“Il est clair pour nous que Ben Jonson avait une nature violente dans un corps robuste et athlétique; son portrait nous le montre avec une énorme face, une vigoureuse mâchoire, des yeux profonds et durs, un cou de taureau. Sa peau avait été, de bonne heure, couturée par le scorbut; et lui-même dit quelque part qu’il eut, dans le milieu de sa vie, une montagne pour ventre et un dandinement disgracieux pour démarche. Tous ses traits fortement accentués, anguleux ou carrés, dénoncent l’énergie, l’orgueil et l’amour des luttes de toute nature. Il aimait la bonne chère et le vin; sa prédilection pour le vin des Canaries avait, disait il, pour excuse la nécessité de sa constitution scorbutique. Il avait l’esprit semblable au corps; malgré ses études classiques, il était loin d’être un Athénien, c’était un Anglo-Saxon enté sur un Romain de la décadence. Généreux, libéral, prodigue, il tint toujours table ouverte, même lorsque la misère était devenue l’hôte de son foyer.” JOHN KEATS 1795-1821 [Sidenote: Bryan Procter’s _Recollections of Men of Letters_.] “I was first introduced to him (Keats), by Leigh Hunt, and found him very pleasant, and free from all affectation in manner and opinion. Indeed it would be difficult to discover a man with a more bright and open countenance.... I can only say that I never encountered a more manly and simple young man. In person he was short, and had eyes large and wonderfully luminous, and a resolute bearing, not defiant but well sustained.” [Sidenote: Monckton Milnes’s _Life of Keats_.] “His eyes were large and blue, his hair auburn, he wore it divided down the centre, and it fell in rich masses on each side his face, his mouth was full, and less intellectual than his other features. His countenance lives in my mind as one of singular beauty and brightness,--it had an expression as if he had been looking on some glorious sight. The shape of his face had not the squareness of a man’s, but more like some women’s faces I have seen--it was so wide over the forehead, and so small at the chin. He seemed in perfect health, and with life offering all things that were precious to him.”--1818. [Sidenote: The Cowden Clarkes’ _Recollections of Writers_.] _In reviewing this portrait, Mrs. Cowden Clarke, while admitting that much of it is_ “excellent” _and_ “true,” _goes on to add these words_: “But when our artist pronounces that ‘his eyes were large and _blue_,’ and that ‘his hair was _auburn_,’ I am naturally reminded of the ‘Chameleon’ fable--‘they were _brown_, ma’am--_brown_, I assure you!’... Reader, alter, in your copy of the _Life of Keats_, vol. i. page 103, ‘eyes’ light hazel, ‘hair’ _lightish brown and wavy_.” [Sidenote: Leigh Hunt’s _Autobiography_.]