Rossetti had now reached his fortieth year and for about a twelvemonth had been suffering from insomnia. This was the cause of the break-up of his health, for to gain relief he acquired the habit of taking chloral, a drug of which the properties were then little known.

[VI]

During a visit to Penkill the thought of publishing his early poems occurred to him. Towards the end of 1869 he was busy with their preparation. Some of them were in circulation in manuscript in a more or less finished condition and some others were buried with his wife. As a relief from the strain of painting he began to write again. “The Ballad of Troy Town,” part of “Eden Bower,” and the “Stream’s Secret,” were among the new poems. He thought at first to collect as many of the earlier works as he could remember, together with those of which friends had manuscript copies, and to have them set up in type as the foundation of a possible volume. But he was persuaded with difficulty to apply for permission to open the grave of his wife in order to recover the buried manuscript. In 1870 the book, under the title, “Poems by Dante Gabriel Rossetti,” was published by Mr. F. S. Ellis, then in King Street, Covent Garden. Round Rossetti and his buried poems a sort of legend had been growing up which, aided by his fame as a painter, guarded his work against the indifference with which a volume of verses by an unknown poet is bound to be received. The book proved a great success and within a week or two Rossetti found himself in possession of £300.

This success was not achieved without raising some jealousy. Mr. Buchanan, under the pseudonym of “Thomas Maitland” rushed into print with the damning essay that appeared in the Contemporary Review for October 1871, under the title “The Fleshly School of Poetry.” This attack was repeated by the same writer in a pamphlet. Rossetti in ill health and suffering from nervous fancies, considered that there was a conspiracy against him, a view that, had his health been stronger, he would not perhaps have adopted. The publication of the article aggravated his insomnia. Dr. Gordon Hake offered him his house at Roehampton in order to procure a change for the sufferer, who either by accident or of set purpose had taken the contents of a phial of laudanum, and lay for two days between life and death. Prompt treatment, and his strong constitution helped recovery. He was taken to Scotland where he resumed work on a replica of “Beata Beatrix.” Out-of-door exercise, early hours, and absence of worries, helped a great deal to bring about his partial recovery. In September 1872 he left Scotland and went to Kelmscott where he shared a fine Elizabethan manor house with William Morris.

His work during 1872-1874 consisted mostly in repainting many of his earlier pictures. He worked again on “Lilith,” “Beloved,” “Monna Vanna,” and others. In July 1874 he left Kelmscott and came back to London, never to return to the quiet manor house, which from this time was in possession of Morris alone.

Besides retouching his earlier work during the time of his stay at Kelmscott, Rossetti started a number of new canvases, and made a certain number of studies for use in future work. Among them are: “Rosa Triplex,” three heads from the same sitter, Miss May Morris. This drawing is one of four or five versions. A portrait in red chalk on grey-green paper of Mrs. W. J. Stillman, “La Donna de la Fiamma,” and “Silence,” probably studies for pictures never painted, the little head of a lady holding a small branch of rose-leaves called “Rose-leaf.” “Mariana,” an oil painting, its title taken from a scene of “Measure for Measure,” and “A Lady with a Fan,” being a portrait of Mrs. Schott, were all prepared about this time. He also started the first studies for his big picture, “Dante’s Dream,” among them a study from Mrs. Morris for the head of the dead Beatrice, a head of Dante, and studies for the two maidens holding the pall. “Troy Town,” after his own ballad, and “The Death of Lady Macbeth,” are two designs for pictures never painted. “Pandora” was completed in 1871. “Water Willow,” a portrait of Mrs. Morris is specially interesting because the river landscape behind represents Kelmscott. A coloured chalk study for that picture exists, the only difference between the portrait and the study being that the background of the latter represents a river without the view of Kelmscott. The “Dante’s Dream” begun in 1870 was finished towards the end of 1871. It is the largest picture Rossetti ever painted, the subject is that of the early water-colour of 1856, and the picture illustrates the following:

“Then Love spoke thus: ‘Now all shall be made clear;
Come and behold our lady where she lies.’
. . . . . . .
Then carried me to see my lady dead;
And standing at her head
Her ladies put a veil over her;
And with her was such very humbleness
That she appeared to say, ‘I am at peace.’”