lapse of a month from the time when Keats left the house at
Hampstead next door to Miss Brawne’s, at which he probably knew her
employments well enough from day to day. If so, the time would be
about the first week in June, 1819.
[52] He was seemingly in a different phase of belief from that
in which the death of his brother Tom found him. At that time he
recorded that he and Tom both firmly believed in immortality. See
_Life, Letters, &c._, Vol. I, p. 246. A further indication of his
having shifted from the moorings of orthodoxy may be found in the
expression in Letter XXXV, “I appeal to you by the blood of that
Christ you believe in:”—not “_we_ believe in.”
[53] This seems to mean that he wrote the letter to the end, and
then filled in the words _My dearest Girl_, left out lest any one
coming near him should chance to see them. These words are written
more heavily than the beginning of the letter, and indicate a state
of pen corresponding with that shown by the words _God bless you_
at the end.
[54] This letter appears to belong between those of the 8th and
25th of July, 1819; and of the two Thursdays between these dates
it seems likelier that the 15th would be the one than that the
letter should have been written so near the 25th as on the 22nd.
The original having been mislaid, I have not been able to take the
evidence of the postmark. It will be noticed that at the close he
speaks of a weekly exchange of letters with Miss Brawne; and by
placing this letter at the 15th this programme is pretty nearly
realized so far as Keats’s letters from the Isle of Wight are
concerned.
[55] The story in question is one of the many derivatives from the
Third Calender’s Story in _The Thousand and One Nights_ and the
somewhat similar tale of “The Man who laughed not,” included in
the Notes to Lane’s _Arabian Nights_ and in the text of Payne’s
magnificent version of the complete work. I am indebted to Dr.
Reinhold Köhler, Librarian of the Grand-ducal Library of Weimar,
for identifying the particular variant referred to by Keats as the
“Histoire de la Corbeille,” in the _Nouveaux Contes Orientaux_ of
the Comte de Caylus. Mr. Morris’s beautiful poem “The Man who never
laughed again,” in _The Earthly Paradise_, has familiarized to
English readers one variant of the legend.
[56] It will of course be remembered that no such collection
appeared until the following summer, when the _Lamia_ volume was
published.
[57] I do not find in the present series any letter which I can
regard as the particular one referred to in the opening sentence.
If Letter XXXV (p. 93) were headed _Tuesday_ and this _Wednesday_,
that might well be the peccant document which appears to be missing.
[58] _The Life of Percy Bysshe Shelley. In Two Volumes._ London:
1847 (see Vol. II, pp. 86-93).
[59] It appeared in No. XXXVII, headed “April, 1818,” on page 1,
but described on the wrapper as “published in September, 1818.”
[60] See p. liii: it was the 3rd of February, 1820.
[61] See Letter XIII, pp. 49-50.
[62] See Letter XVII, pp. 57-8.
[63] _The Northern Heights of London or Historical Associations
of Hampstead, Highgate, Muswell Hill, Hornsey, and Islington. By
William Howitt, author of ‘Visits to Remarkable Places.’_ (London:
Longmans, Green, & Co. 1869.)
[64] _Handbook to the Environs of London, Alphabetically Arranged,
containing an account of every town and village, and of all the
places of interest, within a circle of twenty miles round London.
By James Thorne, F.S.A. In Two Parts._ (London: John Murray,
Albemarle Street. 1876.)
[65] She first appeared upon the London boards in 1822, and
afterwards became “Private Reader” to George IV.