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1993 Felicia Hemans and the Mythologizing of 's Death Paula R. Feldman University of South Carolina - Columbia, [email protected]

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Publication Info Published in Blake: An Illustrated Quarterly, Volume 27, Issue 3, 1993, pages 69-72. Feldman, P.R. (1993/1994). Felicia Hemans and the Mythologizing of Blake’s Death. Blake: An Illustrated Quarterly, 27(3), 69-72. © Blake/An Illustrated Quarterly.

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The very joyfulness with which this sin­ Felicia Hemans and gular man welcomed the coming of death, the Mythologizing of made his dying moments intensely mourn­ ful. He lay chaunting songs, and the verses Blake's Death and the music were both the offspring of the moment. He lamented that he could no Paula R. Feldman longer commit those inspirations, as he called them, to paper(.l "Kate," he said, "I am a changing man-I always rose and wrote down my thoughts, whether it rained, snowed, or shone, and you arose n February 1832, Felicia Hemans, at too and sat beside me-this can be no I that time Britain's most popular and longer." He died on the 12th of August, widely read poet, published in Black­ 1828,4 without any visible pain-his wife, wood's Edinburgh Magazine a short who sat watching him, did not perceive poetic drama entitled "The Painter's when he ceased breathing. Last Work.-A Scene," confiding in a conspicuous footnote that the piece While Cunningham emphasizes was "suggested by the closing scene in Blake's cheerfulness in approaching the life of the painter Blake; as beauti­ death and the technical achievement fully related by Allan Cunningham." of his last drawing ("a fine likeness"), Though Cunningham's early sketch of Hemans responded to another aspect Blake in The Lives ofthe Most Eminent of this account, one to which she was British Painters, Sculptors and Archi­ 1. Felicia Hemans (1828). Engraved by particularly attuned. Famous for tectsl has received attention from al­ Edward Scriven after a portrait by William celebrating the "domestic affections," most all of Blake's biographers, E. West. Harriet Hughes, the poet's sister, Hemans had only recently published used this engraving for the frontispiece Records of Woman (1828), high­ Hemans's poem has been entirely to her 7-volume, 1839 edition of overlooked; though it was frequently Hemans's Works. lighting the nobility and courage of reprinted throughout the nineteenth heroines in various difficult and often century in dozens of British and He had now reached his seventy-first melancholy circumstances; she was American editions of Hemans's Poeti­ year, and the strength of nature was fast herself still emotionally devastated yielding. Yet he was to the last cheerful and cal Works and was, therefore, a far from having nursed her mother in her contented. "I glory," he said, "in dying, and more widely disseminated account of last illness. So her attention was drawn have no griefbut in leaving you, Katharine; to the suggestions in Cunningham's Blake's death that Cunningham's, we have lived happy, and we have lived account of Catherine Blake's extraor­ modern scholars have been unaware long; we have been ever together, but we of it, in part because Hemans's com­ shall be divided soon. Why should 1 fear dinary character and the painfulness of plete Works have not been reprinted death? Nor do 1 fear it. 1 have endeavoured her situation; in Hemans's retelling, since they last appeared in an Oxford to live as Christ commands, and have the focus shifts from the painter and University Press edition in 1914. sought to worship God truly-in my own his remarkable skills even at "death's Hemans spent most of her life in house, when 1 was not seen of men." He door" to a valorization of his artistic grew weaker and weaker-he could no Wales and is unlikely ever to have met subject-the woman he loves and ad­ longer sit upright; and was laid in his bed, Blake. She visited London only briefly mires. William's declaration to with no one to watch over him, save his Catherine in Cunningham's account, as a child On the