Portal de Periódicos da CAPES

Emanuel Swedenborg's Conjugial Love and the Erotic Politics of William Blake's Epics

2023; Taylor & Francis; Volume: 34; Issue: 4 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1080/10509585.2023.2225414

1740-4657

Matthew Leporati,

Philosophical and Historical Studies

ABSTRACTThis article argues that Blake draws upon and revises aspects of Swedenborg's theology, especially the concept of "conjugial love," to construct an erotic universe that objects to the regressive politics of his age. Situating Milton and Jerusalem in the epic revival of the late-eighteenth and early-nineteenth centuries, the article argues that Blake's incorporation and revision of Swedenborgian ideas help him to challenge some forms of misogynistic, militaristic politics that writers of Blake's day were supporting with appeals to the classical and Miltonic epic traditions. While many Romantic-era writers call upon these traditions to endorse patriarchal oppression, Blake's deployment of both Swedenborgian concepts and epic tropes allows him to launch a trenchant critique of empire. He revises Swedenborg to extend Milton's critique of classical epic and, through it, the politics advocated by many of the period's epic writings. He does so in part by reworking Swedenborg's doctrines into a vision of eroticism that explodes the hierarchical, misogynistic, chaste conception of sexuality underlying the warrior ethos promoted by the worst aspects of the Romantic-era epic revival. Notes1 This illustration was part of a series commissioned by Blake's friend John Linnell in 1824. See "Blake's Illustrations of Dante" and Pyle.2 I follow the convention of citing Blake by the page number in Complete Poetry and Prose, preceded by plate and line numbers where applicable.3 See Rix 47–67 on Blake's relationship to Swedenborgianism. As Rix points out, The Marriage of Heaven and Hell is often "misinterpreted as an all-out rejection of Swedenborg" when Blake in fact "develops many of the same ideals that Swedenborg set forth in his writing, but he slights the prophet for failing to fulfill those ideals" (64–65).4 For an overview of the Romantic-era epic revival, see Curran 158–79. While epic was the subject of theory in the long eighteenth century—along with some examples, notably of the "Whig epic"—the Romantic period saw the densest concentration of epics. Curran notes, "Every major poet" of the Romantic period "planned an epic (though not all were executed) and minor bards issued them in profusion" (158). On epic in the eighteenth century, see Tucker 30–48. On the "Whig epic," see Womersley; and Williams.5 See Wright (ch. 5) on the opposition of Blake's Milton to the neoclassical revival.6 Swedenborg was the son of a Lutheran bishop, and he served as Sweden's Royal Assessor of Mines from 1716 to 1747. On Swedenborg's life, see Wilkinson; and Lachman.7 On Blake's relationship to Swedenborgian circles, see Rix 52–75.8 See Raine (ch. 1: "The Swedenborgian Songs") and Schuchard. Other explorations of the relation between Blake and Swedenborgianism include Bellin and Ruhl; Erdman; Viscomi; and Churton 148–58.9 For an in-depth exploration of the connection of the Blakes to the Moravian Brethren, see Davies and Schuchard.10 See Schuchard 57–61 on Conjugial Love and the possible yogic and Kabbalistic influence on its ideas.11 I cite Swedenborg by section number.12 Robert Southey summarizes his reading of Swedenborg's sexual doctrines in Letters to England by noting that conjugality "flows from the Creator into all things; from the Creator it is received by the female, and transferred through her to the male … it finds its way through the breast into the genital region" (141).13 See Otto, "Drawing Lines" for a discussion of Swedenborg's conjugal love bringing male and female bodies "into a relation of congruence with the divine" (53). Otto argues that The Four Zoas parodies this relation, presenting Swedenborg's idea as a "grotesque misogynistic sexual machine" (55).14 On the "Sexual Controversy" in the London New Jerusalem Church, see Rix 98–104.15 For a fuller discussion of these Swedenborgians and their plan, see Rix, "William Blake and the Radical Swedenborgians" and Rix 94–98.16 In "A Pompous High Priest," Otto discusses Swedenborg's "static hierarchical universe" that depends upon divine energy descending from God to reason and only then to the natural world (10). Otto notes that in Blake's annotation to Divine Love and Divine Wisdom, "Blake focuses on passages which suggest, sometimes in contradistinction to the main thread of Swedenborg's argument, the equality of spirit and body" (n39).17 See Tillyard, particularly his discussion of "The Nature of Epic" (1–18).18 In Wilkie, see especially "The Romantics and the Paradox of the Epic" (3–29).19 "The great paradox of the epic," Wilkie notes, "lies in the fact that the partial repudiation of earlier epic tradition is itself traditional" (10).20 Wordsworth claims that his theme, "What passed within me. Not of outward things … but of my own heart … is in truth heroic argument" (Prelude [1805] 3.174, 176, 182). On the implicit claim of these lines to surpass Milton, see The Prelude 100n4.21 On the influence of Hayley on Blake, see Wittreich.22 See Curran (ch. 8) for an exploration of "Composite Orders."23 On the textual history of Milton and Jerusalem, including the differences between extant copies, see Erdman 806–12.24 See Yoder.25 On the textual history of The Columbiad, see Curran 247n23.26 On Barlow's poem, see Simon; and Botta. My essay "'More than Mortal Fervour'" discusses how Cottle's poem seeks to elide the militaristic aspects of King Alfred (55–56).27 For an examination of the divergent politics of Cottle's and Pye's Alfred poems, see my article "'More than Mortal Fervour'" 54–56.28 Madoc is Welsh, but the 1805 edition consistently refers to him as "British."29 During the lengthy composition and revision of Madoc, Southey considered