BLAKE NEWSLETTER 23 An Illustrated Quarterly

Published quarter ly under the sponsorship of the Department of English of the Universi ty of New Mexico. Support fo r b ib l iographical assistance provided by the Universi ty of Ca l i f o rn i a , 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* Univers i ty of New Mexico.

Foster Foreman, Bibliographery 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 i a , Berkeley, Ca. 94720, or to Morris Eaves, Dept. of Engl ish, Univ. of New Mexico, Albuquerque, N.M. 87131

Subscriptions are $5 fo r one year, four issues; special rate fo r i nd iv idua ls , $4 for one year, surface ma i l ; fo r 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 subscr ipt ion orders and related communications to Morris Eaves, Managing Edi tor .

Some back issues are ava i 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 iona l Standard Serial Number) of the Blake Newsletter is 0006-453X.

News Sir Geoffrey Keynes, S. Foster Damon Collec­tion at Brown University, 1974 Blake Symposium at Edinburgh, Auctions, Work in Progress

Notes James T. W i l l s , An Addit ional Drawing fo r Blake's Bunyan Series

G. E. Bentley, J r . , The Inscr ipt ions on Blake's Designs to Pilgrim's Progress

Minute Particulars Ruthven Todd, The Rev. Dr. John Trusler Robert Gleckner, Blake and Fuseli in a Student's Letter Home James King, A New Piece of Tayloriana Roland A. Duerksen, A Crucial Line in Visions of the Daughters of Albion

John Adlard, The Age and Virginity of Lyca Martin Butlin, The Inscription on Evening Amusement

Reviews Suzanne R. Hoover on Blake's Job by Andrew Wright

Morton D. Paley on the Tonner Col lect ion pamphlet by Martin Bu t l i n and the Pickering Manuscript facsimi le published by the Morgan Library

Copyright©1973 by Morton D. Paley & Morris Eaves

The illustrations across the page and on the cover: "Mary Magdalen at the Sepulchre" (pen and black Ink and waterco lor ; 16 3/4 x 12 i n . , 426 x 305 mm.) was sold at auction by C h r i s t i e , Manson & Woods on 5 June 1973 to Agnew's fo r s23,100--a record pr ice fo r a s ing le drawing by Blake at auct ion. According to the C h r i s t i e ' s catalogue the provenance is as fo l lows: painted f o r Thomas Bu t t s ; sold by Thomas Bu t t s , J r . , at Sotheby's 26 March 1852 ( l o t 155) to F. J . Palgrave f o r i 3 l i s . ; given by Palgrave to Lady Beatr ix Maud Ceci l ( d . 1950) on her marriage to the second Earl of Selborne, 1883.

The catalogue entry reads i n par t as fo l lows: "Mart in Bu t l i n dates the watercolour c i r ca 1805. I t Is one of over e ighty works painted by Blake fo r Thomas Bu t t s . As David Blndman has pointed ou t , there appears to be a d i s t i n c t qroup w i t h i n the

se r i es , a l l of subjects connected w i th the C ruc i f i x i on and the Resurrect ion: they are of s im i l a r s i z e , near symmetrical composit ion, near monochrome co lour ing , and a l l of upr ight format; 'Mary Magdalen at the Sepulchre' i s par t of t h i s s e t . "

At the same sale Blake's "The Mourners" ( p e n c i l , pen and gray i nk , gray wash; 7 x 9 1/4 i n . , 176 x 235 mm.) was auctioned. The drawing is dated by David Bindman c. 1785.

Both p ictures are reproduced In monochrome in the catalogue, Highly Important English Drawings and Uatereoloure, 40 p i s . , i l , ava i lab le from C h r i s t i e ' s , 8 King S t . , St. James's, London SWIY 6QT.

Our thanks to David Bindman, Thomas Hinnick, and Ruthven Todd for information and photographs. Reproduced by permission.

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BLAKE NEWSLETTER 23 An Illustrated Quarterly Vol. 6 No. 3 Winter 72-73

News

Sir Geoffrey Keynes

A dinner was held on Saturday, 14 July 1973, at Peterhouse, Cambridge, to mark the contribution to Blake studies of Sir Geoffrey Keynes and the publication of William Blake, Essays in Honour of Sir Geoffrey Keynes, by the Clarendon Press, Oxford, edited by Michael Phillips and Morton D. Paley. Those present included Mr. and Mrs. Stephen Keynes and their son Gregory, Mr. and Mrs. George Goyder, Mr. and Mrs. David Piper, Dr. and Mrs. A. L. N. Munby, Dr. and Mrs. John Beer, Professor and Mrs. David V. Erdman, Professor and Mrs. G. E. Bentley, Jr., Professor Janet Warner, Professor Robert Essick, Mr. and Mrs. Suzanne Hoover, Professor Irene Tayler, Mr. and Mrs. John Nicol 1, Dr. and Mrs. Michael Phillips, and Professor Morton D. Paley.

William Blake, Essays in Honour of Sir Geoffrey Keynes, is to be published 23 August and includes essays by Michael Phillips, David Bindman, Robert N. Essick, F. R. Leavis, Josephine Miles, Michael J. Tolley, Jean H. Hagstrum, G. Wilson Knight, David V. Erdman, Janet Warner, Morris Eaves, John Beer, Morton D. Paley, Martin Butlin, Raymond Lister, and Suzanne R. Hoover, together with a checklist of Sir Geoffrey Keynes's writings on Blake by G. E. Bentley, Jr. The volume is 390 pages and includes 82 plates.

Damon Collection

Foster Damon had a fine Blake collection of some 300 items (not including manuscripts). Besides copies of most secondary works on Blake, standard and non­standard editions, and Trianon, Dent, Muir, and other facsimiles, the collection contains original editions of some of Blake's source materials and of his own works, including several early editions of Blair's The Grave, Hayley's Ballads, and works by Flaxman and Cumberland on which Blake collaborated. There are also such items as an excellent collection of sheet music for Blake's poems, a wide variety of prints, a Blake Bible, and so forth.

The collection also has value as "Damoniana," including as it does many books bearing Damon's marginalia, his notebooks, a good deal of corres­pondence, and some unpublished manuscripts.

Damon was associated with the John Hay Library at Brown University for some years, and at his death

in 1971 the collection (in its entirety, as far as I have been able to determine) passed to the library, where it presently awaits cataloguing. The library intends to keep the collection together (a yery re­assuring decision), and is building it up through such acquisitions as the Trianon facsimile of the Gray illustrations. (Our thanks to John Kupersmith for this item. He is now preparing for the News­letter an account of the history and principal contents of the Damon collection. Eds.)

1974 Blake Symposium-Edinburgh

A symposium on the wr i t ings of Will iam Blake is to be held at the I ns t i t u te For Advanced Studies at the Universi ty of Edinburgh on 1 , 2, and 3 May 1974. The symposium w i l l comprise six to eight discussion seminars for which papers are i nv i t ed . The seminars w i l l be complemented by a public lecture and a dramatic presentation—of e i ther one of Blake's prophetic books or an aspect of his biography--given in the Universi ty Theatre, George Square. Scott ish col lect ions of Blake or ig ina ls w i l l be avai lable on exh ib i t ion fo r members of the symposium.

The emphasis of the symposium w i l l be on close analysis of ind iv idual poems and works informed by h i s t o r i c a l , l i t e r a r y h i s t o r i c a l , t ex tua l , or l i n g u i s t i c f ind ings. Papers which conform to th is approach should be submitted for consideration not l a te r than 1 March 1974. A select ion of the papers w i l l be published in book form and manuscripts should be prepared wi th th is end in view.

Papers should be submitted to Michael P h i l l i p s , Department of English L i te ra tu re , David Hume Tower, George Square, Edinburgh, from whom fur ther par t icu lars are avai lable.

Some Auctions

Christie's on 12 June 1973 auctioned George Richmond's "Samson slaying the Ph i l i s t ines with the jaw-bone of an ass" with f igure studies on the reverse (pen and brown ink , 6 x 5 1/2 i n s . ) , and Samuel Palmer's "Ruined castle at sunset" (water-color heightened with white and gold, 13 1/2 x 10 1/4 i n s . ) . Both works are reproduced in black and white in Chr i s t ie ' s advertisement in Apollo, June 1973, p. 46.

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Sotheby's (London) sold Fusel i 's "Weird Sisters" on 4 Apr i l 1973. There is a picture in Apollo, March 1973, p. 168.

Sotheby Parke Bemet of Los Angeles i l l u s t r a t e d the i r advertisements for an auction of important s i l v e r pieces, 30 Apr i l and 1 May 1973, with a b r i l l i a n t color reproduction of the "Achi l les" s i l v e r ­ g i l t shield made for Frederick Augustus, Duke of York and Albany, by Phi l ip Rundell of London and designed by John Flaxman. Catalogues of the sale may s t i l l be avai lable ($5 postpaid, 7660 Beverly Blvd . , Los Angeles, Ca., 90036). There is a fu l l ­page color plate in Antiques* Apr i l 1973, p. 612. {Our thanks to Thomas Minniok for these items. Eds. )

Work in Progress The starred (*) items below come, by the courtesy of one of our readers, from the Inventory of Research in Progress in the Humanities: Inventaire des reoherahes en oours dans les humanites3 published in 1972 by the Humanities Research Council of Canada. We do not l i s t here every person who mentioned Blake in the Inventory , however, but only those who dist inguished t he i r research as "act ive ly in hand" as opposed to a general "research i n te res t . " The l i s t i ngs in the Inventory are lean; the extra annotations below were supplied by the researchers themselves, then forwarded to us by the same kind reader who cal led our at tent ion to the Inventory.

*Cecil A. Abrahams (Bishop's Univers i ty ) : "The Fourfold Man in Will iam Blake."

♦Arthur H. Adamson (Universi ty of Manitoba): "Structure and Symbolism in 'The Mental Trave l le r ,

1"

an essay re la t ing the structure of the poem to Spengler's theory of cu l tu re , and also re la t ing Spengler's theory to some passages in chapter 4 of Jerusalem. " I also have a theory of the psycholo­gical i n te rp re ta t ion of Blake's Twenty­Seven Churches . . . my i n te res t [ i n Blake] is psychological and archetypal. My studies are centered in the l a te r works, par t i cu la r l y Milton and Jerusalem."

*G. E. Bentley, Jr . (Universi ty College, Universi ty of Toronto): "Wil l iam Blake: The C r i t i c a l Heri tage," "Wil l iam Blake's Wri t ings, " "Wil l iam Blake Bibl iography."

*Brian John (McMaster Univers i ty ) : "Studies in Romantic Vi ta l ism" that trace "the par t i c ipa t ion of each of my f igures­­Blake, Car ly le , Yeats and D. H. Lawrence—in the common t r ad i t i on of Romantic v i ta l i sm. By v i ta l i sm I mean the upholding of the

pr inc ip le of Force or Energy as the l i f e ­ p r i n c i p l e running through a l l th ings, with certain inevi table co ro l l a r i es . . . . Because the ramif icat ions are many, I have focussed pr imar i ly on the dynamic se l f creating 'supreme f i c t i o n s ' out of the chaos of existence. In the case of each author, I begin by establ ishing general pr inc ip les as expressed in his work as a whole and bring them to bear upon a detai led c r i t i c a l reading of a major work. In the case of Blake, the work is Milton. . . . the Blake chapter consti tutes roughly one quarter of the work. . . ."

