The Works of Lord Byron Volume VII Part 1

The Works of Lord Byron.

Vol. 7.

by George Gordon Byron.

PREFACE TO THE SEVENTH VOLUME.

Of the seventy-three "Epigrams and Jeux d'Esprit," which are printed at the commencement of this volume, forty-five were included in Murray's one-volume edition of 1837, eighteen have been collected from various publications, and ten are printed and published for the first time.

The "Devil's Drive," which appears in Moore's _Letters and Journals_, and in the sixth volume of the Collected Edition of 1831 as an "Unfinished Fragment" of ninety-seven lines, is now printed and published for the first time in its entirety (248 lines), from a MS. in the possession of the Earl of Ilchester. "A Farewell Pet.i.tion to J.C.H.

Esq.;" "My Boy Hobbie O;" "[Love and Death];" and "Last Words on Greece," are reprinted from the first volume of _Murray's Magazine_ (1887).

A few imperfect and worthless poems remain in MS.; but with these and one or two other unimportant exceptions, the present edition of the Poetical Works may be regarded as complete.

In compiling a "Bibliography of the successive Editions and Translations of Lord Byron's Poetical Works," I have endeavoured, in the first instance, to give a full and particular account of the collected editions and separate issues of the poems and dramas which were open to my inspection; and, secondly, to extract from general bibliographies, catalogues of public and private libraries, and other sources bibliographical records of editions which I have been unable to examine, and were known to me only at second-hand. It will be observed that the _t.i.tle-pages_ of editions which have pa.s.sed through my hands are aligned; the _t.i.tles_ of all other editions are italicized.

I cannot pretend that this a.s.sortment of bibliographical entries is even approximately exhaustive; but as "a sample" of a bibliography it will, I trust, with all its imperfections, be of service to the student of literature, if not to the amateur or bibliophile. With regard to nomenclature and other technicalities, my aim has been to put the necessary information as clearly and as concisely as possible, rather than to comply with the requirements of this or that formula. But the path of the bibliographer is beset with difficulties. "Al Sirat's arch"--"the bridge of breadth narrower than the thread of a famished spider, and sharper than the edge of a sword" (see _The Giaour_, line 483, _note_ I)--affords an easier and a safer foothold.

To the general reader a bibliography says little or nothing; but, in one respect, a bibliography of Byron is of popular import. It affords scientific proof of an almost unexampled fame, of a far-reaching and still potent influence. Teuton and Latin and Slav have taken Byron to themselves, and have made him their own. No other English poet except Shakespeare has been so widely read and so frequently translated. Of _Manfred_ I reckon one Bohemian translation, two Danish, two Dutch, three French, nine German, three Hungarian, three Italian, two Polish, one Romaic, one Roumanian, four Russian, and three Spanish translations, and, in all probability, there are others which have escaped my net. The question, the inevitable question, arises--What was, what is, the secret of Byron's Continental vogue? and why has his fame gone out into all lands? Why did Goethe enshrine him, in the second part of _Faust_, "as the representative of the modern era ... undoubtedly to be regarded as the greatest genius of our century?" (_Conversations of Goethe_, 1874, p. 265).

It is said, and with truth, that Byron's revolutionary politics commended him to oppressed nationalities and their sympathizers; that he was against "the tramplers"--Castlereagh, and the Duke of Wellington, and the Holy Alliance; that he stood for liberty. Another point in his favour was his freedom from cant, his indifference to the pieties and proprieties of the Britannic Muse; that he had the courage of his opinions. Doubtless in a time of trouble he was welcomed as the champion of revolt, but deeper reasons must be sought for an almost exclusive preference for the works of one poet and a comparative indifference to the works of his rivals and contemporaries. He fulfilled another, perhaps a greater ideal. An Englishman turns to poetry for the expression in beautiful words of his happier and better feelings, and he is not contented unless poetry tends to make him happier or better--happier because better than he would be otherwise. His favourite poems are psalms, or at least metrical paraphrases, of life. Men of other nations are less concerned about their feelings and their souls.

They regard the poet as the creator, the inventor, the maker _par excellence_, and he who can imagine or make the greatest _eidolon_ is the greatest poet. _Childe Harold_ and _The Corsair_, _Mazeppa_ and _Manfred, Cain_ and _Sardanapalus_ were new creations, new types, forms more real than living man, which appealed to their artistic sense, and led their imaginations captive. "It is a mark," says Goethe (_Aus meinem Leben: Dichtung und Wahreit_, 1876, iii. 125), "of true poetry, that, as a secular gospel, it knows how to free us from the earthly burdens which press upon us, by inward serenity, by outward charm.... The most lively, as well as the gravest works have the same end--to moderate both pleasure and pain through a happy mental representation." It is pa.s.sion translated into action, the pageantry of history, the transfiguration into visible lineaments of living moods and breathing thoughts which are the notes of this "secular gospel," and for one cla.s.s of minds work out a secular redemption.

It was not only the questionable belief that he was on the side of the people, or his ethical and theological audacities, or his prolonged Continental exile, which won for Byron a greater name abroad than he has retained at home; but the character of his poetry. "The English may think of Byron as they please" (_Conversations of Goethe_, 1874, p.

171), "but this is certain, that they can show no poet who is to be compared to him. He is different from all the others, and, for the most part, greater." The English may think of him as they please! and for them, or some of them, there is "a better oenomel," a _vinum Daemonum_, which Byron has not in his gift. The evidence of a world-wide fame will not endear a poet to a people and a generation who care less for the matter than the manner of verse, or who _believe_ in poetry as the symbol or "_credo_" of the imagination or the spirit; but it should arrest attention and invite inquiry. A bibliography is a dull epilogue to a poet's works, but it speaks with authority, and it speaks last.

