LETTERS

OF JOHN KEATS

FANNY BRAWN

LETTERS OF 9’OHN

‘

KEA TS

T O F A NN Y BRA WHE

WRITTEN [N THE YEAR'

S

MDCCCXJX AND MDCCC‘

XX

AND NOW GIVEN EEOM

THE ORIGINA L MANU

SCRIPTS WITH TNTE0

DUCTION AND NOTES BY

HARE y BUXTON FORMAN

6 5

fl 3

LONDON REEVES TURNER

196 STRAND MDCCCLXXVIH 44976

[A ll rig/Lt: reserved]

N O T E .

THERE is good reason to think

that the lady to whom the following

letters were addressed did not, to

wards the end of her l ife, regard

the ir ult imate pub l icat ion as un

l ikely ; and it is by her fam ily that

they have b een entrus ted to the

editor, to b e arranged and prepared

for the press .

The owners of these letters re

serve to themselves all righ ts of

reproduct ion and translat ion.

TO 7OSEPH SEVERN,

ROME.

Tno nappy circumstance taat t/ce

fif ty-sevent/c year since yon watcned at

tlze deatn-oed of Keats finds yon s till

among as, makes it impossiole to in

scribe any ot/zer name t/can yonrs in

front of t/zese letters, intimately connected

as t/zey are witlc t/ze decline of tae poet’

s

lif e, concerning t/te latter part of w/zic/c

yon alone lzaoe f nll knowledge.

It cannot oe ont tnat some of tae letters

willg iveyon pain—and notably t/ze three

written waen t/ze poet’

s face was alreadytnrned towards that land wnitner yon

accompanied nim,wnence ne anew tnere

was no retnrn f or liim,and wnere yon

272 tke recollection of kis own motives

and lie uttered tkowisk tkat tke unex

tinguisked Spirit of Keats mtg/i t“

plead

against Oblivion f oryour name. Were

any suck plea needed, tko Spirit to prefer

it, t/zen unextinguisked, is now known f or

inexting niskable and wkitkersoever tke

name of“our Adonais

”travels

,tkere

willyours also bef ound.

Tkis opportunity may not unfitly serve

to record my gratitude f or your ready

kindness in afiording me information on

various poin ts concerning yourf riend’

s

life and deatk, and alsof or tkopermission

to engraveyour solemn portraiture of tb c

beautiful countenance seen, as you only

of all men living saw it,in its final

agony .

H. B . F .

CONTENTS .

PUBLISHERS’ NOTETo JOSEPH SEVERN , ROMEINTRODUCT ION BY THE ED ITORLETTERS To FANNY BRAWNE

Firs t Period, I to IX , Shank lin, Winchester, W estminster

Second Period, X to XXX II , Wentworth

Third Period, XXX III to XXXVII , KentishTown—Preparing for Italy

APPEND IX, THE LOCALITY OF WENTWORTHPLACE

INDEx

ILLUSTRATIONS.

PORTRA IT OF KEATS, DRAWN BYJOSEPH SEVERN ANDETCHED BY W . B. SCOTT

SILHOUETTE OF FANNY BRAWNE, CUT BY EDOUARTAND PHOTO-LITHOGRAPHED BY G. F . TUPPER

Oppositepage 3 .

FAc-S IMILE OF LETTER XXVII , EXECUTED BY

G. I . F. TUPPER . Oppositepage 76 .

INTRODUCTION .

THE sympathetic and discerning biographer of John Keats says

,in the

memoir prefixed to Moxon’

s edition of

the Poems‘,“ The publ ication of three

small volumes of verse,some earnest

friendships,one profound passion , and

a premature death are the main inci

dents here to be recorded .

”

These

words have long become “ household

words,

” at all events in the household

of those who make the l ives and works

of English poets thei r specia l study ;and nothing is likely to be d iscovered

which shal l alter the fact thus set forth .

77ze Poetical Works of 7okn Keats. W'it/i a

Memoir by Rickard Monckton M'

lnes. A new

Edition . 1 86 3 (and other dates) . See p . ix ,Memoi r.

x iv INTRODUCTION .

But that documents i l lustrat ing the fact

should from time to time come to the

surface, i s to be expected ; and the

present volume portrays the one pro

found passion as perfectly as i t i s

poss ible for such a passion to be por

trayed without the revelat ion of things

too sacred for even the most reverent

and worshipful public gaz e,while i t

gives considerable insight into the

refinements of a nature only too keenly

sensitive to pain and inj ury and the

inherent hardness of things mundane .

The three final years of Keats ’s l ife

are in al l respects the ful lest Of vivid

interest for those who,admiring the

poet and loving the memory of the

man,would fain form some conception

of the working of those forces within

h im which went to the Shaping of his

greatest works and his greatest woes.

In those three years were produced

most of the compositions wherein the

lover of poetry can d iscern the supreme

hand of a master, the u ltimate and

https://www.forgottenbooks.com/join

xvi INTRODUCTION .

varying significance and magnitude,

proper enough, no doubt, thi rty years

ago,but surely now a needless affl iction .

But of the all-important phases in the

healthy and morbid psychology of the

poet connected with the over-mastering

passion of his latter days,the record

was necessari ly scanty,—a few hints

scattered through the letters written in

moderately good health,and a few

agoniz ed and burning utterances wrung

from him, i n the despair of his soul, in

those last three letters addressed to

Charles Brown,

-one during the sea

voyage and two after the arrival Of

Keats and Severn in I taly.

I t was with the profoundest feel ing

of the sacredness as wel l as the great

importance of the record entrusted to

me that I approached the letters now at

length laid before the public : after

read ing them through,i t seemed to me

that I knew Keats to some extent as a

different being from the Keats I had

known the features Of h is mind took

INTRODUCTION . xvi i

clearer form ; and certain mental and

moral characterist ics not before evident

made their appearance. It remained to

consider whether this enhanced know

ledge of so noble a soul should be

confined to two or three - persons,or

Should not rather be given to the world

at large ; and the decision arrived at

was that the world ’s claim to partici

pate in the gift of these letters was

good .

The Office Of editor was not an ardu

ous one so far as the text i s concerned,for the letters are whol ly free from any

thing which i t seems desirable to Omit

they are legibly and, except in some

minute and trivial details,correctly

written,leaving l ittle to do beyond the

correction of a few obvious clerical

errors, and such amendment of punctu

ation as is invariably required by letters

not written for the press. The arrange

ment of the series in proper sequence,

however, was not nearly SO simple.

a

matter ; for, except as regards the fi rst

6

xvi i i INTRODUCTION .

n ine, the evidence in this behalf is

almost wholly inferential and col lateral

and I have had to be content with strong

probabil i ty in many cases in which i t is

impossible to arrive at any absolute

certainty. Of the whole thirty-sevenletters, not one bears the date of the

year, except as furn ished in the post

marks of numbers I to IX two only go

so far as to specify in writing the day of

the month,or even the month itself ;

and one of these two Keats has dated a

day later than the date shewn by the

postmark . Those which passed through

the post,numbers I to IX

,are fully

addressed to Miss Brawne,Wentworth

Place,Hampstead

,

” the word Middx.

being added in the case of the six from

the country,but not in that of the three

from London . Numbers X to XVI I and

X IX to XXXI I are addressed simply

to Miss Brawne while numbers

XVI I I,XXXI I I

,XXX IV

,and XXXVI

are addressed to “ Mrs . Brawne, and

numbers XXXV and XXXVI I bear

no address whatever.

INTRODUCTION . xix

These material details are not W i thout

a psychological s ignificance : the total

absence of interest i n the progress of

time (the sord id current time) tall ies

with the profound worsh ip of things so

remote as perfect beauty ; and the

addressing of four of the letters to

Mrs . Brawne instead of Miss Brawne

indicates,to my mind

, not mere

accident, but a sensitiveness to Ob ser

vation from any unaccustomed quarter

three of the letters so addressed were

certainly written at Kentish Town,and

would not be l ikely to be sent by the

same hand usually employed to take

those written while the poet was next

door to his betrothed ; the other one

was,I have no doubt, sent only from

one house to the other ; but perhaps the

usual messenger may have chanced to

be out of the way.

The letters fal l natural ly into three

groups,namely ( I ) those written during

Keats ’s sojourn with Charles Armitage

Brown in the Isle of Wight, and his

b 2

xx INTRODUCTION .

brief stay i n lodgings in Westminster in

the Summer and Autumn of 1 8 19, (2 )those written from Brown ’s house in

Wentworth Place during Keats ’s i l lness

in the early part of 1 82 0 and sent by

hand to Mrs . Brawne’s house,next door

,

and (3 ) those wri tten after he was able

to leave Wentworth Place to stay with

Leigh Hunt at Kentish Town , and

before hiS ‘ departure for I taly in Sep

tember, 1 82 0 . Of the order of the fi rst

and last groups there is no reasonable

doubt ; and, although there can be no

absolute certainty in regard to the whole

series of the central group, I do not

think any important error wil l have been

made in the arrangement here adopted .

The s l ight service to be done beside

this ofJ

arranging the letters,i nvolving a

great deal of minute investigation , was

simply to elucidate as far as possible by

brief foot-notes references that were not

self-explanatory,to give such attainable

particulars of the principal persons and

places concerned as are desirable by

INTRODUCTION . xx i

way of i l lustration,and to fix as nearly

as may be the chronology of that part

o f Keats ’s l ife at the time represented

b v these letters,—especial ly the two

importan t dates involved . The first

date is that of the passion which Keats

conceived for Miss Brawne,—the second

that of the rupture of a blood-vessel ,marking d istinctly the poet ’s graveward

tendency,

—two events probably connected with some intimacy, and con

cern ing which it is not unnoteworthy

that we should have to be making

guesses at al l . I f these and other con

jectural conclusions turn out to be in

accurate (which I do no t think wil l be

the case) , they can only be proved so

by the production of more documents

and if documents be produced confuting

my conclusions,my aim will have been

attained by two steps instead of one.

The lady to whom these letters were

addressed was born on the 9 th Of

August in the year I 800,and baptiz ed

Frances, though, as usual with bearers

é s

xx i i INTRODUCTION .

of that name,she was habitually called

Fanny. Her fathe r,Mr. Samuel Brawne,

a gentleman of independent means,

d ied whi le She was sti l l a ch i ld ; and

Mrs . Brawne then went to reside at

Hampstead,with her three chi ldren

,

Fanny,Samuel

,and Margaret . Samuel ,

being next in age to Fanny,was a youth

going to school i n 1 8 1 9 and Margaret

was many years younger than her sister,

being in fact a chi ld at the t ime of the

engagement to Keats,which event took

place certain ly between the Autumn of

1 8 1 8 and the Summer of 1 8 1 9 ,and

probably,as I find good reason to

suppose,qu ite early In the year 1 8 1 9 .

In the Summer of 1 8 1 8 Mrs . Brawne

and her chi ld ren occupied the house of

Charles Armitage Brown next to that

of Mr. and Mrs . Charles Wentworth

D i lke,i n Wentworth Place, Hampstead ,

which is n ot now known by that name.

On Brown ’s return from Scotland,the

°

Brawne’

s moved to another house in the

neighbourhood but they afterwards re

https://www.forgottenbooks.com/join

xx iv INTRODUCTION .

i n fix ing the date of this first meetingwith Miss Brawne . I learn from mem

bers of her family that i t was certainly

in 1 8 1 8 and,as far as I can j udge, i t

must have been in the last quarter of

that year ; for i t seems pretty evident

that he had not conce ived the pass ion,

which was his “ pleasure and torment,

”

up to the end of October,and had con

ceived i t before Tom ’s death “ early in

December ” and,as he says in Letter

I I I of the present series,

“ the very fi rst

week I knew you I wrote mysel f your

vassal,we must perforce rega rd the

date of fi rst meeting as betwe e n the

end of October and the begi nn ing of

December,1 8 1 8 .

I n conducting the reader to th is con

clusion i t wi l l be n ecessary to remove a

misapprehension which has been cu rrent

for nearly thirty years in regard to a

passage in the letter that yields us our

starting-point . This i s the long letter

to George Keats,dated the 2 9th of

October,I 8 I 8

,given in Lord Houghton ’s

INTRODUCTION . XXV

L ife, Letters, 6 T.) and commencing at

page 2 2 7 of Vol . I , wherein i s the fol

lowing passage

The Misses are very kind to

me, but they have lately displeased me

much, and in this way —now I am

coming the R ichardson l—On my return,

the first day I called,they were in a sort

of taking orbustle about a cousin Of theirs,

who,having fallen out with her grand

papa in a serious manner,was invited by

Mrs . to take asylum in her house .

She is an East-Indian,and ought to be

her grandfather’s hei r. At the time I

called,Mrs . was in conference with

her up stairs, and the young ladies were

warm in her praise down stairs, call ing

her genteel,interesting

,and a thousand

other pretty things,to which I gave no

Lifi’

, Letters, and Literary Remains of 7olm

[ ( eats. Edited by Rickard Monckton lll ilnes (Two

Volumes, Moxon, My references, throughout ,are to this edition ; but i t wil l b e sufficient to cite i thenceforth simply as Lifi ,

Letters, 69°c. , specifying

the volume and page.

xxvi INTRODUCTION .

heed,not being partial to n ine days ’

wonders. Now al l is completely

changed : they hate her, and , from

what I hear, She is not without faults of

a real kind ; but she has others, which

are more apt to make women of inferior

claims hate her. She is not a C leopatra,

but is,at least

,a Charmian she has a

rich Eastern look she has fine eyes,and

fine manners When she comes into the

room She makes the same impression as

the beauty of a leopardess . She is too

fine and too conscious of herself to re

pulse any man who may address her

from habit She thinks that notking par

ticular. I always find myselfmore at ease

with such a woman the picture beforeme always gives me a l ife and animation

which I cannot possibly feel with any

thing inferior. I am ,at such times

, too

much occupied in admiring to be awk

ward or in a tremble : I forget myself

entirely, because I live in her. You will ,by th is t ime, think I am in love with

her, so, before I go any further, I wil l

INTRODUCTION . xxvu

tel l you I am not. She kept me awake

one night,as a tune of Moz art ’s might

do. I speak of the thing as a pastime

and an amusement,than which I can

feel none deeper than a conversation

with an imperial woman , the very yes

and ‘no ’

of whose l ife is tO me a ban

quet . I don ’t cry to take the moon

home with me in my pocket,nor do I

fret to leave her behind me . I l ike her,and her l ike

,because one has no sensa

tions : what we both are is taken for

granted . You wil l suppose I have, by

this,had much talk with her—no such

thing there are the Misses on the

look out . They think I don ’t admire

her because I don ’t stare at her ; they

call her a fl i rt to me—what a want of

knowledge" She walks across a roomin such a manner that a man is drawn

towards her with a magnetic power this

they call fl i rt ing"They do not knowthings they do not know what a woman

is . I bel ieve,though

,She has faults

,the

same as Charmian and C leopatra might

xxvi i i INTRODUCTION .

have had . Yet she is a fine thing, speak

ing in a worldly way for there are two

distinct tempers of mind in which we

judge of things—the world ly, theatricaland pantomimical and the unearthly

,

spiritual and ethereal . In the former,

Bonaparte,Lord Byron

,and this Char

mian,hold the fi rst place in ourminds

in the latter,John Howard

,Bishop

Hooker rocking his Child ’s cradle,and

you,my dear S ister

,are the conquering

feel ings . As a man Of the world , I love

the rich talk of a Charmian as an

eternal being, I love the thought of you .

