CONTENTS

CHAPTER I
PAGE
1795-1815: Birth and Parentage: Schooldays andApprenticeship [1]
CHAPTER II
October 1815-March 1817: Hospital Studies: PoeticalAmbitions: Leigh Hunt [27]
CHAPTER III
Winter 1816-1817: Haydon: Other New Friendships:The Die Cast for Poetry [59]
CHAPTER IV
The ‘Poems’ of 1817 [85]
CHAPTER V
April-December 1817: Work on Endymion [130]
CHAPTER VI
Endymion.—I. The Story: Its Sources, Plan, AndSymbolism [164]
CHAPTER VII
Endymion.—II. The Poetry: Its Qualities andAffinities [206]
CHAPTER VIII
December 1817-June 1818: Hampstead and Teignmouth:Emigration of George Keats [242]
CHAPTER IX
June-August 1818: the Scottish Tour [272]
CHAPTER X
September-December 1818: Blackwood and the Quarterly:Death of Tom Keats [297]
CHAPTER XI
December 1818-June 1819: Keats and Brown House-mates:Fanny Brawne: Work and Idleness [321]
CHAPTER XII
June 1819-January 1820: Shanklin, Winchester,Hampstead: Trouble and Health Failure [358]
CHAPTER XIII
Work of 1818, 1819.—I. The Achievements [385]
CHAPTER XIV
Work of 1818, 1819.—II. The Fragments andExperiments [424]
CHAPTER XV
February-August 1820: Hampstead and Kentish Town:Publication of Lamia Volume [455]
CHAPTER XVI
August 1820-February 1821: Voyage to Italy: LastDays and Death at Rome [485]
CHAPTER XVII
Epilogue [513]
Appendix [551]
Index [559]

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

PLATE PAGE
I. Head of Keats Frontispiece
From a posthumous oil painting by Joseph Severn in thepossession of the Marquis of Crewe, K.G.
II. Portrait of James Henry Leigh Hunt [46]
From an engraving by Mayer after a drawing by J.Hayter.
III. Portrait of Benjamin Robert Haydon [62]
From an engraving by Thomson after Haydon.
IV. Life-Mask of Keats [144]
From an electrotype in the National Portrait Gallery.
V. ’Onward the Tiger and the Leopard Pants,With Asian Elephants’ [230]
From an engraving after a sarcophagus relief at WoburnAbbey.
VI. A Sacrifice to Apollo [264]
From an engraving by Vivares and Woollett after Claude.
VII. The Enchanted Castle [266]
From an engraving by Vivares and Woollett after Claude.
VIII. ’And There I’d Sit and read all Day like aPicture of Somebody Reading’ [338]
From an oil painting by Joseph Severn in the NationalPortrait Gallery
IX. ’Figures on a Greek Vase—A Man and TwoWomen’ [342]
From an etching in Piranesi’s Vasi e Candelabri.
X. Page from Isabella; or, the Pot of Basil [394]
From an autograph by Keats in the British Museum.
XI. The Sosibios Vase: Profile and Frieze [416]
From an engraving in the Musée Napoléon.
XII. ’What Pipes and Timbrels? what wild Ecstasy?’ [418]
Bacchanalian friezes, (A) from the Townley Vase in theBritish Museum, (B) from the Borghese Vase in the Louvre.
XIII. Page from a Letter of Haydon to ElizabethBarrett, 1834 [532]

CHAPTER I

1795-1815: BIRTH AND PARENTAGE: SCHOOLDAYS AND APPRENTICESHIP

Obscure family history—The Finsbury livery stable—The surname Keats—Origin probably Cornish—Character of parents—Traits of childhood—The Enfield School—The Edmonton home—The Pymmes Brook—Testimonies of schoolmates—Edward Holmes—Charles Cowden Clarke—New passion for reading—Left an orphan—Apprenticed to a surgeon—Relations with his master—Readings in the poets—The Faerie Queene—The Spenser fever—Other poetic influences—Influences of nature—Early attempts in verse—Early sympathizers—George Felton Mathew—Move to London.