The MS. ('MS. M.') of the first draft of Byron's "Satire" (see Letter to
Pigot, October 26, 1807) is now in Mr. Murray's possession. It is
written on folio sheets paged 6-25, 28-41, and numbers 360 lines.
Mutilations on pages 12, 13, 34, 35 account for the absence of ten
additional lines.
After the publication of the January number of 'The Edinburgh Review'
for 1808 (containing the critique on 'Hours of Idleness'), which was
delayed till the end of February, Byron added a beginning and an ending
to the original draft. The MSS. of these additions, which number ninety
lines, are written on quarto sheets, and have been bound up with the
folios. (Lines 1-16 are missing.) The poem, which with these and other
additions had run up to 560 lines, was printed in book form (probably by
Ridge of Newark), under the title of 'British Bards, A Satire'. "This
Poem," writes Byron ['MSS. M.'], "was begun in October, 1807, in London,
and at different intervals composed from that period till September,
1808, when it was completed at Newstead Abbey.--B., 1808." A date, 1808,
is affixed to the last line. Only one copy is extant, that which was
purchased, in 1867, from the executors of R.C. Dallas, by the Trustees
of the British Museum. Even this copy has been mutilated. Pages 17, 18,
which must have contained the first version of the attack on Jeffrey
(see 'English Bards', p. 332, line 439, 'note' 2), have been torn out,
and quarto proof-sheets in smaller type of lines 438-527, "Hail to
immortal Jeffrey," etc., together with a quarto proof-sheet, in the same
type as 'British Bards', containing lines 540-559, "Illustrious
Holland," etc., have been inserted. Hobhouse's lines (first edition,
lines 247-262), which are not in the original draft, are included in
'British Bards'. The insertion of the proofs increased the printed
matter to 584 lines. After the completion of this revised version of
'British Bards', additions continued to be made. Marginal corrections
and MS. fragments, bound up with 'British Bards', together with
forty-four lines (lines 723-726, 819-858) which do not occur in MS. M.,
make up with the printed matter the 696 lines which were published in
March, 1809, under the title of 'English Bards, and Scotch Reviewers'.
The folio and quarto sheets in Mr. Murray's possession ('MS. M.') may be
regarded as the MS. of 'British Bards; British Bards' (there are a few
alterations, e.g. the substitution of lines 319-326, "Moravians, arise,"
etc., for the eight lines on Pratt, which are to be found in the folio
MS., and are printed in 'British Bards'), with its accompanying MS.
fragments, as the foundation of the text of the first edition of
'English Bards, and Scotch Reviewers'.
Between the first edition, published in March, and the second edition in
October, 1809, the difference is even greater than between the first
edition and 'British Bards'. The Preface was enlarged, and a postscript
affixed to the text of the poem. Hobhouse's lines (first edition,
247-262) were omitted, and the following additional passages inserted,
viz.: (i.) lines 1-96, "Still must I hear," etc.; (ii.) lines 129-142,
"Thus saith the Preacher," etc.; (iii.) lines 363-417, "But if some
new-born whim," etc.; (iv.) lines 638-706, "Or hail at once," etc.; (v.)
lines 765-798, "When some brisk youth," etc.; (vi.) lines 859-880, "And
here let Shee," etc.; (vii.) lines 949-960, "Yet what avails," etc.;
(viii.) lines 973-980, "There, Clarke," etc.; (ix.) lines 1011-1070,
"Then hapless Britain," etc. These additions number 370 lines, and,
together with the 680 lines of the first edition (reduced from 696 by
the omission of Hobhouse's contribution), make up the 1050 lines of the
second and third editions, and the doubtful fourth edition of 1810. Of
these additions, Nos. i., ii., iii., iv., vi., viii., ix. exist in MS.,
and are bound up with the folio MS. now in Mr. Murray's possession.
The third edition, which is, generally, dated 1810, is a replica of the
second edition.
The first issue of the fourth edition, which appeared in 1810, is
identical with the second and third editions. A second issue of the
fourth edition, dated 1811, must have passed under Byron's own
supervision. Lines 723, 724 are added, and lines 725, 726 are materially
altered. The fourth edition of 1811 numbers 1052 lines.
The suppressed fifth edition, numbering 1070 lines (the copy in the
British Museum has the title-page of the fourth edition; a second copy,
in Mr. Murray's possession, has no title-page), varies from the fourth
edition of 1811 by the addition of lines 97-102 and 528-539, and by some
twenty-nine emendations of the text. Eighteen of these emendations were
made by Byron in a copy of the fourth edition which belonged to Leigh
Hunt. On another copy, in Mr. Murray's possession, Byron made nine
emendations, of which six are identical with those in the Hunt copy, and
three appear for the first time. It was in the latter volume that he
inscribed his after-thoughts, which are dated "B. 1816."
For a complete collation of the five editions of 'English Bards, and
Scotch Reviewers', and textual emendations in the two annotated volumes,
and for a note on genuine and spurious copies of the first and other
editions, see 'The Bibliography of the Poetical Works of Lord Byron',
vol. vi.
[Facsimile of title-page of first edition, including Byron's signature.
To view this and other facsimiles, and the other illustrations mentioned in
this text, see the html edition. text Ed.]