MINUTE PARTICULAR

Urizen and Orc, Cortés and Guatimozin: Mexican History and The Four Zoas VII

Martin Bidney

Blake/An Illustrated Quarterly, Volume 23, Issue 4, Spring 1990, pp. 195-198 Spring 1990 BLAKF/AN IllUSTRATED QUARTERLY 195

it-becomes clearer when we under- about the tragiC confounding of life- stand the Urizen-Orc conflict within and death-directed motives in various MINUTE the historical and psychological con- traditional cultures. He has begun, too, text provided by Robertson's history. to imagine the psychology of Orc, PARTICULAR I find no mention in the Blake litera- Spirit of Revolution, in a context ture of Cortes or Guatimozin. But the shadowed by awareness of (among story of Cortes' cruelty and Guati- many other things) the Mexican his- mozin's mocking defiance was well torical heritage. Later, in Jerusalem, Urizen and Orc, Cortes known to other British romantics. In Blake will also imagine "Tharmas Peter Bell the Third Shelley describes dash'd on the Rock of the Altars of and Guatimozin: Peter's (or Wordsworth's) dullness as Victims in Mexico" (138:70).8 Mexican History and sufficient to deaden Guatimozin's pains: The struggle involved in Cortes' The Four Zoas VII seventy-five-day siege of Mexico was, But in his verse, and in his prose, Robertson says, both "more obstinate" The essence of his dullness was and "more equal" than' any between Martin Bidney Concentred and compressed so close, the inhabitants of the Old and New 'Twould have made Guatimozin doze Worlds," a fact owing in no small On his red gridiron of brass. (ll. 718-22)3 measure to the "great abilities of Gua- "Am I now reposing on a bed of flowers?" 1 timozin," who had acceded to Monte- (GuaUmozin, defying the tortures im- Donald H. Reiman, whose annotation zuma's throne after the brief interim posed by Cortes) clarifies this reference, further explains reign of the latter's brother. Quetlavaca "Sure thou art bathd in rivers of delight on (in a letter to me dated 8 August 1988) had been cut short by the pox (2: 387, verdant fields"2 that he had first become aware of the 364). Guatimozin's "great abilities" are counterbalanced by the extraordinary (Urlzen, mocking the tortures endured Guatimozin story-and had first be- by Orc) come interested in seeking its source, shrewdness of Cortes in Robertson's which he found in Robertson-after account. When Cortes' own men begin surprising number of detailed reading an expurgated journal entry to rebel, his unmasking of a conspiracy Averbal parallels and analogous (21 October 1838) wherein Mary Shel- reveals Urizenic cUnning. Cortes coolly images makes it likely that in compos- ley complains of being maligned by professes ignorance of the con- ing Night VII of The Four Zoas Blake Jane Williams. Mary writes: spiratorial activities of all participants was building in part on the episode of except the main organizer; the rest of When I first discovered that a trusted friend Cortes' torture of Guatimozin (Mon- the plotters, relieved to be exonerated, had acted thus by me, I was nearly redouble their zeal in the commander's tezuma's nephew, son-in-law, and destroyed-my health was shaken. I eventual successor) in The History of remember thinking of Guatamozin's [sic) service to prove their loyalty, and the A merica by William Robertson, a work bed of torture & with a burst of agonizing cynical Cortes meanwhile observes in of continuing popularity first publish- tears exclaiming I would prefer that to the detail the behavior of each, mentally unutterable anguish a friend's falsehood organizing his observations while he ed in London in 1777. Similarities in engendered!4 wording and image patterns between quickly musters his troops for new the Blake and Robertson works shed Reiman adds that Keats knew onslaughts (2: 368-70). The outstanding light on the Urizen-Orc conflict as well Robertson's history toO.5 leadership capabilities of both Cortes as on the grotesque predicament of Blake never mentions Robertson's and Guatimozin, taken together with the Los in his relation to each of the dead- work, but it was published early larger impression presented by locked contenders. Robertson helps enough for him to have used it imag- Robertson that the Spaniard-Aztec con- us understand these struggles both inatively in composing The Four flict was conducted on terms more near- from the psychological and political Zoas.6 Blake's interest in Mexico, ex- ly equal than other such struggles in the points of view. By doing so, he helps pressed as early as