Page:The poetical works of William Blake; a new and verbatim text from the manuscript engraved and letterpress originals (1905).djvu/242

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.
200
Rossetti MS.


xlvi

No real Style of Colouring ever appears,
But advertizing in the News Papers.
Look there — you'll see S"" Joshua's Colouring :
Look at his Pictures — All has taken Wing !


MS. Book, p. 21. Gil. i. 266. Printed by WMR among ' Epigrams and Satirical Pieces on Art and Artists ' (xiv) with title ' Colour,' and by EY among ' Couplets and Fragments ' (xvi) without title. The epigrams on Art which begin on this page would appear to be an overflow from those jotted down in the margins of Blake's copy of Reynolds' Discourses.

I ever] now Gil., EY. 2 But . . . Papers] Save thro' advertisements in the newspapers Gil., cp. Blake's Advertisement (^MS. Book, p. 56) : ' Advertisements in newspapers are no proof of popular approbation, but often the contrary.' 3 there] here EY. 4 All has taken wing] 'tis quite another thing MS. Book 1st rdg. del. ; cp. ' Epigrams from Reynolds' Discourses,' iv : —

'When Sir Joshua Reynolds died
All Nature was degraded.
The King dropped a Tear into the Queen's Ear,
And all his Pictures Faded.'



xlvii

1You don't believe — I won't attempt to make ye :
You are asleep — I won't attempt to wake ye.
Sleep on ! Sleep on ! while in your pleasant dreams
Of Reason you may drink of Life's clear streams.
5Reason and Newton, they are quite two things ;
For so the Swallow & the Sparrow sings.

MS. Book, p. 21, the two stanzas separated by a sketch. Printed among 'Couplets and Fragments' (xv) by WMR as a single stanza with title ' Reason,' and by EY (xvii) without title.
1 You . . . ye] You don't believe I would attempt to make you WMR. won't] would MS. Book 1st rdg. del. 2 ye] you WMR.