Nine lines, copied in the hand of Sir John Claridge, which were omitted from the publication of Childe Harold's Pilgrimage, Cantos I-II. Copy date uncertain; paper bears a watermark date of 1832. Below is a note of attestation in the hand of John...
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Nine lines, copied in the hand of Sir John Claridge, which were omitted from the publication of Childe Harold's Pilgrimage, Cantos I-II. Copy date uncertain; paper bears a watermark date of 1832. Below is a note of attestation in the hand of John Adolphus (signed "J. A."), which explains that the lines were given by Byron to Claridge, who copied them for Adolphus. On the subject of William Beckford, the lines read in full: "Unhappy Vathek! in an evil hour / 'Gainst Nature's voice seduced to deeds accurst, / Once fortune's minion -- now thou feel'st her power -- / Wrath's vial on thy lofty head hath burst: / In wit -- in talent, or in wealth the first / How wondrous bright thy blooming morn arose / But thou wast smitten with the unhallowed thirst / Of crime unnamed, and thy sad hour must close / In scorn and solitude wrought, the worst of woes." With some textual differences from the version of these lines present in Byron's first fair copy, now in the Murray Archive (see McGann's edition of Byron's complete poetical works, volume 2, page 18n).
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