LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.

1. PORTRAIT OF LORD BYRON, FROM A DRAWING FROM THE
LIFE BY J. HOLMES, FORMERLY THE PROPERTY OF THE
LATE HUGH CHARLES TREVANION, ESQ. frontispiece

2. WILLIAM WORDSWORTH, FROM THE PORTRAIT BY H.W.
PICKERSGILL, R.A., IN THE NATIONAL PORTRAIT GALLERY To face p. 4

3. NINON DE LENCLOS, FROM A MINIATURE IN THE
POSSESSION OF SIR J.G. TOLLEMACHE SINCLAIR, BART. 246

4. FOUNTAIN AT NEWSTEAD ABBEY 500




INTRODUCTION TO _DON JUAN_


Byron was a rapid as well as a voluminous writer. His _Tales_ were
thrown off at lightning speed, and even his dramas were thought out and
worked through with unhesitating energy and rapid achievement.
Nevertheless, the composition of his two great poems was all but
coextensive with his poetical life. He began the first canto of _Childe
Harold_ in the autumn of 1809, and he did not complete the fourth canto