Was I angry with Hayley who us'd me so ill. On Friends and Foes. William Blake. 1908. The Poetical Works

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William Blake (1757–1827). The Poetical Works. 1908.

On Friends and Foes

Was I angry with Hayley who us’d me so ill


XXX WAS I angry with Hayley who us’d me so ill,
Or can I be angry with Felpham’s old mill?
Or angry with 1 Flaxman, or Cromek, or Stothard,
Or poor Schiavonetti, whom they to death bother’d?
Or angry with Macklin, or Boydell, or Bowyer,	5
Because they did not say ‘O what a beau ye are’?
At a friend’s errors anger show,
Mirth at the errors of a foe.

Note 1. XXX 3 Or angry with Boydell or Bowyer or Bu[tts]] MS. 1st rdg. del. 5 Macklin, Boydell, Bowyer] Publishers for whom Blake engraved. Cp. a reference to the same trio in a letter to Hayley dated 11th December, 1805 (Blake’s Letters, ed. Russell, p. 187). [back]

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