Académique Documents
Professionnel Documents
Culture Documents
MEMORIAL LIBRARY
2010
http://www.archive.org/details/williamblakeOOsymo
WILLIAM BLAKE
ND 497
.B6 S85
Symonsj Arthur*
l^i I Li am Blake
1865-1945.
WILLIAM BLAKE
BY
ARTHUR SYMONS
LONDON
AECHIBALD CONSTABLE
AND COMPANY LTD.
1907
nimum mm
Edinburgh
T.
to
His Majesty
TO
AUGUSTE RODIN
WHOSE WORK
IS
THE
MARRIAGE OF
'^
LIBRARY
BEKEA,
Uiiiu
PEEFACE
It was
came
into
my
edition of Blake
presented
itself to
my
me.
From
a boy he
Poetic, Symbolic,
and
From
Critical.
that
my
down anything on
a subject so great in
itself,
WILLIAM BLAKE
viii
gradually I
got to
commenwas it from
tators, I
flowed
my
my
could,
and decided
would
be, in its
to be,
first,
filled
began
and over-
Having begun on an
mind.
impulse, I laid
and
plans as strictly as I
to
make
a book which
way, complete.
my own
There was
narrative, containing,
took to
tentions.
my own
what
be Blake's achievements and inBut this was to be followed by a
ance, with
interpretation of
These docu-
Gilchrist, but,
use of
them, they
PREFACE
portance
ix
our case.
my
of
his
in 1863, together
and Reminiscences
of
Crabb Kobin-
original manuscripts.
from the
Jerusalem,
now in
Archibald Stirling.
by Mr.
many
Ellis
but though
made from
it,
it
WILLIAM BLAKE
was printed
the
temporary sources.
edition of
Blake's poems,
am
among
me
and
to a search
birth and marriage and death regisby which I have been enabled to settle
several disputed points of some interest. To
Mr. A. G. B. Bussell I owe constant personal
help, and the very generous loan of the
proofs of his edition of Blake's Letters, and
of Tatham's Life, with free leave to use them
in the narrative which I was writing at
a time when his book had not yet appeared.
ters,
PREFACE
Through
such
this favour I
facts
hand.
am
for reading
some
Tatham
as
directly from
xi
is
responsible for
my
proofs
errors of fact.
Russell
Blake's
Finally,
my
all
the references to
WILLIAM BLAKE
xiv
Butler Yeats.
Three yolumes.
Quaritch,
1893.
8.
Yeats.
W.
B.
Lawrence
&
Edited by
9.
William
Blalce
By Alfred
his
mid Genius.
Character,
Life,
T. Story.
&
Sonnenschein
Co.,
1893.
10.
William Blake
Garnett.
11. Ideas
of
By Richard
'Portfolio,' 1895.
Good
and
By W.
Evil.
B.
Yeats.
Blake
and
Comedy.)
12.
his
Illustrations
Russell.
1870); a Compilation
to
Sands
&
Co., 1903.
Maclagan and
A.
Gr.
B.
Bullen, 1904.
John Sampson.
15.
Divine
Edited by E. R. D.
14.
the
A. H. Bullen, 1903.
by W. M. RossETTL
13.
to
Edited by
Oxford, 1905.
Methuen, 1906.
BOOKS CONSULTED
LIST OF
16.
The Poetical
JForlcs
annotated by
Chatto
&
Edited and
of William Blake.
Edwin
J.
Ellis.
xv
Two
volumes.
Windus, 1906.
JVilliam Blake.
Vol.
Bin YON.
18.
Methuen, 1906.
Edwin
J.
Book of
Laurence
Illustrations of the
Ellis.
Portrait
Chatto
&
Biography.
Windus, 1907.
By
CONTENTS
PART
I
PAGE
WILLIAM BLAKE,
PART
II
.251
(3)
From Crabb
niscences,
(II.)
253
272
Robinson's Remi-
....
278
(1806),
b
xviii
WILLIAM BLAKE
PAGE
(III.)
(1820),
(IV.)
(V.)
337
'
343
ZINE,' 1827,
(VI.)
(VII.)
Extract from
Physiognomy
Zodiacal
Varley's
(1828),
.<
Smith
(VIII.) Life of
ham
(1828),
Blake.
(1830),
351
By
.355
By Allan Cunning389
WILLIAM BLAKE
INTRODUCTION
When
all
are familiar.
it is
of
God
or
man
in Nietzsche's
No
name
against
the ideas of
Nietzsche.
Nietzsche
WILLIAM BLAKE
pates Nietzsche in his most significant paradoxes, and, before his time, exalts energy-
'
'
'
'
'
'
'
and, elsewhere
own
virtue.'
'
;
find his
nothing
everything is good in God's eyes
it is the eating of the tree of the knowledge
of good and evil that has brought sin into
the world education, that is, by which we
are taught to distinguish between things
When Nietzsche says
that do not differ.
Let us rid the world of the notion of sin,
and banish with it the idea of punishment,'
he expresses one of Blake's central doctrines,
and he realises the corollary, which, however, he does not add.
The Christian's
soul,' he says,
which has freed itself from
sin is in most cases ruined by the hatred
against sin. Look at the faces of great
;
'
'
'
'
INTRODUCTION
They
Christians.
Blake sums up
haters.'
3
of great
Christianity as
all
forgiveness of sin
'
'
make God
'
to
him
seemed to
it
whom
pity
Doth Jehovah
'
'
'
and
believes
he
has
is
the
man
discovered
himself,"
in
the
WILLIAM BLAKE
But
desire gratified
Plants fruits of
'
Put
and,
like Nietzsche,
'
off holiness,'
And
tellect.'
life
he
and beauty
said,
'
there.'
and put on
in-
its
own
it
being.'
clusion of Neitzsche.
of the
mind
is
'
to understand
its
highest
understand or know
Nietzsche,
That,
to
is one of 'the
God.'
beautiful words by which the conscience is
virtue,
therefore,
to
INTRODUCTION
'
power
'
is virtue,'
And
power.
profound
heroism of the mind, really a great humility,
he who loves God does not desire that God
should love him in return,' Nietzsche would
find the material for a kind of desperate
heroism, made up wholly of pride and
it
is
in
Spinoza's
'
defiance.
To Blake,
Spinoza,
'
God
'
is
and
'
men
'
is
'
eternal delight.
WILLIAM BLAKE
Yet,
those
with
Nietzsche,
to
of
distrust
scientific
who
so
'
the
suspiciously
strange,
his
imagination,
'
say
'
We
of
see
see,'
'
senses,'
says
'
nature
is
the
'
God
disbelieves in
work
of
the
Devil.'
These
again,'
'
come
'
INTRODUCTION
'
and
is
fortitude.'
different road,
entered
like
sunlight
into
the
eyes.
Nietzsche's
minds
more
stops to systematise
he
is
so because he never
WILLIAM BLAKE
He
apprehending.
darts
out
feelers
in
separate
no theory
ties
together or limits
What we
call his
is
really
'
:
of the
soul.'
his soul.
of his
But
own weaknesses.
INTRODUCTION
and of no other
he says,
of body and
liberty
both
than
Gospel
the
mind to exercise the divine arts of ImaginaChristianity/
tion
Imagination,
the
real
and
eternal
of
Alpine
glitter,
'
regions,
their
thin,
with
their
steadfast
high, intoxicating
he
air.
cries,
'
'
'
WILLIAM BLAKE
10
II
'
There
man
of con-
them
who
Noah who
are
Poetry,
Painting,
We
own
when he
songs to his
'
'
made
Throughout
he
said,
eternity,
'
to
see
life
had been,
his desire
converse with
visions,
my
as
friends in
To open the
eyes
I rest
not from
my
great task
immortal
INTRODUCTION
Of Man inwards
into the
11
eternity,
Ever expanding
in
the
bosom
of
God, the
human
imagination.'
'
'
'
'
'
'
'
'
12
WILLIAM BLAKE
part,' there
INTRODUCTION
13
and
Hell,
thing
is so,
'
make
it
does."
'
more
precisely than in
vision
was
pictures,
to him.
but
it
is
any other
He
place,
what
speaking of his
a plea for the raising of
'
is
sphere of invention
'
'
14
WILLIAM BLAKE
articulated
beyond
all
He who
does
not imagine in stronger and better lineaments and in stronger and better light than
his perishing and mortal eye can see, does
'
my
And
is,
element,
and
hope
my
eternal
'
'that
her notice.'
The mind
lies
'
'
'
INTRODUCTION
thirty lines at
15
'
secretary
In
is
'
medium
every
creation
of
beauty,
And
some
so in
obscure
by the
WILLIAM BLAKE
16
mind
for
what
it
is
not
is
for
beauty.
To
constant.
To Blake,
as to
INTRODUCTION
Shelley's,
principle
for
of
17
intellectual
beauty, nor an unattained desire after holiness, like that of the conventionally re-
equally content to
as in those
call
whom
'
And
it.
in Blake,
word of reproach
in the eighteenth century and of honour in
all other centuries), there was no confusion
(except in brains where true superstition,'
as Blake said, was ignorant honesty, and
this is beloved of God and man ') between
the realities of daylight and these other
called
'
enthusiasts
'
(that
'
'
Messrs.
Ellis
this
is
as follows
'
:
Beligion
cause of insanity.
another fertile
Mr. Haslam, though he
is
declares
his
WILLIAM BLAKE
18
numerous
cases.
insanity.'
etc., p. 154.
"Oh!
never
insane
Oh
You
Cowper came
to
'Methodism,
me and
never rest
till
I will
said
truly
am
so.
and yet
us all mad as a refuge from
unbelief from Bacon, Newton, and Locke."
What does this mean but that 'madness,'
us
retain health
all
over
'
INTRODUCTION
and
places,'
he says,
'),
19
both in
whole mental atti-
'is invention,
his
man
pen
in hand, in his
own
ink-pot.
when he
Of
he once wTote,
the fury of
my
'
no question that,
nothing can withstand
course
among the
stars of
may
be vision
the visionary.
The
difference
by
between im-
WILLIAM BLAKE
20
in, say,
Shakespeare,
it
'
'
'
WILLIAM BLAKE
The
'
MS.
authority,'
'
'
21
WILLIAM BLAKE
22
1753
John Blake
christened June
('
William Blake
was born November 28, and christened
December 11, 1757 another John Blake
was born March 20, and christened March
30, 1760; Bichard Blake was born June
19, and christened July 11, 1762; and
Catherine Elizabeth Blake was born January
Here,
7, and christened January 28, 1764.
where we find the daughter's name and the
due order of births, we find one perplexity
in the name of Bichard, whose date of birth
fits the date given by Gilchrist and others
1755
1,
to
Bobert,
William's
favourite
brother,
Bobert in a
letter to Butts,
whom he
and whom
WILLIAM BLAKE
23
Smith
recalls
'
'
for the
name
sisters
christened
of the father
Helen.
'My
brother
christened John.
WILLIAM BLAKE
24
'
WILLIAM BLAKE
gies of the Blakes of Ireland, I
25
have not
come across any Ellen Blake who marriedJohn O'Neil who afterwards (as is said by
Messrs. Ellis and Yeats) adopted the sur-
name
of Blake.'
Mr.
father
'
WILLIAM BLAKE
26
him
in order.'
That this does not refer to
William Blake I have found by trackingthrough the unpublished portions of the
Diary in the original manuscript the
numerous references to a Mr. Blake who
was accustomed to speak at the meetings
He is described
of the Academical Society.
with
good sense
spoke
as a Mr. Blake who
on the Irish side, and argued from the Irish
History and the circumstances which attended the passing of the bills.' He afterwards speaks sharply and coarsely,' and
answers Mr. Bobinson's hour-long conten'
'
'
'
should not,
'
House
of
Commons
should, or
Beversion
form Bill
Bill,
'
etc.,
etc.,
returning, in short,
'
my
civility
learnThis was
ing, nor were these the manners, of William
by
incivility.'
not
the
Blake.
I
to the evidence of
being a William
Blake,
the
son
of
WILLIAM BLAKE
and
who
27
was
born
March 19, 1700. Between the years 1750
and 1767 (the time exactly parallel with the
births of the family of James and Catherine
Blake) I find among the baptisms the names
of Frances, Daniel, Beuben, John Cartwright,
and William (another WDliam) Blake and
I find among the marriages, between 1728
and 1747, a Bobert, a Thomas, a James, and
a Bichard Blake.
The wife of James, who
was married on April 15, 1738, is called
Elizabeth, a name which we have already
found as the name of a Mrs. Blake, and
which we find again as the second name of
Catherine Elizabeth Blake (the sister of
William Blake), who was born in 1764.
I find two Williams, two Bichards, and a
John among the early entries, at the beginning of the eighteenth century. It is impossible to say positively that any of these
families, not less than nine in number, all
bearing the name of Blake, all living in the
same parish, within a space of less than
forty years, were related to one another
but it is easier to suppose so than to suppose
that one only out of the number, and one
which had assumed the name, should have
Kichard
Elizabeth,
WILLIAM BLAKE
28
Tatham
'
Cun-
grave,
we know
was
also
register
Of
13/6.'
that
is
'Sept.
1792.
9,
The
Catherine
'
WILLIAM BLAKE
intercedes.
was the
It
29
father,
Tatham
'
'
'
'
'
^^11if-iy
WILLIAM BLAKE
30
Tatham
tells
us that
'
he got
to-
gether a little annuity, upon which he supported his only sister, and vegetating to
a moderate age, died about three years
before his brother William.'
Of John we know only that he was something of a scapegrace and the favourite son
of his parents.
some
cost, to
He was
apprenticed,
at
and, after
in
to
One
of his original
WILLIAM BLAKE
a
sketches,
stiff
31
drawing of long,
rigid,
see
my face
ing
again.'
it,
'
very hard,'
and
'
Robert,
'
am
in the w^rong.'
moment
of death, he
saw
his brother's
'
clapping
its
WILLIAM BLAKE
32
spiritual presence
mind
whom
of William Blake,
in
1800 we
Hayley
Thirteen years ago
I lost a brother, and with his spirit I converse daily and hourly in the spirit, and see
him in remembrance, in the regions of my
imagination.
I hear his advice, and even
now write from his dictate.' It was Robert
whom he saw in a dream, not long after his
death, telling him the method by which he
was to engrave his poems and designs. The
spiritual forms of William and of Robert, in
find writing to
'
almost exact parallel, are engraved on separate pages of the Prophetic Book of Milton.
Of the sister, Catherine Elizabeth, we
know only that she lived with Blake and
his wife at Felpham.
He refers to her in
several letters,
and
Butts on October
my
and
2,
in
the
poem
sent to
In another poem,
sent to Butts in a letter dated November
22, 1802, but written, he explains, 'above
a twelvemonth ago, while walking from
Felpham to Lavant to meet my sister,' he
asks strangely
as
'
sister
friend.'
WILLIAM BLAKE
33
it is
meant literally
Tatham was writing
or figuratively.
this is
When
'
'
W. M.
Rossetti in
penury.
WILLIAM BLAKE
34
II
was apprenticed
who
to
Basire,
at fourteen
the
he
engraver,
lived at 31
his
'
shop
WILLIAM BLAKE
brothers and sisters.
He
35
therefore himself
and
tions.
Of
premium
We
was apprenticed,
be hanged.'
it
'
:
looks as
Twelve years
I
if
do
he
later
'
himself
'
WILLIAM BLAKE
36
worn out
with interruption,' says Tatham, and then
laid a complaint before the Dean which has
caused, to this day, the exclusion of West'
that
is
to
say,
after
poems
Ossian had
appeared in 1760, Percy's Reliques in 1765.
The Reliques probably had their influence
WILLIAM BLAKE
37
'
'
'
'
'
WILLIAM BLAKE
38
has the hint of any predecessor in our literafound in the abrupt energy
ture, it is to be
'
'
'
'
'
'
his Miscellanies^
'
My silks
and
fine array
'
something of
there
much
is
its
manner of speech.
and
And
among
WILLIAM BLAKE
39
'
'
'
'
'
'
'
How
own
of his
assertion, that
all
equal
WILLIAM BLAKE
40
came
an end, and
to
for a short
time he
Academy.
"
Moser came
me and
to
these
said,
hard,
old
How
I also spoke my
Moser, " These things that
you call finished are not even begun how
can they then be finished ?
The man
who does not know the beginning never
can know the end of art."
Malkin tells
us that Blake professed drawing from life
always to have been hateful to him
and
speaks of it as looking more like death, or
mind.
'
'
smelling of mortality.
Yet
still
he drew a
WILLIAM BLAKE
41
exhibition of 1809.
It is the last
number
This
and has the note
Drawing was done above Thirty Years ago,
and proves to the Author, and he thinks
will prove to any discerning eye, that the
productions of our youth and of our maturer
in the catalogue,
'
42
WILLIAM BLAKE
'
While
there, says
WILLIAM BLAKE
me?"
"
Then
"Yes, indeed
I do,"
43
answered she.
Such was
I love
He was
their courtship.
impressed by her
tenderness of mind, and her answer indicated her previous feehng for him for she
:
when
she
which Blake
sat,
in
left his
Tatham
tells
'
'
at Battersea in
August 1762.
Of this he gives
the time of his marriage.
no evidence
but I think I have found
;
traces, in Blake's
own
parish, of relatives of
whom
he married at
WILLIAM BLAKE
44
'
WILLIAM BLAKE
him
45
livinor at
Battersea
The entry
of Blake's
marriage,
in
the
name
as
'
as Butcher,
and
also describes
enough
error.
It is as follows
Blake
by a common
:
1782.
Banns
of Marriage.
No. 281 William Blake of the Parish of Battersea Batchelor and Catherine Butcher of the
same
William Blake
The mark
of
Catherine Butcher
Blake
Eobt.
I imagine that
was probably
Munday
Parish Clerk.
the name were a family name. His handwriting is mean and untidy, James Blake's
if
WILLIAM BLAKE
46
'
'
'
outline.'
Boucher as
slim,
graceful
'
and
naiads.'
But
if
own
notions of sylphs
senting a
man
in
sitting
WILLIAM BLAKE
There
is
47
'
'
'
altar
my
wife
is
like
a flame of
many
death she
signs
and
finished
to help
him
some
of
his
in the printing
de-
and
WILLIAM BLAKE
48
A story is told,
'
'
'
'
'
'
'
writing.
And
WILLIAM BLAKE
49
who speaks
an irradiated
he fancied that while she looked on
him as he worked, her sitting quite still by
his side, doing nothing, soothed his impetuous mind and he has many a time, when a
strong desire presented itself to overcome
saint,'
of Mrs. Blake as
'
'
any
'
'
He
tells
known
us in another place
to
'
:
it is
Mrs.
a fact
Blake's
WILLIAM BLAKE
50
'
'
WILLIAM BLAKE
51
other world.'
'
large,
Cunningham
'
full
ecstatic
as if tense
eyes and
mouth and
up large draughts of
'
nostrils all
'
orator
seem
look of one
hesitate.'
