Part 9 (1/2)

”Apart from what was yet alive in him of mediaeval Communist tradition, the spirit of a.s.sociation, which amongst other things produced the Gilds, and which was strong in the mediaeval Catholic Church itself, other influences were at work to make him take up his parable against the new spirit of his age. The action of the period of transition from mediaeval to commercial society, with all its brutalities, was before his eyes; and though he was not alone in his time in condemning the injustice and cruelty of the revolution which destroyed the peasant life of England and turned it into a grazing farm for the moneyed gentry; creating withal at one stroke the propertyless wage-earner and the masterless vagrant (hodie 'pauper'), yet he saw deeper into its root-causes than many other men of his own day, and left us little to add to his views on this point except a reasonable hope that those 'causes' will yield to a better form of society before long.

”Moreover the spirit of the Renaissance, itself the intellectual side of the very movement which he strove against, was strong in him, and doubtless helped to create his Utopia by means of the contrast which it put before his eyes of the ideal free nations of the ancients, and the sordid welter of the struggle for power in the days of dying feudalism, of which he himself was a witness. This Renaissance enthusiasm has supplanted in him the chivalry feeling of the age just pa.s.sing away. To him war is no longer a delight of the well-born, but rather an ugly necessity to be carried on, if so it must be, by ugly means. Hunting and hawking are no longer the choice pleasures of knight and lady, but are jeered at by him as foolish and unreasonable pieces of butchery; his pleasures are in the main the reasonable ones of learning and music. With all this, his imaginations of the past he must needs read into his ideal vision, together with his own experiences of his time and people. Not only are there bond slaves and a king, and priests almost adored, and cruel punishments for the breach of marriage contract, in that happy island, but there is throughout an atmosphere of asceticism which has a curiously blended savour of Cato the Censor and a mediaeval monk.

”On the subject of war, on capital punishment, the responsibility to the public of kings and other official personages, and such-like matters, More speaks words that would not be out of place in the mouth of an eighteenth-century Jacobin, and at first sight this seems rather to show sympathy with what is now mere Whigism than with Communism; but it must be remembered that opinions which have become (in words) the mere commonplace of ordinary bourgeoise politicians were then looked on as a piece of startlingly new and advanced thought, and do not put him on the same plane with the mere radical life of the last generation.

[Ill.u.s.tration: _Study of Mrs. Morris_

_Made by Rossetti for pictures called ”The Day Dream”_]

”In More, then, are met together the man naturally sympathetic with the Communistic side of mediaeval society, the protestor against the ugly brutality of the earliest period of commercialism, the enthusiast of the Renaissance, ever looking toward his idealised ancient society as the type and example of all really intelligent human life; the man tinged with the asceticism at once of the cla.s.sical philosopher and of the monk, an asceticism, indeed, which he puts forward not so much as a duty but rather as a kind of stern adornment of life. These are, we may say, the moods of the man who created _Utopia_ for us; and all are tempered and harmonised by a sensitive clearness and delicate beauty of style, which make the book a living work of art.

”But lastly, we Socialists cannot forget that these qualities and excellences meet to produce a steady expression of the longing for a society of equality of condition; a society in which the individual man can scarcely conceive of his existence apart from the commonwealth of which he forms a portion. This, which is the essence of his book, is the essence also of the struggle in which we are engaged. Though, doubtless, it was the pressure of circ.u.mstances in his own days that made More what he was, yet that pressure forced him to give us, not a vision of the triumph of the new-born capitalistic society, the element in which lived the new learning and the freedom of thought of his epoch, but a picture (his own indeed, not ours) of the real New Birth which many men before him had desired; and which now indeed we may well hope is drawing near to realisation, though after such a long series of events which at the time of their happening seemed to nullify his hopes completely.”[1]

Morris's own hope was never completely nullified; nor was he ever indifferent to the questions which for nearly a decade had absorbed his energy. But there was to be little more writing for the sake of Socialism, save as some public incident called out a public letter. What he had done covered a wide field. Beside the works already mentioned he had collaborated with Mr. E. Belfort Bax in a history of the growth and outcome of Socialism, first published in the _Commonweal_ under the t.i.tle of _Socialism from the Root Up_, had written a series of poems called _Chants for Socialists_, and a series of lectures for ”the cause” later published as _Signs of Change_, and had produced numerous short addresses to be scattered abroad in the form of penny leaflets that must have been typographical eyesores to him even before the rise of his enthusiasm for typography of the finer sort. In addition his bibliographer has to take into account any number of ephemeral contributions to the press and ”forewords” as he liked to call them, to the works of others, a feature rarely present in his own books. In the spring of 1890 he wrote the romance ent.i.tled, _The Story of the Glittering Plain_ for the _English Ill.u.s.trated Magazine_. When it was brought out in book form the following year, it was printed at his own press.

