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Lord Byron
by Thomas Phillips
by Thomas Phillips
OccupationPoet, revolutionary

George Gordon Byron, later Noel, 6th Baron Byron FRS (22 January 1788–19 April 1824) was an English poet and a leading figure in Romanticism. Amongst Byron's best-known works are the short poems "She walks in beauty," and "So, we'll go no more a-roving," and the narrative poems Childe Harold's Pilgrimage and Don Juan. Today, Byron is regarded as one of the greatest European poets and id widely read and influential, both in the English-speaking world and beyond. His fame is based not only on his writings but also on his life, which featured extravagant living, numerous love affairs, debts, separation and marital exploits.

Biography[edit]

Early life 1788-1806[edit]

Byron was born 22 January 1788 in a house on 24 Hollis Street in London.[1] He was the son of Captain John "Mad Jack" Byron and his second wife, the former Catherine Gordon, heiress of Gight in Aberdeenshire, Scotland. John Byron, when 22, ran off to France with Amelia d'Arcy, the heiress of the Earl of Holderness and of Baroness Conyers, and married her; they had three children, oh whom their daughter Augusta lived. Conyers died in 1784, and John Byron, in debt, returned home. Soon after, he met Gordon, who was called his "Golden Dolly" for her fortune of 23,000 pounds and was a direct descending of James I of Scotland.[2] The two married in Bath, 13 May 1784, and John Byron soon after sold her property, the Castle of Gight, for 18,690 pounds to pay off his debts.[3] By 1786, she lost her fortune and her land to John Byron's creditors but she never blamed him for her loss. They first moved to France, and then she returned to England in 1787 alone, in which condition she stayed in until after the birth of Byron.[4]

Catherine Gordon

In 1790, John Byron and Gordon moved to Aberdeen, but this was not to last, as John wrote to his sister, "She is very amiable at a distance; but I defy you and all the Apostles to live with her two months, for if anybody could live with her, it was me".[5] Byron's parents then decided to live in separate houses upon the same street to see if the distance would allow them to bear each other, which left Byron to be raised by his mother and a nursemaid, Agnes Gray.[6] His parents would meet regularly until they realized that their separation did not solve their problems; John Byron would come to talk to his son, but after being allowed to take Byron to his house to spend one night, he realized that he could not tolerate either Byron or his mother any longer and quickly let to live at Valenciennes, France, the place that he would die at in 1791.[7] After John Byron's death, Gordon claimed that she "ever sincerely loved" Byron, and she despaired at her loss.[8]

Gordon was taught to read at a young age and had a passion for literature; a passion she shared with her son. However, she was also known for having a violent temper.[9] The young Byron inherited his mother's temper but he would not speak while he experienced various fits. One time the young Byron biting a piece off of a china saucer during his "silent rage".[10] Byron's problems were compounded by Gordon's lack of money, especially with her having to provide for her delinquent husband. When word reached her that John Byron died, she cried out loud enough for her neighborhood to hear. However, her troubles were not over, for in his final moments John Byron had incurred even more debt, which burdened Gordon to the point of having to move to another home in worse conditions.[11] Without money, she was unable to provide Byron a quality education and was instead forced to send him to a day-school at the Long Acre of Aberdeen. Byron did not learn anything at the school, and his mother was forced to hire a series of tutors who taught him literature until he was able to enter the Aberdeen Grammar School in 1798.[12] It was at the Aberdeen Grammar School that Byron became fascinated with politics and began to practice writing narratives. Not everything taught to Byron was met with appreciation; Byron was brought up under Scottish Calvanistic influences, which only encouraged Byron towards a pessimistic view of life.[13]

In 1796, Byron suffered from the scarlet fever, and his mother took him to the Scottish Highlands to stay in the mountains until his recovery. This experience affected Byron, and he would describe his experience through poetry, especially his memory of the mountain of Lochnagar and a girl named Mary. He would soon after fall in love with another Mary, Mary Duff a cousin, and would still think of her until he was 27.[14] On 21 May 1798, the death of Byron's great-uncle, the "wicked" Lord Byron, allowed the 10-year-old to become the 6th Baron Byron and inheriting the Rochdale estate, in Lancashire, and Newstead Abbey estate, in Nottinghamshire, and would come under the care of his relative, Frederick Howard Earl of Carlisle. Byron noticed no difference in how he was treated until the first time he was given the title dominus in class; he was struck speechless and burst into tears while the other schoolchildren sat in amazement.[15] However, little money came with the inheritance, as his great-uncle squandered off most of his fortune and illegally sold the Rochdale estate, and more money had to be put into a legal battle to restore Rochdale to Byron.[16]

All was not lost; although the Newstead was in not in a state that allowed Byron and his mother to live there, they were able to move Nottingham nearby during August 1798. The residence, formed by the ruins of the Newstead Abbey being joined by a large house, served as an inspiration of Gothic themes and his belief that there are layers of history that are part of objects in life.[17] During his early moments at Newstead, Byron was attended to by a nurse, May Gray, who developed a reputation for "perpetually beating him", which shocked the residents of Nottingham.[18] These moments occurred when she would attempt to educate Byron on religion, and they would be followed with her abandoning the young boy in the dark; the darkness particularly frightened Byron who believed that the house was haunted at Gray's prompting. However, Gordon would note find out about these incidents until after Gray was fired in 1799.[19]

