The concluding note, like the poem, was built up sentence by sentence. Lines 1-12, "forgotten," are in the MS. Line 12, "I heard," to line 17, "original," were added in the Second Edition. The next sentence, "For the contents" to "Vathek," was inserted in the Third; and the concluding paragraph, "I do not know" to the end, in the Fourth Editions.] [ex] {146} _Nor whether most he mourned none knew_. _For her he loved--or him he slew_.--[MS.] THE BRIDE OF ABYDOS. A TURKISH TALE. "Had we never loved sae kindly, Had we never loved sae blindly, Never met--or never parted, We had ne'er been broken-hearted."-- Burns [_Farewell to Nancy_]. INTRODUCTION TO THE _THE BRIDE OF ABYDOS_. Many poets--Wordsworth, for instance--have been conscious in their old age that an interest attaches to the circumstances of the composition of their poems, and have furnished their friends and admirers with explanatory notes. Byron recorded the _motif_ and occasion of the _Bride of Abydos_ while the poem was still in the press. It was written, he says, to divert his mind, "to wring his thoughts from reality to imagination--from selfish regrets to vivid recollections" (_Diary_, December 5, 1813, _Letters_, ii. 361), "to distract his dreams from ..." (_Diary_, November 16) "for the sake of _employment_" (Letter to Moore, November 30, 1813). He had been staying during part of October and November at Aston Hall, Rotherham, with his friend James Wedderburn Webster, and had fallen in love with his friend's wife, Lady Frances. From a brief note to his sister, dated November 5, we learn that he was in a scrape, but in "no immediate peril," and from the lines, "Remember him, whom Passion's power" (_vide ante_, p. 67), we may infer that he had sought safety in flight. The _Bride of Abydos_, or _Zuleika_, as it was first entitled, was written early in November, "in four nights" (_Diary_, November 16), or in a week (Letter to Gifford, November 12)--the reckoning goes for little--as a counter-irritant to the pain and distress of _amour interrompu_. The confession or apology is eminently characteristic. Whilst the _Giaour_ was still in process of evolution, still "lengthening its rattles," another Turkish poem is offered to the public, and the natural explanation, that the author is in vein, and can score another trick, is felt to be inadequate and dishonouring--"To withdraw _myself_ from _myself_," he confides to his _Diary_(November 27), "has ever been my sole, my entire, my sincere motive for scribbling at all."