[167] Byron himself was asked to compete, but resolved not to risk his reputation in such a contest. Although 112 poems were submitted, all were adjudged unsatisfactory, and Byron was eventually requested by Lord Holland to save the situation. His verses were recited on October 10, 1812, but met with small commendation.
[168] This little volume, published in 1812, after having been refused by Murray and others, proved an overwhelming success. Byron was delighted with Cui Bono? a clever imitation of the gloomy and mournful portions of Childe Harold, in the same stanzaic form. Among the other writers parodied were Wordsworth, Crabbe, Moore, Coleridge, and Lewis. Byron said:—“I think the Rejected Addresses by far the best thing of the kind since the Rolliad” (Letters, ii., 177).
[169] Byron himself said of this period:—“I felt that, if what was whispered and murmured was true, I was unfit for England; if false, England was unfit for me” (Reply to Blackwood’s, Letters, iv., 479).
[170] Letters, iii., 272.
[171] Letters, iii., 278.
[172] Childe Harold, I., 26.
[173] Childe Harold, I., 69–70.
[174] Childe Harold, I., 9.
[175] Letters, i., 308.
[176] Letters, ii., 5.