Durham E-Theses Blake's Milton: a critical introduction and a commentary Withers, Stacie F. How to cite: Withers, Stacie F. (1978) Blake's Milton: a critical introduction and a commentary, Durham theses, Durham University. Available at Durham E-Theses Online: http://etheses.dur.ac.uk/10120/ Use policy The full-text may be used and/or reproduced, and given to third parties in any format or medium, without prior permission or charge, for personal research or study, educational, or not-for-prot purposes provided that: • a full bibliographic reference is made to the original source • a link is made to the metadata record in Durham E-Theses • the full-text is not changed in any way The full-text must not be sold in any format or medium without the formal permission of the copyright holders. Please consult the full Durham E-Theses policy for further details. Academic Support Oce, Durham University, University Oce, Old Elvet, Durham DH1 3HP e-mail: [email protected] Tel: +44 0191 334 6107 http://etheses.dur.ac.uk %~\ o Blake's Milton» A Critical Introduction And a Commentary by Stacie F. Withers Abstract Ch. 1: Number of copies of Miltont description; where they are found. Ch. 2: Internal evidence for date of composition (1800-4), different from date on title-page. Length of poem discussed briefly, as external references indicate an epic longer than the present work. Ch. 3: Blake and Hayley; Biography of Blake at time of writing Milton, an intensely personal poem. Details of life and character of Hay- ley (Blake's patron); how he affected Blake's state of mind; Hayley's appearance as Satan in the Milton and other Felpham references. Ch. 4: Different eighteenth-century attitudes to Milton: Romantic and view of age of sensibility; contrast between Blake's and Dr. Johnson's views of Milton; popularity of Milton's characters in painting. Ch. 5: Blake's chief mythological characters (the four zoas and their female counterparts). Some explanation of their natures, derivations and development throughout Blake's poetry. Their part in the Fall of Man; how they embody Blake's religious and philosophical ideas; how eighteenth-century ideas (moralism, extolling nature and rational mind) are symbolised in Blake's poetry. Ch. 6t Blake's four mythological worlds, particularly Beulah, which figures prominently in the Milton. Existence in several worlds or several planes of being at the same time. Golgonooza, city of art, and also image of the body of man. Ch. 7:- Preface to the Milton. Blake's rejection of Plato and Greek classioal authors; ideas on the sublime; 'Jerusalem' lyric. Ch. 8t Book I: plate-by-plate commentary. Reasons for Milton's journey of self-sacrifice; his spiritual battle to cast off self-righteousness and guilt (casting off his spectre); his example inspires Blake. Ch. 9: Book II: plate-by-plate commentary. Descent of Ololon, Milton's female counterpart (also image of his creative work on earth). Both Milton and Ololon freed from spectre. The vision is highly intense personal experience of Blake's. Ch. 10: Description of the half-plates and ten full-plate illustrations (including the frontispiece) to the Milton. Druid symbolism and influence of Blake's brother Robert, BLAKE'S MILTON: A CRITICAL INTRODUCTION AND A COMMENTARY by Stacie Susan Frances Withers Submitted to the University of Durham for the degree of M.A. Department of English. October, 1978 TABLE OF CONTENTS page Notes on the text 1 Introductory note 2 Copies of the Milton 4 Dating and length 6 Blake and Hayley 8 Milton in the eighteenth century 19 Blake's mythology: the people 28 Blake's mythology: the places 58 The Milton: a critical study. Plate 1: The Preface 67 The Milton: a critical study. Book I 78 The Milton: a critical study. Book II . 126 The illustrations to the Milton 146 List of sources" consulted 157 • No material contained in this thesis has previously been submitted for a degree in this or any other University. It is wholly the result of the author's individual research. The copyright of this thesis rests with the author. No quotation from it should be published without her prior written consent and information derived from it should be acknowledged. - 1 - Notes on the text 1) List of abbreviations for Blake's works; Ann. Lavater Annotations to Lavater's Aphorisms on Man Ann. Reynolds Annotations to Sir Joshua Reynolds's Discourses Ann. Thornton Annotations to Dr. Thornton's 'New Translation of the Lord's Prayer' Ann. Watson Annotations to Watson's Apology for the Bible ARO All Religions are One BA The Book of Ahania FBU The First Book of Urizen DC A Descriptive Catalogue Eur Europe FZ The Four Zoas J_ Jerusalem M Milton MHH The Marriage of Heaven and Hell NNR There is No Natural Religion SE Songs of Experience SI Songs of Innocence VLJ A Vision of the Last Judgment 2) Quotations from Blake's works have been taken fromTne Complete'Writings of William Blake,, edited by Sir Geoffrey Keynes. The references to the page numbers of this edition are denoted K. with the numbers following. 