Has anyone else been at all curious about Keats and Mrs Jones (cue for song.
did they really have 'a thing goin' on etc.'?). I think it was the Gittings biography that
mentioned her having a thing going on with JK's publisher at the same time, which put an end to her relationship with JK. It may well have put an end to the food parcels - of game, apparently - that this kind lady had been sending him. A cultivated and worldly-wise yet possibly also maternal (=concerned about poor JK's health, feeding him up) older woman, she may actually have underestimated the effect her free, flirtatious manner was having on the susceptible motherless young poet.
Did his reaction to her perceived insensitivity towards him inspire 'What can I do to drive away', a poem that became designated - some thirty years later, I understand - 'To Fanny'? Certain lines hint of a luxurious setting - possibly her well-appointed, extremely comfortable apartment? I have a feeling she may only really have appreciated his true nature and vulnerability on learning of his death, of which, we are told, she was one of the first to learn and comment on. I feel a film script coming on...