*blushes*

Thanks, but I have to say that think these really are obvious. Byron's messages scream off the page, and his contemporaries -- writers, critics, publishers, readers -- all noticed them. Modern readers of Byron tend to notice them (especially if they have good footnotes). But all the literary critics don't seem to notice them. They've become so immersed in theory that they've lost the real world.

I'm really scared of that happening to me.