Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 11.djvu/467

* KEATS. 423 KEBLE. a room and stood guard at the door with a sword, declaring that she should not come out till he pleased. Between Edmonton and the school at Entield passed Keats's best years ( 1806- 10). He was whimsical and absent-minded and not very studious, but generous and passionate. All his schoolmates admired his nobility of char- acter, his courage, and his personal beauty. He was quick-tempered, but quick to forgive: he was a fighter and an athlete. On his mother's death Keats was taken from school by his guardians and apprenticed for five years to a surgeon at Edmonton. Of this period we know little save that one day a comrade read liim Spenser's Kinthulamium, and lent him the Faerie Qiieene. This was a revelation. Keats had found his way. He was entranced by Spenser's fairies, dwarfs, magic, knights, and wondrous adventures. He became a lover of fine phrases, and even bril- liantly imitated Spenser. At this time he also fell under the influence of Gray and Jloore. In 1814 he quarreled with his master, and went to London, where he continued his studies in sur- gery ; but he disliked it — above all, the opera- tions. Keats soon made the acquaintance of Leigh Hunt, Shelley and others, and in 1817 of the painter Haydon, all of whom exerted a powerful influence upon him. His first published poem, the sonnet beginning "O Solitude, if I with thee must dwell." appeared in Leigh Hunt's Examiner (May ."5, 1816). It was followed on December 1st by the great sonnet On First Looking Into Chapman's Homer, which Himt accompanied with observations on its author and the new school of poetry. Four other sonnets speedily followed. In March, 1817, appeared Poctns bii John Eeats, dedi- cated to Hunt. The volume fell flat, for every one was at that time under the sway of Moore, Scott, and Byron. Keats at once began Endymion, which was published in 1818. This year he made a tour through the English Lake district and Scotland, where he contracted the throat troiible which ultimately developed into consumption. Just after his return to England appeared the famous attacks on Endymion ( Black icood's Magazine, August, 1818: and the Quarterly Review, dated April. 1818. but published in September). Whether or not Keats's critical foe was Lockhart. he had fenent defenders in Shelley, who in his Adonais calls his friend's assailants assassins, and in Bvron, who devoted to Keats a strophe in Don -Juan. Keats, though his health was breaking, continued to write. In 1820 appeared his third volume. Lamia, Isabella, the Eve of fSaint Agnes, and Other Poems. He died in Rome, February' 23. 1821, and was buried there near Shelley, by the pyramid of Caius Ces- tius. Keats did not live to produce so nmch as sevei-al of his contemporaries. His first two vol- umes were marred by many affectations, which naturally led to severe contemporary criticism. The third volume contains poetry of the most ex- qiiisite quality. Most of his loveliest, strongest work, as Hyperion, is in fragments. All that is best in him might be held in a small volume, and nio-t of his work was done in four years (1817- 20). Keats was for a while democratic in tendencv, but the effects of the French Revolu- tion ;ire not perceptible in him. Since his death his fame has increased more and more. He has long since been given his place by the side of Shelley and Byron. His letters, except those devoted to an unfortunate love, are delightful. The best literary appreciation of Keats is by ilatthew Arnold, in Ward's English Poets, vol. iv. Consult: Milnes, Life, Letters, and Literary Re- mains of Keats (London, 1848; rev. 1867) ; Lowell, The Political ^yorks of Eeats, with Life (Boston, 1854, 1873) ; complete edition of Works, edited by Forman (4 vols., London, 1883; rev. 188(1) ; the Cambridge edition of TForArs (Boston, 1899) ; Letters of Keats to His Family, edited by Colvin (London, 1891) ; and for his Life, C'olvin (Londoji, 1887) ; Rossetti, Poetical Works of Keats ivith a Memoir, which has a bibliography (ib., 1887) ; Hoops. Keats' Jugend und Jugend- gedichte { Leipzig, 1895 ) ; Texte, " Keats et le Neo- Hellenisme dans la po^sie anglaise," in Etudes de litterature europeenne {Paris, 1898) ; Gothein, John Keat.^' Lehen und Werke (Halle, 1897) ; and Henr- C. Shellev, Keats and His Circle (New York, 1902). KE'BLE, JoHX (1792-1866). An English divine and poet. He mtis born at Fairford, in Ciloucestershire, and at the age of fifteen won a scholarship at Corpus Christi College, O.xford. After winning the distinction of a double first, he was elected fellow of Oriel, which brought him into the most distinguished intellectual society in the university. In 1812 he also won both the English and Ijitin prize essays. He was ordained deacon in 1815. and priest in 1816. Xeither the prospect of emolument at O.xford, nor the attrac- tions of the Oriel common room, of which Whate- ly and Copleston were then members, and to which Arnold. Xewman, and Pusey were soon to be added, could tempt him from the career he had chosen, that of a parish priest. He took duty in Gloucestershire, occasionally receiving pupils, among whom were Robert Wilberforce, Isaac Williams, and Hurrell'Froude. Fr<mi 1836, when he accepted the living of Hursley. near Win- chester, W'hich he had once before declined on the gioimd of his father's health, his life was spent mostly in this small country parish, devot- ed faithfully to its simple duties, though he ex- erted great influence throughout England by a vast correspondence. Quiet and retiring as he was. he is yet considered, on Xe^vman's testimony, as the real author of the Oxford Movement, to which he is held to have given the impulse by his sermon on 'Xational Apostasy,' preached at Ox- ford in 1833. His important contributions to the literature of the movement were his share in the translations of the Library of the Fathers, and in the Tract.?, for the Times, of which he wrote seven, besides being ultimately associated in counsel with the other authors. His church- manship was. however, always marked by a sober attachment to Anglican traditions, and he was deeply gjieved by Xewman's secession, in which he never dreamed of following him. This mental attitude was not only expressed, but confirmed in thousands of others, by The Chri.'stian Year, a volume of verse which he published in 1827. and which had a remarkable success and influence, not equaled by that of his later volume. Lyra Innoeenliiim (1846). He was professor of poetry at Oxford from 1831 to 1841. He died at Bourne"- mouth. March 29. 1866. A movement was im- medi:itely begun to provide a permanent memo- rial to him. and resulted in the foundation of Keble College. Oxford (q.v.). Consult: Lives by Sir J. T. Coleridse (London. 1869). and by Walter Lock, warden of Keble College ( ib.. 1892 ) "; also Xewman, Apologia pro Vita Sua, and an