— 17 —
thoughts are expressed in a poem[1] "Soothsay", written a year before his death:
'To God at best, to Chance at worst,
Give thanks for good things, last as first"[2]
With Flaubert, Rossetti might have said of himself: "Je suis mystique et je ne crois à rien". This lack of faith which is highly characteristic for the modern mystic in general of course, makes an essential difference between the mysticism of William Blake and Dante Gabriel Rossetti, and changes all the doctrines which Rossetti took from the latter. From childhood naturally prone to the marvellous and supernatural, the mysteries of life and death were continually present to the mind of Rossetti, and it could not be but that Blake's theory of "correspondences" made a deep impression upon him. The phenomena in this world are only vague shadows of another, deeper world behind, and what we behold here are tokens and warnings, we are always surrounded by an atmosphere of mystery, but whereas Blake's faith easily solves the problems which lie at the bottom of existence, Rossetti's mind cannot get at the bottom of this mystery, the feelings of tension are present, the feelings of relaxation are wanting. The problems of life and death are not enticing to him, he tries to escape the burthen of their sadness, but he never succeeds in this completely, and the result of this is a subdued sadness which lies overall his works. In this all-pervading sense of sadness and mystery, we have to see Blake's belief in the spiritual cause of natural events. The elements of joy, serenity and happiness are wanting in this
- ↑ ibid. 334.
- ↑ In all Dante G. Rossetti's biographies the story has been told how in his last illness he expressed a wish to receive absolution for his sins. "I can make nothing of Christianity, but I only want a confessor to give me absolution for my sins!" Adding: "I believe in a future life. Have I not had evidence of that often enough? Have I not heard and seen those that died long years ago?" I think that no importance whatever must be attached to these words, but that they must be considered as a passing fancy of a sick brain, the more so as he never insisted on seeing the priest at his bedside.
