Death of a Daughter

Posted on 27 March 2007

Death of a Daughter
(Kindly contributed to this site by Gary Attlesey)

Death of a Daughter
Published in Memorials of Edward Burne-Jones by Georgiana Burne-Jones (London, Macmillan & Co. Limited 1904)
Let who will smile, but to most people the sight of a first child is one of the miracles of life, and it is noteworthy that Morris, Rossetti, and Edward now went through this experience within a few months of each other. First came the owner of the little garment that was being fashioned for her at the Red House the summer before, and then, just as we were taking it for granted that all would go as well in one household as another, there was illness and anxiety and suspense at Chatham Place, and poor Lizzie was only given back to us with empty arms. This was not a light thing to Gabriel, and though he wrote about it, She herself is so far the most important that I can feel nothing but thankfulness, the dead child certainly lived in its father’s heart. “I ought to have a little girl older than she is”, he once said wistfully as he looked at a friend’s young daughter of seven years.
When we went to see Lizzie for the first time after her recovery, we found her sitting in a low chair with the childless cradle on the floor beside her, and she looked like Gabriel’s Ophelia when she cried with a kind of soft wildness as we came in, “Hush, Ned, you’ll waken it!” How often has it seemed to us that if that little baby had lived she, too might have done so, and Gabriel’s terrible melancholy would never had mastered him.
Notes:
Morris: William Morris, Poet & leading figure in the Art & Craft Movement.
Edward: Edward Coley Burne-Jones, Artist.
Red House: Home of Jane & William Morris in Upton, Kent.
Chatham Place: Number 14, home of Lizzie & Dante Gabriel Rossetti, Blackfriars, London.
Ned: Nickname for Edward Coley Burne-Jones

Georgiana Burne-Jones led a fascinating life. LizzieSiddal.com recommends that you read A Circle of Sisters: Alice Kipling, Georgiana Burne Jones, Agnes Poynter, and Louisa Baldwin: