Page:Stories after Nature.pdf/11



O early as 1817, the date given by Mr. Buxton Forman, a sonnet by Keats was addressed "to a friend who sent me some roses," and in the sonnet the name given was Wells. This sonnet, writes Mr. Swinburne, "remains almost the only indication extant, unless the two or three yet fainter references to be found in the published correspondence of Keats be admitted as further evidence," of the personality of the author of Stories after Nature and the drama of Joseph and his Brethren.

The flower-present seems to indicate close friendship or companionship between Keats and Wells. Independently of this, I know