winters of 1804 and wife, who, feeble and old herself, required "you have ever been an angel to me," 1805), never to return. What she knew help in such a touching duty. of Blake before reading Cunningham was such a forms the subtext to Hemans's retell­ s is unclear; but her friend William favourite with Blake, that three days before ing. To foreground this aspect of the Wordsworth might have mentioned his death, he sat bolstered up in bed, and drama, she takes her epigraph from Blake to her on one of their walks tinted it with his choicest colours and in his Thomas Campbell's "Gertude of together in the Lake District where she happiest style. He touched and retouched Wyoming:" it-held it at arm's length, and then threw vacationed during the summer of it from him, exclaiming, "There! that will Clasp me a little longer on the brink 1830, shortly before drafting her do! 1 cannot mend it. " He saw his wife in Of life, while 1 can feel thy dear caress; poem.2 Still, she was probably un­ And when this heart hath ceased to beat tears-she felt this was to be the last of his oh! think, ' aware of the errors, embellishments, works-"Stay, Kate' (cried Blake) keep just And let it mitigate thy woe's excess, and outright fabrications in Cunning­ as you are-I will draw your portrait-for That thou hast been to me all tenderness, ham's account.3 Cunningham had you have ever been an angel to me"-she And friend to more than human written of Blake: obeyed, and the dying artist made a fine friendship just. likeness. 70 BlAKE/AN ILLUSTRA TED QUARTERLY Winter 1993/94

Proficient in Italian, Hemans Teresa. probably set her poetic drama in Italy SCENES AND HYMNS OF LIFE. Oh, Francesco! because of her great admiration for What will this dim world be to me, Francesco, 6 Italian art and literature. It seems like­ When wanting thy bright soul, the life of ly that she gives the Italian name "Fran­ all- cesco" to the character RE LIG rous POEMS. My only sunshine!-How can I bear on? to underline his frankness, sincerity, How can we part? We that have loved so and openness ("franchezza"), to sug­ well, With clasping spirits link'd so long by gest the spiritual freedom he embo­ grief- dies, and perhaps to point towards the FELICIA lJEMANS. By tears--by prayer? reassurance he gives his wife ("fran­ Francesco. cheggiare"). Similarly, it appears she •• lin", IlCIIUI.rllltl'l" ,to:lle u( ~k~, Ev'n there/orewe can part, \ ,.d tht".H hill',m tlu(!luuion tls'll names the Catherine Blake character .H lh y romm.nd .h...... rul! b h :dl t ~O() II I. With an immortal trust, that such high lIu " lIlI1l1l1d t MionAl, Iq_t o r 1"h(.'(1 "Teresa" to suggest at one and the same 1:; '·(' n l(Ulh.nlh~ ·" love time the earthly region ("terra") she Is not of things to perish. Let me leave must continue to inhabit and her fear One record still, to prove it strong as ("terrore") of approaching widowhood. death, FollOWing is the text of Hemans's dra­ \rll.l,IA:'I1 1:J.t\l'I\\roon•• ; UI~JU ' I{I ; II ; Ev'n in Death's hour of triumph. Once matization of the death of Blake as it .\1'\1) T. ('A HELl" I.O:"lIo~ . again, ~1IU'f'j · XX X I' ·. was ftrst published in 1832. It is worth Stand with thy meek hands folded on thy quoting in its entirety because all sub­ breast, And eyes half veil'd, in thine own soul 2. Title page to the first of Hemans's sequent appearances reprint a sub­ absorb'd, books to include "The Painter's Last stantially revised, inferior text. As in thy watchings, ere I sink to sleep; Work," a poem about the death of And I will give the bending flower-like Blake. This 1834 version differed sig­ Scene--A Room in an Italian Cottage. The grace nificantly from the text that appeared Lattice opening upon a Landscape at sunset. Of that soft form, and the still sweetness two years earlier in Blackwood's Edin­ throned burgh Magazine. Francesco--Teresa. On that pale brow, and in that quivering Teresa. smile Farewell to earth, Teresa! not to thee, The fever'S hue hath left thy cheek, Of voiceless love, a life that shall outlast Nor yet to our deep love, nor yet awhile beloved! Their delicate earthly being. There-thy Unto the spirit of mine art, which flows Thine eyes, that make the day- in head Back on my soul in mastery!