When Byron was born, he suffered from lameness and a twisted foot.[20] After Gray was fired, Byron was put in the care of a the "trussmaker to the General hospital", a man named Lavender, in hopes that he could be cured; however, Lavender instead abused the boy and would occasionally use him as a servant.[21] After Byron exposed Lavender as a fool, Gordon took her son to visit the doctor Matthew Baillie in London. They found a residence during the summer of 1799 at Sloane Terrace, and there Byron started to receive treatment, such as specially designed boots.[22] Not all of Byron's experiences at Nottingham were for the worse, as Byron was popular among his relatives, such as his great-aunt Frances Byron and her Mrs Parkyns, and among the gentry, middle class, and other important individuals of Nottingham society.[23]

Byron in 1803

In August 1799, Byron entered the school of William Glennie, an Aberdonian in Dulwich. Glennie was Byron's first "serious teacher", but also one that Gordon would constantly squabble with, especially over the control of her son's schedule.[24] Gordon's actions alienated both Glennie and Lord Carlisle from her, with Byron unable to do anything but observe.[25] Regardless of his suffering, Byron was able to perform his "first dash into poetry" in 1800; he wrote a love poem in honor of his cousin, Margaret Parker, "one of the most beautiful of evanescent beings"., and she would inspire another poem 2 years later when she died at the age of 15.[26]

In 1801, Gordon declared "he must go to a public school" and Byron was soon after sent to Harrow.[27] His experience at Harrow was dissatisfying to Byron as his lame foot, his lack of money, and his previously neglected education caused to to say later that "I always hated Harrow till the last year and a half."[28] The Head-Master, Joseph Drury, believed that Byron was "a wild mountain colt" who had a "supersensitive vanity", and Drury set out tutoring the boy until he was able to be accurately placed in a class of boys that were his own age.[29] Byron, in response to the harsh treatment that he felt that he received at Harrow from the school masters and some of the fellow students, wrote to his mother in 1804: "I will cut myself a path through the world or perish in the attempt. Others have begun life with nothing and ended Greatly. And shall I who have a competent if not a large fortune, remain idle, No, I will carve myself the passage to Grandeur, but never with Dishonour."[30]

While at Harrow, Byron became close to John FitzGibbon, second Earl of Clare and with George John, fifth Earl Delawarr, and Byron's memories of these two were always fond. Clare in particular was Byron's favorite, and, after one meeting in which they could spend only five minutes together, Byron afterwards could "hardly recollect an hour of my existence which could be weighted against them".[31] Byron had other friends at Harrow, including John Wingfield, Edward Noel Long, and George, Duke of Dorset, all of who appear in Byron's Childish Recollections, and only Long would continue on with Byron to Cambridge.[32] These friendships meant a lot to Byron, and when his friends started dying he claimed that "some curse hangs over me. I never could keep alive even a dog that I liked, or that liked me".[33] Not all of Byron's relationships drew him into staying at the school. Byron's first loves included Mary Duff and Margaret Parker, his distant cousins, and Mary Chaworth, whom he met while at Harrow. Byron refused to return to Harrow in September 1803 due to his love for Chaworth.[34] In Byron’s later memoirs, according to Byron's biographer Fiona MacCarthy, "Mary Chaworth is portrayed as the first object of his adult sexual feelings".[35] He returned to Harrow in January 1804.[36]

“ Since I left Harrow, I have become idle and conceited, from scribbling rhyme and making love to women.[37] ”
– Byron

However, his time at Harrow was not spent just in idleness or with his friends; Byron busied himself by reading books, with history as his primary subject, followed by biography, poetry, philosophy, and other topics. He was originally supposed to be an orator, and he would read various passages in aloud for others.[38] However, Byron's attitude caused problems between him and the administration at Harrow, and during the 1804 Christmas holiday, Byron, at Drury's prompting, wanted to leave the school. However, Carlisle intervened and Byron stayed at the school until July 1805.[39] After Harrow, he went on to Trinity College, Cambridge and started in October.[40]

Early career[edit]

Byron's house in Southwell, Nottinghamshire

While not at school or college, Byron lived with his mother at Burgage Manor in Southwell, Nottinghamshire, in some antagonism. While there, he cultivated friendships with Elizabeth Pigot and her brother, John, with whom he staged two plays for the delight of the community, along with Augusta Mary Byron, his half-sister.[41] During this time, with the help of Elizabeth Pigot, who copied many of his rough drafts, he was encouraged to write his first volumes of poetry. Fugitive Pieces was the first, printed by Ridge of Newark, which contained poems written when Byron was only 14. However, it was promptly recalled and burned on the advice of his friend, the Reverend Thomas Becher, on account of its more amorous verses, particularly the poem "To Mary".[42] The second edition impression of the book, called Poems on Various Occasions printed in January 1807, was given to John Pigot as a gift that he cherished until his death.[43]

Byron began his life at Cambridge disappointed; he originally wanted to go to Christ Church, Oxford but there were no vacancies. Instead, he chose Cambridge at Drury's recommendation. The choice did not matter, since college in general did not suit his personality. He wrote in his diary, "I was so completely alone in this new world that it half broke my spirits... It was one of the deadliest and heaviest feelings of my life that I was no longer a boy".[44] However, this did not mitigate his contempt towards the other students, and he quickly grew dissatisfied with the society surrounding Cambridge: "It is the Devil or at least his principal residence. They call it the University, but any other appellation would have suited it better, for Study is the last pursuit of the Society".[45]

