1. TO CHARLES COWDEN CLARKE

2. TO THE SAME

[London,] Tuesday [December 17, 1816]. MY DEAR CHARLES - You may now look at Minerva's Egis with impunity, seeing that my awful Visage 2 did not turn you into a John Doree. You have accordingly a legitimate title to a Copy - I will use my interest to procure it for you. I'll tell you what I met Reynolds at Haydon's a few mornings since - he promised to be with me this Evening and Yesterday I had the same promise from Severn and I must put you in mind that on last All hallowmas' day you gave me your word that you would spend this Evening with me putting off. I have done little to Endymion lately 2 I hope to finish it in one more attack. I believe you I went to Richards's it was so whoreson a Night that I stopped there all the next day. His Remembrances to you. (Ext. from the common place Book of my Mind - Mem.

-so no

Wednesday Hampstead call in Warner Street -a sketch of Mr. Hunt.) -I will ever consider you my sincere and affectionate friend will not doubt you that I am yours.

God bless you

JOHN KEATS.

3. TO JOHN HAMILTON REYNOLDS

[London,] Sunday Evening [March 2, 1817?].

MY DEAR REYNOLDS - Your kindness 3 affects me so sensibly that I can merely put down a few mono-sentences. Your Criticism only makes me extremely anxious that I should not deceive you.

It's the finest thing by God as Hazlitt would say. However I hope I may not deceive you. There are some acquaintances of mine who will scratch their Beards and although I have, I hope, some Charity, I wish their Nails may be long. I will be ready at the time you mention in all Happiness.

There is a report that a young Lady of 16 has written the new Tragedy, God bless her I will know her by Hook or by Crook in less than a week. My Brothers' and my Remembrances to your kind Sisters.

Yours most sincerely

JOHN KEATS.

4. TO THE SAME
[London, March 17, 1817.]

My dear ReyNOLDS — My Brothers are anxious that I should go by myself into the country they have always been extremely fond of me, and now that Haydon has pointed out how necessary it is that I should be alone to improve myself, they give up the temporary pleasure of living with me continually for a great good which I hope will follow. So I shall soon be out of Town. You must soon bring all your present troubles to a close, and so must I, but we must, like the Fox, prepare for a fresh swarm of flies. Banish money - Banish

--

enquired for the Boat to the Isle of Wight as I intend seeing that place before I settle it will go at 3, so shall I after having taken a Chop. I know nothing of this place but that it is long-tolerably broad has bye streets - two or three Churches a very respectable old Gate with two Lions to guard it. The Men and Women do not materially differ from those I have been in the Habit of seeing. I forgot to say that from dawn till half-past six I went through a most delightful Country open Down but for the most part thickly wooded. What surprised me most was an immense quantity of blooming Furze on each side the road cutting a most rural The Southampton water when I

-

- then a little Wood with trees look you like Launce's Sister 'as white as a Lily and as small as a Wand'- then came houses which died away into a few straggling Barns then came hedge trees aforesaid again. As the Lamplight crept along the following things were discovered long heath broom furze' Hurdles here and there half a Mile - Park palings when the Windows of a House were always discovered by reflection One Nymph of Fountain N. B. Stonelopped Trees Cow ruminating - ditto Donkey Man and Woman going gingerly along-William seeing his Sisters over the Heath-John waiting with a Lanthorn for his Mistress - Barber's Pole - Doctor's Shop - However after having had my fill of these I popped my Head out just as it began to Dawn - N. B. this Tuesday Morn saw the Sun rise of which I shall say nothing at present. I felt rather lonely this Morning at Breakfast so I went and unbox'd a Shakspeare 'There 's my Comfort.' I went immediately after Breakfast to Southampton Water where I

- some

saw it just now was no better than a low water Water which did no more than answer my expectations it will have mended its Manners by 3. From the Wharf are seen the shores on each side stretching to the Isle of Wight. You, Haydon, Reynolds, etc. have been pushing each other out of my Brain by turns. I have conned over every Head in Haydon's Picture you must warn them not to be afraid should my Ghost visit them on Wednesday - tell Haydon to Kiss his Hand at Betty over the Way for me yea and to spy at her for me. I hope one of you will be competent to take part in a Trio while I am away you need only aggravate your voices a little and mind not to speak Cues and all when you have said Rum-ti-ti you must not be rum any more or else another will take up the ti-ti alone and then he might be taken God shield us for little better than a Titmouse. By the by talking of Titmouse Remember me particularly to all my Friends-give my Love to the Miss Reynoldses and to Fanny who I hope you will soon see. Write to me soon about them all and you George particularly how you get on with Wilkinson's plan. What could I have done without my Plaid? I don't feel inclined to write any more at present for I feel rather muzzy you must be con

--

Your most affectionate Brother

JOHN KEATS.

