Biography of Byron. The identity of the greatest poet of his era, the demonic and passionate Lord Byron, will forever remain a mystery to posterity.

George Noel Gordon Byron- famous English romantic poet, lord, later baron.

Biography

Childhood

Father, Captain John Byron, was a reveler and a spendthrift. Mother, Catherine Gordon, was the daughter of a wealthy squire, came from a noble family, in whose veins flowed Royal blood. The boy was born and grew up in poverty. His childhood psyche was indelibly impressed by the nervous fits and hysterical outbursts of his mother, who more than once threw anything at her son. She was often enraged by his childish pranks and antics. Little George was born lame.

Education

Byron began studying at a private school in Aberdeen and continued his studies at a classical gymnasium, where his success left much to be desired. Since 1799, he did not so much study as he treated his sore leg at the school of Dr. Gleny. In 1801, Byron went to study at Harrow School, which gave him excellent knowledge for further admission to the University of Cambridge.

Creative path

Byron swam beautifully, loved to ride horses, boxed, drank, played cards - he was an aristocrat in the full sense of the word. He wrote his first poems while still in Harrow, and in 1807 his first collection, “Leisure Hours,” was published, which was a success. Late criticism of the collection came out only a year later, when Byron had already become a famous and sought-after poet. The criticism upset Byron and, coupled with the death of his mother, plunged him into an almost depressive state. To get out of it, he goes on a trip abroad: he visited Spain, Greece, Albania, Turkey and Asia Minor.

In 1812, the first songs of his “Childe Harold” were published. The poem becomes famous throughout Europe. Byron's name becomes famous for very short period time. Now he is a regular at fashionable aristocratic salons all the way to the royal court. He leads a riotous social life, but is forced to hide his physical disability, which has poisoned his entire life (lameness), under a mask of arrogance.

From Byron’s pen literary masterpieces came out one after another: first his satire “Waltz” was published anonymously, then his story about Turkish life “The Giaur”. His poems “The Corsair” and “The Bride of Abydos” sold out in a short time. “Jewish Melodies,” which were translated into almost all European languages, received extraordinary success. The poem “Lara” also did not leave readers indifferent.

Not successful marriage, quick divorce, lack of money forced Byron to sell his estate and go to live abroad in 1816. He settled on the Geneva Riviera in the Villa Diadati, traveled a lot, and described his impressions in new songs of the poem “Childe Harold”. The trip to Venice turned out to be especially productive, the result of which was such literary masterpieces as “Beppo”, “Ode to Venice”, “Don Juan”, “Mazeppa”.

Since 1819, Byron's life has been illuminated by a star named Countess Guiccioli, who divorces her husband for the sake of the poet. The great tragedy that darkened his life during these years was the death of his friend, Shelley, who drowned. In 1822, he moved to live in Genoa, where many literary masterpieces came from his pen (“The First Song of Morgante Maggiora”, “Dante’s Prophecy”).

In 1823 he sailed to Greece to take part in the uprising. The illness that felled him in April 1824 was the cause of his sudden death.

Personal life

Very impressionable by nature, Byron was always in a state of love, and most often the feelings were tragic. Already at the age of 10, he selflessly and very much falls in love with his own cousin, Mary Duff, whose engagement brought the boy to a hysterical fit.

Three years later, Byron is overtaken by another tragic love- again to my cousin, Margarita Parker.

In 1803, he falls in love with Miss Chaworth, his relative, whose father was killed by his own uncle.

In 1815, he made a very profitable marriage: he married Anna Isabella Milbank, who was the daughter and heiress of the wealthy Baron Ralph Milbank. The marriage gives birth to a daughter, Ada, but a month after her birth, Anna leaves Byron for her father’s estate. Nothing is still known about the true reasons for the divorce, which took place in February 1816. Biographers talk about the influence on Anna of her mother, who was always against this marriage, and about the unconventional orientation and wild life of Lord Byron himself.

In 1819, meeting the married Countess Guiccioli led to a passion that made Byron happy for the rest of his days. The Countess divorced her husband and lived openly with the poet.

Death

Byron died on April 19, 1824 in the city of Missolungi, Ottoman Greece. He was buried in the family crypt in Nottinghamshire.

Byron's Major Achievements

• He opened up a completely new direction of “gloomy egoism” in romance.
• He is a representative of the younger generation of English romantics.
• He discovered a completely new romantic hero for world literature - Childe Harold, who became the prototype for many literary heroes of the 19th and even 20th centuries.

Important dates in Byron's biography

• 1788 - birth
• 1798 - given the title of baron, falling in love with Mary Duff
• 1799–1801 - Dr. Gleny's school
• 1801 - studying at Harrow, falling in love with Margaret Parker
• 1803 - falling in love with Miss Chaworth
• 1807 - collection "Leisure Hours"
• 1809 - first trip abroad
• 1812 - "Childe Harold"
• 1813 - satire "Waltz", story "Gyaur", poems "Corsair" And " Bride of Abydos"
• 1814 - "Jewish Melodies", poem "Lara"
• 1815 - wedding with Anna Isabella Milbank, birth of daughter Ada
• 1816 - divorce, departure abroad
• 1817 - "Beppo"
• 1818 - "Ode to Venice", "Don Juan", "Mazepa"
• 1819 - love for Countess Guiccioli
• 1820 - "First Song of Morgante Maggiora"
• 1821 - "Sardanapalus"
• 1823 - " Bronze Age", "Island"
• 1824 - death

• Byron was a distant relative of Lermontov: his ancestor Gordon, who lived in the 16th century, married Margaret Lermont, who came from a noble Scottish family, which later became the origin of Mikhail Yuryevich Lermontov.
• Already in childhood, Gordon showed himself to be a very impressionable person: at the age of ten, the knife with which he wanted to stab himself after another nervous attack of his mother was taken away from him in time.
• On his first trip abroad, Byron swam across the Dardanelles, something he was proud of all his life.
• Byron is a national hero of Greece because he accepted Active participation in the Greek Revolution.
• Everyone considers Byron an incorrigible romantic, and few people know that at the end of his life he wrote works in the genre of satirical realism, based on the legacy of A. Pope.

George Gordon Noel Byron is an English romantic poet who captivated the imagination of all Europe with his “gloomy selfishness.”

