Life of William Blake (1880), Volume 1/Chapter 20
CHAPTER XX.
LETTERS TO HAYLEY. 1804—5. [ÆT. 47-48.]
Although the friendly haven of sweet Felpham was now finally exchanged for the deeper seclusion of the brick and mortar desert, in the hope of more perfect converse there with the visions, undistracted by appeals from the beauty of the visible world, or by temptations from well-meaning patrons, above all, undisturbed by daily contact with so essentially material and eighteenth century a mind as Hayley's, a friendly relation between the two continued so long as there were any connecting links of work on one side or helpfulness on the other possible; after which it died a natural death. A brisk and, for the most part, business-like, correspondence, warmed on Blake's side by the sincere gratitude which Hayley's conduct in the closing adventure of their neighbourship had inspired, carries on the record of his practical work for the next year and a half Blake's lodgings in South Molton Street were within a mile of the spot where he was born. There neither garden nor tree reminded him of what he had left behind. South Molton Street, less shabby then than now, runs diagonally from Oxford Street into Brook Street. At No. 17 he took a first floor, in which he remained nearly seventeen years. Jan. 27th he writes thence to Hayley:—
Your eager expectation of hearing from me compels me to write immediately, tho' I have not done half the business I wish'd, owing to a violent cold which confined me to my bed three days and to my chamber a week. I am now so well, thank God, as to get out, and have accordingly been to Mr. Walker, who is not in town, being at Birmingham, where he will remain six weeks or two months. I took my Portrait of Romney as you desired, to show him. His son was likewise not at home, but I will again call on Mr. Walker jun., and beg him to show me the pictures and make every inquiry of him, if you think best. Mr. Sanders has one or two large Cartoons. The subject he does not know. They are folded up on the top of his workshop: the rest he packed up and sent into the North. I showed your letter to Mr. John Romney to Mr. Flaxman who was perfectly satisfied with it. I seal'd and sent it immediately, as directed by Mr. Sanders, to Kendall, Westmoreland. Mr. Sanders expects Mr. Romney in town soon. Note, your letter to Mr. J. Romney; I sent off the money after I received it from you, being then in health. I have taken your noble present to Mr. Rose, and left it with charge, to the servant, of great care. The writing looks very pretty. I was fortunate in doing it myself, and hit it off excellently. I have not seen Mr. Rose, tho' he is in town; Mr. Flaxman is not at all acquainted with Sir Allan Chambre; recommends me to inquire concerning him of Mr. Rose. My brother says he believes Sir Allan is a Master in Chancery. Tho' I have called on Mr. Edwards twice for Lady Hamilton's direction, was so unfortunate as to find him out both times; I will repeat my call on him to-morrow morning. My dear sir I wish now to satisfy you that all is in a good train; I am going on briskly with the Plates, find everything promising; work in abundance; and if God blesses me with health, doubt not yet to make a figure in the great dance of life that shall amuse the spectators in the sky. I thank you for my Demosthenes, which has now become a noble subject. My wife gets better every day. Hope earnestly that you have escaped the brush of my Evil Star, which I believe is now for ever fallen into the abyss. God bless and preserve you and our good Lady Paulina with the good things both of this life and of eternity. And with you, my much admired and respected Edward the Bard of Oxford, whose verses still sound upon my ear like the distant approach of things mighty and magnificent, like the sound of harps which I hear before the Sun's rising, like the remembrance of Felpham's waves and of the glorious and farbeaming Turret, like the villa of Lavant blessed and blessing. Amen. God bless you all, O people of Sussex, around your Hermit and Bard. So prays the emulator of both his and your mild and happy temper of soul.
Your Devoted,
Will. Blake.
Whilst engaged in collecting useful details for the Life of Romney, on which Hayley was now busy, as well as in executing two engravings for the same, Blake writes, February 23rd, 1804:—
I called yesterday on Mr. Braithwaite as you desired, and found him quite as cheerful as you describe him, and by his appearance should not have supposed him to be near sixty, notwithstanding he was shaded by a green shade over his eyes. He gives a very spirited assurance of Mr. John Romney's interesting himself in the great object of his father's fame, and thinks that he must be proud of such a work in such hands. As to the picture from Sterne which you desired him to procure for you, he has not yet found where it is; supposes that it may be in the north and that he may learn from Mr. Romney, who will be in town soon. Mr. B. desires I will present his compliments to you and write you that he has spoken with Mr. Read concerning the Life of Romney. He interests himself in it and has promis'd to procure dates of premiums (?) pictures, &c., Mr. Read having a number of articles relating to Romney, either written or printed, which he promises to copy out for your use, as also the Catalogue of Hampstead Sale. He showed me a very fine portrait of Mrs. Siddons, by Romney, as the Tragic Muse; half-length, that is, the head and hands, and in his best style. He also desires me to express to you his wish that you would give the Public an engraving of that medallion by your son's matchless hand which is placed over his chimney-piece between two pretty little pictures, correct and enlarged copies from antique gems, of which the centre ornament is worthy. He says that it is by far, in his opinion, the most exact resemblance of Romney he ever saw. I have furthermore the pleasure of informing you that he knew immediately my portrait of Romney, and assured me that he thought it a very great likeness.}}
I wish I could give you a pleasant account of our beloved Councellor (Rose), he, alas! was ill in bed when I called yesterday at about 12 o'clock; the servant said that he remains very ill indeed.
