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Creator:
Print made by William Blake, 1757–1827
Text by William Blake, 1757–1827
Title:
"They call'd her Pity, and fled..." (Plate 19)
Part Of:

Collective Title: The First Book of Urizen, Copy A

Date:
1794
Materials & Techniques:
Color-printed relief etching in orange-brown ink, with watercolor on moderately thick, slightly textured, cream wove paper
Dimensions:
Sheet: 10 x 7 1/8 inches (25.4 x 18.1 cm), Plate: 5 7/8 x 4 3/8 inches (14.9 x 11.1 cm), Spine: 10 1/4 inches (26 cm)
Inscription(s)/Marks/Lettering:

Inscribed in graphite upper right: "15."

Lettered inside image, left: "They call'd her Pity, and fled | 11. 'Spread a Tent. with strong cur- | -tains around them | 'Let cords and stakes bind in the Void | That Eternals may no more behold them' | 12. They began to weave curtains of | darkness | They erected large pillars round the Void | With golden hooks fastend in the pillars | With infinite labour the Eternals | A woof wove. and called it Science | Chap: VI. | 1. But Los saw the Female & pitied | He embrac'd her, she wept, she refus'd | In perverse and cruel delight | She fled from his arms, yet he followd | 2. Eternity shudder'd when they saw, | Man begetting his likeness. | On his own divided image. | 3. A time passed over, the Eternals | Began to erect the tent; | When Enitharmon sick, | Felt a Worm within her womb. | 4. Yet helpless it lay like a Worm | In the trembling womb | To be moulded into existence"; right: "5. All day the worm lay on her bosom | All night within her womb | The worm lay till it grew to a ser- | -pent | With dolorous hissings & poisons | Round Enitharmons loins folding. | 6. Coild within Enitharmons womb | The serpent grew casting its scales, | With sharp pangs the hissings began | To change to a grating cry. | Many sorrows and dismal throes, | Many forms of fish, bird & beast, | Brought forth an Infant form | Where was a worm before. | 7. The Eternals their tent finished | Alarm'd with these gloomy visions | When Enitharmon groaning | Produc'd a man Child to the light. | 8. A shriek ran thro' Eternity: | And a paralytic stroke; | At the birth of the Human shadow. | 9. Delving earth in his resistless | way: | Howling, the Child with fierce flames | Issu'd from Enitharmon. | 10. The Eternals, closed the tent | They beat down the stakes the cords"

Credit Line:
Yale Center for British Art, Paul Mellon Collection
Copyright Status:
Public Domain
Accession Number:
B1992.8.5(19)
Classification:
Prints
Collection:
Prints and Drawings
Subject Terms:
kneeling | literary theme | men | nudes | religious and mythological subject | text | vines | women
Access:
Accessible by appointment in the Study Room [Request]
Note: The Study Room is open by appointment. Please visit the Study Room page on our website for more details.
Link:
https://collections.britishart.yale.edu/catalog/tms:3907
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The Romantic Print in the Age of Revolutions: Hero, Hero-Worship, and the Heroic in History (Yale Center for British Art, 2003-01-23 - 2003-06-01) [YCBA Objects in the Exhibition] [Exhibition Description]

William Blake (Tate Britain, 2000-11-02 - 2001-02-04) [YCBA Objects in the Exhibition]

William Blake, Libros profe´ticos, vol. 1, Atalanta, Vilau¨r, Spain, 2013, p. 319, PR4142 .S35 2013 [ORBIS]


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