William Blake

THE WORKS of WILLIAM BLAKE jSptfrolu, tmir dpritical KDITEO WITH LITHOORAPIIS OF THE ILLUSTRATED “ PROPHETIC BOOKS," AND A M8 M0 IH AND INTERPRETATION EDWIN JOHN ELLIS A ttlh n r n f “Miff »ii A rcatliit,** rfr* Asn WILLIAM BUTLER YEATS Author of ** The JVnnilerinfj* nf Ohin,** " The Crwutesi Kathleen," ifr. “ Hnng nin to the te»t Ami I Lh* m&ttor will iv-wnnl, which nmdnp** Would ftumlml from M Jfauttef /.V TUJIKE VOI.S. VOL 1 LONDON BERNARD QUARITCH, 15 PICCADILLY 1893 \ A lt R ig h t* k *M*rv*ifl & 0 WILLIAM LINNELL THIS WORK IS INSCRIBED. PREFACE. The reader must not expect to find in this account of Blake's myth, or this explanation of his symbolic writings, a substitute for Blake's own works. A paraphrase is given of most of the more difficult poems, but no single thread of interpretation can fully guide the explorer through the intricate paths of a symbolism where most of the figures of speech have a two-fold meaning, and some are employed systematically in a three fold, or even a four-fold sense. " Allegory addressed to the intellectual powers while it is altogether hidden from the corporeal understanding is my definition," writes Blake, "of the most sublime poetry." Letter to Butts from Felpham, July 6th, 1803. Such allegory fills the "Prophetic Books," yet it is not so hiddon from the corporeal understanding as its author supposed. An explanation, continuous throughout, if not complete for side issues, may be obtained from the enigma itself by the aid of ordinary industry. Such an explanation forms, not perhaps the whole, but certainly the greater part, of the present volumes. Every line, whether written for the yiii PE 2?A.CE. “ understanding ” or the “ intellect,” is based on a line of Blake’s own. Two principal causes have hitherto kept the critics,—among whom must be included Mr. Swinburne himself, though he reigns as the one-eyed man of the proverb among the blind,— from attaining a knowledge of what Blake meant. The first is the solidity of the myth, and its wonderful coherence. The second is the variety of terms in which the sections of it are named. The foundation of Blake’s symbolic system of speech is his conception of the Four-fold in Man, and the covering that concealed this system was a peculiar use of synonyms. The four portions of Humanity are divided under the names of the Four Zoas in the myth, and the reader who does not under stand the relation of the Four Zoas to each other, and to each living man, has not made even the first step towards under standing the Symbolic System which is the signature of Blake’s genius, and the guarantee of his sanity. Mr. Swin burne, Mr. Gilchrist, and the brothers, Dante and William Rossetti, deserve well of literature for having brought Blake into the light of day and made his name known throughout the leDgth and breadth of England. But though whatever is accessible to us now was accessible to them when they wrote, including the then unpublished “ Vala,” not one chapter, not one clear paragraph about the myth of Four Zoas, is to be found in all that they have published. With regard to the use of synonyms, which must be under stood before the Four Zoas can be traced through their different disguises, the earliest idea of this, as a mere guess, PREPACK. IX occurred to the editor whose name stands first on tho present title-page, in the year 1870. The suggestion arose through a remark in tho first edition of Gilchrist’s “ Life of Blake/1 where the poem “ To the Jews/’ from “ Jerusalem/* was printed with a challenge at the beginning, calling on those who could do so, to offer an interpretation. In the later edition this challenge was withdrawn, probably under the impression that it had not been accepted. The glove, however, had been quietly taken up. “ What if Blake should turn out to use the quarters of London to indicate tho points of the compass, as he uses these to group certain qualities of mind associated with certain of the senses and the elements?** This was the idea that presented itself, and eventually led us to shape the master-key that unlocked all the closed doors of the poet’s house. It happened, however, that the idea was fated to be laid aside almost unused for many years. The maker of the lucky guess had only given a week or two of study, and barely succeeded iu assuring himself that he was on the right track, when the course of destiny took him to Italy and kept him there, with only brief and busy visits to England and other countries, until a few years ago. In the meantime the other editor had grown up, and become a student of mysticism. He came one day and asked to have Blake explained. Very little could bo given him to satisfy so large a demand, but with his eye for symbolic systems, he needed no moro to enable him to perceive that here was a myth as well worth study as any that has been offered to the world, since first men learned that myths wero briefer and more beautiful than exposition as X PKSPACE. well as deeper and more companionable. He saw, too, that it wa9 no mere freak of an eccentric mind, but an eddy of that flood-tide of symbolism which attained its tide-mark in the magic of the Middle Ages. From that moment the collaboration which has produced the present work was began, and it has gone on, notwithstanding some unforeseen and serious interruptions, for four years. The fellow labourers have not worked hand in hand, but rather have been like sportsmen who pursue the game on different tracks and in the evening divide their spoils. Each has learned in this way that the other was indispensable. The result is not two different views of Blake, so much as one view, reached by two opposite methods of study, worked out in order to satisfy two different forms of mental enjoyment. Except in connection with the Memoir, very little assistance was to be had from outside. The biographical matter has been added to considerably, the greater part of the space being given to hitherto unpublished facts, while some twenty or thirty pages are condensations of the story as told in the accounts of Blake's life which have already been given to the world. A satisfactory and complete narrative has yet to be written, if all that is now known be set forth at its natural length. But this may well wait. Fresh material comes in from time to time, and now that readers are relieved of their discouraging inability to prove that they are not studying the life or works of a madman, it is probable that much will be done in the near future. A "Blake Society" would find plenty of occupation. It would probably be able, not only to gather together new facts for the biography, but it might 1‘KEFACK. XI even find some of the lost books by Blake, printed and in manuscript. The Society conld also take up the task of interpretation, and work out details, for which space has not been found in this book, large as it is. Blake's was a complex message—more adapted than any former mystical utterance to a highly complex age. Tet it claims to be but a personal statement of universal troths, “ a system to deliver men from systems." The only other European mystics worthy to stand by his side, Swedenborg and Boehmen, were to a large extent sectaries, talking the language of the Churches, and delivering a message intended, before all else, for an age of dogma. They brought the Kingdom of the soul nearer to innumerable men; but now their work is nearly done, and they must soon be put away, reverently, and become, as Blake says, “the linen clothes folded up." As the language of spiritual utterance ceaseB to be theological and becomes literary and poetical, the great truths have to be spoken afresh; and Blake came into the world to speak them, and to announce the new epoch in which poets and poetic thinkers should be once more, as they were in the days of the Hebrew Prophets, the Spiritual leaders of the race. Such leadership was to be of a kind entirely distinct from the “ temporal power" claimed to this day elsewhere. The false idea that a talent or even a genius for verse tends to give a man a right to make laws for the social conduct of other men is nowhere supported in Blake's works. The world in which he would have the poet, acting as a poet, seek leadership is the poetic world. That of ordinary conduct should be put XU NlKKACtt. on a, lower level. It belongs to Time, not to Eternity. It is only bo far as conduct affects imagination that it has any importance, or, to use Blake's term, “ existence.” The whole of Blake's teaching,—and he was a teacher before all things,—may be summed up in a few words. Nature, he tells (or rather ho reminds) us, is merely a name for one form of mental existence. Art is another and a higher form. Bat that art may rise to its true place, it mast be set free from memory that binds it to Nature. Nature,—or creation,—is a result of the shrinkage of con sciousness,—originally clairvoyant,— under the rule of the five senses, and of argument and law.

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