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QUEEN YSEULT
1857
Foreword
Though planned by Algernon Charles Swinburne in ten
cantos, Queen Yseult remains an unfinished poem in six
cantos of irregular iambic tetrameter rhyming tercets (1),
published for the first time in its entirety only in 1918 (2).
Of the poem Swinburne wrote in a letter to John Nichol:
in reperusing my cantos I think they are too imperfect,
feeble and unfinished to publish for a year or two. A
thorough rewriting would be good for some of them, to
prevent a monotony of tone which prevails as they now
stand (3). The first canto was previously published in a
little college magazine in 1857 (4). Of it, Swinburne wrote
in the same letter to John Nichol: Canto I. stands well
enough as a separate ballad, which the others would not do.
I read it one evening to Morris and the others, and they
seemed to agreed with me. [] They all, however, praise
the poem far more than I (seriously speaking) believe it
deserves. Morris says it is much better than his own poem,
which opinion I took the liberty to tell him was absurd (5).
About the circumstances of the composition of the poem,
Paul de Reul wrote: Pendant lautomne 1857, la dcoration
du Club l'Union le met en rapports troits avec le peintrepote D. G. Rossetti puis avec William Morris et BurneJones. Nous tions trois, scria Burne-Jones : nous voici
quatre !
A ce moment, John Nichol lancait une revue
dtudiants, les Undergraduate Papers. Les collaborations de
Swinburne ce priodique nous intressent comme les
CANTO I
Of the birth of Sir Tristram, and how he voyaged into Ireland
CANTO II
Of Queen Yseult, and of the voyage to Cornwall
CANTO III
How Sir Tristram and Queen Yseult loved each other by the space of three years
CANTO IV
How Sir Tristram came to Brittany
CANTO V
Of the bridal night of Sir Tristram and the Lady Yseult aux Blanches Mains
CANTO VI
How Queen Yseult kept her ring