3) In numbering the illustrations to the Milton, I have counted the frontispiece as full-page illustration one. 4) Quotations from Milton's works have been taken from The Poems of John Milton, edited by Helen Darbishire. Paradise Lost and Paradise Regained have been abbreviated Par. Lost and Par. Regained. 5) Quotations from the Bible are from the Revised Standard Version, unless otherwise stated. 6) In the footnotes, the place of publication of a book is usually only given if the book is published outside London. Also in the footnotes, the plate of any of Blake's works to which I have referred is indicated pi, followed by the number of the plate. A full colon divides the plate number from the line number(s) in both the text and footnotes. - 2 - Introductory note T.S. Eliot claims that Blake was "a poet of genius'' but not a "classic" poet, largely because Blake was self-educated and gathered together a "pot-pourri" of knowledge, rather than drawing on an established sys• tem of ideas.* It may be argued, however, that Blake achieved an equal balance between a well worked-out system of ideas and a highly subjec• tive personal meaning. That he did have a system of ideas is evident; however, he drew on works which were very popular in his day, but which have now faded into obscurity. A knowledge of these may help us to understand his poetry. The influence of Bryant's Mythology, Stukeley's Abury and Thomas Taylor's translations of the Neoplatonists pervades 2 his works. The howlings and moanings of many of the characters of his early prophecies recall Macpherson's Ossian. He probably knew and was influenced by the Qabbalah (Kabbala). Kathleen Raine points out the influence on Blake of the alchemical writers^, though in The Song of Los (pi. 3:18-18, K. 246) and in Jerusalem (pi. 91:35-6, K. 738), he rejects Hermes Trismegistus. Blake, who loved the Metamorphoses of Ovid, also has his own com• plex and well worked-out mythological system. However, although every symbol is enriched and gathers meaning every time it is used, we must be careful not to fix too rigid an interpretation on his characters, lest we miss some detail of meaning, applicable only to one particular context. The petulant, selfish Los of The Four Zoas, for example, is very different from the loving, inspiring Los of the Milton. While the symbols and mythology of the Milton are much influenced by Blake's reading of contemporary authors, this poem is, however, perhaps the most personal of all his works. For a full understanding' of the poem, it is necessary to have a very clear idea of Blake's life and state of mind at the time of composition. While, for this reason, I have included a detailed biography of the period of composition (approximately 1800-03), a full biography of Blake's life is beyond the scope of this thesis. However, many excellent 'Blake*, in The Sacred Wood, seventh ed., 1950, pp. 151-8. For full details of the influence of the Neoplatonists on Blake, see K. Raine, Blake and Tradition, vols. I and II, 1969. For full details, see K. Raine, ibid. - 3 - biographies exist, and perhaps one of the most entertaining, if not the most reliable, is the first, Gilchrist's classic, The Life of William Blake, first published in 1863. It abounds in apochryphal stories, such as that of the four-year-old William's screams when God put his head through the window; that of the tree full of angels on Peckham Rye; and that of Mr. and Mrs. Blake discovered sitting naked in their garden happily reading Milton; their astonished visitor soon learnt that play• ing at Adam and Eve made the poem more vivid for them. However, many stories became exaggerated in the telling, and a more reliable account of Blake's life is given in Mona Wilson's comprehensive The Life of William Blake, first published in 1927. David V. Erdman and Jacob Bronowski both place Blake firmly in his historical setting, and Michael Davis presents a recent, very readable account. Sir Geoffrey Keynes' Blake Studies, while not a full biography, focuses vividly on many individual incidents in Blake's life from his part in the opening of Edward I's tomb to the exact contents of his library. The theme of the poem Milton is inspiration, and the poem deals with the way in which: Blake cleansed his own mind of guilt, moralism and selfishness; all this, in Blakean terms, is summed up as the way in which he "subdued his Spectre"''".