Johnson at the Mitre" (Tate Gallery), when the "pretty fools" consulted the lexicographer on Methodism, is a good example of his humour. In 1861 Rossetti published the exquisite translations in The Early Italian Poets, later revised as Dante and his Circle (1874).
With Morris he began to take a keen interest in decorative art. He produced several fine designs for stained glass, and had a large share in the revival of stained glass painting as an art. The practice of designing on a large scale, and employing masses of splendid deep-toned colours, was prob ably largely responsible for the development of his powers in painting at this period (1862-63). He produced at this time a striking and highly imaginative triptych (Tate Gallery), repre senting three events in the careers of Paolo and Francesca. The composition of the group of figures with the circular window behind them, is as fine as it was comparatively novel in Rossetti's practice. Other outstanding works are "Beata Beatrix" (Elizabeth Siddal as the blessed Beatrice contemplating the eternal) (1865), now in the Tate Gallery ; "Proserpina in Hades" (1874), perhaps the most original, if not the most poetical and powerful of all his output; "Sibylla Palmifera" (187o) ; "Venus Verticordia," "Lilith," the better of the two versions is now referred to (1873) "Monna. Vanna," in the Tate Gallery (1866) ; "Aurea Catena" (Janey Morris) (c. 1869) ; "La Ghirlandata" (1878) ; "Pandora," another study of Mrs. Morris (1871) ; "The Blessed Damozel" (1877) ; and the famous "Dante's Dream," now in the Walker Art Gallery at Liverpool. Nearly all Rossetti's last work was exhibited by the Royal Academy and at the Burlington Fine Art Club in 1883, after his death.
The literary side of Rossetti developed pari passe with his achievements as a painter. After his wife's death he moved from Blackfriars to 16, Cheyne Walk, (The Queen's House), Chelsea, where for a short time A. C. Swinburne, W. M. Rossetti and Theodore Watts-Dunton lived with him. Rossetti had felt his wife's death—and perhaps his own remorse for having so frequently betrayed her—so acutely that in the first paroxysm of his grief he insisted upon his poems (then in manuscript) being buried in her coffin. But in 1869 they were disinterred and published in 1870. The volume contained the poems printed in The Germ, the sonnet-sequence The House of Life, very much enlarged at a later date. From this time to his death he continued to write poems and produce pictures—in the latter relying more and more upon his manipulative skill and less and less upon his inventive faculty. He depended also to some
extent on the assistance of an artist whose name was Treffry Dunn.
In 1871 Robert Buchanan, in an unsigned article in the Con temporary Review on "The Fleshly School of Poetry," made a fierce attack on Rossetti's poems from a moral point of view, to which he answered by one on the "Stealthy School of Criticism." The attack was deeply felt by him, and his tendency towards gloomy brooding was further increased about 1868, by persistent insomnia. The result of this malady was a nervous shrinking from personal contact with any save a few intimate friends, which was aggravated by the use of narcotics, and at one time he saw scarcely anyone save his own family and Theodore Watts-Dunton. Fears were felt for his sanity, and in 1872 he was under medical care. He was frequently away with William Morris at Kelmscott, in Oxfordshire; indeed he was for some time (1872-74) a co-ten ant of Kelmscott. This friendship was broken by the disputes arising out of the reorganization of the Morris firm, but Mrs. Morris was still an occasional visitor at Cheyne Walk.
While his Ballads and Sonnets was being printed (1881) his health began to give way and he died on April 9, 1882. His Bal lads and Sonnets contained much of his best work, including the completed House of Life, and the fine ballads, Rose Mary, The White Ship, and The King's Tragedy.
Rossetti—Dante Gabriel Rossetti as Designer and Writer (1889) ; Ruskin, Rossetti, Pre-Raphaelitism (1899) ; Some Reminiscences (1906) and Rossetti, Classified Lists of his Writings with the Dates (1906). Memoir by W. M. Rossetti pre fixed to the Collected Works (1886, Revised edition 1911). Lady Burne-Jones's Memorials of Edward Burne-Jones (1904) is full of interesting sidelights. See also F. G. Stephens, D. G. Rossetti; "Port folio" monograph (1894) ; H. C. Marillier, D. G. Rossetti (1899 and 1901) ; W. Sharp, Dante Gabriel Rossetti: A Record and a Study (1882) ; T. Hall Caine, Recollections of Dante Gabriel Rossetti (1882, revised and enlarged edition, 1928) ; W. Allingham, Letters of Dante Gabriel Rossetti to William Allingham, I854-'o (1807) ; A. C. Benson, Rossetti, in the "English Men of Letters" series (1904) ; E. Waugh, Rossetti, his Life and Works (1928) ; R. L. Megroz, Dante Gabriel Rossetti (1929).