Lord Byron - Revision history

Irlandos at 09:27, April 28, 2012

2012-04-28T09:27:51Z

Irlandos: /* Life */

2012-04-28T09:20:37Z

Life

Irlandos: /* External links */

2012-04-28T09:17:31Z

External links

Irlandos: /* Bibliography */

2012-04-28T09:17:05Z

Bibliography

Irlandos: /* Career */

2007-11-06T16:01:41Z

Career

Irlandos: /* Byron After Death */

2007-11-06T16:01:14Z

Byron After Death

Irlandos: /* See also */

2007-11-06T16:00:22Z

Irlandos at 15:11, June 18, 2006

2006-06-18T15:11:31Z

Irlandos at 18:30, November 15, 2005

2005-11-15T18:30:50Z

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Irlandos: /* Life */

2005-11-15T15:36:46Z

Life

← Older revision		Revision as of 09:27, April 28, 2012
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		+	[[Image:Lord-Byron.jpg\|thumb\|200px\|left\|Lord Byron on a Greek commemorative stamp]]
	'''George Gordon (Noel) Byron, 6th Baron Byron''' ([[January 22]], [[1788]]–[[April 19]], [[1824]]) was an English poet and leading figure in Romanticism. Among his best-known works are the narrative poems ''Childe Harold's Pilgrimage'' and ''Don Juan''. The latter remained incomplete on his death.		'''George Gordon (Noel) Byron, 6th Baron Byron''' ([[January 22]], [[1788]]–[[April 19]], [[1824]]) was an English poet and leading figure in Romanticism. Among his best-known works are the narrative poems ''Childe Harold's Pilgrimage'' and ''Don Juan''. The latter remained incomplete on his death.

