MORRIS, WILmAm (1834-96). An English poet, artist. and socialist, born at Walthamstow, near London, March 24, 1834. Morris's early boyhood was spent in the romantic region near Epping Forest, where he showed at the outset his love for nature. He was educated at Marlbor ough School and at Exeter College, Oxford. here lie mingled little in the college life, hut he read swiftly and widely, thus quickly storing in his strong memory a stock of knowledge which he put to use. In 1854 distress of religion almost east him upon the wave of Catholic feeling. hut the impulse passed. Ile mastered Church history and Anglican theology, but lie soon left them in a new enthusiasm for Carlyle, Ruskin, and Kingsley. In 1S54 Morris visited France. whith er he went again in 1855 with his friend Edward Burne-Jones (q.v.). On this tour he fell so wholly under the spell of French Gothic that ho gave up his earlier purpose of founding a re ligious brotherhood and became an archi tect. After trying his hand at architecture and painting, he found his true calling in 1861, when with Ilossetti, Burne-Jones, and other friends, he established a firm in London for designing and manufacturing artistic furni ture and household decorations. As time went on, Morris took up the manufacture of tapestry and other textiles, dyeing, book-illumination, and printing. The old firm of decorative art was dis solved in 1871; and in 1881 Morris transferred his works to Merton in Surrey. In 1890 he founded the famous Kelmscott Press at Hammer smith. For the practical advancement of the lesser arts, and of the rare doctrine that all things should be made beautiful, Morris did more than ally other man of his time. At Oxford, Mor ris showed his literary talent in several contribu tions ill verse and prose to the O.rfo•d and Cam bridge Maga,:ine, which he maintained (1856). Two years later he published the Defence of Guotercre, and Other Poems. This volume, pre Cimmerian in tone, marks a date in later Roman ticism; and never again did Morris equal it in force and concentration. Afterwards, Morris
turned for his subjects to Greek, Old French, Norse, and other mediasval stories, which lie clothed in verse with great facility. By the Life and Death of Jason (1867) and The Earthly Paradise (1868-70), lie proved himself one of the best story-tellers since Chaucer, his avowed mas ter. In the summer of 1871 Ile made a trip through Iceland. In 1876 appeared Sigun•d the Foisting and the Fall of the Niblungs, a narrative poem approaching the dignity of an epic. Mor ris wrote many romances in prose or in prose and verse combined; among which are the House of the Wolfings (1888). The Roots of the Mountains (1890), The Wel/ at the World's End (1806), and, best of all, the Story of the Glittering (1S91). In the same year he published a semi-utopian romance, News from Nowhere, in which he sought to popularize his socialistic ideals. As a translator, he succeeded capitally in his ren derings from the Sagas. In 1885 he became an active socialist, delivering lectures to workmen and contributing to the Commonweal, the organ of the Socialistic League. He died October 3, 1896, leaving to the world an immortal example of the man who devotes his wealth and his genius to the bettering of visible things and to the spread of manly ideals. A collection of various papers, entitled Architecture, industry. and Wealth, was not published till 1903. Consult: Valiance, William Morris, His Art, etc. (contain ing a bibliography, London, 1897) ; Maekail, The Life of William Morris (London and New York. 1899) ; Cary, William. Morris, Poet, Craftsman, and Socialist (New• York, 1902) ; Riegel, "Die Ilen von William Morris's Dichtung, The Earthly Paradise," in Erlanger Beit•.ii,qe nor eng lischen Philologie (Leipzig, 1S90) ; and see PRE RAPIIAEL1TES.