500 



MORRIS, WILLIAM. 



reproached for making it. In reality, Morris by 

 no means intended that to be considered his con- 

 stant attitude, but rather as the perfectly natural 

 one of the story-teller. His own life is the best an- 

 swer to any reflections made upon him in this re- 

 spect a life many degrees removed from the indif- 

 ferentism sometimes charged against him. 



Morris took Chaucer very frankly as his master 

 in " The Earthly Paradise," not only in his proces- 



WILLIAM MORRIS'S HOUSE, HAMMERSMITH. 



sional splendor of description, but in his verse itself, 

 which is exclusively Chaucerian. He uses those 

 verse forms, the seven-lined decasyllabic stanza, 

 sometimes called " the Chaucerian heptastich," the 

 heroic couplet, and the four-foot couplet, the Pro- 

 logue, which recounts the toils of the wanderers, 

 and is itself 2,759 lines in extent, being in the heroic 

 measure. In spite of the great length of " The 

 Earthly Paradise " 40,000 lines the interest is very 

 successfully maintained, while the high level of 

 poetic excellence achieved and kept throughout is 

 remarkable. 



To all whose main object in reading is not merely 

 to reach the end of the book the leisurely manner 

 of Morris is not the least of his merits as a poet. It 

 is the manner that the born story-teller should pos- 

 sess, the true mood of " the idle singer," which calls 

 for a similar attitude on the part of the listener. 

 "The Life and Death cf Jason " had been narrated 

 in the same leisurely fashion, but in " The Story 

 of Sigurd the Volsung, and the Fall of the Xi- 

 blungs/' which many critics consider his master- 

 piece, and which Mr. Morris himself preferred 

 above all his other works, this leisurely spirit does 



not appear. But it is absent for a very good reason. 

 In "Sigurd" the poet is no longer merely the nar- 

 rator of a story, he is dealing with spiritual themes 

 in the realm of national myth, the era of primeval 

 passion. The poem has not yet received the atten- 

 tion it merits, save from the more intellectual of 

 readers. That it is one of the great epics of the 

 century seems hardly suspected by readers in gen- 

 eral. The story of " Sigurd " is derived from the 

 Icelandic " Volsiinga Saga," and 

 the treatment is at once modern 

 in its perception and grasp and 

 primitive in its sympathetic ren- 

 dering of the fierce loves and 

 hates of ancient peoples of the 

 north. The verse form chosen is 

 not a common one with English 

 writers of the present day, but, 

 as may be seen in the lines that 

 follow, it is well adapted for de- 

 scription and heroic utterance : 



Then Gudrun girded her raiment, 

 on the edge of the steep she 



Stood, 



She looked o'er the shoreless water 

 and cried out o'er the measure- 

 less flood : 



" sea, I stand before thee ; and I 

 who was Sigurd's wife ! 



By his brightness unforgottcn I bid 

 thee deliver my life 



From the deeds and the longing of 

 days, and the lack I have won 

 of the earth, 



And the wrong amended by wrontr, 

 and the bitter wrong of mv 

 birth ! " 



She hath spread out her arms as she 

 spake it, and away from the 

 earth she leapt 



And cut off her tide of returning ; 

 for the sea waves over her swept, 



And their will is her will hencefor- 

 ward; and who knoweth the 

 depths of the sea, 



And the wealth of the bed of Gu- 

 drun. and the days that yet 

 shall be ! 



Before " The Earthly Paradise " 

 was completed Morris had gone 

 deeply into the study of Icelandic 

 literature, the first fruits of 

 which was " The Lovers of Gu- 

 drun" in the autumn division 

 of that work. lie became asso- 

 ciated with Mr. Erikir Magnusson in Icelandic 

 translations, the results of their joint labors ap- 

 pearing in "The Story of Grettir the Strong" 

 (1869); "Volsunga Saga" (1870); and "Three 

 Northern Love Stories and Other Tales " (1875). In 

 1863 Mr. Morris began the manufacture of wall 

 paper, stained glass, and other fine-art decorations, 

 an undertaking to which may be traced a large 

 part of the reform that English and American taste 

 in decoration, color, and design has undergone 

 during the past generation ; and many who hardly 

 know his name have been influenced by Morris the 

 craftsmen if not by Morris the poet. A few years 

 before his death he established at Hammersmith 

 the Kelmscott Press, whence, were issued editions 

 of Chaucer, Beowulf, Herrick, Rossetti, and other 

 works, including his own volumes, in type and 

 binding that were the admiration of some book 

 lovers, but, as a natural consequence, at prices that 

 were absolutely prohibitory for most people. 



But William Morris was not only poet and crafts- 

 man, he was a social reformer as well, and for years 

 was accustomed to address large gatherings of work- 

 ingmen in London parks and halls on the need of a 



