The Works of Lord Byron, Letters and Journals Vol. II

Byron . The Works of Lord Byron, Letters and Journals Vol. II
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206. -- To R. C. Dallas.

8, St. James's Street, October 31, 1811.

DEAR SIR, -- I have already taken up so much of your time that there needs no excuse on your part, but

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a great many on mine, for the present interruption. I have altered the passages according to your wish. With this note I send a few stanzas on a subject which has lately occupied much of my thoughts. They refer to the death of one to whose name you are a stranger, and, consequently, cannot be interested. I mean them to complete the present volume. They relate to the same person whom I have mentioned in Canto 2nd, and at the conclusion of the poem.

I by no means intend to identify myself with 'Harold', but to deny all connection with him. If in parts I may be thought to have drawn from myself, believe me it is but in parts, and I shall not own even to that. As to the Monastic dome, etc., ¹ I thought those circumstances would suit him as well as any other, and I could describe what I had seen better than I could invent. I would not be such a fellow as I have made my hero for all the world.

Yours ever,

B
.