Born on January 22, 1788 in London, into the impoverished family of an aristocrat who squandered the entire fortune of his first wife. Little Gordon's mother was Captain Byron's second wife. Although she also belonged to a noble family, there was no money in the family. The father of the future writer died in 1791. After which the mother moved from Europe to her homeland in Scotland.

When George was 10 years old, he and his mother returned to the family estate of Newstead, which, along with the title, was inherited from his deceased great-uncle. Here he begins his studies at a private school, which lasted 2 years. But for the most part, he did not study so much as he received treatment and read books. He then goes to Garrow College. After he raised his level of knowledge, Byron became a student at Cambridge in 1805.

In a fit of youthful ardor, he begins to have fun. He often gathers at parties with friends, plays cards, and attends riding, boxing, and swimming lessons. This leads to the fact that he squanders all his money and goes further and further into debt trap. Byron never graduated from university, and his main acquisition of that time was his strong friendship with D. K. Hobhouse, which lasted until his death.

In Cambridge, Byron begins his creative path. He writes several poems. In 1806, Byron's first book, published under a false name, “Poems for Various Occasions,” was published. Then, in 1807, his next book, “Leisure Hours,” was published for a narrow circle of friends. Although the criticism of this work was very cruel and poisonous, this collection decides the fate of Byron. He changes radically and becomes a completely different person.

In the summer of 1809, the writer and his friend Hobhouse left England and went on a long journey. By for the most part not out of a desire to relax, but simply to escape debts and creditors. He seeks adventure in Spain, Albania, Greece, Asia Minor and Constantinople - a journey that lasted two years. Byron returned to England in July 1811 and brought the manuscript of an autobiographical poem. Childe Harold's Pilgrimage instantly makes Byron famous.

In January 1815, Byron married Annabella Milbank. From this marriage he has a daughter. But unfortunately, family life Things didn't work out and the couple divorced. The reasons for the divorce are surrounded by rumors that reflect poorly on the poet’s reputation. Byron has another daughter from a casual relationship with W. Godwin's adopted daughter Claire Clairmont. April 1819 brings new love The writer's beloved woman until the end of his life is the married Countess Teresa Guiccioli.

The sale of Newstead in the autumn of 1818 helped Byron get rid of his debts. In 1819, Gordon’s beloved left for Ravenna with her husband, and the poet himself went there. Here he immerses himself in creativity and creates many works. In 1820, Lord Byron became a member of the Italian Carbonari movement, a secret political community that fights Austrian tyranny. But after an unsuccessful attempt at an uprising of this movement and its rapid suppression, the poet, along with the countess, has to flee to Florence. The poet's happiest time passes here. In 1821, Lord Byron tried to do something new and published the English magazine Liberal. Unfortunately, this idea failed and only three issues were published.

Tired of an aimless existence, yearning for active work, in July 1823 Byron seized the opportunity to move to Greece to fight for the independence of this country. With his own funds, he buys an English brig, supplies, weapons and equips five thousand soldiers. Helping the local population, the poet spared no effort, no talent, no money (he sold all his property in England).

In December 1923, he fell ill with a fever, and on April 19, 1824, a debilitating illness put an end to his biography. The poet was buried in the family estate in Newstead. Lord Byron knew no peace all his life.

Gordon is Byron's middle name, which his mother gave him at baptism, using her maiden name. George became a peer of England after the death of his grandfather and received the title “Baron Byron”, and began to be called “Lord Byron”.

Byron's mother-in-law bequeathed property to the poet with the condition that he bear her last name - Noel. He never signed with all these names and surnames at the same time.

George was born with a physical disability - a mutilated foot. Subsequently, he had early childhood complexes and morbid impressionability developed.

Gordon Byron's mother called him a "lame little boy." She herself was a mentally unstable person and often threw whatever came to hand at little Gordon.

As a child, Byron often disobeyed, threw tantrums, and once almost stabbed himself with a knife.

But at school he became famous for always standing up for the younger ones.

George's first wife suspected and found confirmation of his incest and homosexual relationships before his marriage.

There were also rumors about the poet’s inappropriately close relationship with his sister Augusta.

The embalmed lungs and larynx of the poet, left in the Church of St. Spyridon, were stolen by unknown people.

George Gordon Byron (Noel), from 1798 6th Baron Byron (eng. George Gordon Byron (Noel), 6th Baron Byron; 22 January 1788, Dover - 19 April 1824, Missolonghi, Ottoman Greece), usually referred to simply as Lord Byron (Lord Byron) is an English romantic poet who captivated the imagination of all Europe with his “gloomy selfishness.”

Along with P.B. Shelley and J. Keats, he represents the younger generation of English romantics. His alter ego Childe Harold became the prototype for countless Byronic heroes in various European literatures. The fashion for Byronism continued after Byron’s death, even though by the end of his life, in the poetic novel “Don Juan” and the comic poem “Beppo”, Byron himself switched to satirical realism based on the legacy of A. Pope. The poet took part in the Greek War of Independence and is therefore considered a national hero of Greece.

Gordon - second personal name Byron, given to him at baptism and coinciding with his mother’s maiden name. Byron's father, however, in laying claim to his father-in-law's Scottish possessions, used "Gordon" as the second part of his surname (Byron-Gordon), and George himself was enrolled at school under the same double surname. At the age of 10, after the death of his great-uncle, George became a peer of England and received the title “Baron Byron”, after which, as is customary among peers of this rank, his usual everyday name became “Lord Byron” or simply “Byron”. Subsequently, Byron's mother-in-law bequeathed property to the poet with the condition that he bear her surname - Noel, and by royal patent Lord Byron was allowed, as an exception, to bear the surname Noel before his title, which he did, sometimes signing "Noel-Byron". Therefore, in some sources his full name may look like George Gordon Noel Byron, although he never signed all of these names and surnames at the same time.

His ancestors, natives of Normandy, came to England with William the Conqueror and after the Battle of Hastings were awarded rich estates taken from the Saxons. The original name of the Byrons is Burun. This name is often found in the knightly chronicles of the Middle Ages. One of the descendants of this family, already under Henry II, changed his surname to the surname Byron, in accordance with the reprimand. The Byrons especially rose to prominence under Henry VIII, who, during the abolition of the Catholic monasteries, endowed Sir Byron, nicknamed “Sir John the little with the Great Beard,” with the estates of the wealthy Newstead Abbey in Nottingham County.