52
WILLIAM BLAKE
'),
Blake
'
'
From
this incident,'
says
'
WILLIAM BLAKE
that she requested the Hev.
'
53
Henry Matthew,
'Poetical
them
'
Sketches,
to
by W.
B.'
printed in
'
'
'
WILLIAM BLAKE
64
Stothard,
borg.
and
which
is
satire,
^
'
a light-hearted
Compare the
I bless thee,
incoherent
Flaxman's face.
Angels stand round
my
spirit
in
And my
saw
and
to
me
me
But by
my
nervous
fear.'
who knows
to forgive
WILLIAM BLAKE
pointing, as Mr.
Sampson
Peacock.
unfinished,
worth
It
is
finishing,
but
it
justly
55
says,
to
contains
the
first
wholly irresponsible
attempt to create imaginary worlds, and
to invent grotesque and impossible names.
It shows us the first explosions of that
ing us Blake's
first,
and
irrational
suspicions.
It betrays
his
and
WILLIAM BLAKE
56
of personal irritations
and
spiritual indig-
nations.
An
In
casting off
fellow-apprentice,
WILLIAM BLAKE
57
III
After
print-shop and
moved out
of Broad Street
Street,
and
lived
there
for
five
years.
in
1789,
'
'
until the
work stood
in relief as in a stereo-
WILLIAM BLAKE
58
type.
From
of
John
Linnell, referring
later date
'
:
The
to
a somewhat
engraved to illustrate Hayley's life of Cowper were, as he told me, printed entirely by
himself and his wife in his own press
very good one which cost him forty pounds.'
These plates were engraved in 1803, but it
is not likely that Blake was ever able to
buy more than one press.
The problem of illuminated printing,'
however definitely it may have been solved
by the dream in which Bobert stood before
him and directed him,' was one which had
certainly occupied the mind of Blake for
'
'
some
years.
complete, in
An Island
WILLIAM BLAKE
follows
'.
."
59
"
pounds a
thousand."
They would
piece.
"
give
it
in full
TO THE PUBLIC.
The
Labours
of
the
Artist,
the
Poet,
the
the
Man
of Genius.
Even
]\Iilton
own
and Shake-
works.
now
presented to the
WILLIAM BLAKE
60
it
method
of Printing
is
phenomenon worthy
gance
all
it
of
exceeds in ele-
is
sure of his
reward.
Mr. Blake's powers of invention very early engaged the attention of many persons of eminence
and fortune
by whose means he has been re;
(he
j&nished
engravings
two
(and
more
are
nearly
of
the several
in.
by
2.
Size
3.
Edward and
1 ft. 6-| in.
Size
ft.
7^
Price 12s.
1 ft. 2 in.
by
ft.
WILLIAM BLAKE
4.
"Visions of the
Daughters of Albion, in
Folio, with
minated Printing.
61
Illu-
Price
8 designs.
7s. 6d.
5.
The Book
Printing.
6.
of Thel, a
Poem
in
The Marriage
ated Printing.
of
Heaven and
Illuminated
Price
3s.
Hell, in Illumin-
Price
7s. 6d.
7.
Price
5s.
Engravings.
10.
Price
The Gates
Engravings.
Price
3s.
of
Paradise,
small
book
of
3s.
By
consider, as
absurd to
it,
a mere
WILLIAM BLAKE
62
his
lack
of a technical knowledge
of
down
he would
have left us the creation of something like
an universal art. That universal art he did,
during his own lifetime, create for he sang
his songs to his own music and thus, while he
his inventions in that art also,
WILLIAM BLAKE
63
lived,
the poet in
all his
faculties,
complete realisation
been
must
that
has
known.
To
find
new
but, these
seem to be
friend
of wonder,
if it
is
to be found in
'
'
is
not in
of nature to nature.
aspires
it,
wisdom
in a child,
It
is
who has
WILLIAM BLAKE
64
What
it
is
that
'
one in any
transfixes
is
it
flesh of the
The
lyric
every
poet,
forgiveness
'
dress.'
They sing
'
'
human heart,
human face
Terror the human form divine.
And Secrecy the human dress.'
Cruelty has a
And
Jealousy a
WILLIAM BLAKE
65
'
hymns
addresses the epilogue of his Gates of Paradise to the Accuser who is the God of this
'
world
'
'
Truly,
And
my
WILLIAM BLAKE
66
Imagination is eternity.'
The poetry of
Blake is a poetry of the mind, abstract in
substance, concrete in form its passion is
the passion of the imagination, its emotion
is the emotion of thought, its beauty is the
beauty of idea. When it is simplest, its
simplicity is that of some infant joy too
young to have a name, or of some infant
sorrow brought aged out of eternity into
the dangerous world,' and there,
;
'
'
'
'
'
women
in the
world
the lines
lambs.
WILLIAM BLAKE
67
It is the
first,
It
is
riper years
And
so
68
WILLIAM BLAKE
IV
Blake
Poland
years, and issued from
lived
in
Street
for
five
it
the Songs of
Innocence (1789), and, in the same year,
The Book of Thel, The Marriage of Heaven
and Hell in 1790, and, in 1791, the first
book of The French Revolution : a Poem in
'
WILLIAM BLAKE
Wollstonecraft also came.
It
69
was at John-
the warning,
'
You must
not go home, or
'
when he spoke
also a story of a
of it.' There is
meeting between Blake and
WILLIAM BLAKE
70
of Paradise (1793), the poems and illustrations of the Songs of Experience (1794), and
the greater part of the Prophetic Books,
besides writing, apparently in 1797, the
vast and never really finished MS. of The
Four
Zoas.
confirmed by Norwood's
map
of
London
at the
end of the
ings
now
pulled down.
WILLIAM BLAKE
we have
71
a certain
author of
*
treatises,'
freethinking
speculator,
many elaborate
who complained that
had not a
dinner.'
the
philosophical
'
his children
72
WILLIAM BLAKE
and sickly
and looked
looks,
after
and taught
he died.
till
among
'
nothing
Blake had
families of high
for
'
'
'
'
WILLIAM BLAKE
73
'
'
sessed
it.
WILLIAM BLAKE
74
'
'
'
'
Diary
to his
in
though,
miniscences
put
it
Both passages
has yet ventured to print.
will be found in their place in the verbatim
reprint given later but I will quote the
;
second here
WILLIAM BLAKE
'
75
June.
journal,
common.
And when I objected that
Marriage was a Divine institution he re-
in
it
those
who
opinions
this
WILLIAM BLAKE
76
Through-
In laps of pleasure
The vigorous
'
'
offers
gold
'
'
girls
of mild silver or
to her lover
of
furious
that some
was at one
time or another entertained by him, and
'justified on some patriarchal theory.' What
think
'
it
perfectly
possible
'
WILLIAM BLAKE
77
Edens,
becomes angelic, and speaks with more deliberately hid or doubled meanings.
Even
The Tiger,' by which Lamb was to know
that here was
one of the most extra'
'
this book,
followed
and
it,
in the
in that
WILLIAM BLAKE
78
catches at
its
he catches at the
lines of the
drawing- master,
as he
reality
uses
it
flight.
says.
Where
other
poets
use
he
as a foothold on his return from
as
spring-board
into
space,
to
him
'
'
WILLIAM BLAKE
79
he
said,
'
'
Imagination,'
'
'
'
'
And
vision
a double vision
my
is
eyes do see,
always with me.
In being so
he
far conscious,
is
grey,
way.'
only recog-
In
his
interests
pute
earlier
work,
the
him, he accepts
it
symbol
without
still
dis-
ing love.
and the
Thus he writes
tiger,
of mere
of
and the
observation has
lily,
the
lamb
sorrow of
as no poet
ever written of
WILLIAM BLAKE
80
them
as illustrations
of the
divine attri-
butes.
From the same flower and beast
he can read contrary lessons without change
of meaning, by the mere transposition of
qualities, as in the poem which now reads
:
'
'
:
Be-
"
The
."
he
felt
full
"
And
at which point he
poem
to
show that
drew a
it was
line
"
under the
finished.
On
"
The
line,
it
"
WILLIAM BLAKE
81
And when
exist.'
he reads lessons,
let it not be supposed that Blake was ever
consciously didactic. Conduct does not concern him not doing, but being. He held that
education was the setting of a veil between
There is no good in
light and the soul.
education,' he said.
I hold it to be wrong.
I say that
'
'
was the
fault of Plato.
This
nothing
evil.
He knew
WILLIAM BLAKE
82
'When
who do
'
and,
am
endeavouring to think
rightly, I must not regard my own any
more than other people's weaknesses
so,
in his poetry, there is no moral tendency,
nothing that might not be poison as well as
antidote; nothing indeed but the absolute
affirmation of that energy which is eternal
delight.
He worshipped energy as the wellhead or parent fire of life and to him there
was no evil, only a weakness, a negation of
energy, the ignominy of wings that droop
and are contented in the dust.
And so, like Nietzsche, but with a deeper
innocence, he finds himself 'beyond good
and evil,' in a region where the soul is naked
courage
'
and
its
own
master.
Most
'
WILLIAM BLAKE
83
further back.
come to the
has a
new
Everything
last or
else,
Felpham
we
until
period,
which
Lambeth,
In his earlier work Blake
with
natural symbols, with nature as symbol in
his later work, in the final message of the
Prophetic Books, he is no longer satisfied
with what then seems to him the relative
truth of the symbols of reality. Dropping
the tools with which he has worked so well,
he grasps with naked hands after an absolute
truth of statement, which is like his attempt
is satisfied
WILLIAM BLAKE
84
literally,
of
human
'
among
we have only
the symbols,'
that after
a portion of
all
'
WILLIAM BLAKE
85
not understand.
Blake's great system of
wheels within wheels remains no better
than a ruin, and can but at the best be
pieced together tentatively by those who
are able to trace the connection of some of
its parts.
It is no longer even possible to
know how much consistency Blake was able
to give to his symbols, and how far he failed
to make them visible in terms of mortal
understanding.
As we have them, they
evade us on every side, not because they
are meaningless, but because the secret of
their meaning is so closely kept.
To Blake
actual contemporary names meant even
more than they meant to Walt Whitman,
AU truths wait in all things,' said Walt
Whitman, and Blake has his own quite
significant but perplexing meaning when
he writes:
'
'The corner
of
languishes
To Great Queen
tress
all is dis-
and woe.'
'
WILLIAM BLAKE
86
visible
us.
It
is
miscalculation
of
'
'
WILLIAM BLAKE
87
necessary to each
all
are
other.''
is
illustrated
Discourses.
'
One
This
fool.'
is
a carrying to
'
its
there
is
extreme
no such
and minute
because
and that
determinate and perfect
colouring does not depend on where the
colours are put, but on where the lights and
darks are put, and all depends on form or
The whole
outline, on where that is put.'
aim of the Prophetic Books is to arrive at a
in art is definite
vision
is
'
'
style as
'
'
WILLIAM BLAKE
88
What
is
further in-
Poetry
is
doubtless
meant
to take
Bible.
An
fettered,'
early
MS.
'
called
in
Tiriel,
still
pro-
exists,
beat,
WILLIAM BLAKE
of an
names,
Mnetlia.
Eastern
colour,
89
and
The Book
Ijim
Come
forth,
worm
thy pensive
queen.'
The sentiment
of Innocence,
of
life
WILLIAM BLAKE
90
concise statement of
many
of Blake's funda-
'
'
Tlie
WILLIAM BLAKE
91
As a new
of Heaven and Hell begins
heaven is begun, and it is now thirty-three
years since its advent, the Eternal Hell
revives. And lo
Swedenborg is the Angel
sitting on the tomb
his writings are the
linen clothes folded up.' Swedenborg himself, in a prophecy that Blake must have
heard in his childhood, had named 1757,
the year of Blake's birth, as the first of a
new dispensation, the dispensation of the
spirit, and Blake's acceptance of the prophecy marks the date of his escape from the
too close influence of one of whom he said,
as late as 1825, Swedenborg was a divine
teacher. Yet he was wrong in endeavouring
to explain to the rational faculty what
And so we are
reason cannot comprehend.'
warned, in The Marriage of Heaven and
*
'
Hell,
against
the
'
confident
insolence
Thus
Swedenborg boasts that what he writes is
new, though it is only the contents or index
sprouting from systematic reasoning.
of already published
books.'
And
again
may
WILLIAM BLAKE
92
With
shine.'
Paracelsus
doubtful
is
it
if
Blake was ever more than slightly acquainted the influence of Behmen, whom
he had certainly read in William Law's
translation^ is difiicult to define, and seems
to have been of the most accidental or
partial kind, but Swedenborg had been a
sort of second Bible to him from childhood,
and the influence even of his systematic
reasoning remained with him as at least a
sort of groundwork, or despised model
foundations for grand things,' as he says in
;
'
'
'
many
in
societies as heaven
for every society
heaven has a society opposite to it in
hell,
we
and
of-fact
suggestion
meek
for
order a matter-
enormous
which heavens
and alternate
Blake's
'
WILLIAM BLAKE
93
The
last note
'
'
'
'
WILLIAM BLAKE
94
Punishment.'
'
'
and declares
'
'
proclaims that
and that
And, in a
'
'
Energy
is
eternal delight,'
Everything that
lives is holy.'
mocking
the manner of the analyst of heaven and
hell,
he bids us
'
:
Note.
is
This Angel,
my particular
Bible
who
is
friend
together, in
its
WILLIAM BLAKE
95
have
if
'
Oppression.'
Proverbs of Hell is a
jewel of concentrated wisdom, the whole
book is Blake's clearest and most vital statement of his new, his reawakened belief; it
contains, as I have intimated, all Nietzsche
yet something restless, disturbed, uncouth,
lect,'
each of the
'
'
art,
it
WILLIAM BLAKE
96
translating
ecstasy
speech
familiar
'
By
It is Blake's
village smoke,
river.'
it
defends the
slackening ardour.
WILLIAM BLAKE
in
it,
beyond a name
97
And
trees
eternal joy.
Arise,
you
little
joy:
Arise,
is
bliss, for
It is the gospel of
The MarHage
of
Heaven
and have
little
all
Blake's prophecies.
It is a
WILLIAM BLAKE
98
eternal.
The
of wild rebellion,
'
lives is holy,
delights in
life
life
defil'd.'
'
'
the fiery
'
'
The
What
wilderness
WILLIAM BLAKE
That stony law
stamp to dust
and
99
scatter religion
abroad
To the four winds as a torn book, and none shall
gather the leaves.'
all
The doors
of
rustling scales
Rush
Ore,
desire,
lusts
of youth.
spirits of the
religion
Eun from
and
in
long-drawn
arches sitting,
They
feel
ancient times.
as a vine
when
appears.'
The world,
in
this
regeneration
through
WILLIAM BLAKE
100
'
generous
of
nature,
science
'
to
houses.'
bolts
and
hinges melted.
And
of men.'
is
though
it
an undercurrent,
lines
present
is
and the
is
chiefly
is
written
WILLIAM BLAKE
very significant
irregularities,
101
short
lines
manner
is
like
a net or spider's
Names
Manatha-Varcyon,
same form, are found
who in Europe is Diralada. The
whole poem is an allegory of the sleep of
Nature during the eighteen hundred years
of the Christian era, under bonds of narrow
religions and barren moralities and tyrannous
laws, and of the awakening to forgotten joy,
when Nature felt through all her pores the
enormous revelry,' and the fiery spirit of
Ore, beholding the morning in the east, shot
:
Thiralatha,
'
to the earth,
And
'
of his fury.'
is another hymn of revolution, but this
time an awakening more wholly mental,
with only occasional contemporary allusions
like that of the judge in Westminster whose
wig grows to his scalp, and who is seen
grovelling along Great
George Street
through the Park gate.'
'Howlings and
It
'
hissings, shrieks
WILLIAM BLAKE
102
heard throughout
we see
thought change the infinite to a serpent
are
despair,'
Heaven
The serpent
island
'
temple
shadows the
whole
Enitharmon laugh'd
triumph)
Every house a den, every
man bound
(0 woman's
the shadows
are filled
With
spectres,
of iron
Over the doors Thou shalt not and over the chimneys
Fear is written
With bands of iron round their necks fasten'd into the
:
walls
The
citizens
in
suburbs
Walk heavy
soft
of villagers.'
WILLIAM BLAKE
103
Wild flowers
me
each eternal
flower.
He
came
my
Into
to
write,
My
fairy sat
shadowed
'
'
that
life lives
it
like a spider's
is
'the
WILLIAM BLAKE
104
'
And
And
Then the
life.'
children of reason,
now
'
sons and
daughters of sorrow,'
'
Tombs
And
The
call'd
them
we
'
shall see
them
in
many
of the lyrical
still
never
WILLIAM BLAKE
105
Next
to the
now
lengthening,
shrinking, without
fixed
of inspiration as
it
Brahma, forms of
dark delusion to Moses on Mount Sinai,
a gospel from wretched
the mount of law
Theotormon (distressed human love and
'
abstract philosophy
'
in
'
'
'
'
to Jesus,
pity)
'
loose Bible
senses
'
'
'
of
Odin's
'
man
of sorrows
Mahomet, setting
'
the
free the
code of war.'
And
all
Till like a
erased.'
WILLIAM BLAKE
106
'
'
The vast
of
'
'
enclosed
in
senses,'
the
Locke.
'
the
philosophy of the
'
philosophy
The Kings of
five
Newton and
of
evil,
'
the remnant
may
learn to obey,
may fail.
may be quench'd.
May
'
ancient
by
'
fire
thick-
and
meet and
woven
the
'
he thunders
'
of reason which,
as
we have seen
in
the
WILLIAM BLAKE
book named
religion,
'
107
human
(also
brain,'
dated 1795)
is
Times remote
and Joy were adoration,
And none impure were deem'd.
!
When Love
'
them
flames, freezes
and
a light which
void.
makes
He sees
it
visible the
form of the
WILLIAM BLAKE
108
so
much
He
in Jerusalem.
'
Was
completed, a
from
a twin
Human
Illusion
myth.
all
It follows
Fuzon,
'
son of
Now
From
seen,
born Ahania
who
is
hides,
'
This cloudy
'
'
('
so
name
his parted
and
whom
soul
'),
he loves,
calls Sin.
She
is
WILLIAM BLAKE
As
the
moon anguished
109
The mother
of Pestilence.'
him
fire,
Tree
comes
shade
from
under
whose
of Mystery,'
weeping upon the
the voice of Ahania,
void,' lamenting her lost joys of love, and
the days when
and
nails
to the dark
rehgious
'
'
'
'
'
Bursting on winds
My
ripe figs
and
In infant joy at
my
odours.
rich pomegranates.
my
feet,
'
'
WILLIAM BLAKE
110
'
rocks, mountains,
Cruel jealousy,
selfish fear,
light.'
The mythology, of which parts are developed in each of these books, is thrown
together, in something more approaching a
is
The
now
all
volume of Mr.