-one last my heart, Bow'd down with beauty, and with work! Are clear and still once more. Wilt thou tenderness, And I will shrine my wealth of glowing look forth? And lowly thought--even thus--my thoughts, Now, while the sunset with own Teresa! Clinging affection and undying hope, low-streaming light- Oh! the quick glancing radiance, and The light thou lov'st-hath made the All that is in me for eternity, bright bloom All, all, in that memorial. chestnut-stems That once around thee hung, have All burning bronze, the lake one sea of melted now gold! Teresa. Into more solemn light-but holier far, Wilt thou be raised upon thy couch, to Oh! what dream And dearer, and yet lovelier in mine eyes, meet Is this, mine own Francesco? Waste thou Than all that summer flush! For by my The rich air fill'd with wandering scents not couch, and sounds? Thy scarce-returning strength; keep thy In patient and serene devotedness, Or shall I lay thy dear, dear head once rich thoughts Thou hast made those rich hues and more For happier days! they will not melt away sunny smiles, On this true bosom, lulling thee to rest Like passing music from the lute;-dear Thine offering unto me. Oh! I may give With vesper hymns? friend! Those pensive lips, that clear Madonna Dearest of friends! thou canst win back brow, Francesco. at will And the sweet earnestness of that dark No, gentlest love! not now: The glorious visions. eye, My soul is wakeful-lingering to look Unto the canvass-I may catch the flow forth, Francesco. Of all those drooping locks, and glorify Not on the sun, but thee! Doth the light Yes! the unseen land With a soft halo what is imaged thus-­ sleep Of glorious visions hath sent forth a voice But how much rests unbreathed! My So gently on the lake? and are the stems To call me hence. Oh! be thou not faithful one! Of our own chestnuts by that alchemy deceived! What thou hast been to me! This bitter So richly changed?-and is the Bind to thy heart no earthly hope, Teresa! world, orange-scent I must, must leave thee! Yet be strong, This cold unanswering world, that hath Floating around?-But I have said my love, no voice farewell, As thou hast still been gentle! Winter 1993/94 BlAKE/AN IUUS1RA TED QUARTERLY 71

To greet the heavenly spirit-that drives Retaining the name "Teresa" for the back Catherine Blake character, she alters All Birds of Eden, which would sojourn here the name of the William Blake charac­ A little while-how have I turn'd away ter to "Eugene," an even more forceful From its keen soulless air, and in thy statement about his value, for it recalls heart, the Greek terms for "generous" or Found ever the sweet fountain of MRS. FELICIA HE M ANS: "noble" (literally "well-born"). While response, To quench my thirst for home! twentieth-century critics have found fault with Blake's view of women, it is The dear work grows COMPLETE L.~ ONE VOWM&, Beneath my hand--the last! Each faintest worth noting that his contemporary, a line poet who championed the female per­ With treasured memories fraught. Oh! spective, often in subtly subversive weep thou not Wltfl a ~tlt(ti'l( 'IInflHr. Too long, too bitterly, when I depart! ways, drew an unqualified positive por­ Surely a bright home waits us both-for trayal of him, much more approving in I, many respects than Cunningham's. In all my dreams, have turn'd me not Though there are minor revisions from God; throughout this second version, the And Thou--oh! best and purest! stand thou there- II II I LA II I,: L 1'111 ,\; major alteration is to the conclusion. There, in thy hallow'd beauty, Tllo,!,\:, T. \Sll, ( ' 111-:,";'\( T ;,('1'1:1:1-:'1'. Hemans deletes the last stanza-the shadowing forth fmal nine lines of her earlier version­ The loveliness of love! and adds the follOWing: 3. "The Painter's Last Work" appeared Francesco's answer to Teresa's fear in this 1836 American edition of Teresa. of impending loss, her apprehension Hemans's Poetical Works and in dozens (falling on his neck in tears.) Eugene, Eugene! of life's painful mutability, is to create, of other collections published throughout the nineteenth century on Break not my heart with thine excess of as his last tangible gift, a portrait of her both sides of the Atlantic. love!