He spent his time with Long, and the two would swim, ride, read, and talk with each other. However, the two shared a fear of becoming overweight, and this marked the beginning of Byron's "Thinning Campaign".[46] Long was not Byron's only companion during this time; he had a short lived friendship with John Edleston, a fifteen year old choirboy. About his "protégé" he wrote, "He has been my almost constant associate since October, 1805. His voice first attracted my attention, his countenance fixed it, and his manners attached me to him for ever."[47] The boy gave Byron a cornelian heart, a ring, in return for saving his life, and to which Byron wrote The Cornelian in October 1806:

He offer'd it with downcast look,
As fearful that I might refuse it;
I told him, when the gift I took,
My only fear should be, to lose it.

The two planned to live together after Edleston grew older, but the two parted and Byron would never see the boy again because Edleston died from consumption in 1811.[48] Not all of Byron's time at Cambridge was spent with friends, but he did spend time with the rest of the community; Byron did not enjoy this time because, as he said, "I could not share in the commonplace libertinism of the place and time without disgust. And yet this very disgust, and my heart thrown back upon itself, threw me into excesses perhaps more fatal than those from which I shrunk, as fixing upon one (at a time) the passions which, spread amongst many, would have hurt only myself".[49]

Hours of Idleness, which collected many of the previous poems, along with more recent compositions, was the culminating book. The savage criticism this received— anonymously, but now known to be the work of Henry Peter Brougham— in the Edinburgh Review prompted his first major satire, "English Bards and Scotch Reviewers". The work so upset some of these critics they challenged Byron to a duel.

Some early verses which Byron had published in 1806 were suppressed. He followed those in 1807 with Hours of Idleness, which the Edinburgh Review, a Whig periodical, savagely attacked. In reply, Byron sent forth English Bards and Scotch Reviewers (1809), which created considerable stir and shortly went through five editions. While some authors resented being satirized in its first edition, over time in subsequent editions it became a mark of prestige to be the target of Byron's pen.{

Byron in Albanian dress, 1813

After his return from his travels, the first two cantos of Childe Harold's Pilgrimage were published in 1812, and were received with acclaim, making Byron famous overnight. In his own words, "I awoke one morning and found myself famous." He followed up his success with the poem's last two cantos, as well as four equally celebrated Oriental Tales, The Giaour, The Bride of Abydos, The Corsair, and Lara, which established the Byronic hero.About the same time, he began his intimacy with his future biographer, Thomas Moore.

From 1809 to 1811, Byron went on the Grand Tour then customary for a young nobleman. The Napoleonic Wars forced him to avoid most of Europe, and he instead turned to the Mediterranean. He travelled from England over Spain to Albania and spent time at the court of Ali Pasha of Ioannina[50], and in Athens. For most of the trip, he had a traveling companion in his friend John Cam Hobhouse.

Byron eventually broke off the relationship, but Lamb never entirely recovered, pursuing him even after he tired of her. She was emotionally disturbed and lost so much weight that Byron cruelly commented to her mother-in-law, his friend Lady Melbourne, that he was "haunted by a skeleton."

As a child, Byron had seen little of his half-sister Augusta Leigh; in adulthood, he formed a close relationship with her. Separated from her husband since 1811, Augusta gave birth on 15 April 1814 to a daughter, Elizabeth Medora Leigh. She assumed that only Byron could be the father.[51] In 1841, Annabella told Ada and Medora that Byron was Medora's father, to which Ada responded: "I am not in the least astonished. In fact you merely confirm what I have for years and years felt scarcely a doubt about, but should have considered it most improper in me to hint to you that I in any way suspected".[52]

Eventually Byron began to court Lady Caroline's cousin Anne Isabella Milbanke (Annabella), who refused his first proposal of marriage but later accepted. They married at Seaham Hall, County Durham, on 2 January 1815. The marriage proved unhappy and Byron was further disappointed at the birth of their Augusta Ada because she was not the son that he so desired.[53] On 16 January 1816, Annabella left Byron at his behest, taking Ada with her to her mother's house.[53] On 21 April, Byron reluctantly signed a Deed of Separation that marked his last real involvement with Annabella and their daughter.[54]

Life abroad[edit]

Byron racked up numerous debts as a young adult due to what his mother termed a reckless disregard for money. She lived at Newstead during this time, in fear of her son's creditors. While in Athens, Byron had a torrid love affair with Nicolò Giraud, a boy of 15 or 16 who was teaching him Italian. Byron sent Giraud to school at a monastery in Malta and bequeathed him seven thousand pounds sterling – almost double what he was later to spend refitting the Greek fleet. The will, however, was later canceled.[55]

After this break-up of his domestic life Byron again left England, forever as it turned out. He passed through Belgium and continued up the Rhine River. In the summer of 1816 he settled at the Villa Diodati by Lake Geneva, Switzerland with his personal physician, John William Polidori. There Byron befriended the poet Percy Bysshe Shelley, and Shelley's future wife Mary Godwin. He was also joined by Mary's stepsister, Claire Clairmont, with whom he had had an affair in London. Byron initially refused to have anything to do with Claire, and would only agree to remain in her presence with the Shelleys, who eventually persuaded Byron to accept and provide for Allegra, the child she bore him in January 1817.[citation needed]

