THOMPSON 
 
FRANCIS THOMPSON 
 In Memoriam 
 1907-1937 
 
love! / FALL INTO THE CLAWS OF TIME; 
 
 BUT LASTS WITHIN A LEAVED RHYME 
 ALL THAT THE WORLD OF ME ESTEEMS — 
 
 MY WITHERED DREAMS, MY WITHERED DREAMS. 
 
c-^« (Account of 
 BOOKS AND MANUSCRIPTS 
 of 
 
 FRANCIS THOMPSON 
 
 Edited by 
 
 Rev. Terence L. Connolly 
 S.J., Ph.d. 
 
 Boston College 
 Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts 
 
Coventry Fatmore, in one of the most important letters of this 
 Collection, characterizes the poetry of Francis Thompson as, "song 
 that is also prophecy.” And the exhibition described in part in the 
 following pages is an indication of how sure-sighted a prophet 
 Thompson was when he foretold his immortality as a poet — a poet 
 in whose work sanctity and song are inseparably joined. To know 
 how vital is Thompson’ s influence in the literary resurgence of 
 today, it is enough merely to examine the titles of contemporary 
 publications. To know what a single poem of his has achieved in 
 the present spiritual revival, one has only to read what part "The 
 Hound of Heaven” has played in the numberless conversions 
 among our men and women of letters. 
 
 The appeal of Thompson’s work is not merely one of aesthetic 
 delight. It has a peculiar power to expand and uplift the soul and 
 draw it nearer to God. That is the chief reason why Boston College 
 is proud to possess a collection of Thompsoniana which, on the 
 word of the greatest living Thompson authority, Mr. Wilfrid 
 Meynell, is second to none in the world, his own excepted. This 
 collection richly deserves the place accorded to it — -a special room 
 in the College Library where it is to be a permanent and perpetual 
 exhibit. As if deliberately planned, above the entrance is an ala- 
 baster likeness of the Ecce Hojno, faintly illuminated, suggesting 
 Thompson’ s favorite figure — the sun as a symbol of Christ. The 
 room itself is lighted by windows of stained glass picturing scenes 
 from the great poems of ancient Greece and Rome — reminders of 
 Thompson’s const a?7tly recurring theme that the best in Pagan 
 literature was precursive of its fulfihnent in Christian letters. And 
 so it is pictured here, where the central window of the oriel is 
 dedicated to Dante and his song. The same ideal is thus expressed 
 by Thompson: 
 
 "Sings Dante, and sing all noble poets after him, that Love in 
 this tvorld is a pilgrim and a wattderer, journeying to the New 
 Jerusalem: not here is the consummation of his yearnings, in that 
 mere knocking at the gates of union which we christen marriage, 
 
 [iv] 
 
but beyond the pill-ars of death and the corridors of the grave, in 
 the union of spirit to spirit within the containing Spirit of God. 
 
 "The distance between Catullus and the Vita Nuova, between 
 Ovid and the House of Life, can be measured only by Christianity. 
 And the lover of poetry owes a double gratitude to his Creator, 
 Who, not content ivith giving us salvation on the cross, gave us 
 also, at the marriage in Cana of Galilee, Love. For there Love 
 tvas consecrated, and declared the child of fehovah, not of Jove; 
 there virtually was inaugurated the whole successive order of those 
 love-poets ivho have shown the world that passion, in putting on 
 chastity, put on also tenfold beauty. For purity is the sum of all 
 loveliness, as whiteness is the sum of all colours.” 
 
 Whoever would appreciate the poetry of one who wrote such 
 prose and such criticism, must not approach it in the cautious spirit 
 of Paganism, old or new. He must approach it in the spirit of one 
 who IS tvilling to heed the burning exhortation of the poet: 
 
 And hark 
 
 A song thou hast not heard in Northern day; 
 
 For Rome too daring, and for Greece too dark. 
 
 A more intelligent and more profound appreciation of such 
 poetry must be the result of reading the lines ivritten by the poet’s 
 own hand — whether they express the awful truth of the "Marah 
 Amarior,” or the playful mood of the "Lamente forre Stephanon.” 
 And for the privilege of studying the poet as he reveals himself in 
 these intimate sources we are indebted to the generosity of our 
 benefactors, to the devotion of Mr. Seymour Adelman, to the 
 measureless kindness of Mr. Wilfrid Meynell and to the prayers 
 of the poet’s sister, Sister Mary Austin. But as Mr. Meynell has 
 so beautifully and humbly written: "Let none be named the bene- 
 factor of him who gave to all more than any could give him. He 
 made all men his debtors, leaving to those who loved him the 
 memory of his personality, and to English poetry an imperishable 
 
 Terence L. Connolly, S.J. 
 
 [v] 
 
 name. 
 
THE STORY OF THE 
 SEYMOUR ADELMAN COLLECTION 
 
 It is a curious fact that I never heard of Francis Thompson un- 
 til rather late in life. Perhaps that is why I still recall the moment 
 of first acquaintance so vividly. The time was September 1924, a 
 month past my eighteenth birthday. I was a University of Penn- 
 sylvania freshman, reading, at the moment, Elliott & Foerster’s 
 English Poetry of the Nineteenth Century. Now at that time I 
 was extremely suspicious of English poetry, not only of the nine- 
 teenth century, but of all other centuries. Throughout grammar 
 school and high school I had regarded as a personal enemy any 
 individual whose poems 1 was forced to scan, analyze or, most 
 gruesome of all, memorize. 
 
 But, glancing through this anthology, my mind lulled and serene 
 because there were no passages to memorize, I discovered some- 
 thing. This book actually contained poems that, once you started 
 them, held you to the last line. There were two, for example, 
 entitled The Hound of Heaven and Before Her Portrait in Youth. 
 They were as enthralling to me as, I say it in all solemnity, Tilden’s 
 forehand drive — the standard of beauty by which (in 1924) I 
 measured everything else. Their author was someone named 
 Francis Thompson. I turned to the back of the book, where a 
 biography of each poet was given, to learn more about this Francis 
 Thompson. The account of his life was interesting but entirely 
 too brief. It did, however, mention a full-length study by one E. 
 Meynell; and this I obtained the next day from the University 
 Library. The story of Thompson’s life is as fascinating as his 
 poetry; and pretty soon I was borrowing from the Library every 
 book and magazine article that could tell me more about him. 
 
 For a year or tw'o prior to this metamorphosis, while still in high 
 school, I had been a rather casual collector of first editions and 
 autograph letters. This interest was intensified at college by the 
 pleasant discovery — it’s impolitic to mention it here, but I will, 
 nevertheless — that English literary history could be learned more 
 thoroughly via first editions and autographs than in class-rooms. 
 Let me illustrate the reason. If, for instance, you claim in an 
 
 [ Vi ] 
 
examination paper that Edgar Allan Poe died in 1850, whereas 
 the correct year is 1849, you merely get a zero. But if you are 
 offered a letter written by Poe in 1850, and you purchase it, then 
 you are out a great many dollars — you are now, indeed, away below 
 zero. So you see why the collector is careful to keep his literary 
 data in proper order. 
 
 Well, now that I had come upon poetry that appealed so much 
 to me (!), I decided to collect Francis Thompson seriously — and 
 to start off with a few original manuscripts. I was that blissfully 
 ignorant. For it seems that I had chosen, of all the English poets 
 of our time, the very one whose manuscripts and letters were hard- 
 est to find. Not only that. I was to learn that his autograph is one 
 of the most elusive in the entire range of modern English litera- 
 ture. Letters of writers so far back as Pope and Dr. Johnson and 
 Byron and Coleridge — to name a few at random — are still plenti- 
 ful, despite the ravages of time, fire and mildew, because these men 
 corresponded with innumerable people. Thompson’s letters, when 
 he wrote at all, went only to a small intimate circle — and many of 
 these he forgot to mail. 
 
 And so, in my happy ignorance, I wrote to some thirty or forty 
 American and English dealers, whose names I had gleaned from 
 various journals, asking them to describe their choicer Thompson 
 manuscripts, letters and presentation copies. From each I received 
 a prompt reply, stating that he had no Thompson autograph ma- 
 terial whatever. One dealer, indeed, said that he not only possessed 
 no Thompson manuscripts at the moment, but had never beheld 
 one at any time, and he added, somewhat unnecessarily, that he 
 had but faint hopes of ever coming across a specimen in the future. 
 
 All this, of course, was dampening news. For a while I did feel 
 that a representative Thompson collection was something beyond 
 my depth. But the natural resiliency of youth buoyed me up; and 
 anyhow, I reflected, if the life-span of man was three score and ten, 
 perhaps, in the fifty-two years left to me, one Thompson letter 
 might possibly come my way. So, greatly uplifted in spirit, I fired 
 a second volley at my list of dealers, asking them, this time, simply 
 to keep a sharp look-out. 
 
 I prefer to pass quickly over tlie next two and a half years. Not 
 so much as a semi-colon in Thompson’s handwriting appeared on 
 the horizon. I remember that during this barren interval the news- 
 
 [vii] 
 
papers made a great fuss about an approaching total eclipse of the 
 sun, visible in the latitude of New York and vicinity. The papers 
 described it as an occurrence of the most extreme rarity, but they 
 never succeeded in impressing me. If it was rarity that intrigued 
 them, I had a problem on my hands which reduced such phenomena 
 as total eclipses of the sun to the level of showers in April. 
 
 Then, late in 1927, one of the English dealers sent word that he 
 had just located a volume inscribed by Thompson, and was I still 
 interested? Was I! I suppose the passionate affirmative of my 
 cablegram made him shake his head once more over those always 
 incomprehensible Americans. At any rate, nine days later I pre- 
 sented myself at the Philadelphia Custom-House, and went through 
 the drawn-out torture of clearing the book from Customs. But all 
 things come to an end — even custom-house red tape — and at last 
 the aureoled package was given to me. My hands shook so terrific- 
 ally that I had trouble untying the string. It was a severe case of 
 what a doctor might call 'book-collector’s palsy’. I have a special 
 affection for that cornerstone volume — the copy of Poems which 
 Thompson presented to his friend and fellow-Meynellite, Arthur 
 Hutchinson. 
 
 A year or so later, another English dealer wrote that his firm 
 had just acquired some remarkable autograph material. John Lane, 
 Thompson’s publisher, had died; his private library was in process 
 of dispersal; and through this chain of circumstances an oppor- 
 tunity that could never occur again knocked at my door. No need 
 to knock twice; I was at the threshold, keeping the door wide open. 
 
 There were some matchless Thompson treasures in the Lane 
 library. I began by choosing two or three items and ended up by 
 cabling for the entire group. My indulgent parents saved me from 
 debtors’ prison when the fearsome invoice arrived; indeed, it 
 should be recorded here that the Collection owes its very existence 
 to their unceasing generosity and encouragement. 
 
 It was also quite obvious that I was the darling of the gods. How 
 else can I account for the fact that, soon after the Lane windfall, 
 a London bookseller sent me details of a magnificent series of 
 Thompson letters. This time it was Lewis Hind who had died, 
 the editor at whose order Thompson had writen some of his finest 
 essays; and now Hind’s personal library was up for sale. I spent 
 the day wavering back and forth in my choice of the various letters. 
 
 [ viii ] 
 
Finally, on the brink of a nervous breakdown through indecision, 
 I saved my tottering reason by cabling for the whole series. 
 
 Naturally, the fact that John Lane and Lewis Hind had to die 
 before I could come into possession of all these wonderful things 
 made a deep impression upon my youthful mind. Both Lane and 
 Hind had succumbed to old age. If, thereupon, I hopefully 
 checked up on the ages of people whom I suspected of harboring 
 Thompsoniana, may the Recording Angel put it down to an excess 
 of enthusiasm, rather than any callous disregard for human life. 
 I am sure, too, that in this matter I have the sympathetic under- 
 standing of all fellow-collectors. 
 
 Other owners of Thompsoniana remained obstinately alive, 
 however; and additions to the Collection now came singly and only 
 after a great deal of searching. Friends in England scoured the 
 bookshops and auctions there; I haunted similar dens of learning 
 in New York and Philadelphia; and every once in a while our 
 combined efforts would track down some long-dreamed-of prize. 
 But you always had to strike swiftly. 1 remember that on one 
 occasion I was ’phoning to New York for a certain book and at 
 the same time drafting a cable-bid for a letter included in a London 
 auction-sale. The book and the letter concerned each other, and I 
 thought what a handsome couple they would make together — if 
 I could solve that little matter of the Atlantic Ocean between. I 
 did manage to snare both items, and it was a real satisfaction to 
 put them where they belonged — in the same slip-case on my Francis 
 Thompson shelf. 
 
 But 'shelf’ is hardly the right word. Since the Collection is so 
 largely made up of unique — hence irreplaceable — autograph ma- 
 terial, I was always mortally afraid of fire. To forestall such danger, 
 I kept the Collection stored away in bank-vaults, which, though 
 safe enough, severely restricted its powers to delight and inspire 
 Thompson’s admirers and research students. It is therefore an 
 even greater satisfaction to know that henceforth the Collection, 
 in a setting as beautiful and appropriate as one could wish for, will 
 be freely available to everyone who loves the poetry of Francis 
 Thompson. 
 
 Seymour Adelman. 
 
 [ix] 
 
SUBSCRIBERS TO THE FUND 
 FOR THE PURCHASE OF 
 THE SEYMOUR ADELMAN COLLECTION 
 
 To THOSE whose names are here inscribed 
 Boston College owes a debt of gratitude 
 which cannot be expressed in words. 
 Students of the present and future 
 the real beneficiaries of their generosity 
 are reminded 
 
 of the practice of Chaucer’s Clerk, who: 
 BISILY GAN FOR THE SOULES PREYE 
 
 OF HEM THAT YAF HYM WHEREWITH TO SCOLEYE. 
 
Mr. William H. Barnes, Jr. 
 Miss Winifred Barrett 
 Miss Mary P. Barry 
 Mr. William J. Barry 
 Mr. Edward Bell 
 Boston College Alumnae 
 Boston College Alumni 
 Boston College 
 Class of 1937 
 Class of 1938 
 Class of 1939 
 Class of 1940 
 Mrs. John T. Bottomley 
 Miss Mary Brennan 
 Mr. Gerald L. Bucke 
 Miss Anna P. Butler 
 Miss Christine Callan 
 Catholic Poetry Society of 
 Boston 
 
 Mr. John C. Collins 
 Mr. James H. Connolly 
 Miss Margaret L. Connolly 
 Mr. Gerald Coughlin 
 Miss Margaret Cronin 
 Miss Mary Cronin 
 Dr. Helen F. Cummings 
 Mr. D. Leo Daley 
 Mrs. Ella B. Davis 
 Mr. Edward C. Dullea 
 Miss Catherine Donnelly 
 Mrs. Edward C. Donnelly 
 Mr. Paul T. Donovan 
 Dr. James E. Downey 
 Mr. Thomas Eccles 
 Mr. and Mrs. 
 
