506
NOTES AND QUERIES. [9< s. v. JUNE 23, 1900.
in a good engraving here copied " (i.e.. in
' The Book of Days ').
According to a foot-note he was born in the island of St. Vincent in 1808, his parents being natives of Africa, both black. His skin and hair were spotted or mottled all over, dark brown and white. The child was brought to Bristol when fifteen months old, and an arrangement was made with Richard- son, who took an affectionate interest in the child and had it christened Geo. Alex. Gratton (in the query the name is Grattox). That the boy was buried at Great Mario w, &c., is also recorded. ROBERT PIERPOINT.
St. Austin's, Warrington.
"BERNARDUS NON VIDIT OMNIA": "BLIND BAYARD" (9 th S. v. 356, 441). The story that St. Bernard of Clairvaux walked a whole day along the shores of the Lake of Geneva without seeing it has been told by Gibbon :
" The disciples of the saint record a marvellous example of his pious apathy. ' Juxta lacum etiam Lausanriensem totius diei itinere pergens, penitus non attendit aut se videre non yidit. Cum enim yespere facto de eodem lacu socii colloquerentur, interrogabat eos ubi lacus ille esset ; et mirati sunt universi.'" 'Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire,' chap, lix., note.
E. YARDLEY.
NOTES ON BOOKS, &c.
The Works of Lord Byron: Poetry. Edited by
Ernest Hartley Coleridge, M.A. Vols. I. -III.
(Murray.)
GOOD progress is being made with this, the definite and best edition of Byron, with which the present generation, and probably that which follows, will be likely to content themselves. Except that under existing conditions no edition of any classic can be regarded as absolutely final, it is difficult to see what more than now is given to the public can be desired. The book is admirably printed, rubricated, and illustrated ; for the amateur there is an Edition de luxe, which contains extra illustrations, and in beauty is not likely to be surpassed ; the collation of texts and the selection and disposition of notes have been left to Mr. Coleridge, a man of unfailing taste and judgment, who has added in brackets new and valuable comments of his own ; what may be regarded as the final collection of poems hitherto unprinted has been made, and the owner of the completed work may boast the possession of every- thing concerning the poet which is preserved and is worthy of publication. Based upon the edition of Murray of 1831, in 6 vols. 12mo., the present edition, which is in 8vo., will extend over twelve volumes, and is in all respects what is called a library edition. It follows, like its predecessors, the text of the successive issues of plays and poems which appeared in the author's lifetime, and were sub- ject to his revision, or that of Gifford and other accredited readers. The results of successive col lations with the original MSS. have been incor porated, and a final collation has ended in the
discovery of further variants, which appear in the
- oot-notes to each page. Below these are given
Byron's notes, many of them published for the first yirne, and followed by the editorial notes, dis- tinguished as has previously been said. Thirty Doems Y>revipusly unpublished now first see the ight. These include fifteen stanzas of the unprinted .ast canto of 'Don Juan'; a considerable fragment of the third part of 'The Deformed Transformed,' concerning which it is as yet too early to speak ; and eleven poems from Newstead MSS., which,
- hough of slight literary value, furnish useful reve-
lations of the character of "the moody stripling"
- o whom the 'Hours of Idleness' and the imme-
diately succeeding works are due. The order is chronological, so far as is convenient, the successive parts of ' Childe Harold ' being given together, and Dccupying the second volume, while those of ' Don Juan ' are reserved for a later volume. Epigrams and jeux d' esprit are to be arranged in chronological order in the later pages of the sixth volume, in which will also appear a bibliography as well as an index, both indispensable portions of any well-executed and scholarly reissue.
Vol. I. opens, naturally, with the editions, four in all, of Byron's 'Juvenilia,' the third in order of appearance being the ' Hours of Idleness.' For the details concerning the facsimiles of title-pages we must refer the reader to Mr. Coleridge's notes, which supply many particulars from our friends Mr. Buxton Forman, C.B., and Mr. Richard Edg- cumbe. To the general collection of these is now given the title ' Hours of Idleness and other Early Poems.' With them are printed ' English Bards and Scotch Reviewers,' * Hints from Horace,' ' The Curse of Minerva,' and ' The Waltz.' Illustrations to this first volume include, in addition to various facsimiles of title-pages-} a portrait of Byron, from a miniature in the possession of the Earl of Love- lace, painted in 1815 by James Holmes ; a portrait of Miss Chaworth, also from a miniature ; and a representation of the British Museum Theseus from the east pediment of the Parthenon.
Vol. II. is, as has been said, wholly taken up with ' Childe Harold,' to which are prefixed notes on the MSS. and an itinerary to the first two parts. Its illustrations comprise a charming portrait of lanthe, engraved by W. Finden after Westall ; one from a miniature by Cosway of the Duchess of Richmond, in the possession of the Duke of Rich- mond and Gordon; and a portrait of Byron, from an oil painting by Ruckard, belonging to Horatio F. Brown, with designs of the Horses of St. Mark, St. Pantaleone, from a woodcut, and ' The Dying Gaul,' from the original work in the Museum of the Capitol.
The third volume contains the works on which the European reputation of Byron rests and the legends concerning him are founded, the various corsair and other tales, the 'Hebrew Melodies,' miscellaneous poems between 1809 and 1814, with some published at a later date, and what Mr. Cole- ridge now first entitles 'Pieces of the Separation,' consisting of the " Fare thee well, and if for ever," 'A Sketch,' and 'Stanzas to Augusta.' The illus- trations comprise Lord Byron in Albanian dress, from the portrait in oils by T. Phillips, R.A. ; Princess Charlotte, from a miniature at Windsor Castle ; Lady Wilmot Horton, Byron's cousin, on whom was written " She walks in beauty like the night," after a sketch by Sir Thomas Lawrence ; the Hon. Mrs, Leigh, from a sketch in the British
