[30] ‘I am now engaged,’ wrote Mr. Severn, the artist-friend who watched over Keats in his last hours, ‘on a picture of the poet’s grave. The classical story of Endymion being the subject of his principal poem, I have introduced a young shepherd sleeping against the headstone, with his flock about him; while the moon from behind the pyramid illuminates his figure, and serves to realize the poet’s favourite theme, in the presence of his grave. This interesting incident is not fanciful, but is what I actually saw, one autumn evening, at Monte Tertanio, the year following the poet’s death.’
[31] Ticknor’s Spanish Literature.
[32] W. L. Symonds.
[33] ‘News-letters were written by enterprising individuals in the metropolis, and sent to rich persons who subscribed for them; and then circulated from family to family, and doubtless enjoyed a privilege which has not descended to their printed contemporary—the newspaper,—of never becoming stale. Their authors compiled them from materials picked up in the gossip of the coffee-houses.’—Draper’s History of the Intellectual Development of Europe, p. 509.
[34] Jockey’s Intelligencer, 1683.
[35] Burke’s influence upon journalism was still more direct. While preparing for Dodsley ‘An Account of the European Settlements in America,’ he was led by his researches to suggest a periodical which should chronicle the important literary, political, and social facts of the year. Such was the origin of the Annual Registers. The first volume appeared in 1759. For several years it was edited by Burke, is still regularly published, and has been imitated in similar publications elsewhere, having finally initiated and established the historical element of journalism.
[36] The following return of the numbers daily printed by the principal Paris journals is taken from M. Didot’s pamphlet on the fabrication of paper. It may be regarded as official: Presse, 40,000; Siècle, 35,000; Constitutionel, 25,000; Moniteur, 24,000; Patrie, 18,000; Pays, 14,000; Débats, 9,000; Assemblée Nationale, 5,000; Univers, 3,500; Union, 3,500; Gazette de France, 2,500; Gazettes de Tribunaux, 2,500. These journals are all printed in five offices; and the quantity of paper they annually consume amounts to more than four millions of pounds.
[37] Bryant.
[38] Blackwood’s Magazine, vol. xxviii., p. 8.
[39] Draper’s Intellectual Development of Europe.