Keats’s 1819 Trajectory to Professional Authorship: Hazlitt, Lamia , and The Cap and Bells

In the second half of 1819 Keats was overcoming his distrust of the reading public and purposefully working towards a professional career as a writer. William Hazlitt acted as a powerful professional role model, particularly in the way he dealt with hostile reviewers. Keeping Keats’s professional ambition in mind, both Lamia and The Cap and Bells can be read as examples of Regency satire which appealed to the reading public of the day. An understanding of the concurrent trajectories of Keats’s poetical experimentation and professional authorship enhances our awareness of the versatility and virtuosity of Keats’s writing, and his position within the satirical print market of the Regency.