CAMBRIDGE STUDIES IN ROMANTICISM  BYRON, POETICS AND HISTORY JaneStableroffersthefirstfull-scaleexaminationofByron’spoetic form in relation to historical debates of his time. Responding to recentstudiesofpublishingandaudiencesintheRomanticperiod, Stabler argues that Byron’s poetics developed in response to con- temporaryculturalhistoryandhisreceptionbytheEnglishreading public.DrawingonextensivenewarchiveresearchintoByron’scor- respondenceandreading,Stablertracesthecomplexityoftheinter- textualdialoguesthatrunthroughhiswork.Forexample,Stabler analysesDonJuanalongsideGalignani’sMessenger–Byron’sprincipal source of news about British politics while in Italy – and refers tohithertounpublishedlettersbetweenByron’spublishersandhis friendsrevealingapowerfulimpulseamonghiscontemporariesto directhiscontroversialpoeticstyletotheirownpoliticalends.This fascinatingstudywillbeofinteresttoByronistsand,morebroadly, toscholarsofRomanticismingeneral.  isLecturerinEnglishattheUniversityofDundee. SheistheauthorofTheLongmanCriticalReaderonByron()and BurketoByron,BarbauldtoBaillie–().     Generaleditors ProfessorMarilynButler ProfessorJamesChandler UniversityofOxford UniversityofChicago Editorialboard JohnBarrell,UniversityofYork PaulHamilton,UniversityofLondon MaryJacobus,UniversityofCambridge KennethJohnston,IndianaUniversity AlanLiu,UniversityofCalifornia,SantaBarbara JeromeMcGann,UniversityofVirginia DavidSimpson,UniversityofCalifornia,Davis This series aims to foster the best new work in one of the most challenging fields within English literary studies. From the early s to the early s a formidable array of talented men and women took to literary composition, not just in poetry, which some of them famously transformed, but in many modes of writing. The expansion of publishing created new opportunities for writers,andthepoliticalstakesofwhattheywrotewereraisedagainbywhat Wordsworthcalledthose‘greatnationalevents’thatwere‘almostdailytaking place’: the French Revolution, the Napoleonic and American wars, urbanisa- tion, industrialisation, religious revival, an expanded empire abroad and the reform movement at home. This was an enormous ambition, even when it pretended otherwise. The relations between science, philosophy, religion and literaturewerereworkedintextssuchasFrankensteinandBiographiaLiteraria;gen- derrelationsinAVindicationoftheRightsofWomanandDonJuan;journalismby CobbettandHazlitt;poeticform,contentandstylebytheLakeSchoolandthe CockneySchool.OutsideShakespearestudies,probablynobodyofwritinghas producedsuchawealthofresponseordonesomuchtoshapetheresponsesof modern criticism. This indeed is the period that saw the emergence of those notionsof‘literature’andofliteraryhistory,especiallynationalliteraryhistory, onwhichmodernscholarshipinEnglishhasbeenfounded. ThecategoriesproducedbyRomanticismhavealsobeenchallengedbyrecent historicistarguments.Thetaskoftheseriesistoengagebothwithachallenging corpusofRomanticwritingsandwiththechangingfieldofcriticismtheyhave helpedtoshape.AswithotherliteraryseriespublishedbyCambridge,thisone willrepresenttheworkofbothyoungerandmoreestablishedscholars,oneither sideoftheAtlanticandelsewhere. Foracompletelistoftitlespublishedseeendofbook. BYRON, POETICS AND HISTORY JANE STABLER  ThePittBuilding,TrumpingtonStreet,Cambridge,UnitedKingdom    TheEdinburghBuilding,Cambridge,UK WestthStreet,NewYork,NY-,USA WilliamstownRoad,PortMelbourne,,Australia RuizdeAlarco´n,Madrid,Spain