Named source · 1823

Don Juan — Canto XI Quotes by Lord Byron: Context & Meanings

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And, after all, what is a lie? ’T is but The truth in masquerade;

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“And, after all, what is a lie? ’T is but The truth in masquerade;”

Lord Byron

Meaning & context

Byron’s narrator jokingly blurs truth and falsehood as part of a satirical attack on how historians, politicians and storytellers shape facts through presentation.

Source details

Don Juan, Canto XI, stanza XXXVII, represented by the Wikisource canto transcription. “And, after all, what is a lie?” begins Byron’s comic narrator’s satire about historians, heroes, lawyers, poetry and prophecy mixing fact with presentation. It is deliberately ironic poetic narration, not a serious universal definition of lying.

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