 Alexander Ellis 
 
 Mr. and Mrs. 
 
 William V. Ellis 
 Emmanuel College 
 Mr. Miah J. Falvey 
 Mr. John T. Fitzgerald 
 Miss Julia M. Fitzpatrick 
 Mr. Everett Ford 
 Miss Mary Fowler 
 Mrs. Alvan T. Fuller 
 Mr. John F. Gallagher 
 Mr. James A. Gookin, Jr. 
 Mrs. Margaret J. Gookin 
 Miss Ellen Greany 
 Miss Ethel J. Greany 
 Dr. Nathaniel J. Hasenfus 
 Mr. Thomas Heffernan 
 Mrs. Mary A. Hession 
 Mrs. James H. Higgins 
 Mr. Harold H. Horton 
 Mr. John T. Hughes 
 Mr. and Mrs. 
 
 Joseph D. Hurley 
 Mr. Martin Kane 
 Mrs. Andrew Lane 
 Mr. Joseph A. Leary 
 Miss Mary Loughlin 
 Miss Elizabeth Loughran 
 Dr. Dorothy M. Lyons 
 Miss Sarah Lydon 
 Mrs. Lillian MacDonald 
 Mr. William MacDonald 
 Miss Mary C. MacSwiney 
 Mrs. Earl S. McAllister 
 Dr. Mary F. McAuliffe 
 Miss Caroline H. McCarthy 
 Mrs. George McCarthy 
 
Miss Mary C. McCarthy 
 Mr. Charles McCoole 
 Mr. Louis A. McCoy 
 Mrs. Donnelly McDonald 
 Mr. Thomas McDonald 
 Mrs. Ethel R. McDuff 
 Mr. Bernard McGrath 
 Mr. John J. McInnis 
 Miss Mary Antonia McInnis 
 Miss Dorothy McKinnon 
 Miss Alice McNamara 
 Miss Ann McNamara 
 Mr. and Mrs. 
 
 Michael L. Madden 
 Mrs. Charles D. Maginnis 
 Miss Louise H. Maguire 
 Miss Josephine B. Mahoney 
 Mr. Robert B. Masterson 
 Miss Mary C. Mellyn 
 Dr. Daniel L. Mooney 
 Mr. and Mrs. 
 
 Frank B. Mooney 
 Mr. Frank B. Mooney, Jr. 
 Miss Mary Mooney 
 Mrs. John J. Moran 
 
 Mr. William Ohrenberger 
 Mr. Eugene J. O’Neil 
 Miss Therese O’Neil 
 Mr. William J. O’Sullivan 
 Miss Alice H. M. Powers 
 Mr. Edward Powers 
 James M. Prendergast 
 (In Mernoriam) 
 
 Miss Julia C. Prendergast 
 Mr. Frank Repetto 
 Miss Mary E Riley 
 Mr. Francis J. Roland 
 Saint Patrick’s High School, 
 Lawrence 
 
 Mr. Daniel Sargent 
 Mr, Robert Simmons 
 Mr. and Mrs. 
 
 Frank H. Stuart 
 Mr. John H. Sullivan 
 Miss Nora M. Walsh 
 Rev. John P. Whelly, C.S.C. 
 Mr. Hugh Whitney 
 Winthrop Catholic 
 Women’s Club 
 Mr. Robert Wright 
 
 (As this list goes to press, subscriptions are still being received, 
 an indication that what has already been accomplished is only a 
 beginning . ) 
 
I-A 
 
 USHAW COLLEGE 
 NOTEBOOK, 1877. 
 
 Manuscript 
 
 One of the most important relics of Thompson’s 
 youthful days at Ushaw, this little notebook 
 contains sotne of his earliest poetry and prose. 
 
 On the cover is a reproduction of the Parthenon frieze. Its horse- 
 men with their pencilled mustaches and beards reveal Thompson 
 in a moment of school-boy humor. The signature on the cover, 
 Francis Joseph Thompson, is one of the very few in which the 
 poet’s middle name appears. On the first page we read the inscrip- 
 tion A. M. D. G. an abbreviated form of the Jesuit motto. Ad 
 majoretit Dei gloriam, which, in this context, is not without an 
 element of prophecy. 
 
 Nine poems, a prose phantasy and an essay, fill the thirty-two 
 pages of the book and are written in the careful and beautiful 
 handwriting so characteristic of Thompson. They are described in 
 the order in which they appear. 
 
 Lamente Forre Stephanon. a humorously ironical lament for 
 one of Thompson’s over-zealous prefects who had gone to the in- 
 firmary. It is printed in the Ushaw Magazine, March, 1908, and 
 in Everard Meynell’s Life of Thompson. 
 
 Song of the Neglected Poet. The life-struggle of the poet to 
 be true to his art and ideals, though rejected by the world, is here 
 foreshadowed. But the hope of finding in Nature, memories that 
 can 
 
 laugh the world to scorn, 
 
 vcas one day to yield to a truer and more austere hope when the 
 poet wrote in his greatest ode: 
 
 "Yea faileth now even dream 
 The dreamer, and the lute the lutanist.” 
 
 These verses are printed in the Ushaw Magazine, March, 1908. 
 
 [ 1 ] 
 
The Storming of Corinth. The simile of locust-swarms descrip- 
 tive of Turkish hosts, presages the richer and more mature figures 
 of later work. This prose composition appears in the Ushaw 
 Magazine, March, 1908. 
 
 Lyric To Have Been Inserted in "Helias.” Some of the 
 lovely, facile lines of this poem, possessed a poignancy deeper 
 than the young poet knew when he wrote: 
 
 For my heart craves still for love, sweet life. 
 
 This lyric was evidently intended as part of a contemplated play. 
 
 Finchale. Its prayer to Pan was one day to be answered beyond 
 the wildest dreams of the boy v/ho wrote it: 
 
 Aid me, O aid, to body forth in song 
 A scene as fair as thou in all thy days 
 Hast gazed upon, or ever yet wilt gaze. 
 
 These verses are printed in the Ushaw Magazine, March, 1908. 
 
 Spring. Verses that reveal the young poet’s sensitiveness to the 
 external beauty of the world. 
 
 War. Verses on war that form an interesting contrast with later 
 poems such as "Peace.” 
 
 Dirge of Douglas. A school-boy’s lament for the Scottish noble- 
 man Sir James Douglas who lived in the fourteenth century and 
 died fighting with the Spanish forces against the Saracens of 
 Granada. These verses are printed in the Ushaw Magazine, March, 
 1908 . 
 
 A Song of Homildon. Two indifferent stanzas glorifying the 
 English spirit that defeated the Scots under Douglas in the battle 
 fought on Homildon Hill, September, 1402. These verses are 
 printed in the Ushatv Magazine, March, 1908. 
 
 [ 2 ] 
 
English Composition — Low Figures. (Aetatis 14). Written 
 from memory, it is an attempt to set down a composition written 
 five years before — a story of a magician who recalls the past to 
 the central character, De Bonneval. In it we find the consecrated 
 phrases of youthful composition — the "cold, clammy grasp of the 
 sorcerer’s hand,” and his "eye that seemed to root his victim to the 
 spot.” 
 
 Close students of Thompson’s later work will find in this boyish 
 attempt, certain elements prophetic of what is to come — poetry of 
 reminiscence, such as "An Anthem of Earth,” and magic prose 
 such as "Finis Coronat Opus.” 
 
 The Battle of Varna. This incomplete composition describes 
 the background and immediate setting of the famous battle of 
 Turks and Christians. It would seem to have been an assignment 
 in history rather than in English composition, as it is merely a 
 narration of facts and makes no attempt at rhetoric, excepting the 
 opening sentence; 
 
 In the progress of nations, as in the progress of torrents, there are 
 checks which, effectual for a while, serve only to augment the fury 
 of the flood when the barrier is at length broken through. 
 
 (From the Seymour Adelman Collection.) 
 
 [ 3 ] 
 
I-B 
 
 ESSAY-THEME 
 
 COMMENTS ON TITUS ANDRONICUS, 
 RICHARD III AND SHAKESPEARE GENERALLY 
 
 Manuscript 
 
 A comment and criticism of Shakespeare, 
 
 Green, Peele and- Marlowe. A page 
 from one of Thompson’s exercise books. 
 
 This Manuscript was originally inserted in the first volume of 
 Thompson’s works owned by John Drinkwater. (C£. XXXI-A.) 
 It was given to Drinkwater by Mr. Wilfrid Meynell who has 
 written a note to that effect in the book in which the Manu- 
 script was inserted, and also in pencil on the Manuscript itself. 
 
 (Gift of Mrs. Edward C. Donnelly.) 
 
 [ 4 ] 
 
II 
 
 BUONA NOTTE 
 
 Manuscript 
 
 This poem on the death of Shelley was first printed in the 
 Athenaeum for fuly 10, 1909- It links the names of 
 Thompson and Shelley even more intimately than the 
 famous Shelley Essay. 
 
 In this original Manuscript, immediately after the title, is written: 
 
 "Why do you talk of never enjoying moments like the past.^ Are 
 you going to join your friend Plato, or do you expect I shall do so 
 soon? BuonaNotte.” 
 
 (Jane Williams’ last letter to Shelley, July 6. He was drowned on 
 the 8th.) 
 
 There is also in the Manuscript, besides the complete published 
 version, this variant reading for lines 3-6: 
 
 And take to thine unlanguaged ear 
 Grief for their interpreter. 
 
 Good night; I have cloven so high 
 Slumber’s heavened serenity. 
 
 Later the poet added the following note to the poem: "These 
 verses are supposed to be addressed to Jane by the poet’s spirit 
 while his body is tossing on the waters of Spezzia.” 
 
 (From the Seymour Adelman Collection.) 
 
 [ 5 ] 
 
Ill 
 
 ALL FLESH 
 Manuscript 
 
 There is no variation between the version of the poem in 
 this manuscript and the published version which first ap- 
 peared amo7ig Thompson’s poems in Mr. Wilfrid 
 Meynell’s definitive edition. 
 
 Here we have the authentic vision of a real seer who looks with 
 euphrasied eyes of faith upon one of the least things of creation, 
 a blade of grass, and sees therein: 
 
 God focussed to a point. 
 
 (From the Seymour Adelman Collection.) 
 
 [ 6 ] 
 
IV 
 
 PEACE 
 
 Manuscript 
 
 The actual first draft of the ode occasioned 
 by the signing of the treaty of peace which 
 concluded the Boer War, May 31, 1902. 
 
 As Mr. Seymour Adelman has suggested, in reading this Manu- 
 script we sit beside the poet at his work-bench. "Here vividly,” 
 writes Mr. Adelman, "we see Thompson’s patient sifting of seg- 
 ments until the steadily mounting climax is achieved; his tireless 
 experiments in variant lines, and his unending search for the one 
 right — and no other — word.” 
 
 The theme of this ode is of particular interest today when there 
 is so much talk about peace, and so little understanding of its real 
 nature according to the Christian ideal. The peace of Christ, 
 Thompson tells us, is not mere cessation from external conflict. It 
 is the peace of men of good will, and good will is the knowing of 
 God’s will and the doing of it. 
 
 Wishing peace, but not 
 The means of it, 
 
 is as futile in nations as in men, says the poet. 
 
 (From the Seymour Adelman Collection.) 
 
 [ 7 ] 
 
V 
 
 LUX IN TENEBRIS 
 
 Manuscript 
 
 This thirty-one page Manuscript of the poem published 
 under the title, From The Night of Forebeing, was a 
 gift from Mr. Wilfrid Meynell to Father Connolly, sent 
 from 47 Palace Court, 2 April 1937. 
 
 Students of Thompson will regret the change of title — the one in 
 the Manuscript is so complete an expression of his favorite symbol 
 — the sun as a symbol of the Saviour of the World. The differences 
 between the Manuscript and the published version are so numerous 
 that it is impossible to reproduce all of them here. The chief 
 changes are indicated at the top of the mountings of the several 
 pages. Here we shall confine ourselves to printing the three most 
 important passages that appeared in the Manuscript and were later 
 omitted. The first of these we read in the Manuscript between 
 lines 208 and 209 of the published version. It expresses the poet’s 
 ever-recurring longing for Spring and sunshine, so indispensable 
 for his inspiration of soul and health of body. 
 
 Winter upon my difficult-breathing song; 
 
 The seed is scattered long. 
 
 The seed is sown, and deep the ground is ploughed. 
 
 With sharing visitation torn. 
 
 And left forlorn 
 
 Of breeding sun, beneath a most chill shroud. 
 
 O for the Spring, the never-calendared Spring, 
 
 That is so weary-long upon the wing! 
 
 Again, in the Manuscript we find the following tragic passage 
 inserted between lines 231 and 232 of the printed version: 
 
 Alas! and do I think 
 
 Of blue, who only see the cloud? 
 
 And to my heavy nocturns vowed. 
 
 Ponder of matins and the morn? 
 
 And do I dare 
 
 To dream of leaves, so sundered from the brink 
 Of any doubtful-visitant Spring? 
 
 [ 8 ] 
 
Lines 296-361 of the final version do not appear in the Manuscript. 
 Instead of this glorious, though patient song of the vision of faith 
 that looks forward to the resurrection-feast that is to come, we read 
 in the Manuscript: 
 
 Yet heed me not; suck on, my youngling, suck! 
 
 Lest to my bosom come a worser ache. 
 
 If the wise gods me at my rash word take, 
 
 And my breast have no more delight of thee. 
 
 I will not truck. 
 
 For respite without rest, the abysmal rest to be. 
 
 Both Manuscript and printed version end with those lines that 
 voice the rare blend of prudence and hope known only to faith 
 that is strong, unfailing and austere: 
 
 Firm is the man, and set beyond the cast 
 Of Fortune’s game and the iniquitous hour. 
 
 Whose falcon soul sits fast. 
 
 And not intends her high sagacious tour 
 Or ere the quarry sighted ; who looks past 
 To slow much sweet from little instant sour. 
 
 And in the first does always see the last. 
 
 (Gift of Mr. Wilfrid Meynell.) 
 
 [ 9 ] 
 
VI 
 
 GENERAL ROBERTS 
 STORMING THE PEI WAR KHOTAL 
 GRAND BATTLE-PAINTING 
 
 BY 
 
 Miss Elizabeth Thompson 
 Manuscript 
 
 Written on the reverse side of a lurid illustration of a 
 battle of ants, an advertisement far insecticide, this play- 
 ful review of the painting of Lady Butler reveals 
 Thompson in a delightfully humorous mood. 
 