During the reign of Elizabeth, the Byron family died out, but the surname passed to the illegitimate son of one of them. Subsequently, during the English Revolution, the Byrons distinguished themselves by their unwavering devotion to the House of Stuart, for which Charles I raised a representative of this family to the rank of peerage with the title of Baron Rochdel. One of the most famous representatives of this name was Admiral John Byron, famous for his extraordinary adventures and wanderings around Pacific Ocean; the sailors who loved him but considered him unlucky nicknamed him “Foulweather Jack.”

The eldest son of Admiral Byron, also an admiral, was a cruel man who disgraced his name: while drunk, in a tavern, he killed his relative Chaworth in a duel (1765); he was imprisoned in the Tower, convicted of manslaughter, but escaped punishment thanks to the privilege of his peerage. This William Byron's brother, John, was a reveler and a spendthrift. Captain John Byron (1756-1791) married the former Marchioness of Comartin in 1778. She died in 1784, leaving John a daughter, Augusta (later Mrs. Lee), who was later raised by her mother's relatives.

After the death of his first wife, Captain Byron remarried, out of convenience, to Catherine Gordon, the only heiress of the wealthy George Gordon, Esquire. She came from the famous Scottish family of Gordons, in whose veins flowed the blood of Scottish kings (through Annabella Stewart). From this second marriage, the future poet was born in 1788.

The poverty into which Byron was born, and from which the title of lord did not relieve him, gave direction to his future career. When he was born (on Hall Street in London, January 22, 1788), his father had already spent the family fortune, and his mother returned from Europe with the remnants of the fortune. Lady Byron settled in Aberdeen, and her “lame boy,” as she called her son, was sent to private school, then transferred to a classical gymnasium. Many stories are told about Byron's childhood antics.

The Gray sisters, who nursed little Byron, found that with affection they could do anything with him, but his mother always lost her temper at his disobedience and threw anything at the boy. He often responded to his mother’s outbursts with ridicule, but one day, as he himself says, the knife with which he wanted to stab himself was taken away. He studied poorly at the gymnasium, and Mary Gray, who read psalms and the Bible to him, brought him more benefit than the gymnasium teachers. When George was 10 years old, his great-uncle died, and the boy inherited the title of lord and the Byron family estate - Newstead Abbey.

Ten-year-old Byron fell so deeply in love with his cousin Mary Duff that, upon hearing of her engagement, he fell into a hysterical fit. In 1799, he entered Dr. Gleny's school, where he stayed for two years and spent the entire time treating his sore leg, after which he recovered enough to put on boots. During these two years he studied very little, but he read the entire rich library of the doctor. Before leaving for school at Harrow, Byron fell in love again - with another cousin, Marguerite Parker.

In 1801 he went to Harrow; dead languages ​​and antiquity did not attract him at all, but he read all the English classics with great interest and left school with great knowledge. At school, he was famous for his chivalrous attitude towards his comrades and the fact that he always stood up for the younger ones. During the holidays of 1803, he fell in love again, but this time much more seriously than before, with Miss Chaworth, a girl whose father was killed by the “bad Lord Byron.” In the sad moments of his life, he often regretted that she had rejected him.

At Cambridge University, Byron deepened his scientific knowledge. But he distinguished himself more by the art of swimming, riding, boxing, drinking, playing cards, etc., so the lord constantly needed money and, as a result, “got into debt.” At Harrow, Byron wrote several poems, and in 1807 his first book, Hours of Idleness, appeared in print. This collection of poems decided his fate: having published the collection, Byron became a completely different person. Ruthless criticism of "Leisure Hours" appeared in the Edinburgh Review only a year later, during which the poet wrote a large number of poems. If this criticism had appeared immediately after the book was published, Byron might have completely abandoned poetry. “Six months before the appearance of merciless criticism, I composed 214 pages of a novel, a poem of 380 verses, 660 lines of “Bosworth Field” and many small poems,” he wrote to Miss Fagot, with whose family he was friends. “The poem I have prepared for publication is a satire.” He responded to the Edinburgh Review with this satire. The criticism of the first book terribly upset Byron, but he published his answer - “English Bards and Scotch Reviewers” ​​- only in the spring of 1809. The success of the satire was enormous and was able to satisfy the wounded poet.

In June 1809, Byron went on a trip. He visited Spain, Albania, Greece, Turkey and Asia Minor, where he swam across the Dardanelles Strait, which he was later very proud of. One might assume that the young poet, having won a brilliant victory over his literary enemies, went abroad contented and happy, but this was not so. Byron left England in a terribly depressed state of mind, and returned even more depressed. Many, identifying him with Childe Harold, assumed that abroad, like his hero, he led a too immoderate life, but Byron protested against this both in print and orally, emphasizing that Childe Harold was only a figment of the imagination. Thomas Moore argued in Byron's defense that he was too poor to maintain a harem. Moreover, Byron was worried not only about financial difficulties. At this time he lost his mother, and although he never got along with her, he nevertheless grieved greatly.

On February 27, 1812, Byron made his first speech in the House of Lords, which was a great success: “Is there not enough blood [of rebels] on your criminal code that you need to shed more of it so that it cries to heaven and testifies against you?” "The dark race from the banks of the Ganges will shake your empire of tyrants to its foundations."

Two days after this performance, Childe Harold's first two songs appeared. The poem was a fabulous success, and 14,000 copies were sold in one day, which immediately placed the author among the first literary celebrities. “After reading Childe Harold,” he says, “no one will want to listen to my prose, just as I myself will not want to.” Why Childe Harold was so successful, Byron himself did not know and only said: “One morning I woke up and saw myself famous.”

Childe Harold's journey captivated not only England, but the whole of Europe. The poet touched upon the general struggle of that time, speaks with sympathy about the Spanish peasants, about the heroism of women, and his hot cry for freedom spread far, despite the seemingly cynical tone of the poem. At this difficult moment of general tension, he also recalled the lost greatness of Greece.