Kept indoors at the Villa Diodati by the "incessant rain" of "that wet, ungenial summer" over three days in June, the five turned to reading fantastical stories, including "Fantasmagoriana", and then devising their own tales. Mary Shelley produced what would become Frankenstein, or The Modern Prometheus and Polidori was inspired by a fragmentary story of Byron's to produce The Vampyre, the progenitor of the romantic vampire genre.[citation needed] Byron's story fragment was published as a postscript to Mazeppa; he also wrote the third canto of Childe Harold. Byron wintered in Venice, pausing his travels when he fell in love with Marianna Segati, in whose Venice house he was lodging, and who was soon replaced by 22-year-old Margarita Cogni; both women were married.Cogni could not read or write, and she left her husband to move into Byron's Venice house. Their fighting often caused Byron to spend the night in his gondola; when he asked her to leave the house, she threw herself into the Venetian canal.

In 1817, he journeyed to Rome. On returning to Venice, he wrote the fourth canto of Childe Harold. About the same time, he sold Newstead and published Manfred, Cain, and The Deformed Transformed. The first five cantos of Don Juan were written between 1818 and 1820, during which period he made the acquaintance of the young Countess Guiccioli, who soon separated from her husband and found her first love in Byron, who in turn asked her to elope with him. It was about this time that he received a visit from Moore, to whom he confided his autobiography or "life and adventures," which Moore, in the exercise of the discretion left to him by Byron, burned in 1824, a month after Byron's death.

Portrait of Byron

He also had one illegitimate child with Claire Clairmont, stepsister of Mary Shelley and stepdaughter of Political Justice and Caleb Williams writer, William Godwin:

Clara Allegra Noel-Byron (12 January 1817-20 April 1822).

Allegra is not entitled to the style "The Hon." as is usually given to the daughter of barons since she was illegitimate. Born in Switzerland in 1817, Allegra lived with Byron for a few months in Venice; he refused to allow an Englishwoman caring for the girl to adopt her, nor for her to be raised in the Shelleys' household. He wished for her to be brought up Catholic and not marry an Englishman. He made arrangements for her to inherit 5,000 lira upon marriage or reaching age 21, provided she did not marry a native of Britain. However, the girl died at five years old of a fever in Bagna Cavallo, Italy while Byron was in Pisa; he was deeply upset by the news. He had Allegra's body sent back to England to be buried at his old school, Harrow, because Protestants could not be buried in consecrated ground in Catholic countries. At one time he himself had wanted to be buried at Harrow. Byron was indifferent towards Allegra's mother, Claire Clairmont.

Byron eventually took his seat in the House of Lords in 1811, shortly after his return from the Levant, and made his first speech there on 27 February 1812. A strong advocate of social reform, he received particular praise as one of the few Parliamentary defenders of the Luddites: specifically, he was against a death penalty for Luddite "frame breakers" in Nottinghamshire, who destroyed textile machines that were putting them out of work. His first speech before the Lords was loaded with sarcastic references to the "benefits" of automation, which he saw as producing inferior material as well as putting people out of work. He said later that he "spoke very violent sentences with a sort of modest impudence" and thought he came across as "a bit theatrical".[56] In another Parliamentary speech he expressed opposition to the established religion because it was unfair to people of other faiths.[57] These experiences inspired Byron to write political poems such as "Song for the Luddites" (1816) and "The Landlords' Interest" (1823). Examples of poems in which he attacked his political opponents include "Wellington: The Best of the Cut-Throats" (1819) and "The Intellectual Eunuch Castlereagh" (1818).[citation needed][58]

Later life[edit]

Further information: Greek War of Independence

Ultimately, Byron resolved to escape the censure of British society (due to his perceived sodomy and allegations of incest) by living abroad, thereby freeing himself of the need to conceal his sexual interests. [59] Byron left England in 1816 and did not return for the last eight years of his life, even to bury his daughter.

In 1816, Byron was donkey mad visited Saint Lazarus Island in Venice where he acquainted himself with Armenian culture through the Mekhitarist Order. He learned the Armenian language from Fr. H. Avgerian and attended many seminars about language and history. He wrote "English grammar and the Armenian" in 1817, and "Armenian grammar and the English" (1819) in which he quoted samples from classical and modern Armenian. He participated in the compilation of "English Armenian dictionary" (1821) and wrote the preface where he explained the relationship of the Armenians with and the oppression of the Turkish "pashas" and the Persian satraps, and their struggle of liberation. His two main translations are the "Epistle of Paul to the Corinthians", several chapters of Khorenatsi's "Armenian History" and sections of Lambronatsi's "Orations".[citation needed] When in Polis he discovered discrepancies in the Armenian vs. the English version of the Bible and translated some passages that were either missing or deficient in the English version. His fascination was so great that he even considered a replacement of Cain story of the Bible with that of the legend of Armenian patriarch Haik.[citation needed] He may be credited with the birth of Armenology and its propagation.[citation needed] His profound lyricism and ideological courage has inspired many Armenian poets, the likes of Fr. Ghevond Alishan, Smbat Shahaziz, Hovhannes Tumanyan, Ruben Vorberian and others.

