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KEATS, JOHN (1795-1821)

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Originally appearing in Volume V15, Page 710 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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KEATS, See also:JOHN (1795-1821) , See also:English poet, was See also:born on the 29th or 31st of See also:October 1795 at the sign of the See also:Swan and Hoop, 24 The See also:Pavement, Moorfields, See also:London. He published his first See also:volume of See also:verse in 1817, his second in the following See also:year, his third in 1820, and died of See also:consumption at See also:Rome on the 23rd of See also:February 1821 in the See also:fourth See also:month of his twenty-See also:sixth year. (For the See also:biographical facts see the later See also:section of this See also:article) In Keats's first See also:book there was little foretaste of anything greatly or even genuinely See also:good; but between the marshy and sandy flats of sterile or futile verse there were undoubtedly some few See also:purple patches of floral promise. The See also:style was frequently detestable—a mixture of sham Spenserian and See also:mock W'ordsworthian, alternately florid and arid. His second book, See also:Endymion, rises in its best passages to the highest level of See also:Barn-See also:field and of See also:Lodge, the two previous poets with whom, had he published nothing more, he might most properly have been classed; and this, among See also:minor minstrels, is no unenviable See also:place. His third book raised him at once to a foremost See also:rank in the highest class of English poets. See also:Shelley, up to twenty, had written little or nothing that would have done See also:credit to a boy of ten; and of Keats also it may be said that the merit of his See also:work at twenty-five was hardly by comparison more wonderful than its demerit at twenty-two. His first book See also:fell as See also:flat as it deserved to fall; the reception of his second, though less considerate than on the whole it deserved, was not more contemptuous than that of immeasurably better books published about the same See also:time by See also:Coleridge, See also:Landor and Shelley. A critic of exceptional carefulness and candour might have noted in the first book so singular an example of a See also:stork among the See also:cranes as the famous and notable See also:sonnet on See also:Chapman's See also:Homer; a just See also:judge would have indicated, a partial See also:advocate might have exaggerated, the value of such See also:golden See also:grain amid a garish See also:harvest of tares as the hymn to See also:Pan and the See also:translation into verse,of See also:Titian's Bacchanal which glorify the weedy See also:wilderness of Endymion. But the hardest thing said of that poem by the Quarterly reviewer was unconsciously echoed by the future author of Adonais—that it was all but absolutely impossible to read through; and the obscener insolence of the " Blackguard's See also:Magazine," as Landor afterwards very justly labelled it, is explicable though certainly not excusable if we glance back at such a passage as that where Endymion exchanges fulsome and liquorish endearments with the " known unknown from whom his being sips such See also:darling (!) essence." Such nauseous and pitiful phrases as these, and certain passages in his See also:correspondence, make us understand the source of the most offensive imputations or insinuations levelled against the writer's manhood; and, while admitting that neither his love-letters, nor the last piteous outcries of his wailing and shrieking agony, would ever have been made public by merciful or respectful editors, we must also admit that, if they ought never to have been published, it is no less certain that they ought never to have been written; that a manful See also:kind of See also:man or even a manly sort of boy, in his love-making or in his suffering, will not howl and snivel after such a lamentable See also:fashion. One thing hitherto inexplicable a very slight and rapid glance at his amatory correspondence will amply suffice to explain: how it came to pass that the woman so passionately beloved by so See also:great a poet should have thought it the hopeless See also:attempt of a mistaken kindness to revive the memory of a man for whom the best that could be wished was See also:complete and compassionate oblivion. For the See also:side of the man's nature presented to her inspection, this probably was all that charity or See also:reason could have desired.

