BROKENLINKS (94)

June 2016

 You may have noticed a number of links on our pages have recently led nowhere. This is because the University of Georgia is no longer supporting the material by Nelson Hilton which was provided through their domain. Professor Hilton gave us access to many resources including his work on the Blake Digital Text Project. Our links on our sidebar to Blake's Contents, Blake's Index and the Concordance to Complete Works have disappeared because of the loss of links to his works.

 

I personally am most disappointed because the links Hilton provided to images in the Four Zoas are not longer available. The page images on a number of pages of the Four Zoas which I posted, no longer have images because the files they were linked to are unavailable. I can replace the images with those which the crawler picked up when the posts were published, but the images there are of lower resolution. Hilton's images allowed us to read Blake's text as he wrote and edited it, as well as view the sketches which illuminated his pages.

 

The manuscript for the Four Zoas resides in the British Library. The library provides digital imagery for a portion of the book starting at page 44. Using Professor Hilton's files for the early pages of the manuscript and the British Library's images for later pages, I published posts on 80 of the 138 pages of the Four Zoas. There is always more work to be done but there are many hands and minds who are contributing to the effort.

 

Professor Hilton graciously replied to my plea for help with a copy of his file for the 4ZS.

 

Keep watching for further developments.

_______________________________________________

January 2018

I am happy to report that the British Library arranged for all of the images for pages of the Four Zoas to be posted at the William Blake Archive. I was concerned because the Archive does not allow copying of their images. However when I requested use of the images from the British Library they readily granted permission to download the images from the Archive and to post them to my blog. Posts which for a time had only broken links, now have pictures of the text and sketches which Blake abandoned over 200 years ago.
 

The Blake Archive provides a easily-used format and well produced images. Study of the Four Zoas should be enhanced by this addition to Blake's work which is available on the internet.

William Blake Archive

British Library Four Zoas Manuscript Page 94

Four Zoas, Night VII, Page 94, (E 367)
"Tho all those fair perfections which men know only by name
In beautiful substantial forms appeard & served her
As food or drink or ornament or in delightful works
To build her bowers for the Elements brought forth abundantly    
The living soul in glorious forms & every One came forth
Walking before her Shadowy face & bowing at her feet" 

.

. 

THE GRAVE 5

The Grave - Page 5
Fuseli's arrangement
Blake's Watercolor

Wikimedia Commons
The Grave - Page 5
Cromak's arrangement
Schiavonetti's Engraving 

  

Fuseli - V. THE GOOD OLD MAN DYING.

 
Book - 5 Death of the Strong Wicked Man

 
Perhaps it is worth noting that in Fuseli's title to the fifth illustration to Blair's The Grave, he used the word 'dying' instead of 'death' to describe what was happening. Dying is a process which takes place in the world of matter. It is the relinquishing the natural body to be replaced by the spiritual body. Man enters the Door of Death into Eternal Death not naked but carrying a body fit for Eden.

 

Blake taught that the babe is born innocent and bearing the potential for goodness to be expressed as he journeys through life in the material world. The Good Old Man Dying has not accumulated sorrows and regrets as he traveled through the Vale of Death for he lived in hope and faith and love patiently awaiting the glory which would be revealed.

Annotations to Reynolds, (E 656)
   "Reynolds Thinks that Man Learns all that he Knows I say on
the Contrary That Man Brings All that he has or Can have Into the
World with him.  Man is Born Like a Garden ready Planted & Sown  
This World is too poor to produce one Seed"  

Four Zoas, Night VII, Page 86, (E 369)
"Come hither be patient let us converse together because  
I also tremble at myself & at all my former life

Enitharmon answerd I behold the Lamb of God descending
To Meet these Spectres of the Dead I therefore fear that he
Will give us to Eternal Death fit punishment for such
Hideous offenders Uttermost extinction in eternal pain    
An ever dying life of stifling & obstruction shut out
Of existence to be a sign & terror to all who behold
Lest any should in futurity do as we have done in heaven
Such is our state nor will the Son of God redeem us but destroy
PAGE 98 [90] 
So Enitharmon spoke trembling & in torrents of tears

