Letters of John Keats to His Family and Friends

by John Keats

Rome, November 30, 1820.

My dear Brown—’Tis the most difficult thing in the world to me to write a letter. My stomach continues so bad, that I feel it worse on opening any book,—yet I am much better than I was in quarantine. Then I am afraid to encounter the pro-ing and con-ing of anything interesting to me in England. I have an habitual feeling of my real life having passed, and that I am leading a posthumous existence. God knows how it would have been—but it appears to me—however, I will not speak of that subject. I must have been at Bedhampton nearly at the time you were writing to me from Chichester—how unfortunate—and to pass on the river too! There was my star predominant! I cannot answer anything in your letter, which followed me from Naples to Rome, because I am afraid to look it over again. I am so weak (in mind) that I cannot bear the sight of any handwriting of a friend I love so much as I do you. Yet I ride the little horse, and at my worst even in quarantine, summoned up more puns, in a sort of desperation, in one week than in any year of my life. There is one thought enough to kill me; I have been well, healthy, alert, etc., walking with her, and now—the knowledge of contrast, feeling for light and shade, all that information (primitive sense) necessary for a poem, are great enemies to the recovery of the stomach. There, you rogue, I put you to the torture; but you must bring your philosophy to bear, as I do mine, really, or how should I be able to live? Dr. Clark is very attentive to me; he says, there is very little the matter with my lungs, but my stomach, he says, is very bad. I am well disappointed in hearing good news from George, for it runs in my head we shall all die young. I have not written to Reynolds yet, which he must think very neglectful; being anxious to send him a good account of my health, I have delayed it from week to week. If I recover, I will do all in my power to correct the mistakes made during sickness; and if I should not, all my faults will be forgiven. Severn is very well, though he leads so dull a life with me. Remember me to all friends, and tell Haslam I should not have left London without taking leave of him, but from being so low in body and mind. Write to George as soon as you receive this, and tell him how I am, as far as you can guess; and also a note to my sister—who walks about my imagination like a ghost—she is so like Tom. I can scarcely bid you good-bye, even in a letter. I always made an awkward bow.

God bless you!
John Keats.[120]

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INDEX

Note.—The first lines of all verses quoted in the letters are given here under the first word. An asterisk is prefixed to the names of those to whom letters are written, the letters themselves, as well as the addresses from which Keats wrote, being given under the heading “Letters.”

Abbey, Miss, [122]
Abbey, Mr., [52 and note], [58], [119], [123], [161], [162], [182], [185], [216], [218], [232], [268], [271], [273], [274], [284], [290], [294], [297], [311], [313], [315], [318], [331], [336], [347], [350], [354], [356], [359].
Referred to as “my guardian,” [267]
Abbey, Mrs., [51], [123], [197], [262], [271], [359]
Abbeys, the, [363]
Abbot, [231]
Abelard, Sandt, like a young, [300]
Academy, the Royal, [329]
Achievement, a man of, needs negative capability, [48]
Achilles, [21], [80], [180]
Adam’s dream (Paradise Lost, Bk. viii.), compared to imagination, [41], [42]
Adonais, [xix.]
Adonis, [263]
Adonis, Venus and, quoted, [45]
Agnes, St., Eve of, [217], [221], [280], [288], [333], [362 note];
an alteration in it censured, [360]
Agriculture, influence of, [287 seq.]
“A haunting Music sole perhaps and lone,” etc., [289]
“Ah, ken ye what I met the day,” etc., [127]
Aladdin, [223]
Alcibiades, [95]
Alexander, the emperor, [174]
Alfred (Exeter Paper), the, [171]
Alfred, King, [15], [80]
Alice Fell, [249]
“All gentle folks who owe a grudge,” etc., [137]
All’s Well that ends Well, quoted, [33 and note]
Alston’s “Uriel,” [76]
Altam and his Wife, by Ollier, [197]
Amena (and Wells), [239], [245]
America, George K. goes to, [109]