 Elizabeth Thompson (Lady Butler), Alice Meynell’s sister, was a 
 noted painter of military subjects. She must have been highly 
 amused by the poet’s criticism of "The Black Ants Invaded by the 
 Red Ants,” as if it were her latest battle-scene. It portrays an army 
 of black ants being routed by a horde of red ants as they plant the 
 insecticide banner on the summit of an ant-hill fort. Here is what 
 Thompson wrote; 
 
 "General Roberts is seen waving his sword with one foot planted on 
 the summit of the Fort. The stubborn resistance which the Afghans 
 are said to have made is realistically represented by two men firing 
 tlieir rifles from the embrazures of the fort in the very faces of the 
 advancing British. The attitudes and colouring are lifelike and ex- 
 cellent; the chiaro-obscuro of the background is especially noticeable. 
 This picture is undoubtedly a work of great power, and shows a con- 
 siderable advance on the former paintings of this celebrated artist.” 
 
 Extract from the "Standard.” 
 
 (From the Seymour Adelman Collection.) 
 
 [ 10 ] 
 
VII 
 
 COVENTRY PATMORE’S 
 CHARACTERIZATION OF 
 EMERSON 
 
 Manuscript 
 
 The final page of excerpts from 
 
 Patmore's essay on Emerson. 
 
 The essay from which these excerpts are taken appears in Patmore’s 
 volume, Principle in Art. Its characterization of the Sage of Con- 
 cord, here copied by Thompson, reveals the parts that particularly 
 interested him. It reads: 
 
 His American admirers sometimes spoke of him as an "angel.” At 
 any rate, he was a sort of sylph. He noted of his compatriots generally 
 that "they have no passions, only appetites.” He seems to have had 
 neither passion nor appetite; and there was an utter absence of "non- 
 sense” about him which made it almost impossible to be intimate with 
 him. . . . His closest friend, and even his wife, whom he loved in 
 his own serene way, seem to have chafed under the impossibility of 
 getting within the adamantine sphere of self-consciousness which 
 surrounded him. He not only could not forget himself, but he 
 could not forget his grammar ; and when he talked, he seemed rather 
 to be "composing” his thoughts than thinking them. . . . Emerson, 
 though a good man — that is, one who lived up to his lights — had little 
 or no conscience. He admired good, but did not love it; he de- 
 nounced evil, but did not hate it. . . . He never even melted the icy 
 barrier which separated his soul from others; and men and women 
 were nothing to him, because he never got near enough to under- 
 stand them. 
 
 (From the Seymour Adelman Collection.) 
 
 [li] 
 
VIII 
 
 MARAH AMARIOR 
 
 Manuscript 
 
 Never having been published in book form, 
 this deeply poignant poem is little knotvn. 
 
 There is in this Manuscript a notable contrast between the poet’s 
 firm, steady handwriting and the awfulness of what he has written. 
 Other poets have equalled Thompson in sounding the depths of 
 human suffering but few have described so well that awful humilia- 
 tion of the proud heart, 
 
 When first it finds it can forget. 
 
 (From the Seymour Adelman Collection.) 
 
 [ 12 ] 
 
IX 
 
 LOVE’S ALMSMAN COMPLAINETH 
 OF HIS FARE 
 
 Manuscript 
 
 When published, the title of this poem was shortened to 
 
 Love’s Almsman Plaineth 
 His Fare 
 
 This manuscript is a notable example of the 
 poet’s dignified and careful handwriting. 
 
 This first poem of the sequence, Ultima, poignantly autobiograph- 
 ical, is the cry of a love-famished soul who never faltered in "that 
 slaying of domesticities which went to his own making of 'a poet 
 out of a man.’ ’’ There are slight verbal variations in the last line 
 and in line thirty as they appear in the Manuscript and in the pub- 
 lished version. Line fifteen in the Manuscript reads: 
 
 Gnaw’st on thyself in passionate duresse. 
 
 (From the Seymour Adelman Collection.) 
 
 [ 13 ] 
 
X 
 
 A SIGNED REVIEW OF 
 THE POEMS OF ERNEST DOWSON” 
 
 Manuscript 
 
 Eight pages of Thompson's hook-review of the Poems of 
 Ernest Dowson, with a Memoir by Arthur Symons. 
 
 Four Illustrations by Aubrey Beardsley and Por- 
 trait BY William Rothenstein (1905, London, John 
 Lane). Written in pencil, no corrections are made in the 
 Manuscript. 
 
 One of the most important of Thompson’s critical writings, this 
 Manuscript is primarily an estimate of Dowson as a poet. But it 
 IS also a general criticism of the whole Decadence as a literary 
 movement, and makes mention of Beardsley, Rothenstein, Verlaine, 
 Savage, Baudelaire, Hugo, Swinburne, Gautier and Rossetti. It 
 reads in part: 
 
 This tastefully produced volume contains the slight work of a frail 
 and (in an artistic sense) faint minor poet. . . . 
 
 He has more affinity with the Quartier Latin than with Grub Street, 
 with Verlaine than with Keats or even Savage, that eighteenth century 
 decadent. The French influence was an evil thing in his career; though 
 be it said that with him, at least, it was no affectation, but the natural 
 result of an early foreign up-bringing. Partly through native trend 
 and affinities, partly (one fears) through the influence of a morbid 
 Parisian tradition on an impressionable and imitative nature, he trans- 
 planted to the brutal atmosphere of the East End the worst follies as- 
 sociated with the literary cafes of Montmartre; from the haschisch 
 of Baudelaire to the alcoholism of Verlaine. So he prematurely broke 
 to pieces a fragile body and more fragile genius. 
 
 .... The dainty sense of form, the diction delicately cut and graven, 
 rather than (like Verlaine’s and our own supreme lyrists’) condensing 
 from the emotion inevitably and freshly as dew ; these features suggest 
 Gautier or Gallic lyricism in general, not the spontaneous fluidity 
 which Verlaine shares with so utterly different a lyrist as Hugo. It is 
 the contrast between Greek artistry, reliant on the sculpturesque or 
 architectural elements of form and structure; and Gothic or Celtic 
 poetry, rooted in a peculiar spiritual intimacy, which we Goths dis- 
 
 [ 14 ] 
 
tinctively recognize as poetry, and of which there are but the rarest 
 examples in the classic poets (by "classic” meaning Greek and 
 Latin) .... 
 
 .... So many modern poets have professed a Parisian morbidity 
 at second hand that the thing is suspect. But here it was the too sin- 
 cere outcome of a life influenced by what to him was a compatriot- 
 atmosphere. Derivative he was in his morbidity; but as a Parisian 
 poet might be. Nevertheless, this derivativeness condemns him, as it 
 would a French writer, to the minor ranks. The major poet moulds 
 more than he is moulded by his environment. And it may be doubted 
 whether the most accomplished morbidity can survive the supreme 
 test of time. In the long run sanity endures: the finest art goes under 
 if it be perverse and perverted art, though for a while it may create 
 a life under the ribs of death. 
 
 Yet, with this great doubt, Ernest Dowson’s work makes a present 
 and delicate appeal to a generation itself sick of many ills. . . . 
 Sensitiveness, indeed, is the precise word one would choose to indi- 
 cate its leading quality. ... It is altogether poetry of feeling, one 
 might well-nigh say of a single feeling, or cast of feeling. Regret — 
 the pathos of lost virtue, lost or at least ineffectual love, lost oppor- 
 tunities, lost virginalness in an aesthetic no less than ethical sense — 
 informs these lyrics in monotone. An ineffectual regret, with not 
 even a desire to regain what is lost, or a hope to attain effectual love. 
 Inevitably, then, somewhat ineffectual (which is another matter from 
 ineffective) poetry; for it is the poetry of disillusion. Read in bulk, 
 the constant wail of regret and unsatisfied satiety becomes weak and 
 weariful. But in single lyrics, when he touches his best, it has a frail 
 and mournful charm. 
 
 This comes partly of a temperamental sweetness, which Mr. Symons 
 noted also in his converse. . . . His best, Mr. Symons thinks, is the 
 poem with the refrain, "I have been faithful to thee, Cynara, in my 
 fashion.” Remembered love makes hollow present infidelities — that 
 is the theme of it. Unwholesome, wistfully cynical, like the bulk of 
 these lyrics, it is perfect in workmanship and a dainty symmetry con- 
 trasting with its sincere bitterness of regret. Mr. Symons, we think, 
 is right. But in the superlatives of his praise we cannot join. Its 
 grace, like that of all Dowson's poetry, is too hectic for supreme 
 praise: nor has it the strange and penetrating power that makes Poe's 
 "To Annie” haunting despite its opium-delirium. "This also is 
 vanity” Dowson sings in many poems of a frail grace, sweetness, and 
 slender completion of form. But the central defect of power keeps 
 him still a lesser poet — a poet of the bitten apple, without the core of 
 fire which made Rossetti, for instance, far more than a lesser poet. 
 And then, too, unlike Rossetti, he has no brain, but just pure feminine 
 sensibility. 
 
 (From the Seymour Adelman Collection.) 
 
 [ 15 ] 
 
XI 
 
 A SIGNED REVIEW OF 
 "THE CHURCH AND 
 KINDNESS TO ANIMALS” 
 
 Manuscript 
 
 A twelve-page review of The Church and Kindness to 
 Animals (1906, London, Burns and Oates) — an anony- 
 mous publication with the following chapters: I Condem- 
 nation of Bull-Fighting. II Animals in the Lives and 
 Legends of Saints. Ill A Cloud of Modern Witnesses. 
 
 Written in pencil there are many corrections in an un- 
 identified hand. 
 
 Here we find Thompson a master of gentle irony and wisdom in 
 such passages as the following which might well be pondered by 
 anti-vivisectionists and members of the Society for Prevention of 
 Cruelty to Animals, as well as those unalterably opposed to these 
 movements. 
 
 The official Church, so far as it can be said to have spoken on the 
 vexed theme of man’s relation to lower creatures, has cautiously 
 limited itself to pointing out the essential theological teaching affect- 
 ing the question. It has need for caution. The advocates of animals 
 include many minds with varying views and motives. One influential 
 section obviously seeks to equalize man and the animals in regard to 
 the possession — or lack — of soul; often leaning towards the Hindu 
 view. To the moderate mind it seems clear that the taking of animal 
 life is a necessity. The opposite view, it appears to us, logically in- 
 volves the infamy of all germicides, and the abominableness of murder- 
 ing innocent microbes only seeking for a living. The greatest happi- 
 ness of the greatest number obliges man to give place to the microbe ; 
 who, on any true principle of universal suffrage, would outvote him 
 every time. But if he may inflict death for his own advantage, why 
 not for his own advantage the lesser evil of pain? Obviously, it 
 should seem, in these matters man is reduced to a practical compromise, 
 as wise and forebearing as his wisdom may contrive. None the less, 
 if he take up a lordship of life and death, of pain and happiness, 
 over these creatures committed to his rule, surely he therewith assumes 
 duties towards the ruled, even as he looks to God for a merciful care 
 of his life and death. . . . 
 
 [ 16 ] 
 
.... Nothing is perhaps more noteworthy than the unanimous dis- 
 like of these Saints for sport-killing as an amusement, which we 
 English carry almost into a vice. To hunt for pastime when it is no 
 longer needful to hunt for a living, seems to some of us a barbarism 
 well meriting their dislike. . . . Beyond the line of sport lie such 
 "pastimes” as baiting of animals: and here the Church herself has 
 spoken through her Head. The Bull of St. Pius V, is given entire — 
 a Bull which tossed bull-fights "most emphatic,” and declared all who 
 attended them worthy of the censures of the Church. It was as little 
 heeded as papal remonstrances against the Spanish Inquisition. But 
 how many know of its issue? 
 
 The poet’s conclusion is this: 
 
 The man, in truth, who excuses apathy towards the suffering of the 
 brutes on the ground that there is so much human misery needing re- 
 lief, is probably a man who does not work himself to death in the 
 cause of humanity. 
 
 (From the Seymour Adelman Collection.) 
 
 [ 17 ] 
 
XII 
 
 PREFACE TO 
 SISTER SONGS 
 
 Manuscript 
 
 Written from his monastic retreat at Ivy Cottage, Panta- 
 saph, this Manuscript of the famous Preface gives the 
 date of the writing of Sister Songs and explains the 
 similarity behveen line fifteen of the Proem and a figure 
 that had already been used by Coventry Patmore. 
 
 Line 15 of the Proem reads; 
 
 For Spring leaps in the womb of the year. 
 
 This, Thompson tells us in the Preface: 
 
 was an unconscious plagiarism from the beautiful image in Mr. Pat- 
 more’s St. Valentine's Day : — 
 
 "O baby Spring, 
 
 That flutter’st sudden ’neath the breast of Earth, 
 
 A month before the birth!” 
 
 Never was there a more gracious acknowledgment of an unin- 
 tended plagiarism than Thompson’s in this Manuscript: 
 
 Finding I could not disengage it without injury to the passage in 
 which it is embedded, I have preferred to leave it, with this acknowl- 
 edgment to a poet rich enough to lend to the poor. 
 
 (From the Seymour Adelman Collection.) 
 
 [ 18 ] 
 
XIII 
 
 PROOF-SHEETS 
 
 OF 
 
 SISTER SONGS 
 
 The original title, Amphicypellon Wrought and up- 
 brimmed for Two Sisters, is here changed to the title used 
 in the copies privately printed by Mr. Wilfrid Meynell — 
 
 Songs Wing-to-Wing: An Offering to Two Sisters. It 
 was not until the poem was published that the simpler title 
 was adopted: Sister Songs: An Offering to Two Sisters. 
 
 The two sisters were Madelitte (^Sylvia) and Monica, 
 children of Wilfrid and Alice Meynell. 
 
 These galley-proofs contain many additions and deletions in 
 Thompson’s handwriting. On the obverse side of the galley for 
 Part I, 11. 241-277, in pencil, in Thompson’s handwriting, is the 
 first draft of Part I, 11. 360-366. The deeply poignant lines 
 of the published version (Part I, 11. 279-281), appear for the 
 first time written by the poet in the margin of these proofs, as a 
 substitution for the following lines: 
 
 The abashless stare from each cold, smiling star, 
 
 Malignant and impitiable of eye. 
 
 Again, in the margin, the poet has written this first draft of Part 
 II, 11. 149-152: 
 
 The sacramental-conscious trees 
 Which ever be 
 Shaken celestially. 
 
 Confederate with enamoured wings, know of my love for thee. 
 
 These lines are substituted for the following line, deleted in the 
 galley : 
 
 What could I seemlier love than childhood, child, and thee.^ 
 
 [ 19 ] 
 
Line 745 in Part II is the poet’s substitution for the following 
 lines of the proof-sheets: 
 
 Its stalactites of flame, its icicles of fire. 
 
 Oh, that this verse were strong as its desire! 
 
 I had built a thing might scorn at fortune’s spurns 
 Until doom overturns 
 The broken stelled urns. 
 
 Following line 38 of the Inscription as it appears in the published 
 version, the following passage, deleted by the poet, appeared in 
 the proof-sheets: 
 
 As if his sprite had blossomed in the wild, 
 
 Diversely-like his soul whence fell its seed. 
 
