" (Prothero, V, p. 267.)
There was method in Byron's "rage and resistance and redress." For more
than a year he labored upon a satire which he had begun even before the
appearance of the _Edinburgh_ article. (See letter of October 26, 1807,
in _Letters_, ed. Prothero, I, p. 147.) In the spring of 1809, _English
Bards and Scotch Reviewers_ was given anonymously to the world. The
publication of this vigorous satire virtually decided Byron's career.
Not only did he abuse Jeffrey, whom he believed responsible for the
offending critique, but he flung defiance in the face of almost all his
literary contemporaries. The authorship of the satire was soon apparent,
and in a flippant note to the second edition, Byron became still more
abusive toward Jeffrey and his "dirty pack," and declared that he was
ready to give satisfaction to all who sought it. A few years later he
regretted his rashness in assailing the authors of his time. He also
learned of the injustice done to Jeffrey and had ample reason to feel
embarrassed by the tone of the eight reviews of his poems that Jeffrey
did write for the _Edinburgh_.
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