by keatsclose » Tue Nov 17, 2009 7:40 pm
Yes, the mask is in what is known as the Keats-Shelley House in Rome. When I was there a couple of years ago I learned that it was sometimes possible to rent accommodation there.
It has its own website and is maintained, I believe, by an American cultural organisation.
A visit is a moving experience, especially as it lies in a bustling part of the city and you emerge with a heavy heart into a sun-filled space packed with carefree-seeming tourists.
How sad to think he had hoped his Rome visit might help to improve his health.
The grave, as you may know, is in the Protestant Cemetery there. It would have been fitting for his remains to have been brought home for burial in Highgate. I imagine it was his tuberculosis that prevented this from happening at the time - and of course the disease, regarded as shameful and associated with the poor, was rampant for several decades after his death. there are some interesting insights into TB in The White Plague, a comprehensive study by Thomas Dorman (name to be checked), published in the 1990s, if anyone is interested.