Documents associated with: Abdullah, Abu
Record 1 of 2
System Number: 10039
Date: 1 February [1867][1]
Author: JW
Place: London
Recipient: Charles Augustus Howell[2]
Place: London
Repository: Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center, University of Texas at Austin, Texas
Document Type: ALS
Señor Don Boabdil[3]
Come like a good fellow and dine on teusday [sic] next -
Rossetti[4] Sandys[5] and the rest of the Fleur de Chelsea[6] will I hope gather round the festive board on which there might in the course of the evening be "the flowin bole[7]" -
J Whistler
2 Lindsey Row
Friday Feb. 1.
This document is protected by copyright.
Notes:
1. 1 February [1867]
1 February was a Friday in 1867. This letter, though not the first from JW to C. A. Howell (see # 02807), marks the beginning of their close relationship.
2. Charles Augustus Howell
Charles Augustus ('Owl') Howell (1840? - d.1890), entrepreneur [more].
3. Boabdil
Abu Abdullah, or 'Boabdil', the last Moorish ruler of Granada (1482-1492). JW's source may have been Washington Irving's The Alhambra, 1832.
4. Rossetti
Probably Dante Gabriel Rossetti (1828-1882), artist and poet [more].
5. Sandys
Anthony Frederick Augustus Sandys (1829-1904), portrait painter and designer [more].
6. Fleur de Chelsea
Fr., flower of Chelsea. JW and Rossetti were neighbours in Chelsea.
7. the flowin bole
Popular quotation, from 'Come landlord, fill the flowing bowl/ Until it doth run over [...] For tonight we'll merry be' (Oxford Song Book).