Queen Square and The Earthly Paradise: 1865–70 William Morris

portrait of william morris george frederic watts, 1870.

at queen square, morris family lived in flat directly above firm s shop. joined janey s sister bessie burton , number of household servants. meanwhile, changes afoot @ firm faulkner left, , replace him employed business manager, warrington taylor, remain them till 1866. taylor pulled firm s finances order , spent time controlling morris , ensuring worked schedule. during these years firm carried out number of high-profile designs; september 1866 january 1867, redecorated armoury , tapestry room in st. james palace, in latter year designing green dining room @ south kensington museum (it morris room @ victoria , albert museum). firm s work received increasing interest people in united states, resulting in morris s acquaintance henry james , charles eliot norton. however, despite success, firm not turning on large net profit, , this, coupled decreasing value of morris stocks, meant had decrease spending.

janey s relationship rossetti had continued, , late 1860s gossip regarding affair had spread london, regularly seen spending time together. morris biographer fiona maccarthy argued morris had learned of , accepted existence of affair 1870. in year developed affectionate friendship aglaia coronie, daughter of wealthy greek refugees, although there no evidence had affair. meanwhile, morris s relationship mother had improved, , regularly take wife , children visit @ house in leyton. went on various holidays; in summer of 1866 he, webb, , taylor toured churches of northern france.

a caricature sketch of morris rossetti, bard , petty tradesman , reflecting behaviour @ firm

in august 1866 morris joined burne-jones family on holiday in lymington, while in august 1867 both families holidayed in oxford. in august 1867 morrises holidayed in southwold, suffolk, while in summer of 1869 morris took wife bad ems in rhineland-palatinate, central germany, hoped local health waters aid ailments. while there, enjoyed walks in countryside , focused on writing poetry.

morris had continued devote time writing poetry. in 1867 bell , dandy published morris s epic poem, life , death of jason, @ own expense. book retelling of ancient greek myth of hero jason , quest find golden fleece. in contrast morris s former publication, life , death of jason received, resulting in publishers paying morris fee second edition.

from 1865 1870, morris worked on epic poem, earthly paradise. designed homage chaucer, consisted of 24 stories, adopted array of different cultures, , each different narrator; set in late 14th century, synopsis revolved around group of norsemen flee black death sailing away europe, on way discovering island inhabitants continue venerate ancient greek gods. published in 4 parts f. s. ellis, gained cult following , established morris reputation major poet.