Ellis' edition
of
WILLIAM BLAKE
111
it
is
impossible to take
authentic
text
incidental beauty
but
it
is
it
as a wholly
both
full
and of considerable
of
assist-
in Milton
we
or as
much
still
remembers that he
earthly beauty
is still
is
is
writing a poem,
WILLIAM BLAKE
112
What
is
Do men buy
it
for
a song,
Or wisdom
No, it is bought
for a dance in the street
with the price
Of all that a man hath his wife, his house, his
"?
children.
Wisdom
is
comes to buy,
And
'
And
watching for
its
So man looks out in tree and herb, and fish and bird
and beast,
Collecting up the scattered portions of his immortal
body
Into the elemental forms of everything that grows.'
WILLIAM BLAKE
113
'
'
'
'
'
Thus we find
Mount Gilead
changed into 'Mount Snowdon,' 'Beth Peor'
into Cosway Vale,' and a plain image such
cipher.
'
'
as this
'
is
'
The Mountain
Awake, oh brother
Mountain.'
WILLIAM BLAKE
114
VI
The
letters to
stead
Museum.
Cumberland Papers
These
letters
were
Hampmany mis-
Annual of
'
They
are
now
to be read in
WILLIAM BLAKE
115
'
'
'
'
'
whom
which
dated a week
later, and the nature of the reply which it
answers can be gathered from Blake's comment on the matter to Cumberland, three
days later still.
I have made him,' he says,
he has
a Drawing in my best manner
sent it back with a Letter full of Criticisms,
ment
of great importance,
is
'
'
WILLIAM BLAKE
116
which he says
Intentions, which
from his Work.
in
It accords not
are, to
How
Reject
with his
all
Fancy
he expects to
But as I cannot paint
please, I cannot tell.
Dirty rags and old Shoes where I ought to
place Naked Beauty or simple ornament, I
despair of ever pleasing one Class of Men.'
I could not help smiling,' he says later,
at the difference between the doctrines of
Here, then,
Dr. Trusler and those of Christ.
is the letter in which Blake accounts for
himself to the quack doctor (who has
Blake, Dimd with superdocketed it
far
'
'
'
'
stition
Eevd.
'),
as if to posterity
Sir,
I really
am
sorry that
you are
answer
and
Ideas
much
as to
for
it.
feel
falln out
if I
with
should have
of
study.
company.
If I
WILLIAM BLAKE
117
But
on
my
it
Design, permit
me
me
in return to defend it
is,
That
have
Malevolence?
of
Thievery, for
many
Money,
We
must
there-
portiond, which
do.
Fun
much Fun
is
of all things
WILLIAM BLAKE
118
To the Eyes of a
Every body does not see alike.
Miser a Guinea is more beautiful than the Sun, and
a bag worn with the use of Money has more beautiful proportions than a Vine filled with Grapes.
The tree which moves some to tears of joy is in
the Eyes of others only a Green thing that stands
Some see Nature all Eidicule and
in the way.
Deformity, and by these I shall not regulate my
and some scarce see Nature at all.
proportions
But to the Eyes of the Man of Imagination, Nature
As a Man is, so he sees.
is Imagination itself.
;
You
is formed, such are its Powers.
you
say
that
the
Visions
Mistake
when
certainly
To
of Fancy are not to be found in This World.
Me This World is all One continued Vision of
As
the
Fancy
am
Eye
or Imagination,
Wliat
told so.
and
is
it
I feel Flattered
sets
Homer,
when
Virgil,
Why
is
and
the
Imagination, which
is
Spiritual Sensation,
ing, Part
But
2,
'
am happy
to
find a
Great Majority of
WILLIAM BLAKE
Fellow Mortals
who can
Elucidate
119
My
Visions, and
my
Neither Youth
Childhood
nor
Folly
is
or
Some
Incapacity.
times
as
Chalk Engraving
laborious
as
Aqua
is at
tinta.
least Six
have no
Enand
graving
I
is
else If orders
for
my
Designs and
to,
Thus
If I
am
you are
a Painter
after.
But
it
am
am, Eevd.
Sir,
William Blake.
13 Hercules Buildings, Lambeth,
Aiigtist 23, 1799.
WILLIAM BLAKE
120
Blake
tells
quite cheerfully, and ends with these significant words, full of patience, courtesy,
sad humour
'
:
As
to Myself, about
and
whom
live
by
am
the Bible.
feel
and perhaps a
little
Twenty
practice in
It
is
them may
now
exactly
Fortune,
WILLIAM BLAKE
121
am
among my Friends.'
The employer is, no doubt, Mr.
Butts, for
whom
we know some
'
'
'
lances like
the time of
Tintoretto's.
But
it
was
also
all
of Eternity.'
It
is
by
tion that
artists,
WILLIAM BLAKE
122
which
command
creates.
'
'
pictures,
of the Italian
or
prints after
Primitives,
whose
gests
Diirer's
which
own
and, to the
'
'
imagination.
pointed out
'
plagiarisms
in Blake's design,
'
for
in
originality.
WILLIAM BLAKE
123
attribute
markable
Death
Koom
'
what
is
'
inventions
as
'
The
House
of
of the British
to the imagination
is
flexible
is
Museum.
Its appeal
partly in spite of
what
yond
that
the
WILLIAM BLAKE
124
existence,
*
is
none of the
itself vision or
He
perception.
And
so in his pictures,
what he gives us
the
He
wrote
you
for
trait
all,
history.'
There
is
WILLIAM BLAKE
125
'
hem
'
is
'
the
It
as
is all
LIBRARY
nil mil III
fa
I,
V.
WILLIAM BLAKE
126
made up
of elements not
precisely
to convey.
is
ofi",
and an unearthly
that
meant
for reality,
is
how abun-
WILLIAM BLAKE
127
woven
into the
It is the natural
'
vegetable world
subtle motion
in the
'
is
'
WILLIAM BLAKE
128
of
'
God
It
is,
of what, in the
of the
'
natural man.'
figures
of
men and
beasts that so
is
many
something Egyp-
riddles on papyri
pictures,
for
that
decorative
life
of design
which
WILLIAM BLAKE
makes them
129
cannot but
think that it was partly from what he had
seen, in actual basalt, or in engravings after
ancient monuments which must have been
tern as the hieroglyphics.
'
'
'
'
'
WILLIAM BLAKE
130
to
WILLIAM BLAKE
131
Heaven and
with open jaws, eyed and scaled with poisonous jewels of purple and blood-red and corroded gold, swelling visibly out of a dark
sea that foams aside from its passage or,
curved above the limbs and wound about the
head of a falling figure in lovely diminishing
coils like a corkscrew which is a note of in;
terrogation
or, in
WILLIAM BLAKE
132
The
WILLIAM BLAKE
Blake's colour
is
133
unearthly, and
is
used for
monotony
of the
verse,
and of
its
WILLIAM BLAKE
134
exquisite detaiL
vacant spaces
and with the colour there
comes a new intensity each design is seen
over again, in a new way.
Here, the mood
is a wholly different mood, and this seeing
;
by
contraries
is
of
on the
Urizen,
re-
glitter stormily
sunset.
The
vision
is
flashes of a
the same, but every
is different.
WILLIAM BLAKE
135
men.
The whole outward visible World,'
he tells us, with all its Being is a Signature,
or Figure of the inward spiritual World
whatever is internally, and however its
Operation is, so likewise it has its Characlike as the Spirit of each
ter externally
Creature sets forth and manifests the internal Form of its Birth, by its Body, so does
the Eternal Being also.' Just as he gives
us a naked Apollo for the spiritual form
of Pitt
in the picture in the National
Gallery, where Pitt is seen guiding Behemoth, or the hosts of evil, in a hell of
glowing and obscure tumult, so he sees the
soul of a thing or being with no relation
to its normal earthly colour.
The colours
of fire and of blood, an extra-lunar gold,
putrescent vegetable colours, and the stains
in rocks and sunsets, he sees everywhere,
and renders with an ecstasy that no painter
'
'
'
'
to
whom
colour
was valuable
It
is
for its
difficult
own
not
its
har-
it
WILLIAM BLAKE
136
VII
He did his
person of literary importance.
best to give Blake opportunities of making
money, by doing engraving and by painting
He read Greek
Blake is just
with him and Klopstock.
literally
learning the
and
become a Grecian,
language,' he says in one letter, and in
another
Bead Klopstock into English to
Blake.'
The effect of Klopstock on Blake
'
'
is
to be seen in a
poem
of ribald magnificence,
full.
WILLIAM BLAKE
Hayley on Blake, can be
137
At first we read
Mr. Hayley acts like a prince.' Then
I
find on all hands great objections to my doing
anything but the mere drudgery of business,
and intimations that, if I do not confine
myself to this, I shall not live.' Last
Mr.
H. is as much averse to my poetry as he is
to a chapter in the Bible.
He knows that
I have writ it, for I have shown it to him
(this is apparently the Milton or the Jerusalem), and he has read part by his own
desire, and has looked with suflicient contempt to enhance my opinion of it.
But
Mr. H. approves of my designs as little as
he does of my poems, and I have been forced
to insist on his leaving me, in both, to my
own self-will for I am determined to be no
longer pestered with his genteel ignorance
and polite disapprobation. I know myself
both poet and painter, and it is not his
affected contempt that can move to anything
but a more assiduous pursuit of both arts.
Indeed, by my late firmness I have brought
down his affected loftiness, and he begins to
think that I have some genius as if genius
and assurance were the same thing
But
passages in the letters.
'
'
'
WILLIAM BLAKE
138
me
only
deserve laughter.' What laughter they produced, while Blake was still suffering under
'
But
that
mies,'
'
'
up.
WILLIAM BLAKE
*
Eemembering the
verses that
139
Hayley sung
down
down
which
bitter epigrams,
mere
mind,
never intended for publication
no contradiction between these
for
relief of
ness received distract or blot out the consciousness of the intellectual imbecility which
may
lurk behind
'
By
it.
Blake said
gifts,
thought.'
What least
would
not have been too much for the triumphs
of temper of Felpham's eldest son ? what
'
contention of friendship
'
'
'
'
'
'
fire
of thought
'
And
it
is
sur-
'
desperation
has
made my
heart to ache
'
WILLIAM BLAKE
140
He
quarrelled with
many of his
friends,
with
'
am
down
the writing
of a mysterious manuscript
Buxton Forman,
which has never been printed, but which, by
his kind permission, I have been allowed to
read.
This manuscript is headed in large
The Seven Days of the Created
lettering
World,' above which is written, as if by an
in the possession of Mr.
'
'
Genesis.'
It
water-marked 1797.
It consists of some
two hundred lines of blank verse, numbered
by tens in the margin up to one hundred and
fifty, then follow over fifty more lines without
numberings, ending without a full stop or
any apparent reason for coming to an end.
The handwriting is unmistakably Blake's
WILLIAM BLAKE
on the
careful
page or two
first
;
gradually
more hurried
it
it
141
is
large
and
or fatigued, as
if it
The
had
all
been
earlier part
altered,
it difficult
to believe
tamely regular
in
metre or so destitute
It is an argu-
of imagination or symbol.
ment
vocations,
'
'
'
heaped up
in a scarcely Miltonic
manner,
Blake.
When
occurred to
saw
me
first
that
it
the
manuscript
it
WILLIAM BLAKE
142
'
'
'
'
'
WILLIAM BLAKE
143
If
without altering the main substance.
this is so, I think he stopped so abruptly
because he would not, even to oblige Hayley, go on any longer with so uncongenial a
task.
'
'
'
'
WILLIAM BLAKE
144
He drew
their houses.'
its proportions,
'
The
'
strength I
now
enjoy.'
Felpham represents
WILLIAM BLAKE
145
letters
my primitive
and
in both painting
original
ways
of execution
no doubt
period,
come
my
(a
in the quiet of
we
mind/
It
is
in
much
to this
as
visit to
pictures
tions
'
which
'
imaginative power, by means of that infernal machine, called Chiaro Oscuro, in the
'
'
spirit
of Titian,'
we
are told, in
what
is
WILLIAM BLAKE
146
fluence he dreaded,
'
of executing without a
model
and,
when
memory
prophetic
mediate
'
It
inspiration,
dictation,
against
my
him out
of the sea,
will.'
he
'
and
even
luminous,
height of men.'
two
last
this,
WILLIAM BLAKE
was begun
that year.
in
Yet
147
it
not
is
at
any
rate,
till
after
'
Li Felpham
I
hear,
streets.'
'
my
long
poem
for
new
WILLIAM BLAKE
148
and even
has taken in
against
my
will.
The time
it
'
To
After
the Public on the first page begins
my three years' slumber on the banks of the
*
'
Thus
trouble
it
is
altogether
WILLIAM BLAKE
149
by
somewhat
in the
This
Plato.
poem
public'
This I take to
mean that
before Blake's
The
illustra-
fact of this
*'
The sons
'
the beginning.
Address,'
poem from
In a passage of the
Public
contained in the Kossetti MS.,
'
WILLIAM BLAKE
150
Blake
says
*
:
The manner
my
which
in
called the
Buildings
poem
Herculean
my
concerning
labours
at
three
years'
Felpham, which
Even
if
this is
meart
'
'
salem
published
till
after
poem, though
it
may
refer
to
is
it
The
represents three
men who
'
were originally
WILLIAM BLAKE
151
divided,
fourfold.
his real
'
'
are
now
in
visionary
as
its
ancient glory,
all
his
to
his
when
it
it
'
Adam was
In the description of
Judgment Blake
of
the
Last
his picture
indicates Albion, our ancestor, patriarch of
the Atlantic Continent, whose history preceded that of the Hebrews, and in whose
The good
sleep, or chaos, creation began.
'
'
'
woman
Jerusalem
We
Britannia, the
is
is
wife
of Albion.
their daughter.'
and partly
British, into
152
WILLIAM BLAKE
mythology.
The
persons and machinery,' he said, were
entirely new to the inhabitants of earth
(some of the persons excepted).' This has
been usually, but needlessly, supposed to
mean that real people are introduced under
disguises.
Does it not rather mean, what
would be strictly true, that the machinery
is here of a kind wholly new to the Prophetic Books, while of the persons some
have already been met with, others are now
seen for the first time ? It is all, in his
own words, 'allegory addressed to the
gradually resolved his
'
'
'
'
'
intellectual powers,
while
it
is
altogether
'
Work
will
go
WILLIAM BLAKE
open."
At the beginning
'
153
of
poem
his
Blake writes
'
intervals, in the
Great
Harvest and Yintagfe of the Nations.' The
personal element comes in the continual
vision
of
'
He
set
me down
'
Felpham
beautiful
To
Natural Religion
and
it is
might write
all
the deceits of
'
when he
all
kinds of precious
stones
my
Cottage
Garden;
clothed in black,
severe
and
silent
he
descended.'
He awakes
by
his side
WILLIAM BLAKE
154
'
My
my
side.'
The
idiot
Man
And from
of Imagination
valuing calumny,'
it is difficult
Satan
'
Blake.
the
'
assertion
of
of the book
supremacy
the
of
is
the
imagination
'
The Imagination
Existence
'
'
is
not a State
it
the
is
Human
itself,'
off of
the
'
filthy garments,'
Kational Demonstration/ of
'
Memory,'
of oneself in imagination,
WILLIAM BLAKE
'
To
cast aside
from Poetry,
that
all
155
is
not Inspira-
tion,
That
it
shrJI
sion of
Madness
It
is
because
'
Rhymes
or paltry harmonies.'
Everything
in
Eternity shines
pose of
Opening to every eye
These wonders of Satan's holiness showing to the
Earth
The Idol Virtues of the Natural Heart, and Satan's
'
Seat
Explore in
In Self-annihilation
all
oflF
that
'
'
WILLIAM BLAKE
156
off
Sisters
Weave
Woof
the black
of
Benython
In the Vale of Surrey where Horeb terminates in
Rephaim.'
the grandest
work which
Milton,
but
still
it
decorates
is
much
many
Blake's
in order,
serious
and
it
there was
corners of
most
In Milton
a certain approximation to
still
most of the lines had at least a beginning and an end, but in Jerusalem, although
he tells us that every word and every letter
is studied and put into its place,' I am by
no meaus sure that Blake ever intended the
lines, as he wrote them, to be taken as
metrical lines, or read very differently from
verse,
'
WILLIAM BLAKE
157
its
'
Why
should Punishment
Wheels
When
of
Forgiveness might
Cherubim
Weave
War,
it
of
as if
its
were prose,
own sake, and
it
Such
is
tues of the
WILLIAM BLAKE
158
but the
Mr. Russell and Mr. Maclagan
if we turn to the original
engraved page, where we shall see that
Blake had set down in the margin a lovelylittle bird with outstretched wings, and that
the tip of the bird's wing almost touches the
last letter of the
the and leaves no room
for another word.
That such a line was
;
'
'
meant
to be metrical
unthinkable as that
'
is
unthinkable, as
hammer
in rage
&
In fury
he would accustom
most part, and
his
in
imagination was
lines that came
WILLIAM BLAKE
In vain
He
he
is
159
unknown Night.
he rolls thro'
heaven above,
He chokes up the paths of the sky the Moon is
leprous as snow
Trembling and descending down, seeking to rest on
high Mona
bleeds in torrents
of blood, as
Albion.
The Stars
is
And
flee
remote
the heaven
is
sulphur.
all
withering gourd.'
Cadence.'
in 1822, this
unknown
He thought
most direct message. Throughout the
Prophetic Books Blake has to be translated
out of the unfamiliar language into which
realities,
WILLIAM BLAKE
160
in the designs
into words he
false
what passed
the work of
for
'
picturesque
'
his contemporaries.
writing in
He
was,
after
it,
get his
'
discoveries,
free, malleable,
made when
marvellous lyrical
his
mind was
less
from
its
source.
Thus
we
find.
WILLIAM BLAKE
161
poems
'
'
WILLIAM BLAKE
162
falls
to mortal
a death.
He
life
as into
life,
through which he
Man is seen, as Blake saw all
passes.
Man's Humanity, his
things, fourfold
Spectre, who is Reason, his Emanation, who
is Imagination, his Shadow, who is Desire.
And the states through which Man passes,
friendly or hostile, energies of good or of
the Four Zoas, who are
evil, are also four
the Four Living Creatures of Ezekiel, and
are called Urizen, Luvah, Tharmas, and
him, and are the
states
'
'
Urthona
(or,
to mortals, Los).
Each Zoa
'
'
WILLIAM BLAKE
163
man and
of the powers in
are re-enacted.
new
for it
was the
'
to be
which
Ever-
it
among whom
WILLIAM BLAKE
164
birth) 1757.
