Julia Margaret Cameron, Virginia Woolf, and the Performance of Alfred Tennyson's Idylls of the ...

516 Pages·2013·28.75 MB·English

The Theatre of Anon:

Julia Margaret Cameron, Virginia Woolf,

and the Performance of

Alfred Tennyson’s Idylls of the King

Joan Virginia Melville

Submitted in partial fulfillment of the
requirements for the degree of
Doctor of Philosophy
in the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences

COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY

2013
©2013
Joan Virginia Melville
All rights reserved
TABLE OF CONTENTS

Table of Contents i-ii
List of Images iii
Abbreviations of Titles viii
Dedication ix
Introduction 1
Chapter One: Julia Margaret Cameron and Alfred Tennyson 26
Annals of My Glass House 33
Cameron’s Book of Theatrical Scenes 55
Chapter Two: Virginia Woolf and Julia Margaret Cameron 69
Family Ties 72
Woolf Writes about Cameron and Tennyson 95
“The Searchlight” 116
Chapter Three: King Arthur and the Theatre of Anon 134
The Influence of Arthurian Chivalry 135
Woolf’s “Contra-dictionary of National Biography” 158
Woolf and the Optical Unconscious 178
Anon’s Community Theatre 184
Cameron, Woolf, and the Genre of Pageant 198
Chapter Four: Reading the Illustrations with Woolf 212
Beginnings 243
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Open-Ear Reading: Consequences of the Daybird’s Chuckle 270
Cameron’s Miniature Edition and Sisterhood 282
Chapter Five: Dreams and Endings 287
The Princess 296
Valedictions 320
Afterwork 346
Chapter Six: A Facsimile Edition
The Photographs of Cameron’s Illustrations to Tennyson’s Idylls of the King and Other Poems:
Volumes One & Two, and the Miniature Edition 356
Works Cited 421
Works Consulted 441
Appendices
Appendix A: Cameron and Tennyson’s Autobiographies
Annals of My Glass House 455
“Merlin and the Gleam” 467
Appendix B: Additional Images 471

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List of Illustrations

Chapter Six:

Cameron’s Illustrations to Tennyson’s Idylls of the King and Other Poems
Volume One
Fig. 1: Title Page 358
Fig. 2: Dedication 359
Fig. 3: Sonnet 360
Fig. 4: “The Dirty Monk” 361
Fig. 5: “Gareth and Lynette” 362
Fig. 6: “Gareth and Lynette” 363
Fig. 7: “Geraint and Enid” 364
Fig. 8. “Enid” 365
Fig. 9: “Geraint and Enid” 366
Fig. 10: “And Enid Sang” 367
Fig. 11: “Merlin and Vivien” 368
Fig. 12: “Vivien and Merlin” 369
Fig. 13: “Merlin and Vivien” 370
Fig. 14: “Vivien and Merlin” 371
Fig. 15: “Lancelot and Elaine” 372
Fig. 16: “Elaine, the Lily Maid of Astolat” 373
Fig. 17: “Lancelot and Elaine” 374
Fig. 18: “So in her tower alone the maiden sat” 375
Fig. 19: “The Holy Grail” 376
Fig. 20: “Sir Galahad and the Nun” 377
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Fig. 21: “Guinevere” 378
Fig. 22: “The Parting of Sir Lancelot and Queen Guinevere” 379
Fig. 23: “Guinevere” 380
Fig. 24: “King Arthur” 381
Fig. 25: “Guinevere” 382
Fig. 26: “The Little Novice and the Queen in the Holy House at Almesbury” 383
Fig. 27: “The Passing of Arthur” 384
Fig. 28: “The Passing of Arthur” 385

