_On a memorable occasion it was said of you by a great poet and prophet that, had he known of the circumstances of your unwearied attendance at the death-bed, he should have been tempted to add his “tribute of applause to the more solid recompense which the virtuous man finds in the recollection of his own motives;” and he uttered the wish that the “unextinguished Spirit” of Keats might “plead against Oblivion” for your name. Were any such plea needed, the Spirit to prefer it, then unextinguished, is now known for inextinguishable; and whithersoever the name of “our Adonais” travels, there will yours also be found._ _This opportunity may not unfitly serve to record my gratitude for your ready kindness in affording me information on various points concerning your friend’s life and death, and also for the permission to engrave your solemn portraiture of the beautiful countenance seen, as you only of all men living saw it, in its final agony._ _H. B. F._ CONTENTS. PAGE PUBLISHERS’ NOTE v. TO JOSEPH SEVERN, ROME vii. INTRODUCTION BY THE EDITOR xiii. LETTERS TO FANNY BRAWNE:— First Period, I to IX, Shanklin, Winchester, Westminster 3 Second Period, X to XXXII, Wentworth Place 43 Third Period, XXXIII to XXXVII, Kentish Town—Preparing for Italy 91 APPENDIX, THE LOCALITY OF WENTWORTH PLACE 111 INDEX 123 Transcriber’s Note: Despite the date on the title page, this is the 1888 edition (see date at end of introduction). The front matter from the prior edition of 1878 seems to have been carried across to this one without being fully checked and updated. This edition doesn’t have an index, and the Appendix about Wentworth Place isn’t on page 111. ILLUSTRATIONS. PORTRAIT OF KEATS, DRAWN BY JOSEPH SEVERN AND ETCHED BY W. B. SCOTT _Frontispiece._ SILHOUETTE OF FANNY BRAWNE, CUT BY EDOUART AND PHOTO-LITHOGRAPHED BY G. F. TUPPER _Opposite page 3._ FAC-SIMILE OF LETTER XXVII, EXECUTED BY G. I. F. TUPPER _Opposite page 76._ INTRODUCTION.