Murray"s possession. At the end of July, and during the first half of August, two or more issues of a third edition were set up in type. The first issue amounted to 53 pages, containing 950 lines, was certainly published in this form, and possibly a second issue of 56 pages, containing 1004 lines, may have followed at a brief interval. A revise of this second issue, dated August 13, is extant. In the last fortnight of August a fourth edition of 58 pages, containing 1048 lines, undoubtedly saw the light. Scarcely more than a few days can have elapsed before a fifth edition of 66 pages, containing 1215 lines, was ready to supplant the fourth edition. A sixth edition, a reproduction of the fifth, may have appeared in October. A seventh edition of 75 pages, containing 1334 lines, which presented the poem in its final shape, was issued subsequently to November 27, 1813 (a seventh edition was advertised in the _Morning Chronicle_, December 22, 1813), the date of the last revise, or of an advance copy of the issue. The ninth, tenth, eleventh, and twelfth editions belong to 1814, while a fourteenth edition is known to have been issued in 1815. In that year and henceforward the _Giaour_ was included in the various collected editions of Byron"s works. The subjoined table a.s.signs to their several editions the successive accretions in their order as now published:--
Lines. _Giaour_. Edition of----
1--6. _MS. First edition of 28 pages._
7--20. Second edition. [47 pages, 816 lines.] Approximate date, June 24, 1813.
21--45. Third edition. [53 pages, 950 lines.] July 30, 1813.
46--102. Second edition.
103--167. Fifth edition. [66 pages, 1215 lines.] August 25, 1813.
168--199. _MS. First edition of 28 pages._
200--250. Third edition.
251--252. Seventh edition. [75 pages, 1334 lines.] November 27, 1813.
253--276. Third edition.
277--287. _MS. First edition of 28 pages._
288--351. Third edition. (Second issue?) August 11, 1813.
[56 pages, 1004,? 1014 lines.]
352--503. _MS. First edition of 28 pages._
504--518. Third edition.
519--619. _MS. First edition of 28 pages._
620--654. Second edition.
655--688. _MS. First edition of 28 pages._
689--722. Fourth edition. [58 pages, 1048 lines.] August 19.
723--737. _MS. First edition of 28 pages._ 733-4 not in the MS., but in First edition of 28 pages.
738--745. _First edition of_ 41 _pages_. June 5, 1813.
746--786. First edition of 28 pages. Not in the MS.
787--831. _MS. First edition of 28 pages_.
832--915. Seventh edition.
916--998. _First edition of 41 pages_.
937-970 no MS.
999--1023. Second edition.
1024--1028. Seventh edition.
1029--1079. _First edition of 41 pages_.
1080--1098. Third edition.
1099--1125. _First edition of 41 pages_.
1126--1130. Seventh edition.
1131--1191. Fifth edition.
1192--1217. Seventh edition.
1218--1256. Fifth edition.
1257--1318. _First edition of 41 pages_.
1319--1334. _MS. First edition of 28 pages_.
NOTE.
The first edition is advertised in the _Morning Chronicle_, June 5; a third edition on August 11, 13, 16, 31; a fifth edition, with considerable additions, on September 11; on November 29 a "new edition;"
and on December 27, 1813, a seventh edition, together with a repeated notice of the _Bride of Abydos_. These dates do not exactly correspond with Murray"s contemporary memoranda of the dates of the successive issues.
To
SAMUEL ROGERS, ESQ.
as a slight but most sincere token
of admiration of his genius,
respect for his character,
and grat.i.tude for his friendship,
THIS PRODUCTION IS INSCRIBED
by his obliged
and affectionate servant,