DON JUAN'S SHIPWRECK [To the Editor of the SPECTATOR.] SIII,--Byron's
so-called " borrowings " are thus explained by Byroa himself in a letter to John Murray " With regard to the charges about the shipwreck, I think that I told you and Mr. -HObliouse, years ago, that there was not a single circumstance Of it not taken from fact, not indeed from any single ship- wreck, but all from actual facts of different wrecks." The horror of the shipwreck is not therefore a romantic fancy, but stark realism : and Ryron's care in folkming existing accounts is comparable with Shakespeare's use of Holinshed or North's Plutarch for the historical plays.
The reference to " Grandad's Narrative " (of escape from shipwreck) recalls the earlier history of the family ; and reminds us that either the cavalier soldier of the seventeenth century or the Admiral of the eighteenth century would have been enough to confer distinction on the name, if they had not themselves been overshadowed by the poet of the nineteenth century.—I am, Sir, &c., D. R. FOTIIERINGHAM,
Charing. Hon. Secretary, The Byron Society.
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