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What illness caused John Keats’s death?
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John Keats
John Keats, drawing by Joseph Severn, 19th century.
John Keats died from tuberculosis, a disease historically known as "consumption" or "the white plague".12
By the beginning of 1820, the evidence of the illness was clear, and Keats recognized it as his death warrant. He eventually traveled to Rome in an attempt to recover, but he suffered a relapse in December 1820 and died there on February 23, 1821. During the 19th century, tuberculosis was frequently referred to as the "captain of death" and was a common cause of mortality among young, promising figures of the era.132