Mr, Walker I have been so unfortunate as not to find at home, but I will call again in a day or two. Neither Mr, Flaxman nor Mr, Edwards know Lady Hamilton's address: the house which Sir William lived in, in Piccadilly, she left some time ago. Mr. Edwards will procure her address for you, and I will send it immediately. I have inclosed for you the twenty-two numbers of Fuseli's Shakespeare that are out, and the book of Italian Letters from Mrs, Flaxman who with her admirable husband present their best compliments to you. He is so busy that I believe I shall never see him again but when I call on him; for he has never yet, since my return to London, had the time or grace to call on me. Mrs. Flaxman and her sister give also their testimony to my likeness of Romney. Mr. Flaxman I have not yet had an opportunity of consulting about it, but soon will.
I inclose likewise the Academical Correspondence of Mr. Hoare the Painter, whose note to me I also inclose. For I did but express to him my desire of sending you a copy of his work, and the day after I received it with the note expressing his pleasure in your wish to see it. You would be much delighted with the man, as I assure myself you will be with his work.
The plates of Cowper's monument are both in great forwardness and you shall have proofs in another week. I assure you that I will not spare pains, and am myself very much satisfied that I shall do my duty and produce two elegant Plates, There is, however, a great deal of work on them that must and will have time.
'Busy, busy, busy, I bustle along
Mounted upon warm Phœbus' ray
Thro' the heavenly throng.'
But I hastened to write to you about Mr. Braithwaite. Hope when I send my proofs to give as good an account of Mr. Walker.
My wife joins me in respects and love to you and desires with mine to present hers to Miss Poole.
The medallion by Thomas Hayley mentioned above was eventually given in the Life, but not from Blake's hand. It was drawn by Maria Denman, Flaxman's sister-in-law, and engraved by Caroline Watson. Mr. Hoare here spoken of, was the well-known and accomplished Prince Hoare, painter and son of a painter, who studied in Rome under Mengs in 1776, with Fuseli and Northcote for companions. He was the author of some twenty slight dramatic pieces, among them the long popular No Song; No Supper, and of many essays on subjects connected with the Fine Arts; and was made Foreign Secretary of the Royal Academy in 1799; in which capacity he published the Extracts from a Correspondence with the Academies of Vienna and St. Petersburg on the Cultivation of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture alluded to. March 12th, Blake writes:—
Dear Sir,
I begin with the latter end of your letter and grieve more for Miss Poole's ill-health than for my failure in sending the proofs, though I am very sorry that I cannot send before Saturday's coach. Engraving is Eternal Work. The two plates are almost finished. You will receive proofs of them from Lady Hesketh, whose copy of Cowper's letters ought to be printed in letters of gold and ornamented with jewels of Heaven, Havilah, Eden, and all the countries where jewels abound. I curse and bless Engraving alternately because it takes so much time and is so intractable, though capable of such beauty and perfection. My wife desires me to express her love to you, praying for Miss Poole's perfect recovery, and we both remain,
Your affectionate,
Will. Blake
The plates mentioned are probably the two tame engravings already described for the supplementary third volume of Cowper's Life and Letters.
Which of Romney's works should be chosen to illustrate his Life was still under discussion. Blake writes':—
April 2nd, 1804.
* * Mr. Flaxman advises that the drawing of Mr. Romney's which shall be chosen instead of the Witch (if that cannot be recovered) be Hecate, the figure with the torch and snake, which he thinks one of the finest drawings. The twelve impressions of each of the plates which I now send ought to be unrolled immediately that you receive them and put under somewhat to press them flat. You should have had fifteen of each, but I had not paper enough in proper order for printing. There is now in hand a new edition of Flaxman's Homer with additional designs, two of which I am now engraving. I am uneasy at not hearing from Mr. Dally, to whom I inclosed £15 in a letter a fortnight ago, by his desire. I write to him by this post to inquire about it. Money in these times is not to be trifled with. I have now cleared the way to Romney, in whose service I now enter again with great pleasure, and hope soon to show you my zeal with good effect. Am in hopes that Miss Poole is recovered, as you are silent on that most alarming and interesting topic in both your last letters. God be with you in all things. My wife joins me in this prayer.
I am, dear Sir,
Your sincerely affectionate,
Willm. Blake.
The next letter broaches a scheme of which, since it was never realized, no more can be said than is told in this, and in a subsequent letter. But its originator, Richard Phillips, the 'man of vast spirit, enterprise, and solidity,' demands a passing notice. First a schoolmaster at Chester, then a bookseller at Leicester, he was among the number of those prosecuted and imprisoned in 1793 for selling Paine's Rights of Man. Soon after his release he, having realized a considerable sum by speculating in canal shares, started with the aid of republican friends, the Monthly Magazine as an organ of the 'democratic' party, contributing frequent articles himself signed 'Common Sense.' He besides embarked first in the hosiery and then in the bookselling business again, on a large scale. Three years after the date of the following letter, he was made one of the Sheriffs of the City of London, and on presenting an address 'accepted the honour of knighthood to the great astonishment of his republican friends.' He became bankrupt shortly after; but the Magazine was bought in by friends, and he became its editor.
