William Blake - Arthur Symons (1907)

7/30/2019 William Blake - Arthur Symons (1907)

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^^^'

PHILURA

GOULD

BALDWIN

MEMORIAL

LIBRARY

Gift

of

Dr..

J5.

L,..9.r?.?.?H9.?


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Digitized

by

the Internet

Archive

in

2010

http://www.archive.org/details/williamblakeOOsymo


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WILLIAM

BLAKE


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ND

497

.B6 S85

Symonsj

Arthur* 1865-1945.

l^i I

Li

am Blake ?

WILLIAM

BLAKE

BY

ARTHUR

SYMONS

LONDON

AECHIBALD

CONSTABLE

AND

COMPANY

LTD.

1907

nimum

mm


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Edinburgh

: T.

and

A. Constaiile,

Printers to His

Majesty


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TO

AUGUSTE

RODIN

WHOSE

WORK

IS

THE

MARRIAGE

OF

HEAVEN

AND HELL

'^

LIBRARY


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PEEFACE

It was

when

Mr. Sampson's

edition of Blake

came into

my

hands

in

the

winter of 1905

that

the

idea of writing a

book on

Blake

first

presented

itself

to

me.

From

a

boy

he

had

been one of

my

favourite poets,

and

I

had

heard

a

great deal

about

him

from

Mr.

Yeats as

long

ago

as 1893,

the year

in

which

he and Mr. Ellis brought

out their vast

cyclopaedia, The

Works

of

William

Blake,

Poetic, Symbolic, and

Critical.

From

that

time to this Blake

has

never

been out

of

my

mind,

but

I

have

always

hesitated to

write

down

anything on a subject

so

great in

itself,

and

already

handled

by

great

poets. Things

have

been

written

about

Blake

by

Rossetti

which no

one will

ever

surpass

;

and in

Mr.

Swinburne's

book

Blake

himself

seems

to


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viii

WILLIAM

BLAKE

speak

again, as

through

the

mouth

of a

herald.

I

read

these,

I

read

everything

that

had

been

written

about

him

;

gradually

I

got

to

know

all his

work,

in

all its

kinds

;

and

when

I

found,

in

Mr.

Sampson's

book,

the

rarest

part of

his

genius,

disentangled

at last

from

the

confusions

of

the

commen-

tators,

I caught

some

impulse

was it

from

the

careful

enthusiasm

of

this

editor,

or

perhaps straight

from

Blake

?

and

began

to

write

down

what

now

filled

and

over-

flowed

my

mind.

Having

begun

on

an

impulse, I

laid

my

plans as

strictly as

I

could,

and

decided

to

make a

book

which

would

be,

in its

way,

complete.

There

was

to be,

first,

my own

narrative,

containing,

as

briefly

as

possible,

every

fact

of

import-

ance, with

my

own

interpretation

of what

I

took

to

be

Blake's

achievements

and

in-

tentions. But

this was to

be

followed

by

a

verbatim

reprint

of

documents.

These

docu-

ments

were

the

material

of

Gilchrist, but,

even after

Gilchrist's

use

of

them, they

remain

of

primary

and

undiminished

im-


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PREFACE

ix

portance

:

they

are

the

main

evidence in

our

case.

The

documents

which

form the

second

part of my

book contain every

personal

account

of Blake which was

printed

during

his lifetime, and

between the

time

of

his

death and the publication

of

Gilchrist's

Life

in

1863,

together

with the

complete

text

of

every reference

to

Blake in the

Diary,

Letters, and Reminiscences of

Crabb

Kobin-

son,

transcribed

for

the

first

time

from

the

original manuscripts.

All these I

have

given

exactly

as

they

stand,

not

correcting

their

errors, for even

errors

have their

value

as

evidence.

The

only

other document

of

the

period

which

exists was

written

by

Frede-

rick

Tatham,

within

two

years of the

appear-

ance

of

Cunningham's

Life,

and

bound

up

at

the

beginning of

a

coloured copy

of Blake's

Jerusalem, now

in

the

possession

of Captain

Archibald

Stirling.

This manuscript

was

consulted by Mr.

Swinburne and

afterwards

by

Mr.

Ellis and Mr.

Yeats

;

but

though

many

extracts

have been

made

from it, it


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X

WILLIAM

BLAKE

was

printed

for

the

first time

by Mr.

Archi-

bald

G.

B.

Russell in

his

edition of

The

Letters

of

William Blake

(Methuen,

1906).

This

very

important volume

completes

the

task which

I

have

here

undertaken

:

the

reprint

of

every

record

of

Blake

from

con-

temporary

sources.