Reynolds shall hear from me soon.

-

6. TO JOHN HAMILTON REYNOLDS Carisbrooke, April 17th [1817]. MY DEAR REYNOLDS Ever since I wrote to my Brothers from Southampton I have been in a taking and at this moment I am about to become settled · for I have unpacked my books, put them into a snug corner, pinned up Haydon, Mary Queen of Scots, and Milton with his daughters in a row. In the passage I found a head of Shakspeare which I had not before seen. It is most likely the same that George spoke so well of, for I like it extremely. Well this head I have hung over my Books, just above the three in a row, having first discarded a French Ambassador now this alone is a good morning's work. Yesterday I went to Shanklin, which occasioned a great debate in my mind whether I should live there or at Carisbrooke. Shanklin is a most beautiful place Sloping wood and meadow ground reach round the Chine, which is a cleft between the Cliffs of the depth of nearly 300 feet at least. This cleft is filled with trees and bushes in the narrow part, and as it widens becomes bare, if it were not for primroses on one side, which spread to the very verge of the Sea, and some fishermen's huts on the other, perched midway in the Balustrades of beautiful green Hedges along their steps down to the sands. But the sea, Jack, the sea the little waterfall - then the white cliff-then St. Catherine's Hill-'the sheep in the meadows, the cows in the corn.' Then, why are you at Carisbrooke? say you. Because, in the first place, I should be at twice the Expense, and three times the inconvenience that from here I can see your continent

- next

Angle of the Isle of Wight, with the water between us. In the 3rd place, I see Carisbrooke Castle from my window, and have found several delightful wood-alleys, and copses, and quick freshes. As for primroses the Island ought to be called Primrose Island that is, if the nation of Cowslips agree thereto, of which there are divers Clans just beginning to lift up their heads. Another reason of my fixing is, that I am more in reach of the places around me. I intend to walk over the Island east West North South. I have not

seen many specimens of Ruins - I don't think however I shall ever see one to surCarisbrooke Castle. The trench is pass overgrown with the smoothest turf, and the Walls with ivy. The Keep within side is one Bower of ivy-a colony of Jackdaws have been there for many years. I dare say I have seen many a descendant of some old cawer who peeped through the Bars at Charles the first, when he was there in Confinement. On the road from Cowes to Newport I saw some extensive Barracks, which disgusted me extremely with the Government for placing such a Nest of Debauchery in so beautiful a place. I asked a man on the Coach about this- and he said that the people had been spoiled. In the room where I slept at Newport, I found this on the Window-'O Isle spoilt by the milatary! . . .'

The wind is in a sulky fit, and I feel that it would be no bad thing to be the favourite of some Fairy, who would give one the power of seeing how our Friends got on at a Distance. I should like, of all Loves, a sketch of you and Tom and George in ink which Haydon will do if you tell him how I want them. From want of regular rest I have been rather narvus - and the passage in Lear- 'Do you not hear the sea?' has haunted me intensely.

[Here follows the sonnet On the Sea,' p. 37.]

April 18th.

Will you have the goodness to do this? Borrow a Botanical Dictionary-turn to the words Laurel and Prunus, show the explanations to your sisters and Mrs. Dilke and without more ado let them send me the Cups Basket and Books they trifled and put off and off while I was in town. Ask them what they can say for themselves ask Mrs. Dilke wherefore she does so distress me let me know how Jane has her health-the Weather is unfavourable for her. Tell George and Tom to write. I'll tell you what- — on the 23d was Shakspeare born. Now if I should receive a letter from you and another from my Brothers on that day 't would be a parlous good thing. Whenever you write say a word or two on some Passage in Shakspeare that may have come Srather new to you, which must be continually happening, notwithstanding that we read the same Play forty times-for instance, the following from the Tempest never struck me so forcibly as at present, "Urchins

Shall, for the vast of night that they may work, All exercise on thee

How can I help bringing to your mind the line

In the dark backward and abysm of time — I find I cannot exist without Poetry — without eternal Poetry-half the day will not do the whole of it - I began with a little, but habit has made me a Leviathan. I had become all in a Tremble from not having written anything of late the Sonnet overleaf did me good. I slept the better last night for it - this Morning, however, I am nearly as bad again. Just now I opened Spenser, and the first Lines I saw were these

'The noble heart that harbours virtuous thought,

And is with child of glorious great intent, Can never rest until it forth have brought Th' eternal brood of glory excellent — ' Let me know particularly about Haydon, ask him to write to me about Hunt, if it be

only ten lines-1 hope all is well- I shall forthwith begin my Endymion, which I hope I shall have got some way with by the time you come, when we will read our verses in a delightful place I have set my heart upon, near the Castle. Give my Love to your Sisters severally—to George and Tom. Remember me to Rice, Mr. and· Mrs. Dilke and all we know.