April 7th Blake writes: —
Dear Sir,
You can have no idea, unless you were in London as I am, how much your name is loved and respected. I have the extreme pleasure of transmitting to you one proof of the respect which you will be pleased with, and I hope will adopt and embrace. It comes thro' Mr. Hoare, from Mr. Phillips of St. Paul's Churchyard. It is, as yet, an entire secret between Mr. P., Mr. H., and myself, and will remain so till you have given your decision. Mr. Phillips is a man of vast spirit and enterprize, with a solidity of character which few have; he is the man who applied to Cowper for that sonnet in favour of a prisoner at Leicester, which I believe you thought fit not to print; so you see he is spiritually adjoined with us. His connections throughout England, and indeed Europe and America, enable him to circulate publications to an immense extent, and he told Mr. Hoare that on the present work, which he proposes to commence with your assistance, he can afford to expend £2,000 a year. Mr. Phillips considers you as the great leading character in literature, and his terms to others will amount to only one quarter of what he proposes to you. I send, inclosed, his terms, as Mr. Hoare by my desire has given them to me in writing. Knowing your aversion to reviews and reviewing, I consider the present proposal as peculiarly adapted to your ideas. It may be call'd a Defence of Literature against those pests of the press, and a bulwark for genius, which shall, with your good assistance, disperse those rebellious spirits of Envy and Malignity. In short, if you see it as I see it, you will embrace this proposal on the score of parental duty. Literature is your child. She calls for your assistance! You, who never refuse to assist any, how remote so ever, will certainly hear her voice. Your answer to the proposal you will, if you think fit, direct to Mr. Hoare, who is worthy of every confidence you can place in him,
I am, dear Sir,
Your anxiously devoted
Will. Blake.
Blake seems to have had this scheme of starting a Review much at heart:—
April 27th, 1804.
Dear Sir,
I have at length seen Mr. Hoare, after having repeatedly called on him every day and not finding him. I now understand that he received your reply to P.'s proposal at Brighton, where he has a residence, from whence he sent it to London to Mr. Phillips; he has not seen P. since his return, and therefore cannot tell me how he understood your answer. Mr. H. appears to me to consider it as a rejection of the proposal altogether. I took the liberty to tell him that I could not consider it so, but that as I understood you, you had accepted the spirit of P.'s intention, which was to leave the whole conduct of the affair to you, and that you had accordingly nominated one of your friends and agreed to nominate others. But if P. meant that you should yourself take on you the drudgery of the ordinary business of a review, his proposal was by no means a generous one. Mr. H has promised to see Mr. Phillips immediately, and to know what his intentions are; but he says perhaps Mr. P. may not yet have seen your letter to him, and that his multiplicity of business may very well account for the delay. I have seen our excellent Flaxman lately; he is well in health, but has had such a burn on his hand as you had once, which has hindered his working for a fortnight. It is now better; he desires to be most affectionately remembered to you; he began a letter to you a week ago; perhaps by this time you have received it; but he is also a laborious votary of endless work. Engraving is of so slow process, I must beg of you to give me the earliest possible notice of what engraving is to be done for the Life of Romney. Endless work is the true title of engraving, as I find by the things I have in hand day and night. We feel much easier to hear that you have parted with your horse. Hope soon to hear that you have a living one of brass, a Pegasus of Corinthian metal; and that Miss Poole is again in such health as when she first mounted me on my beloved Bruno, I forgot to mention that Mr. Hoare desires his most respectful compliments to you. Speaks of taking a ride across the country to Felpham, as he always keeps a horse at Brighton. My wife joins me in love to you.
I remain, yours sincerely,
William Blake.
'In engraver's hurry, which is the worst and most unprofitable of all hurries,' are the words with which Blake concludes a brief business note. Yet besides this 'endless work' of engraving, and the huge labour of producing the Jerusalem and Milton, also accomplished this year, he continued diligent in collecting serviceable details of Romney's works for Hayley's slowly progressing Life, as the following letters show:—
May 4th, 1804.
Dear Sir,
I thank you sincerely for Falconer, an admirable Poet, and the admirable prints to it by Pettier. Whether you intended it or . not, they have given me some excellent hints in engraving; his manner of working is what I shall endeavour to adopt in many points. I have seen the elder Mr. Walker. He knew and admired without any preface, my print of Romney, and when his daughter came in he gave the print into her hand without a word, and she immediately said, 'Ah! Romney! younger than I have known him, but very like indeed.' Mr. Walker showed me Romney's first attempt at oil painting; it is a copy from a Dutch picture—Dutch boor smoking; on the back is written, 'This was the first attempt at oil painting by G. Romney.' He shew'd me also the last performance of Romney. It is of Mr. Walker and family, the draperies put in by somebody else. It is a very excellent picture, but unfinished. The figures as large as life, half length, Mr. W., three sons, and I believe two daughters, with maps, instruments, &c. Mr. Walker also shew'd me a portrait of himself (W.), whole length on a canvas about two feet by one and a half; it is the first portrait Romney ever painted. But above all, a picture of Lear and Cordelia,' when he awakes and knows her,—an incomparable production which Mr. W. bought for five shillings at a broker's shop; it is about five feet by four, and exquisite for expression, indeed it is most pathetic; the heads of Lear and Cordelia can never be surpassed, and Kent and the other attendant are admirable; the picture is very highly finished. Other things I saw of Romney's first works,—two copies, perhaps from Borgognone, of battles; and Mr. Walker promises to collect all he can of information for you. I much admired his mild and gentle, benevolent manners; it seems as if all Romney's intimate friends were truly amiable and feeling like himself.
I have also seen Alderman Boydel, who has promised to get the number and prices of all Romney's prints as you desired. He has sent a Catalogue of all his Collection, and a Scheme of his Lottery; desires his compliments to you, says he laments your absence from London, as your advice would be acceptable at all times but especially at the present. He is very thin and decay'd, and but the shadow of what he was; so he is now a Shadow's Shadow; but how can we expect a very stout man at eighty-five, which age he tells me he has now reached? You would have been pleas'd to see his eyes light up at the mention of your name.
