better than himself the value of a little appreciation at the critical moment of a young career: and he not unwisely left to others the easy task of condemnation. As a designer, he hardly occupies a high place; his work, as I have tried to point out, was, done under severe restrictions, and during the later years of his life was overshadowed by the literary and critical sides of his duty. The special phase of art with which he was identified already seems to be losing its way somewhat, amid the crowd of amateurs and imitators who too easily copy what the earlier men with so much pains had to invent. The "artistic" poster is waning; we are weary of the modern book-plate; and "decorative" book-illustration is wellnigh done to death. But White was well at the head of these things when they were new and living forces. And the gap left by the loss of his good advice, his genial and self-sacrificing nature, and his keen instinct for new and beautiful developments of art, is one that cannot readily be filled. He was a humble and patient student, an untiring and most disinterested master.

EDWARD F. STRANGE.

THE FIRST FOUR EDITIONS OF "ENGLISH BARDS AND SCOTCH REVIEWERS."

E read in Moore's "Life of Lord Byron," prefixed to his edition of the "Works," that the immortal "Satire" was was "published about the middle of March" (1809), and that by the end of April the author was already engaged in preparing a second edition, to which he determined to prefix his name. this second issue he made many additions, "near a hundred new lines being introduced at the very opening." In

To

but

June, 1809, the new edition was ready to go to press; at the beginning of July the poet left England for a tour in the East, and he did not return to this country until July, 1811, having been absent "two years to a day."

We have, therefore, a period of a little over two years, during which four editions of the poem had appeared, for Byron states in a letter written to Mr. Dallas on June 28th, 1811, while still at sea: "My "Satire,' it seems, is in a fourth edition." Shortly after his return we find him engaged on a fifth edition, which, however, he was persuaded to destroy so entirely that we believe only one copy, in the possession of Mr. Murray, is in existence. We wish in the present remarks, therefore, to deal only with the four earliest editions, two of which, as we have seen, had the benefit of Lord Byron's revision, while two were put forth during his absence. We think on this latter point the letter to Mr. Dallas is conclusive.

Concerning these editions of the "Satire," a long and interesting series of letters and notes appeared in the pages of "The Athenæum" from May 5th, 1894, to July 7th in the same year, when the correspondence was closed by the editor. A contributor, writing under the initials J. D. C.,' started this subject by calling attention to the mention in a bookseller's catalogue of a copy of the third edition of the "English Bards," dated 1810, on paper, per "with the watermark of the year 1818"; and J. D. C. mentions that his own copy of the same edition was on paper with the watermark of "Allnutt, 1816." From these facts he deduces the necessity for a careful bibliography of these earlier editions, and he gives some valuable particulars to aid in the inquiry.

Byron, as we have seen, resolved to withdraw the "Satire" from circulation as early as 1812, though probably at this time there was still a very large demand for the work. In a copy of the fourth edition, dated 1811, now

1 Probably Mr. James Dykes Campbell.

in the Forster Library at the South Kensington Museum, which has on the bastard-title Byron's autograph signature with date, December 31st, 1811, many corrections have been made, and it is clear from an alteration on page 36 that certain revisions had been completed before the above date, for the footnote relating to the duel is recast and is dated November 4th, 1811.

It will be remembered that when the publication of "Childe Harold" was determined upon, Byron forsook Cawthorn and transferred his patronage to Murray. This no doubt gave offence to his former publisher, who in defiance of Byron's instructions continued to print and sell copies of the "English Bards." As J. D. C. points out, Sharon Turner, Byron's solicitor, wrote under date of May 10th, 1816, to Messrs. Arch and Co. (the booksellers of Cornhill), giving them notice that in the case of Lord Byron v. Cawthorn, the Court of Chancery had on that morning "granted an Injunction to restrain the printing or publishing of Lord Byron's Poem, entitled 'English Bards and Scotch Reviewers, a Satire,' or any part thereof."

