Chapter I: Preface

Some years ago, I became deeply interested in William Blake, and made myself familiar with all that our public collections in London contain of his art-work. It seemed to me that this work was still so little known and appreciated by the public, that a short book might well be written to serve as a pointer to our national Blake treasures. The standard works on Blake--Gilchrist's Life, Mr. A. C. Swinburne's Critical Essay, Messrs. Ellis and Yeats' exhaustive volumes, and Mr. W. M. Rossetti's Aldine Essay--are of great literary excellence and high critical quality, and must ever remain the great authorities on the subject; but, owing to these works being either out of print, very lengthy, very expensive, or unillustrated, a want may be supplied by, and an opportunity of usefulness open to, such a book as the present one. Different in scope as it is from any other book on Blake, and modest in aim, it deals with the poet-artist as he is manifested in those works of his which are accessible to the public.

In seeking to sketch again his artistic personality, I have been guided by the conclusions of his eminent biographers and critics wherever they coincided with my own intuitive convictions. But in the study of a character and work so out of the usual, so exotic and strange as those of Blake, unanimity of opinion and judgement is hardly to be hoped for, and the variety of points of view from which each new student sees him, may assist to the rounding and filling out of the portrait drawn in so masterly a manner in the first instance by Alexander Gilchrist.

My best thanks are due to Mr. A. B. Langridge for reading my proofs and for the photographs which he took expressly to illustrate this volume. Also to Mr. Frederic Shields for numerous acts of kindness and the loan of original Blake drawings, to Sir Charles Dilke, to Messrs. Chatto and Windus, to Mr. Laurence Binyon, Mr. G. K. Fortescue, and to Dr. G. C. Williamson for help given to me in various ways.

CONTENTS

CHAPTER PAGE

I. EARLY YEARS 1

II. LIFE AT FELPHAM 21

III. THE PROCESSION OF THE PILGRIMS 32

IV. DECLINING YEARS 45

V. HIS RELIGIOUS VIEWS 57

VI. HIS MYSTICAL NATURE 72

VII. HIS ART WORK 80

Songs of Innocence.
Book of Thel.
Gates of Paradise.
Songs of Experience.
Tales for Children.

VIII. THE PROPHETIC BOOKS 101

Vision of the Daughters of Albion.
America.
Europe.

IX. THE PROPHETIC BOOKS, continued 116

Book of Urizen.
The Small Book of Designs.
The Large Book of Designs.
Song of Los.
Book of Los.
Jerusalem.
Milton.

X. WORK IN ILLUSTRATION 136

Young's "Night Thoughts."
Blair's "Grave."
Thornton's "Pastorals."
The Book of Job.

XI. WORK IN THE EXHIBITION OF 1904 159

XII. ENGRAVINGS AND DRAWINGS IN THE PRINT ROOM 176

The Canterbury Pilgrimage.
Dante.
Pencil Sketches.
Works in the National Gallery.