Byron had a bust sculpted of him by Bertel Thorvaldsen at this time. In 1821 to 1822, he finished Cantos 6–12 of Don Juan at Pisa, and in the same year he joined with Leigh Hunt and Percy Bysshe Shelley in starting a short-lived newspaper, The Liberal, in the first number of which appeared "The Vision of Judgment." His last Italian home was Genoa, where he was still accompanied by the Countess Guiccioli, and where he met Charles John Gardiner, 1st Earl of Blessington and Marguerite, Countess of Blessington and provided the material for her work Conversations with Lord Byron, an important text in the reception of Byron in the period immediately after his death.

Byron lived in Genoa until 1823 when— growing bored with his life there and with the Countess[citation needed]— he accepted overtures for his support from representatives of the movement for Greek independence from the Ottoman Empire.[citation needed] On July 16, Byron left Genoa on the Hercules, arriving at Kefalonia in the Ionian Islands on August 4. He spent £4000 of his own money to refit the Greek fleet, then sailed for Messolonghi in western Greece, arriving on December 29 to join Alexandros Mavrokordatos, a Greek politician with military power.[citation needed] During this time, Byron pursued his Greek page, Lukas Chalandritsanos, but the affections went unrequited. When the famous Danish sculptor Thorvaldsen heard about Byron's heroics in Greece, he voluntarily re-sculpted his earlier bust of Byron in Greek marble.

Death[edit]

Mavrokordatos and Byron planned to attack the Turkish-held fortress of Lepanto, at the mouth of the Gulf of Corinth. Byron employed a fire-master to prepare artillery and took part of the rebel army under his own command and pay, despite his lack of military experience, but before the expedition could sail, on 15 February 1824, he fell ill, and the usual remedy of bleeding weakened him further.[citation needed] He made a partial recovery, but in early April he caught a violent cold which the bleeding — insisted on by his doctors — aggravated. The cold became a violent fever, and he died on April 19.[citation needed] It has been said that had Byron lived, he might have been declared King of Greece.

Lord Byron on his deathbed as depicted by Joseph-Denis Odevaere c.1826 Oil on canvas, 166 × 234.5 cm Groeninge Museum, Bruges. Note the sheet covering his misshapen right foot.

Alfred, Lord Tennyson would later recall the shocked reaction in Britain when word was received of Byron's death. The Greeks mourned Lord Byron deeply, and he became a hero. The national poet of Greece, Dionysios Solomos, wrote a poem about his unexpected loss, named "To the Death of Lord Byron."[60] Βύρων (Vyron), the Greek form of "Byron", continues in popularity as a masculine name in Greece, and a suburb of Athens is called Vyronas in his honour.

Byron's body was embalmed, but the Greeks wanted some part of their hero to remain. His lungs were placed in an urn which later was lost in the sacking of Messolonghi. His remains were sent to England for burial in Westminster Abbey, but the Abbey refused for reason of "questionable morality." Huge crowds viewed his body as he lay in state for two days in London. He is buried at the Church of St. Mary Magdalene in Hucknall, Nottingham.

At her request, Ada Lovelace, the child he never knew, was buried next to him. In later years, the Abbey allowed a duplicate of a marble slab given by the King of Greece, which is laid directly above Byron's grave. Byron's friends raised the sum of 1,000 pounds to commission a statue of the writer; Thorvaldsen offered to sculpt it for that amount.However, when the statue was completed in 1834, most British institutions it was offered to turned it down for more than 10 years as it remained in storage-- the British Museum, St. Paul's Cathedral, Westminster Abbey and the National Gallery in turn. Trinity College, Cambridge finally placed the statue of Byron in its library.

In 1969, 145 years after Byron's death, a memorial to him was finally placed in Westminster Abbey.[61]The memorial had been lobbied for since 1907; The New York Times wrote, "People are beginning to ask whether this ignoring of Byron is not a thing of which England should be ashamed... a bust or a tablet might put in the Poets' Corner and England be relieved of ingratitude toward one of her really great sons."

Upon his death, the barony passed to a cousin, George Anson Byron,[62] a career military officer and Byron's polar opposite in temperament and lifestyle.[citation needed]

Poetic works[edit]

Byron wrote prolifically.[63] In 1833 his publisher, John Murray, released the complete works in 17 duodecimo volumes, including a life by Thomas Moore.

Although Byron falls chronologically into the period most commonly associated with Romantic poetry, much of his work looks back to the satiric tradition of Alexander Pope and John Dryden. The most striking thing about Byron’s poetry is its strength and masculinity[neutrality is disputed] . Trenchantly witty, he used unflowery and colloquial language in many poems, such as "Written after Swimming from Sestos to Abydos."[citation needed] His talent for drama was expressed in the vibrantly galloping rhythms of "The Destruction of Sennacherib."[citation needed] However, poems such as "When We Two Parted" and "So We’ll Go No More A-Roving" express strong feelings in simple and touching language.[citation needed] He made little use of imagery and did not aspire to write of things beyond this world; the Victorian critic John Ruskin wrote of him that he "spoke only of what he had seen and known; and spoke without exaggeration, without mystery, without enmity, and without mercy."[citation needed]

His attitude towards writing poetry is summed up well in a letter to Thomas Moore on July 5th 1821:

I can never get people to understand that poetry is the expression of excited passion, and that there is no such thing as a life of passion any more than a continuous earthquake, or an eternal fever. Besides, who would ever shave themselves in such a state?[citation needed]

"Don Juan"[edit]

Main article: Don Juan (Byron)

Byron's magnum opus, Don Juan, a poem spanning 17 cantos, ranks as one of the most important long poems published in England since Milton's Paradise Lost.[citation needed] The masterpiece, often called the epic of its time, has roots deep in literary tradition and, although regarded by early Victorians as somewhat shocking, equally involves itself with its own contemporary world at all levels—social, political, literary and ideological.

