Note 36 — THE TWO FOSCARI:[34] AN HISTORICAL TRAGEDY.[35]
Reading edition
[Gov. "The father softens—but the governor is fixed." Dingle. "Aye that antithesis of persons is a most established figure."—Critic, act ii. sc. 2.
Byron may have guessed that this passage would be quoted against him, and, by taking it as a motto, hoped to anticipate or disarm ridicule; or he may have selected it out of bravado, as though, forsooth, the public were too stupid to find him out.]