1821.] Plagiarisms of Lord Byron delected. 19 
maps, sections, and works on the sub¬ 
ject, is now so generally and well un¬ 
derstood, and such discoveries in spring- 
finding have in consequence been made, 
as would entirely eclipse Mr. P.’s pro¬ 
ceedings, did the disposition exist, to 
clothe them in mystery. 
March 10,1821. An Engineer. 
To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine . 
SIR, 
ORD BYRON has been so long, 
and so deservedly esteemed as 
the greatest poet of the present age, 
that it is with a feeling of the utmost 
deference, 1 presume to offer for inser¬ 
tion in your valuable and widely cir¬ 
culated Magazine, the following ex¬ 
tracts from the Second Canto of his 
Don Juan, with corresponding passages 
from a work entitled 44 Shipwrecks and 
Disasters at Sea,” in 3 vols. 
To attempt a criticism upon the 
writings of his Lordship, were it even 
possible, would require a much abler 
pen, and a far maturer judgment than 
I possess; and not without timidity do 
I venture to ask if, in the following 
stanzas which I have selected, plagia¬ 
rism the most glaring, is not sufficiently 
evident ? Accident furnished me with 
the narratives from which Lord Byron 
appears to have derived most of the 
incidents in that part of his Don Juan, 
in which is so admirably described a 
storm and shipwreck. Most readers of 
27. 
At one o’clock the wind withsudden shift 
Threw the ship right into the trough of the 
sea, 
Which struck her aft , and made an awk¬ 
ward drift, 
Started the stern-post, also shatter'd the 
Whole of her stern-frame , and ere she 
could lift 
Herself from out her present jeopardy 
The rudder tore away: 'twas time to sound 
The pumps, and there were four feet water 
found. Lord Byron. 
28. 
One gang of people instantly was put 
Upon the pumps, and the remainder set 
To get up part of the cargo, and what not. 
But they could not comeat the leak as yet; 
At last they did get at it really, but 
Still their salvation was an even bet; 
The water rushed through in a way quite 
puzzling, 
While they thrust sheets , shirts, jackets, 
bales of muslin 
29. 
Into the opening ! but all such ingredients 
Would have been vain, and they must have 
gone down, 
taste have doubtless heard or perused 
that portion of the poem, and whilst 
their feelings have been harrowed by 
his appalling and heart-rending recital, 
few, perhaps, were aware that his Lord¬ 
ship was indebted for the most promi¬ 
nent features therein exhibited, to the 
work above-mentioned. The interest 
excited by the well-imagined sufferings 
of the hapless crew of the vessel Jn 
which Juan embarked, will not, I am 
sure, be at all diminished, but, on the 
contrary, increased, by learning that 
the horrors of such a scene were actu¬ 
ally experienced by some of our fellow- 
creatures. 
Possessed, as is his Lordship, of an 
imagination, fertile beyond most, it is 
impossible fora moment to suppose that 
he could have occasion to borrow from 
the writings of any one; and doubtless 
his motive in thus illustrating his nar¬ 
rative with incidents which are well 
authenticated to have occurred, was to 
render his descriptions the more na¬ 
tural. But from what cause is it that 
there are no notes Subjoined, acknow¬ 
ledging the sources from which he de¬ 
rived them ? 
I trust the freedom with which the 
charge of plagiarism is here advanced 
against so renowned a poet, will be jus¬ 
tified by the importance of keeping even 
renown within the pale of honesty. 
Norwich , Feb. 20 th, 1821. C. E. S. 
27. 
Night came on worse than the day had 
been, and a sudden shift of wind, about 
midnight, threw the ship into the trough of 
the sea, which struck her aft, tore away 
the rudder, started the stern-post, and 
shattered the whole of her stern-frame. The 
pumps were immediately sounded , and in 
the course of a few minutes the water had, 
increased to four feet deep. 
Loss of the ship Hercules. 
28. 
One gang was instantly put on them, 
and the remainder of the people were em¬ 
ployed in getting up rice from the run of 
the ship, and heaving it over, to comeat 
the leak if possible. After three or four 
hundred bags were thrown into the sea, 
we did get at it, and found the water rush¬ 
ing into the ship with astonishing rapidity; 
therefore we thrust sheets , shirts, jackets , 
bales of muslin, and every thing of the 
like description into the opening. ib. 
29. 
Notwithstanding the pumps discharged 
fifty tons of water an hour, the ship must 
certainly have gone down, had not our ex- 
