ion appears to have begun."

The informants of Shelley with regard to Keats's acute feelings and
distress were (it is stated) the Gisbornes, and possibly Leigh Hunt may
have confirmed them in some measure; but the Gisbornes knew nothing
directly of what had been taking place in England in or about the autumn
of 1818, and that which Hunt published regarding Keats is far from
corroborating so extreme a view of the facts. Later on Shelley received
from Mr. Gisborne a letter written by Colonel Finch, the date of which
would perhaps be in May 1821 (three months after the death of Keats).
This letter appears to have been one of his principal incentives for the
indignation expressed in the preface to "Adonais," but not in the poem
itself, which had been completed before Shelley saw the letter; and it
is remarkable that Colonel Finch's expressions, when one scrutinizes
them, do not really say anything about mental anguish caused to Keats by
any review, but only by ill-treatment of a different kind--seemingly
that of his brother George and others, as previously detailed. The
following is the only relevant passage: "He left his native shores by
sea in a merchant vessel for Naples, where he arrived, having received
no benefit during the passage, and brooding over the most melancholy and
mortifying reflections, and nursing a deeply-rooted disgust to life and
to the world, owing to having been infamously treated by the very
persons whom his generosity had rescued from want and woe." Shelley
however put into print in the preface to "Adonais" the same view of the
blighting of Keats's life by the _Quarterly_ critique (he seems to have
known nothing of the _Blackwood_ scurrility), which had appeared in his
undespatched letter to the editor of the _Quarterly_--

"The savage criticism on his 'Endymion' which appeared in _The
Quarterly Review_ produced the most violent effect on his
susceptible mind. The agitation thus originated ended in the
rupture of a blood-vessel in the lungs. A rapid consumption
ensued, and the succeeding acknowledgments from more candid
critics of the true greatness of his powers were ineffectual to
heal the wound thus wantonly inflicted.... Miserable man! you,
one of the meanest, have wantonly defaced one of the noblest
specimens of the workmanship of God. Nor shall it be your excuse
that, murderer as you are, you have spoken daggers but used
none."

Thus far we have found no str