Los sat in Golgonooza in the Gate of Luban where     
He had erected many porches where branchd the Mysterious Tree 
Where the Spectrous dead wail & sighing thus he spoke to Enitharmon

Lovely delight of Men Enitharmon shady refuge from furious war
Thy bosom translucent is a soft repose for the weeping souls
Of those piteous victims of battle there they sleep in happy obscurity
They feed upon our life we are their victims. Stern desire
I feel to fabricate embodied semblances in which the dead
May live before us in our palaces & in our gardens of labour  
Which now opend within the Center we behold spread abroad
To form a world of Sacrifice of brothers & sons & daughters   
To comfort Orc in his dire sufferings; look! my fires enlume afresh
Before my face ascending with delight as in ancient times" 

Four Zoas, Night VIII Page 103, (E 376)
"In Golgonoozas Furnaces among the Anvils of time & space
Thus forming a Vast family wondrous in beauty & love
And they appeard a Universal female form created,
From those who were dead in Ulro from the Spectres of the dead
PAGE 104 (FIRST PORTION) 
And Enitharmon namd the Female Jerusalem the holy
Wondring she saw the Lamb of God within Jerusalems Veil
The divine Vision seen within the inmost deep recess
Of fair Jerusalems bosom in a gently beaming fire

Then sang the Sons of Eden round the Lamb of God & said 
Glory Glory Glory to the holy Lamb of God
Who now beginneth to put off the dark Satanic body
Now we behold redemption Now we know that life Eternal
Depends alone upon the Universal hand & not in us
Is aught but death In individual weakness sorrow & pain" 

Four Zoas, Night VIII, Page 104 (SECOND PORTION), (E 378)
"Los said to Enitharmon Pitying I saw
Pitying the Lamb of God Descended thro Jerusalems gates
To put off Mystery time after time & as a Man
Is born on Earth so was he born of Fair Jerusalem
In mysterys woven mantle & in the Robes of Luvah 

He stood in fair Jerusalem to awake up into Eden
The fallen Man but first to Give his vegetated body 
To be cut off & separated that the Spiritual body may be Reveald"

---

Prayer of St Francis

Lord, make me an instrument of Your peace. Where there is hatred, let me
sow love; where there is injury, pardon; where there is doubt, faith; 
where there is despair, hope; where there is darkness, light; where 
there is sadness, joy.

O, Divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek to be consoled as to
console; to be understood as to understand; to be loved as to love; For
it is in giving that we receive; it is in pardoning that we are 
pardoned; it is in dying that we are born again to eternal life. 

.

. 

THE GRAVE 4

University of Adelaide
The Grave - Page 4
Fuseli's arrangement
Blake's Watercolor

British Museum
The Grave - Page 4
Cromak's arrangement
Schiavonetti's Engraving

Fuseli - IV. THE STRONG AND WICKED MAN DYING.

Book - 4 The Counseller, King, Warrior, Mother and Child in the Tomb
 
If we are looking at Eternal Death as passage through the material world by the Soul or Identity, we encounter both righteousness and wickedness. Fuseli places the image of The Strong and Wicked Man Dying at the beginning of the journey. The implication is that there is an accumulation of darkness or wickedness which enters worldly life when the Soul first puts on the garment of flesh.
 
Some religious people would call the baggage man carries into the world original sin which originated with the disobedience of Eve and Adam in Eden. John Wesley in his sermon Original Sin emphasized that the only escape from the wickedness which is the natural condition of fallen man is God's grace through which man is reborn as a new man with a new mind.
 
Excerpt from Wesley's sermon 44, Original Sin:
 
"Keep to the plain, old faith, "once delivered to the saints," and delivered by the Spirit of God to our hearts. Know your disease! Know your cure! Ye were born in sin: Therefore, "ye must be born again," born of God. By nature ye are wholly corrupted. By grace ye shall be wholly renewed. In Adam ye all died: In the second Adam, in Christ, ye all are made alive. "You that were dead in sins hath he quickened:" He hath already given you a principle of life, even faith in him who loved you and gave himself for you! Now, "go on from faith to faith," until your whole sickness be healed; and all that "mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus!""
 
