facts. All about
Chiaro dell' Erma himself, Dresden and Dr. Aemmster, D'Agincourt,
pictures at the Pitti Gallery, the author's visit to Florence in
1847, etc., are pure inventions or "mystifications"; but so
realistically put that they have in various instances been relied
upon and cited as truths. I gave some details as to this in my Memoir
of Dante Rossetti. The style of writing in "Hand and Soul" is of a
very exceptional kind. My brother had at that time a great affection
for "Stories after Nature," written by Charles Wells (author of
"Joseph and his Brethren"), and these he kept in view to some extent
as a model, though the direct resemblance is faint indeed. In the
conversation of foreign art-students, forming the epilogue, he may
have been not wholly oblivious of the scene in Browning's "Pippa
Passes" (a prime favourite of his), where some "foreign students of
painting and sculpture" are preparing a disagreeable surprise for the
French sculptor Jules. There is, however, no sort of imitation; and
Rossetti's dialogue is the more markedly natural of the two. In
re-reading "Hand and Soul," I am struck by two passages which came
true of Rossetti himself in after-life: (1) "Sometimes after
nightfall he would walk abroad in the most solitary places he could
find--hardly feeling the ground under him because of the thoughts of
the day which held him in fever." (2) "Often he would remain at work
through the whole of a day, not resting once so long as the light
lasted." When Rossetti, in 1869, was collecting his poems, and
getting them privately printed with a view to after-publication, he
thought of including "Hand and Soul" in the same volume, but did not
eventually do so. The privately-printed copy forms a small pamphlet,
which has sometimes been sold at high prices--I believe L10 and
upwards. At this time I pointed out to him that the church at Pisa
which he named San Rocco could not possibly have borne that name--San
Rocco being a historical character who lived at a later date: the
Church was then re-named "San Petronio," and this I believe is the
only change of the least importance introduced into the reprint. In
December 1870 the tale was published in "The Fortnightly Review." The
Rev. Alfred Gurney (deceased not long ago) was a great admirer of
Dante Rossetti's works. He published in 1883 a brochure named "A
Dream of Fair Women, a Study of some Pictures by Dante Gabriel
Rossetti"; he also published an essay on "Hand