THE END.
The end with Morris seemed to come suddenly, although for months and even
for years there had been warnings of its approach. He had enjoyed--and
greatly enjoyed--unusual strength and vitality up to almost his sixtieth
year. The seeds of gout were in his constitution, and from attacks of this
disease he occasionally suffered, but not until the one occurring in the
spring of 1891, just as the Kelmscott Press was getting under way, did
they give reason for alarm. At that time other complications were
discovered and he was told that he must consider himself an invalid. After
this, as we have seen, he plunged with rapture into new undertakings
involving the use of all his faculties, and carried them on with no
apparent lessening of intellectual vigour. But he had too long overtaxed
his physical frame by his extraordinary labours, and especially by his
activity in the cause of Socialism, which had led him out in all weathers
and under the most adverse conditions. By the beginning of 1895 he began
to show plainly the weakness that had been gaining on him, and to admit
it, though still keeping busy at his various occupations. His increasing
illness brought home to him the thought of that final check upon his
activities which he had always found so difficult to conceive. "If," he
said, "it merely means that I am to be laid up for a little while, it
doesn't so much matter, you know; but if I am to be caged up here for
months, and then it is to be the end of all things, I shouldn't like it at
all. This has been a jolly world to me and I find plenty to do in it."
As the folio _Chaucer_ advanced through the Press, he grew impatient, no
doubt fearing that he would not see its completion, and it is pleasant to
read of his gratification when a completed copy reached him, bound in the
cover designed by himself. Late in July, 1896, by the recommendation of
his physician he took a sea voyage, going to Norway for the bracing
influences of its air and associations. No benefit was gained, however,
and on his return a congestion of one lung set in that proved unyielding,
while his general weakness was such that he was unable to cross the
threshold of his room. We find him responding to an old friend who had
urged him to try the effect of the pure air of Swainslow, that this was
the case and he could not come, but was "absolutely delighted to find
another beautiful place which is still in its untouched loveliness." Up
to the last he did a little work, dictating the final passage of _The
Sundering Flood_ less than a month before his death, which occurred in his
home at Hammersmith on the morning of the 3rd of October, 1896. He died
without apparent suffering, and surrounded by his friends. He had lived
almost sixty-three years in the "jolly world" wherein he had found so much
to do, but he left the impression of having been cut down in the flower of
his life.
His burial was in keeping with those tastes and preferences that had meant
so much to him. The strong oak coffin in which he was laid was of an
ancient, simple shape, with handles of wrought iron, and the pall that
covered it was a strip of rich Anatolian velvet from his own collection of
textiles. He was carried from Lechlade station to the little Kelmscott
church in an open hay-cart, cheerful in colour, with bright red wheels,
and festooned with vines, alder, and bulrushes. The bearers and the
drivers of the country waggons in which his friends followed him to his
grave were farmers of the neighbourhood clad in their moleskins, people
who had lost, said one of them, "a dear good friend in Master Morris." The
hearse, with its bright decorations and the little group of mourners wound
their way along pleasant country roads, beaten upon by a storm of unusual
fury. "The north-west wind bent trees and bushes," writes one of those who
were present, "turning the leaves of the bird maples back upon their
footstalks, making them look like poplars, and the rain beat on the
straggling hedges, the lurid fruit, such as only grows in rural
England,--the fruit of privet with ripe hips and haws; the foliage of the
Guelder roses hung on the bushes; along the road a line of slabs of stone
extended, reminding one of Portugal; ragweed and loosestrife, with rank
hemp agrimony, were standing dry and dead, like reeds beside a lake, and
in the rain and wind the yokels stood at the cross-roads, or at the
openings of the bridle-paths."
In _News from Nowhere_ Morris describes Kelmscott Church, with its little
aisle divided from the nave by three round arches, its windows, "mostly of
the graceful Oxfordshire fourteenth-century type," and the interior
trimmed with flowers for a village merrymaking. On the day of his burial,
by a curious coincidence it was trimmed with fruits of the harvest in
preparation for the autumn festival. The service was read by an old
schoolfellow and friend, and Morris was left to his rest "from patience
and from pain" in the place he had best loved and to which in his final
weakness he had longed to return.
In regarding Morris through the medium of his work it is difficult to gain
a coherent impression. He turned one side and another to the world with
such rapidity of succession as to give a sense of kaleidoscopic change.
What new combination of colour and form his activities would take was
always impossible to forecast. And the thing that he was doing seemed to
him at the time the one thing in the world that was worth doing, the one
thing that "a reasonable and healthy man" would make it his pleasure to
do. Yet, as we have seen, all these pursuits taken up by him with so much
zest and laid down by him with such suddenness, fitted harmoniously and
accurately into the plan of his life, which, with the decade of militant
Socialism deducted, presented a smooth and even surface, unbroken by any
violent change of circumstance or method or motive. He has been described
by nearly all who have written of him as "a rebel," and a rebel he was in
the true Quixotic sense, his lance in rest to charge at any moment against
any windmill of convention that might offend him. A friend who was once
talking with him about a forthcoming election to the London School Board,
expressing a hope that the progressive party would win,--"Well," said
Morris, striding up and down, "I am not sure that a clerical victory would
not be a good thing. I was educated at Marlborough under clerical masters,
and I naturally rebelled against them. Had they been advanced men, my
spirit of rebellion would probably have led me to conservatism merely as a
protest. One naturally defies authority, and it may be well that the
London School Board should be controlled by Anglican parsons, in order
that the young rebels in the schools may grow up to defy and hate church
authority." His own "natural" defiance of authority entailed what seems to
the ordinary toiler in harness a waste of his extraordinary gifts. His
work was most of it in the experimental stage when he left it. He was too
content to point the road without following to the end his own direction.
"He did not learn a trade in the natural way, from those who knew, and
seek then to better the teaching of his masters," says one of his
fellow-workers in arts and crafts, "but, acknowledging no master, except
perhaps the ancients, he would worry it out always for himself. He had a
wonderful knack of learning that way."[4] He had a wonderful knack also of
persuading himself that there was no other to learn, and Goldsmith's
criticism of Burke--that he spent much of his time "cutting blocks with a
razor"--has been happily applied to him. But it is doubtful whether he
would have made as strong an impression on his generation as he did if he
had devoted his time to one branch of art and worked along conventional
lines. His greatest gift was not so much the ability to produce art,
artistic though he was in faculty and feeling, as it was the ability to
make people see the difference between the kind of beauty to which his
eyes were open and the ugliness commonly preferred to it. Nothing is so
convincing as to see a man accomplish with his own hands what he has
declared possible for anyone to accomplish. Morris's continual
illustration of his theories was perhaps more useful in awakening interest
in just the matters which he had at heart than any more patient pursuit of
an ideal less readily achieved. He had the habit when listening to
questions and criticisms after his lectures of tracing charming rapid
designs on paper. On a large scale that is what he did throughout his
life: lecture people about the way to make things, and by way of proving
his point, turn off delightful examples of the things he describes. "It is
very easy" he seems to say; "watch me for a moment, and we will then pass
on."
Considered superficially, he appeared the very prince of paradox. Art was
a word continually on his lips, the future and fortunes of art were
constantly in his mind, yet for the greatest art of the world he had few
words, and the most passing interest. The names of Raphael and Leonardo,
Giotto, Duerer, Rembrandt, Velasquez, were seldom if ever on his lips. Art
had for him an almost single meaning, namely, the beauty produced by
humble workers as an every-day occurrence and for every day's enjoyment,
art by the people and for the people. So individual that he will never be
forgotten by those who have once seen him and heard his voice raised in
its inevitable protest, he nevertheless preached a kind of communism in
which any high degree of individuality must have been submerged.
His preferences among books, as might be assumed, were clearly marked, and
a list of his favourite authors contains many contrasts. Once asked to
contribute to the _Pall Mall Gazette_ his opinions on "the best hundred
books," he complied by naming those which, he said, had most profoundly
impressed him, excluding all which he considered merely as tools and not
as works of art. True to himself, he starts the list with books "of the
kind Mazzini calls Bibles," books which are "in no sense the work of
individuals, but have grown up from the very hearts of the people." Among
these are "the Hebrew Bible (excluding some twice-done parts and some
pieces of mere Jewish ecclesiasticism), _Homer_, _Hesiod_, _The Edda_
(including some of the other early old Norse romantic genealogical poems),
_Beowulf_, _Kalevale_, _Shahnameh_, _Mahabharata_, collections of folk
tales headed by Grimm and the Norse ones, Irish and Welsh traditional
poems."
After these "Bibles" follow the "_real_ ancient imaginative works:
_Herodotus_, _Plato_, _AEschylus_, _Sophocles_, _Aristophanes_,
_Theocritus_, _Lucretius_, _Catullus_." The greater part of the Latins
were esteemed "_sham_ classics." "I suppose," says Morris in his character
of reasonable man, "that they have some good literary qualities; but I
cannot help thinking that it is difficult to find out how much. I suspect
superstition and authority have influenced our estimate of them till it
has become a mere matter of convention. Of course I admit the
archaeological value of some of them, especially _Virgil_ and _Ovid_."
Next in importance to the Latin masterpieces he puts mediaeval poetry,
Anglo-Saxon lyrical pieces (like the _Ruin_ and the _Exile_), Dante,
Chaucer, _Piers Plowman_, _Nibelungenlied_, the Danish and Scotch-English
Border Ballads, _Omar Khayyam_, "though I don't know how much of the charm
of this lovely poem," he says, "is due to Fitzgerald, the translator";
other Arab and Persian poetry, _Reynard the Fox_, and a few of the best
rhymed romances. Mediaeval story books follow, the _Morte d'Arthur_, _The
Thousand and One Nights_, Boccaccio's _Decameron_, and the _Mabinogion_.
After these, "modern poets" up to his own generation, "Shakespeare, Blake
(the part of him which a mortal can understand), Coleridge, Shelley,
Keats, Byron." German he could not read, so he left out German
masterpieces. Milton he left out on account of his union of "cold
classicalism with Puritanism" ("the two things which I hate most in the
world," he said).
_Pilgrim's Progress_ heads the department of modern fiction, in which is
also included _Robinson Crusoe_, _Moell Flanders_, _Colonel Jack_, _Captain
Singleton_, _Voyage Round the World_, Scott's novels, "except the one or
two which he wrote when he was hardly alive," the novels of the elder
Dumas (the "good" ones), Victor Hugo, Dickens, and George Borrow. The list
concludes with certain unclassified works, Ruskin, Carlyle, the _Utopia_,
and Grimm's _Teutonic Mythology_. It may safely be assumed that no other
list sent in by the "best judges" who responded to Mr. Stead's request in
the least resembled this one, which was compiled with high sincerity and
represented Morris quite fairly on the bookish side of his mind. Mr.
