Page:The poetical works of William Blake; a new and verbatim text from the manuscript engraved and letterpress originals (1905).djvu/412

 BIBLIOGRAPHICAL PREFACE TO THE GATES OF PARADISE

Gates of Paradise, as first issued, was a small foolscap octavo picture-book with the title : For Children | [a flying figure] | The | Gates | of | Paradise [rule] | 1793 | Published by W. Blake—No. 13 | Hercules Buildings Lambeth | and | J. Johnson St. Paul's Church Yard. The book in this form consisted of a frontispiece, title-page, and sixteen numbered plates of emblematic designs, the original pencil sketches for which are found in the Rossetti MS. The plates, which vary in size from 2⅝ x 1⅝ to 4⅛ x 2⅝ inches, are executed, not by the artist's usual cameo etching process, but by ordinary line engraving. At the foot of each is a short inscription or legend, with Blake's imprint as publisher, dated [Lambeth] May 17, 1793. The British Museum Print Room copy is an example of this first issue, or edition, of The Gates of Paradise. The Beckford copy, sold at the Hamilton Palace sale, in 1882, has the engravings in their earliest state, before the date and imprint on title and publishers' imprint on plates were added.

The book is advertised in Blake's prospectus of October 10, 1793, where it is described as 'The Gates of Paradise, a small book of Engravings. Price, 3s.,' The preceding entry, 'The History of England, a small book of Engravings. Price, 3s.,' would seem to refer to a companion volume of which no copy is known to exist. It appears to me probable that the rough draft of subjects for a history of England written on the outer page of Blake's Manu- script- and Sketch-book supplies a clue to the contents of this missing work. Blake may also have intended to