The Byron Journal
'Unshadowing the Rialto': Byron and the Patterns of Life
Abstract
Focusing on Byron's letter to Thomas Moore of 1 June 1818, Byron's first-ever letter from
the Palazzo Mocenigo, this essay celebrates the range, the linguistic bravura, the grasp of
various literary traditions, the mastery of more than one kind of discourse, the fluency
and linguistic fertility, the mixture of abuse and sharp criticism with an understanding
and forgiving humanity, and the energy and seemingly unquenchable creative vitality
to be found in Byron's letters. It also argues that Byron's letter to Moore is of particular
interest because of what it says, and implies, about the shaping and pattern of human lives
and the advice it contains, not least in the form of its own example, about the challenges
of biographical writing. Specifically, it engages with Leigh Hunt, Sheridan (the subject
of Moore's as yet unwritten biography) and a popular play by Arthur Murphy. The letter
demonstrates that, even if not overtly, Byron is here concerned both with the critical assessment
of literature (which is not only, or comfortably, a matter of aesthetics) and with
the writing, and even the living, of life on the dangerous edge.