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| Henry Fuseli Paolo and Francesca (Inferno) 1777 drawing British Museum |
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| Henry Fuseli Dante swooning before soaring souls of Paolo and Francesca (Inferno) ca. 1818 etching, aquatint British Museum |
"But, if to recognise the earliest root
Of love in us thou hast so great desire,
I will do even as he who weeps and speaks.
One day we reading were for our delight
Of Launcelot, how Love did him enthral.
Alone we were and without any fear.
Full many a time our eyes together drew
That reading, and drove the colour from our faces;
But one point only was it that o'ercame us.
When as we read of the much-longed-for smile
Being by such a noble lover kissed,
This one, who ne'er from me shall be divided,
Kissed me upon the mouth all palpitating,
Galeotto was the book and he who wrote it.
That day no farther did we read therein."
And all the while one spirit uttered this,
The other one did weep so, that, for pity,
I swooned away as if I had been dying,
And fell, even as a dead body falls.
– from Canto V of Dante's Inferno, translated by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
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| Henry Fuseli Roman Album Dante and Virgil on the ice (Inferno) 1774-78 drawing British Museum |
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| Henry Fuseli Roman Album Dante and Virgil with Guido Cavalcante (Inferno) 1774-80 drawing British Museum |
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| Henry Fuseli Roman Album Scene from Dante's Inferno 1774 drawing British Museum |
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| Henry Fuseli Roman Album Buoconte da Montefeltro's soul carried to heaven, his body cast into Hell by a devil (Purgatorio) 1774-78 drawing British Museum |
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| Henry Fuseli Roman Album Figure studies for Dante's Purgatorio 1770-78 drawing British Museum |
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| Henry Fuseli The Night Hag (Paradise Lost) ca. 1799 drawing, watercolor British Museum |
Before the Gates there sat
On either side a formidable shape;
The one seem'd Woman to the waste, and fair,
But ended in many a scaly fould
Voluminous and vast, a Serpent arm'd
With mortal sting: about her middle round
A cry of Hell Hounds never ceasing bark'd
With wide Cerberian mouths full loud, and rung
A hideous Peal: yet, when they list, would creep,
If aught disturb'd thir noyse, into her woomb,
And kennel there, yet there still bark'd and howl'd
Within unseen. Farr less abhorrd than these
Vex'd Scylla bathing in the Sea that parts
Calabria from the hoarse Trinacrian shore:
Nor uglier follow the Night-Hag, when call'd
In secret, riding through the Air she comes
Lur'd with the smell of infant blood, to dance
With Lapland Witches, while the labouring Moon
Eclipses at thir charms.
– from book 2 of Milton's Paradise Lost
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| Henry Fuseli Roman Album Satan escaping from Ithuriel's spear (Paradise Lost) 1776 drawing British Museum |
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| Henry Fuseli Roman Album Satan, Sin and Death (Paradise Lost) 1776-78 drawing British Museum |
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| Henry Fuseli Isaiah's Vision (Old Testament) Francis Willoughby's Practical Family Bible 1772 etching British Museum |
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| Henry Fuseli Jonah's Indignation (Old Testament) Francis Willoughby's Practical Family Bible 1772 etching British Museum |
But it displeased Jonah exceedingly, and he was very angry. And he prayed unto the Lord, and said, I pray thee, O Lord, was not this my saying, when I was yet in my country? Therefore I fled before unto Tarshish: for I knew that thou art a gracious God, and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness, and repentest thee of the evil. Therefore, now, O Lord, take, I beseech thee, my life from me; for it is better for me to die than to live.
– from chapter 4 of the Book of Jonah, the Authorized Version of the Bible (1611)
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| Henry Fuseli Roman Album Joseph interpreting Pharoah's dream (Old Testament) 1774 drawing British Museum |
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| Henry Fuseli Roman Album Moses praying on Sinai (Old Testament) 1776-78 drawing British Museum |
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| Henry Fuseli Roman Album Conversion of Paul (New Testament) 1770 drawing British Museum |