The complete poetical works and letters of John Keats

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The complete poetical works and letters of John Keats (1899)
by John Keats, edited by Horace Elisha Scudder

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John Keats4078839The complete poetical works and letters of John Keats1899Horace Elisha Scudder

The Cambridge Poets
General Editor, Bliss Perry

		Edited by
BROWNING		Horace E. Scudder
MRS. BROWNING		Harriet Waters Preston
BURNS		W. E. Henley
BYRON		Paul E. More
DRYDEN		George R. Noyes
ENGLISH AND SCOTTISH	$\scriptstyle {\left.{\begin{matrix}\ \\\ \end{matrix}}\right\}\,}$	Helen Child Sargent
POPULAR BALLADS		George L. Kittredge
HOLMES		Horace E. Scudder
KEATS		Horace E. Scudder
LONGFELLOW		Horace E. Scudder
LOWELL		Horace E. Scudder
MILTON		William Vaughn Moody
POPE		Henry W. Boynton
SCOTT		Horace E. Scudder
SHAKESPEARE		W. A Neilson
SHELLEY		George E. Woodberry
SPENSER		R. E. Neil Dodge
TENNYSON		William J. Rolfe
WHITTIER		Horace E. Scudder
WORDSWORTH		A. J. George
In Preparation
CHAUCER		F. N. Robinson

HOUGHTON MIFFLIN COMPANY
Boston and New York

The Cambridge Edition of the Poets

EDITED BY

HORACE E. SCUDDER

KEATS

BY THE EDITOR

John Keats

THE COMPLETE

POETICAL WORKS AND LETTERS OF

JOHN KEATS

Cambridge Edition

At Hampstead in 1849

BOSTON AND NEW YORK

HOUGHTON MIFFLIN COMPANY

The Riverside Press, Cambridge

COPYRIGHT, 1899, BY HOUGHTON, MIFFLIN AND CO.

EDITOR'S NOTE

The period of Keats's poetical production was so brief, and he leaped so quickly into the possession of his poetical powers, that almost any arrangement of his works, which was orderly, would serve. Yet since Keats has left in all but a very few cases indication of the date of composition, and since even delicate intimations of poetic growth in the case of so rare a genius are worth attention, I have endeavored to make the arrangement as nearly chronological as the evidence, chiefly obtainable from Keats's letters, will permit. The head-notes disclose all instances where I have had to fall back on conjecture. The adoption of this order has compelled me to disregard the grouping of the volumes published by Keats and the posthumous publication by editors, but for the information of students a bibliographical note, setting forth the historical order of publication, is given in the Appendix.

The text of the poems published in Keats's three volumes has been carefully collated with copies of the first editions. I am indebted to Mr. F. H. Day for the opportunity of using the volumes of 1817 and 1820, and to Col. T. W. Higginson for Endymion. In reprinting the posthumous poems I have followed sometimes Lord Houghton in the Life, Letters and Literary Remains of John Keats, London, 1848, and the same editor's Aldine edition of 1876, sometimes Mr. Sidney Colvin in his Letters of John Keats, London, 1891, where so many of the poems are taken from Keats's own copy, and sometimes the text given by Mr. H. Buxton Forman in his careful four volume edition, London, 1883. There are a good many manuscripts, and these, together with the printed verses, have a variety of readings. All variations of consequence are noted in the Appendix; it was beyond the scope of this series to give every minute alteration. For an exhaustive statement, the curious student is referred to the invaluable edition by Mr. Forman. I have not deemed it indispensable to follow scrupulously the spelling and punctuation even of the poems whose publication was supervised by Keats, but I have not wilfully departed from either in accordance with any mere change of fashion; the spelling conforms to the accepted spelling of Keats's day; the capitalization is somewhat modified; the punctuation is studied with reference to the legibility of the passage.

For the prefatory notes I have been mainly indebted to Keats's letters, and have endeavored, as far as possible, to put the reader in possession of such light as Keats himself throws on his composition. I have also, in pursuance of the plan adopted for the arrangement of the poems, indicated in each instance the date, exactly or approximately. In accordance with the general scheme of the Cambridge editions, these prefatory notes are rarely critical; they are designed to be rather historical and bibliographical. In the preparation of these notes, as also of the Notes and Illustrations in the Appendix, I must again acknowledge my great indebtedness to Mr. Forman.