*W. J . Thomas Mitchel l and Thomas Minnick (Ohio State Univers i ty ) : a c r i t i c a l edi t ion of The Book of Urizen with a color facs imi le . They would appreciate any information about the present locat ion of any complete or par t i a l copies of the book and they would also be interested to learn of sketches for i t or any other relevant mater ia ls . Al l help w i l l be gra te fu l l y and publ ic ly acknowledged. Please wr i te to ei ther at the Department of Engl ish, The Ohio State Univers i ty , Columbus, Ohio 43210.

Dennis Read: "Wil l iam Blake and The Grave," a Ph.D. disser tat ion directed by Will iam F. Halloran at the Universi ty of Wisconsin­­Milwaukee. The disser tat ion w i l l be a comprehensive study of a l l the surviv ing Blake items which have t he i r genesis in his agreement to i l l u s t r a t e B l a i r ' s Grave. I t w i l l attempt to describe Blake's i n te rpre ta t ion of the poem and to indicate how Blake's work on The Grave contr ibuted to his own visionary expression of such concepts as l i f e , the wor ld , and the imagination.

*Janet A. Warner (Glendon College, York Univers i ty ) : "Symbol and Structure in the Work of Will iam Blake."

*David Zack ( S i l t o n , Saskatchewan): "How d'Ye Do Will iam Blake," a biography " i l l u s t r a t e d with pictures of places Blake l i v e d , v i s i t e d , and drank," begun at Cambridge and f in ished in S i l t on . "The Cambridge image study pops up here and there in my biography, but since a basic Nut [group of 'young fantasy a r t i s t s ' to which Zack belongs] tenet involves taking c r i t i c i s m seriously only to make i t seem more confusing as t o ld about than i t was as o r i g i na l l y presented I think i t would be bet ter fo r you to think of my approach to Blake th is way: As Blake spent his l i f e back then, so should we a l l now and some day soon ( fo r imagination's power can compress a century of evolut ion to a second of i n t u i t i o n ) indeed we a l l w i l l . Mundane concerns with p o l i t i c s , with rightness and wrongness, with propr ie ty : a l l vanish as we i nd iv idua l l y deny them head space: they did fo r Blake, his words are d i rec t to us today and the time of his prophecies is at hand fo r a l l who care to j o i n i n . "

Notes

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1 "Christ ian Goes Forth Armed," from Blake's Bunyan ser ies. Copyright the Frick Col lect ion New York. Reproduced by permission.

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AN ADDITIONAL DRAWING FOR BLAKE'S BUNYAN SERIES JamesT. Wills

On 29 Apr i l 1862 Sotheby's offered fo r sale "a series of 28 designs [by Wil l iam Blake] fo r the Pilgrim's Progress, nineteen of them highly f i n i s h ­ed in colours."^ W. M. Rossetti described these twenty-eight drawings in the l i s t of Blake's works he prepared for G i l ch r i s t ' s Life of Blake in 1863. When Geoffrey Keynes discussed the i l l u s t r a t i o n s in his 1941 int roduct ion to the Spiral Press ed­i t i o n of Pilgrim's Progress and la te r in his Blake Studies (1949, 2nd ed. 1971), he observed that Rossetti "omitted to mention No. XVI I , 'Chr ist ian in the Arbour' . . . . " 2 S i r Geoffrey's new to ta l of twenty-nine included, as Rossett i 's had done e a r l i e r , the troublesome No. XXI I , but Si r Geoffrey remarked that th is drawing had probably been mis­placed from the Paradise Regained se r ies . 2 I f No. XXII is not, in f ac t , one of the o r ig ina l Bun-yan drawings, then the number of actual i l l u s t r a ­t ions should stand at twenty-eight as i t did in the 1862 sale. I propose, however, that there are at least twenty-nine genuine designs in the ser ies. This to ta l may be achieved by the inclusion of an addit ional drawing not previously mentioned by Rossetti or Keynes. The fol lowing invest igat ion w i l l attempt to show that th is addit ional drawing is a legi t imate Bunyan design and at the same time t r y to se t t l e some problems of sequence wi th in the ser ies.

The existence of an addit ional drawing was f i r s t brought to l i g h t in Martin Bu t l i n ' s "An Extra I l l u s t r a t i o n to Pilgrim's Progress," Blake Newsletter 19 (Winter 1971-72), 213-14. At the time Mr. Bu t l i n ' s note f i r s t appeared, my study of th is drawing was already completed and ready for submission. The design in question [ i l l u s . 2] is current ly housed in the Alverthorpe Gallery of the Rosenwald Col lect ion and i t is t i t l e d , with apparently no real au thor i t y , "A Warrior Attended by Angels." Further explorations in to the physi­cal appearance and subject of th is pencil and watercolor drawing leave l i t t l e doubt that "A Warrior Attended by Angels" is indeed one of Blake's o r ig ina l Pilgrim's Progress designs.

The physical appearance of the Rosenwald drawing is remarkably s imi la r to that of the twenty-eight Bunyan drawings which are now in the Frick Col lec t ion. The design size of "A War­r i o r " measures 180 by 122 mm., while the sheet on which i t is executed measures 244 by 189 mm. A l ­though the sizes of the Frick drawings vary s l i g h t ­l y , they are substant ia l ly the same as those of "A Warr ior." The watermark of "A Warrior" runs

o f f the page from the center of the upper ha l f of the sheet to the l e f t ; i t reads J WHAT / 182. Exactly the same watermark appears on number six and twenty-eight of the Frick ser ies , and the ent i re watermark of J WHATMAN / 1824 may be con­structed through evidence shown on the other draw­ings of the ser ies.

The recto of the Rosenwald design [ i l l u s . 2] has no descr ipt ive or explanatory i nsc r i p t i ons , and the verso is blank. The number 20 appears j us t above the border of the design in the r i g h t -hand corner, and at the base of the drawing, j u s t below the border on the right-hand s ide, is what appears to be Blake's signature. One minor d i f f i ­cul ty stems from the p o s s i b i l i t y that the zero of the number twenty was at f i r s t a one and was la te r rubbed out and al tered to i t s present s ta te .

The technique employed in the Frick Col lect ion series is basica l ly pencil sketching colored over with various water-color washes. In the same way, "A Warrior Attended by Angels" is a pencil sketch colored over with gray wash and heightened with other washes of b lue, yel low, green and pink. S im i la r i t i es of technique would in themselves be of comparatively l i t t l e value in proving that the Rosenwald design belongs with the Frick ser ies. Yet when deta i ls of technique and physical appear­ance are combined with the evidence provided by the subject matter of "A Warr ior ," inc lusion in the or ig ina l genuine series becomes c lear ly un­avoidable.

As the t i t l e suggests, the Rosenwald drawing presents an armed f igure surrounded by four others who seem to be minister ing to him. The most s i g -

James T. Wills is writing a Ph.D. dissertation on Blake's designs for Pilgrim's Progress under the direction of G. E. Bentley3 Jr., at the University of Toronto.

1 Sotheby & Co., Sale Catalogue of Drawings and Pain t ings, Lot 187, 29 Ap r i l 1862.

2 Geoffrey Keynes, ' • (London: Rupert Hart-Davis, 1949), p. 174.

3 Keynes, p. 184.

The numbers used here are those which appear in pencil on the drawings of the Frick series.

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n i f i can t aspect of the drawing, for present pur­poses at l eas t , centers in the warr io r ' s armament. The i l l u s t r a t i o n c lear ly shows a shie ld buckled to his l e f t arm and a broad sword hanging at his l e f t side. He also appears to be wearing a helmet of some sort and possibly a type of armor on his lower legs. I t is d i f f i c u l t to determine whether he wears any body armor, such as a breast p la te , since he is p a r t i a l l y covered by a f lowing coat.

Ihis warr ior is Chr is t ian , the p i lg r im of Bunyan's nar ra t ive . Such a statement is readi ly defensible by comparing him with the f igure pre­sented in two drawings from the Frick ser ies , while the scene represented is readi ly i den t i f i ab l e as an i l l u s t r a t i o n to Pilgrim's Progress. Indeed, "A Warrior Attended by Angels" should be placed between the Frick design cal led "Chr ist ian Goes

Forth Armed" [ i l l u s . 1] and the one en t i t l ed "Apollyon and Chr is t ian" [ i l l u s . 3 ] . The pencil numbers which appear on the Frick drawings are at best of questionable value, but i t may be worth noting that "Apollyon and Chr is t ian , " l i ke "A Warr ior," shows the number 20. ^

Blake's "Christ ian Goes Forth Armed" i l l u s ­trates a very speci f ic scene in Bunyan's work. According to Bunyan, once Christ ian has been armed by the four maidens who inhabi t the Lord of the H i l l ' s house, Discret ion, Piety, Prudence and Chari ty, he walks from the gate of the house ac­

5 The numbering has been dealt wi th more completely by G. E. Bentley, J r . , in his a r t i c l e , "The Inscr ip t ions on Blake's De­signs to

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2 "Christian Takes Leave of His Companions" ("A Warrior Attended by Angels"), from Blake's Bunyan series. National Gallery of Art, Rosenwald Collection. Reproduced by permission

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companied by the porter. As they proceed, Christian questions his guide about pilgrims who may have preceded him, and the porter replies that one named Faithful has gone before but,J'he is got by this time at least below the Hill »6

In "Christian Goes Forth Armed," Blake depicts Christian and the porter at the moment they leave the gate and move towards the steep descent of the Hill of Difficulty [see ill us. 1]. The drawing is sketchy in part, but the figure of Christian definitely includes a shield buckled to his left arm, what appears to be a sword hilt in his left hand, and what probably represents a type of armor on his right leg. There may be a slight suggestion of a helmet, but this detail is not nearly so clear as the others noted. As in the Rosenwald design, Christian is shown wearing a flowing coat; this is

probably the "Broidred Coat" he says was given him by the three shining ones.7

Christian takes leave of the porter in Bunyan'$ narrative, and

he began to go forward; but 'Discretion', 'Piety', 'Charity', and 'Prudence' would ac­company him down to the foot of the Hill. So they went on together, reiterating their former discourses, till they came to go down

6 John Bunyan, ' '.grin 'e • , ed. James Blanton Wharey, 2nd ed. (Oxford:

Clarendon Press, 1960), p. 55. 7 Bunyan, p. 49.

3 "Apollyon and Chr i s t i an , " from Blake's Bunyan ser ins. Copyright the Frick Co l lec t ion , New York. Reproduced by permission.

66 4 K. Schutz, undated pencil drawing of three angels singing, Number 17 in the Aders album By permission of the Harvard College Library.

5 Jacob Gbtzenberger, undated pen drawing of angels assisting a poor family, Number 21 in the Aders album. By permission of the Harvard College Library.

the Hill. Then said 'Christian', As it was 'difficult' coming up, so (so far as I can see) it is 'dangerous' going down. . . . there­fore, said they, are we come out to accompany thee down the Hill.

Then I saw in my dream that these good companions, when 'Christian' was gone down to the bottom of the Hill, gave him a loaf of Bread, a bottle of Wine, and a cluster of Raisins; and then he went on his way.5

The drawing in the Rosenwald Collection [illus. 2] undoubtedly shows Christian at the bottom of the Hill surrounded by his four "good companions." Behind and above them the house of the Lord of the Hill is sketchily outlined. Although the presents mentioned by Bunyan are not obviously identifiable, the maiden to Christian's immediate right may be holding a bottle in her left hand. The design portrays Christian at the moment he departs from his four friends and enters the Valley of Humiliation; a more appropriate title might therefore be "Christian Takes Leave of His Com­panions. "

The ultimate purpose of Christian's armament becomes apparent in the next sequence of events in Pilgrim's Progress, and Blake's illustration for it provides yet more evidence for including "Christian Takes Leave of His Companions" in the series. As soon as he enters the Valley of Humil­iation, Christian is confronted by the horrible Apollyon:

Now the Monster was hidious to behold: he was cloathed with scales like a Fish (and they are his pride); he had Wings like a Dragon, feet like a Bear, and out of his belly came Fire and Smoak; and his mouth was the mouth of a Lion.

