An Island in the Moon
Containing early versions of three poems later included in Songs of Innocence (1789) and satirising the "contrived and empty productions of the contemporary culture",[1] An Island demonstrates Blake's increasing dissatisfaction with convention and his developing interest in prophetic modes of expression.
[5] Critical work in the second half of the twentieth century, however, has often challenged the assumption that An Island originated in Blake's rejection of a specific social circle.
Foremost amongst such work is that of David V. Erdman, who suggests instead that the main background to the An Island is Blake's belief in his own imminent financial success.
At the time, engraving was becoming an extremely lucrative trade, accruing both wealth and respectability for many of its practitioners, and Erdman believes that the increasing prosperity for engravers in the early 1780s represents the most important background to An Island, arguing that the confidence which Blake and Parker must have felt informs the content more so than any sense of social rejection;[6] "the kind of envy that breeds satire is that of the artist and artisan who is anticipating the taste of success and is especially perceptive of the element of opportunism.
Nevertheless, writing in 2003, Nick Rawlinson, who also disagrees with the 'rejection theory', points out that "the general critical consensus is that the eleven surviving chapters of this unpublished manuscript form little more than Blake's whimsical attempt to satirise his friends, neighbours and fellow attendees of 27 Rathbone Place, the intellectual salon of the Reverend and Mrs AS Mathew; a kind of pleasing cartoon wallpaper on which he couldn't resist scrawling a few grotesque caricatures of his favourite scientific and philosophic bugbears.
[13] However, it is thought that at least some of the sketches and lettering on this page could have been by Blake's brother, Robert; "the awkwardness and redundancy of some of the work, the bare geometry of the head of the large lion in the lower pair of animals in the upper left quadrant of the page, and the heavy overdrawing on some of the other animals are among the features that may possibly reflect Robert's attempts to draw subjects that had been set as exercises for him by older brother William, and, in some instances, corrected by one of them.
For example, there is a reference to the Great Balloon Ascension of September 15, when England's first airship rose from the Artillery Ground in Finsbury, watched by 220,000 Londoners.
Other topical allusions include references to a performing monkey called Mr. Jacko, who appeared at Astley's Amphitheatre in Lambeth in July, a performing pig called Toby the Learned Pig, a Handel festival in Westminster Abbey in August, lectures on phlogiston, exhibitions of the microscope, and the Golden Square parties of Chevalier d'Eon.
Speaking of the sketches and poetry in Blake's Notebook, John Sampson writes they "are in the nature of rough jottings, sometimes mere doggerel set down from whim or to relieve a mood, and never probably [...] intended to see the light in cold print.
"[23] Erdman argues that the piece is a natural progression from Blake's previous work; "out of the sly ironist and angry prophet of Poetical Sketches emerges the self professed Cynic of An Island."
Here he cheerfully takes under his examining eye song and satire, opera and plague, surgery and pastoral, Chatterton and science, enthusiasm and myth, philanthropy and Handelian anthem, the Man in the Street and those children whose nursery is the street – while he is making up his mind what William Blake shall take seriously [...] here, a master ironist flexes his vocal cords with a wide range of tone.
"[25] Similarly, Robert N. Essick, Joseph Viscomi and Morris Eaves see it as foreshadowing much of Blake's later work; "An Island in the Moon underscores the importance of the extensive stretches of humour and satire that show up frequently among his other writings.
So, although Blake left it orphaned, untitled, and unfinished in a heavily revised manuscript, Island is in some sense a primary literary experiment for him, setting the undertone of much to follow.
In this sense, it is structured similarly to Samuel Foote's improvised series of dramas Tea at the Haymarket, which lacked a definitive form so as to get around licensing regulations.
"[29] Rawlinson argues that the literary references in the text are structured to mirror a 1707 Cambridge University pamphlet entitled A Method of Instructing Pupils (a guide on how to teach Philosophy).
Chapter 1 begins with a promise by the narrator to engage the reader with an analysis of contemporary thought, "but the grand scheme degenerates immediately into nonsensical and ignorant chatter.
"[27] A major theme in this chapter is that no one listens to anyone else;[58] "Etruscan Column & Inflammable Gass fix'd their eyes on each other, their tongue went in question & answer, but their thoughts were otherwise employed."
The entire chapter reads: "Tilly Lally the Siptippidist Aradobo, the dean of Morocco, Miss Gittipin & Mrs Nannicantipot, Mrs Sigtagatist Gibble Gabble the wife of Inflammable Gass – & Little Scopprell enter'd the room (If I have not presented you with every character in the piece call me *Arse—)" Chapter 3d introduces musical interludes, a technique which becomes increasingly important as the piece moves on.
[60] The satirical vein continues in this chapter during the discussion of "Phebus", when Obtuse Angle claims "he was the God of Physic, Painting, Perspective, Geometry, Geography, Astronomy, Cookery, Chymistry, Conjunctives, Mechanics, Tactics, Pathology, Phraseology, Theology, Mythology, Astrology, Osteology, Somatology, in short every art & science adorn'd him as beads round his neck."
[22] The poem also seems to parody parts of Book II of the John Milton epic Paradise Lost (1667), particularly the scenes outlining the genealogy of the sentries of the Gates of Hell, Sin and Death.
The satire in this section comes from Sipsop's discussion of the surgery of Jack Tearguts, and how his patients react; "Tho they cry ever so he'll Swear at them & keep them down with his fist & tell them that he'll scrape their bones if they don't lie still & be quiet."
Similarly, Quid voices his own opinion of some of the most respected writers at the time; "I think that Homer is bombast & Shakespeare is too wild & Milton has no feelings they might be easily outdone Chatterton never writ those poems."
These references include allusions to Saint Jerome, John Taylor's Urania, or his Heavenly Muse (1630), Abraham Cowley's translation of Anacreon's lyric poem "The Grasshopper" (1656), Henry Wotton's Reliquae Wottonianae (1685), John Locke's An Essay Concerning Human Understanding (1690), Joseph Addison's Cato, a Tragedy (1712), Edward Young's Night-Thoughts (1742) and James Hervey's Meditations and Contemplations (1746) and Theron and Aspasio (1755).
[64] Locke is mentioned when Scopprell picks up one of Steelyard's books and reads the cover, "An Easy of Huming Understanding by John Lookye Gent."
"[63] Satire is found in this chapter in the songs "Hail Matrimony made of Love", which condemns marriage, and may have been inspired by The Wife Hater by John Cleveland (1669).
[63] This chapter also contains references to Thomas Sutton, founder of the Charterhouse School in 1611, the churchman Robert South and William Sherlock's A Practical Discourse upon Death (1689).
In 1971, Roger Savage adapted it into a two-act play entitled Conversations with Mr. Quid, which was staged at the University of Edinburgh as part of a week-long Blake conference.
Viscomi wrote the adaptation himself, which included musical versions of "The Garden of Love" from Songs of Innocence and of Experience (1794) and "O why was I born with a different face", a poem from a letter written by Blake to Thomas Butts in 1803.
[69] Viscomi consolidated all of the events of the piece into a single night in a tavern (owned by Tilly Lally, who also doubled as the narrator), and reduced the cast from fifteen to fourteen by removing Mrs Nannicantipot.
