Blake the traditionalist
Sir: Each visitor will have individual preferences and reactions to an exhibition like the Willian Blake one now on at the Tate Gallery. Perhaps you will allow me to comment on John McEwen's article of 8 April, however.
It is a pity ,that doubtfully authenticated stories like Blake's playing Adam and Eve with his wife in the garden are continually repeated. Yeats's tale of Blake's family name having been changed from O'Neil appeals to me rather more, since from the internal evidence of his style the redheaded Blake does show a Celtic touch. Then, Protestant as he was, one has to remember his passion for the works of St Teresa. Samuel Palmer's reminiscences cannot be altogether discounted. Then one was sorry to miss from the exhibition interesting
paintings the Fitzwilliam 'Condition of Man', the Nativity tempera from Brighton or the beautiful 'Angel Appearing to Zacharias' which Mr Bindman has used for the cover of his Blake as Artist. It is time that Blake 'did not spring from nothing'. He was a very traditional writer and artist; as I have tried to show in my own Hidden Riches, Traditional Symbolism from the Renaissance to Blake. Mona Wilson's life is still useful but the reader gets all sides of the problems of Blake's life from G.E. Bentley's Blake Records. Raymond Lister'S Infernal Methods is an excellent introduction to his art and Michael Davis's William Blake — A New Kind of Man a good general introduction.
Desiree Hirst University College of Swansea
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