The copy of the MS. of the _Siege of Corinth_ was sent to Murray at the beginning (probably on the 2nd, the date of the copy) of November, and was placed in Gifford's hands about the same time (see letter to Murray, November 4, 1815, _Letters_, 1899, iii. 245; and Murray's undated letter on Gifford's "great delight" in the poem, and his "three critical remarks," _Memoir of John Murray_, 1891, i. 356). As with _Lara_, Byron began by insisting that the _Siege_ should not be published separately, but slipped into a fourth volume of the collected works, and once again (possibly when he had at last made up his mind to accept a thousand guineas for his own requirements, and not for other beneficiaries--Godwin, Coleridge, or Maturin) yielded to his publisher's wishes and representations. At any rate, the _Siege of Corinth_ and _Parisina_, which, says Moore, "during the month of January and part of February were in the hands of the printers" (_Life_, p. 300), were published in a single volume on February 7, 1816. The greater reviews were silent, but notices appeared in numerous periodicals; e.g. the _Monthly Review_, February, 1816, vol. lxxix. p. 196; the _Eclectic Review_, March, 1816, N.S. vol. v. p. 269; the _European_, May, 1816, vol. lxxix. p. 427; the _Literary Panorama_, June, 1816, N.S. vol. iv. p. 418; etc. Many of these reviews took occasion to pick out and hold up to ridicule the illogical sentences, the grammatical solecisms, and general imperfections of _technique_ which marked and disfigured the _Siege of Corinth_. A passage in a letter which John Murray wrote to his brother-publisher, William Blackwood (_Annals of a Publishing House_, 1897, i. 53), refers to these cavillings, and suggests both an apology and a retaliation-- "Many who by 'numbers judge a poet's song' are so stupid as not to see the powerful effect of the poems, which is the great object of poetry, because they can pick out fifty careless or even bad lines. The words may be carelessly put together; but this is secondary. Many can write polished lines who will never reach the name of poet. You see it is all poetically conceived in Lord B.'s mind." In such wise did Murray bear testimony to Byron's "splendid and imperishable excellence, which covers all his offences and outweighs all his defects--the excellence of sincerity and strength." To JOHN HOBHOUSE, ESQ., this poem is inscribed, by his FRIEND. _January 22nd_, 1816. ADVERTISEMENT