NY PUBLIC LIBRAF Tff THE LIFE OF WILLIAM MORRIS (( (l/t<iin G act )J. LIFE VTHE OF WILLIAM MORRIS BY J. W. MACKAIL VOLUME I NEW EDITION LONGMANS, GREEN AND CO. LONDON, NEW YORK & BOMBAY 1901 BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTE. First printed, April 1899 ; Reprinted, May 1899 ; Oftober 1899. New and cheaper edition, large crown 8vo., 1901. r \\ V \ DIVO PATRI J. W. M. M. B.-J. PREFACE TO FIRST EDITION THIS biography was undertaken by me at the special request of Sir Edward Burne-Jones. I will not attempt to say how much it owes to his guidance and encourage- ment, nor how much it has lost by their removal. When the task of writing the life of Morris was placed in my hands, his family and representatives gave me un- reserved access to all the materials in their possession. To them, and more especially to his executors, Mr. F. S. Ellis and Mr. S. C. Cockerell, I owe my best thanks for their friendly help. I am further indebted to Mr. Ellis for the index at the end of the book. Among the few survivors of Morris's earliest friends, I must express very special obligations to Mr. Cormell Price for generous and ungrudging assistance, and to the Rev. Canon R. W. Dixon. For information as to later years I am greatly indebted to Mr. Philip Webb, Mr. George Wardle, Mr. C. Fairfax Murray, Mr. William De Morgan, and Mr. Emery Walker, who were all long and closely associated with him both in work and in friendship. The partners of the firm of Morris & Co., Messrs. Smith and Mr. J. H. Dearie, have given me access to the early books of the firm and much valuable information with regard to Morris's conduct of the business. viii PREFACE I would take this opportunity of thanking all those others who have communicated letters or other material to me in the course of the work. To Lady Burne-Jones, whose share in the help given me has not been less than that of any one I have named, this is not the place where I can fully express my gratitude. 6, Pembroke Gardens, Kensington. 24th March, 1899. CONTENTS VOLUME I PAGE CHAPTER I Walthamstow, Woodford, and Mar 1 borough : 1834-1852 I CHAPTER II Oxford: 1853-1855 28 CHAPTER III The Brotherhood : 1855-1856 67 CHAPTER IV Red Lion Square : The Oxford Union : The Defence of Guenevere : 1857-1859 . 109 CHAPTER v Red House : Formation of the Firm : The Fall of Troy: 1859-1865 139 CHAPTER VI The Earthly Paradise : 1865-1870 . 174 CHAPTER VII Morris and Kelmscott 213 x CONTENTS PAGE CHAPTER VIII Journey to Iceland 11871 240 CHAPTER IX Love is Enough : Period of Illuminations : Dis- solution of the Firm : 1871-1874 . 276 CHAPTER X Period of Dyeing : The /Eneids : Sigurd the Volsung: 1875-1876 309 CHAPTER XI The Society for Protection of Ancient Buildings: The Eastern Question Association : Period of Textiles: 1877-1878 338 VOLUME II CHAPTER XII London and Kelmscott: Theories of Art and Life: 1879-1881 i CHAPTER XIII Merton Abbey: 1881 31 CHAPTER XIV Concentration: 1882 66 CHAPTER XV The Democratic Federation: 1883-1884 ... 91 CONTENTS xi PAGE CHAPTER XVI The Socialist League : 1885-1886 131 CHAPTER XVII The Odyssey : John Ball : Trafalgar Square : 1886-1887 164 CHAPTER XVIII Signs of Change : The Arts and Crafts : Return to Romance : 1888-1889 196 CHAPTER XIX Passive Socialism : Foundation of the Kelmscott Press: 1890-1891 230 CHAPTER XX Printing, Romance-writing, Translation, and Criticism : Final Attitude towards Art and History: 1891-1893 267 CHAPTER XXI Last Years . The Kelmscott Chaucer : 1894-1896 299 CHAPTER XXII j.iicet ** */ INDEX 353 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS VOLUME I ro FACE PAGE William Morris, xt. 37. From the oil painting by G. F. Watts, R.A., in the National Por- trait Gallery ...... Frontispiece Red House, Upton. From a drawing by E. H. New (by permission of Charles Holme, . * 1 J_iSQ. } . -J. The Manor House, Kelmscott, from the Farm. From a drawing by E. H. New . 213 The Manor House, Kelmscott, from the Orchard. From a drawing by E. H. New .... 230 The Drawing-room, Kelmscott House, Hammer- smith. From a drawing by E. H. New . 372 VOLUME II William Morris, set. 53. From a photograph by F. Hollyer Frontispiece The Mill Pond, with the Weaving and Printing Sheds, Merton Abbey. From a drawing by E. H. New 34 xiv LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS TO FACE PAGE The Glass-painting Sheds, Merton Abbey, from the Dye-house. From a drawing by E. H. New 42 The Manor House, Kelmscott, from the Garden. From a drawing by E. H. New . 222 The Manor House, Kelmscott, from the Home- mead. From a drawing by E. H. New . 