The Works of Lord Byron, Volume 7 | Page 3

330
Canto IX 373
Canto X 400
Canto XI 427
Canto XII 455
Canto XIII 481
Canto XIV 516
Canto XV 544
Canto XVI 572
Canto XVII 608
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.
0. PORTRAIT OF LORD BYRON, FROM A DRAWING FROM THE
LIFE BY J. HOLMES, FORMERLY THE PROPERTY OF
THE LATE HUGH CHARLES TREVANION, ESQ.
frontispiece
. WILLIAM WORDSWORTH, FROM THE PORTRAIT BY H.W.
PICKERSGILL, R.A., IN THE NATIONAL PORTRAIT
GALLERY To face p. 4
. NINON DE LENCLOS, FROM A MINIATURE IN THE
POSSESSION OF SIR J.G. TOLLEMACHE SINCLAIR,
BART. 246
0. FOUNTAIN AT NEWSTEAD ABBEY 500
INTRODUCTION TO _DON JUAN_
Byron was a rapid as well as a voluminous writer. His _Tales_ were
thrown off at lightning speed, and even his dramas were thought out
and worked through with unhesitating energy and rapid achievement.
Nevertheless, the composition of his two great poems was all but
coextensive with his poetical life. He began the first canto of _Childe
Harold_ in the autumn of 1809, and he did not complete the fourth
canto till the spring of 1818. He began the first canto of _Don Juan_ in
the autumn of 1818, and he was still at work on a seventeenth canto in
the spring of 1823. Both poems were issued in parts, and with long
intervals of unequal duration between the parts; but the same result was
brought about by different causes and produced a dissimilar effect.

_Childe Harold_ consists of three distinct poems descriptive of three
successive travels or journeys in foreign lands. The adventures of the
hero are but the pretext for the shifting of the diorama; whereas in
_Don Juan_ the story is continuous, and the scenery is exhibited as a
background for the dramatic evolution of the personality of the hero.
_Childe Harold_ came out at intervals, because there were periods
when the author was stationary; but the interruptions in the composition
and publication of _Don Juan_ were due to the disapproval and
discouragement of friends, and the very natural hesitation and
procrastination of the publisher. Canto I. was written in September,
1818; Canto II. in December-January, 1818-1819. Both cantos were
published on July 15, 1819. Cantos III., IV. were written in the winter
of 1819-1820; Canto V., after an interval of nine months, in
October-November, 1820, but the publication of Cantos III., IV., V.
was delayed till August 8, 1821. The next interval was longer still, but
it was the last. In June, 1822, Byron began to work at a sixth, and by
the end of March, 1823, he had completed a sixteenth canto. But the
publication of these later cantos, which had been declined by Murray,
and were finally