He met Moore. Until this time he had never been to big world and now surrendered with enthusiasm to the whirlwind social life. One evening, Dallas even found him in court dress, although Byron did not go to court. In the big world, the lame Byron (his knee was slightly cramped) never felt free and tried to cover up his awkwardness with arrogance.

In March 1813, he published the satire “Waltz” without a signature, and in May he published a story from Turkish life, “The Gyaur,” inspired by his travels through the Levant. The public enthusiastically accepted this story of love and vengeance and greeted with even greater delight the poems “The Bride of Abydos” and “The Corsair”, published in the same year. In 1814, he published “Jewish Melodies,” which had enormous success and was translated many times into all European languages, as well as the poem “Lara” (1814).

In November 1813, Byron proposed to Miss Anna Isabella Milbank, daughter of Ralph Milbank, a wealthy baronet, granddaughter and heiress of Lord Wentworth. “A brilliant match,” Byron wrote to Moore, “although this was not the reason I made the offer.” He was refused, but Miss Milbank expressed a desire to enter into correspondence with him. In September 1814, Byron repeated his proposal, which was accepted, and in January 1815 they were married.

In December, Byron had a daughter named Ada, and the next month Lady Byron left her husband in London and went to her father's estate. While on the road, she wrote her husband an affectionate letter, beginning with the words: “Dear Dick,” and signed: “Yours Poppin.” A few days later, Byron learned from her father that she had decided never to return to him again, and after that Lady Byron herself informed him of this. A month later, a formal divorce took place. Byron suspected that his wife separated from him under the influence of her mother. Lady Byron took full responsibility upon herself. Before her departure, she called Dr. Bolly for a consultation and asked him if her husband had gone crazy. Bolly assured her that it was only her imagination. After this, she told her family that she wanted a divorce. The reasons for the divorce were expressed by Lady Byron's mother to Dr. Lashington, and he wrote that these reasons justified the divorce, but at the same time advised the spouses to reconcile. After this, Lady Byron herself visited Dr. Lashington and told him the facts, after which he also no longer found reconciliation possible.

The true reasons for the Byron couple's divorce forever remained mysterious, although Byron said that “they are too simple, and therefore they are not noticed.” The public did not want to explain the divorce by the simple reason that people did not get along in character. Lady Byron refused to tell the reasons for the divorce, and therefore these reasons turned into something fantastic in the public’s imagination, and everyone vied with each other to see the divorce as a crime, one more terrible than the other (there were rumors about the poet’s bisexual orientation and his incestuous relationship with his sister). The publication of the poem “Farewell to Lady Byron,” published by one indiscreet friend of the poet, raised a whole pack of ill-wishers against him. But not everyone condemned Byron. One Kurier employee stated in print that if her husband had written such a “Farewell” to her, she would have immediately rushed into his arms. In April 1816, Byron finally said goodbye to England, where public opinion in the person of the “lake poets” was strongly incited against him.

Before leaving abroad, Byron sold his Newstead estate, and this gave him the opportunity not to be burdened by constant lack of money. Now he could indulge in the solitude he so craved. Abroad, he settled in the Villa Diodati on the Geneva Riviera. Byron spent the summer at the villa, committing two small excursions in Switzerland: one with Gobgauz, the other with the poet Shelley. In the third song of Childe Harold (May-June 1816) he describes his trip to the fields of Waterloo. The idea of ​​writing “Manfred” came to him when he saw Jungfrau on his way back to Geneva.

In November 1816, Byron moved to Venice, where, according to his ill-wishers, he led the most depraved life, which, however, did not prevent him from creating a large number of poetic works. In June 1817, the poet wrote the fourth song of “Childe Harold”, in October 1817 - “Beppo”, in July 1818 - “Ode to Venice”, in September 1818 - the first song of “Don Juan”, in October 1818 - “ Mazepa", in December 1818 - the second song of "Don Juan", and in November 1819 - 3-4 songs of "Don Juan".

In April 1819 he met Countess Guiccioli and they fell in love. The Countess was forced to leave with her husband for Ravenna, where Byron followed her. Two years later, the Countess's father and brother, Counts Gamba, involved in a political scandal, had to leave Ravenna together with Countess Guiccioli, who was already divorced at that time. Byron followed them to Pisa, where he continued to live under the same roof with the countess. At this time, Byron was grieving the loss of his friend Shelley, who drowned in the Gulf of Spice. In September 1822, the Tuscan government ordered the Counts of Gamba to leave Pisa, and Byron followed them to Genoa.

Byron lived with the Countess until his departure to Greece and wrote a lot during this time. During this happy period of Byron's life, his following works appeared: “The First Song of Morgante Maggiora” (1820); "Dante's Prophecy" (1820) and trans. “Francesca da Rimini” (1820), “Marino Faliero” (1820), the fifth canto of “Don Giovanni” (1820), “Sardanapalus” (1821), “Letters to Bauls” (1821), “The Two Foscari” (1821 ), “Cain” (1821), “Vision of the Last Judgment” (1821), “Heaven and Earth” (1821), “Werner” (1821), the sixth, seventh and eighth songs of “Don Juan” (in February 1822) ; the ninth, tenth and eleventh songs of Don Juan (in August 1822); “The Bronze Age” (1823), “The Island” (1823), the twelfth and thirteenth songs of “Don Juan” (1824).

A calm family life, however, did not relieve Byron of melancholy and anxiety. He enjoyed all the pleasures and fame he received too greedily. Soon satiety set in. Byron assumed that he had been forgotten in England, and at the end of 1821 he negotiated with Mary Shelley about the joint publication of the English magazine Liberal. However, only three issues were published. However, Byron really began to lose his former popularity. But at this time a Greek uprising broke out. Byron, after preliminary negotiations with the Philhellen committee formed in England to help Greece, decided to go there and began to prepare for his departure with passionate impatience. Using his own funds, he bought an English brig, supplies, weapons and equipped half a thousand soldiers, with whom he sailed to Greece on July 14, 1823. Nothing was ready there, and the leaders of the movement did not get along very well with each other. Meanwhile, costs grew, and Byron ordered the sale of all his property in England, and donated the money to the just cause of the rebel movement. Great importance in the struggle for Greek freedom, Byron had a talent for uniting uncoordinated groups of Greek rebels.

