The Works of Lord Byron, Volume 4 | Page 2

and in measure of success, his achievement was unparalleled. Take such poems as _Manfred_ or _Mazeppa_, which have left their mark on the literature of Europe; as _Beppo_, the _avant courrier_ of _Don Juan_, or the "inimitable" _Vision of Judgment_, which the "hungry generations" have not trodden down or despoiled of its freshness. Not one of these poems suggests or resembles the other, but each has its crowd of associations, a history and almost a literature of its own.
The whole of this volume was written on foreign soil, in Switzerland or Italy, and, putting aside _The Dream_, _The Monody on the Death of Sheridan_, _The Irish Avatar_, and _The Blues_, the places, the persons and events, the _mat��riel_ of the volume as a whole, to say nothing of the style and metre of the poems, are derived from the history and the literature of Switzerland and Southern Europe. An unwilling, at times a vindictive exile, he did more than any other poet or writer of his age to familiarize his own countrymen with the scenery, the art and letters of the Continent, and, conversely, to make the existence of English literature, or, at least, the writings of one Englishman, known to Frenchmen and Italians; to the Teuton and the Slav. If he "taught us little" as prophet or moralist; as a guide to knowledge; as an educator of the general reader--"your British blackguard," as he was pleased to call him--his teaching and influence were "in widest commonalty spread."
Questions with regard to his personality, his morals, his theological opinions, his qualifications as an artist, his grammar, his technique, and so forth, have, perhaps inevitably, absorbed the attention of friend and foe, and the one point on which all might agree has been overlooked, namely, the fact that he taught us a great deal which it is desirable and agreeable to know--which has passed into common knowledge through the medium of his poetry. It is true that he wrote his plays and poems at lightning speed, and that if he was at pains to correct some obvious blunders, he expended but little labour on picking his phrases or polishing his lines; but it is also true that he read widely and studied diligently, in order to prepare himself for an outpouring of verse, and that so far from being a superficial observer or inaccurate recorder, his authority is worth quoting in questions of fact and points of detail.
The appreciation of poetry is a matter of taste, and still more of temperament. Readers cannot be coerced into admiration, or scolded into disapproval and contempt. But if they are willing or can be persuaded to read with some particularity and attention the writings of the illustrious dead, not entirely as partisans, or with the view to dethroning other "Monarchs of Parnassus," they will divine the secret of their fame, and will understand, perhaps recover, the "first rapture" of contemporaries.
Byron sneered and carped at Southey as a "scribbler of all works." He was himself a reader of all works, and without some measure of book-learning and not a little research the force and significance of his various numbers are weakened or obliterated.
It is with the hope of supplying this modicum of book-learning that the Introductions and notes in this and other volumes have been compiled.
I desire to acknowledge, with thanks, the courteous response of Mons. J. Capr��, Commandant of the Castle of Chillon, to a letter of inquiry with regard to the "Souterrains de Chillon."
I have to express my gratitude to Sir Henry Irving, to Mr. Joseph Knight, and to Mr. F. E. Taylor, for valuable information concerning the stage representation of _Manfred_ and _Marino Faliero_.
I am deeply indebted to Dr. Richard Garnett, C.B., and to my friend, Mr. Thomas Hutchinson, for assistance in many important particulars during the construction of the volume.
I must also record my thanks to Mr. Oscar Browning, Mr. Josceline Courtenay, and other correspondents, for information and assistance in points of difficulty.
I have consulted and derived valuable information from the following works: _The Prisoner of Chillon_, etc., by the late Professor K?lbing; _Mazeppa_, by Dr. Englaender; _Marino Faliero avanti il Dogado_ and _La Congiura_ (published in the _Nuovo Archivio Veneto_), by Signor Vittorio Lazzarino; and _Selections from the Poetry of Lord Byron_, by Dr. F. I. Carpenter of Chicago, U.S.A.
I take the opportunity of expressing my acknowledgments to Miss K. Schlesinger, Miss De Alberti, and to Signor F. Bianco, for their able and zealous services in the preparation of portions of the volume.
On behalf of the publisher I beg to acknowledge the kindness of Captain the Hon. F. L. King Noel, in sanctioning the examination and collation of the MS. of _Beppo_, now in his possession; and of Mrs. Horace Pym of Foxwold Chace, for permitting the portrait of Sheridan by