Shakespeare Electronic Conference, Vol. 4, No. 1.  Friday, 1 January 1993.
 
From:           Peter D. Junger <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.>
Date:           Thursday, 31 Dec 92 16:33:59 EDT
Subject:        Query about negative capability
 
        In an article I am writing I suggest that those who would
understand law should have the negative capability that Keats ascribed
to Shakespeare:
 
        At once it struck me what quality went to form a man of
        achievement, especially in literature, and which Shakespeare
        possessed so enormously--I mean negative capability, that is,
        when a man is capable of being in uncertainties, mysteries,
        doubts, without any irritable reaching after fact and reason.
 
Which Bartlett's Familiar Quotations ascribes to John Keats, Letter to
George and Thomas Keats [December 22, 1817].
 
Can anyone supply me with a better source?  Our library has the second
and third editions of Maurice Buxton Forman's edition of Keats' letters
and I suspect that I can find the quotation easily enough in one of
those works, but I suspect that there may be some canonical citation of
which I am ignorant.
 
Thanks.
 
Peter D. Junger
 
Case Western Reserve University Law School, Cleveland, OH
Internet:  This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. -- Bitnet:  JUNGER@CWRU

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