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LORD BYRON Ultimate Collection: 300+ Poems, Verses, Dramas & Tales offers a comprehensive anthology of Lord Byron's literary oeuvre, showcasing his profound exploration of human emotion, the sublime, and the tempestuous nature of existence. The collection spans various forms, including passionate love verses, incisive satirical poetry, and dramatic narratives, all imbued with Byronic heroism and Romantic idealism. Byron's distinctive style, characterized by its lyrical intensity and rich imagery, reflects the political and social tumult of the early 19th century, making his work an invaluable register of the Romantic period's ethos and aspirations. Lord Byron, one of the most prominent figures of the Romantic movement, was born in 1788 into an aristocratic family, deeply influencing his poetic perspective on society and individualism. His tumultuous life'Äîmarked by scandal, travel, and volatile relationships'Äîshaped his artistic sensibilities and imbued his works with a sense of personal vulnerability and rebellion against societal norms. Byron's commitment to artistic and emotional authenticity has ensured his enduring legacy as a pivotal force in literature. This collection is an essential read for scholars and enthusiasts alike, as it captures the essence of Byron's genius and his ability to articulate the complexities of the human condition. Whether you are new to Byron'Äôs work or an avid admirer, this ultimate collection will enrich your understanding of one of literature'Äôs most evocative voices.
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Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2023
The text of the present issue of Lord Byron's Poetical Works is based on that of The Works of Lord Byron, in six volumes, 12mo, which was published by John Murray in 1831. That edition followed the text of the successive issues of plays and poems which appeared in the author's lifetime, and were subject to his own revision, or that of Gifford and other accredited readers. A more or less thorough collation of the printed volumes with the MSS. which were at Moore's disposal, yielded a number of variorum readings which have appeared in subsequent editions published by John Murray. Fresh collations of the text of individual poems with the original MSS. have been made from time to time, with the result that the text of the latest edition (one-vol. 8vo, 1891) includes some emendations, and has been supplemented by additional variants. Textual errors of more or less importance, which had crept into the numerous editions which succeeded the seventeen-volume edition of 1832, were in some instances corrected, but in others passed over. For the purposes of the present edition the printed text has been collated with all the MSS. which passed through Moore's hands, and, also, for the first time, with MSS. of the following plays and poems, viz. English Bards, and Scotch Reviewers; Childe Harold, Canto IV.; Don Juan, Cantos VI.-XVI.; Werner; The Deformed Transformed; Lara; Parisina; The Prophecy of Dante; The Vision of Judgment; The Age of Bronze; The Island. The only works of any importance which have been printed directly from the text of the first edition, without reference to the MSS., are the following, which appeared in The Liberal (1822-23), viz.: Heaven and Earth, The Blues, and Morgante Maggiore.
A new and, it is believed, an improved punctuation has been adopted. In this respect Byron did not profess to prepare his MSS. for the press, and the punctuation, for which Gifford is mainly responsible, has been reconsidered with reference solely to the meaning and interpretation of the sentences as they occur.
In the Hours of Idleness and Other Early Poems, the typography of the first four editions, as a rule, has been preserved. A uniform typography in accordance with modern use has been adopted for all poems of later date.
Variants
, being the readings of one or more MSS. or of successive editions, are included as alphabetical footnotes to each poem.
Words and lines through which the author has drawn his pen in the MSS. or Revises are marked
MS. erased
.
Poems and plays are given, so far as possible, in chronological order.
Childe Harold
and
Don Juan
, which were written and published in parts, are printed continuously; and minor poems, including the first four satires, have been arranged in groups according to the date of composition.
Epigrams and
jeux d'esprit
have been placed together, in chronological order, towards the end of the sixth volume.
A Bibliography of the poems will immediately precede the Index at the close of the
sixth volume
.
The edition contains at least thirty hitherto unpublished poems, including fifteen stanzas of the unfinished seventeenth canto of Don Juan, and a considerable fragment of the third part of The Deformed Transformed. The eleven unpublished poems from MSS. preserved at Newstead, which appear in the first volume, are of slight if any literary value, but they reflect with singular clearness and sincerity the temper and aspirations of the tumultuous and moody stripling to whom "the numbers came," but who wisely abstained from printing them himself.