@@ Line 16: / Line 16: @@
 In 1812, Byron embarked on a well-publicised affair with Lady Caroline Lamb.
-Rumors suggest around this period he also fell in love with a choir boy, though scholars dispute the veracity and relevance of this. For his half-sister, [[Augusta Leigh]], he wrote many passionate poems. She had been separated from her husband since 1811 when she gave birth on [[April 15]], [[1814]] to a daughter, Medora. Byron's joy over the birth seems to substantiate the rumors of an incestuous relationship. Byron married 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. The marriage proved unhappy. He treated her poorly and showed disappointment at the birth of a daughter (Augusta Ada), rather than a son.  On [[January 16]], [[1816]], Lady Byron left George, taking Ada with her. On [[April 21]], Byron signed the Deed of Separation.  After this break-up of his domestic life, 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. He was also joined by Mary's step-sister, Claire Clairmont, with whom he had had an affair in London. Byron initially refused to have anything to do with Claire, and would only agree to remain in her presence with the Shelleys, who eventually persuaded Byron to accept and provide for Allegra, the child she bore him in January [[1817]].
+Rumors suggest around this period he also fell in love with a choir boy, though scholars dispute the veracity and relevance of this. For his half-sister, Augusta Leigh, he wrote many passionate poems. She had been separated from her husband since 1811 when she gave birth on [[April 15]], [[1814]] to a daughter, Medora. Byron's joy over the birth seems to substantiate the rumors of an incestuous relationship. Byron married 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. The marriage proved unhappy. He treated her poorly and showed disappointment at the birth of a daughter (Augusta Ada), rather than a son.  On [[January 16]], [[1816]], Lady Byron left George, taking Ada with her. On [[April 21]], Byron signed the Deed of Separation.  After this break-up of his domestic life, 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. He was also joined by Mary's step-sister, Claire Clairmont, with whom he had had an affair in London. Byron initially refused to have anything to do with Claire, and would only agree to remain in her presence with the Shelleys, who eventually persuaded Byron to accept and provide for Allegra, the child she bore him in January [[1817]].
 At the Villa Diodati, kept indoors by the "incessant rain" of that "wet, ungenial summer", over three days in June the five turned to reading fantastical stories, including "Fantasmagoriana" (in the French edition), and then devising their own tales. Mary Shelley produced what would become ''Frankenstein, or The Modern Prometheus'' and Polidori was inspired by a fragmentary story of Byron's to produce ''The Vampyre'', the progenitor of the romantic vampire genre. Byron's story fragment was published as a postscript to ''Mazeppa''; he also wrote the third canto of ''Childe Harold''. Byron wintered in Venice, where he formed a connection with Jane Clairmont, the daughter of William Godwin's second wife.  In [[1817]] he was in Rome, whence returning to Venice he wrote the fourth canto of ''Childe Harold''. About the same time he sold Newstead and published ''Manfred'', ''Cain'', and ''The Deformed Transformed''. The first five cantos of ''Don Juan'' were written between [[1818]] and [[1820]], during which period he made the acquaintance of the Countess Guiccioli, whom he persuaded to leave her husband. It was about this time that he received a visit from Moore, to whom he confided his MS. autobiography, which Moore, in the exercise of the discretion left to him, burned in [[1824]].
-While living in Venice helped to compile an Armenian grammar textbook and translated two of St. Paul's epistles into English. His next move was to Ravenna, where he wrote much, chiefly dramas, including ''Marino Faliero''. In [[1821]]-[[1822|22]] he finished cantos 6-12 of ''Don Juan'' at Pisa, and in the same year he joined with Leigh Hunt in starting a short-lived newspaper, ''The Liberal'', in the first number of which appeared The Vision of Judgment. His last Italian home was Genoa, where he was still accompanied by the Countess, and where he lived 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 [[Greece|Greek]] independence from the Ottoman Empire contacted him to ask for his support, he accepted. On [[July 16]], Byron left Genoa on the ''Hercules'', arriving at [[Kefalonia]] in the [[Ionian Islands]] on [[August 2]]. He spent £4000 of his own money to refit the Greek fleet, then sailed for [[Messolonghi]] 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 Chalandritsanos, whom he employed as a page and with whom he developed an emotional relationship.
+While living in Venice helped to compile an Armenian grammar textbook and translated two of St. Paul's epistles into English. His next move was to Ravenna, where he wrote much, chiefly dramas, including ''Marino Faliero''. In [[1821]]-[[1822|22]] he finished cantos 6-12 of ''Don Juan'' at Pisa, and in the same year he joined with Leigh Hunt in starting a short-lived newspaper, ''The Liberal'', in the first number of which appeared The Vision of Judgment. His last Italian home was Genoa, where he was still accompanied by the Countess, and where he lived 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 [[Greece|Greek]] independence from the Ottoman Empire contacted him to ask for his support, he accepted. On [[July 16]], Byron left Genoa on the ''Hercules'', arriving at [[Kefalonia]] in the [[Ionian Islands]] on [[August 2]]. He spent £4000 of his own money to refit the Greek fleet, then sailed for [[Messolonghi]] 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 Chalandritsanos, whom he employed as a page and with whom he developed an emotional relationship.
-Mavrokordatos and Byron planned to attack the Turkish-held fortress of [[Lepanto]], at the mouth of the [[Gulf of Corinth]]. Byron 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 the bleeding -- insisted on by his doctors -- aggravated. The cold became a violent fever, and he died on [[April 19]]. The Greeks mourned Lord Byron deeply, and he became a national hero. ''Viron'', the Greek form of "Byron", continues in popularity as a masculine name in Greece, and a suburb of Athens is called [[Vironas]] in his honour. His body was embalmed and his heart buried under a tree in [[Messolonghi]]. His remains were sent to England for burial in Westminster Abbey, but the Abbey refused.  He is buried at the Church of St. Mary Magdalene in Hucknall, Nottingham. At her request, Ada, the child he never knew, was buried next to him. In later years, the Abbey allowed a duplicate of a marble slab given by the [[List of Kings of Greece | King of Greece]], which is laid directly above Byron's grave. In [[1969]], 145 years after Byron's death, a memorial to him was finally placed in Westminster Abbey.
+Mavrokordatos and Byron planned to attack the Turkish-held fortress of [[Lepanto]], at the mouth of the [[Gulf of Corinth]]. Byron 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 the bleeding -- insisted on by his doctors -- aggravated. The cold became a violent fever, and he died on [[April 19]]. The Greeks mourned Lord Byron deeply, and he became a national hero. ''Vyron'', the Greek form of "Byron", continues in popularity as a masculine name in Greece, and a suburb of Athens is called [[Vironas]] in his honour. His body was embalmed and his heart buried under a tree in [[Messolonghi]]. His remains were sent to England for burial in Westminster Abbey, but the Abbey refused.  He is buried at the Church of St. Mary Magdalene in Hucknall, Nottingham. At her request, Ada, the child he never knew, was buried next to him. In later years, the Abbey allowed a duplicate of a marble slab given by the [[List of Kings of Greece | King of Greece]], which is laid directly above Byron's grave. In [[1969]], 145 years after Byron's death, a memorial to him was finally placed in Westminster Abbey.
-Upon his death, the baronage passed to a cousin, George Anson Byron (1789&ndash;1868), a career military officer and Byron's polar opposite in temperament and lifestyle. Lord Byron, by all accounts, had a particularly attractive personality &ndash; one may say astonishingly so. He obtained a reputation as being unconventional, eccentric, flamboyant and controversial. Many attribute some of Byron's extraordinary abilities to his affliction with bipolar disorder, commonly known as manic depression. Byron had a great fondness for animals, most famously for a Newfoundland dog named Boatswain; when Boatswain contracted rabies, Byron reportedly nursed him without any fear of becoming bitten and infected. Boatswain lies buried at Newstead Abbey and has a monument larger than his master's. The inscription, Byron's "Epitaph to a dog", has become one of his best-known works:
+Upon his death, the baronage passed to a cousin, George Anson Byron (1789-1868), a career military officer and Byron's polar opposite in temperament and lifestyle. Lord Byron, by all accounts, had a particularly attractive personality &ndash; one may say astonishingly so. He obtained a reputation as being unconventional, eccentric, flamboyant and controversial. Many attribute some of Byron's extraordinary abilities to his affliction with bipolar disorder, commonly known as manic depression. Byron had a great fondness for animals, most famously for a Newfoundland dog named Boatswain; when Boatswain contracted rabies, Byron reportedly nursed him without any fear of becoming bitten and infected. Boatswain lies buried at Newstead Abbey and has a monument larger than his master's. The inscription, Byron's "Epitaph to a dog", has become one of his best-known works:
 ::NEAR this spot

