DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.31843#0141
CATALOGUE OF BLAKE'S ENGRAVED DESIGNS
of Dr. Keynes' Bibliography, a fourth copy, from the Windus collec-
tion, was sold at Sotheby's, n December, 1923, and is now in
America. This contains yet another page, 50 pages in all. It is on
paper water-marked 1815, and is the latest of the four copies known.
(See ** A Note ... on a new page ... in Blake’s Milton” by S. Foster
Damon, Boston, 1925, with coloured reproductions.)
Milton was composed in its first form (dealing with the quarrel
with Hayley) while Blake was still at Felpham, but was largely added
to after his return to London in 1803, after the title-page had been
engraved with the date 1804.
350. Title-page. Milton's descent into Eternal Death.
A naked man (the spiritual form of Milton), seen from behind, is
moving away into a cloud of swirling vapour, on which, and round
his figure, is written the title: Milton, a Poem in [i]2 books. The Author
& Printer W. Blake 1804. Below, To Justify the Ways of God to Men.
6J X 4I in.
See reproduction, Plate 62.
The New York copy appears to give ** 12 books/' instead of 2.
Keynes in his Bibliography says this is a mistake, one of the lines of
decoration being mistaken for the 1, but since seeing the Windus
copy, where the figures are clear, retracts this opinion. In the Print
Room copy the figure 1 has been carefully painted over with ink.
351. Headpiece to Book I.
Above the title blazes a five-pointed star, darting its rays into dark-
ness. Under the title, a male and a female form, spirits of corn and
vine, seem to have sprung out of the fruitful earth. Text below.
5l X4s in.
352. Page 3.* ** Before a sort of Druidic Acropolis, three women with
the spindles and distaffs of Generation stand or crouch in despair.
A fourth, without such instruments, crouches in despair at the
extreme left," (Damon.) Text above.
353. Page 4. A solitary rider comes from under a colossal Druid arch
on a road by which is an immense boulder. Stars and crescent moon
in the sky. Text above and below.
6£ X 3I in.
of Dr. Keynes' Bibliography, a fourth copy, from the Windus collec-
tion, was sold at Sotheby's, n December, 1923, and is now in
America. This contains yet another page, 50 pages in all. It is on
paper water-marked 1815, and is the latest of the four copies known.
(See ** A Note ... on a new page ... in Blake’s Milton” by S. Foster
Damon, Boston, 1925, with coloured reproductions.)
Milton was composed in its first form (dealing with the quarrel
with Hayley) while Blake was still at Felpham, but was largely added
to after his return to London in 1803, after the title-page had been
engraved with the date 1804.
350. Title-page. Milton's descent into Eternal Death.
A naked man (the spiritual form of Milton), seen from behind, is
moving away into a cloud of swirling vapour, on which, and round
his figure, is written the title: Milton, a Poem in [i]2 books. The Author
& Printer W. Blake 1804. Below, To Justify the Ways of God to Men.
6J X 4I in.
See reproduction, Plate 62.
The New York copy appears to give ** 12 books/' instead of 2.
Keynes in his Bibliography says this is a mistake, one of the lines of
decoration being mistaken for the 1, but since seeing the Windus
copy, where the figures are clear, retracts this opinion. In the Print
Room copy the figure 1 has been carefully painted over with ink.
351. Headpiece to Book I.
Above the title blazes a five-pointed star, darting its rays into dark-
ness. Under the title, a male and a female form, spirits of corn and
vine, seem to have sprung out of the fruitful earth. Text below.
5l X4s in.
352. Page 3.* ** Before a sort of Druidic Acropolis, three women with
the spindles and distaffs of Generation stand or crouch in despair.
A fourth, without such instruments, crouches in despair at the
extreme left," (Damon.) Text above.
353. Page 4. A solitary rider comes from under a colossal Druid arch
on a road by which is an immense boulder. Stars and crescent moon
in the sky. Text above and below.
6£ X 3I in.