The battle which ensues at first goes badly for Christian:

Then 'Apollyon' to gather up cl ing with him, g with that 'Chri hand. . . . Bu 'Apollyon' was . . 'Christian' for his sword a not against me, I shall arise'.

espying his opportunity began ose to 'Christian' and, wrestl-ave him a dreadful fall; and stian's' sword flew out of his t as God would have it, while fetching of his last blow, . nimbly reached out his hand

nd caught it, saying, 'Rejoyce 0 mine Enemy! When I fall

10

"Apollyon and Christian" [illus. 3] illustrates the moment just before Christian regains his sword and vanquishes the monster. Blake pictures Apol­lyon with great attention to detail, while at the same time spending a large amount of time on the figure of Christian. The design is in a more finished state than either of the two drawings just discussed, and it shows much more clearly that Christian is indeed wearing armor on his legs and body. Most important for present purposes, however, the drawing also shows exactly the same sword, shield and helmet seen in the Rosenwald design. These facts, as well as the striking facial resemblance between the two detailed re­presentations of Christian, complete the over­whelming pictorial evidence for including "Chris­tian Takes Leave of His Companions" in the original Bunyan series. In addition, the sections of Pil­grim's Progress quoted establish a firm textual basis for accepting the design and for placing it between the two Frick drawings.

The question of how the Rosenwald drawing became separated from the other twenty-eight designs remains to be solved, but after the ini­tial separation the subsequent history of "Chris­tian Takes Leave of His Companions" may be easily traced. The Alverthorpe Gallery accession records

8 Bunyan, pp. 55-56.

9 Bunyan, p. 56.

10 Bunyan, pp. 59-60.

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reveal that Mr. Rosenwald acquired the drawing from Sotheby's on 10 December 1958, and according to the auction catalogue i t was "formerly con­tained in an album of l e t te rs from Blake, Coleridge and Lamb formed by Mrs. Charles Aders. . . ."*■ The remainder of the album was eventually sold by Sotheby's on 15 December of the same year and is now in the Houghton Library , Harvard Univers i ty . The exact or ig ina l posi t ion of the Blake drawing wi th in the album cannot now be easi ly ascertained, especial ly since nearly f i f t y leaves have been cut out. S t i l l , there is a strong poss ib i l i t y that the design^or ig inal ly appeared between entry Nos. 17 and 26 12

Containing materials which range in date from 1811 to 1874, the Aders album is arranged in a roughly chronological manner. The ten entr ies in question are s ign i f i can t l y grouped, at least so fa r as t he i r dates can be ascertained, around 1827, the year of Blake's death. Support fo r placing the Rosenwald design between Nos. 17 and 26 arises pr imar i ly from the angel moti f of a large propor­t ion of these ent r ies . Number 17 is an undated pencil drawing, heightened with white and gold, of three angels s ing ing, by K. Schutz [ i l l u s . 4 ] ; number 20 is a manuscript of Charles Lamb's "Angel Help," dated 1827; and number 21 is an undated pen drawing, heightened with gold, of angels assist­ing a poor fami ly , by Jacob Gbtzenberger [ i l l u s . 5 ] . GcJtzenberger may be remembered as the German a r t i s t who commented favorably on Blake's Dante designs.

2S

Entries 22 and 23 deal with "Angel Help"; the former is an 1827 version of the poem by Mary Lamb, the l a t t e r an 1827 l e t t e r from Charles Lamb concerning the same poem. Between Nos. 17 and 26 there are eight leaves cut from the album and one blank l ea f , No. 25, from which something has been removed.

I t may well be that in 1827 Mrs. Blake, know­ing that the Bunyan series had twenty­nine draw­ings, sold that number to Tatham, simply confusing the Paradise Regained design with "Christ ian Takes Leave." Consequently, Mrs. Aders could have ac­

quired the l a t t e r drawing, placed i t in her album in one of the spaces mentioned above, and given i t what she considered an appropriate t i t l e .

Regardless of whether these conjectures about placement in the album and separation from the series prove correct , there is no doubt that "Christ ian Takes Leaves of His Companions" is a Bunyan design. Taken together, the.three drawings discussed are a f ine example of Blake's method of i l l u s t r a t i n g Pilgrim's Progress; and barring any fu r ther additions to the new t o ta l of genuine designs—there is a p o s s i b i l i t y that there may be several more^ ­z

­­the way now seems open fo r the completion of a f u l l scale study of Blake's designs fo r Bunyan.

11 Sotheby & Co., Sale Catalogue of Drawings and Paint ings, Lot 72, 10 December 1958.

12 I am using here the notat ion of the Houghton L ib ra ry . The discussion of the album which fo l lows is taken i n part from a descr ip t ion provided by Mr. Rodney G. Dennis, Curator of Manu­sc r ip ts at the Houghton L ib ra ry .

13 Henry Crabb Robinson, Diary Reminiscences and Covres\ ed. Thomas Sadler (Boston: James R. Osgood and Co., 1871), I I , 74.

14 There are two Blake drawings in the B r i t i s h Museum each of which represents a f igure seated before a burning c i t y . Accord­ing to a descr ip t ion I received from Miss Dinah Mitche l l of the Department of Prints and Drawings, the designs are accompanied by a note by Samuel Palmer. The note says, in p a r t , that they are two states of "a design perhaps from the Pilgrin '. . . ­ . " There seems to be no substant ia l evidence at t h i s time to sup­port Palmer's conjecture. For f u r the r in format ion on these drawings, see Raymond L i s t e r , "Two Blake Drawings and a Let ter by Samuel Palmer," i n Blake Newsletter 23, forthcoming.

There are also three designs, formerly i n the possession of W. G. Robertson but now untraced, which are re la ted to the 3unyan ser ies . The Blake Collection of W. Graham Robertson, ed. Kerrison Preston i n 1952 f o r the Blake Trus t , l i s t s these three designs as Nos. 104, 105, and 106. The respective t i t l e s are "Chr is t ian and Worldly Wiseman," "The I n te rp re te r ' s House," and "Vanity Fa i r . " Frederick Tatham vouched f o r a l l three as genuine Blakes, but he was f i r m l y convinced only that No. 106 was d e f i n i t e l y a Bunyan design.

THE INSCRIPTIONS ON BLAKE'S DESIGNS TO PILGRIMS PROGRESS G.E. Bentley,

Will iam Blake's designs to John Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress have always been considerably less w e l l -known than they deserve. Blake made the series during the las t few years of his l i f e (the paper is watermarked 1824, when he was 67), and no contemporary reference to them is known.

Blake had of course long known Bunyan before t h i s . About 1794 he made a p r in t of The Man Sweeping The In te rpre ter ' s Parlour from Pilgrim's Progress* and in his las t years his young disciples referred to his f l a t as The House of the In terpreter . In a l e t t e r of 4 December 1804 Blake sa id , " I shal l t ravel on in the Strength of the Lord God as Poor Pi lgr im says" in Pilgrim's Progress, and he associated himself d i rec t l y with Bunyan when he commented that for "two so unequal labourers" as Flaxman and himself to contr ibute designs for a publ icat ion of Hayley's "would be ( to say the best of myself) l i ke put t ing John Mil ton with John Bunyan." In his Notebook he compared his genteel patron Hayley to Bunyan's "Pick thank," and, in his "Vision of the Last Judgment" (1810), he said that "P i lgr im's Progress is f u l l " of v i s ion . 7 But he never referred to his Bunyan designs in wr i t ings which survive.

Indeed, nothing was publ ic ly known of the designs un t i l they appeared at an anonymous sale at Sotheby's on 29 Apr i l 1862, as l o t 187:

A SERIES OF TWENTY-EIGHT DESIGNS FOR THE

PILGRIM'S PROGRESS, nineteen of them highly

finished in colours

when they were sold for ^13.10s to [R. M.] Milnes. They were described by W. M. Rossetti in the catalogue of Blake's a r t which he prepared for Alexander G i l c h r i s t ' s Life of William Blake (1863), I I , 235,^ but they were then forgotten by Blake scholars un t i l Sir Geoffrey Keynes saw them about 1928 and la te r reproduced them in The Pilgrim's Progress I l l u s t r a ted with 29 watered our paintings by Wil l iam Blake, ed. G. B. Harr ison, Introduction by Geoffrey Keynes (New York, 1941). They were exhibi ted at The Knoedler Gallery and at The Cleveland Museum in 1941,; and sold to The Frick Co l lec t ion , where they have been stored in the vault for most of the rest of the time since then. Aside from Keynes' Introduct ion to his ed i t ion of

Pilgrim's Progress ( repr inted in his Blake Studies [1949, 1971]) and reviews of the Keynes ed i t ion and of the exh ib i t ions , there has scarcely been a serious account of these important designs.

Sir Geoffrey remarked casually that "A few of the drawings have a word or two scribbled in the margin by Blake. None has any f u l l i nsc r i p t i on . . . . A l l have been numbered and inscribed with a t i t l e by a la te r unknown hand. . . . However, these pencil inscr ip t ions have never been recorded; indeed, they had scarcely been v i s ib le un t i l the drawings were qui te recently dismounted and the margins and versos could once more be examined. The i nsc r i p t i ons , wr i t ten below the designs except when the margin is too narrow, are as fo l lows:

l 5 John Bunyan dreams a dream Pi lgr im's Progress

2--1 saw a man clothed in rags with his face from his own house / a Book in his hand, & a great burden on his back6' Christ ian begins his pilgrimage

G. E. Bentley, Jr.s recently edited and annotated A Handlist of Works by Wil l iam Blake in the Depart­ment of Prints & Drawings of the B r i t i sh Museum for the Newsletter. He is editor of Blake's Vala or The Four Zoas (1963) and of Blake's T i r i e l (1967); compiler of The Blake Col lect ion of Mrs. Landon K. Thorne (1971) and, with Martin K. Nurmi, of A Blake Bibliography (1964); author of The Early Engravings of Flsxman's Classical Designs (1964) and of Blake Records (1969).

1 , ed. G. Keynes (1957), 549, 604.

2 The relationship between Rossetti's alphabetical order, the pencil numbers, and the Frick reference numbers is as follows:

Tl jj r h d .' f g h i

ORDER PENCIL NO. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

FRICK REF. A419a A420a A421a A422a A423a A424a A425a A427a A426a A42Pa

NO.

