Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 30.djvu/278

 ments to Shakespeare, for which the author was rewarded, in the jubilee year 1769, by the mayor and corporation of Stratford-upon-Avon, with an ink-standish made out of a mulberry-tree planted by Shakespeare, and with the freedom of the town. 9. ‘The Monument in Arcadia,’ a dramatic poem in two acts, 1773; suggested by Poussin's picture of the Arcadian shepherds and shepherdesses contemplating a monument with the words ‘Et in Arcadia ego.’ 10. ‘Sketches from Nature, taken and coloured in a Journey to Margate,’ 1779, 2 vols.; an imitation of Sterne, which passed through several editions, and was translated into French. 11. ‘Poetical Works,’ 1781, 2 vols.; they were dedicated to Dr. Heberden, and to them was prefixed Keate's portrait, engraved by J. K. Sherwin from a painting by his intimate friend J. Plott, a pupil of Nathaniel Hone. This included all his published poems, with many additions, the chief of which was one canto of the ‘Helvetiad,’ written at Geneva in 1756, and intended for a description of the famous revolution in Switzerland in the fourteenth century. He was dissuaded by Voltaire from completing it. 12. ‘Epistle to Angelica Kauffman,’ 1781. 13. ‘The Distressed Poet, a Serio-comic Poem,’ 1787; describing his troubles through a protracted suit at common law with his architect, Mr. Adam. 14. ‘Account of the Pelew Islands, from the Journals of Captain Henry Wilson and some of his officers, shipwrecked there in the Antelope in August 1783,’ 1788; it was often reprinted (the best edition being that with a supplement by J. P. Hockin in 1803), and was translated into French (1793) and German (1800). The French translation has been attributed to Mirabeau.

Some of Keate's poems are in Pearch's ‘Collection,’ iii. 269–74; and he wrote prologues and epilogues for the dramatic representations at Newcome's Hackney school, besides adapting Voltaire's ‘Semiramis’ for the stage. Keate also contributed ‘Observations on some Roman Earthenware’ to the ‘Archæologia,’ vi. 125–9.

A few stories of Keate are in Peake's ‘Memoirs of the Colman Family,’ ii. 326–7, and Mrs. Delany in her ‘Autobiography’ describes her pleasure in visiting his museum in 1779. His specimens of shells were sold by auction after his death. Douce's gift of coins to the Bodleian Library included the collection of Keate.

 KEATE, JOHN (1773–1852), head-master of Eton, son of William Keate, brother of Robert Keate [q. v.], and nephew of Thomas Keate [q. v.], was born at Wells in 1773. } (d. 1795), the father, was educated at Eton, where he was on the foundation; entered King's College, Cambridge, where he proceeded M.A. in 1767, became master of the Stamford grammar school, and afterwards rector of Laverton, Somerset. He received the prebend of Combe (fifteenth) in the cathedral of Wells on 31 May 1773, exchanged it for that of Henstridge on 7 May 1794, and died at Chelsea Hospital on 14 March 1795. John Keate was placed on the foundation at Eton in 1784 (cf. Notes and Queries, 4th ser. v. 328), and proceeded to King's College, Cambridge, in 1791. He obtained four of Sir William Browne's medals, 1793–5, and the Craven scholarship in 1794. He was a brilliant writer of Latin verse, and throughout life remained a fine classical scholar. He graduated B.A. 1796, M.A. 1799, and D.D. 1810, and was elected a fellow of his college. About 1797 he became an assistant-master at Eton, and took holy orders. In 1809 he was elected head-master of Eton. When he was appointed the school had a very small staff of masters, and Keate had to control at least 170 boys in one room, ‘the upper school.’ The discipline was extremely bad. In the course of his head-mastership Keate himself was subjected to such indignities as the screwing up and smashing of his desk, the singing of songs in chorus during schooltime, and an occasional fusillade of rotten eggs. Keate from the first set himself to repress such turbulence and disorder. The struggle was long and severe, but although rough and hasty in his methods he gained a complete victory. Innumerable stories are told of his ferocity (many will be found in ‘Etoniana’ and Mr. Maxwell Lyte's ‘History of Eton College’); he flogged more than eighty boys on the same day, 30 June 1832; but as this was the only way of dealing, in his opinion, with disturbances which amounted to attempted rebellion, his only regret, as he once told some old pupils with whom he was dining in Paris, was that he had not flogged them more (, Reminiscences, ed. Grego, i. 209). Kinglake says: ‘He was little more (if more at all) than five feet in height, and was not very great in girth, but in this space was concentrated the pluck of ten battalions. He had a really noble voice, and this he could