CHAPTER X.

THE KELMSCOTT PRESS.

Although Morris turned with what seemed a sudden inspiration to the study of typography, it was, as we have already seen, no less than his other occupations a direct outcome of his early tastes. As long before as 1866 he had planned a folio edition of _The Earthly Paradise_ with woodcut ill.u.s.trations to be designed by Burne-Jones, and printed in a more or less mediaeval fas.h.i.+on. Burne-Jones made a large number of drawings for the projected edition, and some thirty-five of those intended for the story of Cupid and Psyche were cut on wood by Morris himself. Specimen pages were set up, but the result was not technically satisfying and the idea was allowed to drop. Later, as we have seen, he had in mind an ill.u.s.trated and sumptuous edition of _Love is Enough_, which also came to nothing, although a number of marginal decorations were drawn and engraved for it.

After that, however, he apparently had been content to have his books printed in the usual way on machine-made paper with the modern effeminate type, without further remonstrance than emphatic denunciation of modern methods in printing as in other handicrafts. About 1888 or 1889, his Hammersmith neighbour, Mr. Emery Walker, whose love of fine printing was combined with practical knowledge of methods and processes, awakened in him a desire for conquest in this field also. He began again collecting mediaeval books, this time with the purpose of studying their type and form. Among his acquisitions were a copy of Leonard of Arezzo's _History of Florence_, printed by Jacobus Rubens in 1476, in a Roman type, and a copy of Jensen's _Pliny_ of the same year. Parts of these books Morris had enlarged by the hated process of photography, which in this case aided and abetted him to some purpose. He could thus study the individual letters and master the underlying principles of their design. He then proceeded to design a fount of type for himself with the aim of producing letters fine and generous in form, solid in line, without ”preposterous thicks and thins,” and not compressed laterally, ”as all later type has grown to be owing to commercial exigencies.” After he had drawn his letters on a large scale he had them reduced by photography to the working size and revised them carefully before submitting them to the typecutter. How minute was his attention to detail is shown in the little reproduction of one of his corrected letters with the accompanying notes. This first type of his, having been founded on the old Roman letters, is of course Roman in character and is very clear and beautiful in form. The strong broad letters designed on ”something like a square” make easy reading, and there is nothing about the appearance of the attractive page to suggest archaism. The fount, consisting of eighty-one designs including stops, figures, and tied letters, was completed about the beginning of 1891, and on the 12th of January in that year, a cottage was taken at number 16 Upper Mall, near the Kelmscott House, a compositor and a pressman were engaged, and the Kelmscott Press began its career. The new type, which Morris called the ”regenerate” or ”Jenson-Morris” type, received its formal name, ”Golden type,” from Caxton's _Golden Legend_, which Morris had intended to reprint as the first work of the Press, and which was undertaken as soon as _The Glittering Plain_ was out of the way. Caxton's first edition of 1483 was borrowed from the Cambridge University Library for the purpose and transcribed for the Press by the daughter of Morris's old friend and publisher, F. S. Ellis. No paper in the market was good enough for the great venture, and Morris took down to Mr. Batchelor at Little Chart a model dating back to the fifteenth century and had especially designed from it an unbleached linen paper, thin and tough, and somewhat transparent, made on wire moulds woven by hand for the sake of the slight irregularities thus caused in the texture, and ”pleasing not only to the eye, but to the hand also; having something of the clean crisp quality of a new bank-note.” For the three different sizes Morris designed three watermarks, an apple, a daisy, and a perch with a spray in its mouth. To print his strong type upon this handmade paper it was necessary to dampen the latter and use a hand-press, the ink being applied by pelt b.a.l.l.s, insuring an equable covering of the surface of the type and a rich black impression. The quality of the ink was naturally of great importance and Morris yearned to manufacture his own, but for the time contented himself with some that he procured from Hanover and with which he produced excellent results. One of his happiest convictions in regard to his materials was that heavy paper was entirely unfit for small books.

