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Grandpa Pencil Lord Byron |
George Gordon (Noel) Byron, 6th Baron Byron (January 22, 1788 – April 19, 1824), English Romantic poet, was the most renowned English-language poet of his day. His best-known works are the narrative poems Childe Harold's Pilgrimage and Don Juan though the latter remained incomplete on his death.
Byron's fame rests not only on his writings, but also on his life, which featured extravagant living, numerous love affairs, debts, separation, allegations of incest and bisexuality and an eventual death from fever after he travelled to fight on the Greek side in the Greek War of Independence. Don Juan, Byron's 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. The Byronic hero pervades much of Byron's work. He presents an idealised but flawed character whose attributes include:rebelling, having a distaste for society and social institutions, suffering exile, expressing a lack of respect for rank and privilege, having great talent, hiding an unsavoury past, exhibiting great passion and ultimately, acting in a self-destructive manner. Byron was born in London, the son of Captain John "Mad Jack" Byron and of John's second wife Lady Catherine Gordon, heiress of Gight, Aberdeenshire. He was also the grand-nephew of William Byron, 5th Baron Byron, known as "the Wicked Lord". From his birth he suffered from a malformation of the feet, causing a slight lameness, which was a cause of lifelong misery to him, aggravated by the knowledge that with proper care it might have been cured. He was christened George Gordon after his maternal grandfather, George Gordon, 12th Laird of Gight, a descendant of James I. This grandfather committed suicide in 1779. Byron's mother Catherine had to sell her land and title to pay her father's debts. Byron's parents had separated before his birth and Lady Catherine moved back to Scotland shortly afterwards, where she lived on a small salvage from her fortune, and raised her son in Aberdeen in strained circumstances until May 21, 1798, when he turned ten and the death of his great-uncle made him the sixth Baron Byron. He received his formal education at the Grammar School in Aberdeen. In 1801 he was sent to Harrow, where he remained until 1805, when he proceeded to Trinity College, Cambridge, where he read much history and fiction, lived extravagantly, and got into debt. Some early verses which he had published in 1806 were suppressed. They were followed in 1807 by Hours of Idleness, which was savagely attacked in the Edinburgh Review. In reply he sent forth English Bards and Scotch Reviewers (1809), which created a considerable stir and shortly went through 5 editions. Meanwhile, he had settled at Newstead Abbey, the family seat, where with some of his cronies he was believed to have indulged in wild and extravagant orgies, the accounts of which, however, were probably greatly exaggerated. In 1809 he left England, and passing through Spain, went to Greece. During his absence, which extended over two years, he wrote the first two cantos of Childe Harold, which were published after his return in 1812, and were received with acclaim. In his own words, "I awoke one morning and found myself famous." He followed up his success with some short poems, The Corsair, Lara, etc. About the same time began his intimacy with his future biographer, Thomas Moore. He eventually took his seat at the House of Lords, and made his first speech there on February 27, 1812. The most popular person in Regency London, he wrote poetry and carried on illicit affairs, most notably with Lady Caroline Lamb, the wife of William Lamb, the future Prime Minister. She inspired the epigram that ends Byron's Versicles: "Caro Lamb, Goddamn." Rumours suggest he also fell in love with a choir boy, though is doubdful. His half-sister, Augusta Leigh, occupied the central place in his heart and he wrote many passionate poems in her honour. She had been separated from her husband since 1811 when she gave birth on April 15, 1814 to a daughter, and Byron's joy over the birth seems to substantiate the rumours of an incestuous relationship. Augusta encouraged Byron to marry to avoid scandal and he reluctantly chose Anne Isabella Milbanke ("Annabella"), a cousin of the Lady Caroline, who had refused him in the previous year. They married at Seaham Hall, County Durham on January 2, 1815. (Later, when Annabella's mother died, her will stipulated that her beneficiaries must take her family name in order to inherit. Lord Byron added it and became George Gordon Noel Byron in 1822.) On January 16, 1816, Lady Byron left George and on April 21, Byron signed the Deed of Separation. After this break-up of his domestic life, followed as it was by the severe censure of society, and by pressure on the part of his creditors, which led to the sale of his library, Byron again left England, as it turned out, for ever. Byron passed through Belgium and up the Rhine; in the summer of 1816 Lord Byron and his personal physician, John William Polidori settled in Switzerland, at the Villa Diodati by Lake Geneva. There he became friends with the poet Percy Bysshe Shelley, and Shelley's wife-to-be Mary Godwin. His last Italian home was Genoa and he lived there until 1823, when he offered himself as an ally to the Greek insurgents. By 1823 Byron had grown bored with his life in Genoa with his mistress, the Contessa 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. Near this spot 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 at Newfoundland, May, 1803, And died at Newstead Abbey Nov. 18, 1808. |
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