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"The Vestibule of Hell and the Souls Mustering to Cross the
Acheron" Plate 5 Dante, Cato III |
Blake and Dante were at opposite poles in regard to their
understanding of the nature of God. Blake reached the conclusion
that God's love could reconcile the world to himself. Dante
perceived of a God of vengeance who related to humanity by
devising punishments for man's transgressions. Although Blake
recognized Dante as a gifted poet who was capable of receiving
visions, he objected to the way Dante understood God. When Blake
was commissioned to illustrate the Divine Comedy, he undertook it
with enthusiasm but with reservations. Blake used his
illustrations to show the punishments that Dante had imagined for
his enemies and for those who had broken the rules of their
society. He also showed how perverse were the tortures which Dante
devised.
Blake's illustration for Canto III which he created with a high degree of skill and thought, illustrates the classical final step of the entry into Hell of those who deserve to experience the torments of Hell - the crossing of the river Acheron . Those who have not received the grace of Baptism remain in the limbo of neither enduring Hell of being received in Heaven.
Across the top of the picture are the angels who had not joined either side in the war in Heaven which Milton described in Paradise Lost. On the right side are the individuals who have not aligned themselves with either good of evil in their journey through life, either through not being Baptized by the Church or by being indecisive. Those in the foreground are those whom Dante places in the category of individuals whose sinfulness makes them unfit for Heaven until punishment (torture) induces repentance.
Blake knew that struggles took place within individuals, between
the forces of good and evil, between life and death, between
Eternity and the fallen world. Blake pursued the theme that
mankind was capable of regeneration through casting off error and
assimilating truth: that Truth when revealed in the depth of the
soul is irresistible.
However, like Dante, Blake saw the danger of being wishy-washy of
being immersed in the lake of Udan-Adan which he called a "Lake
not of Waters but of Spaces Perturbd black & deadly."
Blake took great stock in the definite. To be defined and
organized and articulated is the condition of men who are aware of their
own Eternal being and that of their fellow men.
S. Foster Damon, A Blake Dictionary
"Udan-Adan
The condition of formlessness, of the
indefinite."
Milton Klonsky, Blake's Dante, Page 138
"Drifting aimlessly across the sky are the feckless and pusillanimous angels who refused to
take sides in the civil war in Heaven between God and Satan."
Descriptive Catalogue, (E 541)
"A Spirit and a Vision are not, as the
modern philosophy supposes, a cloudy vapour or a
nothing: they are organized and minutely articulated beyond all
that the mortal and perishing nature can produce. He who does
not imagine in stronger and better lineaments, and in stronger
and better light than his perishing mortal eye can see does not
imagine at all. The painter of this work asserts that all his
imaginations appear to him infinitely more perfect and more
minutely organized than any thing seen by his
mortal eye. Spirits are organized men."
Annotations to Watson, (E 613)
"The Man who pretends to be a modest enquirer into the truth of a
self evident thing is a Knave The truth & certainty of Virtue &
Honesty i.e Inspiration needs no one to prove it it is Evident
as the Sun & Moon He who stands doubting of what he
intends whether it is Virtuous or Vicious knows not what Virtue
means. no man can do a Vicious action & think it to be Virtuous.
no man can take darkness for light. he may pretend to do so & may
pretend to be a modest Enquirer. but is a Knave"
Jerusalem, Plate 5 (E 148)
"But all within is open'd into the deeps of Entuthon Benython
A dark and unknown night, indefinite, unmeasurable, without end.
Abstract Philosophy warring in enmity against Imagination
(Which is the Divine Body of the Lord Jesus. blessed for ever)."
Jerusalem, Plate 7, (E 149)
"They put forth their spectrous cloudy sails; which drive their
Constellations over the deadly deeps of indefinite Udan-Adan
Kox is the Father of Shem & Ham & Japheth, he is the Noah
Of the Flood of Udan-Adan".
