I know a little bit about the subject but not enough to figure why Blake uses the definite article in the hellish proverb “Expect poison from the standing water.” (Neither can others, which is why “Expect poison from standing water” gits almost as many ghits (currently 400:382 in favour of literal accuracy).
Thomas Wright, Dictionary of Obsolete and Provincial English: For they say the king of Portugal cannot sit at his meat, but the giants and the ettins will come and snatch it from him. (Beaumont and Fletcher, The knight of the burning pestle (1613)) I think that means that an ettin/eten/etayn is not, or is not…
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