Mr. Flaxman agrees with me that somewhat more than outline is necessary to the execution of Romney's designs, because his merit is eminent in the art of massing his lights and shades. I should propose to etch them in a rapid but firm manner, somewhat, perhaps, as I did the Head of Euler; the price I receive for engraving Flaxman's outlines of Homer is five guineas each. I send the Domenichino, which is very neatly done. His merit was but little in light and shade; outline was his element, and yet these outlines give but a faint idea of the finished prints from his works, several of the best of which I have. I send also the French monuments, and inclose with them a catalogue of Bell's Gallery and another of the Exhibition which I have not yet seen, I mention'd the pictures from Sterne to Mr. Walker; he says that there were several; one, a garden scene with uncle Toby and Obadiah planting in the garden; but that of Lefevre's Death he speaks of as incomparable, but cannot tell where it now is, as they were scatter'd abroad, being disposed of by means of a raffle. He supposes it is in Westmoreland; promises to make every inquiry about it. Accept also of my thanks for Cowper's third volume, which I got, as you directed, of Mr. Johnson. I have seen Mr. Rose; he looks, tho' not so well as I have seen him, yet tolerably, considering the terrible storm he has been thro'! He says that the last session was a severe labour, indeed it must be so to a man just out of so dreadful a fever. I also thank you for your very beautiful little poem on the King's recovery; it is one of the prettiest things I ever read, and I hope the King will live to fulfil the prophecy and die in peace: but at present, poor man, I understand he is poorly indeed, and times threaten worse than ever. I must now express my sorrow and my hopes for our good Miss Poole, and so take my leave for the present with the joint love of my good woman, who is still stiff-knee'd but well in other respects.
I am, dear Sir,
Yours most sincerely,
William Blake.
May 28th, 1804.
Dear Sir,
I thank you heartily for your kind offer of reading, &c. I have read the book thro' attentively and was much entertain'd and instructed, but have not yet come to the Life of Washington. I suppose an American would tell me that Washington did all that was done before he was born, as the French now adore Buonaparte and the English our poor George; so the Americans will consider Washington as their god. This is only Grecian, or rather Trojan, worship, and perhaps will be revis'd (?) in an age or two. In the meantime I have the happiness of seeing the Divine countenance in such men as Cowper and Milton more distinctly than in any prince or hero. Mr. Phillips has sent a small poem, he would not tell the author's name, but desired me to inclose it for you with Washington's Life.
Mr. Carr call'd on me, and I, as you desired, gave him a history of the reviewing business as far as I am acquainted with it. He desires me to express to you that he would heartily devote himself to the business in all its laborious parts, if you would take on you the direction and he thinks it might be done with very little trouble to you. He is now going to Russia; hopes that the negotiations for this business is not wholly at an end, but that on his return he may still perform his best, as your assistant in it. I have delivered the letter to Mr. Edwards, who will give it immediately to Lady Hamilton. Mr. Walker I have again seen; he promises to collect numerous particulars concerning Romney and send them to you—wonders he has not had a line from you; desires me to assure you of his wish to give every information in his power. Says that I shall have Lear and Cordelia to copy if you desire it should be done; supposes that Romney was about eighteen when he painted it; it is therefore doubly interesting. Mr. Walker is truly an amiable man; spoke of Mr. Green as the oldest friend of Romney, who knew most concerning him of any one; lamented the little difference that subsisted between you, speaking of you both with great affection. Mr. Flaxman has also promised to write all he knows or can collect concerning Romney, and send to you. Mr. Sanders has promised to write to Mr. J. Romney immediately, desiring him to give us liberty to copy any of his father's designs that. Mr. Flaxman may select for that purpose; doubts not at all of Mr. Romney' s readiness to send any of the cartoons to London you desire; if this can be done it will be all that could be wished. I spoke to Mr. Flaxman about choosing out proper subjects for our purpose; he has promised to do so. I hope soon to send you Flaxman's advice upon this article. When I repeated to Mr. Phillips your intention of taking the books you want from his shop, he made a reply to the following purpose:—'I shall be very proud to have Mr. Hayley's name in my books, but please to express to him my hope that he will consider me as the sincere friend of Mr. Johnson, who is (I have every reason to say) both the most generous and honest man I ever knew, and with whose interest I should be so averse to interfere that I should wish him to have the refusal first of anything before it should be offered to me, as I know the value of Mr. Hayley's connexion too well to interfere between my best friend and him.' This Phillips spoke with real affection, and I know you will love him for it, and will also respect Johnson the more for such testimony; but to balance all this I must, in duty to my friend Seagrave [the Chichester printer] tell you that Mr. Rose repeated to me his great opinion of Mr. Johnson's integrity while we were talking concerning Seagrave's printing: it is but justice therefore, to tell you that I perceive a determination in the London booksellers to injure Seagrave in your opinion, if possible. Johnson may be very honest and very generous, too, where his own interest is concerned, but I must say that he leaves no stone unturn'd to serve that interest, and often (I think) unfairly; he always has taken care, when I have seen him, to rail against Seagrave, and I perceive that he does the same by Mr. Rose. Mr. Phillips took care to repeat Johnson's railing to me, and to say that country printers could not do anything of consequence. Luckily he found fault with the paper which Cowper's Life is printed on, not knowing that it was furnish'd by Johnson. I let him run on so far as to say that it was scandalous and unfit for such a work; here I cut him short by asking if he knew who furnish'd the paper, he answered, 'I hope Mr. J. did not.' I assured him that he did, and here he left off; desiring me to tell you that the Life of Washington was not put to press till the 3rd of this month (May), and on the 13th he had deliver'd a dozen copies at Stationers Hall, and by the 16th five hundred were out. This is swift work if literally true, but I am not apt to believe literally what booksellers say; and on comparing Cowper with Washington must assert that except paper (which is Johnson's fault) Cowper is far the best, both as to type and printing. Pray look at Washington as far as page 177, you will find that the type is smaller than from 177 to 308, the whole middle of the book being printed with a larger and better type than the two extremities; also it is carefully hot-pressed. I say thus much being urged thereto by Mr. Rose's observing some defects in Seagrave's work, which I conceive were urged upon him by Johnson: and as to the time the booksellers would take to execute any work, I need only refer to the little job which Mr. Johnson was to get done for our friend Dally. He promised it in a fortnight, and it is now three months and is not yet completed. I could not avoid saying thus much in justice to our good Seagrave, whose replies to Mr. Johnson's aggravating letters have been represented to Mr. Rose in an unfair light, as I have no doubt; because Mr. Johnson has, at times, written such letters to me as would have called for the sceptre of Agamemnon rather than the tongue of Ulysses, and I will venture to give it as my settled opinion that if you suffer yourself to be persuaded to print in London you will be cheated every way; but, however, as some little excuse, I must say that in London every calumny and falsehood utter'd against another of the same trade is thought fair play. Engravers, Painters, Statuaries, Printers, Poets we are not in a field of battle but in a City of Assassinations, This makes your lot truly enviable, and the country is not only more beautiful on account of its expanded meadows, but also on account of its benevolent minds. My wife joins with me in the hearty wish that you may long enjoy your beautiful retirement.
