SOURCE: Ehrstine, John W. “The Two Foscari: The Silence of Chains.” In The Metaphysics of Byron: A Reading of the Plays, pp. 69-88. The Hague: Mouton, 1976.

In the following essay, Ehrstine examines the function of Byron's strict adherence to unity of character in The Two Foscari.

Neither Byron¹ nor his critics have had much to say about The Two Foscari.² This is a serious loss, for, although the play is eccentric and daring in what it attempts, I submit that it is one of Byron's most adroit works technically,³ and that it is perhaps his bitterest and darkest poem. There is hope in it, but it is reached only brutally, at the outer limits of human despair.

There are a number of reasons, both of a technical and a thematic nature, for the intense and nearly motionless focus of this play. For example, if we allow that Byron...