Chambers's cyclopaedia of English literature : a history critical and biographical of authors in the English tongue from the earliest times till the present day, with specimens of their writing . Here, too, hetried to play the part of athlete, and, handicappedby spiteful destiny as he was, succeeded. TheBritish art of sparring was then at the height ofits glory, and his passion for emulation inducedhim to patronise the ring—as he would havepatronised anything that was fashionable ; for,like his idol Bonaparte, he, while believing him-self the despiser of human opinion, was the slave of it. But
Chambers's cyclopaedia of English literature : a history critical and biographical of authors in the English tongue from the earliest times till the present day, with specimens of their writing . Here, too, hetried to play the part of athlete, and, handicappedby spiteful destiny as he was, succeeded. TheBritish art of sparring was then at the height ofits glory, and his passion for emulation inducedhim to patronise the ring—as he would havepatronised anything that was fashionable ; for,like his idol Bonaparte, he, while believing him-self the despiser of human opinion, was the slave of it. But at this early date another ambitionseems to have seized him—the desire of appear-ing in print; although, according to Moore, hisaspiration was to print a small volume and bringit out in the approved aristocratic way for private-circulation. In November 1806 a volume of poems-of his, called Fugitive Pieces, was published byRidge of Newark. The volume was immediatelysuppressed by the advice of Byrons friend, theRev. J. T. Becher, on account of the license ofsome stanzas in one of the poems. This wasthe poem To Mary, a poem which shows howearly the idea of posing as the wild-oats-sowing. LORD BYRON. From the Portrait (1825) by R. Westall, , in the N-itionul Portrait Gallery. young gentleman—at one time sentimental, atanother time cynical, whether Childe Harold,Conrad, Lara, or Don Juan—came to Byron. Butrhyming often saves the young poet from doingthe naughty things which songless youngstersactually do. And, to be just to Byron, he seemsto have been not very guilty of true eroticmischief: a little foolish rhyming about it verylikely saved him. It is, however, unpleasantlysuggestive of Byrons indelicacy that the lady towhom he afterwards addressed The Dream, andwhom he seems to have really loved, was namedMary. Mr Becher saved one copy of the bookfrom destruction, and afterwards a few copies werereprinted for private circulation. It is singularhow ignorant of the book
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1900, booksubjectenglish, bookyear1901