Blake's image of The Strong and Wicked Man Dying can be seen as the death of the old man from the wickedness in which he lived, in preparation for the new birth into the knowledge of God which had been foreign to him in life. If Blake is illustrating mankind as carrying the burden of original sin as he enters The Door of Death - the gateway to the journey leading to Eternity - we see the wicked man being prepared to shed the error which had created his burden. As in his poem The Mental Traveller, Blake presented the life of man in terms of both his soul and his body whose influence may alternate as he gains experience. Using Wesley's imagery, in order for the sickness of man to be healed, he must undergo the process of receiving new life by dying to the old life. 

Jerusalem, Plate 27, (E 171
"Jerusalem the Emanation of the Giant Albion! Can it be? Is it a

Truth that the Learned have explored? Was Britain the Primitive
Seat of the Patriarchal Religion? If it is true: my title-page is
also True, that Jerusalem was & is the Emanation of the Giant
Albion.  It is True, and cannot be controverted.  Ye are united O
ye Inhabitants of Earth in One Religion.  The Religion of Jesus:
the most Ancient, the Eternal: & the Everlasting Gospel--The
Wicked will turn it to Wickedness,
the Righteous to Righteousness.  Amen! Huzza! Selah!
  "All things Begin & End in Albions Ancient Druid Rocky Shore."" 

Four Zoas, Night II, Page 3, (E 300)
PAGE 3
[4 lines of  Greek text Ephesians 6:12]
[For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but
against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the
darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high
places. (King James version)] 

A Vision of the Last Judgment, (E 560)
"The Graves beneath are opend & the Dead awake & obey
the call of the Trumpet those on the Right hand awake in joy
those on the Left in Horror. beneath the Dragons Cavern a
Skeleton begins to Animate starting into life at the Trumpets
sound while the Wicked contend with each other on the brink of 
perdition." 

A Vision of the Last Judgment, (E 563)
"beneath these a Cloud of Women & Children are taken
up fleeing from the rolling Cloud which separates the Wicked from
the Seats of Bliss.  These represent those who tho willing were
too weak to Reject Error without the Assistance & Countenance of
those Already in the Truth for a Man Can only Reject Error by the
Advice of a Friend or by the Immediate Inspiration of God it is
for this Reason among many others that I have put the Lords
Supper on the Left hand of the Throne for it appears so
at the Last Judgment for a Protection" 

A Vision of the Last Judgment, (E 563)
"By this it will be seen that I do not consider either the Just
or the Wicked to be in a Supreme State but to be every one of
them States of the Sleep which the Soul may fall into in its
Deadly Dreams of Good & Evil when it leaves Paradise
following the Serpent" 

Annotations to Watson, (E 618)
"This sense of
the Bible is equally true to all & equally plain to all. none can
doubt the impression which he recieves from a book of Examples. 
If he is good he will abhor wickedness in David or Abraham if he
is wicked he will make their wickedness an excuse for his & so he
would do by any other book"

Annotations to Reynolds, (E 634)
 "the grandest Poetry is Immoral the Grandest characters
Wicked.  Very Satan.  Capanius    Othello a murderer. 
Prometheus.  Jupiter.  Jehovah, Jesus a wine bibber
     Cunning & Morality are not Poetry but Philosophy the Poet is
Independent & Wicked the Philosopher is Dependent & Good
     Poetry is to excuse Vice & show its reason & necessary
purgation"

THE GRAVE 3

 

 

 

 

The Grave - Page 3
Fuseli's arrangement
Blake's Watercolor

The Grave - Page 3
Cromak's arrangement
Schiavonetti's Engraving

 

 

Fuseli - III. DEATH'S DOOR 

Book - 3 The Meeting of a Family in Heaven

 

III. DEATH'S DOOR.

"The Door opening, that seems to make utter darkness visible; age, on crutches, hurried by a tempest into it. Above is the renovated man seated in light and glory." 

