1832.] 2 91 3 



V l JWYSTERY FOR THE BYRON CRITIC'' mlA 9lij ' 

 <'"' .ffHyforms 



To Me Editor of the Monthly Magazine. 



Sin, The receipt of the following note, from my friend Mr. Gait, 

 has occasioned my going, with some pains, into the subject referred to ; 

 and the following paper, as the result, may perhaps interest the admirers 

 of Byron's [genius. I give you the whole as it stands, for obvious 

 reasons. 



" Barn Cottage, Saturday. 



" DEAR P. The other night Mrs. Thomas Sheridan told me, at Lady 

 Cork's, that if I would look into an old romance called ' The Three 

 Brothers/ written by one Pickersgill, I should be surprised at the use 

 Lord Byron had made of it, especially in his ' Deformed Transformed/ 

 I have since had the book, and really the coincidences are very wonder- 

 ful ; for he seems also to have borrowed the idea of ' Manfred' even to the 

 name from it, a drama which I have ever regarded as the most original 

 of his works. But I have only skimmed the romance ; look at it, and 

 tell me what you think of it with reference to Byron, who seems to 

 have derived the singular hue of the gloom for which he is so distin- 

 guished, from this atrocious, but curious novel. Your's truly, 



" J. G." 



" P.S. Who can this Pickersgill be ? Is it possible that our friend 

 the Academician was the intellectual father of Byron ? You know how 

 much of late he has been addicted to Greek girls, and other piratical 

 gentry of his lordship's acquaintance." 



Every thing regarding Byron and his productions is interesting, so as 

 soon as possible I sat down to the book. Nothing but the curiosity 

 with which the above communication had impressed me, and the request 

 of my respected friend, could have induced me to wade through four 

 volumes of high romance wild, though powerful in conception, and 

 often extravagant in language as this production is, and belonging 

 altogether to a school now most properly extinct. But a reader, at all 

 conversant with Byron's poetry, who should undertake the same labour, 

 would hardly fail to be surprised by the similarity in the mode of think- 

 ing, and the taste as to subjects and sentiments, between this obscure 

 author and the noble bard. So apparent is this in reading the romance,, 

 and so little merit is there in the discovery, either on the part of Mrs. 

 Sheridan, Mr. Gait, or myself, that on turning to the title-page of the 

 fourth volume, I was much amused to find it confirmed by some anony- 

 mous reader, with whose name I regret that I am unable to favour the 

 world. In short, one of those circulating-library literati, who display 

 their critical talents by making pencil annotations on all works honoured 

 by their perusal, has, besides other notes through the course of the copy 

 that I obtained from the library, under-written the words, "Joshua 

 Pickersgill, Esq.," on the title-page, as follows : " No such name ever 

 heard of Quere ? can this be a boyish production of Lord Byron !" 

 I have ascertained that the romance was written by a Joshua Pickersgill. 

 Of the other part of the note my reader may make what he pleases. 



As the discovering of plagiarisms, real or supposed, however, is a 

 labour little accordant with either my taste or feelings, I prefer, at least 

 in the first instance, referring to those passages in the romance, which, 



