|
Main
- books.jibble.org
My Books
- IRC Hacks
Misc. Articles
- Meaning of Jibble
- M4 Su Doku
- Computer Scrapbooking
- Setting up Java
- Bootable Java
- Cookies in Java
- Dynamic Graphs
- Social Shakespeare
External Links
- Paul Mutton
- Jibble Photo Gallery
- Jibble Forums
- Google Landmarks
- Jibble Shop
- Free Books
- Intershot Ltd
|
books.jibble.org
Previous Page
| Next Page
Page 1
It has been suggested that copies of the volume were distributed
earlier than November and that some of the poems, printed separately
and distributed in fly-leaf form, were added later. This would explain
such discrepancies as the early dates of the inscriptions, and the
presence of Byron's name on pages 46 and 48 in a volume otherwise
anonymous, but there is little evidence to support it.
Moore's account of _Fugitive Pieces_ is that it was distributed in
November, Byron presenting the first copy to the Reverend J.T. Becher,
prebendary of Southwell minster, who objected to what he considered
the too voluptuous coloring of the poem "To Mary." The objection led
Byron to suppress the edition immediately, he himself burning nearly
every copy. This account is corroborated in part by Miss Pigot and in
part by Byron.
Immediately after the destruction, Byron began the preparation of a
second volume, to replace _Fugitive Pieces_. This appeared in January,
1807, as _Poems on Various Occasions_, Byron describing it as "vastly
correct and miraculously chaste." Of the 38 poems that constitute
_Fugitive Pieces_, all except "To Mary," "To Caroline," and the last
six stanzas of "To Miss E.P." were reprinted in _Poems on Various
Occasions_. Nineteen of the original 38 poems occur in Byron's third
work, _Hours of Idleness_, published in June or July, 1807. All three
editions were printed by S. and J. Ridge, booksellers of Newark,
England.
Byron himself never reprinted the poems "To Mary" or "To Caroline," or
the last six stanzas of "To Miss E.P." Except in a limited facsimile
of _Fugitive Pieces_, supervised by H. Buxton Forman in 1886, "To
Mary" has never been reprinted--not even in supposedly complete
editions of Byron's works.
Only four copies of _Fugitive Pieces_ are known to-day, and one of
these is incomplete. The copy from which the present facsimile is made
was originally given by Byron to Becher and preserved by him in spite
of his objections to the poem "To Mary." From Becher's family it
passed into the possession of Mr. Faulkner, of Louth, solicitor for
the Becher family. In 1885 it was in the possession of H.W. Ball,
antiquary and bookseller of Barton-on-Humber, who sold it to H. Buxton
Forman. Forman used it for his facsimile, but incorporated certain
manuscript corrections of the original, so that his facsimile is not
exact. The original is now owned by Mr. Thomas J. Wise, who has kindly
permitted its use for the present facsimile.
Of the other three copies, the incomplete one, lacking pages 17-20
("To Mary") and all after page 58, is in the possession of the family
of the late Mr. H.C. Roe, of Nottingham. This was originally sent by
Byron to Pigot, then studying medicine in Edinburgh. Byron later asked
Pigot to destroy the copy and Pigot seems to have complied so far
as to tear out the offending verses "To Mary." For many years it was
thought that only the Pigot and Becher copies had escaped destruction
at Byron's hands. But another complete copy came to light in 1907
and is now in the Pierpont Morgan Library in New York. This contains
numerous manuscript corrections and alterations, and seems to have
been used as a proof copy for _Poems on Various Occasions_ (not, as
has sometimes been stated, for _Hours of Idleness_). A fourth copy,
also complete, was offered at public sale in 1912, and is now in the
hands of the executors of the late Mr. J.A. Spoor, of Chicago.
The present facsimile is an exact photographic reproduction of the
text with all typographical and other errors as in the original,
except that certain manuscript corrections which appear in the
original perforce appear in the photographic reproduction, as follows:
Page 3, _To E_.... line 2. "me" has been inserted by hand.
Page 8, stanza 5, line 2. A letter ("s"?) has been erased
between "so" and "oft," and
the second "e" of "meets" has
been inserted to replace "l."
Page 14, line 10. "j" in "jargon" has been
inserted by hand.
Page 19, stanza (11), line 1. "night" was originally printed
"might," the "m" later changed
to "n" by erasure.
Page 24, stanza 4, line 4. "s" in "setting" has been
inserted by hand.
Previous Page
| Next Page
|
|