DockHouse,TheWaterfront,CapeTown,SouthAfrica http://www.cambridge.org (cid:1)C JaneStabler Thisbookisincopyright.Subjecttostatutoryexception andtotheprovisionsofrelevantcollectivelicensingagreements, noreproductionofanypartmaytakeplacewithout thewrittenpermissionofCambridgeUniversityPress. Firstpublished PrintedintheUnitedKingdomattheUniversityPress,Cambridge TypefaceBaskervilleMonotype/.pt SystemLATEXε [] AcataloguerecordforthisbookisavailablefromtheBritishLibrary LibraryofCongressCataloguinginPublicationdata Stabler,Jane. Byron,poetics,andhistory/JaneStabler. p. cm.–(CambridgestudiesinRomanticism;) Includesbibliographicalreferencesandindex.  .Byron,GeorgeGordonByron,Baron,––Knowledge–History. .Literatureandhistory–GreatBritain–History–thcentury. .Byron,GeorgeGordon Byron,Baron,–.DonJuan. .Historicalpoetry,English–Historyandcriticism. .DonJuan(Legendarycharacter)inliterature. I.Title. II.Series. .  (cid:2).–dc  hardback ForNHR andMGQR allthesethings–likemostthingsarealottery–itmaybeaswellat leasttohavetheticketdrawn. (, ,pp.–) Contents Acknowledgements pagex Noteontexts xii Abbreviations xiii Introduction:Byronandthepoeticsofdigression   ‘Scorchinganddrenching’:discoursesofdigressionamong Byron’sreaders   ‘Breachesintransition’:eighteenth-centurydigressions andByron’searlyverse   ErringwithPope:HintsfromHoraceandthetrouble withdecency   Uncertainblisses:DonJuan,digressiveintertextualityand therisksofreception   ‘Theworstofsinning’:DonJuan,moralEnglandand femininecaprice   ‘Betweencarelessnessandtrouble’:Byron’slastdigressions  Notes  Bibliography  Index  ix Acknowledgements My work has involved many debts of gratitude and it is a pleasure to acknowledgethemhere.Iamgratefultothestaffofthefollowinginsti- tutions:theBibliothèqueInteruniversitaireofLille,theBibliothèqueNa- tionaleinParis,theBritishLibrary,theBodleianLibrary,theBrotherton Library, Dundee University Library, Edinburgh University Library, Glasgow University Library, the House of Lords Record Office, the National Library of Scotland, Stirling University Library, St Andrews University Library, the Special Collections Department, University of StAndrews.LikemanyotherpeoplewhohaveworkedonByron,Iam indebted to Virginia Murray for her kind help in locating manuscripts and I would like to thank   for permission to consult and quote from material in the John Murray Archive. I would also like to thank the Earl of Lytton for permission to consult and quote from the LovelacePapersdepositedintheBodleianLibrary. A section of Chapter Two appeared in Essays in Criticism . (October ), –, and is reprinted by permission of Oxford UniversityPress.AversionofthefirstpartofChapterThreeappeared inTranslation&Literature(),–,andisreprintedbypermission oftheeditorsandEdinburghUniversityPress.Aversionofonesection of Chapter Four appeared in The Byron Journal  (), – and is reprintedbypermissionoftheeditor. Ihavereceivedkindlyencouragementandadvicefrommanyfriends andcolleaguesduringthewritingofthisbook.Iwouldparticularlylike to thank Alex Alec-Smith, Michael Alexander, Bernard Beatty, Alison Chapman,PeterCochran,RobertCrawford,RichardCronin,Jonathan Cutmore, Tom Duncan, Peter Easingwood, Fiona Gaman, Marilyn Gaull, Jo-Anne George, Jill Heydt-Stevenson, Abi Holt, Gwen Hunter, Peter Isaac, Molly Lefebure, Ralph Lloyd Jones, Malcolm Kelsall, Sally Kilmister, Peter Kitson, Gregory P. Kucich, Michael O’Neill, Sarah Poynting, David Robb, Andrew Roberts, Bill Ruddick, Victor x