Byron's notes, of which many are published for the first time, and editorial notes, are included as numerical footnotes to each poem. The editorial notes are designed solely to supply the reader with references to passages in other works illustrative of the text, or to interpret expressions and allusions which lapse of time may have rendered obscure.
Much of the knowledge requisite for this purpose is to be found in the articles of the Dictionary of National Biography, to which the fullest acknowledgments are due; and much has been arrived at after long research, involving a minute examination of the literature, the magazines, and often the newspapers of the period.
Inasmuch as the poems and plays have been before the public for more than three quarters of a century, it has not been thought necessary to burden the notes with the eulogies and apologies of the great poets and critics who were Byron's contemporaries, and regarded his writings, both for good and evil, for praise and blame, from a different standpoint from ours. Perhaps, even yet, the time has not come for a definite and positive appreciation of his genius. The tide of feeling and opinion must ebb and flow many times before his rank and station among the poets of all time will be finally adjudged. The splendour of his reputation, which dazzled his own countrymen, and, for the first time, attracted the attention of a contemporary European audience to an English writer, has faded, and belongs to history; but the poet's work remains, inviting a more intimate and a more extended scrutiny than it has hitherto received in this country. The reader who cares to make himself acquainted with the method of Byron's workmanship, to unravel his allusions, and to follow the tenour of his verse, will, it is hoped, find some assistance in these volumes.
I beg to record my especial thanks to the Earl of Lovelace for the use of MSS. of his grandfather's poems, including unpublished fragments; for permission to reproduce portraits in his possession; and for valuable information and direction in the construction of some of the notes.
My grateful acknowledgments are due to Dr. Garnett, C.B., Dr. A. H. Murray, Mr. R. E. Graves, and other officials of the British Museum, for invaluable assistance in preparing the notes, and in compiling a bibliography of the poems.
I have also to thank Mr. Leslie Stephen and others for important hints and suggestions with regard to the interpretation of some obscure passages in Hints from Horace.
In correcting the proofs for the press, I have had the advantage of the skill and knowledge of my friend Mr. Frank E. Taylor, of Chertsey, to whom my thanks are due.
On behalf of the Publisher, I beg to acknowledge with gratitude the kindness of the Lady Dorchester, the Earl Stanhope, Lord Glenesk and Sir Theodore Martin, K.C.B., for permission to examine MSS. in their possession; and of Mrs. Chaworth Musters, for permission to reproduce her miniature of Miss Chaworth, and for other favours. He desires also to acknowledge the generous assistance of Mr. and Miss Webb, of Newstead Abbey, in permitting the publication of MS. poems, and in making transcripts for the press.
I need hardly add that, throughout the progress of the work, the advice and direct assistance of Mr. John Murray and Mr. R. E. Prothero have been always within my reach. They have my cordial thanks.
Ernest Hartley Coleridge.
There were four distinct issues of Byron's Juvenilia. The first collection, entitled Fugitive Pieces, was printed in quarto by S. and J. Ridge of Newark. Two of the poems, The Tear and the Reply to Some Verses of J. M. B. Pigot, Esq., were signed "Byron;" but the volume itself, which is without a title-page, was anonymous. It numbers sixty-six pages, and consists of thirty-eight distinct pieces. The last piece, Imitated from Catullus. To Anna, is dated November 16, 1806. The whole of this issue, with the exception of two or three copies, was destroyed. An imperfect copy, lacking pp. 17-20 and pp. 58-66, is preserved at Newstead. A perfect copy, which had been retained by the Rev. J. T. Becher, at whose instance the issue was suppressed, was preserved by his family (see Life, by Karl Elze, 1872, p. 450), and is now in the possession of Mr. H. Buxton Forman, C.B. A facsimile reprint of this unique volume, limited to one hundred copies, was issued, for private circulation only, from the Chiswick Press in 1886.
Of the thirty-eight Fugitive Pieces, two poems, viz. To Caroline and To Mary, together with the last six stanzas of the lines, To Miss E. P. [To Eliza], have never been republished in any edition of Byron's Poetical Works.