[Ill.u.s.tration: KELMSCOTT TYPES]

Concerning s.p.a.cing and the placing of the matter on the page he had p.r.o.nounced theories derived from his study of ancient books, but directed by his own sound taste. He held that there should be no more white s.p.a.ce between the words than just clearly cuts them off from one another, and that ”leads” (strips of metal used to increase the s.p.a.ce between the lines of type) should be sparingly employed. The two pages of a book, facing each other as it is opened, should be considered a unit, the edge of the margin that is bound in should be the smallest of the four edges, the top should be somewhat wider, and the front edge wider still, and the tail widest of all. The respective measurements of the most important of the Kelmscott books are, one inch for the inner margin, one and three-eighths inches for the head margin, two and three-quarter inches for the fore edge, and four inches for the tail. ”I go so far as to say,”

wrote Morris, ”that any book in which the page is properly put on the paper is tolerable to look at, however poor the type may be (always so long as there is no 'ornament' which may spoil the whole thing), whereas any book in which the page is wrongly set on the paper is intolerable to look at, however good the type and ornaments may be.”

[Ill.u.s.tration: PAGE FROM KELMSCOTT ”CHAUCER.” ILl.u.s.tRATION BY BURNE-JONES.

BORDER AND INITIAL LETTER BY MORRIS]

_The Golden Legend_, with its ornamented borders, its handsome initials, its woodcuts, and its twelve hundred and eighty-six pages, kept the one press busy until the middle of September, 1892. Before it was completed Morris had designed another fount of type greatly more pleasing to him than the first. This was called the Troy type from Caxton's _Historyes of Troye_, the first book to be issued in its larger size, and was the outcome of careful study of the beautiful types of Peter Schoeffer of Mainz, Gunther Zainer of Augsburg, and Anthony Koburger of Nuremberg. It was Gothic in character, but Morris strove to redeem it from the charge of unreadableness by using the short form of the small _s_, by diminis.h.i.+ng the number of tied letters, and abolis.h.i.+ng the abbreviations to be found in mediaeval books. How far he succeeded is a disputed question, certainly not so far as to make it as easy reading for modern eyes as the Golden type. As time went on, however, the use of the Golden type at the Kelmscott Press became less and less frequent, giving place in the case of most of the more important books to either the Troy type or the Chaucer type, the latter being similar to the former, save that it is Great Pica instead of Primer size.

Morris's success in the mechanical application of his theories was surprising, or would have been surprising had he not constantly proven his genius for success. Mr. De Vinne quotes a prominent American typefounder as declaring after a close scrutiny of his cuts of type that he had triumphantly pa.s.sed the pitfalls that beset all tyros and had made types that in lining, fitting, and adjustment show the skill of the expert. ”A printer of the old school may dislike many of his mannerisms of composition and make-up,” adds Mr. De Vinne, ”but he will cheerfully admit that his types and decorations and initials are in admirable accord: that the evenness of colour he maintains on his rough paper is remarkable, and that his registry of black with red is unexceptionable. No one can examine a book made by Morris without the conviction that it shows the hand of a master.”

[Ill.u.s.tration: t.i.tLE-PAGE OF THE KELMSCOTT ”CHAUCER”]

Upon the artistic side it was natural that he should excel. His long practice in and love of design, his close study of the best models, and his exacting taste were promising of extraordinary results. None the less there is perhaps more room for criticism of his book decoration than of his plain bookmaking. He was convinced, as one would expect him to be, that modern methods of ill.u.s.trating and decorating a book were entirely wrong, and he argued with indisputable logic for the unity of impression to be gained from ornaments and pictures forming part of the page, in other words, being made in line as readily printed as the type itself and corresponding to it in size and degree of blackness. He argued that the ornament to be ornament must submit to certain limitations and become ”architectural,” and also that it should be used with exuberance or restraint according to the matter of the book decorated. Thus ”a work on differential calculus,” he says, ”a medical work, a dictionary, a collection of a statesman's speeches, or a treatise on manures, such books, though they might be handsomely and well printed, would scarcely receive ornament with the same exuberance as a volume of lyrical poems, or a standard cla.s.sic, or such like. A work on Art, I think, bears less of ornament than any other kind of book (_non bis in idem_ is a good motto); again, a book that _must_ have _ill.u.s.trations_, more or less utilitarian, should, I think, have no actual _ornament_ at all, because the ornament and the ill.u.s.tration must almost certainly fight.” He designed all his ornaments with his own hand, from the minute leaves and flowers which took the place of periods on his page, to the full-page borders, t.i.tles, and elaborate initials. He drew with a brush, on a sheet of paper from the Press marked with ruled lines, showing the exact position to be occupied by the design. ”It was most usual during the last few years of his life,”