Mackail mentions also among the volumes oftenest in his hands and "imposed
upon his friends unflinchingly" Surtees's famous _Mr. Jorrocks_, and
records that he considered _Huckleberry Finn_ America's masterpiece. For
the Uncle Remus stories he had also a peculiar fondness, and for one of
his cotton prints he designed what he called a "Brer Rabbit pattern."
The perversity that one marks in Morris beneath--or, perhaps, on the
surface of--his essential seriousness, the tendency to whim and paradox so
freely noted by his critics, may be attributed to his extraordinarily
childlike spirit. His lack of restraint, his dislike of subtlety, his love
of spontaneity, his inability to conform to conventions, his hatred of
gloom, austerity, and introspection, his readiness to throw himself into
enjoyment of the smallest subject that happened to come within the range
of his interest, his unflagging vigour, his unjaded humour, all qualities
copiously commented upon by his friends, testify to the youthfulness of
his temperament, which was like that of a child, also in a certain
apparently unpremeditated reticence, an inability to reveal itself fully
or satisfactorily to even his closest intimates. What is most attractive
and appealing in him is doubtless due to his freedom from artificialities
and from the sophistries that ordinarily come with age, but what is
noblest in him, and most impressive in the effect produced by his
accomplishment, is due to a quality of which a child is and should be
ignorant, a sense of personal responsibility. Without this he would have
been a pitiful figure, disoriented, and inharmonious with the world into
which he was born. It was his persistent unwearying effort to set the
crooked straight by example as well as by precept, and in defiance of a
certain paradoxical mental languor that flowed by the side of his energy
and impulse, which made him an influence to be counted with among the many
conflicting influences of his generation. While he counselled he produced,
while he preached he laboured. Declaring that work could and should be
lovely, he demonstrated in his own life how intensely one man loved it. He
fought for the principle of art with the ardour other men have shown in
fighting for the principle of political liberty. He held himself bound to
justify his theories in his own action, and while it would be absurd to
claim for him complete consistency and freedom from error in even this, it
certainly guided him safely past the quicksands of empty and inflated
rhetoric by which the expressed philosophy of his own great masters is
marred. It will be remembered by those who share his admiration for
Dickens that when the proprietor of Dotheboys Hall wished to teach his
pupils to spell "window" he had them clean one. The effectiveness of such
a method is deeper than the satire, and Morris was its most convincing
exponent. What he learned out of books he tried at once to put into
practice. He had the highest ideal of service:
How crown ye excellence of worth?
With leave to serve all men on earth,
and nothing deflected him from his efforts thus to serve in his own
person the most crying needs of humanity as he conceived them.
Pretentiousness was his least defect. No priggish sense of virtue
interfered with his consecration to what he believed were the highest
interests of his fellow-men. The cant of the moralist was absolutely
unused by him, and he was innocent of any intention to improve the morals
of his companions. Get them happy, he thought, with a faith little less
than magnificent, get them happy and they will be good. Nor was he guilty
of aesthetic priggishness. Art was the concern of his mind and the desire
of his heart, but it was by no means his meat and drink. He liked good
food, and was proud of his connoisseurship in matters of cookery, and
wines. Few things pleased him better than himself to take the cook's place
and prove his practical skill. When asked for his opinions on the subject
of temperance, he replied that so far as his own experience went he found
his victuals dull without something to drink, and that tea and coffee were
not fit liquors to be taken with food. He smoked his briarwood pipe with
much satisfaction. In his daily habits he was thoroughly, aggressively
human, and in nothing more so than in his candid admiration of the work of
his own hands, a feeling in which there was no fatuity.
His biographer comments on the singular element of impersonality in his
nature, speaking of him as moving among men and women "isolated,
self-centred, almost empty of love or hatred," and quotes his most
intimate friend's extreme statement that he lived "absolutely without the
need of man or woman." In this idea of him those who knew him best seemed
to agree, but from his own letters as represented in the biography, a
stranger to him gains a different impression. His letters to his invalid
daughter are in themselves sufficient to evoke in the mind of the reader
an image of unlimited and poignant tenderness impossible to associate with
the aloofness and lack of keen personal sympathy said to be characteristic
of him. He did not give himself readily or rashly to intense feelings; but
he seemed to feel within himself capacity for emotions of force so violent
as to be destructive. When his friend Faulkner was stricken with paralysis
and other trouble came upon the family, we find him writing: "It is such a
grievous business altogether that, rightly or wrongly, I try not to think
of it too much lest I should give way altogether, and make an end of what
small use there may be in my life." Leaving out the case of Rossetti,
there is no record of his having relinquished any friendship of
importance, nor did he weary of constant intercourse with his friends. His
habit of breakfasting with Burne-Jones on Sunday mornings and dining with
him on Wednesdays was unbroken for many years. "The last three Sundays of
his life," says this oldest and closest friend, "I went to him."
Loyalty, sincerity, simplicity, and earnestness, these are the qualities
conspicuous in the fabric of his life. His influence upon his generation,
so far as it may now be observed, has been definite but diffused. It may
be doubted whether he would not have been best pleased to have it so, to
know that his name will live chiefly as that of one who stimulated others
toward art production of and interest in beautiful handiwork. But the last
word to be said about him is that he was greater than his work.
BIBLIOGRAPHY[5]
1. _The Story of the Glittering Plain. Which has been also called The Land
of Living Men or The Acre of the Undying._ Written by WILLIAM MORRIS.
Small 4to. Golden type. Border 1. 200 paper copies at two guineas, and 6
on vellum. Dated April 4, issued May 8, 1891. Sold by Reeves & Turner.
Bound in stiff vellum with wash leather ties.[6]
This book was set up from Nos. 81-84 of _The English Illustrated
Magazine_, in which it first appeared; some of the chapter headings
were rearranged, and a few small corrections were made in the text. A
trial page, the first printed at the Kelmscott Press, was struck off
on January 31, 1891, but the first sheet was not printed until about a
month later.[7] The border was designed in January of the same year,
and engraved by W. H. Hooper. Mr. Morris had four of the vellum copies
bound in green vellum, three of which he gave to friends. Only two
copies on vellum were sold, at twelve and fifteen guineas. This was
the only book with wash leather ties. All the other vellum bound books
have silk ties, except _Shelley's Poems_ and _Hand and Soul_, which
have no ties.
2. _Poems by the Way._ Written by WILLIAM MORRIS. Small 4to. Golden type.
In black and red. Border 1. 300 paper copies at two guineas, thirteen on
vellum at about twelve guineas. Dated September 24, issued October 20,
1891. Sold by Reeves & Turner. Bound in stiff vellum.
This was the first book printed at the Kelmscott Press in two colours,
and the first book in which the smaller printer's mark appeared. After
_The Glittering Plain_ was finished, at the beginning of April, no
printing was done until May 11th. In the meanwhile the compositors
were busy setting up the early sheets of _The Golden Legend_. The
printing of _Poems by the Way_, which its author first thought of
calling _Flores Atramenti_, was not begun until July. The poems in it
were written at various times. In the manuscript, _Hafburg and Signy_
is dated February 4, 1870; _Hildebrand and Hillilel_, March 1, 1871;
and _Love's Reward_, Kelmscott, April 21, 1871. _Meeting in Winter_ is
a song from _The Story of Orpheus_ an unpublished poem intended for
the _Earthly Paradise_. The last poem in the book, _Goldilocks and
Goldilooks_, was written on May 20, 1891, for the purpose of adding to
the bulk of the volume, which was then being prepared. A few of the
vellum covers were stained at Merton red, yellow, indigo, and dark
green, but the experiment was not successful.[8]
3. _The Love-Lyrics and Songs of Proteus, by Wilfrid Scawen Blunt, with
the Love Sonnets of Proteus, by the same author, now reprinted in their
full text with many sonnets omitted from the earlier editions._ London,
MDCCCXCII. Small 4to. Golden type. In black and red. Border 1. 300 paper
copies at two guineas, none on vellum. Dated January 26, issued February
27, 1892. Sold by Reeves & Turner. Bound in stiff vellum.
This is the only book in which the initials are printed in red. This
was done by the author's wish.
4. _The Nature of Gothic, a Chapter of the Stones of Venice._ By JOHN
RUSKIN. With a preface by William Morris. Small 4to. Golden type. Border
1. Diagrams in text. 500 paper copies at thirty shillings, none on vellum.
Dated in preface, February 15, issued March 22, 1892. Published by George
Allen. Bound in stiff vellum.
This chapter of the Stones of Venice, which Ruskin always considered
the most important in the book, was first printed separately, in 1854,
as a sixpenny pamphlet. Mr. Morris paid more than one tribute to it in
_Hopes and Fears for Art_. Of him Ruskin said, in 1887, "Morris is
beaten gold."
5. _The Defence of Guenevere, and Other Poems._ By WILLIAM MORRIS. Small
4to. Golden type. In black and red. Borders 2 and 1. 300 paper copies at
two guineas, 10 on vellum at about twelve guineas. Dated April 2, issued
May 19, 1892. Sold by Reeves & Turner. Bound in limp vellum.
This book was set up from a copy of the edition published by Reeves &
Turner in 1880, the only alteration, except a few corrections, being
in the eleventh line of _Summer Dawn_.[9] It is divided into three
parts, the poems suggested by Malory's _Morte d'Arthur_, the poems
inspired by Froissart's _Chronicles_, and poems on various subjects.
The two first sections have borders, and the last has a half border.
The first sheet was printed on February 17, 1892. It was the first
book bound in limp vellum, and the only one of which the title was
inscribed by hand on the back.
6. _A Dream of John Ball and a King's Lesson._ By WILLIAM MORRIS. Small
4to. Golden type. In black and red. Borders 3a, 4, and 2. With a woodcut
designed by Sir E. Burne-Jones. 300 paper copies at thirty shillings, 11
on vellum at ten guineas. Dated May 13, issued September 24, 1892. Sold by
Reeves & Turner. Bound in limp vellum.
This was set up with a few alterations from a copy of Reeves &
Turner's third edition, and the printing was begun on April 4, 1892.
The frontispiece was redrawn from that to the first edition, and
engraved on wood by W. H. Hooper, who engraved all Sir E.
Burne-Jones's designs for the Kelmscott Press, except those for _The
Wood Beyond the World_ and _The Life and Death of Jason_. The
inscription below the figures,[10] and the narrow border, were
designed by Mr. Morris and engraved with the picture on one block,
which was afterwards used on a leaflet printed for the Ancoats
Brotherhood in February, 1894.
7. _The Golden Legend._ By JACOBUS DE VORAGINE. Translated by William
Caxton. Edited by F. S. Ellis. 3 vols. Large 4to. Golden type. Borders 5a,
5, 6a and 7. Woodcut title and two woodcuts designed by Sir E.
Burne-Jones. 500 copies at five guineas, none on vellum. Dated September
12, issued November 3, 1892. Published by Bernard Quaritch. Bound in half
Holland, with paper labels printed in the Troy type.
