ABSTRACT
Keats’s father was the principal servant at the Swan and Hoop Stables,— a man of so remarkably fine a common-sense and native respectability. The character and expression of Keats’s features would unfailingly arrest even the casual passenger in the street. The little first volume of Keats’s Muse was launched amid the cheers and fond anticipations of all his circle. Keats was indebted for his introduction to Mr. Severn to his school-fellow Edward Holmes, who also had been one of the child-scholars at Enfield. They were sworn companions at school, and remained friends through life. Keats attended a prize-fight between two of the most skilful and enduring “light-weights,”—Randal and Turner. There are constant indications through the memoirs, and in the letters of Keats, of his profound reverence for Shakspeare. His own intensity of thought and expression visibly strengthened with the study of his idol; and he knew but little of him till he himself had become an author.
