WILLIAM MORRIS
UNIFORM WITH THIS VOLUME:
J. M. SYNGE
By P. P. Howe
HENRIK IBSEN
By R. Ellis Roberts
THOMAS HARDY
By Lascelles Abercrombie
GEORGE GISSING
By Frank Swinnerton
THOMAS LOVE PEACOCK
By A. Martin Freeman
ALGERNON CHARLES SWINBURNE
By Edward Thomas
William Morris.
from a photograph by Frederick Hollyer.
WILLIAM MORRIS
A CRITICAL STUDY
BY
JOHN DRINKWATER
LONDON
MARTIN SECKER
NUMBER FIVE JOHN STREET
ADELPHI
MCMXII
BY THE SAME AUTHOR
POEMS OF MEN AND HOURS, 1911
COPHETUA. A Play in One Act, 1911
POEMS OF LOVE AND EARTH, 1912
ETC.
TO
ERNEST NEWMAN
Who Loves the Arts
With a Just and Fine Impatience
NOTE
A few paragraphs in this book are reprinted,by permission of Messrs. George Routledge andSons, Ltd., from introductions written for TheMuses' Library; others, by permission of theEditor, from articles contributed to The Nation.
My thanks are due to William Morris'sTrustees for permission to use such quotationsfrom his works as I wished, and to Miss MayMorris for her generous assistance in this andother matters. My indebtedness to Mr. MackailI have acknowledged in more than one place inthe body of this volume, but I should like hereto emphasize my appreciation of the servicethat he has done to all who reverence Morrisand his work.
I would also thank my friend, Mr. OliverW. F. Lodge, for the many delightful hours that Ihave spent with him in talking of a poet whomwe both love. What understanding I may haveof Morris has been deepened and quickened byhis enthusiasm and fine judgment. No thanksthat I might offer to another friend could be inany way adequate; in inscribing this book tohim I can but make slight acknowledgmentof one of those whole-hearted services thatstand for so much in the craft of letters.
J. D.
Birmingham, 1912.
CONTENTS
INTRODUCTORY
EARLY POEMS AND PROSE
INTERLUDE
NARRATIVE POEMS
LOVE IS ENOUGH AND SIGURD THE VOLSUNG
TRANSLATIONS AND SOCIALISM
PROSE ROMANCES AND POEMS BY THE WAY
CONCLUSION
I
INTRODUCTORY
To the isolation, the loneliness, of the poet,criticism is apt to give far less than due heed.At a time when literature is daily becomingmore responsive to the new spirit which we callDemocracy, such a complaint may seem to bereactionary in temper, an