Page:The Works of Lord Byron (ed. Coleridge, Prothero) - Volume 1.djvu/492

450 Dosed with vile drams on Sunday he was found,

Or got a child on consecrated ground!

And hence is haunted with a rhyming rage—

Feared like a bear just bursting from his cage.

If free, all fly his versifying fit,

Fatal at once to Simpleton or Wit:

But him, unhappy! whom he seizes,—him

He flays with Recitation limb by limb;

Probes to the quick where'er he makes his breach,

And gorges like a Lawyer—or a Leech.

[The last page of MS. M. is dated— ,

Capuchin Convent,

Athens. March 14th, 1811.

The following memorandum, in Byron's handwriting, is also inscribed on the last page: "722 lines, and 4 inserted after and now counted, in all 726.—B. Since this several lines are added.—B. June 14th, 1811.

"Copied fair at Malta, May 3rd, 1811.—B."

,

March 11th and 12th,

Athens. 1811.—[MS. L. (a).] , March 14th, 1811.

Athens, Capuchin Convent.—[MS. L. (b).]]|undefined