"beyond the circus gay"

[heatherhoney]

Hi everyone. There's a line in the Keats' "Party of Lovers" I can't catch.
"I must away/ To No7, just beyond the circus gay
What is No.7? Is this a number of a house? And the next part is completely embarrassing to me. Is this a kind of exaltation? Despite the previous mentioning of some number, this hardly seems to be a description of a place.
I would appreciate any suggestion.
Thanks,
and sorry for mistakes in advance, they are quite likely to be :)

[Iain Sparrow]

I looked the poem up and it appears midway in a letter to his brother... the correspondence before the poem, then following the poem sort of gives the impression that the poem is nonsensical to some degree, and is about two lovers, or more probably two potential lovers who are a bit tongue-tied. He wishes to leave the two lovers to their awkward rendezvous, and is delayed by small talk... Tailor is purposefully spelled 'Taylor' (simple wordplay), who in fact is mentioned in the letter. Keats appears to be poking fun at a friend who is at the moment in love.
As to your question... No.7 would have to be an address, and as Keats is living in London at the time, "circus" may refer to the West End district.


Party of Lovers

Pensive they sit, and roll their languid eyes
Nibble their toasts, and cool their tea with sighs,
Or else forget the purpose of the night
Forget their tea-forget their appetite.
See with cross’d arms they sit – ah hapless crew
The fire is going out, and no one rings
For coals, and therefore no coals Betty brings.
A Fly is in the milk pot-must he die
Circled by a humane society?
No no there Mr. Werther takes his spoon
Inverts it dips the handle and lo, soon
The little struggler sav’d from perils dark
Across the tea board draws a long wet mark.
Romeo! Arise! take Snuffers by the handle
There’s a large Cauliflower in each candle.
A winding-sheet – Ah me! I must away
To No.7 just beyond the Circus gay.
‘Alas’ my friend! your Coat sits very well:
Where may your Taylor live’?’ ‘I may not tell –
‘0 pardon me – I’m absent now and then’
Where might my Taylor live? – I say again
I cannot tell. let me no more be teas’d-
He lives in wapping might live where he pleas’d

[heatherhoney]

Thank you a lot for the quick reply, Iain! It really helped.
And I wonder if it's something like "lovely West End district" that he's saying by "circus gay"? And is this collocation said in a joking manner too, according to the overall nonsensical theme of the poem?

[Iain Sparrow]

I think "collocation" is probably a good way to describe it.
Though the poem is nonsensical, I don't think it's nonsense so Keats' choice of words isn't random or without meaning... I guess it would be double entendre. I figured since "circus" is capitalized Circus, that it must be an actual place. It's not 'circus' in the American sense, an entertainment with clowns and flying trapeze, and whatnot... "Circus", as it applies to London is actually the latin word for ring or circle, and is an architectural arrangement of establishments on a turnabout. At the time Keats would have been living in London that part of the West End was known for its entertainments... it was a fashionable, and notorious place to party. Methinks Keats is probably referring to the more notorious aspects of the West End... and btw, the only No.7 I can recall, is on Regent Street and if memory serves was a gallery or exhibition hall... and I only know that from a book I read about the history of photography, and probably has nothing to do with Keats' No.7.

[heatherhoney]

Well, to be fair I didn't even know that it's capitalized, because it wasn't on a few sites where I read it. I should have looked for a scanned version from the start.
His letters you mentioned seem interesting per se, and maybe there will be something useful to understand the whole poem more properly.
I'm just trying to translate it to my mother language, so firstly I wanted to have at least a general idea about this particular line. Now it's all clear thanks to you And yes, it is fascinating to know what exactly No. 7 was too. Was it a place Keats actually visisted sometime? Huh

[Iain Sparrow]

Yikes... I assumed your mother language was English, leastwise you write well enough to fool me.... and using 'heatherhoney' as your tag, I thought you were a Scottish lass... or from one of those third world countries where it's always overcast and rainy.
I'll be honest, I'm not keen on poetry, but Keats is special because in my opinion the greatest line ever written is 'Here Lies One Whose Name Was Writ in Water', which marks his gravestone. And yes, it would be nice to know where or what No.7 was.

[heatherhoney]

Thank you for the kind words, it's a funny feeling to be called Scottish Regarding my tag, they are special words to me because they remind me about one person.
Actually my native language is Russian, which is also not that bad, ha. And can I ask why third world countries? Does it have something to do with former colonies and corresponding spread of the language? (just can't think of anything else).
I think I can tell that I love poetry, at least I plunged into it in the last few years. Completely agree with you about the line. And as I found out his wish was to not have anything else on the tombstone, which (quite surprisingly if we look through the history) was followed, except some extra words, but still without his name.
Once again sorry if there are some mistakes or shades of meaning of some words which I can miss.

[Iain Sparrow]

My dad was born in Glasgow Scotland, which of course makes me half Scottish (I'm first generation American)... every time I've traveled to Scotland, no matter the season it's always gloomy and overcast. I only half jokingly refer to Scotland as a "third world country", because the weather's so bad, the food is horrible, and the people speak something akin to English, but not English.
And a Russian!.. then you know all about bad weather.
Last year I watched a television show, probably on the History Channel, about the Dyatlov Pass mystery, and what may have happened to the mountain climbers who were all found dead. The History Channel being as it is, interested in just about everything except authentic history, chalked it up to either an encounter with an alien spaceship or the young mountain climbers had stubbled into a super secret Soviet weapons test range, and were murdered to keep them quiet... my common sense and skepticism kept me from believing that nonsense, so I actually read a book that investigated the mystery. I read, Dead Mountain: The Untold True Story of the Dyatlov Pass Incident, by Donnie Eichar and it was an amazing and tragic story.
I can't say I'm very fond of Russian literature, but I love Russian history.

And don't worry about your English, it's waaaaaay better than my Russian.

[heatherhoney]

I've read something about this accident and as far as I know there's even a motion picture about it. An alien spaceship and secret weapons made me laugh Btw there were also some zombies or something in that film.

The weather can be severe in Russia, but it refers more to those living in the Northern or Eastern areas. I live in the Middle of the country (administrative part) so it's Ok; of course it's not that shiny but I wouldn't say that I like hot weather.
I'm afraid I don't know much about Scottish literature, but "Indeed will I,” quo’ Findlay" by Burns is one of the greatest love poems/songs I've ever read. There's such a strong I'd say "wish" and passion in it, the main thing about this theme, I think - maybe persistence, don't know exactly how to say.
One more thing I can remember now is presumable Scottish descent of Lermontov (the poet Thomas Learmonth is claimed to be his relative).