William Blake: A Study of His Life and Art WorkLangridge, Irene
General
William Blake: A Study of His Life and Art Work
Langridge, Irene
Blake, William, 1757-1827
The second plate I would call attention to is a nightmare horror entitled
the "Accusers of Theft, Adultery and Murder." There are a trio of furies,
only male instead of female; the watermark of the paper is 1794. A similar
design, not so finely coloured, was sold at Messrs. Hodgson's for L15
10_s._ The third is a lovely little gem representing John the Baptist
preaching to a beautifully grouped crowd. Its fellow sold at the same sale
for L26 10_s._ The fourth represents a semi-nude figure, with head
downcast, sitting beneath the bent and blasted stump of a tree, while to
the left a woman nude and of remarkable beauty tosses a child high in arm.
It is thought that this plate may have been intended for a cancel in
"America"; for another one, more beautiful in colouring than this, which
was also sold at Messrs. Hodgson's, and for L42, was found to bear some
text from "America," faintly discernible under the colouring on the upper
half of the plate, which could be read only from the back.
In 1795 Blake produced the "Song of Los." The Print Room copy is heavy and
opaque in colour, though very splendid and rich, and the Library copy is
similar in most respects. It was evidently colour-printed after the method
described above, for the peculiar mottled backgrounds are an effect that
could not very well have been realized by any other method, nor even then
are they understandable, unless indeed Blake had a wooden stamp which he
impressed on the blobs of colour first laid on the paper itself.
The "Song of Los" is the Song of Time, and includes the "Songs of Africa,
and Asia." So now Blake has written a song of prophecy for each of the
four great parts of the earth. "Africa" deals in a wild incoherent way
with the rise of the various religions. Urizen delivers his laws of brass
and iron and gold to all the Nations. These were "the nets and gins and
traps to clutch the joys of Eternity," and Har and Heva--representatives
of natural humanity--find "all the vast of Nature shrunk before their
shrunken eyes," for the senses are the limits put upon perception.
Thus the terrible race of Los and Enitharmon gave
Laws and Religions to the Sons of Har, binding them more
And more to Earth: closing and restraining:
Till a philosophy of the Five Senses was complete.
Urizen wept and gave it into the hands of Newton and Locke!
In "Asia" Urizen hears the despairing cry of his creation, and himself
shudders and weeps, but unavailingly. Orc is heard raging on Mount Atlas,
where he is chained down with the chain of jealousy. Orc is the Flame of
Genius, the true deliverer of the Race. He was chained by his father and
mother in fear of Urizen's jealousy, but we know that he will break free
at last, and bring his living fire into the hearts of the chosen of the
peoples.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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