To forgive Enemies H does pretend

by William Blake

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Blake manuscript - Notebook 1808 - 33 P loved me not as he loved his Friend

Edited text:^[1]

* * *

TO forgive enemies H—— does pretend,
Who never in his life forgave a friend,
And when he could not act upon my wife
Hired a villain to bereave my life.^[2]

The original text:^[3]

* * *

To forgive Enemies H . does pretend
Who never in his Life forgave a friend

Notes

1. The Poetical Works of William Blake, including the unpublished French Revolution together with the Minor Prophetic Books and Selections from The Four Zoas, Milton & Jerusalem; edited with an introduction and textual notes by John Sampson, Hon. D.Litt. Oxon., 1862–1931. London, New York: Oxford University Press, 1908.
2. 1. V 4 This line, as well as any other, may serve as an illustration of Blake’s habit of embodying old phrases, passages, or even entire stanzas in pieces written sometimes after an interval of years. Cp. with the above, composed circa 1809, the lines from ‘Fair Elenor’:
   He seeks thy love; who, coward in the night,
   Hirèd a villain to bereave my life,
   probably one of the earliest poems included in the Poetical Sketches printed in 1783, and, according to the ‘Advertisement’, written at least six years earlier.
3. "The Complete Poetry & Prose of William Blake", ed. by David V. Erdman, Anchor Books, 1988, p. 505.