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| William Blake (1757–1827). The Poetical Works. 1908. |
| Chronological Table |
| 1757 | William Blake, third child of James and Catherine Blake, born at 28 Broad Street, Carnaby Market, Golden Square, November 28. | 1 |
| 1760 | Birth of his brother John, ‘the evil one’, March 20. | 2 |
| 1762 | Birth of his brother Robert, July 11. | 3 |
| 1764 | Birth of his sister Catherine Elizabeth, January 7. | 4 |
| 1765 | Childish visions. | 5 |
| 1767 | Begins the study of art at Pars’ Drawing School in the Strand. | 6 |
| 1768 or –69 | Earliest of the Poetical Sketches written. | 7 |
| 1771 | Apprenticed to Basire, engraver to the Society of Antiquaries. | 8 |
| 1773 | Employed in sketching monuments in Westminster Abbey. Engraves his plate of ‘Joseph of Arimathea among the rocks of Albion’. | 9 |
| 1776 or –77 | Latest of the Poetical Sketches written. | 10 |
| c. 1777 | Seven-Page MS. containing the poem called ‘The Passions’ and another piece. | 11 |
| 1778 | Termination of apprenticeship. Studies for a short time under Moser in the Antique School of the newly-founded Royal Academy. Begins water-colour painting with his ‘Penance of Jane Shore’. | 12 |
| 1779 | Employed as engraver by J. Johnson and other booksellers. | 13 |
| 1780 | Makes the acquaintance of Stothard and by him introduced to Flaxman. Meets Fuseli, his neighbour in Broad Street. Exhibits for the first time at the Royal Academy. | 14 |
| 1781 | Falls in love with ‘a lively little girl’ named Polly Wood, who rejects him. Recuperates from illness at Kew, in the house of a market-gardener named Boucher, and is consoled by his daughter Catherine. | 15 |
| 1782 | Marries Catherine Boucher (or Butcher) at St. Mary’s, Battersea, August 18. Commences housekeeping in lodgings at 23 Green Street, Leicester Fields. Introduced by Flaxman to Mrs. Mathew, and becomes for a while a frequenter of her salon at 27 Rathbone Place. | 16 |
| 1783 | Poetical Sketches printed at the expense of Flaxman and the Rev. Henry Mathew. | |
| 1784 | Death of Blake’s father, July. Aided by Mrs. Mathew, opens a print-seller’s shop at 27 Broad Street in partnership with Parker, a former fellow apprentice. Takes his younger brother Robert as pupil. | 17 |
| c. 1784 | Writes An Island in the Moon, containing earliest of Songs of Innocence, and foreshadowing a scheme of ‘Illuminated Printing’. | 18 |
| 1787 | Death of Robert, February. Gives up print-shop, dissolving partnership with Parker, and removing to 28 Poland Street. | 19 |
| 1788 | ‘W. Blake’s original stereotype,’ i.e. first use of new process of relief-engraving employed in his ‘Illuminated Printing’. Quaere, engraves the two tractates entitled There is No Natural Religion and All Religions are One. | 20 |
| c. 1788–9 | Marginalia to Lavater’s Aphorisms, published 1788. Marginalia to Swedenborg’s Wisdom of Angels, published 1788. Writes Tiriel. | 21 |
| 1789 | Songs of Innocence. Book of Thel. | 22 |
| c. 1790 | Begins to use the Sketch-Book (Rossetti MS.) for illustrations. | 23 |
| 1790 | Marriage of Heaven and Hell. | 24 |
| 1791 | The French Revolution, Book the First, set up in type by Johnson with a view to publication. | 25 |
| 1792 | Death of Blake’s mother, act. 70, September. Warns Thomas Paine of impending arrest. | 26 |
| c. 1792 | A Song of Liberty. Quaere, engraves Outhoun. | 27 |
| 1793 | Begins to use Sketch-Book as a note-book for poetry. Visions of the Daughters of Albion. Removes to 13 Hercules Buildings, Lambeth (now 23 Hercules Road). Note in Rossetti MS.: ‘I say I shan’t live five years. And if I live one it will be a Wonder,’ June. Publishes two small books of engravings: The History of England and For Children: The Gates of Paradise. Sketches title-pages for the Bible of Hell, and For Children: The Gates of Hell. America: a Prophecy. Prospectus ‘To the Public’ giving a list of ‘Works now published and on sale at Mr. Blake’s’, October 10. | 28 |
| c. 1793 | Makes the acquaintance of future patron, Thomas Butts. | 29 |
| 1794 | Songs of Experience. Europe: a Prophecy. The [First] Book of Urizen. | 30 |
| 1795 | The Song of Los. | 31 |
| 1795 | The Book of Los. The Book of Ahania. | 32 |
