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AN ILLUSTRAT€D QUART€RLY VOL. 7 NO. 1 SUMM€R 1973

Published quarter ly under the sponsorship of the Department of English of the Universi ty of New Mexico. Support for b ib l iographical assistance provided by the Universi ty of Ca l i f o rn ia , Berkeley.

Morton D. Paley, Executive Editor* Universi ty of Ca l i f o rn ia , Berkeley.

Morris Eaves, Managing Editor* Universi ty of New Mexico.

Michael P h i l l i p s , Associate Editor* Universi ty of Edinburgh.

Michael Davies and Judith Wallick Page, Editorial Assistants for Production* Universi ty of New Mexico.

Graham Conley, Editorial Assistant for Subscriptions, Universi ty of New Mexico.

Foster Foreman, Bibliographer, Universi ty of C a l i ­f o rn i a , Berkeley.

Manuscripts are welcome. Send two copies e i ther to Morton Paley, Dept. of Engl ish, Univ. of Ca l i f o rn ia , Berkeley, Ca. 94720, or to Morris Eaves, Dept. of Engl ish, Univ. of New Mexico, Albuquerque, N.M. 87131

Subscriptions are $5 for one year, four issues; special rate fo r i nd iv idua ls , $4 for one year, surface mai l ; for those overseas who want to receive the i r issues by a i r ma i l , $8. U.S. currency i f possible. Make checks payable to the Blake News­letter. Address a l l subscript ion orders and related communications to Morris Eaves, Managing Edi tor .

Some back issues are avai lab le. Address Morris Eaves, Managing Edi tor . Prices: whole numbers 14, 15, and 2 1 , $2 each. Whole numbers 17-18 (combined issue containing Robert Essick's Finding List of Reproductions of Blake's Art* 160 pages), $5. Whole number 20 (A Handlist of Works by William Blake in the Department of Prints & Drawings of -the British Museum* edi ted by G. E. Bentley, J r . ) , $3.

The ISSN ( In ternat ional Standard Serial Number) of the Blake Newsletter is 0006-453X.

Notes Martin B u t l i n , Five Blakes from a Nineteenth-Century Scott ish Col lect ion

Geoffrey Keynes, Wil l iam Blake and Bart 's

Checklist A Checklist of Recent Blake Scholarship, August 1972-September 1973, compiled by Gregory Candela, Marta F ie l d , and Foster Foreman

Reviews

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BBC Blake: Morton D. Paley on two BBC films, Tyger, Tyger and William Blake

Francis Wood Metcalf on the Brown Universi ty Press-New York Public Library facsimi le of The Book of Thel edited by Nancy Bogan

Deirdre Toomey on the f i r s t volume of William Blake: Book Illustrator by Roger R. Easson and Robert N. Essick

Morris Eaves on the York Universi ty videotapes about America and Visions of the Daughters of Albion produced and directed by Janet Warner, John Sutherland, and Robert Wallace

Katharine M. Briggs on The Sports of Cruelty: Fairies3 Folk-songs, Charms, and Other Country Matters in the Work of William Blake by John Adlard

Copyright ©1974 by Morton D. Paley and Morris Eaves

NOT€S

FIV€ BLAK€S FROM

A 19TH-C€NTURY SCOTTISH COLL€CTION

Martin Dutlin

Five Blakes from the co l lec t ion of Barron Grahame, FSA, of Morphie, Scotland (or "N.B." for North B r i t a i n , as i t was cal led in other catalogues of sales from his co l l e c t i on ) , sold at Sotheby's on 15 March 1878, have recently re-appeared in Scotland. Two now belong to Donald Davidson, three to David J . Black, a l l f i ve coming from the co l lec t ion of Robert Carfrae j u n r . , whose father seems to have acquired them at the time of the Grahame sa le , two examples being inscribed on the back wi th some var ia t ion of "B. Grahame sale London 1878" (see i l l u s . 3).

The Grahame sale included two lots containing works a t t r ibu ted to Blake. Lot 22 consisted of s ix "sketches in penc i l , e t c . , of various subjects," and Lot 23 of "God Appearing to Adam and Eve, indian ink , f i n e , and another, pen and ink . " Both lots were bought, fo r £2.11.0 and £5.7.6 respect ively, by "Chalmers," possibly on commission f o r , or a pseudonym of , Robert Carfrae senr. Of the f i ve works now known one is in pen and watercolor, one in pen and ink wash alone, and three in penc i l , the f i r s t two being those belonging to Donald Davidson. Three, including the "God Appearing to Adam and Eve," are s t i l l missing.

The watercolor ( i l l u s . 1) is what seems to be the ea r l i es t known version of "Pesti lence" or "Plague," and is a sketch for the somewhat larger watercolor, at present untraced but known from a reproduction in The Connoisseur, 93 (1934), 209, where i t is said to measure 10 3/4 x 7 1/4 i n . (27.5 x 18.5 cm.). The newly re-discovered work, inscribed "WB" in the lower r ight-hand corner (not necessarily by Blake and par t l y los t through trimming) and "Lord have m§J2 ["mercy"] on us" on the door shown on the l e f t , measures 5 7/16 x 7 5/16 i n . (13.8 x 18.6 cm.), the same size as the series of i l l u s t r a t i o n s to English h is tory of c. 1779, which i t also resembles in s ty le and technique. Blake's l i s t of English h is tory subjects, wr i t ten in his Notebook in 1793, but probably related to the pro ject of c. 1779,

1 (top) "Pest i lence," f i r s t version by Blake, c. 1779. Pen and watercolor 5 7/16 x 7 5/16 i n . (13.8 x 18.6 cm.). Donald Davidson co l l ec t i on .

2 Sketch fo r "War unchained by an Angel, F i r e , Pest i lence, and Famine fo l lowing" by Blake, dated June 1783. Pen and wash 7 x 8 11/16 i n . (17.7 x 22.1 cm.). Donald Davidson co l l ec t i on .

includes "The Plague" immediately before "The Fire of London," presumably meaning the plague of 1665. David Bindman, in discussing th is group of works in William Blake: Essays in honour of Sir Geoffrey Keynes, 1973 ("Blake's 'Gothicised Imagination' and the History of England," p. 46), ten ta t i ve ly suggests that the "Plague," "F i re " and "Famine" of which versions were painted fo r Thomas But ts , in and about 1805, were o r i g i na l l y an offshoot of the English h is tory ser ies ; Mr. Davidson's watercolor confirms th is suggestion at least in the case of "Plague," of which there are in a l l no fewer than f i ve versions, in which the composition evolves from a rather labored neo-classicism in the manner of Benjamin West to a much more economical example of Blake's mature s t y l e .

The recto of Mr. Davidson's other drawing ( i l l u s . 2 ) , in pen and wash, is s imi la r in s ty le and general subject though rather la rger , 7 x 8 11/16 i n . (17.7 x 22.1 cm.). I t shows an angel, borne up by a heavy cloud, f l y i n g over a town square and brandishing a par t ly erased sword which seems to have set a l i gh t the temple in the background wi th in which cower a group of inhabi tants ; in the foreground is a s imi la r group, of fa ther , mother and c h i l d , the las t being apparently sick or dead. No other version of th is composition is known today, but i t is tempting to see i t as the f i r s t sketch for the los t Royal Academy exh ib i t of 1784, no. 427, "War unchained by an Angel, F i re , Pest i lence, and Famine fo l l ow ing . " The date "June 1783" in the lower r ight-hand corner (again par t l y los t through trimming) lends some support to th is i d e n t i f i c a t i o n , though i t is not de f i n i t e l y in Blake's hand. The sketch is bolder and more accomplished than "The Plague," though Blake's developing imaginative powers are not yet matched by his technique.

On the reverse of th i s drawing in pen and wash are a number of studies in penc i l , much more assured in technique though less imaginative and ind iv idual

Martin Butlin is Keeper of the British Collection at the Tate Gallery, London, and a specialist on the work of Blake and J. M. W. Turner. He is the author of William Blake: A Complete Catalogue of the Works in the Tate Gal lery and of many articles on Blake that have appeared in the Newsle t t e r . He is compiling a complete catalogue of Blake's paintings, watercolors, and drawings.

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1 3 ( l e f t top) Verso of 2: studies by Blake fo r the f ront isp iece to Benjamin Mai k in 's A Father's Memoirs of his Child, published 1806. Pencil on sheet 8 11/16 x 7 i n . (22.1 x 17.7 cm.).

4 ( l e f t bottom) Study for Jerusalem plate 51 by Blake. Pencil 6 5/16 x 13 3/8 (16 x 34 cm.). David J . Black co l l ec t i on .

5 Study of Theotormon (?) by Blake. Pencil 7 7 / 8 x 6 7/16" i n . (20 x 16.3 cm.). David J . Black co l l ec t i on .

in s ty le ( i l l u s . 3) . They seem to re la te to the f ront isp iece of Benjamin Heath Malkin's A Father's Memoirs of his Child, engraved by Cromek a f te r Blake and published in 1806 (repro. G. E. Bentley, J r . , Blake Records, 1969, p i . 23; there is another sketch, fo r the composition as a whole, but d i f f e r ­ing considerably from the f i n a l engraving, in the B r i t i sh Museum, 1867-10-12-201; Lawrence Binyon, Catalogue of drawings by British Artists . . . in the British Museum, I , 1898, no. 43 [ 5 ] ) . Two of the heads are close to that of the ch i ld shown taking leave of his mother and again in the medal­l i on above. Others seem to r e f l ec t an unused idea fo r a putto f l y i ng down from the r i g h t . The sketches of f ee t , though not precisely followed by the feet of the angel and the c h i l d , could wel l have been done in preparation fo r them.

Of the three pencil drawings belonging to David J . Black one ( i l l u s . 4) is a sketch fo r plate 51 of Jerusalem, very s imi la r to i t though in

reverse, but with the fascinat ing addit ion of an extra f igure on the l e f t ( that i s , on the r i gh t had i t been included in the engraving). I t measures 6 5/16 x 13 3/8 (16 x 34 cm.). The engraved plate shows Vala, Hyle and Skof ie ld ; the addit ional f i gu re , to fol low a suggestion of Morton D. Paley, is probably Hand. The paper shows signs of having been folded back twice, once to el iminate th is extra f i gu re , the other time to el iminate that of Skof ield as w e l l .

Another of the pencil drawings ( i l l u s . 5) is s im i la r in s ty le and scale to a number of drawings associated with the i l luminated books, pa r t i cu la r l y Jerusalem, but cannot be re lated to any one plate (see the drawing for Jerusalem p i . 37, repro. Si r Geoffrey Keynes, Drawings of William Blake, 1970, no. 55, and also his no. 50, fo r which see Frederic Cummings in exh ib i t ion catalogue, Romantic Art in Britain, Det ro i t and Phi ladelphia, 1968, Anne T. Kostelanetz's review in the Blake Newsletter, 2 [1968-69], 5-6, and Frederic Cummings' reply in same, pp. 46-48). I t is a var iant of a recurrent and pa r t i cu la r l y expressive mot i f in Blake's a r t , the f igure seen from the f ron t but leaning forward so far that the hai r f a l l s away from the neck enabling one to see the bare neck and shoulders; examples are on page 68 of Vala and the f igure of Eve in "The Body of Abel found by Adam and Eve" (repro. G. E. Bentley, J r . , William Blake: Vala or The Four Zoas, 1963, and Geoffrey Keynes, William Blake's Illustrations to the Bible, 1957, p i s . 15a and 15b). The f igure in th is drawing is pa r t i cu la r l y close to that in "Theotormon Woven," perhaps also to be associated wi th Jerusalem (see Morton D. Paley, "The Figure of the Garment in The Four Zoas, Milton, and Jerusalem" in Stuart Curran and Joseph Anthony Wi t t r e i ch , J r . , Blake's Sublime Allegory, 1973, p. 128, repro. p i . 2 ) .

