TO NOBODADDY
‘Nobodaddy’ is Daddy Nobody, Blake’s coinage for God the Father.
‘THE MODEST ROSE…’
Becomes ‘The Lilly’, SE, p. 126.
‘WHEN THE VOICES…’
Becomes ‘Nurses Song’, SE, p. 123. ‘Contrary’ to that of SI, p. 114.
THE TYGER
First version: stanza 5 (‘When the stars threw down their spears’) was written later than the rest, and added on the following page of the Notebook.
Second version: this is a fair draft, written on the later page, of stanzas 1, 3, 5, 6, with stanza 2 then added to the left. But stanza 4 was now missing, and B. was apparently dissatisfied with this version. It was crossed out with several heavy strokes, and the previous rough draft was used as the basis for the final text in SE, p. 125.
THE HUMAN IMAGE
With the last six lines omitted, this becomes ‘The Human Abstract’, SE, p. 128.
THE SICK ROSE
Used, almost unchanged, in SE, p. 123.
‘NAUGHT LOVES ANOTHER…’
Becomes ‘A Little Boy Lost’, SE, p. 130.
THE CHIMNEY SWEEPER
Used unchanged in SE, p. 123.
MERLINS PROPHECY
In Geoffrey of Monmouth’s History of the Kings of Britain, ‘Merlin’s Prophecy’ is a series of gnomic verses which move from historic matters to apocalyptic imaginings. In King Lear the Fool concludes his set of satiric tetrameter couplets with a laconic ‘This prophecy Merlin shall make; for I live before his time’ (III.ii.95).
‘ABSTINENCE SOWS SAND…’
2 The ruddy limbs & flaming hair Adapted from the ‘ruddy limbs and flourishing hair’ of ‘To Summer’, PS, p. 21.
THE LITTLE VAGABOND
Used, slightly altered, in SE, p. 127.
RICHES
1 a merry heart Stock ballad phrase, as in ‘A merry heart goes all the day, Your sad heart tires in a mile-a’ (Winter’s Tale IV.iii.134), or ‘And drink unto the leman mine, And a merry heart lives long-a’ (2 Henry IV v.iii.48).
HOLY THURSDAY
Used, slightly altered, in SE, p. 119; ‘contrary’ to that of SI, p.III.
THE ANGEL
In SE, p. 124. LI. 15–16 are from ‘In a mirtle shade’, above, p. 142.
‘LITTLE FLY…’
Becomes ‘The Fly’, SE, p. 124.
9–10 The cut worm Forgives the plough Deleted here, this becomes a Proverb of Hell in MHH, p. 183.
AN ANCIENT PROVERB
1–2 blackning church… marriage hearse Phrases from ‘London’, p. 128.
‘LET THE BROTHELS OF PARIS BE OPENED…’
This and the following poem are both in very rough draft form, and were presumably written between October 1792 (the fall of La Fayette) and January 1793 (the execution of Louis XVI).
9 Nobodaddy ‘God the Father’; see ‘To Nobodaddy’, note, p. 891.
20 An ironic rejoinder to Edmund Burke’s famous paean on Marie Antoinette in Reflections on the Revolution in France (1790): ‘Surely never lighted on this orb, which she scarcely seemed to touch, a more delightful vision. I saw her just above the horizon, decorating and cheering the elevated sphere she just began to move in… little did I dream that I should have lived to see such disasters fallen upon her in a nation of gallant men… but the age of chivalry is gone.’
26 a great many suckers Shoots growing at a plant’s foot, parasites.
‘FAYETTE BESIDE KING LEWIS STOOD…’
At the outset of the French Revolution, the Marquis de La Fayette (1757–1834) was a ‘hero of the people’ for his past defence of liberty in the American war, and for his gallant soldiery and statesmanship. As commander of the national guard, La Fayette became the King’s de facto warder when the royal family was brought from Versailles to Paris by the army in October 1789. He consistently attempted to defend limited monarchy, and by 1792 was attacked by royalists as a revolutionary and by radicals (including Blake) as not revolutionary enough. After the Paris rising of August 1792 he was relieved of his command, abandoned by his army and proscribed by the Assembly. He fled France, and was arrested and imprisoned by the Austrians (1793–7). The poem is a response to his imprisonment.
The French Revolution
This poem exists as a set of page proofs, dated 1791, probably written 1790, commissioned by the radical publisher and bookseller Joseph Johnson. It was never published, and probably never continued beyond Book the First, despite the Advertisement.