Byron was quite aware that pirated editions were in circulation, and in a letter to Murray, printed in the "Life," which is dated "Ravenna, February 16th, 1821," he writes: "In the letter to Bowles . . . after the words' attempts had been made' (alluding to the republication of English Bards') add the words in Ireland, for I believe that English pirates did not begin their attempts till after I had left England the second time" (April, 1816). It was thus considered that these spurious copies hailed from Ireland, which had a bad reputation at that period, though the above injunction against Cawthorn, obtained by Murray in Byron's absence from England, seems to point to other offenders nearer home.

Now we will treat of the four editions in due sequence. The genuine first edition is printed on very thick paper, and the watermark in all cases is, we believe, "E & P 1805,'

though the year has in some instances been given as 1804. The poem consists of 696 lines and ends on the verso of page 54, after which, in italics, is the imprint, "T. Collins, Printer, Harvey's Buildings, Strand." The same imprint occurs at the back of the title in small capitals. We believe there was another leaf at the end with Cawthorn's advertisements, but in our own copy, and in that which belonged to Mr. Forster, the last leaf has been removed.

Two spurious first editions are extant, the one on paper without watermark and the other on paper having the watermark "S & C Wise 1812." Of course, in all respects the counterfeits outwardly resemble the true editio princeps, and like it they bear no date; but there are many slight differences in the type. In the Wise edition the capitals "English Bards" and the Gothic capitals "Scotch Reviewers on the title-page are both much smaller than in the genuine issue. We have not seen a copy on paper without watermark.

"

The second edition is printed on paper bearing the watermark "Budgen & Wilmott, 1808.' The poem is extended to 1,050 lines and ends on page 82. On page 83 is a postscript, ending on the recto of page 85, at the bottom of which page is the imprint of " Deans & Co. Hart Street, Covent Garden," in small capitals. On the verso of this page in the centre is: "In the Press, And speedily will be published,/ HENRY COUNT DE KOLINSKI, a Polish Tale." A notable printer's error in this issue is "Abedeen" for Aberdeen, line 1,007, page 80. No mention has been made of any spurious second edition, and copies of this edition are difficult to meet with. We need not describe this issue very completely, as it was reprinted for the third and certain of the fourth editions without alteration.

It is when we reach the third edition and its counterfeits that the troubles of the bibliographer begin. The copies of this edition are very numerous, and the difficulty seems to be to determine to which to award the priority. In his

summary of "The Athenæum" correspondence, which appeared in a letter dated May 26th, 1894 (page 710), J. D. C. inclines to the opinion that an edition of 1810 (which date they all bear on the title-page), on paper with the watermark "E & P 1804," is the genuine one; but an edition with watermark "G & R. T.," without date, has equally good claims to the honour. Among the various watermarks noted are those dated 1812, 1815, 1816, 1817, and 1818. One copy, described by Mr. Lane-Poole, has paper with three different watermarks, 1815, 1816, and 1817. We have a curious discovery to record about these copies of the third edition, namely, that there are two entirely different impressions on paper made by "Pine & Thomas 1812." One of these contains many strange typographical errors, among which we may mention "myse for "muse," on page 1, line 4; "their" for "the," line 101; "wonders" for "wonder," line 188; "the" instead of "his," line 232; and "rove" in lieu of "rave," line 374. Among the blunders which at once distinguish the other edition of the same watermark, we may mention "Bowle'ss" for "Bowles's," footnote to page 30, and two mistakes at the end of the postscript, page 85,"we" instead of "me," and "farther" for "further." Among the watermarks noted for various impressions of the third edition are the following: "Allnutt 1816," "Smith & Allnutt 1816," "Ivy Mills 1817," and "I & R Ansell 1818." It is not possible to describe all these varieties, and even if we had them before us, it would far exceed the space at our disposal. It is sufficient to say that many of them are very carelessly and imperfectly printed, and are but poor counterfeits, at the best, of Cawthorn's work.

Let us now pass on to the fourth edition, of which there are two distinct types, namely, those which are dated 1810 and have 1,050 lines, and those of the year 1811, with 1,052 lines. Here we are confronted with a real difficulty, for there seems to be no trace of the actual facts as to the