The Complete Poetical Works: Volume 4: Vol 4 (Oxford English Texts) Book

Volume IV of this edition of Byron's poetical works covers the period from the middle of 1816, when Byron left England, to the end of 1820. During this first phase of his exile years he wrote some of his most important and innovative work, including Manfred, Beppo, Mazeppa, and the Morgante Maggiore. These were the works, and this was the period, in which Byron moved toward the project that was to become his masterwork, Don Juan. Seventy-one poems are included in this volume, of which ten are collected in complete form for the first time. In addition, a large number of the poems have heretofore been printed in corrupted or non-authoritative texts, many of them among Byron's most well-known works such as Manfred and "To the Po". The texts are based on a return to, and a systematic analysis of, all the early textual documents, including all known manuscripts, proofs, and early editions. Copious notes and commentaries supplement the editorial apparatus, so that the entire context of these works--textual, biographical, social, historical--is elucidated as it has never been in any previous edition.