69

[2 altered to~] 3 Evangelist gives Christ ian the r o l l

7

[3 altered to] 4 Obstinate and Pl iable fol low him

[3 altered to] 55 Pliable leaves Xtian in the Slough

of Despond

[7 altered to] 65 Help l i f t s Christ ian out of / the

Slough of Despond [On the verso:] "Help" l i f t s Xtian out of the Slough of Despond

[Number del] 7--Mr Worldly Wiseman directs Xtian

/ to the house of Lega l i ty , in the v i l lage / of Moral i ty

8 Christ ian fears the flashes of f i r e / from M* Sinai

[9] Xtian f a l l s at the feet of Evangelist fearing / the f i r e from Mt Sinai"

5

10 Xtian knocks at the wicket gate [The gate in the design is labeled by Blake:] KNOCK* AND IT SHALL BE OPENED

11 Good w i l l opens the wicket gate to Xtian Christ ian returning home

12 In the In te rpre ter ' s House5

13 In the In te rpre ter 's House - - the r o s e [ ? ] ^ Page 20

[13 altered to] 14 Mr In terpreter shows him the

man who / had the dream of the Day of Judgement

15 Chr is t ian 's burden f a l l s of f at / Sight of the Cross--

16 Page 23 The Shining Ones appear to Christ ian

17 Christ ian climbs the H i l l D i f f i c u l t y

18 Page 2 6 / 1 8

19 / Page 28 / Christ ian passes the l ions

[Page 36(?) del] 20 [B . . . written over by] Christian beaten down by / Apollyon [Above the design is:] Apollyon

21 / Fai thfu l re la te [s ] how Moses / met[?] with him [Above the design is:] Faithfuls Narrative

22 / Christ del ivers Fai thfu l from Moses

23 / Christ ian & Fai thfu l in / Vanity Fair [Above the design is:] Vanity Fair

[Page 50(?) del] 2411 Fai thfu l taken up / in to

Heaven

25 Christ ian and Hopeful / in Doubting Castle

[25(?) altered to] 26 They escape from Giant Despair

27 The Shepherds of the Delectable Mountains [on the top margin]

27 [sic] [C(hr is t ian?) del] Hopeful supports Christ ian over the r i ver

[Page 50(?) del] 29 Christ ian & Hopeful enter / the gate of Heaven

The removal of the mounts has also made possible the decipherment of the watermarks, as fo l lows:

bl X 3 k 1 m 0

P q s r t u V w Jl 2

11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29

A429a A437a A430a A431a A432a A433a A434a A435a A436a A438a A439a A418a A440a A441a A442a A443a A444a A4*5a A446a

The Keynes order {Blake studies [1971] , 167-73) is that of the Fr ick , except that he omits No. 22. Rossetti omits the unin-scribed No. 18.

3 Water Colors of William Blake for Banyan's The Pilgrim's ■■ .■■■■.■: Loan Exhib i t ion October 21 to November P, 1941, ='

the Gal ler ies of M. Knoedler and Company; Water Colours . . . : Loan Exhib i t ion November 18 to December 14, 1941, Cleveland Museum of Ar t . Twelve of the designs were reproduced in an ed i t i on of Pilgrim's Progress, ed. J . T. Winterich (New York, 1942) and sixteen in the ed i t i on of A. K. Adams (New York, 1968)

4 Keynes, Blake studies (1971), 167. The t i t l e s Keynes uses fo r No. 1 , 8-10, 17, 19-21, 23, 25, 27 are the same as at least part of the penci l i n s c r i p t i o n s , but since he says that "these i nsc r ip t ions carry no author i t y and I have ignored them i n making my own descr ip t ions" (p. 167), the s i m i l a r i t y must be j u s t co inc iden ta l .

5 The number appears above the design, in the corner, and the i n sc r i p t i on below the design.

6 The f i r s t i n s c r i p t i o n appears above the design, the second below i t .

7 The leaf is cut down almost to the margin of the design, and the i n sc r i p t i on appears on the verso.

8 On the verso at the margin in penci l is ", mount[?]" .

card

9 Mr. Martin Butlin suggests to me that the scene seems rather to represent Christian Going Forth Armed, a later episode.

10 The design shows a prisoner in an elaborate iron cage; the queried word is neither "cage" nor "man"; it could be "iron".

11 The number appears to be written over another which was imperfectly erased, so that the remaining number reads "24o", with the "o" significantly smaller than the "24". Similarly, the next number seems to read "205", perhaps written over from "70".

In the right margin of No. 25 is an erasure which seems to read "[p]luckd heaven".

70

/ No. 27: J WH / 18 J WHATMAN / 1824- No. 6, 28: J WHAT / 182

(NO. 1, 15, 21: TMAN / 4 None: No. 2-5, 7-14, 16-20, 23-26, 29 I n v i s i b l e :

7 2 No. 22

Drawing No. 22 is cut down to the margins and pasted to a larger sheet which is watermarked J WHATMAN / 1828.

The numbers and inscr ip t ions appear to be mostly in the same hand, '"' which is not Blake's. He rare ly spells "Judgement" with two "e"s , as in No. 14, and he never uses the disagreeable spel l ing "Xt ian" which appears in Nos. 5-7, 9-11. The " F " , " g " , " h " , "H" , " I " , and "M" are s ign i f i can t l y unlike h i s , and the uncertainty of numbering would be d i f f i c u l t to reconcile with his author i ty . Most t e l l i n g of a l l , the i nsc r ip t ion on the mount of No. 22, which is in the same hand as that on the other drawings, is on paper watermarked "1828", the year af ter Blake's death.

Who, then, made the inscr ipt ions? The most obvious candidate i s , I bel ieve, the correct one. At Blake's death in 1827, a l l his property evident ly went to his widow Catherine. For a t ime, Catherine l i ved with Blake's devoted disc ip le Frederick Tatham, and, according to Tatham's manuscript "L i fe of Blake," at her death in 1831 she "bequeathed . . . to him . . . a l l of his Works that remained unsold at his Death being wr i t i ngs , paint ings, and a very great number of Copper Pla tes" .

7^ Much l a te r Anne Gi l ch r i s t wrote:

"Tatham came in to possession of so large a stock of Designs and engraved Books, that he has, by his own confession, been se l l i ng them ' f o r t h i r t y years' and at 'good pr ices. "

,]5 Indeed, i t is generally assumed that Tatham was the anonymous vendor at the 1862 sale in which the Bunyan drawings f i r s t appeared p u b l i c l y ,

7 5 and i t is d i f f i c u l t to imagine who else at that time is l i k e l y to have had the enormous number of 182 miscellaneous Blake drawings to s e l l , not to mention works in I l luminated Pr in t i ng . And i f , as seems very l i k e l y , Tatham acquired the Bunyan drawings from Mrs. Blake and sold them in 1862, i t seems equally l i k e l y that he numbered the drawings (with some d i f f i c u l t y ) and i d e n t i f i e d them, between 1828 and 1863, when Rossetti quoted No. 11.

I have compared photographs of the Bunyan inscr ip t ions with a photocopy of Tatham's "L i fe of Blake" (now in the possession of Mr. Paul Mellon) and conclude that the hands are very s im i la r . In par t i cu la r , the "A", "B" , "C", "D", "E" , " F " , " g " , "G", " L " , "M", and "T" are s t r i k i n g l y l i ke Tatham's and unl ike Blake 's , and some numbers ("7" and "24") and words ( "Fa i t h " , "hopefu l " , "heavenly", "burden") seem to me unmistakably s im i la r . The handwrit ing, then, seems to confirm Tatham's ownership of the Bunyan drawings.

Tatham's author i ty as to Blake's intent ions may, of course, be good, but i t is cer ta in ly not i n f a l l i b l e . He changed his mind about the order of Nos. 3-7, 14, 26, and he made a few mistakes in order which he never corrected: No. 9 has no number at a l l , two designs are numbered "27", and none is numbered "28". Further, one of the drawings he numbered with the Bunyan series (No.22) is generally thought to belong instead with Blake's Paradise Regained drawings, the rest of which belonged to John Linnel l from October 1825-

5 un t i l his posthumous sale in March 1918. We may take Tatham's i nsc r ip t i ons , then, as a useful but errant guide to Blake's intent ions in the Pilgrim's Progress drawings.

A number of perplexing problems remain. There were "TWENTY-EIGHT DESIGNS" in the series when

Tatham sold i t in 1862, but the series now has twenty-nine drawings, the las t evident ly numbered "29" by Tatham; when did the twenty-ninth drawing j o i n the others, which one is i t , and where did i t come from? I f No. 22 is part of the Paradise Regained or another ser ies, when and how did i t j o i n the Bunyan drawings? What is the correct order of the drawings? What are the mysterious "Page" references Tatham gives on No. 13, 16, 18-20, 24, 29, none of them higher than "50"? Can they refer to the par t i cu la r ed i t ion of Pilgrim's Progress which Blake was using? I f so, why are only early pages cited? Are there other Bunyan drawings, f in ished or unf inished, which belong with the series

7*

9 and which might help to account fo r Tatham's uncertaint ies? How re l i ab l y do Tatham's inscr ip t ions i den t i f y Blake's drawings, and was he using more than the in ternal evidence avai lable to us? Such questions should, I th ink , exercise anyone who embarks on the serious study of Blake's i l l u s t r a t i o n s to Pilgrim's Progress which is now overdue.

25

12 Drawing No. 22 is pasted down, and the watermark is therefore not v i s i b l e .

13 "P i l g r im 's Progress" on No. 1 , "Chr is t ian re turn ing home" on No. 11, and perhaps "Apol lyon" at the top of No. 20 appear to me to be by Blake.

14 / b (1969), p. 533.

15 Blak vda (1969), pp. 416-417. On the verso of No. 1 is "10 /6 " , perhaps Tatham's ear ly pr i ce .

16 - W. Graham Robertson, ed. Kerrison Preston (1952), pp. 39, 74, '114, 133, 136, 138, 140, 142, 167, 170, 173-74, 178. Keynes [1971] , pp. 166, 167) is unaware of the appearance of the Bunyan designs i n the 1862 sale and suggests they may have belonged to But ts .

17 Keynes, Bldkt StudUa (1971), p. 174.

18 / Kb (1969), p. 589.

19 Since this was written, Martin Butlin, "An Extra Illustration to . ■tcr, 5 (1972), 213-14, has identified a Blake drawing in the Rosenwald Collection as belonging with the I '.■■•'-'.• • •• .••.•,- series.

20 Mr. James Wills is now undertaking such a study.

71

Minute Particulars THE REV. DR. JOHN TRUSLER (1735-1820) RuthvenTodd

In his Preface to The Letters of William Flake, 2nd ed., 1968, p. 16, Sir Geoffrey Keynes mentions that Trusler "established a business as a book­seller with the object of abolishing publishers." A printer friend, Bernard Roberts, has recently sent me a booklet which he wrote and printed, Writers and Printers in Clerkenwell, Printed for their friends by The John Roberts Press 14 Clerken-well Green London E.C. 1 [n.d.]. This contains further information about Trusler, "a clergyman turned printer and publisher, [who] was in a fair way of business in Red Lion Street during the 1780's, being also the author of The Honours of the Table and The Principles of Politeness. . . . Dr. Trusler also wrote, printed and published col­lections of sermons. He had the curious idea of printing these in a script type, so that a preach­er would sound (so Trusler imagined) as though he

was reading from his own manuscript rather than from a printed book." Sir Geoffrey says that his "mind was wholly antipathetic to Blake's, and they could never have come to terms." It does strike me, however, that, if the business about the draw­ing "Malevolence" had not interfered, Blake and the Rev. Dr. might have spent a pleasant hour or two discussing the abolition of publishers, and also the unsuspected advantages of script as a type from which to read.

Ruthven Todd of Mallorca is well known as the editor of the Everyman Life of Blake by Gilchrist3 and as the author of numerous books and articles on Blake and related subjects. The most recent is Blake the Artist (Studio Vista, 1971).

