Three MSS. of 'Hints from Horace' are extant, two in the possession of
Lord Lovelace (MSS. L. a and b), and a third in the possession of Mr.
Murray ('MS. M'.).
Proofs of lines 173-272 and 1-272 ('Proofs a, b'), are among the Egerton
MSS. in the British Museum. They were purchased from the Rev. Alexander
Dallas, January 12, 1867, and are, doubtless, fragments of the proofs
set up in type for Cawthorn in 1811. They are in "book-form," and show
that the volume was intended to be uniform with the Fifth Edition of
'English Bards, and Scotch Reviewers', of 1811. The text corresponds
closely but not exactly with that adopted by Murray in 1831, and does
not embody the variants of the several MSS. It is probable that complete
proofs were in Moore's possession at the time when he included the
selections from the 'Hints' in his 'Letters and Journals', pp. 263-269,
and that the text of the entire poem as published in 1831 was derived
from this source. Selections, numbering in all 156 lines, had already
appeared in 'Recollections of the Life of Lord Byron', by R. C. Dallas,
1824, pp. 104-113. Byron, estimating the merit by the difficulty of the
performance, rated the 'Hints from Horace' extravagantly high. He only
forbore to publish them after the success of 'Childe Harold', because he
felt, as he states, that he should be "heaping coals of fire upon his
head" if he were in his hour of triumph to put forth a sequel to a
lampoon provoked by failure. Nine years afterwards, when he resolved to
print the work with some omissions, he gravely maintained that it
excelled the productions of his mature genius. "As far," he said, "as
versification goes, it is good; and on looking back at what I wrote
about that period, I am astonished to see how little I have trained on.
I wrote better then than now; but that comes of my having fallen into
the atrocious bad taste of the times" [September 23, 1820]. The opinion
of J. C. Hobhouse that the 'Hints' would require "a good deal of
slashing" to adapt them to the passing hour, and other considerations,
again led Byron to suspend the publication. Authors are frequently bad
judges of their own works, but of all the literary hallucinations upon
record there are none which exceed the mistaken preferences of Lord
Byron. Shortly after the appearance of 'The Corsair' he fancied that
'English Bards' was still his masterpiece; when all his greatest works
had been produced, he contended that his translation from Pulci was his
"grand performance,--the best thing he ever did in his life;" and
throughout the whole of his literary career he regarded these 'Hints
from Horace' with a special and unchanging fondness.