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ber me to Wentworth Place and Elm Cottage-not forgetting Millamant

Your's if possible

J. Keats

This is abominable! I did but go up stairs to put on a clean & starched handkerchief, & that overweening rogue read my letter & scrawled over one of my sheets, and given him a counterpain, I wish I could blank-it all over and beat him Sk

with a certain rod, & have a fresh one bolstered up, Ah! he (k bel

may dress me as he likes but he shan't tickle me pilƒlow the feathers,-I would not give a tester for such puns, let us ope brown (erratum-a large B-a Bumble B.) will go no further in the Bedroom & not call Mat Snook a relation to MattrassThis is grown to a conclusion-I had excellent puns in my head but one bad one from Brown has quite upset me but I am quite set-up for more, but I'm content to be conqueror. Your's in love. Cha". Brown.

N.B. I beg leaf [sic] to withdraw all my Puns-they are all wash, an base uns.

XCVII.

To FANNY KEATS.

Wentworth Place

Feby. [1819] Thursday

My dear Fanny,

Your Letter to me at Bedhampton hurt me very much,— What objection can there be to your receiving a Letter from me? At Bedhampton I was unwell and did not go out of the Garden Gate but twice or thrice during the fortnight I was there-Since I came back I have been taking care of myself-I have been obliged to do so, and am now in hopes that by this care I shall get rid of a sore throat which has haunted me at intervals nearly a twelvemonth. I had always a presentiment of not being able to succeed in persuading Mr. Abbey to let you remain longer at School-I am very sorry that he will not consent. I recommend you to keep up all that you know and to learn more by yourself however little. The time will come when you will be more pleased with Life-look forward to that time and, though it may appear a trifle be careful not to let the idle and retired Life you lead fix any awkward habit or behaviour on you-whether you sit or walk endeavour to let it be in a

XOVII. This letter bears no address beyond "Miss Keats" and no postmark.

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seemly and if possible a graceful manner. We have been very little together but you have not the less been with me in thought. You have no one in the world besides me who would sacrifice any thing for you-I feel myself the only Protector you have. In all your little troubles think of me with the thought that there is at least one person in England who if he could would help you out of them-I live in hopes of being able to make you happy.—I should not perhaps write in this manner, if it were not for the fear of not being able to see you often or long together. I am in hopes Mr. Abbey will not object any more to your receiving a letter now and then from me. How unreasonable! I want a few more lines from you for Georgethere are some young Men, acquaintances of a Schoolfellow of mine, going out to Birkbeck's at the latter end of this Month—I am in expectation every day of hearing from George—I begin to fear his last letters miscarried. I shall be in town to-morrow if you should not be in town, I shall send this little parcel by the Walthamstow Coach-I think you will like Goldsmith-Write

me soon

Your affectionate Brother

John

Mrs. Dilke has not been very well-she is gone a walk to town to-day for exercise.

XCVIII.

To FANNY KEATS.

Rd Abbey's Esqre Walthamstow.

My dear Fanny,

Wentworth Place

Saturday Morn— [Postmark, 27 February 1819.]

I intended to have not failed to do as you requested, and write you as you say once a fortnight. On looking to your letter I find there is no date; and not knowing how long it is since I received it I do not precisely know how great a sinner I am. I am getting quite well, and Mrs. Dilke is getting on pretty well. You must pay no attention to Mrs. Abbey's unfeeling and ignorant gabble. You can't stop an old woman's crying more than you can a Child's. The old woman is the greatest nuisance because she is too old for the rod. Many people live opposite a Blacksmith's till they cannot hear the hammer. I have been in Town for two or three days and came back last night. I have been a little concerned at not hearing from George-I continue in daily expectation. Keep on reading and play as much on the music and the grassplot as you

can. I should like to take possession of those Grassplots for a Month or so; and send Mrs. A. to Town to count coffee berries instead of currant Bunches, for I want you to teach me a few common dancing steps-and I would buy a Watch box to practise them in by myself. I think I had better always pay the postage of these Letters. I shall send you another book the first time I am in Town early enough to book it with one of the morning Walthamstow Coaches. You did not say a word about your Chilblains. Write me directly and let me know about them-Your Letter shall be answered like an echo.

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You must be wondering where I am and what I am about! I am mostly at Hampstead, and about nothing; being in a sort of qui bono temper, not exactly on the road to an epic poem. Nor must you think I have forgotten you. No, I have about every three days been to Abbey's and to the Law[y]ers. Do let me know how you have been getting on, and in what spirits you are.

