DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.31843#0058
ENGRAVED DESIGNS OF WILLIAM BLAKE
The title is Gilchrist's. Mr. Russell aptly suggests that the design
is likely to have been inspired by the lines in Romeo and Juliet:
Night's candles are burnt out, and jocund Day
Stands tiptoe on the misty mountain-tops.
But it would not be like Blake merely to illustrate another poet's
image, unless he was working for a commission; and the gigantic
moth flying away to darkness at the apparition of this radiant youth,
and the slug or serpent slinking to its retreat, suggest that (though
Shakespeare's lines may well have been in his mind) Blake was por-
traying Light as the disperser of Error and Evil, and, perhaps uncon-
sciously, himself as the herald of the Light.
E. J. Ellis (The Real Blakef p. 31) asserts with confidence that Blake
was here drawing from his own naked figure. Whether this be so,
or not, I agree with Mr. Russell in seeing a marked likeness in the face
to that pencil head of Blake, with flame-like hair, done by his wife in
the early years of their marriage. The drawing belonged to Herbert
Horne and passed into the collection of Mr. Edward Marsh. It is
reproduced as frontispiece to Ellis and Yeats' Blake.
First State : As reproduced.
Second State : With added inscription engraved below the subject:
Albion arose from where he labour’d at the Mill with slaves.
Giving himself for the Nations, he danced the dance of Eternal Death.
See also the colour-print, No. 347.
10. Illustration to an Elegy set to Music by Thomas Commins.
As a boat comes to shore, a young man on the prow leaps to land,
where his wife and child rush with outstretched arms to embrace
him. Trees and dark water beyond. The design is of oval shape,
enclosed in a wreath of palm. Below, W. Blake del. & sculp\
Printed as cover to an insipid sentimental ballad (with music),
four lines of which are engraved beneath the subject:
The shatter'd barkfrom adverse winds
Rest in this peaceful haven finds,
And when the storms of life are past
Hope drops her anchor here at last.
PublisKd July 1, 1786, by J. Fentum, No. 78 Corner of Salisbury
Street, Strand.
(Engraved surface) 6| x 5! in.
Reproduced by Russell, Plate 3.
38
The title is Gilchrist's. Mr. Russell aptly suggests that the design
is likely to have been inspired by the lines in Romeo and Juliet:
Night's candles are burnt out, and jocund Day
Stands tiptoe on the misty mountain-tops.
But it would not be like Blake merely to illustrate another poet's
image, unless he was working for a commission; and the gigantic
moth flying away to darkness at the apparition of this radiant youth,
and the slug or serpent slinking to its retreat, suggest that (though
Shakespeare's lines may well have been in his mind) Blake was por-
traying Light as the disperser of Error and Evil, and, perhaps uncon-
sciously, himself as the herald of the Light.
E. J. Ellis (The Real Blakef p. 31) asserts with confidence that Blake
was here drawing from his own naked figure. Whether this be so,
or not, I agree with Mr. Russell in seeing a marked likeness in the face
to that pencil head of Blake, with flame-like hair, done by his wife in
the early years of their marriage. The drawing belonged to Herbert
Horne and passed into the collection of Mr. Edward Marsh. It is
reproduced as frontispiece to Ellis and Yeats' Blake.
First State : As reproduced.
Second State : With added inscription engraved below the subject:
Albion arose from where he labour’d at the Mill with slaves.
Giving himself for the Nations, he danced the dance of Eternal Death.
See also the colour-print, No. 347.
10. Illustration to an Elegy set to Music by Thomas Commins.
As a boat comes to shore, a young man on the prow leaps to land,
where his wife and child rush with outstretched arms to embrace
him. Trees and dark water beyond. The design is of oval shape,
enclosed in a wreath of palm. Below, W. Blake del. & sculp\
Printed as cover to an insipid sentimental ballad (with music),
four lines of which are engraved beneath the subject:
The shatter'd barkfrom adverse winds
Rest in this peaceful haven finds,
And when the storms of life are past
Hope drops her anchor here at last.
PublisKd July 1, 1786, by J. Fentum, No. 78 Corner of Salisbury
Street, Strand.
(Engraved surface) 6| x 5! in.
Reproduced by Russell, Plate 3.
38