William blake by arthur symons

The CollectedWorks of Arthur Symons Volume4 William Blake No Book No F- rr tr r r 00 1-^ Hi f f%> C» n I W.i IK- " *-j L CO ^ ^s *J I >I * J »»» » *i * * J » » »»* "" > J » ft J JIB '»'** * 1* I i a »*J»* * a CO *"'" Book i L_-_._- - A-O ' - J*« J ,- * *» ""»?«*!»» »«* »»" Printed in Great Britain London: Martin Seeker (Ltd.] Number Five John Street Adelphi To AUGUSTE Whose Work RODIN is the Marriage of Heaven and Hell CONTENTS Introduction, p i William Blake, p 13 INTRODUCTION WHEN Blake spoke the firft word ofthe nineteen century there was no one to hear it, and now that his message,the messageof emancipation from reality through the *eshapingspirit of imagination/' has penetratedthe world, and is slowly remaking it, few are conscious of the firSl utterer, in modern times, of the message with which all are familiar Thought to-day, wherever it is mo£t individual, owes either force or direction to Nietzsche,and thus we see, on our topmost towers, the Philistine armed and winged, and without the love or fear of God or man in his heart, doing battle in Nietzsche'sname against the ideas of Nietzsche No one can think, and escapeNietzsche ; but Nietzsche has come after Blake, and will passbefore Blake passes The Marriage of Heavenand Hell anticipates Nietzsche in his mo£t significant paradoxes,and, before his time, exalts energy above reason, and Evil, fcthe active springing from energy," above Good, " the passive that obeys reason." Did not Blake astonish Crabb Robinson by declaring that cetherewasnothing in good and evil, the virtues andvices" ; that " vices in the natural world were the highest sublimities in the spiritual world " ? " Man must become better and wickeder," says Nietzsche in Zarafhtttfra; and, elsewhere; ceEvery man mu§l find Ms own virtue." Sin, to Blake, is negation,is nothing; *ceverything is good in God's rv-B i William to Lmnell to have " received much valuable informa- tion from him." But the process hasbeendescribed, more simply,by Varleyhimselfin his Treatise of Zodiacal Physiognomy (1828), where the " Ghost of a Flea" and the " Constellation Cancer " arereproducedin engraving Some of theheads arefinelysymbolical, andI shouldhavethought theghostof a flea,in thesketch,aninventionmorewholly outsidenature if I had not seen,in Rome and in London, a manin whom it is impossiblenot to recognisethe type, modifiedto humanity,but scarcely by a longerdistance than the men from the animals in Giovanni delk Porta's " Fisonomia dell' Huomo." It wasin 1820,theyearin whichBkke beganhisvastpi£hire of the " Last Judgment,"only finishedin the year of his death, that he did the seventeen woodcuts to Thornton's Virgil, certainlyoneof his greatest, his mostwholly successful achievements The book was for boys' schools, and we find Blake returning without an effort to the childlike mood of the Songs of Innocence andExperience.The woodcuts have all the natural joy of those early designs,an equal simplicity, but with what addeddepth, what richness,what passionatestrength! Bkke was now engraving on wood for the first time, and he had to invent his own way of work- fag Justwhat he did hasneverbeenbetterdefinedthan in an article which appearedin the Atfan&umof January 21,1843,Olie°ftne very^ewintelligentreferences to Bkke whichcanbe foundin print between thetime of his death and the date of Gilchrist's Life " We hold it impossible," to get a genuine work of art, unlessit comepureandunadulterated fromthemindthatconceived it Still moreStrongly is theauthor'smeaning marked in the few wood-engravings whichthat wonderfulman says the writer, " iv-L *4S William Blake cut himself for an edition of Thornton's Pattorals of VirgL In token of our faith in the principle here announced, wehaveobtainedtheloanof oneof Blake'soriginal blocks, from Mr Linnell, who possessesthe whole series, to print, as an illustration of our argument,that, amid all drawbacks, there exists a power in the work of the man of genius,which no one but himself can utter fully Side by side we have printed a copy of an engraver'simproved version of the samesubject When Blake had produced his cuts, which were, however, printed with an apology, a shout of derision was raised by the wood-engravers ' This will never do/ said they; ought to be'-that * we will show what it is, what the public taste would Hke- and they producedthe aboveamendment! The engravers were quite right in their estimateof public taste; and we dare say manywill agreewith them even now : yet, to our minds, Blake's rude work, utterly without pretension, too, as an engraving-the merest attempt of a fresh apprentice -is a work of genius; whilst the latter is but a piece of