1. George Thomson of Edinburgh, influenced by Herder’s Stimmen der Völker in Liedern (1807), approached many leading poets of the day to supply texts for his folk song collections. Robert Burns and Thomas Moore were the most prolific, and Walter Scott contributed eleven poems that were written expressly to fit existing melodies; Byron too was approached, but when Thomson sent him five Irish melodies, the poet was compelled to write (on 10 September 1813): ‘I have repeatedly tried since you favoured me with your first letter, and your valuable musical present which accompanied it, without being able to satisfy myself.’ Nothing daunted, Thomson selected three existing poems of Byron (‘The kiss, dear maid’, ‘Oh! had my fate’ and ‘Lochnagar’) and asked the poet in 1813 if these could be used, and Byron gave his consent. Between 1809 and 1823, Beethoven arranged for Thomson 164 existing song melodies, initially without knowing the words – a circumstance that irritated the composer, who, on 29 February 1812, wrote to Thomson: ‘I beg you always to add immediately the text for the Scottish songs. I fail to understand how you, who are a connoisseur, cannot realize that I would produce completely different compositions if I had the text to hand, and the songs can never become perfect products if you do not send me the text; and you will eventually force me to refuse further orders.’

2. The token refers to a picture of Mary Chaworth which she had given to Byron before her marriage in 1805. The poem was probably written in late 1806.

1. The poem was almost certainly addressed to Teresa Macri, the girl whom Byron was ‘near bringing away’ with him when he left Athens, as he wrote to John Cam Hobhouse from Malta on 15 May 1811: ‘I was near bringing away Theresa [sic] but the mother asked 30 000 piastres! – I had a number of Greek and Turkish women, and I believe the rest of the English were equally lucky, for we were all clapped.’

1. From Hebrew Melodies. When asked by Nathan whether the poem addressed the moon or the evening star, Byron replied facetiously: ‘I see, Nathan, you have been star gazing, and are now in the clouds; I shall therefore leave the Astronomer Royal to direct you in that matter.’

1. Byron sent the poem to Moore to accompany a letter of 10 July 1817. It was printed with four pages of sheet music as ‘ “My Boat is on the Shore”. Written and Addressed to Thomas Moore Esq. By Lord Byron. The Music by Henry R. Bishop. Published by J. Power, 34, Strand [1818].’ The letter contained these two sentences: ‘This should have been written fifteen moons ago – the first stanza was. I am just come out from an hour’s swim in the Adriatic; and I write to you with a black-eyed Venetian girl before me, reading Boccac[c]io.’

1. From Hebrew Melodies.

2. A reference, perhaps, to Lady Frances Wedderburn Webster (see ‘When we two parted’). The two ‘Sonnets to Genevra’, which were addressed to her, refer respectively to ‘Thine eyes’ blue tenderness’ and ‘thy deep-blue eyes’.

1. From Hebrew Melodies. According to Nathan, Byron wrote the poem to ‘try how a Madman could write; seizing the pen with eagerness, he for a moment fixed his eyes in majestic wildness on vacancy; when like a flash of inspiration, without erasing a single word, the above verses were the result, which he put into my possession with the remark: “if I am mad who write, be certain that you are so who compose!” ’

2. Byron based the poem on 1 Samuel xvi. 14–23. Körner’s translation has the minstrel (David) play a lute instead of a harp in his attempt to cure Saul of his melancholy. Schumann, who was prone to violent mood swings, must have empathized with this poem.

1. The poem is addressed to Teresa Macri, the twelve-year-old youngest daughter of Mrs Tarsia Macri, in whose house Byron lodged in Athens during late 1809. In a letter to Hobhouse, dated Athens, 23 August 1810, Byron writes: ‘Intrigue flourishes, the old woman Teresa’s mother was mad enough to imagine I was going to marry the girl, but I have better amusement, Andreas [Byron’s servant] is fooling with Dudu [daughter of a French merchant living in Athens] as usual, and Mariana [the eldest of the Macri sisters] has made a conquest of Dervise Tahiri, Viscillie Fletcher and Sullee my new Tartar have each a mistress, “Vive l’Amour!” ’

2. Byron’s note: ‘Romaic expression of tenderness: if I translate it, I shall affront the gentlemen, as it may seem that I supposed they could not; and if I do not, I may affront the ladies. For fear of any misconstruction on the part of the latter, I shall do so, begging pardon of the learned. It means, “My life, I love you!” which sounds very prettily in all languages, and is as much in fashion in Greece at this day as, Juvenal tells us, the two first words were amongst the Roman ladies, whose erotic expressions were all Hellenised.’ Byron’s parsion was greater than his grasp of Greek.

