Today's Topics:
Re: Straw men?
Antinomians, muggletonism (?), and women
Re:unsub
Re: Antinomians, muggletonism (?), and women
Elisha & Locke
Re: Elisa & Locke
they're here!
Re: they're here!
Re:BLAKE ACTIVITY IN ENGLAND
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Date: Wed, 12 Jul 1995 19:32:32 -0400
From: WaHu@aol.com
To: blake@albion.com
Subject: Re: Straw men?
Message-Id: <950712193229_31443750@aol.com>
Tom: Goody goody for you. Blake was quite careful to change the names of
his visonary forms dramatic from anything that might be traditionally
recognizable-- Zeus,
Hera, etc. This gave him certain freedoms, but also put some surprising
restraints upon him. That he kept Jesus, instead of giving him the name say,
Billy Budd, had the same effect-- some freedom, some restraints. There were
aspects of the Christians of his day-- the dissenters, not the Church of
England creeps-- that Blake admired--the abolitionst efforts of Wilberforce &
Wesley-- the successful efforts, it may be added. (It is the Greeks & Romans
& not the Methodists...)The American right wing Protestants of today are the
spiritual heirs of--not the slave owners, who were Church of England creeps,
but of the employees of same....The field overseers, the hunters of runaway
slaves, the Used Human Dealers. There are two strains of Protestantism, at
least. With one you get South Africa, with the other you get legal drugs &
prostitution (Urizen in Beulah, for a Shriners' Convention). Blake saw
through all this crapola.
He'd probably think most of the scholarship about him boring but harmless,
but he would never have anything to do with the explicit idiots of
right-wing protestantism. Christian or not, Blake is a left-winger.
There is also as much textual evidence that Blake is a closet transvestite as
there is that he is a conventional Christian....maybe more. I mean, if one
wanted to go off on bogus & ridiculous tangents.... (and what other kinds of
tangents are there?)
Hugh Walthall
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Date: Mon, 10 Jul 1995 20:08:12 -0400
From: "Michelle L. Gompf"
To: Multiple recipients of list C18-L
Subject: Antinomians, muggletonism (?), and women
Message-Id:
Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII
Since I have not seen this plea on Blake Online, I hereby forward it
and subsequently inform the sender of our existence.
----------------------------Original message----------------------------
I have been reading several books lately that place William Blake in the
context of late 18th C. radicalism , as well as trace the influence of
anti-nomian sects. E.P. Thompson looks closely at the Muggletonians.
Since I am interested in examining Blake's portrayal of women, most
specifically their sexuality, I was wondering if anyone could direct me
to a source that discusses these sects and their ideas about women and/or
sexuality. Thanks in advance.
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Date: Thu, 13 Jul 1995 00:21:54 -0400
From: CRGray@aol.com
To: blake@albion.com
Subject: Re:unsub
Message-Id: <950713002154_113798325@aol.com>
Plese tell me how to unsubscribe. I am changing email addresses. thank you,
christine gray
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Date: Thu, 13 Jul 95 09:32:26 EDT
From: Kevin Lewis
To: 18th Century Interdisciplinary Discussion
Subject: Re: Antinomians, muggletonism (?), and women
Message-Id: <9507132031.AA26825@uu6.psi.com>
----------------------------Original message----------------------------
Mark,
In the 18th century, the Muggletonians exercised themselves over a
doctrinal (and sexual) issue, whether or not Adam's prick stood (up) in
Eden. Or, that is, whether the original pair were sexed or felt sexual
urges or not. I believe that outside London there were known to be women
prominent in local Muggletonian societies. I doubt whether there were
elected offices as such, though of course in London the archive would
have been kept by a secretary perhaps appointed or self-appointed, like
Phil Noakes, the "last" Muggletonian--cf. Thompson's story about finding
the archive safe in storage in Tunbridge.
My own feeling about the Muggletonians is that they must have been among
the most reserved, most retrained, least kinky of the "radical sects."
They took care *not* to proselytize, lest they cause what they believed
would be the damnation of the person proseltyzed should that person
reject their special doctrine. They wrote spiritual letters to each
other rather than go to church, which they rejected as a practice. Theirs
is the cozy, domestic, common-sense, undramatic spirituality of the
English depicted so well by Michael Thornton. They enjoyed a bowl of
punch and a dinner on the occasions of the two "church" holidays (in
February and in July), but one gets the impression that those two annual
events, even in London, were *the* social events of the year for
Muggletonians. They kept their heads down, which is why they survived so
long, of course. They seem like Hobbits in a way, and I cannot imagine their
sexuality claiming our attention for long.
Check out _The World of the Muggletonians_, Christopher Hill, Barry Reay,
and William Lamont (London: Temple Smith, 1983).
