[Footnote 2: This is Hunt's own express statement. It has been disputed, but I am not prepared to reject it.] [Footnote 3: Biographers have been reticent on this subject. Keats's statement however speaks for itself, and a high medical authority, Dr. Richardson, writing in _The Asclepiad_ for April 1884, and reviewing the whole subject of the poet's constitutional and other ailments, says that Keats in Oxford "runs loose, and pays a forfeit for his indiscretion which ever afterwards physically and morally embarrasses him." He pronounces that Keats's early death was "expedited, perhaps excited, by his own imprudence," but was substantially due to hereditary disease. His mother, as we have already seen, had died of the malady which killed the poet, consumption. It is not clear to me what Keats meant by saying that "from his _employment_" his health would be insecure. One might suppose that he was thinking of the long and haphazard working hours of a young surgeon or medical man; in which case, this seems to be the latest instance in which he spoke of himself as still belonging to that profession.] [Footnote 4: Hitherto printed "life"; it seems to me clear that "lips" is the right word.] [Footnote 5: In Medwin's "Life of Shelley," vol. ii. pp. 89 to 92, are some interesting remarks upon Keats's character and demeanour, written in a warm and sympathetic tone. Some of them were certainly penned by Miss Brawne (Mrs. Lindon), and possibly all of them. Mr. Colvin (p. 233 of his book) has called special attention to these remarks: I forbear from quoting them. A leading point is to vindicate Keats from the imputation of "violence of temper."] [Footnote 6: This passage is taken from Lord Houghton's "Life, &c., of Keats," first published in 1848, and by "home" he certainly means Wentworth Place, Hampstead. Yet in his Aldine Edition of Keats, his lordship says that the poet "was at that time, very much against Mr. Brown's desire and advice, living alone in London." This latter statement may possibly be correct--I question it. The passage, as written by Lord Houghton, is condensed from the narrative of Brown. The latter is given verbatim in Mr. Colvin's "Keats," and is, of course, the more important and interesting of the two. I abstain from quoting it, solely out of regard to Mr. Colvin's rights of priority.] [Footnote 7: Apparently Miss Brawne had remonstrated against the imputation of "flirting with Brown," and much else to like effect in a recent letter from Keats.] [Footnote 8: I observe this name occurring once elsewhere in relation to Keats, but am not clear whose house it represents.] [Footnote 9: It has been suggested (by Dante Gabriel Rossetti, as printed in Mr. Forman's edition of Keats) that the poem here referred to is "The Eve of St. Mark." Keats had begun it fully a year and a half before the date of this letter, but, not having continued it, he might have spoken of "having it in his head."]