are also Milton,--

"At the Soldan's chair,
Defied the best of Paynim chivalry."

_Mornings in Florence_ (Sunnyside, Orpington, Kent, 1875).

FOOTNOTES:

[21] The floor has been repainted; but though its grey is now heavy and
cold, it cannot kill the splendour of the rest.

[22] _Fors Clavigera_ for September, 1874.

LILITH

(_ROSSETTI_)

ALGERNON CHARLES SWINBURNE

"Of Adam's first wife, Lilith, it is told
(The witch he loved before the gift of Eve),
That, ere the snake's her sweet tongue could deceive,
And her enchanted hair was the first gold.
And still she sits, young while the earth is old,
And, subtly by herself contemplative,
Draws men to watch the bright net she can weave,
Till heart and body and life are in its hold.

"The rose and poppy are her flowers; for where
Is he not found, O Lilith, whom shed scent
And soft-shed kisses and soft-shed sleep shall snare?
Lo! as that youth's eyes burned at thine, so went
Thy spell through him, and left his straight neck bent
And round his heart one strangling golden hair."
_Dante Gabriel Rossetti._

It is well-known that the painter of whom I now propose to speak has
never suffered exclusion or acceptance at the hand of any academy. To
such acceptance or such rejection all other men of any note have been
and may be liable. It is not less well known that his work must always
hold its place as second in significance and value to no work done by
any painter of his time. Among the many great works of Mr. D.G.
Rossetti, I know of none greater than his two latest. These are types of
sensual beauty and spiritual, the siren and the sibyl. The one is a
woman of the type of Adam's first wife; she is a living Lilith with
ample splendour of redundant hair;

"She excels
All women in the magic of her locks;
And when she winds them round a young man's neck
She will not ever set him free again."

[Illustration: LILITH.
_Rossetti_.]

Clothed in soft white garments, she draws out through a comb the heavy
mass of hair like thick spun gold to fullest length; her head leans back
half sleepily, superb and satiate with its own beauty; the eyes are
languid, without love in them or hate; the sweet luxurious mouth has the
patience of pleasure fulfilled and complete, the warm repose of passion
sure of its delight. Outside, as seen in the glimmering mirr