William Morris Part 12

The borders in this book, as well as the ten half borders, are here used for the first time. It was first announced as in the press in the list of March 31, 1894. Another edition was published by Lawrence & Bullen in 1895.

28. _The Book of Wisdom and Lies. A Book of Traditional Stories from Georgia and Asia._ Translated by Oliver Wardrop from the original of Sulkhan-Saba Orbeliani. 8vo. Golden type. In black and red. Borders 4a and 4, and woodcut t.i.tle. 250 on paper at two guineas, none on vellum.

Finished September 20, issued October 29, 1894. Published by Bernard Quaritch. Bound in limp vellum.

The arms of Georgia, consisting of the Holy Coat, appear in the woodcut t.i.tle of this book.[17]

29. _The Poetical Works of Percy Bysshe Sh.e.l.ley._ Volume 1. Edited by F.

S. Ellis. 8vo. Golden type. Borders 1a and 1, and woodcut t.i.tle. 250 on paper at twenty-five s.h.i.+llings, 6 on vellum at eight guineas. Not dated, issued November 29, 1894. Published by William Morris. Bound in limp vellum without ties.

Red ink is not used in this volume, though it is used in the second volume, and more sparingly in the third. Some of the half borders designed for _The Wood Beyond the World_ reappear before the longer poems. The Sh.e.l.ley was first announced as in the press in the list of March 31, 1894.[18]

30. _Psalmi Penitentiales. An English rhymed version of the Seven Penitential Psalms._ Edited by F. S. Ellis. 8vo. Chaucer type. In black and red. 300 on paper at seven s.h.i.+llings and sixpence, 12 on vellum at three guineas. Dated November 15, issued December 10, 1894. Published by William Morris. Bound in half holland.

These verses were taken from a ma.n.u.script Book of Hours, written at Gloucester in the first half of the fifteenth century, but the Rev.

Professor Skeat has pointed out that the scribe must have copied them from an older ma.n.u.script, as they are in the Kentish dialect of about a century earlier. The half border on p. 34 appears for the first time in this book.

31. _Epistolade Contemptumundi di Frate Hieronymo da Ferrara Dellordinede Frati Predicatori la Quale Manda ad Elena Buonaccorsi Sua Madre._ Per CONSOLARLA DELLA MORTE DEL FRATELLO, _Suo Zio_. Edited by Charles Fairfax Murray from the original autograph letter. 8vo. Chaucer type. In black and red. Border 1. Woodcut on t.i.tle designed by C. F. Murray and engraved by W. H. Hooper. 150 on paper and 6 on vellum. Dated November 30, ready December 12, 1894. Bound in half holland.

This little book was printed for Mr. C. Fairfax Murray, the owner of the ma.n.u.script, and was not for sale in the ordinary way. The colophon is in Italian, and the printer's mark is in red.

32. _The Tale of Beowulf._ Done out of the old English tongue by WILLIAM MORRIS and A. J. WYATT. Large 4to. Troy type, with argument, side-notes, list of persons and places, and glossary in Chaucer type. In black and red. Borders 14a and 14, and woodcut t.i.tle. 300 on paper at two guineas, 8 on vellum at ten pounds. Dated January 10, issued February 2, 1895.

Published by William Morris. Bound in limp vellum.

The borders in this book were only used once again, in the Jason. A note to the reader printed on a slip in the Golden type was inserted in each copy. _Beowulf_ was first announced as in preparation in the list of May 20, 1893. The verse translation was begun by Mr. Morris, with the aid of Mr. Wyatt's careful paraphrase of the text, on February 21, 1893, and finished on April 10, 1894, but the argument was not written by Mr. Morris until December 10, 1894.

33. _Syr Perecyvelle of Gales._ Overseen by F. S. Ellis, after the edition edited by J. O. Halliwell from the Thornton MS. in the Library of Lincoln Cathedral. 8vo. Chaucer type. In black and red. Borders 13a and 13, and a woodcut designed by Sir E. Burne-Jones. 350 on paper at fifteen s.h.i.+llings, 8 on vellum four guineas. Dated February 16, issued May 2, 1895. Published by William Morris. Bound in limp vellum.

