READING RESPONSE: William Blake’s “Proverbs of Hell” and the Tradition of Wisdom Literature By John Villalobos

The eighteenth century satirical writing of William Blake with “The Marriage of Heaven and Hell” created a critical analysis of Romantic Literature.  Blake wrote “Proverbs of Hell” for the Marriage section and delivered a very controversial approach to biblical critique and parody.  John Villalobos analyzed Blake’s satirical approach to biblical religion in 1990 through a paper entitled, William Blake’s “Proverbs of Hell” and the Tradition of Wisdom Literature.  Villalobos summarized several authors from the sixteenth through eighteenth century who critiqued the bible, specifically Proverbs and the Hebrew-English translation.  Matthew Poole and John Pearson were Protestant reformers and Renaissance critics of the sixteenth century who emphasized, “Proverbs should be admired and studied for the broad scope of information presented,”[1] and praised Solomon for his putative nature.  Solomon is one of the major contributors to Proverbs, which are written in a manner that punishes those who do not conform to the requirements of the bible.  Villalobos indicated Blake is not a fan of Solomon or how Proverbs needs interpreted.  “Solomon is listed with Abraham, Moses, Paul, Constantine, Charlemaine, and Luther, all of whom Blake condemned as figures who emphasized the letter of the law, as opposed to the indwelling spirit of the Word.”[2]  A second major group of authors summarized in Villalobos’ article is Hugo Grotius, Simon Patrick, and John Edwards who wrote in the late sixteenth and early seventeenth century about Proverbs and analyzed the Old Testament.  Edwards determined Proverbs “Proverbial Sentences are sometimes Enigmatical, and have a Meaning far different from what the Words directly signify.”[3]  In fact, Edwards and Patrick were friends and it seemed John Edwards used more historical background than Patrick in his writings based on Villalobos’ article.  The development of biblical critique is significant in the eighteen century because of the how influential the church was on the world’s population.  William Blake seemed to know how arguments about Proverbs was written, general guidelines or specific rules to live by along with punctuation usage which changes the context and fictional stories to make a point.  Several biblical critics, John Hutchinson and Parkhurst along with William Jones and Julius Bates indicated issues with punctuation and the theory translating from Hebrew to English may have been counterproductive to grasping the necessary understanding of why Proverbs was written.  It seems Blake used all these issues about Proverbs to create the controversy about his own biblical interpretation. The final major author Villabolos summarizes is Robert Lowth who wrote Lectures on the Sacred Poetry of the Hebrews.  Lowth is instrumental in breaking down the different types of Proverbs and reinforcing the facts of previous critics that breaking down Proverbs into literal interpretations was unproductive.  Blake used Lowth’s evaluation of three types of Proverbs in his “Proverbs of Hell” to develop a common theme, which related to the bible.  Blake uses satire and a shock factor to force people who read “Proverbs of Hell” to critically think about the bible, God, and overall their life.  Good and evil, heaven and hell, appear in our everyday life; how we react to Blake’s creative writing and interpret our own values is for each of us to critically think about how we live.  In Proverbs 19:5 “A false witness shall not be unpunished and he that speaketh lies shall not escape,” gives us a example how to not lie about things but Blake uses examples in the reverse to shock our thinking about how we really do live our lives.

“Truth can never be told so as to be understood, and not be believ'd.
Enough! or Too much.”[4]

“The road of excess leads to the palace of wisdom.”[5]

These two different proverbs from Blake’s Proverbs of Hell writings show the “shock” value he portraited through describing a road of excess to a palace of wisdom or Truth is never understood or believed.  These both clearly represent a disbelieve in how most people think or process life.  It is unusual for me to think if somebody drinks to excess they will be led to a palace of wisdom.   In reality, someone who walks the path of excess will never find their palace.  In my earlier blog posts, I wrote about Rintrah who is a character Blake created to represent Wrath, one of the seven deadly sins.  Blake uses Wrath (Rintrah) in similar form of shock value like Truth never goes unpunished.  Rintrah is not Anger but has Wrath at seeing the injustice of the world.  My second blog post describes how I connect Rintrah Blake’s emotional state towards his feeling critically analyzing the bible, French and English revolution, and overall Romanticism believes.  Blake allowed me to look beyond words with definition.  He forced me to critically look between the lines and how it could be perceived with a totally different meaning.  The depth of how William Blake writes is difficult for me to grasp the entire picture but I understand some of his themes and believes about good and evil.  It is important for people to be able to express their values even if we do not fully understand what they are trying to convey.

---

[1] John Villalobos, William Blake’s “Proverbs of Hell” and the Tradition of Wisdom Literature (University of North Carolina Press: 1990) p.249

[2] John Villalobos, William Blake’s “Proverbs of Hell” and the Tradition of Wisdom Literature (University of North Carolina Press: 1990) p.249

[3] John Edwards, Discourse Concerning the Authority, Stile, and Perfection of the Books of the Old and New Testament (London: 1695), p. 380.

[4]William Blake, specific proverbs from “Proverbs of Hell”, The Marriage of Heaven and Hell, 1790.

[5] William Blake, specific proverbs from “Proverbs of Hell”, The Marriage of Heaven and Hell, 1790.