The Complete Writings of William Bla~ with ALL the VARIANT READINGS · EDITED by GEOFFREY KEYNES

Total Page:16

File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb

The Complete Writings of William Bla~ with ALL the VARIANT READINGS · EDITED by GEOFFREY KEYNES The Complete Writings of William Bla~ WITH ALL THE VARIANT READINGS · EDITED BY GEOFFREY KEYNES ~THE NONESUCH PRESS 10 EARLHAM STREET LONDON · MCMLVII NEW YORK: RANDOM HOUSE INC. Printed and made in England Library ofCongress Catalogue Card Number: S7-I207S All rights reserved The Contents The Editor's Preface IX Poetical Sketches (1769-1778) I Miscellaneous Poems King Edward the Third 17 Prologue to King Edward the Fourth 33 Prologue to King John 34 A War Song to Englishmen 34 The Couch of Death 35 Contemplation 36 Samson 37 Then she bore pale desire (ante 1777) 40 Woe, cried the muse (ante 1777) 43 An Island in the Moon (circa 1784-85) 44 Poems written in a copy of "Poetical Sketches" (circa 1787) 63 Annotations to Lavater's "Aphorisms on Man" (circa 1788) 65 Annotations to Swedenborg's "Wisdom of Angels concerning Divine Love and Divine Wisdom" (circa 1788) 89 There is no Natural Religion (circa 1788) 97 All Religions are One (circa 1788) 98 Tirie! (circa 1789) 99 Songs of Innocence (1789) I II The Book ofThel (1789) 127 Annotations to Swedenborg's "The Wisdom of Angels concerning Divine Providence" (circa 1790) 131 The French Revolution (179 1) 134 The Marriage of Heaven and Hell (circa 1790-93) 148 A Song of Liberty 159 Inscription to "The Dance of Albion" (circa 1793) 160 Poems and Fragments from The Note-Book (circa 1793) 161 Pragment: "A fairy leapt upon my knee" (circa 1793) 188 Visions of the Daughters of Albion (1793) 189 America, a Prophecy (1793) 195 America, cancelled plates (circa 1793) 203 Fragment: probably intended for America (circa 1793) 206 Prospectus: To the Public (1793) 207 v THE CONTENTS Subjects for "The History of England, a small book of Engravings" (1793) 208 For Children: The Gates of Paradise (1793) 209 Songs of Experience (1789-94) 210 A Divine Image (circa 1794) 221 The First Book ofUrizen (1794) 222 Europe, a Prophecy (1794) 237 The Song of Los (1795) 245 The Book of Ahania (1795) 249 The Book of Los (1795) 255 "I asked a thief": fair copy (1796) 261 Legends in a Small Book of Designs (1796) 261 Legend in a Large Book of Designs (circa 1796) 262 Vala, or the Four Zoas (1795-18°4) 263 Annotations to Watson's "Apology for The Bible" (1798) 383 Annotations to Bacon's "Essays" (circa 1798) 396 Annotations to Boyd's translation of Dante's "Inferno" (circa 1800) 4II Lines for the illustrations to Gray's Poems (circa 1800) 414 Poems and Fragments from The Note-Book (1800-03) 415 Poems from the Pickering Manuscript (circa 1803) 423 Blake's Memorandum (1803) 437 Remarks on the drawings of Thomas Heath Malkin (circa 1805) 439 Memoranda from The Note-Book (1807) 440 Inscription on the back of "The Fall of Man" (1807) 441 Dedication of the illustrations to Blair's "Grave" (1808) 442 Description of A Vision of The Last Judgment (1808) 442 Annotations to Sir Joshua Reynolds's "Discourses" (circa 1808) 445 Milton, a Poem in 2 Books (1804-08) 480 Epigrams, Verses, and Fragments from The Note-Book (circa 1808-II) 536 Advertisement of Exhibition of Paintings (1809) 560 Advertisement of A Descriptive Catalogue (1809) 562 A Descriptive Catalogue (1809) 563 Prospectus of the Engraving of Chaucer's Canterbury Pilgrims (1809) 586 vi THE CONTENTS Draft for Prospectus of the Engraving of Chaucer's Canterbury Pilgrims (1809) 587 Prospectus of the Engraving of Chaucer's Canterbury Pilgrims (circa 1810) 589 Public Address (circa 1810) 591 Joseph of Arimathea (circa 1810) 604 A Vision of The Last Judgment (1810) 604 Descriptions of the illustrations to Milton's "L'Allegro" and "II Penseroso" (circa 1816) 617 Jerusalem (18°4-20) 620 The Everlasting Gospel (circa 1818) 748 For the Sexes: The Gates of Paradise (circa 1818) 760 Notes on Spurzheim's "Observations on Insanity" (circa 1819) 772 Note on a pencil drawing of Nine Grotesque Heads (circa 1819) 773 Mirth and Her Companions (circa 1820) 773 Annotations to Berkeley's "Siris" (circa 1820) 773 The Laocoon (circa 1820) 775 On Homer's Poetry and on Virgil (circa 1820) 778 Note in Cennini's "Trattato Della Pittura" (circa 1822) 779 The Ghost of Abel (1822) 779 Inscription in the Autograph Album of William Upcott(1826) 781 Annotations to "Poems" by William Wordsworth (1826) 782 Annotations to "The Excursion" by William Wordsworth (1826) 784 Notes on the illustrations to Dante (1825-27) 785 Annotations to Dr. Thornton's "New Translation of the Lord's Prayer" (1827) 786 The Letters (1791-1827) 790 The Notes 883 Index of First Lines 929 Vll .
