We are at length to have a complete edition of
BYRON. Mr, ' MURRAY has published a Prospectus and Specimens of the "first complete and uniform edition of the Works of Lord BYRON," which assuredly gives promise of one of the most finished works that has as yet issued from the British press. This edition is to be comprised in fourteen volumes : the first six will be appropriated to. MOORE'S Life of BYRON, his Correspondence, Journals, and Miscellaneous Prose Writings, and the remainder to his Poetical. Works. The specimen pages are printed in a most luculent type;, the paper is of a most creamy hue ; and the plates, of which four have been submitted to us, surpass, we think we may say, every. thing that has as yet been done in the way of book illustration, for execution and design. The four plates we have seen are Marathon,. a pass in the Sierra Morena, Constantinople, and Am Paella's: Palace of Tepaleen. They amply fill the duodecimo page, while they are thrown on the paper in the style of a vignette, which. gives a pleasing effect of expanse and freedom to the subject. The noblest monument that can be raised to a poet, is a fine edition of his works. Mr. MURRAY will, by this edition, do more. to enshrine the memory of our greatest modern poet in the hearts of posterity, than if he had sculptured his form in the whitest marble, or cast his limbs in some tremendous mould of colossal" brass. Instead of gathering damp in a forgotten nook of stone, orbreasting the wintry wind and pelting rain in some dull square, Mr. MURRAY'S monument to our bard will brighten the fireside, enliven the long evenings, spread its brilliant array in every book-. case, be our travelling companion, give its charm to the country, people solitude with liveliness and beauty, and throw a grace into society itself. Such is the nature of a portable monument in fourteen volumes, when it can be cut out of such unrivalled materials
as Mr. MURRAY has fortunately gained possession of. He tells us that the copyrights have cost him no less than twenty-five thousand pounds,--aa enormous sum for the production of-on e brain, but trifling when compared with the amount of exquisite gratification they are capable of conferring upon all mankind. We trust that Mr. MURRAY will find his account in an enterprise which does honour to the literary commerce of the country.
The work is to appear in monthly parts, and the price of each volume is fixed at only five shillings. The publisher must print thirty thousand copies.
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