In the upper r ight-hand corner of the sheet, which measures 7 7 / 8 x 6 7/16 i n . (20 x 16.3 cm.), there is a rather i n d i s t i n c t sketch, which seems to resemble the g i r l at the bottom of the pen and wash drawing for The Grave in the co l lec t ion of Robert N. Essick, "The Soul exploring the Recesses of the Grave" of c. 1805 (repro. Blake Studies, 4 [Spring 1972], cover), and the suggestion of masonry behind the main f igure on the sheet also recal ls th is composition. This var ia t ion on the theme of the expressive exposure of the back of the neck is pa r t i cu la r l y close to the f igure of Grief i n Fusel i 's "Melancholy," an i l l u s t r a t i o n to II Penseroso painted for Fusel i 's Mi l ton Gallery between October 1799 and March 1800. This has been destroyed but is known from the engraving in Sharpe's British Theatre, 1804 (see Gert Sch i f f , Johann Heinrich Fusslis Milton-Galerie, 1963, pp. 94, 161, the engraving repro. p i . 52). Fuseli repeated th is f igure on i t s own fo r his paint ing of "Si lence," which was engraved by J . Burnet for the t i t l e -page of Fusel i 's Lectures on Painting, published in 1801 (repro. Sch i f f , p i . 53). I t is often d i f f i c u l t to establ ish p r i o r i t i e s as between Fuseli and Blake, whom Fuseli found i t "damned good to steal from," but i n th is case Fuseli was probably the f i r s t . However, i t seems to have been Blake who added the f i n a l emotive element of the bare neck to that of the hair hanging down to conceal the face.

8 The third pencil drawing (illus. 6 ) , 6 5/16 x

9 1/2 in. (16 x 24.2 cm.), is a version of the drawing in pencil, partly finished in watered or, in the British Museum with the tentative title of "Hamlet and the Ghost of his Father" (1874-12-12-130; Binyon Catalogue of Drawings* no. 43 [17], where it is suggested that the watercolor may be by William Blake's younger brother Robert). The pencil drawing is more detailed and higher in quality than that underlying the British Museum watercolor and the work seems to be a genuine, if \iery early and immature, sketch by William.

A clue to the identification of the subject of this drawing is tied up with the probable early history of all the Barron Grahame Blakes. These, it will be remembered, numbered eight in all, though only five are known at present. A single lot in the sale of the print-seller Joseph Hogarth at Southgate and Barrett's, 7-30 June 1854, seems to have contained the same eight works. Lot 4624 on the eleventh evening of the sale was described as "The Destroying Angel, The Plague, Witch of Endor, etc. (8)" (meaning eight works in all). "The Plague" could well be the Donaldson version; none of the others has a better claim. "The Destroying Angel" is a good description of the drawing here identified as a sketch for "War unchained by an Angel. ..." Although the Witch of Endor is not herself visible the composition of both David Black's drawing and the version in the British Museum fulfills much of her description of what occurred when Saul asked her to evoke the ghost of Samuel: "I saw gods ascending out of the earth. . . An old man cometh up; and he is covered with a mantle" (I Samuel 28:13-14). The titles in the Hogarth sale catalogue are extremely inaccurate, but even if the identification of the subject of the two drawings as "The Witch of Endor" is not absolutely certain, it is preferable to "Hamlet and the Ghost of his Father" and close enough to reinforce the link between the Barron Grahame Blakes and the Hogarth sale. The eight works were bought, for 13/-, by "Cowieson," a name otherwise

unknown in Blake provenances, and perhaps a pseudonym or agent for Grahame.

Joseph Hogarth acquired his Blakes from Frederick Tatham (Bentley, Blake Records, p. 374), who had inherited the contents of Blake's studio from the artist's widow. An approximate date for Hogarth's acquisition of his Blakes is suggested by two features of the Barron Grahame drawings. In the first place the three pencil drawings are mounted on paper watermarked "J WHATMAN 1843" or "J WHATMAN 1844". In the second place all five drawings are inscribed either on the back of the mount, or, in the case of the unmounted "War unchained by an Angel . . .," on the back of the drawing itself, with a number in the 200's followed by "Jan/47"; an example can be seen in illus. 3, the verso of "War unchained. ..." Each inscription is perhaps some kind of stock number followed by the date when Hogarth acquired the work (as there were only seventy-nine Blakes in his sale it is probable that the count of over two hundred included works by other artists). There is a similar inscription on the verso of a drawing at McGill University, Montreal, which seems to be the "Children at the Grave of their Parent" in lot 237 on the first evening of the Hogarth sale (the verso is repro. as endpapers to Lawrence Lande, Credo and an Open Letter to a Scientist* Montreal 1950). On the other hand there is evidence that Hogarth already had some Blakes by about 1843, so perhaps it was he who mounted this group on acquiring them from Tatham and "Jan/47" was merely the date of the supposed stock-taking. John Ruskin's largely abortive purchase of a portfolio of Blake from Hogarth is the subject of a letter to George Richmond, who had acted as intermediary, which can be dated to about 1843 on account of Ruskin's reference to his father's generosity in buying works by J. M. W. Turner for him, an activity that was at its height in the years 1842-44 (see E. T. Cook and Alexander Wedderburn, The Works of John Ruskin, XXXVI [1909], 32-33, and Luke Herrmann, Ruskin and Turner [1968], pp. 20-22).

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6 "The Witch of Endcr: Saul and the Ghost of Samuel" (?) by Blake. Pencil 6 5/16 x 9 1/2 in. (16 x 24.2 cm.). David J. Black collec­tion.

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WILLIAM BLAKG & BART'S

Geoffrey Keynes

The recent i den t i f i ca t i on by Lesl ie F. Chard (Blake Studies, 1973) of two plates executed by Blake for S i r James Earle's Practical Observations on the Operation for the Stone (London, for J . Johnson, 1793) has interested me fo r several reasons. Earle was a predecessor of mine as Senior Surgeon at St. Bartholomew's Hospital (otherwise known as Bart's), founded in the year 1123 on i t s present s i t e j u s t outside the walls of the City of London. He was a dist inguished p rac t i t i oner born in 1755 and elected to the surgical s ta f f of Bart 's in 1784, serving there to w i th in two years of his death in 1817. He married the daughter of Percival Pot t , an even more dist inguished surgeon on the s t a f f of B a r t ' s , and wrote a Life of his fa ther - in - law. He was appointed surgeon-extraordinary to King George I I I , and his t h i r d son, Henry Earle, followed in his fa ther 's footsteps as surgeon to Bart 's and as surgeon-extraordinary to Queen V ic tor ia at her accession in 1837.

Si r James Earle's slender monograph on the technique of "cu t t ing fo r the stone," or l i thotomy, is an in teres t ing contr ibut ion to our knowledge of surgical pract ice in 1793. Blake's two p la tes, each signed Blake sc, are very wel l executed. The f i r s t is a stark representation in l ine engraving of two instruments used for the operat ion; the second, wholly etched, is a beaut i fu l rendering of four types of urinary c a l c u l i , or bladder stones; t he i r i n t r i c a t e st ructure is wel l shown and Blake was evident ly working from good drawings, perhaps made by Earle himself. I t is to be noted that the book was published by Joseph Johnson, Blake's frequent employer for making book i l l u s t r a t i o n s in the 1790's, and that Earle dedicated i t to Wil l iam Long (1747-1818), a surgical colleague on the s ta f f of Ba r t ' s , 1747-1807. This is of par t i cu la r in te res t because i t is probable that Blake was acquainted with Long. In a l e t t e r to Wil l iam Hayley wr i t ten on 16 March 1804 Blake mentioned that he was engraving a p o r t r a i t of Romney, "which was lent by Mr. Long for the purpose of being engraved fo r the European Magne." No engraving of Romney published in the European Magazine or elsewhere is known, so that th is reference has never been explained, but i t strongly suggests that Blake and Wil l iam Long met over th is (apparently abort ive) t ransact ion, i f not before. The probab i l i t y is supported by the facts that Long was a f r iend of both Flaxman and Hayley and owned a copy of Poetical

Sketches inscribed to him by Flaxman, who transmitted another copy to Hayley through Long as intermediary (Keynes, Blake Studies , 1971, pp. 42, 44). Long was also an amateur a r t i s t and t r i e d to "improve" some of Romney's pictures in his possession.

I have examined the Bart 's copy of the second ed i t ion of Earle's pamphlet, 1796, which has an Appendix and a t h i r d ( fo ld ing) p la te , giving fur ther i l l u s t r a t i o n s of the instruments used in the operation. I have not been able to see Professor Chard's a r t i c l e , but he no doubt noticed that th is t h i r d plate too was cer ta in ly executed by Blake. The engraving technique is the same as that of the f i r s t p la te , and the l e t t e r i ng below corresponds with that done by Blake on the plates for George Cumberland's Thoughts on Outline, 1796. Comparison of th is ed i t ion wi th my copy of the f i r s t shows that the type was kept standing. The paper is of somewhat bet ter qua l i t y and the t e x t , apart from the t i t l e -page and the las t page, has been pr inted from the same formes.

I now wish to suggest that Blake was also acquainted with Si r James Earle and so had good connections with my Hospi ta l . In my Catalogue Raisonnee of Blake's Separate Plates, Dubl in, 1956, I recorded as no. xxxvi a p o r t r a i t of "Edmund P i t t s Esq." executed in s t ipp led l i nes . I t is le t tered ad viv: del: J. Earle:Armig. Guliels Blake sculp. At that time I had no clue to the i den t i t y of Edmund P i t t s and could f i nd in the reference books on a r t i s t s only the name of James Earle, an American p o r t r a i t painter from Leicester, Massachusetts, who had exhibi ted at the Royal Academy, 1787-96, and at the Society of Arts in 1791. This seemed to be a reasonable i d e n t i f i c a t i o n , the only puzzle being why he sty led himself Armiger* that i s , bearer of a coat of arms. Blake's association with Si r James Earle is evidence that S i r James was himself the draughtsman, th is p robab i l i t y being strengthened by the fact that Edmund P i t t s was yet another Bart 's

Sir Geoffrey Keynes, M.D., F.R.C.S., Consulting Surgeon (retired), is known by his years of work in textual criticism and bibliography to all students of Blake. Tribute was recently paid to him in a festschrift, William Blake: Essays in Honour of S i r Geoffrey Keynes (Oxford, 2973).

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surgeon from 1760 until his death in 1791. Blake's plate is skillfully executed by his subtle technique of stippled lines, which can be exactly matched in the frontispieces done by him for The Poems of Catullus, 2 vols., London, for J. Johnson, 1795. In spite of this good style of engraving the print indicates the hand of an amateur draughtsman rather than that of a professional, as can be seen in the accompanying reproduction (the first that has been made, as far as I know [see illus. above]). I have remarked elsewhere ("Blake's Engravings for Gay's Fables," The Book Collector* Spring 1972, p. 61) on Blake's tendency to "improve" amateur work when reproducing it on copperplates, and this portrait of Edmund Pitts indicates that he has tried to do so here, though the handicap was too great for the production of a convincing work of art.

Sir James Earle was not when he was President of the Surgeons, but is likely to h coat of arms by reason of hi is not mentioned in the DNB. the American artist of the s Sir James cannot be excluded working in England for at le the death of Edmund Pitts, s could have made the drawing the evidence seems to point than to his namesake.

knighted until 1802, Royal College of ave had the right to a s birth, though this The possibility that

ame name was related to and he may have been

ast four years before o that either Earle "from the life," though to Sir James rather

The print is very uncommon and I know of only four impressions--those at the Royal College of Surgeons, in the British Museum, and in my collec­tion, with one formerly in the W. E. Moss Collection sold at Sotheby's, 2 March 1937, lot 218, bought by Rosenbach. It has been called a "private plate" and the evidence detailed above suggests that, after Blake's contact with Sir James Earle over the litho­tomy plates he undertook to execute the portrait to oblige his patron. Earle was a practiced writer and had published, besides a number of medical papers, a Life of Peroival Pott and an account of Dr. William Austin, a Bart's physician, 1786-93, prefixed to his lithotomy pamphlet. He might have contemplated writing a biography of his senior colleague, Edmund Pitts, to be illustrated by Blake's plate from his own drawing. This must remain a matter of conjecture, but I propose that the print should be attributed to Sir James Earle as draughtsman and be dated c. 1793.

