Page:The poetical works of William Blake; a new and verbatim text from the manuscript engraved and letterpress originals (1905).djvu/252

210 lxxi I am no Homer's Hero you all know ; I profess not Generosity to a Foe. My Generosity is to my Friends, That for their Friendship I may make amends. The Generous to Enemies promotes their Ends, And becomes the Enemy & Betrayer of his Friends.

MS. Book, p. 31. Only in EY i. 215. 6 And. . . Friends] Cp. ' Everlasting Gospel,' 7 γ2, 1. 25 : ' He who loves his enemies betrays his friends.'

lxxii

The Angel that presided o'er my birth Said 'Little creature, form'd of Joy and Mirth, Go, love without the help of anything on Earth.'

MS. Book, p. 32. Gil. i. 311, WMR (< Coupl.' xiv), EY i. 215, WBY ('Coupl.'is). 1 that] who Gil. o'er] at Gil, WBY. 2 form'd. . . Mirth] thou art form'd for mirth MS. Book 1st rdg. del. of] for EY. 3 love] live WMR.

lxxii

Florentine Ingratitude

Sir Joshua sent his own Portrait to The birth Place of Michael Angelo, And in the hand of the simpering fool He put a dirty paper scroll, And on the paper, to be polite, Did 'Sketches by Michael Angelo' write.

MS. Book, p. 32. Title an addition. Only in EY i. 215. This and the other epigrams on Sir Joshua Reynolds were probably written about the same time as the marginal notes in his copy of Sir Joshua's Discourses, now in the Brit. Mus. In 1776 Reynolds was elected a member of the Florentine Academy, and in accordance with their rule, sent his portrait painted by himself.