CHILDE HAROLD PILGRIMAGE.

A ROMAUNT.

"L'univers est une espèce de livre, dont on n'a lu que la première page quand on n'a vu que son pays. J'en ai feuilleté un assez grand nombre, que j'ai trouvé également mauvaises. Cet examen ne m'a point été infructueux. Je haïssais ma patrie. Toutes les impertinences des peuples divers, parmi lesquels j'ai vécu, m'ont réconcilié avec elle. Quand je n'aurais tiré d'autre bénéfice de mes voyages que celui-là, je n'en regretterais ni les frais ni les fatigues."-Le Cosmopolite, ou, le Citoyen du Monde, par Fougeret de Monbron. Londres, 1753.

VOL. II.

A

PREFACE.

[TO THE FIRST AND SECOND CANTOS.]

THE following poem was written, for the most part, amidst the scenes which it attempts" to describe. It was begun in Albania; and the parts relative to Spain and Portugal were composed from the author's observations in those countries. Thus much it may be necessary to state for the correctness of the descriptions. The scenes attempted to be sketched are in Spain, Portugal, Epirus, Acarnania and Greece. There, for the present, the poem stops: its reception will determine whether the author may venture to conduct his readers to the capital of the East, through Ionia and Phrygia : these two cantos are merely experimental.

A fictitious character is introduced for the sake of giving some connection to the piece; which, however, makes no pretension to regularity. It has been suggested to me by friends, on whose opinions I set a high value,ii. that in this fictitious character, "Childe Harold," I may incur the suspicion of having intended some real personage: this I beg leave, once for all, to disclaim-Harold is the child of imagınation, for the purpose I have stated.

In some very trivial particulars, and those merely local,

i. Advertisement to be prefixed toy Poem.-[MS. B.M.] ii. Professes to describe.-[MS. B.M.]

iii.

that in the fictitious character of "Childe Harold" 1 may incur the suspicion of having drawn "from myself." This I beg leave once for all to disclaim. I wanted a character to give some connection to the poem, and the one adopted suited my purpose as well as any other.-[MS. B.M.]

there might be grounds for such a notion; but in the main points, I should hope, none whatever.il.

1

It is almost superfluous to mention that the appellation 'Childe," as "Childe Waters," "Childe Childers," etc., is used as more consonant with the old structure of versification which I have adopted. The "Good Night" in the beginning of the first Canto, was suggested by Lord Maxwell's "Good Night" in the Border Minstrelsy, edited by Mr. Scott.

With the different poems 3 which have been published on Spanish subjects, there may be found some slight coincidence iii. in the first part, which treats of the Peninsula, but it can only be casual; as, with the exception of a few concluding stanzas, the whole of the poem was written in the Levant.

The stanza of Spenser, according to one of our most

i. Such an idea.-[MS. B.M.]

ii. My readers will observe that where the author speaks in his own person he assumes a very different tone from that of

"The cheerless thing, the man without a friend,"

at least, till death had deprived him of his nearest connections. I crave pardon for this Egotism, which proceeds from my wish to discard any probable imputation of it to the text.-[MS. B.M.] iii. Some casual coincidence.-[MS. B.M.]

1.["In the 13th and 14th centuries the word 'child,' which signifies a youth of gentle birth, appears to have been applied to a young noble awaiting knighthood, eg. in the romances of Ipomydon, Sir Tryamour, etc. It is frequently used by our old writers as a title, and is repeatedly given to Prince Arthur in the Faerie Queene" (N. Eng. Dict., art. "Childe").

Byron uses the word in the Spenserian sense, as a title implying youth and nobility.]

2. [John, Lord Maxwell, slew Sir James Johnstone at Achmanhill, April 6, 1608, in revenge for his father's defeat and death at Dryffe Sands, in 1593. He was forced to flee to France. Hence his "Good Night." Scott's ballad is taken, with " some slight variations," from a copy in Glenriddel's MSS.-Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border, 1810, i. 290-300.]

3. [Amongst others, The Battle of Talavera, by John Wilson Croker, appeared in 1809; The Vision of Don Roderick, by Walter Scott, in 1811; and Portugal, a Poem, by Lord George Grenville, in 1812.]