smooth, tame mechanism." Blake lived at South Molton Street for seventeenyears In 1821, " on his landlord'sleavingoff business,and retiring to France," says Linnell, he removed to Fountain Court, in the Strand, where he took the first floor of " a private house kept by Mr Banes,whose wife was a sister of Mrs Blake." Linnell tells us that he was at this time " in want of employment," and, he says," before I knew his distress he had sold all his collection of old prints to Messrs Colnaghi and Co." Through Linnell's efforts, a donation of £25 was about the sametime sent to him from the Royal Academy FountainCourt (the nameis Still perpetuatedon a metal 146 William slab)wascalledsountil 1883, whenthenamewaschanged to Southampton Buildings.It hasall beenpulleddownand rebuilt,but I remember it fifteenyearsago,whentherewere lodging-houses in it, by the sideof theStage-door of Terry's Theatre It was a narrow slit between the Strand and the river, and,whenI knew it, wasdark andcomfortless,a blind alley GilchriStdescribes the two roomson the first floor, front andback,the front room usedas a reception-room; a smaller room openedout of it at the back, which was workroom, bedroom, and kitchen in one The side window lookeddownthroughan openingbetweenthehouses,showing the river and the hills beyond; and Blake worked at a table facing the window There seemsto be no doubt, from the testimonyof many friends,that Crabb Robinson's description conveys the prejudiced view of a fastidious person, and Palmer, roused by the word " squalor," wrote to GilchriSt, asserting "himself, his wife, and his rooms, were clean and orderly; everything was in its place." Tatham says that "he fixed upon these lodgings as being more congenialto his habits, as he was very much accustomed to get out of his bed in the night to write for hours, and return to bed for the re£t of the night." He rarely left the house,exceptto fetch his pint of porter from the public-house at the cornerof the Strand, It was on one of these occasions that he is said to have beencut by a Royal Academician whom he had recentlymet in society Hadnot theRoyalAcademy beenfounded(J T Smithtells us in his Bookfor a Rmny Day,underdate1768)by " members who hadagreedto withdraw themselvesfrom various clubs, not only in order to be more selectas to talent, but perfecHycorrect as to gentlemanly conduft" ? 147 William It was about this time that Blake was discovered,admired, and helped by one who has beendescribedas " not merely a poet and a painter, an art-critic, an antiquarian,and a writer of prose,an amateurof beautifulthings,anda dilettante of things delightful, but alsoa forger of no meanor ordinary capabilities, and as a subtle and secret poisoner almost without rival in this or any age." This was Lamb's " kind, light-hearted Wainewright," who in the intervals of his Strangecrimesfound time to buy a fine copy of the Songsof Innocence and to give a jaunty word of encouragementor advertisementto Jerusalem Palmer remembersBlake Stopping before one of Wainewright's pictures in the Academy and saying, " Very fine." In 1820 Blake had carried out his laSl commission from Butts in a seriesof twenty-one drawings in illustration of theBook of Job In the following yearLinnell commissioned from him a duplicate set, and in September 1821 traced them himself from Butts's copies; they were finished, and in parts altered, by Blake By an agreementdated March 25, 1823, Blake undertook to engrave the designs,which were to be published by Linnell, who gave £100 for the designsand copyright, with the promise of another £100 out of the profits on the sale There were no profits, but Linnell gave another £50, paying the whole sum of £150 in weekly sums of £2 or £3 The plates are dated March 8, 1825,but they were not published until the date given on the cover, March 1826 GilchriSt intimates that " much must be loSt by the way" in the engraving of the watercolour drawings; but Mr Russell, a better authority, saysthat " marvellousas the original water-colour drawings unquestionablywere, they are in every caseinferior to the final versionin the engraving." It is on these engravings 148 William Blaktu thatthefameofBlakeasanartistrests mostsolidly; invention andexecution arehere,ashedeckred thattheymustalways bein greatart, equal;imagination at its highestherefinds adequate expression, withouteventhe lovelyStrangeness of a defect Theyhavebeenfinallypraised anddefinedby Rossetti,in the pagescontributed to Gilchrist'sLife(i 330335),of whichMr Swinburne hassaid,with little exaggeration, that "Blake himself, had he undertaken to write noteson his designs,musthavedonethemlessjusticethan this." Before Blake had finished engravingthe