Americans distrusted, [312]
Anatomy of Melancholy, quoted, [296], [297]
Andrew, Sir [Aguecheek], misquoted, [103 and note]
Andrews, Miss, [341]
Annals of Fine Arts, contributed to, [272, note]
Ann or Anne, the maid, [209], [310]
Anthony, St., [309]
Anthony, Mark, compared to Buonaparte, [17]
Anthony and Cleopatra, [95];
quoted, [16], [17]
Apollo, [74], [82]
Apuleius, the Platonist, [259]
Archer, [190], [208]
Archimage, [249]
Archimago, [18]
Archimedes, [20]
Aretino, [313]
Ariadne, [223]
Ariosto, [95 note], [289], [313], [333]
Art, the excellence of, its intensity, [47]
Arthur’s Seat, [136]
“As Hermes once took to his feathers light,” [246]
Athenæum, Dilke connected with, [xviii.]
A[ubrey], Mrs. M[ary], verses to, by Mrs. Philips, [29]
Audubon, [291], [312], [341]
Audubon, Mrs., [341], [344]
Augustan age, [259]
Aunt, J. K.’s, 274. See [Mrs. Jennings]
Autograph originals of J. K.’s letters, [xii.] [xiii.]
Autumn, Ode to, [320 and note]
Ayr described, [133]
B., Miss. See [Brown, Miss]
Babel, the tower of, [23], [29]
Bacchus, [223]
Bacon, Lord, [174]
Bagpipe, effect of, [138]
*Bailey, Benjamin, [xii.], [26], [32], [44], [52], [53], [84], [97], [102], [109], [132], [135], [146], [164], [190], [355];
his character, [27], [54];
his curacy, [36];
his appreciation of Endymion, [31];
his love affairs, [224 seq.];
K.’s visit to him at Oxford, [19 and note]
Bailey, Mrs., [281]
Barbara Lewthwaite, [249]
“Bards of passion and of mirth,” [206]
Barley, Rigs of, by Burns, [133]
Barnes, [111]
Barnes, Miss, [231]
Bartolozzi, [195], [196]
Basil, Pot of, [113], [166], [171], [221], [280];
few stanzas of, written in folio Shakspeare, [101]
“Bathsheba,” by Wilkie, [76]
Beattie, [201]
Beaumont, Sir George, [329], [330 note]
Beaumont and Fletcher, [228]
Bedhampton, visit to, [216], [219], [221]
Beggar of Cumberland, [31]
Bellaston, Lady, [302]
Benjamin, Mr., [317]
Bensley, [10]
Bentley (J. K.’s landlord), [33 note], [153], [194], [219], [337]
Bentley, Mrs., [33], [153], [194], [219], [239], [337], [365]
Bentley children, the, [33], [103 note], [188]
Bertrand, General, [17 note]
Betty Foy, [249]
Bewick [J.], [56], [58], [96], [240]
Bible, the, [177], [225], [226]
Birkbeck, [175], [188], [194], [217], [226], [238], [257], [268], [342]
Birkbeck, the Misses, [247]
Blackwood, [60], [164], [167], [171], [194], [234], [323]

