of Arts at the age of twenty. In 1807 he published his first volume of poetry, “Hours of Idleness.” The Edinburgh Review ridiculed these in a satirical criticism. This provoked from Byron a brilliant retort in the form of a poem called “English Bards and Scotch Reviewers.”

In 1809 he was off for Europe. In “Childe Harold” he has told his thoughts and experiences during these wanderings. The first two cantos of this poem appeared in 1812, and their success was instantaneous.

The life of a personality like Byron is so full of incident, so colored with romance and adventure, that to tell it in detail requires a great deal of space. Everything that he did was interesting; everywhere he went he left the impress of his genius. Women loved him, and men imitated him. Byron was the fashion, and the poet was renowned the world over.

He married Anne Isabella Milbanke in 1815. A daughter, Augusta Ada, afterward Countess of Lovelace

, was born to them. In 1816 Lady Byron left her husband, giving as the reason her belief that he was insane.

The following spring Byron left England, and after traveling about for sometime met the poet Shelley and Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin in Switzerland. From there he went to Italy, where he lived for a number of years. When there he wrote many of his greatest poems.

About this time Greece was struggling to throw off the rule of Turkey. Byron, a great believer in liberty of every sort, gave freely of his sympathy and money to the cause. In 1823 he fitted up an expedition and sailed to the aid of the Greeks; but before he could get into active service he was taken fatally ill, and died at Missolonghi on April 19, 1824. His last words were of Greece, the country he had come to help to freedom: “I have given her my time, my means, my health—and now I give her my life! What could I do more?”

Byron’s body was carried back to England; but the British authorities would not allow him to be buried in Westminster Abbey. There is neither bust nor statue of him in Poets’ Corner. His remains were finally laid beneath the chancel of the village church of Hucknall Torkard.

PREPARED BY THE EDITORIAL STAFF OF THE MENTOR ASSOCIATION
ILLUSTRATION FOR THE MENTOR, VOL. 1. No. 44. SERIAL No. 44
COPYRIGHT, 1913, BY THE MENTOR ASSOCIATION, INC.

JOHN KEATS

FAMOUS ENGLISH POETS

JOHN KEATS

Monograph Number Two in The Mentor Reading Course

No one man ever published a worse first volume nor a better last volume of poetry than did John Keats. And no poet was so severely criticized at the beginning nor more highly praised at the end of his life. Yet between the appearance of his first work and the publication of his last volume there was a space of but three years.

Keats’ origin was humble; but not so vulgar as most people think. He was born on October 29, 1795, and was the eldest son of Thomas Keats, head hostler at the Swan and Hoop livery stables in London. But in spite of these commonplace early associations his parents were able to send John to a private school at Enfield. Thomas Keats was killed by a fall from his horse in 1804, and Mrs. Keats married another stable keeper. This marriage was an unhappy one, and the couple soon separated.

At school Keats was distinguished for his quick temper, a love of fighting, and a great appetite for reading. In 1810, when his mother died, he left school with the intention of becoming a doctor. He was apprenticed to Thomas Hammond, a surgeon in Edmonton; but he had a quarrel with him, and went to London in 1814 to study at Guy’s and St. Thomas’s hospitals.

Even in London, Keats could not concentrate his whole attention on the study of medicine. He read a great deal of poetry, especially Spenser. In 1816 he met Leigh Hunt, who introduced him to the poet Shelley. Already he had begun to write verse, and these friends stimulated his poetic gift, until in the winter of 1816-17 he definitely decided to give up the study of medicine and write for a living.

His first volume of “Poems by John Keats” appeared in the spring of 1817. This book was dedicated to Leigh Hunt. The next year he published “Endymion: A Poetic Romance.” This volume was harshly treated by the famous critic Gifford in the Quarterly Review. Whether or not the poem deserved such severity, the language of the reviewer cut Keats to the quick. He also bitterly resented the attacks made upon him in Blackwood’s Magazine.

With his friend Armitage Brown he next started on a walking tour of Scotland; but on account of the bad state of his health was forced to give this up. His brother Thomas Keats died of consumption at the beginning of December, 1818, and the poet went to live with Brown. When there he fell passionately in love with Fanny Brawne, a girl of seventeen, who lived nearby. It was at this time that he wrote his greatest poems; although his health was very poor.

Early in 1820 Keats realized that he had consumption; but he did not give up. In July he published his third and last volume of poetry, “Lamia, Isabella, The Eve of St. Agnes, and Other Poems.” In September, 1820, he started for Naples in an attempt to cure himself; but it was in vain, for on the following February 23 he died in Rome. He was buried in the old Protestant cemetery near the pyramid of Cestius. He requested that on his gravestone should be carved this inscription, “Here lies one whose name was writ in water.”

It was formerly believed that the attacks of hostile reviewers were the cause of Keats’ death; but this theory has long since been disproved. Although the sensitive poet felt these bitter attacks keenly, his was not a spirit to sink beneath them.

PREPARED BY THE EDITORIAL STAFF OF THE MENTOR ASSOCIATION
ILLUSTRATION FOR THE MENTOR, VOL. 1. No. 44. SERIAL No. 44
COPYRIGHT, 1913, BY THE MENTOR ASSOCIATION, INC.

PERCY BYSSHE SHELLEY

FAMOUS ENGLISH POETS

PERCY BYSSHE SHELLEY

Monograph Number Three in The Mentor Reading Course

Percy Bysshe Shelley was born near Horsham, in the county of Sussex, England, on August 4, 1792. He was the eldest son of Sir Timothy Shelley.

At the age of eleven he was sent to school at Eton. There he had a hard time. He resisted the “fagging” system,—a system under which the young boys must act as