He
cease to
to the time
punishments,
'
'
all
ward spheres
and Time,
by mutual forgiveness for evermore, and in the vision and
the prophecy, that we may foresee and
avoid the terrors of Creation and Redemption and Judgment.' He spoke to literalists,
rationalists, materialists
to an age whose
very infidels doubted only facts, and whose
deists afl&rmed no more than that man was
naturally religious. The rationalist's denial
of everything beyond the evidence of his
senses seemed to him a crimmal blindness
and he has engraved a separate sheet with
images and statements of the affirmation
There is no Natural Heligion.' To Blake
in the
of visionary Space
shadows of
possibility
'
WILLIAM BLAKE
165
literal
'
'
'
'
'
deeper into
practical eagerness,
had gone.
'
What
we
'
are
that
'
'
WILLIAM BLAKE
166
many
things
and adjust
'
Judah, of
'
is
the
Lord.'
There
'
is
an outcry
in
Jerusalem
No
Or
to his
istics
Woman,
Of David or
of Eve, of the
Of Reuben
or of Benjamin, of Joseph or
of the Lord,
Judah
or
Levi.
Blasphemy
by
his
off that
Evil One,
And
his
off
Eter-
nally,
WILLIAM BLAKE
Exactly what
more
meant here
is
we compare
clearly if
167
be seen
with a much
will
it
the
poem
'
'
and what
needful manner of
in
1794,
later.
'
Tirzah
'
is
Blake's
name
for
Natural
Beligion.
'
And
with
false, self-deceiving
Didst bind
my
Didst close
my Tongue
And me
Nostrils, Eyes,
Tears
and Ears
in senseless clay,
Here
is
WILLIAM BLAKE
168
of
part
large
philosophy
Christ's or ours,
is
fall
from eternal
realities
in the passage
of
rebuked, and
its
dicated, but in
how
mortal
the
different,
new manner
it is
of
Jesus
is
how
distorted a manner.
about this
thing ?
I think
life
how
What
obscure,
has brought
of saying the
same
an endeavour to do without
seem to Blake the deceiv-
to
What
WILLIAM BLAKE
'
To
build
the
169
Universe
Creating.'
And,
seeking
ticulars,'
Hence
was appealing.
'
All
returning wearied
Into the planetary lives of Years, Months, Days, and
Hours.'
Hence the
'
For
all
are
affirmation
Men
Cities, Villages
and the
*My
voice of
in
Eternity,
Eivers,
Mountains,
'
London saying
Streets are
my
Ideas of Imagination.'
WILLIAM BLAKE
170
tliat
I call
Los
English, the
the Language,
acting against
melancholy,
Albion's
Dumb
who must
In
the
labouring
'
have been a
else
despair.'
'
'
'
and
extended
work,'
'
consolidated
'
this
remain,
'
dumb
despair
'
He
is
said in Jerusalem
a poetical
WILLIAM BLAKE
*
171
I will
my
business
is
to
came
as
Create.'
gift,
and between
is
vital
equally true.
opposites
co-ordinating
articulated
increased
them
a myth,
when we
all
his affirma-
no contradiction, or
in
of truth
contradiction
The
into
and the
of
difficulty lies
so
minutely
difficulty
is
WILLIAM BLAKE
172
World
agination,
of
when
these
'
continually
'
Abstract
Philosophy
warring in
enmity
against
Imagination,
Which
is
the Divine
Body
of the
Lord
Jesus, blessed
for ever.'
He
England of his time generalising Art and Science till Art and Science is
lost,' making
'
finds the
'
Liberty
To destroy
Religion.'
He
sees that
WILLIAM BLAKE
The Visions
of Eternity,
by reason
173
of narroAved per-
ceptions,
Time and
visions of
Space, fix'd
He
sees everywhere
who
I
'
is
am
'
God,
Sons of
Men
am your
Rational
Power
Am
He
and
'
grains of sand
And
all
filth
and mire.'
and cold
repose.'
'
WILLIAM BLAKE
174
fourfold London,'
Of the
real
Jerusalem
'
I see
spiritual
or earthly
thro' the
Streets
Of Babylon, led by a
beard
'
'
'
much of his
What Blake most hated on earth
WILLIAM BLAKE
175
all
his
these
of
poems he
innocence
many
the
sings
in
experience
so
fetters.
his
and
In
his
instinctive
earlier
joys
of
all
And
'
'
'
'
No
To every energy
of
It
is
of
life.'
energy that
is
all,
WILLIAM BLAKE
176
mental energy.
'
reaHties
'
and that
'
And
evil.'
manner
of
Albion in their
in this
of the
Sons
strength
with which
Every Substance is clothed, they name them Good and
ties,
Evil,
An
Man
And
closed the
in its Holiness is
the
Holy Reasoning
Abomination
of
Desolation.'
The
is
'
WILLIAM BLAKE
his picture of the 'Last
177
'
:
them clergymen
instead of forgiving
says
'
it.'
And
the
appearance of
Man was
seen
in
the
Furnaces,
And
his love.'
And
in his greatest
I care
not whether a
Man
is
Good
or Evil
all
that I
care
Is
whether he
is
Wise Man
or a Fool.
Go, put
off
Holiness
And
put on
Intellect.'
WILLIAM BLAKE
178
'
And
God
if
As God
Love
is
is
little
Death
In the Divine Image, nor can
Brotherhood.'
Of Blake
Albion
'
it
may
He
felt
Man
but by
exist
be said as he says of
that Love and Pity are
'
Much
Man and
his pre-
is
says, in
'
Learn
Jerusalem
therefore,
Human
That walks about among the stones of fire, in bliss
and woe
Alternate, from those States or Worlds in ^vhioh the
Spirit travels
This
is
WILLIAM BLAKE
The same image
is
used again
179
So Men pass on
ever';
Last
but states
remain for ever he passes through them
like a traveller, who may as well suppose
that the places he has passed through exist
no more, as a man may suppose that the
states he has passed through exist no more
everything is eternal.'
By states Blake
means very much what we mean by moods,
which, in common with many mystics, he
Judgment
'
'
Man
passes
'
on,
man
him.
It is
WILLIAM BLAKE
180
And
'
his litany is
Descend,
Lamb
of
tion of Sin
By
the
creation of
States
Individuals evermore.
Come
then,
Lamb
remembrance
Amen.
of God,
of Sin.'
WILLIAM BLAKE
181
VIII
Blake had
ham,
'
!
'
he writes to Butts,
'
1803.
now
'
may
But
say
else
dream
There is no medium or
he adds, and if a man is the
enemy of my spiritual life while he pretends
to be the friend of my corporeal, he is a real
enemy.'
Hayley, once fully realised, had
to be shaken off, and we find Blake taking
rooms on the first-floor at 17 South Molton
Street, and preparing to move to London,
when an incident occurs which leaves him,
of other mortals.'
middle
state,'
'
'
WILLIAM BLAKE
182
as he put
it
in a letter to Butts,
'
in a bustle
'
'
'
'
'
'
thrown into an
'
WILLIAM BLAKE
Snow
183
In a letter
Felpham, Blake said
written before he
'
left
of
affords
of seeing
fine
and
pictures,
the
on
to
in London.'
Hayley,
letters,
crisis
that
'
ness, for I
vision
am
really
whenever
drunk with
intellectual
WILLIAM BLAKE
184
into
my
hand, even as
used to be
in
my
new
radiance
may
'
'
'
trea-
named Cro-
Europe.'
He
further
caused a difference
WILLIAM BLAKE
of plagiarism,
told clearly
is
narrative of J. T. Smith
Cunningham does
(p.
finally
who comes
'It
is
enough
in the
been
185
Cromek. It has
Mr. Swinburne,
summed up by
to
probable
beheved
Stothard
that
it is
certain
As for Cromek,
he has written himself down for all time in
his true character, naked and not ashamed,
in a letter to Blake of May 1807, where the
false bargainer asserts
Herein I have been
gratified
for I was determined to bring you
food as well as reputation, though, from your
late conduct, I have some reason to embrace
your wild opinion, that to manage genius,
and to cause it to produce good things, it is
that Blake was in the right.'
'
the opinion
is
it
indeed,
considerably heightened by
on half a guinea
subscription
'
live
so
in
advertisement
'
WILLIAM BLAKE
186
the drawings as
'
of genius'
'
of Mr.
Fuseli,' he tells us
indebted for the excellent
remarks on the moral worth and picturesque
dignity of the Designs that accompany
Fuseli praises pompously the
this Poem.'
genuine and unaffected attitudes,' the
simple graces which nature and the heart
alone can dictate, and only an eye inspired
by both, discover,' though finding the artist
playing on the very verge of legitimate
classical
taste
further,
'he
is
'
'
'
invention.'
It is
Blake
by the designs
is still
his
own
or,
in a literal way,
public
Grave that
known, outside
to Blair's
perhaps chiefly
WILLIAM BLAKE
187
five
'
'
'
'
'
'
But
more
serious
censure attaches to
WILLIAM BLAKE
188
'
'
'
'
'
precocious intellect,
tomed
to do little drawings,
some of which
WILLIAM BLAKE
189
own
and
opinion of
who
'
we
way, but does not see it. These are not so.
Even the copy of Raphael's cartoon of
St. Paul preaching is a firm, determinate
outline, struck at once, as Protogenes struck
his line, when he meant to make himself
known
WILLIAM BLAKE
190
little
all
own
mind.'
It
of the book to
is
in his
trans-
known
WILLIAM BLAKE
could spell any words.
Greek alphabet
'
and on
191
He knew
the
English prints.
'
know
grammar and
a deal of Latin/
and
in
December
1,
in Bell's
Weekly Mes-
himself,
which
is
many
'Last Judgments,'
by
In December he wrote to
George Cumberland, who had written to
order for a friend 'a complete set of all
you have published in the way of books
coloured as mine are,' that new varieties, or
J.
T.
Smith.
'
WILLIAM BLAKE
192
rather
new
pleasures, occupy
my
thoughts
new
profits
must alone be designing and paintTo this project, which was never
follows
'
Blake's
grims.
Chaucer,
This
to
engrave
in
correct
WILLIAM BLAKE
193
manner
of engrav-
and finished
line
all
allowed
artfully
disseminated insinuations
'
It is
to
the
own
having had
of our
own Hogarth,
works
WILLIAM BLAKE
194
Picture
is
now
The
among
exhibiting,
other
artist.
non-subscribers.
at the house of
first
nine are
experiment
pictures,' and the remaining seven as drawThe
ings,' that is, drawings in water-colour.
Catalogue (which was included in the entrance fee of half a crown) is Blake's most
coherent work in prose, and can be read in
described
as
'
Frescoes
'
or
'
'
Gilchrist,
ii.
139-163.
It
is
called
'A
WILLIAM BLAKE
195
tion,
filled
'
several rooms of an
He
p. 283 below).
mentions Lamb's delight in the Cata-
'
which
I
('
In
poem.'
15,
that
1824),
is full
as one of the
most
Lamb
'),
pictures
one
in
particular,
the
" Canter-
'
We
Lamb bound
that
it
WILLIAM BLAKE
196
tells us,
'
'
bably a
fresco,'
first
sketch.
WILLIAM BLAKE
197
bellish
'
Blake
rival/ as
'dumb
dollies'
calls Stothard,
whom
he
and of the
has
'jumbled
'
in his design,
'
'
198
WILLIAM BLAKE
The Catalogue
'
'
WILLIAM BLAKE
The main part of
it is
199
taken up by extracts
'
Such is the case with the productions and admirers of WilHam Blake, an
unfortunate lunatic, whose personal inoflPensiveness secures him from confinement, and,
consequently, of whom no public notice
would have been taken, if he was not forced
on the notice and animadversion of The
Examiner, in having been held up to public
admiration by many esteemed amateurs and
professors as a genius in some respect
original and legitimate.
The praises which
these gentlemen bestowed last year on this
progress.
unfortunate
man's illustrations
to
Blair's
WILLIAM BLAKE
200
if
not to the
fancies
Thus
encouraged,
himself
poor
the
man
of
a farrago of
egregious
One
brain.
of
the
pictures
represents
'
at
WILLIAM BLAKE
201
candle,
'
improvement
in individual taste.
When
lection
would make me
round my room.'
sick to
'
It
hundred
years, a
WILLIAM BLAKE
202
guffaws
the
of vulgar
repeated
persons,
And
due
course, when Blake has been properly dead
generation after generation.
so in
'
And
its
is
cer-
origin, as directly
as
truth.
divine
and as emphatically as he
had appreHe is merely stating
hended
its
WILLIAM BLAKE
what seems
looked fact
Britons the blood
'
'
is
seen to circulate in
their limbs
ing
203
'
and execution of my
work.'
All art, he had realised, which is
true art, is equal, as every diamond is a
diamond. There is only true and false art.
Thus when he says in his prospectus of 1793
that he has been enabled to bring before
the Public works (he is not afraid to say) of
equal magnitude and consequence with the
productions of any age or country,' he means
neither more nor less than when he says
'
not inferior to
Superior it cannot
is
what he does
'He
either
or
who seemed
to
him the
genuine
artists,
all art is
WILLIAM BLAKE
204
which
is
in
mere gratitude,
When
to its origin.
'
supremacy of strong,
clear,
masculine
broken masses,
and broken colours of the art which loses
form.' In standing up for his ideal of art, he
I am
stands up himself, like a champion.
hid,' he writes on the flyleaf of Reynolds's
execution, the
'
broken
lines,
'
'
'
'
'
finally,
and with a
'
WILLIAM BLAKE
205
'
tive
Catalogue,
'
was
Enquiry
life.
ginalia to Reynolds,
'
is
not whether a
Eng'
The
mar-
Man
He
says there
'
:
Ages are
all
Equal, but
'
'
WILLIAM BLAKE
206
in Earnest.
believed that
What
Blake meant by
vision,
how
signifi-
words
seen
and
'
'
imagined,'
has
been
jectors
'
of
representations
Gods immortal,
organ of sight
spiritual
existences,
of
Mr. B.
and organised in solid marble.
same latitude, and all is well.'
Then comes the great definition, which I
requires the
in
'
:
He who
'
else-
WILLIAM BLAKE
where,
'
is infinite
and
eternal,
207
whereas the
and temporal.
glass of nature.'
muted by an
What
is
ment prophecy,
into terms of
In the rendering of vision he required above all things
that fidelity which can only be obtained
through
minutely particular execution.
Invention depends Altogether upon Execution or Organisation
as that is right or
wrong, so is the Invention perfect or imperlife,
'
'
'
WILLIAM BLAKE
208
'
Descriptive
more
line,
Catalogue,
'
is
this
that the
and bungling.
What
is
it
that dis-
WILLIAM BLAKE
209
which not
with
passionate idea, the implacable and eternal
joy of destruction, but also with a realised
No
beauty, a fully grasped invention.
detail has been slurred in vision, or in
'
the
setting
crowned
old
down of
man with
the
in
is
alive
vision
the
galloping horse,
putrid
scales
'
coil, spire,
WILLIAM BLAKE
210
rigid
literal
statements,
of
They
are
imagination.
the
facts
the
of
summarised remem-
in
pre-
it is
detail
of
reality
comes to
seem to us unreal
is
In
intensity.
No
one detail
is
and
surface is equally important to him
from this unslackening emphasis come alike
;
WILLIAM BLAKE
211
his
leaves
us,
'
'
'
reality;
'
WILLIAM BLAKE
212
He
is
is
imagination
technique.
technique, as
new
life
to the
Rem-
him
'
'
'
'
'
'
'
WILLIAM BLAKE
213
hands
he saw them with the faces and
forms of men, and with the lines of earthly
;
habitations.
painters,
and
clearness.
Every
picture
of
is
built
up
pictorial
In the greatest
pictures (in the tremendous invention, for instance, of the soldiers on Calvary casting
lots for
and we
and
but
WILLIAM BLAKE
214
any
detail for
any purpose,
of which the
and beast
informed by an almost
human soul, not the mere vitality of animal
or vegetable, but a consciousness of its own
lovely or evil shape.
His snakes are not
only wonderful in their coils and colours,
but each has his individual soul, visible in
flower
his eyes,
colours.
is
coils
unnatural yet
and
alive,
is
insignificant, so painting
admits not
WILLIAM BLAKE
215
ficant
winged heads)
which is beSometimes they
life
and blushing wings, hung with burstSomeing stars that spill out animalcule.
times the whole man is a gesture and convulses the sky or he runs, and the earth
But the gesture devanishes under him.
hair
vours the
man
also
Michelangelo
artist
in
is
whom
imagination
overpowers
WILLIAM BLAKE
216
technique, as
artist in
new
to
life
senses,
and the
seen,
'
he writes to Mr. Butts from Felpham, 'that there is not one touch in those
drawings and pictures but what came from
my head and heart in unison. ... If I were
to do them over again, they would lose as
much as they gained, because they were done
He was an inin the heat of my spirit.'
exhaustible fountain of first thoughts, and
to him first thoughts only were of importThe one draughtsman of the soul,
ance.
he drew, no doubt, what he saw as he saw
it
but he lacked the patience which is a
part of all supreme genius. Having seen
his vision, he is in haste to record what he
and he leaves the first
has seen hastily
rough draft as it stands, not correcting it
by a deliberate seeing over again from the
assured,'
WILLIAM BLAKE
217
Blake's drawings,
Blake,
said
these figures
'
'
'
'
'
also
'
:
by God
He who
or man.'
And
he said
is
WILLIAM BLAKE
218
IX
Nothing
known
between
1809, the date of his exhibition, and 1818,
when he met the chief friend and helper of
his later years, John Linnell.
Everything
is
of Blake's
life
WILLIAM BLAKE
219
is
confirmed in a letter to
Dawson Turner,
when
for they,
poetical personifications
executed
America, 18 prints
Europe, 17 do.
Visions,
do.
Thel,
do.
s.
folio.
do..
do..
quarto,
....
....
Songs of Experience, 26
octavo,
do.
A.
WILLIAM BLAKE
220
do.
x.
d.
10 10
do.,
about 2
ft.
by Ij
ft.,
his-
in colours, each
.550
The few
I have printed
have gained me
great reputation as an artist, which was the
But I have never
chief thing intended.
been able to produce a sufficient number for
sufficient to
me
should send
me
that any
all of
them
them
now
half as
many
tells
Cumberland
WILLIAM BLAKE
221
edition,
Real Blake.
WILLIAM BLAKE
222
November
1817 the greater part of a house at 38 Rathbone Place, where he Hved till the end of
1818 he then took a house at Cirencester
Place, Fitzroy Square.
Mr. Linnell gives
from
his father's autothe following extract
;
biographical
notes
'
:
At Rathbone
Place,
1818
here I first became acquainted with
William Blake, to whom I paid a visit in
company with the younger Mr. Cumberland.
Blake lived then in South Molton Street, OxWe soon became
ford Street, second floor.
intimate, and I employed him to help me
with an engraving of my portrait of Mr. Upton, a Baptist preacher, which he was glad to
do, having scarcely enough employment to
everylive by at the prices he could obtain
thing in Art was at a low ebb then. ... I
soon encountered Blake's peculiarities, and
somewhat taken aback by the boldness of
some of his assertions, I never saw anything
the least like madness, for I never opposed
him spitefully, as many did, but being really
anxious to fathom, if possible, the amount of
truth which might be in his most startling
assertions, generally met with a sufficiently
.
