Keats and James and The Princess Casamassima

Abstract

H ALFWAY THROUGH The Princess Casamassima, in chapter 22, as grave automatic servant filled his glass with a liquor, Hyacinth, a guest at the Princess' country house, is reminded ... of some lines of Keats in the 'Ode to a Nightingale.' He wondered if he should hear a nightingale at Medley.' By this one explicit reference to Keats's poem, James, in his characteristic fashion,2 calls our attention to a whole body of Keatsian material that is folded into the book. It has been overlooked because the story is primarily a rich, dense, political and social novel, although much of it relies on references to many other works of literature. In this Bildungsroman recognizable allusions to Keats's poetry and to the legend of Keats's life underline Hyacinth's conflict between the aesthetic and the socially dedicated life.