Page:The poetical works of William Blake; a new and verbatim text from the manuscript engraved and letterpress originals (1905).djvu/119

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Songs of Innocence
77

Purchased by the British Museum (Print Room) in 1836. T. The same. 54 plates, printed on recto only. Foliated by Blake. Watermark dated 1825. The colour, according to Gilchrist, is not as delicately executed or as harmonious as some of the earlier examples. It was sent by Mrs. Blake, marked ' Blake's own,' to Dr. Jebb, Bishop of Limerick, as a return for a sum of twenty guineas which he had handed to her through Mr. Haviland Burke. In 1863 this copy was in the possession of the Rev. Charles Forster. This is the copy followed by Gilchrist and most later editors in the arrangement of the So?igs. V. Songs of Experience only, but, as the foliation shows, having at one time formed part of a copy which con- tained the Sofigs of Innocence also. 25 plates, printed on one side of the leaf only. Foliated 30-54. No dated watermark. Richly coloured and gilt. Bound in modern English maroon morocco. Size 7| x ^ inches. Now in the possession of Robert Hoe, Esq., New York. X. Songs of Innocence and of Experience. 54 plates, printed on recto only. Foliated in pencil. Obviously printed from the original plates after Blake's death. Ff. 1-40 and 42 printed with leaden grey ink upon thick paper, some sheets of which bear the watermark 1831. Ff. 41, 43, 44, printed in somewhat darker ink upon larger and thinner paper, f. 43 bearing the watermark 1832. Ff. 45-54 are printed in reddish sepia upon large thin paper. Uncoloured. In a modern binding, each leaf separately mounted on a guard. Size, larger paper io| x 7^, smaller paper 9-| X '] inches. Copy in the Reading Room of the British Museum, purchased January 7, 1864. Y. The sa7ne. Under this heading I give the order of the Songs as they occur in the first letterpress edition edited by Wilkinson in 1839. This is not traceable to any engraved original, and may be the editor's own arrangement. It is not probable that the whole impression of the Songs issued by Blake much exceeded in number the twenty-two copies described above. The ' Public,' to whom the author