[I am indebted to Dr. Nellie Kerling, Archivist to St. Bartholomew's Hospital, for verification of dates, and to W. E. Thomson's "William Long, F. R. C," Annals of the College of Surgeons of England, IX (1951) 58-63, for other details. I am informed by Professor G. E. Bentley, Jr., that there is a print of the portrait of Edmund Pitts at McGill University. This may be the fourth example men­tioned above.]

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A CH€CKLIST OF RCCCNT BLAKC SCHOLARSHIP

Compiled by Gregory Condelo, Morto Field, and Foster Foreman

This is our fifth checklist, and the aim and format are basically the same as for the checklists of the past two years. Again this year we have included entries for items that are not scholarly, and again we have listed items whose dates fall far outside our nominal August 1972-September 1973 boundaries.

As always, we would appreciate corrections and additions from our readers. But we would especially like to appeal for help in compiling the checklist for next year. We do our best to cover all journals and other periodicals, but our comprehensiveness depends to a much greater extent on our readers than most of them realize, especially for out-of-the-way material. We want to list everything of interest, including newspaper articles, filmstrips, video­

tapes, and ephemera. We are parti to authors who send offprints for because recent copies of journals time to reach the shelves of the 1 experience shows that the categori likely to miss are book reviews, s whose titles do not mention Blake, foreign languages. Please keep us run across items that should be in

cularly grateful the checklist, can take a long ibrary. Past es we are most ections of books and material in in mind when you the checklist.

Gregory Candela and Marta Field are graduate students at the University of View Mexico and edi­torial assistants for the Newsletter. Foster Fore­man is the bibliographer for the Newsletter at Berkeley.

The list is divided into these categories: New and Revised Books/Reprinted Books/Articles and Sections of Books/Reviews/Films/Phonograph Records.

New and Revised Books Blake, Wi l l iam. Songs of Innocence and of Experience,

"Facsimile of sixteen or ig ina l plates etched by Wil l iam Blake." London: Academy Edi t ions, 1971.

Blake, Wi l l iam. Wil l iam Blake's Water-Colours: I l l u s t r a t i n g the Poems of Thomas Gray. I n t ro . and commen. by S i r Geoffrey Keynes. Chicago: J . Ph i l i p O'Hara, I nc . , 1972. $25.

Blake, Wi l l iam. See also Bloom, Bredvold, Feldman. Bloom, Harold and Lionel T r i l l i n g , eds. The Oxford

Anthology of English L i te ra ture (General eds., Frank Kermode and John Hol lander). 2 vo ls . c loth and pa. ; 6 vo ls . pa. only. N.Y.: Oxford Univ. Press, 1973. 2 vo l . ed . , c loth $9.95 each, paper $7.95 each; 6 vo l . ed . , $3.95 each. [175 i l l u s . ; Blake is in Vol. 2, 10-124, 2 vo l . ed . ; Vol . 4, 6 vo l . ed. ]

Bredvold, Louis, e t . a l . Eighteenth Century Poetry and Prose. 3rd ed. N.Y.: Ronald Press, 1973. $11.50. [Includes Blake]

Curran, Stuart and Joseph Anthony Wi t t re i ch , J r . , eds. Blake's Sublime Al legory: Essays on The

Four Zoas, Milton, and Jerusalem. Madison: Univ. of Wisconsin Press, 1973. $17.50. [38 i l l u s . ] The contents are as fo l lows: Jerome J . McGann, "The Aim of Blake's Prophecies and the Uses of Blake C r i t i c i sm" ; Joseph Anthony Wi t t re i ch , J r . , "Opening the Seals: Blake's Epics and the Mil ton T rad i t i on " ; Ronald L. Grimes, "Time and Space in Blake's Major Prophecies"; Edward J . Rose, "Los, Pi lgr im of E te rn i t y " ; Jean H. Hagstrum, "Babylon Revis i ted, or the Story of Luvah and Vala"; Morton D. Paley, "The Figure of the Garment in The Four Zoas, Milton, and Jerusalem"; John E. Grant, "Visions in Vala: A Consideration of Some Pictures in the Manuscript"; Mary Lynn Johnson and Brian Wi lk ie , "On Reading The Four Zoas: Inscape and Analogy"; Irene Tayler, "Say F i r s t ! What Mov'd Blake? Blake's Comus Designs and Milton"; James Rieger, '"The Hem of Their Gar­ments': The Bard's Song in Milton"; W. J . T. M i t c h e l l , "Blake's Radical Comedy: Dramatic Structure as Meaning in Milton"; Roger R. Easson, "Wil l iam Blake and His Reader in Jerusalem"; Stuart Curran, "The Structures of Jerusalem"; Karl Kroeber, "Del iver ing Jerusalem."

Duncan, Robert. The Truth and L i fe of Myth: An Essay in Essential Autobiography. Fremont, Mich.: Sumac Press, 1968. [Blake is discussed; Blake's "Ezekiel 's Vis ion" on cover]

12

Essick, Robert N., ed. The Visionary Hand. Los Angeles: Hennessey and Inga l l s , 1973. $7.95 paper. [A co l lec t ion of essays on Blake's a r t ; contents not avai lable for l i s t i n g at press-t ime]

Feldman, Burton and Robert D. Richardson. The Rise of Modern Mythology, 1680-1860. Bloomington: Indiana Univ. Press, 1972. [Anthology and c r i t i c a l h is tory that includes Blake]

Fletcher, Angus John Stewart. The Transcendental Masque: An Essay on Mi l ton 's Comus. I thaca, N.Y.: Cornell Univ. Press, 1972. [Blake's i l l u s . to Comus in eight scenes inserted between pp. 256-57]

Gaunt, Wi l l iam. The Restless Century: Painting in B r i t a i n , 1800-1900. New York: Praeger-Phaidon, 1972. $25; 56.5. [171 p ic tures]

Gil lam, David George. Wil l iam Blake. B r i t i s h Authors: Introductory C r i t i c a l Series. London: Cambridge Univ. Press, 1973. 53.70, $12.95; pa. £1.30, $4.95.

Grimes, Ronald L. The Divine Imagination: Wil l iam Blake's Major Prophetic Visions. ATLA Monograph Series, No. 1. Metuchen, N.J.: Scarecrow Press, 1972.

Keynes, S i r Geoffrey. See Blake. Kremen, Kathryn R. The Imagination of the Resurrec­

t i o n : The Poetic Continuity of a Religious Moti f in Donne, Blake, and Yeats. Lewisburg, Penn.: Bucknell Univ. Press, 1972. $15. [ I l l u s t r a t e d ]

Nelson, Cary. The Incarnate Word: L i te ra ture as Verbal Space. Urbana: Univ. of I l l i n o i s Press, 1973. $10.00. [Includes Blake]

Paley, Morton D. and Michael P h i l l i p s , eds. Wil l iam Blake: Essays in Honour of Sir Geoffrey Keynes. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1973. £10.50. [83 i l l u s . ] The contents of th is volume are as fo l lows: Michael P h i l l i p s , "Blake's Early Poetry"; David Bindman, "Blake's 'Gothicised Imagination' and the History of England"; Robert N. Essick, "The A l te r ing Eye: Blake's Vision in the Tiriel Designs"; F. R. Leavis, "Jus t i f y ing One's Valuation of Blake"; Josephine Mi les, "Blake's Frame of Language"; Michael J . To l ley , "Blake's Songs of Spr ing"; Jean H. Hagstrum, "Chr is t ' s Body"; G. Wilson Knight, "The Chapel of Gold"; David V. Erdman with Tom Dargan and Marlene Deverell-Van Meter, "Reading the I l luminat ions of Blake's Marriage of Heaven and Hell"; Janet Warner, "Blake's Figures of Despair: Man in his Spectre's Power"; Morris Eaves, "The Tit le-page of The Book of Urizen"; John Beer, "Blake, Coleridge, and Wordsworth: Some Cross-currents and Para l le l s , 1789-1805"; Morton D. Paley, "Wil l iam Blake, The Prince of the Hebrews, and The Woman Clothed with the Sun"; Martin B u t l i n , "Blake, the Varleys, and the Graphic Telescope"; Raymond L i s t e r , "References to Blake in Samuel Palmer's Le t te rs " ; Suzanne R. Hoover, "Wil l iam Blake in the Wilderness: A Closer Look at his Reputation, 1827-1863"; G. E. Bentley, J r . , "Geoffrey Keynes's Work on Blake: Fons et Origoy and a Checklist of Writ ings on Blake by Geoffrey Keynes, 1910-1972."

Sachs, Ar ieh, ed. The English Grotesque: An Anthology from Langland to Joyce. Jerusalem: Israel Univers i t ies Press, 1969. [Pp. 155-61:

Memorable Fancies from MHH\ " I Saw a Chapel A l l of Gold"; An Island in the Moon. Pis. 15 and 42: "Ghost of a Flea" and "Nebuchadnezzar." Blake also in Int roduct ion]

Tomory, Peter. The Life and Art of Henry Fuseli. N.Y.: Praeger, 1972. $25. [ I l l u s t r a t ed ]

Wagenknecht, David. Blake's Night: Wil l iam Blake and the Idea of Pastoral. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard Univ. Press; Belknap Press, 1973. $12.

Wright, Andrew. Blake's Job: A Commentary. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1972. $9. [23 i l l u s t r a t i o n s ]

Reprinted B00K5 Berger, P. William Blake: Poet and Mystic, Studies

in Blake Series, No. 3. 1914; rpt. N.Y.: Haskell House, 1969.

Berger, Pierre. William Blake: Poet and Mystic, trans. D. H. Connor. 1914; rpt. Folcroft, Pa.: Folcroft, 1973.

Binyon, Laurence. Followers of William Blake. 1925; rpt. N.Y.: Benjamin Blom, 1972.

Blake, William. Blake's Poetical Works. Ed. John Sampson. 1905; rpt. Kennebunkpart, Me.: Mil ford House, 1971.

Blake, William. See also Campbell, Clarke, Keynes. Bronowski, J. William Blake: A Man without a

Mask. 1947(7); rpt. N.Y.: Haskell House, 1969. Campbell, Kathleen W., ed. An Anthology of English

Poetry: Dryden to Blake. 1930; rpt. Freeport, N.Y.: Books for Libraries, 1971.

Clarke, John H. William Blake on the Lord's Prayer: 1757-1827, Studies in Blake Series, No. 5. 1927; rpt. N.Y.: Haskell House, 1971.

De Selincourt, Basil. William Blake. 1909; rpt. N.Y.: Cooper Square, 1972.

De Selincourt, Basil. William Blake. 1909; rpt. Port Washington, N.Y.: Kennikat, 1971.

Dutt, Sukumar. The Supernatural in English Romantic Poetry, 1780-1830. 1938; rpt. Folcroft, Pa.: Folcroft Library Editions, 1972.

Ellis, Edwin J. The Real Blake. 1906; rpt. N.Y.: Haskell House, 1970.

Garnett, Richard. William Blake: Painter and Poet, Studies in Blake Series, No. 3. 1895; rpt. N.Y.: Haskell House, 1970.

Gilchrist, Alexander. The Life of William Blake. Ed. W. Graham Robertson. 1907; rpt. Folcroft, Pa.: Folcroft Library Editions, 1972.

Gilchrist, Alexander. The Life of William Blake. 2 vols. 1880; rpt. N.Y.: Phaeton, 1969.

Keynes, Sir Geoffrey. Blake Studies: Notes on His Life and Works in Seventeen Chapters. 1949; rpt. N.Y.: Haskell House, 1971.

Keynes, Sir Geoffrey. William Blake's Engravings. 1950; rpt. N.Y.: Cooper Square, 1972.

