1891. Since then, again, more letters have come to light, and these are duly introduced into their places in the present complete collection. Complete," indeed, is a dangerous word to use in such a connexion; for here there is no demonstrable finality. To-day one's edition is complete: to-morrow it may be incomplete by the discovery of one more letter-the next day still more so by that of another. But at all events there is no letter of Keats ever seen by me which is not included in this edition; and it is doubtful whether much of consequence remains to find. Of the letters which have not appeared in former editions, the most important are those addressed to Mrs. and the Misses Jeffrey at Teignmouth; and these were first introduced to the world by Mr. A. Forbes Sieveking in the pages of The Fortnightly Review. One to Haydon, No. XCVII, is also among the best now added to the collection. But the distinctive feature of this edition is the insertion of the letters to Fanny Brawne in the order of their production as nearly as it can be ascertained. It is this innovation that accounts for the greater part of the dis parity, though not by any means the whole of it, between the hundred and sixty-four letters forming Mr. Colvin's edition and the two hundred and fourteen contained in this volume. I still think Keats's letters without those to Fanny Brawne very much like Hamlet without the Prince of Denmark. When I made up my mind, after weighing the whole matter carefully, to publish those letters in 1878, I was fully alive to the risk of vituperation, and not particularly solicitous on that branch of the subject. The press turned out to be about equally divided on it: to one half those letters were "the greatest treasure offered to the reading public for many years," and so on to the other half their publication was an outrage unheard of; and they "signified the same in the usual manner." The friendly acclamations, and still more the personal expression of views from those whom I knew and valued, were thankfully received. As to the vituperations, one thought of the celebrated anathema recorded in The Jackdaw of Rheims, and came to the conclusion that that memorable occasion was not the only one on which "Nobody seemed one penny the worse." To return to that sober seriousness which befits the occasion, the Letters to Fanny Brawne, as here placed side by side with those to Fanny Keats and other correspondents of the poet, are specially commended to the fresh apprehension of those who care to know Keats thoroughly in all moods of his mind and all phases of his temper. There is nothing for any one to be afraid of-nothing that any man or woman need blush to have overheard through that good hap which preserved these records. Above all, the letters are irrevocably with us; and, being with us, they complete the picture of the true Keats. Taken in their proper context, they redound to his honour. That a man placed as he was, endowed by nature as he was, refined by art as he was, and tortured by bodily disease and mental agony as he was, should yet mingle with the bitterness of his cry of despair such sweetness and sanity as are the ruling b characteristics throughout the letters even to Fanny Brawne, is a standing wonder, and one which it is fitting to bring thus clearly into relief on the hundredth anniversary of his birth. It seems well worth while to supply aid in following the steps of Keats by giving a series of topographical illustrations. These are of an entirely authentic kind, taken for the most part from contemporary prints; so that, when the curious look at these representations of Southampton, Carisbrooke, Teignmouth, and Babbicombe, of Derwentwater, Kirkcudbright, Port Patrick, Staffa, or Inverness, they see those places, not as they are now, but as they were seen by Keats and by Turner, Robson, Daniel, and the other artists who made the original drawings. They have been selected with great care, with a twofold view to their illustrative value and their adaptability to modern methods of reproduction. To give the reader of these letters that material ease which is his due, I have insisted that the poetry be printed in the same type as the prose, instead of being set smaller in accordance with the current heresy of printing-houses. The text has been carefully gone over afresh wherever revision or verification was necessary; and I have to thank Mr. Colvin for courteously allowing me to refer once more to the important Keats Manuscripts in his hands. H. BUXTON FORMAN. 46 MARLBOROUGH HILL, ST. JOHN'S WOOD, August 1895. |