For himself and for his audience Blake longs for the passage through Eternal Death and awakening to Eternal Life. His view is that if man voluntarily enters the Door of Death, he embarks on the journey which leads to Eternal Life. There is a Golden String which man may follow through the labyrinth of existence. The preparation for undertaking the journey through the grave is awareness of the 'Immortal Man that cannot Die.

When we think metaphorically, death in the physical world connotes entry into the unknown void. But life beyond physical death is no more of a mystery than life in the physical world. The 'events' of one's life are pointers to, or tracings of, what is experienced in another realm. If life were just the passage from material birth to material death it would easily be discarded, but we cling to it tenaciously because it contains more than is revealed externally. When we are aware that we have received life as a gift, we have the responsibility to live purposefully. So death is a metaphor for relinquishing the known, just as life is a metaphor for affirming the unknown.

If one enters the Door of Death one assumes the responsibility of looking within, of exploring the recesses of the grave for the purpose of discerning what cannot be learned in the outer world.

Jerusalem, Plate 1, (E 144)
"There is a Void, outside of Existence, which if enterd into
Englobes itself & becomes a Womb, such was Albions Couch
A pleasant Shadow of Repose calld Albions lovely Land

His Sublime & Pathos become Two Rocks fixd in the Earth
His Reason his Spectrous Power, covers them above                
Jerusalem his Emanation is a Stone laying beneath
O [Albion behold Pitying] behold the Vision of Albion"

Jerusalem, Plate 4, (E 146)
"Of the Sleep of Ulro! and of the passage through
Eternal Death! and of the awaking to Eternal Life.

This theme calls me in sleep night after night, & ev'ry morn
Awakes me at sun-rise, then I see the Saviour over me
Spreading his beams of love, & dictating the words of this mild song." 

THE GATES of PARADISE For The Sexes, (E 269)
Keys
"13   But when once I did descry 
     The Immortal Man that cannot Die
14   Thro evening shades I haste away 
     To close the Labours of my Day
15   The Door of Death I open found                             
     And the Worm Weaving in the Ground"

Dedication to Blake's Illustrations to Blair's Grave, (E 480)
             "TO THE QUEEN   

The Door of Death is made of Gold,
That Mortal Eyes cannot behold;
But, when the Mortal Eyes are clos'd,
And cold and pale the Limbs repos'd,
The Soul awakes; and, wond'ring, sees
In her mild Hand the golden Keys:
The Grave is Heaven's golden Gate,
And rich and poor around it wait;
O Shepherdess of England's Fold,
Behold this Gate of Pearl and Gold!                 

  To dedicate to England's Queen 
The Visions that my Soul has seen,
And, by Her kind permission, bring 
What I have borne on solemn Wing,
From the vast regions of the Grave,
Before Her Throne my Wings I wave;
Bowing before my Sov'reign's Feet,
"The Grave produc'd these Blossoms sweet
"In mild repose from Earthly strife;
"The Blossoms of Eternal Life!               

                         WILLIAM BLAKE"

Milton, Plate 32 [35], (E 132)
"Judge then of thy Own Self: thy Eternal Lineaments explore       
What is Eternal & what Changeable? & what Annihilable!

The Imagination is not a State: it is the Human Existence itself
Affection or Love becomes a State, when divided from Imagination
The Memory is a State always, & the Reason is a State
Created to be Annihilated & a new Ratio Created                  
Whatever can be Created can be Annihilated Forms cannot
The Oak is cut down by the Ax, the Lamb falls by the Knife
But their Forms Eternal Exist, For-ever. Amen Halle[l]ujah
Thus they converse with the Dead watching round the Couch of Death.
For God himself enters Death's Door always with those that enter 
And lays down in the Grave with them, in Visions of Eternity
Till they awake & see Jesus & the Linen Clothes lying
That the Females had Woven for them, & the Gates of their Fathers House" 

.

. 

THE GRAVE 2

Life in this world is referred to by Blake as Eternal Death. Man enters it at birth and leaves it at the Last Judgment when he Annihilates his Selfhood. From the perspective of the natural man, Eternal Death is the furnace of affliction where all that can be annihilated is annihilated. From the perspective of the Redeemed Man, Eternal Death is the opportunity to pass through states which lead to Eternal Life. The lessons of love and forgiveness are learned through encountering the stages through which one passes.