WILLIAM BLAKE
explanation
rational
friendly
in
and conciliatory
From 1818
the
223
most
really
tone.'
own
Blake to
live on.
to the
'
and
two
Museum
24, 1823).
visits to
It
was
probably early in 1819 that Linnell introduced Blake to his friend John Varley, the
water-colour painter and astrologer, for
the
famous
'
visionary
two arguing,
224
drawn by
WILLIAM BLAKE
Linnell, is given in Mr. Story's
Life of Linnell.
side, was no
persuaded Blake to do a
series of drawings, naming historical or
legendary people to him, and carefully
writing down name and date of the imaginary portraits which Blake willingly drew,
and believing, it has been said, in the reality
of Blake's visions more than Blake himself.
Cunningham, in his farcical way, tells the
story as he may have got it from Varley
(see p. 420 below), for he claims in a letter
to Linnell to have received much valuable
information from him.' But the process has
been described, more simply, by Varley himself in his Treatise of Zodiacal Physiognomy
(1828), where the Ghost of a Flea' and the
Constellation Cancer are reproduced in
engraving. Some of the heads are finely
symbolical, and I should have thought the
ghost of a flea, in the sketch, an invention
more wholly outside nature if I had not
seen, in Bome and in London, a man in
whom it is impossible not to recognise the
type, modified to humanity, but scarcely
by a longer distance than the men from the
loger on
visionary.
the mathematical
He
'
'
'
'
WILLIAM BLAKE
225
deir Hiiomo.'
It was in 1820, the year in which Blake
began his vast picture of the 'Last Judgment,'
christ's Life.
the writer,
unless
it
'
'
We
hold
it
impossible,' says
work
to get a genuine
of art,
WILLIAM BLAKE
226
is
In token
Thornton's Pastorals of Virgil.
of our faith in the principle here announced,
we have obtained the loan of one of Blake's
from Mr. Linnell, who posseries, to print, as an illustration of our argument, that, amid all
drawbacks, there exists a power in the work
of the man of genius, which no one but
himself can utter fully. Side by side we
have printed a copy of an engraver's improved version of the same subject. When
Blake had produced his cuts, which were,
however, printed with an apology, a shout
of derision was raised by the wood-engravers.
" we will
" This will never do " said they
show what it ought to be" that is, what
the public taste would like and they produced the above amendment The engravers
were quite right in their estimate of public
original blocks,
sesses the
whole
taste
will agree
WILLIAM BLAKE
of genius
is
227
but a piece
first floor
he had sold
all
'
Linnell
in
want
before I
knew
'
his collection
WILLIAM BLAKE
228
first
floor,
front
'
'
'
It
WILLIAM BLAKE
229
met
'
'
things,
delightful,
any
age.'
hearted
'kind, light-
in the intervals
buy a
his last
230
WILLIAM BLAKE
1826.
'much must
'
It
is
WILLIAM BLAKE
imagination at
231
its
ness of a defect.
praised
pages contributed to Gilchrist's life (i. 330335), of which Mr. Swinburne has said, with
little
exaggeration, that
Blake himself,
had he undertaken to write notes on his
designs, must have done them less justice
than this,'
Before Blake had finished engraving the
designs to Job he had already begun a
new series of illustrations to Dante, also a
and, with that
commission from Linnell
'
'
'
was part
work
to learn
WILLIAM BLAKE
232
'
'
he asks in a
Lamb and
house, and
it
one of
in
'
1820 we find
him
at
Lady
Caroline
Lamb's.
Along with
this
general
and
disciples.
a certain
Blake
number
steadiest friend,
Calvert,
disciples,
society
WILLIAM BLAKE
233
who
'
of Blake
of
wood
tells
'
:
till
am
frightened at
it.'
Palmer
'
'
Then,' said
The
friends
often
met
at
Hampstead,
WILLIAM BLAKE
234
road.'
It
Palmer's son
is
who
reports
it,
and he adds
It is a matter of reofret that
the record of these meetings and walks and
'
conversations
so
is
imperfect,
for
in
the
in
Shoreham Castle
after
ghost,
who
WILLIAM BLAKE
235
fail,
and most of
letters to Linnell
his
is
in bed, or
It
is
Hamp-
suffering from a
He worked
whether he was
well or ill, at the Dante drawings, which he
made in a folio book given him by Linnell.
There were a hundred pages in the book,
and he did a drawing on every page, some
completely finished, some a mere outline
of these he had only engraved seven at the
time of his death. He sat propped up in
bed, at work on his drawings, saying, Dante
goes on the better, which is all I care about.'
In a letter to George Cumberland, on April
I have been very near
12, 1827, he writes
the gates of death, and have returned very
weak and an old man, feeble and tottering,
but not in the spirit and life, not in the real
man, the imagination, which liveth for ever.'
And indeed there is no sign of age or weakness in these last great inventions of a dying
persistently,
'
'
WILLIAM BLAKE
236
he adds, and we
must soon follow, every one to his own
eternal house, leaving the delusive Goddess
Nature to her laws, to get into freedom from
all law of the numbers, into the mind, in
which every one is king and priest in his
own house. God send it so on earth, as it
man.
is
'
Flaxman
is
gone,'
'
in heaven.'
12, 1827,
and the
many
Tatham
witnesses.
tells
us how, as
'
'
'
'
WILLIAM BLAKE
237
'
Tatham
tells
for
WILLIAM BLAKE
238
away
'
Tatham adds
in Paradise.'
'
:
After
'
WILLIAM BLAKE
Age, 65
yrs.
Street,
Fitzroy
& W.
239
Square.
&
Grave,
12 feet
She
was born April 24, 1762, and was thus
aged sixty-nine years and six months.
Mr. Swinburne tells us, on the authority
of Seymour Kirkup, that, after Blake's
death, a gift of 100 was sent to his widow
by the Princess Sophia, which she gratefully returned, as not being in actual need
of it. Many friends bought copies of Blake's
engraved books, some of which Mrs. Blake
coloured, with the help of Tatham.
After
her death all the plates and manuscripts
passed into Tatham's hands. In his memoir
Tatham says that Blake on his death -bed
E.
N.
S. 31,
32.
1,
5s.'
paintings,
plates, of
had been
WILLIAM BLAKE
240
He
'
angel
'
of
supposed to
have destroyed the whole of the manuscripts
and drawings in his possession on account
of religious scruples
and in the life of
Edward
Calvert by his son we read
fearing
some
fatal
denouement,
went
Calvert,
to Tat ham and implored him to reconsider
the matter and spare the good man's precious
work notwithstanding which, blocks, plates,
drawings, and MSS., I understand, were
is
'
destroyed.'
Such
is
the
strictly true
received
story,
Did Tatham
but
is
it
really destroy
did he keep
them and
surreptitiously sell
them
Nov.
6,
works
'
had
said,
me
that
Tatham
WILLIAM BLAKE
241
'
WILLIAM BLAKE
242
X
There
'
'
'
WILLIAM BLAKE
243
'
'
'
'
he outraged
all
common-,
opinions
he
'
'
It
'
To
WILLIAM BLAKE
244
in
part, or to calculation
Whitman's
'
to the intellectual
that,
definition of his
which
own
is
Walt
aim, defines
Blake's.
Where others doubted he knew
and he saw where others looked vaguely
into the darkness.
He saw so much further
than others into what we call reality, that
others doubted his report, not being able to
check it for themselves and when he saw
truth naked he did not turn aside his eyes.
Nor had he the common notion of what
;
truth
is,
or
why
it
is
He
to be regarded.
the
When I tell a truth it is not
sake of convincing those who do not know
it, but for the sake of defending those who
And his criterion of truth was the
do.'
said
for
'
'
'
Error
is
created, truth
or creation will be
till
is
is
eternal.
Error
It
behold
it.'
WILLIAM BLAKE
245
all
to
He
convince others.
when he
believed
spoke,
asked to be
the truth,
told
He
evasion.
'
It is easy to
said
while we
trifles
and small
articles of
that goodness,
his friends
who admire
his minutest
powers.'
He
made no
true to ancient
then
it
WILLIAM BLAKE
246
is
it,
blasphemer.
We
have come to
realise,
out long ago, that, as a poet, Blake's characteristic is above all things that of pure
*
We
no longer
praise his painting for its qualities as literature, or forget that his design has greatness
as design.
And
WILLIAM BLAKE
247
'
'
illuminate
his
letters,
*to
make
a figure
the spectators in
indeed
the sky.'
spectators
likely
to
are
amused by our
among us are they
there,
more
amuse
If there
this
II
(I.)
1810-1852.
'Of
all
the records of
Swinburne
in his
these
book on Blake,
his
'
latter
years,'
says Mr.
MSS.
am
are preserved, I
first
time, an
Robinson says
'
It
is
strange that
I,
May
as
well
13, 1848,
who have no
as
Crabb
imagination,
have understood Blake better than he did, but no one else was
and thus so faithful an interpreter
meaning.
added commas
of quotation only
in these matters
transcript
was
of
Otherwise the
is literal
any readings
when
likely to be confusing.
in the manuscript.
(1)
1825
December
interesting
Blake
I will
method
all I
me
without
man.
Shall I call him Artist or
Probably he
Mystic or Madman ?
is all.
He has a most interesting appearance.
He is now old pale with a Socratic countenance,
and an expression of great sweetness, but bordering
on weakness except when his features are animated by ^ expression, and then he has an air of
The conversation was on
inspiration about him.
this remarkable
Genius
or
'
'Any' crossed
out.
WILLIAM BLAKE
254
object,
have been at a
shewn soon
loss to
He was
understand him.
after
And
it
years before I
my
knew
of the picture
I did
'
They
it
however,
20
in
No wonder
paintings.
there
is
resemblence.'
when he
said
my
visions
in his visions.
it
And
say
You
What
'
took occasion to
Socrates used.
there between
The same
and the spirit of Socrates ?
He paused and
as between our countenance.'
And then, as if coradded
I was Socrates.'
recting himself,
A sort of brother. I must have
So I had with Jesus
had conversations with him.
your
spirit
is
'
'
'
255
is
30)
be sure
with
all
it
God
is
impossible.
members
We
'
In
We
are
this,
by
query of Plato
As connected with
this idea
'
WILLIAM BLAKE
256
'
what men do ?
'I am no judge of that.
Perhaps not in God's Eyes.'
Though on this and
other occasions he spoke as if he denied altogether
the existence of evil, and as if we had nothing to do
evil in
work
German word
of God.
[I in-
objectively,
which
he spoke of
error as being in heaven.
I asked about the moral
character of Dante in writing his Vision was he
he approved
of.]
Yet
at other times
pure
'
'
By which
evil
'
'
Do you
crossed out.
think there
is
He
'
angels
"
in
his
is
The
he chargeth
he
Supreme Being
Blake than
257
hira that he
these
metaphysical
speculations
so
He
Art is
Raphael
'
When
inspiration.
Mr. Flaxman
or
things, he does
them
should be sorry
if
Michael Angelo or
does
any of
in the spirit.'
I
Blake
his fine
said,
'
for
was continually expressing is his distinction between the natural and the spiritual world. The
natural world must be consumed.
Incidentally
Sivedenhorg was spoken of.
He was a divine
teacher he has done much good, and will do
much good he has corrected many errors of
Popery, and also of Luther and Calvin.
Yet he
out.
WILLIAM BLAKE
258
he should have
left
he does.
collect,
He had
poet.
'political
this
'
Scriptures
he said he
of illness.
It
brought on a
produced
and
read
'
Jehovah
with
his thunder,
thrones,
pass
'
Jacob
of
as a divinely
Blake praised,
259
very
beautiful,
translation
as
Law's
Michael Angelo could not have done better.
Though he spoke of his happiness, he spoke of past
There
sufferings, and of sufferings as necessary.
being
'
is suffering in
of enjoyment, there
is
me
by a
and
remarks but
is
the capacity
any distinct
to go and see him
call
from Talfourd
can not
as
now
recol-
shall possibly
have an
may
if
not
is
certainly a
Every
is
'
'
crossed out.
Lh
>miii'""
WILLIAM BLAKE
260
good.
believe
quite
is
it
We
navigation.
flat.
were
called
to
dinner at
the
'
He
know what
I
" that
Satan."
by internal conviction.
heart says it must be
this
corroborated
by remarking on the
doctrine
true.'
is
is
told
is
true
me
impossibility of the
my
unlearned
man
judging
of
of religion,
than set
down
and acutely.
His friend Linnel seems a great admirer.
Perhaps the best thing he said was his comWho shall
parison of moral with natural evil.
'
God
thinks evil
Mahometans
the
of the
261
'
'
murdered by an angel
11 th December.
will here insert a
He
dwells in Fountain
found him in a small
room, which seems to be both a working-room and
a bedroom.
Nothing could exceed the squalid air
both of the apartment and his dress, but in spite
of dirt
I might say filth
an air of natural
gentility
is
And
on
and
conversing
with
these
worthy
people.
make any
progress in
that there
But
fear I shall
not
found
[st'c]
at
work on Dante.
shewed
me
The book
him.
He
WILLIAM BLAKE
262
to
me
and
seemed
this
we passed over
to satisfy him.
From
good and
to that of
this subject
evil, in
which
He
etc.,
and
if
these be evil
then
error, mistake,
is evil,
but
is
there
education should
be attempted except
'What
When
not regard
rightly
when
my own
am
endeavouring to think
263
And when
weaknesses.'
He
not believe
omnipotence
the
in
of
is
He
my
assented
Visions.
'
Paradise Lost.
after
'
is
'
The
only poet-
is
he denied that
It is all nothing,
reverted
and he told me
Yet soon
anything.
God.
to
of
doctrine
his
fall.
The
the
that
fall
could
answered, the
fall
Various ages
sometimes
He
WILLIAM BLAKE
264
Made
llth.
Hundleby took
We talked of his
coffee
with
me
whom
I can't
whose
Saturday
interview.
able
ode,
make him
2ith.
properly enjoy
tSte.
call
on Blake.
of Blake,
My
third
read
eternal repetition
tiresome.
tete
of
Again he
what must
repeated to
day,
the
become
in time
'
fear
265
God, but by
God's
is
by
And when
permission.
he did not seem to understand me. It M'as remarked that the parts of Wordworth's ode which he
most eujoyed were the most obscure and those I
the least like and comprehend.
.
January 1826
^th.
call
while to write
a
on Blake.
down
hardly feel
it
worth
his conversation, it is so
talk.
He was
much
very
had procured him two subscriptions for his Job from Geo. Procter and Bas.
Montague.
This, probably,
I paid 1 on each.
put him in spirits, more than he was aware of he
spoke of his being richer than ever on having
learned to know me, and he told Mrs. A. he and I
were nearly of an opinion. Yet I have practised no
cordial to-day.
renewed
his complaints,
so.
He
tion of Wordsworth.
WILLIAM BLAKE
266
d)th.
M.
Then took
there.
Encore une
etc.
la de phis.
excellence
February
I8th. Jos.
on Blake.
no novelty.
called
this note
inferior object
passed
of man's
contemplations
he also
permitted.
Mercy.
Satan dwells in
it,
dwell in him.'
Of Wordsworth he talked as
his writings proceed from the
others are
the work
of the
before.
Some
of
However,
267
And warmly
to God's grace.
knew was
by
For as to the
natural sense, that Voltaire was commissioned by
God to expose. I have had much intercourse with
Voltaire, and he said to me I blasphemed the Son
of Man, and it shall be forgiven me. But they (the
enemies of Voltaire) blasphemed the Holy Ghost
in me, and it shall not be forgiven them.'
I asked
in what language Voltaire spoke
he gave an
ingenious answer.
'To my sensation it was
English.
It was like the touch of a musical key.
He touched it probably French, but to my ear it
became English.' I spoke again of iYiQ form of the
persons who appear to him.
Asked why he did
not draw them, It is not worth while.
There are
so many, the labour would be too great.
Besides
there would be no use.
As to Shakespeare, he is
which is called a
exactly like the old engraving
bad one.
I think it very good.'
I have written
I enquired about his writings.
more than Voltaire or Rousseau six or seven
epic poems as long as Homer, and 20 tragedies
He showed me his Vision
as long as Macbeth.'
(for so it may be called) of Genesis
'as understood by a Christian Visionary,' in which in a
the
Bible
'
'
'
WILLIAM BLAKE
268
style
He
He
spirit
It
is
was
given.
striking.
any more.^
I write,' he says,
when commanded by the spirits, and the moment
I have written I see the words fly about the
room in all directions. It is then published, and
My MSS. of no further use.
the spirits can read.
I have been tempted to burn my MSS., but my
She is right, said I and you
wife won't let me.'
have written these, not from yourself, but by a
The MSS. are theirs and your prohigher order.
You cannot tell what purpose they may
perty.
He liked this, and
answer unforeseen to you.
His philosophy
said he would not destroy them.
causation,
denying
asserting
everyrepeated
he
will not print
'
'
God
is
God
or the Devil
that
angels
of his horror of
money
of
May
Thursday llth. Calls this morning on Blake, on
Thornton [etc.]
Tea and supper at home. The Flaxmans,
1 2th
.
'
out.
269
sions
querier
commented on
those of a
man
were
Blake asserted
of ordinary notions.
you deny
yes
all
doubt
'
progression
tolerates Blake.
says INIasquerier.
Blake relished
They
eleven.
till
Do
Oh
as he ought.
staid
'
my
Stone drawings.
Blake is more and more convinced that Wordsworth worships nature and is not a Bible Christian.
I have sent him the Sketches.
"We shall see
whether they convert him.
June
\^th.
Blake.
Another
He was
idle
day.
as wild
as
Called
ever, with
on
no great
early
'
WILLIAM BLAKE
270
was not
He
so.'
asserted that he
that reason
is
etc.
etc. etc.
Decemher
his age.
As a man he exspecimen of Christian and moral
said,
'
'
'
passage from
'
crossed out.
271
angel,'
soul.
not favourably.
'
Christ,'
said
he,
'
to think
took
much
'
is
better than
my
'
things.'
1827
February
Friday, 2nd.
apparently by Gotzenberger.
WILLIAM BLAKE
272
1828
January
Wi.
Breakfasted
Field
B.
there.
with
Shott
Walked with
Talfourd
Field
to
and
Mrs.
Chaucer's
of
guineas
Blake
is
hereafter.
pilgrimage
a proof and
hers.
Therefore
two prints at 2|
each.
I mean one for Lamb.
Mrs.
to look out some engravings for me
Field bought
(2)
In a
letter to
reference to
him occurs
have
above
No
earlier
mentioned
Blake.
forget
ETC. 273
ever mentioned to you this very inman. with whom I am now become acWere the " Memorials " at my hand, I
quainted.
should quote a fine passage in the Sonnet on
the Cologne Cathedral as applicable to the con-
whether
teresting
an
affinity
his
has given
me
conversations.
are
immense
spirits.