But that there was a finer side to the man, even if considered apart from the poet, his correspondence with his See also:

friends and their See also:general See also:evidence to his See also:character give more sufficient See also:proof than perhaps we might have derived from the general impression See also:left on us by his See also:works; though indeed the See also:preface to Endymion itself, however illogical in its obviously implied See also:suggestion that the poem published was undeniably unworthy of publication, gave proof or hint at least that after all its author was something of a man. And the eighteenth of his letters to See also:Miss Brawne stands out in See also:bright and brave contrast with such as seem in-compatible with the traditions of his character on its manlierside. But if it must be said that he lived See also:long enough only to give promise of being a man, it must also be said that he lived long enough to give assurance of being a poet who was not born to come See also:short of the first rank. Not even a hint of such a See also:probability could have been gathered from his first or even from his second See also:appearance; after the publication of his third volume it was no longer a See also:matter of possible debate among See also:judges of tolerable competence that this improbability had become a certainty. Two or three phrases cancelled, two or three lines erased, would have left us in See also:Lamia one of the most faultless as surely as one of the most glorious jewels in the See also:crown of English See also:poetry. See also:Isabella, feeble and awkward in narrative to a degree almost incredible in a student of See also:Dryden and a See also:pupil of See also:Leigh See also:Hunt, is overcharged with episodical effects of splendid and pathetic expression beyond the reach of either. The See also:Eve of St See also:Agnes, aiming at no doubtful success, succeeds in evading all casual difficulty in the See also:line of narrative; with no See also:shadow of pretence to such See also:interest as may be derived from stress of incident or See also:depth of sentiment, it stands out among all other famous poems as a perfect and unsurpassable study in pure See also:colour and clear See also:melody—a study in which the figure of Madeline brings back upon the mind's See also:eye, if only as moonlight recalls a sense of See also:sunshine, the nuptial picture of See also:Marlowe's See also:Hero and the sleeping presence of See also:Shakespeare's Imogen. Beside this poem should always be placed the less famous but not less See also:precious Eve of St See also:Mark, a fragment unexcelled for the See also:simple perfection of its perfect simplicity, exquisite alike in suggestion and in accomplishment. The See also:triumph of See also:Hyperion is as nearly complete as the failure of Endymion; yet Keats never gave such proof of a manly devotion and rational sense of See also:duty to his See also:art as in his See also:resolution to leave this great poem unfinished; not, as we may gather from his correspondence on the subject, for the pitiful reason assigned by his publishers, that of discouragement at the reception given to his former work, but on the solid and reason-able ground that a Miltonic study had something in its very See also:scheme and nature too artificial, too studious of a See also:foreign See also:influence, to be carried on and carried out at such length as was implied by his See also:original See also:design. Fortified and purified as it had been on a first revision, when much See also:introductory See also:allegory and much tentative effusion of sonorous and superfluous verse had been rigorously clipped down or pruned away, it could not long have retained spirit enough to support or inform the shadowy See also:body of a subject so little charged with tangible significance. The See also:faculty of assimilation as distinguished from See also:imitation, than which there can be no surer or stronger sign of strong and sure original See also:genius, is not more evident in the most Miltonic passages of the revised Hyperion than in the more Shakespearian passages of the unrevised tragedy which no See also:radical correction could have leftother than radically incorrigible. It is no conventional exaggeration, no hyperbolical phrase of flattery with more See also:sound than sense in it, to say that in this chaotic and puerile See also:play of See also:Otho the Great there are such verses as Shakespeare might not without See also:pride have signed at the See also:age when he wrote and even at the age when he rewrote the tragedy of Romeo and Juliet.

The dramatic fragment of See also:

