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WRAPPER TITLE
Number [space for numeral & Muir's signature] | The | Marriage of | Heaven | and | Hell. | Willm Blake. 1790.
EDITION
A facsimile by William Muir.
PUBLISHED
Edmonton, Middlesex: Blake Press, W. Muir; London: B. Quaritch, agent,
YEAR OF PUBLICATION
1885.
DESCRIPTION
34 leaves: col. ill; 29cm
NOTES
Limited ed. of 50 numbered copies lithographically printed on one side of the leaf only in orange ink,and hand-coloured. Leaves sewn into blue-grey wrappers with vellum spine.
Price £7 7s.
Hand-colored facsimile done from the Hamilton Palace copy (A) of the original. The first leaf is a "PREFACE" addressed by Mr. Muir to Prince Hohenlohe-Langenburg. At the end is an "APPENDIX", consisting of three leaves with facsimiles of Blake’s MS. index to the Songs of Innocence and of Experience, and of “A Divine Image,” from a proof on a scrap of paper. On the recto of the back wrapper is a “Programme” addressed to the same patron as the preface.
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DETAILED CONTENTS
[tissue wrapper, ink] Beckford Copy | [pencil] Mr Muir’s Master Copy 27 pp. | 50 Sale Copies were made | from this. [ink] Heaven and | Hell | Wm Blake
[leaf i, ink] William Blake’s | Marriage of Heaven and Hell | Copied from the Original that was bought | from Blake by William Beckford (Vathek) | and sold with the Hamilton Palace Library | in 188[4] | Wm Muir
[leaf ii, ink] Mr Quaritch sold fifty copies of Heaven & Hell | for me between 30 Novr 1885 and 16 July 1917 | Forty-five were coloured after this copy, and | five (Nos 42 46 48 49 50) were coloured after | the original in the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge.
O 0.1 [printed] PREFACE
O 1-O 27 [printed facsimile, hand-coloured] THE MARRIAGE of HEAVEN and HELL
[blank leaf]
29 [recto, pencil] H. & H. | Originals | Beckford Copy
29 [verso, printed] APPENDIX.
O 30-O 31 [printed facsimile, monochrome] The Order in which the Songs of Innocence & of Experience ought to be paged & placed
O 32 [printed facsimile, monochrome] A DIVINE IMAGE
[verso, ink, summary contents of facsimile]
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RYLANDS
Accession number R83355
Pressmark Q 821.69 B581
Provenance Gift of W. Muir
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TEXTS
[O 0.1, printed, with interlinear decorations] PREFACE. | To His Serene Highness, | Prince Victor Hohenlohe-Langenburg, Count Gleichen, &c: &c: | Your Serene Highness | and | My kind Patron.
Rousseau issued his tract on the “Social Contract” in 1762. It was the first articulate utterance of that mode of thought which is now called Radicalism.
It came and went like a gleam of lightning. The thunder followed in 1789, and continued for thirty years.
Blake published this book before the hopes that were roused by the French Revolution had been disappointed by its excesses. This must in fairness be remembered when the book is read.—It consists of six scenes—glimpses of the unique realm, which the imagination of Blake had created, and in which it dwelt—and of a number of grim utterances—modelled on Lavater’s Aphorisms—spoken as by a brazen voice therefrom.
The simplicity, shrewdness, daring and irony of the utterances aided by the wildness of the visions and designs have made it famous both in literature and art. Yet though wild, the book is not unpleasant: for, fear and sense of guilt and care are absent.—Absent, as they are absent among the devils depicted by Milton.
The scenes, and the creatures and their actions are all terrible and innocent.—Innocent as fire, whirlwind, flood and wild beasts are innocent. | The natures depicted are ignorant of moral conflict;—each is one at its heart, and harmonious in its faculties. All, therefore, speak and act with the full strength of their natures, delightfully unconscious of self, free from remorse, or repentance, or regret.
I am |Your Highness Humble Servant | Wm Muir. | Edmonton. November, 1885.
This copy is facsimilied from the Beckford—Hamilton Palace Copy—which now belongs to Mr Quaritch, and I hereby thank him for the use of it.
[leaf 29, printed] APPENDIX.
The Index to the “Songs of Innocence and of Experience”—which follows this page, is a facsimile from an autograph by Blake himself—probably made for the use of his wife. The handwriting is that of his old age.
The impression of the plate, “A Divine Image,” is from a proof on a scrap of paper. It was certainly intended to be one of the “Songs of Experience”, although it is not contained in the above-mentioned Index, or in any copy of the “Songs” I have used. I have no authorised colouring of it, so can only give it in its uncoloured state.
Both are from originals which have lately come into my possession.
Wm Muir | Edmonton 1885.
O 32 [verso, ink]
Title Page –– The Union of the Elements.
Page 2. (Argument). Earth.
3 –– Fire.
4 –– Water.
5 –– Air.
6 –– ––
7 –– ––
8 –– ––
9 –– ––
10 –– ––
11 –– The Dawn.
12 –– ––
13 –– ––
14 –– The Body of Hector
15 –– Genius
16 –– Ugolino
17 –– ––
18 –– ––
19 –– ––
20 –– A Dream
21 –– Satan addressing the Sun
22 –– ––
23 –– ––
24 –– Arbitrary Power.
