Keats, John, 1795-1821; Poets, English -- 19th century -- Biography
This was contrary to
Mrs. Brawne's liking. They appear to have contemplated--anything but
willingly on the poet's part--a tolerably long engagement; for he was a
young man of twenty-three, with stinted means, no regular profession,
and no occupation save that of producing verse derided in the high
places of criticism. He spoke indeed of re-studying in Edinburgh for the
medical profession: this was a vague notion, with which no practical
beginning was made. An early marriage, followed by a year or so of
pleasuring and of intellectual advancement in some such place as Rome or
Zurich, was what Keats really longed for.
We must now go back a little--to December 1818. Haydon was then still
engaged upon his picture of Christ's Entry into Jerusalem, and found his
progress impeded by want of funds, and by a bad attack, from which he
frequently suffered, of weakness of eyesight. On the 22nd of the month,
Keats, with conspicuous generosity--and although he had already lent
nearly L200 to various friends--tendered him any money-aid which might
be in his power; asking merely that his friend would claim the
fulfilment of his promise only in the last resort. On January 7, 1819,
Haydon definitely accepted his offer; and Keats wrote back, hoping to
comply, and refusing to take any interest. His own money affairs were,
however, at this time almost at a deadlock, controlled by lawyers and by
his ex-guardian Mr. Abbey; and the amount which he had expected to
command as coming to him after his brother Tom's death was not
available. He had to explain as much in April 1819 to Haydon, who wrote
with some urgency. Eventually he did make a small loan to the
painter--L30; but very shortly afterwards (June 17th) was compelled to
ask for a reimbursement--"do borrow or beg somehow what you can for me."
There was a chancery-suit of old standing, begun soon after the death of
Mr. Jennings in 1805, and it continued to obstruct Keats in his money
affairs. The precise facts of these were also but ill-known to the poet,
who had potentially at his disposal certain funds which remained _perdu_
and unused until two years after his death. On September 20, 1819, he
wrote to his brother George in America that Haydon had been unable to
make the repayment; and he added, "He did not seem to care much about
it, and let me go without my money with almost nonchalance, when he
ought to have sold his drawings to supply me. I shall perhaps still be
acquainted with him, but, for friendship, that is at an end." And in
fact the hitherto very ardent cordiality between the poet and the
painter does seem to have been materially damped after this date; Keats
being somewhat reserved towards Haydon, and Haydon finding more to
censure than to extol in the conduct of Keats. We can feel with both of
them; and, while we pronounce Keats blameless and even praiseworthy
throughout, may infer Haydon to have been not greatly blameable.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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