makematters much better for those whose works it reviewed and it condemned the works of Keats 34 and Leigh Hunt as scathingly
as the Edinburgh had condemned another school of poets. Nor did Blackwood's spare its venom in dealing with those ofwhom it
disapproved,35 and it apparently justified its remorseless criticism on the ground that it was " good business" and lengthened the list of subscribers,36 while in the same breath disclaiming the
charge of personality in its criticism .37
The reviewer himself becomes the subject of review on the part of more or less unfriendly critics. “ Jeffrey was twitted to of Wordsworth, Southey, and Coleridge. 'This will never do ! was the commencement of his review of Wordsworth 's noblest poem !” - A Publisher and His Friends, I, 91 - 92.
Jeffrey's contemporaries were not disposed to take the matter so calmly.
Miss Seward wrote to Scott, “ Jefferies ought to have been his name. Igno rance and envy are the only possible parents of such criticisms as disgrace
the publication which assumes the name of your city .” — Ib., p . 92. A long -distance view does not make matters better for the Edinburgh
and Jeffrey. A recent critic finds that “ he frequently treated authors very much as though they were guilty prisoners at the bar, and he the judge upon the bench , wearing the black cap and about to pronounce sentence of execution . . . . The solemnity and finality of his sentence of literary death
pronounced upon Wordsworth , can hardly be surpassed .” — E . L . Pearson,
Book -Reviews, p . 18 . 34 Byron in Don Juan gave currency to the rumor that the adverse criticism of Endymion in the Quarterly caused Keats' death , and although informed to the contrary by Leigh Hunt, persisted in printing the statement.
- S . Smiles, A Publisher and His Friends, I, 481-482.
35 John Murray became half owner of Blackwood's, but from the first protested against its slashing criticisms and its personalities.
This protest
was unavailing and he finally severed his connection with the magazine on
this ground . - S . Smiles , I, chap . XVIII . S . Smiles entitles his memoir of John Murray A
Publisher and Bis
Friends, but Murray was so constantly harassed by his relations with the Edinburgh,the Quarterly ,and Blackwood ' s through their acrimonious criticisms of writersand public men that the title seems a misnomer.
36 The editor, John Wilson , in an article “ An Hour's Tête-à -tête with the Public ,” boasted that while the Quarterly had a circulation of about 14 ,000 and the Edinburgh of upwards of 7 ,000 , it was the intention of the editors not to allow the circulation of Blackwood ' s to go above 17 ,000 . - Blackwood ' s
Magazine, October , 1820, 8 : 78 - 105.
37 Blackwood had constantly replied to the expostulations of Murray that no one hated personalities more than he himself did , and that he had
done his best to have the editors avoid them . It is interesting to note that the late E . L . Godkin felt that before Ameri can criticism could merit the name it would have to pass through this stormy and belligerent stage like that of English criticism during the first quarter of the nineteenth century. — “ Critics and Criticism ,” Critical and Social Essays, pp . 11- 18.