25 –– ––
26 –– ––
27 –– ––
[recto of rear cover]
PROGRAMME. | To His Serene Highness | Prince Victor Hohenlohe Langenburg, Count Gleichen &c: | Your Serene Highness | and | My kind Patron | My desire and intention is to reproduce ALL the important works by William Blake that exist in book form, and also some of his finest designs, and this by methods of working as nearly the same as Blake himself used, as the need of maintaining fidelity to his results will allow. I will not use either Photography or Chromo-Lithography. All outlines are drawn and all the colouring is by hand. I produce for subscribers FIFTY COPIES ONLY of each book and each of them is numbered. | I am assisted in the work by four friends whose names appear at the end of the “Songs of Innocence and I heartily acknowledge my debt to them. | I have already completed:—
“The Visions of the Daughters of Albion” (quarto) ... £3 - 3 - 0.
“The Book of Thel” ... ... ... ... ( do ) ... 2 - 2 - 0.
“The Songs of Innocence” (8vo:) with margin to quarto size 5 - 5 - 0.
“The Songs of Experience do ... do ... do ... 5 - 5 - 0.
“The Marriage of Heaven and Hell ... (quarto) ... ... 3 - 3 - 0.
The “Visions” and “Thel” are coloured from the British Museum Copies. The “Songs of Innocence”, from the copy that Blake gave to Flaxman. The “Songs of Experience” and “Heaven and Hell” from the Hamilton Palace Copy.
These works have satisfied the most fastidious critics.
I am now engaged upon:—
“The Milton” ... ... ... (uniform with the above) ... £10 - 10 - 0.
“There is no Natural Religion” ( ... do ... ) ... 1 - 1 - 0.
(I consider the “Songs of Innocence and Experience” the most beautiful book that has ever been produced in England). | I have to thank your Highness for the interest you have been pleased to take in this enterprise. Blake is pre-eminently an artist’s artist. He has created for himself a realm of “Pure Imagination”, in which he works alone, and his results are most stimulating to the imagination of those who study them.
I am, Your Highness’s Humble Servant, | Edmonton. November 1885. Wm Muir
My only Agent is—Mr Bernard Quaritch of 15 Piccadilly. W. He receives the names of subscribers, and takes payment on delivery.
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COPIES
Master copy--John Rylands Library
No 7--British Library
No 44--Essick Collection
No 50--National Library of Scotland
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COMMENT
Delicately coloured. Keynes notes Muir's source for the titles he gives some of the plates
Mr. William Muir has recently supplied me with a list of titles for the designs, which he copied from pencil writing on a fly-leaf of the Cumberland-Beckford copy (A) of the original. These may have been invented by Cumberland or Beckford; it is, on the other hand, quite possible that they were obtained by Cumberland from Blake himself. The titles are as follows: Pl. 1. The Union of the Elements. 2. Earth. 3. Fire. 5. Water. 6. Air. 11. The Dawn. 14. The Body of Hector. 15. Genius. 16. Ugolino. 20. A dream. 21. Satan addressing the Sun. 24. Arbitrary Power. (110)
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CONTEMPORARY REVIEW
The reprints in facsimile of Blake’s Marriage of Heaven and Hell and Songs of Experience, which—in continuation of the series of republications by Mr. Pearson—we have received from Mr. William Muir, of 9, Angel Place, Edmonton, are issued, like those we noticed a few weeks ago, by Mr. Quaritch. Mr. Quaritch generously lent to Mr. Muir to copy his beautiful originals bought at the Hamilton Sale. Fine as they are, they are not quite equal in taste and execution to the originals of ‘The Daughters of Albion,’ ‘Songs of Innocence,’ and ‘The Book of Thel.’ Nevertheless, in some of the illustrations, e.g., that attached to “The Argument” of the ‘Marriage,’ the original and the copy from it are of the best quality and purest taste. In the other cases the facsimiles are admirable. No other copies can rival that before us, of which a very limited number of examples have been prepared. An appendix contains facsimiles of a MS. index in Blake’s own hand, giving, for the guidance, doubtless, of his wife, the paging of the ‘Songs,’ and a design called “A Divine Image,” both of them additions of great interest. The ‘Songs of Experience’ is nearly as possible right as a facsimile; the rendering of Blake’s own colour, with touches of gold here and there, in ‘The Fly,’ is just and pure. ‘The Sick Rose’ is only inferior (we might almost say not inferior) to the original. The same may be said for ‘The Little Girl Found,’ ‘ The Tyger,’ ‘ A Little Boy Lost,’ ‘A Little Girl Lost,’ and ‘The School Boy,’ which begins with—
I love to rise in a summer morn,
When the birds sing on every tree;
The distant huntsman winds his horn,
And the sky lark sings with me,
O! what sweet company !
This series of facsimiles is, we now learn, to include all Blake’s books and some of his best single plate designs, and it will be limited to fifty copies of each work. Of this “very worthy enterprise” it is a great pleasure to testify the completeness and the beauty. ‘Milton,’ a huge undertaking, is in progress; so are ‘Europe’. and ‘The Song of Los’.—THE ATHENÆUM, no. 3070 (28 August 1886), page 280.
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Further reading
G. E. Bentley, Jr.—Blake Books : Annotated Catalogues of William Blake's Writings …and Scholarly and Critical Works about him.—Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1977.
Geoffrey Keynes.—A bibliography of William Blake.—New York : Grolier Club, 1921.
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