Recommended publications
  • A Checklist of Publications and Discoveries in 2013
    ARTICLE Part II: Reproductions of Drawings and Paintings Section A: Illustrations of Individual Authors Section B: Collections and Selections Part III: Commercial Engravings Section A: Illustrations of Individual Authors William Blake and His Circle: Part IV: Catalogues and Bibliographies A Checklist of Publications and Section A: Individual Catalogues Section B: Collections and Selections Discoveries in 2013 Part V: Books Owned by William Blake the Poet Part VI: Criticism, Biography, and Scholarly Studies By G. E. Bentley, Jr. Division II: Blake’s Circle Blake Publications and Discoveries in 2013 with the assistance of Hikari Sato for Japanese publications and of Fernando 1 The checklist of Blake publications recorded in 2013 in- Castanedo for Spanish publications cludes works in French, German, Japanese, Russian, Span- ish, and Ukrainian, and there are doctoral dissertations G. E. Bentley, Jr. ([email protected]) is try- from Birmingham, Cambridge, City University of New ing to learn how to recognize the many styles of hand- York, Florida State, Hiroshima, Maryland, Northwestern, writing of a professional calligrapher like Blake, who Oxford, Universidade Federal de Santa Maria, Voronezh used four distinct hands in The Four Zoas. State, and Wrocław. The Folio Society facsimile of Blake’s designs for Gray’s Poems and the detailed records of “Sale Editors’ notes: Catalogues of Blake’s Works 1791-2013” are likely to prove The invaluable Bentley checklist has grown to the point to be among the most lastingly valuable of the works listed. where we are unable to publish it in its entirety. All the material will be incorporated into the cumulative Gallica “William Blake and His Circle” and “Sale Catalogues of William Blake’s Works” on the Bentley Blake Collection 2 A wonderful resource new to me is Gallica <http://gallica.
    [Show full text]
  • Alicia Ostriker, Ed., William Blake: the Complete Poems
    REVIEW Alicia Ostriker, ed., William Blake: The Complete Poems John Kilgore Blake/An Illustrated Quarterly, Volume 12, Issue 4, Spring 1979, pp. 268-270 268 psychological—carried by Turner's sublimely because I find myself in partial disagreement with overwhelming sun/god/king/father. And Paulson argues Arnheim's contention "that any organized entity, in that the vortex structure within which this sun order to be grasped as a whole by the mind, must be characteristically appears grows as much out of translated into the synoptic condition of space." verbal signs and ideas ("turner"'s name, his barber- Arnheim seems to believe, not only that all memory father's whorled pole) as out of Turner's early images of temporal experiences are spatial, but that sketches of vortically copulating bodies. Paulson's they are also synoptic, i.e. instantaneously psychoanalytical speculations are carried to an perceptible as a comprehensive whole. I would like extreme by R. F. Storch who argues, somewhat to suggest instead that all spatial images, however simplistically, that Shelley's and Turner's static and complete as objects, are experienced tendencies to abstraction can be equated with an temporally by the human mind. In other works, we alternation between aggression toward women and a "read" a painting or piece of sculpture or building dream-fantasy of total love. Storch then applauds in much the same way as we read a page. After Constable's and Wordsworth's "sobriety" at the isolating the object to be read, we begin at the expense of Shelley's and Turner's overly upper left, move our eyes across and down the object; dissociated object-relations, a position that many when this scanning process is complete, we return to will find controversial.
