[109] [The MS. of the "Epilogue" is inscribed on the margin of a copy of Wordsworth's _Peter Bell_, inserted in a set of Byron's _Works_ presented by George W. Childs to the Drexel Institute. (From information kindly supplied by Mr. John H. Bewley, of Buffalo, New York.) The first edition of _Peter Bell_ appeared early in 1819, and a second edition followed in May, 1819. In Byron's Dedication of _Marino Faliero_, "To Baron Goethe," dated October 20, 1820 (_Poetical Works_, 1891, iv. 341), the same allusions to Sir George Beaumont, to Wordsworth's "place in the Excise," and to his admission that _Peter Bell_ had been withheld "for one and twenty years," occur in an omitted paragraph first published, _Letters_, 1891, v. 101. So close a correspondence of an unpublished fragment with a genuine document leaves little doubt as to the composition of the "Epilogue."] [110] [The missing line may be, "To _permanently_ fill a station," see Preface to _Peter Bell_.] ON MY WEDDING-DAY. HERE'S a happy New Year! but with reason I beg you'll permit me to say-- Wish me _many_ returns of the _Season_, But as _few_ as you please of the _Day_.[111] _January_ 2, 1820. [First published, _Letters and Journals_, 1830, ii. 294.] FOOTNOTES: [111] [Medwin (_Conversations_, 1824, p. 156) prints an alternative-- "You may wish me returns of the season, Let us, prithee, have none of the day!"] EPITAPH FOR WILLIAM PITT. WITH Death doomed to grapple, Beneath this cold slab, he Who lied in the Chapel Now lies in the Abbey. _January_ 2, 1820. [First published, _Letters and Journals_, 1830, ii. 295.] EPIGRAM. IN digging up your bones, Tom Paine, Will. Cobbett[112] has done well: You visit him on Earth again, He'll visit you in Hell. or-- You come to him on Earth again He'll go with you to Hell! _January_ 2, 1820. [First published, _Letters and Journals_, 1830, ii. 295.] FOOTNOTES: [112] [Cobbett, by way of atonement for youthful vituperation (he called him "a ragamuffin deist") of Tom Paine, exhumed his bones from their first resting-place at New Rochelle, and brought them to Liverpool on his return to England in 1819. They were preserved by Cobbett at Normanby, Farnham, till his death in 1835, but were sold in consequence of his son's bankruptcy in 1836, and passed into the keeping of a Mr. Tilly, who was known to be their fortunate possessor as late as 1844. (See _Notes and Queries_, 1868, Series IV. vol. i. pp. 201-203.)] EPITAPH.