I am, with best respects to Miss Poole, for whose health we constantly send wishes to our spiritual friends,
Yours sincerely,
William Blake.
P.S.—Mr. Walker says that Mr. Cumberland is right in his reckoning of Romney's age. Mr. W. says Romney was two years older than himself, consequently was born 1734.
Mr. Flaxman told me that Mr. Romney was three years in Italy; that he returned twenty-eight years since. Mr. Humphry, the Painter, was in Italy the same time with Mr. Romney, Mr. Romney lodged at Mr. Richter's, Great Newport Street, before he went; took the house in Cavendish Square immediately on his return; but as Flaxman has promised to put pen to paper you may expect a full account of all he can collect. Mr, Sanders does not know the time when Mr. R. took or left Cavendish Square house.
In the sequel, Blake's portrait of Romney was laid aside and the Sketch of a Shipwreck, a fine and characteristic bit of engraving, was his sole contribution to the Life. Of the remaining eleven plates, all, save one, after pictures by Romney, most were engraved by Caroline Watson, in her very fascinating style, bold and masterly, yet graceful. The Infant Shakespeare, Sensibility, Cassandra, Miranda are well known to the collector. One of the engravings, a poor Head of Christ, is by Raimbach, afterwards famous as Wilkie's engraver. Another, from a curious early effort of Romney's in the comic vein—The Introduction of Slop into the Parlour of Shandy—is by W. Haines, a Sussex man, then an engraver, subsequently a painter of repute,
September 20th, 1804.
Dear Sir,
I hope you will excuse my delay in sending the books which I have had some time, but kept them back till I could send a Proof of the Shipwreck, which I hope will please. It yet wants all its last and finishing touches, but I hope you will be enabled by it to judge of the pathos of the picture. I send Washington's second volume, five numbers of Fuseli's Shakespeare, and two vols, with a letter from Mr. Spilsbury, with whom I accidentally met in the Strand. He says that he relinquished painting as a profession, for which I think he is to be applauded: but I conceive that he may be a much better painter if he practises secretly and for amusement than he could ever be if employed in the drudgery of fashionable daubing for a poor pittance of money in return for the sacrifice of Art and Genius. He says he never will leave to practice the Art, because he loves it, and this alone will pay its labour by success, if not of money, yet of true Art, which is all. I had the pleasure of a call from Mrs. Chetwynd and her brother, a giant in body, mild and polite in soul, as I have, in general, found great bodies to be; they were much pleased with Romney's Designs. Mrs. C. sent tome the two articles for you, and for the safety of which by the coach I had some fear, till Mr. Meyer obligingly undertook to convey them safe. He is now, I suppose, enjoying the delights of the turret of lovely Felpham; please to give my affectionate compliments to him. I cannot help suggesting an idea which has struck me very forcibly, that the Tobit and Tobias in your bedchamber would make a very beautiful engraving done in the same manner as the Head of Cowper, after Lawrence; the heads to be finished, and the figures to be left exactly in imitation of the first strokes of the painter. The expression of those truly pathetic heads would then be transmitted to the public, a singular monument of Romney's genius in that slightest branch of art. I must now tell my wants, and beg the favour of some more of the needful. The favour of ten pounds more will carry me through this plate, and the Head of Romney, for which I am already paid. You shall soon see a proof of him in a very advanced state. I have not yet proved it, but shall soon, when I will send you one. I rejoice to hear from Mr. Meyer of Miss Poole's continued recovery. My wife desires with me her respects to you, and her, and to all whom we love, that is, to all Sussex.
I remain,
Your sincere and obliged humble servant,
Will. Blake.
In the midst of all these business details, valuable as showing Blake's perfect sanity and prudence in the conduct of practical affairs, it is refreshing to come upon a letter written in his visionary vein.
23rd Oct. 1804.
Dear Sir,
I received your kind letter with the note to Mr. Payne, and have had the cash from him. I should have returned my thanks immediately on receipt of it, but hoped to be able to send, before now, proofs of the two plates, the Head of R. and the Shipwreck, which you shall soon see in a much more perfect state. I write immediately because you wish I should do so, to satisfy you that I have received your kind favour.
I take the extreme pleasure of expressing my joy at our good Lady of Lavant's continued recovery, but with a mixture of sincere sorrow on account of the beloved Councillor. My wife returns her heartfelt thanks for your kind inquiry concerning her health. She is surprisingly recovered. Electricity is the wonderful cause; the swelling of her legs and knees is entirely reduced. She is very near as free from rheumatism as she was five years ago, and we have the greatest confidence in her perfect recovery.
