Page:Life of William Blake 2, Gilchrist.djvu/447

 Rh Thus we are led on by their alluring sweetness, as we are led from bush to bush by the piping of a bird of unusual note and brilliant plumage.

But our material swells beyond expectation, and we must Return to Blake's history. * * * While the designs to The Grave were in execution, Blake got hold of a magnificent subject, of which Cromek had the wit to feel the value.

Out of the whole range of modern literature no more picturesque, ample, or central theme could be discovered than the Canterbury Pilgrimage of Chaucer. A fine passage from the hand of the discoverer of this admirable subject, in what seems to us the best prose document remaining from his pen, shows the dignity of the conception. [See p. 143.]

The Canterbury Pilgrimage of Blake is, we regret to say, on the whole, a failure, in our judgment, as to execution. The conception and composition are stately and strong. It might be taken from an early fresco in some 'Campo Santo.' But the horses, which he says 'he has varied according to their riders,' are so variously like what the Trojan horse might be, and so liable to be thought like what the less epic rocking-horse usually is—there is such a portraitlike grim stare on all the faces—such a grotesque and improbable quality about the 'Wife of Bath,' who is something between a jewelled Hindoo idol and the ugly Madonna of a wayside shrine—that we cannot help feeling how, in spite of a hundred redeeming virtues of strength and grandeur, all the effort in the world would fail to recommend it to the general eye. Yet, as a quaint, 'most ancient,' and delightful ornament for a dim oaken staircase, we recommend its purchase to all who can by any means procure a copy of it.

Blake's designs from Blair's poem, The Grave, were dedicated to the Queen of England as

These words are truthful enough.