A second edition, small octavo, of Fugitive Pieces, entitled Poems on Various Occasions, was printed by S. and J. Ridge of Newark, and distributed in January, 1807. This volume was issued anonymously. It numbers 144 pages, and consists of a reproduction of thirty-six Fugitive Pieces, and of twelve hitherto unprinted poems--forty-eight in all. For references to the distribution of this issue--limited, says Moore, to one hundred copies--see letters to Mr. Pigot and the Earl of Clare, dated January 16, February 6, 1807, and undated letters of the same period to Mr. William Bankes and Mr. Falkner (Life, pp. 41, 42). The annotated copy of Poems on Various Occasions, referred to in the present edition, is in the British Museum.
Early in the summer (June--July) of 1807, a volume, small octavo, named Hours of Idleness--a title henceforth associated with Byron's early poems--was printed and published by S. and J. Ridge of Newark, and was sold by the following London booksellers: Crosby and Co.; Longman, Hurst, Rees, and Orme; F. and C. Rivington; and J. Mawman. The full title is, "Hours of Idleness; a Series of Poems Original and Translated. By George Gordon, Lord Byron, a Minor". It numbers 187 pages, and consists of thirty-nine poems. Of these, nineteen belonged to the original Fugitive Pieces, eight had first appeared in Poems on Various Occasions, and twelve were published for the first time. The "Fragment of a Translation from the 9th Book of Virgil's Æneid" (sic), numbering sixteen lines, reappears as The Episode of Nisus and Euryalus, A Paraphrase from the Æneid, Lib. 9, numbering 406 lines.
The final collection, also in small octavo, bearing the title "Poems Original and Translated, by George Gordon, Lord Byron", second edition, was printed and published in 1808 by S. and J. Ridge of Newark, and sold by the same London booksellers as Hours of Idleness. It numbers 174 pages, and consists of seventeen of the original Fugitive Pieces, four of those first published in Poems on Various Occasions, a reprint of the twelve poems first published in Hours of Idleness, and five poems which now appeared for the first time--thirty-eight poems in all. Neither the title nor the contents of this so-called second edition corresponds exactly with the previous issue.
Of the thirty-eight Fugitive Pieces which constitute the suppressed quarto, only seventeen appear in all three subsequent issues. Of the twelve additions to Poems on Various Occasions, four were excluded from Hours of Idleness, and four more from Poems Original and Translated.
The collection of minor poems entitled Hours of Idleness, which has been included in every edition of Byron's Poetical Works issued by John Murray since 1831, consists of seventy pieces, being the aggregate of the poems published in the three issues, Poems on Various Occasions, Hours of Idleness, and Poems Original and Translated, together with five other poems of the same period derived from other sources.
In the present issue a general heading, "Hours of Idleness, and other Early Poems," has been applied to the entire collection of Early Poems, 1802-1809. The quarto has been reprinted (excepting the lines To Mary, which Byron himself deliberately suppressed) in its entirety, and in the original order. The successive additions to the Poems on Various Occasions, Hours of Idleness, and Poems Original and Translated, follow in order of publication. The remainder of the series, viz. poems first published in Moore's Life and Journals of Lord Byron (1830); poems hitherto unpublished; poems first published in the Works of Lord Byron (1832), and poems contributed to J. C. Hobhouse's Imitations and Translations (1809), have been arranged in chronological order. (For an important contribution to the bibliography of the quarto of 1806, and of the other issues of Byron's Juvenilia, see papers by Mr. R. Edgcumbe, Mr. H. Buxton Forman, C.B., and others, in the Athenæum, 1885, vol. ii. pp. 731-733, 769; and 1886, vol. i. p. 101, etc. For a collation of the contents of the four first issues and of certain large-paper copies of Hours of Idleness, etc., see The Bibliography of the Poetical Works of Lord Byron, vol. vi. of the present edition.)
The MS. (MS. M.) of the first draft of Byron's Satire (see Letter to Pigot, October 26, 1807) is now in Mr. Murray's possession. It is written on folio sheets paged 6-25, 28-41, and numbers 360 lines. Mutilations on pages 12, 13, 34, 35 account for the absence of ten additional lines.
After the publication of the January number of The Edinburgh Review for 1808 (containing the critique on Hours of Idleness), which was delayed till the end of February, Byron added a beginning and an ending to the original draft. The MSS. of these additions, which number ninety lines, are written on quarto sheets, and have been bound up with the folios. (Lines 1-16 are missing.) The poem, which with these and other additions had run up to 560 lines, was printed in book form (probably by Ridge of Newark), under the title of British Bards, A Satire.
