Excerpt from A Grammatical Inquiry Into the Language of Lord Byron

There are a great many points of difference between the language of Lord Byron and the rules that are established by the English grammarians of this day. Forms and idioms now regarded as incorrect or archaic are far more frequent with him than with most other poets of his time. Byron is by no means particular about his grammar. Far from keeping within the narrow limits of grammatical correctness, he masters and forces his language as he chooses, making ample use of all the poetical licenses imaginable. That is why grammatical imperfections, archaic and obsolete words, bold and unusual constructions, loose and careless phrases abound throughout his poems. For instance, what a variety of archaisms in 'Childe Harold's Pilgrimage', especially in the first canto, where the poet evidently strives to imitate the English language spoken in times of yore! Thus, from a grammatical point of view, his works strongly remind us of Shakspere and the Elizabethan age, inasmuch as not a few of the idiomatic peculiarities of that time (such as are pointed out by Abbott in his 'Shakespearian Grammar' or by Franz in his 'Shakespeare-Grammatik') are likewise to be found in Lord Byron's works.

The following pages, therefore, are meant to be an attempt towards a 'Byron Grammar', that is to say, an enumeration of the most salient points of grammatical difference between his language and our modern usage. Though completeness is not aimed at, yet it is hoped that the most important and interesting irregularities will be mentioned.

Abbreviations.

The works of B. (Lord Byron) are referred to as follows:

Age ... The Age of Bronze.
Bards ... English Bards and Scotch Reviewers.
Bep ... Beppo.
Blues ... The Blues.
Bride ... The Bride of Abydos.
Cain ... Cain.
Childe ... Childe Harold's Pilgrimage.
Cors ... The Corsair.
Curse ... The Curse of Minerva.
Def ... The Deformed Transformed.
D. Juan ... Don Juan.
Fosc ... The Two Foscari.
Giaour ... The Giaour.
Heaven ... Heaven and Earth.
Hints ... Hints from Horace.

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