Byron - Report from Europe

Magazine Antiques, Dec, 2002 by Miriam Kramer

George Gordon, sixth baron Byron, better known as Lord Byron, managed to squeeze a remarkable amount into his relatively short life. By the time he died of a fever at the age of thirty-six, while fighting for the independence of Greece from Turkey, he had behind him incest, many love affairs, a failed marriage, mental instability, and financial worries. Byron inherited his title at the age of ten, attended Dulwich and Harrow schools and Trinity College at Cambridge University. He published his first collection of poems in 1806 at the age of eighteen. Three years later he took his seat in the House of Lords, and then promptly left for the first of his extended journeys on the Continent.

In 1811 he returned to England and renewed acquaintance with his half-sister, Augusta Leigh. Following his love affair with Lady Caroline Lamb, Byron and Leigh became constant companious; she gave birth to a daughter--almost certainly Byron's--in 1814. The following year Byron married Anne Isabella Milbanke who also bore a daughter. Byron's debts, his unreasonable behavior, and the supposed incest were too much for his wife, and in 1816 they were formally separated. Byron went into bitter permanent exile in 1816.

He traveled ceaselessly, being supported by fellow writers including Johann Wolfgang von Goethe and Percy Bysshe Shelley, and he continued to produce a prodigious quantity of verse and drama. He espoused many liberal causes, as he had in the House of Lords, and he published leaflets on their behalf.

Byron and his works had a profound and immediate effect on other writers as well as painters and musicians. Operas and films have been based on his works, and many popular performers and even politicians have been influenced by him.

An exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery in London, until February 16, 2003, examines Byron and the cult that grew up around him. It will be seen subsequently at the Scottish National Portrait Gallery in Edinburgh from March 14 to May 26, and Dove Cottage, Grasmere between June and October. Entitled Mad, Bad and Dangerous, the Cult of Lord Byron, the show's curator is Fiona MacCarthy. There is no catalogue, but a new biography entitled Byron: Life and Legend, written by the curator, has been published in England by Byron's own publisher John Murray, and in North America by Farrar, Straus and Giroux. It may be purchased by telephoning 800-288-2129.