キーツとサンクチュアリ : 1817年詩集から「ハイペリオンの没落」まで

抄録

'The Fall of Hyperion' (1820) was written between July and September 1819, a fruitful year for John Keats. At the end of the year, when he had completed the odes, he still cherished the idea that he would make a second try at the Hyperion poem. In Endymion (1818) as well as 'The Fall of Hyperion', Keats manifests a strong affinity for Greek mythology; one consistent fascination of his is the problem of the encounter between gods and human beings, and the border between them. Neither in 'The Fall of Hyperion' nor in Endymion does he present any scenes where gods and men appear at the same time. It is only in his dream that Endymion can meet the goddess, Cynthia. In 'The Fall of Hyperion', however, Keats does write of a direct encounter between the poet-narrator and the goddess and priestess Moneta. After waking up from a sleep brought by drinking a mysterious juice, he finds himself in an old sanctuary, which is the temple of Saturn. This sanctuary is the only place where gods and men can encounter one another, and becomes the final mythological stage Keats had ever produced. I will follow three images of sanctuary, in 'Sleep and Poetry' (1817) and 'Ode to Psyche'(1820), as well as 'The Fall of Hyperion' to illuminate the changing relationship between Keats and his concept of Poesy. In 'The Fall of Hyperion', Keats presents two different images of sanctuary. The sanctuary where the poet meets Moneta owes much to John Potter (1674-1747)'s Antiquities of Greece (1697-99), which serves not only as a detailed description of Saturn's ancient temple itself, but also as a statement of the central theme of 'The Fall of Hyperion'. When Keats uses the image of sanctuary, it is always together with Poesy. Moneta, who shows the poet-narrator what a true poet is through her magnificent speech and by her own example, is the important figure for an exploration of Keats's Poesy idea. To be a true poet, the poet is required to pass this old sanctuary, and go into another sanctuary. The aim of this paper is to investigate Keats's different images of sanctuary and his ideal of Poesy.