John Keats Forum

by **Saturn** » Sat Feb 04, 2006 11:49 pm

Can we have a clue please Malia?

by **Despondence** » Sat Feb 04, 2006 11:56 pm

I know I've read that episode....I'm sure it was recounted in Motion, but where oh where... :lol:

by **Saturn** » Sun Feb 05, 2006 12:08 am

I can vaguely recall it but I'm not sure if my idea is right

by **Despondence** » Sun Feb 05, 2006 12:29 am

Ah - chapter Forty-Nine

He told Hunt that he was dying of a broken heart.

They sat in silence for a few moments, then Keats suddenly covered his face with his handkerchief. After he had composed himself, he told Hunt that he was dying of a broken heart. There was no mention of Fanny, and Hunt was bewildered as well as horrified. 'He must have been wonderfully excited to make such a confession,' he said later, 'for his spirit was lofty to a degree of pride.'

by **Saturn** » Sun Feb 05, 2006 12:30 am

I thought it was something like that.
Now we must wait for Malia to pronounce whether you're correct.

by **Malia** » Sun Feb 05, 2006 1:55 am

Yes, Despondence, you got it right.

Keats broke down in tears and declared that he was dying of a broken heart. This is a scene that I believe is referenced in almost every major bio of Keats--and it is a powerful and desperately sad image, I think. Your turn, Despondence.

by **Despondence** » Mon Feb 06, 2006 8:13 am

Pt. I, Sec. 2, Subsect. XV.--Love of Learning, or overmuch Study. With a Digression on the Misery of Scholars, and why the Muses are -----.

Leonartus Fuchsius, Instit. lib. 3, sect. I, cap. I; Felix Plater, lib. 3, de mentis alienat.; Herc de Saxonia, tract. post. -----, cap. 3, speak of a peculiar fury which comes by overmuch study. Fernelius, lib I, cap. 18, puts study, contemplation and continual meditation as an especial cause of madness: . . .

Which book, and what relevance to Keats?

by **Saturn** » Mon Feb 06, 2006 9:48 am

That is a really hard one Despondence

I can't even guess what the answer is :oops:

by **Malia** » Mon Feb 06, 2006 9:36 pm

I think I know what this is. . .is it from Burton's Anatomy of Melancholy? I know this was an important book to Keats--and was heavily annotated by him. Some biographers considered his annotations almost a sort of personal journal reflecting, among other things, his ambivalence toward women. I believe he got the idea of the Lamia poem from the Anatomy of Melancholy, too.

by **Despondence** » Mon Feb 06, 2006 9:47 pm

You're just unbeatable, Malia, that is indeed from the "Anatomy", where Keats read a passage from Philostratus which gave him the scope for Lamia. I deliberately did not cite that passage, that would have been too easy (and I also blotted out two instances of the word "melancholy" in my quote above...). I figured that anybody who ever leafed through that book would recognize the style of it. A wholly remarkable book, if I may say. You're up!

by **Malia** » Mon Feb 06, 2006 10:18 pm

Yea

Though I will have to admit, I have never touched the Anatomy of Melancholy--I didn't even know it was still in print! But I'm pretty good with context clues--and you provided some great ones in your quote from the book, Despondence

Next question--which is straight Keats triva and can be found in most biographies, I think.

When Keats and his friends played a "concert," what instrument did Keats often choose?

by **Saturn** » Tue Feb 07, 2006 12:29 am

Complete guess - was it a trumpet with his hands?

by **Malia** » Tue Feb 07, 2006 12:45 am

Saturn wrote:Complete guess - was it a trumpet with his hands?

Nope. I'll give you a hint--it was in the woodwinds family

by **Saturn** » Tue Feb 07, 2006 1:31 am

Clarinet?

by **Malia** » Tue Feb 07, 2006 1:39 am

Saturn wrote:Clarinet?

No--what instrument has a name that sounds like something Keats would enjoy? (If that's of any help! :lol:

)

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