s
Charlotte" (stanzas clxvii.-clxxii.); "Nemi" (stanzas clxxiii.,
clxxiv.); "The Desert and one fair Spirit" (stanzas clxxvii.,
clxxviii.).

Some time during the month of December, 1817, Byron wrote out a fair
copy of the entire canto, numbering 184 stanzas _(MS. D.)_; and on
January 7, 1818, Hobhouse left Venice for England, with the "whole of
the MSS.," viz. _Beppo_ (begun October, 1817), and the Fourth Canto of
_Childe Harold_, together with a work of his own, a volume of essays on
Italian literature, the antiquities of Rome, etc., which he had put
together during his residence in Venice (July--December, 1817), and
proposed to publish as an appendix to _Childe Harold_. In his preface to
_Historical Illustrations_, etc., 1818, Hobhouse explains that on his
return to England he considered that this "appendix to the Canto would
be swelled to a disproportioned bulk," and that, under this impression,
he determined to divide his material into two parts. The result was that
"such only of the notes as were more immediately connected with the
text" were printed as "Historical Notes to Canto the Fourth," and that
his longer dissertations were published in a separate volume, under his
own name, as _Historical Illustrations to the Fourth Canto of Childe
Harold_. To these "Historical Notes" an interest attaches apart from any
consideration of their own worth and importance; but to understand the
relation between the poem and the notes, it is necessary to retrace the
movements of the poet and his annotator.

Byron and Hobhouse left the Villa Diodati, October 5, 1816, crossed the
Simplon, and made their way together, via Milan and Verona, to Venice.
Early in December the friends parted company. Byron remained at Venice,
and Hobhouse proceeded to Rome, and for the next four months devoted
himself to the study of Italian literature, in connection with
archaeology and art. Byron testifies (September 14, 1817) that his
researches were "indefatigable," that he had "more real knowledge of
Rome and its environs than any Englishman who has been there since
Gibbon." Hobhouse left Rome for Naples, May 21; returned to Rome, June
9; arrived at Terni, July 2; and early in July joined Byron on the
Brenta, at La Mira. The latter half of the year (July--December, 1817)
was occupied in consulting "the best authorities" in the Ducal Library
at Venice, with a view to perfecting his researches, and giving them to
the world as an illustrative appendi