tion enough to write to
Miss Brawne: possibly this statement ought to be limited to the time
after he had reached Italy.]
[Footnote 13: Lord Houghton says that Keats in Naples "could not bear to
go to the opera, on account of the sentinels who stood constantly on the
stage:" he spoke of "the continual visible tyranny of this government,"
and said "I will not leave even my bones in the midst of this
despotism." Sentinels on the stage have, I believe, been common in
various parts of the continent, as a mere matter of government parade,
or of routine for preserving public order. The other points (for which
no authority is cited by Lord Houghton) must, I think, be over-stated.
In November 1820 the short-lived constitution of the kingdom of Naples
was in full operation, and neither tyranny nor despotism was in the
ascendant--rather a certain degree of popular license.]
[Footnote 14: The reader of Keats's preface will note that this is a
misrepresentation. Keats did not speak of any fierce hell of criticism,
nor did he ask to remain uncriticized in order that he might write more.
What he said was that a feeling critic would not fall foul of him for
hoping to write good poetry in the long run, and would be aware that
Keats's own sense of failure in "Endymion" was as fierce a hell as he
could be chastised by.]
[Footnote 15: This phrase stands printed with inverted commas, as a
quotation. It is not, however, a quotation from the letter of J. S.]
[Footnote 16: "Coolness" (which seems to be the right word) in the
letter to Miss Mitford.]
[Footnote 17: Severn's view of the matter some years afterwards has
however received record in the diary of Henry Crabb Robinson. Under the
date May 6, 1837, we read--"He [Severn] denies that Keats's death was
hastened by the article in the _Quarterly_."]
[Footnote 18: The passage which begins--
"Hard by
Stood serene Cupids watching silently"
has some affinity with a passage in Shelley's "Adonais." The latter
passage is, however, more directly based upon one in the Idyll of Bion
on Adonis.]
[Footnote 19: I do not clearly understand from the poem whether Endymion
does or does not know, until the story nears its conclusion, that the
goddess who favours him is Diana. He appears at any rate to _guess_ as
much, either during this present interview or shortly afterwards.]
[Footnote 20: Keats has been laughed at for ignorance in printing "Visit
my
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