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 * [http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0126406/ Films based on Byron's life and works]
 * [http://www.bbc.co.uk/drama/byron.shtml 2003 Television dramatization of Byron's life by the] BBC
-* [http://www.abcgallery.com/T/turner/turner15.html Painting of Childe Harold by] [[J._M._W._Turner|Turner]]
+* [http://www.abcgallery.com/T/turner/turner15.html Painting of Childe Harold by] Turner
 * [http://www.praxxis.co.uk/credebyron/menagerie.htm Detailed account of Byron's love for animals]
 * [http://readytogoebooks.com/LB-dog63.htm Inscription on the monument to Boatswain, Byron's dog]

@@ Line 74: / Line 74: @@
 ==Bibliography==
-*''[[So We'll Go No More A-Roving]]'' ([[Wikisource:So We'll Go No More A-Roving|text on Wikisource]])
+*''So We'll Go No More A-Roving'' ([[Wikisource:So We'll Go No More A-Roving|text on Wikisource]])
-*''[[The First Kiss of Love]]'' (1806) ([[Wikisource:The First Kiss of Love|text on Wikisource]])
+*''The First Kiss of Love'' (1806) ([[Wikisource:The First Kiss of Love|text on Wikisource]])
-*''[[Thoughts Suggested by a College Examination]]'' (1806) ([[Wikisource:Thoughts Suggested by a College Examination|text on Wikisource]])
+*''Thoughts Suggested by a College Examination'' (1806) ([[Wikisource:Thoughts Suggested by a College Examination|text on Wikisource]])
-*''[[To a Beautiful Quaker]]'' (1807) ([[Wikisource:To a Beautiful Quaker|text on Wikisource]])
+*''To a Beautiful Quaker'' (1807) ([[Wikisource:To a Beautiful Quaker|text on Wikisource]])
-*''[[The Cornelian]]'' (1807) ([[Wikisource:The Cornelian|text on Wikisource]]}
+*''The Cornelian'' (1807) ([[Wikisource:The Cornelian|text on Wikisource]]}
-*''[[Lines Addressed to a Young Lady]]'' (1807) ([[Wikisource:Lines Addressed to a Young Lady|text on Wikisource]])
+*''Lines Addressed to a Young Lady'' (1807) ([[Wikisource:Lines Addressed to a Young Lady|text on Wikisource]])
-*''[[Epitaph to a dog]]'' (1808) ([[Wikisource:Epitaph to a Dog|text on Wikisource]])
+*''Epitaph to a dog'' (1808) ([[Wikisource:Epitaph to a Dog|text on Wikisource]])
-*''[[English Bards and Scotch Reviewers]]'' (1809) [http://readytogoebooks.com/LB-Eng-P1.html]
+*''English Bards and Scotch Reviewers'' (1809) [http://readytogoebooks.com/LB-Eng-P1.html]
-*''[[The Bride of Abydos]]'' (1813)
+*''The Bride of Abydos'' (1813)
 *''[[The Giaour]]'' (1813) [http://www.photoaspects.com/chesil/byron/giaour.html]
-*''[[She Walks in Beauty]]'' (1814) ([[Wikisource:She walks in Beauty|text on Wikisource]])
+*''She Walks in Beauty'' (1814) ([[Wikisource:She walks in Beauty|text on Wikisource]])
-*''[[The Corsair]]'' (1814) [http://www.photoaspects.com/chesil/byron/corsair1.html]
+*''The Corsair'' (1814) [http://www.photoaspects.com/chesil/byron/corsair1.html]
-*''[[The Prisoner Of Chillon]]'' (1816) ([[Wikisource:The Prisoner of Chillon|text on Wikisource]])
+*''The Prisoner Of Chillon'' (1816) ([[Wikisource:The Prisoner of Chillon|text on Wikisource]])
 *''[[Prometheus (disambiguation)|Prometheus]]'' (1816)
-*''[[Manfred]]'' (1817) ([[Wikisource:Manfred, a dramatic poem|text on Wikisource]])
+*''Manfred'' (1817) ([[Wikisource:Manfred, a dramatic poem|text on Wikisource]])
-*''[[Childe Harold's Pilgrimage]]'' (1818) [http://www.geocities.com/~bblair/chpindex.htm]
+*''Childe Harold's Pilgrimage'' (1818) [http://www.geocities.com/~bblair/chpindex.htm]
-*''[[Beppo (poem by Byron)|Beppo]]'' (1818)
+*''Beppo'' (1818)
-*''[[Cain (poem by Byron)|Cain]]'' (1821)
+*''Cain'' (1821)
-*''[[Don Juan (Byron)|Don Juan]]'' (incomplete on Byron's death in 1824) [http://www.photoaspects.com/chesil/byron/djindex.html]
+*''Don Juan'' (incomplete on Byron's death in 1824) [http://www.photoaspects.com/chesil/byron/djindex.html]
 ==See also==

@@ Line 50: / Line 50: @@
-Byron wrote prolifically.[http://readytogoebooks.com/LB-list.htm] 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, ranks as one of the most important long poems published in England since Milton's ''Paradise Lost''. ''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 &ndash; social, political, literary and ideological.
+Byron wrote prolifically.[http://readytogoebooks.com/LB-list.htm] 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, ranks as one of the most important long poems published in England since Milton's ''Paradise Lost''. ''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 &ndash; social, political, literary and ideological.
-The Byronic hero pervades much of Byron's work. Scholars have traced the literary history of the Byronic hero from Milton, and many authors and artists of the [[Romanticism|Romantic movement]] show Byron's influence -- during the [[19th century]] and beyond. The Byronic hero presents an idealised but flawed character whose attributes include:
+The Byronic hero pervades much of Byron's work. Scholars have traced the literary history of the Byronic hero from Milton, and many authors and artists of the Romantic movement show Byron's influence -- during the [[19th century]] and beyond. The Byronic hero presents an idealised but flawed character whose attributes include:
 * rebelling
 * having a distaste for society and social institutions