In July, 1890, when only a few letters of the Golden type had been
cut, Mr. Morris bought a copy of this book, printed by Wynkyn de Worde
in 1527. He soon afterwards determined to print it, and on September
11th entered into a formal agreement with Mr. Quaritch for its
publication. It was only an unforeseen difficulty about the size of
the first stock of paper that led to _The Golden Legend_ not being the
first book put in hand. It was set up from a transcript of Caxton's
first edition, lent by the Syndics of the Cambridge University Library
for the purpose. A trial page was got out in March, 1891, and fifty
pages were in type by May 11th, the day on which the first sheet was
printed. The first volume was finished, with the exception of the
illustrations and the preliminary matter, in October, 1891. The two
illustrations and the title (which was the first woodcut title
designed by Mr. Morris) were not engraved until June and August, 1892,
when the third volume was approaching completion. About half a dozen
impressions of the illustrations were pulled on vellum. A slip asking
owners of the book not to have it bound with pressure, nor to have the
edges cut instead of merely trimmed, was inserted in each copy.
8. _The Recuyell of the Historyes of Troye._ By RAOUL LEFEVRE. Translated
by William Caxton. Edited by H. Halliday Sparling. 2 vols. Large 4to. Troy
type, with table of chapters and glossary in Chaucer type. In black and
red. Borders 5a, 5, and 8. Woodcut title. 300 paper copies at nine
guineas, 5 on vellum at eighty pounds. Dated October 14, issued November
24, 1892. Published by Bernard Quaritch. Bound in limp vellum.
This book, begun in February, 1892, is the first book printed in Troy
type, and the first in which Chaucer type appears. It is a reprint of
the first book printed in English. It had long been a favourite with
William Morris, who designed a great quantity of initials and
ornaments for it, and wrote the following note for Mr. Quaritch's
catalogue: "As to the matter of the book, it makes a thoroughly
amusing story, instinct with mediaeval thought and manners. For though
written at the end of the Middle Ages and dealing with classical
mythology, it has in it no token of the coming Renaissance, but is
purely mediaeval. It is the last issue of that story of Troy which
through the whole of the Middle Ages had such a hold on men's
imaginations; the story built up from a rumour of the Cyclic Poets, of
the heroic City of Troy, defended by Priam and his gallant sons, led
by Hector the Preux Chevalier, and beset by the violent and brutal
Greeks, who were looked on as the necessary machinery for bringing
about the undeniable tragedy of the fall of the City. Surely this is
well worth reading, if only as a piece of undiluted mediaevalism." 2000
copies of a 4to announcement, with specimen pages, were printed at the
Kelmscott Press in December, 1892, for distribution by the
publisher.[11]
9. _Biblia Innocentium: Being the Story of God's Chosen People before the
Coming of Our Lord Jesus Christ upon Earth._ Written anew for children, by
J. W. MACKAIL, Sometime Fellow of Balliol College, Oxford. 8vo. Border 2.
200 on paper at a guinea, none on vellum. Dated October 22, issued
December 9, 1892. Sold by Reeves & Turner. Bound in stiff vellum.
This was the last book issued in stiff vellum except _Hand and Soul_,
and the last with untrimmed edges. It was the first book printed in
8vo.
10. _The History of Reynard the Foxe._ By WILLIAM CAXTON. Reprinted from
his edition of 1481. Edited by H. Halliday Sparling. Large 4to. Troy type,
with Glossary in Chaucer type. In black and red. Borders 5a and 7. Woodcut
title. 300 on paper at three guineas, 10 on vellum at fifteen guineas.
Dated December 15, 1892, issued January 25, 1893. Published by Bernard
Quaritch. Bound in limp vellum.
About this book, which was first announced as in the press in the list
dated July, 1892, William Morris wrote the following note for Mr.
Quaritch's catalogue: "This translation of Caxton's is one of the very
best of his works as to style; and being translated from a kindred
tongue is delightful as mere language. In its rude joviality, and
simple and direct delineation of character, it is a thoroughly good
representative of the famous ancient Beast Epic." The edges of this
book, and of all subsequent books, were trimmed in accordance with the
invariable practice of the early printers. Mr. Morris much preferred
the trimmed edges.
11. _The Poems of William Shakespeare_, printed after the original copies
of _Venus and Adonis_, 1593. _The Rape of Lucrece_, 1594. _Sonnets_, 1609.
_The Lover's Complaint._ Edited by F. S. Ellis. 8vo. Golden type. In black
and red. Borders 1 and 2. 500 paper copies at twenty-five shillings, 10 on
vellum at ten guineas. Dated January 17, issued February 13, 1893. Sold by
Reeves & Turner. Bound in limp vellum.
A trial page of this book was set up on November 1, 1892. Though the
number was large, this has become one of the rarest books issued from
the Press.[12]
12. _News from Nowhere: or, An Epoch of Rest, Being Some Chapters from a
Utopian Romance._ By WILLIAM MORRIS. 8vo. Golden type. In black and red.
Borders 9a and 4, and a woodcut engraved by W. H. Hooper from a design by
C. M. Gere. 300 on paper at two guineas, 10 on vellum at ten guineas.
Dated November 22, 1892, issued March 24, 1893. Sold by Reeves & Turner.
Bound in limp vellum.
The text of this book was printed before Shakespeare's _Poems and
Sonnets_, but it was kept back for the frontispiece, which is a
picture of the old manor-house in the village of Kelmscott by the
upper Thames, from which the Press took its name. It was set up from a
copy of one of Reeves & Turner's editions, and in reading it for the
press the author made a few slight corrections. It was the last book
except the _Savonarola_ (No. 31) in which he used the old paragraph
mark [Illustration], which was discarded in favour of the leaves,
which had already been used in the two large 4to books printed in the
Troy type.
13. _The Order of Chivalry._ Translated from the French by William Caxton
and reprinted from his edition of 1484. Edited by F. S. Ellis. And
_L'Ordene de Chevalerie_, with translation by William Morris. Small 4to.
Chaucer type, in black and red. Borders 9a and 4, and a woodcut designed
by Sir Edward Burne-Jones. 225 on paper at thirty shillings, 10 on vellum
at ten guineas. _The Order of Chivalry_ dated November 10, 1892,
_L'Ordene de Chevalerie_ dated February 24, 1893, issued April 12, 1893.
Sold by Reeves & Turner. Bound in limp vellum.
This was the last book printed in small 4to. The last section is in
8vo. It was the first book printed in the Chaucer type. The reprint
from Caxton was finished while _News from Nowhere_ was in the press,
and before Shakespeare's _Poems and Sonnets_ was begun. The French
poem and its translation were added as an afterthought, and have a
separate colophon. Some of the three-line initials which were designed
for _The Well at the World's End_ are used in the French poem, and
this is their first appearance. The translation was begun on December
3, 1892, and the border round the frontispiece was designed on
February 13, 1893.
14. _The Life of Thomas Woolsey, Cardinal Archbishop of York._ Written by
GEORGE CAVENDISH. Edited by F. S. Ellis from the author's autograph MS.
8vo. Golden type. Border 1. 250 on paper at two guineas, 6 on vellum at
ten guineas. Dated March 30, issued May 3, 1893. Sold by Reeves & Turner.
Bound in limp vellum.
15. _The History of Godefrey of Boloyne and of the Conquest of
Iherusalem._ Reprinted from Caxton's edition of 1841. Edited by H.
Halliday Sparling. Large 4to. Troy type, with list of chapter headings and
glossary in Chaucer type. In black and red. Borders 5a and 5, and woodcut
title. 300 on paper at six guineas, 6 on vellum at twenty guineas. Dated
April 27, issued May 24, 1893. Published by William Morris at the
Kelmscott Press. Bound in limp vellum.
This was the fifth and last of the Caxton reprints, with many new
ornaments and initials, and a new printer's mark. It was first
announced as in the press in the list dated December, 1892. It was the
first book published and sold at the Kelmscott Press. An announcement
and order form, with two different specimen pages, was printed at the
Press, besides a special invoice. A few copies were bound in half
holland, not for sale.
16. _Utopia._ Written by SIR THOMAS MORE. A reprint of the second edition
of Ralph Robinson's translation, with a foreword by William Morris.[13]
Edited by F. S. Ellis. 8vo. Chaucer type, with the reprinted title in Troy
type. In black and red. Borders 4 and 2. 300 on paper at thirty shillings,
8 on vellum at ten guineas. Dated August 4, issued September 8, 1893. Sold
by Reeves & Turner. Bound in limp vellum.
This book was first announced as in the press in the list dated May
20, 1893.
17. _Maud, A Monodrama._ By ALFRED, LORD TENNYSON. 8vo. Golden type. In
black and red. Borders 10a and 10, and woodcut title. 500 on paper at two
guineas, 5 on vellum, not for sale. Dated August 11, issued September 30,
1893. Published by Macmillan & Co. Bound in limp vellum.
The borders were specially designed for this book. They were both used
again in the Keats, and one of them appears in _The Saundering Flood_.
It is the first of the 8vo books with a woodcut title.
18. _Gothic Architecture: A Lecture for the Arts and Crafts Exhibition
Society._ By WILLIAM MORRIS. 16mo. Golden type. In black and red. 1500 on
paper at two shillings and sixpence, 45 on vellum at ten and fifteen
shillings. Bound in half holland.
This lecture was set up at Hammersmith and printed at the New Gallery
during the Arts and Crafts Exhibition in October and November, 1893.
The first copies were ready on October 21st and the book was twice
reprinted before the Exhibition closed. It was the first book printed
in 16mo. The four-line initials used in it appear here for the first
time. The vellum copies were sold during the Exhibition at ten
shillings, and the price was subsequently raised to fifteen
shillings.[14]
19. _Sidonia the Sorceress._ By WILLIAM MEINHOLD. Translated by Francesca
Speranza, Lady Wilde. Large 4to. Golden type. In black and red. Border 8.
300 paper copies at four guineas, 10 on vellum at twenty guineas. Dated
September 15, issued November 1, 1893. Published by William Morris. Bound
in limp vellum.
Before the publication of this book a large 4to announcement and order
form was issued, with a specimen page and an interesting description
of the book and its author, written and signed by William Morris. Some
copies were bound in half holland not for sale.
20. _Ballads and Narrative Poems by Dante Gabriel Rossetti._ 8vo. Golden
type. In black and red. Borders 4a and 4, and woodcut title. 310 on paper
at two guineas, 6 on vellum at ten guineas. Dated October 14, issued in
November, 1893. Published by Ellis & Elvey. Bound in limp vellum.
This book was announced as in preparation in the list of August 1,
1893.
