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Why did Dante Gabriel Rossetti bury the manuscript of his poems with Elizabeth Siddal?
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Dante Gabriel Rossetti
Dante Gabriel Rossetti, photograph by Lewis Carroll, 1863
Dante Gabriel Rossetti buried the only complete manuscript of his poems with his wife, Elizabeth Siddal, out of profound grief following her tragic death from an overdose of laudanum in 1862.1
His decision was deeply personal and symbolic, reflecting his view of their relationship as an idealized, mystical love similar to that of Dante Alighieri for Beatrice. This sentiment was later immortalized in his painting Beata Beatrix.1
Years later, in 1869, Rossetti arranged for the exhumation of the manuscript from Highgate Cemetery to prepare the poems for publication, an act that reportedly caused him significant distress.1