The Works of Lord Byron, vol 1 | Page 4

ainee maete ti neichei.]
HOMER. Iliad, 10.
Virginibus puerisque Canto.
HORACE.
He whistled as he went for want of thought.
DRYDEN.
NEMARK:
Printed and sold by S. and J. RIDGE;
SOLD ALSO BY B CROSBY AND CO. STATIONER'S COURT;

LONGMAN, HURST, REES, AND ORME,
PATERNOSTER-ROW;
F. AND C. RIVINGTON, ST. PAUL'S
CHURCHYARD;
AND J. MAWMAN, IN THE POULTRY;

LONDON.
1807
POEMS
ORIGINAL AND TRANSLATED
BY
GEORGE
GORDON, LORD BYRON,
[Greek: Maet ar me mal ainee maete ti neichei.]
HOMER, Iliad, 10.
He whistled as he went for want of thought.
DRYDEN.
BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTE TO ENGLISH BARDS, AND
SCOTCH REVIEWERS.
The MS. ('MS. M.') of the first draft of Byron's "Satire" (see Letter to

Pigot, October 26, 1807) is now in Mr. Murray's possession. It is
written on folio sheets paged 6-25, 28-41, and numbers 360 lines.
Mutilations on pages 12, 13, 34, 35 account for the absence of ten
additional lines.
After the publication of the January number of 'The Edinburgh Review'
for 1808 (containing the critique on 'Hours of Idleness'), which was
delayed till the end of February, Byron added a beginning and an
ending to the original draft. The MSS. of these additions, which
number ninety lines, are written on quarto sheets, and have been bound
up with the folios. (Lines 1-16 are missing.) The poem, which with
these and other additions had run up to 560 lines, was printed in book
form (probably by Ridge of Newark), under the title of 'British Bards,
A Satire'. "This Poem," writes Byron ['MSS. M.'], "was begun in
October, 1807, in London, and at different intervals composed from
that period till September, 1808, when it was completed at Newstead
Abbey.--B., 1808." A date, 1808, is affixed to the last line. Only one
copy is extant, that which was purchased, in 1867, from the executors
of R.C. Dallas, by the Trustees of the British Museum. Even this copy
has been mutilated. Pages 17, 18, which must have contained the first
version of the attack on Jeffrey (see 'English Bards', p. 332, line 439,
'note' 2), have been torn out, and quarto proof-sheets in smaller type of
lines 438-527, "Hail to immortal Jeffrey," etc., together with a quarto
proof-sheet, in the same type as 'British Bards', containing lines
540-559, "Illustrious Holland," etc., have been inserted. Hobhouse's
lines (first edition, lines 247-262), which are not in the original draft,
are included in 'British Bards'. The insertion of the proofs increased the
printed matter to 584 lines. After the completion of this revised version
of 'British Bards', additions continued to be made. Marginal corrections
and MS. fragments, bound up with 'British Bards', together with
forty-four lines (lines 723-726, 819-858) which do not occur in MS. M.,
make up with the printed matter the 696 lines which were published in
March, 1809, under the title of 'English Bards, and Scotch Reviewers'.
The folio and quarto sheets in Mr. Murray's possession ('MS. M.') may
be regarded as the MS. of 'British Bards; British Bards' (there are a few
alterations, e.g. the substitution of lines 319-326, "Moravians, arise,"
etc., for the eight lines on Pratt, which are to be found in the folio MS.,

and are printed in 'British Bards'), with its accompanying MS.
fragments, as the foundation of the text of the first edition of 'English
Bards, and Scotch Reviewers'.
Between the first edition, published in March, and the second edition in
October, 1809, the difference is even greater than between the first
edition and 'British Bards'. The Preface was enlarged, and a postscript
affixed to the text of the poem. Hobhouse's lines (first edition, 247-262)
were omitted, and the following additional passages inserted, viz.: (i.)
lines 1-96, "Still must I hear," etc.; (ii.) lines 129-142, "Thus saith the
Preacher," etc.; (iii.) lines 363-417, "But if some new-born whim," etc.;
(iv.) lines 638-706, "Or hail at once," etc.; (v.) lines 765-798, "When
some brisk youth," etc.; (vi.) lines 859-880, "And here let Shee," etc.;
(vii.) lines 949-960, "Yet what avails," etc.; (viii.) lines 973-980,
"There, Clarke," etc.; (ix.) lines 1011-1070, "Then hapless Britain," etc.
These additions number 370 lines, and, together with the 680 lines of
the first edition (reduced from 696 by the omission of Hobhouse's
contribution), make up the 1050 lines of the second and third editions,
and the doubtful fourth edition of 1810. Of these additions, Nos. i., ii.,
iii., iv., vi., viii., ix. exist in MS., and are bound up with the folio MS.
now in Mr. Murray's possession.
The third edition, which is, generally, dated 1810, is a replica of the
second edition.
The first issue of the fourth edition, which appeared in 1810, is
identical with the second and third editions. A second issue of the
fourth edition, dated 1811, must have passed under Byron's own
supervision. Lines 723, 724 are added, and lines 725, 726 are
materially altered. The fourth