ABSTRACT

These verses have been ushered into the world by a new species of puff direct; under the auspices of Lord Byron, who, as the newspapers informed the public, had read them in manuscript, and, in a letter to the author, had called ‘Christabel’, it seems, a ‘singularly wild and beautiful Poem’. The artifice has succeeded so far as to force it into a second edition! for what woman of fashion would not purchase a book recommended by Lord Byron? For our part, we confess, that the perusal of it has excited in our minds, nothing but astonishment and disgust; we have discovered in it, wildness enough to confound common-sense, but, not having the acuteness of the noble bard, the beauty of the composition has wholly eluded our observation.