The Works of Lord Byron: Letters and Journals. Vol. 1

George Gordon Byron Byron

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• Publié par: sepug
• Publié le: 08 décembre 2010
• Nombre de lectures: 50
• Langue: English

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The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Works Of Lord Byron, Letters and
Journals, Vol. 1, by Lord Byron, Edited by Rowland E. Prothero
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Title: The Works Of Lord Byron, Letters and Journals, Vol. 1
Author: Lord Byron, Edited by Rowland E. Prothero
Release Date: September, 2005 [EBook #8901]
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[This file was first posted on August 22, 2003]
Edition: 10
Language: English
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*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK LETTERS AND JOURNALS, VOL. 1 ***
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Byron's Letter and Journals
Volume 1
Part of Byron's Works
a New, Revised and Enlarged Edition, with Illustrations.This volume edited by Rowland E. Prothero
1898
Table of Contents
Preface
List of Letters
Chapter I — Childhood and School
Chapter II — Cambridge and Juvenile Poems
Chapter III — English Bards and Scotch Reviewers
Chapter IV — Travels in Albania, Greece etc. — Death of Mrs. Byron
Appendix I — Review of Wordsworth's Poems
Appendix II — Article from the Edinburgh Review, For January, 1808
Appendix III — Review of Gell's Geography of Ithaca, and Itinerary Of Greece
Preface
Two great collections of Byron's letters have been already printed. In Moore's Life, which
appeared in 1830, 561 were given. These, in FitzGreene Halleck's American edition of Byron's
Works, published in 1847, were increased to 635. The first volume of a third collection, edited by
Mr. W. E. Henley, appeared early in 1897. A comparison of the number of letters contained in
these three collections down to August 22, 1811, shows that Moore prints 61, Halleck 78, and Mr.
Henley 88. In other words, the edition of 1897, which was the most complete so far as it goes,
added 27 letters to that of 1830, and 10 to that of 1847. But it should be remembered that by far
the greater part of the material added by Halleck and Mr. Henley was seen and rejected by
Moore.
The present edition, down to August 22, 1811, prints 168 letters, or an addition of 107 to Moore,
90 to Halleck, and 80 to Mr. Henley. Of this additional matter considerably more than two-thirds
was inaccessible to Moore in 1830.
In preparing this volume for the press, use has been also made of a mass of material, bearing
more or less directly on Byron's life, which was accumulated by the grandfather and father of Mr.
Murray. The notes thus contain, it is believed, many details of biographical interest, which are
now for the first time published.
It is necessary to make these comparisons, in order to define the position which this edition
claims to hold with regard to its predecessors. On the other hand, no one can regret more
sincerely than myself — no one has more cause to regret — the circumstances which placed this
wealth of new material in my hands rather than in those of the true poet and brilliant critic, who, to
enthusiasm for Byron, and wide acquaintance with the literature and social life of the day, adds
the rarer gift of giving life and significance to bygone events or trivial details by unconsciously
interesting his readers in his own living personality.
Byron's letters appeal on three special grounds to all lovers of English literature. They offer the
most suggestive commentary on his poetry; they give the truest portrait of the man; they possess,
at their best, in their ease, freshness, and racy vigour, a very high literary value.The present volume, which covers the period from 1798 to August, 1811, includes the letters
written Lord Byron from his eleventh to his twenty-third year. They therefore illustrate the
composition of his youthful poetry, of English Bards, and Scotch Reviewers, and of the first two
cantos of Childe Harold. They carry his history down to the eve of that morning in March, 1812,
when he awoke and found himself famous — in a degree and to an extent which to the present
generation seem almost incomprehensible.
If the letters were selected for their literary value alone, it is probable that very few of those
contained in the present volume would find a place in a collection formed on this principle. But
biographical interest also demands consideration, and, in the case of Byron, this claim is
peculiarly strong. He has for years suffered much from the suppression of the material on which a
just estimate of his life may be formed. It is difficult not to regret the destruction of the Memoirs, in
which he himself intended his history to be told. Their loss cannot be replaced; but their best
substitute is found in his letters. Through them a truer conception of Byron can be formed than
any impression which is derived from Dallas, Leigh Hunt, Medwin, or even Moore. It therefore
seems only fair to Byron, that they should be allowed, as far as possible, to interpret his career.
For other reasons also it appears to me too late, or too soon, to publish only those letters which
possess a high literary value. The real motive of such a selection would probably be misread,
and thus further misconceptions of Byron's character would be encouraged.
With one exception, therefore, the whole of the available material has been published. The
exception consists of some of the business letters written by Byron to his solicitor. Enough of
these have been printed to indicate the pecuniary difficulties which undoubtedly influenced his
life and character; but it was not considered necessary to publish the whole series. Men of genius
ask money from their lawyers in the same language, and with the same arguments, as the most
ordinary persons.
The picture which the letters give of Byron, is, it is believed, unique in its completeness, while the
portrait has the additional value of being painted by his own hand. Byron's career lends itself only
too easily to that method of treatment, which dashes off a likeness by vigorous strokes with a full
brush, seizing with false emphasis on some salient feature, and revelling in striking contrasts of
light and shade. But the style here adopted by the unconscious artist is rather that in which
Richardson the novelist painted his pathetic picture of Clarissa Harlowe. With slow, laborious
touches, with delicate gradations of colour, sometimes with almost tedious minuteness and
iteration, the gradual growth of a strangely composite character is presented, surrounded by the
influences which controlled or moulded its development, and traced through all the varieties of its
rapidly changing moods. Written, as Byron wrote, with habitual exaggeration, and on the impulse
of the moment, his letters correct one another, and, from this point of view, every letter contained
in the volume adds something to the truth and completeness of the portrait.
Round the central figure of Byron are grouped his relations and friends, and two of the most
interesting features in the volume are the strength of his family affections, and the width, if not the
depth, of his capacity for friendship. His father died when the child was only three years old. But a
bundle of his letters, written from Valenciennes to his sister, Mrs. Leigh, in 1790-91, still exists, to
attest, with startling plainness of speech, the strength of the tendencies which John Byron
transmitted to his son. The following extract contains the father's only allusion to the boy:-
"Valenciennes, Feb. 16, 1791.
Have you never received any letters from me by way of Bologne? I have sent two. For
God's sake send me some, as I have a great deal to pay. With regard to Mrs. Byron, I
am glad she writes to you. She is very amiable at a distance; but I defy you and all the
Apostles to live with her two months, for, if any body could live with her, it was me.
Mais jeu de Mains, jeu de Vilains. For my son, I am happy to hear he is well; but for
his walking, 'tis impossible, as he is club-footed.
Between his mother and himself, in spite of frequent and violent collisions, there existed a realaffection, while the warmth of his love for his half-sister Augusta, who had much of her brother's
power of winning affection, lost nothing in its permanence from the rarity of their personal
intercourse. Outside the family circle, the volume introduces the only two men among his
contemporaries who remained his lifelong friends. In his affection for Lord Clare, whom he very
rarely saw after leaving school, there was a tinge of romance, and in him Byron seems to have
personified the best memories of an idealized Harrow. In Hobhouse he found at onc