The Works of Lord Byron. Edited by William Ernest Henley.
Letters, 1804-1813. Vol. I. (W. Heinemann.)—Lord Macaulay, writing a few years after Byron's death, looked forward to the time when the "magical potency" which belonged to his name would pass away, and be would be estimated merely as a writer without regard to his position or to his private history. That time came several years ago. Byron is no longer popular, and by some critics he has been unreasonably depreciated. We shall Le curious to see whether the two new and elaborate editions of the works announced by Mr. Heinemann and Mr. Murray will revive the poet's fame. The edition of which the first volume is in our hands has the advantage of being earliest in the field, but Mr. Murray, who is in possession of almost all the original MSS., and of much hitherto unpublished material, has necessarily sources of information inaccessible to other publishers and editors. In this respect Mr. Henley is, therefore, at a disad- vantage. The most complete Byron his edition cannot be ; it does not necessarily follow that for popular service it may not prove the best. If, however, Mr. Henley would reap this advan- tage he must beware of overweighting the text with notes. He considers that we cannot understand Byron's character or achievement without "some knowledge of relevant and sig- nificant circumstances, and a certain sympathy (or the reverse, if it must be so) with the influences under which the character was developed and the achievement done." This is true of Byron, and true, though perhaps in a lesser degree, of every poet ; but surely one hundred and eighty pages of closely printed notes to illustrate two hundred and ninety pages of text will, if the same course be pursued throughout, magnify the editor at the expense of his poet. "There is a sense," he writes, "in which Byron is grossly over-annotated." What that sense is he does not say, but the reader, unless Mr. Henley is more concise in future volumes, will be likely to ascertain it for himself.
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