Note e — PREFACE [a] [TO THE FIRST AND SECOND CANTOS.]
Reading edition
My readers will observe that where the author speaks in his own person he assumes a very different tone from that of
"The cheerless thing, the man without a friend,"
at least, till death had deprived him of his nearest connections.
I crave pardon for this Egotism, which proceeds from my wish to discard any probable imputation of it to the text.—[MS. B.M.]