apparent in their countenances and physique: she slim, dark-eyed, maternal; he, in Swinburne’s[19] summary of several contemporary descriptions, with “the infinite impatience of a great preacher or apostle,” showing “intense, tremulous vitality, as of a great orator, with the look of one who can do all things but hesitate.” How was a woman of Catherine’s placid nature to become, as she did, a responsive companion to such a man?
William Blake, Illustration from The Daughters of Albion, plate 10, 1793.
Relief etching, watercoloured by hand.
Houghton Library, Harvard University, Cambridge (Massachusetts).
William Blake, Illustration from The Daughters of Albion, plate 9, 1793.
Relief etching, watercoloured by hand.
Houghton Library, Harvard University, Cambridge (Massachusetts).
William Blake, Illustration from The Daughters of Albion, plate 4, 1793.
Relief etching, watercoloured by hand.
Houghton Library, Harvard University, Cambridge (Massachusetts).
They were not left entirely to themselves, for Flaxman, the sculptor, was not only nearby in Wardour Street, but he had many friends of his own and was eager to introduce Blake into this more fashionable circle. It was he who took the Blakes to the drawing-room of the accomplished blue-stocking, Mrs. Mathew, the wife of the Rev. Henry Mathew, then living in Rathbone Place, where their house was much frequented by literary and artistic figures. The Mathews were a cultivated, genial pair, the smiling centre of a little select world, and ready to be kind to all who seemed worthy of admission. Like most of their type, they confused benevolence with insight and were far more strict than they supposed in their liberal ideas. The helping hand that they were ready to extend did not really encourage independence, and suitors for their favour had to conform to the real, if scarcely visible, yoke of their polite patronage. They must have been very proud and pleased when they reflected on the accomplishments of each other. Mr. Mathew was said to have “read the church service more beautifully than any other clergyman in London.” He had also discovered Flaxman as a little boy learning Latin behind his father’s counter, and had held out a helping hand to him. Mrs. Mathew in turn became the sculptor’s friend, and would read Homer to him while he made designs on the table at her side during these voluntary lessons. She was well versed in Greek and Latin, and fully able to hold her own with such learned ladies as Mrs. Elizabeth Montagu[20] and Mrs. Carter.[21] These hostesses held conversations at their houses, and were anxious to show that scholarship could be pursued without impiety. They were the first to desire equal education for their sex, and from their discreet beginnings the independent modern woman has grown. The foibles of these ladies are more famous than their enterprise, but there are worse ambitions than the desire to be a wife fit for men like Horace Walpole.[22] Mrs. Mathew looked to Flaxman to help her to realise her taste in decoration, and the result of their joint endeavours was the conversion of one of her rooms into a Gothic chamber. The feeling for Gothic was in the air, and Mrs. Mathew must have seemed to Flaxman the one person likely to advance and appreciate his friend. A lively picture of these blue-stockings is given by Mr. Charles Gardner in his volume William Blake: the Man.
Blake was soon made welcome at the Mathews’, and he would enliven their parties, according to Smith, by reading and singing his own verses. Although without training in music, Blake apparently set his songs to airs which he repeated by ear. Smith declares that these airs were sometimes “singularly beautiful,” and that they were even noted down by musical professors, for musicians, too, were invited to the Mathews’ house. None of these notations has survived, but their existence proves Blake to have been a complete artist, since he would sing, set his songs to his own music, and was soon to print, bind, and publish his own books. He was considered at first a great acquisition to the Mathews’ society, but their invitations must have been a doubtful pleasure to Mrs. Blake, whose simplicity could not compete with their sophistication. The poem entitled “Mary” in the Pickering MS, though the date of its composition is conjectural, has been thought to give a picture of her difficulties at this time. She must have been shy, and may have been awkward, and it is only too probable that she was snubbed by some of the company. Blake may not have guessed the extent of her mortification at the time, but when he, too, recoiled from the polite world it probably gave an edge to the spleen that he vented. At first, however, all went well. The verses that he recited attracted attention, and Mrs. Mathew was successful in persuading her husband to join Flaxman in his generous offer to pay half the cost of printing Blake’s poems.
William Blake, Illustration from America, a Prophecy, plate 1, 1793.
Relief etching, with some wash, 23.2 × 16.9 cm.
The British Museum, London.
William Blake, Illustration from America, a Prophecy, plate 2, 1793.
Relief etching, with some wash, 23.2 × 16.6 cm.
The British Museum, London.
William Blake, Illustration from America, a Prophecy, plate 10, 1793.
Relief etching, with some wash. The British Museum, London.
William Blake, Illustration from America, a Prophecy, plate 12, 1793.
Relief etching, with some wash, 23.5 × 17 cm.
The British Museum, London.
In this way the famous Poetical Sketches were presented to Blake in 1783. They were neither bound nor published, and the author was free to dispose of them as he wished. Probably the discussions, criticisms, and the apologetic Advertisement destroyed their flavour for him. Blake never took criticism kindly, and the volume remains a curiosity to which the author showed as much indifference as the world. At all events some of his compositions had gone into print, and the experience probably encouraged him to continue writing, with the resolve to present his work in his own unaided way. Relations may have been strained over the production of the Poetical Sketches, but there was no definite quarrel. A year later, in 1784, after the death of his father, Blake moved to Broad Street once more, where, with the help of Mrs. Mathew, he set up as a print-seller in a house next door to his brother James, who continued to carry on the hosier’s shop. A fellow-apprentice, James Parker, went into partnership with Blake, who was engraving after Stothard at this time. His first plate, Zephyrus and Flora, after Stothard, was issued by the firm of Parker & Blake in 1784. The Blakes were joined in their new home by William’s favourite brother Robert, who became a voluntary apprentice in the house.
A favourite relative or even a friend does not always add to the harmony of a married household, and Mrs. Blake comes before us again in an anecdote touching on this time. One day in the course of an argument with Robert, to which Blake was listening in tense silence, Mrs. Blake used words that seemed to her husband unwarrantable. Bursting into the discussion, Blake exclaimed: “Kneel down and beg Robert’s pardon, or you never see my face again!” Mrs. Blake afterwards declared that she thought it hard to apologise to her brother-in-law
Algernon Charles Swinburne (1837–1909) was an English poet, famous for his taste for provocative subjects.
Elizabeth Montagu (1718–1800) was a British social reformer, patron of the arts, hostess, literary critic and writer.
Elizabeth Carter, (1717–1806), was a poet, classicist, writer and translator.
Horace Walpole, 4th Earl of Orford (1717–1797), was an art historian, writer and politician.