BLAKE AND FUSELI IN A STUDENT'S LETTER HOME Robert F Gleckner

In a chapter entitled "English Painters" in the anonymous Letters from an Irish Student in England to His Father in Ireland (London: Cradock and Joy, 1809), two volumes bound in one, is the following passage:

As you have heard so much of Mr. Fuzeli, I fear you would suspect that I have negligently passed over his works, were I to omit mention­ing him here. If such an apprehension did not operate, I should certainly scarcely think he merited posterity. I sincerely hope he will afford them more gratification than he does his contemporaries. He has a great admirer and defender, I believe the only one, in a Mr. W. Blake, a miserable engraver, and one of the most eccentric men of the age. This man has hailed him as the modern Michael Angelo. For my part, I have never seen a painting of Fuzeli, his Night-Mare excepted, which has certainly merit, which did not appear to be the crude efforts of a man writhing under an agonizing dream of indiges­tion. --Every figure appears to be a grave and mysterious caricature. The faces of his men are generally very livid, with their eyeballs starting from their sockets; and his ladies have as usually a greenish complexion. Their attitudes are always forced into painful dis­tortion, and the feet of both sexes never fail to terminate in a tapering point, almost as sharp as the steel spur of a game cock.

In most of his works chaos seems to "have come again;" indeed, with such incomprehen­sible sublimity are his subjects sometimes handled, that the men employed at the academy

by the hanging committee to hang up the paint­ings according to their directions, previous to the annual exhibition, actually, by a most ludicrous mistake, suspended one of his pic­tures with the bottom upwards, from conceiv­ing that the top was the bottom.

Fuzeli is a man of learning, and, in his academical lectures, some of which I have perused, much genius, ability, and depth of thought and reading, are displayed. It is to be lamented that he does not wholly sub­stitute the pen for the pencil. This is the man who threw Cowper, the poet, into a re­lapse of melancholy madness, by saying that he was an incorrigible dog, for not immediate­ly adopting some correction which Fuzeli made in his MS. prose translation of Homer. Indeed, I am told there is a moroseness and haughti­ness in the spirit and manners of this man both forbidding and disgusting. I do not, however, think his mind is as frightful as his pictures; though his pride sometimes gets the better of his reason.

The only indication we have of the author is in the Preface, which describes him as "an Irish gentleman, who lately prosecuted his legal studies in this country to qualify him for the Irish bar. ..."

Robert F. Gleckner is Professor of English and Bean of the College of Humanities at the University of California, Riverside. He is the author of The Piper and the Bard: A Study of William Blake and Byron and the Ruins of Paradise, and editor of Romanticism: Points of View.

72

A NEW PIECE OF TAYLORIANA James King

A manuscript notebook closely related to Thomas Taylor has been acquired by the Divis ion of Ar­chives and Special Col lect ions, Mi l l s Memorial L ibrary , McMaster Univers i ty . The notebook, "The only fragments which remain of the Writings of the Philosopher Celsus," seems to be the working notes for the Celsus port ion of Taylor 's 1830 Arguments of Celsus, Porphyry, and the Emperor Julian, Against the Christians . . . (the cover t i t l e reads Fragments of Porphyry, Julian, So. against the Christians). The notebook (3 3/4 x 5 3/4 inches, 104 pages, undated with no water­marks) contains a t rans la t ion of a l l of Celsus's ant i -Chr is t ian w r i t i ngs , as preserved by Origen; the Celsus section of Taylor 's book contains only a port ion of Celsus's attack against Ch r i s t i an i t y , frequently interrupted by Taylor 's commentary.

Although the notebook is not in Taylor 's hand, i t might well be a t rans la t ion prepared on his behalf or Taylor 's working notes as transcribed by an amanuensis. Two circumstances make the

l a t t e r case the more l i k e l y . F i r s t , aside from Taylor, there is no s ign i f i can t in teres t in Celsus's re l ig ious wr i t ings in the 1820's and 30's. Second, the manuscript was found in the stockroom of the late Donald Berry of Eltham. In the same locat ion was recently discovered the 1929-30 commonplace book of W. G. Meredith (1804-31), which contains the f i r s t pos i t ive evidence that Blake knew Taylor (see my "The Meredith Family, Thomas Taylor, and Will iam Blake," Studies in Romanticis"., 11 [1972], 153-57). Although one must exercise caution in determining the extent of the dependency of ments of Celsus on "The only fragments . . . , " the notebook is a piece of evidence of real in teres t to students of Taylor.

James King, Assistant Professor of English at McMaster University, is the co-editor of the forth­coming edition of Cowper's correspondence to be published by the Clarendon Press, Oxford.

A CRUCIAL LINE IN VISIONS OF THE DAUGHTERS OF ALBION Roland A. Duerksen

Perhaps the most elusive whi le also the most s ign i f i can t l ine in Visions of the Daughters of Albion is plate 2, l i ne 5: "Bound back to back in Bromion's caves, te r ro r and meekness dwel l . " Blake's f u l l - p l a t e i l l u s t r a t i o n for th is and the succeeding two l ines depicts two human f igures chained back to back in a cave. They are a rugged male with fear -d is to r ted face and an u t t e r l y dejected female. Nearby, at the cave's entrance, another male f igure (c lear ly i den t i f i ed in the tex t as Theotormon) abject ly s i t s , hiding his face in his folded arms. The generally-accepted in te rpre ta­t ion is that the bound f igures are Bromion and Oothoon.7 Neither the characterizations of these two nor the narrat ive progression of the poem, however, seems to support th is reading.

An al ternate and, in my opinion, more plausible in te rp re ta t ion is that the two bound f igures are, indeed, te r ro r and meekness. Thus juxtaposed, masculinity t e r r i f i e d and feminin i ty meekly submissive const i tu te the very p r inc ip le upon which Bromion maintains his posi t ion as slave-holder. Throughout the poem Bromion is tyrannical and b la tan t ly assert ive. Quite the contrary of a prisoner subdued and shackled in his own hab i ta t , he has exercised his power to bind te r ro r and meekness together, thus subjecting them t o t a l l y to his wi11 and purposes.

As indicated by plate 2, l ine 22, and the i l luminated port ion of plate 4 (where the chain

about her ankle appears loosened), Oothoon is free to hover about the hopeless, weeping, deafened Theotormon at the entrance to the cave, presenting the case for l i be ra t ion as persuasively as she can. In the l i g h t of th is l iberated a c t i v i t y on her par t , the explanation that Oothoon is bound meekly back to back with Bromion appears incongruous wi th regard to both character izat ion and narrat ive cont inu i ty . The binding of te r ro r and meekness in Bromion's caves becomes, then, symbolically the oppression of mind and s p i r i t from which Oothoon seeks to l iberate the enslaved daughters of A lb ion- -and from which Blake seeks to l ibera te us.

Roland A. Duerksen, Professor of English at Miami University (Oxford, Ohio), has published articles on British and American Romantic writers—including several on Blake. His books include Shelleyan Ideas in Victorian Literature (Mouton, 1966) and editions of various works by Shelley.

1 See Mark Schorer, .. (New York: Henry Ho l t , 1946), p. 249; Stanley Gardner, Inf

(Oxford: Basi l B lackwel l , 1954), p. 51;~Harold Bloom, BIS A Si (Garden C i t y : Doubleday, 1963), p. 112; S. Foster Damon, A

(Providence, R. I . : Brown Univ. Press, 1965), pp. 308, 437; and David V. Erdman, .-• Prophet Against

, rev. ed. (Garden C i ty : Doubleday, 1969), p. 236.

73

THE AGE AND VIRGINITY OF LYCA John Adiard

In Blake's "The Little Girl Lost" Lyca is a virgin seven years old and Kathleen Raine finds the choice of age "inexplicable" {Blake and Tradition, I, 145). But the Commentary of Hierocles on the Gol­den Verses of Pythagoras tells us that the number seven itself is a virgin, a surprising statement explained in a single sentence from a translation Blake could well have read:

Now, the powers and properties of the unit, and of the septenary, are very great and excellent: for the unit, as the princi­ple of all the numbers, contains in itself the powers of them all; and the seven being a virgin, and without any mother [Lyca had lost both father and mother], holds, in the second place, the virtue and the perfection of the unit, because it is not ingendered by any number within the interval of ten, as four is produced by twice two, six by twice three, and eight by twice four, nine by three times three and ten by twice five: neither does it produce any number within that inter­val, as the number two produces four, the

three nine, and the five ten. The Commentary of Hierocles upon the Golden Verses of Pythagoras, translated from the Greek. The Second Edition, Corrected and Improved (Glasgow, 1756), p. 154. (The following page has a passage on the "quaternion," which "contains and binds together all beings whatsoever, the elements, numbers, seasons, ages, societies, or communities," of great relevance to Blake's concept of the Four Zoas.)

It may be significant that a cloud tells another virgin, Thel, that he passes away "to tenfold life, to love, to peace and raptures holy" [The Book of Thel 3:11), since virginity in Hierocles is represented by an inability to "produce any number within that interval."

John Adiard edited the Blake volume in the Studio Vista Pocket Poets series (1970), and he authored a biography of Yeats ' early friend Count Eric Sten-bock (1970), as well as The Sports of Cruelty (1972), a book mainly about Blake and folklore.

Left Visions of the Daughters of Albion, frontis­piece. Rosenwald Collection, Library of Congress. Reproduced by permission.

74

THE INSCRIPTION ON EVENING AMUSEMENT Martin Butlin

Geoffrey Keynes, in his book on Engravings by William Blake: The Separate Plates (Dubl in , 1956),' (p. 64), reconstructs the las t l ine on Blake's engraving af ter Watteau's Evening Amusement on the basis of that on the companion pr in t of Morning Amusement. However, the discovery of a t h i r d , untrimmed impression in red shows that in fact the wording is s l i g h t l y d i f f e ren t . As Keynes' t ranscr ip t ion is not en t i re l y accurate even in the f i r s t l i n e , I give the f u l l i n sc r i p t i on :

Watteau pinx* W.. Blake f e c i t / EVENING AMUSEMENT / From an Original Picture in the Col lect ion of M.\ A.. Maskin. / Pub.

d. as the Act directs August 21 • •

1782 by T.. Macklin. N.°. 39 Fleet Street.

The punctuation af te r certain i n i t i a l s and in abbreviations such as "M.

r. " , which is represented

here by two f u l l ­ s t o p s , is in fact more in the form of two l i t t l e dashes. I t is also found in the i nsc r ip t i on under Morning Amusement as can be seen from Keynes' reproduction though not from his t ranscr ip t ion {Separate Plates, p. 63). In th is connection i t should be pointed out that the "s" of "scu lp

t" is lower case, not a cap i ta l . In

add i t ion , at least on the copy of the pr in t belonging to me, there is no f u l l ­ s t o p at the end of the l as t l ine but there are two l i t t l e dashes

above the stop fol lowing "Tho" suggesting a s l i g h t l y f u l l e r form of the abbreviation fo r Thomas, though they do not appear to take the form of an " s " : " T h o \ "

I t should be noted that the i nsc r ip t ion on Evening Amusement gives the name of the owner of the or ig ina l paint ing as "Maskin" without a concluding " s " . This is in fact correct . However, even allowing fo r the fact that the oval format of the engravings does not necessarily represent the shape of the or ig ina l paint ings, i t appears that Maskin's paintings are not those now in the Wallace Col lect ion. The provenances of Les Champs Elysees and Le Rendevous de Chasse (as the paintings related to Blake's Evening Amusement and Morning Amusement are now known) seem to exclude Maskin's ownership, neither having l e f t France t i l l 1787 at the ear l i es t (see Wallace Collection Catalogues: Pictures and Drawings, 1968 ed i t i on , pp. 360, 364­65).