A date, 1808, is affixed to the last line. Only one copy is extant, that which was purchased, in 1867, from the executors of R.C. Dallas, by the Trustees of the British Museum. Even this copy has been mutilated. Pages 17, 18, which must have contained the first version of the attack on Jeffrey (see English Bards, p. 332, line 439, note 2), have been torn out, and quarto proof-sheets in smaller type of lines 438-527, "Hail to immortal Jeffrey," etc., together with a quarto proof-sheet, in the same type as British Bards, containing lines 540-559, "Illustrious Holland," etc., have been inserted. Hobhouse's lines (first edition, lines 247-262), which are not in the original draft, are included in British Bards. The insertion of the proofs increased the printed matter to 584 lines. After the completion of this revised version of British Bards, additions continued to be made. Marginal corrections and MS. fragments, bound up with British Bards, together with forty-four lines (lines 723-726, 819-858) which do not occur in MS. M., make up with the printed matter the 696 lines which were published in March, 1809, under the title of English Bards, and Scotch Reviewers. The folio and quarto sheets in Mr. Murray's possession (MS. M.) may be regarded as the MS. of British Bards; British Bards (there are a few alterations, e.g. the substitution of lines 319-326, "Moravians, arise," etc., for the eight lines on Pratt, which are to be found in the folio MS., and are printed in British Bards), with its accompanying MS. fragments, as the foundation of the text of the first edition of English Bards, and Scotch Reviewers.
Between the first edition, published in March, and the second edition in October, 1809, the difference is even greater than between the first edition and British Bards. The Preface was enlarged, and a postscript affixed to the text of the poem. Hobhouse's lines (first edition, 247-262) were omitted, and the following additional passages inserted, viz.:
lines 1-96, "Still must I hear," etc.;
lines 129-142, "Thus saith the Preacher," etc.;
lines 363-417, "But if some new-born whim," etc.;
lines 638-706, "Or hail at once," etc.;
lines 765-798, "When some brisk youth," etc.;
lines 859-880, "And here let Shee," etc.;
lines 949-960, "Yet what avails," etc.;
lines 973-980, "There, Clarke," etc.;
lines 1011-1070, "Then hapless Britain," etc.
These additions number 370 lines, and, together with the 680 lines of the first edition (reduced from 696 by the omission of Hobhouse's contribution), make up the 1050 lines of the second and third editions, and the doubtful fourth edition of 1810. Of these additions, Nos. i., ii., iii., iv., vi., viii., ix. exist in MS., and are bound up with the folio MS. now in Mr. Murray's possession.
The third edition, which is, generally, dated 1810, is a replica of the second edition.
The first issue of the fourth edition, which appeared in 1810, is identical with the second and third editions. A second issue of the fourth edition, dated 1811, must have passed under Byron's own supervision. Lines 723, 724 are added, and lines 725, 726 are materially altered. The fourth edition of 1811 numbers 1052 lines.
The suppressed fifth edition, numbering 1070 lines (the copy in the British Museum has the title-page of the fourth edition; a second copy, in Mr. Murray's possession, has no title-page), varies from the fourth edition of 1811 by the addition of lines 97-102 and 528-539, and by some twenty-nine emendations of the text. Eighteen of these emendations were made by Byron in a copy of the fourth edition which belonged to Leigh Hunt. On another copy, in Mr. Murray's possession, Byron made nine emendations, of which six are identical with those in the Hunt copy, and three appear for the first time. It was in the latter volume that he inscribed his after-thoughts, which are dated "B. 1816."
For a complete collation of the five editions of English Bards, and Scotch Reviewers, and textual emendations in the two annotated volumes, and for a note on genuine and spurious copies of the first and other editions, see The Bibliography of the Poetical Works of Lord Byron, vol. vi.
Why dost thou build the hall, Son of the winged days? Thou lookest from thy tower to-day: yet a few years, and the blast of the desart comes: it howls in thy empty court.-Ossian1.
1 The motto was prefixed in Hours of Idleness.
aOn Leaving N ... ST ... D.--[4to],On Leaving Newstead.--(P. on V. Occasions.)
