ABSTRACT
The essayist William Hazlitt (1778–1830) was a friend of Keats, who sympathized with his radical views and greatly admired his critical lectures and writings; but Hazlitt did not equally admire Keats's work, which seemed to lack the forceful qualities of his own, and never committed himself on it at any length. ‘When Keats was living,’ Haydon complained in 1823, ‘I could not get Hazlitt to admit Keats had common talents!’
