Page:Dictionary of National Biography, Second Supplement, volume 3.djvu/470

 he was nursed through the subsequent illness by the mother of Whistler. On his convalescence he was persuaded, in October, to go down to his father's house at East Dene, near Bonchurch, where he remained for five months and entirely recovered his health and spirits. He brought with him the opening of 'Atalanta in Calydon,' which he completed at East Dene. For a story called ' The Children of the Chapel,' which was being written by his cousin, Mrs. Disney Leith, he wrote at the same time a morality, 'The Pilgrimage of Pleasure,' which appeared, without his name, in March 1864. From the Isle of Wight, at the close of February 1864, Swinburne went abroad for what was to remain the longest foreign tour in his life. He passed through Paris, where he saw Fantin-Latour, and proceeded to Hyeres, where Milnes had a villa, and so to Italy. From Rossetti he had received an introduction to Sejmaour Kirkup [q. v.], then the centre of a literary circle in Florence, and Milnes added letters to Landor and to Mrs. Gaskell. Swinburne found Landor in his house in Via della Chiesa, close to the church of the Carmine, on 31 March, and he visited the art-galleries of Florence in the company of Mrs. Gaskell. In a garden at Fiesole he wrote 'Itylus' and 'Dolores.' Before returning he made a tour through other parts of Italy. Two autumn months of this year (1864) were spent in Cornwall, at Tintagel (in company with Jowett), at Kynance Cove, and at St. Michael's Mount. On his return to London he went into lodgings at 22a Dorset Street, where he remained for several years.

'Atalanta in Calydon,' in a cream-coloured binding with mystical ornaments by D. G. Rossetti, was published by Edward Moxon [q. v.] in April 1865. At this time Smnburne, although now entering his twenty-ninth year, was entirely unknown outside a small and dazzled circle of friends, but the success of 'Atalanta' was instant and overwhelming. Ruskin welcomed it as 'the grandest thing ever done by a youth — though he is a Demoniac youth' ( Life of Ruskin). In consequence of its popularity, the earlier tragedy of 'Chastelard' was now brought forward and published in December of the same year. This also was warmly received by the critics, but there were murmurs heard as to its supposed sensuality. This was the beginning of the outcry against Swinburne's literary morals, and even 'Atalanta' was now searched for evidences of atheism and indelicacy. He met, on the other hand, with many assurances of eager support, and in particular, in November 1865, he received a letter from a young Welsh squire, George E. J. Powell of Nant-Eos (1842-82), who soon became, and for several years remained, the most intimate of Swinburne's friends. The collection of lyrical poems, written during the last eight years, which was now almost ready, was felt by Swinburne's circle to be still more dangerous than anything which he had yet published ; early in 1866 (probably in January) the long ode called 'Laus Veneris' was printed in pamphlet form, as the author afterwards stated, 'more as an experiment to ascertain the public taste — and forbearance ! — than anything else. Moxon, I well remember, was terribly nervous in those days, and it was only the wishes of mutual good friends, coupled with his own liking for the ballads, that finally induced him to publish the book at all.' The text of this herald edition of 'Laus Veneris' differs in many points from that included in the volume of 'Poems and Ballads' which eventually appeared at the end of April 1866. The critics in the press denounced many of the pieces with a heat which did little credit to their judgment. Moxon shrank before the storm, and in July withdrew the volume from circulation. Another publisher was found in John Camden Hotten [q. v.], to whom Swinburne now transferred all his other books. There had been no such literary scandal since the days of 'Don Juan,' but an attempt at prosecution fell through, and Ruskin, who had been requested to expostulate with the young poet, indignantly replied 'He is infinitely above me in all knowledge and power, and I should no more think of advising or criticising him than of venturing to do it to Turner if he were alive again.'

Swinburne now found himself the most talked-of man in England, but all this violent notoriety was unfortunate for him, morally and physically. He had a success of curiosity at the annual dinner of the Royal Literary Fund (2 May 1866), where, Lord Houghton being in the chair, Swinburne delivered the only public speech of his life ; it was a short critical essay on 'The Imaginative Literature of England' committed to memory. In the autumn he spent some time with Powell at Aberystwyth. His name was constantly before the public in the latter part of 1866, when his portraits filled the London shop-windows and the newspapers outdid one another in legendary tales of his eccentricity. He