The Portland daily press., 1883-03-21
Theodore Watts, In the Nineteenth Ce4tnryl
Rossetti and Choral Drinking.

The subject of RossetIi's chloral-drinking
has been so mixed up with the question Of
his art, that it is, / am sorry TO say, Impossl-
bic to leave it untouched. Even so sympa
thetic critic as Mr.. Quilter speaks of the
''fatal influence of choral whitening Rosset-
tbs powers and in this he gives expression
TO very common, very natural, bat very
erroneous notion. Rossetti's poetry is evil
dence that up 10 the last bis genius remained
unimpaired by choral. For instance, In
style the most direct and masculine of his
poetic work is his very latest, as will be
found ON referring to his second volume,
published just before he died. Pictorial as
Is the language in The first volume, 1t is not
absolutely ''tbe incarnation Of the thought
Language and thought do not seem each
born OF the other, as is SO often the case Ia
Shakespeare's language, in Coleridge's, in
Keats's, and in Mr.. Tennyson's. Like Shel-
ley's language, ii is rather to be compared to
a lovely gauze behind which the thought is
seen iridescent and alive like fish in q net.
No doubt the answer TO this may be, that in
the beginning OF the century the greatest po-
etic writing exhibited a something which,
save in Mr.. Tennyson's best work, has never
existed since, as If the lucidity Of the com
nonsense poetry OF the eighteenth century
remained alongside Of the richness aud gla-
mour of the necromantic style. In Words
worth's masterpieces, such as "Laodamta"
and the two great odes, this Is seen, though
often with him purity Of style is disturbed
by idiosyncrasy. But 1t Is In Keats's odes,
and In Coleridge's best work, such as "Ku-
bla Khan ssChrlstabel,n s'Love," and s.
pecialiy In "Work Without Hope" where Is
more clearly seen this combination Of the
best qualities of eighteenth century style and
the best qualities Of nineteenth century style.
Those poets who followed these, save in the
one case have indicated, got further away
no doubt from the prosaic style OF the eigh-
teenth century and became properly more
poetic, but at the sacrifice of directness and
lucidity. In Rossetti's first volume his Ian
guage is never this Large utterance," though
1t CLEANS with color and Is alive with subtle
suggestions OF mystic passion. But In the
best writing In the second volume in such
poems as "Witbout Her." parts of the
"King's Tragedy" parts Of Rose Mary"
and especially in such sonnets as 1.-THE Last
Three at Trafalgar" and True Woman
his style assumes a new quality, becoming
as lucid, and at the same time as poetic, as
that of the great writer's have named. Such
lines as these, for instance, are far from rare
In the second volume:
1.-THE sunrise blooms and withers on the hill
Like any hill flower, and the noblest trotb
Dies here to dust"
Therefore It is wrong to suppose that "the
fatal influence Of chloral withered Rossetti,s
powers" Indeed, the remarkable thing
about choral Is, that while IL produces mel
ancholy, suspiciousness and all kinds Of flu
sions, 1t can leave all the executive functions
untouched Even at the time Mr. Game de-
picts, when Rossetti was i'll, his Intellectual
brilliance showed as little real abatement as
did his genius. Late In the night, when the
exhaustion of production was recovered
from, be would, even to the, last, brighten up
into his old self, a self that had hardly a
match, / should imagine, among his contem-
poraries. The rapidity OF his perceptive
powers was sometimes bewildering. Before
his interlocutor had well begun his sentence,
RossettI had taken In the idea and was
ready with his answer; an answer clothed al.
ways In language 30 apt and 80 perfect that
no after revision could have improved It. His
WIT, though not abundant, and not Of s'the
rarest water,n was quite unique. II always
had an intellectual basis, and seemed a sin
gular combination of those real analogles
sought by the logician and the superficial
and fanciful analogies which are the quest
Of the mere wit. There Is, however, the
greatest ignorance afioat as TO the nature OF
this new drug, chloral. In Rossetti's case
the drug was very nearly conquered, (once
by MADDOX Brown, and several times by my
self aided by his faithful friend Mr. Treffry
Dunn but to have succeeded, friend hav-
ing the kind Of influence over him that some
of us had, must have lived in the house with
him, must have devoted life to him.