ABSTRACT
Francis Jeffrey (1773–1850), editor of the Edinburgh Review, was the most influential and respected critic of the day. Traditionalist in principle, he was deeply affected by the new Romantic sensibility (see headnote to No. 2), although in 1815 the irritated Wordsworth denounced him as ‘a depraved Coxcomb; the greatest Dunce, I believe, in this Island, and assuredly the Man who takes most pains to prove himself so.’ For the possible genesis of (a), which is almost entirely occupied with Endymion, see Introduction, pp. 26–7. When reprinting the article in 1844, Jeffrey expanded the final part, mainly with quotations from ‘The Eve of St Agnes’ and the Odes. Extract (b) shows him to be somewhat out of touch with contemporary movements of taste. Extract (c) was written after reading Milnes's biography, which had been dedicated to Jeffrey. Keats's friend Brown had been responsible for the plot of Otho, which Jeffrey criticizes.