This is the first of the series to which _Sire Degrevaunt and Syr Isumbrace_ belong. They were all reprinted from the Camden Society's volume of 1844, which was a favourite with Mr. Morris from his Oxford days. _Syr Perecyvelle_ was first announced in the list of December 1, 1894. The shoulder-notes were added by Mr. Morris.

34. _The Life and Death of Jason_, A Poem by WILLIAM MORRIS. Large 4to.

Troy type, with a few words in Chaucer type. In black and red. Borders 14a and 14, and two woodcuts designed by Sir E. Burne-Jones and engraved on wood by W. Spielmeyer. 200 on paper at five guineas, 6 on vellum at twenty guineas. Dated May 25, issued July 5, 1895. Published by William Morris.

Bound in limp vellum.

This book, announced as in the press in the list of April 21, 1894, proceeded slowly, as several other books, notably the Chaucer, were being printed at the same time. The text, which had been corrected for the second edition of 1868, and for the edition of 1882, was again revised by the author. The line fillings on the last page were cut on metal for the book, and cast like type.

29a. _The Poetical Works of Percy Bysshe Sh.e.l.ley._ Volume 11. Edited by F.

S. Ellis. 8vo. Golden type. In black and red. 250 on paper at twenty-five s.h.i.+llings, 6 on vellum at eight guineas. Not dated, issued March 25, 1895.

Published by William Morris, Bound in limp vellum without ties.

35. _Child Christopher and Goldilind the Fair._ By WILLIAM MORRIS. 2 vols.

16mo. Chaucer type. In black and red. Borders 15a and 15, and woodcut t.i.tle. 600 on paper at fifteen s.h.i.+llings, 12 on vellum at four guineas.

Dated July 25, issued September 25, 1895. Published by William Morris.

Bound in half holland, with labels printed in the Golden type.

The borders designed for this book were only used once again, in _Hand and Soul_. The plot of the story was suggested by that of Havelok the Dane, printed by the Early English Text Society.

29b. _The Poetical Works of Percy Bysshe Sh.e.l.ley._ Volume III. Edited by F. S. Ellis. 8vo. Golden type. In black and red. 250 on paper at twenty-five s.h.i.+llings, 6 on vellum at eight guineas. Dated August 21, issued October 28, 1895. Published by William Morris. Bound in limp vellum without ties.

36. _Hand and Soul._ By DANTE GABRIEL ROSSETTI. Reprinted from _The Germ_, for Messrs. Way & Williams, of Chicago. 16mo. Golden type. In black and red. Borders 15a and 15, and woodcut t.i.tle. 300 paper copies and 11 vellum copies for America. 225 paper copies for sale in England at ten s.h.i.+llings, and 10 on vellum at thirty s.h.i.+llings. Dated October 24, issued December 12, 1895. Bound in stiff vellum, without ties.

This was the only 16mo book bound in vellum. The English and American copies have a slightly different colophon. The shoulder-notes were added by Mr. Morris.

37. _Poems Chosen out of the Works of Robert Herrick._ Edited by F. S.

Ellis. 8vo. Golden type. In black and red. Borders 4a and 4, and woodcut t.i.tle. 250 on paper at thirty s.h.i.+llings, 8 on vellum at eight guineas.

Dated November 21, 1895, issued February 6, 1896. Published by William Morris. Bound in limp vellum.

This book was first announced as in preparation in the list of December 1, 1894, and as in the press in that of July 1, 1895.

38. _Poems Chosen out of the Works of Samuel Taylor Coleridge._ Edited by F. S. Ellis. 8vo. Golden type. In black and red. Borders 13a and 13. 300 on paper at a guinea, 8 on vellum at five guineas. Dated February 5, issued April 12, 1896. Published by William Morris. Bound in limp vellum.[19]

This book contains thirteen poems. It was first announced as in preparation in the list of December 1, 1894, and as in the press in that of November 26, 1895. It is the last of the series to which Tennyson's _Maud_, and the poems of Rossetti, Keats, Sh.e.l.ley, and Herrick belong.

