George Gordon: Beppo

In Beppo the garrulous narrator tells the story of how Beppo (short for Guiseppe) disappears on a sea voyage, how his wife Laura assumes he's dead and, after a perfunctory period of mourning, takes a dilettante called The Count as a lover. Beppo then turns up again, recounts how he converted to Islam and lived as a pirate, is reconciled with Laura and comes to a pragmatic agreement with the Count. The story, however, is much less important to the poem than the many digressions, in which the narrator discusses the differences between Italy and England, gives advice to travellers, and generally displays his accomplishment as a gregarious raconteur. Byron used the Italian ottava rima stanza, which he would go on to use for his long c