the passage in western hemisphere, make the parallel illuminate the dynamics of Blake's America (1793) where Orc sees "In with the Urizen-Orc standoff an inviting mythmaking at a crucial point in the Mexico an Eagle, and a Lion in Peru" one since Urizen and Orc are the (co- poem's progress since it is in Night VII (2: 13), was stimulated, as Erdman in- equal, co-eternal) Zoaswhose conflict is that the epic's central act of conversion forms us, by Mallet's account of "more obstinate" than any in the or awakening (Los's recognition and "human sacrifice" practiced in Mexico Blakean psychic world. embrace of the Spectre) takes place. and Peru as a "harvest rite. "7 In But it is specifically in the accounts The need for such an awakening-as America Blake is thinking about of Guatimozin's tortures and those of well as Blake's impetus for providing human sacrifices and harvest rites, and 196 BLAKE/AN IllUSTRATED QUARTERLY Spring 1990

Ore that the parallels in wording and envy fits both situations; Urizen envies before Ore in a Hform of wisdom" imagery become precise. Cortes im- Ore his invincible fortitude, while has its grisly analogue in Robertson's pos s the torment partly to defend Cortes and his men covet Guatimozin's history, for we recall Montezuma's himself from disaffection in the ranks treasure. (The treasure is largely sub- scornful response to the Spaniards' when his men ~ el dismay at the lack merged in a lake; note that Ore is hypocritically compassionate attempts of available booty, though Robertson punished in a "lake of fire" [FZ78:28].) to convert him to their enlightened insis that the sadistic deed to which As Orc begins to organize a serpent religion: "In a transport of rage he tore Cortes has recourse "stains the glory of body Urizen, still "envious," watches the bandages from his wounds, and all hi great actions" (2: 389). When the him "Flame high in pride & laugh to refused, with such obstinacy, to take Spaniards take poss ssion of all the scorn the source of his deceit" (FZ any nOUrishment, that he soon ended treasure still remaining for them to 80:49-50); here we note similarities to his wretched days, rejecting with dis- capture, the amount of it proves disap- Robertson's phrases: "high spirited dain all the solicitations of the Span- pointingly small: the "Indian auxil- prince," "authority mingled with scorn." iards to embrace the Christian faith" iaries" of d1e Spaniards have made Urizen's taunting speech to Ore (2: 344). away with much of the t1' asure during presents still more analogues, in both Finally, the last line in Urizen's taunt- th Siege, and Guatimozin himself, wording and dramatic situation, to ing monologue, "Or is dlY joy founded having directed the rest of it to be Robertson's account: on torment which others bear for "thrown into the lake," refuses to di- thee," makes even more obvious sense vulge its whereabouts (2: 388). So Cortes Pity for thee movd me to break my dark in the context of Guatimozin's situa· s Ibjects "the unhappy monarch, & long repose tion than it does in Ore's. Orc has not together with his chief favourite, to And to reveal myself before thee in a forced anybody else to fight his battles form of wisdom torture" (2: 389) to make them talk. or bear his burdens; UIizen is reduced Yet thou dost laugh at all these tortures The wording of Robertson's account & this horrible place to farfetched (and typically sadistic) here seems to have impressed Blake: Y t throw thy limbs these fires abroad reasoning in his attempts to explain that back return upon thee away Orc's fortitude. But GuatimoZin's Guatimozin bore whatever the refined While thou reposest throwing rage on cruelty of his tormentors could inflict, with power against Spain is in fact largely rage feeding thyself dependent (as Robertson sees it) on th invincible fortilude of an American With visions of sweet bliss far other than fel1ow-suf~ warrior. His rer, overcome by this burning clime the Aztecs' subjugation of other native th violence of the anguish, turned a Sure thou art bathd in rivers of delight peoples, who have to bear burdens on deject d ye towards his mast r, which on vel'dantjfelds behalf of their conquerors, and who Seem d to implor his permisSion to reveal Walking in joy in bright Expanses resent having to do so: all that h knew. But th high spirited sleeping on bright clouds prin e, darting on him a look of authority With vlStons ofde/tght so lovely that they mingled with scorn, check d his weakness The great abilities of Guatlmozin, the