Page:The poetical works of William Blake; a new and verbatim text from the manuscript engraved and letterpress originals (1905).djvu/29

Rh by the diarist) and as to his views on the poetry of Wordsworth. These passages are reprinted together in Ellis and Yeats' Memoir (Works, i. 142-150).

7. Blake died August 12, 1827. Short notices of his life and works appeared in the Literary Gazette, the Gentleman's Magazine, and the Annual Register for the same year.

8. In 1828 John Thomas Smith, Keeper of the Prints and Drawings in the British Museum, published his Nollekins and his Times, which has been not inaptly described as the most candid biography written in the English language. The second volume, as the title-page states, comprehends 'Memoirs of several contemporary Artists from the time of Roubiliac, Hogarth, and Reynolds, to that of Fuseli, Flaxman, and Blake.' Scant justice has hitherto been done to this admirable little life, which gives for the first time the greater part of the material upon which Cunningham and Gilchrist based their biographies. Smith's acquaintance with Blake dates from his early days at the Mathews' to the close of the poet's life. This contemporary picture drawn with intelligent sympathy by one who knew him well is of the utmost value; and Smith's tribute to Blake's genius, sanity, and lofty character, coming from the pen of one who was the reverse of a hero-worshipper, is sufficient refutation of the contrary view.

9. In 1830 Allan Cunningham published his Lives of The Most Eminent British Painters, Sculptors, and Architects, among which is a biography of Blake. This gaily and rather irreverently written little life is mainly derived from Smith's Nollekins, and while it shows no particular research or regard for accuracy has preserved a few anecdotes of Blake which probably would have otherwise disappeared.

10. About 1860, when Linnell, Tatham, Samuel Palmer, Richmond, and a few other friends and contemporaries of the poet were still living, Alexander Gilchrist began his Life of Blake, "Pictor Ignotuts." Gilchrist, in Rossetti's words, 'lived next door to Carlyle and was as near him in other