Keats

by Sidney Colvin

In line 126, for “most like” stood “more like.”

In these omissions and corrections, two things will be apparent to the student: first, that they are all greatly for the better; and second, that where a corrected passage occurs again in the Vision, it in every case corresponds to the printed Hyperion, and not to the draft of the poem preserved by Woodhouse. This of itself would make it certain that the Vision was not a first version of Hyperion, but a recast of the poem as revised (in all probability at Winchester) after its first composition. Taken together with the statement of Brown, which is perfectly explicit as to time, place, and circumstances, and the corresponding statement of Woodhouse as recollected by Mr Garnett, the proof is from all sides absolute: and the ‘first version’ theory must disappear henceforward from editions of and commentaries on our poet.

[p. 193], note 2. A more explicit refutation of Haydon’s account was given, some years after its appearance, by Cowden Clarke (see Preface, no. 10), not, indeed, from personal observation at the time in question, but from general knowledge of the poet’s character:—

“I can scarcely conceive of anything more unjust than the account which that ill-ordered being, Haydon, the artist, left behind him in his ‘Diary’ respecting the idolised object of his former intimacy, John Keats” ... “Haydon’s detraction was the more odious because its object could not contradict the charge, and because it supplied his old critical antagonists (if any remained) with an authority for their charge against him of Cockney ostentation and display. The most mean-spirited and trumpery twaddle in the paragraph was, that Keats was so far gone in sensual excitement as to put cayenne pepper on his tongue when taking his claret. In the first place, if the stupid trick were ever played, I have not the slightest belief in its serious sincerity. During my knowledge of him Keats never purchased a bottle of claret; and from such observation as could not escape me, I am bound to say that his domestic expenses never would have occasioned him a regret or a self-reproof; and, lastly, I never perceived in him even a tendency to imprudent indulgence.”

[p. 198], note 1. In Medwin’s Life of Shelley (1847), pp. 89-92, are some notices of Keats communicated to the writer by Fanny Brawne (then Mrs Lindon), to whom Medwin alludes as his ‘kind correspondent.’ Medwin’s carelessness of statement and workmanship is well known: he is perfectly casual in the use of quotation marks and the like: but I think an attentive reading of the paragraph, beginning on p. 91, which discusses Mr Finch’s account of Keats’s death, leaves no doubt that it continues in substance the quotation previously begun from Mrs Lindon. “That his sensibility,” so runs the text, “was most acute, is true, and his passions were very strong, but not violent; if by that term, violence of temper is implied. His was no doubt susceptible, but his anger seemed rather to turn on himself than others, and in moments of greatest irritation, it was only by a sort of savage despondency that he sometimes grieved and wounded his friends. Violence such as the letter” [of Mr Finch] “describes, was quite foreign to his nature. For more than a twelvemonth before quitting England, I saw him every day”, [this would be true of Fanny Brawne from Oct. 1819 to Sept. 1820, if we except the Kentish Town period in the summer, and is certainly more nearly true of her than of anyone else,] “I often witnessed his sufferings, both mental and bodily, and I do not hesitate to say, that he never could have addressed an unkind expression, much less a violent one, to any human being.” The above passage has been overlooked by critics of Keats, and I am glad to bring it forward, as serving to show a truer and kinder appreciation of the poet by the woman he loved than might be gathered from her phrase in the letter to Dilke so often quoted.

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INDEX.

Abbey, Mr Richard, [11], [17], [70], [77], [138], [144], [192].
Adonaïs (Shelley’s), [209], [210].
Adventures of a younger Son (Trelawney’s), [75].
Alfieri, [205].
Alfred, The, [124].
Anatomy of Melancholy (Burton’s), [167].
Antiquary (Scott’s), [115].
Apollo, Ode to, [21-22].
Autumn, Ode to, [177].
Bailey, Benjamin, [75], [76], [77], [122], [213], [214].
Beattie, [21].
Biographia Literaria (Coleridge’s), [64].
Boccaccio, [148].
Bonaparte, Pauline, Princess Borghese, [204].
Brawne, Miss Fanny, [131] seq., [180-181], [197], [198].
Britannia’s Pastorals (Browne’s), [31].
Brown, Charles, [13], [73], [111] seq., [128], [143] seq., [181], [200], [210].
Browne, [31].
Browning, Robert, [218].
Burnet, [10].
Byron, [1], [19], [65], [210];
Sonnet to, [22].
Canterbury, [71].
Cap and Bells, [183] seq.
Castlereagh, [25].
Champion, The, [82].
Chatterton, [157], [158];
Sonnet to, [22].
Chaucer, [28].
Chichester, [133].
Clarke, Cowden, [3], [8], [12], [22], [23], [72], [84].
Clarke, Rev. John, [4].
‘Cockaigne, King of,’ [121].
Cockney School of Poetry (Articles in Blackwood’s Magazine), [77], [121] seq.
Coleridge, [16], [25], [26], [33], [64].
Cooper, Astley, [18].
Cotterill, Miss, [202], [203].
Cox, Miss Charlotte, [130].
Dante (Cary’s), [113].
Death, Stanzas on, [21];
Keats’ contemplation of, [140];
longing for, [200].
De Quincey, [26].

