Page:Poetical works of William Blake (Sampson, 1913).djvu/61

 CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE

1757 William Blake, third child of James and Catherine Blake, born at 28 Broad Street, Carnaby Market, Golden Square, November 28.

1760 Birth of his brother John, 'the evil one', March 20.

1762 Birth of his brother Robert, July 11,

1764 Birth of his sister Catherine Elizabeth, January 7.

1765 Childish visions.

1767 Begins the study of art at Pars' Drawing School in the Strand.

1768 or -69 Earliest of the Poetical Sketches written.

1771 Apprenticed to Basire, engraver to the Society of Antiquaries.

1773 Employed in sketching monuments in Westminster Abbey. Engraves his plate of 'Joseph of Arimathea among the rocks of Albion'.

1776 or -77 Latest of the Poetical Sketches written.

1777 circa Seven-Page MS. containing the poem called 'The Passions' and another piece.

1778 Termination of apprenticeship. Studies for a short time under Moser in the Antique School of the newly-founded Royal Academy. Begins water-colour painting with his 'Penance of Jane Shore'.

1779 Employed as engraver by J. Johnson and other booksellers.

1780 Makes the acquaintance of Stothard and by him introduced to Flaxman. Meets Fuseli, his neighbour in Broad Street. Exhibits for the first time at the Royal Academy.

1781 Falls in love with 'a lively little girl' named Polly Wood, who rejects him. Recuperates from illness at Kew, in the house of a market-gardener named Boucher, and is consoled by his daughter Catherine.

1782 Marries Catherine Boucher (or Butcher) at St. Mary's, Battersea, August 18. Commences housekeeping in lodgings at 23 Green Street, Leicester Fields. Introduced by Flaxman to Mrs. Mathevv, and becomes for a while a frequenter of her salon at 27 Rathbone Place.

1783 Poetical Sketches printed at the expense of Flaxman and the Rev. Henry Mathew.