Martin Butlin is Keeper of the British Collection at the Tate Gallerys Londons 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 le ry , and he is compiling a complete catalogue of Blake 's paintings3 watercolorss and drawings.

XX Job and his Daughters In tnothd dep mi Hum thi nsrrativi at thi Bool ..I |nb ic.lt |ob Idl l Ins three rjaiajhtenf il» nor) ol ha l ib l lu ibniuii; scenes m m t" ■htm the destruction ..i his cfaDdrcn tnrecth behind is thi voioi from the uhirlvund Ih i idcatit) "I features, God'i and lob's, ■ pa­toa, rhen i lmi nsneh rtprtsun il« mineral lllusirj­

tmns I I I and M i l irt, ■ spesx, »nhm art JIUI ihi spectnui eMcrl) figures Is the rower ptn K msj represent i»,, nl tin Mends ilu thud' twins concealed (ram m » In thi bench on »hiih Job ami his daughters sii I hat the st,,r\ nl Job has been made in in sfl is candinsll) impanuii m new ,ii l i l jk, \ often Iterated view ,,i the nrimsc] nl an ■satbeolafjolficl 'Art', he writes in 7»i / .

■urn—H "i it,... .us ii t i m | • il stuh (unni Mninnlisin ii, th, t,,u| , , , , „ , , , . .ii i t l nn i r Nai *ni I ilistinsnl in ■SOSM m ntewtottaa .im n,, dtogtHin ,m, nem

MIII sun I I I ­ I I I iml i i i ih Im jus, l<>li. i l inml. n sinnlii In Ihit nl Ik) I i.ji.i ,.l l lmi l l lw \ l \ I I Wi,lMr,,l p | ,,

Haptfun ii'i,M''ti, ihi pjiiii i. r.i.s I,H slefcraath i l , Ihmks ir i l, |,i.ts j sum . , , itlitii: l l l iki s limmi. t,|,irsi­nt.lHm nl hiimill IHIUK msi'ixil In \lili..n | ,­.. r i , , n , ) n f (h* ins|,,u I I I us I il.. I n .Itttitin­. n i l n, KIIIDK il liirrn |i.MKc misi hi, li.nstrnilrtl his asaanaajsaj hi stuping Im­m ami I ti/rn is BBS iin|>ns.in.it in | will SerifS IMJI the Irimi {HspSnmi I' i | , i I t»s is iiis­ninni. hi,I luMhri «wai |nm ih, I ■!■ M I I I I ih.n i i i . m i n .ml i,i lUtfstiiiii, argues I I again with niinh fan* in in nnii.iiii.il rssi. ..llr.l III.L. . I l l . l , m l lmw llliihlli ..I ' H I M i­ II.■ I. Sl­n/', /'.»,•<■//,. K h i i . * " i i j i . i l SB 17. 1 V,Mh,..|. l i ,< ■ •Urn Ihr M B V B S I rs|ilanalmn m, nl the imlii^lu.! panels d 'h i . I l imit, Inn .'I .In 11 si,,11, I |,i M pi, |„.,s |n ,.,, th, • ills .1 l­h s miii.l fiat ' I i , I'HUii I" i, in 11 uli mi, .1 „, ih hn ,•»,! Is..Ii I hi. ilm­i mil 1,iikt ihtni siihtritii. In, Mi „ n,. Imitfi.

is thi I r i i ul I i l i \nd. in the name plane. ( hnslianit, is Alt".

4 FeJ trees ijm» upbothicrtKal burdeSI anil man, leaves anil muih truil entwine thinisiln's within all thi horded \ pair nl angels imbrair ..n the upper letl marym. and another pair siinis read, t.i cmhrjic in the upper nsht

The Ihenie <>t this Illustration r» traictullv and securest!) u m t i l nut in ihe iinulants ol the mail pencil thi 111111 nl Ihcroom. and the JcMcn <>t the ll.­.i I lu uni t ,,l Males |„h narralisc is no. iiimplele. and the Tcgcneralmn has talcn plasr I hi i i ii­mains nnh the neces.\il\ ol depKIltsjE the

renews! ilsell rtns is lu he the matter ol ihe subse­quent ami ulliniale Illustration '

r v»»r» ■< rW ».« .

. snhK, 1 h, 1. m< «illi l»»l

(•imlusii, KK­ntifKalMBR .4 rtwv Sawn 1

hn »it, in ,ves|iii, li.nvsn. p le i

I inn m sjis tK.1 its, i ini.m.a Ihthcjo

irviliiriluih rnicunf rtsh aSkSTS t .aiaai" llMal ' \ i in . i l skrl.ti al V* aW «.. I M t n

II .1 ,n /V.i .. ft naji h Hi l l . . »„ . , rJ . I.n.i. i i .„.■­, Vis.! the Kabila pnaliaa. *>n* 1

fali. i i a t aa S , I . « I K M I I . , *■ ■ 'n 11 ■

■ I .h .ml aak I .m t i l 1.. ihcm is ikisx.^l ■ Inst in th* »h,il>iml u d rhc MnLwf N M M 1 In, I mm II sci l l | . . s , « , . k.n . . . » • «

I n , \ , . /..Unsl

75

Reviews

Andrew Wright. Blake's Job: A Commentary. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1972. Pp. xxi + 67, 22 p lates. 2.75 U.K., $9.50 U.S.A.

Reviewed by Suzanne R. Hoover

Because Blake concentrated so much of himself during the la te r years of his l i f e in to the Illustrations of the Book of Job, i t remains an inexhaustible mine of his mature thought and s t y l e . (Sometime before 1825 he made three watercolor versions of the designs,^ one pencil version, and the set of engravings that alone took him three years to complete, the f r u i t of a l i f e t ime of in terest in the Bible s tory . ) And ye t , cur iously, the Job has been comparatively l i t t l e studied in d e t a i l . Beyond Joseph H. Wicksteed's pathfinding work in 1910 (revised in 1924), the best d iscussions--actual ly , the only even moderately extended ones--of the series have been those of S. Foster Damon, presented f i r s t in his book on Blake in 1924 and revised in a separate ed i t ion of the Illustrations in 1966, and of Laurence Binyon and Geoffrey Keynes in 1935. This las t is a c r i t i c a l catalogue, with f ine reproductions, of a l l Blake's drawings and pr in ts on the subject of Job; i t s b r i e f in te rp re t i ve passages fol low Wicksteed. The Damon ed i t ion is s t i l l in p r i n t i n hardcover and avai lable in paperback as w e l l . 2

The la tes t ed i t ion of Blake's Job, with commentary by Andrew Wright, is a handsome book, in spi te of i t s i n f e r i o r reproductions. In format and ed i t o r i a l arrangement i t resembles the Damon ed i t i on : an int roduct ion of nearly seven pages precedes the p la tes, each accompanied by a short commentary. Wright includes, as Damon does not, select ive footnote references to ea r l i e r i n te r ­pretations which may agree w i t h , or d i f f e r from, his own. The present e d i t i o n , l i ke Damon's, contains an appendix which gives the f u l l context of the b i b l i c a l passages used by Blake in the plates and his a l terat ions o f , and omissions from, those passages. (Wright supplies rather more of the context than Damon does.) A second appendix in Wright's ed i t ion comments b r i e f l y on some of the ear l ie r , studies of the i l l u s t r a t i ons . ' 5

A word about the reproductions. A recent close comparison of the B r i t i sh Museum Reading Room "proof" set with the new book and with Damon and Binyon-Keynes demonstrated how d i f f i c u l t i t is to reproduce the deta i ls and nuances--and hence the f u l l fo rce- -o f good impressions from the

Left Andrew Wright, Blake's Job: A Commentary, pages 48-49. Reproduced by permission of the Oxford Universi ty Press.

or ig ina l p lates. The Clarendon Press reproductions are i n f e r i o r to those in Damon's book (Brown University Press) in both l inear deta i l and delicacy of gradation. This is especial ly apparent in the dark areas of the indiv idual p lates; the overal l impression is that there is too much "contrast" in Wright. The photogravures (by Emery Walker) in the Binyon-Keynes l im i ted edi t ion are much closer to the or ig ina ls than e i ther of the two la te r books. The paperback was unavailable for comparison. I t should be added that i t has been customary to reproduce sets marked "proof ." Damon used the Harvard College "proof" se t , but Wright for unexplained reasons reproduces what we must assume to be an ordinary set (unless the word "Proof" has been removed from the plates) i den t i f i ed as that of Mr. P. G. Summers.

Blake's Job w i l l be useful for the student who wants a serviceable set of the plates accompanied by some notion of what is going on. And as there was no such work in p r i n t in England, i t has a raison d'etre, of so r ts , as an English a l ternat ive to Damon (the two volumes, perhaps unfortunately, even carry the same t i t l e ) . But i t is d i f f i c u l t to ignore the simple fact that a more useful book at th is point in Blake scholarship would have been a thorough study of the Job in a l l i t s aspects--a r t - h i s t o r i c a l , techn ica l , b iographical , b ib l i og raph ica l , aesthet ic. We have come to the time when we would cer ta in ly benef i t from a f u l l and systematic account of ea r l i e r commentary, and we now require a discussion of the larger sense of the work i t s e l f : what Blake was doing and how he did i t . Most important, an extended, r icher reading of the indiv idual plates is long overdue.

From the time of i t s publ icat ion one year before Blake's death and for nearly four decades thereaf ter , his Illustrations of the Book of Job had a rather dormant existence in some three

Suzanne R. Hoover has taught at the City College of New York and at Wellesley College. She has contri­buted previously to the Newsle t te r . Recently she has been in London studying English Romantic Art on a fellowship from the National Endowment for the Humanities.

1 The l as t of these vers ions, the so-cal led "New Zealand" se t , is now thought to be at least pa r t l y by another hand than Blake 's . For recent comments on th i s problem see S i r Geoffrey Keynes, Blake Studied, 2nd e d . , rev. (Oxford, 1971), p. 182, and David Bindman, ed. , William Blake: Catalogue of the Collection in the Fitzuilliam Museum, Cambridge (Cambridge, 1970), p. 46.

2 Joseph H. Wicksteed, Blake's Vision of the Book of Job (London, 1910; 2nd ed. , r e v . , London, 1924); S. Foster Damon,

/hilosophy and Symbols (Boston, 1924), and (Providence, R. I . , 1966); Laurence Binyon and

Geoffrey Keynes, The Illustrations of the Book of Job (New York, 1935). The paperback version of Blake's Job by Damon is published by Dutton.

3 Northrop Frye's excel lent essay, "Blake's Reading of the Book of Job" ( i n A lv in H. Rosenfeld, e d . , William Blake: Essays

[Providence, R. I . , 1969]), is mentioned here, but i t appeared too la te fo r Wright to make f u l l use of i t i n his study.

76

hundred copies owned by Blake's younger f r i e n d , John L i n n e l l , whose continuing e f fo r t s to se l l th is work that he himself had commissioned met with so l i t t l e success that we f i nd ourselves surprised by a sudden glow of in teres t in the series when i t was reproduced fo r the f i r s t time (considerably reduced in s ize ) , in 1863, by photo­l i thography, in G i l c h r i s t ' s celebrated biography of Blake. ' Of course, i t was known to an interested few pr io r to 1863. John Sarta in , an American student in London during the 20s, l a te r recal led a v i s i t to John Varley's studio where he saw the Job p r i n t s , i nd iv idua l l y framed, "hanging side by side in one continuous l ine on the north wall of the room. They were suspended level with the eye . . ."

