ABSTRACT
This chapter examines Robert Thornton's book together with some peripheral texts and images, seeking, in a way, the things it chooses not to reveal - a kind of methodology of lost parts. It considers evidence of William Blake's original intentions for his Virgil series and how Robert Thornton sought to contain it spatially, through the imposition of a frame. The chapter argues that the lost versions of William Blake's images defamiliarize scale, confusing giants and boys, birds and stars. Robert Thornton gave two important apologies in his work: one for Virgil's homoerotic plot, and another for William Blake's delicately rugged engraving style. The chapter also argues that Robert Thornton's comment that William Blake's images 'display less of art than genius' betrays anxiety about their masculinity, their scale, and their sublimity. It concludes with some final thoughts on unbounded scale, with reference to birds and beauty.
