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.