[Illustration: ROSSETTI, BY HIMSELF
_Painted in 1855._]
Dante Gabriel Rossetti, who was poet as well as painter, buried
the manuscript of his poems, although they had been announced for
publication, in the coffin of his wife, who died in February, 1862.
Not until October, 1869, was the manuscript resurrected and the
publication of his poems made possible. It is doubtful if poet or
painter has ever paid a greater tribute than Rossetti thus paid to
Elizabeth Siddal.
[Illustration: ROSA TRIPLEX, BY ROSSETTI]
Rossetti was introduced to Elizabeth by a brother artist, who had
discovered her in a milliner’s shop in London. She consented to pose
for Rossetti. His brother, in some charming reminiscences of her,
writes that to fall in love with Elizabeth Siddal was a very easy
performance, and that Dante Gabriel did it at an early date. The name
Elizabeth, however, was never on Dante’s lips; but rather Lizzie or
Liz, and fully as often Guggums, Guggum, or Gug. Mrs. Hueffer, the
younger daughter of Ford Madox-Brown, says that when she was a small
child she saw Rossetti at his easel in her father’s house uttering
momentarily, in the absence of the beloved one, “Guggum, Guggum!”
After awhile “Guggum” became a settled institution in Rossetti’s
studio, and other people, his brother included, understood they were
not wanted there. Dante was constantly drawing from Guggum, and she
designing under his tuition. He was unconventional, and she, if not so
originally, became so in the course of her companionship with him. In
her appearance, as in her character, she was a remarkable young woman.