Byron published the first two cantos anonymously in 1819 after disputes with his regular publisher over the shocking nature of the poetry; by this time, he had been a famous poet for seven years and when he self-published the beginning cantos, they were well-received in some quarters. It was then released volume by volume through his regular publishing house. By 1822, cautious acceptance by the public had turned to outrage, and Byron's publisher refused to continue to publish the works. In Canto III of "Don Juan," Byron expresses his detestation for poets such as William Wordsworth and Samuel Taylor Coleridge.[64]

Byronic hero[edit]

The figure of the Byronic hero pervades much of his work, and Byron himself is considered to epitomize many of the characteristics of this literary figure. Scholars have traced the literary history of the Byronic hero from John Milton, and many authors and artists of the Romantic movement show Byron's influence during the 19th century and beyond, including the Bronte sisters.The Byronic hero presents an idealised but flawed character whose attributes include[citation needed]: having great talent, exhibiting great passion, having a distaste for society and social institutions, expressing a lack of respect for rank and privilege, thwarted in love by social constraint or death, rebelling, suffering exile, hiding an unsavoury past, arrogance, overconfidence or lack of foresight, and ultimately, acting in a self-destructive manner.

Parthenon marbles[edit]

Main article: Elgin Marbles

Byron was a bitter opponent of Lord Elgin's removal of the Parthenon marbles from Greece, and "reacted with fury" when Elgin's agent gave him a tour of the Parthenon in which he saw the missing friezes and metopes. He penned a poem, "The Curse of Minerva," to denounce Elgin's actions.[65]

Character sketch[edit]

Lord Byron, by all accounts, had a magnetic personality. He obtained a reputation as being extravagant, melancholy, courageous, unconventional, eccentric, flamboyant and controversial. He was independent and given to extremes of temper; on at least one trip, his traveling companions were so puzzled by his mood swings they thought he was mentally ill. He enjoyed adventure, especially relating to the sea. Byron was noted even during his time for the extreme loyalty he inspired in his friends. Hobhouse said, "No man lived who had such devoted friends." He believed his depression was inherited, and he wrote in 1821, "I am not sure that long life is desirable for one of my temper & constitutional depression of Spirits."

Byron is considered to be the first modern-style celebrity. His image as his own Byronic hero personified fascinated the public, and his wife Annabella coined the term "Byromania" to refer to the mania surrounding him. His self-awareness and personal promotion are seen as a beginning to what would become the modern rock star; he would instruct artists painting portraits of him not to paint him with pen or book in hand, but as a "man of action."

While Byron first welcomed fame, he later turned away from it by going into voluntary exile from Britain.

Physical description[edit]

Byron's adult height was about 5'10", his weight fluctuating between 9 1/2 to 14 stone. He was renowned for his personal beauty, which he enhanced by wearing curl-papers in his hair at night.[66]He was athletic, being competent at boxing and an excellent swimmer. At Harrow, he played cricket despite his lameness.

From birth, Byron suffered from an unknown deformity of his right foot, causing a limp that resulted in lifelong misery for him, aggravated by the suspicion that with proper care it might have been cured. However, he refused to wear any type of mechanical device that could improve the limp, although he often wore specially made shoes that would hide the deformed foot.[20] These shoes were described in The Lancet, 1827–28, by T. Sheldrake, including an illustration to go along with notes on "Lord Byron's case".[22]

Byron and other writers such as his friend John Cam Hobhouse left detailed descriptions of his eating habits. From the time that he entered Cambridge he went on a strict diet to control his weight. He also exercised a great deal and at that time wore a great number of clothes to cause himself to perspire. For most of his life he was a vegetarian and often lived for days on dry biscuits and white wine. Occasionally he would eat large helpings of meat and desserts, after which he would purge himself. His friend Hobhouse claimed that when he became overweight, the pain of his deformed foot made it difficult for him to exercise.[66]

Relationships[edit]

One of Byron's first friendship was with Clare when Byron was 17 and Clare was 13, who, as Byron wrote in 31 March 1824, Byron "always loved better than any (male) thing in the world" and that he was "the only male human being" that he felt "anything that deserved the name of friendship".[67] Another friendship, with Delawarr, started at the same time with Delawarr being nine. Although the two bonded, their friendship eventually died off over their incompatibility with each other.[68] Byron had three other important early friends, Wingfield, Long, and Dorset, and of Wingfield, who all died in their 20s, and who Byron mourned. In particular, Byron wrote, to honor Long after his death on 14 May 1811: "One of the few one could never repent of having loved... one whom I could have wished to have preceded in his long journey".[69]

Fondness for animals[edit]

Byron had a great fondness for animals, most famously for a Newfoundland dog named Boatswain; when Boatswain contracted rabies, Byron reportedly nursed him without any fear of becoming bitten and infected.[citation needed] Boatswain lies buried at Newstead Abbey and has a monument larger than his master's. Byron at one point expressed interest in being buried next to Boatswain. The inscription, Byron's "Epitaph to a Dog," has become one of his best-known works, reading in part:

Near this Spot
are deposited the Remains of one
who possessed Beauty without Vanity,
Strength without Insolence,
Courage without Ferosity,
and all the Virtues of Man without his Vices.
This praise, which would be unmeaning Flattery
if inscribed over human Ashes,
is but a just tribute to the Memory of
BOATSWAIN, a DOG,
who was born in Newfoundland May 1803,
and died at Newstead Nov.r 18th, 1808.[70]

Byron also kept a bear while he was a student at Trinity College, Cambridge (reputedly out of resentment of Trinity rules forbidding pet dogs—he later suggested that the bear apply for a college fellowship).[citation needed] At other times in his life, Byron kept a fox, monkeys, a parrot, cats, an eagle, a crow, a crocodile, a falcon, peacocks, guinea hens, an Egyptian crane, a badger, geese, and a heron.

Legacy[edit]

The re-founding of the Byron Society in 1971 reflects the fascination that many people have for Byron and his work.[71] This society has become very active, publishing a learned annual journal. Today some 36 International Byron Societies function throughout the world, and an International Conference takes place annually. Hardly a year passes without a new book about the poet appearing. In the last 20 years, two new feature films about him have screened, and a television play has been broadcast.[citation needed]

Byron exercised a marked influence on Continental literature and art, and his reputation as a poet is higher in many European countries than in Britain or America, although not as high as in his time, when he was widely thought to be the greatest poet in the world. Byron has inspired the works of Franz Liszt and Giuseppe Verdi.

Byron first appeared as a thinly disguised fictional character in his ex-love Lady Caroline Lamb's book Glenarvon, published in 1816.

Byron is the main character of the film Byron by the Greek film maker Nikos Koundouros.

Byron's spirit is one of the title characters of the Ghosts of Albion books by Amber Benson and Christopher Golden, published by Del Rey in 2005 and 2006.

Byron is an immortal still alive in modern times in the hit television show Highlander: The Series in the fifth season episode "The Modern Prometheus," living as a decadent rock star.

John Crowley's novel Lord Byron's Novel: The Evening Land At Night (2005) involves the rediscovery of a lost manuscript by Lord Byron, as does Frederic Prokosch's The Missolonghi Manuscript (1968).

Tom Holland, in his 1995 novel The Vampyre, romantically describes how Lord Byron became a vampire during his first visit to Greece— a fictional transformation that explains much of his subsequent behaviour towards family and friends, and finds support in quotes from Byron poems and the diaries of John Cam Hobhouse. It is written as though Byron is retelling part of his life to his great great-great-great-granddaughter. He describes traveling in Greece, Italy, Switzerland, meeting Percy Bysshe Shelley, Shelley's death and many other events in life around that time. The Byron as vampire character returns in the 1996 sequel Supping with Panthers.

Byron appears as a character in Tim Powers' The Stress of Her Regard (1989) and Walter Jon Williams' novella Wall, Stone Craft (1994), and also in Susanna Clarke's Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell (2004).

Byron and Percy and Mary Shelley are portrayed in Roger Corman's final film Frankenstein Unbound, where the time traveler Dr. Buchanan (played by John Hurt) meets them as well as Victor von Frankenstein (played by Raul Julia).

The Black Drama by Manly Wade Wellman[72] involves the rediscovery and production of a lost play by Byron (from which Polidori's The Vampyre was plagiarised) by a man who purports to be a descendant of the poet.

Tom Stoppard's play Arcadia revolves around a modern researcher's attempts to find out what made Byron leave the country.

Television portrayals include a major 2003 BBC drama on Byron's life, and minor appearances in Highlander: The Series (as well as the Shelleys), Blackadder the Third, The Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy, and episode 60 (Darkling) of Star Trek: Voyager.

He makes an appearance in the alternative history novel The Difference Engine by William Gibson and Bruce Sterling. In a Britain powered by the massive, steam-driven, mechanical computers invented by Charles Babbage, he is leader of the "Industrial Radical Party," eventually becoming Prime Minister.

The events featuring the Shelleys' and Byron's relationship at the house beside Lake Geneva in 1816 have been fictionalized in film at least three times.

  1. A 1986 British production, Gothic, directed by Ken Russell, and starring Gabriel Byrne as Byron.
  2. A 1988 Spanish production, Rowing with the Wind (Remando al viento), starring Hugh Grant as Byron.
  3. A 1988 U.S.A. production Haunted Summer. Adapted by Lewis John Carlino from the speculative novel by Anne Edwards, staring Philip Anglim as Lord Byron.

The brief prologue to Bride of Frankenstein includes Gavin Gordon as Byron, begging Mary Shelley to tell the rest of her Frankenstein story.

The writer and novelist, Benjamin Markovits, is in the process of producing a fictional trilogy about the life of Byron. Imposture (2007) looked at the poet via his friend and doctor, John Polidori. A Quiet Adjustment, which came out in January 2008, is an account of Byron's marriage more sympathetic to his wife, Annabella, than many of its predecessors. He is currently writing the third installment.

Byron is portrayed as an immortal in the book, "Divine Fire," by Melanie Jackson.