21. _The Tale of King Florus and the Fair Jehane._ Translated by William
Morris from the French of the 13th century. 16mo. Chaucer type. In black
and red. Borders 11a and 11, and woodcut title. 350 on paper at seven
shillings and sixpence, 15 on vellum at thirty shillings. Dated December
16, issued December 28, 1893. Published by William Morris. Bound in half
holland.
This story, like the three other translations with which it is
uniform, was taken from a little volume called _Nouvelles Francoises
en prose du XIIIe siecle_, Paris, Jannet, 1856. They were first
announced as in preparation under the heading _French Tales_ in the
list dated May 20, 1893. Eighty-five copies of _King Florus_ were
bought by J. & M. L. Tregaskis, who had them bound in all parts of the
world. These are now in the Rylands Library at Manchester.
22. _The Story of the Glittering Plain. Which has been also called The
Land of Living Men or The Acre of the Undying._ Written by WILLIAM MORRIS.
Large 4to. Troy type, with list of chapters in Chaucer type. In black and
red. Borders 12a and 12, 23 designs by Walter Crane, engraved by A.
Leverett, and a woodcut title. 250 on paper at five guineas, 7 on vellum
at twenty pounds. Dated January 13, issued February 17, 1894. Published by
William Morris. Bound in limp vellum. Neither the borders in this book nor
six out of the seven frames round the illustrations appear in any other
book. The seventh is used round the second picture in _Love is Enough_. A
few copies were bound in half holland.
23. _Of the Friendship of Amis and Amile._ _Done out of the ancient French
by_ WILLIAM MORRIS. 16mo. Chaucer type. In black and red. Borders 11a and
11, and woodcut title. 500 on paper at seven shillings and sixpence, 15 on
vellum at thirty shillings. Dated March 13th, issued April 4, 1894.
Published by William Morris. Bound in half holland.[15]
A poem entitled _Amys and Amillion_, founded on this story, was
originally to have appeared in the second volume of the _Earthly
Paradise_, but, like some other poems announced at the same time, it
was not included in the book.
20a. _Sonnets and Lyrical Poems by Dante Gabriel Rossetti._ 8vo. Golden
type. In black and red. Borders 1a and 1, and woodcut title. 310 on paper
at two guineas, 6 on vellum at ten guineas. Dated February 20, issued
April 21, 1894. Published by Ellis & Elvey. Bound in limp vellum.
This book is uniform with No. 20, to which it forms a sequel. Both
volumes were read for the press by Mr. W. M. Rossetti.
24. _The Poems of John Keats._ Edited by F. S. Ellis. 8vo. Golden type. In
black and red. Borders 10a and 10, and woodcut title. 300 on paper at
thirty shillings, 7 on vellum at nine guineas. Dated March 7, issued May
8, 1894. Published by William Morris. Bound in limp vellum.
This is now (January, 1898) the most sought after of all the smaller
Kelmscott Press books. It was announced as in preparation in the lists
of May 27 and August 1, 1893, and as in the press in that of March 31,
1894, when the woodcut title still remained to be printed.[16]
25. _Atalanta in Calydon: A Tragedy._ By ALGERNON CHARLES SWINBURNE. Large
4to. Troy type, with argument and _dramatis personae_ in Chaucer type; the
dedication and quotation from Euripides in Greek type designed by Selwyn
Image. In black and red. Borders 5a and 5, and woodcut title. 250 on paper
at two guineas, 8 on vellum at twelve guineas. Dated May 4, issued July
24, 1894. Published by William Morris. Bound in limp vellum.
In the vellum copies of this book the colophon is not on the
eighty-second page as in the paper copies, but on the following page.
26. _The Tale of the Emperor Coustans and of Over Sea._ Done out of
ancient French by WILLIAM MORRIS. 16mo. Chaucer type. In black and red.
Borders 11a and 11, both twice, and two woodcut titles. 525 on paper at
seven shillings and sixpence, 20 on vellum at two guineas. Dated August
30, issued September 26, 1894. Published by William Morris. Bound in half
holland.
The first of these stories, which was the source of _The Man Born to
be King_ in _The Earthly Paradise_, was announced as in preparation in
the list of March 31, 1894.
27. _The Wood Beyond the World._ By WILLIAM MORRIS. 8vo. Chaucer type. In
black and red. Borders 13a and 13, and a frontispiece designed by Sir E.
Burne-Jones, and engraved on wood by W. Spielmeyer. 350 on paper at two
guineas, 8 on vellum at ten guineas. Dated May 30, issued October 16,
1894. Published by William Morris. Bound in limp vellum.
The borders in this book, as well as the ten half borders, are here
used for the first time. It was first announced as in the press in the
list of March 31, 1894. Another edition was published by Lawrence &
Bullen in 1895.
28. _The Book of Wisdom and Lies. A Book of Traditional Stories from
Georgia and Asia._ Translated by Oliver Wardrop from the original of
Sulkhan-Saba Orbeliani. 8vo. Golden type. In black and red. Borders 4a and
4, and woodcut title. 250 on paper at two guineas, none on vellum.
Finished September 20, issued October 29, 1894. Published by Bernard
Quaritch. Bound in limp vellum.
The arms of Georgia, consisting of the Holy Coat, appear in the
woodcut title of this book.[17]
29. _The Poetical Works of Percy Bysshe Shelley._ Volume 1. Edited by F.
S. Ellis. 8vo. Golden type. Borders 1a and 1, and woodcut title. 250 on
paper at twenty-five shillings, 6 on vellum at eight guineas. Not dated,
issued November 29, 1894. Published by William Morris. Bound in limp
vellum without ties.
Red ink is not used in this volume, though it is used in the second
volume, and more sparingly in the third. Some of the half borders
designed for _The Wood Beyond the World_ reappear before the longer
poems. The Shelley was first announced as in the press in the list of
March 31, 1894.[18]
30. _Psalmi Penitentiales. An English rhymed version of the Seven
Penitential Psalms._ Edited by F. S. Ellis. 8vo. Chaucer type. In black
and red. 300 on paper at seven shillings and sixpence, 12 on vellum at
three guineas. Dated November 15, issued December 10, 1894. Published by
William Morris. Bound in half holland.
These verses were taken from a manuscript Book of Hours, written at
Gloucester in the first half of the fifteenth century, but the Rev.
Professor Skeat has pointed out that the scribe must have copied them
from an older manuscript, as they are in the Kentish dialect of about
a century earlier. The half border on p. 34 appears for the first time
in this book.
31. _Epistolade Contemptumundi di Frate Hieronymo da Ferrara Dellordinede
Frati Predicatori la Quale Manda ad Elena Buonaccorsi Sua Madre._ Per
CONSOLARLA DELLA MORTE DEL FRATELLO, _Suo Zio_. Edited by Charles Fairfax
Murray from the original autograph letter. 8vo. Chaucer type. In black
and red. Border 1. Woodcut on title designed by C. F. Murray and engraved
by W. H. Hooper. 150 on paper and 6 on vellum. Dated November 30, ready
December 12, 1894. Bound in half holland.
This little book was printed for Mr. C. Fairfax Murray, the owner of
the manuscript, and was not for sale in the ordinary way. The colophon
is in Italian, and the printer's mark is in red.
32. _The Tale of Beowulf._ Done out of the old English tongue by WILLIAM
MORRIS and A. J. WYATT. Large 4to. Troy type, with argument, side-notes,
list of persons and places, and glossary in Chaucer type. In black and
red. Borders 14a and 14, and woodcut title. 300 on paper at two guineas, 8
on vellum at ten pounds. Dated January 10, issued February 2, 1895.
Published by William Morris. Bound in limp vellum.
The borders in this book were only used once again, in the Jason. A
note to the reader printed on a slip in the Golden type was inserted
in each copy. _Beowulf_ was first announced as in preparation in the
list of May 20, 1893. The verse translation was begun by Mr. Morris,
with the aid of Mr. Wyatt's careful paraphrase of the text, on
February 21, 1893, and finished on April 10, 1894, but the argument
was not written by Mr. Morris until December 10, 1894.
33. _Syr Perecyvelle of Gales._ Overseen by F. S. Ellis, after the edition
edited by J. O. Halliwell from the Thornton MS. in the Library of Lincoln
Cathedral. 8vo. Chaucer type. In black and red. Borders 13a and 13, and a
woodcut designed by Sir E. Burne-Jones. 350 on paper at fifteen shillings,
8 on vellum four guineas. Dated February 16, issued May 2, 1895. Published
by William Morris. Bound in limp vellum.
This is the first of the series to which _Sire Degrevaunt and Syr
Isumbrace_ belong. They were all reprinted from the Camden Society's
volume of 1844, which was a favourite with Mr. Morris from his Oxford
days. _Syr Perecyvelle_ was first announced in the list of December 1,
1894. The shoulder-notes were added by Mr. Morris.
34. _The Life and Death of Jason_, A Poem by WILLIAM MORRIS. Large 4to.
Troy type, with a few words in Chaucer type. In black and red. Borders 14a
and 14, and two woodcuts designed by Sir E. Burne-Jones and engraved on
wood by W. Spielmeyer. 200 on paper at five guineas, 6 on vellum at twenty
guineas. Dated May 25, issued July 5, 1895. Published by William Morris.
Bound in limp vellum.
This book, announced as in the press in the list of April 21, 1894,
proceeded slowly, as several other books, notably the Chaucer, were
being printed at the same time. The text, which had been corrected for
the second edition of 1868, and for the edition of 1882, was again
revised by the author. The line fillings on the last page were cut on
metal for the book, and cast like type.
29a. _The Poetical Works of Percy Bysshe Shelley._ Volume 11. Edited by F.
S. Ellis. 8vo. Golden type. In black and red. 250 on paper at twenty-five
shillings, 6 on vellum at eight guineas. Not dated, issued March 25, 1895.
Published by William Morris, Bound in limp vellum without ties.
35. _Child Christopher and Goldilind the Fair._ By WILLIAM MORRIS. 2 vols.
16mo. Chaucer type. In black and red. Borders 15a and 15, and woodcut
title. 600 on paper at fifteen shillings, 12 on vellum at four guineas.
Dated July 25, issued September 25, 1895. Published by William Morris.
Bound in half holland, with labels printed in the Golden type.
The borders designed for this book were only used once again, in _Hand
and Soul_. The plot of the story was suggested by that of Havelok the
Dane, printed by the Early English Text Society.
29b. _The Poetical Works of Percy Bysshe Shelley._ Volume III. Edited by
F. S. Ellis. 8vo. Golden type. In black and red. 250 on paper at
twenty-five shillings, 6 on vellum at eight guineas. Dated August 21,
issued October 28, 1895. Published by William Morris. Bound in limp vellum
without ties.
36. _Hand and Soul._ By DANTE GABRIEL ROSSETTI. Reprinted from _The Germ_,
for Messrs. Way & Williams, of Chicago. 16mo. Golden type. In black and
red. Borders 15a and 15, and woodcut title. 300 paper copies and 11 vellum
copies for America. 225 paper copies for sale in England at ten shillings,
and 10 on vellum at thirty shillings. Dated October 24, issued December
12, 1895. Bound in stiff vellum, without ties.