@@ Line 67: / Line 67: @@
 The re-founding of the  Byron Society [http://www.byronsociety.com] 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 some 36 International Byron Societies function throughout the world, and an International Conference takes place annually. Hardly a year passes without a new book about the poet appearing. In the last 20 years two new feature films about him have screened, and a television play has been broadcast.
-Byron exercised a marked influence on Continental literature and art, and his reputation as poet is higher in many European countries than in England or America, although not as high as in his time. He has also appeared as a character in poular fiction, a testament to his influence. John Crowley's novel ''Lord Byron's Novel: The Evening Land'' (2005) involves the rediscovery of a lost manuscript by Lord Byron, as does Frederick Prokosch's ''The Missolonghi Manuscript'' (1968).  Byron appears as a character in Tim Powers' ''The Stress of Her Regard'' (1989) and Walter Jon Williams' novella ''Wall, Stone Craft'' (1994), as also in Susanna Clarke's ''[[Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell]]'' (2004). ''The Black Drama'' by Manly Wade Wellman (''Weird Tales'', 1938; ''Fearful Rock and Other Precarious Locales'', 2001) involves the rediscovery and production of a lost play by Byron (from which Polidori's ''The Vampyre'' was plagiarised) by a man who purports to be a descendant of the poet.
+Byron exercised a marked influence on Continental literature and art, and his reputation as poet is higher in many European countries than in England or America, although not as high as in his time. He has also appeared as a character in poular fiction, a testament to his influence. John Crowley's novel ''Lord Byron's Novel: The Evening Land'' (2005) involves the rediscovery of a lost manuscript by Lord Byron, as does Frederick Prokosch's ''The Missolonghi Manuscript'' (1968).  Byron appears as a character in Tim Powers' ''The Stress of Her Regard'' (1989) and Walter Jon Williams' novella ''Wall, Stone Craft'' (1994), as also in Susanna Clarke's ''Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell'' (2004). ''The Black Drama'' by Manly Wade Wellman (''Weird Tales'', 1938; ''Fearful Rock and Other Precarious Locales'', 2001) involves the rediscovery and production of a lost play by Byron (from which Polidori's ''The Vampyre'' was plagiarised) by a man who purports to be a descendant of the poet.
-In 1997, Jonathan Firth, brother of famous actor Colin Firth, played Lord Byron in an episode of [[Highlander: The Series]] titled "The Modern Prometheus".
+In 1997, Jonathan Firth, brother of famous actor Colin Firth, played Lord Byron in an episode of Highlander: The Series titled "The Modern Prometheus".
 ==Bibliography==

@@ Line 96: / Line 96: @@
 ==See also==
 * [[Lord Byron (chronology)]]
 ==External links==

