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THE NORTON CRITICAL EDITION OF BLAKE: ADDENDA AND CORRIGENDA

Both internally and externally, the recent second printing of Blake’s Poetry and Designs displays noteworthy improvements. In the first printing the heavy color plates failed to adhere to the “Perfect Binding,” the trade name for a process which has also caused problems in other paperback illustrated books, such as The Oxford Anthology of English Literature; in our second printing, however, the binder forced the glue further up between pages, and thick and thin pages now appear to be holding together. Though this is of course not a new edition, the corrected printing includes important additions, such as the excerpt from the letter to Butts on allegory (p. 478), and changes, such as the new reading of a crucial phrase in the first Preface to Jerusalem (p. 312). Our original proposal to W. W. Norton had contained full texts of The Four Zoas and Jerusalem, but to come within the publisher’s estimated price limit of $3.95, we had to trim the total length to 600 pages, including pictures, selections from the prose, and the critical essays required by the series format. Sadly, during the three years the book was in process of publication, the actual price went up to $9.95—still the price of the second printing—and there is obviously now little hope that full texts of the longer works will ever be restored in a new edition. Our corrections in this printing do not extend to the Bibliography, because the printing was carried out before we had submitted our new material; we shall nevertheless indicate the changes we had hoped to make in that section. The following list includes substantial changes; asterisks (*) indicate further corrections which do not appear in the new printing. We would appreciate hearing from readers who discover errors we have overlooked.

p. xi. Add “To Thomas Butts, April 25, 1803 [*should be July 6, 1803] . . . 478”

*p. xxix. Under “1779” add “Met Flaxman, sculptor” and delete Flaxman from the 1780 entry.

p. xxxvii. For entries under 1820 and 1821, Blake’s “Times,” substitute new entries: 1820 (January 29) Death of George III. Prince Regent becomes George IV (coronation June, 1821). Keats’s last volume of poems. Shelley’s Prometheus Unbound. Southey’s A Vision of Judgment. 1821 Death of Keats in Italy. Shelley’s Adonais. Byron’s Cain, Don Juan III-IV.

*p. xlii. “The Holy Land” map: The southern boundary of the Northern Kingdom should be the river Kanah; the letters “NOR” extend too far south. In the inset, Golgotha should be outside the city walls.

p. xliii, line 13 from bottom. For “enlongated” read “elongated.”

p. xlv. Before the final paragraph, insert a new paragraph:

Assuming that the reader will develop a tolerance for Blake’s irregularities while working through this text, we have altered Blake’s punctuation more in the earlier poems, less in the later ones.

p. 17. Add a new sentence to the last line:

For some early drafts, see pp. 176-181.

*p. 21. The lopped-off design, omitting the boy who begin page 108 | back to top hands the grapes to the girl, unfortunately could not be corrected in this reprinting.

p. 40, footnote 7. Add: “cf. Jerusalem 15:8.”

p. 43, footnote 8. Add: “cf. ‘Earth’s Answer.’”

pp. 45-46. The last two stanzas of “The Little Girl Found” should be on p. 45, the design on p. 46.

p. 47. Both stanzas of “The Sick Rose” should appear on this page.

p. 48, last line of footnote. For “ther” read “their.”

p. 49, add to footnote. “See drafts of this poem, pp. 178-180.”

*p. 53, add to footnote 2. “See E. P. Thompson in Interpreting Blake, ed. Michael Phillips (1978).”

p. 54. Keyed to title, “Infant Sorrow,” a new footnote 7: “See draft, pp. 180-182.” Subsequent footnotes are renumbered.

p. 69, line 25. For “of” read “on.”

p. 82, line 8. For “Swendenborg’s” read “Swedenborg’s.”

*p. 87. Correct “But the following Contraries to these are:” to “But the following Contraries to these are True:”

p. 88. “A Memorable Fancy,” line 2: For “enjoyment” read “enjoyments.”

p. 88, last line of plate 6. After “rock” correct comma to semicolon.

p. 101, footnote 1. For the first sentence of this footnote, substitute a new sentence: “At the beginning of this Memorable Fancy the Devil has appeared in this flame.”

*p. 103, second paragraph, line 7 from bottom. Delete “of”; phrase should read “the antagonists Orc and Urizen.”

p. 104. Before the final paragraph, insert a new paragraph:

America is the first of the “Lambeth books,” works produced while the Blakes lived in the Hercules buildings, Lambeth, on the south side of the Thames (see map). America, Europe, The Song of Los, Urizen, Ahania, and The Book of Los make up a distinct sub-group in Blake’s canon, sharing common themes and images of the fallen human condition; each of these has the word “Lambeth” on its title page.

p. 121, line 2 (America 16:17). Insert comma after “Albion”; delete comma after “Guardians.”

p. 121, line 3 (16:18). Delete comma after “plagues.”

p. 121, line 4 (16:19). For colon after “heaven,” read comma.

p. 121, line 6 (16:21). For period after “Orc,” read colon.

p. 121, footnote 3. For “Vames” read “James.”