He
me
WILLIAM BLAKE
274
it
is
for the
spirits
only
fly-
is
then published.
A man
so
wisdom and
They
are a strange
compound
'
And
as I
the purpose
'
ETC. 275
W.
In reply to my answer
he said, "If so, what does he mean by 'the worlds
to which the heaven of heavens is but a veil,' and
who is he that shall pass Jehovah unalarmed ? "
It is since then that I have lent Blake all the
sincere real Christian
"
'
'
The MS.
is
here torn.
WILLIAM BLAKE
276
he
is
etc.,
that
a great man.
etc.
mav
Besides, he
conviDce
me
am
am
told,
He
disliking.
then says
'
:
It is a sort
of intel-
assure
you
it
gives
me
real pain
when
think that
"
This
great
poet
survived
to
the
fifth
to
sympathy with
[More
I
follows,
assure you, to
and then]
make
'
ETC.
277
temporary
tlie
."
.
had no intention,
so long a parenthesis or
And
wish
you not
to read
give
it
me
keep
to yourself.'
On
April
6,
Herefordshire
guessed
it
'
when your
to be, arrived
it
letter,
for
such we
We
are
all,
at
we could
WILLIAM BLAKE
278
[There
is
me much,
could
Farewell.'
no signature.]
(3) FEOM
CRABB EOBINSON'S
REMINISCENCES
1810
I
this spring
by writing an
Hamburg had
Perthes of
Blake.
me
written to
me
his
to
Memoirs
this I did,^
The
article
'
Kiinatler,
'
'
The
Are
Shakkspeare.
down
the
who,
himself to
me
number
many
as
my
years
ETC.
afterwards,
279
introduced
It appears in the
translator.
of the second
landische Annalen,
For
it
'
iV.^.
What
have
year 1825.
valleys wild,' Holy Thursday,' The Tyger,' The Garden of
Love,' together with ten lines from the Prophetic Books, are
quoted, with German versions in the metres of the original by
Dr. Julius, the translator of the article. On p. 101 there is an
article, Von der neuesten englischen Poesie,' containing notices
of 'Poems by W. Cowper' (1803), 'Works of R. Burns,' and
Southey's Poems (1801) and Metrical Tales (1803).
'
'
'
'
'
'
'
'
WILLIAM BLAKE
280
1825
WILLIAM BLAKE
19/2/52.
my
The
recollections
of this
He
most
under
died in the
by
this insane
man
of genius, thinking
it
better
though I am
aware of the objection that may justly be made to
the recording the ravings of insanity in which it
may be said there can be found no principle, as
there is no ascertainable law of mental association
and from which therefore
which is obeyed
to
it
occurs,
as
an
artist
ETC.
281
they
said after reading a number
were the
Songs of Innocence and Experience
showing the two opposite sides of the human soul
'There is no doubt this poor man was mad, but
there is something in the madness of this man
which interests me more than the sanity of Lord
Byron and Walter Scott
The German painter
Gotzenberger (a man indeed who ought not to be
named after the others as an authority for my
writing about Blake) said, on his returning to
Germany about the time at which I am now
arrived, I saw in England many men of talents,
but only three men of genius, Coleridge, Flaxman,
and Blake, and of these Blake was the greatest.'
I do not mean to intimate my assent to this
opinion, nor to do more than supply such materials
as my intercourse with him furnish to an uncritical narative to which I shall confine myself
I have written a few sentences in these reminiscences already, those of the year 1810.
I had
not then begun the regular journal which I afterwards kept.
I will therefore go over the ground
again and introduce these recollections of 1825 by
a reference to the slight knowledge I had of him
before, and what occasioned my taking an interest
in him, not caring to repeat what Cunningham has
Wordsworth
'
'
'
'
WILLIAM BLAKE
282
Grammar
School Head-
Memoir of a
years old,
who died
the Memoir an account of
and he prefixed to
Blake, and in the volume he gave an account of
Blake as a painter and poet, and printed some
specimens of his poems, viz.
The Tyger,' and
ballads and mystical lyrical poems, all of a wild
character, and M. gave an account of Visions
I knew
which Blake related to his acquaintance.
that Flaxman thought highly of him, and though
he did not venture to extol him as a genuine seer,
yet he did not join in the ordinary derision of him
Without having seen him, yet I
as a madman.
had already conceived a high opinion of him, and
thought he would furnish matter for a paper
interesting to Germans, and therefore when Fred.
'
Hamburg, wrote
1810 requesting me to give him an
me
in
could
Annalen, I thought I
on
article
German by Dr.
minded
Emperor
in
is
it
He
Prisons
Prussian
the
for
United States
of
ETC.
me
283
This Dr.
as such translator
travelled as an Inspector of
America.
Government
the
into
me
In order to enable
long as you
live,'
'
Free
as
such a
liberality,
Like
'
is first
made
party to
'
live.'
an
WILLIAM BLAKE
284
himself.
known by very
Stodart's,
was the
work
few.
is
Lamb
preferred
it
is
greatly to
finest
Chaucer's poem.
'
'
women
men
to be of leather
unconscious imitations.
published works
the
of
Blair
Grave,
ETC.
285
23/2/52.
To
was there
an
Linncll the
artist of considerable
may
character
interested
appear hereafter.
be
was
This
will
doubtful,
as
on
10th
the
of
December.
I was aware of his idiosyncracies and therefore
to a great degree prepared for the sort of conversa-
tion
at
art,
alto-
poetry, and
religion
'
'
Took crossed
'
With an
out.
air of feebleness
'
crossed out.
286
WILLIAM BLAKE
inspiration.
wanted
to
make
proselytes.
a very extraordinary
taken
place.^
sort
of
pious
and
humble
But
that he had
'
school.
indifference and
the entire absence of anything
blame [' reproach crossed out], and I do not think that I
ever heard him blame anything, then or afterwards crossed
^
like
After
'
'
'
'
'
out.
ETC.
287
implying that
he copies his Visions. And it was on this first day
that, in answer to a question from me, he said, The
Socrates
This lead me to say
Spirits told me'
He spoke
used pretty much the same language.
of his Genius.
Now, what affinity or resemblance
do you suppose was there between the Genius
which inspired Socrates and your Spirits'^.
He
smiled, and for once it seemed to me as if he had
'
'
The same
He
as in
'
'
Christ.
I have an obscure recollection of having
As I had for many years
been with both of them.'
been familiar with the idea that an eternity a
parte post was inconceivable without an eternity a
parte ante, I was naturally led to express that
His eye brightened on
thought on this occasion.
my saying this. He eagerly assented To be
sure.
We are all coexistent with God members
of the Divine body, and partakers of the Divine
nature.'
Blake's having adopted this Platonic
idea led me on our tete-a-tete walk home at night
to put the popular question to him, concerning the
imputed Divinity of Jesus Christ.
He answered
He is the only God
but then he added
'
'
'
'
Pretty
much
'
crossed out.
WILLIAM BLAKE
288
'
And
said
am
so
and
and
so are
me
that led
you.'
He had
before
that
'
Government.
On my
matters.'
Hume
on the
'
It is the great
wrong.
Sin.
It is eating of the
tree
of
'
'
'
out.
ETC.
289
He
even
Supreme
Being.
Did he not repent him that he had made
My journal here has the remark that
Nineveh ?
extended this
liability
to
error
to the
'
'
it is
reconcile those
which seemed
remarks than to
to be in conformity
In becoming an
He
life
in
he
acted by command.'
The Spirits said to him,
Blake, be an artist.'
His eye glistened while he
spoke of the joy of devoting himself to divine art
Art is inspiration. When Mich. Angelo
alone.
or Raphael, in their day, or Mr. Flaxman, does any
of his fine things, he does them in the Spirit.'
Of
fame he said
I should be sorry if I had any
earthly fame, for whatever natural glory a man has
is so much detracted from his spiritual glory.
I
wish to do nothing for profit.
I want nothing
This was confirmed to me on
I am quite happy.'
my subsequent interviews with him. His distinction between the Natural and Spiritual worlds
artist
'
'
'
'
WILLIAM BLAKE
290
put down in
my journal
remarks.
Jacob
divinely
inspired
He
praised
also
the
Michael
Irving
is
a highly gifted
man
he
is
a sent
man;
Crossed out
this did not appear to] affect the truth of his Visions,
I could not reconcile this with his blaming Wordsworth for
being a Platonist not a Christian. He asked whether Wordsworth acknowledged the Scriptures as Divine, and declared on
my answering in the affirmative that the lutroduotion to the
Excursion had troubled him so as to bring on a fit of illness.
The passage that offended Blake was
^
'
Yet
'
" Does Mr. Wordsworth," said Blake, "think his mind can
Atheist, etc'
In the margin
p. 46 et seq. {i.e.
p.
who
they ought,'
Calvin.
house.
ETC.
291
opinion
declared his
that the
earth
flat,
is
not
gation
It respected
natural
the
and
By way
worlds.
spiritual
of
'
He
Satan.'
is
murdered the
I
suppose.
'
Infant.'
The
Is not every
Hermit
of
infant that
And when he
joined
Parnell,
dies of a
?
'
'
'
There
is
suffering
'
out.
it
in
WILLIAM BLAKE
292
Heaven
is
include
assertion,
'
viction.
where there
for
ment, there
It
must be
it,
that, to
is
among the
know what
doctrine
is
glimpses
is
of
truth
this
My
stated.
heart tells
me
I remarked, in confirmation of
true.'
After
them
my
and
first
this
he assented
to.
my
incoherent thoughts.
Not
my
altogether
fault
perhaps.
25/2/52.
On
'
what
It
I
And
'
there was
I
expressed
and an
ETC. 293
insensibility
removed the
linen was clean, his hand
impression.
Besides, his
sat.
it
'
'
His wife
be the very
saw
at this time,
woman
to
all
'
He smiled
'
omitted.
'
Marks crossed
'
out.
WILLIAM BLAKE
294
a word, she
husband.
passim.
26/2/52.
He was making
wards took
to see
They
them.
miration of
reserved by
him
it
are
in
the hands of
for publication
to a
him
declared
affairs
as Milton
was
abandoned
had
deavoured
term
in
to obtain
atheist,
so
as
ordinary reproach.
of
Dante's
greater
Dante was
And Blake
till,
in
God he
childhood."
I in vain enfrom him a qualification of the
not
And
to
include
him
in
the
was more
'
More crossed
'
And
'
out.
crossed out.
God
my
with
led to the
ETC.
295
Atheism
He
of
on morals
would allow of no other education than what lies
in the cultivation of the fine arts and the imagina-
tion.
'
What
And when
how he would
feel,
Devil.
And
it
is
of nothing.
As he spoke
of frequently
seeing
Milton,
most
like.
He
Memoirs
answered, They
'
WILLIAM BLAKE
296
me
'
Now
would.
1826
27/2/52.
time on him.
I
read to
him
bring
Blake's
together
Wordsworth, and
8vo.
edit.
set
down
1815, vol.
a.d.
declarations
i.
concerning
out.
ETC.
297
to
'
lest I
But there
's
a Tree, of
many
one,'
Not
that I
[p. 46].
28/2/52.
The combination
imputations which
'
And seemingly
'
Which
'
out.
WILLIAM BLAKE
298
On my
Devil.
him the
obtaining from
declaration
God, I referred to
In the beginning
the commencement of Genesis
that the Bible
God
that
Elohim
this
this,
for I
the
The Preface
to
the
to
silence
one
so
lines
But I
was triumphantly
gained nothing by
told
of
of
fit
the
Recluse, so
of illness.
These
he singled out
his thunder, and the Choir
Of shouting Angels, and the Empyreal throne,
I pass them unalarmed.'
Jehovah with
he can surpass
copy of the whole
think
a
passage
'
way
^
He gave me a copy of these lines in his hand, with this
note at the end crossed out.
'
'
It
dwells in
Some
is
the
called
Divine
ETC.
Mercy.
299
Sarah
them
to be his for
in
of rubbing
made
made
the discovery.
The following
fly-leaf
Period of Childhood.
29/2/52.
'
I see in
man
rising
up
against
all
Under the
'
first
And
poem
I could
Bound each
wish
my
days to be
God.'
P.
years
old
under
the Verses
43,
'
'
This
is
all
in
the
'To H.
C,
six
highest degree
any competi-
WILLIAM BLAKE
300
tion.
It
so in poetry.'
is
P. 44,
'
kingdom
On
of heaven.
the Influence of
Objects,'
the
at
'
'
thine.'
It
'
'
'
This
(p. 341).
in opposition to
of
sort
is
what
historic
is
p.
364,
Blake's
all
ancient
And
is
An
was,
'
page,
Wordsworth wrote
comment below
they say
'
style
of the unpopular
vindication
On Macpherson,
poets.
own
is
so.'
in the following
of Ossian equally
'
crossed out.
ETC.
301
ton
*
"Is
it
Prefaces
Imagination
scape-painter.
is
was written
etc.,
rest of these
]
land-
is
man
as he
a spiritual man.
1826
1/3/52.
was
It
this
'
'
'
'
Some
of
Wordsworth's crossed
'
out.
WILLIAM BLAKE
302
Voltaire spoke.
'
my
sensations
it
was English.
my
French, but to
ear
it
was
It
he touched
became
it
like the
probably
English.'
I also
-^
who appeared
'
to
'
why he
It is
many
'
'
'
Version of Genesis,'
"
for so it
may
be called, as
He
style.
'
read a
I shall print
'
'
'
'
crossed out.
Vision of Genesis crossed out.
Spirits
'
'
Write crossed
'
out.
The MSS.
order.
You cannot
their
ETC. 303
tell
may answer.
This was
addressed ad hominevi.
And it indeed amounted
only to a deduction from his own principles.
He
what
purpose
they
work
God
of
or Devil.
I ordered of
My
him to-day
manner of
spoke
of his horror of
when
it
money and
of
this
in
God
He
turning pale
was certainly
unfeigned.
there
may
It
cannot
elsewhere
it.
June.
Immediate crossed
out.
'
'
WILLIAM BLAKE
304
was not
so.'
He
many
murders,
reason
is
beginning
it
and repeated
his
doctrine, that
who
'
'
'
'
it is
more
And
man who
in the language
is
to
be
looked
for.'
'
this
out.
ETC.
305
'
'
received.^
1827
My
But
in
'
WILLIAM BLAKE
306
I took
two copies
one
gave to C. Lamb.
Barron
took
for
works.
'
of interest exclusively to
men
of imaginative taste
22/3/52.
^
out.
(ii.)
dedicatory epistle of
'
is
Longmans,
Hivrst, Rees,
with enough
Thomas Johnes,
of the
Malkin was
himself,
perhaps,
The
frontispiece
to
the
Memoirs,
float-
Esq., M.P.,
Loed
My
dear Friend,
prefixing your
and appreciating the merit of the deIn the interchange of our thoughts on
this subject, the task of furnishing the public with
the following facts was urged upon me, at once as
a tribute to the latter, and a relief to the feelings
survivor,
parted.
309
WILLIAM BLAKE
310
of the
some
former.
of
my
On
mentioning
friends, they
my
design to
sooner. ...
it
In
is still
must be considered
me
to others.
my
my
If
my
thoughts
presumption.
or condolence, of whatever
But
it
was
my
him must
A FATHER'S MEMOIRS
811
mise of this child would have ripened into something more than fair capacity and marketable
talent, the prolongation of life was to himself
perhaps the
less desirable
scendent faculties.
men
of tran-
themselvs
they feel
intimations
of
from
entitled,
own
their
the
private
scrutinising
spirit.
When
their
of
They
fortunes.
necessarily
these 'few,
who come
those
standard, those
associates
their
partners
of
of their
inmost
men
too just
upon
which
sessor,
and
so
and
the
the
who might be
thoughts,
It
is
common
much
society, that
of
the
remark,
This
is
but
solitude, to
commanding genius condemns its posdetracts considerably from the sum of his
a
personal enjoyment.
While
enlarging
apposite,
am on
this
somewhat on
as
being
an
casually
instance
connected
the
more
with the
WILLIAM BLAKE
312
subsequent pages.
Hitherto,
it
stubborn originality in
human
life.
There seems
very
first
readily forgive
record,
for
my
merit,
and habits
It
is,
of
I hope,
life,
had the
palaces.
He
occasions of study,
by attending
in the
casual
sales at Langford's,
At ten years
and other aucticn-rooms.
was put to Mr, Pars's drawing-school in
the Strand, where he soon attained the art of
drawing from casts in plaster of the various
antiques. His father bought for him the G-ladiator,
the Hercules, the Venus of Medicis, and various
The same indulgent
heads, hands and feet.
Christie's,
of age he
A FATHER'S MEMOIRS
313
connoisseur
little
him
a cheap
copied
lot,
Raphael
and
knocked down
and
Michael
to
He
Martin
Angelo,
Romano, and
the rest of the historic class, neglecting to buy any
other prints, however celebrated. His choice was
for the most part contemned by his youthful
companions,
what they
Julio
to
laugh at
At
the
to
make
drawings.
This
who
said that he
too cunning.
He was employed
old
buildings
WILLIAM BLAKE
314
with
quaintance
called
Gothic
surround
the
particularly
chapel
that of
ornaments appeared as
miracles
Gothicised imagination.
He
of
art,
then drew
to
Aymer
his
de
on the
which
surround
top.
Those exquisite little figures
it, though dreadfully mutilated, are still models for
But I do not mean to
the study of drapery.
enumerate all his drawings, since they would lead
me over all the old monuments in Westminster
Abbey, as well as over other churches in and about
Loudon.
Such was his employment at Basire's. As soon
as he was out of his time, he began to engrave two
designs from the History of England, after drawings
Valence's monument, with his
in
fine
figure
A FATHER'S MEMOIRS
apprenticeship.
They were
315
number
fancy.
He
own
all,
in various views.
But now
WILLIAM BLAKE
316
forces
warm and
cry
down
as
brilliant imagination,
Not contented
madness.
of
departments of
the
which
mind,
are
They
a tribunal.
corporeal
criticise
the representations of
allegoric
emblems of
illustrate the
artists
poem
in this
of
country have
miastic applause.
superior
to
that
first
and
and enco-
stept forward,
far
described, has
A FATHER'S MEMOIRS
written some introductory
spectus of the work.
penetration
of
his
317
To these he has
understanding, with
all
the
by approving and
Had
I been furnished
with an opportunity of showing them to you, I
should, on Mr. Blake's behalf, have requested
your concurring testimony, which you would not
is
ficient limited to
has
made
He
at poetry.
simplicity
He
and feeling
it
in his
own
character
WILLIAM BLAKE
318
LAUGHING SONG
When the green woods laugh with the voice of joy,
And the dimpling stream runs laughing by,
When the air does laugh "v^ith our merry "wit,
And the green hill laughs with the noise of it,
When the meadows laugh with lively green.
And the grasshopper laughs in this merry scene.
When Mary and Susan and Emily,
With
their sweet
When
Where our
The
Fairy
Glee
of
Oberoii,
which Stevens's
laughing stanzas.
