Keats-Shelley House - John Keats

.... the rigours of an English Winter. It was believed that the Italian climate could save him, and that the change would do his spirits good too. Keats found himself 'cheveaux-de-frised' with benefits', trapped by the good intentions of his friends. In the end it was the thought of Fanny that decided him. It would be better for her if he went; she must be spared the experience of his death. Two months before he had grasped at her like a drowning man - 'You must be mine to die upon the rack if I want you'. Now, convinced that his death was inevitable, he turned to meet it with the courage he still possessed. He would go Italy 'though it be with the sensation of marching up against a battery'. His friends decided that he should go to Rome where there was a well-known Scottish doctor, James Clark, to look after him and where the climate was considered suitable for the treatment of the disease. His friend, the painter Joseph Severn, undertook to accompany him. His publisher, John Taylor, raised a subscription among his friends of £100 and with this and a £20 advance on his new book of poems Lamia, Keats and Severn left England on 30 September in the "Maria Crowther".

They arrived in Naples harbour on 21 October 1820. Here the ship was held in quarantine for 10 days because it was believed there was a cholera epidemic in Greenwich when they left, and they did not arrive in Rome until 15 November 1820. The doctor, who lived in Piazza di Spagna and knew Keats' story, was himself interested in literature and looked after Keats with care and devotion. Unfortunately, Clark believed that Keats had digestive problems and not the tuberculosis which had been diagnosed in England. To raise Keats's morale, which was low after his long journey, he suggested regular exercise instead of the rest prescribed in London. Sadly Keats did not write a single line of poetry during his time in Rome. Only once did he succeed in putting pen to paper; it was on 30 November when he wrote to his friend Charles Brown where he concludes 'I can scarcely bid you goodbye even in a letter. I always made an awkward bow.' Keats expressed the wish that on his gravestone no name or date should be written, only the inscription 'Here lies one whose name was writ in water' Above it was to be carved a Greek lyre with four of its eight strings broken 'to show his Classical Genius cut off by death before its maturity' as Severn later interpreted it.

Keats and Severn and a friend, Lieutenant Elton, often went up the Spanish Steps to the Trinità dei Monti for the evening 'promenade', where it was sheltered and the air warm. They even hired horses and rode out on the Via Flaminia. But on 10 December 1820, Keats suffered a serious haemorrhage. He recovered slightly for Christmas and started to go out again; but on 10 January his health finally broke down and he never left his bedroom again. He died on 23 February 1821 and was buried in the Protestant Cemetery , behind the Pyramid in Testaccio. He was 25 years old.