In Missolonghi, Byron fell ill with a fever, continuing to devote all his strength to the fight for the freedom of the country. On January 19, 1824, he wrote to Hancop: “We are preparing for an expedition,” and on January 22, his birthday, he entered Colonel Stanhope’s room, where there were several guests, and said cheerfully: “You reproach me for not writing poems, but I just wrote a poem.” And Byron read: “Today I turned 36 years old.” Byron, who was constantly ill, was very worried about the illness of his daughter Ada. Having received a letter with good news about her recovery, he wanted to go for a walk with Count Gamba. During the walk, it began to rain terribly, and Byron completely fell ill. His last words were fragmentary phrases: “My sister! my child!.. poor Greece!.. I gave her time, fortune, health!.. now I give her my life!” On April 19, 1824, the poet died. Doctors performed an autopsy, removed the organs and placed them in urns for embalming. They decided to leave the lungs and larynx in the Church of St. Spyridon, but they were soon stolen from there. The body was embalmed and sent to England, where it arrived in July 1824. Byron was buried in the family crypt at Hunkell Torquard Church near Newstead Abbey in Nottinghamshire.

Intimate life Lord Byron caused a lot of gossip among his contemporaries. He left home country against the backdrop of rumors about an inappropriately close relationship with his half-sister Augusta. When Countess Guiccioli’s book about Lord Byron appeared in 1860, Mrs. Beecher Stowe came out in defense of the memory of his wife with her “True History of the Life of Lady Byron,” based on the deceased’s story, allegedly conveyed to her in secret, that Byron allegedly was in “criminal relationship” with his sister. However, such stories were fully in keeping with the spirit of the era: for example, they form the main content of Chateaubriand’s autobiographical story “Rene” (1802).

Byron's diaries, published in the 20th century, reveal a truly pansexual picture of sex life. Thus, the poet described the port town of Falmouth as a “lovely place” offering “Plen. and optabil. Coit." (“numerous and varied sexual intercourse”): “We are surrounded by Hyacinths and other flowers of the very aromatic properties, and I intend to put together an elegant bouquet to compare with the exoticism that we hope to find in Asia. I’ll even take one sample with me.” This model turned out to be the handsome young Robert Rushton, who “was Byron’s page, like Hyacinth was Apollo’s” (P. Weil). In Athens, the poet took a liking to a new favorite - fifteen-year-old Nicolo Giro. Byron described the Turkish baths as “a marble paradise of sherbet and sodomy.”

After Byron's death, the erotic poem "Don Leon", which tells about the same-sex relationships of the lyrical hero, in which Byron was easily guessed, began to diverge in the lists. The publisher William Dugdale spread a rumor that this was an unpublished work by Byron and, under the threat of publishing the poem, tried to extort money from his relatives. Modern literary scholars call the real author of this “freethinking” work George Colman.

The poet's widow, Lady Anne Isabella Byron, spent the rest of her long life in solitude, engaged in charity work - completely forgotten in the big world. Only the news of her death on May 16, 1860 awakened memories of her.

Lord Byron's legitimate daughter Ada married Earl William Lovelace in 1835 and died on November 27, 1852, leaving two sons and a daughter. She is known as a mathematician, one of the first creators of computer technology, and a collaborator of Charles Babbage. According to widely famous legend- suggested several fundamental principles computer programming and is considered the first programmer.

Lord Byron's eldest grandson, Noel, was born on May 12, 1836, served briefly in the English navy and, after a wild and disorderly life, died on October 1, 1862 as a worker in one of the London docks. The second grandson, Ralph Gordon Noel Milbank, was born on July 2, 1839, and after the death of his brother, who shortly before his death inherited the barony of Wintworth from his grandmother, became Lord Wentworth.

A sea of ​​complexes, bad character, vanity and talent - all this is about Lord Byron. In just a few years, the author of Childe Harold's Pilgrimage and The Corsair went from the idol of all London society to last person in England, but at the same time did not lose his self-esteem.

Lord of Doom

In the 19th century, Europe experienced a real craze for the personality of the English romantic poet, and Russia did not remain aloof. More Mikhail Lermontov wrote:

No, I'm not Byron, I'm different
A still unknown chosen one,
Like him, a wanderer driven by the world,
But only with a Russian soul.

Byron in 1804 Photo: reproduction

Everyone who had at least some ability for poetry considered it their duty to translate Byron’s lines into Russian, and those who did not have such talent simply imitated the image of a genius disappointed with life.

“It was from this time that little great people began to appear among us in crowds with the seal of a curse on their foreheads, with despair in their souls, with disappointment in their hearts, with deep contempt for the “insignificant crowd”,” he spoke sarcastically about Byron’s cult of personality respected critic Vissarion Belinsky.

Interest in the “ruler of thoughts” was fueled by numerous gossip and hoaxes about his biography, which appeared during Byron’s lifetime. Today it is difficult to understand which facts were part of the writer’s life, and which were just inventions of his fans and ill-wishers.

Moreover, the poet himself did not intend to torment his descendants with riddles; on the contrary, shortly before his death, he wrote memoirs, which he asked his friend to publish Thomas Moore posthumously, but he did not keep his promise. Along with another friend of Byron's John Hobhouse and his publisher John Murray he burned everything. It is generally accepted that the comrades disobeyed last will the poet at the insistence of his family, since the manuscript turned out to be too frank and “merciless to others.”

Bad heredity

Even before Byron began to show his defiant character as a “gloomy egoist,” they were already speaking about him in a less than favorable manner. And it’s all about the ancestors who left the young man a bad reputation.

Along with the prefix “lord”, Byron inherited the “murderer” train from his great-uncle (he killed his neighbor while drunk). The poet's father distinguished himself in another way: first he married a divorced lady, with whom he fled to France, and the second time he went down the aisle only to pay off his debts (having squandered his wife's fortune, he abandoned her too). Byron's mother, compared to other relatives, was a model of integrity, but was considered too hot-tempered, and also loved to live in grand style.

By the time the future poet was born, his parents had practically no money left. And in order to have at least some chance of inheritance, the lord added new names to himself year after year. Thus, “Gordon” is the maiden name of his mother, which the father added to his son’s name, hoping for the Scottish possessions of his father-in-law, and “Noel” is the surname of the poet’s wife, thanks to whom he received property from his mother-in-law.

