[Corrigenda to Songs of Innocence and of Experience (reproduction of copy E, Huntington Library, 2008)]
begin page 111 | ↑ back to topCORRIGENDA
The Huntington Library recently published a color reproduction of Blake’s Songs of Innocence and of Experience copy E. I served as the volume’s editor and provided a commentary on the poems and designs. In the “Acknowledgments” (177), I state that “we show the images on a background based on the original paper.” In spite of the production team’s best efforts, the paper color in the reproduction does not accurately represent Blake’s paper. The reproduction is too brown, with a slight rosy hue, whereas the original is much whiter, with a slight yellow-gray tint. The one exception is “The Tyger,” plate 40 in copy E. Because of overexposure to sunlight while on exhibition for many years, the paper has turned brown. The reproduction is accurate in this regard. The representation of Blake’s inks and watercolors on all plates is also true to the original.
The following sentence appears on page 12 of the commentary: “We can see outward evidence of such unities in play, a central activity in several Songs of Innocence, because of the way the state of innocence promotes a spontaneous marriage of thought and deed, mind and body.” The sentence should read as follows: “We can see outward evidence of such unities in childhood play, a central activity in several Songs of Innocence, because of the way play promotes a spontaneous marriage of thought and deed, mind and body.”