Biography of Algernon Charles Swinburne 1837-1909

Before 5th April 1837 [his father] Admiral Charles Henry Swinburne (age 40) and [his mother] Jane Henrietta Ashburnham (age 27) were married. She the daughter of [his grandfather] George Ashburnham 3rd Earl Ashburnham and [his grandmother] Charlotte Percy Countess Ashburham (age 61).

On 5th April 1837 Algernon Charles Swinburne was born to Admiral Charles Henry Swinburne (age 40) and Jane Henrietta Ashburnham (age 27) at 7 Chester Street Grosvenor Place.

Around 1857 Simeon Solomon (age 16) was introduced by Dante Gabriel Rossetti (age 28) to members of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood including Algernon Charles Swinburne (age 19) and Edward Coley Burne-Jones 1st Baronet (age 23).

The Diary of George Price Boyce 1859. 6th March 1859. (Sunday). (At Oxford.) Crowe, Faulkner, Jones and self rowed to Godstow where we saw the "Stunner" [Jane Morris nee Burden (age 19)] (the future Mrs. William Morris); on our return we all dined (Swinburne included) at Topsy's (Morris'). He and Swinburne (age 21) mad and deafening with excitement; adjourned to Crowe's to dessert; the chaff and row continued with great spirit and cleverness. Swinburne, a man of great reading, memory, and intellectual cleverness and accomplishment, seemed to be wanting in human feeling.⁸ In the evening we all went round to Johnson's, where we looked over a bundle of sketches among which were some beautiful things of Rossetti's.⁹

Note 8. Algernon Swinburne (1837-1909), the poet, had gone up to Oxford in 1857 and had known Morris at the time of the Union mural paintings. He was still at Balliol College and while already subject to wild and extravagant conduct, his powers of invective outdid Morris'. Undergraduates together, Charles Faulkener became one of Morris' closest friends. His mathematical brain was of great value when the firm of Morris, Marshall, Faulkner & Co. came to be founded in 1861.

Note 9. The reference here is probably to Professor Manuel John Johnson (1805-59), Radcliffe Observer. He is known to have befriended Swinburne, and William Morris was an enthusiastic admirer of his fine collection of mediaeval manuscripts. Johnson had died in February but his widow may have allowed his drawings to be examined. On his walls hung fifteenth and sixteenth-century engravings; perhaps the archaic romanticism of Rossetti's drawings had appealed to him.

1861. The Census records William Morris (age 26), Jane Morris nee Burden (age 21), Algernon Charles Swinburne (age 23), Visitor, four servants and Jane Alicia Morris at Red House.

In 1865 Frederick Sandys (age 35) exhibited "Gentle Spring" at the Royal Academy. To the frame was attached a sonnet by Algernon Charles Swinburne (age 27) also called "Gentle Spring" as follows:

O Virgin Mother! of gentle days and nights,.

Spring of fresh buds and spring of soft delights,.

Come, with lips kissed of many an amorous hours,.

Come, with hands heavy from the fervent flower,.

The fleet first flower that feels the wind and sighs,.

The tenderer leaf that draws the sun and dies;.

Light butterflies like flowers alive in the air.

Circling and crowning thy delicious hair,.

And many a fruitful flower and floral fruit.

Born of thy breath and fragrant from thy foot.

Thee, Mother, all things born desire, and thee.

Earth and the fruitless hollows of the sea.

Praise, and thy tender winds of ungrown wing.

Fill heaven with murmurs of the sudden spring.

Laus Veneris. In 1866 Algernon Charles Swinburne (age 28) wrote Laus Veneris, or The Praise of Venus:

Between 1873 and 1878. Edward Coley Burne-Jones 1st Baronet (age 39). "Laus Veneris" or "The Praise of Venus". From the poem Laus Veneris by Algernon Charles Swinburne (age 35).

In 1877 [his father] Admiral Charles Henry Swinburne (age 80) died.

On 26th November 1896 [his mother] Jane Henrietta Ashburnham (age 87) died.

On 10th April 1909 Algernon Charles Swinburne (age 72) died. He was buried at St. Boniface Church.