Blake and Conflict

248 Pages·2009·2.91 MB·English

by  Sarah Haggarty, Jon Mee (eds.)

Blake and Conflict
Edited by
Sarah Haggarty and Jon Mee
Blake and Conflict
This page intentionally left blank
Blake and Conflict
Edited by
Sarah Haggarty
and
Jon Mee
Introduction, selection and editorial matter © Sarah Haggarty and Jon Mee 2009
Individual chapters © contributors 2009
Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 2009 978-0-230-57387-1
All rights reserved. No reproduction, copy or transmission of this
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work in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
First published 2009 by
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ISBN 978-1-349-36487-9 ISBN 978-0-230-58428-0 (eBook)
DOI 10.1057/9780230584280
This book is printed on paper suitable for recycling and made from fully
managed and sustained forest sources. Logging, pulping and manufacturing
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country of origin.
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Blake and confl ict / edited by Sarah Haggarty and Jon Mee.
p. cm.
“The present volume grew out of a two-day ‘Blake and Confl ict’ conference
held at University College, Oxford, in September 2006” – Pref.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
1. Blake, William, 1757–1827 – Political and social views. 2. Literature and
society – England – History – 18th century. 3. Literature and society –
England – History – 19th century. 4. Art and literature – England – History –
18th century. 5. Art and literature – England – History – 19th century. 6. Blake,
William, 1757–1827 – Religion. 7. Social problems in literature. 8. Politics in
literature. 9. Theology in literature. I. Haggarty, Sarah. II. Mee, Jon.
PR4148.P6B53 2009 2008029928
821(cid:2).7—dc22
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
18 17 16 15 14 13 12 11 10 09
Contents
List of Illustrations vii
List of Abbreviations ix
Acknowledgements x
Notes on the Contributors xi
Introduction 1
Jon Mee and Sarah Haggarty
1 Blake and the Ontology of Empire 12
Saree Makdisi
2 ‘A wise tale of the Mahometans’: Blake and Islam, 1819–26 27
Angus Whitehead
3 Blake, the Female Prophet and the American Agent:
The Evidence of the 1789 Swedenborg
Conference Attendance List 48
David Worrall
4 Impurity of Diction: The ‘Harlots Curse’ and Dirty Words 65
Susan Matthews
5 ‘She Cuts his Heart Out at his Side’: Blake,
Christianity and Political Virtue 84
David Fallon
6 From Donation to Demand? Almsgiving and the
‘Annotations to Thornton’ 105
Sarah Haggarty
7 ‘A Little Less Conversation, A Little More Action’:
Mutuality, Converse and Mental Fight 126
Jon Mee
8 Shadows in the Cave: Refocusing Vision in
Blake’s Creation Myth 144
Sibylle Erle
v
vi Contents
9 A Minute Skirmish: Blake, Hayley and
the Art of Miniature Painting 164
Mark Crosby
10 Blake and the Literary Galleries 185
Luisa Calè
11 Blake’s Poems on Art and Artists 210
Morton D. Paley
Index 229
Illustrations
2.1 [James De Ville], Manual of Phrenology, as an
Accompaniment to the Phrenological Bust,
frontispiece (1828). Courtesy of Angus Whitehead 37
2.2 William Blake, Illustration to Dante’s
Divine Comedy (1824–7) Hell, Canto 28; The Schismatics
and Sowers of Discord: Mahomet, pen and watercolour
over pencil, 37.3 x 52.7 cm. Reproduced with kind
permission from the National Gallery of
Victoria, Melbourne, Australia 39
2.3 John Flaxman, Illustration to Dante’s Inferno Canto 28,
in Compositions [ ... ] from the Divine Poem of Dante Alighieri,
Containing Hell, Purgatory and Paradise (London, 1807),
George Smith Collection, University of York Libraries
and Archives, Special Collection. Reproduced with
kind permission from the Borthwick Institute
for Archives, University of York 41
6.1 William Blake, Illustrations of the Book of Job, pl. 5/obj. 7,
‘Satan Going Forth from the Presence of the Lord and
Job’s Charity’ (1826). Reproduced with kind permission
from The William Blake Archive, ed. Morris Eaves,
Robert N. Essick and Joseph Viscomi, 24 September 2007
(http://www.blakearchive.org/) 106
6.2 William Blake, Illustrations of the Book of Job, pl. 19/obj. 21,
‘Every Man also Gave Him a Piece of Money’ (1826).
Reproduced with kind permission from The William
Blake Archive, ed. Morris Eaves, Robert N. Essick
and Joseph Viscomi, 24 September 2007
(http://www.blakearchive.org/) 119
9.1 William Blake, William Cowper (1801). Reproduced with
kind permission from the Trustees of the Ashmolean
Museum, Oxford 170
9.2 William Blake, Thomas Butts Senior (c.1801–9).
Reproduced with kind permission from
the Trustees of the British Museum 171
9.3 Thomas Alphonso Hayley (1800), designed
by Henry Howard after a medallion
vii
viii Illustrations
by John Flaxman, engraved by William Blake. Reproduced
with kind permission from the Bodleian Library, University
of Oxford, N. 280 d. 489 176
10.1 Henry Fuseli, Satan Bursts from Chaos (1799).
Reproduced with kind permission from Private
Collection, Switzerland, copyright Schweizerisches
Institut für Kunstwissenschaft 195
10.2 William Blake, The First Book of Urizen, copy C, pl. 9:
‘Chap: IV / 1 Ages on ages roll’d over him ...’ (1794).
Reproduced with kind p ermission from the Yale
Center for British Art, Paul Mellon Collection,
B1978.43.1428 196
10.3 W illiam Blake, Extra-illustration of Night II lines 145–63,
in Edward Young, The Complaint, and, The Consolation;
or, Night Thoughts (London, 1797), p. 25. Reproduced
with kind permission from the Bodleian Library,
University of Oxford, Arch A b. 11, p. 25 200
10.4 W illiam Blake, ‘The Christian Triumph’, frontispiece
to Night IV, in Edward Young, The Complaint, and,
The Consolation; or, Night Thoughts (London, 1797), p. 65.
Reproduced with kind p ermission from the Bodleian
Library, University of Oxford, Arch A b. 11, p. 65 202
10.5 Richard Westall, Illustration for Book III of Paradise Lost,
in The Poetical Works of John Milton, 3 vols (London,
1794–7), I, opposite p. 77. Reproduced with kind
permission from the Bodleian Library, University
of Oxford, 27980 b. 1–3 vols, opposite p. 77 203
Abbreviations
Anns Annotations
BIQ Blake: An Illustrated Quarterly
BR G. E. Bentley, Jr, Blake Records, 2nd edn (New Haven: Yale
University Press, 2004)
E Reference to page numbers in The Complete Poetry & Prose
of William Blake, ed. by David V. Erdman, com. by Harold
Bloom, rev. edn (New York: Doubleday, 1988)
Experience Songs of Experience
Innocence Songs of Innocence
Marriage The Marriage of Heaven and Hell
Pl. Plate
Urizen The [First] Book of Urizen
All quotations of Blake’s writings, unless otherwise indicated, refer to
Erdman’s edition. Both plate and line numbers, separated by a colon,
are usually given, as well as page numbers.
ix