Editing John Keats (section)

===Isabella Jones and Fanny Brawne, 1817–1820===
{{See also|Fanny Brawne}}
Keats befriended Isabella Jones in May 1817, while on holiday in the village of [[Bulverhythe|Bo Peep]], near [[Hastings]]. She is described as beautiful, talented and widely read, not of the top flight of society yet financially secure, an enigmatic figure who would become a part of Keats's circle.<ref name="Motion180-1">Motion (1997), pp. 180–181.</ref><ref name="Gittings 1968, 139"/> Throughout their friendship Keats never hesitated to own his sexual attraction to her, although they seemed to enjoy circling each other rather than offering commitment. He writes that he "frequented her rooms" in the winter of 1818–19, and in his letters to George says that he "warmed with her" and "kissed her".<ref name="Gittings 1968, 139">Gittings (1968), p. 139.</ref> 

The trysts may have been a sexual initiation for Keats according to Bate and [[Robert Gittings]].<ref name="Gittings 1968, 139"/> Jones inspired and was a steward of Keats's writing. The themes of "The Eve of St. Agnes" and "The Eve of St Mark" may well have been suggested by her, the lyric ''Hush, Hush!'' ["o sweet Isabel"] was about her, and that the first version of "[[Bright star, would I were steadfast as thou art|Bright Star]]" may have originally been for her.<ref>Walsh, William (1981) ''Introduction to Keats'' Law Book Co of Australasia, p. 81.</ref><ref>Gittings (1956), ''Mask of Keats''. Heinemann, p. 45.</ref> In 1821, Jones was one of the first in England to be notified of Keats's death.<ref name="Motion180-1"/>

Letters and drafts of poems suggest that Keats first met Frances (Fanny) Brawne between September and November 1818.<ref>Gittings (1968), 262</ref> It is likely that the 18-year-old Brawne visited the Dilke family at Wentworth Place before she lived there. She was born in the hamlet of West End, now in the district of [[West Hampstead]], on 9 August 1800. Like Keats's grandfather, her grandfather kept a London inn, and both lost several family members to tuberculosis. She shared her first name with both Keats's sister and mother, and had a talent for dress-making and languages as well as a natural theatrical bent.<ref>Gittings (1968), p. 268.</ref> During November 1818 she developed an intimacy with Keats, but it was shadowed by the illness of Tom Keats, whom John was nursing through this period.<ref>Gittings (1968), p. 264.</ref>

[[File:Fannybrawne.jpg|upright|thumb|An [[ambrotype]] of Fanny Brawne taken circa 1850 (photograph on glass)]]
On 3 April 1819, Brawne and her widowed mother moved into the other half of Dilke's Wentworth Place, and Keats and Brawne were able to see each other every day. Keats began to lend Brawne books, such as [[Dante Alighieri|Dante]]'s ''[[Inferno (Dante)|Inferno]]'', and they would read together. He gave her the love sonnet "Bright Star" (perhaps revised for her) as a declaration. It was a work in progress which he continued until the last months of his life, and the poem came to be associated with their relationship. "All his desires were concentrated on Fanny".<ref name="autogenerated1">Gittings (1968), pp. 293–298</ref> From this point there is no further documented mention of Isabella Jones.<ref name=autogenerated1 /> 

Sometime before the end of June, he arrived at some sort of understanding with Brawne, far from a formal engagement as he still had too little to offer, with no prospects and financial stricture.<ref name="Gittings327">Gittings (1968), pp. 327–331.</ref> Keats endured great conflict knowing his expectations as a struggling poet in increasingly hard straits would preclude marriage to Brawne. Their love remained unconsummated; jealousy for his 'star' began to gnaw at him. Darkness, disease and depression surrounded him, reflected in poems such as "The Eve of St. Agnes" and "La Belle Dame sans Merci" where love and death both stalk. "I have two luxuries to brood over in my walks;" he wrote to her, "your loveliness, and the hour of my death".<ref name=Gittings327/>

In one of his many hundreds of notes and letters, Keats wrote to Brawne on 13 October 1819: "My love has made me selfish. I cannot exist without you&nbsp;– I am forgetful of every thing but seeing you again&nbsp;– my Life seems to stop there&nbsp;– I see no further. You have absorb'd me. I have a sensation at the present moment as though I was dissolving&nbsp;– I should be exquisitely miserable without the hope of soon seeing you&nbsp;... I have been astonished that Men could die Martyrs for religion&nbsp;– I have shudder'd at it&nbsp;– I shudder no more&nbsp;– I could be martyr'd for my Religion&nbsp;– Love is my religion&nbsp;– I could die for that&nbsp;– I could die for you."

Tuberculosis took hold and he was advised by his doctors to move to a warmer climate. In September 1820 Keats left for Rome knowing he would probably never see Brawne again. After leaving he felt unable to write to her or read her letters, although he did correspond with her mother.<ref name="NDB" /> He died there five months later. None of Brawne's letters to Keats survive.<ref>[http://hcl.harvard.edu/libraries/houghton/exhibits/keats/year_1820.cfm Houghton Library, Harvard University] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180824102420/http://hcl.harvard.edu/libraries/houghton/exhibits/keats/year_1820.cfm |date=24 August 2018 }}, ''I shall ever be your dearest love: John Keats and Fanny Brawne''. "1820".</ref>

It took a month for the news of his death to reach London, after which Brawne stayed in mourning for six years. In 1833, more than 12 years after his death, she married and went on to have three children; she outlived Keats by more than 40 years.<ref name="guardian"/><ref>Richardson, 1952, p. 112.</ref>