Note 1 — Chapter I

A small point here may deserve a note. A letter from John Keats to his brother George, under date of September 21st, 1819, contains the following words: “Our bodies, every seven years, are completely fresh-materialed: seven years ago it was not this hand that clenched itself against Hammond.” Another version of the same letter (the true wording of which is matter of some dispute) substitutes: “Mine is not the same hand I clenched at Hammond’s.” Mr. Buxton Forman, who gives the former phrase as the genuine one, thinks that “this phrase points to a serious rupture as the cause of his quitting his apprenticeship to Hammond.” My own inclination is to surmise that the accurate reading may be—“It was not this hand that clenched itself against Hammond’s”; indicating, not any quarrel, but the friendly habitual clasp of hand against hand. “Seven years ago” would reach back to September 1812: whereas Keats did not part from Hammond until 1814.