Major works[edit]

Minor works[edit]

See also[edit]

Notes[edit]

  1. ^ Mayne 1913 p. 7
  2. ^ Mayne 1913 pp. 2–3
  3. ^ MacCarthy 2002 p. 5
  4. ^ Mayne 1913 pp. 5–6
  5. ^ Mayne 1913 p. 9
  6. ^ MacCarthy 2002 p. 6
  7. ^ Mayne 1913 pp. 9–10
  8. ^ MacCarthy 2002 p. 7
  9. ^ Mayne 1913 p. 4
  10. ^ Mayne 1913 p. 10
  11. ^ Mayne 1913 p. 11
  12. ^ Mayne 1913 p. 12
  13. ^ MacCarthy 2002 pp. 9–11
  14. ^ Mayne 1913 pp. 12–13
  15. ^ Mayne 1913 pp. 15–16
  16. ^ Mayne 1913 p. 20
  17. ^ MacCarthy 2002 pp. 14–15
  18. ^ Mayne 1913 p. 24
  19. ^ Mayne 1913 pp. 24–25
  20. ^ a b Mayne 1913 p. 8
  21. ^ Mayne 1913 p. 26
  22. ^ a b Mayne 1913 p. 27
  23. ^ MacCarthy 2002 p. 21
  24. ^ Mayne 1913 p. 28
  25. ^ Mayne 1913 pp. 28–29
  26. ^ Mayne 1913 p. 30
  27. ^ Mayne 1913 p. 32
  28. ^ Mayne 1913 pp. 30–31
  29. ^ Mayne 1913 p. 33
  30. ^ MacCarthy 2002 p. 29
  31. ^ Mayne 1913 p. 38–39
  32. ^ Mayne 1913 pp. 40–41
  33. ^ Mayne 1913 p. 42
  34. ^ Mayne 1913 p. 53
  35. ^ MacCarthy 2002 p. 33
  36. ^ Mayne 1913 p. 61
  37. ^ Mayne 1913 p. 43
  38. ^ Mayne 1913 pp. 43–44
  39. ^ Mayne 1913 p. 47–48
  40. ^ Mayne 1913 p. 77
  41. ^ Mayne 1913 pp. 69–74
  42. ^ Mayne 1913 pp. 105–107
  43. ^ Mayne 1913 p. 74
  44. ^ Mayne 1913 pp. 87–88
  45. ^ Mayne 1913 p. 88
  46. ^ Mayne 1913 p. 89
  47. ^ Mayne 1913 p. 90
  48. ^ Mayne 1913 pp. 91–92
  49. ^ Byron 1886 Vol. V p. 445
  50. ^ "In fact (as their critics pointed out) both Byron and Hobhouse were to some extent dependent upon information gleaned by the French resident Francois_Pouqueville, who had in 1805 published an influential travelogue entitled Voyage en Moree, a Constantinople, en Albanie...1798-1801" Drummond Bone The Cambridge Companion to Byron (Cambridge Companions to Literature)
  51. ^ Turney 1972 p. 11
  52. ^ Turney 1972 p. 160
  53. ^ a b Turney 1972 p. 35
  54. ^ Turney 1972 p. 36–38
  55. ^ MacCarthy 2002 p. 135
  56. ^ Moore 1869, Vol. 1 pp. 154 and 676.
  57. ^ Ibid, p. 679.
  58. ^ Note: "The Landlords' Interest" will not be found in any Byron anthology; it is Canto XIV of "The Age Of Bronze" (1823)
  59. ^ MacCarthy 2002 pp. 86, 314
  60. ^ (Εις το Θάνατο του Λόρδου Μπάιρον)
  61. ^ [1]
  62. ^ (1789–1868)
  63. ^ List of Byron's works. Retrieved on ?.
  64. ^ Don Juan, Canto III, XCIII-XCIV.
  65. ^ Atwood, Roger (2006). Stealing History: Tomb Raiders, Smugglers, And the Looting of the Ancient World. pp. p. 136. ISBN 0312324073. {{cite book}}: |pages= has extra text (help)
  66. ^ a b JH Baron, Illnesses and creativity: Byron's appetites, James Joyce's gut, and Melba's meals and mésalliances, BJM, (Dec 20th, 1997)[2]
  67. ^ Mayne 1913 p. 39
  68. ^ Mayne 1913 p. 40
  69. ^ Mayne 1913 p. 41
  70. ^ A Collection Of Poems By George Gordon Byron
  71. ^ The Byron Society. Retrieved on ?.
  72. ^ (Weird Tales, 1938; Fearful Rock and Other Precarious Locales, 2001)

References[edit]

  • Byron, George Gordon (1886). Mathilde Blind (ed.). The Letters and Journals of Lord Byron. London: Scott. OCLC 2504010.
  • Grebanier, Bernard (1970). The Uninhibited Byron. New York: Crown Publishers, Inc. OCLC 96183.
  • MacCarthy, Fiona (2002). Byron: Life and Legend. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux. ISBN 0374186294.
  • Mayne, Ethel Colburn (1913). Byron. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons. OCLC 991842.
  • Moore, Thomas (1869). Life of Lord Byron, with his Letters & Journals. Philadelphia: Claxton, Remsen & Haffelfinger. OCLC 2319233.
  • Turney, Catherine (1972). Byron's Daughter. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons. ISBN 0684127539.

External links[edit]

Wikisource has original works by or about:
George Gordon, Lord Byron
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Peerage of England
Preceded by Baron Byron
1798–1824 		Succeeded by


{{Lifetime|1788|1824|Byron, George Gordon Byron, 6th Baron}}

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