However, its full name — George Noel Gordon Byron— the poet never signed his name, preferring to limit himself to the laconic “Lord Byron” or “Noel Byron.”

Newstead Abbey is the family seat of the Byrons. Photo: Commons.wikimedia.org

Successful deal

Today it is no longer a secret that the famous arrogance and gloomy look of the “ruler of thoughts” was an attempt to cover up his complexes. Since childhood, Byron suffered from lameness and excessive obesity (according to some sources, at the age of 17, with a height of 172 cm, he weighed 102 kg).

But since Byron was too vain and was always interested in women’s opinions of himself, he actively struggled with his physical disabilities. In his youth, he came up with a special diet, became interested in swimming and horse riding, which allowed him to get into decent shape in just a few months. “I was obliged to tell everyone my name, since no one could recognize either my face or my figure,” boasted a prettier Cambridge student after a short vacation. However, the lord's daily routine also included less useful hobbies - drinking and playing cards - which took a lot of money. And since Byron never had any luck at cards to earn money, in 1807 the future idol of the reading public decided to publish his first collection of poems.

If Byron were alive today, he would hardly be able to write so much. The very first review of “Leisure Hours” turned out to be devastating, but it came out only a year after the publication of the collection. During this time, the young poet already believed in himself and wrote many works.

“Six months before the appearance of merciless criticism, I composed 214 pages of a novel, a poem of 380 verses, 660 lines of “Bosworth Field” and many small poems,” the famous author boasted in a letter to friends. “The poem I have prepared for publication is a satire.” With the same satire - “English Bards and Scottish Critics” - Byron responded to the caustic critic of the Edinburgh Review and was supported by all London society.

reproduction

From now on, writing saved the lord’s financial situation. In 1812, only the first two songs about Childe Harold sold 14,000 copies in one day, which placed the author among the first literary celebrities. Why his “idler, corrupted by laziness” was a resounding success among the public, the poet himself did not understand: “One morning I woke up and saw myself famous.”

In between creativity and social entertainment, Byron had time to think about the “right bride.” “A brilliant match,” the poet wrote to a friend after proposing Anne-Isabella Milbank, daughter of a wealthy baronet, granddaughter and heiress Lord Wentworth.

However, the “successful” marriage lasted only a year - immediately after the birth of her daughter, the wife hastened to escape from her passionate and irritable husband.

Sorry! And if it's fate
We are destined to forgive forever!
May you be ruthless - with you
I cannot bear hostility in my heart.

Persecuted wanderer

The real reasons for the divorce remained a mystery. Byron said that “they are too simple, and therefore they are not noticed,” but the public was not satisfied with something prosaic like “differences in character,” so they began to invent obscene fables about the poet.

“Byron was accused of every possible and impossible vice. He was compared with Sardanapalus, Nero, Tiberius, the Duke of Orleans, Heliogabalus, Satan, with all the vile personalities mentioned in sacred and secular histories,” wrote the poet’s biographer Professor Nichols.

Augusta Maria Lee, née Byron. Portrait. Photo: reproduction

Those who had recently admired Byron were now vividly discussing his long-term affair with his sister Augusta, homosexuality, cruelty to his wife and even “obvious” mental deviations... From now on, the idol of London was warned not to appear either in the theater or in parliament, and at one of the social evenings, all the guests defiantly left the hall, into which a “lame libertine” entered. .

For a long time, the poet did not respond to the attacks of society and did not refute offensive rumors. He chose to meet the storm with contemptuous silence.

“Nothing in the world will force me to utter a single word of reconciliation to any creature. I will endure everything that I can, and what cannot be endured, I will resist. The worst thing they can do to me is to exclude me from their society. But I never curried favor with this society and never experienced any particular pleasure from being in it; finally, there is still the whole world outside this society,” wrote the proud Byron several years earlier (when English conservatives attacked the poem “The Corsair” for the “religious skepticism” of the author).

The poet remained true to his words in this situation. He decided to leave England.

Lord Byron during the Greek War. Painting by T. Phillips. Photo: reproduction

Byron lived abroad for seven years. In England they said that his adventures there were worse than the adventures of the world-weary Childe Harold. At this time, the novel Glenarvon, written by the generally recognized queen of high society, became popular in Europe. Caroline Lamb, which ladies' man Byron once dared to abandon. The offended woman portrayed the poet in her book in the most unsightly light, which turned his compatriots away from him even more.

Byron at this time became interested in more serious things - he decided to help Greece in the War of Independence. At his own expense, the poet purchased an English brig, supplies, weapons, equipped five thousand soldiers and sailed with them to achieve the freedom of the country. However, the exile failed to seriously influence history - he soon died of a fever. They say that last words The 36-year-old poet were: “My sister! my child!.. poor Greece!.. I gave her time, fortune, health!.. now I give her my life!”

LORDBYRON

The identity of the greatest poet of his era, the demonic and passionate Lord Byron, will forever remain a mystery to posterity. His life and his death are shrouded in mystery.
Byron came from a famous but ruined family. He could find his ancestors among the commanders of Viking warships from the time of William the Victorious in the 11th century.
There is a version that all the men in Byron's family were cursed and possessed by the demon of voluptuousness and lust. Each Byron died under strange circumstances at the age of 36, far from his home.
And each of the Byrons was subject to uncontrollable lust and voluptuousness. As you know, any curse does not arise out of nowhere. If we raise the level of mysticism, we can deduce the fact that his ancestors, military commanders, messed up badly somewhere, and that their descendants are cleaning up the whole mess. They each die young at 36 and do not know peace, whether physical or mental, and cannot satisfy more than one of their needs.
John Byron, the father of the great poet, was a captain and bore the nickname “MAD”; he really was mad: an adventurer, a gambler, a reveler, a woman lover, he was mired in endless debt. His first wife died giving him a daughter, whom he forgot leaving her to his aunt. And the second wife, the poet’s mother, Katarina Gordon, when she got married, was considered a rich bride. However, very soon the family found itself literally broke. Their son George was three years old when his father, completely dejected, died in France. Died under an assumed name. Mad Jack was then only 36 years old - a fatal age for the Byrons.

