d reflected that he lived "two
centuries at least too late for the subject," and that not even the
authority of the "finest works of the Greeks," or of Schiller (in the
_Bride of Messina_), or of Alfieri (in _Mirra_), "in modern times,"
would sanction the intrusion of the [Greek: miseto\n] into English
literature. The early drafts and variants of the MS. do not afford any
evidence of this alteration of the plot which, as Byron thought, was
detrimental to the poem as a work of art, but the undoubted fact that
the _Bride of Abydos_, as well as the _Giaour_, embody recollections of
actual scenes and incidents which had burnt themselves into the memory
of an eye-witness, accounts not only for the fervent heat at which these
Turkish tales were written, but for the extraordinary glamour which they
threw over contemporary readers, to whom the local colouring was new and
attractive, and who were not out of conceit with "good Monsieur
Melancholy."

Byron was less dissatisfied with his second Turkish tale than he had
been with the _Giaour_. He apologizes for the rapidity with which it had
been composed--_stans pede in uno_--but he announced to Murray (November
20) that "he was doing his best to beat the _Giaour_," and (November 29)
he appraises the _Bride_ as "my first entire composition of any length."

Moreover, he records (November 15), with evident gratification, the
approval of his friend Hodgson, "a very sincere and by no means (at
times) a flattering critic of mine," and modestly accepts the praise of
such masters of letters as "Mr. Canning," Hookham Frere, Heber, Lord
Holland, and of the traveller Edward Daniel Clarke.

The _Bride of Abydos_ was advertised in the _Morning Chronicle,_ among
"Books published this day," on November 29, 1813. It was reviewed by
George Agar Ellis in the _Quarterly Review_ of January, 1814 (vol. x. p.
331), and, together with the _Corsair_, by Jeffrey in the _Edinburgh
Review_ of April, 1814 (vol. xxiii. p. 198).

* * * * *

NOTE TO THE MSS. OF _THE BRIDE OF ABYDOS_.

The MSS. of the _Bride of Abydos_ are contained in a bound volume, and
in two packets of loose sheets, numbering thirty-two in all, of which
eighteen represent additions, etc., to the First Canto; and fourteen
additions, etc., to the Second Canto.

The bound volume consists of a rough copy and a fair copy of the first
draft of the _Bride_; the fair copy beginning with the sixth stanza of
Cant