In a letter treating of other matters, Rossetti asked me if I thought “Christabel” really existed as a mediæval name, or existed at all earlier than Coleridge. I replied that I had not met with it earlier than the date of the poem. I thought Coleridge’s granddaughter must have been the first person to bear the name. The other names in the poem appear to belong to another family of names,--names with a different origin and range of expression,--Leoline, Géraldine, Roland, and most of all Bracy. It seemed to me very possible that Coleridge invented the name, but it was highly probable that he brought it to England from Germany, where, with Wordsworth, he visited Klopstock in 1798, about the period of the first part of the poem. The Germans have names of a kindred etymology and, even if my guess proved wide of the truth, it might still be a fact that the name had German relations. Another conjecture that seemed to me a reasonable one was that Coleridge evolved the name out of the incidents of the opening passages of the poem. The beautiful thing, not more from its beauty than its suggestiveness, suited his purpose exactly. Rossetti replied: Resuming the thread of my letter, I come to the question of the name Christabel, viz.:--as to whether it is to be found earlier than Coleridge. I have now realized afresh what I knew long ago, viz.:--that in the grossly garbled ballad of _Syr Cauline_, in Percy’s _Reliques_, there is a Ladye Chrystabelle, but as every stanza in which her name appears would seem certainly to be Percy’s own work, I suspect him to be the inventor of the name, which is assuredly a much better invention than any of the stanzas; and from this wretched source Coleridge probably enriched the sphere of symbolic nomenclature. However, a genuine source may turn up, but the name does not sound to me like a real one. As to a German origin, I do not know that language, but would not the second syllable be there the one accented? This seems to render the name shapeless and improbable. I mentioned an idea that once possessed me despotically. It was that where Coleridge says Her silken robe and inner vest Dropt to her feet, and full in view Behold! her bosom and half her side-- A sight to dream of and not to tell,. . . Shield the Lady Christabel!