Boccaccio, [101];
tales from, [280]
Bonchurch described, [276], [279]
“Book, my” (the vol. containing Lamia, Isabella, The Eve of St. Agnes, Hyperion, and the Odes), [362], [363], [368], [370]
Boxer (Mrs. Dilke’s dog), [26]
Box Hill ascended, [45]
Boys, the. See [Brown’s brothers]
Bradshaw, Richard, [119]
Braggadochio, [340]
Brawne, Fanny, [191 and note], [218], [244];
described, [196];
K.’s feelings towards, [371], [372], [373], [374];
letters to, [xii. note];
reasons for their being omitted, [xvii.]
*Brawne, Mrs., [191], [202], [219], [224], [239], [244], [349], [365]
[Brawne], Sam, [373]
Briggs, [341]
Brigs of Ayr, [133]
Britain, Little. See [Reynoldses, the]
British Gallery seen, [76]
British Museum, [329]
Brothers. See Keats, [George] and [Tom]
*Brown, Charles Armitage, [xviii.], [26], [33], [35], [48], [56], [58], [76], [82], [98], [119], [123], [128], [133], [136], [138], [139], [141], [145], [148], [165], [177], [191], [194], [195 note], [196], [198], [200], [209], [218], [219], [221], [240], [243], [244], [245], [264], [272], [273], [279], [281], [284], [286], [289], [292], [301], [306], [307], [309], [314], [319], [323], [325], [328], [332], [333 note], [334], [336], [344], [345], [347 and note], [348], [352], [356], [357], [358], [359], [360 note], [363], [369];
anecdote of, [295], [296];
as a draughtsman, [274], [351];
and Jenny Jacobs, [279];
a joke on, [316], [320];
his kindness, [234];
lends K. money, [274], [290];
lives with K., [187 note], [188], [331 note];
his odd dislikes, [324];
a story by, [219], [220], [224];
tour to Scotland with K., [110] [114-161];
writes a tragedy with K. See [Otho the Great]
Brown’s brothers, [239 note], [245]
Brown, John, [245]
Brown, Mrs. Septimus, [218]
B[rown], Miss, [196]
Bucke, Mr. (dramatic author), [241]
Buffon, [233], [346]
Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress, [21];
his Emblems, [309]
Buonaparte, [20], [173], [219];
compared to Mark Anthony, [17]
Burdett, Sir F., [174]
Burford Bridge visited, [40-45]
Burleigh, Lord, [361]
Burns, [130], [131], [132], [234];
spoilt by the Kirk, [124];
lines after visiting his country, [146];
after visiting his tomb, [117];
his misery, [134];
his native place described, [133]
Burns, Mrs., [118]
Burton’s Anatomy of Melancholy quoted, [296], [297]
Butler, [76], [102], [202]
Butler, Sarah, [102]
Byron, [33], [106], [163], [173], [198], [221], [226], [231], [240];
his Don Juan, [297];
Fourth canto of Childe Harold expected, [76];
Don Giovanni expected, [218]
Cæsar, Julius, [80]
Caleb Williams, [205]
Caliban, [7 note], [58], [245 note]
Cameron, Mrs., [155 seq.]
Canning, [345]

Canterbury, a visit to, projected, [18]
Cap and Bells, [331 note], [333 and note], [362 note]
Capital letters, peculiar use of, [xiv.]
Capper, [178], [181], [294]
Carisbrooke visited, [6 seq.]
Carlisle, Deist bookseller, [220], [299]
Carlisle visited, [117]
Cary’s Dante, [113]
“Castle, The Enchanted,” by Claude, [91 and note]
Castlereagh, [90], [345];
An Ode to, [335]
Cave of Despair, Spenser’s, a picture by Severn, [334 and note], [355]
Ceres, [142]
Chambers of Life—the infant or thoughtless Chamber, and the Chamber of Maiden thought, [107], [108];
the third Chamber, [109]
Champion, The, a number written by K., [47], [49], [52];
a sonnet by K. printed in, [8]
Chapman’s Homer, [363 and note]
Charlemagne, [118]
Charles. See [Wylie, Charles]
Charles I., [7]
Charles II., [90]
Charles Stuart, a “Jacobin” song on, [148]
Charlotte, Princess, [192]
“Charmian,” [165 note], [172], [173].
See [Cox, Miss Charlotte]
Chatterton, Endymion, dedicated to, [97];
Hazlitt on, [76];
writes the purest English, [313], [321]
Chaucer, [18], [103], [228], [333];
his Gallicisms, [313], [321]
Chesterfield, Lord, [355]
Chichester visited, [212], [217], [218]
“Chief of Organic Numbers!” etc., [62]
Christ Rejected (Haydon’s picture), [47], [94]
Christianity v. The Examiner, [10];
Shakspeare’s, [11]
Christians, a query concerning, [10]
Christie, [44]
Chronicle, The, [46], [171], [247];
John Scott’s defence of K. in, [167]
Cinderella, [21], [232]
Circe (in Endymion), [99]
Claret, a rhapsody concerning, [222], [223]
Clark, Dr., [370], [376]
*Clarke, C. C., [xvii.], [10], [219];
his influence on K., [xviii.]
Claude’s “Enchanted Castle,” [91 and note]
Cleopatra, [125], [173]
Clinker, Humphrey, [52]
Cobbett, [208], [218], [222], [355]
Cockney school, [39], [60 and note]
Cockney, the young, [xvi.]
Coleridge, [38], [72];
his limitations, [48];
his talk, [244]
Collins, Hazlitt on, [76]
Colnaghi, [300]
Colvin, S., allowed H. Buxton Forman to use autographs in his possession, [xii. note];
his life of K. in Men of Letters, [xi.], [331 note], [347 note]
Commonplace people, Hazlitt on, [37]
Comus, [89], [108]
Constable, the bookseller, [60]
Continent, K.’s thoughts of visiting the, [18]
Cook, Captain, [346]
Cordelia,

