DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.31843#0129
CATALOGUE OF BLAKE'S ENGRAVED DESIGNS
293. Page 6. Famine.
Before a hearth, over the fire of which a steaming cauldron is hung,
sit two women. One has her head bowed between her knees, and her
hair streams down to the floor. The other sits looking up at the
cauldron. A young child lies dead before her,
9! X 6f in.
This is one of Blake's worst designs. In 1805 he made a drawing
Famine, now in the Boston Museum, reproduced by Mr, Figgis,
Plate 65. It is charged with a stark intensity of tragic imagination,
beside which this well-fed cannibal female, in a comfortable chair,
watching the pot in which the baby is to seethe, is merely disgusting.
294. Page 7. Plague.
Before a closed door, on which is written Lord Have Mercy on us,
a woman collapses, throwing up despairing arms. At the left a man
supports a stricken girl. A man passes with a bell in his hand.
9i X 6f in.
See reproduction, Plate 54.
295. Page 8. An old man stands with hands outstretched as if to repel
the terrors coming on, seen only in a rolling cloud of smoke. A
woman clasps his knees. Text above.
9fx6| in.
The lines written below the plate in the Print Room copy are from
Dryden's translation of the JEneid, Book II (the taking of Troy).
296. Page 9. At the right of the text a blade of corn springs up and
swirls over the page, enclosing the frenzied forms of two genii, male
and female, who blow through curved trumpets the spotty mildew on
the corn.
9! X 6| in.
297. Page 10. At the left of the text springs up in spiral coils the form
of a flame-breathing serpent. ** Thought changed the Infinite to a
Serpent." Line 86,
9l x 6J in.
298. Page 11. At the top sits Priestcraft enthroned on a cloud, with
bat's wings and with a triple crown ; on his knees is the book copied
from ** the brazjen book " of Urisen. Below, two angels bending
109
293. Page 6. Famine.
Before a hearth, over the fire of which a steaming cauldron is hung,
sit two women. One has her head bowed between her knees, and her
hair streams down to the floor. The other sits looking up at the
cauldron. A young child lies dead before her,
9! X 6f in.
This is one of Blake's worst designs. In 1805 he made a drawing
Famine, now in the Boston Museum, reproduced by Mr, Figgis,
Plate 65. It is charged with a stark intensity of tragic imagination,
beside which this well-fed cannibal female, in a comfortable chair,
watching the pot in which the baby is to seethe, is merely disgusting.
294. Page 7. Plague.
Before a closed door, on which is written Lord Have Mercy on us,
a woman collapses, throwing up despairing arms. At the left a man
supports a stricken girl. A man passes with a bell in his hand.
9i X 6f in.
See reproduction, Plate 54.
295. Page 8. An old man stands with hands outstretched as if to repel
the terrors coming on, seen only in a rolling cloud of smoke. A
woman clasps his knees. Text above.
9fx6| in.
The lines written below the plate in the Print Room copy are from
Dryden's translation of the JEneid, Book II (the taking of Troy).
296. Page 9. At the right of the text a blade of corn springs up and
swirls over the page, enclosing the frenzied forms of two genii, male
and female, who blow through curved trumpets the spotty mildew on
the corn.
9! X 6| in.
297. Page 10. At the left of the text springs up in spiral coils the form
of a flame-breathing serpent. ** Thought changed the Infinite to a
Serpent." Line 86,
9l x 6J in.
298. Page 11. At the top sits Priestcraft enthroned on a cloud, with
bat's wings and with a triple crown ; on his knees is the book copied
from ** the brazjen book " of Urisen. Below, two angels bending
109