Shelley had gone to Italy before the reviews were published. He heard of the _Quarterly_ article, but knew nothing of _Blackwood's_ while writing _Adonais_; hence in both poem and preface, the former review is charged with having caused Keats' death. Shelley declared that Keats' agitation over the review ended in the rupture of a blood vessel in the lungs with an ensuing rapid consumption. These statements, which Shelley must have had indirectly, have not been substantiated. We are forced to the conclusion now generally accepted--that Keats, although sensitive to personal ridicule, was superior to the stings of review criticism and that the distressing events of the last year of his life were sufficient to assure the early triumph of the inherent and unconquerable disease.
141. _Miss Baillie_. Joanna Baillie (1762-1851) authoress of numerous forgotten plays and poems which enjoyed great popularity in their day.
142. _Land of Cockaigne_. Here means London, and refers specifically to the Cockney poets. An old French poem on the _Land of Cockaigne_ described it as an ideal land of luxury and ease. The best authorities do not accept Cockney as a derivative form. The Cockney School was composed of Londoners of the middle-class, supposedly ill-bred and imperfectly educated. The critics took special delight in dwelling upon the humble origin of the Cockneys, their lack of university training, and especially their dependence on translations for their knowledge of the classics.
142. _When Leigh Hunt left prison_. Hunt had been imprisoned for libel on the Prince Regent (1812).
146. _Vauxhall_. The Gardens were a favorite resort for Londoners early in the eighteenth century and remained popular for a long time. See Thackeray's _Vanity Fair_ (chap. VI). The implication in the present passage is that the Cockney poet gets his ideas of nature from the immediate vicinity of London.
147. _East of Temple-bar_. That is, living in the City of London.
150. _Young Sangrado_. An allusion to Doctor Sangrado, in Le Sage's _Gil Blas_ (1715).
Tennyson's first poetical efforts, which appeared in _Poems by Two Brothers_ (1827) attracted little critical attention. His prize-poem, _Timbuctoo_ (1829) received the interesting notice here reprinted from the _Athenæum_ (p. 456) of July 22, 1829. _Timbuctoo_ was printed in the _Cambridge Chronicle_ (July 10, 1829); in the _Prolusiones Academicæ_ (1829); and several times in _Cambridge Prize-Poems_. The use of heroic metre in prize-poems was traditional; hence the award was an enviable tribute to the blank-verse of _Timbuctoo_.