This was the only 16mo book bound in vellum. The English and American
copies have a slightly different colophon. The shoulder-notes were
added by Mr. Morris.
37. _Poems Chosen out of the Works of Robert Herrick._ Edited by F. S.
Ellis. 8vo. Golden type. In black and red. Borders 4a and 4, and woodcut
title. 250 on paper at thirty shillings, 8 on vellum at eight guineas.
Dated November 21, 1895, issued February 6, 1896. Published by William
Morris. Bound in limp vellum.
This book was first announced as in preparation in the list of
December 1, 1894, and as in the press in that of July 1, 1895.
38. _Poems Chosen out of the Works of Samuel Taylor Coleridge._ Edited by
F. S. Ellis. 8vo. Golden type. In black and red. Borders 13a and 13. 300
on paper at a guinea, 8 on vellum at five guineas. Dated February 5,
issued April 12, 1896. Published by William Morris. Bound in limp
vellum.[19]
This book contains thirteen poems. It was first announced as in
preparation in the list of December 1, 1894, and as in the press in
that of November 26, 1895. It is the last of the series to which
Tennyson's _Maud_, and the poems of Rossetti, Keats, Shelley, and
Herrick belong.
39. _The Well at the World's End._ By WILLIAM MORRIS. Large 4to. Double
columns. Chaucer type. In black and red. Borders 16a, 16, 17a, 17, 18a,
18, 19a, 19, and four woodcuts designed by Sir E. Burne-Jones. 350 on
paper at five guineas, 8 on vellum at twenty guineas. Dated March 2,
issued June 4, 1896. Sold by William Morris. Bound in limp vellum.
This book, delayed for various reasons, was longer on hand than any
other. It appears in no less than twelve lists, from that of December,
1892, to that of November 26, 1895, as "in the press." Trial pages,
including one in a single column, were ready as early as September,
1892, and the printing began on December 16th, of that year. The
edition of _The Well at the World's End_, published by Longmans, was
then being printed from the author's manuscript at the Chiswick Press,
and the Kelmscott Press edition was set up from the sheets of that
edition, which, though not issued until October, 1896, was finished in
1894. The eight borders and the six different ornaments between the
columns appear here for the first time, but are used again in _The
Water of the Wondrous Isles_, with the exception of two borders.
40. _The Works of Geoffrey Chaucer._ Edited by F. S. Ellis. Folio. Chaucer
type, with headings to the longer poems in Troy type. In black and red.
Borders 20a to 26, woodcut title, and eighty-seven woodcut illustrations
designed by Sir E. Burne-Jones. 425 on paper at twenty pounds, 13 on
vellum at 120 guineas. Dated May 8, issued June 26, 1896. Published by
William Morris. Bound in half holland.
The history of this book, which is by far the most important
achievement of the Kelmscott Press, is as follows:
As far back as June 11, 1891, Mr. Morris spoke of printing a Chaucer
with a black-letter fount, which he hoped to design. Four months
later, when most of the Troy type was designed and cut, he expressed
his intention to use it first on John Ball, and then on a Chaucer,
and perhaps a _Gesta Romanorum_. By January 1, 1892, the Troy type was
delivered, and early in that month two trial pages, one from _The
Cook's Tale_ and one from _Sir Thopas_, the latter in double columns,
were got out. It then became evident that the type was too large for a
Chaucer, and Mr. Morris decided to have it re-cut in the size known as
pica. By the end of June he was thus in possession of the type which,
in the list issued in December, 1892, he named the Chaucer type. In
July, 1892, another trial page, a passage from _The Knight's Tale_, in
double columns of fifty-eight lines, was got out, and found to be
satisfactory. The idea of the Chaucer as it now exists, with
illustrations by Sir Edward Burne-Jones, then took definite shape.
In a proof of the first list, dated April, 1892, there is an
announcement of the book as in preparation, in black-letter, large
quarto, but this was struck out, and does not appear in the list as
printed in May, nor yet in the July list. In that for December, 1892,
it is announced for the first time as to be in Chaucer type "with
about sixty designs by E. Burne-Jones." The next list, dated March 9,
1893, states that it will be a folio, and that it is in the press, by
which was meant that a few pages were in type. In the list dated
August 1, 1893, the probable price is given as twenty pounds. The next
four lists contain no fresh information, but on August 17, 1894, nine
days after the first sheet was printed, a notice was sent to the trade
that there would be 325 copies at twenty pounds, and about sixty
woodcut designs by Sir Edward Burne-Jones. Three months later it was
decided to increase the number of illustrations to upwards of seventy,
and to print another 100 copies of the book. A circular letter was
sent to the subscribers on November 14th, stating this, and giving
them an opportunity of cancelling their orders. Orders were not
withdrawn, the extra copies were immediately taken up, and the list
for December 1, 1894, which is the first containing full particulars,
announces that all paper copies are sold.[20]
Mr. Morris began designing his first folio border on February 1, 1893,
but was dissatisfied with the design and did not finish it. Three days
later he began the vine border for the first page, and finished it in
about a week, together with the initial word "Whan," the two lines of
heading, and the frame for the first picture, and Mr. Hooper engraved
the whole of these on one block. The first picture was engraved at
about the same time. A specimen of the first page (differing slightly
from the same page as it appears in the book) was shown at the Arts
and Crafts Exhibition in October and November, 1893, and was issued to
a few leading booksellers, but it was not until August 8, 1894, that
the first sheet was printed at 14, Upper Mall. On January 8, 1895,
another press was started at 21, Upper Mall, and from that time two
presses were almost exclusively at work on the Chaucer. By September
10th, the last page of _The Romaunt of the Rose_ was printed. In the
middle of February, 1896, Mr. Morris began designing the title. It was
finished on the 27th of the same month and engraved by Mr. Hooper in
March. On May 8th, a year and nine months after the printing of the
first sheet, the book was completed. On June 2nd, the first two copies
were delivered to Sir Edward Burne-Jones and Mr. Morris. Mr. Morris's
copy is now at Exeter College, Oxford, with other books printed at the
Kelmscott Press.
Besides the eighty-seven illustrations designed by Sir Edward
Burne-Jones, and engraved by W. H. Hooper, the Chaucer contains a
woodcut title, fourteen large borders, eighteen different frames
around the illustrations, and twenty-six large initial words designed
for the book by William Morris. Many of these were engraved by C. E.
Keats, and others by W. H. Hooper and W. Spielmeyer.
In February, 1896, a notice was issued respecting special bindings, of
which Mr. Morris intended to design four.
Two of these were to have been executed under Mr. Cobden-Sanderson's
direction at the Doves Bindery, and two by Messrs. J. & J. Leighton.
But the only design that he was able to complete was for a full white
pigskin binding, which has now been carried out at the Doves Bindery
on forty-eight copies, including two on vellum.[21]
41. _The Earthly Paradise._ By WILLIAM MORRIS. Volume I. _Prologue: The
Wanderers._ March: _Atalanta's Race. The Man Born to be King._ Medium
4to. Golden type. In black and red. Borders 27a, 27, 28a, and 28, and
woodcut title. 225 on paper at thirty shillings, 6 on vellum at seven
guineas. Dated May 7, issued July 24, 1896. Published by William Morris.
Bound in limp vellum.
This was the first book printed on the paper with the apple
water-mark. The seven other volumes followed it at intervals of a few
months. None of the ten borders used in the _Earthly Paradise_ appear
in any other book. The four different half-borders round the poems to
the months are also not used elsewhere. The first border was designed
in June, 1895.
42. _Laudes Beatae Mariae Virginis._ Latin poems taken from a Psalter
written in England about A.D. 1220. Edited by S. C. Cockerell. Large 4to.
Troy type. In black, red, and blue. 250 on paper at ten shillings, 10 on
vellum at two guineas. Dated July 7, issued August 7, 1896. Published by
William Morris. Bound in half holland.
This was the first book printed at the Kelmscott Press in three
colours.[22] The manuscript from which the poems were taken was one of
the most beautiful of the English books in Mr. Morris's possession,
both as regards writing and ornament. No author's name is given to the
poems, but after this book was issued the Rev. E. S. Dewick pointed
out that they had already been printed at Tegernsee in 1579, in a 16mo
volume in which they are ascribed to Stephen Langton. A note to this
effect was printed in the Chaucer type in December 28, 1896, and
distributed to the subscribers.
41a. _The Earthly Paradise._ By WILLIAM MORRIS. Volume II. April: _The
Doom of King Acrisius. The Proud King._ Medium 4to. Golden type. In black
and red. Borders 29a, 29, 28a, and 28. 225 on paper at thirty shillings, 6
on vellum at seven guineas. Dated June 24, issued September 17, 1896.
Published by William Morris. Bound in limp vellum.
43. _The Floure and the Leafe, and The Boke of Cupide, God of Love, or The
Cuckow and the Nightingale._ Edited by F. S. Ellis. Medium 4to. Troy type,
with note and colophon in Chaucer type. In black and red. 300 on paper at
ten shillings, 10 on vellum at two guineas. Dated August 21, issued
November 2, 1896. Published at the Kelmscott Press. Bound in half holland.
Two of the initial words from the Chaucer are used in this book, one
at the beginning of each poem. These poems were formerly attributed to
Chaucer, but recent scholarship has proved that _The Floure and the
Leafe_ is much later than Chaucer, and that _The Cuckow and the
Nightingale_ was written by Sir Thomas Clanvowe about A.D. 1405-10.
44. _The Shepheardes Calender: Conteyning Twelve Aeglogues, Proportionable
to the Twelve Monethes._ By EDMUND SPENCER. Edited by F. S. Ellis. Medium
4to. Golden type. In black and red. With twelve full page illustrations by
A. J. Gaskin. 225 on paper at a guinea, 6 on vellum at three guineas.
Dated October 14, issued November 26, 1896. Published at the Kelmscott
Press. Bound in half holland.
The illustrations in this book were printed from process blocks by
Walker & Boutall. By an oversight, the names of author, editor, and
artist were omitted from the colophon.
41b. _The Earthly Paradise._ By WILLIAM MORRIS. Volume III. May: _The
Story of Cupid and Psyche. The Writing on the Image._ June: _The Love of
Alcestis. The Lady of the Land._ Medium 4to. Golden type. In black and
red. Borders 30a, 30, 27a, 27, 28a, 28, 29a, and 29. 225 on paper at
thirty shillings, 6 on vellum at seven guineas. Dated August 24, issued
December 5, 1896. Published at the Kelmscott Press. Bound in limp vellum.
41c. _The Earthly Paradise._ By WILLIAM MORRIS. Volume IV. July: _The Son
of Croesus. The Watching of the Falcon._ August: _Pygmalion and the Image.