Fuseli put this plate second in his order of arranging the pages of The Grave to show what man may expect to experience as he pursues his journey through life. As a man or woman travels with his or her own endowments, he/she moves into situations which elicit responses. The individual gains self-knowledge by interacting with various classes of humanity in multiple circumstances. From the images in the illustration we can focus on states we have already passed through and ones which may lie in the future as our lives unfold.

 

Fuseli's comment:

"The pious daughter weeping and conducting her sire onward; age, creeping carefully on hands and knees; an elder, without friend or kindred; a miser; a bachelor, blindly proceeding, no one knows where, ready to drop into the dark abyss; frantic youth rashly devoted to vice and passion, rushing past the diseased and old, who totters on crutches; the wan declining virgin; the miserable and distracted widow; the hale country youth; and the mother and her numerous progeny, already arrived in this valley, are among the groups which speak irresistibly to the feelings." 

 

Wikipedia Commons

The Grave - Page 2
Fuseli's arrangement
Blake's Watercolor

 

British Museum
The Grave - Page 2
Cromak's arrangement
Schiavonetti's Engraving

Milton, Plate 4, (E 98)

"Every Mans Wisdom is peculiar to his own Individuality
O Satan my youngest born, art thou not Prince of the Starry Hosts
And of the Wheels of Heaven, to turn the Mills day & night?  
Art thou not Newtons Pantocrator weaving the Woof of Locke
To Mortals thy Mills seem every thing & the Harrow of Shaddai
A scheme of Human conduct invisible & incomprehensible
Get to thy Labours at the Mills & leave me to my wrath,

Satan was going to reply, but Los roll'd his loud thunders.   

Anger me not! thou canst not drive the Harrow in pitys paths.
Thy Work is Eternal Death, with Mills & Ovens & Cauldrons.
Trouble me no more. thou canst not have Eternal Life

So Los spoke! Satan trembling obeyd weeping along the way.
Mark well my words, they are of your eternal Salvation"  

Milton, Plate 14 [15], (E 108)
"And Milton said, I go to Eternal Death! The Nations still
Follow after the detestable Gods of Priam; in pomp               
Of warlike selfhood, contradicting and blaspheming.
When will the Resurrection come; to deliver the sleeping body
From corruptibility: O when Lord Jesus wilt thou come?
Tarry no longer; for my soul lies at the gates of death.
I will arise and look forth for the morning of the grave.       
I will go down to the sepulcher to see if morning breaks!
I will go down to self annihilation and eternal death,
Lest the Last Judgment come & find me unannihilate
And I be siez'd & giv'n into the hands of my own Selfhood"

Milton, Plate 24 [26], (E 120)
"Arise O Sons give all your strength against Eternal Death
Lest we are vegetated, for Cathedrons Looms weave only Death     
A Web of Death: & were it not for Bowlahoola & Allamanda
No Human Form but only a Fibrous Vegetation
A Polypus of soft affections without Thought or Vision"

Milton, Plate 26 [28] (E 123)
"For the various Classes of Men are all markd out determinate
In Bowlahoola; & as the Spectres choose their affinities
So they are born on Earth, & every Class is determinate
But not by Natural but by Spiritual power alone, Because         
The Natural power continually seeks & tends to Destruction
Ending in Death: which would of itself be Eternal Death
And all are Class'd by Spiritual, & not by Natural power.

Milton, Plate 32 [35], (E 135)
"States Change: but Individual Identities never change nor cease:
You cannot go to Eternal Death in that which can never Die."

Jerusalem, Plate 31, [35], (E 177)
"And the Divine voice came from the Furnaces, as multitudes without
Number! the voices of the innumerable multitudes of Eternity.
And the appearance of a Man was seen in the Furnaces;            
Saving those who have sinned from the punishment of the Law,
(In pity of the punisher whose state is eternal death,)
And keeping them from Sin by the mild counsels of his love.

