The purpose of this paper is to explore "The bitter-sweet of this Shakespearian fruit" (8), a phrase in Keats's sonnet "On Sitting Down to Read King Lear Once Again" (1818) and to examine what Keats puts into the oxymoron "bitter-sweet." The Romantic poet, John Keats (1795-1821) had accomplished his poetic growth with regard to and respect for the great poets of the past-Spenser, Shakespeare, Milton, and Chatterton. Especially, the relation between Keats and Shakespeare has been studied by John Middleton Murry and others; it is common knowledge that Shakespeare is the poet and dramatist whom Keats respected most. In this paper, the first stage in Keats's creative activity, when Negative Capability is made public in his letter of 1817, is focused on. Through analysis of the two sonnets, "On the Sea" (1817) and "On Sitting Down to Read King Lear Once Again," it is obvious that King Lear is not just his favourite work but the most important one in terms of his poetic growth. Besides, William Hazlitt (1778-1830) led Keats to become absorbed in King Lear by his own comment on Shakespeare, and also led Keats to the formation and the announcement of Negative Capability: "I mean Negative Capability, that is when man is capable of being in uncertainties, Mysteries, doubts, without any irritable reaching after fact & reason" (Rollins, Letters I 193). The world of King Lear in which opposite elements-bitter things and sweet things-coexist seems to be shared by the idea of Negative Capability in which both bitter and sweet things can be acceptable in an uncertain condition. In conclusion, "The bitter-sweet of this Shakespearian fruit," which refers to King Lear in its direct meaning, is a phrase representing the characteristics of King Lear and Negative Capability.
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