Devonshire, [87].
Dictionary (Lempriere’s), [10].
Dilke, [73], [210].
Dilke, Charles Wentworth, [73], [128], [135].
Don Juan (Byron’s), [184], [202], [210].
Dryden, [29], [30], [53].
Edmonton, [5], [6], [11], [14], [20].
Eldon, [25].
Elton, Lieutenant, [204].
Emancipation, Literary, [63-64].
Endymion, [66], [68], [71], [76], [80], [83], [86], [91];
Keats’ low opinion of the poem, [91];
its beauties and defects, [91], [106-109];
Drayton’s and Fletcher’s previous treatment of the subject, [94-95];
Keats’ unclassical manner of treatment, [96];
its one bare circumstance, [87];
scenery of the poem, [97];
its quality of nature-interpretation, [98];
its love passages, [100];
comparison of description with a similar one in Richard III., [103];
its lyrics, [104-106];
appreciation of the lyrics a test of true relish for poetry, [106];
its rhythm and music, [109];
Keats’ own preface the best criticism of the poem, [110].
Enfield, [4], [12].
Epistles, their tributes to the conjoined pleasures of literature and friendship, [53];
ungrammatical slips in, [54];
characteristic specimens of, [54-55].
Epithalamium (Spenser’s), [12].
Eve of St Agnes, its simple theme, [160];
its ease and directness of construction, [161];
its unique charm, [163].
Eve of St Mark, contains Keats’ impressions of three Cathedral towns, [164];
its pictures, [164];
the legend, [164];
its pictorial brilliance, [165];
its influence on later English poetry, [165].
Examiner, The (Leigh Hunt’s), [25].
Faerie Queene (Spenser’s), [12], [13], [35].
Faithful Shepherdess (Fletcher’s), [95].
Fanny, Lines to, [134].
Feast of the Poets (Leigh Hunt’s), [32].
Fletcher, [95].
Foliage (Leigh Hunt’s), [73].
Genius, births of, [1].
Gisborne, Letter to Maria (Shelley’s), [30].
Goethe, [154].
Grasshopper and Cricket, [35].
Gray, [113].
Greece, Keats’ love of, [58], [77], [154].
Guy Mannering (Scott’s), [115].
Hammond, Mr, [11], [14].
Hampstead, [72], [77].
Haslam, William, [45], [212] (note).
Haydon, [3], [40], [65], [68], [78], [137], [138], [191], [214].
Hazlitt, William, [83], [84].
History of his own Time (Burnet’s), [10].
Holmes, Edward, [8].
Holy Living and Dying (Jeremy Taylor’s), [206].
Homer, On first looking into Chapman’s (Sonnet), [23-24].
Hood, [219].
Hope, address to, [21].
Horne, R. H., [11].
Houghton, Lord, [75], [211-213].
Hunt, John, [25].
Hunt, Leigh, [22], [24], [25], [32], [35], [39], [49], [51], [68], [72], [78], [196].
Hyperion, [129], [133], [144];
its purpose, [152];
one of the grandest poems of our language, [157];
the influences of Paradise Lost on it, [158];
its blank verse compared with Milton’s, [158];
its elemental grandeur, [160];
remodelling of it, [185] seq.;
description of the changes, [186-187];
special interest of the poem, [187].
Imitation of Spenser (Keats’ first lines), [14], [20].
Indolence, Ode on, [174-175].
Isabella, or the Pot of Basil, [86];
source of its inspiration, [148];
minor blemishes, [149];
its Italian metre, [149];
its conspicuous power and charm, [149];
description of its beauties, [151].
Isle of Wight, [67].
Jennings, Mrs, [5], [11].
Jennings, Capt. M. J., [7].
Joseph and his Brethren (Wells’), [45].
Kean, [81].
Keats, John, various descriptions of, [7], [8], [9], [46], [47], [76], [136], [224];
birth, [2];
education at Enfield, [4];
death of his father, [5];
school-life, [5-9];
his studious inclinations, [10];
death of his mother, [10];
leaves school at the age of fifteen, [11];
is apprenticed to a surgeon, [11];
finishes his school-translation of the Æneid, [12];
reads Spenser’s Epithalamium and Faerie Queene, [12];
his first attempts at composition, [13];
goes to London and walks the hospitals, [14];
his growing passion for poetry, [15];
appointed dresser at Guy’s Hospital, [16];
his last operation, [16];
his early life in London, [18];
his early poems, [20] seq.;
his introduction to Leigh Hunt, [24];
Hunt’s great influence over him, [26] seq.;
his acquaintance with Shelley, [38];
his other friends, [40-45];
personal characteristics, [47-48];
goes to live with his brothers in the Poultry, [48];
publication of his first volume of poems, [65];
retires to the Isle of Wight, [66];
lives at Carisbrooke, [67];
changes to Margate, [68];
money troubles, [70];
spends some time at Canterbury, [71];
receives first payment in advance for Endymion, [71];
lives with his two brothers at Hampstead, [71];
works steadily at Endymion, [71-72];
makes more friends, [73];
writes part of Endymion at Oxford, [76];
his love for his sister Fanny, [77];
