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John Keats: When Was He Born and When Did He Die?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 December 2020

James H. Pershing
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Extract

“For the study of no English poet have we ampler material than for the life and art of John Keats. … The material for the study of Keats's biography is no less complete.” Notwithstanding this wealth of material, until quite recently at least, much confusion has existed with respect to the date of his birth, and the exact time of his death yet remains uncertain. Accuracy in these respects is desirable, not only for its own sake, but especially in fixing the date for memorials, anniversaries, and similar observances. It is confusing to find such writers as Lord Houghton, Sir Sidney Colvin, and Amy Lowell either uncertain or in disagreement upon the subject. A summary of the facts giving rise to these doubts, and an examination of the evidence from the standpoint of its probative value should be of interest to students of the life and art of Keats, and may possibly be useful in reaching a greater degree of certainty with respect to these dates.

Type
Research Article
Information
PMLA , Volume 55 , Issue 3 , September 1940 , pp. 802 - 814
Copyright
Copyright © Modern Language Association of America, 1940

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References

1 The Wharton Lecture on Keats. By Professor Ernest de Selincourt. The John Keats Memorial Volume London; John Lane, February 23, 1921.

2 Life, Leiters and Literary Remains. London; Edward Moxon, 1848, i, 4.

3 Lord Byron and some of his Contemporaries, 2nd Ed., i, 409.

4 Life of John Keats, By Charles Armitage Brown (Oxford University Press, 1837), pp. 11, 12, and 40.

5 Keats, English Men of Letters. (London; Macmillan and Co., 1887), p. 2.

6 John Keats, His Life and Poetry, His Friends, Critics and After-Fame, by Sir Sidney Colvin. (New York; Scribner's, 1917), p. 3.

7 John Keats: (Boston and New York; Houghton Mifflin Company, 1925), i, 5.

8 The Letters of John Keats, i, 264.

9 Adonais, A Life of John Keats, p. 15.

10 Op. cit., ii, 93.

11 Op. cit., ii, 528.

12 Life and Letters of Joseph Severn, by William Sharp (1892), pp. 94 and 102.

13 Op. cit., ii, 508.

14 See Frontispiece, Letters of John Keats to Fanny Browne, Edited by H. Buxton Forman (London: Rieves & Turned, 1878).

15 The Athenaeum, March 15, No. 2681; March 29, No. 2683; April 5, No. 2684; April 26, No. 2687; May 3, No. 2688, 1879.