A
series of articles _On the Cockney School of Poetry_ began in this
magazine in October, 1817, being directed mainly and very venomously
against Leigh Hunt. No. 4 of the series appeared in August, 1818,
falling foul of Keats. It is difficult to say whether the priority in
abusing Keats should of right be assigned to _Blackwood_ or to the
_Quarterly_: the critique in the latter review belongs to the number for
April, 1818, but this number was not actually issued until September.
The writer of the _Blackwood_ papers signed himself Z. Z. is affirmed to
have been Lockhart, the son-in-law of Sir Walter Scott, and afterwards
editor of the _Quarterly Review_: more especially the article upon Keats
is attributed to Lockhart. A different account, as to the series in
general, is that the author was John Wilson (Christopher North), revised
by Mr. William Blackwood. But Z. resisted more than one vigorous
challenge to unmask, and some doubt as to his identity may still remain.
Here are some specimens of the amenity with which Keats was treated in
_Blackwood's Magazine_:--
'His friends, we understand, destined him to the career of medicine, and
he was bound apprentice some years ago to a worthy apothecary in
town.
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