7. It is a dull and,
apparently, serious production, suggested by, but hardly an imitation
of, _Childe Harold_. The notes are descriptive of the scenery, customs,
and antiquities of Palestine. _The Tempest_, on the other hand, is a
parody, and by no means a bad parody, of Byron at his worst; e.g.--

"There was a sternness in his eye,
Which chilled the soul--one knew not why--
But when returning vigour came,
And kindled the dark glare to flame,
So fierce it flashed, one well might swear,
A thousand souls were centred there."

It is possible that this _Pilgrimage_ was the genuine composition of
some poetaster who failed to get his poems published under his own name,
or it may have been the deliberate forgery of John Agg, or Hewson
Clarke, or C. F. Lawler, the _pseudo_ Peter Pindar--"Druids" who were in
Johnston's pay, and were prepared to compose pilgrimages to any land,
holy or unholy, which would bring grist to their employer's mill. (See
the _Advertisements_ at the end of _Lord Byron's Pilgrimage, etc._)

The Third Canto was published, not as announced, on the 23rd, but on the
18th of November. Murray's "auspicious hope" of success was amply
fulfilled. He "wrote to Lord Byron on the 13th of December, 1816,
informing him that at a dinner at the Albion Tavern, he had sold to the
assembled booksellers 7000 of his Third Canto of _Childe Harold_...."
The reviews were for the most part laudatory. Sir Walter Scott's
finely-tempered eulogium (_Quart. Rev_., No. xxxi., October, 1816
[published February 11, 1817]), and Jeffrey's balanced and cautious
appreciation (_Edin. Rev_., No. liv., December, 1816 [published February
14, 1817]) have been reprinted in their collected works. Both writers
conclude with an aspiration--Jeffrey, that

"This puissant spirit
Yet shall reascend,
Self-raised, and repossess its native seat!"

Scott, in the "tenderest strain" of Virgilian melody--

"I decus, i nostrum, melioribus utere fatis!"

NOTE ON MSS. OF THE THIRD CANTO.

[The following memorandum, in Byron's handwriting, is prefixed to the
Transcription:--

"This copy is to be printed from--subject to comparison with the
original MS. (from which this is a transcription) in such parts as
it may chance to be difficult to decypher in the following. The
notes in this copy are more complete and extended than in the
former--and the