Ogier the Dane._ Medium 4to. Golden type. In black and red. Borders 31a,
31, 29a, 29, 28a, 28, 30a, and 30. Dated November 25, 1896, issued
January 22, 1897. Published at the Kelmscott Press. Bound in limp vellum.
41d. _The Earthly Paradise._ By WILLIAM MORRIS. Volume V. September. _The
Death of Paris. The Land East of the Sun and West of the Moon._ October:
_The Story of Acontius and Cydippe. The Man Who Never Laughed Again._
Medium 4to. Golden type. In black and red. Borders 29a, 29, 27a, 27, 28a,
28, 31a, and 31. Finished December 24, 1896, issued March 9, 1897.
Published at the Kelmscott Press. Bound in limp vellum.
41e. _The Earthly Paradise._ By WILLIAM MORRIS. Volume VI. November: _The
Story of Rhodope. The Lovers of Gudrun._ Medium 4to. Golden type. In black
and red. Borders 27a, 27, 30a, and 30. Finished February 18, issued May
11, 1897. Published at the Kelmscott Press. Bound in limp vellum.
41f. _The Earthly Paradise._ By WILLIAM MORRIS. Volume VII. December: _The
Golden Apples. The Fostering of Aslaug._ January: _Bellerophon at Argos.
The Ring Given to Venus._ Medium 4to. Golden type. In black and red.
Borders 29a, 29, 31a, 31, 30a, 30, 27a, and 27. Finished March 17, issued
July 29, 1897. Published at the Kelmscott Press. Bound in limp vellum.
45. _The Water of the Wondrous Isles._ By WILLIAM MORRIS. Large 4to.
Chaucer type, in double columns, with a few lines in Troy type at the end
of each of the seven parts. In black and red. Borders 16a, 17a, 18a, 19,
and 19a. 250 on paper at three guineas, 6 on vellum at twelve guineas.
Dated April 1, issued July 29, 1897. Published at the Kelmscott Press.
Bound in limp vellum.
Unlike _The Well at the World's End_, with which it is mainly uniform,
this book has red shoulder-notes and no illustrations. Mr. Morris
began the story in verse on February 4, 1895. A few days later he
began it afresh in alternate prose and verse; but he was again
dissatisfied, and finally began it a third time in prose alone, as it
now stands. It was first announced as in the press in the list of June
1, 1896, at which date the early chapters were in type, although they
were not printed until about a month later. The designs for the
initial words "Whilom" and "Empty" were begun by William Morris
shortly before his death, and were finished by R. Catterson-Smith.
Another edition was published by Longmans on October 1, 1897.
41g. _The Earthly Paradise._ By WILLIAM MORRIS. Volume VIII. February:
_Bellerophon in Lycia. The Hill of Venus. Epilogue. L'Envoi._ Medium 4to.
Golden type. In black and red. Borders 28a, 28, 29a, and 29. Finished
June 10, issued September 27, 1897. Published at the Kelmscott Press.
Bound in limp vellum.
The colophon of this final volume of _The Earthly Paradise_ contains
the following note: "The borders in this edition of _The Earthly
Paradise_ were designed by William Morris, except those on page 4 of
Volumes ii., iii., and iv., afterwards repeated, which were designed
to match the opposite borders, under William Morris's direction, by R.
Catterson-Smith, who also finished the initial words 'Whilom' and
'Empty' for _The Water of the Wondrous Isles_. All the other letters,
borders, title-pages, and ornaments used at the Kelmscott Press,
except the Greek type in _Atalanta in Calydon_, were designed by
William Morris."
46. Two trial pages of the projected edition of Lord Berners's Translation
of Froissart's Chronicles. Folio. Chaucer type, with heading in Troy type.
In black and red. Border 32, containing the shields of France, the Empire,
and England, and a half-border containing those of Reginald, Lord Cobham,
Sir John Chandos, and Sir Walter Manny. 160 on vellum at a guinea, none on
paper. Dated September, issued October 7, 1897. Published at the Kelmscott
Press. Not bound.
It was the intention of Mr. Morris to make this edition of what was
since his college days almost his favourite book a worthy companion to
the Chaucer. It was to have been in two volumes folio, with new cusped
initials and heraldic ornament throughout. Each volume was to have had
a large frontispiece designed by Sir Edward Burne-Jones; the subject
of the first was to have been St. George, that of the second Fame. A
trial page was set up in the Troy type soon after it came from the
foundry, in January, 1892. Early in 1893 trial pages were set up in
the Chaucer type, and in the list for March 9th of that year the book
is erroneously stated to be in the press. In the three following lists
it is announced as in preparation. In the list dated December 1, 1893,
and in the three next lists, it is again announced as in the press,
and the number to be printed is given as 150. Meanwhile the printing
of the Chaucer had been begun, and as it was not feasible to carry on
two folios at the same time, the Froissart again comes under the
heading "in preparation" in the lists from December 1, 1894, to June
1, 1896. In the prospectus of _The Shepheardes Calender_, dated
November 12, 1896, it is announced as abandoned. At that time about
thirty-four pages were in type, but no sheet had been printed. Before
the type was broken up, on December 24, 1896, thirty-two copies of
sixteen of these pages were printed and given as a memento to personal
friends of the poet and printer whose death now made the completion of
the book impossible. This suggested the idea of printing two pages for
wider distribution. The half-border had been engraved in April, 1894,
by W. Spielmeyer, but the large border only existed as a drawing. It
was engraved with great skill and spirit by C. E. Keates, and the two
pages were printed by Stephen Mowlem, with the help of an apprentice,
in a manner worthy of the designs.
47. _Sire Degrevaunt._ Edited by F. S. Ellis after the edition printed by
J. O. Halliwell. 8vo. Chaucer type. In black and red. Borders 1a and 1,
and a woodcut designed by Sir Edward Burne-Jones. 350 on paper at fifteen
shillings, 8 on vellum at four guineas. Dated March 14, 1896, issued
November 12, 1897. Published at the Kelmscott Press. Bound in half
holland.
This book, subjects from which were painted by Sir Edward Burne-Jones
on the walls of the Red House, Upton, Bexley Heath, many years ago,
was always a favourite with Mr. Morris. The frontispiece was not
printed until October, 1897, eighteen months after the text was
finished.
48. _Syr Ysambrace._ Edited by F. S. Ellis after the edition printed by J.
O. Halliwell from the MS, in the Library of Lincoln Cathedral, with some
corrections. 8vo. Chaucer type. In black and red. Borders 4a and 4, and a
woodcut designed by Sir Edward Burne-Jones. 350 on paper at twelve
shillings, 8 on vellum at four guineas. Dated July 14, issued November 11,
1897. Published at the Kelmscott Press. Bound in half holland.
This is the third and last of the reprints from the Camden Society's
volume of Thornton Romances. The text was all set up and partly
printed by June, 1896, at which time it was intended to include _Sir
Eglamour_ in the same volume.
49. _Some German Woodcuts of the Fifteenth Century. Being thirty-five
reproductions from books that were in the library of the late William
Morris._ Edited, with a list of the principal woodcut books in that
library, by S. C. Cockerell. Large 4to. Golden type. In red and black. 225
on paper at thirty shillings, 8 on vellum at five guineas. Dated December
15, 1897, issued January 6, 1898. Published at the Kelmscott Press. Bound
in half holland.
Of these thirty-five reproductions twenty-nine were all that were done
of a series chosen by Mr. Morris to illustrate a catalogue of his
library, and the other six were prepared by him for an article in the
fourth number of _Bibliographical_ part of which is reprinted as an
introduction to the book. The process blocks (with one exception) were
made by Walker & Boutall, and are of the same size as the original
cuts.
50. _The Story of Sigurd the Volsung and the Fall of the Niblungs._ By
WILLIAM MORRIS. Small folio. Chaucer type, with title and headings to the
four books in Troy type. In black and red. Borders 33a and 33, and two
illustrations designed by Sir Edward Burne-Jones and engraved by W. H.
Hooper. 160 on paper at six guineas, 6 on vellum at twenty guineas. Dated
January 19, issued February 25, 1898. Published at the Kelmscott Press.
Bound in limp vellum, with blue silk ties.
The two borders used in this book were almost the last that Mr. Morris
designed. They were intended for an edition of _The Hill of Venus_,
which was to have been written in prose by him and illustrated by Sir
Edward Burne-Jones. The foliage was suggested by the ornament in two
Psalters of the last half of the thirteenth century in the library at
Kelmscott House. The initial A at the beginning of the third book was
designed in March, 1893, for the Froissart, and does not appear
elsewhere.
An edition of _Sigurd the Volsung_, which Mr. Morris justly considered
his masterpiece, was contemplated early in the history of the
Kelmscott Press. An announcement appears in a proof of the first list,
dated April, 1892, but it was excluded from the list as issued in May.
It did not reappear until the list of November 26, 1895, in which, the
Chaucer being near its completion, _Sigurd_ comes under the heading
"in preparation," as a folio in Troy type, "with about twenty-five
illustrations by Sir Edward Burne-Jones." In the list of June 1, 1896,
it is finally announced as "In the press," the number of illustrations
is increased to forty, and other particulars are given. Four borders
had then been designed for it, two of which were used on pages 470 and
471 of the Chaucer. The other two have not been used, though one of
them has been engraved. Two pages only were in type, thirty-two copies
of which were struck off on January 11, 1897, and given to friends,
with the sixteen pages of Froissart mentioned above.
51. _The Sundering Flood._ Written by WILLIAM MORRIS. Overseen for the
press by May Morris. 8vo. Chaucer type. In black and red. Border 10, and a
map. 300 on paper at two guineas. Dated November 15, 1897, issued February
25, 1898. Published at the Kelmscott Press. Bound in half holland.
This was the last romance by William Morris. He began to write it on
December 21, 1895, and dictated the final words on September 8, 1896.
The map pasted into the cover was drawn by H. Cribb for Walker &
Boutall, who prepared the block. In the edition that Longmans are
about to issue the bands of robbers called in the Kelmscott edition
Red and Black Skinners appear correctly as Red and Black Skimmers. The
name was probably suggested by that of the pirates called "escumours
of the sea" on page 154 of _Godfrey of Boloyne_.
52. _Love is Enough, or the Freeing of Pharamond; A Morality._ Written by
William Morris. Large 4to. Troy type, with stage directions in Chaucer
type. In black, red, and blue. Borders 6a and 7, and two illustrations
designed by Sir Edward Burne-Jones. 300 on paper at two guineas, 8 on
vellum at ten guineas. Dated December 11, 1897, issued March 24, 1898.
Published at the Kelmscott Press. Bound in limp vellum.
This was the second book printed in three colours at the Kelmscott
Press. As explained in the colophon, the final picture was not
designed for this particular edition.
53. _A Note by William Morris on his Aims in Founding the Kelmscott Press.