[80]
Coriolanus, Hazlitt on, [229]
Corneille, [95 and note]

C[ornwall] B[arry], Mr., [353], [354]
Country, the, K.’s opinion of, [209];
K. thinks of settling in, [4]
Covent Garden Tragedy [Retribution, or the Chieftain’s Daughter], an article on, [49 and note]
Cowes visited, [7]
Cowper, [72];
as a letter-writer, [xiv.]
Cox, Miss Charlotte, [165 and note], [172 and note], [173].
See [“Charmian”]
Crabbe, [72], [232]
Cripps, [32], [37], [40], [41], [44], [52], [56], [62], [71];
introductions to Haydon, [32], [53]
Criticism, K.’s independence of, [167]
Croft, Dr., [72]
Cromwell, [174]
Crusoe, Robinson, [26], [338]
“Crystalline Brother of the belt of Heaven,” etc., [46]
Cumberland Beggar, the, [31]
Dance, a Highland, described, [116]
Dante, [95 note], [113], [145], [214], [246], [313]
Davenports, the, [220], [231], [239], [348]
David, [25], [325]
“Dear Reynolds! as last night I lay in bed,” etc., [91]
Death, K.’s thoughts of, when alone, [112]
Deist, The, [299]
Dennet, Miss, a Columbine, [51]
“Dentatus,” Haydon’s picture, [87]
Devereux, [362]
Devon, Duke of, [72]
Devonshire described, [75], [79], [80], [83], [85], [91], [95], [97], [98], [101];
like Lydia Languish, [83]
Dewint, [114]
Dewint, Mrs., [114]
*Dilke, Charles Wentworth, [xii. note], [9], [26], [31], [47], [48], [56], [59], [76], [81], [128], [146], [158], [195 note], [200], [202], [203], [208], [239], [245], [266], [269], [292], [296], [327], [340], [343], [372], [374];
a capital friend, [51];
takes the Champion, [51], [58];
his character, [314];
his devotion to his son, [222], [240], [241], [295];
editor follows his dates, [xiii.];
a “Godwin Methodist,” [314];
a “Godwin perfectibility Man,” [175];
ill, [170], [348];
neighbour to K., [187 note]
Dilke, Charley, [222], [224], [240], [241], [264], [279], [292], [295], [314], [360]
Dilke, Mrs., [4], [8], [9], [26], [31], [51], [164], [170], [183], [189], [198], [202], [209], [210], [213], [217], [223], [224], [240], [262], [264], [269], [274], [292], [325], [328], [332], [336], [340], [349], [354], [357], [359], [360], [365], [374];
her brother, [359]
Dilke, William, [26 and note]
Dinah, Aunt, [6]
Diocletian, [174]
Diomed, [80]
Dolabella (in Anthony and Cleopatra), [16]
Don Juan, [297]
Drawing of K., a, [2 and note]
Drewe family, the, [197]
Drewe, George, [198]
Drury Lane Pantomime [Don Giovanni], [49 and note], [55]
Dryope (in Endymion), [78]
Du Bois, [47], [198]