B

­ ­ i n other words, they had the place of honor. In Mrs. Anna Brownell Jameson's popular survey, Sacred and Legendary Art, which appeared in 1848, some enthusiast ic remarks on Blake's angels were i l l u s t r a t e d with f igures (reversed) selected from plates 5, 15, and 16 of the Job, but the work was not mentioned by name.^ Ruskin did name i t in his "Notes on Things to be Studied" in The Elements of Drawing, in 1857:

The Book of Jol-, engraved by [B lake] , is of the highest rank in certain characters of imagination and expression; in the mode of obtaining certain effects of l i g h t i t w i l l also be a very useful example to you. In expressing conditions of glar ing and f l i c k e r i n g l i g h t , Blake is greater than Rembrandt.

7

Two young admirers of Blake were deeply impressed by the Illustrations to the Book of Job: F. T. Pal grave, who was introduced to Blake via the Job by Jowett at Oxford in 1845, and G i l c h r i s t , who was­­probably­­shown i t by Carlyle at Cheyne Walk in 1855.

8

For f i f t y years af te r the appearance of G i l c h r i s t ' s Life, i t was assumed that Blake had merely " i l l u s t r a t e d " the Bible story of the mystery of human suf fer ing and the indec ipherab i l i ty of God's ways. Allan Cunningham had set the tone in his biographical essay on Blake in 1830: Blake was "too devout to attempt [ i n the Job engravings] aught beyond a l i t e r a l embodying of the majestic scene"; the plates are "very rare, very beau t i f u l , and very pecul iar" as engravings. Similar general remarks by Will iam Howitt (presumably), in 1847, and Will iam Allingham in 1849, foreshadowed the enthusiast ic but b r i e f and l i tera l ­minded plate­by­plate commentary wr i t ten fo r G i l c h r i s t ' s biography by D. G. Rossett i . ­ ' In 1875 Charles El io t Norton brought out an American edi t ion in which a photographic reproduction of the series was accompanied by a commentary that merely elaborated on Rosset t i 's exc i ted, but unexci t ing, remarks. In 1880, the second edi t ion of G i l c h r i s t , which was widely reviewed and probably widely read, again included the Job series in i t s second volume. These reproductions, better than the f i r s t (although s t i l l reduced in s i ze ) , were photogravures on India paper.

L i t t l e new was said about Blake's Jol fo r the next t h i r t y years. Then, in 1910, Wicksteed wrote

Blake's Vision of the Book of Job, a monograph which in terpreted the series according to a system, the clues to which were to be found in the designs themselves. Using such simple keys as l e f t and r i g h t , above and below, Wicksteed was able to show that Blake had used the materials of the Book of Job to create his own story of sp i r i t ua l pilgrimage and enlightenment. I t is a story of unconscious betrayal of se l f , of fear fu l confrontat ion of s e l f , forgiveness of se l f , and f u l f i l l m e n t of se l f in others. I t is monumental in i t s deeply­considered re ject ion of a t rag ic view of human l i f e ­ ­ a re jec t i on , here and elsewhere, which places Blake's la te work in eternal dialogue with Keat's " l a te " work: the secure witness of f a i t h versus a sure knowledge of fa te . (As the son of Phi l ip Henry Wicksteed, the la te­V ic tor ian t rans la tor of Dante, Joseph Wicksteed was perhaps pecul iar ly well f i t t e d to understand Blake's symbolic method, and his dramatic presentation of s p i r i t u a l p i l g r image . ^ )

Wright's reading of Job is based on the theory, set fo r th in his In t roduct ion, that Blake here abandoned the system that he had developed in the la te prophecies. In Milton and Jerusalem Blake "was working towards a statement that eventually he found himself unable to formulate wi th in the framework of the 'system' that he invented." Wright implies that Blake's rest from poetry in his old age may indicate an acknowledgment of f a i l u re on his part : " In his las t years Blake no longer attempted to t e l l his story in his own words. He turned to Job (and also to Dante), and i t is my argument that the Job I l l u s t ra t i ons say l uc id ly

4 The or ig ina l ed i t i on of exact ly 315 copies comprised 100 sets on drawing paper, 65 sets on French paper, and 150 "proof" sets on India paper. By 1863 the sets on drawing paper had been sold (or given away), but there remained an undetermined number of the other two kinds of sets . By 1874, probably as a conse­quence of new i n te res t i n Blake fo l lowing the appearance of G i l c h r i s t ' s book, a l l of the sets had been so ld ; 100 new sets were made at th is t ime. See G. E. Bent ley, J r . and Mart in K. Nurmi. ■ • (Minneapolis, Minn. , 1964), p. 95.

5 John Sar ta in , Th ­ '•'.­>' (New York, 1899), p. 108.

6 [Anna Brownel l ] Jameson, , 2 vo ls . (London, 1848), I , 50.

1 . Library E d i t i o n , ed. E. T. Cook and Alexander Wedderburn (London, 1903), XV, 223.

8 See G. F. Palgrave, "ials •', (London, 1889), pp". 26­27, and Herbert

Harlakenden G i l c h r i s t , ed. , Ann* Writings (London, 1887), pp. 54, 59.

9 Cunningham's Lift is repr in ted in G. E. Bentley, J r . , JB (Oxford, 1969); the passages in question occur on pp.

499­500; [Wi l l iam Howi t t? ] , "Death's Door," Eatii 11 (Nov., 1847), p. 322; Wil l iam All ingham, "Some Chat About Wil l iam Blake," , n. s. i i (1849), 17­20; D. G. Rosset t i ' s commentary occurs on pp. 285­90 of G i l c h r i s t ' s . ; ' (1863), v o l . I .

10 No account of the h is to ry of Blake's J :■ can omit mention of tha t most s t r i k i n g event­­ the creat ion of a b a l l e t based on the series in 1931, by Ninette de Valo is , to music by Vaughan­WiHiams. Si r Geoffrey Keynes, who conceived the idea and urged i t to f r u i t i o n , has t o l d the fasc ina t ing story in his

. 'nd e d . , pp. 187­94. The b a l l e t has been revived a number of t imes, most recent ly in the autumn of 1972.

11

what Blake had been t ry ing to say a l l along." What had Blake been " t r y i ng " to say? Wright's statement of the message for which Blake changed his medium stops somewhat short of the heart of the matter. For example, Job is gu i l t y because "he has allowed his mind to separate i t s e l f from the indispensable considerations of inwardness that are the conditions of grace." Further, Job labors under the misconception " that mater ia l i t y can give accurate information about his s p i r i t u a l condi t ion. " To make matters worse, Job has "allowed reason to triumph over imaginat ion." Surely Blake is more in terest ing than t h i s .

On the important question of "system" in in te rpre t ing the Job designs, Wright in fact equivocates. He f inds that "while i t is both useful and necessary to consider Blake's Job in the l i g h t of his ea r l i e r achievements [something, i nc iden ta l l y , which th is book does not do] , i t is a mistake to read in to the I l l us t ra t i ons the symbols of the prophetic books, at least in their earlier valuations" ( i t a l i c s mine). This , claims Wright, represents a "d i f f e ren t emphasis [ i n Blake studies] rather than a new departure." I t does, ce r ta in l y , d i f f e r from Damon's rather structured reading of the Job (Damon himself s i l e n t l y dropped his supplementary, Tarot-cards in terpre ta t ion of 1924 in the 1966 e d i t i o n ) ; but , as to "d i f fe ren t emphasis," compare Wright's approach with th is clearer statement by Wicksteed: " I f we are not actual ly concerned with the great Blake myth of the prophetic books we are c lear ly in the system which the myth embodies [Wicksteed's main point here is that Blake was not " i l l u s t r a t i n g " the Book of Job], . . . i t has become a bet ter expression of his fundamental thought than any other work from his hand. . . . At a time when he had f i n a l l y abandoned a l l e f f o r t to reach his public through l i t e r a r y expression he created almost accidental ly a great Blakean dramatic poem b u i l t of pictures that can be made to speak." (Perhaps prodded by Damon's work, Wicksteed d i d , in 1924, put forward the presumably Blakean notion of a fou r - fo ld structure for the ser ies. But he saw qui te c lear ly that there were d i f f i c u l t i e s , and apparently in his heart remained agnostic on the question: " I confess that e^ery fresh attempt that I have made against the Job for t ress has yielded a new s t ruc tura l scheme.") Does Wright's thes is , with i t s curious loophole ("at least in t he i r ea r l i e r va luat ions" ) , represent more than a s l i g h t s h i f t in emphasis from that expressed by Wicksteed f i f t y years ago?

In the discussions of ind iv idual p la tes, there are many questions that might be raised about Wright's in terpretat ions and the way in which he deals with past scholarship. For example, of I l l u s t r a t i o n XIV, "When the Morning Stars Sang Together," Wright says: "This design and i t s borders depict the creat ion. [One wonders] why Blake puts the beginning so l a t e , exactly two-thirds of the way through his nar ra t ive . Two consider­ations are involved: f i r s t , by refusing to begin ab ovo Blake intends to indicate the cyc l ica l aspect of his s tory ; second, he w i l l depict the creation w i th in the creat ion: the world and man come in to existence only as Job acknowledges the

d i v i n i t y w i t h i n . " Here I think Wright may be missing the forest for the t rees. The plate under discussion follows that of "The Lord Answering Job out of the Whirlwind," and i t s meaning c lear ly follows from i t . In Damon's words, i t is a "v is ion of the universe," which includes the creat ion, as i t includes regeneration. In any case, a f te r s ta t ing that the plate depicts "the creat ion" Wright gives th is skimpy footnote: " In the view of Wicksteed and also of Damon the composition of th is design suggests the four fo ld man and thus a vis ion of wholeness." As long as he was bringing in another reading, would i t not have been more helpful of Wright to have given a f u l l e r and more accurate account of e a r l i e r , divergent views on an issue as central as th is one, the subject matter of one of Blake's greatest and best-known designs?

In general, the regis ter ing by Wright of ea r l i e r comments is qui te unsystematic. Much useful spec i f ic comment by Wicksteed and Damon is omitted. The most unhappy of such omissions occurs in the discussion of I l l u s t r a t i o n XIX, "Job Accepting Charity" (Job and his wi fe s i t humbly, yet serenely, as a younger couple and the i r chi ldren [? ] approach with g i f t s ) . Even Damon, who elsewhere in his commentary avoids reference to ea r l i e r observations, here breaks his rule to t e l l the reader of Wicksteed's ins ight in to th is i l l u s t r a t i o n as a "tender and passionate acknowledgment" of the L inne l l s ' generosity to Blake. Unquestionably, th is reading adds to the i l l u s t r a t i o n much grace and radiance. Were the object ion of the biographical fa l lacy to be put forward against Wicksteed's reading, two points might be made. F i r s t , Blake frequently introduced himself in to his works--he believed in doing so. Second, Wright elsewhere does give in terpreta t ions he disagrees w i t h , when he judges them to be of i n te res t .

