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R.L. Borradaile letter to John Wilson, November 1, 1850

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Title	R.L. Borradaile letter to John Wilson, November 1, 1850
Creator	Borradaile, Reginald Latham, 1834-
Date Original	1850-11-01
Description	Concerning his demand for an answer to his previous letter which he summarizes; and for Wilson's apology to be printed in December's Blackwood's. His plan to erect a monument to Keats on which the truth concerning Keats' death will be inscribed if Wilson does not apologize.
Personal Name Subject	Borradaile, Reginald Latham, 1834- Wilson, John, 1785-1854 Keats, John, 1795-1821
Geographic Subject	England -- London
Chronological Subject	1850-1860
Type (DCMIType)	Text
Type (AAT)	Correspondence
Type (IMT)	jpeg
Digital Collection	Leigh Hunt Letters
Contributing Institution	University of Iowa. Libraries. Special Collections Dept.
Archival Collection	Brewer-Leigh Hunt Collection
Collection Guide	http://www.lib.uiowa.edu/spec-coll/resources/Brewer-LeighHunt.html
Location	MsL B73w no. 2
Rights Management	Educational use only, no other permissions given. This letter is owned by The University of Iowa Libraries Special Collections Department, and is provided here for educational purposes. It may not be reproduced or distributed in any format without written permission of the Special Collections Department.
Contact Information	Contact The University of Iowa Libraries Special Collections Department: lib-spec@uiowa.edu
Height (cm)	19.3
Width (cm)	16.0
Number of Pages	4
Number of Sheets of Paper	1
Digitization Specifications	Scanned with Ricoh Aficio 2335 scanner at 600 ppi, 24-bit color. Archival tiff image available.
Date Digital	2008-02-19
Transcript	London, Nov. 1st, 1850 To Professor Wilson Sir ; Before I say anything else, I must observe that to this letter I demand an answer by return of post. –- I can well imagine that you did not scruple to take an unfair & mean advantage of my former remark, that you might make it a matter of option as to a reply to my last letter: -- as also to refuse to comply with my request that I then made to you . You never made a more foolish mistake, in the whole course of your literary career, -- not even when, some twenty years since, you took to editing Spenser, -- than when you imagined, -- as I must presume that you did, -- that I was to be kept from my purpose by your sullen & imprudent obstinacy. – You had, I am sure, perfectly ample time between the 24th & the 31st of October to write a complete and satisfactory apology for all your innumerable literary heresies: -- & I am very certain that there could have been nothing which you could [Page break] have found sufficiently disagreeable or distasteful in my last letter to prevent your making one . Why, then, did you not do so? -– Am I to presume you did not receive my letter? That would certainly be the only way to account for your extraordinary conduct. If such was the case, which I can hardly conceive, -- I may inform you, that about a week ago, I wrote you a long letter, calling your attention to the fact, that, in the very teeth of the charitable & moderate spirit which characterises the critical writings of the age, -- you had yet, -- with a spiteful cowardice only paralleled by your unprecedented obstinacy, -- continued your insolent criticisms of yours on those poets who differed from yourself in politics, to this very day: -- & had never made the very smallest apology for so doing. -- I spoke, of course, of Shelley, Hunt, Keats, & Tennyson. -- I then, requested that you would immediately, (in your magazine for November) retract some of all of those odious & obnoxious tenets. –- I also gave you my address (the cheque office, Bank of England :)—- and, after various other observations, I concluded, -- requesting your immediate considera [Page break] tion of my request: -- and demanding secrecy: -- as I do now . Yet, -- so far from having paid the smallest attention to it, -- you appear to have acted in direct opposition to it. –- So far from having made the least retraction of your hateful libels on the poets above named, -- you have, -- by the abominably insolent tone in which you have spoken of Mr. Hunt in your wretched review of Alton Locke, in this month’s number of your periodical, -- shown that you are utterly insensible, -- equally to the smallest kindness, moderation, or liberalism, -- as to common & decent civility . Now, I most solemnly warn you to think better of this; -- &, as it is too late to apologize in the November number, -- to do so in the December one. If you know anything, -- you must surely know, that the whole age is for Keats & Tennyson & against you: -- & that, (although, from your stubborn & obnoxious Toryism, your writings have fallen into nearly utter oblivion, excepting in your own petty circle) it yet knows enough of you, to brand you to all posterity, as a kind of modern Loilus [1], -- of utterly unparalleled malignity, envy, & meanness: -- when these facts are more fully known & observed in the literary world. –- This can only be averted by an immediate apology. [Page break] Requesting, then, an immediate answer, stating your final determination , I am, sir, Your obedient servant , Reginald Latham Borradaile I here subjoin an inscription for a monument to Keats, in Westminster Abbey, -- which, at some future period of my life, I intend to erect. The inscription shall certainly be placed there, -- unless you speedily do as I have requested you: -- Sacred to the illustrious, immortal, & endeared memory Of John Keats ; Born 1796: -- died 1820; aged 24: -- The most splendid, imaginative, & promising young poet which the British Empire has produced . In political principles He invariably held the glorious doctrines of freedom & progress . For which reason he was attacked, libeled, & slandered , All his errors magnified into faults; -- & not one of his beauties noticed . Which, preying on his young & sensitive mind , Caused his immediate death . The name of the critic, -- (who wrote anonymously,) –- was John Wilson A “hungry Scotchman”, full of envy, spitefulness, & prejudice . He was, also, not content with causing the great poet’s death , But constantly maligned & abused him after death . And continued his unprecedented malice To all those whose poetry –- or principles, -- resembled Keats’s The name of the Miscreant, -- together with his works , is now totally forgotten: -- And is mentioned here, only for the sake of showing The glorious change in the public mind. – Which has caused it to remember the good, noble, & liberal poet And to forget the evil & malignant critic .
Transcript Notes	[1] Cheney's transcript contained only a blank line, with "Goilus??" penciled in below it. Judging by Borradaile's first letter (Oct. 13, 1850), we tentatively identified that initial as an "L", thus "Loilus".
Transcript By	Cheney, David R. (David Raymond), 1922-2006
Transcript Location	Ward M. Canaday Center for Special Collections: http://www.utoledo.edu/library/canaday/index.html

Title	Page1
Relation - Is Part Of	R.L. Borradaile letter to John Wilson, Nov. 1, 1850
Digital Collection	Leigh Hunt Letters
File Name	b73w-2_Page1.jpg
Transcript	London, Nov. 1st, 1850 To Professor Wilson Sir; Before I say anything else, I must observe that to this letter I demand an answer by return of post. -- I can well imagine that you did not scruple to take an unfair & mean advantage of my former remark, that you might make it a matter of option as to a reply to my last letter: -- as also to refuse to comply with my request that I then made to you. You never made a more foolish mistake, in the whole course of your literary career, -- not even when, some twenty years since, you took to editing Spenser, -- than when you imagined, -- as I must presume that you did, -- that I was to be kept from my purpose by your sullen & imprudent obstinacy. - You had, I am sure, perfectly ample time between the 24th & the 31st of October to write a complete and satisfactory apology for all your innumerable literary heresies: -- & I am very certain that there could have been nothing which you could
Transcript By	Cheney, David R. (David Raymond), 1922-2006
Transcript Location	Ward M. Canaday Center for Special Collections: http://www.utoledo.edu/library/canaday/index.html

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R.L. Borradaile letter to John Wilson, November 1, 1850

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R.L. Borradaile letter to John Wilson, November 1, 1850

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