a comparison with the "Hall of
Eblis." [See _Childe Harold_, Canto II. stanza xxii. line 6, _Poetical
Works_, 1899, ii. 37, note 1.

"Mansour Effendi tells the story (_vide supra_, line 6) thus: Frosini
was niece of the Archbishop of Joannina. Mouctar Pasha ordered her to
come to his harem, and her father advised her to go; she did so.
Mouctar, among other presents, gave her a ring of great value, which she
wished to sell, and gave it for that purpose to a merchant, who offered
it to the wife of Mouctar. That lady recognized the jewel as her own,
and, discovering the intrigue, complained to Ali Pasha, who, the next
night, seized her himself in his own house, and ordered her to be
drowned. Mansour Effendi says he had the story from the brother and son
of Frosini. This son was a child of six years old, and was in bed in his
mother's chamber when Ali came to carry away his mother to death. He had
a confused recollection of the horrid scene."--_Travels in Albania,_
1858, i. Ill, note 6.

The concluding note, like the poem, was built up sentence by sentence.
Lines 1-12, "forgotten," are in the MS. Line 12, "I heard," to line 17,
"original," were added in the Second Edition. The next sentence, "For
the contents" to "Vathek," was inserted in the Third; and the concluding
paragraph, "I do not know" to the end, in the Fourth Editions.]

[ex] {146}
_Nor whether most he mourned none knew_.
_For her he loved--or him he slew_.--[MS.]

THE BRIDE OF ABYDOS.

A TURKISH TALE.

"Had we never loved sae kindly,
Had we never loved sae blindly,
Never met--or never parted,
We had ne'er been broken-hearted."--

Burns [_Farewell to Nancy_].

INTRODUCTION TO THE _THE BRIDE OF ABYDOS_.

Many poets--Wordsworth, for instance--have been conscious in their old
age that an interest attaches to the circumstances of the composition of
their poems, and have furnished their friends and admirers with
explanatory notes. Byron recorded the _motif_ and occasion of the _Bride
of Abydos_ while the poem was still in the press. It was written, he
says, to divert his mind, "to wring his thoughts from reality to
imagination--from selfish regrets to vivid recollections" (_Diary_,
December 5, 1813, _Letters_, ii. 361), "to distract his dreams from ..."