@@ Line 1: / Line 1: @@
 '''George Gordon (Noel) Byron, 6th Baron Byron''' ([[January 22]], [[1788]]&ndash;[[April 19]], [[1824]]) was an English poet and leading figure in Romanticism. Among his best-known works are the narrative poems ''Childe Harold's Pilgrimage'' and ''Don Juan''. 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 [[Greece|Greek]] side in the Greek [[War of Independence]]. He was famously described by [[Caroline Lamb | Lady Caroline Lamb]] as "mad, bad, and dangerous to know."
+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 [[Greece|Greek]] side in the Greek [[War of Independence]]. He was famously described by Lady Caroline Lamb as "mad, bad, and dangerous to know."
-Byron was also the father of [[Ada Lovelace]].
+Byron was also the father of Ada Lovelace.
 ==Life==
@@ Line 16: / Line 16: @@
 In 1812, Byron embarked on a well-publicised affair with Lady Caroline Lamb.
-Rumors suggest around this period he also fell in love with a choir boy, though scholars dispute the veracity and relevance of this. For his half-sister, [[Augusta Leigh]], he wrote many passionate poems. She had been separated from her husband since 1811 when she gave birth on [[April 15]], [[1814]] to a daughter, Medora. Byron's joy over the birth seems to substantiate the rumors of an incestuous relationship. Byron married [[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. The marriage proved unhappy. He treated her poorly and showed disappointment at the birth of a daughter ([[Ada Lovelace|Augusta Ada]]), rather than a son.  On [[January 16]], [[1816]], Lady Byron left George, taking Ada with her. On [[April 21]], Byron signed the Deed of Separation.  After this break-up of his domestic life, 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. He was also joined by Mary's step-sister, Claire Clairmont, with whom he had had an affair in London. Byron initially refused to have anything to do with Claire, and would only agree to remain in her presence with the Shelleys, who eventually persuaded Byron to accept and provide for Allegra, the child she bore him in January [[1817]].
+Rumors suggest around this period he also fell in love with a choir boy, though scholars dispute the veracity and relevance of this. For his half-sister, [[Augusta Leigh]], he wrote many passionate poems. She had been separated from her husband since 1811 when she gave birth on [[April 15]], [[1814]] to a daughter, Medora. Byron's joy over the birth seems to substantiate the rumors of an incestuous relationship. Byron married 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. The marriage proved unhappy. He treated her poorly and showed disappointment at the birth of a daughter (Augusta Ada), rather than a son.  On [[January 16]], [[1816]], Lady Byron left George, taking Ada with her. On [[April 21]], Byron signed the Deed of Separation.  After this break-up of his domestic life, 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. He was also joined by Mary's step-sister, Claire Clairmont, with whom he had had an affair in London. Byron initially refused to have anything to do with Claire, and would only agree to remain in her presence with the Shelleys, who eventually persuaded Byron to accept and provide for Allegra, the child she bore him in January [[1817]].
-At the Villa Diodati, kept indoors by the "incessant rain" of that "wet, ungenial summer", over three days in June the five turned to reading fantastical stories, including "Fantasmagoriana" (in the French edition), and then devising their own tales. Mary Shelley produced what would become ''[[Frankenstein|Frankenstein, or The Modern Prometheus]]'' and Polidori was inspired by a fragmentary story of Byron's to produce ''The Vampyre'', the progenitor of the romantic vampire genre. Byron's story fragment was published as a postscript to ''Mazeppa''; he also wrote the third canto of ''Childe Harold''. Byron wintered in Venice, where he formed a connection with Jane Clairmont, the daughter of William Godwin's second wife.  In [[1817]] he was in Rome, whence returning to Venice he wrote the fourth canto of ''Childe Harold''. About the same time he sold Newstead and published ''Manfred'', ''Cain'', and ''The Deformed Transformed''. The first five cantos of ''Don Juan'' were written between [[1818]] and [[1820]], during which period he made the acquaintance of the Countess Guiccioli, whom he persuaded to leave her husband. It was about this time that he received a visit from Moore, to whom he confided his MS. autobiography, which Moore, in the exercise of the discretion left to him, burned in [[1824]].
