much further--

"He began life full of hopes, fiery, impetuous, and ungovernable,
expecting the world to fall at once beneath his powers. Poor
fellow! his genius had no sooner begun to bud than hatred and
malice spat their poison on its leaves, and, sensitive and young,
it shrivelled beneath their effusions. Unable to bear the sneers
of ignorance or the attacks of envy, not having strength of mind
enough to buckle himself together like a porcupine and present
nothing but his prickles to his enemies, he began to despond, and
flew to dissipation as a relief, which, after a temporary
elevation of spirits, plunged him into deeper despondency than
ever. For six weeks he was scarcely sober, and (to show what a
man does to gratify his appetites when once they get the better
of him) once covered his tongue and throat as far as he could
reach with cayenne pepper in order to appreciate the 'delicious
coldness[16] of claret in all its glory'--his own expression."

Immediately afterwards, April 21, 1821, Haydon wrote a letter to Miss
Mitford, repeating, with some verbal variations, what is said above, and
adding several other particulars concerning Keats. The opening phrase
runs thus: "Keats was a victim to personal abuse, and want of nerve to
bear it. Ought he to have sunk in that way because a few quizzers told
him that he was an apothecary's apprentice?" And further on--"I
remonstrated on his absurd dissipation, but to no purpose." The reader
will observe that this dissipation, six weeks of insobriety, is alleged
to have occurred after Keats "began to despond." The precise time when
he began to despond is not defined, but we may suppose it to have been
in the late autumn of 1818. If so, it was much about the same period
when he first made Miss Brawne's acquaintance.

It is true that Mr. Cowden Clarke, when he published certain
"Recollections" in _The Gentleman's Magazine_ in 1874, strongly
contested these statements of Haydon's; he disbelieved the cayenne
pepper and the dissipation, and had "never perceived in Keats even a
tendency to imprudent indulgence." The "Recollections" were afterwards
reproduced as a volume, and in the volume the confutation of Haydon
disappeared; whether because Clarke had eventually changed his opinion,
or for what other reason, I am unable to say. Anyhow, Haydon's evidence
remains; it relates to a period of Keats's life when Haydon no doubt saw
him much