In undertaking to assemble Keats's Complete Poetical Works, I have been aware that I was including some things which neither Keats nor any one else would call poetical. Yet besides the contribution which verse makes to beauty, there is also the light which it throws on the poetical mind and character. And since the volume of Keats's production is not large, and much of his posthumous poetry is rightly classed with his own acknowledged work, it seemed best to give everything, but to make the natural discrimination between the poetry in the body of the volume and that which follows in the division, Supplementary Verse. The personality of Keats is so vivid, that just as his friends in his lifetime and after his death carefully garnered every scrap which he wrote, so the friends created by his life and his poetry may be trusted to know what his imperishable verse is, and yet will handle affectionately even the toys he played with.

Although I have endeavored to draw from Keats's letters such passages as throw direct light on his poetry, there yet remains an undefined scholia in the whole body of his familiar correspondence. No attentive reader of Keats's letters will fail to find in these unstudied, spontaneous expressions of the poet's mind a lambent light playing all over the surface of his poetry, and therefore it is not a wide departure from the scheme of this series of poets to include, in the same volume with Keats's poems, a collection also of his letters. This collection is complete, though one or two brief notes will not be found here, because already printed in the headings to poems. I have been dependent for the text mainly upon Mr. Colvin, supplemented by the minute garnering of Mr. Forman. I have to thank Mr. John Gilmer Speed for his courtesy in permitting the use of letters which he derived from the papers of his grandfather, George Keats.

Cambridge, August, 1899.

