George Gordon Byron, 6th Baron Byron
'George Gordon Noel Byron, 6th Baron Byron'\, best known as Lord Byron (January 22, 1788-April 19, 1824), was the most widely read contemporary English language poet of his day. |
When the first two cantos of his epic poem, Childe Harold's Pilgrimage, were published in March 1812, they immediately placed Byron on a par with the most illustrious figures of his age.
- I stood in Venice on the Bridge of Sighs,
- A palace and a prison on each hand.
- I saw from out the wave her structures rise
- As from the stroke of the enchanter's wand:
- A thousand years their cloudy wings expand
- Around me, and a dying Glory smiles
- O'er the far times, when many a subject land
- Look'd to the winged Lion's marble piles,
- Where Venice sat in state, thron'd on her hundred isles!
- Childe Harold's Pilgrimage, Canto iv. Stanza 1
| Table of contents |
|
2 Life 3 Byron in Greece 4 Character 5 Byron Community 6 See also 7 External links 8 Electronic texts |
Byron's output was prolific [1]. In 1833 his publisher, John Murray, released the complete works in 17 octavo volumes including a life by Thomas Moore. His magnum opus, Don Juan, a poem spanning 17 cantos, is the most important poem published in England between 1667, when Milton's Paradise Lost came out and 1850, when Wordsworth's magnum opus The Prelude was issued. Don Juan, Byron's masterpiece, often called the epic of its time, is deeply immersed in literary tradition and, although regarded by early Victorians as somewhat shocking, is equally involved with its own contemporary world at all levels -- social, political, literary and ideological.
Notable Poems:
Works
A theme that pervades much of Byron's work is that of the Byronic hero, an idealised but flawed character whose attributes include:
- being a rebel
- having a distaste for society and social institutions
- being an exile
- expressing a lack of respect for rank and privilege
- having great talent
- hiding an unsavoury past
- being highly passionate
- ultimately, being self-destructive
Catherine Gordon
Byron's mother, Catherine Gordon (1764 to 1 August 1811), daughter of George Gordon, of Gight, co. Aberdeen, Scotland, was a Scottish aristocrat.
She was the second wife of Captain John “Mad Jack” Byron, an English aristocrat.
They married on 17 May 1786, but separated before George Byron was born. As a result, Byron's mother moved back to northeast Scotland shortly after his birth in London and he was raised in Aberdeen in straitened circumstances.
From 1801 to 1808, Byron had a Newfoundland dog named Boatswain. Boatswain is buried at Newstead Abbey, where his monument is larger than Byron's. Byron also had a bear, a fox, monkeys, a parrot, cats, an eagle, a crow, a falcon, peacocks, guinea hens, an Egyptian crane, a badger, geese, and a heron.
His early life was spent in Aberdeen until the age of ten, when he inherited the title and property of his great-uncle, William Byron. He was educated at Harrow and Cambridge, and obtained a reputation as an unconventional and controversial character. There were rumours that he had an incestuous relationship with his half-sister, Augusta Leigh. He is also rumoured to have been in love with a choir boy, though scholars still dispute the veracity and relevance of such rumours.
Byron married Anne Isabella Milbanke ("Annabella") at Seaham Hall, County Durham on 2 January 1815, but the marriage was unhappy and they separated after less than two years. Their union produced a daughter, Ada, who later married the Earl of Lovelace. A gifted mathematician, Ada Lovelace later worked closely with Charles Babbage, the pioneer of the Analytical Engine, as it was called - the forerunner of the modern computer. Ada became notable for her contributions to the early study of what is now known as computer science. She is credited with being the first programmer. She never knew her father.
Byron's poety and scandalous reputation made him a well-known personality in London society. It was in London that he met Lady Caroline Lamb, the wife of William Lamb, an up-and-coming politician of the time, who would later be the Prime-Minister of England. Byron was also very active speaker in the House of Lords.
Rumours spread about his debt and his incestuous affairs, and in 1816 he left for England for Geneva and then Greece. There he became friends with Percy Bysshe Shelley, and Mary Shelley, the author of Frankenstein, or The Modern Prometheus, which many believe to be the first science-fiction novel. He also had an affair with the author's step-sister, Claire Clairmont, with whom he had an illegitamate child. Byron refused to have anything to do with Clairmont, and would only agree to be in her presence with the Shelleys, who eventually persuaded Byron to accept and provide for the child.
He went on to Italy, and in his two years there produced what some consider to be his best work, including Lament Of Tasso, and Don Juan.
Lord Byron in supposed Greek costume (actually more Albanian than Greek)
By 1823 Byron had grown bored with his life in Genoa with his paramour, the Countess Guiccioli. When the representatives of the movement for Greek independence from the Ottoman Empire contacted him to ask for his support, he immediately accepted, placing his fortune, enthusiasm, energy, and imagination at the service of the Greek cause.
On July 16, Byron left Genoa on the Hercules, arriving at Kefalonia in the Ionian Islands on August 2. He spent 4000 pounds of his own money to refit the Greek fleet, then sailed for Missolonghi in western Greece, arriving on December 29 to join Prince Alexandros Mavrokordatos, leader of the Greek rebel forces. In Kefalonia he met a Greek boy, Loukas Khalandritsanos, whom he employed as a page and with whom he developed an emotional, and possibly a sexual, relationship.
Mavrokordatos and Byron planned to attack the Turkish-held fortress of Lepanto, at the mouth of the Gulf of Corinth. He 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 February 15 1824, he fell ill, and the usual remedy of bleeding weakened him further. He made a partial recovery, but in early April he caught a violent cold which was soon aggravated by the bleeding insisted on by his doctors. The cold became a violent fever, and he died on April 19 1824.
Byron was deeply mourned by the Greeks and became a national hero. His body was embalmed and his heart was buried under a tree in Missolonghi. His remains were sent to England and, refused burial in Westminster Abbey, were placed in the vault of his ancestors near Newstead. Viron, the Greek form of Byron, is still a common boys' name in Greece.
In 1969, 145 years after Byron's death, in a memorial to Byron was finally placed in Westminster Abbey.
Byron by all accounts was a particularly attractive person -- one may say an astonishingly handsome person. In spite of his deformed right leg he was quite athletic and turned out for Harrow in the annual cricket match at Lord's against Eton. Byron was a strong swimmer and, in an effort to emulate Leander, once swam the Hellespont. He later said the swim from Abydos exhausted him so much that he feared Leander would not have had much energy left for his love, Hero -- the beautiful priestess of Venus -- waiting for him on the other side at Sestos! Byron was famously described by Lady Caroline Lamb, a former lover who continued to stalk him for many years, as "Mad, bad and dangerous to know". Some surmise that bipolar disorder caused Byron's tempestuous moods.
Nearly 200 years have gone by since the 4th and final canto of Childe Harold was published, yet Byron's fame as a Romantic poet has not declined. The re-founding of the Byron Society [1] in 1971 reflects
the fascination that many people have for Byron and his work. This society has become very active, publishing a learned annual journal. Today there are some 36 International Byron Societies throughout the world, and an annual International Conference. Hardly a year passes without a new book about the poet being published. In the last 20 years two feature films about him have been made, and a television play has been screened.
Note: The image shown here of Lord Byron is a photo of a portrait by Elisabeth Vigee-Lebrun.
Life
Byron in Greece
Character
Byron Community
| Preceded by: William Byron | Baron Byron | Followed by: George Anson Byron |
Freely available electronic texts from Project Gutenberg:
See also
External links
Electronic texts