It is my intention to subjoin to the London edition of this poem a
criticism upon the claims of its lamented object to be classed among the
writers of the highest genius who have adorned our age. 15 My known
repugnance to the narrow principles of taste on which several of his
earlier compositions were modelled proves at least that I am an
impartial judge. I consider the fragment of _Hyperion_ as second to
nothing that was ever produced by a writer of the same years. 20
John Keats died at Rome of a consumption, in his twenty-fourth year, on
the [23rd] of [February] 1821; and was buried in the romantic and lonely
cemetery of the protestants in that city, under the pyramid which is the
tomb of Cestius, and the massy walls and towers, now mouldering and
desolate, which formed the circuit of 25 ancient Rome. The cemetery is
an open space among the ruins, covered in winter with violets and
daisies. It might make one in love with death to think that one should
be buried in so sweet a place.
30 The genius of the lamented person to whose memory I have dedicated
these unworthy verses was not less delicate and fragile than it was
beautiful; and, where canker-worms abound, what wonder if its young
flower was blighted in the bud? The savage criticism on his _Endymion_
which appeared in the _Quarterly Review_ produced the 35 most violent
effect on his susceptible mind. The agitation thus originated ended in
the rupture of a blood-vessel in the lungs; a rapid consumption ensued;
and the succeeding acknowledgments, from more candid critics, of the
true greatness of his powers, were ineffectual to heal the wound thus
wantonly inflicted.
40 It may be well said that these wretched men know not what they do.
They scatter their insults and their slanders without heed as to whether
the poisoned shaft lights on a heart made callous by many blows, or one,
like Keats's, composed of more penetrable stuff. One of their associates
is, to my knowledge, a most base and unprincipled 45 calumniator. As to
_Endymion_, was it a poem, whatever might be its defects, to be treated
contemptuously by those who had celebrated with various degrees of
complacency and panegyric _Paris_, and _Woman_ and _A Syrian Tale_, and
Mrs. Lefanu, and Mr. Barrett, and Mr. Howard Payne, and a long list of
the illustrious 50 obscure? Are these the men who, in their venal
good-nature, presumed to draw a parallel between the Rev. Mr. Milman and
Lord Byron? What gnat did they strain at here, after having swallowed
all those camels? Against what woman taken in adultery dares the
foremost of these literary prostitutes to cast his opprobrious stone? 55
Miserable man! you, one of the meanest, have wantonly defaced one of the
noblest, specimens of the workmanship of God. Nor shall it be your
excuse that, murderer as you are, you have spoken daggers, but used
none.
The circumstances of the closing scene of poor Keats's life were 60 not
made known to me until the Elegy was ready for the press. I am given to
understand that the wound which his sensitive spirit had received from
the criticism of _Endymion_ was exasperated by the bitter sense of
unrequited benefits; the poor fellow seems to have been hooted from the
stage of life, no less by those on whom 65 he had wasted the promise of
his genius than those on whom he had lavished his fortune and his care.
He was accompanied to Rome, and attended in his last illness, by Mr.
Severn, a young artist of the highest promise, who, I have been
informed, 'almost risked his own life, and sacrificed every prospect to
unwearied attendance upon his dying friend.' Had I known these
circumstances before the completion 70 of my poem, I should have been
tempted to add my feeble tribute of applause to the more solid
recompense which the virtuous man finds in the recollection of his own
motives. Mr. Severn can dispense with a reward from 'such stuff as
dreams are made of.' His conduct is a golden augury of the success of
his future career. 75 May the unextinguished spirit of his illustrious
friend animate the creations of his pencil, and plead against oblivion
for his name!