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16 My Genuine Correspondence with Lord Byron The new year began with bad weather And a letter from Byron requesting a toothbrush. “I must tell you,” he said, “that the letters forwarded By Madame de Staël have completed the corrosion of my feelings For my wife.” I was reading The Earnest Atheist at the time And defrosting a game hen. Leslie Marchand, Byron’s biographer, graciously filled me in: the great man was currently “Suffering an oppression of spirit which he kept well beneath the surface.” In fact, the letter states, “I fell off my donkey, laughing.” It was then that Byron decided to people his mind with nature. His Lordship would be glad, I believe, That his letter has finally reached me. And he would be as disturbed As I am by reports of tunnels Communicating with the offices of our most famous leaders, Who hardly need the distraction. ...

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