How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #1
"With fairest flowers/Whilst summer last, and I live here, Fidele—" (1.1-2)
This is a quotation from Shakespeare's Cymbeline; the speaker is saying he'll put flowers on the grave of Fidele. It's a kind of eulogy, so you could see it as the narrator mourning, or eulogizing, Mariana. But Mariana isn't dead; she's just someone the narrator made up. So the quotation is also a tip off; the narrator is using a literary allusion to mourn, or memorialize, his own literary creation. (Also, it's just a fancy, flowery way to start off what's going to be a fancy, flowery story. You could see it as a warning; "if you don't like fancy and flowery, get out now.")
Quote #2
I cannot credit that the mettlesome poet, Byron, would have contentedly sat down with Bartleby to examine a law document of say five hundred pages, closely written in a crimpy hand. (2.20)
The romantic poet Byron was known for his adventurousness and unconventionality. He seems the opposite of the staid, boring Bartleby. But Bartleby won't examine law documents either. Maybe he's more Byronic than he looks.
Quote #3
Somehow of late, I had got into the way of involuntarily using this word "prefer" upon all sorts of not exactly suitable occasions. And I trembled to think that my contact with the scrivener had already and seriously affected me in a mental way. (2.116)
Bartleby is a sad sack as a writer—but on the other hand, he seems to have the gift of coining a memorable phrase. He should have been a pop song writer, maybe (though he'd probably prefer not to.)