80 In Woodhouse's copy of 'Endymion' (see Preface) there is a note against the passage "go I will begin" &c., line 39, Book I, to the effect that the poem was begun in the spring of 1817 and finished in the winter of 1817-18; and in the title-page he has inserted April before 1818. The statement corresponds with Keats's own record of May 1817 (see Letters) that he was busying himself at Margate with the commencement of 'Endymion'. This reference cannot of course be to the same 'Endymion' ("I stood tip-toe upon a little hill") that he expected to finish in one more attack when he wrote to Clarke in December 1816. Probably the conception referred to by Lord Houghton (Aldine edition, page xvii) as "long germinating in his fancy" really took bodily form and substance, and that substance was wholly rejected, when Keats came within the radius of Haydon's heroic art propaganda, for the design on an ambitious scale which the next Spring was to see in print. Woodhouse records that at the end of the first draft is written "Burford Bridge, Nov. 28, 1817". His statement as to the month of issue scarcely does more than confirm the record of the series of documents bearing on this point published by Lord Houghton. Thus, the first book was in the "ublisher's hands by January 1818, and the last was copied out by the 14th f March; the original Preface, rejected upon the unfavourable verdict of Reynolds and others of Keats's friends, is dated the 19th of March; the Preface as published is dated the 10th of April, and went, it seems, in a letter to Reynolds of that date. The title-page originally devised was as follows: ENDYMION. A ROMANCE. BY JOHN KEATS. "The stretched metre of an antique song. Shakspeare's Sonnets. In favour of the simple dedication as printed in the book, the following had been rejected : INSCRIBED, WITH EVERY FEELING OF PRIDE AND REGRET TO THE MEMORY OF THE MOST ENGLISH OF POETS EXCEPT SHAKSPEARE, THOMAS CHATTERTON. The original preface referred to above reads as follows: ORIGINAL PREFACE REJECTED ON CONSIDERATION. a great nation, the work of an individual is of so little importance; his eadings and excuses are so uninteresting; his " 'way of life" such a othing, that a Preface seems a sort of impertinent bow to strangers who r nothing about it. E 66 A Preface, however, should be down in so many words; and such a one that by an eye-glance over the type the Reader may catch an idea of an Author's modesty, and non-opinion of himself-which I sincerely hope may be seen in the few lines I have to write, notwithstanding many proverbs of many ages old which men find a great pleasure in receiving as gospel. About a twelvemonth since, I published a little book of verses; it was read by some dozen of my friends who lik'd it; and some dozen whom I was unacquainted with, who did not. Now, when a dozen human beings are at words with another dozen, it becomes a matter of anxiety to side with one's friends-more especially when excited thereto by a great love of Poetry. I fought under disadvantages. Before I began I had no inward feel of being able to finish; and as I proceeded my steps were all uncertain. So this Poem must rather be considered as an endeavour than a thing accomplished; a poor prologue to what, if I live, I humbly hope to do. In duty to the Public I should have kept it back for a year or two, knowing it to be so faulty: but I really cannot do so, by repetition my favourite passages sound vapid in my ears, and I would rather redeem myself with a new Poem should this one be found of any interest. I have to apologize to the lovers of simplicity for touching the spell of loneliness that hung about Endymion; if any of my lines plead for me with such people I shall be proud. It has been too much the fashion of late to consider men bigoted and addicted to every word that may chance to escape their lips; now I here declare that I have not any particular affection for any particular phrase, word, or letter in the whole affair. I have written to please myself, and in hopes to please others, and for a love of fame; if I neither please myself, nor others, nor get fame, of what consequence is Phraseology? I would fain escape the bickerings that all Works not exactly in chime bring upon their begetters-but this is not fair to expect, there must be conversation of some sort and to object shows a man's consequence. In case of a London drizzle or a Scotch mist, the following quotation from Marston may perhaps 'stead me as an umbrella for an hour or so: "let it be the curtesy of my peruser rather to pity my self-hindering labours than të malice me. One word more for we cannot help seeing our own affairs in every point of view-should any one call my dedication to Chatterton affected I answer as followeth: "Were I dead, sir, I should like a Book dedicated to me. TEIGNMOUTH, March 19th, 1818. On the 27th of April Keats wrote to Taylor apologizing for giving him "all th trouble" of 'Endymion', and adding, apparently in allusion to that poem, "Tr book pleased me much. It is very free from faults; and, although there are on or two words I should wish replaced, I see in many places an improvement greatly to the purpose". The measure of Keats's fluency in composition may be judged by observing the alterations recorded in Book I in the following pages. Of that Book there appears to have been but one manuscript, written on sheets of quart foolscap paper, and considerably altered before going to press. The other thre Books were written into a blank book and afterwards copied on quarto foolsca uniform with that used for Book I. Hence the printer's copy (the quarto many script) shows much more revision in Book I than elsewhere. The quarto manuscr remained in the Taylor family till 1897, when it was sold at auction by Mess Sotheby, Wilkinson and Hodge and was bought by a bookseller. With tha manuscript I collated the printed text throughout before issuing the Librar 67 edition, the precious holograph being courteously lent to me by Mr. Taylor; but the variations given in Books II, II, and IV from the draft, I took from Woodhouse's manuscript annotations, not having seen the holograph draft of these three books. The manuscript of the rejected Preface (first published by Lord Houghton in 1867 in the 'Life and Letters of John Keats') was formerly in the collection of Dr. John Webster, sometime M.P. for Aberdeen. It was attached to the rejected title-page and dedication, the whole consisting of six quarto leaves evidently detached from the Taylor manuscript, which, if I remember rightly, did not begin in Keats's autograph, but had at least one leaf in another hand. The rejected Preface, when I saw it in 1890, showed some cancellings; but I have mislaid any notes I may have taken of them; and, since I saw it, it has been sold by auction. The original edition of 'Endymion' is a handsome octavo volume, originally issued in thick drab boards labelled at the back, Keats's Endymion. Lond. 1818, and consisting of (1) fly-title 'Endymion: A Romance' with imprint at foot of verso, Printed by T. Miller, Noble street, Cheapside", (2) title-page (with its motto adapted from Shakespeare's seventeenth Sonnet), worded thus ENDYMION: A Poetic Romance. BY JOHN KEATS. "THE STRETCHED METRE of an antique song.' LONDON: PRINTED FOR TAYLOR AND HESSEY, 1818. (3) the following dedication INSCRIBED TO THE MEMORY OF THOMAS CHATTERTON. (4) the Preface (pages vii to ix), (5) an erratum leaf with sometimes one and sometimes five errata printed on the recto, and (6) 207 pages of text including 68 the fly-titles to the four books. The head-line throughout is 'Endymion' in Roman small capitals, the number of the Book being indicated in smaller letters at the inner corners, and the pages in Arabic figures as usual at the outer corners. The full page consists of 22 lines; and the lines are numbered in tens in the margin; not every ten lines of verse, but every ten lines of print, so that when a fresh paragraph begins with a portion of a verse, that particular verse counts for two lines. In numbering the lines in fives I have of course counted by lines of verse. The influence of Keats upon Thomas Hood's serious poetry is so important a fact in the history of English literature that the following sonnet comes fitly into this note : SONNET, WRITTEN IN KEATS'S "ENDYMION," BY THOMAS HOOD. I saw pale Dian, sitting by the brink Tears, that perchance still glisten in the morn :- There came a flash of garments, and I knew Hood's early poems are but the commencement of a long series of works of true literary art on which the impress of Keats's genius has passed. H. B. F. |