num- urge thy rage ber of his troops, the peculiar situation of by asking, "Am I now repOSing on a b d of Tenfold with fierce desire to rend thy flowers?" Overaw d by I he reproach, the his capital, so far counterbalanced the su- chain & howl in fury periority of the Spaniards in anns and dis- favourit persever d in his dutiful sil nce, And dim oblivion of all woe & desperate and expired. Cortes, ashamed of a scene Cipline, that they must have relinquished repose the nterprise if they had trusted for suc- so horrid, rescued th • royal victim fr m the Or is d1Y joy founded on torment which hands of tonurers, and prolonged a life cess to themselves alone. But Mexico was other bear for thee oveltumed by the jealousy of neighbours reserv d for n w indigniti sand sutfelings. (FZ78:30·42, emphases added) (2: 389·90j emphas s added) who dreaded its power, and by the revolt of subjects impatient to shake off its yoke. Fireisnotmention d, butmostr adel's V riations on the word "r pose," By their effectual aid, Cortes was enabled (see tll above·quoted hell y stanza, prominent in this passage, are reminis- to accomplish what, without such support, especially the phrase: "red gridiron of he would hardly have ventured to attempt. c nt of Guatimozin's "Am I now repos- (2: 387) brass") will ssum Cortes us d fire, a ing on a bed of flowers?" The "verdant parallel with the fj ry torture f Orc: fields," the "visions of d light so love- It appears, then, that Guatimozin's /ly t throw thy limb these fires abroad ly," and the image of "sleeping" on political power, if not his 'joy," has in that back return upon tl c "(FZ78:33). something "bright" further suggest a large part, depended on 'torment" (a W also 1 arn th t rc's "awful limbs strong Blakean memory of Guati- "dreaded ... yoke") borne by others, aSl forth red mok & fire I That mozin's imagined flowery rest. a fact that Inay have left its subliminal Uri zen approacJ d not neal' but took "Desp rate repos " is a particularly imprint on Blake's (and Urizen's) his s t on a rock I And rangd his nice characterization, quit applicable tWnking at this point in The Four Zoas, books l' und him bro ing Envious to Guatimozin's extraordinary attempt as we watch Orc begin to tum into overOrc,t(FZ77:17-19). Tl th meof at stoic indifference. Ev n Urizen's a "dark devourer"-"Self consuming," cl fm that "Pity" arous d him to appear but also "poisond" in a way that does Spring 1990 BIAKF/AN IUUSTRATED QUARTERLY 197

not bode well for others who must ... they put the Sun naked, and compelled to dance before the suffer in tum the consequences of his Into the temple of Uri zen to give light to tmage oftbe god to whom they were to be resentful rebellion (FZ80:48, 46). the Abyss offered. They heard the shrieks of those To light the War by day to hide his secret who were sacrificed, and thought that they Urizen and Orc, then, are like the beams by night could distinguish each unhappy victim, by practiced strategist Cortes and the For he divided day & night in different the well-known sound of his voice. Im- valiant rebel Guatimozin, himself not orderd portions aginatton added to what tbey really saw or free from the taint of tyranny. Indeed, The day for war the night for secret heard, and augmented Us horror. The religion in his temple war always makes enemies mirror most unfeeling melted into tears of com- (FZ96:14-18) paSSion, and the stoutest heart trembled at 9 each other in the Blakean world. Orc the dreadful spectacle which they beheld. comes unexpectedly to resemble In other words, as Robertson says, the (2: 381) Urizen. Perhaps Blake has noted how "approach of night" ushers in what is The entire Robertson passage the bloody-mindedness of Guati- "hardly less grievous" than the activ- abounds in tragic ironies, which Blake mozin's men resembles that of Cortes' ities of day: the CUrizen-like) war-wor- seems to have detected and extended. troops: certainly in the Zoas it is not ship of Guatimozin's men. The victims have to dance before the only Orc but Urizen too who seems to The relation of Los, the eternal war god to whom they will be sacri- borrow attributes from the Aztecs of prophet, to the war god Urizen be- ficed- but all tl1e followers of War are Robertson's history. comes particularly revealing at this (re-)made in its image: the soldiers of A look at the war god's temple point when viewed in a Robertsonian the tyrant Cortes and the soldiers of where the Aztecs sacrifice their context. No more eager to be subser- the tyrant