Kortelling, Jacoming. Mysticism in Blake and Wordsworth, Studies in Poetry Series, No. 38. 1928; rpt. N.Y.: Haskell House, 1969.

Lindsay, Jack. William Blake: Creative Will and the Poetic Imagination. 1929; rpt. N.Y.: Haskell House, 1970.

Norman, Hubert J. Cowper and Blake. 1913; rpt. Folcroft, Pa.: Folcroft Library Editions, 1972.

13

Rosset t i , Wil l iam Michael. Lives of Famous Poets. 1878; r p t . Fo lc ro f t , Pa.: Fo lcrof t Library Edi t ions, 1971.

Rudd, Margaret. Organized Innocence: The Story of Blake's Prophetic Books. 1956; rp t . Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 1973.

Singer, June K. The Unholy Bib le. 1970; rp t . N.Y.: Harper, 1973. $2.95. paperback r p t . ]

Symons, Arthur. Wil l iam Blake. 1907; rp t . N.Y.: Cooper Square, 1970.

Wicksteed, Joseph H. Blake's Vision of the Book of Job, Studies in Blake Series, No. 3. 1924; r p t . N.Y.: Haskell House, 1970.

Articles SEE ALSO THE COLLECTIONS OF ESSAYS LISTED ABOVE UNDER CURRAN, ESSICK, AND PALEY.

Anon. "The Tate Gal lery, London, Exh ib i t . " Ar t and A r t i s t s , 6 (Jan. 1972), 46-47, 49. (Designs to Gray's poems]

Anon. "Two Shows at Yale." Art Journal , 31 (Spring 1973), 303. [Designs to Gray's poems]

Anon. "Wil l iam Blake's Watercolour Designs I l l u s t r a t i n g Gray's Poems--and Mr. Paul Mellon." Connoisseur, 179 (Jan. 1972), 10-14.

Baine, Rodney. "Blake and Defoe." Blake Newsletter, 6 (Fal l 1972), 51-53.

Baine, Rodney. "Thel 's Northern Gate." Phi lo logica l Quarter ly, 51 (Oct. 1972), 957-61.

Baird, Ju l ian . "Swinburne, Sade, and Blake: The Pleasure-Pain Paradox." Victor ian Poetry, 9 (Spring-Summer 1971), 49-75.

Beer, John B. "Blake, Mr. Tolley and the Scholarly Imagination." Southern Review: An Austral ian Journal of L i terary Studies, 4 (1971), 247-55.

Beer, John. "Br ie f Riposte." Blake Newsletter, 6 (Summer 1972), 19-23.

Bentley, G. E., J r . "Blake's Job Copperplates." L ib rary , 26 (Sept. 1971), 234-41.

Bentley, G. E., J r . "A Handlist of Works by Wil l iam Blake in the Department of Prints and Drawings of the B r i t i sh Museums." With supplementary notes. Blake Newsletter, 5 (Spring 1972), 223-58.

Bentley, G. E., J r . "A 'New' Blake Engraving in Lavater's Physiognomy." Blake Newsletter, 6 (Fal l 1972), 48-49.

Bentley, G. E., J r . "The Thorne Blake Col lect ion at the Pierpont Morgan L ib rary , New York." Apol lo, NS 94 (Nov. 1971), 416.

Bishop, Morchard. "The Poet and the Attorney: The Story of a Legacy." The Book Col lector , 21 (Summer 1972), 245-54. [A discussion of a paint ­ing by Romney whose subjects are Flaxman, Hayley, and Hayley's son; the a r t i c l e mentions Blake, who was working fo r Hayley whi le Hayley was arguing with the attorney Thomas Greene for possession of the pa in t ing ]

Blake, Wi l l iam. "From the Note-Book" [pp. 68, 68-69, 69-70, 82-87]. T ree : ! , Winter 1970. [Christopher Books, 1819 Sycamore, Canyon Rd., Santa Barbara, Ca.]

Bloom, Harold. Yeats. N.Y.: Oxford Univ. Press,

1970. [Chapter 5, "Blake and Yeats"; Blake mentioned throughout]

B ly , Robert. "Looking fo r Dragon Smoke." The Seventies, No. 1 (Spring 1972), 3-8.

Brogan, Howard 0. "Relevance in L i terary Study." CEA C r i t i c , 33 (May 1971), 23-24.

B u t l i n , Mart in. "A 'Minute Par t i cu la r ' Par t icu lar ­ized: Blake's Second Set of I l l u s t r a t i o n s to Paradise Lost." Blake Newsletter, 6 (Fal l 1972), 44-46.

B u t l i n , Mart in . "Wil l iam Blake in the Hubert P. Home Co l lec t ion . " Blake Newsletter, 6 (Summer 1972), 19-21.

Chaffee, Alan J . "The Rendezvous of Mind." Words­worth C i r c l e , 3 (Autumn 1972), 196-203.

Chayes, Irene. "Br ie f Riposte." Blake Newsletter, 6 (Summer 1972), 23-24.

Curran, Stuar t . "Blake and the Gnostic Hyle: A Double Negative." Blake Studies, 4 (Spring 1972), 117-33.

DiSalvo, Jackie. "Wil l iam Blake on the Unholy A l l iance: Satanic Freedom and Godly Repression in Liberal Society." Wordsworth C i r c l e , 3 (Autumn 1972), 212-22.

Doherty, F. M. J . "Blake's 'The Tyger1 and Henry Needier." Phi lo log ica l Quarter ly, 46 (Oct. 1967), 566-67.

Eaves, Morr is. "A Reading of Blake's Marriage of Heaven and Hell, plates 17-20: On and Under the Estate of the West." Blake Studies, 4 (Spring 1972), 81-116.

Essick, Robert N. "Blake and the Tradi t ion of Repro­ductive Engraving." Blake Studies, 5 (Fal l 1972), 59-103.

Essick, Robert N. "A Preliminary Design for Blake's Grave." Blake Studies, 4 (Spring 1972), 9-13.

Firestone, Evan R. "John L innel l and the Picture Merchants." The Connoisseur, 182 (Feb. 1973), 124-34.

Fletcher, Ian. "The El l is-Yeats-Blake Manuscript Cluster . " The Book Col lec tor , 21 (Spring 1972), 72-94. [4 p la tes]

Freiberg, S. K. "The Fleece-Lined Clock: Time, Space, and the A r t i s t i c Experience in Wil l iam Blake." Dalhousie Review, 49 (Autumn 1969), 404-15.

Gage, S. "Blake's Newton." Journal of Warburg and Courtauld I n s t i t u t e , 34 (1971), 372-77.

Garnett, David. "The Appendix." The Book Col lec tor , 21 (Spring 1972), 54-58. [On Sir Geoffrey Keynes]

Gibson, Wil l iam A. and Thomas L. Minnick. "Wil l iam Blake and Henry Emlyn's Proposition for a New Order in Architecture: A New Plate ." Blake Newsletter, 6 (Summer 1972), 13-17.

Grant, John E. "On Mary Ellen Reisner's Locations of Copy U of Songs of Innocence and Copy D of Songs of Experience from Blake Newsletter 19." Blake Newsletter, 6 (Summer 1972), 22.

Grant, John E. "The Visionary Perspective of Ezekiel . Blake Studies, 4 (Spring 1972), 153-57.

Harper, George M. (Flor ida State) . "The Odyssey of the Soul in Blake's Jerusalem." [A paper read at the 1971 South A t l an t i c Modern Language Association convention and reported in PMLA, Sept. 1972, p. 642]

Hart-Davis, Rupert. "A L i t t l e Injudicious Lev i t y . " The Book Col lec tor , 21 (Spring 1972), 51-53. [On Si r Geoffrey Keynes]

14 Helmstadter, Thomas H. "Blake and the Age of Reason:

Spectres in the Night Thoughts." Blake Studies, 5 (Fal l 1972), 105-39.

Hoover, Suzanne R. "Pictures at the Exh ib i t ions . " Blake Newsletter, 6 (Summer 1972), 6-12.

Horovi tz, Michael. "Blake and the Voice of the Bard in Our Time." Books, 10 (Winter 1972), n.p.

Horovi tz, Michael. "The Need for the Non-Li terary." Times L i te rary Supplement, 29 Dec. 1972, pp. 1582-83.

James, G. I n g l i . "Blake's Woodcuts, Plain and Coloured." Times L i terary Supplement, 18 May 1973, p. 564.

Ketters, David. "New Worlds for Old: The Apocalyptic Imagination, Science, F i c t i on , and American L i t e ra tu re . " Mosaic, 5 (Fal l 1971), 37-57.

Keynes, Geoffrey. "Blake's Engravings fo r Gay's Fables." The Book Col lector , 21 (Spring 1972), 59-64. [12 plates included]

King, James. "The Meredith Family, Thomas Taylor, and Wil l iam Blake." Studies in Romanticism, 11 (Spring 1972), 153-57.

K je l lberg , P. "Le primier coup d'audace des peintres angla is . " Connaissance A r t s , 240 (Feb. 1972), 87.

Leary, D. J . "Shaw's Blakean Vis ion: A Dia lec t ica l Approach to Heartbreak House." Modern Drama, 15 (May 1972), 89-103.

L i s t e r , Raymond. "A Fragmentary Copy of Songs of Innocence and of Experience ." Blake Newsletter, 6 (Summer 1972), 19.

L i s t e r , Raymond. "Two Blake Drawings and a Let ter from Samuel Palmer." Blake Newsletter, 6 (Fal l 1972), 53-54.

L i s te r , Raymond. "The Writ ings of Samuel Palmer." Gazette des Beaux-Arts, 81 (Apr i l 1973), 253-56.

Lodge, David. "'Crow' and the Cartoons." C r i t i c a l Quarter ly, 13 (Spring 1971), 37-42, 68.

Merewether, Mary A. "The Burden of Tyre and Brennen's Poems (1913)." Southerly, 30 (1970), 267-84. [A poem cycle showing influence of Blake]

Metcalf , Francis Wood. "Reason and 'Ur izen ' : The Pronunciation of Blakean Names." Blake News­l e t t e r , 6 (Summer 1972), 17-18.

Meynell, Francis. "A Reminiscence." The Book Col lec tor , 21 (Spring 1972), 50. [On Sir Geoffrey Keynes]

Minnick, Thomas L. See Gibson. Moss, John G. "Structura l Form in Blake's Visions

of the Daughters of Albion." Humanities Association B u l l e t i n , 22 (Spring 1971), 9-18.

Ower, John. "The Epic Mythologies of Shelley and Keats." Wascana Review, 4 (1969), 61-72.

Raine, Kathleen. "Blake and the Education of Chi ld­hood." The Southern Review, 8 (Spring 1972), 253-72.

Raine, Kathleen. "Blake: Maker of Myths." In Man, Myth and Magic: An I l l u s t r a t e d Encyclopedia of the Supernatural. Ed. Richard Cavendish. N.Y.: Marshall Cavendish Corp., 1970. I I , 278-85 [Color i l l u s . included; see also I , 3]

Rose, Edward J . "Goodbye to Ore and A l l That." Blake Studies, 4 (Spring 1972), 135-51.

Rose, Edward J . "Wheels w i th in Wheels in Blake's Jerusalem." Studies in Romanticism, 11 (Winter 1972), 36-47.

Rosenblum, Robert. "German Romantic Painting in Internat ional Perspective." Yale Universi ty

Ar t Gallery B u l l e t i n , 33 (Oct. 1972), 23-36. Sandler, Florence. "The Iconoclast ic Enterprise:

Blake's Cr i t ique of 'M i l ton 's Re l i g i on . ' " Blake Studies, 5 (Fal l 1972), 13-57.

Sharp, Dennis. "Blake Into P r i n t . " The Royal I ns t i t u te of B r i t i sh Architects Journal , 80 (Feb. 1972), 80. [Designs for Gray's poems: Tate Gallery exh ib i t ]

Siemens, Reynold. "Boarders in Blake's The Little Girl Lost-Found." Humanities Association B u l l e t i n , 22 (Spring 1971), 35-43.