| 1796 | Designs for Bürger’s Leonora. Engaged on designs and engravings to Young’s Night Thoughts (published 1797). | 33 |
| 1797 | Begins to transcribe and illustrate his fair copy of The Four Zoas. | 34 |
| 1797–9 | Suffers from lack of employment as engraver. Turns to designs in water-colour. Commissions from Butts. | 35 |
| 1800 | Introduced by Flaxman to Hayley. Leaves Lambeth and settles at Felpham, September. Resumes use of Sketch-Book as a note-book for poetry. | 36 |
| 1800–3 | Works for Hayley. Letters to Flaxman and Butts. Revises The Four Zoas. Begins the composition of Milton and Jerusalem. | 37 |
| 1801–3 | circa Writes poems in Pickering MS. | 38 |
| 1803 | Strained relations with Hayley; determines to leave Felpham, April. Affray with dragoon; warrant issued for his arrest on charge of sedition, August. Returns to London, to rooms at 17 South Molton Street, September. | 39 |
| 1804 | Tried at Chichester Quarter Sessions and acquitted, January 11. Begins engraving Milton and Jerusalem. | 40 |
| 1804–5 | Letters to Hayley. | 41 |
| 1805 | Designs for Blair’s Grave, purchased by Cromek, who, in violation of his agreement, gives the engraving to Schiavonetti. | 42 |
| 1806 | Malkin’s account of Blake in A Father’s Memoirs of his Child, January 4. Writes epigram ‘Grown old in love from seven till seven times seven’. | 43 |
| c. 1806 | Cromek sees Blake’s design ‘The Canterbury Pilgrims’ and commissions Stothard to paint a picture on the same subject. | 44 |
| 1807 | Note in Rossetti MS.: ‘Tuesday Jany 20, 1807, between Two & seven in the Evening, Despair.’ Stothard’s ‘Canterbury Pilgrimage’ exhibited. Final rupture with Cromek, May. | 45 |
| 1807–8 | Designs in illustration of Paradise Lost. | 46 |
| 1807–10 | Epigrams in Rossetti MS. | 47 |
| 1808 | Completes water-colour painting of ‘The Last Judgement’ for Countess of Egremont, February 18. Publication of Blake’s Illustrations to Blair’s Grave, Summer. Review of same in Hunt’s Examiner, August 7. Marginalia to Reynolds’ Discourses. | 48 |
| 1808–9 | Quaere, writes Barry: a Poem and Book of Moonlight. Completes engraving of Milton. | 49 |
| 1809 | Exhibition of pictures at 28 Broad Street, May to September. Prospectus of engraving of ‘Canterbury Pilgrims,’ May 15. Descriptive Catalogue. Critique of Exhibition in Examiner, September 17. | 50 |
| 1810 | Note in Rossetti MS.: ‘Found the Word Golden,’ May 23. Drafts in Rossetti MS. ‘Advertisements to Blake’s Canterbury Pilgrims from Chaucer containing anecdotes of Artists’ (Public Address). Publication of his engraving of the ‘Canterbury Pilgrims’, October 8. Drafts in Rossetti MS. a description of his painting of ‘The Last Judgement’ entitled For the year 1810: Additions to Blake’s Catalogue of Pictures &c. | 51 |
| c. 1810 | ‘The Everlasting Gospel.’ Re-issues Gates of Paradise (For the Sexes), with Prologue, Epilogue, and Keys of the Gates. | 52 |
| 1811–17 | Years of obscurity. | 53 |
| 1812 | Reprints The Prologue and Characters of Chaucer’s Pilgrims. | 54 |
| c. 1817 | Engraves leaflets Laocoon, and On Homer’s Poetry [and] On Virgil. | 55 |
| 1818 | Introduced by Cumberland to Linnell, June. | 56 |
| 1819 | Introduced by Linnell to Varley. Executes the ‘Visionary Heads’. | 57 |
| 1820 | Begins large ‘fresco’ of ‘The Last Judgement’. Designs and executes woodcuts for Thornton’s Pastorals of Virgil. Completes engraving of Jerusalem. | 58 |
| 1821 | Removes to 3 Fountain Court, Strand. | 59 |
| c. 1821 | Executes water-colour designs illustrating the Book of Job for Butts. | 60 |
| 1822 | Receives a donation of £25 from the Royal Academy. The Ghost of Abel. | 61 |
| 1823 | Commissioned by Linnell to paint and engrave replicas of the designs for Job, March 25. | 62 |
| 1825 | Completion of engravings for Job, March (published March, 1826). First meeting with Crabb Robinson, December 10. | 63 |
| c. 1825 | Meets Tatham. | 64 |
| 1825–6 | Executes designs in illustration of Dante for Linnell. | 65 |
| 1826 | Attacks of illness, February and May. | 66 |
| 1827 | Dies, August 12. | 67 |
| 1831 | Death of Catherine Blake, October 18. | 68 |
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