Captain Mad John

George Gordon Byron, the English romantic poet who created the famous “Don Juan”, “Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage”, oddly enough, despite his title of Lord, was born into a rather poor family. His father went bankrupt, and his mother took her son and returned to her relatives.
He was born 1788 - 1824 he lived very short life only 36 years old, but his life from beginning to end is shrouded in mystery, scary stories, madness, wild orgies, and a whole bunch of complexes.

The story about Lord Byron became the first in the new section “Secret Stories and Mysteries” and it was supposed to boil down to one incident that a prediction happened to Lord Byron that preceded his death. But it turned out that the life and death of the Lord is a secret under many seals.
For a long time I knew about Lord Byron's life mainly from classical biography, written by André Maurois. Even published in its entirety, it avoided the psychopathological aspects of Lord Byron's character.
But now, creating a new section in search of interesting material, you learn so many facts. Judge for yourself: Byron was crippled from childhood. A fatal mistake by an obstetrician during childbirth led to tendon paralysis. When he grew up, doctors prescribed painful treatment, which did not bring any results, leaving only the memory of torture in a special boot. Plus, he suffered from a lot of weight and which eventually gave rise to a bunch of complexes, due to which he could not eat for several days and even drank various saline solutions. But with all this, Byron’s extraordinary and short life was full of secrets, gossip and mystical events.

The life of the poet to this day haunts creators: writers, poets, film directors and musicians create works based on both real and fictional episodes of Byron’s life, making him the main character of films, books, songs and poems, etc. .
He was a great genius of his era. Lord Byron is considered the second most talented poet in England after Shakespeare. At the age of 14, Byron published his first work. His poem "Don Juan" remains one of the most striking in English poetry.
Byron always had oddities, and here is one of them: while studying at Cambridge, where it was strictly forbidden to keep animals, the Lord was forced to get rid of the dog. Then Byron decided to get an animal, the prohibition of which was not mentioned in the set of rules. He got a bear. This animal lived with Byron in his dorm room. Scaring off the students, the poet took his pet for a walk.
Yes, Byron really loved animals: he had 10 horses, 8 huge dogs, 3 monkeys, 5 cats, an eagle, a crow, a falcon. And all these creatures (with the exception of horses) walked around the house.
But it's not interesting. DLet's dig through our dirty laundry.
A perverted nanny, bisexuality, love for a cousin, passion and sexual relations with her own sister, orgies of aristocrats and a strange death.

George Gordon Byron was bisexual: he loved both women and men.
Byron had his first sexual experience with May Gray, who served as a nanny in the family of the future lord. For three years in a row, this young and much older Scottish woman took every chance to climb into the boy’s bed and “play with his body.” For three years, a young Scottish woman taught the boy the art of love. She aroused him in ways known to her and allowed him to watch her have sex with her many lovers. Byron, properly prepared and willing to continue his education in this field, easily entered the world of sexual pleasures during his four years of study at Harrow, a boarding school for the children of the rich and noble. He did not miss a single chance to look under the skirt of everyone he could catch.

Moreover, it was here that his bisexual inclinations manifested themselves. Byron's love for boys began with Lord Clare and was the longest lasting.
But when Byron spent his school holidays in Southwell, near Nottingham, his unrequited youthful love flared up for his older cousin Margaret Parker, captivating him with “black eyes, long eyelashes, a Greek profile, a languid transparency of beauty, as if woven from the rays of a rainbow.”
His other cousin, for whom he also had a sexual passion, was named Mary Haworth, and she lived not far from the Byron family estate of Newstead. Byron suffered not only because his feeling was not mutual. Without meaning to, Mary once painfully wounded his pride. While spying on his cousin once again, he accidentally heard his beloved say to her teacher: “Do you think I really need this lame boy?!” This hit the young lord hard, and gave rise to the seed of hatred for himself and his lameness, as well as consumer attitude towards women.

At seventeen, Byron entered Cambridge. For three years, he combined not very intense studies with a turbulent sex life in London, which almost destroyed him. Only constant use of opium tincture maintained his strength. It was here, he says, that a "fierce but pure love and passion" for John Edleston, a young chorister from Holy Trinity Church, was born. “First his voice,” wrote Byron, “attracted my attention, then I was fascinated by the expression of his face, and his courtesy forever tied me to him ... Certainly I love this man more than anyone in the world, and neither time nor distance will affect my (usually) changing moods.”

Like Caligula, Byron had sex with his half-sister!
In 1809, Byron undertook a trip to the Mediterranean countries. On this trip, he was especially fascinated by the young Greeks, among whom he also had new mistresses and lovers. On his return to London, Byron even made one of them, Nicolo Girauda, ​​his heir.
Upon his return from Greece, he created and published his masterpiece “Childe Harold’s Pilgrimages”, which made him famous and captured the whole of London, opening all doors for him
He became the king of London salons. Until recently unknown, unnoticed, he was accepted everywhere, showered with compliments, loved by the most beautiful women. He crossed the thresholds of palaces where everyone knew each other, and in this world of silks, feathers and jewelry, elegance and refined manners, he felt alien and lonely. They said that he was arrogant and proud, cold and withdrawn. Nevertheless, he was invited everywhere: after all, he wrote a book that immediately captured London.
Among the London beauties, he broke the hearts of many ladies, and the most special of them was Lady Caro, who simply went crazy for him and at whom he laughed cruelly, and after. At her request to send her a lock of hair, he cut off a lock of hair from his footman and sent it to her.
Afterwards there were other unforgiving ladies who wanted to get the rude, arrogant, obese, lame, always under opium and alcohol poet. The young women were delighted with the mere thought that Byron might lead them to the table, and did not dare to touch a single dish, knowing that the poet could not stand women chewing. They cherished the secret hope that he would write them a few lines in the album. Every line he wrote was looked upon as if it were a treasure. He was constantly pestered with questions about how many Greek and Turkish women he had killed with his love and how many spouses he had sent to the next world.

But he fell in love only once and she remained in his heart forever
In 1813, Byron became recklessly infatuated with his half-sister Augusta Ley. The brother and sister, whose father was Captain Byron, nicknamed “Mad Jack,” were raised separately and had not seen each other since childhood.
Augusta arrived in London. At the first meeting, passion flared up in each of them. Byron felt that she simply captivated him - it was like some kind of witchcraft. Before, he had never liked any woman as much as Augusta, although she was not at all a beauty. Only by looking carefully could one appreciate the perfect features of her face. My brother liked her Byronic profile and Byronian manner of burring slightly. In Augusta, the poet saw not a sister, but a woman who had a truly Byronian charm. He, proud and narcissistic, saw his own portrait in the beautiful lady.