Sutherland, John. "Blake: A Cr is is of Love and Jealousy." PMLA, 87 (May 1972), 424-31.

Tannenbaum, Les l ie . "Blake's Art of Crypsis: The Book of Urizen and Genesis." Blake Studies, 5 (Fal l 1972), 141-64.

Tayler, Irene. "Blake's Comus Designs." Blake Studies, 4 (Spring 1972), 45-80.

Todd, Ruthven. "The Battle of Ai ." Paul Grinke (London) Catalogue Five, 1972, pp. 17-19. [ I l l u s . ]

Todd, Ruthven. "A Recollection of George Richmond by His Grandson." Blake Newsletter, 6 (Summer 1972), 24.

Toomey, Deirdre. "The States of Plate 25 of Jerusalem." Blake Newsletter, 6 (Fal l 1972), 46-48.

Wal l ing, Wi l l iam. "The Death of God: Wil l iam Blake's Version." Dalhousie Review, 48 (Summer 1968), 237-50.

Welch, Dennis G. "America and A t l a n t i s : Blake's Ambivalent M i l l en ia l i sm. " Blake Newsletter, 6 (Fal l 1972), 50.

Whittaker, Edward Keith. "Sorrow and the Flea." Tr i -Quar ter ly , 19 (Autumn 1970), 35-55. [Dahlberg compared to Blake]

Wi l ton, Andrew. "Blake and the Ant ique." [A lecture given at the V ic to r ia and Albert Lecture Theatre, 16 Nov. 1972]

Wi t t re i ch , Joseph Anthony, J r . "Blake and Trad i t ion : A Prefatory Note." Blake Studies, 5 (Fal l 1972), 7-11.

W i t t re i ch , Joseph Anthony, J r . "'Sublime A l legory ' : Blake's Epic Manifesto and the Mi l ton T rad i t i on . " Blake Studies, 4 (Spring 1972), 15-44.

W i t t re i ch , Joseph Anthony, J r . "Wil l iam Blake: I l l u s t r a t o r - I n t e r p r e t e r of Paradise Regained." In Calm of Mind: Tercentenery Essays on Paradise Regained and Samson Agonist is . Cleveland: Case Western Reserve Univ. Press, 1971. Pp. 93-132. [Also Appendix A, " I l l u s t r a ­tors of Paradise Regained and the i r Subjects: 1713-1816," pp. 309-29; Appendix B, "A Catalogue of Blake's I l l u s t r a t i ons to M i l t on , " pp. 331-42]

Won, Ko. "The Symbolists' Influence on Japanese Poetry." Comparative L i te ra ture Studies, 8 (Sept. 1971), 254-65.

Reviews Adams, Hazard. William Blake: A Reading of the

Shorter Poems. Reviewed by Henri Lemaitre, "A propos de William Blake," Etudes Anglaise, 20 (July-Sept. 1967), 289-96.

Adams, Hazard, ed. William Blake: Jerusalem, Selected Poems and Prose. Reviewed by Thomas H. Helmstadter, Blake Studies, 4 (Spring 1972), 163-66.

15

Beer, John B. Blake's Visionary Universe. Reviewed by Michael J. Tolley, "A Superficial Vision, Southern Review: An Australian Journal of Literary Studies, 4 (1971), 242-46.

Bentley, G. E., Jr. The Blake Collection of Mrs. Landon K. Thorne. Reviewed by Robert Essick, Blake Newsletter, 6 (Summer 1972), 26-28.

Bentley, G. E., Jr. Vala or The Four Zoas. Reviewed by Henri Lemaitre, "A propos de William Blake," Etudes Anglaise, 20 (July-Sept. 1967), 289-96.

Bindman, David. William Blake: Catalogue of the Collection in the Fitzwilliam Museum. Reviewed by Morchard Bishop, The Book Collector, 21 (Spring 1972), 133-34; Robert R. Wark, Blake Studies, 4 (Spring 1972), 160-62.

Blake, William. See Adams, Bentley, Bindman, Bogan Butlin, Keynes, Stevenson, Wittreich.

Bogan, Nancy, ed. The Book of Thel: A Facsimile and Critical Text. Reviewed by Andrew Wright, Blake Studies, 4 (Spring 1972), 162-63.

Boutang, Pierre. William Blake. Reviewed by Simone Pignard, Blake Newsletter, 6 (Fall 1972), 55-56.

Butlin, Martin, ed. Blake-Varley Sketchbook of 1818. Reviewed by D. Irwin, Burlington Magazine, 113 (June 1971), 341-42.

Butlin, Martin. William Blake: A Complete Catalogue of Works in the Tate Gallery, 2nd ed. Reviewed by Michael J. Tolley, Blake Newsletter, 6 (Summer 1972), 28-31; Robert R. Wark, Blake Studies, 4 (Spring 1972), 160-62.

DeMott, Benjamin. Blake and Manchild [tape record­ing]. Reviewed by Morris Eaves, Blake News­letter, 6 (Summer 1972), 25-26.

Denvir, B. "Sensibility and Cybernetics: Some Recent Books about Art." Art International, 16 (Feb. 1972), 64-66. [Some recent studies on Blake noted]

Erdman, David V. and John E. Grant, eds. Visionary Forms Dramatic. Reviewed by Daniel Hughes, "The Luck of William Blake," Massachusetts Review, 13 (Autumn 1972), 707-25.

Gill ham, D. G. William Blake. Reviewed in Times Literary Supplement, 18 May 1973, p. 564.

Hagstrum, Jean H. William Blake, Poet and Painter: An Introduction to the Illuminated Verse. Reviewed by Henri Lemaitre, "A propos de William Blake," Etudes Anglaise, 20 (July-Sept. 1967), 289-96.

Hirsch, E. D. Innocence and Experience: An Introduction to Blake. Reviewed by Henri Lemaitre, "A propos de William Blake," Etudes Anglaise, 20 (July-Sept. 1967), 289-96.

Keynes, Geoffrey, ed. All Religions Are One; There Is No Natural Religion (Trianon Press for the William Blake Trust). Reviewed by Kay Parkhurst Easson, Blake Studies, 5 (Fall 1972), 168-75.

Keynes, Geoffrey. Blake Studies: Essays on His Life and Work, 2nd ed. Reviewed by Robert F. Gleckner, Blake Studies, 5 (Fall 1972), 165-68.

Keynes, Geoffrey, ed. Songs of Innocence and of Experience: Shewing the Two Contrary States of the Human Soul. Reviewed by John E. Grant, Philological Quarterly, 47 (Oct. 1968), 571-80.

Keynes, Geoffrey, ed. William Blake's Water-Col our Designs for Gray's Poems--A Commemorative Cata­logue. Reviewed by Morton D. Paley, Blake

Newsletter, 6 (Summer 1972), 33-34. Lister, Raymond. British Romantic Art. Reviewed

in Times Literary Supplement, 4 May 1973, pp. 499-500.

Paley, Morton D. Energy and Imagination. Reviewed by John E. Grant, English Language Notes, 9 (Mar. 1972), 210-16; Daniel Hughes, "The Luck of William Blake," Massachusetts Review, 13 (Autumn 1972), 717-25; J. Janssens, Dutch University Review (1972-73), 103.

Raine, Kathleen. Blake and Tradition. Reviewed by C. Gellhar, Pantheon, 30 (July 1972), n.p.; Ants Oras, "Kathleen Raine, The Ancient Springs, and Blake," Saturday Review, 80 (Winter 1972), 200-11; D. Weeks, Journal of Aesthetics, 29 (Spring 1971), 424-25.

Raine, Kathleen. William Blake. Reviewed by J. C. Battye, Art and Artists, 6 (July 1971), 68; Michael Tolley, Blake Newsletter, 6 (Summer 1972), 28-31.

Singer, June K. The Unholy Bible: A Psychological Interpretation of William Blake. Reviewed by Robert L. Corey. Blake Studies, 4 (Spring 1972), 167-68.

Stevenson, W. H., ed. The Poems of William Blake. Reviewed by Anne Kostelanetz Mel lor, Blake Newsletter, 6 (Summer 1972), 32-33.

Tayler, Irene. Blake's Illustrations to the Poems of Gray. Reviewed by Hugh Honour, New York Review of Books, 25 Jan. 1973, pp. 34-35; Daniel Hughes, "The Luck of William Blake," Massachusetts Review, 13 (Autumn 1972), 717-25; W. J. T. Mitchell, Blake Studies, 4 (Spring 1972), 159-60; Morton D. Paley, Criticism, 14 (Winter 1972), 93-96.

Todd, Ruthven. William Blake The Artist. Reviewed by K. Bazarov, Art & Artists, 7 (May 1972), 56-57; H. R. Wackrill, Blake Studies, 4 (Spring 1972), 168-69.

Tomory, Peter. The Life and Art of Henry Fuseli. Reviewed by Hugh Honour, New York Review of Books, 25 Jan. 1973, pp. 34-35; Times Literary Supplement, 4 May 1973, pp. 499-500.

Vogler, Thomas A. Preludes to Vision: The Epic Venture in Blake, Wordsworth, Keats, and Hart Crane. Reviewed by Andy P. Antippas, Blake Newsletter, 6 (Summer 1972), 34-36; Jenijoy LaBelle, Blake Studies, 4 (Spring 1972), 163-64.

Wittreich, Joseph Anthony, Jr. The Romantics on Milton: Formal Essays and Critical Asides. Reviewed by Andy P. Antippas, Blake Newsletter, 6 (Fall 1972), 55.

Films Tyger, Tyger. BBC-TV, London, 1969. 30 minutes,

16 mm. Released in the U.S. by Time-Life Films.

Records Vaughan Williams, Ralph. Ten Blake Songs. England:

Argo ZR6 732. [Robert Tea, tenor, Philip Ledger, piano, and Neil Black, oboe]

16

Reviews

DDC Blake Tyger3 Tyger. BBC. Written and directed by Christopher Bu rs ta l l . Black and wh i te , 50 minutes.

William Blake. BBC. Narrated by Jacob Bronowski. Color, 50 minutes.

Reviewed by Morton D. Paley

Two f i lms about Blake made by the BBC are avai lable in the United States. One, "Tyger, Tyger", wr i t ten and directed by Christopher B u r s t a l l , is a black-and-white f i l m about f i f t y minutes long; the other, "Wil l iam Blake," i s narrated by Jacob Bronowski, who is v i r t u a l l y the protagonist of the f i l m , which is in color and is also about f i f t y minutes long. Information about both may be obtained from Time-L i fe Films, 1271 Avenue of the Americas, New York, N. Y. 10020.

"Tyger, Tyger" is sub t i t l ed "An enquiry in to the power of a fami l i a r poem," and i t is j u s t tha t . People of many sorts are asked to discuss the i r feel ings about the poem, with the camera cut t ing from one to another and back. The resul ts are often d e l i g h t f u l , always engaging, sometimes h i l a r i ous ; and the production has a fee l ing of au then t i c i t y , that indefinable something which does so much to command the viewer's a t ten t ion . Among those interviewed are Robert Graves, George Goyder, Richard Hoggart, students of various ages including some wery young ch i ld ren , a taxidermist (standing in f ron t of an enormous stuf fed t i ge r ) who turns out to be George Richmond (great-grandson of the pa in te r ) , a zoo keeper, Adrien M i t c h e l l , a housewife, a c i v i l servant, the theologian J . G. Davies, a psych ia t r i s t , Stuart H a l l , and Kathleen Raine. The views are, as one would expect, various. Richard Hoggart says that "The Tyger" is not an invocation but has "a rapt , t rance- l ike q u a l i t y " ; George Goyder emphasizes i t s s p i r i t u a l dimension; Graves says i t was "wr i t ten in a f i t of extreme schizophrenia." The zoo keeper points out that t igers are often p lac id . Kathleen Raine says that the tyger was made by Satan or the demiurge, and she relates a v is ion of her own in which a hyacinth was transformed before her eyes. A small boy says he believes God must have made the tyger because Blake was a Chr is t ian . Now and again a real t i ge r snarls in a real fo res t .