    [Show full text]
  • The Bravery of William Blake
    ARTICLE The Bravery of William Blake David V. Erdman Blake/An Illustrated Quarterly, Volume 10, Issue 1, Summer 1976, pp. 27-31 27 DAVID V. ERDMAN The Bravery of William Blake William Blake was born in the middle of London By the time Blake was eighteen he had been eighteen years before the American Revolution. an engraver's apprentice for three years and had Precociously imaginative and an omnivorous reader, been assigned by his master, James Basire, to he was sent to no school but a school of drawing, assist in illustrating an antiquarian book of at ten. At fourteen he was apprenticed as an Sepulchral Monuments in Great Britain. Basire engraver. He had already begun writing the sent Blake into churches and churchyards but exquisite lyrics of Poetioal Sketches (privately especially among the tombs in Westminster Abbey printed in 1783), and it is evident that he had to draw careful copies of the brazen effigies of filled his mind and his mind's eye with the poetry kings and queens, warriors and bishops. From the and art of the Renaissance. Collecting prints of drawings line engravings were made under the the famous painters of the Continent, he was happy supervision of and doubtless with finishing later to say that "from Earliest Childhood" he had touches by Basire, who signed them. Blake's dwelt among the great spiritual artists: "I Saw & longing to make his own original inventions Knew immediately the difference between Rafael and (designs) and to have entire charge of their Rubens." etching and engraving was yery strong when it emerged in his adult years.
    [Show full text]
  • William Blake 1 William Blake
    William Blake 1 William Blake William Blake William Blake in a portrait by Thomas Phillips (1807) Born 28 November 1757 London, England Died 12 August 1827 (aged 69) London, England Occupation Poet, painter, printmaker Genres Visionary, poetry Literary Romanticism movement Notable work(s) Songs of Innocence and of Experience, The Marriage of Heaven and Hell, The Four Zoas, Jerusalem, Milton a Poem, And did those feet in ancient time Spouse(s) Catherine Blake (1782–1827) Signature William Blake (28 November 1757 – 12 August 1827) was an English poet, painter, and printmaker. Largely unrecognised during his lifetime, Blake is now considered a seminal figure in the history of the poetry and visual arts of the Romantic Age. His prophetic poetry has been said to form "what is in proportion to its merits the least read body of poetry in the English language".[1] His visual artistry led one contemporary art critic to proclaim him "far and away the greatest artist Britain has ever produced".[2] In 2002, Blake was placed at number 38 in the BBC's poll of the 100 Greatest Britons.[3] Although he lived in London his entire life except for three years spent in Felpham[4] he produced a diverse and symbolically rich corpus, which embraced the imagination as "the body of God",[5] or "Human existence itself".[6] Considered mad by contemporaries for his idiosyncratic views, Blake is held in high regard by later critics for his expressiveness and creativity, and for the philosophical and mystical undercurrents within his work. His paintings William Blake 2 and poetry have been characterised as part of the Romantic movement and "Pre-Romantic",[7] for its large appearance in the 18th century.
    [Show full text]
  • And Edward Young's Book Of
    MINUTE PARTICULAR Blake’s “The Tyger” and Edward Young’s Book of Job Robert F. Gleckner Blake/An Illustrated Quarterly, Volume 21, Issue 3, Winter 1987/1988, pp. 99-101 WINTER 1987-88 BLAKE/AN ILLUSTRATED QUARTERLY PAGE 99 Blake's "The Tyger" and Edward Youngs burden of God's angry reproof ofJob is the reaffirming of the latter's littleness and incapacity, culminating in Book of Job the advice to "abase" the proud "and bring him low. " 3 In any discussion of Blake's speaker, then, Young's foot- Robert F. Gleckner note is at least an intriguing gloss on the biblical pas- sage. If sublime interrogation is a manifestation of "majesty incensed, " then the speaker of' 'The Tyger, " in Of all of Blake's shorter poems "The Tyger" has received, his usurpation of this rhetorical mode, is presumptuous by far, the most attention, an often confusing array of beyond words, asking "the guilty a proper question" so complementary (as well as contradictory) interpreta- that the guilty will, "in effect, pass sentence on him- tions, source studies, and prosodic analyses. Of those, self." On the other hand, Blake may have found in the seeking hither and yon for tigers of various sorts has Youn~'s idea of "bidding a person execute himself" the produced especially little that is illuminating about germ1nal principle of the structure of "The Tyger," in Blake's possible sources for the poem as distinct from which Blake, as creator, quite literally allows his speaker, sources for his choice of animal or for its (still uneasily by questioning, to convict himself before the reader's received) portrait in the illustration.
