Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 30.djvu/286

 A few weeks after the publication of the 'Poems,' Keats, following the advice of his brothers and of Haydon, who had pointed out' how necessary it was that he should be alone to improve himself,' started without companions to the Isle of Wight (15 April 1817). He took up his quarters at Shanklin, whence he wrote the sonnet 'On the Sea' (first printed in the 'Champion,' edited by John Scott, 17 Aug. 1817), and began to work on the long poem which he had planned (abandoning the former exordium) on Endymion. According to Medwin, Keats undertook this task in friendly rivalry with Shelley, who began his 'Laon and Cythna' about the same time; but the statement wants confirmation. Messrs. Taylor & Hessey (well known as the publishers of the 'London Magazine') had agreed to bring out 'Endymion' on its completion, and in the meantime allowed Keats to draw upon them in advance, showing themselves warmly and generously his friends in this as in all their subsequent dealings with him. Finding himself nervous and sleepless at Shanklin, he moved early in May to Margate, where he was soon joined by his brother Tom. Hence the two went to spend some weeks at Canterbury, and before midsummer all three brothers were living together again, this time at Hampstead, in the house of the village postman, Bentley, in Well Walk. Here Keats soon made fast friends with two young men of literary tastes and occupations, both older than himself, [q. v.] and [q. v.], who had built and were occupying together a block of two houses called Wentworth Place (now Lawn Bank), at the bottom of John Street near the foot of the heath. Other frequent companions of Keats at this time were James Rice, a witty young solicitor in ill-health, the bosom friend of J. H. Reynolds; the young painter, [q. v.]; William Haslam, of whom we know nothing except as a close friend of the Keats family and of Severn; and an undergraduate of Magdalen Hall, Oxford, named Benjamin Bailey, afterwards archdeacon of Colombo. The ardent and sympathetic temper of the young poet, as full of spirit as of gentleness, with the charm and promise of his genius, bound all these companions to him on terms of warm and admiring affection. In walks about the heath and neighbourhood he was accustomed to recite to them, in a voice said to have been peculiarly moving, low, and rich, his favourite passages in 'Endymion,' with which he continued to make steady progress. He declined an invitation from Shelley to visit him at Great Marlow, 'in order,' as he said. 'that he might have his own unfettered scope,' but went for the month of September and beginning of October to stay with Bailey at Oxford. From the date of this visit begins the series of the poet's letters to his young sister Fanny, to whom he was tenderly attached; but he saw little of her owing to the scruples of Mr. Abbey, who kept his youngest ward close at home at Walthamstow, disapproving of her brother's friends and occupations.

The Oxford visit passed off with extreme pleasure both to guest and host, but during its course we hear for the first time of Keats's health being in some way shaken. He had grown up broad-shouldered and well knit, though small in stature, and signalised himself (either this summer or the next) by thrashing a young butcher at Hampstead in a stand-up fight (according to George Keats, his antagonist was 'a scoundrel in livery'). Returning from Oxford early in October, he was disturbed by the unpleasant relations which he found existing between Haydon and Hunt, who were now neighbours in Marylebone, and also by some want of cordiality, exaggerated by tale-bearers, on the part of Hunt about 'Endymion.' He at the same time notices with indignation the furious attack made on Hunt in 'Blackwood's Magazine,' being the first of a series on the 'Cockney School.' The last part of November Keats spent by himself at Burford Bridge, near Dorking, where he finished 'Endymion' punctually according to the plan he had laid down for himself in the spring, and made a special study of Shakespeare's minor poems and sonnets. Returning in December to Hampstead, he was soon left alone in his lodgings, George and Tom Keats having gone to winter at Teignmouth for the sake of the latter's health. About Christmas he undertook the theatrical department of the 'Champion' during Reynolds's absence, and wrote three short articles (27 Dec. 1817, 4 Jan. 1818), of which one only, that on Kean in 'Richard III,' is remarkable. In the early part of the winter (1817-18) Keats did little work beyond seeing the sheets of 'Endymion' through the press, but enjoyed himself pretty freely in the society of his friends; not, it appears, without a certain amount of youthful excess and 'racket.' Through Haydon he became acquainted with Wordsworth, for much of whose work his admiration was enthusiastic, but who is said to have chilled him, when he had been induced to recite the 'Hymn to Pan' from 'Endymion,' by the remark, 'A pretty piece of paganism.' Godwin, Charles Lamb, and Hazlitt (whose lectures he attended regularly) were other literary acquaintances that he formed in the circle of