The Virgin with Saint Anne by her side, sits at an embroidery frame and works upon a strip of red material the lily with two flowers and a bud which grows in a vase before her. A little rosy winged angel waters the lily, and, lying crossed upon the ground, is a seven-leaved palm and a seven-thorned briar, united by a little scroll bearing the words ‘_Tot dolores, tot gaudia_.’ The second part of the double sonnet written by the artist for this picture explains to some extent the symbolism. II These are the symbols. On that cloth of red I’ the centre is the Tripoint: perfect each Except the second of its points, to teach That Christ is not yet born. The books--whose head Is golden charity, as Paul hath said-- Those virtues are wherein the soul is rich: Therefore on them the lily standeth, which Is innocence, being interpreted. The seven-thorn’d briar and the palm seven-leaved, Are her great sorrow and her great reward. Until the end be full, the Holy One Abides without. She soon shall have achieved Her perfect purity: yea, God the Lord Shall soon vouchsafe His Son to be her Son. Behind the Virgin is the trellis of the ‘Enclosed Garden.’ Beyond--for still the ‘Holy One abides without’--is the vine, emblem of the ‘True Vine,’ the figure of Saint Joseph, who tends it, forecasting that he would be the guardian of Christ’s infancy. Upon the trellis, up which wreathes the white convolvulus, used in the 15th century as the symbol of humility, sits the Holy Dove. Finally, upon the balustrade is a rose in a transparent vase, the rose of divine love conjoined with the symbol of transcendant purity. [Illustration: _Dante Gabriel Rossetti_ _Photo Mansell_ THE GIRLHOOD OF MARY VIRGIN] LIST OF AUTHORITIES Antony, Joseph, _Symbolik der Katholischen Kirchen Gebrauche_ Archæologia Augustine, St, _Confessions_ Beaumont, de, _Recherches sur l’origine du Blazon et en particulier la Fleur-de-Lis_ Bernard of Clairvaux, St, _Sermons_ _Biblia Pauperum_, Heidelberg Copy, 1440; German Ed., 1471, Wolfenbüttel Copy _Byzantine Guide to Painting_ (Didron’s Translation) Dante, _Divina Commedia_ Didron, _Christian Iconography_ Durandus, _Rational of the Divine Offices_ Edmonson, _Complete Book of Heraldry_, 1780 Ford, _Spanish Handbook_ (First Edition) Hirn, Yrjö, _The Sacred Shrine_ Huysman, J. K., _La Cathédrale_ Jacobus de Voragine, _Legenda Aurea_ Jameson, Mrs, _Sacred and Legendary Art_ Jenner, Mrs H., _Christian Symbolism_ Liebman, P. S., _Kleine Handwörterbuch der Christlichen Symbolik_ Martin, Arthur, _Mélanges d’Archéologie_ Mectilda, St, _Spiritual Grace_ Menzel, Wolfgang, _Christliche Symbolik_ Neale, J. M., _Hymni Ecclesiae_ Northcote and Brownlow, _Roma Sotterana_ Schmid, A., _Christliche Symbole aus alter und neuer Zeit_ Smith, _Classical Dictionary_