erroneously imagined by themselves, that most of the things which they disliked in the book had been foisted into it by me in a spirit of dictation at once arrogant and obtuse, and had by Mr. Bell been too tamely permirted to appear. Both Mr. Bell and I had reason to complain of these cntics: Mr. Bell for being falsely credited with a degree of sheepish acquiescence which had tended to spoil his book, and I for being falsely arraigned of an offence not enacted by me but invented by my censors, who thereupon abused me for doing what I had not done, and for defects of mind and character evidenced by the imputed doing of it. But all this is an old story, and barely worth referring to now. I glance at it chiefly because it has constituted one of my reasons for preferring on the present occasion to write something—a very little-about my sister in the way of biography. Mr. Bell's treatment of the subject is in many respects meritorious, but need not prevent a relative from stating a few facts in his own way. A reader of the poems ought to know who and what their authoress was. I propose to put him in possession of that amount of knowledge, and of little beyond that. CONTENTS APPENDIX A.-Contents of the Collected Edition issued by Christina Rossetti APPENDIX B.-Poems by Christina Rossetti extant in MS., etc. APPENDIX C.-Some leading Themes, or Key-notes of Feeling, in the Poems of Frontispiece Page. V 35. On the Death of a Cat, a Friend of mine 36. To Elizabeth Read, with some Postage-Stamps for a Collection JUVENILIA, continued- The Lotus-Eaters-Ulysses to Penelope DEVOTIONAL POEMS 76. A Christmas Carol (Thank God, thank God, we do believe) 77. For Advent (Sweet sweet sound of distant waters, falling). |