Life of Dante Gabriel Rossetti - Softcover

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1887 edition. Excerpt: ... chapter xv. in the Collected Edition of Rossetti's works, edited by his brother, and published when the foregoing remarks had been written, there appear a few works of more interest than importance, which are not included in the previous volumes. So exigent was Rossetti with regard to his own work, and so careful in rejecting whatever did not reach the high standard of his own judgment, his reliquice were sure to repay investigation. In future times, no doubt, the ghouls, whose dismal and selfimposed task it is to drag to light what the poet has buried out of sight, will exercise their wicked will with Rossetti. In the two volumes, however, of 1886, are contained all for which the genuine lover of the great poet will ask. The addition of highest interest consists of "Henry the Leper," the translation of the curious Swabian poem of Hartmann Von Aue. Supremely tender and touching, and curiously characteristic of the days of mediaeval thought, is this poem, in which, as in "Patient Grizzle," and other works of a similar date, the lesson is taught that the highest grace and privilege of womanhood consist in submission to man, or sacrifice on his behalf, The little maiden of humble birth in "Henry the Leper," hearing that the cure of her master, a nobleman, can only be wrought by the sacrifice for him of life by a virgin, offers herself up to die on his behalf. In the true spirit of mediaeval legend the sacrifice is accompanied by a species of exposure, from which maidenhood recoils with as much fear as from death itself. The physician of the great school of Salerne, by whom the deed is to be executed, points this out to her, and endeavours to dissuade her from the sacrifice. "Bethink thee--and consider thereof--How the pains thou tempt'st...