The poem is a quasi-mythological treatment of events surrounding the fall of the Bastille (14 July 1789). On 17 June 1789, the Third Estate of France constituted itself a National Assembly. On 20 June it issued the ‘tennis-court oath’ defying the Monarchy. The King met in council on 19 and 21 June, and had several confrontations with the Assembly and Estates General in the following weeks. The much-resented troops which had been brought to Paris were ordered to withdraw on 15 July, the day after the Bastille fell.
B. condenses events of several weeks into one day, and invents some others. After a portentous opening and evocation of the Bastille as a symbol of tyranny, the royal council deliberates. ‘Burgundy’ and ‘Archbishop’ give anti-revolutionary militaristic speeches. ‘Orleans’ and ‘Sieyes’ give revolutionary and generous visionary addresses. The King (spoken for by ‘Burgundy’) refuses to remove the troops. But the Assembly successfully orders their withdrawal, leaving the King and peers helpless.
The metre is a loose anapestic septenary, which B. did not attempt elsewhere.
2 the Prince Louis XVI of France.
7 Necker Jacques Necker (1732–1804), the popular French-Swiss minister of finance under Louis. An anti-aristocratic economic reformer, he was dismissed 11 July 1789, recalled after the storming of the Bastille, and finally resigned 1790.
8 five thousand years B. uses a tradition that the world was created in 4004 BC, and that 6,000 years – now nearly concluded – would bring the Millennium (see 1. 90). Five thousand years is the period of Monarchy.
13 Forty men (B.’s invention) the Royal Council.
16 the Commons B.’s term for the Third Estate, which met in May and June 1789 at Versailles. B. intends this session to be understood as simultaneous with the Royal Council meeting.
18 the Bastile The fortress and State prison in the centre of Paris, soon to be stormed by the populace. The thousand troops and seven towers are B.’s invention, though the fortress did hold seven prisoners when seized. Damon (314) interprets the prisoners as: (1) the poet; (2) imprisoned royalty (from the seventeenth-century story of the Man in the Iron Mask); (3) the schismatic, representing religious liberty; (4) true religion, denying the power of the State; (5) the upholder of free speech; (6) the good man turned court parasite; (7) the patriot driven to madness by hopes of liberty.
59 heavy brow’d jealousies A thundercloud figure opposed to ‘light’ (1.53) and ‘spirits of fire’ (1.54): Aristocracy opposes the Third Estate. The Royal Council, however, met at Versailles, not in the Louvre.
62 The voice ceas’d i.e., ‘the loud voice of France’, 1. 15.
68ff. The following council scene is B.’s invention.
74–8 Hide from the living… in the dust In Revelation 6:15–16, kings, great men, rich men and captains ‘hid themselves in the dens and in the rocks of the mountains, And said to the mountains…, Fall on us, and hide us… from the wrath of the Lamb.’
83 Burgundy B.’s invention. The last Duke of Burgundy died in 1714. B. uses the name (1) for association with vineyards and the winepress of War (Isaiah 63, Revelation 14:19); (2) for a pun on Edmund Burke, whose conservative ideas in Reflections on the Revolution in France (1790) are reflected in Burgundy’s speech.
89–90 mowers… starry harvest Imagery of stars swept to earth is found in Revelation 16:13 and 12:3–4. A last harvest of the earth is prophesied in Rev. 14:15–16.
Atlantic mountains: see Dictionary of Proper Names. Burgundy’s question means: shall revolutionaries
subdue the armies which defend our traditions?
99 To enrich the lean earth Refers to a tradition that earth soaked in blood from battles would be fruitful.
100 starry hosts Armies.
104 Till Fayette point his finger Burgundy expects Fayette to attack the Assembly (La Fayette was not in fact put in charge of the National Guard until 15 July).
109 Necker rise, leave the kingdom Louis dismissed the liberals from his cabinet, and exiled Necker, on 11 July 1789.
116–20] These lines follow 1. 104 in the original text. W. F. Halloran argues convincingly for the present reading.
126–7 the Archbishop… sulphurous smoke The Archbishop, representing clerical privilege, has Satanic attributes. His vision (11. 130–50) resembles the dream of Eliphaz in Job 4:13–21, in which a voice asks, ‘Shall mortal man be more just than God? Shall a man be more pure than his maker?’ The Archbishop fears popular godlessness as portending the overthrow of royal and clerical privilege.