Jerusalem, Plate 55, (E 205)
"And the voices of the Living Creatures were heard in the clouds of heaven
Crying: Compell the Reasoner to Demonstrate with unhewn Demonstrations
Let the Indefinite be explored. and let every Man be judged
By his own Works, Let all Indefinites be thrown into Demonstrations
To be pounded to dust & melted in the Furnaces of Affliction:
He who would do good to another, must do it in Minute Particulars
General Good is the plea of the scoundrel hypocrite & flatterer:
For Art & Science cannot exist but in minutely organized Particulars
And not in generalizing Demonstrations of the Rational Power.
The Infinite alone resides in Definite & Determinate Identity
Establishment of Truth depends on destruction of Falshood continually
On Circumcision: not on Virginity, O Reasoners of Albion
So cried they at the Plow. Albions Rock frowned above
And the Great Voice of Eternity rolled above terrible in clouds
Saying Who will go forth for us! & Who shall we send before our face?"
Jerusalem, Plate 80, (E 237)
"And Rahab like a dismal and indefinite hovering Cloud
Refusd to take a definite form. she hoverd over all the Earth
Calling the definite, sin: defacing every definite form;"
Letters, to Cumberland, (E 783)
"For a Line or Lineament is not formed by Chance a Line is a Line in its
Minutest Subdivision[s] Strait or Crooked It is Itself & Not
Intermeasurable with or by any Thing Else Such is Job but since
the French Revolution Englishmen are all Intermeasurable One by
Another Certainly a happy state of Agreement to which I for One
do not Agree. God keep me from the Divinity of Yes & No too The
Yea Nay Creeping Jesus from supposing Up & Down to be the same
Thing as all Experimentalists must suppose"
Four Zoas, Night IV, PAGE 52, (E 334)
"I will compell thee to rebuild by these my furious waves
Death choose or life thou strugglest in my waters, now choose life
And all the Elements shall serve thee to their soothing flutes"
[15] I know thy works, that thou art neither cold nor hot: I would thou wert cold or hot.
[16] So then because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spue thee out of my mouth.
[17] Because thou sayest, I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing; and knowest not that thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind,
and naked:
2nd Corinthians 5
[18] And all things are of God, who hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ, and hath given to us the ministry of reconciliation;
[19] To wit, that God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them; and hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation.
Divine Comedy
Inferno
Cato III
"Then looking farther onwards I beheld
A throng upon the shore of a great stream:
Whereat I thus: "Sir! grant me now to know
Whom here we view, and whence impell'd they seem
So eager to pass o'er, as I discern
Through the blear light?" He thus to me in few:
"This shalt thou know, soon as our steps arrive
Beside the woeful tide of Acheron."
...
Then with eyes downward cast and fill'd with shame,
Fearing my words offensive to his ear,
Till we had reach'd the river, I from speech
Abstain'd. And lo! toward us in a bark
Comes on an old man hoary white with eld,
...
Then all together sorely wailing drew
To the curs'd strand, that every man must pass
Who fears not God. Charon, demoniac form,
With eyes of burning coal, collects them all,
...
Thus go they over through the umber'd wave,
And ever they on the opposing bank
Be landed, on this side another throng
Still gathers. "Son," thus spake the courteous guide,
"Those, who die subject to the wrath of God,
All here together come from every clime,
And to o'erpass the river are not loth:
For so heaven's justice goads them on, that fear
Is turn'd into desire. Hence ne'er hath past
Good spirit. If of thee Charon complain,
Now mayst thou know the import of his words."
...
Then to me
The gentle guide: "Inquir'st thou not what spirits
Are these, which thou beholdest? Ere thou pass
Farther, I would thou know, that these of sin
Were blameless; and if aught they merited,
It profits not, since baptism was not theirs,
The portal to thy faith. If they before
The Gospel liv'd, they serv'd not God aright;
And among such am I. For these defects,
And for no other evil, we are lost;"
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