ideas, and a small quarto copy-book (64 inches by 7 inches) in which a fair transcription has been made of the finished stanzas, with gaps of one or more pages left between the stanzas, or groups of two or more stanzas, to be filled up as the poem progressed. The theme was evidently suggested by the Coronation of George IV., and the stanzas must have been written just before the proposed date of the ceremony, August 1, 1820, or the actual date, July 19, 1821. The completed stanzas with the comment in Good Words are as follows:

Hoping to see their Kingdom marked perhaps Somewhere near Croker's Mountains on his

maps.

VI

Poor Croker! It is very hard to lose One's Mountains! But a truce with maps and charts.

For some one whispers (could it be my Muse?) That Humbugs are found natives of all parts, And scattered through all nations like the Jews,

And have, like them, great skill in little arts, Yet not, like them, held up to scorn and laughter,

They're feasted, listened to, and followed after.

VII

Then I have known some few - It is a sect
Enjoys so much beyond mere toleration
(More even than the Catholics expect)
There's scarce a post of honour in the nation,
Never a star with which they 're not bedecked.
To have a King then of their own creation
Is but one step, nay scarce a step I doubt
When Almack's tickets fly to find them out.

Here there occurs a hiatus in the finished copy, Byron evidently being unable to get the next stanza to his liking. In the draft, however, there are a series of incomplete stanzas and half-worked-out ideas. He seems first to have contemplated describing the procession of Humbugs. Then, breaking off for a time, he turns to the consideration of the question, who is most fit to be King of the Humbugs! The prosecution of this theme being probably for the time not congenial, Byron leaves it, to turn to the discussion of another point in his satire the place where the coronation, or the election, of the Humbug Monarch was to be held. In this direction he was for a brief period more successful, the next three stanzas having apparently been written at once into the copybook, without any previous drafting, the sequence of the rough copy going to prove that no part of it has been lost, and such alternative readings as have occurred to Byron being inserted in the fair copy.

VIII

Some thought no properer spot could be assigned

Than easy Holland's scribbler sheltering roof, For 't was a haunt familiar to their kind Where they could creep and feed and strut and puff,

All had discoursed there, and some few had dined

But then my lord's consent was not enough;
There was the Princess too of Madagascar -
And no one had the courage e'en to ask her.

IX

The number qualified was found prodigious, And all with very palpable pretensions,

Both civil, military, and religious,
Some there had patents, others stars and pen-

sions,

Half those who print, and with their thoughts oblige us,

The authors of all manners of inventions. Oxford and Cambridge severally sent Messrs.... With very good degrees... and some professors.

X

There must be room to swagger and to bluster,
To bustle and look big or all will fail,
Some of the places which have been discussed

are

Enough perhaps to lodge them in detail,

And by instalments But a general muster!
No honse is sure of a sufficient scale,
No, not his gracious Majesty's pavilion

Though that is said to have cost him near a million.

Another break. That he endeavored to follow up his temporary success is evident from the rough draft, mainly composed of suggestions of various places where the ceremony should be held. At last he gets the idea of holding it in the now vacated booths of Smithfield fair, and goes ahead again:

Absent or present, still to thee, 169.

Adieu, adieu! my native shore, 5.
Adieu, thou Hill! where early joy, 145.
Adieu, ye joys of La Valette! 163.

Egle, beauty and poet, has two little crimes,

237.

Ah! gentle, fleeting, wav'ring sprite, 87.
Ah, heedless girl! why thus disclose, 146.
Ah! Love was never yet without, 172.
Ah!

What should follow slips from my
reflection, 968.

And dost thou ask the reason of my sadness?

229.

And thou art dead, as young and fair, 167.
And thou wert sad-yet I was not with thee,
212.

And thy true faith can alter never?' 173.
And wilt thou weep when I am low? 152.
Anne's Eye is liken'd to the Sun, 143.
A noble Lady of the Italian shore, 199.
As by the fix'd decrees of Heaven, 140.
As o'er the cold sepulchral stone, 157.
A spirit pass'd before me: I beheld, 222.
As the Liberty lads o'er the sea, 229.
Away, away, ye notes of woe! 165.
Away, away, your flattering arts, 86.

Away with your fictions of flimsy romance, 92.
Away, ye gay landscapes, ye gardens of roses!
117.

A year ago you swore, fond she! 236.

Behold the blessings of a lucky lot! 237.
Belshazzar! from the banquet turn, 185.
Beneath Blessington's eyes, 239.

Beside the confines of the Egean main, 161.
Beware! beware! of the Black Friar, 285.
Bob Southey! You're a poet - Poet-laureate,
745.

Porn in the garret, in the kitchen bred, 208.
Brave Champions! go on with the farce! 237.
Breeze of the night in gentler sighs, 150.
Bright be the place of thy soul! 151.
But once I dared to lift my eyes, 205.

Candour compels me, BECHER! to commend,

Dear LONG, in this sequester'd scene, 133.
Dear object of defeated care! 161.
Dear, simple girl, those flattering arts, 86.
Dorset! whose early steps with mine have
stray'd, 93.

Doubtless, sweet girl! the hissing lead, 99.
Do you know Dr. Nott? 238.

Eliza, what fools are the Mussulman sect, 116.
Equal to Jove that youth must be, 87.
Ere the daughter of Brunswick is cold in her
grave, 201.

Eternal Spirit of the chainless Mind! 402.

Fair Albion, smiling, sees her son depart, 162.
Fame, wisdom, love, and power were mine, 219.
Famed for contemptuous breach of sacred ties,
228.

Famed for their civil and domestic quarrels,
228.

Fare thee well! and if for ever, 207.
Farewell if ever fondest prayer, 151.
Farewell to the Land where the gloom of my
Glory, 186.

Father of Light! great God of Heaven! 132.
Few years have pass'd since thou and I, 153.
Fill the goblet again! for I never before, 155.
For Orford and for Waldegrave, 238.

Friend of my youth! when young we roved,
137.

From the last hill that looks on thy once holy
dome, 221.

From this emblem what variance your motto
evinces, 228.

God maddens him whom 't is his will to lose,
230.

God, the Eternal! Infinite! All-wise! 627.
Good plays are scarce, 225.

Great Jove, to whose almighty throne, 89.

Hail, Muse! et cetera. - We left Juan sleeping,

-

801.
Harriet! To see such Circumspection, 151.
He hath wrong'd his queen, but still he is her
lord, 550.

Here once engaged the stranger's view, 150.
Here's a happy new year! but with reason,
235.

Here's to her who long, 228.

He, unto whom thou art so partial, 239.
He who sublime in epic numbers roll'd, 87.
High in the midst, surrounded by his peers, 111.
Hills of Annesley! bleak and barren, 95.
His father's sense, his mother's grace, 233.
How came you in Hob's pound to cool, 235.
How sweetly shines through azure skies, 101.