till 1830,
five years after the "English Gentleman" published his volumes of
gossiping anecdote. It may, too, be noted that, although, in his
correspondence of 1810, 1811, there is no mention of any tour among the
"Isles of Greece," in a letter to Moore dated February 2, 1815
(_Letters_, 1899, iii. 176), Byron recalls "the interesting white
squalls and short seas of Archipelago memory."

How far Byron may have drawn on personal experience for his picture of a
pirate _chez lui_, it is impossible to say; but during the year 1809-11,
when he was travelling in Greece, the exploits of Lambros Katzones and
other Greek pirates sailing under the Russian flag must have been within
the remembrance and on the lips of the islanders and the "patriots" of
the mainland. The "Pirate's Island," from which "Ariadne's isle" (line
444) was visible, may be intended for Paros or Anti-Paros.

For the inception of Conrad (see Canto I. stanza ii.), the paradoxical
hero, an assortment rather than an amalgam of incongruous
characteristics, Byron may, perhaps, have been in some measure indebted
to the description of Malefort, junior, in Massinger's _Unnatural
Combat_, act i. sc. 2, line 20, sq.--

"I have sat with him in his cabin a day together,

* * * * *

Sigh he did often, as if inward grief
And melancholy at that instant would
Choke up his vital spirits....
When from the maintop
A sail's descried, all thoughts that do concern
Himself laid by, no lion pinched with hunger
Rouses himself more fiercely from his den,
Then he comes on the deck; and then how wisely
He gives directions," etc.

The _Corsair_, together with the _Bride of Abydos_, was reviewed by
Jeffrey in the _Edinburgh Review_ of April, 1814, vol. xxiii. p. 198;
and together with _Lara_, by George Agar Ellis in the _Quarterly Review_
of July, 1814, vol. ii. p. 428.

BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTE ON _THE CORSAIR_.

In comparison with the _Giaour_, the additions made to the _Corsair_
whilst it was passing through the press were inconsiderable. The
original MS., which numbers 1737 lines, is probably the fair copy of a
number of loose sheets which have not been preserved. The erasures are
few and far between, and the variations between the copy and the text
are neither numerous nor important.

In one of the latest revises stanza x. was added to the First Canto. The
last four lines of stanz