Dunghill, Duchess of, [126]
Duns, besieged by, [19], [28]
Dürer, Albert, [330]
Edinburgh Review, the, [37], [39], [40], [113], [190], [301], [302], [326]
Edmund Ironside, [80]
Elements, the, regarded as comforters, [25]
Elizabeth, Queen, Holinshed’s, [333];
her Latin exercises, [355]
Elizabethans, compared with moderns, [68]
Ellenborough, Lord, [47]
Ellipsis, recommended by Haydon, [2]
Elliston, [335], [336]
Elmes, James, [272 note], [274]
Emblems, the, of Bunyan, [309]
Endymion [“I stood tiptoe upon a little hill”], [3 note]
Endymion, [27], [34], [35], [161], [302], [366].
First book begun, [17];
prospects of, [57];
in the press, [63];
readings in, [64]:
second book copied, [71];
proofs of, [72]:
third book, progressing, [31];
finished, [33]:
third and fourth books, copied, [78]:
fourth book, quoted, [84];
finished, [88].
Alterations suggested by Taylor, [77];
anxiety to get it printed, [78];
appreciated by Bailey, [31];
dedicated to Chatterton, [97];
described, [168];
cheque sent to author of it, [192], [199];
engravings by Haydon for it, [57];
referred to by K. as a pioneer, [77];
admired by the Miss Porters, [192], [193];
the preface to it, [88], [96], [97], [98];
readings in, [99];
called slipshod, [167 and note];
the story of it told to Fanny K., [22]
Enfield, school at, [xviii.]
English, Chatterton’s is the purest, [313]
Enobarb (in Anthony and Cleopatra), [16]
Erasmus, [10], [17]
Esau, [68]
Euclid, [29], [177]
Eustace, [163]
Evadné, by Sheil, [231], [232]
Evans, Sir Hugh (in Merry Wives), [104 and note]
Eve, [103], [255]
“Ever let the Fancy roam,” etc., [203]
Examiner, The, [17], [40], [44], [47], [51], [194], [208], [219], [234], [328];
its defence of K., [171];
K.’s notice of Reynolds’ Peter Bell in it, [248], [249];
v. Christianity, [10]
Excursion, Wordsworth’s, one of the three good things of the age, [53], [54]
Fagging at schools, [178]
Fairies, Chorus of, [251]
Falstaff, [77], [351]
Fame, sonnets on, [258]
“Fame like a wayward girl will still be coy,” etc., [258]
Family letters, [xi.]
Fanny. See [Keats, Fanny]
“Far, far around shall those dark-crested trees,” etc., [115]
Fazio, [72]
Fenbank, Mr. P., [199]
Fielding, [52], [200]
Fingal’s Cave described, [150]
Fitzgerald, Miss, [193]
Fladgate, Frank, [133]
Flageolet, not admired, [161], [162]

