WILLIAM MORRIS _UNIFORM WITH THIS VOLUME:_ J. M. SYNGE By P. P. Howe HENRIK IBSEN By R. Ellis Roberts THOMAS HARDY By Lascelles Abercrombie GEORGE GISSING By Frank Swinnerton THOMAS LOVE PEACOCK By A. Martin Freeman ALGERNON CHARLES SWINBURNE By Edward Thomas [Frontispiece: William Morris. from a photograph by Frederick Hollyer.] WILLIAM MORRIS A CRITICAL STUDY BY JOHN DRINKWATER LONDON MARTIN SECKER NUMBER FIVE JOHN STREET ADELPHI MCMXII _BY THE SAME AUTHOR_ POEMS OF MEN AND HOURS, 1911 COPHETUA. A Play in One Act, 1911 POEMS OF LOVE AND EARTH, 1912 ETC. TO ERNEST NEWMAN _Who Loves the Arts With a Just and Fine Impatience_ NOTE A few paragraphs in this book are reprinted, by permission of Messrs. George Routledge and Sons, Ltd., from introductions written for The Muses' Library; others, by permission of the Editor, from articles contributed to _The Nation_. My thanks are due to William Morris's Trustees for permission to use such quotations from his works as I wished, and to Miss May Morris for her generous assistance in this and other matters. My indebtedness to Mr. Mackail I have acknowledged in more than one place in the body of this volume, but I should like here to emphasize my appreciation of the service that he has done to all who reverence Morris and his work. I would also thank my friend, Mr. Oliver W. F. Lodge, for the many delightful hours that I have spent with him in talking of a poet whom we both love. What understanding I may have of Morris has been deepened and quickened by his enthusiasm and fine judgment. No thanks that I might offer to another friend could be in any way adequate; in inscribing this book to him I can but make slight acknowledgment of one of those whole-hearted services that stand for so much in the craft of letters. J. D. _Birmingham_, 1912. CONTENTS INTRODUCTORY EARLY POEMS AND PROSE INTERLUDE NARRATIVE POEMS LOVE IS ENOUGH AND SIGURD THE VOLSUNG TRANSLATIONS AND SOCIALISM PROSE ROMANCES AND POEMS BY THE WAY CONCLUSION I INTRODUCTORY