John Keats in the season of mists

Abstract

On Feb 23, 1821, John Keats died of tuberculosis in Rome, Italy. James Clark, the resident English doctor who later became physician to Queen Victoria, together with a colleague named Dr Luby and an Italian surgeon, opened the body. They found, in the words of Keats's artist friend Joseph Severn, who had accompanied him on the voyage to Italy and nursed him through his final months, the symptoms of “the worst possible Consumption—the lungs were entirely destroyed—the cells were quite gone”. It was common practice at the time to send English patients to the Mediterranean in the hope that the warmer climate would alleviate their condition.