Together with a Short Description of the Press_, by S. C. COCKERELL. And
an Annotated List of the Books Printed Thereat. Octavo. Golden type, with
five pages in the Troy and Chaucer types. In black and red. Borders 4a and
4, and a woodcut designed by Sir E. Burne-Jones. 525 on paper at ten
shillings, 12 on vellum at two guineas. Dated March 4, issued March 24,
1898. Published at the Kelmscott Press. Bound in half holland.
Various Lists, Leaflets, and Announcements Printed at the Kelmscott Press:
Eighteen lists of the books printed or in preparation at the Kelmscott
Press were issued to booksellers and subscribers. The dates of these are
May, July, and December, 1892; March 9, May 20, May 27, August 1, and
December 1, 1893; March 31, April 21, July 2, October 1 (a leaflet), and
December 1, 1894; July 1 and November 26, 1895; June 1, 1896; February 16
and July 28, 1897. The three lists for 1892, and some copies of that for
March 9, 1893, were printed on Whatman paper, the last of the stock bought
for the first edition of _The Roots of the Mountains_. Besides these,
twenty-nine announcements, relating mainly to individual books, were
issued; and eight leaflets, containing extracts from the lists, were
printed for distribution by Messrs. Morris & Co. The following items, as
having a more permanent interest than most of these announcements, merit a
full description:
1. Two forms of invitation to the annual gatherings of the Hammersmith
Socialist Society on January 30, 1892, and February 11, 1893. Golden type.
2. A four-page leaflet for the Ancoats Brotherhood, with the frontispiece
from the Kelmscott Press edition of _A Dream of John Ball_ on the first
page. March, 189 Golden type. 2500 copies.
3. An address to Sir Lowthian Bell, Bart., from his employees, dated 30th
June, 1894. Eight pages. Golden type. 250 on paper and 2 on vellum.
4. A leaflet, with fly-leaf, headed _An American Memorial to Keats_,
together with a form of invitation to the unveiling of his bust in
Hampstead Parish Church on July 16, 1894. Golden type. 750 copies.
5. A slip giving the text of a memorial tablet to Dr. Thomas Sadler, for
distribution at the unveiling of it in Rosslyn Hill Chapel, Hampstead.
November, 1894. Golden type. 450 copies.
6. Scholarship certificates for the technical Education Board of the
London County Council, printed in the oblong borders designed for the
pictures in Chaucer's Works. One of these borders was not used in the
book, and this is its only appearance. The first certificate was printed
in November, 1894, and was followed in January, 1896, by eleven
certificates; in January, 1897, by six certificates; and in February,
1898, by eleven certificates, all differently worded. Golden type. The
numbers varied from 12 to 2500 copies.
7. Programmes of the Kelmscott Press annual _Wayzgoose_ for the years
1892-95. These were printed without supervision from Mr. Morris.
8. Specimen showing the three types used at the Press for insertion in the
first edition of Strange's _Alphabets_ March, 1895. 2000 ordinary copies
and 60 on large paper.
9. Cards for Associates of the Deaconess Institution for the Diocese of
Rochester. One side of this card is printed in Chaucer type; on the other
there is a prayer in the Troy type enclosed in a small border which was
not used elsewhere. It was designed for the illustrations of a projected
edition of _The House of the Wolfings_, April, 1897. 250 copies.
INDEX.
A
_AEneid, The_, 122-124, 144
_AEschylus_, 262
_Agamemnon_, Browning's, 124
Allingham, William, 42, 48, 70
Amiens Cathedral, article on, by Morris, 34, 36-39
_Amis and Amile_, translation by Morris, 229
Archbishop of Canterbury, 177
Aristophanes, 262
Arnold, Matthew, 149
Arts and Crafts Exhibition Society, The, 191
Art Worker's Guild, The, 192
_Atalanta in Calydon_, Swinburne's, 229
_Athenaeum, The_, 152
B
Bagehot, Walter, quoted, 36
_Ballads and Narrative Poems_, Rossetti's, 229
Batchelor, Mr., 221
Bax, E. Belfort, 218
_Beata Beatrix_, picture by Rossetti, 55
_Beauty of Life, The_, Morris's lecture on, 65
Belgium, 110
_Beowulf, The Tale of_, 230, 231, 262
Besant, Mrs., 180
Bethel, Alfred, article on, by Morris, 34
Bible, the, 262
_Biblia Innocentium_, Mackail's, 228
Bibliographical Society, The, 192
Birkbeck Hill, Dr., 47, 73
Birmingham Society of Artists, lecture to, 62
Blackburn, 168
Blake, William, 263
"Bloody Sunday," 179
Boccaccio, 263
_Book of Wisdom and Lies, The_, 230
Borrow, George, 263
British Museum, the woodblocks of Kelmscott Press in possession of, 235
Brown, Madox, 113
Browning, Robert, his poems, 37, 39, 40, 57-59
Bryant, William Cullen, his translation of _The Odyssey_ compared with
Morris's translation, 142
Bulgaria, 146
Burne-Jones, Edward, 1;
his first meeting with Morris, 23, 24;
the beginning of his art, 26;
his trip with Morris and Fulford through Northern France, 26, 27;
his decision to leave college and study art, 27;
his admiration for Rossetti, 26, 27 _et seq._
Bury Wood, 15, 16
Byron, 236
C
Cambridge University Library, 221
Canterbury Cathedral, Morris's early visit to, 6
_Canterbury Tales, The_, 115
_Captain Singleton_, 263
Carlyle, Thomas, 24, 150, 263
_Carmagnole, The_, song, 178
Carpets, 89
Catterson-Smith, R., 233
Catullus, 262
_Chants for Socialists_, 218
Chartres, 27
Chaucer, 115, 116, 119, 137, 231-234, 237, 238, 256, 262
Chaucer type, the, 224
_Child Christopher and Goldilands the Fair_, 231
Chingford Hotel, 15
Chiswick Press, the, 33, 205, 206
Clarke, William, 166
Clay Road, 15
Cockerell, S. C., 234
Coleridge's _Poems_, selection from, by Morris, 232, 263
_Colonel Jack_, 263
Colour, Morris's opinions on, 83, 84, 92
_Commonweal, The_, organ of the Socialist League, 175, 183, 185, 195,
201, 203, 209, 210, 218
Crane, Walter, 175, 192, 229
D
_Daily Chronicle, The_, Morris's letters to, concerning Epping Forest,
12-18;
letter by Morris on Socialism, 186-189
_Daily News, The_, quotation from, 146-148
_Daisy Chain, The_, its influence on Morris, 24
Dante, 262
Day, Lewis, 31, 78
_Defence of Guenevere, The_, 54, 59, 228
Democratic Federation, the, 157, 168, 170, 174, 180
De Vinne, Th., on the Kelmscott Press, 224
Dickens, Charles, 263
Dixon, Canon, 34
_Dream of John Ball, A_, 195, 201-203, 228
Dumas, Alexandre, 263
Duerer, 261
Dyes, Morris's preferences in, 91
E
_Earthly Paradise, The_, 59, 115, 116-120, 144, 219, 233
Eastern Question Association, The, 148
_Edda, The_, 262
Ellis, F. S., 221-232, 237
_English Illustrated Magazine, The_, 218
_Epistola de Contemptu Mundi_, 230
Epping Forest, Morris's early familiarity with, 7, 11;
his letters concerning its destruction, 11-18
_Erewhon_, Kingsley's, 163
_Eve of Crecy_, poem by Morris, 55
Exeter College, 193
_Exile, The_, 262
_Eyrbyggja Saga, The_, 144
F
Fair Mead Bottom, 15
Farringdon Road, 101, 177
Faulkner, Charles, 47, 70, 73, 108, 111, 263
_Floure and the Leafe, The_, 233
Forman, Buxton, 205, 206
Freeman, E. A., 149
Froissart, 57, 233
G
_Germ, The_, 33
_Gertha's Lovers_, 36
_Ghirlandata, The_, picture by Rossetti, 55
Giotto, 261
Gisli, 109
Glasgow, 168
_Glittering Plain, The_, 221, 229, 246, 248
Godefrey of Boloyne, Caxton's history of, 228
_Golden Legend_, Caxton's, 221, 223, 227, 228
Golden type, the, 221
_Goldilocks and Goldilocks_, 7, 228
_Good King Wenceslas_, ballad printed at the Kelmscott Press, 4, 5
_Gothic Architecture_, lecture by Morris, 228
Green, J. R., 149
Grettir, 109
Grimm, 263
Gudrun, 109
H
Hammersmith, 97, 107, 108, 176, 181, 257
Hammersmith Socialist Society, The, 185, 189
_Hand and Soul_, Rossetti's, 231
_Hardy Norseman's Home of Yore_, 149
Havre, 27
_Heir of Redclyffe, The_, 24
Herodotus, 262
Herrick's _Poems_, 231
Hesiod, 262
High Beach, 17
_History of Florence_, Arezzo's, 220
_History of Oversea_, translated by Morris, 230
_Historyes of Troye_, Caxton's, 223, 228
_Hollow Land, The_, 36, 40
Homer, 262
Hornbeams, Morris's liking for, 13
_House of the Wolfings, The_, 195, 203-205, 207, 239, 246
_Huckleberry Finn_, 263
Hughes, Arthur, 49
Hugo, Victor, 263
I
Iceland, Morris's first voyage to, 108-110;
second voyage, 110
_Idylls of the King_, Tennyson's, 126, 136
Irish National League, The, 180
J
_Jorrocks, Mr._, 263
_Justice_, organ of the Democratic Federation, 168, 169
K
Kalevala, 262
Keats, John, 24, 27, 34, 229, 238, 263
Kelmscott Church, 258
Kelmscott House, 108, 221
Kelmscott Books, prices of, 238
Kelmscott Manor House, 101-108
Kelmscott Press, The, 177, 219-239, 255
_King's Lesson, A_, 203
Kingsley, Charles, 24, 25
Koburger, Anthony, 223
L
Lang, Andrew, 122-124
_Laudes Beatae Mariae Virginis_, 233
_Laxdaela Saga, The_, 116
Lechlade, 101
Leeds, 168
Leicester, 168
Leonardo, 261
_Lesser Arts, The_, lecture by Morris on, 94
_Life and Death of Jason, The_, 114, 231, 238
_Life of Cardinal Wolsey_, Cavendish's, 228
Linnell, Alfred, 180, 181
_Looking Backward_, Bellamy's, 209
Loughton, 15
_Love is Enough_, 120-122, 219, 234
_Lovers of Gudrun, The_, 116
Lowell, J. R., quoted, 57, 229
Lucretius, 262
M
_Mabinogion_, 263
Mackail, Mr., 24, 33, 62, 71, 97, 110, 111, 120, 122, 150, 191, 193,
229, 263
