[who had replied
unfavourably to a letter addressed by the P.R. to the Duke of York,
suggesting an united administration]. Lord Lauderdale thereupon,
with a freedom unusual in courts, asserted that the reply did not
express the opinions of Lords Grey and Grenville only, but of every
political friend of that way of thinking, and that he had been
present at and assisted in the drawing-up, and that every sentence
had his cordial assent. The Prince was suddenly and deeply affected
by Lord Lauderdale's reply, so much so, that the Princess,
observing his agitation, dropt her head and burst into tears--upon
which the Prince turned round and begged the female part of the
company to withdraw."

In the following June, at a ball at Miss Johnson's, Byron was "presented
by order to our gracious Regent, who honoured me with some
conversation," and for a time he ignored and perhaps regretted his
anonymous _jeu d'esprit_. But early in 1814, either out of mere bravado
or in an access of political rancour, he determined to republish the
stanzas under his own name. The first edition of the _Corsair_ was
printed, if not published, but in accordance with a peremptory direction
(January 22, 1814), "eight lines on the little Royalty weeping in 1812,"
were included among the poems printed at the end of the second edition.

The "newspapers were in hysterics and town in an uproar on the avowal
and republication" of the stanzas (_Diary_, February 18), and during
Byron's absence from town "Murray omitted the Tears in several of the
copies"--that is, in the Third Edition--but yielding to _force majeure_,
replaced them in a Fourth Edition, which was issued early in February.
(See Letters of July 6, 1812, January 22, February 2, and February 10,
1814 (_Letters_, 1898, ii. 134, etc.); and for "Newspaper Attacks upon
Byron," see _Letters_, 1898, ii. Appendix VII. pp. 463-492.)]

[bl] _Stanzas_.--[1812.]

[36] {48} [For allusion to the "Cornelian" see "The Cornelian," ["Pignus
Amoris"], and "The Adieu," stanza 7, _Poetical Works_, 1898, i. 66, 231,
240. See, too, _Letters_, 1898, i. 130, note 3.]

[bm] {50} _To Samuel Rogers, Esq_.--[_Poems_, 1816.]

[37] ["Rogers is silent,--and, it is said, severe. When he does talk, he
talks well; and, on all subjects of taste, his delicacy of expression is
pure as his poetry. If you enter his house--his drawing-room--his
library--you of yourself say, this