A new and, it is believed, an improved punctuation has been adopted. In
this respect Byron did not profess to prepare his MSS. for the press,
and the punctuation, for which Gifford is mainly responsible, has been
reconsidered with reference solely to the meaning and interpretation of
the sentences as they occur.

In the 'Hours of Idleness and Other Early Poems', the typography of the
first four editions, as a rule, has been preserved. A uniform typography
in accordance with modern use has been adopted for all poems of later
date. Variants, being the readings of one or more MSS. or of successive
editions, are printed in italics [as footnotes. text Ed] immediately
below the text. They are marked by Roman numerals. Words and lines
through which the author has drawn his pen in the MSS. or Revises are
marked 'MS. erased'.

Poems and plays are given, so far as possible, in chronological order.
'Childe Harold' and 'Don Juan', which were written and published in
parts, are printed continuously; and minor poems, including the first
four satires, have been arranged in groups according to the date of
composition. Epigrams and 'jeux d'esprit' have been placed together, in
chronological order, towards the end of the sixth volume. A Bibliography
of the poems will immediately precede the Index at the close of the
sixth volume.

The edition contains at least thirty hitherto unpublished poems,
including fifteen stanzas of the unfinished seventeenth canto of 'Don
Juan', and a considerable fragment of the third part of 'The Deformed
Transformed'. The eleven unpublished poems from MSS. preserved at
Newstead, which appear in the first volume, are of slight if any