TABLE OF CONTENTS
Page
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH		xv
POEMS
EARLY POEMS.
Imitation of Spenser		1
On Death		1
To Chatterton		2
To Byron		2
'Woman! when I behold thee flippant, vain'		2
To Some Ladies		3
On receiving a Curious Shell and a Copy of Verses from the Same Ladies		4
Written on the Day that Mr. Leigh Hunt left Prison		5
To Hope		5
Ode to Apollo		6
Hymn to Apollo		7
To a Young Lady who sent me a Laurel Crown		7
Sonnet: 'How many bards gild the lapses of time'		8
Sonnet: 'Keen, fitful gusts are whisp'ring here and there'		8
Spenserian Stanza, written at the Close of Canto II., Book V., of 'The Faerie Queene'		8
On leaving Some Friends at an Early Hour		9
On first looking into Chapman's Homer		9
Epistle to George Felton Mathew		9
To ——: 'Hadst thou liv'd in days of old'		11
Sonnet: 'As from the darkening gloom a silver dove'		12
Sonnet to Solitude		12
Sonnet: 'To one who has been long in city pent'		13
To a Friend who sent me Some Roses		13
Sonnet: 'Oh! how I love, on a fair summer's eve'		13
'I stood tiptoe upon a little hill'		14
Sleep and Poetry		18
Epistle to my Brother George		24
To my Brother George		26
To —— 'Had I a man's fair form, then might my sighs'		26
Specimen of an Induction to a Poem		27
Calidore: A Fragment		28
Epistle to Charles Cowden Clarke		30
To My Brothers		33
Addressed to Benjamin Robert Haydon.
I. 'Great spirits now on earth are sojourning'		33
II. 'Highmindedness, a jealousy for good'		33
To Kosciusko		34
To G. A. W.		34
Stanzas: 'In a drear-nighted December'		34
Written in Disgust of Vulgar Superstition		35
Sonnet: 'Happy is England! I could be content'		35
On the Grasshopper and Cricket		35
Sonnet: 'After dark vapours have oppress'd our plains'		36
Written on the Blank Space at the end of Chaucer's Tale of 'The Floure and the Lefe'		36
On Seeing the Elgin Marbles		36
To Haydon (with the preceding sonnet)		36
To Leigh Hunt, Esq.		37
On the Sea		37
Lines: 'Unfelt, unheard, unseen'		37
On —— 'Think not of it, sweet one, so'		38
On a Picture of Leander		38
On Leigh Hunt's Poem 'The Story of Rimini'		38
Sonnet: 'When I have fears that I may cease to be'		39
On seeing a Lock of Milton's Hair		39
On sitting down to read 'King Lear' once again		40
Lines on the Mermaid Tavern		40
Robin Hood		41
To the Nile		41
To Spenser		42
Song written on a Blank Page in Beaumont and Fletcher's Works between 'Cupid's Revenge' and 'The Two Noble Kinsmen'		42
Fragment: 'Welcome Joy and welcome Sorrow'		42
What the Thrush said		43
In Answer to a Sonnet ending thus: 'Dark eyes are dearer far Than those that mock the hyacinthine bell.'		43
To John Hamilton Reynolds		44
The Human Seasons		44
ENDYMION		45
THE POEMS OF 1818–1819.
Isabella, or the Pot of Basil		110
To Homer		119
Fragment of an Ode to Maia		119
Song: 'Hush, hush! tread softly! hush, hush, my dear!'		120
Verses written during a Tour in Scotland.
I. On Visiting the Tomb of Burns		120
II. To Ailsa Rock		121
III. Written in the Cottage where Burns was born		121
IV. At Fingal's Cave		122
V. Written upon the Top of Ben Nevis		123
Translation from a Sonnet of Ronsard		123
To a Lady seen for a Few Moments at Vauxhall		123
Fancy		124
Ode: 'Bards of Passion and of Mirth'		125
Song: 'I had a dove and the sweet dove died'		125
Ode on Melancholy		126
The Eve of St. Agnes		127
Ode on a Grecian Urn		134
Ode on Indolence		135
Sonnet: 'Why did I laugh tonight? No voice will tell'		137
Ode to Fanny		137
A Dream, after reading Dante's Episode of Paolo and Francesca		138
La Belle Dame sans Merci		139
Chorus of Fairies		140
Faery Songs:
I. Shed no tear! O shed no tear!		141
II. Ah! woe is me! poor silverwing!		141
On Fame		142
Another on Fame		142
To Sleep		142
Ode to Psyche		142
Sonnet: 'If by dull rhymes our English must be chain'd'		144
Ode to a Nightingale		144
Lamia		146
DRAMAS.
Otho the Great: a tragedy in five acts		158
King Stephen: a dramatic fragment		192
THE EVE OF ST. MARK		196
HYPERION: A FRAGMENT		198
TO AUTUMN		213
VERSES TO FANNY BRAWNE.
Sonnet: 'The day is gone and all its sweets are gone'		214
Lines to Fanny		214
To Fanny: 'I cry your mercy—pity—love—ay, love!'		215
THE CAP AND BELLS; OR, THE JEALOUSIES		216
THE LAST SONNET		232
SUPPLEMENTARY VERSE.
I. Hyperion: a Vision		233
II. Fragments:
I. 'Where's the Poet? show him! show him'		238
II. Modern Love		238
III. Fragment of 'The Castle Builder'		239
IV. Extracts from an Opera:
'O! were I one of the Olympian twelve'		239
Daisy's Song		239
Folly's Song		240
'Oh, I am frighten'd with most hateful thoughts!'		240
Song: 'The stranger lighted from his steed'		240
'Asleep! O sleep a little while, white pearl!'		240
