| Daveton | Canulcius | Ex Livio |
| Farrer, Sr. | Medea | Ex Ovidio |
| Long | Caractacus | Mason |
| Rogers | Manlius | Ex Sallustio |
| Molloy | Micipsa | Ex Sallustio |
| Lord Byron | Zanga | Young |
| Drury, Sr. | Memmius | Ex Sallustio |
| Hoare | Ajax | Ex Ovidio |
| East | Ulysses | Ex Ovidio |
| Leeke | The Passions: an Ode | Collins |
| Calvert, Sr. | Galgacus | Ex Tacito |
| Bazett | Catilina ad Consp. | Ex Sallustio |
| Franks, Sr. | Antony | Shakespeare |
| Wildman, Maj. | Sat. ix, Lib. i | Ex Horatio |
| Lloyd, Sr. | The Bard: an Ode | Gray |
3. July 4, 1805.
| Lyon | Piso ad Milites | Ex Tacito |
| East | Cato | Addison |
| Saumerez | Drances | Ex Virgilio, Æn. xi |
| Annesley | Turnus | Ex Virgilio, Æn. xi |
| Calvert | Lord Strafford's Defence | Hume |
| Erskine, Sr. | Achilles | Ex Homero, Il. xvi |
| Bazett | York | Shakespeare |
| Harrington | Camillus | Ex Livio. |
| Leeke | Ode to the Passions | Collins |
| Sneyd | Electra | Ex Sophocle |
| Long | Satan's Soliloquy | Milton, P.L., b. iv |
| Gibson | Brutus | Ex Lucano |
| Drury, Sr. | Cato | Ex Lucano |
| Lord Byron | Lear | Shakespeare |
| Hoare | Otho ad Milites | Ex Livio |
| Wildman | Caractacus | Mason |
| Franks | Wolsey | Shakespeare |
Of Byron's oratorical powers, Dr. Drury, Head-master of Harrow, formed a high opinion.
"The upper part of the school," he writes (see
Life
, p. 20), composed declamations, which, after a revisal by the tutors, were submitted to the master. To him the authors repeated them, that they might be improved in manner and action, before their public delivery. I certainly was much pleased with Lord Byron's attitude, gesture, and delivery, as well as with his composition. All who spoke on that day adhered, as usual, to the letter of their composition, as, in the earlier part of his delivery, did Lord Byron; but, to my surprise, he suddenly diverged from the written composition, with a boldness and rapidity sufficient to alarm me, lest he should fail in memory as to the conclusion. There was no failure; he came round to the close of his composition without discovering any impediment and irregularity on the whole. I questioned him why he had altered his declamation. He declared he had made no alteration, and did not know, in speaking, that he had deviated from it one letter. I believed him; and, from a knowledge of his temperament, am convinced that, fully impressed with the sense and substance of the subject, he was hurried on to expressions and colourings more striking than what his pen had expressed."
"My qualities," says Byron, in one of his note-books (quoted by Moore, Life, p. 20), "were much more oratorical and martial than poetical; and Dr. Drury, my grand patron (our head-master), had a great notion that I should turn out an orator, from my fluency, my turbulence, my voice, my copiousness of declamation, and my action. I remember that my first declamation astonished him into some unwonted (for he was economical of such) and sudden compliments before the declaimers at our first rehearsal."
For his subjects Byron chose passages expressive of vehement passion, such as Lear's address to the storm, or the speech of Zanga over the body of Alonzo, from Young's tragedy
The Revenge