The family letters of Christina Georgina Rossetti

Front matter

The Family Letters

of

Christina Georgina Rossetti

Preface

The object aimed at in this volume is to present a selection from the family-letters of Christina Georgina Rossetti, supplemented by a very few letters of hers addressed to persons out of the family, and by a quite moderate number of those addressed to herself — as for instance by her brother Dante Gabriel. The total number of letters now extant, addressed to herself, is truly small ; for throughout her life her ordinary practice was to destroy such missives as soon as read and answered. On the other hand it seems probable that a very considerable number of letters written by herself to a variety of persons are still in being ; for she was a highly punctual correspondent, and, from an early period of her life, there were many who regarded her with predilection, and who thought her likely to do something of note, and it may be surmised that several of these have preserved what she wrote. To letters of this miscellaneous kind I have not had access, save in the rarest instances, and therefore the present collection is practically, though not absolutely, limited to family-correspondence.

Some readers will probably think that I have admitted into my volume various letters the interest of which is extremely slender. As to this I can only say that, slender or not, they appear to me admissible, as tending to define and complete the picture of my sister's mind and feelings ; also that I have excluded 77iany letters — perhaps a good deal more than the number here given — which I acknowledge to be (more or less) below the requisite standard for publication. From the letters here printed I have omitted a large number of passages which the public could obviously not care for : and this

vii viii PREFACE

although it seems to me that letters read better when uncurtailed, even if some portions of them may have very little to plead for themselves.

Are the letters, taken as a whole, interesting or uninteresting ? Do they relate to important or to unimportant matters ? Of this I must leave the reader to judge. My own view is that Christina Rossetti, by her work in poetry and authorship, made herself interesting to a great number of persons ; and that anything which tends to show forth her genuine self, her personality and tone of mind and feeling, cannot therefore be totally insignificant. Nothing could evince these more perfectly than her family-letters do. I am certain that I here set before readers a beautiful and lovable character ; and, as this is the character of a person widely cherished for her writings, and even intensely valued by many lovers of poetry and many religious devotees, I await with some confidence the verdict which may be passed upon my compilation.

The correspondence in my collection, belonging to the earlier period of Christina's life, is rather scanty, owing to the fact that eighteen of her letters, of dates ranging from 1845 to 1854, are now the property of her sympathetic biographer Mr. Mackenzie Bell, and are thus not at my disposal ; moreover two or three of her family-letters, of later date, have been published in Mr. Bell's book. Besides all these, the letters by my sister printed in the Rossetti Papers, 1862 to 1870 (Sands & Co., 1903), and (with one exception) those addressed to her by Dante Rossetti included in the volume of his Family-Letters (Ellis, 1895), are not reproduced in the present collection.

It will be found that literary matters, and also religious convictions, form an element in the correspondence here published. By far its chief constituent however is family affection, of which the warm glow can be felt incessantly renewed throughout. It is mingled with a constant tone of courteous considerateness, and even definite politeness, more than one would consider essential in family-letters ; for Christina — as I have had occasion to say elsewhere — was rather punctiliously polite from her early girlhood onwards, and she saw no occasion for stinting this quality to members of her family, while she

PREFACE ix

gave it in full measure to other people. Brightness as well as everpresent depth of feeling is vividly apparent, along with many neat, sprightly, and engaging turns of expression.

I am conscious that every now and then the letters contain some phrase not only of affection but likewise of commendation to myself — what I was or what I did. If I ought to have cut out these passages, I must apologize for leaving them in. My motive for so doing is too obvious to bear exposition. To have earned, or to have received, the praise of such a woman as Christina Rossetti, is a thing which no man would prefer to hide under a bushel. Apart from the personal and predominant motive for leaving these passages on record, it may truly be said that the excision of them would have diminished the completeness of the self-portrait which my sister has presented in these letters ; for, if she loved other members of her family, she assuredly loved me as well.

I have not thought it needful to reproduce in type the signatures to the letters, and the subscribing words. The signature is almost invariable, "Christina G. Rossetti," but in a very few instances there are only initials. Of the subscribing words, the most usual is " Your affectionate sister " ; every now and then something more marked occurs : " Your most grateful loving sister — Your dismal sister — Truly, as well I may be, your affectionate sister — Lovingly your sister — Affectionately your old sister — Your unchangeable affectionate sister " — and the like.

When I produced the complete Poetical Works of Christina Rossetti in 1904, I wrote a compendious Memoir of her uneventful and rather secluded life. I have no mind to go over the same ground now in the same sort of way : but, in order to supply a guide to the reader as to the main stages in the career which the letters indicate in a more or less scattered form, I append here a list of dates and occurrences.

1826, April. Gabriele Rossetti, a political exile from the kingdom

of Naples, a poet, literary man, and professor of Italian, with his

Anglo-Italian wife, Frances Mary Lavinia (Polidori), settled in No.

