6. The Hon. Mrs. Leigh, from a Sketch by Sir George
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NTRODUCTION TO THE _OCCASIONAL PIECES_(_POEMS_ 1809-1813; _POEMS_ 1814-1816). The Poems afterwards entitled "Occasional Pieces," which were includedin the several editions of the Collected Works issued by Murray,1819-1831, numbered fifty-seven in all. They may be described as theaggregate of the shorter poems written between the years 1809-1818,which the author thought worthy of a permanent place among his poeticalworks. Of these the first twenty-nine appeared in successive editions of_Childe Harold_ (Cantos I., II.) [viz. fourteen in the first edition,twenty in the second, and twenty-nine in the seventh edition], while thethirtieth, the _Ode on the Death of Sir Peter Parker_, was originallyattached to _Hebrew Melodies_. The remaining twenty-seven pieces consistof six poems first published in the Second Edition of the _Corsair,_1814; eleven which formed the collection entitled "Poems," 1816; sixwhich were appended to the _Prisoner of Chillon_, December, 1816; the_Very Mournful Ballad_, and the _Sonnet by Vittorelli_, whichaccompanied the Fourth Canto of _Childe Harold_, 1818; the _Sketch_,first included by Murray in his edition of 1819; and the _Ode toVenice_, which appeared in the same volume as _Mazeppa_. Thus matters stood till 1831, when seventy new poems (sixty had beenpublished by Moore, in _Letters and Journals_, 1830, six wererepublished from Hobhouse's _Imitations and Translations_, 1809, andfour derived from other sources) were included in a sixth volume of theCollected Works. In the edition of 1832-35, twenty-four new poems were added, but fourwhich had appeared in _Letters and Journals_, 1830, and in the sixthvolume of the edition of 1831 were omitted. In the one-volume edition(first issued in 1837 and still in print), the four short pieces omittedin 1832 once more found a place, and the lines on "John Keats," firstpublished in _Letters and Journals_, and the two stanzas to LadyCaroline Lamb, "Remember thee! remember thee," first printed by Medwin,in the _Conversations of Lord Byron_, 1824, were included in theCollection. The third volume of the present issue includes all minor poems (with theexception of epigrams and _jeux d'esprit_ reserved for the sixth volume)written after Byron's departure for the East in July, 1809, and beforehe left England for good in April, 1816. The "Separation" and its consequent exile afforded a pretext and anopportunity for the publication of a crop of spurious verses. Of these_Madame Lavalette_ (first published in the _Examiner_, January 21, 1816,under the signature B. B., and immediately preceding a genuine sonnet byWordsworth, "How clear, how keen, how marvellously bright!") and _OhShame to thee, Land of the Gaul!_ included by Hone, in _Poems on hisDomestic Circumstances_, 1816; and _Farewell to England_, _Ode to theIsle of St. Helena_, _To the Lily of France_, _On the Morning of myDaughter's Birth_, published by J. Johnston, 1816, were repudiated byByron, in a letter to Murray, dated July 22, 1816. A longer poementitled _The Tempest_, which was attached to the spurious _Pilgrimageto the Holy Land_, published by Johnston, "the Cheapside impostor," in1817, was also denounced by Byron as a forgery in a letter to Murray,dated December 16, 1816. The _Triumph of the Whale_, by Charles Lamb, and the _Enigma on theLetter H_, by Harriet Fanshawe, were often included in piraticaleditions of Byron's _Poetical Works_. Other attributed poems which foundtheir way into newspapers and foreign editions, viz. (i.) _To my dearMary Anne_, 1804, "Adieu to sweet Mary for ever;" and (ii.) _To MissChaworth_, "Oh, memory, torture me no more," 1804, published in _Worksof Lord Byron_, Paris, 1828; (iii.) lines written _In the Bible_,"Within this awful volume lies," quoted in _Life, Writings, Opinions,etc_., 1825, iii. 414; (iv.) lines addressed to (?) George Anson Byron,"And dost thou ask the reason of my sadness?" _Nicnac_, March 29, 1823;(v.) _To Lady Caroline Lamb_, "And sayst thou that I have not felt,"published in _Works, etc_., 1828; (vi.) lines _To her who can bestunderstand them_, "Be it so, we part for ever," published in the _Worksof Lord Byron, In Verse and Prose_, Hartford, 1847; (vii.) _Lines foundin the Travellers' Book at Chamouni_, "How many numbered are, how fewagreed!" published _Works, etc_., 1828; and (viii.) a second copy ofverses with the same title, "All hail, Mont Blanc! Mont-au-Vert, hail!"_Life, Writings, etc_., 1825, ii. 384; (ix.) _Lines addressed by LordByron to Mr. Hobhouse on his Election for Westminster_, "Would you getto the house by the true gate?" _Works, etc_., 1828; and (x.) _Enigma onthe Letter I_, "I am not in youth, nor in manhood, nor age," _Works,etc_., Paris, p. 720, together with sundry epigrams, must, failing theproduction of the original MSS., be accounted forgeries, or, perhaps, inone or two instances, of doubtful authenticity. The following poems: _On the Quotation_, "_And my true faith_" etc.;[_Love and Gold_]; _Julian_ [_a Fragment_]; and _On the Death of theDuke of Dorset_, are now published for the first time from MSS. in thepossession of Mr. John Murray.
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