The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1897-07-11

! A New Edition of His Works and n
New Biography Forthcoming.
Philadelphia Press.

The world has always supposed that 1t
knew a good deal about Lord Byron. Dur
ing all the later years of his life he was
kept prominently before the public, not
only by reason of his literary productions,
but friends. enemies and he, himself, made
his work. his failingsaand his everyday lie
constant subjects of public discussion. His
romantic death increased his notorlety, ms
fame and his infamy until the world sup
posed that 1t knew the brilliant young no
bleman thoroughly. Interest in his works
has been kept alive by their worth, and
curiosity as to his personality has been re-
vived from time to time, filling hundreds
of volumes on an apparently endleSS meme me
But all that has been said and written mas
not told the full story Byron own
memoirs were suppressed, q fact that mas
kept alive the curiosity of the rabDle tor
more than seventy years. The story OF the
separation from Lady Byron, an equaIy
mysterious and unexplained event, remains
to be fully unfOlded. Even Byron's place
in literature is not permanently determined.
and, more than all, no true eSutnaLe ~ nls
life and the labOrS of his snort tnlrty SIX
wears has been possible. For obvious rea-
sons his contemporaries were not com com
petent to give final opinions and posterlor
Judgment has been forbidden by the thou-
sand facts and prejudices born or Byron
mode of life and a general lack OF full ana
true knowledge concerning II. But IitIle SCI
ties all things, or, as Byron himself mag
nifcently puts it in one or the pest stdHEdS
of late English poetry:
o. time! the beautifer of the dead,
Adorner of the ruin, comforter ,4,
And only healer when the heart nat"
Time! the corrector where our judgments
The test Of truth. love-sole philosopher
For all besides are sophists-from thy
thrift
Which never loses though s it d9 III defer
My hands, and eyes and heart. and crave
of thee q gift.
The assumption of wide, full and gen
eral knowledge as to Lord Byron, his poe
try and his LIES work Will receive some
shock in the announcement of an elaborate
new edition of his works which IS ABOUT rt,, 10
be printed in London for the avowed pur-
pose of giving the public not only new mat
ter bearing on the everyday events or the
poets life but unique and incorrupt ed1-
ton Of his poeticaI and prose efforts. The
task has been undertaken by LORD Love-
lace, the son of Byrons daughter Ada and
the work is John Murray the head OF the
house which originally gave to the word
the most important of Byron's works at the
time they were written. There can be no
higher sources Of authority than Byron s
family which has carefully, and 1t may be
said secretly preserved for the use that IS
letters and material upon which the new
edition of the works will be founded: Mr..
Murray has also preserved many original
manuscripts, manuscript and proof correc-
lions and other matter calculated to purge
the errors in Byrons printed productions
and to establish a perfect final text OF his
It is a remarkably interesting fact that
this work will be based on the actual writ
ings in the hand of Lord Byron which
have been preserved chiefly by Mr.. Muir
ray. In the London announcement Mr..
Murray says the present text is I''curiously
corrupt" and the corrections VIII be made
with the aid not only of the original manu-
scripts but with those copious references
with which the letters and diaries Of the
poet are filled. The same care will be
taken with the letters and prose compost
tions, and numerous passages which
Thomas Moore as the contemporaneous
biographer of the poet was compelled to
omit in difference to persons then living
and other necessary mutilations and con-
cealments will be restored and corrected
Another matter of interest Will be the ad-
dition of some entirely new writings which
have never seen the light, including sew
eral poems, the suppressed continuation of
Don Juan" and "a considerable fragment
poet. meant to be the third part of the
''Deformed Transformed" Many letters
which have not been printed and new por-
traits of the Byron family will be used to
add interest to and embellish the work.
With this publication 1t may safely be as
sumed that there will be little loft unknown
and unpublished Of Lord Byrons produc-
tions, which are OF general interest to the
world of this generation. For obvious rea-
sons it is probable that the story of the
separation of Lord and Lady Byron Will
will remain to be solved, as it no doubt
will partially be in the early part of the
next century by the publication of the sup
pressed memoirs, and much explanatory
material, which, as is we'll known. are in
existence and in the possession of the de-
scendants of Lord ByrOn's faithful friend
in life and death, John Cam Hobhouse, and
which were left with an injunction that
they should not see the light until the new
century dawned. 1t is not probable that
there will be anything strfkingly new
brought out by the printing of the sup
pressed memoirs, but a long-hidden mys-
terry. which has been the cause of much
speculation and recrimination of the foul
est kind, will be brought to the light of
do md a a