King See also:Stephen shows far more See also:power of See also:hand and gives far more promise of success than does that of Shelley's See also:Charles the First. Yet we cannot say with any confidence that even this far from extravagant promise would certainly or probably have been kept; it is certain only that Keats in these attempts did"at least succeed in showing a possibility of future excellence as a tragic or at least a romantic dramatist. In every other line of high and serious poetry his triumph was actual and consummate; here only was it no more than potential or incomplete. As a ballad of the more lyrical See also:order, La Belle See also:dame sans merci is not less absolutely excellent, less triumphantly perfect in force and clearness of impression, that as a narrative poem is Lamia. In his lines on See also:Robin See also:Hood, and in one or two other less noticeable studies of the kind, he has shown thorough and easy mastery of the beautiful See also:metre inherited by See also:Fletcher from See also:Barnfield and by See also:Milton from Fletcher. The simple force of spirit and style which distinguishes the genuine ballad manner from all See also:spurious attempts at an artificial simplicity was once more at least achieved in his verses on the crowning creation of See also:Scott's humaner and manlier genius—Meg Merrilies. No little injustice has been done to Keats by such devotees as See also:fix their mind's eye only on the more salient and distinctive notes of a genius which in fact was very much more various and tentative, less limited and See also:peculiar, than would be inferred from an exclusive study of his more specially characteristic work. But within the limits of that work must we look of course for the genuine See also:credentials of his fame; and highest among them we must See also:rate his unequalled and unrivalled odes. Of these perhaps the two nearest to See also:absolute perfection, to the triumphant achievement and accomplishment of the very utmost beauty possible to human words, may be that to Autumn and that on a Grecian See also:Urn; the most radiant, fervent and musical is that to a See also:Nightingale; the most pictorial and perhaps the tenderest in its ardour of See also:passion-See also:ate See also:fancy is that to See also:Psyche; the subtlest in sweetness of thought and feeling is that on See also:Melancholy. Greater lyrical poetry the See also:world may have seen than any that is in these; lovelier it surely has never seen, nor ever can it possibly see. From the divine fragment of an unfinished See also:ode to See also:Maia we can but guess that if completed it would have been worthy of a place beside the highest. His remaining lyrics have many beauties about them, but none perhaps can be called thoroughly beautiful.

He has certainly left us one perfect sonnet of the first rank and as certainly he has left us but one. Keats has been promoted by See also:

modern See also:criticism to a place beside Shakespeare. The faultless force and the profound subtlety of his deep and cunning See also:instinct for the absolute expression of absolute natural beauty can hardly be questioned or overlooked; and this is doubtless the one See also:main distinctive See also:gift or power which denotes him as a poet among all his equals, and gives him a right to rank for ever beside Coleridge and Shelley. As a man, the two admirers who did best service to his memory were See also:Lord See also:Houghton and See also:Matthew See also:Arnold. These alone, among all of their See also:day who have written of him without the disadvantage or See also:advantage of a See also:personal acquaintance, have clearly seen and shown us the manhood of the man. That ridiculous and degrading See also:legend which imposed so strangely on the generous tenderness of Shelley, while evoking the very natural and allowable See also:laughter of See also:Byron, fell to dust at once for ever on the appearance of Lord Houghton's See also:biography, which gave perfect proof to all time that " men have died and See also:worms have eaten them " but not for fear of critics or through suffering inflicted by reviews. Somewhat too sensually sensitive Keats may have been in either capacity, but the nature of the man was as far as was the quality of the poet above the pitiful level of a creature whose soul could let itself be snuffed out by an article "; and, in fact, owing doubtless to the See also:accident of a See also:death which followed so fast on his See also:early appearance and his dubious reception as a poet, the insolence and injustice of his reviewers in general have been comparatively and even considerably exaggerated. Except from the See also:chief See also:fountain-See also:head of professional ribaldry then open in the world of See also:literary journalism, no reek of personal insult arose to offend his nostrils; and the See also:tactics of such unwashed malignants were inevitably suicidal; the references to his brief experiment of See also:apprenticeship to a surgeon which are quoted from See also:Blackwood, in the shorter as well as in the longer memoir by Lord Houghton, could leave no See also:bad odour behind them See also:save what might hang about men's yet briefer recollection of his assailant's unmemorable existence. The false Keats, therefore, whom Shelley pitied and Byron despised would have been, had he ever existed, a thing beneath compassion or contempt. That such a man could have had such a genius is almost evidently impossible; and yet more evident is the proof which remains on See also:everlasting See also:record that none was ever further from the See also:chance of decline to such degradation than the real and actual man who made that name immortal. (A. C.