I should l ike her to ru in me,and I

should l ike you to save me.

I am free from men of p leasu re’s cares,

By di n t of feel i ngs farmore deep than thei rs.

’

This is Lord Byron,

’ and is one of the

finest things he has said .

”

Now i t is clear from this passage that

a lady had made a certain impression

on Keats and Lord Houghton in his

INTRODUCTION .

l atest publ ication states expl icitly what

i s only indicated in general terms in

the Memoirs publ ished in 1 848 and

1 86 7,— that the lady here described

was M iss Brawne. In the earl ier

Memoirs,three letters to R i ce, Wood

house,and Reynolds fol low the long

letter to George Keats then comes the

statement that “ the lady alluded to in

the above pages inspired Keats with

the passion that only ceased with his

existence ” ; and, as the letter to Rey

molds contains references to a lady, i t

might have been poss ible to regard

Lord Houghton ’s expression as an al lu

sion to that letter only. But in the

brief and masterly Memoir prefixed to

the Ald ine Edition of Keats‘, his Lordship C i tes the passage from the letter Ofthe 2 9th of October as descriptive of

Miss Brawne,— thus confirming by

1 The Poetical Works of 7ohn K'

eats. Chronologically arranged and edited, with a Memoir, by

LordHoughton , D. C.L. , Hon . Fellow of Trin . Coll.

Cambridge (Bel l & Sons, See p . xxi i i , Memoi r.

XXX INTRODUCTION .

expl icit statement what has al l along

passed current as trad ition in l iterary

C ircles .When Lord Houghton ’s inestimable

volumes of 1 848 were given to the

world there might have been indel icacy

in making too close a scrutiny into the

bearings of these passages but the

t ime has now come when such cannot

be the case ; and I am enabled to give

the grounds on which it is absolutely

certain that the al lusion here was not

to Miss Brawne . As Lord Houghton

has elsewhere recorded,Keats met Miss

Brawne at the house of Mr. and Mrs .

D i lke,who had no daughters

,while the

relationsh ip of“ the M isses and

Mrs . of the passage in question

is clearly that of mother and daughters .

Mrs .Brawnehad already been settledwith

her child ren at Hampstead for several

years at this time,whereas this cous in

of “ the Misses had j ust arrived

when Keats returned there from Teign

mouth . The Charmian of this anec

https://www.forgottenbooks.com/join

XXXII INTRODUCTION .

Brawne. That the impression was not

lasting the event shewed and we may

safely assume that i t was real ly l imited

in the way which Keats h imself

averred,—that he was not “ i n love with

her But it is incredible, almost, that, in

h is affectionate frankness with his bro

ther,he would ever have written thus of

another woman,had he been already

enamoured of Fanny Brawne. This

view is strengthened by read ing the

letter to the end in such a perusal we

come upon the fol lowing passage

Notwithstand ing your happiness and

your recommendations,I hope I shal l

never marry : though the most beauti

ful creature were waiting for me at the

end of a journey or a walk though the

carpet were of si lk, and the curtains of

the morn ing Clouds,the chairs and

sofas stuffed with cygnet ’s down,the

food manna, the wine beyond claret, 'the

window open ing on Winandermere, I

should not feel, or rather my happiness

INTRODUCTION . xxxii i

should not be,so fine ; my solitude is

sublime— for,instead of what I have

described,there is a subl im ity to wel

come me home the roaring of the

wind is my wife and the stars through

my window-panes are my Children the

mighty abstract Idea of Beauty in al l

th ings,I have

,stifles the more d ivided

and minute domestic happiness . An

amiable wife and sweet children I con

template as part of that Beauty, but I

must have a thousand Of those beautifu l

particles to fi l l up my heart. I feel more

and more every day,as my imagination

strengthens,that I do not l ive in this

world alone,but in a thousand worlds .

No sooner am I alone,than shapes of

epic greatness are stationed around me,

and serve my spirit the office which is

equivalent to a King ’s Body-guard

then Tragedy with scepter’

d pal l comes

sweeping by according to my state of

mind, I am with Achil les shouting in the

trenches, orwith Theocritus in the vales

of S ici ly or throw my whole being into

xxx iv INTRODUCTION .

Troilus,and

,repeating those l ines

,

‘I

wander l ike a lost soul upon the Stygiar.

bank,staying for waftage

,

’ I melt into

the air with a voluptuousness SO delicate,that I am content to be alone. Those

things,combined with the opin ion I

have formed Of the generality of women ,who appear to me as chi ldren to whom

I would rather give a sugar-plum than

my time,form a barrier against matri

mony which I rejoice in . I have

written this that you might see that I

have my share Of the highest pleasures

of l ife,and that though I may choose

to pass my days alone,I shall be no

sol itary ; you see there i s nothing

splenetic in al l th is . The only thing

that can ever affect me personally for

more than one short passing day,is any

doubt about my powers Of poetry : I

seldom have any,and I look with hope

to the n ighing time when I shal l have

nouel”

Lifi, Letters, 69 m, Vol. I, pp . 2 34—6 .

INTRODUCTION . XXXV

There is but l ittle after this in the’letter

,and apparently no break b e

tween the time at which he thus ex

pressed himsel f and that at which he

S igned the letter and added This is

my birthday . If therefore my con

el us ion as to the negative value of th is

and the Charmian passage be correct,

we may say that he was certainly not

enamoured of Miss Brawne up to the

2 9 th Of O ctober, 1 8 1 8 , al though it is

tolerably clear,from the evidence of

Mr. D i lke, that Keats first met her

about October or November. Again,

in a highly interesting and important

letter to Keats ’s most intimate friend

John Hamilton Reynolds,a letter

which Lord Houghton placed imme

diately after one to Woodhouse dated

the 1 8 th of December,1 8 1 8

,we read

the following ominous passage suggest

ing a doom not long to'

be deferred :

I never was in love,yet the voice

and Shape of a woman has haunted me

(3 2

xxxvi INTRODUCTION .

these two days—at such a t ime when

the rel ief,the feverish rel ief of poetry,

seems a much less crime . This morning

poetry has conquered— I have relapsed

into those abstractions which are my

only l ife—I feel escaped from a new,

strange,and threaten ing sorrow

,and I

am thankfu l for it . There is an awfu l

warmth about my heart,l ike a load of

Immortal ity.

Poor Tom— that woman and poetrywere ringing changes in my senses .

” INow I am,in comparison

,happy.

There i s no date to this letter ; and ,although it was most reasonable to

suppose that the fervid expressions used

pointed to the real heroine of the poet’s

tragedy,that he wrote in one Of those

moments of mastery of the in tel lect over

the emotions such as he experienced

when writing the extraord inary fifth

Letter of the'

present series,—the fact is

1 Life, Letters, 6 m, Vol. I , p . 240 .

INTRODUCTION . xxxvi i

that the reference is to Charmian,and

that the l etter was misplaced by Lord

Houghton . I t real ly belongs to Septem

ber 1 8 1 8 , and should precede instead

of fol lowing th is “Charmian letter .

When Keats wrote the next letter in

Lord Houghton ’s series (also undated )to George and his wife

,Tom was dead

and there is another clue to the date in

the fact that he transcribes a letter from

Miss Jane Porter dated the 4th of

December,1 8 1 8 . After making this

transcript he proceeds to draw the fol

lowing verbal portrait Of a young lady

Shal l I give you Miss She

is about my height,with a fine style of

countenance of the lengthened sort she

wants sentiment in every fea tu re ; she

manages to make her hair l ook wel l ;her nostrils are very fine, though a l ittle

painful ; her mouth is bad and good ;her profi le i s better than her full face

,

which,indeed

,i s not full , but pal e and

thin,without showing any bone ; her

xxxvi i i INTRODUCTION .

shape is very graceful,and so are her

movements ; her arms are good , her

hands bad -ish,he r feet tol erable . She

is not seventeen,but she i s ignorant ;

monstrous in her beh aviour,flying out

in al l d irection s,cal l ing people such

names that I was forced lately to make

use Of the term—Minx this is,I think

,

from no innate vice,but from a penchant

she has for acting styl ishly. I am,

however,t i red of such style

,and shal l

decl in e any more of i t . She had a

fri end to vis i t her late ly ; you have

known plenty such— She plays the

music,but without one sensation but

the feel Of the ivory at her fingers she

i s a downright M is s , without one set

off. We hated he r,and smoked her

,

and baited her,and

,I th ink

,drove her

away. Miss thinks her a paragon

of fash ion,and says she i s the only

woman in the world she would change

persons with . What a stupe,—she is as

superior as a rose to a dandelion .

” I

1 Life, Letters, 69 2 , VOL I , pp . 2 5 2—3 .

https://www.forgottenbooks.com/join

x1 INTRODUCTION .

engagement in the original l etter to h is

brother and sister-in-law,which I have

read ; and it would seem improbable

that he was engaged when he wrote

i t. But of the journal letter begun

on the 1 4th of February, 1 8 1 9 ,

and

fin ished on the 3 rd of May, only a

part of the holograph is access ible ;and there may possibly have been

such an announcement in the miss ing

part,while

,under some date between

the 1 9 th of March and the 1 sth of

Apri l, Keats writes the fol lowing para

graph and sonnet,from which it might

be inferred that the engagement had

been announced in an unpublished

letter.

I am afraid that your anxiety for

me leads you to fear for the violence Of

my temperament,con tinually smothered

down for that reason,I d id not intend

to have sent you the following Sonnet

but look over the two last pages,and

ask yourself i f I have not that in me

INTRODUCTION . x l i

which wil l bear the buffets of the world .

It will be the best comment on my

Sonnet ; i t wil l show you that i t was

written with no agony but that of

ignorance,with no thirs t but that of

knowledge,when pushed to the point ;

though the first steps to i t were through

my human passions,they went away,

and I wrote with my mind,and

,perhaps

,

I must confess,a l i ttle bit of my heart.

Why d id I laugh to-n ight ? No voice wi ll tellNo God, no Demon of severe respon se,Deign s to rep ly from Heaven or from Hell .Then to my human hear t I turn at once.

Heart Thou and I are here sad and aloneI say, why di d I laugh ? O mortal pain

O Darkness Darkness ever must Imoan,

To ques t ionHeaven andHellandHear t i n vain .

Why di d I laugh ? Iknow this Being’s lease,My fancy to its u tmost bl i s ses spreads

Yet wou ld Ion th is very m i dn igh t cease,And the world ’s gaudy ensigns see in sh redsVerse

,Fame, and Beauty are i n ten se i n deed ,

ButDeath i n ten ser—Death i s Life’s h igh meed .

”l

‘Lij Zf, Letters, 69 m, Vol. I, p . 2 6 8, andVol. I I, p .

3 0 1 . Should not the semicolon atpoint change placeswith the comma at knowledge

x l i i INTRODUCTION .

Again in the same letter,on the 1 5 th

of Apri l, Keats says Brown , this morn

ing, i s writing some Spenserian stan z as

againstMissB

doubtless,to Miss Brawne

,probably in

and me,

” a reference,

dicative of the engagement being an

understood thing and,seemingly on the

same date,he writes as fol lows

The fifth canto of Dante pleases me

more and more i t is that one in which

he meets with Paulo and Francesca . I

had passed many days in rather a low

state of mind,and in the midst of them

I dreamt of being in that region Of Hell .

The dream was one of the most del ight

ful enjoyments I ever had in my life ; I

floated about the wheel ing atmosphere,

as it is described,with a b eautiful figure

,

to whose l ips mine were j oined, i t

seemed for an age and in the midst of

all this cold and darkness I was warm

ever-flowery tree-tops sprung up, and

we rested on them,sometimes with the

l ightness of a cloud,ti l l the wind blew

INTRODUCTION . xli i i

u s away again . I tried a Sonnet on i t

there are fourteen l ines in it,but nothing

of what I felt. Oh"that I could dreamit every n ight .

A S Hermes once took to h i s feathers l igh t,When lulled A rgus

,baffled , swoon’d and s lept,

So on a Delph ic reed , my i d le sp righ t ,So play

’

d,so Charm

’

d,so conquer

’

d,so bereft

The dragon-wo rld of all its hund red eyes ,And seei ng It as leep

,so fled away,

Not to pure Ida wi th i t s s now-cold sk ies ,Norun to Tempe, where j ove grieved a day,

But to that second circle Of sad Hell,

Where in the gu s t, the whirlwind , and the flawOf rain and hai l-s tones, lovers need not tellThei r sorrows,—pale were the sweet l ips I saw,

Pale were the l ip s I kiss ’d, and fai r the formI floated w i th , about that melancholy s torm .

The mean ing of th is dream is suffi

ciently clear without any l ight from the

fact that the sonnet itself was written in

a l ittle volume given by Keats to Miss

Brawne,a volume of Taylor Hessey

’

s

miniature ed ition of Cary’s Dante,which

1 Life, Letters, (5 4 cm, Vol. I , p . 2 70, and Vol. I I ,p . 302 .

xl iv INTRODUCTION .

had remained up to the year 1 877 in

the possession of that lady’

s family.

‘

Al though the present citation of ex

tant documents does not avail to fix the

date of Keats ’s pass ion more nearly than

to shew that it almost certainly l ies

somewhere between the 2 9 th Of Octoberand beginn ing of December

,1 8 1 8

,there

can be l ittl e doubt that,i f a competent

person should be permitted to examine

al l the original documents concerned ,the date might be ascertained much

more nearly —that is to Say that theparticular “ fi rst week of acquaint

ance in which Keats wrote h imself the

1 This l ittle book, now in my col lect ion, i s of great

interest . I t is marked throughout forMiss Brawne’suse,—accord ing to Keats ’ s fashion of “ marking the

most beautiful passages ” in his books for her. Atone end is written the sonnet referred to i n the tex t,apparently composed by Keats with the book beforehim

, as there are two “ false starts,”

as wel l aserasures ; and at the other end, i n the handwri t ingofMiss Brawne, is copied Keats’s last sonnet,Bright star 1 would I were steadfast as thou art.

The Spenser similarly marked, the subject of LetterXXX IV, is missing .

INTRODUCTION . xlv

vassal of Miss Brawne,as he says (see

page might be identified . But in

any case it must be well to bring into

juxtaposition thesepassages b earingupon

the subject of the letters now made

publ ic.