Fleet Street household (i.e. Taylor’s. See p. [286]), [54]
Fletcher, Mrs. Philips, compared to, [31]
Fletcher and Beaumont, [228]
Flirting, [173]
Florence, A Garden of, by Reynolds, [67 and note]
Florimel, [248], [249]
Foliage, by Leigh Hunt, [11 note];
reviewed in the Quarterly, [113]
Forman, H. Buxton, his edition, [xii.];
letters to Fanny K. printed in this volume by his permission, [xii. note]
Fortunatus’s purse, [32]
“Four Seasons fill the measure of the year,” etc., [81]
Framptons, the, [238]
Francesca, [58], [246]
Franklin, Benjamin, [175]
French dramatists, [95 and note]
French language inferior to English, [23]
Frogley, Miss, [192]
Fry, [290]
Fuseli, [306], [330]
G. minor (see [Wylie, Georgiana]), [192]
Gaelic talked, [140]
Gattie, [197]
Gay, [106]
Genesis, [26]
Genius, of K. in prose writing, [xi.];
men of, have not individuality, [41]
George. See [Keats, George]
George, little (see [Wylie, Georgiana]), [200], [201]
George II., [362]
Gertrude of Wyoming, [342]
Ghosts, [44]
Gibbon, [76]
Gifford, [220], [226 seq.], [229];
his attack on K., [192]
Giovanni, Don, by Byron, expected, [218]
Gipsies, [37]
Gipsy, The, of Wordsworth, [37]
Glasgow visited, [131], [132]
Glaucus (in Endymion), [99]
Gleig, [xix.], [35], [36], [44], [63], [82], [113];
described, [35 note]
Gleig, Miss, [225]
Gliddon, [290]
Godwin, [175], [205], [206], [314];
his Mandeville, [51], [286];
his Caleb Williams and St. Leon, [205]
Gray, [106];
as a letter writer, [xiv.];
Hazlitt on, [76]
“Great spirits now on earth are sojourning,” etc., [2]
Greek, K. determines to learn, [101]
Green, Mr., [244]
Griselda, [245]
Grover, Miss, [339]
Guido, [201]
Gyges’s ring, [32]
H., Miss, [231], [232]
Hamlet, [80], [106]
Hammond, [309]
Handwriting of K., [xiv.]
Happiness not expected, [38]
“Happy happy glowing fire,” etc., [251]
Harold, Childe, [68]
Harris, Bob, [51], [58]
Hart, [340]
Haslam, [51], [56], [159], [178], [181], [187], [188], [189], [195], [197], [200], [202], [209], [210], [219], [224], [228], [235], [264], [270], [284], [307], [342], [344], [369], [373], [375];
his father’s death, [238], [266];
a kind friend, [269], [339];
his “lady and family,” [340];
in love, [293];
“is very Beadle to an amorous sigh,” [333];
a message to, [377]

Hastings, Lady, met at, [179], [223]
*Haydon, [xii. note], [2 and note], [5], [8], [9], [39], [41], [47], [54], [58], [195], [197], [198], [201], [240], [272], [340], [343], [355], [356], [361];
his autobiography, [50 and note];
his “Christ” contained a portrait of K., [16];
and is “tinted into immortality,” [94];
his “Dentatus,” [87];
on Elgin marbles, [75];
his eyes weak, [219];
on French dramatists, etc., [95 and note];
his “Life and Love,” [330 and note];
loved as a brother, [15];
his pictures one of the three glories of the age, [53], [54];
his portrait, [6];
quarrels with Hunt, [33], [34], [35], [56], [61];
and with Reynolds, [55], [56];
discovers a seal of Shakspeare, [85];
“this glorious Haydon and all his creation,” [1];
his “Solomon,” [214]
Hazlewood, [178], [181], [294]
Hazlitt, [3], [96], [101], [106], [107], [109], [111], [179], [191], [197], [205], [218], [326];
his prosecution of Blackwood, [164];
his essay on commonplace people, [37];
the only good damner, [87];
his lectures, [64], [72], [76], [332];
his letter to Gifford quoted, [226 seq.], [229];
on Shakspeare, [16], [56], [58];
his review of Southey, [10 and note], [16];
his depth of taste, [53], [54];
his Round Table, [31 and note]
Hazlitt, Mrs., [218]
Heart of Midlothian (an opera), [249]
Heart’s affections and beauty of Imagination the only certain things, [41]
Hebrew, the study of, advised, [24]
“He is to weet a melancholy Carle,” etc., [244]
Helen, [125]
“Hence Burgundy, Claret, and Port,” etc., [65]
Hengist, [90]
Henrietta Street. See