You got out gloriously in yesterday's Examiner. What a set of little people we live amongst! I went the other day into an ironmonger's shop-without any change in my sensationsmen and tin kettles are much the same in these days-they do not study like children at five and thirty-but they talk like men of twenty. Conversation is not a search after knowledge, but an endeavour at effect.

In this respect two most opposite men, Wordsworth and Hunt, are the same. A friend of mine observed the other day that if Lord Bacon were to make any remark in a party of the present day, the conversation would stop on the sudden. I am convinced of this, and from this I have come to this resolution -never to write for the sake of writing or making a poem, but from running over with any little knowledge or experience which many years of reflection may perhaps give me ; otherwise I will be dumb. What imagination I have I shall enjoy, and greatly, for I have experienced the satisfaction of having great conceptions without the trouble of sonnetteering. I will not spoil my love of gloom by writing an Ode to Darkness!

With respect to my livelihood, I will not write for it,-for I will not run with that most vulgar of all crowds, the literary. Such things I ratify by looking upon myself, and trying myself

' at lifting mental weights, as it were. I am three and twenty, with little knowledge and middling intellect. It is true that in the height of enthusiasm I have been cheated into some fine passages; but that is not the thing.

I have not been to see you because all my going out has been to town, and that has been a great deal. Write soon. Yours constantly,

C.

To FANNY KEATS.

R! Abbey's Esqre Walthamstow.

John Keats

Wentworth Place

March 13th [1819].

My dear Fanny,

I have been employed lately in writing to George—I do not send him very short letters, but keep on day after day. There were some young Men I think I told you of who were going to the Settlement: they have changed their minds, and I am disappointed in my expectation of sending Letters by them.—I went lately to the only dance I have been to these twelve months or shall go to for twelve months again-it was to our Brother in laws' cousin's-She gave a dance for her Birthday and I went for the sake of Mrs. Wylie. I am waiting every day to hear from George-I trust there is no harm in the silence: other people are in the same expectation as we are. On looking at your seal I cannot tell whether it is done or not with a Tassie1

it seems to me to be paste. As I went through Leicester Square lately I was going to call and buy you some, but not knowing but you might have some I would not run the chance of buying duplicates. Tell me if you have any or if you would like any-and whether you would rather have motto ones like that with which I seal this letter; or heads of great Men such as Shakspeare, Milton, &c.—or fancy pieces of Art; such as Fame, Adonis &c.--those gentry you read of at the end of the English Dictionary. Tell me also if you want any particular Book; or Pencils, or drawing paper-anything but live stock. Though I will not now be very severe on it, remembering how fond I used to be of Goldfinches, Tomtits, Minnows, Mice, Ticklebacks, Dace, Cock salmons and all the whole tribe of the Bushes and the Brooks: but verily they are better in the Trees and the water—though I must confess even now a partiality for

1 Tassie's imitation gems were very popular in Keats's set. Shelley (Prose Works, Volume IV, page 198) writes to Peacock to go to Leicester Square and get him two pounds' worth, "among them, the head of Alexander "; and Hunt has a laudatory article on them in one of his publications.

a handsome Globe of gold-fish-then I would have it hold 10 pails of water and be fed continually fresh through a cool pipe with another pipe to let through the floor-well ventilated they would preserve all their beautiful silver and Crimson. Then I would put it before a handsome painted window and shade it all round with myrtles and Japonicas. I should like the window to open onto the Lake of Geneva-and there I'd sit and read all day like the picture of somebody reading. The weather now and then begins to feel like spring; and therefore I have begun my walks on the heath again. Mrs. Dilke is getting better than she has been as she has at length taken a Physician's advice. She ever and anon asks after you and always bids me remember her in my Letters to you. She is going to leave Hampstead for the sake of educating their son Charles at the Westminster school. We (Mr. Brown and I) shall leave in the beginning of May; I do not know what I shall do or where be all the next summer. Mrs. Reynolds has had a sick house; but they are all well now. You see what news I can send you I do-we all live one day like the other as well as you do-the only difference is being sick and well-with the variations of single and double knocks, and the story of a dreadful fire in the Newspapers. I mentioned Mr. Brown's name—yet I do not think I ever said a word about him to you. He is a friend of mine of two years standing, with whom I walked through Scotland: who has been very kind to me in many things when I most wanted his assistance and with whom I keep house till the first of May-you will know him some day. The name of the young Man who came with me is William Haslam. Ever,

Your affectionate Brother,

John.

CI.

To FANNY KEATS.

Rd Abbey's Esqre Pancras Lane, Queen St

My dear Fanny,

[Postmark, Hampstead, 24 March 1319.]

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

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