Prioress's Tale Wardrobe by Philip Speakman Webb and Edward Burne-Jones

Prioress's Tale Wardrobe

Philip Speakman Webb, Designer (1831-1915)

1859

Painted oak and deal

Accession no. WA 1939.2

Edward Coley Burne-Jones gave this wardrobe to William Morris as a wedding present on his marriage to Jane Burden in 1859. It is inscribed "EJB to WM" in the bottom left-hand corner. [Click on the image for a larger picture; mouse over the text for links. Commentary continues below.]

[Click on image to enlarge it.]

"The left hand door is decorated with episodes from Chaucer's "Prioress's Tale" [in which a murdered child is briefly brought back to life], together with the opening lines of the poem. The figure of the Virgin is modelled on Jane Burden, William Morris's new wife. She appears again on the right hand door, above Chaucer himself. When the Morrises first married they lived in The Red House, Bexley Heath, where the cabinet stood in the principal bedroom. It was given to the Ashmolean Museum in 1939 by William Morris's daughter, May" ("Object of the Month"). The scenes shown here are of the boy singing the hymn to the Virgin Mary, "Alma Redemptoris" at school, and, in the left panel, coming back to life after the Virgin has appeared and laid a grain of salt on his tongue, so that he can continue singing it — allowing his "litel body" to be found and given a Christian burial "in a tombe of marbul stones clere." It does not seem a very suitable subject for a wedding gift but it allows Burne-Jones to associate Morris's bride with compassion, spirituality and life-enhancing qualities. It also expresses the Pre-Raphaelites' love of poetry and medieval culture, and the general Victorian tendency to delight in pathos, especially in connection with childhood. Chaucer himself can be seen in the lower right-hand corner.— Jacqueline Banerjee

Related Material

PreRaphaelites: Victorian Avant-Garde (Review of an exhibition catalogue featuring this work)

References

"Object of the Month: Cabinet Decorated with Scenes from "The Prioress's Tale." Ashmolean. Web. 6 March 2014.

Last modified 6 March 2014