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English Men of Letters

EDITED BY JOHN MORLEY


KEATS




  KEATS


  BY SIDNEY COLVIN


  MACMILLAN AND CO., LIMITED
  ST MARTIN'S STREET, LONDON
  1909




  _First Edition 1887._
      _Reprinted 1889, 1898, 1899, 1902, 1909._
  _Library Edition 1902._
      _Reprinted 1906._
  _Pocket Edition 1909._




PREFACE.


With the name of Keats that of his first biographer, the late Lord
Houghton, must always justly remain associated. But while the sympathetic
charm of Lord Houghton's work will keep it fresh, as a record of the
poet's life it can no longer be said to be sufficient. Since the revised
edition of the _Life and Letters_ appeared in 1867, other students and
lovers of Keats have been busy, and much new information concerning him
been brought to light, while of the old information some has been proved
mistaken. No connected account of Keats's life and work, in accordance
with the present state of knowledge, exists, and I have been asked to
contribute such an account to the present series. I regret that lack of
strength and leisure has so long delayed the execution of the task
entrusted to me. The chief authorities and printed texts which I have
consulted (besides the original editions of the Poems) are the
following:--

1. Lord Byron and some of his Contemporaries. By Leigh Hunt. London, 1828.

2. The Life of Percy Bysshe Shelley. By Thomas Medwin. London, 2 vols.,
1847.

3. Life, Letters, and Literary Remains of John Keats. Edited by Richard
Monckton Milnes. 2 vols., London, 1848.

4. Life of Benjamin Robert Haydon. Edited and compiled by Tom Taylor.
Second edition. 3 vols., London, 1853.

5. The Autobiography of Leigh Hunt, with Reminiscences of Friends and
Contemporaries. 3 vols., London, 1850.

6. The Poetical Works of John Keats. With a memoir by Richard Monckton
Milnes. London, 1854.

7. The Autobiography of Leigh Hunt. [Revised edition, edited by Thornton
Hunt.] London, 1860.

8. The Vicissitudes of Keats's Fame: an article by Joseph Severn in the
_Atlantic Monthly Magazine_ for 1863 (vol. xi. p. 401).

9. The Life and Letters of John Keats. By Lord Houghton. New edition,
London, 1867.

10. Recollections of John Keats: an article by Charles Cowden Clarke in
the _Gentleman's Magazine_ for 1874 (N. S. vol. xii. p. 177). Afterwards
reprinted with modifications in Recollections of Writers, by Charles and
Mary Cowden Clarke. London, 1878.

11. The Papers of a Critic. Selected from the writings of the late Charles
Wentworth Dilke. With a biographical notice by Sir Charles Wentworth
Dilke, Bart., M.P. 2 vols., London, 1875.

12. Benjamin Robert Haydon: Correspondence and Table-Talk. With a memoir
by Frederic Wordsworth Haydon. 2 vols., London, 1876.

13. The Poetical Works of John Keats, chronologically arranged and edited,
with a memoir, by Lord Houghton [Aldine edition of the British Poets].
London, 1876.

14. Letters of John Keats to Fanny Brawne, with Introduction and Notes by
Harry Buxton Forman. London, 1878.

A biographer cannot ignore these letters now that they are published: but
their publication must be regretted by all who hold that human respect and
delicacy are due to the dead no less than to the living, and to genius no
less than to obscurity.

15. The Poetical Works and other Writings of John Keats. Edited with notes
and appendices by Harry Buxton Forman. 4 vols., London, 1883.

In this edition, besides the texts reprinted from the first editions, all
the genuine letters and additional poems published in 3, 6, 9, 13, and 14
of the above are brought together, as well as most of the biographical
notices contained in 1, 2, 4, 5, 7, 10, and 12: also a series of
previously unpublished letters of Keats to his sister: with a great amount
of valuable illustrative and critical material besides. Except for a few
errors, which I shall have occasion to point out, Mr Forman's work might
for the purpose of the student be final, and I have necessarily been
indebted to it at every turn.

16. The Letters and Poems of John Keats. Edited by John Gilmer Speed. 3
vols., New York, 1883.

17. The Poetical Works of John Keats. Edited by William T. Arnold. London,
1884.

The Introduction to this edition contains the only attempt with which I am
acquainted at an