III. Familiar Verses:
Stanzas to Miss Wylie		240
Epistle to John Hamilton Reynolds		240
A Draught of Sunshine		242
At Teignmouth		242
The Devon Maid		243
Acrostic: Georgiana Augusta Keats		243
Meg Merrilies		243
A Song about myself		244
To Thomas Keats		245
The Gadfly		245
On hearing the Bagpipe and seeing 'The Stranger' played at Inverary		246
Lines written in the Highlands after a Visit to Burns's Country		246
Mrs. Cameron and Ben Nevis		247
Sharing Eve's Apple		248
A Prophecy: to George Keats in America		249
A Little Extempore		249
Spenserian Stanzas on Charles Armitage Brown		250
'Two or three Posies'		251
A Party of Lovers		251
To George Keats: written in sickness		251
On Oxford		252
To a Cat		252
LETTERS
1. Charles Cowden Clarke		October 31, 1816255
2. The Same		December 17, 1816255
3. John Hamilton Reynolds		March 2, 1817255
4. The Same		March 17, 1817255
5. George and Thomas Keats		April 15, 1817256
6. John Hamilton Reynolds		April 17, 1817257
7. Leigh Hunt		May 10, 1817258
8. Benjamin Robert Haydon		May 10, 1817260
9. Messrs. Taylor and Hessey		May 16, 1817262
10. The Same		July 8, 1817263
11. Mariane and Jane Reynolds		September 5, 1817263
12. Fanny Keats		September 10, 1817264
13. Jane Reynolds		September 14, 1817265
14. John Hamilton Reynolds		September 21, 1817267
15. The Same		September, 1817269
16. Benjamin Robert Haydon		September 28, 1817269
17. Benjamin Bailey		October 8, 1817270
18. The Same		November 1, 1817271
19. The Same		November 5, 1817273
20. Charles Wentworth Dilke		November, 1817273
21. Benjamin Bailey		November 22, 1817273
22. John Hamilton Reynolds		November 22, 1817275
23. George and Thomas Keats		December 22, 1817276
24. The Same		January 5, 1818277
25. Benjamin Robert Haydon		January 10, 1818279
26. John Taylor		January 10, 1818280
27. George and Thomas Keats		January 13, 1818280
28. John Taylor		January 23, 1818281
29. George and Thomas Keats		January 23, 1818281
30. Benjamin Bailey		January 23, 1818283
31. John Taylor		January 30, 1818284
32. John Hamilton Reynolds		January 31, 1818285
33. The Same		February 3, 1818285
34. John Taylor		February 5, 1818286
35. George and Thomas Keats		February 14, 1818286
36. John Hamilton Reynolds		February 19, 1818287
37. George and Thomas Keats		February 21, 1818288
38. John Taylor		February 27, 1818289
39. Messrs. Taylor and Hessey		March, 1818290
40. Benjamin Bailey		March 13, 1818290
41. John Hamilton Reynolds		March 14, 1818292
42. Benjamin Robert Haydon		March 21, 1818293
43. Messrs. Taylor and Hessey		March 21, 1818293
44. James Rice		March 24, 1818294
45. John Hamilton Reynolds		March 25, 1818295
46. Benjamin Robert Haydon		April 8, 1818295
47. John Hamilton Reynolds		April 9, 1818296
48. The Same		April 10, 1818297
49. John Taylor		April 24, 1818298
50. John Hamilton Reynolds		April 27, 1818299
51. The Same		May 3, 1818299
52. Mrs. Jeffrey		May, 1818303
53. Benjamin Bailey		May 28, 1818303
54. Misses M. and S. Jeffrey		June 4, 1818304
55. Benjamin Bailey		June 10, 1818305
56. John Taylor		June 21, 1818306
57. Thomas Keats		June 29, 1818307
58. Fanny Keats		July 2, 1818308
59. Thomas Keats		July 2, 1818310
60. The Same		July 10, 1818312
61. John Hamilton Reynolds		July 11, 1818314
62. Thomas Keats		July 17, 1818316
63. Benjamin Bailey		July 18, 1818318
64. Thomas Keats		July 23, 1818320
65. The Same		August 3, 1818322
66. Mrs. Wylie		August 6, 1818324
67. Fanny Keats		August 18, 1818325
68. The Same		August 25, 1818326
69. Jane Reynolds		September 1, 1818326
70. Charles Wentworth Dilke		September 21, 1818326
71. John Hamilton Reynolds		September 22, 1818327
72. Fanny Keats		October 9, 1818328
73. James Augustus Hessey		October 9, 1818328
74. George and Georgiana Keats		October 13–31, 1818329
75. Fanny Keats		October 16, 1818336
76. The Same		October 26, 1818336
77. Richard Woodhouse		October 27, 1818336
78. Fanny Keats		November 5, 1818337
79. James Rice		November 24, 1818337
80. Fanny Keats		December 1, 1818338
81. George and Georgiana Keats		December 18, 1818338
82. Richard Woodhouse		December 18, 1818348
83. Mrs. Reynolds		December 22, 1818349
84. Benjamin Robert Haydon		December 22, 1818349
85. John Taylor		December 24, 1818349
86. Benjamin Robert Haydon		December 27, 1818349
87. Fanny Keats		December 30, 1818350
88. Benjamin Robert Haydon		January 4, 1819350
89. The Same		January 7, 1819350
90. The Same		January, 1819351
91. Fanny Keats		January, 1819351
92. Charles Wentworth Dilke and Mrs. Dilke		January 24, 1819351
93. Fanny Keats		February 11, 1819352
94. George and Georgiana Keats		February 14, 1819353
95. Fanny Keats		February 27, 1819371