2 The priory of Newstead, or de Novo Loco, in Sherwood, was founded about the year 1170, by Henry II. On the dissolution of the monasteries it was granted (in 1540) by Henry VIII. to "Sir John Byron the Little, with the great beard." His portrait is still preserved at Newstead.
b Through the cracks in these battlements loud the winds whistle For the hall of my fathers is gone to decay; And in yon once gay garden the hemlock and thistle Have choak'd up the rose, which late bloom'd in the way. [4to]
3 No record of any crusading ancestors in the Byron family can be found. Moore conjectures that the legend was suggested by some groups of heads on the old panel-work at Newstead, which appear to represent Christian soldiers and Saracens, and were, most probably, put up before the Abbey came into the possession of the family.
c Of the barons of old, who once proudly to battle. [4to]
4 Horistan Castle, in Derbyshire, an ancient seat of the B--R--N family [4to]. (Horiston.--4to.)
d For Charles the Martyr their country defending. [4to. P. on V. Occasions.]
5 The battle of Marston Moor, where the adherents of Charles I. were defeated.
eBids ye adieu! [4to]
6 Son of the Elector Palatine, and related to Charles I. He afterwards commanded the Fleet, in the reign of Charles II.
fThough a tear dims. [4to]
7 Sir Nicholas Byron, the great-grandson of Sir John Byron the Little, distinguished himself in the Civil Wars. He is described by Clarendon (Hist, of the Rebellion, 1807, i. 216) as "a person of great affability and dexterity, as well as martial knowledge." He was Governor of Carlisle, and afterwards Governor of Chester. His nephew and heir-at-law, Sir John Byron, of Clayton, K.B. (1599-1652), was raised to the peerage as Baron Byron of Rochdale, after the Battle of Newbury, October 26, 1643. He held successively the posts of Lieutenant of the Tower, Governor of Chester, and, after the expulsion of the Royal Family from England, Governor to the Duke of York. He died childless, and was succeeded by his brother Richard, the second lord, from whom the poet was descended. Five younger brothers, as Richard's monument in the chancel of Hucknall Torkard Church records, "faithfully served King Charles the First in the Civil Wars, suffered much for their loyalty, and lost all their present fortunes." (See Life of Lord Byron, by Karl Elze: Appendix, Note (A), p. 436.)
g 'Tis nature, not fear, which commands his regret. [4to]
h In the grave he alone can his fathers forget. [4to]
i Your fame, and your memory, still will he cherish.[4to]
1 E--- was, according to Moore, a boy of Byron's own age, the son of one of the tenants at Newstead.
1 The author claims the indulgence of the reader more for this piece than, perhaps, any other in the collection; but as it was written at an earlier period than the rest (being composed at the age of fourteen), and his first essay, he preferred submitting it to the indulgence of his friends in its present state, to making either addition or alteration.--[4to]
"My first dash into poetry was as early as 1800. It was the ebullition of a passion for--my first cousin, Margaret Parker (daughter and granddaughter of the two Admirals Parker), one of the most beautiful of evanescent beings. I have long forgotten the verse; but it would be difficult for me to forget her--her dark eyes--her long eye-lashes--her completely Greek cast of face and figure! I was then about twelve--she rather older, perhaps a year. She died about a year or two afterwards, in consequence of a fall, which injured her spine, and induced consumption ... I knew nothing of her illness, being at Harrow and in the country till she was gone. Some years after, I made an attempt at an elegy--a very dull one."--Byron Diary, 1821; Life, p. 17.
[Margaret Parker was the sister of Sir Peter Parker, whose death at Baltimore, in 1814, Byron celebrated in the Elegiac Stanzas, which were first published in the poems attached to the seventh edition of Childe Harold.
a
1 George John, 5th Earl Delawarr (1791-1869). (See note; see also lines To George, Earl Delawarr)
a But envy with malignant grasp, Has torn thee from my breast for ever. [4to]
bBut in my heart. [4to]
aTo——. [4to]
bthan words could say. [4to]
cThough deep the grief. [4to]
1 These lines, which appear in the Quarto, were never republished.
1 To Maria [4to]
1 The Greek heading does not appear in the Quarto, nor in the three first Editions.
2 "My first Harrow verses (that is, English, as exercises), a translation of a chorus from the Prometheus of Æschylus, were received by Dr. Drury, my grand patron (our headmaster), but coolly. No one had, at that time, the least notion that I should subside into poetry."