Guatimozin. Los appears Spanish captives reveals striking vient to Urizen than Orc is, Los-like naked like a victim, but bloodied and similarities to the temple of Blake's Orc-nevertheless winds up resem- fiery like the war god who demands war god, Urizen. When Guatimozin bling Urizen in their mutually destruc- victims: victim and victor are hardly (this is before his capture by Cortes) tive conflict. Apparently resentful that distinguishable in this 'night of gives a signal, the "priests in the prin- Urizen has hijacked the solar sphere Carnage." We know that Los absorbed cipal temple" strike "the great drum that "glowd" over him, Los in his the Urizenic spirit as early as Night IV consecrated to the god of war"; after defiance begins to look like a war god when he bound Promethean Ore upon the ensuing battle, in which forty Span- himself, hardly more sinned against the mountain. Los, the Human Imag- iards are captured, than sinning. Immediately following ination, has "augmented" the "horror" The approacb ofntgbt, though it delivered his account of Urizen's temple-build- of what is contemplated, and in an the dejected Spaniards from the attacks of ing, Blake describes the sudden ap- even larger sense than Robertson the enemy, ushered tn, wbat was hardly pearance of Los: makes explicit. Victors and victims are less grievous, the noise of their barbarous all seized with war fever, an infection triumph, and of the horrid festival with which they celebrated their victory. Every Los reard his mighty stature on Earth of the imagination. Already in Night V quarter of the city was illuminated; the stood his feet. Above the fallen imagination, infected with great temple shone with such peculiar The moon his furious forehead circled hostility born of nervous fear, is splendour, that the Spaniards could plain- with black bursting thunders emblematized in a comparable picture His naked limbs gltttring upon the dark ly see the people in motion, and the of Los: "Infected Mad he dancd on his priests busy in hastening the preparations blue sky his knees for the death of the prisoners. (2: 380-81; Bathed in bloody clouds. his lOins in jlres mountains lugh & dark as heaven . . . emphases added) of war where spears From his mouth curses & from his eyes And swords rage where the Eagles cry & sparks ofbUghting" (FZ57: 1, 3). Victim Similarly, when Urizen and the "myri- the Vultures laugh saying and (infected) victor are melded, both ads" of his "Sons" build a "temple"- Now comes the night of Carnage ... (FZ 96: 19-24; emphases added) here and in the image of Los appearing "The day for war the night for secret naked in darkness near the war temple religion"-Urizen's priests and pries- of Urizen-as naked as the captives Why does Los appear "naked" in tlus tesses insure that, like the rite con- dancing "before the image of the god" horrid pageant? Very likely he is ducted by Guatimozin's clergy, their of war. The imagination, in Blake as in presented this way because Blake war god's temple ceremony will also Robertson's account, augments the hor- remembers Robertson's vivid evoca- be illuminated with peculiar splendor rors brought on by the war god, who tion of the spectacle disclosed to those (see FZ85:31-33, 96:18). They do tlus makes his victims revere his "image." Spaniards who catch a glimpse of Gua- by taking away "the sun that glowd oer Guatimozin is eventually hanged timozin's temple preparations: Los" and forcing it in chains into Uri- (2: 405), and when we read in zen's martial sanctuary (FZ 96:9-15). Through the gloom, they fanCied that they Robertson that "The Spaniards were This surely produces an effect of quite discerned their companions by the white- not satisfied with the glory of having uncommon illumination: ness of their skins, as they were stript 198 BLAKE/AN IUUSTRA TED QUARTERL Y Spring 1990