Albion goes to Eternal Death: In Me all Eternity.
Must pass thro' condemnation, and awake beyond the Grave!"

Jerusalem, Plate 48, (E 196)
"These were his last words, and the merciful Saviour in his arms
Reciev'd him, in the arms of tender mercy and repos'd
The pale limbs of his Eternal Individuality
Upon the Rock of Ages. Then, surrounded with a Cloud:
In silence the Divine Lord builded with immortal labour,         
Of gold & jewels a sublime Ornament, a Couch of repose,
With Sixteen pillars: canopied with emblems & written verse.
Spiritual Verse, order'd & measur'd, from whence, time shall reveal.
The Five books of the Decologue, the books of Joshua & Judges,
Samuel, a double book & Kings, a double book, the Psalms & Prophets 
The Four-fold Gospel, and the Revelations everlasting
Eternity groan'd. & was troubled, at the image of Eternal Death!"

Jerusalem, Plate 63, (E 215) 
"Without Forgiveness of Sin Love is Itself Eternal Death"

Jerusalem, Plate 96, (E 256)
"Jesus said. Wouldest thou love one who never died
For thee or ever die for one who had not died for thee
And if God dieth not for Man & giveth not himself           
Eternally for Man Man could not exist. for Man is Love:
As God is Love: every kindness to another is a little Death
In the Divine Image nor can Man exist but by Brotherhood

So saying. the Cloud overshadowing divided them asunder
Albion stood in terror: not for himself but for his Friend     
Divine, & Self was lost in the contemplation of faith
And wonder at the Divine Mercy & at Los's sublime honour

Do I sleep amidst danger to Friends! O my Cities & Counties
Do you sleep! rouze up! rouze up. Eternal Death is abroad

So Albion spoke & threw himself into the Furnaces of affliction 
All was a Vision, all a Dream: the Furnaces became
Fountains of Living Waters Howing from the Humanity Divine
And all the Cities of Albion rose from their Slumbers, and All
The Sons & Daughters of Albion on soft clouds Waking from Sleep"

 ____________ 

 
FUSELI  -  II. THE DESCENT OF MAN INTO THE VALE OF DEATH.

BOOK - 2 Christ Descending - Eternal King whose potent arm sustains the keys of Hell and Death

.. 

THE GRAVE 1

In my Father's house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you.
John 14:2

Henry Fuseli and William Blake were both 'corporeal' friends and spiritual friends: they enjoyed each others company and shared interests, but they also related with each other through the bond of a common spiritual sensitivity. Fuseli recognized in Blake's watercolor illustrations for Blair's The Grave the implications of what he was trying to communicate of everyman's spiritual journey. To enhance the message that Blake incorporated in his illustrations, Fuseli arranged the pictures in the order appropriate to carry Blake's message.

Fuseli:
"By the arrangement here made, the regular progression
of Man, from his first descent into the Vale of
Death, to his last admission into Life eternal, is
exhibited. These Designs, detached from the
Work they embellish, form of themselves a most
interesting Poem."

I. THE DESCENT OF CHRIST INTO THE GRAVE.
II. THE DESCENT OF MAN INTO THE VALE OF DEATH.
III. DEATH'S DOOR
IV. THE STRONG AND WICKED MAN DYING.
V. THE GOOD OLD MAN DYING.
VI. THE SOUL HOVERING OVER THE BODY.
VII. THE SOUL EXPLORING THE RECESSES OF THE GRAVE.
VIII. THE COUNSELLOR, KING, WARRIOR, MOTHER, AND CHILD.
IX. THE SKELETON RE-ANIMATED.
X. THE RE-UNION OF SOUL
XI. A FAMILY MEETING IN HEAVEN.
XII. THE LAST JUDGMENT.