INDEX 195

ILLUSTRATIONS

TO FACE PAGE

THE LAST JUDGMENT (from Blair's "Grave") _Frontispiece_

PORTRAIT OF BLAKE 1

THE LITTLE GIRL LOST (from "Songs of Experience") 12

THE DIVINE IMAGE (from "Songs of Innocence") 16

"AMERICA," a page from 20

THE LAZAR HOUSE 22

"EUROPE," a page from 24

LOS, ENITHARMON, AND ORC (from "Urizen") 26

THE RE-UNION OF THE SOUL AND THE BODY (from "The Grave") 32

THE PILGRIMAGE TO CANTERBURY (Stothard) 36

CHAUCER'S "CANTERBURY PILGRIMS" (Blake) 36

SATAN TORMENTING JOB 44

BLAKE'S ROOM IN FOUNTAIN COURT (F. J. Shields) 53

DEATH'S DOOR (from "The Grave") 66

THE SHEPHERD (from "Songs of Innocence") 80

FRONTISPIECE FROM "SONGS OF INNOCENCE" 84

THE LAMB (from "Songs of Innocence") 86

THE MARRIAGE OF HEAVEN AND HELL, a page from 90

"I WANT, I WANT" (from "Gates of Paradise") 94

THE DELUGE (after a Plate in "Gates of Paradise") 96

THE TYGER (from "Songs of Experience") 98

INFANT JOY (from "Songs of Innocence") 100

"VISIONS OF THE DAUGHTERS OF ALBION," a page from 106

"AMERICA," the Frontispiece to 108

"AMERICA," a page from 110

"EUROPE," the Frontispiece to ("The Ancient of Days") 112

"EUROPE," the first page from 114

"URIZEN," the title-page from 116

"URIZEN," Plate VI from 118

"THE SMALL BOOK OF DESIGNS," Plate IX from 120

THE ACCUSERS (from "The Large Book of Designs") 122

"JERUSALEM," page 33 from 128

ROBERT (from "Milton") 134

TIME SPEEDING AWAY (page 25 from "Night Thoughts") 138

DEATH OF THE STRONG WICKED MAN (from "The Grave") 140

THE SOUL RELUCTANTLY PARTING FROM THE BODY (from
"The Grave") 144

THORNTON'S "VIRGIL'S PASTORALS," woodcuts from 146

"THE BOOK OF JOB," Plate II 150

"THE BOOK OF JOB," Plate V 152

"THE BOOK OF JOB," Plate XIV 154

THE NATIVITY 162

THE FLIGHT INTO EGYPT 168

OBERON, TITANIA, AND PUCK 170

VISION OF QUEEN KATHERINE 174

THE CIRCLE OF THE LUSTFUL (from "Dante") 180

PENCIL SKETCH FOR "DEATH'S DOOR" 184

HEAD OF AN OLD MAN 186

THE WHORE OF BABYLON 188

DAVID DELIVERED OUT OF DEEP WATERS 190

THE SPIRITUAL FORM OF PITT GUIDING BEHEMOTH 192

BOOKS ON BLAKE

BINYON, ROBERT LAURENCE. "William Blake: being all his woodcuts photographically reproduced in facsimile." London, 1902. 4o. [The Unicorn Press: Little Engravings, No. 2.]

CUNNINGHAM, ALLAN. "The Lives of the most eminent British Painters, Sculptors and Architects." London, 1829-33. 12o. [Part of "The Family Library," 6 vols.] Note: a second edition of this work was published in 1830-37, in 16o, 6 vols.

ELLIS, E. J., and YEATS, W. B. "The works of William Blake, poetic, symbolic, and critical." Edited with lithographs of the illustrated "Prophetic Books," and a memoir and interpretation. London, B. Quaritch, 1893. 8o. 3 vols.

GARNETT (SIR) RICHARD. "William Blake, Painter and Poet." London, 1895. 80 pp. folio. ["The Portfolio Monographs," No. 22.]

GILCHRIST, ALEXANDER. "The Life of W. Blake, 'Pictor Ignotus.'" With selections from his poems and other writings. Edited by Anne Gilchrist, with the assistance of D. G. and W. M. Rossetti. London, 1863. 8o. 2 vols. Note: a second enlarged edition was published in 1880. London, Macmillan & Co. 8o. 2 vols.

MALKIN, THOMAS W. "A Father's Memoirs of his Child." London, 1806. 8o.

ROSSETTI, W. M. "The Poetical Works of William Blake." Edited with a prefatory memoir. London, 1874. 8o. ["The Aldine Poets." George Bell & Sons.]

SCOTT, WILLIAM BELL. "Exhibition of the Works of William Blake." With introductory memoir. London, The Burlington Fine Arts Club, 1876. 4o.

SCOTT, WILLIAM BELL. "William Blake." Etchings from his works (with descriptive text). London, Chatto and Windus, 1878. Folio.

SMETHAM, JAMES. "Essay on Blake." (Reprinted in Gilchrist's work, q.v., from the "London Quarterly Review").

SWINBURNE, A. C. "William Blake." A critical essay, with illustrations from Blake's designs in facsimile, coloured and plain. Second edition. London, 1868. 8o.

WILLIAM BLAKE