The natural inference from all weknow of the matter in hand is that after

h is brother Tom ’ s death,Keats ’s pas

s ion had more time and more tempta

t ion to feed upon itself ; and that, as an

unoccupied man l iving in the same

village with the Object of that pass ion,

an avowal followed pretty speedily. I t

is not surpris ing that there are no let

ters to shew for the first half of the

year 1 8 19, during which Keats and Miss

Brawne probably saw eachother con

stantly, and to j udge from the expres

s ions in Letter XI,were in the habit Of

walking out together.

The tone of Letter I is unsuggestive

of more than a few weeks ’ engagement

but it i s impossible, on th is alone

,to

found safely any conclusion whatever.

x lvi INTRODUCTION .

From the date of that letter, the 3 rd of

J uly,1 8 19, we have plainer sail ing for

awhile Keats appears to have remained

in the Isle of Wight ti l l the 1 1 th or

1 2 th of August,when he and Brown

crossed from Cowes to Southampton

and proceeded to Winchester. At page

1 9 we read under the date 9 August,”

“ This day week we shal l move to Win

chester ” but in the letter bearing the

postmark of the l 6 th (though dated the

1 7th) Keats says he has been in Win

chester four days so that the patience

of the friends with Shanklin did not

hold out for anything like a week.

At Winchester the poet remained ti l l

the 1 1 th of September,when bad news

from George . Keats hurried him up to

Town for a few days he meant to have

returned on the Isth, and was certainlythere again by the 2 z ud

,remain ing

until some day between the Ist and

l oth of October,by which date he

seems to have taken up his abode at

lodgings in College Street,Westminster.

https://www.forgottenbooks.com/join

INTRODUCTION .

day to which Lord Houghton ’s account

refers . This wel l-known passage leaves

us in no doubt as to the place wherein

the beginning of the end came upon the

poet,— the house of Charles Brown but

the day we must seek for ourselves .

Passing over such premonitions Of

disease as that recorded in the letter to

George Keats and h is wife dated the

14th of February,1 8 19, and printed at

page 2 57 Of the first volume o f the

Life,namely that he had kept in doors

lately,resolved

,if poss ible

,to rid ” him

self of sore throat,”—the fi rst date im

portant to bear in mind is Thursday, the

1 3 th of January, 1 8 2 0,which is given

at the head of a somewhat remarkable

version of awell-known letter addressed

to Mrs . George Keats . This letter fi rst

appeared without date in the L ife ; but,on the 2 5 th of J une

,1 877, i t was printed

in the New York World,with many

striking variations from the previous

text, and with several additions, includ

ing the date already quoted,the genuine

INTRODUCTION . x l ix

ness of which I can see no reason for

doubting. The letter begins thus in

the Life,Letters , (To.

My dear S ister,

By the t ime you receive this

your troubles wi ll be over,and George

have returned to you .

In The World it Opens thus

My dear S is . By the time that youreceive this your troubles wi ll be over.

I wish you knew that they were half

over ; I mean that George is safe in

England,and in good health .

”

I t is not my part to account here for

the verbal inconsistency between these

two versions ; but the inconsistency as

regards f act, which has been charged

against them,i s surely not real . Both

versions al ike indicate that Keats was

writ ing with the knowledge that his

letter would not reach Mrs . George

d

INTRODUCTION .

Keats ti l l after the return of her hus

band from his sudden and short vis it to

England and,assuming the genuine

ness of another document, this was

certainly the case .

In The Philobiblion l for August,'

1 86 2 ,

was printed a fragment purporting to be

from a letter of Keats ’s,which seems to

me,on internal evidence alone, of in

dubitable authenticity ; and, i f i t is

Keats ’s,i t must belong to the particular

letter now under consideration . I t is

headed Friday 2 7th, i s wr itten in higher

spirits,i f anything

,than the rest of this

bril l iant letter,giving a ludicrous string

of comparisons for Mrs . George Keats ’s

s ister-in-law,Mrs . Henry Wylie

,which ,

The Philobiblian a monthly Bibliographical

j ournal. Containing CriticalNotices of,and Extracts

f rom, Rare, Curious , and Valuable Old Books. (Two

Volumes. Geo . P. Philes Co. , 5 1 Nassau Street ,New York . 1 86 2 The Keats letter is at p . 1 96 of

Vol. I , side by side with one purporting to b e

Shel ley ’s, a flagrant forgery which has been publ iclyanimadverted on several t imes lately, having beenreprinted as genuine.

INTRODUCTION .

together with a final joke,were appar

ently deemed unripe for publication in

1 848, being represented by asterisks in

the Lif e, Letters , S c. (Vol. I I,p .

The fragment closes with the promise of“ a close written Sheet on the first of

next month,” varying in phrase

,j ust as

the World version Of the whole letter

varies,from Lord Houghton

’

s.

l

Keats explains, under the inaccurate

and unexpli ci t date Friday 2 7th, that

he has been writing a letter for George

to take back to his wife,has unfortu

nately forgotten to bring it t o town, and

wil l have to send it on to L iverpool,

whither George has departed that morn

I The correspondent of The World would seem ( Ionly say seem for the matter is obscure) to have usedLord Houghton ’s pages for copy where a cursoryexam ination indicated that they gave the same matteras the original let ter,—transcribing what presenteditsel f as new matter from the original . The fragmentof Friday 2 7th was, on this supposi tion, in i ts placewhen the copies were made for Lo rd Houghton ,because there is the close but between that t ime and

1 86 2 i t must have been separated from the letter.

d z

l i i INTRODUCTION .

ing by the coach,at six o ’clock . The

2 7th of January, 1 82 0, was a Thursday,not a Friday ; and there can be hardly

any doubt that George Keats left Lon

don on t he 2 8th of January, 1 82 0,b e

cause John,who professed to know

nothing of the days of the month, seems

general ly to have known the days of the

week and this Friday cannot have

been in any other month : i t was after

the 1 3 th of January, and before the 1 6 th

of February, on which day Keats wrote

to R ice,referring to his i l lness 1 But

whether the date at the head of the

fragment should be Thursday 2 7th or

Friday 2 8th i s immaterial for our pre

sent purpose, because the Thursday after

that date would be the same day in either

case ; and it was on the Thursday after

George left London that Keats was

taken i ll . This appears from the follow

ing passage extracted by Sir Charles

D i lke from a letter of George Keats ’s

1 Lifi, Letters, Vol. I I, p . 5 5 .

INTRODUCTION . l i i i

to John, and commun icated to The

A thenwum of the 4th Of August, 1 877

Louisvi l le,June 1 8th, 1 82 0 .

My dear John,

Where wi l l ourmiseries end SO

soon as the Thursday after I left

London you were attacked with a dan

gerous i l lness, an hour after I left this

for England my l ittle girl became so i l las to approach the grave

,dragging our

dear George after her. You are reco

vered (thank [sic] I hear the bad and

good news together), they are recovered ,and yet

Thus,i t was on Thursday, the 3 rd Of

February,1 82 0

,that Keats

,as recounted

by Lord Houghton (Vol. I I , pp . 5 3

returned home at about eleven o ’clock ,“ in a state of strange physical excite

ment,and told Brown he had received

a severe chil l outside the stage -coach,that he coughed up some blood on

getting into bed,and read in its colour

l iv INTRODUCTION .

his death-warrant . Mr. Severn tells

me that Keats left h is bed-room wi thin

a week Of his being taken i ll : within a

fortn ight,as we have seen

,he was so

far better as to be writ ing (dismally

enough,i t is true) to R ice ; but, that

he was confined to the house for some

months,is evident. The whole of the

let ters forming the second division of

the series,Numbers X to XXXI I

,seem

to me to have been written during this

confinement ; and I Should doubt whe

ther Keats d id much better,if any,

than real i z e his hope of getting out for

a walk on the Ist of May.

At that t ime he was not sufficiently

recovered to accompany Brown on his

second tour in Scotland ; and was yet

wel l enough by the 7th to be at Graves

end with his friend for the final parting.

I understand from the Life, Letters

,é'c.

(Vol. I I , p . that Keats then went

at once to Kentish Town Lord Hough

ton says “ to lodge at Kentish Town,to

be near his friend Leigh Hunt ” ; but

https://www.forgottenbooks.com/join

lvi INTRODUCTION .

the paper entitled “A Now,at the

composition of which Keats is said to

have been not only present but assist

ing ;1 and

,as Hunt wrote pretty much

“ from hand to mouth ” for TheIndicator,

we may safely assume that Keats was

with him,at al l events ti l l j ust the end

of June. On a second attack of spitting

of blood,he returned to Wentworth

Place to be nursed by Mrs . and Miss

Brawne and he was writing from there

to Taylor on the 14th of August .

Between these two attacks he would

seem to have written the letters forming

the third series,Numbers XXX I I I to

XXXVI I . I suspect the desperate tone

of Number XXXVI I had some weight

in bringing about the return to Went

See Hun t ’s A utobiography , Vol. I I , p . 2 1 6 . I tmay b e noted in passing that the Indicator versionof the Sonnet varies in some sl ight detai ls from the

O riginal in the volume of Dante referred to at pagex l iv, and from Lo rd Houghton ’s text . I t i s naturalto suppose that Hunt ’s copy was the latest of thethree ; and his text is certainly an improvement onthe others where i t varies from them .

INTRODUCTION . lvi i

worth Place and that this was the last

letter Keats ever wrote to, Fanny

Brawne ; for Mr. Severn tells me that

h is friend was absolutely unable to

write to her either on the voyage or

i n I taly.

There are certain passages in the let

ters,taking exception to Miss Brawne’s

behaviour,particularly with Charles

Armitage Brown,which should not, I

think,be read without making good

al lowance for the extreme sensitiveness

natural to Keats,and exaggerated to

the last degree by terrible misfortunes .

Keats was himself endowed with such

an exquisite refinement of nature,and

,

without being in any degree a prophet

or propagandist l ike Shelley, was so

intensely in earnest both in art and in

l ife,that anything that smacked of

trifl ing with the sacred pass ion of love

must have been to him more horrible

and appal l ing than to most persons Of

refinement and culture . Add to this

that,for the greater part of the time

lvi i i INTRODUCTION .

during which his good or evi l hap cast

h im near the Object Of his affection, his

robust spirit of endurance was d isarmed

by the advancing operations of disease,

and his discomfiture in this behalf ag

gravated by material d ifficulties of the

most gall ing kind ; and we need not

be surprised to find things that might

otherwise have been deemed Of smal l

account making a violent impression

upon him . In a memoir 1 of his friend

D i lke,written by that gentleman ’s

grandson,there is an extract from

some letter or j ournal,emanating from

whom,and at what date

,we are not

told,but probably from Mr. or Mrs .

D i lke, and which is significant enough

it is at page 1 1

I t is qu ite a settled thing between

The Papers of a Critic. Selected from the

Writings of the late Charles Wentworth Dilke.

With a Biographical Sketch by his Grandson , Sir

Charles Wentworth Dilke, Bart , M R , é‘c. In

Two Volumes. (London . John Murray, Alb ernarleStreet . See Vol. I , p . 1 1 .

INTRODUCTION . l ix

Keats and Miss God help them .

It’

s a bad thingfor them . The mother

says she cannot prevent it, and that her

only hope is that i t wi l l go Off. He

don ’ t l ike anyone to look at her or to

speak to her.”

This indicates,at al l events, a morbid

susceptibil ity on the part of Keats as to

the relations of his betrothed with the

rest of the world,and must be taken

into account in weighing his own words

in this connexion . That th ings went

uncomfortably enough to attract the

attention of others is indicated again

in an extract which S ir Charles D i lke

has published on the same page with the

foregoing,from a letter written to Mrs.

D i lke by Miss Reynolds

I hear that Keats is going to Rome,which must please al l his friends on every

account . I S incerely hope it wil l benefi t

his health,poor fel low"His m ind and

spirits must be bettered by it and

1x INTRODUCTION .

absence may probably weaken,i f no t

break off,a connexion that has been a

most unhappy one for him .

Unhappy, the connexion doubtless

was,as the connexion of a doomed man

with the whole world is l ikely to be ;but i t would be unfair to assume that the

engagement to Miss Brawne took a more

unfortunate turn than any engagement

would probably take for a man circum

stanced as Keats was,— a man wi thout

independent means,and debarred by

il l-health from earn ing an independence .

Above all,i t would be both unsafe and

extremely unfair to conclude that either

Miss Brawne or Keats ’s amiable and

admirable true friend Charles Brown

was guilty of any real levi ty.

That Keats ’s passion was the cause of

his death is an assumption which also

should be looked at with reserve.

Shelley’

s immortal E legy and Byron ’s

ribald stan z as have been yoked together

to draw down the track of years the

false notion that adverse crit icism killed

INTRODUCTION . lx i

h im ; and now that that form of murder

has been shewn not to have been com

mitted, there seems to be a reluctance to

admit that there was no kil l ing in the

matter. Sir Charles D i lke says, at page

7 of the Memoir already cited, that

Keats “ ‘gave in ’ to a passion which

killed him as surely as ever any man was

killed by love .” This may be perfectly

true for perhaps love never did kil l any

man but surely it must be superfluous

to assume any such dire agency in the

decease of a man who had hereditary

consumption . Coleridge’s Often-quoted

verdict,

“ There is death in that hand,

does not stand alone ; and the careful

reader of Keats ’s L i fe and Letters wil l

find ample evidence of a state of health

l ikely to lead but to one result,—such as

the passage already cited in regard

to his staying at home determined

to rid himself of sore throat,the

account of h is return,i nval ided

,from

the tour in Scotland,which his friends

agreed he ought never to have under

lx i i INTRODUCTION .

taken,and his own statement to Mr.

D i lke,printed in the L ife, Letters , é'

c.

(Vol. I I,p . that he was not in very

good health ” when at Shankl in .

Lord Houghton ’s fine perception of

character and impl ied fact sufliced to

prevent h is giving any colour to the

supposit ion that Keats was not suffi

ciently Cherished and considered in hisl atter days : the reproaches that occur

in some of the present letters do not

lead me to alter the impression conveyed

to me on this subj ect by his Lordship ’s

memoirs ; nor do I doubt that others

wil l make the necessary allowance for

the fevered cond ition of the poet ’s mind

and the harassed state of body and spirit.

Mr. Severn tel ls me that Mrs . and Miss

Brawne felt the keenest regret that

they had not followed him and Keats to

Rome ; and , indeed , I understand that

there was some talk of a marriage tak

ing place before the departure . Eventwenty years after Keats ’s death

,when

Mr. Severn returned to England,the

https://www.forgottenbooks.com/join

lx iv INTRODUCTION .

weakness of bel ief in Keats’ s fame.

