Description of the design for Blake's drawing, A Sunshine Holiday, and quotation from Milton's L'Allegro : autograph manuscript : [England], [ca. 1816-1820].

Accompanies no. 4 of 12 watercolor designs for Milton's early poems L'Allegro and Il Penseroso that contrast the cheerful man with the melancholic, thoughtful one. Blake created them on commission for Thomas Butts about 1816-1820. The two series were separated in 1903 and were not reunited until 1949, when they were acquired by the Library. Each of the watercolors in this series is accompanied by Blake's transcription of the relevant portion of the poem as well as his notes on his design.
18 lines of text written in ink on the recto of a sheet of laid paper accompanying the watercolor, A Sunshine Holiday (1949.4:4, cataloged separately). Lines 1-8, 10-11 are quoted from Milton's "L'Allegro," lines 91-98, 73-74.
Transcription: "4 Sometimes with secure delight / The upland Hamlets will invite / When the merry Bells ring round / And the jocund Rebecks Sound / To many a youth & many a Maid / Dancing in the chequerd Shade / And Young & Old come forth to play / On a Sunshine Holiday / In this design is Introduced / Mountains on whose barren breast / The Labring Clouds do often rest / Mountains Clouds Rivers Trees appear / Humanized on the Sunshine Holiday. The / Church Steeple with its merry bells The / Clouds arise from the bosoms of Mountains / While Two Angels Sound their Trumpets / in the Heavens to announce the Sunshine / Holiday"