'La Belle Dame ... ' continued

Hi Everyone,
Thanks for such a good session on Saturday; I went away feeling inspired to work (particularly in the knowledge that now there are more folk to share it with) and reassured (when I sit here burning the Earth's energy resources in the middle of the night) that I'm not alone in my madness.

With regard to 'La Belle Dame sans Merci' ... I was nonplussed to see how little there was about Keats on my shelves. However, I was due in Exeter University Library (yesterday) so I was hellbent on ransacking their shelves - except that they were looking rather thin, too. An online search for the Motion biography copies indicated they were out. I was surprised, and foolishly assumed the 'Romantics' lectures were timetabled for about now, but, of course, the students are all Keats obsessed because of the film. Walking around the 'Eng Lit' floor I noticed that all the students at computer terminals had images of 'Isabella' or 'La Belle Dame ...' or 'The Eve of St Agnes' on the screen; it was only then that I twigged.

When I checked the shelves more carefully I realised that it was the more recent criticism and biography missing from the shelves (I know Michael said he was not impressed with the Motion biog, but he was a name to start my search with and his work has the advantage of being recent, so that any new discoveries about versions and different publictations might be detailed - so if you've still got a copy Michael, see if there's anything about versions of 'La BD'), while the fusty, dusty old copies of Letters were still there. I think it's quite sad that the students had not helped themselves to the 'Letters' in preference. There were also several older biographies that I could not decide between. I now wish I'd checked them more carefully, but I was short of time and limited in how many books I could take out.
I did bring home Volume II of Hyder E. Rollins (Ed) 'The Letters of John Keats 1814-1821' , which covers the period when Keats met Fanny Brawne and, obviously, includes the long letter that Michael refers to in his post. The main footnote to the 'Belle Dame' section of that letter says: 'Jeffrey (see KC, II,120) also has a copy of the "wretched wight" version of the poem that follows, which Keats must have sent to his brother after May 3, 1819.'

After some searching, this morning, to try to explain this note (especially in the absence of a decent biography), the only Jeffrey(s) I've found are the Jeffrey family (of Teignmouth!) and Keats seems to write to mother, sisters and (?) brother. There must be more detail about Keats's various correspondents in Volume I of the 'Letters' (I wish I'd brought both home). So far, I think that Rollins's note is suggesting that Keats himself made the changes to the poem and sent/gave a copy to one of the Jeffrey family and also sent a copy of the revised version to his brother George, but after May 3 1819 when the long letter was sent (it seems a 'Jeffrey' may have done some transcriptions of the Keats letters (Rollins 108 n.5). A quick skim further on in the Rollins suggests no refs to 'La Belle Dame' in the letters to one of the Jeffrey sisters, nor an extant copy of a further letter to George in May 1918.
I need to eat(!)now, but will settle down to read more carefully this afternoon and let you know of any further progress.
NB quick edit, the time originally given to this post bears no relation to the actual time (14.26, Wed 25 Nov 2009); maybe my perimenopausal effect on time is spreading beyond the the clock in my study!!