New-York tribune., 1908-10-24
KEATS.
Il Brief Surrey and analysis of HIS
Career.

5o EIs sFs Se pp By II z
The Houghtoa Nfifain Company.
Mr. Hancock begins his useful little study Of
Keats In the oldest fashion imaginable. Eng
land after Waterloo" he says, was indisputably
the foremost nation in Europe. The English navy
English armies, English subsidies had gained for
her an increasing prestige among the powers.
For twenty years g modern Tamburlaine had
wrought his Will on the Continent, The globe
itself had felt the shocks. At last on the Bel
sisn field an English general had destroyed the
last hope OF the conqueror and brought his orgy
OF esotism 20 a close The reader rubs his
ewes and wonders what IN the world all this has
TO do with John Keats. He wonders the more
when a few pages further on, he is Informed
thst the poet belongs 70 the Revolution only
by virtue OF date" that during his minority he
Was politically auiescent.- and that, when all Is
said. yeats detached from the Juror OF
contemporary England as a hermit among the
hills" II is worth while, however. to disregard
the atmosphere Of sophomortcal pomposity IN
which Mr.. Hancock seems inclined 10 envelope
his subject and to follow him through his mar
retfve He does his best 70 paint faithful
portrait and though his style is overwrought
his heart is in the right place. He performs q
useful service in putting Keats before Us very
much as a natural man. full of genius. but
more human creature tnan Ne IS Ilaoe OUT u O0
by the conventional essayfst-
The author OF this volume IS especially to be
thanked for his forcible exposition Of the fact
that Keats died Of hereditary consumption and
not from the brutality Of his reviewers. The
famous inscription his tombstone, placed
there by friends whose intentions wero Of the
best has nevertheless served to perpetuate a
false tradition. II runs as follows:
THIS GRAVE
CONTAINS ALL THAT WAS MORTAL
YOUNG ENGLsH POET
4HE R[TTEENESs P6WEs 9E HHs dF4ha 6F Aa
DESIRED
on HIS TOMBSTONE:
HERE LIES ONE
WHOSE NAME WAS WRIT IN WATER
Charles Armitage Brown. who - chiefly re-
sponsible for this came SO far to regret it as TO
talk of having the greater part Of the inscr1p-
ton erased, but he died without fulfilling his
plain duty in the matter. The epitaph should
have been confined to the line which Keats him
self composed for the purpose. Here lies one
whose name was writ in water" Then posterity
would have had no thought of his bitterness"
but would have remembered only his conviction
of what Mr.. Hancock accurately describes as
"the great divide, In his own mind between his
paltry performance and his ambitious designs"
In his treatment Of the whole dreary business Of
the poets Ill fortune with his contemporary
critics the present biographer shows a refresh
ing sense of his hero's true manness. He does
not pretend TO deny that Keats suffered from
the preposterous abuse poured upon him. but he
protests against the exaggerated significance
which has been attached TO the sAbject. The
Keats that Hunt and Brown and Severn knew"
he says, was gifted young man who jested
drank claret cut cards for half guiness and &C
companied them 10 the theatre" This Keats he
keeps constantly in mind. with the result that
he leaves him in all his relations, as a poet as
an invalid, Fanny Brawne's lover, credible
and sympathetic figure. AS an interpreter of
the poems Mr.. Hancock is intelligent and clear
though he pushes little too far his pretty fancy
that the genius Of Keats first awakened
by the moon" He has very deftly intertwined
his biographical notes with his analysis Of the
poets work. The book, in short, we'll serves to
show forth John Keats in his habit as he lived
and labored- II contains particularly
good illustrations.