| Summary: | This essay argues that the usual reading of Byron's translation of Pulci's epic – that it is a literal translation through which Byron sought to learn Pulci's comic style and justify the improprieties of Don Juan – is a reductive one. The essay lays out what we know about Byron's engagement with Pulci, then looks in detail at some stanzas of his translation of the Morgante, demonstrating that it is more creative than is usually recognized. The essay then argues that it also has a larger significance for our understanding of Byron's career as a poet than has yet been registered. Reading and translating Pulci, the essay suggests, not only influenced Byron's comic and satiric writing, but also inspired him to return to the Byronic Hero, to develop him in new ways and extend him in new directions, resulting in the long line of alienated, defiant but ultimately tragic heroes that Byron produced alongside Don Juan.
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