several possible wives for the hero, including the queen of the Hoamen tribe. However, Southey ultimately rejected this idea because he felt Madoc was "too old" and would not marry for political reasons. See Pratt for an overview of Southey's abandoned plans, which he discussed in letters to Anna Seward (xxviii–xxix).30 An ellipsis followed by a comma is a common occurrence in Madoc, but a cluster of four of them in the space of four lines at the beginning of Madoc's speech is unique. While it may be intended to create dramatic pauses, it also suggests hesitance.31 On the errors Blake found in Milton's religion and his engagement with them in his poetry, see Sandler; and DiSalvo (esp. ch. 8 and 9). As DiSalvo explores, Paradise Lost suggests that the Fall is the result of violating "three separate laws written into the structure of Eden, the obligations to (1) restrain sexual desire, (2) maintain a sexual hierarchy, and (3) obey any other rules laid down by the Almighty Father" (314). She shows how Blake opposes these laws in his epic responses to Milton.32 For instance, Philip J. Gallagher builds a case against Milton's alleged misogyny, and James Grantham Turner locates Milton between the competing priorities of egalitarianism and patriarchy within the Christian tradition.33 For an examination of The Aeneid's subtle critiques of empire, see Quint (ch. 1).34 For a thorough reading of Milton's plot in these terms, see Fox, Poetic Form.35 See Complete Poetry 811 for Blake's erasures and emendations. Originally, he might have written "Trojan Whip" or begun "Roman Whip." His final choice of "phallic" is significant.36 Discussing Blake's Satan, whose "supreme manifestation … in this world is war," Damon notes that for Blake, "War springs from suppressed sex" (427).37 One might read Blake here as condemning sexuality itself, but he is more likely condemning the degradation of the eroticism of his Eternity into the "sexual" world of Generation, where there is sharp division between genders and pathological obsessions with sexuality, especially in the form of jealousy. As I discuss below, tensions and seeming contradictions in Blake's language augment the challenge his work poses to oppressive discourses.38 Otto has detailed Blake's return to Swedenborg's system in The Four Zoas "in an attempt to elaborate the social and sexual mechanisms it rehearses, convinced that they provide a key to the fallen world's sexual machine" (62).39 For a discussion of this story, see Rix, William Blake 193. Alexander Gilchrest's biography of Blake does not mention the story, but Algernon Swinburne notes that "it is however said, truly or falsely, that once in a patriarchal mood he did propose to add a second wife to their small and shifting household, and was much perplexed at meeting on one hand with tears and on all hands with remonstrances" (15).40 For a textual history of The Four Zoas, see E 816–18. The year 1797 on the title page may "mark the beginning of a first fair copy" (817).41 On the androgyny of humans in Blake's Eternity, see Hoeveler; and Hayes. It should be noted that Blake's concept of a Human in Eternity—as I discuss below—does not imply a single androgynous being but an interdependent blend of emanations (male and female) that are neither entirely separated nor completely unified.42 Swedenborg characterizes God as Maximus Homo, the "Great Man" or "Universal Human." In Secrets of Heaven, Swedenborg describes the angels of Heaven as living in communities that constitute the organs of this "Great Man." This idea parallels Blake's notion of the unity of all people in God. In Eternity, the constituent members of Albion, fallen humanity, unite together and with Christ as One Man: We live as One Man: for contracting our infinite sensesWe behold multitude: or expanding, we behold as one.As One Man all the Universal Family: and that One ManWe call Jesus the Christ: and he in us, and we in him[.] (34[38]:17-20, E 180)43 Anne Mellor argues that Blake's metaphors "typically depict women as either passively dependent on men, or as aggressive and evil" (148). Brenda Webster argues from a psycho-analytic perspective that Blake "considers female sexuality inferior to the total body sensuality of the child, for the loss of which he holds women responsible" (222). Alice Ostriker suggests that there are at least four different Blakes, with the final two including a "Blake for whom body and spirit are as irreconcilably opposed as they are for any Church Father" and a Blake who "believes that the proper study of woman is the happiness of her man, and who cannot conceive of a true woman in any but a supportive, subordinate role" (161, 162).44 As Donald Ault notes with regards to The Four Zoas, the past, including a "nostalgia for unity," is a "creation, a fictive option of the virtual narrative in which the reader is inevitably co-creative" (x).45 See Hobson 145–73 for an examination of Jerusalem's "Acceptance of homosexuality," which is "both a component part and an emblem of … social changes" that includes "confront[ing] intellectual error and political, sexual, social, and religious tyranny" (144).46 I would suggest that because Blake's epics are more focused on diagnosing the conditions of the fallen world, he less frequently has need to use "emanation" in this more Eternal sense.47 The editors of the Blake Archive identify them as Albion and Jerusalem, though they suggest that the female figure may be a composite of Jerusalem, Britannia, and/or Vala. Sklar identifies the male as a "Jehovah/Albion figure" (102). Frederick Tatham identifies the image as "The Union of Jerusalem with God" (xvi). As Anthony Blunt points out, the design resembles Martin De Vos's engraving The Prodigal Son. Samuel Palmer reported that this Biblical parable was a "story that Blake particularly loved and could not read without tears coming to his eyes" (81), suggesting the importance of this reconciliatory moment at the end of Jerusalem.