‘Some Scraps of Paper’: The Autograph Manuscript of Ode to a Nightingale at the Fitzwilliam Museum
Accepted version
Peer-reviewed
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Repository DOI
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Authors
Reynolds, S
Abstract
This article traces the history of the only surviving autograph manuscript of Ode to a Nightingale, composed two hundred years ago in May 2019, and preserved since 1933 in the Fitzwilliam Museum. It tests Charles Armitage Brown’s famous eyewitness account of the moment of composition against the physical reality of the manuscript, and examines its materiality in some detail. It also traces the history of the manuscript’s fortunes through the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, and examines the role of collectors, curators and conservators in ensuring its survival and its continued presence in the UK.
Description
Keywords
John Keats, Ode to a Nightingale, autograph manuscript, Fitzwilliam Museum, materiality
Journal Title
Keats-Shelley Review
Conference Name
Journal ISSN
0952-4142
2042-1362
2042-1362
Volume Title
33
Publisher
Informa UK Limited
Publisher DOI
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All rights reserved