For a l l t h i s , the movement of the f i l m is not haphazard. I t proceeds from one stanza to another and raises some par t i cu la r questions along the way. Why did Blake draw a toy tyger? " I haven't a c lue , " says Hoggart. Notebook revisions are discussed by school chi ldren and by Robert Graves (who makes the in teres t ing suggestion that "what dread feet" may, as revised, re fer to the smith who works the bellows with his f oo t ) . Graves's s imp l i f i ed version of the poem is read: two stanzas have been eliminated and

a l l verbs changed to past tense. Cut to a school­room:

Teacher—What's he done to the poem? Small girl--Ruir\ed i t .

J . G. Davies remarks that the "deeps or skies" are not a reference to he l l and heaven. Stuart Hall sees the poem as a process in which God moves from the creation of the tyger to the recognit ion of i t as an independent creature, and Adrien Mi tchel l contrasts the author i ty of Blake's "daydreams or v is ions" with the "spurious author i ty" of drug experiences. A bevy of ch i ldren 's drawings of tygers is seen in juxtaposi t ion to Blake's. In a l l , the resu l t is highly successful, reminding us of the un iversa l i ty of the poem's appeal and refreshing our own responses to i t .

The Bronowski f i l m , produced by Adrien Malone, is sub - t i t l ed "As a Man Is—So He Sees." Dr. Bronowski sees molten metal, a great deal of i t , pouring through troughs and in to cauldrons. The f i r s t appearance of th is image is s t r i k i ng and apposite, but a f ter frequent repe t i t i on i t loses i t s power. When we descend to f i nd Bronowski, hard hat on head, declaiming in the slag heap, i t becomes ludicrous. The view of Blake presented contains a pa r t i a l t r u t h , but through re i t e ra t i on and repe t i t i on the pa r t i a l t ru th becomes a pos i t ive d i s t o r t i o n . Perhaps Blake was "the f i r s t modern poet," and we may well agree that "The decay of the craftsman in an indus t r ia l society was acted out in Blake's own l i f e , " but the l ine between t ru th and truism is ready to give way with "The young rebel became the old revolut ionary and became fo r us the new man." What can th is mean?

Parts of the f i l m re-enact events in Blake's l i f e , wi th awkward resu l ts . The ef fects are l i ke those of the f i lms about the Washingtons and the Lincolns we had to s i t through in grammar school: boring p iet ies unconvincingly represented. Besides, th is Blake rea l l y does seem daf t—ra is ing his arms in invocation every time he sees some green t u r f , pushing a plough fur ious ly about an empty f i e l d , leaping in to the pu lp i t of Westminster Abbey. Besides the s i l l i n e s s of a l l t h i s , there is the very real p o s s i b i l i t y of misinforming the potent ia l audience. This f i l m is un l ike ly to be shown to audiences fami l i a r with Blake and i t is l i k e l y to give others the idea that Blake rea l l y was given to declaiming the Preface to Milton in the Abbey when no one was around. Also, no e f f o r t is made to d is t inguish Blake's own works from the engravings and other pr in ts which are used to i l l u s t r a t e the social conditions of Blake's time. This again seems an i n v i t a t i o n to confuse matters. The most valuable thing about th is f i l m is the presentation of some of Blake's own work in color. I t ' s a p i t y more time wasn't spent on th is and less on the Bessemer process.

Morton D. Paley (University of California, Berkeley) recently coedited with Michael Phillips William Blake: Essays in Honour of Sir Geoffrey Keynes, published by the Clarendon Press. He is Executive Editor of the Newsletter.

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William Blake: The Book of Thel—A Facsimile and a Critical Text. Edited and with an Introduction and Appendixes by Nancy Bogen. Providence: Brown University Press and the New York Public Library, 1971. Pp. xiv + 82, 11 plates. $10 Reviewed by Francis Wood Metcalf

Nancy Bogen's facsimile and critical text of The Book of Thel is a handsome and useful work which will find a home on the shelf of many a Blakist. Not only does it offer a good likeness of the copy of Thel in the Berg Collection of the New York Public Library, it also provides a new interpretation of the poem, a new ordering of extant copies more accurate than that of Keynes and Wolf, a running gloss on the designs which includes cross-references to other copies, abundant notes, and an attempt at a standardized text and punctuation. The one bad apple in this cornucopia of bookish delights is a section on prosody whose taint has infected the interpretive section to some extent also. Since much of what follows will deal with these blemishes and therefore seem to indict the work as a whole, I would like to affirm here its overall merit, which is based largely upon the success of its major part, the facsimile.

The two most noticeable differences between original and facsimile are the latter's greater intensity of color (mostly blue) and the generally darker tone of its "blank" spaces, or "ground." The original's ground is truly blank, its light tan color that of the aged and perhaps never brilliant paper on which the designs were printed. The facsimile's ground is not blank, however, but colored to resemble the blank original. This colored ground creates a powerful contrast with the brilliant white of the surrounding page that is not present in the original and that constitutes a major perceptual difference between the two versions. The darker tone of the facsimile's ground may stem from this contrast more than from its actual pigmentation.

The greater intensity of blue in the facsimile is not bothersome and may well be more "original" than the somewhat faded blue of its model. This raises a paradox of corruptible form. Which version is more original: the present one, faded and darkened by its voyage of two centuries; or some theoretical reconstruction of its pristine state? I have no knowledge of the printer's calculations in this regard, nor of the techniques of color-reconstruction, but I hope the makers of facsimiles have considered this point before embalming bones of corruption.

Some of the blue areas of the facsimile suffer from an unfortunate grainy or mottled effect, a smudgy contrast within the color that is not as pronounced in the original. There is also a darkness, heaviness, and diffusion of line, but with very little loss of fine detail. In its total impression the facsimile transcends these minor faults, however, and appears the image of pragmatic fidelity: pleasant, useful, and cheap.

Bogen's new interpretation of Thel is essentially that the heroine is a sympathetic character whose point of view is Blake's own, and who is "a young girl, not a disembodied soul, who is not hypocritical or even self-deceiving but is as virtuous and transparent as the creatures with which she associates. . . . She seeks and eventually finds a meaningful role in life" (p. 21) as a "protester" (p. 30).

The basis for this interpretation is "a survey of some of the literary traditions to which the poem appears to be related" (p. 21). Six such traditions are considered, and if a similar approach in the section on prosody were not such a critical failure, I might greet this survey without suspicion. As it is, I am uneasy with Bogen's reliance upon her technique of forging links to various traditions and individual works in order to illuminate Thel indirectly. Specifically, I wonder whether she has been too selective, presenting as prime cuts a few supportive points from her vast, butchered corpus of traditions, but shunning as offal what might contradict her theory. Also I wonder whether one should so easily assume that Blake's response to the traditions he used was free of irony or reversal. However, I mean only to warn the prospective reader, not to damn Bogen's work without substance. Her new reading of Thel will be acclaimed by many, I am sure, and the rest will find it a challenge worth a spirited reply.

Several specific readings in her analysis of the poem itself seem dubious, however, and contribute to my uneasiness with her interpretation as a whole. The one point I shall deal with here concerns the first half of Thel's motto: "Does the Eagle know what is in the pit? / Or wilt thou go ask the Mole." According to Bogen, "the Eagle and the Mole of the motto probably symbolize double vision and 'Single Vision.' Double vision is represented by Thel, who sees more than meets the eye; single vision is represented by the other creatures of Har, whose reality seems limited to themselves and their milieu. Therefore, the motto's first question is, Does Thel or one of the other creatures know what is in the pit? Since -pit can signify both the grave and hell, the answer seems to be Thel, for she alone has visited the 'land unknown.' But that land is also the interior of the Clod's house, and Thel's experience there results from the Clod's invitation; so the real answer is that both Thel and the Clod know what is in the pit, but their knowledge is of different orders" (p. 30).

This argument's premise, that the Eagle and Mole "probably symbolize double vision and 'Single Vision,"' is supported by a note to the famous letter to Butts of 22 November 1802. It would seem unwise, however, to leap forward across thirteen years of crucial intellectual development

Francis Wood Metcalf is writing a Ph.D. disserta­tion at New York University on rhetoric and style in the Prophetic Books and has contributed prev­iously to the Mews letter.

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in an e f f o r t to leg i t imize a reading re t rospect ive ly . Since apparently Blake had not evolved his concept of imaginative levels at the time he wrote Thel, Bogen's i n te rpre ta t ion seems groundless. At the very least she ought to have explained why the motto's nearly contemporaneous echo in Visions of the Daughters of Albion-­"Does not the eagle scorn the earth & despise the treasures beneath? / But the mole knoweth what is there, & the worm shal l t e l l i t thee" (5:39­40)—1s not of i n te rp re t i ve value though obviously related in concept.

Bogen supports a "no" answer fo r the rest of the motto by means of the fo l lowing log ic : "As fo r the second question of the motto­­'Can Wisdom be put in a s i l v e r rod? / Or Love in a golden bowl?'­­from the way i t is phrased the answer must be no. I f Blake had wanted an af f i rmat ive answer he would have asked, Can Wisdom not be put in a s i l ve r rod nor Love in a golden bowl?" (pp. 30­31). I agree with her notion of the proper answer, but marvel that she did not apply s imi la r logic to the preceding d i s t i c h . On t h i s basis, i f Blake had wanted an af f i rmat ive answer he would have asked, Does the Eagle not know what is in the pi t? As i t i s , the motto states in paraphrase that no, of course the Eagle doesn't know what is in the p i t because t ha t ' s the Mole's t u r f , as i t were. Bogen's claim that the answer is yes, the Eagle (Thel) knows what is in the p i t , and the Mole (the Clod) knows too, "but t he i r knowledge is of d i f fe ren t orders," rings with the special pleading of an argument stretched on the i ron couch of a f ixed theory.

The weakness of the section on Thel's prosody derives mainly from fa i lu res of judgment and accuracy. An example of the former occurs when in t rac ing harbingers of Thel's long l i ne in e a r l i e r Blakean works, Bogen observes that in King Edward the Third "several four teen­sy l lable l ines may be found" (p. 12); three, according to the notes. Since ^jery many of th is play's 642 l ines deviate wi ld l y from the decasyllabic norm, I question the value of her observation. To seize upon the three lonely heptameters in th is exot ic company and to prick them out as precursors of Thel's long l i n e , suggesting not a random but a developmental connection, is surely to display myopic judgment.

Bald inaccuracy jo ins bad judgment in Bogen's next sentence: "Blake's early attempts at measured prose might also be mentioned: Samson, The Couoh of Death, Contemplation, and the Prologue to King John in Poetical Sketches; and the two unfinished pieces in manuscript, beginning 'Woe cr ied the muse' and ' then She bore Pale Des i re . ' " Analysis refutes the vague assertion that these works' rhythmic form relates to Thel's heptameters. The Prologue to King John, fo r example, contains th i r teen pentameter periods, including seven in a row, but only a few heptameters. In "Woe cr ied the muse," sixteen of the f i r s t twenty rhythmic units are pentameters; two are heptameters. There is considerable rhythmic var ia t ion in and among the other works in Bogen's l i s t , but I am certain that no analysis would support the claim that they ant ic ipate the septenary l i n e .

Bogen next considers, by a rough count, eighteen separate non­Blakean works and genres as possible prosodic inf luences. I admire the breadth of her research, but wish she had been as d i l i gen t to analyze and evaluate her material as she was to acquire i t . For example, she speculates that "prose works of a rhythmical or l y r i c a l nature may also have had some inf luence on Blake's development of the long l i ne " (p. 12); and "among" such works, six are l i s t e d . The evidence fo r a prosodic connection is t h i s : "Hervey and Sherlock are referred to in An Island in the Moon; and Blake's dic t ion in Thel is s imi la r in many respects to the d ic t ion of these works" (p. 13). What have d ic t ion and pr io r reference to do with prosody? Does the l i ke l ihood that Blake read a work in one mode const i tute evidence that he somehow t ransferred i t s form to another? Bogen's author i ty to suggest formal para l le ls was weakened by her inaccuracy with regard to Blake's own works; here, unsupported by evidence, her suggestion is c r i t i c a l l y worthless.