96. Benjamin Robert Haydon		March 8, 1819371
97. Fanny Keats		March 13, 1819372
98. The Same		March 24, 1819373
99. Joseph Severn		March 29(?), 1819373
100. Benjamin Robert Haydon		April 13, 1819373
101. Fanny Keats		April 13, 1819374
102. The Same		April 17, 1819375
103. The Same		May 13, 1819375
104. William Haslam		May 13, 1819375
105. Fanny Keats		May 26, 1819376
106. Miss Jeffrey		May 31, 1819376
107. The Same		June 9, 1819377
108. Fanny Keats		June 9, 1819378
109. James Elmes		June 12, 1819378
110. Fanny Keats		June 14, 1819379
111. The Same		June 16, 1819379
112. Benjamin Robert Haydon		June 17, 1819379
113. Fanny Brawne		July 3, 1819380
114. Fanny Keats		July 6, 1819381
115. Fanny Brawne		July 8, 1819382
116. John Hamilton Reynolds		July 11, 1819382
117. Fanny Brawne		July 15, 1819383
118. The Same		July 27, 1819384
119. Charles Wentworth Dilke		July 31, 1819385
120. Fanny Brawne		August 9, 1819386
121. Benjamin Bailey		August 15, 1819387
122. Fanny Brawne		August 16, 1819388
123. John Taylor		August 23, 1819389
124. John Hamilton Reynolds		August 25, 1819390
125. Fanny Keats		August 28, 1819390
126. John Taylor		September 1, 1819392
127. The Same		September 5, 1819392
128. Fanny Brawne		September 14, 1819393
129. George And Georgiana Keats		September 17, 1819394
130. ———		407
131. John Hamilton Reynolds		September 22, 1819407
132. Charles Wentworth Dilke		September 22, 1819409
133. Charles Armitage Brown		September 23, 1819410
134. The Same		September 23, 1819411
135. Charles Wentworth Dilke		October 1, 1819412
136. Benjamin Robert Haydon		October 3, 1819412
137. Fanny Brawne		October 11, 1819413
138. The Same		October 13, 1819413
139. Fanny Keats		October 16, 1819414
140. Fanny Brawne		October 19, 1819414
141. Joseph Severn		October 27, 1819415
142. John Taylor		November 17, 1819415
143. Fanny Keats		November 17, 1819416
144. Joseph Severn		December 6, 1819416
145. James Rice		December, 1819416
146. Fanny Keats		December 20, 1819417
147. The Same		December 22, 1819418
148. Georgiana Augusta Keats		January 13, 1820418
149. Fanny Brawne		423
150. Fanny Keats		February 6, 1820423
151. The Same		February 8, 1820424
152. Fanny Brawne		424
153. The Same		424
154. Fanny Keats		February 11, 1820425
155. The Same		February 14, 1820425
156. Fanny Brawne		425
157. The Same		425
158. The Same		426
159. James Rice		February 16, 1820426
160. Fanny Keats		February 19, 1820427
161. Fanny Brawne		427
162. The Same		427
163. The Same		428
164. John Hamilton Reynolds		February 23, 1820428
165. Fanny Brawne		429
166. Fanny Keats		February 24, 1820429
167. Fanny Brawne		429
168. The Same		429
169. The Same		430
170. The Same		430
171. The Same		430
172. The Same		430
173. Charles Wentworth Dilke		March 4, 1820431
174. Fanny Brawne		432
175. The Same		432
176. The Same		432
177. The Same		432
178. Fanny Keats		March 20, 1820433
179. Fanny Brawne		433
180. The Same		433
181. The Same		433
182. Fanny Keats		April 1, 1820434
183. The Same		April, 1820434
184. The Same		April 12, 1820434
185. The Same		April 21, 1820435
186. The Same		May 4, 1820435
187. Charles Wentworth Dilke		May, 1820436
188. Fanny Brawne		436
189. The Same		436
190. The Same		436
191. John Taylor		June 11, 1820437
192. Charles Armitage Brown		June, 1820437
193. Fanny Keats		June 26, 1820438
194. Fanny Brawne		438
195. Fanny Keats		July 5, 1820439
196. Benjamin Robert Haydon		July, 1820440
197. Fanny Keats		July 22, 1820440
198. Fanny Brawne		440
199. The Same		441
200. Fanny Keats		August 14, 1820442
201. Percy Bysshe Shelley		August, 1820442
202. John Taylor		August 14, 1820443
203. Benjamin Robert Haydon		August, 1820444
204. John Taylor		August 15, 1820444
205. Charles Armitage Brown		August, 1820444
206. Fanny Keats		August 23, 1820445
207. Charles Armitage Brown		August, 1820445
208. ———		September, 1820445
209. Charles Armitage Brown		September 28, 1820446
210. Mrs. Brawne		October 24, 1820447
211. Charles Armitage Brown		November 1, 1820447
212. The Same		November 30, 1820448
NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS.
I. Poems		451
II. Letters		459
BIBLIOGRAPHICAL LIST OF KEATS'S POEMS		463
INDEX OF FIRST LINES		465
INDEX OF TITLES		467
INDEX TO LETTERS		471

Note. The frontispiece is a photogravure by John Andrew and Son from a painting made by Joseph Severn in his old age after the picture painted by him in his youth. The painting was in the possession of the late John W. Field, Esq., and is now the property of Williams College, by whose courtesy this copy was made.

The vignette is from a portrait by the same artist in the National Portrait Gallery, London.