says Mr. Vallance, ”to find him thus engaged, with his Indian ink and Chinese white in little saucers before him upon the table, its boards bare of any cloth covering, but littered with books and papers and sheets of MS. He did not place any value on the original drawings, regarding them as just temporary instruments, only fit, as soon as engraved, to be thrown away.” Time and trouble counted for nothing with him in gaining the desired result. But though his ornament was always handsome, and occasionally exquisite, he not infrequently overloaded his page with it, and--preaching vigorously the necessity of restraint--allowed his fancy to lead him into garrulous profusion. Despite his mediaeval proclivities, his designs for the borders of his pages are intensely modern. Compare them with the early books by which they were inspired, and their flowing elaboration, so free from unexpectedness, so impersonal, so inexpressive, suggests the fatal defect of all imitative work and fails in distinction.

But he was individual enough in temper if not in execution, and he brooked no conventional restriction that interfered with his doing what pleased him. For example, the notion of making the border ornaments agree in spirit with the subject matter of the page was not to be entertained for a moment when he had in mind a fine design of grapes hanging ripe from their vines and a page of Chaucer's description of April to adorn.

During the life of the Kelmscott Press, a period of some half dozen years, Morris made six hundred and forty-four designs. The ill.u.s.trations proper, all of them woodcuts harmonising in their strong black line with the ornaments and type, were made, with few exceptions, by Burne-Jones. His designs were nearly always drawn in pencil, a medium in which his most characteristic effects were obtained. They were then redrawn in ink by another hand, revised by Burne-Jones, and finally transferred to the block again by that useful Cinderella of the Kelmscott Press, photography. It is obvious that the Kelmscott books, whatever fault may be found with them, could not be other than remarkable creations with Morris and Burne-Jones uniting their gifts to make each of them such a picture-book as Morris declared at the height of his ardour was ”one of the very worthiest things toward the production of which reasonable men should strive.”

The list of works selected to be issued from the Press is interesting, indicating as it does a line of taste somewhat narrow and tangential to the popular taste of the time. Before the three volumes of _The Golden Legend_ (”the Interminable” it was called) were out of his hands, Morris had bought a second large press and had engaged more workmen with an idea in mind of printing all his own works beginning with _Sigurd the Volsung_.

He had already, during 1891, printed in addition to _The Glittering Plain_, a volume of his collected verse ent.i.tled _Poems by the Way_, the final long poem of which, _Goldilocks and Goldilocks_, he wrote on the spur of the moment, after the book was set up in type, to ”plump it out a bit” as it seemed rather scant. During the following year, before the appearance of _The Golden Legend_, were issued a volume of poems by Wilfrid Blunt, who was one of his personal friends; the chapter from Ruskin's _Stones of Venice_ on ”The Nature of the Gothic,” with which he had such early and such close a.s.sociations, and two more of his own works, _The Defence of Guenevere_ and _The Dream of John Ball_. In the case of the four books written by himself he issued in addition to the paper copies a few on vellum. All these early books were small quartos and bound in vellum covers. Immediately following _The Golden Legend_ came the _Historyes of Troye_, two volumes in the new type, Mackail's _Biblia Innocentium_, and Caxton's _Reynarde the Foxe_ in large quarto size and printed in the Troy type. The year 1893 began with a comparatively modern book, Shakespeare's _Poems_, followed in rapid succession by Caxton's translation of _The Order of Chivalry_, in one volume with _The Ordination of Knighthood_, translated by Morris himself from a twelfth-century French poem; Cavendish's _Life of Cardinal Wolsey_; Caxton's history of G.o.defrey of Boloyne; Ralph Robinson's translation of Sir Thomas More's _Utopia_; Tennyson's _Maud_; a lecture by Morris on _Gothic Architecture_, forty-five copies of which he printed on vellum; and Lady Wilde's translation of _Sidonia the Sorceress_ from the German of William Meinhold, a book for which both Morris and Rossetti had a positive pa.s.sion, Morris considering it without a rival of its kind, and an almost faultless reproduction of the life of the past. The year ended with two volumes of Rossetti's _Ballads and Narrative Poems_, and _The Tale of King Florus and Fair Jehane_, translated by Morris from the French of a little volume that forty years before had served to introduce him to mediaeval French romance and had been treasured by him ever since.