Page:Life of William Blake, Gilchrist.djvu/317



And yet, is not a needy publisher to make that profit out of a needy painter he cannot for himself? May not the purchaser of twelve drawings at twenty pounds do what he likes with his own? That Cromek had no answer to the charge of 'imposition,' and of having tricked Blake, is obvious from his preferring to open up irrelevant questions: he defends by attacking. The artist's discouragement of Cromek's herculean labours in behalf of Blake's fame, refers to his infatuated preference for being his own engraver, according to agreement. Through Cromek's reluctance to part with four guineas, the Blair lost a crowning grace in the vignette or setting, as in Blake's hands it would have been, of the Dedication to the Queen.

Poor Blake, in asking four guineas instead of one, for a single sketch, had evidently felt entitled to some insignificant atonement for previous under-pay. Perhaps, on the hint at the close of Cromek's letter—

the indignant painter acted in executing, hereafter, his projected 'fresco' from the Canterbury Pilgrimage, and exhibiting and engraving it.