- own face. He offers this declaration of Oh! must I lose thee-thou that hast his love and this testament of his admi­ been still Blake character, with his verbal tribute The tenderest-best- ration and gratitude as a consolation, to Teresa, is as much poet as painter. an immortal remnant of their mutual, It is hard to escape the implicit parallel Eugene. enduring love. Hemans's work ends, Weep, weep not thus, belov'd! between the portrait drawn by the dy­ Let my true heart o'er thine retain its not like Cunningham's with the focus ing Blake and Hemans's own creative power firmly on William Blake, but instead in act, here and elsewhere, of fore­ Of soothing to the last!-Mine own a celebration of Catherine Blake, her grounding and celebrating the quiet Teresa! virtue, strength, and beauty. Trans­ dignity and heroism of women. In fact, Take strength from strong affection!-Let our souls, formed into an icon of "the loveliness Francesco's chief virtue would seem to of love," Teresa/Catherine is deified as Ere this brief parting, mingle in one strain be his capacity for appreciating Tere­ Of deep, full thanksgiving, for God's rich the Madonna of the home, halo and sa's enormous worth and his skill in boon- all , the sunny solace of FrancescolWil­ immortalizing her in art, even on his Our perfect love!-Oh! blessed have we liam in a "cold unanswering world." deathbed.7 been In that high gift! Thousands o'er earth Together husband and wife become a Two years after its first publication, single emblem oflove's perfection and may pass Hemans included "The Painter's Last With hearts unfreshen'd by the heavenly of its eternal character. But the iconog­ Work," substantially revised, in Scenes dew, raphy is every bit as much verbal as and Hymns of Life, with Other Which hath kept ours from visual; as Francesco draws, he elo­ Religious Poems.8 Her own health was withering.-Kneel, true wife! And lay thy hands in mine.- quently describes the qualities he sees by this time seriously deteriorating, in Teresa's face. The poem itself be­ [She kneels beside the couch; he prays.] and the nature of her poetry was be­ 0 , thus receive comes a verbal painting, as Hemans, coming increasingly devotional. Her Thy children's thanks, Creator! for the like Francesco, describes the process shifting poetic focus leads her to in­ love of artistic creation in the very act of clude three more lines from Campbell Which thou hast granted, through all earthly woes, creating. Though Cunningham tends in the epigraph: to dismiss much of Blake's poetry as To spread heaven's peace around them; which hath bound "utterly wild" and emphasizes Blake's Oh! by that retrospect of happiness, And by the hope of an immortal trust, Their spirits to each other and to thee, achievement as a visual artist, Hemans God shall assuage thy pangs when I am With links whereon unkindness ne'er clearly reached a different conclusion laid in dust! hath breathed, after reading the poems he quotes; her 72 BlAKE/AN IUUSTRATED QUARTERLY Winter 1993/ 94

Nor wandering thought. We thank thee, 1 6 vols. (London: John Murray, 1830) 2: gracious God! 140-79. The Image of Canada For all its treasured memories! tender 2 Henry Crabb Robinson records reading in Blake's America a cares, Blake's Songs of Innocence and of ex­ Fond words, bright, bright sustaining perience to Wordsworth on 24 May 1812 Prophecy looks unchanged and notes, "He was pleased with some of Through tears and joy. 0 Father! most of them, and considered Blake as having the all elements of poetry a thousand times more Warren Stevenson We thank, we bless Thee, for the than either Byron or Scott." priceless trust, 3 Some early reviews did take notice of Through Thy redeeming Son the unreliability of certain aspects of he theme of 1 vouchsafed, to those Cunningham's account. See, for instance, is less the emergence of a new That love in Thee, of union, in Thy sight, The Athenaeum for Saturday, 6 February T nation-about whose post-revolu­ And in Thy heavens, immortal!