His Lordship looking very mad, bad and dangerous to know
Lord Byron made his first address to the House of Lords on this date in 1812.
Frye makes many more substantial references to Byron than this one in an interview with documentary filmmaker Harry Rasky, but the exchange is irresistible for his cheekily ambiguous response to a “prying” question.
Rasky: Was the phrase “history is the nightmare from which we’re all trying to wake up”?
Frye: That’s Joyce in Ulysses. I think Byron said it more neatly when he said that history is the devil’s scripture.
Rasky: I wonder if it would be prying if I said, Does Northrop Frye talk to God?
Frye: Yes.
(CW 24, 871)
You forgot to mention he is wearing traditional Albanian clothing from the era. He comments on how impressed he is with the clothing in his writings. Beautiful painting, cheers!