(Life, p. 20.) The lines are not a translation but a loose adaptation or paraphrase of part of a chorus of the Prometheus Vinctus, I, 528, sq.
1 A second edition of this work, of which the title is, Letters, etc., translated from the French of Jean Jacques Rousseau, was published in London, in 1784. It is, probably, a literary forgery.
a Answer to the above. [4to]
b From which you'd. [4to]
c Mere phantoms of your own creation; For he who sees. [4to]
d Once let you at your mirror glance You'll there descry that elegance, [4to]
e Then he who tells you of your beauty. [4to]
f It is not flattery, but truth. [4to]
1 In March, 1805, Dr. Drury, the Probus of the piece, retired from the Head-mastership of Harrow School, and was succeeded by Dr. Butler, the Pomposus.
Dr. Drury," said Byron, in one of his note-books, "was the best, the kindest (and yet strict, too) friend I ever had; and I look upon him still as a father."
Out of affection to his late preceptor, Byron advocated the election of Mark Drury to the vacant post, and hence his dislike of the successful candidate. He was reconciled to Dr. Butler before departing for Greece, in 1809, and in his diary he says,
"I treated him rebelliously, and have been sorry ever since."
(See allusions in and notes to Childish Recollections, pp. 84-106, and especially note I, p. 88, notes I and 2, p. 89, and note I, p. 91.)
a ——but of a narrower soul. [4to]
b Such as were ne'er before beheld in schools. [4to]
Greek(transliterated): Astaer prin men elampes eni tsuoisin hepsos. [Plato's Epitaph (Epig. Græc., Jacobs, 1826, p. 309), quoted by Diog. Laertins.]
1 The heading which appears in the Quarto and P. on V. Occasions was subsequently changed to Epitaph on a Friend. The motto was prefixed in Hours of Idleness. The epigram which Bergk leaves under Plato's name was translated by Shelley (Poems, 1895, iii. 361)
"Thou wert the morning star Among the living, Ere thy fair light had fled; Now having died, thou art as Hesperus, giving New splendour to the dead."
There is an echo of the Greek distich in Byron's exquisite line, "The Morning-Star of Memory." The words, "Southwell, March 17," are added, in a lady's hand, on p. 9 of the annotated copy of P. on V. Occasions in the British Museum. The conjecture that the "beloved friend," who is of humble origin, is identical with "E----" of the verses on p. 4, remains uncertain.
a Oh Boy! for ever lov'd, for ever dear! What fruitless tears have wash'd thy honour'd bierb; What sighs re-echoed to thy parting breath, Whilst thou wert struggling in the pangs of death. Could tears have turn'd the tyrant in his course, Could sighs have checked his dart's relentless forcec; Could youth and virtue claim a short delay, Or beauty charm the spectre from his prey, Thou still had'st liv'd to bless my aching sight, Thy comrade's honour, and thy friend's delight: Though low thy lot since in a cottage born, No titles did thy humble name adorn, To me, far dearer, was thy artless love, Than all the joys, wealth, fame, and friends could prove. For thee alone I liv'd, or wish'd to live, (Oh God! if impious, this rash word forgive,) Heart-broken now, I wait an equal doom, Content to join thee in thy turf-clad tomb; Where this frail form compos'd in endless rest, I'll make my last, cold, pillow on thy breast; That breast where oft in life, I've laid my head, Will yet receive me mouldering with the dead; This life resign'd, without one parting sigh, Together in one bed of earth we'll lie! Together share the fate to mortals given, Together mix our dust, and hope for Heaven.
Harrow, 1803. [4to. P. on V. Occasions.]
b have bath'd thy honoured bier. [P. on V. Occasions.]
cCould tears retard, [P. on V. Occasions.] Could sighs avert. [P. on V. Occasions.]
Translation:
1 There is no heading in the Quarto.
aNo lengthen'd scroll of virtue and renown. [4to. P. on V. Occ.]
2 In his will, drawn up in 1811, Byron gave directions that "no inscription, save his name and age, should be written on his tomb." June, 1819, he wrote to Murray:
"Some of the epitaphs at the Certosa cemetery, at Ferrara, pleased me more than the more splendid monuments at Bologna; for instance, 'Martini Luigi Implora pace.' Can anything be more full of pathos? I hope whoever may survive me will see those two words, and no more, put over me."