The pleasure of seeing another poem from your hands has truly set me longing (my wife says I ought to have said us) with desire and curiosity; but, however, "Christmas is a coming."
Our good and kind friend Hawkins is not yet in town—hope soon to have the pleasure of seeing him—with the courage of conscious industry, worthy of his former kindness to me. For now! O Glory! and O Delight! 1 have entirely reduced that spectrous Fiend to his station, whose annoyance has been the ruin of my labours for the last passed twenty years of my life. He is the enemy of conjugal love, and is the Jupiter of the Greeks, an ironhearted tyrant, the ruiner of ancient Greece. I speak with perfect confidence and certainty of the fact which has passed upon me. Nebuchadnezzar had seven times passed over him, I have had twenty; thank God I was not altogether a beast as he was; but I was a slave bound in a mill among beasts and devils; these beasts and these devils are now, together with myself, become children of light and liberty, and my feet and my wife's feet are free from fetters. O lovely Felpham, parent of Immortal Friendship, to thee I am eternally indebted for my three years' rest from perturbation and the strength I now enjoy. Suddenly, on the day after visiting the Truchsessian Gallery of Pictures, I was again enlightened with the light I enjoyed in my youth, and which has for exactly twenty years been closed from me as by a door and by window-shutters. Consequently I can, with confidence, promise you ocular demonstration of my altered state on the plates I am now engraving after Romney, whose spiritual aid has not a little conduced to my restoration to the light of Art. O the distress I have undergone, and my poor wife with me. Incessantly labouring and incessantly spoiling what I had done well. Every one of my friends was astonished at my faults, and could not assign a reason; they knew my industry and abstinence from every pleasure for the sake of study, and yet—and yet — and yet there wanted the proofs of industry in my works. I thank God with entire confidence that it shall be so no longer: — he is become my servant who domineered over me, he is even as a brother who was my enemy. Dear Sir, excuse my enthusiasm or rather madness, for I am really drunk with intellectual vision whenever I take a pencil or graver into my hand, even as I used to be in my youth, and as I have not been for twenty dark, but very profitable, years. I thank God that I courageously pursued my course through darkness. In a short time I shall make my assertion good that I am become suddenly as I was at first, by producing the Head of Romney and the Shipwreck quite another thing from what you or I ever expected them to be. In short, I am now satisfied and proud of my work, which I have not been for the above long period. If our excellent and manly friend Meyer is yet with you, please to make my wife's and my own most respectful and affectionate compliments to him, also to our kind friend at Lavant. I remain, with my wife's joint affection,
Your sincere and obliged servant,
Will. Blake.
The 'Truchsessian Gallery,' which, as the foregoing letter seems to show, exerted a powerful influence on Blake's mind, has happily left a discoverable record of itself in the shape of two pamphlets to be found in the 'Dance Collection' in the Bodleian Library. One is a Proposal for the Establishment of a Public Gallery of Pictures in London, by Count Joseph Truchsess, London, 1802; and the other a Catalogue of the Truchsessian Picture Gallery, Now Exhibiting in the New Road, opposite Portland Place, London, 1803. In the first of these, the Count, who signs himself Joseph, Count Truchsess, of Zeyl-Wurzach, Grand Dean of the Cathedral of Strasburg and Canon of the Metropolitan Chapter of Cologne, affirms that he has lost a large fortune in the French Revolution, but has saved with difficulty a very large and valuable collection of pictures, which he has been obliged to 'pledge' in Vienna. He refers to the Imperial Academy of Vienna and to many travelling Englishmen of distinction, especially Lord Minto, as willing to attest its genuineness and importance. He proposes to bring the best part of the collection to England and make it the nucleus of a gallery, in which people may find the 'means of making themselves acquainted with all the schools of painting.' He then proposes that a company shall be formed to raise the requisite amount (60,000 guineas) and gives references to well-known bankers who will act as his trustees. He is not, he writes, 'an adventurer, nor his gallery a chimera,' and 'all who are particularly acquainted with him will gladly do justice to the uprightness of his moral character.' As to his subscribers, 'their names shall not only be publicly printed, but they shall also remain indelibly engraven on his heart.' In the Catalogue, printed next year, there is no information regarding the purchase of the pictures. Their whole number is very large, and they are classified as follows:—
(1) German Painters:—among whom are Albert Dürer, Brand, Edlinger, Hans Holbein senior (father of the great painter), Roos, Sarbach, &c., &c.
(2) Dutch and Flemish:—Aertsens, Breughel, Vandyck, Geldorp, De Laar, Miel, Uchterwelt, &c. &c.
(3) Italian and Spanish:—Buonarotti (Michael Angelo), Leonardo da Vinci, Carlo Dolce, Correggio, Murillo, Strozzi, Salvator Rosa, &c. &c.
(4) French:—Bourdon, both the Poussins, Claude Lorraine, Watteau, &c. &c.
It is curious that no mention of so large a collection should appear in Buchanan's Memoirs of Paintings which is mainly devoted to the picture importations of that very period.
December 18th, 1804, Blake writes:—
Dear Sir,
I send, with some confidence, proofs of my two plates, having had the assistance and approbation of our good friend Flaxman. He approves much (I cannot help telling you so much) of the Shipwreck. Mrs. Flaxman also, who is a good conoisseur in engraving, has given her warm approbation, and to the plate of the Portrait, though not yet in so high finished a state. I am sure (mark my confidence) with Flaxman's advice, which he gives with all the warmth of friendship both to you and me, it must be soon a highly finished and properly finished print; but yet I must solicit for a supply of money, and hope you will be convinced that the labour I have used on the two plates has left me without any resource but that of applying to you. I am again in want of ten pounds hope that the size and neatness of my plate of the Shipwreck will plead for me the excuse for troubling you before it can be properly called finished, though Flaxman has already pronounced it so. I beg your remarks also on both my performances, as in their present state they will be capable of very much improvement from a few lucky or well advised touches. I cannot omit observing that the price Mr. Johnson gives for the plates of Fuseli's Shakespeare (the concluding numbers of which I now send) is twenty-five guineas each. On comparing them with mine of the Shipwreck, you will perceive that I have done my duty and put forth my whole strength.
