And this the Princes' golden rule, 5
The Laborious Stumble of a Fool.
To make out the parts is the wise man's aim,
But to loose them the Fool makes his foolish Game.
Cp. Advertisement (MS. Book, p. 55): 'I allow that there is such a thing as
high-finished ignorance, as there may be a fool or a knave in an embroidered
coat ' ; also, Blake's notes to Reynolds' Discourses, p. xlvii : ' I was once
looking over the Prints from Rafael & Michael Angelo in the Library of the
Royal Academy. Moser came to me cfe said, " You should not study these
old Hard, Stiff, & Dry Unfinish'd Works of Art. Stay a little, & I will shew
you what you should Study." He then went and took down Le Brun's and
Rubens' Galleries. How I did secretly rage. I also spoke my Mind. . . .
I said to Moser, " These things that you call Finish'd are not Even Begun,
how can they then be Finish'd ? The Man who does not know The Begin-
ning never can know the End of Art." ' 6 The . . . Fool] Cp. MS. Book
xcvi. 8 Game] aim EY.
xcv
Rafael, Sublime, Majestic, Graceful, Wise —
His Executive Power must I despise?
Rubens, Low, Vulgar, Stupid, Ignorant —
His power of Execution I must grant ?
MS. Book, p. 39. Gil. i. 265, WMR (as continuation of xciii), EY i. 220.
Cp. Blake's ms. note on flyleaf of his copy of Reynolds' Discourse no. v,
Works, vol. i, p. [114] : 'The following Discourse is written with the Same
End in View that Gainsborough had . . . Namely To Represent Vulgar Artists
as the Models of Executive Merit.'
2, 4 Power] powers EY. 4 His . . . grant] EY obscure the whole
point of this epigram by punctuating the last line : —
- ' His power of execution I must grant.'
The following extracts, however, taken from Blake's marginal notes to
Reynolds' Discourses, show clearly that the last line should be read as an
indignant question involving an answer in the negative : —
p. xxix. ' Why are we to be told that Masters who Could Think, had not
the Judgment to Perform the Inferior parts of Art, as Reynolds artfully
calls them ? But that we are to Learn to Think from Great Masters, & to
Learn to Perform from Underhngs ! Learn to Design from Rafael, and to
Execute from Rubens I '
p. 126. ' Can any Man be Such a fool as to believe that Rafael & Michael
Angelo were Incapable of the meer Language of Art, & That Such Idiots as
Rubens, Correggio, & Titian knew how to Execute what they could not
Think or Invent.'
p. 167. ' He who Admires Rafael, Must admire Rafael's Execution. He
who does not admire Rafael's Execution, Cannot Admire Rafael.'