Obscurity of l ife is not identical with

obscurity of works ; and any one must

surely perceive that an appl ication made

to her for material for a biography,

or even any proposal to publ ish one,

must have been intensely painful to

her. She could not bear any discus

s ion of him,and was

,t i l l her death in

1 86 5 , pecul iarly reticent about him ;

but in her latter years,as a matron

with grown-up chi ldren , when the world

had decided that Keats was not to be

left in that obscurity, she said more

than once that the letters of the poet,

which form the present volume,and

about which she was otherwise most

uncommunicative,should be careful ly

guarded,

“ as they wou ld some day be

considered of value .

”

I t would be irrelevant to the present

purpose to recount the facts of this

honoured lady ’s l ife ; but one or two

personal traits may be recorded . She

had the gift of independence or self

INTRODUCTION . lxv

sufficingness i n a h igh degree ; and i t was

not easy to turn her from a settled pur

pose . This strength Of character Showed

itself in a noticeable manner in the great

crisi s of her l ife,and in a manner

,too

,

that has to some extent robbed her of

the smal l credit Of devotion to the man

whose love she had accepted for those

who knew the truth would not have i t

d iscussed,and those who decried her

d id not know the truth .

On the news of Keats ’s death,she

cut her hair short and took to awidow’

s

cap and mourn ing. She wandered about

sol itary,day after day

,on Hampstead

Heath,frequently alarming the family

by staying there far into the n ight,and

having to be sought with lanterns .

Before friends and acquaintance she

affected a buoyancy of spiri t which has

tended to wrong her memory ; but her

S ister carried into advanced l ife the

recollection that,when the stress of

keeping up appearances passed,Fanny

e

lxvi INTRODUCTION .

spent such time as she remained at home

in her own room ,—into which the child

would peer with awe,and see the un

wedded widow poring in helpless despair

over Keats ’s letters .

Without being in general a systematic

studen t she was a voluminous reader in

widely varying branches of l i terature ;and some out-of-the-way subjects she

followed up with great perseverance. Oneof he r strong points of l earn ing was the

history of costume,in which she was so

wel l read as to be able to answer any

question Of detail at a moment’s notice .

This was quite independent of ind ividual

adornment ; though , cipropos of Keats ’s

remark,

“she manages to make her hair

look well,

” i t may be mentioned that

some spec ial pains were taken in th is

particu lar,the hair being worn in curls

over the forehead,interlaced with ribands .

She was an eager pol itic ian,with very

strong convictions,fiery and animated

in d iscussion and this characteristic

she preserved til l the end .

INTRODUCT ION . lxvi i

The sonnet on Keats’

s preference for

blue eyes,

Blue"’ tis the hue of heaven ,” &c.

,

wri tten in reply to John Hamilton Rey

nolds’

s sonnet in which a preference is

expressed for dark eyes ,

Dark eyes are dearer farThan orb s that mock the hyacin thine bell

has no immed iate connexion with Miss

Brawne ; but i t i s of in terest to note

that the colour of her eyes was blue,so

that the poet was faithful to h is prefer

ence . NO good portrait of her is extant,

except the S i lhouette of which a repro

duction i s given opposite page 3 : a

min iature which Is perhaps no longerextant is said by her family to have

been almost worthless,while the S i l

houette i s regarded as characterist ic and

accurate as far as such things can be.

Mr. Severn,however

,told me that the

1 This sonne t occurs at page 1 2 8 of The Garden ofFlorence; and other Poems . By

‘

7ohn Hamilton .

(London : Joh'

n Warren, O ld Bond-street .

lxvi i i INTRODUCT ION .

draped figure in T itian ’s picture of

Sacred and Profane Love,i n the Bor

gb ese Palace at Rome,resembled her

greatly,so much so that he used to

visit it frequently,and Copied it

,on this

account. Keats,i t seems

,never saw

this noble picture containing the only

satisfactory l ikeness of Fanny Brawne.

The portrait of Keats which forms

the frontispiece to this volume has been

etched by Mr. W . B . Scott from a draw

ing of Severn ’s,to which the fol lowing

words are attached“2 8 th Jany. 3 o

’clock mg. Drawn

to keep me awake—a deadly sweat was

on him al l th is n ight.”

Keats ’s old schoolfel low,the late

Charles Cowden C larke,assured me in

1 8 76 that this drawing was a marvel

lously correct l ikeness .”

Postscript—During the past ten years

my work in connex ion with the writings

and doings of Keats has involved the

INTRODUCT ION . lxix

discovery and examination of a great

mass of documents Of a more or less

authoritative kind,both printed and

manuscript ; and many points which

were matters of conjecture in 1 877 are

now no longer SO .

O thers also have busied themselvesabout Keats ; and , since the foregoing

remarks were fi rst publ ished in 1 878 ,

Mr . J . G. Speed,a grandson of George

Keats,has identified himself with the

contributor to the New York World,

al luded to at pages xlvi i i and xl ix,i n

reissu ing in America Lord Houghton ’s

ed ition of Keats ’s Poems,together with

a collection of l etters . ’ This work,

though contain ing one new letter,un

happi ly threw no real l ight whatever

either on the inconsistencies Of text

already referred to or on any other

1 The Letters and Poems of j ohn Keats . In threevolumes . (Dodd,

Mead Co ., New York,

Vol. I i s cal led '

1'

he Letters of j ohn Keats, edited by

j no. Gil/nor Speed : Vol. I I and I I I , The Poems of

j ohn Keats, with the Ann otations of LordHoughtonand a Memoir by j na. Gilmer Speed.

lxx INTRODUCTION .

question connected with Keats. Later,

Professor S idney Colvin has issued , wi th

a very d ifferent resul t, his volume on

Keats‘ i ncluded in the “ English Men of

Letters ” series and I have not hesitated

to use,without ind ividual Specificat ion

,

such i l lustrative facts as have become

available,whether from Mr. Colvin ’

swork

or from my own ed ition of Keats’s whole

writings,

2

which also appeared some

time after the publ ication of the Letters

to Fanny Brawne,though years before

Mr. Colvin’s book.

Two letters,traced S ince the body of

the present volume passed through the

press are added at the close of the

series ; and I have now reason to think

that the letter numbered XXVI I I should

precede that numbered XXV,the date

K'

eats by Sidney Calvin . (Macmi l lan ;Co . ,

Mr. Co lvin has also contributed to hiacmillan ’

s

Alagaz ine (August , 1 888 ) an A rt i cle On Some Letters

of Keats, which I have al so duly consulted.

The Poetical Works and Other Writings of j ohnKeats, (Four volumes, Reeves Turner

,1 883 , con

siderab ly earlier than Mr . Speed’ s volumes appeared .)

https://www.forgottenbooks.com/join

lxx i i INTRODUCTION .

corded himself and Tom as firm bel ievers

in immortal i ty,I must now state that

the record c ited was a garbled one .

Lord Houghton,working from tran

scripts furn ished to him by the late Mr.

Jeffrey,the second husband Of George

Keats ’s widow,printed the words “ I

have a firm belief in immortal ity,and

so had Tom. The correspond ing sen

tence in the autograph letter is “ I have

scarce a doubt of an immortal ity of

some kind or another, neither had

Tom.

Finally,i t remains to supply an omis

sion which I find i t hard to account for.

I n Medwin ’s L ife of Shelley occur some

importan t extracts about Keats,seeming

to emanate from Fanny Brawne. In

1 8 77 I learnt from the lady’s family

that Medwin ’s mysteriously in troduced

correspondent was no other than she.

Indeed I had actual ly cut the relative

portion of Medwin ’s book out for use

in th is Int roduction ; but by some in

expl icable oversight I omitted even to

INTRODUCTION . lxxi i i

refer to it and it remained for Professor

Colvin to call attention to i t. I now

gladly fol low his lead in citing words

which have a d irect bearing upon the

vexed question of the appreciation of

Keats by her whom he loved ; and , i n

the append ix to the present ed ition , the

passage in question will be found .

H . BUXTON FORMAN .

46 MARLBOROUGH HILL, ST . JOHN’

S WooD

Nove m ber, 1 888.

CORRECTIONS.

Page xxxi , l ine 6 from foot, fordoes read did.

Pag e 1 6 , end of foot-note 3 , add orperhaps a dog.

Page 1 8,there Should b e a foot-note to the effect that

Illeleager in line 6 is wri tten Maleager i n the

original .

Page 73 , end of foot-note, strike out the words ofwhichperiod there are still indications in Letter

Page 94, line 2 of note, for in read on .

Page 95 , l ine 2 of notes, for 18 19 read 1 82 0.

Page 96 , l ine 3 of note, for 1 8 19 read 1 82 0 .

LETTERS

TO FANNY BRAWNE.

I TO IX.

SHANKLI N , W I NCHESTER,

WESTMINSTER.

https://www.forgottenbooks.com/join

I—IX .

SHANKLIN,WINCHESTER,

WESTMINSTER.

Shankl in,

I sle of Wigh t, Thursday.

[Postmark, Newport, 3 July,

My dearest Lady,

I am glad I had not an

opportunity of sending off a Letter

which I wrote for you on Tuesday

night—’twas too much like one out

of Rousseau ’s Heloise. I am more

reasonable this morning. The morning

is the only proper time for me to write

to a beautiful Girl whom I love so much :

fc’

Jr at n ight, when the lonely day has

4 LETTER I .

closed, and the lonely, si lent, unmus ical

Chamber is waiting to receive me as into

a Sepulchre, then bel ieve me my passion

gets entirely the sway,then I would not

have you see those Rhapsodies which I

once thought i t impossible I should ever

give way to,and which I have often

laughed at in another,for fear you should

[think me 1] either too unhappy or per

haps a l ittle mad . I am now at a very

pleasant Cottage window,looking onto

a beautiful h il ly country,with a glimpse

of the sea the morn ing is very fine. I

do not know how elastic my spirit m ight

be,what pleasure I might have in l iving

here and breathing and wandering as

free as a stag about th is beautiful Coast

if the remembrance of you did not weigh

so upon me. I have never known any

unalloy’

d Happiness for many days

together : the death or sickness of some

one2 has always spoilt my hours—and

These two words are wanting in the original .His brother, “ poor Tom,

”had died about seven

months before the date of this let ter.

LETTER I . 5

now when none such troubles Oppres s

me, i t is you must confess very hard

that another sort of pain should haunt

me . Ask yourself my love whether

you are not very cruel to have so

entrammel led me,

so destroyed my

freedom . Will you confess this in the

Letter you must write immediately and

do all you can to console me in it

make it rich as a draught of poppies to

intoxicate me—write the softest wordsand kiss them that I may at least touch

my lips where yours have been . For

myself I know not how to express my

devotion to so fair a form : I want a

brighter word than bright,a fairer word

than fair. I almost wish we were butter

fl ies and liv’

d but three summer,days

three such days with you I could fi l l

with more del ight than fifty common

years could ever contain . But however

selfish I may feel, I am sure I could

never act selfishly : as I told you a day

or two before I left Hampstead,I wil l

never return to London if my Fate does

6 LETTER I .

not turn up Pam ’orat least a Court-card .

Though I could centre my Happiness

in you, I cannot expect to engross your

heart so entirely—indeed if I thought

you felt as much for me as I do for you

at this moment I do not think I could

restrain myself from seeing you again

tomorrow for the del ight of one

embrace . But no—I must l ive upon

hope and Chance . In case of the worst

that can happen,I shal l stil l love you

but what hatred shal l I have foranother"

Some l ines I read the other day are

continually ringing a peal in my ears

To see those eyes I p ri ze above mine own

Dart favors on anotherAn d those sweet l ips (yield ing immortal nectar)Be gen tly press’d by any bu t myselfTh ink

,th i nk F rancesca

,what a cursed th ing

I t were beyond exp ression

Ev ’n mighty Pam, that k ings and queens o ’erthrew,

And mow’

d down armies in the fights of Loo,Sad chance of war"now desti tute of aid,

Fal ls undistinguish’

d by the victor SpadePOPE’SRape of the Lock, i i i, 6 1 - 4.

https://www.forgottenbooks.com/join

8 LETTER 1 1 .

July 8th .

[Postmark, Newport, 10 July,

My sweet Girl,

Your Letter gave me more

del ight than any thing in the world but

yourself cou ld do ; indeed I am almost

astonished that any absent one should

have that luxurious power over my

senses which I feel . Even when I amnot thinking Of you I receive your

influence and a tenderer nature steal ing

upon me. A l l my thoughts,my un

happiest days and nights,have I find

not at al l cured me of my love of

Beauty,but made it so intense that I

am miserable that you are not with me :

or rather breathe in that dul l sort of

patience that cannot be called L ife I

never knew before,what such a love as

you have made me feel, was I d id not

believe in i t my Fancy was afraid of i t,

LETTER I I. 9

lest i t should burn me up. But if you

wil l fully love me,though there may be

some fire,

’twil l not be more than we can

hearwhen moistened and bedewed with

Pleasures You mention ‘horrid people’

and ask me whether it depend upon

them whether I see you again . Do

understand me,my love

,in this . I have

so much of you in my heart that I

must turn Mentor when I see a chance

of harm befal l ing you . I would never

see any thing but Pleasure in your eyes,

love on your l ips, and Happiness in your

steps . I would wish to see you among

those amusements suitable to your

incl inations and spirits ; so that our

loves might be a del ight in the midst

of Pleasures agreeable enough,rather

than a resource from vexations and

cares . But I doubt much, i n case of

the worst,whether I Shal l be philosopher

enough to fol low my own Lessons : if I

saw my resolution give you a pain I

could not . Why may I not speak of

your Beauty, since without that I could

IO LETTER I I .

never have lov’

d you —I cannot con

ceive any beginn ing of such love as I

have for you but Beauty There may

be a sort of love for which,without the

least sneer at it, I have the highest

respect and can admire it in others

but i t has not the richness,the bloom

,

the full form,the enchantment of love

after my own heart. SO l et me speak

of your Beauty,though to my own

endangering ; i f you could be so cruel

to me as to try elsewhere its Power.

You say you are afraid I Shal l th ink

you do not love me—in saying this you

make me ache the more to be near you .

I am at the d il igent use of my faculties

here,I do not pass a day without

sprawl ing some blank verse or tagging

some rhymes and here I must confess,

that (since I am on that subject) I love

you the more in that I bel ieve you

have l iked me for my own sake and for

nothing else . I have met with women

whom I really think would l ike to be

married to a Poem and to be given

LETTER I I . I I

away by a Novel . I have seen your

Comet,and only wish i t was a S ign that

poor R ice would get wel l whose i l lness

makes him rather a melancholy . com

panion : and the more so as so to

conquer his feel ings and‘

hide them

from me,with a forc ’d Pun . I kiss’d

your writing over in the hope you

had indulg’

d me by leaving a trace of

honey. What was your dream ? Tel l

i t me and I wil l tell you the interpreta

tion thereof.

Ever yours, my love"

JOHN KEATS.

Do not accuse me of delay—we have

not here an opportunity of sending

letters every day . Write Speedily.

I 2 LETTER I I I .

Sunday N ight.

