The spurious issues of the Third and Fourth Editions, whether they were
printed in Ireland or were secretly thrown upon the market by James
Cawthorn after Byron had definitely selected Murray as his publisher,
were designed for the general reader and not for the collector. The
issue of a spurious First Edition after the improved and enlarged
editions of 1809-11 were published, must have been designed for the
Byron enthusiast, if not the collector of First Editions.
The Grangerized Fourth Editions prepared by Mr. W.M. Tartt and Mr. Evans
in 1819, 1820, and a Third, by John Murray at about the same period,
and, more remarkable still, a copy of the Fourth Edition of 1811,
prefaced by a specially printed "List of Names mentioned in the _English
Bards, and Scotch Reviewers_" interleaved with the additions made in the
Fifth Edition (B.M.), point to the existence of a circle of worshippers
who were prepared to treat Byron's _Juvenilia_ as seriously as the
minute critics of the present generation. They seem to have been
sufficiently numerous to make piracy, if not forgery, profitable.
_Note_ (2).--CORRESPONDENCE BETWEEN THE FIRST EDITION AS NUMBERED AND
THE PRESENT ISSUE AS NUMBERED.
First Edition (696 lines). Fifth (Present) Edition
(1070 lines).
