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BYRON

IN ENGLAND

HIS FAME AND AFTER-FAME

BY SAMUEL C. CHEW

PROFESSOR OF ENGlish liteRATURE IN BRYN MAWR COLLEGE

WITH A PORTRAIT

Though he may have no place in our own Minster, he
assuredly belongs to the band of far-shining men, of whom
Pericles declared the whole world to be the tomb.-

JOHN MORLEY

LONDON

JOHN MURRAY, ALBEMARLE STREET, W.

PRINTED IN GREAT BRITAIN BY

WILLIAM CLOWES AND SONS, LIMITED, LONDON AND BECCLES

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PREFACE

"THE pageant of his bleeding heart" which Byron bore across Europe resembles other pageants in that behind it one finds a litter of paper and odds and ends; bibliographers, those patient sweepers, have been busy gathering them up ever since, yet, despite their efforts to collect them into proper receptacles, many scraps are still blowing about the world. In these unconsidered trifles, as in all the relics that humanity leaves behind it on its stormful journey across the astonished earth, I find something of interest, something of pathos. That so many books have been written about Byron is not an objection to this one; rather it is the very reason that I have written it. The history of a great writer's fame and after-fame, of the changes and fluctuations in critical estimates of his achievement, is a part of the history of criticism that has not yet been fully investigated. Certain phases in the history of Shakespeare's reputation have been studied; and Milton, Spenser, and Pope have received attention from this point of approach. Sir Sidney Colvin has written a graceful, though incomplete, account of Keats's after-fame. Other examples of this sort of inquiry might be adduced. The value of an investigation into the history of the contemporary and posthumous renown of Byron, apart from the consideration that it involves the compilation of a full bibliography, is that the fluctuations in this poet's renown go hand in hand with changes in current thought and cast some light upon shifting ethical standards, religious tenets, political opinions, and literary tastes. This I shall endeavour to make apparent. I

would not, however, press unduly the importance of this side of my investigation, and prefer that it be regarded as a contribution at once to Byronic bibliography and to the age-long history of the curiosities of literature and the calamities of authors.

The bibliography of editions and selections of Byron's writings compiled by the late Mr. E. Hartley Coleridge is an admirable piece of work, despite various omissions which will be supplied in the bibliography promised by that great expert, Mr. Thomas J. Wise. But no list of English Byroniana with any pretence to completeness exists anywhere. I cannot claim that mine is exhaustive; but it is far fuller than any other. Though my theme is the history of Byron's fame in England, I have avoided the pedantic consistency of never referring to writings on the poet published in other countries. For a full treatment of Byron's reputation and influence in France I refer to Monsieur Estêve's admirable treatise; for his influence in Germany, to Dr. Ochsenbein; in Italy, to Signor Muoni and Dr. Simhart; in Spain, to Mr. Churchman. These writers, with others who treat of similar aspects of Byron-study, are referred to in my Bibliography. I would especially mention Professor W. E. Leonard's monograph, Byron and Byronism in America.

No complete collection of Byroniana exists anywhere in the world. I have examined hundreds of books, pamphlets, and magazine and newspaper articles, and to assemble my notes have had to make use of the resources of the British Museum; the libraries at Oxford and Cambridge; the Bibliothèque Nationale; the libraries of Harvard, Yale, Columbia and Johns Hopkins Universities; the Public Libraries of Boston and New York; The Boston Athenaeum, and the Library of Congress, besides various smaller public libraries. I am indebted to Mr. Huntington and Mr. Morgan for permission to make use of their Byron collections. My visit to Mr. Herbert C. Roe, of Nottingham, is a delightful memory; I profited much from the examination of his splendid collection of Byroniana. It is a pleasure to record various visits to Mr. Wise, in whose wonderful Ashley

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