Letters of John Keats to His Family and Friends
Ever your affectionate Brother
JOHN.
XCV.--TO FANNY KEATS.
[_Postmark_, Hampstead, March 24, 1819.]
My dear Fanny--It is impossible for me to call on you to-day--for I have
particular Business at the other end of the Town this morning, and must be
back to Hampstead with all speed to keep a long agreed on appointment.
To-morrow I shall see you.
Your affectionate Brother
JOHN ----.
XCVI.--TO JOSEPH SEVERN.
Wentworth Place, Monday Aft. [March 29? 1819].
My dear Severn--Your note gave me some pain, not on my own account, but on
yours. Of course I should never suffer any petty vanity of mine to hinder
you in any wise; and therefore I should say "put the miniature in the
exhibition" if only myself was to be hurt. But, will it not hurt you? What
good can it do to any future picture. Even a large picture is lost in that
canting place--what a drop of water in the ocean is a Miniature. Those who
might chance to see it for the most part if they had ever heard of either
of us and know what we were and of what years would laugh at the puff of
the one and the vanity of the other. I am however in these matters a very
bad judge--and would advise you to act in a way that appears to yourself
the best for your interest. As your "Hermia and Helena" is finished send
that without the prologue of a Miniature. I shall see you soon, if you do
not pay me a visit sooner--there's a Bull for you.
Yours ever sincerely
JOHN KEATS.
XCVII.--TO FANNY KEATS.
Wentworth Place [April 13, 1819].
My dear Fanny--I have been expecting a Letter from you about what the
Parson said to your answers. I have thought also of writing to you often,
and I am sorry to confess that my neglect of it has been but a small
instance of my idleness of late--which has been growing upon me, so that
it will require a great shake to get rid of it. I have written nothing and
almost read nothing--but I must turn over a new leaf. One most
discouraging thing hinders me--we have no news yet from George--so that I
cannot with any confidence continue the Letter I have been preparing for
him. Many are in the same state with us and many have heard from the
Settlement. They must be well however: and we must consider this silence
as good news. I ordered some bulbous roots for you at the Gardener's, and
they sent me some, but they were all in bud--and could not be sent--so I
put them in our Garden. There are some beautiful heaths now in bloom in
Pots--either heaths or some seasonable plants I will send you
instead--perhaps some that are not yet in bloom that you may see them come
out. To-morrow night I am going to a rout, a thing I am not at all in love
with. Mr. Dilke and his Family have left Hampstead--I shall dine with them
to-day in Westminster where I think I told you they were going to reside
for the sake of sending their son Charles to the Westminster School. I
think I mentioned the Death of Mr. Haslam's Father. Yesterday week the two
Mr. Wylies dined with me. I hope you have good store of double violets--I
think they are the Princesses of flowers, and in a shower of rain, almost
as fine as barley sugar drops are to a schoolboy's tongue. I suppose this
fine weather the lambs' tails give a frisk or two extraordinary--when a
boy would cry huzza and a Girl O my! a little Lamb frisks its tail. I have
not been lately through Leicester Square--the first time I do I will
remember your Seals. I have thought it best to live in Town this Summer,
chiefly for the sake of books, which cannot be had with any comfort in the
Country--besides my Scotch journey gave me a dose of the Picturesque with
which I ought to be contented for some time. Westminster is the place I
have pitched upon--the City or any place very confined would soon turn me
pale and thin--which is to be avoided. You must make up your mind to get
stout this summer--indeed I have an idea we shall both be corpulent old
folks with triple chins and stumpy thumbs.
Your affectionate Brother
JOHN.
XCVIII.--TO BENJAMIN ROBERT HAYDON.
Tuesday [April 13, 1819].
My dear Haydon--When I offered you assistance I thought I had it in my
hand; I thought I had nothing to do but to do. The difficulties I met with
arose from the alertness and suspicion of Abbey: and especially from the
affairs being still in a Lawyer's hand--who has been draining our Property
for the last six years of every charge he could make. I cannot do two
things at once, and thus this affair has stopped my pursuits in every
way--from the first prospect I had of difficulty. I assure you I have
harassed myself ten times more than if I alone had been concerned in so
much gain or loss. I have also ever told you the exact particulars as well
as and as literally as any hopes or fear could translate them: for it was
only by parcels that I found all those petty obstacles which for my own
sake should not exist a moment--and yet why not--for from my own
imprudence and neglect all my accounts are entirely in my Guardian's
Power. This has taught me a Lesson. Hereafter I will be more correct. I
find myself possessed of much less than I thought for and now if I had all
on the table all I could do would be to take from it a moderate two years'
subsistence and lend you the rest; but I cannot say how soon I could
become possessed of it. This would be no sacrifice nor any matter worth
thinking of--much less than parting as I have more than once done with
little sums which might have gradually formed a library to my taste. These
sums amount together to nearly L200, which I have but a chance of ever
being repaid or paid at a very distant period. I am humble enough to put
this in writing from the sense I have of your struggling situation and the
great desire that you should do me the justice to credit me the
unostentatious and willing state of my nerves on all such occasions. It
has not been my fault. I am doubly hurt at the slightly reproachful tone
of your note and at the occasion of it,--for it must be some other
disappointment; you seem'd so sure of some important help when I last saw
you--now you have maimed me again; I was whole, I had began reading
again--when your note came I was engaged in a Book. I dread as much as a
Plague the idle fever of two months more without any fruit. I will walk
over the first fine day: then see what aspect your affairs have taken, and
if they should continue gloomy walk into the City to Abbey and get his
consent for I am persuaded that to me alone he will not concede a jot.