_Finis coronat opus!_

I must be permitted to renew my thanks to Mr. G.F. Barwick, _Superintendent of the Reading Room_, Mr. Cyril Davenport, and other officials of the British Museum, of all grades and cla.s.ses, for their generous and courteous a.s.sistance in the preparation and completion of the Bibliography. The consultation of many hundreds of volumes of one author, and the permission to retain a vast number in daily use, have entailed exceptional labour on a section of the staff. I have every reason to be grateful.

I am indebted to Mr. A.W. Pollard, of the British Museum, for advice and direction with regard to bibliographical formulas; to Mr. G.L. Calderon, late of the staff, for the collection and transcription of the t.i.tle-pages of Polish, Russian, and Servian translations; and to Mr. R.

Nisbet Bain for the supervision and correction of the proofs of Slavonic t.i.tles.

To Mr. W.P. Courtney, the author of _Bibliotheca Cornubiensis_, I owe many valuable hints and suggestions, and the opportunity of consulting some important works of reference.

I have elsewhere acknowledged the valuable information with regard to certain rare editions and pamphlets which I have received from Mr. H.

Buxton Forman, C.B.

My especial thanks for laborious researches undertaken on my behalf, and for information not otherwise attainable, are due to M. J.E. Aynard, of Lyons; Signor F. Bianco; Professor Max von Forster, of Wurtzburg; Professor Lajos Gurnesovitz, of Buda Pest; Dr. Holzhausen, of Bonn; Mr.

Leonard Mackall, of Berlin; Miss Peac.o.c.k; Miss K. Schlesinger; M.

Voynich, of Soho Square; Mr. Theodore Bartholomew, of the University Library of Cambridge; Mr. T.D. Stewart, of the Croydon Public Library; and the Librarians of Trinity College, Cambridge, and University College, St. Andrews.

I have also to thank, for special and generous a.s.sistance, Mr. J.P.

Anderson, late of the British Museum, the author of the "Bibliography of Byron's Works" attached to the Life of Lord Byron by the Hon. Roden Noel (1890); Miss Grace Reed, of Philadelphia, for bibliographical entries of early American editions; and Professor Vladimir Hrabar, of the University of Dorpat, for the collection and transcription of numerous Russian translations of Byron's Works.

To Messrs. Clowes, the printers of these volumes, and to their reader, Mr. F.T. Peachey, I am greatly indebted for the transcription of Slavonic t.i.tles included in the Summary of the Bibliography, and for interesting and useful information during the progress of the work.

In conclusion, I must once more express my acknowment of the industry and literary ability of my friend Mr. F.E. Taylor, of Chertsey, who has read the proofs of this and the six preceding volumes.

The Index is the work of Mr. C. Eastlake Smith.

ERNEST HARTLEY COLERIDGE.

November, 1903.

JEUX D'ESPRIT AND MINOR POEMS, 1798-1824.

EPIGRAM ON AN OLD LADY WHO HAD SOME CURIOUS NOTIONS RESPECTING THE SOUL.

IN Nottingham county there lives at Swan Green,[1]

As curst an old Lady as ever was seen; And when she does die, which I hope will be soon, She firmly believes she will go to the Moon!

1798.

[First published, _Letters and Journals_, 1830, i. 28.]

FOOTNOTES:

[1] "Swan Green" should be "Swine Green." It lay about a quarter of a mile to the east of St. James's Lane, where Byron lodged in 1799, at the house of a Mr. Gill. The name appears in a directory of 1799, but by 1815 it had been expunged or changed _euphoniae gratia_. (See _A New Plan of the Town of Nottingham_, ... 1744.)

Moore took down "these rhymes" from the lips of Byron's nurse, May Gray, who regarded them as a first essay in the direction of poetry. He questioned their originality.

EPITAPH ON JOHN ADAMS, OF SOUTHWELL, A CARRIER, WHO DIED OF DRUNKENNESS.

JOHN ADAMS lies here, of the parish of Southwell, A _Carrier_ who _carried_ his can to his mouth well; He carried so much and he carried so fast, He could carry no more--so was carried at last; For the liquor he drank being too much for one, He could not _carry_ off;--so he's now _carri-on_.

_September_, 1807.

[First published, _Letters and Journals_, 1830, i. 106.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: MRS. BIRDMERE'S HOUSE, SOUTHWELL.]

A VERSION OF OSSIAN'S ADDRESS TO THE SUN.

FROM THE POEM "CARTHON."

O THOU! who rollest in yon azure field, Round as the orb of my forefather's shield, Whence are thy beams? From what eternal store Dost thou, O Sun! thy vast effulgence pour?

In awful grandeur, when thou movest on high, The stars start back and hide them in the sky; The pale Moon sickens in thy brightening blaze, And in the western wave avoids thy gaze.

Alone thou shinest forth--for who can rise Companion of thy splendour in the skies!

The mountain oaks are seen to fall away-- Mountains themselves by length of years decay-- With ebbs and flows is the rough Ocean tost; In heaven the Moon is for a season lost, But thou, amidst the fullness of thy joy, The same art ever, blazing in the sky!

When tempests wrap the world from pole to pole, When vivid lightnings flash and thunders roll, Thou far above their utmost fury borne, Look'st forth in beauty, laughing them to scorn.