Life, pp. 131, 398.
bIf that with honour fails, [4to]
cBut that remember'd, or fore'er forgot. [4to. P. on V. Occasions.]
1 To—— [4to].
afall no curses. [4to. P. on V. Occasions.]
1 There is no heading in the Quarto.
awill deprive me of thee. [4to]
bNo jargon of priests o'er our union was mutter'd, To rivet the fetters of husband and wife; By our lips, by our hearts, were our vows alone utter'd, To perform them, in full, would ask more than a life.
[4to]
cwill unceasingly flow. [4to]
1 The motto was prefixed in Hours of Idleness.
a How welcome once more. [4to]
2 "My school-friendships were with me passions (for I was always violent), but I do not know that there is one which has endured (to be sure, some have been cut short by death) till now."
Diary, 1821; Life, p. 21.
b I consider'd myself. [4to]
3 Byron was at first placed in the house of Mr. Henry Drury, but in 1803 was removed to that of Mr. Evans.
"The reason why Lord Byron wishes for the change, arises from the repeated complaints of Mr. Henry Drury respecting his inattention to business, and his propensity to make others laugh and disregard their employment as much as himself."
(Dr. Joseph Drury to Mr. John Hanson.)
c As your memory beams through this agonized breast; Thus sad and deserted, I n'er can forget you, Though this heart throbs to bursting by anguish possest. [4to] Your memory beams through this agonized breast. [P. on V. Occasions.]
4 "At Harrow I fought my way very fairly. I think I lost but one battle out of seven."
Diary, 1821; Life, p. 21.
dI thought this poor brain, fever'd even to madness, Of tears as of reason for ever was drain'd; But the drops which now flow down this bosom of sadness, Convince me the springs have some moisture retain'd. Sweet scenes of my childhood! your blest recollection, Has wrung from these eyelids, to weeping long dead, In torrents, the tears of my warmest affection, The last and the fondest, I ever shall shed.
[4to. P. on V. Occasions.]
5 A tomb in the churchyard at Harrow was so well known to be his favourite resting-place, that the boys called it "Byron's Tomb:" and here, they say, he used to sit for hours, wrapt up in thought.--Life, p. 26.
6 For the display of his declamatory powers, on the speech-days, he selected always the most vehement passages; such as the speech of Zanga over the body of Alonzo, and Lear's address to the storm.--Life, p. 20, note; and post, p. 103, var. i.
7 Henry Mossop (1729-1773), a contemporary of Garrick, famous for his performance of "Zanga" in Young's tragedy of The Revenge.
8 Stanzas 8 and 9 first appeared in Hours of Idleness.
1 No reflection is here intended against the person mentioned under the name of Magnus. He is merely represented as performing an unavoidable function of his office. Indeed, such an attempt could only recoil upon myself; as that gentleman is now as much distinguished by his eloquence, and the dignified propriety with which he fills his situation, as he was in his younger days for wit and conviviality.
[Dr. William Lort Mansel (1753-1820) was, in 1798, appointed Master of Trinity College, by Pitt. He obtained the bishopric of Bristol, through the influence of his pupil, Spencer Perceval, in 1808. He died in 1820.
a M--us--l.-- [4to]
2 Undergraduates of the second and third year.
b Whilst all around. [4to]
3 Demosthenes.
c Who with scarse sense to pen an English letter, Yet with precision scans an Attis metre. [4to]
4 The present Greek professor at Trinity College, Cambridge; a man whose powers of mind and writings may, perhaps, justify their preference. [Richard Porson (1759-1808). For Byron's description of him, see letter to Murray, of February 20, 1818. Byron says (Diary, December 17, 18, 1813) that he wrote the Devil's Drive in imitation of Porson's Devil's Walk. This was a common misapprehension at the time. The Devil's Thoughts was the joint composition of Coleridge and Southey, but it was generally attributed to Porson, who took no trouble to disclaim it. It was originally published in the Morning Post, Sept. 6, 1799, and Stuart, the editor, said that it raised the circulation of the paper for several days after. (See Coleridge's Poems (1893), pp. 147, 621.)]
dThe manner of the speech is nothing, since, [4to. P, on V. Occasions.]
5 Lines 59-62 are not in the Quarto. They first appeared in Poems Original and Translated.
e Celebrated critics [4to. Three first Editions.]
6