SOURCE: Braunmuller, A. R. “Rare Virtues and Their Impair in The Tragedy of Charles, Duke of Byron.” In Natural Fictions: George Chapman's Major Tragedies, pp. 83-107. London: Associated University Presses, 1992.

In the following essay, Braunmuller analyzes the “intellectual complexity” of Byron, detailing how Chapman employed various themes, images, and forms of dialogue to create an incoherent milieu in which “Byron's character and Henry's court make perception and judgment unstable and shifting.”

Byron's Conspiracy ends with a curious comic scene, displaying Savoy's discomfiture when he fails in sophisticated badinage with three court ladies. King Henry, the newly-reconciled Byron, and other courtiers observe the scene, commenting upon it as if it were a dramatic episode played for their benefit:

EPERNON.

Sir, if it please you to be taught any courtship take you to your stand; Savoy is at it with three mistresses at once; he loves each of them best...