We may
modem
reader
ears,
of these
the
to
Weston,
Right
year 1632.
The accord
is
to be found, not in
the
imitation
lies
thing
A FATHER'S MEMOIRS
319
And
is fair
your return
your friends, fair lord, that burn
With love, to hear your modesty relate
The bus'ness of your blooming ^nt,
joys, such sweets, doth
Bring
With
Both
all
all
to the
of Blake
is
in
different
and pathos
charity,
HOLY THURSDAY
'Twas on a Holy Thursday, their innocent faces clean,
The children walking two and two, in red and blue and
green
snow
high dome of
waters, flow.
Paul's,
they,
like
Thames'
WILLIAM BLAKE
320
Oh
What
London town
Now
like a
raise to
of song,
Or
like
among
Beneath them
of
heaven
sit
poor
The book
lest
of Eevelation,
supposed to engross
seems
much
have directed
to
him, in
be
study,
common with
'And I
heard as
it
as the voice of
'
rather
than to
mighty wind.
He
ended
of sees,
x.
64L
A FATHER'S MEMOIRS
321
deportment.
He
says
indeed
with
truth,
that
'
Repentance
is
not at
But though
and
we should exclude
epithets.'
catalogue,
poetically,
mild
of poetry.
spirit
successfully
The mind
is
I leave it
WILLIAM BLAKE
322
stanzas
have
species of
any
poetry
tendency
vindicate
to
this
their in-
And
Is
and Love
Pity, Peace,
God
man,
his child
and
care.
And
And
human
face
Love, the
Peace,
of every clime.
in his distress.
And
all
it
to be said
by
A FATHER'S MEMOIRS
323
So
early days.
were Jonson's Underwoods and Miscellanies, and
he seems to me to have caught his manner, more
than that of Shakespeare in his trifles. The following song is a good deal in the spirit of the
Hue and Cry after Cupid, in the Masque on Lord
Haddington's marriage.
It was written before the
favourite studies of Mr. Blake's
unchastised
The
by judgment.
fancy,
as
poet,
such,
costume
the
ancient
lyrics
arrogated
to
themselves
Gothic songster
is
and submits,
like
the vagaries
of
young
fondness.
How
And
Who
in the
the
Our
all his
WILLIAM BLAKE
324
With sweet
And
He
dews
]\Iay
Plicebus fired
my %\ings
my vocal
were wet,
rage
He
loves to sit
And mocks my
me
loss of liberty.
to the prince of
fantastic
love,
action
it
read the
made
impression
its
after Cupid.
If so, it
had
He
will leap
He
Then the
straggler
makes
To have
ambition of the
all
his gain,
toys.
'em joys
elf,
childish as himself.
little
pieces are
added, as
A FATHER'S MEMOIRS
well by
way
325
In the
respective merits.
first,
there
is
a simple
The second rises with the subwears that garb of grandeur, which the
tion of antithesis.
ject.
It
idea of creation
communicates
Our
higher order.
to a
mind
of the
SONG
I love the jocund dance,
And where
lisps the
maiden's tongue.
Where
all
And
tree.
fiU.
WILLIAM BLAKE
326
all,
But thou
THE TIGER
Tiger, Tiger, burning bright,
In the forest of the night
What immortal hand or eye
Could frame thy fearful symmetry 1
And what
What
A FATHER'S MEMOIRS
327
might be expected,
his
thoughts
his
original,
Here, as
and his
style
of writing
The unrestrained
measure, however, which should warn the poet to
altogether epic in
restrain
its structure.
not
has
himself,
unfrequently betrayed
But
witness
our
of
correspondence.
It
is
time
we
in
Anatomy
his
my
regret,
power
my
to furnish
you and
my
We
to
communicated
the
to it
was not
in
not
it
readers with a
WILLIAM BLAKE
328
engraving here
given,
though
might well be
it
no inadequate idea of
At
his
physiognomy.
work, though
apology must
make
should escape
it
What
trifle.
age.
respectful
epithet,
is
entitled to
when France
more
could boast
its
him
all
conspire
began
to revolt
from that
spirit
of
to
place
The public
philosophising
A FATHER'S MEMOIRS
329
home
to
ascertain
facts.
We
are
returning
in
leisure, believe
me
to be,
yours,
Hackney, January
my
4, 1806.
H. Malkin.
(III.)
iii.
pp. 345-348.]
Lady
dined
C.
's.
profession
Mrs.
the
M.,
modest, pleasing
person
miniature
like
the
painter,
pictures
she
professional
who
painter,
derive
their
and genius
happiness
me
appeared to
;
one
but
its
of
those
own sweet
from
its
persons
sake,
and
He
pursuit.
but
how
far
the
execution
of
333
his
WILLIAM BLAKE
334
designs
is
know
Main-d'ceuvre
is
not,
never
frequently
humble
artist
L
he,
He
told
me
that
there
is
Lady C
'
Ah
!
'
said
I
it
335
goodness
of
heart and
discrimination
of
talent
if
he despised
me
It
for conversing
Sir
himself
in,
T.
(IV.)
BLAKE'S HOEOSCOPE
1825
'
'
is
p. 70.]
T2
1.14S.
I
$2.10S.
is
l^0.42N.
$0.40N.
J 2.02 N.
well
known amongst
scientific
characters, as
he
is
held
actual
and countries.
conversations
He
has, so he
with Michael
WILLIAM BLAKE
340
of antiquity.
He
has
now by him
a long
poem
was recited to
him by the spirit of Milton and the mystical
drawings of this gentleman are no less curious and
worthy of notice, by all those whose minds soar
above the cloggings of this terrestrial element, to
which we are most of us too fastly chained to comprehend the nature and operations of the world of
spirits.
profiles
Edward
the
Sixth,
Harold,
tion,
but also
extraordinary
But
and
it is
filled
faculties
eccentricities
of idea
which
this
Moon
gentleman
in Cancer in
tical), in trine to
Pisces,
BLAKE'S HOROSCOPE
mundane
trine
to
Saturn in the
scientific
341
sign
is
in square to
will
(V.)
'
LITER-
1827.
[Obituary Notices
of
August
18,
of
October 1827 (pp. 377-8), and the Annual Register of 1827, in its
Appendix of Deaths (pp. 253-4). The notice in the GeJitleman's
Magazine
is
is
The notice
in the
Annual
William Blake
The Illustrator of
the Grave,
etc.
is
addressed.
Few
persons
appended
It
'
345
WILLIAM BLAKE
346
of eternity.
execution of the
artist,
though
examined by
to be
fears,
when we
see
of legitimate invention
itself,
so often re-
and elegance
what
what artist, would wish to discharge ?
The groups and single figures, on their own basis,
abstracted from the general composition, and con-
deemed by
taste, simplicity,
child of fancy,
exhibit
those
genuine
and unaffected
attitudes,
both discover.
Every
class of
artists,
in every
lish
and that
OBITUARY NOTICES
347
deem
intolerable.
lation,
The term
sense.
is
employed
in its generic
and comprehensive
WILLIAM BLAKE
348
Blake died
last
Monday
Died as he lived
He
has
left
rest, like
an infant to
its
work of a series of
hundred large designs from Dante.
William Blake was brought up under Basire,
the eminent engraver. He was active in mind and
body, passing from one occupation to another,
without an intervening minute of repose.
Of an
ardent, affectionate, and grateful temper, he was
simple in manner and address, and displayed an
inbred courteousness, of the most agreeable charNext November he would have been sixtyacter.
copper-plates, and his principal
nine.
ness of a correspondent)
we can only
record the
OBITUARY NOTICES
349
II
lent,
among
Novelist's Magazine.
In 1793 he
12mo, 'The Gates of Paradise,' a
very small book for children, containing fifteen
plates of emblems and published by W. B., 1
plates
in the
published in
'
Hercules
Buildings,
Lambeth
'
also
about the
'
'
'
also
Few
persons of
by Blake,
borne forth
p.
RA.,
is
prefixed.
It
was
WILLIAM BLAKE
350
'
Descriptive
design
of
Chaucer's
Pilgrimage
to
Canterbury,
Book
Mr.
a set of engravings to
is
To
of Job.
it
Fuseli's testimony
is sufficient
to add,
judge of
art, Sir
pure-minded Flaxman.
[The remainder is condensed from the Literary
Gazette, p. 346 above, with the occasional change
.
(VI.)
1828.
John Varley,
painter, was
him that Blake
described by Allan Cunningham, p.
astrologer and
water-colour
'
visionary heads
420 below.
'
The Ghost
'
of a
Flea
was
it
'
for
'
is
illustrated
accompanied by tables
containing also
new and
astrological explanation of
London
some
and
re-
By John
Flea, seen
by Blake,
it
appropriate to
is
Gemini persons. And the neatness, elasand tenseness of the Flea are significant of the
elegant dancing and fencing sign Gemini. This spirit
full-toned
ticity,
anticipated in an insect.
make
As
was anxious
my
to
power,
him
if
he
me
he instantly
said,
therefore gave
WILLIAM BLAKE
354
till
he had closed
it.
him that
men
He
added, that
work.
(VII.)
BY
J.
T.
SMITH.
1828
is
book by Smith,
'
is
not without
A Book
for a
its
significance,
Rainy'Day
'
have
from a
or, Recollec-
(1845),
where
BELIEVE
it
or he
people.'
Bearing this
stigma of eccentricity,
William
commenced
of a hosier.
WILLIAM BLAKE
358
who was
stretch of mind,
known
for
Antiquaries.
and as he drew
art,
faithfully,
employed him
to
to
and copied
and confidently
carefully,
part of his
be engraven.
This lady
to
whom
the Kev.
Flaxman
to join
Mr.
359
The following sketches were the production of an untutored youth, commenced in his twelfth, and occasionally
resumed by the author till his twentieth year ; since which
'
time, his talents having been wholly directed to the attainof excellence in his profession, he has been deprived
ment
them
less unfit to
eye.
'
still
believed that
is
playfulness of Blake's
of these Poems.^
SONG
'
How sweet
roam'd from
field to field.
And
Who
'
in the
all his
1 The whole
copy of this little work, entitled Poetical
Sketches, by W. B.,' containing seventy pages, octavo, bearing the date of 1783, was given to Blake to sell to friends, or
publish, as he might think proper.
'
WILLIAM BLAKE
360
'
my
were wet,
"wdngs
He
And mocks my
But
me
loss of liberty.'
it
unbending de-
manly firmness
was not
which certainly
by every
were not so frequent. He, however,
benefit by Mrs. Mathew's liberality,
of opinion,
continued to
to continue in partnership, as a
with his fellow-pupil, Parker, in a shop,
No. 27, next door to his father's, in Broad Street;
and being extremely partial to Eobert, his youngest
printseller,
Much
which he
many
other
composed tunes.
These
he would occasionally sing to his friends
and
though, according to his confession, he was entirely
unacquainted with the science of music, his ear
was so good, that his tunes were sometimes most
singularly beautiful, and were noted down by
songs, to
also
musical professors.
As
361
it
was certainly
in
his Bible
convincing proof
Almighty,
I shall
the
which he concludes
'
Through
and as a
For a tear
is an intellectual thing ;
a sigh is the sword of an Angel-King
the bitter groan of a Martyr's woe
Is an arrow from the Almighty's bow.'
And
And
I give
It
Art, perhaps no
WILLIAM BLAKE
362
own
his
impressions.
one, he
his
moment
Kate,^ and
allowed her,
the last
till
other's
into
his views,
but,
only entered
what
is
cheerfully
curious, possessed a
and, in
interesting.
me
his courtship.
He
Oi;r Artist fell in love with a lively little girl, who
allowed him to say everything that was loving, but would not
listen to his overtures on the score of matrimony.
He was
lamenting this in the house of a friend, when a generous-hearted
" Do you
lass declared that she pitied him from her heart.
pity me?" asked Blake.
"Yes; I do, most sincerely."
"Then," said he, "I love you for that." "Well," said the
states that
'
363
Catherine, was
brother Robert,
their
him
in
his
by
and
him
them
by the following
This I shall
now
illustrate
narrative.
mode
trated songs,
him
in
wished, to
The
plates in
WILLIAM BLAKE
364
marginal
up by hand
figures
imitation
in
of
drawings.
The following
some of
are
his
works produced
'
of Experience,'
'
of an
'
'
'
'
ensuing day
'
'
or turtle's livers,
Dame
little
answered their
Fortune being, as
it is
pretty well
known
to
serve
to
offered itself;
365
and with
sym-
whom
it
cious
as
pounds a
year,
as has
been reported,
During his stay he drew several porand could have had full employment in that
department of the Art but he was born to follow
his own inclinations, and was willing to rely upon
a reward for the labours of the day.
Mr. Flaxman, knowing me to be a collector of
rent-free.
traits,
autographs,
among many
others, gave
me
the follow-
him
styles
'
imme-
which he
Dear Sculptor
'
We
of Eternity,
it,
is
more
It is
WILLIAM BLAKE
366
'
And now
begins a
of earth is shaken
off.
new
I
life,
am more famed
in
Heaven
for
my
good.
You,
friend
367
'
Your
William Blake.
illus-
hand
'
MS. by the
of the donor
Accept,
my
Whose thoughts
Rich
be,
W. H.
'July, 1800.'!
Upon
his
'
After
my
Book
of Jerusalem, in
now
in the possession of
WILLIAM BLAKE
368
I again display
my
giant-forms
Some
of the
'
the
'
'
Europe, a Prophecy,'
must
displayed in this
informed reader
umbrage
draw
his
own
conclusions, unbiassed
by any insinuation
whatever of mine.
a task to
369
delight.
effect,
Pilgrimage to
Canterbury
the subject
Chaucer's
with which
'
delighted.
Mr.
Shortly after
to
whom
Cromek.
The
picture painted
by Stothard became
who published
it,
pro-
naming Bromley
However, in a
wards by
at least
Blake,
fresco picture,
2a
WILLIAM BLAKE
370
So
much on
On
the part of
which he
first
agreed to pay
him to
more exquisite manner, promised him
forty more, with an intention of engaging Bromley
to engrave it; but in consequence of some occurrence, his name was withdrawn, and Schiavonetti
During the time Stothard was
was employed.
painting the picture, Blake called to see it, and
him
finish it in a
it,
whom
mark
Mr. Hoppner, in a
30, 1807, says of
'
of esteem.
letter to a friend,
dated
May
it,
is
371
In 1810, Stothard,
period.'
to his great
surprise, found
the same
^
Seethe
size,
in
'Artist,'
similarity
13, vol.
i.
p. 13.
WILLIAM BLAKE
372
to his own.^
of this
con-
troversy.
after
delineations
is
similar to the
flea,
flea,
whom he
could devour.
very
first
of
talents,
373
in one
leap.-^
presume
when
predict
to
backgammon
upon
in a
but this I
game
least,
Application was
little
he had few
from labour,
little rest
fixed
"
industry at
enemies are
his
for his
he at
of chess, draughts, or
relaxations
languages.
Had he
fortunately lived
at his exquisite
now
ductions which the man of true feeling must ever admire, and
the predictions of Fuseli and Flaxman may hereafter be verified
That a time will come when Blake's finest works will be as
much sought after and treasured up in the portfolios of men
of mind, as those of Michel Angelo are at present.'
'
WILLIAM BLAKE
374
Judgment,
many
with a
which were
warm
two metals.
It is most
also of gold,
were heightened
eye was
his
and in this
were not generally felt
opinion I am borne out in the frequent assertions
It would, therefore, be
of Fuseli and Flaxman.
unreasonable to expect the booksellers to embark
in publications not likely to meet remuneration.
Circumstanced, then, as Blake was, approaching to
effusions
persevere
in
his
labours
Alas,
way was he to
he knew not
Book
of Job.
375
As
'
ing descriptive
me with
the follow-
lists.
Songs op Experience.
Blake.
Small octavo
WILLIAM BLAKE
376
Five Stanzas
and
reptiles.
by
its influence.
Three Stanzas.
The Chivmey-Sweeper.
figure of one walking in
Beneath, a
door.
warming
itself at
fire.
it is
to
man upon
more, entitled,
Ah!
Sun- Flower
377
Two
Stanzas.
Beneath, a
girl Avith
Seven Stanzas
interspersed with
margin.
fresco.
'
WILLIAM BLAKE
378
Blake, 1794
folio
and
Coloured to
title-page.
'
earth.'
in His hand
took the golden compasses, prejDar'd
In God's eternal store, to circumscribe
This universe, and all created things
One foot he centred, and the other turn'd
Round through the vast profundity obscure
And said, " Thus far extend, thus far thy bounds,
This be thy just circumference, O World "
Paradise Lost, book vii. line 236.
'
He
'
He was
by the
379
after he
'
'
termination.
380
WILLIAM BLAKE
'
W. Blake, 1794.'
Blake's
modes
of
and
381
glue, to
it
may
effect
WILLIAM BLAKE
382
Humphrey,
Esq., to
whom
Blake
letter.
TO OZIAS HUMPHREY,
Esq.
'
The design of The Last Judgment, which I have
completed by your recommendation for the Countess of
Egremont, it is necessary to give some account of and
its various parts ought to be described, for the accommodation of those who give it the honour of their
;
attention.
'
Christ
seated on
Heavens in clouds
hke a scroll ready
of Judgment
the
him and around him,
be consumed in the fires of the
the
Throne
rolling before
to
'
'
383
perdition.
Just, in humiliation
'
WILLIAM BLAKE
384
dead.
'
'
'
'
January
William Blake.
18, 1808.'
'
for
385
in the
and
slept;
he would,
after
thinking
years he
made
his
all others,
he learned the
Dante
in the
life,
his
lingering
for
bodily
2b
the
remainder of
sufferings,
which
WILLIAM BLAKE
386
On
Maker so sweetly
when she stood to
to his
'
My
He
nothey
his
would be
it
Church of England,
His hearse was followed by two mourningcoaches, attended by private friends
Calvert,
Eichmond, Tatham, and his brother, promising
young artists, to whom he had given instructions
in the Arts, were of the number.
Tatham, ill as
he was, travelled ninety miles to attend the funeral
of one for whom, next to his own family, he held
the highest esteem.
Blake died in his sixty-ninth
year, in the back-room of the first-floor of No. 3
for that of the
3S7
Fields,
eighty.
Limited as Blake was in his pecuniary circumbeloved Kate survives him clear of
even a sixpenny debt; and in the fullest belief
stances, his
by the
sale of the
dispose of at the
in order to enable
book-
to possess.
'
Wardour
Street,
introduced
me
to
one of his
Henry Mathew,
which was built
of Percy
for
him
he was also afternoon preacher at Saint Martin'sin-the- Fields. At that gentleman's house, in Kathbone Place, I became acquainted with Mrs. Mathew
and her son.
At that lady's most agreeable conversaziones I first met the late William Blake, the
artist,
to
whom
truly kind.
his poems.