38 Charlotte Street, Portland Place, London, now called No. no b

X PREFACE

Hallam Street. A memorial disk for Dante Gabriel Rossetti has recently been set up on this house : it ought to include, but does not, Christina Georgina Rossetti.

1830, December 5. Birth of Christina in the above house, following the births of Maria Francesca, Dante Gabriel, and William Michael. She, like the other children, was baptized in the English Church.

1836, January. The family remove to No. 50 Charlotte Street.

1842, April. Christina writes her first verses, a birthday address to her mother.

1847. A booklet of her Ferses is privately printed by her grandfather, Gaetano Polidori.

1848, September. Formation of the Praeraphaelite Brotherhood, or P.R.B.

1848, Autumn. James CoUinson, a painter and member of the P.R.B., originally belonging to the English Church but now a Roman Catholic, proposes marriage to Christina. She, being reluctant to marry a Roman Catholic, declines.

1848, ? November. CoUinson re-enters the English Church, renews his proposal to Christina, and is accepted.

1850, January to May. Christina publishes various poems in T/ie Germ : her first publications, save for two pieces in The Athenaum.

1850, ?May. CoUinson reverts to the Roman Catholic Church, and Christina cancels her engagement to him.

1 85 1, January. The family remove to No. 38 Arlington Street (now merged in Arlington Road), Mornington Crescent, and Christina acts as assistant to her mother in a day-school there.

1853, Spring. Mrs. Rossetti goes with Christina to Frome, Somerset, to set up another day-school. Later on Gabriele Rossetti joins them, the rest of the family remaining in London.

1853, April and December. Deaths in London of Mrs. Rossetti's parents, Anna Maria and Gaetano Polidori.

1854, April. I take a house for the whole family except Dante Gabriel — 45 Upper Albany Street, now 166 Albany Street.

1854, April 26. Death of Gabriele Rossetti in this house.

PREFACE xi

1 86 1, February. Christina publishes in Macmillan's Magazine a poem, Uphill^ which secures a good deal of attention.

1861, Summer, Christina's first foreign trip with her mother and me. Paris, Coutances, and other parts of Normandy.

1862. She brings out her first published volume, Goblin Market and other Poems.

1862. She now begins to see pretty frequently Charles Bagot Cayley, a scholar, author, and linguist, translator of Dante's Divina Conmiedia, 8zc., whom she may have first met in 1847, She falls in love with him.

1865, Summer. Christina's second and last foreign trip, again with her mother and me, through France, over Mount St. Gothard, into Italy— Pavia, Verona, &c. : back by the Spliigen Pass, Schaffhausen, &c.

1866, June. She brings out her second published volume, 77/^ Prince's Progress and other Poems.

1866, ? Summer. Cayley proposes marriage to Christina, and she would gladly accept him : but on some religious ground, apparently that he is not a Christian of an orthodox type, she declines the offer.

1867, June. My mother and two sisters, with myself, remove to No. 56 Euston Square, afterwards called No. 5 Endsleigh Gardens.

1870, Christina brings out her first prose- volume, Commonplace, and other Short Stories. This was followed, 1874 to 1892, by seven other prose volumes, the last being The Face of the Deep, a Devotional Cotnmentary on the Apocalypse. Five of them were published by the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge.

187 1, April. After various other illnesses, beginning towards the age of fifteen, Christina is prostrated by a very dangerous malady, exophthalmic bronchocele, or Dr. Graves's disease. Many months of suffering ensue, and several crises of peril; but the illness gets tolerably subdued by the summer of 1873.

1872, June. Dante Gabriel falls into a bad state of health, which continues, in one phase or another, for the remainder of his life. Christina publishes another volume of poems (for children). Singsong.

1873, Summer. Maria Rossetti becomes a novice, and afterwards a professed ^ister, in All Saints' Sisterhood (Anglican), London.

xii PREFACE

1874, March. I marry Lucy Brown. We continue living in No. 5 Endsleigh Gardens, along with my mother and Christina.

1876, October. They two remove to No. 30 Torrington Square, along with my mother's two sisters, Charlotte and Eliza Polidori.

1876, November 24. Death of Maria.

1 88 1, Summer, Christina publishes another volume, A Pageant and other Poems.

1882, April 9. Death of Dante Gabriel at Birchington-on-Sea, near Margate, after Mrs. Rossetti and Christina had been nursing him for several weeks.

1885, December 5. Charles Cayley dies in London.

1886, April 8. Death of our mother, Frances Rossetti.

1890, January. Death of Charlotte Polidori, who, as well as Eliza Polidori, had continued living in the same house with Christina;.

1892, May. Christina, being pronounced to be suffering from cancer on the left side of the chest, undergoes a severe operation.

1893, June. Death of EHza Polidori.

1893, September. Publication of Christina's last volume. Verses^ being a collection of the various pieces of poetry scattered through her volumes previously issued by the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge.

1894, April 12. Death at San Remo of Lucy Rossetti, Christina's sister-in-law.

