!

ADVERTISEMENT.

THE tale which these disjointed fragments present is founded upon circumstances now less common in the East than formerly; either because the ladies are more circumspect than in the "olden time," or because the Christians have better fortune, or less enterprise. The story, when entire, contained the adventures of a female slave, who was thrown, in the Mussulman manner, into the sea for infidelity, and avenged by a young Venetian, her lover, at the time the Seven Islands were possessed by the Republic of Venice, and soon after the Arnauts were beaten back from the Morea, which they had ravaged for some time subsequent to the Russian invasion. The desertion of the Mainotes, on being refused the plunder of Misitra, led to the abandonment of that enterprise, and to the desolation of the Morea, during which the cruelty exercised on all sides was unparalleled even in the annals of the faithful.

(5)

INTRODUCTION

TO THE GIAOUR.

THE "Giaour" was published in May, 1813, and abundantly sustained the impression created by the first two cantos of Childe Harold. It is obvious that in this, the first of his romantic narratives, Byron's versification reflects the admiration he always avowed for Coleridge's "Christabel," the irregular rhythm of which had already been adopted in the "Lay of the Last Minstrel." The fragmentary style of the composition was suggested by the then new and popular "Columbus" of Mr. Rogers. As to the subject, it was not merely by recent travel that the author had familiarized himself with Turkish history. "Old Knolles," he said at Missolonghi, a few weeks before his death, "was one of the first books that gave me pleasure when a child; and I believe it had much influence on my future wishes to visit the Levant, and gave, perhaps, the oriental coloring which is observed in my poetry." In the margin

of his copy of Mr. D'Israeli's essay on "The Literary Character," is the following note:-"Knolles, Cantemir, De Tott, Lady M. W. Montague, Hawkins's translation from Mignot's History of the Turks, the Arabian Nights. All travels or histories, or books upon the East, I could meet with, I had read, as well as Ricaut, before I was ten years old."

An incident which occurred while Byron was at Athens was the foundation of the Giaour. His Turkish servant tampered with a female slave, and on his return from bathing one day Byron met a party of men who were carrying the girl, sown up in a sack, to throw her into the sea. He threatened

to shoot the leader of the band unless they took back their victim to the governor's house, where by a combination of menaces, entreaties, and bribery, he obtained her release. He afterwards said, "that to describe the feelings of the situation was impossible, and that to recollect them even, was icy."