The Works of Lord Byron. Vol. 2Byron, George Gordon Byron, Baron
General
The Works of Lord Byron. Vol. 2
Byron, George Gordon Byron, Baron
English poetry
The controversy did not end there. A second advertisement (_Morning
Chronicle_, November 15) of "Lord Byron's Pilgrimage," etc., stating
that "the copyright of the work was consigned" to the Publisher
"exclusively by the Noble Author himself, and for which he gives 500
guineas," precedes Murray's second announcement of _The Prisoners of
Chillon_, and the Third Canto of _Childe Harold_, in which he informs
"the public that the poems lately advertised are not written by Lord
Byron. The only bookseller at present authorised to print Lord Byron's
poems is Mr. Murray...." Further precautions were deemed necessary. An
injunction in Chancery was applied for by Byron's agents and
representatives (see, for a report of the case in the _Morning
Chronicle_, November 28, 1816, _Letters_, vol. iv., Letter to Murray,
December 9, 1816, note), and granted by the Chancellor, Lord Eldon.
Strangely enough, Sir Samuel Romilly, whom Byron did not love, was
counsel for the plaintiff.
In spite of the injunction, a volume entitled "_Lord Byron's Pilgrimage
to the Holy Land_, a Poem in Two Cantos. To which is attached a
fragment, _The Tempest_," was issued in 1817. It is a dull and,
apparently, serious production, suggested by, but hardly an imitation
of, _Childe Harold_. The notes are descriptive of the scenery, customs,
and antiquities of Palestine. _The Tempest_, on the other hand, is a
parody, and by no means a bad parody, of Byron at his worst; e.g.--
"There was a sternness in his eye,
Which chilled the soul--one knew not why--
But when returning vigour came,
And kindled the dark glare to flame,
So fierce it flashed, one well might swear,
A thousand souls were centred there."
It is possible that this _Pilgrimage_ was the genuine composition of
some poetaster who failed to get his poems published under his own name,
or it may have been the deliberate forgery of John Agg, or Hewson
Clarke, or C. F. Lawler, the _pseudo_ Peter Pindar--"Druids" who were in
Johnston's pay, and were prepared to compose pilgrimages to any land,
holy or unholy, which would bring grist to their employer's mill. (See
the _Advertisements_ at the end of _Lord Byron's Pilgrimage, etc._)
The Third Canto was published, not as announced, on the 23rd, but on the
18th of November. Murray's "auspicious hope" of success was amply
fulfilled. He "wrote to Lord Byron on the 13th of December, 1816,
informing him that at a dinner at the Albion Tavern, he had sold to the
assembled booksellers 7000 of his Third Canto of _Childe Harold_...."
The reviews were for the most part laudatory. Sir Walter Scott's
finely-tempered eulogium (_Quart. Rev_., No. xxxi., October, 1816
[published February 11, 1817]), and Jeffrey's balanced and cautious
appreciation (_Edin. Rev_., No. liv., December, 1816 [published February
14, 1817]) have been reprinted in their collected works. Both writers
conclude with an aspiration--Jeffrey, that
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