first encompassed the earth; theyexpec- 5 The Robertson-Keats connection is ted to derive great commercial ad- standard in criticism of that poetj see, for from this new and boldest example, Walter Jackson Bate, Jobn Keats DISCUSSION vantages (New York: Oxford UP, 1966) 25, 88, 476. effort of their maritime skill" (2: 398; with 1ntellectual spears & long wtnged arrows 6 See n. 1 above; Blake is fond of men- ofthought emphas s added), Urizen's compa- tioning Mexico. In addition to the verses rable ambitions may come to mind: discussed immediately below a couple of HFirst Trades & Commerce ships & others may be cited. Druid temples, Blake armed vessels he builded laborious / tells us, "were reard from Ireland / To Bunyan at the Gates Mexico & Peru west, & east to China & To swim the deep"; 'Ithe Universal Em- Japan" (Milton 6:22-23). And he lists of Paradise pire groans" (FZ95:25-26, 30; empha- "Mexico" (along with such places as s s added). Of course, Blake is "Negroland" and "Carolina") among the John B. Pierce probably speaking mainly about the "Thirty-Two Nations" that wait for British rather than the Spanish empire, Jerusalem (/72:37-42). S. Foster Damon, A Blake Dictionary: Tbe Ideas and Symbols but none of the parallels adduced here of William Blake (Providence: Brown UP, n a recent issue of Blake,l Nelson is in any way exclusive. Moreover, if 1965) 271, cites all these Blakean mentions I Hilton offers some useful insights Blak is building in part on Robertson, of Mexico and adds that UPIate 15 of The into possible sources for Blake's liThe Marriage of Heaven and Hell depicts an as I suggest, his overall int nt as social lost Travellers Dream under the Hill," and political critic is not exclusive eagle soaring with a serpent in its talons; Blake's design anticipates Shelley's Revolt the last line of liTo The Accuser who is either. Rather, he wishes to show the of Islam I (1818) and the adoption of the The God of This World." In particular, interweaving, the mutual interinvolve- Mexican flag (1821)." he remarks on the possible biblical ment, of w r and religion, victor and 7 David V. Erdman, Blake: Prophet antecedents for this concluding line Against Emptre, 3rd. ed. (Garden City: vi tim, reason and energy and im- from the epilogue to The Gates of agination, in the tragic conflicts of the Doubleday, 1969) 251. 8 Erdman notes that "The Sacrifice of Paradise, focusing especially on the fallen world, thus preparing the way Tharmas in Mexico can be accounted for last half as a reference to "the Sinai for Los' (and our) humbling recogni- by the execution in 1811 and 1813 of Hid al- revelation of Exodus." Hilton's equa- tion of the Spectre as everyone's own. go and Morelos and other Mexican insur- tion of the "Hill" with Sinai is sup- gents by Spanish firing squads" (Propbet 482). ported not only by references to the t William Rob rlson, Tbe History of Law in the prologue, as he points out, America, 5th ed., 3 vols. (London, 1788) 2: 9 See my Blake and Goetbe: Psychology, 389; referenc s are indicat d parentheti- Ontology, Imagination Columbia: U of but also by the implications of the ten cally by volume and pag . Rob rtson's his- Missouri P, 1988) 129-33 ("Personality coils (corresponding to the decalogue) tory w nt th ough many editions ov r Changes: Violence and the Dissolution of of the snake depicted below the title r"), I many d cadesj w cann t know which Charact where apply Rene Girard's 2 principle of "conflictual undifferentiation" of the epilogue. Yet while his discus- edition Blake may have used, hut I have sion of "under the Hill" seems satisfac- cited on published w 11 before 1796 to help explain the Urizen-Orc standoff. when Blak is thought to have begun work tory, his identification of the "lost on The Four Zoas. For Zoas dating see Travellers Dream" as a reference to David V. rdman, d. Tbe Complele Poetry Moses seems more tenuous. I believe and Prose of William Blake, rev. ed. Blake's commentary on Mosaic law is (Berk ley: U ofCaIifornia P, 1982) 817. filtered through an intermediate 2 The Four Zoas(her after FZ) 78:36. All FZrefer nces are to 'rdman. source-John Bunyan's The Pilgrim IS 3 Sbelley~ Poetry an.d Prose, ed. Donald Progress. A reading of the episode in H. R iman and Sharon B. Pow rs (N w which Christian meets Mr. Worldly- York: Norton, 1977) 346. N. 2 identifies Wiseman and passes by the burning Guatimozin as follows: hill in conjunction with the epilogue to The nephew and successor of Mon- tezuma I d the AZlec defens of The Gates of Paradise will strengthen Mexico City against Cort s; after his the connections among Sinai, the aptur • he and a friend were tor- traveler'S dream, and the illustration in tur d on a hot metal gri I. In order to "To The Accuser Who is The God of k ep up his companion's courage, this World. " Gu tlmozin said, "Am J now repos- ing on a bed of flow rs?" Blake's approbation of Bunyan's oj Abing r Collecti n, Duke Microfilms, work is eVident in his comments on "A Re 1 11, cited in Don Id H. Reiman, Vision of the Last Judgment." While Romanltc TexIS and Contexts (Columbia: di$tinguishing between the "Fable" as U of Missouri P, 1987) 308. "a totally distinct & inferior kind of