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Recipient:
Benjamin Bailey (1791-1853) was a student at Oxford when he and Keats
became friends. The friendship ended when Bailey, after passionately
courting Marianne Reynolds, married Hamilton Gleig instead. The
marriage may have been determined by his career; Gleig was the daughter of
the bishop of Brechin and Bailey was a country parson. Keats's last
letter to Bailey was an achingly polite congratulations on his wedding.
Introduction: In this famous letter, Keats discusses his
feelings for his siblings and the fair sex. He also mentions
derogatory reviews of his work.
London -
My dear Bailey,
I have been very much gratified and very much hurt by your Letters in
the Oxford Paper: because independant of that un lawful and mortal feeling
of pleasure at praise, there is a glory in enthusia[s]m; and because the
world is malignant enough to chuckle at the most honorable Simplicity.
Yes on my Soul my dear Bailey you are too simple for the World - and that
Idea makes me sick of it - How is it that by extreme opposites we have as
it were got discontlent]ed nerves - you have all your Life (I think so)
believed every Body - I have suspected every Body - and although you have
been so deceived you make a simple appeal - the world has something else
to do, and I am glad of it - were it in my choice I would reject a
petrarchal coronation - on accou[n]t of my dying day, and because women
have Cancers. I should not by rights speak in this tone to you - for
it is an incendiary spirit that would do so. Yet I am not old enough
or magnanimous enough to anihilate self - and it would perhaps be paying
you an ill compliment. I was in hopes some little time back to be
able to releive your dullness by my spirits - to point out things in the
world worth your enjoyment - and now I am never alone without rejoicing
that there is such a thing as death - without placing my ultimate in the
glory of dying for a great human purpose Perphaps if my affairs were in a
different state I should not have written the above-you shall judge - I
have two Brothers one is driven by the 'burden of Society' to America the
other, with an exquisite love of Life, is in a lingering state - My Love
for my Brothers from the early loss of our parents and even for earlier
Misfortunes has grown into a affection 'passing the Love of Women' - I
have been ill temper'd with them, I have vex'd them-but the thought of
them has always stifled the impression that any woman might otherwise have
made upon me - I have a sister too and may not follow them, either to
America or to the Grave - Life must be undergone, and I certainly derive a
consolation from the thought of writing one or two more Poems before it
ceases - I have heard some hints of your retireing to scotland-I should
like to know your feeling on it - it seems rather remote - perhaps Gle[i]g
will have a duty near you. I am not certain whether I shall be able
to go my
Journey on account of my Brother Tom and a little indisposition of my own
- If I do not you shall see me soon - if no[t] on my return - or I'll
quarter myself upon you in Scotland next Winter. I had know[n] my
sister in Law some time before she was my Sister and was very fond of her.
I like her better and better - she is the most disinterrested woman I ever
knew - that is to say she goes beyond degree in it - To see an entirely
disinterrested Girl quite happy is the most pleasant and extraordinary
thing in the world - it depends upon a thousand
Circumstances - on my word 'tis extraordinary. Women must want
Imagination and they may thank God for it - and so m[a]y we that a
delicate being can feel happy without any sense of crime. It puzzles
me and I have no sort of Logic to comfort me - I shall think it over.
I am not at home and your letter being there I cannot look it over to
answer any particular - only I must say I felt that passage of Dante - if
I take any book with me it shall be those minute volumes of carey for they
will go into the aptest corner. Reynolds is getting I may say robust
- his illness has been of service to him - like eny one just recoverd he
is high-spirited. I hear also good accounts of Rice - With respects
to domestic Literature - the Endinburgh Magasine in another blow up
against Hunt calls me 'the amiable Mister Keats' and I have more than a
Laurel from the Quarterly Reviewers for
they have smothered me in 'Foliage' I want to read you my 'Pot of
Basil' if you go to scotland I should much like to read it there to you
among the Snows of next Winter. My Brothers' remembrances to you.
Your affectionate friend
John Keats
Notes: Bailey had
reviewed Keats's Endymion in the Oxford University and City Herald.
Keats mentions the poor review of his work in the Quarterly;
click here
to read the review. And Keats would later be reviewed in
Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine himself, by the infamous 'Z' (John
Lockhart);
click
here to read the review.
to Keats: Letters
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Chronological List - to
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