Considered c o l l e c t i v e l y , the omissions from th is book are d i f f i c u l t to understand. Wright notes, for instance, (as others have done before him) that "Blake's preoccupation wi th the subject-matter" of I l l u s t r a t i o n XI ("Job's Evi l Dreams") is " re f lec ted in the s i m i l a r i t i e s " between that plate and the color p r i n t of Elohim Creating Adam (1795) in the Tate Gal lery. Yet he does not note that the bearded, bent old man of I l l u s t r a t i o n V ("Satan Going Forth From the Presence of the Lord" ) , to whom Job is giving char i t y , i s s imi la r to the f igure of the old man in plate 11 , "Death's Door," from The Grave; and to the bent old man of no. 17, "Death's Door," from The Gates of Paradise; and to the bent old man of "London" in Songs of Experience; and the bent old man of plate 12 of America; and to the bent old man of plate 84 of Jerusalem. Nor does he note that the cruciform f igure of Job in I l l u s t r a t i o n X V I I I , "Job's Sac r i f i ce , " has s i m i l a r i t i e s to the f igure of Albion wi th hands outstretched, looking up at Chr is t , on plate 76 of Jerusalem, to the f igure of Mi l ton going to " se l f - ann ih i l a t i on and eternal death" on plate 13 of Milton* and even to the f i gu re , poised in mid-dance, of "Albion rose," in which with outstretched arms he is "g iv ing himself fo r the nat ions." There are many other s i m i l a r i t i e s between the Job I l l u s t r a t i o n s and other works by Blake; sure ly , i t would have been in te res t ing to

i

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Bulletin I Philadelphia Museum of A r t . Vol. 67, no. 307 (July-September 1972). Pp. 34. $1

The Pickering Manuscript / William Blake. Introduct ion by Charles Ryskamp. New York: Pierpont Morgan L ibrary , 1972. Pp. 6 + 22. $3

Reviewed by Morton D. Paley

The ent i re July-September issue of the Philadelphia Museum's Bulletin fo r 1972 is devoted to an i l l u s t r a t e d essay by Martin Bu t l i n : The Blake Collection of Mrs. William T. Tonner. This publ icat ion marks an event of the f i r s t importance to those interested in Blake, the g i f t of eleven works from Mrs. Tonner1s estate , which as Mr. But l in says "promotes the Museum at one bound in to the ranks of leading American Blake co l l ec t i ons . " A l l the pictures are reproduced—one (the beaut i fu l Nativity painted fo r Butts) in co lor , the rest in

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mention, not j us t one, but several of the most important ones, in order to suggest Blake's preoccupation with certain images throughout his career, and to t r y to throw some l i g h t on the ways in which the Job series manifests those concerns. To mention only one such correspondence, as Wright has done, might tend to suggest to the unwary student that that instance is unique. To be sure, such visual para l le ls have been largely neglected by a l l past commentators; close at tent ion to them would seem to be cal led for in any future study of the work.

Perhaps the most unaccountable omission occurs in Wriqht's comments on I l l u s t r a t i o n XX, "Job and his Daughters" ( i l l u s . 1). There are a number of r i d ­dles in t h i s , one of the most important plates of the ser ies. What are the i n d i s t i n c t decorations on the wall behind Job, at seat- level? More important, what are the scenes depicted in the lozenges on the wall behind Job? Immediately behind him and s l i g h t l y above we can see qui te c lear ly a depict ion of the event that took place in I l l u s t r a t i o n X I I I , "The Lord Answering Job out of the Whir lwind," but opinions d i f f e r as to the subjects of the two f lanking scenes. Of these differences Wright gives an astonishingly incomplete account: he mentions only Jean Hagstrum's reading of the scene to Job's l e f t . Wright's own somewhat uncertain in te rpre ta t ion ("the f lanking scenes seem to show the destruct ion of Job's chi ldren") is closest to Damon's: "To his r igh t and l e f t are panels depict ing the disasters that be fe l l him."

A close study of the two side lozenges does not unfold t he i r mystery e n t i r e l y , but i t does

halftone along with six other pictures and one i nsc r i p t i on . Mr. Bu t l i n ' s commentary is both cogent and informat ive, so that i t is not so much necessary to review th is publ icat ion as to ca l l a t tent ion to i t s contents.

Four other Butts pictures are included in the Tonner g i f t : Christ Baptizing, Mary Magdalene Washing Christ's Feet, Samson Subdued, and Jephthah Met by his Daughter, a l l wateredors. The Samson is informat ively reproduced with i t s companion p ic tu re , Samson Breaking his Bonds from the co l lec t ion of Mrs. Landon K. Thorne. There is also the watercolor Malevolence, which gave r ise to Blake's imbroglio with Dr. Trusler and hence to one of Blake's most sp i r i t ed defenses of his a r t . Perhaps the most important single picture in the co l lec t ion is the color p r i n t God Judging Adam, which But l in considers "the most dramatic copy" of the three known examples.^ The four remaining designs are the sketch fo r The Sacrifice of Isaac, the Flaxmanesque Warring Angels, the drawing of The Death of Ezekiel's Wife, and A Destroying Deity. The las t named is perhaps the most in terest ing of

make some in te rp re ta t ions , especial ly that of Wright, less tenable. The lozenge on Job's r i gh t c lear ly shows a group of young people pursued, and in at least two cases st ruck, by two old men with stakes or p ikestaf fs in t he i r hands. Over th is scene of horror and alarm broods a f l oa t ing f i gu re , male, somewhat i n d i s t i n c t , with long hair and outstretched arms. Needless to say, th is assault by old men bears no resemblance to the destruct ion of Job's chi ldren as depicted by Blake in I l l u s t r a t i o n I I I . The subject of the second lozenge is less c lear. In the foreground a man holds a plow, his head thrown back v i o l en t l y . In the background farm bui ldings go up in flames, while over i t a l l f loa ts a f igure with outstretched arms, from which seem to have been generated the l ightnings that star ted the f i res.-?* This f igure has a pleasant face and long ha i r . Although i t is c lear ly masculine, l i ke the other i t does not resemble Satan. In Hagstrum's view the obvious echo in th is lozenge of Blake's moment of insp i ra t ion in Milton (plates 14 and 29), in which Blake is pictured with his head thrown back and the f a l l i n g star about to enter his l e f t f oo t , suggests the regenerate Job who has become an

11 The outstretched arms occur, not twice, but four times, in this design: once in each of the lozenges just mentioned, once in the lozenge immediately behind Job in which God speaks from the whirlwind, and in the foreground figure of Job himself, who sits with his arms outstretched over his three daughters. There is a question as to whether Job is to be thought of as pointing to the two scenes on either hand; at least one hand gives that impression.

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the four . But l in dates i t very late (c. 1825-26), comparing the f igure 's webbed wings with those in the tempera Satan Smiting Job with Sore Boils. There is also something in the scu lp ture- l ike massiveness of the f igure which recal ls some of the i l l u s t r a t i o n s to the Inferno.

But l i n ' s valuable pamphlet is a kind of hors d'oeuvre which makes us a l l the more ant ic ipate the feast of his forthcoming complete catalogue of Blake's paint ings, watercolors, and drawings. Conversely, The Pickering Manuscript is a welcome dessert, fol lowing what the Newsletter's reviewer cal led "the de f i n i t i ve catalogue of one of the las t three great Blake col lect ions in pr ivate hands": The Blake Collection of Mrs. London K. Thome by G. E. Bentley, J r . 2 That catalogue was published by the Morgan Library in conjunction with i t s exh ib i t ion of the Thorne co l l ec t i on ; now we are informed in Charles Ryskamp's b r i e f Introduction to The Pickering Manuscript, that Mrs. Thorne gave the Manuscript i t s e l f to the Morgan Library at the end of 1971, thus adding even fur ther to the L ibrary 's magnificent Blake co l l ec t i on . The fac t

that the ent i re Manuscript is here reproduced in facsimi le fo r the f i r s t time speaks for i t s e l f . We might, however, re i te ra te a point made by John E. Grant in Newsletter 21: with the ever-growing in teres t in Blake, facsimiles now perform two funct ions--they make material widely avai lab le, and they also reduce unnecessary wear on the o r ig ina ls . The Pickering Manuscript should serve both purposes admirably.

Morton D. Paley is Executive Editor of the Newsletter.

1 Bu t l i n points out that fo r the Tate copy of th i s work Blake received one guinea from Thomas But ts , g iv ing the U. S. equivalent as about $2.50. I t is only f a i r to Bu t t s , however, to remember that both the guinea and the do l l a r are no t , a las , what they once were. In 1793, fo r example, Blake advert ised America at 10s 6d; and in 1806, the year of the receipt fo r God Judging Adam, Blake sold John Flaxman a "s ingu la r l y grand drawing of the Last Judgment" fo r one guinea (Bent ley, Blake Records, p. 575).

2 Robert Essick, Newsletter 2 1 , p. 26.

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a r t i s t . The other scene, to Job's r i g h t , Hagstrum describes as "the day of [Job 's ] s u f f e r i n g . " * 2

One must agree with Hagstrum that the f igure of the plowman echoes Milton and suggests the int roduct ion of Blake himself in to the s tory . But what of the burning bui ldings and the hovering f igure? (Hagstrum doesn't say.) And one must agree that the other scene represents suf fer ing of some k ind, but whose suf fer ing is i t ?

In my view the least implausible explanation that has yet been given is Wicksteed's, that "the panel on Job's r igh t t e l l s of the di re deeds of man against man [o ld men assault ing youths] , that on his l e f t of the disasters Nature i n f l i c t s [ the bui ldings struck by lightning—perhaps the plowman, t o o ] , both inspired by Satan [ the hovering f igures in the two p i c t u r e s ] . " The commentary in Binyon and Keynes fol lows th is reading. But even th is hypothesis leaves questions unanswered: why the echo from Milton in the f igure of the plowman? I f the hovering f igures are Satanic, why don't they resemble Satan? Etc. Had Wright given closer at tent ion to the deta i ls of the i l l u s t r a t i o n , and included more of the e a r l i e r commentary, the reader would have a bet ter notion of j us t what the d i f f i c u l t i e s are. As i t i s , we are presented with the patent ly implausible and l e f t to s h i f t for ourselves. (Although in several other places Wright refers to the ea r l i e r watered or versions of the Job designs, he here omits mention of the in teres t ing and suggestive fact that Blake l e f t the lozenges i n d i s t i n c t l y drawn in a l l sets of the watercolors. Only the l a s t , "New Zealand" set has some adumbration of the scenes as we know them in the engraving, but without the engraving to guide

us we should f ind i t d i f f i c u l t to t e l l much about them.)

In his in terpretat ions of ind iv idual plates Wright has contributed several in teres t ing observations to the l i t e r a t u r e on the designs. One of these is his i d e n t i f i c a t i o n of the objects ly ing on the ground between El ihu 's feet in I l l u s t r a t i o n X I I , "The Wrath of E l i hu , " as a purse and two pieces of money, rather than a potsherd, as Wicksteed had supposed. This seems a plausible conclusion, consistent wi th the larger meaning of the work.

Beyond spec i f ic c r i t i c i sms , which w i l l vary from reader to reader, th is presentation of Blake's Job is flawed generally by i t s inadequate exposit ion of Blake's v is ion and method. I f the account of Job's error is almost banal, the understanding of forgiveness and s e l f - s a c r i f i c e as the energy of redemption is l im i ted and understated. Much is l o s t , moreover, through an unwillingness to contemplate e i ther symbolism or structure in the designs as a ser ies. In sum, th is book, seemingly designed for the beginning student, lacks the r e f l e c t i o n , care, and learning that we might have hoped for in a new ed i t ion of th is great work.

J | _ . , J e a n H- Hagstrum, William Blake: Poet and Prophet (Chicago, 1964), p. 135. Hagstrum gives a more e laborate, more suggestive but income ways w i l de r , reading of the lozenges in "Blake's Blake," Essays in History and Literature, Presented by Fellows of the Newberry Library to Stanley Pargellis, ed. Heinz Bluhm (Chicago, 1965), p. 174.