Beschreibung:

ROSSETTI, Christina (1830-1894). Autograph manuscript copy of the poem 'Ave' by DANTE GABRIEL ROSSETTI the motto 'Ego mater pulchra [e] Dilectionis et timoris, et agnistionis, et sancti spes' inscribed below the title, and 'By Dante Rossetti' at upper right, the opening lines of the poem 'Mother of the Fair Delight, An handmaid perfect in His sight who made thy Blessing infinite, For generations of the earth Have called thee blessed from thenceforth', 146 lines of verse on 4 pages, 350 x 200mm., 'H.H.H.' inscribed on the last page at the foot, three marginal annotations, written on both leaves of a bifolium (traces of tape at centre fold on verso of second leaf). Ave was first published in its final form in the Pall Mall Gazette for December, 1898 (vol. XVI, no. 68). William M.Rossetti recalled in an accompanying article that the poem was composed in its original and shorter form (63 lines) in 1847 and afterwards enlarged to 146 lines. It was printed privately by Rossetti in 1869, and a version of 112 lines was published in 1870, having been subject to many alterations since the first composition in 1847. While appearing to contain a declaration of definite Christian belief and of a Roman Catholic kind, it was in fact written when Dante was distinctly vague on matters of faith. William Rossetti points out that the signature 'H.H.H.' was given to the ballad of Sister Helen , when it was first published in 1854, in an annual, and suggests that his brother may have intended to offer the longer version of Ave with it. Professor W.E. Fredeman has kindly informed us that, although dated 1847, the manuscript which is a fair copy transcription, was probably made in 1869, when Dante Gabriel Rossetti was preparing his Poems (1870) for publication. A parallel instance is a fair-copy manuscript of The Blessed Damozel in the Morgan Library, also dated 1847 but made in 1873. Assuming the early text printed by William M. Rossetti in the Works (1911, p.661) is in fact the 'first draft', the manuscript represents an intermediate stage between that draft and the printed text of 1870. There are numerous variants ranging from punctuation and verbal distinctions, deletions or conflations of lines, and in one instance of an entire stanza, and the addition of new lines. 34 lines from the manuscript were deleted for the 1870 edition. We are most grateful to Professor Fredeman for elucidating the textual significance of this manuscript.