 And little like to any kindred weed: 
 
 A lovely bell in a far lawny plot 
 
 Breathes and doth little wot 
 Of its unguessed-at child. 
 
 Athwart the intervening dreariment 
 Some fire -suffused bee the germins brought. 
 
 From that bell’s ripened bosom winging sprent 
 Gold-frosty with a clinging rime of thought. 
 
 The most interesting as well as the longest deleted passage in 
 the proof-sheets is the following. In a light, fanciful strain it 
 sings the poet’s playful envy of a toy Burmese idol that had won 
 the love of little Madeline Meynell to whom Part I of Sister Songs 
 was written. 
 
 But out, alack, unhappy me! 
 
 For I have a rival, 
 
 A rival from the ancestral East. 
 
 Never such a rival 
 
 Heard I that a human 
 
 Heart for its trial 
 
 Was sent by the spawning East 
 
 Out of her crew! 
 
 Never did such a rival 
 Teach a lover sighing. 
 
 Never such a suitor 
 Man yet knew! 
 
 A wooden Burmese idol. 
 
 In passing favour held ; 
 
 [ 20 ] 
 
To whom the dusky knees have kneeled, 
 (Abominable rival! — 
 
 I am glad he has lost his bell!) 
 
 A wry-mouthed idol, 
 
 A lurdane Burmese idol. 
 
 Most grisly and gruesome. 
 
 Most hideous of hue. 
 
 Ah, had the gods but made me. 
 
 But made me, but made me 
 A wooden Burmese idol. 
 
 Most hideous and rueful. 
 
 Most dreadful to view! 
 
 Then small lips would sue to me. 
 
 And small hands coy me. 
 
 And small mouths call me "Beautiful”:— 
 Sweet little toyers! 
 
 Sweet wooers to woo! 
 
 O lurdane Burmese idol! no voice can you upraise 
 To Sylvia, O Sylvia, her feat, sweet ways! 
 
 Within your veins no holiday 
 Bricks you on, this vernal day. 
 
 To syllable to Sylvia: 
 
 Though all the birds on branches lave their mouths with May, 
 You will not bear this burthen. 
 
 For singing to Sylvia! 
 
 "I bid all my children companion voices raise 
 To Sylvia, their Sylvia, her sweet, feat ways; 
 
 Their lovesome labours lay away. 
 
 And trick them out in holiday. 
 
 For syllabling to Sylvia; 
 
 W hile all my birds on branches lave their mouths ivith May, 
 And burthens bring of welcome. 
 
 For singing to Sylvia.” 
 
 (These lines, printed in the proof-sheets between 11. 341-342, 
 of Part I, of the published version, are followed by 11. 342-366 
 
 [ 21 ] 
 
of the published version. Then these deleted lines follow imme- 
 diately in the proof-sheets: 
 
 "But for that lurdane idol, 
 
 To Burmah I doom him, 
 
 Back to his land of chrysoberyl and jade. 
 
 Topaz and amber; 
 
 Where swelter in Magoung 
 
 The clusters swart, or on the mountained marble 
 Moil, or in aurate waters; 
 
 Burman, Panthay, and Shan. 
 
 There may him round environ 
 Brown faces glooming. 
 
 With all their snaky silken swathe 
 
 Of hues in zig-zag banded: 
 
 That in Pegu 
 
 Worship their monstrous god, enthronised, carven. 
 
 Cowled Naga-Rajah ; 
 
 Or where Tartarian battle strook Pagan.’’ 
 
 (From the Seymour Adelman Collection.) 
 
 [ 22 ] 
 
XIV 
 
 MARGINAL ANNOTATIONS 
 
 IN 
 
 THOMPSON'S HANDWRITING 
 
 These pages (235-240) are from Merry England, vol. XX — 
 January, 1893. Thompson’s annotations on the notes by the Eng- 
 lish Jesuit, Father Clarke, reveal his interest in the hierarchy of 
 the angelic order, so frequently manifest in his poetry. They 
 also reflect a fineness of exegetical acumen not popularly expected 
 in a poet. Commenting upon the common belief in seven spirits, 
 Thompson writes: 
 
 Kepler held a like view; and in the day of Huxley I hold with 
 Kepler — and Ezekiel. The tradition of seven spirits is common to 
 all races, as Fr. Clarke shows. Then why suggest the Turanians as 
 its originators? The presumption is naturally that it was shared by 
 all the children of Noah. But may I suggest that the seven are not 
 preeminent? They stand before the throne; and seem clearly to be 
 the chief of the executive and manijesting spirits. Three are declared 
 to be archangels — therefore on the second round only of the hierarchic 
 ladder. 
 
 (Gift of Mr. Wilfrid Meynell.) 
 
 [ 23 ] 
 
XV 
 
 AUTOGRAPH LETTER 
 
 SIGNED 
 
 TO Coventry Patmore 
 
 These eight pages contain Thompson’s high praise of Pat- 
 more’s work, especially of his last volume, The Rod, the 
 Root and the Flower. Of equal importance are the poet’s 
 remarks concerning the "Orient Ode,” just completed. 
 
 The criticism of Patmore’s book of aphorisms reads, in part: 
 
 It is the profoundest prose of yours I have yet read. It is only by 
 comparing you with yourself that I can mark my sense of it; for 
 no other modern writer furnishes any standard of measurement. 
 Where all is deep, the Aurea Dicta appears to me the deepest. It 
 is pure wisdom; the other sections being, in differing proportions, 
 mingled with the lesser profundity — or rather the profundity in a 
 lesser kind — of knowledge. I have read no such collection of 
 aphorisms. There is enough to build the reputation of sages seven 
 times seven. I marked the sayings which took me most; then found 
 I had marked three quarters of them, and went back and re-selected 
 amongst my selections ; and finally wondered why I should mark 
 any, when each, in turn, seemed the most worthy of marking. Do 
 you notice, by the way, that in one of them you have slipped into a 
 very beautiful heroic line? — 
 
 "Meeting unequal claims with c-qual duty.” 
 
 If that had been cited to me, I should have said: "Shakespeare, of 
 course, but I do not remember it. Where does it come?” 
 
 Then, speaking of the "Orient Ode,” which he had just com- 
 pleted, Thompson gives us the source of his inspiration. 
 
 As a matter of fact it was written soon after Easter, and was sug- 
 gested by passages in the liturgies of Holy Saturday, some of which 
 — at rather appalling length — I have quoted at the head of its two 
 parts. That was done for the sake of those who might cavil at its 
 doctrines. Indeed — perhaps with superfluous caution — I intended 
 
 [ 24 ] 
 
much of it to be sealed ; but your book has mainly broken the 
 seals I had put upon it. There is quite enough in it yours, without 
 the additional presumption that I had hastened to make immediate 
 use of your last book. 
 
 The letter ends with Thompson’s too humble opinion of Sister 
 Songs: 
 
 My own ill-destined volume has appeared, and even Lane has evi- 
 dently realized beforehand that it ought not to have appeared. I 
 have seen a review in the Chronicle — by Le Gallienne, I presume. 
 By no means enthusiastic, and mainly just in its non-enthusiasm. 
 I am apathetic about the book, as a bad business which I cannot 
 mend, and wash my hands of. 
 
 (From the Seymour Adelman Collection.) 
 
 [ 25 ] 
 
XVI 
 
 LETTER OF CONDOLENCE 
 
 TO Mrs. Patmore 
 
 This inc 07)1 parable letter is one of the most perfect ex- 
 pressions of sympathy in the English language. The depth 
 of its indefinable emotion and the unaffected simplicity 
 of its language mark it as the spontaneous utterance of a 
 great genius and a rare soul. 
 
 Creccas Cottage 
 Pantasaph 
 Holy Well 
 N. Wales. 
 
 Monday Nov. 30/96 
 
 Dear Mrs. Patmore, 
 
 I am shocked and overcome to hear of your — and my — bereave- 
 ment. There has passed away the greatest genius of the century, 
 and from me a friend whose like I shall not see again ; one so 
 close to my own soul that the distance of years between us was 
 hardly felt, nor could the distance of miles separate us. I had a 
 letter from him but last Monday, and was hoping that I might shortly 
 see him again. Now my hope is turned suddenly into mourning. The 
 irrevocableness of such a grief is mocked by many words; these few 
 words least wrong it. My friend is dead, and I had but one such 
 friend. 
 
 Yours, in all sympathy of sorrow, 
 Francis Thompson. 
 
 (From the Seymour Adelman Collection.) 
 
 [ 26 ] 
 
XVII 
 
 AUTOGRAPH POSTCARD 
 
 FROM 
 
 Thompson to Mrs. Mfynell 
 
 Addressed to 47 Palace Court, this card 
 bears the postmark of July 28, 1896, near 
 the end of the poet’s stay at Pantasaph. 
 
 One of the many such cards which Thompson, because of his 
 absent-mindedness and ill health, had been instructed to send the 
 Meynells who were always filled with foreboding whenever he 
 travelled alone. 
 
 (From the Seymour Adelman Collection.) 
 
XVIII 
 
 AUTOGRAPH LETTER 
 
 SIGNED 
 
 TO Everard Meynell 
 
 A familiar letter to the poet’s biographer. 
 
 Chiefly in praise of the showing made by three Lancashire cricketers 
 in the Australian test, this letter expresses Thompson’s keen in- 
 terest in England’s national game. At one time he thought of 
 writing a volume on the history of cricket. 
 
 (From the Seymour Adelman Collection.) 
 
 [ 28 ] 
 
XIX 
 
 AUTOGRAPH LETTERS 
 
 SIGNED 
 
 TO John Lane 
 
 [A] 
 
 From his monastic retreat at Pantasaph, Wales, Thompson 
 sent this nine-page letter to his publisher, May, 1895. 
 
 The poet expresses his fear that he has been "a little peppery,” 
 and his fear is well founded. The pepperiness, however, was 
 not on Lane’s account; but because of an alleged failure of Mr. 
 Wilfrid Meynell to send the poet a copy of Sister Songs, 
 
 privately printed at Westminster Press, in order that they might 
 be used for working from, to save the Ms. from possible destruction. 
 
 In a letter to Mr. Seymour Adelman, Mr. Meynell gives the 
 following reason for printing this edition: "Despite Le Gallienne’s, 
 and our, estimate of the poet. Lane did not care to make this second 
 venture. So I had the poem printed, striking off a handful of 
 copies before passing the type over to Lane, and so saving him 
 some of his dreaded expense.” 
 
 In the course of this letter Thompson makes some rather 
 bitter statements about Mr. Meynell — statements which Mr. 
 Meynell, with his unfailing charity, has characterized as reflecting 
 a few moments of pique during a friendship of twenty years. 
 Students of Thompson will be interested to read how strongly he 
 insisted upon a revision of the privately printed version of his 
 poem, before it was published. 
 
 All that I have at present is some advance pages of the First Part. 
 But the Second Part also needs alterations; slight, and quickly made, 
 but made they must be — or I will not let the poem go to the press. So, 
 
 I repeat, I must have a copy at once of the complete poem. 
 
 [ 29 ] 
 
Apropos of the first sentence in this passage and of Mr. Meynell’s 
 apparent carelessness of which the poet complains, there is in 
 this collection an undated letter from Mr. Meynell to Lane which 
 reads: "I suppose you had some proofs from F. T. He has the 
 others in his bag, in which I placed them the morning he left. . . . 
 I have played up to his farce by sending a fresh set to-day.” 
 
 [B] 
 
 Another letter from Pantasaph written by Thomp- 
 son to his publisher i?n7nediately after receiving 
 the advance copy of Sister Songs, fuly 1895 - 
 
 Speaking of his contract with his publisher Thompson refers to a 
 previous contract and in comparing the two, writes; 
 
 The other agreement allowed me sLx gratis copies ; this allows me none 
 beyond the one you have already sent me. Now, I have no personal 
 occasion for so many as 6 ; but I should have liked two more copies, 
 or at any rate one more, which I desire to send to Mr. Patmore with 
 a personal inscription in my own writing. 
 
 From this we learn how precious is Thompson’s presentation copy 
 of Sister Songs, one of the volumes in the Adelman Collection. 
 
 [c] 
 
 A typewritten statement mentioning Wilfrid Meynell and Thomp- 
 son; with particular reference to a letter which Thompson had 
 written concerning Lane. 
 
 (All of these items are from the Seymour Adelman Collection.) 
 
 [ 30 ] 
 
XX 
 
 AUTOGRAPH LETTER 
 
 SIGNED 
 
 TO Arthur Doubleday 
 
 An important letter planning a foi/rth volume of 
 poems u'hich never appeared. It was u'ritten from 
 16 Elgin Avenue W. Wednesday, Jan. 12/98. 
 
 When Archibald Constable and Co. published Thompson’s Netv 
 Poems, one of the partners of the firm was Mr. Arthur Doubleday 
 — "a very charming man,” according to Mr. Wilfrid Meynell, 
 "with that personal appreciation of F. T.’s poetry which Lane 
 lacked, — taking in its place Le Gallienne’s commendation.” 
 Thompson’s aversion to Lane, so strongly expressed in this letter, 
 "took the form of accusations, too lightly made,” according to Mr. 
 Meynell, and resulted in Thompson’s insistence upon another pub- 
 lisher for his last volume. 
 
 Besides its violent attack upon Lane there are in this letter some 
 very unjust allusions to Mr. Meynell. But it was evidently written 
 in a fit of temper. That may be why Mr. Meynell did not destroy 
 the letter when Mr. Doubleday gave it to him. Instead, he sent it 
 to Lane shortly before his death, "wishing him to decide for him- 
 self as to its preservation.” 
 
 Apropos of his plans for another volume of poems, Thompson 
 wrote : 
 
 I have material for a thin volume whenever, and if ever, you desire 
 to deal again in my wares. It includes the Pastoral, and (hypotheti- 
 cally) the Tom o' Bedlam. Some revision would first be necessary. . . . 
 Revision is harder than first composition. It demands a ghost, a resur- 
 rection of the original inspiration ; and the ghost is too often slow to 
 rise to one’s summons. 
 
 There is in this letter the following interesting allusion to the 
 poem Tom o’ Bedlam, mentioned above. For the printed version 
 
 [ 31 ] 
 
of this poem as it appeared in The Dome we are indebted to Mr. 
 Shane Leslie. Concerning the manuscript Thompson wrote: 
 
 I have not yet received the Tom o’ Bedlam, but it is still early days. 
 It will be hapless fortune if you have lost your copy, for I am quite 
 without one, and unable to remember the poem, which I greatly valued, 
 in common with all my friends. But if so — Kismet. 
 
 (From the Seymour Adelman Collection.) 
 
 [ 32 ] 
 
XXI 
 
 TWO AUTOGRAPH LETTERS 
 
 SIGNED 
 
 TO Wilfrid Whitten 
 
 Letters to the Assistant Editor of the 
 Academy, when C. Lewis Hind was Editor. 
 