stays at Burford Bridge, [80];
goes to the ‘immortal dinner,’ [82];
he visits Devonshire, [87];
goes on a walking tour in Scotland with Charles Brown, [113];
crosses over to Ireland, [116];
returns to Scotland and visits Burns’ country, [118];
sows there the seeds of consumption, [120];
returns to London, [120];
is attacked in Blackwood’s Magazine and the Quarterly Review, [121];
Lockhart’s conduct towards him, [122];
death of his young brother Tom, [128];
goes to live with Charles Brown, [128];
falls in love, [130-131];
visits friends in Chichester, [133];
suffers with his throat, [133];
his correspondence with his brother George, [139];
goes to Shanklin, [143];
collaborates with Brown in writing Otho, [143];
goes to Winchester, [144];
returns again to London, [146];
more money troubles, [146];
determines to make a living by journalism, [146];
lives by himself, [146];
goes back to Mr Brown, [181];
Otho is returned unopened after having been accepted, [182];
want of means prevents his marriage, [190];
his increasing illness, [191] seq.;
temporary improvement in his health, [194];
publishes another volume of poems, [196];
stays with Leigh Hunt’s family, [197];
favourable notice in the Edinburgh Review, [197];
lives with the family of Miss Brawne, [198];
goes with Severn to spend the winter in Italy, [199];
the journey improves his health, [200];
writes his last lines, [201];
stays for a time at Naples, [203];
goes on to Rome, [203-204];
further improvement in his health, [205];
sudden and last relapse, [205];
he is tenderly nursed by his friend Severn, [206];
speaks of himself as already living a ‘posthumous life,’ [207];
grows worse and dies, [208];
various tributes to his memory, [214].
His genius awakened by the Faerie Queene, [13];
influence of other poets on him, [21];
experiments in language, [21], [64], [147], [169];
employment of the ‘Heroic’ couplet, [27], [30];
element and spirit of his own poetry, [50];
experiments in metre, [52];
studied musical effect of his verse, [55];
his Grecian spirit, [58], [77], [95], [114], [154];
view of the aims and principles of poetry, [61];
imaginary dependence on Shakspere, [69];
thoughts on the mystery of Evil, [88];
puns, [72], [202];
his poems Greek in idea, English in manner, [96];
his poetry a true spontaneous expression of his mind, [110];
power of vivifying, [161];
verbal licenses, [169];
influence on subsequent poets, [218];
felicity of phrase, [219].
Personal characteristics:
Celtic temperament, [3], [58], [70];
affectionate nature, [6], [7], [9], [10], [77];
morbid temperament, [6], [70], [211];
lovable disposition, [6], [8], [19], [212], [213];
temper, [7], [9], [233];
personal beauty, [8];
penchant for fighting, [8], [9], [72];
studious nature, [9], [112];
humanity, [39], [89], [114-115];
sympathy and tenderness, [47], [213];
eyes, description of, [46], [207], [224];
love of nature, [47], [55-56];;
voice, 47;
desire of fame, [60], [125], [141], [207];
natural sensibility to physical and spiritual spell of moonlight, [95];
highmindedness, [125-126];
love romances, [127], [130-134], [180-181], [197], [200], [203], [212];
pride and sensitiveness, [211];
unselfishness, [213], [214];
instability, [215].
Various descriptions of, [7], [8], [9], [46], [47], [76], [136], [224].
Keats, Admiral Sir Richard, [7].
Keats, Fanny (Mrs Llanos), [77].
Keats, Mrs (Keats’ mother), [5], [10].
Keats, George, [90], [113], [192], [193], [210].
Keats, Thomas (Keats’ father), [2], [5].
Keats, Tom, [6], [127].
King Stephen, [179].
‘Kirk-men,’ [116-117].
La Belle Dame sans Merci, [165], [166], [218];
origin of the title, [165];
a story of the wasting power of love, [166];
description of its beauties, [166].
Lamb, Charles, [26], [82], [83].
Lamia, [143];
its source, [167];
versification, [167];
the picture of the serpent woman, [168];
Keats’ opinion of the Poem, [168].
Landor, [75].
Laon and Cythna, [76].
Letters, extracts, etc., from Keats’, [66], [67], [68], [69], [77], [78], [79], [81], [85], [87], [88], [89], [90], [91], [114], [116-117], [118], [126], [127], [129], [130], [134], [137], [139], [141], [145], [146], [157], [181], [182], [190], [194-195], [200], [203], [226].
‘Little Keats,’ [19].
Lockhart, [33], [122], [123].
London Magazine, [71].
Mackereth, George Wilson, [18].
Madeline, [162] seq.
‘Maiden-Thought,’ [88], [114].
Man about Town (Webb’s), [38].
Man in the Moon (Drayton’s), [93].
Margate, [68].
Mathew, George Felton, [19].
Meg Merrilies, [115-116].

