Professor Retracts Slur

I have now heard back from Professor Hogle who has retracted his statement, albeit under some pressure. We must be grateful for that, at least, if not his incorrect attribution of title, ie "Mr," to myself. American academics! Can you trust anything they write? It makes you question everything.

 

Polly Dolly Slur

Rumours are given currency by such latter-day statements that are without a shred of substance. There was quite enough scandal attached to Byron without inventing it. The evidence is that Polidori had an adolescent crush (he was still very young ) on Mary Godwin (later to become Mary Shelley), and thus developed a profound dislike of Percy ByssheShelley, even going so far as to challenge him to a duel. Byron managed to have him released from jail in Milan, where he was stupid enough to argue with some Austrian officers, and that was the end of their acquaintance. The culprit for the false Polidori attribution regarding Byron is Jerrold E Hogle, Professor of English at the University of Arizona. I have, of course, asked him to reveal his source for the "occasional lover" homosexual slur.