*p. 124, footnote 4. For “Fairly” read “Fairy.”

p. 127, plate 5, line 6. For “worm” read “worms.”

p. 127, footnote 3. The second sentence of this footnote should read: “Rintrah’s bride Ocalython personifies sexual jealousy and Palamabron’s queen Elynittria personifies chastity . . . .”

p. 143, plate 3, line 25 (stanza 5). Delete “up.”

p. 143, plate 3, line 29 (stanza 6). For “army” read “array.”

p. 144, plate 4, line 1 (stanza 3). Delete colon after “desarts.”

p. 144, plate 4, line 6 (stanza 4). Change period to comma after “solitude.”

p. 144, plate 4, line 17 (stanza 5). Change semicolon to comma after “was”; insert period after “womb.”

p. 145, plate 4, line 46 (stanza 2). Delete comma after “blood.”

p. 145, last line (stanza 4). Insert “the” after “o’er” and before “dark.”

p. 146, plate 5, line 28 (stanza 7). Delete comma after “roof.” (*And after “around.”)

*p. 147, plate 8, line 2 (stanza 1). Insert “t” in “hurtling.”

p. 148, plate 10, line 18 (stanza 2). Insert comma after “links.”

p. 151, plate 13, line 21 (stanza 1). Change colon to period after “hand.”

p. 151, plate 13, line 36 (stanza 4). Insert period after “region.”

p. 152, plate 15, line 2. Delete hyphen in “death image.”

*p. 155, plate 20, line 41 (stanza 8). Capitalize first letter in “Fruits.”

p. 155, plate 20, line 44 (stanza 9). For “Form” read “From.”

p. 156, first line in stanza 5. Change semicolon to colon after “death” and close the space separating this line from the remainder of stanza 5.

p. 160, line 5 from bottom. For “early in UrizenreadUrizen 24:17.”

p. 178, line 3. For “Hand or eye” read “hand & eye.”

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*p. 202, “The Mental Traveller,” line 8. Add new footnote 1, keyed to this line: “Cf. Psalms 126:5, ‘They that sow in tears shall reap in joy.’” Renumber subsequent footnotes.

*p. 223, footnote 3, line 2 from bottom. Add comma after “counterparts.”

p. 232, MS page 123, line 20. For “piered” read “piercd.” (*And restore “20” line-number.)

*p. 244, footnote 7. For “suburbs” read “villages.”

p. 264, plate 19, line 5. For “Armon” read “Arnon.”

p. 272, line 2 from bottom. For “Wesley” read “Westley.”

p. 297, plate 36, line 22. Change period to semicolon after “whirlwind.”

p. 306, plate 42, line 37. Change period to comma after “prepar’d.”

p. 312, line 6. For “entrusted” read “acknowledge” (*the “c” in this word was omitted in the corrected printing); for “Writing” read “Deities.”

p. 312, footnote 4. Delete old footnote and substitute new one:

In published texts Erdman conjectured “entrusted” for the first “acknowledge” and “Writing” for “Deities”; this new reading by Erdman derives from an unpublished suggestion by Michael J. Tolley.

p. 340, plate 62, line 17. Change period to semicolon after “weak.”

*p. 359, line 7 of second paragraph. Insert semicolon before “the.”

p. 361, at end of footnote 3. Add: “See also Leslie Tannenbaum, Modern Philology 72 (1975).”

*p. 367, part 4, line 77. For “Sprit” read “Spirit.”

p. 369, part 5, line 38. Insert period after “Hipocricy.”

p. 369, part 5, line 39. Change semicolon to comma after “way.”

*p. 384, note 3. Delete footnote and substitute new one:

Paraphrased from the opening lines of Urania (1630) by the self-styled Water Poet, John Taylor (1583-1653), sailor and pamphleteer.

*p. 417, lines 5-7. Delete sentence (“Since . . . oration”) and substitute new one:

For information on the Chalcographic Society, see Dennis Read, Philological Quarterly (forthcoming).

*p. 456. After “To Thomas Butts, January 10, 1802” add, in brackets, “[i.e., 1803].”

*p. 476, footnote 8. Change period to semicolon and add “his wife was a semi-professional engraver acquainted with others in Blake’s circle.”

p. 478. Add the following excerpt from Blake’s letter to Butts of April 25, 1803 [*should be July 6, 1803]:

Thus I hope that all our three years’ trouble Ends in Good Luck at last & shall be forgot by my affections & only remember’d by my Understanding; to be a Memento in time to come, & to speak to future generations by a Sublime Allegory, which is now perfectly completed into a Grand Poem. I may praise it, since I dare not pretend to be any other than the Secretary; the Authors are in Eternity. I consider it as the Grandest Poem that this World contains. Allegory address’d to the Intellectual powers, while it is altogether hidden from the Corporeal Understanding, is my definition of the Most Sublime Poetry; it is also somewhat in the same manner defined by Plato. This Poem shall, by Divine Assistance, be progressively Printed & Ornamented with Prints & given to the Public.

p. 498, line 3. Insert quotation mark before “Irving”; delete quotation mark before “He.” Repunctuate last four lines of this excerpt as follows:

—‘You never saw the spiritual Sun—I have.—I saw him on Primrose Hill.—He said “Do you take me for the Greek Apollo?” “No!” I said. “That” (pointing to the Sky) “That is the Greek Apollo—He is Satan.”’

