Keats John - John Keats: a new life

Published with assistance from the Annie Burr Lewis Fund

Copyright 2012 Nicholas Roe

All rights reserved. This book may not be reproduced in whole or in part, in any form (beyond that copying permitted by Sections 107 and 108 of the U.S. Copyright Law and except by reviewers for the public press) without written permission from the publishers.

For information about this and other Yale University Press publications, please contact:

U.S. Office:

Europe Office:

Set in Arno Pro by IDSUK (DataConnection) Ltd

Printed in Great Britain by TJ International Ltd, Padstow, Cornwall

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Roe, Nicholas.

John Keats: a new life/Nicholas Roe.

p. cm.

ISBN 978-0-300-12465-1 (cl : alk. paper)

1. Keats, John, 17951821. 2. Poets, English19th centuryBiography.

I. Title.

PR4836.R525 2012

821.7dc23

[B]

2012017299

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

For Matthew

These are not Materials for a Life of our poor Friend which it will do to communicate to the Worldthey are too wretched to be told by a Cavern Wind unto a Forest old'How strange it seems that such a Creature of the Element as he should have sprung from such gross Realities.

John Taylor to Richard Woodhouse, reporting

Richard Abbey's account of John Keats, 23 April 1827

After Robert Hooke, A View of the Hospital of Bethlem, c. 1771. Wellcome Library, London.

After Robert Hooke, detail of A View of the Hospital of Bethlem, c. 1771. Wellcome Library, London.

Caius Cibber, Melancholy Madness, c. 1676. The Bethlem Art and History Collections Trust.

Caius Cibber, Raving Madness, c. 1676. The Bethlem Art and History Collections Trust.

a) Thomas Hosmer Shepherd, The Temple of the Muses, 1828, from Thomas Hosmer Shepherd, Metropolitan Improvements; or London in the Nineteenth Century (London, 18271830).
b) Halfpenny book token, 1794. Author's photograph.

Unknown artist, Dooms of the Mighty Dead, Sculpture of Christian Imagery over the entrance Gate of the Cemetery, St Stephen's Coleman Street, c. 1805. Guildhall Library, City of London.

Houses in Craven Street, late nineteenth centuryearly twentieth century. From Marie Adam, Fanny Keats (London 1937).

Fred Holland Day, Alice Jennings's house in Church Street, 1829, The Louis A. Holman Collection of Keats Iconography and Related Papers, Houghton Library Harvard University.

Unknown artist, Clarke's Academy at Enfield. The Louis A. Holman Collection of Keats Iconography and Related Papers, Houghton Library, Harvard University.

Enclosure map of Enfield, 1803. Enfield Local Studies Centre & Archive.

Unknown artist, John Keats's school medal, 1810. Reproduced from Amy Lowell, John Keats (2 vols, Boston, 1925).

Unknown artist, Silhouettes of Dr Thomas Hammond and his wife Susanna. Private collection.

Fred, Holland Day, Dr Thomas Hammond's home in Church Street, 1889. The Louis A. Holman Collection of Keats Iconography and Related Papers, Houghton Library, Harvard University.

Fred Holland Day, footbridge on the path between Edmonton and Enfield, 1889. The Louis A. Holman Collection of Keats Iconography and Related Papers, Houghton Library, Harvard University.

Fred Holland Day, 8 Dean Street, Southwark, 1889. The Louis A. Holman Collection of Keats Iconography and Related Papers, Houghton Library, Harvard University.

John Pass, The North Front of Guy's Hospital, c. 1800. City of London, Keats House, Hampstead.

A page from Keats's medical and anatomical notebook, c. 1816. City of London, Keats House, Hampstead.

Title-page of Poems, by John Keats, 1817. Used by permission of the Rare Book Department, Free Library of Philadelphia.

Keats's ticket to William Allen's Lectures, 1815. The Seymour Adelman Collection, Bryn Mawr College Library.

Unknown artist, Henry Stephens City of London, Keats House, Hampstead.

Attributed to Joseph Severn, George Wilson Mackereth, c. 181617. The Louis A. Holman Collection of Keats Iconography and Related Papers, Houghton Library, Harvard University.

Apothecaries Hall, 2011. Author's photograph.

Fred Holland Day, 2 Well Walk, Hampstead, 1889. The Louis A. Holman Collection of Keats Iconography and Related Papers, Houghton Library, Harvard University.

After Charles Penny, Sir Astley Cooper, c. 1825. City of London, Keats House, Hampstead.

Benjamin Robert Haydon, Christ's Entry into Jerusalem, 181420. Mount St Mary's Seminary, Cincinnati. Author's photograph.

Unknown artist, Montague House, before 1818. The Louis A. Holman Collection of Keats Iconography and Related Papers, Houghton Library, Harvard University.

G.F. Sergent, View of Shanklin, engraved by J. Woods. c. 1839. Author's collection.

J. Fisher, the Mitre Inn, Oxford. The Louis A. Holman Collection of Keats Iconography and Related Papers, Houghton Library, Harvard University.

F. Mackenzie, Magdalen Hall, Oxford, 1814. Author's collection.

The old Fox and Hounds Inn, Burford Bridge, 2009. Author's photograph.

Map of Hampstead, 1814, from J.J. Park, Topography of Hampstead (1814).

20 The Strand, Teignmouth, 2008. Author's photograph.

Charles Armitage Brown, self portrait c. 1827. By kind permission of Dennis King of New Plymouth, New Zealand.

Unknown artist, Charles Wentworth Dilke, c. 1820. City of London, Keats House, Hampstead.

Unknown artist, Maria Dilke, c. 1820. City of London, Keats House, Hampstead.

a) Unknown artist, John Taylor, c. 1825 City of London, Keats House, Hampstead.
b) Unknown artist, James Augustus Hessey, c. 1825. City of London, Keats House, Hampstead.

Joseph Severn, self-portrait, 1820. City of London, Keats House, Hampstead.

Thomas Charles Wageman, James Henry Leigh Hunt, c. 1815. Reproduced with permission from the National Portrait Gallery.

William Bewick, William Hazlitt, 1825. Reproduced with permission from the National Portrait Gallery.

Unknown artist, Charles Cowden Clarke, c. 184154. Reproduced with permission from the National Portrait Gallery.

Joseph Severn, John Hamilton Reynolds, 1818. Reproduced with permission from the National Portrait Gallery.

Unknown artist, Lincluden Priory, Dumfries, c. 1770.

Derry-na-Cullen, Isle of Mull, 2009. Author's photograph.

Effigies of Scottish kings at Iona, 2009. Author's photograph.

Fingal's cave, Staffa, 2009. Author's photograph.

Beauly Priory, Beauly, Inverness-shire, 2010. Author's photograph.

After Thomas Charles Wageman, Charles Jeremiah Wells, c. 1822. City of London Keats House, Hampstead.

After Joseph Severn, Tom Keats, c. 1817. From the original at the Keats-Shelley House Rome.