This first volume of Byron’s Miscellanies (1853 edition) contains “Hours of Idleness” (his first, official published collection), English Bards and Scotch Reviewers, The Curse of Minerva, Hints from Horace, The Waltz, Ode to Napoleon Buonaparte, Hebrew Melodies, Domestic Pieces, Monody on the Death of Sheridan and The Dream. I’ve written a bit already about some of these works, so this review will touch on those I haven’t covered.

I picked up this book primarily to get a copy of the Curse of Minerva. This is Byron’s piece attacking Lord Elgin for stripping the Parthenon in Athens of many friezes and metope panels, which came to be called the Elgin Marbles. I stand with Byron then and Greece today in demanding that the British Museum return these stolen antiquities to Greece. The introduction by the editor of these volumes seems to echo the then contemporary, and still today, line that the Marbles were “saved” and would have been destroyed if left there. This ignored the fact that these items had been fine in situ for more than 2,200 years. As for the poem itself, I thoroughly enjoyed it, especially as Minerva (Athena) actively interacts with the narrator.

Hints from Horace was good, a kind of sequel to English Bards, with Byron still going after Robert Southey. The Waltz wasn’t that great, and I’ve read that Byron tried to say someone else wrote it and used his name after the poem was so ill-received. I thought Hebrew Melodies was weaker than his other works, lacking bite and wit. But, there was one that I liked, “The Destruction of Senneacherib (p. 319). For me, it foreshadows the horse ride in Mazeppa, echoing the gallop, rhythm and flow. In Domestic Pieces, I liked “Fare Thee Well” (p. 328) and Epistle to Augusta. In the latter, I was moved by the line “Even for its own sake, do we purchase pain” (p. 336).

Ode to Napoleon Buonaparte was an interesting piece. Per the editor’s notes, only the first 11 stanzas were part of the original poem. The publisher asked for more stanzas to avoid a stamp duty for publishing only a single sheet. The original stanzas were powerful and moving, while the ones added afterward were awful. The final 3 weren’t even published in Byron’s lifetime.

Finally, I have to say that I read every set of endnotes and learned something valuable from each of them. Well done to the editor.