Your beautiful and elegant daughter Venusea grows in our estimation on a second and third perusal. I have not yet received the History of Chichester. I mention this not because I would hasten its arrival before it is convenient, but fancy it may have miscarried. My wife joins me in wishing you a merry Christmas. Remembering our happy Christmas at lovely Felpham, our spirits seem still to hover round our sweet cottage and round the beautiful Turret. I have said seem, but am persuaded that distance is nothing but a phantasy. We are often sitting by our cottage fire, and often we think we hear your voice calling at the gate. Surely these things are real and eternal in our eternal mind, and can never pass away. My wife continues well, thanks to Mr. Birch's Electrical Magic, which she has discontinued these three months.
I remain your sincere and obliged,
William Blake.
A few days' later died Councillor Rose, whom Blake ever regarded with grateful affection and admiration. Thus characteristically he writes:—"Farewell, sweet Rose, thou hast got before me into the Celestial City. I also have but a few more mountains to pass, for I hear the bells ring and the trumpets sound to welcome thy arrival among Cowper's glorified band of spirits of just men made perfect."
The four remaining letters to Hayley are chiefly occupied with plans for bringing out the duodecimo edition of the Ballads already alluded to.
Jan. 22nd, 1805.
Dear Sir,
I hope this letter will outstrip Mr. Phillips', as I sit down to write immediately on returning from his house. He says he is agreeable to every proposal you have made, and will himself immediately reply to you. I should have supposed him mad if he had not, for such clear and generous proposals as yours to him he will not easily meet from any one else. He will, of course, inform you what his sentiments are of the proposal concerning the three dramas. I found it unnecessary to mention anything relating to the purposed application of the profits, as he, on reading your letter, expressed his wish that you should yourself set a price, and that he would, in his letter to you, explain his reasons for wishing it. The idea of publishing one volume a year he considers as impolitic, and that a handsome general edition of your works would be more productive. He likewise objects to any periodical mode of publishing any of your works, as he thinks it somewhat derogatory as well as unprofitable. I must now express my thanks for your generous manner of proposing the Ballads to him on my account, and inform you of his advice concerning them; and he thinks that they should be published all together in a volume the size of the small edition of the Triumphs of Temper, with six or seven plates. That one thousand copies should be the first edition, and if we choose, we might add to the number of plates in a second edition. And he will go equal shares with me in the expense and the profits, and that Seagrave is to be the printer. That we must consider all that has been printed as lost, and begin anew, unless we can apply some of the plates to the new edition. I consider myself as only put in trust with this work, and that the copyright is for ever yours. I, therefore, beg that you will not suffer it to be injured by my ignorance, or that it should in any way be separated from the grand bulk of your literary property. Truly proud I am to be in possession of this beautiful little estate; for that it will be highly productive, I have no doubt, in the way now proposed; and I shall consider myself a robber to retain more than you at any time please to grant. In short, I am tenant at will, and may write over my door as the poor barber did, "Money for live here."
I entreat your immediate advice what I am to do, for I would not for the world injure this beautiful work, and cannot answer P.'s proposal till I have your directions and commands concerning it; for he wishes to set about it immediately, and has desired that I will give him my proposal concerning it in writing.
I remain, dear Sir,
Your obliged and affectionate,
Will. Blake.
April 28th, 1805.
This morning I have been with Mr. Phillips, and have entirely settled with him the plan of engraving for the new edition of the Ballads. The prints, five in number, I have engaged to finish by 28th May; they are to be as highly finished as I can do them, the size the same as the seven plates, the price 20 guineas each, half to be prepaid by P. The subjects I cannot do better than those already chosen, as they are the most eminent among animals, viz.: — the Lion, the Eagle, the Horse, the Dog. Of the dog species, the two ballads are so pre-eminent, and my designs for them please me so well, that I have chosen that design in our last number, of the dog and crocodile, and that of the dog defending his dead master from the vultures. Of these five I am making little high finished pictures the size the engravings are to be, and I am hard at it to accomplish in time what I intend. Mr. P. says he will send Mr. Seagrave the paper directly.
The journeymen printers throughout London are at war with their masters, and are likely to get the better. Each party meets to consult against the other. Nothing can be greater than the violence on both sides; printing is suspended in London except at private presses. I hope this will become a source of advantage to our friend Seagrave.
The idea of seeing an engraving of Cowper by the hand of Caroline Watson is, I assure you, a pleasing one to me. It will be highly gratifying to see another copy by another hand, and not only gratifying, but improving, which is much better.
The town is mad: young Roscius [Master Betty] like all prodigies, is the talk of everybody. I have not seen him, and perhaps never may. I have no curiosity to see him, as I well know what is within compass of a boy of fourteen; and as to real acting, it is, like historical painting, no boy's work.
Fuseli is made Master of the Royal Academy. Banks, the sculptor, is gone to his eternal home. I have heard that Flaxman means to give a lecture on sculpture at the Royal Academy on the occasion of Banks' death. He died at the age of seventy-five, of a paralytic stroke, and I conceive Flaxman stands without a competitor in sculpture.
