Byron
GEORGE GORDON NOEL, poets, born in London, Jan. 22, 1788. He John Byron, of the Guards, known as was the grandson of Admiral John Byron "Mad Jack By and son of the Admiral's only son, Capt.
Catherine Gordon of Aberdeenshire, who Byron . " His mother was was left a widow in 1791. Mrs. Byron retired with the infant poet to Aberdeen, where she lived in seclusion on the ruins of her fortune. Till the age of seven he was entirely under the care of his mother, and to her injudicious indulgence the waywardness that marked his after career has been partly attributed.
On reaching his seventh year he was sent to the grammar school at Aberdeen, and four years after, in 1798, the death estates of the family. Mother and son family seat, near Nottingham. Soon he distinguished himself by his love of While yet yet at school he fell deeply in love While yet at school he fell deeply in love with Miss Chaworth, a distant cousin; the Harrow school boy, her junior by two years, and married another and terview. In 1805 he was entered at Trinity College, Cambridge. Two years after, in 1807, appeared his first poetic Trinity College, Cambridge. Two years though indeed containing nothing much of merit, was castigated with over-severity by Brougham in the "Edinburgh Review." This caustic critic roused the ity by Brougham in the "Edinburgh from him his first really notable effort, the celebrated satire, "English Bards and Scotch Reviewers." aged along the shores of the Meditercompany with a friend, he visited the In 1809, in ranean. southern provinces of Spain, and voythe fine poem of "Childe Harold's Pilaged along the shores of the Mediter- The fruit of these travels was were published on his return in 1812.
Byron "awoke one morning and found The poem was an immense success, and himself famous." His acquaintance was BYRON now much courted, and his first entry on the stage of public life may be dated from this era. During the next two years (1813-1814) the "Giaour," the "Bride of Abydos," the "Corsair," "Lara," and the "Siege of Corinth" showed the brilliant work of which the new poet was capable. On Jan. 2, 1815, Byron married Anna Isabella, only daughter of Sir Ralph Milbanke, but the marriage turned out unfortunate, and in about a year, Lady Byron, having gone on a visit to her parents, refused to return, and a formal separation took place. This rupture produced a considerable sensation, and the real cause of it has never been satisfactorily explained. It gave rise to much popular indignation against Byron, who left England, with an expressed resolution never to return. He visited France, the LORD BYRON field of Waterloo, and Brussels, the Rhine, Switzerland, and the north of Italy, and for some time took up his abode at Venice, and later at Rome, where he completed his third canto of "Childe Harold." Not long after appeared the "Prisoner of Chillon," "The Dream," and other "Poems," and, in 1817, "Manfred," a tragedy, and the "Lament of Tasso." From Italy he made occasional excursions to the islands of Greece, and at length visited Athens, where he sketched many of the scenes of the fourth and last canto of "Childe Harold." In 1819 was published the romantic tale of "Mazeppa," and the same year was marked by the com- BYZANTINE EMPIRE mencement of "Don Juan." In 1820 appeared "Marino Faliero, Doge of Venice," a tragedy; the drama of "Sardanapalus," the "Two Foscari," a tragedy, and "Cain," a mystery. After leaving Venice, Byron resided for some time at Ravenna, then at Pisa, and lastly at Genoa. At Ravenna he became intimate with the Countess Guiccioli, a married lady; and when he removed to Pisa, in 1822, she followed him. There he continued to occupy himself with literature and poetry, sustained for a time by the companionship of Shelley, one of the few men whom he entirely respected and with whom he was quite confidential.
Besides his contributions to the "Liberal," a periodical established at this time in conjunction with Leigh Hunt and Shelley, he completed the later cantos of "Don Juan," with "Werner," a tragedy, and the "Deformed Transformed," a fragment. These are the last of Byron's poetical efforts. In 1823, troubled perhaps by the consciousness that his life had too long been unworthy of him, he conceived the idea of throwing himself into the struggle for the independence of Greece. In January, 1824, he arrived at Missolonghi, was received with the greatest enthusiasm, and immediately took into his pay a body of 500 Suliotes. The disorderly temper of these troops, and the difficulties of his situation, together with the malarious air of Missolonghi, began to affect his health. On April 9, 1824, while riding out in the rain, he caught a fever, which, 10 days later, ended fatally. Thus, in his 37th year, died prematurely a man whose natural force and genius were perhaps superior to those of any Englishman of his time, and, largely undisciplined as they were, and wasted by an irregular life, they acquired for him a name second, in the opinion of Continental Europe, at least, to that of no other Englishman of his time. The body of Byron was taken to England and interred near Newstead Abbey.