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| The famous Hollyer portrait of Morris, one of the sale's offerings. |
In April and May, there will be a highly interesting sale at Bonhams in London, of items from the collection of Roy Davids. The offerings include a photographic portrait of William Morris, taken by Frederick Hollyer in 1886; and the autograph revised manuscript for Morris's poem “The God of the Poor.” There are many differences between this manuscript and the printed version of the poem. From the official description:
THIS
MANUSCRIPT, THE ONLY ONE KNOWN OF THE POEM, PRESERVES A TEXT VERY
SUBSTANTIALLY DIFFERENT FROM THE RECEIVED VERSION. Of the 260 lines
in 52 five-line stanzas in the printed version many do not appear in
the present manuscript at all, and vice versa, and many lines and
stanzas were very significantly rewritten. According to Fairfax
Murray this manuscript was written in the early 1860s, but the poem
was only sent for publication in theFortnightly Review in 1868.
Between those dates Morris clearly rethought and very extensively
rewrote the poem so that whole stanzas in this manuscript do not
correspond in any way with those in the printed text and were
completely replaced; others have been so reworked as to be almost
unrecognisable, and vice versa. The following examples are but two
instances of those where any comparison can be made at all:
The
third stanza in this manuscript ends:
...Many
a fair maid white & red
By
him was deflowered.
Deus
est Deus pauperum.
The
printed version ends:
...Whatso
man loved wife or maid
Of
Evil-head was sore afraid.
Deus
est Deus pauperum.
The
first four lines of the sixth stanza in this manuscript read:
But
Boncoeur knew it was in vain
To
strive to take him by force plain;
Therefore
he made a crafty wile
God
gave him wit and much good guile.
In
the printed text they read:
But
Boncoeur deemed it would be vain
To
strive his guarded house to gain;
Therefore
within a little while,
He
set himself to work by guile.
The
first four lines of the eighth stanza in this manuscript read:
Than
of twenty poor mens lives I wis
Boncoeur
well imagined this
So
a good squire not lightly feared
Put
on a carles hood and a carles beard.
In
the printed text they read:
Twenty
poor men's lives were nought
To
him, beside a ring well wrought.
The
pommel of his hunting knife
Was
worth ten times a poor man's life.
With
the manuscript is a note about the poem in the hand of Charles
Fairfax Murray (1849-1919), artist, assistant to Burne-Jones, William
Morris, John Ruskin and D.G. Rossetti, art dealer and connoisseur,
stating: 'The following poem God is the God of the Poor was written
about the same time [i.e. early 1860s] as the first Prologue for the
Earthly Paradise (that in 4 line verses) & was written in the
same M.S. book. It was not published till some years later when Mr
Morris was solicited to send something to the Fortnightly [Review] &
found this in his hand.'
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