literary value, but they reflect with singular clearness and sincerity
the temper and aspirations of the tumultuous and moody stripling to whom
"the numbers came," but who wisely abstained from printing them himself.

Byron's notes, of which many are published for the first time, and
editorial notes, enclosed in brackets, are printed immediately below the
variorum readings. The editorial notes are designed solely to supply the
reader with references to passages in other works illustrative of the
text, or to interpret expressions and allusions which lapse of time may
have rendered obscure.

Much of the knowledge requisite for this purpose is to be found in the
articles of the 'Dictionary of National Biography', to which the fullest
acknowledgments are due; and much has been arrived at after long
research, involving a minute examination of the literature, the
magazines, and often the newspapers of the period.

Inasmuch as the poems and plays have been before the public for more
than three quarters of a century, it has not been thought necessary to
burden the notes with the eulogies and apologies of the great poets and
critics who were Byron's contemporaries, and regarded his writings, both
for good and evil, for praise and blame, from a different standpoint
from ours. Perhaps, even yet, the time has not come for a definite and
positive appreciation of his genius. The tide of feeling and opinion
must ebb and flow many times before his rank and station among the poets
of all time will be finally adjudged. The splendour of his reputation,
which dazzled his own countrymen, and, for the first time, attracted the
attention of a contemporary European audience to an English writer, has
faded, and belongs to history; but the poet's work remains, inviting a
more intimate and a more extended scrutiny than it has hitherto received