S.) Subjoined are the chief particulars of Keats's See also:

life. He was the eldest son of See also:Thomas Keats and his wife Frances Jennings, and was baptized at St Botolph's, Bishopsgate, on the 18th of See also:December 1795. The entry of his See also:baptism is supplemented by a marginal See also:note stating that he was born on the 31st' of October. Thomas Keats was employed in the Swan and Hoop See also:livery stables, See also:Finsbury Pavement, London. He had married his See also:master's daughter, and managed the business on the retirement of his See also:father-in-See also:law. In See also:April 1804 Thomas Keats was killed by a fall from his See also:horse, and within a year of this event Mrs Keats married See also:William Rawlings, a See also:stable-keeper. The See also:marriage proved an unhappy one, and in 1806 Mrs Rawlings, with her See also:children John, See also:George, Thomas and Frances See also:Mary (afterwards Mrs Llanos, d. 1889), went to live at See also:Edmonton with her See also:mother, who had inherited a considerable competence from her See also:husband. There is evidence that Keats's parents were by no means of the See also:commonplace type that might be hastily inferred from these associations. They had desired to send their sons to See also:Harrow, but John Keats and his two See also:brothers were eventually sent to a school kept by John See also:Clarke at See also:Enfield, where he became intimate with his master's son, Charles Cowden Clarke. His vivacity of temperament showed itself at school in a love of fighting, but in the last year of his school life he See also:developed a great appetite for See also:reading of all sorts. In 1810 he left school to be apprenticed to Mr Thomas See also:Hammond, a surgeon in Edmonton.

He was still within easy reach of his old school, where he frequently borrowed books, especially the works of See also:

Spenser and the Elizabethans. With Hammond he quarrelled before the termination of his apprenticeship, and in 1814 the connexion was broken by mutual consent. His mother had died in 1810, and in 1814 Mrs Jennings. The children were left in the care of two guardians, one of whom, See also:Richard See also:Abbey, seems to have made himself solely responsible. John Keats went to London to study at See also:Guy's and St Thomas's hospitals, living at first alone at 8 See also:Dean See also:Street, See also:Borough, and later with two See also:fellow students in St Thomas's Street. It does not appear that he neglected his medical studies, but his chief interest was turned to poetry. In See also:March 1816 he became a See also:dresser at Guy's, but about the same time his poetic gifts were stimulated by an acquaintance formed with Leigh Hunt. His friendship with See also:Benjamin See also:Haydon, the painter, See also:dates from later in the same year. Hunt introduced him to Shelley, who showed the younger poet a See also:constant kindness. In 1816 Keats moved to the Poultry to be with his brothers George and Tom, the former of whom was then employed in his See also:guardian's counting-See also:house, but much of the poet's time was spent at Leigh Hunt's cottage at See also:Hampstead. In the See also:winter of 1816–1817 he definitely abandoned See also:medicine, and in the See also:spring appeared Poems by John Keats dedicated to Leigh Hunt, and published by Charles and See also:James Oilier. On the 14th of April he left London to find quiet for work.

He spent some time at See also:

