" Some weeks later he wrote that the _Quarterly_ article had
only served to make him more prominent among bookmen. After some time
he expressed himself less confidently and deprecated the growing power
of the reviews, but there is no evidence that he fretted over the
critiques. Haydon tells us that Keats was morbid and silent for hours at
a time; but it is quite likely that the consciousness of his physical
affliction--hereditary consumption--was oppressing his mind. His death
occurred on February 23, 1821--about two and a half years after the
appearance of the _Endymion_ critiques.
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.
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