drawn. Mechanical considerations render it impossible to introduce the new letters and passages in their respective chronological positions; but no difficulty will be found in connecting the compositions with the help of the indications given for that purpose in the ensuing pages. The following letter, which bears no post-mark, and was therefore probably sent by hand to Reynolds, appears to belong to the beginning of the year 1817, and may be placed between No. IV and No. V in the present volume : My dear Reynolds Sunday Evening Your kindness 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 Brother's and my Remembrances to your kind sisters. yours most sincerely John Keats From the letter which Keats wrote to Reynolds when staying at Carisbrooke a passage has hitherto been omitted, at the commencement of the newly dated portion. Between · April 18th [1817]” and “ I'll tell you what," at page 54 of this volume, insert : Will you have the goodness to do this? Borrow a Botanical Dictionary-turn to the words Laurel and Prunes, show the explanations to your sisters and Mrs. Dilk[e] 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. Dilk[e] 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. The next new letter reads very much like the opening of the Oxford campaign. It is addressed to Miss Reynolds at Little Hampton, but is indicted to both Jane and Mariane Reynolds. Perhaps it will be safe to read it between No. XI (page 69) and No. XII (page 70) of the present volume; and No. XII has, it seems, been shorn of its first paragraph, which I now give at the close of this new letter for insertion before the words "Believe me". My dear Friends, Oxf-[ord, 5 Sept. 1817.] You are I am glad to hear comfortable at Hampton, where I hope you will receive the Biscuits we ate the other night at Little Britain. I hope you found them good. There you are among Sands, stones, Pebbles, Beeches, Cliffs, Rocks, Deeps, Shallows, weeds, Ships Boats (at a distance) Carrots, Turnips, sun, moon, and stars and all those sort of things-here am I among Colleges, halls, Stalls, Plenty of Trees, thank GodPlenty of water, thank heaven-Plenty of Books, thank the Muses-Plenty of Snuff, thank Sir Walter RaleighPlenty of segars,-Ditto-Plenty of Flat country, thank Tellus's rolling pin-I'm on the sofa-Buonaparte is on the snuff-box-But you are by the sea side-argal, you bathe-you bathe you walk-you say "how beautiful"-find out resemblances between waves and camels-rocks and dancing masters-fireshovels and telescopes-Dolphins and Madonas-which word, by the way, I must acquaint you was derived from the Syriac, and came down in a way which neither of you I am sorry to say are at all capable of comprehending—but as a time may come when by your occasional converse with me you may arrive at "something like prophetic Strain," I will unbar the gates of my pride and let my condescension stalk forth like a Ghost at the Circus-The word Ma-don-a, my dear Ladies-or-the word Mad-o-na-so I say! I am not mad.-Howsumever when that aged Tamer Kewthon sold a certain camel called Peter to the overseer of the Babel Sky works, he thus spake, adjusting his cravat round the tip of his chin-" My dear Tenstory-up-in-air! this here Beast, though I say it as shouldn't say't, not only has the power of subsisting 40 days and 40 nights without fire and candle but he can sing-Here I have in my Pocket a Certificate from Signor Nicolini of the King's Theatre; a Certificate to this effect.. I have had dinner since I left that effect upon you, and feel too heavy in mentibus to display all the Profundity of the Polyglon-so you had better each of you take a glass of cherry Brandy, and drink to the health of Archimedes, who was of so benign a disposition that he never would leave Syracuse in his life-So kept himself out of all Knight Errantry—This I know to be a fact; for it is written in the 45th book of Winkine's treatise on garden-rollers, that he trod on a fishwoman's toe in Liverpool, and never begged her pardon. Now the long and short is this-that is by But comparison-for a long day may be a short year-a long Pole may be a very stupid fellow as a man. let us refresh ourself from this depth of thinking, and turn to some innocent jocularity-the Bow cannot always be bent nor the gun always loaded, if you ever let it off -and the life of man is like a great Mountain-his breath is like a Shrewsbury cake-he comes into the world like a shoeblack, and goes out of it like a cob[b]ler-he eats like a chimney sweeper, drinks like a Gingerbread baker -and breathes like Achilles-so it being that we are such sublunary creatures, let us endeavour to correct all our bad spelling-all our most delightful abominations, and let us wish health to Marian and Jane, whoever they be and wherever your's truly John Keats. My dear Jane Oxford, Sunday Evening You are such a literal translator, that I shall some day amuse myself with looking over some foreign sentences, and imagining how you would render them into English. This is an age for typical curiosities; and I would advise you, as a good speculation, to study Hebrew, and astonish the world with a figurative version in our native tongue. The mountains skipping like rams, and the little hills like lambs, you will leave as far behind as the hare did the tortoise. It must be so or you would never have thought that I really meant you would like to pro and con about those honeycombs-no, I had no such idea; or, if I had, 'twould be only to teaze you a little for love. So now let us put down in black and white briefly my sentiments thereon. Imprimis I sincerely believe that Imogen is the finest creature, and that I should have been disappointed at hearing you prefer Juliet-Item-yet I feel such a yearning towards Juliet that I would rather follow her into Pandemonium than Imogen into Paradise-heartily wishing myself a Romeo to be worthy of her, and to hear the Devils quote the old proverb "Birds of a feather flock together." Amen.-Now let us turn to the sea-shore. It may be mentioned that Woodhouse particularizes the date of this letter No. XII by the evidence of the post-mark, namely the 15th of September 1817. The letter to Reynolds numbered XIII belongs to the 21st of September 1817; and the passage represented by the asterisks at the top of page 75 reads thus :-" I think I see you and Hunt meeting in the Pit.-What a very pleasant fellow he is, if he would give up the sovereignty of a room pro bono -What evenings we might pass with him, could we have him from Mrs. H-Failings" &c. The two blanks immediately afterwards should be filled up with the word "He". Letter No. XVI to Bailey (pages 82 and 83 of the present volume) was given from Lord Houghton's version. As it consists, in that form, merely of some transposed and manipulated extracts, it is best to print it here in its integrity : My dear Bailey, Hampstead, Oct' Wednesday. After a tolerable journey I went from coach to Coach as far as Hampstead where I found my Brothersthe next Morning finding myself tolerably well I went to Lambs Conduit Street and delivered your parcel-Jane and Marianne were greatly improved, Marianne especially, she has no unhealthy plumpness in the face-but she comes me healthy and angular to the chin.-I did not see |