I must not omit to tell you that, on leaving Mr. Phillips, I asked if he had any message to you, as I meant to write immediately. He said, "Give my best respects, and tell Mr. Hayley that I wish very much to be at work for him." But perhaps I ought to tell you what he said to me previous to this in the course of our conversation. His words were, "I feel somewhat embarrassed at the idea of setting a value on any works of Mr. Hayley, and fear that he will wish me to do so." I asked him how a value was set on any literary work. He answered the probable sale of the work would be the measure of estimating the profits, and that would lead to a valuation of the copyright. This may be of no consequence; but I could not omit telling you.
My wife continues in health, and desires to join me in every grateful wish to you and to our dear respected Miss Poole.
I remain
Yours with sincerity,
William Blake.
to supply its deficiency or to new create it according to your wish:—
'The public ought to be informed that these Ballads were the effusions of friendship to countenance what their author is kindly pleased to call talents for designing and to relieve my more laborious engagement of engraving those portraits which accompany the Life of Cowper. Out of a number of designs, I have selected five, and hope that the public will approve of my rather giving fever highly laboured plates than a greater number and less finished. If I have succeeded in these, more may be added at pleasure.'
Will. Blake
It was, no doubt, an irksome task to be continually expressing thanks for work that was in the main little congenial, and admiration for Hayley's own performances, which though the warmth of Blake's friendly and grateful feelings enabled him to utter with sincerity at the time, his cooler judgment must have declined to ratify. It is not surprising, therefore, that in the MS. Note-book before alluded to, which in his spleenful as well as in his elevated moods appears to have generally lain at the artist's elbow, we find such a couplet as the following:—
On H. [Hayley] the Pickthank.
I write the rascal thanks till he and I
With thanks and compliments are both drawn dry.
The next letter, last of the series, June 4th, 1805, refers to the Advertisement again: a matter in which Mr. Phillips showed excellent discernment.
June 4th, 1805.
Dear Sir,
I have fortunately, I ought to say providentially, discovered that I have engraved one of the plates for that ballad of The Horse which is omitted in the new edition; time enough to save the extreme loss and disappointment which I should have suffered had the work been completed without that ballad's insertion. I write to entreat that you would contrive so as that my plate may come into the work, as its omission would be to me a loss that I could not now sustain as it would cut off ten guineas from my next demand on Phillips, which sum I am in absolute want of; as well as that I should lose all the labour I have been at on that plate, which I consider as one of my best; I know it has cost me immense labour. The way in which I discovered this mistake is odd enough. Mr. Phillips objects altogether to the insertion of my Advertisement, calling it an appeal to charity, and says that it will hurt the sale of the work, and he sent to me the last sheet by the penny (that is the twopenny) post, desiring that I would forward it to Mr. Seagrave. But I have inclosed it to you, as you ought and must see it. I am no judge in these matters, and leave all to your decision, as I know that you will do what is right on all hands. Pray accept my and my wife's sincerest love and gratitude.
Will. Blake.
Not without some sense of relief, probably, will the reader turn the last leaf of the story of Blake's connection with Hayley, honourable though it were to each; especially to Hayley, considering how little nature had fitted him to enter into the spiritual meanings of Blake's art. But herein, as Blake said to Mr. Butts, he that is not with a man is against him; and no amount of friendly zeal to serve, nor even of personal liking, could neutralise the blighting influence of constant intercourse with one who had an ignorant contempt for those fine gifts and high aspirations which rightly to use and to fulfil were for Blake the sacred purpose and sufficing delight of life.
And in the midst of the great Assembly Palamabron prayed,
O God, protect me from my friends, that they have not power over me;
Thou hast given me power to protect myself from my bitterest enemies!
Thus wrote Blake in one of the mystic books, Milton, produced at this time. And in his Note-book he apostrophises poor Hayley:—
Thy friendship oft has made my heart to ache;
Do be my enemy for friendship's sake!
Doubtless, as sometimes ensues in the case of far more congenial minds, many things which failed, amid the amenities of personal intercourse, to disturb the good understanding at the time, rankled or were felt resentfully afterwards. In two more of the sarcastic and biting reflections, in epigrammatic form, on those against whom Blake had, or fancied he had, cause of offence, interspersed with more serious matter in the Note-book, Hayley's name again figures:—
My title as a genius thus is proved,
Not praised by Hayley, nor by Flaxman loved.
And once more:—
To Hayley.
You think Fuseli is not a great painter? I'm glad:
This is one of the best compliments he ever had.
The reading world, too, was fast coming round to a juster estimate of its quondam favourite. The Ballads, though illustrated in so poetic a spirit and in a more popular style than anything previous from the same hand, were as complete a failure—not in pecuniary respects alone, but in commanding even a moderate share of public attention—as any in the long list of Blake's privately printed books. Hayley had not more power to help Blake with a public challenged now by Wordsworth, Coleridge, Lamb, won by Crabbe, Campbell, Scott, than Blake had by his archaic conceptions, caviare to the many, to recall roving readers to an obsolete style of unpoetic verse, a tame instead of a rattling one, such as had come into vogue. The Life of Romney, when at last it did appear, was quite unnoticed. After the Life of Cowper, no book of Hayley's again won an audience.
June 1 8th, 1808, is the engraver's date to the duodecimo edition of Hayley's Ballads on Animals. These prints are unfair examples of Blake's skill and imperfect versions of his designs; they have more than his ordinary hardness of manner. Two—The Eagle and The Lion—are repetitions from the quarto. The Dog, The Hermit's Dog, and The Horse, are new. The last-named is, perhaps, the finest in the series. Even though the horse's hind leg be in an impossible position, and though there be the usual lack of correct local detail, verystriking and soulful is the general effect; especially so is that serene, majestic, feminine figure, standing before her terrified child and bravely facing the frenzied animal, which, by mere spiritual force, she subdues into motionless awe.
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