XCIX.--TO FANNY KEATS.
Wentworth Place, Saturday.
[April 17, 1819?]
My dear Fanny--If it were but six o'Clock in the morning I would set off
to see you to-day: if I should do so now I could not stop long enough for
a how d'ye do--it is so long a walk through Hornsey and Tottenham--and as
for Stage Coaching it besides that it is very expensive it is like going
into the Boxes by way of the pit. I cannot go out on Sunday--but if on
Monday it should promise as fair as to-day I will put on a pair of loose
easy palatable boots and me rendre chez vous. I continue increasing my
letter to George to send it by one of Birkbeck's sons who is going out
soon--so if you will let me have a few more lines, they will be in time. I
am glad you got on so well with Mons{r.} le Cure. Is he a nice
clergyman?--a great deal depends upon a cock'd hat and powder--not
gunpowder, lord love us, but lady-meal, violet-smooth, dainty-scented,
lilly-white, feather-soft, wigsby-dressing, coat-collar-spoiling,
whisker-reaching, pig-tail-loving, swans-down-puffing, parson-sweetening
powder. I shall call in passing at the Tottenham nursery and see if I can
find some seasonable plants for you. That is the nearest place--or by our
la'kin or lady kin, that is by the virgin Mary's kindred, is there not a
twig-manufacturer in Walthamstow? Mr. and Mrs. Dilke are coming to dine
with us to-day. They will enjoy the country after Westminster. O there is
nothing like fine weather, and health, and Books, and a fine country, and
a contented Mind, and diligent habit of reading and thinking, and an
amulet against the ennui--and, please heaven, a little claret wine cool
out of a cellar a mile deep--with a few or a good many ratafia cakes--a
rocky basin to bathe in, a strawberry bed to say your prayers to Flora in,
a pad nag to go you ten miles or so; two or three sensible people to chat
with; two or three spiteful folks to spar with; two or three odd fishes to
laugh at and two or three numskulls to argue with--instead of using dumb
bells on a rainy day--
Two or three Posies
With two or three simples--
Two or three Noses
With two or three pimples--
Two or three wise men
And two or three ninny's--
Two or three purses
And two or three guineas--
Two or three raps
At two or three doors--
Two or three naps
Of two or three hours--
Two or three Cats
And two or three mice--
Two or three sprats
At a very great price--
Two or three sandies
And two or three tabbies--
Two or three dandies
And two Mrs.---- mum
Two or three Smiles
And two or three frowns--
Two or three Miles
To two or three towns--
Two or three pegs
For two or three bonnets--
Two or three dove eggs
To hatch into sonnets--
Good-bye I've an appointment--can't
stop pon word--good-bye--now
don't get up--open the door my-
self--good-bye--see ye Monday.
J. K.
C.--TO FANNY KEATS.
[Hampstead, May 13, 1819.]
My dear Fanny--I have a Letter from George at last--and it contains,
considering all things, good news--I have been with it to-day to Mrs.
Wylie's, with whom I have left it. I shall have it again as soon as
possible and then I will walk over and read it to you. They are quite well
and settled tolerably in comfort after a great deal of fatigue and harass.
They had the good chance to meet at Louisville with a Schoolfellow of
ours. You may expect me within three days. I am writing to-night several
notes concerning this to many of my friends. Good-night! God bless you.
JOHN KEATS.
CI.--TO FANNY KEATS.
[Hampstead, May 26, 1819.]
My dear Fanny--I have been looking for a fine day to pass at Walthamstow:
there has not been one Morning (except Sunday and then I was obliged to
stay at home) that I could depend upon. I have I am sorry to say had an
accident with the Letter--I sent it to Haslam and he returned it torn into
a thousand pieces. So I shall be obliged to tell you all I can remember
from Memory. You would have heard from me before this but that I was in
continual expectation of a fine Morning--I want also to speak to you
concerning myself. Mind I do not purpose to quit England, as George has
done; but I am afraid I shall be forced to take a voyage or two. However
we will not think of that for some Months. Should it be a fine morning
to-morrow you will see me.
Your affectionate Brother
JOHN ----.
CII.--TO FANNY KEATS.
Wentworth Place [June 9, 1819].
My dear Fanny--I shall be with you next Monday at the farthest. I could
not keep my promise of seeing you again in a week because I am in so
unsettled a state of mind about what I am to do--I have given up the Idea
of the Indiaman; I cannot resolve to give up my favorite studies: so I
purpose to retire into the Country and set my Mind at work once more. A
Friend of Mine who has an ill state of health called on me yesterday and
proposed to spend a little time with him at the back of the Isle of Wight
where he said we might live very cheaply. I agreed to his proposal. I have
taken a great dislike to Town--I never go there--some one is always
calling on me and as we have spare beds they often stop a couple of days.
I have written lately to some acquaintances in Devonshire concerning a