‘I ask his pardon for a postscript’: Byron’s Epistolary Afterthoughts

Abstract

Signing off his letters always involved a type of lingering for Byron and an opportunity of reflecting on the just-completed letter. The voice comes from the same man, and yet simultaneously from somewhere else.In the light of these speculations, this essay intends to examine a range of Byron’s postscripts from correspondence written throughout his life in order to explore the various ways in which they ironically subvert, superintend, supplement, gloss or reinscribe the construction of his character in the main body of his letters. Examples of marginalised inscription are treated as a type of paratext that – unlike the marginalia in the poems – has never been considered at any length and, rather like Derrida’s supplement, bespeaks a dual addition to and subtraction from the composing self.