The Works of Lord Byron, vol 1 | Page 3

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 'Athenaeum', 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.)
[text of facsimile pages of two different editions mentioned above:]
HOURS OF IDLENESS,
A SERIES OF POEMS,
ORIGINAL AND TRANSLATED,
BY GEORGE GORDON, LORD BYRON,

A MINOR.
[Greek: Maet ar me mal