Volume Two

Fig. 29: Title Page 387
Fig. 30: Dedication 388
Fig. 31: Sonnet 389
Fig. 32: Frontispiece 390
Fig. 33: “The May Queen” 391
Fig. 34: “For I’m to be Queen of the May, Mother” 392
Fig. 35: “New Year’s Eve” 393
Fig. 36:”He thought of that sharp look Mother I gave him yesterday” 394
Fig. 37: “The End” 395
Fig. 38: “The End” 396
Fig. 39 “The Princess” 397
Fig. 40: “The Princess” 398
Fig. 41: “The Princess” 399
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Fig. 42: “The Splendour Falls on Garden Walls” 400
Fig. 43: “The Princess” 401
Fig. 44: “Tears, Idle Tears” 402
Fig. 45: “Mariana” 403
Fig. 46: “Mariana” 404
Fig. 47: “The Beggar Maid” 405
Fig. 48: “King Cophetua and the Beggar Maid” 406
Fig. 49: “Lancelot and Elaine” 407
Fig. 50: “Elaine” 408
Fig. 51: “Lancelot and Elaine” 409
Fig. 52: “The Corpse of Elaine in the Palace of King Arthur” 410
Fig. 53: “The passing of Arthur” 411
Fig. 54: “King Arthur wounded lying in the barge” 412
Fig. 55: “Maud” 413
Fig. 56: “Maud” 414

Miniature Edition

Fig. 57: “Sonnet by Charles Turner (Tennyson)” 416
Fig. 58 “The Childhood of Alice and Effie” 417
Fig. 59: “Guinevere” 418
Fig. 60: “Guinevere” 419
Fig. 61: “The Gardener’s Daughter” 420
Fig. 62: “The Gardener’s Daughter” 421
v
Additional Images
Appendix B

Fig. 63: “Isabella and the Pot of Basil” 473
Fig. 64: “Pre-Raphaellite Study” 474
Fig. 65: “Annie, my first success” 475
Fig. 66: “Julia Cameron Norman” 476
Fig. 67: “Julia Margaret Cameron and Sons” 477
Fig. 68: “Julia Margaret Cameron” 478
Fig. 69: “Sir John Frederick William Herschel” 479
Fig. 70: “The Whisper of the Muse” 480
Fig. 71: “Lionel Tennyson as the Marquis de St. Cash” 481
Fig. 72:”A Rembrandt” 482
Fig. 73: “Mrs. Leslie Stephen” 483
Fig. 74: “Thomas Carlyle” 484
Fig. 75: “Anny Thackeray Ritchie” 485
Fig. 76: “Balaclava” by Roger Fenton 486
Fig. 77 “The Rosebud Garden of Girls” 487
Fig. 78: “Florence” 488
Fig. 79: “Sir Henry Taylor” 489
Fig. 80: “A Soldier”: Sir Robert Baden-Powell 490
Fig. 81: “So like a shatter’d column lay the King” 491
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Fig. 82: Daniel Maclise, “Morte D’Arthur” 492
Fig. 83:”Little Prince Alamayou of Abyssinia” 493
Fig. 84: “Prospero and Miranda” 494
Fig. 85: “Friar Lawrence and Juliet” 495
Fig. 86: “Ophelia” 496
Fig. 87: “King Cophetua and the Beggar Maid” – Burne Jones 497
Fig. 88: “Sisters” 498
Fig. 89: Mary Hillier as “St. Agnes” 499
Fig. 90.Mary Hillier as “The Dream” 500
Fig. 91: Mary Hillier as “Call, I follow” 501
Fig. 92: Dimbola Lodge 1871 502
Fig. 93: “Despair” 503
Fig. 94: Ellen Terry as “The South West Wind” 504
Fig. 95 Ellen Terry as “Sadness” 505

vii
Abbreviations of Titles
Idylls: Tennyson’s Idylls of the King
Illustrations: Cameron’s Illustrations to Tennyson’s Idylls of the King and Other Poems
DNB: Dictionary of National Biography
Mem: Memoirs of Alfred Tennyson by Hallam Tennyson, 2 vol.
OED: Oxford English Dictionary
Ricks: The Poems of Tennyson, 2nd edition, ed. Christopher Ricks, 3 vol.

Works by Virginia Woolf
AROO: A Room of One’s Own
BP: Books and Portraits
BTA: Between the Acts
D: Diary, 5 vol.
CE: Collected Essays, 5 vol.
CR: Common Reader
F: Freshwater
TG: Three Guineas
JR: Jacob’s Room
L: Letters
M: The Moment
MOB: Moments of Being
PA: A Passionate Apprentice
PH: Pointz Hall, the typescript drafts of Between the Acts
SF: Complete Shorter Fiction
VP: Victorian Photographs

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