Shanklin, Isle of See also:Wight, then at See also:Margate and See also:Canterbury, where he was joined by his See also:brother Tom. In the summer the three brothers took lodgings in Well Walk, Hampstead, where Keats formed a fast friendship with Charles See also:Wentworth See also:Dilke and Charles Armitage See also:Brown. In See also:September of the same year (1817) he paid a visit to his friend, Benjamin See also:Bailey, at See also:Oxford, and in See also:November he finished Endymion at See also:Burford See also:Bridge, near See also:Dorking. His youngest brother had developed consumption, and in March John went to See also:Teignmouth to See also:nurse him in place of his brother George, who had decided to See also:sail for See also:America with his newly married wife, Georgiana See also:Wylie. In May (1818) Keats returned to London, and soon after appeared Endymion: A Poetic See also:Romance (1818), bearing on the See also:title-See also:page as See also:motto "The stretched metre of an See also:antique See also:song." See also:Late in See also:June Keats and his friend Armitage Brown started on a walking tour in See also:Scotland, vividly described in the poet's letters. The fatigue and hardship involved proved too great a See also:strain for Keats, who was forbidden by an See also:Inverness See also:doctor to continue his tour. He returned to London by See also:boat, arriving on the 18th of See also:August. The autumn was spent in constant attendance on his brother Tom, who died at the beginning of December. There is no doubt that he resented the attacks on him in Blackwood's Magazine (August 1818), and the Quarterly See also:Review (April 1818, published only in September), but his chief preoccupations were elsewhere. After his brother's death he went to live with his friend Brown. He had already made the acquaintance of Fanny Brawne, a girl of seventeen, who lived with her mother See also:close by. For her Keats quickly developed a consuming passion.

He was in indifferent See also:

health, and, owing partly _ to Mr Abbey's mismanagement, in difficulties for See also:money. Nevertheless his best work belongs to this See also:period. In See also:July 1819 he went to Shanklin, living with James See also:Rice. They were soon joined by Brown. The next two months Keats spent with Brown at See also:Winchester, enjoying an See also:interval of calmness due to his See also:absence from Fanny Brawne. At Winchester he completed Lamia and Otho the Great, which he had begun in See also:conjunction with Brown, and began his See also:historical tragedy of King Stephen. Before See also:Christmas he had returned to London and his bondage to Fanny. In See also:January 182o his brother George paid a short visit to London, but received no confidence from him. The fatal nature of Keats's illness showed itself on the 3rd of February, but in March he recovered sufficiently to be See also:present at the private view of Haydon's picture of " See also:Christ's Entry into See also:Jerusalem." In May he removed to a lodging in Wesleyan Place, Kentish See also:Town, to be near Leigh Hunt who eventually took him into his house. In July appeared his third and last book, Lamia, Isabella, The Eve of St Agnes and other Poems (182o). Keats left the Hunts abruptly in August in consequence of a delay in receiving one of Fanny Brawne's letters which had been broken open by a servant. He went to Wentworth Place, where he was taken in by the Brawnes.

The suggestion that he should spend the winter in See also:

Italy was followed up by an invitation from Shelley to See also:Pisa. This, however, he refused. But on the 18th of September 182o he set out for See also:Naples in See also:company with See also:Joseph See also:Severn, the artist, who had long been his friend. The travellers settled in the Piazza de See also:Spagna, Rome. Keats was devotedly tended by Dr (afterwards See also:Sir) James Clarke and Severn, and died on the 23rd of February 1821. He was buried on the 27th in the old See also:Protestant See also:cemetery, near the See also:pyramid of See also:Cestius. See also:Buxton See also:Forman (4 vols., 1883; re-issue with corrections and additions, 1889). Of the many other See also:editions of Keats's poems may be mentioned that in the See also:Muses' Library, The Poems of John Keats (1896), edited by G. See also:Thorn See also:Drury with an introduction by See also:Robert See also:Bridges, and another by E. de S6lincourt, 1905. The Letters of John Keats to Fanny Brawne (1889) were edited with introduction and notes by H. Buxton Forman, and the Letters of John Keats to his See also:Family and Friends (1891) by See also:Sidney See also:Colvin, who is also the author of the monograph, Keats (1887), in the English Men of Letters See also:Series. See also The Papers of a Critic.

Selected from the Writings of the late Charles Wentworth Dilke (1875), and for further See also:

bibliographical See also:information and particulars of MS. See also:sources the " Editor's Preface," &c. to a reprint edited by H. Buxton Forman (See also:Glasgow, 1900). A facsimile of Keats's autograph MS. of " Hyperion," See also:purchased by the See also:British Museum in 1904, was published by E. de S6lincourt (Oxford, 1905). (M.

End of Article: KEATS, JOHN (1795-1821)

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