BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTE TO 'HOURS OF IDLENESS AND OTHER EARLY POEMS'.

There were four distinct issues of Byron's Juvenilia. The first
collection, entitled 'Fugitive Pieces', was printed in quarto by S. and
J. Ridge of Newark. Two of the poems, "The Tear" and the "Reply to Some
Verses of J. M. B. Pigot, Esq.," were signed "BYRON;" but the volume
itself, which is without a title-page, was anonymous. It numbers
sixty-six pages, and consists of thirty-eight distinct pieces. The last
piece, "Imitated from Catullus. To Anna," is dated November 16, 1806.
The whole of this issue, with the exception of two or three copies, was
destroyed. An imperfect copy, lacking pp. 17-20 and pp. 58-66, is
preserved at Newstead. A perfect copy, which had been retained by the
Rev. J. T. Becher, at whose instance the issue was suppressed, was
preserved by his family (see 'Life', by Karl Elze, 1872, p. 450), and is
now in the possession of Mr. H. Buxton Forman, C.B. A facsimile reprint
of this unique volume, limited to one hundred copies, was issued, for
private circulation only, from the Chiswick Press in 1886.

Of the thirty-eight 'Fugitive Pieces', two poems, viz. "To Caroline" and
"To Mary," together with the last six stanzas of the lines, "To Miss E.
P. [To Eliza]," have never been republished in any edition of Byron's
Poetical Works.

A second edition, small octavo, of 'Fugitive Pieces', entitled 'Poems on
Various Occasions', was printed by S. and J. Ridge of Newark, and
distributed in January, 1807. This volume was issued anonymously. It
numbers 144 pages, and consists of a reproduction of thirty-six
'Fugitive Pieces', and of twelve hitherto unprinted poems--forty-eight