On this day in 1862 Elizabeth Siddal died at the age of thirty-two, almost certainly a suicide by drug overdose. Husband Dante Gabriel Rossetti discovered her body -- and, the conjecture goes, destroyed her suicide note -- after returning home from an evening out. Several days later, he was stirred by grief, guilt and his romantic temperament to the last-minute gesture of placing the only manuscript copies of many of his poems in his wife's coffin, nestled beside her cheek; seven years later, in one of the most notorious second-thoughts of love and literature, Rossetti retrieved and published the poems.
Read the story in Today in Literature.
I hadn't realized a stage play has been written about this, which I was able to track down on the university-book-exchange program. Certainly dramatic material! Also has opera possibilities. Need to make sure John knows about this.
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