He was
listened
WILLIAM BLAKE
388
to
by
tlie
silence,
and
and extraordinary
merit.'
time will come wheu the numerous, though now veryof Blake (in consequence of his taking very few
impressions from the plates before they were rubbed out to
enable him to use them for other subjects), will be sought after
with the most intense avidity. He was considered by Stothard
and Flaxman (and will be by those of congenial minds, if we
can reasonably expect such again) with their highest admiration.
These artists allowed him their utmost unqualified praise, and
were ever anxious to recommend him and his productions to
the patrons of the Arts but, alas they were not sufficiently
appreciated as to enable Blake, as every one could wish, to provide an independence for his surviving partner, Kate, who
adored his memorv.
^
rare
works
(VIII.)
LIFE OF
BLAKE
BY ALLAN CUNNINGHAM.
1830
of
of
and
Architects.
(London
John Murray,
'
He
'
much
use of
In a letter to Linnell,
I shall
make
a,
'
know
judicious
and more
lifelike
engraving by
W.
C.
Edwards.]
less
showy
WILLIAM BLAKE
Painting, like poetry, has followers, the body of
whose genius is light compared to the length of its
wings, and who, rising above the ordinary sympathies of our nature, are, like Napoleon, betrayed
by
To
a star
own
business,
The
was privately encouraged by his
mother. The love of designing and sketching grew
upon him, and he desired anxiously to be an artist.
His father began to be pleased with the notice
which his son obtained and to fancy that a painter's
study might after all be a fitter place than a hosier's
shop for one who drew designs on the backs of all
the shop bills, and made sketches on the counter.
it
seems,
391
WILLIAM BLAKE
392
He
a
consulted an eminent
sum
artist,
who asked
so large
prudent shopkeeper
hesitated,
being an engraver
years old.
became an
artist,
LIFE OF BLAKE
many
393
publication,
name
of
but joined
own
One
advantage.
of these productions is
common
theme, but
sea.
How
'
'
Framed thy
fearful
symmetry
WILLIAM BLAKE
394
And what
feet
What
What
the anvil
What
brain
dread grasp
terrors clasp
'
high merit.
sages of
often defective,
nious
it is
is
thoroughly offended,
poetic thought.
and
England
earls of
Cressy
Chandos
aside,
and says
'
Now we 're
And
alone,
breathe
my
Methinks
I see
them arm
my
gallant soldiers,
LIFE OF BLAKE
395
And
And
spirit Sir
Walter
Manny
Thomas Dagworth.
'
O, Dagworth
France
Though sunshine light,
!
is
sick
it
seems to
me
as pale
death-bed,
It
Sir
Thomas
'
answers.
and strew
The flowers of heaven upon the banquet table.
Bind ardent hope upon your feet, like shoes.
And
The
table,
And
those
who
fight, fight in
good steadfastness
might transcribe from these modest and unmany such passages. It would be
unfair not to mention that the same volume contains some wild and incoherent prose, in which
I
noticed pages
WILLIAM BLAKE
396
we may
strange, mystical,
retire to
He was
mother's chamber.
and
voice of parsimony.
gold, but to
make
My
business
is
not to gather
like sentiments.'
The day was given to the graver,
by which he earned enough to maintain himself
respectably; and he bestowed his evenings upon
LIFE OF BLAKE
and
painting
and
poetry,
intertwined
397
these
so
be separated.
When
'
'
'
'
'
He
tried
how
how
over that
married
had good
she
They
her.
domestic qualities,
lived
happily.
WILLIAM BLAKE
398
and,
indulging
became, as
it
him
in
his
harmless absurdities,
She learned what a young and handsome woman is seldom apt to learn to despise
gaudy dresses, costly meals, pleasant company,
she found out the way
and agreeable invitations
of being happy at home, living on the simplest of
food, and contented in the homeliest of clothing.
It was no ordinary mind which could do all this
and she whom Blake emphatically called his beShe wrought off
loved,' was no ordinary woman.
his flesh.
'
in
she
made
much
in the spirit of her husband's comand almost rivalled him in all things save
in the power which he possessed of seeing visions
of any individual living or dead, whenever he chose
drawings
positions,
to see them.
brother,
for a pupil.
This speculation
did
not
LIFE OF BLAKE
399
As he drew
him
which
accompany it, and the music to which the
verse was to be sung, was the offspring too of the
same moment.
Of his music there are no specimens he wanted the art of noting it down if it
equalled many of his drawings, and some of his
was
to
songs,
The
we have
lost
were the
Songs of Innocence
and Experience,' a work original and natural, and
of high merit, both in poetry and in painting.
It
consists of some sixty-five or seventy scenes, presenting images of youth and manhood
of domestic sadness, and fireside joy
of the gaiety and
innocence, and happiness of childhood. Every scene
has its poetical accompaniment, curiously interwoven with the group or the landscape, and
forming, from the beauty of the colour and the
first
fruits
'
prettiness
itself.
WILLIAM BLAKE
400
better
enjoy.
The picture
of Innocence
is
mortals
introduced with
Drop thy
down and
write
to the voices
of the
the
LIFE OF BLAKE
401
all liis
they owe
much
owe
to it
also
much
of their
singular loveliness
It
2c
WILLIAM BLAKE
402
men
fame, but no
to
depend
for
common way.
money by
to
He
M^ere fond of
earned a
little
him
who
work more
in the
way
spirit,
nor induced
of the world
but
it
him
Necessity
made
and honesty and independence prescribed plain clothes, homely fare, and a cheap
habitation.
He was thus compelled more than ever
to retire to worlds of his own creating, and seek
solace in visions of paradise for the joys which
frugal,
By
frequent indulgence in
pictured
the
ejes,
figures,
LIFE OF BLAKE
403
made aware
'
:
write,'
he
said,
'
adopted
by
this
gracious
spirit
-was
off.
The artist then added a peculiar
beauty of his own.
He tinted both the figures
and the verse with a variety of colours, amongst
which, while yellow prevails, the whole has a rich
printed
WILLIAM BLAKE
404
The meaning
not a
little
obscure
it
seems
to
of the artist
object
of
man.
They bespeak
of Paradise,
of prints.
all
which dictated
human
this strange work was undoubtedly a dark one
nor does the strange kind of prose which is intermingled with the figures serve to enlighten us.
There are in all twenty-seven designs representing
beings human, demoniac, and divine, in situations
One character
of pain and sorrow and suffering.
evidently an evil spirit appears in most of the
the horrors of hell, and the terrors of darkplates
He
ness and divine wrath, seem his sole portion.
swims in gulphs of fire descends in cataracts of
holds combats with scaly serpents, or
flame
One
writhes in anguish without any visible cause.
comprehension.
The
spirit
LIFE OF BLAKE
tered here and there,
daughters of Urizen,
and the
have extracted
He seems
to
405
many
visions
Some
space.
of those
according to the
the
exuberance
figures
of
Young
there
are
many
In
fine
WILLIAM BLAKE
406
This
which art should waste none of its skill.
parts,
the
much,
in
many
to
work was so
Blake
introduced
satisfaction of Flaxman, that he
to Hay ley the poet, who, in 1800, persuaded him
to remove to Felpham in Sussex, to make engravTo that place he
ings for the Life of Cowper.
accordingly went with his wife and sister, and was
welcomed by Hayley with much affection. Of his
journey and his feelings he gives the following
account to Flaxman, whom he usually addressed
thus, Dear Sculptor of Eternity.'
We are arrived safe at our cottage, which is
more beautiful than I thought it, and more conIt is a perfect model for cottages, and I
venient.
'
'
principals.
obstructed by vapours
tants
are
more
distinctly heard,
my
cottage
My
is
also a
and sister
and are courting Neptune for an
wife
embrace.'
Thus
far
feelings of a person of
the expressions
are
tinctured
LIFE OF BLAKE
407
muster
as
happiness.
poetic language
Blake thus continues
the
'And now
begins a
new
of
new-found
because another
life,
shaken off.
I am more famed
in heaven for my works than I could well conceive.
In my brain are studies and chambers filled with
books and pictures of old, which I wrote and
covering of earth
is
my
mortal
life,
Why
riches or
fame of mortality
he gave a
WILLIAM BLAKE
408
'
Here he
the past
to the seashore
to hold.'
moment and
lived in
conversation.
Milton, in a
moment
of confidence,
have
much
lost
When
common
height
It
Blake's
page
mind
at all times
resembled that
first
made
'
LIFE OF BLAKE
409
He
saw
often
less majestic
poets of old.
madam
sit
'
'
'
answer.
have,'
'
last night.
said
Blake,
'
'
but
in
not before
my
garden,
whence
it
haps,
have
connected
been
it
WILLIAM BLAKE
410
sively wild
After
ocean,
my
I
public'
to
make
its
appear-
he thus announced
it.
again
my
display
an hundred
forms
giant
are
no
the
to
less
than
is
unexplained.
It seems of a religious, politiand spiritual kind, and wanders from hell to
heaven and from heaven to earth now glancing
into the distractions of our own days, and then
making a transition to the antediluvians. The
crowning defect is obscurity meaning seems now
and then about to dawn you turn plate after plate
and read motto after motto, in the hope of escaping
But the first might as
from darkness into light.
well be looked at last the whole seems a riddle
which no ingenuity can solve.
Yet, if the work be
looked at for form and effect rather than for meaning, many figures may be pronounced worthy of
There is wonderful freedom of
Michael Angelo.
attitude and position men, spirits, gods, and angels, move with an ease which makes one lament
that we know not wherefore they are put in motion.
Well might Hayley call him his gentle visionary
Blake.'
He considered the Jerusalem to be his
greatest work, and for a set of the tinted engravings
Few joined the
he charged twenty-five guineas.
left
cal,
'
giant
circulation.
forms,
failed
force
its
way
all
into
LIFE OF BLAKE
411
Blair's
The author
of the
awaken
commendation by Fuseli
moral
series
'
:
'
he
also
of
it
Schiavonetti.
Blake
complained that he was
of engraving his own designs,
he
Some
and
WILLIAM BLAKE
412
poetic,
terrific
Door
fine
is
attempts
Man
The old
in the Last
Day
at
the
at Death's
there are
the
Wise
creations
Strong Wicked
high
Man
order.
fearful
is
The
long
last
little
outlay
naked Angel
Dead with
and
devout
Trumpet alarmed
frontispiece
north,
of
fancy.
descending head-
rousing the
the
people of the
retire
behind
their fans.
was a
little dis-
'
Inven-
close,
LIFE OF BLAKE
413
to
paint
never gave
to
Pilgrimage
before
which Cromeck
replied,
the
it.
in
man
a vision, for he
as little likely to
visions,
of
it
in
he proposed to
mark
of esteem.
It is probable that
Blake obeyed
matter,
this
and
Canterbury Pilgrimage made its appearance in an exhibition of his principal works in the
house of his brother, in Broad Street, during the
lips, his
summer of 1809.
Of original designs,
they
tained sixteen
'
'
'
WILLIAM BLAKE
414
chief attraction
was the
The
Canterbury Pilgrimage,
its excellence,
origin,
its
away.
The
He
him.
mind,
tries
be merry and
wicked
and
in
vain.
His
artists.
'
first
anxiety
scuro,
'
new
is
been
my
clear colours
broken by shadows
LIFE OF BLAKE
not
hide form, as
in
the
415
practice of the
later
vehicle.
Oil
has
show the
fallacy
little
of this
consideration
opinion.
Oil
must
will not
any
little
those
who
air.
artists since
first
it
is
true.
settled the
by the
an awful
call it
madlittle
they
Having
may
is
itself
oil.'
'
These two
pictures,'
he says,
which are
still
now
lost or
The
artist
WILLIAM BLAKE
416
cities,
palaces,
who
is
LIFE OF BLAKE
417
same time
was
at the
of Chaucer's delineations,
and
of skill
inimitable
his
felt
rightly
what
sort
artist.
He who saw visions in CoeleSyria and statues an huudred feet high, wrote thus
concerning Chaucer: 'The characters of his pil-
hand of an
we
again,
see the
in
same
cliaracters repeated
animals, in vegetables,
and
again and
in
men
universal
As Linnseus numbered
the plants,
outline
made him
of a distinct
2d
WILLIAM BLAKE
418
'
is
this
line,
that
;
of
weak
is
the evidence
How
the greater
knew each
other
by
Proto-
this line.
How
again,
out upon
it
before
man
These abominations
of colour
now
fits
to
He
informs us
that
on earth to
and fill men's
let loose
'
oil.'
'
These
'
LIFE OF BLAKE
of Venetian
419
only
life,
it
excellences
of
other men's
works,
and,
finding
effects of light
and
who happened
WILLIAM BLAKE
420
persons
'
of his
friends.
one possest.
He was
WilHam Wallace
the
he admired heroes.
claimed,
'
I see
him now
there, there,
how
noble
he looks
reach me my things
Having drawn
for some time, with the same care of hand and
steadiness of eye, as if a living sitter had been
before him, Blake stopped suddenly, and said,
I
cannot finish him
Edward the First has stept in
between him and me.' 'That's lucky,' said his
!
'
'
friend,
'
for
want the
portrait of
Edward
too.'
LIFE OF BLAKE
geutleman,
was
who heard
421
Sir
'
'
'
I will
show you,
sir,
some
filled
of these works.'
He
that face
'
'
WILLIAM BLAKE
422
think,
There now
'
sir,'
that
he
is
a strong proof
is
a scoundrel indeed
who
'
'
'
eminent
He
officer in
the
army
which
I shall
curiosity of
'
This
a small
the last
is
all.
'
so curiously splendid
and dusky
in the world
of a ilea
saw
'
'
It is a ghost, sir
But what
this in
'
'
He
you
on him one evening, and
'
all
the ghost
tell
He
told
me
flea
LIFE OF BLAKE
423
the ghost of a
of
him
inquired.
him.
stories
are
scarcely credible,
yet there
Another
friend,
'
'
'
'
'
'
He
is
of a
of
WILLIAM BLAKE
424
and
drevv^
his productions
He
all
Book of Job.
small room, which
served
Man
of
Uz
sus-
wife.
exuberant fancy.
lofty
destroying Job's
escaped to
sore
8.
boils.
tell
7.
children.
thee.
Job's
6.
5.
And
alone
am
comforting
9.
him.
Then
LIFE OF BLAKE
425
my
with visions.
wherefore
12.
was
am young and
afraid.
13.
ye are
old,
19,
and independent.
manly
WILLIAM BLAKE
426
wheu it is gone
and convenient.
men
of
taste
to the grave
be
could
is cheap
Blake few
the fashion
Of the existence
ignorant
of
of
his
great
merits
Book
laboured with
all
skill
equal to
his
enthusiasm.
and
These
They are in the earlier fashion of
very peculiar.
workmanship, and bear no resemblance whatever to
the polished and graceful style which now prevails.
engravings are very rare, very beautiful,
that
The Songs
of Innocence,
and
Two
names
extensive
and imagination.
works,
bearing
the
ominous
and
made
graver.
The
their
appearance from
first
contains eighteen
LIFE OF BLAKE
427
and the other seveuteen plates, and both are plentiwith verse, without the incumbrance
of rhyme.
It is impossible to give a satisfactory
description of these works the frontispiece of the
latter, representing the Ancient of Days, in an orb
of light, stooping into chaos, to measure out the
world, has been admired less for its meaning than
for the grandeur of its outline.
A head and a tailpiece in the other have been much noticed
one
exhibits the bottom of the sea, with enormous
fishes preying on a dead body
the other, the surwith
a
dead
body
floating,
face,
on which an eagle
with outstretched wings is feeding. The two angels
pouring out the spotted plague upon Britain an
angel standing in the sun, attended by three furies
and several other Inventions in these wild works,
exhibit wonderful strength of drawing and splenOf loose prints but which
dour of colouring.
were meant doubtless to form part of some extenone of the most remarkable is the Great
sive work
Sea Serpent and a figure, sinking in a stormy sea
the glow of which, with the foam upon
at sunset
the dark waves, produces a magical effect.
After a residence of seventeen years in South
Molton Street, Blake removed (not in consequence,
of any increase of fortune) to No. 3 Founalas
tain Court, Strand.
This was in the year 1823.
Here he engraved by day and saw visions by night,
and occasionally employed himself in making Inventions for Dante
and such was his application
fully seasoned
WILLIAM BLAKE
428
engraved seven.
this disappointment
He had now
Yet he
and contented.
I glory,'
he said, in dying, and have no grief but in leaving
you, Katherine
we have lived happy, and we have
lived long we have been ever together, but we
was
to the
last cheerful
'
'
nor do I fear
truly
in
men.'
longer
it.
my own
house,
when
upright
and was
LIFE OF BLAKE
The Ancient
of
three days
Blake, that
429
a favourite with
before his
death, he sat
bolstered
colours
'
'
'
made
a fine likeness.
offspring of
breathing.
WILLIAM BLAKE
430
week
the greater
Fuseli,
that professional
of
Flaxman and
skill,
without which
all
genius
is
bestowed in vain.
He was his own teacher
chiefly and self-instruction, the parent occasionally
of great beauties, seldom fails to produce great
deformities.
He was a most splendid tinter, but
no colourist, and his works were all of small
dimensions, and therefore confined to the cabinet
and the portfolio. His happiest flights, as well as
his wildest, are thus likely to remain shut up from
;
the world.
If
we
look at the
man
LIFE OF BLAKE
and most
we
431
he
Innocence
and
the Songs of
Experience, the Gates of Paradise, and the Inventions for Job, was the possessor of very loftyfaculties, with no common skill in art, and moreintelligible works,
mode
of treatment,
overflow of imagination
is
a failing
uncommon
in
'
poet or painter
conceived
while one
Blake's
misfortune
WILLIAM BLAKE
432
'
'
of actual
life.
which he
he
believed that it was revealed in a vision, and that
he was bound in honour to conceal it from the
world.
/iHis modes of preparing his grounds,'
says Smith, in his Supplement to the Life of
and laying them over his panels for
Nollekeus,
painting, mixing his colours, and manner of working, were those which he considered to have been
practised by the early fresco painters, whose productions still remain in many instances vividly and
permanently fresh. His ground was a mixture of
whiting and carpenters' glue, which he passed over
several times in the coatings his colours he ground
himself, and also united with them the same sort
He would,
of glue, but in a much weaker state.
w^as
a secret
'
LIFE OF BLAKE
to
receive
something
munication, as I
am
considerable
quite certain
it
433
for
may
its
com-
be used
in
general.
The
affection
2e
An
(Collected Edition in
two Volumes),
1902.
Aubrey Beardsley.
1898, 1905.
in Literature.
1899.
1903.
1903.
A Book
1886, 1906.
of
Twenty Songs.
Spiritual Adventures.
1904.
1905.
1905.
1906.
1906.
Date Due
...i^^'-^-s^ Miih
^6
7 1^
m^^^j^
.
.^
.^
^-7"
..U.-^'t
Demco 38-297
1865-1945
BALDWIN-WALLACE COLLEGE
B015399BWC
'*>'fi*yf\