I gave a public lecture on their special world in Durham, England, in 1986,
which is published but not readily available: _The Appeal of the
Muggletonians_ (Trevelyan Lecture, pub. by the Durham Univ. Society of
Fellows and Trevelyan College). It's in Widener and the Library of Congress
and the copywrite libraries in the UK. It doesn't add a whole lot to
Muggletonian studies, but it shows appreciation of what they stood for. And
it reflects findings in the Muggletonian archive on deposit in the British
Library--the contents of which, at that point, had not been organized.
What remains interesting is their characterization of Reason as the "right
Devil" of the age: the reasoning faculty. It's hard not to wonder whether
Blake liked this point of doctrine about them especially, assuming (as
Thompson cannoy really prove) that Blake knew about them, possibly through
his mother.
Kevin Lewis
Religious Studies
Univ of South Carolina
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Date: Thu, 13 Jul 1995 17:27:06 -0400 (EDT)
From: John Dwyer
To: blake@albion.com
Cc: JOHNDW@tiger.hsc.edu
Subject: Elisha & Locke
Message-Id: <950713172706.11793@tiger.hsc.edu>
Hi Elisha:)
I'm a grad student in 18th c. at Notre Dame, actually I'm in
Naples, FL teaching high school (summer school). Christopher Fox, an ND
prof. has a book_Locke and the Scriblerians: Identity and Conscousness in
Early Eighteenth-century Britain_ U of Calif. P, 1988. It's brief,
succinct and has clear and distinct ideas for what your Blake letter
indicated you need. I'm also concerned with _The Essay_ and identity. I'm
writing my dissertation on masquerade as discussed by Terry Castle. The
moralists tracts of the 18th century are a good source for scoping out the
practical effects of identity in consciousness. Everyone was terrified by
it and hilarious effects as in _Lucidia Intervalia_ can give you a good
insight about madness and civilization.
Good luck.
Your humble servant,
JohnDW
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Date: Thu, 13 Jul 95 20:39 EDT
From: "Elisa E. Beshero 814 862-8914"
To: blake@albion.com
Subject: Re: Elisa & Locke
Message-Id: <9507140040.AA25221@uu6.psi.com>
John,
Thanx for that reference! Much obliged--am now scrambling to get a hold
of the book. Hopefully this will give me an idea of how Locke's idea of self-
construction trickled through the 18th century. . .and maybe even in what
context Blake picked up on it!--Elisa
"he became what he beheld"
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Date: Fri, 14 Jul 1995 10:22:06 -0500 (CDT)
From: RPYODER@ualr.edu
To: BLAKE@albion.com
Subject: they're here!
Message-Id: <950714102206.60202ecc@ualr.edu>
Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; CHARSET=US-ASCII
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7BIT
Hi gang,
just unboxed volumes 4 (the continental prophecies) and 6 (the urizen books) of
the princeton blake. very cool! first glance shows some very interesting
possibilities (including the monochrome copy H of _America_, and Ahania
of which there is only one original). thanks to D.W. Dorrbecker for vol. 4
and to David Worrall for vol. 6.
happy now,
paul yoder
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Date: Fri, 14 Jul 1995 14:01:17 -0400 (EDT)
From: "Bryan A. Alexander"
To: blake@albion.com
Cc: BLAKE@albion.com
Subject: Re: they're here!
Message-Id:
Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII
Volumes 4 and 6 are out??? Since when? Great!
Bryan Alexander
Department of English
University of Michigan
**********************
On Fri, 14 Jul 1995 RPYODER@ualr.edu wrote:
> Hi gang,
> just unboxed volumes 4 (the continental prophecies) and 6 (the urizen books) of
> the princeton blake. very cool! first glance shows some very interesting
> possibilities (including the monochrome copy H of _America_, and Ahania
> of which there is only one original). thanks to D.W. Dorrbecker for vol. 4
> and to David Worrall for vol. 6.
>
> happy now,
> paul yoder
>
>
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Date: Mon, 17 Jul 1995 23:35:09 -0400
From: WomansWay@aol.com
To: blake@albion.com
Subject: Re:BLAKE ACTIVITY IN ENGLAND
Message-Id: <950717233504_34970099@aol.com>
CAN ANYONE UPDATE ME ABOUT CURRENT BLAKE ACTIVITY IN ENGLAND. I believe
therfe was a post on this list a couple months back about something happening
at St. James Picadelly. Was this connected with a person living at Blake's
old house who is doing some Blake work? Does anyone have addresses for these
things, as well as the Blake Society in England?
Thanks,
Dana Harden
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End of blake-d Digest V1995 Issue #2
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