New-York tribune., 1907-10-16
Nes2 Studies Of The Character of
WIIiar BlaI:c.

,,,o,o literature has been increasing in bulk
e ,o,e with a rapidity that is a little bewilder-
v ue was d nan OF notable individuality,
so-eiuts streaks Of genius which came out
- sveetIy and now wildly. in his verse and in
.-.t,+,,res The ideal editor and biographer of
49, curious visionary would be a man of SYM
-, and Judgment who would tell, straghtfor-
-, and briefly the story Of Blakes life and
o-of1lIv sitting The works. present the moderate
-+i+v Of wheat that is 10 bc separated from
ba4 4 single volume thus dedicated TO the
-lisb r,oet and artist would be a real service to
-.o5ars Asit is, he seems in some strange way 10
:. influence those who become enthusiastic over
a., that they lose all sense of measure and, in
.r.,r jealous portraits of him. do everything
a., give a clear and persuasive account of the
-,on and E.s work.
ur Edwin ! Ellis well illustrates the point
=. ~Tre Real Blake (NIcCiure. Phillips & Coz,
,bi~t ~ describes III his subtitle as "a por-
,..t biography" We remember this author
= ca-editor with Mr. w. r. Yeats of the por-
.,,to,s edition Of Blake which we reviewed
s,v7s fourteen years ago. He IS still, as he was
be- nothing f not industrious. But in his
-,o--reit biography" we must confess that we
An not 1nd precisely portrait of Blake What
,s do find IS a minute record of his hero's ca
-car SET forth Hith an excess of words and
-endered. on the whole, rather obscure through
she authors cftor to interpret the works as he
go4s along. We respect the effort. Mr.. Ellis
,fns in making II. at throwing a clearer light
anon Plake's character. The task. however. is
ons Of singular difficulty for the Works" after
all. constitute kind of jungle. and the explorer
Vba Is not 10 lose his way as he labors pain
fully through the rank vegetation must have a
he;ter equipment than We believe is possessed
br his somewhat comp'acent traveller. He has.
Hi
as an editor Of Blake and Of his ability to cor
r4ct previous commentators. AS a matter Of
fact. he is not by any means the most luminous
guide in th5 world. His book is not defnitive.
Il is rather, a painstaking. heavy handed con-
it-buion 70 the mass Of conventional Blake lit
aera,uge. The true portrait of the real Blake
has still 10 be drawn.
When il is finally produced the maker Of II
will doubtless make some use Of Mr. Ellis and
he viii likewise owe a small debt Of gratitude to
Mr. Arthur Symons for his William Blake CE
P Dutton q Coz. a monograph which has been
nodestly framed and then enriched with supple
naentary data collected from divers sources. Mr..
syrnons, like all the rest takes an overwrought
tore in the discussion of Blake, but he has at
least escaped. upon this occasion. the preciosity
Characteristic Of most Of his writings Save for
the quaint dedication which we mentioned the
other day the dedication To Auguste Rodin
whose Work is the Marriage of Heaven and
He'll" there is nothing in this volume which re-
fects upon the authors taste. He succeeds. too
not infrequently, in giving very clever and
suggestive turn TO his criticism. Thus in devel-
oping The plausible idea that there points OF
contact between Nietzsche and Blake he shrewd-
II notes that the philosophy of Nietzsche was
MADE out Of his nerves and was suffering but
10 Blake it entered like sunlight into the eyes"
Here. again. is admirably written passage:
The poetry OF Blake is the poetry of the mind, alb
ne passion q the imagination, its emotion is the
emotion at thought. lis beauty is the beauty OF
soe n soyro 6Toef 70 aeed ge our of eePnfY T
INTO the dangerous world, and there
Helpless, naked: piping loud.
There are men and women in the world OF
siakes poetry orr primal instincts and the ener-
ges Of the Imagination
childhood Of The world and there is something in
= .. me nalFete OF 9easts; the lines gambol aWk-
state Of innocence has in II something of the gro
as they do Humor exists unconscious Of itself. in
kind Of awed and open-eysd solemnity. He STAN
meTs into speech of angels, as If just awakening
out Of Paradise.
Sometimes Mr.. symons comes very near to
writing nonsense Remarking that "by his
energy and nobility Of creation Blake
takes rank among great artists in a place apart
from those who have been content to study to
observe. and to copy" he goes to say that
mis- invention of living form is like natures,
Enintermittent, but without the measure and
order Of nature. and without complete command
over the materials out Of which it creates" This
is mere fire writing. obscuring the simple fact
that Blake had only feeting glnpses of true
form and cannot on any hypothesis be ranked
among the great artists. In the general drift
Of his essay. however. Mr.. Symons is thought
I'll and moi unhelpful. In the second part Of his
volume he gives all Of the numerous and valu-
able notes Ola Blake in Crabb Robinson's
'Diary." the souvenirs left by Malkin and Lady
Charlotte Bury. Blake's horoscope, two of the
Obituaries Of 1927. and some other documents.
All Of this matter is more or less interesting 10
the student and Il is convenient to have it thus
assembled
The Rome correspondent Of the London
Globe" has communicated the interesting fact