Fugitive Pieces | Page 2

the possession of the family of the
late Mr. H.C. Roe, of Nottingham. This was originally sent by Byron to
Pigot, then studying medicine in Edinburgh. Byron later asked Pigot to
destroy the copy and Pigot seems to have complied so far as to tear out
the offending verses "To Mary." For many years it was thought that
only the Pigot and Becher copies had escaped destruction at Byron's
hands. But another complete copy came to light in 1907 and is now in
the Pierpont Morgan Library in New York. This contains numerous
manuscript corrections and alterations, and seems to have been used as
a proof copy for Poems on Various Occasions (not, as has sometimes
been stated, for Hours of Idleness). A fourth copy, also complete, was
offered at public sale in 1912, and is now in the hands of the executors
of the late Mr. J.A. Spoor, of Chicago.
The present facsimile is an exact photographic reproduction of the text
with all typographical and other errors as in the original, except that
certain manuscript corrections which appear in the original perforce
appear in the photographic reproduction, as follows:
Page 3, To E.... line 2. "me" has been inserted by hand.
Page 8, stanza 5, line 2 . A letter ("s"?)
has been erased
between "so" and
"oft," and
the second "e" of
"meets" has
been inserted to
replace "l."

Page 14, line 10. "j" in "jargon"
has been
inserted by hand.
Page 19, stanza (11), line 1. "night" was originally printed
"might," the "m"
later changed

to "n" by
erasure.
Page 24, stanza 4, line 4. "s" in "setting" has been
inserted by hand.
Page 25, Thoughts Suggested by "e" in "tremble" has been
a College Examination, inserted, correcting "trimble." line 4.
Page 31, line 4. "f" in "fast"
was originally
"l," but was
changed by hand.
The text has been collated with that in the Morgan library, and except
for later corrections made in ink in the Morgan copy, the only
differences noted are as follows:
1.) On p. 5, in the first line of the footnote, the Morgan copy reads
"piece" where the Wise copy reads "p*ece," the "[dotless i]" lacking.
2.) The two pages of signature M are incorrectly numbered in the Wise
copy as "41, 41," this copy having no page numbered 42; and are
incorrectly numbered in the Morgan copy as "40, 42," the latter copy
having no page numbered 41. The text of these pages is identical.
M.K.
FUGITIVE PIECES.
TO
THOSE FRIENDS,
AT
WHOSE REQUEST THEY WERE PRINTED,
FOR WHOSE

AMUSEMENT OR APPROBATION
THEY ARE
SOLELY INTENDED;
These TRIFLES are respectfully dedicated,
BY THE
AUTHOR.
As these POEMS are never intended to meet the public eye, no apology
is necessary for the form in which they now appear. They are printed
merely for the perusal of a few friends to whom they are dedicated;
who will look upon them with indulgence; and as most of them were,
composed between the age