 [A] 
 
 Eight pages written in pencil without date or address, a tragic 
 revelation of the poet’s complete mental and physical exhaustion. 
 Had the writer been less explicit in describing his desperate state, 
 it would have been evident from his unsteady handwriting and the 
 disordered way in which he strives to offer an apology and explana- 
 tion for borrowing ten shillings at the office of the Academy. It 
 reads, in part: 
 
 Finding you not likely to be in, I asked for an advance of 10/; was 
 told Hind had said such things were in future to be referred to him. 
 It is most reasonable, since I can imagine it may cause difficulty in 
 the accounts: moreover it is the providence of the Editor to decide 
 what moneys shall be allowed. It was an irregular privilege which I 
 willingly submit to have abolished, and will henceforth submit all 
 such requests to Hind personally. But Andrews offered to lend me 
 the sum on his own responsibility and let me settle the matter with 
 Hind. Unluckily I accepted the offer, and I am now very sorry. It 
 may make trouble for him, and was not a necessity, but only a con- 
 venience, for me; since my sole reason for calling in was to see you, 
 as I have mentioned. And perhaps Hind’s reason for prohibiting it 
 was that he had resolved not to use the Patmore middle, being so late. 
 The 10/ is nevertheless covered by other work I have in hand. But 
 it now strikes me perhaps Hind does not wish me to do that other 
 work, either. I ought to have thought he might have serious reason 
 for the step, not merely the wish to keep the reins in his own hands, 
 as I hastily supposed. Altogether I am most vexed I took Andrews’ 
 good-natured offer. I only hope the blame will be duly laid on me, 
 not on him. But I was in no state for clear reflection, being so giddy 
 from weakness that I tottered in your doorway. 
 
 [ 33 ] 
 
[B] 
 
 Sent from 16 Elgin Avenue, this is merely a request that he inform 
 Hind that the poet’s article on Browning had gone in. It appeared 
 in the Academy, May 8, 1897. The postscript telling of a sick 
 headache is written in a singularly unsteady hand. 
 
 (From the Seymour Adelman Collection.) 
 
 [ 34 ] 
 
XXII 
 
 A SERIES OF 
 
 SEVEN AUTOGRAPH LETTERS 
 
 SIGNED 
 
 TO C. Lewis Hind 
 
 These letters are to the editor of the Academy, to which 
 T honipson contributed some of his best criticism. They 
 reveal the physical pam, the mental anguish ar^d the in- 
 curable dilatoriness of the poet's last years. Their deep 
 pathos, however, is not unrelieved by a vein of rich humor. 
 Many of these letters are cj/toted by Everard Meynell in 
 his Life of Thompson. 
 
 [A] 
 
 This letter, sent from 28 Elgin Avenue W, was delayed because 
 Thompson had no stamp. In it he comments with tragic humor 
 upon his doctor’s warning that his rheumatic fever is liable to react 
 upon his heart: 
 
 It is a question whether a man of forty, and a professional hermit, 
 retains such an organ as a heart. 
 
 [«] 
 
 Writing from 39 Goldney Road, Harrow Road, the poet endeavors 
 to explain w'hat he meant by saying that Hind was "a man of the 
 world with a taste for letters.” 
 
 It would be nearer my meaning if I had called you a man of action 
 with a love for letters — and art. Wilfrid Blunt, Wyndham, etc., are 
 examples of the class. I might even say Henley. It is true that you, 
 no more than Henley, have ever been a man of action like Blunt or 
 Wyndham. Some more inclusive term is needed. The essential 
 thing is, that life occupies the principal place in your regard — not life 
 as it should be lived, the ideal of life in other words — but actual every- 
 day life, "life as she is lived." This is foremost, letters or art second. 
 Raleigh and a host of the great Elizabethans belonged to the same 
 
school. "Man of action first’’ is perhaps the nearest I can get to it. 
 "Man of the world’’ is bungling, because it bears so many significa- 
 tions. Anyway, notv, I hope, you have some idea of my meaning. It 
 was an antithesis between the pure thinker and recluse, on one hand; 
 the man interested in action for its own sake, yet with a foothold in 
 letters, on the other. 
 
 [C] 
 
 A letter accompanying the article on Wordsworth and promising 
 one on Fiona Macleod, sent from 16 Elgin Avenue W. It contains 
 the poet’s refusal to attempt articles on Shelley, Browning and 
 Tennyson. This, despite his need of funds. 
 
 Considering the importance — the great importance — of the writers I 
 am asked to treat, I do not feel that I could do justice either to my 
 subject or my own reputation within the limit (of 1,000 words) pro- 
 posed. In the case of such minor men as Landor, or even possibly 
 Macaulay, I should not object to the limitation — biographical details 
 being omitted. But I simply cannot pledge my name to a disposal of 
 Tennyson or Browning in about two columns. It would be a mere 
 clumsy spoiling of material which I might to greater advantage use 
 elsewhere. I could only undertake it on the terms that the length 
 of the article should be determined by the organic exigencies of my 
 treatment alone. Of course I have never dreamed of anything beyond 
 five columns as what you could reasonably allow me for important 
 articles. 
 
 Thompson’s demands were subsequently met, and articles of four 
 and a half columns on Tennyson and Browning appeared in the 
 Academy on April 17 and May 8, 1897. Strangely enough, the 
 article on Shelley printed May 22, is shorter — two and a half 
 columns. 
 
 In this highly amusing though pathetic letter bearing neither ad- 
 dress nor date, Thompson offers to pay for a book sent him to 
 review, which he had inadvertently sold. 
 
 Of course, under such circumstances I hold myself re.sponsible for 
 replacing it as soon as I can. Or if you cannot wait, I would suggest 
 you get the book, and dock it out of my extra money. For instance, 
 this week ten shillings will fall due to me, over and above what is 
 
 [ 36 ] 
 
necessary for lodgings and personal expense (two 2^ cols, makes 10s. 
 over the two pounds for my lodgings) ; if you dock that, in the usual 
 course probably a week or two will yield another 10s. extra. I propose 
 this as the only way which occurs to me. 
 
 The only alternative is for me to pick oakum (if they do that in 
 debtor’s gaols) . And I have not the talents for oakum-picking. 
 Though I enjoyed the distinguished tuition of a burglar, who had 
 gone through many trials — and houses — in the pursuit of this little- 
 known art, I showed such mediocre capacity that the Master did not 
 encourage me to persevere. Besides, seeing how over-crowded the 
 profession is, it would be a pity for me to take the oakum out of 
 another man’s fingers. 
 
 Tlie following letter sent from 28 Elgin Avenue, gives an idea of 
 the incredible absent-mindedness of the poet and his pathetic at- 
 tempts to cope with it. 
 
 I muddled up the time altogether today. How, I do not now under- 
 stand. I started off soon after 2. Thinking I had time for a letter 
 to the Academy which it had been in my mind to write, I delayed 
 my journey to write it. When I was drawing to a conclusion, I heard 
 the clock strike 3 (as it seemed to me). I thought I should soon be 
 finished, so went on to the end. A few minutes later, as it appeared, 
 the clock struck again, and I counted 4. Alarmed, I rushed off — vexed 
 that I should get in by half-past 4, instead of half-past 3, as I in- 
 tended — and finished the thing in the train. I got to the Academy, 
 and was struck all of a heap. There was nobody there, and it was 
 ten past six! 
 
 [F] 
 
 These four pages from 28 Elgin Avenue give the poet’s views on 
 the ethics of book-reviewing. The letter was prompted by a letter 
 to the editor of the Academy from Miss Frances Power Cobbe, ob- 
 jecting to Thompson’s review of a posthumous volume of the 
 poems of Louisa Shore, with a Memoir by her sister. The review 
 printed in the Academy, November 28, 1896, criticizes the Memoir 
 as well as the poems. Thompson met Miss Power Cobbe’s objec- 
 tions with a rare blend of gentleness and firmness. 
 
 I regret that my review should strike her in the light in which it ap- 
 parently does — as, it would seem, a personal attack. I should be 
 
 [ 37 ] 
 
sorry to be guilty of anything of the kind, as I most certainly was 
 without intention of the kind. But I cannot see that my review ex- 
 ceeded the limits of impartial criticism. . . . When a book comes 
 before a reviewer for criticism he cannot be expected to know or take 
 account of personal matters — of anything outside the book itself. 
 Many things might plead that he should be very gentle with the author, 
 but he has not knowledge of them. The book is an impersonal thing 
 to him ; and the author who publishes a book becomes impersonal, 
 and must expect to be treated as a mere name at the head of so many 
 printed pages. This may be unpleasant, but it is the inevitable con- 
 sequence of publication. The reviewer has only the book before him. 
 He can only judge it impartially on its internal merits, praising in 
 accordance with its power, blaming in proportion to its failure. If 
 the failure be considerable, this may be a very painful process to the 
 author; but the reviewer has no choice, and the author courted this 
 ordeal, implicitly submitted himself to it, by venturing authorship. 
 The critic can but register his impressions, coldly impartial by his very 
 function. Did he abstain from the blame he thought just because 
 (for example) of the writer’s sex, it would be equivalent to abdicat- 
 ing criticism where women are concerned, extending the privileges of 
 the drawing-room to the reviewing-column. But women of literary 
 power would be the first to protest against the insincerity of "letting 
 them off” because of their sex. I could point to some recent reviews 
 of acknowledged female writers, to show that criticism at least as 
 searching as mine is now habitually incurred and faced by women. 
 It is on the reviewer’s conscience to avoid personal attack, to criticise 
 the book and the book only, to touch nothing of the writer but his 
 literary quality. And this law, I think and hope, I have not ex- 
 ceeded. That an adverse review should give pain is an unhappy 
 necessity. But it is a necessity, from which the reviewer cannot draw 
 back — though he would gladly shirk the ungracious and ungrateful 
 task. But the truth, as he sees it, has to be said, — even about a woman’s 
 book. And to censure the book is not to censure the writer. It seems 
 to me (with all respect) that Miss Power Cobbe (for whom I can- 
 not fail to share the honour which her career has earned) loses sight 
 somewhat of this point. 
 
 If, in conclusion, I have in any way gone beyond the limit of purely 
 impersonal criticism, it is to me a thing as regrettable as unintentional. 
 But I cannot yet perceive that I have done so. 
 
 [G] 
 
 These two letters, bearing neither address nor date, are merely 
 repetitions of the poet’s attempt to explain his tardiness because of 
 illness and sleeplessness. 
 
 (All of these letters are from the Seymour Adelman Collection.) 
 
XXIII 
 
 AUTOGRAPH LETTERS 
 
 SIGNED 
 
 FROM Mr. Wilfrid Meynell 
 
 [A] 
 
 To John Lane. London, September 7, 1897. A letter expressing the 
 unfailing solicitude of Mr. Meynell for the poet’s welfare. It reads, 
 in part: 
 
 The Poet has been here nearly every evening since last Monday, hoping 
 to find something for him from you. Cannot you let your clerk send 
 him the accounts made up for each six months, instead of having 18 
 months or so lumped together as in those already supplied?. . . . 
 
 It is very hard on the Poet to keep him waiting so long, or you may 
 be sure I would not bother you. 
 
 [B] 
 
 To John Lane. London, May, 1895. Chiefly it concerns supplying 
 Thompson with proof-sheets for So?/gs Whig-to-Wing. 
 
 [c] 
 
 To F. H. Day, the American publisher of Thompson, Mrs. Meynell 
 and Father Tabb. London, February 9, 1895. An eight-page letter 
 in which Mr. Meynell expresses his own and Thompson's admira- 
 tion for Father Tabb’s poetry. 
 
 As for Fr. Tabb, I know a great number of his Poems by heart: and I 
 admire him more than I can easily say. All in this house and in our 
 circle, to whom we have shown or read them, (Le Gallienne, William 
 Watson, Winifred Lucas and others) share my admiration. . . . 
 Francis Thompson has been staying with us for a couple of months, 
 and left us yesterday on his return to the monastery in Wales. I read 
 Fr. Tabb — nearly all of it — to him several times over. Of course he 
 thought it wonderfully fine. Indeed all agree that no such uwrkman- 
 shig has come out of America yet. As for the sentiment, we Catholics 
 are particularly grateful for it: the literary slush in which religion has 
 hitherto been offered to us, having made us all sick to death. 
 
There is an amusing reference to Everard Meynell who eighteen 
 years later was to write the biography of Thompson; 
 
 Everard wrote to you, but I was obliged to suppress a letter so badly 
 spelt. . . . He is longing to have you again for a sitter. He is im- 
 proving very fast; and I hope he will do something good before he 
 has done. 
 
 [D] 
 
 To Mr. White. An informal note inviting him to a private view 
 of Lady Butler’s paintings, at her studio. 
 
 [E] 
 
 To Mr. White. Tunbridge Wells, May 24, 1881. An expression of 
 his wife’s gratitude for Mr. White’s condolences on the death of 
 her father. There is also an interesting allusion to Mrs. Meynell’s 
 brother-in-law. Colonel Butler; 
 
 He is dining tonight with the Princess Louise to tell her about The 
 Wild Northland which she wants to visit. 
 
 When this letter was written the Meynells were unaware that in 
 Owens College, Manchester, there was a very unsuccessful medical 
 student whom they were one day to rescue from the streets of 
 London to be one of the greatest poets of his day. 
 
 (All of these letters are from the Seymour Adelman Collection.) 
 
 [ 40 ] 
 
XXIV 
 
 AUTOGRAPH LETTERS 
 
 SIGNED 
 
 FROM Alice Meynell 
 
 [A] 
 
 To John Lane. Palace Court, August 3, (1894). An invitation to 
 John Lane to dine at Meynell’s with Coventry Patmore, Aubrey de 
 Vere and William Ernest Henley. An amusing postscript reads: 
 
 I am trying to make Francis Thompson come, but he is afraid of so 
 many poets. 
 
 [B] 
 
 To F. Holland Day, American publisher of Mrs. Meynell’s and 
 Thompson’s books. 47 Palace Court, London, January 29, (1895) . 
 In praise of Father Tabb’s poetry and speaking of Thompson it 
 reads: 
 
 I am so great an admirer of Father Tabb's exquisite talent that it would 
 be a pleasure to make any verse of his known, but it is not easy to 
 place good verse here, unfortunately. . . . Mr. Francis Thompson is 
 publishing his new book with Messrs. Constable. He was displeased 
 with a certain class of books published at the Bodley Head, and refused 
 to go on with his first publisher. Seeing, however, that Mr. Lane had 
 reformed the Yellow Book, I have continued with him. 
 
 [c] 
 
 To John Lane. (London, May, 1895). An interesting letter from 
 which we learn the painstaking collaboration of Thompson and 
 his friends in editing his work. It reads: 
 
 I have just received these pages critici2ed by Coventry Patmore, and 
 corrected a second time by F. T. Please let nothing go to press with- 
 
 [ 41 ] 
 
out Mr. Patmore’s seeing it. You could send direct to him, or else 
 to me. If pages have been passed by F. T. since then, please let 
 me have them. 
 
