Abstract
Charles Armitage Brown (1787–1842) is remembered now as ‘the friend of John Keats’: his generosity gave the poet a home for his most productive months between December 1818 and May 1820. Most that is widely known about Brown is associated with Keats; his later life has been largely, although not entirely, overlooked. My chapter briefly recapitulates Brown’s early life, and focuses principally on his later career as a Shakespeare scholar, keen on theatregoing, an accomplished amateur artist, a would-be playwright and novelist, a gardener, and an intrepid long-distance walker. Brown was also one of the first ‘Keatsians’, whose activities at Plymouth 1835–37 included the first publication of poems by Keats (including the famous ‘Bright Star’ sonnet), an exhibition of Keatsiana at the Plymouth Institution, and a draft of the first full biography of Keats. My chapter explores this lost West Country episode, foregrounding Brown’s activities at Plymouth and his role in this crucial formative stage in the reception of Keats.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Works Cited
Anon. 1821. ‘Books Published This Day.’ Morning Chronicle, 4 June 1821.
———. 1814. ‘Drury-Lane Theatre.’ The Morning Post, 12 January 1814.
Barnard, John. 2015. Which Letters Did Keats Take to Rome? In: Keats-Shelley Journal, 64: 72–91.
Brown, Charles Armitage. 1937. Life of John Keats by Charles Armitage Brown. Eds. Dorothy Hyde Bodurtha and Willard Bissell Pope. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
———. New Letters from Charles Brown to Joseph Severn, Letter 41. Eds. Grant F. Scott and Sue Brown. http://www.rc.umd.edu/editions/brownsevern/. Accessed 19 November 2018.
———. 1838. Shakespeare’s Autobiographical Poems: Being His Sonnets Clearly Developed: With His Character Drawn Chiefly from His Works. London: James Bohn.
———. 1966. The Letters of Charles Armitage Brown. Ed. Jack Stillinger. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
———. 1840. ‘Walks in the North.’ Plymouth and Devonport Weekly Journal, 1(8): 15 and 22 October.
Caffin, Elizabeth. 1987. ‘McCormick, Eric Hall (Dr.), 1906–1995: Papers.’ ‘Correspondence Relating to Research on Charles Brown.’ MS-Papers-5292-289, The National Library of New Zealand, Wellington, New Zealand.
Clarke, Charles Cowden. 1861. Recollections of Keats by an Old Schoolfellow. In: Atlantic Monthly, January, 86–100.
Crutcher, Lawrence M. 2012. George Keats of Kentucky: A Life. Lexington: University Press of Kentucky.
Hardy, Thomas. 1978–87. The Collected Letters of Thomas Hardy. Ed. Richard Little Purdy and Michael Millgate, 7 vols. Oxford: Clarendon Press.
Holmes, Richard. 2016. John Keats the Well-Beloved. In: This Long Pursuit: Reflections of a Romantic Biographer, 221–41. London: William Collins.
Iles, Gillian. 1991. New Information on Charles Brown. Keats-Shelley Journal, 40: 146–66.
Keats, John. 1978. Character of C. B. In: Poems of John Keats. Ed. Jack Stillinger, 326–27. London: Heinemann.
———. 1878. Letters of John Keats to Fanny Brawne Written in the Years MDCCCXIX and MDCCCXX and Now Given from the Original Manuscripts with Introduction and Notes by Harry Buxton Forman. London: Reeves and Turner.
———. 1969. The Keats Circle: Letters and Papers and More Letters and Poems of the Keats Circle. Ed. Hyder Edward Rollins. 2nd ed. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
McCormick, E. H. 1989. The Friend of Keats: A Life of Charles Armitage Brown. Wellington: Victoria University Press.
MeasuringWorth. 2018. ‘Your Results.’ https://www.measuringworth.com/index.php. Accessed 29 November 2018.
Medwin, Thomas. 1847. The Life of Percy Bysshe Shelley. 2 vols. London: Thomas Cautley Newby.
Page, Ken. 2018. Wentworth Place: ‘A Small Cottage, Pleasantly Situate.’ In: Keats’s Places. Ed. Richard Marggraf Turley, 245–72. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.
Richardson, Joanna. 1952. Fanny Brawne: A Biography. London: Thames and Hudson.
Rowe, J. Brooking. 1873. A List of the Lectures Delivered to the Members of the Plymouth Institution from The Commencement of the Session 1833–34 to the End of the Session 1854–55. In: Annual Reports and Transactions of the Plymouth Institution and Devon and Cornwall Natural History Society, vol. 4, 155–62. Plymouth: William Brendon and Son.
Walker, Carol Kyros. 1992. Walking North with Keats. New Haven and London: Yale University Press.
Wightwick, George. 1836. Nettleton’s Guide to Plymouth, Stonehouse, Devonport, and to the Neighbouring Country. Plymouth: Edward Nettleton.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2020 The Author(s)
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Roe, N. (2020). Charles Armitage Brown: The Friend of Keats. In: Lennartz, N. (eds) The Lost Romantics. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-35546-3_16
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-35546-3_16
Published:
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-030-35545-6
Online ISBN: 978-3-030-35546-3
eBook Packages: Literature, Cultural and Media StudiesLiterature, Cultural and Media Studies (R0)