1894, December 29. The cancer having recurred, complicated by dropsy in the left arm, Christina, after being confined to bed for more than four months, dies at No. 30 Torrington Square. Buried in Highgate Cemetery.

Besides the letters by Christina which form the substance of this volume, along with the few samples of letters addressed to her, I add in an appendix :

I. Extracts from my Diaries, 187 1 to 1895, relating to Christina. I regret that so large a proportion of the extracts should have to do with illnesses which affected my sister from time to time, and not with her literary or other interests. Many entries about illnesses have,

PREFACE xiii

however, been omitted, as only going over the same cheerless ground again and again.

2. Extracts from a Diary kept by Christina from 1881 to 1886. This, as the wording shows, purports to be the diary of Mrs. Rossetti, our mother ; but my sister, acting on her behalf, was, with a few exceptions in the earlier dates, the real writer of the diary, so far as handwriting is concerned, and no doubt the composition or diction is often hers as well.

Wm. M. Rossetti.

London, April 1907.

Preface

PAGE

vii

LETTERS WRITTEN BY CHRISTINA ROSSETTI

Gabriele Rossetti William Michael Rossetti

Frances Rossetti William Michael Rossetti

Dante Gabriel Rossetti William Michael Rossetti Dante Gabriel Rossetti

DATE

I

. 31

• 19

• 26

II . 14

1.5 iS

. 29

II September 1S66

XVI

Dante Gabriel Rossetti William Michael Rossetti Lucy Brown (Rossetti) .

William Michael Rossetti Dante Gabriel Rossetti Oliver Madox Brown .

William Michael Rossetti Dante Gabriel Rossetti William Michael Rossetti Dante Gabriel Rossetti

Dante Gabriel Rossetti

Dante Gabriel Rossetti

DATE

28 July 1S71

I September ,,

17 June

10 July

4 May 1S74

15 „

22 June „

23 )j )) 28 September ,,

20 June 1875 II August ,, 17

21 ,, ,, 30 November ,, 14 December ,, 22

January 1876 18 July

2 August ,, September ,,

William Michael Rossetti Dante Gabriel Rossetti

>> >5

9> >>

Frederic J. Shields William Michael Rossetti Dante Gabriel Rossetti Lucy Rossetti Dante Gabriel Rossetti William Michael Rossetti Dante Gabriel Rossetti

William Michael Rossetti Dante Gabriel Rossetti

William Michael Rossetti Dante Gabriel Rossetti

Olivia Rossetti (Agresti) Dante Gabriel Rossetti

William Michael Rossetti Dante Gabriel Rossetti xvii

DATE

PAGE

. 27

I January 1S77

II October ,,

June ,,

21 ,, ,,

January 1S79

Summer ,,

21 July

25 „

27 „

May , ,

16 July ,,

20 „

14 „

5J ) J

I January 18S1

2 May

Dante Gabriel Rossetti

William Michael Rossetti Dante Gabriel Rossetti Lucv Rossetti William Michael Rossetti

Dante Gabriel Rossetti William Michael Rossetti Dante Gabriel Rossetti William Michael Rossetti

Lucy Rossetti William Michael Rossetti Charles Eagot Cayley .

William Michael Rossetti

DATE

July

)j

. 19 j> i>

9>

If

17 July

. Autumn

. 26

June

July

II 15 xix

TO

DATE

PACK

11 • •

Frederic J. Shields

II December

11 • •

11 •

M M

II II

II II •

II •

II II

II i> II '

>i

1. 11

10 June

II Jamiary

II II

11 II

II II

II II

)i II •

19 II

II II •

21 ,,

18 May

. 155

II II

. 156

II II

II II

. 158

II II

10 ,,

II II

. 161

II 11

28 „

. 163

II II • •

Summer

8 May

. i6s

June

. 165

5 July

. 166

II II

I October

II

. 167

II

. 168

Helen Rossetti (Angeli

• 11

. 170

Mary Rossetti

Olivia Rossetti (Agresti)

Gabriel Arthur Rossetti

Lucy Rossetti William Michael Rossetti

DATE

20 June I October

22 January 26 March

4 July

26 August 28 December

18 February 20 March

i> i> 20 May

13 July

19 ,.

17 August 9 November

30 December 2 January 8 February

19 » 2 June 4 October 7 xxi

DATE

PAGE

1 . II October

5> •

9 ,.

18 „

21 June

. 205

LETTERS ADDRESSED TO CHRISTINA ROSSETTI

BY

DATE

Dante Gabriel Rossetti

IS52

July

22 May

IS79

I88I

Frances Rossetti

Charles Bagot Cayley .

lOI

Maria Francesca Rossetti

14 July

Rev. Dr. Littledale

Frederic J. Shields

Ford Madox Brown

"7

Lady Mount-Temple

13 May

Algernon C. Swinburne

7 June

I8S4

. 18 July

ID August

M

XXll

Sophie Cayi.ey Professor Cayley

DATE

7 December 1SS3 9

I'AGE