1820


Photograph

Keats *EC8.K2262.Zz715s. Bequest of Amy Lowell, 1925.

Edmund Spenser. Works (London, 1715).

In a letter to Brawne most likely written in July 1820, Keats told her that he was “employed in marking the most beautiful passages in Spenser, intending it for you”. This volume of his set of Spenser is heavily marked, with passages underlined on nearly every page.

After Keats’s death, Brawne sent the volumes of Spenser to Fanny Keats, “which you will find the most pleasure in reading as you will find the best parts marked by one who I have heard called the best judge of poetry living- they were marked for me to read and I need not tell you with what pleasure I did so.” (Richardson, Fanny Brawne, 63).

Keats *EC8.K2262.Zz715s. Edmund Spenser. The works of Mr. Edmund Spenser: in six volumes.  London: Printed for Jacob Tonson, 1715. Bequest of Amy Lowell, 1925.