A singular instance of poor judgment occurs when Bogen attempts to l ink the long l i ne with b i b l i c a l s ty le as discussed and t ranslated by Robert Lowth. In quoting a passage from his Lectures on the Sacred Poetry of the Hebrews, she claims that Lowth "contended" (p. 13) what in fact he said by extrapolat ion "may at least be reasonably conjectured" (3rd ed. [London, 1835], p. 214); and the quotation i t se l f—indeed her whole treatment of Lowth—supports a connection between the Bible and Blake of an almost desperate remoteness. Amazingly, Bogen has found here the needle of i r r e l e v ­ance in a haystack of material that may l i nk Blake and the Bible af ter a l l . The essential content of Lowth's few remarks on Hebrew meter is that we know next to nothing about i t . His great discovery, which raced l i ke c h i l l y f i r e through the crypts of c le r i ca l Europe, was that inasmuch as Hebrew prosody could now be deciphered, i t was based on a character is t ic resemblance of sense­units, or para l le l ism. As Lowth put i t , " in th is pecul iar conformation, or para l le l i sm, of the sentences, I apprehend a considerable part of the Hebrew metre to consist ; though i t is not improbably that some regard was also paid to the numbers and fee t . But of t h i s par t i cu la r we have at present so l i t t l e in format ion, that i t is u t te r l y impossible to determine, whether i t was modulated by the ear alone, or according to any set t led or de f i n i t e rules of prosody" (Lowth, p. 214). I t i s therefore strange that Bogen gleans a few scattered crumbs about "numbers and feet" while ignoring the feast of paral le l ism spread before her. I t is also strange that she overlooks the connections between Blakean sty le and b i b l i c a l para l le l ism drawn by other scholars, one of whom she mentions at some length in her notes.

2 To include paral le l ism in a section on

1 A l i c i a Ost r i ke r , Vision and Verse in William Blake (Madison: Univ. of Wisconsin Press, 1965), p. 127; and Murray Roston, Prophet and Poet: '!">;■ aid the Growth of Romant: a ■• (Evanston: Northwestern Univ. Press, 1965), pp. 164­66. Roston overstates the importance of para l le l i sm in Blake: "para l le l i sm forms the uni fy ing metre of [ t he ] l a t e r books" (p . 166); but there is much t ru th in his view that " to read modern c r i t i c s discussing the metres of Blake's prophetic books i s to f i nd oneself back in the seventeenth­century examination of b i b l i c a l poetry before the discovery of para l le l i sm" (p . 165).

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Roger R. Easson and Robert N. Essick. William Blake: Book Illustrator: A Bibliography and Catalogue of the Commercial Engravings. Normal, I l l i n o i s : The American Blake Foundation, 1972. Volume I : Plates Designed and Engraved by Blake. Pp. xvi + 5 8 + 8 2 p is .

Reviewed by Deirdre Toomey

William Blake: Book Illustrator, Volume I , is the f i r s t in a series of three publ icat ions which w i l l reproduce and catalogue a l l of Blake's commercial engravings. The f i r s t volume deals with designs invented and engraved by Blake, the second w i l l deal wi th designs invented but not engraved by Blake and the t h i r d with engravings by Blake a f te r other a r t i s t s . The ed i to rs , Roger R. Easson and Robert N. Essick, have been cautious in t he i r acceptance of a t t r i bu t i ons : thus doubtful works such as the engravings in Bryant's Mythology, Gough's Sepulchral Monuments, Vetusta Monumenta and The Seaman's Recorder have not been included in the f i r s t volume. They have also been cautious in t he i r c l ass i f i ca ­t ions: "Laocoon," the Wedgewood engravings and the non-pastoral engravings in Thornton's Virgil have a l l been excluded from the f i r s t volume on the grounds—perhaps debatable in the case of the "Laocoon"--that they are not " o r i g i n a l , " being "essent ia l ly copies of another a r t i s t ' s work." These have been relegated to the t h i r d volume.

Clearly William Blake: Book Illustrator in i t s f i n a l form w i l l be a very useful work of reference fo r Blake scholars. The unusually large amount of b ib l iographical data is helpful and th is blending of "The descr ipt ive bibl iography and the p r i n t cata­logue" is qui te successful, although the seven pages of b ib l iographica l descr ipt ion which accompany the one plate of Herr ies' Bible are, at f i r s t s igh t , somewhat daunting. I t is enl ightening to see the commercial engravings, not j u s t as isolated p r i n t s ,

but in the context of the books fo r which they were executed.

The edi tors main purpose i s , however, as they have sa id , "the complete reproduction of Blake's commercial book i l l u s t r a t i o n s " and t he i r "prime concern is to assist the student of Blake's a r t . " Sadly the reproductions themselves are, fo r the most par t , of rather low q u a l i t y , and th is may tend to modify the usefulness of William Blake: Book Illustrator as a work of reference. Some of the reproductions are highly inaccurate: those of the Night Thoughts engravings are pa r t i cu la r l y bad. Here the values are d is tor ted to such an extent that some pages, in par t i cu la r 33, 35 and 72, look as i f they have been re-engraved by John Jackson. The thick black shadows that appear everywhere in the Night Thoughts reproductions are most unpleasing. This tendency towards excessive blackness is also apparent in Thornton's Virgil and in the Cowper p la te , in both cases obscuring areas of f ine d e t a i l . The other reproductions are less pos i t i ve ly bad, tending to omit deta i l rather than d i s t o r t values. Thus in "The Hiding of Moses" whole areas of de ta i l are missing from the lef t -hand side of the design. The same is t rue , to a lesser extent , of the f ine de ta i l in the Wollstonecraft i l l u s t r a t i o n s . I t is indeed most unfortunate that so useful a work should be marred by technical defects, and that such scrupulous and thorough edi tors as Roger Easson and Robert Essick should be so badly served by the i r reproductions. Yet, even with these defects William Blake: Book Illustrator remains a valuable work of reference and I look forward to seeing the next two volumes.

Deirdre Toomey is writing her doctoral thesis at the University of London. Her most recent contri­bution to the Newsletter was "The States of Plate 25 of Jerusalem" in §22.

prosody would force a minor st retch of d e f i n i t i o n , but Lowth himself set precedent fo r t h i s .

Almost the f i n a l t h i r d of the section is devoted to the Sternhold-Hopkins metr ical psalms, which Bogen favors as a prosodic inf luence on the basis of neg l ig ib le evidence. In th is instance, at leas t , she acknowledges both her bias and her lack of support for i t : " to discover a pos i t ive connection between the long l i ne of Thel and the Sternhold-Hopkins fourteener would be g r a t i f y i n g , but perhaps a closer comparison of the two is needed f i r s t " (p. 14). I f th is is so, and aside from the dubious c r i t i c a l values involved, an eth ica l question appears. Should one save for the rhe to r i ca l l y strong end-posit ion of one's commentary, and give the f u l l e s t treatment t o , what is an admittedly f l imsy pet notion? I f not the s p e c i a l i s t , w i l l the defenseless "general reader," t rus t ing the pr inted word, be l e f t sagely

nodding at th is nonsense?

Despite the weakness of the prosody sec t ion- -which i s , a f te r a l l , only four pages long--Bogen's book w i l l be helpfu l to the student of Thel who needs a good facs imi le . We need more such works of respectable qua l i t y and moderate cost, and according to David Erdman's Foreword, Brown Universi ty Press and the New York Public Library w i l l help to provide them. Idea l l y , perhaps, a facs imi le 's concreteness and permanence should be l e f t uncompromised by the more subject ive and f a l l i b l e types of c r i t i c i s m . But since the Spectre of completeness haunts us a l l , including publ ishers, I suggest that these future edi t ions be produced by the col laborat ion of two or more scholars, each working in his area of greatest competence. I f th is had been the case with Bogen's Thel, i t s weakness might have been avoided, and i t s strength maintained.

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Janet Warner, John Sutherland, and Robert Wallace, producers and directors. Blake's "America." Toronto: York University, 1970. Videotape, 50 minutes.

Janet Warner, John Sutherland, and Robert Wallace, producers and directors. Blake's "Visions of the Daughters of Albion." Toronto: York University, 1971. Videotape, 50 minutes.

In the United States both videotapes are distributed in all popular formats by Great Plains National Instructional Television Library, University of Nebraska, P. 0. Box 80669, Lincoln, Nebraska 68501, and in Canada and elsewhere by the Department of Instructional Aid Resources, York University, 4700 Keele Street, Downsview, Ontario.

Reviewed by Morris Eaves At least in Blake studies, the two videotapes that have issued from York University in Toronto are pioneer efforts to make audiovisual aids for the classroom where Blake is being taught. In my opinion the results of these two experiments are mixed, but my review is written on the assumptions that television has a place in the classroom, and that Blake could be well served by it. Nothing that I have seen in the Warner-Sutherland-Wallace videotapes has given me reason to doubt my assump­tions. When the tapes were shown in 1971 at the Blake Festival (Illinois State University) and at the MLA Annual Meeting in Chicago, I heard two kinds of objections that struck me as being of little use in evaluating the tapes. The first was theoretical and asked unanswerable questions, as for instance, whether Blake's infinite vision is reduced to fini-tude by television. The second was critical and queried the tapes as though they were articles in a scholarly journal. In this review I have tried to be relentlessly practical, and, while looking at the tapes only as what I am sure they are designed to be, classroom tools, I have asked the same question over and over: how useful will they be in a classroom?

I have seen each tape four times, twice outside the classroom, twice inside. I have shown the tapes to two different kinds of undergraduate classes: a class in Blake only, and a class in Romantic litera­ture, in which Blake was one of six or seven writers read. The reactions in each class were essentially the same, though more emphatic in the Blake class. I state the opinions below as mine, but they were corroborated in every case (without prompting, of course) by the students who saw the tapes. Each class was intellectually mixed, both in abilities and interests (the Blake class, for instance, was not weighed down with English majors), and tempera­mentally sunny--not at all disposed to grumble and pass harsh judgments on things presented to them for evaluation.

The first effort of the Warner-Sutherland-Wallace group was a videotape on America produced in 1970. I am sure that by now they regard their early work as inferior to their later work. But since many of the characteristics of the America tape carry over into the second tape, on Visions of the

Daughters of Albion, it is convenient to start at the starting-place and describe the tape and its problems.

The first thing that you notice is the stiff­ness that characterizes the movement of the tape. The camera seems to have a severely limited range of movement, and thus, for instance, the plates of America are consistently shown from awkward distances. When the producers try to compensate for a general lack of movement by using modern documen­tary techniques, the result is usually a flurry of still photos that unfortunately happens to create a stasis of its own. In fact, a difficult problem in making a moving-picture about a work that doesn't move, such as America, or about an age that precedes cinema, such as the eighteenth century, is that you are forced to find movement somewhere besides the subject of the film being made. With enough re­sources you can make the whole business move by dramatizing it, and get a BBC Forsyte Saga. But otherwise you are left with a fairly small repertory of documentary techniques invented and used by professionals on small budgets. The techniques are based largely on precise and complicated film-editing, and videotapes are notoriously difficult to edit. That, I assume, was the corner the trio at York University was in when they started working on Blake 's "America. "

So the tapes are, both of them, always tending to grind to an everyday halt or wind up to a wild fury of static dynamism, equally monotonous.

Finally the America tape falls back on the basic, time-proven and time-worn technique of all educational film-making, still photos with voice-over narration. But with that comes another problem: the suave, fatuous voice of the narrator whose professional unction has greased our sleepy way through a thousand newsreels and travelogues. The voice has the facile competence that can read Mrs. Browning one minute, Shakespeare the next, and Blake the next, but none of them with character, and always with the condescending tone of a lecturer. The script alternates explanatory narration with readings from America, and they become another obstruction, since the verse has a way of tricking a reader into his worst performance. The reader's voice rises immediately to its highest, most intense, and most melodramatic pitch, never to fall again.