39. _The Well at the World's End._ By WILLIAM MORRIS. Large 4to. Double columns. Chaucer type. In black and red. Borders 16a, 16, 17a, 17, 18a, 18, 19a, 19, and four woodcuts designed by Sir E. Burne-Jones. 350 on paper at five guineas, 8 on vellum at twenty guineas. Dated March 2, issued June 4, 1896. Sold by William Morris. Bound in limp vellum.

This book, delayed for various reasons, was longer on hand than any other. It appears in no less than twelve lists, from that of December, 1892, to that of November 26, 1895, as "in the press." Trial pages, including one in a single column, were ready as early as September, 1892, and the printing began on December 16th, of that year. The edition of _The Well at the World's End_, published by Longmans, was then being printed from the author's ma.n.u.script at the Chiswick Press, and the Kelmscott Press edition was set up from the sheets of that edition, which, though not issued until October, 1896, was finished in 1894. The eight borders and the six different ornaments between the columns appear here for the first time, but are used again in _The Water of the Wondrous Isles_, with the exception of two borders.

40. _The Works of Geoffrey Chaucer._ Edited by F. S. Ellis. Folio. Chaucer type, with headings to the longer poems in Troy type. In black and red.

Borders 20a to 26, woodcut t.i.tle, and eighty-seven woodcut ill.u.s.trations designed by Sir E. Burne-Jones. 425 on paper at twenty pounds, 13 on vellum at 120 guineas. Dated May 8, issued June 26, 1896. Published by William Morris. Bound in half holland.

The history of this book, which is by far the most important achievement of the Kelmscott Press, is as follows:

As far back as June 11, 1891, Mr. Morris spoke of printing a Chaucer with a black-letter fount, which he hoped to design. Four months later, when most of the Troy type was designed and cut, he expressed his intention to use it first on John Ball, and then on a Chaucer, and perhaps a _Gesta Romanorum_. By January 1, 1892, the Troy type was delivered, and early in that month two trial pages, one from _The Cook's Tale_ and one from _Sir Thopas_, the latter in double columns, were got out. It then became evident that the type was too large for a Chaucer, and Mr. Morris decided to have it re-cut in the size known as pica. By the end of June he was thus in possession of the type which, in the list issued in December, 1892, he named the Chaucer type. In July, 1892, another trial page, a pa.s.sage from _The Knight's Tale_, in double columns of fifty-eight lines, was got out, and found to be satisfactory. The idea of the Chaucer as it now exists, with ill.u.s.trations by Sir Edward Burne-Jones, then took definite shape.

In a proof of the first list, dated April, 1892, there is an announcement of the book as in preparation, in black-letter, large quarto, but this was struck out, and does not appear in the list as printed in May, nor yet in the July list. In that for December, 1892, it is announced for the first time as to be in Chaucer type "with about sixty designs by E. Burne-Jones." The next list, dated March 9, 1893, states that it will be a folio, and that it is in the press, by which was meant that a few pages were in type. In the list dated August 1, 1893, the probable price is given as twenty pounds. The next four lists contain no fresh information, but on August 17, 1894, nine days after the first sheet was printed, a notice was sent to the trade that there would be 325 copies at twenty pounds, and about sixty woodcut designs by Sir Edward Burne-Jones. Three months later it was decided to increase the number of ill.u.s.trations to upwards of seventy, and to print another 100 copies of the book. A circular letter was sent to the subscribers on November 14th, stating this, and giving them an opportunity of cancelling their orders. Orders were not withdrawn, the extra copies were immediately taken up, and the list for December 1, 1894, which is the first containing full particulars, announces that all paper copies are sold.[20]