-Hear 1830 and the London UniversityMagazine our prayer! for March 1830. John Linnell also made no tionary course, involving as it did the Take home our fond affections, purified secret of his dismay at the liberties Cunning­ persistence of slavery, Blake had To spirit-radiance from all earthly stain; ham took with the truth. [G. E. Bentley, Jr. , major reservations-than the downfall Exalted, solemnized, made fit to dwell, BlakeRecords(Oxford: ClarendonP, 1969) of tyranny as a prelude to the millen­ Father! where all things that are lovely 395.1 Mona Wilson believes that the speech nium. More than any of the other meet, beginning "I glory in dying" and the other And all things that are pure-for beginning "I am a changing man" are English romantics, with the possible evermore, Cunningham's own inventions. See The exception of Shelley, Blake had a With Thee and Thine! (New York: Cooper global perspective, reflected in his fre­ Square Publishers, 1969) 191, 301, quent use of the term "America" and This melodramatic prayer of thanks­ 370n372. its cognates with reference to a hemi­ giving changes the final emphasis of 4 Blake died in 1827, and was 69, not 71. the poem from a celebration of S She also draws on Cunningham's later sphere comprising two continents. CatherinelTeresa to a more conven­ observation: "The affection and fortitude Blake's earliest such reference is the of this woman [Catherine Blakel entitle her tional celebration of God the Father­ one in The Marriage of Heaven and to much respect. She shared her husband's Hell (pI. 13) to the "North American from a matriarchal to a patriarchal lot without a murmur, set her heart solely tribes"; in vision, from the human to the divine. upon his fame, and soothed him in those Visions of the Daughters of The painter/ poet now becomes priest hours of misgiving and despondency AlbionO :20) , epitome ofBri­ as well. Hemans revises Cunning­ which are not unknown to the strongest tish imperialism, exclaims to Oothoon, intellects." ham's construct this second time to "Thy soft American plainS are mine, 6 One of her earliest books was The and mine thy north & south"; and in reflect the way in which her own agen­ Restoration of the Works of Art to Italy: a Milton (35: 17) the similar phrase da and notion of her poetic role had Poem, 1816. changed toward the end of her life. But 7 Disconcertingly, life has a way of im­ "America north & south" occurs, con­ in both of her retellings, Blake is itating art. Only three years after the first tinuing the continental emphasis. publication of "The Painter's Last Work," neither the wild eccentric nor the mad Comparejerusalem(58:43): "Britain is Hemans was herself dying, writing until ' Forge; / America North & South painter, but a sensitive, generous, and nearly the end. Biographers and contem­ talented artist/poet with a nobility of porary readers would make much of her are his baths of living waters."2 spirit and an enormous capacity for last poem, "Sabbath Sonnet," dictated from In America a Prophecy, notwith­ love. That Felicia Hemans, a poet who her deathbed, amid fever and delirium. standing the poem's revolutionary bias, 8 Published in 1834, in Edinburgh, by probably sold more books than Byron, one notes the continental drift of such William Blackwood and in London by T. lines as, "Then had America been lost, identified with Blake and mythologized Cadell. his death in such a positive way to a o 'erwhelm'd by the Atlantic" 04:17). large general reading public only four And in the text of the Preludium, in and a half years after the event, sug­ which the "shadowy daughter of Ur­ gests that the story of Blake's early thona" confronts , her Sibling posthumous reputation rna y be far more ravisher, in addition to the former's complex and interesting than biogra­ curious use of the Bromionesque phrase phers have so far acknowledged. "my American plainS" (2:10), there is reference to Canada (twice), Mexico, Peru, and Africa. The atypical doubling of the Cana­ dian reference is particularly intrigu­ ing. In his most pointed overture during the aforementioned verbal ex­ change, Orc tells the unnamed "Dark virgin," his sister-love, "anon a serpent