Sir Lancelot's Return

Doughty, Arthur G., Sir Lancelot's return: taken from the knights of old, Montreal, 1896.

The illuminated manuscript, Sir Lancelot’s Return, consists of a single poem, with embellished lettering and designs on each page.   It includes 29 pages of text plus two full-page illustrations; one of the illustrations is signed "F.S. Holiday".  

A.G. Doughty had included a poem entitled “Sir Lancelot’s Return”, in his selection of poems Rose Leaves, 1894.  A page-by-page comparison revealed that these poems were two separate versions.  He had also written other poems on the same theme, for example, “Lancelot and Guinevere” which appeared in his selection of poems, Nugae Canorae, 1897.

During the 1890s, A.G. Doughty had composed, imprinted and/or published a number of poems which included illuminated manuscripts devoted to a single poem or a selection of poems. Many of these are difficult to locate and suggest that he may have produced one-of-a kind works.  For example, "Old and New", The Gazette, Montreal, 21 Sept. 1895, p.11, described a volume entitled Sir Lancelot's Return which featured the poem "The Knights of Old" and also contained the poems "To Hesper Phosphor" and "Vita Nuova".  This illustrated manuscript described in The Gazette, included illustrations by Frank L. Cardiff, in addition to one picture by Henry Sandham.  However, the manuscript noted in “the Gazette was yet a different one from Sir Lancelot’s Return, described in this entry; and to date we have not been able to locate a copy.

Digital copy of the illustrated manuscript, Sir Lancelot's Return: taken from knights of old, held by Brown University (OCLC #56751471), courtesy of the staff of its Special Collections, was reviewed; select images are pictured above.