"A
Farewell
Petition to J.
Byron
VII.
EDITED BY
ERNEST HARTLEY COLERIDGE, M. A. ,
HON. F. R. S. L.
LONDON:
JOHN MURRAY, ALBEMARLE STREET.
NEW YORK: CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS.
1904.
PREFACE TO THE SEVENTH VOLUME.
Of the seventy-three "Epigrams and Jeux d'Esprit," which are printed at
the commencement of this volume, forty-five were included in Murray's
one-volume edition of 1837, eighteen have been collected from various
publications, and ten are printed and published for the first time.
The "Devil's Drive," which appears in Moore's _Letters and Journals_,
and in the sixth volume of the Collected Edition of 1831 as an
"Unfinished Fragment" of ninety-seven lines, is now printed and
published for the first time in its entirety (248 lines), from a MS. in
the possession of the Earl of Ilchester.
"A Farewell Petition to J. C. H.
Esq. ;" "My Boy Hobbie O;" "[Love and Death];" and "Last Words on
Greece," are reprinted from the first volume of _Murray's Magazine_
(1887).
A few imperfect and worthless poems remain in MS. ; but with these and
one or two other unimportant exceptions, the present edition of the
Poetical Works may be regarded as complete.
In compiling a "Bibliography of the successive Editions and Translations
of Lord Byron's Poetical Works," I have endeavoured, in the first
instance, to give a full and particular account of the collected
editions and separate issues of the poems and dramas which were open to
my inspection; and, secondly, to extract from general bibliographies,
catalogues of public and private libraries, and other sources
bibliographical records of editions which I have been unable to examine,
and were known to me only at second-hand. It will be observed that the
_title-pages_ of editions which have passed through my hands are
aligned; the _titles_ of all other editions are italicized.
I cannot pretend that this assortment of bibliographical entries is even
approximately exhaustive; but as "a sample" of a bibliography it will, I
trust, with all its imperfections, be of service to the student of
literature, if not to the amateur or bibliophile. With regard to
nomenclature and other technicalities, my aim has been to put the
necessary information as clearly and as concisely as possible, rather
than to comply with the requirements of this or that formula. But the
path of the bibliographer is beset with difficulties. "Al Sirat's
arch"--"the bridge of breadth narrower than the thread of a famished
spider, and sharper than the edge of a sword" (see _The Giaour_, line
483, _note_ I)--affords an easier and a safer foothold.
To the general reader a bibliography says little or nothing; but, in one
respect, a bibliography of Byron is of popular import. It affords
scientific proof of an almost unexampled fame, of a far-reaching and
still potent influence. Teuton and Latin and Slav have taken Byron to
themselves, and have made him their own.
EDITED BY
ERNEST HARTLEY COLERIDGE, M. A. ,
HON. F. R. S. L.
LONDON:
JOHN MURRAY, ALBEMARLE STREET.
NEW YORK: CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS.
1904.
PREFACE TO THE SEVENTH VOLUME.
Of the seventy-three "Epigrams and Jeux d'Esprit," which are printed at
the commencement of this volume, forty-five were included in Murray's
one-volume edition of 1837, eighteen have been collected from various
publications, and ten are printed and published for the first time.
The "Devil's Drive," which appears in Moore's _Letters and Journals_,
and in the sixth volume of the Collected Edition of 1831 as an
"Unfinished Fragment" of ninety-seven lines, is now printed and
published for the first time in its entirety (248 lines), from a MS. in
the possession of the Earl of Ilchester.
"A Farewell Petition to J. C. H.
Esq. ;" "My Boy Hobbie O;" "[Love and Death];" and "Last Words on
Greece," are reprinted from the first volume of _Murray's Magazine_
(1887).
A few imperfect and worthless poems remain in MS. ; but with these and
one or two other unimportant exceptions, the present edition of the
Poetical Works may be regarded as complete.
In compiling a "Bibliography of the successive Editions and Translations
of Lord Byron's Poetical Works," I have endeavoured, in the first
instance, to give a full and particular account of the collected
editions and separate issues of the poems and dramas which were open to
my inspection; and, secondly, to extract from general bibliographies,
catalogues of public and private libraries, and other sources
bibliographical records of editions which I have been unable to examine,
and were known to me only at second-hand. It will be observed that the
_title-pages_ of editions which have passed through my hands are
aligned; the _titles_ of all other editions are italicized.
I cannot pretend that this assortment of bibliographical entries is even
approximately exhaustive; but as "a sample" of a bibliography it will, I
trust, with all its imperfections, be of service to the student of
literature, if not to the amateur or bibliophile. With regard to
nomenclature and other technicalities, my aim has been to put the
necessary information as clearly and as concisely as possible, rather
than to comply with the requirements of this or that formula. But the
path of the bibliographer is beset with difficulties. "Al Sirat's
arch"--"the bridge of breadth narrower than the thread of a famished
spider, and sharper than the edge of a sword" (see _The Giaour_, line
483, _note_ I)--affords an easier and a safer foothold.
To the general reader a bibliography says little or nothing; but, in one
respect, a bibliography of Byron is of popular import. It affords
scientific proof of an almost unexampled fame, of a far-reaching and
still potent influence. Teuton and Latin and Slav have taken Byron to
themselves, and have made him their own.