[Postmark, 2 7 Ju ly,

My sweet Girl,

I hope you did not blame me

much for not obeying your request of a

Letter on Saturday we have had four in

our smal l room playing at cards n ight

and morn ing leaving me no undisturb ’

d

opportun ity to write . Now R ice and

Martin are gone I am at l iberty. Brown

to my sorrow confirms the account you

give of your i l l health . You cannot

conceive how I ache to be with you

how I would die for one hour . for

what is in the world I say you cannot

conceive ; i t is impossible you should

The wordNewport is not stamped on this letter,as on Numbers I , I I, and IV ; but i t is prettyevident that Keats and his friend were still at

LETTER I I I . I 3

look with such eyes upon me as I have

upon you : i t cannot be . Forgive me if

I wander a l i ttle this evening, for I

have been al l day employ’

d in a very

abstract Poem and I am in deep love

with you two things which must

excuse me. I have, bel ieve me, not

been an age in letting you'

take posses

sion of me ; the very fi rst week I knew

you I wrote myself your vassal ; but

burnt the Letter as the very next timeI saw you I thought you manifested

some disl ike to me . If you should ever

feel for Man at the fi rst S ight what I did

for you,I am lost. Yet I should not

quarrel with you, but hate myself if

such a thing were to happen—only I

should burst i f the thing were not as

fine as a Man as you are as a Woman .

Perhaps I am too vehement,then fancy

me on my knees,especially when I

mention a part of your Letter which

hurt me ; you say speaking of Mr.

Severn “ but you must be satisfied in

knowing that I admired you much more

I4 LETTER 1 11.

than your friend . My dear love, I

cannot bel ieve there ever was or ever

could be any thing to admire in me

especially as far as sight goes— I cannot

be admired,I am not a thing to be

admired You are, I love you ; al l I

can bring you i s a swoon ing adm iration

Of your Beauty. I hold that place

among Men which s nub-nos ’d brunettes

with meeting eyebrows do among

women—they are trash to me—unlessI should find one among them with a

fire in her heart l ike the one that burns

in mine . You absorb me in spite of

myself—you alone : for I look not

forward with any pleasure to what is

call’

d being settled in the world ; I

tremble at domestic cares—yet for youI would meet them

,though if i t would

leave you the happier I would rather

d ie than do so . I have two luxuries to

brood over in my walks,your Loveliness

and the hour of my death . O that Icould have possession of them both in

the same minute. I hate the world : i t

https://www.forgottenbooks.com/join

1 6 LETTER I I I .

Fanny z‘ put between my Father’s

in itials . You will soon hear from me

again . My respectful Compl iments to

your Mother. Tel l Margaret I ’l l send

her a reef of best rocks and tel l Sam 2

I wi ll give h im my light bay hunter if

he wil l t ie the Bishop hand and foot

and pack him in a hamper and send

h im down forme to bathe him for his

health with a Necklace of good snubbystones about his Neck.

3

I am not aware of any other published recordthat this name belonged to Keats ’s Mother, as wellas his sister and his betrothed.

Samuel Brawne, the brother of Fanny : see

Introduction .

I am unable to obtain orsuggest any explanat ionof the allusionmade in this strange sentence. I t is not,however, impossible that “

the Bishop ” was merelya nickname of some one in the Hampstead circle.

LETTER Iv. I7

IV.

Shankl in, Thursday Night.

[Postmark, Newport, 9 August,

My dear Girl ,

You say you must not have any

more such Letters as the last : I ’ l l try

that you Shal l not by runn ing obstinate

the other way. Indeed I have not fair

p lay—I am not idle enough for properdownright love- l etters I leave this

minute a scene in our Tragedy 1 and

l The Tragedy referred to is, of course, Otho theGreat , which was composed jointly by Keats andhis friend Charles Armitage Brown . For the firstfour acts Brown provided the characters, plot, &C. ,

and Keats found the language ; but the fifth act i swholly Keats ’s . See Lord Houghton ’s Lif e, Letters,éec. Vol. I I, pp . 1 and 2

, and foot-note atp . 3 3 3 of theAldine edit ion of Keats

’s Poet ical Works

(Bel l Sons, A humorous account of theprogress of the joint composition occurs in a let terwri tten by Brown to D ilke, which is quoted at p . 9

1 8 LETTER Iv.

see you (think it not blasphemy) through

the mist of Plots, speeches, counter

plots and counterspeeches . The Lover

i s madder than I am—I am nothing to

him—he has a figure l ike the Statue of

Meleager and double disti l led fire in

his heart. Thank God for my dil i

gence"were it not for that I shouldbe miserable . I encourage it

,and strive

not to think of you—but when I havesucceeded in doing so al l day and as

far as midn ight, you return , as soon as

this artificial excitement goes off, more

severely from the fever I am left in .

Upon my soul I cannot say what you

could l ike me for. I do not think

myself a fright any more than I do

Mr. A .,Mr. B.

, and Mr. C.—yet if I

were a woman I should not l ike A. B .

C . But enough of this . SO you intend

to hold me to my promise of seeing

you in a short time . I shall keep it

of the memoi r prefixed by SirCharles D ilke to The

Papers qf a Critic, referred to in the Introductionto the present volume, p . l vii i .

https://www.forgottenbooks.com/join

2 0 LETTER IV.

being a cathedral C ity I shal l have a

pleasure always a great one to me

when near a Cathedral, of reading them

during the service up and down the

A isle .

FridayMorning .

—Just as I hadwrittenthus far last n ight, Brown came down

in his morning coat and nightcap,saying he had been refresh

’

d by a good

sleep and was very hungry. I left him

eating and went to bed,being too ti red

to enter into any discussions . You

would del ight very greatly in the walks

about here ; the C l iffs, woods, hills,sands

,rocks &c . about here. They

are however not so fine but I shall give

them a hearty good bye to exchange

them for my Cathedral . —Yet again Iam not so tired of Scenery as to hate

Switzerland . We might spend a plea

sant year at Bem e or Z urich if i t

should please Venus ' to hear my “ Be

seech thee to hear us O Goddess .”

And if she should hear,God forbid we

LETTER IV.

should what people call, settle—turninto a pond

,a stagnant Lethe—a vile

crescent,row or bui ldings. Better be

imprudent moveables than prudent fix

tures . Open my Mouth at the Streetdoor l ike the L ion ’s head‘

at Venice to

receive hateful cards,letters, messages .

Go out and wither at tea parties freez e

at dinners ; bake at dances ; s immer at

routs . No my love,trust yourself to

me and I wil l find you nobler amuse

ments,fortune favouring. I fear you

wil l not receive this ti l l Sunday or

Monday : as the Irishman would write

do not in the mean while hate me. I

long to be off for Winchester,for I

begin to d isl ike the very door-posts here—the names

,the pebbles . You ask

after my health,not tel ling me whether

you are better. I am quite well . You

going out i s no proof that you are

how is it ? Late hours wil l do you

great harm . What fairing is it ? I

was alone for a couple of days whi le

Brown went gadding over the country

LETTER IV.

with his ancient knapsack . Now I l ike

his society as wel l as any Man ’s,yet

regretted his return—it broke in uponme l ike a Thunderbolt. I had got in

a dream among my Books—really luxuriating in a sol itude and si lence you

alone should have disturb ’d.

Your ever affectionate

JOHN KEATS .

https://www.forgottenbooks.com/join

2 4 LETTER v.

to ask a speedy answer to let me know

how lenient you are— I must remain

some days in a Mist—I see you through

a Mist : as I daresay you do me by this

time. Believe in the fi rst Letters I

wrote you : I assure you I fel t as I

wrote- I could not write so now. The

thousand images I have had pass

through my brain—my uneasy spirits—my unguess

’

d fate—all spread as a

vei l between me and you . Remember

I have had no idle leisure to brood

over you—’t is wel l perhaps I have

not. I could not have endured the

throng of j ealous ies that used to haunt

me before I had plunged so deeply into

imaginary interests . I would fain,as

my sails are set,sai l on without an inter

ruption for a Brace of Months longer

I am in complete cue—in the feverand shal l in these four Months do an

immense deal . This Page as my eye

skims over it I see i s excessively um

loverlike and ungallant—I cannot help

it—I am no oflicer in yawning quar

LETTER v. 2 5

ters ; no Parson-Romeo. My Mind is

heap’

d to the full ; stuff’

d l ike a cricket

bal l—if I strive to fi l l i t more it would

burst . I know the general ity of wo

men would hate me for this ; that I

Should have so unsoften’

d, so hard a

Mind as to forget them ; forget the

brightest real i ties for the dul l imagina

tions Of my own Brain . But I conj ure

you to give it a fai r thinking ; and ask

yourself whether ’t is not better to ex

plain my feel ings to you,than write

artificial Passion—Besides, you would

see through it. I t would be vain to

strive to deceive you .

’T i s harsh,

harsh,I know it. My heart seems now

made of i ron I could not write a

proper answer to an invitation to Idal ia.

You are my Judge : my forehead is on

the ground . You seem offended at a

l ittle simple innocent childish playful

ness in my last . I d id not seriously

mean to say that you were endeavour

ing to make me keep my promise. I

beg your pardon for it. ’T is but j ust

2 6 LETTER v.

your Pride should take the alarm

seriously . You say I may do as I

please—I do not think with any conscience I can ; my cash resources are

for the present stopp’

d I fear for some

time. I Spend no money,but it in

creases my debts. I have al l my l ife

thought very l ittle of these matters

they seem not to belong to me . It may

be a proud sentence ; but by Heaven

I am as enti rely above all matters of

interest as the Sun is above the Earth—and though of my own money I

should be careless ; of my Friends ’ I

must be spare . You see how I go on

l ike so many strokes of a hammer. I

cannot help it—I am impell’

d, driven

to it. I am not happy enough for

silken Phrases,and S i lver sentences . I

can no more use soothing words to you

than if I were at this moment engaged

in a charge of Cavalry. Then you wil l

say I should not write at all—Should

I not ? This Winchester is a fine place :

a beautiful Cathedral and many other

https://www.forgottenbooks.com/join

2 8 LETTER v.

and boats on the coast were passing

and repassing it ; and circu iting and

tacking about i t i n every d irection—Inever beheld anything so S i lent, l ight,and graceful .—As we pass

’

d over to

Southampton,there was nearly an acci

dent . There came by a Boat wel l

mann’d,with two naval officers at the

stern . Our Bow-l ines took the top of

their l ittle mast and snapped it off close

by the board . Had the mast been a

l ittle stouter they would have been upset . In so trifl ing an event I could not

help admiring our seamen— neitherofficer nor man in the whole Boat

moved a muscle—they scarcely notic

’

d i t even with words . Forgive me

for this flint-worded Letter, and bel ieve

and see that I cannot think of you

without some sort of energy—thoughmal a propos . Even as I leave off i t

seems to me that a few more moments ’

thought of you would uncrystalliz e and

d issolve me . I must not give way to i t-but turn to my writing again—if I

LETTER v. 2 9

fai l I shal l d ie hard . O my love, yourl ips are growing sweet again to my

must forget them . Ever your

affectionate

KEATS .

3 0 LETTER v1 .

Fleet Street,1 Monday Morn .

[Postmark, Lombard Street, 14September,

My dear Girl,

I have been hurried to town

by a Letter from my brother George it

is not of the brightest intell igence. Am

I mad or not ? I came by the Friday

n ight coach and have not yet been to

Hampstead . Upon my soul i t is not

my fault. I cannot resolve to mix any

pleasure with my days : they go one l ike

another, undistinguishable If I were

Written, I presume, from the house of his friendsand publ ishers, Messrs . Taylor and Hessey, No. 93 ,

Fleet Street .

https://www.forgottenbooks.com/join

3 2 LETTER VL

bear the pain of being happy :’tis out

of the question : I must admit no

thought of i t .

Yours ever affectionately

JOHN KEATS.

LETTER VII.

College Street .l

[Postmark, 1 1 October,

My sweet Girl,

I am l iving today in yesterday

I was in a complete fascination all day.

I feel myself at your mercy. Write me

ever so few l ines and tell me you wil l

never for ever be less kind to me than

yesterday.—You daz z led me. There

is nothing in the world so bright and

I t would seem to have been in this street that Mr.D ilke obtained for Keats the rooms which the poetasked him to find in the let ter of the Ist of October,from W inchester, given at p . 1 6 , Vol. I I, of the

Lif e, Letters, One. How long Keats remainedin those rooms Ihave been unable to determine, toa day ; but in Letter No . IX he writes, eight dayslater, from Great Smith Street (the address of Mr.D ilke) that he purposes “ l iving at Hampstead ”

;

and there is a letter headed “Wentworth Place,Hampstead, 1 7th Nov. at p . 3 5 , Vol. I I,of the Life, Letters, é

’

r’c.

34 LETTER VI I .

del icate . When Brown came out with

that seemingly true story against me

last night,I fel t it would be death to

me if you had ever bel ieved it—thoughagainst any one else I could muster up

my obstinacy. Before I knew Brown

could d isprove it I was for the moment

miserable. When shall we pass a day

alone ? I have had a thousand kisses,

for which with my whole soul I thank

love—but if you should deny me the

thousand and first— ’ twould put me to

the proof how great a misery I could

l ive through . I f you should ever carryyour threat yesterday into execution

bel ieve me ’ tis not my pride,my vanity

or any petty passion would torment

me—really ’ twould hurt my heart—Icould not bear it. I have seen Mrs .

D ilke this morning ; she says she wil l

come with me any fine day.

Ever yours

JOHN KEATS .

Ah hertemine

https://www.forgottenbooks.com/join

3 6 LETTER VI II .

Li fe seems to stop there—I see no

further. You have ab sorb’

d me. I

have a sensation at the present moment

as though I was dissolving—I should

be exquisitely miserable without the

nOpe of soon seeing you . I should be

afraid to separate myself far from you .

My sweet Fanny,will your heart never

change ? My love, will i t ? I have nol imit now to my love Your note

came in just here. I cannot be happier

away from you .

’Tis richer than an

Argosy of Pearles . Do not threat me

even in jest. I have been astonished

that Men could die Martyrs for rel igion—I have shudder

’

d at it . I shudder

no more—I could be martyr’

d for my

Religion—Love is my rel igion—I could

die for that. I could die for you. My

C reed is Love and you are its on ly tenet .You have ravish’

d me away by a Power

I cannot resist ; and yet I could resist

t ill I saw you ; and even since I have

seen you I have endeavoured often “ to

reason against the reasons of my Love.”

LETTER VII I . 3 7

I can do that no more the pain would

be too great. My love 15 selfish. I

cannot breathe without you .

Yours for ever

JOHN KEATS.

LE TTER IX.

Great Smith Street,

Tuesday Morn .

[Postmark College Street, 19 October,

My sweet Fanny,

On awakening from my threedays dream (

“ I cry to dream again”

)I find one and another astonish

’

d at

my idleness and thoughtlessness . I was

miserable last n ight—the morn ing isalways restorative . I must be busy,or try to be so. I have several things

to speak to you of tomorrow morning.