    [Show full text]
  • David Punter, Ed., William Blake: Selected Poetry and Prose
    REVIEW Stanley Kunitz, ed., The Essential Blake; Michael Mason, ed., William Blake; David Punter, ed., William Blake: Selected Poetry and Prose E. B. Murray Blake/An Illustrated Quarterly, Volume 24, Issue 4, Spring 1991, pp. 145-153 Spring 1991 BLAKE/AN ILLUSTRATED QUARTERLY Not so the Oxford Authors and Rout- As we know, and contrary to Mason's ledge Blakes. They do have some pre- implications, Blake felt his illumina- REVIEWS tensions and they may not be tions an integral part of his composite altogether harmless. Michael Mason is art, going so far as to applaud himself initially concerned with telling us what (in the third person) for having in- he does not do in his edition. He does vented "a method of Printing which Stanley Kunitz, ed. The Es not include An Island in the Moon, The combines the Painter and Poet" and, in sential Blake. New York: Book of Ahania, or The FourZoas. He an earlier self-evaluation, he bluntly The Ecco Press, 1987. 92 does not follow a chronological order asserts, through a persona, that those pp. $5.00 paper; Michael in presenting Blake's texts; he does not (pace Mason) who will not accept and Mason, ed. William Blake. provide deleted or alternative read- pay highly for the illuminated writings ings; he does not provide the illumina- he projected "will be ignorant fools Oxford: Oxford University tions or describe them; he does not and will not deserve to live." Ipse dixit. Press, 1988. xxvi + 601 pp. summarize the content of Blake's works The poet/artist is typically seconded $45.00 cloth/$15.95 paper; nor does he explicate Blake's mythol- by his twentieth-century editors, who, David Punter, ed.
    [Show full text]
  • "The Tyger": Genesis & Evolution in the Poetry of William Blake
    "The Tyger": Genesis & Evolution in the Poetry of William Blake Author(s): PAUL MINER Source: Criticism, Vol. 4, No. 1 (Winter 1962), pp. 59-73 Published by: Wayne State University Press Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/23091046 Accessed: 20-06-2016 19:39 UTC Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at http://about.jstor.org/terms JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected]. Wayne State University Press is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Criticism This content downloaded from 128.143.23.241 on Mon, 20 Jun 2016 19:39:44 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms PAUL MINER* r" The TygerGenesis & Evolution in the Poetry of William Blake There is the Cave, the Rock, the Tree, the Lake of Udan Adan, The Forest and the Marsh and the Pits of bitumen deadly, The Rocks of solid fire, the Ice valleys, the Plains Of burning sand, the rivers, cataract & Lakes of Fire, The Islands of the fiery Lakes, the Trees of Malice, Revenge And black Anxiety, and the Cities of the Salamandrine men, (But whatever is visible to the Generated Man Is a Creation of mercy & love from the Satanic Void). (Jerusalem) One of the great poetic structures of the eighteenth century is William Blake's "The Tyger," a profound experiment in form and idea.
