XII.

Miscellaneous Poems/ on His Domestic and Other/ Circum-stances./ By Lord Byron./ London:/ Printed By and for William Cole,/ 10 Newgate-Street./ 1825./ [12º.

_Collation_--

Pp. 54. The Imprint (_Printed by William Cole, 10, Newgate Street_.) is at the foot of p. 54.

_Note_.--The edition contains twenty-nine pieces, viz. the twenty-five poems published by John Bumpus in 1824 (No. xl.), together with _The Isles of Greece_; _Were my Bosom_, etc.; _Herod's Lament_, etc.; and _Lord Byron's Latest Verses_ ("On this day I complete my thirty-sixth year").

_Hints from Horace_.

_Note_.--Two sets of proofs of a portion of _Hints from Horace_, formerly the property of R.C. Dallas, are preserved in the British Museum (_Eg_. 2029). Proof A consists of 100 lines of the English translation (lines 173-272); Proof B, pp. [87]-128, consists of 272 lines of the English translation (lines 1-272) and (on opposite pages) 188 lines of the original Latin. These proof-sheets, which must have followed proofs of the Fifth Edition of _English Bards_, _etc_., are preceded by a Half-title, _Hints from Horace_ (Gothic characters), and by the following subsidiary title:--

Hints from Horace:/ Being a/ Partial Imitation, in English Verse, of the Epistle,/ "Ad Pisones de Arte Poetica;"/ And intended as a Sequel to/ English Bards and Scotch Reviewers./ [Gothic characters.] "Ergo fungar vice Cotis, acutum/ Reddere quæ ferrum valet, exsors ipsa secandi."/ Hor. De Arte Poet. 304-5./ "Rhymes are difficult things; they are stubborn things, sir."/ Fielding's Amelia, Vol. III./ Book and Chap. V./ Athens, Franciscan Convent,/ March 12, 1811./

The publication of _Hints from Horace_ had been entrusted by Dallas to Cawthorn in July-August, 1811. It may be gathered from various sources (_Letters_, 1898, ii. 24, 54, 56) that Byron was at work on the proofs as late as September 4; that by October 11 he had resolved to defer the publication of the _Hints_; and that, accordingly on October 13, 1811, "they stood still." It was not, however, till after the appearance of _Childe Harold's_, _etc_. (May-June, 1812) that Byron determined to suppress the already printed Fifth Edition of _English Bards_, and at the same time to abandon the publication of his two other Satires. At this time, says Dallas (_Recollections of the Life of Lord Byron_, 1898, p. 241), "the _Hints from Horace_ was far advanced." In his _Recollections, etc_. (pp. 104-113), he gives, by way of a "fair specimen," 156 "lines of the still-unpublished poem; and, as these extracts are taken from the first 211 lines, and his text corresponds with proof B (see Poetical Works, 1898, i. 390, variants ii., iii.), it may be inferred that Dallas transcribed them from his fragmentary proof-sheets, and that the press was stopped at line 272. In 1830, in his _Notices of the Life of Lord Byron_ (vol. i. pp. 263-269), Moore printed 165 lines of the "Paraphrase;" but his selections are drawn from lines 1-458, and it is evident that he had access to an original MS. (_MS. M._), which is now in Mr. Murray's possession. The full text, which follows the same MS., was first published in vol. v. pp. 273-327 of the six-volume edition of 1831 (_vide ante_, No. xliii. of "Collected Editions").

_The Irish Avatar_.

Byron wrote the _Irish Avatar_ at Ravenna, September 16, 1821. On the 17th he sent a copy of the verses to Moore, then resident at Paris; and on September 20 he desired Moore to get "twenty copies of the whole carefully and privately printed off." A copy is in the possession of Mr. H. Buxton Forman, C.B., and I am indebted to his kindness for the following description: "The pamphlet consists of four 8vo leaves, viz. half-title ('The Irish Avatar,' in bold capitals, with blank verse), pp. [1], [2] + Text, pp. 3-8. The poem begins on the third page with a dropped head, 'The Irish Avatar' again, and the first four verses. Pp. 4-7 contain six verses each, and p. 8 the remaining four, making up thirty-two in all. The date at the end of p. 8 is 'September 16, 1821.' There is no title-page proper; a headline, 'The Irish Avatar,' occurs on pp. 4-8, which pages are numbered in Arabic figures in the outside corners, and the thirty-two stanzas are also numbered in Arabic figures. The poem is printed on a half-sheet of a peculiar fine-ribbed paper." Twenty stanzas of _The Irish Avatar_ were printed by Medwin in _Conversations of Lord Byron_, 1824, pp. 216-220, and in a second edition, 1824, pp. 332-338. In a "new edition" of the _Conversations, etc._, 1824, pp. 264-270, the entire poem, numbering thirty-two stanzas, was published for the first time in England (see _Athenæum_, July 27, 1901). _The Irish Avatar_ was first published by Murray in 1831 (Works, vi. 419-425).

_The Island_.