Mrs . D ilke I should think wil l tel l you

that I purpose l iving at Hampstead . I

must impose chains upon myself. I

shal l be able to do nothing.

'

I should

like to cast the die for Love ordeath .

https://www.forgottenbooks.com/join

X TO XXXI I .

WENTWORTI—I PLACE .

https://www.forgottenbooks.com/join

44 LETTER x.

Perhaps your Mother is not at home

and so you must wait ti l l she comes .

You must see me tonight and let me

hear you promise to come tomorrow.

Brown told me you were al l out. I

have been looking for the stage the

whole afternoon . Had I known this

I could not have remain ’d so s ilent

al l day.

LETTER X I. 45

My dearest Girl,

If illness makes such an agree

able variety in the manner of your eyes

I should wish you sometimes to be il l .

I wish I had read your note before

you went last night that I might have

assured you how far I was from sus

pecting any coldness. You had a j ust

right to be a l ittle si lent to one who

speaks so plainly to you . You must

bel ieve—you shall, you will—that I cando nothing

,say nothing, think nothing

of you but what has its spring in the

Love which has so long been my plea

sure and torment. On the night I wastaken il l—when so violent a rush Of

blood came to my Lungs that I felt

nearly suffocated—I assure you I felt

i t possible I might not survive,and at

46 LETTER XL

that moment thought Of nothing but

you. When I said to Brown “ this is

unfortunate I thought Of you .

’T i s

true that since the fi rst two or three

days other subjects have entered myhead .

2 I shal l be looking forward to

Health and the Spring and a regular

routine of our Old Walks .

Your affectionate

I t maybe that considerat ion forhis correspondentinduced this moderat ion of speech : presumably thescene here referred to is that so graphical ly given inLord Houghton ’s

“Li/2 (Vol. I I, pp . 5 3 where

we read, not that b e merely fel t it possible ”he

“ might not survive, ” but that he said to his friend,I know the colour of that blood, —it is arterialblood—I cannot b e deceived in that colour ; thatdrop is my death-warrant . I must die.

7 This sentence indicates the lapse of perhapsabout a week from the 3rd of February, 1 820.

https://www.forgottenbooks.com/join

48 LETTER x11 .

you has been the fear Of you being a

l ittle incl ined to the Cressid but that

suspicion I dismiss utterly and remain

happy in the surety of your Love,

which I assure you is as much a wonder

to me as a del ight. Send me the words

Good night to put under my pillow.

Dearest Fanny,

Your affectionate

LETTER X I I I . 49

X I I I .

My dearest Girl,

According to all appearances

I am to be separated from you as much

as possible. How I shal l be able to

bear it, or whether i t wil l not be worse

than your presence now and then,I

cannot tell. I must be patient, and in

the mean time you must think of i t as

l ittle as possible . Let me not longer

detain you from going to Town—there

may be no end to this imprisoning Of

you . Perhaps you had better not come

before tomorrow evening send me how

ever without fail a good night .

You know our situation what

hope is there if I should be recovered

ever so soon—my very health will not

suffer me to make any great exertion .

I am recommended not even to read

E

50 LETTER X I I I.

poetry,much less write i t. I wish I had

even a l ittle hope. I cannot sayme—but I would mention that thereare impossibil ities in the world . NO

more of this. I am not strong enough

to be weaned—take no notice of it in

your good night.

Happen what may I shal l ever be my

dearest LoveYour affectionate

https://www.forgottenbooks.com/join

5 2 LETTER X IV.

take l ittle excurs ions beyond the doors

and windows . I take i t for a good

sign,but as it must not be encouraged

you had better delay seeing me t il l to

morrow. Do not take the trouble of

writing much : merely send me mygood night .

Remember me to your Mother and

Margaret.

Your affectionate

LETTER XV. 5 3

My dearest Fanny,

Then all we have to do is tobe patient . Whatever V iolence I may

sometimes do myself by hinting at

what would appear to any one but our

selves a matter Of necess ity, I do not

think I could bear any approach of a

thought of losmg you. I slept wel l last

n ight,but cannot say that I improve

very fast . I shal l expect you tomorrow,

for i t i s certainly better that I should

see you seldom . Let me have yourgood night.

Your affectionate

54 LETTER XVI .

My dearest Fanny,

I read your note in bed last

n ight,and that might be the reason Of

my sleeping so much better. I think

Mr Brown 1 i s right in supposing you

may stop too long with me, so very

nervous as I am . Send me every even

ing a written Good night. If you come

for a few minutes about six i t may be

the best time. Should you ever fancy

me too low-spirited I must warn you to

ascribe it to the medicine I am at

present taking which is Of a nerveshaking nature . I shall impute any

depressiohJ

I may experience to th is

This coupling of Brown ’s name with ideas of

Fanny ’s absence or presence seems to b e a curiouslyfaint indication of a painful phase of feeling morefully developed in the sequel . See Letters XXI,XXIV, XXVI, XXXV, and XXXVI I .

https://www.forgottenbooks.com/join

56 LETTER XVI I .

XVI I .

My dear Fanny,

DO not let your mother suppose

that you hurt me by writing at n ight.

For some reason or other your last

n ight’s note was not so treasureab le as

former ones . I would fain that you

cal l me Love st ill . To see you happy

and in high spirits is a great consola

tion to me—sti l l let me bel ieve that

you are not half so happy as my

restoration would make you . I am

nervous,I own ,

and may think myself

worse than I really am if so you must

i ndulge me, and pamper with that sort

Of tenderness you have manifested to

wards me in di fferent Letters . My

LETTER XVI I . 57

sweet creature when I look back upon

the pains and torments I have suffer’

d

for you from the day I left you to go

to the Isle of Wight ; the ecstasies in

which I have pass’

d some days and the

miseries in their turn, I wonder the

more at the Beauty which has kept up

the spel l so fervently. When I send

this round I shal l be in the front par

lour watching to see you show yourself

for a minute in the garden . How i l l

ness stands as a barrier betwixt me

and you"Even if I was well I

must make myself as good a Phi lo

sopher as possible. Now I have hadI

\

Opportunities of passing n ights anx ious

and awake I have found other thoughts

intrude upon me. “ If I should die,”

said I to myself,

“ I have left no im

mortal work behind me—nothing to

make my friends proud of my memory—but I have lOV

’

d the principle of

beauty in al l things,and if I had had

time I would have made myself remem

ber’d . Thoughts l ike these came very

58 LETTER XVI I.

feebly whilst I was in health and every

pulse beat for you—now you divide

with this (may I say i t ?)“ l ast infir

mity Of noble minds ” al l my reflect ion .

God bless you,Love .

J. KEATs

https://www.forgottenbooks.com/join

6 0 LETTER XVI I I .

shall see me by your s ide from which

nothing shall separate me . I f well you

are the only medicine that can keep me

so. Perhaps,aye surely

,I am writing

in too depress’

d a state of mind—askyour Mother to come and see me—she

will bring you a better account than

mine.

Ever your affectionate

JOHN KEATS .

LETTER XIX . 6 I

XIX .

My dearest Girl,

Indeed I wil l not deceive you

with respect to my Health . This is

the fact as far as I know. I have

been confined three weeks 1 and am

not yet wel l—this proves that thereis something wrong about me which

my const itution wil l either conquer or

give way to .

‘ Let us hope for the best .

DO you hear the Thrush singing over

the field ? I think it i s a sign of mild

weather—so much the better for me.

L ike al l S inners now I am il l I phi lo

sophiz e, aye out of my attachment to

every thing,Trees

,flowers

,Thrushes,

Spring,Summer, C laret, &c . &c .

—aye

If we are to take these words l iterally, this letterbri ngs us to the 2 4th Of February, 1 82 0, adopting the3rd of February as the day on which Keats brokea blood-vessel .

6 2 LETTER XIX.

every thing but you .—My s ister would

be glad of my company a l ittle longer.

That Thrush is a fine fel low. I hope

he was fortunate in his choice this

year. DO not send any more of my

Books home. I have a great pleasure

in the thought of you looking on

them .

Ever yours

my sweet Fanny

J. K.

https://www.forgottenbooks.com/join

6 4 LETTER XXL

My dear Fanny,

I think you had better not

make any long stay with me when

Mr. Brown is at home . Whenever he

goes out you may bring your work .

You wil l have a pleasant walk today.

I shal l see you pass . I Shal l follow

you with my eyes over the Heath .

Will you come towards even ing in

stead Of before d inner ? When you

are gone,

’tis past—if you do not come

ti l l the evening I have something to

look forward to al l day. Cpme round

to my window for a moment when you

have read this Thank your Mother,

for the preserves,for me. The rasp

berry will be too sweet not having any

acid ; therefore as you are SO good a

girl I shal l make you a present of it.

Good bye

My sweet Love

J. KEATS

LETTER XXI I . 6 5

XXI I .

My dearest Fanny,

The power of your benediction

is of not SO weak a nature as to pass

from the ring in four and twenty hours

it i s l ike a sacred Chal ice once con

secrated and ever consecrate. I shal l

k iss your name and mine where your

L ips have been L ips"why Should a

poor prisoner as I am talk about such

things ? Thank God, though I hold

them the dearest pleasures in the

universe,I have a consolation indepen

dent of them in the certainty of your

affection . I could write a song in the

style of Tom Moore’s Pathetic about

Memory if that would be any rel ief to

me. NO—’twould not. I will be as

obstinate as 21 Robin,I will not sing in

F

6 6 LETTER XXI I .

a cage. Health is my expected heaven

and you are the Houri this word I

bel ieve is both singular and plural—ifonly plural

,never mind—you are a

thousand of them .

Ever yours affectionately

my dearest,

You had betternot come to day.

https://www.forgottenbooks.com/join

6 8 LETTER XXIV.

XXIV.

Sweetest Fanny,

You fear, sometimes, I do not

love you so much as you wish ? My

dear Girl I love you ever and ever and

without reserve . The more I have

known the more have I lOV’

d. In every

way—even my jealousies have beenagonies of Love

,in the hottest fit I ever

had I would have d ied for you. I have

vex’

d you too much . But for Love"Can I help it ? You are always new .

The last Of your kisses was ever the

sweetest the last smi le the brightest ;the last movement the gracefullest.

When you pass’

d my window home

yesterday,I was fill’d with as much

admiration as if I had then seen you

LETTER XXIV. 6 9

for the first t ime. You uttered a half

complaint once that I only lov’

d your

beauty. Have I nothing else then to

love in you but that ? Do not I see a

heart naturally furnish’

d with wings

imprison itself with me ? No i l l

prospect has been able to turn your

thoughts a moment from me . This

perhaps should be as much a subjec t

Of sorrow as j oy—but I will not talk Of

that Even if you did not love me Icould not help an entire devotion to

you : how much more deeply then must

I feel for you knowing you love me .

My Mind has been the most dis

contented and restless one that ever

was put into a body too smal l for i t. I

never felt my Mind repose upon any

thing with complete and undistracted

enjoyment—upon no person but you.

When you are in the room my thoughts

never fly out Of window : you always

concentrate my whole senses . The

anx iety shown about ourLoves in yourlast note i s an immense pleasure to me

7o LETTER XXIV.

however you must not suffer such

speculations to molest you any more :

nor wil l I any more bel ieve you can

have the least pique against me . Brown

is gone out—but here is Mrs. Wylie

when she is gone I shal l be awake for

you .—Remembrances to your Mother.

Your affectionate

J . KEATS .

George Keats’s Mother-in-law. The significantbut indicates that the absence of Brown was st ill ,as was natural, more or less a condition Of the presence of Miss Brawne. That Keats had, however,or thought he had, some reason for th is condit ion,beyond the mere del icacy of lovers, is dimly shadowedby the cold My dear Fanny with which in Let terXXI the condition was first expressly prescribed, andmore than shadowed by the agonized expression of amorbid sensibili ty in Letters XXXV and XXXVI I .Probably a man in sound health would have foundthe cause t ri vial enough .

https://www.forgottenbooks.com/join

72 LETTER XXV.

D.

1 with you today ? You appeared

very much fatigued last night : you

must look a l ittle brighter this

morning. I shal l not suffer my little

girl ever to be obscured l ike glass

b reath’

d upon, but always bright as i t

is her nature to. Feeding upon sham

victuals and sitt ing by the fire will

completely annul me . I have no need

of an enchanted wax figure to duplicate

me,for I am melting in my proper

person before the fire . If you meet

with anything better (worse) than

common in your Magazines let me

see i t.

Good bye my sweetest Girl .

J. K.

I presume the reference is to Mr. Dilke.

LETTER XXVI . 73

XXVI .

My dearest Fanny,whenever you

know me to be alone, come, no matter

what day. Why will you go out this

weather ? I Shal l not fatigue myself

with writing too much I promise you .

Brown says I am getting stouter. 1 I

1 This statement and a general simi larity of toneinduce the bel ief that this let ter and the precedingone were written about the same t ime as one to Mr.Di lke, given by Lord Houghton ( in the Lg

'

fe, Letters,dye , Vol. II, p . as bearing the postmark , Hampstead, March 4, 1 82 0 . In that letter Keats cites hisfriend Brown as having said that he had “ pickedup a l i ttle flesh, ”and he refers to his “ being underan interdict with respect to animal food, l iving uponpseudo-victual s

,—just as in Letter XXV he speaks

to Miss Brawne of his “ feeding upon Sham victuals.

” In the letter to D ilke he says : “ If I can

keep off inflammation for the next six weeks, I t rustI shall do very wel l . ” In Letter XXV he expressesto Miss Brawne the hope that he may go out fora

walk with her on the I st of May. If these correspondences may b e t rusted, we are now deal ing withletters of the first week in March

,of which period

there are still indications in Letter XXVII I .

74 LETTER XXVI .

rest wel l and from last night do not

remember any thing horrid in my

dream,which is a capital symptom

,

for any organic derangement always

occasions a Phantasmagoria I t wil l

be a nice id le amusement to hunt after

a motto for my Book which I wil l have

i f lucky enough to hit upon a fit one

not intending to write a preface. I

fear I am too late with my noteh you

are gone Out—you wil l be as cold as atopsai l in a north latitude—I adviseyou to furl yourself and come in adoors .

Good bye Love.

https://www.forgottenbooks.com/join

76 LETTER XXVI I .

years before me and I will not d ie

without being rememb er’

d. Take care

Of yourself cl ear that we may both bewell in the Summer. I do not at al l

fatigue myself with writing,having

merely to put a l ine or two here and

there,a Task which would worry a

stout state of the body and mind,but

which j ust suits me as I can do no

more .

Your affectionate

J. K.

LETTER XXVIII. 77

XXVI I I .