350 The design on the title-page containing William Morris's motto was made by him in or about 1861 for quarries of glass in some of the painted windows of the he for house was then building himself (see Vol. I., pp. 142-144). That on the back of the cover is a reproduction of one of the borders designed and cut on wood by him in " 1872 for the ornamented edition of Love is Enough," then in contemplation (see Vol. I., pp. 285, 286). Sed dicOy Numquid non audierunt? Et quidem in omnem terram exivit sonus eorum et in fines orbis terr<e verba eorum. H<ec autem omma in figura contingebant illis: scripta sunt autem ad correptionem nostrum, in quosfines secularurn devenerunt. THE LIFE OF WILLIAM MORRIS CHAPTER I WALTHAMSTOW, WOODFORD, AND MARLBOROUGH 1834-1852 cc POET, artist, manufacturer, and socialist, author of The Earthly Paradise": this terse unimpassioned entry in " " the Fasti Britannic! sums up, in a form of words which he would himself have accepted as substantially accurate, the life and work of a remarkable man. What place he may finally occupy in the remembrance of the world, how long or how distinctly his unique personality may stand out above the smooth surface of oblivion under which, sooner or later, the greatest names are over- whelmed together with the least, it does not rest with his contemporaries to determine. But those who knew him unite in desiring that some record may descend of one who, in an age of transition and confusion, set a certain before the ideal him and pursued it, through many paths which it led with the by him, undeviating constancy ; impulse of whose life had before his death wrought a silent revolution in those arts which he practised and and the whole of whose transfigured ; extraordinary powers were devoted towards no less an object than the reconstitution of the civilized life of mankind. William Morris, the eldest son and third child of William Morris and Emma Shelton, was born at Elm I. B 2 THE LIFE OF [1834 House, Clay Hill, Walthamstow, on the 24th of March, 1834. His ancestry was on neither side in any way remarkable, and family records in the undistinguished middle class, whether commercial or professional, to which both his parents belonged, are generally scanty in amount and do not go far back. Such facts as have been preserved may be briefly set down, without laying any stress on what is known or what is unknown in the history of the family. The Morrises were originally of Welsh descent, and their native country was the valley of the upper Severn and its tributaries, where the mixture or antagonism of two races in a country of exceptional natural beauty has bred a stock of fine physical quality, but of no remark- able " gift either of intellect or imagination. The quietest places under the sun/' so a local proverb describes that and so have been and still ever countryside ; they are, since the Welsh Marches were reduced to outward peace. Morris's grandfather (the first of the family, it is said, who dropped the Welsh Ap from his surname) settled in business in Worcester in the latter part of last century, " and throve there as a burgess, a man excellent in every relation of life, and very religious." He married Eliza- beth, daughter of Dr. Charles Stanley, a naval surgeon, who had retired from the service and was in practice at Nottingham. She is remembered and described by her grandchildren she lived to the age of eighty-five as a tall fine-looking woman. At Worcester their second son, William Morris, was born on the I4th of June, 1797. About 1 820, his father having then removed his business to London, he was entered as a clerk in the firm of Harris, Sanderson & Harris, discount brokers, of 32, Lombard Street. It was a newly-founded London house. The Harrises were Quakers, and between them and the Morrises there was some family connexion. When a ALT. i] WILLIAM MORRIS 3 little over thirty, William Morris became a partner in the firm, which was now known as Sanderson & Co., and some years afterwards removed its place of business to 83, King William Street. Bill and discount broking, then even more than now, was a class of business carried on by a comparatively limited number of persons, whose status and social consideration approached those of private bankers. Competition was not keen, and the members of established firms lived in ease and even opulence. Mr. Morris married soon after his admission to part- nership in the firm. His wife, who long outlived him, and died in her ninetieth year so recently as 1894, was the daughter of a Worcester neighbour, Joseph Shelton. The Sheltons were a family with some history. The line can be traced back directly to a Henry Shelton, mercer, of Birmingham, in the reign of Henry VII.