+At the Villa Diodati, kept indoors by the "incessant rain" of that "wet, ungenial summer", over three days in June the five turned to reading fantastical stories, including "Fantasmagoriana" (in the French edition), and then devising their own tales. Mary Shelley produced what would become ''Frankenstein, or The Modern Prometheus'' and Polidori was inspired by a fragmentary story of Byron's to produce ''The Vampyre'', the progenitor of the romantic vampire genre. Byron's story fragment was published as a postscript to ''Mazeppa''; he also wrote the third canto of ''Childe Harold''. Byron wintered in Venice, where he formed a connection with Jane Clairmont, the daughter of William Godwin's second wife.  In [[1817]] he was in Rome, whence returning to Venice he wrote the fourth canto of ''Childe Harold''. About the same time he sold Newstead and published ''Manfred'', ''Cain'', and ''The Deformed Transformed''. The first five cantos of ''Don Juan'' were written between [[1818]] and [[1820]], during which period he made the acquaintance of the Countess Guiccioli, whom he persuaded to leave her husband. It was about this time that he received a visit from Moore, to whom he confided his MS. autobiography, which Moore, in the exercise of the discretion left to him, burned in [[1824]].
 While living in Venice helped to compile an Armenian grammar textbook and translated two of St. Paul's epistles into English. His next move was to Ravenna, where he wrote much, chiefly dramas, including ''Marino Faliero''. In [[1821]]-[[1822|22]] he finished cantos 6-12 of ''Don Juan'' at Pisa, and in the same year he joined with Leigh Hunt in starting a short-lived newspaper, ''The Liberal'', in the first number of which appeared The Vision of Judgment. His last Italian home was Genoa, where he was still accompanied by the Countess, and where he lived 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 [[Greece|Greek]] independence from the Ottoman Empire contacted him to ask for his support, he accepted. On [[July 16]], Byron left Genoa on the ''Hercules'', arriving at [[Kefalonia]] in the [[Ionian Islands]] on [[August 2]]. He spent £4000 of his own money to refit the Greek fleet, then sailed for [[Messolonghi]] 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 Chalandritsanos, whom he employed as a page and with whom he developed an emotional relationship.
-Mavrokordatos and Byron planned to attack the Turkish-held fortress of [[Lepanto]], at the mouth of the [[Gulf of Corinth]]. Byron 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 the bleeding -- insisted on by his doctors -- aggravated. The cold became a violent fever, and he died on [[April 19]]. The Greeks mourned Lord Byron deeply, and he became a national hero. ''Viron'', the Greek form of "Byron", continues in popularity as a masculine name in Greece, and a suburb of Athens is called [[Vironas]] in his honour. His body was embalmed and his heart buried under a tree in [[Messolonghi]]. His remains were sent to England for burial in Westminster Abbey, but the Abbey refused.  He is buried at the [[Church of St. Mary Magdalene, Hucknall|Church of St. Mary Magdalene]] in Hucknall, Nottingham. At her request, Ada, the child he never knew, was buried next to him. In later years, the Abbey allowed a duplicate of a marble slab given by the [[List of Kings of Greece | King of Greece]], which is laid directly above Byron's grave. In [[1969]], 145 years after Byron's death, a memorial to him was finally placed in Westminster Abbey.
+Mavrokordatos and Byron planned to attack the Turkish-held fortress of [[Lepanto]], at the mouth of the [[Gulf of Corinth]]. Byron 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 the bleeding -- insisted on by his doctors -- aggravated. The cold became a violent fever, and he died on [[April 19]]. The Greeks mourned Lord Byron deeply, and he became a national hero. ''Viron'', the Greek form of "Byron", continues in popularity as a masculine name in Greece, and a suburb of Athens is called [[Vironas]] in his honour. His body was embalmed and his heart buried under a tree in [[Messolonghi]]. His remains were sent to England for burial in Westminster Abbey, but the Abbey refused.  He is buried at the Church of St. Mary Magdalene in Hucknall, Nottingham. At her request, Ada, the child he never knew, was buried next to him. In later years, the Abbey allowed a duplicate of a marble slab given by the [[List of Kings of Greece | King of Greece]], which is laid directly above Byron's grave. In [[1969]], 145 years after Byron's death, a memorial to him was finally placed in Westminster Abbey.