159 Aumont The Duke of Aumont refused to accept command of the newly formed National Guard on the eve of 14 July.
163 The Abbe de Sieyes A liberal leader who sat as representative of Paris in the Third Estate, rather than as ecclesiastic in the First Estate. He represents the liberal element in the clergy, and is ‘the voice of the people’ (1.204).
165 King Henry the Fourth The great popular monarch of the sixteenth century appears to accompany Sieyes in spirit.
168–9 Bourbon… Bretagne… Borgogne Invented personalities.
175 Orleans The Duke of Orleans (1747–93) made himself popular in Paris by large gifts to the poor in time of famine, and by airing democratic views. His bust, with Necker’s, was carried through the streets before the storming of the Bastille.
177 instead of words harsh hissings Taken from the humiliation of Satan in Paradise Lost x.517–19.
187–8 Fayette… Mirabeau… Target… Bailly… Clermont All revolutionary figures active in the National Assembly.
200 Great Henry’s soul Henry IV (1. 165).
211–14 When the heavens… inslav’d A condensed account of the material creation as identical with the decline of Man. This doctrine becomes central in B.’s major prophecies.
216ff. A prophecy of Man’s resurrection and redemption.
240 Mirabeau (not Sieyes) demanded the removal of the royal troops on 8 July 1789.
246 blood ran down The same image is in ‘London’, SE, p. 128.
251 black southern prison Probably L’Abbaye, in St Germain des Prés, which a mob attacked on 29 June, releasing eleven imprisoned soldiers (Stevenson).
261 the General of the Nation La Fayette. The following episode (withdrawal of troops under Fayette on the Assembly’s command) is B.’s invention.
204ff. An allegorical rendition of Louis’s failure to maintain military control over Paris. Creatures of the slime are released, and the bottoms of the world opened, as repressed elements begin to emerge.
306 morning’s beam A sunny peaceful morning, in contrast to the clouded morning which opens the poem.
The Marriage of Heaven and Hell
Date: c. 1790 (‘A Song of Liberty’, 1792–3). An illuminated book. Nine complete copies are known.
In part, MHH records B.’s reaction to Emanuel Swedenborg, a Swedish engineer-turned-visionary, whose many works were being translated into English in the 1780s. B. met John Flaxman, a fervent Swedenborgian, in about 1780, and attended the first General Conference of London Swedenborgians in 1789. There was much to attract him. Swedenborg was an enthusiast, believed in ‘Divine Humanity’, in the Bible as God’s dictation to inspired men, in minute and total correspondences between the natural world and the world of the spirit, and in the possibility of ordinary people attaining spiritual revelation. Swedenborg also exalted sexuality and formulated the image of a ‘Grand Man’ whose bodily form was the form of Heaven. Blake’s marginal comments on Swedenborg’s Wisdom of Angels’ Concerning Divine Love (pub. 1789) are sympathetic and include the remark, ‘Heaven and Hell are born together.’ But further reading persuaded B. that Swedenborg’s theology and morality were conventional at heart, and his imagination limited. On Divine Providence he annotates ‘Cursed Folly!’ and calls S. a ‘Spiritual Predestinarian’. MHH attacks S. as inflated and pompous; B.’s ‘Memorable Fancies’ parody S.’s ‘memorable relations’ of spiritual experiences.
Aside from its attack on Swedenborg, MHH constitutes B.’s first full-scale foray on religious, political, social and literary orthodoxy, and a self-confidently exuberant announcement of his own principles.
P1. 2 The Argument The first piece of free verse in English. It is a condensed history of the birth and growth of Orthodoxy in this world, and a promise of impending upheaval.
1 Rintrah A figure vaguely suggesting Wrath; but see the Dictionary of Proper Names.
2 swag Sag, sway pendulously.
4–5 The just man… death In Pilgrim’s Progress Christian treads a perilously thin path through the Valley of the Shadow of Death.
10–13 And a river… Red clay Examples of miracles: God makes springs flow in the desert (Exodus 17:1–7) and clothes dry bones with flesh (Ezekiel 37). ‘Adam’ is Heb. for ‘red clay’. These miracles then attract the ‘villain’ of false orthodoxy which drives out justice.
19–20 the just man… lions roam The angry Elijah, Isaiah, Ezekiel or B. himself are all suggested as outcast voices of truth crying in the wilderness.
Pl. 3.1–2 a new heaven… advent A private joke. Swedenborg had announced that a ‘last Judgment was commenced in… 1757’, which happened to be the year of B.’s birth. B. in 1790 was now thirty-three –Christ’s age at His death and resurrection.