To Blake the Door of Death marked entry into earthly life. Christ and Man alike enter the door of death to gain experience by living in a physical, mortal body. A man takes on an identity on earth suited to the tasks assigned to him. Although the man may experience himself as a body separated from his soul this is a misapprehension. The soul remains a presence which can be accessed whenever the body is prepared to receive it. In the Vale of Death are many mansions which the man may have occasion to explore as he seeks the truth which will remain when error is annihilated. When the trumpet sounds for a man he receives the transcending vision and his body of flesh is exchanged for a spiritual body suited for Eternity. Man is not alone in the Eternal Realm but reunited with the company of the redeemed in the fellowship of love. Error is annihilated and truth reigns when the Last Judgment separates the Eternal from the transient, the Infinite from restraints of space.

Cromek, the publisher, did not follow the order suggested by Fuseli but used a completely different order in the published book:

1 Title Page - The Grave - A Poem 
2 Christ Descending
3 The Meeting of a Family in Heaven
4 The Counselor, King, Warrior, Mother and Child in the Tomb
5 Death of the Strong Wicked Man
6 The Soul Hovering Over the Body reluctantly parting with Life
7 The Death of The Good Old Man
8 The Descent of Man into the Vale of Death
9 The Day of Judgment
10 The Soul Exploring the Recesses of the Grave
11 Death's Door
12 The Reunion of the Soul & the Body

The arrangement by Cromak follows the more common understanding of Death as the end of Life when the evil man is subject to punishment and the good man is rewarded in heaven by being rejoined by his soul from whom he was alienated on earth.

Page 1

Fuseli's arrangement

Blake's Watercolor

Page 1

Cromak's arrangement

Schiavonetti's Engraving 

FRONTISPIECE THE GRAVE

National Portrait Gallery Oil Portrait by Thomas Phillips 1807

The only formal portrait of William Blake was painted by Thomas Phillips in 1807. It is uncertain if the work was as a result of friendship between Phillips and Blake or in conjunction with Cromek's proposed publication of Blair's The Grave with illustrations by Blake. As it turned out Blake did not engrave the illustrations he had painted for Cromek's publication but his portrait was included prominently as the frontispiece.   

The Phillips portrait resides in the National Portrait Gallery in London. Cromek had the engraving of Blake's portrait done by Luis Schiavonetti whom he also hired to engrave Blake's images.

British Museum Luis Schiavonetti Engraving

Published book The Grave National Gallery of Victoria

Morgan Library and Museum 

Watercolor Copy from Butts Collection

Blake Portrait by Phillips  

Milton, Plate 21 [23], (E 115)
"But I knew not that it was Milton, for man cannot know
What passes in his members till periods of Space & Time
Reveal the secrets of Eternity: for more extensive
Than any other earthly things, are Mans earthly lineaments."     

Milton, Plate 32 [35], (E 132)
"And thou O Milton art a State about to be Created
Called Eternal Annihilation that none but the Living shall
Dare to enter: & they shall enter triumphant over Death
And Hell & the Grave! States that are not, but ah! Seem to be.

Judge then of thy Own Self: thy Eternal Lineaments explore

What is Eternal & what Changeable? & what Annihilable!"          

Jerusalem, Plate 38 [43], (E 185)
"Divine-
Humanity, who is the Only General and Universal Form         
To which all Lineaments tend & seek with love & sympathy
All broad & general principles belong to benevolence
Who protects minute particulars, every one in their own identity."

Descriptive Catalogue, (E 530)
"CLEARNESS and precision have been the chief objects in painting
these Pictures.  Clear colours unmudded by oil, and firm and
determinate lineaments unbroken by shadows, which ought to
display and not to hide form, as is the practice of the latter
Schools of Italy and Flanders."

Descriptive Catalogue,(E 541)
"He who does
not imagine in stronger and better lineaments, and in stronger
and better light than his perishing mortal eye can see does not
imagine at all.  The painter of this work asserts that all his
imaginations appear to him infinitely more perfect and more
minutely organized than any thing seen by his
mortal eye."

Vision of Last Judgment, (E 560)
"I intreat then that the Spectator will attend to the
Hands & Feet to the Lineaments of the Countenances they are all
descriptive of Character & not a line is drawn without intention
& that most discriminate & particular as Poetry admits not a
Letter that is Insignificant so Painting admits not a Grain of
Sand or a Blade of Grass Insignificant much less an
Insignificant Blur or Mark" 

.