SD2225. William Michael Rossetti to Editor of The Crayon
As published in The Brownings’ Correspondence, 25, 366.
London,
19 December 1858
The Crayon for November last makes mention of a picture by an English artist, Mr. Windus, now in the possession of Mr. Harrison, of Philadelphia, and speaks of it as an illustration of Mrs. Browning’s poem, The Romaunt of the Page. Will you allow me, on behalf of the artist, to explain through the pages of the Crayon, that this is a mistake; and a mistake the more worthy of correcting, as it has enough plausibility to mislead even those who have seen the picture. The Romaunt of the Page is a story of a new-married bride, who being (under peculiar circumstances) unrecognizable by her bridegroom, follows him, a crusader, in Palestine, in the disguise of a page; and, seeking by indirect questions to discover whether he would approve her conduct, is cast into despair on learning that he would not. The picture is in reality an illustration of the old English ballad Burd Helen, and known under that title only, which it bore in the Royal Academy Exhibition and the Manchester Art-Treasures Gallery, to the English public. The story of Burd Helen is that of a girl who has been seduced by a young lord, and who, as the time approaches when her shame can no longer be concealed, haunts his steps a whole day long, dressed as a boy. He tries her love and endurance by various cruel tests, such as making her wade through the water, which his horse crosses (the moment represented in the picture); and, after she has proved herself unconquerable by all these he marries her. Of this story the picture will be found an exact and beautiful rendering—both in incident, in expression, and in suggestive accessories; whereas it would only be a loose and inefficient rendering of The Romaunt of the Page.
Your obedient servant,
W. M. Rossetti
Text: Selected Letters of William Michael Rossetti, ed. Roger W. Peattie (University Park, Penn., 1990), pp. 102–103.
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