been destroyed. While Childe Harold was in press Byron revised the poem, and in correspondence with his lawyers deprecated any identification of himself and his hero, although he had first called him Childe Byron. On the 29th of February, 1812, the first and second cantos of Childe Harold appeared and secured immediate and remarkable popularity. Byron said, "I awoke one morning and found myself famous." Its success was largely due to the fact that it was suited to the public of that time. It was sentimental; it contained the confidences of a somewhat melancholy hero; it criticized existing institutions in gentle satire; it expressed mainly ideas that the Romantic Movement had made familiar, although a few years before they would have been considered startling. The two cantos that were published later were, mainly because of the influence of Wordsworth, vastly better; but had they been published before Byron became famous it is doubtful whether they would have secured a great degree of popular favor. When Byron separated from his wife and child on the 25th of April, 1816, he embarked for Ostend, and began the journey which became the basis for the third and fourth cantos of Childe Harold. He passed through Belgium and spent some days at Brussels. He visited the field of Waterloo. He went up the Rhine and passed into Switzerland where for some time he enjoyed the companionship of Shelley. There at Ouchy, in June, 1816, he finished the third canto of Childe Harold, and it was published in November, 1816.

In the fall of 1816 he set out with Hobhouse for Italy. He visited Milan, Verona, Arqua, Ferrara, Florence, Venice, and Rome. The fourth canto of

Childe Harold was begun on June 26, 1817, was finished in September, 1817, and was published in April with a dedicatory letter addressed to Hobhouse. The fourth canto is very different from the first and second cantos. The satire has become milder, the verse more melodious, and the style in general more polished. In particular, nature, as the result of the direct or indirect influence of Wordsworth, is viewed with a spiritualized sympathy hitherto rare in the poet's work. And in addition sympathy with human suffering, always characteristic of Byron's poetry, here appears at its best. Even the poet's personality, ever in the foreground in his verse, here abandons its controversial attitude and assumes an appreciative and reflective mood in harmony with the famous and beautiful scenes that are visited. In the fourth canto, there is little posing. Through it, there breathes a spirit of genuineness, and his verse founded on the realities of human passion, possesses in the main that sincere and happy style which is the essence of true poetry.

PREFACE TO THE FIRST AND SECOND

CANTOS OF CHILDE HAROLD

THE following poem was written, for the most part, amidst the scenes which it attempts to describe. It was begun in Albania; and the parts relative to Spain and Portugal were composed from the author's observations in those countries. Thus much it may be necessary to state for the correctness of the descriptions. The scenes attempted to be sketched are in Spain, Portugal, Epirus,

Acarnania, and Greece. There, for the present, the poem stops; its reception will determine whether the author may venture to conduct his readers to the capital of the East, through Ionia and Phrygia: these two cantos are merely experimental.

A fictitious character is introduced for the sake of giving some connection to the piece; which, however, makes no pretension to regularity. It has been suggested to me by friends, on whose opinions I set a high value, that in this fictitious character, "Childe Harold," I may incur the suspicion of having intended some real personage this I beg leave, once for all, to disclaim; Harold is the child of imagination, for the purpose I have stated. In some very trivial particulars, and those merely local, there might be grounds for such a notion; but in the main points, I should hope none whatever.

It is almost superfluous to mention that the appellation "Childe," as "Childe Waters," "Childe Childers," etc., is used as more consonant with the old structure of versification which I have adopted. The "Good Night," in the beginning of the first canto, was suggested by Lord Maxwell's Good Night in the Border Minstrelsy, edited by Mr. Scott.

With the different poems which have been published on Spanish subjects, there may be found some slight coincidence in the first part, which treats of the Peninsula, but it can only be casual; as, with the exception of a few concluding stanzas, the whole of this poem was written in the Levant.

The stanza of Spenser, according to one of our most successful poets, admits of every variety. Dr. Beattie

makes the following observation: "Not long ago, I began a poem in the style and stanza of Spenser, in which I propose to give full scope to my inclination, and be either droll or pathetic, descriptive or sentimental, tender or satirical, as the humour strikes me; for, if I mistake not, the measure which I have adopted admits equally of all these kinds of composition." Strengthened in my opinion by such authority, and by the example of some in the highest order of Italian poets, I shall make no apology for attempts at similar variations in the following composition; satisfied that if they are unsuccessful, their failure must be in the execution, rather than in the design, sanctioned by the practice of Ariosto, Thomson, and Beattie.

LONDON, February, 1812.

DEDICATORY EPISTLE ADDRESSED TO HOBHOUSE

"TO JOHN HOBHOUSE, Esq., A.M., F.R.S., etc.

"VENICE, January 2, 1818. "MY DEAR HOBHOUSE: After an interval of eight years between the composition of the first and last cantos of Childe Harold, the conclusion of the poem is about to be submitted to the public. In parting with so old a friend, it is not extraordinary that I should recur to one still older and better, to one who has beheld the birth and death of the other, and to whom I am far more indebted for the social advantages of an enlightened friendship than though not ungrateful I can, or could be, to Childe Harold, for any public favor reflected through

the poem or the poet, to one whom I have known long and accompanied far, whom I have found wakeful over my sickness and kind in my sorrow, glad in my prosperity and firm in my adversity, true in counsel and trusty in peril, — to a friend often tried and never found wanting, to yourself.

"In so doing, I recur from fiction to truth; and in dedicating to you in its complete, or at least concluded state, a poetical work which is the longest, the most thoughtful and comprehensive of my compositions, I wish to do honour to myself by the record of many years' intimacy with a man of learning, of talent, of steadiness, and of honour. It is not for minds like ours to give or to receive flattery; yet the praises of sincerity have ever been permitted to the voice of friendship; and it is not for you, nor even for others, but to relieve a heart which has not elsewhere, or lately, been so much accustomed to the encounter of good-will as to withstand the shock firmly, that I thus attempt to commemorate your good qualities, or rather the advantages which I have derived from their exertion. Even the recurrence of the date of this letter, the anniversary of the most unfortunate day of my existence, but which cannot poison my future while I retain the resource of your friendship, and of my own faculties, will henceforth have a more agreeable recollection for both, inasmuch as it will remind us of this my attempt to thank you for an indefatigable regard, such as few men have experienced, and no one could experience without thinking better of his species and of himself.

"It has been our fortune to traverse together, at various periods, the countries of chivalry, history, and fable,