Maeterlinck, Morris compared to, 57
Madox-Brown, Ford, 70
Magnusson, Mr., 108, 125
_Mahabbarata_, 262
_Making the Best of It_, lecture by Morris on house-decoration, 83
Manchester, 168
Marlborough College, Morris a student in, 6, 9
Marshall, Peter Paul, 70
_Maud_, Tennyson's, 228
Meinhold, William, 229
_Men and Women_, Browning's, reviewed by Morris, 34, 39
Merton Abbey, 175, 190
Milton, 263
_Moll Flanders_, 263
Monk Wood, 15
Morris, May (Mrs. Sparling), daughter of Wm. Morris, 177
Morris, Mrs., wife of William Morris, 51, 53, 59, 66
Morris and Co., 69;
formation of the firm, 69;
prospectus of, 71, 72;
dissolution of, 111-113
_Morte d'Arthur_, painting from, at Oxford Union, 49, 263
Murray, Fairfax, 230
N
_Nature of the Gothic, The_, 160, 228
_Newcomes, The_, quotation from, 30
Newman, Jno., 25
_News from Nowhere_, 98, 102;
quotation from, 103-107, 163-165, 195, 200, 209-212, 213, 238, 258
_Nibelungen Lied_, 262
Njal, 109
O
_Odyssey, The_, 142-144, 210
_Old Story Retold, An_, see _A King's Lesson_
_Omar Khayyam_, 262
Orbeliani, Sulkhan-Saba, 230
_Order of Chivalry, The_, Caxton's translation of, 228
_Ordination of Knighthood_, Morris's translation of, 228
Ovid, 262
Oxford, 191;
Morris's life at, 1-29;
abuses at, 22-23, 31, 41, 168, 193
_Oxford and Cambridge Magazine, The_, 33
Oxford Union, paintings for, 49-52, 54
P
_Pall-Mall Gazette, The_, 189, 261
Paper used at Kelmscott Press, 222
Patmore, Coventry, on Oxford Union paintings, 52, 120
_Penitential Psalms, The_, 230
Pennell, Joseph, 181
_Percyvelle of Gales, Syr_, 231
_Piers Plowman_, 262
_Pilgrims of Hope, The_, poem by Morris, 195-201
_Pilgrim's Progress_, 263
Plato, 262
_Pliny_, Jensen's 220
_Poems_, Keats's, 229
_Poems_, Shakespeare's, 228
_Poems by the Way_, 7, 227
Pollen, J. Hungerford, 49
_Praise of My Lady_, poem by Morris, 52, 53
_Prinsep_, Valentine, 49
_Prioress's Tale, The_, Burne-Jones's paintings from, 47
Professorship of Poetry at Oxford, Morris declines, 149
_Proserpine_, picture by Rossetti, 54
Pugin, 31
Q
Queen Square, Morris's residence in, 97, 101
_Quest, The_, article by Morris in, 102
R
Raphael, 261
_Rapunzel_, poem by Morris, 57
Red Lion Square, 46, 71, 81
Red House, The, 61-68, 96, 97, 101, 114
Rembrandt, 261
Restoration of ancient buildings, 32
_Reynard the Fox_, 263
_Robinson Crusoe_, 263
Robinson, Ralph, 213, 228
Rome, 61
_Roots of the Mountains, The_, 195, 207-209, 246
_Rosamond_, Swinburne's, 54
Rossetti, Dante Gabriel, 1, 9, 27;
Morris's first meeting with, 40-42;
his service to Morris, 43-46;
at Oxford, 49-51;
and Jane Burden, 51;
_The Defence of Guenevere_ dedicated to, 54, 55;
his part in the formation of the firm "Morris, Marshall, Faulkner,
& Co.," 69-74;
at Kelmscott, 101-103, 108;
his attitude respecting the dissolution of the firm, 111-113;
his _Hand and Soul_, 231
Rossetti, William, 70, 112, 113
_Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam, The_, 144
Rubens, Jacobus, 220
_Ruin, The_, 262
Ruskin, 19, 23, 24, 27, 151, 160, 263
S
St. Mark's Cathedral, 154
Savernake Forest, Morris's early familiarity with, 7
Savonarola, 230
Schoeffer, Peter, 223
Scott, Gilbert, 31, 152
Scott, Walter, 5, 19, 263
_Shahnameh_, 262
Shakespeare, 24, 137
Shaw, Bernard, on _Nupkins Awakened_, 31, 179
Shelley, Percy Bysshe, 24, 101, 230, 263
_Shepherde's Calender, The_, 233
_Sidonia the Sorceress_, Lady Wilde's, 228
_Signs of Change_, lectures by Morris, 218
Sigurd, 109
_Sir Galahad_, 54
_Sire Degravaunt_, 66, 234
Socialism, 162-218
_Socialism from the Root Up_, book by Morris and Bax, 218
Socialist League, The, 175-177, 180, 182, 185
Society for Protection of Ancient Buildings, The, 153, 157
Society of Antiquaries, 192
Sophocles, 262
_Spectator, The_, letter from Morris in, 252
Stanhope, Spencer, 49
Stanmore Tapestry, The, 99
Stead, William, 263
Stevenson, Robert Louis, his letter to his father, 9, 124
_Stones of Venice, The_, 27, 160, 228
_Story of the Glittering Plain, The_, 109, 218, 227, 243
_Story of Sigur the Volsung, The_, 125-142, 144, 146, 227, 234, 238
Street, George Edmund, 31, 42, 63
_Sundering Flood, The_, 234, 239, 240, 242, 257
Surts-hellir, cave at, 109
_Svend and his Brethren_, 36, 37
Swainslow, 256
Swinburne, A. C., 229
_Syr Ysambrace_, 234
T
_Tables Turned, The; or, Nupkins Awakened_, farce by Morris, 177
_Tale of the Emperor Constans, The_, translated by Morris, 230
_Tale of King Florus and Fair Tehane_, translated by Morris, 227
Taylor, George Warrington, Morris's business manager, 97
Tennyson, Alfred, 24, 177
_Teutonic Mythology_, 263
Tewkesbury, restoration of the Abbey Church at, 152
Thackeray, William M., 24
Theocritus, 262
_Thousand and One Nights, The_, 263
_Three Northern Love-Stories and Other Tales_, translations by
Morris, 125
Trafalgar Square, 161, 179-181
Troy Type, The, 223, 225
Tyndall, Prof., 177
U
_Uncle Remus_, 263
Upton, Morris's residence at, 62, 96
_Useful Work versus Useless Toil_, lecture by Morris, 165
_Utopia_, More's, 213-217, 228, 263
V
Van Eyck, his motto chosen by Morris, 68
Velasquez, 261
Verona, 61
Viollet-le-Duc, 31
Virgil, 122-124, 262
_Volsunga Saga, The_, 125
_Voyage Round the World_, 263
W
Wagner, Richard, 135, 141
_Wake, London Lads!_ ballad by Morris, 148
Walker, Emery, 22, 205, 209
Wall-papers, 81-83
Wallace, Alfred, his suggestion that Epping Forest be planted with
North American trees, 11
Walthamstow, 3, 10
Wardrop, Oliver, 230
Warren, Sir Charles, 179
_Water of the Wondrous Isles, The_, 233, 240, 245, 248-251
Watts-Dunton, Theodore, 69
Waverley Novels, the, Morris's early fondness for, 3
Weaving, 85, 86
Webb, Philip, architect of the Red House, 61, 70, 75, 82, 111
_Well at the World's End, The_, 232, 245, 248
Westminster Abbey, 154, 181
White Horse, The, 30
Whitney, Miss Anne, 229
Whittingham, Charles, 33
Wilde, Lady, 228
_Women and Roses_, Browning's, 39
_Wood beyond the World, The_, Morris's, 7, 230, 242, 252
Woodford Hall, home of the Morrises, 3
Working Men's College, Burne-Jones's visit to, 40
Wyatt, A. J., 230
Y
Yonge, Miss, 24
Z
Zainer, Gunther, 223
Messrs. MORRIS & COMPANY have appointed as their general agent Mr. A. E.
Bulkley of 42 East 14th St., New York City, and he will be pleased to give
all information respecting the various fabrics, etc., designed by the late
Mr. Morris and sold by MORRIS & COMPANY. These may also be obtained of Mr.
A. H. Davenport, 96-98 Washington St., Boston.
FOOTNOTES:
[1] When the _Utopia_ appeared with this introduction an Eton master who
had ordered forty copies in advance, intending the books to be used as
prizes for the boys in his school, withdrew his order, Young England not
being allowed at that time to keep such Socialistic company.
[2] The trustees are now publishing the remainder of Morris's own works in
the type of the Kelmscott Press, though without the ornaments, that a
uniform edition may be had.
[3] The reader here is expected to note the correspondence between the
names of the ladies and the titles of their lovers, and the same
correspondence is carried out in the colour of the ladies' garments and
the armour of the knights.
[4] Lewis F. Day.
[5] This bibliography is reprinted, with certain slight additions, from
the bibliography prepared by S. C. Cockerell for the monograph entitled,
"A Note by William Morris on his Aims in Founding the Kelmscott Press."
[6] At the Ellis Sale (1901) a presentation vellum copy brought L114.
[7] The first sheet was printed on the 2d of March, the last on the 4th of
April.
[8] At the Ellis Sale a presentation vellum copy brought L60.
[9] In this line as it originally stood, "dawn" was the rhyme provided for
"corn." In the new line the rhyme for corn is "daylight new-born;" but Mr.
Buxton Forman writes that Morris was wont to declare that "No South
Englishman makes any difference in ordinary talk between dawn and morn for
instance."
[10] "When Adam dalf and Eve span, who was thanne the gentleman."
[11] This book realised at the Ellis Sale L8.5s. for the paper copy, and
L61 in vellum. Since its publication it has sold as low as L2.15s. for
paper copies, and L29 for vellum.
[12] Mr. Ellis's presentation copy sold for L91.
[13] This "foreword" is a socialist document occupying pp. III to VIII.
[14] At the Ellis Sale a copy on vellum (not presentation) brought L9.10s.
[15] This story Morris said he translated in a day and a quarter.
[16] At the Ellis Sale a paper copy brought L25.10s., while in 1900 one
brought L27.5s.
[17] Mr. Vallance says, "This is noteworthy as being the sole instance of
a heraldic device among the _published_ designs of William Morris."
[18] In the list of Dec. 1st, 1894, the 2d and 3d volumes are announced to
follow "early in the New Year." The third volume did not, however, appear
until the autumn of 1895.
[19] Dull red silk ties. Gold lettering on back.
[20] Also that 7 of the 8 vellum copies have been subscribed for.
[21] In the prospectus the price for full white tooled pigskin binding
executed under Mr. Cobden-Sanderson's direction is given at L13.
[22] The quotations heading each stanza are in red, the initial letters
pale blue, the remaining text in black.