3. ‘In the East (where ladies are not taught to write, lest they should scribble assignations) flowers, cinders, pebbles, &c. convey the sentiments of the parties by that universal deputy of Mercury – an old woman. A cinder says, “I burn for thee”; a bunch of flowers tied with hair, “Take me and fly”; but a pebble declares – what nothing else can.’

1. Written by Byron in 1817, having exhausted himself physically and sexually during his first Carnival in Venice. Two letters are of interest. In the first, to Augusta Leigh from Venice on 19 February 1817, Byron writes: ‘The Carnival closed last night, and I have been up all night at the masked ball of the Fenice, and am rather tired or so […] There has been the same sort of thing every night these last six weeks […] I went out now and then, but was less dissipated than you would expect.’ And just over a week later he wrote to his dear friend Thomas Moore, enclosing ‘So we’ll go no more a roving’, and telling him: ‘If I live ten years longer, you will see, however, that it is not over with me – I don’t mean literature, for that is nothing; and it may seem odd enough to say, I do not think it my vocation. But you will see that I shall do something or other – the times and fortune permitting […] But I doubt whether my constitution will hold out. I have, at intervals, exercised it most devilishly.’

1. Byron’s manuscript reads ‘Stanzas’ – another hand added ‘for Music’ in pencil. The poem was first published in 1816, the year in which Byron’s relations with Claire Clairmont began, and she is possibly the subject of Byron’s lines: we know she possessed a beautiful voice from Shelley’s ‘To Constantia singing’. Marchant suggests that the poem is associated with John Edleston, the beauty of whose voice was a constant theme in the ‘Thyrza’ poems. The poem was written six months after the death of Edleston, who perished from consumption on 16 May 1811. In a letter to Elizabeth Pigot, dated 5 July 1807, Byron had written of Edleston: ‘his voice first attracted my notice, his countenance fixed it, & his manners attached me to him forever’.

1. A reference to Lady Frances Wedderburn Webster, with whom Byron had a platonic relationship in late 1813. Though she was married to Sir James Wedderburn Webster, Byron pursued her with great determination; when she finally offered him the chance of seducing her, however, Byron declined – after which she bombarded him with a flurry of lovelorn letters. This deeply felt but bitter poem was written in 1815 when Byron learned through gossip of her liaison with the Duke of Wellington in Paris.

2. This stanza was considered so offensive that it was omitted from the published version of the poem.

1. an idol temple; an image of a deity.

2. Milo of Cortona was a celebrated Athenian athlete who died as a result of the oak’s ‘rebound’.

3. Lucius Sulla, a Roman dictator who resigned his office.

4. Charles V, the Holy Roman Emperor, and also Charles I of Spain. He abdicated in 1556.

5. Marie Louise of Austria, Napoleon’s second wife.

6. Dionysius the Younger (fl. 368–344 BC). A tyrant from Syracuse, he was banished for the second time in 344 BC, and later died at Corinth. Byron uses him here as a symbol for someone who has suffered a great reversal of fortune.

7. A reference to Tamerlane, who, having conquered Bajazet I, Sultan of Turkey, in 1402, imprisoned him in a cage.

8. Nebuchadnezzar, King of Babylon.

9. Prometheus.

10. Rumour had it that Napoleon had a casual affair shortly before leaving for Elba.

1. Byron wrote this poem to his half-sister shortly before leaving England, and did not wish it to be circulated, since it deals with his separation from Augusta. On 15 April 1816, Byron wrote with some anger to his publisher, John Murray: ‘I wished to have seen you to scold you – really you must not send anything of mine to Lady C[aroline] L[amb] – I have often sufficiently warned you on this topic – you do not know what mischief you do by this. –– Of the copies of late things written by me – I wish more particularly the last not to be circulated – at present – (you know which I mean – those to A[ugusta]) & there was a short epigram some time ago – of which I trust you have given no copies as it never was intended for publication at all. ––’. There is also an undated letter from Caroline Lamb to Byron which refers to ‘some beautiful verses of yours’ that Murray had shown her. ‘I do implore you’, she wrote, ‘for God sake not to publish them […] Of course, I cannot say to Murray what I think of those verses, but to you, to you alone, I will say I think they will prove your ruin.’ She was clearly aware of the rumours that were circulating concerning Byron and his half-sister.

1. The theme of the poem is Byron’s separation from his wife, and he was anxious for his publisher, John Murray, to be cautious with printing it. From Diodati on 5 October 1816 he writes: ‘Be careful in the printing the Stanzas beginning – “Though the day of my destiny’s &c.” ’

2. The manuscript reads ‘betray me’. Murray presumably made the change to secure a perfect rhyme with ‘defame me’.