Your sincere Friend JOHN KEATS. Direct J. Keats, Mrs. Cook's, New Village, Carisbrooke.

7. TO LEIGH HUNT

Margate, May 10, 1817.

MY DEAR HUNT- The little gentleman that sometimes lurks in a gossip's bowl, ought to have come in the very likeness of a roasted crab, and choaked me outright for not answering your letter ere this: however, you must not suppose that I was in town to receive it: no, it followed me to the Isle of Wight, and I got it just as I was going to pack up for Margate, for reasons which you anon shall hear. On arriving at this treeless affair, I wrote to my brother George to request C. C. C. to do the thing you wot of respecting Rimini; and George tells me he has undertaken it with great pleasure; so I hope there has been an understanding between you for many proofs: C. C. C. is well acquainted with Bensley. Now why did you not send the key of your cupboard, which, I know, was full of papers? We would have locked them all in a trunk, together with those you told me to destroy, which indeed I did not do, for fear of demolishing receipts, there not being a more unpleasant thing in the world (saving a thousand and one others) than to pay a bill twice. Mind you, old Wood 's a ‘very varmint,' shrouded in covetousness: - and now I am upon a horrid subject — what a horrid one you were upon last Sunday, and well you handled it. The last Examiner was a battering-ram against Christianity, blasphemy, Tertullian, Erasmus, Sir Philip

Sidney; and then the dreadful Petzelians and their expiation by blood; and do Christians shudder at the same thing in a newspaper which they attribute to their God in its most aggravated form? What is to be the end of this? I must mention Hazlitt's Southey. O that he had left out the grey hairs; or that they had been in any other paper not concluding with such a thunderclap! That sentence about making a page of the feeling of a whole life, appears to me like a whale's back in the sea of prose. I ought to have said a word on Shakspeare's Christianity. There are two which I have not looked over with you, touching the thing: the one for, the other against: that in favour is in Measure for Measure, Act II. Scene ii. —

Isab. Alas, alas!

Why, all the souls that were, were forfeit once; And He that might the 'vantage best have took, Found out the remedy.

That against is in Twelfth Night, Act III. Scene ii.

Maria. For there is no Christian that means to be saved by believing rightly, can ever believe such impossible passages of grossness.

Before I come to the Nymphs, I must get through all disagreeables. I went to the Isle of Wight, thought so much about poetry, so long together, that I could not get to sleep at night; and, moreover, I know not how it was, I could not get wholesome food. By this means, in a week or so, I became not over capable in my upper stories, and set off pell-mell for Margate, at least a hundred and fifty miles, because, forsooth, I fancied that I should like my old lodging here, and could contrive to do without trees. Another thing, I was too much in solitude, and consequently was obliged to be in continual burning of thought, as an only resource. However, Tom is with me at present, and we are very comfortable. We intend, though, to get among some trees. How have you got on among them? How are the Nymphs? I suppose they have led

-

you a fine dance. Where are you now? in Judea, Cappadocia, or the parts of Libya about Cyrene? Stranger from 'Heaven, Hues, and Prototypes,' I wager you have given several new turns to the old saying, 'Now the maid was fair and pleasant to look on,' as well as made a little variation in Once upon a time.' Perhaps, too, you have rather varied, 'Here endeth the first lesson.' Thus I hope you have made a horseshoe business of 'unsuperfluous life,' 'faint bowers,' and fibrous roots. I vow that I have been down in the mouth lately at this work. These last two days, however, I have felt more confident - I have asked myself so often why I should be a poet more than other men, seeing how great a thing it is, how great things are to be gained by it, what a thing to be in the mouth of Fame, that at last the idea has grown so monstrously beyond my seeming power of attainment, that the other day I nearly consented with myself to drop into a Phaethon. Yet 't is a disgrace to fail, even in a huge attempt; and at this moment I drive the thought from me. I began my poem about a fortnight since, and have done some every day, except travelling ones. Perhaps I may have done a good deal for the time, but it appears such a pin's point to me, that I will not copy any out. When I consider that so many of these pin-points go to form a bodkin-point (God send I end not my life with a bare bodkin, in its modern sense!), and that it requires a thousand bodkins to make a spear bright enough to throw any light to posterity, I see nothing but continual uphill journeying. Now is there anything more unpleasant (it may come among the thousand and one) than to be so journeying and to miss the goal at last? But I intend to whistle all these cogitations into the sea, where I hope they will breed storms violent enough to block up all exit from Russia. Does Shelley go on telling strange stories of the deaths of kings? Tell him, there are strange stories of the deaths of poets.