Melancholy, Ode on, [175].
Milton, [51], [52], [54], [88].
Monckton, Milnes, [211].
Moore, [65].
Morning Chronicle, The, [124].
Mother Hubbard’s Tale (Spenser’s), [31].
Mythology, Greek, [10], [58], [152], [153].
Naples, [203].
Narensky (Brown’s), [74].
Newmarch, [19].
Nightingale, Ode to a, [136], [175], [218].
Nymphs, [73].
Odes, [21], [137], [145], [170-171], [172], [174], [175], [177], [218].
Orion, [11].
Otho, [143], [144], [180], [181].
Oxford, [75], [77].
Oxford Herald, The, [122].
Pan, Hymn to, [83].
Pantheon (Tooke’s), [10].
Paradise Lost, [88], [152], [154], [158].
Patriotism, [115].
Peter Corcoran (Reynolds’), [36].
Plays, [178], [179], [181], [182].
Poems (Keats’ first volume), faint echoes of other poets in them, [51];
their form, [52];
their experiments in metre, [52];
merely poetic preludes, [53];
their rambling tendency, [53];
immaturity, [60];
attractiveness, [61];
characteristic extracts, [63];
their moderate success, [65-66].
Poetic Art, Theory and Practice, [61], [64].
Poetry, joys of, [55];
principle and aims of, [61];
genius of, [110].
Polymetis (Spence’s), [10].
Pope, [19], [29], [30].
‘Posthumous Life,’ [207].
Prince Regent, [25].
Proctor, Mrs, [47].
Psyche, Ode to, [136], [171], [172].
Psyche (Mrs Tighe’s), [21].
Quarterly Review, [121], [124].
Rainbow (Campbell’s), [170].
Rawlings, William, [5].
Reynolds, John Hamilton, [36], [211], [214].
Rice, James, [37], [142].
Rimini, Story of, [27], [30], [31], [35].
Ritchie, [82].
Rome, [204].
Rossetti, [220].
Safie (Reynolds’), [36].
Scott, Sir Walter, [1], [33], [65], [115], [123], [124].
Scott, John, [124].
Sculpture, ancient, [136].
Sea-Sonnet, [67].
Severn, Joseph, [45], [72], [135], [191], [199] seq.
Shakspere, [67], [69].
Shanklin, [67], [143].
Shelley, [16], [32], [38], [56], [85], [110], [199], [203], [209].
Shenstone, [21].
Sleep and Poetry, [52], [60], [61], [109].
Smith, Horace, [33], [81].

Sonnets, [22], [23], [43], [48], [49], [57], [201].
Specimen of an Induction to a Poem, [52].
Spenser, [19], [20], [21], [31], [35], [54], [55].
Stephens, Henry, [18-20].
Surrey Institution, [84].
Taylor, Mr, [71], [81], [126], [144], [146], [206], [211].
Teignmouth, [87].
Tennyson, [218].
Thomson, [21].
Urn, Ode on a Grecian, [136], [172-174].
Vision, The, [187], [193] (see [Hyperion]).
Webb, Cornelius, [38].
Wells, Charles, [45].
Wilson, [33].
Winchester, [143-145].
Windermere, [113], [114].
Wordsworth, [1], [44], [46], [56], [64], [82], [83], [158], [219].

CAMBRIDGE PRINTED BY JOHN CLAY, M.A. AT THE UNIVERSITY PRESS.