Mr. Morris began designing his first folio border on February 1, 1893, but was dissatisfied with the design and did not finish it. Three days later he began the vine border for the first page, and finished it in about a week, together with the initial word "Whan," the two lines of heading, and the frame for the first picture, and Mr. Hooper engraved the whole of these on one block. The first picture was engraved at about the same time. A specimen of the first page (differing slightly from the same page as it appears in the book) was shown at the Arts and Crafts Exhibition in October and November, 1893, and was issued to a few leading booksellers, but it was not until August 8, 1894, that the first sheet was printed at 14, Upper Mall. On January 8, 1895, another press was started at 21, Upper Mall, and from that time two presses were almost exclusively at work on the Chaucer. By September 10th, the last page of _The Romaunt of the Rose_ was printed. In the middle of February, 1896, Mr. Morris began designing the t.i.tle. It was finished on the 27th of the same month and engraved by Mr. Hooper in March. On May 8th, a year and nine months after the printing of the first sheet, the book was completed. On June 2nd, the first two copies were delivered to Sir Edward Burne-Jones and Mr. Morris. Mr. Morris's copy is now at Exeter College, Oxford, with other books printed at the Kelmscott Press.

Besides the eighty-seven ill.u.s.trations designed by Sir Edward Burne-Jones, and engraved by W. H. Hooper, the Chaucer contains a woodcut t.i.tle, fourteen large borders, eighteen different frames around the ill.u.s.trations, and twenty-six large initial words designed for the book by William Morris. Many of these were engraved by C. E.

Keats, and others by W. H. Hooper and W. Spielmeyer.

In February, 1896, a notice was issued respecting special bindings, of which Mr. Morris intended to design four.

Two of these were to have been executed under Mr. Cobden-Sanderson's direction at the Doves Bindery, and two by Messrs. J. & J. Leighton.

But the only design that he was able to complete was for a full white pigskin binding, which has now been carried out at the Doves Bindery on forty-eight copies, including two on vellum.[21]

41. _The Earthly Paradise._ By WILLIAM MORRIS. Volume I. _Prologue: The Wanderers._ March: _Atalanta's Race. The Man Born to be King._ Medium 4to. Golden type. In black and red. Borders 27a, 27, 28a, and 28, and woodcut t.i.tle. 225 on paper at thirty s.h.i.+llings, 6 on vellum at seven guineas. Dated May 7, issued July 24, 1896. Published by William Morris.

Bound in limp vellum.

This was the first book printed on the paper with the apple water-mark. The seven other volumes followed it at intervals of a few months. None of the ten borders used in the _Earthly Paradise_ appear in any other book. The four different half-borders round the poems to the months are also not used elsewhere. The first border was designed in June, 1895.

42. _Laudes Beatae Mariae Virginis._ Latin poems taken from a Psalter written in England about A.D. 1220. Edited by S. C. c.o.c.kerell. Large 4to.

Troy type. In black, red, and blue. 250 on paper at ten s.h.i.+llings, 10 on vellum at two guineas. Dated July 7, issued August 7, 1896. Published by William Morris. Bound in half holland.

This was the first book printed at the Kelmscott Press in three colours.[22] The ma.n.u.script from which the poems were taken was one of the most beautiful of the English books in Mr. Morris's possession, both as regards writing and ornament. No author's name is given to the poems, but after this book was issued the Rev. E. S. Dewick pointed out that they had already been printed at Tegernsee in 1579, in a 16mo volume in which they are ascribed to Stephen Langton. A note to this effect was printed in the Chaucer type in December 28, 1896, and distributed to the subscribers.

41a. _The Earthly Paradise._ By WILLIAM MORRIS. Volume II. April: _The Doom of King Acrisius. The Proud King._ Medium 4to. Golden type. In black and red. Borders 29a, 29, 28a, and 28. 225 on paper at thirty s.h.i.+llings, 6 on vellum at seven guineas. Dated June 24, issued September 17, 1896.

Published by William Morris. Bound in limp vellum.

43. _The Floure and the Leafe, and The Boke of Cupide, G.o.d of Love, or The Cuckow and the Nightingale._ Edited by F. S. Ellis. Medium 4to. Troy type, with note and colophon in Chaucer type. In black and red. 300 on paper at ten s.h.i.+llings, 10 on vellum at two guineas. Dated August 21, issued November 2, 1896. Published at the Kelmscott Press. Bound in half holland.