The mere

contact with Blake

seems to

awaken

the

natural

generosity

of

those

who

have

concerned

themselves

with

him. To

Mr. John Sampson,

the

editor of

the only

accurate

edition

of

Blake's poems,

I am

indebted

for

more

help

and encouragement

than

I can hope

to express in

detail

;

and

particularly for prompting me

to

a search

among

birth and

marriage

and

death

regis-

ters,

by

which

I

have

been

enabled

to

settle

several

disputed

points

of some

interest.

To

Mr.

A.

G.

B.

Bussell

I owe

constant

personal

help,

and

the

very

generous loan

of

the

proofs of his edition of

Blake's

Letters,

and

of

Tatham's

Life,

with

free leave

to use

them

in the

narrative

which I was

writing

at

a

time when

his

book

had not

yet

appeared.


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PREFACE

xi

Through

this

favour

I

have

been able

to

take

such

facts as

Tatham

is responsible

for

directly

from

Tatham,

and

not

at

second-

hand.

I

am

also indebted

to

Mr.

Russell

for reading my proofs and

saving me

from

some errors of

fact.

I

have to

thank

Mr.

Buxton

Forman

for

allowing me

to

read

and describe the

unpublished

manuscript

in Blake's

handwriting

in his possession.

Finally,

my particular

thanks

are

due

to

the

Librarian

of

Dr.

Williams's

Library,

Mr.

Francis

H.

Jones, for

permission

to

copy

and

print

the

full text of

all

the

references to

Blake in

the

Crabb

Bobinson Manuscripts.

London, April

1907.


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xiv

WILLIAM BLAKE

Butler

Yeats.

Three

yolumes.

Quaritch,

1893.

8.

The

Poems

of

JVilliam Blake.

Edited by

W.

B.

Yeats. 'The

Muses'

Library.' Lawrence &

Bullen,

1893.

9.

William

Blalce

:

his

Life,

Character,

mid

Genius.

By

Alfred T.

Story.

Sonnenschein

& Co.,

1893.

10.

William

Blake : Painter

and

Poet.

By

Richard

Garnett.

'Portfolio,'

1895.

11.

Ideas

of

Good

and

Evil.

By

W.

B.

Yeats.

(William Blake

and

the Imagination,

William

Blake

and

his Illustrations to

the

Divine

Comedy.)

A.

H.

Bullen,

1903.

12.

The Rossetti

Papers

(1862

to

1870);

a

Compilation

by

W.

M.

RossETTL Sands

& Co.,

1903.

13.

The Pro2)hetic

Books

of

JFilliam

Blake:

Jerusalem.

Edited

by

E. R.

D. Maclagan

and

A. Gr.

B.

Russell.

Bullen, 1904.

14.

The

Poetical

Works

of

William

Blake.

Edited

by

John

Sampson. Oxford,

1905.

15.

The

Letters

of

William,

Blake

;

together

with

a

Life

by

Frederick

Tatham.

Edited

by Archibald

G.

B.

Russell.

Methuen,

1906.


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LIST OF BOOKS CONSULTED

xv

16.

The

Poetical JForlcs

of

William Blake.

Edited

and

annotated

by

Edwin J. Ellis.

Two

volumes.

Chatto

& Windus, 1906.

(The only edition

containing

the

Prophetic

Books.)

17. JVilliam Blake.

Vol.

L

Illustrations of

the

Book of

Job,

with

a

general

Introduction

by

Laurence

Bin

YON. Methuen,

1906.

18. The Real Blake.

A

Portrait

Biography.

By

Edwin

J.

Ellis.

Chatto &

Windus,

1907.


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PAGE

CONTENTS

PART I

WILLIAM

BLAKE,

1

PART II

RECORDS

FROM

CONTEMPORARY SOURCES :

(I.)

Extracts

from the

Diary,

Letters,

AND

Reminiscences of Henry Crabb

Robinson, transcribed frojm

the

Original

MSS.

in

Dr. Williams's

Library,

1810-1852,

.

. .251

(1)

From

Crabb Robinson's

Diary, 253

(2)

From a

Letter

of

Crabb Robin-

son to

Dorothy

Wordsworth, 272

(3)

From

Crabb Robinson's

Remi-

niscences,

.... 278

(II.)

From

'A Father's

Memoirs

of his

Child,'

by

Benjamin

Heath

Malkin

(1806),

307

b


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xviii

WILLIAM

BLAKE

PAGE

(III.) From

Lady

Charlotte

Bury's

Diary

(1820),

331

(IV.)

Blake's

Horoscope

(1825),

.

337

(V.)

Obituary

Notices

in the

'Literary

GrAZETTE

'

AND

'

GeNTLEMAN'S MAGA-

ZINE,'

1827,

343

(VI.)

Extract

from

Varley's Zodiacal

Physiognomy

(1828),

.

William Blake - Arthur Symons (1907)

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