ABSTRACT
Richard Monckton Milnes (1809–85), ‘Apostle’, politician, and patron of letters, became first Baron Houghton in 1863. It was he who proposed Tennyson (‘the most noted, and perhaps the most original, of present poets’) for the Laureateship in 1850. By his tact and enthusiasm he won the confidence of the bickering survivors among Keats's friends; and his Life proved the decisive turning-point in Keats's reputation—partly because his prestige, moderation, and very formal prose gave the poet an immediate cachet of respectability. In the Life, Keats was allowed to speak for himself as far as possible through letters and poems. The later memoir, (b), gave Milnes a little more opportunity for criticism. It is significant that by 1854 Milnes is able to discuss Keats's poetic habits historically: that is, as the innovations of established greatness.