 [ 1^1 
 
 To Mr. Dunn. Palace Court, London W., June 11, (1904). A 
 brief note expressing pleasure at the prospect of seeing the sketch 
 of Leo XIII in 'Modern Men.’ 
 
 (All of these letters are from the Seymour Adelman Collection.) 
 
 [ 42 ] 
 
XXV 
 
 AUTOGRAPH LETTER 
 
 SIGNED 
 
 FROM Coventry Patmore 
 
 A very significant letter from Lymington, Hastings, to 
 Thompson at Creccas Cottage, Pantasaph, September 10, 
 
 1895. 
 
 It contains the following interesting remark concerning Thomp- 
 son’s poem, "The New Eve,” which had been sent to Patmore 
 for his criticism: 
 
 I have read it several times, and find it quite intelligible enough for 
 song which is also prophecy. 
 
 Then, comparing himself and Thompson, Patmore continued: 
 
 We are upon very much the same lines, but you, I think, are more 
 advanced than I am. "Dieu et ma Dame,’’ is the legend of both of 
 us, but at present 7na Dame is too much for the balance, peace, and 
 purity of my religion. There is too much of heart-ache in it. 
 
 Written very near the end, this letter reveals the deep desolation 
 of soul of Patmore’s last days, and suggests its source. 
 
 (Gift of Mr. Wilfrid Meynell.) 
 
 [ 43 ] 
 
XXVI 
 
 RICHARD LE GALLIENNE’S 
 READER’S REPORT 
 
 The original Manuscript of Le Gallienne’s report to John 
 Lane, recommending the publication of Thompson’ s 
 Poems. 
 
 This document that decided the publisher to print Poems, Thomp- 
 son’s first volume, was sent to Lane after Le Gallienne had read 
 the first sheaf of Thompson’s poems submitted to Lane by the 
 Meynells. It reads: 
 
 Lyrical Poems of Francis Thompson 
 
 Would certainly publish. Rich, coloured, oriental things. Remind 
 me very much of Crashaw. Lack concentration & form, but are 
 marked by a fine, extremely Latinized style, a sumptuous fancy, & some 
 splendid lines. One or two strike me as less good, such as "The 
 Dead at Westminster’’ — & a rigid revision might be well, though the 
 writer seems to have revised them a good deal already. Probably 
 they will be more characteristic as they are. To prune them too much 
 would be to rob them of their charm of prodigality. 
 
 (From the Seymour Adelman Collection.) 
 
 [ 44 ] 
 
XXVII 
 
 THE CHILD SET IN THE MIDST 
 
 A presentation copy from Wilfrid Meynell to J. C. Squire, 
 inscribed: The first anthology to contain a Francis Thomp- 
 son. J. C. Squire from his friend Wilfrid Meynell. 
 Greatham March 1924. 
 
 First Edition. London, 1892. Original boards. The first book to 
 contain Thompson’s writings. The editor, Mr. Wilfrid Meynell, 
 included four of his young protege’s poems: “Daisy,” “The 
 Poppy,” "A Song of Youth and Age,” and “To My Godchild.” 
 
 (From the Seymour Adelman Collection.) 
 
XXVIII 
 
 POEMS 
 
 [A] 
 
 A prese7itation copy. The front 
 flyleaf bears the inscription : 
 
 Arthur Hutchinson 
 
 FROM 
 
 Francis Thompson 
 1893 
 
 First Edition. London, 1893- Original boards. Hutchinson, a 
 close friend of the Meynells, was editor of the Windsor Magazine, 
 during the Nineties. 
 
 [B] 
 
 First Edition. London, 1893- Original white vellum. Twelve 
 copies only, of this first edition of Poems, were bound in full 
 vellum. These copies were numbered and signed by the publisher. 
 This is number 8. 
 
 [c] 
 
 First Edition. London, 1893. Original boards. A copy of the 
 ordinary first edition limited to 500 copies. With this volume is a 
 special trial binding rejected by the publisher, John Lane, in favor 
 of the cover actually used. The decorated circles on the trial bind- 
 ing are stamped in black and gold. On the cover finally chosen 
 the circles are outlined in gold alone. 
 
 [D] 
 
 First Edition. London, 1893- Original boards. A copy from the 
 library of Hugh Walpole, bearing his bookplate. 
 
 (All of these are from the Seymour Adelman Collection.) 
 
 [ 46 ] 
 
XXIX 
 
 SONGS WING-TO-WING: 
 
 AN OFFERING TO TWO SISTERS 
 
 [A] 
 
 A unique advance copy of the very rare privately printed 
 issue sent by Air. Wilfrid Aleynell to fohn Lane who 
 later published the volume as Sister Songs. 
 
 First Edition. London, 1895. Original wrappers. The sheets of 
 this copy as they came off the press were hurriedly bound in 
 unlettered blue wrappers and forwarded to Lane. This was the 
 first copy off the press. All other copies are bound in ivhite printed 
 wrappers. 
 
 [B] 
 
 A later copy of the same issue as the 
 above, bound in white printed ivrappers. 
 
 First Edition. London, 1895. Original wrappers. Because of its 
 rigidly limited production this has become one of the rarest of 
 modern first editions. 
 
 [c] 
 
 SISTER SONGS: 
 
 AN OFFERING TO TWO SISTERS 
 
 The presentation copy from Thompson to Patmore. 
 
 Patmore’s bookplate is inside the front cover. 
 
 First Edition. London, 1895. Original cloth. When Poems ap- 
 peared, Thompson had not yet met Patmore. When New Poems 
 was published, Patmore was dead, and its verse Dedication to 
 
 [ 47 ] 
 
Patmore is, in substance, the same as the famous inscription on 
 the front flyleaf of this volume: 
 
 To Coventry Patmore 
 
 This book has nothing worthy of the receiver, nor altogether of the 
 sender; and except you regard it for the poet’s sake, you cannot truly 
 for the poem’s: since what pleases me but ill, may not well please 
 you. Yet seeing its many pages, nothing in them memorable, and 
 minded that at least one should be inscribed with something great; 
 and that where all else is mortal and for oblivion, this should have 
 somewhat diuturnal and imperishing: therefore I set here your Name. 
 
 F. T. 
 
 July 10th, 1895 
 
 (From the Seymour Adelman Collection.) 
 
 [ 48 ] 
 
XXX 
 
 NEW POEMS 
 
 First Edition. London, 1897. This last volume of Thompson’s 
 poetry appeared after the death of Patmore to whom it is dedicated. 
 The Dedication, in verse, is very similar to the inscription in 
 Thompson’s presentation copy of "Sister Songs,” sent to Patmore 
 — one of the most precious items of the Seymour Adelman Collec- 
 tion. 
 
 [ 49 ] 
 
XXXI 
 
 THE WORKS OF FRANCIS THOMPSON 
 
 [A] 
 
 First Edition. London, 1913. Three volumes. Original cloth. An 
 original manuscript of Thompson, formerly inserted, has been re- 
 moved and placed among the Manuscripts of this collection. (Cf. 
 I-A.) This Manuscript was given to John Drinkwater by Mr. 
 Wilfrid Meynell who has written a note to that effect in the book. 
 The volumes contain the bookplate and signature of John Drink- 
 water. 
 
 (Gift of Mrs. Edward C. Donnelly.) 
 
 [B] 
 
 The same. Original dust-wrappers. 
 
 (From the Seymour Adelman Collection.) 
 
 [ 50 ] 
 
XXXII 
 
 COLLECTED POETRY 
 
 [A] 
 
 First Edition. London, 1913. Original wrappers. With few excep- 
 tions, the poems are here printed in the order of their original 
 publication. 
 
 [B] 
 
 The same. Edition de luxe. Large paper copy, issued in limp 
 vellum. 500 copies were printed. 
 
 (Gift of Mrs. Edward C. Donnelly.) 
 
 [c] 
 
 Modern Library Edition of Thompson’s Poems. New York. No 
 date. A presentation copy to Father Leonard Feeney, S.J., from 
 Everard Meynell, then a patient in a hospital for tubercular pa- 
 tients, in Buffalo, New York, conducted by a relative of Meynell’s 
 American wife. The allusion in the inscription Father Feeney has 
 thus kindly explained: "Shortly before meeting Meynell he had 
 read a poem of mine in America called 'The Welcome,’ a little 
 Christmas verse which he was kind enough to have remembered. 
 
 . . . Now there were no genuflecting lambs in the poem, but I 
 had made reference to the fact that the ox and the ass at the 
 manger 'could not kneel and adore for the poor creatures never 
 were angels before.’ His remembrance of the lines was as of 'Those 
 genuflecting lambs.’ ’’ 
 
 (Gift of Reverend Leonard Feeney, S.J.) 
 
 [ 51 ] 
 
XXXIII 
 
 SELECTED POEMS 
 
 [A] 
 
 London, 1911- Edited with a biographical note by Wilfrid Mey- 
 nell. Presentation copy from Wilfrid Meynell to John Drinkwater. 
 
 (Gift of Mrs. Edward C. Donnelly.) 
 
 [B] 
 
 First printing of Revised Edition. London, 1934. Original wrap- 
 pers. Inscribed by Wilfrid Meynell. Inserted on the inside of the 
 cover is a fragment of a letter from Thompson to Mr. Meynell. 
 It reads; 
 
 Since I don’t know what day it is, I am not superfluous enough to 
 try dating my note. 
 
 (Gift of Reverend Louis J. Gallagher, S.J.) 
 
 [ 52 ] 
 
XXXIV 
 
 [A] 
 
 Ode to English Martyrs. London, 1906. This is a reprint, but 
 the first separate edition. The poem first appeared in the Dublin 
 Review, April 1906. 
 
 (Gift of Mr. John T. Hughes.) 
 
 [B] 
 
 A Dead Astronomer. An early separate printing of the poem 
 inspired by the death of the famous Jesuit astronomer Father 
 Stephen Joseph Perry, friend of tlie Meynells and Francis Thomp- 
 son. Father Perry died at sea, December 27, 1889, while conducting 
 an eclipse expedition. This card is a reprint from Merry England, 
 April, 1890. 
 
 (Gift of Mr. John T. Hughes.) 
 
 [ 53 ] 
 
XXXV 
 
 [A] 
 
 Who Goes There? by Wilfrid Meynell. On page 93 Thompson’s 
 poem, "This is My Beloved” is published for the first time. On 
 page 25, a note of autobiographical interest attaching to the lines 
 reads: "My poet, when his mother died, felt that he could not en- 
 dure the shame of her seeing, from her Paradisal place, the real 
 him — and he who had this dread himself a saint of a sort! This 
 dead mother’s Second Sight into the soul of her beloved son, he 
 calls 'the Second Death’; and half doubts St. John when he says 
 that over the Redeemed the Second Death has no power.” 
 
 (Gift of Mrs. Edward C. Donnelly.) 
 
 [B] 
 
 The Dome. This is Number Five, published on May Day, 1898. 
 It includes "Tom o’ Bedlam’s Song,” one of Thompson’s poems 
 not included in his Collected Works. In a letter to Arthur Double- 
 day — one of the items of the Seymour Adelman Collection — 
 Thompson mentions this poem in speaking of a fourth volume of 
 poems which, however, was never published. Beneath the title is 
 the following: 
 
 (Written round selected verses — the third and fourth stanzas and 
 the first five Imes of the first stanza in the following poem — from the 
 well-knoivn song in "Wit and Drollery.’’) 
 
 VCith the volume is a letter of presentation from Mr. Shane Leslie 
 to Father Connolly. 
 
 (Gift of Mr. Shane Leslie.) 
 
 [c] 
 
 St. Anthony of Padua by Father Leopold de Cherance, O.S.F.C., 
 rendered into English by Father Marianus, O.S.C.F., with an Intro- 
 
 [ 54 ] 
 
duction by Father Anselm, O.S.F.C. First Edition. London, 1895. 
 A poem by Thompson, "To St. Anthony of Padua” is here pub- 
 lished for the first time. Father Anselm Kenealy who wrote the 
 Introduction was Thompson’s closest friend and adviser during his 
 years at Pantasaph. Later he became Archbishop of Simla. Re- 
 cently he retired from his See and returned to London. 
 
 [D] 
 
 Eyes of Youth, a book of verse with a Foreword by G. K. Ches- 
 terton. First Edition. London, 1910. This volume contains poems 
 by Viola Meynell, Olivia Meynell, Monica (Meynell) Saleeby, and 
 others. Four early poems of Thompson are here published for 
 the first time in book form: "Threatened Tears,” "An Arab Love 
 Song,” "Buona Notte, ” and "The Passion of Mary.” 
 
 [ 55 ] 
 
XXXVI 
 
 UNCOLLECTED VERSES 
 
 Tu tuty-jii^e copies of this collection were privately printed 
 by Clement Shorter for distribiction among his friends, 
 
 London, fuly 1917. Every copy is numbered and signed 
 by the editor. This is number 7 . 
 
 [A] 
 
 None of the poems and fragments, excepting the last, had pre- 
 viously appeared in book-form. In a foreword the editor acknowl- 
 edges his obligation to Everard Meynell in whose article, "The 
 Notebooks of Francis Thompson,” in the Dublin Review, January, 
 1917, the poems were printed for the first time. The titles are: 
 Fragment of an Ode to Coventry Patmore; In a Mortal 
 Garden They Set the Poet; Ran a Rillet, Chill at Bosom; 
 To St. John the Divine; Written at the Time of the 
 Spanish-American War; The Time Is Now; Till All My 
 Life Lay Round Me; Lullaby; Cricket Verses; This Is My 
 Beloved. 
 
 (From the Seymour Adelman Collection.) 
 
 [M 
 
 The same. Original wrappers. Presentation copy from Clement 
 Shorter to John Drinkwater, bearing Drinkwater’s bookplate. 
 
 (Gift of Mrs. Edward C. Donnelly.) 
 
 [ 56 ] 
 
XXXVII 
 
 SHELLEY 
 
 [A] 
 
 George Meredith's copy of the large paper edition. It 
 contains the bookplate of his son, W'tlliam Maxse 
 Meredith, to whom it was becyueathed. 
 
 First Edition. London, 1909. Original vellum. Inserted are two 
 important association letters. 
 
 One IS an autograph letter, signed, from Mr. Wilfrid Meynell to 
 George Meredith presenting the above volume. Written with Mr. 
 Meynell’s unfailing charm and simplicity, it begins: 
 
 My dear Mr. Meredith, 
 
 Do not si^h, for here is a book which asks for no acknowledgment 
 at vour hands, though I ask for a little liking. 
 