Augusta Byron

Augusta was 27 years old, she was married but her marriage was not happy. She returned home pregnant. The young woman, who had three children and, in spite of everything, loved her husband, was well aware of the ambiguity of her position. Nine months later, Augusta gave birth to a daughter, who was named Medera. The girl's happy father was Byron.

The relationship with his sister became known to the public, although he did not particularly hide it. But in order to get out of the situation, Byron decided to get married. Marriage would have looked like madness, but that is precisely why it was suitable for Byron... His chosen one was Annabelle Milbank, the daughter of a wealthy baron, a Puritan who was interested in mathematics and metaphysics.
He first saw her in Lady Caro's salon, then he declared his love to her, but was refused. Byron was not at all in love with her and, after a second proposal, which was accepted, he continued to date Augusta. Anabella was twenty-two years old. George, the most famous poet in Europe after Goethe, is twenty-seven.
However, Byron's marriage was unsuccessful. He went on binges, shouted in his sleep at night, “Don’t touch me!”, and terrorized his sister Augusta with offers to resume intimacy. It got to the point that Augusta and Annabel wanted to recognize Byron as insane, and only the poet’s departure to the continent helped him avoid this fate.

Annabel and Lord Byron had a daughter, Augusta Ada Byron Lovelace, who went down in history not only as the daughter of the poet Lord Byron, but also as the first programmer. The mathematician countess described a computer and wrote the first program at a time when computers did not yet exist.
The Countess was so smart and attractive that her contemporaries accused her of having connections with the devil, but she did not deny this.
But evil fate also befell Ada like her father and grandfather; she died of cancer at the age of 36, having not yet found love and completely devoted herself to science.

Augusta Ada Byron is devilishly smart and beautiful

Italy Venetian orgies
Most of all, Byron was unnerved by homosexual impulses, which continued throughout his life and were directly related to Greece, in which, as we know, everything is
It was in Greece that he fell into monstrous debauchery, about which Leslie Marchand reports the following: “Byron wrote to a friend: “Tell M. that I have had more than two hundred entertainments, from which I am terribly tired. You know the Mendele Monastery, right? It was there that I accomplished my “exploits”
Byron travels around Europe, where, in addition to affairs with married and unmarried women, he is also engaged in creativity. So, it was at this time that he created his famous “Don Juan”, wittily describing in it the exploits of the legendary and tireless hero-lover.

After his forced departure from England, Byron moved to Venice, where his sexual excesses were fully manifested. Byron settled in a house near St. Mark's Square, and Marianna Segati, the wife of the owner of the house, immediately became his next mistress. Almost immediately he took a second mistress, Margarita Koni, the wife of a baker. Marianne was extremely jealous and could kill her rival. This made Byron very careful, and he was extremely careful to ensure that their meeting times did not overlap. In 1818, Byron broke off relations with Marianne and rented the Palazzo Mosenigo. The palace practically turned into Byron's personal brothel. It housed a whole harem of mistresses and prostitutes.
Here he held his crazy orgies, where masses were held to worship the male genitals. Where everyone copulated indiscriminately with each other, Byron was the king of all these animal "Parties"

But all the years of his life he loved only his own sister, and knowing that they might never see each other again, he wrote to her in his letters “ My dear... They say parting kills weak feelings and strengthens strong ones. Unfortunately! My feelings for you are a combination of all feelings and all passions.”

Fateful trip to Greece prediction and DEATH of Lord Byron
In 1823, Byron went to Greece, where the struggle for freedom was going on, dreaming of an act that would leave some kind of mark (he did not consider his poems to be anything significant). Here he fell in love with a young man named Lucas Chalandritsanos. In January 1824, the poet and Lucas, whom the poet took with him as a servant, ended up in Missolonghi. But in a strange coincidence, Lord Byron died in April 1824. from a fever that burned him out in a matter of days. He was only 36 years old on the fateful date of the Byrons. When they performed an autopsy and examined the brain, doctors said that it was the brain of an 80-year-old man. He wouldn't have lived long anyway.
Not long before his death, Byron had an incident that warned him of his future death, but he ignored this warning and still went to Greece.

DEATH PREDICTION
During a trip to Greece, his guide and fellow traveler suddenly began to shake violently, as if in a strong fever. Then he became completely weak and could not continue on his way. When Lord Byron began to ask him about the reason for such a sudden attack, he answered. - “Mister, where we are going, something terrible will happen, we shouldn’t go there, let’s go back. Two years ago I already had convulsions and retardation caused by a seizure, this condition saved the life of me and my family. The Turks cut out the village where we were in a hurry to get to"
Byron was skeptical about this and waited patiently until his guide's legs got stronger and they could continue on to Greece. Arriving in Greece to lead the uprising, Byron lost his life. His death was stupid and ridiculous. He died in convulsions from fever. As the guide predicted to him, which he did not listen to.

In the poet’s house in Missolunghi, an unfinished letter to Augusta was found on his bureau, beginning, as always, with the words “My dearest Augusta.” In his will, Byron left her his entire fortune - one hundred thousand pounds sterling, a colossal amount at that time. Two years later, Augusta no longer had a penny left. She paid off the creditors, distributed the gambling debts of her husband and sons, and paid “compensation” to the blackmailers who threatened to publish Lady Caro’s diary, which allegedly contained Byron’s confession of an incestuous relationship.
And in 1833, a poem by an anonymous author “Don Leon” appeared, which describes the adventures of a homosexual. It is believed that this is a reliable biography of Byron, which reflects the main events of the poet's homosexual life. Who the author of this work is is still unknown. But what is striking is his awareness of the intimate biography of the poet and it was written by him last love Lucas Chalandritsanos.

Whether Lord Byron was possessed by the demon of voluptuousness remains a mystery. But the fact that his life ended at 36, and during these 36 he was never able to find his peace, satiate his lust, satisfy his passions remains a fact.

auto hundred. Evdokia Vernigor - Tarnovska