My dearest Fanny,

I had a better night last n ight

than I have had since my attack,and

this morning I am the same as when

you saw me. I have been turning over

two volumes of Letters written between

Rousseau and two Ladies in the per

plexed strain Of mingled finesse and

sentiment in which the Ladies and

gentlemen of those days were so clever,and which is stil l prevalent among

Ladies of this Country who l ive in a

state Of reasoning romance. The l ike

ness however only extends to the

mannerism,not to the dexterity. What

would Rousseau have said at seeing our

l ittle correspondence What would his

Ladies have said " I don ’ t care much

78 LETTER XXVI I I .

—I would sooner have Shakspeare’

s

Opinion about the matter. The com

mon gossiping of washerwomen must

be less d isgusting than the continual

and eternal fence and attack Of Rous

seau and these subl ime Petticoats .

One calls herself C lara and her friendJul ia

,two of Rosseau

’

s heroines—they

all [sic, but qy. at] the same time

christen poor Jean Jacques S t. Preux

who is the pure cavalier Of his famous

novel . Thank God I am born in Eng

land with our own great Men before

my eyes . Thank God that you are

fair and can love me without being

Letter-written and sentimentaliz’

d into

it.—Mr. Barry Cornwall has sent me

another Book,his fi rst

,with a pol ite

note.1 I must do what I can to make

The reference to Barry Cornwall and the coldweather indicate that this letter was wri tten aboutthe 4th ofMarch, 1820 ; for in the letter toMr. D ilke,with the Hampstead postmark of that date, al readyreferred to (see page Keats recounts this sameaffair of the books evidently as a quite recent trans

https://www.forgottenbooks.com/join

80 LETTER XXIX .

XXIX.

My dearest Fanny,

Though I shal l see you in so

short a time I cannot forbear send ing

you a few lines. You say I did not

give you yesterday a minute account of

my health. Today I have left Off the

Medicine which I took to keep the

pulse down and I find I can do very

wel l without it,which is a very favour

able sign,as it shows there is no

inflammation remain ing. You think I

may be wearied at night you say : i t is

my best time ; I am at my best about

eight O ’

Clock . I received a Note from

Mr. Procter’l today. He says he can

not pay me a visi t this weather as he is

fearful Of an inflammation in the Chest .

Misspel t Proctor in the origi nal .

LETTER XXIX . 8 I

What a horrid cl imate this is or what

careless inhabitants i t has ? You are

one Of them . My dear girl do not

make a joke of i t : do not expose your

self to the cold . There’s the Thrush

again—I can ’ t afford it—he ’ l l run me

up a pretty Bil l for Music—l b esides heought to know I deal at C lementi

’

s .

How can you bear so long an imprison

ment at Hampstead ? I shal l always

remember i t with all the gusto that a

monopol iz ing carle should . I could

build an A ltar to you for it.

Your affectionate

J. K .

82 LETTER XXX .

XXX .

My dearest Girl,

As,from the last part Of my

note you must see how gratified I have

been by your remaining at home, you

might perhaps conceive that I was

equal ly b ias’d the other way by your

going to Town,I cannot be easy to

night without tel ling you you would be

wrong to suppose so . Though I am

pleased with the one,I am not d is

pleased with the other. How do I

dare to write in th is manner about my

pleasures and displeasures ? I wil l

tho ’ whilst I am an inval id,i n Spite of

you. Good night,Love"

https://www.forgottenbooks.com/join

84 LETTER XXX I .

one’s ex i t l ike a frog in a frost . I had

nothing part icular to say today, but

not intending that there shal l be any

interruption to our correspondence

(which at some future time I propose

Offering to Murray) I wri te something.

God bless you my sweet Love " I llness is a long lane

,but I see you

at the end of i t, and shal l mend my

pace as wel l as possible .

LETTER XXXI I. 85

XXXI I .

Dear Girl,

Yesterday you must have thoughtme worse than I really was. I assure

you there was nothing but regret at

being obl iged to forego an embrace

which has so many times been the

highest gust of my L ife . I would not

care for health without it. Sam would

not come in I wanted merely to

ask him how you were this morning.

When one is not quite well we turn for

rel ief to those we love : this is no weak

ness Of spirit in me you know when in

health I thought Of nothing but you ;when I shal l again be so i t will be the

same. Brown has been mentioning to

me that some hint from Sam, last night,

86 LETTER XXXI I .

occasions him some uneasiness. He

whispered something to you concern ing

Brown and Old Mr. D i lke 1 which had

the complex ion of being something

derogatory to the former. I t was

connected with an anxiety about Mr.

D . Sr’s death and an anx iety to set out

for Chichester. These sort Of hints

point out thei r own solution one

cannot pretend to a del icate ignorance

on the subject : you understand the

whole matter. I f any one,my sweet

Love,has misrepresented

,to you, to

your Mother or Sam,any circum

stances which are at al l l ikely,at a

tenth remove,to create suspicions

among people who from their own

interested notions S lander others, pray

I t is of no real consequence what had beensaid about “

old Mr. D ilke, ” the grandfather of thefi rst baronet and the father of Keats’s acquaintance ;but it is to b e noted that this curious let ter m ighthave been a l ittle more sel f-explanatory, had i t notbeen muti lated . The lower hal f of the second leafhas been cut Off,—by whom, the owners can onlyconjecture.

https://www.forgottenbooks.com/join

XXXI I I TO XXXVI I .

KENT ISH TOWN

PREPARI NG FOR I TALY.

https://www.forgottenbooks.com/join

92 LETTER XXX IV.

XXXIV.

Tuesday Afternoon.

My dearest Fanny,

For this Week past I have been

employed in marking the most beautiful

passages in Spenser, intending i t for

you, and comfort ing myself in being

somehow occupied to give you however

small a pleasure. I t has l ightened myt ime very much . I am much better.

God bless you.

Your affectionate

J. KEATS .

LETTER XXXV. 93

XXXV.

Wednesday Morning.

My dearest Fanny,

I have been a walk this morn ing

with a book in my hand,but as usual I

have been occupied with nothing but

you : I wish I could say in an agreeable

manner . I am tormented day and

night. They talk of my going to Italy.

’Ti s certain I shal l never recover if I am

to be so long separate from you yet with

al l this devotion to you I cannot per

suade myself into any confidence of

you . Past experience connected with

the fact of my long separation from

you gives me agonies which are scarcely

to be talked of. When your mother

comes I Shall be very sudden and

94 LETTER XXXV.

expert in asking her whether you have

been to Mrs . D i lke’s,for she might say

no to make me easy. I am l iterally

worn to death,which seems my only

recourse. I cannot forget what has

pass’

d. What ? nothing with a man of

the world,but to me deathful. I will

get rid of this as much as poss ible.

When you were in the habit of fl i rting

with Brown you would have left Off,

could your own heart have felt one half

Of one pang mine did . Brown is a good

sort of Man—he did not know he was

doing me to death by inches . I feel

the effect Of every one Of those hours

i n my side now ; and for that cause,though he has done me many services

,

though I know his love and friendship

forme, though at this moment I should

be without pence were it not for h is

assistance, I wil l never see or speak to

him l unti l we are both Old men,i f we

This extreme bitterness Of feel ing must havesupervened, one would think, in increased bodily

.

disease ; for the letter was clearly written after the

https://www.forgottenbooks.com/join

96 LETTER XXXV.

in me. You do not feel as I do—you

do not know what it is to love— one day

you may—your time is not come. Ask

yourself how many unhappy hours

Keats has caused you in Lonel iness .

For myself I have been a Martyr the

whole time,and for th is reason I speak

the confession is forc’d from me by the

torture. I appeal to you by the blood

of that Christ you bel ieve in : DO not

write to me if you have done anything

this month which i t would have pained

me to have seen . You may have

altered—if you have not—if you sti l l

behave in dancing rooms and other

societies as I have seen you—I do notwant to l ive—if you have done SO I

wish this com ing n ight may be my last .

I cannot l ive without you,and not only

you but e/zaste you virtuous you. The

Sun rises and sets,the day passes

,and

you follow the bent of your incl inat ion

Brawne’

s, at which he probably knew her employments wel l enough from day to day. If so, the timewould be about the first week in June, 1 8 19.

LETTER XXXV. 97

to a certain extent—you have no con

cep tion Of the quantity of miserable

feel ing that passes through me in a

day.—Be serious"Love is not a play

thing—and again do not write unless

you can do it with a crystal conscience.I would sooner die for want Of you

thanYours for ever

J. KEATS

98 LETTER XXXVI .

XXXVI .

My dearest Fanny,

My head is puzzled this morning,

and I scarce know what I shall say

though I am full of a hundred things.’

T is certain I would rather be writing to

you this morn ing, notwithstanding the

alloy of grief in such an occupation,

than enjoy any other pleasure,with

health to boot,unconnected with you.

Upon my soul I have loved you to the

extreme . I wish you could know the

Tenderness with which I continually

brood over your d ifferent aspects of

countenance,action and dress. I see

you come down in the morning : I see

you meet me at the Window—I see

every thing over again eternally that I

ever have seen . If I get on the pleasant

https://www.forgottenbooks.com/join

I00 LETTER XXXVI.

friends have behaved wel l to me in

every instance but one,and there they

have become tattlers,and inquisitors into

my conduct : spying upon a secret I

would rather d ie than share it with any

body’

s confidence . For this I cannot

wish them well,I care not to see any Of

them again . If I am the Theme,I

wil l not be the Friend Of idle Gossips .

Good gods what a Shame it is ourLoves

should be so put into the microscope

of a Coterie. Their laughs should not

affect you (I may perhaps give you

reasons some day for these laughs,for

I suspect a few people to hate me wel l

enough,f or reasons I know of , who have

pretented a great friendship for me)when in competition with one

,who if he

never should see you again would make

you the Sain t of his memory. These

Laughers,who do not l ike you, who

envy you for your Beauty, who would

have God-b less’dme from you for ever :

who were plying me with disencourage

ments with respect to you eternally.

LETTER XXXVI . IO I

People are revengful do not mind

them—do noth ing but love me—if I

knew that for certain l ife and health

wil l in such event be a heaven , and

death itself wil l be less painful . I long

to bel ieve in immortal ity. I shall never

be able to bid you an entire farewell .

I f I am destined to be happy with you

here—how short is the longest L ife . I

wish to bel ieve i n immortal ity 1—Iwishto l ive with you for ever. DO not let

my name ever pass between you and

those laughers ; i f I have no other

meri t than the great Love for you,that

were sufficient to keep me sacred and

unmentioned in such society. I f I have

been cruel and unjust I swear my love

1 He was seem ingly in a different phase Of bel ieffrom that in which the death of his brother Tomfound him . At that t ime he recorded that he and

Tom both fi rm ly bel ieved in immortality. See Life,Letters, 67 m,

Vol. I , p . 2 46 . A further indicat ionof his having shifted from the moorings Of orthodoxymay b e found in the expression in Let ter XXXV,“ I appeal to you by the blood of that Christ youbel ieve in —not

“ we bel ieve in. ”

10 2 LETTER XXXVI .

has ever been greater than my cruelty

which last [sic] but a minute whereas my

Love come what wil l shall last for eve r.

I f concession to me has hurt your Pride

God knows I have had l ittle pride in

my heart when thinking Of you . Your

name never passes my L ips—do not let

mine pass yours . Those People do not

l ike me . Aft er read ing my Letter you

even then wish to see me . I am strong

enough to walk over—but I dare not .I Shal l feel so much pain in parting with

you again . My dearest love, I am

afraid to see you I am strong, but not

strong enough to see you . Will my

arm be ever round you again,and if so

shal l I be obliged to leave you again ?

My sweet Love "I am happy whilstI bel ieve you r first Letter. Let me be

but certain that you are mine heart and

soul,and I could d ie more happily than

I could otherwise l ive . If you th ink

me cruel—if you think I have sleighted

you—do muse i t over again and see

into my heart. My love to you is true

https://www.forgottenbooks.com/join

1 04 LETTER XXXVI I.

XXXVI I .

I do not write thus till the last .

that no eyemay catch it. l

My dearest Girl,

I wish you could invent some

means to make me at all happy without

you . Every hour I am more and'

more

concentrated in you ; every thing else

tastes l ike chaff in my Mouth . I feel i t

almost impossible to go to Italy—thefact is I cannot leave you, and shall

never taste one minute ’s content unti l i t

pleases chance to let me live with you

This seems to mean that he wrote the letter tothe end, and then fi l led in the words My dearest Girl,left out lest any one coming near him should chanceto see them . These words are written more heavi lythan the beginning of the letter, and indicate a stateof pen corresponding with that shown by the wordsGod bless you at the end.

LETTER XXXVI I . 1 05

for good . But I wil l not go on at th is

rate. A person in health as you are

can have no conception of the horrors

that nerves and a‘ temper l ike mine

go through . What Island do your

friends propose retiring to ? I should

be happy to go with you there alone,but in company I should object to i t ;the backbitings and jealousies of new

colonists who have nothing else to

amuse themselves,i s unbearable . Mr.

D i lke : came to see me yesterday, and

gave me a very great deal more pain

than pleasure. I shal l never ,b e able

any more to endure the society of any

of those who used to meet at . E lm

Cottage and Wentworth Place. The

las t two years taste l ike brass upon my

Palate . If I cannot l ive with you I

wi l l l ive alone. I do not 1 think my

health wi l l improve much while I am

separated from you . For all this I am

averse to seeing you—I cannot bearflashes of l ight and return into my

'

gloom again . I am not so'

unhappy

Io6 LETTER XXXVI I .

now as I should be if I had seen youyesterday. TO be happy with you

seems such an impossibil i ty"i t requiresa luckier S tar than mine i t wi l l never

be. I enclose a passage from one Of

your letters which I want you to alter a

l ittle—I want (if you wil l have it so)the matter express

’

d less coldly to me .

my health would bear it,I cou ld

write a Poem which I have in my head,

which would be a consolation for people

in such a situation as mine . I would

show some one i n Love as I am,with a

person l iving in such L iberty as you do.

Shakespeare always sums up matters in

the most sovereign manner. Hamlet’s

heart was ful l of such Misery as mine is

when he said to Ophel ia “ GO to a

Nunnery,go

,go" Indeed I should l ike

to give up the matter at once—I shouldl ike to d ie . I am sickened at the brute

world which you are sm il ing with . I

hate men,and women more . I see

nothing but thorns for the future

wherever I may be nex t winter, in Italy

https://www.forgottenbooks.com/join

A DD I T I O NA L

LET T ERS.

https://www.forgottenbooks.com/join

I I 2 ADDITIONAL LETTERS.

feel the languor I have felt after you

touched with ardency . You say you

perhaps might have made me better :

you would then have made me worse

now you could qu ite effect a cure

What fee my sweet Physician would I

not give you to do so. DO not cal l i t

folly,when I tel l you I took your letter

last n ight to bed with me. I n the

morning I found your name on the

seal ing wax obl iterated . I was startled

at the bad omen ti l l I recol lected that

i t must have happened in my dreams,

and they you know fal l out by con

traries . You must have found out by

this time I am a l ittl e given to bode i l l

l ike the raven i t is my misfortune not

my fault ; i t has proceeded from the

general tenor of the circumstances of

my life,and rendered every event

suspic ious . However I wil l n o more

trouble either you or mysel f with sad

prophecies ; though so far I am pleased

at i t as i t has given me opportun ity to

love your d is interestedness towards me.