 The other letter, from George Meredith to Alfred Austin, Poet 
 Laureate of England, was sent from Box Hill, August 17, 1908. 
 Wilfrid Ward, editor of the Dublin Review, had sent Meredith a 
 copy of the July issue, containing the Shelley essay. In this four- 
 page letter we have Meredith’s criticism of Thompson’s prose 
 masterpiece, as well as some interesting remarks about Shelley. It 
 reads in part: 
 
 It is Francis Thompson, as in his verse, heaping sentences, but they 
 do not obscure his hold of the real matter. He certainly pierces to 
 Shelley the poet. Shelley the man was like him, but too often the 
 bee caught in a flowercup. Nor can 1 think he w'ould have altered in 
 full maturity. 
 
 (From the Seymour Adelman Collection.) 
 
 [B] 
 
 First Edition. London, 1909. Original cloth. Small paper copy, 
 
 [ 57 ] 
 
[c] 
 
 Mosher Edition. Portland, Maine, 1912. Edited by Thomas B. 
 Mosher, who writes the Preface. It contains a reprint of the poem 
 by Charles Hanson Towne, "The Quiet Singer," with the sub-title, 
 (Ave! Francis Thompson') . 
 
 [ 58 ] 
 
XXXVIII 
 
 [A] 
 
 A Renegade Poet and Other Essays, with an Introduction by 
 Edward J. O’Brien. First Edition. Boston, 1910. An autograph 
 copy inscribed: "To my friend, J. A. Morgan, S.J., from Edward 
 J. O'Brien, in sincere gratitude and affection. March, 1913.” In- 
 cluded are the following criticisms not found in the volume of 
 Thompson’s prose edited by Mr. "Wilfrid Meynell: "Stray Thoughts 
 on Shelley,” "Aubrey de Vere,” "'William Ernest Henley,” "The 
 Error of the Extreme Realists,” "Bunyan in the Light of Modern 
 Criticism,” and "Sartor Re-read.” 
 
 [B] 
 
 Essays of Today and Yesterday: Francis Thompson, with an 
 Introduction by Wilfrid Meynell. First Edition. London, 1927. 
 It includes the following studies not found in the third volume 
 of Thompson’s works edited by Mr. Meynell: "Robert Browning,” 
 "William Ernest Henley,” "Henley’s Byron and Burns,” and "A 
 Prince of India on the Prince of Games.” 
 
 [c] 
 
 Health and Holiness: A Study of the Relations between 
 Brother Ass, the Body, and his Rider, the Soul. Preface by George 
 Tyrrell. First Edition of separate printing. London, 1905. Orig- 
 inal boards. 
 
 (Gift of Mrs. Edward C. Donnelly.) 
 
 [D] 
 
 Sir Leslie Stephen as a Biographer. Original wrappers. Of 
 this edition twenty copies were privately printed and numbered 
 by Clement Shorter. 
 
 (Gift of Mrs. Edward C. Donnelly.) 
 
 [E] 
 
 Saint Ignatius Loyola. Edited by John Hungerford Pollen, S.J. 
 Preface by Mr. Wilfrid Meynell. London, 1909. 
 
 [ 59 ] 
 
XXXIX 
 
 FRANCIS THOMPSON 
 
 BY 
 
 Wilfrid Scawen Blunt 
 
 [A] 
 
 Presentation copy from Blunt to 
 Mr. Shane Leslie, ]une 18, 1920. 
 
 First Edition. London, 1907. Original wrappers. This is a reprint 
 from the Academy, November 23, 1907. There is a note of presen- 
 tation from Mr. Shane Leslie. 
 
 [B] 
 
 A copy of the same. 
 
 (Gift of Mr. John T. Hughes.) 
 
 [c] 
 
 Presentation copy from Wilfrid 
 Meynell to John Drinkwater. 
 
 (Gift of Mrs. Edward C. Donnelly.) 
 
 [ 60 ] 
 
XL 
 
 THE LIFE OF FRANCIS THOMPSON 
 
 [A] 
 
 A presentation copy from Mr. Wilfrid 
 Meynell to his nephew, Patrick Butler. 
 
 First Edition. London, 1913- Original cloth. Everard Meynell’s 
 definitive Life of the poet. There is an amusing textual correction 
 by Mr. Wilfrid Meynell. On page eighty-seven we read: 
 
 "Thompson’s manuscripts, most uninviting in outward aspect, were 
 pigeon-holed, unread by a much-occupied editor for six months.” 
 
 Mr. Wilfrid Meynell crossed out months and wrote in the margin, 
 in pencil: "weeks my son! W.M.” 
 
 [B] 
 
 First Edition. London, 1913- Original cloth. Another copy. 
 (Both copies are from the Seymour Adelman Collection.) 
 
 [ 61 ] 
 
XLI 
 
 THE HOUND OF HEAVEN 
 
 [A] 
 
 First Edition of the first separate printing. London, 1908. 
 
 (Gift of Mrs. T. Morris Murray.) 
 
 [B] 
 
 The Same. 
 
 (Gift of Mr. John T. Hughes.) 
 
 [c] 
 
 First Illustrated Edition. London, 1914. Ten Drawings for the 
 Poem, by Frideswith Huddart. 
 
 (Gift of Mrs. T. Morris Murray.) 
 
 [D] 
 
 Francis Thompson’s Hound of Heaven; A Study. By Rev. 
 J. F. X. O’Conor, S.J. First Editioir. Privately Printed. No date. 
 
 [^] 
 
 A copy of the same. New York, 1912. 
 
 [I'] 
 
 The Hound of Heaven; An Interpretation. By Rev. Francis 
 P. LeBuffe, S.J. New York, 1921. A presentation copy from 
 Father LeBuffe. 
 
 [G] 
 
 New York, 1922. An edition with an Introduction by James J. 
 Daly, S.J., and a Foreword by Mr. Wilfrid Meynell. A Presenta- 
 tion copy from Father Daly. 
 
 [ 62 ] 
 
[H] 
 
 An Interpretation of Francis Thompson’s Hound of 
 Heaven. By Sister Mary de Lourdes Macklin, M.A., Sisters of 
 Charity of Nazareth. Preface by Brother Leo. 
 
 [I] 
 
 'This Tremendous Lover’: An Exposition of Francis 
 Thompson’s 'Hound of Heaven.’ By R. Moffat Gautrey. Lon- 
 don, 1932. 
 
 [J] 
 
 The Hound of Heaven: Text of the dramatized, choral version 
 presented by twelve thousand members of The Grail, Albert Hall, 
 London, May, 1936. 
 
 [^1 
 
 The Hound of Heaven: A Music Drama for Soli and Chorus 
 OF Mixed Voices with Orchestral Accompaniment. By 
 Humphrey J. Stewart. New York, 1924. Tire first performances 
 were given under the direction of the Dominican Fathers of San 
 Francisco, in the Civic Auditorium, April, 1924. 
 
 [ 63 ] 
 
XLII 
 
 EX ORE INFANTIUM 
 
 [A] 
 
 Liitle Jesus. London, 1920. Written and illuminated by Edith 
 Bertha Crapper. 
 
 (Gift of James H. Connolly, Jr.) 
 
 [B] 
 
 Ex Ore Infantium. With Irish translation by Liam O'Meehan. 
 1937. 
 
 (Gift of Miss Marguerite Ryan.) 
 
 [c] 
 
 A picture of the Christmas Crib in the Monastery Church at Panta- 
 saph, 1895, which inspired "Ex Ore Infantium.” This is a copy of 
 the snapshot found among Thompson’s papers after his death. A 
 presentation letter from the poet’s sister accompanies the picture. 
 
 (Gift of Sister Mary Austin, the poet’s sister.) 
 
 [ 64 ] 
 
XLIII 
 
 TRANSLATIONS OF THOMPSON'S 
 POEMS INTO FRENCH 
 
 [A] 
 
 CoRYMBE DE L’AuTOMNE. Tfaduction par Paul Claudel. In La 
 Cantante a Trois Voix Suivie de Sous Le Rempart D’Athenes 
 ET DE Traductions Diverses. Paris. No date. 
 
 (Gift of Mrs. Edward C. Donnelly.) 
 
 [B] 
 
 CoRYMBE DE L’AuTOMNE, tfuduit de V Anglats par Paul Claudel 
 et orne de douze gravures sur bois par Andre Lhote. Paris, 1920. 
 
 (Gift of Mrs. Edward C. Donnelly.) 
 
 [c] 
 
 Une Antienne de la Terre, traduit de I’ Anglais par Auguste 
 Morel. Et precede d’une notice biographique sur Francis Thomp- 
 son par Wilfrid Meynell. Paris, 1920. 
 
 (Gift of Mrs. Edward C. Donnelly.) 
 
 [D] 
 
 Francis Thompson en Francais Rythme. Traduction de la 
 cointesse C. F. Montbenoit. Privately printed. No date. The poems 
 translated are: "Ad Amicam,” "The Grace of the Way,” "The 
 Mistress of Vision” (selected passages) , "The Hound of Heaven,” 
 "Any Saint,” "The Lily of the King,” and "What the Poet Says 
 of His Song.” 
 
 (Gift of Rev. Francis P. LeBuffe, S.J.) 
 
 [ 65 ] 
 
XLIV 
 
 AUTOGRAPH LETTERS 
 
 SIGNED 
 
 FROM Mr. Wilfrid Meynell 
 
 AND 
 
 Sister Mary Austin 
 
 These letters addressed to Father Connolly, refer chiefly to his 
 annotated edition of Thompson’s poems (Appleton-Century Co., 
 New York, 1932) ; to the exhibition of Thompsoniana held at 
 Boston College in 1934; and to preparations for the exhibition 
 commemorative of the thirtieth anniversary of Thompson’s death, 
 November 13, 1937. 
 
 Sister Mary Austin never fails to express her consolation in the 
 realization of how great is the influence of her brother’s work in 
 the spiritual as well as the literary revival of today. 
 
 The following excerpt from one of Mr. Meynell’s letters will de- 
 light all who are interested in Thompson and his influence in the 
 contemporary Catholic Revival. 
 
 .... Lovers of Francis Thompson — what brothers we all are!. . . 
 Here in England The Hound of Heaven has had a great deal to do 
 with the Christian revival that has marked the last few months. Es- 
 pecially are the young non-conformists (other than Catholics) affected 
 by it. And the advance towards the Church made by the "Anglo- 
 Catholics,” who now accept nearly all our doctrines and practices, is 
 due, in many cases, to the influence of F. T. on their spiritual lives. 
 I think that the lovely summer has been also a great help. Christ, the 
 Light of the World, has seemed nearer when His symbol became 
 more evident than ever before, even in the memory of an ancient like 
 myself. . . . 
 
 [ 66 ] 
 
XLV 
 
 AUTOGRAPHS OF 
 FIVE MEN OE LETTERS 
 WHO INELUENCED THOMPSON 
 
 AND 
 
 ONE WHO DID NOT 
 
 [A] 
 
 Percy Bysshe Shelley. Autograph Letter Signed. Bishopgate 
 Heath (London), October 12, 1815. To R. Hayward, Solicitor, 
 Tookes Court, Chancery Lane, London. Shelley wrote this letter 
 at the urging of William Godwin, whose daughter had eloped 
 with Shelley a year earlier. The elopement had aroused Godwin 
 to a fever pitch of indignation, although he forgot his indignation 
 long enough to induce Shelley to lend him sums of money. In this 
 letter we see the harassed poet (aged 23) requesting Hayw^ard to 
 raise a loan at "so low a rate as 8 or 9 per cent”; and the letter 
 closes with the warning postscript, "It is superfluous to request 
 that this communication should be secret.” The letter bears con- 
 temporary post-marks on its address-leaf. At this time, in October, 
 1815, Shelley was hard at work completing his first major poetical 
 effort, Alastor. 
 
 [B] 
 
 Samuel Taylor Coleridge. Two pages from the original auto- 
 graph manuscript of his book, Aids to Reflection (London, 1825). 
 On one page Coleridge has quoted an entire sonnet from The 
 Temple, by George Herbert. Everard Meynell tells us that Francis 
 Thompson first became acquainted with George Herbert through 
 Coleridge’s enthusiasm for the seventeenth-century poet. And 
 here, in Coleridge’s own hand, is one of the sonnets — Graces 
 Vouchsafed in a Christian Land — which so strongly caught Thomp- 
 son’s interest. 
 
 [ 67 ] 
 
[c] 
 
 Sir Walter Scott. Autograph Letter Signed. Abbotsford, Sep- 
 tember 3, 1819. Thompson’s boyhood enthusiasm for Scott’s 
 ballads reached a splendid culmination, years later, in his Ecclesi- 
 astical Ballads. Scott sent this lengthy letter to John Ballantyne, a 
 partner in the ill-fated publishing-house whose debts Scott was 
 to pay off so heroically. Very moving and prophetic are his words 
 in this letter: "I wish it to be understood that I always like to ful- 
 fill my bargains. . . He was completing Ivanhoe at the time 
 the letter was written. 
 
 [D] 
 
 Thomas de Quincey. Autograph Letter Signed. July 3 (1854). 
 42 Lothian Street, Edinburgh. ". . . . I am suddenly thrown into 
 despair .... all my books, papers, etc. are in the custody of my 
 landlady .... she demands some advance on giving them up. . . .” 
 
 Autograph Letter Signed. February 26, 1836. To J. J. Smith. It 
 explains at length De Quincey’s views on a business venture pro- 
 posed by his correspondent. 
 
 [E] 
 
 Dante Gabriel Rossetti. Autograph Letter Signed to Charles 
 Howell. London, July 17, 1874. It was this intimate friend, 
 Howell, who superintended that macabre episode — the exhumation 
 of the body of Rossetti’s wife, to obtain for publication the poems 
 Rossetti had placed in her coffin. 
 
 Autograph Letter Signed to H. Buxton Forman, editor of Shelley’s 
 works. London, February 24, 1871. A letter, devoted entirely to 
 Forman’s review of Rossetti’s newly-published Poems. ". . . . I 
 cannot help thanking you for the pleasure which your article in 
 Tinsley’s Magazine has given me. Of the justice of so brimming 
 a m.easure of praise I of course am not the fit judge; but of its 
 expository side I can say this much:- — that no other review I have 
 seen, written by anyone who had not watched in old intimacy the 
 growth of my work, has at all like yours seized in each instance 
 precisely the thread of my own conception. And you have done 
 
 [ 68 ] 
 
this clearly and simply; without constantly raising comparisons 
 between this and other work, and without thinking it necessary to 
 depreciate one part of the book and so balance the praise given 
 to another. . . 
 
 Matthew Arnold. Autograph Letter Signed. February 21, 1888. 
 Pains Hill Cottage, Cobham, Surrey. That Arnold is one who 
 DID NOT influence Thompson, is clear from a casual examination 
 of their respective writings. Moreover, Thompson has written: 
 ” ’Tis not merely that I have studied no poet less; it is that I 
 should have thought we were in the sharpest contrast. His charac- 
 teristic fineness lies in that very form and restraint to which I so 
 seldom attain: his characteristic drawback in the lack of that full 
 stream which I am seldom without.” Nevertheless, Thompson 
 would have warmed to the last sentence in this letter, in which 
 Arnold complains of the unjust neglect of Coleridge. 
 
