de
Harold's Pilgrimage_. Their publication in 1812 placed him at the head
of the popular poets of the day. Henceforth the reviews gave extensive
notices to all his productions. (For references, see J.P. Anderson's
bibliography appended to Hon. Roden Noel's _Life of Byron_.) _Childe
Harold_ was reviewed in the _Edinburgh Rev._, XIX (466-477), by Jeffrey;
in the _Quarterly_, VII (180-200), by George Ellis; in the _British
Review_, III (275-302); and _Eclectic Review_, XV (630-641).

The article here reprinted from the _Christian Observer_, XI (376-386),
of June, 1812, is of special interest as an early protest from
conservative, religious circles against the immoral and irreverent tone
of Byron's poetry. As literary criticism, it is almost worthless, in
spite of the elaborate allusions and quotations with which the
critic--evidently a survivor of the old school--has interlarded his
remarks. Little can be said in defense of an article which insists that
the chief end of poetry is to be agreeably didactic and which (in 1812)
cites Southey as the greatest of living poets. However, it probably
represents the attitude of a large number of worthy people of the time,
who recognized that Byron had genius, and wished to see him exercise his
powers with due regard for the proprieties of civilized life. As
Byron's offences grew more flagrant in his later poems, the criticisms
in the conservative reviews became more vehement. For Byron's
controversy with the _British Review_, which he facetiously dubbed "my
grandmother's review" in _Don Juan_, see Prothero, IV, pp. (346-347),
and Appendix VII. The ninth Appendix to the same volume is Byron's
caustic reply to the brutal review of _Don Juan_ in _Blackwood's
Magazine_, V, p. 512 ff.

101. _Lion of the north_, Francis Jeffrey. The usual agnomen of Gustavus
Adolphus. Cf. Walter Scott, the "Wizard of the North."

105. _Faiery Queen will not often be read through_. Hume's _History of
England_, Appendix III.

106. _Qui, quid sit pulchrum_, etc. Horace, Epis. II (3-4).

106. _Rursum--quid virtus_, etc. Horace, Epis. II (17-18).

107. _Our sage serious Spenser, etc._ Milton's _Areopagitica_, _Works_,
ed. Mitford, IV, p. 412.

107. _Quinctilian_. See Quintilian, Book XII, Chap. I.

107. _Longinus_. _On the Sublime_, IX, XIII, etc.

108. _Restoration of Learning in the East_. A Cambridge prize poem
(1805) by Charles Grant, Lord Glenelg (1778-1866).

109. _Thersites_. See Shakespeare'