B.
Quick fire: John Keats
Behind the scenes
There's no prize on offer for 4/4 in this true or false quiz; just old-fashioned, blissful satisfaction - which, as we all know, can be its own reward...
![William Hilton, after Joseph Severn Portrait of John Keats c. 1822. Oil on canvas. National Portrait Gallery, London](/media/cache/1e/30/1e30639331364b30e492ad4a8123ed93.jpg)
William Hilton, after Joseph Severn Portrait of John Keats c. 1822. Oil on canvas. National Portrait Gallery, London
John Keats: True or False?
1. His father worked as a hustler at the Swan and Hoop Inn.
2. Over £8,800 (about £340,000 in today's money) from two bequests was held in trust for him until he turned 21, but although he struggled to stay out of debt, he never claimed a penny.
3. The Argentinian writer Jorge Luis Borges thought Keats was "just ok".
4. New Zealand artist Michael Parekowhai used the name of On First Looking into Chapman's Homer, an 1816 poem by Keats, for his sculptural installation at the 2011 Venice Biennale.
![Image](/media/uploads/2012_06/scrolldown.gif)
1. False - close, but not quite as risqué - he was a hostler, or ostler (in charge of the horses).
2. True - it seems no-one ever told him. Oops.
3. False - he stated that his first encounter with Keats was the most significant literary experience of his life.
4. True (and, if you insist on full disclosure, it is also true that this whole quiz could be considered oblique, but shameless, promotion for the Cristchurch presentation of the very same installation, on at our 212 Madras street space from 30 June...)