A Man Without A Mask

Extract

This is Hamlet without the Prince of Denmark, for to write, as does Mr. Bronowski, about William Blake without reference to his religious and visionary experiences is to leave out almost Blake himself. This is a pity, for the book is freshly written and far more readable than the works of many would be interpreters of the writer of the Prophetic Books.

‘How many have fallen there!

They stumble all night over bones of the dead ....

And wish to lead others when they should be lead. ‘

Of late years a host of writers have arisen who are, as Mr. Bronowski states, more interested in the mysticism than in the mystic, Blake. He himself goes to the other extreme, and while having a real feeling for the man, Blake, attempts to explain away his visionary writings by stating that these were written in cypher to avoid censorship. The prophetic Books are accounts of things seen in vision. They are concerned with the nature and destiny of the human soul. They mark a sharp departure, an entirely different set of problems, from , those of the unfinished French Revolution of which Mr. Bronowski regards them as a continuation. By 1797 Blake had finished with Pitt and politics. He saw the evils of his day as symptoms of spiritual dry-rot and not as economic problems. Had they been written in the most straightforward language he would have had nothing to fear from the keenest censorship. Incidentally, we consider that in view of the shortness of the book, undue space and importance is given to the abortive trial for sedition of 1804.