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 LordHoughton, must always justly remain associated. But while the sympatheticcharm of Lord Houghton’s work will keep it fresh, as a record of thepoet’s life it can no longer be said to be sufficient. Since the revisededition of the Life and Letters appeared in 1867, other students andlovers of Keats have been busy, and much new information concerning himbeen brought to light, while of the old information some has been provedmistaken. No connected account of Keats’s life and work, in accordancewith the present state of knowledge, exists, and I have been asked tocontribute such an account to the present series. I regret that lack ofstrength and leisure has so long delayed the execution of the taskentrusted to me. The chief authorities and printed texts which I haveconsulted (besides the original editions of the Poems) are thefollowing:—
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 RichardMonckton 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 andContemporaries. 3 vols., London, 1850.
[Pg vi]6. The Poetical Works of John Keats. With a memoir by Richard MoncktonMilnes. London, 1854.
7. The Autobiography of Leigh Hunt. [Revised edition, edited by ThorntonHunt.] London, 1860.
8. The Vicissitudes of Keats’s Fame: an article by Joseph Severn in theAtlantic 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 inthe Gentleman’s Magazine for 1874 (N. S. vol. xii. p. 177). Afterwardsreprinted with modifications in Recollections of Writers, by Charles andMary Cowden Clarke. London, 1878.
11. The Papers of a Critic. Selected from the writings of the late CharlesWentworth Dilke. With a biographical notice by Sir Charles WentworthDilke, Bart., M.P. 2 vols., London, 1875.
12. Benjamin Robert Haydon: Correspondence and Table-Talk. With a memoirby 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 byHarry Buxton Forman. Londo