ng them in his writings into theepic cosmic struggle between the forces of the Authoritarian Jehovah (the figure of "Urizen")and the forces of youthful rebellion (symbolised by the mythological figure of Orc). TheFrench Revolution of 1789 represented, for Blake, a similar irruption of necessary rebellionagainst the corruption of the 'Ancien Regime' and, once again, his sympathies were with therevolutionaries and supporters such as Paine (whom he helped save, in 1793, when Painewas in danger of being arrested, allowing him to escape to France). The British war withFrance, 1793, and the introduction of rigorous laws of civil obedience were, for Blake, yetfurther instances of the hold which the forces of Authority (Church and State) held over thecommon people: like Wordsworth, and Shelley and Byron a generation later, Blake waspolitically both a Radical and a libertarian. Yet, as Blake himself realized, the forces ofyouthful rebellion which had promised to usher in a new dawn in human consciousnessswiftly gave way to the bloodshed and anarchy of the Reign of Terror and the imposition ofnew stricter forms of social control in both France and Britain. His works, from 1794onwards, reflect a sense of the paradoxes and complexities of rebellion although, as hiswork also testifies, Blake remained unswervingly committed to the principles of equality in allforms (social, political and sexual), to liberty and to justice. In 1800 Blake moved to West Sussex and spent nearly three idyllic years there, until thedramatic events which led to him being charged with sedition: in 1803 he was charged, atChichester, with high treason (for being too vocal in his responses to a soldier he foundurinating in his garden). That year Blake returned to London, where he lived until his death in1827. Yet the final 24 years of his life saw Blake producing voluminous amounts of illustratedwork and engraving, including the monumental work Milton (begun in Felpham but fini...
