violaimelesmots, le blog qui aime les mots

The Ghost of the Flea

William Blake (1757-1827) est connu pour ses poèmes Songs of Innocence (1789) et Songs of experience 1794) mais on le connaît moins en tant que graveur et illustrateur, ce qui fut pourtant son premier métier. Il est notamment l’auteur de The Ghost of a Flea (Le Spectre de la Puce, 1819-1820) qu’il dit avoir vu dans une de ses nombreuses visions. Oui, il faut dire que William Blake conversait avec les disparus comme Milton ou encore l’apôtre Paul et avait des visions d’anges et d’archanges. Il était ce qu’on pourrait appeler de nos jours un médium mais à l’époque il était perçu comme un fou ‘Mad Blake’. Le poète William Wordsworth dit de lui : ‘There was no doubt that this poor man was mad, but there is something in the madness of this man which interests me more than the sanity of Lord Byron and Walter Scott’ (On ne peut douter que cet homme fût fou, néanmoins il y a quelque chose dans la folie de cet homme qui m’intéresse davantage que dans la bonne santé mental de Lord Byron ou de Walter Scott).

Voici un extrait de Le langage et son double de Julian Green, qui porte sur William Blake.

William Blake (1757- 1827) is renowned for his poems Songs of Innoncence (1789) and Songs of Experience (1794) but he is less famous as an engraver and an illustrator, which was his first job. He painted The Ghost of a Flea which he claimed he saw in one of his visions. One must point out that William Blake used to talk to the dead, like Milton or the Apostle Paul, and had visions of angels and archangels. He was what we could call today a medium but at the time he was considered a madman ‘Mad Blake’. The poet William Wordsworth said of him : ‘There was no doubt that this poor man was mad, but there is something in the madness of this man which interests me more than the sanity of Lord Byron and Walter Scott’.

Here is an excerpt of Le langage et son double by Julian Green, which deals with William Blake.