what you have told me as to the apportioning of your time, I should be unwilling to encroach unduly upon it.”