Fugitive Pieces | Page 2

Byron later asked Pigot to destroy the copy and Pigot seems to have complied so far as to tear out the offending verses "To Mary." For many years it was thought that only the Pigot and Becher copies had escaped destruction at Byron's hands. But another complete copy came to light in 1907 and is now in the Pierpont Morgan Library in New York. This contains numerous manuscript corrections and alterations, and seems to have been used as a proof copy for Poems on Various Occasions (not, as has sometimes been stated, for Hours of Idleness). A fourth copy, also complete, was offered at public sale in 1912, and is now in the hands of the executors of the late Mr. J.A. Spoor, of Chicago.
The present facsimile is an exact photographic reproduction of the text with all typographical and other errors as in the original, except that certain manuscript corrections which appear in the original perforce appear in the photographic reproduction, as follows:
Page 3, To E.... line 2. "me" has been inserted by hand.
Page 8, stanza 5, line 2. A letter ("s"?) has been erased
between "so" and "oft," and
the second "e" of "meets" has
been inserted to replace "l."

Page 14, line 10. "j" in "jargon" has been
inserted by hand.
Page 19, stanza (11), line 1. "night" was originally printed
"might," the "m" later changed
to "n" by erasure.
Page 24, stanza 4, line 4. "s" in "setting" has been
inserted by hand.
Page 25, Thoughts Suggested by "e" in "tremble" has been
a College Examination, inserted, correcting "trimble." line 4.
Page 31, line 4. "f" in "fast" was originally
"l," but was changed by hand.
The text has been collated with that in the Morgan library, and except for later corrections made in ink in the Morgan copy, the only differences noted are as follows:
1.) On p. 5, in the first line of the footnote, the Morgan copy reads "piece" where the Wise copy reads "p*ece," the "[dotless i]" lacking.
2.) The two pages of signature M are incorrectly numbered in the Wise copy as "41, 41," this copy having no page numbered 42; and are incorrectly numbered in the Morgan copy as "40, 42," the latter copy having no page numbered 41. The text of these pages is identical.
M.K.
FUGITIVE PIECES.
TO
THOSE FRIENDS,
AT
WHOSE REQUEST THEY WERE PRINTED,
FOR WHOSE
AMUSEMENT OR APPROBATION
THEY ARE
SOLELY INTENDED;
These TRIFLES are respectfully dedicated,
BY THE
AUTHOR.
As these POEMS are never intended to meet the public eye, no apology is necessary for the form in which they now appear. They are printed merely for the perusal of a few friends to whom they are dedicated; who will look upon them with indulgence; and as most of them were, composed between the age of 15 and 17, their defects will be pardoned or forgotten, in the youth and inexperience of the WRITER.

FUGITIVE PIECES.

ON LEAVING N--ST--D.
Through the cracks in these battlements loud the winds whistle, For