designsto " Job " he had alreadybegun a new seriesof illustrations to Dante, also a commission from Linnell; and, with that passionateconscientiousness which was part of the foundation of his genius, he set to work to learn enough Italian to be able to follow the original with the help of Gary's translation Linnell not only let Blake the work he wantedto do, payinghim for it ashe did it, but he took him to seepeoplewhomit mightbeusefulfor him to know,such as the Aders, who had a house full of books and pi6tures, and who entertained artists and men of letters Mrs Aders had a small amateur talent of her own for painting, and from a letter of Carlyle's,which is preservedamongthe CrabbRobinson papers, seems to havehadliteraryknowledge as well " Has not Mrs Aders (the lady who lent me Wil- helmMeifter)greatskillin suchthings?" heasksin a letter full of minuteinquiriesinto Germannovels Lamband Coleridge wentto thehouse, andit wastherethatCrabb Robinsonmet Blake in December1825 Mr Story, in his Life of Linnell,tells us that oneof LinnelPs" mostvivid recolkaionsof thosedayswasof hearingCrabbRobinson recite Blake's poem, cThe Tiger,' beforea distinguished 149 William companygatheredat Mrs Aders's table It was a most impressiveperformance." We find Blake afterwards at a supper-party at CrabbRobinson's,with Linnell, who notes in his journal going with Blaketo Lady Ford's, to seeher pictures; in 1820we find him at Lady CarolineLamb's Along with this general society Blake now gathered about him a certain number of friends and disciples,Linnell being the Steadiestfriend, and Samuel Palmer, Edward Calvert, and George Richmond the chief disciples To thesemu§t be added,in 1826,FrederickTatham, a young sculptor, who was to be the betrayer among the disciples They called Blake's house " the House of the Interpreter," and m speaking of it afterwards speak of it always as of holy ground Thus we hear of Richmond, finding his invention flag, going to seek counsel,and how Blake, who was sitting at tea with his wife, turned to her and said: " What we do, Kate, when the visions forsake us ? " " We kneel down and pray, Mr Blake." It is Richmond who records a profoundly significant saying of Blake : "I can look at a knot in a piece of wood till I am frightened at it." Palmer tells us that Blake and his wife would look into the fire together and draw the figures they saw there, hers quite unlike his, his often terrible On Palmer'sfirst meeting with Blake, on O&ober 9, 1824, he tells us how Blake fixed his eyes upon him and said: " Do you work with fear and trembling? " " Yes, indeed," was the reply " Then," said Blake, " you'll do." The friends often met at HampStead,where Linnell had, in 1824, taken Collins's Farm, at North End, now again known by its old name of " Wyldes." Blake disliked the air of Hampftead,which he said alwaysmade him ill; but he oftenwent thereto seeLinnell, and loved the aspe£t 150 William fromhiscottage, andto sitandhearMrs.LinnellsingScotch songs,andwould sometimes himselfsing his own songs to tunesof his own making The childrenlovedTimi^and would watchfor him as he came,generallyon foot, and oneof themsaysthatsheremembers " thecoldwinternights whenBlakewaswrappedup in an old shawlby Mrs, Linnell, and sent on his homewardway, with the servant,lantern in hand, lighting him acrossthe heath to the main road." It is Palmer's son who reports it, and he adds: " It is a matter of regret that the record of thesemeetingsandwalks and conversationsis so imperfect, for in the words of one of Blake's disciples,to walk with him was like ewalking with the Prophet Isaiah.'" Once when the Palmerswere Stayingat Shoreham,the whole party went down into the country in a carrier's van drawn by eight horses: Calvert tells the Story, with picturesquedetails of Blake'ssecond- sight, and of the hunt with lanternsin Shoreham Caslde after a ghoSt,who turnedout to be a snailtappingon the broken glassof the window From the end of 1825Blake'shealthbeganto fail, andmoSt of his letters to Linnell contain apologiesfor not coming to HampStead, as he is in bed, or is sufferingfrom a cold in the Stomach It wasthebeginningof that sicknesswhich killed him, describedas the mixing of the gall with the blood He worked persistently,whetherhe was well or ill, at the Dantedrawings, whichhe madein a folio book givenhimbyLinnell Therewerea hundred pages in the book,andhedid a drawingon everypage,somecompletely finished, someamereoutlinej of these hehadonlyengraved sevenat the time of his death He satproppedup in bed, at work on his drawings, saying," Dantegoesonthebetter, whichis all I careabout." In a letterto GeorgeCumberland, iji William on April 12, 1827,he writes: