Dante Gabriel
Rossetti, Painter," and in 1860 Mr. Swinburne followed with a like
inscription of his first-fruits, his tragic drama of "The
Queen-Mother." Thus in the course of a little more than ten years,
Rossetti had become the centre and sun of a galaxy of talent in poetry
and painting, more brilliant perhaps than any which has ever
acknowledged the beneficent sway of any one Englishman of genius.

But all this while the world outside knew nothing of the matter. One
by one the younger men stepped forward on the public stage and secured
the plaudits of the discerning, and ascended the slow incline of
general reputation. But Rossetti remained obstinately recluse, far
preferring to be the priest and confessor of genius to acting himself
a public part. To this determination several outward things engaged
him still further. He married quite early in life; and his wife, who
was herself an artist of rare, if somewhat wild and untrained talent,
bore him a son who died at birth, and then shortly after died herself.
During his brief married months Rossetti had collected the MSS. of his
poems, and thought to publish them; but when he lost his wife, in a
paroxysm of grief he placed the sheets of his poems in her coffin, and
would hear no more a suggestion of publication. In 1861 he presented
the world with a very learned and beautiful anthology of early Italian
poetry, and proposed as early as that year to print his original
poems. It was his scheme to name the little volume "Dante in Verona,
and other Poems;" but it came to nothing. About 1867 the scheme of
publication again took possession of him. I have been told that a
sudden sentiment of middle age, the fact that he found himself in his
fortieth year, led him to conquer his scruples, and finally arrange
his pieces. But he was singularly fastidious; the arrangement would
never please him; the cover must be cut in brass, the paper at the
sides must bear a special design. These niceties were rarer twelve
years ago than they are now, and the printers fatigued him with their
persistent obstinacy. It was not till early in 1870 that the "Poems"
in stately form first appeared, and were hailed with a shout of
admiration which was practically universal.

It was about Christmas in that same year, 1870, that he who writes
these lines was first presented to Gabriel Rossetti. The impression on
my mental eye is as fresh as if it had been made yesterday, instead of
twelve years ago. He w