ADDITIONAL LETTERS. I I 3

I can be a raven no more ; you and

pleasure take possession of me at the

same moment. I am afraid you have

been unwell . If through me i llness

have touched you (but i t must be with

a very gentle hand) I must be selfish

enough to feel a l ittle glad at it. Wil l

you forgive me this ? I have been

reading lately an oriental tale Of a very

beautiful color 1 I t is of a city of melan

choly men, al l made so by this circum

stance. Through a series of adventures

each one of them by turns reach some

gardens of Parad ise where they meet

1 The story in question is one of the many derivatives from the Thi rd Calender ’s Story in 77lc TItousana'and One Nzg/zts and the somewhat sim ilar tale O f“ TheMan who laughed not

,

” included in the Notesto Lane’s Araoz

'

an Nzg/zts and i n the tex t of Payne’smagnificent version of the complete work . I am

i ndebted to D r. Reinhold Kohler, Librarian of the

Grand-ducal Library of Weimar, for ident ifying thepart icular variant referred to by Keats as the H istoirede la Corbei l le,” i n the Nouveaux Contes Orz'entauxOf the Comte de Caylus . Mr. Morris ’s beautiful poemTheMan who never laughed again,” in TlzeEart/zly

Paradise, has fam i l iarized to English readers one

variant Of the legend .

I I 4 ADDIT IONAL LETTERS.

with a most enchanting Lady ; and just

as they are going to embrace her,she

bids them shut their eyes— they shut

them—and on open ing their eyes again

find themselves descend ing to the earth

in a magic basket. The remembrance of

this Lady and their del ights lost beyond

all recovery render them melancholy

ever after. How I appl ied this to you,

my dear ; how I palpitated at it how

the certainty that you were in the same

world with myself,and though as beauti

ful,not so tal ismanic as that Lady how

I could not bear you should be so you

must bel ieve because I swear i t by

yourself. I cannot say when I shal l

get a volume ready. I have three or

four stories half done,but as I cannot

wri te for the mere sake of the press, I

am obl iged to let them progress or l i e

sti l l as my fancy chooses . By Christ

mas perhaps they may appear,

1 but I am

1 I t wil l of course be remembered that no such collect ion appeared unt il the following summer, when theLamia volume was published .

https://www.forgottenbooks.com/join

I I6 ADDITIONAL LETTERS.

to take my candle and retire to a lonely

room,without the thought as I fal l

asleep,of seeing you tomorrow morn

ing ? or the next day, or the next—it

takes on the appearance of imposs ibi l i ty

and etern ity—Iwill say a month—Iwill

say I wi l l see you in a month at most,though no one but yourself Should see

me ; i f i t be but for an hour. I should

not l ike to be so near you as London

without being continually with you :

after having once more kissed you

Sweet I would rather be here alone at

my task than in the bustle and hateful

l i terary chitchat . Meantime you must

write to me— as I wil l every week—foryour letters keep me al ive. My sweet

Girl I cannot speak my love for you.

Good n ight"and

Ever yours

JOHN KEATS .

XXX IV 6 5s .

Tuesday Morn .

My dearest Girl,I wrote a letter 1 for you yes

terday expecting to have seen your

mother. I shal l be selfish enough to

send it though I know it may give you

a l ittle pain,because I wish you to see

how unhappy I am for love of you,

and endeavour as much as I can to

entice you to give up your whole heart

to me whose whole existence hangs upon

you . You could not step or move an

eyel id but i t would shoot to my heart

I am greedy of you . DO not think Of

anything but me. DO not l ive as i f I

was not existing. DO not forget me

1 I do not find i n the present series any let terwhich I can regard as the particular one referred toi n the Opening sentence. If Letter XXXV (p . 93 )were headed Tuesday and th is Wednesday ,

that m igh twel l b e the peccant document which appears to b emissing .

I I 8 ADDITIONAL LETTERS.

But have I any right to say you forget

me ? Perhaps you think Of me al l day.

Have I any right to wish you to be nu

happy for me ? You would forgive me

for wishing i t i f you knew the extreme

passion I have that you should love me—and for you to love me as I do you,

you must th ink Of no one but me,much

less write that sentence . Yesterday and

th is morn ing I have been haunted with

a sweet vis ion—I have seen you thewhole t ime in your shepherdess dress .

How my senses have ached at it"Howmy heart has been devoted to i t"Howmy eyes have been ful l Of tears at i t"I [n]deed I th ink a real love is enough to

occupy the widest heart Your going

to town alone when I heard of i t was a

shock to me—yet I expected it

j n'

onzz'

se me you will not for some time

tilt [ get better. Promise me th is and

fi l l the paper full of the most endearing

names . If you cannot do so with good

will , do my love tell me—say what youth ink—confess i f your heart is too much

https://www.forgottenbooks.com/join

I 2 0 ADDITIONAL LETTERS.

as other men and women do—I cannotbrook the wolfsbane of fashion and

foppery and tattle—you must be mineto d ie upon the rack if I want you . I

do not pretend to say that I have more

feel ing than my fellows,but I wish you

seriously to look over my letters k ind

and unkind and consider whether the

person who wrote them can be able to

endure much longer the agonies and

uncertainties which you are so pecul iarly

made to create. My recovery of bod ily

health wil l be Of no benefit to me if you

are not mine when I am wel l . For

God ’s sake save me—or tel l me my

passion is Of too awful a nature for you.

Again God bless you .

NO—my sweet Fanny I am wrong

I do not wish you to be unhappy—andyet I do

,I must while there i s SO sweet

a Beauty—my lovel iest, my darl ing"good bye" I kiss you—O the tor

ments"

APPE ND IX.

https://www.forgottenbooks.com/join

I 2 4 APPENDIX .

grief ordisappointment . H is conversation was in thehighes t degree interesting, and his spi rits good

,

except ing at moments when anx iety regarding hisbrother ’s heal th dejected them . H is own i l lness,that commenced in-January began from inflam

mation in the lungs,from cold. In coughing, he

ruptured a blood-vessel . An hereditary tendency toconsumption was aggravated by the excessive susceptib ility of his temperament, for I never see those oftenquoted l ines of D ryden without think ing how exactlythey appl ied to Keats

The fiery soul, that working out its way,Fretted the pig m y b ody to decay.

From the commencement of his malady he was forbidden to write a l ine of poetry, 2 and his fai lingheal th , joined to the uncertainty of his prospects,Often threw him into deep melancholy .

“ The let ter, p . 2 95 of Shel ley’ s Remains

,from Mr.

Finch , seems calculated to give a very false idea of

Keat s . That his sensibil i ty was most acute,is t rue,

and his passions were very strong, but not violent, i fby that term violence of temper i s impl ied . H is wasno doubt susceptible, but his anger seemed rather toturn on himself than on others , and in moments ofgreatest i rri tat ion, i t was only by a sort of savagedes pondency that he sometimes grieved and woundedhis friends . V iolence such as the let ter describes, wasqui te foreign to his nature. Formore than a twelvemonth before quitting England, I saw him every day,often witnessed his sufferings, both mental and bodi ly,and I do not hesi tate to say that he never could haveaddressed an unk ind express ion , much less a violent

1 See p . hii it was the 3rd of Feb ruary, 1 82 0 .

9 See LetterXIII, pp . 49—50 .

APPENDIX . I 2 5

one, to any human being. During the last fewmonths before leaving his nat ive country, his mindunderwen t a fierce conflict forwhatever in momentsOf grief ordisappointment he might say or think

,his

most ardent desire was to l ive to redeem his namefrom the Obloquy cast upon it ; 1 norwas i t t i l l he knewhis death inevitable, that he eagerly wished to die.

Mr. Finch ’ s letter goes on to say Keats m ight b ejudged insane,

’—I bel ieve the fever‘

that consumedhim,

m ight have brought on a temporary species ofdel irium that made his friend Mr. Severn ’s task a

painful one.

”

1 See LetterXVII, pp . 57—8.

THE LOCALITY OF

W EN TWO RT H PLA C E .

TIIE precise locali ty ofWentworth Place, Hampstead ,has been a matter of uncertainty and dispute and Ifound even the children of the lady to whom the foregoing letters were addressed wi thout any exact knowledge on the subject. The houses which went to makeup Wentworth Place were those inhabited respectivelyby the D ilke fami ly , the Brawne fami ly, and CharlesArmi tage Brown but these were not three houses asmight b e supposed

,the fact being that Mrs . Brawne

rented fi rst Brown ’s house during his absence withKeats in the summer of ISIS, and then D ilke’s whenthe lat ter removed to Westminster.At page 98 of the late Mr. Howitt

’

sNorthernHezlgr/zts

y London ,1 it is said of Keats

From this time t il l 1 82 0, when he left—in the las tstage of consumption—for Italy, he resided principallyat Hampstead. During most of this t ime, he l ivedwith his very dear friendMr. Charles Brown , a Russiamerchant , at \Ventworth Place, Downshire H ill , by

1 Tile Nari/tern Hez'

g/zts of London or Historica l Assoez’

a

tions of Ha m / stead ,Hn/zga te, Muswell Hill, Hor nsey ,

and

Idmg ton . By IVillr’

am Hewitt , aut/zorq/ Visits to Re m ark .

able P1aces.’

(London Longmans, Green, Co .

https://www.forgottenbooks.com/join

I 2 8 APPENDIX .

any knowledge or recol lec tion of a Wentworth Place .

Possibly Keats’s friend, Mr . Brown, l ived at Wentworth I lonse, and that the three cottages standingin a l ine with i t and facing South-End Road, butat a l it tle distance from the road in a garden ,might then bear the name of Wentworth Place. The

end cottage would then,as stated in the l ines of Keats,

b e nex t door to Mr. Brown ’ s . These cottages sti l lhave apartments to let , and in all other respects accordwith the assigned local ity .

”

Mr. Howit t seems to have meant that WentworthHouse will: the cottages may possibly have home the

name of Wentworth Place ; and he should have saidthat the house was on the rig/it hand in descendingJohn Street . But the fact of the case i s correctl ystated in Mr. Thorne’s Handbook to tire Environs ofLondon ,

1 Part I,page 2 9 1 , where a bolder and more

expl icit local izat ion is given“ The House in which he [Keats] lodged for thegreater part of the time, then cal led Wentworth Place,i s now cal led Lawn Bank , and is the end house butone on the rt. side of John St reet, nex t WentworthHouse.

”

Mr. Thorne adduces no authority for the statementand i t must b e assumed that i t i s based on some of

the private communicat ions which ° he acknowledgesgeneral ly in his preface . He may possibly have beenbiassed by the plane-tree which Mr. Howitt

,at page

1 Handbook to tire Environs of London , A lf /zabeticallyArranged, con taining an accoun t of every town and village,

and of all tire p laces of in terest, wit/tin a circle of t wen ty

m iles round London . By j a m es l orne, P.S .A . In Two

Parts. (London : John Murray, Albe m arle Street .

APPENDIX . I 2 9

1 0 1 OfNort/zern Hezgnts, substitutes forthe traditionalplum-t ree in quot ing Lord Houghton ’ s account of thecomposi t ion of the Ode to a Nzgntz

'

ngale. Certainlythere is a fine old plane-tree in front of the house at

Lawn Bank ; and there is a local t radit ion of a

nightingale and a poet connected with that tree butth is dim tradi t ion may b e merely a m isty repeti tion ,from mouth to mouth

,of Mr . Howitt’s ex tract from

Lord Houghton ’ s volumes . Priuza’

faeie, a plane-treemight seem to b e a very much more l ikely shel terthan a plum -t ree for Keats to have chosen to placehis chair beneath ; and yet one would th ink that, hadMr. Howitt purposely substi tuted the plane-tree forthe plum-tree, i t would have been because he found It

by the house which he supposed to b e Brown ’s . Thishowever is not the case ; and i t should also b e

mentioned that at the western end of Lawn Bank ,among some sh rubs &C. ,

there is an old and dilapi

dated plum- tree which grows so as to form a k ind ofleafy roof.Eleven years ago, when I attempted to ident ifyWentworth Place beyond a doubt by local and otherenqu iries, the gardener at Wentworth House assuredme very pos i t ively that, some fi fteen or twenty yearsbefore, when Lawn Bank (then cal led Lawn Cottage)was i n bad repai r, and the rain had washed nearly allthe colour off the front, he u sed to read the words“ Wentworth Place, ” painted i n large letters besidethe top window at the ex treme left of the old part ofthe house as one faces i t ; and I have s ince had the

pleasure of reading the words there myself ; for thecolour got washed thi n enough again some t ime afterwards. After a great deal Of enquiry among Olderinhabitants of Hampstead than this gardener, I found

K

1 3 0 APPENDIX.

a musician , born there i n 1 80 1 , and resident thereever since, a most intel l igent and clear-headed man ,

who had been in the hab it of playing at various housesi n Hampstead from the year 1 8 1 2 onwards . Whenasked, simply and wi thout any

“ leading ” remark ,what he could tel l about a group of houses formerlyknown as Wentworth Place

,he replied without hesi

tation that Lawn Bank,when he was a youth ,

certainly bore that name,that i t was two houses, with

entrances at the sides , in one of which he played as

early as 1 824, and that subsequently the two houseswere converted into one

,at very great expense, to

form a residence for Miss Chester,

1 who cal led theplace Lawn Cottage. This informant did not rememher the names of the persons occupying the two

houses . A surgeon of repute, among the oldest inhabitants of Hampstead, told me, as an absolutecertainty, that he was there as early as 1 82 7, knew the

Brawne fam i ly, and attended them professional ly at

Wentworth Plaflce, in the house forming the westernhalf of Lawn Bank . Of Charles Brown, however,this gentleman had no knowledge.

Not perfectly sat isfied with the local evidence, Ifor warded to Mr . Severn a sketch-plan of the imme

diate local i ty , in order that he m ight identify thehouses in which he vis ited Keats and Brown and the

Brawne fami ly : he replied that i t was in Lawn Bankthat Brown and Mrs. Brawne had thei r respectiveres idences ; and he also ment ioned side entrances ;but Sir Charles D ilke says his grandfather’s house

1 She first appeared upon the London boards in 1 82 2 , and

afterwards became Private Reader to George IV.

https://www.forgottenbooks.com/join

I 3 2 APPENDIX .

Brawne does not appear ; but , as she rented the housein Wentworth P lace ofMr. D i lke, i t may perhaps beassumed that i t was he who paid the rates.I t wil l perhaps b e thought that the steps of the

enquiry in this mat ter are somewhat “ prol ixly set

forth and the only plea in mi tigat ion to b e offeredis that, without ev idence, those who real ly care to

know the facts of the case cou ld hardly be satisfied.

THE END.