    [Show full text]
  • Blake's Poetry and Designs
    A NORTON CRITICAL EDITION BLAKE'S POETRY AND DESIGNS ILLUMINATED WORKS OTHER WRITINGS CRITICISM Second. Edition Selected and Edited by MARY LYNN JOHNSON UNIVERSITY OF IOWA JOHN E. GRANT UNIVERSITY OF IOWA W • W • NORTON & COMPANY • New York • London Contents Preface to the Second Edition xi Introduction xiii Abbreviations xvii Note on Illustrations xix Color xix Black and White XX Key Terms XXV Illuminated Works 1 ALL RELIGIONS ARE ONE/THERE IS NO NATURAL RELIGION (1788) 3 All Religions Are One 5 There Is No Natural Religion 6 SONGS OF INNOCENCE AND OF EXPERIENCE (1789—94) 8 Songs of Innocence (1789) 11 Introduction 11 The Shepherd 13 The Ecchoing Green 13 The Lamb 15 The Little Black Boy 16 The Blossom 17 The Chimney Sweeper 18 The Little Boy Lost 18 The Little Boy Found 19 Laughing Song 19 A Cradle Song 20 The Divine Image 21 Holy Thursday 22 Night 23 Spring 24 Nurse's Song 25 Infant Joy 25 A Dream 26 On Anothers Sorrow 26 Songs of Experience (1793) 28 Introduction 28 Earth's Answer 30 The Clod & the Pebble 31 Holy Thursday 31 The Little Girl Lost 32 The Little Girl Found 33 vi CONTENTS The Chimney Sweeper 35 Nurses Song 36 The Sick Rose 36 The Fly 37 The Angel 38 The Tyger 38 My Pretty Rose Tree 39 Ah! Sun-Flower 39 The Lilly 40 The Garden of Love 40 The Little Vagabond 40 London 41 The Human Abstract 42 Infant Sorrow 43 A Poison Tree 43 A Little Boy Lost 44 A Little Girl Lost 44 To Tirzah 45 The School Boy 46 The Voice of the Ancient Bard 47 THE BOOK OF THEL (1789) 48 VISIONS OF THE DAUGHTERS OF ALBION (1793) 55 THE MARRIAGE OF HEAVEN AND HELL (1790) 66 AMERICA A PROPHECY (1793) 83 EUROPE A PROPHECY(1794) 96 THE SONG OF Los (1795) 107 Africa 108 Asia 110 THE BOOK OF URIZEN (1794) 112 THE BOOK OF AHANIA (1794) 130 THE BOOK OF LOS (1795) 138 MILTON: A POEM (1804; c.
    [Show full text]
  • Blake's London: Times & Spaces Author(S): Paul Miner Source: Studies in Romanticism, Vol
    Blake's London: Times & Spaces Author(s): Paul Miner Source: Studies in Romanticism, Vol. 41, No. 2, The Once and Future Blake (Summer, 2002), pp. 279-316 Published by: Boston University Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/25601560 Accessed: 18-09-2016 07:32 UTC JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected]. Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at http://about.jstor.org/terms Boston University is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Studies in Romanticism This content downloaded from 203.255.172.36 on Sun, 18 Sep 2016 07:32:14 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms PAUL MINER Blake's London: Times & Spaces WILLIAM Street,BLAKE what IN I bothfERUSALEM see and hear DECLARED/ In regions of "iHumanity, WRITE in IN SOUTH MOLTON Londons opening streets," and in the bio-celestial atmospheres of "The Mental Traveller" Blake "traveld thro a Land of Men ... & Women too / And heard & saw [my emphasis] such dreadful things / As cold Earth wan derers never knew," phrasing which reflects Swedenborg's Heaven and Hell (a work annotated by Blake), whose extensive title mentions uthe Wonderful Things Therein, as Heard and Seen, by Emanuel Swedenborg." "A walk
    [Show full text]
  • Complete Poetry and Prose-William Blake
    www.GetPedia.com *More than 150,000 articles in the search database *Learn how almost everything works The Complete Poetry and Prose of William Blake All Religions are One For the Sexes: The Annotations to: There is No Natural Gates of Paradise Lavater's Aphorisms Religion [a] On Homers Poetry on Man There is No Natural On Virgil Swedenborg's Heaven Religion [b] The Ghost of Abel and Hell The Book of Thel [Laocoön] Swedenborg's Divine Songs of Innocence and Tiriel Love and Divine Wisdom of Experience (Index) The French Revolution Swedenborg's Divine For Children: The Gates The Four Zoas Providence of Paradise Vala Night the First An Apology for the The Marriage of Vala Night the Bible by R. Watson Heaven and Hell [Second] Bacon's Essays Moral, Visions of the Vala Night the Economical and Political Daughters of Albion Third Boyd's Historical America a Prophecy Vala Night the Notes on Dante Europe a Prophecy Fourth The Works of Sir The Song of Los Vala Night the Fifth Joshua Reynolds The [First] Book of Vala Night the Sixth Spurzheim's Urizen Vala Night the Observations on Insanity The Book of Ahania Seventh Berkeley's Siris