[59] Mr Lyell died in 1849.—W.
[60] The London University, consisting of University College and King’s College. Rossetti competed for the Italian Professorship in the former, but Panizzi obtained it; afterwards (1831) in the latter, and there he was elected.—W.
[61] This phrase must designate the Salterio, though the term would almost equally apply to the Veggente in Solitudine. The three prose works mentioned in the sequel are the Mistero dell’Amor Platonico, the Beatrice di Dante, and Roma verso la Metà del Secolo Decimonono. This last, though separately published, is in fact a long note printed in the Amor Platonico.—W.
[62] i.e. “a new life.”—W.
[63] Not only in writing, but also in conversation, all matters of this sort were left in oblivion by my father. I, at any rate, never heard him refer to them, even distantly.—W.
[64] This is perfectly accurate. Mrs Rossetti shrank from being eulogized in verse which might one day be published, and I have known her to plead for the omission of some such matter written by my father. To me, naturally, it is as pleasant to publish these not exaggerated praises as to her it was unpleasant to conceive them published.—W.
[65] The date of the proposal was 7th December 1825; of the wedding (Roman Catholic and English Church), 8th and 10th April 1826.—W.
[66] Taken literally, this is of course correct. But my mother had only an ordinary modicum of musical practice and aptitude, and neither of my sisters pursued the art with any zest.—W.
[67] The reference to “ethics” must be chiefly based on Maria Rossetti’s religious allegory named The Rivulets, semi-published in 1846. As to Christina, her volume entitled Verses had been privately printed in 1847, and the poems which she contributed to The Germ (following a brace in The Athenæum) appeared in 1850.—W.
[68] These expressions need not count as an exaggeration. By 1850 Dante Gabriel had exhibited two pictures (one of them now in the National British Gallery); he had published The Blessed Damozel and other remarkable poems, and had done a multitude of translations from Italian, and some from German, poets.—W.