 Upon his death, the baronage passed to a cousin, George Anson Byron (1789&ndash;1868), a career military officer and Byron's polar opposite in temperament and lifestyle. Lord Byron, by all accounts, had a particularly attractive personality &ndash; one may say astonishingly so. He obtained a reputation as being unconventional, eccentric, flamboyant and controversial. Many attribute some of Byron's extraordinary abilities to his affliction with bipolar disorder, commonly known as manic depression. Byron had a great fondness for animals, most famously for a Newfoundland dog named Boatswain; when Boatswain contracted rabies, Byron reportedly nursed him without any fear of becoming bitten and infected. Boatswain lies buried at Newstead Abbey and has a monument larger than his master's. The inscription, Byron's "Epitaph to a dog", has become one of his best-known works:
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 The re-founding of the  Byron Society [http://www.byronsociety.com] 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 some 36 International Byron Societies function throughout the world, and an International Conference takes place annually. Hardly a year passes without a new book about the poet appearing. In the last 20 years two new feature films about him have screened, and a television play has been broadcast.
-Byron exercised a marked influence on Continental literature and art, and his reputation as poet is higher in many European countries than in England or America, although not as high as in his time. He has also appeared as a character in poular fiction, a testament to his influence. John Crowley's novel ''Lord Byron's Novel: The Evening Land'' (2005) involves the rediscovery of a lost manuscript by Lord Byron, as does Frederick Prokosch's ''The Missolonghi Manuscript'' (1968).  Byron appears as a character in [[Tim Powers]]' ''The Stress of Her Regard'' (1989) and Walter Jon Williams' novella ''Wall, Stone Craft'' (1994), as also in [[Susanna Clarke]]'s ''[[Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell]]'' (2004). ''The Black Drama'' by [[Manly Wade Wellman]] (''[[Weird Tales]]'', 1938; ''Fearful Rock and Other Precarious Locales'', 2001) involves the rediscovery and production of a lost play by Byron (from which Polidori's ''The Vampyre'' was plagiarised) by a man who purports to be a descendant of the poet.
+Byron exercised a marked influence on Continental literature and art, and his reputation as poet is higher in many European countries than in England or America, although not as high as in his time. He has also appeared as a character in poular fiction, a testament to his influence. John Crowley's novel ''Lord Byron's Novel: The Evening Land'' (2005) involves the rediscovery of a lost manuscript by Lord Byron, as does Frederick Prokosch's ''The Missolonghi Manuscript'' (1968).  Byron appears as a character in Tim Powers' ''The Stress of Her Regard'' (1989) and Walter Jon Williams' novella ''Wall, Stone Craft'' (1994), as also in Susanna Clarke's ''[[Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell]]'' (2004). ''The Black Drama'' by Manly Wade Wellman (''Weird Tales'', 1938; ''Fearful Rock and Other Precarious Locales'', 2001) involves the rediscovery and production of a lost play by Byron (from which Polidori's ''The Vampyre'' was plagiarised) by a man who purports to be a descendant of the poet.
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 ==Bibliography==
 *''[[So We'll Go No More A-Roving]]'' ([[Wikisource:So We'll Go No More A-Roving|text on Wikisource]])
 *''[[The First Kiss of Love]]'' (1806) ([[Wikisource:The First Kiss of Love|text on Wikisource]])
@@ Line 103: / Line 102: @@
 ==External links==
 *[http://www.byronsociety.com The Byron Society]
 *[http://www.byronjournal.com The Byron Society's Journal]
@@ Line 114: / Line 112: @@
 * [http://www.gutenberg.net/etext/8901 ''The Works Of Lord Byron, Letters and Journals, Vol. 1'']
 * [http://www.gutenberg.net/etext/9921 ''The Works of Lord Byron: Letters and Journals, Vol. 2'']
-* The biography ''[http://www.gutenberg.net/etext/10100 Byron]'' by [[John Nichol]]
+* The biography ''[http://www.gutenberg.net/etext/10100 Byron]'' by John Nichol
 * [http://www.online-literature.com/quotes/quotation_search.php?author=George%20Gordon%20Noel%20Byron,%20Lord%20Byron Byron quotes]
 *[http://www.literaturecollection.com/a/lord-byron/ Lord George Gordon Byron &ndash; Biography & Works]
@@ Line 122: / Line 120: @@
 * [http://www.online-literature.com/byron/ Byron page on The Literature Network]
 * [http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0126406/ Films based on Byron's life and works]
-* [http://www.bbc.co.uk/drama/byron.shtml 2003 Television dramatization of Byron's life by the] [[BBC]]
+* [http://www.bbc.co.uk/drama/byron.shtml 2003 Television dramatization of Byron's life by the] BBC
 * [http://www.abcgallery.com/T/turner/turner15.html Painting of Childe Harold by] [[J._M._W._Turner|Turner]]
 * [http://www.praxxis.co.uk/credebyron/menagerie.htm Detailed account of Byron's love for animals]