The Book of Los Vala Night the Wordsworth's Poems Milton: a Poem in 2 Eighth Wordsworth's Preface Books Vala Night the to The Excursion Jerusalem: The Ninth Being The Last Thorton's The Lord's Emanation of The Giant Judgment Prayer, Newly Translated Albion Poetical Sketches Cellini(?) frontispiece [An Island in the Moon] Young's Night To the Public [Songs and Ballads] Thoughts Chap: 1 [plates4-27] (Index) [Inscriptions and Notes On To the Jews [The Pickering or For Pictures] "The fields from Manuscript] (Index) [Miscellaneous Prose] Islington to Marybone [Satiric Verses and [The Letters] (Index) Chap: 2 [plates Epigrams] 28-50] The Everlasting Gospel To the Deists [Blake's Exhibition and "I saw a Monk of Catalogue of 1809] Charlemaine" [Descriptions of the Chap 3 [plates Last Judgment] 53-75] [Blake's Chaucer: To the Christians Prospectuses] "I stood among my [Public Address] valleys of the south" "England! awake! .
    [Show full text]
  • Michael Phillips, William Blake: the Creation of the Songs from Manuscript to Illuminated Printing
    REVIEW Michael Phillips, William Blake: The Creation of the Songs from Manuscript to Illuminated Printing Alexander S. Gourlay Blake/An Illustrated Quarterly, Volume 36, Issue 2, Fall 2002, pp. 66-71 patron at the time, did not have a complete set. They are of which an assiduous informer could easily have found gen- enormous, c. 18" x 24", no method of reproducing their erous evidence for his sympathies with revolutionary France. three-dimensional effects is at all satisfactory, and their cu- And Dr. Phillips insists (e.g., p. 107), as he does in William mulative effect is well-nigh overwhelming. Blake (2000), that Blake's color prints passed through the The exhibition was organized chiefly by Robin Hamlyn, press twice, once with the basic design in monochrome and and the catalogue is a worthy memorial of the exhibition. a second time with the colors." Most Blake scholars doubt The pro forma essays by Peter Ackroyd5 and Marilyn Butler6 his conclusion. are remarkable for little more than good will. For those who could not see the exhibition at the Tate, a The catalogue7 is very generously illustrated, though the somewhat diminished version of it was exhibited at the Met- reproductions vary capriciously in size; for instance, the Tiriel ropolitan Museum in New York on 27 March-24 June 2001. designs are reproduced in three radically different sizes, Both exhibition and catalogues are achievements of ex- though the originals are all approximately the same size. The traordinary ambition and accomplishment. All who made reproductions include all those known for Tiriel (9), 29 for it possible deserve our thanks.
    [Show full text]
  • William Blake, Poet, Painter, and Artist-Printmaker an Interview with Michael Phillips
    William Blake, Poet, Painter, and Artist-Printmaker An Interview with Michael Phillips Conducted April 2012 By Enéias Farias Tavares Michael, I would like to begin this interview by asking how you first became interested in William Blake, your first contact with Blake’s illuminated books, and what influenced your approach to his work as a poet, painter and as an artist-printmaker? Looking back I can see how certain experiences may have been Formative, or at least encouraged interests that were instinctive. But beFore doing so, it may be helpful iF I clariFy very brieFly what my approach to Blake has been and remains. Increasingly over the years my interests have been in how Blake created his works, that is to say, how his poems evolved in manuscript and the social and historical circumstances that influenced their creation. This led me to try to learn how he then went on to reproduce and publish his works himselF, by means of a very simple but highly innovative method of printmaking. I have not, For example, been interested in bringing a method of interpretation to Blake’s work From outside, For example, an archetypal, psychoanalytical, Feminist, or deconstructive approach. In contrast, my approach has been empirical, in attempting to reconstruct the immediate circumstances of Blake’s liFe and work From historical evidence, and in particular how and why his works were made and reproduced. Recovering how he reproduced his works has very much entailed a hands-on approach, working and experimenting in the studio using the methods and materials that Blake himselF used.
    [Show full text]