Page:The poetical works of William Blake; a new and verbatim text from the manuscript engraved and letterpress originals (1905).djvu/270

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228
Rossetti MS.

was paid for originally at the immense prices that those who keep manufactories of art always charge to their employers, while they themselves pay their journeymen little enough. But, though Correggio was not poor, he will make any true artist so, who permits him to enter his mind, and take possession of his affections; he infuses a love of soft and even tints without boundaries, and of endless reflected lights, that confuse one another, and hinder all correct drawing from appearing to be correct; for if one of Rafael's or Michael Angelo's figures was to be traced, and Correggio's reflections and refractions to be added to it, there would soon be an end of proportion and strength, and it would be weak, and pappy, and lumbering, and thick-headed, like his own works; but then it would have softness and evenness, by a twelvemonth's labour, where a month would with judgment have finished it better and higher; and the poor wretch who executed it would be the Correggio that the life-writers have written of—a drudge and a miserable man, compelled to softness by poverty. I say again, O Artist! you may disbelieve all this, but it shall be at your own peril.'


cix

Great things are done when Men & Mountains meet;
This is not done by jostling in the street.


MS. Book, p. 43. DGR, WMR, WBY (' Coupl.' v, vii, and 8), EY i. 224.

2 This is] These are all edd.


cx

If you play a Game of Chance, Know, before you begin,
If you are benevolent You will never win.


MS. Book, p. 47. Only in EY i. 224, printed as a quatrain.


cxi

The only Man that e'er I knew
Who did not make me almost spew
Was Fuseli: he was both Turk and Jew —
And so, dear Christian Friends, how do you do?


MS. Book, p. 50. These hnes are written over an erasure, with the title 'William Cowper, Esqre.' which probably belonged to the deleted passage. WMR ('Epig.' xv) with title 'Fuseli,' EY i. 225.

1 that e'er I] that ever I WMR; I ever EY. 2 make me almost] almost make me EY. 4 dear] sweet MS. Book 1st rdg. del. Christian Friends] Christians ibid, 1st rdg. del.