Abstract
The Greek political leader Alexandros Mavrokordatos played a significant role in the final months of Byron's life. It was through him that Byron ultimately committed his energies to the Greek cause, through him that he sought to find a way through the tangle of Greek politics in the years 1823 and 1824. Byron's reputation as a political animal, ona spectrum that leads from irresponsible adventurism to heroic self-sacrifice, is intimately tied to the period when he and Mavrokordatos were drawn together in Mesolongi. The most recent biographyof Byron, by Fiona MacCarthy,1 largely perpetuates a traditional and relatively simple view of the final months of his life, a period rich in anecdote, but politically inconsequential, in which Byron apparently became ever more lost in confusion. The following article seeksto identify the lines along which a political assessment of those final months might be possible; coincidentally, it clarifies or corrects a number of traditionally-held positions in the biography of the poet.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 126-142 |
| Number of pages | 16 |
| Journal | Romanticism |
| Volume | 12 |
| Issue number | 2 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - 2006 |