 (From the Seymour Adelman Collection.) 
 
 [ 69 ] 
 
XLVI 
 
 COVENTRY PATMORE 
 
 One of the greatest spiritual and literary 
 influences in Thompson’s life, as well as one 
 of his dearest friends was Coventry Patmore. 
 
 The inclusion of the following list of Patmore items needs no 
 apology in the light of the close relationship between the two poets. 
 It is hoped that the future may see at Boston College a Patmore 
 Collection that will equal the Thompson Collection in complete- 
 ness and significance, and warrant the publication of a separate 
 catalog. 
 
 LETTERS 
 
 [A] 
 
 Autograph Letter Signed to William Allingham. British 
 Museum. October 30, 1852. Containing some interesting remarks 
 about Mrs. Browning’s poetry. 
 
 [B] 
 
 Autograph Letter Signed to William Allingham. British 
 Museum. November 6, 1854. It concerns Allingham’s proposed 
 review of The Betrothal and gives the reaction of some famous 
 contemporaries as well as his own, to reviews that had appeared 
 in the Leader and the Spectator. 
 
 [c] 
 
 Autograph Letter Signed to William Allingham. British 
 Museum. October 22, 1861. This is Patmore’s request for per- 
 mission to include in his anthology, The Children s Garland, two 
 of Allingham’s poems; "The Fairies” and "Robin Redbreast.” It 
 includes a pathetic allusion to his first wife’s illness. 
 
 [ 70 ] 
 
[D] 
 
 Autograph Letter Signed to an Unnamed Correspondent. 
 British Museum. February 3, 1863. The black border of the sta- 
 tionery is a reminder of the greatest grief and loss of Patmore’s 
 life — his first wife’s death. Written about the time of the publica- 
 tion of Book II of Victories of Love, it contains some invaluable 
 hints for the interpretation of The Angel in the House. 
 
 [E] 
 
 Autograph Letter Signed to an Unnamed Correspondent. 
 British Museum, July 30, 1862. Written a few weeks after his 
 first wife’s death, there is here no suggestion of the writer’s grief, 
 except the black border of the page. This is a business letter rela- 
 tive to reprinting Faithful Forever and Victories of Love. 
 
 [f ] 
 
 Autogig^ph Letter Signed to Messrs. Brompton and Lake. 
 Boxted, January 18, [1866]. A business letter to a London agent, 
 discontinuing the delivery of newspapers and journals. 
 
 [G] 
 
 Autograph Letter Signed, froivi Peter George Patmore, the 
 Poet’s Father, to Sir John Phillimore. Blackheath. Sunday. 
 (No date) . A long letter expressing bewilderment at a letter from 
 Sir John. It would seem to refer to an attempt at reconciliation in 
 the very unpleasant litigation between Patmore’s father and Col- 
 burn the publisher who had engaged Patmore to do certain literary 
 work. 
 
 (From the Seymour Adelman Collection.) 
 
 [ 71 ] 
 
XLVII 
 
 POEMS OF COVENTRY PATMORE 
 
 [A] 
 
 Poems. First Edition. London, 1844. Presentation copy from 
 Patmore to his brother Eugene. 
 
 [B] 
 
 Tamerton Church-Tower and Other Poems. First Edition. 
 London, 1853. 
 
 [c] 
 
 The Betrothal, First Part of the Angel in the House. First 
 Edition. London, 1854. 
 
 [B] 
 
 The Espousals, Second Part of the Angel in the House. First 
 Edition. London, 1856. 
 
 [B] 
 
 Faithful Forever, Third Part of the Angel in the House. First 
 Edition. London, I860. 
 
 [B] 
 
 Victories of Love, Fourth Part of the Angel in the House. 
 First Edition. London, 1863. Presentation copy to Jane Lampson, 
 containing autograph letter, signed, from Patmore. 
 
 [G] 
 
 The Angel in the House. First Edition of complete poem in one 
 volume. London, 1866. Presentation copy from Patmore to John 
 Ruskin, January 1, 1866. Ruskin’s annotations are found in the 
 margins. 
 
 [ 72 ] 
 
Amelia. London, 1878. Presentation copy from Patmore to Ed- 
 mund Gosse, January 26, 1890. It bears Gosse’s bookplate. One 
 of twenty copies privately printed on paper. Two illuminated 
 pages are on vellum. 
 
 [I] 
 
 The Angel in the House. Manuscript of an edition prepared 
 by Mr. Shane Leslie, who writes in the introduction: "The first, 
 original and unique draft of Coventry Patmore’s Angel in the 
 House is in the Greatham Library near Amberley in Sussex, where 
 it was left by Alice Meynell, to whom the poet made it a present. 
 It differs considerably from the printed versions and for that 
 difference is of intense interest to Patmoreans. It is here repro- 
 duced unchanged. It is unique for the poet describes it in his own 
 script as 'the only existing autograph MS.’ On the other hand the 
 poet presented Sir Edmund Gosse with a MS of the Angel 'as 
 altered and rearranged for the second edition.’ This was MS in so 
 far as the MS entries exceeded the print in bulk. This edition be- 
 came the version which has descended the ages.” Parts of the re- 
 mainder of this introduction by the foremost living authority on 
 Patmore will be found in his brilliant volume. Studies in Sublime 
 Failure. 
 
 [J] 
 
 Odes. Privately printed, London, 1868. Presentation copy from 
 Patmore to Dante Gabriel Rossetti. It bears Patmore’s inscription: 
 "Coventry Patmore To Dante Gabriel Rossetti, "With affectionate 
 remembrances of P[re] R[aphaelite] P[aintingJ days. May, 
 1870.” 
 
 (From the Seymour Adelman Collection.) 
 
 The Unknown Eros and Other Odes, Odes I-XXXI. London, 
 1877. 
 
 [L] 
 
 The Unknown Eros. London, 1878. Presentation copy from 
 Patmore to Robert Browning, October 13, 1884. First Edition of 
 the present arrangement of the Odes. 
 
 [ 73 ] 
 
XLVIII 
 
 PROSE OF COVENTRY PATMORE 
 
 [^1 
 
 Prin'CIPLE in Art. First Edition. London, 1889. 
 
 [«] 
 
 Religio Poetae. First Edition. London, 1893. 
 
 [c] 
 
 The Rod, The Root and The Flower. First Edition. London, 
 1895. Thompson’s high praise of this volume is expressed in one 
 of the letters of the Seymour Adelman Collection. 
 
 [D] 
 
 Saint Bernard on the Love of God. Translated by Marianne 
 Caroline and Coventry Patmore. First Edition, 1881. (The selec- 
 tions here translated have been identified in the Latin text and 
 newly translated by Father Connolly in a volume recently published 
 by the Spiritual Book Associates, New York City.) 
 
 [E] 
 
 How I Managed and Improved My Estate. London, 1886. A 
 volume that reveals a great poet as a very practical man. 
 
 [ 74 ] 
 
XLIX 
 
 ERNEST DOWSON 
 
 Besides the rather accidental connection with Thompson conse- 
 quent upon his review of Dowson’s poetry, the Manuscript of 
 which is in the Seymour Adelman Collection, a more intimate re- 
 lationship is remarked by Everard Meynell in his Life of the poet. 
 'Thompson watched with much interest his words creep into 
 currency. Roseal — 'most beloved of my revivals’ — which he had 
 known only in Lodge’s Glaucus and Scylla, he saw reappear in 
 Dowson and other writers, and realised it was probably from 
 Thompson and not from Lodge that it had been learnt. In this 
 he saw the sign — the only one, he said — of his influence.” 
 
 [A] 
 
 Verses. First Edition. London, 1896. Original vellum. Cover- 
 design by Aubrey Beardsley. 330 copies were printed. Presentation 
 copy inscribed by the author on the fly-leaf to Pierre Loiiys, July, 
 3 896. 
 
 [«1 
 
 Autograph Lett'er Signed, to Pierre Louys. Pont-Aven (Brit- 
 tany), July, 1896. An announcement of the publication of Verses 
 and a promise to send a copy to Loiiys. 
 
 [c] 
 
 Autograph Leiter Signed, to Pierre Louys. London, Novem- 
 ber, 1896. An apology for delay in sending the promised copy of 
 Verses. The volume had been lying on his table for months, wrote 
 Dowson, inscribed and wrapped and ready to be mailed. 
 
 [M 
 
 Decorations. First Edition. London, 1899. Original vellum. 
 Original tissue dust-wrapper. All the poems published by Dowson 
 during his lifetime are included in Verses and Decorations. 
 
 [ 75 ] 
 
[E] 
 
 The Story of Beauty and the Beast. First Edition. London, 
 1908. Original cloth, in original orange dust-wrapper. This 
 charming translation in this edition was limited to 300 copies. 
 
 [F] 
 
 Original Autograph Manuscript of Dowson's Short Story, 
 "The Dying of Francis Donne.” Sixteen closely-written quarto 
 pages in Dowson’s handwriting, signed. This story appeared in 
 Aubrey Beardsley’s magazine, The Savoy, August, 1896. In his In- 
 troduction to the collected edition of Dowson, 1905, Arthur 
 Symons speaks of this as Dowson’s prose masterpiece. 
 
 [G] 
 
 Ernest Dowson. By Victor Plarr. First Edition. London, 1914. 
 Original. In this volume many of Dowson’s letters were published 
 for the first time. 
 
 (All of these Dowson items are from the Seymour Adelman Col- 
 lection.) 
 
 [ 76 ] 
 
L 
 
 A MISCELLANY 
 
 The following items from the Seymour Adelman Collection, are 
 in various ways related to Thompson. 
 
 [A] 
 
 The Romantic Nineties, by Richard Le Gallienne. Lirst Edition. 
 London, 1926. Original cloth. Here the reader who first recom- 
 mended Thompson’s poems for publication gives us some delight- 
 ful reminiscences of the poet and his closest friends, the Meynells, 
 and Coventry Patmore. 
 
 [B] 
 
 Caricatures of Twenty-Five Gentlemen, by Max Beerbohm. Lirst 
 Edition. London, 1896. Original tissue dust-wrapper. It was this 
 book that heralded the arrival of England’s great literary carica- 
 turist. 
 
 The Works of Max Beerbohm. Lirst Edition. London, 1896. 
 Original cloth. One of the wittiest books of essays in the 90’s. 
 
 Rossetti and His Circle, by Max Beerbohm. Lirst Edition. Lon- 
 don, 1922. Original cloth. The first publication of the celebrated 
 caricatures of Rossetti, Patmore and Meredith. 
 
 [c] 
 
 The Art of Thomas Hardy, by Lionel Johnson. Lirst Edition. 
 London, 1894. Original cloth. This critique of Hardy, whose 
 novels Thompson reviewed for the Academy, is a classic. Johnson 
 was not so happy in his criticism of Thompson’s style when he 
 spoke of it as a more harmful influence than the worst of American 
 newspapers! 
 
 Poems by Lionel Johnson, Lirst Edition. London, 1895. Orig- 
 inal boards. 
 
 Reviews arid Critical Papers, by Lionel Johnson. First Edition. 
 London, 1921. Original cloth with dust-wrappers. 
 
 [77 ] 
 
[D] 
 
 Rape of the Lock by Alexander Pope. First Edition with illustra- 
 tions by Aubrey Beardsley. London, 1896. Original cloth. 
 
 Original Drawing, "Ornament for Pierrot’s Library.” This draw- 
 ing came from the collection of Thompson’s publisher, John Lane, 
 for whom it was originally made. It is fully recorded in The Later 
 Work of Aubrey Beardsley where it is given a full-page reproduc- 
 tion. 
 
 Autograph Receipt Signed, for his Drawing to Illustrate Edgar 
 Allan Poe’s TaUs. It is also signed with Beardsley’s 'Japanese’ 
 monogram. 
 
 [E] 
 
 The Beardsley Period, by Osbhrt Burdett. First Edition. Lon- 
 don, 1925. Original cloth. An interesting 'Essay in Perspective’ 
 of the 90’s, with numerous allusions to Thompson, Patmore, the 
 Meynells, Le Gallienne and others. 
 
 Autograph Letter Signed, Bliss Carman to F. H. Day, requesting 
 a review-copy of Thompson’s "Odes and other Poems” — New 
 Poems. 
 
 [«] 
 
 Dr. Johnson’s "Lives of the Poets” Swinburne’s copy. The fly- 
 leaf bears one of his earliest known autographs — April 18th, 1850, 
 a few days after his thirteenth birthday. Swinburne was then a 
 student at Eton. In his biography of Swinburne (p. I6) Edmund 
 Gosse speaks of this volume. Thompson did not share Mrs. Mey- 
 nell's great aversion for Swinburne. As Everard Meynell writes 
 in his Life of the poet; "Thompson’s admirations were always well 
 set up and bright-eyed because they were so well reasoned. No 
 prepossessions, whims, or sloths made up his opinion. No author 
 was carelessly shelved or unshelved; he did not put Swinburne 
 aside although his Angels and Swinburne’s never rested nor flew 
 on the wing togeth:'.-.'' 
 
 (All of the items of this Miscellany are from the Seymour Adelman 
 Collection.) 
 
 [ 78 ] 
 
APPENDIX 
 
 1 
 
 ECCLESIASTICAL BALLADS 
 
 I 
 
 LILIUM REGIS 
 
 II 
 
 THE VETERAN OF HEAVEN 
 Manuscript 
 
 The version in this unsigned Manuscript, 
 is the same as the published version. 
 There is a single verbal change, tivice made. 
 
 Besides the Ballads, written in ink on a double sheet of foolscap, 
 there are, in pencil, first drafts of three fragments not included in 
 Thompson’s collected poems. The first of these, illegible in parts, 
 has as its theme the sun, a favorite theme with Thompson. The 
 second is an unfinished poem on the first Sleep and the first awaken- 
 ing of the first Man. The third is a fancied dialogue between a 
 Wise Man and Ecclesiasticus, Son of Sirach. 
 
 (Loaned for the Exhibition by Mrs. Celia Tobin Clark.) 
 
 2 
 
 An Arab Love-Song, adapted and set to music by Reverend 
 Leonard Feeney, S.J. This is an intensely interesting bond between 
 two poets so alike in the ideals of their poetic message — one of the 
 past, the other of today. 
 
 (Gift of Rev. Thomas B. Feeney, S.J.) 
 
 [ 79 ] 
 

Copies of this Catalog 
 
 ARE ON SALE FOR 
 FIFTY CENTS 
 AT 
 
 Boston College Bookshop 
 
 AND 
 
 St. Thomas More Bookshop 
 33 Church Street, Cambridge, Mass. 
 
 Printed in U. S. A.