*pp. 602-607: Changes we intended to make in the Bibliography take into account the following rules of thumb: (1) specialized studies are mentioned only in headnotes and footnotes; (2) only the most comprehensive recent treatments of major subjects are included (these in turn refer to important earlier studies); (3) essays included in the books listed under “VI. Collections of Essays” do not reappear under “VII. Selected Essays”; (4) extensive resetting of type is not possible in a corrected printing.

We hesitate to mention “forthcoming” works because we were wrong about the dates of the Butlin catalogue and the Clarendon edition of Night Thoughts, delayed in publication; thus in making corrections we would produce the anomaly of listing 1980-81 books in our 1979 edition. We will nevertheless venture to include in our wished-for corrections several other recent books but will not attempt to add articles published after 1979. One stellar book we had hoped to include now appears to have been cancelled by Scolar Press before publication: Sir Geoffrey Keynes’s edition of Copy W of Songs of Innocence and of Experience, announced in Book Collector 29 (1980); such are the perils of trying to keep a bibliography current for a future date of publication.

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*p. 602, last line. After “British Museum Collection” insert “by P. Morgan, edited by G. E. Bentley, Jr.”

*p. 603, line 1. After “Library of Congress” insert “by Ruth Fine Lehrer.”

*p. 603, lines 7-8. Delete final sentence of this paragraph and substitute a new sentence: “Martin Butlin’s The Paintings and Drawings of William Blake (New Haven and London: Yale Univ. Press, 1981) is a complete catalogue raisonné.”

*p. 603, mid-page. For “Facsimilies” read “Facsimiles.”

*p. 603, under “Facsimiles of Manuscripts,” in the correct alphabetical position:

Tiriel: Facsimile and Transcript of the Manuscript, Reproduction of the Drawings and a Commentary on the Poem, by G. E. Bentley, Jr. Oxford: Clarendon, 1967.

*p. 603, line 3 from bottom. After “Book of Thelinsert “edited by Nancy Bogen.”

*p. 604, lines 1-2. Delete “six more illuminated books are scheduled for publication in 1979.”

*p. 604, line 5. Add “and Blake’s Grave by S. Foster Damon (Providence: Brown Univ. Press, 1963); a full edition of this work, with commentary by Robert N. Essick and Morton D. Paley, appeared in 1982.[e]

*p. 604, under “II. Art: Collections and Commentaries,” add all the following:

Bindman, David. William Blake 1757-1827. Munich: Prestal Verlag and Hamburger Kunsthalle, 1975.

Dunbar, Pamela. William Blake’s Illustrations to the Poetry of Milton. Oxford: Clarendon, 1980.

(under Erdman) For “1979” read “1980.”

Essick, Robert N. William Blake Printmaker. Princeton: Princeton Univ. Press, 1980.

Klonsky, Milton. Blake’s Illustrations to Dante. New York: Harmony Books, 1980.

Mongan, Elizabeth and Wolf, Edwin II. William Blake 1757-1827. Philadelphia: Philadelphia Museum of Art, 1939.

Russell, A. G. B. The Engravings of William Blake. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1912; rpt. New York: Benjamin Blom, 1968.

*p. 605, under “IV. Biographies”:

Keynes, Geoffrey. The Complete Portraiture of William and Catherine Blake. Paris and London: Trianon Press, 1977.

*p. 605, under “V. Books of Criticism”:

Damrosch, Leopold, Jr. Symbol and Truth in Blake’s Myth. Princeton: Princeton Univ. Press, 1980.

George, Diana Hume. Blake and Freud. Ithaca: Cornell Univ. Press, 1980.

*p. 606, under “VI. Collections of Essays”:

Phillips, Michael, ed. Interpreting Blake. Cambridge: Cambridge Univ. Press, 1978.

*p. 607, under “VII. Selected Essays”:

Pechey, Graham. “The London Motif in Some Eighteenth-Century Contexts: A Semiotic Study.” Literature and History, 1:4 (1976), 2-28.

A postscript: The first printing has been recalled by the publisher and should no longer be stocked in bookstores. Anyone whose duly purchased copy of the first printing fell apart may receive a new book by writing Mr. James L. Mairs, W. W. Norton & Company, Inc., 500 Fifth Ave., New York, N.Y. 10036, and enclosing the first two pages (false title and title page) of the defective copy. Complimentary copies, excluding desk copies, cannot be replaced.

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