The method of the tape is to use the plates of America and readings from them as a basic structure to depart from and return to after intervals of explanation. The plan sounds orderly, but the ef­fect in practice is not so lucid for several reasons.

There are four kinds of explanatory material interspersed with America itself: images and words from the period of the Revolutionary War; images

Morris Eaves (University of New Mexico) is Managing Editor of the Newsletter. An essay on The Book of Urizen recently appeared in William Blake: Essays in Honour of Sir Geoffrey Keynes, and a review-essay on Blake's Job series in Eighteenth-Century Studies.

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and words from recent h i s to ry ; works of graphic a r t from various periods; and in te rp re t i ve commentary on America.

The e f fec t of the modern material—the hippies, war protesters, r i o t e r s , and starving Biafrans--is to date the f i l m rather than to establ ish a so l id point of comparison between the 1770's and the 1970's. Contemporary events are not contempor­ary for long, and f ive-year -o ld h istory is not quite h is tory e i t he r , and therefore an unstable gray area is what we get in the videotape. Judging from the reactions of my students, some of whom were j us t entering high school when the modern f i l m footage in the Ameviaa tape was being shot, the e f fec t is l i ke seeing reruns of the te lev is ion news.

The other kind of h is tory used in the tape is more e f f ec t i ve , at least when used to i l luminate the iconography of Ameviaa, which is to say,,when h is tory becomes a part of ar t h is to ry . This sor t of lesson in image-making is novel to students and i ns t ruc t i ve . But the rest of the h i s to r i ca l mater ia l , the drummer boys and the Don1t-Tread-on-Me's, are l e f t to fend mostly for themselves as the unresurrected cliches of elementary-school American h is to ry . Even the most in teres t ing parts of the h i s to r i ca l graphics, the American emblems and por t ra i t s of Revolutionary-War so ld ie rs , become almost ludicrous when they are shown to the tune of Blake's Ameviaa. The w i ld gnashing and groaning of the verse simply cannot be easi ly combined with those tame mater ia ls .

The best part of both tapes is the lesson in iconography that they t ry to teach with comparative graphics. When they are c lear , as they sometimes are, they are s t r i k i n g . Most of the comparisons are l e f t i m p l i c i t rather than made e x p l i c i t , and many sound, i m p l i c i t comparisons are woven in to the tape, as, for instance, between the postures of crouching and r i s ing f igures. But often the point of the comparisons is not c lear , as i t is not in a series of statues shown while l ines are being read about an eagle in Mexico and a l ion in Peru. Moreover, when a plate from Ameviaa is compared to other works by Blake, say a plate from The Marriage, many students would be hard put to say where one begins and the other leaves o f f . Af ter i t appears several times in the course of the tape, you might think that "Albion r ises" is a plate from Ameviaa. F ina l l y , the comparisons are sometimes so loose that they seem gra tu i tous , as in the use made of Goya's Disasters of War ser ies.

The narra tor 's in te rp re t i ve commentary on Ameviaa is mostly psychoanalyt ical. Ore is defined as the representative of adolescent sexual energies, usually repressed, and plate 5 is cal led a diagram of the psyche, with the superego at the top, ego in the middle, and id at bottom. But the tack of the commentary doesn't matter much because i t gets los t in the other kinds of material on the tape. The narrator says at one po in t , for instance, that the designs in Ameviaa repeat motifs of the four elements, but th is observation is never followed up in the commentary on any of the p lates.

Many of the amateurish excesses in the f i r s t

tape--such as the po r t ra i t s of Blake that keep appearing fo r no apparent reason—are cut away in the second tape, on Visions of the Daughtevs of Albion ("an in terpre ta t ion by Janet Warner and John Sutherland"), and with them goes at least one source of unnecessary confusion. Overall the second tape is a giant step ahead of the f i r s t . The camera and hence the camerawork are more f l e x i b l e , the comparative graphics are c learer , and because more weight is given to s igni f icance than to pizzazz, a l o t of f a t is turned to lean.

The h i s to r i ca l documents are s t i l l present, but they are fewe*\ more i n te res t i ng , and fur ther from c l i che , at least for the American viewer. Excerpts from Mary Wol lstonecraft 's Vindication of the Rights of Women are read over pictures of eighteenth-century women in costume, and The Havlot's Pvogvess is used as a graphic depict ion of the exp lo i ta t ion of women--not w i ld l y o r i g i n a l , but not "The Star-Spangled Banner" and the S p i r i t of '76 e i ther .

There is a much f i rmer sense of d i rec t ion in the comparative graphics. The comparative pr inc ip le on which the tape is constructed is e x p l i c i t l y stated and explained, and the comparisons are more often so l i d and d i rec t than merely suggestive. Clear use is made, fo r instance, of Stedman's Narrative. There is less reading from the tex t of the work, which is a r e l i e f , the music is usually more appropriate, and there is more sense of the presence of a cont ro l l ing in te rp re ta t i on .

But there are also several large problems l e f t over from the Ameviaa tape, and a couple of new ones. The offensive male voice of the narrator o f f camera in Ameviaa has been replaced by a s l inky female who occasionally appears on camera. Her voice is s l i g h t l y less offensive than the male's, but some­how the appearance of a would-be twentieth-century Oothoon whose clothes and fu rn i tu re seem to be Vogue's v is ion of l i f e rather than her own loses her more points than the b i t of character in her voice can gain fo r her. The losses are doubled by a weak chorus that t r i e s to imi tate the Daughters of A lb ion.

The comparative graphics begin to lose the i r force when we are shown a series of yery s l i c k l y executed modern nudes in Oothoon poses that take us back to Vogue, Mademoiselle, and matching narrator . Moreover, the producers seem to have noticed the preponderance of s t i l l pictures in their Ameviaa tape, and one of the attempted remedies in the Visions tape comes o f f as s i l l y . The attempt to animate s t i l l pictures by moving them in f ron t of the camera almost never works fo r anyone except the professional 's professional . Here i t makes even s l i cke r the s l i ck Vogue nudes, and makes r id iculous the l ine "Bromion rent her" while a statue pulses in f ron t of the camera. The Visions tape wants to move—something that can' t be said of the Ameviaa tape--but attempts to make s t i l l photos move only remind the viewer of the l im i ta t ions of the tape. This is also true of sound e f fec ts . In the Ameviaa tape the r i s ing wind and the puny trumpets playing the charge to the voice of Alb ion's Angel shouting "Play, play my war trumpets" were j a r r i n g , and so

22

The Sports of Cruelty: Fairies, Folk-songs, Charms, and Other Country Matters in the Work of William Blake by John Adlard. London: Cecil and Amelia Woolf, 1972. 63.15

Reviewed by Katharine M. Briggs

John Adlard has wr i t ten several a r t i c les on fo lk lo re be l ie fs underlying some of Blake's references, as, for instance, "Mr. Blake's English Fai r ies" in The Bulletin of the Modern Language Society 2, LXV (He ls ink i , 1964). He has now wr i t ten at greater length about Blake's a t t i tude to fo l k lo re general ly , and in par t i cu la r to the f a i r i e s , by whom Blake appears, sometimes at leas t , to symbolize the cool provocativeness of a f l i r t a t i o u s woman, who t i t i l l a t e s desire without f u l f i l l i n g i t . This i n te rp re ta t i on , as John Adlard points out, is a development of Pope's treatment of the sylphs in The Rape of the Look. One passage, "A f a i r y leapt

upon my knee" (p. 1 almost a quotat ion.

of the Keynes e d i t i o n ) , is

The fairy element is not the only feature of the book in which every folklore reference by Blake is minutely examined by a scholar who shows a wide and far-ranging knowledge of his subject. Blake's journals, letters, and conversation are analyzed to provide a clue to cryptic passages. For instance the germ of that passage in Amerioa--about the

Katharine M. Briggs is Vice-President of the Folk­lore Society (London). Her published writings include The Anatomy of Puck (2959), Folktales of England (with Ruth L. Tongue, 1965), The Fairies in Tradition and Literature (1967), The Personnel of Fairyland (1969), Englische Volksmarchen (1970), and contributions to A Dictionary of British Folk­tales in the English Language (1970-7:).

are the reverberation effects used in the Visions tape. These kinds of effects require caution to keep them from being laughable. Reverberation is used more skillfully in soap operas.

But finally, about halfway through visions we slip back into the unfortunate groove of the America tape--a drone of readings accompanied by an endless stream of pictures, one more or less like another in unexplained juxtaposition and sequence. The lesson in iconography that I assume is intended is lost, and the graphics at last seem to function like the music, as a merely "appropriate" background.

Something I learned from showing the York videotapes to students is that, despite McLuhan, television in the classroom is not an attention-getter. Rooms are large, television screens are small, and students are restless. And he who will have television will also have its technical distractions--hum, hiss, click, roll, and wave. The videotape reel will be warped, or the machine will be on the blink. Hence the videotape must be aggressive. Long stretches of monologue, even the noisy hysterical kind in the America tape, shouted over pictures of battles, engravings from here, statues from there, and reclining nudes, all accompanied by routine music, only encourage the viewer to tune in to the TV hum and drift away in a

semi trance. The only way to keep that from happening is to

make the tape as lucid and substantial as possible. The only way to get that to happen is to have an absolutely firm sense of purpose. The York tapes get lost in their search for an audience. Sometimes they seem intended to teach students how to read poetry as well as how to read Visions of the Daughters of Albion* and yet other times they seem aimed at a much higher level. The level must be sought, found, and kept. Then continuity must be established and maintained without fail. The method of the York tapes in practice is too often interruptive and disruptive. Comparative material from art and history must be used with maximum efficiency. Otherwise the effect of these audio­visual "aids" is to display Blake's work in a diminutive context. As the use of comparative material is decreased, the use of Blake material should be increased. One of the ways to make America more interesting is to look more closely at it; the way of the York tapes is often to shift attention from America to other things. By "look more closely" I mean, for example, explore Blake's use of his medium more closely, the graphic and literary movement of the narrative, the music (in the serious, large sense) of his verse, the techniques of relief etching and watercoloring. And finally, the tapes

mysterious palace built in Atlantean hills by Ariston for his stolen bride—might well have sprung from Cumberland's meeting with Thomas Johnes of Haford, who had built among the Welsh Hills a castle, almost a palace, for his wife Jane, where they founded an idyllic community to surround a house and gardens embellished with every beauty which his imagination could conceive. The ruin of the house is still left, and in a recent article in Country Life the place was described.

John Adlard further explores Blake's references to dragons, folk customs and beliefs, folk songs, and dialect. The book should be of great use to Blake scholars, but the scattered and diffused matter on which it works has made it difficult to draw the whole subject into a unity, so that it reads rather like a series of excursions into literary detective work than a finished book. This, however, will not deter the specialist.

should be shorter, not only because that would make them more effective, but also because they are now too long for the average classroom "hour." Forty-five minutes is the outer limit, and forty would be better. Nothing ever goes quite right when you use a videotape in a classroom, and if you use one as seldom as I do, the time sacrificed to technological logistics will astound and amaze you.

Warner, Sutherland, and Wallace have been extraordinarily brave, I think, to experiment with the teaching of Blake in a difficult new medium. And usually, I think, that is the way teaching improves: not with elephantine grants from government agencies whose support will be snatched away just as you start to get somewhere, but with small reserves of money and large reserves of talent and energy. The York University team will have to go further before we can tell how much talent they have, but they obviously have large reserves of energy to support whatever talent their work in videotape production eventually shows. I regard their first two tapes as a pair of instructive failures. Since the second is less a failure than the first, I am encouraged, and I hope they are, too, and will try yet again. If they just can't rouse themselves for another go, then I hope someone else will pick up where they left off after a slow but still promising start.