BLAKE'S PROPHETIC PSYCHOLOGY

Transcription

1 BLAKE'S PROPHETIC PSYCHOLOGY

2 By the same author YEATS: A Psychoanalytic Study

3 Blake's Prophetic Psychology Brenda S. Webster

4 Brenda S. Webster 1983 Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 1983 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without permission First published 1983 by THE MACMILLAN PRESS LTD London and Basingstoke Companies and representatives throughout the world ISBN ISBN (ebook) DOI /

5 For my mother Ethel Schwabacher a visionary artist

6 Contents List of Illustrations Acknowledgements List of Abbreviations Vlll Xl Xlll Introduction 1 1 An Island in the Moon: Images of Dirt and Purity 9 2 Tiriel and Thel: Forms of Devouring and Self-sacrifice 31 3 The Case for Impulse 61 4 Fathers and Sons: Impotence or Rebellion 91 5 The Origins of Loss Vala and The Four Zoas Blake's Milton 8 Jerusalem Conclusion 293 Notes 298 Index 315 vii

7 List of Illustrations 1 Tiriel: Tiriel Supporting Myratana (Bentley, plate J) (Gwen Lady Melchett Collection, British Museum) 33 2 Tiriel: Har and Heva Bathing, drawing 2 (Fitzwilliam Museum) 37 3 Tiriel: Har and Heva Asleep (Bentley, plate VIII) (Sir Geoffrey Keynes Collection, Cambridge University Library) 37 4 (a) Tiriel: Tiriel Denouncing his Four Sons and Five Daughters (Bentley, plate vi) (Sir Geoffrey Keynes Collection, Cambridge University Library) 42 (b) War and the Fear of Invasion (Whitworth Art Gallery) 42 (c) The Marriage of Heaven and Hell, plate i (frontispiece) (Bodleian Library) 43 5 The Book of Thel, plate 4 (Huntington Library) 51 6 The Book of Thel, plate ii, title-page (British Museum) 58 7 The Marriage of Heaven and Hell, plate 11 (Fitzwilliam Museum) 74 8 The Marriage of Heaven and Hell, plate 16 (Fitzwilliam Museum) 78 9 The Marriage of Heaven and Hell, plate 21 (Pierpont Morgan Library) The Marriage of Heaven and Hell, plate 10 (collection of Sir Geoffrey Keynes) The Marriage of Heaven and Hell, plate 3 (collection of Sir Geoffrey Keynes) The Marriage of Heaven and Hell, plate 4 (collection of Sir Geoffrey Keynes) Visions of the Daughters of Albion, plate iii (Argument) (Lessing ]. Rosenwald Collection, Library of Congress) 93 Vlll

8 List of Illustrations IX 14 Visions of the Daughters of Albion, plate 1 (Lessing]. Rosenwald Collection, Library of Congress) Visions of the Daughters of Albion, plate i (frontispiece) (Henry W. and Albert A. Berg Collection, New York Public Library) Visions of the Daughters of Albion, plate 3 (Lessing J. Rosenwald Collection, Library of Congress) Visions of the Daughters of Albion, plate 6 (Lessing ]. Rosenwald Collection, Library of Congress) America a Prophecy, plate 1 (Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Yale University) America a Prophecy, plate 4 (Huntington Library) America a Prophecy, plate c (cancelled plate) (Lessing J. Rosenwald Collection, Library of Congress) America a Prophecy, plate 6 (Sir George Gray Collection, Auckland Public Library) America a Prophecy, plate 11 (Sir George Gray Collection, Auckland Public Library) America a Prophecy, plate 14 (Sir George Gray Collection, Auckland Public Library) (a) Europe a Prophecy, plate i (frontispiece) (Huntington Library) 126 (b) Europe a Prophecy, plate iia (Pierpont Morgan Library) Europe a Prophecy, plate 1 (Sir George Gray Collection, Auckland Public Library) Europe a Prophecy, plate 4 (Sir George Gray Collection, Auckland Public Library) Europe a Prophecy, plate 6 (Sir George Gray Collection, Auckland Public Library) Europe a Prophecy, plate 8 (Sir George Gray Collection, Auckland Public Library) Europe a Prophecy, plate 11 (Sir George Gray Collection, Auckland Public Library) Europe a Prophecy, plate 13 (Sir George Gray Collection, Auckland Public Library) Europe a Prophecy, plate 15 (Sir George Gray Collection, Auckland Public Library) (a) Notebook, p. 65 (British Museum) 145 (b) Songs of Experience, plate 41 (Gilchrist, 1863) 145