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−	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. His paternal grandfather was [[Vice-Admiral~~]] [[John Byron\|~~John "Foulweather Jack" Byron]], who had circumnavigated the globe. 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. John Byron may have married Catherine for her money and, after squandering it, deserted her. Byron's parents separated before his birth. Lady Catherine moved back to Scotland shortly afterwards, where she raised her son in Aberdeen until [[May 21]], [[1798]], when the death of his great-uncle made him the sixth Baron Byron, inheriting [[Newstead Abbey]], rented to [[Henry Edward Yelverton, 19th Baron Grey de Ruthyn]] during Byron's adolescence. He received his formal education at the Grammar School in Aberdeen. In [[1801]] he was sent to ~~[[Harrow School\|~~Harrow]], where he remained until 1805, when he proceeded to [[Trinity College, Cambridge~~\|Trinity College]], [[University of Cambridge\|Cambridge]]~~.	+	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. His paternal grandfather was Vice-Admiral John "Foulweather Jack" Byron, who had circumnavigated the globe. 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. John Byron may have married Catherine for her money and, after squandering it, deserted her. Byron's parents separated before his birth. Lady Catherine moved back to Scotland shortly afterwards, where she raised her son in Aberdeen until [[May 21]], [[1798]], when the death of his great-uncle made him the sixth Baron Byron, inheriting Newstead Abbey, rented to Henry Edward Yelverton, 19th Baron Grey de Ruthyn during Byron's adolescence. 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.

	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 considerable stir and shortly went through 5 editions. 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 acclamation. 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]].		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 considerable stir and shortly went through 5 editions. 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 acclamation. 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]].