Keats Encounters the Shakespeare Folio

To explore this topic Professor Rohrbach, of Durham University, focuses on the young poet’s engagement specifically with his 1808 facsimile copy of the 1623 Shakespeare folio. In that book, Keats inscribed an original poem in the space left by the printer between the end of 'Hamlet' and the beginning of 'King Lear', explaining that it demanded a prologue.

She’ll situate this act in the context of Keats’s immediate literary-cultural influences, such as Leigh Hunt and William Hazlitt, and in the larger historical context. Keats wrote in the early nineteenth century, a time of lively, intersecting historical changes: the rise of literacy rates, the emergence of the professional writer and hostile reviewing culture, and what one historian has called 'the industrial revolution of the book'.

This talk will explore the significance of Keats’s inscription by hand in the Shakespeare volume, as the young poet sought to imagine his place 'among the English poets'.

Image ALT text: Part of a page from John Keat's 1808 facsimile copy of the 1623 Shakespeare folio, on which Keats's has written his poem 'On Sitting Down to Read King Lear Once Again.'

ALT text: The round logo of 'Keats House 100: yours to explore, 1925 – 2025’ along with a silhouette of Keats House, in white on a brown background.