9 x List of Illustrations 32 (c) Songs of Experience, plate 43 (Gilchrist, 1863) Songs of Innocence and of Experience, plate 48 (Houghton Library, Harvard University) The Book of Urizen, plate 1 (Lessing ]. Rosenwald Collection, Library of Congress) The Book of Urizen, plate 5 (Lessing ]. Rosenwald Collection, Library of Congress) The Book of Urizen, plate 10 (Huntington Library) The Book of Urizen, plate 11 (Pierpont Morgan Library) The Book of Urizen, plate 17 (Lessing J. Rosenwald Collection, Library of Congress) The Book of Urizen, plate 21 (Huntington Library) The Book of Urizen, plate 14 (Lessing ]. Rosenwald Collection, Library of Congress) The Book of Los, plate 2 (British Museum) For Children: The Gates of Paradise (frontispiece) (Paul Mellon Collection, Yale Center for British Art) , 58-9 For Children: The Gates of Paradise, emblems 1-16 (Paul Mellon Collection, Yale Center for British Art) S7 (a) Notebook, manuscript (British Museum) 196 (b) Notebook, manuscript (British Museum) 197 (c) Notebook, manuscript (British Museum) From Vala manuscript (British Museum) Milton, plate 18 (British Museum) Milton, plate 32 (British Museum) Milton, plate 36 (British Museum) Milton, plate 47 (British Museum) Milton, plate 45 (British Museum) Jerusalem, plate 21 (Houghton Library, Harvard University) Jerusalem, plate 25 (Houghton Library, Harvard University) Jerusalem, plate 69 (Houghton Library, Harvard University) Jerusalem, plate 75 (Houghton Library, Harvard University) Jerusalem, plate 99 (Paul Mellon Collection, Yale Center for British Art) 291

10 Acknowledgements For permission to reproduce illuminated pages and drawings in their collections I am indebted to the Auckland Public Library (plates from America, copy N, and Europe, copy I); the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Yale University (a plate from America, copy K); the Henry W. and Albert A. Berg Collection, New York Public Library, Astor, Lenox and Tilden Foundations (a plate from Visions of the Daughters of Albion, copy K); the Bodleian Library (a plate from Marriage); the trustees of the British Museum (a plate from Thel, copy D; plates from Book of Los, copy A, and Milton, copy A; a plate from Tiriel; drawings from Vala and Blake's Notebook); Cambridge University Library (plates from Tiriel); the Fitzwilliam Museum (plates from Marriage of Heaven and Hell, copy I; a plate from Tiriel); the Houghton Library, Harvard University (plates from Jerusalem, copy D; plates from Songs of Innocence and of Experience); the Huntington Library, San Marino, California (a plate from America; plates from Europe, Urizen, and The!, copy L); Sir Geoffrey Keynes (plates from Marriage of Heaven and Hell, copy E; plates from Tiriel); Paul Mellon (a plate from Jerusalem, copy E); the Paul Mellon Collection, Yale Center for British Art (plates from For Children: The Gates of Paradise, copy E); Oxford University Press (plates from G. E. Bentley's Blake's Tiriel); the Pierpont Morgan Library (a plate from Marriage, copy C; a plate from Urizen, copy B; and a plate from Europe, plate iia); the Lessing J. Rosenwald Collection, Library of Congress (plates from Visions of the Daughters of Albion, copy J; plates from Urizen, copy G; a plate from America, plate c, cancelled plate); the Whitworth Art Gallery, Manchester (War and the Fear of Invasion). I am indebted to several friends, particularly Robert Cole and Xl

11 xu Acknowledgements Frederick Crews, for help at times amounting to collaboration; to Robert Alter, Carol Cosman, Kurt Eissler, Sandra Gilbert, Bruce Golden, Eric Johannesson, Ira Lapidus, Ellie Ragland-Sullivan and Bernard Wishey for their suggestions and critical reading of various parts of the manuscript; to David Erdman for generously allowing me to use his Blake photographs; to Page Wickland for cutting and editing an early draft; to Grace O'Connol and Florence Myers for superb typing; and to Mrs Danton at Herrick Hospital for her cheerful help in getting books.

12 List of Abbreviations Ah A E E FZ GP IB 1M J L M MHH N SE T Th U V VDA The Book of Ahania America a Prophecy The Poetry and Prose of William Blake, ed. David V. Erdman Europe a Prophecy The Four Zoas The Gates of Paradise David V. Erdman, The Illuminated Blake An Island in the Moon Jerusalem The Book of Los Milton The Marriage of Heaven and Hell Notebook Songs of Experience Tiriel The Book of Thel The Book of Urizen Vala Visions of the Daughters of Albion Unless otherwise indicated, all references given in the text to Blake's works are to David V. Erdman (ed.), The Poetry and Prose of William Blake (New York: Anchor Books, 1970). Citations are given by work, plate or page number (for An Island in the Moon, chapter number), and line number(s) where appropriate, followed by tile page number in Erdman. For example, VDA 2:10-15, E 45 means Visions of the Daughters of Albion, plate 2, lines 10-15, page 45 of Erdman. For shorter poems identified in the text that are not Xlll

13 XIV List of Abbreviations divided into plates or pages, no title abbreviation is given and only line numbers follow the quotations. Unless otherwise indicated, all references given in the text to Blake's illustrations are to David V. Erdman, The Illuminated Blake (New York: Anchor Books, 1974). Citations are given by poem and plate number, followed by the page number in The Illuminated Blake (IB). For example, Th 5, IB 39 means plate 5 of Thel, page 39 of The Illuminated Blake.