3–4 Swedenborg is the Angel… linen clothes folded up The angel and grave-clothes left neatly behind at the resurrection of Christ.
4–5 dominion of Edom Edom was the land of the despised children of Esau, a ‘just man’ who lost his birthright to his trickster-brother Jacob. In Genesis 27:40 the patriarch Isaac promises Esau an eventual ‘dominion, that thou shalt break his yoke from off thy neck’.
5–6 Isaiah XXXIV prophesies a ‘day of the Lord’s vengeance’ on ‘all nations’.
Isaiah XXXV prophesies the return of ‘the ransomed of the Lord’, when ‘The desert shall rejoice and blossom as the rose.’
11 Good & Evil A succinct summary of the principles of morality here follows. B. makes the following associations:
Good
Passive
Reason
Angels
Heaven
Soul
Evil
Active
Energy
Devils
Hell
Body
He proceeds to advocate (and illustrate, in his style of writing) the latter set.
Pl. 5.4–5 And being restraind… desire The modern version of this idea is Freud’s theory of psychic repression in which super-ego (‘good’ reason) subdues id (‘evil’ energy).
7 the Governor or Reason is call’d Messiah In Milton’s Paradise Lost the son of God defeats Satan and his hosts and casts them out of Heaven. He is also the judge of Adam and Eve’s guilt.
10 Sin & Death From Paradise Lost 11.648ff.
11 in the Book… Satan Milton’s ‘Son’ is an accuser and punisher. So is the ‘Satan’ of the Book of Job.
Pl. 6.3–4 he prays… comforter Jesus in John 14:16–17, 26, promises a comforter who is ‘the spirit of truth’ and the ‘Holy Ghost’ to inspire and sustain the disciples. But the identification of the Comforter with Desire is B.’s own.
6 he, who dwells] Mended in the copper from ‘The Devil who Dwells’.
10–11 Milton wrote in letters… and at liberty Wrote badly and wrote well. Critics have agreed that the ‘heavenly’ passages of Paradise Lost are duller than those dealing with Satan. B. accounts for this by the assumption that Poetic Genius is always more allied to Lawless Desire, represented by Satan, than to Law and Reason, represented by
God and angels.
Pl. 7.1 corroding fires MHH, like B.’s other illuminated books, was etched, a process whereby corrosive acids are used to produce a design.
5 Proverbs of Hell The biblical Book of Proverbs endorses conventional prudence, wisdom and morality. B.’s Proverbs of Hell are Anti-Proverbs. The form also imitates Lavater’s Aphorisms on Man (1788), which B. read and annotated with sympathy.
11 Used in a deleted stanza of ‘Little fly…’, Notebook, p. 156.
Pl. 9.14 The soul of sweet delight Repeated in VDA 1.9, America 8.14.
Pl. 12.1 The Prophets Isaiah and Ezekiel Swedenborg’s Relations were commonly encounters with heavenly spirits; but B. mocks S.’s solemnity.
14 this firm perswasion removed mountains In Matthew 17:19–20, the disciples fail to exorcise the devil from a child, and Jesus succeeds. The disciples ask, ‘Why could not we cast him out?’ The reply is, ‘Because of your unbelief: for verily I say unto you, If ye have faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye shall say unto this mountain, Remove hence to yonder place; and it shall remove.’
Pl. 13.3 our great poet King David The supposed author of the Psalms.
17–18 naked and barefoot three years An episode in Isaiah 20.
19 Diogenes Greek cynic philosopher, c. 412–323 BC, who elected a life of virtuous poverty and lived in a tub. When Alexander asked what he might do for him, Diogenes replied, ‘Step out of my light.’
20–21 eat dung… left side An episode in Ezekiel 4 connected with the captivity prophesied for Israel. Eating bread baked over dung signified defilement.
Pl. 14.1 The ancient tradition A tradition, pre-dating Christianity but accepted by many Christians, that the world was limited to 6,000 years. B. also accepts the tradition established by Archbishop James Ussher (1581–1656) of dating the Creation at 4004 BC.
4 the cherub with his flaming sword ‘Cherubim, and a flaming sword’ (Genesis 3:24) are set by God to prevent Adam’s return to Eden.
12 the infernal method. by corrosives B.’s method of etching designs by acid. This is also a metaphor for the literary form of satire.
15 the doors of perception The five senses (see ‘inlets of Soul’, 4.9).
The Complete Poems Page 72