In his articles for The Academy, Robert Ross was free to experiment. In the 29 September 1906 episode, the starting point is Algernon Swinburne (1837-1909), who was still alive when Ross published his article. In 1866, the poet had published a study on William Blake (1757-1827) and Ross wrote: 'Much has been discovered about Blake since 1866'. However, 'it would be idle at this time of day to criticise'.
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| William Rothenstein, 'Portrait of Robert Ross' (National Portrait Gallery, London) |
Instead, Ross makes a big turn by imagining that Blake could have been inspired by Swinburne:
How fascinated Blake would have been with Mr. Swinburne if by some exquisite accident he had lived after him. We should have had, I fancy, another Prophetic Book - something of this kind.
Then follows a conversation between Ross and a certain Theodormon in a landscape next to ‘the gulf of oblivion'. He promises that Ross will get to see Swinburne, he does wander around and his 'permanent address is the Peaks, Parnassus', a joke on Swinburne's place of residence The Pines in Putney.
They come to a printing house where William Morris is 'reverting to type and transmitting art to the middle classes', but a voice sounds from inside the building.
'Vale, Vale,' cried Charles Ricketts from the interior. I was rather vexed as I wanted to ask Ricketts his opinions about various things and people and to see his wonderful collection. Shannon, however, presented me with a lithograph, and a copy of “Memorable Fancies” by C.R.
Then follows the rendering of this 24-line poem purportedly written by Ricketts making fun of all art historians, - each line could be given at least two footnotes to address all the innuendos- while beginning with the non-academic background of Ricketts himself.
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| Charles Ricketts & Charles Shannon, cover for The Dial, No. 1 (1889) (from Yellow Nineties 2.0) |
How sweet I roamed from school to school,
But I attached myself to none;
I simply sat upon my Dial,
And watched the other artists' fun.
Will Rothenstein can guard the faith,
Safe in Academic fold;
'T was very wise of William Strang,
What need have I for Chantrey's gold?
Let the old masters be my share,
And let them fall on B.B.'s corn;
Let the Uffizi take to Steer,
What do I care for Herbert Horn?
Or the stately Holmes of England,
Whose glories never fade;
The Constable of Burlington,
Who holds the Oxford Slade.
It's Titian here and Titian there,
And come to have a look;
But "thanks of course Giorgione,"
With Mr. Herbert Cook.
For MacColl is an intellectual thing,
And Hugh P. Lane keeps Dublin awake;
And Fry to New York has taken wing,
And Charles Holroyd has got the cake.
Ross could go quite far with his innuendos and even write about homosexuality, in a short piece on John Addington Symonds (1840-1893):
He published at the Kelmscott the other day 'An Ode to a Grecian Urning.' The proceeds of the sale went to the Arts and Krafts Ebbing Guild, but the issue of 'Aretino's Bosom and other Poems' has been postponed.
In 1873 Symonds had written about pederasty and homosexuality in A Problem in Greek Ethics (published anonymously in 1883). Ross refers to this by inserting the word for pederast (urning) in the title of a poem by Keats and by introducing the name of the German psychiatrist and sexologist Richard Krafft Ebing in the name of the Arts and Crafts Society. But he was careful enough not to include allusions to his (or his own) homosexuality in the Ricketts poem.
For the reader, solving all the art historical references in this poem is a pleasant summer puzzle.
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| Robert Ross, 'Swinblake: A Prophetic Book, With Home Zarathrusts', The Academy, 29 September 1906 |
(Robert Ross, 'Swinblake: A Prophetic Book, With Home Zarathrusts', The Academy, 29 September 1906, p. 3078.)