Specimens with Memoirs of the Less-known British Poets. With an introductory essay, by the Rev. George Gilfillan [Vol. I only (of three, and 45 in total)]

FIRST EDITION (one volume only), DANTE GABRIEL ROSSETTI'S ANNOTATED COPY. 8vo, pp. lvi, 324. Publisher's original brown textured cloth, spine lettered in gilt, ruled and decorated in gilt and blind. Spine sunned, gentle wear and pushing to spine ends, corners bumped, white marks to upper boards. Edges toned. Attractive memorial inscription in black ink to half-title with shadow of pencil inscription and ruling behind: "This copy of the English Poets in 45 Vols., was given by Alice Boyd to D. G. Rossetti in 1880, Annotated by him during the last two years of his life, and at the sale of his Library 7 July 1882 purchased by Henry Virtue Tebbs, and kindly returned to Alice Boyd, as a memento of the deceased poet and Friend. Penkill Castle, 1882. D.G.R. died 9th April, (Easter Sunday) 1882." Pencil crosses, scoring and occasional pithy marginal notes, in a hand showing DGR's older age and ill health, to c. 48 pages, including sections about James I (pp. 34, 38, 39-42), William Dunbar (pp. 59, 65 & 66), Philip Sidney (pp. 112, 114-116), and John Donne (pp. 202-4 & 207-213), occasional inky fingerprints, plus three paper markers, perhaps also contemporary. Else, clean and tight. Very good. An outstanding Pre-Raphaelite association copy of the first volume of Rev. George Gilfillan's Specimens with Memoirs of the Less-known British Poets (1860) from the libraries of Dante Gabriel Rossetti and his friend the Scottish Pre-Raphaelite painter and 14th Laird of Penkill Castle Alice Boyd, featuring DGR's annotations (made in the last two years of his life). This copy was originally gifted (apparently with the other 44 volumes in Gilfillan's The Library Edition of British Poet series) to the artist-poet by Boyd in 1880, then, following his death on Easter Sunday 1882 and the sale of his belongings from his London home later that summer, according to the memorial inscription (likely by Boyd?), bought by another friend, Henry Virtue Tebbs, and returned to Boyd at Penkill, "as a memento of the deceased poet and Friend". DGR's correspondence (see below for details) confirms much of the memorial inscription and, in conjunction with the pencil annotations, suggests additionally that it was this volume "of Gilfillan's British Poets [that DGR] used as a source for his ballad 'The King's Tragedy'" (Fredeman, Correspondence IX). DGR's annotations begin proper on p. 34 with the 'James I. Scotland' section, including an abundance of asterisks and occasional pithy pencil notes, such as on p.38, the observation: "Fine subject for Ballad or Picture". Drawing on both James I's poem The King's Quair, "portions of which DGR transliterated and worked into his ballad", as well as the in/famous tale of the Scottish King's murder, which Gilfillan included in his section introduction (for more on this see below), DGR's 'The King's Tragedy' joined his other freshly written ballads 'Rose Mary' and 'The White Ship' in his second and final collection of poetry, Ballads and Sonnets (1881). It is doubly apt that Tebbs, a lawyer and collector, who was on the fringes of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, returned this volume to Boyd, not only because it had originally been her gift, but also because DGR had been introduced to James I's poem during his visits to Penkill via the murals that his close friend (and Boyd's lover) the Scottish Pre-Raphaelite artist-poet William Bell Scott had created, in collaboration with Boyd, for the castle's tower staircase, which were based on The King's Quair (and used fellow Pre-Raphaelites as models, including DGR's siblings Christina and William Michael; see also Bell Scott's The King's Quair folding screen in the Scottish Collection of the National Galleries of Scotland). Indeed, Jan Marsh tells us that Bell Scott's murals (painted 1865-8) "inspired [DGR] to write his own 'King's Tragedy'" (Marsh, 1999). This copy of the first volume of Gilfillan's Less-known British Poets can be traced in DGR's correspondence with Alice Boyd and William. …