was that he adored her. He basically thought
I’m going to accept my fate and go with this.
So she started wearing his ring. Her family
[wondered], what the hell is he doing? But then
he started to cough blood.”
They never saw each other again. Keats died in
Rome in February 1821, a genius snuffed out in his
prime. After three years together, Brawne was
distraught. She spent a further three years wearing
a black dress and re-reading his letters. But even
though she married in 1833 and had three children,
she never stopped wearing the ring Keats had given
her until her own death aged 65.
Campion says: “I don’t think she could have gone,
knowing he was going to die. What could her mother
possibly be thinking by letting her do such a thing?
BEN WHISHAW AND ABBIE
CORNISH APPEAR AS KEATS
AND BRAWNE IN BRIGHT STAR
Fanny desperately wanted to go, but her mother
realised that he’d never come back and she’d be left
in a foreign country alone.”
When Keats lay dying in Italy, aged just 25,
he wrote to fellow writer Charles Brown, saying:
“The persuasion that I shall see her no more will
kill me... O that I could be buried where she lives.
It surprises me that the human heart is capable
of such misery.”
“We’re so lucky he left behind these love letters,”
says Campion. “I sobbed that a young man with so
much died in such a terrible way. A couple
extraordinarily in love will never realise their
passion. You can’t help but be moved by it.”
Bright Star is released in cinemas nationwide on 6 Nov
PASSION AND THE
PEN: OTHER
LITERARY LOVE
AFFAIRS
Keats wasn’t the only
love-struck scribe. Take these
enamoured wordsmiths…
F SCOTT AND
ZELDA FITZGERALD
The tempestuous marriage
between The Great Gatsby
author and his wife produced
many love
letters, but
was blighted
by his
alcoholism
and her
schizophrenia.
WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE
AND ANNE HATHAWAY
Scandalously, Hathaway
became pregnant before her
marriage to the Bard – who, at
18, was eight years her junior.
VERLAINE AND RIMBAUD
Sixteen-year old enfant terrible
Arthur Rimbaud embarked on
an absinthe-fuelled affair with
French poet Paul Verlaine in
1871, until the latter decided
to try to save his marriage.
JAMES JOYCE
AND NORA BARNACLE
The Irish writer went on his
first date with the amusingly
named chambermaid on
16 June, 1904, which later
became the day his novel
Ulysses was set. They
inspired the Ewan McGregor
film, Nora, in 2000.
LORD BYRON
AND EVERYONE
The Russell Brand of his day
(sort of), Byron copulated his
way around Europe, having
scandalous affairs with Lady
Caroline
Lamb, Anne
Milbanke (her
cousin) and
Augusta Leigh
(his halfsister).
SYLVIA PLATH
AND TED HUGHES
The seven-year marriage
between the poets ended in
1962 after he abandoned her –
a year later, Plath killed herself.
JOHN KEATS
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